Harder than you think
Scotland is plagued by a Parliament of morons. The vast majority of opposition MSPs are people who were directly and personally rejected by the voters – usually with good reason – but who were parachuted into lucrative jobs anyway by their parties.
And yesterday, as Theresa May formally began the process that will tear Scotland out of the EU without its permission, those opposition MSPs queued up to demonstrate their pettiness, ignorance and stupidity.
Jackson Carlaw (Conservative), for example, could find nothing of more importance to tweet about than a cretinous playground jibe about SNP MPs not being recognised by the UK public on the ironically-named gameshow Pointless.
We suspect most people would struggle to name more than 20 of the Tories’ 330-odd MPs, let alone Jackson Carlaw, perhaps precisely because he was watching afternoon television on such a momentous day rather than doing any work.
Next up was Angry Adam Tomkins, who trailed in a very distant 3rd place in Glasgow Anniesland with just 14% of the vote, yet finds himself in Parliament anyway.
Tomkins was gloating over a front-page article from Scotland’s least credible newspaper, which misleadingly span some polling data from NatCen Social Research (NCSR) about what Scottish voters wanted and expected from Brexit.
NCSR’s own Professor John Curtice caveated the poll by pointing out that it was not only up to two months old, but also a Scottish sub-sample of a UK group whose respondents are picked “entirely at random”, rather than scientifically weighted to be representative of the population as normal polls are.
But even within those parameters, the Express’s screaming story about how Scots didn’t want a separate Brexit deal managed to leave out a pretty major piece of data.
That is, a clear majority of Scots believe Scotland should be able to stay in the EU even though the UK as a whole voted to leave. They don’t want a separate Scottish deal for Brexit, they want Brexit not to happen to Scotland at all.
In other words, the Express’s headline and Tomkins’ gleeful crowing over it are both based on an interpretation of the poll data which could scarcely be any more diametrically opposed to the reality. Most Scots in fact want the most separate Brexit deal possible – not to have ANY Brexit.
The Tories weren’t alone in their idiocy, though. Hapless former Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray wanted a piece of the action too:
Astonishingly, several Labour MSPs had spent the week dragging out the absurd and endlessly-discredited 1979 “stab in the back” myth yet again – including Anas Sarwar, a list member who hadn’t even bothered giving voters a chance to reject him before sneaking into Holyrood through the back door, and who wasn’t even born in 1979.
(Sarwar’s circumventing of the electorate is, of course, entirely in keeping with his previously expressed dismissal of Holyrood as “not a democratic place”. His presence in it was dictated by the Labour Party to the Scottish people, who were denied any opportunity to refuse.)
Their leader, meanwhile, was setting new records for making a fool of herself.
The assumption proved to be extremely wide of the mark.
And the pathetic, ill-informed partisan sniping looked even worse when it transpired that Carwyn Jones had actually spent the day directly opposing Dugdale’s position by saying that Westminster should NOT block a second indyref, and should respect both the Scottish Parliament’s call for a Section 30 order and its chosen timing:
The imbecile parade didn’t end there. The grim Tory barrel-scraping Annie Wells – the MSP with the tiniest mandate in Scotland, having won a pitiful 1,769 votes in Glasgow North East in 2015 and just 2,062 in Glasgow Provan in 2016, but who was forced on the unwilling people of Scotland regardless – appeared on TV to inform the nation that she didn’t respect the sovereignty of the Scottish Parliament she sat in anyway.
(For good measure she also threw in a rendition of the flat-out lie that voters in the 2014 independence referendum knew there was going to be an EU referendum.)
The less said about the Lib Dems the better, though we can’t help noting that their idea of the most pressing thing they could be doing for their constituents yesterday was forcing Keith Brown to apologise for… well, we’re not sure for what, exactly.
(Brown’s crime was to have attempted to bring billions of pounds in investment to Scotland, a deal undermined and eventually scuppered by the hysterical reactions of, particularly, the Lib Dems and the Times. Having first demanded that it shouldn’t have happened, then actively sabotaged it, they then furiously raged at Brown for its failure, even though Scotland was no worse off than it had started.)
And we’re not even going to talk about David Coburn’s appearance on today’s edition of Good Morning Scotland, for the sake of everyone’s mental health.
But there’s a point to all this.
The woeful state of this hamfisted, intelligence-insulting clown show of an opposition – who wouldn’t in any other sphere of life be trusted to go out and collect a sandwich order, let alone formulate the legislation of a country – is transparent to anyone with an even remotely functioning brain. And yet, it’s done nothing to bring about any significant transformation in the polls.
A growing number of nationalists believe that independence is now both inevitable and imminent, on the superficially rational and reasonable grounds that any sane person could identify it as the only possible escape from the catastrophe that Brexit is going to be. That is a hugely dangerous attitude.
We live, if anyone needed reminding, in an age of post-rational politics. Donald Trump is the President of the USA and Boris Johnson is the foreign secretary. Substantial numbers of people still exist – incredible as it may seem in the face of the evidence – who believe that a UK Conservative government will bestow meaningful extra powers on the Scottish Parliament which would enable it to do any good (even though that would self-evidently reflect well on the SNP and badly on the Tories).
The independence movement will never get a better chance of securing victory than this. It starts from a position of near-parity in the polls, and with the facts heavily on its side. Staying in the EU as an independent country offers the best – indeed, the only – chance of avoiding an economic apocalypse as a result of Brexit, and is also the repeatedly-expressed preference of the largest section of the population.
But make no mistake – this is a fight that can still be lost. Even when up against spectacular morons like those above, we’re still behind. A very great deal of hard work lies ahead to turn that around. For Scotland’s sake, we better all be ready for it.
This election system is an utter failure. Its now close to the tail wagging the dog, where unelected members can hold the balance of power over elected members.
Great mix of heady laughs and then a sobering thought at the end. Reality checks will be needed often as we head into next few years.
‘For Scotland’s sake, we better all be ready for it.’
Well said young man.
Unfortunately we have opposition parties whose obsession and, seemingly, only reason for existing is to belittle Scotland and to subvert the process of governing in the country.
If they could concentrate on the day job of constructively opposing the government rather than being focused on trying to dig up dirt and shame Scotland, we’d have a much better parliament as a result.
You don’t have to scare me, Rev – I wake up every day trying to think about how to convince “No” people. I write hundreds of letters in my mind [plus some to my local newssheet], and donate to some causes, and help with my local Yes group – but I’m still frightened at the control the Unionists have over all forms of media and hence the hold over the minds of a great many people.
There have been many suggestions made on this site e.g. fund a “Private Eye” type publication [i.e. cheap], or set up a pirate radio. And what about a TV channel based in Ireland which can beam to Scotland? Can any of our media Wingers help with these ideas?
And can the BBC Misreporting posters/banners be made more permanent?
It is pretend politics, substandard arses towing party lines to pay mortages and thats about! We all need to rise above these so called reps and use the next years wisely. Calm informed debates with friends, family, colleauges etc….. should continue the tide of awakening. Nothing should be taken for granted.
If it wasn’t for the unionist media and the drip-drip effect of the tabloid billboards every day, we would have been a normal independent country long ago. The vast majority of passers-by seeing headlines like that Express poll won’t question the survey.. the whole point is to push a crowd mentality attitude. “Oh, that must be what most people think..”
This might be slightly off-topic, but, with regard to Jackson Whatsisname’s puerile tweet, I set myself a challenge – to name the 14 opposition MSPs who actually got there by persuading the voters to get them first past the post.
These are the only ones we, the people of Scotland actually voted for, rather than having them foisted on us.
As I said, there are 14 in all – I could only name 11.
You are correct.
Sadly, the diatribe by the “spectacular morons” that we’re too poor, sill appears to resonate with an awful lot of people.
I suspect we’re at or beyond the point where people will vote for Independence due to a democratic deficit/outrage.
Be in no doubt, I’m ready.
True enough – it will be a higher stakes and harder fight than last time. We have to be subtle.
Who are the soft No voters in your area? Are they die hard Labour who need to have it brought home to them that they will be made to pay the bill for Brexit Britain ?
Are they business people who see their markets being lost ?
Are they ‘liberals’ who are potentially outraged by the authoritarian and anti democratic attitudes of the May government towards Scotland?
Are they pensioners who can begin to see that the “triple lock” is doomed in Brexit Britain ?
Are they foreign nationals who fear loss of rights and residence ?
Careful choices of messaging and less bravado than on some occasions last time may help. Get organised, begin fund raising, make links. This is the big one !
Funny thing is that quite a few newspapers recently did Independence polls on line.
The Scotsman, the courier, the Press and Journal, the Daily Record and there were more. The results were 60% up to 80% in favour.
No one seems to report these polls.
Do we know what the data in the National Survey revealed?
With over 2,000,000 respondents I’m sure this might be the data the SG is basing its current decisions on and not a couple of rigged yougov polls.
Actually ,they are appealing to certain demographics to keep the UK intact. They will always have the support of the “hardcore” Unionist and Loyalist vote which I think is around 38%. There is little work to do on that front.
What they try to do is ridicule the SNP. It does not have to be truth as long as it shows the SNP in a bad light. This is especially true with local elections upon us.
There is however the bigger question. In truth would you like to think any of these people could run a country? I believe they are totally inept with very little political skill or ability. Imagine they had to negotiate with Merkel or Putin. They would be eaten for breakfast .
The calibre of politician available to Labour and the Tories is somewhat limited by their resource pool, and it shows.
Nicola is a colossus compared to them.
It never fails to amaze me that you could put a Unionist badge on a monkey and 38% of the population of this country would vote for it because it was a Unionist moknkey . That is where we are,
I personally think that as Brexit bites and people become aware then the middle ground occupants will shift. There are very powerful sentiments involved in protecting your job,income and family well being. It is among those topics we will find our most powerful ammunition and as a consequence our tools of persuasion.
This fight is only in round one and we are fighting fit.
Yes, we probably have the best opportunity we are ever likely to have, but the result is far from certain.
Compared to 2014, Labour have been seriously damaged and Brexit threatens. Those are two pluses.
However, last time BetterTogether’s online activities were a joke. This time we can expect a much more professional (literally) online opposition. Both Trump’s and Leave’s close wins have been attributed to companies like Cambridge Analytica and AggregateIQ. Millions were spent with them. Almost certainly they, or others like them, will be deployed against the Indy Cause.
My point is, it’s not the numpties above we need to be concerned about, it’s the fake news media, plus sophisticated online opinion manipulation companies, and big money, we need to consider.
Tried the carlaw test. Tried to name all scots tory mp’s. Could only come up with one. Muddelly Mundell. Perhaps carlaw could name some others.
Politicians aren’t all motivated by the same issues. It is salutary that the likes of Tomkins needs to keep his “Prof” prefix and he reflects what I see in ALL Scottish parties, namely that new “converts” are often opportunists in whom self-interest is a big driver.
Compare these to the likes of Sturgeon who joined a Party long before it was “fashionable” – they are so clearly a different breed.
They’re not all morons though. Anas is a dentist by profession, Kez is a lawyer, Tomkins the Glasgow uni law professor and so on.
This is why the tories are such a serious threat to Scottish progressive liberal democracy today. Look at the sheer thuggery from Ruth this week in Holyrood. This is a time of great progress in Scotland but hard core right have never gone without a really ugly fight, anywhere.
Totally concur Rev –
Still sadly lots of dithering numpties and outright morons amongst the voting population also.
‘Ahm fed up wi’ referndums, yadda, yadda, yadda. But this fits yoonstream model of course.
Biggest enemy of all remains Scottish trad media almost to a man / woman for going down with HMS GB. See BBC Scotland as of Brexit trigger, QT panels etc.
Once in a generation guff will continue; so disrespectful to democracy, the aged and the infirm.
YES must win out and win well this time ( dispute the EU beurocracy who still have form on letting Scotland down & cannot wholly be relied upon unless massive support of people materialises and is expressly manifest.
I can only say that I am very impressed with my MSP, Alison Harris.
She is conservative which I am not (they are too left wing) but brings loads of experience from professional life, raising a family, husband an NHS surgeon and running a business.
Unfortunately, my local SNP, Angus McDonald is useless and won’t even respond to correspondence and has no views on fracking which is big in my area.
“But make no mistake – this is a fight that can still be lost. Even when up against spectacular morons like those above, we’re still behind. A very great deal of hard work lies ahead to turn that around. For Scotland’s sake, we better all be ready for it.”
My fear is that with two years of ‘normalisation’ of brexit by the WHOLE british press and media will scare many folk into thinking ‘best just stay with our imperial masters’.
Unless there is a hugely more motivated campaign than there was the last time I don’t know that we can overcome that. Last campaign many were called but few actually got off their arses and worked for it.
I’m not convinced or optimistic that we can win another referendum. I sincerely hope I’m wrong.
Its not just soft no voters we need to get to change it is the soft yes we need to keep onside. A Yesser acquaintance from the last referendum has had to contact SNP Ministers on two occassions on what are not contentious issues, in one case the reply had completely missed the point being raised and the second has still to respond (been 6 weeks now). That becomes an issue because everyone expects an SNP govnt on independence but if they ignore their voters who do they turn to, its putting this person off and they are almost at the stage of saying whats the point, would we really be any better off? Am convinced we will be but it isn’t easy keeping people on side.
Slightly O/T. Why the Tories are desperate to hang onto us. This link was posted on Munguin’s New Republic and Jim Rogers sums it up nicely at the end of the clip
link to bloomberg.com
I am currently reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. I know, I know, it’s the sons homework reading book.
But it got me thinking. I really hope that Nicola Sturgeon has a magic wand, because overcoming the full weight of lies and scheming of the Westminster machinery, not to mention all of the unionist friendly TV news programmes and print media, will take some doing.
Of course most of this not seen by the public or at least that section of the public who vote No, the elderly and old, don’t see it.
If their vote prevails they will likely find themselves alone in Brexit Scotland, as many of the ‘young’ will take any open door to get away from the UK.
@Heedtracker,
Having a profession is not evidence you are not a moron I am afraid. Political ability is much more than intelligence led. It is instinct to a high degree. A knowledge of people ,emotions , reactions,and risk taking. Nicola is a champion at all of these.
Once again, the Rev is being unfair on these people.
It is not for Glory they stand
Nor the betterment of their people
Nor justice or defence of their country
Better, they fight for privilege, for wealth, for expense accounts
And the trappings of success
And everyone else can go fuck themselves.
Except perhaps that dusky girl up in the public area…
I know I shouldn’t say this BUT the SNP has some choice idiots as well.
Which gives the member a problem, Retain your personal principals or vote for the Dug with the rosette,this problem only arises in an election, not within a referendumd
There is a very simple solution to the unelected List member.
And that is to move to an ‘Open’ list for the regional lists, which allows voters to rank the order of candidates put up by the parties, and reject the worst of the duffers.
Look up closed, open and free lists.
link to aceproject.org
I’m champing at the bit to get started again but cognisant that while the local election campaign is on is not the time to start campaigning for Independence again.
To my shame I did not emerge from behind my keyboard and get actively involved until half way through last time but I’m going to be in on the ground floor this time. I’ll shoulder more than just being a foot soldier if that is necessary too.
We have to be alive to the different needs of what to say to different people on the doorsteps. This means not steaming in with a spiel but asking what the other person’s thoughts and concerns are and responding to those. If they don’t mention Europe, don’t raise it. If they are Yes/Leave people point out the enormous difference in sovereignty held by the EU and Westminster. We get an enormous and significant amount of sovereignty back from being independent. So if that is their concern then Yes gives them more than Leave within the UK does. And of course if they wish to campaign for a Scottish Exit post independence that is their democratic right.
Such A Parcel Of Rogues In A Nation
Agree, it’s not “in the bag”. We really need to get out and help with the upcoming election and offer any support we can for ScotRef before we leave the UK.
The mention of Henry VIII powers in the link to The Independent below and “changing the scope of devolved powers” on page 48 of the great repeal bill,(Link below), are something to be concerned about and why we need to ensure we all put in as much effort as we can to achieve independence.
link to researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk
link to independent.co.uk
Pathetic shower of shite.
Newsquest seems to have no shame by taking Dirty Desmond’s cash to list mostly anti-SNP stories from his fascist rags in their on-line ‘Promoted Stories’ section.
I believe there are many people who want Scotland to change but not if it requires any action by them, keeping in mind there are many who find going to a polling booth once in five years is to much of a strain on their energy.
“The independence movement will never get a better chance of securing victory than this. It starts from a position of near-parity in the polls, and with the facts heavily on its side. Staying in the EU as an independent country offers the best – indeed, the only – chance of avoiding an economic apocalypse as a result of Brexit, and is also the repeatedly-expressed preference of the largest section of the population.”
Something Yes/Leave voters need to keep in mind – we only have this opportunity because Scotland voted Remain and the UK voted Leave. If we had listened to the likes of Jim Sillars and voted to leave the EU, Scotland would currently have absolutely no basis upon which to call for a second referendum. As some of us were saying last year (*cough cough* link to wingsoverscotland.com), there was absolutely no reason for any independence supporter to vote Leave. And yet, many did anyway.
Folk like Jim Sillars and Alex Neil allowed their dislike of the EU to cloud their judgement last June. And now these same people insist we should listen to them when they say to detahc the EU issue from the independence issue, despite it being the entire premise of the second referendum? Absolute pish.
If we’d listened to them last year, we wouldn’t be where we are now. EU membership must be part of the offer we make people in the next referendum.
Couldn’t agree more.
Well put Rev.
On our collection of idiots. I posted this elsewhere yesterday, but seems appropriate for this thread:
What we saw in parliament on Tuesday wasn’t a defence of the union, that you could get behind. It’s an argument. A point of view. A principled stand.
That’s not what we witnessed.
What we witnessed was a black shame on Scottish politics as Scottish politicians queued up to attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the Scottish parliament, our government and our democracy. The unionist parties told the people of Scotland through their words and actions ‘your opinion doesn’t matter’. You shouldn’t have a say and we don’t recognise your rights.
The hatred of the ConLabLib politicians for the SNP is a matter of record at this point. Their disdain for the electorate however and our basic right to choose was appalling to see on display. When an MSP has the neck to stand there and tell the world they don’t respect the decision of parliament, they have no place in that parliament. They have no right to claim representation of anyone.
There is a big difference between arguing your corner and disrespecting the politics, the democracy and the population that pays your wages.
After seeing those childish, moronic tweets, that goes double today. Not one of those useless articles is fit to serve the public.
NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM.
I agree Brian Powell
Cant gt my head round the absolute laziness regarding democracy, but with the BBC promoting Scottish apathy at every opportunity. Eg Forth Crossing and Southern General ??
Only incompetent, arrogants and ignoramouses join the Unionist and Green NO party. Then muck up the electoral system and the UK/European world economy. Just unbelieveable. Undemocratic and fraudulent..
Those who can do. Those who can’t join Unionist Parties.
The problem is that these spectacular morons will be given carte blanche by the colonial media to behave as they do. The fortunes of our disgracefully inept opposition MSPs are entirely bound up with those of disgracefully corrupt ‘journalists’. A media capable of even the tiniest iota of objective scrutiny would have had ineffably bungling chancers like Dugdale consigned to the scrapheap long ago.
But we don’t have that, and it ain’t coming any time soon. We have the facts and the honesty and the commitment and the bodies on the ground. We shall see soon enough if that will get us across the line.
We need a united YES to start now and build up a head of steam!
Yesterday’s letter to the EU from the English tory Mrs May, highlighted Scotland is in with the crows and will get shot unless we become independent.
That the letter would try to blackmail the EU through threat of non co-operation of security related intelligence for good trade terms, show how low the tories will stoop!
But as from Stuart’s piece, we know labour in Scotland would rather support the tories position than support the Scottish people
I am resigned to the list system but i don’t think it should be up to the individual parties to create their ordered list. I think the candidates who get in having been rejected by their constituency should be decided by the votes cast for them. No-one should be in parliament who hasn’t put themselves forward to be questioned -anas arwar.
Brilliant as usual, Stu. This is why they hate you.
The frightening power of the Propaganda Wing of the English Establishment gives these idiots column inches and airtime to spread their threats insults lies and poison.
On the week that England becomes a fascist state Question Time has Ruth Davidson as a member of the panel from Carlisle.
Scottish Broadcasting and endless columns of newsprint are given over entirely to Right Wing Brit Establishment mouthpieces, facilitated by presenters and broadcasters who are now exclusively anti Scottish Establishment lackeys.
Campbell Brewer Magnusson Bird Fraser Taylor, and the legion of Red Blue an Yellow supporting hacks and PR Consultants who are never off the BBC spouting anti Scottish Right Wing garbage,bombard us daily with lies, distortions and SNP BAD stories.
Let’s forget all this nonsense that the Sunday Herald and The National are pro Independence titles.
They are controlled ultimately by a US owned Right Wing Consortium, and allowed to exist with a manacle around their necks, contained, controlled, and totally smothered by the tsunami of propaganda gushing from the vast bulk of the remaining MSM.
I shall record verbatim the lies and bluster emanating from that wee rotund Scotland Denier on Bullingdon Boy Dimbleby’s QT tonight.
UKIP are on too.
We shall win, we shall never be silenced.
I fully expect that the Labour Party in Scotland will kick Dugdale out any day now, and opt for Independence.
Neil Findlay, who is a blockheaded Marxist Militant whose only aim is to destroy Scotland, voted with the Tories to rob us working stiffs, to reward the filthy rich and Big Business on Wednesday.
This is how thick and completely irrelevant they are now.
There are some of course who will not see the light, even when tanks trundle up the Royal Mile, and Saracens patrol Easterhouse and Drumchapel.
Boy, Would Brian Wilson and David Torrance, and their Green Brigade and Loyal Sons of Professor Tomkins love that.
It is war, Stu.
These idiots will get unbridled access to the media, who, to their eternal shame will continue to print their lies and insults to the people of Scotland.
They are Scotland Deniers.
They are the Evil purveyors of elitism and English Exceptionalism.
We are Scotland, not a bunch of privileged Judases.
…the intense focus by unionist to denigrate their nation is shameful.
They are reduced to running down the ability of Scots to run their affairs in order to save the union.
It is our fellow Scots who scream we are too wee, too poor and too stupid. What other nation would demand another country run their affairs.
I worry that the poor calibre of opposition MSPs discourages people from voting for independence. It won’t be the first time that someone has told me that they don’t have any faith in “the numpties in the Scottish Government”. Fits the “too wee, too poor, too stupid” tag but what to do about it?
@Jack Collatin
Brian Wilson and .. Green Brigade
Made me laugh there..it will never be Brian Wilsons Green Brigade no matter how much he sadly plays the tired old Sectarianism card.
Up North is North and Sean South is South
And never the twain shall meet!
Bob Mack says:
30 March, 2017 at 12:08 pm
@Heedtracker,
Having a profession is not evidence you are not a moron I am afraid.
Perhaps. But this unionist cabal of a seemingly thick as shit tory minority, are more than aware that their fury at Scottish progressive liberal democracy is pretty representative of the views down the leafy drives of middle and upper class Scotland.
That’s who likes of Tomkins and Sarwar are both raging at and ranting for. If you listen to this professional class just a little, they are a fundamental bed rock tory vote in Scotland. When you see the very high standard of living enjoyed by this class, it does make sense that Scotland running Scotland is considered a threat to it all.
So we now have guys like Anas and Tomkins, who know exactly who and where his 22% tory vote lies, now reaching out to and riling up Scots working class unionism and we all know where this all centred too.
All of the above can be applied to top BBC Scotland execs, Donalda, currently seated round BBC conference tables, carefully working out and directing all their tory UK propaganda at the Scots demographic above.
Before 2007, all BBC Scotland had to do was keep tell Scots they were shite, and Scotland was even more shite.
How democracy changes things huh?
[…] Wings Over Scotland Harder than you think Scotland is plagued by a Parliament of morons. The vast majority of opposition MSPs […]
Incidentally, it is no coincidence that Prof John Curtice has re-emerged with his Indy Bad News polls and forecasts.
This, from NatCen Social Research, the so called not for profit charity, (aye right)Annual Report and Accounts June 2015:-
“Research carried out for UK Central Government continues to be the main source of Revenue.( 62% in 13/14, rising to 65% in 14/15.)”
In other words WM calls the tune. The Tories provide the answer, and Professor Curtice fills in the calculations.
Possibly why he is on BBC more times a day than the weather girl in these troubled times for the hysterical Scotland Deniers.
We need outside assistance with our cry for real democracy.
I think, for a start, Nicola should call in the UN, to witness the anti democracy elements at work here.
We have democracy embedded in the UN charter, it should be called upon to intervene to ensure fairness, Nicola is the one to do this, no one else as it would have to come from the top.
For the world to understand and see the UK as the pariah state it really is. They need to be seen, they need to be exposed, they need to be shamed.
Ken500 @ 12:25,
Only ignoramuses believe that the Greens are a NO party.
Or was it just some wierd aberration or subtle ploy that they took pains to ensure that resident EU citizens and 16-17 year olds get a vote in the ScotRef, which they also voted for?
Even the Unionists in Holyrood don’t – they spent half their time in the indy debate viciously attacking them. And they are idiots, so…?
I’m impressed with Carlaw and disappointed with Rev Stu on this thread.
Impressed with Carlaw because if he’s watching BBC Pointless he might actually learn something, although most of the British based questions tend to have an English slat. This knowledge will help Carlaw fill his empty days in the future doing crosswords etc. when he gets booted out at the next election.
Disappointed with Rev who would normally have filleted his tweet like a kipper. This (yesterday’s) Pointless is a repeat originally shown over a year ago, I think. 56 SNP MPs had only been in place about 5/6 months so not a lot of exposure to the non Scottish electorate. The 2 ladies in the quiz still thought Vince Cable had kept his seat in the GE, not the sharpest.
Carlaw you need to get up to speed with relevance of your tweets or just sit down.
I am sorry that an SNP MSP did not ask the FM at FMQs today that a tory Annie Wells did not respect the Scottish Parliament should she resign and.
Ref my last post, is there not others we could call on as well as the UN. I remember Craig Murray made a suggestion a wee while ago.
There has to be others who have some weight and take democracy seriously.
Never mind some quiz contestant not knowing the name of an SNP MP, a senior Tory cabinet minister thinks the leader of the so-called “Scottish” Tory Party is called Harrison.
Now THAT is truly embarrassing!
Roy Hattersley’s account of the machinations of the vote of no confidence in 1979 seems to rest more significantly on Irish votes.
Callaghan wouldn’t do a deal with Enoch Powell for Unionist votes and near ‘inexplicable’ abstentions by Gerry Fitt and Frank Maguire (SDLP and Independent), meant they lost the vote.
The SNP hardly rate any more mention than the Liberals.
Worth a look if I’ve managed to archive it properly here…
link to archive.is
@Rev
“Scotland is plagued by a Parliament of morons. The vast majority of opposition MSPs are people who were directly and personally rejected by voters – usually with good reason – but who were parachuted into lucrative jobs anyway by their parties.”
I always wondered how Douglas Ross got himself to the top of the H&I list for the Tories all the more so because he was a pretty rebellious Tory on Moray Cooncil. Party loyalty was not something he was guilty of when it came to some votes on the Cooncil. I wonder what he knows?
A bit O/T but not much .FMQs is on in the background sound muted , does the presiding officer ever intervene in anything ? ever , i have just caught sight of opposition MSPs with their bits of paper to make them look important , go on at some length apparently asking a question , by the look of it its not a question rather than some sort of statement ,will this Labour presiding officer ever get that the clue is in the name ” first minister’s questions” and not any old tosh just for the hell of it .
I know the SNP were trying to appear fair and open allowing an opposition MSP the post and it might even have been their turn and it made sense because of the numbers , but this is taking the piss , the SNP won most of the votes so they should call the tune , no more bloody concessions .
I am old enough to remember the right wing Labour Governemnt who preferred the Tories in rather than implement their own Devolution manifesto promise.
Later, Devolution was forced upon them.
Time and time again Unionist politicians prove conclusively that they agree on one thing, keep the debate simple so they and their voters can understand it and in that they have been moderately successful, this is why they would dearly love to exclude the younger voters who are becoming increasingly smarter and who won’t accept moronic slogans like Brexit means Brexit which adds to the naked aggression demonstrated by those same Unionist politicians and their less speedy of thought supporters
Aggression works, name calling works, vile abuse works
but when you’ve used the same tactic over and over again the more enlightened of our population begin to laugh and laugh loudly, so those same rejected useless articles of Union politicians and their by this time dwindling band of brain dead get even angrier because their incompetence has become a laughing matter they plumb the depths of insanity and inanity the like of which will probably not be seen again after this campaign has replaced and consigned them to the history of Mock the Week and comedy out takes on look back at politics shows
But be consoled Kezia and Adam and all the little Unionist chums you will be enshrined in telly history for all to see
For-ev-er!….. Hee Hee Hee
“eventually scuppered by the hysterical reactions of, particularly, the Lib Dems and the Times. Having first demanded that it shouldn’t have happened, then actively sabotaged it,”
Not only spiteful but wrong. The deal collapsed because it had no substance. It needed no sabotaging, it was never viable.
All Willie Rennie did was to point out the obvious but, unfortunately, such is the acumen of our economy secretary that he has taken a year to learn that it was all a sham.
Funnily enough yesterday my friend in California sent me a piece by a Republican Journalist in which the comment was made that the Republican Party had criticised Obama care for years but had never come up with any alternative. I wrote back and said they sounded like our opposition. Complaining and whining but never making any suggestions to improve or correct. I would prefer to see the end of this list system. Let us vote for parties and allocate the seats according to the percentage gained. Too much jiggery pockery for my taste and no quality on the opposition side, and no need for there to be from what I can see.
The Pointless episode was a repeat anyway, first shown sometime early in 2016. I don’t think Angus would be a Pointless answer now.
To the “Ah don’t want another referendum” mob. Well, when Brexit becomes the total clusterfeck that all of us here know it WILL become and you then start moaning, “Ah didnae vote fur this!” we’ll tell yae, “Aye yae fecking did when you told us yae didnae want another referendum.”
“And we’re not even going to talk about David Coburn’s appearance on today’s edition of Good Morning Scotland, for the sake of everyone’s mental health.”
Please do – I’d love to hear your take on that insane ex-trader richboy’s completely delusional rantings! State of it, eh?!
@Admiral, that was also done to the then Leader of Scottish Labour, Jock McDonnell instead of Jack McConnell, do these people have no dignity or is the greed for £300 a day such a draw. I wonder what will happen to them all if we do get our independence, their pals in England tolerate them for now.
Everything is going in Independence favour. The Yes are coming through. The No elderly are coming on side or dropping off. Brexit has changed the whole concept. People are becoming more enraged at the lack of democratic thought, progress or agreement. The Brexit intransigence ‘negotiations’ will be a failure. With a worse deal or no deal at all. It is possible May may not last two years. Cheats and liars never do,
Once the IndyRef Campaign gears up again. Many more will come on board. Many folk are enraged at the Unionist failures. Especially in Scotland but all over the UK. Westminster are still illegally starving and killling innocent people. Causing the worst migration in Europe since 11WW. The mess can only get worse.
The Westminster Unionists do not even know that under the terms of the UK Union Scotland has a separate Law system forever. That can’t be changed without agreement. Or the Union is dissolved. In other words Scotland does not have to take the EU Law into Scottish Law. Just keep on implementing it. EU Law is already inshrined into Scottish Devolution and Scottish Law. Holyrood just does not change it but keeps to EU Law and rights in Scotland. Scotland needs an SNP Gov in Holyrood to maintain it. This will lead a path to Independence in the EU.
The Tories are in a total mess. Most of them should be in jail. Cameron is an alcoholic who needs help. The Tory Royals, and their associates. cause mental health problems, especially in children. Their avarice and greed and tax evading contributes to lack of funding The Tory Royals are suppose to be impartial and not interfere. They should be quiet or bow out. Poverty, lack of sleep, excess alcohol causes depression and doesn’t help. Cold worried, anxious hungry people can’t sleep and get sick. Westminster Gov are causing mental health problems starving people to death. Causing illegal wars, tax evasion and banking fraud. Leaving millions of people sick and unhappy.
OT.Theresa May and David Mundell’s BREXIT.
TODAY.The Press Association:
“French President Francois Hollande has told Theresa May that talks on future trade relations with the EU must come after the negotiation of a divorce deal.
Mr Hollande’s stance echoed that of German Chancellor Angela Merkel as Europe presented a united front against the Prime Minister’s plea for trade and divorce talks to take place simultaneously……”
link to tinyurl.com
The only thing missing from that sh*te in the Depress was that the devastating blow was delivered by the ghost of Diana during the worst Arctic winter in living memory when half the population was decimated by a virulent new strain of bird flu.
Sorry for O/T here but just heard about a wee teddy bear’s picnic at Dock Park in Dumfries on Monday May 1st starting at 12:45.
Provided my health is good on the day I, my partner, Cody Four Paws our dog, and B.J. the bear are planning to attend. 😀
An application to hold an independence rally in Dock Park on May 1st has been refused by the Labour council in Dumfries and Galloway because they can not allow the park to be used in a manner which could be perceived to give support to a particular political party.
I don’t know about anyone else but this is the first time I’ve heard about a political party called the Independence party. 😀
O/T but of note.
Off to the Citz Theatre in Glasgow to enjoy the Brexit play “My Country – a Work in Progress.
link to citz.co.uk
“Britannia calls a meeting, to listen to her people. Caledonia, Cymru, East Midlands, North East, Northern Ireland and the South West bring the voices of their regions. The debate is passionate, stereotypes nailed and opinions divided. Can there ever be a United Kingdom?”
Hope to enjoy.
Ask a Unionist any Unionist who their MSP is you know the one they hate so much because he/she is SNP not only will they likely not know who it is but they wont even know the name of the one in the party they say they do support
I’d put money on the answer being low that they do but like Murdo Fraser they could probably tell you the name of the ball boy for the queens 11 or how many 1000s of them have been wrongly convicted under the OBFA that thon guy James Kelly wants to get rid of
Coz hees a reel poalatishun rit kerrs furrah peepul no
Now that’s real political engagement with the people you represent
The amount of obvious britnat hypocrisy, arrogance and ignorance is almost overwhelming. They don’t care what they say of course because the putrid britnat media will faithfully back them up. It is funny; it’s also sad. These britnats truly hate Scotland.
Like others, I have no idea what Brown has to apologise for in relation to the Chinese MOU. A an agreement in principle was reached to discuss possible link ups and investment. The Opposition and in particular the liberals were hugely against any such link up and were quite derogatory about the Chinese. The Chinese are not noted for a thick skin took umbrage and any such potential deal was scuppered.
The Liberals got what they wanted, no investment from the Chinese and the Scottish Government if they should be apologising to anyone it should be the Chinese.
I thought Sarwar and Gray’s Twitts were funny though. It shows that Labour still can’t take responsibility for their own failings (and George Cunningham’s duplicity). This is good because those that cannot learn cannot improve.
I bit amused by the Sarwar tweet. I doubt if he was born then. Why doesn’t he complain about the bringing? down of the Labour Government in 1924?
Obamacare was only introduced a couple of years ago. Obama shoved it through before going out of a Office. People have to pay £4000 a person a year for it. There are relative small tax relief but The burden was placed on the poorer. Many who could not afford to pay it. The average wage in the US is $51,000 a year. They pay for nursery, schooling etc too. When Obama pushed it through. A Liberal Independent congressman (vote needed) refused to agree to any public money being used for it. That is why it is unpopular. The burden falls on the poorer. The US insurance based medical service can over treat patients. People in the US can overdose on drugs brought in pharmacies which would be only given on prescription in the UK.
Each US States have different provision. There is means- tested Medicare which gives free good quality public care, especially for the elderly. This is in massive debt. In the US as the UK. The elderly 20% of the population. use up 80% of healthcare. People need more care as they get older. The human body does not last forever.
Sorry if peeps already know about this wee “change of heart” story as reported in today’s Herald on line. 😉
A FORMER Scottish Labour candidate has defected to the SNP over the constitution on the same day Kezia Dugdale tried to advance her plan for a federal UK.
Immigration lawyer Jamie Kerr, a former vice-chair of Labour in Renfrewshire South and a Holyrood candidate in Shetland in 2011, jumped ship yesterday complaining he couldn’t stay in a party “that no longer speaks for Scotland”.
His switch coincided with the Scottish Labour leader joining senior party figures in Cardiff to discuss home rule as an alternative to Tory Unionism and Scottish Nationalism.
@admiral 🙂
An admiral comment!
PS:
What I’m worried about is the SG having to decide on the parts of the laws which Westminster have to send up to Holyrood for their view / approval.
Any SG ‘NO’ on the legislation sent back down to Westminster would not ‘NORMALLY’ be overturned. Aye that’s it then we know what to expect.
This is the insidious word ‘normally’ inserted by the sMyth commission and which Mundell is so prone to use.
There will be trouble ahead but we knew it was going to come.
The so-called Great Repeal Bill will be rushed through Westminster under Henry VIII rule! No parliamentary voting on devolutionary powers being retained of returned after brexit? Britnat dictatorship.
The appalling main stream press scream the views of their extreme right wing owners. Perhaps only six or eight people have the power to lie to a nation.
I spent an hour in a Tesco coffee shop and watched the buyers of the Express and Mail.
They were almost entirely male and almost entirely aged sixty plus. Exactly who we would expect to mostly be No voters, but their demographic won’t be around for ever.
Youngsters get their news from on line sources and are much more likely to be Yes voters, so time is on our side. Two years from now there will be a natural four or five percent swing to Yes.
Now is not the time, to quote someone or other.
I blame the media. Complete dereliction of duty of the BBC which fails to challenge the elite and their representatives on earth, Unionist politicians. It’s not a public service broadcaster.
The newspapers are not worth the cheap paper they’re printed on, with the exception of The National.
If the media had done their job BREXIT would never have happened.
What is to be done? Funding Stu and fellow bloggers is one option. But the majority watch TV and read the gutter press. It’s really a miracle that support for Independence is as high as it is given the hysterical raging of the Unionist press. Could it be that people are gradually seeing through the lies? Is WoS slowly infiltrating the mainstream?
List MSPs are perfectly legitimate and part of an impeccably democratic PR system. The First Minister herself was one for a while and I doubt if the SNP would have progressed as they have done without the list system. Carlaw and Tompkins have many faults but merely being list MSPs are not among them.
O for Tricia Marwick’s erse back in the Presiding Officer’s chair. The present incumbent is a sap! ASAP!
BBC 24 attack propaganda today, endless tories promising even more powers coming to Holyrood, lots more, not less and that’s from a nice man from the LSE, its what he takes from David Davies’s speech’s, so it must be true.
Now, there’s been a murder.
Perhaps our ProudScotsBut Yoon politicians spinsters and MSM should pin up this little gem of wisdom on the canteen wall:-
“It is unbelievable to what extent one must betray a people in order to rule it.”
A Hitler: Mein Kampf.
So let’s see if I understand this properly…
If the SNP form a majority Gov its “a dictatorship” but if they are able only to form a minority gov “they have no mandate”.
That about right?
Twilight zone anyone?
Dispiriting encounter in the paper shop this am, with three older voters. All thinking-averse, glib, blinkers on. Don’t like Sturgeon. Make jokes rather than discuss issues. It’s going to be a long, hard road, with no certainty of a happy outcome.
Carlaw and Tompkins have many faults but merely being list MSPs are not among them.
No system is sacrosanct though. Whole point of change is er, changes.
Tomkins is that awful representative of the “there’s no zealot like a convert” dictum. Ex Trot, ex republican, now raging away for hard core Con’s, the queen and rule Britannia in their Scotland region.
We should be very worried by guys like Prof Smirky. They wont go without causing as much harm to Scotland as they possibly can, all aided and abetted by the appalling corruption at BBC Scotland.
Having spent a lifetime living in England and being one of those GenX’ers who has known little else than Tory rule. I can say hand on heart, that more often than not, it is the stupid and the feckless that usually are elected as Governments and Councillors in England. Any wonder then that we have a Government that doesn’t understand the first thing about economic theory, history or diplomacy. We are being run by a bunch of people who are nothing more than a bunch of Hobbits calling everything new as ‘unnatural’. Thankfully, Scotland has less of these. Oh and I’m days away from relocating to Scotland for good. A big reason for that is the SNP and a chance of living in a country that is closer to my politics than anywhere else in the world.
Albantawe @ 2:14,
Rightly said there. The current system is far from perfect – the “two ballots” part being the worst aspect by far, but we have to face up to the unpleasant truth that enough people do actually vote for these gimps, and as things stand they would be elected under any decent PR system.
Like Capella, I blame the media. And not least the BBC. If you had sat through all those Tory speeches in Holyrood to have to endure all their unadulterated sneery tripe, you would quickly conclude that none of them represent anybody but their puppetmasters in London. But on the telly you get a very short clip carefully extracted to put them in the best possible light.
So viewers watching have no idea just how much these Tories actually despise them. Labour and the LibDems are not much better, just more whiny and wimpish about it.
If voters had a better idea of just what these Unionists are like, they would still get votes, but in even smaller quantities than the diminishing returns they’re getting now.
It’s penetrating slowly to the public at large, in speed almost inversely proportional to the age of the voter, but that’s the real source of the problem that has to be overcome. Making people aware of the reality.
There is one sure fired strategy that would work but I feel most would reject it out of hand. If Nicola was to withdraw the SNP at the end of Brexit from Holyrood and Westminster and take a sabbatical then the Scottish people may have a dose of reality from which the SNP currently shields them.
By this I mean no free travel passes,prescription charges,bedroom taxes, no housing benefit for under18’s,.tuition fees. Bedroom tax for pensioners, end of triple lock on pensions that is coming. Then Labour and the Tories would have to run the public services as we see down south.
The problem as I see it is that everything the SNP do is very much taken for granted
by a populace who accept them willingly but still vote Tory or Labour.
Perhaps a dose of financial personal misery would help focus minds
It isn’t Love, that conquers all…it’S FEAR. Raw, unadulterated FEAR.
That is what the unionists are using. There is no real love lost between Scotland and England. But there is plenty of fear in Scotland that if we break away from the UK we will be poorer.
England has perfected its propaganda tecniques over the past 400 years since the Union of the Crowns. The UK quite unashamedly tells lies to the Scots to keep any sense of good self esteem from flourishing. It is an unending torrent of scare mongering that has been washing over us for centuries and it shows every sign that the deluge is going to get worse.
The SNP and others who believe in independence have to to understand this and put the fear of God into our people that if we do not regain our freedom this time we will be well and truly finished for good.
@Ozimandeus,
Welcome “traveller from an antique land”. Shelly got that right. England is a land of antiquity sure enough. ( empire2)
Hope you enjoy Scotland as much as we will enjoy having you here. It is better.
Ffs, these pathetic, highly paid, public servants. Nothing to add, to what’s been said, except in an independent Scotland, we should change the system.
Getting on with my leafletting in the rain! A welcome fresh air break from Act 2 of the Westminster horror show – the power grab. That smirking idiot Davis at the box, loving every minute.
Sky news is REALLY changing in terms of reporting. It’s the usual preserve of Auntie to lead the charge on denigrating everyone that questions the gov’t, but Sky are getting worse than Beeb.
Current message obviously hard against the EU.
‘ The 27 WILL split’
‘The EU WILL lose more members’
‘Any sign the EU will punish us?’
Watched Adam Boulton acting like an ignoramus to Guy Verhofstadt, accusing him of not acting fairly, by not discussing trade!!!!
@Fred 2.16
I absolutely agree. I’m always complaining about Ken Macintosh as Presiding Officer. He has absolutely no control and is allowing the Unionists in Holyrood to bring the Scottish Parliament into disrepute and in line with the noisy, heckling, braying nonsense that is Westminster.
We had something different at Holyrood before these arrogant, braying Tories got their new leader in the name of Ruth Davidson elected to Parliament.
I complained today on Nicola Sturgeon,s tweet.
That is the worst thing about all of what’s going on right now. The very people who should be standing up for Scotland, looking after the interests of the Scottish people, the unionists at Holyrood, are doing just the opposite.
Yesterday they were tweeting about the new Firth of Forth bridge being a few weeks behind schedule. Bad weather has delayed work to complete it, Yes, we have wind in Scotland, and no, the SNP are not able to magically stop it! Of course, not one of them pointed out that if they had had anything at all to do with it, there would be no new bridge, even though the old one is not fit for purpose, and would eventually become unsafe and fall down! Not even the Greens wanted it.
I bet they all use it though when the weather allows it to be completed.
I have heard no voters, pro EU, who are still living in hope that we won’t be leaving, and that there might even be another referendum to stay. That is just not going to happen, and hoping never got us anywhere. The fact is, only Independence can keep us in the EU now. I fear they still prefer brexit to independence.
Makes you wonder what those loyal to the union would put up with, because it is becoming clear that Scotland may just be dispensable to those intent on keeping her shackled, and her oil etc, flowing south.
Rather than have multiple people on a list who no-one actually wants getting cosy numbers, Why not just give the elected people in the party a weighting for their actual vote within the Parliament.
Okay Tories..you get 7 seats in the house for FPP and your overall vote will go up by a factor of 3 for your overall votes count.
This would reduce the number of idiots that’s for sure and remove the fly-guys like Sarwar and James Kelly slipping in!
Not being cheeky but what exactly are expectations of the List MSPs do outside of Holyrood bar setting up photo ops in Govanhill with sad faced right wing activists?
Robert J. Sutherland @ 2:35pm
Agreed. Scotland is extremely badly served by its media. I know its not easy, but I have never understood why the SNP has not worked much harder over the years to get broadcasting devolved.
Absolutely. We’ve not even started yet and you can already feel the the state and the media grinding into action against it, it’s going to be nasty and it’s going to be a long couple of years. If we coast, we will be comprehensively crushed.
Bob Mack @ 14:41,
Yes, there is a real irony here. The better the SNP protect us from WM depredations, the more people assume they can get by fine without the great leap to independence.
Hence those folk who vote SNP but not indy.
I don’t agree with your (tongue-in-cheek) suggestion, but I fear these “passengers” are in for a very rude awakening shortly anyway, when the MayHem Gang trample all over us with Brexit, their GRB and Henry VIII powers. A right royal doing-over is in the offing, and the only protection Nicola will be able to provide against it will be in getting us out of this BritNat freak show entirely.
Nicola is offering a lifeboat on the deck of a sinking Titanic and yet there are still too many people reluctant to just climb in. I only hope enough of these hesitaters wake up to reality before it’s all too late.
David Davis just announced that the “Great Repeal Bill” will include powers for UKGov to unilaterally alter devolution settlements. #ScotRef
That’s a power grab!
Aye, we’re up against it right enough.
But when have the people of Scotland ever shied away from a hard fight?
All of that shower of rogues know exactly how low they are and how personally inadequate they are too.
Not exactly glowing with a healthy light of joy or vision from within, not one.
And they can twist their polls and their news any which way they like. It’s sickening but what else would you expect?
More and more folk WILL begin to see more and more how their lives are impacted by the willful arogance of the UK government and folk WILL feel increasingly uncomfortable at the constant putting down of Scotland as the BUM AND Ruth and the rest ramp up the shrillness.
The contrast will come from Europe and Ireland. People WILL notice.
Yes, we are going to have work really hard and look to each person’s concerns individualy as any of us speak to them and think carefully about the very best way to mount campaigns on local and national scales. There have been some great ideas on here already.
Someone on twitter said we should be speaking of PreIndependence Scotland. I like that = )
I want Independence for Scotland.
@ Ozimandeus
Gutting that you have to move to find a home you can live with and you have my sympathy on that.
More than welcome though.
We have plenty of room. 🙂
Albantawe says:
30 March, 2017 at 2:14 pm
List MSPs are perfectly legitimate and part of an impeccably democratic PR system. The First Minister herself was one for a while and I doubt if the SNP would have progressed as they have done without the list system. Carlaw and Tompkins have many faults but merely being list MSPs are not among them.
Whilst what you say is obviously correct Albantawe surely the whole point of the List system is to ensure that the M.S.P.’s “elected” under the current List system are up to the job. In my view there are a few who have questions marks over their sincerity to do the job.
For example we have:
a) the “lovely” Miss Wells the “star” of the video in Stu’s article. If as she quite clearly states that she does not have any loyalty to the Scottish parliament then you have to ask “why the hell is she there?”
b) the “incredible” Mr Brunett who, it appears, has a love of asking questions only related to HIS business interests.
c) a certain Mr. Ross who apparently only sees Holyrood as a wee “time filler” between football matches.
d) Professor Thomkin who, like Ross, only sees Holyrood as a time filler, between lectures in his case, rather than attend committees that he is allegedly a member of.
e) Mr. Sarwar who, as indicated above only sees Holyrood as a dictactorship … apparently. Yet despite this he jumps from being an M.P. to being an ex M.P. straight into a dictatorship.
I have no doubts that other readers will be able to highlight actions of other M.S.P.’s whose regular “actions” seem to raise questions about their viability to be considered worthy of sitting in Holyrood.
Heedtracker…
In my opinion Tompkins is a MI5 plant.
Imbed within Scotlands top University teaching Politics, influencing the next generation of leaders…classic secret service move.
Infiltrated Scottish Left when SSP were in ascendency.
Flipped to become a go to propagandist for Better Together.
Slotted in at number one on Tory list for Glasgow, with the sole aim to attack any subversion on the constitution.
If that’s not a spook….
If Wee Wullie Rennie is looking for corruption he need only look behind him in the Parliament
link to heraldscotland.com
(link to archive.is)
link to edinburghnews.scotsman.com
(link to archive.is)
link to stv.tv
(link to archive.is)
etc, etc.
Something else we have to think very carefully about is this. What if there is a power grab and Westminster take back control of most areas of public life and finance.
It would not take a lot to diminish Holyrood to a council status which would serve no function.
This is enormously dangerous because there would be no central rallying point or government under which to congregate and focus those who want independence. They would end up as voices crying in the wilderness with no concerted focus of leadership to take forward that desire. They can also diminish our Westminster representation but those in Westminster cannot lead in the fashion of a Hollyrood government
This is a critical time and it is a battle we must win.
@Arbroath @1.36pm
Independence rallies not welcome in Dumfries, can’t have that, can we? But if you’re the Orange Lodge, nae problem:
“Two processions to mark the 25th anniversary of an Orange Lodge have been cleared to take place.
The group will hold the events on 4 March in Locharbriggs – where it is based – and nearby Dumfries.
Dumfries and Galloway Council’s licensing panel agreed to allow both parades to be held.
A parish priest in Dumfries had objected to the march saying it had “no reason whatsoever, historical or otherwise” to be held in the town.
The council has to be consulted by anyone wishing to hold any public procession.
It decided to permit the proposals by the Locharbriggs Loyal Orange Lodge.
It will stage one march through Dumfries at 15:30 on Saturday 4 March lasting for about 45 minutes.”
link to bbc.co.uk
As a wee addendum to my last post.
Like the majority of people I don’t think the current List system is working. That said it is what it is and we have to work with it until something better can be found. For me it might be as simple as having the relevant lists listing all the relevant candidates by party and asking the electorate to mark them in order of preference.
I know I’m talking s***e here but just a thought. In my view it might remove the idea that “certain” current MSP’s have of jumping from one political establishment to another by “forcing” their way to top spot.
I’m no political expert but maybe just maybe there are former candidates from parties who could do a better job than some currently sitting in Holyrood but due to party “love-ins” they don’t get a real shot.
Surely as the electorate are voting on FPTP they should also get a REAL say in who they want to represent them from party lists.
Despite the rain I’ll grab ma coat and go for a wee walk. 😀
albantawe @2.54pm
Getting broadcasting devolved is one battle the SNP, or even if they had 100% support, the Scottish Parliament cannot win – Westminster will never allow it.
My own view is, that given the swamp they were left to drain when they took over from the Labour/Lib-Dem coalition, the SNP has had enough on its plate, without, at the same time, having to try to control the alligators of the BUM who are trying to eat them.
Inependence is the big prize. Once Scotland is independent, the BBC will be told, on your bikes Donalda, Jackie, Andra, Sarah and Co.
Snode 1965
Have you been reading “State of Emergency” by Richard Drysdale? ?
Arbroath1320 @ 14:14,
The problem there lies in the Oath of Allegiance that every elected person must take before becoming an MSP. It requires allegiance being sworn to HM The Queen, when in fact it patently should be to the sovereign people of Scotland.
If it were, Annie Wells would be in imminent danger of being impeached, since she would have broken her oath. As things stand, her offence is “merely” political. (Like Carmichael’s lie.)
But it is being noticed nonetheless. I pity her if she ever tries to stand for Parliament again. She won’t hear the last of it.
Not sure if anyone would deliberately not vote for the tosspot imposed on them as a candidate at the constituency level and still vote for the party on the list. It’s always a possibility.
I think that what should happen, without simply going down the route of full multi seat STV, is retain the current FPTP constituency MSP elections. The regional elections will still be by a D’Hondt style allocation decided by the first preference of an STV vote. That at least would let voters give a low preference to candidates they can’t abide. At least that way you have an idea that those elected have at least some level of support.
Bob Mack, I hear your concern. Alot of folk are just waking up to this horrendous possibility.
A power grab from Westminster is a very worrying thought.
But a scenario that I fully expect the Scottish Government to have already prepared for.
No matter what Westminster throws at us, I and the rest of the 50+% will not give up on Scotland’s Independence = )
How about a wee list re
What has the EU ever done for us.
A list we can use on the doorstep
I agree with your last paragraph Stu. We have a very hard fight ahead of us.
It is easy to be swept along with the togetherness and agreements in this blog and others, notably Paul Kavanagh’s pages. Yet if you talk to what you consider sensible level headed people and they tell you rubbish about the EU and how Scotland has been treated lately you realise the level of ignorance is huge.
I know the decision point is still some ways away from us but it is in truth tight. I took over a year to swing one past No voter to Yes.
Onwards and upwards.
Who the fuck is Jackson Carlaw? Or, for that matter, Kezia Dugdale?
I think anyone interested in the Great Repeal Bill can find it here. The important section for Scotland, I believe is Chapter 4 starting on page 27. ( in mentioning Scotland I of course also include Wales and Northern Ireland here.)
link to gov.uk
Fireproofjim said at 2:12 pm:
“The appalling main stream press scream the views of their extreme right wing owners. Perhaps only six or eight people have the power to lie to a nation…..”
Yes it’s a terrible state of affairs.
Democracy UKOK style.
An excerpt from Leftfootforward 3 years ago:
“Over a quarter (27.3 per cent) of the press is owned by Lord Rothermere and 24.9 per cent by Rupert Murdoch – between them these two men have over 50 per cent of the printed press…..”
AND:
“Over three quarters (77.8 per cent) of the press is owned by a handful of billionaires. There are only 88 billionaires among the 63 million people in the UK and most of the barons do not even live in the UK.” 🙁
think Twitter is all over her about her idea that she refuses to acknowledge the sovereignty of Holyrood Robert. As you say she will NOT be allowed to forget what she said.
I remember there was a bit of a furore about the O.O. being given permission to march Joan. Of course we all have to remember that the O.O. is NOT a political party whereas the Independence rally IS a political party. 😀
Flower of Scotland…
No, is it worth a read?
OT A real corporal Fraser ‘We’re Doomed’ piece on Scotland WCQ chances in the National.
I took comfort from the fact the pundit thought Martin scored a ‘late equaliser’ rather than a winner.
Ken 500 @ 1.49
Your characterisation of Obama care is somewhat wide of the mark. The Act bringing it into being was passed in 2010 during President Obama’s first term in office then progressively rolled out thereafter.
Payments are income based and are topped up by various methods and insurance companies can no longer refuse to insure people with ore-existing conditions or dump people when they get ill.
Since this has zero to do with the topic I am not going to discuss it further but suggest you read the link below For fuller details:
link to en.m.wikipedia.org
The great Repeal Bill shouldn’t be a worry, the 75% left and centre left population and MSPs should be fighting this tooth and nail, saying not a chance are we going along with this.
However when the FM brought this up at FMQa there was no stamping of feet in agreement or support from the Labour benches.
We can’t look to them for anything like backbone.
Re. Curtice: my stats lecturer thought that genuine random samples were more likely to be accurate than “quota samples”, although genuine random samples were not usually used commercially as they were more expensive, although the computerisation of postal codes might have cheapened this.
A Scot from Paisley now a labour councillor.
Jim Elmes, Labour councillor for Marton, was born in Paisley: “I think Scotland would be daft to seek independence.
“They don’t have any money and are supported by the English economy
Says it all if a Scot thinks that what do we think English people think.
A sobering article, except anyone who casually talks to people in the street can hear the pap from the tabloids and TV regurgitated without thinking and knows we have to work on people quietly and patiently.
There is hope though. Like the idea or not, Time’s winged chariot is going to carry off a disproportionate number of No voters in the next two years. And can you imagine EU citizens voting No this time?
Also, many academics (probs Noes last time) can see their Erasmus-style funding going down the stank with little to replace it. Look at the the high Remain vote in the Edingurgh area, for example.
And the more lies you tell, BT/New Direction, the quicker you will be found out. The indy referendum only just came at the right time for you to scrape home in 2014 but you will find it very hard to spin positively what I expect to be the chaos and damage of the Brexit negotiations.
We all need to turn those wee conversations with No voters into wee nudges towards the light. I suspect conventional canvassing will be much less effective than gentle, intelligent social interaction.
And the young don’t give a Carmichael for the MSM and are strongly for Yes.
It’s going to be a hard slog but even the bookies seem to be on our side at the moment.
As Orwell didn’t quite say, hope lies with the person you’re talking to.
@Arbroath1320 3:48 pm :
“I think anyone interested in the Great Repeal Bill can find it here. The important section for Scotland, I believe is Chapter 4”
I can summarise Chapter 4 in two words (I have read it) :
Westminster decides.
Subtext is “fuck off & stop bothering us, you haven’t a clue”.
No surprise really.
After the referendum bill vote, i have been working my way through sending this to all unionist MSP’s.
Still awaiting a single reply mind you.
…..
Now we will find out who in unionist colours are democrats.
I believe it goes like this….
“As democrats, although we did not support the SNP motion today, we must accept the will of the Parliament, which has endorsed the will of the Scottish people, and get on with the job of making sure that the Section 30 order is granted as soon as possible and on Scotland’s terms, not a WM government hostile to the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish electorate”.
…….
I would be grateful if you would respond with written confimation as to which part of the above text, as a ‘democrat’ you do not agree with.
Oh and thanks for finally getting https enabled on the site Stu.
There are still a couple of issues but the guys at Lets Encrypt will be better placed to advise you than me.
Don’t mind saying that the Great Repeal Bill is making me really scared.
There are too many ill informed idiots in the UK, I know it’s education, biased papers, dumbed down, watch Xfactor etc etc.
The number of folk on twitter welcoming this is unbelievable.
They have no clue, if we don’t get indy, we’re stuffed.
The place will be run by folk who make Ruth Davidson look intelligent and reasonable
Arbroath 1320 @ 3.48
Great Repeal Bill, chapter 4, p27, para 4.4, last sentence:
“” We will work closely with the devolved administrations to deliver an approach that works for the whole and each part of the UK.””
Now does that not sound familiar. And no doubt as meaningful as the last time it was spouted.
This maybe slightly O/T
I`m reading oral history transcripts at the moment and a sentence in one stood out from a woman who went to school in Dunblane in the 1910s.
Q. Were there any poorer children?
A. Oh yes, lots. They went with their bare feet often. That’s the kind of ones my father wouldn’t let us play with if you understand but I liked them all, bare feet or not, I liked everyone of them.
I suppose what strikes a chord with me is the inclusiveness of that statement and I want to be part of a Scotland that is strong in support of the vulnerable, and I also want to be able to say to those that oppose independence, you are part of that Scotland too, when independence comes I want your voice to be as strong and important as mine and anyone else`s.
re;Dorothy@5.06pm
Yep, same, ‘The less-deserving pro-independebce website’. Do a search, it acually came up with same nessage earlier, but I didn’t compute it! Ffs. I can’t access it at all on a different device, says, no ‘permission to access on this server’.
aye, robert peffers, dont take it to heart
i’ve lost count of how many folk i’ve fallen out with and insulted on wings
Wings just disappeared for a few minutes there.
Access forbidden 403?
Anyhoo!
Agriculture and Fish not coming to Scotland hints on shortbread + that ‘normally’ word again. That’s about par for the course. 🙂
Whatever Ms Sturgeon’s got to say in April I hope its stirring stuff and wakes up a few Scottish folk to Not Scotland’s Parliament looming if we don’t do something about it.
Start with the council elections.
The reason I turned to the SNP and firmly away from other parties was the realisation several years ago that there was almost no political talent in Scotland outside the SNP. The Labour party in particular is full of third or fourth raters and ditto the current crop of Tory party gargoyles. They bring the Scottish parliament into disrepute.
Rev Stu is right – they are morons. I am perpetually astonished that this state of affairs is not more widely recognised and that people are not horrified by it.
We who see the truth must engage more with those who do not think about the governance of our own dear Scotland and give them some awareness.
Food for thought about the many obstacles ahead in our struggle for Independence, not least of which is how irrational human beings are and how easily led.Civic engagement ( and civic disobedience if need be ) and a vibrant political community is a key ingredient, imo… where we can talk about ourselves and with others, recognising our differences and respect for others.
I’ve been struck by how much more clued up we are, in conversations with others on recent March for Europe and amongst fellow SNP members as well as seasoned campaigners.This will help us get the information and knowledge out in our communities.Bypassing the hate-and-fear mongers of the mass media is another tactic.I stopped watching the TV ” news ” and politics programmes and no longer stick my head in the bucket of manure of the press. Truly liberating.It is up to us to engage with others about how to think politically.
O/T
BBC Scotland Guilty of Misleading viewers over GERS…
link to bbc.co.uk
Wings disappeared for me fro 30 mins or so and now the formatting is very basic – some missing. Hope it isn’t a hack?
@call me dave 5:31 pm :
“Wings just disappeared for a few minutes there.
Access forbidden 403?”
Stu appears to have (finally) got the site communications encrypted (https) via the good people at Let’s Encrypt. Certificate indicates this happened today & I suspect he has a fair few http links hardcoded into the site which now need to change to https.
tl;dr I suspect its to do with the new https site.
soo many comments have gone missing on WoS this afternoon? Site is scrambled. Do a search, comes up with the site, then, WOS, ‘The less-deserving pro-independence website’.
This comment will no doubt disappear too. Let’s see.
Tweets are not updating either.
and you have to change the current year value to get your comment to submit.
Spoke too soon! He’s just updated twitter with a Public Information notice – site updating to https. No cause for alarm. Don’t panic! Don’t panic!
Artyhetty, really glad you saw it , I was beginning to think I was imagining it!
@Vestas: Thanks
PS:
Notice posted on WoS twitter to say work in progress for better security. No need to be alarmed says Stu.
That’s good all we have to worry about is Brexit, Indi2, Council elections, missing Robert P. and reusable coffee cups. 🙂
Interesting read —
though don’t think all wingers will agree with his view of the Guardian!
link to archive.is
schrodingers cat says:
30 March, 2017 at 5:20 pm
aye, robert peffers, dont take it to heart
i’ve lost count of how many folk i’ve fallen out with and insulted on wings
And you’re still owe me a drink SC. oh yes:D
Muchn is being made of Rude Davidson’s incivility to Nicola Sturgeon in Parliement.
Her condescending rudeness to Joan MacAlpine was much less acceptable and much more damaging to her. Joan was deputy editor of the Herald when it was a newspaper and joint editor for a while. In terms of media abilities she is in a different planet from Davidson
Stu, I swear that you and WGD are working together.
No sooner do you produce this excellent piece; ‘Harder that you Think.’ than Paul comes up with ‘Vote Nude Erection’, a pun on Better Together’s revised titre de guerre, ‘New Direction.’
The Viagra Gambit?
It’s only day 2 in the life of Empire 2, and their fantasy world is already collapsing around them.
Worry not, Davidson will be on QT tonight talking with all the political authority of the car park attendant with the legendary limp.
Lest anyone cannot make it:
The SNP do not have a mandate. Minority government. The people of Scotland voted to stay in the UK in 2014. The UK voted Leave in 2016. Ruth’s a democrat, and will fight to get the best deal for the UK.
Ruth has no power, or authority, managed a poor second in the SGE, and is backed by a gaggle of LisTory Boys who were rejected by the people of Scotland at Constituency level, yet in this momentous week, BBC PQ invites her to speak for Scotland.
There’ll be the £15 billion deficit, the 10% of GDP on public services, Scotland would be poorer than Greece, taxes would have to be increased, public services cut, and our already shitier than shite, Education, Health, and Police services will get even worser, and we’d need to go the back of the Queue to get back into the EU, and would be forced to use the Euro, and NATO wouldn’t let us join the Alliance, and BBC would block Scots from seeing Strictly and Dr Who.
There, you don’t need to listen to or look at this odious bawfaced wee Scotland Denier now.
You forgot the Spanish veto
come on Jack do keep up 🙂
Graeme
@heed
fair doos, next rally, 🙂
i hae a feeing that this independence movement is far from over and we will have plenty opportunites for a few pints in the very near future
and the people of Scotland don’t want another referendum
Theresa May is the most popular politician in Scotland after Ruth, of course
Re repeal bill. Change from EU law to British? law. Where does SCOTTISH LAW stand?
I forgot to say earlier this morning that shortbread radio had a longish bit on, saying the Orcadians (not Scotland) were teaching the Norwegians all about renewables today.
Even mentioned the fact that the Norwegians owned the islands but ‘handed’ them to Scotland way back, still very close links and all that though. Tavish and Ian smiled!
All true but ssshh! Best not to mention Scotland too much.
Good old Auntie.
@Sandy
Well unless ‘Scottish Law’ is polishing its armour and sword pretty soon and gets into court the answer is parked, carping on the sidelines I’m afraid! (I’m not afraid really 🙂 )
But ignored is maybe the answer.
link to en.wikipedia.org.svg
Unicorn is on a chain Lion is not. Funny old animal world init!
right I’m off to scribble in ink on some projects I’m marking… I’ll be kind 🙂
This thread is bang on the money
Anyone in Aberdeen please read the letters page in tonight’s EE
We are too poor even to run the referendum
That’s the mentality we are up against
Unbelievable
There’s a Independence Live streaming just now on Anti-Semitism if anyone interested.
Apologies,Graeme, I got fed up trotting out all this Nude Erection nonsense.
Tonight, QT, tomorrow, the Great British Fuck Off.
O/T
First Minister @NicolaSturgeon in Bute House, Edinburgh, working on final draft of Section 30 letter to Prime Minister Theresa May
link to twitter.com
Nice work on the switch over Rev looks like its all working fine have a beer and relax lol
The yoons be screeching so loud i expect their poor little heads to explode any minute.
today i donated 55 quid to the fundraiser for 2 reasons. to help rev keep wings goin and to piss off the maddies who hate him
has anyone got a bad feeling today when BBC kept referring to Brexit as Independence from the EU and a return of sovereignty back to the UK.
I was not aware that the countries in the EU were no-longer independent and given up their sovereignty
Can they now claim Scotland will not be independent if we stay in the EU?
Capella? You mentioned up thread about resetting year. Are you referring to this below the comments box?:
‘Current ye@r* 4.1’
Can’t post when this appears, aware today was the https change over but it’s happened before and ah usually send a quick ‘help’ through the contact form. Then in a short while it’s remedied.
So, can it be reset without having tae contact Stu? (for future reference) ta.
call me dave says:
30 March, 2017 at 7:00 pm
I forgot to say earlier this morning that shortbread radio had a longish bit on, saying the Orcadians (not Scotland) were teaching the Norwegians all about renewables today.
Its these endless not Scots stories, from BBC Scotland, that show there are MI5 gimps, working hard for the union, in Pacific Quay, picking the stories, choosing the tone and pitch, blanking out Scots and Scotland, day in, day out.
schrodingers cat says:
30 March, 2017 at 6:41 pm
@heed
OK!
@ K1 – I just type in the current year and it works. I think it’s to stop bots spamming the site.
See the Herald has an important message from the editor on its website. I think it wants you to subscribe, but can only be read by current subscribers. Not really got the hang of this web thing have they.
Tory psychopaths threaten EU, and its just day 1.
link to spiegel.de
Hard Brexit is a bad thing,
“In this case, the UK Treasury Department predicted a 7.5% decline in gross domestic product and a tax loss of 45 billion pounds
“EU on the edge of the abyss”
The British pro-Brexit press does not seem to disturb this.
“The EU is on the brink of the abyss,” wrote the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday. The rise of populism on the continent, the strength of the British economy and Europe’s fear of terrorism made a good deal likely for Great Britain. May must play “with full employment”.
However: terrorism fear and a populism problem have also shown the British, as not least the racist undertones of the Brexit election campaign. And the fact that the UK economy is currently strong is also due to the fact that the country is still an EU member with full access to the single market – but this is likely to change soon.”
Excuse my German, its google translate.
I do hope that Robert Peffers has not left us, his posts were always educational and pertinent.
If he has been ‘driven away’ it’s a disgrace.
Thanks Capella 🙂
Jim Rogers thinks the UK economy is very weak and without oil, the balance of payments would be gross and the pound would drop to 80 cents because “if the Scots leave, they’ll take their oil. Then what can you sell to the rest of the world?”
O/T
Some evening reading
The Man Who Wrote Article 50 Says It’s “Balls” To Say Scotland Won’t Get Into The EU
link to archive.is
link to publiclawforeveryone.com
On this thread someone asks if we can escape. Dr Paul Monaghan mp says Yes
link to twitter.com
link to medium.com
sassenach says:
30 March, 2017 at 7:52 pm
“I do hope that Robert Peffers has not left us, his posts were always educational and pertinent.
If he has been ‘driven away’ it’s a disgrace.”
I hope so too but he wasn’t driven away
Graeme
Off topic, Nicola has wrote a letter for a section 30 agreement
sassenach says:
30 March, 2017 at 7:52 pm
“I do hope that Robert Peffers has not left us, his posts were always educational and pertinent.
If he has been ‘driven away’ it’s a disgrace.”
I agree sassenach he’s a vital asset to the cause but he wasn’t driven away
Graeme
Capella
Losing oil and gas reserves also harms rUK credit rating, loss of capital for massive borrowing on stuff like HS2, not their NHS, oh no.
So their books look even more shaky, their credit rating drops even more, borrowing costs go up still higher, they’re already borrowing like crazy, big UK spends like HS2 take big hits, maybe only super sonic railways London to Birmingham.
Capella @ 7.54pm
Re: What will Britain export?
From a recent Polly Toynbee article in the Guardian ‘When the battle lines are drawn…’
“”Besides, an Indian trade deal will require more visas, though India takes just 1.7% of our exports. Liam Fox billows out imperial, free-trade fantasy, but as Labour’s Keir Starmer pointed out on Sunday, Australia takes just 1.7% of our exports, Canada 1.2% and New Zealand 0.2%. The old empire can’t replace our 44% EU exports.””
Interesting stats.
sandy @ 7.00pm
Scottish Law has no standing – but SCOTS LAW is guaranteed its independence and survival via the Act of Union.
Not that Westminster pays too-much attention to that.
This post is useful in that it is always good to remind ourselves how difficult our task inevitably is.
We will have to be at our best and do our very best and then it is in the laps of the Gods.
“Leading Labour Party politicians have called for new policies on devolution to save the United Kingdom after Brexit.
First Minister Carwyn Jones was hosting the first meeting of a devolution taskforce with Gordon Brown and Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale.” – from BBC
Sorry guys, but “after Brexit” will be too late to effect Scotland!
Either, we will have voted YES and don’t give a toss about devolution.
Or, we will have voted NO again and the Tories will begin dismantling devolution permanently.
Regular Wingers will be aware of my on-going correspondence with a former school-mate, who has “gone native” after 50-years or so in the Sudentenland.
We have had a wee exchange today and his final word was: “It’s 2017, not 1707”.
I had to remind him, I live in East Ayrshire, where it is still 1690.
This post is useful in that it is always good to remind ourselves how difficult our task inevitably is.
We will have to be at our best and do our very best and then it is in the lap of the Gods.
I am optimistic.
@ Ken
A true random sample IS the gold standard of statistical surveys – but the problem with these online ‘random’ ones is they’re riddled with selection bias. You need to be a visitor to the website in order to be offered the survey, and so certain types of people (who might have, say, different political leanings to the website itself) are automatically screened out coz they don’t visit the webpage. So in practise, there’s no random selection at all – the survey participants are a self-selecting subset of the general population. This means all results are completely biased.
I’m a statistician by trade.
And seriously, I’m giving a lot of consideration right now to starting a blog about the media bias in Scotland. With real numbers and statistics and all those sexy boxplots thrown in to make sure it’s really hot. I’ve had a hatred of the BBC ever since I was a child when they’d wait til half-way through the (Scottish) summer holidays to play all the good cartoons. Because all the English kids didn’t break up til July. It’s the little things, isn’t it – that alert you to your place in the world – even when you’re a child?
Anyway, does anyone think such a blog would be useful? I’m prepared to spend a bit of time this weekend setting it up. The main bete noire would be the BBC evening news broadcasts, because I believe there’s all sorts of metrics I could calculate that would put cold, hard numbers on how one-sided their news reports are. I’m just not sure how much of a point there is – because I’m not 100% convinced that hearts and minds are won with facts and reality-based numbers – more like scare stories and negative campaigning (Exhibit A: see Donald Trump)…
But if I can convince even one more person to share in my complete and utter, abject loathing of the Ministry of Truth, then it’s probably worth my time 🙂
Socrates MacSporran 8.29pm
“I had to remind him, I live in East Ayrshire, where it is still 1690.”
Aye Socrates every time i pass a “Welcome to Ayrshire” sign, I remind everybody that we are now entering “Orange County”.
Talk about a place that is stuck in a time warp, you can’t beat Ayrshire.
And Kilwinning is known as the Village of the Damned. A quaint little town during the day and at night they turn into these raving lunatic Orangemen who want to eat all YES Voters without even cookin them.
Ayrshire is one scary place. A even gave myself a fright just writing this.
Not seen this for a while.
link to mypseudepigrapha.blogspot.co.uk
Bunny Daft
What you’re proposing could be very useful. There are a lot of thoughtful No voters who could be helped along the path to Yes with that sort of thing.
Bunny Daft says:
30 March, 2017 at 8:38 pm
“But if I can convince even one more person to share in my complete and utter, abject loathing of the Ministry of Truth, then it’s probably worth my time ?”
I say go for it
This sentence convinces me you can do it
“It’s the little things, isn’t it – that alert you to your place in the world – even when you’re a child?”
Ah but we are forgetting about the innovative jam and biscuits. That should fill the black hole. Why didn’t Scotland think of that? We are obviously too stupid.
Been commenting on Labour Hame today, and to be honest I’m beginning to sense that even Duncan Hothersall is having genuine doubts about the direction Slab is heading under Kezia.
He is loosing the rag because I mentioned that labour voted with the Tories to deny EU citizens and 16 to 18 year olds’ a vote in Ref2.
He is claiming that Labour didn’t voted against the SNP Motion, but against the Greens amendment.
I tried telling him that the Labour Party could have voted for the Motion but voted against the amendment, but he just lost it.
One thing about Duncan that I have noticed in the past is that he will (and is an expert at) argue with you, while dancing around on the head of a pin, and he clearly enjoys the intellectual challenges of doing so, and yet he has clearly lost that in the past few days as even he realises, that Brexit along with Kezia’s reaction to it, is throwing his party into the sea!
Ah well…
@ Bunny daft – great idea. We need all the hard facts we can get. A central point to collect them is also very useful. I don’t suppose you fancy sorting out the GERS puzzle too?
I know, life’s too short!
Bunny Daft says @ 8.38
“Anyway, does anyone think such a blog would be useful?”
————————-
Without the small cogs the big cogs won’t turn (or at least as quickly as they should).
Yes. Anything which helps to educate Wingers and potential YESSERS with fact based information is surely most welcome.
Have you thought about writing a couple of articles for WOS as a start-up before the blog?
I’m sure the Rev. would be very pleased to have a new team member and the regulars here would soak it up like a sponge. 🙂
caz-m @ 8.47pm
You are a wee bit behind the times in your view of Ayrshire today. Kilwinning is now a quiet fishing village on the Clyde. I am there every weekend, being heavily in lust with a Kilwinning lassie. She’s a Tory, but, nobody’s perfect.
But, if you really want to be scared, try Drongan, or Cumnock, both places are run by the Orange Order.
And, outwith Ulster, I have never seen such a collection of union flags in a small village as you will see in New Cumnock.
Socrates MacSporran says:
30 March, 2017 at 8:21 pm
sandy @ 7.00pm
“”Scottish Law has no standing – but SCOTS LAW is guaranteed its independence and survival via the Act of Union.
“”Not that Westminster pays too-much attention to that.””
…………..
Scots law is protected under the relevant Articles in the Treaty of Union. The Acts of Union by the respective parliaments of Scotland and England ratified the Treaty of Union.
For a clear explanation see:
link to journalonline.co.uk:
@ Legerwood – Paul Monaghan says that the Great repeal bill is a means of using statutory instruments to change the law in Scotland
link to twitter.com
Caz-m 8.47pm
And Kilwinning is known as the Village of the Damned. A quaint little town during the day and at night they turn into these raving lunatic Orangemen who want to eat all YES Voters without even cookin them.
Wow, Really? Caz, I didn’t know that n I was in n outta there for over 7 years! Mind you I probably was in n out of the Main st pretty sharp on a sat or sun eve but never seen any orange-men. Didn’t know that about Ayrshire either! Who knew eh!
On another note. The snp boys over 50 have just been round, striding down the rd like young things with the new leaflets. Great to see the lovely Glasgow map on the back (both sides) when I unfolded the A3. I’m impressed with the amount of info on it. Well thought out leaflet. Needless to say it’s on ma window already 🙂
WOS archive links now showing over on O/T.
@ Conan
That takes me back and to think some folks thought that was a bit strong at the time.
Wonder what they think now.
I was out doing some research on John Perkins work,if you have never heard of him take a look,and came across this animated video.
Funny how him talking about the bankers reminded me of it
The Collapse of The American Dream Explained in Animation
link to youtube.com
Hope this works this time.
link to glasgowlive.co.uk
O/T There is a lot of talk about this Henry VIII rule but that is English law, English Law does not apply in Scotland.
If they start to use old English Laws to further their aims then they legitimise old Scots Law and WM cannot claim sovereignty over Scotland as the people of Scotland are sovereign under Scots Law (as you all know)
@Song 42 9.30pm
And Ayrshire is the hot spot for the most Union Jacks in Scotland.
Every day is the 12th of July.
LOL!!!
Capella @ 9.24pm
My take on it was that legislation emanating from the EU and incorporated into law was what was being talked about. Not the basics nor the mechanisms such as Court of Session etc.
Saw this earlier…
link to m.facebook.com
Socrates MacSporran says:
30 March, 2017 at 8:21 pm
sandy @ 7.00pm
“Scottish Law has no standing – but SCOTS LAW is guaranteed its independence and survival via the Act of Union.
Not that Westminster pays too-much attention to that.”
That’s what kinda worries me. It’s heartening to see Nicola Sturgeon now making direct reference to the sovereignty of the Scottish people, but to me, despite knowing she is entirely correct, she seems like a wee voice in the wilderness. People, Westminster, really should be listening but they are not. Where too is the body of our Scots Law? Why isn’t our Scottish legal fraternity backing Nicola to the hilt and making sure this erosion of Scottish Sovereignty and abuse of Scots Law is nipped in the bud?
I know, I know, after 310 years, you can hardly describe it as nipped in the bud, but it seems to me we have majestic, far reaching and powerful Scots Law, but insipid and uninspiring Scots Lawyers. Why aren’t they at the forefront, leading the charge in our constitutional debate? Have they no aspirations to see the abuse of Scots Law set right?
Now is the time Westminster needs the proverbial slap in the face with a wet fish before they go recklessly careering down this “Westminster’s Parliamentary Sovereignty” blind alley. I foresee open confrontation on this issue and it is rapidly charging up the agenda, and Westminster isn’t going to like the consequences.
We need our legal legitimacy ratified by a Scots Law Judicial review, and that freshly reaffirmed status of Scottish sovereignty clearly communicated to, and understood by European heads and the UN, and not least, Westminster too.
If Westminster is determined to press on with this idiocy regardless, and the sweeping aside of our legal legitimacy, on its current trajectory there is going to be a dangerous constitutional impasse. I would prefer neither in turmoil, but feel desperate to make sure this throws Westminster into crisis, not Holyrood.
You are so right.
I see Queen Nic is about to send some junk mail to Number 10.
It will be in the green recycling bag by lunchtime.
@ Socrates MacSporran
If East Ayrshire’s still in 1690, then you (and I) are in an independent Scotland, aren’t we? Should we set up checkpoints in the style of Passport to Pimlico 🙂 ? My house is an old toll, so I could be well-placed.
p.s. – Kilwinning’s on the Garnock.
Nicola requests a referendum from Wasteminster, according to EBC. Bugger them, Nicola, TELL that place we will have a referendum at a date of Scottish choosing.
@ Roboscot
Yeah, I guess there are No voters out there who do value facts. Maybe as a general constituency of the electorate they’re the people who’re less given to romantisicm and more to cold reason – as they see it anyway. I think if we can just make them doubt the ‘facts’ they’re presented with on the BBC day in day out then they might gain enough confidence to turn away from the dark side. The propaganda in the USSR stopped working when people became aware of it.
@ Graeme
Thanks for the vote of confidence! 🙂
@Capella
Haha, GERS! I might do some reading up on it. As I understand it, it’s more a missing data problem – obviously the UK government have instructed the statistical division of the civil service to not collect the full economic/accountancy data for Scotland, which instantly tells you they’re covering something up. However, I do believe in the past this data was collected (someone posted a pic up of a 1922 ledger sheet the other day?). Might be fun to try and ‘recreate’ the missing data using some stats modelling software. I’m pretty sure a bunch of assumptions would need to be made, but that’s the way it is with any economic model, so might be worth it. I would think someone already must have done this – but then again, maybe not?
Your point about a central repository is interesting too. I was thinking earlier this evening, how we need an online repository of foreign-language press articles about Scotland and the Indepepndence movement. We need good English translations of them. They’re much less likely to be biased than the UK media. There must be some people out there (EU people living here?) who could start keeping an eye out on the French/Spanish/German/etc press and start harvesting facts and opinion for us? I don’t know if such a thing exits already, but if it doesn’t, then someone should start it.
@Graf Midgehunter
I would love to write a few articles as a warm up! I’ll get researching over the weekend, and look at what it would be possible to do, and on what timeframes, and see if I can get something up and running. Once I’ve got something assembled, I’ll see if the Rev (or anyone else) would be interested in posting it on their sites. I was in my fourth year of my Stats degree for the last indyref and was too busy to get involved, but this time I’m going to use those stats powers for good!!
Re: Bunny Daft
I’d be surprised if it would only take a weekend to set up! I sometimes fantasise about a version of the news where a tab runs underneath contesting what is being reported.
I noticed a few comments regarding Mr Peffers.
I seemed to have missed whatever has happened!!, but can only say he is one of the stalwarts on WoS. IMHO
If someone has pissed him off, man up and apologise immediately.
Breeks @ 10.08
Totally agree. Joanna Cherry, QC MP (who started ‘Lawyers for Yes’) has frequently brought up the subject of Scottish sovereignty quoting various cases and ‘Scottish Constitutional Convention.’
Each time I have seen her do so, she has been derided by the Tories, but she ploughs on whenever she has the opportunity.
You have to admire her tenacity.
You’re forgetting about Larkie, guys…
Sturgeon signs independence vote request
link to bbc.co.uk
So the repeal bill will put previously devolved powers back into the hands of Westminster, which can be used one of 2 ways
Re gift those powers back to Scotland as a grand gesture or bargain those powers away to try for a better Brexit deal
My guess is that the fishing folk will all be voting YES when the time comes.
heraldnomore 10.44pm
Aye, Larkhall has been known to fly the odd Union Jack now and again.
LOL!!!
On question Time,
Ruthie has her Mrs Angry face on. She looks as if she is ready to loss it at any moment.
@ Ken
I think I could look into the premises for a couple of articles over the weekend. But yeah, the whole stats blog site would be a lot longer to set up. To do a single good piece would take a minimum of two weeks, and that’s if the data was to hand and easy to work with. For BBC analyses, I might have to buy a punch bag and actually WATCH their news programs every night! Urgh. Fieldwork at its most foul.
There’s a few ideas I have though. I need to have a nosey around and see what kind of historical social and financial data I can get over the Internet to see what would be workable.
I’m very interested in the financial history of the bbc, and any correlations between government license fee threats and upheld offcom complaints, for example… I know the Scottish independence movement is just the latest in a long line of BBC propaganda targets, so there must be quite a lot of dirty little secrets buried in the data over the years.
link to east-ayrshire.gov.uk
Labour Councillor, New Cumnock, east Ayrshire.
Jackson Carlaw would be the first minus score on Pointless. The counter would continue through the floor. More people can name the guys who drag out the giant dartboard with a speedboat on it at the end of Bullseye than Carlaw.
Gary45% Robert spat the dummy because another respected winger took Robert to task for calling him stupid. Imho Robert was wrong in this instance. I hope he realises he was in the wrong and comes back online to Wos sooner rather than later.
I hope the other Winger also comes back as I have not seen him post either for a couple of days.
When did Ruth become just a permanent scowl? I have recollections that her smile used to be the right way round.
Being angry as one’s permanent state is not good for the spleen.
Oh good
Ruth just said she was a democrat
I fully expect her now to fully swing in behind the Scottish parliament position
Ruth just said she was a democrat
I fully expect her to swing in behind the Scottish parliament vote
“And yet, it’s done nothing to bring about any significant transformation in the polls.”
“A growing number of nationalists believe that independence is now both inevitable and imminent, on the superficially rational and reasonable grounds that any sane person could identify it as the only possible escape from the catastrophe that Brexit is going to be. That is a hugely dangerous attitude.”
“But make no mistake – this is a fight that can still be lost. Even when up against spectacular morons like those above, we’re still behind. A very great deal of hard work lies ahead to turn that around. For Scotland’s sake, we better all be ready for it.”
The armchair pundits posting on this site won’t like that:
Robert Peffers,
“All we need do is to go ahead and do what we wish and let them attempt to stop or prevent our exercise of what, under Scots law, is our legal sovereignty and let them take legal action.”
Rock,
“That would amount to UDI. Who in their right mind wants that?
The Yes movement has hardly 50% support.
There is no way Scotland’s MPs and MSPs could be sure of a majority if they stood for re-election in such a scenario.
I very much doubt that the SNP would go down that way.”
@handandshrimp
Possibly Davidson is no longer flavour of the month, the probable advice given to May about talking tough at the Tory Conf and that the SG would back down has resulted in now is not the time for any ermine potential. She may still be waiting for that safe Tory seat down south, I personally hope they find one soon.
Still Positive says:
30 March, 2017 at 10:37 pm
Breeks @ 10.08
“Totally agree. Joanna Cherry, QC MP (who started ‘Lawyers for Yes’) has frequently brought up the subject of Scottish sovereignty quoting various cases and ‘Scottish Constitutional Convention.’”
Aye, my comments wouldn’t be at all fair comment on Joanna Cherry, who is an absolute rising star and legend, but I really meant the Scottish legal “Establishment”. These professional bodies exist specifically so it doesn’t fall to one or two people risking everything to make a stand, but exist so the whole profession can speak with a collective voice.
Scottish society is currently fighting for its life, or to slip away into Britishness and lose its very identity. You would imagine a Scottish legal fraternity which benefits greatly from the independence of Scots Law would be right there at Nicola Sturgeon’s right hand side making sure we win this fight.
In fairness, maybe they are. There must have been dialogue regarding the UK Supreme Court, but I would just feel a lot happier if they were taking a much more forthright position. Left to Nicola Sturgeon to articulate, the power and precedent of Scots Law looks like an idea cooked up by the SNP.
Albantawe,
“List MSPs are perfectly legitimate and part of an impeccably democratic PR system. The First Minister herself was one for a while and I doubt if the SNP would have progressed as they have done without the list system. Carlaw and Tompkins have many faults but merely being list MSPs are not among them.”
I agree with that.
Despite bastards (they are NOT morons) getting in through the backdoor, it makes the Scottish parliament democratic.
Unlike the elected dictatorship that is Westminster.
Ruth Davidson reminds me of the wee LEGO man with the angry expression.
Despite bastards (they are NOT morons) getting in through the backdoor, it makes the Scottish parliament democratic.”
That’s deep Rock. Yet the BBC led tory media flip every democratic result in Scotland on its head, present the tory losers as the rulers, with massive majority media time and backing all for the tories, red and blue, re, Ruth Davidson on telly tonight now, acting like her party is the Scottish elected government and she is the FM.
Its almost absurd to even imagine and actual SNP BBC Question Time panel member.
I fear Ruth’s wheels fell off on the NHS question. Did she really say “this bloody panel”. Good grief!
I think Len won the clapometer on the NHS issue.
Own goal Ruthie .
Well you have to pay a prescription charge
Not in Scotland
Now who is responsible for that
BBC QT love Davidson, she is willing at a drop of a hat to rubbish Scotland, they lap her up down south.
I wonder how many Labour to Tory vote switchers in 2016 are regretting it now, little did they think the were going to get the Ian Paisley (circa 1970’s) presentational style.
Had a wee chuckle at some tweets online who now refer to Ruthie as “Butch” Davidson.
Very apt, she does have that grumpy perma-frown look every time you see her.
jfngw says:
30 March, 2017 at 11:31 pm
@handandshrimp
“Davidson is no longer flavour of the month”
“She may still be waiting for that safe Tory seat down south, I personally hope they find one soon”
I hope it’s fitted with a plug!
Peace Always
Graeme,
“I agree sassenach he’s a vital asset to the cause but he wasn’t driven away”
Hopefully he has been driven away, by his former sycophants, not by me:
Thepnr,
“@Robert Peffers
You know something Robert you post a lot of stuff that people may like. You also tend to attack anyone who doesn’t have exactly the same view as you. Why?
Give it a rest Robert, sure give us your opinion but tell me once more that “Oh! For the Heaven’s sake stop being so bloody stupid.”
Then you will also be ignored. You should STOP being disrespectful to other posters. Give me your opinion by all means but stop telling me that mine is shite. OK.”
Unlike many posters, I never call any poster a troll and never demand that any poster stop posting.
Ruth Davidson, the only person that I know that can clench her face.
Peace Always
Ruthie is still riding high on a wee bounce the Tories got from the Brexit vote last year.
But that bounce will disappear once the disaster that is Brexit pans out.
Breeks,
“Where too is the body of our Scots Law? Why isn’t our Scottish legal fraternity backing Nicola to the hilt and making sure this erosion of Scottish Sovereignty and abuse of Scots Law is nipped in the bud?”
Because the Scottish justice system is rotten to the core and the vast majority of lawyers, especially judges, are the lowest of the low.
The twat Wolff’s loyalty is to the UK establishment, not to Scotland.
Because the Scottish justice system is rotten to the core and the vast majority of lawyers, especially judges, are the lowest of the low.
You need to reference your work Rock. Why and how is the Scottish justice system is rotten to the core?
You’ve had it in Mr Peffers from the word go, you great pompous trolling arse. If anything shows how cunning trolling can get its you. But we’re all adults too. Its how it works online btl.
Andrew Neil on this week with his Hadrians wall jibe at our FM is it uk want it rebuilt if so we get the least favored part of england and a chunk of the sea shouldn’t the SNP put up a candidate in Berwick might be like throwing a grenade.
Saw a wee clip on QT workers right with Ruthy telling everyone to believe the words of TMay She was obnoxious with LenMc and then the Labour MP pointed out the dishonest words of TM….. crickets
Funny that the only person on QT tonight to mention the SNP was DD as a jibe at the Labour member who resigned from the Shadow Cabinet.
Anyone watching John Nicholson’s slobbering incoherent performance on This Week – where he was too refreshed to even remotely counter the nonsense of the skewed Britnat polls about Brexit, stuff that social media has debunked all day – will know that we face a massive task to convince our people that we can govern ourselves. I fucking despair. You’d need a crowbar to get the likes of Nicholson out of his comfortable bubble at Westminster.
How the hell do we counter the constant jeering Britnattery of the MSM when our representatives connive at it?
An earworm, for those in the know.
Just like i hear Charles Aznavour every time the Chinese premiers first name is mentioned…
Davidson?
Nah, I widnae touch that without proper PPE.
And a doctors certificate.
A symbol of where mad, mad lovers
Must pause and draw the line.
Poor, twisted child !
Just watched QT
Davidson was in macho overdrive
Might have had wee dickie hard goin on beneath desk
Could be on the Viagra as well as testosterone
Great British speaker all the same
Breeks @10.08 and later.
My last comment was lost in the ether.
I agree Joanna Cherry is one of our brightest MPs.
I spoke to her at the end of the SNP Conference and congratulated her on her appearance on QT 2 days earlier in front of a hostile English audience.
She said she quite enjoyed it but wouldn’t want to do it every week. Quite worryingly she said there was an undercurrent throughout England ( I’m assuming she has this info from English MPs) of anger and xenophobia.
I concluded from that brief conversation that is why the WG is going for a ‘hard Brexit’.
Is the talking up of a Federalism UK position by whoever is doing it (Labour et al) an attempt to get this alternative on the indyRef ballot paper?
A tactic by which Labour et al can oppose Independence but seen to be not siding with the Tories against it?
To be effective as tactic it would have to either bring a large Tory-opposition-to-Indy onto its side, or give a soft option to No voters if by chance it appeared as a possibility on the ballot.
Either way, it could stymie the vote for Independence, and needs to be firmly countered.
It could pick up steam as an option heading towards the vote and needs to be roundly discredited, rather than merely mocked.
Let’s hope that as a tactic it just succeeds in splitting the opposition vote, rather than giving a position for No voters to unite behind.
That picture of the UK minus its ‘Scotland region’ doing the rounds on twitter is a powerful image, palatable to Independence seekers, but equally powerful as a distasteful image tugging on the heart-strings of the Unionists.
How the hell do we counter the constant jeering Britnattery of the MSM when our representatives connive at it?
John Nicholson’s is the only SNP anybody that the Ligger can stand.
Tory Beeb gimps ban all SNP MP’s except the few that dont talk back, or do it nicely, with respect for our tory masters. Look at how all the Liggers guests and regulars, UKIP, Ligger, tory and Lab, all started shouting him down. Its a tory outfit that detests Scots that wont toe the UKOK line, and then the end of the Ligger’s show tonight displayed how hard they despise the EU.
BBC is toryboy world and that is that.
Defo:
And if the lights were out could you even bear to kiss her full on the mouth poor twisted child so ugly, so ugly?
🙂
Peace Always
Hootsman.
EU powers automatically being transferred back to Scotland.
Aye right! Suck it up Scotland.
tp://archive.is/CHXRQ
PS:
Got all my funeral bills in and paid now. It was for a near relative and ‘NO’ voter! He didn’t have a plan or had made any arrangements. 🙁 Bit like Brexit really.
Took me from January till Monday to clear everything up.
What can you do? Not even in the will… 🙂
Anyhoo now I’ll be contributing to the WoS fund tomorrow…. oops today! Pension day. 🙂
Normality restored. Conscience clear!
I knew someone here would know Smallaxe. An erudite bunch.
Ugly I can get past, but not when it’s on the inside too.
Keep hacking at those big trees fella.
Sleepytime. Night all.
Goodnight defo:
And remember Xi loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah!
🙂
Peace Always
Ruth Davidson spread the rumour that Scots were fed up with the SNP government moaning about an independence referendum. She orchestrated a petition to the Westminster government and gathered 270,000 signatories . Mundell then wrote to the petition repeating Prime Minister May’s policy.
I have extracted information and produced a report which destroys Tory claims
link to caltonjock.com
Boris? Ah like yer site, find it very informative…noticed you’ve altered the layout, very nice but…see thon big squiggly font in yer headlines, ah find it really trying on ma eyes and hard tae read…it’s a bit too ‘artistic’ if ye see whit a mean?
Hope you don’t mind the feedback Boris. 😉
when did wingers become so precious?
at this juncture, i would like to point out that I am completely without fault and innocent of any wrong doing in the recent bun fight
however, if anyone in the future wishes to be trolled, denigrated or insulted…….. a word from my sponsors
link to youtube.com
*(ahem)*
*(cough)*
link to buzzfeed.com
K1 @ 1.51
Boris
I canna read it either 🙁
schrodingers cat says:
“i would like to point out that I am completely without fault and innocent of any wrong doing”
link to youtube.com
I believe you, thousands…
🙂
Peace Always
NHS England longer waiting times (due to ongoing budget cuts )for major surgery
Can we please have Ealanor Bradford recalled to ” the Jackie Bird show” for an
Emergency statement? Must be SNP ‘a fault.
Arbroath1320 and Vestas,
Tried to comment yesterday during upheaval. Jings!
Thank you for link to the General Repeal bill. How lacking in clarity it is though have to agree = Westminster decides. What an utterly ridiculous document! Did they think people wouldn’t read it?!
What is it oor Auld Alliance friends say, ‘plus ca change, plus ca ne change pas’ ( my French ain’t what it used to be, time to brush up!)
So glad to see our Nicola Sturgeon call it out for what it seems to be – a power grab.
Well,guess what. Scotland is on it.
Funny thing is, the great and the good of Westminster seem taken by surprise. GOOD.
Or right wing brexiters from the north east (pict land) Ho like fishing promised all fishing rights would come to Scotland— agriculture too.
Whit they were lying .
Never thought they would do that.
Over to its oor fish brigade.
The same guys that sell their fishing rights to foreign boats and owners like fae Grimsby,
What happens to some websites through the night. People get fair excited. Does the booze kick in. Drink’s in the wit’s out. Folk end up with ”regrets’ in the morning. Certainly starts some bickering.
Some Tory politicians are certainly showing their dark side. Something of the night about them. There obnoxiousness coming to the fore. Not very nice people. They are get called out and out put in their place at every opportunity.
Nicola’s letter has been dispatched to the dispatch Box. That will certainly stop the Tories in their illegal tracks. The Hacks with not like any of that. Nicola is strong now for the majority in Scotland. Laying on the line like no others could. Keeping it strong for Scotland, with massive support from the majority.
The bruiser takes a bruising on the corrupt QT. Most peole do not watch to save their sanity, or Tory A. Neil always crapping about the SNP, with false statistics and poor research. Why the BBC give him £1/2+ a million a year for programmes most folk turn off is a mystery. It must be because he is a biased right wing Tory kidding on as a political commentator. Some folk would do anything to line their own pockets. For a Trump style apartment.
The majority must just hold off while the Tories destroy the themselves. They couldn’t do a worse job. A illegal complete muck up. It will not bode well for the Tories at the Ballot Box. Completely insane policies while they illegally starve people to death.The world over.
The Tory illegally destructive policies are an International joke. There is nothing surer they will not get away with it. They are a laughing stock all over the world. The most destructive, greedy, lying criminals that have ever be put on the planet. The criminal corrupt Tory Party.
Nicola/Alex and Co just needs to continue to back Scotland’s interest. Until the Referendum comes along. By then the Tory sycophants and their partners will have made such a mess. The majority in Scotland will go for it. Without a doubt, Everyone who wants better Gov – Independence in the EU – must back the SNP/Independence movement all the way without deviation. That is the only way to get to the destination. No if’s, no but’s but get out there and do the necessary stuff to get the job done and get over the line. For peace, prosperity, equality and fairnes. All hands to the Council elections. SNP/SNP all the way and vote out the transgressors. Who would bring the majority in Scotland down at every opportunity.
The Scottish Gov doesn’t need to change any Laws. EU Law is enshired in Devolution. Scotland already has EU Law and doesn’t have to change it. Just keep EU Law along with Scottish Law. Do not change it. When Scotland votes for Independence at the next Ref. Scotland can just be incorporated into the EU because the Laws in Scotland are already compatible. They have never gone away.
The illegal Tories at Westminster will end up in a weaker position. They will be paying more for less. More money for less control in the EU. Never has there been such a bunch of ignoramous, incompetents. They are extremely dangerous to the economy. QHow long will they last with their complete and utter criminal incompetence. May is useless. She failed at every task. Caused chaos and then blamed someone else. They lost their job. The buck stops there. There is no one to bail her out. Give it two years. Scotland will be free of Westminster intransigence and criminality. The Tories will start another illegal war. If they are not contained and neutralised, especially in Scotland.
The electoral system in Scotland just beggars belief. Voters having to rank candidates/Parties in worst order. Voters having to vote for candidates/Parties they can’t stand. To get the candidate in they want is beyond belief. Voters just don’t understand the electoral system. It leads to bad, corrupt governance. Nothing constructive gets done. The pigs, monkeys and donkeys with a rosette just return consistently to muck up the economy. No wonder people are put off ‘democracy’ and just do not vote. They think the political system is a corrupt waste of time and become apathetic.
The opposition in Scotland is an absolute disgrace. The sooner they are gone the better. Either drastically move to a better electoral system. Or change to FPTP. Scotland has been plagued with bad, corrupt management from previous adminustration for years. Especially from Westminster. The only way is to have a total SNP majority at Holyrood to change it.
Re: Bunny Daft
There was a series of studies by the Glasgow University Media Group under the direction of the eventual Professor, Greg Philo, Bad News, More Bad News and Really Bad News. It might be worth while looking up his name on the internet to see if he has anything to say about the current situation.
Once it’s up and running, you might find contributions from media workers. I once saw a researcher who had copies of the rushes from the big day at Orgreave. You couldn’t tell what was going on, but by the 6pm news it had been edited to tell the police/government line. It might be that there are dissidents in the MSM who will give you a heads up.
The BBC is still making decisions for Teresa May.
The BBC reports that the PM has said “NO” to the official letter from the FM when she hasn’t even replied to it at all yet.
Governed by unelected media.
Not getting much if anything in the media about the Tory election fraud investigation.
It would be a daily narrative had it been the Scottish Government.
Unconfirmed reports of trucks loaded with cereal on their way from London to Scotland.
Fidhermen overfished the seas and threw back dead fish for years. They mucked up their own industry and blamed everyone else. Any Gov would have to bring in conservation measures or there would be no industry left.
Poor working conditions when there was alternative better employment. The industry can’t compete without migrant workers and EU markets. The fish lorries leave every night for the EU for better prices. Any Gov would have to bring in conservation measures. The SNP gov have made a start. Negotiations for bigger nets to stop throwbacks have been agreed. Increasing the Quotas. Mr Lockhead? Take a bow.
Fishing is a red herring. Used to try and attack Independence. A false flag that will be called out.
It’s not all bad. The NE/ fishing coast have voted for Alex Salmond for over thirty years. Still do. Massive support and popularity in the area, like no other.
Conan the Librarian says:
Ruth Davidson reminds me of the wee LEGO man with the angry expression.
Rude Harrison puts me in mind of Rude Kid from Viz. Maybe it’s the delivery of her one-liners in response to a reasonable question.
OT Rev, I am disturbed by the fact that this wee message accompanies your logo on my favourites pinned on the bar,
“the less deserving pro independence website” – is it you being funny or has some interference caused it?
And by the way ‘ Now is not the time and we are working for a stronger ,outward looking UK……blah blah ‘ Response from Westminster ‘Scotland’ office to the petition for second referendum.
Goodness knows where they are looking for this ‘outward looking UK ‘ bit it sure ain’t visible.
Links
link to news.gov.scot
link to commonspace.scot
link to scottovoce.wordpress.com
link to ericjoyce.co.uk
link to rbs.postach.io
Tommy Sheppard: The UK Scots voted to stay part of doesn’t exist now
link to archive.is
link to commonspace.scot
link to theconversation.com
Independence movements are a sign of European strength, not discord
link to archive.is
Would the Scandinavians want Scotland?
link to archive.is
link to evolvepolitics.com
link to medium.com
Nana: Good Morning,
Looking as if it might be a dry day, I hope so, I was getting webbed feet. Thank You for your links. Kettle’s on!
🙂
Peace Always
North chiel says:
31 March, 2017 at 7:21 am
NHS England longer waiting times (due to ongoing budget cuts )for major surgery
Also education in England suffering from massive budget cuts. Police service suffering from massive cuts, too. Rail services getting worse. HE students paying highest fees in the world.
Time for Theresa to forget about Brexit and get back to the day job, methinks! 🙂
Murdo Fraser too the opportunity to mention Professor John Curtice’s survey just now on Good Morning Scotland.
He did not say that the similarity, between Scots and British responses, was solely with regard to the ‘rules’ for trade and immigration should be the same for the UK.
However, it was quite clear from the response to the next question that more Scots respondents want free trade and free movement compared to the British respondents.
So when it comes to what the ‘rules’ would be, they would be far apart in that respect.
What was totally ignored in the interview was the more valuable statistic from the same survey.
It said..
“47% believe Scotland should be expected to leave, given the UK vote
51% believe Scotland should not be expected to leave, given the UK vote”
Murdo Fraser took the opportunity to mention Professor John Curtice’s survey just now on Good Morning Scotland.
He did not say that the similarity, between Scots and British responses, was solely with regard to the ‘rules’ for trade and immigration should be the same for the UK.
However, it was quite clear from the response to the next question that more Scots respondents want free trade and free movement compared to the British respondents.
So when it comes to what the ‘rules’ would be, they would be far apart in that respect.
What was totally ignored in the interview was the more valuable statistic from the same survey.
It said..
“47% believe Scotland should be expected to leave, given the UK vote
51% believe Scotland should not be expected to leave, given the UK vote”
Jackson Carlaw calling someone else ‘pompous’. That really takes the biscuit. To illegally starve and kill vulnerable people. Taking biscuits out of the mouths of babes. Cruel and nasty Tory Party at every opportunity. Illegal wars, tax evasion and banking fraud. The Tory policies causing the worst migration crisis in Europe since WW11. Then trying to run away from any responsibility. Typical Tories. Committed electoral fraud in 31 constituencies, To destroy the economy. The poison chalice. How long will this last? Lying to the people and wasting illegally £Billions of public money. Crashing the economy. Than the cry will be the usual, ‘it wisnae me’. Most of them should be in jail.
Tory multimillionaires in politics for the money. Saying the Oil & Gas sector in his constituency should have to ‘stand alone’ with criminal unfair high Tory taxes. When the price has fallen Affecting the family business taking a hit. They had to take a £25Million borrowing hit with collateral of the tax evaded assets. Most folk don’t have that opportunity.
They starve and kill vulnerable people world wide. The obnoxious, bloody Tories. ‘Psycho bastards’ Their own description. Never trust a Tory.
I was going through a self service checkout when i noticed a guy with about three of the despicable right-wing newspapers, at the next scanning machine. he looked very well-to-do, and about late fifty’s.
I was in a restaurant seated in the next table with three elderly ladies, tow of whom were in their late sixties and one was well into her eighties.
Once they had eaten their meal the oldest of the thee pulled out her Daily Mail.
There are a lot of young people who believe in the Union for a variety of reasons, but without a shadow of doubt, it is the elderly demographic that has voted against Scottish Independence, that are the main barrier to our ‘self-determination’
The people I saw had one thing in common, they were all clearly very wealthy, so not worried about pensions or heating bills etc, but more likely had a long term ‘faith’ in the UK.
They really don’t make them like that any more, and this will be why the Tories will certainly do a power-grab if they can.
They know they will loose the ability to plunder our resources if they don’t somehow stop the trend towards Independence, so the ‘Now is not the time’ garbage, is a tester to see if they can get away with overruling Scottish democracy.
Then they fight you…
Then you win!
Good morning Smallaxe. Dry here at the moment.
link to consilium.europa.eu
link to randompublicjournal.com
Two faced nasty Tory
link to twitter.com
link to indyref2.scot
O/T
Does anyone else find a problem since the site changed yesterday?
The only way I can now view the items in the Revs article (like the Smirky item, Gray, Sarwar etc) is to allow “Not secure” to appear in red, with a warning?
I’m not too happy with this, but am not very computer literate, so not sure of any ‘dangers’ in having this red warning on this site.
Anyone help?
Nana:
Look on O/T, Something to start your day.
🙂
Peace Always
link to facebook.com
Hope this gives a better insight into the brexit debate, knowing Martin he’s a very studious guy , note at num 3 1707 Act of Union, this is our get out clause from the UK, all it takes is a Bill from the Scottish Parliament to repeal the Act of Union.
I think Nicola Sturgeon will have that on the back burner .
@ sassenach – I can’t load the site on my tablet android browser as I get the message that there is no secure certificate. I can get it on the Chrome browser though which I use on my PC with no nasty messages. Maybe you could try a different browser?
Hopefully a fix will come along soon.
Now that were in the era where the BBC are no longer biased
Is there perhaps just a chance we should keep a check, just in case ?
I mean just a record of powder puff v brick batt ?
Can we expect SNP / Green to get G Robertson (attack dog)
Nice Ruth & Smashing Murdo grilled by hapless H Miller (hapless sop).
Are we to expect a streaming filtering pattern of competence / incompetence to ensure the WM / BBC message gets
Out un interrupted as per Normal Service.
FOI re PM & Donalda McKinnon contact ??
It looks to me as if the BBC has become the official spokes person for Theresa May and that they have been given permission to say whatever ever they wish in pushing the Westminster agenda.
I suppose it’s not called the British Broadcasting Corporation for nothing.
Before we get carried away with deriding the chain round the unicorn’s neck perhaps it’s an idea to remind ourselves why it’s there.
Once upon a time there was a noble night of Scotland. His personal crest was a unicorn. That in itself might already have been a heraldic joke of a horses head over a lance. Regardless when he became king he had his personal coat of arms altered to reflect his status. The crown round it’s neck and the chain tethering it may be gold but it’s meaning is still the same. The Declaration of Arbroath makes it clear. We, the people of Scotland, are on the other end of that chain.
The last thing we should be doing is unchaining the unicorn. What we need to do is hang on with all our might to that chain and guide it where we want it to go.
The oath the Queen took on her coronation and the one that our MSPs take have the same codicil “According to Law”. In Scotland that means we are a sovereign people and any authority ultimately derives from us rather than her. The only claim Westminster has to being sovereign in Scotland is via our elected MPs as temporary representatives of that and not through that once held by the Sovereign.
Capella – many thanks, just tried in IE and it’s OK. Hope a fix does come along as I prefer chrome normally.
@ronnie anderson
A good posting by Martin and right on the nail. I also suspect the back burner option of a repeal bill isn’t out of bounds and May has to know this.
It’s not the preferred option, but out there nonetheless and I think both HMG and the meeja should be wary of thinking the FM would ‘bluff’ when it comes to protecting the interests of the Scottish electorate.
May is looking to buy time and hoping against hope that the FM blinks first. I reckon she’s in for a long wait. She’s had a bad week already in the EU’s primary response to her ‘historic’ letter and this followed by the FMs formal request should set the pot simmering nicely. Certainly, the positive pro Scotland soundbites coming from prominent EU members can’t be doing much for the state of her nerves about now. 🙂
It’s all on May to react appropriately or not. I reckon it could go one of two ways. She either uses the GRB to issue a power grab and attempt to quash Scottish democracy. In which case she better be ready for that back burner option (it’ll be messy, very public and all over the place). Or, she gets herself ready for a Scotref and gambles on project fear 2 to win the day for her.
It’s a pickle for her. 😉
ronnie anderson @ 8.49am
Very interesting post by Martin Keatings. I have long held that we have not been paying enough attention to the Act of Union.
I take your point about repealing the Act of Union, except, the Holyrood Parliament’s powers are devolved from Westminster, so they could well ignore any Holyrood Bill which sought to repeal the Act of Union.
I have used this argument before, and had hoped the likes of Robert Peffers might have given an opinion on it, but, alongside any Holyrood Bill repealing the Act of Union, I feel the 56 pro-Independence MPs at Westminster should call a sitting of the Scottish Grand Committee and put forward the same suggestion – that the Act of Union be repealed.
If EVEL is ok for Westminster, then the SGC, which was never abolished when Holyrood was established, can still be used.
The SGC votes 56-3 for the repeal, the in-built English maority would then overturn this decision and, surely back in Scotland, even the most-rabid UKOKers and Proud Scots But would finally see what an unfair Union we were in and that Scotland was as far as England is concerned, the last colony.
Sorry for this being so long but it just shows what a shower these people are.
Carlaw on radio a while back was asked about McCrone report this is his reply to me about his glib remark.
I do apologise. The problem was that I lost all sound and did not hear the discussion for about 5 minutes. I missed the whole context of the McCrone report and when sound came back I simply heard something like “jackson do you want to comment on a secret report in the 1970s?” – it was only after the programme that l learned we were talking about McCrone.
Obviously had I understood the context I would have contributed differently.
The hazards of being at a remote location.
Regards
Jackson
A right chancer this one.
As for Sarwar I suggest he reads.
Time and Chance”, the
then Labour Prime Minister Jim Callaghan noted:
“The difficulty within the (Labour) Party, was much greater than any
from the Scottish National Party, and the Whip’s judgement was that the
government could not rely on the votes of Labour members
The survival of the Labour government was therefore in the hands of its
own MPs. If Callaghan’s government had pushed ahead with the Assembly
legislation, it would have been supported by the SNP in Parliament. The
reason it did not do so is because it became clear that a substantial
number of its own MPs were prepared to vote against it. The SNP did not
” let in the Tories “- the Tories got in because the English voters,
following the ‘winter of discontent’ abandoned the Labour Party and
turned instead to the Tories and Margaret Thatcher.
Oh SNAP! 🙂
link to twitter.com
John Nicholson on Andrew Neil’s This Week, thoroughly rounded on by four others, Portillo sits and smirks continuously (makes him look even more of an arse).
Neil hit Nicholson with selective numbers from the poll, Nicholson to his discredit doesn’t seem to have studied the poll to rebuff him. When Nicholson quoted B.Johnston, Neil contradicted that Boris had never said he wanted to stay in single market, this is just an outright lie by Neil. link below of Johnston.
link to open-britain.co.uk
Even more amusing the group of four claiming we couldn’t offer a ref unless we know the details. Labour person obviously not aware of irony when they voted for EU ref without any details.
Bloomberg reporting May has set up her team of English ministers to drive Brexit.
May says she will negotiate a Brexit for the UK. I suspect she actually believes she means it, it’s just the Tories’ idea of the UK means England with a few sticky on bits they don’t quite understand. It’s human nature to ignore things you don’t understand!
I suspect the EU team will have a better grasp of what the UK actually is, than the supposed UK team. And that would be pathetic!
Follow up on Labour MPs
These, then, not the 11 SNP MPs who backed that vote of no confidence
in March 1979, are the people James Callaghan names as those who really
opened the door to Margaret Thatcher.
Labour Ayes for 40% rule amendment (bold: Scottish constituencies)
Leo Abse (Pontypool)
Sydney Bidwell (Southall)
Betty Boothroyd (West Bromwich)
Lewis Carter-Jones (Eccles)
Maureen Colquhoun (Northampton North)
George Cunningham (Islington South)
Tam Dalyell (Linlithgow)
Joseph Dean (Leeds West)
Peter Doig (Dundee West)
Bruce Douglas-Mann (Mitcham and Morden)
Ioan Evans (Aberdare)
Martin Flannery (Sheffield Hillsborough)
Ted Fletcher (Darlington)
Ted Garrett (Wallsend)
Helene Hayman (Welwyn and Hatfield)
Eric Heffer (Liverpool Walton)
Robert Hughes (Aberdeen North)
Adam Hunter (Dunfermline)
Alexander Lyon (York)
Joan Maynard (Sheffield Brightside)
John Mendelson (Penistone)
Eric Moonman (Basildon)
Stanley Newens (Harlow)
Eric Ogden (Liverpool West Derby)
Arthur Palmer (Bristol North East)
John Parker (Barking Dagenham)
Josephine Richardson (Barking)
Geoffrey Robinson (Coventry North West)
George Rodgers (Chorley)
Renee Short (Wolverhampton North East)
Dennis Skinner (Bolsover)
Leslie Spriggs (St Helens)
Ronald Thomas (Bristol North West)
Audrey Wise (Coventry South West)
Amendment carried, 166 votes to 151
People can buy and read the papers that they want. SNP/Independence supporters buy MSM. They must be for the numbers to stack up. The Independence movement is still going strong increasing support. The more hysterical head lines put people off the papers. The demise of their own industry.
Davidson/Unionist attacks on the Scottish education system. One of the best in the world. Illustrates how can local administrations controlled by unionist/green coalitions are not spending money allocated on essential services. The are cutting relevant funding in essential services and diverting the money to spend on any other nonsense, grotesque projects with no mandate. That they can find. Cutting teacher numbers etc. Confirms the Tories own inadequacies and malicious incompetence. The Tory/Unionist can’t count or read a balance The Unionists try to use children as a bargaining chip for their own total, ignorant incompetence. They will not get away with it.
All Councils in Scotland get adequate funding for all essential services. The essential local services should be excellent. The Scottish Gov protects their budgets, despite austerity. The unionist/green coalitions, collude and join to put the SNP (highest numbers) in opposition. The unionist coaltion then do not spend the total allocation on essential services. They cut the funding down to the bone. Do not support the essential services as they are legally obliged and supposed to do. They then spend it on any thing they want. The green rep, renege on their own policies for office and remuneration. To destroy the city centre. They then spend it in any nonsense Projects that come along and waste it. They are not legally mandated.
They then have the cheek and nerve to blame the SNP Gov for their malicious incompetence. Howling for more money that they have wasted. Borrowing even more money getting the Cities in debt. Demanding taxes are put up in the hard pressed public to cover their losses created illegally. To cap it all they complain about centralisation when the Gov does anything to try and stop it,
They are allocated the the money under the Scottish fixed Barnet formula Grant which illegally deprives Scotland of £Billions because of Westminster mismanagement. Thst the unionist crooks and criminals at Westminster carry out. Against the public interests and the majority wishes. Westminster Unionists just waste Scottish funds instead. On wasteful projects of which the majority in the UK do want or agree. illegal scams Hinkley Point, HS2, Heathrow, and quint Trident etc. All a total waste of money with absolutely no business case. The money would be better spent on credible alternatives. The NHS//Education and adequate welfare arrangements.
It never fails to amaze people why incompetent, ignorant and useless politicians don’t just get another job.In Parties whose policies they do not agree with or endorse. Why don’t they just go away and get another job. Do something useful. Instead of hanging around in their incompetent mess like they are owed something for their illegal muck up. It just makes folk depressed.
Tories are ofcourse going to strip power from Scotland and Wales, via their great and super reform bill. Beeb gimps will sell it, wonderful time in British politics, EU’s a monster, just more Scotch grievance etc.
Only recourse we’ll have is 2020 general election but if you’re a psychopath, Scots or English tory, so what, let them vote SNP as hard as they like, they’re rather amusing in the house, what what.
LeanneWood?Verified account @LeanneWood 13h13 hours ago
The Great Westminster Power Grab. Taking powers away from #Wales. #NoWay #HandsOffOurParliament
#GadewchinSeneddFod #Plaid17
Ken 500,
Re Tories trashing the confidence in our public services..
Some countries HAND PICK which pupil’s results were submitted to OECD figures, better off countries (Scotland /Finland) allow random sampling methods.
Ken500 says:
31 March, 2017 at 9:38 am
It never fails to amaze people why incompetent, ignorant and useless politicians don’t just get another job.
They are not capable, Ken. Utterly unemployable in the real world. Spouting robotic guff scripts and soundbites to a compliant media is just about all these dopes can manage. 🙂
@ Orrin.
Bang on the nail. Blundell( predictive text by the way), bbc and the rest are going hell for leather to convince people were not.
The law, our rights protected in the Treaty of Union and the Acts of Union, which England signed up to, is a brick wall they really don’t want crash into.
What motivates Labour to band around the idea that post Brexit devolution might expand?
All indications are that the Tories intend to roll back devolution, and Labour will be no position to challenge this for decades.
I see two explanations. Firstly Labour are deluded enough to believe they might be in power soon. Secondly it’s just part of a wider Unionist conspiracy to confuse or deceive No voting devolutionists.
It is becoming clearer every day that ScotRef will be YES for Indy, versus NO for Brexit AND an end to the ‘devolution experiment’.
We need to make the most of the Tory threat to devolution because many NOs believe in devolution.
I am sick and tired of the Unionist dirge and distortion of reality. It’s a straight forward repetition of YES2014, and the Brexit farce.
This “media” is out of control and unchecked in its rabid and toxic agenda to see democracy confounded in Scotland, and a vicious, far right xenophobic agenda become the mainstream political agenda.
Every hateful thing on TV is deliberately spun by the BBC, from its cheesy and embarrassing Radio Scotland garbage right through to its EDL/UKIP themed Question Time.
The Scottish Government must find an alternative route to make safe some portion of broadcast TV media which is rational, objective, and accessible to all.
Failure to do so will see us still swirling round the same UK sewer drain for every week and month before this second “attempt” at a referendum.
We are through the looking Glass. In 2014 they lied and distorted the agenda that Independence meant exit from Europe. Now they are lying and distorting the truth about the idiocy of Brexit.
The BBC is unfit to broadcasting anything. Please Nicola, for the love of God, make alternative viewing available or these fraudsters and propagandist parasites will feast on our democratic hopes until their obesity is bloated beyond reason.
Appeal to Europe, appeal to the UN. Awaken our friends to the battle we are in and ask for their help.
If Europe wants the four freedoms sanctified, why doesn’t Scotland lobby for a fifth fundamental freedom? The fundamental freedom of balanced political expression without distortion or propaganda by a hateful bunch of crooked worm tongues like the BBC.
Do something. Find studio facilities for European broadcasters, get them in our country witnessing the struggle we have and generating output which makes it impossible for the BBC to monopolise the agenda.
Don’t ignore the warnings which were ignored in 2014. This is 1930’s Germany, and the BBC hatespeech is every bit as vile and toxic as Goebells but it’s a damned site more polished and subtle.
We NEED a counter measure.
@ Ken500 – enjoyable as your posts are, I am puzzled by your reference to the Greens in control of Local Authorities and ruining them. I can’t find any LA with a Green in control. Could you specifiy what you mean? If we ant Independence supporting Local Authorities it will essential to vote in some Greens as well as SNP and other smaller Independence supporting parties.
COSLA list of political control in LAs:
link to cosla.gov.uk
They are not capable, Ken. Utterly unemployable in the real world.
They’re more than capable of running up massive tabs. Aberdeen’s yoon freak out of SLabour fame have run up a £1.2 bn debt for the city, the oil capital of Europe’s got a debt so big, with absolutely fuck all to show for it, you have to wonder if you’re reading neo fascist Voice of the North Press and Journal upside down most of the time.
Aberdeen’s social services, elderly care for example in Aberdeen are ofcourse really stretched, loads of millionaires, but oaps in poverty.
So SLabour catastrofuck Sir Wullie Young OBE, blows £100+ million on a new office block, right in the heart of Aberdeen, a perfect white elephant eyesore heartbreaker, that they now cant find any tennets for, except neo fascist Voice of the North Press and Journal, who tell us to vote Wullie and also who get a secret cheap as chips lease too.
Its a secret lease because its a secret lease, catastrofuck Wullie says.
@boris
============
That site you linked to: the stuff about the fraudulence of the Davidson/Mundell petition is fairly clear (though far from new) but it jumps without explanation (or break) to a claim about pro-independence voters and it’s far from clear where the evidence for it is coming from. I’ve seen that site a few times and it is messy. Even when it has a good point to make it makes hard reading. If you are involved with it, you want to make people willing to read it and make what’s said much clearer, otherwise a lot of folk are just going to ignore it.
@gordoz at 9:01 says:
“FOI re PM & Donalda McKinnon contact??”
Now there’s an idea!
Just read that post by Martin up the thread on the Act of the Union and Brexit and it, at last, puts it all into context.
Lifted my spirits and it should be an article in The National.
I do hope the SG have something like this in the locker when the time is right. Well done Martin. 🙂
PS:
Someone moaning at the next table to me in the cafe about two things
1. Daily Stranger going up to 70p Monday
2. What a **## that Rude Davidson is.
Wheres the apostrophe thingy on this bl*## tablet
@ Boris, also struggling with the cryptic font kid!
Larkie, wan eyebrow & wan grannie! 🙂
The Herald today has an article on a Survation Poll which has thrown up some interesting results. Sorry cannot link to it because I don’t subscribe to the on line version but maybe someone can find the poll.
It showed that the majority of those asked thought the Scottish Parliament should have the right to hold an independence referendum and decide the time.
Westminster have not devolved anything at all. The people of Scotland have decided that powers delegated to there should instead be exercised by our representatives in Holyrood either directly when we voted for “devolution” or indirectly when we elected a majority SNP administration mandated to negotiating more powers be transferred.
The essential problem in the so called “Henry 8th” power is that ultimately Westminster will have an opportunity for a post-legislative consent where any changes made can be unmade by them. The same kind of power that Holyrood would normally hold over any changes to Scots’ Law by Westminster. The Sewel Convention is partly a reminder of the foolishness of attempts at legislating for Holyrood without a certainty of permanence. However is powers are intercepted or withdrawn from Scotland by the H8 method then Holyrood might have no way to undo any changes.
The obvious attempt will be a simple rewriting of the laws concerning devolved areas to substitute UK for EU authority. What that ignores, deliberately perhaps, is that at present Scotland has an elected presence in the EU via a PR system which would be replaced by Westminster or a Quango controlled by it. In all probability such a change in who makes those decisions is not something that can be done by civil servants as it involves how we are represented. Scotland has definitely not agreed to how it should elect representatives in those areas of it’s governance other than that it should remain with our elected MEPs.
orri says:
31 March, 2017 at 10:39 am
Westminster have not devolved anything at all.
Tories are psychos but they know how to stay in power. So politically Holyrood wont change much. Holyrood doesn’t need to be changed really, by Westminster.
Long term, the challenge of getting the SNP out has clearly been given to the BBC Scotland crew. And there is nothing to suggest that Pacific Quay’s finest are not more than capable of doing it either and eventually, with Heil, Express. P&J, ofcourse.
What they will do is retain control of the Scottish economy, Brexit wise. At the very least, Brexit gives the tories the power to halt any other kind of economic devo.
Endless £15bn Scottish beggar economy debts, even worse than Greece, here we come, for a generation.
So, NHS ENGLAND concedes defeat in relation to operation waiting times..can’t solve the problems with cash injections (pardon pun).
That allows UK Tory Government to apply same relative savings/no new money… to Scotland’s Barnett based budget..
EVEN THOUGH we chose to keep our high.standards.
Capella said at 7:54pm last night:
“Jim Rogers thinks the UK economy is very weak and without oil, the balance of payments would be gross and the pound would drop to 80 cents because
“if the Scots leave, they’ll take their oil. Then what can you sell to the rest of the world?”
Jim Rogers is a well respected American businessman, investor, traveller, financial commentator and author.
Here he is on the Telly in America speaking about Brexit and Scotland’s oil.
This could be why Mrs May and David Mundell MP her one and only Secretary of State for Scotland are scared stiff of a Scottish Independence Referendum. 🙁
Just a couple of minutes. YouTube:
link to tinyurl.com
Sorrreee. 🙁
Jim Rogers was speaking on the Telly in London.
@Boris. Very informative article, thank you. I too find the choice of font hard to read, esp’ with so much of it. I’m still not sure what it said, I bypassed it obviously which I’d rather not do if reading a whole article. Hope that helps 🙂
I’m not sure that Stuart gives these “spectacular morons” their due. They seem to me much more like spectacular experts at cynical duplicity.
This is a high-stakes power struggle, where an imperialist aggressor nation with critically wounded pride is attempting to retain control over one of its most important remaining territories. In the media “air war”, no gloves are being or will be worn.
If Scotland wants freedom from Tory servitude, then its citizens are going to have to earn it – by exceeding the expectations that are being placed on their average intelligence.
OT
Somewhat significant point. Under May’s/Cameron’s premierships, no one of importance has mysteriously died, yet.