High on the groundhog
This is a wretchedly boring time to be writing about politics for a living, readers. Parliamentarians in Edinburgh and London haven’t technically checked out for the summer yet – Holyrood still has a month to go before taking two months off, while Westminster is currently having a couple of weeks off for “Whitsun”, whatever the hell that is, before coming back for a month and a half then sodding off until September.
But really they’re already at the “bringing board games in” stage of term, and both the elected chambers and the media already have their eyes on the beach, which probably explains why we’re being punted drivel like this.
Even if we must afford the graphics team some grudging kudos for the unicoo.
We’re always deeply wary of anyone who uses “populist” as a sneery insult.
What part of running your country for the benefit of most of its people, rather than “established elite groups”, is supposed to be a bad thing?
But in any event, if you say that the holding of the indyref was a “populist” move, that implies that YOU think it was done for the wellbeing and approval of the masses, and we know fine well that The Economist DOESN’T think that. For one thing, when the Edinburgh Agreement was signed in October 2012, independence was on average more than 20 points behind.
(Indeed, if you exclude DKs from that late October poll, which is how polls are usually reported in the press, the Union’s lead was 31 points.)
The rest of the editorial, frankly, is like going back in time a decade and listening to a Greatest Hits Of Unionist Pish. All the classics are here – saying Scotland can’t be independent because of things that independence could actually fix, for example by controlling its own immigration laws:
Attacks on the Scottish Government’s economic failings, when the Scottish Parliament was expressly set up to exclude it from any meaningful control over the economy, almost every lever of which was and remains reserved to Westminster:
Wah wah subsidy junkies wah wah wah:
Wah wah grievance monkeys wah wah wah:
And on and on it drones. We’re not at all sure it wasn’t written by an AI, but then that’s a feeling we get from a lot of Scottish political commentary these days – a lot of people who’ve been in the same job for 20 years and ran out of anything interesting to say 15 years ago, and whose columns just read like paragraphs from their old ones stitched together in random order.
We can’t disagree with The Economist that the Nicola Sturgeon era was a binfire of incompetence that shamed all of Scotland as it failed to execute even tasks as simple as a headcount, but the idea that the SNP was obsessed with even talking about independence is a clueless misapprehension shared by most of the insular, metropolitan London media since the day she came to power.
The party in fact pays the barest minimum of lip service to the idea that it can possibly get away with, except when there’s an election imminent and the gullible are required to deliver their votes again. But that’s not remotely close to what “populism” is – in reality the SNP’s policy agenda since 2015 has been the OPPOSITE of pandering to the masses, bringing forth hated bill after hated bill under the cover of a succession of mandates for something else entirely.
This article doesn’t really have much of a point, other than to reassure readers than we haven’t died. We really hope Operation Branchform comes to a head soon, because until it does Scotland is destined to wake up on the same morning forever.
Why is Scotland not independent as a country? Are there many reasons – or – is there only one absolutely fundamental reason?
I have asked Scotland that very question in an Independence Live video, I also asked the very same question at a recent rally in Kilmarnock.
Why is Scotland not independent as a country? Answer – the Treaty of Union. When it no longer exists Scotland will be an independent country.
When the Treaty was compiled and ratified it – and it alone – ended hundreds of years of Scotland being an independent country.
The ‘Declaration of a Sovereign Scot’ initiative has involved me in attending every rally held in Scotland for over two years, I have heard the very same answer from fellow Scots, as they signed their individual Declaration of a Sovereign Scot.
That is why the Declaration of a Sovereign Scot starts with these words:
“Exercising my Claim Of Right as a Sovereign Scot, I declare:
I do not consent to the terms of, nor the continuation of, the Treaty of Union established through the Acts of Union in 1707.”
The originals of every individually signed Declaration have been, and will continue to be lodged at the HQ of the United Nations – but – copies of each signed Declaration are kept to be our present day version of the Declaration of Arbroath.
The initiative is being developed in very deliberate Stages – currently involving contact with countries who have secured their indenpendence from the UK.
If you want to join all those who have already signed their Declaration – I will be at the Stirling AUOB march/rally. You will find me at the rally point at Bannockburn where the march ends.
A broken clock is right twice per day and to be fair, the Economist make a valid point here:
“In a country where devotion to the cause counts for more than competence, scrutiny has been sorely lacking. Holyrood lacks a vibrant backbench culture; the poison of polarisation has made think-tanks and academics hesitant to criticise the SNP”
I cannever forget “Skintland”, which just shows The Economist doesn’t know its arse from its elbow. link to mapdesign.icaci.org
My god…
What a dull news week for Yoons to be churning out last decade’s leftover tripe.
Has someone persuaded a Herald or Hootsmon hack to moonlight on weekdays?
I don’t buy The Economist. Thanks Tev from dissuading me from doing so any time soon.
Stu,
when I mentioned I would love it if you shared more wildlife photos on your site in quiet times,
I did not mean daft cows from msm;-)
Aside from the really stupid assertion that Sturgeon was obsessed with independence (a view shared by nobody in Scotland, btw), the economist piece is just yet another sh*tefest of anglo-centric nonsense.
Honestly, folk in Scotland are just feckin sick of stupid English clowns telling Scots why they cannot ever possibly run their own country. It is tiresome, and frankly lazy. No new thoughts, no new analyses of where Scotland is in relation to the world. Just the usual anti Scottish tropes, rolled out for the ill-informed English masses, who will sit, reading, nodding their heads about just how daft Scots are.
Meanwhile, in
englandshire‘little britin’, the government is the worst since history began. I mean seriously, Liz Truss, then teeny tiny billionaire tax dodger, Sunak, FFS.This months economist, is just firelighter material. Same old nonsense, same old anti Scottish sh*te. Nothing new. We could sum up this tosh from the economist in just a few words, ‘STFU Scotland, we own you’.
PS. hey ‘economist’ editor, the Scottish economy is controlled in London, England. SFA to do with the SNP, or Scottish Government. Try reading the Scotland Act. Just FYI.
Whitsun has two meanings – it’s formally the seventh Sunday after Easter and colloquially in Glasgow when some-one asks what the weather has been like after yet another poor summer – whit Sun!
But aye that Economist piece was shite. I particularly liked declining North Sea Oil – though apparently it’s not declined enough to prevent the fuel bill support for the WHOLE UK being funded mainly by a windfall tax from it. Nor did the piece mention renewables which by definition never run out whereby Starmer wants to fund council tax freeze in England from it. Of course most of the renewables are in little ole Scotland aren’t they. Little ole subsidy junkie (sic) Scotland.
Suddenly, “Bitter Together” is starting to look like a prophecy, rather than a quip.
It’s as if England cannot bear to be alone and unloved in the world, so they’re desperate to hang on to Scotland so they’ll have some company on that long, slow downward slide to destitution.
‘ We’re not at all sure it wasn’t written by an AI, but then that’s a feeling we get from a lot of Scottish political commentary these days – a lot of people who’ve been in the same job for 20 years and ran out of anything interesting to say 15 years ago, and whose columns just read like paragraphs from their old ones stitched together in random order.’
Could you be referring to Kenny Farquharson, perchance? I pointed this recycling of old columns out to him, politely, some time ago and, being the free speech champion that he is, he blocked me.
The SNP / Green coalition has fucked Scotland, its focus on GRA, DRA, HPMAS, LEZ,Juryless Land trials for rape cases. That’s what happens when you cannot afford a vote of no confidence to go against you.
The SNP / Green coalition has fucked Scotland, its focus on GRA, DRA, HPMAS, LEZ,Juryless trials for rape cases. That’s what happens when you cannot afford a vote of no confidence to go against you.
“Why is Scotland not independent as a country?”
Indeed. Why is Pictland not independent as a country? Why is Argyll not independent as a country, or Strathclyde? Why is Lothian, or Galloway, not independent as a country?
Why is the Kingdom of Fife no more, why has Rheged vanished, why does the Lord of the Isles no longer rule, or the King of Orkney? It’s all a great mystery.
Hi, Rev, did you really mean to put up the ‘Improving Scotland’s economic prospects’ box twice?
The Declaration of Arbroath, huh ?
That was only 703 years ago, but it seems to be fresh in many minds hereabouts, like as if it was last week.
If readers need something to worry about, why not ask Police Scotland (once Operation Branchform is done and dusted) to open an investigation into the unsolved disappearence of the Roman Army’s Ninth Legion?
Offences may have been committed . . . Go worry about that.
Worrying and greeting about the past WILL NOT make progress happen today and tomorrow.
GET OVER IT!
Make a PLAN!
Just be sure that any PLAN you make can be achieved, otherwise you are bound to fail.
Salmond found that out in 2014.
His PLAN was to WIN a referendum.
He probably thought he would be on a winner.
He was wrong, and all the indications seem to suggest that the YES / NO ratio isn’t much changed today, after all those years of of Saint Nicola the Divine and Infallible and her ghastly ‘husband’ running the show.
Are we our our own worst enemy?
@dearieme
Dearie me.
Coonicorn
It was on the back of the Economist’s 1) pro yoon rhetoric 2) capitalism* and de-regulation is great for everything, even when its obvious its failing [various market crashed] that I cancelled my subscription in 2013. Never read it since.
*well what is called capitalism even though the executive is NOT risking their personal capital – its shareholder money or even better wheeze – public money to bail them.
The stench of corruption is becoming unbearable.
Are there no honest Scots in high office ? I accept that there may be none at all.
The longer this inaction festers the worse it’s going to get for the guilty.
This is not going away.
Could this article be a response to the latest poll figures which showed support for the Scottish independence at 53%? This must have shocked the editor Zanny Milton Beddoes who participates in the Bilderberg Meetings. After all, the globalist/WEF viewpoint is that nations, families and bodily autonomy are things of the past.
The Right Wing Tory Economist has again produced what comes out of the Coo’s other end.
I can see Nigel asking his 77th Brigade Commander what a Coo is.
Are the nasty Scots looking to take on Englands Army again.
I saw on Twitter a report on Gordon Brown being asked to apologise for his lies and failure to deliver a fair deal for Scotland after Indy Ref 1.
He is part of a conference next week with English Labour’s Andy Burnham and Welsh Labour Mark Drayford looking to make Britain work for Scotland.
Burnham jumped ship seeing the miserable state of Labour and a steadier job as Lord Mayor of Manchester even as a Scouser.
Drayford has well recorded that Wales is treated badly by English Tories so why would he want Scotland to stay with Westminster abuse, corruption and inequality?
Welsh Labour have ran their NHS since 1999.
It’s the worst performing NHS so does Scotland want a Labour NHS
Brown has been a lying Bastard when it comes to Scotland
Promised the most powerful devolved parliament in the world.
Scotland wouldn’t have pensions, blood transfusion services or transplant lists.
Every word an insulting lie that we could provide what every nation in Europe provides even with all our resources.
Most incompetent chancellor ever in history
Who would listen other than BBC England
Whitsuntide is an important religious holiday, to do with heaven, not hell!
“Sell in May and go away”
Banking crash?
Henceforth every day shall be known as Branchform day
When your finances depend on having the same opinion as your supplier.
All these years on and history keeps repeating.
When are the Scots going to have a vote on wether they want to join a union with England?
The cart before the horse that was the 2014 question.
Excerpt from UK parliament site.
” to begin with it was decided to Elect members Great Britain parliament from the membership of the Scottish parliament”.
“Since Scotlands Small Electorate would probably expressed dislike of the Union, it was decided to avoid a direct election”
You forgot the SNPs greatest achievement….Women with a Penis
I see Australia has just passed a bill for a referendum on indigenous people to have a voice.
@Rev
IMAGE TYPO
Images economist1.jpg and economist4.jpg show the same text.
If you fund the right Women then you get the answer you want.
link to archive.ph
I see Australia has just passed a bill for a referendum on indigenous people to have a voice.
Perhaps Scotland should take the initative from Australia.
When are the indigenous Scots going to get a referendum vote?
Economist proving once again that it is an anti Scottish Rag. Racist Elitist English Tory pish!!!
Unionists always harp on about the risks to Scotland of becoming independent. Never do they talk about the risks to Scotland of not becoming independent.
There is a long, long list of mismanagement by successive UK governments. Here is a link to a prescient piece by Jim Cuthbert in 2013.
link to reidfoundation.org
•The performance of the UK reflects chronic, long-term mismanagement of the
economy.
•The UK is far from having the characteristics of an optimal currency area.
•The present model of the UK economy is unsustainable, with a high likelihood of a potentially catastrophic crisis in the not too distant future.
This strongly implies major policy failures over much of the last 40 years:
•In three periods (the late 1970s, the late 1980s, and from about 2002 to 2008), the exchange rate was allowed to appreciate even though internal price levels were rising
significantly. Policy-makers appeared blind to the resulting loss of competitiveness
and its impact on the manufacturing base of the economy. This seems to be the result
of misguided pride in having an apparently strong currency.
•Policy makers seem to have missed the point that the underlying balance of trade in goods and services, which had been flattered for a time by oil revenues, was
deteriorating rapidly: and that the deficit was being covered by borrowing, and by
current income, both largely dependent on the financial sector.
Policy-makers appear not to have appreciated what risks the financial sector might pose to the economy, and how unstable the tax revenues derived from the financial
sector might be.
•Decisions were regularly taken with the primary focus of benefiting or protecting the financial sector, but which were not in the interests of the wider economy.”
@ dearieme at 2.08pm: If Scotland is not or should not be a country, perhaps you could tell us which countries actually are countries, and why. Scotland predates the United kingdom by several hundred years, and indeed existed as a nation for one hundred or so years while the Saxons and the Danes were still fighting over England. If Scotland has no claim to be a country, then neither has England or any other country in the world.
As for Lothian, Pictland and Strathclyde’s claims to independent statehood, that argument might have the tiniest morsel of validity if there was so much as a single person in any of those places demanding their national independence. On the other hand, at least 50% of Scots are demanding Scotland’s independence. On what weird and wonderful planet does the demand for Strathclyde’s independence assume greater validity and importance than the demand for Scotland’s independence?
If you are Scottish, why would you support your own country being dominated, dictated-to and robbed by another? If you are not Scottish, what business is it of yours whether Scotland chooses to be independent or not?
If any of you can come up with a way to get politicians do even half of what they promise the World would be eternally grateful. America has a more effective system than us, in that the President has a lot more power to get things done but Western countries are always hog tied by laws, procedures, courts, media and the sheer inertia of other people disagreeing with whatever is suggested. Other countries like Russia can in theory get things done because their leader is absolute but a) the citizens don’t necessarily like those decisions and b) corruption is even worse, leading to goals failing as badly if not worse – see Ukraine.
Glad to hear you’re not dead.
From one of the text boxes, “Low growth is a problem…”. Is it? Maybe if your aim is to become rich off shareholdings, but not if you’re in favour of stopping the planet heating up.
We need to make less stuff and consume less stuff; this’ll bring about lower growth anyway.
panda paws says:
1 June, 2023 at 1:44 pm
I particularly liked declining North Sea Oil – though apparently it’s not declined enough to prevent the fuel bill support for the WHOLE UK being funded mainly by a windfall tax from it
———————————–
The windfall tax is paid on international profit and if they pay anything it will be less than £1bn. “Scots oil” is losing money and has done for 10+ years.
As for the windmills (not owned by scots but private companies) the only reason they have been built is the subsidies, what do you think will happen when 70m in the uk stop paying for them and it falls on 6m scots?
Re LEZ. Well done Glasgow City Council. Hitting the poor disproportionately to pay the rich.(slow claps)
@Mike Fenwick 1:20pm
Mike, I wasn’t aware of this initiative until I read your post.
I’m assuming that the declaration:
has to be signed in person, and that a digital signature obtained online would not be acceptable.
But that’s just my assumption, maybe I’m wrong.
If it is the case that declarations have to be physically signed in ink, is there any way to accelerate this process?
And do you have any links to more information about this initiative?
Brain washed climate change, the planet is heating up, its human being causing it,
Has it ever occurred to you this has happened before, that it is a cyclic part of the planet,
I often wonder how the bit from history ice age heated up and turned britain tropical for a While and then there was a cooling down period, and now its heating up again,
And not a human in sight.
The climate change mantra is a global control method.
It make the poor poorer,
It brings the middle class down to the old poor level,
It restricts humans from traveling further than 15 minutes away from their home.
While politician go about flying around the world to elite meetings of the unelected at Davos, Who, as fast holidays, while buying up the large tracts of land for themselses they just kicked the farming community of that provides your food.
Right way to go if you want to become a caveman and with no food chain. Doh.
Huge 400kV pylons to be built along A90 to take electricity down to Engerland. Scotland is already 140% self sufficient in renewable electricity.Beautiful countryside to be despoiled (in Surrey this would go underground). Local MP, MSP and community councils had no idea. “Consultation” has been extended by a couple of weeks, woop tee doo, to 23rd June. link to ssen-transmission.co.uk
Outrageous! I’m 2 glasses of red wine in to chill oot after an afternoon spent unblocking and rebuilding a collapsed sewer filled with compacted shit (and oddly a whole brown trout, but I digress…), and it’s been 5 hours since the first comment and this error hasn’t been corrected!
“This article doesn’t really have much of a point, other than to reassure readers tha
nt we haven’t died.“James Che we should be in a mini ice age now, so global warming is even worse than we are experiencing.
Many of the points and concerns mentioned here over the past year all relate to Scottish independence from the union, that thing that happened so long ago unionist minded people tell to forget about it,
But by god, is it not the first thing they traipse in front of Scotland when they pull it out the hat to keep one upmanship control of Scots and Scotland,
It is not the Scots that fear no union, regardless of our economy.
It is the people running England that fear No union. For the sake of their economy,
For the sake of their ego’s and the prestige that Scotland has, that Englands elite plus politicians fear losing.
For how small is England without Scotland,
How small is England without Wales,
How small is England without Ireland.
It was interesting listening to the talks with the other three nations,
It re- affirms what has always been suspected, and has been a long time in coming..
Let us see how well England does economically without having the financial supporting shoulders of the other three nations,
I’m also rather anxious I may have missed news of some imminent global event that’s going to knock oor planet off its axis. I mean why else would someone deem it a good idea to fit a solar PV array on a north facing roof!
@ Karen
Careful mentioning power generated in Scotland’s geographic area being transmitted down south to England being a good thing. We have a surplus of the wrong type of electricity, and there’s also the Ohm’s Law problem…
And another worthy discussion point… Is global warming actually helping reduce oor heating bills during these times of unprecedented energy company profiteering.
Northcode @ 6.03
It started online with the support of The National, they and I both posted links – but within 2/3 weeks we were expertly hacked, thus the move to pen and paper – that said it allows for the originals and the copies I mentioned which an online version would not have done – it is not a petition, each Declaration is signed individually.
For all that has happened since this started best place to follow is via this link:
(Add the https://) … link to facebook.com
Re accelarating the process – it is being very very deliberately built in Stages, the reasons for which will be very very clear when we reach the last Stage.
Good catch with the trout.
James Che,
you really are not correct on what you write at 6:32pm. Government spending per capita is higher in Scotland, Wales and NI than in England. Government revenue per capita is higher in England than the other three countries, and that includes allocating oil and gas revenue according to Scotland’s geographic share.
See here:
link to ons.gov.uk
SNP has never truly planned for independence…
If 2014 had returned a different result, I guess those plans would yet remain to be enacted.
1998, is as far back in history, we need concern ourselves with, regards the goal of Scottish independence.
Rescinding the Scotland Act, by providing the people of Scotland that choice, via Holyrood election, the very definition of self-determination.
Is there any set of politicians, willing to forgo the trappings of Devolution? Westminster not in the least threatened by SNP. The party, long since, sold it’s soul.
Holyrood lacks a leader, willing to provide any genuine ballot box democracy.
Manifesto promises reduced to meaning nothing, while Westminster paymaster, dole out the cash!
President xiden at 0558pm,
Exactly. The man-child responsible in Glasgow was on the news tonight. Utter idealistic clown, who has likely never done a hard days work in his puff. Actively putting Glasgow businesses out of work. Well done. Clown.
Next year it is Edinburgh’s turn, with its
congestion charging zone‘low emission zone – despite Edinburgh having the best air quality in the UK. Mind, Edinburgh clowcil is now regarded with contempt by everybody who lived here, excepot the cycling fascists.@Michael Laing (4.56) –
Hear hear.
😉
Mike Fenwick,
does the Claim of Right stack up under international law? I’m sure someone (legal, who knows what they are talking about) has written something authoritative about that, but I haven’t read anything.
I’m pretty sure that if you are able to obtain 50%+1 of Scotland’s population, then the Westminster government would claim that the Claim of Right is now irrelevant. Then there’s all the arguing about proving that all signatories are indeed sovereign Scots, and not just a passing American tourist. And so on. You know that’s how Westminster will react.
@ Anton Decadent
I much prefer munching a Perch with its lovely sweet tasty flesh, rather than a brown trout marinaded in a compote of pish and shit.
ASA there, helpfully reminding us that Scot’s are “well done” by London Rule getting a UK population allocated share of 9% of oil generated revenues, even though 96% of the oil fields are located in Scotland’s geographic area…
UK government policy adversely affects Scotland in a number of ways.
Adverse childhood experiences, ACEs, can affect all social levels but usually where poverty exists is where they will mostly act.
Stress causes cortisol levels to rise. Enough ACEs can result in permanently elevated levels of cortisol. This adversely affects brain development, including areas to do with memory and learning.
Young males with permanently elevated levels of cortisol are more likely to carry a weapon, engage in substance abuse and fail at school. As adults they will die early deaths from heart attacks and stroke.
Young females willbe likely to fail at school and have early pregnancies. They,too, will die early deaths.
Decisions made at Westminster can and do cause adverse molecular changes in our children.
UK government policy adversely affects Scotland in a number of ways.
Adverse childhood experiences, ACEs, can affect all social levels but usually where poverty exists is where they will mostly act.
Stress causes cortisol levels to rise. Enough ACEs can result in permanently elevated levels of cortisol. This adversely affects brain development, including areas to do with memory and learning.
Young males with permanently elevated levels of cortisol are more likely to carry a weapon, engage in substance abuse and fail at school. As adults they will die early deaths from heart attacks and stroke.
Young females will be likely to fail at school and have early pregnancies. They,too, will die early deaths.
Decisions made at Westminster can and do cause adverse molecular changes in our children.
Dan,
the measure is on a geographical basis, not population size. So it will be assigning revenue based upon where the revenue was generated. It’s not a straight 96%, as the wells and gas in English waters are pumping out a bit more than some of those in Scottish waters.
Ascotabroad @6.56am
Do those figures include defence expenditure?
link to twitter.com
Karen says:
1 June, 2023 at 6:28 pm
Scotland is already 140% self sufficient in renewable electricity
——————-
Is that why Scotland imported 50% of its energy from england last december?
Scotland also imports water from england, up here we are looking at another water shortage this year.
A Scot abroad @6.56
Do those figures include defence expenditure?
If so, where?
I know that per person Scotland’s funding of services is higher than England’s.
It is not based on need. There is a study somewhere – Scottish Uni, reported on Ch4 – which showed that if funding of health was based on need rather than population Scotland would receive £44 more per person. Wales would get around £109 or so more per person. So Wales’ health service looks well underfunded.
And we know that austerity has caused massive underfunding and understaffing of all UK NHS systems.
Dan says:
1 June, 2023 at 7:19 pm
ASA there, helpfully reminding us that Scot’s are “well done” by London Rule getting a UK population allocated share of 9% of oil generated revenues, even though 96% of the oil fields are located in Scotland’s geographic area…
——–
Dan if you make oil costing over $100 a barrel and sell at around $70 a barrel who is picking up the shortfall? clearly not you.
The Economist? Economic with the truth.
I’m sure there were similar imperialist propaganda articles written about every country that left the English empire.
I wonder why The Economist would choose to ignore the biggest target in the Indy movement right now – Humza Fucking Yousaf.
Why would they ignore the flawed and fraudulent process that made him FM?
Why would they ignore the ludicrously laughable optics of HY fronting Scotland’s national independence movement?
I don’t often take issue with Rev Stu, but I think he is massively missing the point here.
The Economist article is actually pulling its punches by restricting itself to discussing the same old, done-to-death economic and demographic arguments.
I guess they are reserving the barn-door-sized target that is HY for more advantageous times. Advantageous for them that is. Not for Scotland, or Indy.
Still, strong the cringe is in Wings BTL. Readers might be forgiven for thinking that HY was voted into place as FM by 5 million sovereign Scots, so non-existent is the outrage on here at the shaming travesty that occurred.
@ highlander
Hmm, did you specifically pick the month of December for any particular reason?
It’s just that other months it’s a very different story.
link to twitter.com
And I’ve pointed out many times before that on the odd occasion Scotland does receive electrical power from England, that power is most likely being generated by Combined Cycle Gas Turbines in England which are burning gas from either Scotland or Norway over and above the gas produced by England.
For example 33% of GB Grid power is currently being generated by CCGT.
link to gridwatch.templar.co.uk
And look at the current gas flows coming in from Scotland and Norway.
link to mip-prd-web.azurewebsites.net
Plus, this doesn’t show the whole picture as often a certain type of generated energy is only being used due to contractual arrangements. EG. It was windy the other day when I rode my motorbike past two windfarms, yet the turbines were not turning.
@ A Scot Abroad 7.08
This ‘Context’ preceeds the Declaration itself:
Context: The Nation of Scotland has a long history which can be traced back to 892AD. The sovereignty of the People was established by the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320AD and again in the Claim of Right in 1689AD. The Claim of Right to self determination has been reaffirmed many times including on 4th July 2018, when the House of Commons officially endorsed the principles of the Claim of Right, agreeing that the people of Scotland are sovereign and that they have the right to determine the best form of government for Scotland’s needs.
It is factual – but it leads to the obvious question – do I believe that it will be fool-proof? Not for a second!
Any and all attempts by anyone to regain Scotland’s independence will face everything that can be conceived of to prevent it ever happening, for the reasons we all know.
The two over-riding criteria for any attempt are that it should be “legal” and “internationally recognised”.
Where this initiative has taken a very different approach is to research in depth international law, and at the Stage which is curremtly ongoing to bring this to the attention of Members of the United Nations, specifically at the moment, Members who have gained their independence from the UK.
Many of the questions I have been asked, many of the obvious hurdles that have to be cleared are all dealt with in the link I gave above.
(I don’t want to end up (sorry) by transferring all that background here, when it is available via that link.) However:
However, let me use one post from that link – it refers to South Africa, one of the recipients of the letters I mention. Let’ see if we can find out by using “international law, not the “domestic law” inherent in the Scotland Act, which prevents anyone in Scotland having the right to vote on the future of their country?
Extract Post:
‘The Declaration of a Sovereign Scot’ initiative … Will it play a part, perhaps a unique part, in regaining Scotland’s independence?
In my last post I said that I would be writing letters to those who a) have gained their independence from the UK. This is the list of the first recipients – all of whom gained their independence from the UK, on the dates listed.
But, I hear you say, we know that all countries must first have regard to their own self-interest, ‘America First’ is just one such example, and all of those on the list are thousands of miles away from Scotland. Is that aways true and is distance a problem? Consider …
Consider whether there are exceptions to that stricture of pure self interest, and whether sometimes the call for freedom can be heard despite the thousands of miles involved.
It was Scotland which proved that very exception,
It was Scotland that recognised that peoples 6000 miles away had the right to self-determination,
It was Scotland that was the first to do so,
And it was Scotland that said to the world that the right to self-determination and freedom must be recognised.
From a much longer list, these are the countries chosen (for now) to recognise and support the right to self-determination for the Sovereign People of Scotland:
South Africa – 1961: Barbados – 1966: Fiji – 1970: Ghana – 1957: India – 1947: Jamaica – 1962: Kenya – 1963: Malawi – 1964: Mauritius – 1968: Seychelles – 1976: The Bahamas – 1973: Trinidad and Tobago – 1962: Uganda – 1962: United States of America – 1776: Australia – 1986: Canada – 1982: Ireland – 1949: New Zealand – 1986.
Please use the link for more. Thanks!
JohnIm,
the figures will include defence expenditures, as they are all broken down from the U.K. national budget. Much of that is spent into the local communities where defence assets are based, and about half into the defence industry, again wherever that’s based. I don’t have any figures for Scotland on that, because that’s not broken down in that document.
Surely an independent state of circa 5m people could be “ administered “ at a significantly lower cost than the present UK Westminster set up ? Apparently Thatcher recognised that the admin costs of the UK ( reportedly circa 47 per cent of GDP , at the time ) was ridiculously high, she attempted to reduce this to the low 40’s but failed . How many tens of thousands of Whitehall government jobs , government agency jobs and government quango London based jobs are we as Scottish tax payers contributing towards , when at least as an Independent nation these jobs could be repatriated to Scotland .
I reiterate , as a proportion of GDP surely a small Independent Nation could “ operate” with a much reduced “ government beaurocracy “ than the present overbloated Whitehall based London centric “ money gobbler”
FFS even after 2014 we still have cunts like a scunt abroad spouting how much i…… did this and that…….who gives a fuck mate….go fuck yerself. Still have Sanctimonious twats spouting utter shit….look at me….if you don’t think Scotland can thrive as an independent country….go fuck yourself
Jeezo….they’re appearing from the woodwork….
‘Highlander’ (lol) and ASA
two cheeks of the same erse….
@ highlander
You must try harder as your stated hypothetical production costs versus selling price are considerably out of whack with the actual current pricing reality.
Compare London Rule and Norway’s fossil fuel reserves management strategies and let me know which was most beneficial to their respective areas.
Don’t let the inertia get you down Stu. or you might end up like Peter Bell. He has been pretending he is mad.
He constantly posts about how usless the SNP have been, are now, and how they they will continue to be, and then says there is no alternative but to vote for them.
No pretence necessary perhaps.
@Mike Fenwick says:1 June, 2023 at 8:06 pm
Just a general point, if I may.
The issue I see with using “international law”, interpreted and applied within an accepted “international rules based order”, is that the “international rules based order” has been unraveling at high speed since February 2022. Arguably earlier, when we look at what happened to Hong Kong.
An unraveling cheered on by many on here, but that’s technically irrelevant to the discussion.
But the times, they are a-changing. In a multipolar world, there is more than one “international law”. Right now, more than one of the “international laws” is crushing the right to self-determination.
It might be interesting and even constructive to list all of the nations, countries and distinct political entities that have ceased to exist since the 1940’s, let alone the 1770’s. I would wager for more than those you list as having been created.
Ah ‘Highlander’. An obvious English Tory cockroach or maybe just another English Tory parasite. It is one or the otehr or maybe both.
Please scroll through and critique the reality of Scotland’s fossil fuel resources being under the control of London Rule.
link to indyposterboy.scot
It’s some fucking dark comedy that a perpetual stream of loons rock up btl telling Scots our abundant resources are of the wrong type… but do they ever consider that the big in yer face issue is that we jist have the wrong type of government miss-managing those resources…
Just a general point, if I may……says jonny main ffs…look at me
@John Main 8.34
Google ” Landgeist” … you may be surprised.
A Scot abroad @8.11pm
I think that you will find that the defence expenditure is deliberately vague.
The Uk defence budget is about 50 billion currently.
Most of this is spent in the Home Counties.
That’s 5 billion off the Scottish budget straight away.
Stop referring to UK government documents.
@Dan says:1 June, 2023 at 8:21 pm
actual current pricing reality
Been wondering about reality myself, having today filled up with diesel at £1.34 per liter.
According to the RAC’s 10-year pump-price tracker, last time road fuel was this cheap was July 2021. Cheap as £1.34 per liter I mean. Factor in inflation since, and diesel is what? 30% cheaper than it was 2 years ago? WTAF?
So just what is the reality in the oil and gas sector right now?
No offence, but that’s obviously a rhetorical question.
Meantime, in other news, Europe talking about setting up a continent-wide “iron dome” to protect herself against rogue missiles from that rogue state in the east. Assuming Scotland is smart enough to buy into the idea, that will protect our offshore assets: fossil and wind.
Put our ideological purity first and decline to get under the dome, and we can be Europe’s softest target instead.
@smithie says:1 June, 2023 at 8:46 pm
Wilson – Gin again and on a week-night too!
I’m rowing back on my initial assessment of you as a brain surgeon.
But if I was right all along, get your PA to cancel the morn’s ops, eh?
@Johnlm says:1 June, 2023 at 9:09 pm
That’s 5 billion off the Scottish budget straight away
Well said Johnlm.
We’ll be rich in an impoverished world, we’ll be relatively lightly populated and adjacent a continent where tens of millions of climate change refugees will be on the move, and most of the stuff that makes us rich will be hundreds of miles out in the sea somewhere.
So as you wrote, we won’t need a defence budget because we won’t have anything worth defending.
I am fully on board with that, but I lack the ability to write it up in any convincing way that will persuade the nay sayers.
Do help me out, please.
” Smithie says:
1 June, 2023 at 8:17 pm
FFS even after 2014 we still have cunts like a scunt abroad spouting how much i…… did this and that…….who gives a fuck mate….go fuck yerself. Still have Sanctimonious twats spouting utter shit….look at me….if you don’t think Scotland can thrive as an independent country….go fuck yourself ”
Couldnaea put it better masel 🙂
I get that people are engaging with the droning drongoes for the purpose of dispelling the tedious cliches of Yoonthink they ( the dds ) imagine is cogent analyses of the ” Scottish Question ” . It’s no .
Doesn’t matter how often or convincingly their arguments are blown-away they just move on to another tired old ” you can’t do that ” trope ; onan on . Time wasters
Re: James Che’s comment at 6.32 pm:
“For how small is England without Scotland” reminded me of a song my father told me that he and fellow KOSBs used to sing while patrolling the Kyber Pass in India during World War II. It went “There wouldna be an England if Scotland wasnae here!”. Draw your own conclusions!!
JohnIm,
A lot of the defence budget ends up being spent in Scotland: the local economy in Faslane, ship building in Rosyth, half a dozen Regiments stationed in Scotland, four squadrons of the RAF flying expensive jets, and then there’s the defence industry in Glasgow (the old Pilkington Optronics, now Thales), Babcock, BAE Systems, Raytheon in Glenrothes, and there’s more.
Scotland gets a lot of money from Defence. It’s going to get even more with the Sutherland Spaceport launching surveillance and communication satellites when that comes on stream. You don’t appear to know about any of that real world stuff.
John Main says: at 9:11 pm
“Been wondering about reality myself, having today filled up with diesel at £1.34 per liter.”
Damn it, I thought I was getting a good deal paying £145.9 a litre for diesel yesterday (unleaded petrol was same price). But what were you buying diesel for as I thought you had gone
greeninsane and bought a Tesla. lol“Meantime, in other news, Europe talking about setting up a continent-wide “iron dome” to protect herself against rogue missiles from that rogue state in the east. Assuming Scotland is smart enough to buy into the idea, that will protect our offshore assets: fossil and wind.
Put our ideological purity first and decline to get under the dome, and we can be Europe’s softest target instead.”
But John, according to ASA and highlander we have the wrong type of resources, plus with ohm’s law issues and other nations being able to produce the right type of resources cheaper in their own land, then why the fuck would anyone want to invade Scotland to get shit that doesn’t work or is too expensive to transport or transfer back to any invader’s homeland.
I’ve still got a mild wine buzz on and with twa full bags of shite and a musty auld broon trout from clearing that sewer earlier, I’m armed and ready to lob my ammo at any potential fiscally insane invaders after our worthless resources. “If they fuckin want some, then come ahead ya radges!
John main @9.09pm
Take a deep breath and arrange your thoughts.
..
Now, was your last post agreeing with me or were you taking issue?
Please, try to respond clearly with what you are trying to say.
Am I the only one that finds many of these posts incoherent?
I blame the education system.
Johnlm 9.42pm
You need to give the guy Main bit of slack,,,it’s his English education that fucked his head up.
A Scot abroad @9.35pm
Got any figures for all of that?
Dan, I have never said that Scotland has the wrong type of resources. Why would I? Electricity is electricity the world over, and so is gas and oil the same the world over, once it’s been extracted and refined.
What I have always said is that other people have those too, and so it comes down to the price that they can be be produced and then be moved anywhere. And that’s where Scotland has some disadvantages. Geographically remote from the major markets, so that means shipping it, which can be very expensive. And then there’s the cost of production, with Scottish wages being a lot more expensive inputs than say Nigeria (oil), Qatar (gas), or for transmission costs, the shorter distances to major markets than Norway/Denmark/Holland etc.
It’s just basic commercial reality.
You really do get sick of hearing how Scotland is extravagantly subsidised by England. With a pop of five and a half million and nearly fifty years of oil and gas revenue from the Nr Sea Scotland should be dripping in wealth like Norway but it isn`t, so where has all the money gone. It`s a question that unionist`s don`t like posed.
“James Che says:
1 June, 2023 at 6:08 pm
Brain washed climate change, the planet is heating up, its human being causing it…”
You talkin’ to me..?
(topical, seeing as he’s bringing another body into being)
I don’t think that it’s a load of bollocks. We’ve been encouraged to consume, to buy stuff that we don’t need, to feed economic growth. The car companies benefit, as do the fuel companies, the companies building the planned-obsolescence electronic products – etcetera, etcetera, etcetera… (to quote). I agree that the planet’s temperature moves around, but look at what we’re doing to it. We’re flooding habitats with toxins and waste and noise. Just look at the central reservation as you approach the Broxden roundabout from the south, or as you approach the Edinburgh bypass/M8 roundabout from the west. You’ll be in a vehicle as you do this, of course; that’s part of the problem too. Try to listen to birdsong; you can’t hear it because of the traffic noise.
I did a very grown-up thing and bought a bus pass earlier in the year; I also have a car, a van and a motorbike, none of which have done much mileage recently but they’re useful tools to have.
I’d rather be inside pissing out rather than outside pissing in, if that makes sense.
JohnIm,
it depends upon the year. In the last decade, it’s been between 15-25% of the defence budget being spent into Scotland, as Faslane upgrades and building/assembling 2 carriers in Rosyth have been the expensive items. Getting a new squadron of Poseidon jets into Moray kept costs up.
Rather more than 9%, in other words, for the last decade. And 9% is about Scotland’s population share of the U.K. Scotland does well out of defence spending.
Now, has anybody in the Indy movement thought about how that income to Scotland would be replaced? It’s not about having a defence force, which the SNP have previously indicated would be similar to Ireland’s rather cheap and pathetic military. But replacing the income into Scotland. That’s not a small sum.
A fake Scot abroad writes
” Scotland does well out of defence spending.”
Lies as ever from the fake Scot.
How much of that money goes into the pockets of Scots?
Precious little. The money may nominally be spent in Scotland, but it takes a great leap to think that iut benefits Scots in any tangible way.
Once again the servile fake Scot spouts lies and half-truths on behalf of the English.
Stay out of here, pal, your kind is neither wanted nor needed.
A fake Scot abroad writes
” Scotland does well out of defence spending.”
Lies as ever from the fake Scot.
How much of that money goes into the pockets of Scots?
Precious little. The money may nominally be spent in Scotland, but it takes a great leap to think that iut benefits Scots in any tangible way.
Once again the servile fake Scot spouts lies and half-truths on behalf of the English.
DO we really need to hear any more from this arselicker?
Any defence expenditure “ spent” in Scotland on behalf of the English government is for a very good reason . Scotland is England’s “ front line” of defence , and in the ultimate “ end game” is geographically & politically expendiible . Any “ garrisons” at Scottish locations such as Kinross, Lossiemouth , Leuchers , faslane etc. are primarily “ manned” by English “ administered” forces with the vast majority of “ officer class “ military beaurocracy from south of the border . Any home grown Scots make up the “ rank & file “ only . It has always been the case that the “ officers mess” is primarily manned by non natives , for a very good reason , to minimise the risk of any military coup in the event of any internal extreme political ramifications within Scotland . Thus maintaining at all costs the colonial aspects of the “ UK” within Scotland .
The defence of Scotland should in the first instance be the responsibility of the Sovereign people of our country . Any future alliances whether within the “ supposed United Kingdom” or outwith should be ,although obviously important , secondary defence arrangements . Thereby ensuring that the Defence of Scotland is ranked higher than the defence of the UK ( Primarily from a defence prospective England)
A Scot abroad 10.20pm
I can’t find it at the moment, but I read a book in 2006 (by a guy called Lewis, I think)
He was ex army and explained how, at a push, the UK could raise 2 battle groups each commanded by a lieutenant- colonel.
From memory, he said that the Brit army had 1600 lieutenant- colonels, and the navy and the
RAF also had their equivalents.
The numbers may have changed since but the fraud is obvious.
It is the basis of the private school system.
You seem to be happy with this waste of resources which could be well spent elsewhere or returned as tax cuts.
Sparky longname,
There are about 10,000 servicemen and women in Scotland, the majority of whom are Scots. My old regiment among them. They probably earn an average of £35,000 a year. Then there are over 25,000 fully resident Scots employed in the defence industry, earning perhaps the national average salary of £27,000. Then there’s the sub-contractors and supporting businesses that support both the military bases or the defence industry: builders, accountants, caterers, electrical suppliers and so on.
But that will be of no matter to you. You’ll just ignore it.
Tell me why you think that I’m a fake Scot? Is it because I try to think things through a bit, and you don’t think that’s a necessary trait when you would prefer to wave a plastic Saltire and shout about Freedum?
Dan says:
1 June, 2023 at 8:21 pm
@ highlander
You must try harder as your stated hypothetical production costs versus selling price are considerably out of whack with the actual current pricing reality.
2020 it was costing $100+ a barrel must be more now, back in 2014 it was costing $80 a barrel AS was shouting from the rooftops how good this was when the price was higher.
Sellimg price today around $70 a barrel, Russia is selling at $20 a barrel.
All the oil companies posted a loss on “scots” oil.
Your made up economics lost the last ref. lets not make the same mistakes again
‘The over 65s will rise to over a third’
Aye, get the regional *holiday home retiree’s* tae fck!
Like Queenie – we seem to be cool destination to come & peg it.
McDuff @ 10.14 pm:
“Where has all the money gone from Scottish Gas & Oil?”. We’d all love to know! It’s time the People of Scotland (never mind the so-called “politicians”) started asking questions!
It’s become quite obvious to me that “The Scottish Parliament” is a farce and controlled by Westminster. That ugly building should never have been built! We had a decent Royal High School that could have been converted to a Parliament but, at that time, “Scottish Labour” had taken control and, as usual, they wasted money and built another building, which is an eyesore!
It’s time that all Scottish people banded together (if they believe in an Independent Scotland) and demanded that the UK Government tell us what they did with all the money they gained from the Scottish Gas and Oil they stole from our country – they certainly didn’t use it to benefit the people of Scotland!!
McDuff at 10:14 pm
“You really do get sick of hearing how Scotland is extravagantly subsidised by England. With a pop of five and a half million and nearly fifty years of oil and gas revenue from the Nr Sea Scotland should be dripping in wealth like Norway but it isn’t, so where has all the money gone. It’s a question that unionist’s don’t like posed.”
50 years? Pah! We’re looking at 300 here donchaknow. When’s the break-even point?
JohnIm,
either you’ve read a piece of complete nonsense, or your memory is a bit addled.
The British Army currently has around 24 Battlegroups (it varies year on year, up or down), and can put a Division of 20 Battlegroups into the field. Then there’s a further 18 single Battalion regiments. And the Royal Marines (4 Commandos), and at a push the RAF Regiment (4 squadrons) sort of knows how to fire weapons and could do basic combat duties.
I’m not sure what your point is, but if you want to be taken seriously, it’s helpful to your cause to do basic research rather than posting addled nonsense.
Having previously worked in the oil & gas industry for circa 20 years , I well remember in the mid eighties the oil price plummeted to 9 dollars a bbl. However , a decade prior to this when opec quadrupled the oil price overnight the Thatcher government “ shat” themselves as regards the implications for “ British” industry etc . Thus the “ mad dash “ for North Sea oil commenced ( by the way with Health & safety oot the window & dozens of workers killed or maimed in the ensuing scramble ) . Notwithstanding piper alpha , Alexander Keilland , choppers down etc etc .
In other words , the North Sea production ( at any price both financially & in human terms) was to ensure the UK was not dependent on opec supplies and thus could not be “ held to random” by the then cartel . Moving on half a century or so , I do not foresee the UK or other western allies purchasing “ Russian oil & gas “ at any price 20 usd or otherwise .
Security of supplies of resources is the “ watchword today” as it was circa 50 years ago .
North Chiel,
when I last served within the Army in Scotland, I was Adjutant of a Scottish Regiment recruited entirely in Scotland. The CO was a Scotsman, along with about 30 of 35 officers, as was the Commander of 52 Lowland Brigade, an officer of the RHF. And the Commander of 51 Highland Brigade commanded by an Argyll and Sutherland Highlander, up the road in Perth. That Brigade was full of Scotsmen, as well, unless you don’t think that the Black Watch are Scottish. The Brigade staff officers were full of Scotsmen, as was HQ Scotland in Craigiehall. And the GOC was a Scotsman, a Gordon Highlander.
So what’s this about the military in Scotland being full of non-natives?
The “ break even point” was probably around 1918 with the tens of thousands of native Scots killed & maimed in the trenches Sir . A far higher proportion of population loss than any other part of the so called “UK” . Our contribution to the “ precious precious Union “paid in blood.
Gotta love the smug fucks that think they know best….college educated twats…probably still live with mummy and think we ..normal people ..are some kind of slug..lol away and take a fuck tae yersel.
“ ASA@1158pm” sadly the days of engaging the “ sten gang “ and the daring escapades of “ Mad Mitch” in Aden etc are long gone and I do hope you enjoy your retirement . Yes we did have a genuine army of Scots regiments in these days , however As you obviously know there is only ONE Scottish regiment now, as the famous Scottish regiments you mention have been decimated over the years past . I note you did not mention the RAF or RN in your previous critique . Anyhow , what’s wrong with having an independent Scottish defence force working in partnership with our Allies ? Perhaps then we could “ acquire” some sort of Navy ( albeit built in Turkey perhaps) .
i love how the likes of A Scot A broad try to come across as the font of all knowledge…like how great this “island” is….this cunt,ry that without the help of the USA would have been fucked trying to defend the Falklands…never mind the shitfest Iraq when we sent soldiers into battle without the basic equipment…wrong boots…a rifle that was shit in desert warfare and of course what about non existant ceramic plates for armour vests, but >>>>hey ho Wave the flag…Britania rules the waves….get it right up ye.
North Chiel,
I don’t understand your point about a “break even point”. Scotsmen have served in, and died in, U.K. military forces around the world since 1707. The Army isn’t like the Navy, where all nationalities onboard are mixed in, but there are English, Irish, and Welsh regiments all serving as proudly as Scots do in Scottish regiments.
A huge number of Scots families suffered from casualties, as did those in the other countries. A forebear of mine in the Black Watch died in the Boer War at Magersfontein, his son in the first World War at Passchendaele, serving with the remnants of the London Scots that had been put into an English Regiment of the Royal Fusiliers. We are all in it together.
SNP in new missing money furore as minister can’t say where £33m of ring-fenced cash went
“The Scottish Government’s rural affairs secretary Mairi Gougeon could not explain where £33m of ring-fenced cash for farmers had ended up after being cut in John Swinney’s “emergency budget last year.”
link to scottishdailyexpress.co.uk
Smithie,
what are you? Trying to be the most needlessly abusive and ineffectual foul-mouthed loser in Scotland? There’s competition for that lowdown. You need to lower your game to be in contention.
i have to laugh at that scot abroad who is the font of all knowledge, who thinks that the Uk is some world power…..hahahahhahahahaa… as if…..a wee spit of land in the north sea…GTF dude
Galloway Lass says:
“It’s become quite obvious to me that “The Scottish Parliament” is a farce and controlled by Westminster. That ugly building should never have been built! We had a decent Royal High School that could have been converted to a Parliament.”
I agree, Galloway Lass, I never understood the unnecessary expense when there was a perfectly good building available. I guess it was because Holyrood was always meant to be an expensive façade enclosing a hollow shell. I think it is quite clear now that Holyrood is a function of Westminster; the faults and crimes of Holyrood are the faults and crimes of Westminster and not a reflection on the people of Scotland.
ASA see the post at 1125 pm re “ break even point”
Smithie,
If you have no regard for the UK’s place in the world as it is (member of the G7, G20, second largest financial centre in the world, 5th largest economy in the world, currently running the WTO, permanent member of the IMF board, leader of a Commonwealth of 57 nations, and a P5 member of the UN), but think of it as a spit of land in the North Sea, then just imagine how powerful an independent Scotland would be without all of that baggage.
my son in law was involved in the Iraq conflict so i know what i am talking about…. those poor bastards had to to revert to buying kit from online sources…. fuck you GB
There is one good thing about the Economist’s headline, although they should probably have lent it on a permanent basis to the WoS commenters below the line…
“Scotland’s Holiday From Reality”
It really sums up the sort of muppetry being written by the Indy types.
ASA @ 1241 am , your last sentence “ we’re all in it together” sounds somewhat familiar Sir .Perhaps we’re all “ better together” ?
Smithie,
I fought in the first Gulf Conflict (the legal one). So I won’t take lessons from you in that matter, unless you also fought there. And it seems that you probably didn’t.
Yes Scotland is well aware now of the “ reality” of life under the most right wing Tory Westminster government in living memory . Poverty, austerity, crumbling Health service , Dickensian social housing provision , sky high energy prices , food price inflation at record levels, lowest state pensions in Europe , and the fat useless Tory state beaurocracy rolls on and on , devouring the lion’s share of what’s left of the state cake . Aye folks we’re so much “ better together” , 9 years past since 2014 . ( remember folks if you vote yes Scotland will be out of Europe ) ,
What do you want? ASA? are you something special
I see Broon’s at it again . Labour is going to abolish the “ Hoose a Lairds” ( they’ve being saying that since I was at primary school in 1959 ) . Broon promising “ the biggest transfer of power to Scotland “ again , I thought that was to happen after 2014 ( the vow). However, he didn’t mention Starmer was going to shut down our Oil& Gas sector .
Must be running scared of the latest independence polls. London Labour the British establishment 2nd eleven government , always called on when the Tories need a rest after stuffing themselves & cronies at the corporate buffet fiesta . They’ve had their fill and need to sleep it off for a year or two . Time for the Britnat second eleven to bat . Nothing changes over the decades .
What I want, Smithie, is for a proper debate about an iScotland. A debate fuelled by sensible analysis of what that would mean in reality, proper policies, costed budgets, international recognition, trade deals, a currency, central bank and all of the other boring things that are almost completely absent from the thoughts of the Saltire-waving loons of people shouting “Freedum!” on internet pages. Are you up for that, or merely up for your first two comments to me, just full of pish, invective, and although you probably didn’t realise it, mental anguish and inchoate rage against things that you can’t change?
North Chiel,
although I personally would like to see Scotland going gangbusters on getting as much oil and gas out of the North Sea as possible (and onshore as well), it’s a likely fact that we are going to have the government of the UK (Labour or Tory), or even an iScotland, wanting to close down the North Sea oil and gas, because they’re all in hock to the eco-loons. So it doesn’t matter who the government is, the oil and gas is dead.
Smithie,
unless you have carried a rifle and bayonet into conflict for our nation, however you define that, just shut the fuck up about fighting wars. Because if you haven’t, you are nothing more than a blowhard.
I have spent over 1500 days on operational service with the British military, including war in Iraq and Kuwait, a tour of NI in South Armagh, and 4 tours in the Balkans. I’m not going to bow my head to your blethering about things that you don’t know about.
“other than to reassure readers than we haven’t died”
Reassure the readers other than you that haven’t died of what?
Don’t think the Tories will shut down oil & gas sector . Too much money at stake for treasury ASA. If Starmer goes into a GE with that policy it will be a vote loser in Scotland and most of the East coast communities in England . There is hundreds of thousands of jobs at stake both directly and in the supply chain . Many of these companies export goods & services on a world wide basis from Scotland and other UK bases . The multinationals have a lot of leverage and the Tories know which side their “bread is buttered on “.( Notwithstanding security of energy supply issue) .
Also ASA the absolutely massive machine tool / precision engineering capability within the Oil & gas industry could be quickly adapted & geared up for military purposes ( if it ever became necessary . I really do hope NOT ).
OPINION
Glasgow businesses will pay the price for SNP arrogance over LEZ.
link to glasgowtimes.co.uk
And if anybody doesn’t know that “Scot Abroad” and “Smithie” are not the same Troll then they need their fuckin head examined.
This crowd of Trolls are from the same source.
And they are succeeding in fucking Wings right up.
So those other clowns who go into full on chit chat with them are just as bad.
Guys like North Chiel and Ian Brotherhood should know better.
Who gives a flying fuck about the irrelevant English Army,,,or their cannon fodder Scottish branch offices.
A Scot Abroad says:
2 June, 2023 at 2:58 am
Smithie,
unless you have carried a rifle and bayonet into conflict for our nation, however you define that, just shut the fuck up about fighting wars.
Ha! Ha! Ha! The Ascot Hat has turned into Corporal Jones. “The fuzzy-wuzzies don’t like it up’em Capt Mainwaring! They don’t like it up em!”
Smithie, if you feed the troll you’ll end up trolled. It’s the only reason the arsehole comes here.
Incidentally, for those who don’t know, a “Hat” is the derogatory term for those mouthy gobshites in the ordinary Army who don’t earn a berret.
Call them a fkg hat to their face, because it winds them up tremendously because they know exactly what it means.
Most veterans who’re worth a fk would need waterboarded just to confirm they actually even were veterans. They have nothing to prove to anybody, unlike our resident James Blunt wannabe.
We are all in it together nonsense above-
Never were and never will be as long as Scotland belongs to England.
If you watch an accurate account of the battle of Waterloo you will find the Duke before he was awarded a Glasgow traffic cone ordered the “Scottish Bastards in first to soak up the French canons and bullets.
In World War 1 the Scottish Soldiers accounted for over 25% percent of fatalities.
If you don’t know we never had half of that population wise.
As ever the English sent in the Scots first whenever they could and often into hopeless situations to test the enemy and protect English soldiers.
On holiday in Sicily a guide informed us that the Germans has one of their elite battalions based there. When the American, English and Scots soldiers invade the Germans outnumbered headed into the high mountains and dug.
It was decided the Americans would protect the towns and the English the coast line and guess who was tasked to attack the Germans and suffered great losses.
If the English ever called me up and put a rifle in my hand I well know who the enemy is who is responsible for more Scottish deaths than every other nation on the planet.
ASA @11.28pm
The book to which I refer is ‘Lions, donkeys and Dinosaurs – waste and blundering in the military’ by Lewis Page published 2006.
He says that in those days the Brit army could maybe raise 2 combat divisions requiring maybe 15 brigadiers, 2 or 3 major generals and 1 lieutenant-general. In fact they have more than ten times these numbers. The Navy has 20 fold surpus. The RAF is worse.
Institutionalised wheel spinning, missed budget targets, incompetent BAE manufacturing.
My point is that your assertion that pork barrel politics is a productive way to run a society is unhealthy.
I’m just catching up, but kudos to this lady on Debate Night Perth. Succinct and articulate, and totally nailing it.
link to twitter.com
I see she’s being derided as a Unionist plant and/or an ALBAist, mostly by the usual Children of the Corn in the SNP, (thank you so much whoever invented that), but my own radar is detecting exasperated sincerity.
It’s reaches the stage, like Sturgeon herself, when it ceases to matter whether she’s an idiot, or a puppet of the Establishment, because the damage to the cause is the same either way.
Just like the lady on Debate Night… Even if she was a plant, (though I don’t think she was), she didn’t miss.
I need to catch the whole program I think, because the Boss was on it too and came across well.
@North chiel says:2 June, 2023 at 1:34 am
most right wing Tory Westminster government in living memory
Aye, immigration at 606,000 in a year.
Taxes at record highs to pay for the beloved Chinese Flu overreaction.
Stupendous government borrowing to sub everybody’s leccy bills over the winter.
And as pointed out upthread, petrol and diesel prices dropping like a stone.
Aye, right wing just ain’t what it used to be.
Other than in some eejit’s heids.
That’s the reality you won’t face. To anybody right wing, the Tories are about as far away from right wing as is imaginable.
Which is why, in the real world, those on what used to be called the left wing are despairing of Starmer, because most of his best policies have been stolen by the “right wing Tories”.
Time for you to either “educate yourself dude”, or just find yourself some new knee-jerk labels.
@Breeks says:2 June, 2023 at 6:22 am
Smithie, if you
Ah Breeks, despite all of our differences on just about everything, I am starting to warm to you.
Your stellar levels of gullibility and childish innocence shine through.
Bless.
@Johnml
“incompetent BAE manufacturing”
Agreed. I recall the Nimrod Mk3 AEW farce c/o BAe. How many millions wasted? Too many to count!
link to twitter.com
State of these fkg Redcoats. Truly nauseating individuals.
@Ron Clark (6.08) –
That’s a wee bit harsh there Ron!
I only asked ASA a simple question and he did make an half-arsed effort to answer. But then he started with the insults again so I highlighted it and blanked him.
Showing them up as ignorant throbbers incapable of normal discussion isn’t ‘chit-chat’.
😉
Robert knight @7.07
You would think they could design a rifle at least.
It was discovered that the L85A1 would fire if you dropped it.
But that’s ok because the bullets would fall out when it was strapped to a squaddies chest.
Breeks 6:54
Totally agree and she got probably the biggest round of applause.
Effijy 6.38am
Spot on post regarding the way the Scots were “used” by their English masters from the English Army.
Pure cannon fodder. And the worst bit of all is that the simpleton Scots fell for all that bullshit about the Scots being the bravest of all fighting men.
Utter crap!!!
And if the Ruskies do decide to invade Engerland, then I will be only too glad to join forces with the Ruskies, and help them wipe the bastards to the south of us off the face of the fuckin earth.
Not that the Ruskies would need any help mind you.
They would wipe out the whole English Army in half a shift.
Galloway Lass and Saffron Robe, was there not some unionist objection to using the old School as it would play into the hands of the SNP in some historical way?
Breeks , I remember her from QT and she was angry then too – like many of us!
To those incapable of resisting the ‘lofty superior ‘ arguments put forward by the ‘well informed higher brows’ – try harder!
ASCOTABROAD
So you were in Iraq. Would that be 2003? My birth year incidently. The year of the WMDs etc that no one found and the death of 500k people including members of my wider family?
Suggest you find a site more suited to your world view.
Yawn!
P.S Yours for Scotland on us peasants – worth a look for articla and comments.
Same goes for Grousebeater on BROON!
A fud abroad
Do us a favour and stay there.
I see ‘A Scot Abroad’ @2:58am is reminiscing about his days fighting the Rooskies in the ‘CryMeAnother’ war back in 1854.
I wonder if he’s alluding to his bayonet carrying days, or more likely a sabre, on horseback with the Light Brigade.
The Oxford English Dictionary contains the word ‘quaquaversally’, which means in every direction.
“Cannon quaquaversally” would have been quicker to read, but wouldn’t have been quite as poetic, and almost everything in Tennyson’s famous poem is there purely for the sake of rhetoric.
Or maybe ASA has a dose of the nostalgias over his days in the trenches back in 1917, when he would sing this popular song with his army buddies while they were all cleaning their bayonets.
It’s quite nice that thoughts like that could survive the horrors of war.
The last two lines seem strangely aggressive, though.
Or at least it’s strange until you go back to the original lyrics of 1917, where the word bless was replaced by ‘fuck’.
Anyway, those two wee poems are examples of Merism.
There’s more to Merism, but that’s for another day.
Imagine being confronted, in the flesh, by a keyboard hard man like Ron Clark. What a terrifying prospect…………..said nobody!
The content and standards of every article posted by the Rev Stu are always at a high level. Unfortunately the same cannot be said regarding the comments, which have plumbed to an abysmal low of late.
It is indicative of SNP run Scotland sadly. Yet it is all England’s and Westminster fault!
It will get worse.
“ John Main@ 0659am “ very well educated thank you at Herriot Watt uni Edinburgh .
Dorothy @8.42 my memories are that The reason Labour discarded the high Skool was not historical but psychological. They did not want anybody looking up to the Parliament which would have been on a Hill so they selected an area in Edinburgh that was low lying so everybody looked down on it.
Ottomanboi says:
2 June, 2023 at 8:56 am
So you were in Iraq. Would that be 2003? My birth year incidently. The year of the WMDs etc
No, Gulf War 1, was when Saddam Hussain invaded a sovereign neighbour Kuwait, back when US still felt it needed legitimacy, International consensus, and UN Resolutions as materially relevant precondition of open warfare.
Stormin’ Norman exercised notable restraint and integrity by abiding by the UN Resolutions to the letter, which called for the expulsion of Iraq from Kuwait, but not for it’s outright destruction, nor indeed the toppling of Saddam Hussain. Schwarzkopf emphatically delivered.
The “best” feature of the First Gulf War, despite it’s legitimacy that is, was the presence of Middle Eastern allies in the assault who were allies of Kuwait, which, combined with Schwarzkopf’s uncharacteristic American restraint, gave rise to hopes of lasting peace and improved relations in the Middle East.
Sadly, one particular Nation known for it’s utter contempt for UN Resolutions, felt the precedent of upholding UN Resolutions by force was an awkward precedent to normalise, and improving relations between Washington and the Muslim World was a very dangerous and unwelcome phenomenon which had to torpedoed with hysteria and lies about Irag having nuclear WMD’s..
Cue Gulf War 2… No legitimacy, no common cause, no Resolutions, but instead dirty, fabricated “evidence” of why the “Uppity Arab” had to be destroyed by Shock and Awe overreaction, and US / Middle Eastern relations bombed back to the Stoneage, and Tel Aviv over the moon about it.
The bloodshed hasn’t stopped since.
Historians in future decades may indeed pronounce that Gulf War one marked the beginning of the end for any pretence that “The West” were acually the good guys, not just murderous mercenaries into bombing the crap out of Islamic nations for the oil and money from Arms sales.
North Chiel
You have kept an admirable all night vigil against the enemy at the gate and yet you are still awake!
@Lenny Hartley (9.40) –
If they could’ve gotten away with decreeing that it be constructed underground then they would’ve done.
It’s worth remembering that approximately half of those people who vote in Scotland are actually happy with this. It is they who are the problem, not Holyrood and not Westminster.
Lenny Hartley @ 9:40 am
Dorothy @8.42 my memories are that The reason Labour discarded the high Skool was not historical but psychological.
Aye, thay unionists rinnin Scotlan stickit thon wee pretendy pairliament weel oot the wey, doon the fit o the High Street whaur naebody but tourists gaes. The auld High Schuil on Calton Hill wis a better ploy, an so wis the auld parliament itsel up in ‘Parliament Square’ – onywhair mair Scots fowk cuid see aw thay traisonable rogues comin an gangin.
John main,
“..petrol and diesel prices dropping like a stone”
Are they?
It’s akin to me kicking you up the arse every half hour and demanding thanks for reducing my boot up your hole to only every hour.
But I do like the way you look on the bright side of things.
Thistle Bristle.
2nd June, 1: 02pm.
Thank you for the compliment, I am sure Xaracen feels the same,
I enjoy debate with Xaracen because as you say, it is possible to hold various opinions between each other without throwing abuse.
And he comes across a a gentleman in his Character and personality while posting.
There is much information about the malign effect of successive UK governments on Scotland (and the rest of the UK).
Health in particular.Here’s one study.
“Drug-related deaths in Scotland 1979-2013: evidence of a vulnerable cohort of young men living in deprived areas.”
The Courier reported it in 2017.
“Rising inequality in Thatcher’s Britain has been blamed by academics for the increase in drugs deaths in Scotland.
The full effect of Thatcher’s policies on drug deaths in Scotland is yet to be known.
These are the “deaths of despair”. One public health specialist I know passed on what those working in the field say about the effect of benefit sanctions on drug users. “They seek oblivion”.
This is the Union
@Breastplate 10:39am
“It’s akin to me kicking you up the arse every half hour and demanding thanks for reducing my boot up your hole to only every hour.”
I’m nicking that one, Breastplate. 🙂
Karen.
1st June, 6: 30 pm.
Re your post Climate Change.
Indeed climate change will happen regardless of humans, it has always gone through cyclic change,
I Suppose one of the reasons that I have little faith in the leaders imposing such draconian measures on the rest of us, compares itself to their actions which are contrary to what they preach.
World leaders are all telling us what we must do with out to save the planet,
While sending bombs and encouraging wars by supplying weapons to destroy large areas of land mass, populations and wildlife in those areas,
Depleted uranium is not going to help wildlife one bit.
While blowing up Nord Stream would not be compatible with saving species in the sea.
No peace talks, extracting minerals to make weapons for sale.
Large open quarries used for extracting lithium for batteries, is no alternative from extracting oil, both are extracting minerals from the planet.
Like lithium batteries Solar panels use materials that will not naturally disintregrate after their life span is over, and both need the oil or coal industrial to make.
What our leaders are restricting our living standards for, is not Compatible with what they are actually doing for profit.
If you study the news from all Countries, from friends, family, and other blogs
Our politicians and leaders are not restricting their own travel, nor are they cutting back on fuel or energy.
I see Micheal Gove, Jacob rhys Mogg have open fires in their homes, while skyping during interviews from home.
Why do all the elite party it up at big meetings such Davos, WEF, world meeting, at the EU, travelling mile to get there with servants and chauffers in tow, ?
When they could skype.
Goose and gander, rules for some but not for others in politics,
“Dorothy Devine says:
2 June, 2023 at 8:42 am
Galloway Lass and Saffron Robe, was there not some unionist objection to using the old School as it would play into the hands of the SNP in some historical way?”
The old High School? Donald Dewar described it as a “Nationalist shibboleth”, if I remember correctly.
Galloway Lass.
6:32pm.
I was intrigued with the song you mentioned you’re father used to sing, not sure I am familiar with it,
You do not happen to know some of the verses?
It might be fun to learn.
Maybe it is not printable 😉
“Scot says@0958 pm “ appreciated Scot . Life is short . You don’t require too much sleep when you get older !
North chiel says:
1 June, 2023 at 11:29 pm
In other I do not foresee the UK or other western allies purchasing “ Russian oil & gas “ at any price 20 usd or otherwise .
—————
Correct- India amd the arabs are buying it off russia at $20 a barrel and then selling it onto the uk and eu.
Whatever happened to the census? Did the numbers ever come out? Or did it just disappear into the ether?
Ian Brotherhood, bet the NuSNP leadership wish it was in a Bunker with all they shite coming their way in the next year or so, not only legally but when Pro Indy non Cultists give then their P45!
BREEKS @9:53
Gulf War #1 was of questionable legitimacy too. The territory of Kuwait, once part of the Ottoman vilayet of Basrah, was a legacy of British colonialism. During British rule there existed a movement to reunite the territory with Basrah and the then kingdom of Iraq. The occupiers suppressed it and backed a puppet ruler.
This is a reasoned assessment of the matter.
link to newarab.com
The pointless war with Iran was backed by the US in imperialistic proxy fashion. Arab states supporting the conflict were well paid by the US for doing so.
There is very little sympathy in the arabophone world for these Brit created statelets and their «potentates».
“ Highlander says @1213 pm “ Yes I am aware this is probably happening . It’s quite possible that India is exporting its own domestic production at a significantly higher price & importing increasing quantities to make up their deficit as you say from Russia at a much lower price .
Thanks Lenny , Alf and Derek – I think you are all on to some part of it but Derek is closer to my memory.
Ottomanboi,
Kuwait is a sovereign state. It was invaded by a neighbour, and pretty brutalised. I can remember the reception we got in Kuwait City after the war. They weee grateful to be liberated.
I’m surprised, given your pro-Indy stance, that you have a problem with that. Or perhaps you are just driven by a hatred of the U.K.?
Ottomanboi , resist ! Resist! RESIST!
With both Effijy and Ron gearing up to swap their keyboards for firearms, this thread continues to keep us all laughing.
Thing is though, Ron’s threat to get behind the Russtis is worth a second look. I see behind the Russtis as a perfect location for Ron; maybes half a mile behind, but still close enough for him to put a bullet in the back of anybody at the front who falters in their advance.
Plenty of historical precedent for that kind of Russti behaviour. Ron will fit right in. Maybes he can get tooled up on vodka beforehand.
Dunno about Effijy. The trick might be to get him to face the enemy, then shout “the English are behind you” really loud. That should power him a couple of hundred yards in the right direction, and that’s a good start.
Still, two willing recruits for the iScotland army. It’s a start. Let’s hope we don’t continue to outsource our leadership roles, all the way from Yousaf at the top, down to the very bottom.
I’d hate to see Ron and Effigy being bullied by some English corporal, being paid agency rates four times what they could merit.
Haha, then again …
DD
Ottomanboi can handle it. His thinking faculties have not ossified into cadaverous rigidity.
Try to resist reading here if it upsets you so much.
There’s some nice squirrel pics on the latest thread.
I take the Economist, but after one experience, never read the drivel that passes for comment on anything Scottish.
A Scot Abroad says:
2 June, 2023 at 2:58 am
Smithie,
unless you have carried a rifle and bayonet into conflict for our nation, however you define that, just shut the fuck up about fighting wars. Because if you haven’t, you are nothing more than a blowhard.
I have spent over 1500 days on operational service with the British military, including war in Iraq and Kuwait, a tour of NI in South Armagh, and 4 tours in the Balkans. I’m not going to bow my head to your blethering about things that you don’t know about Well poor you ya delusional twat
I’m sick to the back teeth of folk like you that think GB is a world power… we are a wee island with NO power…..it was doubtfull if we could win the Falklands war without the help of the USA….eg communication and AWACS….so shove it dude
Smithie,
we are rather more powerful than many nations. A navy with global reach, the ability to mount an armoured division for combat operations over strategic distances, the ability to sustain those operations for over a year, and to establish air dominance over the battle space with 4th and 5th generation air power. There’s really not many countries that can do that. The USA, France, and that’s about it. Not Russia, nor China, India, or anyone else.
What you say about US help during the Falklands conflict is wrong. They helped the U.K. by providing satellite imagery, and 6 copies of a specialist missile. Not communications, and not AWACS, which was still in test and development in the USA at the time. It didn’t become an operational part of the USAF until 1983.
@ John Main at 3:14 pm
Have to admit I’m somewhat disappointed I didn’t warrant your consideration for being given a position in an iScotland army.
I even mentioned I had my own ammo in the form of WMDs (weapons of minging distinction) with my twa bags of excrement and an auld foosty and reeking salmo trutta to lob at and repel would be enemies / invaders.
Maybe next time military man ASA is back in his rural homeland he could assess if I have potential…
@Dan 7:07
All volunteers welcome in the iScotland armed forces.
You have to swear an oath of allegiance to the Commander In Chief (CIC) Humza Yousaf. Affectionately known within the ranks as Humza Fucking Yousaf.
If it makes it easier, just imagine that CIC really stands for Continuity Incompetence Candidate.
Still not convinced? Rumour has it that Yousaf has an “inside line” to the Big Man. Those who sadly fall in the line of duty get an unspecified number of virgins to enjoy in the next life.
Their next of kin no longer get a worthless bit of tin and a ribbon, but to the fallen, it’s a fair trade.
A very fair trade indeed!
There’s no half some $h!† being posted btl in recent weeks.
It may be humorous or ‘debatable” in your mind but it doesn’t necessarily translate into universal humour acceptance or constitute a valid posit.
I find myself scrolling past usernames to an extent that I never did in the past.
Sad…
Once upon a time, btl used to be quite inspiring.
James Jones 11.25pm
So its 300 years of oil and gas revenue, not 50.
My mistake.
@ BDtt
Well, as Stu has stated, there is not a lot going on as things political wind down for summer recess.
It’s an exasperating time watching all this political crud play out, and I may well be guilty of causing you to scroll past some of my posts.
Aye, there’s a bit of an attempt by me to have some banter that may not be to everyone’s taste, but at the same time there were aspects I incorporated that could have been picked up and run with in further discussion.
EG. What on earth has happened to sensible policy and guidance as well as good working practices when solar PV arrays are being fitted to the north facing roofs of Scottish houses, and there’s also dodgy Air Source Heatpump installations too. Both of these are clearly only getting done due to greenwashing antics and large taxpayer funded subsidies.
I’ll say it now, this will come back to haunt a lot of people that got cajoled into having these installations carried out on properties that are far from suitable for various reasons.
I’ve been speaking to a fair amount of local proper tradesmen lately about it and they agree that it’s crazy what is going on with some of these installations.
Robin McAlpine touched on the subject of what should be sensible policies being rolled out in a compromised way which will actually turn folk off and lose public support, and that seems about right in this context.
link to commonweal.scot
I called this greenwashing shit out years ago on here. Pretty much every house already has a mains electricity supply and Scotland has an increasing supply of electricity generated by renewables, so why the fuck start clagging hugely subsidised and compromised solar PV and air source heatpump systems onto thousands of homes which will mean the homeowners and landlords will be exposed to all the usual liabilities and issues that arise from these individual standalone systems, when we could just work to insulate the houses as best we can, and subsidise the mains electricity required to heat them with existing dual tariff meters.
And to finish, if nobody posts anything other than occasionally complaining about other folk that are trying to promote aspects of discussion then that ain’t exactly useful either…
ASA you are talking rubbish…the Uk had no way of communicating in real time…hence the US with satelite technology came to the rescue…plus our nimrod aircraft was a joke….. i spoke to the engineers that were supposedly updating the software….they laughed…..Britain as a “force” is a joke
we…Great Britain sent our soldiers into battle with flack jackets but without the ceramic plates needed…… boots that were of no use in the desert and a rifle that got clogged up with sand…..i don’t blame the poor fuckers that went in there but i despise the cunts that think we are something special.
LOL we have a navy….hahahaha yeah right what about the latest frigates that are in harbour being fixed or the aircraft carriers that are useless, then the tanks that cant fire if they go above a certain speed
We have a Navy….hahahhahaha yeah right
Smithie,
I don’t know what you are dribbling on about. My boots (standard issue) were fine in the desert, my weapon didn’t have any problems, my flak jacket had ceramic plates both front and rear, and that was the same for all combat troops. Maybe not the rear echelon people, but they weren’t in any danger anyway. My biggest logistical issue was getting an angle grinder and enough grinding disks to sharpen the bayonets of all of my soldiers, but we got that achieved before we went through the breach.
When it was all over, we did some numbers for the big report upwards. My soldiers fired about 2,800 rounds of ammunition in 4 days. We had 17 stoppages. That’s not a bad ratio for combat conditions in a desert climate. We didn’t particularly like the rifle, but not because it was unreliable, but rather because it didn’t reliably kill people. You had to put several, or even a dozen rounds into someone before you could confidently assume they were dead.
You should probably stop commenting on military matters, because your second-hand experience via your son-in-law isn’t really that convincing.
ASA of course you will make out all was well…. not what i heard from the ground, and if you are covering up that fact…..shame on you
link to twitter.com Away and no talk shite
why the hell did you think troops were buying gear from online etc….you really are fucked up
@Dan 12:23
Good post.
Maybes it’s just me that thinks the political world winding down for 3 months is an absolute fucking disgrace.
Still, it serves to illustrate just how superfluous they actually are.
I notice none of our eager Scottish soldiers picked up on their eagerness or otherwise to swear an oath of allegiance to Yousaf.
Smithie, you aren’t there, all you’ve got is hearsay. I was there, I know the reality.
Of course some buy their own kit, for whatever reason. But nobody needed to.
If Smithie was there, he would have sworn allegiance to her late majesty, Queen Elizabeth the second, and her heirs and successors.
Sworn to defend her, her crown, and her dignity.
That must be keeping him up late at nights!
“Robert Louis says:
1 June, 2023 at 1:43 pm
Aside from the really stupid assertion that Sturgeon was obsessed with independence (a view shared by nobody in Scotland, btw)”
– Scotland
+ the 200 or so deluded ALBA-supporting tartan Ukippers who infest WoS