Wings Over Scotland

Brilliant Chris
She’said all about her NOT Scotland becoming independent

A cracker Chris, says it all.

No Nicol is not a cheat.

Rather she is coming out as an absolutely odiously deranged individual driven by obsessive behaviours. Alex Salmond she declared was. Her friend, her mentor, the greatest influence on her adult life.

Well it certainly shows now. The murkiest of murky attempts to absolutely destroy him and of which she knew nothing, absolutely nothing. A lifelong commitment to independence or so she claimed. And now she screams she doe# not want a super majority, only a simple majority. How many unionist MSPs does she want to keep then as she recommends the wasting of something like a million votes that will deliver an absolute slew of supermajority seats.

And all of this wrapped up in even more bizarre personal behaviour where like a demented cat she oozes absolute personal attack after personal attack on Alex Salmond. Not a fit person, he needs to apologise to women, he’s a gambler, I won’t speak to him, go into a television studio, debate or otherwise have anything to do with him – it’s all bitterly bizarre. Most certainly not the behaviour of what one would expect of a so called first line politician.

Frankly, could you imagine a Thatcher or a Jacinda Adern or a Pamela Harris throwing a strop like this.

Or could you imagine any front line politician throwing away the opportunity to secure a majority for the cause that they say they support. And make no mistake, this is what she is now doing.

Telling people to vote to ensure a small majority, or in fact a minority majority, like what she has just now 61 seats some six seats short of a majority but maybe this time around 64 seats some three seats short.

And so, as the Toon depicts, this is Sturgeons strategy, Not for her the influx of maybe 30 independence MSPs.

No Siree, she wants the slenderest of minority majorities, with the reelection of some thirty unionists that could otherwise be voted out.

It’s insanity, absolute insanity. And all driven by one women’s perfidious treacherous behaviours.

@Wullie at 7.54am

Spot on with that analysis.

The Alba/Salmond support is imperative to the Independence cause. How she can continue to deride him after all he has done for her, the SNP and the Independence cause that she Sturgeon supports is totally wrong.

As Big Mack says we need to play by their rules which I agree with. Hence SNP1 ALBA2.

Sturgeon keeps harping on about a legal recognised referendum having a S30 order etc.

When has the British Establishment bothered with legality when invading other countries taking away their kings and ruling classes and then appropriating it’s wealth.

We have an Act of Union between two countries so if one of those two countries the Sovereign people desire to leave we don’t need permission from the other one to leave.

The next event is the 600,000 meters!

Alex, stay inside during Nicola’s javelin throws!

It’s the Dole Vault after independence.

OK.OK.

I now know the meaning of ANSCHLUSS.

Sigh! Remember when it was about the future generations of Scots.

Two Woke Party leaders now more interested in the 0.05% cult followers than the 99.95% seeking to build a fairer society.

Superb cartoon!

@ Stuart McKay

Its a bizarre strategy (albeit intriguing) from any angle since if/when she refuses to work with a supermajority the logical route for such a parliament would be to change the FM to someone who will, and if that means more “disgraceful behaviour”, or smacked bottoms for anonymous ladies, so be it.. !

Dear Nicola

I am going to vote SNP1 because that will ensure my Alba2 vote makes your life a misery. It also keeps out your Woke list candidates. If it removes Woke Greens I will consider that a huge bonus.

Vote Alba for Scotland and to protect Women’s Rights.

Genius.

The “cheating” crack will haunt her to the grave. It will be used, re-used and beaten to death by the yoons to try to slow and stop independence.

It is obvious to me now that she has never wanted independence.

She is now a shameful liability for the SNP.

Well they do say a picture paints a thousand words.

I forget how long it is since ALBA launched (a week or two maybe) and I am still hugely struggling with SNP1.

The best I can get to is as follows.

If I was in Sturgeon’s or Swinney’s or Robertson’s constituency I would be voting for the candidate most likely to defeat them irrespective of any other consideration. No way in a million years and under any imaginable circumstances could I vote for any of them SNP1. I’d vote probably Sarwar against Sturgeon and whoever the tory is against Robertson. Same goes for any other exceptionally woke SNP1 candidates. So for these characters it is tactical voting against SNP no matter what in their constituencies.

If I was in constituency where the SNP candidate was not a complete rat but still stood a realistic of being defeated (by any other party) were there a modest swing, then I would vote for the candidate most likely to beat the SNP. So again tactical voting against SNP but only if the alternative stands a real chance of winning.

However if I was in a constituency where voting tactically against the SNP was pointless, where the SNP candidate was likely going to win no matter what I did tactically, THEN I would vote SNP1. No point in doing otherwise.

It seems to me the problem for ALBA supporters not voting SNP1 is only when that SNP1 candidate wins anyway, despite you not voting for them. Then it is clearly stupid not to vote SNP1.

The way I see it if you don’t vote SNP1 and your alternative candidate wins and beats the SNP in that constituency then that still results in your constituency vote ‘freeing’ up a MSP seat for ALBA on the regional vote, only not from the SNP, from the other main parties.

So as of now I am still voting tactically against the SNP on the constituency vote but only if my constituency vote stood a realistic chance of defeating the SNP candidate. Otherwise I would vote SNP1.

AS is an extraordinary man, I have no idea how after all this he can recommend voting SNP1. It shows the enormous character of the man.

I personally can’t do it. This is the best I can get to. At least for now.

I understand the idea behind the supermajority but I never for one second believed the Sturgeonites would rally behind the idea. I could have accurately predicted their reactions 5 minutes after hearing about ALBA launching.

Brilliant Chris.
My head is hearing Harvey saying “she’s my precious “

The SNP and Green party have been trusted allies for over 20 years.
Why should I shift my second vote to a party that is only hours old, looks like it will not win even one seat and will probably damage the Independence movement in the process.
SNP 1 Greens 2 for me.

“Because in any sane world, losing the judicial review should have been the end of it. It’s what came next which is truly baffling and insane (and if it is how it looks, criminal).”

Maybe Cath, old Alex will pursue them for “mallicious prosecution.”

The Scottish Government are facing these every few months at the moment. When law and government didn’t comprise of miscellaneous, vainglorious interconnected crooks as it does now, mallicious prosecutions never came-up.

They cost a fortune and the Scottish Government loses every time.

I think that Alex might have the Scottish Government in a stranglehold. I’m no lawyer and so I might be wrong on that. We shall see.

According to FT independence would «open fiscal» hole in our economy.
Better forget it then…
link to nationaldebtclock.co.uk
My hole good, your hole bad!

Almost spot on, if you had PH frantically trying to bury Angus Robertson. It would be masterpiece.
Alison Johnstone is standing in Ed South again, of the 4k odd votes she received,(a massive 13% of the electorate.. NOT!) Only 600 odd were needed to stop Baroness Davidson winning a seat.

The Greens are potentially going to cost up to 12 seats in this way!.
Why are independence supporters voting for a party that opposes the SNP in Constituencies?.
Not very indy when on the face of it you are very unlikely to win but highly likely you will harm your independence seeking partner’s.
Vote Green get Tory.

@gullaneo4

Where have you been? Who is damaging the Indy movement more the the SNP and Greens putting identity politics No.1 on their agenda.
Who has taken the hard earned cash of Indy supporters contributed to a Indy fund and used it for hubby’s salary and a HQ stuffed with SNP careerists who are “waiting on an opening”.

The Independence carrot – Any moment now, one more mandate, send more cash meanwhile a rigged NEC, no internal democracy, a Wokerati Empire, woke attack dogs unrestrained by Nicola.

The YES movement should come first. The YES movement was about working with ANYONE who supported Independence. AUOB was about marching with ANYONE who supported Independence.
AFI and ISP stepped aside for Independence.

The concept of Independence is not about voting SNP.

“The SNP and Green party have been trusted allies”

Trusted by whom? The British state?

Despite having a pro independence majority in Holyrood since 2016 and a perfectly valid mandate for indyref, all what we got in return from those “trusted” allies was a systematic denial of our right to self determination, a denial of our democratic mandates, the handing over of a veto to England’s government against our will and interests, the undermining of our popular sovereignty, the handing over of power and control of assets from Holyrood to England MPs against our will and interests, the suppression of incriminating evidence that should have seen this FM, her government, the COPFS and the UK civil service in Scotland on trial for abuse of power and gross and unlawful misconduct and the delivery against the will of the majority of the most toxic pieces of policy in a so called democracy in modern history.

So let me ask again, trusted by whom?

Because if something the leaders of Sturgeon’s pretend SNP and the Greens have demonstrated in the last 5 year is that the yes voters cannot trust them at all.

@Mia – Give it a rest, please. Nicola Sturgeon, Leslie Evans, Peter Murrell, Sue Ruddick, John Swinney, James Wolffe and Humza Yousaf and the alphabet women are not agents of the British State. Regrettably, all are Scottish and this has been a secretive all-Scottish fandango from start to finish. The British are laughing at us….that’s all.

Oh you can trust the Greens on independence all right, trust that they will at the key moment let you down or more likely stab you in the back.

Trust they will extort a raft of absurd woke shite out of the SNP at every single opportunity.

Trust they are using the SNP and could not really give a shit about Independence, it is just a convenient lever to prise concessions out of a desperate SNP that lacks a majority by itself

Trust the Greens… you are having a laugh. Libdems in lipstick.

Harvie looks delighted with his position.
Muscle memory!
😉
I’ve been busy working for the last few days, is Scotland still run by criminals?

The way Sturgeon is pressing-on with SNP 1 and 2 is probably the way her seemingly-deranged mind works.

Or, it could be they have had private polling done, which indicates they are in-trouble in the Constituency Vote, and will need the List votes which they haven’t been so-reliant on in at least the last two Holyrood Elections.

Maybe, more ordinary voters than we think have cottoned-onto how poor they have been in government.

Better than the Tories, but, maybe Scotland really does think – we deserve better than just being better than the Tories.

They might also have realised, talking about Independence referendums isn’t the same as doing something positive to secure one.

Captain Yossarian:

You forgot to include in your list the ex-MI5 crown agent. Was that deliberate?

“this has been a secretive all-Scottish fandango from start to finish”
Sorry, I do not believe that. I am convinced the British state has its fingerprints all over this. I am also convinced that Sarwar running in the same constituency as Sturgeon and her being second in the list is a fabricated exit door for her and an entry door for Robertson as leader of the pretend SNP. She is being deliberately obnoxious to ve voted out. We should watch out for new candidates aiming to divide the unionist vote in Robertson’s constituency to ensure he gets in.

Captain Yossarian @ 10:04 am

“@Mia – Give it a rest, please. Nicola Sturgeon, Leslie Evans, Peter Murrell, Sue Ruddick, John Swinney, James Wolffe and Humza Yousaf and the alphabet women are not agents of the British State.”

Crown and civil service are what George Osborne called ‘the arms’ of the British state in Scotland. In that regard Mia is perfectly correct. All public and semi-public institutions in Scotland are effectively agencies of the British state, and will remain so until independence.

Oh wow.

I noted someone saying in a previous post mentioned that WGD was mellowing towards a supermajority, and I confess, curiosity got the better of me. Please people, wannae no dae that? Don’t say these things, because people will set out to see, with joy in their hearts, looking for signs of Spring emerging, flowers blooming, and birds chirping in the sunshine…

I weakened. I clicked. Sadly I see no sign of any such thing. The rare tentative icebreakers BTL remind me of someone trying to introduce the concept of light and science to an angry mob of Uber-traditional, torch carrying, witch burning, village militia.

“Alex Salmond will never be content with a List seat in Holyrood!” – I should hope not. Alex Salmond won’t rest until he has an Independent Scotland over the line. If he settles for anything less, he’ll be called to account for his failing, just like Sturgeon currently is.

Rev Stu and Barrheadboy are reviled because they don’t physically live in Scotland. What was I saying about cabbage patch village idiot parochialism? It’s alive and well in some parts.

Apparently we are all tarred with the same brush because someone advocated voting for Sarwar to dethrone the Lyin’ Queen Nicola. But then, as we all know, you cannot afford to let conflicting opinions enter your brain, because “doubt” is the Devil’s work, and if you let one witch prove it’s innocence, you open the unthinkable possibility of them all being innocent.

Salmond is Farage, ALBA is the SDP, polling 3% after 6 days is catastrophic,.. yawn, yawn, zzzzzzz….

Seriously people, I truly believe these folks would accept the result of a good stool-dunking as definitive, absolute proof – provided it confirmed their prejudices and drowned Alex Salmond into the bargain.

Sturgeon has really done a number on them. They will quite happily drag a pro Independence supermajority out in the middle of the town square and publicly set fire to it. Do the right thing for Scotland? Not these zealots. It’s a close run thing whether they are now more intolerant of dissent than the Transnutter brigade, and probably a click or two more paranoid.

I suppose WGD still has some relevance as a yardstick to measure how dumb and blinkered the people supporting Sturgeon actually are, but I won’t be going back to WGD ever again. I already regret bumping their site visit numbers up to 23.

Regardless of their bile, it is still SNP 1 and ALBA 2 for me, and that isn’t going to change for the good of an Independent Scotland.

I fear Sturgeon and the creepy crooks are going to exhort themselves trying to wreck the prospects of delivering an unconquerable Pro-Independence supermajority, but SNP 1 and ALBA 2 is still our optimum result, at least, while we cannot yet vote for ALBA in the Constituency seats.

I try to be self critical, and try to see myself as others see me. Is my aversion to all things Sturgeon any less bigoted and irrational than their prejudices against Alex Salmond? I suppose it might look that way to a casual observer.

But ask me to articulate the reasons why I think Sturgeon is a fraud and a catastrophe, and I will fill page after page describing the litany of squandered opportunities, constitutional illiteracy, graceless capitulation, misrepresentation, sophistry, evasiveness, suppression of evidence, gratuitous smears, and absolutely ZERO progress made on Independence but ‘milking’ the rise in polling as all their own work, while even the dogs in the street know it’s down to Boris Johnson’s Brexit.

Ask them to articulate the reasons why they hate Salmond, and suddenly it’s just like when you challenge a Unionist to articulate the positive case for the Union. It’s all uhms, and errs, subjective prejudices and cherry picking abstract negatives which can be blown out of all proportion.

Do I see the hand of the British Establishment steering Nicola Sturgeon? Not really. Spider senses not tingling at all. I suspect she is seen as eminently defeat-able and containable just as she comes. Serious question, – Why would they bother?

But, do I see the hand of the British Establishment orchestrating the character assassination of Alex Salmond, every day, from every direction, and totally without respite? Yes. Yes I absolutely do. And I see that bitterness and resentment of Alex Salmond from within the SNP itself as testimony to the success of that British Establishment black ops.

Evidence? I have none. But in close comparison of criticisms, Sturgeon poses all manner of questions and objective, black and white failings, and glaring ineptitudes there for all to see. But Salmond? It’s all contrived, orchestrated, innuendo and insinuation. They forced through a Criminal trial and Police investigation based upon NOTHING but orchestrated smears, fabricated accounts and innuendo.

If people cannot see that, and cannot suspend their prejudices against Alex Salmond until they have seen the substance behind the smears, then these people are either irremediably dim, or just not trying hard enough.

What has Alex Salmond actually done to deserve the cacophony of derision and discrimination? (And don’t fkn dare say he had a sloppy cuddle which he admitted.)

I’ll tell you the answer. Alex Salmond is a potent, and visceral and existential threat to the future of United Kingdom. Alex Salmond is their Public Enemy No 1. He is the Kryptonite which the UK Establishment doesn’t know how to handle, because get it wrong, and Alex Salmond’s strength and influence increases exponentially.

The UK Establishment cannot touch Alex Salmond. They cannot get rid of him. To nullify the threat he poses requires his containment, and ideally, containment by his own side. They must turn the SNP against him, and make the man toxic to his supporters.

People MUST try to see this in the round.

The targeting of Alex Salmond by spurious smears and unfounded allegations makes no objective sense to anyone EXCEPT the UK Establishment and those gullible enough to be manipulated and used as pawns.

And by the way, that ISN’T hero worship. Because frankly, I feel Scotland is so tremendously WEAK that we have so much invested in just one man. When we cannot afford to lose an Indy-giant, not another Wullie MacRae, so what in God’s name is the SNP playing at by fabricating lies and orchestrating a conspiracy trying to destroy the man?

“Me too” organisation? Oh do fk off. Don’t treat me like an idiot… or worse, some dotard on a Parliamentary Committee.

There is one man in all of Scotland who’s courage, integrity, indefatigable determination and commitment to Scotland is proven beyond ALL reproach, even in the teeth of a nasty conspiracy to stitch him up, and that man is Alex Salmond.

How many others are there amongst us who might endure such a grotesque smear conspiracy and emerge intact at the other side, and ready to ram it to the UK with a quicksilver ALBA Party and imminent supermajority which turns the tables in an instant and has the Union on the rack?

The vast majority want Scotland to become an independent country. Support for this was led by many true patriots. Unfortunately sitting at the top of the tree now are the Murrells who are more determined to keep the SNP as their own little nestegg than to forward independence.
As party leader and the chief executive officer…. any person who shows any sign of danger is shown no mercy.
The Murrells don’t want independence they are perfectly happy with the present arrangements and intend to keep it that way.
Just think with with independence what would happen to the Murrells.

Well said that man, Breeks.

The new old puritanism is upon us indeed and Salmond is truly Beelzebub.

Socrates MacSporran @ 10:25 am

“maybe Scotland really does think – we deserve better than just being better than the Tories.”

A dozen Holyrood SNP Ministers don’t run our country, they depend on the large meritocratic elite in the public sector to develop and implement policies and to spend the £30bn+ budget as they see fit. This would be the 10,000+ elite each on over £100k/yr employed throughout the civil service, NHS, universities, justice, local gov, and the hundreds of other public agencies and state funded organisations.

Scotland’s meritocratic elite has aye been Tory, unionist, and predominantly Anglophone, nae maiter wha bides in Bute Hoose. So even with a SNP-led administration, ‘establishment’ Scotland is still aye run by Tories.

It is this elite that has to be changed after independence, not least because, under the perpetual ‘Cultural Division of Labour’ that is colonialism, the meritocratic elite is always mediocre, being drawn from a narrow privileged group; which is the reason Scotland remains in the sorry ‘state’ it is, even with a supposedly ‘nationalist’ devolved political leadership.

The thing that really gets me is the gullibility of the electorate.
Why did ordinary working people vote for Thatcher, Cameron or Trump.
Surely Sturgeon can’t get back in again.

Nicola showing a complete lack of class over last few months with continual personal attacks on Salmond.

Very well said Breeks – all of it.

To hear Alex speak about the economic reality coming down the tracks towards us and the need to plan for that (including recruiting econonmists), is a breath of fresh air. An adult in the room.

Meanwhile the minnos promise to dish out computer tablets to kids who nearly all have one (late in the day too) and their Political Offices thought they’d pull a fast one and claim small business relief from the Covid fund, and are now having to repay it.

Because you know, there’s nothing shifty in that in any way is there.

Political Party Office (funded by members and Government short money) – Small Businesses (funded by selling goods and services to the public).

Soooo easy to get the 2 mixed up. Really. Isn’t Arbroath Dave Dougan’s beat?

Dave was a faithful servant for Cosy Feet and Swinney. He did all the grunt work for Roseanna Cunningham (who retired long ago, just stayed on to claim the wages).

He’s very much Swinney’s blue eyed boy.

Looks as if he’s not got himself elected to Westminster in order to ‘settle up’, looks more like, ‘clean up’ is the motive. Maybe he’ll prove me wrong. I won’t hold my breath.

Good post Breeks
I was getting a bit fixated about some of the stuff over on WGD to the point it must have been really bloody boring to read I will take your advice and not bother boosting the visitor numbers,

Despite people letting Paul know his blog has being taken over by a few people who have setup camp any and all criticism of Princess Nicola is akin to swearing in public place.

The pointless exercise of voting SNP 1:2 has completely gone over the heads of the contributors and the site owner Paul Kavana

The “ look at the polls “ mantra has been replaced with only 3% they attack ALBA more than the unionists do unfortunately the crowd there are taking their lead from the site owner just as the SNP youth are taking theirs from Princess Nicola they replicate her personal dislike of Alex Salmond

@Breek at 10.43am

I’m been following your posts on missed opportunities by not pushing the Scottish people’s Sovereignty and it’s the main issue IMO.

Your post above is spot on and we need to push the fact that we are in an Act of Union and the Scottish people are Sovereign and if we want to leave the Union it’s our choice. Having a S30 order red herring doesn’t interest me as it’s Westminster’s (and the other party in the Union) recognising the Sovereign will of the Scottish people in wanting Independence.

If England want a section 30 order to recognise the will of the Scottish people that’s their problem not ours.

How they harp on about S30 (including Sturgeon) and Referendums being reserved to Westminster is nonsense. The Sovereign will of the Scottish people overrides that as per the Act of Union between the two countries.

Alec Salmond refered to such in his Alba Party Webcam a couple of days ago. He was asked about a S30 order and Independence referendum’s. His reply was there are other routes to Independence as he rightly knows.

If we need him back to steer the wasted years since he left as leader of the SNP.

Brilliant cartoon Chris and very accurate.It saddens me to see AS so disrespected in the media. He is by far the only politician that can bring Scotland to independence.
I think the phrase that has already been used is ‘WITCH HUNT’.

Alex is being subjected to a daily trial by media, the likes of which is unparalleled in politics.
I don’t know how many of you heard the interview on the BBC Today programme a couple of days ago with Mischal Husain. You can google it (on the Daily Mail website but I don’t want to give them the clicks) and listen to the disgraceful smearing approach which she took towards him.
I have written a letter of complaint to the BBC about this interview as it is a disgrace. Bear in mind that the Faculty of Advocates and the Law Society of Scotland were forced to write public letters reprimanding the Scottish Government and media about their attitude towards this case and the constant questioning of the jury result and their concerns that it would undermine trust in the judicial/jury system.

This morning they interviewed a man with a criminal record who is now out of jail and returning to the workplace. He was treated respectfully and asked for advice to others in his position and possible employers – given due respect and treated fairly. No mention of any accusations made against him, no mention of court cases, no asking if he felt remorse and it was this marked difference, this correct attitude that made me so angry about the way AS had been treated on the same programme hours earlier. Back to the same old double standards
and it shows us just HOW much of a threat they see from AS returning to politics.

I see David Clegg has done a hatchet job on Alex Salmond and ALBA in the Guardian today.

Is anyone surprised? Cleggie was involved in the SNP/SG stitch-up on Eck, so, he is hardly a neutral observer.

I am surrpised, however, at the Editor of a very Tory rag: The Dundee Courier, being given space to attack Eck ina supposedly Liberal newspaper.

Methinks the UK/Scottish Establishment is soiling their underwear on a regular basis at the return of Salmond.

They don’t like it up ’em, Captain Mainwaring.

Anybody thinking that NS is managing to do this without unionist help needs to stop smoking that stuff. Look at the help she is getting from the yoon press alone FFS.

AM
The Guardian has long ceased to be a “lieral” newspaper and is also just another unionist rag

Thank you Captain Yossarian.

So whose short leet, Sturgeon’s or Westminster’s? (I am an apologist for neither)

Vestas says:
3 April, 2021 at 9:46 am
Heaver says:
3 April, 2021 at 9:25 am

“Could a Westminster MP name the alphabet women in Parliament, under parliamentary priviledge ?”

Yes, they could do this withour fear of prosecution however the press would crucify them.

You’d have to find someone who intends leaving parliament at the next election AND there would have to be something in it for them. I can think of MAYBE three people who fit the bill….

.
Thanks Vestas.

Any reason to donate to ALBA through the crowdfunder rather than direct to ALBA ?

link to crowdfunder.co.uk

link to albaparty.org

Can anyone point to what the Greens have done / influenced in the environmental space? I really can’t think of one thing, but happy to be enlightened.

I think some people like to say they’re all for environmentalism etc and it gives them a kind of wanky exceptionalism to say ‘I vote green’. But I really don’t think the Greens are on top of their remit at all.

e.g.what is their position on the lice infested salmon farms that are now impacting on wild salmon?

what is their position on commercial fishing that’s decimating the oceans and having a bigger global impact on climate change than oil and gas?

I’ve had a quick glance at their website and it’s full of wishy washy nothingness.

How anyone can vote for these woke, fake environmentalists (but they are mentalists) is beyond me. Has even one of them got a degree / expertise in marine biology, environmental sciences, agriculture, ecology, climate science, zoology, environmental engineering etc etc. Or is it just a masters in wokeness that matters?

Captain Yossarian says:
3 April, 2021 at 12:00 pm

“The reason?: John Swinney and his redactor pen. You don’t get that anywhere else in the world….just here….in Scotland.”

I’ve just watched The Mauritarian. The US are ace redactors. Maybe that is where the Sturgeon cabal learned their skill.

Mia says:
3 April, 2021 at 12:23 pm
Are the greens contesting more constituency seats in 2021 than in 2016?

———-

Yes 10-12 I think.

Ottomanboi says:
3 April, 2021 at 11:14 am
“The FM would like Scotland and England to part on good terms, in traditional sporting manner, everyone playing the game according to the rules.”

Aye, well, we don’t do cricket here. F**k ’em.

And now he’s finished.

🙁

TheItalianJob says:
3 April, 2021 at 8:07 am
@Wullie at 7.54am

The Alba/Salmond support is imperative to the Independence cause. How she can continue to deride him after all he has done for her, the SNP and the Independence cause that she Sturgeon supports is totally wrong.

Ophiocordyceps unilateralis is a pathogenic fungus which invades and parasitises ants, hijacking their brain and nervous system and turning them, effectively, into zombies. The victim then engages in behaviours beneficial to the fungus, but inevitably fatal to the ant, whose entire colony is likely to be devastated by the infection.

Can we crowdfund a David Attenborough documentary?

Here, in the concrete jungle of the Scottish Parliament, Nicola Sturgeon twitches the perithecium sprouting from her forehead, and ululates the thin, haunting cry characteristic of ophiocordyceps socialiustatis…

Breeks @ 10.43
Well said Breeks….. in a perverse way the demonisation of Alex Salmond in the past , that we do know has the hand of the British state all over it, may have done us a favour in helping to forge a man who won’t crumble at this last bit more.
He must be so used to the carping,the smears,the inuendo and the negative headlines by now, ( while trying to jail him was of a different order to be sure ) that he must have gained some sort of immunity to it and is very well practiced in standing in the face of it and making his case .
There must be an element of “white noise” now for him about it all…
Hey Ho…..
Who Knew , the Union did have a use after all ? Not a pretty use , and certinaly not the ever elusive “positive case” but credit where it’s due. 🙂

The Guardian has become a more insidious entity even than the Mail, with its psychotic middle-class/ meddle-class drive towards officious ‘thou-shalt not’ gender studied teddy-bear-stamping-on-a-human-face forever, gadget-capitalist, gastropub how-to-eat-a-boiled-egg, patronising sponsored opinion fake fake fake fakery.

Thanks to the gracious benevolence of Bill & Melinda:
link to childrenshealthdefense.org
« the science» of shutting down academic research that conflicts with commercial interests.

As always Chris – excellent.

@Socrates MacSporran says: 3 April, 2021 at 11:36 am

“I am surrpised, however, at the Editor of a very Tory rag: The Dundee Courier, being given space to attack Eck ina supposedly Liberal newspaper.”

The Courier like all D.C. Thompson publications isn’t Tory, simply “anti-Socialist”. That’s been its position since the 1920s. Their definition of “socialist” does tend to be even more flexible than The Guardian’s.

Heaver @12.04
At Crowdfunder the donor pays an additional handling fee.Also lots of glitches.My donation didn’t show for ages earlier today. Complaint submitted to Crowdfunder & my name duly appeared eventually but not good enough. The norm is any donation shows within a very few minutes 5-10 at most. This was much more than that & after nudging them.

I see another donor might not be happy-2 for same name 3or 4 minutes apart seems more like a duplication of £100. Ouch if it is a duplication!

A Donation direct to Alba-iirc I paid a straight donation when I joined so any handling fee will be paid by Alba to Stripe the payment service provider.Ergo it will be taken out of your donation.

That you tube livestream was car crash material.

In the wiltshiretimes, Alex Salmond is hindering cause of independence, Nicola Sturgeon claims. The Alba Party is only a couple of weeks old so who was it hindering the cause of Independence from 2014-2021 Nicola Sturgeon and her party.

Alf Baird says:
3 April, 2021 at 1:00 pm
Wull

“Drain oot the Dregs then, blaw freedom’s Horn:
Let aul’ Scotia, aince mair be born.

Reply
I agree with you. I left Scotland in my 20s fifty years ago & still talk as a Fifer.
When folk here say, you’ve still got your accent after all these years. I just say aye. I never found a better one. 😉

Alba crowd funder on 16% link to crowdfunder.co.uk

@ wull at 12.28: “The Dreghorn weaver” – excellent and a very enjoyable read even for a non-Scots speaker.

We know what our current Dreghorn weaver is good at, don’t we? Oh what a tangled web… 🙂

@Captain Yossarian

At least we get to see where the redactions lie – we did’t get sight of the McCrone report until decades later and anecdotally, currently there is more being hidden from our national view.

Pity (well, not really) the hapless Mr Swinney, opprobrium at state level is so much easier to absorb. No one called out the Labour or Tory governments who were each complicit in obfuscation and hoodwinkery on a grand scale.

I suspect you owe more to Robert Heller than OCTO but can’t be certain. LOL

What is going on I have tried to post twice & nothing happens. Do we have gremlins in the system?

Breeks @10:43

The evidence of state involvement is all around you. Recent hit pieces, from Sean Bell at Common Weal and the Spectator, on Alba are simple examples.

Is the UK establishment directly involved? Dear me, no. That’s a vulgar suggestion. The invisible hand of the state ensures that the people who make it are aligned with their interests. It’s the same thing the American State Department does when it invites people on junkets to Washington to rub shoulders with the great and the good. That impression rubs off and you can be sure if the recipients were going to write bad things about America, they’d think twice, if the thought even entered their head at all.

So there’s no need for the state to dirty it’s hands with direct involvement. Instead, it sets the tone for the debate. So when upstarts like Alba show up on the doorstep you can be sure those journalists and ex-journalists who still pretend they matter rise to the occasion.

Is it all worth worrying about. Not in the least. It is just the terrain in which we have to fight.

What would be an interesting development would be the lionisation of Alex Salmond. The opportunity now is to build the team. Find the other Kenny MacAskills, Joan McAlpines, Morag Kerr’s out there and set them to work. If someone is pushing adulation of Salmond then it’s a trap. Either the hope is to recreate the cult of personality that’s weighing down the SNP or there’s Wullie MacRae II being planned. The first attempt by Sturgeon failed. We really need to learn the “eggs in one basket” lesson and not repeat it on any level.

Anyways, your post was excellent. I wouldn’t worry about hangers out on WGD. They’re just coming to terms with their grief. The reality is that Sturgeon’s days are over, no matter what happens.

How’s things permeating for Alba into the broader online community? I’m not seeing anything on my social media showing any kind of promotion, shares etc – maybe I’m just linked in with lots of SNP loyalists, I dunno!

I remember watching a videoed seminar (dare I say by Dominic Cummings) on how Leave won for Brexit. It was the whole Cambridge Analytica stuff getting under the skin of what made their core and potential voters tick.

He said one of the main wins for them was keeping messages super simple – on average max 13 words in social media posts. Apparently Remain were turning themselves inside out on explaining stuff.

I’m not for a second advocating the dark arts that befell the Brexit referendum, but having spent a spell in marketing for a few years, I know that people’s attention on social media is micro-seconds. You either grab them or they scroll on by.

I hope the Alba Party are giving some though to their social media output coz their online live output is really lacking with tech problems.

I love their supermajority strapline but they also need other key short and snappy social media messages to keep pumping out on why peeps should vote Alba 2.

A key marketing philosophy is emotion trumps logic every time i.e. you don’t need to drink Coke, you want to drink Coke.

The trouble is that not voting SNP1 always enhances the chance of an SNP2 list success, and some of the weirdest, most bizarre candidates are on that rigged list. Some real oddballs. And even if you like their queer theory, identity politics driven ideas, they are characters of low ability who are unlikely to enhance political life.

All that said, I’m still not sure if I can bring myself to vote SNP1, lol.

This was my reply to Socrates MacSporran
He didn’t utter these words.

So was Angus Robertson. If he gets elected I will be so disappointed of the people from Edinburgh
I think though the folk there know both he & his wife are bad news.

Something seismic has to happen between now and the election to stop Sturgeon. SNP are still 100/1 on to win.

Breeks @10.43. An excellent summary. You say it as it is. Oh for others to do so too.

The establishment Hate Alex Salmond. They fear him. They know he is the man who can take, lead, inspire, drive Scotland to independence. That is why he must be destroyed, and by his ‘own ‘ too with the establishments help.

Alba is a strategy that will work, will give the Parliament and the people the tools to secure independence. The strategy of SNP 1 and Alba 2 will facilitate that strategy. We must therefore do all in our power to explain why voting in that way, that very simple way, will facilitate the majority we so need.

And for those who detest Nicola Sturgeon and her consigliere let them detest not. The day after the super majority is elected the power departs absolutely from Queen Nicola. She and her anti independence policy are finished as the Parliament moves on to a new footing altogether.

Notify post for me has not been working for ages. Keep ticking it but still not notifying.

There’s a problem, Willie – Nicola’s Consigliere is James Wolffe. James Wolffe’s Consigliere is John Swinney. John Swinney’s Consigliere is Peter Murrell, Liz Lloyd, Lesley Evans, Sue Ruddick, and Rape Crisis Scotland. Their Consigliere are the alphabet women.

Hence, it’s not just a case of dispensing with Sturgeon and Wolffe and placing the others under new management. Our government structure has become delinquent. Too many dishonest folk there and honesty and accountability has to be restored.

A proper judge-led Police investigation is required. That’s my take on it. By the way, it is also The Spectator’s and David Davis’s take on it too. I’m sure there will be others.

@willie

You are deluded if you think that voting for Nicola sturgeon’s new SNP is somehow going to hold her to account.

At the last election I voted SNP 1 & 2. 2 was a vote waisted vote.
The SNP got was it 4 listed MSP,s and the unionist got 50 MSPs.
This time SNP1 and ALBA 2.
If I hear of Mrs Murrell bad mouthing ALBA in the unionist press again I will cancel my direct debit with the SNP and join ALBA.

Re slogans. I really like Both Votes Yes – kind of ties in with the SNP slogan (in a nice way;)…

Max the Yes is good too.

But Indy MaxiYes is mine – it might not be very good, but I own it.

Re Covid Safe Campaigning. Have looked at the rules and regs.

All of Mainland Scotland + Skye are at level 4.

It was hoped that door to door canvassing would be allowed – but that has been cancelled.

SO – NO DOOR TO DOOR.

LEAFLETING IS ALLOWED – BUT WEAR A MASK. AND NOT IN GROUPS OF MORE THAN 4, KEEP 2 M APART.

UPLIFTING LEAFLETS AND CAMPAIGN MATERIAL SHOULD BE DONE ON A CLICK AND COLLECT BASIS – AND CAMPAIGN MEETINGS DONE ONLINE – NOT IN PERSON.

NO LIFT SHARING UNLESS ITS FAMILY BUBBLES.

NO STREET STALLS OR SIMILAR AT THE MOMENT.

The Islands are level 3 – sorry don’t know the specifics for you, but its on the Governments website.

Hopefully, as has been said above, (and I think the public will appreciate it) messages will be short and sweet.

Visibility is going to be the thing for Alba – the media will blank them.

So folks, load up the home printer,look out your chalk, and make space on the car window, the bedroom window, ect.

Those painted Indy stones were good. Bridges for Indy – brilliant.

INDY ALBA

BECAUSE:

BREXIT SUCKS
WE CAN DO SO MUCH BETTER THAN BORIS
SCOTLAND DOESN’T DESERVE BORIS
NO MORE NIGELS – INDY NOW

etc, etc

I’ll make this comment, and tick the “Notify me of new posts by email” box. See what happens.

Tick box for new posts by email wasn’t ticked. Duly ticked it, refreshed page and tick is gone again. Wonder if it will vanish after I submit post?

We’ve donated to the Supermajority.

Wee Chid says:
“The US are ace redactors.”

I first read about such practices in Catch-22, when a certain Yossarian (no relation?) was censoring US forces mail while stationed on the island of Pianosa. On occasion, he would cross out everything except conjunctions. Obviously, the big bad Woolfe is a relative amateur.

Kiwilassie @ 1:25 pm

“I agree with you. I left Scotland in my 20s fifty years ago & still talk as a Fifer.”

The loss of language undermines a people’s sense of identity, belonging and place. That is why a key plank of British colonial policy was to destroy indigenous languages, including the Scots language.

Language is also the most common rationale for peoples seeking self-determination and to escape from colonialism; a people without their own language is a people without their own identity.

According to the Scots-English dictionary: “language is one of the factors that serves most effectively to define and unite a nation”. Without our Scots language there can be no Scottish national consciousness. “Linguistic perceptions directly determine national attachment (Medeiros 2017). Without our Scots language there can be no national attachment, or national consciousness.

Without the Scots language nobody here or anywhere else would be talking about Scottish independence. The fact we are still deprived of oor ain language reflects our continued colonial oppression.

As Frantz Fanon also said: “the native is an alien in his own country under colonialism”. This is primarily due to cultural and linguistic imperialism, resulting in inequalities and a Cultural Division of Labour’, which gives rise to calls for independence and hence national liberation.

Some Scots still need to learn what independence is.

Heaver says:
3 April, 2021 at 3:36 pm
Success ! The box has remained ticked.

Hmm. I tried this yesterday and today. If I refresh or leave the page it un-ticks it’s self. Never been a problem until now.

Any ideas?

The Alba Party fundraiser is doing OK [£8,880] but could do better. Is the reason that many of us, as I did, bunged off a donation direct to the party via their website on the launch day?

Mark Boyle says:
3 April, 2021 at 4:27 pm

Either that, or the vagaries of Windows 10

email notifications have vanished for me too, and I’m on LINUX

Even if it was cheating, we could fix it after the vote as they are always telling us.

Pipinghot says: at 11:40 am

“Anybody thinking that NS is managing to do this without unionist help needs to stop smoking that stuff. Look at the help she is getting from the yoon press alone.”

Yes indeed. It is inconceivable that NS would get so much protection, and Alex Salmond so much hostility from Scotland’s media without instructions from Downing Street.

Plus of course the Civil Service, Leslie Evans, Liz Lloyd, Judith MacKinnon.
The Crown Office, David Harvie (Secret Service)
James Wolffe. Establishment.

I’m sure the list of Indy hostiles can be extended considerably.

Think also, would Alex Salmond surround himself with as many English Establishment figures?

This election is looking more and more like the final battle – and the only thing at the moment that can win it, barring any damaging major stories, are the voters who want Independence & self-determination badly enough.

TheSNPLeftMe says:
3 April, 2021 at 4:57 pm
link to crowdfunder.co.uk

9600 Quid / 19% in under 22 hours is not bad going.

Wee bit more now… 😉

Sarah @ 4:29pm, I thought about donating via Crowdfunder to increase the chances of the fundraiser being seen to be successful. However, being outside the UK, I decided to donate via the party website. Doing it that way, I hope it will be easier for them to track my monthly subs and donations to ensure proper reporting. As an accountant, I am, naturally, keeping my own record to ensure I keep within donation limits.

Perhaps others are simply put off by the Crowdfunder website. I certainly was.

I hope I understand the donation rules correctly. I believe I can donate no more than GBP500.00 per year. It would be helpful if someone with knowledge of the situation could confirm. the last thing we need is some random unionist belly-aching about “dark money” from abroad.