Wings Over Scotland

Brilliant, as always.

Said with a straight face.
Brilliant cartoon!

To a tee. Brilliant.

Did you see the way Sturgeon shushed him with a finger as she was writing? And his supine, pavlovian response? It was obvious that she’d done it many times before.

Still don’t think Humza is going to win.

Oh, yeah.

And we trust you too, Humza.

Thanks Chris… Humour pops to poison of this terrible time.

Thanks Chris – that raised a smile in these unsmily times.

As always right on the money Chris

Some part of me wants the SNP to fail so elect him and watch the party crumble, the other part thinks Ash Regan can do so much and heel the rift and bring us Independence.

As always, a very clever portrayal of the Continuity Candidate and perfectly illustrates his adherence to his predecessor’s policies and where he would have independence on his list of “things to do”!

Great satire thanks

That’s a dog rough image of sturgeon.

Oh look, he’s wearing ladies shoes!
Hilarious

HY’s inability to concede that 50%+1 is a majority means continuity for the UK.
Is there actually a point at which UK gov would be prepared to negotiate? History is not on Yousaf’s side in this matter. The Brits are not quitters, except under duress, and they like to leave a mess of sectarian division behind them.
Whether they show at the negotiating table or no a majority is a majority in the UK political code of conduct.
Those shoes may start to pinch before long.

And guess what too.

Members are not going to be told the votes cast for the candidates. They’ll only be told the percentage.

The SNP is a joke. Like the utterly gerrymandered Hollyrood candidate selection process, the election now , or should we say a rigged appointment of a new leader will be a fix.

And Murrell, the man pulling the strings is still in place pulling the strings, rigging results. What a foul bag of excrement to be running a once great party.

Anyway, bring on Humza and it will be the end of the SNP in its present form. Folks are desperate for change and his selection will only hasten that change and trigger a new reinvigorated Scottish Convention.

The puppet’s strings seem to be missing.

The mainstream Theatre of the Absurd, eloquently covered by Richie Allen, including LBC stalwarts James O Brien & Nick Ferrari and featuring a host of celebrities and former politicians.
O Brien postulates on SNP hopeful Kate Forbes

link to podomatic.com

The hairy legs adds a nice touch hahahahahaha.

How will Humzabot 2000 fair at the hustings? He doesn’t react well under pressure. Invariably reduced to bumbling incoherence. Then there’s that notoriously short temper he struggles to control. Will he be able to stick to his pre-programming courtesy of Chief Mammy of course?

Cant stop chuckling and thats about 2 hrs since first seen!

Made me wonder on more serious note as to what the rules might say in event God orders 2 of the last 3 to withdraw from the competition – ie if they cant confess to losing their faith or loving their colleagues to bits and vice versa..

Does remaining candidate win by default or is the party obliged to reject the resignation offer – ie with the caveat that the remaining candidate’s policy is adopted in full in order to save on expenses and make best use of the complimentary rugby (and tennis) tickets that cannot be raffled off in time?

Yousaf happy to be Sturgeon’s puppet, Chris you were bang on.

Yousaf is virtually saying in this article, look if I win NOTHING will change within the SNP.

“HUMZA Yousaf has said he is “happy” to be labelled the continuity candidate in the SNP leadership race.”

link to 12ft.io

Humza going to have to square the circle twith his party that he can’t square.

He wants to challenge GRR that the public don’t want.

He wants to go slower than Sturgeon on Indy that Kate Forbes wants.

Ash Regan wants an Independence convention to hand back Independence to the Yes movement on day 1.

He doesn’t know that a woman is an adult human female either. He thinks trans women are women and he wants to cancel Kate Forbes.

He’s toast.

Sturgeon is now locked in with the wrong heir to the throne. She’s anointed the wrong son. She’s chosen the spare.

Neil in Glasgow says:
25 February, 2023 at 9:16 am

Missed a trick – they should have been ruby slippers

Hey Neil
Leave my slippers alone!

It had to be tartan slippers like the ones Sturgeon is famous for.

It’s very clever because the shoes don’t just symbolise that he’s stepping into she/hers shoes but also that he’s a supporter of the GRRB.

Not quite sure how he’s going to get the Muslim vote with them shoes.

Rather worryingly, this gruesome image reminds me of a dinosaur boss I once had who assessed one of the female job candidates with the immortal words, “Nothing nicer than a court shoe and a nicely-turned ankle.”

Blimey! Hope he’s not an SNP member…….

Wonder if the red coat of forgetfulness fits too.

Probably also wearing a nappy so as not to make the Greens feel left out.

I think “continuity candidate” means someone continuing on a downward spiral. As others have correctly pointed out, if this clown becomes FM, it’s all over for the SNP (and independence) for at least a decade. Sadly, Alba are still a few years away from establishing themselves as a credible alternative with the electorate (and the MSM will do everything to slow the process), so “Scottish” Labour will eagerly jump into the gap. For all their faults, Kate Forbes is a very clever woman, and Ash Regan has her heart in the right place. As a member of the public, I’m willing to give either a chance. A Forbes-Regan leadership would be a strong team IMO. However, there’s a strong possibility that Humza Yousaf will come through, and I don’t think I could ever vote for the SNP with him in charge. Imagine the disaster of a Yousaf SNP-Green government, followed (in quick succession) by a “Scottish” Labour takeover. Talk about a double whammy. The SNP membership has a big responsibility to shape our lives over the next few years. One can but hope they don’t blow it big time.

David Hannah says: 11:54 am

“Sturgeon is now locked in with the wrong heir to the throne. She’s anointed the wrong son. She’s chosen the wrong spare.”

David, when you think about it, who else could Sturgeon have picked?

Perhaps he slipped on Anum’s by mistake?

We have it on (putatively) good account that Yousaf is sensitive to ‘pressure from the mosques’. If he becomes FM, I suspect his support for gender reform will be seen to evaporate, citing various pragmatic/logistical impediments.
You can bet your arse there’ll be a fair bit of triangulation going on here — “What can I get away with, with whom, and for how long…?”

Ike Sturgeon all style no substance!

If Humza tries to walk in those shoes, he might suffer a humiliating tumble. His balance and judgement are not impeccable. I foresee quite a few wobbles presaging a fall.

(Remember the famous incident with the scooter in Holyrood? What would possess a politician to do that? Utter folly. It will come back to haunt him just like Kinnock being up-ended by the sea. It was used at (in)auspicious moments as a none-too-subtle commentary on his political acumen.) Visual imagery is absorbed with an immediacy that words alone can’t match. Chris Cairns shows us that again and again with his shrewdly observed cartoons.

British journalists love that sort of picture, a visual reminder that they will use maliciously again and again, as they did with Kinnock, to ridicule a politician caught in an ill-judged moment resulting in indignity. ( The public love it too. ) I predict that every time he’s caught out as FM with one of his notorious gaffes, that video of Humza and the scooter will keep on being run.

Have to say that the only thing I ever grudgingly admired Sturgeon for, was her ability to walk in those ridiculously high heels. ( I could never manage it. Was it too petty to hope that one day she might fall off those stilettos? Just a little pratfall, nothing serious, honest.)

You rarely fail to hit the mark, Chris, and this one’s no different. Among my top favourite Cairnstoons. Thank you!
__________

willie says on 25 February 2023 at 10:34 am:
“And guess what too. Members are not going to be told the votes cast for the candidates. They’ll only be told the percentage. The SNP is a joke. Like the utterly gerrymandered Holyrood candidate selection process, the election now , or should we say a rigged appointment of a new leader will be a fix.”

Spot on, willie! I refuse to call it an election. It’s a rigged appointment.
__________

At James Che on 25 February 2023 at 2:09 pm:

While i agree 100% with your sentiments, James, of nobody pulling us all in a positive worthwhile direction it’s a bit rich to suggest the folk on here are children. Insulting all the WOS readership just because you are understandably frustrated is hardly the way to achieve your goal of wanting positive movement towards indy. And i mean it when i say i’m 100% in agreement with you on the lack of action. It’s soul destroying. I asked the question on here yesterday what are we going to do when Hoozat Useless gets appointed? No reply was the answer. Scunnert doesn’t even begin to cover it. Good luck in your new endeavours and stay safe.

“SusanAHF”

“Regan doesn’t want an indyref. 50%+1 and open independence negotiations. Indyref is a non starter now, so sorry Yoons”

SusanAHF.

Pay attention.

“50%+1 of combined votes from pro-independence parties in any WM or HR election is a clear instruction from the electorate that we commence withdrawal negotiations from the U.K. Independence – nothing less”

link to twitter.com

Personally I think the whole Independence movement needs a complete rethink of strategy. 8 years since the referendum and it has gone no where. People need to speak out and say things they haven’t been prepared to say before. Independence is a pipe dream with no end in sight. Forget about it, you’re wasting your time. Because the population is split into two halves, one that follows its heart, and one that goes with the head. Forget about banging on about ‘rights’ and digging up the basis of the union legalities: no one is listening. They’ve heard it all before. It is, dare I say it ‘irrelevant’ to winning independence. Carry on in that vein and it just turns people off. They know what is right, and people do have the right to be independent. They agree, but half the people aren’t headless turkeys. If there is to be an independent Scotland it must be a far better place for prosperity, jobs, education, health, housing, ‘life’ It must have a better economy, better infrastructure, better services. People want proof that an independent Scotland WILL be better off. Unfortunately the devolved government has done little if nothing to instil confidence in the people that will happen. And those people will NEVER vote YES until that occurs. Of course it would take a generation being realistic to achieve if you set out now to elevate the country to that state: you can’t have back the time already wasted
The mission for the next FM needs to be to fire up business and the economy; talk of independence on hold. Ditch the Greens and build nuclear and use our oil and gas resources whilst it still has value . If ‘sustainability’ has any relevance to the world, make the country more self reliant and resilient on its own. Take the taxes and put them into road, rail and port infrastructures, health, policing, education and let the country heal itself after what has been a very damaging period of neglect, with deviance towards minority, deeply unpopular policies. Do a TRUMP and make Scotland great again! MSGA

I skimmed the editorial condemnation of Kate Forbes in today Herald, one of a number of publications which received cash funding from the Scottish government, I believe. I suggest that people follow the trail of ultimate ownership of the Herald to the individual owner of the umbrella media group and also pay attention to the people the Herald has on its payroll. Some people really do not like Christians. The Herald also chose to look the other way when news broke on here of the Rainbow Greens in the lead up to an election.

Re Humza Yousef, as far as I know Nicola Sturgeon had a blank page in the WEF list of Young Leaders, does anyone know if Humza is endorsed by the same unelected power brokers?

James Che

Talk about spiting the dummy oot FFS Im going on 73 & supported Independence since I was 16 / WoS has always promoted Independence but Wingers are just as much frustrated as u with the lack of progress / gie yerself ah shake man .

why did angus robertson drop out?

not buying family reasons

Only justifiable reason for making oil extraction a higher priority then decarbonising, which Ash Regan’s says is her primary policy because of the jobs involved, is when there’s a war on and we need it to fuel our mechanised military.

But if there were a war on, all the extraction and refinement paraphernalia makes easy conventional missile targets. An aggressor is always looking to disrupt your domestic energy supply, putting pain on those citizens/subjects who depend on it and through them on government resolve. That means we need a contingency – decentralised energy generation producing electricty or hydrogen coupled with drastically reduced demand through home insulation and far better planning of transport needs. Wind, solar (widespread, small scale) hydro and energy conservation should be recognised as a major part of our defence effort. Dependence on oil is a weakness

If we do that we soon won’t need the fragile and climate-wrecking oil in the first place. When you do the calculation, turns out that every step we take to reduce our oil dependency for agriculture, heating and transport, is a step to improve our security, even ignoring the reduction in climate damage.

Who gets the financial benefit of oil production in peacetime? The idea we could create an equivalent to the Sovereign Fund in Norway needs explaining by its proponents. Is it by domestic consumers paying more than extraction costs (including any profit to the company or for replacement plant if it’s nationalised)? Or is it by extracting more than we need and selling the surplus? Which is exactly what has been going on for a century at least. Control of oil supplies was a major ingredient of 20th century wars and still plays a huge role in present day security. Pumping wells dry and opening new ones just because there is a profit to be made (by a billionaire) is the politics of rampant destructive capitalism. Pumping them dry and opening new ones because you can cream a tax off the consumer and call it a Sovereign Wealth Fund – well you don’t need the oil to tax to do that, you could tax anything people need.

I don’t have a vote in this leadership election as I never supported SNP on account of their attitude to oil, an attitude still evident in comments here. Maybe it’s their strong historic association with the North East. I’ll vote for a party that has a better regard for dealing with both climate damage and resilience to attack if, by election time, there is one freed from the TWAW-or-else contagion – whatever its position on independence from Westminster. Independence from the oil addiction will be much more significant for my grand-children!

How about saying politicians who hand out contracts to friends or party donors without tender should be prosecuted.

How about saying 13 years of Tory abuse with Austerity and recession but be brought to an end now.

Criminals will be sent to the prison their genitalia dictates.

How about every party in Scotland must show their membership numbers in Scotland and have a Scottish set of accounts displayed openly on an annual basis.

Can SNP keep telling people that we are self sufficient in Electricity gas and water.

Scots deserve better pensions that the Tories who are one of the worst in the EU and their plans to make you work into your 70’s is not on.

Banks must pass on rate increases to savers.

More focus on tax avoiders, nondom status and off shore account loop holes closed down.

The London parties are all owned and steered by the billionaires and big corporations.
It has become impossible to have any political success in England if you sit left of centre and put working and middle class families first.
Also known as the vast majority.

bluegrass banjo @ 4.20

Do you not think his missus is family then?

fruitella the hun says: at 4:40 pm

“Only justifiable reason for making oil extraction a higher priority then decarbonising, which Ash Regan’s says is her primary policy because of the jobs involved, is when there’s a war on and we need it to fuel our mechanised military.”

Really, who knew tractors that help produce our food at all times run on air and not diesel.

“But if there were a war on, all the extraction and refinement paraphernalia makes easy conventional missile targets. An aggressor is always looking to disrupt your domestic energy supply, putting pain on those citizens/subjects who depend on it and through them on government resolve. That means we need a contingency – decentralised energy generation producing electricty or hydrogen coupled with drastically reduced demand through home insulation and far better planning of transport needs. Wind, solar (widespread, small scale) hydro and energy conservation should be recognised as a major part of our defence effort. Dependence on oil is a weakness”

An aggressor could then just target any hydrogen generating plant and other renewable infrastructure thus rendering the nation without power. You may recall a few trees blown down taking out power lines during storm Arwin left communities without power or heating for many days.

“If we do that we soon won’t need the fragile and climate-wrecking oil in the first place. When you do the calculation, turns out that every step we take to reduce our oil dependency for agriculture, heating and transport, is a step to improve our security, even ignoring the reduction in climate damage.”

Stop kids spending so much time on their fooking phones and computers, the planet saving thing to do is kick your kids out of their beds and send them to pick the tatties and other veg, thus instilling a work ethic, a better comprehension and respect for food production, and some physical exercise, and saving tractors burning huge amounts of diesel to harvest crops. 1100 litres a day in a big tattie harvesting machine.

“Who gets the financial benefit of oil production in peacetime? The idea we could create an equivalent to the Sovereign Fund in Norway needs explaining by its proponents. Is it by domestic consumers paying more than extraction costs (including any profit to the company or for replacement plant if it’s nationalised)? Or is it by extracting more than we need and selling the surplus? Which is exactly what has been going on for a century at least. Control of oil supplies was a major ingredient of 20th century wars and still plays a huge role in present day security. Pumping wells dry and opening new ones just because there is a profit to be made (by a billionaire) is the politics of rampant destructive capitalism. Pumping them dry and opening new ones because you can cream a tax off the consumer and call it a Sovereign Wealth Fund – well you don’t need the oil to tax to do that, you could tax anything people need.”

Who gets the financial benefit from renewable energy generation…

“I don’t have a vote in this leadership election as I never supported SNP on account of their attitude to oil, an attitude still evident in comments here. Maybe it’s their strong historic association with the North East. I’ll vote for a party that has a better regard for dealing with both climate damage and resilience to attack if, by election time, there is one freed from the TWAW-or-else contagion – whatever its position on independence from Westminster. Independence from the oil addiction will be much more significant for my grand-children!”

If you’re not limiting your grand kids time on their phones and computers, and sending them to pick veg then you are part of the problem, not the solution.

@James Che

Keep your chin up (we’re all victims)

The hysteria and perpetual chaos we’re experiencing belongs to NWO loser (it’s freaking-out with nowhere to go)

It cannot handle the unlimited human power and social influence that you (public) hold over it.

You’re winning…

@fruitella the hun 4:40

If there were a war on …

You aving a larff? Don’t tell me you distrust the BBC so much you refuse to believe there’s a war on?

There is some merit in the rest of your post, but if you are truly concerned about our security, it’s surprising you missed the obvious one – stop importing more people. Doesn’t matter if energy consumption per head is reduced if the head count continues to increase. The total energy needs and consumption stays the same or even increases.

Every source I have seen points out that world energy consumption, including oil and gas consumption, is at historic record levels, and is expected to maintain its upwards trajectory.

Klaus Schwab (World Economic Forum):

“Globalism is an ideology that prioritizes the neoliberal global order over national interests.”:

link to archive.ph

Stewart McDonald MP (25/02/2023): Twit:

“My column in ?@TheScotsman? today: ‘The war has made it clear that we (NWO) in Scotland cannot continue our long period of geopolitical slumber, opting out of global affairs… The world is changing around us, and we have to change with it.’”:

link to archive.ph

@James Che

Not really believing you are going to walk away – soz 🙂

Kinda agree that the idea of endlessly rehashing the merits of the candidates for the next 4 weeks is grim (FFS – 4 weeks – how are they running their campaigns – pigeon post and horse-drawn carriages?)

Think positive, Regan is the only one with a workable plan. WM and HR elections will be plebiscites forever, 50% + 1 and we are offski. It’s the most straightforwards and understandable plan since 2014. Beats me why you would want to walk away while there is still a chance Regan will get it.

And if she does, do you not believe 50% + 1 is possible? Surely this has to be a lot more feasible than endlessly waiting for a referendum?

It might make sense to walk away in 4 weeks time if the incompetent continuity candidate gets it!

Republicofscotland says:
25 February, 2023 at 6:10 pm

The letter was in response to calls from former Church of Scotland moderators Lorna Hood and David Lacy calling for an end to sexist views within the church.”

It wasn’t published “anonymously” – everyone knows The Wee Flea blog is published by obnoxious little prick the Rev. David Robertson, who has been trying to become a celebrity cleric for decades (usually by trolling Richard Dawkins – who banned him from his website, knowing a fellow troll when he saw one).

He’s also the puppet master behind the so-called Scottish Family Party (although now safely tucked away in Oz he’s safe from any backlash his antics cause, leaving dozy Richard Lucas and the rest of the Solas Centre Muppet Show to take the flak).

Robertson’s a two faced wee shit who attacks Wee Frees in the SNP one minute because he’s a bunnit wringing forelock touching Yoon who thinks the Scotch should know their place before their “betters”, moralises about them being attacked for their Christianity the next.

@James Che –

The frustration is understandable but right now there’s a lot to ‘gossip’ about and it’s important that we keep on top of it even if we prefer not to participate.

The goodwill and camaraderie which characterised the Yes movement we all felt part of was shattered by a broad range of cynical careerists in what passes for ‘intelligentsia’ in this country. They knowingly conspired with the British State to grind us down. They gave one another awards for thwarting the drive to independence.

Some say forgive, forget, move on. Others want full disclosure, confessions, arrests, apologies, explanations i.e. ‘the Truth’, no matter how unpleasant it may be.

Yeah, it’s messy and it may take many months before we’re back to the point at which Alex Salmond did the ‘honourable thing’ by resigning. But we’re not dealing with honourable people. They are shallow undemocratic shysters who would blood-eagle their own grannies if they believed it might advance their careers a jot. We have to be every bit as ruthless as them if our movement is to be saved. With that in mind, a period of flux along with much uncertainty and inevitable ‘gossip’ is surely worth enduring.

I hope you continue to contribute here.

😉

John Main says: at 6:47 pm

“Go 100% renewable and you are snookered when it’s dark and the wind has calmed.”

Wings is incredible for learning stuff tonight. Who knew wind and solar were the only renewable generation source…
You could like Meygen have been developing up in the Pentland Firth over recent years, put turbines in the sea below the splash zone and harness tidal power, which is a constant as long as the moon is in the sky.
And tidal power is also extremely predictable and consistent as it doesn’t have either the crazy strong storm surges or flat calm events like wind or surface wave power generation has to deal with, thus making the tidal generators far more efficient and consistent as they don’t have to be over-engineered to cope with extremes of weather.
Tide times and flow also vary around Scotland’s huge coastline so load can be better balanced.

Due to the ever increasing generation capacity of both on and offshore wind, the occasional still weather events when there is a deficit in demand to wind generation supply will reduce.

But all talk of implementing real environmentally sound energy policy in Scotland is moot until we return to self-governance, because energy and all the other major powers we need to instigate improvements are reserved to Westminster.

John Main, Salmond had a plan put in an interconnector to Norway and pump their water up their many hills by our surplus renewables until needed by us as base load, the plan was so good they have put in an interconnector from The North East of England to Norway.
So we can still do that, fusion is pie in the sky for the foreseeable future, more money needs to be invested in tidal/wave.

fruitella the hun at 6:32 pm

“You don’t seem to like what I’m contending, you don’t really say why – is it tribal distaste for environmentalists?”

Ha, in that case you don’t appear to have read any of my btl contributions over the years relating to energy, environmental, waste, and self-sufficiency / sustainability matters. 😉

Nae loss to me. I never understood the fuss over Mogwai. A poor man’s indi group , with only one good song.

link to mobile.twitter.com

Klaus Schwab says nationalism is a threat to the Great Reset (2021): Video:

“…if we do not stop these (nationalist) trends…”:

link to tinyurl.com

I have seen your posts. I started looking at this site around the Salmond trial.

Republicofscotland

I really can’t see how Kate can continue after saying a woman can’t hold a higher position than a man and then seek to be FM.

I just hope her supporters back Ash Regan.

Dan 7:22 pm
“You could like Meygen have been developing up in the Pentland Firth over recent years, put turbines in the sea below the splash zone and harness tidal power, which is a constant as long as the moon is in the sky.“

Can you tell me how much electricity is actually being generated by tidal power at the moment?

Is it possible, if Ash Regan wins, we might just do this?

“Shug says:
25 February, 2023 at 7:27 pm

Funny how a ship sinking on the Clyde and 2 people dead hardly makes the BBC news.”

It’s been on BBC radio news; I’ve listened to 6 Music, Radio Scotland and Radio 4 this afternoon/evening, and heard it on all of them. I don’t know about the telly, though.

“Ye need smeddum tae be richt coorse or richt kind”

Meg Menzies in Smeddum by Lewis Grassic Gibbon.

Kate Forbes has Smeddum. She, if given the chance, will deliver Independence in 5 years.

One_Scot,
I hope you’re correct but I would imagine that the most you could hope for with Regan as FM is that she clears some of the dross out of the SNP, she will have little time to do anything other than avoid being knifed in the back by her colleagues.

At the moment the SNP MPs and MSPs are just a bag of careerist snakes with absolutely no integrity.
We can hope Regan delivers what she says but the reality is she will have little in the way of support from her fellow “independistas”.

John Main.

My chin is up and I haven’t given up,

But chosen between the devil and the deep blue see is not a choice.

The devolved government is not our Parliament, and the first minister is not our prime minister,
In fact there is no legislation for the position of prime minister in Westminster.
Have you ever read up on how the position came about and when?

I am leaving for a few reasons, it is not nice of me to pressure ”
Stu” to talk of actual full independence of Scotland, as he informed us himself he had had some threats to his family and friends in the past,
And I wish no harm to come to him or his family and friends.

Another reason is I find it difficult to go backwards from my research on legalities of the treaty of the union, to coronation style gossip talking, of the devil and the deep blue sea scenario.
Once you know, you know….and there is no going back to being dumb.

@ President Xiden

Some stats for the various completed and future phases in the MeyGen project.

link to saerenewables.com

400MW total potential in the scheme of things is not a huge amount of generation but it is developing the concept.
For comparison, in this link you can see the potential generation stats for the blocks in the recent ScotWind auction.

link to offshorewindscotland.org.uk