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If you find that you just can’t trust them

Posted on March 18, 2023 by

We’ve just been leaked this footage, apparently taken by an alert traveller, of Nicola Sturgeon at Edinburgh Airport, reacting badly to receiving news that Peter Murrell has been “unavoidably detained” and won’t be making their rendezvous to Rio.

So what now, readers? What now?

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0 to “If you find that you just can’t trust them”

  1. Wee Chid
    Ignored
    says:

    A genuine LOL

  2. Turnbulldrier
    Ignored
    says:

    karma is a bitch…

    That is all.

  3. sarah
    Ignored
    says:

    I thought she was at a women’s conference today?

  4. Blackhack
    Ignored
    says:

    If only I’d known……I could have made a “Killing” in popcorn sales this weekend.

  5. David Beveridge
    Ignored
    says:

    Let’s hope nobody tells her she’s got killer heels as well. Might send her right over the edge.

  6. Jacqueline
    Ignored
    says:

    Well done Stu

  7. Bill Cowan
    Ignored
    says:

    Close to the edge, but brilliant Stu!

  8. Jim Mckellar
    Ignored
    says:

    Brutal… Hahahahahaha

  9. Shug
    Ignored
    says:

    We must now think about the rebuild

    Who goes who stays, national convention all parties

  10. 100%Yes
    Ignored
    says:

    What now? Well I’d hope Humza Yousaf would step aside for starters, now that Peter Murrell and Nicola Sturgeon aren’t in charge, they’ll be a lot of people looking after themselves.

    The police investigation will not be hampered by the Murrells. I feel now the SNP will be more than willing to assist with the police investigation.

    More will follow I fell sure.

  11. Scott Shaw
    Ignored
    says:

    Do you really think it will be Peter she runs off in to the sunset with? I think things concerning Ms Sturgeon will become increasingly clear now.

  12. Cuilean
    Ignored
    says:

    My sister, on hearing that Murrell was gone, danced and screamed round the kitchen, with sheer joy. Such a weight feels lifted.

  13. PhilM
    Ignored
    says:

    Turns out we were all wrong – us doubters – …Nicola really did play a blinder!!!

  14. robertkknight
    Ignored
    says:

    Camelot in flames.

    Let it burn!

  15. Dramfineday
    Ignored
    says:

    Ho,ho,ho,ho…..ho,ho… what a barb! They must rue the day they woke you up Stuart. Hahahaha. Oh dear, hahahaha.

  16. 100%Yes
    Ignored
    says:

    The whole SNP election has been carried out in fraud and lies and under Mr Murrells rules in order to promote Humza. Now that Petter Murrell has stepped aside I fail to see how the SNP leadership contest can continue, it must be restarted to follow the party rules and allowing anybody that wants to rejoin the party a vote. If I was Ash Regan I would be demanding this.

  17. Ottomanboi
    Ignored
    says:

    They who want everything lose everything.
    Brazilian Proverb

  18. Sandy
    Ignored
    says:

    Hard to put into words the relief that this brings.

    The last few years have seen things that simply defy logic, the missing “ring fenced” money that nobody dared ask about, the witch-hunt against Salmond, the “kick the can down the road” attitude to any progress towards indy, to name but 3.

    The party faithful defending everything that was going on without a murmur of dissent.

    To an outsider it has all had the strangest of stinks.

    Hopefully the party can find its way again and clear out the stables full of shite this lot are leaving behind them.

  19. craig murray
    Ignored
    says:

    I cannot recommend too highly the comments btl at wgd. Murrell has done the honorable thing, apparently, all of his own accord, and there is nothing behind it all.

  20. Ted
    Ignored
    says:

    This really is Rishi Sunak’s triumph. She calculated that he wouldn’t dare use the power he had to block the woo woo. He did. The whole house of cards will fall. The only “fly” in the ointment could be Kate who I fear will be as popular in the whole of the UK as she will be among Scottish voters in Scotland.

  21. Dubh
    Ignored
    says:

    It’s no gonnae be Peter she runs to…is it, noo.

    As for ‘what next?’ – I’m expecting the leadership race to be suspended. How could we possibly trust the process if it goes ahead and appoints the next FM?

    Someone not in the frame for being arrested will take over fae NS on the 27th as ‘interim FM’ and nothing will happen until a new FM is appointed.
    ,
    It’s been a good day, but could’ve been made better by Murrell, Lloyd,Robertson and all the other corrupt arses being arrested in their jammies at 5am and frog
    marched into a polis car. But I’ll take today’s win.

    Thanks to Stu for all the much needed information over the past few months. All your hard work has delivered…THIS!
    Grateful you decided to return to the fight.
    Thank you and more please.

  22. gregor
    Ignored
    says:

    Leftfield (2017): A final Hit: Shallow Grave:

    “…Oh, yes. I believe in friends
    I believe we need them
    But if one day you can’t trust them any more
    Well, what then…”:

    https://tinyurl.com/yckznmcr

  23. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    As some have said once the dust settles the leadership campaign should be restarted now that Murrell and Sturgeon have resigned, more importantly the new contest should be one that’s transparent at every stage.

    Furthermore someone has to tell GCHQ that their “monitoring” of the contest isn’t required, and then there’s Humza Yousaf the continuity candidate what happens to him now that Murrell is no longer pulling the strings, along with all the fake endorsements from other MSPs, should he be disqualified?

  24. Beauvais
    Ignored
    says:

    If Yousaf wins the vote his victory would be tainted beyond measure and his position as SNP leader would also be – to use a favourite Sturgeon word – untenable.

    That someone like Murrell could not only become the SNP chief executive, but stay there for almost a quarter of a century is baffling.

  25. Famous15
    Ignored
    says:

    I ended my SNP membership in 2019 mostly because I did not wish to fund the chancers ruining the party.

    Mairi Hunter in her tweet grieving the quitting of Peter Murrel says how wonderful he was when appointed as he got good salaries and good pensions for “the staff”.

    I wanted independence for Scotland and not a gravy train. I give much of my life freely and for free for the cause. Sack the grifters and have all elected msp and mp’s give half their salaries to fund action!

  26. LantonParky
    Ignored
    says:

    Slightly O/T but what the hell it is the weekend.

    Astonishing reply to a recent FOI request from Nicola’s school days.

    It relates to an alleged recipe on ‘How to serve up the perfect gravy,’
    and was found in her Domestic Science exercise book, obviously from
    a good number of years ago.

    It reads:

    “Add two heaped tablespoons of currency granules (flavour can vary but
    for our purpose we’re presuming it’s ‘sterling’). Carefully and slowly pour in
    a quantity of boiling water (still available free through the tap or plastic
    bottles at the time of writing), stir briskly as you do so. Your aim is to achieve
    a smooth, thick gravy so be aware that too much liquid will dilute and so
    devalue your endeavour.

    “At this point you may add a wee dram to the mix, if your parent or carer
    allows. It will make a pleasant surprise – maybe for your favourite uncle
    to pour over his subsidised meal while he relaxes carefree in his favourite
    comfy slippers while wrapped up snug in his furry, faux Saltire blanket.
    We must always be mindful of keeping the oldies well fed and warm.

    “And there you have it. Once perfected this gravy recipe will become
    the cornerstone of any future culinary career you may pursue. It can also
    be past on to close friends and family but don’t spread it too thin, ie: to
    the masses, as it will lose its consistency and so fall out of favour.

    “A note from teacher: The smoother and thicker the gravy consistency
    the better it will travel – particularly on buses and trains. New granular
    flavours are constantly being trialled but as yet Scotland has not found
    one totally to its liking.”

  27. Stu no pronouns whatsoever
    Ignored
    says:

    Butterkist will be cleaning up in Scotland alongside Ash Regan

  28. Anonymoose
    Ignored
    says:

    What now?..

    Well the UN special rapporteur job that Sturgeon is/was being lined up for might just be on a shoogly-peg now that her husband who ran the political party she was leader of side-by-side with her for the past 9 years has resigned while mired in multiple cases of corruption and also being under multiple police investigations.

    I do wonder when the Electoral Commission will pop its head up over the loans and the falsified membership numbers provided to them by the Murrells…

    Sturgeon has to receive some blowback over this whole affair as she’s not only thrown multiple members of her own political party under the bus but multiple members of the SNP HQ’s staff and her own husband under it as well.

    What a dangerous, deluded, pathological narcissist she is.

    Tick.. Tock…

  29. 100%Yes
    Ignored
    says:

    I hope Mr Salmond is having an enjoyable day and someone has informed him of Mr Murrell transportation from the SNP as its CEO.

  30. TheSNPLeftMe
    Ignored
    says:

    I think it would be a good idea to go back and ask those MPs and MSPs who said they would not support Kate or Ash as leader. We should clarify their position before the winner is announced.

  31. Wee Chid
    Ignored
    says:

    craig murray says:
    18 March, 2023 at 2:40 pm

    “I cannot recommend too highly the comments btl at wgd. Murrell has done the honorable thing, apparently, all of his own accord, and there is nothing behind it all.”

    I’ve had too much sugar already today. It would likely make me sick.

  32. Lothianlad
    Ignored
    says:

    Let’s ot forget owen thompson the midlothian mp for hs utter supervisee to the leadership to be on the gravy train.

    A close look at his activities wouldn’t be tome wasted.
    Skeleton in cupboards me thinks.

  33. President Xiden
    Ignored
    says:

    Sarah says “I thought she was at a women’s conference today?”

    Sadly the conference had be postponed as no one could define what a woman was.

  34. Grouser
    Ignored
    says:

    Genuine question: why did the NEC turn on Murrell?

  35. Astonished
    Ignored
    says:

    dramfineday @2.32. Excellent comment.

    Police Scotland the longer you delay the more corrupt you’ll look.

    Hopefully senior policemen (some of whom may have resigned or retired early) will also be charged for allowing this to go on for sooooo long.

    If Sturgeon is heading to Rio (and I wouldn’t put it past her) – It won’t be with Petter.

  36. Stephen
    Ignored
    says:

    Off to visit the French Ambassador?

  37. ben madigan
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Famous 15 who said “have all elected msp and mp’s give half their salaries to fund action!”

    For years and years all elected SF MPs, TDs and MLAs took only a minimal industrial wage and ploughed the rest back into the movement for irish Re-Unification

    PS There’s an eerie silence as if everybody is in shock at how quickly the house of cowards has collapsed

  38. William Habib Steele Steele
    Ignored
    says:

    The Chief Executive of the SNP being the husband of the Party Leader and First Minister was a conflict of interest. I don’t understand why the body of members permitted it.

  39. Graeme George
    Ignored
    says:

    Life is strange I woke up this morning thinking as an Indy supporter this has to be the lowest point in my life and now I find myself launched into orbit around the planet karma

  40. Frazerio
    Ignored
    says:

    I wonder if Sturgeon will be able to remember when she first heard Peter Murrell was resigning. A bit of a history forgetting this sort of stuff.

    If the polis have anything about them, they’ll be confiscating passports and checking passenger lists for flights to Panama.

  41. sadscot
    Ignored
    says:

    @Grouser
    Once Foote spilled the beans it became about survival.
    Some of the quotes from “sources” today are mind-boggling. They are all up to their eyes in this. Needs a whole clearout.

  42. Jan
    Ignored
    says:

    Russell to take over from Murrellfor leadership election

  43. John Green
    Ignored
    says:

    He is just one employee in the head office, anybody that had anything to do with money in and out are up to the shucks of their arses in it, where is the £600,000, where are the police

  44. Beauvais
    Ignored
    says:

    True to form Pension Pete tweets to praise Murrell and credits him with “professionalising” the SNP.

  45. scotlandwillbefree
    Ignored
    says:

    When the truth comes out in the next month about what Sturgeon has been involved in she will be up the top there with all those other villains and hate figures in Scottish history

  46. Graeme George
    Ignored
    says:

    Grouser says:
    18 March, 2023 at 3:19 pm

    ”Genuine question: why did the NEC turn on Murrell?”

    Self preservation ?

  47. Fiona
    Ignored
    says:

    Are those notes ironed? ????

  48. Dorothy Devine
    Ignored
    says:

    Craig Murray , I will ignore your recommendation as I too have been nauseated by the unthinking , uncritical comments for some years now.

    Very disappointed as it was once a site I visited regularly but when it came to the infamous trial and the verdict those that I once considered logical ,thoughtful folk gave idiotic responses to it – one wonders how many folk tried by jury and found innocent do the WGD commentators still consider guilty. Would they if found in the unhappy position of accused be delighted to hear that even though found innocent the media had decided they were guilty and continued smearing in perpetuity.

  49. Smitty
    Ignored
    says:

    So everything i said is happening. There will be more to fall yet. Sturgeon will be on the backbenches by next FMQs. Her position is no longer tenable and there are big stories to come out over the next few days which she sill not be able to survive. Peter Murrell will be arrested this week on multiple charges. The shielding they enjoyed has gone.

    I have been shown the evidence that HQ does have visibility of the live voting. Oswald, Murrell & Finn have all denied that this function exists, however the evidence that has now been passed on that is does. Oswald will have to resign as a MP for her denial of this. Finn will have to be sacked from McKee’s office. This will be made public very soon, and it will then bring the entire contest into disrepute. We know that Humza was being fed live results from HQ but we were not given the physical evidence. However a junior member of his team is shitting himself now as he has seen what has happened to Lloyd, Murrell & Foote. He is on the edge just and he has already spilled to a MP who is now on the warpath.

    The NEC are a complete mess. It is a circular firing squad now. They could all potentially be facing giving evidence under oath with major financial and political consequences for them. This seriousness of what they have been involved in is now starting to sink with blame being passed about. The vote will need to be restarted but it is likely that Humza will have to drop out once the evidence of collusion with HQ and vote tampering is made public. Humza’s political career is finished. It will be a two horse race; Regan v Forbes.

  50. Dorothy Devine
    Ignored
    says:

    President Xiden, that made me smile.

  51. Luigi
    Ignored
    says:

    Surely now the vote has to be cancelled and started again?

    After the fiasco this weekend, does the SNP want to risk another humiliation and embarrass Scotland further by announcing a “winner” next week? We are already a laughing stock. Stop digging!

    “And the winner is……….. (BTW Peter counted the votes before he left!”

  52. Ronnie McNeill
    Ignored
    says:

    Now, let’s get Robertson oot.

  53. JGedd
    Ignored
    says:

    craig murray @2.40pm

    Those btl comments at WGD are just….breath-taking. They are not stupid people, (well, not uneducated people) but hanging on desperately to a delusion takes some determination not to become enlightened. It proves to me that those who practice to deceive succeed by finding a ready audience. In other words, to be deceived there is a certain degree of willingness, an eagerness to believe in the deception. Once suckered in there is a desperate need for the brain to maintain its best image, in their case probably, one that cannot be deceived so therefore, denial of any deception. (Thus also proving that the brain is not always your friend!)

    It’s why betrayed lovers or fans are always the last to admit to having been deceived by falling for what was an illusion, even though they are not the betrayers. The image of themselves as having being fooled must be denied at all costs. (It’s especially difficult if you have made a very public commitment, of course.)

  54. capnandy2
    Ignored
    says:

    Brilliant. Laugh out loud time.
    Thanks to you Stu and to the other bloggers without whose hard work this wouldn’t have happened.
    I notice in the popular (well maybe not) press the usual suspects Baillie et al, are saying this is the end of independence. I would hope it’s the opposite. Things should get better from here on.

  55. ronald anderson@gmail.com
    Ignored
    says:

    There’s no gain for Nicla in sticking with a lavender union Murrell’s arse is well hung out the window .

  56. Izzie
    Ignored
    says:

    Oh you sad Wingers full of sound and fury signifying… nothing. Don’t you realize that the independence movement is not one man woman or Party.

  57. Ian McCubbin
    Ignored
    says:

    This is excellent news. Let’s see if any more if the cabal get picked up.
    I live in hope.

  58. 100%Yes
    Ignored
    says:

    I wonder who’ll ask for a divorce first?

  59. Luigi
    Ignored
    says:

    The SNP cannot now have a leadership contest until confidence in the process has been restored.

  60. sadscot
    Ignored
    says:

    @Smitty
    Jings!
    I’ve been thinking about Oswald today actually. The panic on the NEC was evident today when the statement came out that they’d told Murrell he had to go but some of the quotes were ludicrous as, while they admitted he should have gone years ago, the sources didn’t seem to accept their own responsibility for the shocking state of the Party and the bullying going on. They all need to go.

  61. One_Scot
    Ignored
    says:

    Every so often I think of that picture of Nicola Sturgeon at the Hydro and think, she had an open goal with the ball at her feet and yet she stamped her stiletto heel right through it.

    Maybe now is the time for the right people to be put in place to deliver where she failed.

  62. sadscot
    Ignored
    says:

    @Izzie
    That’s how it’s meant to work, aye, except for some years now it’s been under the control of one woman and her cabal! Which is why it’s in the state it is now.

  63. JGedd
    Ignored
    says:

    Izzie says @ 4.05pm

    Don’t you realize that the independence movement is not one man woman or Party.

    Where have you been? Most of the people who comment here are the ‘lost’ independence movement who left the SNP because of the disaster they had become. Most still hope for independence but the movement for independence has been damaged by the last 8 years of deception and incompetence of the SNP (not to mention those who condoned unquestioningly.) It would be unrealistic not to see that. Again, where have you been?

  64. osakisushi
    Ignored
    says:

    I am actually shocked about Mike Russel, supposedly the conscience of the party in his lofty position.

    Why the hell has he not stuck his oar in, saying what should be happening? Instead, he’s keeping quiet, doubtless in the hope his nice little retirement earner continues. Perhaps there should also be a glance at what happened in his election “battle” with Craig Murray.

  65. Scot Finlayson
    Ignored
    says:

    This will all end up in an Independent Inquiry which will take 10 years and cost £100,000,000 for some no name Lord or Judge to come up with a report that doesn`t get to a conclusion.

    We need a witch hunt like in the old days , pitch forks and torches,hunt them all down the carpet baggers the grifters the Green Party the rainbow clowns the liars the misogynists the self serving cowards the ……………

  66. Peter Baird
    Ignored
    says:

    They’ll be trying tae flee to their bide a wee in Portugal

    “Oh Flower of Scotland…. When will we see… The Cash again!”

  67. One_Scot
    Ignored
    says:

    Lol, Smitty, I don’t know who you are but I love you.

  68. John
    Ignored
    says:

    Good point.

    “mandy rhodes
    @holyroodmandy
    Who is Peter Murrell’s line manager…oh!”

  69. Antoine Roquentin
    Ignored
    says:

    To state the glaringly obvious: The leadership contest has lost all credibility and must be wound-back to day 1. Peppered with chunks of shrapnel as he is, Humza must remove his name from the ballot-paper. Not to overstate Ash Regan and her team’s role in all of this: who else, exactly, was genuinly committed to legal action? Certainly not Yusaf or Kate Forbes, wherever she’s disappeared to this time.

  70. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    @Izzie,

    Yes Izzie ,it’s not one man or woman. Especially not Nicola or her husband.

  71. John Green
    Ignored
    says:

    @Izzie
    That man, woman and party were a blockage to the independence movement,with them in place we were going nowhere,now we have a chance

  72. Viscount Ennui
    Ignored
    says:

    Not so sure that I subscribe to the official narratives re Sturgeon and Murrell resigning.
    Firstly, I don’t believe that missing money was the main driver and nor do I think that it was the GRR.
    I suspect that the coup originated at WM with the disgust felt by some MPs at the treatment meted out first to AS and then to Cherry. It would not surprsie me at all if there has been some collusion between certain SNP MPs and the UK police based on information available to them about how AS was stitched-up.
    Knowing that Cherry is as passionate about Public Law as she is about independence, she and others would be in a good position to get their ducks in row before nudging those with the power to do so to flex their muscles. That curious meeting between NS and Sunak in a Glasgow hotel was more significant than we were led to believe at the time and by playing the Sec 35 card, he showed her who was boss and that she had gone too far with the phoney war.
    All speculation of course, but the story about missing money, whilst pretty damning, is not in itself enough.
    There is something else and it is much more serious.
    Revenge is a dish best served cold. AS will have his day.

  73. sadscot
    Ignored
    says:

    The leadership contest is to continue under the management of Lorna Finn. Oswald is claiming no one else has been overseeing it so far. She also said,
    “Business convener Kirsten Oswald MP said: “Peter has been a key part of the team that has led the SNP to election win after election win and changed the face of Scottish politics. He steps down with our appreciation for his many years of service and great electoral success.”
    Shameless. They’re acting like nothing’s happened.

  74. Geoff Anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    Mike Russel takes over Murrell’s position in the interim. Looks like a rearguard action is being mounted.

    Everyone trusts good old Mike.

    Do they?

  75. Alf Baird
    Ignored
    says:

    Dubh @ 2:41 pm

    “As for ‘what next?’”

    I expect the colonial parties may soon be demanding an election.

  76. Mia
    Ignored
    says:

    hahahaha!!!

    I wonder if that clip is much more accurate than at first glance it may look like. Let’s forget about the airport and focus on the suitcase.

    What was supposed to be in Sturgeon’s suitcase of political achievements on her exit from Scotland’s politics? An enhanced version of FFA, perhaps?

    This is from “The Herald, published on the 18th June 2019”:

    “At an event hosted by the think-tank Reform Scotland, Ms Sturgeon said she had not had many dealings with Mr Johnson, who is widely expected to be the next Prime Minister.
    But she recalled walking beside him the day after the 2015 general election, at the VE Day commemorations in London. She said: “Boris and I walked along together and I think he said something to me like – I’m not directly quoting here for the journalists in the room – but it was something that was along the lines of, ‘So Nicola, full fiscal autonomy – does that kind of buy you guys off?’”
    The context around the remarks is not clear, but Ms Sturgeon joked it would be the “starting point” of her relationship with Mr Johnson if he secures the top job”

    There is no doubt the threatening value of a 56 strong anti-union MP majority backed with a mandate for an indyref on the basis of a material change of circumstances, would have gone over the roof on the day after the EU referendum.

    Sturgeon is an ambitious woman, so there is nothing to suggest she would not have attempted to capitalise on that massive bargaining chip she was landed with and make the most of it to enhance her political career and her future prospects after her FM post.

    Let’s imagine for a moment Sturgeon gambled our anti-union majorities of the last 8 years, our 2016 mandate for a referendum on the basis of a material change in circumstances (which could have led to a legitimate outright termination of the treaty of union), and our 62% vote against brexit (which made the change in circumstances real), on a personal quest to achieve some form of enhanced FFA or quasi federalism in exchange for not stopping brexit and not getting Scotland back to the EU.

    Let’s just imagine for a second this proposal was not rejected by the British state but considered on a compromise to remove from front line politics the biggest human threat to the treaty of union and also the total neutering of the political vehicle for independence.

    A clever, seasoned negotiator would demand to see the bounty, or at least installments of it, before completely surrendering their best negotiating tools – the tools which were creating the threat and brought the opponent to the negotiating table in the first place.

    HOwever, while Sturgeon went overboard with the UK civil service, crown agent and COPFS, perjurers etc to ruin the reputation of Mr Salmond, and she went well above and beyond her expected neutering of the SNP by rendering the brand worthless and the party unelectable, 7 years on, there are no signs of anything being delivered in exchange for the sacrifice of the SNP, our mandate or Mr Salmond’s reputation.

    The problem with being so diligent delivering your part of the bargaining and so trusting in doing so without demanding any demonstrations of good faith from your opponent, is that, inadvertenly (stupidily?), you might actually end up with no barganing tools left to force your opponent to deliver their part of the bargain should their refuse to do so once you have removed the threat.

    If indeed there ever was any negotiation, what we are witnessing in the SNP happening now suggests Sturgeon may have thrown out the baby with the baby water. 7 years on, nothing has been delivered and there is no much left to threat the British state with should their delivery not materialise.

    From where I am standing, given the huge value our anti-union majorities backed by a mandate for indyref based on change in circumstances had in 2016, it very much looks like, in the matter of achievements, Sturgeon has been the most useless, most wasteful and most ineffective negotiator Scotland has ever seen.

    When you look at all this from this angle, you could even understand why the faithfull and her clique were so desperate to keep a veneer of credibility on her and the party, which she had effectively destroyed, and to keep the real membership figures secret.

    The moment it was made clear the membership was leaving the party on their droves, the SNP suddenly lost its threat appeal and therefore its exchange rate value in the eyes of the British state. It was game over.

    I wonder when Sturgeon and her entourage realised they had been had.

    Basted on her own narcissism, Sturgeon and her “advisers” might have lost peripheral vision on the huge flaw on her strategy.

    It turns out it might have been the negotiators of the British state after all who played the blinder. Not only they got this muppet to thwart independence on their behalf, to permanently damage the profile of Mr Salmond and to destroy the SNP as a vehicle for independence for the foreseeable future, they actually got all this at hardly any cost for the union. Not a single extra power, beyond what Mr Salmond achieved with the vow and her efforts to win independence, has been delivered to Holyrood in almost 9 years of Sturgeon’s spectacular mismanagement of our bargaining assets. I bet these British state negotiators can hardly contain their laughter.

    She should have remembered the British state cannot be trusted. If she negotiated some variant of FFA/enhanced devolution beyond “the vow”, she should have announced it straigtht away. Because even if that would have got her pelters for betraying the yes movement, at least it would have secured the delivery and would have prevented the British state reneging on its part of the bargain.

    Instead, in the quest to deceiving Scotland into believing she would deliver a referendum, she appears to have lost us both, the bounty and the bargaining chips.

    If she never even attempted to negotiate anything for Scotland with the huge bargaining power she was entrusted with, then the only plausible conclusion is that this woman was a unionist plant from day 1.

    So yeah, worthless paper cuts is what Sturgeon will be carrying in her suitcase of achievements on her exit from Bute House.

    What an amateur muppet.

  77. sadscot
    Ignored
    says:

    “Kate Forbes, wherever she’s disappeared to this time.”
    Seriously? Why are you having a go at Forbes. She’s been working alongside Regan all the way through, particularly in recent days. The letter sent challenging the membership numbers and demanding the facts was sent jointly by both of them. Along with Regan, she raised concerns about the help Yousaf was getting. She’s done her bit as has Michelle Thomson. She has not “disappeared” anywhere and that’s a horrible thing to say given the absolute sh** she’s had to take during this contest from the press and even from some colleagues. Ash Regan has played a blinder but she did not do it on her own. They have each other’s backs which they’ve both needed when they’re up against people as filthy and dishonest as Yousaf and his pack are. You’re out of order.

  78. osakisushi
    Ignored
    says:

    Whoever you are, thank you for the input thus far.

    Hopefully the next phase works out with a Forbes vs Regan finale. Ideally, the winner will commit to ordering a Scottish made guillotine.

  79. Rogueslr
    Ignored
    says:

    If the election is suspended or ruled null and void then there won’t be time for the new FM to be appointed and to challenge the GRR bill from being blocked in the courts. If that happens where does it leave the Greens? Up shit creek hopefully.

  80. All-Stuart
    Ignored
    says:

    .

    Stuart Campbell,

    Thank you.

    This has been a long, long, putrid time coming.

    That sublimely well chosen video clip is a magnificently Scottish dark humour way of marking the end of a terrible and toxic reign.

    I have been smiling ever since the video went up. Pure bloody perfection.

    On topic with BTL, I am unsure where Smitty is getting the information from. But there are golden nuggets of truth in them.

    My sources are more formal and not political. Purely evidence based. There are a LOT OF PI55ED OFF ADVOCATES, FISCALS AND SHERIFFS. Why? Because they are raging at the volume of bad laws that need to be struck down after Murrell’s rendition of Hamlet and Sturgeon leaving “Something rotten in the State of Scotland.”

    Oh bliss. The old corrupt crooks are getting the bums rush and several will be seeing the inside of a jail cell in what will be the biggest political upheaval in living memory.

    It might be wise to be circumspect for a few days Smitty. Nothing sinister. Just to be sure that no Winger’s comments can be used to defend any of the toxic wokerati as they head for a fact finding tour of Barlinnie and Cofton Vale.
    .

    A belated thanks to Brian Doonthetoon.

    We both mentioned Alex Salmond returning as the only competent person to run the country AND with the Statesmanship to avoid this bourach descending into a Scottish equivalent of the 6 counties of Northern Ireland.

    Within just a few days from today, the Murrells will have had their poisonous claws removed from the levers of power. Their protective Teflon shield will be GONE.

    Best buy shares in your local popcorn company. It’s going to be a helluva journey.

    Also, thanks a million times to Pension Pete for pi55ing off Rev Stu.

    We are receiving two and three features a day some days from the revved-up Rev. Much appreciated. Every article at WoS seems to be lifting the spirits, as the pile of manure is shovelled out of the Bute House Midden.

    Nicola, don’t let the door hit your erse on the way oot Hen.

  81. Big Jock
    Ignored
    says:

    Mike Russell. No thanks. He is part of the inner circle in the witches coven.

  82. John H.
    Ignored
    says:

    If Smitty is right in what he’s been telling us, then it’s all going to kick off this week. Under those circumstances there is no way that the election process can continue.

  83. Izzie
    Ignored
    says:

    The only people celebrating today are the Unionists and those who have swallowed the consistent anti SNP rhetoric promoted by people who want Salmond front and centre in Scottish politics. He is yesterday’s man and if as I suspect he is using Regan then I hope that the members act accordingly.

  84. Glenn
    Ignored
    says:

    …. So now Sturgeon can head off into the sunset with her REAL partner….and he can head off up the mountain with his……

  85. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    We’re not out of the woods yet, if Ash Regan doesn’t win its still game over for now, for Scottish independence.

  86. Fireproofjim
    Ignored
    says:

    Osakushi
    Regarding Guillotines, Scotland will not need to build a new one as there is an excellent 16th Century one, called “The Maiden” in the National Museum of Scotland. Thus I have saved the country many pounds.Don’t thank me.

  87. Garavelli Princip
    Ignored
    says:

    “Ideally, the winner will commit to ordering a Scottish made guillotine.”

    There is one. It’s called ‘the maiden. It’s in the National Museum in Chambers St.

    Just need wheeled don to the grassmarket – and we’re in business!

  88. sadscot
    Ignored
    says:

    @Izzie
    So what are you saying should be happening then? That all the shenanigans should be ignored. That people just wheesht and say nothing while the membership gets locked out of Party decisions and a cabal rules the roost? Is that what you think should happen? You don’t seem to be very clear on what you think is the right way. You’re just taking potshots at everyone else. Are you saying that what’s emerging isn’t true? That it’s all just “anti SNP rhetoric”? I know many people who are shocked by what’s happened to the SNP under Sturgeon. They’re not “anti SNP”, they’ve backed it for years but are scunnered with what’s going on. I think you need to open your eyes instead of being in denial.

  89. sarah
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Izzie: it seems you haven’t heard the reasons why multitudes of Yessers are encouraged now that so many at the top of the SNP have resigned. If you would like to know more, Robin McAlpine [who is an impartial Yesser] wrote an explanatory piece yesterday on his blog.

  90. Vestas
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Izzie

    Take a walk back to the dead dug site eh? Nobody is interested in your fantasy world….

  91. AndyH
    Ignored
    says:

    @Izzie

    Sensible people who want Scotland to be independent are glad to be shot of a self serving group of pretenders who are now openly admitting to kicking it into the very long grass.

    Hopefully things will now get back on track

  92. Robert Hughes
    Ignored
    says:

    Looks like the Nu SNPpers are circling the horsebox in another display of frantic Reality Denial .

    Hey , he/himmlers , she/sheeple , they/thematics , listen-up ….

    IT’S FCKN OVER . Yr tea’s oot . There’s a battered auld wreck of a gravy bus leaving soon , destination Tae Fuck – get oan it – or under it – we don’t care , but yr dis/services are no longer required .

    Beat it

    Doncha just LOVE the smell of WOS Napalm in the morning ?

  93. AndyH
    Ignored
    says:

    If I was Ash Regan I’d be kicking up more of a stink and getting this election reset.

    She would have more of a chance and she’s certainly set the cat amongst the pigeons.

    They know who she is now…

  94. robertkknight
    Ignored
    says:

    Izzie…

    You strike me as one of the cultists for whom the Dear Leader Sturgeon and her husband are the greatest Scots since Wallace and Bruce.
    The sort who proudly displayed their “I’m with Nicla” badge and swallow every ounce of propaganda churned out by Wee Ginger Fud and Nicla’s other acolytes.

    Newsflash!

    The wheels are coming off!

    If Smitty is well informed, this week is only going to get worse for the devolutionist, home rule aspiring troughers, carpet baggers and wokerati in Sturgeon’s rancid SNP.

    Scotland and Yes will survive the implosion of the pretendy Indy party.

    Camelot in flames – let it burn!

  95. Izzie
    Ignored
    says:

    Vestas How rude is that what passes for political debate in your world.

  96. John C
    Ignored
    says:

    A few days ago I said here that independence was dead for a generation at least. I now find myself having to refine that a bit as there’s a slight chance that the SNP (and the wider indy movement) can purge itself of the corrupt, authoritarian grifters who’ve dominated the movement this last 6/7 years.

    The leadership contest has to be re-run. Anyone related or hired by Murrell needs getting rid of. All SPADs hired by Sturgeon need sacking. The hordes of Sturgeonites dominating social media, and traditional media need never to be listened to ever again. Police investigations should now accelerate & any new FM needs to dump the GRR bil and scrap hate crime laws while at the same time pushing for indy properly and enacting a set of policies which deal with Scotland’s issues rather than placating middle class voters across the country. We also need to enforce safeguarding properly while ripping out anything to do with Stonewall/Queer Theory from Scottish legal, social & cultural life. We also need to investigate and hopefully prosecute certain people and organisations who’ve enabled paedophiles so we can ensure that for a generation at least, these people are too bloody scared to try to pull what they’ve done this last decade.

    If anyone walks, then good. The wider indy movement will do better without most of these people. Neil Makay, Janey Godley, Mhairi Hunter, etc are not going to convince neutrals or No voters & anyhow, the sooner they retreat into the shadows the better.

    So I still think independence is over for a generation, however, we have an amazing chance now to start the recovery towards having a movement like we did in the run up to 2014. First thing is reclaiming the SNP, moving it back from neoliberalism and making it a reasonable social democratically party would be a great start.

  97. Anonymoose
    Ignored
    says:

    Alf Baird says:
    18 March, 2023 at 4:52 pm

    Dubh @ 2:41 pm

    “As for ‘what next?’”

    I expect the colonial parties may soon be demanding an election.

    —–

    Yep, it’s either the colonial partys’ demand an election via a general vote of no confidence as they could have the 2/3 numbers in ScotParl to do so (with the intolerable SGP’s support), or whomever is annointed leader of the current Scottish Government after this farce will ultimately face a vote of no confidence upon return to the Scottish Parliament, again triggering a Scottish general election.

    The colonial party’s have, or will have by then, insurmountable evidence of corruption in and around the current Scottish Government in order to justify it – think about it folks, it’s not just these recent events there is evidence of this right across the Scotland throughout Sturgeon’s tenure as First Minister, from the ongoing Ferries fiasco set to cost the tax-payer hundreds of millions over budget, the Fort Willian aluminium smelter backroom deals with Gupta and the bankrupt Greensill Capital for which the Scottish tax-payer is set to foot the bill of at least another several hundred £million, through to the gerrymandering of the entire Scottish Parliament by loading committees with bias in order to force through bills and votes that the majority of the country are completely against and the the SNP party membership never even voted for nor debated because it was blocked by Kirsten Oswald.

    I’d also hedge a bet that the union’s COPFS will bring criminal charges within the next few weeks in order to remove their puppets from the table by incarceration, leaving those left in the SNP to take the fall & ensuing political turmoil.

    In the court of public opinion the far reach of the unionist MSM machine, including the British Empires propaganda outfit/mouthpiece the BBC, will all be out with knives for a death of a thousand cuts over this.

  98. Alan McHarg
    Ignored
    says:

    I ended my membership of the SNP because, instead of cutting our own furrow during Covid, Sturgeon and the SNP decided to follow a UK model. I wrote to Sturgeon explaining that “Westminster were NO friends to Scotland” and she must take a purely Scottish stance re Covid. I got no reply to my email. As my youngest daughter was at a high degree of risk this was personal. I emailed the SNP ending my membership and cut up my card.

    The people of Scotland should never forget that following the UK strategy, not controlling our borders, ports and airports many more Scot’s died because of Covid. 16,929 as of March 2023. That is criminal. Sturgeon and her administration failed to protect the people of Scotland. That is unforgivable and requires justice. All of her many crimes against the cause of Scottish Independence pale into insignificance with regards to her crimes regarding Covid. We must never forgive nor forget what this cabal has done to Scotland.

  99. Shug
    Ignored
    says:

    Who is liable for the cost of the failed leader competition

  100. Red
    Ignored
    says:

    I’ll be raising a wee glass to our host Stuart, and to Alex Salmond tonight.

    What a great day for Scotland.

    I feel like Oor Wullie having a big laugh on his bucket.

    Braw!

  101. Dan
    Ignored
    says:

    Leaving sinking ships seems to be fashionable…

    Ferguson Marine: Finance chief embroiled in bonus payments row quits

    https://archive.is/cx1Nn

    Also heard there are quite a few issues coming to light with the commissioning work. Wonder if the work involved to rectify faults will be covered by the initial contractor that carried out the work, or will the taxpayer having to fork out yet more dosh…

  102. Vestas
    Ignored
    says:

    Izzie says:
    18 March, 2023 at 5:30 pm

    “Vestas How rude is that what passes for political debate in your world.”

    You’re not here to debate anything though are you?

    You’re just another fantasist from the dead dug site who won’t accept their icon is utterly corrupt.

    Go stir your pot back there…..

  103. Ebok
    Ignored
    says:

    Alf Baird says:

    ‘I expect the colonial parties may soon be demanding an election’

    It remains to be seen how long (years perhaps?) it will take for all the outrageous acts perpetrated during the Sturgeon era to emerge and fully impact on voters.
    In the immediate future, however, the reality, is that unless HR agrees to call fresh Holyrood elections (not GE as some have said btl) then we are stuck with the same 129 members for a further 3 years. And even if fresh elections were called, they are unlikely to take place for AT LEAST 6 months (following May 6 event, summer recess etc). Also, it is looking increasingly likely that the current leadership contest will have to be abandoned in the face of potential legal challenges.

    Perhaps that’s not a bad thing in one sense, as it will give the 64 MSPs currently associated with SNP space to reflect on their contribution to this calamitous state of affairs and whether SNP still remains a viable organisation: it is almost inconceivable that there will be any unity candidate.
    The danger remains that the electorate will equate the criminal activities of SNP with Independence and impact negatively on Independence support.

    Meanwhile, MSPs (all 129) should come clean and beg Alex Salmond and the Scottish people for forgiveness for the conspiracy against Alex, while repentant SNP MSPs should make clear to the electorate that their actions has done a great disservice to the cause of Independence.

  104. Vestas
    Ignored
    says:

    Shug says:
    18 March, 2023 at 5:39 pm

    “Who is liable for the cost of the failed leader competition”

    The current members of the NEC are responsible for all aspects of the SNP – including costs should anyone choose to pursue them for that.

    The SNP is in many legal regards the same as a company, although there is no limit of liability on the NEC members as there would be on a limited company director.

    I do hope they are all shitting bricks today. They deserve it, given how they got their positions….

  105. Mia
    Ignored
    says:

    @Izzie

    “The only people celebrating today are the Unionists and those who have swallowed the consistent anti SNP rhetoric”

    Nope. I don’t think the unionists have much to celebrate today: three British state useful idiots inside the SNP have been exposed and ejected. The attempt of SNP HQ together with the troughers in Holyrood and Westminster to use Yousaf’s campaign to rig the leadership context have been exposed. For goodness sake, even Kezia Dugdale, which has nothing to do with the SNP and is no longer in active politics, came out in support for Yousaf.

    The architect of the infamous vow fell his sword in order to create for himself a credible exit before the whole SNP edifice came crushing down. Same for Lloyd, and this was already after they had aleady moved her to a different job not that long ago.

    You may believe the “victim” character performance from Foote or the pretend higher moral ground explanation given by Lloyd or Murrell as their reasons for their resignation. I don’t. I am of the opinion they were caught with the smoking gun and that was their only possible dignifying exit before the full serving of the accountability and blame dishes commences.

    Foote would not have been doing his job as head of Comms and previous journalist if he had not verified personally those membership figures before releasing them. It is my personal opinion he might have been in with the deception up to his armpits. It is just they did not prepare for a situation where they would be forced to release a more credible figure (I still think 72,186 is a serious overestimation of the real membership figure) exposing their lie.

    Some other more valuable “assets” involved in the stitch up of Mr Salmond were removed from the picture in a more quiet fashion and a while back already. Some had already resigned (Barbara Allison, Leslie Evans, Sturgeon, Livingston for example) while others moved elsewhere out of the way (the crown agent, John Sommers)

    The ultimate responsibility for an accurate release of the information and for developing policies which are in keeping with THE MAJORITY of the membership, lies with the leader. It was the leader who appointed some of the undesirables within the NEC. Murrell has resigned with immediate effect. Sturgeon however, continues gerrymandering things until the day she departs.

    The NEC talked about a vote of no confidence against Murrell if he did not resign. What about the responsibility of the present NEC in generating toxic rules and driving members away? Who is going to hold them accountable for that with a vote of no confidence? And who is going to elect the next CEO? Is it going to be the present NEC?

    “He (Mr Salmond) is yesterday’s man”
    That is what the British state is desperate to believe. However, after a failed unlawful complaints procedure, a farcical Holyrood committee, a corrupt COPFS, crown agent and Civil Service which blurred the boundaries that should kept the executive and judicial powers separated in a democracy, a bunch of perjurers on demand, rent a quangos for propaganda release and an industrial scale character assassination exercise by a corrupt press, he is still here, leading the main party of independence. Will Sturgeon after this mess ever be able to lead another political party?

    It is obvious now for everybody to see that the departure suitcase of achievements that Mr Salmond carried out when he left Bute House was not full of paper cuts, like Sturgeon’s is.

    Mr Salmond’s suitcase had close to 90,000 SNP members on departure which represented a massive increase in the space of just 2 months, polls putting yes ahead of no, polls predicting a landslide win for the SNP in the next GE, a referendum negotiated with just 6 MPs and a hell of a lot of new powers delivered to Holyrood.

    What does Sturgeon’s exit suitcase of achievements have other than paper cuts and hot air?

  106. Frazerio
    Ignored
    says:

    Alan McHarg.

    Great point. Covid was a massive argument FOR independence. We needed control of our borders. We needed to be able to set our own health policies. Independence is urgent anyway. Covid made it critical. The Covid Queen not only conceded the cause for indy til after covid, somehow thinking Boris was best to rule thru it, she literally cost lives, put other lives at risk and then used her free daily broadcasts to slander her biggest political opponent who she (allegedly) tried to falsely imprison. The dam, the baw and everything else is now well and truly burst!!!!!

  107. Geoff Anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    Izzie

    We have all had enough of “wheesht for Indy”. You may be a Troll or a pretendy Woman. I don’t care. I’m looking forward to a United Yes Movement outside Party Politics. If the Parties don’t share that aim then I will not vote for them. If a Politician even mentions the TransCult from this day forward then I will not vote for them.

    On that basis I hope to see a wipeout of Unionist MSPs at the next Holyrood election. I want to see the second vote used to put REAL Indy Parties in Holyrood….not Cultists, Furry champions, Drag Queen supporters or those who want to put kids on drugs or mutilate their bodies.

    So if the Greens and the SNP take that route AGAIN then I will not vote for them because they are NOT Independence supporting Parties. They harvest votes by the con of using the “carrot”

    I don’t think I am alone.

    If you want to fight for the TransCult instead of Independence….go ahead.

    I want Independence so that we have a better future. You champion the deceitful bastards that wasted 8 yeas if you want.

  108. AndyH
    Ignored
    says:

    Salmond will have his day big style.

    This is not a good time for the Union at all.

  109. Ron Clark
    Ignored
    says:

    Nat King Cole had it spot on.

    The Party’s Over:-

    The party’s over
    It’s time to call it a day
    They’ve burst your pretty balloon
    And taken the moon away
    It’s time to wind up the masquerade
    Just make your mind up the piper must be paid

  110. Neil in Glasgow
    Ignored
    says:

    How funny would it be if Smitty was actually Alyn? Unlikely but I wouldn’t discount anything. Hope you’re right about the coming week though mate

  111. Tommo
    Ignored
    says:

    robertkknight says:
    18 March, 2023 at 5:28 pm
    Izzie…

    You strike me as one of the cultists for whom the Dear Leader Sturgeon and her husband are the greatest Scots since Wallace and Bruce.”

    Wallis and Gromit ,possibly.
    As a supporter of the Union I am simply pleased that I shall no longer have to be subjected to the BBCs endless coverage of this insufferable woman- particularly during ‘lockdown’ when all she said was-as a Welshman- FA all to do with me.
    Well done Scotland this afternoon- Italy put in a decent shift, too.

  112. Linda McFarlane
    Ignored
    says:

    Smitty,

    We all owe you a huge debt of gratitude.

    Thank you.

  113. Walter Fleming.
    Ignored
    says:

    Great film.
    Great day.

  114. John H.
    Ignored
    says:

    Congratulations Stuart to you, Craig Murray, and all the others who told us the truth over the years. We might never have found out what the cabal were up to if people like you had given up. When the SNP returns to sanity, soon I hope, there will have to be big changes made to the rules so that this situation can never be repeated. The same applies to all political parties. We must never be held to ransom by a cult again.

  115. Al-Stuart
    Ignored
    says:

    .
    EXCUSE ME…

    Nicola, you left £600,000 on the passenger seat of your Mini.

    Hen, is that why you are greetin? Cos those banknotes are as genuine as your interest in securing IndyRef2?

  116. Wally Jumblatt
    Ignored
    says:

    I can’t understand 2hy nobody has caaled for tht ‘great safe pair of hands’ Swinney hasn’t been called on to steady the ship.
    (that was a joke)

  117. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    This from Smitty.

    “So everything i said is happening. There will be more to fall yet. Sturgeon will be on the backbenches by next FMQs. Her position is no longer tenable and there are big stories to come out over the next few days which she sill not be able to survive. Peter Murrell will be arrested this week on multiple charges. The shielding they enjoyed has gone.

    I have been shown the evidence that HQ does have visibility of the live voting. Oswald, Murrell & Finn have all denied that this function exists, however the evidence that has now been passed on that is does. Oswald will have to resign as a MP for her denial of this. Finn will have to be sacked from McKee’s office. This will be made public very soon, and it will then bring the entire contest into disrepute. We know that Humza was being fed live results from HQ but we were not given the physical evidence. However a junior member of his team is shitting himself now as he has seen what has happened to Lloyd, Murrell & Foote. He is on the edge just and he has already spilled to a MP who is now on the warpath.

    The NEC are a complete mess. It is a circular firing squad now. They could all potentially be facing giving evidence under oath with major financial and political consequences for them. This seriousness of what they have been involved in is now starting to sink with blame being passed about. The vote will need to be restarted but it is likely that Humza will have to drop out once the evidence of collusion with HQ and vote tampering is made public. Humza’s political career is finished. It will be a two horse race; Regan v Forbes.”

  118. Towbar Sullivan
    Ignored
    says:

    Seen AS lately, Stu? How loudly is he laughing?

  119. Al
    Ignored
    says:

    Sunday papers are going to have a field day tomorrow ‘implosion’ might feature quite a bit. The yoons and BritNats will think they have won something as good as Brexit again.

  120. gregor
    Ignored
    says:

    The Trashcan Sinatras (2014): Weightlifting: All the Dark Horses:

    “On the sunset, horses silhouette
    All is calm tonight
    New horizon, keep your eyes on those stars
    Lighting a way…”:

    https://tinyurl.com/39ex8ehp

  121. Merganser
    Ignored
    says:

    Towbar Sullivan @ 7.41.

    I expect Alex is mortified at what his once great party has turned into. No laughing or gloating, but much sadness and regret.

  122. Effijy
    Ignored
    says:

    Could a supporter of the union claimed above,
    Provide some detail on how we Scots must be pleased to find we are an English Colony with no powers that they can’t over rule and no way to separate and stand alone as every other nation seems to have that right.

    How you think our Scottish vote is worth nothing in the overwhelming numbers England has.

    Do we owe England a debt of gratitude that they hid the McCrone report that stated we could be the richest country in Europe like Norway if England didn’t steal our oil reserves.

    Please let me know why it’s good not to be equal, not to have any fiscal levers, to have every aspect of the vow broken and and be ruled by a Tory government we haven’t voted for in 70 years and why 10% inflation, 10 mortgage rate rises in just over a year is good, why we are in debt by Billions to pay for Crossrail, HS2, English Nuclear Plants, pathetic and corrupt PPE Contracts.

    With half the country on strike and the NHS being broken down to sell tell me how it’s all Tory good.

  123. Auld Nickum
    Ignored
    says:

    There’s something in the air, Trump on TRUth predicts his own arrest and the Murrell’s MURky muddle predilects their own demise, WHOOPEE!
    I’ve been living in an alternative universe of gloom and despair, the years rolled on as great phony acts of villany were played out, with honesty discarded for sensationalism and evidence cruelly suppressed. Maybe we were too stupid? Or blind. With the corruption plain as day, how long will it take for the bawbee tae drop, if ever?
    Today’s that day, the course of history tips dramatically at times, this is a seismic shift!

  124. Dan
    Ignored
    says:

    A good day to bury bad news.

    Scotgov have just published proposals for the first of the devolved tax breaks that they want to apply to the new Freeports.

    https://twitter.com/thecommongreen/status/1637129610818191365

  125. Shug
    Ignored
    says:

    So the unionist that wrote the vow and mislead the nation at a vital time was working at SNP HQ had access to many systems and was part of the management team has taken the huff about circulating incorrect information.
    I would expect him to revert to type and disclose all sorts of shit to discredit the SNP and the cause of indy

    Talk about a plant in front of your eyes.

    The big reveal will continue I am sure.

    Is the SNP finished or can it be revived

  126. Mac
    Ignored
    says:

    Craig Murray
    “Let nobody ever say I am a vindictive man.

    If Peter Murrell ever wants to meet me for a briefing on how to survive the hell hole that is Saughton Prison, I shall do everything I can to help him.”

    Ha ha. I am not on twitter so copying it here.

    The problem for Peter is you are likeable Craig and your time in prison is probably the biggest and baldest badge of honour going whereas Murrell is not likeable and he has small coward balls.

    I am very jealous of having that on my CV without being jealous of actually spending all that time in jail. You jail sentence is going to mature like the finest vintage wine.

    Sturgeon is gone and the window of opportunity for people to stand up to her has nearly closed. But no matter what happens now you did it in the absolute winter of her hellish reign, when she was at the peak of her evil power…

    Badge of honour. That jail sentence is the best credential you can have.

  127. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    The big problem. How can we ensure an Indy majority to govern us,but not focus everything on one party ever again?

  128. Willie
    Ignored
    says:

    Wikipedia has updated its pages on Murrell to say that he resigned on 18th March 2023 with immediate effect.

    Rebirth is coming.

    And very squeaky bum time now for many to come.

    They’ll be no continuity party now. That’s for sure. Times are a changing.

  129. Ian Brotherhood
    Ignored
    says:

    It’s gratifying to see the hacks turning on one another, aye, but the more of a mess this becomes the greater the temptation must be for The Mandarins to press the big red button and shut Holyrood down.

    ‘Look at this corruption, nepotism and outright contempt for the rule of law – we should’ve known they were incapable of shouldering such responsibility.’

    We’ve always known they have the power to do that. Right now, for all sorts of reasons (most of which have a pound sign preceding them) a lot of the usual suspects in MSM might actually welcome such a drastic reset – the alternative ‘clean slate’ i.e. the emergence of a truly independence-centred Scotgov, would be a bridge too far for many of them.

    Shut down Holyrood in order to ‘save’ devolution?

  130. Dan
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Ian B

    Hmm, well they did build Queen Elizabeth House in super quick time…

    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/first-flagship-uk-government-hub-in-scotland-completed

  131. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    Dan.

    Yeah the freeports are Kate Forbes babies, there’s nothing green about them, they breed corruption low wages scanty workers rights and we probably won’t have a clue what’s coming into Scotland or what’s going out.

    This disgrace alone should see Forbes lose, she’s a neoliberals dream and she will give the rich big tax breaks, whilst her indy plan is one of building support and asking Westminster for an S30

    No only Ash Regan can save Scotland from further demise, we need Regan to become FM.

    https://www.gov.scot/news/deal-agreed-to-establish-green-freeports/

  132. Jm
    Ignored
    says:

    Murrell to sign up to Only Fans..you heard it here first

  133. Brian Doonthetoon
    Ignored
    says:

    Hi Ian B, while you’re active here, are we having a Friends of WOS get-together in Dows, after the rally in Glasgow Green on 6th May?
    I’d like to make plans…

  134. Shug
    Ignored
    says:

    Funny the BBC is punting the line that he resigned because of a fall in the number of members.

    Why would the BBC not mention doubts about the integrity of the election which is a much bigger open goal.

    Why is the BBC soft peddling

    It’s not like them

  135. Brian Doonthetoon
    Ignored
    says:

    Or The Clutha…

  136. crazycat
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Ian Brotherhood at 8.53

    Don’t worry, Ian – apparently the SNP are “just getting started” :
    https://twitter.com/jjanderson79/status/1637181173842444295

    (Whit’s he been doing for the last 20 years? I don’t want to know.)

  137. Willie
    Ignored
    says:

    The BritNat establishment may have played deep and murky to rot the SNP and destroy the independence movement. But they have not succeeded.

    Yes the SNP is collapsing and yes the Yes movement has stumbled but the independence drive has not disappeared and rebirth is coming. No one should doubt that.

    Westminster has lost all of its colonies and it will lose Scotland too.

    Big changes ahead. The Pause is over. Rebirth is coming.

  138. Jm
    Ignored
    says:

    All the classic hallmarks of a network being rolled up.Will nobody think of all the burner phones? Hell mend the lot of them.

  139. Tinto Chiel
    Ignored
    says:

    @Ian B 8.53: I’m not so sure, Ian.

    Such an attempt at “reset” might well produce a focal point to channel resistance against all the WM crapola we’ve had to suffer under The Murrells. There’s a lot of pent-up energy in the movement which the SNP leadership has tried to dissipate and which could boil over in the next few weeks once things begin to go Gove-up.

    It’s not fashionable to remind folk that Marx (Karl, not Groucho) was an advocate of sudden, revolutionary change and how it could arise suddenly from a static or apparently hopeless situation.

    Not a Marxist myself but I think we are now in unstable and uncharted territory. When Livingstone resigned as polis chief it seemed to set off the landslide.

    Not enough helicopters now to accommodate the desperate carpetbaggers on top of Bute House, I’m a-thinking.

  140. Dan
    Ignored
    says:

    Ya ken, for an island surrounded by fucking sea, we ain’t half shite at building boats…

    The cost of repairing Britain’s largest warship has spiralled to £20 million and it will be stuck in a dry dock for three months longer than planned.

    https://archive.is/5Bsyj

  141. Brian Doonthetoon
    Ignored
    says:

    This is kinda O/T but explains why Scottish Politics is where it’s at.
    Andy Wightman’s reasons for resigning from the Greens…

    http://www.andywightman.com/archives/4634

  142. Jm
    Ignored
    says:

    Be funny if all the main players ended up in front of Lady Dorrian…

  143. sadscot
    Ignored
    says:

    @RoS
    Kate Forbes explained that if Freeports were going to be imposed here that she wanted to be involved in order that the SG had some sort of say in how they worked. I think that was sensible.
    I get it that you really can’t stand her but your constant trashing of her is really unfair and OTT. You’re claiming she’ll give the rich tax breaks when you don’t even know that. Why would anyone in the SNP want to give tax breaks to the rich? They have no such policy. She has stood up to plenty of criticism in this contest and coped well with it and that wasn’t even for policy but simply because of her religion. She has worked well with Regan so far and I think they will work well together whoever wins. They have both shown great courage and it’s down to their demands for a fair contest that the Party had to cave in on the membership numbers, that Foote resigned and then Murrell had to go too. Forbes has had enough poison thrown at her by the same people who have threw poison at Regan without you adding to that.

  144. Iain More
    Ignored
    says:

    Pretty vicious but I hurt ma ribs laughing at it.

  145. Al-Stuart
    Ignored
    says:

    .
    Lizzy (comment at 4.05pm).

    How dare you come on here saying we are:-

    “Sad Wingers full of sound and fury signifying nothing.”

    Lizzie, do you have no self-awareness? Are you bereft of intelligence?

    First of all. You’d be hard pressed to find one “sad” Winger. Thanks to the hard, forensic, investigative, honest reporting by Stuart Campbell, we are ALL CELEBRATING WITH HIM.

    None of us are sad.

    You and your toxic vipers on the other hand, have lied or supported liars. The latest is the lie about 30,000 members who left because of Sturgeon and Murrell.

    The earlier lie that will find you and/or your obserturmfurer supporting zealots in jail. The reason? The lie surrounding that “ring-fenced £600,000”

    Lizzie, what will do for many of your scheming, wilfully-blind ilk, is the contempt of court and perversion of justice when you tried to have Sturgeon and Murrell’s honest mentor FRAMED FOR RAPE. Yesterday a woman got 5 years in jail for doing just that…. Trying to frame an honest person for rape.

    You and your ilk near killed the one man who has done more for Independence than your entire woe-infested nest of vipers ever did.</b
    You come on here and then start in on the supporters who saw through you and raise £100,000+ to get Stuart Campbell out of retirement.

    You have spent years try to kill off Stuart Campbell. You’ve given that honest man dog’s abuse for doing his job.

    You got the Rev arrested and made public enemy number one.

    Yet bravely he kept doing his forensic work and often doing the work of Police Scotland the police and the Clown Office.

    Right now Lizzie, go look in a mirror and recite the oft hears words and your political epitaph…
    oh when we first practice to deceive…”

    It is exactly your sort of self-deluded eejit that has irrevocably damaged IndyRef2.

    Lizzie, if you have any doubt, take a look at the startling pictorial montage on the right side of this page, made up of many front pages of the National….. all promising an SNP-led Independence Referendum in 2015 then 2016, then 2017.

    Then realise this: that scene from `’Shallow Grave” that Rev Stu headed this column with us true.

    Times up for you and your lying, thieving Tammany Hall gerrymandering deviants.

    Source: https://wingsoverscotland.com/if-you-find-that-you-just-cant-trust-them/#comment-2746088

  146. Ian Brotherhood
    Ignored
    says:

    @BDTT –

    I might be away then but please don’t let that haud ye back!

    If you build it they will come!

    @Crazycat –

    So good to hear from you too -feels like ‘the old days’ in here right now.

    X

  147. Al-Stuart
    Ignored
    says:

    .
    Lizzy (comment at 4.05pm).

    How dare you come on here saying we are:-

    “Sad Wingers full of sound and fury signifying nothing.”

    Lizzie, do you have no self-awareness? Are you bereft of intelligence?

    First of all. You’d be hard pressed to find one “sad” Winger. Thanks to the hard, forensic, investigative, honest reporting by Stuart Campbell, we are ALL CELEBRATING WITH HIM.

    None of us are sad.

    You and your toxic vipers on the other hand, have lied or supported liars. The latest is the lie about 30,000 members who left because of Sturgeon and Murrell.

    The earlier lie that will find you and/or your obserturmfurer supporting zealots in jail. The reason? The lie surrounding that “ring-fenced £600,000”

    Lizzie, what will do for many of your scheming, wilfully-blind ilk, is the contempt of court and perversion of justice when you tried to have Sturgeon and Murrell’s honest mentor FRAMED FOR RAPE. Yesterday a woman got 5 years in jail for doing just that…. Trying to frame an honest person for rape.

    You and your ilk near killed the one man who has done more for Independence than your entire woe-infested nest of vipers ever did.</b
    You come on here and then start in on the supporters who saw through you and raise £100,000+ to get Stuart Campbell out of retirement.

    You have spent years try to kill off Stuart Campbell. You’ve given that honest man dog’s abuse for doing his job.

    You got the Rev arrested and made public enemy number one.

    Yet bravely he kept doing his forensic work and often doing the work of Police Scotland the police and the Clown Office.

    Right now Lizzie, go look in a mirror and recite the oft hears words and your political epitaph…
    oh when we first practice to deceive…”

    It is exactly your sort of self-deluded eejit that has irrevocably damaged IndyRef2.

    Lizzie, if you have any doubt, take a look at the startling pictorial montage on the right side of this page, made up of many front pages of the National….. all promising an SNP-led Independence Referendum in 2015 then 2016, then 2017.

    Then realise this: that scene from “Shallow Grave” that Rev Stu headed this column with us true.

    Times up for you and your lying, thieving Tammany Hall gerrymandering deviants.

    Source: https://wingsoverscotland.com/if-you-find-that-you-just-cant-trust-them/#comment-2746088

  148. PhilM
    Ignored
    says:

    Not defending KF in any way but are we sure she’s to blame for the crazy freeports idea? Is it not Sturgeotti and her wrecking crew who want this…isn’t Forbes likely to be at the helm due to her cabinet position?
    That being said the SNP took a neo-liberal turn years ago, so everyone is complicit at some level. No politician in oor wee Parly seems up for changing thon capitalism very much so an independent Scotland is not going to be much more collectivist than any other similar European country, so I’m not sure KF should be getting it in the neck more than any others in the SNP.
    Oh all right…I suppose I’m quite taken by her cherubic wee face…

  149. Quinie frae Angus
    Ignored
    says:

    @Brian doon the Toon

    Aye! Let’s do it.

  150. sadscot
    Ignored
    says:

    @Brian
    Thanks for the link re Andy Wightman. Scary stuff what’s going on in the Scottish Green Party.

  151. Albert Herring
    Ignored
    says:

    @Jm

    …including said Lady!

  152. akenaton
    Ignored
    says:

    Just read WGD for the first time, they’re really strange people over there. Angry, upset, politically clueless. This place by comparison seems strangely normal.

  153. sadscot
    Ignored
    says:

    @akenaton
    The National is sounding pretty bonkers below the line as well!

  154. Ian Brotherhood
    Ignored
    says:

    @Tinto Chiel (9.19) –

    I hope you’re right.

    It’s probably safe to assume that Whitehall has war-gamed all sorts of scenarios. Given that they know exactly who’s on the payroll within Scotgov, they have the advantage before any such uprising occurs.

    It’s also a safe bet that everyone who’s contributed to this and every other indy-related blog over the past decade has been well and truly marked for special attention (whether they’re fans of independence or not) and this current burst of activity will be giving Brigade 77 some much-needed excitement.

    Perhaps I’ve become too cynical but I don’t see the general malaise being disturbed anytime soon. The French are kicking up fuck because their govt wants them to work two years longer whereas we have a ‘simmering’ dispute between Unions and govt which shows no sign of coming to any form of climax until/unless huge swathes of our desperate population start demanding voluntary euthanasia ‘Soylent Green’ style.

    The optics are interesting though – the MSM is gradually being forced to acknowledge that endemic corruption in Scottish government may be something that people who actually have to fucking *live* in Scotland may be interested in hearing about. So we’ll get more footage of Sturgeon being ‘doorstepped’ and doing her Gallus Alice routine at the same time as we get footage of Ash Regan trying to access a building to meet ‘a senior civil servant’ who clearly wasn’t warned of her arrival and chose to ignore the buzzer (utterly brazen demeaning shitery that was broadcast yesterday).

    The possibility that Regan’s impertinence may have contributed to the premature departure of Murrell is not considered fodder for ‘serious’ discourse. Not right now. Of course, it may well become accepted wisdom decades hence, but that’s what it’s all about eh? More can-kicking.

    I remember you sending a link here, years ago, about the demise of the Ceaucescus and I’ve never forgotten it. An elderly couple being summarily executed. ‘Disgusting’ ‘Reprehensible’ ‘Indefensible’ etc. And so it was. But then you fill in the gaps, get broader context, hear testimony from those who had tried to raise their families and sustain their communities in that surreal period. And when you get their stories? It all makes sense, grim though it is.

    Maybe we’re on the verge of a ‘revolution’ right now? I don’t know. But Scotland has tolerated decades of Tory sadism and Labour disdain. Only the Poll Tax seemed to rouse us, but then we had characters like Tommy Sheridan to focus the rage.

    Right now we have no-one.

  155. Garrion
    Ignored
    says:

    Just wondering how nervous some of the AlphaBetties might be feeling right now. If I were one of them I might want to be first at the door offering info for immunity.

    Just sayin…

  156. Willie
    Ignored
    says:

    Freeports. Onshore areas created in the model of offshore areas.

    Low level tax obligations, like off shore tax havens, Freeports are an absolute boon to the tax avoiders. A boon too to corruption and secrecy.

    More Tory than the Tories I’m afraid Kate Forbes is sadly of that ilk.

  157. ronald anderson@gmail.com
    Ignored
    says:

    lizzie

    For your information IM NOT A SAD WINGER / IM JUBELANT AN IF I COULD DO CARTWHEELS I WOULD BE DOING THEM / sadly my age prohibits me / but you carry on in your delusions.

  158. Bernard de Linton
    Ignored
    says:

    Is it too early to put a bid in for Pete Wisharts Baffies?

  159. Breeks
    Ignored
    says:

    Ian Brotherhood says:
    18 March, 2023 at 8:53 pm

    Shut down Holyrood in order to ‘save’ devolution?

    Holyrood, and getting Scotland’s “Government” to kneel down before the colonial Scotland Act has been the most successful Colonial enterprise in the last 50 years, if not 317 years. Whatever Westminster may or may not do to Holyrood, you can take it to the bank they won’t shut down their colonial bridgehead in Edinburgh after 25 years doing their best to entrench it in Scottish society.

    Holyrood is Scotland’s placebo… the convincing illusion of democratic government. With Holyrood gone, Scotland would no longer be distracted by the bells and whistles of our Vichy Assembly, and get back to the serious and meaningful business of resurrecting Scotland’s sovereign legitimacy and Constitutional Independence, and deposing Westminster rule.

    It didn’t have to be this way. Holyrood could have been Scotland’s Assembly and Government in waiting, if only Scotland’s MSP’s had sworn fealty to the Claim of Right and Scottish popular sovereignty. But under Sturgeon’s craven incompetence, all the precedents were set in the other direction, conceding ascendancy to Westminster rule when they should have been standing firm defending Scotland’s rights.

    Arguably, Holyrood could yet be won back if our MSP’s had the courage to do it, but frankly, I don’t see Westminster readily conceding the dangerous precedents recklessly set under Sturgeon. Once Holyrood concedes fealty to Westminster once, Westminster’s Supreme Court, and abdicates responsibility for defending the Claim of Right, then that Holyrood is Westminster’s Vichy assembly, and Holyrood is neutered and doomed to impotence.

    Sovereignty is a binary and absolute condition. The First Nation which needs to give Scotland International Recognition of Sovereign Legitimacy is Scotland itself, which Sturgeon’s “Government” hasn’t done, and in truth, through Holyrood conceding to Westminster’s authority, Holyrood has actually signed it’s own political death warrant.

    Scotland needs to resurrect an interim Government from founding principles, not repurpose or restructure the invasive doctrines of a Vichy Holyrood Assembly.

  160. Morgatron
    Ignored
    says:

    Are we gonna do Stonehenge ?
    Looks , sounds and smells like the good old years in here tonight.

  161. Lenny Hartley
    Ignored
    says:

    Brian doon the toon, ib, qfa, lets get the band back together.
    See u on 6th may, brian please make it a place where I can take my Dug if poss

  162. Jennifer Ewen
    Ignored
    says:

    It’s very interesting to note that the Scottish Greens are maintaining silence! We lost a great campainger for Scottish Land Reform in Andy Wightman, who resigned because he disagreed with the Greens over the GRA Bill! It’s becoming quite obvious that the Leaders of Scottish Greens are not to be trusted in supporting Scottish Independence and they just jumped on the bandwagon to encourage Nichola to support their GRA Bill – and look where that got the SNP!

  163. akenaton
    Ignored
    says:

    Scotland is and will continue to be a Capitalist country unless you want the totalitarianism which we narrowly avoided with M&Co.
    Lowering taxes stimulates growth, everyone knows that and given the standard of living to which we have become accustomed, a Socialist Scotland “won’t cut it”.
    Please get ready to move into the real world, I left the YCL in my twenties thank Christ and Kate at thirty two knows the political score. When questioned by the media maggots today Reagan was floundering a definite lightweight out of her depth and knows it.

    Mr Campbell is a great guy but he made a wrong call and if we don’t change tack, today will have been pyrrhic victory, the “pigs” will reassemble and eat Reagan for breakfast.

    Kate Forbes impresses me mightily and I am extremely difficult to impress.

  164. Gregory Beekman
    Ignored
    says:

    Is that shallow grave?

    I really do wish journalists and other writers would stop assuming everyone knows everything they do. As much as I love Wings, it’s a pretty pish way to treat the readership. Explain yourself, please – don’t just shove up a vid and assume everyone will get it because you think everyone’s watched everything you have.

    What the fuck point are you trying to make? Just fucking say it, don’t make me try and analyse some shite vid clip because you can’t be arse using your words.

    (Yeah, I’m drunk – but still, fucking use words, not vid clips.)

  165. sadscot
    Ignored
    says:

    Just read Yousaf’s sickening tribute to Murrell on Twitter. Talk about, “boak”!

  166. Michael Laing
    Ignored
    says:

    @akenaton: I think you are way out of step with the opinions of most independence supporters. One of the main reasons why we want independence for Scotland is that we are sick of Tories, sick of Capitalism and sick of gross inequality. People should not be living a hand-to-mouth existence and homelessness should not exist in a nation with the wealth and resources that Scotland has.

    Also, lowering taxes does not stimulate growth. It stimulates the super-rich to stash their riches away in offshore tax-havens to the benefit of no-one but themselves. What stimulates growth is wealth-equality, whereby ordinary people are able to spend money in their local economy, thereby supporting local commerce and industry. It’s called Marginal Propensity to Consume. Look it up.

  167. akenaton
    Ignored
    says:

    Michael L give us a break, I’m effin near 80 and still working at the building trade, we have “wealth equality” men half my age on the sick (Psychological problems) being handed more money than I get working my arse off, + subsidised car, +subsidised house renovations ++ ++

    They tell me I must be mad! and dont start me on the youth who wont get their clothes or hands dirty, nobody wants to work anymore, that’s why I think we need Nationalism get people to contribute again like ive done all my life.
    But don’t think you’ll get that with Socialism as its a different beast now than it was in the 1960’s Woo Woo to you.

  168. Auld Nickum
    Ignored
    says:

    There’s something in the air, Trump on TRUth predicts his own arrest and the Murrell’s MURky muddle predilects their own demise, WHOOPEE!
    I’ts been an alternative universe of gloom and despair, the years roll on as great phony acts of villany play out, with honesty discarded for sensationalism and evidence of truth cruelly suppressed. Maybe we were too stupid? Or blind. With the corruption plain as day, how long before the bawbee drops, if ever?
    Today’s that day, the course of history tips dramatically at times, and this is a seismic shift!

  169. William Wallace
    Ignored
    says:

    @Breeks 11:08pm.

    Amen to that!!

  170. Alf Baird
    Ignored
    says:

    Breeks @ 11:08 pm

    “Holyrood is Scotland’s placebo”

    True independence requires the removal and/or replacement of the whole array of commercial and social institutions the oppressor has planted in a country, as well as the elites who control them.

    https://salvo-cor.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/THEORETICAL+CASE+FOR+SCOTTISH+INDEPENDENCE.pdf

  171. paulk
    Ignored
    says:

    Quick mention for Lesley Riddoch, whose long and tireless campaign to unearth the truth has finally reached fruition. Here’s her in-no-way-hypocritical tweet: “Good to see Peter Murrell has gone. Winning elections is one thing. Turning the SNP into a closed shop with a corporate, stage-managed conference is another. Membership row is just the last straw. Scotland & Indy need a more open SNP, w/o a police investigation hanging over it.”
    Next up will be PayPal Paul saying he always had doubts about Sturgeon.

  172. Wullie B
    Ignored
    says:

    I cut her no slack when she posted it, she was complicit in keeping it hidden, and fawning over them

  173. PhilM
    Ignored
    says:

    Our Welsh unionist cousin above should read this Guardian article posted late last night. This is how the union really works.
    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/18/very-sensitive-subject-plan-to-take-welsh-water-for-london-stirs-painful-memories

  174. Jockmcx
    Ignored
    says:

    Philm 2.41 am
    Good one,..

  175. twathater
    Ignored
    says:

    Thank You Stuart for returning to the fray, TBQH IMO none of this would have happened if you had not ,NO disrespect to other great bloggers

    YOU ask where next,TBQH I would like to see your forensic investigative eyes focusing on Honest John the Redacter whose slavishly unquestionable loyalty and subservience to the BETRAYER lead to his overexuberance with the redacter pen, an overexuberance that diverted and STOPPED crucial evidence from seeing the light of day and which aided sturgeon in avoiding exposure , the constant insistence by Swinney that it was NOT in the public’s interest to have the information was pure obfuscation, I would also like to see Robertson come under the microscope whose fake PROGRESS gig to supplement his broo money is rumoured to involve at least some of the £600,000

  176. Effijy
    Ignored
    says:

    This Scottish Freeport situation-

    What would happen if every exported bottle of Whisky went out from there by ship.
    Would Westminster loose out on Billions.

    The same with our sea foods taken in trucks through England into France.

    If we send everything to the English via a Freeport would that stop VAT to Westminster.

  177. Graeme George
    Ignored
    says:

    Jm says:
    18 March, 2023 at 9:24 pm

    ”Be funny if all the main players ended up in front of Lady Dorrian…”

    Lady Dorian is one of the main players

  178. Cuilean
    Ignored
    says:

    At dinner last night, our whole family sang, a few rousing choruses of, ‘It’s My Happy Heart You Hear, Sing It Loud and Sing It Clear’! Mind, the young yins had tae google it!

  179. Al-Stuart
    Ignored
    says:

    .
    Hi Gregory Beekman.,

    1). Gentle advice, please don’t post when you are drunk. It makes you look like…. well many of us have had the “morning after” red faced afront at what went on the night before.

    2). It doesn’t matter from where Rev Stu has secured the video clip. The one at the top of this thread fits, it REALLY fits the Weegie humour and I suspect most of Scottish humour on how apposite that video clip is.

    3). Gregory, please gie yersel’ a break. Go watch the film “Shallow Grave”. It is genuinely a hidden gem of Scottish film making. If you don’t like it, take a chill-pill. I don’t like it when BTL commenters use utterly obscure acronyms. Most of us know what IMHO means, but some posters go ultra lazy and short circuit the workout of fat wee fingers at the keyboard by typing such cr@p as ITNOTWMIJGU. That drives me nuts. You have to dust off the old Enigma Machine and try to decode some BTL commentators posts and waste take 10 minutes BTAL (Because They Are Lazy). Many folk just CBA (Can’t Be Arsed) or so SOB (Scroll On By).

    4). Stuart, please keep embedding the YouTube clips. It helps break up large screeds of narrative. It adds humour. In fact Ambassador Murray has just started substituting his text-based narrative with YouTube based video. He has a natural talent for presenting in that format. A gentle and articulate delivery with a bearing and gravitas that helps folk see the sincerity with which he holds his beliefs.

    Craig Murray as a modern day Rev I.M. Jolly is something that I like.

    RevStu., I am not sure you would favour YouTube, but maybe worth a thought? I tried it with our websites and… to be frank and use that well warn phrase…. “Some of us have a face fit for the radio.”

    Gerry, I’m not trying to be snarky with this post. Just suggesting that maybe a lot of folk enjoy the video clips. This one of an actress finally getting her just deserts really did have me laughing out loud. Really loud. The poor dug sitting near to me near crapped itsel’ – poor wee Westie.

  180. Breeks
    Ignored
    says:

    Graeme George says:
    19 March, 2023 at 5:45 am

    Jm says:
    18 March, 2023 at 9:24 pm

    ”Be funny if all the main players ended up in front of Lady Dorrian…”

    Lady Dorian is one of the main players…

    Agreed…

    I seem to recall Mark Hirst is still suing the COPFS for malicious prosecution… Seems to have taken forever with glacial progress, but it still has the potential to rattle a few cages.

  181. Robert Hughes
    Ignored
    says:

    Paulk @ 1.25

    Lol , the woodwork creaks and out come the ( revisionist ) freaks

    All the ” Good ” SNPpers suddenly overcome by attacks of retrospective insight , their fugitive M.I.A critical faculties return like prodigal sons/daughters/hybrids thereof ; like pets lost in a family relocation * miraculously * turning-up at the new home , tails wagging , tongues lolling , overjoyed to be once again in the loving familial embrace . Well , naw

    The likes of PPK & L Rid played their part in the Sturrell disembowelling of the SNP / Independence Movement . Willing courtiers to the degenerate Ancien Régime , they said precisely fuck all as the Cabal went careening wildly off course , hijacking the Vehicle , jumping red lights , hit n running pedestrians , ploughing into one brick wall after another before ending-up upside down in a ravine , wheels still spinning futilely .

    Aye , those deaf , dumb n blind kids sure played a mean softball

    Time to move on , let has beens be bygones, reconciliation ?

    Forgive n forget n’aw that ?

    Fine by me . The first part anyway

  182. North chiel
    Ignored
    says:

    Surprise! surprise! Up pops “ Toodle-oo- the noo “ on Sky news this morning to give his “ tuppence worth “, on the SNP “ boorach & Guddle . Recently “retired “ from the propaganda channel , is he making a “ comeback” ? Surely there must be a “ major political event to come “ ??

  183. stuart mctavish
    Ignored
    says:

    Respect to Akenaton @12:34am – still being able to work hard play hard at close to 80 gotto be good in any line of work but particularly rewarding in the building trade so thanks for brightening up the day after such a dreadful week 😉

    Elsewhere, somewhat surprised NEC asked for resignation of CEO* rather than tender its own but having made its scapegoat, in a manner unlikely to have been foreseen by the original contract, question now arises as to who Mi-Voice reports to in his absence – and whether they will be allowed to continue in post and/or obliged to release the running totals that have caused so much damage already.

    Summary data of the residencies and nationalities of members who have voted so far (and how they voted) may also be helpful given the sometimes heated response to serious observations related to the expansion or restriction of the voting franchise for indyref2 (or calculating the appropriate adjustment factors for any defacto refs arising)

    * Even more surprised Mike Russel’s apparent expression of disgust with at least two, if not all three, of the leadership candidates as recently as last Thursday didn’t rule him out as interim replacement – irrespective of whether his appointment was automatic, panic driven, or entirely in accordance with plan A

  184. Graeme George
    Ignored
    says:

    Love Andy Williams and Happy Heart one of my favourites someone should take some powerful sound equipment round to Bute house and play Happy heart on repeat all day

  185. Big Jock
    Ignored
    says:

    I see Alex Massie is promoting kate Forbes. Saying the Tories can work with her, if she drops independence!

    Alex the tail does not wag the dog!

  186. Big Jock
    Ignored
    says:

    North. Old sausage fingers Brian Taylor is never aff radio shortbread. Probably rubbing those fat hands in glee. I am sure many Bridies will be consumed in Glebe Street.

  187. Tom
    Ignored
    says:

    Andy Wightman on the leaking of the Holyrood Harassment Committee’s findings. Good timing just co-incidental?

    https://andywightman.scot

  188. 100%Yes
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Big Jock

    Humxa stated she was a Tory, she will destroy Indy for good and I would trust her.

  189. Etticus
    Ignored
    says:

    So the collapse of the house of Murrell continues.

    Peter Murrell is a professional liar who has been surrounded by other professional liars in the SNP. He has told and instructed others to tell more lies than anyone else in Scottish politics. His wife is also habitual and professional liar who is unable to open her mouth without lying. Lying about the SNP membership numbers is probably one of the smallest lies Peter Murrell has ever told and yet here he is resigning for it.

    I suspect that Murrell has not resigned for the membership lie, likely he has resigned for something else still to be revealed but the membership lie was a convenient excuse. His wife’s behaviour when doorstepped by SKY news was extremely odd. They way she talked about Murrell was totally detached. All is not well in that household. I believe there is a lot more to come. Lovely stuff.

  190. victor
    Ignored
    says:

    Perhaps if Sturgeon is jailed she should be made to share a cell with Isla Bryson,now that would be karma.

  191. Big Jock
    Ignored
    says:

    100% Yes. That may be true. We have had 8 years of the unionist Murrells , could it get any worse!

  192. Geoff Anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    Why would anyone not trust the SNP to run a fair election?

    https://robinmcalpine.org/but-why-would-anyone-be-suspicious-of-snp-hq/

  193. Jim Tadgercock
    Ignored
    says:

    Well played Rev on helping end this cottage industry.Would be good to shine yer space bean on Mr Russell as im sure he is baw deep in this as well.Also do we have a list of MSPs backing Humza as I would like to score them on their backward flip efforts.And last but not least Smitty kudos to you very entertaining.

  194. Edinburgh Andy
    Ignored
    says:

    Bute House is to be closed for 20 weeks for “Essential Maintenance”. That translates as a deep clean to get rid of all traces of the vermin that have infested it for the last eight and a half years.

  195. Ron Clark
    Ignored
    says:

    As we say in Glasgow:-

    It couldnae huv happened tae a nicer perra bastards.

    I really hope this is just the beginning of the Murrel’s descent into the fires of hell.

    Even after everything that has happened over the past few days, I’m sorry to say that it hasn’t curbed the anger I have for these two reprobates.

    They CANNOT be allowed to just holds their hands up and say “ok guv, it was me”, and then walk away into some cushy number at the UN or some shite like that.

    THESE TWO BASTARDS NEED TO PAY,,,BIG TIME!!!

  196. PacMan
    Ignored
    says:

    paulk says: 19 March, 2023 at 1:25 am

    Next up will be PayPal Paul saying he always had doubts about Sturgeon.

    Until after the new SNP leader is declared 🙂

  197. AndyH
    Ignored
    says:

    I have to say this is very entertaining.

    Thanks for the links. Some awesome stuff.

    No doubt the once friendly press will be jumping on any stories they can find now.

    Hell mend ye Murrels!

  198. wull
    Ignored
    says:

    Graeme George says:
    19 March, 2023 at 5:45 am
    Jm says:
    18 March, 2023 at 9:24 pm

    ”Be funny if all the main players ended up in front of Lady Dorrian…”

    Lady Dorian is one of the main players

    Exactly. In front of her, they would all get off.

    At the Salmond trial Lady Dorian couldn’t find a way round the conclusion the jury reached. She has no option; there was nothing she could do about it; she just had to thole it.

    But immediately afterwards it she was one of the main ones calling for the abolition of jury trials, especially in rape cases.

    By the time the real felons come up before her, she will have found a way whereby judges like her can simply ignore juries.

    Or, if we’re lucky, she might already be (struck) off the bench herself, by then?

    But where do you go from being ‘on the bench’? Is it simply ‘on (-to) the shelf’?

    Or, even, perhaps, ‘in (-to) the Nic(k)’?

  199. Molesworth
    Ignored
    says:

    They will be counting the spoons in Bute House.

  200. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    SadScot @9.29pm.

    At one of the hustings the host asked all the candidates if they’d have a place for the other candidates in government (minister/secretary) if they were elected to leader and FM Ash Regan refused to answer the question, she gave a wry smile and said lets move on, that tells me something, and as Ash Regan is the only candidate with a viable plan for independence.

    You wanna stay in the union until we build much more support then ask Westminster for a S30, (which the Channel 4 hustings host explained to the candidates that both Labour and the Tories have said they’ll NEVER allow another indyref) then by all means promote and vote (if you are able to in this leadership campaign) Kate Forbes.

    If however you really want independence then I suggest you vote for the candidate, the only candidate with a viable plan to get us out of this rancid union, and that’s Ash Regan.

    Even after the Channel 4 host told the candidates that no Westminster government would allow another indyref, and he asked them what their plans for independence would be knowing this, both Forbes and Yousaf said they’d build support for independence then ask Westminster for a S30.

    Since that hustings both Forbes and Yousaf appeared to have jump on Regan’s bandwagon, on independence but only to garner support, they see Regan’s indy plan as a vote winner, as do we.

  201. Gordon Gekko
    Ignored
    says:

    Andrew Wilson and his economic Think Tank has to be next.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wilson_(economist)

    It is imperative this is destroyed next. Or Andrew and Kate Forbes will run riot. Kate has an arts degree. Andrew has been the one behind all of these neoliberal globalist policies.

    How Kate, a fiscal conservative is in the leadership race. His whole network has to be destroyed. Then and only then will the Indy movement be in the correct path.

  202. socratesmacsporran
    Ignored
    says:

    Geoff Anderson @ 9.30am

    Kudos for posting what I think is maybe Robin McAlpine’s best post ever – it’s a hoot, which hits the nail right on the head.

  203. Tommo
    Ignored
    says:

    Surely this election can’t stand, can it? I assume a high proportion of members will have voted in ignorance of the fact-amongst others- that the man ostensibly in charge of the ‘party’ had been telling porkies about the membership numbers-and on that basis was likely, it could be argued, to lie about how those members- who may actually exist- voted. No wonder the SNP didn’t want to announce the voting figures-just the percentages gained. A blatant cover-up.
    It should start again from scratch.

  204. Mac
    Ignored
    says:

    The scandal is not lying to the press about the membership decline. The scandal is knowing about the membership decline, and carrying on full steam ahead with the policies that caused it and going to the extreme lengths of lying to the media and your own employees to hide it…

    Sturgeon was deliberately driving the SNP off a cliff and she and her husband not only knew it they hid the evidence for it from others and the media. Up until Ash Regan cleverly cornered Murrell on the membership numbers using the election contest.

    (It was clearly pissing someone off at HQ as someone leaked the decline to the media. Which of course leads to lie and the downfall of both Murrell and the Foote-vow-w@nk character.)

    Sturgeon was wrecking the SNP membership and hiding the evidence in collusion with her backstabbing husband.

  205. John Main
    Ignored
    says:

    @Michael Laing 12:06

    Lowering taxes for ordinary people stimulates economic activity by leaving ordinary people with disposable income. That’s not difficult to understand.

    Nobody goes out to work on a Monday morning looking forwards to how much tax they will pay that week.

    Economic activity may or may not be a good thing IMO. If everybody’s economic activity results in the purchase of imported, shoddy, environmentally damaging tat, then maybes it’s not good.

    It would certainly be different if Scotland had a manufacturing base, but to build one we will first have to scythe down impenetrable thickets of environmental, human rights and planning legislation. I’m talking about the laws that enabled, indeed, forced, manufacturing to be offshored in the first place, that we all enthusiastically support because it’s now the Chinese that poison their air, their environment and their kids.

    Back in the 70’s and 80’s, Scotland still had a manufacturing and engineering base that could build much of the North Sea infrastructure. It took a generation for neoliberalism and the EU “level playing field” to destroy that. I would be surprised if it could be put back together in a shorter time period.

    But, to be quite brutally honest, Scotland has another problem. The growing, emerging economies of the world have younger populations who are willing to graft, and have governments that can incentivise them to graft. We have the demographic dead weight of an aging and largely unproductive population, drawing pensions and needing expensive end of life care.

    It’s not surprising that these complex problems usually end up being “solved” BTL by some variant of the take the money from the rich plan. The problem with that plan, as I see it, is there are no examples where that plan has ever worked out.

  206. PacMan
    Ignored
    says:

    Geoff Anderson says: 19 March, 2023 at 9:56 am

    https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1283844809405464576?s=20

    At least Davey is honest with his views but in doing so, he has clearly laid out the illogicality of them.

    Davey spelled out clearly. Equality is about taking rights from one group and giving it to another. This has mostly been taking rights from the majority and giving them to minorities. However, now it is about taking rights from groups that have just gained equality and giving them to another group.

    In the case of Trans, giving them equality means taking rights away from woman.

    I know this is obvious and has been spoken by many others before me but there needs to be a conversation about equality and whether can be really be achievable or desirable in our society now where it isn’t now about taking rights from the traditional boogie man of the so called progressives that is the white heterosexual male.

  207. Gordon Gekko
    Ignored
    says:

    “So the collapse of the house of Murrell continues.”

    Not even close.

    It is infested with neoliberal, globalist, right wing economic think tanks. Waiting on Forbes and Andrew Wilson to be their faces to the voting public.

    The SNP was set up by the house of Murrell to reflect the ECB

    https://billmitchell.org/blog/?p=37150

    The banking class took over the SNP in the exact same way they took over the ECB and the Scottish National investment bank. Andrew Wilson’s network were responsible.

    Forbes and Wilson will run it with an iron fist from the throne. It is imperative that they are stopped and replaced immediately.

    The new banks that have been built the length of the Clyde in the ever expanding financial sectors in Glasgow and Edinburgh are sold as cheap, affordable social housing.

  208. John Main
    Ignored
    says:

    While everybody on here is in the mood to trash everything the Sturrels and the SNP have done over the past 8 years, hows about a campaign to get our Scottish income tax revoked?

    Put some of our own hard-earned dosh back into our own sporrans in these difficult economic times.

    Please don’t tell me that is too radical and revolutionary, even for Wings BTL!

  209. sadscot
    Ignored
    says:

    RoS
    I think the fact that Ash wouldn’t discuss who would be in her cabinet, should she win, doesn’t prove anything. Some of the questions they were asked were ridiculous, particularly when Yousaf was trashing both Ash and Kate at every opportunity. Saying, “Wait and see.” was the right thing to do. I like the way Ash and Kate have worked together. I despise Yousaf for his lies and his toxic attacks on them both and for the fact that he got help they were not allowed access to and also an easy ride from the media. I think no matter what happens Kate and Ash will continue to work well together. They will have to because the knives will be out for them. So far, they’ve coped with everything thrown at them. They also took on their own Party in recent days and challenged its honesty at the top and just look at the results.

  210. John H.
    Ignored
    says:

    Well done Robert Hughes for daring to venture into WGD territory yesterday, and trying to talk some sense into the sturgeon disciples over there. You were doomed from the start of course. It’ll take a lot more than a good talking to to penetrate that bubble. ????????

  211. Alf Baird
    Ignored
    says:

    Big Jock @ 8:41 am

    “I see Alex Massie is promoting kate Forbes. Saying the Tories can work with her, if she drops independence!”

    As is Ruth Wishart etc – hence the bourgeoisie class promoting the bourgeoisie, and its ‘dubious values’ – the group who only seek a compromise with the colonial system, never a break. Forbes still parroting the endless illusion of a S.30 means she dropped independence a while back.

    Clearly neither Yousaf nor Forbes ken whit independence means, while Ash Regan is far closer to understanding the urgency of the matter. Problem for the SNP is the rapidly declining remnants of the membership are now also arguably mostly bourgeoisie; those groups who appreciated the urgency of the matter have left.

    In line with their ‘values’ the remaining SNP members therefore seem more likely to vote for a compromise (i.e. continuity) candidate and hence more colonial ‘administration’ rather than ‘a break’ with the system and independence.

    https://salvo-cor.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/THEORETICAL+CASE+FOR+SCOTTISH+INDEPENDENCE.pdf

  212. Mac
    Ignored
    says:

    This also leaves Humza Yousaf’s campaign in tatters.

    He is standing as the ‘continuity’ candidate.

    He is the ‘continuity’ candidate who wants to continue doing the same things that have resulted in a catastrophic collapse in the SNP membership.

    Continuity is now the kiss of death. The last f**king you want is more ‘continuity’ here.

    Humza has anchored himself to a now rapidly sinking ship.

  213. Ottomanboi
    Ignored
    says:

    The Barbados initiative?
    Not a matter for later, as some protest.
    It is a defining element in what is meant by «independence».
    https://archive.ph/mGISX

  214. Mac
    Ignored
    says:

    The Murrells have clearly been trying to shield their horrific failures from the public in order to protect Yousaf’s campaign.

    If people had known about the seismic collapse in SNP membership in the last 1-2 years then Yousaf standing as the continuity candidate would have been a non starter, a bad joke.

    Plus crucially it was hidden during the whole period they passed the completely un-watered down GRRB. (It was only Westminster that stopped it.) That again is extremely damning.

    This election is now badly tainted and probably needs to be re-run given what has come to light, too late.

    Certainly any ‘victory’ claimed by Yousaf would be completely bogus and tainted and should be legally challenged. Team Yousaf has obviously been co-operating with Team Sturgeon the whole time…

    Yousaf literally wants to ‘continue’ with the catastrophe that was Sturgeon and Murrell.

  215. Gordon Gekko
    Ignored
    says:

    John Main says:

    ” It would certainly be different if Scotland had a manufacturing base ”

    Why on earth do you want to choose the failed export to growth model John. That is, use our skills to send our diminishing real resources abroad for other people to use and debt us the use of them ourselves. That could be used for public purpose making all of our lives better rather than a few exporters.

    A model that relies on Export-led nations have to constantly provide liquidity into the rest of the world to allow others to buy their goods. Otherwise the rest of the world runs out of the particular money that is needed for the export transaction to complete and the export never happens. So not only would we be sending out diminishing real resources abroad we would get foreign currency in return from them. What will we do with that. Horde it at our central bank and pay foreigners interest payments on it as it lay dormant.

    How many of our skills are you planning to use to send our diminishing real resources abroad? Where are you going to take them from. What other sectors of our economy are going to suffer because of this madness ?

    You think people can be moved around like ignots of steel don’t you. At the snap of a finger. Like Thatcher did when she gutted the nation and hollowed out communities across this land.

    Or even worse you think exports will fund the Scottish government by increasing tax revenue. The tax payer money myth. Like those idiots who think Russian exports funds Putin’s war.

    It’s the madness of clowns John.

    https://new-wayland.com/blog/madness-of-clowns/

    You cleary don’t understand trade.

  216. Breeks
    Ignored
    says:

    100%Yes says:
    19 March, 2023 at 9:01 am

    @ Big Jock

    Humxa stated she was a Tory, she will destroy Indy for good and I would trust her.

    I hope it doesn’t need said that I’m not a Tory, and that I prize the welfare of Scottish society and Scottish communities very highly. But even I recognise there is an extent to which social provision is dependent upon our nation’s prosperity.

    Poor people, and I’m one of them, understand that when the money is gone, or never there to begin with, your options tumble and your horizons shrink.

    I utterly, utterly detest NeoLiberalism, and the wanton destruction wreaked upon Scotland’s Industrial capacities, trades, skills, and traditions. I equally detest the way the Scottish economy and environment has been plundered and abused for decades and centuries before that too.

    These hunting estates, (pft! Hunting??? The critters are shot in a barrel), are not a Scottish tradition. That’s a British colonial history being imprinted over the a truth that’s unpalateable to the landed gentry.

    I hate the greed, the plunder, the exploitation, the environmental carnage, and the disgusting yet widespread attitudes towards Scotland’s indigenous wildlife, whether it’s persecuted on land, in water or the air. It absolutely sickens me that wee Puffins face starvation because we humans are hoovering up their sand eels that don’t even go into our food chain but get processed as fertiliser.

    BUT! And it’s a big but, an Independent Scotland needs to prosper, and hopefully prosper in ways which do not consume that which cannot be replaced.

    I very much see the principles of “Left” and “Right” political persuasions as a product of the UK’s adversarial politics whereby if you’re not red you must be blue and vice versa. Would it not be grand if Scotland was to choose a different model?

    What Scotland needs is a prosperous Nation which everybody has a stake in. Yes, we carry our weak and infirm, and yes we invest in health, education and welfare. But where NeoLiberalism seeks to purge the people out the process of extracting the Nations wealth, Scotland needs new system which creates wealth and prosperity in a different way, where we invest in our people, enrich their lives, make their lives rewarding and enjoyable.

    Neoliberalism needs people to be productive, even if they’re utterly dispossessed and miserable.

    Somehow, Scotland needs to engineer comparable productivity from a population that is keen, motivated and enthusiastic to produce. People who, when you ask them if they like their job, Aye, they love it.

    We are missing the point when we only put food on the table to nourish the body. The mind needs nourishment too, we all need stimulation, incentive, broadening and encouragement.

    We shouldn’t be valuing a company because it makes wealth from so very few jobs, (or no, that isn’t totally correct), but there must be comparable acceptability and commercial viability for Scottish Companies which see providing employment as their goal.

    What I’m describing is a Company which thrives, and thrives to employ people, but doesn’t make profit. Traditionally, these are your Public Companies, your NHS, Railways etc… the lubrication which gets people to and from the places the need to get to, and looks after them if they’re ill, or going through a rough patch.

    It seems perverse that these necessities, essential services, need to generate profit when surely the optimum performance is efficiency and quality of service.

    Why should we judge a rail company by the money it makes, when the yardstick for success is surely the number of people it gets to their destination on time?

    Scotland will not thrive as an appendage to the NeoLiberal collective, but nor will Scotland thrive as a social utopia which divvies up the Nation’s economic prosperity before first taking care of the business which generates that prosperity.

    Independence needs a root and branch overhaul and reform of how Scotland functions as an entity, and though it sounds like Tory-speak, we Scots need to start embracing people who are motivated and “buzzing”.

    Look at Stuart Ballantyne and his catamaran ferries. Yes, Scotland can provide him with a workforce if he pays enough wages, but wouldn’t it be far better for Scotland to be producing a Scottish workforce which had a stake in the ferry business, and aspires to have Scotland’s ferries made in Scotland and being a credit to Scottish industry, like the way Clyde Built once meant something?

    Having a job you’re enthusiastic about totally changes the way you see the world.

    We need a philosophy which stops seeing “the boss” as the enemy. Tricky I know, because especially in Scotland, very often the Boss very much is the enemy and the privileged architect of your misery.

    Right now, Scotland’s prosperity is a perpetual green shoot trying to grow, but whenever it breaks through the topsoil, it discovers there’s no watering, no nutrition at all, just the blades of an insatiable harvester. What chance is there to prosper?

    After WW2, Europe need the Marshall Plan and the USA provide economic assistance to restore the economic infrastructure of postwar Europe. In similar vein, (and hopefully less dependent upon America), Scotland should be thinking in terms of a Scottish “Marshall Plan” to restore the economic vitality of a Post-Union Scotland.

    Don’t get me wrong, Scotland is nothing like the economic basket case of post war Europe, but the complete “reset” which Independence can and will deliver, can really set Scotland upon a stellar trajectory and take every one of us along for the ride.

  217. Breeks
    Ignored
    says:

    John H. says:
    19 March, 2023 at 10:29 am

    Well done Robert Hughes for daring to venture into WGD territory yesterday, and trying to talk some sense into the sturgeon disciples over there.

    NNNOOOOOOOO! Lol. Don’t make me go there. Why would you say a thing like that? I have to go for a ginger wee peek now.

    Nevermind, I’m saved. The big ginger Doggelie needs a walk, and after that it’s Through a Scottish Prism time. (Hmmm I “wonder” what this weeks topic will be?)

    And after that, my short attention span will probably do the necessary forgetting thing. lol

  218. JockMcT
    Ignored
    says:

    A great read thru the comments so far. I’m glad the sh1t is hitting the fan and hope it spatters as many of these troughers as possible. True colours shining through all over the place. We see you comfy Pete!

    Smitty, thanks for the inside view, wow, keep it coming.

    Mia, as ever, on the money. I think the BState have pulled the plug, so what is their strategic timing here. Scorched Earth, or something even more sinister. Will they close it all down I wonder. What’s to stop them.

    As for NS, what happens if she ends up in a cell with one of her big hairy friends?

  219. Big Jock
    Ignored
    says:

    Breeks. I think we need to look across the water to Norway. A country that is the wealthiest in Europe. Similar population, oil and geographical similarities.

    The Nordic model makes money from oil, but invests it with the people. They look after their pensioners, the UK makes them work till they drop. Who wants to work to 68?

    Middle to left leaning socially progressive. Not one or the other, and certainly not Nicola’s vision, which is now in tatters.

  220. Robert Hughes
    Ignored
    says:

    John H

    I was only prompted to enter that , well , ain’t no Lion’s Den , more Pussy Parlour , by Craig Murray’s comments , above .

    The response was entirely predictable , but TBH , I was surprised my comments appeared ; the last time I tried to comment there – must be a couple of years ago now – it didn’t make it through * Moderation * . Maybe PK is prepared to allow a little more light in ? More likely he wasn’t around to clock it

    BTL there still dominated the usual handful of Panglosses n Pollyannas not so much rearranging the deck chairs on the doomed vessel as attempting to bail-out the onboard inundation with a sieve .

    Ach well , I’m sure their ” hearts will go on ” n on n on n on 🙂

  221. Beauvais
    Ignored
    says:

    They’re having a real cognitive dissonance workshop over on WGD. Also, us Wingers are Stu’s “adoring morons” apparently.

    That Robin McAlpine piece is an absolute classic.

  222. Gordon Gekko
    Ignored
    says:

    John Main says:

    ” Lowering taxes for ordinary people stimulates economic activity by leaving ordinary people with disposable income. ”

    The tax payer money myth says clearly – Cutting taxes means the government receives less money. I say, so fucking what The government does not need The money it issued to us in the first place. That we then use to pay our taxes.

    If the government receives less money it means we get to keep more of it. They collect back less of what was previously issued.

    Cutting taxes may mean less money is collected, or it may mean that more money is collected. That’s because the total amount collected isn’t related to the tax rate, but the level of spending and saving in the economy by both businesses and households.

    Money doesn’t stop at its first use. Your spending is my income and vice versa. Income is taxed everytime it is earned.

    If taxes are cut, then people have more to spend which increases the number of spending transactions in the economy. Taxation quantity is a geometric series, not a simple sum. It behaves like a stone skipping across a pond. Lowering taxes just means more hops before the stone sinks. The total collected, however, will be much the same as before unless there is a material change in the amount of saving by households and businesses.

    We want the government to receive less money from the tax cuts. The less the government receives, the more people will have saved and the lower inflation will be from the changes in this environment of supply side shortage and bottlenecks.

    Why Truss economics failed……

    1. Tax cuts increase demand which was a crazy idea in this environment of supply side shortage and bottlenecks.

    2. Do we have enough skills and real resources to absorb the increased demand that the tax cuts would create. With inflation high and bonkers interest rate hikes.

    3. Increasing interest rates are a fiscal stimulus via interest payments. Welfare payments for those who have money.

    3. Increasing interest rates means the increased cost of borrowing on business gets passed onto the consumer via higher prices. Businesses just pass the cost on.Therefore if I’m in an inflationary situation, I have pricing power. I use loans to fund my inventory because that is capital efficient. If the bank moves the interest rate to 15% then I just put my prices up to compensate.

    4. Increasing interest rates does not make boats, lorries or trains move faster. Increasing interest rates takes them off the sea, roads and railway.

    Government spending in areas of supply side shortages and bottlenecks eases these pressures by procuring both skills and real resources to do so by hiring the unemployed. More government spending is needed not less. Govt can set the price of both skills and real resources by denying anybody else the use of them.

    This idea of John’s that you just slash taxes and export and everything will be okay fine is quite frankly absurd. It is EU uber alles nonsense. When world demand drops export led nations are left holding their jock straps and no way to turn.

    Import substitution and food and energy security and domestic spending on public purpose and a Job Guarantee is what we should use our own sills and real resources on.

    https://pavlina-tcherneva.net/job-guarantee-faq/

  223. Gordon Gekko
    Ignored
    says:

    John Main says:

    ” Lowering taxes for ordinary people stimulates economic activity by leaving ordinary people with disposable income.

    Not when the economy is built on the Skye bridge economic model John. That every liberal ( centre right ) every Tory ( far right ) voter voted for over The last 50 years.

    The public sector has been turned into a rent extracting monopoly. A big 2 or 3 in each sector rig the prices between themselves.

    You get a tax cut or a pay increase the rent seekers who bought their privilege via bank lending. Just put up the toll on the public service they provide. They just increase the toll to cross the bridge.

    See, energy, utilities, Royal Mail, education, commuting, TV and communication, any public service that has been privatised from which the rent seekers can extract rent.

    Your taxes stay the same. So NOW not only do you pay the same amount of taxes or more taxes as you always did . As they fund nothing and are used to move skills and real resources around.

    You now pay more than a third of your wages to rent seekers on top of your taxes. Who turned the public sector into a rent extracting monopoly who rig their prices.

    All based upon the tax payer money myth. Potty trained from the age of 5 to believe such crap. Who used voter ignorance to get away with it.

    Maybe, just maybe you should be held accountable and held responsible for voting liberal or Tory for the last 50 years. Consistently voting along the right wing spectrum.

    Instead of always trying to deflect and absolve yourself from blame of your own choices. Blaming Marxists or commies for what’s happened over the last 50 years. When they have never been in government or implemented any policies is quite frankly absurd.

    When clearly the problem is economic and foreign policies that come from the right wing. Who have held the actual power for the last 50 years. Calling the right Marxists or commies is clearly a mental illness bred out of GB news.

  224. Shug
    Ignored
    says:

    Re the murrell’s So if the police have found something more interesting than 600k, and we could not see the conspiracy every dog in the street could see, what has changed.

    Why has their protection been lifted, what did they do to upset their handlers that the police are now doing their job.

    Any guesses

  225. PacMan
    Ignored
    says:

    I see the current thread about economics as usually has been hijacked by ideology.

    Rather than focusing on the ‘big things’ that tries to answer all our economic problems, why not focus on the fundamentals? One of these is finance.

    The Scottish National Investment Bank sounds like a promising idea and as a long term project so hard to know how successful it is as an initiative. Rather than having one National Investment Bank for the whole of Scotland, why should there not be numerous publicly owned Investment banks, serving the different regions of Scotland that has different economic outlooks and industries?

    There can be a Investment Bank that can handle big projects, regional ones to help specific economic activity but also local ones run by local councils that can handle small companies to develop local economies.

    We have seen with the centralisation of public sector sector bodies that it has led for inefficiencies and political interferences. Having numerous publicly Investment banks not only makes this harder to happen, it also spreads risk so that we don’t put all our eggs in one basket by allowing individuals closer to the areas where the investments are going to be made and the companies they are going to invest in, make better decisions about the investments.

    Of course publicly owned investment banks isn’t the answer to all of Scottish economic woes but is a simple thing that can be done and seems to work in Germany.

  226. Big Jock
    Ignored
    says:

    The Sturgeon loyalists will never open their eyes. Such is the level of brainwashing and demigod worshipping.

    They are so far gone, that their tiny brains can’t actually comprehend reality. It’s a terrible way to live. I am so glad I never went down the worshipping road. I always keep an eye on tge truth, I don’t get spoon-fed by a leader.

    I am in in Alba, but I don’t simply follow whatever they report. I read a broad spectrum of opinions. That’s what Salmond would expect from the Alba supporters. Not blind faith in one person.

  227. James Che
    Ignored
    says:

    Has anyone here read that all you’re mobile phones are meant to give a warning system siren blare or buzz on the 23 April in Scotland.

    It is supposed to be

  228. Gordon Gekko
    Ignored
    says:

    John Main needs to learn about trade or be the emperor with no clothes.

    Think about diminishing skills and real resources in a world with climate change and what we should use them for. In ourselves or give them away and get foreign currency in return for them.

    A Tale of Two Nations – Importia and Exportia

    https://new-wayland.com/blog/a-tale-of-two-nations/

  229. James Che
    Ignored
    says:

    Sorry hit the submit button in error before finished posting.

    The siren that goes off on our phones will happen regardless of wether tour phone is switched of/on silent or on vibration mode,

    Now I am getting mighty suspicious when that happens,
    Scotland seldom has a disaster that serious, unless it is caused by events outside our Country. By other Countries.

  230. Geoff Anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    Mike Russell on BBC this morning. 10am Politics

    “I didn’t know about the fall in membership”
    “ the drop in membership is likely due to cost of living”
    “No link between GRR and membership decline”
    “Nobody in the SNP has access to live polling data”
    “ nobody at any time highlighted the falling membership to me”
    “ there is no clique running the Party”

    The man lies with ease. It is impossible that he was unaware of what was happening.

  231. PacMan
    Ignored
    says:

    James Che says: 19 March, 2023 at 11:50 am

    Has anyone here read that all you’re mobile phones are meant to give a warning system siren blare or buzz on the 23 April in Scotland.

    It is supposed to be

    Sounds something similar to the 5 O’Clock chimes in Japan:

    https://www.tokyoweekender.com/art_and_culture/japanese-culture/tokyos-5-oclock-chime-what-is-that-song/

  232. Geoff Anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    A nice light read. The posters from Ireland’s Independence struggle hit home if you actually care about Independence.

    https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2023/03/19/letter-from-denmark-the-dubliner/

  233. Gregory Beekman
    Ignored
    says:

    Apologies for earlier comment – I was rather drunk, and hadn’t realised Murrell had gone. Hadn’t been following stuff on Saturday.

  234. Geoff Anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    From Peter on Iain Lawson’s a log

    http://irishhistoryshow.ie/44-the-1918-general-election/

  235. Derek
    Ignored
    says:

    “Brian Doonthetoon says:
    18 March, 2023 at 9:06 pm

    Or The Clutha…”

    The West brewery’s on Glasgow Green, isn’t it? Think they do food too.

  236. Geoff Anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    The following resolution was agreed unanimously by Conference “No member shall, within or out with the Parliament, publicly criticise a group decision, policy, or another member of the Group”

    https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2023/03/19/why-the-snp-mps-and-msps-are-silent-2/

    You will obey the Party…….

  237. Frank Gillougley
    Ignored
    says:

    Robert Hughes 11.14

    My God! I too, take an astronomical time-frame looksee over ‘there’. Fascinating. For understanding and meaning of their BTL existence, just look up the meaning of the biblical noun, ‘Sanhedrin’ and there you have them!

  238. robertkknight
    Ignored
    says:

    Geoff Anderson…

    Yep. All these former SNP members must’ve been hit disproportionately harder than other members of political parties by the cost of living crisis.

    After all, you don’t see any other political parties shedding a whopping 43% of their membership in three years because of the economy, do you?

  239. Viscount Ennui
    Ignored
    says:

    Gregory Beekman says:
    19 March, 2023 at 12:16 pm

    Apologies for earlier comment – I was rather drunk, and hadn’t realised Murrell had gone. Hadn’t been following stuff on Saturday.

    Wonderful!!!
    Made my day

  240. Etticus
    Ignored
    says:

    I see Robin McAlpine has again brought up the chief constable visiting sturgeon before she resigned. Clearly something very big is coming because a power obsessed narcissist like Nicola Sturgeon who toughed out the salmond inquiry with sheer brass neck isn’t going to give up for the reasons she claims. Ffs Wendy Alexander resigned over a couple of tickets to a dinner and Henry McLeish over making an arse of renting his office out.

    If this happened then it would appear that the chief constable and any police and crown office staff that have been holding back on this investigation to protect sturgeon should be facing charges for perverting justice. The chief Constable would have to be unbelievably stupid to get himself into that situation and if this is true Scotland is in one hell of a mess that is going to take years and a lot of jail time for those responsible to correct. If this is where we are then police scotland will have to be broken up and we maybe need some kind of overarching agency sort of like the FBI that can deal with ingrained high level political and police corruption.

    Part of the issue, which Alex Salmond has admitted to, is that Salmond tinkered with the mechanisms of governance in scotland to make it easier for him to achieve independence, the problem though was that once he was out of power and we had someone as downright evil and scheming as Nicola Sturgeon in power she was able to take advantage of this and use it against Salmond and any other “enemies”. The whole lot is going to have to be looked at and set up again to ensure that politicians cannot abuse the system the way Sturgeon has again.

    @geoff anderson

    Mike Russell is a liar. I would not believe a word he says. He is in the SNP inner circle that has been pulling the strings and pumping out the lies and remember he has had an axe to grind against Alex Salmond for years. He will have been wanting revenge for when Salmond tore a strip off him for his ridiculous grasping the thistle book.

  241. Dan
    Ignored
    says:

    Phone alert article.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64999417

    Economics versus climate change. So we’re meant to be able to afford a new leccy car, but we can only afford to buy New Zealand lamb coz Scottish lamb is too dear… Just fuck off into the sea with all that.
    If our vehicles have to pay an emission related tax, then slap an emissions related tax on imported food that we could easily be growing here. That would give our own local producers a boost and reduce the ridiculous situation of the energy intensive practice of importing the likes of lamb from the other side of the fucking planet.

  242. Jontoscot21
    Ignored
    says:

    Re the phone siren. It is an idea of the neo left control freaks in the Labour Party nationally ( as if the Scottish branch could have any ideas of their own ). It’s another example of control freak panic merchants gaslighting us by priming the fear response. It will be used to promote climate catastrophism and of course the next pretendemic. The danger is that crying Woolf continually will de-sensitise us to real danger.

  243. John Main
    Ignored
    says:

    @Gordon Gekko says:19 March, 2023 at 11:41 am

    Maybe, just maybe you should be held accountable and held responsible for voting liberal or Tory for the last 50 years. Consistently voting along the right wing spectrum

    Hmmm, quite sure I would have remembered if that were the case. Quite sure I would have noticed you looking over my shoulder in the polling booth too, but I didn’t, so your certainty is disturbing.

    Instead of always trying to deflect and absolve yourself from blame of your own choices. Blaming Marxists or commies for what’s happened over the last 50 years. When they have never been in government or implemented any policies is quite frankly absurd

    Care to link to one of my posts blaming Marxists or commies, Gordon?

    a mental illness bred out of GB news

    Hmmm, I have seen GB News, but certainly fewer times than I can count on my fingers. If that brief exposure is enough to bring on mental illness, then GB News defo needs banned.

    This idea of John’s that you just slash taxes and export and everything will be okay fine is quite frankly absurd

    I have to accept there is either a problem with my ability to write, or with your ability to read.

    be the emperor with no clothes

    Not a picture anybody would enjoy. I do look back fondly to the good old days when nobody would have posted such a disturbing image, and most certainly not on the Lord’s Day while douce, respectable Scots were enjoying the pages of their Sunday Posts.

    But to be serious for a mo, Gordon. I think terms such as left-wing, right-wing, Marxist, fascist and Tory have been overused and misused to the point of meaninglessness.

  244. sadscot
    Ignored
    says:

    @Greg
    You won’t be the first or the last. At least you weren’t on Twitter last night publicly identifying a young assistant someone a person currently in the running to be FM was “sh***ing” a while back. Classy. Not.

  245. Big Jock
    Ignored
    says:

    Geoff-I agree. Mike Russell is part of the disease, not part of the cure. He’s also a pompous twat.

  246. John Main
    Ignored
    says:

    Messages would only ever come from the government or emergency services and will initially focus on the most serious weather-related events, with the ability to get a message to 90% of mobile users within the relevant area

    Hmmm. Just over a year since Storm Arwen and already our elders and betters have forgotten that the downed trees and power outages took out mobile phone masts, leaving many without mobile coverage for days.

  247. sadscot
    Ignored
    says:

    “I’ve said from day one, since I launched my campaign, that internal reform is very much needed and certainly I will be looking to see what I can do to shake up that operation at headquarters from day one.”
    Says Yousaf. And, again, is not challenged on the latest lie. He said no such thing. He’s referred to himself, repeatedly, as the continuity guy. Does he not understand what that means? It means he was happy to leave everything just like it is, which is why he got the backing of his bosses, across the board.

  248. fruitella the hun
    Ignored
    says:

    “Blaming Marxists or commies for what’s happened over the last 50 years. When they have never been in government or implemented any policies is quite frankly absurd.

    “When clearly the problem is economic and foreign policies that come from the right wing. Who have held the actual power for the last 50 years. Calling the right Marxists or commies is clearly a mental illness bred out of GB news.”

    I’m not sure John Main is saying that but I’ve yet to decode his political ideology. Whatever, you seem to be claiming that no commies or Marxists have found their way into government in the UK, which is preposterous, certainly to anyone of my generation (uni in the 70s). Then if you add the influence of such people in the media and academia…

    Pity, I thought you were a breath of fresh air once your initial two jargon dumps were completed but the people I’ve seen pushing your current vision have been the folk writing for Open Democracy and Bright Green i.e. commies and Marxists (funded by wealthy foundations).

    Saying people who notice the – let’s call it synchronicity – between the rich and the authoritarian left are not mentally ill. Surely you are not claiming that?

  249. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    “Breeks. I think we need to look across the water to Norway. A country that is the wealthiest in Europe. Similar population, oil and geographical similarities.”

    Big Jock.

    Yes Norway is doing well with oil and gas in mind, and has accumulated a whopping energy fund, something we can only dream about.

    However the Norwegian authorities, aren’t quite the honest guys that we think they are, they and the USA blew up the Nordstream pipelines, (See Sy Hersh article) and have built a pipeline to Finland to supply Europe with energy.

  250. Lenny Hartley
    Ignored
    says:

    Shug @ 11:49. Her usefulness to the British State was over after the Supreme Court Ruling on a referendum.
    Its possible that others knowing that she had deliberately harmed the Yes Movement by going to the Supreme Court thought enough is enough and made official complaint.

  251. fruitella the hun
    Ignored
    says:

    Typo, should read:

    People who notice the – let’s call it synchronicity – between the rich and the authoritarian left are not mentally ill.

  252. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    Sturgeon’s booze bag of a sister isn’t happy that her sister and brother-in-law have been rumbled, no more free passes for her from Police Scotland.

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/sturgeon-s-sister-says-i-d-rather-vote-tory-in-furious-facebook-post-on-snp-leader-race/ar-AA18OyuU?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=6a25686af1bb4d9d8342586db2065b45&ei=19

  253. SusanAHF
    Ignored
    says:

    Norway also has a problem with the transcult dictating events

  254. SusanAHF
    Ignored
    says:

    And with 3rd world immigrants bringing their 3rd world views and behaviour regarding women

  255. McDuff
    Ignored
    says:

    Whoever the new leader is they will have to deep clean the party if they want to restore any credibility to the SNP. And by that i mean seriously investigate the AS witch hunt along with Hirst, Murray and Singh. The part played by the police, civil servants, judges and those who committed perjury during the AS trial with prosecutions if warranted.
    Its only by thorough investigation will it send a message that in the future corruption will not be tolerated and those found guilty of such will be prosecuted. Painful but the only way trust and morality can be restored.

  256. John Main
    Ignored
    says:

    Norway had a hand in blowing up the pipeline?

    Get a fucking grip.

  257. fruitella the hun
    Ignored
    says:

    Editing bungle (1.36)

    “Saying people who notice the – let’s call it synchronicity – between the rich and the authoritarian left are not mentally ill. Surely you are not claiming that?”

    Should read:

    People who notice the – let’s call it synchronicity – between the rich and the authoritarian left are not mentally ill. Surely you are not claiming they are?

    (Previous attempt at editing went into moderation maybe due to typo in “my” name. Apologies if it pops up.)

  258. Gordon Gekko
    Ignored
    says:

    fruitella the hun

    It”a very simple

    Name one, name one Marxist or commies economic policy by the liberals or Tories in the last 40 years.

    Just one will do.

    Thanks.

    Then name one liberal or right wing policy that favours Capital over workers in the last 40 years.

    The crackpots that follow GB News thought Boris was a marxist. That’s how sick in the head they are.

  259. Al-Stuart
    Ignored
    says:

    .
    For Gregory Beekman,

    That is a very decent and honourable reply.

    Respect to you sir.

    Best wishes and hope the head is no’ too sore pal.

    Cheers, Al.

    https://wingsoverscotland.com/if-you-find-that-you-just-cant-trust-them/#comment-2746313

  260. Gordon Gekko
    Ignored
    says:

    Pacman

    ” The Scottish National Investment Bank ”

    Is just good old government deficit spending. There was simply no need for it.

    Once you have studied the actual accounting that takes place, the actual assets and liabilities like I have for nearly 20 years. It’s just deficit spending that any sovereign government can do.

    Take a look for yourself

    https://neweconomicperspectives.org/2015/09/corbynomics-101-its-the-deficit-stupid.html

  261. fruitella the hun
    Ignored
    says:

    GG

    You said that “Marxists or commies” (Marxists are communists even if in IS or IMG etc.) had not been in government during the last 50 years and I say some have. The fact they operated as members of the Labour party meant the context for their efforts redefined what communist policies were, and I’m talking here about the 70s characters not the 80s bunch purged by Kinnock. Marx said to work within the system (you’ll know that but some reading this might imagine that marxists have to be members if a revolutionary party with a stated set of policies)

    The Green MSPs currently in “coalition” are proud of their suppression of the traditional ecological outlook in that party to favour a socio-economic one – some have gloatingly used the watermelon symbol – green outside, red inside. They are on the wrong side of Biology, comrade.

  262. Willie
    Ignored
    says:

    The clear out has only just begun. Murrell and Sturgeon might have been the apex of the clique that rotted the SNP from within but there was a network of strategic helpers.

    Together this band of fifth columnists took control, becalmed all moves towards independence, killed the drive for independence, introduced unpopular woke gender legislation and policies, and lastly purged the party, or rendered ineffective all of those who supported independence. Indeed, not just purged, the corrupt machinery of power set out with the assistance of the state levers of power to destroy, absolutely destroy those who had done o much in the service towards independence.

    With the coordinated attempt to jail Alex Salmond and indeed other, the truth about the parts played and by who has still to emerge. And when that truth emerges the parts played by the in house team together with the support of their colonial master will expose and shock a nation. The Brits have been fighting a dirty clandestine war and it would be utterly foolish not to recognise how our country, or should I say colony is being played.

    Corrupt civil servants, corrupt Police force, corrupt COPS, and a party full of MI5 plants and turned politicians all wrapped up with a controlled media.

  263. ScottieDog
    Ignored
    says:

    Forgot all about that movie.
    Need to watch it again!



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