In Ruins
Don’t watch this. You’ll only waste 12 minutes of your life making yourself angry.
It’s our job to be angry for you.
Quite aside from anything else, the title is a barefaced lie. There is nothing remotely resembling a “route to independence” aired anywhere in the interview. Despite being gently pressed by former SNP adviser Geoff Aberdein, neither Swinney nor Forbes has a single word to say that amounts to any sort of strategy, let alone a credible one.
Forbes says that the SNP’s primary responsibility is to “inspire hope”. Which it isn’t, but even if it was, the party is manifestly not fit for that purpose. It has lost almost 40% of its own support in just two years, from a peak of 50% in December 2022 to an average of 33% since last year’s general election.
(And just two years before that it was as high as 56%.)
It’s lost half of its own members, from 125,000 to somewhere around 60,000. It’s lost 80% of its MPs. It’s shown itself unable to build a ferry, deliver a road, or even conduct a simple headcount or correctly identify what a woman is.
Scottish voters are so scunnered with the party that’s held the reins of power for nearly 18 years that they look set to elect a bunch of MSPs from Reform, a party that barely even exists in Scotland.
So the idea that the SNP are going to be inspiring “hope” any time soon is a crass insult to the intelligence of anyone watching. But that’s just the start of the shambles.
Forbes’ first suggestion of the party’s grand vision of the future is that an independent Scotland could “power the road to Net Zero” – a futile and stupid piece of expensive, damaging virtue signalling that voters don’t actually give a toss about (80% of Scottish voters don’t think it’s a top-three priority) and which was toxically unpopular when the Greens were driving the Scottish Government’s agenda just a matter of months ago.
Forbes elaborates that “wee plucky countries can do a great job if they believe in themselves”, (yes, she honestly did say “wee plucky countries”) and that “the route to independence is about outlining that alternative that can inspire”.
Amid a general vomiting of empty motivational-poster pishwaffle, she opines that this apple-pie feelgood drivel at demonstrable odds with the manifest reality of public opinion is “an electric solution”, which sounds about right.
(She MIGHT have meant “electoral”, but she definitely says “electric”.)
Geoff Aberdein then invites John Swinney to explain how this aimless wibble is in practice going to lead to independence and how it differs from the SNP’s previous strategy, and after some more chumpfeed and padding Swinney finally gives the closest thing that either politician does in the whole interview to an answer:
“In a democracy, Westminster cannot stand in the way of the people of Scotland determining their own future […] that is just a logical democratic inconsistency that cannot be sustained.”
We had to stop writing this article for a moment and go and give our punchbag a good battering at that point, because dear Jesus above.
Westminster has spent the last decade demonstrating in the most comprehensive manner that could possibly ever be imagined that it CAN stand in the way and that it CAN sustain that “democratic inconsistency”, and the Supreme Court confirmed its legal right to do so. It is a settled fact.
So it is contempt for the electorate on the most staggering, inconceivable scale for Swinney to STILL be trying to flog that dead and rotting pig in a poke to voters. Westminster told the SNP to GTF when it had 56 out of 59 MPs and 50% of the vote, and neither of those things is happening again any time in the foreseeable future.
Unfortunately Scotland’s media is almost as wretched as its politics, so the interview then allows Swinney to claim that “I’ve got a very clear sense about how we need to progress on the constitutional question” but then refuse point-blank to say what that means. (“I’m just not prepared to do that”.)
The whole thing is uncomfortably cosy and pally, with everyone chuckling fondly at his unwillingness to reveal anything about the SNP’s 2026 manifesto. Politicians of the past were not models of accountability and transparency, but Margaret Thatcher used to submit herself occasionally to proper inquisitions from the likes of Robin Day or Brian Walden, and Tony Blair had to face up to extended grillings from Jeremy Paxman now and again.
We struggle to recall Nicola Sturgeon ever doing a proper full-length interview with any sort of serious journalist in her entire time as First Minister, and with the likes of Gordon Brewer and Bernard Ponsonby now off the scene there’s barely anyone capable of doing the job even if our leaders were willing to allow it.
By modern soundbite standards 12 minutes is an eternity, but neither Forbes nor Swinney is given a single uncomfortable moment in the entire clip, and the time just dribbles out with absolutely nothing of any value emerging. The most incisive thing that happens is Aberdein’s sceptical expression after Forbes witters on about the “democratic deficit” again like an incredulous pouting child.
The final words spoken in the video are Swinney saying “nothing happens on the constitution in Scotland without the SNP doing really well”.
But if that’s true, then given that the SNP so evidently lacks the ability to regain the trust of Scottish voters (even as its main opponent implodes as spectacularly as Labour are currently doing), so evidently lacks the basic competence required for government, so evidently lacks any sort of inspirational talent that these two simpering, vacuous damp blankets are the FM and DFM, and so evidently doesn’t have the tiniest clue about a coherent strategy for independence other than whining “It’s all so unfair!” for another 10 years, it really does look like everything is screwed.
For as long as the SNP owns the indy movement, that movement has no future.
Pointless people.
Extremist:
“Someone who has beliefs that most people think are unreasonable and unacceptable:
A group of extremists (= people with extreme opinions).”
“Having or involving beliefs that most people think are unreasonable and unacceptable:
Extremist tendencies.”
“Someone who has an opinion or ideas that seem unreasonable to most people:
Political extremism.”:
link to dictionary.cambridge.org
Keep proving the point, people…
Kate and John disagree ?
…as well as Pete and Patrick (no big deal:)
“Forbes says that the SNP’s primary responsibility is to “inspire hope”. Which it isn’t,….”
To be fair to Ms Forbes, she didn’t say to whom she was trying to inspire hope.
My guess it is in all the deadbeats they will select (or have selected) as candidates in the forthcoming election. Hope is all they have!
Some hope!
NO EFFIN HOPE!! Swinney just confirmed that in his final remarks. Forbes is the latest ‘snake in the grass’ to pontificate. Her role in the FREEPORTS treachery in tandem with Gove should have set alarm bells ringing right across the country about the SNP’s ability to manage Scotland’s resources in the interests and long term benefit of Scots and Scotland!!
Aye, ah fear yir right.
I wasted 12mins of my time this am and agree with every word of this article, including using the punch bag in frustration. On another subject I cant believe there are Indy supporters that promote Forbes for leader.
I can’t believe that indy supporters are falling for snp version2 Alba, and Ash Regan”s faux outrage at the despicable sex crimes carried out against our children when she was a silent part of a government carrying out abuse against our children and our womenfolk
And your realistic alternative to Alba is what exactly?
I know there are plenty on here who like to disparage Alba and / or the ISP and point out their current low levels of support, but I’ve never seen anyone show us any evidence of support amongst the movement or Scottish electorate for any of the alternative routes to independence.
If we’re not going to use conventional politics, political parties, referendums or plebiscitary elections, wouldn’t the organisations pushing these alternative routes need to show us some evidence of their support such as, say…polling evidence, membership numbers and financial contributions, demonstrations in the street, support from significant political figures and from legal and constitutional experts.
All of that could happen of course, but is it likely to happen faster than conventional routes?
“And your realistic alternative to Alba is what exactly?
I know there are plenty on here who like to disparage Alba and / or the ISP and point out their current low levels of support, but I’ve never seen anyone show us any evidence of support amongst the movement or Scottish electorate for any of the alternative routes to independence.”
Hand in your alert reader badge. I’ve certainly pointed out a couple of times that I 4 I candidate Eva Comrie got more votes than Alba’s Kenny McAskill at last GE.
I think you may find Dan the reason for that was that Eva Comrie believes in Scottish independence first and foremost with all of her heart, AND she also believes in Scottish SOVEREIGNTY which the voters believed , unlike the late to the party career politicians
I will never get this attraction for Eva Comrie
She resigned from Alba when she realised she wasn’t the choice for Grangemouth then proceeded to slag other Alba members off.
The last thing we need is another cult built around a woman who’s loyalty appears to be to herself above all else.
Okay Liz, rather than point out flaws you perceive with an individual, why not come up with someone better suited to stand.
The bottom line is we need motivated folk to stand and can only work with what we have.
I only used Eva as an electoral example of the I 4 I strategy to show Andy Ellis that alternatives to the Party system do exist and have proven to work.
Having had a brief chat with her at a social event, she had a far more endearing and honest nature during our chat than all the other cold calculating Party machine politicians I’ve had the displeasure of interacting with. And with other articles she has written and slots on Prism I’ll make my own judgement call that she is a better potential candidate than an awful lot of the other dross we have to vote for.
That isn’t a cult building adoration, it’s merely an observation I’ve made that far more folk might potentially vote for her because she didn’t come across as an aloof self-serving arse.
She was also at one point top of the SNP Mid-Scotland & Fife regional list but due to the D’Hondt voting system she was highly unlikely to get a list seat. So moved to Alba. Would you state the same of her if she’d been elected for Alba.
Alba clearly has issues as quite a few women left. Alba were also late in switching Kenny to Alloa & Grangemouth constituency. Not a great look or tactics being so disorganised and parachuting candidates in.
So both Eva and Sally stood as I 4 I candidates with very short notice.
Have you got any issues with Sally standing too?
And yet there appears to be a cult being formed around Ash Regan who has done what exactly to FIGHT for independence , as I stated in my comments recently Ash only spoke up about the GRA when For Women Scotland vehemently opposed it and vowed to fight it , where was her vocal outrage prior to that , remember she was a serving SNP msp so was privy to bills being discussed and approved
Not only that as I also said where was her outrage and anger when the fake voting took place for the leadership of the SNP and we were REWARDED by a racist incompetent clown who embarrassed Scotland on the world stage , where was her legal challenge to EXPOSE the lies and corruption AGAINST Scotland
IMO Scots need to wise up and identify when they are being fed bovine excrement , look behind the polished front and discard the grandiose rhetoric and ask themselves where was this person when Sturgeon was betraying Scotland and Scots , my answer sitting on her arse saying NOTHING just like the rest of the self serving say nothing arsewipes
The answer is not to use political parties at all as they are all, with the exception of the ISP wedded to the Westminster gravy train. That is why many of us support Salvo/Liberation.
Unfortunately Mr Anderson ,the franchise fanny Ellis considers anyone who believes passionately in Scottish SOVEREIGNTY as nothing but moonhowlers or blood and soil nativists , Ellis is quite happy to hand over voting rights on our independence to any incomer from anywhere who just stepped off the bus train or aeroplane, he and his in-laws moved to Scotland from his Surrey paradise to escape the incoming hoards to engerland, they are the white flighters
Fanny Ellis always rambles on about plebiscite elections as if he discovered them personally, while most of us here were discussing and promoting them years ago, but unfortunately yir political parties were not interested , even Alex Salmond rubber eared them until he was desperate and still the scum snp ignored him
Not so. All nationalists should believe passionately in Scottish sovereignty. I certainly do. Like many, I’ve come to the conclusion that many (most?) in the SNP do not, or at least are milquetoast nationalists happy to settle for devolutionist crumbs whilst paying lip service to independence “someday”.
Some of those who share my belief in Scottish sovereignty are undoubtedly moonhowlers and/or blood and soil nationalists. It could hardly be otherwise in any mass movement.
The red mist of spittle flecked outrage has obviously dulled your memory twatbyname. It was Sussex, not Surrey. I left because I’d always intended to come home and not because of white flight, but in large part because I was disgusted with the way things were going in England with brexit and the rise of the far right. My views are simply those of the overwhelming majority of the movement and of Scottish voters in general.
The prospect of extremist franchise restrictors (who of course enjoy the support of zero parties and zero political, legal or academic figures of any note either here or abroad) convincing the “soft no” voters we need to gain a majority to switch to supporting independence are precisely zero.
You and other similar extremists are thus a clear and present danger to the achievement of independence in ant reasonable timescale. Indeed if we are to believe your evidence free rantings about being swamped by people who once flew over Scotland, or had a dram of Scotch being instantly entitled to vote, then independence will never be achieved.
The argument is if course utter bollocks, but much like your Trumpian ater egos, the franchise restriction Sturmabteilungen just can’t help themselves. Same old, same old.
“extremists”
The concept “extremist” is completely subjective, isn’t it?
You may see from your own perspective as “extremist” for Scotland’s constitutional referendums to adopt the franchise that EVERY other country adopts in Europe and indeed the world.
The UK is not a country but a political union, and yet, it adopts the exact same franchise that those you call “extremists” propose for Scotland. Yet, you never had a word to say about that or indeed dare to call the England as the Uk government “extremists”.
From the perspective I am sitting, where I see the franchises adopted by every other European country as “the real normal”, aka the center point, it is actually your position the one that looks completely at odds with the norm and indeed looks rather “extremist”; in the sense that it is going to the absolute extreme of forcing citizens from the colonial power who have been in Scotland for five minutes into a franchise where they do not belong in order to frustrate the exercise of self-determination by the natives.
This has already been demonstrated to be the case. Natives voted for independence, but this vote was frustrated by the over 70% no vote of those coming from other areas of the UK.
But, of course, this extreme franchise you desire for Scotland, that no other European country, or indeed Gibraltar of the Falklands, would touch with a barge pole, is dressed under the pretence of “democracy” or the fabricated meme “civic nationalism”. Having to invent a meme to prop this deliberately flawed franchise that sets natives to fail by design so it becomes acceptable, looks rather “extreme” (and unacceptable) to me.
From where I am standing, it is also “extremist” the having to constantly resource to insults like “moohawlers” as a clear use of at ad hominem to undermine those whose argument you have consistently, for years now, failed to counteract with a credible one. Constantly resourcing to ad hominem to hide your inability to give your argument a chance to stand, comes across as rather “extremist”.
Now, let’s look at how is really howling at the moon here and has been howling at the moon for years, shall we?
Or
From the “extreme” perspective I sit, the real moonhawlers are the ones who fall within the second category, clearly the category you are more in tune with.
It’s not extremist to advocate the franchise that virtually every other self determination referendum since WW2 has used Mia, quite the opposite. Like the proverbial dog returning to its own vomit you and other nativists continue the disinformation that the franchise used in Scotland is peculiar and too open, when if fact it is entirely normal and indeed more restrictive than some others which have been used in successful self determination votes.
Sadly, with the hard of thinking it is impossible to reason with their blinkered ideology and insistence that civic nationalism is the problem, not the fact that the movement simply didn’t convince enough native born Scots to vote Yes, or increase turnout to the levels seen in both Quebec referendums.
As for that passes for you points:
You and the nativist moonhowlers who are sadly all to present BTL here remain (thankfully) part of the nutter fringe. The movement as a whole remains a civic nationalist one. There’s not a scintilla of evidence that has changed, or of any appetite to ditch it as a policy.
You also have no way of knowing what the impact would be of making such a change if the movement was mad enough to try it. It would certainly piss large numbers of people off and make them reconsider their support.
Things have also moved on since 2014. you have not way of knowing and no evidence to show whether the New Scots who votes No in 2014 and those who have arrived since, are more or less likely to support independence now than in 2014.
Of course, if the franchise restriction extremists really had a case and had any appreciable support, they’d be commissioning polls and learned papers to support their assertions. They aren’t because they have no significant support to fund it, and they’re seen by all right thinking civic nationalists as dangerous ideological zealots who present a clear and present danger to achieving independence in any reasonable timescale.
“It’s not extremist to advocate the franchise that virtually every other self determination referendum since WW2″
That assertion is incorrect.
EVERY constitutional referendum is an exercise in self-determination. The Brexit referendum was an exercise in self-determination and it is often referred as “independence (of the EU) referendum”. Not one of the referendums which took place in Europe followed the franchise you are so insisting on bullying your way around with offensive insults to impose on us.
That franchise is flawed and has been demonstrated to be flawed already. It has been demonstrated already that that flawed franchise did indeed frustrate the exercise on self-determination of Scotland’s natives.
Neither Gibraltar nor The Falkands used that franchise on their sovereignty referendums either. You have been told this MANY times now.
It is evident to even a child that we will never ever reach an agreement on this, and that is fair enough. What I am asking for is not for you to change your mind, but for you to pipe down the offensive ad-hominem and gaslighting that you appear to constantly resource to when it more than evident you have been, so far, despite being at it for years now, unsuccessful in making your viewpoint stick on these threads. Your continuous insulting is not helping your cause. In fact, it is undermining it even further.
You keep talking about “fringes”. Again, what is a fringe or not is relative and subjective to where you sit. In the circle I move, it is YOUR viewpoint the one that is in the fringe, actually, not the mainstream view.
Do you want to run in the hamster wheel of deception going nowhere whilst pursuing a bait that doesn’t even look edible anymore?
Be my guest, go and run in circles continuing to go nowhere to your heart’s content. But do not expect me to ever join that hamster wheel of deception. I will rather amuse myself watching you from the outside, continuing to waste your time and energy pursuing a increasingly rotten bait.
If you cannot handle the fire, get out of the kitchen.
You’re entitled to your own fallacious opinions Mia, but not to your own class of facts. I’ve posted on numerous occasions in response to moonhowlers denials the list of self determination referendums since WW2 and the franchises used. Virtually all of them (and from memory there were getting on for a couple of dozen) have used inclusive, residence based franchises.
Many of them in fact used more liberal franchises than that used in 2014, allowing e.g. servicemen of the Red Army to vote in former Soviet republics. Similarly, the former Yugoslav republics did not seek to exclude non Slovenes, Croats etc from voting in their referendums.
The brexit referendum was not of course a self determination referendum. you saying it was so doesn’t make it true. It’s a swivel eyed brexiteer talking point which ought to be beneath any sensible person trying to trot out BTL here. Hardly surprising of course to see regressive nativist supporting Scottish nationalist stanning for Farage and Robinson.
The residence based franchise is not flawed, it’s absolutely standard practice. Conflating the franchise used in. self determination referendums with that used for constitutional change in already independent states using established citizenship criteria is a simple category error. You know it’s a false comparison, you’re simply being ideologically disingenuous, presumably because you’re still at least minimally self aware enough to be embarrassed to spout such regressive, nativist bigotry.
It’s not me that’s in the minority Mia, it’s you and the coterie of blood and soil types who sadly infest BTL here. I’ll never stop pointing out the dangers of ditching civic nationalism.
For second time on a row, please tone your ad hominem down. Besides being offensive and coming across as bullying, it is now rather tedious. Your comments are quickly becoming simply a vehicle for you to insult those who disagree with you and therefore worthless in terms of content.
As I said in my previous comment, EVERY constitutional referendum is an exercise in self-determination. You cannot just pick and choose the ones that suit your narrative.
The last one of those constitutional referendums we had was the EU referendum. I remind you that the franchise used is precisely the franchise I advocate to be used in any future referendum for Scotland.
I know of not a single European country where the ridiculously open franchise that you demand to be used has ever been used for a constitutional referendum.
And I repeat, for 100th time, neither Gibraltar nor The Falklands used in their own sovereignty referendums the same flawed franchise you are demanding for Scotland, so why should Scotland be an exception?
People who has not been born in the country where they chose to live and have no ancestry from the country are GUESTS in that country until they show allegiance to the new country and naturalise.
To self-award yourself or indeed demand the right to frustrate the right of self determination of your host, is the pinnacle of arrogance, self-entitlement and colonial mind. Trying to make such a ridiculous demand would have you kicked out of any other country in Europe.
Moving to live in another country does not make it “yours”, in the literal sense of the word as it was done in North America, stealing the land from under the feet of its rightful owners, which were the native Americans. What was done to the native Americans was extreme colonialism. Scotland is trying to get rid of colonialism, not to invite even more of it.
As for you not being in the minority, well, you can believe what you want. I am sure you are the most remarkable legend in your own lunch time. But again, do not expect me to take as gospel whatever you say just because you say it and spice it up with an overdose of ad-hominem making it even more dubious.
I have taken, take and will continue to take as evidence the information I get from the circles I move in and the people I interact with. In none of those circles is your opinion in the majority.
“I have taken, take and will continue to take as evidence the information I get from the circles I move in and the people I interact with.”
So anecdote, basically.
A (real) world exists outside of your personal echo chamber.
“So anecdote, basically”
As anecdotical as the perception you may have from the circles you move or Ellis, may have from the circles he moves in.
The difference is that I do not claim to know what the majority of the Scottish people thinks or wants without actually demonstrating proof of it.
The evidence of my “personal echo chamber”, as you choose to call it, is the only evidence I have and therefore the only one I believe and I will continue to believe until that evidence changes.
If individual assertions from you or anybody else who are only too fast to claim to know what the majority wants/thinks without actually providing any credible evidence to back it up disagree with what I observe as the majority opinion within my “personal echo chamber”, then those claims of yours will not bear any credibility whatsoever in my eyes, no matter how much ad hominem they are adorned with, how aggressively they might be peddled by the writer, or how much of a bully the writer presents themselves as in order to silence others and force their opinion on anybody else.
How is that for the real world outwith your own echo chamber?
“The evidence of my “personal echo chamber”, as you choose to call it, is the only evidence I have and therefore the only one I believe and I will continue to believe”
If that’s the only evidence you have, I have two suggestions for you:
(1) Broaden your outlook and look outside of your little coterie of online acquaintances and do a little research, using bona fide, reasonably objective sources. Google is available.
(2) In future, maybe think twice about overtly questioning information provided by your opponent in a debate, whilst simultaneously stating the above quote. Honestly, it’s not a good look.
I am so taken aback that the franchise fanny has not resorted to his usual But,But,But the Rev agrees with me so i must be right arselicking response when he commented to you
It’s quite amazing that one man ???? INSISTS that he knows the viewpoints of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people who were involved in the independence movement and votes
And yet HE insists that it is others who are MOONHOWLERS , as my auld ma used to say “tae see yerself as others see ye”
Well said, Mia. He/she/it has returned and it didn’t take long for he/she/it to mutate from concern troll to the same old spittle flecked Yoonhowling mouthpiece.
The franchise MUST NOT be discussed.
Tells you everything you need to know about he/she/it really, yes?
Pretty much run by the British-American project these days..
Two apallingticians interviewed by three meedjits.
Why can’t they realise emulating unionist parties is not working on majority of independistas. We see through their lies.
Keep exposing them Stu.
Just spent the morning feeding wood into a brazier located next to the condensate pipe for my 12 month old, condensing boiler. This is the second time I’ve had to do this.
The boiler was a replacement for a knackered, old, standard boiler. These have been outlawed, hence the condensing boiler, the condensate line for which freezes every time we get two consecutive nights of minus temperatures in double figures. Still, save the planet for 10% more efficiently in the heat cycle.
Puts me in mind of the ban on wood burning stoves in new builds and conversions, that was in place before the Bute House agreement was thankfully consigned to the skip of history. That also started out as a “write over” from legislation in England and Wales. Patrick Harvie was insistent that it be applied to Scotland also, despite its patent unsuitability in rural areas.
The SNP route to independence is like having a ballot box in one hand and the other hand in their pocket jingling their money.
Clowns,utter clowns.
It’s like the SNP has got tired of being a political party and decided to turn itself into a *Revival!* movement for an aspiration which it, itself, has extinguished the possibility of ever achieving. Brexit was the moment: we all knew it, Sturgeon knew it and now that moment has passed. There’s more chance of achieving independence by joining the Plymouth Brethren than voting for a party that took it’s 30 pieces of silver.
Are you prepared for ‘The Great Scotland Revival’
#Prepare
Might have known you pathetic sniveling Scotch wretches would find such a progressive prospect (FACT) offensive:
Scotch (adjective):
“Scotch is an adjective in English, meaning “of or from Scotland”. Many Scots dislike the term Scotch and some consider it offensive.”:
link to en.wikipedia.org
Well too fu**ing bad, Scotchland…
#Epic
Scotch:
“To prevent something from being believed or being done:
Her remarks were intended to scotch rumours of imminent job losses.”:
link to dictionary.cambridge.org
#SNPSacked
Travis Scotch: SCOTCHWORLD: Boss:
“Rack Ross, I’m the?boss
I’m?with Travis Scotch
I?got racks, I got a lot
Yeah,?I’m the king
I got so much money
I am flexing
What are?you?doing?
Yeah,?Rack Ross
The boss?with the rack
I’m?the king
Nobody else tell none
I, I say you can’t ’cause you can’t disagree with me…
I ain’t droppin’ my album ’cause I got zero fans
And you be playing around like we at Disney Land
My album’s gonna be the greatest
And I know that you hated that I literally haven’t dropped it yet…
Ok, you know who it is now
Travis Scotch, yeah
I’m gonna show you something amazing…”:
link to tinyurl.com
#AmazingScotlandRevival #LetsGo
Oh f***
John Swinney is reported in the press today as “calling for NI-style trigger for an indyref”. Everyone, including John Swinney, knows perfectly well that this is just whistling in the dark to try to keep up his spirit and those of his deluded supporters. This is a reserved matter and every MP at Westminster, except the small number of SNP members, would vote against such a measure. Just more empty talk, John – we need some action instead.
I read an article yesterday that they were (belatedly) floating a Northern Ireland style argument for a referendum, which immediately got me thinking; why didn’t they do this around 2021, when the same 7 year timescale had elapsed? Of course, those who are familiar with the Good Friday Agreement will also know that, along with the ability to raise the constitutional question every 7 years, another tricky stumbling block is that a referendum is in the gift of the UK Secretary. As long as Scotland leaves it in the hands of the very people we are trying to break from, it’s going nowhere.
That said, with things as they are, it’s likely a United Ireland will happen before an independent Scotland and it will be food for thought – for people on both sides – when they see the UK establishment won’t fight anywhere near as hard to keep NI as it does to hold on to Scotland.
The condition precedent for the Secretary of State to hold a border poll in NI is if it:
but it’s left (intentionally?) pretty vague how it is judged and what the process would be. The general consensus is that it would be on the back of consistent polling majorities in NI in favour of re-unification &/or a majority for parties supporting it in the NI Assembly.
There is also the role and involvement of the Irish government and people to be considered: there is no guarantee that they will show the same appetite for re-unification at the same time.The situations aren’t that analogous because Scottish independence doesn’t involve a 3rd party government like the NI case, nor does it really have the inbuilt threat of incipient violence, civil war and sectional interest groups of die-hards refusing to accept the outcome.
The Scottish pro-independence movement has a choice to make in as much as if it wants to change the current devolutionary settlement, it can do it in two ways. The simplest is of course to bypass any tinkering with devolutionary concerns by concentrating on achieving independence.
It’s the “all or nothing” approach that almost worked in 2014 (much to the shock of complacent British nationalists), but has seen us languishing for more than a decade since because there is no Plan B.
That alternative plan could either be short circuiting the devolutionary path by using plebiscitary elections (which many still seem inexplicably opposed to doing) or alternatively campaigning to revise the current devolutionary settlement such that more powers were repatriated from Westminster to Holyrood, in particular the right to hold referendums which had a popular mandate and specifically removing any unionist / Westminster veto.
Given the current British nationalist and Scottish unionist position on devolution, any additional powers seem unlikely: indeed the opposite seems more likely even if it’s in the cynical guise of more powers to local authorities to bypass Holyrood.
Even if the UK does not fight for NI, the NI parties and Eire parties are all wedded to the ‘woke’ ideology, and that includes Sinn Fein. The ideology will eat them all from within as happened here, and anyone who believes that these ‘woke’ people want any kind of independence for Scotland or reunification for Ireland needs a new brain. The agenda stipulates that the country must be won first to the entire ‘woke’ agenda. In the end, Westminster still hold the apron strings, even for NI and the referendum agreement.
“In a democracy, Westminster cannot stand in the way of the people of Scotland determining their own future”.
Am I right to assume that the SNP’s meaning is that this refers only to a referendum and not to a plebiscite election? As it stands two things are clear. The SNP as they have been since 2015, and a referendum dependent on UK approval, are both complete dead ends. However if a plebiscite election would be legally accepted internationally, then that would leave only one dead end blocking the way to independence and they can be replaced.
Electric Soup was later bottled and rebranded as
‘Who you looking at.’
Being Pedantic, but electric soup was made by bubbling ‘coal gas’ through milk, not natural gas.
Grouse Beater has an interesting post about Geoff Aberdein today. It fits with my thinking at the time that GA wasn’t called as a witness at Alex Salmond’s trial, being let off by Alex because of Geoff’s new job, I seem to remember. What a coward, I thought – GA should have volunteered.
So he isn’t the man to press Swinney and Forbes on their unbelievably feeble, and indeed wicked, failure to do anything at all to rescue Scotland from the Union.
What a shower they are. What an absolute disaster for all of us who aren’t wealthy Unionists.
Thanks for the pointer sarah.
link to grousebeater.wordpress.com
Thanks for the link, aLurker!
2 Reform is clearly sucking the majority of its support from the Tories.
But even if Scotland hit Net Zero, we’re not magically insulated from global climate change caused by the rest of the world, so the seas will still rise.
Have you read this Wings piece (linked to from the article above)? link to wingsoverscotland.com
Seriously? You’re expecting sea level to rise by 35m?
The polling I’ve seen does suggest Reform in Scotland is basically cannibalising the Scottish Tory vote, so more power to their elbows IMO.
Of course some of the nutter fringe in the indy movement will probably be attracted too, the brexity, anti-immigrant, nativist ones stanning for the Donald, Uncle Vlad and banging on about vaccines and global warming being a hoax. Good riddance I reckon.
With luck the rise of the Swivel Eyed Loon Party will scare more “soft unionist” voters in to the arms of the independence movement than it costs in the tankie fringe attracted to Trumpian politics.
#MakeScotlandGreatAgain2025
Net-Zero was an exclusive top-down WEF/UN (NWO) Scheme.
#NetZeroCancelled
If the human race do nothing about climate change at the very least we will have to move the line to Aberdeen so it runs up the Mearns from Perth pretty soon or it will end up like the Cornwall line which was blocked by the sea undermining the wall not that long ago.
That is how it will go, individual storms will cause damage until the extent of it becomes far too expensive to fix and the land just isn’t there any more.
Barry Buddon peninsula will simply disappear too, meaning Carnoustie gold course will largely go as will the army firing range.
Just release a few more beavers, everything will be fine… lolz
And seeing as so many humans can’t even be arsed to recycle their waste properly, jist crank up yon energy from waste plant in Dundee to eleven and use aw the ash to build a sea wall along the Tay estuary to save Errol.
Folk on the Carse of Gowrie are surely more worthy of saving than Carnoustie golf course. Natch, Chas will be peeved at this suggestion but there’s a lot of food grown on the Carse of Gowrie farmland so golf or food, yer choice.
If the train line goes so be it. Maybe the new replacement track will actually be electrified and trains north of Dunblane can actually be powered by some of the clean renewable power Scotland generates rather than the leccy going south and oor trains continuing to burn diesel.
Errol is protected by Preston Watson and his marvelous flying machines…
Preston Watson… The Flying Scotsman:
link to medium.com
Some people hate world pioneers and innovation.
I think there is room for doubt.
There are scientists, quite a few, who do not accept the narrative pushed by IPCC.
link to worldfreedomalliance.org
“Four leading Italian scientists have undertaken a major review of historical climate trends and concluded that declaring a ‘climate emergency’ is not supported by the data. Reviewing data from a wide range of weather phenomena, they say a ‘climate crisis’ of the kind people are becoming alarmed about “is not evident yet”. The scientists suggest that rather than burdening our children with anxiety about climate change, we should encourage them to think about issues like energy, food and health, and the challenges in each area, with a more “objective and constructive spirit” and not waste limited resources on “costly and ineffective solutions”.”
” Of over 13,000 islands examined, approximately 12% experienced significant shifts in shoreline positions. The total shoreline length of these islands approaches 200,000 km, with 7.57% showing signs of landward erosion and 6.05% expanding seaward. Human activities, particularly reclamation and land filling, were identified as primary drivers of local shoreline transformations, while natural factors have a comparatively minor impact. Moreover, the ongoing rise in sea levels is identified as an exacerbating factor for coastal erosion rather than the primary cause. Drawing from these findings, we propose several adaptive measures for islands in response to climate change. Taken together, this research provides comprehensive data and a basis for decision-making for sustainable development of island territories”
link to tandfonline.com
You are indeed correct. It’s the Carbon monoxide in Town gas that drove the jaikies pure mad mental. ?Stuff up the cracks, turn on the gas, I’m gonna take my life?
The Jouker (2025) Andy Murray calls out Elon Musk for Twitter meddling:
“”Murray said: “The top 17 posts on my Twitter feed are from Elon Musk. #Interesting algorithm he’s created.”…
A number of people in Murray’s comments said they had made the decision to block Musk from appearing on their timeline.
“I blocked the account and – at least for now – I’m not seeing his posts,” said one user…”:
link to archive.ph
#Q
Guardian: Andy Murray: not miserable, just normal:
“People say Murray’s miserable because he doesn’t smile very often. He’s not miserable. He’s normal. Have you walked down a street recently?
The people who want Murray to smile are the same ones who try to make me dance at weddings. They want the world to conspicuously enjoy itself in a manner of their choosing…
So Murray isn’t going to win the Merryville Festival of Grins any time soon. What difference does it make to you, you needy pricks?…
Perhaps part of the confusion is that despite being very much in the public eye, Murray refuses to play along with the patronising emotionalism demanded by the media…”:
link to archive.ph
#YOU
I see anglofication continues apace under the SNPs watch; this time with proposals removing Burns from the “English”(sic) curriculum.
That’s another fine mess you’ve got us into Gilruth (you screaming roaster and serial cabinet post rank failure)..
Needs to take her head out of a certain persons arse and get some reality..
Talking Heads: Little Creatures: Road To Nowhere:
“Well, we know where we’re goin’
But we don’t know where we’ve been
And we know what we’re knowin’
But we can’t say what we’ve seen
And we’re not little children
And we know what we want
And the future is certain
Give us time to work it out
Yeah
We’re on a road to nowhere…”:
link to tinyurl.com
I don’t need to talk about my kingdom (power) –
I’m showing you, Scotland:
#FreedomKing
You…
link to en.wikisource.org
link to wingsoverscotland.com
It’s possible that the hope to be inspired just wasn’t clearly articulated. For example, there’s plenty Scots hoping for the SNP to be wiped out at the ballot box.
And that dovetails neatly with the drive to net zero idea. Quite possibly, it’s zero SNP MSPs many Scots are hoping for.
“Forbes says that the SNP’s primary responsibility is to ‘inspire hope’ “
inspire hope means to fool voters into believing the SNP will ever do anything to progress independence. All while Ms Forbes continues to betray Scotland by handing over large chunks of Scotland’s territory to private hands in the form of freeports.
Well, my response to Ms Forbes is:
Thanks but no, thanks. You can stick your faux hope together will all the carrots the SNP has been dangling in front of our faces for the last 10 years and your beloved freeports there where the sun does not shine.
I did not vote for the SNP to have my hopes inspired. I did not vote for the SNP to waste my time and insult my intelligence with carrots dangled in front of my nose. I did not vote for the SNP to have chunks of Scotland’s territory put out of bounds from the Scots themselves because some idiot thought it was a great idea to sell Scotland off and bring the con of freeports to Scotland.
I voted for the SNP to get their effing arse in gear and DELIVER INDEPENDENCE. If you are not delivering independence, then you can just fk right off and stop wasting our time.
Stupid word salads, irrelevant waffle, faux democracy, a continuous denial of Scotland’s constitutional rights, a constant undermining of Scotland’s legitimate right to end this toxic union and more procrastination will not tempt me to vote, never mind ever again casting a vote for the betraying SNP.
Spot on Mia. My thoughts exactly.
“wee plucky countries can do a great job if they believe in themselves”
Wee plucky countries cannot do anything for as long as the corrupt individuals who claim to represent those countries, insist in refusing to represent those countries and instead bend over themselves to serve the interests of a foreign crown and foreign governments. That is what the SNP government, Scotland’s parliament and those who call themselves “Scotland’s MPs” currently appear to be doing.
Scotland will do a great job when manage to eject from our seats all these shysters and useless amoebas who have been taking us for fools for the last 10 years.
We desperately need a mechanism to eject these useless invertebrates from Holyrood. We need a mechanism to bypass the Scotland Act and all those Scotland’s MPs and MSPs who swore allegiance to a foreign crown and are assisting this crown on imposing absolute rule over Scotland.
We never gave consent for those freeports to be installed in Scotland, Ms Forbes. So, where did you get that consent from?
Simply ejecting people from seats will advance Indy not one millimetre.
The seats then need to be filled with competent, articulate, driven, persuasive, pragmatic and moderately inspirational people.
I’m very confident that if you set out to list any such people who are currently in Scottish politics, you would struggle to get into double figures.
re. “We desperately need a mechanism”
I believe in and elect Mia (et al) to demolish these useless invertebrates –
Mia stands as a mountain protecting Scotland’s best interests (as dependable as it gets) –
If these elusive creatures faced Mia with her reality-hammer (pathetic Scotland frauds) – they wouldn’t stand a chance.
Exactly.
Jan elects Mia too –
Jan stands shoulder to shoulder with her Scotland (soul:) sisters
Scotland’s true invincible sovereign Queens…
#ForeverScotlandChampions
In total agreement with Mia.
“the route to independence is about outlining that alternative that can inspire”
No, it isn’t, Ms Forbes. The route to independence is about Scotland’s MSPs and MPs finding their 10 years’ lost spine, putting it back, stopping procrastination, stopping insulting the voters’ intelligence, stopping taking yes supporters for fools, standing up for Scotland and ending the union.
We sent a majority of anti-union MPs to Westminster in 2015, 2017 and 2019. We didn’t sent those majorities to “outline inspiring alternatives” or listening to more procrastinating waffle from you or from anybody else, for that matter. We sent them TO DELIVER INDEPENDENCE.
Those majorities should have resulted and were expected to result in the end of the union. Instead we have you now trying to fabricate even more ways to continue procrastinating and preaching even more nonsense to be added to all the useless waffle we have been fed for the last 10 years and counting.
You seek to procrastinate the delivery of independence whilst you hand over Scotland’s territory to private hands in the form of freeports. Who do you think you are fooling?
Either piss or get off the pot. It is as simple as that.
Scotland’s territory is not yours to give away and our time is not yours to waste.
Bravo!!
We’ll never stop them seeing the pension pot is more important, its just who the SNP leadership has become. So lets get shot of the SNP. I’d vote for that, at leased it’ll be something to vote for.
The sad truth is that many SNP members still hold a strong belief that independence will happen via the SNP. I realise the membership has dropped and I understand why. Wedded to this is the fact that the majority of ‘on paper’ independence supporters do not follow politics or the Indy supporting media meaning they will probably vote SNP.
In 2026 there will still be a good number of SNP MSP’s due to the list system. I suspect however they will shout ‘both votes SNP’ and therefore win less seats.
They have no strategy for independence as you correctly highlight Stu.
If, and this will not happen, they the SNP were to remove their ignorance on Scots law, the treaty, and people sovereignty and use this then there is a modicum of hope. Had they understood this then 2015 would have created a massive constitutional crisis that would have led to our freedom. Yes they have had Westminster majorities since then but the 15 vote was the only one where over 50% of the electorate voted SNP.
They, the SNP are wedded to the English Bill of Rights laws that are illegally being forced onto us all.
Did Sturgeon not say in 2015 a vote for the SNP wasn’t a vote for independence?
That is correct. She did. And the rat did so in April 2015, that is months AFTER several polls had already been projecting the mother of all landslides for the SNP. Those landslides were projected while voters where considering that a vote for the SNP was a vote for independence, as it always had been.
Looking retrospectively, it stands to the obvious that the political fraud Sturgeon’s mission was simply to keep the yes vote on a leash and to stop it going anywhere. This is what the SNP has been doing since 14 November 2014. The video above and the nonsense spouted by Forbes and Swinney, which only serves to put off even more voters, argues that this mission remains in force today.
But, the question is, what right had that woman, on her own accord, to go against the reason d’etre of the party and the first article of the party’s constitution?
A vote for the SNP was not a vote for independence only because our useless SNP MPs and MSPs chose to sit over their hands, pocket their salaries and indulge her on that and on the destruction of the party as a vehicle for independence.
They are all as guilty of where we are at present as she was. She would not have been able to get away with all her nonsense and betrayal unless she was supported by the contingent of SNP MPs and MSPs.
How many of those showed the commitment to independence and the guts to ditch her and the useless crap she transformed the party into? They are so few that you do not need even all fingers in one hand to count them.
“Rat”. Thank you, Mia. Best description I’ve ever heard of that woman. (I can’t understand how Alex didn’t see through her.)
“The sad truth is that many SNP members still hold a strong belief that independence will happen via the SNP”
That is fair enough. It is their prerogative to think what they want. But that cannot continue to be used as a block of lead around the whole yes movement and we cannot be expected to continue to give chances to a completely useless shell of a party who has betrayed every single majority and every single mandate we have been given to it for the last 10 years. Hell, they even pulverised the 600,000 we donated for a bloody referendum.
We cannot let those people who refuse to give up on the SNP drag down the rest of the yes movement. At some point you have to say enough is enough. At some point you have to cut the rope, so at least some of the movement survives.
I am fed up of waiting. I am fed up of being taken for a fool. I am fed up of faux democracy and watching Scotland being denied its right to self-determination by the very people who claim to represent us. I am fed up of procrastinations. I am fed up of excuses. I am fed up of concessions to this useless and betraying SNP. If any so called pro-independence party even as much as suggests to establish some kind of alliance loose or otherwise with the SNP, they immediately lose my attention.
My last chance to the SNP was given in 2019. That is it. No more chances. The minute I saw the political fraud Sturgeon and her acolytes giving her embarrassing capitulation speech to brexit in 2020 I new she had never been pursuing independence and would never pursue it. Her asking for SNP1 and 2 putting a massive obstacle to the pro-indy supermajority was just a corroboration of that fact. The only instance where rejecting a pro-indy supermajority in Holyrood makes any sense is when the person putting obstacles to it does not want it because they want to preserve the union.
Yousaf was still in control of both an absolute majority in Westminster and a pro-indy majority in Holyrood, yet, just like the political fraud before him, he did nothing with them. Same applies to the unelected Swinney. Swinney lost the MP majority in spectacular fashion, so why is such monumental failure as a “leader” still “leading” the SNP, never mind kept as FM? The only convincing explanation is that the SNP has no interest in any kind of anti-union majority. It is only interested in preserving the union.
Time to forget about the SNP and leave them behind. They were given more than enough chances.
Mia for First Minister!
Well it doesn’t sound like Swinney is planning to turn away from the car crash.
I am surprised that Forbes can’t see it but then she us solely focused in retaining her seat.
Last year I bet on the SNP falling to 20 seats.
At the moment my money is on 24 for 2026. Yes i am an optimistic.
To be this incapable of having a strategic plan can only be deliberate.
I see the unionist press is giving voice to Sturgeon. I cant believe anyone in the SNP would have time for her now but the press coverage would suggest otherwise.
The kinder the press are to her the more I am convinced she is working for the unionists.
“working for the unionists”
That is unfortunately what postcolonial theory tells us occurs:
That the dominant national party elite become ‘neutral on independence’; they are ‘co-opted’ by the colonial power; they ‘become part of the racket’; they ‘feather their nests’ and ‘build up their pensions’; they ‘take the movement up a blind alley’; they ‘behave like a gang’; they ‘appoint their friends to key positions’; they ‘depend on meaningless slogans’ leaving the matter of independence ‘to future events’; together with colonial forces they ‘attack the radicals in the movement’; they ‘rupture the movement’, which ‘sickens the people’; leading to creation of ‘new national parties’. Which is precisely what we see.
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
Would it not be the case, Alf, that in a fabulously wealthy Independent Scotland, that our elites would have much better opportunities to feather their nests?
After all, that’s exactly what we usually see in the majority of post-colonial countries.
I maintain an in-built scepticism about the regularly stated claim that there’s a humongous transfer south of Scottish wealth. Don’t you place it at £150 billion PA?
Seems to me, if that were true, our elites would do the math for themselves, and realise that if that transfer were to be stopped, they’d be in pole position to cream off a share for themselves.
The ‘elites’ lack the critical thinking skills, courage, and delayed gratification necessary to take the action you describe.
That’s why the colonisers use those brainwashed into Scottish Cringe to do the jobs. They are much like those who accepted ‘The Vow’ in 2014 – as ‘an out’ – to avoid being brave enough to weather the change and disruption inherent in moving from the status quo to a better future.
That’s another reason why it was the elderly who ‘fell for it’. For the young, Independence = 2-5 years of mild uncertainty followed by 50+ years of a better life.
For the elderly, especially those dragging themselves from their deathbeds to vote against, Independence = 2-5 years of (scary?) change followed by <5 years of (possibly demented and oblivious) infirmity, prior to death.
What Alf said held true in many subsequently successful countries.
The ‘Elite’ are held back by the fear that they PERSONALLY, may be passed over for increased gravy, in a properly Independent Country, as mediocrity may not be so well rewarded.
Yes, Alf. You pointed that out to us some time ago. I only wish all you worthwhile, honest people would become politicians and declare Scotland totally independent of our English neighbour.
I am an inveterate head-tilted title-reader of books on shelves. The first three books before we get to Burns:
L.A. MACRAE: AND NOW THE LIGHT IS EVERYWHERE: A stunning debut novel of family secrets and redemption. Where does a story end and the truth begin?
IAN RANKIN: NEW JOHN REBUS THRILLER: A SONG FOR THE DARK TIMES: Family comes first even before the truth.
M.C. BEATON: DEATH OF A TRA(C)TOR: A HAMISH MACBETH MURDER MYSTERY: A missing person report is not usually something that Hamish Macbeth sees as cause for undue distress.
Scotland has a choice to make.
Get busy burning as many fossil fuels as you can to aid global warming and raise sea levels so that Westminster is flooded out, which will likely be a quicker way of ending London Rule than anything the SNP have come up with.
Or go live in caves freezing yer arses aff to save the planet and keep Scotland cold enough to stop a pending yellow and black Asian invasion…
Is it considered racist or xenophobic to have concerns about a muckle hornet from Asia?
#EveryoneBeGangstaToughTillAWaspLandsOnThem.
link to isp.scot
The phrase that comes to mind, “Fart for freedom, fart for liberty—and fart proudly”.
SNP are in reality a Devo Party and have been for a decade. They know that Westminster will never allow another IndyRef and the post Salmond SNP leadership did and will always shy away from UDI based on a popular majority Indy vote in Westminster and Holyrood elections. The utter failure of Sturgeon, et al, to exploit the Brexit crisis to secure Indy is proof of that. So the SNP campaigning on Indy in national elections is just ONE BIG LIE. That has been the party strategy for the last 10 years. So why do a substantial number of Scots fall for it every time?
Lack of individual self-confidence.
Leading to a fear that they personally wouldn’t be ‘one of the winners’ in changed circumstances.
Leading to a fear of change, of losing what little they have.
Leading to using the cognitive dissonance you describe, as ‘an out’ to avoid confronting this fear or admitting it.
That’s why Alex Salmond’s entire career was focused on behaviour, words and actions aimed at infecting ordinary Scots with his own self-confidence. And at giving us evidence of our own genuine potential to do well.
“He believed in (us) before (we) believed in (ourselves).” – as a notorious former protege of his once said. (In her pre-sellout incarnation.)
In that sense, Ms Sturgeon far too effectively personifies Scotland in herself!
He showed us what we CAN be.
She showed us the work we have to do to become that.
Comparing Scotland’s Institutions and resolve, as stress-tested by Mary Queen Of Scots, with the same, as stress-tested by Nicola Queen Of Holyrood, shows us the current ruinous condition of our country.
Which in turn gives us a baseline to guide our recovery strategy.
I have never seen a Scottish politician fall so far as Kate Forbes. She is now a happy establishment bunny waffling utter rubbish!
Forbes ALWAYS was just that Martin and the constituents who put her there are all too aware of that fact. Sleekit, would be an apt description!
Two mannequins in a shop window
Feeding us a lie while Swinney and Forbes sell the assets to foreign business instead of saying to the UKG the Barnett formula for Scotland in the 21st century isn’t enough and we want more of the taxes we send to England. Scotland towns and Cities look like crap wholes while England on the back of our taxes build grand projects, when it going to stop! Fucking moron are us for 1 believing the lie and 2 trusting the bull that comes out of their months. Stop buy the RAG and don’t vote for the SNP Scotland only hope is a new start and that will never come from the NewSNP and Yes the SNPBAD is correct and if you want proof just take a walk down memory lane, when that 600k went missing that summed up the SNP and the leadership for me.
NONE of our taxes should leave our country!
You can just picture it…
Swinney leaving the interview, skipping out into the street and placing the tip of his tongue on the nearest frozen lampost, much to the amusement of Forbes, who then attempts to release Swinney from his predicament by using a cigarette lighter and an aerosol can of Dove deodorant.
Those 12 minutes simply confirms that the fictional scenario above is well within the levels of idiocy these two are capable of demonstrating.
The SNP isn’t even a circus these days. It’s a side-show, with all the trimmings.
Many politicians are career politicians with no actual intention of doing anything. That is not the worst of it. The worst of it is that they deliberately block the progress of anyone, by any means, who does intend to to do something. Ergo the Salmond debacle. He had to be removed somehow, bu hook or by crook, because he was ‘interfering’ in the collusion and stasis of the rest.
The SNP is the party of devolution now, of collusion and of collaboration. The leadership ensures its own survival by choosing the least effective, or the downright Vichy, people to stand. Nicola Sturgeon’s very deliberate backing of the ‘woke’ movement, particularly the ‘trans’, was less to do with ‘be kind’ as it was to derail the path to independence.
She knew this particular group in the party – which had, in fact infiltrated it in 2015 – was hiding behind genuine former Labour people and knew their agenda – which was never independence. Can anyone actually explain how the SNP gaining independence could have helped their agenda which was nihilistic and post modern (turning everything upside down)? It couldn’t, and everyone should have known that.
Sinn Fein, I confidently predict, will be eaten alive from the inside, too, by this parasitical, suicidal empathy-inducing, narcissistic psychopathic movement. As long as it survives within the SNP in the form of politicians, SPADS, civil servants, independence is impossible.
There are credible stories circulating online ATM that around 5:30 PM last Wednesday, the UK electrical power grid came close to a major malfunction as virtually all available power generation sources were allocated 100%.
Meaning there was no available backup or surplus to take up the slack, should any single source have tripped for any reason.
It is claimed it was the closest the UK has come to regional electrical blackouts in the past 15 years.
In the weather conditions at the time, demand was 19 times the available supply from renewable sources. And that reveals the truth that is yet to be more widely recognised. In order to build a resilient generation capacity for the UK from renewables, the UK will have to install 19 times more than it has already, meaning that when we look at our eye-watering electrical standing charges, we ain’t seen nothing yet.
Dan likes to post about how on a good day, when the Scottish turbines are all birling away, we are powering England. Perhaps Dan could do the math and tell us how much additional generating capacity on a bad day, freezing, dark and flat calm, we still will need just to supply ourselves in Scotland.
See here for one opinion.
link to committees.parliament.uk
“3. How much is decarbonisation of electricity generation likely to cost? How do you respond to the argument that these costs are likely to be too high?
How do the costs of onshore and offshore wind compare to those of other low carbon generation technologies, including CCS and nuclear power?
As is well known the levelised cost of onshore wind is roughly double that of conventional generation, without CCS, at about £100/MWh, and Offshore wind rather more at about £150/MWh. One of the better studies on this subject in recent years suggested costs of about £100/MWh for nuclear, and about £145 for coal, and about £110/MWh for gas with CCS. Those are approximate figures; the precise numbers can be checked.
But it is now very well known that the levelised cost methodology does not permit proper comparison of despatchable and non-despatchable plant. Some Total System Cost estimates taking into account all the extra cost imposed by uncontrollable intermittent generation, have suggested that onshore wind is around three times the cost of CCGT at current gas prices, and offshore wind about four times the cost. That’s a very expensive CO2 saving route, and extremely unlikely to be economically compelling or to stimulate spontaneous adoption.
How do you expect these costs to change in future? Will the gap between the costs of low carbon generation and those of conventional fossil generation close?
With falling international oil and perhaps gas prices there is every reason to suppose that renewables might become cheaper, since fossil fuels are a significant part of their construction and installation costs. However, the cost of fossil fuel electricity generation will fall as fast if not faster, so the relative cost gap will remain the same or widen. The entire renewables policy, in this country and the EU, was a gamble on the future price of gas increasing significantly, and that gamble has failed. Even if that effect is only temporary, five or ten years say, the current policies look ludicrously premature.
Some say that wind imposes particularly high additional costs on the electricity system to pay for grid integration and backup generation. How significant are these costs, and how will they change if the contribution of renewables continues to grow?
There can be no reasonable doubt that the system management costs are high. I refer the Inquiry to the work of Colin Gibson, a former Power Networks Director for National Grid, for IESIS. Gibson’s central estimates for 2020 of wind’s additional cost of system management, over and above that conventional generation, is about £75/MWh for onshore wind, and £64/MWh, the difference being accounted for by the higher load factor of offshore wind.
Thus: the total cost to consumers of onshore wind would be about £170/MWh, and offshore wind about £209/MWh.
In 2011 we at REF calculated that for the 2020 plant mix then predicted, the subsidies would be about £8bn a year, and the system costs another £5bn a year, almost as much again as the subsidy.
Gibson’s estimates include a) The cost of short term reserve, to address errors in the wind forecast; b) additional grid and grid reinforcement; and c) the cost of guaranteeing security of supply at current levels by retaining sufficient conventional plant equal to peak load, plus a margin, but running that portfolio at necessarily lower load factors.”
That was then.
Now?
link to lordslibrary.parliament.uk
See here?
link to iesisenergy.org
Just spotted yer delayed post coz ye got yersel put on moderation for being a bawbag. lolz
Poor effort John Main, UK energy is under the control of London Rule so maybe best ask them to explain how they have so monumentally screwed up UK energy generation infrastructure management that it comes close to blackout with no resilience.
Obviously there will be times when climatic conditions mean wind generated power will be limited.
But as per this post from Wednesday.
link to wingsoverscotland.com
England just fires up *CCGT power stations to meet their demand and also imports gas to fuel those power stations and also regularly imports about 15% of England’s leccy demand from mainland euro connections. Like now in fact as can be seen if you scroll to right of page and observe the euro connections from France, Belgium, Norway, and Denmark.
link to gridwatch.templar.co.uk
Now with 65% of UK gas fields being in Scotland’s geographic area it would be braw if we had just one CCGT station to fire up as and when required.
That would be handy too as it could help with maintaining our grid frequency due to their synchronous power generation characteristics seeing as a lot of renewable are asynchronous.
(An oil refinery would be handy too what with 96% of oil in Scotland’s geographic area, but lets not digress…)
But the bottom line is energy in various forms is transferred across Europe and wider globe all the time as can be seen by the live data site linked to in this post.
As you so regularly asked to be shown the money, would you like to be paying 10p a Kwh unit instead of more than double that.
link to wingsoverscotland.com
*Of course burning gas in power stations and diesel in cars was also a bad choice made by past UK governance.
Gas burns way cleaner in internal combustion engines so if they’d pushed for us to drive lpg fuelled cars derived from existing petrol engines instead of diesels in the late 80s (France still incentivises lpg fuelled cars) there’d be no reason for fucking ULEZ.
And all that diesel we burnt in cars could instead have been burnt in power stations where economies of scale mean it would have been much easier to have implemented more efficient emission controls instead of having AdBlue and DPFs on every individual fucking car.
C’mon Main. Huv ye nae got any quick and witty response tae that post…
It’s no even windy ootside yet by some miracle Scotland is managing to generate enough leccy for oorselves (4.2GW) and still managing to export more than we are using to England (4.5GW).
link to extranet.nationalenergyso.com
Hey Johnny! It’s still no very windy at aw ootside this morning…
Yet by some continued miracle Scotland is managing to generate enough leccy for oorselves (3.9GW) and still managing to export more than we are using to England (5GW).
link to extranet.nationalenergyso.com
Maybe you could spend some time checking out all the generation sites and their outputs and curtailment modes seeing as yer no posting much these days…
https://renewables-map.robinhawkes.com
I had no idea all of Scotland’s approx 10 GW of installed wind power was generated within sight of your back garden, Dan.
Why else would you assume that if it’s “no even windy ootside”, it’s no windy where the turbines are either?
But you started this particular comment trail with this.
“Dan likes to post about how on a good day, when the Scottish turbines are all birling away, we are powering England. Perhaps Dan could do the math and tell us how much additional generating capacity on a bad day, freezing, dark and flat calm, we still will need just to supply ourselves in Scotland.”
And I’ve responded with information that shows that even on low wind days Scotland can generally power itself, and with the addition of a CCGT power station as a back up along with various other generation infrastructure we would pretty much be self-sufficient.
Did you look at the robinhawkes site and notice that the likes of the six farms in SeaGreen was capable of generating approximately 1GW but was in curtailment non-producing mode all fookin night, like many other nights. Pity the folk in Angus and Dundee couldn’t charge up storage heaters and heat their water on the cheap rate yo make use of that power instead of taxpayers bunging the generators taxes not to produce.
Imagine Ninewells Hospital could be powered off of that amount of leccy rather than non-generation. Local Health Authority leccy bill for yon hospital must be rather muckle. Imagine all that money saved on leccy could go to pay for other health treatments.
Anyway, I see you naturally swerved actually addressing the issue that the UK Grid’s output and lack of resilience is down to London Rule.
Here’s another one thrown in for the craic. As sea temps lag months behind ambient seasonal air temps, why not use the sea as a mahoosif heat battery for heatpumps to capture heat energy from during the winter months. You’ll note the sea doesn’t freeze and the temp remains considerably higher than winter air temps for shitey noisy air source heat pumps to try to capture heat from.
That will be a totes win too as cooling the ocean will stop great white sharks moving into Scottish coastlines to munch all the fucking seals and loonydookers.
If anybody is wondering why some folk swear. Try being a mechanic working on over-complicated modern pish designs like this with a shit load of emission controlling crap all over it!
Buried deep under that Medusa-like nest of hoses, pipes and wiring there is actually an engine.
There’s a main coolant waterpump driven off the cambelt, but it also has 2 small auxiliary electric waterpumps that you need to put in prime mode through a diagnostic machine to bleed the coolant system.
Had to remove and refit an engine like this after a VW T6 van had an accident and required front chassis leg to be replaced.
Seeing as it is finally above zero here, and water now flows through my garden hose to flush my tractor cooling system.
Lessons for humans… Stop making everything so fucking complex.
Contrast the entirety of my 50 year old tractor’s cooling system against that piece of shit VW T6 engine.
Note the classic use of an old Corn Flakes package to make gaskets. Pukka oldskool recycling to save the planet.
come off it, Dan
we all know you have been illegally releasing wild lynx into the highlands to deal with the beavers
FFS, dinnae blow ma cover!
Next you’ll be telling everyone aboot aw those wild boars I unofficially released in the Highlands so I could get an endless supply of free bacon butties.
What the fuck do you think I need an old sodding tractor for? I simply ran out of load carrying capacity with the car to move the growing volume of beaver gnawed trees firewood and pig carcasses aboot.
There’s now 500 sheep in the field next to me now and a big herd of deer.
Looks like I chose an exceptionally bad time to give up meat!
A hungry beaver would make short work of that rubber tubing, Dan. You need to cut the Castor genus some slack.
What’s your beef with ICE emissions control anyway? Don’t our non-motoring citizens deserve clean air?
Sigh, I don’t have an issue with cleaner air. I have frustrations that those that implement policy seem to consistently fail to make decisions that would improve air quality.
I stated this in my post.
“Of course burning gas in power stations and diesel in cars was also a bad choice made by past UK governance.
Gas burns way cleaner in internal combustion engines so if they’d pushed for us to drive lpg fuelled cars derived from existing petrol engines instead of diesels in the late 80s (France still incentivises lpg fuelled cars) there’d be no reason for fucking ULEZ.
And all that diesel we burnt in cars could instead have been burnt in power stations where economies of scale mean it would have been much easier to have implemented more efficient emission controls instead of having AdBlue and DPFs on every individual fucking car.“
When are people going to understand that the SNP could usher in independence, that we could leave the Union tomorrow, that they could create the conditions to take us out of the Union, but they WILL NOT because they do not choose to do so? It will be SNP 1 & 2 again in 2026, and another ten years in the wilderness till they think up the next carrot dangling effort. What is wrong with the Scots?
“What is wrong with the Scots?”
Colonialism is ‘based on psychology’, is ‘a disease of the mind’ requiring ‘careful treatment’:
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
Brainwash:
“Make people believe only what you want them to believe by continually telling them that it is true and preventing any other information from reaching them:
Could it be that we’re brainwashed to accept these things?”:
link to dictionary.cambridge.org
“Inspire hope” is a phrase familiar to fans of It’s Always Sunny in Philidelphia, as the fifth stage of the D.E.N.N.I.S system. This describes the dating methodology of the vacuous and cynical narcissist of the same name, one of the show’s main characters. It precedes as follows;
Demonstrate Value
Engage Physically
Nurture Dependence
Neglect Emotionally
Inspire Hope
Separate Completely
Anyone who gives more than a moment’s thought, care, or commitment to independence woke up to the fact a long time ago we had been DENNIS’d by Sturgeons SNP. If Kate Forbes is telling us they’re mission is to inspire hope, at least we’re only one step away from complete separation. Volksturm John will totter off with his tidy pension and golden handshake after a piss poor showing in 2026 on a rotten turnout. Whatever spineless cretin comes in after will be managing a rump indistinguishable from Scottish Labour or the Lib Dems.
If you have ever been dennis’d you will know that neglect emotionally and inspire hope create a perpetual loop that can last a lifetime in some cases, and the poor victim sits in contemplation of complete separation, often for a long time, whilst rarely actually achieving it. This dynamic is the hallmark of abusive relationships. Until the cultists abandon hope and get angry about the neglect, we, who have already separated, are trapped too.
No-one, not one wee plucky person in the SNP had the balls to go to Police Scotland and tell them where the fucking money has gone. They were told to keep quiet and they have – they are losers and are going down.
True
I whished the presenter had asked Fate’s if she’d be better in the Tory party, what aninoying woman.
When has Swinney brought anyone together, if this is the best we’ve got thank god we never got Independence.
With independence we wouldn’t have these people in sole control. All our systems and institutions would be opened up as we would be re-shaping how we govern/administer as the UK departments would withdraw.
With independence who would be in sole control? Who would open up our systems and institutions and how? Therein lies the problem.
I forgot. It will all happen by magic!
Who do I dislike more the people asking the questions or the people answering the questions?
For god sake you’re in a room with the very people who’s been denying Scotland’s right to be a nation again over the last ten years, the leadership of the SNP!!
The first question I would asked is, you keep saying you cant do anything until the people want it, then are you going to use the claim of right and make that part of the SNP next manifesto?
But for years now the majority of Scotland’s people want to leave the Union and the SNP has been the democracy deniers.
I alway has a policy to never trust a man who can’t comb his own hair.
I assume you’re talking head hair here, but why not settle all doubt by clarifying for alert readers? 🙂
“wee plucky countries…”? For heavens sake, I know that Mrs [I forget her married name] has a young child but to talk like an Enid Blyton story is ridiculous.
Then there’s the factual problem – Scotland is NOT “wee” – we’re bigger than New Zealand and about half the countries of the world. “Wee” could be applied to Malta, and several Caribbean countries but NOT Scotland.
I was never a Forbes fan but she has shown that she is no more capable as an MSP than any of the others. And of course she is another who stayed silent during all the numerous shenanigans in the party. Except the GRR – must give her credit for that.
Not entirely so Sarah.
Aside from Freeports, with her fiscal remit she must have had some inkling around the ScotWind giveaway too.
Re. GRR Kate Forbes was on maternity leave but still could have voted to ensure safeguarding checks were put in place re. GRR amendment vote.
The Conservative MSP Meghan Gallagher was also on maternity leave but still managed to cast her vote.
And not forgetting that as a new mother would Kate Forbes really have had the time and energy to properly commit to the task of being leader of the SNP and FM should she have won NuSNP Party leadership, or did she just stand in the contest to split the votes for Ash Regan.
Fair points, Dan. I had forgotten the “not voting because on maternity leave” episode.
No problem, the longer this protracted stasis goes on the harder it is to recall the ever-growing list of dubious positions and actions some of “oor” elected folk take.
Viv O Bliv may chip in but was there not also the matter of Forbes not attending her Party conference and instead attending BAP meeting?
Scottie Dog also mentions this earlier in comments.
BAP – yes, I’m sure I remember that. As a Keynesian I find it impossible to stomach the economic line that Forbes takes – it is proven over decades to be harmful to our society and to the most useful parts of our economy, yet she and all the other politicians just go with the flow. It is hugely irresponsible.
Practicing my searches for Vivian’s past posts gets plenty hits.
A lot of interesting detail in this one from a few months back.
link to wingsoverscotland.com
And another from a year back.
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Wow – the first link to Vivian’s btl re the USA’s choice of Scottish politicians to be invited for [“programming” one might call it] is extremely interesting – and spooky, in two senses.
Spot on Dan! Forbes followed in Sturgeons wake with her eye on the big prize only to be compromised by SWINNEY and YOUSAF when the opportunity presented.
If only the Electric soup comic was still alive today:
link to en.wikipedia.org
They must have forgotten David Cameron’s regular comment during the independence referendum campaign that the union is a partnership of equals why don’t they demand that only defence and foreign affairs remain reserved to westminster.
And for a party that supports independence why did they recently support the anglisisation of the Scottish legal system by supporting jury less trials reducing the number of jurors from 15 to 12 and abolition of Not Proven and earlier planning to scrap corroboration.
The only English thing Scotland should copy is St George’s Park.
What team nationalist need todo is to work out a lot of Yoon Scum like me are a very soft NO
Just be competent and sane
The Westminster lot are a very low bar but I’d still say that the SNP are way below it
scum
Your post suggests you are not really giving much thought to your attempted comparison.
The SNP is not entirely incompetent. Good policies to mitigate the harmful policies of successive UK governments are in place.
We have more GPs, nurses, hospital beds per person than the rest of the UK.
The block grant is not based on need. if it were we would get more money
Independence is needed urgently to get away from the kind of politics that brings austerity. Austerity caused around 340,000 extra deaths in the UK, some 20,000 in Scotland
If your numbers are accurate, sam, then Scotland obviously came out of austerity in much better shape than England did. Taking the population ratio as 10:1 as a first approximation, then 30k should have died in Scotland, not 20k.
Maybe your numbers are mince. Maybe the commonly expressed trope that we are scandalously bilked of our wealth and resources by a rapacious England is a tad over-exaggerated.
The figures are from a book written by public health researchers. and published last year.
“Social Murder? Austerity and life Expectancy in the UK”
We protect our poor somewhat better than in England. More GPs, nurses and hospital beds helps.
Since Salmond stood down and handed what we all thought was Scotland future into Sturgeon safe hands, the SNP become Scotland jailer. Its funny how democracy is important to the leadership in the SNP on election night, but when the election is over democracy dies and the cause of Independence is taken off the table.
I’m not a educated man by any means but what a load of drivel I’ve just listened to, is this the best we have because if it is god help us all.
I have said this until I’m blue the face if your just prepared to listen. Westminster or the UKG both the same has made it perfectly clear Scotland is a Country and its free to leave when ever it wants, then lets test that theory. There is multiple routes to Independence 1 being the claim of right the other being a plebiscite, its not that the SNP is thinking to its self if we release our policy on Independence the Unionist parties will steal it that’s never going to happen.
You’ve got to be a complete idiot or maybe your one of these individuals who’s making a living out of Independence and just going along with what the SNP is doing until your pension pot is full, before you make your move to say the SNPISBAD for Scotland.
Scotland will never be Independent under the SNP its that simple, something is very sinister about what the SNP is doing to Scotland selling it assets for little return and refusing to stand up for Grangemouth, allowing Flamingo land wanting to build on Loch Lomond to allowing private house builders to build on historical sites, this is all from a party who says its Stronger for Scotland or Scotland in safe hands to the new message when Sturgeon took over lets make Westminster work for Scotland.
Sturgeon was poison to Scotland and its peoples route to Independence. My head is full of theories as to why the SNP leadership is so hell bent on 1 Protecting Sturgeon 2 trying to jail Salmond 3 denying Scotland democracy and 4 eradicating Scotland history entirely along with our only assets.
Whats happened to the Indy movement, well Sturgeon destroyed it. It beggars beleave to me that people who claim to want Independence feed into the idea that The National is an Indy newspaper and the SNP is the only route to achieving Independence. Well let make this perfectly clear, if the SNP wanted Scotland to be Independent there is nothing UKG could do its as simple as that, the party could just call a early Holyrood election and put a plebiscite in their manifesto and lets see if the theory is correct that Scotland is free to leave. Remember before Sturgeon stood down from being tired from destroying Scotland (well done Nic job done) she promised a plebiscite in the next Westminster election which was never going to work as the SNP was wiped out, is now a thing of the past. I really have to question the membership in the SNP who are these people want what is it they want from the SNP because it isn’t Independence.
So Swinney and Forbes don’t – or refuse to – see that Indy supporters feel utterly bereft of hope right now.
There is nothing wring with «extremism» especially in the face of this:
link to centreformalepsychology.com
Extremists for freedom, democracy, free thought, liberation from convention and intellectual banality…
Not just a Scottish matter.
A lovely Tory Blue dress. Wee Noggin the Nog changes her clothes according to the political climate. Uncle Torture is such a pathetic looking man. Who are the three Nancy boys?
The death of Indy in Scotland has been a slow death. Probably deliberately by the people who have done okay dokey fuck you and fuck you very much out of it. Every outlet of the Scottish political/ media system is screaming panic. Right wingers are everywhere all of a sudden. Did they come into the country in boats. I haven’t heard any Scottish Reform or Right wing. We only have their word for it.
Hee hee hee hoo ho ha ha ha hee haa ( fell off the chair) stitch in my side haaaaa ,,………
Never attribute deliberate agency and/or malice when incompetence provides an equally plausible explanation.
So spake the wise man.
The SNP incumbents are in the same boat as the Brexiteers were. They talked the talk but are quite unable to walk the walk.
Perhaps we all need to acknowledge that something fundamental happened over the past 30 years and everything, including the governance of aspirational first-world countries, became just too damn complicated. That’s an explanation I find compelling, given that just like virtually every regular poster on here, I own a microwave oven and a moby sporting features and functions beyond comprehension.
Sure, what is laughably called the “right” is in the ascendant ATM, but what I expect will actually happen is that there will just be an attempted return to pragmatically making stuff work again. Empty bins, fix potholes, police turn up when a crime is reported – that sort of thing.
Maybe Ayes, Maybe Naws.
“Never attribute deliberate agency and/or malice when incompetence provides an equally plausible explanation”
Incompetence as the reason for the current behaviour of the SNP or the way Brexit was imposed on us is not credible at all, sorry. You only have to scratch a bit the surface to realise that there was plenty of deliberate agency and/or malice.
The courts declared that the pro-Brexit side broke the law on a series of points. Yet, the court ruled that it could not demand from the government to run the referendum again because the referendum was always “advisory”, not legally binding.
It was therefore a decision of the UK government to accept the result despite of the demonstrated illegality of some of the behaviour from the pro-brexit side. That is deliberate agency and malice, not “incompetence”.
The way England MPs passed a bill to force Wales, Scotland and NI to accept whatever England voted for at that referendum when the same was purposely not reciprocated for England, was deliberate agency and malice.
It was deliberate agency and malice because should a bill reciprocated the same for England and forced it to accept a veto from Scotland, Wales or NI, the UK (and worse, its warmongers and tax dodgers) would have been kept in the EU, unless they were prepared to terminate the treaty of union. It was clear that imbalance and discrimination Scotland, Wales and NI were subjected to was not only deliberate agency but a malicious desire to suppress Scotland’s rights under the treaty of union. There was nothing of “incompetence” about it. That the useless Sturgeon and co did nothing to denounce that violation of Scotland’s rights under the treaty, only serves to reaffirm the deliberate agency and maliciousness of the move.
The behaviour of the SNP against Mr Salmond was not “incompetence”. It was malicious and deliberate agency. The collusion of the COPFS, the Police, the Civil Service, MI5 and the SNP party itself tells you as much.
Yousaf’s “leadership election” was well dodgy in far too many aspects to even list. One of them was the interference from Teflon Lloyd, the woman that seems to have her finger inside all the rotten pies and who seems to be completely immune to any form of scrutiny or indeed the rules and laws that everybody else has to abide by. Other examples are the dodgy votes, the secrecy around the number of people who could or could not vote, the involvement of the GCHQ for “safety” and, of course, the last minute inclusion of Forbes to divide the vote that would have, otherwise, gone to Ash Regan. None of that smacks at “incompetence”, but rather deliberate agency and maliciousness.
Even more dodgy was that Yousaf lasted barely a year and up it comes, coronation of the proven-useless-as-a-leader Swinney to the post. Catapulted to the position without even a formal leadership election so the membership was deliberately left out of the election. Forcing on us two unelected FMs, each more incompetent than the previous one and both devolutionists at a point when the SNP had absolute majorities in Westminster and controlled a pro-indy majority in Holyrood is not the result of “incompetence”. That is deliberate agency and malice to suppress information, to block progress to independence and to completely undermine democracy. That we only have had devolutionists leading what should have been the political vehicle for independence since 14 November 2014, at which point it was already projected a landslide win for the SnP in the upcoming GE, that under those leaderships the democratic structures of the party have been eviscerated and the party rendered useless, was never the product of incompetence. It is deliberate agency. It is the malice of attempting to frustrate the will of the people of Scotland to run their country and benefit from their country’s assets in the way they want.
There is some incompetence in the way Scotland have been run, but what has been off the scale is the level of deliberate agency and the malice that has been behind prioritising suppression of information on industrial scale and prioritising the wants of warmongers, taxdodgers and foreign states over democracy and Scotland’s rights under the treaty of union.
It was only ever reasonable to treat the four constituent countries of the UK as separate for the Brexit vote if they had been treated separately on the original referendum to join the then Common Market.
They weren’t, of course, so that disposes of that argument.
As for the rest of your largely spurious arguments, there’s absolutely no deliberate agency stopping you or anybody else standing for office on any policy you claim to care about, whether it be “warmongering”, Brexit, disposal of our Scottish assets, illegitimate FMs, whatever.
Other than your own deliberate agency of not being bothered.
Schadenfraude
The beautiful thing about currency policies is that it is the true reflection of the seriousness of their push for independence.
Westminster don’t want a separate currency for Scotland, they get the debt and significantly less assets supporting it.
As long as the the SNP propose using sterling you know they are happy to allow London to control the economy.
If they say we use Sterling they need to understand:
You have no control over economy and any planned Marshall plan to rebuild Scotland
You have no control of the payments system so they can close your ATM and close your economy.
You have no control over taxation and interest rates and financial services.
When the SNP policy and plans change you know they want indy. If they dont change they are happy with devolution.
Swinney saying he wants to be FM till 2031 sounds like a threat.
All the main parties are useless but I want the SNP destroyed politically
“ For as long as the SNP owns the indy movement, that movement has no future”
So @Stu, Any ideas? Any suggestions of what we could do in terms of creating a single force we can get behind to push past this corporate waffle inspired fug that our once great movement of the people has become?
I’m trying to remain positive and reasonable in my outlook.
But I’m veering towards thinking something is going to have to change dramatically in our outlook and attitude for the next step to be taken
While here I’d recommend everyone to read Alf Baird Doun Hauden for some inspiration on things we need to focus on and do differently to advance beyond the current impasse
Thanks Tartanpigsy.
For those unable or unwilling to purchase the textbook Doun-Hauden from Amazon, which presents the only applied theoretical framework developed that explains Scotland’s colonial reality, here is a free summary of the findings:
link to salvo-cor.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com
Who wrote the book?
Is it any good fur wipin yer erse?
Absolutely shameless mate.
I’m only surprised you didn’t actually include an Amazon link to make a purchase…
I try hard to avoid Amazon as much as I can, Alf.
It’s the very epitome of our economic and political colonisation 🙂
Its contribution towards the destruction of our indigenous businesses, the demoralisation and pauperisation of tens of thousands of our working people, and the ruin of our High Streets should make it anathema to any Scot who puts principles before personal, material profit.
I see the national has a heading on Swinney “i plan to finish the job on indy”
I can only assume he is planning to finish it i.e. kill it off once and for all.
The only chance is SNP 1 and Alba 2