It just takes a beat
Looks like we turned that round pretty fast, gang. Six weeks ago:
And today:
Amazing what a draft document and a KC opinion can do, eh? A casual observer might be forgiven for thinking that the SNP was absolutely cold-sweat desperate to avoid a civil case that would set a powerful precedent for a legal prosecution.
On that front, incidentally, things are getting interesting. Alert readers will recall that last month we received this email from Police Scotland, intriguingly noting that they had “been advised” that they’d already investigated John Swinney’s admission that the SNP had stolen all the referendum-campaign fundraiser money.
One such alert reader swiftly dropped the force an FOI request asking who’d advised them, and got a curious answer a couple of weeks later.
So that’s a novel use of language: “we have been advised” means “we neither sought nor received advice”. Naturally, our reader sought a little more clarity.
This morning they received this response:
So to strip it down to the basics: the curt reply last month to our question about why the original crime investigated in Operation Branchform – that is, the SNP stealing donors’ money, not Peter Murrell stealing the money the SNP had stolen – had not been resolved or resulted in any prosecutions was complete cobblers written by someone who didn’t know what they were talking about.
That’s not OUR interpretation, that’s literally what Police Scotland have just said. When we queried that original reply, we got a further response saying “Hmm, please give us a bit more time”.
That was almost a month ago now. (12 June to be precise.) And we did tell them to feel free to have a proper think before answering this time, so that’s fine.
But it’s really not a very complicated question. The “factual matrix”, to use the legal term, is undisputed.
As one of Scotland’s leading KCs agrees.
(Widely reported in today’s papers.)
The SNP’s dramatic and sudden U-turn on the question of refunds is undoubtedly the smart move. Paying back the stolen money to anyone who asks may be an effective move in shutting down a civil case (although that would depend on whether they also offered interest and compensation, as raised by Roddy Dunlop in the opinion).
But it also acts as a(nother) tacit admission that a crime has been committed, because why else would you be paying people back when you’d previously said you wouldn’t because their money had been used for what they’d donated it for?
And that, readers, if you’ll forgive the mixed metaphor, bats the hot potato right back into Police Scotland and the Crown Office’s court.
If a crime on such a large scale has been committed – the exact same crime Peter Murrell just got five years and three months in prison for, over a substantially smaller sum – and nobody disputes any of the material facts of the case (which they don’t), then why did a five-year investigation decide not to prosecute anyone for it?
The police and Crown Office, having previously tried to dismissively fob us off with two sentences, and then trying to blame each other, now keep telling us to wait while they come up with a proper answer.
We’ve waited a month so far, and we’ll keep on waiting, because we’ve got nothin’ but time. But lads, when the answer arrives it really better be a good one.
If the allegations of embezzlement are true, and even if not all donors claim money back or don’t receive it on acceptable terms, a crime has still been committed.
So even if the SNP gives monies (including interest and compensation on the terms laid out in the draft document and KC opinion) back to donors will you continue to prosecute the case?
I certainly hope so!
If a crime has been committed it MUST be pursued
see paragraph 25 of Dunlop’s advice.
There’s a time limit on judicial review so be careful offering them unlimited time to respond.
I thought anyone in the bowels of government reading Wings was guilty of a capital offence. It seems not. Given that, though, it’s a bit worrying that it took them so long. We don’t have a very bright political class do we?
So when are you playing Nicola Sturgeon at seventh dimension chess and will it be livestreamed?
The police and Crown Office, have lost the will to live. I feel sure they’d wished they had never heard of WingsoverScotland.
But while the police and Crown Office are throwing accusations at each other, from out side of the rings it a cracking fight and who knows who’s going to win.
I can’t wait for the next move, its better than chess.
Just when we had been told 2026 was going to be a boring year thanks to the SNP, The police, Crown Office alone with Mr Swinney its turned out to be quite a interesting year and it hasn’t even finished, I’ve never been so entertained that you Mr Campbell.
The Nasty Party is in a panic, I hope the Murrel’s was worth it.
“when the answer arrives it really better be a good one”
Friday lunchtime.
Scotland’s great and good would usually be driving their top spec motors to their weekend homes by now. Or waiting last call to board the flights for their continental weekends away.
Is it too much to hope they’re in a conference somewhere, desperately trying out ever more convoluted lies on each other, to see if any of them will pass the “heid zips up the back” test?
Is it bad to hope that “to save the planet” the air con goes off at 12:30 on Friday’s and nobody can find a jannie with keys to access the control room and override the settings?
Oh to be a fly on the wall as the temperature rises.
It going to be very hard for the police and Crown Office to ignore the resent actions of the SNP.
I would presume they’d have to know give a firm response to Wings letters. I can only hope the response will result into a further investigation of this Independence fund and more charges.
Am I correct in saying the SNP used party money to pay a liable case regarding an elected member?
You mean Alyn Smith?
If he’s the one, thank you.
I willing to be he won’t fork into his pocket to bail out SNP who bailed him out.
Keep going! Are there ways of piling on even more pressure? I’m thinking of the possible involvement of HMRC which was mentioned a while back, and also of somehow getting Police Scotland and COPFS to accuse each other of lying over the decision to drop the case.
The only mention of HMRC involvement I’ve seen is the improper VAT claims made in respect of Murrell’s purchases and I gather the SNP took the initiative to address that. Is there something else I missed? This doesn’t excuse their misbehaviour but I don’t see what else HMRC could pursue.
The more fronts they are fighting on, the better!
Let’s accept for a moment that the original intention was to raise money for a referendum fighting fund. In such circumstances a new, specially designated bank account would almost certainly have been opened by the party and all donations deposited in said account. The question of how and when these funds ultimately found their way into the party’s main operating account remains to be answered. More importantly, the question of who authorised that transfer remains to be answered.
Money used for party’s ongoing activities.
Why would they open another account in such circumstances?
Is it possible that we might now be able to believe that as more people and institutions (The National) are turning against the SNP, they might be forced to change tack and actually now do something in the pursuit of Independence?
100%, the constitution of the SNP renders it an entirely unsuitable political organisation to pursue any reasonable purpose, let alone one as complex as Independence. There has been no sign of any Officer in that Party being fit to play any role in public affairs, all being disqualified either by lack of cognitive capability or ethical propriety.
It has been mentioned on ‘Wings’ that the consitutional structure is designed in such a way that charlatans, fraudsters and persons with serious mental problems have been able, in effect, to destroy the Party from within and inflict immense harm to the Nationalist cause.
With a bit of luck, someone (maybe on ‘Wings’) will have the requisite knowledge of Politics (especially at theoretical level) to recommend a suitable constitutional structure for a political party in this current context.
Look at the SNP as an example of what NOT to do. Deeply distressing as it will be for Hateful and allied commenters, it is probably necessary to examine, in detail, Nationalist movements including Post Colonial examples. Parties south of the Debatable Lands probably provide bad examples of political party structures.
No more time for this, masonry (Stone) to do.
Beautiful work, Stu.
In other news shoplifter offers to oay for stolen goods after getting caught.
Love this…. Youv’e got them on the ropes Stu!!
Where will the money come from? They can’t have much in coffers after the election and all those lost cases, lavish funding of the ‘trans’ lobby, etc?
Sturgeon got 60K worth of freebies she might want to action off.
If they are offering refunds how will they validate any claims, especially those back in 2017? The accounts have been qualified on the basis of missing paperwork particularly related to cash donations. Anyone could make a claim that the party would have problems confirming was genuine!
Given the money has gone and the party is broke, any refunds will have to come from current membership fees or maybe they’ll raid the branch accounts again.
Sturgeon has a lot to answer for and I hope she is cited as a witness in any court action from this.
They could commission Sturgeon to write another best-seller. Plaster the cover with complements about her being the best Scottish writer since McDermid (Val, not Shug) in exchange for 10% of the guaranteed humongous profits.
I believe every one of us knows somebody who they would want to buy a copy as a special gift.
It’s been fairly obvious for some time that the Chief Constable and the Lord Advocate no longer work in the ‘public interest’ but are willing human shields for the SNP in general and the First Minister in Particular.
See also the blatant fraud perpetrated by Michael Matheson whereby he billed the taxpayer for work he hadn’t carried out, which the Chief Constable subsequently point blank refused to investigate despite it being exposed in Holyrood, and having received complaints regarding his wrongdoing.
The Lord Advocate and COPFS also chose to sit on their hands over this matter.
Jings, what a bùrach!
It would be somewhat ironic if what does for the SNP is ultimately bankruptcy predicated on their dishonest use of funds.
At least the Irish had the political cojones to terminate their devolutionist party the IPP at the ballot box in 1918 because they weren’t up to the job. Scots just wait for their devolutionist electoral millstone to suicide itself and die a miserable and unlamented death brought on by financial malfeasance and the hubris of its terminally mediocre leadership.
As Mr Anderson says, and you suggest, Andy, they might well have to raid branch funds, raised by branch members, to pay back many branch members’ donations. On the other hand, if enough evidence exists the SNP could be sequestrated by the courts or place itself into bankruptcy. Either of the latter two would see the end of the SNP, but be careful what you wish for, folks. What is going to step into the gap if this happens? The Greens? Please God, no. Until something worthwhile can fill the SNP’s place, “…always keep a hold of nurse for fear of finding something worse…” (Hilaire Belloc). I’d be using leverage to force them to abandon their SNP 1 & 2 strategy and leave them no wriggle room to avoid an independence coalition movement at the next election.
I’m not sure I buy the “be careful what you wish for…” line though? The SNP must not only be humbled, it must be extinguished. I have come to agree with Rev Stu’s logic that only the total destruction of the SNP as a political force is sufficient. It now represents a clear and present danger to the achievement of self determination in any reasonable time scale.
Even had the party not shown itself to be morally bankrupt and financially corrupt as it has in spades over the past few years, there is no appetite within the cadres left in the SNP leadership to “play nice” with any other pro independence parties or movements.
They have proven that over and over again. We cannot trust them. They cannot be reasoned with. They are beyond salvation. Any effort to do so is a waste of resources and – more importantly – time.
The pro-independence Scottish electors, who we now know represent a (bare) majority according to recent polls, have confected a situation in which they cannot leverage that majority in to any meaningful progress toward the goal. No “coalition of the willing” is possible given the SNPs track record, and it seems equally unlikely they would consent to some electoral pact with other pro indy parties to stand on a “common platform”.
That being the case, the only solution is for the SNP to be destroyed à la IPP in 1918, or rendered so insignificant that it can be effectively sidelined and is unable to dictate terms.
It’s a shite stte of affairs to misquote Renton….but many of us will gladly help delivering the coup de grace.
Andy: I agree with the Rev’s logic and your comment, but, again, what is going to replace the SNP? The Irish Parliamentary Party was swept aside when Redmond died in 1918, and Sinn Fein and the IRA filled the gap, but they were already established and waiting in the wings, albeit it took a few more years before they succeeded. A war on the British State and a civil war followed the collapse of the IPP. Granted, an Irish Free State was achieved, but at what cost? Certainly at the cost of the life of the best of the Irish politicians, Michael Collins, not to mention many other lives.
Whatever we have suffered at the hands of Westminster has been nothing to that which the Irish were subjected. Yes, we certainly need independence and I do think the gloves should come off now, but what will replace the SNP? There is no mass public rallying for independence which includes the Unionists, as there was, eventually, in Ireland (not NI, of course) or there was in the Baltic States before the Soviet Union collapsed. Not yet. There is no other independence party strong enough to take over – not yet.
The only party that could, conceivably, fill the independence gap is the Scottish Green Party, a parasitical entity that pretends to support independence and is politically corrupt, economically illiterate and overly-ambitious. Labour and Tories are out of the question. The Lib Dems are a busted flush. So, the Greens. Or Reform UK, which will hint at independence, but never deliver because that party is, essentially, English Nationalist. Unless we know what is going to fill the gap left by the SNP, which deserves to be brought low, we should be careful. I’m not saying let them off the hook. I am saying, use what we have to force their hand on a unitary approach to independence. We are not Ireland.
The point both you and Andy, and the Rev and others miss, Lorncal, is that we do not need another corrupt political party modelled on parties in the metropolitan capital. And we do not need to depend on the one-sided political hurdles of the coloniser either. Postcolonial theory tells us the co-opted national party ‘disintegrates’ for these reasons, which is what we see.
Many people have already shifted from what was an ill-defined movement uncertain even of what independence means or how it will be achieved, to a liberation movement with no such uncertainties. Scots can either join with us or continue to put their faith in the coloniser’s political traps.
link to liberation.scot
You’re boring everyone Alf.
Alf: you illustrate my point well. I agree that a massive civic political movement for independence would be preferred, perhaps, but liberation.scot is not it – certainly not yet. When the Baltic States gained their independence, they reverted back to political parties. The Scots have never shown that propensity for civil unrest in an organised, mass protest unless we are talking about the rent strikes and the poll tax. We have not risen up for independence. I am sorry to say it, but it is the truth. Not even liberation.scot can fill the gap if the SNP disappears.
“Not even liberation.scot can fill the gap if the SNP disappears.”
Lorncal, I suspect most of Liberation Scotland’s 20,000 members are former SNP members, myself included. As far as many of us are concerned Liberation Scotland more than fills the gap created by the SNP’s ongoing disintegration, not least in the form of knowledge of what independence and recovering sovereignty means, as well as our more sensible orientation towards the UN, human rights, international law etc as opposed to dependence on the colonial political process and its inevitable dead end.
The Estonians did not depend on political parties nor on Soviet Union dictated political hurdles for independence. Estonia and the two other Baltic states declared independence in 1990 following coordinating work by national ‘Popular Front’ alliances and organised mass demonstrations, among other initiatives including international diplomacy.
Perhaps we can help the police here -and maybe even COPFS:
Mr Swinney stated in public that the money had been spent on the SNP’s ‘ongoing activities’.
ie they dipped their hands into the till that was the ring-fenced Referendum Account.
Perhaps Police Scotland might start with an interview of Honest John and see where that gets them.
It is my understanding that legal proceeding have not yet been started. (just drafted and legal opinion published on here)
There’s no good answer to your question, Rev, because any answer exposes everyone involved beyond the point at which Joe Public notices. It’s literally and unequivocally self incrimination to provide an answer. So far, so bad – and I think it not unreasonable to deduce that the rot is deep within the gills, and that rot incldes Swinney, Yousef, and Sturgeon. All on duty and all turning a blind eye/ up to their neck in it…although maybe not Yousef. He’s as thick as pig shit, so maybe he never knew….
Having expended more than five figures in respect of the pursuit of independence (with both the SNP and YES Scotland), I’ve looked back to see if I could uncover something tangible to show a donation to this specific cause. In short, (the lack of) on-line bank records have made this impossible. Perhaps I contributed, perhaps I didn’t. What can I do?
You spent between £10,000 and £99,999 and you didn’t keep a record of it?
TT reveals himself to be perfect SNP/ScotGov ministerial material.
Chances are he already holds a cabinet post, disposing of Scottish taxpayer’s dosh with the same careless abandon.
I certainly had and kept records, but after seven years it goes in the bin! By contrast, I recently cleared my parents attic and found my primary school report cards (and a 1973 Blue Peter annual). They are all in the bin now too!
My bank account statements go back only 5 years. I would definitely have contributed to the first one. I might have shunned the one in 2019, maybe not though. I will phone the bank tomorrow. A cashier at the only branch in Glesga city centre couldn’t help me.
Is it in the snp constitution that members’ subs can be used to repay embezzeled money? If the snp are to refund the ring fenced money that has already been spent, then the question arises — from where are they going to find the refund money?
Nice the see some media traction finally being gained. But…very naughty of several of the articles posted to call the stolen moneys an “independence fund”… Missing out the crucial word “referendum” may give snp a bit of wriggle room if they are willing to tell the bare face lie that “everything they do is aimed at independence”….
The SNP makes offer to refund Scots who donated to Indyref2, Its funny how the national has used a picture of Sturgeon , it make you wonder if the National has moved on from the sturgeon era.
The Picture of Swinney has him wearing a lamp shade on his head, its a pity it didn’t have a D on it.
That’s not a lamp shade.
That’s the antenna via which MI5 and MI6 transmit colonialist orders straight into his heid.
Houston. We have a problem….
If you watch clips on youtube of shoplifters being detained outside a shop with stolen goods, they will inevitably offer to go back inside and pay for them. Sadly for them, and for the SNP, that’s not how it works.
“Police Scotland say no further action is to be taken against a senior civil servant who was investigated over giving a false statement under oath to the Alex Salmond inquiry.
It emerged in August 2024 that detectives were probing evidence given to the Scottish Parliament inquiry in 2020 by James Hynd, who was the Scottish government’s head of cabinet, parliament and governance at the time.
The inquiry was examining the handling of sexual harassment complaints made against the former first minister, who was later cleared of all of the charges against him in a separate criminal trial.
It concluded the government investigation into Salmond was “seriously flawed”.
Hynd was responsible for drawing up the government’s policy on the handling of complaints involving former and current ministers – the policy under which Salmond was investigated.
The police inquiry into Hynd’s conduct emerged during a court hearing in a civil case that Salmond had brought against the Scottish government.
The two-year long inquiry has now drawn to a close – with a Police Scotland spokesperson saying on Thursday: “Following a complaint in relation to evidence provided to a Scottish Parliament committee, an investigation was carried out and no further action is being taken.”
Following Salmond’s death in October 2024, Paul McManus, the drummer with Glasgow rock band Gun, took over funding the case in February this year.
It came after Salmond’s estate was placed into sequestration – equivalent to bankruptcy – over costs linked to the court action.”
link to bbc.co.uk
————————————————–
Of course not!!!!!!
Hopefully the new Hillsborough Law will (in future) force the polish to take a more honest role in this affair. Just hope it allows retrospective prosecutions (and carry long jail terms..)
A bad day for Leftyville and the Woke dogs.Permission to laugh out loud in a very annoying voice?
Permission granted.
Try not tae shoot snot oot yer hooter oan tae yer surroundings.
When the SNP decided to use the ringfenced donations for their party business/elections, for every donation over £50, they had a legal duty to obtain the donators name and address, to ensure they were not foreign interference, and declare same to the Electoral Commission.
Bet they didn’t.
Much modern literature has sensed an encroaching silence:
Vladimir. Écoute!
Estragon. Je n’entends rien.
Vladimir. Hsst!
Estragon. Tu m’as fait peur.
Vladimir. J’ai cru que c’était lui.
Estragon. Qui?
Vladimir. Godot.
Estragon. Pah! Le vent dans les roseaux.
Vladimir. Èist!
Estragon. Chan eil mi cluinntinn càil.
Vladimir. Ist!
Estragon. Chuir thu feagal orm.
Vladimir. Shaoil mi gum b’ esan.
Estragon. Cò?
Vladimir. Godot.
Estragon. Pah! A’ ghaoth san luachair.
In Beckett we find an increasing dislocation between words and meaning, between brain and voice. Syntax breaks down. Phrases are forlornly repeated as if in the hope (there is no hope, of course – he just wants rigorously to impress that fact upon us) that some coherent reality might yet be conjured up. But the incantation does not work.The walls of silence close in further…
Does anyone remember Mr Boom (who lives on the moon)?
That’s the guy that hates kids.
The whole edifice of a Police Scotland and the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service is coming apart at the eams.
The rotten and corrupt behaviour of these two partisan organisations are now being exposed for all to see. No one can have any trust what so ever in the Police and Prosecution Service in Scotland. They are gangsters of the most vicious and partisan kind.
The statelet of Scotland is being exposed for what it is. The legal fraternity know it and increasingly the people know it too. There is no rule of law with agencies of the state like this.
And tragic as it has turned out today this is exactly why the US constitution includes for the right for citizens to bear arms. Back then they knew that the people needed to be protected from a rotten government and it arms of state that turned against the people.
Black shirts, were a reality in 1930s Germany. The apartheid sectarian Police Service of South Africa were realities. Police Scotland and COPFS move on that very same spectrum. Rotten and corrupt.
Good stuff Rev Stu and to all the legal who know exactly what is going down.
The simplest way of putting it is: There is a cover up going on. Simple question. The big question. Why?
Keep digging. Theres almost certainly more going on here. The ‘ring fenced’ investigation outed Murrell (to an extent). That they continue to delay and obfuscate is clear evidence there’s a whole lot more to uncover. Keep prodding, keep digging, eventually a disaffected staffer or a summer intern will give it away.
That pathetic response from polis Scotland only serves to show just how ill served The Scottish public is with the issuing of moronic responses from our institutions.
I would, if I had the means, chase down the ragged, walking dead corpse of the SNP and at last end its mindless animation by putting a spike through its rotting brain.
I would put its leaders and complicit acolytes in the dock and force the Crown Office to prosecute them for their crimes against the SNP’s membership, its donors, Scotland, and the Scots.
I would call on the forces of Law to do their duty and hold all those involved in the betrayal of a nation and its people up to public scrutiny in a court of law, and there to account for their crimes.
But how?
What mechanism could I possibly engage to accomplish my goal when the Crown Office itself refuses to uphold its duty to justice and the people of Scotland?
What could I do to force a great power of state in the form of the Crown Office to prosecute the guilty hand of the SNP.
Where is my spike to be found?
Luckily, the Rev. Stuart Campbell provides the answers to my questions.
Embezzlement in Scots law requires:
If any one of these is missing, the charge of embezzlement collapses.
In Scots law embezzlement is impossible unless the property was held in trust.
The Crown Office has focused on the first link in the crime of embezzlement chain by insisting that:
If the Crown Office can maintain that position it never has to address misuse, intention, fiduciary duty, ring?fencing, or admissions by leadership.
It simply says:
“No trust existed, therefore no embezzlement occurred.”
However…
If civil law (generally a much lower bar than criminal law) is employed to:
The Crown Office’s discretion becomes extremely narrow.
It still wouldn’t be legally obliged to prosecute — but it would be effectively cornered.
And this is the clever part of the Rev. Stuart Campbell’s strategy… I don’t believe he is trying to persuade the Crown Office to prosecute those in the SNP responsible for the failure to secure ring-fenced donations (he already knows it will take no action), he’s trying to remove the Crown Office’s ability to avoid the case.
A civil finding of ‘intention to create a trust’ removes the Crown Office’s ambiguity and makes the prosecution of individuals in the SNP pretty much unavoidable, even if not legally mandatory.
Swinney, very stupidly (who advises this guy?), has publicly admitted the money was spent on things not covered by the intended trust and in doing so has potentially exposed himself and other SNP employees (past and present both) to a criminal charge of embezzlement.
This is the key factual admission Swinney has made.
If a civil court finds a trust existed, then:
Spending the money on other purposes = misuse of entrusted property.
Which is the definition of embezzlement.
Swinney better hope that the Rev. Stuart Campbell and his KC fail to persuade a judge in a civil court that their argument is legally sound, because if a judge in a civil court rules that a trust, even an informal trust, did exist, then a few folk in the SNP could be facing criminal charges of embezzlement.
Could Wings Over Scotland be the spike that finally, and at long, long last, puts the SNP’s stumbling corpse to rest?
Stuart Campbell would certainly have earned that ACCOLADE ,yet there are still moronic snp apologists and sycophants over t’Internet ACCUSING SC of betraying the indy movement by EXPOSING the VILE CORRUPTION in the snp , their argument is that WM is MORE CORRUPT , it is extremely worrying that these Scottish ???? people are willing to overlook the snp corruption and incompetence , because WM does it better
Truly MINDLESS STUPIDITY brought on by PARTY b4 COUNTRY CULTISTS
You’ve hit the nail on the head with your comment, some of these cultists have threatened violence against those who sought the Truth, they even said that they would never ask for their donations back because it would be unpatriotic !
Good post, Northy.
Don’t take yourself off to Alpha Centauri just yet.
Politicians get photographed in positions under lighting where when photographed, they appear to have a halo above them.
When John Swinney gets photographed, as seen in one of the photo’s in this article, the lighting makes him look like he has a dunce hat on.
Wow, look at all those press articles!
And not one of them would be there if WoS hadn’t doggedly pursued this matter over the past years. Very well done Rev & I hope YOU write a book about this sometime in the future. Goodness, the SNP has fallen a long way in 12 years and agree with many on the site that it needs to be put out of its misery.
SNP conference coming up on 15-17 October, wonder what the mood will be like then?!
When the civil case approaches the only deal you should consider is
Name the Alphabeties
Lady Dorian out
Swinney and Sturgeon admin their involvement
The NEC pay the £600K
Compensation for Craig Murray and anyone else sanctioned by them
Civil Service woman terminated with loss of pension
I would settle for that
ps
Do you think the SNP has a record of who contributed or is it open doors for us all.
TALKING ABOUT «MONEY»
QUOTE they dream of «corporate monarchies ruled by ceo kings»
link to bbc.co.uk
representative national government is necessary, democratic & accountable national government is necessary and a smart wise sophisticated & politically electorate is necessary too otherwise…..
more on same meme.
WE GOT RHYTHM…..or you’s the bass.
link to theconversation.com
Today’s The National front page…
SNP OFFER TO REFUND ‘INDYREF’ DONATIONS
Concession despite ‘no evidence of fraud ‘ finding
Whose finding???
The second photo of Honest John is hilarious. He looks like the tin man in the Wizard of Oz.
Rev
Further to your interview with Martin Geisler is there any sign of John Swinney having taken up residence in a cave yet?
If not perhaps Martin will offer up the explanation of why not..
You are absolutely disgusting
It’s worth observing that the regular moon howlers don’t think so. You’ll never hear a peep of criticism aimed at Confused out of them.
Undoubtedly every cause attracts its share of the creatures that thrive in the slime. But it does have to be said, there’s something about Scottish Indy that seems to gather a bigger share.
I see some commenters are echoing the “Alliance” claims that the “Alliance” has “20,000 members.”
In the real world, in the 2026 Holyrood election, the Alliance candidates got 4,768 constituency votes and 19,318 regional votes.
These numbers (for this micro-party) suggest that the “Alliance” is lying about the size of its membership–just like the SNP has done over the years.
Demonstrations in a number of deprived areas in Glasgow this week. MSM says it involves men who committed alleged sex offences and Police infers outside involvement is the cause.
Whatever could have caused this? Sun spots?
The root causes, as they are of so many things, is unmanaged globalisation, which brings with it uncontrollable immigration, de-industrialisation, and declining living standards.
The remedies, which will take some time to reverse decades of decline, will require robust enforcement of indigenous cultural mores on incomers, relaxation of development restrictions to reduce energy costs, on shoring of basic industrial production technologies, tax reductions, and benefit cuts.
There’s a massive opportunity for HR to get ahead of WM by embracing these policies – that would kick start renewed interest in and enthusiasm for Indy.
Up to now, though, it’s looking as if WM might be the better bet as HR and the SNP, long since fossilised into practical irrelevance, will prefer to dig deeper into their “progressive”, comfort zone silos.
Then there’s the wars. In Europe and the Middle East. Never talked about. Always ignored as if irrelevant. But in the real world, driving a furious pace of change in national and international politics, economics, trade and industrial policy as they inexorably escalate, year on year.
For once, Fanon has something relevant to say. By choosing to ignore the wars, Scotland’s chattering classes are choosing to remain “out of the game”.
As per usual you conveniently ignore a few fundamentals of colonial rule, Hatey. Lat’s mind oorsels, shall we, that:
– the under-development of the colony is due to decades or in our case centuries ‘of decline’ and lack of investment;
– the colonized suffers cultural alienation due to imposed culture/language and cannot ‘enforce indigenous cultural mores’ on anyone;
– the colonized has no say in matters of migration;
– the colonized has no say on matters of industry or production;
– the colonized has no say on matters of taxation or energy;
– the colonized has no say on matters of war and peace;
– the colonized has no say on territorial matters.
Hence it matters little what ‘Scotland’s chattering classes’ utter because the fact remains, and as Fanon said, a colonized people are ‘out of the game’ in all meaningful respects until they recover their sovereignty, until colonial rule is ended, and until self-recovery of national culture.
It was suggested to me that the US has been at war in some form with the rest of the planet since 1945.
Born in 2003 it does seem to me that the US has been the major actor during my lifetime resulting in my family’s state of «expatriotness»
Why the US feels it has to intervene in the maelstrom of Islamate politics thousands of miles from its shores is a mystery to me. But then the same might have been said of the British and others. What starts with trade ends up in conquest of one type or another. At least the British did acquire useful knowledge during their adventures, now alas largely discarded, the Americans seem indifferent to such nous or wisdom.
Trump seeks temporary «deals» not permanent resolution.
Re Scotland what Alf Baird writes is pertinent, the margins, the side lines, periferaries is «no place».
The leaving of «no place» is of course the hardest part.
I will ask again Alf.
If Scotland ceases to be a colony and somehow votes for Independence, who do you see forming an honest, competent Government who will address the issues that you raise. Some names would be helpful.
Should we get the super-competent westminster operators in to show us how to do it, Inglis?
Give us some names?
Indeed, if it’s not better than Westminster then what would be the point? We are supposed to believe there is a coterie of better people who will emerge and somehow overthrow the SNP establishment for the good of Scotland. Where are they now?
Having rid themselves of “the colonialist delusion…what the colonized do with their freedom is a matter for them only” (Memmi).
“Where are they now?”
They wait, silently, patiently, hidden in the shadows for the time of the great awakening when the Scots (Picts if preferred… same thing) rise from their imperially induced slumber to reclaim their identity and their language, their culture and their traditions, their mountains and rivers and seas and lands from the Inglis who so cruelly stole all that was Scottish from the Scots three centuries past, and with all that was plundered stole Scotland’s future, too.
The great Titans of Scotland are yet to emerge from their secret places at which time they will reject all things Inglis and return their people to freedom, physically and spiritually.
Silly question. With a fierce dose of the Cultural Cringe thrown in.
There are lots of prominent Scots at home and abroad with skills in a lot of areas who might be interested in playing a part in governing an independent Scotland.
Interesting. Alf Baird simply takes the view that being ruled by corrupt and incompetent people with whom you have a marginally closer kinship is preferred, thus wasting the opportunity that self-rule might provide. Northcode goes off on some sort of mythical fantasy, and Sam imagines they’re out there but doesn’t explain why they’re not intervening in this time of need. One criticism of Brexit was that there was no plan for afterwards. What’s the plan post-independence when you’ve just handed extraordinary powers to the politicians you particularly despise?
“at which time they will reject all things Inglis”
Lead from the front, Northy! Make smooth the path for the coming Titans of Scotland.
Make a start by vowing a mighty oath to stop posting in English.
After all, can there be anything more English than English?
Mike Danson
link to pureportal.strath.ac.uk
Gerry McCartney
link to vhscotland.org.uk
Mariana Mazzucato, economist
Andrea Bradley, education
@ Hatey
This isn’t a back handed compliant but there are times where you take the time to be articulate rather than your usual slop that makes AI seems like genius.
I was being sarcastic when I had mentioned about what is causing these protests. The MSM is trying to portray this as something that came out of nowhere.
However, checking the online newspaper sites this morning, I see there was another protest in Possilpark yesterday and the narrative being played is whether these protests are race related.
I live in a poor area but due to location with good transport links, it isn’t as bad as these affected areas as it’s easier to work outwith the area. However, where I live shares the same condition as these ones in Glasgow where it has seen a sharp intake of immigration in the last number of years.
I like to have walks in the more affluent areas of my town where shall we say it is more quieter and peaceful than the hustle and bustle of where I live. I also like to jump in the car and do the same in villages and towns outwith the area.
The thing I’ve noticed is how white the population in these more affluent areas than where I live. They have one exclusionary thing that where I live and that is high property prices means it is too expensive for the state to settle these immigrants in those areas.
You simply can’t increase the populations of certain areas without increasing resources to deal with it and that includes extra policing to give reassurance as well as maintain order.
It’s obvious that these poor areas are social dumping grounds for UK government immigration policy. It is also the fault of SNP Scottish government where they actively campaign for more immigration yet seem to be achieving very little to get the resources from the UK government to mitigate the effects of immigration.
These protests are about alleged sex-offenders being dumped in their communities but I don’t doubt frustration about their communities unfairly experiencing the negative effects of immigration more than others plays another part as well.
I’ve got a feeling int the next number of years that immigration will play a bigger part in Scottish politics to the detriment of independence.
No surprise there, is it?
“This isn’t a back handed compliant”
Are you sure?
If someone had donated to the ring fenced fund at the same time as buying bitcoin or Nvidia shares, could they claim compensation 300x that their alternative investment would have made?
So quiet here this morning.
Almost as if the faithful all stayed up late to watch the England game!
Sore head and happy heart. Semi finals is better than I thought England would do. 🙂
Bring on the Argentinians!
I find Tuchel agreeing with me, CC. England were lucky.
Still though, Napolean used to value luck above everything else.
I agree, we were lucky as fook. I’ll take it though! 🙂
I am not a supporter of the Tories or any right wing political Party, but, if any individual had any remaining doubts that you are scum then you have just convinced them otherwise.
Shame on Stu for not removing your post.
Three in a row, look. Bingo!
Did you contact me and alert me to it? No? Then shush, and thank the person who got off their arse and did.
In that vein have you seen what “friend” of the site “Heather” Herbert has got herself into hot water for?
Burnham says he wouldn’t grant new independence powers for Scotland, who’s going to step up and say out right Scotland isn’t a partner who is free to leave when ever it wants?
Isn’t Burnham setting the tone Scotland’s a colony and if the SNP wants Independence then its going need to defy us if you dare.
So the SNP and its supporters, so whats you PLAN B?
For me I believe Andy Burnham can be open and transparent about Independence, simply because he knows the SNP doesn’t want Independence and the party will not do anything about trying to achieve it and while the SNP is running Scotland Scotland is in safe hands.
Stewart it would be interesting if you did a poll with the question being about, do you believe the SNP will betray Sinn Féin or Plaid Cymru in talks with the UKG.
When the SNP offered to pay back the donors for Independence referendum fund, as one of them I can honestly say as from today I’ve never been contacted by anyone in the SNP.
The only person I know who read the National is Peter A Bell he’d be lost without it. So when the National stated the SNP was going to refund the donors I’d like know who was the person who made this statement and how is the SNP going to contact the people who are unaware the SNP has offered to refund?
Because this is just a stunt by the SNP to close down all the talk of Indyref2 fund.
Despite our (wildly) differing politics and beliefs, Confused, I’ve often quite genuinely enjoyed some of your rants, Confused, and have come out and said so more than once before now. I always thought there was a very leftfield – yet sharp – intellect lurking beneath the trademark polemic and froth.
Unfortunately it seems you’ve now gone “full tonto” of late, with this latest effort of your a new (abject) low. I don’t care what someone’s politics are; no one deserves to be murdered in their own home, a terrifying ordeal for a defenceless 80-year old woman.
Honestly? You’re the pits, and I agree with others who’ve said your disgusting post should be moderated for reasons of common decency. Shame on you pal.
while I like to make the strongly positive economic case for indy, on a personal level I would take indy, even at a large economic loss, if we had one thing in compensation :
TOTAL ANGLO FREI
no english in our country (deport them as enemy aliens, or tax the shit out of them), put up the razor wire, gun turrets, dog patrols, rip out the railway lines and let the weeds eat the motorways (having provided compensatory infrastructure links to europe, ireland, america).
And we never have to see them, look at them, or most pressingly – LISTEN TO THEM – again, with their shrill, shite, insulting, moronic opinions drawn from the BBC, mail, telegraph; anglo with an opinion, like a dog with a bone. We can block the bbc signal and so we don’t ever have to see again – a costume drama, jane austen, or cricket, or their footy team, or listen to their pundits.
It would be – bliss.
Like the silence after an annoying drunk gatecrasher has left your house.
But, there’s more – there would be no economic hit as when we dig up the railways and the roads, we also cut the electricity grid interconnector, and the oil/gas pipelines. Then all that energy stays in our country and the full hydrocarbon revenue is ours. And the companies will flock to come to our cheapy energy and plentiful water paradise – and to avoid the race riots and civil war down south.
– the biggest problem we then have is a currency that is too strong and public surpluses so large we have to be careful with our infrastructure spending, in case it causes inflation … nice problems to have, the problems of wealth. And if our scotch whisky becomes more expensive to foreigners to buy, they can always just come here and drink it.
In time england will be removed from our maps, replaced by “terra nullius”, which is a bit like “ex regio”, a nothing, nowhere place, of no importance.
I guess it would be a start.
But don’t you also pine for Juden Frei? And from the tenor of some of your recent posts about women in general, Frau Frei as well?
Dinna be shy, Confused, tell us all the groups you would exterminate in Scotland.
I’m not a big fan of football, nor any sport, but it seems to me that skill can only take participants so far.
It also seems to me, as an ignorant bystander, that a dose of luck, good or bad, is often the decider in whether a game or contest is won or lost.
To my mind the unforeseeable element of luck inherent to most sporting contests should be considered a part of the challenges facing players over which it is pointless complaining about.
In a team game like football where there are 22 players of variable talent and a number of adjudicating officials, also of variable talent, and a wide range of environmental factors affecting playing conditions, there are many unquantifiable variables in which a change can affect the outcome regardless of skill.
And that’s even before taking into account how the psychology of players might be affected by personal circumstances before each match.
So, was England’s national football team lucky to win against Norway?
Of course it was… just like every other team that’s ever played in a game of football and won, or lost, since the time of the game’s inception.
Skill mitigates, to a certain extent, the chances of a team being dealt a cruel blow by ‘bad’ luck… but in the end all games and all sports are comprised of skill, stamina, determination, perseverance, professionalism, and that small element of luck that can win or lose a game or a match.
My point is this – luck (good and bad) should be considered a part of the game of football – or any sporting challenge.
And so I say well done (genuinely) to England for reaching the World Cup Semi-Finals. (my beef is with the English state, not ordinary English folk)
Unbearable as England would be if it were to win the World Cup, (as would Scotland, no doubt) I honestly wouldn’t mind too much of it did.
Good luck, England.
I couldn’t bring myself to watch England but if no other choice I’d rather run of a cliff head first and hope its quick.
Yes, good post, it is something I have always thought – luck is part of it and always will be until all sport is played by perfect machines and would then be terminally boring. A fluke in snooker can make the difference to winning a match (but you should never forget that a player has that whole match to try and win it).
They have tried to remove the luck inherent in football in a bad refereeing decision with VAR, but it has had some serious negative consequences. And one of the main reasons VAR is there is because fans, pundits and managers could not cope with the bad luck which became ever more evident with endless TV replays, whereas in the past they would have brushed it off and gone and scored another goal.
A team has 90 minutes (though more like 110 these days) to try and win and to put right a bit of bad luck. And if that bad luck occurs at the end? Well, you still had the whole match to try and ensure that late bad luck made no difference.
I can’t bring myself to watch any football at all… a side-effect from being asked as a wean which team I supported, Rangers or Celtic, and being beaten up regardless of my answer.
I decided way back then that football just wasn’t to my liking… along with bottles and bricks and punches and kicks tae ma heid.
“… I’d rather run off a cliff head first…”
Here, again, luck comes into play and depending on your objective you’ll either land on soft ground or water, or a pile of sharp-edged rocks.
You are choosing to play a game (unless forced as part of an Attestup) that requires little skill beyond cliff selection and are relying almost entirely on luck as to the outcome.
“my beef is with the English state, not ordinary English folk”
How odd. So the England team doesn’t represent the English state? What’s next from your big, fertile brain, Northy? The Scotland team doesn’t represent the Scottish nation or the aspirational Scottish state?
But I’m being unkind. The new Northy likes ordinary English folk.
I guess it’s goodbye to the old, bad Northy who, when throwing a temper tantrum at some poster here, would write them off with his bunker busting insult, “English”.
“…But I’m being unkind…”
This is what happens when a Scot tries being fair to the English… the cunts (although some Anglo-cunts say ‘cant’ instead of ‘cunt – I have no idea why) turn on them and throw it back in their face. Typical fucking arrogant Anglo-arsehole behaviour.
Where I genuinely wished the England team good luck earlier I now hope that England’s fitba team gets arse-fucked on the world stage by the Argentinians and are left sobbing, like wee bairns who’ve just shat in their nappies, on a piss-stained pitch.
And fuck this place, tae. It’s as boring as fuck these days and filled tae the brim with colonialists spewing oot the maist abysmally thick Inglis shite.
I’ve also come to the conclusion that Alf Baird is fighting a losing battle in this place trying to persuade thicko Scots of the absolute fucking obvious.
Independence supporting website my arse.
If it wasn’t for the SNP this place would have bugger all to say to anyone about anything.
The moronic antics of the SNP is manna fae heaven fir some folk, eh?
Thank fuck I’m a space-travelling thousand year old PIct and not a moronic Scot who thinks they live in a democracy and that England is their pal.
Fuck the lot o ye, Inglis and Jock cunts alike.
Now, where did I put the keys to my ship, the Spes Nova?
Good one, Northy, you get back into your comfort zone.
Cursing and swearing for Scotland hasn’t got us Indy yet, but if that’s the sum total of your contribution, you may as well keep going.
It’s not as if you’ve got anything else to offer.
And a word of wisdom for you and Professor Baird both. Telling us we’re colonised advances the cause of Indy not one millimeter. Nor does telling us that the antidote to being colonised is to decolonise.
It’s not being “thicko” to point out that that kind of semantic tricks achieves exactly the same progress as a post full of swear words.
SFA.
“It’s not as if you’ve got anything else to offer…”
Do you even hear yourself… you, the most verbose bore in this place?
I admit that I, too, am a gigantic bore, but my boringness is dwarfed by your interminable galaxy-sized ‘mind’ dribblings.
“Telling us we’re colonised…”
You aren’t colonised… your an English pretending to be a Scot, or a Scot who believes they’re an English (in which case yer heid really has been thoroughly colonised), either way your comments in this place are 99.99999% anti-Scots.
Which, if you are actually a Scot, begs the question – “Why do you hate yourself so much?”
Even your preferred moniker in this place is filled with self-hatred – literally.
“Cursing and swearing for Scotland hasn’t got us Indy yet…”
And neither has anything else.
I suspect that if Salmond had publicly told the English state to fuck off and stick its rigged referendum (in reality an opinion poll) up its puckered imperial arse the cause for independence would have progressed exponentially.
Sometimes, in a colony, swearing like a crazed rat-bastard is all the colonised can do in the hope of being heard above the deafening imbecility of plundering imperial fuckwittery.
Now fuck off and leave me and my Venus to it – I expect you use one of those, too… being a big fanny and all.
In no particular order:
Naw.
My particular hatred is reserved for the people who saddled Scotland with the Hate Crimes Act. Your tribe. At least, when you’re not wittering oan aboot Picts.
Scotland’s world famous HCA. Designed to criminalise free and independent thought (and normal human humour) in Scotland. Still on the statute books, and, get this – on NO party’s manifesto to repeal.
Good post though, Northy. Not one word of your Scots pseudo language in it. That’s the best way to make your lunacy crystal clear to anybody who cares to read.
“swearing like a crazed rat-bastard is all the colonised can do”
I see. Nothing to do with personal loss, then.
I’m glad to see you pursuing this persistently. More power to your elbow!
If I may be permitted to add a quibble, the phrase in the reply ‘should not be taken to infer’ is, strictly, illiterate. It should read ‘should not be taken to imply’.
Implicit meanings are the things implied by a speaker or writer; inferences are the meanings inferred from these by a hearer or reader.
True, in common speech ‘infer’ is quite commonly confused with – and mistakenly used in place of – ‘imply’. But is it too much to hope that Scottish officialdom would aspire to avoid common confusions in its written responses?