Liars gonna lie
Last night on social media a few people raised a semi-interested eyebrow at Scotland On Sunday’s front page, and wondered if the suspiciously unattributed lead story might be something balanced and worthwhile, or if it’d be by Dani Garavelli again.
We have sad news to relate.
It is, of course, Garavelli again, and it has all the painstaking commitment to fairness and accuracy that we’ve come to expect of her.
It only takes five paragraphs to come up with the first outright lie:
Alex Salmond hasn’t refused to hand over a SINGLE document that the committee has asked for. His sole intervention was to remind the Scottish Government not to commit contempt of court by submitting a document that the inquiry had NOT asked for and which had been expressly banned by Lord Pentland from being made public after the judicial inquiry into the Scottish Government’s botched investigation.
Nor has Salmond “allegedly” “leaked” anything to the press. This too is a simple lie. The only leak that’s come from anyone but the Scottish Government was that of some text messages from SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, which were given to SNP MP Kenny MacAskill and who promptly, publicly and quite properly passed them to the appropriate authorities for investigation.
Garavelli continues to lie about the banned documents:
The sole document in question – the biased and unlawful report into the allegations – does not involve “data protection issues”. The issue with it is that a court has ordered it must not be published because it’s biased and unlawful. All Salmond did was remind the Scottish Government of its obligation to obey the order, upon which it immediately leaked his letter to the press as an attempted attack.
(Garavelli oddly appears to believe that Salmond himself, who’s already hundreds of thousands of pounds out of pocket for defending his innocence, ought to foot the bill for forcing the Scottish Government to provide the documents the inquiry DOES want. Readers may recall that she also regarded his partial crowdfunding of his defence in the judicial inquiry as an act of intimidation.)
There has certainly been a long catalogue of obstructions and evasions placed in the inquiry’s path, and Garavelli grudgingly reports some of them later in the piece. But the plainly evident truth is that ALL of them have been placed by the Scottish Government.
Alex Salmond, quite understandably, wants everything about the shambolic, malicious, incompetent and disgraceful conspiracy against him revealed after being put through two years of torment and financial ruin despite winning the initial judicial inquiry and then being cleared of any wrongdoing by a judge and jury, and yet still being subject to endless smears and innuendo by a press desperate to portray him as a guilty man who got away with it.
(Probably because they’re all too aware that he can no longer afford to embark on a long string of expensive defamation cases.)
Garavelli’s evident hatred of the former First Minister leaves her pathologically unable to confront that reality, and instead present a bogus “both sides at fault” narrative that will be painfully familiar to observers of Scottish politics since 2011. We only wish that just once the Scottish media would surprise us.
I think if there was a statue of Sturgeon outside of the Scottish Parliament, it would have had a rope tied round it’s neck, pulled down and dragged through the streets of Edinburgh, then the head merrily danced upon.
As in Saddam Hussein.
I don’t know what Sturgeon’s grand plan is,,,but I do know she has turned the Yes Movement into a group of very angry people.
Resign with immediate effect and make way for Joanna Cherry.
The new Queen of Scots.
Yes. A liar is gonna lie . It’s pretty much all they do .
In other news Eton head beaster assures all pupils have been tested on return to production. Cambridge Uni students will be tested bi-weekly.
Carry on , plebs.
Doesn’t look like Garavelli is going to stop this character assassination of Salmond ( an innocent man) any time soon. I take it the editor of the SoS approves of this sleekitly written story.
Of course again its just muddying the waters for those readers (who still buy the SoS, there can’t be many).
If Alex is not able to afford to file defamation suits there are thousands of us who will rectify that situation if asked
Right now I’d be delighted if some other indy bloggers would ‘surprise’ us – denial is just as bad as wilful ignorance when it comes to getting the truth out.
The magnificent Scotsman building on North Bridge is now a luxury hotel, while the paper is produced out of an anonymous office block some way out of the city centre.
In my time in journalism, the Herald has gone from the baroque splendour of Mitchell Street, to the old Express building on Albion Street, to a new block at the top of Renfield Street. Today, they operate out of an industrial estate in Tradeston, on the south side of Glasgow.
This repeated down-sizing clearly demonstrates how Scotland’s major broadsheet newspapers have collapsed in circulation and influence.
There are no signs of the downward slide slowing, far less stopping. They are doomed, and their refusal to face reality saddens those of us who enjoyed the good days in journalism.
Over-promoting and encouraging the likes of Garavelli is part of the problem.
When I look at any conflict, I ask myself why it happened, and who benefits?
The only party I see benefitting from all this is the British State.
Can anyone tell me who else would benefit from the situation the ‘movement’ finds itself in?
If, as is being suggested, Sturgeon/Murrel was behind it all, why? Salmond was yesterdays news. He had retired from leading the party.
I can’t make sense of the whole thing.
I think the woke weirdos that have infiltrated the party are a separate matter, and are confusing the issue. The infiltration could be a British action to cause discord and infighting, but who knows? Maybe Scotland is full of women with cocks and beards and I simply haven’t noticed.
The press are maybe being quiet at the moment, but all this ammunition will be fired at some point.
Hopefully all this smoke will clear shortly, and we can get a proper look at the whole story.
Dear Mr Salmond
By defaming you, they defame the Yes movement. Any time you want to sue the buggers, just watch the crowdfunding rush in. Enough of this sort of thing.
Yours
A totally scunnered independence supporter
What a pusillanimous pile of putrid puke that article was with all its nameless ‘sources’ and ‘commentators’ taking up ad-selling column inches You have to admit, it’s great that Murdo Fraser got quoted so much, what with him being a towering intellect in our fair land, and all. And Alex Cole-Hamilton’s melodramatic, fake-anguished ““The thing that gets me out of bed in the morning is that this was a procedure designed to help vulnerable people and it utterly failed them. Not only did it fail them, it left them totally exposed.” No, Alex. The thing that gets you out of bed in the morning is claiming an anti-Scottish paycheque. Don’t even pretend otherwise. God, but these mendacious anti-intellects are risible. As is the mainstream media in this reality-challenged country. Tragic and disgusting.
People are full of anger and hate, are more likely to make a mistake.
Words to live by.
And, as posted on the previous thread, not a word about this from Pennie Taylor or Leask or the presenter on GMS today.
Taylor did utter exuberant praise of the simply wonderful God’s-gift-to-journalism Garavelli’s tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg. No doubt DG praised RBG for being a believer in, and promoter of, er, truth and justice?
o/t very early I know
BBC top of the bill and first up DROSS , and by the way making a total arse of himself by going against universally accepted opinion on what the Tory English government are doing and it’s not for our benefit , a Scottish MP actively working with the English establishment I believe that there is a term for someone who acts like that and it isn’t a very complimentary term
DROSS representing one Fifth of the electorate in this Country a Fifth is being very generous
next up Labour and Annual conferences even less support than the Scabby Tory party , the liberal annoyance not even mentioned , Wullie won’t be happy
A BBC in Scotland that has never came to terms with the fact that the majority reject this Union so all their output is aimed at a quickly diminishing audience that actually believe anything that comes out of that propaganda unit of the English establishment,
Just watching Brewer using the usual approach to everyone from the SNP , if follows the same format ,interrupt , don’t listen to any answer , interrupt, don’t listen to any explanation of the interruption , oh we are out of time so we can’t broadcast your answer SNP person
AS must start a fundraiser to take these smear campaigners to court and sue the knickers off them! Fur coats and all! The liars must NOT be allowed to get away with this blatant dishonesty, they must be stopped in their tracks with the heaviest of penalties to deter others from following the same path. There are very many of us who will happily contribute to a fundraiser to ensure justice is done. It is essential that the state itself is put in its place now, as far as these vile attacks on innocent people go – Assange, Murray, Hirst, Salmond… attacks which we all know are anti-independence and political in nature. Who will be the next victim of the rogue state?(including of course, its devolved arms). Time to stop this corruption in its tracks.
@Juteman
If I jigsaw the BTL comments together I think the answer is, NS is the power crazed megalomaniac offspring of Sadam Hussein, recruited by MI5/6 to infiltrate and destroy the independence movement. All this is being suppressed by other independence bloggers under a conspiracy of silence.
@Thomas Dunlop
Angry people also get things done. Sometimes hatred is the correct response to injustice.
I refer you to Niemoller’s “First they came…” speech.
‘Black Joan says:
No doubt DG praised RBG for being a believer in, and promoter of, er, truth and justice?’
Scottish female politicians (including Nicola Sturgeon, with her tearyeyed support of Hillary Clinton during the last American general election) and female paper columnists are weirdly, ludicrously, and pathetically obsessed with women in American politics. It’s both a decorticated fangirl mentality they have, in obsessing over America, and a measure of their own ambition and self-image.
They want to see themselves as something far larger than they actually are part of – compared to America, Scottish politics is nothing but a parochial backwater nobody cares aboot or has ever heard of – and they can get to strut and crow and weep aboot ‘social justice’and ‘feminism’ and such. They don’t have enough crap to moan aboot or attach themselves to in their own lives/politics over here, obviously, so they swoon over America, an utterly corrupt, rogue state at war with any number of other countries round the world right now, and the world’s biggest seller of arms.
They like to pretend they’re ‘cosmopolitan’ by writing aboot crap from another country forced down our throats by the mainstream media (Scotland was never obsessed with American politics 30 years ago like it is now), even as this tiny island slides more and more into becoming another third world USA colony. Their rhapsodising over American politics certainly doesn’t help matters in this respect any.
And it’s also lazy journalism, too. It’s not like they come up with inspirational upcoming/extant female politicians from small European or African or Asian countries to praise, they just jump on a big, pre-digested yankee doodle fine-and-dandy story and do their bit of teeht-gnashing, garment-rending public mourning for somebody they had probably hardly ever even heard of, let alone cared aboot, until recently. Laughable and sad.
And as for the hypocritical dichotomy aboot what they write aboot, and their own actions and support for inequality and injustice in their own home country, well, you nailed that one in your own quote that starts this post.
Thank goodness we have websites like this to get proper news. Imagine if we only had newspapers with articles written by journalists who are, I quote from above “pathologically unable”.
Kirsty Wark, Sarah Smith, Jackie Bird… they all *look* the same, not because they are really all that physically similar, although Bird and Wark are, but because they just seem defined by their bile and hatred. It is very curious.
“(Probably because they’re all too aware that he can no longer afford to embark on a long string of expensive defamation cases.)”
I am not so sure of that. Certainly, if Salmond were to pick and choose, he would be able to raise a LOT of money from the Yes movement. I am sure a site like Wings on its own could raise around £100,000 in days and at least a quarter of a million in a month. People would be VERY happy to contribute, I think.
Do you remember when male journalists hounded Caroline Flack to her death?
The journalists were accused of misogyny by many a ‘spokesperson for equality’ and woke journalists, including I believe Dani.
The same harassment is evident here and I’m waiting for the Equality Officers of any party to condemn it.
Feels like there not much we can do right now but at least there’s the social media. A lot of angry tweets out there calling for Murrell to pack his bags.
I’m not on FB but I imagine it’s similar. On the Twitter front, even if you rarely use it, go to ‘Search Twitter’ (top-right), enter ‘Peter Murrell’, then hit ‘Latest’, then RT to your heart’s content. If we get something like #MurrellMustGo trending then it all gets more attention.
And Dani is what David Leask describes as one of the “properly trained journalists” and eulogises her work. ?
Yes indeed, WhoRattledYourCage @11.09am, but the obsession with the US is there at Westminster and in England generally, too.
Media and political suppression of information about events and leading figures in Europe, and the general fawning over the “Special Relationship” with the US, helps to explain the Brexit vote.
I would happily contribute to a crowdfunder for Alex Salmond.
Those who would & have defamed him rely on his inability to fund it himself & to my mind that is what we are here for, to support one of our own.
If we don’t then they will become even more brazen with their lies. It has to stop
‘Black Joan says:
20 September, 2020 at 11:17 am
Yes indeed, WhoRattledYourCage @11.09am, but the obsession with the US is there at Westminster and in England generally, too.’
I know it is, of course. But I am not commenting on other countries. Unlike others. And I lived in America for over a decade, have a far better grasp of the country like American wannabes like Garavelli have. Sick of hearing aboot the bloody failing country, to be honest. Huge open-air insane asylum, and their politics is an open sewer.
I did go and read the Garavelli piece in question. She’s trying to give her take on American politics, and the upcoming general election, like her opinion matters in the slightest, and anybody could care less. Wrong on both counts. Scotland needs to start challenging America more, not licking its bloody arse. That is what is increasingly wrong with this increasingly American country, slavish obsession with the damned Trump-slumped dump.
Remember Craig Murray posted this a few months ago:
link to craigmurray.org.uk
Which way will this go:
1. The top of the SNP is brought down and a new leader delivers independence.
2. The top of the SNP is brought down and the party falls into turmoil and loses the election as the public decide they are no different from the WM parties and what is the point of change. A large percentage may still want it ferociously but they remain in the minority.
If NS is brought down then you may get a S30 order with a time limit for use with the proviso there won’t be another for at least 50 years.
@jfngw
That is the ‘British State’ answer behind it then?
“You have to admit, it’s great that Murdo Fraser got quoted so much”
I especially liked the bit about the “500-word jigsaw”.
This is symptomatic of British nationalism, which is a pathological condition that constrains the self-realisation of individuals and undermines social cohesion, in order to maintain a narrow and supremacist national identity that is grounded in a mythological past. Not a good look, frankly.
Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law
Online September 2005, 33 (3) 342-349
Pathological Lying Revisited
link to jaapl.org
‘Rev. Stuart Campbell says:
20 September, 2020 at 11:43 am
“You have to admit, it’s great that Murdo Fraser got quoted so much”
I especially liked the bit about the “500-word jigsaw”.’
Laughing out loud here. Brilliant. Exactly the level of political analysis from a perceptive perspective you’d expect from the man. He’s worth every damned penny we pay him!
Still laughing.
Hell of a lot more people read Stu’s demolition job here than that dwindling rag.
@Rev/WRYC –
Murdo Fraser would absolutely love the 225-piece crossword in The National.
Why did you have to put up a picture of Garavelli?
I was having my breakfast.
@jfngw
None of your options seem likely. Of course, a week is a long time in politics etc….
BUT all the indications so far are that Holyrood 2021 will result in an SNP majority. that will delight SNP loyalists of course, they can sit back and do what they’ve been doing for the past 5 years for another 5 years.
It’s always possible that rank and file members of the party will turn on Sturgeon, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on it if I were you?
We aren’t getting a S30 Order. It’s a fantasy. We either need the SNP to be weaned away from its “Gold Standard Indyref” fixation, or build up a new party that will actually deliver, rather than sit on its hands for the next decade.
Desperate Dani is far from comic.
@ Juteman
I for one, won’t be surprised if it transpires that the whole shameful episode was driven by a wildly hubristic act of personal revenge. (Choose your own perpetrator.) As you point out: Salmond had moved on in his career and, politically speaking, threatened nobody.
Even the front page is designed to influence negative opinion of Alex. Lurking like a dangerous shadow over the Angelic Nicola. Sickening imagery.
Red Squirrel says:
20 September, 2020 at 10:44 am
Dear Mr Salmond
By defaming you, they defame the Yes movement. Any time you want to sue the buggers, just watch the crowdfunding rush in. Enough of this sort of thing.
Yours
A totally scunnered independence supporter
Absolutely.
I’d like to know how Mr Salmond lost his seat. That rout of the SNP in NE in 2017 has never really been questioned and I’m now wondering if it was aimed at getting rid of just one man – but the others had to go in a ‘wood for trees’ . I have always thought there was something wrong and I don’t believe I’m a conspiracy theorist, I look at the facts as they have been and as they are. I’m sure Sturgeon has been compromised (which I don’t think would be very difficult tbh). I think Mr Salmond should be kept assured that there will be lots of support if he were to crowd fund.
-Who Rattled Your Cage, Black Joan-
Bonkers, eh?, the obsession, usually on the “progressive” left, with America. Looked up the Guardian website yesterday and it was dominated by tributes to an American judge. Why anybody would want to emulate that barbaric shithole is beyond me- primary school children rehearse “what to do in the event somebody walks into your school and starts shooting”, which I think says it all. Also, I think of Scotland as a European country, that’s who we should be looking to. Mind you, Usually they are praising politicians like Clinton and Obama, who say nice words about “justice” before bombing people in the Third World and implementing economic policies which would make Maggie Thatcher blush, so I can see why NS likes them.
-Socrates McSporran-
I was discussing this recently with a cousin who works for John Menzies, who still exist as newspaper wholesalers. He was telling me that while the Telegraph, Guardian and especially Times have had some success in gaining subscriptions among younger people (ie over forty but under sixty), the Record, Herald and Scotsman are read almost exclusively by old folk. Hardly surprising, they have made no attempt to adapt to changing tastes and attitudes- no wonder they are staunch unionists! The quality is so poor they are almost painful to read.
I can’t even write to Garavelli on twitter because she clearly blocks folk who argue logically with her. (when they disagree of course)
Andy Ellis @ 11.51 am
I wouldn’t say we will NEVER get an S.30 order.
We will, I feel, never get an S.30 order which offers the Yes to Independence side a chance of winning.
They might agree to one, on the same basis as 2014, then, when it is debated in the HoC, some Tory dinosaur from deep in Norfolk or somewhere will propose an amendment, which requires a two-thirds majority of the Scottish people to vote yes. In return he gets his meal ticket to the House of Lords.
They might agree to one, provided the whole of the UK gets a say. The problem for them then is how to make a case for keeping Scotland, without letting the undecided Scots see just how much they need us, and how much they are stealing from us, while at the same time keeping England on-message with the “Too wee, too poor” and “Subsidy Junkies” arguments.
They might agree to one, but further muddy the waters with a three option offer: 1, the status quo, 2, federalism, 3. Independence, in the hope of getting a split decision or federalism, on which they will immediately renage.
Whatever happens, for as long as they have to be involved, as through a S.30 order, they will lie, cheat and pochle the vote as best they can.
Never trust an English politician.
@andy Ellis, I think that the rank and file membership will turn on anyone who endangers independence. They will not jump immediately following a bit of bad press, fearing manipulation. Both salmond and sturgeon have a lot of cache at the moment, so I guess most are waiting to see. Anyone else who is shown to be stirring it, or have an agenda other than independence will be toast.
A Person says:
20 September, 2020 at 12:05 pm
-Who Rattled Your Cage, Black Joan-
Bonkers, eh?, the obsession, usually on the “progressive” left, with America. Looked up the Guardian website yesterday and it was dominated by tributes to an American judge. Why anybody would want to emulate that barbaric shithole is beyond me- primary school children rehearse “what to do in the event somebody walks into your school and starts shooting”, which I think says it all.’
I wrote aboot this terrifying, horrifying, evil, and insane gun madness on my blog last year:
link to whorattledyourcage.blogspot.com
holymacmoses @12:04 pm
The Gordon seat was 23rd and last on the Tories list of Scottish target seats in 2017. In other words, they never expected to win it. As you say, did they get some help?
Gravalenny either just hates Salmond or just loves cash,
would like to think she just hates Salmond, the thought of writing such misinformed vitriol to destroy an innocent person just for cash is repugnant,
You cannot hope to bribe or twist,
thank God! the Brutish journalist.
But, seeing what the hack will do unbribed,
there’s no occasion to.
Ian Brotherhood @ 10.41 am
As far as I can see Iain Lawson is the only other blogger posting about Alex Salmond and the mess that the Snp is in about this whole affair .
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
Juteman @ 10.43 am
Alex Salmond announced to Edinburgh Morningside Snp in May 2018 that he was ready to return to front line politics , This the archived article from the Scotsman who reported on the meeting ,
link to archive.vn
Journalists and WhatsApp the modern equivalent of the News of the World raking through your bins.
How does she get away with such shoddy superficial and ill-informed journalism, time and again? I’m actually starting to feel a tiny bit sorry for her. Is she really as naive as she seems?
In her eulogy elsewhere to the tribe of women with power, RBG, Hillary Clinton, and probably NS, she shows that there is a tribe she aspires to belong to – women who are as horrible as the worst men in politics.
Far from being a crusading feminist journalist, she now appears to be the person left at the frontline when others take a step back because they probably see what is coming when full disclosure comes… and it will. Although that shallow puff piece writer, Kirsty Strickland is a close runner.
Garavelli was well thought of until recently or at least went under the radar. Emerging from the wasteland of journalism post 2014, she had a relatively untarnished reputation which has now been utilised to promote this vendetta against AS and in doing so she is destroying any credibility she may have had. She is egged on and congratulated by the more overtly partisan MSM types, and those who are just bonkers like Leasky. MSM ‘journos’ who could not take on that role as they would rightly be accused of bias and their motives questioned.
There is no balance in an article that sets out to misrepresent AS yet again. She should be ashamed but is probably just grateful for the work.
Ian B @10:41 am & MaggieC @12:17 pm
We hopefully await Wee Ginger Ostrich returning to being WGD.
@Andy Ellis
It was a choice if NS is brought down, if her husband goes then I can’t really see her holding on, you are tarnished by association and it’s hard to be any more associated than being married.
The S30 was about when it was best for the UK government to grant it if they feel they need to. Even if the SNP ended up in disarray this is only a break in the proceedings, the independence movement will regroup, it will just take longer (not my lifetime in reality). They may use it if they think they can win, Johnson is a gambler, this is a man that supported remain but opted for leave as he saw an opportunity to take the leadership and grab PM office.
It’s just comments remember, I’m not actually predicting these will happen, just a possibility that something like this could occur.
The other old claim was that people don’t vote for parties that are divided, maybe that’s why the Tories elsewhere are so successful, they wield the knife mercilessly.
The pornography of disaster.
“When ideologies manage to get hold of our fear circuitry, we often regress to illogical, tribal and aggressive human animals, becoming weapons ourselves — weapons that politicians use for their own agenda.”
link to marketwatch.com
So the Brit Nat plan seems to be keep funding defamation against Alex, knowing that he cannot fight on all fronts, in all courts, and that each time he does, it uses up vast amounts of his time, energy and money and they can run with the historic allegations in each headline report of it.
Got to say its a good plan.
I have a better counter plan.
We crowd fund Alex to fund a court injunction – preventing all further reporting of the alleged allegations – for which he was innocent. That’ll cost about £200,000. I think they last about 2 years.
And we crowd fund a compensation fund for Alex and his missus for damages caused. One in the eye for the ‘bought and paid for wee bams’ who keep defaming him.
Alex would need to set up the first one, we would need to set up the other.
If Alex decides against the court injunction – we just go for the latter.
Look folks, I think some of you need to get a better grounding in science, ethics, and the law, before displaying hostility towards learning from America. Or anyone, for that matter. It’s not only unsightly, it supports social practice that is exclusionary in nature, e.g. misogyny. Remember, WOKE practice does not deny biological reality in order to affirm the clinically disordered.
link to scholarship.law.upenn.edu
‘Ottomanboi says:
20 September, 2020 at 12:35 pm
The pornography of disaster.
“When ideologies manage to get hold of our fear circuitry, we often regress to illogical, tribal and aggressive human animals, becoming weapons ourselves — weapons that politicians use for their own agenda.”
link to marketwatch.com‘
Just finished reading this. An excellent primer on the media promoting hatred for money.
link to amazon.com
@JohnRose
“I think that the rank and file membership will turn on anyone who endangers independence. They will not jump immediately following a bit of bad press, fearing manipulation. Both salmond and sturgeon have a lot of cache at the moment, so I guess most are waiting to see. Anyone else who is shown to be stirring it, or have an agenda other than independence will be toast.”
I think you overestimate the rank and file membership, who appear content to tolerate virtually anything. They’ve done nothing over the past few years, as the carte blanche enjoyed by the Woke Stasi amply demonstrates. The rank and file electorate may be a different matter.
@Juteman. Alex Salmond was talking about coming back into politics. The whole sex shite was never supposed to go to court but was rather to be used internally to keep him from standing as a candidate. Because someone, either a Civil Servant or a CEO, decided to go a step further and push it to a criminal case, resulted in the shambles we ended up with. Not withstanding, the whole idea was to stop him being a threat to the Mundell regime as has been seen recently by the blocking of Cherry from standing for Hollyrood and rather pushing a Sturgeon supporter for the Edinburgh seat.
-WRYC-
What an interesting article, thank you.
In one of my past lives I completed a master’s degree in history (all I have to show for it is debt!!) and I researched Southern US politics. Essentially became clear that American culture was dominated by two impulses. First, a pervasive paranoia, and a pervasive racism, rooted in the eighteenth century terror that the slaves would rise up and kill the slaveholders. This has a sexual dimension. Second, an obsession with “my rights” rooted in the fact that so many move to America to make a new start. Paranoid hyper-individualistic racists; what could possibly go wrong?
Gun crime, lack of healthcare, a constitution which makes Westminster look democratic, sadistic punishment for crimes, religions fundamentalism (regarded as entirely normal) hyper-militarisation of public life (an increasing trend in the UK in recent decades, distressingly), hysteria, and a vulgar consumerism (again, being imported to here)- not a model of a country. I would also add that the crazy “woke” stuff we are getting here is just a “progressive” manifestation of that diseased mentality.
The weirdest thing about this entire sorry saga is the indisputable fact that the unionist media is now protecting the SNP leadership.
The real question is why?
Why aren’t they taking this opportunity to get rid of Sturgeon and Murrell if they hate the SNP so much?
Could the Murrells have done a deal with the media and establishment, with a promise to delay indyref indefinitely in return for protection over their involvement in the whole sordid affair? We know that other senior members of the Scottish Government and SNP are involved, but are there influential people in the unionist Scottish legal profession who need protecting too? The COPFS perhaps?
It sounds like conspiracy theories but there has to be some reason why the media aren’s screaming for Sturgeon and Murrell’s scalps, it has to be more than just a fear that Salmond could make a comeback?
OT – the argument that says we cannot completely rule out WM granting a S30 order because if they hold it now, and throw everything at us, they might just win again….
If your policy is resting on this argument – then the other half of that policy/plan is that you need to be 100% prepared to campaign for indy at the drop of a hat, in fact you should really be campaigning for it now, and other things like slogans, posters, billboards, campaign strategy, currency…. all need to be ready to go at the push of a button, including the finances/costings to fund it, and keep funding it.
Otherwise its just an excuse, coming after the event (or lack thereof), to shore up a policy that has no chance of working.
Re WGD – the guy has been a hero. We cannot afford short memories. How many articles did he write as his first husband was terminally ill?
He has a new life and a new husband – from America. I wish them every happiness. How difficult would it be for a corrupt WM to deport his husband? In the current climate?
He is doing his best, as much as he can in his personal circumstances.
Do we really need other people to tell us what needs done – to save our country.
We need to get support for Indy over 60% by years end. Thats for starters. And we need to save our country.
‘A Person says:
20 September, 2020 at 12:43 pm
-WRYC-
What an interesting article, thank you.’
Thanks. Speaking of ‘lack of healthcare,’ here’s something else I wrote you may find interesting. A model of how this island’s NHS will look if the Tory scum sell it off to America:
link to whorattledyourcage.blogspot.com
-Kapelmeister at 12.13-
Well, I never! I wonder if there’s some truth in that.
-Andy Ellis at 12.42-
It’s like Trump’s boast that “I could shoot someone in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue and not lose a single vote”. NS could do that in Buchanan St, go on to her briefing and sing the words to The Macarena, and as long as she said “we need to be SERIOUS about this virus” half the party would swoon over how good a communicator she was and think she was the cats pyjamas. They really are that shallow.
As you say, it is more likely to be the party’s voters that go off her. Working-class voters, especially men, start to wonder why they’re voting for a party that looks down on them. Sadly that probably involves the SNP losing power. Such an outcome is unlikely though. However if the party lost office I am in no doubt that NS would not resign; it would be the electorate’s fault.
[…] Wings Over Scotland Liars gonna lie Last night on social media a few people raised a semi-interested eyebrow at Scotland […]
-Clan Donald-
Exactly this! If they were out to get NS they would be pushing it all the time. If you look at Andrew Neil, Alex Massie, Kenny Farquharson, not a peep. That’s like if Johnson was being investigated for trying to get Gove imprisoned and Owen Jones didn’t bring it up.
Sturgeon could quite easily keep public support. If she were to resign on health grounds.
She could say exhaustion and stress of the pandemic have had it’s toll on her. This would be the best option for the movement.
Instead she and Murrell will continue the lies. This will end up with all sides losing.
Salmond could make her an offer not to pursue the case if she stepped down of her own accord.
-WRYC/
What a bloody awful country. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that here- but it probably will!
A Person: good, quality newspapers, in the past, didn’t set their sight on any age of readership or any particular lobby. They just provided news and columns from, perhaps, a mildly left or right or centre perspective and left the work of interpretation up to their readers. Many people bought a range of newspapers and spent hours in reading them. Few do so nowadays and even fewer have the literary stamina or concentration in the age of the sound bite and read bite. Most newspapers nowadays are propaganda sheets. That started in earnest in the 1980s/1990s. A number of online blogs, like this one and others, fill the gap.
Ian Brotherhood @11:14am
Feels like there not much we can do right now but at least there’s the social media.
This is just an idea, which echoes what others are saying:
Background: for decades there has been the campaign against persecution of birds of prey and for decades there was little other than platitudes from government and the perpetrators of the crimes. That started to change in the past few years and the issue gained a lot of traction. What really started to make a massive difference was the creation of Wild Justice, link to wildjustice.org.uk They’ve really set the cat amongst the pigeons by forcing judicial reviews of a whole host of wildlife issues, particularly the cosy relationship between Natural England and estate owners. The goals are quite simple – upload the law.
I could see a similar organisation for justice in Scotland – crowd funded and backed by a team of “hungry” lawyers. It would certainly raise the profile of a lot of issues which might start to effect real change and cause the likes of Garavelli to at lease pause before taking to the keyboard.
The newspaper industry is on the brink of death and these hate-filled pieces are just the death throes as they seek readers by any means possible. An organisation with some clout and the ability to take these rags through the extremely expensive process of court proceedings might just be the coup de gras that we are all looking for.
If nothing else the very existence would send a strong message and possibly put some daylight between the idea of justice and independence and the SNP which would force some change in attitudes.
“Just Scotland”, “Justice for Scotland” or “Scot Free” all spring to mind as decent starting points names.
-Lorna Campbell-
I vaguely remember, but this is certainly not the case anymore! Reading the Record, Telegraph and Guardian are all, for different reasons, an insult to the intelligence; the reader is treated like a moron. No wonder they are dying out.
-Stuart Mackay-
Not just Natural England! Look at how much influence the Duke of Buccleuch, owner of the worlds finest private art and jewel collection, has in Scottish affairs!
The silence of the MSM re Murrell etc = the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.
The dog did nothing in the night-time.
THAT was the curious incident.
Silver Blaze. Written by a Scotsman, of course.
holymacmoses says:
20 September, 2020 at 12:04 pm
I’d like to know how Mr Salmond lost his seat. That rout of the SNP in NE in 2017 has never really been questioned and I’m now wondering if it was aimed at getting rid of just one man…
I have always harboured deepest suspicion about that too. The Tory’s Dark Money shenanigans, and media presenting the Tory’s as resurgent, was just the tip of the ice berg in my opinion. For the SNP to lose it’s leaders both in Holyrood and Westminster (Angus Robertson lost his seat too if I remember right), and something about it didn’t feel ‘legit’.
Given the emergence of the despicable conspiracy to discredit Alex Salmond by any means possible, and have him jailed as a sex offender, a discreet instance of old fashioned British vote rigging seems almost quaint, even benign by comparison.
I think Scotland desperately needs it’s own Scottish Security Services. We are engaged in a dirty war of occupation, but the UK’s Dirty Tricks Brigade have no effective opposition in their theatre of operations. Consequently we are doomed to forever being reactive to their fictitious agenda, and never able to take the Security initiative ourselves. Our first line of defence is basically rumour and hearsay, and that isn’t good enough.
Had Scotland under Sturgeon’s “leadership” chosen a different path, that is via a Constitutional Backstop with Scotland’s Sovereignty at it’s heart, then Scotland would not now be hostage to a Westminster Section 30 veto on Scottish Democracy, and if our Sovereignty had been reaffirmed, rather than subjugated, Scotland could have called Westminster’s bluff on reserved matters such as Security and Broadcasting. We could have set up our own Agencies to shadow Westminster’s activities, and we would now be in a much healthier position.
The whole landscape of reserved and devolved powers is simply a construct of Holyrood Government which “apparently” accepts subservience to Westminster’s authority. A Scottish Senate or similar Democratic body sitting outside Holyrood, which swears fealty to Scotland’s sovereign people and our ancient Constitution, would not be under any such constraints. In my rebellious opinion, Scotland should have been robustly testing these boundaries continually and without respite.
@Lorna Campbell
It’s ever decreasing circles with newspapers, they no longer have the cash to do any real long term investigation so just churn out whatever produces the best online click returns. But this poor quality just loses more readers and so on down an ever decreasing spiral of poor quality. Once it reaches its nadir the state needs to step in to finance them to just be propaganda outlets, are we there yet, oh! we are.
who rattled your cage – I keep trying to read your blog – get the first page/heading but no content.
What am I doing wrong?
A Person @12:05pm
In the tech circles I hang out in the Guardian gets referenced a lot. It has realised that the future of newspapers is open to only a few global, brands and so they are pushing hard to build an American audience as they conveniently speak a lot of English over there. Everybody wants to be like The Economist. The Guardian wants to be the voice for the every-so-slightly-but-not-really left-leaning, tech-savvy, intelligensia of the world.
It is ass-kissing. It is also part of the Atlanticist narrative that we see as the world splits into three spheres of influence: America, China and Russia. But more than all of these it’s just where the subscribers are.
OT but we’re better than the parochial xenophobes who brought us Brexit. The law is not a static slab of monolithic tombs, or rather is shouldn’t be, as that stifles social progress and human innovation. American social science and legal scholarship has been the leading source of intellectual opposition to authoritarianism and totalitarianism, since WWII. So I’m not going to stand around while American know-how is disparaged by a tendency towards parochialism.
link to guides.library.harvard.edu
@ClanDonald
If the media goes big on character assassination now, what will be left come the run-up to next year’s Holyrood election?
I reckon they’re playing the long game. This could be countered to an extent by the formation of a high profile List Party, but that in turn may wish to delay playing its hand too soon.
Black Joan @1:17 pm
Exactly. Though a Holmes story title that would best suit Murrell would be The Adventure of The Crooked Man.
OT
Light relief… This pic is of a wee boy taken in the 19th Century. He’s in hot water for eating all the pears in the basket.
When I first saw the pic, I thought it looked a bit like Ian Blackford, and I can’t ‘unsee’ it now. Lol. Is it just me? Or do you see the same resemblance?
Whoops…. link might help…
link to twitter.com
-Jfngw-
I would add that as papers’ audience shrinks they pander to that audience. I am in my fifties but even I find the likes of the Express or Sunday Post to be ludicrously outdated, to my kids these are like things off another planet. They are more likely to grow a tail than read such publications. Today’s Express, I noticed when I went out to the shop, had a picture of Captain Tom Moore and the Queen and the headline “we need to be more like the greatest generation”… I mean, ffs!
-Stuart Mackay-
I hadn’t thought of that, you mean that in the future news will be controlled by a handful of global brands? In that way the Guardian’s strategy makes sense. It is at least better written than the New York Times!
Holymacross: “ I’d like to know how Mr Salmond lost his seat.”
He lost his seat along with so many others because Sturgeon’s campaign was terrible. She downplayed indyref2, argued that it was already in the bag, and talked bland pish about staying in the single market. The MSM were keen to say the opposite is true, that she lost because of her commitment to indyref2, but that’s implausible crap.
Poor Alex. They are trying to wear him down. As the Chief Operating Officer of the SNP replied to Murrell that the more fronts on which they could keep Alex fighting the better.
That strategy is still ongoing it seems.
I would be up to contribute to any fund A!ex chooses.
Big Jock: “ Salmond could make her an offer not to pursue the case if she stepped down of her own accord.”
Nah.
Breeks @1:35 pm
Aye, there is a resemblance indeed.
What a daft, old-fashioned outfit though…….and I see the kid in the photo’s wearing one too.
@David Gray, 12.42
Good summary.
@silver Darling, 12.23
and those who are just bonkers like Leasky. Is he or is he just doing his job as an agent of influence for Integrity Initiative?
“The Integrity Initiative is just a small gear in a semi-covert military-intel & corporate backed op spanning Western govs, NGO’s & media. This propaganda machine was built to hype a new Cold War, ramp up military spending & undermine any politician or critic who gets in the way.“ Max Blumenthal, December 2018
A Person
I meant that there is only space for a few global brands. I had not considered “controlled” but you’re definitely right. The money is sure to follow.
Did Murrell put out on Social. media the comments about the Met investigation on purpose. . . . . . so they could be leaked?
-Cirsium-
And yet quite a number of these people can be found near the top of the SNP.
For me, a major reason why I support Indy is British foreign policy. I’m not naive, I accept the need for a strong defence and an alliance with other countries, sometimes even unsavoury ones. But the Anglo-American war machine (in which, let’s be honest, Scots have always played a disproportionate role, both as the average soldier and as the generals and politicians) is the cause of so much suffering. It would be a right shame if we became independent just to send the Scottish Air Force to bomb Syrians and Libyans, or the Scottish SAS to shoot striking workers in African diamond mines. It really doesn’t make much difference when your family have been killed whether the people doing it were from Britain or an independent Scotland!
-Stuart Mackay-
I actually meant more “dominated” really but yes the money will follow!
@Cirsium
Yes Leasky and II go way back – didn’t he say they just bought him sandwiches when he was rumbled for attending one of their seminars? His background is apparently studying Russian influence in journalism and he spent some happy years in Moscow. Today he has turned his laser focus on QAnon.
O/T Wendy Alexander’s husband and BT economist has formally changed gender.
link to archive.is
Daisy Walker – sorry, I don’t know. Maybe try just going to the main blog without a page after it and see. If that doesn’t work, I am Scoobied, sorry.
Whorattledyourcage.blogspot.com
Soon be doing more stuff for that blog, actually, on both Scotland and America, and their tragic increasing intertwining.
Many many moons ago on this very site I appealed to Stu Campbell to get a crowdfunder going for legal costs for the purpose of taking on the media for there distortion of the truth & that first in line for legal action would have been Bbc Scotland .
WoS being the most supported crowdfunded site could have easily achieved the task of taking the Bbc to court & all the rest of the MsM would sit up and take notice but sadly to our cost the suggestion wasn’t taken up .
Note to Alex Salmond get a crowdfunder on the go My wallets to hand .
@Stuart Mckay, 1.22
Re The Guardian
link to dailymaverick.co.za
“The Guardian had gone in six short years from being the natural outlet to place stories exposing wrongdoing by the security state to a platform trusted by the security state to amplify its information operations. A once relatively independent media platform has been largely neutralised by UK security services fearful of being exposed further. “ Just as the NYT is the US security state’s platform.
Garavelli seems to have friends at COPFS too. COPFS is worryingly reminding me of the corrupt N Irish judiciary and police investigations during the N Irish Civil War which lasted from 1970 to the Good Friday Agreement.
Police Scotland in their selectively political view of miscreants reminds me of the RUC modus operandi. The RUC were of course supported by an equally corrupt Britnat judiciary.
And of course, as in N Ireland, we have a Britnat media and Britnat tools like Garavlli, protected and able to smear whomsoever they like and get away with it. The papers that publish these lies also know that POlice Scotland will never go after them.
It is truly chilling and the tentacles of the Britnat deep state and Mi5 machinations will only get worse, as the polls for Indy rise.
ronnie anderson
Do you really believe the indy movement would get a fair trial against the British Establishment BBC by suing in the British Establishment Scottish courts?
This isn’t Cliff Richard suing for breach of privacy; it’s politics that threaten the British Establishment’s very existence.
Scottish courts are emblazoned with the United Kingdom coat of arms.
That tells you all you need to know.
Garavelli’s journalism is invariably iffy and second-rate, the best compliment I can pay her.
Then again, the British establishment is more than happy to promote the mediocre when it says what they want said.
Since when was crowdfunding illegal?
I personally don’t contribute to anything except cancer charities and food banks, but that is my personal choice. What anyone else does is their business.
Crowdfunding is the same as asking someone for a couple of quid until pay day. It’s up to the individual concerned if they wish to donate or not.
Perhaps she should concentrate on the corporate charity muggers that haunt the city streets. That is intimidation in my view, not asking for help.
Re Alex Salmond losing his seat; Yes, Tory dark money may have had played a role but I attribute to two reasons. Reason one was that the unionist votes coalesced into one (Tory) candidate of their choice. Some remarked that for the longest time voting for the SNP in NE Scotland was a tactical ploy to keep Labour out. In 2017 the Tory/unionist candidate campaigned clearly that a vote for them is for saving the union, and to a lesser extent riding on the post EU referendum anti EU sentiment. As some had remarked, Nicola/SNP did nothing on independence/breaking the union front and waffled about getting a good EU deal.
Second reason was that although Labour did not win the 2017 EU, Jeremy Corbyn did campaign good enough on the (mostly English) domestic issues. I dare say he did not even emphasise on the EU ref results. Again Nicola/SNP did not hammer it down that such issues were devolved matters and wouldn’t make much difference if Corbyn were to be elected. Nicola/SNP were also hemmed by the fact that in order to counter Corbyn/promote radical solutions, she/SNP needed to clearly campaign for independence (which she/SNP clearly were avoiding). This was also exacerbated by the fact that Corbyn was given prominent coverage by BBC (and Skynews at least here in Malaysia). It was enough to either divert votes to other parties or more importantly created (SNP) voter apathy due to lack of direction on independence. If not mistaken, SNP haemorrhaged a lot of votes in 2017.
In short, SNP in 2017 were where Scottish Labour was in 2015. Stuck between two very clear campaigning positions/manifestos.
As I mentioned a while back, something drastically changed Nicola’s viewpoint on independence between the day she gave a speech on the EU referendum result and 2017 GE. I can only suspect but I think Alex Salmond had clashed with her on how to take forward the drive for independence. She must have had taken it as a threat to her position. As we all know, It went downhill from that point onwards.
In hindsight, that period was also the point I suspected that something was not right with the SNP leadership. You were literally presented with an open goal, yet you missed it. 2019 GE merely confirmed it. After BoJo’s election the only route left was/is to actively campaign for independence. Nothing less. Other than that, it is a dereliction of duty bordering of criminal negligence. Being the union now literally costs lives.
Bring on the crowdfunder.
Good luck to Professor Brian Ashcroft, though that still does not mean trans-women are women, they are trans-women. Nor does it mean that sex is the same as gender, or even interchangeable categories, unless you are determined to destroy the epistemic coherence of Scots law.
THE POLITICS OF REASON: CRITICAL LEGAL THEORY AND LOCAL SOCIAL THOUGHT
link to law.duke.edu
@Daisy Walker
What is special at 60% which will make Johnson go ‘oh i don’t mind going down in history as the PM who lost Scotland’?
Johnson loses NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING by saying No continually regardless of how high Yes is. He loses if he says Yes. His backbenchers and wider party will lynch him, his legacy will be shot and he will lose Scotland just as WM needs our funding with Brexit.
There is nothing special about 60% except that the sainted Nicola said she requires it. If we get the polls there they won’t be stable enough, not all the pollsters say it, or oh look, a squirrel! It was a sop to kick Indy into the long grass.
It has anyway long been superseded by the need to get the economy back to before Covid. So that’s 10-20 years at least with the effects of Brexit.
Take off your SNP tinted glasses they are stopping you from correctly perceiving reality.
As for WGD he has come over all Woke. He should know that being exclusively same sex attracted is Transphobic. The TRA’s have come for the Lesbians, the Gay Men are next.
In fact it has happened, just like all the Lesbian dating apps are full of Trans women so is grindr apparently. The straight guys who think their women are lesbians you see while the gay guys who think they are women are gay guys. And no, they are not drag queens, they are different again. Drag is not Trans no matter what the TRA’s and Woke say.
I’m not a reactionary bigot, I’m trained to combine science and ethics with the law. Scots law is being destroyed by the poorly informed, who are being enabled by those who appear to be politically malicious. Or entirely positivist in their approach to the law. Either way, we need to save Scotland’s democracy from anti-foundational legal instrumentalism. As always (see Brexit).
Making the case for mandatory feminist legal education
link to cba.org
Alex Salmond lost the REF at the last gasp with his suspect t.v. performance against Darling on currency. An ex chief Economist of the R.B.S. babbling about flying saucers at the moment of truth for the waiting audience of ‘persuadables’ stretched credibility.I have always doubted him since then. His resignation on the brink of ‘ I’ve been to the mountaintop’ Martin Luther King style, was bogus and allowed Sturgeon’s accession.
Despite this,In one year we gained all but three seats and 50% of the vote plus the Green vote, adding up to a ‘gold standard’ plebiscite for an Independence Declaration. Instead we got choruses of ‘ode to Joy’ and total humiliation. Brexit legislation, which should have also been stopped in its tracks on a constitutional basis, all led to 1/5 million lost votes in 2017. Salmond paid for his and Sturgeon’s craven surrender in the face of Baroness BigMouth and her unionist drumbeating mantra. Salmond has suffered enough, but is no plaster saint.
Now all the rats are leaving a sinking ship; backstabbing and treachery rules. No plan, no organisation; no resistance. The shadow government is real: the building created under the toom tabard tra*tor Mundell, now open for business with 3000 lackeys ready to slowly evicerate the toytown assembly, which never was a ‘reconvened parliament’, but a facade and cover for chancers and tenth rate imposters to preen in.
WGD and the rest think that the demographics will save us. They fail to note that our population is growing not through natural indigenous means ( our birth suplu rate is the lowest since records began) but via a net loss of Scots emigrating, and replacement by larger numbers of RUK. Nearly 20% of rural Scotland is in the hands of second home owners, and the centre of our Capital is emptying of indigenous residents as their properties are being turned into ‘Airnb’ lets. Last time the RUK vote was 72% ‘NO’. There is no reason to expect any difference in that percentage. The’ white flight’ continues and is less now retired and old, and more young and economically active, but working remotely for English based organisations. An increasingly attractive proposition for people currently living in England who can now work legitimately in this manner.
We the people of Scotland abandoned, as ever on the field of battle against the English and their Caledonian slaves, by our ‘leaders’..weak, corrupt and gutless. Where are the natural leaders to rescue us from the spies MI5 moles infesting the SNP and Scottish Government?The plan to compromise everyone who could do anything to challenge Mother England’s last colony has been almost fulfilled. And under the auspices of the wisest fool in Christendom.
NS wants to go, that’s why there is such an unseemly rush about placing Angus R. Once he’s ensconced, international pastures new beckon for her.
Should Mr Salmond require Crowdfunding then he would be pleasantly surprised, I’m sure.
Allium @ 5.17pm: I should have thought it’s more a case of Nicola Sturgeon knowing she’s about to get the boot. I don’t know why she is clinging on. The longer she does, the worse it’s going to be for her.
.
Dear Dani Garavelli,
Thankyou for being an award winning journalist and writing in such a manner for a once esteemed publication, that it has already gone bankrupt once
link to beta.companieshouse.gov.uk
I am of course saddened at all the truthful and honest journalists who have lost their jobs,
But with a great sense of optimism I look forward to seeing your crowdfunder to keep yourself in some form of employment and to stop your house being repossessed, as quite frankly when Scotland on Sunday and the Scotsman newspapers go bankrupt AGAIN, a great deal of that failure will be down to YOUR lazy, shoddy bastardisation of the English language that passes for the pish you profess to punt out as self aggrandising “award winning” column inches.
Garavelli, you should be had up in front of the courts for violation of Trading Standards. You are a liar and a faded hack who is not fit to write for the Beano.
You are to journalism what Harold Shipman was to his role as press officer to the charity: Age Concern.
Thankyou for helping kill off what is left of the twitching corpse of Scottish print media.
.
Dear Alex Salmond,
Today appeared to be one of excrement after Dani Garavelki soiled herself with literal stool.
But I cheered up as her putrid lies reminded me of the fate that is inexorably headed towards all those lying journalists. Bankruptcy, destitution and homelessness. It is difficult to suppress the schadenfreude when a spokesperson for the print media appears on television seeking a government bailout for their rancid product.
The evening got better as so many friends and colleagues on this Wings Over Scotland website offered to contribute towards your crowdfunder. I would add my wallet to that BUT with a caveat please.
Alex, we both hold qualifications in economics. It is madness to gift anymore money to very wealthy lawyers and advocates. Especially solicitors with the surname Sturgeon.
There are far more economically literate things to do with money.
Might I respectfully suggest the large amount of crowdfunder monies awaiting your next move are, instead, directed towards the establishment of an IndyRef guaranteeing LIST political party?
The legal profession have enough money. Time to spend our funds on creating something that will HELP the SNP get rid of Sturgeon and her Wokeist infestation. Return the SNP to the honourable grass root membership. A new IndyRef2 List Party would NUDGE the SNP into actually doing what you had them do on 18th September 2014.
Alex, one last thing. I am truly sorry for your loss and grief. That someone you nurtured, tutored, cared for and helped secure the job she coveted as First Minister would staab you in the back in the Machiavellian way she has. She is a second class, Borgen watching fan-girl with no bottle and little courage.
To discover that Nicola Sturgeon is coward may be upsetting.
A difficult burden to carry. Almost as bad as being stitched up by a cabal of politicians who gerrymandered events to halt the return of Bonnie Dundee.
I use the word “gerrymandered” advisedly. The phrase I would really like to deploy legally, is PERVERTING THE COURSE OF JUSTICE.
So maybe it’s time to dust off your retirement sinecure and return to the frontline politics you were built for.
A proper and honest person in the position of First Minister means a new set of fair hands on the levers of control. That is all-important if we are to make headway. To secure Independence and to exact justivThat way we can see the books and ingathered evidence to put those on trial who should be in the dock. The liars and those who would jail an innocent man for political convenience.
Stuart Campbell has already placed sufficient evidence in the public domain that SHOULD lead Police Scotland to already be interviewing Peter Murrell for suspicion of perverting the course of justice.
Is Garavelli Italian for made up garbage?
Journalists are whores.
@ Muscleguy
‘There is nothing special about 60% except that the sainted Nicola said she requires it.’
60% gives us, the Yes movement a clear, achievable goal to aim for.
60% support for Indy among Scottish voters, is bigger than 50+1% – and given what we are up against, the very least that we should AIM for.
60% support for Indy puts pressure on ‘the Sainted Nicola’ – not Boris (Boris knows full well England cannot afford to lose the cash cow that is Scotland). And it basically calls her out – this is her benchmark, not ours.
The process of campaigning for 60% before years end, identifies potential electable local candidates (just as it did in Indy Ref1), 60% + electable local candidates = an alternative to the woke vote ‘hush for Indy’ SNP, in a timescale that – just – gives the grass root members of the SNP enough time, and leverage, to get the SNP to put a plebecite HE in their manifesto. Without 60% they can keep saying ‘Scotland isn’t ready for another IndyRef/Plebecite’.
I took pelters here a long time ago, before it became ‘fashionable to criticise’ the SNP. I don’t think it would inaccurate to say I was one of the first to say ‘look at the ground that needs to be covered’ and if it is not being done, start to worry that we have a ‘new labour’ situation. That it will happen, a when – not an if, given the MO of the Brit Nat establishment.
Hope the above makes sense and clarifies things somewhat.
With regards WGD and those who comment there – deeply saddened to see the comments many of them are making, and what appears to be a shift in ground from WGD.
Some of them cannot – on the most heartfelt basis – contemplate that those high up in the SNP might have been nobbled. It would – and perhaps – will devastate them.
But here is something they, we, all of us can agree on – we get support for Indy over 60% by years end and we save our country.
Others – will have been or had loved ones threatened. A malicious criminal allegation perhaps, or pointing out how easy it would be to deport, or to kill.
There is so much evidence that that is the British Establishments method of working. And they would not be doing their job if they did not do this.
We (and by that I mean the grass roots – not the likes of CM or The Rev) can scratch about looking for evidence, weigh it all up, mull it over, and get thoroughly wrapped up in it – or we can campaign, cover the ground and get support for Indy over 60% by years end.
They can step on the flowers, but they can’t stop spring.
Hope the above makes sense. Kind regards.
The imperialists have never gone away, they just inhabit different bodies, the great imperialist now is america, england started it all with Richard 1, now england keeps us in the game through our association with the americans, we send our boys and girls to die with all the young brave american boys who only signed up to get out of their economic situations
Its a crazy world we live in, but dying as Clint Eastwood said in one of his films, is not much of a living
@ David Caledonia at 1:07 pm
I agree
Gore Vidal assessed America (often) The Last Empire and Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace sum up the US well, they are the same as the people they say they hate
I’ll happily chip in for each and every defamation case he has to fight against the ass-hats, and I am sure many more would also do the same.
O/T It is the case that breaking the treaty with the eu,is just a dry run for breaking the treaty of union.