Nip and tuck
It’d be nice if the Scottish Government could make up its mind whether it wants booze to be more expensive or not.
If only so we could all stop having our intelligence insulted quite this crassly.
The MUP rise will increase the price of a typical bottle by 30%.
Alcohol duty currently makes up around 73% of the price of whisky, which on an £18.20 bottle would be £13.29. Reducing that by 5% would make the duty £12.62 – a reduction of 67p, giving a retail price of £17.53.
If the Scottish Government wants whisky to cost £17.53 rather than £18.20 or £14, for good or ill, that is entirely within its power. All it has to do is make MUP 63p rather than 65p. (Which would come to £17.64 rather than £17.53, but close enough. God knows we don’t want to start making these mouth-breathing dimwits calculate fractions.)
Since all the extra money from MUP goes straight to retailers rather than the Scottish Government, it wouldn’t even cost it a penny. But instead they hold voters in such utter contempt that they issue statements like this, assuming Scots are such catastrophic morons that they won’t notice, even when less than a month separates the two events.
We don’t know about you, readers, but we’re so sick of it we could use a drink.
“But instead they hold voters in such utter contempt that they issue statements like this, assuming Scots are such catastrophic morons that they won’t notice”
Unfortunately a large percentage of the general populaton fit that demographic and the evidence is in the polling for the SNP vs Alba…
What is the effective duty in Scotland when you include MUP?
In the Herald a couple of months ago there was an article on one of the big multinational alcohol companies unveiling its made in China single malt. I give it five years until the distilleries here are replaced with car washes.
As you mentioned, the SNP thinks its voters are morons. I’d say that’s a very accurate description.
It’s cheaper to buy a bottle of decent Scotch in Dundee, Illinois than it is in Dundee, Angus.
Crazy.
Vote SNP get the greens. The reality is the Greens are running the country and the SNP is only the face of the government.
That Clown is my Mp. What were the voters thinking as I spoilt my paper than vote for that chancer of a Politician
This should be posted in the previous thread but with regard to the obesity crisis what no one has yet mentioned is the over prescription of anti depressants a known side effect of which is loss of motivation and over eating.
So based on the evidence in front of your nose, what would an independent Scotland be like? Would you want it? Why?
As long as the edicts, on how you should live your life, continue to flow from the moralising busy-bodies, you can be sure that giving them the complete control is probably off the table.
That’s an education for me.
I thought the minimum pricing thing was to stop kids and alcoholics from buying 2 Litres of Blow your head off fire water for a couple of quid.
I had no idea that you still got screwed if you like an odd glass of a special malt.
How about a tax on the pay of MP’s who come up with embarrassing statements like that.
It’s like the Tory Government aiding the Israeli Army who are killing the innocent but they are really nice asking if we could send a couple of trucks every now and then with water and food for a tiny fraction of them.
Over-prescription of the SNP, a known side effect of which is loss of motivation and over-eating!
Wouldn’t it all be easier if the SNP campaigned for our independence and thereby cut the UK government out of the equation?
What do you expect? Manufacture something with Westminster, then throw out “facts / reports” which shows this “policy” saved lives based on their made up figures.
But it won’t affect what they need to expense, or their subsidised arrangements.
Politicians really are a different breed of contemptuous cunts.
Also carried over from the previous thread, “From 1946 to 1953, at the Walter E. Fernald State School in Massachusetts, in an experiment sponsored by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and the Quaker Oats corporation, 73 children were fed oatmeal containing radioactive calcium and other radioisotopes, to track “how nutrients were digested”.”
“We don’t know about you, readers, but we’re so sick of it we could use a drink.”
And you’re far better placed to enjoy it than we are.
Higher taxes, and now deliberately inflated prices on food and drink. To go with the accelerated export of our oil & gas jobs south of the border.
Ethnic cleansing? Maybes that’s taking it too far. But it’s certainly not going to help with wee, pretendy FM Yousaf’s “million New Scots” plan.
Unless he’s angling for a non-drinking demographic, who don’t share our culinary tastes. Then it’s a stoater o’ an idea.
Be very afraid, folks.
“The Tory whisky tax is holding back growth in this globally renowned industry and punishing local distilleries for paying billions into the Treasury’s coffers.”
The SNP have had the power to end the union since 8 May 2015. That is almost 9 years. They could do it tomorrow. They could do it today. They could do it now.
If they end the union, they can immediately end the Tory tax that is holding back growth in the whisky industry. If they end the tory tax, they can automatically stop the punishment on local distilleries and give the industry a boost. If they end the union and with it the tory tax, those billions of pounds of Scottish money would stop being siphoned into the UK Treasury coffers and would remain in Scotland instead.
If those distilleries are still paying those taxes, the Scottish whisky industry is still being punished and our money is still making its way into England’s coffers rather than remaining here, it is only because the SNP has refused point blank to do the job they were elected to do: to end the union.
“anything less will be a betrayal of the Scotch whisky industry”.
9 years of taking yes voters for complete fools, 9 years of feeding us carrots, 9 years of abusing our trust and anti-union votes to preserve the union instead of to end it, have been a disgusting betrayal of the Scottish people by the SNP.
It is always very easy to spot the bit of dust in the eye of the tory opponent, but for some reason, incredibly difficult to spot the massive trunk of sequoia stuck in the SNP’s own.
The SNP can stop that tax now and stop all that money departing Scotland to go into England’s coffers. So why don’t they?
Because whining about it is far easier, takes much less effort and does not compromise their pensions and sinecures.
The SNP are nothing but greedy charlatans.
Stuart MacKay,
Regardless of who is in charge or how much you like or don’t like a political party pre independence, Scotland should waste as little time as possible in facilitating the ability to make our own decisions.
No matter whether the SNP, Labour or Conservatives are in power should not derail us from the goal of self governance.
Of course, in any election available, we should vote in independence minded parties and definitely none of the above.
Is JM a kiddie fiddler?
Maybe that’s going too far.
See how it’s done?
MUPpets.
Aside from anything else, MUP doesn’t work.
The stereotype about ‘the young team’ being dissuaded by higher prices is nonsense – Buckfast,for example, has always been more expensive than plenty of ‘regular’ wines.
The people who know most about addiction to a whole range of drugs have been ignored in the consultations prior to legislation making its way through the parliament. Just because Alex Salmond was involved in introducing (and very keen on) MUP and no other parliament had yet attempted it, doesn’t make it right.
And the whole topic of ‘addiction’ generally tends to focus on the obvious mind-altering substances, legal or not, that create the most visible problems.
They can raise the MUP to 65p, £1.50, whatever they like but so long as they insist on ignoring the causes of different types of addiction they’ll get nowhere. All they’ll do is raise the cost of living further, which leads to greater poverty, depression, ‘dislocation’ and, wait for it…more addiction.
“All they’ll do is raise the cost of living further, which leads to…”
More money departing Scotland and making its way into England’s coffers.
Mia @ 2:19 pm
Yes, “the Scotch whisky industry” is mostly owned and exploited by interests outside Scotland, much like the rest of Scotland’s considerable assets and resources. The UK legislature and its little local helpers at Holyrood continue the colonial racket.
Only independence can stop the plunder of Scotland in its various forms, such as this current example:
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/03/01/the-freeport-ruse-exposed-2/
Alf Baird
Ignored
says:
1 March, 2024 at 3:03 pm
Mia @ 2:19 pm
“Only independence can stop the plunder of Scotland in its various forms, such as this current example:
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/03/01/the-freeport-ruse-exposed-2/”
Ald – how would independence stop foreign companies owning and controlling Scottish ‘assets’ unless all such assets were nationalised? I.e. we were to be run as a command economy?
Although the extra money from MUP goes straight to retailers, the arseholes are planning some special health tax for shops and supermarkets who sell alcohol and tobacco.
They’re bloody hypocrites – the MUP only affects people on low incomes whose 10 cans of Tennants or bottle of Bells goes up but the 70k a year arseholes at Holyrood’s weekend bottle of Lagavulin is unaffected.
Ennui;
‘It’s the revenues, stoopid’. But you knew that already.
Viscount Ennui @ 3:19 pm
“how would independence stop foreign companies owning and controlling Scottish ‘assets’”
Through foreign ownership laws, regulation, taxation and/or other appropriate measures that are common features in most if not all sovereign states. Hence Scots can only do this after reclaiming national sovereignty, i.e. becoming independent.
Stu!
I don’t know about being taken for a ride with alcohol prices up here or food, or gender issues, which are all considerably smaller issues than being taken for a ride with the fallacious treaty of union,
The moron jokes on the Scots.
Don’t vote!
A theme has developed over the last few years. The SNP will focus their energy on anything but major issues that could lead to an improvement in the lives of Scottish people. Whether that be Independence, the Economy, Grangemouth, Bi-Fab and the supply chain for the renewable industries. You name it and the SNP/Greens won’t do it. It’s about them and their self interest. Look at the evidence. Serial bad leglisators post Alex Salmond. Money wasted to the tune of hundreds of millions. No vision in public services eg SNHS. Thankfully Alba are beginning to make a breakthrough in the polls. A small indicator but 2026 is a long way for the SNP/ Greens to mark time. Especially since numerous crisis are yet to hit.
At least Alcohol Tax comes back in revenue. Giving it a t least a theoretical chance of being used to do some good in helping those with addiction (yes definitely theoretical ?) whereas the MUP rise just goes to the retailers.
@ George Ferguson
It doesn’t half grate watching all this crap play out. So much focus and revenue being wasted on the wrong priorities.
Existing infrastructure going to rack and ruin really boils my piss. Yet we have politicians and civil servants coming out with garbage like the above and previous article highlight, when they can’t even manage to maintain basic services like road maintenance.
They need to stop spaffing time and money on the wrong things and get to grips with the management of our infrastructure because everyday they let that slide into further disrepair through lack of maintenance, it will cost way more in long term to recitify the damage.
Today was quite a day as a simple mountainbike ride down to the riverbank for a litter picking session (to burn off all the oat calories ingested in the flapjacks last night and muesli this morning) escalated to dealing with what is quite a serious issue, and it’s going to be interesting to see how it gets dealt with as it involves foresight and proper engineering solutions.
I had noticed something was off when I was fishing a month ago in a backwater off the river as there were no pike and that is highly unusual as they usually enter this backwater from the main river in winter to spawn in spring.
I’ve been noticing the local river has been altering its flow characteristics over recent years to the point it doesn’t require the river level to be so high for it to flow through this backwater.
And today it became apparent what the issue was, as the backwater level has dropped enough due to recent dry spell to show that the increased flow through the backwater has scoured away the river bed to the point it has completely undermined a sewer pipe and its supports which carries waste from the village to the river where it is discharged into the moving water.
It looks like one of the many trees the beavers have gnawed has washed down through the backwater, got caught under the sewer pipe and the force of flowing water had leveraged the tree trunk and broken the steel sewer pipe resulting in the sewerage dumping into the relatively still waters of the backwater, and not continuing a further 1/4 mile through the pipe to be discharged and dispersed into the main river flow.
Fortunately I managed to get a picture of the sewage discharging from the broken pipe as it is a pumped system so was obviously in pumping mode when I was there.
But it looks like the ecological damage has been done as the stillwater now looks and smells minging with no signs of aquatic life. 🙁
I reported it earlier today stating that this was an urgent situation due to the pollution aspects. It’s relatively simple to put a temporary repair in place by entering the 5 foot deep water and installing a 10 foot section of pipe with couplers onto the damaged pipe which is about 2 feet below the surface. No sign of any activity 8 hours on though…
They could have initiated an emergency response that means they isolate the pumps and use trucks to collect the sewerage building up in the holding tanks instead of pumping it down to the river… But it looks like continuing to pollute is deemed okay…
But the long term solution is going to require a great deal more engineering to rectify and future proof the problem, and that will no doubt involve all manner of organisations with significant costs.
I will be raising a glass or five when these nuSNP moronic grifters are voted out of office.
They are running around like headless chickens trying to find some leverage to keep their very well paid MSP and MP jobs.
Sturgeon’s little helpers deserve all that’s coming. And then some.
I am not a fan if Mr Galloway but it will be good to see him in the house of commons kicking over the coffee table. I doubt they will buy him off.
Calling out Starmer and Sunak and hopefully the SNP tumchies for what they are.
@Dan 7:14pm
An excellent investigation Dan. You are definitely more Green than the Greens. I hesitate to ask who is your local political representative in Holyrood? This should be the type of issue that they should be getting exercised about. Take some photographs if you have done so already. Send them to SEPA and your local press outlet. But don’t do anything over WhatsApp.
@Dan
Re your pipe incident. It is probably ‘in the system’
I was told a story a while ago, which I have no reason to disbelieve.
A cow fell off a small cliff locally onto a beach.
It broke a leg.
In days past a local chap with a rifle would have dispatched the poor beast. End of story.
Nowadays, of course, things have to go through the system.
The Vet (30 miles away) had to be called.
The coastguard was notified because a beach was involved.
The fire brigade turned up, in case of heavy lifting, I presume.
The local plod may have got involved; I can’t recall.
Eventually, when the vet decided to begin his journey, he phoned up to discuss the situation and decided that the best plan would be that the man with the rifle should shoot the poor animal.
Everyone gets paid and are happy, … except the cow obvs.
I wonder why everything is so expensive?
George Ferguson @ 5:29 pm
“A theme has developed over the last few years. The SNP will focus their energy on anything but major issues that could lead to an improvement in the lives of Scottish people.”
In postcolonial theory this is referred to as ‘mystification policies’ which make the compromised national party look busy as it takes the movement and the people up a blind alley.
In other words, much as we have seen since 2014, we are in an unfortunate period during decolonization where liberation is intentionally delayed longer than necessary by a compromised national party elite which ‘moves closer to colonialism’.
@ George Ferguson
My elected reps are not worth contacting or even mentioning. It’d be a total waste of effort as many past experiences have proven. And due to the corrupted Party political situation I choose to boycott any dealing with them and just continue to do the work myself as I have done for years. No point putting in effort for cretins to take credit.
I’ve given Scottish Water a chance to sort the issue themselves as it is their infrastructure. It really shouldn’t require another parasitic organisation enforcer to get anything done; Plus I have reservations about going to SEPA as their double standards are atrocious from various dealings with them in the past.
They are still barely functioning after that cyber attack and covid, so it isn’t exactly providing a great example of proficiency in protection services when it couldn’t even protect itself…
And anyway, I will be very interested to see if they get all angsty and awkward with reams of rules and guidelines which any potential future remedial works must adhere to, because I know SEPA authorised a ten tonne tracked digger to enter the river and dig up the river bed to create more flow character for the fishing beat, when that very same section of riverbed has a protected species living on it. But the SEPA dude allegedly goes fishing with the lad that runs that beat so whatevs to the ecosystem…
@Dan 7:24pm
I got an answer back on your to your aviation fuel proposal for Grangemouth. Technically the plant could be converted to process aviation fuel but the numbers are not in it. 1 million litres of fuel for Edinburgh Airport a day is not enough. Roughly 164 litres in a barrel. Grangemouth has gone from 800000 barrels to 100000 barrels a day from the Forties pipeline. Equally biofuels is a non starter from a numbers viewpoint. The Scottish Government openly lied to the Scottish people when they said the closure of Grangemouth in Parliament that only 400 jobs would be lost. This statement made no account of the overheads of a large complex site being levied on the rest Plastics etc. The complex will be lost and with the multiplier effect 10000 jobs. With 6 refineries in England Sunak can say we do not worry about energy security today. Meanwhile Radcliffe plans to open the largest Plastic Plant in Europe in Brussels. He is on record saying he can’t do business with the SNP Scottish Government. As always the closure of Grangemouth is political. There is a smaller Refinery in England.
As to MUP of alcoholic drink, has anyone investigated the effect on booze sales, close to both sides of our southern border? Is it way down on the north side, and way up on the south side?
Do the good folks in Coldstream use the bars in the hotel less than a mile away, across the river in Cornhill-on-Tweed? Of course they do.
If one lives in Gretna for example, an off-licence in Longtown is only three or four miles distant, and the big supermarket outlets in Carlisle are closer than 10 quick miles on the M74/M6.
Is there aa opportunity for nice wee ‘cottage industry’ in the Borders areas, of Booze-Runners? One could see a need for the SNP top appoint an Eliot MacNess to sort that out!
“Eliot Ness was leader of a team of law enforcement agents nicknamed The Untouchables, handpicked for their incorruptibility.”
Oh dear … incorruptibility … Scottish politics …
Can anyone see a wee problem there?
@Alf Baird 8:45pm
I get it Alf. The Grangemouth decision is a clear example of muscular Unionism. I have written to Dan about the technalities just now but it’s clear the closure of Grangemouth is a political decision.
Folk need to listen to this…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-snbxogLfQ&ab_channel=JudgeNapolitano-JudgingFreedom
Deaths of children killed PER DAY in conflict zones… 2.30 mins
Iraq war 0.6
Ukraine 0.7
Yemen 1.5
Afghanistan 2
Syria 3
Gaza 136 (no this is not a typo)
Yeah you read that right.
If you can’t admit this is genocide you are lost.
(trying this again with a few modifications to avoid moderation)
Folk need to listen to this…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-snbxogLfQ&ab_channel=JudgeNapolitano-JudgingFreedom
Deaths of children killed PER DAY in conflict zones… 2.30 mins
Ir@q war 0.6
Ukr@ine 0.7
Yemen 1.5
Afgh@nistan 2
Syri@ 3
Gaz@ 136 (no this is not a typo)
Yeah you read that right. 136 per fucking day…
If you can’t admit this is genocide you are lost.
@ George Ferguson
Volume wise I’d stated info from a reliable source who told me Edinburgh airport gets through approximately a million litres of JetA1 fuel a day in summer; But I did also add that both Glasgow and Newcastle airports also get their fuel from Grangemouth.
Then consider all the 28sec kerosene heating oil and 35sec red diesel volumes Scotland gets through.
@Dan 9:27pm
I get that Dan. But a million litres is equivalent to roughly 6100 barrels. Grangemouth has been reduced by hundreds of thousands barrels per day. The answer was to diversified into the petrol chemical by products of their Plastics division to make it viable. Just like Radcliffes plan outside Brussels. Of course there are no minutes available for Ineos and Scottish Government meetings. On the current trajectory Grangemouth complex will close. And West Lothian might as well shut down too. This is what net zero means. Poverty on biblical scales. The resourceful will survive that is me and you. An easier solution would be for the Scottish Government to argue for strategic National interest.
So what I’m taking from this is that the SNP is increasing prices in a way that profits the sellers, the tories are increasing prices in a way that funds government.
Or in other words, the SNP approach is drastically more capitalist and right-wing than the tory approach!
Jet fuel Dan
We’re discussing the price of alcohol here.
Stay on topic, or head over to Off Topic and give us all a break.
What a borin R Sole you are!
Mac @9:15pm
Worth never forgetting that the same labour party that disowned it’s candidate in Rotherham, for criticising Israel’s government for not preventing actual child slaughter, was jumping over itself to accuse Margaret Ferrier of potential manslaughter (for travelling with a potential dose of a common cold so bad you had to take a random test to “know” you had it, no less).
Alcohol Harry at 1:34am;
Mind your own business! Wings allows for multiple BTL conversations; you don’t get to tell anyone to shut up.
Dan and George are clearly well-informed knowledgeable individuals worth listening to. You could learn a thing or two yourself from them, politeness not least!
Indeed Stuart.
Here is a pre cartoon aperitif of amusement…
George Galloway eviscerating a sky news wanker.
https://twitter.com/DanielJMath1/status/1763672861280014552
What is it with these ‘journalists’. Every single question is loaded and pushing an agenda. I despise them far more than the politicians.
Just the way the talk to people they don’t approve of (and who decides that by the way) is disgusting to me. Really repulsive individuals and the BBC and SKY are full of them. It is all they hire. Sniveling subservient hacks willing to push lies to cover for genocide and ethnic cleansing. They are either at your throat or groveling at you feet. Horrible bastards.
Galloway mentions Anna Botting… at least she was so think you’d get the odd laugh at her. Then you have hideous specimens like Kay Burley who makes my skin crawl she is so vile.
Enjoy!
Xaracen
Alcohol Harry at 1:34am
lol. Dan still living rent free in Harry’s head I see.
REVEREND STUART CAMPBELL
May I respectfully draw your attention to the post by johnlm on the 1st March at 2.31pm.
John Main can clearly defend himself against the fantasists and bigots who pollute your site but he is correct in ignoring the post I refer to. However, it is up to YOU to monitor the comments and act appropriately when they fall way short of decency.
I leave it in your good hands.
@Chas (category2)
Don’t know who you think the JM referred to is.
You probably missed the point of the post, deliberately.
Your contributions always fall short of decency.
I.e. Independence marchers smell etc.
EVEN the torygraph editors think the British state is sick n f**ked.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/01/mob-rule-rishi-sunak-sarah-everard-failed-state/?li_source=LI&li_medium=for_you
Scotland the anosmiac, stirr yourself, you’re lying next to a foetid, decaying corpus.
Mac @ 8:44 am
“What is it with these ‘journalists’. Every single question is loaded and pushing an agenda. I despise them far more than the politicians.”
Many ‘journalists’ now seem to be politicians. Its all about spinning a line.
“What is it with these ‘journalists’”
They are not journalists. They are bought and paid for propagandists following a one-side agenda.
Guess who died.
https://archive.is/bELKb
I can see how this will be spun… poor guy, sorry gal, if only he oops I mean she was allowed that move to a woman’s prison…
“EVEN the torygraph editors think the British state is sick n f**ked”
Can you confidently say there a “British” state anymore?
When the “government” of such entity, the political parties of both government and opposition and the main broadcasters and MSM have been completely captured by Israel, USA and Trans lobbyists, when those entities are purposely acting against the interests of the people of the UK, totally against what they want to vote for, and they are abusing their position of power to impose draconian legislation to silence them by force, I am not sure you can call it “British state” any longer. It is in practice a USA and Israel vassal state.
@Chas 9:04
Water off a duck’s back!
Johnlmao gets one response a month from me, but only if he’s been a guid wee Greyfriars Boaby.
There’s plenty of shit going down, all over the world, for me to get concerned about.
The long suffering people of Rochdale, in a political cry for help, have elected themselves a joke figure to prance, preen and polish his ego at their expense.
And for the long suffering people of Gaza, the countdown to the Ramadan Rafa offensive is approaching the zero hour, and still the Hamas terrorists are holed up in their bunkers with their hostages, quietly gloating as the innocent body count mounts. Still determined to fight it out until the last Palestinian civilian.
CC is AWOL.
Spare a wee thought too for poor old long suffering Hats. Yet another prediction (Turkish boots on the ground by March) blown up in his face.
Rumours online that the WM GE could be in May, so it’s not all doom and gloom. A rout of the SNP WM lardy erses might be enough to topple oor ain wee pretendy FM HY aff his shoogly perch. Bring it oan!
Hearing Eva Comrie has left ALBA . If this is indeed the case it really will be a mortal blow to that Party .
Eva epitomises all that’s good in Scottish Politics : honesty , compassion for the less-fortunate and fierce unbending commitment to improving the lives of such allied to unshakeable conviction that only Independence can bring about the conditions in which genuine , lasting improvements can be realised .
She stands out like a diamond in the synthetic trash * paste * Scottish & UK Political landscape/landfill .
Whatever has caused her to take such a drastic step must be reflective/confirmation of the growing concerns ” some of us ” have had for a while now about the direction and management of ALBA .
It’s a really sad , disappointing state of affairs after the formation of ALBA seemed to offer a spark of hope amidst the gathering gloom of SNP degeneration .
Alf & Mia, I think Chomsky was right when he said this to ultra sniveling servile turd par excellence Andrew Marr…
“As Noam Chomsky memorably told the BBC’s Andrew Marr in an interview in the 1990s: ‘I’m sure you believe everything you say. But what I’m saying is if you believed something different, you wouldn’t be sitting where you’re sitting.’”
Knobbychoke ?
johnlm
I certainly did not miss ‘the point’ of your post, which says a lot about your character………or lack of it! Subsequent posts of yours simply confirm who you were referring to.
I am not going to enter into a course of dialogue with the likes of you on what has been posted previously but I can categorically deny that I have ever said that Independence marchers smell. Half of them looked unwashed-yes.
You are a nasty, cowardly piece of work hiding behind your computer keyboard.
@Mac 9:15
For reasons I don’t quite want to speculate about, your list is missing an obvious row:
Israel (Oct 7) 33 (no this is not a typo)
There’s about 40 hostage kiddies as well, so [REDACTED] only knows how many of them still live, and how that would affect the figure. Should it actually be 73?
As you fail to define the threshold for your ‘genocide’ claim, it’s not possible for me to rule if the limit has been reached.
But I’ll go out on a limb and make a prediction – it’s genocide when you say it is and not genocide when the kids are from a group who “had it coming”.
Why don’t you do what Andy Ellis does and get in touch with Stu via Twitter.
Andy Ellis claims Stu never reads the posts.
Andy Ellis did post a copy of the message he sent to Stu via Twitter in which he was reporting others ‘bad behavior’ he did mention a John but the message was cut off so we were left to guess what he said about John.
BTW. Who is your Arab friend.
Mac , nae tears fae me!
What was the prison service thinking of accepting his 2016 transgender plea when they had already described him as a most dangerous prisoner?
It seems it’s all down to genderwoowoo.
Eva Comrie should form ‘The Scottish Women’s Party’
Well done to George Galloway. The people of Britain have spoken.
End the genocide. No to the Israeli zionist killing machine. Free Palestine.
From the River. To the SEA!
George Galloway. Outstanding work.
Get it right fucking up them all. The Westminister elite. NATO.
Get it right up the military industrial complex. And the corrupt Jew marrying Sir Kier Starmer.
Get it up them all.
The prime minister ” I DESPISE THE PRIME MINISTER”
And millions and millions of people despise him too.
LOVE IT!
GET IN THERE.
David Davis one of the great parliamentarians standing in solidarity. God bless them all.
@ Robert Hughes: that is sad news indeed if Eva Comrie has left Alba Party.
For goodness sake, what on earth can the high heid yins be thinking to provoke such staunch independence fighters to leave? Surely Neale and Kenny are capable of arguing for the right things to be done, and the wrong things not to be done, if someone else at the top has a bee in their bonnet?
ISP will have to take up the slack but it will be an even longer haul.
Robert Hughes @ 10.00
I long ago gave up any great hopes of any political party addressing the needs of the “ordinary” Scots voter.
It’s got to the stage now where the only hope I see of some sanity returning to Holyrood lies in the doable suggestion of one of our most sensible, practical and down to earth regular contributors. That is for individuals to stand for election on a straightforward agreed platform regarding independence. (One would think that would really suit those who feel that utilising the vote as a plebiscite election is the way to go).
Just look at the Rochdale by election to see what one local guy standing as an Independent candidate can achieve. Imagine the result of a number of local lads & lassies standing on a common platform of Independence & no gender woo woo throughout the country.
No state has a right to exist. Like the British state.
Free the Holy Land. From the river. To the sea.
Get in there George Galloway. 10/10. That’s made my day so it has.
Robert Hughes: “Whatever has caused her to take such a drastic step must be reflective/confirmation of the growing concerns ” some of us ” have had for a while now about the direction and management of ALBA…”
Do we know the reasons? I don’t.
But I think Alba need to engage more with issues and concerns like Gaza. They should be leading the campaign in Scotland on that and using it as a vehicle for electoral success, just as Galloway has in Rochdale. It isn’t, as the usual lickspittles here and elsewhere would have it, an issue that only concerns Muslims.
The SNP and others have tried to hijack the issue, but their sincerity is skin deep and, partly as a result of the constraints on him as FM (self-imposed in my opinion but you could could argue otherwise), Humza is unable or unwilling to speak honestly and openly of the genocidal war in Gaza with any real resolve or clarity.
The SNP have backed themselves into a corner when it comes to British foreign policy generally, and are in much the same compromising position as Labour, wishing to appear conscientious and righteous for the domestic audience whilst waving the Union Jack when it comes to Britain’s essentially despicable role as US lapdog in the wider world. That’s a contradictory and hypocritical stance and, as Galloway has now proven, a stance that voters will see through and punish.
The SNP’s shift to the Union Jack waving right on British Foreign policy was not only one of their biggest betrayals, it was flagrantly ridiculous — how could a party that is purportedly determined to break up a Britain possibly be taken seriously as a supporter of Britain on defence and foreign policy? It’s insane.
I see the media was very quick to attack GG – and remind the watcher of his hideous cat outfit and antics.
I really enjoyed that interview with the hapless journalist – well done Georgie Porgy! If all he does in Westminster is to proclaim the need for a Palstinian homeland and demand a ceasefire now , not to mention nicked lands being returned then I think he will have earned his money, particularly if he gets results.
Right now I think both Labour and Conservatives should hang their collective heads in abject shame.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/nip-and-tuck/comment-page-1/#comment-2827537
Mornin’ Sarah
The right thing IMHO is that the GRA 2004 should be repealed.
Alba haven’t once mentioned that possibility.
I don’t know about Kenny but Neale in his very long speech in Westminster yesterday made no mention of it. I got the impression he strongly believes ‘transwomen are women’
He seems more concerned with Gay rights.
Genderwoowoo is going to destroy everything.
Anyone know anything about the Tory conference in Aberdeen having to share the venue with a George Michael tribute act because they couldn’t sell enough tickets?
Just picked it up btl on the Guardian cartoon section but if true I think Chris Cairns could have a field day with his cartoon!
Er .. France24 says 695 civilians including 36 children
36 children / 147 days = 0.244 per day
I think Main has ADundeeScot doing his arithmetic.
IDF tanks and helicopters had a large part in the mortality numbers.
Eva Comrie tweeted
Replying to @yvonneridley and @AlbaParty
now that I am no longer a member I can say that it was never my job to keep you right; you erred referring to ‘former man’ and ‘assigned at birth’; your biggest giveaway was using ‘cis.’ You’re a fraud
Hmmm… I don’t know why but I am hearing the distant voice of Alexei Sayle… it sounds like he is saying
“…and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie…”
I do genuinely feel sorry for the Israeli hostages. When your own army decides (in the Hannibal Directive) it is preferable to slaughter you than have you used as a negotiating chip for a prisoner swap, that is deeply fucked up. It is also a clear indicator of the psychopathic insanity present here.
I mentioned this previously. One of the Israeli hostages was killed by the IDF when they poison gassed the tunnel he was trapped in. His grieving mother claimed that the IDF had killed him ‘in a gas chamber like the Nazis’ and she had that put on his gravestone! Incredibly they removed the gravestone from the grave…
Three other were executed trying to surrender to the IDF holding a white flag, as they looked a bit arab like.
Whereas all the wild atrocity claims made initially have not stood up to scrutiny. I’m hearing Alexei again…
Anyway I am off to watch the latest 100% factual documentary release from the IDF called “Ali Baba and the Forty Beheaded Babies”.
Finally some action against Westminster’s and the SNP governments Freeports, the SNP’s Kate Forbes pushed hard with Michael Gove to implement these so called Green Freeports.
We are in a political and economic union not a territorial one.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/03/01/salvo-acts-on-freeports/
How bad are freeports, very bad.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/03/01/the-freeport-ruse-exposed-2/
@David Hannah says: 2 March, 2024 at 10:53 am
No state has a right to exist
OMG!
A NEW WORLD, not brave and delighting in a cocktail of pseudo-science.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/01/astrazeneca-training-material-biological-sex-not-binary/
Take your hang ups to work my darling.
https://diva-magazine.com/2023/12/15/jackie-crockford-astrazeneca/
AstraZenzca?, werent they pushing some wonderdrug some years ago? Now on the lucrative obesity trail and further «medicalization» pathways.
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/astrazeneca-hikes-annual-profit-outlook-2023-11-09/
(Note Archive.ph site does not work for me)
Are you interested in knowing the reasons?
Ah yeah! Alba should ignore it and just get on with focusing on Gaza!
Sigh!
@Sven says: 2 March, 2024 at 10:50 am
the only hope I see of some sanity returning to Holyrood lies in the doable suggestion of one of our most sensible, practical and down to earth regular contributors. That is for individuals to stand for election on a straightforward agreed platform regarding independence. (One would think that would really suit those who feel that utilising the vote as a plebiscite election is the way to go).
Just look at the Rochdale by election to see what one local guy standing as an Independent candidate can achieve. Imagine the result of a number of local lads & lassies standing on a common platform of Independence & no gender woo woo throughout the country
Shucks, stop it, Sven, you’re embarrassing me.
But as it happens, I was listening to the local boy who came second in the Rochdale byelection yesterday. No politician, not particularly eloquent, but committed, sincere, rational, etc. He would probably have won too, if GG hadn’t decided the future for him lies with Islam and the Islamic vote.
So, the Independents for Independence is a feasible idea, as is the Independents for Rational, Better Governance.
As to whether making everything about Gaza, as the nutjobs on here want to, they are free to get in bed with GG – run it up the flagpole, see who salutes.
Free Palestine – Indy Can Wait!
The T-shirts are not exactly flying off the shelves. Maybes when the warmer weather comes in?
ASTRAZENECA, making mega profits from the «medicalization» pathway, is in the news for its queer science, non binary training.
https://diva-magazine.com/2023/12/15/jackie-crockford-astrazeneca/
A dream of a place to work for nano-minorities…
Bring your hang ups to work and lie down in your «safe space».
“No state has a right to exist. Like the British state.”
The British state is not a country there is no UK crown, the UK is a political and economic union between to very different countries.
In Scotland the people are sovereign, in England its the monarchy, they are utterly incompatible and always have been, England had no right to firstly steal our oil and gas and then privatise it, it didn’t, and still doesn’t, and never will belong to them, but they sold the rights to drill for it to the oil and gas giants.
The SNP government are currently doing the exact same with our wind and water resources all without OUR consent.
@Mac says: 2 March, 2024 at 11:17 am
“Forty Beheaded Babies”
Hats proved that all war stats about weans are fabricated to fool the gullible and other eejits. ALL. Soz you missed that post.
Oh, and Geri claimed that people posting concern about weans are potential nonces. Obviously not you “Mac”, but still, you have to be careful who you associate with, eh?
Soz you missed that post too.
The tory party had to share the venue with a george michael tribute act.
https://thehighlandtimes.com/red-faced-tories-forced-to-share-conference-with-george-michael-tribute-act/
What exactly do you know about Scotland & what gives you the right to tell a country what they should and shouldn’t be doing?
PS I smell a racist!
Maybe better tell Chas you are not an Arab
Pretty sure he’s got you labelled as an Arab
Re Eva Comrie leaving Alba.
It is because of a tweet by Yvonne Ridley yesterday explaining to someone who asked what a transwoman is by saying “a transwoman is a woman…”. I haven’t seen the whole tweet but Eva says that Yvonne also used the words “assigned at birth ” and “cis”.
Dan @8.51.
Dan. SEPA is truly compromised.
https://theferret.scot/?s=SEPA
Mia @ 9:50 am
“I am not sure you can call it “British state” any longer. It is in practice a USA and Israel vassal state.”
History tells us that ‘the only bulwark against cultural imperialism’ is the ancient nations (Edward Said), at least so long as their peoples’ national consciousness (i.e. culture and languages) still exists; in our case that would be Scotland, not the ‘British’ cultural and imperial illusion which seeks to destroy Scottish national consciousness.
Chris Cairns says he and Mrs Cairns are in London as they got tickets to the Abba show. But with Chris’ usual luck they have caught such bad colds that they felt too ill to go.
Poor man. Give up trying to enjoy yourself, Chris. Stay home and be miserable like the rest of us. 🙂
Sarah
See my post
https://wingsoverscotland.com/nip-and-tuck/#comment-2827551
“what on earth can the high heid yins be thinking to provoke such staunch independence fighters to leave?”
To derange the main pro-independence party that could take votes away from the SNP in the upcoming GE?
To continue stalling independence for another 9 years?
Are we watching SNP deconstruction mark II?
It looks that way, doesn’t it?
Verbiage like “cis” nonsense crap does not belong in a pro-independence political party that claims to be concerned about women’s rights. It belongs in the Green, Labour, Libdems and SNP parties of gender woo woo freaks. It will totally undermine the position of hard working MPs like Mr Hanvey and credibility of the party both in terms of women’s rights and Scotland’s independence. Even a child would have realised of that. Was it therefore a dirty tactic to undermine the pro-women position of the party or are we to believe it was just some “slip of the tongue”? Whatever it was, it appears to have paid off, doesn’t it?
What is Ridoch doing in the Alba party? Wasn’t she, like the dug, a staunch SNP apologist?
ISP is beginning to emerge as the only credible alternative to spoiling the ballot. I wonder how long is going to take Ridoch or some other high profile gender woo woo and SNP apologist to move into ISP to bring it down as well.
“But I think Alba need to engage more with issues and concerns like Gaza”
Don’t be ridiculous. ALBA is supposed to be a party for Scotland’s independence, not for the liberation of Gaza. We have been distracted from independence for 9 effing years already. Enough with the deflection of priorities and taking us for fools, for goodness sake!
My apologies. I got the name wrong in my previous comment. My mistake. It was not Leslie Ridoch, but Yvonne Ridley who made the “cis” comment.
As you well know I consider you a nutjob so I’m a bit confused by your post.
What do you as a nutjob consider everything should be about?
Does it differ from week to week?
What’s going on at the Alba Party? Eva Comrie. She’s an incredible woman, so is Yvonne Ridley.
Very sinister to see Yvonne had left the prism show. Thought she was an incredible woman. Still do.
Why is she falling out with her pals over gender woo-woo?
Has she suddenly developed stockholm syndrome, has she been captured by the taliban again?
Sort it out girls. We need both of you. True inspirational women. And you’re better together. Brilliant people.
Why is Yvonne Ridley speaking the language of Guilead. Has she been taken hostage again?
Under his eye? Blessed be the fruit? Has she been visited in a cell by Aunt Lydia?
What’s going on. Some very sinister goings on. She’s incredible. She needs to speak to a doctor.
PTSD might be setting in. Just remember. The taliban would likely have thrown those identifying as non binary off a tall building.
Come on ladies sort it out girls.
I’m no Doctor Mia. But It sounds like the once proud, Nobel Peace Prize nominee might be suffering from Stockholm syndrome.
I think she’s an incredible woman and I understand. Personally I would have put Craig Murray on the board of the Alba Party.
I’ve not really engaged with the party since the whole voting fiasco. I wanted to see Craig Murray being a defender and guardian of the party from British security services infiltration.
Who knew that Yvonne Ridley would be the first to become compromised. Astonishing.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/nip-and-tuck/#comment-2827571
Mia
Can you tell me what the Alba Party are offering in terms of ‘women’s rights’ that the Tory Party aren’t.
I would say
Verbiage like “transwomen” nonsense crap does not belong in a pro-independence political party that claims to be concerned about women’s rights.
Neale Hanvey is very supportive of trans rights.
Trans rights & women’s right are not compatible.
They know that hence the reason for ‘transwomen are women’
which basically means men should have women’s rights and women should be brainwashed into thinking transwomen are women and all the rest of the crap.
As long as you are supportive of trans rights, men changing sex, the GRA 2004 then you have zero interest in women’s rights.
Eva shouldn’t burn her bridges. She’ll be hurt. She’ll be confused. But her friend may not be well. They might have got to her.
Wot!
I think Craig Murray was compromised long before Yvonne Ridley.
Gender WooWoo is going to destroy everything.
Lets be clear. The SNP are agin ordinary people and utterly out of touch.
People, many many people, and many of them who are on limited incomes, and who like, let us say, an occasional beer are going to be hit with this MUP.
Take for example someone who buys something like a box of ten cans of Budweiser from their local supermarket for £10.00. Equating to around £2.27 a litre the equivalent of the current MUP the increase from fifty pence to sixty five pence will increase the price of that box of beer from £10.00 to £13.00.
In the midst of a cost of living crisis and falling incomes this SNP government is viciously at odds with the most of the population.
Frankly I want these bar-stewards out. |Every stinking filtyone one of them.
And while I’m at it I got my tax code for the year 24/25 through the post today. And you know what, part of my old age pension is now taxable due to it being marginally above the personal tax threshold which has been frozen. And when the old age pension goes up in a few months time even more of my old age pension will become taxable.
And for those in work not of a retiring age most especially, but for pensioners too to a lesser extent, just take a look at the tax rates.
Where is all this tax money going as our infrastructure, our health service, our council services collapse. It’s a good question but at least our young haven’t been called up to the war currently raging with Russia and others.
Anyway, this comment started about MUP and expanded. But to close, who in the drinks industry is going to benefit from this increase in MUP. Somebody is going to benefit. That is for sure but not the ordinary citizens,
Auld Highlander thanks for that – bloody marvellous!
We need Both Yvonne and Eva on the rallies for Scottish Independence. Eva Comrie’s incredible speech at Bannockburn. One of the greatest speeches I’ve ever listened to.
The strongest feminist voices in Scotland. Don’t forget it. Yvonne may be fragile right now. There could be a number of reasons as to why she posted what she did. She could have been hacked. A family member may have came out as transgender. The British state could be blackmailing her for her support of Palestine.
She’s been got at. She needs a friend. She could be coming down with PTSD Stockholm syndrome and thinking – well the taliban were nice to me, perhaps a man in my changing room will be too?
Something’s not right. Women are emotional creatures. They think with their hearts. And make great leaders. Full of compassion.
We need another Eva Comrie Bannockburn speech, and a Yvonne Ridley George Square speech to bring them back together.
The strongest feminist voices in Scotland. Don’t burn your bridges with your best friends. You make each other brilliant.
Mac
2 March, 2024 at 8:44 am
“Here is a pre cartoon aperitif of amusement…
George Galloway eviscerating a sky news wanker…”
Mac, much as I detest Gorgeous George I hate the mainstream media even more and really enjoyed the clip. That Sky mouthpiece didn’t enjoy that one bit (did you see his face at the end lol). Kudos.
@willie says: 2 March, 2024 at 1:03 pm
Where is all this tax money going
Here’s a handy link:
https://ifs.org.uk/taxlab/taxlab-key-questions/what-does-government-spend-money
Basically, the government spends approx 45% of the UK’s GDP. A whopping share, leaving just 55% for all of the rest of us.
Of the money the government does spend, around half goes on the universally popular items like health, social security (including pensions) and education. A quarter goes on other “useful” things, and a quarter is grouped under “Other”.
Just paying the interest on borrowing is taking over 8% of government spending.
A list of UK charities that helps support the Zionists, its murdering IDF troops and illegal settlements.
Stop giving them any donations whatsoever, and boycott their donators in the right hand column.
https://powerbase.info/index.php/UK_AWIS_-_supporters
James
Ignored says:
2 March, 2024 at 1:22 pm
Mac
2 March, 2024 at 8:44 am
“Here is a pre cartoon aperitif of amusement…
George Galloway eviscerating a sky news wanker…”
” Mac, much as I detest Gorgeous George I hate the mainstream media even more and really enjoyed the clip. That Sky mouthpiece didn’t enjoy that one bit (did you see his face at the end lol). Kudos. ”
Agreed , and likewise , James . I haven’t watched any * News * or Current Affairs programmes by Sky , BBC or any other MSM outlet for years , but saw that clip online , and it was a pleasure to watch .
How Galloway responded to the typically infantile , deflecting questions of the interviewer is EXACTLY how all self-respecting politician should respond to such intelligence-insulting drivel from these sources .
DON’T PLAY THE GAME . Tell them to their faces ( and to the watching public ) they’re talking shite , don’t be distracted from the point in question and expose them for the arse-kissing handmaidens of Power that they are .
Even better : have nothing at all to do with them . Blank the fuckers ; there is nothing to be gained from engagement with them , all they do is distort and lie either by statement or omission .
Galloway winning – the humour in this is seeing “toom tabard” stooge-placeman Starmer, not knowing whether to piss or shit; he has been promised PM, and has his jewish pals behind him, but then he has to win the midlands. Well – you can’t serve two masters, so make up your mind.
Galloway, in the past he has talked a good game, but I think he is at least an opportunist and may even work for the spooks – how does he make a good living in the media, that is the first thing they shut down? Galloway’s bizarre position on Scottish Indy tells me all I need – he would support a Palestinian state, which really would be too wee, too poor, but not an indy Scotland; the latter would truly damage the UK state, while the former is never going to happen while Israel has an airforce … supporting fashionable, harmless, causes, eh George?
I don’t believe in multiculturalism in general; never worked anywhere, never will (not in a democracy anyway) – and this is what you get, its not civic nationalism, it is ethno-racial bloc politics in a grim zero sum game. The jews promoted MCLM above all other lobbies, now it bites them in the arse. The UK has enough problems of its own, you don’t need to import every other conflict on earth. The trouble was, while the jews camouflage themselves hence the meme “fellow -white- people”, the other ethnics spot them clearly, and seeing how successful it is, use the same tactics; its hard to be involved in politics these days, to do anything real, over and above dodging the flak from the various accusations – antisemitism, islamophobia, transphobia.
In case anyone missed it, and it will not be repeated – Tice was on complaining about intimidation and dodgy practices (the man is a cunt, but he has a point) – and he mentions, right out
POSTAL VOTING
– he says “in 4 years its gone from 14000 to 23000 … COME ON ”
and the low rank beeb journo doesn’t know what to say (or when he has to cut the interview), so lets him rant on.
Indyref 2014 had almost 20% postal votes, the highest ever, and the 2020 US presidential election had 43% “mail in ballots”, the votes counted in centres, in democrat controlled cities.
– don’t piss on me and tell me it’s raining
James
Ignored
says:
2 March, 2024 at 1:22 pm
Mac, much as I detest Gorgeous George I hate the mainstream media even more and really enjoyed the clip. That Sky mouthpiece didn’t enjoy that one bit (did you see his face at the end lol). Kudos.
Much as I too dislike George Galloway, I nevertheless bet he’ll walk over hot coals and do more, on his own, to serve the interests of the Palestinians in Gaza than the multiple busloads of feckless SNP Charlatans have ever done for Scotland.
Whether he achieves anything is another matter.
I find him tiresome because he’ll defend a nation’s sovereign right to exist in all cases – except Scotland. Living proof that my enemies enemy is not necessarily my friend.
Very depressing, and deeply frustrating, to hear there are issues within Alba re ‘trans’ issues. I’d like to know exactly what’s going on.
On their website, Alba’s policies on women’s rights are covered fairly extensively, and yet still manage to be less than crystal clear. They do not seem to mention their stance on people who have GRCs or the GRA. They want a Citizens’ Assembly on ‘how best to reform the Gender Recognition process’, which sounds more like avoiding the issue rather than addressing it, while at the same time accepting ‘gender’ as a meaningful idea that we need to engage with as a society.
Maybe if Eva Comrie is no longer an Alba member she might feel inclined to say a bit more about all this.
“Can you tell me what the Alba Party are offering in terms of ‘women’s rights’ that the Tory Party aren’t”
Thank you for the invite, Ruby, but if it is okay with you I will decline it this time. I am not interested in playing your mind games. I refuse to be dragged to a deliberately narrow platform in order to be forced to sing the praises of a political party I despise.
Independence of Scotland is my political priority. I see everything else as a distraction. The tory party abhors and fights against Scotland’s independence with all it’s got. This means, I have zero interest in that political party. Zero. It is not even on my radar, therefore I see no justification nor reason in wasting my time looking at is policies or to discuss anything to do with it.
Years ago already, the Rev published a wonderfully insightful article where he warned us of what was coming. The SNP were walking into the roaster oven like turkeys for Christmas with the gender woo woo nonsense.
Talking from memory, the Rev predicted the tories would use the platform of gender woo woo to save their bacon and win the election, leaving the SNP and labour completely out of the game.
It has taken a few elections now, but we are heading that way. Once again, the Rev was spot on.
As I say, independence is my priority. The tory party, the labour party, libdems, the SNP or the Greens, (I would hate to have to include ALBA in this hall of shame series), can offer the moon, but I will not be interested. As far as I am concerned, if you vote or encouraging others to vote for any of those parties, you are endorsing unionism and therefore purposely stopping or deranging Scotland’s chances at restoring its statehood.
I have no intention whatsoever to enter that road.
Prof Alf Baird mentioned here several times the concept of mystification policies. The gender woo woo platform is, in my view, one of those. A distraction. A distraction that is being conveniently inflated by most political parties, not just the SNP or the Greens.
When a pro-independence party allows a distraction to enter the scene so independence is forced down the list of priorities or kept aside for a moment, it can no longer call itself a party seeking to restore Scotland’s statehood.
The tories have been in power for the last 14 years. This gender woo woo crap has infested every area of government, every corner of the civil service, every hole of public services and even we have seen how it has polluted some universities, private entities and even banks.
Stonewall was subsidised using our taxpayers’ money and invited to enter each and every one of those areas under tory watch. While I do not give a toss for tory policy, I am certainly well aware that singing now the praises of the tory party in terms of women’s rights when it was them while in government who opened the door to this shite comes across as laughable hypocrisy.
So, Ruby, what is it really that you are supporting. Is it the tory cause and the blocking of Scotland’s autonomy progression, or Scotland’s independence? Because it stands to the obvious that you cannot be in both teams at the same time.
O/T: Voices for Independence has an entry from Barrhead boy “INDY1st. A New Movement in Scottish Politics”.
It has had 37 views but when I click on it, or search for it, I get told “that page can’t be found”. It doesn’t even appear as a title on the Barrhead Boy blog.
Has anyone else managed to read it?
Re Alba, at some point last year I posted a link to their own website and their support for minority causes. A nationalist party is there to promote the majority, whilst that position can still be maintained against hostile forces, see the current leaders of both the SNP and the North Britain branch of Labour, anything else is internationalist bullshit. In the same post I also mentioned how Albas largest individual donor was someone who had made a packet out of Covid. If Scotland wants to survive as a nation and culture it cannot play nice and pander to the just be kind demands of blow ins from the Labour party etc. It needs to regain independence from a dying England then protect its own interests, not pander to the internationalist community.
With regard to the media, I left the NUJ after reading its Code Of Conduct which is basically wage war by deception, do not report the ethnicity of murderers etc if they are not white as feelings could be hurt. The Guardian is a major player of this game via in one case refusing to mention the ethnicity of someone who had stabbed a white teenager to death in the street for his bicycle, this was whilst the police were looking for him, the Guardian refused to include any kind of description because he was black. You see the same game being played in Scotland via Operation Cerrar, lifelong anonymity granted to the offenders and blatant ideological activists employed by foreign owned rags like the Herald.
Yvonne Ridley was talking about witholding her taxes from Government and paying them to a company over their stance on Gaza.
Now George Galloway has one proving that Yvonne was correct in everything she said and that the British public don’t support genocide.
Now she’s suddenly coming out with, “former man” and “cis” which she once described as a slur.
I’m no television detective. But Yvonne as been got at by the security services. She’s not been Operation Sturgeoned. 2.0.
To Destroy the Alba Party.
Alternatively Yvonne may be trying to appeal to the cross dressing males, those that are autogynephile. To say. The Alba Party welcomes you…
I don’t think so Yvonne. If that’s what’s happening. Then I will cancel my money immediately.
We need to get Big Eck on the phone to get everyone to hug this out.
“ Don’t be ridiculous. ALBA is supposed to be a party for Scotland’s independence, not for the liberation of Gaza. We have been distracted from independence for 9 effing years already. Enough with the deflection of priorities and taking us for fools, for goodness sake!”
It was opposition to the Iraq war that propelled that other “party for Scotland’s independence”, the SNP, from fringes of Scottish politics to Government.
Better political brains than you have conceded on that point, so don’t waste your time trying to think of some clever riposte — and for the good of the climate if nothing else (bearing in mind that transmitting data on the internet uses energy), please don’t assume 18 yards of waffle will serve as an alternative to a succinct and compelling argument either.
I’ve read your comments, Mia. We can call them niche, if you like, but my focus is on ideas with broader appeal, ideas that might take Alba from the fringe to the centre of Scottish politics. The issue of Gaza has that potential.
Wee Rishi could hardly see over that podium last night.
“Independence of Scotland is my political priority. I see everything else as a distraction.”
An ongoing genocide as a distraction wow!
Even if there was a lot going on in Scottish politics right now, it would be right that the genocide of two-million people in Gaza by the Zionists supported physically and politically by the UK and the west should be high up on our agenda.
Before the Zionists began to exterminate the Palestinian people in earnest, the people of Palestine had somethings in common with us, such as the Palestinian Authority is corrupt and answers to the Knesset, Holyrood and its politicians answer to Westminster, we need a foreign passport to leave the UK, we have no standing armed forces. Settlers from South of the border can move to Scotland anytime they feel like it.
Our colonial masters colonisation of Scotland is far more subtle yet just as watertight, oil and gas have been discovered in waters of the coast of Gaza in the Eastern Med ring any bells?
Of course the Palestinian folk have/had their own news tv channels, something we don’t have.
While btl has stuff about liberation, usually other people’s, might i hear a call for the «liberation» of my ancient homeland «Assyria» from the current Turkish, Kurdish and Arab occupiers?
I suspect i shall not require ear protectors for that one.
Gaza, ancient homeland of the Philistines….how many of those among the current population?
For Sarah
Read on blog or Reader
Site logo image BarrheadBoy
INDY1st. A New Movement in Scottish Politics
Barrheadboy
2nd Mar
Empowering Independent Independence: INDY1st. A New Movement in Scottish Politics
In the ever-evolving landscape of Scottish politics, a dedicated group of Scottish Independence supporters has emerged with a bold vision and a clear mission. Frustrated by the perceived limitations of traditional political parties in advancing the cause of independence, they have taken matters into their own hands by establishing an organisation aimed at promoting Independent Independence candidates and campaigns throughout Scotland.
This grassroots movement is driven by a shared belief that the political establishment has failed to adequately represent the aspirations and interests of those who yearn for an independent Scotland. While the Scottish National Party (SNP) has long been seen as the primary standard-bearer for independence, many supporters feel disillusioned by what they perceive as a lack of progress and boldness in advancing the cause.
Enter the new organization,Indy1st. Led by a diverse coalition of activists, strategists, and technologists, Indy1st aims to inject fresh energy and innovation into the independence movement by championing independent candidates who are committed to the cause but not necessarily aligned with any particular political party.
At the heart of the Indy1st approach lies a recognition of the power of technology and grassroots organising. Leveraging social media, data analytics, and community outreach strategies, the organisation intends to identify and support promising independent candidates who may have previously been overlooked by the mainstream political establishment. By harnessing the power of digital tools and platforms, Indy1st seeks to level the playing field and amplify the voices of grassroots activists who are passionate about securing Scotland’s independence.
Crucially, Indy1st mission goes beyond simply advocating for independence; it also aims to promote a more inclusive and participatory form of democracy. By supporting independent candidates who are not bound by the constraints of party politics, the organisation hopes to foster a political culture that prioritises dialogue, collaboration, and consensus-building over partisan division.
In recent years, Scotland has witnessed a surge in grassroots activism and civic engagement, fueled in part by the momentum generated by the 2014 independence referendum. Indy1st seeks to harness this energy and channel it into meaningful political action, offering a platform for ordinary citizens to play a direct role in shaping the future of their country.
Of course, the road ahead will not be without its challenges. Building a viable alternative to the established political parties will require sustained effort, resources, and strategic planning. Moreover, Indy1st will need to navigate the complex landscape of Scottish politics, which is characterised by competing interests, ideological differences and historical grievances.
Nevertheless, the emergence of the Independent Independence Movement represents a significant development in Scotland’s political landscape. By empowering independent candidates and campaigns, the organization offers a promising new avenue for those who believe that Scotland’s future should be determined by its people, free from the constraints of party politics.
As the movement gathers momentum and attracts support from across Scotland, it has the potential to reinvigorate the independence movement and chart a bold new course for Scottish politics. In a time of uncertainty and upheaval, the Independents for Independence Movement stands as a beacon of hope and possibility, reminding us that real change is possible when ordinary citizens come together to pursue a shared vision of a better future.
Indy1st intends to be an active organisation not just a talking shop.Activities they will run include voter registration, street stalls, town hall meetings, canvassing opinions in the street and on the doorstep. Dialogue, inclusion and solidarity with the people not at the people they believe is the key to Independence.
Hatuey @ 2:58 pm
“It was opposition to the Iraq war that propelled that other “party for Scotland’s independence”, the SNP, from fringes of Scottish politics to Government.”
First time I’ve ever heard such a notion, after analysing Scotland’s rights to independence for the past 50 years or so. Scots ain wretched predicament is surely reason enough to seek liberation. Britain’s aye been at war wi somebody or ither these past 300 year, ower 150 conflicts.
Aw doun-hauden fowks hiv tae first dicht oot thair ain mankit colonial slump afore thay can len a haund tae ither naitions.
willie says:
2 March, 2024 at 1:03 pm
And while I’m at it I got my tax code for the year 24/25 through the post today. And you know what, part of my old age pension is now taxable due to it being marginally above the personal tax threshold which has been frozen. And when the old age pension goes up in a few months time even more of my old age pension will become taxable.
New annual for OAP (New) is £11502.40, individual tax allowance is £12570.00.
With average wage rises this year running at 5% fully expect next increase of 5% (£575.12) onto OAP bringing up to £12077.52.
Given no increase to personal allowance this year, you are still £492.48 shy from paying tax.
Remember OAP (Old) is £1200 a year less than the OAP (New) !
If you have additional pensions yes those will be taxed !
You seem to be willing to play what you call ‘mind games’ with everyone else even Chas.
I did not ask you to sing the praises of a party you despise I just asked you what the difference is between the Tories and Alba vis a vis women’s rights.
There is none and that is a huge mistake on the part of Alba.
You would think a party and their supporters (you) would ask why aren’t we getting many votes? Now lets see what’s the big issue at the moment?
(I’m thinking back to the last Holyrood election when Gaza wasn’t an issue.
It didn’t help when Craig Murray came out all guns blazing for self-id/gender reform.)
Maybe if we had a different policy to all the other parties vis a vis this big issue we might gain votes.
What do I support?
Womens Rights
Sorry Mia I am not prepared to ‘Wheesht for Indy’ if that is what you are suggesting.
Me too Hatuey. You are saying Gaza and I am saying ‘Women’s Rights’
I have no idea what you are talking about. Is the above a joke or some snide remark about the btl comments on Wings.
Does this ‘Assyrian Liberation Movement’ have a website where we could go and make some suggestions, maybe in the same style as you comment here about ‘The Scottish Independence Movement’
@ MaryB: Indy 1st – the article.
Wow, MaryB! Thank you so much for posting the article. Independents for Independence is just what we need, as Dan has been saying for some time.
Party politics is a disaster so far as representing and helping the public get the things they need because the parties are easily subject to, and corrupted by, lobbyists of one kind and another. Whereas it isn’t possible [or at least, not so easy] to suborn hundreds of individuals.
I hope there is more about who is involved with Indy1st on-line and what/where their next steps will be.
“my focus is on ideas with broader appeal, ideas that might take Alba from the fringe to the centre of Scottish politics. The issue of Gaza has that potential”
Do you want Scotland’s independence or what you are after is to keep playing politics? Independence cannot be in the centre of Scotland’s political spectrum. The centre of the political spectrum in Scotland (between unionism and independence) is devolution. Is that what you are pursuing by seeking to move ALBA to the centre of Scotland’s politics?
There is nothing more confusing for voters that not knowing what a political party stands for.
Call my comments niche all you like. But isn’t that stance on Gaza precisely the one the SNP is currently taking so they can avoid focusing on Scotland’s independence?
If ALBA wants to be seen as a credible alternative, then it is going to have to move away, well away, from the shadow the SNP is casting, not cosying up to it. That means to differentiate the ALBA brand and make it stand out against the current SNP’s dying concept of devolution.
The four biggest failures of this version of the SNP have been to let the independence cause fade away, to undermine popular sovereignty, to let our resources continue to be pillaged by Westminster and to let the party rot with the gender woo woo infestation.
Those are the four key points you want to tackle to differentiate a new independence party and present it as a credible alternative if what you want is to attract disenfranchised yes and SNP voters.
The Gaza issue is an international matter for which Scotland has no power. Ironically, if it wants to do something or be seen as doing something about it, Scotland needs to establish its own independence first.
So independence is always the first point of call and therefore should be the main focus. Drumming about Gaza when you are not even prepared to deliver the independence of your own country does not add credibility to your cause, it diminishes it.
If you focus on Gaza, you will be attracting to the party unionists and disgruntled labour members sickened by Starmer’s pro-genocide stance. That may increase your numbers and revenues, but it will dilute the cause of independence. Just look at what attracting labour members and gender woowoo freaks to the SNP has done to the party: it has been transformed into a completely useless devolutionist party that does not even know anymore what it stands for. Do you seriously want the same done to ALBA?
We will have to agree to disagree on this, I am afraid. The Gaza issue is, in my view, a distraction from the matter of independence. Yes, there is no doubt that there is an awful lot to learn from the parallels between Gaza and Scotland with regards to the right to self-determination and muscular colonialism, but adopting it as yet another pet cause is bound to be a mistake.
After 9 years of stasis, the people in the yes movement is utterly fed up of waiting for something to be done ABOUT INDEPENDENCE. That is what they have been voting SNP and now ALBA for. The last thing they want is to be made waste even more time for the sake of scoring cheap political points with an international cause Scotland has, currently, no power whatsoever to change and has not even got a voice in the matter.
Either you are seeking independence for Scotland or you don’t. If you are focusing on Gaza, you are avoiding to focus on Scotland’s independence. It is as simple as that.
“It was opposition to the Iraq war that propelled that other “party for Scotland’s independence”, the SNP, from fringes of Scottish politics to Government”
Wonderful. How far has the SNP taken us to independence since then, despite having been given 3 absolute majorities with which they could have ended the union each and every day since 8 May 2015?
Numbers of members and numbers of seats count for absolutely nothing if your raison d’etre has been diluted to homeopathic levels because you have attracted groups committed to their very own pet causes and you are giving priority to those pet causes over your own.
Forgive my scepticism, but I do not see how, at the point where the SNP is about to lose a 9 years’ absolute majority of pro-indy seats in Westminster and ALBA stands a good chance of recouping some of that pro-indy vote, they would want to jeopardise it by engaging in pet politics for the gallery. I cannot think in a faster way to lose your pro-independence credentials.
I am sure you know that anti-establishment and anti-union stances have many things in common but do not completely overlap.
” I am not prepared to ‘Wheesht for Indy’ if that is what you are suggesting”
Nope. That is not what I am suggesting at all.
I do not see why one has to play the rigged game of having to choose between two fundamentals: independence and women’s rights.
The only thing that choosing between those two fundamentals will do is to divide the population group that supports both. In other words, you are walking right into your opponents’ trap. I refuse to do that.
MaryB @ 16.27
Thanks for that post, MaryB. Very much on the lines which sensible Dan proposed previously. And, very possibly the way we might see the type of cheery enthusiasm which was so very apparent on the run up to the 2014 referendum; when, under Mr Salmond’s canny leadership, Scotland was demonstrating that we’re very capable of having a competent, well run administration. If local folk (rather than career minded politicos) start to once more get a sense of possibilities and that independence is essentially a grass roots upwards movement we could once again experience those heady days.
@Ald Baird I’m sure you seen some disgrutlement in the Alba ranks.
Personally I’ve seen it coming for a while but have been surprised at some who’ve resigned.
Does this fit in with Colonialist Theory.
What on earth are you talking about?
What about the women who support women’s rights and are undecided about independence? Should these not be the women you are concentrating on?
I thought you weren’t going to play my ‘mind games’.
@ MaryB
Thank you for posting the article about Indy1st. It is most encouraging. It is great to see that the Scottish people is starting to realise political parties might be hindering rather than advancing the case of Scotland’s independence.
I hope this group gains serious momentum. When that happens, it might be in a position to drag political parties’manifestos towards immediate independence.
The colonial parties have until now been very successful at presenting independence as the extreme, the abnormal. A strong Indy1st movement together with Salvo and the Liberation of Scotland group will push that perception towards Scotland’s independence being seen as the normal and the current colonial status quo as the abnormal.
Despite political parties’ best efforts to stop it, things are moving forward. This is great news.
Barrhead Boy’s article about Indy1st doesn’t show on his site on my nor my husband’s laptops. When someone has posted a link to the article on their FB I get the same “page can’t be found” message. Is this a Wester Ross problem only?
[Googling doesn’t bring up any other site for Indy 1st – perhaps they have no website yet, nor facebook.]
MaryB above at 4.27 has kindly posted the article.
Mia, Dan and others – I urge you to read it to see what you think. Is it the answer to some of our problems in getting independence fought in Holyrood etc?
@Alf Baird I’m sure you seen some disgrutlement in the Alba ranks.
Personally I’ve seen it coming for a while but have been surprised at some who’ve resigned.
Does this fit in with Colonialist Theory.
Typo with your name so I’ve resent this question
Sigh, not entirely unexpected but it seems Scottish Water are scared of water…
A worker did come out today but can’t do anything because all those pesky rules and guidelines drawn up by no doubt well remunerated office staff now mean someone can’t put on a pair of waders and gauntlets, wade out into 4 foot of stillwater and fit a temporary repair section to the sewer pipe which is continuing to pump a village’s sewerage into a backwater, polluting the body of water to the point it’s taken away the fish spawning beds and little aquatic life can survive due to the toxicity.
Folk will whip themselves into a frenzy of anxiety about protecting the environment, the polluting of eco-systems, and wildlife, but when some intervention actually requires to be done involving just a wee bit of thought and a bit of dirty graft, well all the reasons come spewing out as to why it can’t be done.
What a feckless bunch of officious workshy lightweights Scotland has become filled with.
So for all the time and money these organisations hoover up to create all their rules and guidelines that must be adhered to, they have no resilience or contingencies plans in place for a sewer discharging into the wrong area.
Maybe sometime next week an engineer will come out to survey the problem…
@Mia 5:32
Excellent post.
It’s ludicrous to describe Starmer’s stance as “pro-genocide” BTW, but that’s my only quibble.
“What about the women who support women’s rights and are undecided about independence?”
What about them? They will have to decide where their priorities lie.
“Should these not be the women you are concentrating on?”
With regards to what, independence or women’s rights?
You can only guarantee women’s rights in Scotland if it becomes independent.
We will only be able to control our own politicians, how they are funded, how much they are lobbied by vested interests, interference from external powers and what laws are passed in our own parliament when
1. Scotland is free from the shackles of the Scotland Act
2. when our government is not ruled by UK civil servants with an interest in blocking independence
3. when our own prosecution service is not micromanaged by an office of the crown and abused as a political weapon
4. and when our legislative, executive and judicial powers are not concentrated in the hands of the crown.
Alf, it’s a generalisation, but if you don’t know that the people of Scotland ditched Labour and jumped to the SNP largely because of Iraq, after “after analysing Scotland’s rights to independence for the past 50 years or so”, you aren’t much of a political analyst.
Don’t take my word for it.
“Scottish Labour’s downfall ‘began with Iraq war’” (The Scotsman)
“McConnell, the then leader of Scottish Labour, conceded: “Alex Salmond’s consistent opposition to the Iraq War started to become the accepted public opinion and left what we were doing on the inside pages of the papers, rather than the front.” He might
have helped his cause by distancing the Scottish Executive from New Labour policy on Iraq” (The New Statesman)
“ALBA Party General Secretary Chris McEleny says that “an entire generation of Scots will never forgive the Labour Party for their decision to support the illegal invasion of Iraq based on completely false information.”” (Alba website)
“Anas Sarwar, Sottish Labour Deputy Leader, Says Iraq War Boosted SNP…
Iraq War Helped SNP Win, Says Scottish Labour Deputy Leader” (Huffington Post)
“Why the SNP owes everything to Tony Blair’s Iraq War sins” (The Herald [2023])
I could literally supply ten thousand quotes along those lines. Yes, there were other issues, there always are, but Iraq was more important than anything else. Gaza provides a very similar opportunity for Alba, obviously — the parallels are striking.
Sadly, today, those who pose as political leaders and expert analysts of the independence movement are totally inept and easily distracted by junk that nobody outside of rather weird bubbles on the fringe of the independence cares about.
Read my lips: the claim of right, the sovereign Scots argument, the “oor wullie” patter, the historical claims in regards to the Treaty of Union, the precious culture stuff, none of it will take Alba from where it is to where we need it to be.
And you can shoot the messenger all you want… I’m sick of being stuck between the nutter fringe described above on one side, and Dr Strangelove warmongers on the other.
@Dan 6:27
The “temporary repair section” will be a special order item from Covid Spreader Central.
A few years back, some bean-counter will have got a humongous bonus for identifying the savings to be made from closing down the yard storing stocks of infrequently needed materials, selling off the real estate for housing, and adopting a computerised just-in-time ordering system.
Closing the Suez Canal won’t be helping with deliveries either, but hey, Wings BTL is all in favour of that.
Liz @ 6:00 pm
“Does this fit in with Colonialist Theory.”
Postcolonial theory tells us that national parties in the colonies tend to model themselves on political parties in the mother country. Hence they focus heavily on organisation and structures and on developing a wide range of policy priorities. This is a mistake in that it diverts the party focus and resources away from the main cause. In addition, policy decisions on this and that can easily split the party and the movement.
This from 2021 on ‘ALBA’s conformity’ strategy may be of interest: https://grousebeater.wordpress.com/2021/11/19/the-case-for-freedom-2/
“ALBA appear to be going about setting up its organisational structure in much the same way as that of traditional political parties. We see created a ‘youth’ wing, a ‘woman’s’ wing, and an ‘ethnic/Asian minorities’ wing. Whilst admittedly this represents an important feature of today’s politics, we should not forget that independence is fundamentally about the liberation of an entire oppressed minority ethnic group and nation – that is, the Scots and Scotland – a people currently constrained within the context of a ruling British state and Anglophone hegemony.
The SNP has previously gone down the route of prioritising, elevating and legislating for the ‘rights’ of numerous minority interest groups, and we see where that has gone – shifting the independence movement in a very long diversion away from the core aim, and arguably resulting in the replacement of that core aim, in addition to often questionable legislation being brought forward to ‘protect’ the interests of minority groups (and lobby groups!).
The next part of ALBA’s development strategy is to contest local government elections. Whilst again this is a normal feature of traditional political parties, the reality is that no matter how many ALBA councillors may be elected this will not secure independence either. Some may say the experience as councillors stands people in good stead to become career politicians, but do we really want or need career politicians to secure independence?
The ALBA strategy and structure therefore appears similar to the development process of any other mainstream political party. However, securing national independence is not about mainstream party politics, nor is it about political ideologies of left or right. Independence is far more important than this, being primarily about the national liberation of an entire people. The quest for independence therefore requires and depends on a different approach to the standard party political strategy or organisational structure.”
@Dan 6:27pm
Ach it could be worse Dan. The UK Government have announced £600 million pounds support for the Ineous new ‘Carbon Bomb’ plastic plant in Belgium. It will be the largest in Europe. Nothing for Grangemouth though. Just think of all those highly skilled jobs being exported to Belgium courtesy of the UK Government. But we will be leading the World in Net Zero by exporting our carbon footprint. All those SNP MPs in the HoC doing absolutely nothing about it. I am going to watch the Athletics some genuine Scottish interest tonight.
Ruby: “Me too Hatuey. You are saying Gaza and I am saying ‘Women’s Rights’”
Please don’t be annoyed by my pointing out the simple fact that women “only” represent about half of the population and that most men and women probably do not regard women’s rights to be the most pressing issue of the day.
I think it’s important, very important, but it just isn’t the sort of issue on its own that will take Alba from where it is to where we need it to be.
OK Mia whatever you say.
I’ll do you a favour and not play your mind games anymore.
Bye
Have fun with John Main.
@ John Main
Nah, just a couple of banded couplers at £28.76 including VAT, and 10 feet of twin wall pipe.
Travis Perkins even have all that in stock 5 miles from me…
https://www.travisperkins.co.uk/flexible-adapting-couplers/flexseal-sc200-standard-coupling-175-200/p/795068
Very tempted to just go and sort it myself, but I’ll probably be breaking the law for interfering with national infrastructure…
In other news the village is to lose its bus service. But hey, looking on the positive side this will save the horrendous administrative effort and costs of someone having to prune the tree branches that overhang the road and break the bus windaes, so really everything is great.
Natch folk without cars needing to go to the shops for food or to doctor / hospital appointments can just starve or die, but again on the positive side, that means less humans damaging the environment with their pesky being alive status.
Wings BTL? Is that not mostly you & Andy Ellis?
@Alf Baird Thanks for that reply.
It helps to understand the process
@Hats says
“literally supply ten thousand quotes”
Chop chop then Hats. The Wings BTL floor is yours.
Unless you choose to inform us your dictionary has similar problems with “literally”, “quotes” etc to those it has with “genocide”, and you don’t do base 10 arithmetic either.
“take Alba from where it is to where we need it to be”
Do you really?
You will not get very far if you reject on one side the most committed yes supporters, even thinking you can afford to insult them by calling them “nutter fringe” and, on the other hand, you go onto rejecting women as a big enough audience, when it represents over 50% of the population. Actually, more than that, because many of those women have husbands, brothers, fathers and grandfathers who would fight their corner.
It almost seem that you are purposely rejecting what could be the biggest opportunity to bring the party from the fringes onto where you say you want it to be. If I have to be honest, you are sounding far more SNP than ALBA.
What audience exactly is that you intend to target? minorities? The SNP targeted minorities and look at where it ended.
Ach Ruby, it’s nae me saying:
Free Palestine – Women Can Wheesht!
I’ll nae be printing off any T-shirts with that on. Hats can mak his own.
@ Ruby: “Have you thought of getting in touch with Barrhead Boy?”.
I may do that in a bit – I suspect he has a lot on his plate at the moment though.
Barrhead Boys blog is copying what was envisaged when Alba,ISP were formed.
There was a group made up of independent folk not aligned with any party.
Craig Murray was in it along with others.
It folded in 2021 when ISP and the Independent Group folded to support Alba. for the 1st election.
It might be the way forward but it depends who wants to control it.
@Dan 7:15
I stand corrected.
I might be tempted myself to fix it, and send pics to the local and national press. Anonymously of course. Private Eye might be interested in publishing a few lines about it too.
@ Liz at 7.39: “There was a group of independent folk not aligned with any party.”
Was that “Now”? I’ve still got my membership card!
The big difference between Gaza & ‘Women’s Rights’ is that the situation in Gaza will come to an end some time soon whereas the the ‘women’s rights’ issues will just get worse.
Whats wrong with having both issues? Instead of specifying Gaza why not just use the term warmongering and concentrate on the UK?
I am not annoyed about you pointing out that women ‘only’ represent half of the population. Were you hoping that I would be?
Would you be annoyed if I pointed out that men only represent half of the population and most of them probably have very set ideas about women’s rights.
What in your view do most men & women regard to be the most pressing issue of the day?
Thinking this through… Dead people don’t piss or shit so once there is nobody left alive in the village because they can’t get to the shops for food, or to life prolonging health treatments because there is no bus service, then the dodgy sewer issue will pretty much resolve itself.
I should add that there was a bit of hilarity earlier in the day when the outlanders arrived to look at the sewer issue and weren’t up to speed on the local terrain.
First thing I said when they arrived was to beware not to fall into all the holes made by the beavers burrowing. Comedy moments ensued with the visitors becoming half height humans as they disappeared into the voids. It’s classic stuff watching toonies trying to exist in the wilderness. 🙂
Hatuey @ 6:50 pm
“it’s a generalisation”
New Labour’s deceit on numerous aspects arguably shifted many Scots to the SNP, of which Iraq and other Labour wars was no doubt a factor, but so was the financial crisis, the bank bail-outs, continuing PFI deals, a failing economy, endless other failings in governance, Labour spin/deceit on most things, and with the ‘feeble-50’ mantra in Scotland becoming normalised again just as the slogan making Scotland a ‘Tory Free Zone’ was popular in the mid 1990s.
Unfortunately we ended up with another feeble 56 elected in 2015 (and same in Holyrood) thanks to the Labour careerists who shifted over to SNP after the end of the Blair/Brown era; no matter whether for Iraq, Afghanistan or whatever reasons, the fact remains most of these people were never nationalists and have proven to be a waste of time when it comes to independence.
PS Hateuy
Would you be annoyed if I pointed out that men only represent half of the population and most of them probably have very set ideas about women’s rights
and in your half of the population you have John Main, Andy Ellis & Chas and one of them wants women’s rights……… women’s bras, women’s knickers, women dresses & womens make-up.
Everybody that disagrees with me is wrong.
Ruby, my 50% line really wasn’t meant to be disparaging. It goes without saying that an argument that might appeal to 100% is potentially more powerful than one that might only appeals to 50%, from an electioneering standpoint. One of the big problems, as I suspect you know, is that a lot of women do not prioritise womens’ rights. I do, and I have no problem with those sort of issues being prioritised.
As for Gaza being over soon, I wish we could hope that might turn out to be true. If we did, it would be an argument for Alba mobilising on the issue more urgently, not to ignoring it.
Mia (seriously) asks: “What audience exactly is that you intend to target?”
Unbelievable that I need to address such a question in a discussion about Alba increasing its support and winning elections. You really don’t attach any importance to appealing to the majority of voters, do you? This is obviously just some sort of hobby for you. Yeah, okay, you’re a great writer.
Alf, I see where you want to go, the same old haunts, the same old chestnuts, the same old same old, but on this occasion I’m not going with you. I’m staying right here with my argument that Alba should prioritise Gaza and use it to win votes, media attention, and electoral success, just as the SNP did with Iraq.
We’ve been listening to these historical-cultural-linguistic-post-colonial arguments for years now and they have taken us nowhere. There’s a reason for that. Scotland isn’t Haiti.
Scotland played an integral role in turning places like Haiti into colonies. Have you any idea of the scale of the role played by Scots in projects like The East India Company?
There are aspects of our relationship with England that are definitely colonial in nature, I’ve argued that point a thousand times, but that doesn’t mean we drop everything — including the whole political process (you know, the political process that nearly achieved independence just 10 years ago) — and pretend we are in the same sort of position that Australian Aboriginals or Cherokee Indians find themselves in.
The SNP is going to implode when these investigations are resolved. With the sort of momentum I am talking about here, Alba could be in a position to completely oust them. The timescale for that is a couple of years.
@Dan 7:55pm
People in the Highlands were cleared out to make way for sheep. (My wife’s family was cleared out of Broubster. You can still see the ruins of their house) The new Clearances is repeating the process, people are being cleared out now, on the religion of net zero. The fact we are offloading our Carbon emissions hasn’t occurred to them as an issue as we live on the same planet. Read the strategic plan for Radcliffes new plant in Antwerp 25 miles North of Brussels. The cracking process infeed will be Shale Gas from America. Remember when 2 ships carrying US Shale Gas arrived at Grangemouth and Sturgeons and the SNPs response. Not surprising Radcliffe saw an opportunity in muscular Unionism. He benefits by 600 million in guarantees. Eejits to the left and eejits to the right. I am changing my mantra for the SNP from deflection, diversion and disinformation. To depression deprivation and destruction. Ably assisted by the Scottish Greens. We are of course Better Together where we can be pummelled on high from Westminster aided and abetted by SNP MPs.
“Alba should prioritise Gaza and use it to win votes, media attention, and electoral success, just as the SNP did with Iraq”
You say “Prioritise Gaza to gain electoral success”, but to do what? If you are not using independence of Scotland as the main campaigning issue to attract voters, what do you intend to do if you win seats?
Do you still think Scotland’s MPs will ever persuade England MPs of anything with regards to UK foreign policy? Goodness, haven’t the last 9 years of stasis taught you anything at all? Where have you been the last week?
And if you have not gained those votes campaigning on independence, do you also expect yes voters to brace themselves for yet another blow to the trust like the one we had when we heard Tommy Shepherd saying that because the SNP were not elected on a mandate for independence they were not in Westminster to fight for independence or to cause trouble?
You are not sounding like ALBA at all. You are sounding like pure devolutionist SNP deja vu, to be frank. A rinse and repeat of the same failed strategy we have been witnessing for the last 9 years. A great interest in winning elections but no interest whatsoever in doing anything with the winnings to progress independence. How can you progress independence when you center your campaign around Gaza? It comes across as an excuse to not progress independence, to be honest.
A real party of independence does not seek to win electionS to influence UK foreign policy. A real party of Scotland’s independence fights to win ONE ELECTION to terminate the UK so Scotland can start creating its own foreign policy.
“Mia (seriously) asks: “What audience exactly is that you intend to target?”
Yes, I indeed asked you that and I am asking it again. What audience do you intend to target? Because there is not such a thing as something that appeals to the 100% of the voters. The closest thing you have to that is what has already been used very efficiently by Kenny and Neil, which is the issue of Scotland being rich in energy and still having to pay ridiculously high prices.
You say it is “Unbelievable that I need to address such a question in a discussion about Alba increasing its support and winning elections”
Well indeed you have to address it, because your making mockery of an issue that is potentially of interest to over 50% of the population and it is quite hot at the moment is very odd indeed. It is also interesting that you seek to deflect rather than address the question. Why is that? Personally, I am not sure what makes you think the 100% of the voters see the issue of Gaza as their priority.
You also talk about “winning elections”. What do you mean “elections”? If ALBA is serious about starting negotiations for independence after a successful election, it should be concerned with winning just ONE ELECTION. That is all what it needs to win to start the process of independence. To be honest, the more you say, the more you sound SNP rather than ALBA
“just as the SNP did with Iraq”
You seem to be deliberately ignoring the oversized elephant in the room. What catapulted the SNP from 6 MPs to 56 and from a few thousand members to over 100,000 was not the Iraq war. It was the issue of independence that Mr Salmond knew how to master. Shame that the political fraud Sturgeon came in and destroyed the whole thing he built up.
If there is something you have convinced me of is that seeking independence is not your priority at all.
@Mia 11:13pm
Agreed especially the bit that Salmond left to Sturgeon the gift of a Tsunami of an Independence revolution. It was his doing not Sturgeons. She wrapped herself in a narcissistic Saltire. It was all about her. The Corporate Mammy as she described herself and in doing so revealed her true identity. Will we get Scottish Independence? When we get rid of the SNP.
It niggled me a couple of days ago when the BBC Fiction Factory claimed Gaza “already had twice the casualties” of Yookraine, putting that number at 36k.
I don’t have a definitive number to give you, perhaps we will never know the true extent of losses, but the general perception of casualties I have is far, far greater than 36k, perhaps out and under reported by a factor of 10, (and even more according to some sources).
The “reliable” truth is simply not being reported, and the figures are inordinately difficult to verify, while the Western media just oozes disinformation. In such circumstances, you’d expect a reputable media to report the claims of both sides, and at least make some attempt to verify them, but we do not get that in the West.
But every now and then, a morsel of truth inadvertently slips out that isn’t orchestrated disinformation. I give you the latest testimony featuring Erik Prince, the CEO of Blackwater, the huge US private Military Contractor.
Don’t take my word for it, but listen with your brain engaged, then form your own opinions and conclusions. Just ask yourself whether he’s talking about 36k casualties in a population 33+ million, not to mention the flood of foreign mercenaries also killed in theatre.
The 100 billion dollar price tag is another casual throwaway remark How can you spend a hundred billion dollars and have nothing to show for it except 36k casualties?
https://t.me/intelslava/55664
My point isn’t primarily about Yookraine or Gaza, but calling out the lying filth at the BBC and their profound aversion to telling you the truth.
Here’s the exact point where I gave up in the realisation that I was dealing with a confidence trickster rather than someone who was just politically dim (I didn’t read beyond this point, for the record);
“Do you still think Scotland’s MPs will ever persuade England MPs of anything with regards to UK foreign policy? Goodness, haven’t the last 9 years of stasis taught you anything at all? Where have you been the last week?”
As if I have ever suggested anything like that in my life… as if it was the SNP’s goal to do that over the last 9 years. Note the necessarily restrictive reference to “UK foreign policy” — necessary because Scotland’s MPs managed to persuade “England MPs“ that we should have an independence referendum not that long ago, and it doesn’t suit the evangelical cause to be reminded of that.
And that leads me to an obvious question; how do you expect independence to be achieved without some sort of measurable expression of democratic support? Before you start typing, remember that you’d need to elect politicians who agreed with your plan before it could be implemented — can you point to a single one right now?
Maybe you think people are going to read a couple of your beautifully crafted comments and rush onto the streets? Motorways maybe, but not streets.
Mia
Ignored says:
2 March, 2024 at 11:13 pm
…. How can you progress independence when you center your campaign around Gaza? It comes across as an excuse to not progress independence, to be honest.
I’m not saying you’re wrong Mia. Tactically you’re quite right, we don’t need Gaza like we don’t need Catalonia, but strategically? Let me post again the fantastic speech from Dr Ralph Wilde before the ICJ, casually demolishing the legitimacy of Zionist Israel in excruciating forensic detail. It’s a genuine tour de force. I encourage folks to sit through it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRn4qYAORAE
I know it’s different, but it’s also the same… Can’t you imagine a day coming when someone is standing there putting Scotland’s case before the ICJ, similarly demolishing the legitimacy of the UK’s bogus Treaty of Union, and detailing every irreconcilable ultra vires absurdity, flagrant breach, colonial exploitation and unconstitutional subjugation of Scotland’s rights under International Law?
This is the path I believe SALVO / Liberation is attempting to steer us towards, and yes, I think it is absolutely fundamental to our cause. I pity the lawyer who would have to make the case against us, just as I pity (don’t actually), the lawyer who has to counterpoint the redoubtable Dr Wilde.
Scotland needs political leadership, yes, but it desperately needs an advocate of Dr Ralph Wilde’s calibre and acumen. If we cannot hope to find both, then let us prioritise the hunt for legal advocacy, and distance ourselves from our squalid political non-entities who’s only interest is to get their fat carcass on a bench and snout into the trough at Westminster.
What Holyrood can’t provide, maybe the Faculty of Advocates can. Err… well,… em… Sigh. Oh Crapola. We’re well and truly fkd, aren’t we? Troughers to the right of us, troughers to the left of us…
(With luck and a little bit of faith, maybe no, for once we’re maybe not fkd).
A last wee afterthought about Dr Wilde… unlike ourselves, does he seem tied up in knots by any electoral franchise, or indeed burdened in any way, by the need for a democratic mandate to warrant the case he presents?
Granted, he needs a UN Recognised Nation to bring the case before the ICJ … Looking at you Ireland, or any other nation sympathetic to Scotland’s plight.
For pure devilment, how about France, or China, or yes, even you know who? Let me stress, that is for devilment.. I would hope such nations would need minimal persuasion to recognise Scotland, just as many former colonies of the British Empire will warm to the demise of Britain as an entity, but instincts recommend someone at least palatable to as wide a cross section as possible.
Again, looking at you Ireland… through whom we’d have a friend with a voice in Europe and a powerful lobby in the US. If anybody could swing America towards a neutral stance over Scotland’s Independence, I believe it might be the Irish… particularly if we have our own Dr Ralph Wilde to articulate the case so unequivocally.
* Unfortunate * to see some of the best commentators here getting into arguments with each other . No need to take sides ; they are all correct in their own ways .
Absolutely agree Independence must be the #1 focus & priority of any Party/Group describing itself as ” pro-Scottish Independence ” , kinda axiomatic , no ? It’s self-evidently true that ” we ” have zero ability to effect events ” elsewhere ” ; ‘kin hell , we can’t even effect events in the country we live in .
At the same time – and not in opposition – personally , I want to know what any Party or Group stand for if their asking for my support .
What they will * stand for * ie tolerate , oppose or not oppose . I want to know their worldview , their philosophical underpinnings , how they understand and interpret events – domestic and geopolitical . Whether they stand for or against eg..military adventurism/interventions ; proxy wars ; civilian- massacring atrocities ; unrestrained Corporate greed/exploitation ; restricting the individual freedom to hold/express an opinion on any subject etc .
In short ….whether or not they are just ” more of the same ” . The ” same ” that has turned the ( ever present ) gap between the ” haves ” and the ” have nots ” into a yawning chasm and brought us now to the precipice of world-destroying insanity .
These things matter . What point in Independence if the Earth lies in ruin ?
I want to know that any Party or Group I support are , unequivocally the GOOD GUYS .
Robert Hughes @ 07.27.
Perhaps this would be one of the greatest advantages of Independent, local candidates, Robert. Men and women standing on, perhaps, two clear and distinct policies. Independence, belief in the basic biological facts of male and female sexes. That should be enough to create clear blue water between them and the broken Party systems.
If it is felt that plebiscitary election strategy should be included in that, fair enough.
Many years ago, in the town in which I lived, a particular local man was elected repeatedly for the Lib/Dems. Despite this being an area (at the time) where the Labour vote was weighed. Because he was the only councillor who came round the doors between elections. He got lighting erected on a walkway where women were apprehensive of walking during the hours of darkness. We actually knew who he was.
Anyone of that quality who espoused the main causes which mattered to me would have my vote.
Perhaps the new T shirt slogan could be, “Actually Get What You Voted For”.
@ Sven
Yes , I agree , Independent candidates may well be the best option in light of dispiriting tendency of Political Parties to screw-up , lose the ” plot ” , be undermined by the infiltration of bad faith actors etc .
As long as they are truly Independent . Historically – in my part of the Highlands anyway , ” Independent ” has been a euphemism for Tory .
The example you give is a good one : a local ( non-Party aligned ) man enacting real changes , beneficial to the community he serves . ” Serves ” being the key point : not ” uses to further his/her career in Edinburgh or London ” .
Our Dan would make an excellent Independent candidate for his area ; he already puts to shame those elected AND PAID to provide the services he provides gratis .
I’d happily contribute what I could to fund someone like Dan to stand for election .
Hatuey @ 9:50 pm
“Alba should prioritise Gaza and use it to win votes, media attention, and electoral success”
Nah, Scottish independence is our most urgent priority.
Anyway, it looks like the SNP’s haiverin careerists got there first on using Gaza to get votes:
https://www.thenational.scot/politics/24158329.time-re-examine-case-withdrawing-westminster/
“the fantastic speech from Dr Ralph Wilde before the ICJ, casually demolishing the legitimacy of Zionist Israel in excruciating forensic detail”
I watched that speech on youtube a few days ago, thanks to a link that somebody kindly posted in the previous thread. It was, as you say, a very impressive tour de force.
I did thoroughly enjoyed that speech and noticed the many parallelisms with Scotland’s right to self-determination and colonisation status.
I am also conscious that it brings the matter of self-determination right up to the top of the agenda and proves beyond doubt that the matter of self-determination remains as a legitimate right both in theory and practice.
As I mentioned in a comment above, I am of the opinion we have a lot to learn from the situation in Gaza with regards to self determination and decolonisation, and that ICJ speech contains several useful international quotes that we should be applying to Scotland too.
If I understood your comment correctly, what you suggest is very different to Hatuey’s proposition. You look to center your focus on Scotland’s independence but seek to capitalise on the great opportunity offered from recent developments in the ICJ with regards to Gaza, and in particular the matters of self-determination and decolonisation, to raise awareness in Scotland and progress the independence cause by applying those concepts to Scotland’s s situation.
In other words, you seek to progress Scotland’s independence, not to find a successful strategy to win elections and then do nothing about it.
I fully agree with your proposed approach. In fact, and if I have to be completely honest, I have been waiting in despair since 2015 for the SNP to stand on the bloody gas pedal and drive forward at full speed on the matter of Scotland’s right to self-determination and Claim of Right, using the solid weight of the two pro-independence majorities both in Holyrood and Westminster, bringing the matter to an international court if needed.
But they showed no appetite for it at all. As it is, all we have had from that useless party is lip service to both, self-determination and the Claim of Right in the weeks before an election. Only to immediately forget about it all once the election was over. This is because the party’s priority to pursue independence has been completely diluted by other pet causes and specially for the more profitable cause of simply winning elections.
So far, Salvo appears to be the only organisation that is taking Scotland’s right to self-determination and Claim of Right seriously. They do not let, like political parties do, grow the grass under their feet.
As Hatuey’s comments suggest, political parties appear ultimately to focus only on winning elections, rather than a fast progression to independence. All what they seem to want to do is to prolong Westminster’s political game. The yes movement needs better than that if we seek Scotland’s situation to ever change.
I really hope Salvo takes your suggestion forward because the issue of self-determination is currently fresh in the minds of the world (despite the best attempts by the MSM to hide the speech), and therefore the yes movement should be striking while the iron is hot.
A ref to Scotland’s part in the slave trade often appears here.
Deep search will reveal that except for the victims of the «traffic» no one comes out with clean hands whether black, brown or white in skin color.
Trading in «slaves» was established in many parts of Africa before the North Europeans arrived. The Arabs set up the commercial base and all the rest is historic exploitation.
There were even «black» slave traders in N.America.
Scotland’s role in the imperial design was not remarkable.
Oman was a major slave trading state. The Omanis do not seem to be torturing themselves over it. Why should anybody? Is it a WASP guilt thing i wonder?
History cannot be rescripted to suit modern, and ephemeral, sensibilities.
Do move on.
Whether we have independent candidates or political parties would one of their top priorities not be to convince No voters to vote Yes?
Both Hatuey & I are just putting forward ideas on how we think politicians might do that.
Hautey thinks his idea is better than mine.
That’s OK.
I would be quite happy if my idea took 2nd place but I don’t think it will.
Hautey says
most men do not regard women’s rights to be the most pressing issue of the day
I think that is true. I don’t think men fully understand how women feel.
Will that affect their political success? I think it might after all we are 50% of the electorate.
Gaza may not be over soon but I bet it will be ‘off the radar’ pretty soon and will not be people’s top priority.
As for the women who are happy to give away women’s rights what can I say. Pathetic Stepford Wives
Gender WooWoo has the potential to destroy everything.
I give Gaza two months as a “hot” news item at most.
Either it will be all over by then, and the virtue signalling over the final body count will have moved onto a new synthetically outraged fad, or it will have escalated uncontrollably. If the latter, the hecatombs of casualties and refugees on Israel’s eastern borders will drive Gaza right off the news.
And in two months, Galloway will have exhausted his capacity for rabble rousing and stirring it up. People have short attention spans. His opportunities for disruption are limited if he wishes to avoid being suspended from the HoC.
Seems bleeding obvious to me the Indy movement has been here before. Remember Brexit? A single-issue cause directly affecting every single Scot, male, female, cat; young, old; Sovereign and New.
If that one didn’t nudge the needle on the Indy dial (and Rev Stu’s graphs of Indy support show no evidence of that), then who can really believe Gaza will?
I mean, seriously, get a feckin grip.
Wearing my old T-shirt today, cos it’s still the way to win our hearts, minds, wallets and sporrans:
“Show us the money”.
Plausibly demonstrate how Indy will benefit us where it counts – in the folding money in our pockets, and follow the plebiscitary election route to get the irrefutable votes in favour, and make it happen – legally and legitimately.
There’s no time to waste. The GE might be as early as May.
“As if I have ever suggested anything like that in my life”
Goodness, if I misunderstood you because you never explicitly suggested such thing, then what you propose is even more dishonest. It is akin of duping voters who are not pro-independence-inclined into voting for the party thinking it is going to do something about Gaza, only for the party to sit back and do nothing about it because it never intended to do so in the first place.
That is as dishonest approach as the one the SNP has been using with regards to independence for the last 9 years. Ensuring “Scotland’s voice will be heard” or “We will not be dragged out of the EU against our will” mounted to nothing other than being vacuous soundbites. Let’s not forget their infamous: “we cannot progress independence because many unionists have voted for the SNP too”.
“As if it was the SNP’s goal to do that over the last 9 years”
If it never was their goal, what on earth was their motion last week about the ceasefire on Gaza for? Just to have a go at the political game and stick one against Labour?
“Note the necessarily restrictive reference to “UK foreign policy” ”
Restriction is indeed necessary, because since when the situation in Gaza became a domestic issue for the UK, never mind Scotland? The situation in Gaza and any actions on it are part of foreign policy, not domestic policy. Goodness, I would have thought that stands to the obvious.
As it is, and until Scotland becomes independent, its hands are completely tied up behind its back in terms of foreign policy. It has no international presence, never mind power. The only presence it has is as part of the UK, ie none, because Scotland’s opinion is never taken into account for UK decisions.
” — necessary because Scotland’s MPs managed to persuade “England MPs“ that we should have an independence referendum not that long ago”
I am sorry, but I think you are wrong. It was not “Scotland’s MPs” who persuaded England MPs we should have an independence referendum. It was Mr Salmond who persuaded Cameron’s government to do so and then Cameron spoke to Scotland’s MPs who agreed to to the referendum. It is in Hansard. You seem to be very careful not to mention Mr Salmond’s name nor acknowledging that if we ever had that referendum, or the SNP ever became a mainstream political party, was thanks to him.
.
“how do you expect independence to be achieved without some sort of measurable expression of democratic support?”
ONE successful election is all what it takes. ONE successful election where a majority of anti-union MPs is delivered to Westminster on an abstentionist mandate to not take the seats, to not swear allegiance to the monarch and instead to immediately commence the proceedings to revoke the Treaty of Union.
I thought we were in that position on the 8 May 2015. If only the political fraud Sturgeon had not embarked on her mission to destroy the SNP as the political vehicle to deliver independence.
“Before you start typing, remember that you’d need to elect politicians who agreed with your plan before it could be implemented”
Precisely. And that is why I will never again cast a vote for a political party which seeks to fool voters by giving priority to a million and one pet causes over the only thing I am currently interested in voting for: Scotland’s independence.
“can you point to a single one right now?”
ISP is the closest one at present after Alba’s unfortunate and ill-advised spat on the issue of women’s rights. Failing that, there is always the option of spoiling my ballot by stating in it my choice.
“Maybe you think people are going to read a couple of your beautifully crafted comments and rush onto the streets? Motorways maybe, but not streets”
Ridiculising my writing does not successfully deflect from the fact that you have failed, so far, to address the questions put to you in my previous comments. Let me remind you:
1. What sector of the population are you planning to target with your campaign approach?
2. If you center your campaign on Gaza rather than Scotland’s independence, what do you plan to do with that mandate if you win a majority of the seats? A repeat of Tommy Shepherd’s “we are not here to cause trouble”?
3. What makes you thing the Gaza issue will appeal to the 100% of the voters? It is a heavily polarised issue. If you raise your voice in favour of Palestine (a perfectly ethical and legitimate position to take), you will be alienating those who are siding with Israel and all those who are not interested in the matter or wish to remain neutral. In other words, you will be dividing independence support, not bringing it together. How does that help the cause of Scotland’s independence? And how is that any better than Ruby’s perfectly reasonable suggestion to focus on women’s rights which will appeal to over 50% of the population?
You like it or not, and until the point Scotland becomes independent, in situations like Gaza Scotland’s parties can only take an ethical stance. Just like they can take a stance with regards to the war in Ukraine, Syria or Yemen. But you cannot center your campaign on something you have absolutely no power to change, in part, because your party has refused to deliver Scotland’s independence when it was in its power to do so, unless what you are seeking is to dupe voters.
The alternative of course, but I very much doubt this is what you had in mind, is to push hard forward with a stance diametrically opposed to UK’s foreign policy and act upon it as if you were independent. This might bring the end of the union closer due to incompatible positions, but it brings forward a very serious risk of being brought to heel by UK military and also the external powers like USA, Israel or all those EU governments invested in the conflict and currently controlled by USA and Israel. Currently, the situation in Gaza is very much linked to the process of global de-dollarisation and multipolarisation. The ICJ case against Israel is showing this. This is a very dangerous road to take and, in my view, unnecessarily risky and an unnecessary way to give other countries, other than England and its crown, a reason to join England into fighting against Scotland’s independence.
Show us the money
SSDD from John Main.
Do move on.
Another lecture from TURABDIN!
I’m waiting for a link to his ‘Assyrian Independence Movement’
where we can return the favour by offering them some suggestions.
I don’t know anything about the ‘AIM’ but what the hell I might go to the website and suggest that they
Do move on!
Hot news item.
Can Genocide John limit himself to only one post this hour?
Those who think Gender Woo Woo/Women’s rights isn’t people’s top priority should read Stu’s Twitter.
On this issue I agree with the Pope or maybe I should say the Pope agrees with me.
https://archive.is/M8etY
“Today the worst danger is gender ideology, which erases differences,” Pope Francis said.
I can’t help but feel that the SNP policies that the Rev has highlighted in these articles is the ‘Labour effect’ of the SNP embracing Labour activists and voters.
In particular, MUP reeks of New Labour where the state is allowing private companies to profit under the guise of supporting benign social policies.
The SNP, like Labour, are only interested in creating a state funded Professional Managerial Class that are not interested in solving the problems their positions are created for simply because it means they will out of a job.
This is being done in order to garner professional middle class votes both for virtue signalling as well as a job creation scheme for these individuals and their offspring.
The alternative to this is simple. Go back to the founding principles of the welfare state to combat ignorance, squalor and ill-heath so that every individual has an equal chance to fulfil their potential in life to the best of their abilities.
That won’t happen though as there are too many vested interests in the status quo.
What can we list about our relationship with England’s Westminster,
Indy Ref 1 and Brexit.
A union of equal partners were no one has a trading advantage over the other.
Well only one has ever had all the fiscal levers and takes from the other.
In 70 years Scots have rejected the Tories but they always rule over us with England votes.
We had an English PM who put in writing that Scots were vermine.
Independence MP’s speak in empty chambers until it’s packed for voting against them.
Indy ref 1 the Purda was broken with last minute Vows.
We would have the most powerful devolved parliament in the world?
Well if you don’t count places like Greenland. Wolonia, Saxo Coburg etc.
Scottish government so powerful Westminster can overrule anything we do and who can remove monies from our budget.
We were promised £1 billion for Peterhead carbon captur facilities. Built in England.
Promised 13 major ships for the Clyde- got boats and part ships shared with England.
Promised £3 Billion for Scottish renewables- spent on English off shore turbines.
Brexit against our will is going to deliver cheaper food, more foreign investment, greater standards of living and control of our borders.
Taxes will come down. Proven Bull shit the lot of it. 26 Tax increase 15 mortgage increases.
Westminster scandal, corruption and incompetence abound and after 10 years of austerity, 3 years of economic crises and now into recession and record levels of debt.
Who would want to leave Westminster rule taking us further down that road.
The only party who claims it wants to put ordinary people first and haven’t been totally discredited in Galloway’s Workers Party but give him a couple of weeks.
The ERASING OF DIFFERENCES, the now withdrawn Google GEMINI app was designed with that in mind making George Washington black, a typical pope South Asian and female and vikings anything but nordic in looks but Zulus and Chinese emperors as they really were/are.
Some differences may actually be hurtful, offensive hence the need to erase in our notionally diverse universe
All Hail the Great Sky Google!
“My point isn’t primarily about Yookraine or Gaza, but calling out the lying filth at the BBC and their profound aversion to telling you the truth.”
Breeks.
On YouCraine, the Germans are about to escalate conflict.
https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2024/03/02/german-officers-plot-taurus-missile-attack-on-the-crimea-bridge/
Ruby @ 11:02 am
““Today the worst danger is gender ideology, which erases differences,” Pope Francis said.”
Yes Ruby, as Pope Francis implies, gender ideology seeks to erase national identities, which remains the only bulwark against cultural imperialism. He described “gender ideology as the ugliest danger of our time, because it cancels out all differences that make humanity unique”.
Which helps explain why the SNP/Green gender fanatics are not so keen on being called ‘nationalists’, because they are actually anti-nationalist. And no doubt why the Scottish Government’s advisory group on gender policy includes an expert on genocide. No danger this shower are ever going to liberate Scotland, their ‘ugly’ quest is the polar opposite.
So it turns out that Scottish judges have been getting chauffeured around (to and from work and possibly elsewhere) in top of the range cars for the last three year which has cost the taxpayer over £2 million quid, this absurdity and afront to the Scottish taxpayer is to continue until 2026, and the contract to keep chauffeuring these judges could be renewed as it was three-years ago.
It comes despite senior lawyers at the Scottish Solicitors Bar Association warning the entire criminal justice system is on the brink of collapse due to years of chronic under-funding.
This has to stop, all public sectors in Scotland are struggling for funding, yet the judges are being chauffeured around like lords at great expense to the taxpayer.
Its a f*ckin disgrace if you ask me.
https://archive.is/blvk4
Sara Salyers interview is in today’s Sunday National. All comments so far, bar one, are supportive. That is a turnaround, I’d say. 🙂
Mia,
When the parliament of the upper House of Lords at Westminster in England refuses to allow Scots to access (their own ) ” right to self determination” and state they require permission to be free from The political English parliament.
Then Scots have invariably proved the Status to the world, that Westminster Parliament are holding Scotland captive as a Colonised nation,
It is important that SALVO apply and include the historical records regarding the status of the two parliaments that are supposed to be in a treaty of union to confirm Scotlands position as a Colonised Country,
Both old parliaments respectively have not continued into the treaty,
The Scottish parliament of the three estates came under Dissolution as early on as 1707.
The old Westminster parliament of Englands upper House the, “House of Lords” continued as the sole participant into the treaty of union.
The issue here “that is controversial” is the requirement for there to be a minimum of two parties for any treaty to exist in a treaty.
In this case we find the parliament of “Westminster” in England as sole participant in a treaty of union with the parliament of ” Westminster” of Great- Britain in England.
1:
All parliaments under Dissolution by law no longer have any legal Members of that “said” parliament.
2:
No Member of the ” said” parliament under Dissolution is legal to represent its Constituents.
3:
A parliament under Dissolution “cannot bind” or be bound over into the next successive parliament.
Westminster parliament of England old and new since 1707, are the sole participant Parliament ,in the treaty of union,
The Westminster parliament of England is in the treaty of union with the Westminster parliament of Great- Britain,
SALVO must allow this information into any Right to self- determination, subjugation of Scots, and Colonisation challenge as it confirms that Westminster Parliament of England is one and the same, that Westminster parliament of GB………without Scots or Scotland.
In a legal sense did ” Queen Anne’s proclamation” Dissolving the Scottish parliament, provide her with a escape route and clause if the situation between Scotland and England should turn sour,
As it would appear politically that she had not bound ether Country to each other, whilst not taken the “Scottish Oath” during her Coronation under Englands parliament “Act of settlement” to settle the succession of the monarchy To England,
Without taken the Scottish coronation Oath during her Coronation at Westminster Abbey and not appearing or coming to Scotland to be coronated queen of Scots,
She deleted herself as a Scottish Monarch.
She also proclaimed that the members, ( House of Lords) of the parliament of England would act as members of the parliament of Great- Britain without a election.
@Alf, just like the Nationalists Against Borders types. Nationalism in white majority nations is not allowed, which takes us to Google Gemini mentioned by Turabdin…
The SNP/Greens are a perfect example of salami politics, infiltrate movements and purge them via accusations of racism/Islamophobia/anti Semitism/homophobia/transphobia etc. The same thing will happen to Alba because they are setting themselves up for the hit by playing nice.
I see there are posters who aren’t actually interested in my post just in picking up some words from my post as justification for their own egotistical rant.
It seems they seem me as their stooge feeding them their lines.
A pair of fuckin’ comedians who ain’t funny.
Ach well what can I do. Men just ain’t interested in the danger of gender ideology.
I see there are posters who aren’t actually interested in my post just in picking up some words from my post as justification for their own egotistical rant.
It seems they see me as their stooge feeding them their lines.
A pair of fuckin’ comedians who ain’t funny.
Ach well what can I do. Men just ain’t interested in the danger of gender ideology.
What they say.
“At a media event last week, Yousaf said: “It is, let’s be clear, utterly unacceptable that in 2024 children continue to live in poverty in Scotland.
“There is no hiding from the fact that we all, my Government included, must do more to ensure that children right across Scotland do not continue to have their lives and opportunities impacted by the blight and scourge of poverty.”
And what they do.
“Despite the horror figures, SNP and Green MSPs pushed through a £196m cut to housing last week.”
Homeless children- Nearly 10,00 youngsters were in the system in March this year- the highest since Scottish Government records began in 2002.”
https://archive.is/i3egX
James Che & Mia would benefit their cause by joining a writing group.
I struggle to get past the first paragraph of their posts.
You can see this as personal abuse or constructive criticism it’s your choice.
My advice to both of them would be ditch the boring essays guys and go for short snappy comments.
Google Gemini and the rest, (including the scamdemic) seems like a social experiment, testing what we are prepared to put up with.
Knowledge is power.
Get off grid as much as possible, restrict what they know.
Yes Ruby, as Pope Francis implies, gender ideology seeks to erase national identities,
YCBFS!
@Ruby, I have experience of both ends of the trans lobby, someone in my close circle who has fallen for it and irreversibly changed their life and someone else who is pushing it in academia and counselling roles. Both had damaged childhoods.
@sarah sorry for taking so long to reply.
I was off SM for a while.
I thought it was called an Alliance of Independent Candidates or something similar.
But I’m not sure.
Tbh I’ve never heard of NOW
The ERASING OF DIFFERENCES, the now withdrawn Google GEMINI app was designed with that in mind making George Washington black
Any old shit to avoid the issue of gender ideology.
Effigy.
At some point Scots will wonder how they are connected to the Treaty of Union politically at all.
If the “House of Lords” is actually the only participating member in the Great-Britain Westminster parliament.
Scots were never given the vote to join the Treaty of Union.
Whilst their parliament was dissolved from that Treaty of Union. and no longer functioning with able members to represent Scottish Constituents.
And the Monarch of England, France and Ireland never taken the Scottish Oath during her Westminster Abbey Coronation, and never being coronated in Scotland as Queen of Scots.
At some point Scotland and Scots will ask the right questions to themselves.
What legally binds Scotland to England other than England’s use of a faux “Treaty of Union parliament” to refuse Scotlands nation of the “Right to self-determination” as a Colonised Country,
The fact that the parliament of Westminster in England cannot any longer make a legal challenge to the Old dissolved Scottish parliament for any breaches to the treaty of union never seems to occur to the independence movement as it is now been obsolete under dissolution since 1707.
England can only challenge the devolved Government it sent to Scotland which is under English legislation and statues of Westminster parliament.
They would be attacking themselves and their sub- branch.
At some point Scotland and its nation will arouse from their slumber and ask all the right questions,
That Scotland has a housing crisis is nothing new… It used to annoy me intensely that Edinburgh had a dire need for my skills on some of it’s finest buildings, but that I had to be a lodger in Livingston with a daily commute on the delightful Glasgow Road. This was 25+ years ago.
What could Scotland actually do to alleviate its crisis?
How about a limited and temporary rolling back of Building and Planning Regulations to stimulate construction of social housing by the people in actual need of it? Not a free-for-all, but a short period of “disaster relief” type strategy and land provision as if Scotland had been hit by sone natural disaster. Get these people a god damned home to live in and take their lives out of stasis. Pick up the tab later… if we must.
If the influx of new property prompts a drop in house prices because demand is slaked rather wilfully orchestrated to keep prices high, then help these people to cope. Cope I say mind, not profit from the Ponzi scheme housing racket blighting our country.
Is it really a heresy to roll back standards when our population is impoverished by having nowhere to live? Why not let the desperate people have a choice about the compromises they’re prepared to tolerate? A cauld hoos is better than nae hoos, and ye can ieways dae somethin’ aboot the cauld.
Don’t bother prosecuting those landowners who take the roofs off serviceable properties to save on rates. Make the properties forfeit to the State and put a family in them with a year to make it weather tight. Pity help any Estate interfering with its water and drainage supply.
How about a bit of positive warmongering, that we start a war on the scourge of homelessness and deprivation?
What’s that? We need Independence to do that? Then now you’re talking. That’s what we do. Get off our fkg knees and rebuild our Scottish Nation one family or homeless worky at a time.
See how long it takes for living in Scotland to be a more rewarding prospect than fkg off to Australia, and watch as we change our nation’s trajectory.
@ Liz: no need to apologise for not being permanently attached to Wings!
Action for Independence was something else I belonged to. It was a brilliant idea, imo, of Dave Thomson’s – an umbrella party whose candidates would still keep their own party’s policies BUT stand firstly for independence. Sadly Alba was formed, wouldn’t fall in with AFI, and AFI decided to stand aside for Alba in the 2021 Holyrood election. Big mistake by AFI though understandable. Alba’s decision is less understandable or forgivable.
@Ruby, those who promote intersectionality are usually in favour of the trans lobby and the opening of borders in white nations as the first lowers the birth rate and helps to legitimise paedophilia whilst the second helps to get rid of the hated whites and brings in people whose cultures have a lower age of consent.
I realise that some people struggle to understand that there may not be a political union between Scotland and England and in relation to how it would effect the gender issues and poverty in Scotland or how a independent Scotland might for the first time in hundreds of years Scotland might get who they vote for if they were independent,
or not be in constant wars if inclusion by being attached politically to down South politics,
To gain the Right to self determination and become a Sovereign nation means Scotland could start politics from a entirely new prospective and be rid of the Snp, Green party and labour/ tory party for the past 70 years.
It will not be understood by some, that everything in politics is connected, including who you are connected too, wether it is energy supplies, economy, food supplies, gender issues, fishing and farming, education, shipping, resources, climate change, and not forgetting freedom of speech without being ostracised.
It is understandable that some people will struggle.
Robert Hughes: “have zero ability to effect events ” elsewhere ””
And at no point have I suggested we could actually do anything to change the situation in Gaza… honestly, it didn’t even cross my mind. I was stupidly thinking of politics.
I see that Mia is happy with “several useful international quotes” that she can apply to Scotland. No need to ask which ones, I suppose, we will soon find out.
The independence movement has been infiltrated by some sort of underground creative writing organisation, sorta like fifth columnists only they don’t have newspapers to write for.
They want us to return to the year dot and to ban any reference to actual reality… and… then… well, it gets a bit fuzzy here, but I believe there’s some sort of cosmic wormhole we can use that will take us straight to independence, and to access it we just need to say the magic words — “claim of right”.
Nobody wishes them more success than I do.
Leaving aside the problem of finding people who will translate Scots slang for us, I really doubt I’ll be the only one who dies laughing when Alf stands at the ICJ podium and explains to the world that the guys who murdered their ancestors and stole their treasure were actually the real colonial victims.
Maybe he can woo them with a few Burns’ quotes. That’ll work.
Of course, to do any of that you’re going to need politicians and I’m sorry if it’s a shock to anyone but politicians operate off-limits, beyond the Twilight Zone, in the real world of elections and votes.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/nip-and-tuck/comment-page-1/#comment-2827767
I don’t understand what you mean by both sides of the trans lobby.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/nip-and-tuck/comment-page-1/#comment-2827774
No idea what you are on about. Sorry
Sounds to me like a load of bullshit!
But hey what do I know I don’t even know what ‘intersectionality’ means.
Republicofscotland,
You speak a lot of common sense when it comes to housing and the homeless situation in Scotland, having been homeless myself in Scotland for five years ater divorce, the waiting list was five years for social housing,
That landlords removed the roofs of good housing to avoid rates, was always a bee in my bonnet, they should have and still should be fined for the destruction of affordable accommodation,
However would they have avoided paying equal rates and taxation if the rates were on the land instead of on the building?
Do you think This would also capture those that buy or own a property here in Scotland that do not reside here most of the year except for a few weeks or a month say, leaving houses empty for the rest of the year that could house many a homeless person,
I suppose the only likely people to protest land rates would be the weathier land owners as we witnessed when Andy Wightman broached the subject.
Rates and taxation was always a big divide between the rich and the poor that are struggling,
When a landlord is rich enough that they can afford to dismantle a house, it says all that needs to be said on the subject that Scotland rates system does not work as it stands at the moment.
@Ruby, as you seem hellbent on picking a fight I will leave someone else to rise to the bait.
Breeks, a lot of what you say makes sense but anything that devalues existing housing stock is going to be strongly resisted by powerful forces.
It would be the easiest thing in the world for the British or even Scottish government to throw money at the housing problem, and there would be a million positive spin-off effects, jobs, increased demand for materials, increased demand for sofas, beds, carpets, everything, it’s well understood that building houses is one of the best ways there is to stimulate an economy, but unless you are prepared to essentially go to war with those who benefit from the current state of affairs, it will never happen.
And that’s the real challenge. The social argument for actually doing it is a no-brainer, that’s the easy part. The hard part is dealing with those who own existing housing stock and who will mobilise against you if you try to change the situation.
I’m not just talking about house builders who are often accused of benefitting from scarcity, I’m talking about hedge funds, banks, investment banks, a multitude of huge companies that operate behind the scenes, and more ordinary well-off people who have quietly enjoyed watching the value of their house go up and up over the decades.
Tinker with that stuff at your peril.
What do you mean by homeless?
Were you sleeping on the streets for five years?
Did you have drug, alcohol & other mental health issues that prevented you for renting accommodation in the private sector?
Anything wrong with having a fight?
Are you worried you can’t win?
@Ruby, this aggression will not stand.
-“And at no point have I suggested we could actually do anything to change the situation in Gaza”-
If you do not plan for the party to do anything about it, what is the point in putting Gaza at the centre of your main campaigning?
If you plan to do nothing about it or know you can do nothing about it even if your party wins all seats, then putting it at the centre of your political campaign is dishonest. It equates to attempting to dupe voters for the sake of winning seats.
This is precisely the dishonest approach the SNP has been using with regards to independence for the last 9 years and that has put off so many voters. Ensuring “Scotland’s voice will be heard” or “We will not be dragged out of the EU against our will” mounted to nothing other than vacuous soundbites.
Let’s not forget their infamous excuses: “we cannot progress independence because many unionists have voted for the SNP too”, or Sturgeon’s classic: claiming a vote for the SNP was not a vote for independence and then trying to excuse the inaction progressing independence because “they were not elected on a mandate for independence”.
-“several useful international quotes”-
Are you seriously attempting to undermine the brilliant speech delivered by Dr Ralph Wilde? You cannot be serious. Have you even watched it or stopped for a minute to think how that applies to Scotland? I invite you to watch it.
-“As if it was the SNP’s goal to do that over the last 9 years”-
If it never was their goal, what on earth was their motion last week about the ceasefire on Gaza for? Were they just wasting time to have a go at the West political game so they could stick one against Labour?
-“Note the necessarily restrictive reference to “UK foreign policy” ”-
I considered restriction to the field of UK foreign policy necessary simply because the situation in Gaza and any actions on it are part of foreign policy, not domestic policy. Goodness, I would have thought that stood to the obvious.
Until Scotland becomes independent, and painful as it is to watch, its hands are completely tied up behind its back in terms of foreign policy. It has no international presence, never mind power. The only presence it has is as part of the UK, ie none, because Scotland’s opinion is never invited, never mind taken into account when it comes to UK foreign policy.
-”Scotland’s MPs managed to persuade “England MPs“ that we should have an independence referendum not that long ago”-
I am afraid you might be mistaken. It was not “Scotland’s MPs” who persuaded England MPs we should have an independence referendum. It was Mr Salmond who persuaded Cameron’s government to do so and then Cameron spoke to Scotland’s MPs who agreed to to the referendum. It is in Hansard. I wonder why you are being so careful to avoid mentioning Mr Salmond’s name or associating any of his many achievements to his name and instead dilute them among “MPs”.
-“how do you expect independence to be achieved without some sort of measurable expression of democratic support?”-
ONE successful election is all what it takes. ONE successful election where a majority of anti-union MPs is delivered to Westminster on an abstentionist mandate to not take the seats, to not swear allegiance to the monarch and instead to immediately commence the proceedings to revoke the Treaty of Union.
I thought we were in that position on the 8 May 2015. If only the political fraud Sturgeon had not embarked on her mission to destroy the SNP as the political vehicle to deliver independence.
-“You’d need to elect politicians who agreed with your plan before it could be implemented”-
Precisely. And that is why I will never again cast a vote for a political party which seeks to win seats by fooling voters into think they are voting for independence when in reality they are voting for a myriad of bogus pet causes, some of them even beyond the competence of the party.
-“can you point to a single one right now?”-
ISP is the closest one at present after Alba’s unfortunate spat on the issue of women’s rights. Until Alba clarifies its stance on women’s rights and disciplines its member for using that anti-women stonewall verbiage, ISP will be. Failing that, there is always the option of spoiling my ballot by stating in it my choice.
-“Maybe you think people are going to read a couple of your beautifully crafted comments and rush onto the streets? Motorways maybe, but not streets”-
Ridiculising my writing does not successfully deflect from the fact that you have failed, so far, to address the questions put to you in my previous comments:
1. What sector of the population are you planning to target with your campaign approach?
2. If you center your campaign on Gaza rather than Scotland’s independence, what do you plan to do with that mandate if you win a majority of the seats? A repeat of Tommy Shepherd’s “we are not here to cause trouble”?
3. What makes you thing the Gaza issue will appeal to the 100% of the voters? It is a heavily polarised issue. If you raise your voice in favour of Palestine (a perfectly ethical and legitimate position to take), you will be alienating those who are siding with Israel and all those who are not interested in the matter or wish to remain neutral. In other words, you will be dividing independence support, not bringing it together. How does that help the cause of Scotland’s independence? And how is that any better than Ruby’s perfectly reasonable suggestion to focus on women’s rights which will appeal to over 50% of the population?
There is of course an alternative position when using Gaza as the centre of your campaigning, but I very much doubt this is what you had in mind. That alternative position is to deliberately push forward with the Gaza stance knowing it is diametrically opposed to UK’s current foreign policy. But for the party to have credibility on this and to get somewhere with it other than doing some virtual signalling, after succeeding in the election it would have to push hard forward with the stance and act upon it as if Scotland were already independent.
This might bring the end of the union closer due to incompatible positions with the UK state, but it also brings forward a very serious risk of being brought to heel by UK military/Secret service and also the external powers invested in the conflict and currently controlled by USA and Israel.
Currently, it seems the situation in Gaza is very much linked to the process of global de-dollarisation and multipolarisation of the global economy. This is becoming evident from what side of the de-dollarisation conundrum are bringing the genocide case against Israel forward, and who is seeking to protect Gaza’s self-determination rights.
While this approach might be successful, it is a very dangerous road to take and, in my view, unnecessarily risky, because it gives other countries, other than England and its crown, also a reason to join England in the fight against Scotland’s independence. But if the SNP had not even the backbone to progress independence or even threat the union when they had 56 MPs, frankly I see no chance they would ever take such risky road.
Please note, at no point I have indulged in criticising your writing style, the length of your posts nor called you a fifth columnist. I have focused in what I have identified to be weaknesses in your argument that, for me, question its credibility.
You, on the other hand, have used two thirds of your last comment to criticise my writing style and to make up some bullshit about underground “creative” organisation.
I appreciate you are attempting to dismiss my questions put to you as mere waffle. They are not. Unfortunately, your lack of response to those questions and attempts to discredit my comments has simply added to the doubts I already had with regards to where, in your political priority list, pursuing independence sits.
Have a great afternoon.
Home-less.
Theres the clue for those that struggle to join the dots.
Bless.
😉
You would think the opposition parties hungry for anything to throw at the SNP would be screaming this from the rooftops, so why aren`t they. We know they are thick but they can`t be that thick, surely.
Humza giving more of our money away… £250,000. To Sudan.
Another muslim country benefitting from SNP Jihadist First Minister of Gaza Humza Yousaf.
The sun always shines on the equator. With Scottish tax payers money.
It’s time for #Male Me Too.
#Scottish Lives Matter.
And #Drain the Loch.
Sudan is at war. And we’ve to pay for their violence. We’ve to pay.
Time for Charity starts at home. Why must charity start in Sudan? The darkest parts of Africa. With our money? Why should we care?
If we give them money… They’ll come flooding across the channel to live here. Stealing homes from the indigenous Scottish man. I’ve got no time for giving them money. They are usually violent males that end up settling. Selling shit on the streets outside train stations and harassing the locals. And then they’ll get all the houses.
Humza has no control over foreign affairs yet finds all the money to give our money away.
I don’t mind Palestine. But that’s enough. We’ve given all our homes to the European refugees as well. They keep on coming.
Life is crap enough as it is.
No worries James I can join the dots.
Got this brilliant ICD which helps.
Was your finger wagging when you posted the above?
Scotland according to the House of lords in the parliament of England cannot end the treaty of union.
But most of those articles come under and have been altered by Westminster parliament.
But there is nothing stated in any article of that fallacious treaty that states Scotland as a sovereign Country cannot suspend that treaty of union while it investigates not only breaches to the articles, but Colonisation of that very treaty of union in favour of the House of Lords in Westminster parliament, and refusing the other half of that very treaty their own “Right to Self-determination”.
There is more ways to go about ending this union treaty than the standard Westminster parliament dictatorship methodology.
The first Reason to suggest a “suspended treaty take effect immediately.is under a heading that ‘ a Scottish parliament that has been under Dissolution since 1707 and never reinstated cannot be in the parliament of Westminster as part of the Great- British parliament.
We know that the political parties behind the scenes are acting in party interests rather than in the interests of Scotland or its nation, be it a union party or a pretend independence party.
We know that the set up for counting our votes is questionable when all our votes a whisked away out of sight by a private owned franchise,
So is there any route we can take?
There is one route.
A “Sovereign Scots people’s parallel parliament”
under human rights acts for Scots under the ” Right to Self-Determination” if prevented from not having our voice’s heard politically through the normal Colonised voting system in place in Scotland.
This Sovereign Scots parliament once up and running could ( not end, ) but suspend, their right to investigate the 1707 treaty of union.
I suspect it will have to be groups of Sovereign Scots under their right to self- determination take up the baton where politics and the political sphere in Scotland fails them and do this for themselves .
As Alex Salmond, Alba, the NS, the SNP, the Greens, Labour and the Tories, are all well aware that any one of them could have gone down this route to Scots right to self- determination. As it has been human rights policy for many years now,
They are playing with us, hoping we remain political idiots and remain political passive with the carrots they constantly dangle on a very stretchy string.
These carrots are so old that they keep offering us, is it not time to go politically foraging for our own substanance.
.
A political pygmy in the crowd exclaimed: “If you plan to do nothing about it or know you can do nothing about it even if your party wins all seats, then putting it at the centre of your political campaign is dishonest.”
Again, for the record, the quote above marks the point where I stopped reading in realisation that I was dealing with a child, and a deceitful child and that; I’ve already said that independence must be at the centre of everything (I said it in the very comment Mia quoted above). You see, my goal is independence whereas Mia’s goal is creative writing.
It isn’t dishonest to criticise Labour, the Tories, or The British State, on things like Iraq or Gaza, even if we can do nothing to stop the genocide unfolding ourselves. Only an idiot would make such a claim. The point, obviously, is to influence those who possibly can do something or to hold them to account for what they did or could have done.
Do you think the SNP thought they could have stopped the Iraq war before or after it happened when they used the issue to discredit Labour and win elections?
“SCOTLAND would never have been involved in the Iraq war if it had been an independent country, according to First Minister Alex Salmond…” (The Herald, 2011)
It’s still an issue today: “ALBA demand former Labour Minister apologises for support of Iraq War” (Alba website).
Was it dishonest of Salmond or Alba to make reference to Iraq? By Mia’s silly standard, yes.
Should we move on to explaining why things that are further away look smaller?
Sane and intelligent people, who I assume represent a majority in the independence movement, are caught between these two poles online; delusional “claim of right” creatives on one side (who really just want to write stuff and be told they are great writers), and Napalm Death warmongers on the other (who seem to want the rapture or something).
They’re all sort of harmless and entertaining on a certain level, but let’s not pretend anything they say is worth taking seriously. We all know that the only route to independence depends on electing people, and that is the case whether you think another referendum is necessary or have some other idea about how to get there.
There are benefits of starting at the very bottom of each ‘comments’ section on Wings.
Firstly, you don’t need to remember where you finished the previous time you visited and therefore don’t need to read the same dross twice.
Secondly, as you scroll upwards you invariably come across a post which seems extraordinarily long. Before you get to the top and identify the username, you already know it is one of Mia’s novels. I often wonder what she actually writes!
As somebody else pointed out,the posts from Che can also be a bit lengthy. Fortunately there is no need to read any of them as they are all the same repetitive guff that few are remotely interested in. If you have read one, you have read them all.
@Ruby, for information about intersectionality you should read up on the Knutsens.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyLdtG7KZvw
Well done Chas,
By scrolling past It will save you having to whinge like you were tattle tailing to a primary school teacher in the playground.
Miss, miss, sir, sir.
Just ignore and scroll on by.
More readin’!
I’m a bit overloaded with the amount of readin’ there is to do here BTL on Wings.
There was an article in ‘The Scottish Mail on Sunday’ today
I think it was just in the hard copy it was headlined
SNP fraud probe: Witnesses are interviewed for a FOURTH time
The Scottish Mail on Sunday 3 Mar 2024 By Georgia Edkins
POLICE probing claims of fraud within the SNP have hauled in witnesses for more interviews – sparking suggestions they could be close to ‘winding up’ the drawn-out investigation.
Former and current members of the party have been reinterviewed – some for the fourth time – about what money was spent on, and when, while the party HQ was under the control of Nicola Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell.
A new tranche of witnesses ‘close to the centre of power’ have also been brought in for questioning.
The rest of the article is what we already know, motorhome, loan from Murrell,arrests, etc.
Breeks.
Apologise for not posting my comment to your good self in response to housing issue,
It was meant for you,
Doing multiple tasks, trying to find space in garden for the Council bins that are acummulating or breeding at my back door.
Whilst hedge trimming, trips to CA site and popping in and out the house to post here on wings.
My Genuine apologies Breeks.
@Hatuey
Your exaggerated ad hominem is uncalled for and a desperate cry for deflection. Unfortunately, its loud volume is bringing attention back to you.
Your exagerated ad hominem suggests you have no intention of addressing the questions put to you – either because you did not think them through and your pride does not allow you to acknowledge this, or because you knew beforehand the strategy you proposed was inappropriate to deliver independence.
“Was it dishonest of Salmond or Alba to make reference to Iraq? By Mia’s silly standard, yes”
Please do not put words in my mouth nor insult this blog readers’ intelligence. One thing is to make a stance/remark on something you do not control (Iraq war, Gaza, U K R aine, Yemen). Another very different is to make it THE CENTRE of your campaign, which is what you suggested to do “to win elections”. The first is an ethical approach and a display of the party’s principles. The second is an attempt to dupe voters in order to win seats and push the independence cause down the priority list.
“SCOTLAND would never have been involved in the Iraq war if it had been an independent country, according to First Minister Alex Salmond…”
Come on, Hatuey. You are smarter than this. That text between inverted commas is a remark, which puts the pursuit of independence right AT THE CENTRE of the message. That remark is not putting the Iraq war at the centre of the campaign at all. Non intervention from Scotland in that war was showed AS AN EXAMPLE of what Scotland could do if it was independent – independence is the main message.
“You see, my goal is independence”
Is it really? The most staunch defenders of independence BTL do not have to state that their goal is independence. It is usually very obvious from what they write. Usually they don’t engage in extensive ad hominem to discredit other pro-independence supporters to gain credibility. You, on the other hand, feel the need to state it and sustain it by filling your comments with ad hominem and bile to avoid addressing questions put to you, whose answers, ironically, would put any doubts of your seeking independence to rest for good.
So you know, muy goal is not creative writing. It never was nor ever will be. And by the way, intelligent people who learn about it realise there is nothing “delusional” about the Claim of Right. Claiming such a thing not only comes across as a magnificent display of ignorance, but also questions even more your interest for independence.
There is a very good reason why the monarch had to swear by the Claim of Right in order to get the job. Or did you think he just did it because he felt like it at the time?
Sorry for long post. I would have posted a link but I couldn’t find it online. I read it in Press Reader so I guess it was just in the hard copy.
Here’s the rest of the article. Sorry if I suggested there was nothing new in this part. Garden sprinklers! that’s new
SNP fraud probe: Witnesses are interviewed for a FOURTH time contd.
A source said: ‘There are a lot of moving parts, but things could be starting to wind up. The police have reinterviewed a number of people for a third or even a fourth time. They have interviewed new people close to the SNP centre of power too.’
Rumours continue to swirl at Holyrood that charges could be brought imminently. It will be up to the Crown Office to decide if any reports provided by police could lead to such action.
Officers investigating the fraud claims have quizzed witnesses over a number of purchases, including a £110,000 motorhome and an electric Jaguar, as well as other more unusual buys such as garden sprinklers and expensive pens.
The probe – known as Operation Branchform – is focused on how money raised in 2017 and 2019 as part of a referendum appeal has been spent. Concerns were initially raised when SNP accounts showed that there was less than £100,000 in the bank at the end of 2019, despite £600,000 being donated to referendum fundraisers. That sparked at least 19 criminal complaints.
After the police began their probe, then SNP chief executive Mr Murrell loaned the party £107,620, said to be to assist with ‘cash flow’. But the party failed to disclose the loan until 14 months later, breaking political finance law.
In February last year, Ms Sturgeon announced she would quit as First Minister and SNP leader, stating the ‘brutality’ of politics had taken its toll.
Mr Murrell stepped down from his position the following month. He was arrested in early April at the home he shares with Ms Sturgeon in connection with the Branchform investigation.
Former SNP treasurer Colin Beattie was then arrested and questioned on April 18.
Ms Sturgeon became the third leading party figure to be arrested as a suspect, being questioned at a police station for seven hours.
Ms Sturgeon, 53, Mr Murrell, 59, and Mr Beattie, 72, were all released without charge.
A Crown Office spokesman said that ‘to protect the integrity of ongoing investigations, we do not comment in detail on their conduct’, while Police Scotland also declined to comment ‘as the investigation remains ongoing’.
‘Things could be starting to wind up’
Always remember its not China or the RF that’s stealing our assets, its not them that’s denying us our democratic right to vote on whether to ditch this union, its England, its secruity services and its House Jocks that’s doing it.
England is not an ally to Scotland its an oppressor.
Mia, I hope you’ve learned never to start a conversation by telling someone that what they’re saying is “ridiculous”.
You picked on the wrong guy and now you look silly. Alf at least had the brains to back off when he realised Clint Eastwood’s mule didn’t like being laughed at…
But you can go now, little child. I’m done with you.
Run along and do your harmless art.
And so the sun sets on this thread.
Shame, I was really enjoying a few other posters tearing Hats a new one.
Your obsession with Hatuey is very odd.
What’s the score?
I’ll tell you when the sun sets, little drummer boy.
@Hatuey
???
I think your chip is malfunctioning and needs replacing.
Good night.
My chip doesn’t need replaced, it needs “replacing”.
Most Scottish people would use the past participle, “replaced”.
Not that anyone cares.
Well done Mia
Well done Hatuey!
Thanks, Ruby. And well done yourself.
Anyone who is bored enough to look into the argument will see very quickly who started the personal insults. I don’t mind personal insults, but it was done from this assumed position of superiority.
Then Alf Interjected in support of her, assured me he was an expert analyst and I was talking crap, only to be proven to be talking crap himself. I’m embarrassed for him.
That would all be okay, I’m totally impervious to insults and bullshit, but both of them exhibited this tone of unimpeachable superiority, like we here on this website are little people who need to be kept right and are supposed to bow to their unquestionable wisdom…
Well, their wisdom didn’t last long. Their arguments were dismantled by one of the little people. Not that that is anything to be proud of since their arguments were just stupid, as anyone can see.