Wings Over Scotland

What is the effective duty in Scotland when you include MUP?

As you mentioned, the SNP thinks its voters are morons. I’d say that’s a very accurate description.

Vote SNP get the greens. The reality is the Greens are running the country and the SNP is only the face of the government.

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.

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.

Wouldn’t it all be easier if the SNP campaigned for our independence and thereby cut the UK government out of the equation?

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”.”

“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.

Is JM a kiddie fiddler?
Maybe that’s going too far.

See how it’s done?

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.

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:
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com

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.

Ennui;

‘It’s the revenues, stoopid’. But you knew that already.

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.

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.

@ 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 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
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

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…

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?

Folk need to listen to this…

link to youtube.com

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.

@ 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.

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!

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).

Indeed Stuart.

Here is a pre cartoon aperitif of amusement…

George Galloway eviscerating a sky news wanker.

link to twitter.com

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!

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.

EVEN the torygraph editors think the British state is sick n f**ked.
link to telegraph.co.uk
Scotland the anosmiac, stirr yourself, you’re lying next to a foetid, decaying corpus.

“What is it with these ‘journalists’”

They are not journalists. They are bought and paid for propagandists following a one-side agenda.

“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.

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 .

Knobbychoke ?

@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”.

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?

Eva Comrie should form ‘The Scottish Women’s Party’

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.

@ 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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com

How bad are freeports, very bad.

link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com

A NEW WORLD, not brave and delighting in a cocktail of pseudo-science.
link to telegraph.co.uk
Take your hang ups to work my darling.
link to diva-magazine.com
AstraZenzca?, werent they pushing some wonderdrug some years ago? Now on the lucrative obesity trail and further «medicalization» pathways.
link to reuters.com
(Note Archive.ph site does not work for me)

@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?

“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.

The tory party had to share the venue with a george michael tribute act.

link to thehighlandtimes.com

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”.

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.

Sarah

See my post
link to wingsoverscotland.com

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.

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.

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.

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.

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,

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.

@willie says: 2 March, 2024 at 1:03 pm

Where is all this tax money going

Here’s a handy link:

link to ifs.org.uk

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.

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 .

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.

“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.

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.

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.

Wee Rishi could hardly see over that podium last night.

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?

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.

Mia
Ignored
says:
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

So, Ruby, what is it really that you are supporting.

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.

TURABDIN
Ignored
says:
2 March, 2024 at 3:55 pm

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 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’

“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.

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.

Mia
Ignored
says:

The only thing that choosing between those two fundamentals will do is to divide the population group that supports both.

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’.

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?

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…

“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.

@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.

@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.

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…

link to travisperkins.co.uk

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.

@Alf Baird Thanks for that reply.
It helps to understand the process

“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.

@ 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.

@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.

Hatuey
Ignored
says:
2 March, 2024 at 7:00 pm

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.

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?

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.

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.