Nobody’s Party
This is a remarkable thing.
The Scottish Greens, who until last year were a party of government, claim to have 7,600 members. This month they conducted an election to choose two people as their “co-conveners”, from a list of four candidates, and almost 90% of the party’s members decided that they didn’t want any of them.
The voting went as follows:
Gillian Mackay: 322 votes (4.2% of eligible members)
Ross Greer: 298 votes (3.9%)
Lorna Slater: 264 votes (3.5%)
Dominic Ashmole: 66 votes (0.9%)
None of the above: 6,650 votes (87.5%)
That means that “none of the above” got 21 times as many votes as the most popular candidate. Even for a party riven by a bitter civil war that’s an astonishing outcome. For perspective on that 12.5% turnout, when the SNP chose a new leader in 2023 just under 70% of members cast a vote, and when Alba chose a replacement for Alex Salmond earlier this year just over 50% picked either Kenny MacAskill or Ash Regan.
In every case the votes were tight, so it wasn’t apathy over a coronation – Humza Yousaf eventually beat Kate Forbes by just 52-48, the same margin as between MacAskill and Regan, and the three serious challengers for the Greens were also only a handful of points apart, with the shares breaking down as 34-31-28.
Ross Greer, who was groomed for years by Patrick Harvie as his successor, has over 44,000 followers on Twitter but could only find 317 people willing to cast even a second-preference vote for him. He now co-leads a political party knowing that 96% of its members couldn’t even be bothered clicking a box on a screen for him.
(Which in fairness is a remarkably similar figure to the 95% of Scottish adults who won’t give even a list vote to the Scottish Greens, and the 93% of voters who didn’t vote for Greer in West Scotland in 2021. And he can draw some comfort from the fact that his 298 supporters are still about six times as many people as showed up to the party’s last annual conference.)
But if you can get just one in 140 Scots to vote for you, and then a mere 300 of your own party’s members, you too can be a party leader in the Scottish Parliament on a salary of £75,000. (You don’t get extra for leading a mini-party like the Greens, you need 15 members to get an additional £25,000 allowance.)
To be honest we’re amazed more people haven’t formed parties. It’s a pretty low bar to a very well-paid job in which you really don’t have to do very much. (As a list MSP, you can just fob people off to their constituency representative or one of the other list members. The Scottish Greens in particular have a long track record of simply ignoring the concerns of constituents whose politics they don’t agree with.)
It remains to be seen how many Greens make it back to Holyrood next year. The rise of Reform and Jeremy Corbyn’s new party will put the squeeze on them from two very different directions, and we remain of the view that there’s a significant likelihood the Greens could take a battering.
And when even 90% of your own members don’t think you’re worth two seconds to click a button on a screen, maybe that’s what you deserve.
I can’t believe Greer got so many votes, it must have been rigged
Probably.
Tumbleweed moment, surely…
Or has the greens fallen from grace like the SNP and the party only has a just over 1,000 membership down from 7,600.
Interesting comment about them being squeezed from both extremes. Until now I hadn’t considered the possibility of Reform putting a squeeze on The Nonce (sorry, “Green”) Party. I can imagine the SNP taking a hit from Reform, especially from YES/Leave voters, but I would have thought the Greens would bleed voters to Comrade Corbyn – and I’m surprised the Scottish Socialist Party haven’t capitalised in some way. Either way, I think The Rev has comprehensively debunked the notion that a pro-indy majority will be elected next year.
Interesting times ahead.
The D’Hondt closed list voting system imposed upon Scotland’s Parliament by Labour’s messrs Dewar & Blair … the gift which just keeps on giving.
The reality is the will have a lot less active members. When people I know stopped paying their membership subs to the SNP, it was ages of chasing up by the snp and reminders to pay before they eventually got removed as a member. It will be worse at the greens as run by volunteers rather than paid admin. They will have 7.5K members but a lot of those will have been members who signed up for free who have lost interest, relapsed on their fees, changed email addresses etc so the actual engaged membership will be about 1K people tops. Half will be radical Glasgow-based yooth and half old hippy birdwatchers.
Our country – our future – safe in their hands.
Off topic perhaps, I’m not thinking Rev Stu deliberately chose those pics to frame them in a bad light. So don’t these greens look awfully … umm … white?
White, white, white, in fact, to quote another illustrious Scot voted into position by another tiny coterie of irrelevancies.
They are rather pale, in fact looking rather green around the gills. Perhaps there sick people,
As an aside from citizen Beaker, I wonder how the good people of Grangemouth feel about Gillian McKays elevation?
I seem to recall her lobbying hard for oil and petrol to go and harping on that the tooth fairy called “just transition” would appear out of nowhere as replacement jobs for the industry’s workers.
Gone very quiet on that since Ratcliffe did the dirty on Grangemouth and just transition evaporated as the mirage it always was.
Mind you, she’s now focussed on pensioners anywhere near the outsides of abortion clinics..
Another weather vane wastrel..
Young Lochinvar,
I don’t agree that “Ratcliffe did the dirty on Grangemouth” as said Jim applied for planning permission some years ago to tap into the huge shale gas field that lies under much of central Scotland. In typical SNP Goverment fashion, mirroring “Net Zero” ideololy applied to the North Sea, they said NO!
Come back Jim!
Correct me if I am wrong William but is/ was Grangemouth refinery not primarily set and tooled up as a refining terminal for North Sea Oil?
No arguments from me on the net zero guff but exactly who is saying Grangemouth was hot to trot with shale oil as and when that would seriously manifest itself in real quantity?
Ratcliffe is a subsidy junky millionaire with no compassion.
Let’s face it, the Chinese part owners weren’t for ponying up and he bolted.
Simple as that.
Doesn’t that Dominic boy have an interesting surname though?
How many people would be strongly influenced to vote, either for him or against him, by that surname?
He must sweat it when ordering election leaflets from the printers, or speaking to reporters on the record. He’s only ever one typo away from disaster!
Does Greer have a really long neck and oversized head, or has the rest of his frame been weakened by opting for a vegetarian diet during his formative years..?
THE GREENS – not so much “tree-huggers”, as “under-three huggers”…
Greer won the Ginger Vote.
Fanta -stic Salary for such little knowledge or contribution.
I’m green but only with envy.
It must be tempting to join the Greens.
You can have a completely empty CV, no notable achievement, or any obvious talent.
Yet there is a good 5% will still vote for you, 10% if you have the good fortune for an opponent to get up to scandal, because you are the ‘nice’ option that wants everything around us prettier.
And you are a potential coalition maker and breaker.
Don’t forget to vote for Jeremy Corbyb-Abbot’s new party at:
link to yourparty.uk
Current popular choices are:
Jezbola
Jizbola
National Socialist Workers Party
Frankly (d’you see whit ah did there) given the numbers above, it might be time to dust down plans for the Wings Over Scotland party and put yourself forward for a list seat.
Just sayin like…..
It would be worth it just to see some folks heids explode.
I recall having Action Man figures as a kid and setting one on fire during a mock battle in my grandparent’s garden. The head remained intact, but the body melted somewhat.
That photo of Greer just transported me back in time by some 50 odd years…LOL
With gripping hands!
Haha … Well spotted!
Ok let’s call it out
Who hasn’t butt plugged Greer?
If anyone was wondering where the Indy Carrot went. Wonder no more.
Oo, you are naughty but I like it.
Ross Greer, who was groomed for years by Patrick Harvie ?
Potace says:
29 August, 2025 at 6:05 pm
Ross Greer, who was groomed for years by Patrick Harvie ?
___________________________________________________________
I know!
Who knew Harvie was a barber?!
😉
A lovely slip of the pen there Stu!
kitty bee:
Wasn’t it just 😉
O/T but noteworthy, and don’t forget that Sturgeon is still drawing an MSP’s salary…
“Nicola Sturgeon has again used her personal company to exploit a loophole and avoid the higher rates of income tax introduced by her government.
The former first minister’s register of interests was updated to show she withdrew £20,000 from the business, Nicola Sturgeon Ltd, on June 30.
She had set up the firm to handle earnings outside her MSP’s salary. That had included a reported £300,000 advance from the publisher of her recent memoir, Frankly. As Sturgeon took the £20,000 in the form of a dividend, it meant that the money would not be liable for income tax.”
Perfectly legitimate, but frankly speaking it’s not the best look, in a time when ordinary folk are struggling to make ends meet.
The dividend is taxable. It’s just that it’s at a lower rate than earned income. She also saves money on NIC.
Here in the USA, we have the concept of “Reasonable Compensation.” In other words, the salary that you take has to reflect the full value of the labor you put in to earn that money. A firm of accountants thought they could get away with paying themselves $24,000 a year. The Tax Court upped that to somewhere over $90,000 a year. IR35 probably doesn’t apply here but, if the UK does not have Reasonable Compensation rules, it should.
Oh, and I should mention that dividends are not deductible expenses for corporation tax purposes.
It’s the worst look.
Along with the mono-brow she sported for years.
The average price for a one bedroom flat in London is £300k.
A room let is a £1000 a month.
That’s just for starters.
Aye she will not get far on that.
Are you worrying your pretty head aboot Nics?
She’ll be more than cushtie.
“a one bedroom flat in London is £300k”
What are you saying here, Mark? Somebody must have bought two?
Evidence, please.
‘but frankly speaking it’s not the best look.’
Should that not be Frankly!!
“don’t forget that Sturgeon is still drawing an MSP’s salary”
…. plus a pension as former FM equivalent to 50% of salary payable from the day after ceasing to hold office.
Alf Baird says:
29 August, 2025 at 7:59 pm
“don’t forget that Sturgeon is still drawing an MSP’s salary”
…. plus a pension as former FM equivalent to 50% of salary payable from the day after ceasing to hold office.
Professor Baird,
I think we can agree, that this is nice work if you can get it…
She has had all the perks, privileges, pension, power and pay, regardless of how well (or ill) that she did, and she gets to keep it, even if she screws up, or fails to deliver.
Non binary Nicola and her ilk, certainly live in a different world to the rest of us…
“it’s not the best look, in a time when ordinary folk are struggling to make ends meet”
Isn’t one of the reasons ordinary Scottish folk are struggling to make ends meet the exorbitant tax burden we are buckling under?
Aren’t the regulars on here all in favour of higher taxes to fund bigger hand outs for those who don’t (plus those who won’t) work?
Maybe you’d like to join the dots, but I won’t hold my breath.
Just for once I find myself in agreement with Sturgeon. If the Indy movement were to commit to a low tax, small government model, support for Indy would soar. But it won’t, because deep down, most Indy supporters are only along for the generous freebies they expect to fall into their open hands post-Indy.
And working, tax paying Scots, not surprisingly, see clearly who will be footing the bill.
You’ve made these assertions about the appeal of committing to a “low tax, small government model” being a vote winner before though Hatey. There is, unsurprisingly perhaps, vanishingly little evidence to support your personal political hobby horse. Doubtless there IS a constituency in Scotland generally, and even amongst a certain wing of the independence movement which is socially or “small c” conservative.
Scotland like any other independent country in the future will doubtless have a full range of political parties from far right (however you define it) to far left. The vast majority however will be resolutely in what most would see as the normal range for other liberal democracies.
There’s really not much evidence I can see that you’ll be able to persuade a majority of Scots (still less construct working post independence governing coalitions) which advance a political platform which is centre-right, anti-EU, anti-NATO or accepts a Trumpian/Faragist world view.
There’s a whole lot I disagree about in terms of policy choices and general world view with other pro-independence folk, but the independence movement doesn’t have to be a hive mind in lock step about what the early days of out better nation might look like. The future isn’t ours to see.
When the happy first day of independence dawns, there are lots of folk who are now unionists I will have more in common with politically than some who are in pro independence parties, whether they’re hard right, centre-right wet Tory or far left.
The idea that either of those extremes have the answers politically or would be able to enact a coherent policy platform to deliver better outcomes seems fanciful to me, but who knows? With Reform reportedly 15% ahead of Labour in the UK as a whole and polling twice the number of the Tory party, perhaps we’re in for a major realignment in the run up to the coming Holyrood and afterwards Westminster general elections?
I tend to think that the SNP will still limp through #HR2026 elections, but then Scots voters will finally wake up and smell the coffee when they realise what a busted flush the party is. The $64,000 question then of course is whether Scots have the political nowse to make the next Westminster election plebiscitary and some decent leadership emerges to front that.
After a “tour d’horizon” of the current Scottish political scene, I regret to report I don’t exactly see a plethora of charismatic, qualified individuals to the engine of a movement which can drive us through to victory in plebiscitary elections.
I’m certainly willing to support such a platform and movement if it emerges however.
@Andy Ellis
Western governments, including the USA, are essentially broke. Borrowing has more or less reached the limits of what is possible.
And the war continues to escalate, and no matter how much this place wants to pretend it’s not happening, all the signs are it’s going to get a lot worse.
I find your claim that we Scots don’t want reduced government a tad wishful thinking. We’re going to get reduced government, regardless of what we want.
Please don’t come back at me with more counter arguments. Neither of us can predict the future. But if we agree to compare notes from time to time, I’m very confident you will see that things are progressing as I predict. Meantime, as our taxes demonstrably continue to rise, and the services we get in return demonstrably continue to deteriorate, perhaps you may wish to think again.
And if I’m wrong, you can crow about being right 🙂
What a difference a day makes.
Yesterday’s article had me wondering how Stu could not be suffering from ‘patience-exhaustion’!
I couldnae do it.
4 and a bit years!! NAW!
And these people get paid how much?
Shocking.
Today’s article is positively brimming with good news for folk in Scotland who care about sex-based reality: Proof that a queered Party is malingering and losing support.
I’m very interested in the environment, but I wouldn’t vote for the SGs as they are clearly NOT. How many of the so-called party members arrived at the same conclusion?
Whatever happened to Environmentalists? Where do they go now, the bird watching hippies? Quite ironically, perhaps back into the political wilds where thoughts can soar unconstrained by party political control and the thought police?
The Greens used be a ‘thing’ until they became queer(and therefore dangerous to most of us) and all about re-wilding and NetZero BS.
They’re entirely Globalist now.
We need new political *ENTITIES now, more than ever, and we need existing think tanks like Common Weal to gain more traction.
*Not necessarily Parties.
“We need new political ENTITIES..”, Nae Need!
We have Liberate Scotland which comprises Independents For Independence, Independence For Scotland Party, and Sovereignty Party. All standing for the 2026 election under the banner “Independence Nothing Else”.
Now if the Rev joined in, as Andy Ellis suggests, that would boost support hugely. Come on, Rev – how about it?
I’m aware of all you mention, Sarah, AND more e.g Salvo, Peter A Bell.
Stu, I guess, feels happy with one visible job (this website and his presence on X), but I can only guess at what info is exchanged behind the scenes (his invisible job). The visible job and the invisible job are intrinsically linked.
He maybe feels these two jobs are ultimately, and pivotally, important, and he doesn’t want to jeopardise the status of either of them.
Other people, like those involved in Common Weal who have been writing screeds of Public Policy documents for ages and have been largely, if not ENTIRELY, ignored by the SG . . . what about them? What about Robin? Maritime Alf too.
We have so much home grown talent, people of expertise and knowledge, the PRISM team an another example, and Craig Murray, who combined with many other *entities, could potentially provide something of leadership (a focal point), to the drive for Scotland regaining her status as a self governing territory.
ONE thing these potentially converging and uniting entities need to do, initially at least, is focus their discussion on:The PROCESS by which Scotland becomes a self governing territory.
UDI.
No other issues should cloud the water.
Anyway, that’s me thinking out loud.
“Craig Murray, who combined with many other *entities, could potentially provide something of leadership”
Aye. Right.
Women and kids on top, gazing up at the open sky.
Leadership deep down in the tunnels with the teenage lassies.
Hatey McHateface says:
29 August, 2025 at 8:11 pm
“Craig Murray, who combined with many other *entities, could potentially provide something of leadership”
Aye. Right.
Women and kids on top, gazing up at the open sky.
Leadership deep down in the tunnels with the teenage lassies.
Okay.
If I take Craig Murray out of that post . . .happy now, Hatey?
Didn’t think so!
Climate change causing migration… Well aye, but whilst I spent the summers tending my fruit and veg garden and processing my healthy locally produced sustenance, Robin took fucking planes abroad for holidays!
Soz, there’s a significant difference between endlessly talking the talk about planet Armageddon, and actually walking the walk of living more sustainable existences.
link to robinmcalpine.org
@Nae Need!
“Happy now?”
Sure.
“Didn’t think so”
Then you thought wrong.
CM did much that was commendable for Indy and Scotland. He even did time for pursuing the truth about AS.
Then he lost the plot over the yellow, lassie torturing scum. Holding to these views he’s no asset to Scotland, quite the contrary.
And, holding to these views, his integrity and plausibility over the AS conspiracy becomes open to obvious and easy challenge too.
It mystifies me that somebody better could not have been found to argue Scotland’s case at the UN.
Beaker Queer says Khymer Vert Penfold Pol Pot taught it everything it knows..
Ooooh missus!!!
I have been through this process of trying to get elected as an MSP. My quote was £120k for the purchase of distribution lists. Social Media presence on Instagram. Tik Tok and so on. Nothing compares to the BBC resource of shaping the next Scottish General Election. They decide who will get elected. And it is a coalition of SNP and Greens. Ross Greer as deputy first minister. We are living in the least democratic country on the World.
George, you’ve regularly quoted that £120K cost to try to get elected, which is nothing but offputting for anybody considering standing.
An individual can stand in their constituency for a lot less, and with developing local connections, campaigning and activist reach could be extensive and far less reliant on “buying” a result.
But I’ll return to your post from a couple of days ago, which you failed to answer…
What ruse, and why were you considering standing to be an MSP at Holyrood if the real deal is nowhere near Holyrood?
link to wingsoverscotland.com
@Dan
I didn’t see that comment from you. I think I am glad I didn’t. Of course you can stand. anybody can stand to be an MSP. I think you should go and get a quote for a media and marketing strategy and see price you get quoted. But that would require a realistic analysis of your prospects.
George, Dan could also ask for a review of his social media posting history.
Not that I care, but if he does that first, the results should save him a heck of a lot of time, trouble and cold, hard cash.
I wonder how Liberate Scotland are managing? The figures you quote for distribution lists are horrific.
Surfing on shit I phone and couldn’t find the equivalent campaign expenditure limits for Holyrood. But presumably Wales is similar.
link to gov.wales
@Hatey McHateface @8;36pm
Well if you look my social media presence you will find much gnashing of teeth of half of my grandchildren leaving Scotland. So rightly I have been upset. Sir Keir wants to jail everyone for emotions. He forgets the human condition. Or is that too cryptic?
@ Nae Need! at 7.45: yes, I know you are aware of the options to vote for less well known [and likely to remain so if the MSM have their way] independence candidates and parties, but for those who aren’t aware then it is worth repeating.
As for the Rev’s invisible work, yes again, he clearly does a lot of that and no doubt has his plan – I just don’t want him to leave it too late to publicise his plan.
“Ross Greer, who was groomed for years by Patrick Harvie”, that wouldn’t surprise me in the least and would explain so much 😛
“Ross Greer, who was groomed for years by Patrick Harvie”,”
=========
A visiting lover of the turf might think “Ross Greer” and “Patrick Harvie” the names of a racehorse and stable lad.
Fobbed off constituents you say Rev?
Well too right on that. Refer a huge environmental issue, speak with his assistant and no action. No action or in fact respone. Detailed email, telephone calls but zilch.
Charlatans the lot of them. But the voting results that you’ve just laid out spell out exactly what folks think.
Screaming Lord Such. Monster Raving Loony Party.
What a mantle for the new leaders to take on. Sadly, ha ha, I dont think we’ll see any MRP.( aka Scottish Greens ) elected in 2026.
Telephone box conference and no electoral votes is the reality.
And Harvie et al they’ll just fade away, with a leaving payoff and a tidy pension accumulation accrued at their years of feeding at the public paid parly
trough.
Ross Greer owned trained and ridden by Patrick Harvey wins by a brass neck.
Correct Young Lochinvar!
But it’s a relatively simple task to change from North Sea oil refining to handling shale gas – simpler than “changing” to wind technology! In fact. See what “progress” the SG has made in changing to wind.
“Minor” correction: Radcliffe is a billionaire! Not just many hundreds of thousands he spent on an abortive giant shale gas planning application, we need millions to privatcely invest in it. Radcille may be a Monaco-based billionaire but give the man a break!
In rhetoric the use of unnecessary and unneeded words in a sentence is called Pleonasm.
There’s a breed of folk who hate Pleonasm; they hate it so much that it’s almost physically painful for them to behold.
This line from Psalm 121, a song of ascents (The Book of Psalms, King James Version), is, to some, painfully pleonastic:
“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.”
The anti-pleonast finds this kind of thing quite upsetting – not the sentiment behind the line itself, but the flagrant use of redundant words – whereas others might find it inspirational and be minded on the reading of it to run off and live better lives of holy sinlessness up a hill somewhere.
Those anti-pleonasts not inclined to embark on a new sinless life at a higher elevation will instead scrabble furiously about in search of a red marker pen and use it to delete two words.
The first word to suffer the mark of the anti-pleonast’s red pen in the first line of Psalm 121 is “up”. What other direction can something be lifted?
It’s up there in the world of redundant words with such horrors as “fall down” or “enter into”.
But “lift up” isn’t nearly as bad as “from whence”.
Whence means “from where”. So what does “from whence” mean?
It means “from from where”. Oh, the pain, the pain.
It’s enough to make you throw yourself from the top of a very high and very steep hill, and then write an angry letter to some newspaper or other demanding the line be changed to:
“I will lift mine eyes unto the hills, whence cometh my help.”
Folk who think like this generally lead unhappy lives. They have most likely never married just because they couldn’t bear to hear the words:
Dearly beloved, we are gathered together in the sight of God, and in the face of this congregation, to join together this man and this woman in Holy Matrimony…
They can’t bear Hamlet because of the unnecessary “that” in “To be or not to be, that is the question.”
There is another kind of pleonasm – let’s call it the 2nd form (there’s also a 3rd) – that’s quite different.
This second pleonastic form is the lazy adjective noun.
This is a world of personal friends, added bonuses and free gifts.
I have never used the term “free gift” when giving someone a Christmas present. It would seem a bit strange; “Here’s your free gift, and, as an added bonus, here’s a festive Christmas card to go with it… you’re welcome, my personal friend.”
Such lumbering pleonastic zombies were created long ago by evil marketing types desperate to sell cheap imported tat to the unwary masses – they are now a part of the English language’s walking dead.
Despite those aspects of pleonasm that can make it torture for some, pleonasm is natural and, indeed, necessary.
Kipling was in pleonastic frame of mind when he wrote:
”Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till earth and sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat”
A red pen can’t be raised against that sentence without destroying it.
What Kipling does here is invoke, in memorable and poetic fashion, the Law of Identity.
The notion that a thing is the thing itself dates back to the days of Plato and Socrates and Aristotle and togas.
The idea was formulated by Gottfried Leibniz as “A is A”, or “Everything is what it is”; although I prefer to think of it pleonastically as “A equals A equals A.”
This logical truth is unchangeable, a point made clear by that great thinker of the twentieth century, Herman Hupfeld. It was he who asserted that:
”A kiss is still a kiss” and that ”a sigh is just a sigh…”
But for pure pleonasm we must look to Gertrude Stein who took the trouble to point out in her poem “Sacred Emily” that “A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.”
Ernest Hemingway abused Miss Stein’s flowery prose after the pair fell out over some perceived insult or other when he wrote, “A bitch is a bitch is a bitch is a bitch.”
I could go on and on and on and on about Pleonasm, but I won’t… I have a hill to climb.
“Sacred Emily” is a reference to Emily Dickinson the “Belle of Amherst”.
Not I think a mocking reference.
You’re climbing a hill? I have miles to go..
I doubt the ancient Greeks wore togas, NC.
But never mind that. Please re-post in Scots so we can all understand and enjoy.
Thanks in advance.
Good post, very interesting. As you hint at – language is not just about efficient communication, it is poetic and expressive, which is all part of its communicate purpose and power. I do think ‘from whence’ misunderstands the meaning of whence, however.
Anathema is an interesting one. I wrote ‘it was an anathema’ once and it was pointed out the ‘an’ was wrong, even though it is a noun, you just say ‘it was anathema’ and I don’t think that is because it already has ‘an’ in the word. Apparently it is a ‘mass’ noun, though why I am not sure. (It does not mean an obstacle or opposite but something detested.)
The planet is burning and the corporates are kicking it to death … and we have this shower of feckless inadequates protecting us!
I think we should invite some aliens to invade … oh wait, maybe they already have!
Oh dear I think I am a pleonast: ‘feckless inadequates’?
Achnababan @ 10.43.
Trust me, when it comes to neoplasm on BTL on this site, you’re still just an amateur !
Correction to last post (reply to Achnababan).
Penalty of attempting three things at once, all on different subjects, should of course read “pleonasm”, apologies.
the country’s leading tit, so mediocre he lacks stupid ideas of his own, decides to ripoff and revive
link to archive.ph
– stupid ideas of the past
not surprised
link to archive.ph
– I wonder if they used PFI
finally catching up; so they have established it is possible, since other people have done it before
link to archive.ph
– now get it done; here is what you do … there is this thing called a “private finance initiative”
in the bad old days you gave a shit ton of money to bankers to leave you with a hole in the ground; the new way is – to give them the money and not have a hole in the ground; this is progress
this cunning entrepreneur, a paragon of the asian business miracle, should forget the HMOs and just imprison 20 vietnamese in an industrial unit to grow cannabis
link to archive.ph
As per last link. Council officers complaining about a broken chest of drawers… Surprised the bureaucratic twats didn’t complain about the fresh lime mortar pointing on the building gable wall, chimney stack and pot haunching looking overly WHITE!
Plus, there are 3 slates on the dormer roof that are a few shades darker grey on the Pantone colour chart and therefore not matching the rest of the slate work.
What the heck are Weegies paying their taxes for to not have this sort of outrageous shit picked up on.
Appearing agitated is pretty much a normal behavioural trait when dealing with “authorities” these days.
I’ll no doubt be perceived as being agitated too when I engage with local authority officials next week as I point out their numerous fantasy bullshit utterings.
Confused @ 13.59.
Absolutely loving, “so mediocre he lacks stupid ideas of his own”, Mr Swiney summed up in just 9 words.
No pleonasm there.
A ‘mediocre meritocracy’ is the best we can expect of a colonial administration, according to postcolonial theory (Memmi, Fanon etc).
Former SNP MP Phil Boswell appears to agree:
link to youtube.com
Thanks for telling this Alf – it’s appreciated
Something for the weekend…
youtu.be/RVgoLbY_6HI?
Presume this is the link. 30 mins Sara Salyers on Decolonisation and Self-Determination.
link to youtube.com
Basic internet security.
Never click on a link or go to a website provided by somebody on the internet – especially when they can’t be bothered to say what the link is or what it does.
Sorry…. you’re absolutely right. I’ll stand in the corner and face the wall for the next hour…
Probably time for an updated series of Charlie Says adverts to deal with issues of today’s world…
1 min of hot ginger pussy… (Not Gillian Anderson fae the X files)
link to youtube.com
“MSPs have said they feel “stunned” and “violated” in the wake of allegations around suspended Scottish Labour MSP Colin Smyth.”
————————————————
Violated by allegations will probably become a law in Scotland soon.
I am sure the Scottish government will pay for their counselling.
The poor little petals.
Don’t forget to include being traumatised by events that you weren’t actually involved in.
Yes, your leccy car caught fire when it was parked and charging in a public car park and burnt for hours costing the taxpayer thousands to deal with the inferno and repair damage, but you were working in the office and weren’t anywhere near the incident. So time to reframe your trauma and break out the Champagne and celebrate your luck, rather than fixate on the negative of not being incinerated to a crisp in a fiery “planet saving” hellscape.
‘Violated by allegations will probably become a law in Scotland soon.’
In this case is there not the possibility that they were photographed in toilets?. Because yes, even if just an allegation, anyone might begin to feel violated.
The Toxic,Incompetent and Quisling Greens are being propped up by the Woke Yoon Press and Media and I suspect dirty foreign money.
Aye, nowt going on in Scotlandshire…
link to caltonjock.com
Robin McAlpine has several articles regarding the SNIB that turn up with a search, but here’s a couple calling stuff out from a good while back.
link to robinmcalpine.org
link to robinmcalpine.org
Jesus Christ that upwards inflection in the voice tells you the child is almost an adult.
John Swinney, your local friendly funeral undertaker.
Initially I read Dominic Asshole
“Initially I read Dominic Asshole”
So did just about everybody, just about ever.
I was thinking this might be a kinda Scottish take on “A Boy Named Sue” but then again, with a name like Ashmole, he’ll be about as Scottish as the boy named Yousaf.
Apologies in advance to any delicate readers of a po-faced bent out there, but yes, I did just assume gender on the evidence of the name Dominic. Please thole your woke outrage in private.
Did you know in Englands-treaty of union it can make treaties in the name of Englands Great Britain..
But did you know that in Scotlands half of the Union that the devolved management ” Scottish ” government is prevented from making treaties on its own behalf in the union, as it is a reserved matter to the parliament of England,
Still looking for that union parliament.
As SSRG recently pointed out, the treaty of union is never Ratified.to bring in the new Great Britain State.
England Ratified its side of the treaty of Union into 1706 in its domestic Law.
Scotland Ratified its side of the treaty of union 1707 into its domestic law.
However neither Scotland nor England parliaments Ratified the new State of a United Kingdom.
The political parliamentary union of a united kingdom was never completed.
Another day, another history lesson.
The SNP have gone along with the pretence that both Scotland and England ratified the new created 1706/07 State of United kingdom/s Great Britain,
Why.
The law Society of Scotland knew about that error.
The SSRG now Know about that error.
And I have no doubt the Monarch of England knows of the error,
The outcome of both Scotland and England parliament kingdoms not ratifying the United- Kingdom of Great Britain Status as a Union kingdom has consequences today,
There is no Treaty of union between Scotland and England due to the fact that Scotland nor England ratified the new proposed created State of the united kingdom of Great Britain into being as a treaty.
The united kingdom’s of Great Britain was not completed and ratified into a unit State.
It still sits in both Scotland and Englands domestic laws separately?
Which has ramifications for Scotland, England, the Monarch, the devolved government, the parliament of England, the EU, treaties,
It is unsurprising that the constitutional bodies are attempting to make a new treaty with Scotland at the moment and the SNP are going along with the farce,
@james
GIVE IT A REST
The Parliament of Scotland was dissolved by the parliament of England and the Monarch of England.
But not in a legal context, within a ratified new created State of union between Scotland and England
Or within a joint ratified State of the united kingdoms of great Britain.
Both terms, conditions and articles to the proposed treaty remain in the domestic laws of each kingdom country respectively,
NOT further advanced or ratified into a unit State except maybe by the imaginations of Westminster parliament of England,.
And definately not completed or ratified into a unit united State of the kingdom of Great Britain by Scotland prior to England dissolving the parliament of Scotland.
It is interesting that unionist or those that want a union between England and England to include and in corporate Scotland without foundations want Many independence supporters to give it a rest, to Shut up. To call it boring, nothing to see here, move on there attitude, its repetitive ,
History has a way of being repetitive once passed.
These same people though are happy to hold faux conversation for months and years on end around any others topic of calamity that make Scotland appear bad or stupid,
But take note, seldom if ever do they contribute extra information to enhancing the independence of Scotland, seldom will they research the records with any seriousness,
Rather they wish information around the union was shushed, was rather not spoken of made to go away..
The more this is done the more we see it…..
The more Scotland knows these pieces of information, that it has possibilities it is on the legally investigative right and correct path, and more and more Scots are realising there are massive anomalies in the supposed treaty of union,
The cancel culture coming from Union loving minds is encouraging to the rest of Scotland whom are wanting Scotland to be independent.
There are voices for and voices against.
And all the voices are saying the thing….
For Christ’s sake, SHUT UP WOMAN !
Dan,
Indeed, there are hundreds of these leccy vehicles going on fire, even fleets of vehicles, but also incidents reported of them suddenly becoming uncontrollable while your behind the wheel and crashing.
Can anyone remind me what Nicola Sturgeon’s views on legal tax avoidance are?
“Launching the paper, Ms Sturgeon said “we must consider if the time has come for those who earn the most to pay a modest amount more”.”
———————————————-
But not me guv no sireee.
Aye there are voices against that do not want these anomalies spoken of, and use cancel culture to shut it down,
But the more its done the more you cannot un- see it.
Aye the voices! Is that who you are commenting to.
The voices!
Mark Beggan @ 14.19.
Aye, folk were always envious of me because the voices chose my head and not theirs.
Cheyne is slowly ruining Wings for those of us who are realistic and sane. For those who disagree, think of the individuals, who were regular posters, a year or two ago. No longer here. I doubt if all have passed away. So many have been put off by the boring, repetitive bilge posted day after day. Basically the same post umpteen times every day. Add Baird, Confused, the twat etc to the list and it is not hard to see why folks are pissed off.
There’s definitely a wee want about yon as my Grandma used to say. Sadly, there seems to be little to be done about it unless and until Rev Stu gets fed up with her or gets enough complaints to get his hammers out.
It used to be much the same with the late, unlamented Cameron Brodie who shared much of the same MO as the ennui inducing Ms Cheyne with her psychopathic Treaty of Union monomania and her laughable “Janet and John do Constitutional History” hot-takes.
I suspect most folk have just given up and concentrate on the OP’s and where necessary the Wings Over Scotland X feed. At least there you can block out all oxygen thieves. I reckon Stuey should bring back a proper block function and up/down vote function in here: it’d be bliss just to be able to disapparate the BTL wreckers, but I’m not sure this platform has that functionality.
Says the bloke that got down voted tae fuck during the brief time the site had an arsebook stylée voting function, and posts actually appeared in a timely manner…
Maybe btl commentary has ebbed away tae fuck all because the site is a totes pain to use and Stu states there’s nothing going on.
There is lots of stuff going on that requires ongoing scrutiny and discussion. But hey, let’s do nowt till a few weeks before an election and expect some incredible and positive outcome.
If you and yir yoonionist Scotland hating mates like wee chas are upset at the comments and commenters BTL on WOS, and STUEY isnae daeing yer bidding why don’t you start up yir auld blog where naebody listened tae yir ramblings, I’m sure yir new pals wid visit yi and agree wi all the Scotland hating pish that you like to excrete, or mibbe they widnae visit yir site because all you ever post is repetitive boring shite
@Dan – the site isn’t a total pain to use, it’s three fields to fill in, for example, I’m posting between sets at the gym.
The reason that Wings comments is dying is as those above have said, around 70% of the “contributions” here are repetitive insane rantings that read like a transcript from a day at the state hospital. Normal, intelligent people with something to offer do not want to be associated in any way with this kind of behaviour.
As TH says, if you unionist c*nts don’t like it here why don’t you all just fuck off somewhere else?
Give us all a rest.
From memory Dan the usual suspects got consistently downvoted too. Given that quite a few of the usual suspects from back in the day have (thankfully) either been banned by Rev Stu, or wandered off in to the cyber wilderness in a huff for being moderated, it might be rather different now.
Perhaps Twatbynametwatbynature can post in his blog since he seems to think we are all obliged only to be concerned with our own. He is of course one of thw worst culprits for poisoning the well of BTL discourse. To the hard of thinking of course, if all you have is an intellectual hammer, everything is a nail.
As Aidan notes, the fact loads of old regulars no longer post, and there is limited interaction and volume of comments in comparison with the “auld days” is overwhelmingly the fault of wreckers like James Cheyne, Alf Baird and foul mouthed schemies posting here because they’ve been banned from their local equivalent of the Clansman.
What makes you think you and the cabal of moonhowlers have proprietorial rights James? Rev Stu might have something to say about that. He tends to be a bit prickly that way.
Careful what you wish for, huh? 🙂
@Aidan
Thanks for the educational reminder, but I’m well aware of what it actually takes to post on this site. And I don’t need to fill in two of the three fields you mention because they are set to autofill.
Now, maybe if you use some of your supposed intellect, you could then work out from what I’ve said why it is a pain to use. “Posts actually appearing in a timely manner” hints at a timeframe issue which makes it overly time-consuming having to wait up to 15 mins for posts to appear, and maybe a further 15 mins for any response posted in a conversation to appear.
The brief “upgrade” had posts appearing instantly like most sites on the internet, but reverted to having the time delay when it got binned off.
I’ve used different devices to eliminate it being a cache issue at my end. And have also asked if this occurs for other posters, but nobody responded to the query, which sums up the helpfulness of folk.
Wordpress certainly used to have a function that could make it difficult for certain users who were deemed awkward to use a site, to piss them off to the point they’d leave.
Plus the weird nested comments setup also means it is a pain to try to follow various discussions with all manner of fannying about jumping up and down the page to look through the recent comments box on righthand side near top of page, which is useless if you are out at work or busy and unable to sit pressing refresh page all the time.
More than 30 comments and you’re fucked for seeing everything that has been posted and would then have to spend ages re-scrolling through all the comments to find stuff you may or may not have missed.
It’s clear some folk sometimes aren’t using the reply to post function, with some of their responses showing at the bottom of page rather than nested below what they are responding to. So it isn’t just my view that it is awkward.
Prior to this setup it was purely chronological order posting, so you could leave page and return in 30 mins or 30 days, then with one single press of refresh page you could pick up where you last were and scroll through and not miss a thing.
@Dan – I get there are some imperfections, personally they don’t cause me a big problem apart from perhaps the delay in comments appearing. I just don’t buy that this is what has killed off the comments section.
@James – you have maybe written one substantive post that I have seen, at best two. Why are you even here? You and your mate twat need to address your anger issues and problem with alcohol.
So James is a girl!
.no wonder she’s confused.
“…Cheyne is slowly ruining Wings for those of us who are realistic and sane…”
Pure comedy gold there from the troll with zero self awareness. lol
“History has a way of being repetitive….”
———————————————
Oh the irony.
The truth is the Rev’s priority – wherever it is being denied and especially where the deliberate perversion [sic] of truth is causing real damage to people. Hence his focus on gender politics and SNP leadership [lack of honesty on gender and independence].
Btl comments on independence and therefore the constitution are extremely relevant. The word needs to be spread that the Union is a lie – has been a lie from the start and is continuing to cause terrible harm to Scotland’s people. There is a very damaging amount of ignorance on the subject – people believe that we are actually bound by the Union because Scotland was dissolved in 1707 and therefore that it is illegal to act without Westminster permission.
Of course, it is nonsense. If Scotland was dissolved then so was England and Westminster should have been shut and a new assembly brought into being which somehow represented both the very different constitutions of Scotland and England.
As James Cheyne points out, such a parliament could not have been formed because our constitutions are incompatible.
What happened was that nothing changed in England and they just altered the name of the state. In Scotland our parliament was closed, our diplomatic missions were closed, and the monarch ceased to take the Scottish Coronation Oath.
Burns could see that the Union annihilated Scotland’s independence and even her name. This fact needs to be repeated loud and long because things are getting even worse, day by day.
The word also needs to be spread on what can be done to get something useful for Scotland’s people out of the 2026 election. Things are desperate. We cannot wait.
Everyone btl who wishes Scotland well needs to hold out a friendly hand to others on here and do something positive to spread the truth.
Useful actions/sites: Liberate Scotland – 20+ Holyrood candidates already for this independence grouping; sign the petition for Holyrood to Implement the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; sign the Manifesto for Independence [has a site in that name]; sign the Edinburgh Proclamation on Liberation.scot to show the UN your support for Scotland’s independence.
Well said and well put. The reality of Scotland’ Independence situation is that events and times have overtaken it. The only way to deliver independence is through the people. Obvious you might think but if the people ain’t behind you no matter how well and right you are it is waves battering on the rocks.
The Indy movement has got a lot of blame to take. The nastiness, the pig headedness. The flag waving.
The people you need are so disgusted by Scottish politics it will take a generation to recover trust. Trust is hard won and easily lost.
“The only way to deliver independence is through the people”
“The nastiness, the pig headedness. The flag waving”
The most incredibly remarkable events have been playing out on the streets of the imaginary UK this summer, as well as on the streets of European towns and cities.
Ordinary people, sick and angry about something, have been demonstrating and protesting about a thing they really care about. And it has caused a sea change in political attitudes, policies and the approach of the media. It has caused an about turn in the government of this imaginary union too.
Yet here on Wings BTL, it’s as if none of this is happening, and none of it has relevance for those true believers in Indy.
They haven’t noticed that ordinary people who are prepared to organise and take to the streets can change our government policy to a remarkable extent. They haven’t noticed that the protestors have noticed and that they intend to keep up the protesting and the pressure until they get the result they want.
The usual suspects on here are so head-in-the-sand, they probably think I’m writing about the keffiyah wearing supporters of the yellow, tunnel cowering scum!
@Sarah – this is exactly what we are talking about. I don’t think the history of Scotland or your take is inherently uninteresting, but what is the need for constantly posting lengthy tirades about it in barely coherent rambling form multiple times a day under every blog post regardless of the subject. What objective does that achieve.
I’m glad you’re telling us about how the union doesn’t exist and could never have come into existence. That would however seem to conflict with the reality that we are all living and observing every single day. If you’re so confident about this, why not use some of the Salvo funds to launch an application in court to have the Acts of Union declared ultra vires? Is it because that argument would be struck out without a hearing on the basis of not having any prospect of success? So we’re going to end up where we always end up: everything the courts and academic and civil society recognises as law is wrong, my “view” of the law which I’ve just come to as a private citizen is the “true” understanding. Obviously nobody with any kind of responsibility or authority is going to take that seriously but perhaps if we post endlessly on WoS about it we might persuade a couple of retirees with too much time on their hands, and that’ll be a big success won’t it.
Please give it a rest.
@ Aidan and muckers.
You’d have a bit more credibility if you put a little effort into the various discussion points mentioned btl that you don’t consider to be “ancient guff”.
Supposedly the biggest site on Scottish politics and you’re busy trying to find fault and indifference with a few btl commenters, whilst ignoring stuff like potential 2 billion quid loss of taxpayer’s cash in SNIB when it is brought to light.
You try to paint a picture that all Indy supporters are somehow happy with and supportive of all this endless corruption which is happening within the screwed up political system of the Union.
The whole point of returning Scotland to self-governing status is so we can actually hold politicians to account, and get them the heck out of positions of power should they err or fail to represent their constituent’s wonts and needs.
@Dan 8.59pm
The usual suspects in here always jump up and down protesting when anyone else points out that it’s OUR views rather than yours that represent the vast majority though. Of course, you never, ever present a scintilla of evidence that your views command any significant level of support, either amongst voters in general or the pro independence movement in particualr.
If it did, there would be huge numbers of people signing the petition Sarah is always touting in here, and Salvo, Liberation Scotland and others would have millions of members and be staging La Diada style marches in our major cities.
Remind us how that’s going?
You’re a bunch of cranks and clueless know-nothings with vanishingly small levels of support and even less influence.
Rather than circle jerking about the indifference and (laughably) casting aspersions on the credibility of those representing the vast majority of Scots, perhaps you’d be better served actually having a realistic platform for achieving the ultimate aim of independence instead of putting your faith in unicorns and rainbows.
I doubt Aidan and the many ordinary sane readers of this site will be hanging by their thumbs: they’ll just be pointing and laughing at what passes for your arguments.
@Dan – a bit more credibility with whom exactly? As you know I’ve been happy to engage on a whole range of subjects, from the Salmond fix-up, to renewables and oil & gas, and the right to self determination in international law. However, very few of those topics get much interest, the only two things that seems to get the juices flowing are a) re-litigating the ToU and b) the insistence that C-24 is about to force a series of referenda in Scotland where the BBC won’t be able to provide coverage and people with English sounding names won’t be allowed to vote.
As Andy said above, I’m not exactly expecting an epiphany here, but let’s not make any mistakes about which posters will be to blame when the proportion of insane ranting hits the magic 100%.
Aiden there are some independence supporters who want to be educated and informed of the reality of this corrupt and lying non union facade
Because it interferes with your CRINGING need for the lies not to be exposed doesn’t mean that people should desist from trying to expose the TRUTH
You appear to be quite intelligent why is it then that you DENY the evidence that has been provided repeatedly by many scholars and academics that this corrupt venal union doesn’t in fact exist, it is merely a massive fraud perpetrated on the people of Scotland for centuries by rabid engerlish warmongers and prolific LIARS aided and abetted by cringing tr@ itorous scum who happily sell out their country and people for reward
Scots have been sold out for centuries and it is not uncommon for people to hold fast to what they repeatedly have been told is and has happened throughout history, unfortunately that history has been CREATED through lies and misinformation which is more evident every passing day exemplified by the government mouthpiece bbc
Because you are quite happy to live under the despicable scum wm establishment with their continuous incompetence and corruption it doesn’t mean that others believe that that is all we deserve and are not prepared to seek better
(please do not respond by using the current scum of all the parties infesting HR as a get out)
If you want to be educated on the subject of Scottish constitutional history, why don’t you buy a book, or read some of the many articles, or even go to the blogs dedicated to this. How is the same posters posting basically the same thing over and over again educating you. Surely you know it when you’ve read it once.
I’m not going to engage with the rest of your psychotic rant.
“this corrupt venal union doesn’t in fact exist”
Aw naw. That’s £70 for my passport renewal down the swannee.
Doh!
for the education of the site tits :
“history repeats itself first by tragedy second by farce” Karl Marx
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” George Santayana
“there is nothing new under the sun” Ecclesiastes 1:9
read some fucking books, its where the complex ideas are discussed.
chas, the dimmest of the dim bulbs, trying to have a go – pathetic
and Ellis … how’s that substack doing? Aren’t you wasting your talents here?
“oooh … I wanna be a paperback writer … PAP-ERBACK WRIT-UR … ”
since the rev only seems to care about trannies these days, we all have to do our best to keep it real with the current events and all that; especially man of the moment, next prime minister, Oor Nige
Farage is right.
link to archive.ph
link to archive.ph
– we need MASS ENGLISH DEPORTATIONS now
SCOTLAND CAN KICK OUT 600000 ENGLISH
all of them, good and bad, right and wrong, out of the Blessed Lands of Scotland, right now.
England for the English. All of the English. To be kept there, as a form of quarantine. Unless they try to “embrace the globe too eagerly”
NO YOU CANT GET A FUCKING HOTPOT IN A TAPAS BAR YOU LOBSTER SKINNED CUNT
isn’t it delicious how the english hate – cannot take it – when someone -suggests- they be treated, in theory, the way they have treated others IN REALITY
– that is the sign of narcissistic supremacism – we are special – we should not be held to the same standards as others, the rules don’t apply to us … little englanders who “won lifes lottery”
master race baby!
except you aren’t, you are a poor hasbeen – baby jane in the rickety old house dreaming of the come back – a very ordinary country, that cannot afford to pay its way, that never got over that it was once an empire; over populated and under resourced, it is the “all fur coat and no knickers” of countries – whacking on the credit card the big ticket items – huge flat screens, new cars, foreign holidays, everything on finance, on a plan … while the kids are unshod and hungry, and you have been stealing the next door neighbours leccy via a dodgy hookup …
Seriously though – the way to do it is to tax the shite out of them; for incomers, have 70% income tax, 500% council tax and 100% property purchase tax on houses. When they can’t make a quick profit they will leave; they are not new scots, they are just the muck in the pipes, cludging up our country. Shit, in other words.
@Sarah
I rest my case.
Wish you would rest your keyboard….
LOL….Confused, you should be published!
Your posts are e real antidote to the Yoonhowlers patronising BS.
Well done Confused, it would have taken a lot of courage to write all of that.
Or a lot of drugs.
Now that I realise Confused posts are pure parodic comedy gold, I read them with amused delight.
@ Southernbystander says:31 August, 2025 at 9:45 pm
“Now that I realise Confused posts are pure parodic comedy gold, I read them with amused delight”
So no slack-jawed incredulity then?
It’s all right for you. You’re hundreds of miles away from this.
What you have to understand is that Confused is the “literate” face of a significant chunk of the Indy movement.
Interviewer: I’m talking here to a Scottish Independence supporter. Tell the viewers why you want Indy.
Confused: Ah hate English and Dews.
Interviewer: Well now, that’s commendably honest. Would you care to tell us why?
Confused: Dunno, but they seem to be smarter than I am. That does ma heid in.
It’s when a sane, rational Scot twigs that 11 years after the referendum, the push for Indy still relies on people like Confused who have no ideas whatsoever other than that they hate English and Dews, that you start to comprehend the real bind that Scotland is in.
Doomed to have fuckwits eternally bumping their gums about Indy, yet lacking anybody smart enough or grounded enough to help make it happen.
But as I wrote at the top. You’re safe where you are. You can afford to treat our tragedy as your comedy. You smug, smarmy English cant 🙂
Hatey I don’t really know how representative Confused is of the indy movement or indeed just Scots in general. What I can say is that I have only come acros one person who was as anti-English as him, ironically in a pub in Liverpool (though even he would have baulked at the gas chambers for us). I laugh at Confused because it is all he deserves – no engagement or returned insults are merited since, bear in mind, he is talking about me, an English person. The hate he exudes is so over the top I cannot take it seriously any longer as I think he is mentally ill. Seriously.
Oh Dear ! You’re not well !
Are you ?
Not well at all !
I’m so sorry for you, it must be terrible to have this awful, racist drivel spinning around inside your head all day long !
You should know.
You are no longer ‘the confused’ you are the Messiah! A real antidote to the snowflake hogwash everyone feels they ought to support but dont know why…
“Seriously though – the way to do it is”
Insist that each and every English spends one whole half hour in the company of Confused. That’ll fix the cants.
And, because Confused obviously couldn’t get his usual quota of frosty jack yesterday, causing him to pull his “punches”, I’ll kinda finish his post for him.
Dews get the whole hour.
Confused – don’t worry, you know you’re over the target when all the chaff from the trolls starts appearing…..
“When they can’t make a quick profit they will leave”
Indeed so, for Postcolonial theory tells us that this is the reality after independence. Because the se**ler only moves to the colony ‘for an easier life’ and ‘to make a profit’ (Memmi). And once this easier life and profit are no longer made available to them there is no longer an incentive to go there.
And, as Aime Cesaire wrote, a colonized people should always be conscious of who and what they are dealing with, that:
“… no one colonizes innocently, no one colonizes with impunity either; that a nation which colonizes, that a nation which justifies colonization-and therefore force-is already a sick civilization, a civilization which is morally diseased, which irresistibly, progressing from one consequence to another, calls for its Hi**er, I mean its punishment.”
Unfortunately Alf I have to disagree with you, I don’t think they will leave, there are very few places they can go to or go back to,the white flight IS happening, THEY created the problem of mass immigration but REFUSE to deal with it and certainly don’t want to live with it or within it
The middle class virtue signallers there and here want to be considered as all fluffy and inviting but you will notice there are ever more gated communities with inbuilt security being constructed to keep out the riffraff and undesirables,which is creating more and more areas where non indigenous groups of people populate
“the se**ler only moves to the colony ‘for an easier life’ and ‘to make a profit’ (Memmi). And once this easier life and profit are no longer made available to them there is no longer an incentive to go there”
And there was me thinking that post-Indy we were all going to be rich.
But now you’re saying we will be poorer and live harder lives.
Don’t let on to Sam.
NICOLA STURGEON LTD
It’s no wonder that Sturgeon’s personal company name is listed as:
“Nature of business (SIC)
90030 – Artistic creation”.
I’ve read “Frankly”, except for one section, it’s pure fantasy!
“Jaguar”… Looks like a mashup of Ford Capri and TVR with stupidly big wheels and low profile tyres for navigating along the UK’s potholed tae fuck roads.
All form over function bullshit for the brain melted humans, with ridiculously restricted side and rear visibility with no mirrors too, so no doubt relying on loads of junk electronic tech cameras / screens and proximity sensors so you can park the big ugly overpriced piece of shit.
Pin striped along the bottom so it looks like some 90s MaxPower chavmobile sporting neons.
link to grousebeater.wordpress.com
There are over 500,000 English immigrants living in Scotland,
bringing with them their culture and ways,
“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”
? George Orwell
“bringing with them their culture and ways”
Indoor plumbing, central heating, neat gardens, a paid fortnight in the sun every year, that kinda thing?
What you fail to address is the comparisons between cultures and ways. No Scot is going to willingly embrace inferiors to what he already has. Better alternatives though – if they are being embraced that’s just the way of the world. The clock is not going to be turned back, not even in Scotland.
“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history”
Hmmm. Orwell never witnessed the destruction and obliteration going on in Gaza. That’s a direct consequence of a people choosing to misunderstand their own history and allow themselves to be lead by bigoted, fantasist, nihilists.
I would expect that any sane, rational Scot would be 100% dedicated to making sure that kind of disaster doesn’t happen here. There’s nothing magically precious and special about we Scots. Deluded leadership will destroy us just as surely as it has destroyed them.
“bringing with them their culture and ways”
Indoor plumbing, central heating, neat gardens, a paid fortnight in the sun every year, that kinda thing?
What you fail to address is the comparisons between cultures and ways. No Scot is going to willingly embrace inferiors to what he already has. Better alternatives though – if they are being embraced that’s just the way of the world. The clock is not going to be turned back, not even in Scotland.
Hold on, I’m sure it was the Romans that invented central heating and introduced it to little England after they conquered it.
Typical lying englander trying to take credit for something they had neither the skills or intelligence to create.
Scot Finlayson @ 09.31.
To be honest, Scot, the largest minority group in the town where I live and the nearest large city I visit aren’t English.
They are a group who don’t mingle and retain their own language, religion (complete with religious courts and marriage customs), mark their visible difference by wearing their traditional national dress and tend to have large families.
The area where I live in the west of Scotland may not be typical in its demographic, I don’t know. However, if it is, the English aren’t the major colonisers likely to change our way of life in decades to come.
Have a day out in the Borders or Dumfries & Galloway.
Sven, in the British state context the Scots are clearly a minority ethnic group.
The Scots are made an oppressed minority ethnic group by virtue of their resources being stolen and their culture destroyed by another culture(s).
Colonialism is also making the Scots into a minority ethnic group in Scotland.
Which explains why the Scots want independence, which is ‘a cultural emotion’ and ‘a fight for a national culture’ (Fanon).
link to cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com
It is the yooniests that are in denial and wish to make out that we are in union.
But it is not the Scottish people that made the Statements.
1) The Westminster Parliament site first made the Statement that they never asked the Scots to join the treaty of union, Because in all probability the Scots would Probably have Voted No.
2) It was the Westminster parliament and monarch of England that dissolved the parliament of Scotland.
3) it was the Westminster Parliament that self declared itself as the parliament of England and has made treaties based on that self declaration.
4) It was the Westminster parliament and monarch of England that passed laws that the other half of the supposed union (Scotland) could not wear their national dress, use their own music, could not hold any weapons, it disarmed Scotland and removed its culture, unlike England.
5) it was the Westminster parliament of England that retained all its laws from the supposed pre- union,
While repealing just about every Scots law since 1707.
6) it was the Westminster parliament of England that never held new elections for the supposed new state of a united Kingdom / s to begin.
But simply transferred its old parliament of Westminster members into its rebranded Westminster parliament new name Westminster parliament of the united kingdom.
7) it is Westminster parliament of England ( self declared) that it would breach the supposed union with Scotland by passing a law for a second parliament in Great Britain. In Scotland.
It occurs in history records time and again that Englands old Westminster parliament and laws, did not end, cease, close or dissolve it self. To enter a new treaty with Scotland. This repeated behaviour also happened during Brexit and trade deals,
It ignores Scotland as if it were not in a treaty with Scotland, and this is the conclusion that Scotland is now coming too,
It has been a long standing scam, a hoax played on Scotland, a slight of hand and cheat,
But more importantly Scotland has had no representation in the parliament of England for over three hundred years,
Scotland cannot make treaties, hold on to any past treaties, or hold onto Scots laws as promised,
Nor can it hold on to its resources, its land or its borders.
Which has continued to act as the parliament of England and Wales.
There is enough evidence when read.
We can Witness with our own eyes and ears why unionist wish to retain a faux vision of a treaty of union to benefit and enrich the Westminster parliament of England and the monarchy, and why unionist will fight, Scratch, claw tooth and nail to hang on to Scotland non existent side of a treaty they ignore the terms, conditions and article of.
But the 1706/1707 treaty of supposed Union still sits in the Domestic laws of Scotland and England respectively.
Whilst the new unit Union that was to be ratified into a international official treaty never was,
For the Westminster parliament of England cannot pass a ratification on Scotlands behalf,
Context is important, to create a international treaty,
And yoons will continue to mumff their gums, and try discredit the legal procedure required. or anyone that points that out,
And it has to be repetitive until Scots understand that they have been a victim of a scam and hoax.
Westminster parliament is still the parliament of England and Wale today.
It is not devolved.
It passes all the laws, Statues and legislation for England and Wales.
But passes laws for Scotland separately without a Ratified treaty of Union to convert it into a international treaty of union,
It would require a genuine Scottish parliament to Ratify it, not a devolved one from the parliament of England and Wales.
Repetitive it has to be, like learning a new language, new your sums, or new History for the first time.
Westminster parliament of England confirmed finalised and ratified Scotlands law and domestic terms, conditions and article to a proposed treaty of union- pre- Union.
Which it had no authority to do.
But that is what the treaty of union is based on.
Hold on, I’m sure it was the Romans that invented central heating and introduced it to little England after they conquered it.
Typical lying englander trying to take credit for something they had neither the skills or intelligence to create.
OT. Can you imagine how popular Alba, Salvo etc would be if they had the same press & media coverage reform gets?
This bias reporting has to be addressed!
No chance! How else could they swing election (and referenda!)results?
Brond. Scala. Secret Ceremony. Very Pictish; though only a Pict will know why.
Scotland is Scotland because the Picts became Scots and adopted the Gaelic; and whit a strange, tangled-up wee langage it is tae.
A ettled tae leern it wance; forced tae fir a time by ma schuil whin a wean, but coudna git ma tongue aboot it sic wis its ackwart strangieness.
Things might have gone the other way, with northern Britain becoming Pictavia rather than Scotland, but external forces (bloody Vikings) intervened to turn the situation on its head.
But nou thon Vikings hiv buggered aff it’s time tae set things straight and fir ‘Scotland’ tae revert tae its true Pictish oreegin, cultur and tradeetions.
Those who would live here in Pictavia are free to do so if they agree to be counted a Pict and take an oath swearing allegiance to all things Pictish… and, most importantly if they are speakers of the Gaelic, promise never to utter another word in that accursed weird-speak in public again – as a Pict the sound of it brings back bad memories.
“agree to be counted a Pict and take an oath swearing allegiance to all things Pictish”
Sure thing, NC.
Give us the Pictish for counting, say from 0 to 100, on here.
And give us the oath of allegiance in Pictish too, while you are at it.
It would be too daft and pathetic for words, to have to swear the oath of allegiance in the King’s English. Don’t you agree?
Aye, for once yer right, the ‘king of England’ is indeed English.
For a bit of fun, just for myself, of course, i’m going to follow the example of james cheyne and try to stick up a number of posts.
These posts will only bbe what the search assist on my browser says.
Inequalities.
Question how unequal is the uk and england scotland
“Overview of Economic Inequality in the UK
The UK has significant economic inequality, ranking as the 9th most unequal in income among 38 OECD countries. The wealth distribution is even more skewed, with the top fifth of earners taking 36% of the income and owning 63% of the wealth, while the bottom fifth holds only 8% of the income and a mere 0.5% of the wealth.
Income Inequality in England and Scotland
England
The richest fifth of households had an average income of £83,687 in 2022.
The poorest fifth had an average income of £13,218, highlighting a stark income gap.
Many regions in England, particularly in the North, experience higher levels of deprivation and lower GDP per head compared to the South.
Scotland
Scotland has lower levels of poverty and inequality compared to England, but these differences are diminishing.”
what are social consequences of inequalities
“Search Assist
Inequalities can lead to various social consequences, including reduced social mobility, increased crime rates, and lower levels of trust and happiness within communities. They also contribute to health disparities and hinder overall societal cohesion and participation.
University of York equalitytrust.org.uk
Social Consequences of Inequalities
Impact on Trust and Community Cohesion
Reduced Trust: Inequality leads to lower levels of trust among individuals in society. People in less equal societies are less likely to trust each other.
Social Participation: Inequality decreases civic engagement and participation in community activities. Individuals may feel disconnected from their communities.
Effects on Health and Wellbeing
Health Disparities: Income inequality is linked to significant health issues, including reduced life expectancy and higher rates of mental illness.
Social Cohesion: High inequality can weaken social bonds, leading to increased feelings of isolation and decreased overall happiness.
Educational Outcomes
Access to Education: Inequality affects educational opportunities, with children from low-income families often receiving less funding and support in schools.
Social Mobility: Inequality limits social mobility, making it harder for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds to improve their economic status.
Crime and Safety
Increased Crime Rates: Higher levels of inequality are associated with increased rates of property and violent crimes.
Perception of Safety: Communities with high inequality may experience heightened fear and insecurity, impacting daily life.
Gender and Racial Inequality
Discrimination: Inequalities based on gender, race, and other factors create barriers to opportunities in employment, education, and healthcare.
Social Justice: Persistent inequalities can lead to social unrest and demands for justice, as marginalized groups seek equal rights and opportunities.
These social consequences illustrate how inequality affects not just economic conditions but also the fabric of society itself.”
what was the effect of thatcher’s policies on scotland
Search Assist
“Margaret Thatcher’s policies had a profound impact on Scotland, leading to significant deindustrialization, particularly in mining and manufacturing, which resulted in high unemployment and economic decline in many communities. Her introduction of the poll tax also sparked widespread protests and contributed to a growing demand for Scottish devolution.
clok.uclan.ac.uk Wikipedia
Economic Impact
Unemployment and Deindustrialization
Unemployment in Scotland rose significantly during Thatcher’s tenure, peaking at 20% in the early 1980s.
The closure of industries, particularly coal and steel, led to a loss of 15% of Scotland’s industrial base.
Many communities, especially in the North and Scotland, faced long-term economic decline and poverty.
Household Income and Debt
Household income lagged behind GDP growth, with the poorest experiencing falling incomes.
Household debt increased from 37% to 70% of GDP, leading to financial instability for many families.
Social and Political Consequences
Poll Tax Controversy
The introduction of the Community Charge (poll tax) in Scotland before England sparked widespread protests.
This tax was perceived as unfair, leading to significant public unrest and contributing to Thatcher’s political downfall.
Rise of Nationalism and Devolution
Thatcher’s policies are credited with fueling Scottish nationalism and the push for devolution.
Many Scots felt alienated by her government, which led to increased support for the Scottish Parliament.”
how long lasting are the effects of deindustrialisation
Search Assist
“The effects of deindustrialization can be long-lasting, often resulting in persistent high unemployment, economic decline, and social issues in affected communities. These impacts can continue for decades, as seen in regions that have struggled with the loss of manufacturing jobs since the 1980s”
how did economic decline cause scotlands drug problem
Search Assist
Economic decline in Scotland, particularly due to deindustrialization in the 1980s, led to increased poverty and income inequality, which significantly affected the working-class population. This decline created conditions that contributed to higher rates of drug misuse and related deaths, as many individuals turned to drugs as a coping mechanism for their deteriorating circumstances.
Wikipedia narcononuk.org.uk
Economic Decline and Scotland’s Drug Problem
Historical Context
The drug crisis in Scotland began to escalate in the 1980s, coinciding with significant economic changes.
Neo-liberal economic restructuring led to the decline of industries, particularly in urban areas, resulting in high unemployment and poverty.
Impact of Deindustrialization
Deindustrialization caused parts of large cities to experience terminal decline, increasing income inequality.
The working-class population was particularly affected, leading to greater inner-city deprivation.
Connection to Drug Use
The economic hardships faced by those in deprived areas contributed to rising drug use.
The ‘Trainspotting generation,’ who grew up during the 1980s and 1990s, began entering the labor market amid these challenges, leading to increased drug misuse.
Socio-Economic Factors
People living in the most deprived areas of Scotland have an 18 times higher mortality rate from drug misuse compared to those in affluent areas.
Approximately one in five Scots live below the poverty threshold, exacerbating the drug crisis.”
Good work, sam. The cumulative effect makes a powerful impact.
Great posts, Sam.
Like everybody else, I haven’t bothered to read them, but I assume they explain how Thatcher and some other big English cants fecked Scotland and then ran away.
Apart from the 500,000 little Thatchers that decided to stay.
Hows about you provide an equivalent word count on your proposals for how we could turn all this around?
How to get the morbidly obese junkies and jakeys to work like the Japs. How to get the benefits grifters to innovate like the Yanks. How to get the geriatric useless eaters back to grafting like the Covid Spreaders. How to get that one third of Scotland’s employed weaned off suckling at the state’s teats, early retirement and index-linked pensions and onto something that generates actual wealth. How to get the greeters, gurners and surrender monkeys to fight like the Ukies.
Probably too difficult for you, but why not try?
You nailed the ‘Historical Context’
Now try the ‘Geographical Context’ with specific reference to supply sources. (What is left of) Our ports do not have direct shipping from drug producing countries. So we have to look to the M74
^^obviously all of this is being posted on what is a busy Monday morning because none of you have jobs.
At your desk in ‘Fifeshire’ are you, “Aidan”?
What a demeaning despicable comment, you are as bad as Bastard Tax moan a fuckwit that HATES contributing to society, It must SICKEN you when people call you Scottish
Aye TH, the arseholes shows their true colours occasionally. Try to come across as all superior intellect and respectful, then the mask slips as they drop in some woeful derogatory shite.
Obviously don’t consider that some folk work shifts, or are self-employed so can choose when they work and have time off, or have already lived a working life and paid their dues through direct and indirect taxation so are retired and can do what they like with their time.
Maybe Aidan is just pissed off that he still needs to work and earn a crust to get by whilst other more successful folk can live a life of leisure.
@ Dan says: 1 September, 2025 at 7:15 pm
Too right, Dan, just look at the state of this boy:
link to wingsoverscotland.com
“fuck yourself”
“arsehole”
“sad bastard”
“dross”
“pish”
“twat”
Nae wonder sae mony decent long term Wingers hae moved oan.
Aye John, and I don’t try to masquerade as anything other than myself. I’ll speak from the heart and call you a trolling arsehole because that’s exactly what you are.
You have zero intention of ever agreeing a settled position with anybody on pretty much every subject, even when you come across as being very closely aligned with the view of another. Your duplicitous and disingenuous modus is all too obvious.
I think when the btl comments section was busier you’d get away with the volume you post, but as it’s so quiet here now your efforts stand out too much. It comes across as very much like a badly programmed bot that lacks the self-awareness to see its contradictory ramblings and positions.
Your muckers complain about certain persons posting a high volume of posts all day, yet miraculously you seem to avoid such scrutiny…
I speak with several wingers offline and the reasons for them stepping away or severely reducing reading and commenting on the site is because of the relentless trolling by certain actors.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the only reason I can understand why Stu lets folk post here that he would block in a second on X, is because it boosts the site engagement stats.
“I speak with several wingers offline and the reasons for them stepping away or severely reducing reading and commenting on the site is because of the relentless trolling by certain actors” – but above you were telling me it was all down to how difficult it was to post. I post a lot less these days because bluntly I’ve had every conversation it’s possible to have on here. I’m only posting so much over the last few days in the hope that something might be done about this kind of thing.
@Aidan
You’re now trying to selectively state I said it was “all” down to the site being awkward to use.
Here’s my post which was a response to Andy Ellis about the briefly run voting function and factionalism it highlighted, and also that maybe using the site was an issue. Just because you picked up on and ran solely on the latter doesn’t make it so.
link to wingsoverscotland.com
But the function was enlightening for a couple of reasons, firstly it showed the clear factional behaviour of parties btl.
Secondly it showed just how little engagement there was for the function from the unknown amount of lurker readership.
IIRC the most upvotes a comment ever got near the top of comments below a new article didn’t even get over 100; So a real eye-opener to the actual worth of spending so much time on here. Thousands of lurkers eager to engage with the site, there clearly weren’t.
Anyway, that’s another load of needlessly diversionary and distracting posts, and still nowt interesting to say about the taxpayer (that’s your taxes) potentially needing to bail out SNIB to the tune of 2 billion. I don’t know, it’s almost like some are just engaging in bickering as away of running interference to stop important stuff getting further proper scrutiny and exposure…
“the reasons for them stepping away or severely reducing reading and commenting on the site is because of the relentless trolling by certain actors”
That may actually be true. Pathetic, cringe making, but true.
Yet they expect to be in the vanguard of Scotland’s Independence, although they can’t thole seeing the opinions of those who disagree with them. Opinions from Sovereign Scots whose rights they assert are absolute
Yet they claim they are going to fight for Scotland against the Butcher’s Apron and all the might of our supposedly aggressive, imperialist neighbour when they, like you, can’t stand their ground and provide winning and compelling arguments. Not even from behind a keyboard.
And, the icing on the cake, they have the bare-faced nerve to diss freedom fighters who take bullets and worse as they put themselves between their country and their own aggressive, imperialist neighbour.
Stick to making soup and hurling playground insults, Dan. That’s what you do best.
Sure – re the SNIB, I hadn’t been across the story but a quick look at their accounts suggests they’ve committed £640m in investments, where does the £2bn come from?
I like working and I’ve no interest in stopping working for a long time yet. I’m closer to university age than retirement age so the idea of a “life of leisure” is ridiculous.
I also don’t mind paying a reasonable amount of tax to pay for public services and for those less fortunate than me to have a decent standard of living. It’s just a bit revealing isn’t it that on what for most of us is a busy Monday at the end of the summer holidays, the wings fanatics, nearly to a man, are chuntering away regurgitating the same mindless drivel. It’s just a bit of a sad state of affairs isn’t it.
Stu’s blog being strangled by miles and miles of off topic posts
Everybody KEEP ON TOPIC
A (hazel) nut in every bite.
Or perhaps, more pertinently, byte.
Your respectful, honest and sensible plea has been ignored. A look at the comments, after yours, confirms this. More boring mince from Cheyne and Sam has thrown his hat into the ring to be considered to be another nutter. There are enough on here already! Wings is going downhill fast.
Self awareness bypass alert. LOL
what effect did austerity have on scotlands life expectancy and life free from disability
Search Assist
“Austerity measures in Scotland have contributed to a stagnation in life expectancy and a decline in healthy life expectancy, particularly affecting the most disadvantaged areas. These policies have led to increased health inequalities, with many people living shorter lives and experiencing poorer health overall.
taxjustice.scot gla.ac.uk
Impact of Austerity on Life Expectancy in Scotland
Decline in Life Expectancy
Life expectancy in Scotland has stagnated since 2012, with significant declines noted in the most disadvantaged areas.
Austerity measures implemented since 2010 have been linked to this stagnation and decline, particularly affecting the poorest segments of the population.
Healthy Life Expectancy
Healthy life expectancy, which measures the years lived free from disability, has also been negatively impacted.
People are not only living shorter lives but are also experiencing a decline in the quality of those years, with more individuals living with disabilities.
Health Inequalities
Austerity has exacerbated health inequalities, leading to a widening gap in health outcomes between different socio-economic groups.
The poorest women in Scotland have seen a notable decline in their life expectancy, highlighting the severe impact of austerity on vulnerable populations.”
For those readers more comfortable with the Pictish language, a wee translation that will help with comprehension of Sam’s post:
AUSTERITY (noun):
Government policies that see ever-increasing amounts of money spent on welfare, health, pensions, etc.
Government policies that require an ever-increasing tax take from workers to fund the ever-increasing amounts of money spent on welfare, health, pensions, etc.
“…Government policies that see ever-increasing amounts of money spent on welfare, health, pensions, etc…”
That should obviously read “Government policies that see ever-increasing amounts of money spent on war, assisting genocide, paying for billionaire tax loopholes, etc…”
There. Fixed that for you, #sitePrick1.
Lowest pensions in Europe.
Prick.
James says:
Twa pricks fer the price o ane.
Louder James, the volume, I mean. Crank it up!
“Government policies that require an ever-increasing tax take from workers”
THAT excludes you then johnny boy, and probably a few more of yir cringing arsehole pals,as Dan says your flooding of the BTL comments indicates you are a troll,you are on here posting 24/7 and have never posted anything constructive or positive it is all NEGATIVITY, you must be a favourite at the 77th brigade christmas party
in scotland what are the differences in life expectancy and period free from disability between the poorest decile and richest decile
Summary of Findings
The life expectancy gap between the poorest and richest deciles is significant, with males in the poorest decile living 13.2 years less than those in the richest decile, and females living 10.5 years less.
Healthy life expectancy shows an even larger disparity, with males in the poorest decile expected to live 25.8 fewer years in good health compared to their wealthiest counterparts, and females facing a similar gap of 25.7 years.
These differences highlight the impact of socioeconomic factors on health outcomes in Scotland.
Speaking about what has prevailed in The past to Scotland links very well to be on topic with Stu’s present post, to how Scotland is still effected by policies that belong to the Westminster parliament of England through a devolved government sent to Scotland from Westminster parliament of Englands legislation,
Who passed the Scotland Act do you think,?
And why should the parliament of England and Wales think it a good idea to control & reserve matters to itself, does that not involve the manergerial position over the devolved governance from Englands parliament if the treaty of union is actually a union. And not a colonial parliament based in England, controlling Scotland,
After all the self declared parliament of England has not been devolved from the union, it is in the union by itself.
austerity and excess deaths england much higher than scotland per head
Search Assist
“Excess deaths in England due to austerity measures have been significantly higher than in Scotland when adjusted for population size. Research indicates that around 879,430 excess deaths occurred in England from 2012 to 2022, compared to a lower rate in Scotland, highlighting the severe impact of austerity on public health in England.
medrxiv.org New Statesman
Austerity and Excess Deaths in England and Scotland
Overview of Excess Deaths
Recent studies indicate that austerity measures in the UK have led to significant excess deaths, particularly in England compared to Scotland.
Excess Deaths Statistics
Region Total Excess Deaths (2011-2019) Excess Deaths per 100,000 People
England 1,062,334 Higher than Scotland
Scotland 12,735 Lower than England
In England, approximately 1,062,334 excess deaths were recorded during the peak years of austerity from 2011 to 2019.
Scotland had a significantly lower number of excess deaths, with 12,735 reported in the same period.
Factors Contributing to Differences
Socioeconomic Disparities: The impact of austerity has been more pronounced in England, particularly in deprived areas, leading to higher mortality rates.
Health Inequalities: Research shows that health inequalities have worsened in England, with poorer areas suffering more from austerity-related health impacts.
Conclusion
The data suggests that austerity measures have resulted in a much higher rate of excess deaths in England compared to Scotland, highlighting the severe public health implications of these policies.”
“austerity measures have resulted in a much higher rate of excess deaths in England compared to Scotland”
Wheesht Sam. They’ll steal even more of our stuff if they read that.
Your just a fountain of knowledge Sam.
Sam,
A excellent collection of statistics well written,,
I bet you say that to all the boys James.
what factors in literature on colonisation fanon and others suggest scotland is a colony
Search Assist
“Literature on colonization, including the works of Frantz Fanon, suggests that Scotland exhibits characteristics of a colony due to external control over its laws, culture, and resources, as well as a historical context of oppression and exploitation. This perspective argues that Scotland’s lack of full sovereignty and economic stagnation aligns with the experiences of colonized nations, indicating a colonial mindset that affects its political and social dynamics.
WordPress Wikipedia
Factors Suggesting Scotland as a Colony
Historical Context
Colonial Representation: For over 300 years, Scotland was represented by MPs from British colonial parties, which maintained control over Scotland’s governance and resources.
Postcolonial Theory: The concept of Scotland being a colony is supported by postcolonial theory, which examines the effects of colonialism on national identity and governance.
Economic Control
Resource Exploitation: Scotland’s economy has faced stagnation, attributed to the exploitation of its resources by the UK, limiting its global competitiveness.
Dependency on UK Funding: The reliance on UK research funding and economic support suggests a lack of autonomy, a characteristic often associated with colonial territories.
Cultural and Political Dynamics
Cultural Suppression: Historical events, such as the Highland Clearances, reflect a pattern of cultural and social oppression, similar to that experienced by colonized nations.
Mindset of Inferiority: A colonial mindset persists, where many Scots feel inferior and doubt their ability to manage their own affairs, reinforcing the notion of Scotland as a colony.
International Recognition
UN Definition of Colonization: The UN recognizes the quest for national independence and self-determination as decolonization, which raises questions about Scotland’s status within the UK.
Lack of Representation: Scotland’s limited representation in international organizations, such as the UN, further supports the argument that it operates under colonial-like conditions.
These factors collectively contribute to the argument that Scotland exhibits characteristics of a colony, as discussed in various literary and scholarly works on colonization.”
“Mindset of Inferiority: A colonial mindset persists, where many Scots feel inferior and doubt their ability to manage their own affairs”
You forgot to say that these Scots naturally split into two groups.
The first group seek and are given sinecures as well remunerated MSPs at HR and MPs at WM, where they put their natural inferiority and inability to manage anything to practical use. As we can all attest.
The second group greet and gurn interminably online about the first group.
Luckily for Scotland, both groups together still constitute a minority of Scots. The majority are happy enough to ignore them both and just get on with their lives.
At least, until the uselessness of the first group starts to impinge on the well-being of the rest of us. Then the majority of us Scots get pissed off.
Have you noticed these clowns never talk about people.
The succession of the Crown by acts passed in the parliament of England prior to 1707 was settled upon England,
Englands parliament rebranded itself the united kingdom,
But the crown is not settled on Scotland,
or the kingdom of Scotland except by the crown of Englands presumption.
It is not a shared monarch.
And the supposed treaty in 1707 does not alter that fact.
AI Overview
The English Parliament, prior to the Act of Union in 1707, settled the succession of the Crown through the Act of Settlement (1701), establishing a Protestant line of succession, with the Princess Sophia of Hanover and her heirs as the next in line to the throne. The Act of Union in 1707 did not rename the English Parliament; instead, it united England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, with a single Parliament of Great Britain at Westminster. Consequently, the 1701 Act of Settlement was extended to Scotland, establishing a unified succession for the new, unified kingdom.
Agent x @ 14.23.
Would the accuracy of that extract be related to the intelligence from which it originated being Artificial, I wonder.
Perhaps I’ll just stick with the genuine intelligence and historical facts, myself.
Your constant posting about Scotland’s vacant crown is sowing a wee worm of suspicion in my mind, James.
Have you got your eye on it?
Just say the word and the clans will rise. Maybe!
The matter of ‘equality’ has a specific meaning in postcolonial theory.
According to the ‘humanist’ Renan, this is because the colonialist “.. aspires not to equality but to domination. It is not a question of eliminating the inequalities among men but of widening them and making them into a law”.
And of colonial society in general, further explaining the inevitability and purpose of inequality, M. Caillos tells it like it is, that: “whether for biological or historical reasons, there exist at present differences in level, power, and value among the various cultures. These differences entail an inequality in fact.”
Which helps explains why for the most part the Scots speaking native remains the most unequal in our colonial society and will continue to do so whilst the dominant Anglo culture and values are made superior.
Are you writing this from a prison cell?
I’ve got this lovely tin of paint here. Would you care to join me watching it dry?
“there exist at present differences in level, power, and value among the various cultures. These differences entail an inequality”
“dominant”
You deploy all the words, Professor Baird, yet with scant evidence you understand what they mean.
Cultures are different. The very recognition that one culture can dominate another demonstrates its superiority in context.
Somebody will be quick to jump on the bandwagon and claim I’m asserting the superiority and inferiority of specific cultures. I’m not. But the existence of comparative superiorities and inferiorities is not a bad thing. Quite the converse. For without them, no culture would ever have improved since the dawn of time.
To give a concrete example. A couple of centuries back, our own Scottish culture was sufficiently superior to those of indigenous groups all across the world that we were able to dominate, ethnically cleanse and attempt genocide against them.
The surviving descendants of those we dominated still mostly use our religion, our language, our living habits, our technology and our moral framework to this day.
If you could but drop the scales of your parochial “colonised” paradigm from your eyes for once, you would clearly see that the dominating culture in Scotland is American. And that as the American century begins to wane, the new dominant culture that will replace it looks set to be Islam.
But I do realise that when writing for an audience that knows only one thing – hating the English – you necessarily have to keep within the narrow horizons that audience can relate to.
It is wise to never stick ones head above the parapet and say something untrue, it it wise to let the Westminster parliament to say it first and write it down and publishes it for rest of the world to read,
Researching for those snippets of information that Westminster parliament provides for others however is up to your’e self.
When’s your next parole date.
It must be hell in that male prison.
Thanks a lot allowing us to decide.
Well I’m with English crown
Never back a looser.
I’m thinking big Bert Upton is an MI5 plan gone wrong. A post Colonial bufta girl. You know about these things Alf. Don’t you. Give us your post Colonial jive on that honky.
why was the mccrone report hidden and not revealed until a FoI
Search Assist
“The McCrone Report was kept confidential because it contained predictions about North Sea oil revenues that could have fueled support for Scottish independence, which the UK government wanted to suppress. It was only revealed in 2005 due to the Freedom of Information Act, which allowed access to previously classified documents.
Wikipedia Forbes
Background of the McCrone Report
The McCrone Report, written in 1974 by Professor Gavin McCrone, analyzed the economic potential of North Sea oil for an independent Scotland. It predicted that Scotland could achieve a significant budget surplus and have one of the strongest currencies in Europe.
Reasons for Secrecy
Political Sensitivity
The report was deemed politically sensitive due to its implications for Scottish nationalism.
It suggested that Scotland could be economically prosperous if independent, which could fuel support for the Scottish National Party (SNP).
Government Concerns
UK government officials were concerned that revealing the report’s findings could strengthen calls for Scottish independence.
The document was classified as “secret” shortly after its completion, limiting its circulation within the government.
Release Under Freedom of Information
The McCrone Report remained hidden for nearly 30 years until it was released in 2005 following the Freedom of Information Act.
The Act allowed the SNP to access previously confidential government documents, bringing the report to public attention.
Conclusion
The McCrone Report was hidden primarily due to its politically sensitive content, which could have bolstered the independence movement in Scotland. Its eventual release highlighted the significant economic potential of Scotland’s oil reserves, which had been suppressed for decades.”
We don’t care.
Oh, do dry up you tedious troll.
Who cares for caring has caress
why does the treasury treat scotlands oil as extra regio
Search Assist
The UK Treasury treats Scotland’s oil as extra-regio resources because Scotland is not a sovereign state, meaning its maritime boundaries and resource claims are subsumed under those of the United Kingdom. This classification affects how oil revenues are allocated and managed within the broader UK economy.
Wikipedia BBC
Treatment of Scotland’s Oil Revenue
Definition of Extra-Regio Resources
The term “extra-regio” refers to resources that are not assigned to any specific region within a country. In the context of Scotland’s oil, this means that the revenue generated from oil and gas extraction in the North Sea is not officially allocated to Scotland but is treated as part of the broader UK economy.
Reasons for Extra-Regio Classification
Sovereignty Issues: Scotland is not a sovereign state, so its maritime boundaries and resource claims are subsumed under the UK’s jurisdiction. This limits Scotland’s ability to claim direct ownership of the oil resources.
Legal Framework: The UK government manages the licensing and taxation of offshore oil and gas extraction. As a result, revenues are collected at the national level and not specifically attributed to Scotland.
Negotiation of Independence: If Scotland were to become independent, the division of oil resources would need to be negotiated. The UK government has maintained that all assets and debts would be subject to discussion post-independence.
Implications of Extra-Regio Status
Economic Impact: The classification affects how oil revenues contribute to Scotland’s fiscal position. While Scotland benefits from oil production, the revenues are not formally recognized in its budget.
Public Spending: The extra-regio status complicates arguments about Scotland’s financial contributions to the UK, as it does not receive direct credit for the oil revenues generated in its waters.
This treatment of Scotland’s oil as extra-regio reflects broader constitutional and legal complexities surrounding resource ownership and fiscal policy within the UK.”
We still don’t care.
Careful, Sam; you’ve got the Yoons well and truly spooked!
LOLZ
In your case James reality is agreement.
Interesting piece Sam that really is the start and end of Westminsters terror and therefore intransigence (masquerading as governance) of the whole independence matter.
I wonder if water, renewables we are currently paying higher bills to put in place and be hived off from us to no benefit will be similarly treated as ex regio?
Before the usual chime in; as far as p1ssing contests go Mr McCrone is way way way further up the wall than Mr Barnet..
6650 members didn’t vote.
Do these members exist? Who joins a political party and doesn’t get involved in the process. Something not right there.
Scotland has it’s first walk in Mental Health unit. It’s called
Sectioned while U wait.
The Fife Witch trials.
A suppressed colonial document from seventeen oatcakes. An honest hard working wench gets put on trial by a gang of strangely dressed men.
do uk government policies harm scotlands public services
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UK government policies can harm Scotland’s public services by imposing budget cuts and limiting the financial resources available to the Scottish Government, which relies on the Barnett formula for funding. Additionally, decisions made at Westminster often do not consider Scotland’s unique demographic and economic needs, leading to a mismatch in policy effectiveness.
ippr.org gov.scot
Impact of UK Government Policies on Scotland’s Public Services
Financial Constraints
Austerity Measures: UK government spending cuts have historically reduced funding for public services in Scotland. Local councils, especially in poorer areas, have faced significant budget cuts, leading to a decline in service quality.
Barnett Formula: This formula links Scottish funding to spending increases in England. When UK budgets are tight, Scotland’s budget is also constrained, limiting its ability to invest in public services.
Immigration Policies
Restrictive Immigration Rules: Recent UK immigration policies have introduced barriers for skilled workers, which are particularly detrimental to sectors like healthcare and social care in Scotland. This creates staffing shortages and impacts service delivery.
Lack of Tailored Solutions: The UK government’s one-size-fits-all approach does not address Scotland’s unique demographic and economic needs, further straining public services.
Political Dynamics
Intergovernmental Relations: The relationship between the Scottish and UK governments has become strained, particularly over issues like social security and environmental policies. This tension complicates collaborative efforts to improve public services.
Short-term Focus: Political instability and frequent changes in leadership in Scotland have led to reactive budgeting, making it difficult to plan long-term improvements in public services.
Conclusion
UK government policies, particularly austerity measures, restrictive immigration rules, and strained intergovernmental relations, significantly harm Scotland’s public services by limiting funding, creating staffing shortages, and complicating collaborative governance.”
When do the people come into this story of yours. There’s never any reference to people.
In fact your just a big compendium of words. There’s no humanity in anything you or your chums write.
why have uk governments chosen to create poverty
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“UK governments have been criticized for implementing policies that have led to increased poverty, such as cuts to social support and welfare programs. These decisions are often seen as driven by a desire for economic re-engineering rather than addressing the needs of vulnerable populations, resulting in systemic issues that keep communities impoverished.
Wikipedia Amnesty International
Understanding Poverty in the UK
Government Policies and Poverty
UK governments have implemented various policies that have contributed to rising poverty levels. Key factors include:
Welfare Cuts: Significant reductions in welfare support, including cuts to Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit, have left many families struggling to meet basic needs.
Austerity Measures: Post-2008 financial crisis austerity measures have led to reduced public spending, impacting services that support low-income individuals and families.
Inadequate Benefits: Current benefit levels are often insufficient to cover living costs, pushing many into poverty despite being employed.
Systemic Issues
The structure of the social security system has also played a role:
Stigmatization of the Poor: Policies often blame individuals for their poverty, ignoring systemic issues that keep communities impoverished.
Lack of Support for Working Families: A large percentage of poor children live in working households, indicating that low wages and job insecurity are significant contributors to poverty.
Human Rights Concerns
Poverty in the UK has been described as a violation of human rights. Reports highlight that:
Access to Basic Needs: Many people lack access to essential services like healthcare, education, and adequate housing, which are fundamental human rights.
Government Accountability: There is a growing call for the government to be held accountable for failing to protect the rights of those living in poverty.
Conclusion
The combination of policy decisions, systemic issues, and a lack of adequate support has led to an environment where poverty persists and even worsens. Addressing these challenges requires a comprehensive approach that prioritizes the needs of the most vulnerable populations.”
Thank you Sam for these posts it highlights just how desperate england is to hold on to its cash cow, in reference to the ex regio situation where the returns are supposed to be used for the benefit of the WHOLE uk why is it that london and the south of england appear to have full control of the disbursement of those funds and seem to be the only part of the uk that has unlimited funds for improvement
That question should be asked by the arseholes we send down there alongside the question of where is englands Barnet formula
Sam,
The UK treasury is a private Corporation,
The Bank of England is not the Bank and never was the Bank of Scotland. Or the supposed united kingdoms.
And Westminster parliament of England closed the Scottish mint. But kept the English one open,
Shared national debt is a bit like looking at an invisible international treaty that has not been Ratified,
Well done Sam.
Are you Sans carer?
how many children live in poverty england and scotland
Search Assist
In England, approximately 4.5 million children are living in poverty, which is about 31% of all children. In Scotland, around 240,000 children are living in poverty, representing about 23% of children there.
cpag.org.uk ifs.org.uk
Child Poverty in England and Scotland
England
Total Children in Poverty: Approximately 4.5 million children.
Percentage of Children: About 31% of children in England live in poverty.
Deep Poverty: Around 3.1 million children are in deep poverty, defined as living on less than 50% of the median income after housing costs.
Scotland
Total Children in Poverty: Nearly 240,000 children.
Percentage of Children: About 23% of children in Scotland live in poverty.
Household Context: Many children in poverty come from working families, lone-parent families, or families with a disabled member.
Key Comparisons
Region Total Children in Poverty Percentage of Children in Poverty Deep Poverty (if available)
England 4.5 million 31% 3.1 million
Scotland 240,000 23% Not specified
Child poverty remains a significant issue in both regions, with various factors contributing to the high rates, including family structure and economic conditions.”
how many children are in temporary accommodation in england and scotland
Search Assist
As of early 2025, there are over 169,000 children in temporary accommodation in England, while Scotland has reported around 10,360 children in similar situations. These figures indicate a significant rise in homelessness among children in both regions.
crisis.org.uk BBC
Children in Temporary Accommodation
England
As of March 2025, there are 169,050 children living in temporary accommodation in England. This marks a 12% increase from the previous year and is the highest number recorded since data collection began.
Scotland
In Scotland, the number of children in temporary accommodation reached 10,360 in September 2024. This is part of a broader trend, with 16,634 households reported to be in temporary accommodation during the same period.”
Stalin once said one death is a tragedy a million deaths is a statistic.
Just watching a programme on how Scotland pays the highest energy bills almost world wide while at the source and production of that energy in Scotland,
A lot like Scotlands oil energy revenues to the UK treasury, only this is more modern for those that can’t think back a few years.
what is the root cause of the educational attainment gap in the uk
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“The root cause of the educational attainment gap in the UK is primarily linked to socioeconomic factors, where children from disadvantaged backgrounds often start school behind their peers and face various challenges that hinder their educational progress. Factors such as inadequate funding for schools in poorer areas, family income, and access to resources significantly contribute to this widening gap, especially exacerbated by the pandemic and ongoing economic pressures.
suttontrust.com learningcubs.co.uk
Root Causes of the Educational Attainment Gap in the UK
Socioeconomic Factors
Family Income: Children from low-income families often start school at a disadvantage, impacting their educational outcomes.
Access to Resources: Disadvantaged students typically have less access to educational resources, such as books, tutoring, and extracurricular activities.
Early Education Disparities
Early Development: Many children from disadvantaged backgrounds do not meet expected developmental milestones in early education, affecting their readiness for school.
School Readiness: Only about 50% of primary school students from low-income families achieve expected grades in basic subjects.
Impact of the Pandemic
Widening Gap: The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities, halting previous progress made in closing the attainment gap.
School Closures: Disadvantaged students faced greater challenges during school closures, leading to significant learning losses.
Long-term Consequences
Future Opportunities: Students who struggle in school are more likely to experience lower earnings, poorer health, and reduced social mobility in adulthood.
Educational Continuity: The gap continues to widen as students progress through secondary education, with disadvantaged pupils falling further behind their peers.
Recommendations for Improvement
Targeted Funding: Increased funding for schools serving disadvantaged communities is essential to address these disparities.
Support Programs: Implementing programs that provide additional support for disadvantaged students can help bridge the gap.
Addressing these root causes requires a comprehensive approach involving government policies, school funding reforms, and community support initiatives.”
My goodness what an uplifting experience it is to come in here for a peek and the the troll collective is in overdrive and working himself/themself or itself into a a frenzy or should that be a collective orgasm. Does it matter well that will be a big fat no as people will continue to read the blog and with a few exceptions not many people bother reading the output of the sneering oafs or should that be oaf in here. Knock yourself out.
Glad you are reading. Keep it up.
how much food insecurity is there in england and scotland
Search Assist
“In England, around 24% of people reported being food insecure, while in Scotland, the latest survey indicated that 14% of adults experienced food insecurity. Both regions have seen increases in food insecurity in recent years, particularly affecting vulnerable groups.
foodfoundation.org.uk natcen.ac.uk
Food Insecurity in England
Current Statistics
Approximately 24% of participants reported being food insecure, indicating limited or uncertain access to adequate food.
This figure has remained stable, with a gradual increase from 15% in 2021 to 25% in early 2023.
Demographics Affected
Young adults, long-term unemployed individuals, low-income households, and families with children are particularly affected.
About 4% of respondents reported using food banks or emergency food providers in the past year.
Food Insecurity in Scotland
Current Statistics
The 2023 Scottish Health Survey found that 14% of adults experienced food insecurity, up from 9% in 2021.
This is the highest level recorded since the survey began in 2017.
Impact on Wellbeing
Among those worried about running out of food, 65% reported below-average life satisfaction, highlighting the psychological impact of food insecurity.”
No discussion of “food insecurity” can be complete without also looking at the percentages of the population that are overweight and grossly obese.
As it happens, these percentages far exceed the percentages claiming to suffer from “food insecurity”.
I write “no discussion can be complete” but for obvious reasons, Sam would like to pretend his discussion IS complete.
But it’s not.
ANNUAL MARCH AND RALLY FOR SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE ???????
EDINBURGH, SATURDAY 6TH SEPTEMBER
JOHNSTON TERRACE TO THE PARLIAMENT
LEAVING 12.30PM SHARP
ROUTE: JOHNSTON TERRACE, LAWNMARKET, HIGH STREET, CANONGATE, HORSE WYND, SCOTS PARLIAMENT.
Aw, man, FFS James.
Did nae cant consult wi ye?
Hoo can ye be expected tae lever yersel oot yer pit that early?
O.K. Fatso !
See you there…..SOBER !
Lol
Not if I see you first, petal.
Sam , thanks for all that info – good to be reminded.
Does anyone else think there are folk on here getting double time for sniping?
#metoo
how much does scotland spend on health welfare and mitigation policies
Search Assist
“Scotland’s social security spending is projected to be around £7 billion for the 2025-26 budget, which accounts for approximately 14% of the total resource budget. Additionally, the Scottish Government has invested significantly in welfare mitigation policies, spending £1.3 billion more than it receives from the UK Government to support various benefits and services.
spice-spotlight.scot audit.scot
Scotland’s Spending on Health, Welfare, and Mitigation Policies
Total Health and Welfare Spending
Category Amount (2025-26)
Total Social Security Budget £7 billion
Percentage of Scottish Budget 14%
Increase from Previous Year £693 million
Breakdown of Social Security Spending
Benefit Type Amount (2025-26)
Adult Disability Payment (ADP) £428 million
Child Disability Payment £94 million
Pension Age Winter Heating Payment £68 million
Scottish Child Payment £471 million
Mitigation of Westminster Policies
Policy Amount Spent
Discretionary Housing Payments Varies by demand
Scottish Welfare Fund Significant pressure on funding
Additional Context
Scotland spends £1.3 billion more on social security than it receives from the UK Government.
The Adult Disability Payment is a major component of welfare spending, projected to reach £5 billion by 2029-30.
The Scottish Government has implemented various policies to mitigate the impact of UK welfare reforms, including the Scottish Child Payment and adjustments to Universal Credit.
This structured approach highlights Scotland’s commitment to health and welfare, alongside its efforts to address the financial impacts of UK policies.”
That is me done for now.
I hope to have been able to show how deeply and badly UK government policies have shaped life in Scotland for decades.
Finished! I was just starting to read it.
I get it. The paragraph generator! It’s burnt out. You should read the instruction manual carefully.
I don’t care.
Indeed you have, sam. If only the MSM printed and broadcast these details we would have 99% in favour of regaining independence.
I have just been sent a Believe in Scotland email about their action day in Perth on Saturday where the emphasis was all on the energy costs and how much better off we would be if independent as our leccy bills would be less.
This is a good message BUT BiS’s goal from rousing up the masses is to get such a lot of polling support that it would make “refusal of a second referendum unsustainable”.
Dear oh dear oh dear. Really? The UK would risk a referendum when it was clear they would lose? And anyway, an advisory referendum, vulnerable to interference, and with a council election-type franchise is no great prize. In fact worse because a waste of energy and funds.
You really do hold your fellow Scots in contempt.
Yes, Sarah.
Perhaps the most important aspect of those posts was about the decrease in life expectancy.
This has startled and alarmed those in public health research.
Thatcher’s deindustrialisation programme caused life expectancy to falter. For decades – centuries, rather- life expectancy had been increasing. Under Thatcher the increase slowed down.
Under austerity life expectancy went into reverse for the most vulnerable and stagnated for the rest. This is unheard of except during the flu pandemic in 1918 and the two world wars.
All of the premature, unjust deaths under Thatcher were followed by the same neoliberal policies of all successive UK governments.
There is no sign in any of the main political parties of a change. I’ll wait to see what Reform might actually do about their policies
sarah @ 17.33.
I fear your counsel on an independence referendum is wasted, Sarah. Any Scots Independence minded folk who still persist in trudging wearily up that mountain of mirage probably still believe they can push water uphill, Brigadoon presents every hundred years and Haggis Hunting is the favoured leisure pursuit of the denizens of Blackhill.
The concept of achieving independence through a referendum is as dead as that infamous parrot.
Perhaps as much as a 25-30% of those who vote in Scotland today do not hold to a Scots identity, and such groups have the highest propensity to oppose independence.
And of Scots who do vote, a large number may be suffering from a colonial mindset, i.e. they may tend to automatically reject their own liberation.
Both outcomes are arguably a consequence of colonialism.
“how much better off we would be if independent as our leccy bills would be less”
Write it on the side of a bus, sarah.
Then cross your fingers we’re all so oot o wir heids we’ve forgotten the last time.
You lot had your chances. Copious gas. Plentiful coal. Shale gas too. But you couldn’t wait to virtue signal to the world how we were going to lead the charge to renewables. Shutting down the North Sea early. Blowing up the power stations. Fighting tooth and nail to stop fracking.
So now we’re stuck with it until the likes of Reform take charge. Hyper expensive, unreliable primary energy sources dozens of miles out to sea, vast new costly infrastructure to take the power from offshore to the Central Belt, with inefficient, costly backup generation systems for when the wrong kind of wind is blowing. Or if we dispense with the backups, power cuts on the coldest days of winter.
That’s the SNP-Green legacy. Own it.
“Under austerity life expectancy went into reverse for the most vulnerable”
Quick. Run off thousands of copies in Somali, Urdu, Arabic, Punjabi, Afghan, Persian, etc.
Scatter them all over the French beaches.
Sam,
Thank you for all your’e contributions today, it was nice not to be the sole contributor to Scotland information.
Your route or my route or both together, We are needing more Scots to do this, to find the information and pass it on,
It also helps Rev Stu’s site.
Sometimes he must feel like the only one making the effort, and I have no doubt he is limited in what he can say sometimes. As the world changes.
But keeping it real, authentic and alive is important. Thanks Sam.
Thanks to you, James and my best wishes.
I can hear wedding bells.
Calling all those who know that a nation should not be subservient to another.
Start every day with the aim of doing something to help Scotland become a free nation again. For example, just speak to someone you know about the issue and point them towards the petitions and campaigns that are going on.
Today I gave a copy of the Edinburgh Proclamation and a leaflet with the QR code to a workman who has a regular round so will meet a lot of other people – I hope he will get them signed up too.
We all know that Scotland is in a bad way economically and socially. The only way to mend it is to be self-governing which means we have to get better people into Holyrood – this will only happen if we spread the word far more widely about the correct way to get independence fighters into Holyrood i.e. that all independence parties must co-operate AND they must all bind themselves to the route of making Holyrood the place that holds the powers on the constitution.
Sarah
Can I start by saying I both enjoy and agree with your daily optimistic retort to all the b0ll0x independence faces on these pages and in general.
However, your post above;
Total agreement until the last sentence.
Holyrood has been a complete con.
Yes it’s delivered a while ago on matters Westminster deigned to devolve without granting the unequivocal powers to raise and spend to achieve these aims, while being stuck with Westminsters regional funding pocket money mentality as our revenues head south first under armed guard.
Stormont is an “assembly” as is the Senned indeed as was the planned Holyrood regional administration for certain devolved powers with pocket money spending power and a con trick Scotland Act set up to ensure it was gelded from the get-go and simply succeeded in providing another set of legalese hoops for us to jump through, most definitely NOT as a route to real self determination.
(Hindsight’s a wonderful thing eh)..
How the Westminster powers that be must have knowingly smirked when it was opened and addresses were made that Scotlands parliament adjourned in 1707 was open again for business and big Eck changed its title from Assembly to parliament.
She whose name shall not be uttered and her incompetent breathy wig wearing messenger sent to the UKs so called Supreme Court (in violation of the Treaty of Union regarding Scots Law) to beg/ pleading ignorance and first year level undergraduate clarification (pretty please) from determined superannuated legal gate-keepers of the Union status Quo amply, and avoidably demonstrated.
Holyrood isn’t a route to anywhere, no more than any local authority debating chamber is.
The wasters jumping ship from Westminster to hurry back and earn easy money at Holyrood – while happily displacing incumbent placeholders- shows how utterly lost Scotlands so called National Party is having lost all sight of realities and achievable deliverables.
Holyrood isn’t going to deliver independence, it’s not devolved; Cheers Donald and Teflon Tony.
The place for that is Westminster and (what used to be the SNPs stance and agreed by the witch Thatcher) is that a majority of MPs voted by the eligible voting electorate under first past the post was the route to start negotiations to separate.
Yet we are stuck with those who cannot see the difference between this – Westminsters power foundation for centuries- p1ss off all and sundry by claiming this isn’t representative and the voting position needs to be a Frankenstein of Westminster first past the post AND (not going to be allowed any time soon) a straight yes/ no plebiscite referendum stitched together hurdle to successfully manage to make (what Westminster won’t agree to anyway) as tortuous and risky/ double jeopardy route as conceivably possible.
And, with no precedence BTW..
Swinney or whatever baldy man leads Holyrood urgently needs to dump the SHE whose name shall not be uttered unpalatable baggage and get on with good governance like Big Eck demonstrated.
The shirkers, wastrels and ones with their minds elsewhere at Westminster while there on our behalf need replaced with durable level headed strategically and tactically aware movers and shakers, ones who will hold Westminsters feet to the fire, lose the teenage woo woo fixation politics and aspiring middle class sharp elbows and backstabbing of their own team approach and, with that previous majority (if) gained move heaven and earth to enact the recognised mandated route!
Or just ignore it, truffle away snouts in the trough and leave it to unpaid groups such as Salvo et al (that they ignore like lepers) and continue to get voted out and go hiding in Holyrood; the Mother of All Regional Cooncils as they do at present.
Holyrood could burn down as far as I am now concerned, a found out mirage now infested top to bottom with perverts, deviants and those simply on the make..
I asked Grok to summarise your post, YL:
“Scotland must find 60 or so Scots with the balls to stand for election as Westminster Members of Parliament on a manifesto pledge to use their election as a mandate to announce Scotland is leaving the UK.
Scottish voters must find the balls to vote these MPs into office, knowing that a majority of their votes will see Scotland leaving the UK”.
Obviously Grok doesn’t bother with the playground name calling “She whose name shall not be uttered” etc, but don’t you think it looks better and more serious without?
Let us know if you see anything relevant or important Grok has overlooked.
As Grok makes clear, it’s not exactly rocket science.
@ Young Lochinvar: thanks for the compliment!
My comment about Holyrood was meant to express what it could be rather than what it currently is.
With enough independence MSPs in 2026, they could follow the Rev’s suggestion that he made a few years back i.e. that a majority independence vote is a democratic mandate to declare Holyrood’s power on the constitution issue. The Manifesto for Independence procedure details the steps that would be taken after such a victory – see the website of that name.
What is needed is for the Manifesto for Independence to be adopted by the parties and candidates. They need to be pressured to do so and there is a petition to send to the politicians – but so far only 790 people have signed.
This is the kind of thing that I was talking about in my comment. There are a lot of small, easy things that we can all do to help our cause. Wings has tens of thousands of readers and one would think that most of them want Scotland restored as a self-governing nation, yet petitions such as this one go unsigned.
Of course, if the Rev himself wrote an article about them, it would attract support. I don’t have quite as much of a following!
This is my first (and probably my last) posting on this once excellent website. I used to be a regular visitor and spent a not inconsiderable amount of my spare time reading the comments which at one time was well worth the effort, even though I have no skin in the game, being from south of the border. Sadly, I only rarely pay this site a visit now because quite frankly the atmosphere is now toxic. There are a small number of posters whose only function seems to be to antagonise and badmouth any other poster who has the gross impertinence to post anything with which they disagree, the main offenders in this respect being “Dog in the Mainger” and “Max Headroom” although there are a few others who are not so prolific as these two.
Their antics on these threads have made it most unattractive to visit and will eventually, if they have not already, prove deleterious to site traffic. I was going to say that they’ve turned this site into an abortion but that’s not strong enough, it’s a veritable teratoma. Rev. Stu, sort it before its too late.
Alf Baird says:
1 September, 2025 at 6:15 pm
Perhaps as much as a 25-30% of those who vote in Scotland today do not hold to a Scots identity, and such groups have the highest propensity to oppose independence.
And of Scots who do vote, a large number may be suffering from a colonial mindset, i.e. they may tend to automatically reject their own liberation.
Both outcomes are arguably a consequence of colonialism.
====================================================================================================================================
In my home town in Moray it is way more than 25-30% Alf. It is more like 50 to 55% and it is getting worse by the month. The Scottish accents are being replaced by English ones. Oh and there isn’t a single asylum seeking Boat Person amongst them either. They wont be voting Yes that is for sure.
The generations that once voted SNP are now dead or dying or being driven off by Wokists in the SNP. The natives are well and truly in the minority,
The Balkanization of Scotland is well under way aided and abetted by sniveling cowering Wokists in the SNP and Greens.
@ Iain More says: 2 September, 2025 at 5:14 am
“Perhaps as much as a 25-30% of those who vote in Scotland today do not hold to a Scots identity, and such groups have the highest propensity to oppose independence”
So?
That means that 70 – 75% of Scottish voters do hold to a Scots identity.
That means that worst case, potential Yes voters outnumber potential No voters by more than two to one. Best case, it’s three to one.
Remind us. What exactly is the problem here?
It’s not the fault of the potential Yes voters that the Indy movement has made such a pigs ear of convincing ordinary Scots of the merits of Independence.
“Remind us. What exactly is the problem here?”
It is difficult to convince those who, due to the pathology associated with colonialism, do not want to be convinced:
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
Not where I live Yoon. Scots are now very much in the minority and that minority is getting smaller with each passing week. English Rule of Scotland is very safe.
Iain More;
“..In my home town in Moray it is way more than 25-30% Alf. It is more like 50 to 55% and it is getting worse by the month..”
Yup, exact same position where I am, Ian. They’ve been buying up hooses en masse to let out to Scotch folk and holidaymakers since I was a wee boy.
Around my way, Irn Bru will soon only be found tucked away in the wee ethnic section of the foreign owned supermarkets.
Normal mainstream aisles containing Pimms and Melton Mowbray pork pies (a bit antisemitic?) for the English, and Um Bongo and Halal Forfar Bridies for the latest influx of their recently imported slaves.
Never mind Rangers or Celtic we are still the champions of Europe for another year , Snp incompetence,police incompetence ,safe drug room incompetence,legal incompetence and a lack of ideas.
Figures to be published on Tuesday are expected to show that Scotland remains the drugs death capital of Europe for the seventh year in a row.
In 2023, there were 1,172 drug misuse deaths in Scotland, bringing the total in a decade to 10,481, according to official figures.
Although experts expect that number to have dropped slightly for 2024, they are warning that any fall will almost certainly be a blip.
Kirsten Horsburgh, chief executive of the Scottish Drugs Forum says the arrival of deadly synthetic opioids known as nitazenes in the country is “a crisis on top of a crisis.”
Suspected deaths early this year “are already higher than they were last year, external” she said.
“a lack of ideas”
There’s no lack of ideas, Gordy.
There’s a lack of the balls needed to put the ideas into practice.
You certainly post a lot of balls, #SitePrick1.
Certainly, the accessibility to opiods has added greatly to Scotland’s drug problems.
County Lines gangs from England are targeting Scotland despite the police efforts made on both sides of the border.
In Scotland people in deprived areas are 15 times more likely to die because of illegal drugs than those in the least deprived.
It is socioeconomic circumstances that drive drug use and drug deaths in Scotland and this started in the 1980s.
Those born in the 1960s and 1970s who began drug use in the 1980s are dying now with the greater use of more toxic drugs like fentanyl.
link to pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
That’s not even the start of it. It’s all going to lick off short. Watch this space.
My usual Devil-may-care, light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek, frivolous, jocular, waggish and whimsical spirit has abandoned me and, I fear, might never return.
For of late, no matter how hard I try, no matter what brave face I paint – in blue, of course, despondency has taken hold of me and refuses to relinquish its frightful grip.
Things are looking grim for us Scots.
Things are looking grim for us Scots and it’s all the fault of the blithe English; our unworthy neighbours who sport a casual and cheerful indifference for the suffering they inflict on our nation and our folk – their callous and improper shallow ignorance consumes all it envies; and it is the Scots they envy most.
We Scots are everything the English aspire to, but they lack the intellect and, most of all, the humanity, spirit and soul to raise themselves as our equal on this Earth .
And so in their green fury inspired by the vision of their own inadequacy when held against the genius of us Scots – by the cruel realisation they can never be Scots – they seek to annihilate that which reminds them of their spiritual lacking and intellectual mediocrity.
Could it be that it is in our greatness of spirit and soul, our uniqueness as a people too advanced for this primitive ungrateful world, is hidden the seeds of our own demise?
Perhaps we Scots have flown too high and too close to the Sun. Perhaps our brilliant light has awakened and drawn to us creatures more accustomed to living in darkness and ignorance.
Oh, Lord, why didst thou endow us Scots with such beauty and magnificence only to set us adjacent to those wicked unworthies, those jealous of our great achievements and envious of our superior intellect, those whose ugliness they attempt to disguise with perfume, politeness, ‘good-manners’ and ‘breeding’, those who daily take thy name in vain, those corrupters of civilisation, those colonisers, those destroyers of all that is good on Earth… those English?
Actually, I feel a bit less despondent now that I’ve expressed that repressed sentiment. Maybe I should express such sentiments more often… for the benefit of my own mental health if nothing else.
Who knew such therapy could be so much fun?
Fun?
It is certainly useful to know what a cesspit of irrational bigoted hatred and self-delusiion your mind really contains.
The idea that any English person could be jealous of and aspire to what you are and represent, is risible.
Oh, don’t be like that.
Let’s not fall out over it; you’re one of my favourite Ingles on here.
I was only joking – you know, like you were a wee while back when you called the Scots ‘filth’ and then tried to blame it on the ghost of Basil Brush.
“The idea that any English person could…aspire to what you are and represent, is risible.”
Agreed.
Please explain why you would call the Scots “filth”?
Who knew that every Englishman and woman could be so jealous of a demented, penniless swivel-eyed loon who thinks he’s Shakespeare, no less?
I mean, you do have to laugh.
“…a demented, penniless swivel-eyed loon who thinks he’s Shakespeare”
Okay, I’ll accept the demented bit of your poorly crafted and uninspiring sentence.
However, I have several hundred pennies to my name, only one of my eyes swivels, and I don’t think I’m Shakespeare – I believe I’m the reincarnation of Rabbie Burns (it used to be Oscar Wilde but that phase of my literary career is over); which is a step up, although still a bit demented, from being told what to write by the ghost of Basil Brush.
Make my day suckers: Boom, boom!
Wow, NC, so you’re praying to the Lord God Almighty in English!
I hope you’re not one of those boys (they do exist) who believes that God himself is an Englishman.
That would be too much hypocrisy to handle for one day.
SitePrick1; you’re one of ‘those boys’ you snivelling, subservient arse kisser.
It be nice just to blame the English and underline it. The problem adults have is responsibility for their own actions. It’s a grown up thing.
Fear not fellow independence supporters!
You know that massive level of oil and gas that Scotland has,
that’s the stuff Westminster assured us would run out in the
70’s, 80’s, 90’s, 00’s, the teens and particularly around 2014,
Has a new lease of life.
Although it was virtually worthless they say in 2014 it is now capable of expanding, delivering new fields and bringing enormous wealth to the UK’s 70 million when previously it couldn’t do
Much for Scotland’s 5 million.
Wait until you hear the SNP MP’s tearing the English Parties apart in Westminster regarding this???
“wait till you hear the SNP MPs tearing the English parties apart”
Laugh!!
I nearly paid my subscription fees
`County Lines is a relatively recent drug distribution model whereby a group supplying drugs from an urban hub establishes a network with a county location in rural or coastal town`
County Lines drug gangs act like Amazon or Uber or Deliveroo,
you put an order in and they deliver,
most of the cash laundered through fast food shops nail salons ,barbers or casinos,banks turn a blind eye cause they make profit which is good for bonuses and share price,
most gangs based in the big English cities but delivering over `county lines` to your door in ,say Oban,Lerwick, Inverness or Pittenweem.
Tribunal Tweets threads on last submissions to Tribunal re Peggie v NHS Fife
link to threadreaderapp.com
Zack Polanski wins Green party leadership contest.
And guess what – he is gay.
Green party of England & Wales to be accurate.
Wiki does mention his sexual orientation, which is his concern only.
It’s everybody’s business if you want everyone’s vote. ‘Public Office’
it’s in the name.
He has certainly hit the ground running.
According to the MSM, he has already promised a “wealth” tax and universal free childcare.
That’s on top of the Scottish Greens the other day promising us all a Universal Basic Income (UBI).
And there’s still the thick end of 4 years to go! I’m holding out for a free SUV before I’m gonna vote Green.
I recommend everybody should do the same. Don’t sell your votes cheap. But do be prepared to compromise as they are Greens, and accept an electric SUV.
‘Tis pleasant to see the singular fruit of the Spirit expressing the nine virtues arising from His exerise so eloquently.
Informative and encouraging presentation by Sara Salyers posted today:
SARA SALYERS AT SADIE HALL with Oban Grassroots (30th Aug2025)
youtu.be/4R_mmo8HYrM?si=dU225jtfmtMwrWwU
I am sure there is nothing much to these “new cypriots” – they just want to grow oranges and study the torah. What could possibly go wrong? Where were the borders of the promised land, exactly?
link to archive.ph
– as harmless as the Anglos, buying up the highlands, one cottage at a time.
I can see that on Dragons Den.
Scottish Oranges.
A winner.
AW c’mon Confused you’re gonny have Bastard tax Hatey on the rampage, this guy is obviously just a liar or even worse he is anti semitic all these poor put upon people are only trying to escape the tunnel dwellers just now , they will probably give all those properties back to the poor Cypriots when they eradicate the tunnel dwelling moles
The media lies, it does gushing propaganda and sometimes tightlipped “radio silence”; truth is limited to the football scores.
I saw that jawdropping video of the WEE LASSIE WITH THE CHIB AND THE AXE last week … WTF is going on? Shame there was no audio track, and the “backstory” is being disputed. More questions than answers, and inevitably – the cops have arrested HER. But we cannot deny “context” – we live in a time of “grooming gangs” (p4ki r4pe gangs) where even murders have been committed; one girl who disappeared was suspected to have ended up as KEBAB MEAT (“eat what you kill” becomes “eat what you fuck”). It is all, at the very least, “interesting” as a story and the hacks should be eager to get to the bottom of it all. Yet there seems to be no desire to delve deeper, the reportage only the bare facts.
But that does not end the matter, for the rubes may have been “disturbed” from their slumbers and need to “get their minds right”, and then it kicks in, everywhere, all at once, singing the same song. Propaganda works by repetition, to correct all the wrong-think.
I think “the national” needs to rename itself “the refugee”
link to archive.ph
link to archive.ph
Middle class liberals have this “mind disease” called foreigner-worship; you see they -hate-, more than anything, the working class, or more likely as today, the working-poor and underclass. Would see their benefits cut, minimal wage laws skewered, make them pay for the NHS, everything. Fucking hate them – because the talented ones among them are a threat to them and theirs, seeing as they can almost work the educational system as well as them, plus they all see society as a zero sum game – for me to rise, you must fall, if I win (and I expect to), then you need to be kept down.
– a lot of guilt comes with this, which is tough for a narcissist to handle, and by God, the middle class “love to sniff their own farts” (and call it lavender), they have this “wind in the willows” worldview where it is they, the middle class, who are the real good guys, holding it all together. Except you like to piss on the people, for your own private gain, whenever you can; in private, you mock them, make jokes about poverty, where they shop, what they eat, all that. You even call the working class “far right racist transphobes” to cover your own guilt, but still it gnaws.
So, to overcome this jarring mental dissonance, you need to compensate : the famous “liberal causes” aka “telescopic philanthropy” aka “empty piety” and in the modern style “virtue signalling”.
– enter the “asylum seeker” as the HOLY VICTIM, the elect, the virtuous and thus WORTHY of their “good works”. And as we tirelessly promote their interest, we regain our status as the “good guys”.
Notably, this is a principle with no cost – hostels are not placed anywhere near where -we- live, and their kids are not schooled with ours. We can visit these areas, call them “vibrant” and “diverse”, touch the hem of their garments and go home to your sandstone fortress with a large garden in leafy Kelvinside or Morningside (with 24/7 private security watching the cctv, and in an area where the police do come out; in some places they do not, or simply wait 30 minutes or so until the action has died down.)
– this is one of the best/worst examples I have seen, of course in the despicable “National” (-ist, My Arse)
It is one massive bout of arse licking from start to finish.
link to archive.ph
First of all it hits us with a fallacy that : “the outlier is the median” – okay, it’s good that this seems like a “good kid”. Fair enough : many of them have a consciousness which goes like
stab rape stab rape housing benefit form stab rape stab rape alluhah akbar stab rape white racists stab rape universal credit stab rape …
– while this lad hopefully is giving it : neural network inverse kinematics microcontroller raspberry pi …
Which is good. But so what? The tone of the article is so way off the charts it comes across as fan fiction, like a teenage girl meeting taylor swift. Get a grip.
– starting, starting, a course in robotics at uni, does not make you a high achiever
– why is he lecturing adult Scots on what they should be doing
– why are these adult Scots listening to him, he is a just a fucking kid
– why would any self respecting Scot stand for the hubris of this – little kid – coming into his country to “tell him how to think”.
Is he paying the full whack for his education or is someone else picking up the tab, in a time when “the universities are in crisis” (because we are greedy fuckups who adopted a bankrupt business model, then staffed the place with diversity hires)
Who are his parents and why is he here? Is yemen not an enemy nation? Oh I get it – his parents were british spies and they got rumbled and had to “get out fucking fast”. He has moved around a lot – egypt, greece, northern ireland – there is a story there, but we have no journalists in Scotland.
I bet he can strip and re-assemble an AK in the dark in one minute flat.
The flipside of all this, down the memory hole, is Badradeen, the mad stabber of George Sq; it is my theory that he was a jihadist on the lam – he had been recruited out of Sudan to fight for ISIS or some other western created “islamist” faction, but his unit got routed, he chucked the gun, then blagged his way via an NGO to asylum in the west; then covid hit and he gets locked up in a travelodge. Goes stir crazy. As would anyone – locked up with a load of “browns”. Notably BAMES are not a homogeneous group, but dozens, if not hundreds of “non-pink” people, who often mutually loathe each other on the basis of ethnoracial and tribal rivalries going back centuries, each with his own language for which “wir aw jock tamsons bairns” has no meaningful translation.
Anyway, good luck to young Motaz Amer, but if he adds chemical engineering to his degree, I might want to keep an eye on him.
Last point about – fucking liberals – and the damage they do, their “no consequences” good causes; Badradeen got to be so deadly because he was housed in central Glasgow; why was this? Because a relentless campaign by “well meaning liberals” had got them moved out of Dungavel House, which was the best place for them and where they could do no damage. Oops. But who cares? – no one calls us to account, for we are the good guys and the cuntish hacks who write jizz-dribble for the national and its like, are never going to embarrass us, for they are just as we.
It never ends – (and check out the name on this one, no need for “early life”) – and the stories will keep coming, in all papers, with no counter
link to archive.ph
We should all pray for the repose of the soul of KRISS DONALD
– 5 times a day.
Maybe if young KRISS had an AXE on him, he would have avoided having his eyes gouged out and set on fire. Just a thought.
Interesting post, Confused.
Rare for me to agree with stuff you write. Maybe I’ve got that arse over tit. Rare for you to agree with stuff I write.
If it’s the latter, be careful. It’s only a short step from there to realising that the people who have been fighting the Religion Of Peace for forever were simply the first ones to see through the propaganda to the essential truths.
And another short step takes you to the realisation that my enemy’s enemy is my friend, especially when my enemy’s enemy is doing all the hard yards.
So beware, Confused. You might yet find yourself arriving at a destination you never believed you could ever get to. Just take your time and think it through logically.
“The holy victim’
How could the Left survive without victims. Local victims are just not international enough. Those working class white victims just don’t grab the headlines or grants for a jolly abroad.
Ah, c’mon Dougal, you can’t be serious.
Graham Linehan has been arrested at Heathrow and questioned by police over three social media posts he made expressing his views on transgender issues.
During questioning, his health started to seriously deteriorate and he was transferred to hospital.
His condition is now stable. He has been released on bail.
The rest of the world has noticed, even if Wings BTL hasn’t:
link to unherd.com
Maybe Wings BTL isn’t really as opposed to the genderwoowoo as many of us think.
Maybe Wings BTL is mostly a bunch of geriatric fearties, shitting themselves every time a dog barks on the street.
Even if we discount these explanations, we might expect there’s mileage to be had from Westminster’s draconian over-reach. An Independent Scotland could do all this better, we would be in a new age of freedom, humour and our rights to free speech would soar on wings of enlightened liberty, blah de blah de blah.
But naw. Tumbleweed.
I’m very discontented. I feel We’re not doing enough to upset the Lefty brigade.
Anyone up for Haggis bashing?
After all they are an unprotected species of useless benefit cheats. Let’s bash the furry little freaks.
drug related deaths across the UK are measured by different agencies.
The same definitions are used but the way data is collected and registered vary and can lead to inconsistencies.
The recommended definition for making comparisons is drug poisoning. This includes all deaths relating to drug misuse regardless of intent.
Drug misuse refers to deaths caused by controlled substances illegal under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
in Scotland the data collection has information from death certificates and post mortems to identify the drug involved. This method allows for a more accurate gathering of data.
In England only death certificates are used for data purposes. In 25.1% of caese there is no information on substances involved in deaths.
Scotland’s more comprehensive data collection means that 1.9% of cases lack information on substance involved in death. This figure has been very consistent.
The high percentage of missing data in Eingland (and Wales) means there is very likely an underestimate in the number of drug deaths in both countries.
If the underestimate is 25% then comparisons across the UK can’t readily be made. It might also mean that the North East of England and maybe other Northern regions have higher numbers of drug deaths than Scotland.
If you ever manage to get out and see the real world your statistics will melt like snowflakes.
One drug death is a tragedy but thousands of deaths is fuel for your paragraph generator.
Yerra mug. Information is from England’s Office of National Statistics.
“Scottish drug deaths fall but remain worst in Europe”
It’s good news that deaths are falling
Do all the other European nations count their drug deaths differently to Scotland?
Don’t know. They will all have collection data. Use hospital records. I don’t know ithey use post mortem toxicology reports which, consistently used is an important factor in Scotland’s data accuracy
I understood the difference in the way drug deaths were counted in Scotland was that if there were any drugs found in the system of a deceased person it was counted as a drug death, even if the death was not directly caused by the drugs.
Whereas in England drugs had to be the direct cause of death for it to be counted as a drug death.
Happy to be corrected if that is not the case.
“It might also mean that the North East of England and maybe other Northern regions have higher numbers of drug deaths than Scotland”
FFS, Sam.
Isn’t there ANYTHING we can beat the English at?
New Sara Salyers talk (Oban Grassroots 30 Aug)
link to youtube.com
Many thanks to Sara Salyers for her tenacious intelligence and courage. I do believe she is on the right track — perhaps indeed the only workable way forward through an otherwise depressingly dismal landscape. Sara is “radical” in the sense that she is determined to unearth the still-living root (“radix”) of Scotland’s exceptional constitutional heritage of democratic, anti-absolutist, thought. Scotland’s historic continuity of reflection is remarkable in its defence of the sovereignty of the people over the monarch.
Among the lineage of thinkers are JOHN DUNS SCOTUS 1266-1308 (who, Professor Alexander Broadie persuasively argues, was the key influence behind the Declaration of Arbroath and the Declaration of the Clergy); JOHN MAIR from Gleghornie 1467-1550 (Conciliar Movement proponent); GEORGE BUCHANAN 1506-1582 (‘Art and Science of Government among the Scots’); and SAMUEL RUTHERFORD 1600-1661 (author of ‘Lex Rex’). Buchanan and Rutherford were significant influences on the American Revolution – which of course involved rebellion against a monarch.
Let it be said that any disparaging of historical constitutional research is seriously unhelpful. The idea that Scotland should or could reinvent itself from scratch is incoherent and inherently unfruitful. Mao Tse-Tung’s “Permanent Revolution” and Pol Pot’s “Year Zero” were salutary lessons (even violence apart). Scotland does not need revolutionary erasure of our past, but a radical retrieval of what was creditable — and in that regard there is certainly, beneath the unbearable rubble of betrayal, a golden constitutional thread to be traced.
So we must also with immense respect draw attention again to Professor Robert Black KC’s learned and arguably definitive recent presentation at the Scottish Sovereignty Research Group Conference: ‘1707 Treaty of Union – For England Nothing Changed, For Scotland Everything Changed’ (17 May 2025).
Perhaps we could echo that title back to Professor Black, and suggest that, in the light of his authoritative intervention, everything for Scotland has now potentially changed again. The profoundly significant talk can be viewed via the link here (along with related material) –
link to gobha-uisge.blogspot.com
I see everybody is studiously ignoring your post. A shame, as there is much of interest in it.
“Scotland’s historic continuity of reflection is remarkable in its defence of the sovereignty of the people over the monarch”
“The idea that Scotland should or could reinvent itself from scratch is incoherent and inherently unfruitful”
“Scotland does not need revolutionary erasure of our past, but a radical retrieval of what was creditable — and in that regard there is certainly, beneath the unbearable rubble of betrayal, a golden constitutional thread to be traced”
So what does Professor Robert Black KC say about the restoration of Scotland’s traditional status as a hereditary monarchy? Because that is what the Scotland you presumably yearn to restore always was.
Sure, we could argue, reason and debate with our monarch. But we always had a monarch to argue, reason and debate with.
That is sad watching a woman drown in her own rainbows.
How can a nation demand independence when most of them don’t even know what it means.
This is true, maist Scots still dinna ken that independence means decolonization, liberation from oppression, and self-recovery of native culture:
link to youtube.com
Good talk, Alf. You neatly summarise the control mechanisms underpinning colonialism and show how those mechanisms are constantly at work manipulating the minds of Scots to facilitate the plundering of their lands and seas and the wealth of natural resources they contain. Lands, seas, and natural resources that rightfully belong to the Scots and to no other people.
Thift is thift regairdless o’ whitiver rideeculous up-its-ain-erse imperiale costume is wrappit aboot it.
@Alf – interesting that you recognise the requirement for geographic separation as an NGST criteria in your speech, but not that this disqualifies Scotland from being considered as an NSGT. That would seem rather like an oversight.
“natural resources that rightfully belong to the Scots and to no other people”
Don’t the resources rightfully belong to the people the Scots thieved them from?
“Thift is thift regairdless”
You said it, NC.
Noo, fits the Scots fur “cognitive dissonance on stilts”?
“geographic separation”
A well established border exists between the territories, in law and in other regards.
“fits the Scots fur “cognitive dissonance on stilts”?”
That would be the ‘Scottish cultural cringe’, which we might also refer to as a ‘colonial mindset’, and is a consequence of colonialism, as noted in my SSRG lecture above.
@Alf – that’s not what geographically separate means though is it, any territory by definition has a boundary to it so geographic separation would have no meaning in that context. What it means is the territory is geographically separated from the administering state meaning that they are in a distinct area and do not share a land border. The “salt water” rule, hence former Soviet republics did not become NSGT’s despite meeting the definition in all other regards.
Scotland is not a part of England. You may have noticed signs at the border saying ‘Welcome to Scotland’.
The English parliament/state as Scotland’s ‘administrative Power’ may have rebranded itself as UKofGB&NI however annexation of Scotland remains unlawful:
link to youtube.com
England is not a state, just as Scotland is not a state. The United Kingdom is a state as recognised in international law, and Scotland is not a territory “geographically separate” within the requirement set by clause 6 of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1514.
Geology… and how it caused the Scots a heap of problems.
Things started going wrong for the Scots about 425 million years ago.
Aye, it’s comin’ up oan half a billion years since Scotland and England were thrown together in violent union (no, not thon hoax political union… that occurred a few year later) due to the collision of continental plates resulting in the Caledonian orogeny.
The Caledonian orogeny was a mountain-building cycle occurring in the northern parts of the British Isles. It was caused by the closure of the Iapetus ocean when the Laurentia and Baltica continents and the Avalonia microcontinent collided.
In a happier and more just world the land mass that was to become England would have veered off in the direction of Europe and would have become instead western France – which it more or less did anyway thanks to the Normans.
So, geology – if only the great oceanic currents of the Silurian period had taken a slightly different course we Scots might hiv feenisht leevin in a mair respectable geographical neebourheid and spare’t a lot o’ bother frae hivin that anti-social soothern neebour gied us by mither naitur.
Travels in the Time Machine.
Landing in Scotland 2099.
The Scottish Smackaroony has fallen ten points against the English pound. It now stands at
1000000000000000000 smackaroonies to the English pound. Aye that’ll teach the English bastards.
MB
Not according to Mr McCrone though..
Who?
MB
McCrone report, 70s?
He who stated Scotland would have the most rock solid currency?
Well looky-here! Westminster hid the report..
What a surprise..
McCrone; pees so much higher up the wall than Barnett..
MB. Still talking shite eh.
He’s got a higher in shite.
only when I’m in the toilet Anthem.
Should you not be out painting roundabouts?
Maybe leave the economic chatter to folk with a bit of experience.
2 mins of Jim Rogers.
link to youtube.com
Don’t mention that to Glasgow City Council. They’ll have us picking up the litter as well.
Has anyone else noticed that the political activists in Scotland these days are mainly English.
This is from the conclusions section of Scottish research into drug deaths. DRD = drug related deaths.
“DRDs negatively impact society [41, 42] and make an important contribution to the health inequalities and ‘excess’ mortality in Scotland [6]. The rationale for our study was to investigate whether there is evidence of a cohort effect for those most likely to have been exposed to the negative consequences of the changing social, economic and political contexts of the 1980s. The cohort effect we identify here for DRDs, which appears for young adult males (and to a lesser extent for females) in the early 1990s, seems consistent with this hypothesis given that young adults would have entered the job market at this time and, particularly in the most deprived areas, been exposed to high unemployment levels and reduced support [43, 44].
The full impact of ‘excess’ mortality, and indeed morbidity, in cohorts with high DRDs is unlikely to be known for some time. As the cohort of people at greatest risk of DRDs continues to age, drugs services will need to adapt to their needs as co-morbidities from chronic conditions associated with ageing and drug use become more prevalent. There is also a risk that more recent exposures to a more ‘flexible’ labour market and greater conditionality and sanctions in the social security system, particularly for young working-age adults, may in time lead to another cohort at high risk [45, 46]. Continued surveillance of this population is therefore merited.”
Abbreviations
You can rely on the Scottish Drug Cartels to keep those figures high. You can also rely on the Scottish government to encourage these nice tidy stats to keep rising. Maybe show us a nice graph with coloured pens.
Mini roundabouts would look nice painted in a Tartan sett. Or, perhaps nationalists could reclaim the Saltire conjoined with a Thistle, an emblem as I recall Billy Wolfe came up with for the SNP originally.
I always liked that he invariably appeared in a kilt, myself.
Probably best not fuck about with road markings, as it would no doubt screw up AI auto-driving vehicles.
2 minute Anchor Man cruise control clip is educational on the failure of such systems.
link to youtube.com
Dan @ 19.08.
Thanks Dan, always appreciate your common sense approach m8. I also enjoy the wee vignettes of daily life Dan style. From clearing cluggy drains or ditches to fixing up machinery.
Ach, cheers Sven, but I’d hope there was more important bigger picture stuff to be taken from my posting efforts than jist that.
For a start, why should it be down to some private individual to carry out essential maintenance and remedial work, which should be the remit of the local authority.
Local authorities can claim lack of funding, but maybe that wouldn’t be the case if they actually allocated funds to the services that should be prioritised.
From my various interactions with the LA over many years, it does seem like there are a lot of folk employed in what are effectively “none jobs”, or folk in necessary jobs having their time inefficiently taken up with a workload of unnecessary tasks and initiatives that are not and should not be a priority in these manufactured times of austerity.
My community is currently having our time and energy taken up dealing with what is a far from essential issue that’s being foisted onto us by a distant, out of touch taxpayer funded bureaucratic and administrative class.
It’s extremely frustrating and tedious to deal with all the facets of the proposal, because it is based on a flawed perspectus created without the knowledge and input of the local community.
There is pretty much unanimous agreement from the stakeholder group that what is being put forward is not required and should not be implemented.
It looks to have been 2 years in the making yet the first we knew about it was a week ago, and now have less than 3 weeks for our community to dicuss the matters and collate and submit our responses. Not great when many are away on holiday at the moment.
I learned a new word today (from Classic FM if you must know). It’s one the yoof use when talking/writing about Artificial Intelligence (AI).
For some reason, I heard it and immediately thought of James and his ubiquitous prick. Goodness knows why!
Clanker (noun) – The kind of useless AI you might find yourself interacting with when calling to report a fault with your broadband or mobile service.
Prick. ;-D
I would like to start a crowd funder to help calm down the serious clashes of Right Wing and Left Wing protesters.
The money donated will be split evenly between them.
For the Left Wingers your money will buy soap and shampoo.
For the Right Wingers your money will buy elocution lessons.
Please donate.
Can’t we buy them weapons?
We could distribute them equally and hope they wipe each other out.
Sounds good. We could lock them in a hotel at the tax payers expense and see who comes out. Last pronoun standing. Placards at ten paces. May the best smelly win.
Last week while looking at some articles about the teen in possession of blades,one video was from the New York Times.I looked up there website and typed in Scotland.
One of the articles was about England sneers about claims Scotland created modern football,which spoke about Anwoth having the oldest surviving football pitch and how Kirk minister Samuel Rutherford got worshippers to put large rocks on it.
Another video was a clip from view from the terrace where an archaeologist and the creator of the Scottish Football museum
Identified the site.Why are we not marking it and promoting it to visitors,at the very least it would prove wrong the English when they shout this football’s coming home bullshit while trying to eradicate anything that is different and Scottish.
Word of the day:
Stank (noun) – Scots – A slow moving or stagnant pool of water, a drainage ditch or channel, a drain or soakaway.
Inspired by James and his ubiquitous prick. I don’t know why, it’s just something about the alliterative quality of the word, “stank”. The “slow moving” and “stagnant” are a bonus.
Hatey
I don see how abusing fellow BTL commenters in the way that you do here adds anything useful to any debate. Please refrain.
Well now, kitty, I can only assume you have the attention span of a gnat.
So kitty gnat it must be from now on.
Hoping you don’t find that too abusive, but if you do, PAY MORE ATTENTION in future.
Thanks in advance.
The worlds oldest football and poem about the game comes from Scotland in mid 1500’s.
link to smithartgalleryandmuseum.co.uk
I hope Salvo do pay attention and add some of Westminsters own Claims regards the Status of a non- parliamentary union,
But also pay attention to the two Crowns, there is work to done there,
It would be wise to define why the Scottish people are always being told or informed the monarch of England has taken the all the required necessities separately to be Monarch of Scots.
But no evidence is ever provided,
It is never out in the open, it is not often done in Scotland and it is not televised like Englands Coronations. We never hear the Scottish oath being taken,
In fact those monarchs from England may have just popped in a building for a cuppie of tea, while holidaying north of England.
The sovereign community of people in Scotland have never actually witnessed the it even in the modern ERA of television, camera’s mobile phones.
And this has been the way since Queen Anne in 1702.
We are told somebody saw it happen or witnessed hearing it, but for some strange reason it has always been is another Country or behind closed door hidden from the Scottish people,
But some said it true,
Used to complain about this “Great” (LOL) Britain being a ‘Nanny State’ but it’s certainly graduated to a ‘Police State’…
#PoliceStreetsNotTweets
“a ‘Nanny State’”
In postcolonial theory the term ‘mother country’ and its ‘paternalistic’ relationship of domination over subordinate colonized peoples is well established; this reflects both capitalist exploitation and racist ideology.
We should not be too surprised by such events as we see in a colonial society. As Cesaire wrote: “fascism was the application to white people of colonial procedures”.
According to Bunche, “imperialism gave birth to fascism”; fascism is therefore considered “a blood relative of slavery and imperialism”. Thus, where we find colonialism we will surely also find fascism.
Radical intellectuals understood fascism not “as an unexpected right-wing turn”, as our dubious media hasten to inform us, but rather as “a logical development of (liberal) western civilization itself”. Even the pleasant official in a colonial government administration may turn into a fascist, as numerous peoples have found.
And, as Du Bois confirmed: “the colonialism of Great Britain… had exactly the same object and methods as the fascists and the Nazis”.
“where we find colonialism we will surely also find fascism”
Glad that’s all cleared up. At least we now know how to correctly label poot’s RF.
Everybody hold their breath until the usual suspects who spent so much time claiming it was his victims that are the fascists apologise and humbly ask for our forgiveness.
Only joking, you’ll die first.
“Radical intellectuals understood fascism … as “a logical development of (liberal) western civilization itself”.”
Hey, that’s clever.
Those who are liberal and progressive are on the road to fascism.
Those who are illiberal and regressive are already fascists.
It certainly makes the lives of radical intellectuals easier – everybody is a fascist or heading that way, so no thought is needed when it’s time to hurl the insults and accusations.
I’m starting to think Beria had a point – nothing like 25 years of digging Siberian clay with wooden implements to make bricks to cure people of radical intellectualism.
At least, the survivors are cured.
Oooooh. Alfie Boy, you are so clever. Plagiarise random Quotes from discredited non entities and attempt to pass it off showing your huge intellect. The trouble is it only works with the rest of the numpties who pollute Wings. Why is there no links to the mince from some other clown, who, by pure coincidence, is also called Alf Baird. Is he a relative?
“Those who are liberal and progressive are on the road to fascism.”
They are already there, Hatey, as confirmed by Holyrood’s propensity for unjust laws, politicising ‘justice’ and imposing oppressive ideologies whilst aye protecting the colonizer’s interest.
Meanwhile the supposedly “illiberal and regressive” are trying to liberate the people.
Seems appropriate in today’s Scotland that Professor Baird can talk of a ‘mother country’ having a ‘paternalistic relationship’ of domination over subordinate peoples.
Gender issue obviously have a key place in post-colonial theory. It would be interesting to know whether maternal and paternal relationships can equally demonstrate fascist methodology.
My point was, Alf, that labels such as fascist and Nazi have become devalued and diluted to the point of uselessness.
These days, they simply mean somebody that the labeller disagrees with.
Anybody using the term “illiberal” at a perceived opponent would probably end up using “fascist” as well.
And as we see from your quote, somebody using the term “liberal” at a perceived opponent also ends up using “fascist”.
It’s as meaningless as the word “racist”, which has also been re-purposed to mean somebody that the labeller disagrees with. And the word “genocide” too, but that’s a post for another day.
What’s the collective noun for three unionists in a row?
Is it an incest of Yoons? Or is it worse than that?
Don’t be coy, James. If you already know, it must be “yank”.
Always a big public expense and public event down south,
But for the Scottish coronation it is hidden away in Secret from the public of Scotland and always done this way,
Cuppy o tea over, a quick chance catch up on some gossip and never seen wearing the Crown of Scotland. Nor taking the Scottish Oath,
There can be no be no shared monarch if the monarch of England is not ever seen or heard to have done these required proceedure’s publicly in Scotland,
Perhaps Scotland is a republic.
It would raise a lot of questions around the two separate Crown estates and where the revenues go from two separate crown estates.
Did you miss the processions and service at St Giles Cathedral on 5 Jul 2023?
Charles Windsor did not take the Scottish Coronation Oath. That is the key fact. None of the English monarchs have taken that oath since 1707.
We are told by the Scottish MSM and BBC, in fawning tones, that the English monarch “looked at the Honours of Scotland” – that is quite deliberately not the same as swearing the Oath.
Taken At face value and consideration of public witnesses or the lack thereof…..
But we have to except that for that to be a reality and for the monarch of England to be coronated and take the Scottish Oath at a separate date and time in Scotland there are still two separate kingdoms in Britain.
Two separate Constitutions.
And no united parliament under the parliament of England that makes treaties and calls itself a Great Britain parliament as a tag on afterwards.
What’s Angus up to?
“Still a Model? What We Can (and Can’t) Learn from German Federalism
Date and time of event
Tue, 09/30/2025 – 18:00 – Tue, 09/30/2025 – 19:30
Body text
For decades, Germany’s federal system has been viewed internationally as a model of stability, subsidiarity, and institutional balance. But recent years have seen a more critical discourse emerge, reflecting concerns about the governance, coordination, and resilience of the ‘German model’. Why the Germans Do It Better has given way to Broken Republik.
This event explores whether German federalism still offers useful lessons for Scotland and the UK. With opening reflections from Angus Robertson MSP, Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture, and a conversation with him to follow, the discussion will consider how Germany’s system of territorial governance has evolved, what challenges it now faces, and how this experience might inform ongoing debates about devolution, democracy, and reform in Scotland and the wider UK.
Speaker: Angus Robertson MSP, Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture
Panel Chair: Dr Davide Vampa, Co-Director of the Centre on Constitutional Change
Discussants: Dr Elke Heins and Dr Benjamin Martill (Centre on Constitutional Change and Europa Institute)
Jointly organised by the British-German Association and the Centre on Constitutional Change.
Registration:
Booking link
Eventbrite
@ sam “What’s Angus up to?”
No good, as ever.
Why bother coming to Scotland to pretend something happened behind Closed doors? And not witnessed by the Scottish people,
Only the throne and Crown of England has been secured by acts of the English parliament under the bill of rights,
The parliament of England has never passed Acts to secure the Throne and Crown of Scotland.
Cornwall isn’t part of England in law either. MP Perran Boon’s speech in the HoCommons is tweeted by Lloyd Quinan today.
Very interesting! Another territory that is recognised in practice as not England [by some different powers] but it is never publicised. I wonder why!
Mebyon Kernow formed in 1951 and want Cornish identity and devolution.
Cornish Nationalist Party which supports devolution.
Cornish Constitutional Convention which ampaigns for a Cornish Assembly and self-governance.
They should send a delegation to HR to watch and learn how we do it.
Observe state-of-the-art, cutting-edge politics, grass-roots engagement, and wildly popular, joined-up national administration at its very best.
@ sam – it’s great. Come on Cornwall!
Perran Moon, not Boon – typo. He’s a Labour MP sadly – not a Mebyon Kernow MP.
Indeed Sarah. The whole union caboodle is ill stitched together hatch job.
It is like a beginners attempts at knitting.
Perhaps this is because the main aim of Englands Politicians was to colonise the other nations in the British Isle’s then and now rather than to work with them,
For Westminster to attempt to stitch up Scotland into a political parliamentary union it would have been wiser not to dissolve the Scottish parliament out of the treaty of union and then claim it was the parliament of England making English treaties and calling them Great Britain treaties.
It Would have been wiser as a united political parliament to have secured the Crown and throne of Scotland prior to it dissolving the Scottish parliament from the parliament of England union,
But it has remained the parliament of England from the beginning when it transferred it old englsh parliament members into its new rebranded name.
All acts. Legislation, statues, repeals and amendments are from the Westminster parliament rebrand name for over three hundred years now.
And the sovereignty of the parliament of England comes from the secured protestant line to the throne and Crown of England passed by Acts of the parliament of England.
I still fail to see the bones of political parliamentary union with Scotlnd.
For if it is not a hoax, the treaty of union does not transfer the territory of Scotland to England,
Devolution from What?
The self declared parliament of England?
“We the Parliament of England have agreed……”
Completely different topic,
Why is UK buying large tents to store corpses and setting alarm bells for emergancies alerts on your phones,
What are the planning.
Perhaps phase two of mr starmers givernance.
James Cheyne @ 14.38.
Better be cautious about noticing “Emergency Provision Planning” and mentioning it too critically, James.
It’s commenting on practises such as this which has led some to suspect I’m a “conspiracy theorist” … a descriptor originating, I believe, with the CIA which was intended to smear groups who saw certain government plans and schemes too clearly for administrative comfort.
Digital Identity documents anyone …
Debate.
Pronunciation ( Di – bait-)
.. meaning, Oxford English dictionary,
An old Scottish word meaning to clap your chums on the back every time they speak. Also a form of desperation, reliance, dependency. A need to be wanted and accepted. A fear of rejection.
Hardly. See Debateable Lands – Armstrong, Elliot, Kerrs, Johnstone etc
Excellent post – can’t remember when I last read a better one – unless it was one of mine.
OK, your turn.
(Try not to make it too obvious)
As seen in the Herald;
Nicola Sturgeon has made the Union “safe for a long time”, Boris Johnson has said.
The former Prime Minister said the former First Minister had set back the independence cause with her record in office and leading the SNP through a financial crisis with a police investigation into party finances beginning in 2021.
I won’t hear a word against her,” he said.
Thanks to Nicola I think the Union is safe for a long time. The dogs barked, the caravan moved on.”
“the caravan moved on”
Typical BoJo, not a scooby about what’s going on in Scotland.
It was a mobile home.
I think the Rev could save everyone a huge amount of time and no matter what his article was about just copy and paste the comments from the previous article into the latest one.
Its the same pish everytime will little originality,
That’s a hate crime from Rob, right there.
“little originality”
If nobody takes the advice printed at the top of this site: “Hurty Feelings? Call The Police”, I will be very surprised indeed.
I like the revs articles about several subjects which is why I visit.
However the same old pish just gets posted over and over again from the same few folk.
The overall majority of it is just simple nonsense and certain e authors can’t seem to identify reality even with a pointy stick, when they get contradicted they just post stupid links or start name calling rather than actually have a reasoned discussion.
If saying this is a hate crime then maybe I should change my name to Adolph!
Stop moaning about lack of content that interests you and post some interesting content yourself then.
Here’s one for you. Speaking to the coal delivery guy this morning. Asked him where the coal came from…. His response was Columbia and Khazakstan!
Welcome to the UK, what a disgrace in regard to energy policy in Scotland, and sensible policy to reduce environmental impact of how we live.
Guess that will be me getting reeked out with acrid fumes all winter.
Pity the neighbours couldn’t have made use of yet another huge beech tree the beavers have killed along the riverbank. (Pics over on Off Topic)
No protection for those mature trees in Perthshire Big Tree Country, but the big ugly Leylandii in the local graveyard causing structural damage to some large gravestones can’t be removed because it is healthy.
What a clown show we live in.
@Dan – why is that such a big deal? Do you think people in Kazakhstan should be complaining that people are drinking Scottish whisky rather than good local vodka?
Piss off troll.
If you can’t see the sense in using our own local and cleaner energy resources instead of shipping huge tonnages of weight around the planet on bunker fuel burning boats, you are an idiot.
Trade the likes of stuff we can’t produce here like bananas and cocoa, and exporting goods we can make here, but shipping coal to an energy rich area is insane.
That’s your UK though, so no doubt you have to try to big it up as a win. Fucking imbecile.
Dan, they are having to import 3 million tons of coal for that site in England – somewhere beginning with S, can’t remember the name. Complete insanity. An island of coal and they close the mines, abusing miners while they do so, then import the stuff.
You just sound like a typical insular old man moaning and complaining about all the “foreign stuff” coming in. I’d suggest it’s way down the list of things that matter, and I’d also suggest there isn’t much demand for Gen Z to head down the mines again, not for your neighbours to pay twice the price for U.K. labour rates.
@Dan says: 10 September, 2025 at 7:51 pm
“That’s your UK though”
Purely to set the record straight, the SNP/Green government in Hollyrood has committed to the phasing out of fossil fuel use and Nutt Zero 5 years ahead of the UK government in Westminster (2045 and 2050 respectively).
It’s just more of the virtue signalling and pointless posturing that our Scottish elites like to perform to demonstrate just how on the “right side of history” they are.
Down in WM, it’s defo looking as if the days of Nutt Zero are numbered. Insiders say that the only reason Millipede hasn’t been “reshuffled” too is that his popularity is the highest in the Labour cabinet. But once Farage gets in, just like wearing facemasks and pretending blokes are birds, Nutt Zero will be no more than a risible footnote in the history books.
What’s the betting though, that here in Scotland, we’ll all have to suffer from our home-made version for longer?
Anyhoo, cue potty mouthed insults from the Soup Dragon.