Not So Octopus
Alert readers will have noticed something of a minor furore in recent days around a boneheaded Scottish Greens candidate (as if there were any other kind) calling for the complete abolition of prisons.
So far Kate Nevens – who on the latest polling has a very reasonable chance of being elected on the list – has resisted calls to step down, which is probably for the best as, incredibly, her replacement would be even worse.
With the implosion of Your Party concentrating the nutter vote firmly in Green hands, the next term of the Scottish Parliament is set to feature the worst array of MSPs in Holyrood’s history, with almost everyone in the SNP with any sort of ability or experience resigning to be replaced by hyper-obedient young party drones, while the opposition are mostly putting forward the same old faces who’ve been such utter failures for the last 20 years.
It’s a grim prospect, but we do have a solution to propose.
No, wait, hear us out. The current election will usher in dozens of useless candidates nobody likes, largely by default for want of any better alternatives. We know nothing about most of these people. The Greens may get two list MSPs per region, but see what you can find out about most of their second-placed list candidates – it’s nothing.
Here, for example, is the entirety of the Greens’ web page for their #2 list candidate in Central And Lothians West, Claire Williams.
And here’s pretty much everything we could find out about her:
As far as we can tell she has no personal site and no social media presence except a Facebook page, which mostly contains notifications about upcoming roadworks.
This is the most substantive or personal statement we’ve been able to find from Cllr Williams on any subject:
Good luck with your informed voting decision. We’re using Cllr Williams purely as a typical example of a list candidate, not picking on her particularly, because there’s nothing to pick on, other than the basic assumption that she supports all the repulsive policies of her party in general.
We’re about to elect a whole herd of pigs in pokes without the slightest notion whether any of them might be capable MSPs. (And let’s face it, the odds are rotten.) If we had a Squid Game parliament we’d at least know that they were good at SOMETHING.
The 129 survivors would have demonstrated intelligence, co-operation, adaptability and strength under pressure – all fine traits for anyone, let alone politicians, a job for which there are no qualifications. (Indeed, most of the things that qualify someone as a good and useful human being, like the ability to think for yourself, are an active hindrance in politics.)
And it’s not a brute-force contest either. To win at Squid Game requires a wide and diverse range of skills, as well as the bravery to enter in the first place. You’d know your representatives REALLY wanted that seat, not just because they lacked the talent to get any other job. (There’d be no financial prize other than their normal wages, of course.)
We already know that Squid Game is box-office, compared to the current election which most people already desperately wish would just be over. Voters would actually care. Put it on pay-per-view and you could generate many millions of pounds for hard-pressed public services, as well as improving the quality of your public servants a thousand-fold.
There are no downsides. Convince us we’re wrong.
A Parliament of the Never-Will-Bes awaits us on 8th May.
Duncanio @ 14.04.
With a few “Has Beens” and “Never Was” clingons still trousering the copious public funds on offer.
“the same old faces” – same old faeces surely?
As for the low profile of Claire Williams on social media, maybe that’s a good thing? I’d like to think she has a meaningful and rewarding life far away from the twitosphere bubble. Or she’s realised that’s a total waste of time. Though I accept this may well be a step too far.
CAMPBELL I have been a keen reader of your excellent site and a firm supporter of you since before the 2014 Referendum. I hold you in high regard.
However, I must take exception with your blanket slander of all Scottish Green Party candidates as “boneheaded”.
One of my grandsons is a List candidate for that party – ok, so far down that list, he has no chance of being elected to Holyrood. However, boneheaded he aint.
I find his politics strange, but, he’s no daft.
Consider yourself telt.
If he is in the Greens he is a cunt.
GM – I fear you have just proved the old rule of: “It takes one to spot one.”
Socrates – I fear you have just proved the old rule of:”There are none so blind as those who will not see”
Tell the grandloon to post up his credentials and views on Wings, so he can get some publicity and let folk know what he’s about and get some scrutiny and feedback.
I have to agree with GM.
They weren’t in Holyrood five minutes & immediately started reversing on indy with inventing new tricks on how to delay a referendum. First it was the 70% bullshit over X amount of years. Then it was the TIE bullshit , then TRA rights first, TRA women are women bullshit. Next up was juryless trials & when Sturgeon gave them a seat at the table they went batshit totalitarian…
They are cunts. They ruined the Yes movement with their repeated batshit bullshit & their repeated threats to not vote on things unless they got their own way.
They’re fakers. They couldn’t give a rats ass about the environment either. They’re more interested in ppls sex lives. They want into ppls personal lives. Including how parents raise their own children & what they even talk about. Heaven forbid it’s about normal growing pains..that’s “conversion” & we should all be jailed FFS!
Tell him to get out of the Greens. They’re toxic to everything they touch. They were obviously the easy weaklings for the British state to completely capture to derail the Yes movement.
I’m afraid the others are correct Socrates.
If your grandson is involved in the Greens, he is either an ideologically captured maniac or a browbeat nodder who does what he is told.
Surely, all that has recently happened with the SNP and the Greens, including Chapman making an anonymous complaint against a standing candidate so she can get it tells you all you need to know.
Geri @ 7.38
Hit the nail right on the head again.
Yoof trendy is not necessarily “right trendy”..
C;
And above all, get him to justify cancel culture!
No debate an’ that..
Gaun, I dare ye because at some point they might cancel open debate on someone or something you DO care about.
I am almost sure that there would have been a few absolutely delightful people in the Nazi Party in 1930s.
Misguided, naïve or clueless souls pitch up everywhere.
“The Blunder Games”.
The obvious solution is to vote for the Alliance to Liberate Scotland Party on the Regional list:
link to barrheadboy.com
Hi Alf. The problem with the Alliance, for me, is that some of the candidates are as batshit on some issues as the Greens. I like Tommy Sheridan, but his brand of Socialism just would not work in reality. Craig Murray is a decent man, but his decency leads him to areas where others take the proverbial. I am thinking of his support of the ‘trans’ movement which really worries me because he has very evidently either not researched it at all or he has, and has decided to let it stand – which is to betray all women and girls.
I am fully acquainted with the argument that the Alliance will have different strands within it. Fair enough. The SNP used to be a broad church and look what happened to it when these ‘progressive’ policies came to the fore. My reasoning is that independence will never protect us from the malignancy and sheer naked cruelty of such policies, and if we do not defeat these madcap ideas before independence, we are going to sink into the morass that independent Ireland finds itself in today.
Normally intelligent people are losing their minds over policies about ‘green’ energy, immigration, ‘trans’ rights, etc. and all in the name of virtue-signalling that I fear we are already too late to extricate ourselves from it all. England is all but completely lost although many, many English people will vote for Reform UK in a bid to reset and recalibrate their society, and, in the doing, will, inadvertently, afford ours the impetus to leave the Union. If we don’t go then, it is all but inevitable that a form of civil war on the UK’s streets lies in the future, and all the surveillance and all the restrictions will not prevent it. The politicians in every part of the UK have so much for which to answer.
Independence is the only answer, I agree, but it always was the only answer and should have been the answer in 1978/9 and in 2014. Both times, we accepted NO when we should have refused to co-operate. We are now in a far, far, far worse situation and most of these insane policies are already embedded in our institutions and society, so independence is not going to change that unless we have a massive clear-out of these people because they will stand foursquare against any efforts to actually make our society economically, culturally and psychologically better. Independence? Yes, no other way. A complete clear-out of these virtue-signallers? Yes, no other way unless we want to enter a totalitarian but, nominally, independent Scotland.
Some human beings have learned that prevention is better than cure, but these ‘progressives’ scream and cry when that is put into practice. When things turn bad and you can see how they will pan out so detrimentally for all, you have to do something about it. It seems that we must always – but always – learn the hardest ways possible when the answers are always there staring us in the face well ahead of us.
Well said, Lorna. Sane and intelligent as always!
So basically you’re waiting on 5.5 million people agreeing with you before you’ll even consider if Scotland should be an independent country?
You have no control over what the majority of people will vote for in the future. Just as you don’t remaining in the Union.
You are never going to get a party that is fully aligned with your own personal political views in normal times, never mind in this crazy era.
You have be pragmatic and vote for the least worst option some times.
There is also another reason though. There are times where those on the fringes need to be given a choice to challenge the cosy consensus of the centre.
Getting politicians from the real left and right of politics might help to shake things up so to speak. The minimum though is that it gives some of our society a voice in politics who are continually sneered and denigrated at.
There is nobody to be held higher than those who have lost or stand to lose their liberty fighting for our right to liberty against an oppressive colonial regime, that includes Tommy, Craig and others.
Tommy Sheridan was convicted and sentenced to 3 years in prison for perjury. Would perjury not be a crime in an independent Scotland?
“The native seldom looks for justice in the colonial framework”. And in such a society the colonialist “cannot help but approve discrimination and the codification of justice” (Memmi).
“his brand of Socialism just would not work”
Lorncal, the liberation of the people should not be confused with political or other ideologies.
As Albert Memmi wrote:
“there is no connection between the liberation of the colonized and the application of a left wing program.”
Fanon agreed, arguing the liberation of the people is “not about developing either a socialist or capitalist system of governance”.
Which explains why Alliance to Liberate Scotland candidates rightly have only one objective – independence!
That doesn’t answer my question though Alf, Tommy Sheridan was found guilty of perjury by a jury. Would that not be an offence in a future independent Scotland?
The case of one Craig Murray is at least a bit more arguable given the circumstances of the conspiracy against Alex Salmond, although I do think we have a duty to obey court orders even where we don’t agree with them, and he was warned in advance about what he was doing.
“… codification of justice” (Memmi).”
Did you mean to write “the codification of injustice”, Alf?
Yes Northcode, ‘codification of justice’ as applied by Memmi refers to the laws as set out and administered according to the values and protecting the interests of the dominant colonizer culture, which of course invariably results in injustice for and discrimination against the colonized.
Say what ye like about Tommy Sheridan but he is exactly what Indy needs. He knows his stuff.
I remember just before the Indy referendum he absolutely slaughtered Andrew Neil on the Sunday Politics show. He left him dazed, confused & a babbling idiot. He’d to resort to the predictable mud slinging about his character instead & Tommy even had an answer for that too “Where are they now, Andrew? His paper is closed & I’m still here”…Aye, brought down by their own scummy actions.
He must’ve said “check out Oil & Gas.com” about 10 times – there was no way it was running out – along with rhyming off Scotland’s other long list of natural resources…
“Only banks that’ll be closing in an independent Scotland are the food banks” …ouch!
He was right too about a naw vote. Only more austerity & piss poor would be the outcome. Tax cuts for the millionaires – Bedroom tax for the poor.
I’d vote Tommy in a heartbeat. He can take on the best of the Yoon clown show. He mentioned in that interview Ukip & the BNP was bankrolling a naw vote.. Two of the biggest fakers for English Nationalism. Aye, but we still want dependency with Scotland FFS!
“Say what ye like about Tommy Sheridan…”
Well said and a good comment, Geri.
Arsey, Have we seen the latest Lego song to drop? LOL You’ve more to worry you than an Independent Scotland’s judicial system.
“Your government is run by pedo….philes” ..oooouuuuch!
“Dollar is fake. Pound is decomposing” LOL
These are dead catchy tunes & the lyrics are brutally honest. I hear they’re on a well known chart now. …LMAO!
X account drop site.
Serves them right. They started the Hollywood meme shit glorifying Top Gun FFS.. bet they didn’t bargain for this response.
“Have we seen the latest Lego song to drop? LOL”
“They started the Hollywood meme shit glorifying Top Gun FFS”
“Lego song”…? Memes? Top Gun?
WTF are you even on about, are you a dopey 14 year old or something?
I’m sure you would vote for Tommy Sheridan because you aren’t very bright and that kind of rabble rousing demagoguery is aimed at precisely at people like you.
I actually had a listen back to the interview, Tommy is a good orator but he doesn’t answer the questions posed to him, he answers the questions he wants to have been asked. That’s typical of someone who is all slogans and no policy, he can’t answer Andrew Neil’s questions because he knows he’ll come unstuck on points of detail he doesn’t understand and proposals that haven’t been thought through.
If you want an illustration of this. Go back and look at some of the older interviews pre-1980 with Robert Mugabe for example, who is as erudite and passionate as Tommy Sheridan, and did that lead to a successful Zimbabwe?
Of course all of this is a distraction from the libel case where we started.
This song is brilliant lol
“Yer sister knew all along. The enemy was always you”
“Stealing from yer own people, making them bleed, taking tax dollars just to fund yer own greed”
Love how they tore the bitcoin off the back of the ordinary voter in that vid. That must be one of his sickest actions as President outside of this conflict. To rob yer own fan base out of $millions & even include the wife & family.
“Your government is run by pedo…..files” lol!!
Catchy…
link to x.com
Northcode
The knives will no doubt be out for him cause the Union fears him. He “speaks for the millions. Not the millionaires” He knows his stuff even in the face of provocation.
Just refreshing myself with that interview that’s still available on YouTube. He was right about “Scottish Labour” being finished in Scotland. They had the chance to renew themselves & get back to their roots in an Independent Scotland & they blew it.
Cause really they’re not a party for the workers/working class anymore. They’re just red Tories.
It’s sad. I remember that was the final run-in before Indy week. Scotland was bouncing & we had the decision in our own hands, or so we thought. I didn’t know at the time that every fcker had a vote. Even passing migrant workers could vote on Scotland’s constitution FFS! They didn’t allow that with Brexshit tho! Slippery bastards…
“This song is brilliant lol”
…… Riiiiiiiiiiigght. 😀
Good that we’re finally getting a glimpse of your (ahem) sources, “Geri”.
Good grief…
Geri: no, I didn’t say that. I said that we have to clear out all the DEI, HR, charity sectors of ideologues. I’m not saying that people should lose their jobs either. I am saying that they should undergo a new strict test to see whether they are capable of neutrality on all questions of the law. Not difficult. You first need to know what the law is which affects your particular sector, of course – which few of these people do. That should be a pre requisite, and if they need to undergo retraining, so be it.
What is actually happening is that the Scottish government is deliberately funding organisations and public departments that are flouting the law and which are driven solely by ideology. Even the political parties should have to undergo testing to see how they perform in a neutral vacuum before any politician is allowed to stand for office.
This used to be de rigour for all civil servants and public servants. If we enter into independence without this reset, there will be no way to root it out, and the rotten apple with the worm at its centre will be taken into independence with the rest of the barrel to contaminate the lot. If you don’t get that, Geri, I can’t help you.
Alf: Tommy Sheridan is a great speaker and I do happen to agree with some of his opinions, but they are opinions, as are everyone else’s, and, therefore, open to question and debate. Small ‘s’ socialism would appear to be a creed that is well-established in Scotland, but big ‘S’ Socialism has worked nowhere, at no time in history – ever. It has led, as have extreme far right views, to oppression and totalitarianism.
Craig Murray’s views on ‘trans’ are his own and he is entitled to them. What he is not entitled to do is apply them to women’s rights to their detriment, and, I’m afraid, he falls down there. I can understand the pressure to have an independent Scotland come hell or high water, and, God knows, we have waited long enough for it, and I can even see the argument that we can sort everything else out after that. However, we can’t. The hard leftist ideologies would take over as they have in Ireland: ‘trans’, mass immigration, abandoning all fossil fuels in favour of renewables when renewables at not yet at a properly developed stage, etc.
Please, folks, look at what is happening in Ireland and try to avoid that. We can’t, as they have not, because we will be importing an ideology which is inimical to a better society, which is a form of political and societal suicide – that is, if the supporters of this ideology would even vote for independence, which is inimical to their ideology, as well, because…open borders…no restrictions on renewable sources…no restrictions of self-expression even to the point of destruction of everyone else’s rights.
“The knives will no doubt be out for him cause the Union fears him.”
Aye, Geri, there’s no doubt about it.
Tommy Sheridan is a charismatic, skilled orator and a natural rhetorician who is acutely aware of Scotland’s colonised status.
His ability to engage with audiences combined with his proficiency at public speaking makes him a potent asset of the independence movement.
Tho I prefer to use the term “liberation movement” now because I agree with Alf Baird when he tells us Scotland has moved into, or is moving into, the third phase of the decolonisation process he describes in his paper
THE THREE PHASES OF DECOLONIZATION
Now that a “new liberation vehicle”, as Alf puts it, has arrived on the scene in the shape of the Alliance to Liberate Scotland party, I believe the Scots are, after three centuries of oppression, entering the final phase of their people’s decolonisation.
“This song is brilliant lol”
Brilliant, indeed.
Professionally produced anti-Trump Persian propaganda.
Clever rap rhetoric wrapped in visual rhetoric and backed by a super catchy soundtrack … genius.
Too long.
With the implosion of Your Party concentrating the nutter vote firmly in Green hands
Q Manivanman is my fav name.
@Lorncal – an excellent and considered post.
There seems to be this suggestion amongst the more hard of thinking here that in the (extremely unlikely) event of independence being secured with the current charlatans and knuckle draggers at the healm, that all of the Ross Greer’s and the Kirsty Blackman’s would disappear and be replaced by principled, competent, effective politicians.
I cannot understand this view. If all these people exist and are waiting in the wings, why don’t they come forwarded now when they are badly needed. Do we also honestly think that the current shower would pass up on the opportunity to permanently embed their sordid ideas into the Scottish constitution so we’re stuck with them forever?
Yes, Lorncal is a veritable and much needed breath of fresh air BTL, in stark contrast to the ever-present revolting empty vessel thickoes.
The rot runs very, very deep and is utterly ingrained into today’s political class in Scotland. Worse still. Vast swathes of the country’s electorate firmly believes in this dangerous nonsense.
For me, unpicking this represents impossibility. Would love to be proven wrong.
Wilma Flintstone..
I.e. failed Reform candidate (yup folks- a failed Reform candidate 🙂 🙂 🙂 )
Yeah! I know, hilarious isn’t it?!!
Lorncal; looks like you have a questionable troll/ site spoiler admirer..
Ooh err!
Cue “lifestyle” othering from the mong!
Typical failure right wing moron. Looking for an argument as far away from her own failure as possible..
Good grief…
Well, I very much doubt that an articulate, intelligent and interesting poster like Lorncal will take this, ahem, “advice” on board, but that’s up to her.
FYI: In civilised, intellectual circles (which obviously excludes you by default), it is perfectly acceptable for people to have differing viewpoints, to disagree and debate. (Note “debate” is not “obsessive trolling at 3am”). Not only is it acceptable – it is interesting; much can be learned and changed from these intellectual boundaries, as opposed to endless boilerplate zealotry (albeit even that terms is to dignify your own “output” way beyond what it deserves). Probably with this site’s host graciously facilitates differing viewpoints, taking mindless flak from graceless ignoramuses like yourself in the process.
Btw, not quite sure how I can be a “failed Reform candidate” when in actual fact, I have never offered my candidature to them or any other political party. Being offered an opportunity but exercising discretion to turn it down does not make you a “failure”.
I daresay, this begs the question: why turn down such an opportunity, especially considering the untold harm that the Left has wreaked upon this country (which Lorncal and others have articulated, in case you haven’t noticed, fool). In actual fact, you provide a very clear example of why I would not wish to become part of public life, on any level – thereby exposing myself (and moreover members of my family) to obsessive halfwits such as yourself, endlessly stalking, trolling, intruding, annoying. Reform is, in particular, catnip to you low wattage, moronic left wing zealots, oblivious as you are. No thanks, life is way too short for that kind of crap.
Still, no doubt we’re probably rapidly approaching the point where you threaten to utilise your bus pass and come down here to throw your bag of Werthers Originals at me, you hapless old fool. Why Stu puts up with the likes of you imbeciles soiling his blog is a mystery.
“Being offered an opportunity but exercising discretion to turn it down does not make you a “failure”.”
It does show the company you keep tho. What exactly is it they’re fibbing that they’re going to reform?
I’ll bet it certainly doesn’t include English independence, an English devolved parliament or even English checks on the border.
You were probably wise to turn down standing for election. You seem unable to read a room or follow word news.
You seem blissfully unaware that the UK does as it’s told by the American Empire, it’s donors & it’s banks & they want gender reform & immigration. It was never right or left. It’s despised in equal measure by both camps. A fact you’re also unaware of. This should have been painfully obvious the moment it was rolled out across the whole of the Western world. No debate. Immediate Parliament pass – do not even put it to a public vote.
Yet yer still banging on its the left…zzzzz! Is Starmer left wing? If so, when did that happen?
Is Hungary left wing? The very country that told everyone this was a directive from World bank/IMF.
But Empire & it’s minions love mixing shit up & Gender reform was a good one to hide its government sponsored sterilisation program. Immigration is a weapon they’ll never ditch either ..
A. It floods a country they don’t much care about the politics of.
B. They’ll be first in the queue for signing up to the draft. Or be jailed/deported if they refuse.
C. They work for peanuts.
D. They don’t tend to mobilise much to complain about things like workers pay & rights.
E. They get to fill their latest land grab with the help of B.
F. They don’t like “breeders” & they fucked up cause they forgot they’re kinda needed for a country to survive & look after their ageing populations.
Reform are fan boys for Trump & Trump has already said to ditch healthcare & pensions. Spend it on weapons instead & Farage will gladly do it.
Who ever get elected in may to Holyrood, doesn’t need any IQ test the job doesn’t require you to even have an education.
All you have to do is turn up when ever you want and you’ll get paid regardless, the job is guaranteed for 5yrs.
Heaven help us all! Scotland is well and truly screwed! Just when you think things couldn’t get any worse they do – the prospect of any of these wired to the moon batshit crazy lunatic Green candidates getting elected and making decisions or passing laws in Scotland should fill us all with dread
Beam me up Scotty!
Squid Game and the Scottish Parliamentary elections have at least one thing in common – they are both works of fiction… and of the two Squid Game is the more believable.
Glibness aside, the glaringly obvious solution, as Alf Baird says, is to vote for the Alliance to Liberate Scotland Party on the Regional list.
And if that option isn’t available to liberty-seeking Scots then better that they don’t vote at all.
However, it would be a massive kick tae Westminster’s teeth – aye, and tae the teeth of its creature, the SNP – if the Scots turned out en masse and gave their vote to an ALS candidate.
My solution is to abolish Holyrood. It is the only way forward for Scotland, whether you are a Unionist or Independence supporter. The only way.
What I’m interested in: now that Sturgeon is no longer an MSP does she still have protection from Dorothy Bain KC. The Lord Advocate senior Scottish Law Officer?
Socrates is like those whose children or grandchildren have decided to follow the flock and ‘transition’. Because their kids have done it, they then expect everyone else’s kids to do it, regardless of the harm done, and are offended when other parents/grandparents refuse to accept the nonsense. Hell hath no fury like a ‘trans’ child’s family members. No one should never be drawn into the “it’s my child/grandchild, and he/she can do no wrong”. Other people have no obligation to follow your child/grandchild into hell. That is rule number one.
The Greens are full-on post modernist, queer theory, cultural Marxists who are teetering on the edge of insanity. Anyone who supports them must be assumed to be the same. It’s not a question of holding different or strange policies: it is a question of sanity. It is so-called ‘progressive’ ideas taken to the extreme edge of human viability and, again, no one is obliged to follow the Green flock – rule number two.
No other generation has ever wanted to push the West over the precipice, but the Greens in this one certainly do. No other generation has ever deemed it sensible to push for annihilation of specifically Western people through policies that are deluded to the point of lunacy. Their world, if ever realized, would be a space where only the strongest and most ruthless would survive, all the while pretending that they ‘care’. It would be a totalitarian lnethernetherland, populated by baby-faced demons performing as angels. Don’t be sucked in because their policies go way beyond ‘green’ policies – rule number three.
The only difference I can glean from listening to them speak is that they don’t want to do the dirty work and very coyly suggest that we do it all to ourselves. They are Stalinists who don’t want to shoot people in the back of the head but would make our lives so miserable that we would shoot ourselves in the temple just to get some relief. Dangerous, dangerous people who, despite being ‘green’, see the world in black-and-white and me good, you bad – rule number four.
Think you might be on to something Stu ! I have encountered the same information desert when it comes to trying to find out about candidates for the forthcoming elections. I asked the Electoral Commission for help on any sources which identify background and experience ( especially for first time candidates which seems to be non existent ). They highlighted the Who can I Vote For website which I was aware of but which literally in the case of newbies lists the fact that they are sitting in the forthcoming election. They added that there is no requirement to provide this information although the Commission apparently provides parties with guidelines for example on canvassing material. It has become clear that many electoral parties consider selection of individual candidates as their territory( which we know from the spate of recent suspensions of course they are so good at ) and we get to vote for a party not an individual. In my humble opinion this allows a party to not only fill the parliament with party apparatchiks but also means a weaker connection between the candidate and the community they are supposed to serve. Not a good look for a healthy democracy surely ? Today an SNP leaflet arrived through my door which focuses solely on First Minister Swinney and what a vote for the SNP means ( 5 things listed on the front alongside a smiling Swinney includes Walk-in GP appointments and shorter NHS waiting times ) . The reverse has a note from Mr S. instructing us to
“use both votes SNP for a SNP Government that’s on Scotland’s side and for a fresh start with Independence. “ This is the only reference to Independence.
I have not thus far received any campaign literature for an SNP constituency candidate who is the current MSP .
ALL these arsewipes that refuse to accept that we are a colonised nation under the control of a vile regressive despicable hate filled neighbour should query why that neighbour FORCED this lunatic version of the D’hont system on us
How can anyone sane look at the dross in that photo at the top of the page and actually think that they are the best examples of normal sensible people that can run our country
I will vote for the Alliance to Liberate Scotland even though I have argued about their claim that they have only one policy when they bang on about immigration being positive
I will ONLY vote for ALS in either the constituency vote or the regional vote if there is a candidate,otherwise it will be a comment,I couldn’t bring myself to vote for these fucking lunatics, well done NO voters
Exactly, Twathater.
No voters voted for this shite & now they complain about it.
It was evident this would always happen with a No vote. They wouldn’t have the balls to close Holyrood but what they can do is stuff it full of cross so Scotland is practically begging for it to fck off or to just abandon it altogether. Crammed full of foreign agents to dream up one fckd up policy after another while wasting copious amounts of money in the process. The old Colonial trick to fool the stupid that they’re right, we couldn’t cope on our own, just look how harsh it we all are….Zzzzz.
I don’t know why Wings doesn’t promote indy candidates & stop wasting his time giving these eejits a platform. It’s pretty clear these will be paper candidates. The exact same trick Ruth the mooth employed & then yet more money will be wasted later having by-elections for the fakers who don’t want the job.
Honestly, I’m so depressed at the prospect of either a majority SNP win or SNP minority but propped up by the Greens result next month. It will be more gender wacko nonsense, more hate crime bilge, more greyhound racing bans (oh, they’ve already done that) – just garbage legislation. With added tax rises!
No meaningful social media content or meaningful policy. See Sir Keir Starmer before the last General Election, and yet he won a historical majority. I never understood what he stood for. I know now, but it is too late. Over a half million have signed the petition for a General Election. I reckon six months after the Scottish Parliament Election the same will apply. Nothing is working just now. Electoral systems, Local Authorities, Defence capability, Economic growth, and Education you name it, but Believe in Scotland.
J Roberson @ 16.49.
The Closed List variant of the D’Hondt voting system ensures not only a weaker, but effectively no connection between the List MSP and the constituents. It does, however, afford immense powers of patronage and nepotism to those administering the political parties.
Which explains why Labour’s manipulative and authoritarian messrs Blair and Dewar went for the Closed List option when they imposed this regrettable system on our poor land.
It would be a good idea for you to give some publicity to Liberate Scotland and the ISP. They’ve got a range of intelligent, experienced and well informed candidates, who have a lot to offer to Holyrood, despite that they’re sole aim is to get us out of the union. They’re being shamefully ignored by the mass media – not invited onto Debate Night, though Reform UK are.
These candidates eg Gordon Ross (Indy car), Eva Comrie, Tommy Sheridan, Craig Murray, Colette Walker and others need all the media exposure they can get.
Yes, excellent candidates standing throughout Scotland for Alliance to Liberate Scotland Party offering the widest range of experience and abilities far superior to any other party.
And all with just one purpose and policy too – independence!
@MaryB
I am so glad I didn’t stand as an Independent Candidate seeking Scottish Independence. I couldn’t share a platform with any of them. Now that is not to say they are not good people. They are, I met Tommy Sheridan and liked him but his politics are a world away from mine. Mostly the rest are ex Alba/SNP. And like me they were defrauded twice, once by the SNP and the next time by Alba. And nothing changes for the Independence movement.
You have that the wrong way around.
It’s ppl like you that have ruined the Yes movement.
You aren’t asked on the ballot paper who you do or don’t like, their politics, or who you would or wouldn’t stand with.
You are simply asked if you support Scotland being an independent country.
Newsflash – you may not even be elected to a new parliament so it wouldn’t matter whose politics you liked!
When did ppl become so stupid?
Think you might be on to something Stu !
I have encountered the same information desert when it comes to trying to find out about candidates for the forthcoming elections. I asked the Electoral Commission for assistance with any sources which identify background and experience ( especially for first time candidates as this is mostly non existent. They suggested the Who Can I vote for website which I already knew was useless and lists for newbies literally the fact they are standing in the forthcoming election. Links are to party Social media pages . They added that there is no requirement to provide this information although the Commission apparently produces guidance on canvassing material .
It seems to me that most electoral parties consider candidates background and experience as no one’s business but theirs. The selection of candidates is solely their domain ( which of course we know from the spate of recent suspensions they are so good at ) and we are encouraged to vote for a party not an individual. In my humble opinion this allows a party to not only stuff the parliament with party apparatchiks many of whom voters know next to nothing about (or if they did they would vote with their feet) but also weakens the connection between the candidate and the community they are supposed to serve. Not a good look for any healthy democracy surely?
Only today an SNP leaflet arrived through my door which focuses solely on First Minister Swinney and what a vote for SNP means ( walk-in GP appointments and Independence and 4 other non independence things.listed ). Mr S calls for “Both Votes SNP for an SNP Government that’s on Scotland’s side and for a fresh start on Independence. “ I have yet to see a leaflet from the SNP candidate who is the sitting MSP
Ach, so jist more time and attention focusing on the negatives of Scottish politics then.
Hmm, it’s hard to believe someone that’s supposedly so pro-Scotland and long term scunnered with Scotland’s political scene, couldn’t actually be arsed spending jist a wee bit of time over recent years shining a light on those individuals that are the seeds needing germinated to foment changing things for the better.
When someone shows you who they are…
You seem to have forgotten to name any of them, ironically.
Always the smart arse put downs with you isn’t it. That’s the behaviour of a person capable of reaching / building consensus and working with others, not.
I’ve highlighted individuals attempting to make a difference many times in the past which is more than you, the one that’s supposedly “soaring above Scottish politics” has ever done.
Other btl commenters have asked similar and noted your silence on such matters.
You spent / wasted a lot of energy and time over the past year on your unproductive dung beetle battles with SGP, but apparently had none available to scrutinise and promote other initiatives that may have helped make some electoral hay from the political quagmire Scotland finds itself in.
Still nowt to say on Alba’s demise? No insight or lessons to be learnt and shared from that? Seems a tad odd when this site had the inside line and provided a platform to so many of its personnel.
No response to this post the other week either…
link to wingsoverscotland.com
@Dan – you haven’t explained why Stu owes this tiny microparty any kind of endorsement, it’s not as if Liberate etc. are close to any kind of breakthrough in the polls. In fact so minuscule is their support, they aren’t event showing. I’d guess that the vast vast majority of Scots aren’t aware of who the party is and that won’t change between now and the 7th of May.
If an endorsement from this site is seen as important, the has anyone from Liberate gone down to Bath to see the site owner in person, to explain the approach and strategy and to try and persuade him to give the party an endorsement or at least some airtime. If not why not?
I don’t think there’s any understanding of the level of work and the constant need for strategy and tactics to deliver a political objective as significant as national independence. The cause needs people who are spending every waking moment campaigning, hitting the national media, fundraising, building alliances across academia/civil society etc. and even then it’s a huge uphill task against a powerful and experienced opponent. A few retirees spending a couple of hours here and there writing posts on other people’s blogs is not going to make any difference at all.
Why are the Unionists here so intolerably kiss-ass to the site host?
Yeah yeah they’ll dissemble and talk boll0x but I read somewhere that because this “independence” site is so anti SNP then it’s like blood in the water for hardcore Unionists to enjoy themselves and weigh in to the harm of what this site used to be about..
C’mon Stu; is that what you want (ultimately) yer legacy to be?
I wouldn’t have thought so but D8gd4le must be laughing her mingin pants off..
C’mon, ignore the spoilers, talk about other independence groups- even if just to annoy the Uni- trolls!
C’mon man, yer not a poster boy for the Better Togethers!
@YL 2.04am
Same old same old from you and the usual suspects then YL? No no actual ideas, no constructive engagement of any sort, just the blanket unreasoning assertion that anyone who disagrees with you is ipso facto a unionist.
Even the owner of the site isn’t immune to the brickbats of the hard of thinking usual suspects who soil BTL comments on this site because he won’t do what they want and hype their micro parties and luxury belief system.
Why it’s almost as if you have absolutely no idea what Rev Stu actually believes or says both here and on X: it’s hardly a secret, nor is his reasoning or logic hard to follow.
Would that the same could be said for you and others in here who do a good line in invective and abusing anyone who disagrees with them (whether unionist or independence supporter), but when it comes to offering any viable alternative come up empty.
Of course it’s all the fault of others, we’re colonised, oppressed, subverted by MI6 or whatever other ridiculous excuse makes you all feel better and justifies the lack of political balls and judgement of the lumpen Scottish electorate and the failure of the independence movement to “get real” and convert the existing majority in favour of independence into any actual progress toward the goal.
What the vast majority of “ordinary” Scots (who you and your clueless muckers in here certainly don’t represent) believe aligns far more with the views of Rev Stu than it does with those espousing their support for the People’s Front of Jockistan, and all the other woo-woo causes that have zero resonance with the voting public.
You don’t speak for the majority of Scots, thank fck, so why don’t you pack up yer wee violin.
Only fool around here is you. The British State is currently in two wars protecting their Hegemony, theft & looting around the globe with its various war crim mates, but don’t worry Scotland, they’ll leave us alone, they’d never play dirty tricks, no Siree! Of course they’ll let the cash cow go on it’s merry way…we just need to vote for it! They won’t infiltrate a movement! – don’t be silly! They’ll wish us well & let us have a referendum…
Said no sane knt, ever..
We already voted for it, bozo. FIVE times. One was even a Triple mandate.
But of course we’re not colonised! That’s ridiculous! See that internal market shite? That Scotland Act wee wrote just for you? Ach, we were just kidding! Also, do you see that massive big oil fund you have & yer very own wee treasury? No? Me neither!!!
If Stu is tired of covering the indy news, from all indy sources, he should say so & then everyone is in no doubt. This place is fast filling up with britnats he wouldn’t tolerate for two minutes on his x account. Especially trolling over fundraising & donations they especially like to mock.
The colonialist tells the natives they’re not colonized. LoL.
“Why are the Unionists here so intolerably kiss-ass to the site host?”
Well, I daresay it’s all relative. Basic courtesies must resemble “kiss ass” when you’ve the grace and manners of a pisshead at a stag party, typing furiously at 3am beside some God forsaken muddy pool.
More to be pitied than scorned, eh.
@Geri – if you believe that your absurd and paranoid ramblings are shared by a majourity of people, or even a substantial minority, in Scotland then why not post them on a respectable social media site like LinkedIn under your own name and see what reaction you get?
Alf,
I know. Whit a dunce!
Maybe we should all club together & buy him a dictionary? Oh hang on, they’re free on the internet! Yay!
Colony – is a territory or group of people under the full or partial political control of a distant “mother country,” often for exploitation.
Colonialism is the practice of a foreign power, typically a state, extending its sovereignty over another territory and its people, resulting in political, economic, and cultural domination. It involves exploiting resources, enforcing foreign culture, and establishing unequal relationships, often driven by capitalist expansion.
Aye, none of that applies to Scotland. No Siree! The dictionary will be wrong. We’re reading the wrong kinda dictionary.
“…no constructive engagement of any sort, just the blanket unreasoning assertion that anyone who disagrees with you is… a unionist.”
There is no constructive engagement to be had with colonialism beyond denouncing it for the criminal enterprise, the scourge on humanity, it really is.
There is no constructive engagement to be had with unionists (colonialists if preferred… same thing)… for they by their nature and beliefs are complicit in the oppression of the Scots.
There is no constructive engagement to be had with evil… only its condemnation wherever it is found.
Arsey,
I don’t need to. A well respected KC has already given his expert, legal opinion. Go look it up.
& The majority already do think Scotland should be an independent country. That’s why the cowards next door won’t grant one ever again. No matter how many times we vote for one. They’re democracy deniers & certainly not for the first time with regards to what Scotland votes for at the ballot box.
Eejits coming on here to tell us how stupid & cowardly we all are cause all we have to do is vote for it – oh & also to let everyone outvote us too – need to change their broken record. We already have, multiple times. Has the eejit forgotten already?
He is obviously to thick to take it in & is preaching we just try, try again. It’s us that are all stupid, not him or the undemocratic pedos squatting rent free in Westminster who’ll never agree or honour the result of a referendum if we even had one & even if the result was 100%.
They’re in the business of looting & Scotland is their guaranteed income right in their own backyard. Heaven forbid Scotland becomes independent, they’d be wanking all night over bogey men coming tae steal their jellied eels & cross the borders intae their shite hole.
“the vast majority of “ordinary” Scots”
If all else fails the colonizer seeks to make the indigenous native a minority in their own land, e.g. Palestine, New Caledonia, Northern Ireland, Scotland…..
AE @ 9.03
Yippee Kate-ae faggat!
You done gotten yourself all written up like a Jack rabbit n spring thar y’all.
And no how dur you speak fur ordinar Scahts you faggat, who just let off on a sermon pastor like anyhows no matter what a Scaht says, and you claims to speak for the vast majority like of Scahts!?!
Snake oil salesman, that what my granpappy would have called you after filling your ass with two barrel loads a buckshot.
You don’t know nuffin, so quit yer hollering about speaking for those who do y’all.
He’s just projecting again…
“but when it comes to offering any viable alternative come up empty.”
People have came up with alternative methods. You just don’t like them. There’s the difference.
Yer such a narcissist you think it’s your way or the highway. Piss off. You don’t speak for Scots & in your tiny wee circle doesn’t count for the majority. You were rejected, remember? No wonder if you were involved. You are a bad actor & strike me as a petulant spoiler.
In fact, the alternatives have even taken the fight external which is where Indy should have remained/went from the very start of this process. Arguing with yoons in a “domestic setting” is pissing in the wind & so is domestic elections. No one in Westminster cares & that’s how it would remain. It suits them just fine. Just as they’ve strung along a two state solution for over 70 yrs. They’ll just string indy along too. Stop crying yer not getting a seat in the branch office.
I also came up with a valid alternative. Westminster is the only recognised seat of power. Indy should throw everything at winning seats in Westminster & then call a referendum & walk out. Refuse to take the seats & the franchise changed immediately. ONLY SCOTS CAN VOTE ON THEIR OWN CONSTITUTION. Blow-ins 15 years+. That’s exactly the same franchise as what Brexshit was.
As for M15/6 Aye, I hear they’re just a book club & a wee sewing bee. According tae Roof the mooth they raise great donations fae raffles & fêtes. They don’t do anything shady at all. In fact, I’m left wondering why we even have them at all?!
“Arguing with yoons in a “domestic setting” is pissing in the wind & so is domestic elections.”
Forgot to add, this was why they could break rules on Purdah during the last indyref. Changing the rules during the final weeks to throw in Super Devo max & the vow. Who could Scotland complain to? The very bastards we were trying to get away from. A domestic setting – their playpen. As per, no one held to account. No wrongdoing found even tho it was bloody obvious to everyone & it was splashed all over the front page of the daily rancid.
In an ideal world holyrood should be pro indy but it’s a branch office. To win Indy with any hopes of fairness, impartiality, conduct a fair referendum & to actually implement the result this needs the awareness of the international community you keep holding in such high regard.
Something you’d favour – no? So it strikes me yer just pissed someone else is actually doing it & seeking out legal opinion & yer not there to nosepoke & derail proceedings or throw around yer usual tirade of Jockistan, natavist, Brigadoon howler insults to embarrass everyone when you don’t get to dictate to everyone there.
Geri
Pastor Faggat was rejected?
Gaun!
Spread the news!
It’ll help ignoring/ putting in context Pastor Faggats sermons in future..
He said he was one of the co-founders of Alba.
Well Geri
If Pastor Faggat was one of the founding fathers then he’s certainly developed a disturbing hate complex of independence supporters eh?!
As Kenny Everett once parodied “Brotherlee, brotherlee, brotherlee love”..
Just needs the big pointy hands..
Yesterdays Pastor; I reckon that explains it..
Move over Pastor Faggat, you’ve had yer chance and fluffed it..
@Geri passim
You’re deluded enough to think that the opinion of one KC is somehow conclusive or some slam dunk argument that will propel us to the sunny uplands of independence without the need for any pesky details like actually demonstrating a vote in favour of independence.
Flag shaggers are all alike: they prefer unicorns and rainbows to actually doing the hard yards. Far easier to believe in magic bullets and short cuts to independence that only fringe nutters believe in: it provides a ready made excuse to blame external forces rather than face facts.
Sadly for what passes for your argument I DO actually represent mainstream opinion. You and the other moonhowlers don’t.
If you did, you’d be able to point to the upsurge in support for your position, the money your cause was raising, and the expectation of an electoral breakthrough in May.
Nobody sane believes there’s any prospect of your micro-parties and luxury belief systems will garner any support in the upcoming elections. We’ve just seen Alba fall apart in disarray: if they couldn’t do it, there’s SFA chance of Liberate Scotland Brigadoon Alliance making any headway.
Oh, and your ADHD obviously means you have a short attention span and/or reading difficulties: I was a founder member of Alba as I joined on the first day memberships opened. I never claimed to be a co-founder, that’s just more BS you’ve made up. Same old, same old as previously observed. You lot just can’t help yourselves. Lying and misdirection are all you have when you don’t have any coherent programme or platform
No wonder the cause is stuck in a cul-de-sac with low lives like you giving it a bad name.
“You’re deluded enough to think that the opinion of one KC is somehow conclusive or some slam dunk argument that will propel us to the sunny uplands of independence without the need for any pesky details like actually demonstrating a vote in favour of independence.”
Actually, isn’t it TWO legal experts opinions now? Didn’t Alex commission one of his own for Alba? I’m pretty sure he did & I’m also pretty sure Neil Harvey & Angus MacNeil did too during their time at Westminster.
I never said it would propel us to Independence. It’s a START tho eh? & isn’t it wise to establish the playing field beforehand before you start banging yer wee drum for a seat at ANY election on shit you may not even be able to deliver?
Only a fucking zoomer, such as yersel, would stick to the same bullshit we’ve just had for the last twelve yrs, ie, jump on the gravy train, destination nowhere, collect mandates, drum up support & just talk endlessly about independence one day, sometime soon – only to fold like a cheap suit when Westminster tells you to fuck off. Rinse, repeat.
You don’t even know what the support is already. It doesn’t have a credible vehicle & it’s no wonder people are scunnered. SNP trashed it’s way through multiple mandates & you want to repeat that same shite? Clearly you are not an indy supporter. You support delay & everything just right according to your acceptable conditions. Just look at how you talk to other indy supporters like yer some sort of fucking know all & other people are beneath you.
Independence is a collective. Everyone brings something. It’s not your private club.
As for Alba. You gave the impression you were a co founder. ORDINARY people would just describe themselves as one of amongst the first members. Not a founder FFS. But that’s you all over isn’t it? Elevating yer status above everyone else to make yersel sound more lofty. You should fuck off back to England & take yer exceptionalism shite with you.
You don’t represent mainstream opinion either. Yer a coloniser supporting Colonialism around the globe. You support Scots being outvoted from their own lands by blow-ins & atitudes have changed over EU membership since they went batshit, warhawking totalitarian fcwits & started assassinating opposition & using bused in rent-a-mob activists waving wee EU flags. NATO isn’t getting a good rap either with it’s surveillance missions to mow down weans.
You’d be one of those Muppets that’d love to tag on all of the above & every fucking lost cause to a vote for Scottish Independence. Zzzzzz sit down. We’ll take no lectures from you.
Why is it “Alliance to Liberate Scotland Party” when the Wales Nationalist party is Plaid Cymru?
Eh?
Wales belongs to England.
Scotland is a country. Scotland is in a Union with England. Not with Wales or NI.
Why is the name in English and not Scots?
“Why is the name in English and not Scots?”
Alliance tae Leeberate Scotland Pairty.
Thair, sortit!
AX
Because we have been forcibly indoctrinated by persons “historical” such as yerself with agendas..
Who?
1. Royalty
2. Protestant church
3. A “pit-upon” mercantile class that was keen to be assimilated in order to be removed from disenfranchisement by a bigger bullying piratical neighbour..
Is it really SO hard to understand?
Take a deep breath, step back, open yer eyes and actually look as opposed to just seeing and repeating unconsidered “received wisdom” swallowed whole without chewing..
You’re welcome.
Here’s my idea: Non-voters are counted on the list just as political parties are and each time non-voters win a list politician is removed.
@Geri 7:45pm
So I have ruined the Independence movement. The fact that I was defrauded twice is not relevant. Perhaps stupid people are getting fed up with the carrots and lies.
George,
That is unfortunate but it shouldn’t be held against everyone else. There are individuals I’d think twice about now.
Let me also correct my post. I should’ve said *attitudes like that have ruined the Yes movement.
I’m sick of the carrots too but I’m even more sick of the temper tantrums. The ‘I’m not speaking (at an event) if he/she is speaking” or “I’m not sharing a stage with X,Y or Z cause they annoyed me twenty yrs ago” sorts. It’s petty & will get us nowhere.
Eyes on the prize. The Yes movement is a collective. Not personalities.
Who knows, it may even be someone we can’t stand who may end up being the rabid dug we’re needing. Nicely, nice certainly hasn’t worked.
There is quite a lot of comment saying that support for the Greens is generational where the majority of their support comes from Gen Z.
It will be interesting to see how much support the Greens actually get despite what polls say now. I suspect that Gen Z isn’t as daft as what others try to paint them out to be.
For those of the Gen Z that are naive enough to go out and vote for them, they need to find out the hard way as mentioned previously by Lorncal
Gen Z
Aptly named the zoomers.
If it’s not on social media it didn’t happen/isnae real..lol
I’m not so sure about that. A lot of these Gen Z are quiet quitting, to use their patter, social media and actually getting a life.
This impression we get of Gen Z is just another manipulation of the powers that be who both want to sow generational division but also to push agendas where they amplify the online voices of a vocal tiny minority. This is obvious to see with the Trans issue.
I want a clean conscience after the 7th of May. When the whole shit house comes burning down I will say:
“It wiz nothin tae dae wi me.”
Beggars!
But of course it has everything to do with you!
I presume you utilised yer vote, so, it’s got something to do with you.
Assessing your probable age and political leanings based on yer many random posts here then you are a dyed in the wool Unionist Tory, happy clapper for Maggie and her lunatic industrial and deregulation policies, cooried doon into a submissive poise for the so called “special relationship” with Uncle Sam, divided the so called “United” Kingdom, destroyed social housing, made greed “good”, authorised state sponsored murder in post colonial “conflicts” (couldn’t even bring herself to honour it with the title “war”), sold off nationalised industries for short term individual greed.
Then there’s dodgy Dave; conman and gambler extraordinaire, authorised plebiscites with new age dirty fear tricks leading to the eventual rise of the Boris, who Im pretty sure you voted for too, and played the racist card for personal gain, them and those social mentality and above all fiscal and political buffoonery on an international stage/ level..
Farage/ BNP/ EDF/ UKIP; all now branded Reform for little England Alf Garnetts hiding their racist imperialist views behind common sense anti woke views while nonetheless strutting down the street in brown shirts and flabby bellied skin heads extolling Engerlund Uber Alles..
Yup the parties at Holyrood are a farce, (no argument there) but most of them are effectively English parties, the SNP has been nobbled one way or the other while the Khmer Vert are a mouthpiece for trendy (ie 10 year old failed US crap) student politics and a libertine degenerate slide in society lacking personal accountability and sense of duty to any other than themselves.
In an era when conscription is being addressed again (not a fan personally as it dilutes ability) and the younger generations openly brandish their unwillingness to do anything for the state that looked after them then I have to say, out there as he was, Robert E Heinlein had a point;
“No service (it comes in various forms after all) then NO VOTE”!
Want the creds, do the service. The Swiss model would do an independent Scotland just fine..
Well said Young Lochinvar you are a seer who has described the beggar admirably
@Mark Beggan @9:09pm
It was nothing to dae with me either. Self made situation for the Independence movement. We are going to to get a lot of bairns in the Scottish Parliament. Don’t look out for betterment for the Scottish People. It won’t happen. The betterment comes from people looking after themselves. Look outwith the Scottish Parliament for a solution. Half my family have emigrated the other half disengage from the Scottish Parliament. And despite the Scottish Parliament labelling them home schooled children they are actually home educated. A subtle difference beyond their understanding.
George Ferguson @ 7.22pm
I can well understand why people are so tired and jaded with the independence movement, especially with SNP inaction and the slow demise of Alba.
But I do think that, as Geri and Alf have pointed out, ATLS is something very different and takes some new thinking. The whole point is to focus solely on independence with the support that being known to the UN decolonisation/self-determination committee brings. They’re putting their differences aside to focus on getting independence and should be respected for doing that.
Well argued, MaryB.
Is there a way where the voters could choose the order of the regional list candidates rather than the parties? It would make the ballot paper long and complex but how about listing all of the regional list candidates and electing on the basis of a single transferrable vote? The electorate could then vote ’til they boke. It would also mean that people could chose candidates from more than one party or none in their ranking. Counting would take an age but democracy could benefit. Does anyone have a better idea to improve on the current sham of a democracy?
A better way? How about choosing 129 people at random to be Holyrood MSPs?
We could do it by a national lottery.
Imagine–no elections, no money spent on campaigning, and you’d get a perfectly representative sample of the people. Which is what “democracy” is supposed to produce.
Would some knuckleheads get chosen? Sure. How would that be different from what Scotland has now?
And they’d be limited to one four-year term. Being in office so few years, nobody much would bother to bribe them. It just wouldn’t be worth it.
Colin Dawson @ 22.21.
This is what occurs, I believe, in Denmark and Italy (happy to be corrected if in error) where an “Open List” variant of D’Hondt is practised. (Although not a single transferable vote as you suggest).
In the Open List ystem, as I understand it, the List is published by the Party and the voter then votes for the candidate they prefer. Candidates with the most individual votes get the seats availble.
Squid Yes!
Jame Kelly, is trying to make him self interesting again with another attack on the same Indy bloggers.
Here’s thing, he doesn’t allow anyone on his site to argue the opposite side of the bull he spouts out and everyone on his site is anonymous, so how do we even know if the post are genuine. Its more likely he’s posting these post and talking to himself.
One gets the impression he does it to obtain work from The National!
Gordon Ross the Youtuber and running for Holyrood for ATLS, said that a opinion poll had been conducted and 40% would say who they where going to vote for, which got me thinking that 40% was a very high number and was this because they were going to vote reform.
Now if this is correct surely this will have a real prospect of the SNP being know where near winning the election.
Obviously this view wasn’t Mr Ross, its entirely me.
I see Sturgeon still doesn’t know when to keep her gub shut:
link to archive.is
Bloody bitch that she is.
Sadly the dead can’t defend themselves against that kind of onslaught but what a clever , manipulative way to continue discrediting Alex Salmond and exonerate herself .
Bloody bitch!
Salmond bequeathed us a sparkling oasis. Sturgeon left us a foetid swamp. Swinney is key-holder of the toxic taphouse.
If ‘the government of Scotland’ was in any way competent, with an excellent education system, an honest judiciary, hard-working civil servants, low local and stealth taxes, less red tape for industry and an efficient health sector, less government powerand less central office party control, 85% of the people would see that independence could work.
There is barely a single department in either Holyrood or the District Councils that is healthy and operational. There is barely an MSP that could tie his/her own shoelaces unaided.
What we are seeing is colonial governance, and colonialism never works for the benefit of the colonized.
The exact same could be said of Westminster & they’re the ones with the powers & keys to the treasury.
Holyrood is an administration with limited powers & some pocket money back from its own money.
wally jumblatt @ 07.49.
A bit like the period from 2007-2014, Wally, when a certain Mr Salmond steered our ship of state so adroitly that a never to be repeated (my personal view) independence referendum came within an ace of achieving the separation of Scotland from England/Wales & Northern Ireland.
“The real battle for a people’s liberty is fought in the mind with words… not in the mud with swords.” – attributed to Nelson Mandela.
Anyone who thinks the liberty of the Scots, a people oppressed by another people for over three centuries, plays second fiddle to anything else, anything else at all, doesn’t understand the existential predicament of the Scots.
Not a single thing that is wrong with Scotland’s colonised society can be fixed while that society remains an exploited possession of England and its people counted as no more than their oppressors chattel; a people threatened with extinction when their usefulness to England’s plundering of their nation expires.
It’s beyond stupid to believe that the Scots have a genuine democratic voice while their country is considered by England as no more than its annexed territory, its property to do with as it wills.
Talk of ‘policies’ by political parties operating in Scotland – parties that represent all things English – is just that… nothing but chatter, and dishonest chatter at that.
Almost every political party operating in Scotland represents either its own weird, strange and narrow self-interests or the interests of the foreign power that is stealing Scotland’s wealth and killing her people’s future.
Granted that if the Scots voted for the Alliance to Liberate Scotland party en masse their desire to reclaim their sovereignty as a people and their nation’s independence would be unequivocally made clear… but to believe that at that moment England would just shrug its shoulders and allow the Scots to walk away with a friendly wave and fond cries of “good luck” and “all the best for your independent future” is a childish dream.
It’s a childish dream because at that point the Scots would quickly discover just how vicious their ‘partner in union’ and close neighbour really is and the despicable tactics it would employ to keep its colonised golden goose held tight.
No, when the Scots eventually, and they will, state their desire openly and clearly and in great numbers using some internationally recognised democratic mechanism… that’s when England’s mask of ‘friendship’ will fall away and its true relationship with Scotland (that of master and illegally indentured involuntary servant) made clear for the world to see.
Kate Nevens did not call for the “complete abolition of prisons”. Her point was rather more nuanced and perfectly reasonable. Prison doesn’t work. If it did, there would be no prisons. Recidivism is rife. It’s not just that we send too many people to prison, but we are sending people to prison too often. People go to prison, get out, reoffend, and go back to prison. It’s like a very expensive treadmill going round and round and never getting anywhere.
What Kate Nevens was saying is that policy should be informed by a long-term goal of abolishing prisons to divert spending to more rehabilitative methods.
It is unlikely that it will ever be possible to abolish prisons completely. But if we don’t set that as the target, we’ll never get off that treadmill.
How much petty and/or violent crime is there in, say, Dubai – where punishments are dire by our standards and they have loads of prisons?
They don’t have knifings, “moped gangs”, shoplifting, car thefts. It’s almost as though EFFECTIVE deterrents work, and we literally have empirical examples of this, if we have eyes to see with.
Reality > ideology, naivety and wishful, wet behind the ears thinking.
Every time.
Have you thought of bombing them tae fck? A spot of regime change perhaps for being evil dictators?
They don’t have “effective deterrents” They have a closed court, no jury, no lawyer, no evidence presented. Not even remotely similar to ours.
This country jails ppl for stupid crimes like TV licence or not paying parking fines & lets the psychopaths & killers out on licence. Stop sending ppl to jail for stupid stuff & then they won’t be overcrowded…durrrr!
Another imbecilic non-answer from “Geri”.
Who is talking about “bombing ppl to fck” (apart from you, natch). The point – you amoeba-brained cretin – is that prisons do, in fact “work” (i.e. prevent law-abiding citizens suffering petty crimes like theft, or more serious crimes involving violence etc.), when incorporated into an integrated crime prevention system and strategy as is clearly evidenced by Dubai, the example literally provided.
That being the case, any notion that we should be binning off prisons, or any assertion that they “don’t work”, is self-evidently empirically disproven.
Look, I realise this is all above your paygrade. Stick to abusive trolling.
“This country jails ppl”
You’ll have to enlighten me where “this country” is for you, “Geri”, given that you don’t live in the UK?
Thanks!
*Special*
Captain Caveman Interview – undertaken without an internet connected device.
Interviewer; Wilma Flintstone, welcome.
Captain Caveman; Mate, where’s moi phohne?
I; That’s the point, we want to see the person behind the AI search cut and paste posts.
CC; Aw maate! That’s not fair! I’m a captain of industry!
I; So Wilma, how much manual labour have you undertaken in your life.
CC; 2 weeks maaate when Oi was a skinny little runt, hee hee, couldn’t even work a power operated fly press bending thin gauge metal for ducting!
I; anything else Wilma?
CC; Week 2 was spent insoolatin’ the ducts wiv minerul wool, know wot Oi mean. Used my head to pack it in for a laff, hee hee, see, I was drunk as a skunk at the time, know wot Oi mean, hee hee LOLZ! What am Oi like eh maaate?
I; what else did you do Wilma as that clearly working out?
CC; Maaaate! Swindon born and bred and proud of it, swhy I got pride tattooed across my forehead and in nice bright colours like, know wot Oi mean.
Nah, that wos too much loik ard work so Oi went to the Railways where they all sleep. Oi slept on the drawring board, cos I wis plastered, and that’s wot people in Swindon do as it is soooo boring know wot Oi mean, LOLZ! Wot am Oi loik eh!
I; so Wilma, what’s your ideal start to the day?
CC; Oi mastoorbate like on public transport, know wot Oi mean, sets me up fur the day and a full English done in beef dripping- yeah, a second on the tongue – a lifetime on your bum! What am Oi like eh! LOLZ! Yeah, you take the girl out of Swindon but you can’t take Swindon out of the girl! At least that’s wot my mum used to say anyway maaaaate..
I; Your political career has been a bit bumpy?
CC; Maaaaaate, I can’t answer that wivout moi phohne so that Nigel can tell me what to say about failing to get selected for a low grade Reform gig. Know wot Oi mean. I think it was somefin to do when I used an election speech to tell Reform voters “Oi will be your niggah on the triggah maaaaaates!”. They never got that one, pretty obvious to me it wos about the boat crossings mixed wiv Paul Hardcastles 19, Oi thought it was funny but Oi was drunk as a skunk at the time know wot I mean so just told them “Oi am conseederably richer than yow!” What am Oi like! LOLZ maaaaaaaate!!
…. Jeezo.
Maybe lay off the meths, Rambo.
In fact, I believe she did call for the complete abolition of prisons, I think she actually used those very words. It was neither nuanced nor perfectly reasonable, nor is your post.
You have an odd definition of “working” which appears to be that unless prisons are totally effective at eliminating all crime 100% of the time then they don’t work at all. That is not an appropriate standard to judge the effectiveness of prisons or any other criminal justice intervention. Would you apply the same standard to community sentences? Far more community sentences are given out and yet crime continues to be a problem, perhaps we should stop using community sentences as well then and not impose any form of criminal punishment.
It’s fundamentally a ridiculous point, there are clearly problems in the prison service and there are always ways to improve and also we should consider what offenders are sent to prison and for how long. However, prison will always be a vital part of any effective justice system which punishes crime, protects the public and rehabilitates offenders. Even if we take away the strong deterrence effect that prison provides, it becomes extremely difficult to enforce compliance with a community order if there is no possibility of a much more serious consequence (e.g. the deprivation of liberty) as a result of not complying.
Alongside that, from a moral perspective do you really think it would be acceptable for offenders who commit really serious crimes like rape and murder to walk out of court after conviction with an unpaid work requirement?
Jesus wept. Humpty & Dumpty out again.
Distract, divert, derail. Rinse and repeat.
Why doesn’t Sarah start a fundraiser to have this abusive nut job “James” sent to North Rona for three months? At least that might actually achieve something.
We see you, Yoon.
Not exactly sure whats to nitpick regards Cllr Williams statement as it seems to make perfect sense, and sum up tribalist party politics, especially at local level.
List MSPs though, have they ever justified their existence…will we see the likes of Murdo and Annie Wells saunter back into Holyrood laughing their heads off at our attempts to reject them?
FPTP or PR…Scotland make up your mind, both dont work.
Andy Ellis says:
12 April, 2026 at 9:58 am
“@Geri passim
Flag shaggers are all alike”
==========
Isn’t the same true of cliché mongers?
At a glance I see:
“somehow conclusive”, “slam dunk”, “sunny uplands, “pesky details“, “unicorns and rainbows “, ”doing the hard yards” ,“magic bullets”, “fringe nutters”, “a ready made excuse “, “face facts”, “mainstream opinion”, “moonhowlers “, “ Nobody sane “, “SFA chance “, “ Brigadoon Alliance “, “ any headway “, “ short attention span “,“ Same old, same old “, “ as previously observed “, “ You lot “.
I see old favourites of Keith Starmer, Wee Ginger Dug, Kevin McKenna and Peter Bell and others recycled here.
But the best is the last: “No wonder the cause is stuck in a cul-de-sac with low lives like you giving it a bad name.”
Is that 5, 6 or 7 clichés in the one sentence?
Warmongering unionist agent; “…I DO actually represent mainstream opinion…”
Big LOLZ.
Distract, divide, derail. Rinse & repeat.
Update to my earlier post of 9 April 5.34 PM regarding the lack of information on forthcoming election candidates on the Who Can I vote For website (especially first time candidates).
There was virtually nothing there when I checked candidates in my area around 23 March . Information including links to social media do appear now . Have to say (from my local snapshot) I can see why some might want to keep a lid on it as long as possible.