Orthodox Pete
As all alert Wings readers will know, we love a “1984” quote. Here’s one:
So with that in mind, let’s have some fun and talk about Pete Wishart again.
One of the most spectacularly entertaining screeching 180-degree U-turns in Scottish political history was when the Honourable Member for Perth and North Perthshire suddenly abandoned literally years of spittle-flecked ranting about how a plebiscite election (as proposed by Wings in 2020) was the worst, most insane idea in the history of the world and decided – after Nicola Sturgeon took it up – that instead it was the only possible way forward for the independence movement.
So we’re delighted to note today that Pension Pete’s had another epiphany.
A couple of months ago, Wings put forward a new strategy for independence.
It was adopted by SNP leadership contender Ash Regan, but Wishart and most of the party payroll instead threw their weight behind the hapless “continuity candidate” Humza Yousaf, who ran on a platform of being fully committed to a “social liberal agenda” but having no plan for independence at all.
(And as far as we can tell he still doesn’t. Whenever he or his supporters talk about his “priorities”, it never gets a look-in.)
Wishart was very clear that Regan couldn’t be credible, and clear about why:
So imagine our surprise when we read this morning’s National.
That’s… that’s literally the EXACT plan we came up with in February, that Ash Regan adopted, and about which Pete said it couldn’t work because Ash had an article republished on Wings and that meant she wasn’t credible because we’re so incredibly vile as to be “the biggest threat to our independence”.
(Despite having asserted as recently as January that “a de facto referendum needs to be a UK election, not a Holyrood one” – primarily because Wings was calling for the latter option while the SNP leadership was briefing heavily against it – Wishart now firmly believes that either will do.)
We must admit, we’re tempted to come up with a properly batshit mad idea now and just see how long it takes for Pete to think of it all by himself. We’ve got some pretty creative thoughts about what two plus two might be, for example. But for now we’ll simply issue a hearty “welcome aboard!”, and remind readers that Wishart was once briefly a Big Country member.
You do remember, don’t you?
This describes Pete the wishy washy guy he is.
Have debated (tried to ) with him at constituency meetings before I resigned from SNP.
He always had opposing views to members with independence in mind.
He has always been the Pete for pension guy.
The saving grace is he won’t regain his seat at next election.
Devolution has eroded the ethos of SNP. A modern Scottish Reformation is needed, based on full autonomy. New blood must prevail.
But but but – no he hasn’t!
He’s not saying a vote for indy parties but only votes for the SNP. And he probably knows fine that the SNP will never now get 50%+ of any vote.
Mair faces than the toon clock.
Blimey.
What about a Wings post suggesting that the landed gentry in Scotland be strung up by the balls and the Sutherland statue semtexed into dust?
Hopefully he’ll parrot that and be inside Barlinnie within a week or so.
Apparently:
In a big country dreams stay with you
Like a lover’s voice fires the mountainside
Stay alive
was Petes his greatest lyric..
It has all the necessary components for an Indy policy right there.
Dreams – check
Mountians – check
Stay alive – check.
It’s simply prophetic. Oh, and the 2+2 = 5 thing too…
As someone who surreptitiously follows Slippers, mainly for comedy value, this article has made my day!
His days of lording it from within the enclaves of the establishment are coming to an end and he knows it, thus making him more ridiculous. His lack of self awareness is halarious.
Delicious.
Thanks again…..I needed a laugh.
It’s amazing how the thought of losing their large UK MP salary, plus expenses, can change a politician’s rhetoric.
But, don’t be fooled. Don’t vote for the treacherous colonial administrator SNP.
Recent poor poll figures for the SNP are having an effect.
Of course there is a subtle difference between the two whereby pension Pete’s ‘plan’demands a 50+1% vote for the SNP rather than the more rational 50+1% for indy parties.
Not so much Big Country as a Big C..t now.
Like the rest of the troughers he has no interest in Independence. He knows he has crossed the golden Pension point so another few years of waffle will add a little bonus.
His Tory pals will reward him with a few contacts to top up the pension income.
The Ponzi scheme has served them well. The TransCult have had their slice of the Public Funds and the loopy Green tail have won their way into wagging the SNP dog.
Sadly it will continue for years to come. The Indy Movement is now deeply divided by the Wheesht for Indy tribe and the take it slow, be kind troughers.
Keep doing the good work Stu. We need to pull it down no matter how painful. We were never going to get Independence under the SNP.
From now on I will vote Alba, ISP or spoil my paper.
He has probably accepted he’s on the way out
And wants to leave wrapped in radical intentions
Radical intentions he would never have allowed to interfere with his pensionpot over the last two decades
“How many fingers am I holding up Winston”
As others above have mentioned, I agree, this is simply more carrot dangling from the SNP.
SNP get more than 50% rather than all of the indy parties?
I think he’s seen polling that loses him his seat.
Lord Wishart of Turncoatery reminds me of a customer of mine who made the famous “Applied Sweeper” green machine. The chief engineer would reject every technical improvement I ever suggested and one day after showing him another good idea he said “there is only one thing wrong with this, I didn’t think of it”. He’d ‘invent’ each idea six months later.
A total fraud. Someone that believes in Scottish Independence should run against him in the next general election.
He’s obviously scared of Alba. So he’s adopting Alba, Wings and Ash Regan policies.
The guy is a charlatan. Hopefully we can split his vote and end his pension.
Then we can leave him down in London.
Does he have any friends? His parliamentary colleagues are pretty scathing about him in private and his services were most definitely not required at the Runrig farewell concert.
Still, he’ll carry on at what he does best: writing tedious blogs (sometimes incorporating others’ ideas in the process); delivering tedious speeches; playing stylophone in MP4 with his Yoon mates; getting selfies at every opportunity; preposterously placing himself at the epicentre of every key political decision since the 80s; and continuing to be a witless, obnoxious arsehole on Twitter
This is Pete seeing the polls, realise he’ll lose his comfy slippers under the green benches, so we NOW need to vote in SNP, note not ANY indy party, to achieve indy.
Pete shove your proposal where the sun don’t shine
There are quite a few other SNP MPs I hope are going to fall off the gravy train come the next election. There are some I’ve never even heard of, so stellar has their performance been at Westminster eg Fulton Macgregor and Marion Fellows from the previous article. ( There are others I couldn’t name either, only occasionally spotted as anonymous faces on the SNP benches. They’re just voting fodder.)
Frankly, the front benchers are all duds too. At one time I had great hopes for Mhairi Black but what a huge thudding disappointment she turned out to be.
The SNP. Stealing Alba Party ideas.
If only they picked Ash Regan. And Robin MaCalpine’s brains, that guy Kirk Torrance the campaign manager.
And Alba. Where all the brains are for Independence.
The Alba Party are leading the All Under one Banner march. With Ash Regan, Kate Forbes, Joanna Cherry. Left wing, right wing, socialists, conservatives. The whole shabang under one banner. For Independence.
Pete hates the Alba Party because he’s not fit to lace Alex Salmond’s boots.
Pete makes me sick. He’s on his jolly with the Butcher’s apron in New York to ensure tartan is British. With the British whiskey.
He wants to kiss Charles toes. That’s what he wants. He’s unable to think for himself. No wonder he’s stealing ideas.
An imposter. A carrot dangler. Where’s the 600K? Where is it? Where have you lot hidden it?
Lie down with dogs. Get bitten by fleas.
The way he’s phrased though is explicitly for the SNP, not “independence parties” so I suspect it is an attempt to prevent indy supporters voting for Alba (or the ISP).
There’s nothing like a looming general election to focus the minds of troughing MPs.
Pete has woken up to the fact that if the SNP continue to avoid pursuing indy, there’s no reason for indy supporters to vote for them any more. Eek.
That lovely, expensive green leather really does emphasise the bum squeaks, doesn’t it.
The guy is a lush without a shred of morality.
His adoration of the feigning and fawning Palace of Westminster sham they call a democracy is offensive. He lushes up on his parliamentary pay and perks whilst his country gets absolutely pillaged.
But Scotland is not this guys country. It is but his toilet that gave him a slot toadying for his English masters. No wonder he wanted to be the Speaker of the House because he certainly aint no speaker on behalf of Scotland.
But all of the SNP members in that parliament are the same. They’ve taken the coin and become part of a group of somnolent sell outs. Many, although not all, would be hard pressed to get as well a paid job elsewhere. Hopefully the few might actually do something.
And meanwhile Food Aid is distributed in Scotland, heat centres are made available, the NHS falls into a chronic state of under resourcing, whilst the standard of living plummets as the big energy companies make hundreds of billions of corporate profit.
And, if you thought the SNP were committed to fairness, support, folks should listen to Mhairi Black when she was recently interviewed by Robert Peston, and said that there needed to be hard conversations about the continuance of free bus passes and prescriptions.
No doubt like the labour party, and let us not dismiss the fact that Sturgeon before she resigned, admitted that the NHS in Scotland were looking at introducing charges for treatment.
Yeh folks, life under the Tories and their lap dog SNP neo cons is going o get a lot tougher. But at least folks like Mhairi Black and Pete Wishart are well remunerated to withstand the cold bitter winds of reduced living standards
Does anyone remember what a principle is? Were they not those things that made life kinda straightforward?
Had Wishart defended this position BEFORE the coronation of Humza Useless as FM and BEFORE the senior SNP executive arrests started, he would have had some credibility.
But now, at a point where Labour is already overtaking the SNP in some polls, even when only the tip of the shitberg the political fraud Sturgeon has left behind has been exposed so far, the prospect of the SNP winning an absolute majority of the seats at the next GE, never mind a majority of the vote, is, to keep it polite, whisful thinking.
His comment is very clear: he only support this if a majority of the vote is given to the SNP. Not to anti-union parties with similar manifesto, but specifically to the SNP.
Reading in between the lines of his comment, it is beyond obvious his only interest is to boost the vote for the SNP. Independence is the last thought in his mind. Because it was the first, giving the situation the SNP has placed itself in, he would talk about a majority of the vote towards anti-union parties, not the SNP. But he is very careful not to do that.
In other words, this self-serving hypocrite is worried about losing the green seat he has been heating, because, quite frankly, other than heating it, for the last 8 years he has done nothing else worthwhile with it.
If there is something that will define for posterity the Sturgeon and post-Sturgeon SNP era it has to be the grotesque levels of deception, self-servitude, dishonesty and consistent backing for continuity in Scotland of full blown colonialism through allowing the crown to steal even more power from the people of Scotland, the con of devolution and the illusion of autonomy and progress. In other words, at all practical effects, Sturgeon’s SNP is Blair’s corrupt labour hiding this time under a different rosette.
I sincerely hope Wishart, and mpst of his SNP MPs and other gravy train riders, lose the seats.
Say what you like. The man is a political genius. For instance, his great idea from a few years back that Scottish football whistlers should be made to declare which team they support. So clever. That would still have left two referees eligible to officiate at Old Firm matches.
Pete Wishart has to be up there leading the pack with others within the SNP who seem to have a very short memory span, the complete inability to read the room, nor the means to create their own informed opinions.
Whatever the root cause of such a condition it appears endemic to a large number of SNP MPs, MSPs and those within their close circles.
Perhaps a career in politics was a poor choice for many of them as very few appear intellectually capable nor willingly demonstrate any strengths they may have – other than frequently creating a stink on social-media, an exertion of effort that they themselves class as “engaging with the public”, which is not exactly a skill in itself.
We all know why those people ultimately sought a career in politics, while it may have started out as seeking independence for our country it has evolved into being about the easy money, the gravy-bus and business class seats on a plane instead of having to slum it with regular people they are supposed to be representing.
They see themselves as above the rest of us, a different class of people, and while that might be true to a certain extent given the largesse of their salaries & expenses – all paid for by our taxes, they would be absolute nobodies if they weren’t content burning up our taxes and returning nothing of any value to us.
The SNP are making it very easy for people in Scotland to become comedy writers.
You can basically just read out the news and call it comedy.
link to youtube.com
or you could follow Pete Wishart on Twitter and hey presto you’ve got comedy gold
link to youtube.com
“Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.” [Groucho Marx].
Aye,I remember. He still is.
How about ‘nobody can own more than 1,000 acres unless their primary tax address is in Scotland’
Restricting land ownership to residents is an eminently sensible policy adopted by many real countries that aren’t tax havens and delightfully, entirely within the competence of the Scottish Parliament.
They could even make a special exemption for Balmoral if they wanted.
An amusing enough diversion for a Friday afternoon… but so what? What do you expect from any politician of any shade or grade but disingenuous doublespeak? – Here’s a wee song for Pete to chunter out tonight at the karaoke (aptly; empty orchestra) – with suitable subtle adaptation…
“The self-preservation society,
This is the self-preservation society
Jump in the camper van gonna get straight
(Babadab-babadabadab-bab-ba)
Hurry up mate, gonna be late
How’s your father?
Tickety boo, tickety boo
England
England
Babadab-babadabadab-bab-ba…
England
England
England”
And for the record; I don’t really imagine anyone takes this wee bubble too seriously; at least, nobody that doesn’t live in a bubble themselves.
It is not a plan for independence. When the UK government refuses to negotiate, and no one recognises a UDI, what do you do? You have no answer because it is pie in the sky nonsense, cynically designed to keep the gravy trains (Wings, Alba, SNP, AUOB etc) going.
“It is not a plan for independence. When the UK government refuses to negotiate, and no one recognises a UDI, what do you do?”
Maybe try reading some of the linked articles.
“The Record understands the police warrant in the case is over 100 pages long.”
link to twitter.com
Baloney and yet more baloney.
So hold a General Election and suppose 50 of the candidates support “independence”. Then where are we? Why, just where we are now.
Does that not just sound wee bit like a quote from Alice in Wonderland?
Recent history has shown us that independence needs active help, whether civil disobedience, guns and barricades or a quick coup. From Ireland to India, from Cuba to Kosovo, it was action and not words that brought the change. (Does anyone think that UK colonies became independent after WW2 without a hard, secret, shove from the USA?)
Action is required and not in the dim and distant, but now.
What a verminous, lickspittle, morality vacuum he is.
“Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others…”
Certain quotes fit some people almost perfectly.
It takes a certain kind of person to achieve such high-level brass-neckary.
Adjectives which spring to mind would be:
Self-serving – check
Shamelessness – check
Brazenness – check
A total dick – check
If nothing else a World Class Chancer!
Have noticed a trend in the SNP: go for things that have no chance. Not saying that a plebiscitary election and independence have no chance, but, as other commentators have stated, he means we should all vote for the SNP, rather than across the board for all indy parties. Now, a federal would make sense, but he just cannot bring himself to go all the way, but remains coy and anal about all the other parties that, with a loose alliance, could get us over the line
Many will no longer vote SNP – I’m one of them – but I refuse to vote for a Unionist party. Basically, we will be left (voluntarily, of course) disenfranchised. The SNP will take some time to die, and using the votes of those who detest it now, by persuading them that this is the only way, seems to be part of the resuscitation plan (shades of SNP 1 & 2).
The SNP will never now bring in independence unless there is a massive overhaul of the party because it is now the party of devolution. Judge it by its actions, not by what it claims. This MP, and most of them are con merchants. If they drop the S35 challenge and accept that very few want the GRRB, park it and start challenging on the real issues that affect Scotland, and not the fetish-enabling work they have specialized in lately, then contact ALBA and the other parties to work out a strategy for bring in independence, we might be out of the doldrums very soon, and the SNP might just revive. Otherwise, no chance.
I’m coming to suspect that Pete realised this was the way a long time ago but didn’t want Forbes or Regan to replace NS when the time came.
Now that it’s an option under the Sturgeon-clone it is a great idea and all it needed was to adopted by the leadership.
Which way is the wind blowing today? Or has Pete finally seen some polling numbers for his seat and realised that it’s in peril.
Not so much Big Country as a Big C..t now.”
That’s the joke, man.
“Wishart was once briefly a Big Country member.
You do remember, don’t you?”
@Matt Quinn
‘An amusing enough diversion for a Friday afternoon’…classic.
Who knew world-weary aesthetes bothered to find the time to comment BTL?
Craig P @ 12:53
1,000 ACRES! That’s way over the top for a non-permanent resident.
When I arrived in New Zealand in 1994 the law stated that I as a non-permanent resident could only buy a maximum of 5 acres. That is enough. They’ve now changed the rules which have become much more restrictive, and that is only a good thing.
(one of) The problem(s) with the “Wings Strategy” is that 50% + 1 of seats won in an election does not equate to 50% + 1 of the electorate. The more “non independence” parties there are, the fewer the votes needed for the “independence party” to gain a seat.
Example.
1 constituency
1 independence party. 9 non-independence parties.
Electorate 100. 8 of the 9 non-independence parties get 10 votes each. The 9th gets 9 votes.
The independence party gets 11 votes. Total votes = 100.
Independence party wins seat with 11 votes, against the 89 non independence votes.
Leaving aside the fact that “declaring independence” would rightly be ignored by The Government, the maths shows that the idea is, in any case, for the birds.
“(one of) The problem(s) with the “Wings Strategy” is that 50% + 1 of seats won in an election does not equate to 50% + 1 of the electorate.”
Our strategy counts votes, not seats. Seats are worthless for this purpose.
Now now people! – It’s Friday! Surely time to head for the pub for a wee sing-song? – No capo-in-hand required!
C F G7 C
There was a mild colonial clown, Pete Wishart was his name.
C G G7 C
He was born in auld Dunfermline, near a school they named for Danes.
G G7 C
He dreamed of stardom, countries big and ran the rig right down,
C F G G7 C
But auld Father Thames he beckoned him; the mild colonial clown.
(chords as above)
With shortbread tin and tartan troos he joined the MP4,
Sold out for cosy pension plans, he’d stamp the ground no more!
Bends in the breeze and on his knees, the comfort he has found!
Westminster’s such a lovely place, for a mild colonial clown.
Big talk, wee Pete ye aye repeat to suit the mood today.
No matter what! – to still the pot and at the trough to stay,
But the party’s done! It’s ran aggrun! As mired as it can be!
But poor Pete flails…
it’s off the rails…
For the mild colonial clown!
“Pete was a Big Country member”
Aye, I remember.
Lorna Campbell says: 5 May, 2023 at 1:32 pm
“Have noticed a trend in the SNP: go for things that have no chance.”
As a dyed-in-the-wool ‘small n Scottish nationalist’ – I’ve been saying that for over a decade; ever since they carried on where their predecessors had left off – and decimated the Scottish FE system.
I didn’t think it would ever get this unhinged though…
PhilM says: 5 May, 2023 at 1:42 pm
@Matt Quinn
“Who knew world-weary aesthetes bothered to find the time to comment BTL?”
…Finished an edit early; final render (takes time) then ping it off to the client (takes time and ties up the connection). – It’s this or sit here strumming a guitar; which just baffles the dog.
Hereafter known as The Bendy Man. Wishart has many unyielding principles but none of them are to do with politics.
The ideal party man to serve in a dictatorship.
link to twitter.com
Is this the Matt Quinn who is posting lyrics that has left me with an ear worm?
Pete Wishart inspiring artists everywhere.
It seems we Scots have gifted the least and worst of us the power to rule. I look forward to the day the greatest and best of us come forward to reclaim that power.
How sad that our once great nation, of which the French philosopher, Voltaire said, “We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation.”, is now ruled over by barely sentient, self-serving half-wits.
Again?
You fucking wee guy moron.
Further drop in the polls for the SNP!
Wishart to gatecrash next week’s Alba conference in Inverness!
Free drinks on Pete at Eden Court!
I don’t remember Wishart in Big Country.
I do remember how shite they were at MacMoray Fest last weekend.
Just sayin’.
Has anyone worked out what would happen after the Scottish government declared independence unilaterally? Just thinking of some practical matters, such as having a central bank, currency, trade deals, the effects on international investments, whether there would be any financial sector left in Scotland, how the EU would react (because Spain, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Croatia, Cyprus and a few other countries with separatist movements would certainly veto Scotland joining after UDI), and even things like taxation and Scotland’s share of the national debt would be raised immediately.
Here’s Stephen Flynn’s reaction to the council elections in England – exhortation to vote SNP to hold the balance of power if Labour doesn’t win a majority in the next GE. Nary a mention of independence!
Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader at Westminister, said this shows Scots should vote SNP so Scotland can “pull the strings” of a minority UK government. In a statement he said:
It’s increasingly clear that the SNP can hold the balance of power after the next general election – putting Scotland in prime position to pull the strings of a minority UK government.
Voting SNP is the best way to beat the Tories in Scotland – and every vote for the SNP will be crucial to ensure Scotland wields real power and influence.
With the pro-Brexit Labour party lurching to the right, and becoming indistinguishable from the Tories, the SNP will make certain that real change happens.
The SNP would ensure the power to determine Scotland’s future is transferred to Edinburgh, that the cost of living crisis becomes the main priority of Westminster and that relations with Europe are rebuilt and renewed.
link to theguardian.com
Daily Record reports on odd items seized in search of Sturgeon’s home, include pots & pans, a wheelbarrow and a shaving razor.
All evidence seems to be pointing to the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Perhaps it’s SNP’s Swinney Todd? Holyrood’s meat pies, under the microscope?
A load of mince, one way or another.
‘Big Country!’
I’m adding that to my list of ‘written emojis’. It’s easier to type than C U Next Tuesday which requires use of html and even then some posters think I’m trying to arrange a date.
I appreciate that the UK/England is a ‘Big Country’ and that might be what others are referring to.
Hey has anyone been following this:
link to twitter.com
I found part 1 particularly interesting
link to twitter.com
where she talks about the woman who uncovered the laptop relating to the court case between Alistair Carmichael & the Orkney 4′
Ruby says:5 May, 2023 at 2:33 pm
“Is this the Matt Quinn who is posting lyrics that has left me with an ear worm?”
No… Ruby; that’s not me. Though my mother was a ‘Folky’ and I’ve been around musicians all my life (I lectured for 12 years at Stow College’s Music and Creative Industries Department – in TV production!) …I wouldn’t consider myself any kind of musician; if I went busking, people would give me money to STFU! 🙂
Hail SNP, the Kingmakers of Westminster!
Naw thanks. Get your arses up the road!
The slimy scumbag Wishart is the kind of creature to twist and turn in whatever direction best suits it. Wishart knows that he’s facing being booted out of his second home (Westminster) at next years GE so he’s scrambling to jump on any bandwagon that might save his neck.
Wishart has been troughing at Westminster for twenty-years he’s done absolutely f*ck all to further the indy cause, he’ll be remembered as the House Jock who was desperate to be the Speaker of the House.
Vote Alba, Join Alba get Wishart and his fellow SNP gravy trainers out of office at every election and Alba in do it for Scotland.
Ah naw. we’ve got ‘Jesus H. Cunt’ and ‘A Scot Abroad in Norfolk Broads’ posting at the same time.
Wishart was once briefly a Big Country member.
You do remember, don’t you?
Never mind the buzzcocks- class joke then, arguably even funnier now!
A Scot Abroad, you left out one thing. What type of aliens will land on Glasgow Green after independence? I think we should be told. It is vitally important to understand which planet will be running Scotland’s public services after independence.
Pete can say all he wants to say but Useless Eustace calls all the shots now & he & his minders have decided we have to have consistent 60% in the polls to even start Independence campaigning.
We PAY those shysters to work on INDEPENDENCE. It is not up to US to do their work for them. But THEY are happy in their devolved little world, with big salaries and pension pots, so they prefer to tell Pete to throw us some bones to get us to sign up to SNP voting once again.
Thing is; They think we don’t see the deceit in Pete’s words – that only SNP seats will count & not the whole of the other Indy parties. Well… I for one, am getting Pink Eye just from the though of the number of carrots they want us to swallow. And I won’t be eating any of theirs, come the next elections.
To be honest, I think they’re just looking to keep whatever members they have left, fighting for them in the Election ring. They’re hoping they can still pull the wool over enough SNP Member eyes to get a few seats. And let’s face it, those members are not that bright if they’re still paying membership to a bunch of corrupt SNP con merchants. So not bright enough to recognise ANOTHER con job when it’s right in front of them.
But ye canny tell them…
Pete Wishart: “I’m a Big Country member”
All : Oh, we’ll remember alright…
@ben madigan 2:50pm
Thanks for the link, ben. No mention of the dreaded word “independence” from Flynn. Just vote SNP for more devolution within the so-called united kingdom. Any hypothetical holding of the balance of power will be temporary and open to the usual compromises.
Flynn only underlines the SNP’s devotion to devolution and the resulting continuance of the disgusting union.
Vote SNP to mitigate the worst excesses of britnat Westminster?!
To mitigate is to collaborate. The SNP continues to sicken.
O/T.
Cherry lets rip here.
Joanna Cherry admitting that the SNP is intellectually dead, and that Sturgeon did nothing to further the cause of independence.
Get the SNP out and Alba in, bar one or two SNP MPs/MSPs the rest are nothing but troughers making a good living off the backs of the taxpayer, the SNP under Sturgeon has done its best to damage the indy cause, and Yousless has said he’s the continuity candidate/FM nothing will change unless we get the SNP out at every election and Alba in.
link to msn.com
ben madigan says: 5 May, 2023 at 2:50 pm
“Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader at Westminister, said this shows Scots should vote SNP so Scotland can “pull the strings” of a minority UK government.”
He’s deluded… personally(though very much a Scottish nationalist) I haven’t felt able to vote SNP in many years because of the lack of integrity of their leaders locally; specifically Angela Constance who in my opinion is as much of a moral bankrupt as any Tory…
In fact – I typically return a spoiled paper; a futile gesture but in the absence of a ‘vote blanc’ all there is – aside from (as most seem to do) simply not voting.
Recent event though will have opened many an eye; and I for one have heard many people express the view that (in terms of integrity) the SNP are no different to the Tories and thus – even if they are supportive of independence – they simply cannot vote for them.
There is no major party in place which has Scottish independence as a sincere objective – in that sense we’re back to the stage we were in 1969 when, as a seven year old, I got my hands on an SNP leaflet that had fallen through the door – and asked one of my Mother’s hippy friends what it was about.
A “Scot” Abroad @ 2.47pm
The Westminster government the only government ever to knowingly seriously damage its own economy via Brexit, and you have the chutzpah to question what action an indy Scotland would take.
Anyway Ash Regan revealed during her candidacy for FM and leader of the SNP, that a indy minded FM would continue the day to day business of running the country whilst separate bodies would set up a central bank and prepare our currency among many other things, so when the 50+1 % mark is achieved many important aspects on moving forward would be in place.
As for joining the EU I’m for joining EFTA which gives us access to the EU and the UK market, I doubt very much that their would be many objection to this as Scottish produce is sought after abroad among other things.
@ Skip_NC,
I don’t claim any originality for those questions, they’re just obvious ones to ask. Aliens in Glasgow is however an original worry, but the probability is low and an alien invasion can safely be left unconsidered until iScotland has got its defence forces sorted out.
As a knowledgeable accountant, you’d probably be asking the same sort of questions. Getting the money facts sorted out in advance seems pretty fundamental to me.
@rev stu
And none of those pieces answers my question and none of the suggestions will actually achieve independence. You are peddling a fantasy to the gullible every bit as much as the SNP.
Ben Madigan.
Yes i was reading a bit of the drivel from Flynn, when has the SNP ever held sway in any form at Westminster answer never, it never has and it never will.
Flynn like Wishart is pushing angle to the Scottish public that they and their party the SNP are still relevant when they are no longer relevant, they had their chances to do the right thing but they decided to settle in and keep mouth shut, and their faces pressed firmly into the gravy trough.
The SNP has damaged it credibility beyond repair, how could we ever trust the SNP again to do the right thing after all that’s happened, and the last eight wasted years where we have been lied to deceived and had the indy carrot dangled in our faces as mandate after mandate went a begging.
Between now and the next GE I expect SNP MPs and MSPs to say anything and everything to get the electorate onside and to vote for them.
Its time to vote for the Alba party headed up by a man with a PROVEN track record who almost delivered independence.
Vote Alba, Join Alba do it for Scotland.
Pishfart’s staggering cuntishness is only trumped by his political naivety. Imagine genuinely believing that Westminster would ever allow an SNP Speaker. He demeaned himself and the party in putting himself forward. Can’t wait to see the back of him and his ilk.
A Scot Abroad says: 5 May, 2023 at 3:28 pm
“Aliens in Glasgow is however an original worry, but the probability is low and an alien invasion can safely be left unconsidered until iScotland has got its defence forces sorted out.”
Not sure Cllr Billy Buchanan of Bonnybridge would agree with you there… he’s got the good oil on where they hang out. And it’s not far; I’m sure they could bus it! – I mean; they’re not going to be allowed into the LEZ with their old flying saucer now; are they?
Rev, there seems to be a bit of a Google hangover from the recent site downtime. The main Wings site link does not appear via a Google search,although the links to your facebook and Twitter sites still appear. Maybe not a biggie but I found accessing the main boards to be a bit of a faff today.
@ Republicofscotland,
That’s not chutzpah to ask those questions. Any serious investor would want answers to all of that and more before putting money into Scotland.
As for Ash Reagan’s statements, they are just glib and deliberately vague. There’s no way Scotland could set up a parallel currency and central bank while still in the union. There’s nothing at all to back it, and trust and confidence are the only two things that a central bank has. Without trust and confidence, there’s no value whatsoever in the currency or issued bonds.
A Scot Abroad, OK, I’ll bite, although I do have some tax returns to finish today. Firstly, an unequivocal declaration of independence will bring England to the negotiating table. It follows that the EFTA countries will then be amenable to working with us. It may be informal at first but, as negotiations with England proceed, we can expect that to be formalized. So that is a large part of our trade deals taken care of.
We don’t *need* a currency or a central bank on Day One. Yes, they are desirable but not absolutely essential. As negotiations wrap up with England, that is something that can be put in place.
Our share of national debt is an excellent bargaining chip. We owe nobody anything. However, I daresay we will accept a reasonable allocation. For instance, we may enter a Totalization Agreement with respect to state pensions. That is normal, non-controversial and can be done very quickly with the political will. In fact, I would happily offer my services free of charge to draw up the agreement once the principles are agreed. That won’t happen, of course, but my point is that it would be very easy to do this. I could probably have something final in a couple of hours. Seriously. It’s not that hard. We can do likewise with double taxation agreements.
I’m not sure what your concerns are on taxation. We would simply adopt the prevailing law in Scotland to begin with. At the start, we would, therefore, have UK law in force. The big difference is that a democratically elected parliament can vote at any time to change the law to suit Scottish needs. Also, that parliament would have full powers over all tax and economic policy in Scotland, not just the poisoned crumbs that Westminster throws on the floor.
I suppose you might be thinking that a Scottish Revenue Agency would be hard to set up to actually assess and collect tax. That is a valid argument up to a point, but Scotland will gain its independence when SNP incompetence has been removed from Scotland’s governance. With a competent government in power, we can do anything we set our minds to. After all, numerous countries as small as, or smaller than, us have done just that.
“What type of aliens will land on Glasgow Green after independence?”
Skip_NC.
I can go one better than that an actual Westminster politician or was it a a top British army general, the name alludes me, actually said prior to the 2014 indyref that if Scots chose independence we would be open to an attack from outerspace.
This was inbetween a myriad of threats and wacky observations from Westminster including Westminster would need to bomb Scottish runways, and we in Scotland wouldn’t be able to watch the BBC, the latter being a blessing I think.
Curious, many are under the illusion that post independence, England will walk away with the accumulated 300+ years assets of the British state but the debt would of course be shared.
Assets include property abroad, embassies etc, government buildings, royal palaces, military etc materiel, moveable cultural treasures, overseas dependent territories and such like. There would be much there for a sharp witted Scottish delegation to get their teeth into.
The parting of the ways would not for the meek or for those seeking a quick resolution.
I trust the king of England has his dosh in a safe place.
link to archive.ph
It’s only being adopted as policy (if such it can be called) so as to scream ‘Both Votes SNP’ over and over again. Plus ca change…
Republicofscotland
It was Defence Secretary Phillip Hammond as reported in the Scottish Daily Mail from 16th April 2014.
I can only find the reference on pressreader.com which has the full text of the story but I can’t cut and paste. It’s really not worth going to any extra effort to find it.
REPUBLICOFSCOTLAND
Scots in the military. They owe allegiance to the British state. That state might call upon them to protect the territorial integrity of the realm.
Coming from a region of the world where the military are adept at meddling in politics I would not trust these guys a hair’s breadth.
Nothing can be taken for granted.
Those who vote SNP in the next UK election thinking that a minority Labour government are going to dance to the SNP’s tune is onto plums. Labour will never going into any form of coalition with the SNP.
Firstly, it will be electoral suicide for Labour to be seen to have connection whatsoever with the SNP in government. It has been used successfully by the Tories in past election and will be used in future elections by them. Labour aren’t that stupid enough to fall for that.
Secondly, the SNP have placed themselves in the position of being anti-Tory in Scotland. All that Labour needs to do is to put their legislative program forward and dare the SNP to vote against them. With the way the SNP have boxed themselves in with their anti-Tory rhetoric, they just can not be seen to be siding with the Tories by voting against or abstaining against Labour.
Of course this is as plain as the nose in your face but there are too many gullible people out there and they only find out the hard way.
A “Scot” Abroad.
Ash Regan’s plans were not glib, they were sensible practical and most of all doable, that’s why the Britnat media did everything in its powers to try and make it appear as thought the SNP/FM leadership campaign was a two-horse race between Yousaf and Forbes, both who had/have no indy plan whatsoever.
This was coupled with Murrell inviting in the enemy of Scottish independence GCHQ to help fix the result, everyone knows what happened, however proving it is another matter entirely.
If Regan hadn’t been cheated out of her victory we’d be voting in the next GE with independence at the top of the agenda and every election afterwards as well.
I’d imagine investors would be lining up to do business in an independent Scotland, (our stick exchange would return) we have a good rep in Europe and beyond and with a competitive corporation tax, I see no reason why Scotland can’t prosper, its certainly not prospering in this union.
Jeez oh, the Betrayer spent almost £2 million quid of taxpayers cash on propaganda, probably to dupe us in her last year in office.
“NICOLA Sturgeon spent almost £2million of public money on a record 18 political spindoctors in her last year as First Minister, it has emerged.”
“The Scottish Government today confirmed the bill for her handpicked team of special advisers, or SpAds, was £1,909,843 in 2022/23, the highest figure seen under devolution, and double the bill when she became FM.”
link to archive.is
The SNP has been playing fast and loose with Taxpayers cash for years, and Yousless wants to wasted a barrel load of taxpayers cash defending the indefensible the unamended GRRB.
Get the SNP out at every election and Alba in.
Vote Alba, Join Alba.
Republicofscotland @ 4:20, that’s what I had in mind when I typed that, along with “What currency will we use?” Seashells and sheep droppings, obviously. We’d be at parity with Sterling in about six months.
Yes, I’m joking, for those who have lent out their brain cell today.
I see the SNP website has NOTHING about the AUOB march tomorrow.
What sort of indy party would not encourage attendance at such a demonstration?
One that has been taken over by unionists!
Thanks Nicola you did a great job.
Skip_NC,
why would anyone at all negotiate with a renegade government that had just made a UDI? No reason at all. The U.K. wouldn’t, nor would any government in Europe or the EU as an institution.
Republicofscotland,
There was no detail at all backing up Regan’s statements, and she hasn’t got any relevant international finance expertise. As for Murrell calling in GCHQ, that’s just bonkers. A conspiracy theory spread by lunatics.
Ottomanboi.
Don’t be too quick to judge, I’m sure many Scots currently in active service in the British armed forces would be proud to switch to Scottish forces, as you rightly say some will not but some will, and the ones that would will probably have experience which will be beneficial to our nation.
I’d also imagine that many Scots/descendants who left Scotland because its subservient position within this so called union would think about returning to the home land once independence is achieved, they too will bring experience in a mixture of fields to Scotland.
Its all upsides to ditching this union, the sooner it happens the better.
You can almost smell the fear. SNP politicians and members are now calling everyone who disagrees with them Albaists. I think it is meant to be derogatory not complimentary!
It was often said that anything the SNP proposed was opposed by Labour, but made an appearance some time later as a great Labour idea. This seems to be the position of the SNP politicians. Plagiarise the proposals of Wings and Alba and others, knowing they are the right way forward,to call them your own.
I suppose this is their new version of ‘progressive’?!?!?
A Scot Abroad @ 4:07 pm
“There’s no way Scotland could….(insert anything here)”
The role of the colonizer is ‘to make any prospect of liberation seem impossible for the native’ and this is achieved ‘by debasing the colonized’ (Albert Memmi).
I think labour and conservative in westminster would cut a deal together rather than have labour do a deal with the SNP that would involve a referendum.
Labour has been quite clear they don’t want to be the one to break the union.
Reminds me of one of my favourite lines from Blackadder…”Blackadder, you’re twisting and turning like a twisty turny thing”
I see there’s no comments allowed on any story in The National just now. Is it because Tractor Pete’s wee article has been taking a hammering?
A Scot Abroad, people negotiate when the other party has something you want. Scotland has lots of staples England needs, like water and electricity. Of course they are going to negotiate.
Independence will only happen when there is political will to drive it forward. I was privileged to hear Craig Murray speak a few months ago at an Alba International Branch meeting. A summary of his talk is within link to craigmurray.org.uk I recommend reading his discussion of what needs to be done. If we are to get independence following a declaration thereof, we need to deal with practical matters. It is not easy but the proper leadership (not the SNP, obviously) will make it happen.
Pete Wishart – the Zelig of British politics.
@ Alf Baird,
it’s nothing to do with colonisation, it’s how international money markets work, and they aren’t going to change the way that they work to help out an independence movement.
If an iScotland is to be successful, then it is going to have to deal with international finance on the terms that every other nation does. Unilateral declarations of independence, walking away from the law of the union, possibly even (as some want) walking away from a fair pro-rata share of U.K. national debt are going to result in no money whatsoever being invested in iScotland, businesses leaving the country, no Scottish bonds being sold except at crazy interest rates (Zimbabwe once had to sell bonds at 428% interest, before hyper-inflation drove away all investment).
There’s a sustainable route to independence, but it doesn’t start with UDI.
“NICOLA Sturgeon spent almost £2million of public money on a record 18 political spindoctors in her last year as First Minister, it has emerged.”
Extortionate? Yes! No doubt! But spin works. Just look on here, one fanny still posting direct links to Unionist rags and another thanking him for doing it, and the irony of irony the 2 of them deride Skanky Sturgeons SNP.
Promoting a rag that shat all over our indyref and has been spinning Unionist shite for decades yet these so-called indy supporters think nothing of helping that rag to potentially pull in advertising revenue and new readers and subscriptions etc. Yeah, spin works!
Mind you, like everything else, you pays your money you takes your choice. Some spin doctors are better than others. Skanky Sturgeon played fast & loose with the publics cash and forked out top dollar for, at best, mediocrity. I think they seen Sturgeon coming. Looks like Stuart Campbell wasn’t the only one to see right through ‘The Skank”.
“Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader at Westminister, said this shows Scots should vote SNP so Scotland can “pull the strings” of a minority UK government.”
“Pull the strings of a minority UK government”. From the perspective of a nationalist party which has had absolute majorities of Scotland’s seats for 8 years this is so ridiculous on so many levels that, even if I was not utterly disgusted by their unjustifiable waste of our time and contempt for our democratic rights, just hearing such bullshit would be enough to put me off voting for them ever again.
After reading that, Mr Flynn does not give me any confidence whatsoever he actually intends to pursue independence any more than Blackford, Oswald, Black, Stewart McDonald, Alyn Smith, Yousaf or Sturgeon and Murrell.
First of all, people vote SNP not to “pull the UK government strings”. We voted SNP TO BREAK those darn strings, to STOP LEGITIMISING England as UK government and to stop legitimising Westminster as UK parliament.
There is no need at all to preserve a UK government, pulling its strings or not, to deliver independence. There was only a need for our majority of anti-union MPs to get off their arses, use their backbone and terminate the union.
A vote for the SNP was never a vote to follow Westminster’s rules. It was a vote to break those rules so we could start using our own. Yet, Sturgeon’s SNP and her useless majorities became conveniently deaf to that fact.
I do not know about other yes voters, but personally I am utterly sick and fed up of listening to the same worthless bullshit over and over again while the gravy train continues steaming ahead for the SNP troughers.
The last thing in the mind of any nationalist should be to stupidly prolong the toxicity of this union with delusions that, somehow, 56 or 45 spineless SNP MPs are ever going to pull the strings of over 500. If any of those sitting in Westminster believe that crap, then it is a symptom these people have become drunk with the delusion of power and oblivious to their own insignificant. If they do not believe that and yet they think it is acceptable to insult our intelligence with that crap, then such level of dishonesty and spectacular lack of judgement makes them unfit to represent us anywhere, never mind a parliament.
The only power a majority of anti-union MPs has ever had is that of not taking the seats/vacate the seats and reconvene instead the old Scottish Parliament.
It will never cease to amaze me that all these troughers still think this kind of delusional bullshit is going to take hold among the voters. It is incredible they think it is acceptable to hold a majority of the seats and, despite being in a party which has been pursuing independence for 80 effing years, expect us to believe they still don’t an effing clue on how to use that majority to deliver independence so they use it to secure devolution instead.
UK politics should have never entered the language of a nationalist party because if you really want independence, you do not want to assist or prolong colonial politics in any possible way. You want to end them as soon as you have the chance, particularly when, as a result of that colonial rule, the resources of your country are being ransaked on an industrial scale while the native population of your country is being empoverished and slowly outnumbered and supplanted by that from somewhere else.
Secondly, there was NEVER any need for England as the UK government to agree to Scotland’s independence. That is the biggest bullshit of all the nonsense Sturgeon, and now Yousless, parroted. The only thing was ever needed was for those SNP MPs to grow a pair of balls, vacate the green seats, or even better, to NOT swear allegiance and never taking those seats, reconvene the old Scottish parliament and temporarily suspend the Treaty of Union and Act of Union with England until a referendum had taken place.
So since 14 November 2014, all what we have been hearing from the SNP is nothing but hubris and excuses. Absolute bullshit aiming to distract us from the truth, which is Scotland could have ended the union on the 8th May 2015 should Sturgeon had been a real pro-independence leader instead of a political fraud working for the colonial power and our majority of anti-union MPs real MPs instead of colonial tools.
Now, as the tracks of the gravy train are being exposed, we are bombarded with even more hubris to disguise the SNP’s enormous betrayal towards the yes vote. But no amount of hubris will ever justify the SNP becoming another colonial arm using its position to deny us independence and force on us more useless devolution instead.
The SNP is finished. In fact, I am of the opinion the SNP ceased to exist the minute the political fraud STurgeon took over. What we have is just another version of labour operating under a fake pro-independence flag to keep the yes vote on a leash and stop it progressing.
I am of the opinion that all the mess we are seeing with the SNP has been deliberately fabricated to engineer a labour’s win needed to foist on us the crumbs of more useless devolution, Sturgeon might have sold us in exchange for in 2015 if not even before that.
The scale of the mess we are seeing is a testament to the strenght of the yes vote and desire for independence. It has taken 8 years for these political frauds, by relentlessly disembowelling the internal democratic and accounting processes of the party, infesting it with incompetents, perverts, creeps, pervert apologists and authoritarian amateur dictators, pumping abuse to shut dissent, to totally discredit and destroying this party to give labour and the colonial power another chance.
That the SNP had to be completely destroyed like this to engineer labour’s resurrection is a testament of just how dead the no vote in Scotland is.
But completely destroying the SNP or revealing it explicitly as another colonial party is not in the best interests of the colonial power either. This is because that will release the yes vote trapped by the SNP and will free it to join other pro-indy parties. An explicit colonial SNP would also mean a fourth party competing for the scarce no vote.
This could explain the reluctance of the crown arms in Scotland and the unionist press to pursue the alleged criminality of the SNP previously.
I have been thinking for some time now that the “partial and controlled demolition” of the SNP engineered by Sturgeon and co to force a loss of the majority of the anti-union Scottish MPs but to still keep trapped the yes vote stopping it going anywere else has backfired. In my view this is thanks to the pro-indy bloggers who have been working really hard to expose all the crap and betrayal the troughers, Sturgeon and those pulling her strings have been cooking behind doors.
At this point, the only way we can restore Scotland’s statehood is by bringing the SNP rotten edifice all the way down to the ground. We need to transform that “partial political demolition” engineered for a labour win into a full blown complete demolition at the polls to free the yes vote. The SnP is now a dead-weight around the neck of the yes movement, another colonial trap which we should avoid like the plague.
Same problem as paulk. I had to acccess the site through Wings’ Twitter.
It’s unfair that Tories, Labs and Dim Lebs can contest Scottish seats but the SNP are not allowed to stand in the rest of the UK.
If it were to build on the ‘bugger off, Scotland’ attitude it has already imbued in some English, it might win enough seats to be meaningful.
I see someone (or maybe an alien) has mowed a giant penis on the lawn of the Royal Crescent, Bath. Any suspects 😉
Skip_NC,
Scotland doesn’t export water to England. See link to gov.scot.
The electricity market is very difficult for Scotland to interfere with, because electricity is bought at forward prices for future delivery. It’s a contract to supply, with legal consequences if supply doesn’t occur. So while Scotland did indeed send around 12.3 GW of electricity to England in 2021, it’s actually generated by privately owned companies (eg Iberdrola, which owns Scottish Power), and they aren’t going to put themselves in breach of contract on the day-so of a renegade government. Additionally, the U.K. can increase generation in England and Wales by bringing online standby reserves powered by gas, oil or coal.
I don’t think the threat of withholding water or power from England holds up as well as you assume.
Oh to be a fly on the wall during Sturgeon’s missing five days after she absolutely did not meet with the chief constable and then abruptly resigned.
What do folk think she did. I am thinking maybe a five day buckfast bender of anger and lashing out at everyone and everything before finally collapsing in a crying and bubbling heap after eventually realising she was f**ked.
The chief constable tipped her off and then had to resign himself for it seems a very plausible chain of events,
The idea that the SNP at Westminster might seek to support a possible Labour government is good old fashioned perfidy.
This is a political collective in dire need of a backbone.
Politicians in action are 100% duplicitous.
Why do so many trust them?
Man worth £2bn has tens of millions of public money spent on his London party.
Must be in the dna.
“It’s unfair that Tories, Labs and Dim Lebs can contest Scottish seats but the SNP are not allowed to stand in the rest of the UK”
As a Scottish nationalist, anti-union political party, there is absolutely no justification whatsoever, other than greed, for the SNP to ever contest seats in England, Wales or NI.
Any move of the SNP to contest seats elsehwere other than Scotland would be a confirmation they are now another colonial party working for the union rather than a nationalist one working for Scotland’s independence.
The objective of a nationalist party must be their nation politics and their nation’s freedom and self-government, not the distraction of governing England, Wales or NI.
Scotland’s MPs can, at any point, vacate Scotland’s seats in Westminster and suspend the treaty of union and Act of union with England because they, together with the very few Scottish peers left in the HoL are the real custodians of Scotland’s old parliament.
There was never any need for England MPs to vote for Scotland’s independence. Scotland is not the property nor a region of England and therfore England MPs are not the representatives of Scotland in Westminster. Only Our Scotland MPs are.
Well said, Mia.
If we are now to put our faith in Alba, for example, we must make damn sure it doesn’t become a SNP Mark II. And Alba, for example, better make sure it takes radical measures to restore our independence.
Country before party.
A “Scot” Abroad. @5.40pm.
Ash Regan outlined her plan at every hustings there wasn’t time at each hustings to go into every detail, but she admirably put across the basics of the viable route out of this union.
As for financial expertise a FM doesn’t need to have financial expertise an FM can employ people with such expertise as other governments do.
The plans around currency a central bank etc would be planned by people working on them the plans would run concurrent with the government focusing on the every day running of the country so they would not affect usual business. Ash Regan also explained this in what little time she had on every question.
As for Murrell and GCHQ.
“THE SNP is working with UK spy bosses to ensure the ballot to replace Nicola Sturgeon is secure.
The party said it enlisted the help of the National Cyber Security Centre (a part of GCHQ – Government Communications Headquarters) to ensure the vote was safe from hackers.”
link to 12ft.io
Otto. Keith Brown was ex military. That’s why I would never trust him. What patriotic Scot would voluntarily join the British army?
Keith swore allegiance to the English Queen. Sang GSTQ at parades. Fought in British wars. Yet we are to believe he did all that with two fingers crossed behind his back!
I grew up with a deep distrust and resentment of the British army. I saw what they did in Ireland, what they did to the Highlands, India and Africa. Why would anyone join the very fulcrum of English establishment culture.
But then again. We have a republican first minister attending a Coronation. Some people just drop their principles out of deference.
Big Jock as Groucho Marx once said.
“Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them…well I have others.”
Most of us have been on the big marches so I feel a bit daft asking this, but can anyone hazard a guess as to when Big Alex is likely to be speaking?
The march is due to leave Kelvin Way at 11.30 sharp. I can’t remember how long it takes to reach Queen St but from memory it’s feckin ages.
I have 2 hours in my head as the time to complete the whole route and get to the Green. I can’t find an estimated kick-off time for the speakers.
If I had to put a tenner on it I’d say Alex won’t do his bit until 3.30, maybe 4.00.
What think ye’s?
“Keith swore allegiance to the English Queen”
Like each and every single one of the present crop of SNP, labour, tories, libdems and even Greens MPs and MSPs.
The question all of them should be asked is:
in a situation where the interests of the monarch and those of the people you are elected to represent compete and actually are on opposite sides, which side will you take?
According to the UK rules, MPs who do not swear allegiance to the monarch cannot take our seats in Westminster.
I am of the opinion that MPs and MSPs who do not swear allegiance to the people of Scotland and who put the monarch’s interests ahead of those of the people they were elected to represent should be ejected from our seats too because they would be working for the wrong entity.
You cannot possibly claim you represent the people in a democratic parliament when you are putting the vested interests of the crown ahead of and to the detriment of the interests of those you were democratically elected to represent.
The crown competes with the people for control of the legislative power (parliament). Nicola Sturgeon handed control of Scotland’s legislative power to the crown by inviting an unelected Lord Advocate into the Scottish gov cabinet.
For instance, who is stopping indyref? Is it a cabinet of England MP clowns down south or is it the crown controlling the executive power in Scotland?
Who stopped the indyref bill being debated by Scotland’s legislative power, was it an England MP or were the arms of the crown controlling the executive power in Scotland via a representative of the COPFS and the judicial power in the UK in the form of an English court?
Either you help the crown to steal control of parliament from the people or you help that power to be reverted to where it belongs: the people of Scotland. What you cannot possibly do is to help both simultaneously.
If a representative of the COPFS is still sitting in Yousless cabinet, then he, like Sturgeon, will be helping the crown to control the executive power and indirectly steal from the people of Scotland control of the legislative power.
Ian.
Reading Roddy’s article over on Barrhead Boy, I think the speeches will take place once we reach Glasgow Green.
link to barrheadboy.com
A Scot Abroad says: at 7:18 pm
“The electricity market is very difficult for Scotland to interfere with, because electricity is bought at forward prices for future delivery. It’s a contract to supply, with legal consequences if supply doesn’t occur. So while Scotland did indeed send around 12.3 GW of electricity to England in 2021, it’s actually generated by privately owned companies (eg Iberdrola, which owns Scottish Power), and they aren’t going to put themselves in breach of contract on the day-so of a renegade government. Additionally, the U.K. can increase generation in England and Wales by bringing online standby reserves powered by gas, oil or coal.”
Firstly please elucidate on this 12.3GW export figure you state as it doesn’t make sense, plus yesterday (just one day) Scotland transferred 56.61GWh of leccy to England.
link to twitter.com
Secondly, where will the Kingdom of England obtain this gas, oil, and coal as standby reserves?
link to mip-prd-web.azurewebsites.net
And to finish that 56.61GWh figure from yesterday does not include all the gas from Scotland that helped run the Combined Cycle Gas Turbines that are currently generating 50% of GB Grid (English) demand.
link to gridwatch.templar.co.uk
Dunno about embdy else but I’m finding the general atmosphere around this coronation palaver quite encouraging.
Very few folk seem to give tuppence-ha’ppeny about it, and even those who are supposed to be cheerleading the celebrations don’t look very keen. If it turns out that there are more republican protesters than adoring onlookers (which may well happen) the Met’s Finest won’t easily get away with kicking the living daylights out of pensioners holding up sheets of blank paper.
Of course my personal preferences on Twitter affect what I see there, but even still it’s quite remarkable that I’ve probably seen more tweets commemorating the anniversary of Bobby Sands’ death than anything about Chas and his burd.
All of this is a grim portent for the futures of any/all SNP folk attending the ceremony and associated shindigs in London. Not so much a matter of failing to ‘read the room’ as remembering what planet you’re on and which century it is. Characters like Blackford will surely enjoy his day, ambling around like a tweed-clad Weeble, imagining that global viewers and fellow guests are admiring his kilt and wondering what tartan that is. Some of them may well be, but many of the Scots who made his career possible by voting for him will be far from impressed. And some of them, in time, will take the opportunity to express that disappointment directly.
Yousaf in particular, who made a proper fanny of himself at the departure of the big cludgie-stane, could be made to look even worse depending on where he’s seated and what faux-pas he commits. Come this time tomorrow he might just be wishing he’d gone to the Green, where the worst thing that could’ve happened was people shouting at him to fuck off. (And we might just do that anyway.)
Looking forward to seeing some of your auld faces again tomorrow. We dwindle in number as the years pass but we’ll surely make some new pals. So it goes!
😉
All these mentions of UDI…
From Wikipedia,
“A unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) or “unilateral secession” is a formal process leading to the establishment of a new state by a subnational entity which declares itself independent and sovereign without a formal agreement with the state which it is seceding from.”
This does NOT apply in the case of the UK, England and Scotland. Scotland is NOT a “subnational entity” – it is one of two partners in a “voluntary” union, the United Kingdom. It is NOT a “subnational entity” of England.
To me, what ALL the pro-indy parties should have first in their manifestos for every general election, either Westminster or Holyrood, from now on, is,
“Regardless of all other policies, every vote for this party in any election will be regarded as a vote to exit the Treaty Of Union and for Scotland, once again, to be an independent nation.”
I believe that would satisfy the UN’s charter regarding “self-determination” and be internationally recognised, the majority of voters having expressed their preference in a vote.
And the Wishite of “What I believe should now happen is that we contest every election with the first line of each successive manifesto stating that ‘if the Scottish National Party secures 50% plus of the vote this will mean Scotland will become an independent nation” is sheer arrogance!
I believe that in most entities that seek independence, the pro-independence parties work together and understand that all their votes will count towards the wanted/needed majority of 50%+1.
As others have typed here btl, it looks like PW is trying to garner “both votes SNP” once again, to try to save his seat.
We see you PW.
This is one of the funniest threads I’ve seen in a long time.
It stars Glasgow Councillor T. Kerr, who found fame via this place as one of the original Hard Drive Six way back in 2013/14ish.
He wants Glaswegians to pop in to the City Chambers and sign a book for Chas & Cammy. And he’s awfy mad at Celtic fans for singing about shoving the coronation somewhere unspeakable.
link to twitter.com
@ Republicofscotland,
There’s a huge difference in between the NCSC helping political parties ensure their digital space is secure from hacking, as opposed to actively colluding with people within a political party to fix a result, as you alleged earlier. The NCSC offers that service to all political parties, and even to companies having an AGM and digital voting by shareholders. It’s absolute nonsense to keep on alleging that GCHQ somehow fixed the SNP leadership vote. Looney Tunes material.
@ Briandoonthetoon,
Wiki isn’t an authority. Rhodesia declared UDI, and wasn’t a sub-national entity. UDI is a perfectly good way of describing what the main article (and indeed, Ash Regan’s) proposal amounts to.
@ Dan,
I may have made a typo, and the annual figure is in Terawatts, not Gigawatts. In any case, for 2021, the value of Scottish electricity export to England was £745 million. Which is about 1/3rd of the Barnett money going north to Edinburgh. Would you rather have the electricity sales, or the Barnett money? Currently, Scotland gets both, but that would be unlikely (at the very least) to continue if a Scottish government made a UDI.
@ Big Jock,
I served in the Army, in a Scottish regiment. Went to war in Iraq to liberate Kuwait, to Northern Ireland, and the Balkans. I don’t recognise your description that no patriotic Scot would join the Army. Nor, I suspect, would the well over one million Scots who served in the forces in just this last century.
For what it’s worth, I’d say that about 90% of the soldiers in my old Regiment would choose to transfer to a rUK Army in the event of Scottish independence, because most soldiers join in order to have an active operational career, very often abroad. It’s a bit more exciting than being a joiner, plumber or a bin man in your local town. And as the SNP seem ambivalent about NATO, and want to model Scotland on Ireland, there’s little attraction in being a plastic soldier driving around Scotland in a Land Rover without much prospect of anything more than a UN tour once every 10 years.
Hi A Scot Abroad.
You typed,
“Wiki isn’t an authority. Rhodesia declared UDI, and wasn’t a sub-national entity. UDI is a perfectly good way of describing what the main article (and indeed, Ash Regan’s) proposal amounts to.”
Rhodesia WAS a “sub-national entity” of the UK. Who else could it possibly declare independence from?
I have some straws if you have a feel for clutching.
Hi A Scot Abroad.
You also miss the point that a “Barnett Formula” would be redundant if Scotland were independent and all revenues went to a Scottish exchequer, not Westminster, who only give us back a proportion of them!
@Ian B: I’m estimating the head of the march won’t get to GG until about 1 of the clock so I suspect the speeches may be timed to start after then.
Don’t know when AS will be slotted in: should be interesting.
Some surprising “The National” types slated to speak: ditto.
@ A Scot Abroad
Your figures still seem off.
link to albaparty.org
I’d rather Scotland left the union and thus returned to full self-governing status whereupon we would hold the full range of powers required to better serve Scottish interests.
Scotland will never be allowed to prosper within the union under London Rule.
And it says a lot about that union when you come on here highlighting all the complexities and hurdles Scotland has to deal with should it wish to extricate itself from what is meant to be a union of equals. Because if it is a union of equals then all the difficulties you continually express that Scotland has to navigate through if the union ends, should also pertain to England.
It seems we’ve caught a big live one with ‘A Scot Abroad’.
The fact that he self-aggrandizes by describing what happened to Iraq as a ‘war’ tells us about as much as anyone needs to know.
Nauseating.
The Tories are wonderful.
Loosing over 1,000 Council seats means the other parties haven’t do as well as they hoped?
Rishi who hasn’t met any member of the public today tells us they support him in cutting inflation which the Tories drove to over 10%.
They want to see growth in the economy Tory Truss crashed like never before.
They want him to end the strikes but the Tories won’t negotiate so more strikes declared.
They want to see Taxes reduced but they have installed the highest rates in 70 years.
Has Westminster passed doublespeak as England’s new official language?
The man has this permentley confused look on his face and i`m sure its genuine.
every so often someone, usually a unionist trying to be clever suggests :
ALLOWING THE UK TO KEEP THE OIL IN ORDER TO EASE OUR PATH TO INDEPENDENCE
– it’s a cunning plan, one worthy of baldrick, with 2 pencils up his nose
you get more sophisticated versions, like the FT suggesting indy Scotland would do such a thing to be “allowed” access to the UK’s highest credit rating when borrowing from the markets …
only a dumb cunt would fall for this, and anyone who suggests it has shown their hand as a unionist
let’s go down how dumb this is
– first of all, you are trying to barter with things the people you are bartering with, THINK THEY ALREADY -OWN-
– secondly, these assets belong to the Scottish people, no one has the right to barter them away for temporary “advantage”; these “clever compromises” will bite you in the arse, e.g. Northern Ireland, one of the most cancerous rotten borough failed states on earth.
– thirdly, suppose they went along with this, why should they play fair by you? And why should they respect you at all – you have absolutely capitulated, thrown the game, before it started, without them even asking
– lastly, the thieves have already stolen too much – it would be immoral to reward them for their pillage by facilitating more; it is not giving the oil away you should be thinking about, but historical reparations
I would rather see the oil fields capped before england got another drop. The discovery of oil was a bloody disaster for Scotland and indirectly made for a wrecking ball for the rest of the UK as well. Oil is not a commodity, it is THE commodity, if you have it your money will always be worth something and would even allow you to reengineer the entire economy on neoliberal lines. A disaster for the people, a jackpot for the elites.
I would also disconnect the power grid from england and make it an act of treason for anyone to create a UK wide water grid. Energy in Scotland would be very cheap, for us the Scots, but also for foreign companies, who would flock here; this is how you encourage investment. Scotland could use cheap excess power to mine bitcoin, a new source of money outside UK control – that would terrify them.
every evil plan you can think of, they have thought of too –
link to londonist.com
link to theguardian.com
no compromise with these types of people; they are fucking evil, and they need to go
Bullshit artists try to invoke “the markets” or “forex” but the markets understand what is valuable and what is not, who has real assets and who prints paper for a living.
The ordinary englanders in england don’t care too much about us, and why should they – got their own problems, but elites are terrified of Scottish indy for a lot of knock-on reasons. First off – the royals have their private wealth and “the wealth they hold in trust for the nation”; this line has been blurry for a long time, but now it would need to be drawn.
Also this game of “what is mine is mine, what’s yours is mine as well” – if you try to grab our assets maybe we will grab yours; we are due some nuke subs, fighter jets for a start, but what of all the wealth siphoned off by the city of london (part of the UK, but not) into the tax havens.
– someone would need to, with “forensic accountants” start tracing assets and ownership, so we get our fair share; no one in the city wants anyone to start looking into their operations or the tax havens.
We have all seen how messy these divorces are when billionaires are involved, what about a country “divorce” with trillions at stake?
The caribbeans and indians have been looking into their own colonial reparations bill (this makes a lot of people, sweat) and it is something the SNP should have been digging into decades ago, but -no- which shows how serious they are.
Deep down, the english are pirates – it is how they got started; you can frame their entire history as a desperate attempt to hold onto their ill gotten gains – for example, the attitude to europe and the anti-catholicism embedded in the constitution is simply because they are terrified of ever having to hand back the wealth they looted during the reformation, the biggest robbery in history.
– point is – these folks are thieves at heart; allowing them to keep the loot and give them more, so you can have an “easy” time is beyond stupid
“wherever wood floats, you will find an englishman stealing all he can”
Pete Wishart, I wonder what the verdict of the Scottish people will be on his 22 years warming the green benches at Westminster (I know, he wants to warm the red ones too). Last year, Pete was “celebrating” 21 years at Westminster – did the irony of that record not reach his brain cell?
You may not have been involved in a war. I have. We (a lot of us, from many nations) liberated Kuwait from a greater number of Iraqis who had marched in and occupied it. It was a proper shooting war.
Now fuck off.
Schrödinger’s Scotland.
Scotland seems to be a country at the same time as not being a country.
If Scotland isn’t a country, then when did it stop being a country and what is it now?
A colony?
A region of England?
If Scotland is a country, then we can extricate ourselves from an international treaty and will have no need to court international recognition as such. We need only announce that we are open for business once more.
Maybe A Scot Abroad can unravel the mystery or why he isn’t just called ‘An English Man at Home’?
@ Briandoonthetoon,
it’s not really arguable that Scotland now receives more in U.K. funding than it sends down south in tax revenues. In short periods of the past (70s / 80s / 90s, the height of the North Sea oil boom) that may not have been the case, but right now it is, and any longer analysis of history since the act of union three centuries ago will show a consistent subsidy of Scotland by the rest of the union.
@Confused (10.41) –
Hear hear hear sah!
That’s one for ASA to stick in his pipe.
😉
Has ‘A Scot Abroad in Norfolk Broads’ managed to convince anyone to vote NO yet?
Looks like we’re totally fucked when it comes to the possibility of our Independence.
Sturgeon really really screwed us all.
Is all lost?
In case folk have forgotten about it in all the excitement over a jug-eared septugenarian pedo-pal finally getting his old dear’s job, there’s a proper ‘shooting war’ going on right now, and Blighty is rather involved.
Perhaps ASA, with all his experience, would be better off serving as an ‘advisor’ to the NATO-aspiring nation (which cannot be named) rather than annoying people here?
(He’s affy-easy ‘triggered’, eh?)
😉
@ Breastplate,
I’m just as Scottish as most living in Scotland. 3 completely Scottish grandparents, and one English from Cumbria. Born and grew up in Scotland, in Ayr then Edinburgh. I still own the flat in Ramsay Garden where I was a teenager, and share a small house in Perthshire with my sister that she lets out on the farm that she and her husband work.
You may not agree with my views on the union, but I’m not an Englishman at home. I’m a Scot abroad from Scotland.
IanB,
ASA obviously can’t support country 404 because they are skinty broke, so using the same logic he applies to Scotland they should hand over the reins of government to the Ruskies, no?
They simply can’t afford to be independent.
He’ll be along any minute now to confirm that sovereignty costs money.
Be kind he might have PTSD & Tourette’s.
Mental illness common in returning soldiers
A Scot Abroad,
You may think you’re Scottish but if you look closely, you are definitely British.
You might not think there’s a difference but there is.
Anyone else get the feeling that ASA is a parody?
Sort of looks that way, yah?
How can you be a Scot when Scotland ceased to exist in 1707?
Whit school did you go to when you were a teenager in Edinburgh living in Ramsay Gardens?
If ur stuck u can listen to,
Iain Macwhirter: The unravelling of the SNP | The Brendan O’Neill Show.
link to youtube.com
or
U could just get pissed…or both!
@ Ruby,
if you think that being Scottish ended in 1707, you are rather more mentally disturbed than previously thought. Nobody else at all thinks that.
I went to Merchiston Castle in my teens.
“ Mia says @0703 pm” …..Yep Mia comes out with the best post of this thread so far . The SNP require to be taken to task over their abject failure to PROSECUTE the case for Independence over the past 8 years . Hopefully commencing tomorrow at the AuOB rally . The Brexit vote should have been the WATERSHED and Blackford should have withdrawn his MP’s from Westminster . No ifs or buts, THE PEOPLE OF SCOTLAND ARE SOVEREIGN. The surrender speech by Sturgeon in January 2020 was enough for me !!
Ascot Abroad.
As Scottish as Spotted Dick.
A Scot who doesn’t want independence is a Brit. If you do not believe in Scottish sovereignty, then you don’t believe in Scotland. Some people like to kid themselves they can be both. But the problem is that the UK runs Scotland. A country run by another by consent, is not a true nation.
A country colonised and run by force , is still a true nation. Because the people have not consented to foreign rule. The 50% of Scots who reject British rule, are the true Scots. If you reject Scottish rule, then you do not accept Scottish sovereignty. Therefore you are rejecting Scotland.
You cannot be two nationalities at once. One takes precedence. For Unionists it’s their British identity that is their primary identity.
They want to be Scottish at football or rugby matches. Or when wearing a kilt. But that’s not what being a nation is about. That’s playing at being a nation.
@ Big Jock,
you are wrong. It’s entirely possible to be Scottish and to believe that the union is a greater entity than either Scotland or England. I’m not allergic to Scottish independence outside of the union, but for me (and I would suggest, something just over half of Scots) that case is yet to be proven.
You won’t agree with me. That’s fine. I’m still a Scot, though, and there’s nothing you can say that will take that away from me. You don’t have that power.
FFS
Will you please stop feeding the wanker troll.
He’s a total prick, and I’m actually surprised Wingers need reminding.
Dear Stu
I don’t have a Twitter account and your Contact Form is not working. I would rather not put this on here but I was a bit taken aback at your “Chicken Supper” comment on Twitter. We certainly don’t have to agree on every issue to support Wings and the invaluable work you do. I am more than happy to make my small monthly contribution to help ensure this site keeps going.
Freedom of speech is at the core of this site and I am 100% behind that. It also means people can disagree with what you say.
For many people, the chicken supper taunt is sectarian, that can’t be a surprise to you, and indeed you associated it with Rangers fans. I have personally heard it sung by other Clubs fans who also seem to take a “guilty pleasure” in endlessly bringing sectarianism into football.
You may not have any time for the complex history of Ireland, but you surely know that history is very much a part of Scotland’s story. Whatever you feel about them, there are few folk, I would gauge, who would be prepared to do the same for Scotland’s freedom.
Just had a browse of the radio times. What the actual fuck. Both BBC1 and BBC2 are devoted to it all day. Both channels, it is ridiculous. How on earth do they justify this shite.
Has The National shut down all comments for the duration of Tampon Charlie’s coronation?
Ian Brotherhood says:
5 May, 2023 at 11:39 am
“the Sutherland statue semtexed into dust?”
So curious that not too long ago groups in Scotland were demanding places be renamed or things removed, successfully in some cases, as a result of ongoings in America being imported over.
Yet no fashionable protests or graffiti for social media when it comes to those who did harm to Scots yet got streets and buildings named after them or have statues looming over us.
See UK legal advice by Crawford & Boyle.
Do you believe one needs to be mentally disturbed to believe the UK Gov?
link to youtube.com
‘Scotland ceased to exist in 1707 and became Lesser England.’
You seem very keen to prove you are not English why is that?
Is there something wrong with being English or is it just the lesser bit that you object to.
Do you have any sympathy for the Scottish Independence supporters who just want a better life or are you one of the ‘let them eat ‘Tunnocks Teacakes’ brigade’
I am not Scottish. I have been denied the right to be Scottish that is why I’m voting YES.
Vote YES to be Scottish not British.
Well just about to jump on a boat and head up to glesca , due to foot injury no long March for me and Dug , getting to glesca Green from Central Station and back will be enough.
Anyways I thought I would share with you the factoid that a Wummin on Arran got her Hair done yesterday afternoon for the watching on telly of sausage fingered Chuck getting the English Crown on his heid !
Yup let that sink in, thats the level of stupidity we are up against.
Hope everybody has a great day in Glesca and may it piss doon in Londinium.
Ruby/a scot abroad
According to the Supreme Court Ruling re the ability of Scots Parliament ability to hold a Constitusional referendum.
It decreed that England ceased to exist on that date also, although it tried to keep that bit quiet, i had it confirmed by Roddy dunlop on Twitter.
Load of rubbish off course coz Scotland did not agree to that but according to their version of events neither Scotland nor England existed after 1 st may 1707.
Ruby,
you seem to be very disturbed, now believing that you can’t be Scottish.
I’m deeply relaxed about my ethnicity. I’m a Scot. I am the (grateful) beneficiary of over 300 years of union that allowed the peoples of these isles to live in peace (1745 excepted), and go out into the world, prosper, and found a cultural and trading civilisation that is unparalleled in human history. And it’s not all a one way street in our favour: that global presence has encouraged people to our shores who would otherwise have not shared in the bounty. Heavens, you can be a Prime Minister of the U.K., or even the First Minister of Scotland. It’s all good.
@Lenny Hartley: I would avoid the Argyle Street M&S on your Glasgow travels. M&S is flogging all kinds of coronation tat, including a deranged Union Flag poncho which I’m sure will go down a bomb in the Copland Road area after today’s “festivities” are over.
“Ah-hoo, werewolves of London!”
Confused 10:41pm
If I wanted to write a parody post to mock the kind of thinking that has turned away high quality support from the Scottish independence movement it would look something like that.
I no longer talk economics except in big easy to understand terms for a couple of reasons. One reason is not because I think I’m a Big Brain and nobody is worth my time, but because if you are not talking about economics in bigger more obvious terms then you run into the problem of increasingly detailed arguments where everybody is right and everybody is wrong.
More importantly when you are on the political stage, as the Scottish Independence issue obviously is, you have the added problem of talking economics to a general public who are deliberately kept in the dark.
Once you get into the details it becomes far easier to scare the public, who won’t understand whether your points are fanciful garbage or not, than it is to get them hopeful. In fact the hope/fear dynamic is markets 101.
This is why the oil issue is a weakness for the cause. Our detractors will make sure it gets into increasingly vague and minute detail overlaid with a tone of doom and gloom, a liberal use of fantastical market terms whose meanings are very mundane and easy to grasp but due to their unfamiliarity confuse the average Joe.
To hinge our economic case on an argument that can be so easily manipulated against us in the eye of the public is a massive error.
Particularly given that really, and I’m being honest here, I have seen more reasons to doubt the economic acumen of the top pro-indy bloggers, politicians and commenters than to have faith in them.
Here’s an example:
In about 2007 Alex Salmond was giving a presentation at a University, Aberdeen I think, where he made the casual remark when talking about our links with the US that ‘when the US economy sneezes, the rest of the world reaches for a handkerchief’.
I decided to contact him and say that he is right, but does he have any comments on the impending financial disaster building in the U.S and what it might mean for Scots?
I didn’t receive an answer and nobody in the general public were updated as to the coming financial problems that were obvious and who our establishment pretended came as a surprise.
Also there was an argument on here a few years ago also where I was mocked and called a ‘Scottish Tory’ for suggesting that an independent Scotland could well have higher taxes even with all the oil…by people who couldn’t even take the time to look at the tax system of that other small country on the North Sea who is oil rich as a comparison.
So honestly, I’m completely unimpressed. In fact I’m a Scottish nationalist in spite of this kind of stupid arrogance from other Scottish nationalists but there are many more who are not so determined as me.
So here is the crux of the issue:
Let’s say that all you say about the ‘English’ is true. That they are a race of thieves and vipers who care not a jot for honour, decency or honesty and that they will happily grind other nations into the dirt to extract their resources – which is an interesting position given that if we said that about any other people on Earth, say the Jews as a totally random example, you would be dog piled by our progressive warriors of justice.
But that aside how do you propose that 5 million Scots convince these political criminals to give us a vote or accept a constitutional stunt, to let us fairly walk off into the sunset with those very resources you say they will bend heaven and earth to take from us?
This is why, along with the cancerous woke (marxist) streak that runs through the Indy movement, many people shake their head and don’t bother.
Re discussion of Scottish electricity production above, GW and GWh are different things. Important to remember also that private companies are currently the people who own and control electricity generation and production in Scotland, and their shareholders are the people who make money from it.
Did you know that there is currently a programme of industrialising the Highlands with 60m high pylon networks and immense substations underway? This is to enable power to be sent to England and further afield but the profits will not be benefitting us. The power will not be used in Scotland and will not lower our bills either.
One of the first things an independent Scotland should do is nationalise electricity production and transmission. Of course, by then, we will already be the “Saudi Arabia of renewables” with our landscape trashed and other people rolling in the profits, with Scotgov’s collusion in supporting the current crazy strategy.
Dublin GPO Easter 1916, Pearce to Connolly: “You do realise this might mean a tuppenny increase in income tax?”
See you all in Glasgow I hope.
Just watched this interview as youtube threw it up but Kenny MacAskill is a really impressive guy. Handles these two snide media turds very well. Well worth watching.
youtube.com/watch?v=9UVTquntqpw&ab_channel=TimesRadio
His diagnosis of the SNP current problems is excellent as was his summary of the stitch-up.
What a loss to the SNP he is. He is guy that could have potentially saved them.
Way too late now though. The SNP are triple-F, f**ked for the foreseeable future.
The independence movement needs to disassociate itself from the SNP and the Sturgeon / Murrell reign. Because anyone who doesn’t is going to get sucked down with them.
Listening to MacAskill there this is only going to get worse and worse for the SNP as the truth inevitably comes out.
The rehabilitation of Salmond’s reputation is happening right now and it is slowly gathering pace. Alex Salmond is IMHO Scotland’s equivalent of Vaclav Havel, most people just don’t realize it, yet.
Rage or sobbing in your wee dram.
Scotland! for you to decide.
There is no «in-between».
Have a «meaningful» day.
On the way to Glasgow! Meanwhile alex Salmond is outstripping nicola sturgeon (and others) on the Nationals poll on who should be the future president of Scotland.
Just having breakfast before heading off to the AUOB march starting in Glasgow.
And what a better way to spend a day than having to watch or listen to the feigning nauseating cloying coronation. Nice to be able to remember doing something patriotic, democratic on a day when lickspittle subservience is being stuffed down everyone’s throats.
And special mention too for the lickspittle toady they call Scotland’s First Minister as he prepares to bow and scrape before his royal master.
I have uncovered what Nicola’s diary really was for the missing 5 days (after the chief constable visited her and tipped her off she was going to be arrested)…
Day 1. Denial
Day 2. Anger
Day 3. Bargaining
Day 4. Depression
Day 5. Acceptance
I can imagine it was a real hoot in the Murrell household during those missing 5 days, the blame game, the accusations, much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Seeing the Murrells go through even just a tiny fraction of the horror they inflicted on an innocent man is pleasing but there is one very crucial difference this time around Peter & Nicola if you are reading, Alex Salmond was innocent…
Ian Brotherwood 5th may 11.39am ‘and the sutherland statue semtexed into dust’
At least the Irish had the balls to get rid of nelsons statue in o’connell st Ian,
Wonder what the turnout will be like in Glasgow today? Or will apathy rule.
“how do you propose that 5 million Scots convince these political criminals to give us a vote or accept a constitutional stunt, to let us fairly walk off into the sunset with those very resources you say they will bend heaven and earth to take from us?”
By reinstating the convention of states and chucking out from our parliamentary seats all those who choose to use our seats to pursue the interests of the English crown and their own instead of those of the people of Scotland.
We are where we are today, after 8 years of electing what we thought they were anti-union MP majorities, because those majorities were not really anti-union and to make matters worse, they were controlled by political frauds far more interested in preserving the union than delivering independence.
The only people who has to “give” Scotland a vote are our own MSPs and MPs, which, in their self-serving quest to keep their own gravy train going, have refused and continue to refuse to do under a myriad of excuses.
It is not for England’s political representatives, the crown itself or any of its arms to deny Scotland the exercise of its own legitimate self-determination. They will only do so for as long as our useless political representatives continue to indulge them by disrespecting Scotland’s claim of Right and meekly accepting those entities’ self-awarded right to dictate on us.
We have been directing our fury to the wrong target. We have been convinced by the culprits themselves that the problem lies with England’s representatives and entities who are just byproducts of the treaty of union. The problem lies in Bute House, Holyrood and our 59 seats in Westminster, which are the ones handing free Scotland independence vetoes to England’s representatives and byproducts of the union. The sooner we direct our focus and political might to the correct target, the sooner we would get going.
The minute our MSPs and MPs stop behaving as mouthpieces and crown’s tools in Scotland, we will be half way there. As an example, Scotland’s stone is today sitting under Charlie’s arse only because that spineless tool parachuted by the SNP executive to the post of FM of Scotland has chosen to embarrass and humiliate Scotland instead of embarrassing and humiliating the English crown.
As per England and its crown accepting Scotland’s independence and letting go of SCOTLAND’S assets, the way to ensure it is by demanding from our own political representatives to stop disinforming us about “secession” and the fabricated and self-awarded parliamentary sovereignty of a byproduct of the treaty of union.
The sovereignty of Scotland does not lie in a foreign parliament, in the political representatives or the crown of a foreign country. The sovereingty of Scotland lies on its people.
To this follows the demand from all our political representatives to stop portraying and treating Scotland as if it was a region of Greater England or a property of the crown.
Then we must demand them to stop hiding behind the nonsense of Crawford and Boyle and start acknwoledging the treaty of union for what it is: an international treaty. The exact same applies to the UK parliament and government, which are just by-products of the two parliaments, the parliaments of the Kingdom of Scotland and England and therefore subordinated to them.
The only thing that is needed to unilaterally revoke the treaty of union, which Scotland is perfectly entitled to do, is to reconvene Scotland’s old parliament. HOlyrood cannot be the reconvened Scottish parliament until the Scotland Act is ditched completely. For as long as our MSPs continue to hide behind it and force us to abide by it, Holyrood is not Scotland’s parliament, it is a branch of the UK parliament.
Once Scotland’s parliament is reconvened or Holyrood removes from itself the chains of the Scotland Act, then the Treaty of union and act of union with England can be unilaterally revoked.
Then that revocation is officially communicated in writing and simultaneously to the UN, to as many countries as possible, to England’s acting government and to the crown. And I say England’s government because the minute the Treaty and Act of Union with England are revoked, as the byproducts of the Treaty and Act of Union they are, the “UK government” and “UK parliament” cease to have legitimacy to operate as “Great Britain” entities.
At the same time, and in the expectation of hostility from our “partner” (and of course from the crown who has the highest vested interest in the treaty of union, which includes the succession to both crowns, to continue), mediators are requested from the UN and rest of the world for the fair partition of common assets. And I mean common assets. Because Scotland is not the property of the Kingdom of England, but just a treaty partner, England has no claim over Scotland’s geographical (both land and water) assets.
It is my opinion that “they will bend heaven and earth to take those resources from us” should read “so far they HAVE been bending heaven and earth to take those resources from us” and they have done so by transforming our own representatives into the representatives of the interests of the English crown and England itself. We have let them dictate us for the last 8 wasted years because we did not bring to heel the political frauds controlling what was our political vehicle for independence.
The minute you understand “Great Britain” and the current line of succession to Scotland’s crown are subordinated to an international treaty Scotland is perfectly entitled to unilaterally revoke, then that problem does no longer exist That problem only exists if you continue to accept the continuous brainwashing from our own political reprentatives acting as if those entities “own Scotland”, which they don’t.
Like in 1706, the key to the preservation of this union and the sustained assault on Scotland’s population and assets has been the consequence of the continuous and sustained betrayal of those who were elected to represent us but chose to represent the interests of the English crown instead.
This union only exists because our own representatives are allowing it to continue to exist despite not having given a mandate for it. We should always keep that in mind.
The biggest threat to our independence is seat warming Pete and his stupidity. Was he not the drummer in UnPositive Noise ?
Get yersel into Glasgow.
This is one of those times when people will ask in years to come ,,
“Where were you on the day the English crowned their latest parasite”
“Well actually, I was in Glasgow at a Scottish Independence Rally ”
Ok, must dash, see you there.
We are witnessing, particularly in the unedifying spectacle of Charles’s coronation ceremonies, the mad death throes of the desperate British empire. An empire which, unlike the Roman empire it sought to emulate, took much much more than it ever gave, if it ever gave anything of value at all to the nations it subjugated in the name of its one true god – greed.
A “Scot” Abroad.
GCHQ runs the NCSC.
“In late 2018 the online ‘hacktivist’ group Anonymous breached GCHQ’s digital security and leaked two batches of documents pertaining to the shady ‘Integrity Initiative’ (a project of the London government-funded, Fife-based, and curiously named Institute for Statecraft), exposing it as a nefarious ‘nudging’ operation. These leaks laid bare – or purported to lay bare – a massive domestic smear campaign against Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons, and the British state’s concerns over disadvantageous political developments in Scotland and the north of Ireland. One document questioned ‘Will the current relationship survive, or will we have a federal relationship, or will some become independent?’
What was most interesting was the suggestion of a nexus of communication linking the British government’s surveillance hub – GCHQ, the Integrity Initiative, and journalists and broadcasters working for unionist media outlets in Scotland.”
Big Jock 12.28pm, absolutely great post, i’ve screenshotted that to send to friends and family, that’ll open some of their eyes
12.28am.
Now that Nicola has fallen (and a bit further still to go) what do you think she will do next.
How’s her Spanish.
If there was a union between Ireland and Scotland. It would be two celtic nations sharing a common purpose and cultural identity.
The UK is basically England and represents Anglo Saxon culture. The Scots are culturally poles apart historically. There was an invention of Britishness around the time George visited Edinburgh in the 1800s. Partly assisted by people like Walter Scott.
But even Scott himself was fundamentally Scottish in speech and the written word. The small period of British identity existed for 150 years.
But burning underneath were figures like Mcdermid and the folk tradition. They kept the Scottish flame burning. Despite the Angles trying to eliminate Scotland by calling it North Britain.
The experiment failed. Scotland would never be North Britain. Because you can’t invent a nation. Scotland existed for a 1000 years before the Act Of Union. It still exists, because it’s a nation, Britain is not.
Scots who claim the British identity,are inventing a nationality to suit their political agenda. Britishness does not exist. It is simply Englishness by another name. That’s the part they are uncomfortable with.
Scotland is not , and never will be Anglo Saxon. Eventually the Union will fall apart. Ironically because there will be no perceived economic benefit after Brexit. It might indeed be economics rather than culture that end the Union.
Did Wishart not get the memo? According to Yousaf, his new boss, Sturgeon has already exhausted all avenues to end the UK Scotland/England ‘arrangement’, popularly known as the Union.
In the above arrangement, the UK claims democracy for itself, England owning that democracy, let no other oppose. Sturgeon, kindly agreed.
Pete, also agrees. However, believes his party has not yet exhausted all avenues of conning the electorate. SNP has submitted nothing outside the bounds of Devolution, since the inception of Holyrood, only alluded to it, IndyRef2, prime example.
The trick, as always, any proposal by SNP, of self-determination, must firstly be undermined by self doubt, that of it’s very legitimacy. The practicalities of Scottish Independence, then made an irrelevant, side show. No substantial inroads made or attempted.
As with every election, the above trick needs to be extended. Perhaps, sawing the SNP in half, trick, preferable to the disappearing, reappearing membership trick. A new stunt.
Meanwhile, a walk in the park, is exactly that.
Mia @ 9:37 am
“The problem lies in Bute House, Holyrood and our 59 seats in Westminster, which are the ones handing free Scotland independence vetoes to England’s representatives and byproducts of the union.”
That is the reality Mia, aw thay SNP MPs and MSPs are just as bad as the Commissioners wha selt oot Scotlan in 1707 an gied awa oor soveranety, juist anither parcel o rogues wirkin in cahoots wi oor doun-hauder. Colonial administrators, naethin mair. If yer unlucky eneuch tae see ony o thaim the day, tell thaim whaur tae gae.
The idea of self-IDing as ‘Scottish’ may be perceived as a compliment of sorts but it’s as futile as me identifying as James Brown. No matter how hard I try I will never be able to sing or do the splits, I’ll never be black and I’m currently still alive.
Idea for novel:
Scottish man wakes to find he is trapped inside an English dude’s body.
‘The horror…the horror…’
🙁
Just on my way out to the AUOB march and demo.
O/T I’ve just read that the Met police have arrested the leader of Republic in London on what looks like no grounds at all. Who’d a thought?
Mac says: 6 May, 2023 at 6:42 am
“Both BBC1 and BBC2 are devoted to it all day. Both channels, it is ridiculous. How on earth do they justify this shite.”
BBC1, BBC2, BBC ‘News’ (I use the term loosely) BBC Red Button 1. As someone who has worked in TV for over 40 years and was specifically trained in news ; there is not a grain of editorial justification for this. …We’re not living in the days of ‘405 line’ VHF transmissions where not every body could get BBC2! – Actually; we haven’t been for 50 years!
This isn’t ‘coverage’… it’s trying to ram ‘the event’ down the public’s throat! – Dictatorial!
Toadying along obedianetlyin the rear are STV, their compleltely divorced from real life ‘Milngavie Mafia’ management ever-beholding to their old public-school chums at ITV. – And of course all the ‘Gammon Vision’ channels are carrying it for those that absolutely insist on watching it in VHS/Amateur camcorder club quality!
…Why? Just ‘kin why? What’s going through the mince-laden heads of those that control these things.
The head of England’s leading republican movement has been arrested at an anti-monarchy protest in London.
Kudos to him and his supporters.
Meanwhile unionist SNP MPs like Blackford and Flynn are squatting on their pensioned posteriors eagerly waiting to take another oath to Tampon Charlie.
I can’t find up to date wings over Scotland blogsite except by going into btl posts, since yesterday. Anyone else have a similar problem?
Agree Joe. Wokeism is Marxism rebranded and their vision for our future is Communism rebranded.
Look at how authoritarian they are, how violent and threatening. Glibly talking about dismantling entire industries like an insane soviet planner. Persecuting and stitching-up political opponents. They are anti business, anti-Christian, anti-family. Introducing insidious and sinister hate crime legislation (see what Ireland is currently doing, another woke captured state). Weaponizing the police and justice system. Getting rid of juries. Radicalizing a tiny disaffected part of society to viciously attack the pillars of that society from within. They just replaced class wars with the identity wars. It is so obvious at this point. They are really very dangerous and Jordan Peterson (before he sold out) was very articulate on this subject.
It is very noticeable that while communism killed far more people than the nazis could dream of, it gets a free pass with all these wokerati types. Why? Because that is fundamentally what they are and they know it.
They even tip their own hand by calling everyone they don’t like a Nazi when it is clearly ridiculous to say so. They do this because fundamentally they are communists and this why they have to re-invent Nazis to make into their ‘enemy’. You see this in all of their dialogue, slogans etc. For example just look at the origins and history of ANTIFA, the tactics, the slogans, the symbols, it is all right there in front of you, it is ‘trans-communism’. Essentially Communism has self-id as something else to fool us.
So well worth bearing in mind that Sturgeon explicitly attempted to make Scotland essentially the most ‘woke’ country in the world. And Yousaf is continuing with that. This is really all about exerting their control over us.
The SNP under Sturgeon was hijacked with all this woke poison and all that has changed with Yousaf is the identity of the lead hijacker. And he currently is flying the SNP at 500 mph towards that big electoral sky scraper on the horizon. (We are going to run out of SNP disaster analogies before this is over.)
.
For Stuart Campbell, Editor of Wings Over Scotland.
Hi Stuart.
A sincere thanks for all that you have done and sadly, cheerio.
Not quite “on-topic”, but it is a Big Country thread, so this posting might be allowed tortuously.
Stuart, as one of your long-term readers and supporters, I think it right to take cognisance of what the majority on BTL hold as a point of view.
I refer to the IndyRef vote and the Head of State issue.
Whether to support Independence for Scotland or for Scotland to be part of the bigger country of the U.K., is a matter that has several of us in moral torture. Today is appropriate to decide.
Alex Salmond walked a very fine line, ever the shrewd politician. Alex Salmond is an exemplary Statesman, he set out a clear policy…
1. Scotland Votes for or against becoming an independent country.
2. All other matters follow after that Independence Referendum.
Stuart, I served in uniform and gave an Oath to our Head of State in the 1980s. I could live with Alex Salmond’s subsequent view. If Scotland became Independent,then if Scotland voted to abolish the Monarchy, so be it.
There are many people at Wings BTL forum who hold views on Scotland becoming a Republic as a DECIDED matter. The Indy vote is conflated. The vote is put forward by many as Scotland becoming and Independent Republic. I deeply respect each persons right to their views. Alas, some folk are highly abusive. If you fall into the 16% of Scottish voters who have been described as a “soft yes” but also support the monarchy, then you are open target for abuse. Why bother to fight to vote yes against such Amadans?
The loudest clamour, almost to a dangerous point of arrogance is that anyone who votes yes, but happens to support our current constitutional settlement of being in favour of a monarchy can get to fu** insofar as Wings BTL majority is concerned.
I use the word “dangerous” advisedly. New Labour arrogantly assumed that Scotland belonged to their political party. The thrawn Scottish voter (and I am born and bred Glaswegian, so know all about “thrawn”) decided otherwise. New Labour got booted out by 1 Holyrood seat in 2007. The SNP got into Scotland’s government by just 1 seat. Our constituency had a majority of 800 odd votes in favour of the SNP over Labour. That is the first time I voted for the SNP. It was a very close call between Alex Salmond and Jack McConnell.
At that time, First Minister Jack McConnell had just not done well enough politically.
Now, we have the NuSNP mired in sleaze, corruption, alleged criminality and political meltdown. Virgin on bankruptcy.
It is a breathtaking arrogance to assume the SNP will always “own” Scotland. That the Scottish voters are obliged to vote SNP.
Right now, 6th May 2023 NOT ONE political part is fit to hold the office of First Minister. The voters and Scotland are stuffed.
I am as certain as can be that if Scotland were now a Republic, the Murrells and their control of COPFS and control of Police Scotland and the Murrells incestuous control of government departments, means they would have orchestrated matters so that Scotland, as an independent Republic, would be governed by…
PRESIDENT STURGEON
She has been proven to have abused power. Her hands have NOW been removed from the levers of power. She will shortly announce divorce, then throw her husband under the political/legal bus and retire to America or Canada with a Job at the United Nations.
No system is perfect. But I can only vote yes for an independent Scotland if the checks and balances are in place.
Johanna Cherry QC won her case on the proroguing of Westminster Parliament because she and others proved politician PM Boris Johnson had lied to the Queen.
Remarkably, a Scottish MP managed to legally force the recall of the U.K. Westminster Parliament.
If Scotland were a republic, President Sturgeon would be behaving like the narcissistic psycho, Donald Trump, or the child-sniffing Joe Biden, or the nuclear warmongering horseman of the Apocalypse, Vladimir Putin. The latter on the cusp of committing self-immolation by nuclear extinction.
Even moderate presidents are horrendous. Macron in France is loathed. In Canada, their president has been woke-captured to the point where SOGI policy has drag queens in primary schools and the “minor attracted person” group in Canada are soon to be protected by statute.
Whereas in Scotland, we had COP26. Warm words to save the planet. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak snubbed the next summit. Right up until King Charles invited the participants to a reception that he, as our Head of State held.
Next thing, Prime Minister Sunak about-faced and turned up at the invitation of King Charles. Soft power exercised as a check and balance. The Glasgow COP26 legacy respected. None too shabby a result from a constitutional monarch.
At this time there is NO perfect constitutional settlement in any country on the planet. All human beings are flawed.
But from my perspective, I have seen the Prince of Wales at first hand. He did NOT want the job. When in Scotland, I have photos of the Prince helping out at our charity. Quietly, without press and wanting to just be an ordinary person. He craves privacy. He desires a normal life.
The U.K. is a monarchy. So he is doing the job the best he can as did his mother.
An unwritten element that many people miss and all those who present the argument that we do not elect a King or Queen is the fact that IF the monarchy get things so badly wrong, then the Sword of Damocles makes it an existential problems. That is a little understood check and balance.
So here we have it.
Either President Sturgeon (or now President Yousaf)., or Scots Bonny King Charles and a very benign role that does their best.
Stuart, there is no perfect solution that I can see.
But Hell will freeze over before I would vote for President Sturgeon or President Sarwar or President Ross.
Even President Salmond would have problems.
Nope, until we have a BETTR system than the binfire that is the deviant orgy of fuc*ked up weirdos in Holyrood who stand up and applaud the chick-with-a-dick female (with male bits) whom this website prepared a viable case for prosecution as a rapist, then I will vote with my feet and tick the box for the current monarchy thanks.
My grandmother was a Communist shortly after the Tsar and his family were executed in Yekateringburg. My parents said she would role over in her grave when I swore an Oath to defend the Queen. But thems the breaks.
We all get to choose.
It matters to me that we get to choose with some civility. But sadly, Wings BTL is not the place. That’s not meant as a dig. I very much understand the strength of feeling some folk have.
But I just cannot see a way in which I could vote for President Sturgeon or worse.
Stuart, I’ve really enjoyed your style of very thorough writing. You have maintained an honesty and integrity which very, very rarely, can be proven as accurate and fair. So much so, that readers, myself included, have been delighted to send in contributions to support your style of journalism.
Today of all days, I am one of those who are now heading from YES to NO in respect of IndyRef2.
Good luck to all those on Wings who have engaged civilly and constructively over the past decade.
@Mia
You are a very good writer and deserve an equally worthy reply but I will have to keep this to fewer words than it deserves and address the key points.
Demand – a demand requires force to back it up. Right now, as Scots, we have none. Certainly not the kind of force that would make Britain do what we want against their political and economic well being. The question is that when the British establishment says ‘no’ and activates the media to paint us as dangerous extremists in order justifying a crackdown on us – what do we hit back with?
The UN/’international community’ – im actually surprised that anyone with intelligence can even begin to suggest this approach. I will be convinced that the UN or international community is something we can appeal to the minute they do something to actually stop the genocide in Palestine. Until then I will consider the idea that we can appeal to such an organisation as misguided.
As for Scottish politicians? Anyone who has been on this blog long enough can see that I was calling out our political establishment long before most even began to get to grips with the notion that something might be wrong. Nothing the SNP has done surprised me, in fact I predicted much of it on this blog right down to the emerging facts that they have a massive amounts of sexual deviants within their ranks, because I’m looking at the correct historical context as well as the current political situation in other western countries. It’s all there if anybody wants to gather the testicular fortitude to actually look beyond what’s acceptable.
Scots MUST begin to understand that the political route for us is something of a red herring. Not least because we simply don’t have the means to bring any force to the bargaining table, but because even our own leaders are weak and pathetic who can’t properly defend women or girls nor address the fact that our cities look increasingly like Africa and our villages sound increasingly like Kent.
This obsession with politically demanding our way into walking off with our own country and all its resources to the serious detriment of the establishment in London is currently a foolish distraction that has people sitting on their hands waiting for the next election while the culture war, the economic war and the demographic war are all waged against us to make sure that our people are finished before we ever get the chance to govern ourselves politically.
Are you all pretending that Scotland never had a King? Not to mention that Scotland took the English Crown – literally took it over. If you don’t want a monarchy fair enough, but don’t pretend that Charles is not King of Scotland. He is.
@Mac
Spot on. In fact if we look outside of the acceptable narratives around the history of the 20th century we find the people we are told 24/7 are the worst people to ever live were warning us of what’s happening right now.
All while the people they were warning us of, who set up hundreds of gulags, execution squads, had kill quotas and also pushed extreme sexual perversion (including transexualism for children) and ultimately caused the death of 10’s of millions get a free pass.
You could say that we have been deliberately misled.
So the SNP’s new auditors are promoting a dodgy tax avoidance scheme according to Tax Policy Associates.
I wonder how they will view the SNP’s own version of creative accounting.
Good grief, it’s all communists and crowns today.
I’ll be glued to the telly today to watch a privileged and befuddled old man put a chair on his head and sit on his hat.
What does it mean to be a Scot? Can anyone be a Scot?
Is it just a self-id thing?
At least to be British you have to pass a Britishness test.
To be Scottish you just have to buy a tartan tie.
What do you have to do to be ‘English’?
Is the Prime Minister English? Could he be Scottish if he wanted?
Why are you so keen to prove you are ‘blood & soil’ Scottish?
Do you believe because of your ancestry you are more Scottish than the First Minister. I don’t think his granny was Scottish although he does have a fair number of tartan ties.
Vote YES to be Scottish not British.
Birth Name: Charles Philip Arthur George
Place of Birth: Buckingham Palace, Westminster, London, England, U.K.
Date of Birth: 14 November, 1948
Ethnicity: European Royal, as well as English, small amounts of German, Hungarian, French, Anglo-Irish, distant Irish, Danish, Swedish, Swiss, Belgian, Dutch, Bohemian/Czech, Scottish, Lithuanian, Russian, Polish
How can he be King of Scotland when Scotland doesn’t exist?
Just listen to that MacAskill interview…
Sturgeon systematically and methodically destroyed the internal democracy of the SNP and centralized power in herself and her husband, totally destroyed it and made herself an effective dictator. Sound familiar?
Cabinet ministers disappeared from view and it was all about Nicky. That ‘Big Brother’ party political broadcast they did with her face on all the TVs was very close to the truth.
The other ‘noteable’ thing Sturgeon did was attempt to stitch-up an innocent man in the most foul manner. Knowing that at his age and health it would likely be a death sentence. Proper psycho behaviour that is way beyond the pale.
People go on about what a great politician Sturgeon was but I don’t see it, at all. All I see is a Poundland Joe Stalin and a very unpleasant character who squandered and misappropriated the vast amount of political capital bequeathed to her by the very man she betrayed in the most foul manner possible. She leaves behind a complete husk of a party, drained to sustain her ten wasted years ego trip.
Sturgeon was unfit for political office as she has zero respect for democracy as evidenced by what she did to her own party as leader. She was also completely unfit for public office as evidenced by her role in the stitch-up of Alex Salmond. Totally unscrupulous individual who should not be allowed anywhere near power.
It is clearly identifiable trait. Look how authoritarian Trudeau is, same with Ardern and same with Sturgeon, all of them ultra woke. It is not just a coincidence. The whole woke thing is a very cleverly crafted front, a Trojan horse. The current indoctrination of younger generations right now is frightening.
Wit time is Bargain Hunt on?
link to twitter.com
highlights of the rituals will be
– disembowelling of the catholic
– hiding of the royal accounts
the final test, to prove the true kinghood of the new monarch has been updated for the modern era
– perfect speedrun of donkey kong in under 10 minutes
ending with the usual blood orgy and adrenochrome feast at the masonic lodge
You tell them auld yin.
link to twitter.com
Ruby at 11:12 am –
“Why are you (A Scot Abroad) so keen to prove you are ‘blood & soil’ Scottish?”
Probably because challenging his national identity and ethnicity is being used an ad hominem argument.
‘If you disagree with me you cannot be Scottish and I can disregard any points you raise without further consideration.’
Such intolerance.
‘Ergo, non-Scots must not be allowed to express a view on the current and future status of the UK.
No No
Not King of Scotland.
King of Scots …yes!
King of England … yes!
There is the difference.
robbo says:
6 May, 2023 at 11:56 am
“Wit time is Bargain Hunt on?”
Dunno… But there’s back-to-back ‘life below zero’ followed by ‘homestead rescue’ on DMAX. – Then, at seven its on yer bike Italian style!
Having nothing much to do today, although I understand that there is something happening somewhere, I thought, log on to ‘Wings’, and have a keek at the goings on there. I even attempted to read the posts.
Some generic observations-
A Scot Abroad-it appears that you incurred the wrath of the Bonnie Purple Heather Brigade. You have to understand that unless you are a member of that ‘clan’ you will be derided irrespective of what you post.
Mia-Why write 100 words when you can write 1000. I suspect that most people get bored with your scribblings half way through.
Ruby-Do you start everyday with an argument, especially with that person who looks back at you in the mirror, if there is no one else around.
Umpteen refences to the 300 year old stuff that most Scots have no interest in at all.
70% of the electorate have no real interest in Politics other than how it affects their pockets at the end of the week/month.
25% of the electorate cannot be arsed to even vote.
5% of Scots, probably less to be honest, take the time to read Political blogs like Wings. Less than 1% will comment.
Common sense dictates, show the electorate how better we could be in an Independent Scotland, as several posters sometimes allude to, but of course they are shouted down by the BPHB.
It could be worse-I also looked at the WGD site. Queen Nicola still reigns. The SNP are blameless for what has happened in recent times in Scotland. It is all the fault of the Tories. Labour, who have not been in power for over a decade, are also at fault.
Scotland is in an almighty mess with no signs of any improvement in the foreseeable future. Will the ‘Grand Merch’ today change anything for the better?
Apologies for the length of this post.
@Ruby 11:12
“Do you believe because of your ancestry you are more Scottish than the First Minister.”
He is, because he is a Scot. Blood and soil is what makes someone a Scot. The current First Minister is not a Scot.
“Vote YES to be Scottish not British.”
And that is the problem. You do not want to be a Scot, you only want to be Scot-ish. That way you can pretend to be loyal to Scotland without actually being loyal to Scotland, or the Scots.
link to change.org
Is Chris on holiday – again?
link to twitter.com
The masses at Kelvin Way were magnificent today.
What a happy and joyous gathering of people stand up for themselves and their country.
Thousand and thousands of Saltire Flags flying high.
I look forward to the police and media reducing their reported number by 10’s thousands.
I hear the Sun warned that the police would make arrests on a hate filled comments?
Never heard a cross word at any of these marches but maybe manky jacket will report people booing the clown.
Couldn’t make the march, have a lurgy. Hope it went well.
Re the coronation, I disconnected my TV aerial about eighteen years ago and have never missed it. I haven’t seen anything in the supermarkets promoting it, may as well not be happening as far as I am concerned.
What makes someone British? Is the Prime Minister & the King British?
Can a Unionist be a Scot or just Scot-ish?
Is ‘A Scot abroad’ just Scot-ish?
If it’s down to blood & soil then I am most definitely a Scot although on saying that there is the question of whether the soil for the past 300 is Scottish or British.
I want Scottish nationality because it’s shite being Scottish & British.
I want to be Scottish Scottish.
Something to relish.
link to off-guardian.org
Re those warnings about ‘hate speech’ issued before the AUOB march. Were warnings issued by GCC before the gathering of politicians and woke activists at the steps in Buchanan Street? You know, the one with men holding up posters threatening violence. Where there are photos of a close up of grinning SNP ninnies in front of a young man holding a poster threatening decapitation for ‘terfs’?
Did the police charged with policing hate speech ever follow up on that image? He could be seen quite clearly and identified from that, if anyone was interested.
There’s a whole debate and multiple nuances in defining what being Scottish means. In truth, it probably means different things to different people, and there won’t be a single “right” answer.
To many, myself included, it’s about ancestry, not about in which country you live. I’m not however going to deny people the right to call themselves Scottish if Scotland is where they grew up and live: the First Minister is a Scot by that way of thinking. And fair play to him. To others it’s about which passport you hold. Think of the millions of Americans who proudly declare themselves Irish American or Hispanic American or African American, even if it is hundreds of years since their ancestors came to America.
Citizenship is adjacent, but not the same. I’m a British citizen. If Scotland attains independence, I’ll apply for a new Scottish passport, because I’d want to acknowledge my ancestry and become a Scottish citizen. I wouldn’t relinquish my British citizenship. I’d become a dual citizen.
That doesn’t really answer my question.
Why did he feel the need to tell us his preferred national identity and ethnicity?
To refer to Norfolk as being abroad is pretty strange it as if he was trying to fool us.
The main reason he is being challenged is because he is a Unionist.
It was lovely to see all those saltires right enough but it surprises me that I saw no kent faces – you’d have thought amongst a crowd of possibly 15,000 – or possibly more- there would have been a face I recognised.
Kept my eyes open for a cowboy hat on top of a prickly pal or Iain B , Ronnie Anderson with a Wings flag but no.
I thought I saw BDTT but he wasn’t wearing his hat so maybe not.
For all the marches I have gone on my own I have never felt lonely , they have all been good humoured, happy occasions and I\m sure the Bobbies who volunteer to police it are absolutely delighted so to do.
It was a tad damp today – the only downer or downpour. Had to leave early but had to be there to be counted.
Where were you during the 2014 IndyRef debate?
The UK Gov said no to dual Scottish/British citizenship.
One of the main reason was because they would have to pay you ‘the heating allowance’ or some such drivel.
You are going to have to make a choice Scottish or British.
Which would it be?
Can I suggest to you that you go back and read all the newspaper re the IndyRef from 2011 until 2014.
People are getting annoyed with you because you are bringing up the same stuff that was done to death from 2011-2014.
PS Were your ancestors British?
Ah got fuckin drount, but still a rerr day.
On yahoo I read that Scottish Police report 5,000 marchers?
There were 10,000 flags there and most didn’t have a flag.
The reputation of the Police could hardly plummet further but they are trying. Very trying!
Re rally today.
Unbroken line of marchers from George Square to Glasgow Green.
Glad to have contributed.
@Dorothy Devine –
Good turnout of Wingers.
Cactus, QuiniefaeAngus, Betty Boop & Awfypuggled, X-Sticks, Jock Scot, Ruglonian, Lenny Hartley.
Didn’t see Tinto Chiel but I know he was going with his better half.
Great to catch up with them all – we have all aged beautifully, like the very finest wines.
Next time, hopefully, you’ll be there too.
😉
“Citizenship is adjacent, but not the same. I’m a British citizen. If Scotland attains independence, I’ll apply for a new Scottish passport, because I’d want to acknowledge my ancestry and become a Scottish citizen. I wouldn’t relinquish my British citizenship”
Really!
A”Scot”Abroad.
You’ve constantly tried to shoot holes in every aspect of Scottish independence, and played down the most likely route out of this fetid union, please forgive us if we take the above with a huge pinch of salt.
In truth there’s no case for the union, there’s nothing a indy Scotland couldn’t do that an indy England could do albeit be a member of the P5, and most Scots wouldn’t want that anyway.
Ruby,
I wasn’t planning on telling either Government what I’d do with my existing citizenship. The Scottish Government said (in 2014) that it would adopt the Irish model, whereby you get citizenship if you have one Irish grandparent. Well, I had three Scottish grandparents, was born in and grew up in Scotland, and served in a Scottish regiment, so I don’t think Edinburgh would turn me down. As for London, they wouldn’t know.
@Dorothy Devine –
Good turnout of Wingers.
Ca**us, QuiniefaeAngus, Betty Boop & Awfypuggled, X-Sticks, Jock Scot, Ruglonian, Lenny Hartley.
Didn’t see Tinto Chiel but I know he was going with his better half.
Great to catch up with them all – we have all aged beautifully, like the very finest wines.
Next time, hopefully, you’ll be there too.
?