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Out in the cold

Posted on January 01, 2021 by

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  1. 01 01 21 01:56

    Out in the cold | speymouth
    Ignored

284 to “Out in the cold”

  1. Karen
    Ignored
    says:

    Sniff.

  2. Simone
    Ignored
    says:

    Not as heartbreaking as the candle being snuffed out, but close

  3. Liz g
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy New Year Wingers …. xxxx
    And we can’t leave oor Hamish in such a state for much longer ….on that I think we are all agreed.
    2021 must be the time to act however we must 🙂

  4. Alistair Walker
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy new year to all wingers. Hope all our dreams come true this year and we don’t have to eat the wild life.

  5. Shug
    Ignored
    says:

    Here is hoping nicola has a plan as I am embarrassed to call friends in europe

  6. MrMilkshake
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy new year Stu!
    All the very best for 2021!

  7. Scot Finlayson
    Ignored
    says:

    What a miserable fricken year,

    think next six months will be worse with Brexit and the English strain,

    thanks No voters,

    anyhoo,

    Happy New Year Chris and Stu and every other true Scottish patriot.

  8. robertknight
    Ignored
    says:

    Sums it up Chris.

    All the best to you and yours.

  9. Dan
    Ignored
    says:

    Were those amazing new blue UK passports that are made in Poland by a French / Dutch company included in the trade deal?
    It’d be a right laugh if nobody in the EU could be arsed to transport them to old Blighty what with the extra cost and customs hassle of being out of their single market.

  10. John Alexander Ferguson
    Ignored
    says:

    It won’t be long till Leslie Evans will be knocking at the door of Bute house asking for the keys. What then I wonder.

  11. North chiel
    Ignored
    says:

    Hopefully “ the long retreat” is over this year and “ the tide turns “ in 2021 . Perhaps the “ fireworks” display at midnight from Stirling’s Wallace monument ( instead of Edinburgh castle) is a “ SIGN” of change for this New Year ? The “ dream will never die” .

  12. Boaby
    Ignored
    says:

    How can any Scot go abroad after today and call themselves Scottish. Have you no shame, have you no self respect. FFS what is the matter with you people?. Is the cringe so deeply ingrained in you that you cannot get off your f****n knees?. Sadly you deserve all thats coming to you’s in spades.

  13. tricia young
    Ignored
    says:

    Aw Chris, just brill. Also I wish.

  14. TJenny
    Ignored
    says:

    Stu and all Wingers, wishing you all A Very Happy New Year. ?

    We can only hope that 2021 will be an improvement and that movement towads indy is rapid and relentless.

    Can we expect any SNP indy strategy announcement after the bells or later during the day? Now is the time.

  15. Boaby
    Ignored
    says:

    NI with 56% of a remain vote and gibraltar get eu access. But Scotland with 62% remain vote get dragged out by their masters. Not one other nation in the world would put up with this shite scenario, get back to watching your corrie and eastenders you sweaty socks.

  16. tricia young
    Ignored
    says:

    and forgot to say to stu, happy new year. Always got ur back x

  17. Boaby
    Ignored
    says:

    Ach i’m angry and just letting rip, but my heart goes out to all you true Scots (not the proud british scots) who yearn for indy.

  18. And spouse
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy new year to all

  19. X_Sticks
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy New Year. Here’s tae ye aw Wingers.

    Thanks to you too Stu. You’ve kept our eyes open, sometimes in spite of ourselves. There’s no doubt you force me to think like no other blogger does. I thank you for that. Sometimes I do wish you were wrong, but you haven’t been yet. Remarkable.

    Let’s just hope we can pull ourselves our of the fire. It sure ain’t going to be easy. I do think we can do it though. We must.

  20. And spouse
    Ignored
    says:

    Me n her Went outside at 11pm and took a pic beside my EU Saltire with a candle , sent it to all my European mainland friends and asked them to keep a light on. Sad

  21. Big Del
    Ignored
    says:

    Let’s hope happy new year wingers.

    This time last year we were going forward.

    Time to start again get the negative out.

    Out with all old…… and,
    in with Cherry’s and Salmon’s…..

  22. Nell G
    Ignored
    says:

    To all the wingers have a happy New Year! The true Scots holiday so take a day or two off and relax. You will need your strength going into 2021 as I believe it will be a monumental year. Indy won’t happen but the tide of opinion will overcome those who have placed blockades in our path the last half decade. Change is afoot so keep the pressure up.

  23. Kevin Cargill
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy New Year Stu and Chris. 2020 was a bastard but despite some of your blogs being particularly downbeat and heart rending at the death of a 100% committed Independence Party in Scotland and the accompanying niche factions taking over for a while and the never ending conspiracy against Salmond and the lost donations and the woke NEC and the not woke NEC and the corrupt Murrells, despite all that, we could not do without the truth that you so eloquently bring. You are “The Truth”. We love you for being the greatest fact checker there is. We love Chris for being the greatest exponent of satirical cartooning who makes us laugh, wince and/or cry every Saturday morning. Please please please keep on keeping on!

  24. Beaker
    Ignored
    says:

    Oh, are we out? Blackford said that wisnae gonna happen like.

    Never mind, it’s a New Year. Forget the whatifs and move forward.

  25. Brian Doonthetoon
    Ignored
    says:

    Fr the first time in decades, I managed to sleep through “the bells” – woke at the back of 2.

    I am currently partaking of ‘Three Barrels” brandy with ice (Christmas present from my son), with Brie I bought well over a month ago, on cream crackers, as a nod in the direction of ‘the Auld Alliance’.

    I wish all pro-indy Wingers (and Sensibledave) all the best for 2021.

    I’ll just link to this…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoZZVkDVZ0c

  26. twathater
    Ignored
    says:

    MY new year wish , Alex Salmond’s evidence puts the Murrells and their Clique out in the cold and Hamish ignores their pleas for forgiveness , alongside Cherry our NEW FM making the HR election a plebicite election followed by a declaration of INDEPENDENCE

    Westminster would shit a brick

  27. Brian Doonthetoon
    Ignored
    says:

    And to reinforce the Franco-Scottish link.

    First came across this in 2914. Emotional.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WulAWn_N_O0

  28. Effijy
    Ignored
    says:

    Chris you are the best since James Gillray.

    It’s such a challenging craft that you reign over so wonderfully well.
    I have a contact with a wonderful and expensive collection of 17th and
    18th century cartoons, a talented cartoonist himself but being a very rich
    Chap who thrived under the Butchers apron refuses to see your own exceptional skill.

    More power to your elbow. Again you have ensured your place in Scotland’s history.

  29. Northman
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy new year Stu & Chris
    and to every truth teller in the world.

    Happy new year wingers. May your wishes come true.

    You matter more than you can ever know!

  30. Hatuey
    Ignored
    says:

    This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. This storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.

    Here we go again, hurled into the unknown future looking backwards at the growing pile of shit we created. Being a bit of a morbid bastard, I could probably come up with quite an impressive list of reasons for us all to be rather depressed about our prospects in the year ahead. I’m not inclined to though, principally because I’m filled with a quite irrational sense of optimism.

    If you look at what the smart money is doing, there’s a lot of reasons to be cheerful and positive about the vaccine and returning to something resembling normality in the next few months. So, hang in there, re-double your covid safety efforts, and look forward to stepping out into the summer sun with this damned disease behind us.

    Brexit is over in many respects but it’ll continue to serve a useful purpose for us in any debates about independence. They treated us like shit and dragged us out of Europe against our will – nobody could seriously dispute that.

    At some point people will wake up to the chronic uselessness of Sturgeon and she will be replaced with someone more authentic. Between now and then, stay safe, enjoy the show, and read more Walter Benjamin.

  31. Willie
    Ignored
    says:

    A good New Year to all.

    Can’t say that I had a scintilla of celebration. I like so many others am utterly aghast at where our country has ended up.. and for the first time in forty years a member of the SNP I have nothing but contempt for the party, or more accurately should I say the leadership and many of the time servers who are only in it for the pay and pension.

    But maybe, just maybe, the committed nationalists, of whom there are many, will push through to depose those who have sold us out to this occupying foreign Westminster Government.

    Our dream will never die.

  32. Willie
    Ignored
    says:

    And to our good friends in London and the South East can I just say that Chris’s cartoon could be said to reflect the NHS in London which is now operating in disaster mode unable to cope with COVID numbers.

    With oxygen shortages, critical care being reduced to one nurse per three patients as opposed to one, and with routine cancer, heart and other care being cancelled, the cartoon most certainly reminds us all of folk being cast out and denied medical care.

    And all on our National Day of Brexit Celebration. Understaffed, underfunded, one does wonder where the big yellow NHS bus that was to be bringing in over £300 million a day has been this last year when we left the EU.

    Anyway, here’s a copy of a report from today’s Independent reporting on the crisis. Something to celebrate and chortle on Prime Minister – especially when Jock gets his turn too when we disperse patients north.

    INDEPENDENT 1 JANUARY 2021

    “ Staff at the Royal London Hospital were sent an email by management revealing the dire state of the situation, amid rising pressure on the NHS as Covid cases continue to soar.

    “We are now in disaster-medicine mode. We are no longer providing high-standard critical care, because we cannot,” the email said. “While this is far from ideal, it’s the way things are, and the way they have to be for now.

    “Every hospital in north-east London is struggling, some with insufficient oxygen supplies, all with insufficient nursing numbers. Believe it or not, Royal London critical care is coping well relative to some sites. Kent is in a similar, if not worse, position.”?Medics were also told “things are going to get harder before they get better”.

  33. Willie
    Ignored
    says:

    And one last comment this morning as the Angel of Death visits our London and South Eastern friends – but wasn’t it our Prime Minister who said …..” we’ll just have to take it on the chin”

    Dulce et decorum est. Pro patria mori.

    And maybe, like the glorious fallen on the First World War, many of the slain will have a good death. Our insanity, our inhumanity goes on, and on this first morning of 2021 it is difficult not to reflect on how we voted for this.

    Enough said!

  34. john king
    Ignored
    says:

    Getting your moneys worth out of Holiday boy now ref!

  35. Stoker
    Ignored
    says:

    HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL WINGERS & INDY SUPPORTERS THE WORLD OVER. 🙂

  36. Liam G
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy New Year 2021 to Stu, Chris and all the Wingers andYessers

  37. Breeks
    Ignored
    says:

    A guid new year to all. Welcome 2021. Thig a-steach and take a seat. After 2020, we’d better sit you down and give you an induction…

    I woke up surprisingly positive.

    If I had the know-how (and frankly the will to keep it going), I’d set up an online Orphanage for the Politically Homeless in Scotland. Seems apt.

    We could sit chewing the fat, and having online workshops teaching people to repurpose the voting slips we no longer have any use for. Nothing as seedy as wiping your arse with it. – There would be instruction courses in traditional paper doilies, aeroplanes and concertina snowflakes of course, but if funding allowed it, there’d be nothing to stop us inviting a Grand Master in Origami all the way from Japan to teach us how to make something spectacular and maybe even functional.

    I’d also like to set up a second web-page to kick start Scotland’s Campaign to Join the European Union. I think SCJEU has a real catchy ring to it! Never fear, the SCJEU’s here!

    Perhaps the EU can be persuaded to send missionaries and envoys to Scotland, armed with occassional food parcels of exotic delicacies, and shiny-shiny trinkets to dazzle us. Maybe they will sit with us in dark places as we plot the subversion and downfall of the UK’s evil Empire, then disappear into the shadows we came from from… phantom Guerilla’s in the Scotch Mist…

    As you’ve probably guessed, when I said I woke up surprisingly positive, I may have been SNPing with the truth. I’ve actually spent the morning strategically placing sick-buckets around the place so there’s always one handy whenever I hear an SNP tosser bleating about how terrible Brexit is, and whining about how somebody should have done something to stop it.

    So Fáilte 2021! Fk Westminster. Fk Holyrood. Fk Tories. Fk the SNP. NONE of them have sovereignty in Scotland. They are all CROOKS helping themselves to what belongs to us, and none of them will get a democratic endorsement from me.

  38. Robert Louis
    Ignored
    says:

    But, but ,but Iain Blackford promised Scotland would not be taken out of the EU against its wishes…

    We are where we are now, here on 1st January 2021, because of the SNP, not in spite of them. We gave them our votes, democratic mandate after democratic mandate, and they did nothing. Excuse after excuse after excuse.

    Nicola Sturgeon is a fraud in my opinion. First she wanted us to wait to see how the brexit deal went, then it wass a case of we need to convince Boris to give a section 30. Next we need to get an SNP majority in Holyrood, then we need to beg again fopr a section 30, then we’ll need ANOTHER mandate, and so on. Nope, sorry, I have just had my EU citizenship forcibly removed against my wishes by England’s racist government, and those careerist barstewards in the SNP did nothing, but play silly political games.

    They have their cosy careers and expenses, they have their nice generous pensions, but other Scots will suffer.

    Nicola Sturgeon is a joke. The SNP is a joke. At least Boris did what he said he would do, the SNP promised lots and did nothing.

    I despise the English and Scottish governments in equal measure this morning. No doubt the lovely Nicola will tweet about her fav book of last year or some other irrelevant sh*te, while Scotland is dragged under by England. Scotland is well and truly under the jackboot of an English dictatorship, and ALL our Scottish politicians have let us down. They should hang their heads in shame.

    We tried the ballot box, perhaps next we need civil disobedience. How about blockading Grangemouth? That’ll really screw up England. It is time for Scots to rise up, and throw off England’s chains.

    If Nicola Sturgeon is not going to announce some REAL immediate action towards independence today, then she should resign and take her waste of space husband, and her wokey friends with her. Oh, and we wnat OUR ‘ring-fenced’ money for a referendum back.

    Six wasted years.

    We want independence, not talk.

  39. Robert Louis
    Ignored
    says:

    Breeks at 0814am, sums up EXACTLY how utterly betrayed I (and many other Scots) feel today.

    It is worth re-quoting this in the hope that somebody, somewhere in the SNP might take heed (unlikely, judging by their conceit, arrogance and disdain for independence or independence supporters).

    QUOTE “I’ve actually spent the morning strategically placing sick-buckets around the place so there’s always one handy whenever I hear an SNP tosser bleating about how terrible Brexit is, and whining about how somebody should have done something to stop it.

    So Fáilte 2021! Fk Westminster. Fk Holyrood. Fk Tories. Fk the SNP. NONE of them have sovereignty in Scotland. They are all CROOKS helping themselves to what belongs to us, and none of them will get a democratic endorsement from me.”

  40. Willie
    Ignored
    says:

    Yes Breeks, your sentiments will be those of many others too.

    And to lift your mood a little more I under note a statement being reported today by arch Tory Sir Bill Cash in which in relation to Brexit he declares :-

    “ It is a momentous moment which, by any historic standards, can only be compared in peacetime to what happened in the late 1680s and ‘90s,” he said…

    “Which was the removal of the Stuarts, but followed by the new parliamentary constitutional arrangements which were enacted through the Act of Succession with the Hanoverians going on the throne”

    So, knowing that we can all take comfort in the guaranteed success strategy that is Wheesht for Indy.

    Otherwise, have a nice day – and don’t worry about the COVID super surge and collapsing health system down south. It’s not reached Scotland yet albeit that the London and SE surge now appears to be lapping Cumbria.

  41. H Scott
    Ignored
    says:

    2021

    Nicola Sturgeon

    Your fate will be decided this year and it’s up to you.

    No more betrayal without consequences.

  42. H Scott
    Ignored
    says:

    Just to be clear, I’m talking political consequences before anyone takes that the wrong way.

  43. Sensibledave
    Ignored
    says:

    Briandoonthetoon 3.07

    A happy new year to you and all Wingers … I genuinely hope that 2021 brings you whatever it is that you want. At least Brexit is now done, hopefully by the end of spring, will see us having got on top of Covid and we can return to some sort of normality … sadly that may therefore result in West Ham United sliding from their lofty heights of mid table mediocrity back to our rightful place in a relegation struggle.

  44. Meg merrilees
    Ignored
    says:

    Willie@8.45

    I read that crass remark from Bill Cash this morning. What an extraordinary statement – the insight it gives to the mind of such an intelligent man is frightening!

    However, he talks about a time of huge change in England which had equally huge repercussions for Scotland so in that respect it is an accurate comparison.

    However my thoughts quickly ran ahead from 1680s/90s to 1707. Perhaps it is a self fulfilling prophesy and as a result of this ‘huge change’ in England, it may finally be the catalyst to end this unequal Union for good – but hopefully not after a 17 year wait!

  45. Dorothy Devine
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy New year to all.

    Sadly I have begun to think of the British Isles as a very large Gruinard , a plague set of islands if you will, to be avoided by the rest of the world at all costs.

  46. Margaret Lindsay
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy New Year to all of you Wingers.

  47. Ruglonian
    Ignored
    says:

    All the best for the new year, to Stu, Chris and all Wingers x

    We’ve all scraped through 2020 doing what was necessary and accepting the drastic alteration of our political and social landscape.
    We have done this for the collective good.
    Now it’s time to begin to look to the future and begin to hope again that we can finally realise Scotland’s rightful place in the world.

    I’m hopeful.
    Events cannot be halted indefinitely.
    We have lots to look forward to now, and we have to make the best of that.

    I brought in the bells with a bottle of Irn Bru 1901, so I’m looking forward to the day that I can again properly toast with a single malt in the company of my dear, daft, friends.

  48. Socrates MacSporran
    Ignored
    says:

    A Happy New Year to all fellow Wingers.

    Gird your loins Rev. I sense we will need you at the very top of your game this year, it could be a very-bumpy ride.

  49. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    Haply New Gear to all whk follow Wings.

    Weve been knocked down, but we rise to fight again.

    My new year wish is those that man the barricades in front of Nicola Sturgeon begin to see the error and futility of that action. We need you here to help us make Indy possible.

    Instead of making excuses for her ,demand a plebiscite election in May. Thats a first step .

  50. H Scott
    Ignored
    says:

    Bob Mack
    ‘Instead of making excuses for her ,demand a plebiscite election in May. Thats a first step.’

    If she doesn’t make a genuine effort this year she’s finished, people won’t put up with her inaction any more.

  51. Ottomanboi
    Ignored
    says:

    Oh dear, Scotland led by a party all bark and no bite.
    and on what ought to have been a Day of Rage, slinks away with barely a whimper.
    Plainly, getting England out of the collective mentality will take rather more than marking X on a bit of official paper.
    Nothing short of a major shift in the political tectonics.
    Politicians know they lie,
    the electorate knows they lie,
    so why guys, why?
    Send for Professor Pavlov!

  52. Lothianlad
    Ignored
    says:

    Best wishes to all wingers and the great man himself!

    Rest well , then Get energised for this fight ahead Stu. We need you now like never before !

  53. Dave Beveridge
    Ignored
    says:

    No celebrations at my place last night, just seething anger at the humiliation that’s been heaped upon us yet again. Still, wee Nic fairly gave it to Ruthie in Holyrood last week so that’s all right then.

    The cult need to start judging their “leader” by her actions rather than her words and maybe then the woman behind the curtain will be revealed. If I read just one more “she’s our wee tartan superhero…”

  54. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy New Year to all the Wingers and the blogs host and of course to Chris for his on the money illustrations.

    Alas I don’t share the confidence of some that this year will see Scotland become an independent nation, though I hope I’m wrong about that.

    Now that Johnson has concluded his rotten deal with the EU the Westminster Eye of Sauron will switch to point North to Scotland, and all the its forces will focus on crushing Scottish independence.

    We won’t have our troubles to seek, as we’ll be fighting on two fronts, for its very unlikely that Sturgeon will do what we elected her for, and that’s hold an indyref this year she’s had years to do so, but she didn’t even attempt to find a way to hold one, nor does she look like she will, its all talk in an election year from her as usual.

    Mr Keatings S30 court case might shine a light on whether or not we need it, and Sturgeon and hopefully her nasty wee hubby, might also find themselves out of a job this year, I do hope both result go our way.

  55. Dan
    Ignored
    says:

    Well, admittedly it probably isn’t gonnae be the maist successful protest, but huv marked the material change in circumstance with a material change in circumstance…
    Jist hung my Scotland flag upside doon as a signal of Scotland’s dire distress. 🙁

    And how come in Tier 4 lockdown we’ve not got the previous one way systems back in the supermarket isles. Has the new virus strain adapted and is now able to tae reverse.

  56. Mia
    Ignored
    says:

    Beautiful but heart wrenching cartoon, Chris. You look at it and immediately feel the contrasting warmth emanating from the EU building and the coldness and shadows outside. It is not just visual. It is a sensation that you almost can feel it in your own skin. Clearly you have been blessed with an amazing talent.

    But sadly your cartoon is incomplete. You are missing some of the most crucial characters on it. You are missing the betrayers from the SNP who, for the sake of gaining political/gravy train or career points, or for the sake of stopping MI5 releasing their skeletons from the closet (chose the option that convince you the most), allowed that gate to close on Hamish after 4.5 years of prevarication and after giving legitimacy to this terrible deal by taking their seats in Westminster during a vote that Scotland should have never been part of.

    Those are the same betrayers who are dragging out Hamish kicking and screaming and throwing him out in the cold because they deliberately chose to do absolutely nothing to stop any of it.

    You are also of course missing the scene of those betrayers handing Hamish most precious belongings to John Bull so he can sell them at his own leisure ad for his own exclusive benefit.

    Happy New Year to everyone. Here is to hope that those betrayers are ejected from their seats and replaced with someone who really has Scotland’s interests at heart rather than just a comfortable seat in the gravy train, and who really means to pursue independence when they ask for a mandate to deliver it.

  57. Ottomanboi
    Ignored
    says:

    If you delegate a job and find that job is not being done,
    it might be time to stop delegating.
    As I said above there has to be a major shift in the ‘political tectonics’.
    2020 was wasted by phantom fears.
    2021 must not deliver a repeat performance.
    The old folks’ pass the parcel game has become tedious.

  58. McDuff
    Ignored
    says:

    Boaby
    Yes Boaby we are a country with no rights and a rapidly disapearing identity.
    When people around the world think of Denmark, Norway or NZ they think of them as countries with their own governments making the decisions, their own armed forces etc, and are respected as such.
    Now with that in mind imagine replacing Scotland with one of these countries and consider how England would regard them in terms of treatment and respect.
    Our status as a country over the past 300 years has been delibetately reduced to that of a mere region of the UK while England has relentlessly promoted itself especially since the advent of television and internet.
    We have a very short time to change that.

  59. John
    Ignored
    says:

    Here we are 2021, you think 2020 was a “bad” year? I say 2020 showed up the quality of leadership, will 2021 bring positive change, thats up to us. By the end of January we will see how many indy parties are registered for Mays election and for the voting strategy to be finalised for an indy marjority, 2/3rds gives us more options.

  60. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    Lets bear in mind that Westminster passed the Third Direction bill which allows MI5 operative to kidnap, murder and torture political opponents, if they believe their actions will prevent a threat to national security.

    Scottish independence is a threat to their national security.

    https://evolvepolitics.com/the-tories-have-passed-a-bill-giving-the-government-powers-to-legally-murder-their-political-opponents-yes-seriously/

  61. 100%Yes
    Ignored
    says:

    The leader of Scotland says today to the EU ” well be back soon” when and how no one knows including Nicola Sturgeon, the woman who cried wolf to many times and to be honest I wouldn’t trust her with the keys to my home never mind my country. Scotland is the only nation within the whole of the UK state not to have got a single thing from voting No to brexit, every other country has gotten something out of Brexit even Gibraltar with an area of 6.7 km² and a population of 32,000 but I’m sorry the idea of Nicola Sturgeon for another 5yrs in may fills me with complete fear for my country. I’m sorry but I just don’t fell like saying happy new year because what is there to be happy about and we have nothing to look forward to apart from more broken promises and meaningless words from a woman I’ve come to despise.

  62. Mia
    Ignored
    says:

    “If she doesn’t make a genuine effort this year she’s finished”

    This year?

    Try this month. I think it will be far more accurate.

  63. dramfineday
    Ignored
    says:

    Very apt Chris.

    A good New Year to one and all

  64. dakk
    Ignored
    says:

    Best wishes to all Wingers for 2021.

  65. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    This is a very interesting tweet from Craig Murray.

    “A (non-British) senior MEP, a friend for 25 years, just told me he has been approached to make a statement saying the EU would recognise an Independent Scotland, but only if the referendum process is agreed by Westminster.”

    “He said he replied he would be happy with the first bit..”

    https://mobile.twitter.com/CraigMurrayOrg/status/1343880530627067904

  66. Fionan
    Ignored
    says:

    A very happy and successful New Year to Stu, all Wingers and all true Yessers, may this be the Year we get the independence we yearn for.

    BDTT, thank you for posting that link again, Marche des soldats de Robert Bruce, I love that heart-stirring performance also, I have been searching for it on uTube for many months but couldn’t remember what it was called.

    Civil disobedience – yes, it’s time!

  67. Mia
    Ignored
    says:

    “but only if the referendum process is agreed by Westminster”

    Isn’t that in direct contravention of articles 2, 4 and 5 of the UN “Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples” charter?

    “Article 2. All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development”

    By demanding that Westminster agrees when they know Westminster will not agree is at all practical effects denying Scotland its right to self determination

    “Article 4. All armed action or repressive measures of all kinds directed against dependent peoples shall cease in order to enable them to exercise peacefully and freely their right to complete independence, and the integrity of their national territory shall be respected”

    Isn’t the demand of agreement by a foreign entity and their intrusion and intervention in the process itself a repressive measure?

    “Article 5. Immediate steps shall be taken, in Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories or all other territories which have not yet attained independence, to transfer all powers to the peoples of those territories, without any conditions or reservations, in accordance with their freely expressed will and desire, without any distinction as to race, creed or colour, in order to enable them to enjoy complete independence and freedom”

    Demanding the cooperation of an uncooperative foreign entity with vested interests in Scotland is not taking immediate steps to demand the transfer of powers. It is imposing a condition and reservation that goes against our freely expressed will to have a referendum when we gave the SNP a mandate for it in 2016.

    I do not think this is a question of either/or British state/ Sturgeon’s government. My bet is that it is both. I think they are both colluding in denying us our right to self determination. The political conspiracy against Mr Salmond and the response of Sturgeon’s government to the Keatings’ case is the best evidence yet.

  68. Willie
    Ignored
    says:

    It is a lovely day today. Clear sky, bright sunshine, snow capped mountains and yet, my mood has not lifted since I awoke this morning.

    There will come a time when we will run the fucking Brit bastards out of our country. Every stinking fucking one of them.

  69. kapelmeister
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy New Year Wingers.

    A proactive 2021 will make a big difference to the indy cause. Our idea of proactive that is, not Sturgeon’s fake version.

  70. Josef Ó Luain
    Ignored
    says:

    The fight hasn’t even started yet. That future, long dreamed of, is ours for the taking. A great New Year to one-and-all of us!

  71. Jockanese Wind Talker
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy New Year Stu and all BTL.

    2020 (and all the missed opportunities afforded The SNP by Brexit) is now behind us.

    2021 is a New Year and all opportunities for Independence will have to be grasped by the Grassroots – 2020 has shown us this.

  72. Stuart MacKay
    Ignored
    says:

    Well Karel Lannoo is off my Christmas card list for 2021.

    So a statement from the CEO of Centre for European Policy Studies and also a senior MEP. All designed to dampen the idea that independence is possible without Westminster or even the consent of the entire UK. I’m never one for conspiracy theories but clearly the timing is not a coincidence. Maybe this was part of the deal with the EU to get Boris to concede on various items.

    I guess the stables just got a little bigger and it looks like I’ll need a bigger shovel.

    Happy New Year everyone.

  73. Sarah
    Ignored
    says:

    @ BDTT: thank you for the Corries link – wonderful to hear the truth and illustrated by film of real ordinary people [though mostly men!].

    Happy New Year to all the decent, honest folk on this site – and to the Rev for persisting in telling the truth no matter what.

    But we must work and force change on those in power in the SNP – shift those complicit MSPs who are too nervous to push the FM off her s30 route and all the other distractions and malpractices.

  74. kapelmeister
    Ignored
    says:

    I think Chris is delivering a second message in that toon. The EU gates have gone clang but no one is there. In other words the EU gates swung shut themselves and so Scotland isn’t locked out.

  75. 100%Yes
    Ignored
    says:

    Britain isn’t a country its a state and Scotland is already recognized as a country even by our masters so for the British state to deny Scotland as a country they would have to deny England is a country as well and I’m sure the unionist wouldn’t even go there that would be the end of the Union for sure. SO it doesn’t really matter what the EU says I’m not that bothered, what is Important is what the Scots say and at the moment where being denied that voice by the SG and the UK government so the Scots are fighting two Unionist leaders Sturgeon and Johnston my bet is on a hero in my opinion Martin J Keatings winning his case in January just watch the disappointment on Sturgeon face if Martin does win.

  76. Breeks
    Ignored
    says:

    Mia says:
    1 January, 2021 at 11:24 am

    ….Isn’t that in direct contravention of articles 2, 4 and 5 of the UN “Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples” charter?

    What does it matter having legal and constitutional rights when you’re governed by useless charlatans who won’t use them?

    IF we had an honourable Parliament, Convention, or simple Assembly that had enough backbone to stand firm in defence of Scotland’s Constitution, then Scotland’s existing sovereign Constitution should be a more than adequate platform to dispute our colonial subjugation.

    Sadly we are governed by gutless crooks and charlatans who prefer to exploit our aspirations for their own ends rather than stand up for Scotland.

  77. Robert Hughes
    Ignored
    says:

    ” For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice. ” .TS Eliot . Hoping this year will see less in-fighting and more collective fighting spirit , we must not let our internal disagreements destroy our external aspirations or the failings of our woeful ” leadership ” determine our future .

  78. Fireproofjim
    Ignored
    says:

    Now that Brexit is done look out for the start of a massive propaganda exercise by the Media against independence.
    There will be the 2014 favourites like “Nazis, Communists, Too poor, reliant on English handouts.”
    Comparison with Albania, North Korea and Venezuela but never Norway or Denmark or New Zealand.
    It’s already started today. The Telegraph launches an attack on Scottish history curriculum as propaganda and D. Ross complains similarly about a new Scottish Government video.
    At least they can’t use “ kicked out of the EU.”

  79. Wee Chid
    Ignored
    says:

    Breeks says:
    1 January, 2021 at 8:14 am
    “We could sit chewing the fat, and having online workshops teaching people to repurpose the voting slips we no longer have any use for. Nothing as seedy as wiping your arse with it. – There would be instruction courses in traditional paper doilies, aeroplanes and concertina snowflakes of course, but if funding allowed it, there’d be nothing to stop us inviting a Grand Master in Origami all the way from Japan to teach us how to make something spectacular and maybe even functional.”

    I can fashion water b*mbs and ninja stars from squares of paper.

  80. Mia
    Ignored
    says:

    “What does it matter having legal and constitutional rights when you’re governed by useless charlatans who won’t use them?”

    Nothing, Breeks, you are right. But important as your point is, it is far from the point I was trying to make. Clearly I made a terrible job at making it clear.

    The point I was trying to make is that when someone is asking the EU representatives to do the dirty work on their behalf or to become their co-conspirators against Scotland, they are expecting them to be as corrupt as that someone is and to have as little respect for international law as the someone does.

    I think the EU has demonstrated with their actions and the way they conducted themselves during the negotiations that such assumption is either too much of an expectation or a reflection of how desperate that someone is.

    While Westminster would fulfil both requirements of corruption and desperation simultaneously, there are two reasons why I do not believe it is just Westminster who was asking that and is in fact somebody closer home:

    1. the EU does no longer owe any favours to the UK – why should they trash their own reputation of international law abiding entity in the eyes of the world for a third world state they have no much to do with or win from anymore?
    2. the EU has nothing to lose by Scotland becoming independent and joining the EU sooner rather than later.

    The Scottish fishing waters clearly played a huge role in that excuse of a deal that Johnson got. Can you imagine what may happen to that deal if all the sudden Scotland’s waters are no longer supporting the deal because they have taken away from the jurisdiction of Westminter? that may make the “deal collapse”.

    The EU is not going to care, as the waters will come back to them with Scotland. So clearly, whoever is asking for that is clearly working for the interests of England and not Scotland’s, ie, desperately trying to keep Scotland’s assets backing that deal for a bit longer.

    I think the question we should be asking ourselves is what interest can Sturgeon’s government possibly have in protecting
    that deal for England at the expense of Scotland’s resources and interests.

    We may find that the answer to that question also answers the question of what could the Scottish government possibly win from attempting to keep Mr Salmond off the front line of politics and from actively obstructing and delaying this inquiry by dragging their heels on releasing the evidence.

  81. David
    Ignored
    says:

    Interesting article on BBC news website. In 2005 the Scottish Government cabinet discussed the Ferguson shipyard. They had given a Polish yard a contract and therefore had to deal with redundancies at Ferguson’s. What is surprising (well not really) about the article is that they do not say which party was in government. No mention of Labour/Lib or McConnell.

  82. Ottomanboi
    Ignored
    says:

    The Scots are like the Arabs, seemingly unable to produce leaders that you wouldn’t want to piss on.

  83. Beaker
    Ignored
    says:

    @Dan says:
    1 January, 2021 at 10:35 am
    “And how come in Tier 4 lockdown we’ve not got the previous one way systems back in the supermarket isles. Has the new virus strain adapted and is now able to tae reverse.”

    CO-OP does where I live, and people are following the arrows, probably because they lead to the booze aisles…

  84. Dan
    Ignored
    says:

    Apparently it’s now time. Although why nobody has been in the driving seat for the past 4.5 years raises a question in my mind.

    https://twitter.com/NicolaSturgeon/status/1344989974211534849

  85. Rick H Johnston
    Ignored
    says:

    @Robert Hughes. You’re right. Whatever problems we have, we can overcome them with the right attitude. If leadership needs to change, it will.
    It’s all in the hands of the people.
    2021 is not like 2015. One year after the Indyref was too soon for the general public though not for YES campaigners IMO.
    The dam will burst.
    We need to keep our focus and stay united.

  86. Terry
    Ignored
    says:

    Ha ha – check Nicola’s tweet this morning – she had the nerve to add the hashtag indyef2. Lol. Must be an election coming eh?

    Also she can’t even remember her own gaslighting fibs – remember when she and the SNP said we shouldn’t use that and said we should use the hashtag “scotref”?

    She’s a fraud.

    Sadly it could be that the deluded will hang on long enough and if so when the MSM and all of hell piles in on the SNP just before Holyrood then the snp will no longer be in charge. The deluded will then reflect – “oh dear, we didn’t get a mandate for indy. If only we had one. Oh wait, we had 6 in the last term.” The boat will have sailed with fan toosh off to a fancy job and us further up the creek without a paddle.

    So my plea to the deluded is wise up now. It’s Scottish independence and it’s people you are voting for – not a wifey who doesn’t give a damn about anything except her own career.

  87. Dave Somerville
    Ignored
    says:

    New Year

  88. Robert Hughes
    Ignored
    says:

    Agreed Rick . It would be a travesty if our – justified – dissatisfaction with those we LENT our support allowed a Brit Nat takeover of Holyrood . Some might consider that a price worth paying to rid ourselves of a corrupted and ineffectual leadership , I consider it too high a price , one which could cost us whatever hope we still have of gaining our freedom .

  89. Dave Somerville
    Ignored
    says:

    I see India is wanting as much of the english rat’s pish Oxford vaccine as it can sell them.

    Well who’d a guessed that?

  90. Alf Baird
    Ignored
    says:

    Let’s face it there appear to be a few key fallacies in play, much of which Rev Stu and Wingers have demonstrated by continually probing behind Scotland’s political and institutional façade:

    ‘The UK Union Fallacy’
    In reality Scotland is treated as a powerless colony and remains subject to cultural imperialism and associated oppressions, this being the main motivation for independence of any ‘people’.

    ‘The Scottish Government Fallacy’
    In reality there is no Scottish ‘Government’, rather there is a UK spending department in Scotland that remains subordinate within the UK Government apparatus and headed by Whitehall staff.

    ‘The Scottish National Party want independence Fallacy’
    In reality the SNP elected elite are content to make an ‘accommodation with colonialism’, which is not independence.

    ‘The Referendum Fallacy’
    In reality as a matter of law a referendum is not a requirement for independence, which means a national election is sufficient.

    These fallacies need to be fully understood and tackled if we are to make progress on independence, which is defined as: “an indispensable condition for the existence of men and women who are truly liberated, in other words who are truly masters of all the material means which makes possible the radical transformation of society” (Fanon 1967).

  91. Fireproofjim
    Ignored
    says:

    In my comment
    MSM propaganda comparing Scotland with Albania should off course be with A.l.b.a.n.i.a.
    Stu has a filter which caught me.

  92. Dave Somerville
    Ignored
    says:

    Also on our english News bulletins, they are telling us that the huge white elephant Knightingale Hospital in London doesn’t have enough doctors and nurses to run it.

    A bit like the english navy buying two aircraft carriers, when they know they can’t even run one.

    Don’t worry Boris, India will take at least one of your carriers.

  93. TruthForDummies
    Ignored
    says:

    I fear it’s too late. The British State was weak for a while but not anymore. Stammer has Boris’s back and we have missed our chance for a long time. I’m beginning to believe I will never see independence. There was never a better chance to strike than while the UK was distracted and split on Brexit but the SNP did Nothing and are still doing Nothing.

    What on earth is the strategy ?

    All they care about is poll results and getting re-elected in May.

    Johnston et al will be coming for Holyrood. They will have to destroy it because so long as Scots have their own parliament they know they are being run from the country next door. Destroy Holyrood and wrap Scotland in a Union Jack, that will be their plan.

    Nicola is not up to the fight and as long as she is leader we are stuffed. And equally stuffed if she stands down and someone like Angus Robertson takes her place.

    Do the SNP MPs and MSPs realise this? Are they putting party loyalty ahead of independence. Will any of them stand up and change the direction ?

    We urgently need something to change. But even then whatever happens it’s going to be a much harder fight than it might have been and I fear we’ve missed the tide.

  94. Breeks
    Ignored
    says:

    Dan says:
    1 January, 2021 at 1:12 pm
    Apparently it’s now time. Although why nobody has been in the driving seat for the past 4.5 years raises a question in my mind.

    https://twitter.com/NicolaSturgeon/status/1344989974211534849

    Here’s another SNP tosser at it… “Now let’s move forward!” Now???

    https://twitter.com/KeithBrownSNP/status/1344795491066933248

  95. Dave Somerville
    Ignored
    says:

    Surely Sturgeon has to make some kind of political statement next week regarding our dramatic change in circumstances.

    She has to drop the “Queen Covid” persona for at least one day next week and update Scotland on this new world she has dragged us into

    Here’s hoping the wee bastard catches a fatal dose of the very virus she loves spouting about.

    The very virus that she says will hold up everything until it is defeated.

    Or some shite like that.

  96. Ian Brotherhood
    Ignored
    says:

    What a fuckin mess this ‘vaccination’ roll-out is – Pfizer now saying the interval between 1st and 2nd jabs should be weeks, not months, the 1st jab won’t be effective unless it’s boosted on time.

    And some of you here (not fingering anyone but you know who you are) have the fuckin gall to attack those of us attempting to find and follow reliable evidence? You accuse of of ‘science-denial’?

    We’re in the midst of a global experiment, our own families, friends and communities are the guinea pigs, and you eejits are trying to make it sound normal? Shame on you.

    From now on I’m going to post whatever evidence I can find, perhaps not every day, but I’ll do it at a fixed time so that it doesn’t become a random annoyance. Then, those of you who prefer your covid ‘news’ to come via Jason Leitch can just scroll on by.

  97. Ottomanboi
    Ignored
    says:

    Thanks to Brexit the Oxford vaccine has, among a host of other novelties, a Union Jack protein in its doubled stranded DNA.
    All it takes is a wee prick…
    and adopting an appropriately supine demeanor…
    and before long you’ll be swinging from branch to branch with the best of them.
    …Britons never will be slaves…Oo! Oo! Oooo!
    See ya down the zoopark.

  98. Dave Beveridge
    Ignored
    says:

    “Here’s hoping the wee bastard catches a fatal dose of the very virus she loves spouting about.”

    That’s an absolutely fkin ridiculous comment. I’m far from being the FM’s Number One fan but FFS…

  99. Dave Somerville
    Ignored
    says:

    I was in George Sq last night for the Bells.

    And I was looking over at the old GPO building, which got me thinking of the 1916 Easter Uprising in Dublin.

    They were literally fighting and dying for their freedom from english rule in their Dublin GPO.

    And I asked myself, how many Scots would fight and die for Scottish freedom in our Glasgow GPO???

    And my own answer didn’t fill me with hope for the fight ahead.

    Scots are just too nice, whether in life in general or in Holyrood or in Westminster.

    We never fight dirty, that is why the english bastards find it so easy to roll right over the top of us.

    And as for Sturgeon saying she couldn’t fight for Independence during a Covid crisis,,,check out the year of the Easter Uprising,,,it was 1916,,, I’m sure some other event was taking place around the world in that year.

    So fuck off Sturgeon with your “can’t do two things at once” bullshit.

  100. Dave Somerville
    Ignored
    says:

    Dave Beveridge

    She’s lucky, I wrote that when I was feeling generous

  101. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    Sturgeon spouting Daddy Bears pish today, with the “Keep a light on for Scotland” aimed at the EU. She’s had four years to organise an indyref, Salmond left her on 45% all she needed was a 6% swing and Brexit gave her that but she failed miserably to act on it.

    Instead she pursued her own devious goals, including fitting up an ex-FM, and attempting to prosecute an ex-British ambassador for exposing it, she also endorsed by doing nothing about it, the GRA bill, Self-Id, and the Hate Crime bill all very unpopular with the public and the renowned international community.

    She’s cost the Scottish taxpayer over £500,000 pounds, due to her tainted process and a couple of million more on lawyers to cover her tracks which hasn’t managed and sacked no one involved in the fiasco.

    Sturgeon and her sidekick the Lord Advocate have also attempted to hinder a private citizen (Mr Keatings) form discovering if we actually need an S30, a job the Scottish government should’ve done years ago themselves.

    Then there’s the ringfenced indy funds, which the SNP swears blind are there to be used at a moments notice for an indyref, yet the very late published SNP accounts by the EC shows that the SNP are skint, with no indy funds in sight, all that was visible is the SNP grasping at Westminster Short money and small mediocre donations.

    Finally we had Sturgeon and Murrell, and a few other in her clique, throw everything but the kitchen sink (Not the truth) at the inquiry to save their miserable lying hides. Now an election is on the horizon the usual dross is emanating from her and the other SNP politicians (not all) hoping to keep their hefty salaries keep coming.

    Sturgeon and her clique even changed the rules to stop MP Joanna Cherry from standing in Edinburgh, incase she won and managed to forward the case for independence.

    I’ve nothing but contempt for that woman now, and when we get shot of her I’ll remember her not for the competent policies that she brought to Scotland, but for her lying, backstabbing, sleekitness and hindering Scottish independence.

  102. Robert Hughes
    Ignored
    says:

    Ian Brotherhood – one clear casualty of the greatest threat to mankind since , eh ….the last greatest threat etc is people’s capacity for critical thinking .Whatever the provenance of this virus , whatever it’s degree of danger , it is being used to cow us into terrified obedience and divide us into ” Believers ” and ” Non-Believers” whilst filling the already overflowing coffers of corporations . Hence the embargo by MSM on any counter-narrative , even from respected experts in the relevant fields . That alone should give us cause to be extremely circumspect in our acceptance of ” official ” narratives .

  103. Hatuey
    Ignored
    says:

    Ottomanboi says:
    1 January, 2021 at 12:59 pm
    “The Scots are like the Arabs, seemingly unable to produce leaders that you wouldn’t want to piss on…”

    Are we talking about burning or non-burning leaders? It matters.

  104. Hamerdoon
    Ignored
    says:

    Ian Brotherhood says

    What exactly is it that you are calling into question about the science behind vaccinations? There are several scientists on here that could possibly address your concerns? From my perspective, you seem to be getting very frustrated with some issues that might be fairly easily addressed?

  105. Ian Brotherhood
    Ignored
    says:

    @Robert Hughes (2.15) –

    Hear hear.

  106. Ian Brotherhood
    Ignored
    says:

    @Hamerdoon (2.23) –

    http://www.corbettreport.com/futurevaccines/

  107. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    Dave Somerville @2.12pm.

    I’m not up on my Irish uprising in 1916, but maybe they picked that time due to British forces being tied up in World War I.

    A great modern point to equate to that, is that the Westminster Tory government must’ve been at their weakest in the last four years with Brexit in mind, if Sturgeon (like the Irish freedom fighters) was really interested in Scottish independence wouldn’t that have been an ideal time to strike with an indyref.

    Now the rotten deal has been concluded, it allows Westminster to focus on crushing Scottish independence.

  108. Stuart MacKay
    Ignored
    says:

    Ian Botherhood,

    I’m not a fan of stuff like “covid is just an excuse to take away our civil liberties” ravings but if you can find stuff that takes the politics out of the science then more power to you.

    That Pfizer is recommending the interval be weeks not months is really useful to know as the ability of politicians to fuck things up, even after nearly a year, knows no limits.

  109. Hamerdoon
    Ignored
    says:

    Ian Brotherhood says:
    1 January, 2021 at 2:29 pm
    @Hamerdoon (2.23) –

    The link doesn’t tell me what your questions are. What are your questions regarding vaccination and specifically the COVID ones? There’s no point me reading through the ‘report’ if I don’t know what it is you find problematic.

  110. Hatuey
    Ignored
    says:

    At last, one of our tinfoiled friends has put a couple of ideas on the table;

    “it is being used to cow us into terrified obedience and divide us into ” Believers ” and ” Non-Believers” whilst filling the already overflowing coffers of corporations…”

    The fact is the government tried to convince us that coronavirus was nothing to worry about for the vast majority, it was like the flu, and they were happy to let it flow through the herd with little concern for anything but the pace. Of course, that’s an uncomfortable truth for those here today who share a lack of regard for human life – it puts you in the same side as Boris and Trump, not to mention Leitch and Sturgeon.

    The idea that corporations generally are making rather than losing money here is frankly as ridiculous as the idea that the earth is flat. Some are, of course, but the vast majority are screaming for government handouts to keep them afloat. Whole industries, aviation, oil, car manufacturers, to name a few, are on their knees.

    I’ve noticed a shift of emphasis amongst our humanity-denying friends, away from questioning the dangerousness of the virus itself towards questioning the efficacy of the vaccine. I can see why.

    Just two weeks ago they were quoting the crank Yeadon who was saying the pandemic was over and that London had achieved herd immunity… how foolish does Yeadon look today? Not the toast of London, I’d imagine.

    Here’s the bottom line that you will struggle to find on the MSM or anywhere. Two of the new variants are hitting younger people much harder than the original strain. They’re also super infectious. The South African variant in particular is very serious.

    There’s nothing to stop this mutating into a virus that kills all age groups fast, just like the mutant strain of what we call Spanish flu (misleadingly referred to as the second wave) which killed within 24 hours once symptoms appeared.

    All we have going for us that they didn’t have in 1918 is our science, science that people on here are so casually dismissing and denying. Spanish Flu killed about 50 million people – have you any idea what percentage of the much smaller world population that was and what the equivalent would be today?

  111. AYRSHIRE ROB
    Ignored
    says:

    Well I’ll be taking the vaccine rather than the virus route.I think my odds are better.
    If others want to put our health care workers at risk b4 a wee prick then shows you who the cowards are.I’ve had all the various vaccines going from childhood and a lot more after with my job and I didn’t grow a tail or had a fucking tube stuck down my throat to try and keep me alive.

    So away and play chicken all you want- am no playing.

  112. velofello
    Ignored
    says:

    We have a resident blackbird, and a resident robin in our garden. My wife provides them with sultanas on a tray. The blackbird guards the tray to prevent the robin having a share.The wee robin uses it’s wits, is patient, and ultimately gains it’s meagre share.

    As humans, endowed, arguably, with self-awareness we should be better in our behaviour than the behaviour of the blackbird, but no, we often share similar traits.

    If I chose to knock the door of each neighbour in my home owner housing estate and asked their views on Brexit I feel sure I’d experience indifference.Why? Well my neighbours are doing quite well thank you. A few with uni-aged kids may be aware and vexed about Erasmus, a few who have regular European holidays vexed.

    You see, just as our blackbird doesn’t want for sultanas, my neighbours are doing quite well. The robin? he has to use his wits to survive as best he can, like folks on universal credit, zero hour contracts.

    The greedy blackbird doesn’t need the robin and so can ignore it’s hunger.

    Westminster and the Tories behave as blackbirds.

  113. Dave Somerville
    Ignored
    says:

    Republicofscotland 2.15pm

    Brilliant summary of life under Sturgeon.

  114. Dan
    Ignored
    says:

    Re. Talk on Pfizer vaccine. It is to do with the change in procedure of the timings between the first and second doses.
    Effectively that is voiding or ignoring the delivery practice the vaccine was licensed under.
    Potential can of worms as I understand consent was given by those that received the first jab on the basis that the licensed delivery terms would be followed.
    Plus if anything untoward arises from deviating from licensed use guidelines, what would that mean in terms of liability for those that facilitated the off label use.

  115. Dave Somerville
    Ignored
    says:

    AYRSHIRE ROB

    Are you the guy they all talk about down the boozer, about never saying a bad word against that useless bastard Sturgeon???

    And that you post about anything other than Sturgeon Bad???

  116. DaveL
    Ignored
    says:

    @Mia, I don’t know what kind of specs you were wearing when you viewed the Cairnstoon today but to me the EU building doesn’t look too inviting or friendly.

    Ottomanboi said earlier up thread that today should be a day of rage and he’s right, it should be but Mr Cairns has portrayed Angus well as Scots personified. Angus isn’t being dragged out he’s not even on a leash in fact he’s following along quite complacent albeit with a wistful backward glance. John Bull isn’t even watching what he’s doing.

    Go back, take another look and imagine a wee speech bubble above Angus, in it are the words ‘Ah well’ and I think that would just about sum up the scots reaction to today.

    Something I learned about artists and cartoonists in particular is that a lot of things can be in their work without them even realising, I don’t know where Mr Cairns is at with the one above but if you’re reading this I’ll finish by saying that I enjoy your work, I like your style and don’t stop. Thanks.

  117. Hatuey
    Ignored
    says:

    Hamerdoon, I’ve asked that several times. Links are supposed to be used to support arguments and provide further information, like footnotes. It makes no sense to provide links without making some sort of point.

  118. Robert Hughes
    Ignored
    says:

    Ah the hackneyed old ” tin foil hat ” dismissal Hatuey . I expected better from you . Believe whatever you like , I would just remind you of how WMDs were used to justify the invasion and subsequent destruction of Iraq , with zero consequences for the lying bastards that brought that hell to the people of Iraq , do you think the same bastards wouldn’t exploit this situation to their own advantage ?

  119. Dave Somerville
    Ignored
    says:

    You spot the pricks who are trying to ride two horses at once.

    Keeping a foot in with the Ginger Duggers camp and then creep in the Wings back door to post some shite about anything other than them saying a bad word about their wee idol Sturgeon.

    Fuck Off back to your fellow Duggers.

  120. AYRSHIRE ROB
    Ignored
    says:

    Dave Somerville.

    Wit? Like reasons? Wit has any post I’ve made praise NS?

    If yir in a boozer soon, let me ken where and when and we can discuss it. If it’s too far south then am no coming.

  121. Hatuey
    Ignored
    says:

    Robert, I really doubt very much that anyone who comments on here has a more cynical view of politicians and corporate elites than I do. Actually, my views on them generally and how we might remedy the situation are most definitely un-publishable and illegal based on my understanding of current laws.

    In short, not only do I not doubt that they’d lie about coronavirus, I have provided proof that they did and explained their lies.

    The big lie was to suggest this was like the flu. It isn’t like the flu. Anyone that comes on here and suggests this is like the flu in say 4 weeks will probably be banned. And, yet, that’s what some have argued since the start.

    I’m cursed with the ability to remember the things people say in places like this and I could make some people on here look very stupid with that ability, if I was minded to. I’m not. My reference to tinfoil reflects (lol) my willingness to avoid taking his conversation to more serious levels.

  122. Ian Brotherhood
    Ignored
    says:

    @Hamerdoon & Hatuey –

    The link I posted above, which has now appeared here several times, explains the difference between ‘this drug has been tested’ and ‘this drug is being tested’.

    There is no ‘politics’ involved here.

  123. Hatuey
    Ignored
    says:

    Dave Somerville, I’ve enjoyed reading your comments today. There’s a couple of things I’d probably have put differently, but that’s okay; let’s not let our artistic differences get in the way of things, eh…

    All the best to you in the year ahead.

  124. Dave Somerville
    Ignored
    says:

    AYRSHIRE ROB

    Are you sittin beside yer burd as you type???

    “A’ll show him hen”

    Don’t die protecting your wee hero Sturgeon,,,it would be such a waste.

    Now, put the wine gums away and go and play with the toys Santa brought you, Fanny Bawz.

  125. Lochside
    Ignored
    says:

    Alf Baird @ 1.31pm….Again as ever right on the money Alf.
    Those ‘fallacies’ represent the ‘false consciousness’ that prevails amongst at least 40% of the Scottish electorate and a significant percentage of the Nicola Marcos fanclub.

    The SNP have had the opportunity for over a decade to raise political consciousness in Scotland by utilising arguments against the Unionist oppressors employing facts: e.g the Treaty and Act of Union. Claim of Right and Declaration of Arbroath for starters; the McCrone Report and the theft of 6000 sq miles of Nautical territory from Scotland; the GERS lies and Oil Revenue robbery via the bogus Inter Regio fiction; also Combative and challenging techniques in media opportunities; and last of all seizing control over media in this country.

    The latter issue brought me to this site all those years ago. It led me to attend the first demo outside the BBC. The first step in a Revolution is control over the media. The SNP failed miserably at this first step. In the last few months they have compounded this failure by hiring the Architect of the ‘VOW’ and gifting £3 million to the hostile foreign owned press in this country.

    What neutral observer of this party, taking into account these flawed strategies, combined with the ongoing capitulation to Westminster; surrender of our Sovereignty by forcible removal undemocratically from the EU whilst the manufactured century old Province ( N.I.) and Gibraltar remain; ongoing distraction of virtue signalling legislation; malicious persecution of pro Indy opponents e.g. A.S and many others cannot come to the firm conclusion that we have been misled by tra*tors and self serving collaborators?

    We must start again and cleanse ourselves of these obstacles to our children and grandchildren’s freedom by forming a coalition for Independence and Independence only as soon as possible.

  126. Muscleguy
    Ignored
    says:

    I have the 1812 Overture running through my head from that. Must have reminded me of Napoleon’s Retreat From Moscow.

    When he got back to Paris he found all his former European vassals had asserted their independence again and were raising new armies. His crowned relatives were turfed out as well.

    Then he marched out to meet his Waterloo.

    There’s an allegory waiting to be drawn from that I think.

    the music in my head is nearly at the cannon.

  127. Robert Hughes
    Ignored
    says:

    Fair enough Hatuey . The tin foil hat reference is pretty ironic for me as I’ve spent years trying to apply reason to friend’s Ickeian fantasies and ” other level ” speculations . I just have deep reservations about the way this situation ( Ive never doubted the existence of the virus or that it was a threat to , in particular , vulnerable people ) is being ” narrated ” and where it’s leading , or at least could lead

  128. Dave Somerville
    Ignored
    says:

    Watched a video there of a celebration in George Sq when Thatcher died.

    The crowd were singing,,,

    “Ding Dong the witch is Dead”.

    Looking forward to a repeat performance once Scotland’s very own version of Thatcher drops dead, accidentally or otherwise.

    Nae hurry Nikla, but this side of May would be much appreciated,ta.

  129. Dave Hansell
    Ignored
    says:

    In the spirit of the previous posting this piece, despite its author, is worth the time and effort:

    https://alastaircampbell.org/2020/12/the-brexit-revolutionaries-have-barely-begun-britain-needs-to-wake-up-fast/?fbclid=IwAR3ZbOhXVvX4D-w7R3s24ILfzZdsJVtvb69hRkzg1FD1sVK0NNyR5p1Y2mo

    More details on one of the key elements alluded to – “Freeports” – can be found over at Richard Murphy’s tax research UK blog:

    https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2020/12/27/the-uk-does-not-need-the-abused-that-freeports-generate-so-why-are-they-the-supposed-big-bonus-from-brexit/

  130. Hatuey
    Ignored
    says:

    Ian, you might have expressed this simple point earlier. Nobody here or anywhere to my knowledge has suggested that the new vaccine has undergone the test of time that vaccines would normally require.

    I suppose what you think of the vaccine is going to depend largely on how dangerous you think the disease itself is. I think it’s very dangerous and because I think that I’m happy to be more relaxed about the testing regime – most medical professionals think the same.

    I’ve never been dismissive of deaths amongst older people either. Some day we will all be old and, assuming I have my faculties, I expect that I will still value living when I’m older. I think the way deaths amongst older people have been discussed and deemed acceptable throughout this pandemic has been shocking and disgraceful, the most disturbing aspect of all.

  131. ScotsRenewables
    Ignored
    says:


    Dave Somerville says:
    1 January, 2021 at 3:38 pm
    Watched a video there of a celebration in George Sq when Thatcher died.

    The crowd were singing,,,

    “Ding Dong the witch is Dead”.

    Looking forward to a repeat performance once Scotland’s very own version of Thatcher drops dead, accidentally or otherwise.

    Nae hurry Nikla, but this side of May would be much appreciated,ta.

    Pretty vile stuff there Dave.

    Not to mention the martyrdom.

  132. Effijy
    Ignored
    says:

    Just seen the words “WE ARE ONE” 2021
    was Put up above the iconic Forth Rail Bridge?

    We have a supposed Scottish Independence majority
    In Holyrood and they don’t want to promote we are Two,
    We are different, we want our independence!

    To quote Queen Betty’s favourite song-
    One isn’t the One, One wants- oooh ooh ooh!

  133. John H.
    Ignored
    says:

    Although most folk seem to suffer no ill effects from taking it, (so far) people who are prone to allergies such as myself should be cautious about taking the vaccine.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzOxpaA4MQI&feature=youtu.be

  134. Dave Somerville
    Ignored
    says:

    Renewables

    Death comes to us all , one way or another.

    If an individual is holding up the process of my country becoming an independent nation, then I want that individual removed as soon as possible.

    Whether they die of Covid19 or get knocked down by one of their own limousines, I don’t care, just as long as they are removed.

  135. MaggieC
    Ignored
    says:

    Rev Stuart and Chris and all on here ,

    This is just to wish you all A Happy New Year and all the best for 2021 .
    .
    Lang May Your Lum Reek .
    .

    And let us all look forward to the 19th when Alex gives his evidence to the Committee .

  136. ScotsRenewables
    Ignored
    says:

    Wishing death on anyone is not a good look, Dave. Apart from anything else, it is a publicly accessible forum and you are offering our enemies an open goal with daft posts like that. If it was my blog any posts that could – no matter how twistedly – be construed as death threats or incitement to violence would be removed.

    If Sturgeon has misled, dissemble or in any other way blocked our path then she may no longer be fit for office, but death would not become her!

  137. Ian Brotherhood
    Ignored
    says:

    @Hatuey –

    We’re clearly not going to agree, and that’s fair enough.

    Why don’t you pop over to Twitter and share your positivity with some of the people who have already had the first jab and are now furious and afraid because of the chaotic and conflicting messages coming from central government? If you’re seriously intending to accept the jab then it may be useful homework and provide some pause for thought.

  138. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    @Scots Renewables,

    Agreed.

  139. Hatuey
    Ignored
    says:

    Fair play, Robert. There’s a lot of irony here for me too. It’s quite perturbing to be pigeonholed as being on the same side of a debate as “the government”, “big pharma”, and “the deep state” when I’ve spent my adult life condemning them.

    For what it’s worth, I think David Icke offers more meaningful insights than someone like say Kissinger. He’s definitely more fun to read.

    Boris and others have shape-shifted and changed sides, causing confusion about where we all seem to stand. Let’s never forget that they tried to foist herd immunity on us and that it was premised on about 2% of the population as a whole dying. Of course, they deny it now.

    I think those who underestimate the seriousness of this and value of human life are the ones that are on the wrong side and they’re the ones that have been conned. Just last week, for example, Ottomanboi linked to an article that criticised parents for wanting to keep their kids safe and free of danger. Seriously.

    There’s really sinister forces at work when seemingly intelligent people are falling for nihilistic junk like this. The extreme right has a love affair with nihilism… I assume everyone knows that. It’s the basis of everything for them, from their unbridled selfishness right through to their disregard for the planet and willingness to start WW3. And it’s right here, right now, being shoved down our throats along with covid-19.

  140. Ottomanboi
    Ignored
    says:

    Bill Gates on truth and lies.
    https://www.gatesnotes.com/Podcast/Why-do-we-believe-lies
    And the fantasy world of his mate Yuval Noah Hariri put under the microscope.
    https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-early-cracks-in-the-reputation-of-yuval-noah-harari-1.7610839
    But great vaccinator Bill simply loves it!
    Wasn’t there a guy called David Icke who also went in for this stuff?

  141. Hatuey
    Ignored
    says:

    Ian, I think we will come to agree. Actually, I think the signs suggest you are already coming around. My differences with you on this have never had anything to do with how the rollout of the vaccine is being handled – this is a new tangent. I’m sure the British government will fuck that up too, as they’ve fucked up every aspect of this.

    I can say that I’ve been opposed to all aspects of the government’s handling of this pandemic almost entirely, with very few exceptions, from the start. You can’t. And, if you desire it, I will invest the time required to prove that what you were saying about lockdown and the dangerousness of the virus was largely consistent with government’s line from the start.

    The government, for example, was against lockdown, just as you were. They wanted to end it as soon as they could and get everybody back to work, just as you did. And they dismissed the seriousness of the virus and the toll on human life, very much as you did when you started talking about excess deaths, etc.

  142. Alf Baird
    Ignored
    says:

    Muscleguy @ 3.38/Lochside @ 3.33

    I have Finlandia by Sibelius rinnin throu ma heid, which interestingly is also linked to the matter of media control by an imperial oppressor:

    “The piece was composed for the Press Celebrations of 1899, a covert protest against increasing censorship from the Russian Empire.. In order to avoid Russian censorship, Finlandia had to be performed under alternative names at various musical concerts.”

  143. Ottomanboi
    Ignored
    says:

    Hatuey. 16:02
    The article..https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/12/25/towards-a-fearless-future/ was concerned with ‘fear’ and its socio-psychological impact. Plainly you did not read it, too long for you perhaps, before jumping in with comment. A comment making the point of the writer.
    Stay safe, have a dose of fear.
    Btw I’m in my late teens so I ought to scared……what crap!

  144. Hamerdoon
    Ignored
    says:

    Ian Brotherhood says:
    1 January, 2021 at 3:26 pm
    @Hamerdoon & Hatuey –

    Is it the length of the testing process that causes apprehension?
    Is it the fact that it’s an mRNA approach?

    Without knowing your specific issues it is difficult to see how anyone can address your concerns.

  145. Hatuey
    Ignored
    says:

    I read it, otto… and now that you’ve linked to it again, others can too – if they do, they’ll see my assessment of it is bang on.

  146. Liz
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy New Year all wingers.

    People still praising speeches, which mean bugger all.

    SNP politicos, this is the year vote for us, get an S30, Boris won’t refuse.
    They are either deluding themselves or are hoping we’ll fall for their promises again.

    Unless there is a change of management, plebiscite election, I will not vote SNP for the 1st time in decades.

    I will vote ISP on the list and consider any Independent candidate for constituency.

  147. Ian Brotherhood
    Ignored
    says:

    @Hatuey (4.14) –

    Yet again, you personalise the discourse, deflecting attention from the issue at hand.

    What I think or feel about anything is neither here nor there and you patronising me adds nothing to the sum of knowledge on the subject.

    The ‘vaccine’ being rolled-out so ineptly hardly qualifies for the name and it has not been properly tested.

    Go and get your jab. I wish you well. I mean that. But please have the decency to admit that concerns are real, widespread, and growing – it will take a great deal more than balmy rhetoric or apocalyptic warnings from you, Hancock, Sturgeon et al to persuade many of us to join you, sleeves rolled-up.

  148. Fireproofjim
    Ignored
    says:

    Dave Somerville
    Your posts wishing death on anyone are stupid, vile and brainless in that they can be used by those opposing independence as as evidence of the malevolence of inde supporters.
    Maybe that’s your plan.

  149. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    Where’s Snake Plissken when you need him?

    Health Inequities, Social Determinants, and Intersectionality
    https://nam.edu/health-inequities-social-determinants-and-intersectionality/

  150. MaggieC
    Ignored
    says:

    Re Covid Vaccine ,

    I don’t want to get involved in the discussion whether you are for or against the vaccine . I have it on good authority that the reason for delaying the 2nd dose of the vaccine by the English Government is that they don’t have enough medical staff to administer the vaccine .

  151. Dave Somerville
    Ignored
    says:

    Fireproofjim 5.01

    Ok maybe it’s because of arseholes like you that we are still in this stinkin fuckin Union with the bastards to the south of our border

  152. Dave Somerville
    Ignored
    says:

    Regards this vaccine shit.

    For a start I will not be putting that english rat’s pish Oxford vaccine in me.

    I’ll leave that shit for India to buy up.

    The Pfizer makers have said a 12 week gap is too long and will probably make their vaccine as good as useless.

    So summing up,,, I’ll give all this vaccine shit a miss.

  153. cynicalHighlander
    Ignored
    says:

    Dave Somerville are you Robert Graham’s replacement?

  154. Dan
    Ignored
    says:

    @ cynicalhighlander

    I was getting more of a Ronald Fraser vibe masel. 😉

  155. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    The potential for open society rests largely on the methods that we use to learn to recognise things as facts or counter-factual. I’m not trying to be superior, but unless you have critical insight into the epistemology of scientific knowledge, it’s not really possible to assess the credibility of scientific theory.

    The Unreasonable Destructiveness of Political Correctness in Philosophy
    https://www.mdpi.com/2409-9287/2/3/17/htm

    “I submit that epistemic progress in key areas of contemporary academic philosophy has been compromised by politically correct (“PC”) ideology. First, guided by an evolutionary account of ideology, results from social and cognitive psychology and formal philosophical methods, I expose evidence for political bias in contemporary Western academia and sketch a formalization for the contents of beliefs from the PC worldview taken to be of core importance, the theory of social oppression and the thesis of anthropological mental egalitarianism.

    Then, aided by discussions from contemporary epistemology on epistemic values, I model the problem of epistemic appraisal using the frameworks of multi-objective optimization theory and multi-criteria decision analysis and apply it to politically correct philosophy. I conclude that philosophy guided by politically correct values is bound to produce constructs that are less truth-conducive and that spurious values which are ideologically motivated should be abandoned.

    Objections to my framework stemming from contextual empiricism, the feminine voice in ethics and political philosophy are considered. I conclude by prescribing the epistemic value of epistemic adequacy, the contextual value of political diversity and the moral virtue of moral courage to reverse unwarranted trends in academic philosophy due to PC ideology.”

  156. SilverDarling
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy New Year to the Rev and everyone on here. Here’s hoping the coming year brings real progress towards Independence and a future full of promise.

  157. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    @Dan,

    He’d sort you out, but he’s stuck (up to his knees) in corpses of people he disagreed with. Soon be the only living human.

  158. Robert graham
    Ignored
    says:

    Ho,shitface Highlander
    Want to say anything to me cunt
    Come on let’s fucking have yah wanker
    And that’s being nice

  159. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    If only our legal Establishment weren’t predominantly Tory friends of fascism, and our society riddled with bigotry and sectarianism. As that’s the price of British nationalism.

    EQUAL TREATMENT BENCHBOOK
    https://www.courts.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/94054/s-etbb.pdf

  160. Dan
    Ignored
    says:

    Breeks says: at 1:50 pm

    Here’s another SNP tosser at it… “Now let’s move forward!” Now???

    https://twitter.com/KeithBrownSNP/status/1344795491066933248

    Well, with the winter solstice not long past, we await the warming soils spring will bring, so “now” is indeed the time to be spreading their manure, for it will give fertility to the soil which will assist the germination of their soon to be proffered seeds for growing what has become the annual mandate crop.

    Her cult followers believe she sells sanctuary.. others believe she’s merely punting carrots…

  161. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    Save Somerville @3pm.

    Cheers Dave, I just wish I didn’t need to write that comment, but Sturgeon has let us down badly.

  162. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    To suggest the SNP has let Scotland down is to badly understate the case, as they have done just about everything they could do to undermine the potential for justice in and for Scotland.

    The emergence of intersectional disadvantage
    http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/90425/

    “Intersectionality theory explores the peculiar disadvantages that arise as the result of occupying multiple disadvantaged demographic categories. Addressing intersectionality theory through quantitative methods has proven difficult. Concerns have been raised about the sample size one would need in order to responsibly tease out evidence for the claims of intersectionality theorists.

    What is more, theorists have expressed concern about our ability to formulate novel intersectional hypotheses in a non-ad-hoc manner. We argue that simulation methods can help address these, and other, methodological problems, because they can generate novel hypotheses about causal dependencies in a relatively cheap way, and can thus guide future empirical work. We illustrate this point using models which show that intersectional oppression can arise under conditions where social groups are disadvantaged in the emergence of bargaining norms.

    As we show, intersectional disadvantage can arise even when actors from all social categories are completely identical in terms of preferences and abilities. And when actors behave in ways that reflect stronger intersectional identities, the potential for disadvantage increases. As we note, this exploration illustrates the usefulness of idealized models to real world inquiry.”

  163. ScotsRenewables
    Ignored
    says:


    Robert graham says:
    1 January, 2021 at 5:45 pm
    Ho,shitface Highlander
    Want to say anything to me cunt
    Come on let’s fucking have yah wanker
    And that’s being nice

    What an unpleasant waste of space and bad advertisement for Scotland you are.

    Bet yer mammie would has washed yer dirty wee mooth out wi carbolic.

    To any newcomers to this blog, ignore idiots like this. They are trolls for the other side, their mission is to make us real independence supporters look as bad as possible.

  164. James Che.
    Ignored
    says:

    I would like to wish stu an every one here a happy healthy and prosperous new year. I raise a cup o kindness to you all.

  165. ScotsRenewables
    Ignored
    says:

    Dave Somerville, same goes for you. Time to put the bottle down.

  166. Brian Doonthetoon
    Ignored
    says:

    Hi Dan says at 5:52 pm.

    You typed,
    “Well, with the winter solstice not long past, we await the warming soils spring will bring, so “now” is indeed the time to be spreading their manure, for it will give fertility to the soil which will assist the germination of their soon to be proffered seeds for growing what has become the annual mandate crop.”

    That reminded me of this…

    The Plan
    In the beginning, there was a plan, And then came the assumptions, And the assumptions were without form, And the plan without substance,? And the darkness was upon the face of the workers, And they spoke among themselves saying, ”It is a crock of shit and it stinks.”
    And the workers went unto their Supervisors and said, ”It is a pile of dung, and we cannot live with the smell.”
    And the Supervisors went unto their Managers saying, ”It is a container of excrement, and it is very strong, Such that none may abide by it.”
    And the Managers went unto their Directors saying, ”It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide by its strength.”
    And the Directors spoke among themselves saying to one another, ”It contains that which aids plants growth, and it is very strong.”
    And the Directors went to the Vice Presidents saying unto them, ”It promotes growth, and it is very powerful.”
    And the Vice Presidents went to the President, saying unto him, ”This new plan will actively promote the growth and vigor of the company with very powerful effects.”
    And the President looked upon the Plan And saw that it was good, And the Plan became Policy.

    And this, my friend, is how shit happens.

  167. Hatuey
    Ignored
    says:

    Of course, if we were a normal country we’d have been able to stop the virus flowing freely into the country. We should have learned that lesson back in April when it became clear that countries who could control borders would suffer the least.

    Now the new variant is here and nobody is even discussing border controls. They say Sturgeon cannot do anything about it, it’s a reserved power, but there’s nothing to stop her talking and telling people the truth. Those that are about to die deserve that much.

    You have to wonder how much crap Scottish people are willing to take before there’s some sort of eruption.

    Those who are on here chastising people for saying certain things in certain ways ought to have a word with themselves. Scotland, the battered wife of Europe, is getting the shit kicked out of her and you are worried about the language she uses as she lies writhing on the floor in tortured agony.

    If you aren’t apologists, the word has no meaning. While we are on the subject, the subject being cowardly fuckwits (as I see it), I’m getting tired of the politely worded criticism of Sturgeon that so many on here are trying to forge identities from.

    Had you said this stuff two years ago, when some of us did, when it was obvious to a child that she was a sell-out, when it could have made a difference, it might have been worth reading and saying. Now, having turned up much too late to the party, you expect us to gather round the fire and sing along with you, stopping only to applaud your politely put poetry.

    Fuck all that. The English aren’t the problem. The SNP and Sturgeon aren’t the problem. You are. You should keep out of politics. I mean that. You have no clue and do more damage than good. If you’re going to interrupt those of us who actually know what’s going on, it should only be to apologise for getting in the way.

  168. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    The thing about “cognitive democracy”, is it’s a little unrealistic to expect the victims of “intersectional epistemic injustices” to lead the way to its’ achievement.

    Book review: Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory
    https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1368431020913403

  169. 100%Yes
    Ignored
    says:

    The position that our nation faces today (01.01.21) is more direr than its been in the last 6yrs, some how I reckon Sturgeon is still on her grand tour of Scotland and has forgotten to get of the bus. This is the day I’ve been dreading but its here and there is no one that can do anything about it now we’ve left the EU and every single nation part from Scotland has got something out of Brexit. My total distrust of Nicola Sturgeon goes beyond words I’ve been saying for a long time she was a useless leader and we should get rid of her as leader of the SNP but she clings on. We will have the full force of the British state to deal with now they don’t have to worry about Brexit and who do we have to thank Nicola Sturgeon we have all started a new year and wishing everyone good wishes for the up and coming year but sadly I know whats up ahead, we will still be in this Union in 01.01.22 and would have given this woman who cries wolf constantly on Independence an other 5yrs to govern us. The two most important issues for the majority of Scots Independence and keeping our EU membership on this regard any other leader would have to resign if either one of these issue they failed to deliver and don’t think for a single minute that Sturgeon has though I’ve been lying through my teeth I’ll have to resign she a Tory and has spent the last 6yrs making a Holyrood movie about herself.

  170. Scot Finlayson
    Ignored
    says:

    The second dose was never deliverable , the first was a stunt by that utter thug Johnson wanting/needing a Great Britain first,

    lie today make up excuses tomorrow,

    the UK Gov way.

    Rule Britania.

  171. Boaby
    Ignored
    says:

    Anybody else think john bull should have had a leash
    On hamish?.

  172. Strathy
    Ignored
    says:

    Excellent summary of Sturgeon’s achievements, Republicofscotland (2.15pm).

    An addition, if I may.

    The malicious prosecutions in the Rangers case. Started by the former Lord Advocate and continued by the current Lord Advocate.

    Set to cost tax payers tens of millions of pounds.

  173. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    Strathy @7.17pm.

    Strathy, yes indeed.

  174. ScotsRenewables
    Ignored
    says:

    Hatuey, if you can’t see the potential negative impact on us of gutter language and death threats then you must be one majorly thick S.O.B

    If you think it helps the Cult of Nicola see the truth then you make mince look intelligent.

  175. Dan
    Ignored
    says:

    Hatuey says at 6.33pm

    Those who are on here chastising people for saying certain things in certain ways ought to have a word with themselves.

    Hmm, that reads like you’re chastising folk.
    If so it implies chastising chastisers is ok, but chastising by itself is not.
    Conventional reality suggests that for the positive situation of chastising chastisers to manifest, it requires the existence of an initial negative situation event to occur, whereby a chastiser practicing chastising, can then be called out by an incoming second chastiser to counter and balance things back to normal order.
    How yin and yang.

    On that theme, not everything can be deemed as black and white, because people are all unique in how they view, and the rate with which they absorb unfolding events.
    Political anoraks need to take that onboard and not be so judgemental towards individuals making their own journeys, which due to their other life commitments may not afford them so much time to watching politics and associated events play out.

  176. Saffron Robe
    Ignored
    says:

    By definition, self-determination cannot be self-determination if it is determined by London.

    (That also applies to a Section 30 order.)

  177. ScotsRenewables
    Ignored
    says:

    Hatuey, if you can’t see the potential negative impact on us of gutter language and death threats then you must be one majorly thick S.O.B

    If you think it helps the Cult of Nicola see the truth then you make mince look intelligent.

    So get the fuck off my case, you halfwit.

  178. robertknight
    Ignored
    says:

    Boaby @ 7:07

    “Anybody else think john bull should have had a leash on hamish?.”

    Nope…

    Hamish should have a huge, yellow painted ball chained to one ankle. On the ball should be emblazoned a black, stylised thistle-head, above the letters “SNP”.

    John Bull isn’t Hamish’s primary problem.

  179. Rev. Stuart Campbell
    Ignored
    says:

    “And that’s being nice”

    No it isn’t. Banned.

  180. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    Thanks Stu. Better if debate is robust but tempered.

  181. Dan
    Ignored
    says:

    Is a setup of ScotGov being prepared to validate future Westminster intervention?

    https://twitter.com/lord_forsyth/status/1345071190944190464

  182. DaveL
    Ignored
    says:

    Strathy @ 7.17

    I thought that had already been settled out of court for an of course, undisclosed sum. I think I read that last week/10 days ago somewhere.

  183. Lochside
    Ignored
    says:

    Alf Baird makes valid political points and then the thread is derailed by pish about the ‘virus’, with one of the biggest offenders, a previously seemingly intelligent contributor and long term ‘winger’. Until you have experienced a close relative or friend dying through this pandemic just stfu please.

    BTW I well remember the CJD and tainted blood transfusion episodes with the Brit Govs of the past, so I am no gullible individual. However, anybody who thinks that most world economies are wilfully tanking their economies over some illumnati style conspiracy to control us like human sheep needs to seek assistance. The WHO and world wide medical profession are predominantly behind the innoculation programme for this virus and only flat earth irrational thinkers can believe otherwise. Please stfu.

    BTW all the ‘newbies’ cut out the foul mouthed rants please? We know who and what you are. We have been ejected unlawfully out of Europe, So stick to that subject , otherwise go to Off Topic please.

  184. Jim Tadgercock
    Ignored
    says:

    Republicofscotland 2.15

    I wish I was as eloquent as you.Think you nailed it happy new groundhog day.

  185. Joe Morrison
    Ignored
    says:

    Bob Mack

    Are you english???

    “Please Sir,,,he said as bad word”.

    Fuckin hell.

    Down my way your type are known as a “grass”.

    Stroll fuckin on man!!!

  186. Joe Morrison
    Ignored
    says:

    Teacher’s fuckin pets.

    All fighting to see who can tell Stu first.

    And you bastards are meant to be fighting for Scottish Independence.

  187. Joe Morrison
    Ignored
    says:

    Bob Mack

    Did some bad man say a sweary word???

  188. Joe Morrison
    Ignored
    says:

    Does every fuckin post need to pass the Bob Mack censorship test from now on.

    Fuckin ragin man.

    We have enough enemies out there without pricks on here running to teacher every time they see a sweary word.

  189. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    @Joe Morrison.

    Assumptions and presumptions make an ass of you and I.

    I imagine at your level grass is a normal surrounding anyway

  190. David Holden
    Ignored
    says:

    God what a sewer of a thread this is. One thing that has become obvious is we are going to leave the UK the only thing up for grabs is the timing and how petty the UK is going to be about it. I wish it had happened last time round but it is going to happen despite the SNP the only thing is when and on what terms we leave on. If we look at history we will be gone from the UK and I do not have a link in blue to pretend I know what I am talking about. It is going to happen we are now down to timing so bend the ears of all your MPs , MSPs etc and get them to get on with what they were elected to do or get them out the door. Obviously not Sir Pete of Ermine as we would hate to get in the way of his pension and future career as Uncle Tam.

  191. Andy Ellis
    Ignored
    says:

    It was bad enough having to wade through Wings Over Spameron….now it’s like the Asperger’s Reunion Club in here. Get a grip.

    We’re all adults, the odd sweary word is to be expected given the circumstances, but the place is rapidly becoming a sewer. Given the toleration of bams like Cameron of course, you’ll be knee deep in it before long.

  192. Joe Morrison
    Ignored
    says:

    Bob Mack

    You’ll be all for the SNP pushing through their Hate Crime Bill.

    “He said a bad word,,, jail the bastard”.

  193. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    If only I cared.

  194. twathater
    Ignored
    says:

    Thanks for that Stu

  195. Joe Morrison
    Ignored
    says:

    Boab the Grass.

  196. Joe Morrison
    Ignored
    says:

    You can spot the english posters on here a mile away,,or those who have a strong english family connection

  197. Joe Morrison
    Ignored
    says:

    Stu

    Disappointed you gave in to these snowflakes.

    We are meant to be fighting for Scottish Independence, and you are now banning posters for having a strong opinion.

  198. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    @Joe,

    The next line,,___

    deedle leedle leedle um.

    Your turn.

  199. A Person
    Ignored
    says:

    Good grief, what a dismal start to the year this thread is.

    This site does sterling work and gets slagged by the powers that be as nutters for it. Why are some of you playing into their hands?

    It would be nice if people stopped throwing idiotic “covid is a hoax” (my mother has had it, trust me, it is no hoax) vs. “anyone who even asks a question about a vaccine is evil” (naive) narratives at one another, you are as bad as each other. Julia Hartley-Brewer and Piers Morgan might be the commentators you are looking for.

    As usual, Chris Cairns has made a great cartoon, thank you Chris, and a Happy New Year to you and all other Wings readers.

  200. A Person
    Ignored
    says:

    -Lochside-

    Well said. The government is so inept that there is a village in Argyll has been without running water for three months, so the chances of it being able to co-ordinate a bloody monster conspiracy is a bit unlikely.

  201. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    Andy Ellis
    You appear to be hostile to cognitive democracy and relational justice, so I’ll not be taking any instructions from you. Away and polish your clown-shoes, sunshine.

    Managing the Risks of Extreme Events
    and Disasters to Advance
    Climate Change Adaptation
    https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/03/SREX_Full_Report-1.pdf

  202. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    Oh no !!

  203. Beaker
    Ignored
    says:

    An A&E worker posted a video outside St Thomas’ Hospital (I’m crap at trying to link things). He’d just worked late shift. Loads of idiots shouting out that COVID is a hoax. Outside a fucking hospital. I give up.

    NHS staff are under enough pressure without feeling threatened. Hope to hell this doesn’t happen in Scotland.

  204. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    If your man Ellis was such a high-flying intalectual and competent supporter of democracy, he wouldn’t be so hostile towards those trying to educate for democracy.

    The Encultured Mind: From Cognitive Science to
    Social Epistemology
    https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6669&context=etd

  205. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    @Beaker,

    No doubt it will. Some will now have extra time on their hands to do something like that.

  206. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    INTELLECTUAL, doh. 🙂

  207. Dan
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Beaker

    https://twitter.com/mbklee_/status/1344795588039208961

    If you can type you should be able to learn to copy and paste links.
    Was your New Year’s resolution not to self improve yourself in some way. 😉

  208. Strathy
    Ignored
    says:

    You are right, DaveL (8.38pm)

    Settlement with two of the victims was agreed. That is part of the total bill.

    Another case is continuing. Then there are the legal fees of all sides and all the rest of it.

    This article summarises the current position.

    https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/ex-rangers-administrators-settle-multi-23183308

  209. Dan
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Strathy

    Here’s an archived link of that page to stop giving the bloody paper that printed The Vow direct page hits…

    https://web.archive.org/web/20201231164225if_/https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/ex-rangers-administrators-settle-multi-23183308

  210. twathater
    Ignored
    says:

    Dan Looked at your twatter links for Brown and the sainted one earlier thanks for them

    Correct me if I am wrong we now have ALL these high heid SNP honourable representatives TELLING US one by one that NOW is the time for us to show support for indy and NOW is definitely the time for Scotland’s independence

    I maybe mistaken or slow but I think that for the past 6 years that’s exactly what we have been trying to TELL the twats but for some unknown reason they have ignored us continuously
    Maybe I am a tad cynical or suspicious but is there maybe something happening shortly like a HR election that requires these twats to convince us to vote for them so that they can continue to carrot dangle for another 5 years and pad out their wages and pensions whilst doing absolutely fuck all to get independence

    I contacted Mr Brown recently by email stating that my and my families votes were conditional on a mandate for a plebicite election which Sturgeon must announce publicly, for which I have received no response

    For the avoidance of doubt Mr Brown if you happen to read this blog I have nothing but contempt and disgust for the way you , NS and the SNP have allowed WM to block and frustrate Scotlands people’s rightful choice to determine their future , and I will confirm my threat NO PLEBICITE ELECTION AND CONFIRMED DATE , NO SNP VOTE

  211. AYRSHIRE ROB
    Ignored
    says:

    The polis should grab a few of them and say right 10k fine or you come in here and work a full shift on covid ward. Your choice. Not one would do an hour.

  212. Joe Morrison
    Ignored
    says:

    Leading the wings charge for Scottish Independence,,,

    Bob the grass Mack.
    AYRSHIRE
    Twatter
    Dan
    And the rest of the snowflakes

    God fuckin help us

    Get yer knitting needles ready for the charge.

    Sweety wives convention

  213. DaveL
    Ignored
    says:

    @Strathy. Noted, thanks for that and also referencing your information. I wouldv’e taken your word for it rather than click through though so thanks also Dan for providing the archived alternative. I’ll have a read. Cheers both.

  214. ScotsRenewables
    Ignored
    says:

    Joe Morrison, do you actually have anything to contribute?

    Perhaps stop posting until you sober up?

  215. Ian Brotherhood
    Ignored
    says:

    @Lochside (8.59) –

    I wasn’t going to reply to your rant but it has hit a nerve.

    ‘Until you have experienced a close relative or friend dying through this pandemic just stfu please.’

    How do you know that I haven’t?

    I’m not going into personal stuff but other Wingers, actual friends, do know what’s been happening and will be as disgusted at that comment as I am.

    I’ve always enjoyed reading your comments and we often agreed on all sorts of things (that is, if you’re the same ‘Lochside’ I’m thinking of!) and that’s why your 8.59 has got to me.

    Lumping me in with ‘flat-earthers’ is uncalled-for. I’m simply pointing out that this vaccine has not been tested. Rev Stu has said as much in btl comments (and that’s fair enough – no-one should expect WOS to take an editorial stance on something so toxic).

    The concerns are real. If you don’t believe me, go on Twitter and see how many folk are beside themselves with worry over the chaotic messages from government. And you can’t reasonably expect anyone to believe that this subject is ‘off-topic’ when it’s affecting every one of us 24/7.

    I’m sorry if I’ve ‘disappointed’ you Lochside, but I’m not raising these questions for a laugh or just to get attention. So, if it’s all the same to you, I won’t ‘stfu’ about it. And even if I do, there are other folk here – also veteran Wingers – who will continue to draw attention to uncomfortable facts being ignored by the mainstream media.

  216. Hatuey
    Ignored
    says:

    Cam: “Andy Ellis…You appear to be hostile to cognitive democracy and relational justice…”

    Exactly what I was thinking.

  217. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    @Joe,

    I can embroider quite well, but crochet is my forte.

  218. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    @Hatuey,

    Snap!

  219. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    In fact, given your man Ellis’s complete failure to advance the prospects of Scotland’s democracy through International Relations theory, I have serious doubts as to the his alleged academic competence. So here’s what a bit of critical post-colonial thinking can do for you.

    Power asymmetries in global governance for health: a conceptual framework for analyzing the political-economic determinants of health inequities
    https://globalizationandhealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12992-019-0516-4

  220. Hatuey
    Ignored
    says:

    Ian: “ other Wingers, actual friends, do know what’s been happening and will be as disgusted at that comment as I am…”

    Right. Well, this is confusing. You have first hand experience of how dangerous the virus is and, at the same time, just as it has mutated and become more virulent and infectious, you want to discourage people from taking the vaccine which 99% of scientists say is both safe and effective.

    Curiouser and curiouser.

  221. Ian Brotherhood
    Ignored
    says:

    @Hatuey (11.16) –

    You’re a smart cookie H, so I’m sure you can work out what I’m getting at without pressing for details which I cannot and will not discuss.

    BTW, where is your ‘99% of scientists’ source?

  222. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    sorry….I have serious doubts as to his alleged academic competence. 😉

    The Evolution of Social Constructivism in Political Science: Past to Present
    https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244019832703

    “This article aims to illuminate how social constructivism has evolved as a mainstream international relation (IR) paradigm within a short period of time. To be specific, I navigated core tenets of constructivism in terms of its ontology, epistemology, and methodology, respectively. I also explored the growing body of constructivist empirical research and ensuing theoretical refinement as well as the strengths and weaknesses of a constructivist approach.

    Through these discussions, this article argues that constructivist approaches, since its emergence, have hugely contributed to the development of the study of IRs, providing novel insights and distinct ways of understanding of social and international reality with its own added value, by focusing on the role of ideas, identity, and norms in shaping state preferences and world politics.”

  223. Robert Louis
    Ignored
    says:

    I have been watching many news broadcasts and programmes over the last few days where they discuss something like “so, what will people need to know, or what is going to change when we leave the EU”.

    In every single instance, the list of changes have been negative, either incurring more costs, added delays or increased paperwork. It is telling, that in NOT ONE such broadcast or news programme have I heard any GENUINE benefits. Just hubris akin to that we heard from racist Farage.

    So, hey, unionists, given all the problems, costs and delays brexit is causing, can any of you list the ACTUAL GENUINE benefits of brexit??? Anybody?

    Nah, didn’t think so.

  224. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    Can we try to be a little less divisive in our perceptual disputes. We all see the world differently, and given the shady history of some of the pharmaceutical industry, it is only natural some will doubt the efficacy of the vaccines on offer. Especially given Westminster’s authoritarian approach to constitutional law. But the world’s medicines regulators are not all in on some globalist conspiracy for world domination.

    Vaccinating against viruses of the mind
    David Robson on psychological efforts to achieve ‘herd immunity’ against the spread of misinformation in pandemic times.
    https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-33/summer-2020/vaccinating-against-viruses-mind

  225. Famous15
    Ignored
    says:

    Good guys getting pelters for suggesting less aggressiveness and less fowl language on here makes me think some of the “genius” contributors have never canvassed on a door step.

    Listen to me hen,your talking shite and ah wull fucking tell you etc

    Oh,sorry, nice fowl mouthed eedjit,your on my doorstep and calling me a hunt,I will accept all your wise words.

    Aye right!

    Independence is normal and so is couurtesy.

  226. Beaker
    Ignored
    says:

    @Dan says:
    1 January, 2021 at 10:01 pm

    Improve myself? I’m perfect.
    I have an appointment next week to discuss this… 🙂

  227. Clyde
    Ignored
    says:

    New Covid is going to sweep the earth.

    New vaccine will be useless.

  228. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    The thing about self-improvement, is there is sod all point to it if your government is incapable of supporting, or is hostile towards, democracy. Just as there is sod all point in respecting law and order. That’s where English Torydum is driving Brexitania.

    Psychology and International Relations Theory
    https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev.polisci.4.1.67

    “Organized around several major theoretical traditions in international relations, this essay suggests which literature in psychology should be of greatest interest to different kinds of international relations scholars. New work in cognitive social psychology and behavioral decision theory simultaneously expands on and qualifies earlier error-and-bias portraits of the foreign policy maker, thereby enriching our understanding of internal divisions within the realist camp.

    Work on bounded rationality in competitive markets and mixed-motive games, as well as the literature on the power of human emotions to shape judgments of what represents an equitable allocation of scarce resources or a just resolution of conflicts of interest, can inform neo-institutionalist and constructivist theories.

    Developments in cross-cultural social psychology shed light on constructivist arguments about the creation and maintenance of international social order that typically rest on assumptions about decision making that are qualitatively different from realist and institutionalist approaches to world politics.”

  229. Saffron Robe
    Ignored
    says:

    As I understand it there are a plethora of (competing) Covid-19 vaccines and even with the same vaccine the guidance on dosage and administration (i.e. single administration, multiple administration etc.) can change.

    They cannot all have exactly the same levels of safety and efficacy and, as novel vaccines, must surely be classed as experimental?

  230. bipod
    Ignored
    says:

    Everything that has been going on for the past 9 months has been experimental. Lockdown, the forced quarantine of healthy people had never been tried before at this scale anywhere. In march we threw 100 years of scientifically backed viral containment measures out the window and decided to copy china, just look at how well that has worked out for us. It is now implicitly assumed that lockdown “suppresses” the virus and that the only reason it isn’t working now is because we now have super mega covid out there, it definitely can’t be because it is winter the peak season for respiratory infections.

    I am still waiting for the government to provide some actual biological evidence to prove that the new variant is 70% more infectious, so far they have provided nothing other than some correlation of it being more prevalent in london.

    The thing we can say is that lockdowns have utterly failed to contain covid 19. What are we on now the 4th or 5th lockdown? None of it seems to have effected the curve in the slightest.

  231. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    I’m not getting paid for this, but we are all going to suffer unless we improve our social health practice. So that will require us to develop a rubber ear to those who’s judgement is grounded in ideology.

    Using an integrated social cognition model to predict COVID?19 preventive behaviours
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7253766/

    “To the Editor – Many preventive behaviors such as the practice of hand, personal, and respiratory hygiene; maintaining social distance (eg, staying home); and cleaning and disinfection are recommended for the prevention of the new coronavirus (COVID-19). However, a growing number of reports have revealed individuals’ violations to these COVID-19 preventive behaviors.1 These violations might endanger the community by increasing the risk of an outbreak of COVID-19.

    The uptake of and adherence to health behaviors, including behaviors related to the prevention of infectious diseases (eg, COVID-19), are likely highly dependent on individuals’ motivation, intention, and other decision-making factors.2 We aim to apply an integrated behavior change model of health psychology to explain why individuals fail to comply and adhere to these behaviors.”

  232. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    In case that was a little too subtle for some, self-determination theory and good social health practice are pretty much inseparable. 😉

    Self-determination theory: its application to health behavior and complementarity with motivational interviewing

    “Mounting evidence implicates health behaviors (e.g., nutrition, physical activity, tobacco abstinence) in various health outcomes. As the science of behavior change has emerged, increasing emphasis has been placed on the use of theory in developing and testing interventions. Self-determination theory (SDT)- a theoretical perspective – and motivational interviewing (MI)- a set of clinical techniques – have both been used in health behavior intervention contexts. Although developed for somewhat different purposes and in relatively different domains, there is a good deal of conceptual overlap between SDT and MI.

    Accordingly, SDT may offer the theoretical backing that historically has been missing from MI, and MI may offer SDT some specific direction with respect to particular clinical techniques that have not been fully borne out within the confines of health related applications of SDT. Research is needed to empirically test the overlap and distinctions between SDT and MI and to determine the extent to which these two perspectives can be combined or co-exist as somewhat distinct approaches.”

  233. Beaker
    Ignored
    says:

    @bipod says:
    2 January, 2021 at 2:31 am
    “I am still waiting for the government to provide some actual biological evidence to prove that the new variant is 70% more infectious”

    What do you want? Remove all restrictions and if the hospitals get overwhelmed which will give you the evidence?

    Several other countries have confirmed this variant. Do you honestly believe there is some sort of global conspiracy?

    Tell you what – track down the idiots who were shouting outside St Thomas’ hospital last night, then see how many of them get COVID. It happened to a German protester not so long ago and he ended up on a ventilator.

  234. Beaker
    Ignored
    says:

    Forgot to add.

    We’ve not had a proper lockdown yet. Full lockdown means you are confined at home – period. Only essential workers are allowed out. Food gets delivered. If you need medical treatment it has to be pre-arranged, emergencies obviously excepted.

    Think it was in Australia where a tower block was fully locked down.

    Lockdown hasn’t been as effective as it could have been because too many people just ignore the rules so they can go and party, or protest, or get their eyes tested, or like trains…

  235. Hatuey
    Ignored
    says:

    It’s odd all this. Those on here who are presenting themselves as anti-establishment dissident types on covid-19 actually have more in common with big business and Boris than they care to admit. Like all those guys, you want to play down the danger posed by the virus and want to keep society and the economy open for business, regardless of the human costs.

    Those of us who were against herd immunity and letting 500 thousand die, who insisted that we had to put limits on freedoms in order to contain the spread, and wanted to stop planes full of infected people bringing more disease into the country, we are the real anti-establishment voices.

    And, funnily enough, our approach would have been massively beneficial to the economy too, and done much less harm. Had we done things our way, properly, this pandemic would have been effectively over by the end of May.

    There are several examples of countries that managed this properly. In Taiwan, for example, they’re not even required to wear masks any more; life, schools, society, restaurants, most of the economy, etc., all functioning as normal.

    People like you have made it easy for blundering Boris. And between your support and the British government’s stupidity and callousness, we are one of the worst affected countries in the world.

    There’s a special place reserved for you in the history books. You’re not just any old useful idiots, you’re dangerously useful idiots. PhD students across various faculties, from psychology to history, will be studying your insane behaviour for decades to come.

  236. Al-Stuart
    Ignored
    says:

    .
    Hi Andy,

    Brave effort at trying to re-engage earlier tonight. Like you, I am just popping by occasionally to see the political caricature by Chris Cairns and read the main articles by Rev Stu. But absense gives perspective and I notice how clever the 77th have been in achieving their ends here at WoS. BTL is mostly a bin fire with statistically 20% CanSpam narcissistic self aggrandisement and 20% vitriol from 77th trolls and idiots looking for a village to move into. The decent folk on here are having a difficult time trying to conduct a grown-up conversation that would help IndyRef2.

    It is a helluva job to find the decent BTL commentary without losing the flow because of the resident “look-at-me” troll havering on about selling dummies and legal text copy/paste waste of bandwidth. Fortunately Stu., BANNED one of the thuggish tendency this evening.

    It is a historic fact that Scotland’s clan structure has resulted in internecine and lethal rivalry with clansman killing off kith and kin. We did Edward Longshanks work for him since 1272. With an occasional post here or there, the 77ers are helping nuke any coherent debate BTL. Compared to the high quality BTL 6 years ago, you can hear the tumbleweeds go by nowadays. That must be dispiriting to those who really care about Scotland”s future.

    Now we have CamSpam running amok with 40% spam rate of feckless drivel causing arteriosclerosis of WoS at the rate of 6 out of the last 15 posts. FACT…

    https://tinyurl.com/y5r8m443

    A rare smile was had when someone advised…

    “Seen sunglasses, then scroll on by.”

    CamSpam is only a small, stale fromage-ridden phalus in the magnitude of the problem. In essence the New Year goodwill & good wishes of 1st January 2021 lasted about 5 minutes and we are back to bun fights galore with little or no initiatives for bringing IndyRef2 to life.

    Rev Stu., you have the patience of a saint.

    Personally I have now moved FROM being a YES supporter to now being an ABSTENTIONIST. I am spreading that word whenever politics crops up on social media or Zoom etc.

    I refuse to vote for the SNP under the current cabal as Humza’s Law will see FREE SPEECH BANNED or at least severely compromised in Scotland. WoS main site will go the same way of WoS Twitter feed/account. This site will close if Humza and Twittler get their way. Why? Because the Twittler Youth are already popping up on this site to try and screw things up.

    The other parties shat the nest and I refuse to vote for any of them.

    To be brutally honest, I am waiting for Alex Salmond to resurrect the REAL SNP or Johanna Cherry/Kenny McAskill to form an Indy List Party for the second vote of LIST MSPs at Holyrood in 4 months’ time.

    If CamSpam were genuine, he would be referencing USEFUL links such as the Wings Over Scotland article which shows the absolute mathematical psephological genius behind having TWO Independence parties.

    We need DEEP THINKERS in Scottish politics just now. The Craig Murrays and Stuart Campbell’s. But they are too few and the 40% of Amadan CamSpam pollutant plus tonight’s righteous bans are making WoS BTL a wasteland, bereft of ideas and initiatives or discussion on how we can all pull together to get our country back from the McWoke Sturgeonites.

    Andy, valiant effort but there is little point in trying to have a proper constructive debate when the CamSpams of this world drone on and disrupt any flow or logical thought process.

    The UK Government are winning on here. They won by planting sleepers in the SNP 20 to 30 years ago and Scotland is fucked.

    I gave of my time, effort and a fair wedge of money when being a member of the local SNP branch. But observed many upsetting things at the SNP branch meetings. Here is a triumvirate to make the point…

    A). The old guard SNP membership with true commitment to Scottish Independence are dying out at branch network. The new membership are outgunned by the McWoke, entryist, selfish LBQTQWERTY+ Brigade.

    B). Sturgeon’s hidden agenda has been like the boiled frog analogy. She gave great speeches just after Alex resigned in 2014. The majority of SNP members are oblivious to Sturgeon squandering FIVE mandates. Like the proverbial frog in gently warming water, the SNP will not realise the McWoke problem until the whole cause is cooked. On this page is also Nicola and her mans fingerprints all over the effort to illegally jail Alex Salmond.

    C). To paraphrase the arrogant, entitled political masters of our country, Scottish Labour, just before they were utterly destroyed by the ELECTORATE…

    I didn’t leave Labour, Labour left me,

    But now, with spookily prescient deja vu, it is fair to say…

    I didn’t leave the SNP, the SNP left me.

    Good Lord, I hope and pray Alex Salmond comes back into mainstream Scottish politics.

    Only Alex, is guaranteed to get things back on track. Without him or someone else of that calibre, it will be too late by the time the Scottish electorate catch onto this current bourach.

    I vote for a plague of locusts on all political parties in Scotland.

    Take care Andy and all the best for 2021. May you have a year free of Covid and CamSpam.

  237. Al-Stuart
    Ignored
    says:

    .
    Correction to previous BTL contribution…

    CamSpam WAS at 40% spam rate, but he is back to an average in WoS Recent Comments (WordPress widget at the right hand side of screen).

    But by the time the archive engine stored the screenshot he was back to just 5/15 comments…

    https://archive.is/N6EoP

    Measurable fact…

    CamSpam IQ stands at 33 percent of each thread spaffed with his off-topic or irrelevant sausage law links (IQ = Irritant Quotient).

  238. cynicalHighlander
    Ignored
    says:

    Thank goodness for a scroll button.

  239. Spike
    Ignored
    says:

    Excuse my ignorance but what’s BTL anyone?

  240. Margaret E
    Ignored
    says:

    Spike
    BTL means Below The Line, i.e., the comments made on the main article. Sometimes they are illuminating, often they can be simply repetitive. And OT means Off Topic, which means that the writer politely acknowledges that what is posted is not necessarily relevant to the subject of the article.

  241. Robert Louis
    Ignored
    says:

    BTL below the line.

    I agree with the frustration of others above, regarding the pseudo intellectual troll, posting over and over again, mainly links to irrelevance. Really tiresome.

    And seriously, if the person behind such postings was geuinely an intellectual, they wouldn’t be doing what they do on this site. Honestly, I never have commented on it before, but it is really, really, just f***ing tedious pretentious cr*p. Proabaly a precocious wean with too much time on his hands.

  242. Stuart MacKay
    Ignored
    says:

    Saffron Robe

    You need to listen to the news more closely. “Authorised for emergency use” is a specific, legal, phrase that means that the government has decided that it’s probably safe to use, but, just in case, they and not the pharmaceutical company, are liable if it turns out that is not correct. It’s not “experimental” but it also has not gone through the full range of tests that would typically be applied.

    This article from the Lancet, https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32337-0/fulltext, discusses the difference with respect to the deployment of the vaccine used against Ebola. There are links at the bottom which give a more detailed description of “Emergency use”.

  243. gullaneno4
    Ignored
    says:

    Southern English hospitals not coping with the new virus.
    Relatives down there say it is getting very scary now.
    Doctors making live or die decisions with new hospital intakes.

  244. Effijy
    Ignored
    says:

    FFS. I wanted to review Nicola Sturgeon hand
    Baroness Bullshit her arse on a plate regarding her
    U turned put it on its head Brexit views.

    I went to YouTube and typed in
    nicola sturgeon attacks davidson.

    Everything that came up was Davidson attacking Sturgeon
    and when that was done it was everyone else in Tory land doing it.

    Is it YouTube, the 77th Brigade, MI6, the Farage backers?

    Who ensures U.K. right wing propaganda is what comes up no matter what you
    Search for?

    It scares the hell out of me that all traces of truth are being wiped out bit by bit.

    How could Orwell have seen this coming?

  245. Andy Ellis
    Ignored
    says:

    @Al-Stuart 4.21am

    I think there are a significant number of people who feel the same, both with respect to BTL here being a bin-fire rather than a resource, and more generally WRT feeling there is nothing currently worth voting for. Absent some political earthquake, which whilst always possible I wouldn’t bet the farm on, I’m pretty resigned to SFA substantive happening. I’d love to be proven wrong and will happily eat crow if required, but I just don’t see anything on the immediate horizon politically which is likely to significantly shake things up.

    The Yes movement as a whole seems in disarray to me. Even if Sturgeon is forced out, the gradualists and gender-woo extremists are still pretty entrenched within the SNP, and while the “new” NEC is a promising start, the party is still full of pieces of work like Blackman, Smith, Black, McDonald and their ilk.

    It’d be great if Alex Salmond decided to make his move, perhaps followed by Joanna Cherry and a few others, but the smart money still seems to be on folk like Joanna trying to change the party from within: I wish them success, but have little faith they will succeed given the evidence of the past few years.

    Perhaps we do have to pin our hopes on the ISP? I now have serious doubts about the prospects for or indeed wisdom of a “Wings Over Scotland” party. Given the horror show that is the comments section of this blog, it’s be like herding cats trying to convert in to political movement.

    The next few months will be interesting – in the old Chinese curse kind of way. After the May 2021 elections we may have some clarity. Until then, the game’s a bogie in my view. This place has been rendered next to useless as a resource for the reasons you so eloquently detailed. It’s a loss, but apparently there is nothing to be done; many of us have tried.

    All the best to you and the other “guid fowk” of WoS for 2021 too. Here’s hoping it’s a better year than 2020 and that, even if we don’t get everything we wish for, we can at least begin to see the path ahead opening up. See you on the “other side” in O/T posts no doubt?

  246. Strathy
    Ignored
    says:

    Thanks, Dan.

    I’ll do that next time.

  247. Grouse Beater
    Ignored
    says:

    Many thanks, Chris for all your effort to convince and illuminate. Wish I could guarantee this year will see us voteg for anything more than a million selfies in masks.

    Spotted this cry of resistance, your essential weekend reading:

    ‘Say It Loud and Clear’: https://wp.me/p4fd9j-pm7

  248. Ottomanboi
    Ignored
    says:

    Something to really piss off the fearful Covid hypochondriacs.
    the Totally Awesome World-Historic New Year 2021 Megadeath Virus of Doom Dance Party Apocalypse
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=145&v=Ac5vYmARUu8&feature=emb_title
    How very dare they, those young people will be the death of all us old farts!

  249. Gregor
    Ignored
    says:

    Surely, without freedom of expression, thought and choice, there wouldn’t be a scientific community.

  250. Dunadd
    Ignored
    says:

    Effijy 8:25

    I couldn’t find it either and thought it a bit strange.

  251. ahundredthidiot
    Ignored
    says:

    Angry New Year Everyone.

    I would wish a happy one, but there is an old saying about wishing in one hand in shitting in the other and finding out which one fills up first.

    The Mass Hysteria will continue, as will the wokeness.

    Only when people are completely locked up at home, necessaries delivered with less and less meat each week, looking into the eyes of hungry kids, suffering the deliberate and endless power outages will people actually start to think for themselves (fuck, even that’s a long shot – some people who lived in the East in the dark days craved for that Regime to return!)

    We have a long road ahead. Be Prepared.

    My money is on ‘cyber-pandemic’ first – hitting big business -just to set the scene and stave off those wild ‘global conspiracy theories’.

  252. Andy Ellis
    Ignored
    says:

    @Grouse Beater

    A welcome input Gareth! I like the line “There is joy in joining the dance of defiance.” from Donald Smith’s letter to the National. I think there is much in it that most in the movement could rally around.

    Sadly I suspect what the current SNP has to offer is more of a soft shoe shuffle in Cosy Toes Pete’s baffies than a defiant dannsa Gàidhlig over crossed claymores! 🙂

  253. ahundredthidiot
    Ignored
    says:

    People like Lochside make me laugh.

    The WEF have issued the play book. Published.
    It’s title is ‘COVID19 – The Great Reset’

    but hey, just some guy ranting in his basement online about global conspiracies! – haha.

    These nutters who subscribe to ‘climate change’ and ‘wokeism’ are going to fuck up your life which can only be best described as modern communism.

    no more foreign holidays, daily limits on your household power use, cashless society, work from home, no non-essential energy use (like cinemas/pubs) and if you like a wee tipple – prohibition (slowly of course).

    and the best part is, they dont care about the Planet or wokey feelings – just total domination over thie World and everyone on it. Why? – because they are sick in the head and we have let them inside our heads.

    Switch off the News – it’s more damaging to your health than smoking 20 a day.

  254. Dan
    Ignored
    says:

    I see we’re nearly at the vaccine mix and match stage…

    https://twitter.com/PippaCrerar/status/1345133178789498881

  255. Ottomanboi
    Ignored
    says:

    ahundredthidiot 09:54
    Taking your post at face value, glad the true significance to personal freedom of the globalist message is getting through to people.
    We do need a ‘reset’, particularly in Scotland. However, the current ‘set’ should not be part of it, they are too compromised.
    This is an extract from yesterday’s Herald.

    [In 2017, Ms Sturgeon also tried to distance the SNP from nationalism and wished she could change its name.
    She told the Edinburgh International Book Festival the word “national” could be “hugely problematic”.
    She said: “The word is difficult. If I could turn the clock back, what 90 years, to the establishment of my party, and choose its name all over again, I wouldn’t choose the name it has got just now, I would call it something other than the Scottish National Party.”]

    Explains much. Globalism also has attitude re ‘nationalism’.

  256. Wee Chid
    Ignored
    says:

    ahundredthidiot says:
    2 January, 2021 at 9:54 am

    no more foreign holidays, daily limits on your household power use, cashless society, work from home, no non-essential energy use (like cinemas/pubs) and if you like a wee tipple – prohibition (slowly of course).

  257. Wee Chid
    Ignored
    says:

    ahundredthidiot says:
    2 January, 2021 at 9:54 am

    no more foreign holidays, daily limits on your household power use, cashless society, work from home, no non-essential energy use (like cinemas/pubs) and if you like a wee tipple – prohibition (slowly of course).

    Many of these are daily life for some of us anyway – it’s called living below the poverty line. COVID hasn’t made the slightest difference. Climate change doesn’t make me reduce my energy use – lack of money does.

  258. ahundredthidiot
    Ignored
    says:

    Wee Chid

    ‘Climate change doesn’t make me reduce my energy use – lack of money does.’

    Exactly – which is why when we move to the Credit System and away from Cash, there will be a ‘review’ – a ‘rethink’….you know – to make life ‘fiarer’

    A bit like ‘efficiencies’ in the private sector (nice word with pain on the end) it will lead to everyone having less.

    They want you to own nothing and be grateful for it.

    Brave New World for the Rich. 1984 for the rest of us.

  259. Sensibledave
    Ignored
    says:

    Robert Louise

    I thought you might of understood?? Brexit allows the U.K. to operate as an independent sovereign nation where it makes its own laws and controls its own borders and is free to trade around the world on any basis it agrees.

    Unlike Scotland (where 60% of its exports are to the rest of the U.K.), U.K. exports to Eu are down to 40%. The rest of the world is far more important to us and those markets are growing faster and stronger than the EU.

    … if you nee any more reasons, let me know.

  260. Sensibledave
    Ignored
    says:

    …. and we run a trade deficit with the EU whilst we have a trade surplus with the rest of the world.

  261. Sensibledave
    Ignored
    says:

    …. and we want to have global approach to immigration so that folk from South America, Australia, USA, Afghanistan, etc have the same opportunities to come and live and work here … as Folk from the EU.

  262. Sensibledave
    Ignored
    says:

    Oh …. and we won’t have to pay a bet £10 billion to the Eu for a “free trade” agreement.

    How am I doin?

  263. Andy Ellis
    Ignored
    says:

    @”Sensible”dave 10.31am

    Surely that makes the independence case for us? If Scotland’s main trading partner is rump UK, isn’t it sensible for an independent Scotland to be in the EU, trading with rUK using this freshly minted free trade deal, but be part of the EU to capitalise on the strength of the world’s biggest market for everything else?

    I’m not sure if there are detailed figures for what % of Scots exports go where internationally – I suspect much like GERS figures they are essentially meaningless as lots of Scots exports are not identified as such because they are trans-shipped via English ports.

    In any case, as the Ireland shows, the relative weight of where your trade goes can shift significantly over time, and of course in volume/£ terms. Ireland was heavily dependent on UK trade before it joined the EU….now? Not so much.

  264. Hamerdoon
    Ignored
    says:

    From the link just provided.

    “How come the vaccines were made so quickly?

    Usually, vaccines take years to be developed and produced. The COVID-19 vaccines took less than one year. This is due to a number of reasons, three of which are explained by Dr Robert Carnahan from the Vanderbilt University Medical Centre:

    “One, all of the vaccines … were manufactured ‘at risk’. This means that they were being produced before the clinical trials were even completed. This would never happen in a normal situation. Many of these costs were supported by various government organizations around the globe. Therefore, the instant that emergency approval was secured, the distribution could begin.

    Second, vaccine developers were rapidly analyzing data as they emerged and communicating this in real-time to various regulatory agencies. There are often gaps of months to years between the various phases of clinical trials due to these activities alone.

    Third, recruitment to clinical trials is often a slow and laborious process. There have to be people ‘at-risk’ for the disease in many different demographic and health categories. Due to the immense scope of the pandemic, finding sufficient and appropriate volunteers was rapid.”

    Importantly, the speed did not affect the clinical trials and safety aspects of the process: “The size, thoroughness, and complexity of the clinical trials conducted for the current COVID-19 vaccines were no different than traditional clinical trials. These are as safe as vaccines and interventions developed on much slower timelines.” – Dr Carnahan says.”

  265. Sensibledave
    Ignored
    says:

    Andy 10.52

    I wasn’t making the argument for Leaving,I voted Remain. I answered Robert’s question.

    In life, many decisions are difficult and we try to balance the pros and cons to arrive at a preference overall. But to suggest there are no potential benefits from an alternative strategy usually indicates that the person proposing that notion … isn’t very bright, isn’t very experienced or wears the blinkers of an ideological zealot.

  266. Breeks
    Ignored
    says:

    Just a heads up that Mark Hirst’s ‘trial’ starts next week.

    Good luck Mark if you’re reading this. In a reasonable world the whole thing would be thrown out of Court for the nonsense it is, but this is Scotland where the Establishment is scraping the bottom of the barrel.

    I hope it didn’t weigh too heavy on your shoulders and spoil your Xmas and Hogmanay, but it may be a comfort to know Hogmanay truly sucked everywhere.

  267. ahundredthidiot
    Ignored
    says:

    Hamerdoon

    That’s all fine – believe what you like – you take it.

    Fill your boots.

    I’m not stopping you.

    But ‘if’ (emphasis on ‘if’) you think you are going to MAKE me take it, then you had better think about the consequences, because you would be the wrong kind of person. The wrong kind. The type of person people like me dealt with, 80 years ago.

    Businesses who insist on the jibjab, will suffer hugely – I expect their Governments will bail them out though. In the end, it will get ugly. Upwards of 40% will decline regardless of the ‘science’ (I think we’ve seen enough of paid for science)

    Everyone who wants to ‘live’ – take the vaccine.
    Everyone who wants to take their chances, can go without.

    Live and Let Die.

    This is a health crisis – not an apocalyptic pandemic.
    People need to get a grip on themselves.

  268. Andy Ellis
    Ignored
    says:

    @Sensibledave 11.08am

    It’d help if you linked to the questions you purport to answer, given the wall to wall Spameron Brodie’s on the thread? I assume you mean Robert’s question @ 11.47pm?

    I happen to agree that things are, in general, a balance. For example, I’m sure there is (somewhere….?) a positive case for the union: it’s just that it’s rarely presented, nor indeed is it very convincing or coherent when it is, because (again, on balance in in my personal view) the positives are considerably outweighed by the potential positives of independence, and the negatives are much greater than the potential negatives of independence.

    Those positives and negatives are – and indeed should be – a mixture of political, social, economic and cultural factors. Few people decide complex questions on single issues, despite what twitter or BTL on blogs might suggest.

    For example many (most?) of those who now support independence do so as a result of political journey they have taken. They’ve been convinced of the case for indy for many and various reasons: some may be emotional, others economic. Much the same can be said of Leave/Remain.

    As my wife observed the other night apropos the £350 million lie on the side of a bus from the Leave campaign, “When do we get a bus telling us we’re now spending £500 million a week on Customs forms and additional bureaucracy”?

  269. Ottomanboi
    Ignored
    says:

    Fed up Googling?
    Concerned about privacy, security and censorship?
    There are European alternatives.
    https://www.eu-startups.com/2020/09/5-european-google-competitors-to-watch/

  270. Willie
    Ignored
    says:

    Thanks for the heads up Breeks on Mark Hirst’s ‘trial’ going ahead next week.

    The establishments resolution to vindictively pursue individuals for what can only be described as political reasons goes on. But such use, or should I say misuse of a country’s so called rule of law is straight out of the Brigadier General Sir Frank Kitson ideology for dealing with political enemies.

    Such ideology allows for absolutely everything up to the point before symmetrical physical warfare. None of us should therefore be unaware that this is a coordinated war being waged against independence supporters. Sometimes subtle, sometimes not, multifaceted to include bribery, corruption, and every other form of coercion in between.

    The Irish have understood this for a long time now. Sadly the majority of Scots haven’t and the grip, unless we loosen it tightens.

    We live in very dangerous times. Our enemies are resolute whilst our Independence Party leadership wheesht for Indy.

  271. Alf Baird
    Ignored
    says:

    Sensibledave @ 10.31

    Scotland imports twice as much from England as it exports to England, over £100 bn in imports. Where do you think all the trailers for Tesco, M&S, B&Q, etc etc etc come from? They all come up the M6 and WCML, and some half go back empty.

    So point 1 is, in the ‘union’ Scotland is a captive (plundered) market for English retailers and their logistics supply chains which dominate and control the Scottish market.

    Point 2 here on trade is that Scottish exports to EU and RoW have been constrained due to a) lack of investment in Scottish ports, b) due to a), a lack of direct shipping connections, and c) due to a + b the now over dependence on expensive long distance road/rail to ports in England, plus the added customs delays we will now see due to Brexit.

    Scotland therefore has the trading characteristics and limitations of a landlocked region/colony controlled by another country and its commercial interests.

  272. Hamerdoon
    Ignored
    says:

    ahundredthidiot

    And your point is caller? We’re you at the game?

  273. Joe Morrison
    Ignored
    says:

    Senseless

    Devoid of everything

  274. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    Al-Stuart
    You’re another who appears not support cognitive democracy, yet you claim to have a legal training. Do you and Ellis get together to stroke each other?

    Self-Determination Theory of Motivation: Why Intrinsic Motivation Matters
    https://positivepsychology.com/self-determination-theory/

  275. bipod
    Ignored
    says:

    Wow, just re-read some of this thread to see someone saying that people who oppose boris johnsons and dithering nicolas measures are “dangerous idiots” and are actually in bed with boris johnson and 500,000 people were going to die if it were not for the lockdown.

    That is so incredibly ignorant. First off there isn’t any evidence whatsoever to show that lockdown suppressed the virus back in april (it certainly hasn’t right now), secondly the modelling that suggested that was based off a bogus IFR of 1% which has now been shown to be completely incorrect, the very same modelling suggested that there would be 85,000 deaths in sweden if they didn’t adopt the same measures as britian, nothing of the sort happened there because the modelling was completely incorrect.

    Taiwan has been mentioned as an example of a “proper lockdown” but covid is still present there, they didn’t have a “proper lockdown” and are still finding cases but it is not a big deal there. It is difficult to make comparisons with east asian countries because their experience with the virus has been vastly different to the west. Japan has a very dense and elderly population and it has also didn’t have a lockdown at all, its constitution prevents it and it has had very very few deaths. The only countries in the region that the “proper lockdown” advocates can point to are Australia and New Zealand, two geographically very remote countries that shut their borders preventing anyone from coming in. And they will need to continue that policy well into the future otherwise they will have the same outbreaks there, they didn’t just have a one month lockdown and it was done and everything went back to normal.

    Proper lockdown is really fantasy land stuff, even china didn’t have the “proper lockdown” that they want because it is impractical to shut everyone away in their houses for weeks or months on end and have the army or someone deliver rations. It also probably wouldn’t even work the virus is endemic and will continue to spread anyway because even in the most radical “proper lockdown” you wouldn’t be able to completely cut out human contact.

    We are already seeing what would really happen in the “proper lockdown” scenario. We would lockdown for a few weeks the virus wouldn’t disappear, the lockdown zealots would try to find an excuse like super covid or people not obeying the rules for the lockdown not working and then demand even tighter restrictions. Its not going to save the economy, its this entrenchment and endless demands for even tighter restrictions that is destroying the economy and society and will continue to do so because the virus will never disappear.

    It really just shows how gullible some people are. So many people believe we have to lockdown and there is no other way because nicola, boris and the BBC say so. They also now believe we have a super covid variant that is 70% more contagious with no evidence to back it up. What is it with the new variant that makes it so much more contagious than the last one? Does it sit in the air longer, or people only need a smaller dose to become infected? I don’t know but until the government provides some actual evidence I am not going to just believe boris or nicola.

  276. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    I might be rusty, but I can still spot those who pose a threat to open society and open democracy.

    Social values, self- and collective efficacy explaining behaviours in coping with Covid-19: Self-interested consumption and physical distancing in the first 10 days of confinement in Spain
    https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0238682

    “The appearance of a new coronavirus (Covid-19) and its rapid expansion throughout the world has forced all countries to establish regulations based on social confinement. In the early days of a pandemic, the adherence to regulations is crucial to be able to block its spread.

    This research aims to analyse the relationship between motivational variables associated with physical distancing and self-interested consumption behaviours in the first 10 days of confinement in Spain. A total of 1,324 people participated throughout the country (mean age 28.92 years). Participants answered an online survey about socio-demographic, motivational variables, which included a) risk information seeking, b) confidence in self- and collective efficacy in coping with the pandemic, and c) the four higher-order personal values -conservation (security, conformity, and tradition), self-transcendence (universalism and benevolence), openness (self-direction actions and stimulation), and self-improvement (hedonism and power) – and the aforementioned behaviours in coping with Covid-19.

    Results showed a positive association between self- and collective efficacy and both coping behaviours analysed: a protective role of conservation values on normative behaviours; and a negative relationship between self-transcendence values and self-interested consumption. Additionally, risk information seeking was positively associated with the development of physical distancing behaviour.”

  277. Sensibledave
    Ignored
    says:

    Alf 11.36

    I am unsure what point you are trying to make? Is there a case for an Independent Scotland? Of course there is! Are there serious obstacles to overcome? Are there serious economic issues to address? Will the PF2 onslaught attempt to expose the pro independence argument. Of course it will.

    There was a discussion about NATO yesterday. There were arguments for and against. In the end there has to be a policy on that subject. Some will like the policy, some won’t. It will be the same for all of the other unresolved issues.

  278. Alf Baird
    Ignored
    says:

    Sensibledave

    You made statements which I would argue merited more careful analysis. I also raised the matter of structural impediments to Scottish trade development due our continued alliance within the UK union, which you appear to ignore.

    You said that “60% of its (i.e. Scotland’s) exports are to the rest of the U.K.”, without commenting that far more trade by value is imported into Scotland from England, or analysing why such trade ‘domination’ occurs. In other words, Scotland buys far more goods from England than it sells in return.

    You also said that “we (i.e. the UK?) run a trade deficit with the EU whilst we have a trade surplus with the rest of the world”, yet any analysis of UK trade flows overall indicates a strong and sustained imbalance in favour of imported goods, i.e. around double that of exports, by value. Britain now basically exports waste and whisky plus a lot of empty containers back to much of Asia from where we source most of our manufactured goods back from. That’s why shipping rates from UK-Asia are less than half those for the return leg – demand is far less.

  279. Saffron Robe
    Ignored
    says:

    Stuart MacKay

    1. I would no more trust the government with my health than I would Big Pharma.

    2. There is a significant difference between Ebola and Covid-19. Ebola has a fatality rate of up to 90%. Covid-19 has a fatality rate of (approx.) 0.2-0.3%. Even if you argue that the fatality rate for Covid-19 is far higher, it is still nowhere near 90%. I completely understand the need to issue an emergency license in relation to Ebola.

    3. The possible long-term side effects of novel vaccines cannot be assessed in the short-term. They could well be catastrophic. There is simply no way of knowing.

  280. Dorothy Devine
    Ignored
    says:

    OT anyone read this? http://www.dutchbikebits.com/shipping

    Interesting and apparently the company is not alone.



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