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Any second now 88

Posted on June 08, 2022 by

This was overdue an update. Two extra rows now added.

(Click for full size image with legible dates. Landscape version here.)

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Firing blanks 1,154

Posted on May 22, 2022 by

This is getting properly embarrassing.

Because that starting gun must be red-hot by now.

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Scotland is lost 740

Posted on May 09, 2022 by

We’re still retired, but this just can’t go unremarked.

This is absolute banana-republic stuff. Even before you get into any of the specifics of the case, it’s simply not the Crown Office’s job to interfere with a police investigation by telling them who they may and may not interview under caution.

Scottish justice is extremely seriously compromised.

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Signing up new seamen fast 134

Posted on May 08, 2022 by

As we’re a polling site now, a brief post on polls.

In a column for today’s Herald on Sunday, Iain Macwhirter repeats the frequently-made assertion that “Boris Johnson is loathed in Scotland and is the best recruiting sergeant for independence since Margaret Thatcher”.

The first part is certainly true, as it has been of pretty much every Tory Prime Minister of the last 40 years. But the second part simply isn’t borne out by the facts.

Above (click to enlarge) is the graph of Yes polling since Johnson became PM. It shows support for independence FALLING from 52% to 49% during his term in office.

If you discount the Lord Ashcroft poll from a few days after he entered Downing Street (because Ashcroft isn’t a British Polling Council member), the graph becomes Nicola Sturgeon’s political speciality – a flat line, from 49% to 49%.

Johnson has “recruited” nobody. Those are the cold hard facts.

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A Game Of Two Halves 449

Posted on May 03, 2022 by

15 years ago this week (today if you’re counting strictly by date, Thursday if you want to go with election days) the SNP came to power in Scotland for the first time ever. The media operating in Scotland is full of retrospectives and polls on the period, but as usual they’ve missed the real story, as a reader pointed out to us a few days ago.

So for old times’ sake, let’s do their job properly for them one more time.

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Voting for people who hate you 77

Posted on May 02, 2022 by

We had some poll questions out with Panelbase last week. The results were in most ways wholly unsurprising, in line with all previous polls on the subject. Here they are.

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To Ministers of the Scottish Government 34

Posted on May 02, 2022 by

To: Humza Yousaf (Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care), Shirley-Anne Somerville (Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills) and Clare Haughey (Minister for Children and Young People)

28 April 2022

Dear Mr Yousaf, Ms Somerville and Ms Haughey,

Cass Interim Report: Independent review of gender identity services for children and young people – Implications for Scotland

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Progress update 1,173

Posted on April 13, 2022 by

In slightly over a month from now, Nicola Sturgeon will overtake Alex Salmond as the longest-serving First Minister of Scotland. It seemed a reasonable time to take stock.

It’s very nearly six years since the Sunday Herald headline above from 1 May 2016. (Remember the Sunday Herald, readers? It feels like another lifetime, doesn’t it?)

April/early May is very often the period leading up to an election, which is when the SNP traditionally ramp up the carrot-dangling about independence to secure the votes of the faithful for yet another “cast-iron mandate”, so it’s not a bad barometer. Let’s see how far we’ve come.

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This is a message 862

Posted on March 29, 2022 by

…to all the pathetic, craven, cowardly excuses for politicians in both Scotland and the UK who think that they can blithely keep doing TV interviews and radio call-ins where they dodge the question of what a woman is all the way up to the next election, and thereby knowingly facilitate the criminal mutilation and sterilisation of children and the sexual abuse of vulnerable women in hospitals, prisons and rape refuges.

I am living for the day when someone in the Scottish media finds some courage from somewhere and asks Nicola Sturgeon, because she’s going to blink so fast her face might catch fire. But that phone will just keep on ringing until someone answers.

Armageddon 2 trailer leaked 7

Posted on March 25, 2022 by

Just for a little bit of fun. This is actual footage of North Korean TV news (source: NK News), but I thought it deserved a more moving soundtrack.

Armageddon 2 128

Posted on March 25, 2022 by

Just for a little bit of fun. This is actual footage of North Korean TV news (source: NK News) from today, but I thought it deserved a more moving soundtrack.

Why woke blokes abuse women 302

Posted on March 17, 2022 by

The trans-sex-role-stereotype movement has put what would have been concealed and kept behind closed doors on centre stage. This is why normal, decent men look aghast at other men’s behaviour while many women sigh with an ‘oh, this again’.

The woke bloke contempt for women is clear and abusive behaviours are on full display. Reading through Lundy Bancroft’s pivotal work “Why Does He Do That? Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men”, the full cast of characters is present on Twitter, in the news and in our political parties and institutions.

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    • Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: “Haud oan noo, Bob. The regulars on here don’t like “former states of the Soviet Union” “determining their own path”.…May 22, 19:34
    • Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: “According to that article, HMS Glasgow will be followed by another 7 Clyde-built ships of the same design. Looks like…May 22, 19:27
    • Marie on The shifting sands of memory: “Yep – merely crumbs off the table – kept to placate elite Scots in the day and used to hoodwink…May 22, 19:22
    • agent x on The shifting sands of memory: ““Did any of the above prevent the people of the Republic of Ireland determining their own path? I didn’t think…May 22, 19:18
    • James Jones on Just a couple more shots: “‘In law, people are either male or female.’ Also in real life, in nature. You can choose to play-act like…May 22, 19:04
    • Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: ““You have problems matey” Not as many or as serious as you have Barbie, if your post is anything to…May 22, 19:03
    • robertkknight on The shifting sands of memory: “Did any of the above prevent the people of the Republic of Ireland determining their own path? I didn’t think…May 22, 18:50
    • Aidan on The shifting sands of memory: “@Mia – there are many reasons why Scotland cannot qualify for NSGT status, but the most definitive one is the…May 22, 18:44
    • agent x on The shifting sands of memory: ““The Duchess of Rothesay officially named a new Royal Navy warship in Glasgow with a traditional statement – as she…May 22, 18:20
    • Mia on The shifting sands of memory: ““but this whole Salvo thing is a total dead end” If you are so convinced it is a dead end,…May 22, 18:08
    • James Cheyne on The shifting sands of memory: “Alf, Do you know if Salvo have copied the Statement by present Westminster parliament that a debate was held by…May 22, 18:01
    • Mia on The shifting sands of memory: ““In which case the people behind it will go silent on this particular initiative” Nonsense. There is absolute no reason…May 22, 17:53
    • agent x on The shifting sands of memory: “Can I just check something please? When Scotland decides to walk away from the Union on Monday morning will they…May 22, 17:34
    • Northcode on The shifting sands of memory: ““It does matter how it came about” I do believe you are correct, James. But how the last three centuries…May 22, 17:32
    • Aidan on The shifting sands of memory: “The hour is 17:04 and Geri has been on the Buckie (probably since 8am). Which despotic regime or famine-inflicted region…May 22, 17:29
    • Geri on The shifting sands of memory: ““A response has been received which says “thank you for your submission, this is not a matter within our remit…May 22, 17:04
    • James Cheyne on The shifting sands of memory: “Northcode. It does matter how it came about, due to the present monarch being the monarch of England and the…May 22, 16:59
    • James Cheyne on The shifting sands of memory: “Except the Scots did not merge, or become part of Westminsters Great Britain because Westminster state there was no treaty…May 22, 16:37
    • Aidan on The shifting sands of memory: “Yes, so here’s the thing, I think that either; a) no response has been received because this has gone into…May 22, 16:27
    • Northcode on The shifting sands of memory: “Here’s what I think. And because I’m not a lawyer I’m probably right. It doesn’t matter now if Scotland was…May 22, 16:21
    • James Cheyne on The shifting sands of memory: “Lorn, When Westminister state that Scots were not asked to join the treaty even although they were aware they should…May 22, 16:17
    • Andy Wiltshire on The shifting sands of memory: “I just love that film ‘Passport to Pimlico’.May 22, 16:09
    • robertkknight on The shifting sands of memory: “What matters, ultimately, is that the people of Scotland should be able to determine their future whenever they see fit,…May 22, 16:04
    • Steven Lannigan on The shifting sands of memory: “When the National & Westminster banks ‘merged’ they became the NatWest. Neither the National nor the Westminster exist anymore. Now…May 22, 15:50
    • Oneliner on The shifting sands of memory: “How naive you are to think that the wheels of bureaucracy will speed up for you. And even if they…May 22, 15:30
    • Aidan on The shifting sands of memory: “@Mia – it’s only looking like ‘checkmate’ from here if we subscribe to your unique brand of legal reasoning which…May 22, 15:23
    • James Cheyne on The shifting sands of memory: “The more we learn the more we realise that a Colonial take over is not a binding treaty with between…May 22, 15:18
    • James Cheyne on The shifting sands of memory: “Lorn, There is a problem with declaring Sots law desuetued, or even sections of it, because of the UK government…May 22, 15:13
    • Mia on The shifting sands of memory: ““I and others think this is a total dead end. I’m interested to hear if a response has been received”…May 22, 15:05
    • Cynicus on The shifting sands of memory: ““Vivian: yes, I also think that Robin has long since abandoned his post structuralist roots ” ====== He definitely has.…May 22, 14:55
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