The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


Piling on

Posted on December 01, 2020 by

We must admit, the terrible people that we are, we’ve been enjoying watching today’s extended meltdown by the SNP’s woke faction about last night’s NEC election results. Because it appears their egos are so huge that they’re not even smart enough to play dignified to spoil our schadenfreudish fun. It’s been full-on public tantrums.

But this nonsense needs briefly addressing.

We’ve never to our knowledge accused Cailyn McMahon of either being a misogynist or running a “hate group”. But it’s curious that in the 21st century we’re apparently not supposed to criticise someone if they’re (a) young or (b) female.

We believe women are the equal of men and 20 was adult last time we checked, and if you’re grown-up enough to be the Convener of a political party grouping you should probably be able to cope with some dissent, especially if you like to make a big song and dance about how mature and worldly wise you are despite your tender years.

But we must admit, when we read it we couldn’t remember ever hearing McMahon’s name before Friday night. We’re old and forgetful, though, so we went and checked.

And sure enough she’s quite right – it appears we’ve mentioned her in four articles, going back to early August. We’ll issue you with a trigger warning at this point, readers, because some of this is incredibly brutal stuff even by our infamous standards of vile cybernattery. Proceed at your own risk.

PILE-ON 1

In August we wrote a piece about Alyn Smith MP’s proposed reforms of the NEC. We noted that if they were implemented a number of members would lose their seats on the committee, and we listed a few of them.

That’s it. That’s the whole “pile-on”. We said her name and pictured one of her tweets, without any sort of comment, halfway down a 1200-word article, because the article was about something that would have affected her. Pretty savage, right?

PILE-ON 2

Then about a week ago we quoted her annual report (alongside those of a long list of other groups, none of whom appeared to be prioritising independence) on behalf of YSI to the SNP conference.

Admittedly we did at one point gently mock the fact that she doesn’t appear to know the difference between the words “conscious” and “conscience”. We are monsters.

PILE-ON 3

There was then nothing until Monday, when we noted that McMahon was one of the people who signed the disgraceful letter attacking Joanna Cherry, Joan McAlpine, Chris McEleny and others and attempting to intimidate them (and everyone else) into silence over women’s rights and freedom of speech.

We noted her participation, as the 30th in a list of 35 examples holding some sort of political or civic office, and pictured her Twitter bio, again without any comment.

It seems that’s some sort of bullying now, ironically.

PILE-ON 4

And finally today we actually wrote an entire paragraph that was more or less directly about her. We apologise in advance if any delicate readers faint from the horror.

So there it is. The future of Scottish politics, hardened by suffering, determined to lead Scotland over the barricades to freedom against the assembled might of the evil British state – so long as nobody does anything mean like say her name in a blog.

We shall now await the arrival of armed police. We’re very sorry for everything.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

156 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Dorothy Devine

Who is she? Should I know or care?

Facundo T Savala

No wings mention here, which really saddens me.

link to bbc.co.uk

Jason Smoothpiece

Seems to be some very immature children within the wokesters.

This democracy nonsense is basically unfair.

Graeme

20 year old eh all that lived experience and hardship, here’s me at 60 and don’t know the half of it

give me fu@king strength

Milady

If I could post that meme of Alan Partridge shrugging his shoulders I would. The latest tweet by Ross Colquhoun had me in stitches though. Apparently all this is alienating the young. Aye right.

shiregirl

Infamy, Infamy! They’ve all got it in for me!

Bless she/her.

Kevin Cargill

How dare you mock that poor wee lassie. What’s she ever done to you? Admittedly her spelling is atroshus! But these are changed times. Feminism clearly never happened. Patrony is needed to guide these wee lambs. Nobody in politics these days says anything harsh to their opposite numbers. So in future just listen to her wise words, nod your head and say yes dear no dear otherwise she might call the hurt feelings unit of Police Scotland and you might be sentenced to bed with no supper!

Republicofscotland

I’m sorry too for I have no sympathy whatsoever for McMahon and her agenda pushing clique who were thankfully ejected from the NEC by the saner members of the party.

Their selfish agenda might yet cost us dearly on the indy front.

Tartan Tory

‘Hardship’….. Poor wee mite! Maybe her iPhone once ran out of battery when she was busy ordering a McDelivery.

Jumped-up drama queen has never seen the cold side of a spam fritter during a power cut in her insignificant puff.

Bob Mack

Well I’ve seen some drag down( I hope that’s not bigoted),
bare knuckle fights in my time, and been in a few, but the level of cruelty by you Stu, has me pondering an appeal to the UK for peacekeepers.

Everybody should allow for superior ,hedonistic, narcissists to have their own way. Anything else is criminal.

I bet you give a painful Chinese rope burn too ,learned from your schooldays probably. Monster.

Sharny Dubs

Stu! You beast!

Reminds me of that Mark Twain quote, and I paraphrase

When I was 18 I couldn’t believe how crass and stupid my father was.
When I was 20 I was amazed at how much he had developed in just two years.

Many thanks ya beastie!

Effijy

I’m sure she will be reading this.

Come on, tell us about the parts above that attack you.

You have been out reasoned by a very reasonable fellow!

Astonished

Is she allowed out on her own ?

Hopefully her political career is over. And even more hopefully she leaves the SNP.

In the best tradition of the wokeratti : I am not hateful and wish you well in all endeavours ( said with the same sincerity of cosy feet pete regarding fighting westmonster). 🙂

Auntie Flo

When will these immature ‘woksters’ realise that being stuck in victimhood is:
a) not a good look for a politician / leader
b) giving away your power?

These ‘woksters’ actually need to wake up, step up and reclaim their power instead of prattling on about ‘poor ickle me’…

Mosstrooper

You beast, you beast, you absolute beast…but I like you. (love heart love heart smiley thing)

Bob Mack

What do you call the kid who stands up against the bullies?

Usually an ambulance!!! She will need some savlon on that burn Stu

James Caithness

Now she can complain she has featured in 5 wings articles.

Fairliered

The wokes really don’t do democracy, do they.

Karen

OT
The £500 payment to nhs staff, which Scotgov are begging Westminster to make tax free … All Scotgov have to do is make it a “gift” ie “honorarium” (Case – Bobby Moore versus Griffiths 1970) and it is tax-free. Why do Scotgov with all their lawyers, advisors and hangers-on not know this? And yes I am married to a tax lawyer, and yes he is in the SNP, and yes he is “scunnered”!

bobajock

I kind of missed the bus on any of this until this week.

I, in my twitter way, told the truth about a ‘womens group’ in twatter land. What did I say!

I didn’t trust them – they could well contain Labour/Tory/LibLiar members adamant about attacking the SNP (I’m a member – but don’t let that fool you, I was dumb enough to be a member of Labour once too).

What bugged me was someone referring to me by name while hiding behind an anonymous handle – sadly – or happily – I reacted to this with style. ‘It’ might have been male or female or a tomato – but anonymous twatter accounts I fear.

Then came this – Rev – it might say something about what you’ve coverd. Suspicious no?

link to twitter.com

Ian McCubbin

I am just putting my head in my hands. Enough said.

Robert graham

Aye well so so sorry yer feelings have been bruised Dear ,I wonder if you can you still say dear without causing offence , not really sure I am old and don’t give a monkeys anyway ,

Any and all sympathy has long gone from yours truly , being caught attempting to infiltrate and change what has been normal accepted behaviour of most adults for , well forever tends to invite some uncomfortable attention from the very people it might just affect ,

A bit of advice people need time to adjust to new ideas, new ways of thinking , not a great idea trying to fool and trick people and attempting to change their lives by Stealth and slick moves now that leaves a bad taste in the mouth so save your tears they don’t wash DEAR .

James Caithness

Fairliered says:
1 December, 2020 at 8:34 pm
The wokes really don’t do democracy, do they.

=========================

Kirsty Blackman doesn’t appear to do democracy. She is having a melt down on twitter. Hasn’t stopped having a go at Joanna Cherry.

AYRSHIRE ROB

As well as that silly lassie nominated as stupid woke of the year in my household, that Kirsty Blackman has peeved me off big time. A sitting MP, mark yi supposedly disgusted by a democratic vote?

Wtf is that about?

Sorry Kirsty that’s bang out of order.

Robert graham

Bob Mack

Naughty Naughty

Your not talking this seriously are you ?

Ha ha

Cracking joke about the Ambulance by the way Ha Ha

shug

Karen says:

Good idea but only after the UK government say they will tax it!!

Let them squirm on the hook a little

Del G

So that’s 4 separate mentions and you encourage people to leave comments FFS

robertknight

Is she what is affectionately known as a “Snowflake”?

Asking for a friend…

John Scott

The woke faction in the SNP are having a meltdown .
NEC claimed back by people with the rather unfashionable aim of Independence .

I have lost count of the number of Woke supporters now claiming they fear for their safety and that Scotland is someone a less equitable and tolerant society since yesterday tea time .

Who knew that internal elections in a political party could literally change society overnight ?

David Holden

Had to laugh at some having a pop at Joanna Cherry for turning off the yoof vote and urging her not to pull up the ladder because she has made it . This from the same group that tried to get her de selected and made it impossible for her to stand to become an Msp without bunging her staff on the dole. Irony overload.

Bob Mack

Joanna has had to remind Kirsty Blackman that she is breaking the SNP code of conduct in her tweets.

Another for the off next time.

Scot Finlayson

jeezus f@ck you couldnae make that ending up in the Scotland Finland game.

ClanDonald

It’s really depressing when young women nowadays tell us they’re too fragile and delicate to engage in any kind of robust dialogue with grown men. They use it as excuse to get away with obnoxious behaviour but end up reinforcing the stereotype that women are intellectually weaker. They can eff off with that crap.

Kenny

I am not convinced that the whole woke crowd are real.

They are tulpas from the feverish imagination of John Waters.

Desimond

Just to be clear (and afraid)…could the claim be deemed valid under Humzahs proposed Bill?

Confused

“-lived- experience” – as opposed to what, exactly?

boo hoo, I’m just girly, no bully please … BUT EQUALLY –

I am a stronk independent womyn who don’t need no man … girlpower … (and all that shite)

“It was always the women, and above all the young ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the Party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosers?out of unorthodoxy.” ? George Orwell, 1984

Triangular Ears

Notice she’s a “girl” when it suits her?

If you called her a girl any other time you would be (rightly) slated for not using the word “woman”.

Daisy Walker

I’m not being funny here, but since I’m fairly sure I’m not the only gray heid on this forum.

If I’m being as realistic in self assessment about myself as possible – I reckon it wasn’t until I was at least about 35 – 40 before i started getting the building blocks (some of them, still looking for the rest) with regards sorting out my ‘painful, lived through, life experiences’ – at 20 years of age I didn’t even know where to look for them.

I’m not ashamed to admit I might be something of a slow learner, but I doubt if I’m that slow.

Any 20 year old coming away with the above self centred, jargonistic, victim based, thrupney bit therapy slogans – needs to be given a grinding job, with a shit pay, a crap boss to work for, no alternative career prospects, a cold room to go home to, and a shit social life – because its all she can afford – do that for a decade hen – then come back and speak to the adults in the room – you’ll be somewhat more grounded for sure, and with a damn site less corners. Cause that’s what’s worked for the rest of us.

Who on earth thought the above was competent, or qualified, to put in a position of authority?

robertknight

Another ‘target of opportunity’ appears…

link to rt.com

Graeme

Well said Daisy but we should give her some latitude she’s young with the same sense of entitlement and self importance we all had at that age

tommybox

After the fraud that was the supposed anti semitism crisis in the Labour Party don’t be surprised if the British state use issues like this against the SNP , they already used the MeToo against Salmond . Be aware be vigilant

Meg

Have to say Kirsty Blackman’s rants aren’t much better, I appreciate she has some mental health issues but geez someone needs to take her access to the internet away for a few days

Stoker

Triangular Ears says on 1 December, 2020 at 9:34 pm

“Notice she’s a “girl” when it suits her? If you called her a girl any other time you would be (rightly) slated for not using the word “woman”.”

I’ve just told her how pathetic her sympathy seeking attempts, by using this “20 yr old girl” nonsense was. And that she’s a woman but her behaviour could very possibly contradict me on that belief. 🙂

Tannadice Boy

There is a comprehensive biography on Cailyn done by my local paper, The Courier by journo Calum Ross 12/10/20. A very positive piece for her. It’s on the Courier website. I liked how she talked about the lack of democracy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates where she lived for a spell. I was on a Scottish Trade Mission there so I get how business is done and the lack of rights for women. Reading this Courier article gives an insight into her values. For example her seemingly dismissive views about old people in the SNP. Ah well democracy she knows what it means now. It means the occasional defeat. All political careers end in tears. Lesson number one from an auld Codger. Most aspects of her values are commendable. She comes over pleasant enough.

Scot Finlayson

It says in her bio that she is an immigrant,

when do you cease being an immigrant and become a citizen of a country,

if she is Scottish how can she be an immigrant and if she is an immigrant can she be Scottish,

and what is the definition of `virtue signalling`.

Graeme

Love this video

link to twitter.com

Johnny Martin

Graeme @ 9:40pm:

Agree that all of us have a lot to learn when we are young.

But disagree vehemently that every young person is “entitled”. For every one with a planet sized ego, there’s another thinks they’re not worthy. But you’ll not see many of the latter pushing for political office; the former are rampant.

ronnie anderson
Stu hutch

Can the new treasurer on the nec divulge the total moneys given to trans groups over the last 2 years .I’m sure most democratic snp members would welcome the same amount being given to womans place uk .if we dont help all woman we help no woman

Facundo T Savala

Yesterday was a great day for Jo Cherry and independence more generally.

I still don’t see a snowballs chance in hell for a legal 2021 Indyref2.

I also think that whilst her hubby may get booted, Sturgeon will still be in role by the end of 2021 too. Possibly emboldened and reinforced by a majority government and a new mandate.

Even as a glass half full kinda guy, independence is still absolutely miles off, isn’t it?

This whole “once in a generation” thing may prove to be accurate after all….

wee monkey

Graeme says:
“1 December, 2020 at 7:56 pm
20 year old eh all that lived experience and hardship, here’s me at 60 and don’t know the half of it

give me fu@king strength”

Where’s the like button?

Olive Sneddon

I’m kind of hoping they all feck off to the Greens and leave the grown ups in peace…..

Big Jock

I blame Sturgeon!

wee monkey

“The £500 payment to nhs staff!”

Oh really, what about those care staff who are really out and about in the community really in the front line.

If this is another sturgeon fuck up and these carers are denied the payment then

You Might Find Your SNP NEC Success

a short lived singularity.

Big Time.

Marshall Adair

You really are a silly Wee Monkey! … It will be paid to all full-time NHS and adult social care staff, with a proportional share for part-time staff.

Colin Alexander

Sorry. I see this article as a wasted opportunity. We should be discussing how to move forward instead of digs or gloating. The real enemy is at Westminster and the changes of faces on the NEC does not in itself change anything but, it is a welcomed first step forward.

Effijy

In January 2015, the year the Tories sold off Royal Mail at
£1 Billion below valuation, mainly to Tory Hedge Fund mangers,
The cost of a 1st Class Stamp was 62p.

In January 2021 it will have a new 9p rise to 85p.

I recall reading here how Labour idiot and unionist
Brian Wilson tried to suggest and independent Scotland
couldn’t run a Mail Service without dramatic price rises.

He went on to lie, or was just stupid at Arithmetic, to put forward
Ireland’s postage were much higher than the UK’s.

That was proved to be exactly the opposite!

Privatisation has seen the service deteriorate, poorer benefits for the work force,
and a 37% price increase.

Have UK workers including our Nurses seen their wages rise at this rate over 6 years?

You better believe we can do better than Tory Mail in an independent Scotland !

Morgatron

I will scweem and scweem, you awful bwute. These people are just mental. I know the world ha moved on since I was at Uni but I think they should join the greens in my humble opinion, probably make it to leader

Facundo T Savala

Does anyone in the SNP, within the Yes movement, or on this forum have anything close to a workable solution for plan B?

So far, I have seen a few bare boned ideas that simply wont cut it in the real world.

Does anyone have a solution?

If not, you will be stuck with Sturgeon for another 5 years minimum, and there wont be any form of Scottish Independence for at least another decade or two.

Fireproofjim

Wee monkey
£500 grant.
You really out to find out about it before commenting.
It is for all NHS staff AND CARERS.
As for the GMB official, who was complaining that his bin men did not get it, it was to recognise the great danger that the NHS and careers were in, especially at the start of the pandemic when nobody had proper PPE and they were learning about it. Remember. Doctors and nurses died in those days. Binmen didn’t.

McHaggis69

“Oh really, what about those care staff who are really out and about in the community really in the front line.”

If you had thought to check before coming on to a public forum and giving yourself a pure riddy, you would know that frontline care staff are also in line for the £500 payment.

Did you read some pish on Facebook that caused you to believe otherwise? Let me guess you picked it up from someone on Twitter with a union fleg and ‘1690’ in their bio?

link to gov.scot

Alf Baird

Facundo T Savala

“Does anyone have a solution?”

In most former colonies, one elected nationalist majority was usually sufficient for independence. (And most of them had no treaty to withdraw from).

Scotland has elected three nationalist majorities yet is still a colony.

The solution is for an elected nationalist majority to assert the sovereignty given to them by the people.

Stan Broadwood

Poor wee lassie

Sideshow Manny

“conscious” could be a synonym for “awake” or indeed “woke”. In which case if she was saying “continue to play our role as the woke of the SNP” then she was quite correct in her use of the word and you owe her an apology, Stu ?

Ronald Fraser

STURGEON,,,DEAD WUMMIN WALKIN!!!

Hatuey

Fuckundo: “Does anyone in the SNP, within the Yes movement, or on this forum have anything close to a workable solution for plan B?”

Yeah. And it’s very detailed. They can stick their Section 30, we don’t need it. We (the people) own the country. That’s our plan B.

Ronald Fraser

One of Joanna Cherry’s first jobs on the NEC should be to write the Manifesto for the 2021 Holyrood election.

So it is idiot proof, bullet proof and plain enough, so that thicko Johnson down in Westminster understands that if the Scottish people vote to have a Referendum on Scottish Independence at a time if it’s choosing, then it is a legally binding vote.

JillP

Cailin insisted she needed to be listened to.
Those who were watching conference had to listen to her at least twice. Mind you we had to listen to Graham Campbell 5 times. He in particular should have had enough sense to do a maximum of 2 and pass the speaking opportunity to someone else.

I’ve no idea what Cailin had to say.That’s how riveting it was.

The reactions from the wokerati today has been appalling. Their statement of “Equality” is pitiful. To be carrying on in that way and blaming the delegates for being so gullible as to vote for the non woke is utterly indefensible.

Astonished

Graeme says:
1 December, 2020 at 9:40 pm
Well said Daisy but we should give her some latitude she’s young with the same sense of entitlement and self importance we all had at that age

Graeme : that is frankly nonsense. When I was 20 I was at university. Full well understanding the sacrifices my parents had made. I am a graduate . And that is all my family required.

The woke have never suffered poverty (neither have I, although, unlike the woke , I went to a state school)

I have met poverty and it is intolerable. (Except for the red/blue/yellow tories obvs).

Hatuey

Actually, Ronald, we should hope that the 2021 election is declared a plebiscite on independence. And a binding one at that. On that basis the manifesto would be a single sentence.

Q) When support for independence was stuck around 45% a lot of people said that declaring UDI without a majority would be tantamount to a coup. Now that we have majority support for independence, is UDI still a coup?

MorvenM

Feminist, my arse. No genuine 20 year old feminist ever described herself as a “girl”.

McHaggis69

Facundo T Savala says:
1 December, 2020 at 11:36 pm
“Does anyone in the SNP, within the Yes movement, or on this forum have anything close to a workable solution for plan B?”

Why do you ask?
You see the SNP as a “stain on Scotland”.
Its right there on your moon howling anti independence Twitter feed.
Your pinned tweet states you joined Twitter to gently place Scottish Nationalists back in their boxes.

Why are you even here?

I’d normally be cautious about potential mis-identifying, but with a handle like that I’m fairly certain you’re one and the same.

Facundo T Savala

A few people came back to me with replies on what they would do as a Plan B.

They were different plans, and they seemed fairly unworkable. This battle for Indy remains a very long road ahead if it’s ever going to happen at all.

Facundo T Savala

This other guy isn’t me.

Just like McHaggis68 isn’t you.

McHaggis69

Facundo T Savala says:
2 December, 2020 at 12:23 am
” if it’s ever going to happen at all.”

You’ve been rumbled ya prick. Now fuck off back to whatever Ranjurs forum you normally infest.

Ronald Fraser

Hatuey 12.12

Yes,,,as long as EVERYONE knows the rules BEFORE one vote is cast.

Saffron Robe

I agree entirely with Alf Baird at 11:53 pm:

“The solution is for an elected nationalist majority to assert the sovereignty given to them by the people.”

Assert being the operative word.

wee monkey

McHaggis said
1 December, 2020 at 11:49 pm
“Oh really, what about those care staff who are really out and about in the community really in the front line.”

If you had thought to check before coming on to a public forum and giving yourself a pure riddy, you would know that frontline care staff are also in line for the £500 payment.

Did you read some pish on Facebook that caused you to believe otherwise? Let me guess you picked it up from someone on Twitter with a union fleg and ‘1690’ in their bio?

Dear McHaggis69.

Actually it was from a post ^^^ON THIS VERY THREAD.^^^

I’m sure Karen appreciates your comments.Pish and all.

QUOTE

Karen says:
1 December, 2020 at 8:36 pm

“The £500 payment to nhs staff, which Scotgov are begging Westminster to make tax free … ”

RTFT!

Stuart

Should start a fundraiser for #Cailyninneed(of attention)

Mac

The fact you never said anything nasty is irrelevant Rev. Everyone knows that “a guilty conscious needs no accuser”.

I can understand their rage what with their demands for endless free surgeries and hair removal products up in smoke. It must be a terrible blow for them. For example the Leeze one must spend a fortune on Veet for that Desperate Dan chin alone. (Chin up Leeze, you may have lost the battle but I am sure you will win the war.)

C’mon folks have a heart here.

susanXX

Where are the congratulations from NS to the new NEC members? Bad look NS. Guess we know how high up the wokeists support goes.

Muscleguy

Aged 20 I was a newly married undergraduate with a kid on the way. We found a not very warm upstairs flat, nice landlords though beside the main through road, one way, dual carriageway. We could buy milk easily from the petrol station immediately opposite.

We had almost no money, would have had more if we’d dropped out of uni and gone on the dole. I wore patched jeans and a t-shirt into uni then into the lab when I became a reearch student. As a PhD student my stipend was still less than the dole for a family. But at least I didn’t have my dole reduced by my tutoring and demonstrating work.

We dragged ourselves up by our bootstraps. We have two successful, well adjsuted adult offpsring non scarred by the horror of their upbringing.

I remember being 20, I shudder to think about how utterly ignorant I was about so very, very much. Whole areas of knowledge and understanding I never even knew existed. As scientist I glimpse what is known even if some areas are shadwy.

This lass has no idea, none at all. She thinks identity politics is the bee knees, the whole of life. Boy is she in for shocks.

Jockanese Wind Talker

Can anyone tell me does the NEC decide on who stands as Regional List MSPs or will it be NS and her sofa cabinet (Constituency Candidates announced only as far as I am aware)

Wondering if Wokoharam can still get their MSP choices confirmed or does the NEC shakeup prevent this now?

ACC_B

Good Q from Jockanese. How/when are list candidates chosen?

WhoRattledYourCage

Ocht, jist leave the lassie alane, thir’s nae point tae this. Different generation, different mindset. If she wis the daughter ay ony ay house, ye widnae want folk hanging up oan her online. No trying tae be superior either. Social media, especially Twitter, is a bear pit fir the mentally ill n socially inadequate. Sad, really.

Breeks

Feeling this morning that these peeps have already commandeered way more Indy resource and energy already.

If we truly have turned a corner, (and in saying that I’m thinking about the list of candidates “vetted” by the old NEC), then let us be done with this, and push these clowns way off the main agenda, into the obscurity they deserve.

It’s also just one of the legs of Sturgeon’s milking stool, the other two being the Martin Keatings case, and the third being the conspiracy against Alex Salmond.

Her leadership looks increasingly untenable, but time is not on our side if we are to salvage anything meaningful from Brexit, or better yet, instigate a last ditch Scottish Constitutional backstop.

I would also be fascinated to see how England would react to scotland asserting it’s sovereignty, and providing England with a last minute stay of execution too. Now that they can see the whites of their eyes of Brexit, I really do think the reaction would be interesting.

To make it even more ‘interesting’, I’d follow up the roundhouse haymaker of a Scottish Constitutional Backstop,with a bodyshot they didn’t expect… I’d resurrect the other option I’ve proposed before, and that is presenting Scotland as a clearing house for EU – English trade, a type of buffer zone, with Scotland a fully paid up EU member state, having the capacity to trade with England through a new Benelux type “Ex-UK” trading confederation, which allowed through trade of English goods which were fully compliant with EU standards. The price being England’s agreement to an amicable dissolution of the UK.

Everybody wins. Scotland secures an amicable dissolution of the Union and a high volume of through trade to swell our Port commerce. England gets the Brexit it thinks it wants, but through trade via Scotland can offer them something of a softer landing. And Europe wins too, because it has maintained access to English trade without Westminster’s contant interference with EU business, and there is also a massive incentive for England to keep meeting EU convergence criteria.

Straight away, I know you’re thinking England would never agree to an amicable dissolution of the Union, and for the most part that’s true, but by early Spring, England might be missing Euro-trade and Scotland’s Independence might look inevitable. Having a mini trade deal with a Scottish buffer state might be very tempting, and an amicable breakup to the UK would definitely be in our interests.

Fairliered

Kevin McKenna’s article in todays National is worth a read. Nearly up to Rev. Stu’s standards.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/18913126.kevin-mckenna-snps-woke-team-defeated—means/

Polly

Graeme says:
1 December, 2020 at 10:00 pm
Love this video

Yes, great video and great use of it – hope the party can keep up that type of wit, engagement and solidarity with the whole yes movement. Many of us will be voting for them with second vote anyway, but their tactic of using that video had just the right touch of pointing at faults yet celebrating success in a sister party to win over more people. If they can keep their touch as light and on point as that in future they’re capable of going far politically, for I think it was a savvy move by someone. Well done that/those people.

Mac

Even if Sturgeon and Murrell quit yesterday and we got new leaders who replaced all the toxic SPADs, civil servants and SNP HQ Sturgeon loyal apparatchiks I fear we would still have a situation akin to when Jeremy Corbyn was elected as the new leader, new direction of the labour party. He had the mass support of his party but he was still up to his arsehole in Blairite MPs who quietly loathed him and worked to undermine everything he tried to achieve.

Instead of Blairite MPs here it is Sturgeonite ones, ones who have come through this corrupted NEC process over the course of years… The Blairite legacy was not that easy for a new leader to reverse as Corbyn found out. (Now they have Starmer. What a fucked up outcome that is.) Same sort of thing could happen to Cherry or whoever it is…

However it is easy however for us the voters to wipe the slate clean and start again.

That is my preferred route at this point. It wont happen alas but I see it as the shortest route possible to getting the party truly back.

Ross

Pile on . Doxxing. Twitter abuse. DMs. Faux outrage.

Social media is a cesspit. Young people have lived their whole lives with it and don’t know civilised debate without it. Add in the zealotry of student politics and it’s a recipe for constant poison.

A lot of these factions have probably never even spoken to each other.

Mac

That Kevin McKenna piece was very good.

Enjoyed this bit especially…

“That much of the bullying behaviour came from men targeting women demonstrated the misogynistic currents running through those who fancy themselves woke. That it has been permitted to go unchallenged by Nicola Sturgeon is extraordinary.

That it proceeded unhindered by Police Scotland showed the extent to which our national police force has been reduced to a private army of the Scottish Government: always eager to harass working-class football fans, less so to collar the boutique warriors who issue threats against women on social media.”

Yeah it really is ‘extraordinary’.

And it is not just working class football fans who get targeted. They do a good number on former First Ministers as well.

Welcome to Nicola Sturgeon’s dystopian Scotland 2020.

Alf Baird

Saffron Robe @ 1.04

Aye, best to keep things simple, as well as democratic and lawful of course.

However, one really would have thought that Scotland’s (third!) democratically elected majority of nationalist MP’s must have been even a little bit aware of the imperative and right to assert Scotland’s national sovereignty when they first applied for the ‘job’ of bringing about Scotland’s withdrawal from the UK alliance arrangement.

Since 2015 Scotland’s three successive nationalist majorities have behaved like subservient loyal British unionist MP’s and in so doing are undermining and ridiculing Scottish sovereignty, rather than representing it, as is the FM and her daeless cabinet who appear to be in perpetual alliance with Whitehall’s finest sent north to ‘control’ the restless natives and also undermine the cause, as we see in the AS case and others.

Bob Mack

I believe Kevin McKenna (just like the Rev has been telling us for over a year), has finally hit the nail on the head.

Changing the composition of the NEC has been a positive ,but there is a very large negative. I firmly believe Nicola Sturgeon does not know how to obtain Independence from the UK. Yet she remains leader of the only party just now ,who can attempt it.

This has led to all the false dawns and failure to use what are really viable reasons to challenge the Act of Union.

Instead we are offered assurances that all is in hand and the next election will be the one where things will happen.

I do not believe it. Nicola is selling our future to English legislation because she does not know how to obtain it for us.

I pity those who still believe in plans being afoot. They are being used. Faith is always suscepitible to disappointments.

Republicofscotland

GMB officials calling for legal advice given to the Scottish government on the BiFab travesty which will see at least 500 jobs in Scotland axed, to be released Fiona Hyslop Economy minister said.

The only we we will give over the legal advice to them is if there’s a judicial review on the matter.

link to thenational.scot

@nairnkev

That last screenshot begs the question, have you got ” Hate Director” as an official Title now?
Gawd the poor thim skinned yute o the day.

Contrary

That’s quite the pile-on, what a savage monster Stu.

I must have had the wrong definition of ‘pile-on’ before, every day a school day though, eh, we live and learn, so a pile-on actually means: mention that person’s name more than twice. I think anyway, it’s not altogether clear.

Kevin Cargill,

“Atroshus” LOL, you caught me out with that one and I chuckled over it for at least a minute, I am a monster also, I guess, and a shallow one at that. Ah, the things youth can teach us. Is this the product of an era where they decided there should be no competition in schools, in case someone didn’t win?

Allium

All parties have problems with their over-zealous youth wings, which is why most parties keep them at a (friendly) arms length. Some of the SNP hierarchy seem almost in awe of the young people. Its very strange and a bit creepy to see them pandering and getting involved in the drama to this extent. They should act with more circumspection.

Republicofscotland

From Daddy Bears column in the National.

“The fact that Joanna Cherry, on the eve of our party’s conference, was able to give an interview to the Times, attacking our leader in the most disloyal way possible is bad enough.

That there was no apparent consequences to such disloyalty is quite incredible to me. That she was elected on to the NEC is remarkable altogether.”

link to thenational.scot

What’s remarkable and incredible is the amount of time that Sturgeon allowed all manner of threats, and pile on’s to Miss Cherry from the party’s members without taking action, you might have congratulated the new NEC members however I haven’t yet noticed if your beloved FM has.

stonefree

At twenty I was at a Technical School,learning from decent people and mingling with people all different with an all different perspective as oppose to the likes of the Academy I went to (if I went) I have to say full of bigoted arseholes.
She is twenty, Young and Stupid,
I’d suggest she thinks she is better than everyone else
How can one argue with ignorance?
I expect her mother will be posting in her defense

Polly

Fairliered says:

‘Kevin McKenna’s article in todays National is worth a read. Nearly up to Rev. Stu’s standards.’

Yes good article – except Stuart would never use this soft soap phrase so very late in the day.
‘If the SNP leader doesn’t quickly relocate her moral compass on this she risks disfiguring her legacy.’

Sturgeon’s legacy will be one of utter hypocrisy, and it’s not just now in danger – it’s already down the pan and she couldn’t flush it away or clean up after and it’s trailing after her, reeking malodorously. It’s just that the tremendous stench that’s now been building is reaching the noses of even some who didn’t follow her closely to see what she was up to for so long. Her legacy was first stained when she allowed the abuse of Joan McAlpine all that time ago. That wrong has never been righted and she’s never tried. For that alone, despite all we’ve learned since and some things of far greater concern – but for that alone in a female leader who bragged of gendered cabinets and supporting women and being a lifelong feminist , for that alone she is shown as a complete and utter sham. Her support of the woke is probably like her feminism, another sham, they just don’t realise it yet.

If tweets by Hunter and others are anything to go by, the whole work of independence for the last five years was to give the young all they think they want, however damaging to women or Scotland, for they are the future. The young obviously aren’t the homogenous grouping they believe and in following their route they’ve ignored obvious safety concerns and parental/adult responsibilities towards the young they’ve encouraged into politics. As we long thought they created this monstrous young adult by pandering to the teenager and not insisting on rules and behaviour. They encouraged and supported them into positions within the party and government and left them like lord of the flies, well flies follow stench.

THAT was the great plan for independence from Sturgeon? Give the young ones that we like all they want, no matter if it creates division in the party or crisis with women, or turns off long standing members of the party far less no voters we need to win over, no matter the danger to independence now with brexit almost upon us, just give the young free rein and we are guaranteed independence as soon as they all start voting for us. Yet those same young were never encouraged to moderate their hopes and take voters with them, never shown they had to engage positively with the electorate to create the future changes they want to bring in. She never mentored them to get them to do any of that because the party has been so dominant since she took over. Great irony that our voting for independence so consistently has led to damaging not only independence but the fabric of our society too. Had she been the leader I once thought her she was uniquely positioned to bring about not only independence but the way forward for both women and the transgendered community working forward together in a truly world beating way since she had us both onside for a while and could have been a positive conduit. Such a missed opportunity.

Allium

That column is unhinged. What a meltdown.

Tannadice Boy

@Republicofscotland
There is an All Points Bulletin been put out by Police Sturgeon. Daddy Bears right eyebrow was last seen running down Stirling High Street on it’s own.

Scot Finlayson

This victory over the misogynists will hopefully give others the courage to confront and defeat them,

especially in the Scottish universities and further education system which seems to be the hive that breeds the misogynist attitude.

Bob Mack

Well, now we see the real Alyn Smith. Is he so different in attitude to Cailyn in the titled article?

I think not ,and it probably explains why they could work together in harmony. Self entitlement and self jmportance.

Smith has made a complete ar#e of himself in that article . Poor me his voice cries into the void. Hopefully the rest of him will join his voice in that void.

It’s self explanatory why we find ourselves where we are.

CameronB Brodie

re. “-lived- experience”. This is exactly what the trans-activists are attempting to deny when they claim a legal recognition of biology is oppressive. So here’s a look at “Governing Legal Embodiment: On the Limits of Self-Declaration”.

link to link.springer.com

“This article presents the first empirically-based and theoretically-informed investigation of the effectiveness of the ‘self-declaration model’ of legal gender recognition in Denmark, the first European state to adopt it. Drawing upon analysis of legislative materials, as well as interviews with stakeholders in the legislative process and trans and intersex legal subjects, it contends that self-declaration is not without its limitations. By conceptualising embodiment as an ontological and epistemological process of becoming, and emphasising the institutional dimensions and effects of such processes, it demonstrates that self-declaration may not address the complexities of legal embodiment, particularly concerning restrictions on trans and intersex people’s access to health care.

The article’s empirical findings are directed towards the policymakers and activists tasked with shaping reforms of gender recognition legislation in the UK and elsewhere. The analytical agenda it develops may be adopted, and adapted, by scholars working in this area and other regulatory contexts.”

Ronald Fraser

As others have said above,,,how about a big “well done guys” to all the new members of the NEC Nicola?

Or are you really the ignorant little arsehole you come across as?

Sylvia

O/T – Gordon Dangerfield “Yesterday, John Somers told the inquiry that he had no involvement in the development of the procedure which was used against Alex Salmond. This is not true.

link to gordondangerfield.com

Bob Mack

I think we have a very large issue to settle. Smith and the likes of bloggers and contributors on another forum cannot find their way to accept that Nicola is tainfed.

They make excuses for those occasions where she is clearly suspect, and even blame the innocent like Alex Salmond for giving Nicola had publicity, and Joanna Cherry who was allowed to be the focus of ridiculous treatment for a long time without the First Minister or indeed the party intervening on her behalf.

Now we clearly see why the NEC changed the rules to forbid Ms Cherry from contesting Edinburgh Cdntral.

She was the focus of those in the party who saw her as a threat to the rule and image of Nicola as unassailable leader.

This battle is yet to come. There is an SNP party, but there is also a “cult of Nicola” party living within it in a strange symbiotic relationship.

Until people face the facts of these issues then division is unavoidable.

Daisy Walker

Just read Alyn Smith’s article. Wow.

Lashing out and hypocrisy in equal measures.

He’s going to start the SNP faction of the SNP.

Dear Alyn, please go home, and find your piggy bank, I strongly suspect, that unauthorised ‘loan’ or to put it another way, ‘misappropriated money’ that your pals in the SNP gifted you to pay of your legal fees and fines for shouting your gob off at the Brexit Party, are about to be called in for re-payment.

And if there’s any left over and you’re still pals with your ex, I gather he/she/Mx? might well be in need of some assistance in an ongoing defamation case against women.

Oh, and as a biological woman – I’m proud to say I’m an Alex Salmond Apologiser. Is there a badge?

Sylvia

Daisy Walker @11:04

There’s a few outright lies circulating about correspondence between Joanna Cherry and I. Lest yet another misleading myth take hold here’s the facts”.

link to twitter.com

Karmanaut

Incoming barrage of “they’ve hounded me off Twitter” articles in the Guardian and “Putin’s cybernat trolls” articles in the Herald.

winifred mccartney

Alyn Smith in the national this morning just lays out bare what kind of ‘democrat’ he is. He is a good speaker but involved in terrible bullying and hateful behaviour often done through a ‘proxy’.

Allium

@Daisy 11.04

Is it the germ of a strategy to gull the feminists away from the Nicolasceptic block with “we’ve listened”, “TRAs are feminists, too” style promises that will fail to materialise once the alliance has fractured? If so, I admire their chutzpah. The radfems aren’t taking any prisoners right now.

Graeme

Daddy bear needs to remember loyalty works both ways

Where was Nicolas loyalty to Joanna or Joan McAlpine or Neale Hanvey or Michelle Thomson and worse of all Alex Salmond

If there’s anyone undeserving of loyalty it has to be Nicola Sturgeon

Bob Mack

I wonder what Alyn Smith thinks is the lie. His article in the National clearly indicates his disdain towards Joanna Cherry.

She had the absolute bloody nerve to hope he could stop his partner from sending utterly inappropriate slanderous texts and messages to her as well.

How vicious. She was better than me then.Personally I might have been chapping his door.

Cenchos

‘twitter is no longer a serious forum and you get the discourse you deserve’ tweeted Daddy Bear on Twitter yesterday (Dec 1 20).

Oh how I laughed.

Hatuey

It doesn’t make sense to talk about independence until Sturgeon and her crew are vanquished and a new leadership team is in place. That must be the immediate priority. It’s tempting to say if that doesn’t happen everything will remain as it was before, regardless of the new NEC, but it won’t.

The results of the NEC election simply means that a second scorpion has entered the bottle. We should assume it’s the beginning of a vicious internal war, not the end.

That war won’t be won by the side that comes up with the best argument on achieving independence; it’ll be won by the side that destroys the other.

Nobody who wants independence could rationally want or prefer a civil war over an honest fight for indyref2 against the real enemy. That’s the tragedy. But it’s not about what we want. It’s about survival, it’s forced on us, and we have no choice but to fight and win.

The focus now will inevitably need to shift to more personal, internal, stuff.

Murrell needs to go – they’ve demonstrated that a husband and wife team at the helm isn’t healthy and can’t work.

We also need to investigate the “ring fenced” funds. If we can’t as a party demonstrate trust and integrity to our own people when it comes to finances, we really are in trouble.

And if it turns out the First Minister lied to Parliament, well, Ministerial Code stipulates what must happen; the party can’t be led by a liar going into an election. We must await the judgement of the Inquiry before calling this but, make no mistake, this is a party issue.

It’s a rather bleak picture of the future, isn’t it? Wrong. It’s already started.

Nell G

Daddy Bear knows his time is up. Now we turn our attention to “Woko Ono” in Bute House. I wouldn’t be surprised if they started a new party together as a means to split the Independence vote. Anything to protect the Union.

WhoRattledYourCage

Just read Failyn Smith’s National column. Jesus Christ. He reminds me of an unmasked tash-swirling Scooby-Doo villain, whining piteously aboot how he would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for you Joanna Cherry and Alex Salmond-loving hetero bigots. Hilariously disgusting.

On another note.

The thing that did strike me reading up a wee bit aboot the aforementioned Ms. McMahon. She has lived in South Africa, Dubai, and Scotland. This clearly suggests coming from a monied comfortable background, moving around with her parents, probably following their employment stationing.

In general, I have noticed an interesting amount of mostly young women from other countries trying to get into power recently in the SNP. Some of them seem quite fragile, unable to accept public criticism, or defeat , in their quixotic, windmill-tilting, social-media-bubble-fed, self-sainted politico-endeavours. And I am always leery of people who move from other countries and then immediately start trying to reshape the new country they move to in their own image, to whatever degree.

I always wonder what their agenda is, why they want power over the indigenous lifelong population of their adopted country, especially if they are very young, with very little life experience except living abroad. But middle class life is much the same the world round. Scottish working class social problems (and observed life) will be a far-off abstraction to them, as living in, say, the slavery-built Hellhole Dubai, has zero in common with life in impoverished areas of Scotland, wherever they may tragicallyband disgustingly be.

I always suspect these young women see themselves as some sort of coquettish selfie-snapping glamgirl international diplomat type, though at least they have a less parochial background than even our own selfie-serving First Minister has. It’s clear Nicola Sturgeon is trying to basically fill the SNP with women of all stripes (but mostly middle class, yooni-educated backgrounds) probably in retaliation for male-dominated politics (Thatcher excepted,cos she had a bigger cock than her male cabinet) in the 80s, when she was growing up. She’s finally getting to meet people she can self-project onto as younger international versions of herself, without acknowledging the homogenous corporate nature of much of Western politrix these days.

But if the background knowledge of these young simpering pop-politicos is to just try and bring useless and worthless Americanised middle class propagandist rubbish to Scottish politics, like the young ones now all seem to do, in tiresome brainwashed tiresome lockstep, then their shrill homogenised presence in our country-specific politics is a waste of time. People from other countries and cultures definitely have new and interesting things to teach us. Just not from America, is all. That shite has done more than enough damage round the world already.

Desimond

Alyn Smiths piece in the National….jeezoh, he even has a go at the Paper and of course he isnt to blame in the slightest!

My fav “are you f****** kidding Alyn?” excerpts though…


The fact that members of our party have been allowed to openly undermine and dissent from our agreed policy and collective discipline will have grave long-term consequences – we’ve only just started to see them. This is a wake-up call – progressive policies, fraternal loyalty and self-discipline cannot be taken for granted.

The fact that Joanna Cherry, on the eve of our party conference, was able to give an interview to The Times attacking our leader in the most disloyal way possible is bad enough. That there is no apparent consequence to such disloyalty is quite incredible to me. That she was elected on to the NEC of our party is remarkable altogether.

To oppose is easy, to govern is hard, and in every victory lie the seeds of the next defeat.

Bob Mack

Household discussion at the Smith ranch.

Smith_ Jordan did you send horrible stuff to that Cherry?

Jordan ___yes I did.

Smith____(raises eyebrow) It makes my position look bad.

Jordan___so?

Smith___ ok then I’m sorry to have asked.

Way to go tiger.

Willie

Alyn Smith in his article comes across as the absolute lush boy in a tizzy.

He was rejected by the members. Voted out. Chucked. Binned. Call it what you want but the delegates spoke and they did not want him. And now he is in a strop, cat calling every one in sight. Disparaging folks who the delegates did vote for.

The guy is an absolute waste of space. Wind and fart politician might be the apt description of folk like him.

Well get used to it Alyn boy, you were chucked!

MaggieC

Here’s Kevin McKenna’s column in the National ,

“ The SNP’s woke team have been defeated – here’s what that means “ ,

link to archive.vn

And here’s Alyn Smith’s column in the National ,

“ OK. So you defeated me. Now it’s time to deliver , WELL, I told you they wanted me out and they succeeded. Here, evidently, is where loyalty to the leadership of my party, to party policy and to the cause of independence gets me.

link to archive.vn

“ We had 2440 delegates but the voting in the policy motions was regularly around 1400. That tells me 1000 delegates were only there for the rankings. Social media (and indeed this newspaper) have played a disproportionate role in the party’s what-should-be-internal discourse over the last year, given that we couldn’t have meetings. “

“ The fact that Joanna Cherry, on the eve of our party conference, was able to give an interview to The Times attacking our leader in the most disloyal way possible is bad enough. That there is no apparent consequence to such disloyalty is quite incredible to me. That she was elected on to the NEC of our party is remarkable altogether. “

Alyn Smith maybe needs to realise that the 1000 delegates who didn’t vote on the motions didn’t think that they were worth voting on . Maybe if they had put in the motion for the plan B those 1000 delegates would have participated more in the conference

I see that he’s still getting his “ sly “ digs in about Joanna Cherry , I don’t remember him coming to her defence at any time when Joanna was being targeted by his supposedly “ ex “ boyfriend Jordon or when Joanna was receiving death threats , mind you I don’t remember Nicola Sturgeon or the party coming to her defence either .

Alyn Smith is a really nasty piece of work and we haven’t forgotten about when he called us all cybernats ,

link to wingsoverscotland.com

Astonished

Alyn smith – Trumpian sore loser.

Anyone in the SNP NEC conduct comittee I want Smith disciplined. And I want stewart mcdonald mp suspended until we find out if he signed that vile letter. If he did I want him expelled from the party.

Any of the folk who signed that letter should be expelled including that glasgow councillor whose name escapes me.

Daisy Walker

@ Sylvia re Alyn Smiths tweet – which can be paraphrased – I sent by ex boyfriend JC’s tweet, his replies are nothing to do with me’.

Which would be fine – if somewhat unrealistic – given we have an extremely hostile media, his job is high profile, and SNP members had been chucked out of the party for far less – does anyone really think a person of his ability, and in such a high profile and important job – is going to nonchalantly let ANYONE casually, recklessly damage his profile by close association?

And there is the fact that is ex was supported to go forward as a potential msp candidate, until has very nasty tweets were made public. I’ve no idea if this was while they were still together or after, but in any event if they lived together, he should have been aware of his ‘nasty side’ which the tweets disclosed very clearly. There does not appear to have been any attempt at concealing this ‘dark’ side to his personality.

Iain Lawsons latest article is very good folks on recent events, finding out where the money is, and closing the SNP legal aid cash box.

CameronB Brodie

These changes in the NEC look as if there is hope for the party, though support for gender-ideology still threatens the coherence and universality of Scots law. So here’s a look at some thoughts “On the Human Body as Property: The Meaning of Embodiment, Markets, and the Meaning of Strangers”. As our legal Establishment may still cause harm to Scots law, by forcing it to accommodate anti-foundational ideology. At least Scots law would remain compatible with British constitutional practice then, which is now completely divorced from the Natural law, so is unable to support cultural pluralism, or respect the lived experience of Scots.

link to core.ac.uk

“….Human individuals exist, so far as we know, only as embodied beings. What to make of this cold fact, though, has posed an intellectual challenge at least as old as our earliest written traditions. For some, the body is morally insignificant or worse – an impediment to the attainment of higher goods. For others, our bodies are as much a part of our core moral selves as our minds (or souls).

In this section, I will examine several answers to the question: What is the moral significance of the body? I will look at the answers given in Anglo-American common law, and by classical and contemporary, secular and religious thinkers.”

Daisy Walker

Re Alyn Smith..

‘to oppose is easy, to govern is hard, and in every victory lie the seeds of the next defeat.’

To slander is easy, to take responsiblity, pay your own legal fees and fine – now that’s hard.

There you go Alyn – fixed it for you.

Or as Bob Mack so succinctly put ‘way to go tiger’ Alyn ‘tiger’ Smith has a ring about it and so less creepy than Daddy Bear Smith.

Daisy Walker

A wee thought before I go… If Alyn Tiger Smith were to pay for his own legal mishaps… would it be tax decuctable? maybe even put it on expenses.

Every cloud and all that.

Anyway, at least with his fighting talk the wokeratti can rally round the phrase ‘put a tiger in your tank’.

Us Gray heids winna laugh too much.

Stuart MacKay

MaggieC thanks for the link to The National article from Alyn Smith. The comments on The National site are well worth a read. Wings seems rather tame in comparison.

Athanasius

Disagreement is, apparently, “hate”. Who knew?

holymacmoses

MY BIG worry about the Woke brigade philosophy is that if ‘Big Business’ manages to completely reduce ‘sex’ to a commodity rather than a fact, then pretty soon babies will become part of the manufacturing world and the creche will be another factory on the planet. It could be a good way to control the population and produce just as many morons as the world can cope with and far quicker and easier than relying on evolution to make us ‘better’ people.

Hatuey

“The SNP leadership postures furiously over its support for women’s rights but can’t protect two of its most able and gifted politicians from abuse by known party members and office-bearers.“

I think we need to face the truth… they’re the new Imperial Masters, aren’t they?

stonefree

@ Daisy Walker at 11:45 am

“does anyone really think a person of his ability, ”

I do have to question that part, what ability?
The SNP are knee deep in Lawyers ie the pasted a few exams ,but know nothing and can do nothing.

Smith’s alleged ability , is merely a self created illusion, aided by the backing of NS
The National has promoted him to such an extent that Smith believes he is great , and a superstar
He’s more like a used car sales person, without any redeeming qualities
(No offense if you work in a car sales showroom)

Breeks

To his credit, I believe Alyn Smith hit the right note with his speech in the European Parliament, where he recieved a standing ovation after saying that Scotland hadn’t abandoned Europe, and entreating that Europe should not abandon Scotland.

Genuinely fine sentiments, that hit the right note completely, although somewhat undermined with a bitter aftertaste, when the SNP subsequently capitulated to Brexit, and Alyn Smith couldn’t get out of Europe fast enough in order to pursue a seat in Stirling.

With hindsight, it would seem we must view Mr Smiths speech as the proverbial one swallow, which alone, does not make a summer.

holymacmoses

Below are the final paragraphs of an article by Alyn Smith in the National online about four hours ago.
I have no idea how able Mr Smith is but having been reared in Saudi Arabia until the age of 14 will have had an impact on his ideas of the democratic process and what it entails in the western world. He is a good speaker and a charismatic figure to those who like what he says.
The article from which the following is taken reveals a petty attitude , a man, clearly angry that his opinion isn’t valued as highly as that of Ms Cherry.
He sounds, childish and petty and what he has written shows more than an element of delusion , given the reality of the past few months in Scottish politics.

The fact that members of our party have been allowed to openly undermine and dissent from our agreed policy and collective discipline will have grave long-term consequences – we’ve only just started to see them. This is a wake-up call – progressive policies, fraternal loyalty and self-discipline cannot be taken for granted.

The fact that Joanna Cherry, on the eve of our party conference, was able to give an interview to The Times attacking our leader in the most disloyal way possible is bad enough. That there is no apparent consequence to such disloyalty is quite incredible to me. That she was elected on to the NEC of our party is remarkable altogether.

To oppose is easy, to govern is hard, and in every victory lie the seeds of the next defeat.

As the new NEC will discover, there are a lot of difficult issues facing us that will not be resolved by a neat hashtag or a blogpost blaming “HQ” or “the leadership” or espousing a “Plan B” that barely exists and won’t last three seconds in the real world.

You’ve won. Congratulations. Now it’s on you to deliver.

CameronB Brodie

re. “-lived- experience”. Scotland’s democracy will not be well served by those who are unable to distinguish between what is authentic and what is make-believe. So we also need to look to our judges, as at least on of them appears to support genderwoowoo. Which means he is unable to acknowledge “The Phenomenology of Embodiment: Intertwining and Reflexivity”, so is blind to the interests of natural rights and justice.

link to link.springer.com

“It is often assumed that Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s notions of ‘intertwining’, ‘interlacing’ (l’entrelacs, entrelacement) or ‘chiasm’ (le chiasme, le chiasma), as articulated especially in his later texts, e.g. The Visible and the Invisible, the associated ‘Working Notes’, and his later lectures in the Collège de France, count among his own original contributions to articulating a phenomenology – and indeed ontology – of the ‘flesh’ (la chair) aimed at overcoming the Cartesian split between mind and body which he believed still haunted his earlier account in The Phenomenology of Perception (1945).

In this chapter, I show not only that Husserl’s idea of ‘intertwining’ (Verflectung) is the original inspiration for Merleau-Ponty but also that Husserl’s radical phenomenology of the lived body (Leib) already lays the ground for the new way of conceiving conscious embodied conduct that overcomes the Cartesian separation of thought from sensibility that comes to the fore in the late Merleau-Ponty. I shall also point out that Merleau-Ponty never forgets to acknowledge his debt to Husserl in this respect.”

Giesabrek

It’s not a convener YSI need, it’s a nursery teacher!

Lorna Campbell

I hate to say it, but I believe that feminism itself is at least partly to blame for this – at least, the more radical elements – by pandering to this science-denying nonsense. By introducing women-only lists, positive discrimination can be necessary at times, but must be used judiciously and with cognizance of others) they forced the trans lobby to adopt a non-conciliatory stance towards women, and that is how the attempt to redefine the meaning of ‘women’ has come about.

It is not just about their believing they are women – most of them, in their rational selves know they are not women (or men), but trans women (and men) – but about BEING women because that was always going to be the only way they were going to make inroads into women’s sex-based spaces and rights, and why ‘misogyny’, a sex-based discrimination, was not included in the ‘hate crime’ bill (the companion to the GRA reform bill, going hand-in-hand as crucial to the overall strategy of shutting people up).

I concluded long ago that entry to women’s spaces and rights, and to marginalize women entirely, is the goal of the trans lobby (but perhaps not individual trans people). I see that Kevin McKenna also thinks along those lines. It is not about safe spaces for trans women or helping trans people negotiate their way through society; it is all about ousting women from their sex-based spaces and rights. That is why the GRA reform and self-ID is so dangerous to women’s future despite what those who support the bill try to make everyone believe. I was accused of trying to ghetto-ize trans people, but women are ghetto-ized by choice because it is safer and more comfortable for them. Trans lobbyists never see the irony of their own ‘gaslighting’ of women. You have to query why they renounce their own safe spaces and support organizations in favour of women’s.

Just reading the bill will show that the inevitable repercussions of it must be a complete and total eradication of women-only spaces and the colonizing of them by trans women. It won’t work with trans men because they are not so keen on accessing all men’s spaces and rights because they are simply not so strong or, historically, have posed any threat to men. No, this is misogyny pure and simple, no matter how some might perceive it. The end result cannot be other than to displace women entirely. The daft women who think they are fighting for equal rights for trans people are equally deaf to Cassandra’s bullseye warning: do not pull that feckin wooden horse into the city.

NorthBrit

Just watched that speech again – despite being pro-EU I thought it was portentous and embarrassing at the time.

The faux serious expression, overblown language (“I demand”, the people, people, people…), the cringe-making “chers collègues” etc.

If he’d got a proper spontaneous ovation the pan out would have shown it. The people around him tried to get one going but I think most of the parliament was too busy unclenching.

Kenny J

Snap with A. Smith and the Middle East. I think he should have changed his name to Smyth, much more memorable, and stylish, like him.

After 6 years she still considers herself a “migrant”. Just didnae come over in a dingy, but she has had a hard life. Like hell.

Ms McMahon’s father was Scottish, and her mother was German, but they had both grown up in South Africa, as did their daughter until the family moved to the Middle East when she was seven.

They relocated again, from Dubai to Dalgety Bay, in the summer of 2014, during the frenetic final weeks of the debate that was to determine Scotland’s future.

Ron Soak
wulls

In her Twittler bio she lists herself as convening several “young Scot” groups so it’s no stretch to assume she considers herself to be a young scot.
That means she can claim adulthood to the youth twitteratti while simultaneously claiming she is a child to adults.
That card can only be played for a limited time……

Frazerio

Come on Wings thickos, keep up. Your dictionary is out of date!!!
‘Hate’ doesnt mean dislike, abhor, detest, it just means mild disagreement.
‘Hate speech’ doesnt mean threatening speech expressing prejudice, it just means an alternative viewpoint to my own, slight or jocular disagreement with possible inclusion of sarcasm.
‘Words’ no longer means an element of speech or writing used to form a sentence, it means anything you want it to mean but not what anyone else means it to mean.
The upshot being ‘I’ am right about everything and ‘you’ (def; everyone else) is wrong and hateful. Simples!!!

CameronB Brodie

Lorna Campbell
At the risk of mansplaining, it is actually the ‘radical’ wing of feminism that is keeping feminist theory critical and relevant. “From radical black feminism to postfeminist hashtags: Re-claiming intersectionality”, might help clarify this.

link to search.proquest.com

“[…]an underlying aim was to contest the assumed ‘colour-blindness, neutrality and objectivity’ of the criminal justice system in the US (Nash, 2008: 2; Crenshaw, 1989). Besides its root in the legal field, the term ‘intersectionality’ mirrors debates brought about by radical black feminists in the previous decades and which centres on a critique of a western, white feminism that claims universal reach.

[…]as there is no unified approach to studying intersectionality empirically, there is a still unseized opportunity to experiment with and develop approaches that are suited to and fruitful for management and organization studies.[…]we invited fellow researchers to consider intersectionality from an ethical and political standpoint, connecting the individual-level embodiment on intersectionality to more collective projects of emancipation and inclusion.

[…]echoing the sociological principle known as the ‘Matthew effect’ (Merton, 1968; Rigney, 2010), that is the fact that certain individuals tend to experience cumulative privilege, researchers in organization studies could also pay more attention to the intersection of privileges so as to gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics of power and social-symbolic work, and how these are contingent to the sociohistorical context of intersections.

[…]given the long-deplored scarcity and underdevelopment of methodological tools to deploy intersectionality in empirical work (Marfelt, 2016), there is ample room for innovation and creativity.”

CameronB Brodie

If feminist theory wants to remain relevant and productive, it needs to respond to its’ colonisation by neo-liberal theory and practice (see genderwoowoo). So here’s a look at “Redoing feminism: digital activism, body politics, and neoliberalism”. As there’s more than a touch of neo-liberalism to the Scottish government’s approach to the law and legal practice.

link to sites.middlebury.edu

“This article investigates the renewed feminist politics that emerge from the interface of digital platforms and activism today, examining the role of digital media in affecting the particular ways that contemporary feminist protests make meaning and are understood transnationally, nationally, and locally. I consider the political investments of digital feminisms in the context of what Angela McRobbie has termed the “undoing of feminism” in neoliberal societies, where discourses of choice, empowerment, and individualism have made feminism seem both second nature and unnecessary.

Within this context, I describe a range of recent feminist protest actions that are in a sense redoing feminism for a neoliberal age. A key component of this redoing is the way recent protest actions play out central tensions within historical and contemporary feminist discourse; crucial here is the interrelationship between body politics experienced locally and feminist actions whose efficacy relies on their translocal and transnational articulation.

My discussion focuses on three case studies: SlutWalk Berlin, Peaches’ “Free Pussy Riot!” video, and the Twitter campaigns #Aufschrei and #YesAllWomen. My analysis ultimately calls attention to the precarity of digital feminisms, which reflect both the oppressive nature of neoliberalism and the possibilities it offers for new subjectivities and social formations.”

David R

Thankfully as an old, white, male I’m not allowed to vote for the SNP or Indy. Shame really, although having seen the state of our future leaders I wouldn’t even if I was allowed to.

Sarah

@ North Brit: Snap. The National raved about it at the time, if I remember correctly, saying the EU Parliament were thrilled by it. I didn’t see much signs of that.

And someone who has been at Party events with Smith says he stole her lines and put them into his speech and didn’t credit her! Says it all, really. So of course that “leave the lights on” no doubt came from someone else.

GRUNT

The irony is that after I retweeted the YSI post virtue signalling about trans rights and called it pathetic, I immediately had to block over 20 people after multiple YSI NEC members dogpiled me , including the convenor Cailyn.

Alf Baird

Cameron B Brodie and others highlight the influence of the “-lived- experience” or what we might terms ‘socialization’ of the types of people we tend to put into power, ie mainly the privileged middle class. Post-colonial literature tells us that ‘the pampered elites’ who muscle into running the National Party are seldom the real drivers of liberation; the downtrodden lower classes are the ones most passionate and in need of liberation, and in Scotland’s case this is clearly the Scots speaking working class who form the bedrock of the independence movement. Hence the National Party leadership is seldom in rhythm with the masses seeking independence.

As Fanon noted, the behaviour of the National Party elite: “is reminiscent of the members of a gang, who after every hold-up hide their share in the swag from the other members who are their accomplices and prudently start thinking about their retirement. Such behavior shows that more or less consciously the national bourgeoisie is playing to lose if the game goes on too long. They guess that the present situation will not last indefinitely but they intend to make the most of it. It is in these conditions that the (colonial) regime becomes harsher”.

We see a rather similar process playing out now within the National Party leadership and also what is soon coming up the road from our colonial masters. Unfortunately a mediocre National Party bourgeoisie “is good for nothing”, as reflected in the inertia of Scotland’s elected ‘nationalist’ majorities.

Confused

“lived experience” – I thought she was maybe obliquely referring to some other contrasting “traversal of the netherworlds on the astral plane” done via exploration of the chakras, ritual magic, or just taking some hallucinogens while listening to stevie nicks records and imagining yourself to be a gypsy-witch-priestess

– I object to word-mangling and contrived phraseology, like she was appropriating, unjustifiably, a “specialness” to her own existence, a depth of conscience-ness(!) not available to us, mere, mundanes

WhoRattledYourCage

I must admit, the idea of a young middle class woman who has clearly lived an easy life talking about her ‘lived hardship’ of life, or trying to vicariously hide under the banner of the hard lives of people who have actually LIVED hard lives…is pretty damned risible. Some young people want to be victims so badly it stinks. They should NEVER want to be victims! Then again, as the old American expression goes: “The bigger the trust fund, the smellier the hippy.”

CameronB Brodie

re. “lived experience”. It’s not that contrived really, as it is quite a plain and natural alternative to “embodiment”. Which is kind of fundamental to us all.

re. ‘our’ privileged bourgeoisie. These are not the drivers of social justice, though they like to think they are. So here’s a look at “Borders, Embodiment, and Mobility: Feminist Migration Studies in Geography”.

link to onlinelibrary.wiley.com

“Feminist migration research has provided critical interventions into conceptualiza-tions of the spaces and subjects at the center of migration studies. The growing feminist literature on migration examines the construction, persistence, and reor-ganization of relations of gender and difference as they shape unequal geographies of mobility and displacement.

This chapter traces these core concerns in feminist migration studies through examples drawn from recent work in the subfield. Migration is a socially embedded process, such that it reflects and reinforces social organization along the lines of gender, race, class, nation, sexuality, caste, and religion, among other differences (for reviews, see Kofman et al., 2000; Willis andYeoh, 2000).

As such, spatial mobility is more adequately conceived not as an epiphenomenon, nor primarily in terms of structural causes or consequences, but rather as interconnected in its meaning and operation to changes in the economic and cultural landscapes of which it is a constitutive part. For analyses of gender and difference, the social embeddedness of migration means that mobility is organized and ascribed with meanings in and through existing hierarchies and spatialities of power, rather than as a result of them (Lawson, 1999)….”

Confused

nice one earlier, mr cage-rattler

“coquettish selfie-snapping glamgirl international diplomat”

and yup, it’s all over instagram (- THEY ALL HAVE AN INSTAGRAM!); instagram is a big tell.

Cailyn’s bezzie mate (on twitter) appears to be another young woman (she also has instagram) who claims to be “autistic”.

Hmm. I think, these days, to be taken seriously, you need to have an angle, “a gimmick”.

susanXX

She’s full of shit. This is what Scottish politics needs cleared of.

Mac

These folk really are the definition of Crybullies.

When they think they can get away with it they are full on bullying people in the most disgraceful manner.

Then as soon they get challenged for it they instantly snap into full on victim mode AS IF NOTHING HAD JUST HAPPENED.

Now we all just witnessed the bullying> So do they somehow think they can now convince us that suddenly they are the victims in it all.

Either they are just playing to the gallery knowing it is barefaced hypocrisy but cynically doing it anyway. Or they actually believe their own press releases, in which case they are borderline nuts.

Whatever the truth of it I am very tired of listening to the endless crap that they spout. Somebody said it already, the person who has empowered all of these woke bams is NS. She has been effectively ‘green lighting’ all of this.

[…] approach closer to the second tweet above, with a few subtle digs slipped in, but as we noted yesterday the egos of the SNP’s transgender cult are so huge and so battered by the outcome of the election […]


  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a (mainly) Scottish political media digest and monitor, which also offers its own commentary. (More)

    Stats: 6,678 Posts, 1,204,976 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • Hatey McHateface on The Wage Thief: ““NATO is finished” Aye, Geri, nane o the weapons work, and the F16’s can’t even get aff the groond. But…Dec 12, 20:52
    • Hatey McHateface on The Wage Thief: ““Western democracy is all but dead” Sure, Ros. That’s how Labour just turfed out the Tories after 14 years. That’s…Dec 12, 20:34
    • znovak on The Wage Thief: “Thanks 🙂Dec 12, 20:31
    • Hugh Wallace on Keeping the fire burning: “On the basis that some of your subscribers have dropped off I am increasing my donation via PayPal. Whatever I…Dec 12, 20:29
    • gregor on The Wage Thief: “BBC: Nato must switch to a wartime mindset, warns secretary general: https://tinyurl.com/56yw9dv9 Sky News: Time to ‘think the unthinkable’ and…Dec 12, 19:54
    • Hatey McHateface on The Wage Thief: “Of course FIFA represents something like 200+ sovereign nations. Heck, even Scotland is in. Probably not scotland though, eh Ros?…Dec 12, 19:51
    • Carol Neill on Keeping the fire burning: “Thanks for that , would hate to have to join twatter to continue my paltry sumDec 12, 19:49
    • Hatey McHateface on The Wage Thief: ““have no doubt that trying to mess around with Wings is the Order of the Day” Really sarah? You have…Dec 12, 19:39
    • Hatey McHateface on The Wage Thief: “Fit happened to your shriveled, wee pair, twathater? Did they never drop, or did your missus take her nail scissors…Dec 12, 19:30
    • Robert Hughes on The Wage Thief: “What ” UK Covid Inquiry ” ? The one that seems to have evaporated . ( yet , somehow ,…Dec 12, 19:23
    • Vestas on Keeping the fire burning: “I’ve asked a couple of times via the contact form* and had no reply – is the only way to…Dec 12, 19:01
    • twathater on The Wage Thief: “I don’t know if anybody else watches it but there is a programme on Netflix called the diplomat that looks…Dec 12, 18:18
    • twathater on The Wage Thief: “The brit state once again protecting their asset sturgeon , just in case calderwood goes off script and exposes the…Dec 12, 18:05
    • Mark Beggan on Keeping the fire burning: “Become a lesbian and the Scottish government will through cash at you.Dec 12, 18:02
    • twathater on The Wage Thief: “Yes a very successful takeover of the world by those you cannot comment onDec 12, 17:58
    • Jay on Keeping the fire burning: “Thank you, Sven, and to Rev Stu. Have used paypal, sorry only v small contribution per month. I learn a…Dec 12, 17:51
    • Mark Beggan on Keeping the fire burning: “This post was brought to you by the guys who really care and share.Dec 12, 17:19
    • Republicofscotland on The Wage Thief: “The n–a-tt-o coup on Romania that can and will happen anywhere – Western democracy is all but dead – and…Dec 12, 15:29
    • Republicofscotland on The Wage Thief: “What a mad, mad world we live in – as the Orange One (Trump) is named Time Magazine’s Person of…Dec 12, 15:07
    • Geoff Anderson on Keeping the fire burning: “I will do a deal with you. I already support you through the old system but you have me blocked…Dec 12, 14:38
    • Sven on Keeping the fire burning: “If you press the “Donate” in the list of headings at the top of the page you can give one…Dec 12, 14:15
    • Robert Hughes on Keeping the fire burning: “My income fluctuates wildly , Stu – I work outdoors and the weather , eg currently , often affects my…Dec 12, 14:12
    • gregor on The Wage Thief: “I love Dulux dogs too (who doesn’t). #DuluxDogLoveForeverDec 12, 14:09
    • gregor on The Wage Thief: “Elon Musk: “Puberty blockers are a horrific crime against children and those who push them are criminals.”: https://tinyurl.com/ysmx35rt Pink News:…Dec 12, 14:03
    • Rev. Stuart Campbell on Keeping the fire burning: “https://wingsoverscotland.com/donate/Dec 12, 13:47
    • Jay on Keeping the fire burning: “I am nearly antedeluvian.What other methods exist for donations, either single payment or recurring?Dec 12, 13:46
    • Rev. Stuart Campbell on Keeping the fire burning: “No, if you’re already donating there’s no merit in going to the hassle of switching. And thanks 🙂Dec 12, 13:37
    • Rev. Stuart Campbell on Keeping the fire burning: “No, all current subs will continue, no need to change anything. And thanks 🙂Dec 12, 13:36
    • Robert Hughes on The Wage Thief: “Yes , I worked-out that was what you meant . Not bad japery there . Pity everything else you write…Dec 12, 13:36
    • znovak on The Wage Thief: “I thought that Zzzzzzzzzz was your true name. My bad.Dec 12, 13:22
  • A tall tale



↑ Top
325
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x