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Queen Of The Mushroom Kingdom

Posted on April 23, 2021 by

It really is deeply dispiriting the see the level of utter burning contempt in which Nicola Sturgeon holds the independence movement, if this is the sort of ludicrously insulting garbage she thinks it’ll swallow.

Who told us it’s garbage? Nicola Sturgeon did.

Because when the First Minister made her infamous “Betrayer” speech 15 months ago – weeks before there was any serious suggestion of COVID-19 in the UK – she already knew a 2020 referendum was a complete practical impossibility.

Let’s look at what she said that day.

Not a single one of the steps above has actually been taken. But what if they had?

(1) THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION TESTING THE QUESTION

There’s actually no reason this couldn’t have happened. The Electoral Commission has no role to play in fighting the coronavirus, so it could perfectly well have carried on with revising the prospective indyref question if it had been asked to.

At its meeting in mid-March 2020 it in fact said it couldn’t have done so, because of the difficulty of organising focus groups during the pandemic – which was by that point in its very early stages – but this is a nonsense. Focus groups generally encompass a couple of dozen people at most, and far larger gatherings than that have taken place digitally during lockdown via platforms like Zoom, including party conferences with attendances in thousands.

But that became a moot point just days later, when the Scottish Government asked the Commission NOT to go ahead with its review.

But even if it hadn’t, we already know the sort of timescale that would have been involved because the Electoral Commission had told the Scottish Parliament in August 2019 that a minimum of a year would be required between it being asked to test the question and any referendum taking place – 12 weeks to test the question, then six more months before the start of the regulated referendum period, which is a minimum of another three months.

(In the 2014 referendum it ran from 30 May to 18 September.)

So we know for a fact that when Nicola Sturgeon asked the EC in February 2020 to retest the question, she was eliminating any possibility of a referendum that year, because even without COVID that one process alone would have bumped the date into the spring of 2021 at the absolute minimum.

And of course, realistically it would have been far longer than that, because she didn’t, and still doesn’t, have a Section 30 order from the UK government permitting the referendum to happen at all – something she made clear in the “Betrayer” speech was a necessity.

But of course she was supposedly hoping to achieve that with her genius second move.

(2) SETTING UP A NEW CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION

The first Scottish Constitutional Convention took six and a half years from its first meeting in March 1989 to its final report in November 1995. (It would be another year and a half before it actually delivered the devolution referendum.) It’s extremely silly to imagine that a second one could have been completed in under (say) six months, even if it had been running in parallel with the Electoral Commission’s testing of the question and the EC’s 12-month timetable had been able to have been shortened in some way.

And you can’t take longer than six months because it’s a criminally reckless idea to suggest holding a referendum in Scotland in November or December, because you’re making the country’s most important decision for 300 years a hostage to the winter weather. So with a three-month mandatory minimum campaign period, realistically the very latest date you can possibly instigate the referendum in any given year is mid-July.

(All of this assumes, incidentally, that such a convention would have had Unionist participation, without which it would have had no credibility. Which is a very big assumption, to somewhat understate it.)

So that would have taken us into autumn of 2020, which added to the three-month minimum campaign period again would have made a 2020 referendum simply arithmetically impossible.

(3) PUBLISHING A SERIES OF PAPERS

We know, of course, that these papers were imaginary in January 2020, and are still imaginary now. The SNP had had absolutely nobody working on the case for independence for several years.

In September 2019 they set up a short-lived seven-person team to finally do some work on the case, but it was disbanded six months later having produced nothing. We can only speculate as to how long it would have taken to deliver “a series of papers” if it hadn’t been abandoned due to COVID, but again it seems fanciful – at the very least – to imagine any significant body of work arriving before the end of 2020.

(4) DOUBLING CAMPAIGN SPENDING

What campaign? But also, LOLZ.

So for at least four entirely separate reasons – any single one of which was wholly compelling in its own right – Nicola Sturgeon knew full well in January 2020 that there was absolutely no chance of a second independence referendum happening in 2020.

It was a fairly substantial insult to the intelligence to claim otherwise at the time. (Indeed, it provoked Wings to take a three-month holiday in disgust, even though we could have used the speech to pretend everything was fine, keep feeding the faithful what they wanted to hear and run our usual annual fundraiser.)

To attempt to sell the same pup in hindsight now, when all these facts are clear and obvious to everyone, easily crosses the line into absolute contempt.

Readers, you are being taken for fools.

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127 to “Queen Of The Mushroom Kingdom”

  1. Margaret Lindsay
    Ignored
    says:

    I have no words to describe my contempt for her.

  2. MacLam
    Ignored
    says:

    Oh what a tangled web you weave,
    when first you practice to deceive.
    Massive nest of giant spiders in Holyrood.

  3. AnneDon
    Ignored
    says:

    That speech knocked the wind out of me in a way no unionist ever managed. That was the day I lost faith in her.

    Then in February 2020, Angus Robertson was using his column in the National to tell party activists it was “only 67 weeks” until the Holyrood elections, and they should get out canvassing. There was no intention of holding the #indyref2020 they had campaigned on during the General Election in December 2019.

    I know 3 members of a local SNP branch who left the party specifically because of that speech – and these were long-term members and activists.

    And donations to the Scottish Independence Foundation stopped like a tap being turned off that day.

    I think we can also link that to the fact that no SNP Spring Conference was planned for last year. Other political parties had to cancel theirs because of Covid – the SNP hadn’t even organised one.

    Afraid to face their own members, as they have been ever since.

  4. aulbea1
    Ignored
    says:

    The mushroom nation, right enough!

  5. Desimond
    Ignored
    says:

    The return of Ever Decreasing Circles….or more like Only Fools and Horses…”just one more period of government Rodders…”

  6. Stuart MacKay
    Ignored
    says:

    Well, given the grim circumstances in India right now covid is going exactly nowhere so a referendum has a strong chance of not happening at all in the next parliament.

  7. Davy Smith
    Ignored
    says:

    I suspect she knew something the rest of us didn’t.
    Her admiration for the likes of Clinton, Kissinger, Legarde and Gates betrays much about the kind of person she is…

  8. Davy Smith
    Ignored
    says:

    @Stuart. Well, there’s a reason it’s being hyped up in the British media.
    And it’s not out of concern for public health.

  9. susanXX
    Ignored
    says:

    The indy staff were probably redeployed on the genderwoowoo site.

  10. susanXX
    Ignored
    says:

    Shite even! Damn autocorrect.

  11. Wee Willie
    Ignored
    says:

    She’s probably celebrating St George’s Day today. After all she is doing a great job keeping us in the Union.

  12. Matt Seattle
    Ignored
    says:

    The expression “Toom Tabard” springs to mind.

  13. Breastplate
    Ignored
    says:

    I would like to believe in 5 years time we won’t be listening to the SNP promising to hold a referendum after the 2026 Holyrood election.
    Unfortunately, the SNP know they can fool some of the people all of the time.

  14. katherine hamilton
    Ignored
    says:

    Keith Brown I think it was said recently there could be no referendum “until the pandemic is over”. I said at the time it won’t be over till the WHO declares it over. Only they can do so as it is only they who declare pandemics.

    This is all bullshit. In the real world it won’t be “over” till the world is jagged. Then it will be endemic ie permanent, like flu. Using Covid as a delaying tactic is perfect. The WHO won’t declare it over because the white world is vaccinated. Moving to any sense of “normality” will be a political decision in each country. That is when Nicola decides! Luvvly Jubbly!

  15. robertknight
    Ignored
    says:

    Is being a pathological liar a known side effect of imposter syndrome?

  16. Craig
    Ignored
    says:

    I’ve given any hope of seeing independence in my lifetime and i am only 48, with the way politics is happening right now, there will be so much damage done to the SNP for it’s “Gender” polices that voters will simply turn away and till someone, like Alex Salmond puts their head above the parapet and get the SNP back on track for what it’s meant to do.

    I simply can’t see it happening and a big FUCK YOU to all those Sturgeonites that fail to open their eyes,

    One of my best days was meeting Nicola and now I have nothing but sheer contempt for her, she has destroyed everyone’s hopes for an independent Scotland, free from Westminster rule.

    One can only hope that the ALBA party can grow in strength in 10 years and be big enough to take on the main parties and lead Scotland to it’s rightful place as an independent nation once again.

  17. KiwiScot
    Ignored
    says:

    Hi there, I,m afraid you are just going to have to accept that there will never be another referendum under the control of the SNP. I have been watching this very closely since my return from NZ and had little prior knowledge of the people involved in the SNP. What is now clear to me is that The Murrels, Sturgeons, Harvies, Robertsons and a whole host of other “Ministers” are third rate individuals who would lose any coherent debate on any matters of national importance on economics, education, health services, the well being of society and a reasonable understanding of public service as distinct from “being in power”.

    In short, they would lose a referendum, would be out on their collective arses and laughed out of Scotland.

    So they have no intention of having one. Ever.

  18. MrRocknRoll
    Ignored
    says:

    The SNP won’t have ‘mushroom’ left to avoid the independence matter when Alba gets some seats in Holyrood. Sorry.

  19. Stuart MacKay
    Ignored
    says:

    Davy Smith

    I don’t think it’s being hyped. On the main tech site I hang out in there are plenty of folks posting from India. In general, the standard of the comments is very high so there’s no reason to doubt what people are saying.

    Basically the official figures are garbage and the situation is much, much worse. Crematoria are full and bodies are being cremated in the streets. The daily death toll is likely in 5 figures already (officially it was 2256 yesterday). You just need to look at gradient in the official figures to realise something is badly amiss.

    Here’s the source, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26886829

    Make of that what you will. The real problem is that the virus is sloshing around in a very large, dense population with very high transmission rates. Nothing good can come from that.

    So the covid emergency is likely far from over. The rollout of the vaccines will help at least in the rich parts of the world but there’s plenty of material available for more dithering and prevarication by the Mushroom Queen and her minions.

  20. John Jones
    Ignored
    says:

    Usually it’s when the bowels move that the shit comes out,
    With Nicla it’s the wee skinny lips.

  21. Baxter
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Stuart. Covid occurred at the right time for Sturgeon, she would have used Brexit or some other reason if Covid hadn’t reared it’s ugly head.

  22. Giesabrek
    Ignored
    says:

    Stuart MacKay says:
    23 April, 2021 at 11:33 am
    “Well, given the grim circumstances in India right now covid is going exactly nowhere so a referendum has a strong chance of not happening at all in the next parliament.”

    If we can’t hold a referendum due to Covid (even though most, if not all, of the population will be vaccinated by then) then how can we hold elections? They pose the same difficulties and risks so we must stop all elections until Covid is over!

  23. Mike
    Ignored
    says:

    Not me as I don’t believe a word Sturgeon says and will NEVER vote for the SNP so long as she, her husband and nutbag colleagues are running the party.

  24. Baxter
    Ignored
    says:

    Giesabrek, I’ve got a wee wager with a friend that the election will not go ahead on time. Not looking good for me winning the bet at this late date but a couple of others I’ve spoken too were expecting it to postponed as well. Would she do even at this late date it if she thought she could getaway with it, I suspect yes if she could manipulate the figures to show there was a massive spike in cases.

  25. Ian Brotherhood
    Ignored
    says:

    Powerful stuff from Craig Murray…

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2021/04/bypassing-the-road-block/

  26. Astonished
    Ignored
    says:

    More and more folk are understanding how complicit Sturgeon is in destroying the SNP. That is why she wont face the party or the public.

    Her MSPs, MPs and staffers are just as complicit. They will all be held to account . And to the fence-sitters, who think they aren’t responsible, who wont stand up to her – Albert Speer was sentenced to twenty years in prison.

    Her January 2020 speech was history making for all the wrong reasons.

    And all the (imaginary ?) new SNP members don’t seem keen on leafleting – do they ? I assume the SNP must be very close to running out of money. Then it will all come out.

    The independence movement will never die but it will never progress with sturgeon and the wokeratti at the helm.

  27. Dave Beveridge
    Ignored
    says:

    MrRocknRoll @ 12:02 pm

    The SNP won’t have ‘mushroom’ left to avoid the independence matter when Alba gets some seats in Holyrood. Sorry.

    ***

    You’re a real “fun guy”.

    As for Sturgeon, she was on the Covid excuse faster than a retiring Labour MP jumps on an ermine jacket. She’s a fraud, pure and simple. This is it for her this time though. She HAS to deliver. Surely even the most indoctrinated followers will see that?

  28. Alf Baird
    Ignored
    says:

    KiwiScot @ 11:58 am

    “there will never be another referendum under the control of the SNP.”

    Who needs a referendum when:

    “As a matter of law, a referendum is not a required part of the process of becoming independent” (McCorkindale and McHarg 2020).

    #Supermajority = negotiate independence

    SNP1/ALBA2

  29. Gordon
    Ignored
    says:

    And the SNP 1 Crowd want us to Vote her and her criminal pals back into power, so she can rinse and repeat for the next five years.

    Are you lot fuckin thick or what?

  30. Al-Stuart
    Ignored
    says:

    .
    Nicola Sturgeon will NEVER hold a referendum on Scottish Independence.

    Partly because of that fateful day we all finally realised she/her/it is a duplicitous, lying, thieving basg of political excrement…

    https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-betrayer/

    Sorry, those are the nicest things I could thing off as being an accurate description.

    The other reason is she will be out of office, and in Saughton HMP Edinburgh prison if she is re-elected First Minister in the next parliament.

    Tony Blair got away with murder, but he was part of the British Establishment.

    Mr and Mrs Murrell are stooges and useful idiots as far as the erstwhile Westminster and Gloucestershire ruling elite are concerned.

    Like Jeffrey Archer and so many other weak, greedy, selfish thieving political incontinence pads, Sturgeon is becoming an embarrassment. Not just known as such within political an anorak-land, but within the general population.

    The number 83 bus has it’s political wheels going round and round. That very bus with the wheels that go round and round, under which Nicola has dispatched so many of her political foes, now has her name on it.

    My only regret is that the Right Honourable Alex Salmond’s MSP will only have 12 to 18 months to spit roast Sturgeon at Holyrood FMQs before the new Chief Constable at Police Scotland grows a spine and sends in his or her version of Adrian Dunbar, Martin Compston, Vicky McClure and AC12 to the current ring of senior and corrupt officers neglecting their duty by protecting the thieving £600,000 Murrels.

    Enjoy your trappings of high political office Nicola. Soon enough they will turn into Trappings of Justice and you will have to endure the unhappiness of being locked up with dozens of young women at a female-only prison.

  31. Gordon
    Ignored
    says:

    Sturgeon is a lying, theiving, corrupt Bastard.

    Is this who the “SNP 1 crowd” want as our First Minister?

    Dear God, and here was me thinking it was just Sturgeon who had lost the plot.

    There is not a hope in hell of me voting for Sturgeon’s SNP.

    The most corrupt Political Party in the UK.

    We should be Voting then out of Office, NOT back in.

  32. Al-Stuart
    Ignored
    says:

    .
    Gordon at 12.47, please wind your neck in.

    It has been explained to 77th Brigade site disrupters like you by Alex Salmond, Stuart Campbell, Craig Murray and many with IQs twice as high as yours forensically why SNP (X) Constituency is required.

    Many of us have wrestled with our consciences on this and a few of us such as Andy Ellis and myself simply cannot bring ourselves to vote for the SNP under any circumstances.

    That does NOT mean anyone who supports Alba and follows the SNP1 vote is thick. Quite the opposite, they are sophisticated voters and most will have struggled with their conscience. All so that we can see Alex Salmond and Alba MSPs in Parliament.

    Gordon the gopher, you are the thicko. You are the Troll.

    Please Fuck off.

  33. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    We’re not one step closer to independence since Sturgeon became FM, Brexit was her best opportunity to get Scotland out of this unfit for purpose union, and what did she do, she ignored Scottish independence in favour of trying to save England from itself.

    Since 2016 she’s done nothing of any significance to push forward on the indyfront, but she hasn’t been shy on taking donations from Scots and supposedly ringfencing it for a indyref.

    Now Sturgeon has reiterated on a few occasions that an economic recovery from Covid will come first before any indyref. You can bet that the recovery will last the whole of her next tenure. But she’s fooling us again for there can be no economic return to the pre-Covid economy of Scotland, for Brexit has put paid to that.

    No the only way to grow our economy to pre-Covid levels and beyond is to leave this union, of which Scotland gives half its money to, and trade with other countries around the globe as an independent nations. As ALBAs Alex Salmond said joining EFTA would still give us access to the EU market (something we don’t currently have) but allow us to also trade with the rest of the UK and beyond.

    I can only hope that the Greens are greatly diminished in number come May 6th, and that the ALBA party obtains seats at Holyrood, leaving Sturgeon isolated, and that the ALBA party continually pushes Sturgeon on her gross failure to deliver independence.

  34. Lyn Hay
    Ignored
    says:

    Gordon.

    That’s not enough for your daily shilling – your paymaster will need more. We, however, need less and will simply skip past.

    Voting the Sturgeon Gang in is only step 1 – step 2 is putting the Sturgeon Gang in prison. Watch the Leslie Evans case for that.

    We need to vote SNP in the constituency so as to get Alba in on the list. It’s that simple.

  35. KiwiScot
    Ignored
    says:

    To Alf Baird..

    Sorry, but there has to be a vote. Or a civil war. You cant negotiate on what is effectively a 50/50 position.

  36. Paul McRae
    Ignored
    says:

    One is faced with an obvious conundrum: either she is incapable of progressing independence or has no interest in doing so. Discerning readers will know the reality

  37. Stuart MacKay
    Ignored
    says:

    Ian Brotherhood

    If you think things are bleak now, just wait until the Mushroom Queen announces her new cabinet on May 7th with Patrick Harvie as Minister for Independence.

  38. Tone
    Ignored
    says:

    There is no ‘union’, or a ‘state’ , or any putative political ‘nation’ such as Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland or England.

    There is, however a single Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, under one ‘united’ Crown.

    ‘Scotland’ is no more than a area of Great Britain; as much as say “The Midlands”

    So, the whole Indy movement is based on a lie: a farce that could well turn into a bloody civil war. Look across the water …..

    I suspect that this consideration is not lost on the majority of voters, either at the last referendum, and for this upcoming Holyrood election.

    See those Odds starting to move?

  39. Frazerio
    Ignored
    says:

    Craig Murray shared a little gem recently on his website. When asked about her intentions regarding how long she’d serve, Sturgeon hoped to serve the full term, the next 5 years as FM. The thought or prospect of independence happening in that time was not in any way a consideration.

    The only surprise now is the amount of people still willing to swallow the KoolAid. There is a loyalty which makes no sense. These people are standing for election. They state their aims and intentions. You can take or leave them at their word. Newer candidates are harder to judge, trust or vote for. Candidates who’ve been in office for a while are easier to judge. They have a past record. The current SNP have shown 2 things. Firstly, no matter how beneficial the circumstances nor how many mandates you give them, they are very unlikely to move on indy (forgive me Stu for being so generous to them here, we know they dont intend to budge at all). Secondly, they’ll use their ‘only option in town for indy’ position, to enact non manifesto stuff like the gender woowoo bollox.

    It was all looking so good until that Salmond chap ‘got off’. Now, the game is well and truly on. Hard lines Nicola you lying, conniving, underhand, dishonest charlatan. I will be giving you my constituency vote solely because it benefits the only party in Scotland GENUINELY pushing for independence.

    I lent my vote to the SNP when they were the best vehicle to achieve indy. Unless theres a drastic change, this year will be the last time they get anything from me.

  40. Mikey d
    Ignored
    says:

    They did’nt put brexit on hold till the pandemic is over.

  41. Breastplate
    Ignored
    says:

    Gordon,
    There is a study on delayed gratification known as the Stanford marshmallow experiment, it may best explain why you are acting like an impatient toddler with no concept of consequences.

  42. Shocked
    Ignored
    says:

    This whole article could be replaced with “Nicola Sturgeon is a liar, vote her out”

    I realise the Queen Nicola SNP1 disciples wouldn’t have liked it

    And by the way @AlStuart, you plainly are thick because Rev Stu himself said he didn’t think he could bring himself to vote SNP if he had a vote.. and further @kiwi Scot is right, your idiotic proposal is the quickest way to start a civil war that would make Northern Ireland look like a kids tea party. As was revealed yesterday the New SNP have been deliberately rigging polls to show higher YES/SNP support to manipulate the agenda and hide their utter incompetence and corruption, the real reason a ref has never been called is because they have known all along they would lose.

  43. Billy Russell
    Ignored
    says:

    I agree with Craig @11:57am.

    I’m 49 and I do not expect to see Scotland independent while TeamGB(North) remain in power at Holyrood.

    Our best hope is that ALBA get a foothold in this election and build on it. In the medium term that may well involve unionist control at Holyrood while ALBA challenge for constituency seats in the future.

    The worst possible outcome for Indy, women, LGB and children is for TeamGB(North) retaining power at Holyrood. I have dithered back and forth whether or not to give my first vote to the SNP and the best I can say for certain is a I won’t be voting for any of the other British parties and that is entirely thanks to Mr Salmond and ALBA.

  44. Gordon
    Ignored
    says:

    Breast plate

    What?????

    You are just Another “SNP 1ner”,

    Another thick as shit Sturgeon fanatic.

  45. Socrates MacSporran
    Ignored
    says:

    Al-Stuart @ 12.48

    To continue your Line of Duty theme:

    Mother of God! Now you’re sucking diesel Son.

  46. Breastplate
    Ignored
    says:

    IanB,
    It doesn’t seem to concern the SNP that nearly all independence blogs have openly lost faith in them and the only watering hole that the Nicolytes can drink their Koolaid has got an author who has gone AWOL.
    It’s only going to get worse for the SNP when the pubs reopen.

  47. Breastplate
    Ignored
    says:

    Yes Gordon, that’s me.

  48. Gordon
    Ignored
    says:

    Big Al the kiddies pal.

    Is that why you want Sturgeon the Psychopath voted back in to office, so you can hang about wee girl’s changing rooms.

    Why else would you vote SNP 1?

    So take a hike ya perv.

  49. Gordon
    Ignored
    says:

    My conscience will be clear on May 7th.

    I will not be Voting Surgeon and Harvie”s perverts back into office.

  50. Labour 4 Indy
    Ignored
    says:

    Well I know who I’ll be Voting for on 6th May.

    It will be my local Labour MSP on the Constituency Vote and ALBA for List.

    Let’s hope the Labour leader takes the seat from Sturgeon.

    Scotland is going know where with her at the wheel.

  51. Labour 4 Indy
    Ignored
    says:

    Or even, she’s going “No Where”.

  52. Wee Chid
    Ignored
    says:

    Gordon says:
    23 April, 2021 at 1:51 pm
    “My conscience will be clear on May 7th.

    I will not be Voting Surgeon and Harvie”s perverts back into office.”

    I didn’t know they had lowered the voting age to 12.

  53. Doug
    Ignored
    says:

    SNP[one last time]in the constituency. Alba in the List. Because Nicola Sturgeon will be very happy if there is no pro-indy majority after the May election. Five more years of pro-noun pontification. Anything but independence.

  54. Wee Chid
    Ignored
    says:

    OK, will someone please confirm – Is it another five years or another four – it was always four in the past.

  55. rob
    Ignored
    says:

    Wee Chid says:
    23 April, 2021 at 2:14 pm
    OK, will someone please confirm – Is it another five years or another four – it was always four in the past.

    This might throw some light on the subject

    https://consult.gov.scot/elections/electoral-reform/user_uploads/sct1217534962-1_electoral_p3-1.1.pdf

  56. Breastplate
    Ignored
    says:

    Wee Chid,
    You are correct, it’s every 4 years, I should have said 2025 in an earlier post.

  57. Breastplate
    Ignored
    says:

    I think the last term was 5 years because of a clash with the GE

  58. susanXX
    Ignored
    says:

    So many sad sacks. Scotland will reach independence, with or without the SNP.

  59. Al-Stuart
    Ignored
    says:

    .

    Gordon/Rock/AndyKcor and the rest of your cowardly aliases,

    Say that to my face you libellous cnut.

    I”ve put bigger, much harder men than you’ll ever be, behind bars and watched these 6 foot arseholes cry all the way from court to the Big Bar L, knowing they were about to be rogered and outed then resumed senseless by the Big Bull Bitch on the Barkinnie Blocjpk Block B.

    If your two brain cells had synapses that work and read anything other than crayons, you would have detected by the words in my last post that I AM NOT VOTING SNP1. But I am voting ALBA (X) List.

    You stupid, thick BritNat 77th Squaddie Twat.

    You don’t even have a vote up here. Away back to your 77th Barracks yay pathetic wee loser. You are a disgrace to that uniform HM Queen Elizabeth allowed you to dress up in.

    In fact, I reckon you are what the real British Army call a “Walter”.

  60. Breastplate
    Ignored
    says:

    Wee Chid,

    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
    (2)[F2The day on which the poll at an ordinary general election for membership of the Parliament is to be held is the first Thursday in May in the fifth] calendar year following that in which the previous ordinary general election was held, unless…

    It seems there was a change to the Scotland Act 1998, so it does appear to be at 5 year intervals now.

  61. Ian Brotherhood
    Ignored
    says:

    @Stuart McKay (1.19) and Breastplate (1.44) –

    If there’s one thing guaranteed to make the few remaining scales fall from certain eyes, it’s the prospect of Harvie becoming a minister.

    The fact of such a thing being possible is beyond the pale.

  62. Stuart
    Ignored
    says:

    OT but equally as sinister with whats happening the world over and not just Scotland Iran has been appointed as the Head of the UN Womans Rights commission (or some sort) by the ever trustworthy UN.

    Let that sink in whatever you think of their nuclear ambitions, relationship with Israel or whoever. Woman of the world be afraid be very afraid!

  63. Cenchos
    Ignored
    says:

    Iain Brotherhood 2.40pm.

    Gawd.

    What a thought.

    That won’t fully impact until 3.30 am.

  64. John D
    Ignored
    says:

    Al -Stuart.
    You made me laugh a couple of times today . Slanj !
    Happy Saint George day to all. Never quite understood the England/English connection of the guy and it was news to me that the late Duke had such a ‘thing’ for the Saint at Windsor. Though it seems he got well into the History of England.

  65. Dan
    Ignored
    says:

    Looks like a long wait till final results of all Constituencies and Regions will be known.

    https://twitter.com/BallotBoxScot/status/1385558483123249153

  66. SilverDarling
    Ignored
    says:

    Apparently, we are all hostage to the delicate feelings of the soft yes and no voters. We must not upset these poor snowflakes and question Ms.Sturgeon on messy details like when and how we will achieve our independence.

    Bloggers and Alex Salmond have made them leave the comfortable place that NS had constructed whereby independence is desirable but is not going to bother them any time soon. They have all run away now that independence might be a reality.

    Also, all the polls that the SNP have been crowing about – they were all wrong too. No one wants independence now that Alex Salmond is back. Everything is his fault, everything, screams Nicola, EVERYTHING!

  67. Dan
    Ignored
    says:

    One presumes Baffieman will be rather malcontent what with the creation of this new Indy Blogger site…

    https://www.denisefindlay.org/post/all-we-have-lost

  68. Arch Stanton
    Ignored
    says:

    Is it really a recent revelation to anyone that Nicola Sturgeon is a serial liar?

  69. Labour 4 Indy
    Ignored
    says:

    Big Al the Kiddies pal,, Chief SNP 1ner.

    Did I touch a nerve?

    And here was you trying to keep it a secret.

    Lock up your daughters Mrs, Big Al’s in toon.

    Another keyboard warrior who gives it out big time, then runs to hold onto the Rev’s apron.

    Now I’ll ask you again, stop annoying me.

  70. Labour 4 Indy
    Ignored
    says:

    Your a bit of a bully Al Stuart

    Is that you after me as well now lol

    Chancer

  71. Labour 4 Indy
    Ignored
    says:

    Knees are trembling big Al

  72. Dan Hardy
    Ignored
    says:

    So if 7 members of staff were redeployed to other duties – where has the £600k gone if they admit no one was actually working on indyref2???

  73. Breeks
    Ignored
    says:

    Don’t be too hasty to write off ALBA. Keep the heads down and keep plugging away.

    Yes, the media blackout isn’t helping, but on the up side, don’t forget the despondency people were feeling before ALBA even existed. ALBA went out to a deeply appreciative reception, and bar a few tech glitches at first, it hasn’t really put a foot wrong.

    Before ALBA there were a lot of angry and disgruntled people, and apart from WGD, I would say the blogosphere was increasingly exasperated with the SNP, and it’s only really on Twitter and a small number of BTL diehards that you’d find any actual support for Sturgeon. A small number of people can make a lot of noise on Twitter.

    My point is, maybe we’re misreading the signals. Yes, maybe the support of the voting public is a bit slow, (who is actually saying that?), but look at the calibre of people moving to ALBA, look at their staunch pro- Indy credentials. ALBA has cut right to the chase with it’s manifesto, and you could tell that people were having their spirits lifted the moment ALBA came onto the scene.

    It’s early days for ALBA, and ALBA could yet do very well. Let’s also wait and see what that man Salmond still has up his sleeve.

    But however the Election falls in May, I firmly believe that the SNP will come to regret snubbing ALBA. That was a very bad call to make. A YES on YES attack won’t be forgotten and it will haunt the SNP and hurt them more than when the red and blue Tories coming together as Better Together. A supermajority was, and is, a credible possibility. And IF Sturgeon has wrecked it’s chances, I don’t see how the SNP can market themselves at all with the real Independence community. The SNP will be spent and in big trouble.

    So keep pushing SNP1 ALBA2, and play to the whistle. Remember these people are Yessers.

    ALBA is the 2021 living embodiment of YES. I don’t care what the polls say, because even if they’re right, it still isn’t ALBA who’s ordering drinks in the Last Chance Saloon.

  74. PaulaJ
    Ignored
    says:

    I’ve asked on here a few times, because I do find it troubling:
    Why, if the entire SNP (top cabal and the invertebrates below) isn’t talking indy, does anyone feel certain that they wouldn’t just argue and prevaricate their way through another 5 years, supermajority or no?
    They’re ensconced, brazen and answerable to no-one.
    I understand that they’d rather not have ALBA or other true indy MSPs asking them uncomfortable questions, but if they’re in the driving seat, won’t they just continue with the genderwoo and hate speech stuff?
    I’d love to know why others feel so certain that SNP 1, ALBA 2 would yield anything positive, given the SNP behaviour over the last couple of years.
    It’s hard to keep feeling hopeful in the circumstances.

  75. Mia
    Ignored
    says:

    “Readers, you are being taken for fools”

    We have been taken for fools by this political fraud and those controlling her strings since at least 8th May 2015. That was the first point in Scotland’s history within this political union where the people of Scotland sent a supermajority of nationalist MPs to Westminster. That was the point in time when this fraud had control over both, the majority of the seats in Holyrood and a huge supermajority of Scotland’s seats in Westminster. At that point, the percentage of the yes vote was over 50%. That is the point in time when the union should have ended, because you cannot legitimise a UK government or UK parliament if the majority of the Scottish MPs refuse to. That was the time a real pro indy leader would have stroked while the iron was hot. And yet, what did this betrayer do?

    To use our pro indy votes to continue legitimising the union and every insult the England MPs had in store for Scotland. She normalised in our minds the idea that a presence of a supermajority of SNP MPs in Westminster and a majority of means absolutely nothing and that is totally unforgivable.

    And what is the consequence of that?

    The consequence of that is that this political fraud has set up a precedent for totally locking what should have been the main democratic route that Scotland should have used for independence. The UK is a parliamentary democracy. Even Thatcher and Major accepted that a majority of SNP MPs was a mandate to end the union. This political fraud, by forcing Scotland to remain put enduring all sort of constitutional insults from England MPs, when at all times we have have a majority of nationalist MPs has effectively locked that door.
    And it was not the only door she has locked.

    Everything this woman has done, every step she has taken, every word she has spouted has been to push independence further away from us and to make it more difficult for us. In fact from where I am standing she has been closing almost every single door open to Scotland to end this union leaving only door open: the door of a referendum controlled by Westminster and subjected to a permanent Westminster veto, presumably until they move to change the constitution forcing Scotland to remain forever in the union.

    There is no situation where her actions can ever be justified or excused unless she is a tool of the British state that has been betraying us and working relentlessly for 6 years against Scotland’s interests.

  76. Dave Beveridge
    Ignored
    says:

    PaulaJ @ 3:36 pm

    They WILL “just argue and prevaricate their way through another 5 years, supermajority or no”. The difference is they’ll be doing it for the very last time as even the most brainwashed disciples will be able to see it staring them right in the face, and with Alba in Holyrood, we won’t have to completely rebuild from the ground up on the outside.

    We’re now playing the long game, as frustrating as that is. I don’t like it any more than anyone else does when I think of all the opportunities squandered, but unfortunately that is where Sturgeon’s brought us to.

    Things are not ideal, but I’d rather be where we are now than where we were even just a few short weeks ago when there was absolutely NO hope.

  77. David Caledonia
    Ignored
    says:

    The SNP will win the election no matter how certain people vote, that is a certainty, so they will be in power for the next few years.
    Do people want Alba to have some representation and do something to keep them in check, or do they want the unionists to be unfairly represented due to Tony Blairs skullduggery in trying to load the dice in our elections
    A certain guy was hung drawn and quartered many years ago for treason, he did not commit treason, but the imperialists murdered him anyway, the imperialists are still around, now they have two big airvraft carriers to play with, they just sent one to the china seas, a place I am familiar with, lets hope Mr Putin keeps laughing and does not do a Wurzel Gummidge and put on his angry head

  78. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    “I’d love to know why others feel so certain that SNP 1, ALBA 2 would yield anything positive, given the SNP behaviour over the last couple of years.”

    PaulaJ.

    Indeed its unlikely that the SNP/Scottish government will suddenly feel the urge to go for indy instead of the very unpopular genderwoowoo policies that they intend to force upon us.

    However I think Alex Salmond by asking us to vote SNP1 and ALBA2 to create a parliament with a pro-indy majority leaves the SNP open to criticism as to why if the majority is obtained they haven’t moved forward on pushing for independence.

    These question would come from the ALBA party candidates, and certainly not the SNP governments enablers on horrid genderwoowoo policies, the Greens, who aren’t interested in independence, they’re obsessed with gender issues.

    Of course Sturgeon can just placate the ALBA party’s questions with Oh the economy must come first, or we need an S30, however many more folk will come to realise that Sturgeon isn’t the saviour they first thought she was on independence. In effect it would show the that Sturgeon isn’t going to hold an indyref and hopefully those SNP MSPs that do want indy might jump ship after they’ve been elected.

    Also by voting SNP1 and ALBA2, besides the indy majority, it helps remove the Greens who enable the SNP government (by majority in the chamber) to push through gender policies that most folk don’t want. Removing the Greens is a priority, it was the Greens that allowed Swinney to beat a VONC twice.

  79. winifred mccartney
    Ignored
    says:

    I could not vote for Sarwar either – remember at the last labour leadership election Sarwar was found not to be paying his warehouse workers minimum wage – I don’t know how much that has changed but his solution was to put the shares he holds into his childrens names. Neat but not moral. Millionaire labour leaders are not more socialist than DRoss.

  80. Grouser
    Ignored
    says:

    Craig at 11.57 and Billy Russell at 1.31. Now you youngsters, do not give up hope. I am 73 and hope to be putting leaflets through doors and arguing with unionists at street stalls in the next Independence Referendum.
    I agree that Nicola Sturgeon, our MSPs and MPs are a disgrace – she for what she has done to the SNP and the Independence movement and they for allowing her to do it without protest. However, I have some hope of improvement with Alba. (It has already done more in a few weeks than the SNP has done in years – calling out the BBC for its bias and allowing us to hope for better in the coming months.)
    If I don’t see the next referendum I will do my best to come back and haunt Nicola Sturgeon.

  81. Al-Stuart
    Ignored
    says:

    .
    Pretendy-Labour-Not-4-Indy,

    Yer rumbled Rock/KcoR/Fungus and the dissapearing Andy.

    Jeezo, Stuart Campbell has the patience of a Saint dealing with ex-Colchester Barrack scum and rejects like you.

    Your time is up. You’ve been nailed as a definite Troll.

    As for me?

    Andy/Krap/Coward/OldYella/77ther,

    Here is what Confused said about you and your pathetic psyops 77th Brigade…

    ———————————————————————–

    — PLEASE QUOTE THIS OFTEN TO SAVE YOUR TIME FROM TROLL TWATS —

    Confused says:
    18 April, 2021 at 3:25 pm

    Remember folks, trolls also win when they waste your time.

    – their posts, often too many, of no substance, will “slide” good posts way upthread, where people will miss them

    – new handle, lots of posting; reasonable at first, then arsey later on – diverting the discourse

    – always asking questions that – have been answered many times, can be looked up, and when they get an answer, they go on to something else, or makeup bullshit hypotheticals

    – if the Isle of Wight goes independent after the breakup of the UK, getting rich by charging transit fees for Le Manche.

    —–

  82. StuartM
    Ignored
    says:

    Sturgeon seems to think that she’ll serve as First Minister for the next 5 years – I reckon her demise will be a lot sooner than that even if she is returned at the election. Every indication is that the Party is in deep financial trouble. If they haven’t already gone into debt during 2020 to fund their day-to-day running expenses, then they most certainly have done so to fund their election campaign.

    The SNP’s dire financial state will become apparent when the accounts are published – you can bet that Murrell will delay that as long as possible but eventually even a body as lackadaisical as the Electoral Commission will insist on it. It wouldn’t surprise me if the auditor issues what’s known as a “going concern” qualification in his Report. This is when there is a risk of insolvency and the assets would not realise their book value in the event of liquidation. And with rapidly falling membership and revenues bankruptcy and liquidation is a real prospect for the SNP. Expect that the excrement will hit the fan at that point. Remember that as members of the SNP you have guaranteed the SNP’s debts and that just because you have resigned doesn’t mean you aren’t liable. Once that becomes clear to the SNP membership I doubt that Sturgeon & Murrell will survive.

    I’m astonished at the lax attitude of the Electoral Commission towards the financial reporting of political parties. I looked at the EC website a few hours ago and the last reporting of donations and loans to political parties was for the quarter ended 30th September 2020 – 6 months ago!!! The reporting of financial affairs was even worse, the EC didn’t report the annual accounts for the year ending 31/12/2019 until October 2020, nearly 10 months after the fact and with only 2 and a bit months left to run for the 2020 year. And as far as I can see the SNP has not disclosed it’s financial statements to it’s members in any shape or form. There’s no link to the Annual Report and Financial Statements on the SNP website for example. If you want to see those you need to download them from the EC website. You’d almost think the SNP leadership had something to hide (hint: they do) and didn’t want the membership to find out.

    It would be perfectly feasible for the EC to require parties to declare donations and loans on a monthly basis within say 2 weeks of month’s end. If Mega Corporation is bribing a party with large donations we need to know NOW not 6 months from now. As for annual accounts there’s no excuse for not presenting those TO THE MEMBERS OF THE PARTY within 3 months of year end. Forget the SNP’s lies that they have to wait for the EC to publish, the SNP’s primary responsibility is to its members and only secondarily to the EC. It’s the members who provide the Party’s money and who jointly and individually are guaranteeing it’s debts. They need to know what’s being done with their money.

  83. Ian Brotherhood
    Ignored
    says:

    When can we expect to hear anything about the OFCOM meeting as detailed on the previous thread?

  84. Mia
    Ignored
    says:

    “I’d love to know why others feel so certain that SNP 1, ALBA 2 would yield anything positive”

    Because it is the only route available to us today to yield the only positive and the only way independence remains a possibility:

    1. Because it is the only way to put in Holyrood a sizeable pro independence opposition to Sturgeon’s decaffeinated SNP. Alba is currently the only real opposition to Sturgeon’s SnP. The greens are only on it for what they can get and seeking to be the tail that wags the dog. The colonialist parties are in Holyrood for just one thing: to preserve the union and to protect the interests of England in Scotland. They will never amount to a real opposition in any other matters principally because any errors made by the SNP will give them a stick to beat them with and better chance to get rebound voters.

    2. Because while here in Scotland we may see Sturgeon’s SNP as closeted unionists or spineless amoebas, outwith Scotland they are still seen as pro independence seats. A supermajority of indy seats will be seen as a democratic mandate for independence no matter what Johnson, his tool Sturgeon and the opportunistic tool Harvie, say.

    3. Because there is nothing better to replace the SNP with in the constituencies. From a pro independence perspective, you cannot say that putting a unionist tool like Sarwar who will use your vote against you, is any better than putting Sturgeon, which finished as she is, will not last the year.

    4. Because ALBA is the only political party in Scotland today campaigning for womens’ rights. The only one. Sarwar didn’t even have the backbone to oppose the hate bill.

    5. Because after taking us for fools for 6 years and squandering millions in attempting to stop Mr Salmond returning to politics, this political fraud does not deserve the easy way out. I want to see her beaten at her own game, humiliated in Holyrood by a real leader, outmanoeuvred by a far better and more capable tactician, shut up by a far more resourceful and eloquent speaker and I want to see her embarrassed when her closeted unionist credentials are exposed for all to see and ridiculised by a serious pro independence activist.

    After 6 years of having this political fraud squandering our time, majorities, our mandates and using our pro indy votes to progress the most politically toxic policies one could think of and to preserve a union she should have ended, we need ALBA to get in Holyrood and kick this faux feminist’s arse (metaphorically speaking) every day until she capitulates and resigns in disgrace.

  85. StuartM
    Ignored
    says:

    Reposting from the last thread:

    StuartM says: and
    22 April, 2021 at 11:59 pm
    @ Andy Ellis

    “I live in Edinburgh Central. I will not vote for Angus Robertson under any circumstances. I’ll vote for Bonnie Prince Bob because I’d love to see him gain enough votes to deprive carpetbagger Robertson.

    (Snip) ………

    The political decapitation of the SNP by voting out e.g. Sturgeon, Swinney, McKelvie and stopping Robertson would be a good thing.”

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

    On the morning after the election would you regret the decision to vote for BPB if Robertson just scrapes in? Better to hold your nose and vote for whatever candidate has the best chance to defeat Robertson – I think that’s the Tories in EC? Anyway AFAICS BPB is just another chancer interested only in the pay and perks like Graeme Campbell.

    I strongly object to your last sentence – you left out Humza & Shirley Anne Sommerville! I haven’t run the numbers but I think that Alba isn’t likely to lose any seats if the SNP was to lose 1 constituency seat in each region to a unionist party. Remember that by winning that one seat the Unionist party’s regional vote is now effectively halved so reducing their List seats. If Alba can hoover up enough votes they needn’t sacrifice any seats at all. Even if one or two of the SNP’s Woke chancers sneak in on the List it’d be a small price to pay to be rid of Sturgeon and her enablers.

    I’ll offer an election message for Alba:

    “Don’t waste your second vote – Vote Alba for Independence!”

  86. mags
    Ignored
    says:

    Gawd sturgeon is a vicious vindictive psychopath she is seriously mentally deranged. She is toxic to the bone. I didnt vote for them last time and ill be dammed if i will this time. Just THINK how scotland will suffer and look like if snp are voted back in and left to do what they want. Sturgeon needs to be sectioned. The candidates for my area west scotland are Caroline McAllister, Ellen McMaster, Delia Henry and Chris McEleny anybody know anything about them ?

  87. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    Ian Brotherhood @4.28pm.

    I don’t have a lot of confidence in Ofcom, I think its another captured body.

    Here’s the board of Ofcom and their interests.

    https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/how-ofcom-is-run/register-disclosable-interests

  88. PaulaJ
    Ignored
    says:

    Thanks to Dave Beveridge, RepublicofScotland and Mia for considered responses.
    So, it’s the ‘long game’ we’re looking at.
    Here’s hoping you’re right and we’re successful – however eventual that may prove to be.

  89. President Xiden
    Ignored
    says:

    To be fair it’s not just Nicola’s fault. She is only dancing to the globalist Clinton’s tune as played to her by Devi.

  90. PaulaJ
    Ignored
    says:

    RepublicofScotland says:
    “I don’t have a lot of confidence in Ofcom, I think its another captured body.”

    Most of these quangos are either toothless or in the state’s pocket. (You don’t get to sit on more quangos if you’ve proved awkward in the past.) Their progressing of complaints is usually glacial, and the outcomes rarely worth the time and expense involved.
    Part and parcel of modern life, like the successive governments that have promised ‘a bonfire of the quangos’.
    They obviously have the recuperative powers of the phoenix, since they not only survive, but proliferate.

  91. Dan
    Ignored
    says:

    @ mags at 4.42pm

    Check out their feeds to give you an idea of where they are at.

    https://twitter.com/CallieMac88

    https://twitter.com/ElleDeer88

    https://twitter.com/ChrisMcEleny

    Will post again as don’t want post held in moderation for containing too many links…

  92. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    PaulaJ @4.51pm.

    If you take a closer look at their interests you’ll see many of them have links with the BBC.

    I think organisations like Ofcom start out in a fair manner but end up beign stuffed full of yes men/women and are thus captured bodies.

  93. Mia
    Ignored
    says:

    “Remember that by winning that one seat the Unionist party’s regional vote is now effectively halved so reducing their List seats”

    The main appeal of Alba is that of reducing the number of unionist seats in Holyrood.

    We can only get a supermajority for independence if ALBA takes seats from the unionists (or the Greens, actually, because independence was never high on their agenda).

    What you are suggesting is to secure the numbers of unionist seats by swapping the list seats they may be about to lose to ALBA for constituency ones.

    In other words, when the fight for a supermajority should be for list seats between unionists and Alba, you are attempting to move that fight for the list seats between the SNP and ALBA trashing the strategy of the supermajority. It looks like you are fighting to preserve unionist seats instead of decreasing them.

    In what universe it is better for independence to have unionist tools like Sarwar or tories who you know will use your vote against you and your democratic rights than to have a seat that, at least internationally and as far as Westminster is concerned, can only be counted as a pro independence seat?

    We have wasted already 6 years because we had a closeted unionist leading the SNP who gave a loudspeaker to no voters and unionists while she put her own pro independence voters on mute. Those unionists never acted as a real opposition to curb this fraud’s political excesses and abuse of power.

    If we want to decrease the unionist voice in Holyrood and simultaneously bring a real opposition to the fraud, then we need to get rid of unionist seats and substituting them for ALBA ones, not preserving them or swapping them for constituency ones. That completely defeats the purpose and preserves the status quo.

    If you want independence you cannot possible advocate to preserve or increase unionist seats. If you seriously want independence you will use your vote to reduce the grip of England on Scotland and that means getting rid of unionist seats, not swapping them for constituency ones.

  94. Dan
    Ignored
    says:

    Couldn’t find Delia Henry account so Denise had tweeted this link previously.

    https://mobile.twitter.com/GraceBrodie/status/1384572151613820934

    Or you can click on their names for more info at the following link.

    https://www.albaparty.org/introducing_our_candidates

  95. Boudicca
    Ignored
    says:

    Just received the leaflet for Graham Dey for South Angus. Nowhere at all does the word Independence appear.
    OH and I are in the same boat as many not wanting to vote SNP. However, remember the two legal actions by AS against Lesley Evans and Scotgov. We wonder what he knows and if it could bring them down, if LE goes she will take NS and others with her. (Not to mention all the other shenanigans mentioned above re the the missing money etc etc). OH reckoned that if she and her cabal were brought down, another election would have to be called. Maybe Alba would stand candidates on the constituency then? Just speculating……..

  96. kapelmeister
    Ignored
    says:

    There’s a type of mushroom called the shiitake. That’ll be Sturgeon’s particular management mushroom. The amount of shit taken from her by folks.

  97. katherine hamilton
    Ignored
    says:

    The continuing discussion on here about not voting SNP1, but voting ALBA2 is interesting but self-defeating. Everyone’s vote is private and personal so folks must do as their conscience dictates.
    However if we want a challenge in Holyrood to the SNP’s feetdragging on Indy it can only be ALBA. To get ALBA in we have to vote SNP1. I know, I know.

    This won’t get Indy right away, but in the medium term it can scare the shit out of the SNP. The Westminster GE. SNP MP’s are of no use. Unless guarantees are given, by Holyrood, not the SNP, the Parliament, then it’s open season on the SNP. I don’t want ALBA MP’s. That’s not what they are for.

    The only way this is strategically possible is with as many ALBA MSP’s as can be mustered in the short time left. Please let’s not blow this chance. It is the only one we have at the moment.
    SNP (spit)1 ALBA2

  98. Breeks
    Ignored
    says:

    PaulaJ says:
    23 April, 2021 at 3:36 pm

    It’s hard to keep feeling hopeful in the circumstances.

    Stay hopeful PaulaJ.

    Scotland is still at the stage of “winning” it’s Independence by doing it the ‘nice’ way, with one hand permanently tied behind it’s back, through a rigged Devolved Assembly masquerading as a Parliament, against a backdrop which is managed by UK State propagandists with no loyalty to Scotland whatsoever. We are doing it the hard way, but sensibly so, thus avoiding bloodshed, war and civil disorder.

    If a Holyrood route to Independence can succeed, then expediency recommends that we should give that route a try.

    But if the Holyrood route is blocked, whether by Westminster veto, Sturgeon’s intransigence, or even the breakdown and collapse of Holyrood by Westminster’s hand or ours, then that isn’t the end of the matter.

    The ALBA party’s launch and manifesto has Scotland’s Constitutional Sovereignty running through it like Brighton rock. You had Alex Salmond himself going on about the Declaration of Arbroath, the popular sovereignty of the Scots people which was described as the Community of the Realm. Those aren’t just words. They are definitions, and legal distinctions.

    Without going into it at length, maybe a parallel can help explain it better. Are you familiar with the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis?

    Well briefly, at the end of the book, Aslan, the Lion King of Summer, surrenders himself as an innocent, to the mercy of the Ice Queen, knowing she will betray him. She does. She has him bound, shaved, and tied to a stone alter where the shamed lion is sacrificed – dead. The Ice Queen and her army celebrates, believing victory is hers.

    But next morning, as the final battle to crush Aslan’s army dawns, Aslan is right there, reborn, resurrected, leading his Army and he is stronger than ever. (A lot of people interpret that as Christ resurrected after his crucifixion- but I digress).

    Aslan knew the older, deeper magic, which the Ice Queen had either forgotten or never knew, and he knew the old magic was much more powerful, and that the slaughter of himself as an innocent would be the Ice Queens demise.

    Well anyway, religious allegory or not, that story by C. S. Lewis, isn’t a bad analogy for the weak magic / sovereignty of the Holyrood Assembly in the UK Union which currently thinks it’s in control, but there is an older, deeper and stronger Scottish Constitution, that which enshrines sovereignty upon the Scottish people, and that is the older 1320 “magic” which is the superior to 1707 Treaty of Union and all its abhorrent conventions.

    Scotland’s Ancient Constitution, the Declaration of Arbroath, is Scotland’s old magic if you’ll pardon the expression, and it is stronger, because it is beyond the jurisdiction of Westminster to change it, or overrule it.

    Holyrood will only be the end of the story if Scotland secures Independence through the route of a Devolved Assembly. If Holyrood is compromised, and becomes an instrument of Scotland’s oppression and subjugation, then Scotland’s sovereign Constitution will find some other way to become manifest, and Holyrood will swept out of Scotland, or rather ” driven out as our enemy and a subverter of his own right and ours”, and another Government installed in it’s place.

    You can’t keep a good Constitution down, and Scotland’s Constitution is one of the oldest and the best.

  99. Carol Neill
    Ignored
    says:

    Got my ALBA fence boards ,leaflets and car stickers today , off I trot

  100. Stuart MacKay
    Ignored
    says:

    PaulaJ

    Sturgeon’s project is to make Scotland a flagship Woke country. Most of her cabal and certainly her loyal lieutenants are on board with that too. Any referendum comes after once that is completed and not before.

    The problem they have would how to lock in their changes. I doubt they’d want to go to all this trouble and then have change in public opinion sweep it all away. An independence referendum might do that unless the SNP can maintain it’s position of power.

    Another possibility is that a referendum is just a carrot to keep them in place til they finish their project. They might actually have no plans for a referendum at all because a deal with Westminster to keep them in power would ensure that their Woketopia would survive. The rest of the UK gets to breathe a huge sigh of relief as all the terf-haters flock north to colonise the promised land. It’s a win-win for them.

    Alba set the tiger amongst the pigeons. It has the potential to wreck everything and wreck it quickly. It’s an alternative to what the SNP is offering and so it must be stopped at all costs.

    So, yes, as you conclude, it’s a long game. In a sense it’s already over. The very existence of Alba, whether they get seats or not in May, means that there’s an alternative. Nicola doesn’t want you to have that choice.

  101. twathater
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Al Stuart 4.19pm BANG ON AL you outed the troll or rather he did it himself , he posted his rant and bile under Gordon the poster and in his hurry to respond to your demolition of him/her/it they then came back at you under his liebour for indy guise , oh well another duplicitous poser bites the dust

    As you say Stuart Campbell has his work cut out exposing Sturgeon and her twittler youth without having to expose the yoonionist brigade

  102. Stuart MacKay
    Ignored
    says:

    Highlands & Islands must be at the heart of economic recovery, says Salmond as Alba campaign kicks off

    https://www.barrheadboy.com/highlands-islands-must-be-at-the-heart-of-economic-recovery-says-salmond-as-alba-campaign-kicks-off/

    Oh dear. Alex Salmond and Alba running around the country saying things could be better, while Spear and Harvie will be telling us to adopt a greyhound.

    It’s already over for the SNP and the Woking Dead.

  103. mags
    Ignored
    says:

    Question to everyone here. Alba being a new unknown party how many seats do you think they will win? As iv contacted them twice through the site re leaflet dropping Iv not heard anything back from them so looks like a non starter. Theres only 12 days left.

  104. Ian Brotherhood
    Ignored
    says:

    If OFCOM says there’s nothing to see and Alba is being treated fairly? Good.

    If the BBC continues to blank Alba and smear Alex Salmond? Good.

    The more obvious the institutional bias becomes in this closing fortnight the better.

  105. Ann Rayner
    Ignored
    says:

    John D
    re Philip, D of E – St George is patron saint of Greece as well as England.

  106. Breastplate
    Ignored
    says:

    Ann Rayner,
    St George is the patron saint of Georgia also and I would imagine is named after him too. I think he is believed to be Albanian or Armenian but I could be wrong.

  107. Breastplate
    Ignored
    says:

    According to Wikipedia he is of Greek origin.

  108. Al-Stuart
    Ignored
    says:

    .
    Hi Twathater,

    I owe you a pint, or a perhaps a fine dram of your choice 🙂

    BTL is like a swamp of 5hit somedays with the Trolls from the 77th Battalion of cowardly anti-democratic snakes.

    It is good folk such as yourself and Breeks and those fine, decent people who believe in the principle of Scotland having its right to self determination that make Wings BTL worth reading.

    Twathater, I was scunnered earlier and maybe just as well cannot lay my hands on the waste of skin Squaddie that cowardly hides behind Rock/Andy/Kcor/Gordon etc. What he/she/it said was disgusting abuse pure and simple.

    The reason I reacted is having had to attend post-mortems of murdered kids during my employment in the emergency services. The coward Kcor/Andy/Krap/Gordon/Liebor-for-Indy is paid by our taxes to fuck up this website and keep the energy levels down. He also manages to hit the occasional red button.

    Well that areswipe failed utterly. He/she/it gave me an idea. Wings used to have a lot more energy before these British State leeches were instructed to disrupt this site. So here is a suggestion…

    How about we ALL write to our CONSTITUENCY MSP CANDIDATES along the following lines. FOR EXAMPLE…
    .
    ——————————————————————
    .
    Angus Robertson
    Scottish National Party
    Gordon Lamb House
    3 Jackson’s Entry
    Edinburgh, Scotland
    EH8 8PJ

    Dear Angus,

    LENDING YOU MY CONSTITUENCY VOTE

    On 6th May 2021 I want to lend you my CONSTITUENCY vote. To be clear I wish to vote…

    SNP (X) CONSTITUENCY
    ALBA (X) LIST

    However, Nicola Sturgeon’s many public media appearances with her evident hostility to the Alba Party is personal, offputting and makes no logical sense.

    Many members and former members of the SNP have suspicions that the last FIVE mandates supporting IndyRef2 have been wasted by Nicola and that she is, at best a careerist politician who will only vote/support the Devolution we already have in order to remain in the luxurious high office to which she has become accustomed.

    Angus, if Alex Salmond can be the bigger person and put aside the attempt to ruin him and jail him for a swathe of offences that a majority female jury found him innocent, and STILL campaign for SNP CONSTITUENCY vote, then here’s the deal…

    If you come out now and advocate SECOND VOTE ALBA, I will forgive the sins of the current SNP leadership and give you my CONSTITUENCY vote for the SNP on 6th May 2021.

    If you are NOT inclined to agree that a SUPER-MAJORITY is a BRILLIANT opportunity for the Scottish Independence movement, then I will know exactly where you stand and shall lend my vote to someone other than you.

    Please ensure a reply to me as your CONSTITUENT in plenty of time BEFORE the 6th May 2021 as if I do not hear from you, I shall automatically lend my vote to someone else on the CONSTITUENCY ballot.

    Whatever else, the ALBA PARTY will be getting my LIST vote.

    This may seem a simple point, but it lets me and many others know exactly where you stand.

    Your answer will help many fold work out whether to LEND their vote to you.

    Yours faithfully

    Al Stuart
    Edinburgh

    ———————————————————————

    I am thinking if we Wingers can email at least ONE of these missives to EVERY prospective SNP constituency candidate then their answer will help those of us here tempted to SPOIL our ballot.

    This is my way of dealing with the efforts of 77th Brigade Trolls trying to kill off Wings BTL.

    Cheers Twathater, you fair made my day.

  109. Big Jock
    Ignored
    says:

    Ask yourself this. If the SNP were a party in a normal independent country. Would you even consider voting for them?

    Well we know the answer to that don’t we. Absolutely not a chance. Now consider this. The only reason for voting SNP is to protect the independence movement. Now that we know they are just like any other shitey devolutionist party, with some whacky and dangerous policies. Why are we voting for them at all. They will not bring about independence, just more dangerous policies.

    So I certainly won’t be voting for them. Its over for me, they are dead to me.

  110. Mel
    Ignored
    says:

    Voting in the SNP for another four or five years, for anyone who thinks the party is corrupt, mad, woke, anti women, anti independence etc etc is simple madness.

    But of course the SNP electorate are known to be sheep. But voting for Sturgeon in the expectation that things will either change or somehow they can be managed after re-election, or that Salmond will somehow hold the SNP feet to the fire, is frankly laughable.

    Sturgeon will welcome all your votes, because every single one is a vote for her to continue down the road she has chosen.

    To think anything else is simply crazy.

    Turkeys voting for Christmas.

  111. Big Jock
    Ignored
    says:

    I have gone full Peter Bell. I have had enough. Scotland will not be independent in the next 10 years. Or maybe just never.

  112. Ian Mac
    Ignored
    says:

    So, apparently St Nikla thinks that we must ‘listen and engage respectfully’ with doubters and no voters.

    I would love that, Nikla, if you listened and engaged respectfully with people who are not convinced about your gender reforms and the hate crime bill. Funny though, you reserve your utmost contempt for them, dismissing them as ‘bigots’, transphobes and reprehensible haters. I wonder why.
    And you might employ that strategy with Alex Salmond, who you have not only not listened to, or engaged with, in any way, but have sought to smear and jail him on the basis of no evidence whatsoever, just faked cases from your loyal, well rewarded clique.

    Whatever we do, we mustn’t frighten the no voters, just wait for them to come around to yes, which maybe ten, twenty, fifty years away? Great strategy there, Madame Mao.

  113. Kcor
    Ignored
    says:

    Al-Stuart, you urgently need medication.

  114. Big Jock
    Ignored
    says:

    Ian – Sturgeon doesn’t have a strategy. You are correct.

    She is an absolute failure. Not even a good first minister. As for independence. I have news for her. Its not my job to persuade unionists. Thats her feckin job. We elected her to persuade Scotland it should be independent.

    Not only that. The people were persuaded. Not by her I hasten to add. By the shitshow in London. But she took the credit and sat on her arse. She didn’t jump on the momentum and bring about independence.

    Too busy trying to jail innocent people and appeal to minority weirdos. The majority of Scots are not transgender and couldn’t give a toss about them. Its someone else’s life.We are interested in our futures, not every minority nut job that wants everyone to bend to their norms.

    The SNP are over. The games a bogey. We all have to accept this.

  115. wee monkey
    Ignored
    says:

    Just for the SNP1’ers…because you are dumb enough to do just that.

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EzrdxqRX0AUoRhJ?format=jpg&name=small

  116. twathater
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Al Stuart 6.49pm thanks Al for your response , like many on here I get sick of looking at the posts of these saboteurs who want to keep Scotland shackled to the rank corrupt UK
    I have watched people like Big Jock and others who have been on here for years and repeatedly stuck up and made excuses for Sturgeon and the SNP as they were members and believed the lying promises of the FAKE INDY PARTY but now even they have had enough and can recognise that SHE has betrayed us and SCOTLAND

    TBH re your missive suggestion to MP’s and MSP’s I personally emailed 35 SNP MSP’s and included screenshots of vile and disgusting tweets by SNP twittler youths against women even although I am not a member of twatter but felt the behaviour had to be challenged by the hierarchy and received NO responses from them
    I supported Dornan when he was receiving vile sectarian abuse
    I emailed my MP Newlands and my MSP Adam to ask what they felt about the GRA and HCB and how they could justify and support it, again NO response from either of them

    As far as i’m concerned the SNP is a dead party walking I will NOT vote for them or their corrupt vile leader and her bunch of CRAVEN COWARDS and deviants, I cannot take the chance that ALBA will gain enough seats to hold the SNP’s feet to the fire and if they don’t that evil witch will continue to run amok

  117. Paula Kelly
    Ignored
    says:

    @Al Stuart
    Stuart, I thought your letter to A. Robertson was genius. I shall be sending it to him too ( will let you know if I get a reply ).
    I will also email this letter to all I know, to use as a template for their MP’s. Great idea !

  118. Paula Kelly
    Ignored
    says:

    @Mia 4.37pm
    Thankyou for explaining it all so clearly Mia as I have been genuinely struggling… what on earth to do with the 1st vote ?
    It’s obvious now, our only chance is to get Alex in there as SNP are going to win anyway and they need a serious kick up the arse.

  119. Robert Louis
    Ignored
    says:

    Haha, what is really funny, is that REv STU has tagged this story ‘Flat-out lies’. Very appropriate. Nicola Sturgeon had zero intention of holding indyref, but Covid made a great excuse.

    Sometimes I think the self-obsessed Tory sell-out, unelected Lord/lady/baroness/duke Ruth Davidson, has more enthusiasm for independence.

  120. stonefree
    Ignored
    says:

    @ winifred mccartney at 3:59 pm

    Not sure that was Anas himself ,
    That said the family does have “previous” in questionable practices.
    And not particularly liked in general
    Is the father still hold UK citizenship, as when he went off to Pakistan to be governor I thought he handed it back

  121. stonefree
    Ignored
    says:

    @ StuartM at 4:24 pm

    I agree with every word
    Only the Members can really take action, Outsiders can’t unless they are close enough to the “action”
    A fair number of the “office-bearers” could be looking at seven years or twelve/fourteen depending what they were to charged with

  122. Al-Stuart
    Ignored
    says:

    .
    Hi Paula,

    You are a Saint. Thankyou for sending a letter to Angus. At least you and hopefully we will have something on record, even if it is just ignorance from Angus Robertson.

    I think Angus is just a careerist politician with his snought in the trough and missing his daily fix of a wedge full of fivers.

    But even if he only gets one letter, it may make home think that the wafer thin majority he will be fighting to win might be helped if he turned into a decent and honest individual.

    Oooooohhh look up in the sky… is that Pork Airlines just flying by 🙂

  123. Jim MacNicoll
    Ignored
    says:

    Read the story in the Daily Mail re “we would have held the Ref in 2020 had it not been for Covid”made a comment directing them to the article on this site, comment has been up for a couple of hours(posted very early this morning)just had an e-mail saying that due to the number of complaints it has been taken down.Who would have thought that the time servers would be scanning the Daily Mail for comments that they do not agree with.

  124. Stoker
    Ignored
    says:

    susanXX says on 23 April, 2021 at 11:42 am:
    “The indy staff were probably redeployed on the genderwoowoo shite.”

    My thoughts exactly!

    ———-

    Sturgeon is a f@ckin’ fraudster and the sooner the indy masses realise it the sooner we get closer to our goal. The “Greens” need to be utterly decimated. It is up to us all, especially all females, to expose their record & attitudes towards women and their safety etc. We cannot afford to allow “The Greens” to become ‘Kingmakers’.

  125. Don
    Ignored
    says:

    @Mikey d 23 April, 2021 at 1:25 pm

    “They did’nt put brexit on hold till the pandemic is over.”

    Brexit happened in 2016 IIRC try to keep up at the back.
    Did the EU make any attempt to actually stop Brexit
    from happening ? Try to stop balming everything on “They” as the current sitution in Scotland is only down to the SNP.

  126. Don
    Ignored
    says:

    @kapelmeister 23 April, 2021 at 5:06 pm
    “There’s a type of mushroom called the shiitake. That’ll be Sturgeon’s particular management mushroom. The amount of shit taken from her by folks.”

    Wouldn’t Sturgeon be more of a Destroying Angel or a
    Yellow sickener ?

  127. ScotsRenewables
    Ignored
    says:

    Could we just get rid of ‘Gordon’ please. He isn’t helping or entertaining anyone.



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