Restless Natives
Posted on
March 06, 2021 by
Chris Cairns
The world's most-read Scottish politics website
-
About
Wings Over Scotland is a (mainly) Scottish political media digest and monitor, which also offers its own commentary. (More)
-
Recent Posts
- 12-21
- 12-17
- 12-14
- 12-12
- 12-09
- 12-07
- 12-03
- 11-28
- 11-25
- 11-23
- 11-22
- 11-18
- 11-17
- 11-12
- 11-09
- 11-06
- 11-04
- 11-03
- 11-02
- 10-29
A tall tale
Wee Books
Video
Probably a robbery
Transphobia
Many a true word…..
Chris… now *that* is a fight cloud 🙂
Very good 🙂
sad but true
Exactly Chris!
We fight between ourselves, we don’t give all votes to independence parties,
we spoil ballot papers and the one winner is Unionist Westminster.
I’m really sick about so many aspects of SNP and at the first opportunity
of being an independent country so many of their politicians and policies
need to be excised but I’m happier to do that than keep Boris in power for
the rest of my life.
Boris illegally tried to close parliament, was happy to break international law,
Lead the £350 Million per week to the NHS Brexit lie, a serial liar, dismissed on
multiple occasions for gross misconduct, a serial adulterer, a racist, an Islamaphobe,
a Hater of the Scots, architect of the corrupt PPE contracts, mismanaged the health and
economic impact of the Covid virus to a world leading degree, broke the ministerial code
and covers for Patel who also broke the ministerial code.
The Labour Party died and have been reincarnated as a pathetically diluted Tory Party with Sir
Kier telling the sheep to abstain on any vote to prevent getting it wrong.
The Liberals have not had a majority for over 100 years, and it’s easy to see why.
The Parasite Give is a coalition job why don’t you party.
The only flicker of hope in May is SNP and ISP on your nest and tidy ballot paper!
Sums up my feelings exactly, we are making it simple and easy for the nae sayers instead of putting them under pressure.
There seems to be an attempt (not talking about this cartoon) to portray what is happening now in the SNP as a civil war with both sides as bad as the other, getting sucked into internecine battles, to the cost of the wider independence movement.
It is a convenient narrative for some now but it is not in any way correct.
What we had was a foul and disgraceful unprovoked and unilateral attack by a woke faction of Sturgeon extremists within the SNP, assembled and led by Nicola Sturgeon, on Alex Salmond and his supporters that continues to this day.
Alex Salmond wanted no part of any of this and people like me who like Salmond wanted no part of it either. It was the most astonishing betrayal I have ever witnessed in modern politics by quite some distance. It drove a massive wedge right through the heart of the SNP. And that is the reason for the current split and that alone.
None of the would have happened under AS watch, none of it. It was entirely the doing of Team Nicola.
So this is not some civil war where both sides are as bad as each other. That is the new line of defense that Team Nicola now want to ‘fall back’ to… it is complete made-up pish.
This is one side reluctantly and with a heavy heart reacting to an act of war. An unprovoked and incredibly malicious attempt to put someone in jail just to shut them up.
‘We’ did not start this nor want it but we sure as fuck should not just swallow it either. We did not sow this harvest, they did.
…. what the 77th plans, the 77th achieves.
Effigy, unfortunately the evidence that the SNP is an independence party is thin on the ground and getting more so every day.
There won’t be one banner to march under if people keep voting for that shower of dung.
You either have principles or you don’t. You have no chance of that party getting you a referendum any time in the next 20 years.
They used to talk about pinning a red rosette on a donkey in scotland and getting it voted in. Only thing that’s changed is the colour.
OT but this from an article in the Guardian,
“The note also described Salmond’s approach to the case as “scorched earth”, adding: “It is clear that there is no concern on his part as to who might be criticised or harmed as a result of these proceedings. We understand that this is well understood by those ‘in the crosshairs’ – most obviously the permanent secretary [Leslie Evans] and the first minister.”
I find that a tad disturbing since it seems that there were those in the SNP wanting Alex Salmond jailed for the rest of his life and I do feel revenge is required and seen to be delivered.
I am one who still follows the old adage of an eye for an eye – not too great on the ‘forgive thine enemies’
The lack of transparency in the selection of the List candidates strongly suggests yet more corruption in the SNP. Surely a large number of ordinary SNP members are livid at the gerrymandering of the NEC, the rigging of candidate selection and the financial mismanagement of the Party, including but not limited to the fraudulent misappropriation of the IndyRef2 funds. Sturgeon, Murrell & Co have taken the membership for mugs – give us your money and your votes, then fuck off. It’s time for the members to revolt and purge the Party of this poisonous clique.
In the SNP’s dire financial situation lies the opportunity for the members to drive out Sturgeon and her Wokerati followers. The SNP is skint and they are relying on the members donating to pay for their election campaign. The members en masse need to tell the branch office-bearers, MSPs, MPs and candidates that there’ll be no money and no campaign volunteers until Sturgeon & Murrell are gone and unless they vote against NS in a VoNC the members will vote against them in HRE.
There is no time to waste. The SNP have dragged out the Parliamentary Inquiry and the Hamilton Inquiry so that we’ll be lucky if either report is lodged before Holyrood is prorogued for the election. To go into the election with Sturgeon at the helm will be disastrous. Either the SNP will be re-elected and you can expect GRA, Thought Crime Act and the full McStasi, or you will get a Unionist SG who do nothing for the next 5 years while Boris dismantles devolution and you can kiss Independence goodbye.
Someone needs to give the call to action be galvanise the SNP members. Rev you have the platform to do it. How’s about stepping up?
SNP under Sturgeon is unrecognisable as being the party of Independence it once was.
I can’t be bothered writing a list of weel kent reasons as to why they’re not worthy of getting my vote.
Suffice to say, they’re not getting it!
Name (required) says:
6 March, 2021 at 7:56 am
sad but true
Sad but true yes, but unless you’re prepared to sit on your hands while Alex Salmond is branded and sex offender and marched off to jail, while the truly epic open goal of Scotland’s unconstitutional Brexit subjugation, a heaven sent golden opportunity to WIN Independence, was squandered, and squandered without discussion because the creeps and weirdos running the SNP didn’t even talk about Independence for the critical 18 months it was happening… unless you’re ok with that, then ‘lying down and taking it’ isn’t an option.
Now if I’m to be accused of being short sighted, or not seeing the whole picture, or letting the Tories in, or not really an Independence supporter, or any other of the stale old tropes levelled at those of us who see Sturgeon and her poisonous creeps for what they truly are, then be aware, I’ll wear that criticism as a badge of pride.
Doe! What we like eh? Just fight amongst ourselves…sigh. Clutchin’ defeat from the jaws of victory… Know what? You can stick that stereotype in the same drawer as tartan shortbread, soldier dolls in kilts, and See You Jimmy bunnets. This fight isn’t a stupid quarrel about who scored the winning goal in the 1853 cup final. This ‘stupid’ quarrel is an existential crisis about Scotland’s Independent future being put at risk by the Lyin’ Queen Sturgeon and her ship of fools. I will not give ground. I cannot give ground.
And you know why? Because I’m Scottish, and both blessed, and cursed, with the same Scottish stubbornness as those 14th Century Scottish Patriots who declared that for as long as 100 of them remained alive, they would fight to defend their nation, whether that fight was against the colonial English invaders, or the duplicity and (t)reachery of a home-grown Scottish leader who would abdicate Scotland’s sovereignty and sell out Scotland’s interests. Ring any bells?
And those gobshite rats who repeat “Oh Alex Salmond might have got off but he’s still guilty” are the same breed of useful idiot who you’d see running around 14th Century Scotland repeating the fallacy that William Wallace was an outlaw for his ‘(t)reason’ against an English King. Shocked by the parallel?It’s the same thing. A true champion of Scotland maligned and discredited by the lies, chicanery, and trumped up charges of Scotland’s enemies, and the story made fact by the regiments of porridge bred imbeciles who swallow the lies hook, line and sinker.
So, for as long as you’ve still got that despicable rogue at your helm SNP, and indeed the weirdo creeps in her coven, do NOT come looking for my vote.
There is much to fight about. Independence awaits in the background certainly, but we are fighting about what kind of Independence that should be and that is important.
We used to talk about our hopes and dreams, every one of us declaring our desire for a better,fairer more inclusive nation. The root of that hope is now we are governed and by the values they propose. If you can look at the SNP and currently see those values then you have better vision than me. I see corruption ,nepotism,and an unwillingness to tolerate public opinion rather than serve it.
Jokes potentially become criminal insults. Conversations become bigotry.Women become disposable at the whim of men. The law becomes a state tool of oppression. The party becomes its own master.
Not for me. I am forced to fight whether I like it or not
I hope there will be a comprehensive list of constituencies and how best to use your vote like ‘dont bother voting snp 1&2 in angus’s one’ ‘avoid constituency and vote list here’ and ‘for godsake only vote constituency here’
SNP are getting fuck all from me until The Murrell’s and their Woke scum are binned. The fastest way to destroy these vermin is to get several big names to start a new ‘indy only’ party and leave the SNP ship to fester & sink.
Getting tired of those saying i’m just, and only just, still hanging on to my membership in case there really is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Sturgeon will deliver nothing but Woke policies and she must be made to pay for her lies and destruction of our best ever chance at taking back our self-determination.
Cracking cartoon, and certainly how the wider public see us.
My take is that happens next is up to Alex, not us. I doubt he wants any of us to spoil our ballot papers.
Vote them in one more time – or do what? Lose every bit of progress since 1967, that’s what.
So bite tongues and get on with it. We can’t afford high and mighty principles or virtue signalling when the opposition are as devious as the current lot at WM.
And while my preference would be for a minority SNP government at Holyrood with a strong pro-indy opposition, unless the ISP manage to drag themselves at least to the edge of the stage I don’t believe they will get a single seat unless Alex endorses them.
Mac says:
6 March, 2021 at 8:18 am
‘There seems to be an attempt (not talking about this cartoon) to portray what is happening now in the SNP as a civil war with both sides as bad as the other, getting sucked into internecine battles, to the cost of the wider independence movement.
It is a convenient narrative for some now but it is not in any way correct.’
Agree entirely Mac. The revelation that Sturgeon and her clique had back-stabbed AS in such a cowardly and deceitful way was very, very painful, and provided even more painful evidence that it wasn’t just ‘circumstances’ that had prevented any moves towards indy in the past 6 years, it was very deliberate, as were the seemingly sudden, vicious attacks on ordinary women (and men) by the wokerati trying to force the denial of science.
Nicola and cronies are the attackers and the rest of us who actually want indy are the defenders here, many of us wheeshted for indy for a long time, waiting for that secret plan to materialise, till we were finally forced to admit reality, thanks largely to Stu, Craig, Gordon and others as well as the ongoing dearth of any movement or preparation for indy.
But lets wheesht just now as Blawhard Blackford assures us that indyref2 could happen by the end of this year! And no doubt the preparations are all underway behind the scenes as we speak, as long as we vote snp 1 & 2 of course.
The headgear is something a Guardian or Telegraph cartoonist would draw to derisively depict Scots don’t you think Chris? Also you show it as an exclusively male stramash, which considering the whole thing was caused by mostly women in the first place is a bit rich.
@Stuart M
The fact that there was something rotten at the heart of the SNP quickly became apparent to me when I moved back to Scotland in 2018. I joined the party in the post 2015 surge when I still lived in England. To think I was actually looking forward to coming home and getting involved in my local branch! I’d never been a member of any political party and after the 2014 indyref and then the 2015 election was hopeful that we could really do this.
It didn’t take long for the scales to fall from my eyes. I went to a few Edinburgh Central events: they weren’t that well attended, but there seemed to be some good folk there. I suppose I expected that there might be folk in the indy “big tent” that I didn’t see eye to eye with on every issue, but my sense from #indyref1 was that everyone could work together towards a common goal.
It quickly became evident online that there were issues with party governance and “ordinary members” not being listened to. When the furore over Gareth Wardell’s expulsion happened, I assumed there would be a reasonable response based on the facts. Instead I witnessed a kangaroo court and a flouting of natural justice. Of course, we now know this is the MO of the SNP leadership.
The party and its governance is the very opposite of open, accountable and fair as many subsequent episodes have shown. I left the party in disgust, and I won’t be rejoining under any circumstances, even if Joanna Cherry became leader. The brand is tainted.
We desperately need a new party. It has to be constituted to ensure none of the issues we’ve seen with the SNP could happen. Complaints have to be dealt with. The leadership has to be accountable. Votes have to be open. We know where the SNP has gone wrong, and there is patently no appetite within the party leadership to change it. Even if they are replaced, many of the culprits responsible for the current organisation will remain.
We can’t depend on the SNP. We badly need an alternative.
Maybe the Salmond reference to once in a generation was apposite, it may need a totally new generation, more ‘radical’ and with fewer hang ups about methodology to get rid of the Brit baggage. We certainly need to ditch the time wasters.
Dorothy Devine says:
‘I am one who still follows the old adage of an eye for an eye – not too great on the ‘forgive thine enemies’’.
Dorothy, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus urges his followers to turn the other cheek:
You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. —?Matthew 5:38–39 English Standard Version
Shake off your old ways Dorothy and embrace God’s love:
‘This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith.’ (1 John 5:3–4)
SNP has become what the Labouur Party in Scotland was. A version of Tammany Hall which exists to allow carpetbaggers and careerists to get access to political office and the goodies that go with power. This now extends to quangos and pressure groups like Stonewall, Rape Crisis Centre and a wide range of “Identitarian” chancers
I don’t see this as a civil war between Scottish nationalists for the simple reason I don’t any longer regard Sturgeon, Oswald, Swinney, Yousaf, SAS and their supporters as Scottish nationalists.
K @ 8.55. Agree.
I still recall being on the Edinburgh March in 2014 and as we waited for the start in Lawnmarket I found myself alongside a big group of student “nationalists” They were taking the pish out of the whole proceedings,laughing at the hats etc,they were even doing the “ock eye the noo” bullshit. Their -conversations clearly showed not just lack of support for indy but showed actual antipathy.
Before I resigned from the SNP I saw the same attitudes at branch meetings from “she/her” young women. No worries that their views actually did not “help” trans people. Disagree with them or even hint that they were on the wrong side of biology and you were a “transphobe”.
I want independence FIRST and then we can get on with all the more urgent matters like child poverty etc.
Just for clarity, reading back my earlier comment might be misinterpreted as a criticism of the cartoon, but that’s honestly not where my head was at all. Sorry if I gave that impression Mt Cairns. Such anger I do feel is directed towards those wheesht for Indy folk who would have us all shut up and do as we’re told.
kapelmeister says:
6 March, 2021 at 8:55 am
‘to derisively depict Scots’
Maybe that was the point? See the guy on the right.
Prasad @9:23
Well it’s a cartoon very much open to interpretation, I’ll concede that. I’m a Chris Cairns fan, same as most Wings commenters.
I was expecting at least a BIFF!
“we don’t give all votes to independence parties”
Where are those independence parties?
Sturgeon’s SNP carcass has proven for the last 6 years it is no longer a pro independence party and for as long as this fraud or the bobby price are in control of the party it will never be. It is now the British establishment anti independence party.
As for the other allegedly pro-independence parties
if
1.
they are not prepared to offer a plebiscite and very much like the SNP, are rejecting the fact that the Scottish electorate has ALREADY issued SEVERAL perfectly valid mandates for indyref. Another mandate is not necessary. Asking for one is an insult to voters and to normalise the idea that political parties can lie the voters under the false pretence of an indyref only for them to refuse to deliver it because they never intended to deliver it in the first place. I believe that is akin to fraud.
England does not have to issue 100 mandates to get what it wants. One mandate is all what it needed to get its brexit. So why is Scotland being discriminated by our very own parties? Are they our parties or somebody else’s?
2.
instead of giving us a plebiscite in the list vote, they rely on and advocate for us to give our first vote to a non-independence, undemocratic party, corrupt to the core, pursuing the destruction of female’s rights and freedom of speech by stealth, that the maximum it is prepared to do is dangling carrots of referendum mandates in front of our nose
can you actually consider them pro-independence parties?
I am not sure how you can.
“we spoil ballot papers and the one winner is Unionist Westminster”
Well, at least by spoiling our ballot we are sending a clear message: “I am no longer playing your game”.
Voting SNP is playing Westminster’s game. Entering that game is accepting that we only can achieve independence if we also vote to endorse the erosion of female’s rights and freedom of speech, to endorse the quashing of democracy and the normalisation of simply brush democratic mandates under the carpet, to endorse the quashing of Scotland’s popular sovereignty, to endorse the denial of our right to self-determination, to endorse the “waving” of ring-fenced money through the accounts, to endorse malicious prosecutions, to endorse breaches of the ministerial code and civil service code of conduct, to endorse perjury, the abuse of democratic structures and taxpayers’ money to get rid of political opponents.
I refuse to play that game and much rather spoil my ballot, thanks. Either I vote for independence or I spoil my ballot.
No plebiscite? No vote.
The infighting could equally apply to UK politicians. Those left standing were those that absolutely shouldn’t have been since they were the least able to deal with Brexit with any degree of sanity, let alone competence. Self serving madness was the victor of that one for most people.
I hope the same doesn’t happen here.
When problem solving, you must find the cause then try to fix it. If you can’t identify the problem then you have little chance of addressing it.
As I’ve said before, only one person presided over this clusterfuck, not 2 not 15 not 25 but 1.
If you can’t identify and treat the problem then it won’t get better.
@Breeks
“Just fight amongst ourselves…sigh. Clutchin’ defeat from the jaws of victory…
Know what? You can stick that stereotype in the same drawer as tartan shortbread, soldier dolls in kilts, and See You Jimmy bunnets … This ‘stupid’ quarrel is an existential crisis about Scotland’s Independent future being put at risk by the Lyin’ Queen Sturgeon and her ship of fools. I will not give ground. I cannot give ground.”
I agree entirely.
For those of you for whom “independence” is the only game in town and nothing else matters, cast your minds back to 4th November 1706 where Scotland’s independence was effectively surrendered to England by 116 votes to 83 and martial law declared to deal with the outraged mobs in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dumfries and elsewhere.
Scotland discovered the hard way what happens when power without checks is concentrated in a few hands unaccountable to no-one but their clique. We cannot afford to make that mistake again.
Those who would have “independence at any price” are no friends of you or Scotland.
“If you can’t identify and treat the problem then it won’t get better”
It is no longer a question of “if you can’t identify the problem”. The problem has been very easy to identify in the last 6 years. The reason why this problem persists is that there is no appetite among SNP parliamentarians to treat the problem because many of them are happily part of the problem.
In the meantime, the problem is deliberately disengaging and disenfranchising voters and members and completely separating them from every democratic structure the party has to stop them having any input.
In other words, the problem is transforming members into fee payers with no voice and voters into cannon fodder were to test and experiment with their toxic policies. Yet, parliamentarians say nothing. Well, in my books silence is consent.
Familiar looking cartoon. Massive fight before referendum. Vote leave wins. Massive fight after referendum to work out what leave means. Then “let’s just get it done.”
@Prasad
Maybe that was the point? See the guy on the right.
Still, no women? Either negligent or sexist. Concept and draughtsmanship excellent as always.
Nicely presented Chris. With International Women’s Day looming, I can’t help but notice the absence of women, or what I perceive to be women, in this. Yet, it is they who are front and central to it.
Grand voting coalitions need to be formed throughout Scotland for the May election.
Anything that unseats Sturgeon, and stops Robertson has to be a good thing.
Add to that list the likes of Swinney and Yusef, then we could be on the road to ridding ourselves of the corruption and evil that Sturgeon has Injected into Scottish life.
If Sarwar and a coalition of Indy voters, Labour, Libdem, Tory and Greens can kick Sturgeon out of the Scottish Parliament for good, then that has got to be a good thing.
Backed up by an Indy List MSP.
We have Sturgeon’s future in the palm of our hands, and if handled correctly, we could eliminate the most evil woman ever to enter Scottish Politics, for good.
Vote Sarwar, Vote Indy List.
Scottish independence isn’t going away. Will the Tories be its curators – or victims?
link to theguardian.com
It is probably not what anyone wants at present, but to my mind it is a sensible possible solution.
Given the disastrous handling of Brexit, all the facts need to be laid bare, and possible solutions to issues that would arise out of independence put on the table before any referendum is conducted.
Rather than butting heads with Westminster, working together may achieve outcomes that are satisfactory to both sides.
Sturgeon has to be stopped dead in her tracks. Right between the eyes.
Because if Sturgeon wins in May with a majority, then, as the saying goes,,,
“You ain’t seen nothin yet folks”.
And sadly all sturgeons fault, are you happy now nicola?.
@Lawrence
You had me until Vote Sarwar
@ Andy Ellis
I don’t object to separate pro-independence parties running on the List. However there is no prospect of the ISP or AFI winning significant numbers of seats when the vast bulk of the voters haven’t even heard of them. To abandon the bulk of the SNP voters when there is a prospect of ditching Sturgeon and reforming the SNP is ridiculous.
What you are pushing is defeatism. You’ll have 5 years to build your ISP if Sturgeon gets re-elected, assuming that Humza McStasi hasn’t locked you up in the meantime for Thought Crime. Almost as bad is if the SNP voters stay home and you wind up with a Unionist Government that sits on its hands while Boris neuters devolution. Either way you can kiss Independence goodbye for a decade at least, and probably forever.
.
Good morning Breeks,
You’ve no missed yer target there.
I would buy you a bottle of 21 year old malt whisky of your choice just to be able to hear the conversation between yourself and the first SNP canvasser of the 2021 March/April to 6th May season 🙂
The poor critter would definitely get their McWoke jotters handed back and their Sturgeonite leaflets used as a makeshift suppository ;-).
Good on you Breeks. Way to go.
———————————————–
Ref: Breeks comment above at 08.50 hours.
In front of the media, and in the Scottish Parliament, Sturgeon tries to label the Tories as the only people who oppose Sturgeon and the SNP.
No mention from Sturgeon of the growing number of Indy voters from within the YES Movement who are absolutely disgusted with Sturgeon and her Party.
I am assuming Alex will make a statement once the enquiry is wound up and presents its ‘conclusions’
He will be well aware of all the virtue-signalling holier than thou primadonnas on here and elsewhere saying they will spoil their ballot papers. I therefore imagine that part of his address will turn to the thorny problem of how disillusioned indy warriors should cast their votes in May.
If Alex suggests NOT giving the SNP my constituency vote then I will most certainly give that serious consideration, as I know him to be a lifelong visionary for Scotland.
I will be surprised if that is what he says, but I await his statement with interest and impatience.
Great cartoon, Chris.
O/T: With all the chicanery, lies and withheld evidence being woven throughout SNP fabric, I’ve kinda lost track recently of how many charges of misleading parliament have now been brought against Sturgeon?
Anyone clarify?
So far, I have the initial one around the lie of ‘forgetting’ events of 28th Mar ’18, I also have the recent one from Jim Sillars, and we now have an even more recent one from Mr Salmond himself – three, all told?
Breeks 8.50am. “The regiments of porridge bred imbeciles who swallow the lies, hook line and sinker”.
Aye sadly there’s a few of them in my family.
Oneliner 10.16 am
Who else would you suggest who could go on and win the constituency vote in the South Side of Glasgow???
If not Sarwar, then who???
If the reward was to kick Sturgeon out of Scottish Politics, then would it not be worth it???
On this occasion Chris I’m sorry to say you’ve got it wrong, we’re not fighting among ourselves we are fighting to have Sturgeon removed and replaced with someone who actually wants Scottish independence.
Sturgeon is the one who has caused the indy faithful to divide, her actions, of which we all now know are what has caused the split, the press and the likes of Henry McLeish like to refer to it as a feud but its not, the blame lies entirely with Sturgeon and her clique and the Lord Advocate.
If anyone has given the BritNat parties and the Westminster government the upperhand its Sturgeon, not Wings not Craig Murray, not Mark Hirst, who all sought the truth of the matter and we’re unjustly persecuted for doing so.
Personally I would have featured wolves and vultures.
oneliner -“Still, no women? Either negligent or sexist.” Maybe the one with the beard self identifies as a woman?
I fully understand the point Chris is trying to make. However we have to study what has happened , and is happening.
We once had a Party representing the Broad views of the citizens of Scotland. The members played a central role in the conference topics. This was the basis for staying united regardless of minor differences because the SNP success was a measure of support for Independence.
That vessel has now been hijacked and is now being used in the interest of a few factions.
What recent events have highlighted is the need for an alternative Party of Scotland for the long term, not just the 2021 Holyrood election.
It is for that reason I support the ISP. In a few days you will see the manifesto and candidate lists.
Regardless of how the actual outcome goes I will stick with a Party building as a long term alternative for voters in an Independent Scotland.
The Both Votes SNP is not now a campaign against Unionists. It is now being actioned to prevent ANY alternative Independence Party achieving seats. It is about dominance of the SNP.
H&I Region 2016
The Tories gained 3 list seats with 44k votes
Labour achieved 2 list seats with 22k votes
The SNP got ONE MSP with almost 90k votes.
We could have had FOUR Indy supporting MSPs with those votes. It is even worse this time because those SNP2 votes will put a loyal Sturgeon Woke supporter into Holyrood.
Think long term and beyond Holyrood and Independence. We need to build an alternative Party.
Use that list vote.
p.s. The surge in SNP membership is a lie and it has one purpose – hold the loyal in place.
..also 100% agree with Breeks. I’m even considering decorating my windaes with either ‘Where’s our Indy?’ or ‘Salmond’ (with a back-to-front, foam, SNP thumbs-up) come May. No, they most definitely are not getting my vote.
Also, as far as the ‘I’m with Nicola’ crowd are concerned; you’ve now had your wee moment of glory, your slabbering and peeing of your drawers, the evening of and day after her brazen bullshit show, you can now go back to posting stuff-we-already-know about the Tories. That was Nicla’s last stand, her ‘finest hour’, and the moment Murray Foote so hurriedly and frenetically unleashed his bots all at once that it was just such an uncoordinated fuck-up – you’ve all shot your bolt.
We’ll continue to press, expose and draw attention to all Sturgeon’s corruption, failings and lack of morality. Make no mistake, even if it well-suits the union to have her in her current position (clue: it does), she’s surrounded herself with so much stink that it’s now impossible for her to get away with it – she’s getting away with nothing.
Happy days.
Hey Lawrence. You say vote Sarwar. FFS are you a Labour plant?
I’m sure that’s you in the middle of the cartoon. As they say in still game – You’ve Taken That Too Far!
Great cartoon Chris – on the money sadly.
But if I was the commissioning editor I would insist on a pair of red stilettos front and centre of the stramash.
I would also be tempted to draw a string of fake pearls, like what Lesley Evans likes to adorn her scrawny neck with!
Mac @8.18
I agree, there is a concerted cover up effort going on across the media to portray this as NS/AS when the concept that ‘it is the Scottish Government which has broken the law and needs to be scrutinised’ is conveniently swept under the carpet.
It was refreshing on BBC Radio Scotland this morning to hear a man ( didn’t catch his name Andrew Tickell?) and Shona Craven say exactly that. I.e. we must not lose sight of the fact that the scottish government knowingly allowed someone who had previous contract with the complainers to formulate the Policy.
This , by any stretch of the imagination, is just plain wrong – in fact it is illegal and the SG went along with that for over a year, knowing it was wrong.
This is exactly why the legal advice is so crucial to the conclusions of the Committee and no-one has taken ‘the blame’ for that as yet.
He thinks the Hamilton enquiry may be less ‘forgiving’ (my paraphrase).
If memory serves me correctly that was almost exactly the sentiment expressed in Alex’s opening statement. His was not a heavy, personal attack – it was addressed at procedural failures ( for the most part).
Whereas Nicola’s evidence is based on the premise that – Alex behaved badly, ‘metoo’ gave them the ‘opporchancity’ they were waiting for to give the wronged women the chance at justice and I will not let him off even if it makes him angry ( and please move on – don’t look to closely at the way we did this because it is the end result that matters). This has been so hard and a real personal sacrifice for me.
Alex did not make it a personal fight between Nicola and him, only one person has done that i.e. Nicola Sturgeon and it is the biggest squirrel she has ever set running.
Has she ‘got away with it’ well, the papers are trying their best to help her along that route but we’ll see.
@Lawrence
Agreed, it’s a bit of a Hobson’s. Sarwar reportedly talking up a pact with the Tories
@Breeks 0850hrs
Well said.
As Mac said : ” It was entirely the doing of Team Nicola.”.
The problem is what are we going to do ?
I have been an SNP member for thirty years (I still am, although no donations). I have written to my MSP and told him he has lost my vote. He doesn’t care.
I remain a member to rid us of the wokeratti.
ISP are getting my second vote.
What do I do in May regarding my first vote ?
Lawrence@ 10.13
You should consider your use of words there.
It would be dreadful if some people Would read that in a way I hope you did not intend.
Just off to the right of this toon is another one… And it’s brutal
The cutest see lambs with cotton wool in their ears being led by the pleasantest journalists and our cheery-faced section-30 loving SNP politicians into a creepy looking barn with the date, May 6th in big red letters. There is a flotlla of packed butchers vans taking away lots of produce on the far side of the barn… It’s a much quieter toon… Though unsettling…
And underneath it says — The Silence of the Wee Lambs.
Even if Sturgeon manages to continue after the inquiry reports and just manages to get a result in May that keeps her limping along in office, she would have to lead the SNP into the council elections in 2022.
Another year of S30 with more and more disillusioned people leaving the party means that if we can’t get her out this year then a catastrophic SNP net loss of council seats across Scotland would likely finish off her disgraceful career.
I don’t share the opinion that says if she stays FM in May then she’s secured another 5 years at the helm. I reckon her troubles would just be starting.
If the SNP needs supplanting, and AFI/ISP don’t manage a Holyrood breakthrough result then there is that chance in the council polls.
And all this is going on in the political setting of a global assault on popular democracy.
Governments have locked up their citizens on the pretext of keeping them safe from a novel killer respiratory disease which has turned out to be biologically unexceptional.
Citizens were never consulted on the matter and it seems should they offer resistance the threatening mechanisms of the deep police state swing into action.
Trust in ‘authority’ is being fast eroded. Those prepared to accept and broadcast fallacies of false science will have no problem with any other variety of untruth.
The so called ‘left’, which ought to have questioned the imposition of draconian decretal suppressive measures on citizens is everywhere seen to be in collusion.
Western ‘democracies’ have revealed their authoritarian/totalitarian underpinnings.
Scotland current mess is symptomatic.
Today’s Daily Hail carries the Story of Caroline Nokes,
former Tory Minister. She recalls a Labour MP laying hands
on her really inappropriately.
She said “God I thought it would be better on your side”
Amber Rudd, another former Tory Minister said male colleagues
only stopped mucking around with her after she became a cabinet minister.
Labour’s Monica Lennon refuses to name a Labour colleague who tried to ra*e her.
Obviously many resources costing many millions over many years would only be
spent on a leading independence leader for touching a curle in an elevator?
Boris it goes without saying the perfect example of a compulsive predator.
Ottomanboi @11:18
Yes, much of what’s happening in Scotland is going on in differing degrees elsewhere, and that context shouldn’t be overlooked. Where Scotland differs from most other countries is the current authoritarianism is mixed in here with our colonial status and of course an exceptionally corrupt devolved government.
If Sarwar choses to pick a fight in May with Sturgeon for Glasgow Southside, it would be beneficial, no matter who won.
With Sarwar’s track record, you can be sure he’d play out every standard dirty trick in the Sarwar family playbook.
But unlike other past victims, he’ll be up against someone with no qualms at all about using “special” cards of her own – and Nicola’s been setting up her own LGBTQ+ rights hand which would counter any Sarwar “racism”/”islamophobia” hand as they play out their own little “Magic: The Gathering” battle on the southside.
Primeval tribalism versus quack science ideological fanaticism – guaranteed to be a no holds barred contest from the off. Give it the first two weeks in, and you’d have one hell of a dirty campaign, especially since Glasgow Southside has Govanhill in it, which has been Weegieland’s “problem child” for too long.
The press would have a feeding frenzy as each tried to outdo one another with the most lurid story they could find regardless of candidate – one thing you can rely on the press is that party affiliation goes out the window when the story’s good and there’s the danger their rivals may print it first, with the extra sales coming from it.
End result, both candidates’ little bonfire of their respective vanities would illuminate to even the most blinkered Sturgeonista or Yoon the sort of people running their two biggest parties (in terms of membership). Whoever won would score the most Pyrrhic of victories as they would become a permanent liability to their party with the voters thereafter. Job done!
It might also get the message through to the younger set that certain types of their favoured “causes” simply won’t mix, and to stop kidding themselves they ever will just because THEY want it to be so. Today’s young political activists have been in need of a reality check for far too long, which the complete collapse of Labour at the last GE still seems not to have got through to them.
Sunak with his offering of glittering jewels, bags of sweeties & flegs is brilliant.
Was having a telephonic blether with Ron nie Ander son last night. In the course of it, he asked me to post this info, as he is unable to comment.
Background: An SNP councillor in North Lanarkshire resigned from the party and resigned as a councillor, forcing a by-election, which has just taken place.
Labour gain from SNP.
Does the result show the tide starting to turn?
From:-
link to northlanarkshire.gov.uk
The number of first preference votes polled for each candidate was:
Peter Gerard Kelly, Labour and Co-operative Party – 1,071
Sarah Isobel Quinn, Scottish National Party (SNP) – 965
Ben Callaghan, Scottish Conservative and Unionist – 656
Kyle Davidson, Scottish Green Party – 69
Neil Wilson, UKIP – 31
Des Murray, Returning Officer, said: “I would like to congratulate Peter on his election, and I look forward to seeing him at the next council meeting.”
BTW: Sadly, Chris, an accurate representation in your cartoon.
Ghana is better than us
Happy Independence Day, Ghana.
Africa’s top destination for African Americans.
Africa’s largest Gold producer.
First black African country to gain independence.
World’s 2nd largest cocoa producer, 3rd largest exporter.
World’s 9th largest Diamond producer.
Home of Highlife.
ScotsRenewables:
‘My take is that happens next is up to Alex, not us. I doubt he wants any of us to spoil our ballot papers.’
Enough of this nonsense.
Folk have minds of their own and can vote (or not) as they choose to. They’re not sheep and need not behave like the kirk’s flock (or similar) in times past, waiting to be told how to vote by some ‘authority’.
If folk choose not to vote SNP (or choose not to vote at all) that’s not down to Alex Salmond or anyone else external to the SNP itself – albeit I can see why they’d like to suggest as much rather than considering that either their manifesto offering doesn’t attract votes or that folk don’t want to vote for them for whatever other reason. If they *do* lose votes (by no means certain) they’d be wise not to do a Scottish Labour and blame everyone else but themselves.
I personally don’t think Salmond will return to politics after the years of stress he has endured. He must be thinking he is well out of the mire of the SNP.
“If the SNP needs supplanting, and AFI/ISP don’t manage a Holyrood breakthrough result then there is that chance in the council polls”
And an even better chance in the GE2024 after that. What we don’t have is time to waste.
We need at least one pro independence party that is prepared to treat May’s election and every election after that as a plebiscite. THAT is how you start the tide turning and the ball rolling on independence, not by meekly asking us to vote for the corrupt and no longer pro independence SNP in the constituency, not by propping the SNP up by handing them seats by the back door and not by blindly relying on the wind changing in the SNP HQ so they suddenly embrace democracy again and deliver indyref sometime, hopefully before this century ends and many of us are no longer here to see it.
Is there any real pro independence party that is prepared to offer that?
No plebiscite? no vote.
@Brian Doonthetoon:
There were TWO by-elections that night, the other for the Thorniwood seat which ran as follows:
LAB: 36.4% (-13.8)
SNP: 34.5% (-4.2)
IND: 18.9% (+18.9) – community councillor Joe Budd, pro indy, anti current SNP.
CON: 7.7% (-3.3)
GRN: 1.9% (+1.9)
UKIP: 0.5% (+0.5)
[Source: BritainElects]
Both are technical Labour gains, although it should be noted there was another by-election for one of the Fortissat seats in Sept 2017 which ran as follows:
Lab 1420
British Union and Sovereignty Party 858 – pro-Orange, pro-Rangers oxygen thieves.
SNP 761
Con 424
Ind 184
Grn 24
UKIP 18
Using council ward results as any sort of barometer of public opinion is fraught with danger. Only about a third of people have ever bothered to vote in council elections since time immemorial, never mind in by-elections. In the two cases from last Thursday, only 23.3% and 25.4% could be bothered to vote. The British Union and Sovereignty Party example also illustrates the public have a tendency to be more fickle with their votes.
Finally, as the Greens know only too well, doing well in local council elections seldom translates into success when it comes to standing for any sort of Parliamentary seats, Holyrood or Westminster.
I don’t think our colonial pathological superiors will even bother with the baubles and trinkets. They’ll just take any and all devolved power back, as they are already in the process of doing so.
How much better are these threads without screeds of academic bulltosh? Anyone else missin CBB. Me neither!!!
@Stuart M 10.17am
I agree there’s probably little chance of a major breakthrough for the “new” minor parties: they started too late and have (at least at present) no real big hitters who would attract significant numbers of disillusioned SNP supporters to switch. It’s not impossible that could change in the next few months, but I’ve said for a while I wouldn’t bet the farm on it.
I’ll happily eat my words if that happens, or if the rank and file SNP membership suddenly grow a spine and eject the Sturgeonistas and Woko Haram, but that’s even less likely than Salmond and Cherry setting up a new party IMHO. There is zero evidence of ANYONE in the SNP having the balls or the power to fix the party: even the much vaunted cleaning out of the NEC last November has produced no results, as the recent shambles about parachuting in BAME and disabled prospective candidates against legal advice demonstrates very well.
What I’m pointing out isn’t ridiculous: rather your misplaced belief that there will be a miraculous change is ridiculous. Pointing out the obvious isn’t defeatism, it’s realism.
The reality is that the SNP will probably win an outright majority (or at least command a majority with the equally loathsome Scottish Greens). Even if – God willing – Sturgeon is forced to resign, we’re more likely to be stuck with a gradulaist SNP government pushing the Gold Standard referendum and laughable “11 Steps to Indyref2”. The ideological zealots who have helped derail the party aren’t going to suddenly disappear even if Sturgeon falls: they still depend on the SNP for their sinecures, for money for their interest groups, and often for validation and support for their woo-woo beliefs from fellow believers in the party.
The unionists aren’t going to win: anyone pushing that line is delusional, or just arguing in bad faith. The choice now isn’t between nationalist and unionist government, it’s between Sturgeonite stasis and a radical alternative. That might hopefully be a new party led by SNP defectors who oppose the gradualism of the current leadership and their policies on GRA, self-ID, HCB and their approach to governance as demonstrated in the recent enquiries about the attempt to frame Salmond, or it might be a reformed SNP if they get rid of Sturgeon.
The ONLY chance of independence in the next decade is the defeat of the Sturgeonista virus. The trouble is, the vaccine looks like it’s too late for 2021. There is next to zero prospect of the current SNP delivering a referendum or independence within a decade. There is a good chance of an alternative delivering independence sooner via plebiscitary elections, but that will now probably involve 5 year of preparation for the 2026 Holyrood elections.
I know which alternative I think is most likely, and which one I’ll put my efforts into supporting. I’ll never vote for the SNP again, and there are many more like me. The SNP may still be influential even post Sturgeon, but I doubt they’ll emerge from their current travails in the same position as they are now.
Suppose it depends how much appetite there is to clear the fog but one route to redemption might be for Parliament to acknowledge its own contempt of court and debate an apology for continuing to refer to prosecution witnesses as victims (or as having been let down in any way) despite their having been supported long enough to have been granted several days in court, that court having reassured them that they were not victims after all, and, by virtue of the anonymity order imposed upon them, their being obliged not to be seen as such by anyone.
It just highlights the extent of Sturgeons treachery and how much the SNP is letting us all down.
@ Andy Ellis
I don’t have a “misplaced belief in miracles”, I am urging people to take action now, before and not after the election. There is still just enough time to wrest back control of the SNP and reverse some of these corrupt decisions on candidates. You can fight and maybe win, but if you don’t fight you are certain to lose.
Mac at 08:16 is spot on – this is being portrayed by some as a ‘both sides as bad as the other’ ‘civil war’ – a fiction which suits the Sturgeon side better than conceding that it’s a situation which has arisen entirely in reaction to their nefarious activities. Chris Cairns’ cartoon seems to be endorsing the ‘both sides as bad as the other’ take, and in that respect does a disservice to the facts of the matter.
@Stuart M 1.24pm
I wish those still in the party luck doing what you propose: I sense they’re going to need it. Let’s face it, for the most part they’ve shown very little interest in doing much about the current situation, and have achieved even less.
Your/their window of opportunity is getting smaller very quickly given the few weeks remaining before May’s elections. However, even if something happens, unless the party comes out for making the elections plebiscitary, we’re no further forward. Thinking britnats will “allow” #indyref2 is a faith based position.
link to nationalgalleries.org
Jeexo!
Eh’m an artist!
Thank you again, Chris. Thank you for your expertise and vision.
Here, in return, is my Saturday offering, a look at Nicola’s legacy.
Your essential weekend reading:
‘Where The Buck Stops’: link to wp.me
@Brian Doonthetoon says:
6 March, 2021 at 7:27 pm
Jeexo!
Eh’m an artist!
I discovered – last week – that I’m an actor! I have an IMDB page, based on a peripheral film role a couple of years ago, that must’ve been set up by someone else.
I couldn’t possibly bring myself to vote for the SNP candidate in the constituency now. I originally intended to, but after this week no way in a million years. The lies are just TOO all-pervasive. Sturgeon’s evidence was eight hours of lies, evasion and deniability. I have seen some of the transcript of what she said, and written timelines of events along with explanatory notes that PROVE the exact opposite, ergo she lied through her teeth in her evidence. Combine that with her attempt to traduce the court verdict of not guilty/proven of all thirteen charges by a majority women jury, the fact that a further two were thrown out before they even reached court, and that two women were found to have committed perjury and she should be sued for defamation herself.
Combine all that with the ways she and her cabal have taken over the party and it really smacks of a banana republic. Independence fighting fund weaved through party coffers; favoured personalities getting voted off the NEC but reinstated courtesy of the party leader; party conference where the women’s spokeswoman isn’t given the opportunity to speak; the same MP is sacked from her front bench position because she is allegedly ‘not a team player’ (despite the fact she managed to take the UK government to court and successfully have the decision to prorogue parliament overturned); bot accounts revealed when boasting of 10k new members; the refusal to reveal any details about the total number of party members now compared to before the inquiry started – just a bland statement that they have 10k new members; the clusterf**k of the list candidates, which was pushed through DESPITE advice put in the strongest possible terms by the party’s QC that it was illegal. And of course to top it all the proposed hate crime legislation: taken off the conference agenda and pushed straight though Holyrood, presumably because they know the conference, as the policy making body of the party, would reject it. Who the **** think these people think they are? I’m sorry, but parties that have such scant regard for due process and the law do not wake up the morning after independence is declared and suddenly become law-abiding organisations. So the SNP will NOT get my vote. I will spoil my ballot paper on the constituency vote, and vote ISP on the list seat.