Wings Over Scotland

“I see no ferries…”

Street Andrew ,the twit on the right has handed a company sans boats 14 million quid to provide extra ferries to ship in goods and services after the big B.

He was never very bright and has made a pig’s ear of Transport without being hounded from office by the media – which the Scottish media took great delight in doing to the SNP Transport minister when it snowed a few years ago with shouts of ,’Resign!” during interviews.

The wee follicly challenged chap wants gun boats to patrol La Manche to prevent desperate people from landing on our glorious shores

neither chap is any use and needless to say both are Tories.

@ street andrew – it’s about two feckless suits trying to run a piss up in a brewery and failing.

They stand on the beaches, at the white cliffs of Dover. One is summoning up visions of the plucky little boats ferrying troops back from Dunkirk while the other yearns for the day when the British navy ruled the waves.

I can almost hear Vera Lynn in the soundtrack.

@Cappella

A masterly interpretation of a masterly cartoon.

Puzzled Puss, You know you’re right I didn’t notice resemblance until you mentioned it. But as a boy I was a dedicated ‘Eagle’ reader and the ‘Mekon’ was an evil wee b*^%*+d!!!!

Another great cartoon Chris. It must be challenging deciding on a topic for ridicule with the levels of incompetence we see from our overlords on a daily basis

I saw three ferries come sailing in
On April Fools Day in the morning.

Is’nt shameful how one immigrant is so ready to blame immigrants for our present woes just to please his masters and ramp up the UKIP narrative. It is so shameful it is criminal.

There be Cuckoos under
The white cliffs of Dover

@ Josef O Luain – thx 🙂

O/T

link to politicsresources.net

Above is the SNP manifesto from 1997. It is interesting to see how SNP policy has evolved over the years.

It says on p9:

“New Labour’s scheme for a Scottish assembly is fatally flawed, and will deliver
no real power…”

———————————————————————————

“A vote for the SNP is a vote for Independence…Scotland can regain its independence at any General Election”.

———————————————————————————

The manifesto goes on:

“After the election of a majority of SNP MPs,the SNP will immediately initiate negotiations for independence with the UK government. In parallel with these negotiations, we will initiate talks with the European Union in order to facilitate the right conditions for independent representation.”.

“At the conclusion of this period (which is likely to take between six and twelve
months) the people of Scotland will be asked to approve the “independence
settlement” in a simple one question referendum. On achieving the assent of the people of Scotland, independence will be declared and, after the formal establishment of an independent country within Europe, a fresh General Election will be held to elect a new government”.

Draw your own conclusions, as I don’t think “we are all daft” on Wings.

Dumb and Dumber…

Great cartoon Chris. . . A couple of dome heids right enough.

The ferry contract award demonstrates what Brexit is really about….some people will make money, the “friends” of some people will make money, the City Slickers will make money. As for the rest of us…I think that result is self evident.

Labour just wants “power” and they love a nation suffering hardship and pain that they can blame on the Tories in the hope that the anger will sweep them into office.The anger should in reality be directed at them for doing nothing to prevent the suffering in the first place.

They were borrowing French navy vessels. The Ministry of ‘Defence’ had none and no helicopters but were spending £Billions on worthless Trident in Scottish waters. Ruining the Scottish economy for jobs in the South. Brexit will ruin it further. The Westminster unionists muck up the world. Utter useless sychophants. Promoted about their capabilities. People who can do. People who can’t join unionists political parties, especially in Scotland. Lying useless articles supported by the useless unlawful sychophant Press. Disgraceful.

Dacre was phone hacking, illegally surveilling people and lying. Knowingly lied to Parliament for years and destroyed the economy. Most of them should be in jail. Let off with impunity

The migrants illegally throwing out migrants. Their families, associates and acquaintances. To line their pockets. Pathetic and illegal. Clueless.

Some people are daft on Wings. The incessant trolling. Repeatedly distorted. Stands out like a sore thumb. Mucking up the treads. Compulsive liars. Cutting off their nose to spite their face. Pinnichio.

And here’s me thinking it wad Graylings fairies

The oligarchs generally avoid attacking each other. They get the poor sods in the lower classes to do it for them.

Thatcher was sadly misquoted or taken out of context as far as her no society speech went. The classic problem of a soundbite that doesn’t stand by itself. She tried to explain that there isn’t a society distinct from the individuals making it up.

Where she lost her audience was in going on to say society owes nothing to individuals. Given major religions at big on charity that’s missing even a moral imperative.

But as far as war goes. There’s a reason the publicity moved away from the sheer horror of the 1st World War and focussed on the patriotism post 2016.

There’s a reason the Mail don’t like a reminder of serial number tatoos from children of those who survived the Holocaust.

Extremist aren’t big on people learning their own lessons from history. Even your own personal experiences. Certainly not teaching others or drawing unfavourable parallels.

Actually, Mr Grayling may have been quite clever in a way by awarding a contract to a company with no ships. All the attention has been on that and little, if anything, said about the £90million of taxpayers’ money given to two European companies to provide ferries to bring supplies to the UK which we would not be necessary if we stayed in the EU.

Ace deflection/distraction. Temporary red face – in the case of the BBC very temporary since they have spared Mr Grayling’s blushes by virtually ignoring the story.

Possible upside – the money, or some of it, finds it’s way into Tory party coffers in time for next GE.

As for the Home Secretary and his ‘crisis’ due to invasion of our shores by asylum seekers – 200 or so since November. This is straight out of the Trump playbook. Remember in the lead up to the mid-terms and Trump’s talk of ‘invasion’ and mobilisation of troops along the border?

The HS seems to be trying the same thing.

Neither ridicule nor criticism bothers them because the whole charade is about deflecting attention from things they do not want us to notice.

Ghillie says:
5 January, 2019 at 10:11 am

How can an ‘island nation’, that has just been remembering the unbearable loss of life by the shores of Lewis and our many many maritime disasters all around the coasts of the British Isles, passively and, now it looks likes actively, allow anyone from anywhere at all to perish in the sea?

I think the BBC was hinting it’s apparently alright to let them die if they come from Eurasia. We’d naturally save them all if they came from Oceania or Eastasia, but not those pesky Eurasians. We have always been at war with them.

Ha, ha Chris, a belter and oh so true.

Alison Rowat on BBC Shereen doesn’t believe it appears that Scotland is any more welcoming to immigrants than England. Is this just a middle class unionist view?

In fairness Sergio Casci was more welcoming. I will now stop buying Rowat Pickles!!

A great start to another year Chris.
Nice one.
A wee rumour Seaborne are calling the three boats.
Titanic 2, 3, and 4.

The UK contribute to the EU is €15Billion is cost nothing but brings benefits. Costs Scotland nothing but brings benefit. EU grants, renewables, shared Defence costs saving £Billions. ECB investment in Scotland on approved projects, The nearest biggest markets,

Germany (82million pop) €25Billion.

France (67million pop) €20Billion

Italy (60million pop) €20Billion

Spain (46Million pop). ?

UK (65Million pop) €15Billion (rebate)

Where are the Tories getting £37Billion from. Labour are useless. Why is there never any break down? Are they comparing apples and oranges – ie adding on extra irrelevant costs. They can’t count or read a balance sheet obviously. Where are they getting the other £20Billion from. Why is there never any breakdown (accounts of the funds)? Why aren’t the books being opened and published on a UK official website. They are known for secrecy and lies around UK Gov accounting systems. They have been caught out many times of illegal manipulation. Most of them should be in jail. They are guilty of fraud but use Parliamentary privilege to evade the Law, repeatedly. .

The DUP want to be part of the UK so they can evade UK Law and get away with murder. They evade and illegally do not enforce UK Law. They want to be part of the UK to break UK Law. A Law unto themselves. Their criminality going non apprehended and unpunished while they abuse others. It would be laughable but it is not funny. They are embezzling, wasting public money and receiving bribes. All criminal activities but getting away with it because of Parliamentary privilege. A misognist, racist bigoted criminal association. Breaking UK with unionist politicans support. They are breaking the Law with impunity too.

Pickles sour, bitter taste. Just like the stinking, sinking BBC. On speed dial to oblivion. The viewing/listening figures are so bad they illegally will not publish them. That’s what floats their boat. Multimillionaire ‘presenters’ sailing their yachts around the Scottish isles. Slagging off Scotland. On extortionate secret salaries of public money for the privilege. Criminal tax evaders. £3.7Billion for that nonsense. A criminal activity. Kept secret under the Official Secrets Act. For which they sign up. Just like civil servants and government workers. To deceive the public. A non consenting manipulation of supposed openness and honesty.

Ken500 at 1010am says MOD have no navy boats to repel seaborne migrants.Indeed they have many ships tied up at Portsmouth and other bases along the south coast. The problem is that they have no sailors to man these ships.
There is a solution. Anyone who safely negotiates the Channel should be deemed a sailor and Press-ganged into serving on one of HM Ships (the navy has experience in this method of recruitment).They can’t claim asylum if they don’t touch land and they won’t jump ship because they would have to clain asylum in whichever country they land.

@ Meg merrilees – Edvard. 🙂

O/T

Stu’s guidance says wait until at least half a dozen posts before going OT. I respected that.

Back in 97 the SNP manifesto recognised:

1. Labour’s devolution was only a pretence of power – a pretence of Scottish sovereignty within the Union.

2. General Elections were a legitimate means to establish a mandate for independece.

3. The SNP saw the need, as Breeks has repeatedly suggested, for legitimate direct Scottish negotiatons with the EU, based on an electoral mandate that they represented the sovereign people of Scotland. Admittedly, the FM has had negotiations with the EU but, as the FM of the UK Govt’s subordinate devolution administration.

The SNP now have an indyref independence plan with it’s foundations built on the weak shifting sands of the (Continuity Bill) devolution parliament, when more than ever before, the UK state knows, that if the UK fails to prevent a fair campaign and fair vote, YES will have a very good chance of winning.

Desperate britnats new argument against Scotland’s independence? Look how much we incompetent britnats have messed things up over our britnat brexit negotiations! They genuinely believe that because they are incompetent then everyone else must be. Sheer sickening britnat arrogance.

Post Independence I have always been concerned with the idea of an immediate election to vote in a new government for Scotland because who would that be given that the other parties at Holyrood are *British* parties registered in England so how could they stand as candidates for a new Scottish government when they aren’t actually registered as political parties in Scotland

All current opposition politicians would have to decide whether to register themselves as Scottish parties or they couldn’t stand for election and here’s the thing quite a few of them don’t want to be Scottish they prefer to be anti Scottish

What would Murdo and his clan do? daft question I suppose, he’d register himself as anything if he thought it would keep him in a seat in Holyrood but who’d vote for anybody who’d change their fundamental views? what am I saying, the same idiots who voted Conservative before, although it’d be funny to hear Richard *bobbin* Leonard’s excuses as to why he was running away back to England on a principle of *solidarity* with whoever would give him a job

@ Scott Finlayson

‘Not up to speed on the brexit ferries gibberish,

so,

why does the UK need more ferries?

and if it is to move goods why not use the channel railway tunnel?’

Scott eureferendum.com has some comprehensive information on most things Brexit, including in the last few days the info about the ferries, etc. (He’s a leaver, but to be fair he doesn’t try and spin any of the bad news about Brexit, and he’s done some comprehensive impact assessments for all the industries affected.)

However, in short, 16 thousand lorries enter the UK by the Dover ferries every day. The Channel Tunnel also operates to capacity.

An increase of 2 minutes per lorry at customs, will lead to a 20 mile tail back… hence the reason Kent is about to become the biggest lorry car park in the world and roadworks on the M20?/M25? are already underway to accommodate this, under the name Operation Stack. A nearby arifield is also being appropriated for lorry stacking.

The Gov have provided almost £14 million to a company called Seaborne, to provide extra ferries to assist and deal with the problem.

Alas Seaborne does not have an office, has only one phone line, has no staff, no ferries (and since they are quite big things, research shows all the possible available ones to buy or rent are already spoken for – worldwide). Oh and there is the slightly small problem that their directors don’t appear to have any experience (or existing running companies) in this line of work.

Fear not however, the Govt have declared proper procurement/tenure procedures were followed. So that’s good isn’t it.

One of the other companies hired for the same job, has insisted in being paid in Euros (today’s rate). Strong and Stable, strong and stable.

Hope the above is of help. Cheerie.

@Dr Jim
That is a point well made about political parties in an independent Scotland having to re-register as properly ‘Scottish’

It’s a dilemma and no mistake. I’d pay money (not a lot) to see how it turns out for those currently ‘proud Scots’ incumbents. 🙂

PS:
Another good cartoon Mr Cairns.

Good toon by Chris, but it’s the saddest thing ever that we need to listen to this disgusting sabre rattling, over a few bedraggled, half drowned migrants.

International Law insists you save the people in your waters, not run them down. Yes, it is the Trump playbook.

I see good old Auntie is describing the Seaborne fiasco as a “gaff”. The Tories can sleep easy at night, the Beeb always have their back.

You should get your eggs from Aldi Chris, they’re prettier

These are the sort of “migrants”* that we need Thye’ve got the seamanship to take on the Channel in winter, they’ve the seamanship to man the ferries we’ll need

* asylum seekers

@ Meg merrilees – I do indeed get your point.
As Edvard Munch happens to be a favourite artist of mine his name jumped out at me. If you ever visit Norway then a visit to the Munch Museum is a must.

He did suffer from depression which we all now share in this BREXIT shambles Britain.

Great biopic by Peter Watkins here (can’t guarantee quality as I have the DVD version):
link to youtube.com

Welsh Sion, this one’s for you

To the tune of ‘If I had a boat, I would sail it on the ocean’ by Lyle Lovatt

If I had a boat, I would sell it to the tories
And if I had a Ferry, I’d sell that to them too,
We could all be waving
As we sail off to tax havens
Just me upon my brexit laden boat

14 Million pounds tae a company with no office
14 million smackers to a company with no staff
Not even any sailors and they’ve only got one phone in
and as for boats they don’t even have a raft

Chorus
If I had a boat, I would sell it to the tories
And if I had a ferry I’d sell that to them too
We could all be waving
As we sail off to tax havens
Just me upon my Brexit laden boat

And if I was a Boris, a Nigel or Theresa
If I was a Davis, a Corbyn or a Mogg
I’d stash the family silver on an Island called the Caymans
And move the family businesses abroad

Chorus If I had a boat…

When I get my vote, I’m voting Caledonia
When I get my vote, Scotland will be free,
Goodbye Little England, God bless all who sail you,
But Scotland will be free from your Union yoke.

And if I had a boat I would sell it to the tories
And if I had a ferry I’d sell that to them too
We could all be waving
As we sail off to tax havens
just me upon my Brexit laden boat.

Sorry to carry a post over from the previous thread, but I wanted to respond to this because I think it’s important-

Robert J. Sutherland says:
4 January, 2019 at 10:06 pm
Stravaiger @ 19:43,

You can’t simultaneously believe that there is confusion in the leadership of the Tory Party and also that no-deal “has been planned all along”. The two are mutually incompatible, for obvious reasons.

I can, because the planning is not being done by the leadership, it’s being done by the ERG and other influential and wealthy individuals.

Planned by whom, FGS? This idiotic UKGov couldn’t organise a drink of water by the shore of Loch Lomond, so who is doing this supposed “planning”? They haven’t even got everything ready for this “planned” no-deal exit. Not even close! Contractors with virtual ships. Duh.

As I say, it’s the ERG and others. As for a lack of planning for the consequences, they don’t care. In fact, they probably stand to make money out of it. Read ‘The Sovereign Individual’ by James Dale Davidson and Sir William Rees-Mogg and you’ll understand why I say that.

This airy-fairy cloud-cuckooland denial of reality is what is particularly scary and damning about the whole farrago. In trying – and objectively failing – to even reach any kind of consensus within its own party, the Tory UKGov is staggering from one abject failure of management to another. Aided and abetted by an official opposition that has no more clue or answer, trapped in its very own “better” fantasyland.

Why is this the case? Why the constant kicking of the can down the road? Why the apparent lack of concern and planning? Why the lack of meaningful opposition? Why the obvious lies and platitudes? Follow the money and ask ‘cui bono?’.

Organised? Planned? Directed? =laugh= This utterly incompetent shamblethon isn’t government as we know it, it’s farce.

With very serious and unfarcical consequences for many real people. alas. Almost of all of us, in fact.

In some degree, smoke and mirrors. A pantomime for our benefit. Ably abetted I’ll grant you by genuine confusion and chaos amongst those not in on the game.

I knew this was all going to unfold just as it has on the day the Brexiteers managed to engineer ‘no deal’ as the default outcome of a failure to agree a deal, and the ‘meaningful vote’ being basically toothless. Reading Pater Mogg’s book merely confirmed my fears. And added to them, I must say.

A caveat- there is (obviously) a battle going on within the Tory party and no outcome is 100% certain, however I believe that the ERG and others (the ERG are really just the tip of the iceberg) have decidedly got the upper hand at the moment.

We are all being led a merry dance, and you know the thing about all good dances? The moves are all carefully pre-planned.

Stewart Lee’s comedy routine on the UKIPS anti-foreigner rant is still the best IMO. Why we are in this mess. Thx to whoever first posted the link.
Here it is for any newcomers hoping to brighten up the last holiday weekend.

link to youtube.com

@Stravaiger (2.05) –

Thanks. Looks interesting and I will certainly check it out.

😉

@ Stravaiger says:

I agree with your reasoning.

Nothing about the stated aims of Brexit actually stand up to even the smallest scrutiny.

Initially they wanted and thought they could keep SM CU membership – until they realised it meant keeping ECJ jurisdiction, and that meant the new Tax Haven Legislation would still hit them.

The DUP – a minority party in a minor bit of the UK working against the interests of the majority of the public in NI…. and they can hold WM to ransom. Please. A proper enquiry into the cash for Ashes scandal would have seen a fair few of them out of office and likely Bnbing it c/o hmp.

What does make sense is the shear volume of wealth at stake here, and the families/people who control it. And this mountain of wealth is threatened with being identified, quantified and traced back to its owners by the new EU tax laws.

This is the wealth accumulated over 300 – 400 years.

First the Spice Wars, then the Slave Trade, the Opium Trade, the accumulated wealth stolen from all the colonies, African gold, silver, diamonds, timber, tea, coffee, India’s wealth, the rubber from Polynesia, not to mention Australia, Canada, and the oil from the Middle East (up until Seuz). Oh, and if we’re being realistic about it, there was quite a lot of fortunes to be made from the first and second world wars.

All that wealth was and is controlled by a few families. Old, aristocratic money. They own the banks, they own the press, they own and they place their own in positions of power at every level. And lets face it, the godfather of these families is royal, with an army at their command.

And they certainly don’t want an audit trail to their wealth identified.

By contrast Scotland’s substantial wealth is but a building full, compared to a mountain. And it will fund Brexit.

Labour was a busted flush a very long time ago. Right from the first burkie ca’d a laird. They sent out orders not to support the volunteers who went to fight Fascism in Spain.

Currently in England its about 50/50 leave:remain. For a 2 party political system, for the Labour party not to embrace and advocate with every breath for Remain just does not stand any scrutiny at all. And I know some will say that a lot of their MP’s are in the areas of highest deprivation and vote leave, but I would suggest that just strengthens the argument, they should be fighting for economic stability, trade, jobs, workers rights, not enabling the tories brexit. They serve their masters well, and they truly are the left cheek of the same skelpit arse.

It is a well choreographied westminster dance – to keep us all occupied and amused – stealth drones anyone, buy one get a free barking dog.

There is no managed Brexit (and we’ve seen no attempt or effort at any form of managed Brexit) that does not do catastrophic damage to the UK economy which will take decades to recover from. What kind of ‘business friendly’ tory member imposes this – logically speaking. As I said, it bears no scrutiny.

No deal = food chaos = riots somewhere in UK = state of emergency = holyrood closed = Scottish Indy shut down for a long long time.

From the establishments point of view – what’s not to like about that plan.

The current WM gov couldn’t make a cup of tea competently. That’s a given, but 5000 civil servants have been quietly moved into the new building in Edinburgh to take the reigns as soon as they get the call.

We are running out of time.

‘Scot Finlayson says:
5 January, 2019 at 2:25 pm
@Daisy Walker,

thanks for reply,

but as `Breeks` says,

why does/do more ferries help in reducing the lorry stacking problem’

The Seaborne contract for Ferries were to operate out of Ramsgate harbour (which is needing to be dredged, as currently it is not suitable for ships), in this way, it would by-pass the congestion at Dover.

Hope this helps.

Colin Alexander@9.26am

“Draw your own conclusions as I don’t think we are not all daft on Wings”

My conclusion is that we are not all Independence supporters on a Wings. Britnat Coco.

@Daisy Walker (2.46) –

Great stuff.

A couple of decades ago, what you wrote there would be dismissed by many as paranoid nonsense, but we have access to a lot of info previous generations could never have dreamed of ever seeing, and we’ve had time enough to make sense of at least some of it, join a few of the many dots.

🙂

I see the Times believes we are all under the control of Russia and China, how long before it becomes a Scottish MSM stories (excluding the Herld which has been in the vanguard of this for some time, and already believes they are everywhere).

This could almost be from a Herald story, as a leading Herald journalist stands in Buchanan Street shouting at the passing shoppers:

‘Look, you fools, you’re in danger! Can’t you see?! They’re after you!
They’re after all of us! Our wives, our children, everyone! THEY’RE HERE, ALREADY! YOU’RE NEXT!’

Brian Wilson believes we can only see the full potential of the Scottish Parliament when the SNP are removed (not his exact words but it is what he means).

Of course his ‘full potential’ is being subservient to WM and having similar powers to an English council. That’s how Holyrood was designed when he was active in Labour, now of course he is just a jumped up nobody that attends SIU events.

@mumsyhugs

Aye! If the big shoes fit gotta wear them.

Ooh! Goal! Dundee Utd: 1-1 Pen Quiet day on the footie front 🙂

Only thing radio shortbread does reasonably well.

Capella says:

Illegal. But who is going to take them to court?

Someone needs to get put in the pokey! I won’t hold my breath.

The far right BritNats have learnt a lesson …. they know they can overspend and use dodgy online techniques and get away with it! For sure they will try it again in defence of their realm in IndyRef2.

What we must do is call them out during the campaign, not months/years after. Ordinary punters wouldn’t like the idea they are being manipulated and steered by dodgy money from even dodgier people.

The Chan4 docu-drama on Monday might open some eyes.

The Demented Ulster Puritans would sell their own grannies for glue if needed.

They’re shortly to go from being inside the Tory tent, pissing out, to stepping outside the tent and pissing in.

Someone best tell TM to put her wellies on.

The problem that will need more administration to check and search every lorry and documentation. That is why the quenes will form. They will not just flow through as they did before. There will be more checking going in and out because of lack of agreement. Mutual agreement. The UK status conforms to EU regulations ar present. If they is no agreement they will not in the future. It will be virtually more difficult to operate a business. What rules and documentation to comform. Domthe business just make them up. They will not conform.

The Gov of a country decides the rules/Laws business abides or adhere – measurement standards etc. If the Gov does not lay down the ground rules. It is a free for all. An impossible situation. Complete and utter madness. Pandemonium.

That is why May is still trying to maintain EU regulation. To remove it – what replaces it. Where are the rules on a website to comply. To add communication and regulation. It is not taking back control. It is losing control, A free for all. Unless EU Law/Rules /rules still apply. The goods wil just be rejected at the borders and returned. More expense, waste of time and money. A recipe for disaster. Goods will be coming back. Perishable goods will perish. Fish, meat etc will perish. They can only be refrigerated for a certain time.

Flowers, fruit and vegetables will perish in the queues. Firms will go bankrupt. Foreign firms will not do business. Or trade because of the difficulties. There will be no profit. Unless prices rises to cover the time and administration. Prices will go up and less customers will be able to afford the goods. A complete recession and depression.

Most of these Tory lunatics have never had a proper job in their life or business knowledge. They are out of touch with reality. They haven’t got a clue. Cameron has never had a proper job in his life. That is why he risked it. Absolutely no experience of proper, normal life. Completely ignorant and Incompetent. A complete dangerous chancer.

Another thing totally overlooked is cost of transport. Having to transport goods further or fly goods about, makes it more expensive. Flying is only possible for small, light goods goods, Otherwise there is an extra cost for the freight charges,. Making goods dearer. It is far cheaper to use sea vessels than aircraft by comparison.

Stravaiger

I agree – this is why WM was so anxious to stop the Scottish Article 50 Court case.

The ERG/DUP are pushing for a No deal. T May wants her deal accepted. They can dismiss a second EU ref as undemocratic and disregarding the ‘will of the people” so they definitely didn’t want another option to confuse things especially when it was something as attractive and sensible as cancelling Brexit…oh no, they definitely don’t want that.

It is hard to accept ‘no deal’ as the only solution when you can cancel Brexit.

However, being able to cancel Brexit is what makes it so difficult for Nicola.
I guess we shall have to sit back and watch January slip away without any decision being reached.

Crazy situation, but think how many more people will be spooked by ‘Leave’ by then.

test

Stravaiger says:
5 January, 2019 at 1:49 pm

I agree with your interpretation. Since day one I was convinced the tories were after a “no deal” scenario and a few things over these 2 years have helped to confirm this for me and this is my interpretation:

1. The tax evasion regulations the EU is about to implement. When you look at the timings for how these regulations have evolved, who vetoed them in the past and the timings for Cameron announcing for first time that he would include the ref in the manifesto, the announcing of the date of the ref and of course the impeccable timing of the release of the Panama and Paradise papers with those taxdodgers’ names mentioned on them, I had no doubts that this regulation was somehow the drop that filled up the tory glass. Remaining in the single market and customs union will require the UK to abide by EU regulations, therefore it has to be a no deal to rid completely of that tax avoidance regulation. The participation in the brexit campaign of some well known taxdodgers linked to tax havens hints to this. It is those timings what makes me suspicious of Cameron’s real intentions. I think brexit was always in the cards for the tories. I don’t think Cameron was the remainer he claimed to be.

2. Tax evasion may have been a reason, but not the only one. Brexit was a door to several opportunities for the tories. One of those opportunities is to neuter Holyrood to push away the threat of independence. I firmly believe the excuse of brexit has been used by the tories as a trial to see if they could succeed in taking back from HOlyrood powers that are devolved. Sadly, as we have seen, they succeeded on that confirming that the supreme court is a mickey mouse court that will not lift a finger to protect Holyrood. The timing of all this smelled fishy. The tories already started to talk about stealing our powers well before the deal agreement was even drafted. Why the rush? A deal with the EU may have stipulated for those powers to remain under their custody, so why the rush? The only plausible explanation I can find is that they already, at that point, knew that there would not be a deal with the EU. They knew that the theft of the powers from Holyrood was going to be contested in the courts so they needed plenty of time to have control of those powers before the end of March 2019. Having stolen those 24 powers before knowing how that deal would look like told me that May deal is bogus and will never be accepted. If we were bound by a deal that included those powers, why going through the hassle of alienating the people of Scotland and increase support for independence? Because the tories are aiming for something much bigger.

3. Absolute control over many rules, regulations and our rights. With the excuse of brexit, the tories can now rewrite the whole thing, including our devolution settlement, to drop standards for the sake of corporations, ditch our rights and ditch the health and safety regulations that are protecting us.

4. A dodgy USA-UK deal is in the cards. Very early on after the EU referendum, some individuals from the tory party started to work hard like little ants for such a deal. This deal will of course be a stepping stone in the tories ultimate goal: neoliberalism on steroids with totally free trade no matter the real cost.

This deal is however unpalatable for most in the UK, because it will involve dropping UK food and drink standards to a level that will be low enough for USA to sell us all their crap food, such as the chlorinated chickens and the hormone fed beef, besides GM modified food and other disgusting “delicacies”.

You can read about this:
“Exposed: The Tory-Trump Plan to Kill Food Safety with Brexit Chicken” by Guest, February 2018,
Accessed on online on DESMOGUK

“Tory MP says chlorine-washing chicken means ‘clean chicken'”
(October 2018)
Accessed online on FarmingUK

But it is not food only what USA wants to sell us. No, American health companies want a stake on our NHS, which no doubt will be privatised and the money of UK taxpayers will be channeled directly into USA’s coffers. Sounds like a nice way to prop up the dollar.
You can read about this:

“Let American firms run hospitals, urges free trade group”
by Oliver Wright (September 2018)
Accessed online on The Times.

I doubt this was concocted overnight. I wonder how long the tories have been planning for this and I am wondering if the privatisation of the NHS in England was in preparation for this.

This “deal” with the USA is by no means at early stages. Here is a “white paper” where Hannan is one of the authors from some thinktank:

“The Ideal U.S.-U.K. Free Trade Agreement: A Free Trader’s Perspective”, By Daniel J. Ikenson, Simon Lester, and Daniel Hannan (September 2018)
Accessed online on CATO Institute

Hannah has been in USA TV promoting this deal (you can see him in youtube. Just search by “What could a trade deal between the US and UK look like?”) and one of the things he said was that the aim of the trade deal aims for “whatever is legal in the USA, is legal in the UK. And this should apply to services, professional qualifications, if a drug is approved by the FDA that should be enough for it to be accepted by the UK, etc”.

the man has written quite a bit:

“Daniel Hannan: We no longer need to imagine a free trade deal with the USA – we’ve written one” By D. Hannnan (September 2018)
Accessed online on ConservativeHome

“Dan Hannan: A US-UK deal will revolutionize world trade”
By Dan Hannan (September 2018)
Accessed online on Washington Examiner

We don’t hear much of it here, do we? My guess is that the common MSM does not talk about this because they don’t want to the people to see what is going on. But this “USA-UK” deal is quite advanced and there have been tories like Hannan very busy at work:

“There’s now a US-UK trade deal ready to be signed”
By Ted Bromund (September 2018)
Accessed online on Brexitcentral

The tories keep saying that this deal with USA will not affect the food standards of the UK. But that is a lie of cosmic proportions. It is a lie because our food industry will never be able to compete with the cheap food coming from elsewhere and if our shelves are infested with low quality food, how on earth are we going to be able to guarantee our standards and sell our quality food to EU? So it looks to me that the tories are willing to sacrifice our food industry and our health service for their ideology. I think it should be investigated exactly what the vested interests of each and every single one of the tories MPs, MSPs and MEPs on this.

Now, the average citizen does not want crap food in the supermarket shelves and I suspect farmers are going to put up a fight over this. The deal is unpalatable for the UK other than the tories. So how are they going to convince us?

My opinion is that they have already started, by the fearmongering of food and medicine shortages, customs backlogs and the lot. Here of course we have May’s useful idiots in the form of Mundell and Tomkins demanding everybody to back the “deal”, a deal that is bogus. But what matter is the word “deal”. That is what need to stick to the citizens minds.

I would not have a doubt that these corrupt tories would let it go to the point of leaving our supermarket shelves empty for a few days/weeks to make us beg for that USA-UK deal. A deal that I am certain is ready to go and just waiting for the precise moment to kick in.

I have not doubts that Theresa May’s deal has always been a bogus. A deal that is rejected pretty much by everyone. I think It was designed to be impossible to deliver so it was never accepted. In my view its aim was to make the option of “no deal” more palatable. But this dirty game only works if the public and the MPs believe that there are only 2 options: a no deal and May’s deal. Their sordid little game got busted when the Scottish politicians went to the ECJ and this ruled that A50 can be unilaterally revoked. Ruling that the tories fought tooth and nail for it not to see the light because that would be the game changer.

I don’t bite for a second that May suspended the vote on her deal for lack of support. I think she suspended the vote on the deal because should the deal be trashed on that day, there would be plenty of time for revoking A50 even for having a people’s vote and their beloved brexit and neoliberal paradise would be in tatters. These crooks will run down the clock to the wire to take away from the MPs the possibility of revoking A50 and sending all their grand plans down the tubes. It was immediately after that ruling from the ECJ that “weird” things started to happen, like drones invading airports, ferry companies without ferries being hired, the threat of deployment of 3500 military personal for brexit, the movement of Scotland’s police onto NI’s border, more fearmongering about shortages of medicines and food, the increase in brexit budgets (for England, because Scotland, Wales and NI are seeing peanuts of it), etc. This tells me that the ruling of the ECJ sent these corrupt tories into overdrive and melt down.

The tory crooks started by stealing 24 powers of our powers. Now that they know they can steal those, they will try with everything else. I can immediately think in the control of our NHS to sell it to USA too, of course trashing our ban in GM produce, trashing our moratorium in fracking and everything else that is an obstacle for their beloved neoliberalism.

Scotland really, really needs to get out of this rotten union. This is looking very grim for us. Their greed will siphon everything Scotland has of value and will make this beautiful country a barren land.

Maria F, I agree with every word.

Nope.
Just reread your post and it’s clear what you propose.
Every totalitarian state in history evolved from a small group of individuals relentlessly agreeing with each other and being unable to tolerate any form of criticism.
An indy Scotland run according to the ideological lines of some of the more ‘excitable’ Wingers would be a pretty scary place.

Essexexile says:
5 January, 2019 at 6:55 pm

“An indy Scotland run according to the ideological lines of some of the more ‘excitable’ Wingers would be a pretty scary place”

Not as scary and lethal as the neoliberalism hell the tories have in mind for Scotland if we do not head for the emergency exit door and soon.

So you see, everything is relative. You always need to provide a reference. A post brexit UK run by neoliberalism ideology obsessed tories is my idea of scary place, a nightmare actually.

As a reflection, I find incredibly ironic and laughable to a point that “independence supporters” and corbynistas such as Cat Boyd keep parroting about the “horrible” neoliberalism of the EU and why we need brexit without paying attention to the tory neoliberal tsunami that is entering the UK by the back door those corbynistas are leaving open with brexit and that is about to engulf the lot of them.

I hope Nicola is reading Wings and I trust you are,Scotland is counting on you to step in and save us from the impending oblivion.
The potential end of the Scottish independence movement is close unless we can say that the act of union has been abused and call indy referendum 2 about the 17th of January.
That should stop Brexit in its tracks.
The resulting anti Scottish backlash should see us free.
I don’t envy you Nicola, you will earn your money if you see us free.
It’s your chance to live in Scots hearts for ever or die in obscurity.
We know you will do the right thing.

Interesting On Contact discussion about the forgiveness of debt in ancient cultures and Rome because they knew what a social disaster debt slavery is.

The Roman oligarchs managed to assassinate any consul who represented the plebs and wanted debt cancelled regularly. This hastened the fall of the republic.

Looks like modern times.

link to rt.com

Essexexile@6.30pm

“Small group of fruitcakes and loonies” – this is a description of independence supporters that a Britnat would choose to write on a public forum.

Essexexile @6.55pm

“Excitable wingers …..pretty scary place” who are these excitable wingers that are going to create a scary independent Scotland? Another Britnat comment.

OT – less than 2 days to go on our crowdfunder (so I’ll shut up about it soon!) :
link to crowdfunder.co.uk

I really do appreciate that people have other far more important expenses, so I’m just asking people to publicize it if they can, in case there are others out there with a bit to spare. We’re clearly not going to receive as much as last year when it was a new exciting venture, but 25% would be nice 🙂 . (There are perks too.)

I fully agree that a new (or at least heavily revised) constitution will be required when we achieve independence.
But, let’s be very honest here about some Winger’s motivations. A deliberate attempt to marginalise internal opposition to the newly indy Scotland out of petulant spite would be reckless thing to do and very out of character for the SNP.
One of the many moments in recent years, the summation of which was my gradual conversion to yes, was Mhairi Black’s fantastically eloquent speech immediately after becoming an MP in 2015. Despite being the epitome of ‘hard line indy’ she straight away sought to reassure those who voted against her that their interests were as important to her as those of her backer’s.
Nobody should pushing for such inclusive politicians to start purging the political classes post indy.

Cubby says:
5 January, 2019 at 2:59 pm

“My conclusion is that we are not all Independence supporters on a Wings. Britnat Coco.”

Rev. Stuart Campbell says: (By hook or by Cook)
25 January, 2018 at 12:03 pm

“Not everyone who disagrees with you on something is a troll or an MI5 agent.”

Ian @ 7.13

What a mixed bunch of thoughts you write…. sorry but I have to take you up on couple of them.

Why call Indy on 17th January? T May can then cancel Brexit anytime between Jan 18th and March 29th net result Scotland stays in the SM and CU and previous no voters would vote No again.

Also, I’m not quite sure how an Anti-Scottish backlash would set us free – I would have thought it would possibly mean extreme measures taken to ensure we cannot sever the Union.

Nicola is not currently sitting on her posterior waiting till she thinks there is something to do, she is fighting this with every breath she takes – so she is currently earning her money now and even if we don’t achieve Indy this time, she will most certainly NOT die in obscurity. At least you realise that she will do the right thing and that might mean NOT calling an Indy ref on Jan 17th……

but the main statement I disagree with you is your notion that the end of the Scottish Independence movement is nigh. Nope, no way Hosé

The Scottish Independence movement will NEVER die.
Our Ancestors fought for it in 1314, they explained why poetically and beautifully in 1320 at Arbroath and down the ages, time and again, people have stood up when Scotland has needed them to defend her.
It is our turn to carry the torch and the Dream will never die.

Other Social Media sites have a limit on the number of caricatures you can use, I think we should use something like this, only limit the amount of words in a post, to stop some people clogging up the site.

No not heavily revised constitution, a *new* constitution and nobody not one single soul has suggested *purging* anybody from anything, Scotland will require and demand the same respect every other country does from its elected members of parliament

If any prospective member feels they owe any allegiance elsewhere to some other country then they will not be invited to take up any political position within Scotland just as it is in every other country in the world without deviation

These rules are the same everywhere and are not a disbarment indeed they are an incentive to work for the people and country to which you aspire to serve

The SNP MPs had to swear an oath to the UK parliament and HM the Queen in order to take their seats at Westminster, that was a requirement of that parliament and they did it because Scotland, the country they represent was part of that Union, in a new Independent Scotland there will be no Union so it naturally follows that no one will be swearing an oath to a non existent entity within an Independent Scotland

It’s over for England, suck it up and get used to it, the world has moved on

It is always funny when a phoney Independence supporter Britnat on Wings defends another phoney independence supporter Britnat. Yes that’s you Rockshit defending Britnat coco.

Similarly when a Britnat proves his point by linking to a Daily Mail article – laughable – clowns.

@Jason Smoothpiece 8.32pm

You have to have a care with that outlook because where do you draw the line and who do you demonise, there are people who genuinely believe what they believe so without the facility of a 100% lie detector or an infallible personality checker, who can be assured of what anybody thinks or has or hasn’t changed their minds about anything, and the danger of that is you start down the wrong road of mistrusting everybody till proven innocent instead of the other way round

Essexexile @7.44pm

“Heavily revised constitution” what does the current one say that you want to keep and where is it written?

I too remember being converted to unionism one day after hearing a Ross Thomson speech. Despite being the epitome of a hard line Tory arsehole his fantastically eloquent speech touched a cord in my heart. Aye right. Britnats what a load of chancers.

@ Essexexile –

Would you mind explaining who you are referring to?

Essexmissile (still deliberate spelling)

See that post where you are trying to sook Dr Jim’s ass juices ?

He does not appear to agree with your earlier verbal skitters, so why do you think he does ?

Asking for a friend …

Grayling should take note in the words of Admiral Nelson [ I see no ships )

Jason Smoothpiece says:
5 January, 2019 at 8:57 pm

“We have many learned judges who would be capable of carrying out an enquiry into the years leading to indy 1&2.”

The “independent” Scottish justice system is rotten to the core and the vast majority of lawyers, especially judges, are the lowest of the low.

So called “human rights lawyers” included. They trouser hundreds of thousands while people starve in Scotland.

The Scottish judges who jailed the innocent Libyan for the Lockerbie bombing should have been jailed for life – in the absence of the death penalty.

@geeo
As I said, ‘..anyone who shows even a modicum of maturity’.

The Blair Labour/unionists. imposed , appointed Judges. Manipulated by Westminster unionists before Devolution. Nothing to do with Scotland. Imposed by Westminster lunatics.

Robert Black Labour unionist?

Maria F @ 6.31pm Maria I have read many of your comments here and elsewhere and I always agree with your assertions and views , and this time no different .

Your breakdown and exposure of the planning and duplicity needed by these parasitical tory carpetbaggers requires widespread coverage , with that in mind I would ask that the next time you are putting comments in the MSM that you replicate and reproduce your comment to give it a wider audience.

It inevitably will lead to accusations of conspiracy theorist from your friends in the brutish cringe brigade, which has never bothered you in the past , but it will cause other people to think which can only be good for indy

Brian Doonthetoon says:
5 January, 2019

Thank you for that, Brian. I am paralised with fear now, to be honest. What that guy is saying in that comment seems chillingly similar to what I interpret from what I am seeing. This is scary. It feels too real. They really are after all our useful powers, assets and our NHS, aren’t they?

My question is are we going to stand a chance at independence at all once this gang of tory rogues ties our assets in a deal with the USA? Because one thing is fighting the English establishment machine, but a different beast entirely is fighting a united front between the English establishment and the USA big corporations’ interests.

Do you know who Jason R Wyndham is? Is somebody linked to the tories?

I wonder for how long the tories have been cooking up this. This was not made up overnight. This must have been in the pipeline at least since soon after the tories got to power. The Health and Social Care Act 2012 unlocked the back door to this privatisation, but the bill was introduced for first time to the HoC in January 2011. However some “papers” started to appear well before that, in July 2010 in the Telegraph, so very soon after the tories got to power.

Coincidentally too, according to Wikipedia, Yougov started to conduct polls on brexit since at least 2010. So I really wonder how long have these tory crooks really been planning this? I wonder if our indyref1 was a hiccup in their plans and that is why now they chose to stole our powers and neuter our parliament to stop that happening again. I wonder if we would have had an earlier EU ref if it wasn’t because of indyref1.

We need to get out of this union and soon. We need to get out before that deal with the USA is signed and passed by the UK Parliament otherwise we are really doomed. Because from where I am standing it looks like the tories are using brexit and that USA deal as the ultimate chain and padlock to neuter our Parliament and keep Scotland’s assets forever to the mercy of England.

Go and play with Rock next door. Or in the same room. Unionist HQ.

@geeo
Not when it’s a deliberate attempt to deny political representation to half of the electorate. Which is what you’re proposing and why your proposing it.
Thank goodness your ilk will be officially dismissed as embarrassing bampots by NS on indy day +1.
The only reason she’s been unable to say it already is that we’ll need every bampot we can get to make that 50%+1.

@MariaF, 9.37pm
Because from where I am standing it looks like the tories are using brexit and that USA deal as the ultimate chain and padlock to neuter our Parliament and keep Scotland’s assets forever to the mercy of England.

It looks like that to me as well

@Essexexile –

I’ve scrolled back through the comments on this post and it’s plain that you are referring to geeo.

Why can’t you say so? And who are the other ‘excitable’ commenters who worry you?

I was actually looking at Jason Smoothpiece.

Anyone who really hates Scotland can choose to live elsewhere after Independence.

Wonder how many will stay though – free prescriptions, free University tuition, baby boxes, more just tax rates, better standard of living…

It won’t be easy to choose to live south of the border with its xenophobia, knife crime, crumbling NHS, poor trains, tuition fees, tory government and lots of other depressing facts of life.

Wipe your chin essexmissile.

You slavered:

“Not when it’s a deliberate attempt to deny political representation to half of the electorate”.
…….

No, the flat refusal of current uk unionist parties to embrace independence shall do that all by themselves. As currently constituted, they legally cannot operate post indy, that is a legal reality, or are you suggesting politicians from a foregn country can still operate in an indy Scotland ?

Perhaps you think the 35 SNP MP’s (and 24 unionists) will still sit and vote at WM post indy?

If you actual read my post, you would have read the bit where i clearly offer the solution where the 3 unionist parties form ENTIRELY NEW political parties to function in an indy Scotland.

Here it is here in fact.

……
geeo says:

“If Labour or Tories in Scotland were to announce they are splitting from their party and forming a newly constituted independent Scottish Party, which is pro independence, they would immediately be able to claim to being the deciding factor which provided an independent Scotland, when the Yes vote is delivered.

This puts that party in a much better position in the first Scottish GE post indy.

The chance to be part of a parliament shaping the future of a wealthy independent Scotland, or political evisceration”.
………..

You can try misquote/misrepresent my posts all day long, but anyone with a brain cell and eyes can easily discover you are talking out your arse.

You are fooling nobody.

For the 3rd time, do you think the American pledge of allegiance is equatable to hitler/stalin etc of not ?