Scheming on a mirage
This isn’t just a massive middle finger to justice and every voter in Scotland.
This is an act of sabotage.
There can be little doubt as to the only reason Leslie Evans is still in a job this morning after the absolutely excoriating criticism of her in yesterday’s report from the Holyrood inquiry. It’s that she knows exactly where the First Minister’s bodies are buried.
There are no other circumstances in any normal functioning democracy under which Evans wouldn’t have been sacked in disgrace yesterday. Her vindictive, shambolic, rushed and incompetent mess of a complaints procedure grotesquely failed and poisoned everyone it touched, from Alex Salmond to the complainers to the taxpayers of Scotland, every sorry step of the way.
Nicola Sturgeon’s endless bleating insistence that the complainers were her primary concern all along was shattered into a million burning pieces by paragraph 29 of the report, which even the craven and spineless SNP members didn’t dissent from:
But the First Minister has chosen to save her own neck by saving Evans’, and in doing so has handed the opposition an election weapon which will surely destroy any chance of an SNP majority in May. Because only the most hopelessly blind and gullible voter can now fail to recognise the rotten state of Scotland when not even a token sacrifice has been made in the wake of this rolling catastrophe of corrupt, inept governance.
Evans has barely a year left in post anyway before retirement. Had she been thrown under the bus it would have represented a mere loss of face, easily cushioned by her vast civil service pension and her complete lack of any personal shame or conscience.
But the Permanent Secretary is a vicious and spiteful woman and would have taken Nicola Sturgeon down with her, and so even the pretence that the SNP really wants a majority is thrown to the wolves.
Only fire can cleanse this vampire cancer.
In this time of great darkness, let’s all pray that fire is coming.
So has anyone actually been sacked, demoted or resigned throughout this whole affair ?
Glad to see the link to Leslie Evans’ role in the VAC account. Recommended reading.
Something not quite right with the paragraph below this is an act of sabotage. Maybe run the sentences together. Or there can be little doubt FOR the reason.
Well, it seems to me that wee Krankie has done the noble thing. In the sense that, Shirley, that she accepts the buck stops with her and a token sacrifice of one of the harridans.
-or is that in a parallel universe somewhere.
harridans …. is merely a gesture
‘…let’s all pray that fire is coming.’
You are quite the tease sir!!!
You deciding to fight for Indy yet? Or still determined to take Nicola down no mater the cost?
“You deciding to fight for Indy yet? Or still determined to take Nicola down no mater the cost?”
Sigh. It’s so unbearably tedious for you to pretend those two aren’t the same thing.
Even if you personally don’t believe that – in which case you’re a fucking idiot, but hey – you know it’s what I believe, so to act dumb and pretend you don’t is embarrassing for you, not for me.
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past”. Orwell, ‘1984’.
‘Six Weeks of Scotland’s Devolved Dissolved Reality’ (2021) by #GaslightingGilligan link to wp.me
Quid pro quo, eh? This was Sturgeon’s Mueller moment, I believe. I wonder how her ego could tolerate that, being comparable to Trump… The country is total disarray and Sturgeon will continue to bulldoze her way through, selectively blind to her flying monkeys who dispense hate and vitriol online. To her, the end justifies the means. Sturgeon has created fault lines, not exposed them.
Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.
Indeed Stu. Yet she wasn’t the only one paid for services rendered. The rewards of crime are awfully appealing to some.
Scotland must hang its head in shame this day. Our vision of a beautiful country is being fragmented by the very people we trusted and out in position to achieve that aim on our behalf.
Nothing but complete and utter change can bring about our vision . The SN P must be cast aside. They cannot be saved by the membership, but only by the public voting for them, oblivious to the fact they are sanctioning corruption by putting x in the box next to the SNP name.
We start again. There are now other options around which we must coalesce. Regardless of differences we must decide soon who to support and build.
I would give my eye teeth for a true leader right now.
Request to Rev Stu. You’ve got big pulling power. Now before you get too excited, I mean in terms of reach and impact. You’ve been really effective at galvanising indy supporters and mobilising them. Is there time to get together some tactical ideas for where SNP can be most damaged but in a useful way. For example, does this Bonnie Prince Bob have any chance of doing enough damage to Angus Robertson? Could we support him. I would assume (and I may be wrong) that making the best of a bad lot is to strategically damage the SNP while not actually benefitting the British parties or sending the message to the BBC and the British state that we no longer want independence.
The immediate temporary solution lies within us all right here.
Unless my bag of fag packet numbers are wrong here, if there were as much as 250,000 up to 500,000 spoiled sovereign votes of the disenfranchised former SNP voters would she take notice that everybody knows the deal of scottish ‘democracy’ is rotten?
Here’s the basis for my calcs. on about a 60% turnout there are about 2,300,000 votes cast. The SNP would expect to get about 45% of those votes. So just over a million votes. For 25% of those expected votes to be spoiled would be a realistic target.
The idea of a spoiled ballot then is not necessarily just an individualistic moral choice, but can become just as seriously a vote for any other party. Surely, Government as it is in Scotland would become unsustainable when faced with these numbers of spoiled ballots en masse.
Nicola Sturgeon’s preoccupation is herself. Her advancement, her prestige, her enrichment, her ego and the punishment of those who oppose her, these are her only motivations. She is pure evil in the highest office in the land. Anyone who retains faith in her is gullible in the extreme.
I must admit that I thought that the contract extension and hefty pay rise for Evans were to cushion the blow when she eventually had to go.
Clearly not.
‘Damage’ the SNP to let the Tories in.
It is this the new means of gaining independence.
Strikes me as pretty weird thinking.
I said before. If one liar goes down, they all go down. It’s a den of corruption and cover up. They are all guilty, so none shall be sacked by Sturgeon.
Someone somewhere must have the ability to expose this. It just can’t go on. The saddest part are the amount of sane people falling back into line with Sturgeon.
Until she is gone , I am done with the SNP.
Good grief, reward incompetence indeed.
the power is in your hands don’t vote for them. Bonnie prince Bob is an excellent starter, if more like him spring up then vote them in.How much worse could that be.Ordinary folk need to step up now.
Wow – a Preacher reference- excellent and nicely done. Unfortunately the rest of what you say is very true and not so excellent. 🙁
So Evans retires in a year and no doubt writes her memoirs.
What does Sturgeon do then, when the whole sordid story is in print? Or does she have something reciprocal on Evans?
I second the request from crisiscult. We as individuals don’t have the overall reach to effect change without damaging indy. We could use some help. Something that would help tremendously is polls by region as we get closer to the vote (but before postal votes need to be sent) that show us how the list parties look. We could possibly then target our votes where they’ll do the most good.
Elsewhere in the UK and indeed all over the world, whistle-blowers are protected by law. In Scotland, the law appears to have no understanding of whistle-blowing…..am I right?
A whistle-blower can approach David Davis at Westminster, but he/she wouldn’t dare do that in Scotland. The result of this entire Holyrood fandango is John Swinney saying: “lessons will be learned…we will not accept this type of behaviour again”. Another cack-handed attempt at a smear against Alex Salmond no-doubt. That’s it then….it’s all over.
Would this case not have been solved years ago had someone from St Andrews House stepped forward and been protected by James Wolffe. Is that not what he is supposed to do?
The cost of this inquiry will amount to many millions of pounds and all it proves is that we are crooked and our law is crap, almost non-existant. It exists to protect parliamentarians, civil-servants and other lawyers, not to protect the public.
These are the groteque outcomes that inevitably result when government becomes this overtly malfeasant.
In the US, they have been protecting whistleblowers since Watergate and Watergate itself provided the reason for that. They have never looked back and their protections have only grown stronger over the years. No-one in the US has ever suggested persecuting them as we do here in Scotland.
We are currently living through the darkest times here in Scotland. This is no-where near good enough.
Must admit I thought Evans would be ‘allowed to go’, but holding an extremely thick wodge of hush money, courtesy of the Scottish taxpayer.
It’s a direct show of power to both the Cult members and the rest of us…the full revealing of the Scottish Labour hubris…
‘We’ll do exactly what we want, and you will do NOTHING about it, because we’re the only game in town.’
The cult lap this shit up. The rest of us, have we got the balls to burn this to the ground and start again? Better to come back to the table in 5/10 years with a new party, with a constitution ensuring it cannot be hijacked & corrupted from within?
This is the second time.
Evans’ handling of everything was effectively slaughtered by the judges in the judicial review… but it was medals and promotions then from Sturgeon just like it is now.
If Sturgeon had in anyway been duped into all of this she has declined every chance she has had to get out of her predicament and sack Evans.
Nicola is very clearly at the heart of it all and Evans is doing her dirty work for her. She can’t throw Evans to the wolves because she’d be throwing herself to the wolves.
Sturgeon’s was the hand behind it all and Evans was the glove to conceal her. But they are essentially the same person, acting as one. This is now glaringly, in your face, obvious.
Can she sack Evans though? I thought Evans was on a list of people she was given to choose from so she’s not really her boss?
If she can sack her then it’s pretty unlikely she’d go quietly.
After that whole fiasco and all that money wasted, nobody really did anything wrong. In any case, the Tories are worser doon there cos, etc, etc.
This is Sturgeon o’er the back. Denise Findlay was right in her character study of the grande dame. Whenever she or her policies/decisions are criticized, she doubles down. She is wilful, digs in, and comes back twice as intransigent.
gullaneno4
The Tories can’t win a majority at HR. They’d need a coalition with Labour. And Scottish Labour would finish themselves off by being in government with the ultra-right and Scot hating Conservative Party of Rees-Mogg.
It makes no difference what the next SG is. Whether it’s the SNP or an SNP/Green coalition, a Tory/LD coalition or that laughable Tory/Labour unholy alliance. Real indy people – and we are the biggest political group in the country by miles – will, post lockdown, be an unleashed wave of energy out to get what we want.
Of all the SNP MPs and MSPs there are only a handful that would actually get my vote at the moment. Most of them are in Westminster. The majority I would actively vote against. Good god how did it come to this? See Wings passim I suppose.
Keith Brown is my constituency MSP and his recent support for NS was the last straw.
I think Labour came second here last time and they thanks to Johann Lamont tried to make some defence of women in this Parliament. So that’s the vote & ISP on the list.
Hopefully a bad result will see the end of Sturgeon and we can rebuild for Indy.
“In this time of great darkness, let’s all pray that fire is coming.”
Anyone seen any sign of AS this morning?
Possibly carrying a wine bottle with a rag hanging out the top in one hand and a Zippo lighter in the other?
No?
Oh well, there’s time yet…
Captain Yossarian hits the nail on the head yet again.
These are indeed very dark times.
The problem is systemic and we are just seeing the dusting of snow on the top of a very big iceberg. Dig down further and you will find the whole public sector has been corrupted.
link to tns2019.org
Every day, in independence groups/pages on Facebook, I am reminded of the time before the first referendum…trying to persuade “no” voters, to see the benefits of an independent Scotland, all the while they repeated the same shite to you, ergo “better together/Scotland can’t survive/what currency/what military…et al”
Now, it’s “yes” voters who spew the repeated phrases of “both votes SNP/you’re a troll/Yoon/Nicola is amazing/Indy is coming this year/eyes on the prize” – they have no idea where the SNP are heading, indeed, where they have already gone.
These sycophants don’t research, they vote with blind faith on the promise of a second independence referendum, they are equally as ignorant as those who pushed for Brexit. Nicola and the SNP are very lucky, inasmuch, large swathes of their supporters are uneducated when it comes to politics and are easily bought with a free prescription and a baby box.
It seems “Brown envelopes” are obsolete. Replaced by better jobs and higher salaries. Three I can think of!!
Sturgeon in her own words admitted there had been catastrophic errors in the handling of the complaints. Scottish govt has taken failing upwards to new levels.
No resignations not even a reprimand, no accountability, just a big f*ck you Scotland we’ll do what we want, when we want, and if you don’t like it we’ll get the Crown Office to shut you up.
LE is a vile sleekit creature, she’s even mentioned in a bad way in The Only Game in Town. She and Sturgeon are well matched.
Firstly Sturgeon helped create the atmosphere of misandry as the holiest of holies, and stoked it furiously, nepotistically brought it to front and centre of government and party, ordered implementation of a policy for former-ministers (but not civil-servants), which could only have been as a means of ‘getting’ Salmond. We’re talking here of a long-drawn weaponising of groundless grievances and grudges, presumed entitlements, from the sanctimonious, preachy, power-drunk, schoolmarmish, imperious and unreasonable, YEARS of plotting and prior knowledge, that makes quibbling over a few days, or a few months moot.
That it consumed her every last shred of integrity, of honour, decency, altruism and purpose.
Secondly on what aspects of the criminal case against Salmond was Sturgeon due to attend that court, and in what role -as a complainant, or as a witness? Simply to rubber-neck, to gloat, to crow, to shovel more bogus shite Salmond way?
As to Navalny, mentioned often like a whiffy red herring, but not even remotely relevant or comparable, except that those propping up hollow would-be puppet Navalny as the next destroyer of Russia to follow a long succession ending with Yeltsin, are those rallying to Nicola’s aid. That Nicola who is well on the way to destroying Scotland further in the wake of Tory, Labour and the rest’s best efforts to do so and extinguish our nation and people.
We should be the protected identities legislated for.
‘There is no people on earth who would not prefer their own bad government to the good government of an alien power’ – Gandhi D’Movie. NS clearly trying to test this principle to destruction.
I used my postal vote in the last referendum as I went to leeds on that very day, I remember going past george square with all the independence supporters having a big party
It was a great thing to see them all there with their hopes and dreams just a few hours away, little did we know what was to come.
We lost the referendum, Alex Salmond stepped down and the Dilly Dolly took his place, and we all still had hope for the future.
We are not fools, but we where fooled into still believing in the SNP, what went wrong to get us where we are now is anyone’s guess
But what we do know for sure is this, Sturgeon and her band of rogues have completely ruined the reputation of scotland around the world, we have to somehow get rid, and cleanse our souls of them in order to move foreward into a future that scotland deserves
I could not give a monkey for these women. The lied, they were part of a conspiracy they tried to have an innocent man thrown in jail and one did it to secure an advantage. The continually brief the media via biddable mouthpieces. They deserve no support!
What about Alex Salmond and his wife and family??
The only course of action now is to support the SNP campaign, if you have a worthy 2nd candidate then fine give it a shot. We need to be ready to dump Nicola when she postpones Indyref2 again.
We need to do everything to get the overall majority.
There is no point in Indyref2 if we cant get a majority.
So after the committee stated that those to blame need to be held accountable we get this. It’s difficult to separate the snp from the Tories these days when it comes to sacking incompetent or corrupt officials. Noone ever seems to lose their jobs for a continuous set of screw ups over the past 5 years.
As the smears on Alec Salmond continue unabated,the question must be asked.Why were the trial verdicts not appealed? The jury returned their verdicts, we can only speculate as to the reasons why they came to their decision. If this case had gone to appeal,are the 3 Appeal Court judges not required to give the reasons for their findings,thus exposing several of the complainants as liars and therefor giving grounds for possible perjury charges.If my supposition is wrong happy to be corrected.
@ Ros at 10.07am
Here’s the links.
The Only Game in Town – The Great PFI Scandal(42mins)
link to youtube.com
The Only Game in Town Part 2 – The Cover Up (37mins)
link to youtube.com
Oh-er. Just another thought to upset the day. Why does Leslie Evans have to retire? She could elect to work on could she not? Contract extensions, special dispensations and all that?
Is Scotland heading into a similar place that Ireland was in back in the past?
When you’re in the Mafia, I don’t believe there’s such a thing as losing your job.
What are the options in Scotland for voting for any party,
1) The, we have no policy or no real opposition or backbone party that left the grassroot workers a long time ago and whom contributed to that big lie to VOW, going under the name of Labour.
2). Wee willie rennies we have never helped or thought of the people of Scotland In fact we’ve never contributed anything across Britain except to help the lying Carmichael by giving him a get out of jail free card the Other contributer to the VOW Libdems party.
3). The party that refuses Scotland’s people a say in there own lives, as circumstances changed, leading party to the VOW and EVIL. who have as their leader a prime minister whom wrote the poem, The Scotch -a verminous race, whom he would like to exterminate. But has recently decided to explore their oil fields. Because although he would like to kill the people living in Scotland, he does like their resources.
4) Or the lying SNP who avoid independence like a pandemic that’s worse than Covid, and bought in the hate crime bill. And changes to gods two genders.
5). Or that other party that does not live in reality, and instigates gender woowoo with the snp, and would like to take away your rights under climate change.
All of the above are Enriching their own pockets, for themselves None of them are devoid of corruption, and none of them even register or recognise there are children, mums, dads, granny and grandads that live here. Unless it is just before a election, and then they treat you like morons hoping you forget their past deeds.
If there is one thing about the race of people that inhabit Scotland, they remember, They remember who went against them for a lot longer than those who perpetrated injustice against them.
Hundreds of years have gone by and the Scots remember the names of those past and present,
its like a Shakespeare play. The scapegoats, the absent villain and the plotters.
James O’Brian LBC right now
First caller Princess Nicola supporter OH fk I give up this clown believes Independence is nailed on
Disappoint yes surprised no, Even if Sturgeon and her party (SNP) deliver independence in my mind it would be imperative to get rid of the SNP for good along with its leader not only for the sake of Scotland but for the sake of every single person who live in Scotland. Independence is the goal but don’t bank on any sort of democracy that we’ve been told come with Independence.
Another reason why yesterday was a bad day for Scotland.
The Tories now know, their Scottish branch is full of incompetents, who, while they can be trusted to obey orders from London, are incapable of acting for themselves and, even if by some miracle they got into government in Holyrood – they couldnae run a minauge.
Labour are spineless and a long, long way from a comeback.
The Tories will now be trusting their media lackeys to lead the get rid of Sturgeon campaign.
I fear, unless somebody can confirm the whispers in the drawing rooms of Stockbridge and the New Town – that the Murrells are “Friends of Dorothy,” and can link that friendship to one or more high level Scottish Government officials, also a “Friend of Dorothy” then I fear Sturgeon will be left free to skip down the yellow brick road to her heart’s content.
Sturgeon is drunk on impunity and being enabled by the British Establishment in all its forms, both overt and covert.
God help Scotland if she is FM for another 5 years – Putin will look like a beacon of democratic accountability and humility by comparison.
Hit her where it hurts…
#NoVotesSNP
The funniest cultists are the ones that think we should all join the SNP, get a thumping majority and then get involved at branch level to change things if we’re not happy.
Hand this power tripper a 5-year ringing endorsement and watch her further consolidate her power base? Not only that but give her subs money every month as well???
Delusion on a tone deaf X Factor contestant scale.
Haven’t seen that Star Trek movie but great choice to get the mood up Stu, especially the soundtrack! However, Sturgeon has won, she’s virtually untouchable – if this whole debacle? fiasco? (I honestly don’t have any words strong enough to describe what she has done) hasn’t been enough to have one of her minions take a hit never mind herself then I don’t know what could, other than her losing her seat to Sarwar. Even then the evil apparatus her and her husband installed in the SNP will still survive and I can guarantee she’ll return as a paid SNP SPAD if she did lose her seat.
At this stage I honestly don’t know what will bring her down – she’s like Trump, she could shoot someone in Princess St and her Sturgeonistas will still blindly and ignorantly support her.
You’ve done a fantastic job Stu, some of the times you’ve been a lone voice, but you need to be careful now and watch your back. Sturgeon and her cabal will not stop at anything now they know what they can get away with.
Can anyone tell me please, if AS press conference today can be watched without television? Any links to sites where it can be watched? Also at what time?
I gave up tv years ago due to biased and false reporting and the mind-numbing triviality of programmes which all seemed to be aimed at producing a goggle-eyed, unthinking drone population who would need the likes of bbc and msm to tell them what they should be thinking.
Just occasionally there is an occasion like this which is likely to contain some interesting stuff.
This is from the committee report
598. The Committee concludes that the Scottish Government was responsible from
an early stage for a serious, substantial and entirely avoidable situation that resulted
in a prolonged, expensive and unsuccessful defence of the Petition. The Committee
finds that this state of affairs is unacceptable by an organisation such as the Scottish
Government and that those responsible should be held accountable.
599. The Committee is conscious that the Permanent Secretary’s office was identified
as coordinating the supply of information for the judicial review and that the Permanent
Secretary was one of a few people who had been aware of the prior contact of the
Investigating Officer. It must be questioned why the Permanent Secretary in her role
and with her knowledge did not ensure that the relevant information was extracted and
processed at a much earlier stage. This individual failing is as significant as the general
corporate failing already described.
Not to take the obvious decision to sack her is extraordinary and a gift for the opposition. The obvious question that even the most loyal in her defence must ask is why?
Breeks @ 10:24
“When you’re in the Mafia, I don’t believe there’s such a thing as losing your job.”
According to the extensive postcolonial literature, this is resembling a colonial situation with state persecution of independence campaigners and immunity from prosecution for the colonial oppressors.
Sounds like a good reason for independence.
Given Wolffe’s part in all this I am surprised at the Faculty of Advocates silence at their profession and the rule of law being brought into disrepute. As a decent citizen of this country i have been appalled at the abuse of the Crown office and their selective prosecutions and bias.
And after the Hamilton fiasco my respect for the institution has plummeted.
And once you have the political corpse of the SNP charred and smouldering on the blasted heath: what then, sir?
A government of Tories happily offloading any powers we currently retain back to and in collusion with their Westminster HQ?
A Labour party as rabidly Unionist as the Tories?
A Labour party which did nothing for their natural constituency in decades, but whose MPs from Scotland were mere voting fodder for their masters in London?
@crisiscult says: 24 March, 2021 at 9:36 am
“Is there time to get together some tactical ideas for where SNP can be most damaged but in a useful way. For example, does this Bonnie Prince Bob have any chance of doing enough damage to Angus Robertson? ”
I am going to answer this like Richard Harris in “The Wild Geese” – first emotionally, and then rationally.
First, emotionally: Bob can GHTF.
link to imgur.com
The same person who called Wings Over Scotland a ‘Snake Oil Selling Charatan Piss Artist’ three years ago to please the cybernats now wants WoS readers and supporters to vote for him on May 6th 2021. Er, no, not on this side of sane.
Secondly, rationally: if Blubberbutt Robertson fails to take the seat, the Tories win it. They are the current holders and have most of the local council seats.
Do you think therefore there is an ice cube’s chance in hell of your average SNP voter giving it to some nobody for his publicity stunt?
Kapelmiester @9.54
Sorry should have said Unionist parties and yes, of course the Unionist parties will unite against the Independence parties.
Do you seriously think that Labour or the Tory party will form a coalition with the SNP
Scotland can not become idependent under this lot (even if they did get a second referendum). It is quite clear now to all that we have a gang in charge. They have no morals they are dragging Scotland into a filthy mire. There was serious wrong doing here even the Fabiani report says so. The committee members all voted that Evans and Mackinnon should be held accountable but both are being kept in post.
The Evans “sexual harassment” procedure remains in place 2 years after it was roundly shown to be unjust. Once the Alex Salmond case collasped (and remember he got the maximum payout that the judge could award) I would have thought the first action of a responsibile government would have been to review the procedure. The fact this hasn’t happened shows the this Scottish Government does not care about protecting the weak. Only about protecting itsself.
In addition we have yet to see any actions from the Crown Office with regard to the Rangers affair. A malicious prosecution that has cost us all many millions.
We need widespread reform of our institutions otherwise we risk becoming a police state were the power of the state is directed at it’s own citizens as we are seeing in the case of Craig Murray.
I think generalissimo sturgeon has forgotten that she lives in a house owned by everyone in Scotland. And that she had been given the trust of the people.
Had being the keyword.
With apologies to FDR.
So who is the puppet & who is the master? Wouldn’t surprise me if an (unauthorised, naturally) biography of Alex Salmond didn’t appear in (say) Ireland naming names & publishing the unpublishable. Shades of ‘Spycatcher’.
I was always intrigued that Leslie Evans always began her evidence with the words ‘For the record I am giving evidence on behalf of ministers and not in a personal capacity.’ This statement seems to me to say that she is claiming that everything she did was at the behest of government ministers and that is why she is still in her job.
Time to move on, says WGD.
Didn’t Nevillle Chamberlain say something similar after Munich?
@McDuff – you’re not alone sir. I’m slightly surprised that Stu has posted a photo of Leslie Evans instead of Wolffe…Evans was just obeying orders. Wolffe, on the other hand, is threatening The Spectator, Guido Fawkes and whistle-blowers; it seems to me that once crooks like Wolffe start running Scotland, it’s time to hang yourself from a tree. Personally speaking, I would bag that bastard immediately.
Surely, there’s going to be a sacrificial lamb.
Any party that signed the Vow and did not deliver what they promised to the people all these years later, and then agreed to pass the Evil bill for England the day after will not get my vote, any party that wants to exterminate a race of people whom are their neighbours will not get my vote,
Any party that causes deliberate chaos between gods male and female gender will not get my vote.
Any party that admits lying is ok during an election will not get my vote,
Any party that promised independence, and then deliberately flunked it will not get my vote,
And this leads to the recognition there are no parties here in Scotland that even come within a hairs breath of being honest, reliable, or hold integrity. It’s akin to a desert here in Scotland,
It’s time the people took control,
Craig Murray’s most recent blog is terrifying. The whole administration believes it can do what it wants .
Stu – I’ll take that offer of a bet you made yesterday.
I’m heartbroken by all of this. This has got under my skin in a way that politics usually doesn’t.
A lot of people here talk about independence as if it was a holy fire that would cleanse the SNP – it’s not and it wouldn’t. The same names – including those that have insinuated themselves into the party recently – would be the first batch of names on big boy job titles like Home Secretary, Minister for Trade and Industry and Foreign Secretary.
They’d have to negotiate our exit from the UK.
Without transparency in government – frankly, there would only be WoS to tell us what clauses were being agreed to in our name for political expediency. I’ll suggest Faslane and Prestwick Airport in return for extended use of some rUK departments like DVLA, Social Security and so in to give an idea of the sorry mess that would ensue, hidden from the public gaze as far as they possibly could get away with. We’ve seen how rotten they are with the Salmond affair.
We’d also be negotiating against the UK Government and Whitehall – with our own civil service newly decoupled from Whitehall. We’d be outgunned. They’ve just built their skills with Brexit. A withdrawal agreement – and trade agreements – are thick binding documents. Read the terms and conditions of your own home insurance, or your car insurance and try and find the traps in there – because they are there. Little forms of words that allow them to reject your claim. Magnify that by 10. Building up a depth of skill in those fields takes time, and at this moment we don’t have anyone skilled there – because there has been literally no need to be. People would be literally working on those crucial documents with no applicable experience – and those documents can (and will be) be loaded with clever traps. Each one that slides through is a time bomb.
Think about the share of the UK national debt that a sulky rUK might try and foist on us. And now look at the state of the SNP today. Lazy, corrupt and focused on all of the wrong things. And above all focused on their own sorry skins.
This matters because – Stu, I disagree and bet you 100 sheets, that there will be an independence referendum in the next term of a majority SNP government, or an SNP / Green coalition. While not covered by the terms of this bet, there will at the very least be a serious push to make one happen – not just the usual pretendy National front page grabber.
Nicola Sturgeon is seriously unhinged and has just survived an attempted series of political assasinations. She’s already behaving as if she’s politically immortal, and in the eyes of the electorate she probably is. If the front page says ‘Sturgeon Cleared’ then to the average voter that’s a tick in the box, move on. Who cares if DRoss has a problem with it, sour grapes is all that is.
I firmly believe that Nicola’s game plan is simple – to deliver a referendum and get a Yes vote and step down with a ‘heavy heart’ – and on to an international job. I don’t think she is smart enough to navigate an independent country to prosperity, and I think she knows it. If we don’t prosper, what is independence for?
Only a disciplined and focused SNP could lead us through the obstacles and allow us to be succesful like Iceland, Estonia, Norway.
I don’t see the kind of mature Nation Building thought in the SNP that would be urgently needed post-referendum. These are not people who sit around desks in closed rooms in Bute House figuring out how to make an Independent Scotland work. That’s donkey work for someone else.
I hope you’ll take the bet.
Sorry this one is long i.e. “Get your own f*cking blog” long.
10/10 for the Beastie Boys.
@Mark Boyle 10.36am
Which part of this are you finding hard to understand Mark?
Plenty of average SNP voters will be attracted to the prospect of Bob depriving Robertson of a seat. Many on here have said so. He raised thousands in a few days, where Robertson took weeks, and is still way short of his target.
The Greens are standing here again, which deprives Robertson of a good few thousand pro-indy votes that would otherwise go to him. Such is the state of the SNP that I actually don’t give a flying fuck at a rolling donut if one of the yoon candidates get in: since the SNP aren’t going to deliver a referendum or independence it makes little odds. Without a majority, hopefully the SNP & Greens won’t be able to impose their policy agenda quite as easily over the next 5 years?
You may be sanguine about the HCB, self ID and a bunch of proven incompetents and liars being in power for the next 5 years, but those of us who are paying attention aren’t going to vote for it.
Of course, Evans isn’t the only one who might have been sacked. There are a few high ranking civil servants that can’t be fired for the same reasons (they know too much about Sturgeon’s real role).
This isn’t over, though. It’s basically impossible to keep secrets when so many people know the truth. Sturgeon will be dogged by this for the rest of her life. It’ll seem to disappear then burst back to the fore as new evidence emerges, etc.
Justice only need to win once. Injustice needs to win a thousand times.
Frank Gillougley says:
24 March, 2021 at 9:36 am
“The immediate temporary solution lies within us all right here”
This is something I’ve been mulling over for some time. Personally, this seems like my only option. The SNP are not getting my vote, and there’s not a hope in hell that I’m giving a vote to the Greens or any of the others (2nd vote to A N Other Indy list party of course) . To my mind, spoiling the ballot as a protest vote is my only option. As many others appear to be considering same then, for maximum impact, there needs to be an element of co-ordination so as not to confuse a drop in support for the SNP with a drop in support for Indy. This is something I’ve linked to a couple of times before (apologies if such repetition is frowned upon) link to votenone.org.uk
I don’t know if it’s the best way but it’s one way. Not voting will achieve nothing. Everyone needs to get out to vote, whether as a protest or not. Will it make a difference at the end of the day? Who knows, but it seems it’s the only power we have left.
The problem is, which trans, misogyny, and other identity and rights issues are used to divert from, is that the SNP has moved rapidly from appealing to a working-class base to a middle-class one. In the manner of New Labour.
Hear hear. Time for the voters to boot them out.
Honestly can’t disagree with the rationale. A number of people now have to resign or be fired. But the tone of this is very poor Stu – really giving a weapon to those who fear you most. I’m all for blunt language, but this really crossed a line for me. Been reading you for years – not always agreeing but always appreciating. Donated to plenty of your fundraisers, but sorry Stu, I’m out of here.
” I’m all for blunt language, but this really crossed a line for me.”
Eh?
Deerhill @ 9.45
So Evans retires in a year and no doubt writes her memoirs.
What does Sturgeon do then, when the whole sordid story is in print? Or does she have something reciprocal on Evans?
– rough guess… Evans is offered an extra golden handshake if she signs a non-disclosure agreement upon retiring and I’m sure she could be ‘persuaded’ that it was in her interests to do exactly that.
I agree with the new Labour leader – this was a day of shame for Scotland and the FM couldn’t contain her shameless glee.
As Henry Macleish said this morning, Scotland has had 20 years of fairly progressive politics but when the person becomes more of an issue than the party/policies then there is definitely something wrong.
Newspaper commentators think that we heard some of the best speeches ever in Holyrood yesterday because people were speaking with passion – spot on, it has been humdrum politics for the past 5 or so years (except for gender issues) and the serious heavy stuff has been ignored. No further down the road to Indy, out of Europe, education bumping along the bottom…
Not a good record going into an election but Nicola has had a humdinger of a pandemic and LOADS of people think she has done so well with that, that nothing else really matters and she’ll walk the election.
I hope I’m wrong.
I see one of the trade unions representing civil servants is advocating no sackings their theory is to learn the lessons and fix the issues within rather than constant sackings and turn over of staff, I would of expected them to say no different but surely incomptance of these levels requires heads to roll
True Scot- I will take you up on that bet.
There will be no referendum and Sturgeon will only serve half a term.
Make it a tenner.
Giesabrek: At this stage I honestly don’t know what will bring her down
We there is the traditional approach of voting her and the rest of the cabal out of office.
“But, but, think of indy!” I hear you cry. Well it’s about time the independence movement moved to the acceptance phase of grieving for the SNP and start looking for alternatives. Any vote on independence is going to be delivered on the SNP’s terms. That means, if, there is a referendum, the continuation of the the party, post-independence, will be assured. So you have to ask yourself whether you want to clean up the mess now or later – when, I think, it will be immeasurably more difficult.
In any case there’s going to be payback for all of this. Manny Singh is already paying again for opposing the SNP. Craig is up next.
The only possible silver lining is that an SNP minority government might struggle to pass the kind of legislation we have seen of late. I guess that would depend on the Greens though and we know they have a penchant for claiming women can have penises…
Is Salmond intending to do some sort of press conference today?
“in any normal functioning democracy”
Well spotted Stu. Scotland is not even close to a ‘normal functioning democracy’. Colonialism is always oppression, and what we see proves it. Gove’s hounds are on the loose. Our choice seems clear: independence or more jails.
@Mike Lothian
“no mater the cost” I don’t normally do Freudian slips, but that one is irresistible.
Richard M @ 10.37
So the Scottish Gov were so upset about sexual harassment that they made a new policy that would allow them to prosecute Former Ministers, and apparently within days, women came forward with eligible complaints.
Can anyone say what is happening about the sexual harassment claims against Patrick Grady, the suspended Chief Whip of the WM SNP group, that Nicola has known about since 2016 and ignored – or has that gone very quiet for some reason.
Or is she having to make a new policy that might just find the claims inadmissible this time?
Keep the feet to the fire.
So moving on from SALMONDGATE, is it now BUTTERSTONEGATE?
@mark boyle:
BPB was just an example. I don’t know much about the guy. The wider principles for me are about balancing the following:
1. damaging the worst parts of the SNP; that is pretty clearly Nicola and Angus at the top of that particular list;
2. having a minority SNP dependent on the votes of people who actually want indy;
3. not giving MSM and the British gov the opportunity to say indy support has dropped e.g. by unionist/Brit vote taking 50% of the vote
If that means voting for someone who is an arsehole but is clearly pro indy, I’m up for that. If it means letting a Tory into parliament at the expense of the worst of SNP, I’m up for that so long as it doesn’t threaten principles 2 and 3.
Far be it for me to lecture anyone, and God knows I don’t have the expertise in any case, but I do think there are far too many who take a puritanical approach to their politics. My underlying principle (that lies behind the three points above) is that the British Empire (or what is left of it) needs to be removed from Scotland. I can be slightly flexible on my morals in terms of how that is achieved, though for the benefit of the COPFS if they’re reading, I’m not talking about doing anything illegal.
Calum @ 11.17
Green party policies – I can add to your comment. There was a radio interview with the female co-leader of the Greens a couple of days back and she was saying that their next targets included making it easier for children to access puberty- blocking drugs to help them change gender without having to go through such a terrible experience.
There is a slightly less hypothetical reason why Leslie Evans escapes action: if any kind of disciplinary action was taken or proposed against her, her ‘Trade Union’, the First Division Association, would insist that civil servants do not act for themselves, but for the government — of which they are only the agents. The doctrine of Ministerial Responsibility is just this: it is the elected Ministers who take individual responsibility for what the Government does.
So, as I understand it, no disciplinary action of any kind could be taken against Ms Evans, uness it was first shown that she had broken the Civil Service Code by acting wrongly on her own behalf, rather than at the behest of ministers. It’s my belief — only a belief, of course — that she has all the documentary proof she needs to show that she has not broken the Civil Service code.
If anyone wants a bit of light amusement, I’ve seen a few of the Sturgeon loyal recently loudly proclaim they are blocking anyone with Cherries in their Twitter handles as cherries are the sign of StuAnon, alt-nat whatevers who despise Sturgeon and are plotting against her.
Yet I follow an English journalist on Twitter who has such cherries in her Twitter name. As a sign of solidarity with a feminist politician who’s taking abuse for speaking up for women’s rights issues. That particular journalist is someone I know from long before the first indyref from another platform entirely. She was (afaik still is) wholly opposed to independence and we had some right humdinger arguments about it back in the day. Her knowledge of Scottish politics isn’t brilliant. I’m sure she’d be completely bemused to find herself labelled a StuAnon conspiracy theorist who hates Sturgeon. She’s quite a big fan of Sturgeon these days too, I believe, since Brexit.
Those doing the blocking are the people shouting at us all to “UNITE!”
.
Hi Stuart,
It is rare that you are wrong chief, but there is a technical error in your report.
You must now refer to this appalling, despicable piece of troughing vileness as…
Lady Evans, Baroness of Burke & Hare.
Though you are absolutely correct Stu., that disgusting creepy looking woman does know where Nicola Sturgeon has buried her proverbial skeletons.
The trouble is, so do many others. What Nicola and Baroness Evans fail to understand is that every second of every day they spend in the fancy offices with the expensive limos and the self-aggrandising titles is a day that they are being studied very closely by lawyers, barristers, some honest police officers and frankly a lot of people above the backstabbing Dreghorn Dirker’s paygrade.
All of the backstabbed people have career-ending information on the Holyrood Necropololis and the litany of literal body parts in the wake of these two broomstick driving haradans.
Who was it with said that…
All political careers end in failure.
The days of lying, scheming fake stitch-ups will soon be at an end.
Please forgive me placing my favourite clip showing the utter downfall and abysmal, tired, spent end of Margaret Thatcher’s life where she is just another of the pensioners she despised and even the brash young Yuppie she’d created queue jumped her.
Nicola and Evans, this is you. Evans is 69 years old so will be doing this in a year or two (the public domain info on Evans’ age is wrong, she was born in 1951).
Sturgeon is in her 51st year, but the rancid dishonesty coursing through her veins make her look 62 so she too will look like this supermarket creeping bag of bones very soon…
link to m.youtube.com
As for what Evans and Sturgeon are up to?
I just got word from an impeccable source that there is another television documentary maker who has hired some former police officers (now private detectives) to assist in uncovering some of the truth around every crooked word uttered from the badly applied lipstick slapstick as favored by these two harridans. Fortunately the anchor/narrator is from OVERSEAS and not your BBC State Broadcast Spitting Image puppet with Downing Street’s hand up the interviewer’s ‘erse. Nae wonder Sarah Smith has that weird smile with a proctocologist working her vocal chords from down under.
Both Sturgeon and Evans make me feel physically sick. They have stolen the future of Scotland from a whole generation.
I can’t name the documentary film maker, but Jim Browning might help with some hints. He has a growing reputation for taking down the modern plague of India and Pakistan – the call centre scammers.
Jim has some excellent videos on YouTube with millions of viewers. with what are very high production values given the fact he uses television equipment that cost him less than £5,000.
Sturgeon and Evans think they just WON something. God help them. Evans will be ennobled to the Palace of Thieves.
But Sturgeon?
She is being stitched up worse than Alex Salmond. She just doesn’t know it yet.
How can you tell? The Mainstream Media have put Nicola on a very high pedestal and are praising her to the hilt. Anyone with an iota of wisdom will know that Murdoch’s modus operandi is to build a person up so they believe their own ego.
Then crash. The MSM disembowel that person’s reputation.
In Scotland Nicola will be departing UNDER the number 26 bus between 30th April 2021 and 6th May 2021. She THINKS she will be safe with a modest minority government that will SAVE her from having to make good on her promise to hold IndyRef2.
In fact, Boris and his highly paid and very intelligent henchmen and women had a dream when the Buffoon defenestration Theresa May and Boris moved his bidey-in into Downing Street.
1/. To stamp his authority on Westminster and the 1922 Committee by sacking/removing the whip from 80 Tory MPs, including some of the Grandees.
2/. For Boris to win a stonking majority of obedient Tory MPs in the General Election at Westminster.
3/. Have the Tory Party win big in the North of England at the General Election.
4/. Have the the Labour Party destroyed under Corbyn and made unelectable under Starmer.
5/. Have the SNP Party destroyed.
6/. Have the SNP REMOVED from Westminster AND Holyrood for a generation, being at least 25 years.
7/. Have the SNP removed from controlling Scotland and reinstate the “Scottish Executive”. Either replaced at Bute House by a supine Lab/Lib bunch of red Tories, or the winning lottery for Boris: to have a Tory First Minister in Scotland.
Ask yourself this: That LIST may look ridiculous, but can you see any “wins” for Boris in there? If you can, then how many? Immediately he gets halfway through that list he will have won the war and be able to reclaim Scotland, just as he has won the red Labour strongholds in the north of England. Please pay attention at the back as this has been the Grand Plan all along.
This is the secret weapon of Boris Pfeffel Johnson. Give the impression he is a bumbling harmless clown. But he is one of the most ruthless successfull (twisted and lazy) politicians seen in the U.K. for 200 years.
It is within his gift to destroy the SNP. The poor and honourable foot soldiers knocking on doors and posting SNP leaflets for 50 years just haven’t seen it yet, The media will “discover” Sturgeon really did break many rules and BEFORE the 6th May 2021 the Sturgeonite McWoke scandals will fill the front pages of the Scottish media within 4 weeks from now.
Jimmy and Senga McGumpher, yer average SNP voter will end up just no bothering to vote, or Heaven forbid, they will LEND their vote tomthat awfully nice Conservative chap who promises to fix the potholes and increase the pensions and keep university fees abolished etc.
Apologies for the length of post, but it is true. For anyone who made it this far, enjoy Jim Browing taking remote control of aindian Scammers computers and returning the stolen money to the innocent…
link to m.youtube.com
NDLS. You echo the sentiment of so many previously staunch SNP supporters who will not now be voting SNP in either 1 or 2.
For some the choice not to vote SNP 1 is a difficult one. They have been SNP for maybe most of their life. But this is not the SNP they loved, worked for and were committed to. This is an SNP rotten to the core, and without commitment to independence. They are a cancer. The recent exposure of how they operate, run the party, rig the candidates, and try to destroy their independence opponents is testimony to that.
Cancer does not get better by feeding it, and whatever this current iteration of the SNP is it will not get any better feeding it votes – as it will only get worse.
So an AFI or ISP as voters can wisely choose for the list come May, and a vote for whoever is the best candidate for the constituency. Some of the choices may be quite interesting.
You cure cancer but cutting it out or zapping it. And that is what we must do with the SND I say that as a near forty year member.
Ciriscult…
“though for the benefit of the COPFS if they’re reading, I’m not talking about doing anything illegal.”
Since when did that stop them going after anyone!
Mwah-ha-ha…
Paragraph 29 above (from Ms A’s and Ms B’s evidence) is a warning to Nicola’s dedicated followers that they should begin preparing themselves.
‘….. but after that we were basically just dropped.’
‘I was quite taken aback because it felt as though we were just left to swim.’
When she decides that her personal interests lay elsewhere and therefore the acolytes are no longer of use – they will be ‘basically just dropped’.
Swimming lessons may be a wise precaution.
It’s a catch 22 (where’s Captain Yossarian?) – this craven display of contempt for Scots voters makes it impossible to vote for the SNP under the current leadership and yet, losing a sizable but not fatal percentage of their vote share and returning as a comfortable minority government is exactly what these hollow suits want. So there is a case for putting them in with a majority and exposing the non-existence of any viable plan for achieving independence. In the next term a realistic alternative pro-Independence party of governance must form and do nothing but hold the well-slippered feet to the fire.
Nicola Sturgeon may still have every confidence in Leslie Evans but what about the thousands of civil servants for whom she is the leader. If I was working for her she would have lost my confidence, but more importantly my respect, she will go soon as her staff cannot look to her as their leader and she will feel it. Her position is untenable.
O/T CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM: Grousebeater’s twitter “Today will be a good day”.
I’m feeling better already…
“But the Permanent Secretary is a vicious and spiteful woman and would have taken Nicola Sturgeon down with her,”
Once Evans retires, and if Sturgeon is still FM after that, Evans could still bring her down with her vicious and spiteful nature.
Big Jock – I’ll take that action my friend.
One of the most illuminating things to come out of this whole squalid debacle is just how petty NS and those around her are.
There is no statesman-like behaviour on display despite her hollow victory. There appear to be long-held resentments based on stuff most of us can only guess at being played out using our votes and institutions.
From their spiteful memes to their ‘likes’ on social media, they are operating at the level of student politics or football tribal factions. They are not worth voting for and they don’t deserve to have our trust.
TNS2019
“Captain Yossarian hits the nail on the head yet again”.
L O L. Comedy Gold!!
Bob Mack,
In the pit of despair, Someone said to me on 19 September 2014, “We go again.”
We didn’t. Coming up for seven years now.
A lot of scum under the bridge.
Yes indeed, What’s to be done?
“Scotland’s Example…
In Scotland this week we have seen where this leads. On the one hand an ‘independent’ inquiry set up by the Scottish government has declared that the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, is not guilty of misleading parliament. On the other a committee of the Scottish parliament has declared that she was. How can both be right? The trouble is that the reports have been so limited by the limitation of evidence, and redactions, that the whole picture has not come out – leaving the politicians and media free to make their own choice, according to their own political biases. This is not justice. This is not the rule of law.
Scotland is moving towards a system where political control of, and influence over, the judiciary will result in a legal system which favours only those in power.
Equality before the law will disappear. Australia is in enormous danger of following the same route. A senior Scottish judge once told me that it was the job of the judiciary to keep up with public opinion. That is a horrendous notion of law. Judgment by whatever the media or politicians tell you ‘the people’ want becomes the end of justice. But the law should be without fear or favour.
The Basis of Law
The justice system that has evolved in the West has been based upon the presumption of innocence, the necessity of proof (including witnesses), equality before the law.
Remove these and you remove justice.
Ref. link to theweeflea.com
Alf Baird says:
24 March, 2021 at 11:18 am
“in any normal functioning democracy”
Well spotted Stu. Scotland is not even close to a ‘normal functioning democracy’. Colonialism is always oppression, and what we see proves it.
I agree we do, but at the same time, and speaking from personal experience, this sophistry we are seeing from Sturgeon’s Government, this mismanagement of legitimate grievances, this collusion with associates, this willful incompetence beyond credible belief, is the EXACT same modus operandi as a Local Authority, Quango or a Public Utility when dealing with a legitimate complaint from a punter.
For Sturgeons rotten cleek lining their nest with public resource, read the Council Boardroom filling its pockets, for Leslie Evans and her civil Service rogues, read the corrupt Councillors who legitimise Council corruption and turn a blind eye to nepotism, for Sturgeons “favourites” (and “pariahs”), read Private Contractors, some of whom who are readily given easy access to work, while others are ostracised, branded troublemakers, and left to their own devices. For the Parliamentary Inquiries, read referrals to Ombudsmen, fallacies designed to “pretend” there is an independent review and dilligent resolution of the punter’s grievance, when the reality is a foregone conclusion designed to protect the incompetent from the consequences of their incompetence, and obstruct and frustrate the aggrieved party until exasperation makes them give up.
This component of Scotland’s broken government isn’t colonialism. It’s the background level of rottenness and corruption which is endemic throughout Scottish Local Government, and tolerated, because too many people have too much to lose by ever coming clean. Keep your mouth shut, head down, and don’t rock the boat for everybody else. That cowardice and lack of integrity is the reason why the corruption is endemic and self renewing.
Sturgeon’s Government is simply conducting it’s affairs like any number of corrupt and incompetent Scottish Local Authority who have been cooking the books for decades, and farming public resource for their own rewards, and all the time making themselves untouchable.
Scotland NEEDS Independence, but not just for the sake of Independence itself, (though that is more than enough), but with Independence, Scotland has a chance to sweep away the rotten dysfunctional status quo, purge the crooks and gangsters from their cosy and untouchable fiefdoms, and modernise Scottish Government until it’s fit for purpose. And that will come as an unpleasant shock to the system for some, but an Oxygen rich breath of fresh air for Scotland’s emaciated commerce and industry.
There is no small fix to be explored. Devolution is a bust. It is Independence or nothing. Do NOT be satisfied with “normal” Democracy, because normal is pretty grubby when you see it up close. The emphasis must be the “Functioning” part.
@Andy Ellis says: 24 March, 2021 at 11:01 am
@Mark Boyle 10.36am
“Which part of this are you finding hard to understand Mark?”
Which part of hasn’t an ice cube’s chance in hell are you finding hard to understand?
“Plenty of average SNP voters will be attracted to the prospect of Bob depriving Robertson of a seat.”
Bullshit.
“Many on here have said so.”
No, you and many AFI bots who’d hadn’t the first bollocks about this clown said so. There’s a difference. Seem to remember a certain Jeremy Corbyn convinced he was about to thrash Boris because Labour had “won” Twitter – yep, that one worked out well.
Those who confuse the echo chambers of social media for the real world are always disappointed when reality bites (and then they come up with a conspiracy theory to explain it all away)
“He raised thousands in a few days, where Robertson took weeks, and is still way short of his target.”
So fking what? It’s easy to raise tens of thousands of pounds on GoFundMe from wallies with more money than sense if you have a “hilarious” video on YouTube to go with it. That Count Dankula prick (“I can make ma dug dae the Hitler salute, so ah can ahm such an edgelord lolz!”) and Prince Akkad or whatever managed the same for their UKIP candidatures and look what a rip roaring success they turned out not to be.
If it was thousands from people actually in the Edinburgh Central constituency, he might be onto something, but nowadays all you have to do on YouTube is stick up a video saying “the monachy’s wankers, rich people are wankers, etc.” and you’ll get thousands of student wankers flinging money at their “Buy Me A KoFi” or whatever.
As the late Jim Mitchell warned, “Never underestimate the stupidity of the general public”.
“The Greens are standing here again, which deprives Robertson of a good few thousand pro-indy votes that would otherwise go to him.”
And people are going to vote for them and risk the Tory getting back in when they already hold the majority of council seats in the constituency. Yeah, can see that flag flying.
“Such is the state of the SNP that I actually don’t give a flying fuck at a rolling donut if one of the yoon candidates get in: since the SNP aren’t going to deliver a referendum or independence it makes little odds.”
So it’s nothing to do with reality, it’s all about how you feel and what you want – well, sorry Skippy, but the world doesn’t work that way. In first past the post elections, if people cannot get their own preferred over the line, they will vote for whoever will keep the candidate they like least out.
Vote for Bonny Prince Bob to win Edinburgh Central and beat Angus Robertson. I’ve just crowdfunded him. Check out his youtube Channel.
The SNP don’t want Independence in the next 5 years. So by not voting for them, we’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain – The prize will be ridding Scotland and saying no to corruption – pushing them off the gravy train. They are a self serving political class. Because the SNP are asking us to vote to expire a perfectly valid mandate for Independence, for a false promise to ask for permission to do so again. That is an illusion of democracy. That is self preservation not self determination. I say, no thanks!
There’s no better example of a careerist politician than Angus Robertson, who got rich in London representing Moray for 15 years, standing for Edinburgh Central purporting to knows it better than the people that live there. Such as Joanna Cherry, who lives there, and was blocked from running by the NEC because Nicola Sturgeon saw her as a threat. I say hold their feet to the fire.
I can’t in good conscience vote for the SNP on First Past the Post. I’m a supporter of Alex Salmond. I might have to leave the box empty. But what I can vote for, I want to vote for Action for Independence on the list seat – so that men like Martin Keating’s currently leading people’s action on section 30, against the Scottish Government; Tommy Sheridan who’s ever vocal with the grassroots of Indy at All Under one Banner rallies. And Craig Murray, who is facing 2 years in prison for being an Alex Salmond supporter – jigsaw identification – then the SNP have created a martyr over the Salmond scandal. This will only reaffirm my commitment to vote for Action for Independence.
In 5 years time we’ll have men and women that actually want to lead this country to Independence leading the charge.
Yesterday’s circus saddened me. No one was held to account. No ownership taken of the hatchet job. Our Parliament facilitated corruption, and Patrick Harvie bent the knee for Sturgeon. It’s outrageous. It’s sad that its come to this, I fear the Tories will wade into this now over corruption allegations. The Tories are about to intervene in Liverpool over corruption allegations. They can not wait to take over Holyrood.
The voting choices for Argyll and Bute constituency are very poor.
Four candidates.
Ulta-conservative (small-c) demographic, I admit, but still…
Ultra-conservative.
“That Count Dankula prick (“I can make ma dug dae the Hitler salute, so ah can ahm such an edgelord lolz!”) and Prince Akkad or whatever managed the same for their UKIP candidatures and look what a rip roaring success they turned out not to be.”
He was, in many eyes, the first victim.
The trial run as it were.
And he crowdfunded his defence and appeal. And he never saw a penny of the money personally. So … just fuck off.
Stu, I’m not sure what democracy (functioning or otherwise) has to do with Ms Evans’ continuing employment. I say this because it appears the Scottish Parliament can’t hold a vote to terminate said employment contract regardless of her failings. Oh to be a fly on the wall when her line manager (NS?) sits her down for her annual appraisal – “great job Lesley …result! “.
Also, I speculate what might have happened had the complainers gone directly to the Police when the incidents of alleged harassment occurred. Would NS have jumped to the defence of AS? I doubt they’d have got any support then from the SG. The 2 complainers appear to think they went unsupported after the JR but perhaps they expected too much.
Breeks says:
“This component of Scotland’s broken government isn’t colonialism. It’s the background level of rottenness and corruption which is endemic throughout Scottish Local Government, and tolerated, because too many people have too much to lose by ever coming clean. Keep your mouth shut, head down, and don’t rock the boat for everybody else.”
This sums up sturgeon/scot gov, the SNP and Scotland, generally, in a nutshell. Wolves and sheep.
“Plenty of average SNP voters will be attracted to the prospect of Bob depriving Robertson of a seat.”
Bob is an absolute grade-A wanker who’s just shilling for beer money – not a fucking penny of it will be spent on campaigning – but hey, I just did a comedy fundraiser for gin so that’s not the problem here. The problem here is that if he takes enough votes to deprive Robertson of the seat, who do we get instead?
I’ll tell you who: Graham fucking Campbell.
A Tory will get in either way, because if Robertson gets the constituency seat a Tory will come in on the list instead. But similarly if Robertson fails that all but guarantees an SNP list seat, and Campbell is top of the list. He’s an even bigger cunt, and has no more connection to Edinburgh than Robertson does.
Honestly, fuck both of them, and fuck Bob as well, but by a margin so small you’d need an electron microscope to measure it then out of the three I’d rather Robertson.
(It’s much the same as the Glasgow Southside situation. You’re not choosing between Anas Sarwar and Nicola Sturgeon – Sarwar is top of the Labour list so he’s getting in no matter what happens. What you’re effectively doing with your constituency vote in Glasgow Southside is choosing between two SNP MSPs – Sturgeon or Roza Salih. If you’d prefer Salih, vote Sarwar on the constituency paper.)
@David H says:
24 March, 2021 at 12:10 pm
Vote for Bonny Prince Bob to win Edinburgh Central and beat Angus Robertson. I’ve just crowdfunded him. Check out his youtube Channel.”
Fools and their money are soon parted:
link to imgur.com
The same person who called Wings Over Scotland a ‘Snake Oil Selling Charatan Piss Artist’ three years ago now wants WoS readers and supporters to vote for him on May 6th 2021.
Nope!
@wee monkey says: 24 March, 2021 at 12:13 pm
“And he crowdfunded his defence and appeal. And he never saw a penny of the money personally. So … just fuck off.”
I was talking about his ELECTION CANDIDATURE. So … just learn to read, champ.
In this reaction from Nicola Sturgeon to it’s report, I think the Inquiry has inadvertently received a perfect demonstration of the hubris and arrogance that ultimately led to the damning findings of the judicial review. Says it all.
Team Nicola doesn’t give shit about what anyone says or thinks. Her own counsel, the court of session, the jury in AS’s trial, the Inquiry currently castigating Leslie Evans… Everyone else is always wrong and it is always all Alex Salmond’s fault… He made them do all the bad things they did.
It is some performance when you step back from it.
They are drunk on their own power. It seems to have affected everyone in Sturgeon’s inner circle.
Leslie Evans is out of control, Liz Lloyd, Judith MacKinnon, Sue Ruddick, Peter Murrell, James Wollfe, The Crown Office, the list goes on…
But in every case all roads lead back to the mad wee harridan in the red dress hissing and spitting her toxic venom.
The tone that Sturgeon must be setting, the example she leads by, must be wildly toxic because everyone around her is out of control.
Failure to separate the executive from the judiciary, and in fact using the judiciary to eliminate your political rivals, Mugabe style.
Failure to deal with the inherent dodgyness of a husband and wife pairing occupying the roles of CEO of the SNP and First Minister.
Failure to deal with the outrageous behaviour of everyone she surrounds herself with at every single step of the way and irrespective of who tells her, be it Salmond’s lawyers, the court of session, the jury, the inquiry…
I think you’re missing the most sinister precedent this whole debacle has set:
The Executive is no longer answerable to Parliament.
The Civil Service now serves the Executive, not the country.
The Executive serves it’s own interests
The Scottish Parliament has no integrity, it does not serve the public interest it was democratically elected to perform
Regardless of our constitutional stance, we should all be very, very concerned where this path we have been set upon leads us.
Another_Ian_Blackford_Speech says:
So there is a case for putting them in with a majority and exposing the non-existence of any viable plan for achieving independence.
In the next term a realistic alternative pro-Independence party of governance must form and do nothing but hold the well-slippered feet to the fire.
Reply
Sounds like a better plan than leaving Scotland, not voting, hibernating, voting Unionist.
‘John Lewis announces eight store closures’
How easy is it going to be for a government in Holyrood in the next five years?
I would say it will be pretty difficult. Lots of protest and very unhappy people.
Who would you like to see being handed this ‘poisoned chalice’?
“Sturgeon or Roza Salih. If you’d prefer Salih, vote Sarwar on the constituency paper.”
I’m looking for someone to chuck eggs at (metaphorically speaking) so I would vote Sturgeon.
Rev 12:19pm
This is exactly the type of stuff that we’d like (or at least I would). Most of us don’t have the time or the joined up thinking (or both) to put that analysis down and work out the best way to vote. Then there’s the related question of who we get behind e.g. fund, campaign for. Many of us are ready and willing as former activists but currently sitting on our asses.
Just follow the money.
First place to begin would be to compare the 2018 and 2019 accounts. And ‘donations’ would be a good starting point.
Because no one withholds books and hacks off their own people without a reason.
Exactly Munky@12.27pm. The greatest demonstration of power is to do whatever you wish in plain sight with impunity.
The very definition of an undemocratic state is one in which there are no curbs on power. We have entered the first phase of an authoritarian state. Blatant partiality, wrongdoing in government unpunished and the police and judicial authority acting as arms of the government not to mention a compliant media. ( It was a happy union when the Crown Office, with the Lord Advocate in cabinet, realised that their ambitions coincided with the authoritarian instincts of the governing party.)
I would like to ask those who are determined to support the SNP government no matter what if they have any concept of a functioning democracy at all? Some of them might be gloating and gleeful about the outcome of recent events but many of us who campaigned and leafleted and marched for an idea of a decent little democracy feel betrayed by them as well as the SNP.
The worst thing you can do as a voter is signal to politicians that you will vote for them no matter what. You cannot forgive those on your own side for malfeasance which you decry in others. You might blind yourselves to iniquity and lies in the beginning but in time, that serpent will strangle even your feeble concept of democracy. You will truly have the government you deserve.
‘Vampire cancer? Get a fucking grip.
I agree that NS can’t give LE the push, because she knows where all the bodies are buried, but one other consideration should be, if NS disciplines, and/or sacks anyone for this, what legal grounds for suing will that provide Alex, and the original complainers to undertake.
Rather a lot I would suggest.
@Rev Stu 12.19
You can’t seriously expect me to vote for an odious carpetbagger like Robertson. I wouldn’t vote Green any more than I would SNP now, and none of the yoon parties will ever get my vote.
So what to do? Spoil my ballot, not use the constituency ballot, or vote for the equivalent of the Monster Raving Loonie candidate who might at least wipe the smirk off Robertson’s face. The election of Campbell on the list would be regrettable, but with that kind of Hobson’s choice I’d still prefer to ditch Robertson than Campbell. Having the latter foisted on us only reinforces the democratic shortcomings of the SNP.
I’d love there to be a better alternative, but there just isn’t. There is no viable alternative, it’s just a case of the least worst option. That’s something we’re going to hear a lot in the next five years.
Trust me, I’m not happy about there options. If I’d known what was in the cards in 2017 I’d honestly have tried to find a job and move to Ireland and qualify for citizenship there. 🙁
By convention, ministers can’t blame civil servants. If the civil service messes up, the minister resigns. So NS can’t sack Evans – if Evans has edone wrong, NS should resign.
It’s not “knowing where the bodiesn are buiried”.
Meg merrilees @ 11:28
That is exactly the shit I was meaning. Absolute insanity.
don’t forget Graham Campbell could end up being kicked off list if SNP policy on list is declared unlawful.
@Andy Ellis says: 24 March, 2021 at 1:57 pm
@Rev Stu 12.19
“… or vote for the equivalent of the Monster Raving Loonie candidate who might at least wipe the smirk off Robertson’s face.”
1. That fud is no way the equivalent of an OMRLP candidate, even the current shower of UKIP supporting pricks (did laugh my ass off when Lily The Pink – who is a good left-winger – effectively put the final nail in the post-Farage UKIP’s coffin at Brecon and Radnor 2019.
2. The ONLY time “joke” or parody candidates wipe the smirk off anyone’s faces is if they beat them. That’s it. Ask Stuart Hughes (nowadays a Tory) about the uproar (and physical intimidation he got) when he took two safe Sidmouth Tory seats off them in one night (a town council seat and district council seat) as a “Loony”.
As yer maw would have told you, it’s all fun and games until somebody loses a seat!
Falling behind a “Loony” candidate tends to be a credibility disaster with long term reprecussions (eg. the NF at Mid-Staffs 1990, the SDP at Bootle (1st) 1990, the Plaid Cymru/Green joint ticket at Monmouth in 1991), but not always.
Coming behind the OMRLP at the 2nd Bootle by-election was the wake up call the continuing Liberals needed, they flung themselves into targetted local work and built themselves small defendable support bases in Liverpool and the West Country.
But you would run out of fingers and toes trying to count the number of Marxist/Trotskyite parties/coalitions that have packed it in after just one such minter moment.
Johnny McNeill says:
24 March, 2021 at 9:34 am
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past”. Orwell, ‘1984’.
‘Six Weeks of Scotland’s Devolved Dissolved Reality’ (2021) by #GaslightingGilligan link to wp.me
Reply.
Just read this. It’s scary as I see this happening in Scotland at the moment. It’s a long read, though from chapter 2 onwards it relates to what’s happening in Scotland at the moment.
Stu, you say….
“”There can be little doubt as to the only reason Leslie Evans is still in a job this morning after the absolutely excoriating criticism of her in yesterday’s report from the Holyrood inquiry. It’s that she knows exactly where the First Minister’s bodies are buried.
There are no other circumstances in any normal functioning democracy under which Evans wouldn’t have been sacked in disgrace yesterday. Her vindictive, shambolic, rushed and incompetent mess of a complaints procedure grotesquely failed and poisoned everyone it touched, from Alex Salmond to the complainers to the taxpayers of Scotland, every sorry step of the way.””
Sadly there IS another reason that the evil, unionist 5th Columnist, Leslie Evans is still in a job today.
That is that Nicola probably does NOT have the Power to sack her.
How much easier could Nicola’s recent ordeal have been if she was able to simply throw Evans under the bus and then sack her???
We are a Colony yet.
Westminster and Whitehall play the tune and we all dance to it.
It is NOT Nicola v Alex.
The conspiracy run by Evans, shows us that it’s in fact:-
Nicola AND Alex AND all of us in the Movement v the entire Unionist establishment, which is backed and supported by virtually the whole of the print and broadcast media.
Nobody said this would be easy.
“The conspiracy run by Evans, shows us that it’s in fact:-
Nicola AND Alex AND all of us in the Movement v the entire Unionist establishment”
It really really isn’t.
Rev. Stuart Campbell says:
24 March, 2021 at 12:12 pm
” I’m all for blunt language, but this really crossed a line for me.”
Eh?
“ Only fire can cleanse this vampire cancer.”
“Big blonde bitch”
The SNP is a cult with members who appear to occupy senior positions in the Civil Service, the judiciary and the MSM.
As head of the cult Ms. Sturgeon will never be expected to resign whatever misdemeaners may occur in the governance of Scotland.
Since the cult’s supporters are driven to a frenzy in their fanatical hatred of England I do not expect any diminuation in the SNP’s support in the forthcoming elections.
Compare that to the German Chancellor who just gave a statement to the German nation apologising for a Covid-related fuck up by saying “This is my mistake and my mistake alone. Because, ultimately, the responsibility for everything we do rests with me – due to my position.”
(That was related to a well-intended but ultimately flawed measure experts had recommended, and she had accepted, but when it became clear it couldn’t be done/wouldn’t work/would do more harm than good, she abandoned those plans, took responsibility, then apologised to the nation.)
Too true, Rev Stu.
Must be ‘bones, closet, much’.
Calum says:
24 March, 2021 at 11:17 am
The only possible silver lining is that an SNP minority government might struggle to pass the kind of legislation we have seen of late. I guess that would depend on the Greens though and we know they have a penchant for claiming women can have penises…
Meg merrilees says:
24 March, 2021 at 11:28 am
Calum @ 11.17
Green party policies – I can add to your comment. There was a radio interview with the female co-leader of the Greens a couple of days back and she was saying that their next targets included making it easier for children to access puberty- blocking drugs to help them change gender without having to go through such a terrible experience.
I can confirm that the Scottish Green Party Constitution (2019) defines ‘Gender’ as follows:
“Gender
Throughout this document, any references to a specific gender
denotes people who live full-time as the respective gender.
Any references to gender in the abstract denotes all lived
genders,
and includes the rejection of gender norms and labels.”
So Scottish Green Party (SGP) official policy currently has been summed up in the following ditty I’ve repeatedly heard:
“Some guys have a vagina –
Some gals a penis, too.
We’re not allowed to say ‘That’s wrong!’ –
It’s normal, and it’s true.”
Policy to bear in mind and question candidates on – in this and the other parties?
Sorry, I don’t believe that she should be the sacrificial lamb.
She should go, because she is a grown up and shouldn’t have let herself get mired in this excrement, but she wasn’t the driver, she was following instructions.
And if she is sacrificed to save others, the rot at the core will remain, and they will consider themselves untouchable. Because they will be untouchable.
Maybe I’m being naive but The Prince standing against Robertson appeals to me and if I lived in that constituency I would vote for him, to stop Robertson but also to stop the SNP, but at the same time it’s a vote for Independence. If The Prince were to get in it would be good for Independence. What if we could do the same in every SNP constituency seat. Find a Prince to stand in each bar the ones with decent SNP candidates. It costs £500 to stand. There are 73 constituencies. Say 50 were targeted that’s £25k. Lets find more Princes to stand as Independent Candidates for Independence and crowdfund their fees. When all the votes are counted it will show a majority for Independence
@Gordi says: 24 March, 2021 at 8:25 pm
“Maybe I’m being naive but The Prince standing against Robertson appeals to me and if I lived in that constituency I would vote for him, to stop Robertson but also to stop the SNP, but at the same time it’s a vote for Independence.”
OK, what part of
1. No SNP inclined voting fker’s going to vote for a “joke” candidate.
2. No guarantee he’s not going to simply trouser the money for his other projects in his piss pot attempts to become a “celebrity”.
3. If Robertson loses, Sam Campbell (ex-Socialist Workers Party until bedded an SNP councillor) gets in via the list “top ups” – and another Tory gets the constituency seat.
4. link to imgur.com
The same person who called Wings Over Scotland a ‘Snake Oil Selling Charatan Piss Artist’ three years ago to please the cybernats now wants WoS readers and supporters to vote for him on May 6th 2021.
Hello Stu
You said “…only the most hopelessly blind and gullible voter can now fail to recognise the rotten state of Scotland when not even a token sacrifice has been made in the wake of this rolling catastrophe of corrupt, inept governance.”
I can understand why you said it, but I am not sure I agree with that analysis. A friend of mine who has been a Nationalist for many years is dismissive of everything concerning Alex Salmond, and in her mind the failure to deal with Evans will merely be a demonstration that there was no substance to the position taken by Alex.
It may sound as if I am implying that she is some kind of Sturgeonite, but that is not the case. She is an SNP supporter because in her view the SNP is the party of Independence.
She has looked on my involvement with ISP with bemusement, as she just cannot understand why I think it necessary.
Rev. Stuart Campbell says,
“It’s much the same as the Glasgow Southside situation. You’re not choosing between Anas Sarwar and Nicola Sturgeon – Sarwar is top of the Labour list so he’s getting in no matter what happens. What you’re effectively doing with your constituency vote in Glasgow Southside is choosing between two SNP MSPs – Sturgeon or Roza Salih. If you’d prefer Salih, vote Sarwar on the constituency paper.)”
I would prefer absolutely anyone except Sturgeon.