Services rendered
Readers, we can’t tell you how much we want to get back to just dissecting Scotland’s hopeless Unionist media for a living. It’s a lot more fun than what the current political circumstances are obliging us to do, so you can hardly imagine our excitement when we spotted what looked like an open goal in yesterday’s Mail On Sunday.
Our ears pricked up immediately at the sight of the words “up to”, which is invariably a sign of dodgy doings on the way, and so it proved. The article contained no solid data at all about the size of Scottish Government special advisers’ pay rises, only how many SpAds there were and which general pay bands they were in, each of which spans a wide range of between £14,000 and £23,000.
But while the Mail had spooned the sitter six feet over the crossbar – because the crude spin they’d put on it was total rubbish – there was still a loose ball just waiting to be knocked into the back of the net.
Because what the article revealed was that the pay BAND for the top level of special adviser – a category inhabited only by the First Minister’s chief of staff Liz Lloyd – had seen its maximum rocket in a single year from £83,000 to £104,000 – a staggering 25% leap, coming at a time when most public sector employees are doing very well to get a tenth as much.
What, we wondered, might Liz Lloyd have done in 2018 that required her maximum salary to be increased by a breathtaking £21,000 in appreciation? (After all, she’s the only person in that bracket, and if you’re not going to pay someone £104K then why do you need to make it possible for them to get £104K?)
The previous upper limit of the top band was already a handsome wage – more than either Holyrood or Westminster MPs get – so it’s difficult to argue that she wasn’t already being adequately remunerated for whatever it was she’d been up to.
And we can’t answer the question, of course. Readers will simply have to speculate for themselves as to why the First Minister appears to be almost as grateful to Liz Lloyd as she is to Leslie Evans. We can see that our lawyers are already racing towards us with panicked expressions and a cricket bat, so we’ll have to leave it there and run.
.
[EDIT 6 OCTOBER: We did some digging on this, and the Mail has reported the story incorrectly. The pay bands for SpAds don’t actually appear to have changed for many years. What’s happened is that Lloyd, and Lloyd alone, appears to have been promoted from Band 3 – with a maximum salary of £84,000 – up two levels to Band 4, with a range of £87,000 to £104,000. The question of why still applies.]
2017:
2019:
Greedy, corrupt, dishonest, untrustworthy …
If only they’d used their powers for good, instead of plotting to get an innocent man jailed
The word “bounty” keeps coming into my head.
Maybe I’m just peckish.
Those two can never be fired they have too much on the FM, some of it we already know about, hence, the eye popping salaries.
One of the pay structures that I’ve inhabited in the past was based on entry level (85% of actual salary point) that generally lasted about a year and then was reviewed and if you met the performance criteria you were then upped to the standard salary point (i.e. 100%).
The next aiming point was the “enhanced performance” point which was “up to” 115% of the standard amount. This was subject to annual review with 360° criteria applied (i.e. comments from minions, peer group and boss(es)) which then went into a national puddle of competing claims. Only the blue-eyed boys & girls got the top whack. The rest of us might have managed a couple of percent if we kept our noses clean.
Apart from the unbearable stench of corruption every single one of these people are totally unqualified to hold their position. The only common quality they have is loyalty to the rotten regime.
I was looking at the CV of the SNP COO the other day. Same.
Adding to earlier 5:25pm comment …
So, being kind, maybe she’s been allocated wiggle-room for a performance bonus. But that STILL begs the question about why 25%.
I’m willing to bet that there’s nothing in the public domain that tells us what the performance criteria are.
I feel so sorry for SNP rank and file who pay for this crap.
“I feel so sorry for SNP rank and file who pay for this crap”
These are Scottish Government salaries, not SNP ones, so we’re all paying for them.
Blimey.
Imagine getting all that special advice and this is how it ends up.
Hope she kept receipts.
Oh! Meenister, ye’r an awfy man, so ye ur.
Yet another question that will be swiftly avoided at the conference
SNP are avoiding.
I am just trying to lift my jaw off the floor. It fell in an uncontrolled way as I was reading.Seems to me that there some people who are living in a dream world, and I mean that in more ways than one.
I am trying to not express myself in sweary and indignant terms. Looks horribly like creepy cronyism-(difficult to avoid any other conclusion)-a match for Johnson’s gov. of pals, any day, if not in scale-then certainly in tone and quality. My only reservation here is that if there was to be a restoration of sanity, that would cost even more, and heap injury on to insult.
May I reinforce the legal point that in no circumstances must readers indulge in any speculation as to what this was rewarding.
Judas Iscariot turned down a job stating that taking it would lead to corruption way above his pay grade !!
Craig Murray- but are we allowed to read between the lines or insert mid-line ghost writing.
In this case the ghosts are ghoulishly visible.There is also a distinct olfactory stimulus going on here. Poo!
Is everyone involved in this sordid business to fit up Alex a female? Murrell being the exception that proves the rule. All super woke, super under qualified, super over paid. It is like they are getting them all from the same pool of untalented psychos prepared to do anything to protect their own artificial ascent and the hand that feeds them. They are all real bad news.
Look, the First Minister needs somebody to carry her book bag.
You can’t expect her to carry them herself, and she needs something to do when she’s sitting there not arranging for #indyref2.
When it all hits the fan and she’s looking for a new job, she’ll be able to do a great turn doing book reviews.
Can’t wait to see her review of Alex Salmond’s next book!
Craig Murray says:
5 October, 2020 at 5:42 pm
May I reinforce the legal point that in no circumstances must readers indulge in any speculation as to what this was rewarding..
And I’ll bet someone will do just that?
I smell corruption in a daily basis nowadays.
People can still vote SNP but I will not be a member of a party that gives such pay rises out for young nothing of use for the party.
Just cancel your membership now people. Let the SNP know that this is not on! (yes I know it was a government payrise}. This government seems to tow the WM line with each day it is in power. They need ISP as a wake up call ASAP.
Liz’s nose was probably well out of joint seeing how much Evans, Murrell, and Ruddick were getting for the same ‘service’. Come on folks fair is fair.
Liz Lloyd. Payment for mendacious services rendered
Holyrood/Scot Gov beginning to sound like NYC Tammany Hall run by Boss Tweed,(His grandfather arrived in the United States from a town near the River Tweed close to Edinburgh (wiki?)
Boss Tweed was the most corrupt politician in America ( good going considering mostly every politician in America was/is corrrupt),
loved by the common folk but hated by those that were not getting enough in their brown envelope,
he was responsible for the building of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Good grief. Can they possibly think that this will go away ?
Are the accounts and membership numbers available yet?
Jigsaws are great therapy apparently for relaxing during lockdown.
Large object spotted deep down in Loch Ness.
SNP accounts? And weighted down with what?
Sad times for the SNP.
What would be the quickest way to bring down the most pressure on this SNP regime.
Wings and Craig are serious thorns in their cloven hooves but even so with a compliant media studiously avoiding it all and the SNP regime having spent 6 years consolidating their vile grip on all areas of the party they seem able to just blank it all away.
Are the rank and file SNP really that aware or angry. Most of them seem soft and stupid outside of this blog.
Electorally I think they know they have it stitched up for years to come.
I don’t know what is more extraordinary, the transformation of the SNP leadership into this hideous party or the pussy roll over of the SNP rank and file membership in the face of it.
-MAC-
I’m not convinced. This IS gaining traction in the mainstream media.
Add to this the growing horror felt by many at the potential second lockdown. This is the first time in her life Nicola Sturgeon has had to make a major policy decision, rather than just grandstand. People will lose jobs and homes. That will soon change people’s minds about her.
These two issues could collide at exactly the same time to create the perfect storm.
Pride comes before a fall and politicians who once looked invincible can collapse overnight. Look at what has happened to Boris Johnson, ten months since his landslide victory, with MPs planning to oust him in the new year. Remember that, between entering Downing Street and calling the 2017 election, Theresa May, a byword for catastrophic weakness, was seen as invincible. In 2015 I read an article describing David Cameron as “likely to be regarded by historians as one of Britain’s most successful prime ministers”. I have come to regard NS as too much of an egomaniac to be able to see this- which makes her more, not less, vulnerable to challenge.
Don’t doubt the veracity of this article – or any others on the subject – but from a distance (not quite as far as Bath), this all makes me very sad. What was once a powerful movement with real promise has degenerated into a squabble, with little prospect of achieving anything worthwhile.
The UK has gone in all but name and England faces a bleak future. All international relationships are changing and the established order is no more.
For a few years there was real positivity within the independence movement that transcended politics. There was hope of a better future – and this stimulated some fantastic ideas and proposals – not just from blog owners and writers, but commentators too. If only we could refocus that energy now.
I would only add that there is always a greater good, something beyond what we all perceive and only attain with humility, forgiveness and common purpose.
So that’s 4 now:
Sturgeon
Murrell
Evans
Lloyd
All going to jail.
One word…
SLEAZE
Oh dear, oh dear, and oh so f*****g stupid. Oh what a tangled web she weaves.
Speaking of those in power acting contrary to justice, excellent piece from Ewan Smith on UK Constitutional Law Association site titled “British Laws for British Minsters”:
“Adopting a policy that breaks an incorporated treaty in bad faith is unconstitutional. It is also a breach of the principle of the rule of law. It also breaches constitutional convention. But this is prologue: it breaks the law. It is a limited brand of despotism, sheltered by law officers who ought to know better.”
https://ukconstitutionallaw.org/2020/10/05/ewan-smith-british-laws-for-british-ministers/
Not that I’m jumping to conclusions, but those who wish to disfigure the legal identity of natal women so as to accommodate the will of man, simply don’t know how to support social justice. Or the rule of law. Or defend Scotland from expansionist English Torydum.
Gender mainstreaming active inclusion policies
https://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=6335&langId=en
Is there some sort of 3-way lesbian love triangle/conflict going on at Bute House that the Daily Mail has so far chosen not to share with us yet?
G Graham: Laughing.
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss.
whorattledyourcage.blogspot.com/2019/08/fuck-american-sickness-part-2.html
G Graham: laughing.
We’ll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song
I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again
The change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fold, that’s all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain’t changed
‘Cause the banners, they are flown in the last war
I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again
No, no!
I’ll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half alive
I’ll get all my papers and smile at the sky
Oh I know that the hypnotized never lie
Do ya?
There’s nothing in the streets
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by the bye
And a parting on the left
Is now a parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight
I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again
Don’t get fooled again
No, no!
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss
youtube.com/watch?v=SHhrZgojY1Q&ab_channel=BBVCTom
A confluence of vested interest is about the best one can say.
Its not difficult to see how the pork barrel is rolled. And tell me, the health minister Jeane Freeman, was her partner Susan not some head of media communications for the SG after she had something to do with the OU.
If so, it seems a further example of friends and family.
Trough time, trough time, snouts in the trough with the smell of shit to match.
I’ll suck a dick if I can get on the gravy train…where do I go and who do I blow?
(Laughing)
How much has the bottom of that band increased by?
WhoRattledYOurCage
Blowing will not get your far in the present-day SNP, but, if you could acquire a taste for “beaver” the sky could be your limit.
A wee question: if Liz Lloyd gets over £100K per year for carrying Nicola’s book bag, how much does “Frank” get for getting the door?
WhoRattledYourCage says:
5 October, 2020 at 8:42 pm
I’ll suck a dick if I can get on the gravy train…where do I go and who do I blow?
(Laughing)
If you’re under 18
Derek.Mackay.msp@parliament.scot
Over 18 – I think a bit of innocuous cock sucking is a little too vanilla to get you anywhere, unless you are willing to sign a disclaimer, consenting to the footage being used in Scotgov educational films for 6 year olds.
Socrates MacSporran says:
Laughing. I genuinely LOVE eating pussy. Nothing like having a woman moan and groan as…eh…um ahem cough…anyway. Suppose I can say I am a woman these days if I feel like it, and validate my self-identifying muncheur-de-la-carpette claims with spurious pseudo-science. Seems to be the whore-du-jour way of doing things, dahlink!
whorattledyourcage.blogspot.com/2019/03/two-hardcore-erotic-poems.html
Still laughing. And why not? 🙂
Davie Oga, I am quite a bit over 18. Laughing.
Does anyone think the pay rise might have been a reward for services rendered?
Mist 001: eh…YES. This is somewhat the whole reason for the existence of the whole post. 😉
I knid of knew that. My post was a response to Kennys post further up.
*Kind.
Laughing. You know, for a joke, I was going to post an old satiric 80s (inadvertently incredibly homoerotic) punk song as a response. Except I might get jailed for it these draconian Kafkaesque times.
Fuck it.
Here it is.
Still laughing. And will never stop. 🙂
youtube.com/watch?v=PJZnuT6ACV4&ab_channel=englishnbloodyproudo
Come independence, will we need this number of ineffectual, overpaid, recalcitrant bureaucrats?
If only all three had put their energies into securing Scottish independence.
Sad days. Meanwhile, Scotland is getting shafted by Boris the liar and his Tory thugs.
I’m beginning to think this administration in Holyrood are more corrupt than the Tories and a bigger threat to Scotland and it’s independence than the Tories could ever be. I don’t know what it’s going to take to bring them down.
I see that yet again nicola is planning on introducing new restrictions tomorrow, which is a of course an admission that none of the restrictions introduced so far have actually worked, which isn’t a surprise because that was predicted by every expert not on the government payroll. Rather than taking a step back and considering if endless futile restrictions is the right approach she has instead decided to double/triple/quadruple on the lockdown measures and insist that this is the only way. It boggles my mind that anyone can still have confidence in the sturgeon regime to handle this overhyped “crisis”. Nicola sturgeon and the “experts” that she listens to were proponents of the “zero covid” strategy a month or two ago, a strategy that is now widely considered to be total nonsense.
It looks set that this madness will continue well into the next year. Nicola will continue wrecking the economy and peoples health, social, mental well-being all over a virus that killed less people in September than the flu.
“I don’t know what it’s going to take to bring them down.”
Send the legal compliance bods in and sack the Scottish judicial system. Simples. ;(
THE INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHT TO HEALTH:
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR OUR NATION AND WORLD?
https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/ilr/pdf/vol34p1457.pdf
This is more wonderful stuff for the Indy movement.
It is yet another example of the endemic darker machinations and behaviours of many of those that enter the political realm.
This is the very reason why we should aspire to have our own fully empowered Government back in Scotland and directly elected by, and accountable to us, the sovereign people.
Not because we endorse the actions of the dodgy cretins, no, it is so we can have better control over them and the ability to remove them should they err.
We could implement better procedures to recall or remove those that do not perform to acceptable standards. Those procedures and standards should be determined by us, not them.
With the people more empowered to better control our politicians, the will for them to engage in dubious activities will be reduced knowing that they’ll be toast soon enough should the people wish.
The political status quo we currently operate with is utter shite. A huge democratic deficit, multiple layers of politicians elected off the back of one premise but pushing policies those voters don’t want, different powers and laws held in various jurisdictions.
When we mix all that together and add in the constitutionally constipated State we exist in, you realise nothing will change significantly until this clusterfuck of a setup is deconstructed and rebuilt in a form that better serves us.
bipod
Please inform yourself about how shit works, before thinking the right-wing shit you have for brains is in anyway helpful to getting us out of a mess created by English Torydum. It’s clear your aim is to undermine social solidarity against an existential threat, so I think I’m quite justified in encouraging you to get tae.
BMC Public Health volume 19, Article number: 1571 (2019)
Developing a critical realist informed framework to explain how the human rights and social determinants of health relationship works
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-019-7760-7
Bipod: you know, all jokes aside, I can’t blame the FM for her inept fartsplashy reactions to this whole covid abortion. I mean, who the fuck knows what it really going on here? The minute it kicked in everybody became an amateur-cum-pro epidemiologist (I avoid reading all info, have done from the start; so much conflicting shit just turned me off) and had their own wee perfect-world survival-cum-cure stratagem.
This weirdness and madness is unprecedented in our history, at least reactions-wise. So, as much as I like Sturgeon as much as she likes white middle-aged working class males like me (you know, artists who have lived outside Scotland and done things with their lives), I still can’t fault Cleopatra for her reactions here. Shrug.
I wish there was a sex scandal in politics just now (not the Mackay kind I must point out). Something on the lines of John Major and Edwina Curry. That was so surreal it was hilarious.
Beaker – what do you think this whole post is? 😉
WhoRattledYourCag
You are clearly not competent to comment on public health management, so gonna give your narrow minded and rather ignorant prejudice a rest please.
Craig Murray says:
5 October, 2020 at 5:42 pm
May I reinforce the legal point that in no circumstances must readers indulge in any speculation as to what this was rewarding.
——————
Does the article (or anything anywhere else) indicate that Liz Lloyd actually received a 25% increase in pay?
It seems to only suggest that the upper ceiling on that particular wage band was increased.
to comment on public health management
You are simply wrong if you think sexist and racist parochialism will help our cause. But that appears to be your moral position, so gonna just fuck off with your shite. Or start doing better.
Interpretive Hermeneutic Phenomenology: Clarifying Understanding
https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ipjp/article/view/65448/53139
That was meant for WhoRattledYourCage.
It’s a totes bag o’ shite being Scottish when you see this sort of thing every year. 🙁
https://twitter.com/JamesMelville/status/1312998480479162368
Having once ate a jar of rollmops and also paid a couple of weeks of Norwegian tax when I worked in the Ekofisk oilfield, am now wondering if that would qualify me for Norwegian citizenship.
@Helen Yates
At least they’re not in Serco’s back pocket. If blatant slushing cannot be held to account in England, false equivalence maybe, we’re all right Jack in Scotland.
The lowering of fiscal standards throughout the UK has let this shower of chantywrasslers into the Scottish Government. What’s more, we have a brand new building next to Haymarket Station, so we can have more of them – every one a No voter.
‘CameronB Brodie:
youtube.com/watch?v=Qw9oX-kZ_9k&ab_channel=UkarauF.Kakepare
She actually said this
Reflecting on her very short career as a BBC reporter and her even shorter stint as a part time weekend warrior defending the halls of Glasgow University OTC buildings, advised “newbie” journalists that they should be guided in their political behaviour by the standards she had herself observed. Namely that they should always:
“Keep your personal politics out of your reporting. The job, particularly in broadcast, is to tell people what’s going on; it is not to be an active agent of change and try and shape what’s going on – it is to be an honest narrator.”
“Folk can smell spin a mile off. They aren’t stupid. They know if you are not answering a question or if you don’t really mean what you say. So my best advice is to just try not to say anything you don’t mean and you’ll never be caught out.”
https://caltonjock.com/2019/05/17/ruth-davidsons-political-bullshit-exposed-her-as-a-political-nonentity-the-baroness-should-leave-scotland-so-that-she-can-enjoy-the-social-and-financial-fruits-of-her-betrayal-of-the-scots/
WhoRattledYourCage
I’m only on your case as I know my shit, and I know a bit about how to support social justice. Fortunately I also know a bit about defending open democracy from neo-liberalism, populism, and the radical right.
Critique of the concept of motivation and
its implications for healthcare practices
https://peh-med.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13010-019-0083-6
Clearly the SNP and the SG are awash with dosh. What with Murrell’ S blue chip lawyers and Sturgeon’s pals earning more than Fred the Shred.
Except of course for the Indy fund. Apparently we don’t appear to have the funds for that!
Said it before. The shitstorm is coming down. Get your golf brollies out folks.
If such a thing is possible, I’m pretty sure something called “Interpretive Hermeneutic Phenomenology: Clarifying Understanding” would actually generate a minus number of clicks.
Rev. Stuart Campbell
I only mentioned it as you’ll never achieve a scientifically robust grasp on reality without a bit of phenomenology. It’s the lack of scientific integrity in our politics that is emptying democracy of all meaning. Si I’m pointing to the science of truth, which I though might be of interest.
There appears to be quite a few at the top of the SNP that have remunerations for ‘services rendered’!!
I studied interpretive hermeneutic phenomenology briefly, and can confirm, it would generate skcilcs.
Polkinghorne was my homeboy.
In Scottish “democracy”, how is it possible to remove Sturgeon and her perjuring advisor from the trough? If Glasgow South voted overwhelmingly to remove her she would just revert to her 1999-2007 sinure courtesy of the party list. Petey and the NEC aren’t going to remove her and the electorate have no means to remove her.
CameronB Brodie
My PhD was phenomenological. Or was it phenomenal. Can’t quite remember. Who the f**k cares anyway.
Hang on a sec, Rev – this is last year’s figures.
The *spit* Sun published this back in December: https://archive.is/tsi9j
So why are the *bigger spit* MoS coming out with this now?
I do actually know a bit about how to scientifically, ethically, and legally determine which ‘facts’ are true and which are simply cultural beliefs. I’m not going off on one, I’m simply getting closer to the ‘source code’. 🙂
I do appreciate this stuff is rather highbrow, but it’s the science and technology of ethical government. So Ms. Spear can can get tae, as she is undermining the potential for justice in Scotland. The SNP legal team could also do with some urgent legal re-edumication, to say the very least. I don’t think there’s much hope for our judicial system though, which appear to think a respect for the Common law is optional. 🙁
Journal of Critical Realism Volume 17, 2018 – Issue 2
Introduction to the special issue: applied critical realism in the social sciences
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14767430.2018.1468148
CameronB Brodie
Perhaps after indy is declared we should totally change the ‘Scottish’ justice system – at least so that its no longer the legal embodiment of the British state (i.e. colonial). How much is a judge peyed by the wey?
Has anyone on here got a theory about what this whole thing is about?
Just some recent things for the jigsaw.
SG – Giving funding to MSM
MSM- Walking past free strikes on SNP.
Murrell- Alleged Whatsapp messages.
Murrell- Utilising top corporate defence lawyers.
Surgeon- Section 30 insistence.
Salmond – Fit up.
Civil servants – massive pay rises
SNP- Try to block Martin Keatings Section 30 challenge.
Boris says no to Section 30 over and over but no alternative.
Jo Cherry – Shunned by Sturgeon
Not one word from Murrell.
Alf Baird
The Royal Town Planning Institute certainly convinced me that a phenomenological approach and epistemological robustness, were essential components of “just” law and the fabric of open democracy. 😉
The Impact of Roy Bhaskar and Critical Realism on International Relations
https://www.e-ir.info/2014/12/11/the-impact-of-roy-bhaskar-and-critical-realism-on-international-relations/
Big Jock
I keep seeing the word ‘prison’ for some reason.
And ‘MacAskill’ – as indy leader and Scotland’s liberator?
Just a reminder that it’s another private meeting tomorrow and there are no further updates published on the written evidence or the correspondence pages of the committee ,
COMMITTEE ON THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT HANDLING OF HARASSMENT COMPLAINTS
AGENDA
10th Meeting, 2020 (Session 5) Tuesday 6 October 2020
The Committee will meet at 10.15 am in the Robert Burns Room (CR1).
1. Work programme (in private): The Committee will consider its work programme.
As Scottish Taxpayers are footing the bill for these Special Special Advisers I would really like to know exactly what these Special Advisors are Advising on ,
is it presentation of Policies The Scottish Government are enacting ? , eg dressing up policies to make them look and sound eh nice or easily understood by the stupid electorate ,
If that’s the case Presentation, well PR outfits have been dressing up shit for decades and are probably past masters in the Deception Business , if the whole purpose is presentation I would suggest priorities are Arse for Elbow here
we get and are presented with some baffling shit from the Tory Government at Westminster do we really need to replicate that same rubbish here I thought we were supposed to better than that cesspool down south , this comes back to priorities , I doubt if this was a major selling point in the SNPs Election Blurbs I doubt if it was ever mentioned in fact I thought it was open transparent government that was being pursued well maybe I got the message wrong, Silly me eh .
“There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.”
Ronald Reagan
“There’s no limit to the amount of good I can do just as long as you’re prepared to give me lots of credit”
holymacmoses
And I’m not stroking my ego in public, I’m simply trying to show folks that we ARE getting pumped from both ends, by politicians and judges who appear to think they can simply make it up as they go along. We don’t live in a democracy, we live in a parliamentary dictatorship sanitize though a pretense to democratic process, and an unhealthy relationship with the corporate media and state broadcaster. 🙁
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1199632.pdf
Alf Baird.
‘MacAskill as Scotland’s liberator’
Oh ma sides !
Why is Torcuil Crichton and all the rest of the Unionist creeps not all over this???
Why does it take “one of our own” to uncover what is really going on in Scotland these days???
Very strange.
Scottish politics is rotten to the core
six months sweetner at uplifted salary (with final salary pension)as incentive to take the fall for the team?
@Garrion says:
5 October, 2020 at 10:57 pm
“I studied interpretive hermeneutic phenomenology briefly”
I’m still figuring out how to pronounce the fucking words 🙂
Sounds like some weird ingredient used in shampoo…
O/T
It looks like the error in the test and trace was caused by Excel. Unbelievably it was Excel 2003 which has a limit of 65K rows of data. 2007 version would have handled it easily (1M rows) and O365 would have been flying.
But why was a proper database not being used? Access could have been used if they were that desperate.
Jesus, if I knew they were going to run this on Excel I’d have pitched for the contract.
“So why are the *bigger spit* MoS coming out with this now?”
I’m guessing nobody noticed in December as it was snuck out a few days before Christmas, in the aftermath of a UK general election when everyone was talking about other stuff, and largely before anyone cared who Liz Lloyd was.
Look, think yourselves lucky you’re not being introduced to this stuff in the state I was in. Though I did benefit from having the benefit of professional instructors, where as you malcontents will have to rely on my ham-fisted efforts. 😉
The Review of Politics, Volume 80, Issue 1 Winter 2018, pp. 3-29
The Origins of “Social Justice” in the Natural Law Philosophy of Antonio Rosmini
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/review-of-politics/article/origins-of-social-justice-in-the-natural-law-philosophy-of-antonio-rosmini/FB3712305263EB53D9EC7D32091A5D4A
o/t
I am continually baffled by the Trust shown to the current SNP management by contributors on another platform ,
Blind Faith in a party that has to engage so many Legal firms in Scotland in order to do what exactly ? ,
Hardly a convincing argument for honest open Government is it ? , the same contributors singing the same Song year after year and wishing and hoping their Trust is not being abused, openly attacking the message and the messenger ,
I know fine well the contributors of that platform monitor the WINGS OVER SCOTLAND site so here is a little challenge does the revaluations published on this site make you feel uncomfortable ? , are the revelations wrong or patently false ? , and lastly will nothing however distasteful shake your trust in this current SNP management ? , This despite provable evidence ?
If you’re answer is we stand by Nicola without question , then you are patently STUPID you’re blind faith has blinded you to all the signs and warnings given , best of luck with your independence because you ain’t getting it from the present occupants of Bute House , THATS GUARANTEED .
This Liz Lloyd name seems to be coming up a lot.
Who is she. What has she done. Is she a bad ‘un. What’s the story. And meanwhile it does seem that there’s a lot of folks getting weighed in with fantastic salaries.
Ah well tomorrow is another day. Wonder how the SNP candidate selection is getting on. All happiness and light – or dark as night as Sturgeons 1st Para’s drop in.
A wee bird tells me some have landed on the power lines whilst others have landed in enemy zones and are taking hostile fire.
@ Robert Graham 1.15am What is ONE of the most annoying things about this is the openness they are FLAUNTING of their misdeeds, they just don’t care, it’s as if they are squirreling away as much as possible before the roof caves in and us indy suckers are left to pay the bill and pick up the pieces
TBH anyone TRYING to excuse or justify the ongoing contempt of indy supporters and Scottish voters should be laughed at and ridiculed, just how much rancid fetid corruption are these people willing to accept before they realise they and we have been used and conned
Two words: I despair.
I’ve suggested our legal Establishment and law officers don’t appear to understand how constitutional law works. Of course, that’s quite unlikely. What is fact though, is that cultural bias and legal corruption go hand in hand. So perhaps our Tory leaning legal Establishment are laughing their cocks off at the mess they helped the SNP get themselves into. After all, British justice does stand under the principle of Parliamentary sovereignty and not the Moral law.
First Thoughts for a Phenomenology of the Commons
http://wealthofthecommons.org/essay/first-thoughts-phenomenology-commons
Wish folk would stop regarding this place as their own private chat room, and commenting about things in a way that lowers the tone to such an extent that it’d put people off being associated!
We’re all still here and we’re all still reading. Bear it in mind please boys *eyeroll*
You know what’s missing in all this?
A parody version of that famous scene from Downfall…
If someone could do that, it’d be over for this bunch in a day or two.
Right, the only way Scots will ever enjoy the benefits of democracy, is if we prevent our legal officers from forcing Scots law to reject the Natural law. That’s a job for the Tories and Westminster, who have far more experience in the matter. So it’s about time the membership sacked and replaced the NEC, who’s are simply not competent to run a bath.
https://www.bihr.org.uk/blog/social-justice-and-human-rights
Sorry, wrong title, correct sub-text though.
Social Justice and Human Rights
Big Jock says:
5 October, 2020 at 11:25 pm
Has anyone on here got a theory about what this whole thing is about?
Just some recent things for the jigsaw.
SG – Giving funding to MSM
MSM- Walking past free strikes on SNP.
Murrell- Alleged Whatsapp messages.
Murrell- Utilising top corporate defence lawyers.
Surgeon- Section 30 insistence.
Salmond – Fit up.
Civil servants – massive pay rises
SNP- Try to block Martin Keatings Section 30 challenge.
Boris says no to Section 30 over and over but no alternative.
Jo Cherry – Shunned by Sturgeon
Not one word from Murrell.
Oh Big Jock, that’s only half the picture. You’re forgetting all the positive things they’ve done for Independence…
Like,… eh…. em…. err…
Let me think now….
No wonder Sturgeon hangs onto Covid like a limpet, facing up to peoples’ anger and dejection by running to her lawyers, after wrecking Scottish Independence, destroying the SNP, bloating the NEC with feckless liabilities, misfits and shit-stirrers who don’t even discuss Independence.
Poor wee St Nicola. How will she ever get her Nobel Prize and cushy job at the UN if all these criminal failures, vindictive conspiracies and tawdry unpleasantness gets out?
With all that on her CV she’d be better off applying for a job with Trump, or maybe she fancies an Ermine bathrobe like Baroness Von Gobshite or a bronze statue beside Donald Dewar to complete the set… “Scotland’s Finest …….. “
Time to introduce a “maximum wage”. Anyone earning over and above the maximum wage gets taxed on the extra at a rate of 125%. Call it the greedy b*****ds tax.
https://archive.is/q8UQN
Murrell has admitted sending the texts, at least according to the Daily Record.
He’s apparently trying to alter the context of what he meant, but it seems wholly unconvincing.
Strange too that information finds its way to a Unionist Newspaper, but they’ll get the lawyers in to avoid giving information to a Scottish Parliamentary Inquiry.
Rev wrote at start of article above:
“Readers, we can’t tell you how much we want to get back to just dissecting Scotland’s hopeless Unionist media for a living. It’s a lot more fun than what the current political circumstances are obliging us to do,”
Absolutely nothing stopping you from doing both.
I agree with you exposing all these shenanigans with the SNP/ScotGov 100% and don’t want you to stop but there is far too much BritNat crap slipping through the net unchallenged.
Wee Dross is getting a free pass to piss all over Scotland without a credible rebuttal. We need you back on your A-game.
Wee Chid – braw idea! Can I vote for you?
Stoker @ 6.47am –
You are aware that Stu’s status is still currently ‘on holiday’, yes?
There hasn’t been a crowdfunder this year.
Since The Betrayer article on 31/1/20 he’s not been writing “for a living” as such.
You’re getting all this for free because he obviously feels like he can’t not highlight it.
@Rev Stu 10.39pm
“If such a thing is possible, I’m pretty sure something called “Interpretive Hermeneutic Phenomenology: Clarifying Understanding” would actually generate a minus number of clicks.”
What, like the rest of his limitless cut and paste dross clogging up the BTL comments?
If only there was a way to get him to stop, hmmmnn…?
Every other country in the world are dealing with covid and still getting on with every other part of what a country does to keep everything working, the majority of Scots people wanted to stay in Europe no reaction, the majority of Scots people want to end the union no reaction, now the other partner in the union want to take back powers still no reaction, a few top SNP politicians say things in newspapers and still nothing ever happens, Scotland’s a great place where nothing ever happens, no meetings, no discussions, the people have no say, the SNP government says that during the pandemic is not the time to speak about Independence their right, it’s time to just go and end the union go for independence right now.
There is another explanation. I worked for a major insurer and had a specialist skill (probably unique in the company) which brought in big bucks for my employer but for many years I had been passed over for pay rises and promotion.
So one day I left a job application form for a rival insurer on top of my filing cabinet for 24 hours and lo and behold within a week I was asked what salary I would like to have and given a promotion.
I suspect that Lloyd may have had a juicy job offer and Murrell panicked because she knew where all the bodies were buried. Hence the giant leap in salary to keep her on board.
Ruglonian
Whit? My points still stand and if I wanted a response from you I would have addressed my post to you. As for getting it for “free”, isn’t everyone? Save your condescending tone for someone else.
For what it is worth, I was told about February by a name that everyone would recognise, that Lloyd had been given a huge pay increase. Stu has uncovered the first evidence I have seen. So I don’t think this is a raising of the top rate unrelated to an actual pay increase.
Is this relevant?
From gov.scot ‘Public sector pay policy 2019-2020’
Key Pay Policy Priorities
‘There continues to be a legitimate public interest in the pay and conditions of senior public appointments in Scotland. The Scottish Government believes … there is also a need for the most senior leaders in the public sector to demonstrate restraint in their pay settlements. The Pay Policy parameters for 2019-20 are therefore set in the context of the need for on-going pay constraint for senior staff.
‘ limiting the maximum pay increase for those earning £80,000 or more to £1600;’
Hi Stu thats me done with your site for now I think you have wondered off what you started out as its a shame that its more of an attack on the vehicle that is independence than attacking the murderous political elite of unionism so hopefully you will in the future go back to the vibrate and informing site you used to be
Thanks for all the good work you have done in the past
BFS site is now the site for fact and figures but you know that already
Alternatively the job will be extremely unattractive when all this plays out and she goes. Perhaps laying foundations to be able to actually recruit the replacement?
Thank you, Stu, for all the work you have done and are doing to show us the evidence of what is going on at the highest levels of Scottish government and legal system. And for continuing to do so in the face of a whole lot of abuse for not being just another gullible sheeple, and making sure we readers don’t become so.
It is heartbreaking to see the sheer levels of deception and to see how these are damaging our chances of moving forward to independence when we should have been so close, or even to have gained that prize. But at least being aware of what is going down, painful though it is, is far better than having gone on being blindly led by the S30 promised carrot into supporting and funding this corruption. Keep on keeping on and getting the truth out there.
Stoker.
I don’t think it’s condescending to point out the facts. The reason I did so was because I thought you were misrepresenting the situation.
Don’t know which of your points you think still stands. You think there’s nothing stopping him from doing both? So you want him to knock his pan in working full time for free cos you want a running commentary of current affairs?
Maybe you should direct your frustrations at the SNP’s rebuttals of those of whom you speak? They *are* currently employed full time after all.
Maybe she was already on the highest salary for Band 3 and she hasn’t actually received any pay rise at all (Band 4 starts a whole £1 higher than Band 3), simply a “promotion” instead?
She may have been on that for a number of years and this would be a way of providing her with some career advancement as well as increased earning potential.
Not saying she deserves that wage but there’s a lot of ifs and buts there and not so much in the form of anything to really be bumping gums about is there?
Perhaps, Mr Wings, you could write a short dissertation with links and easy read instructions, on how to set up a blog (free blog I suspect in this case) and encourage people who like to ‘comment’ on here with longer pieces and exemplify their knowledge with links to erudite copy, to take advantage of the new knowledge. You could, of course, put a link to a new blog page should readers wish to keep up with anyone whose regular posts they have become familiar with.
Andy Ellis
Though well constructed, your commentary is weak and incoherent, and it appears to lack adequate foundations, as you’re not prepared to tell us what your philosophical or scientific positions are, and apparently have no knowledge of international human rights law. Remember, you’re not the only one to have studies IR, though you appear to be the only one who thinks such study makes them special. You’re no different to the multitude of snobs I’ve met through life though, so let me assure you that you are nothing special at all. Far from it sunshine.
THIS is what I think is on a fridge magnet in the Murrell house:-)
“There’s no limit to the amount of good I can do just as long as you’re prepared to give me lots of credit”
Andy Ellis
For a start, I bet you lack insight into sustainable policy design or child protection. In fact, I know for a fact that you lack insight into policy design and child protection, as you are ignorant of intentional human rights law. Yet you appear to imagine yourself competent to tell folk what’s what. So please excuse me while I don’t take you or your clown-shoes too seriously.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0306624X18779182
With everything that is going on with sturgeon and the party and her hell bent on destroying the economy with unlawful lockdowns as dictator and on a power trip, could a CrowdJustice be started on legal proceedings on criminal charges. Scotland will never go anywhere under sturgeon.
Being promoted isn’t a payrise. I was a civil servant for many years and know that just because the top of your pay grade says £104k doesn’t mean that’s what you earn.
No, typically there (may) will be a yearly payrise that applies to all, say 2% for example. Then, in addition, if you pass your yearly review, you will receive your ‘incremental’ payrise as well. This is you ‘moving up’ within your pay grade towards the top of it. Traditionally this takes MANY years and the grade itself, due to payrises, will become higher – meaning it can take exponentially longer to reach the top of your grade.
There ARE ways to accelerate this but they are extremely limited. To move up more quickly you would need a top marking in your review (there are three, bottom, middle and top) but this is supposed to be limited to the top 10% of those within each grade – effectively they need to think you’re a super hero!
Overall it sounds like the press story is mince. Misinterpreting grade rises, promotions and increments for pay rises doled out at will is awful, worse because it’s deliberate. But how to quell the moral outrage of those reading this post??
So does perjury influence the size of your wage packet ?
Actually the open goal here is the Mail on Sunday admitting that Scottish taxpayers (rather than a magnificently generous and charitable ‘Union’) pays for public spending in Scotland.
From The Sun, 18 Jan 2019, 22:17Updated: 19 Jan 2019, 0:40()
Ms Sturgeon’s aides have accused his backers of an attempt to “smear” her and of staging a “vendetta” against her chief of staff, Liz Lloyd.
It came amid bombshell claims the First Minister knew about the sex pest probe before meeting Mr Salmond at her home in Glasgow last April 2.
She has insisted she first heard about the harassment inquiry from her former Nats boss that day, at a meeting attended by Ms Lloyd.
A Salmond camp insider said she was aware ahead of the summit. Ms Sturgeon’s spokesman denied the claims.
She’s also now facing questions about whether she broke ministerial rules by covering up three meetings she held with Mr Salmond during last year’s inquiry.
If someone were to speculate & allege that the answer to the question, “Why did Sturgeon award massive pay increases to two of her closest advisors?” is that both of them collaborated, colluded & misled people who questioned Sturgeon’s claims with respect to her engagement with Salmond & Aberdein, would we even legally be allowed to confer?
It should be a revelation to even the most indifferent of observers, that it is the same two people, whose names keep emerging from the fog of obfuscation whenever this grubby affair is revisited.
What a beautifully written blog post.