Spinning the wheel
We’ve been thinking about it since last night, and we’re not sure if Humza Yousaf now still has ANY of the policies he started the leadership election with.
But this one‘s got us extra-specially perplexed, since at the start it was pretty much the main unique selling point he was hanging his whole campaign on.
Maybe you can help us out, readers.
We can think of five possible explanations:
(1) He’s been shown the legal advice, and since legal advice is almost never 100% either way it says there’s a slim CHANCE of winning, so he can sound reasonable while already knowing he’s going to go ahead with the challenge.
(2) He thinks/knows he’s losing the election, and he knows the SNP’s woke youth all voted for him a week ago and aren’t allowed to change their minds now, so he’s making a desperate grab for any remaining feminists.
(3) He thinks/knows he’s got the election won and is just trolling for LOLs.
(4) He literally just says whatever he thinks will be the most popular thing with whichever audience he’s talking to at any given moment.
(5) His earpiece failed and he couldn’t hear Nicola Sturgeon feeding him his lines, so he just panicked and said the first thing that came into his head.
But as for which one’s right, we haven’t got a scooby. What do you think?
What's the reason?
- People-pleaser (42%, 1,149 Votes)
- Is losing (26%, 715 Votes)
- Earpiece failure (17%, 474 Votes)
- Has seen advice (11%, 298 Votes)
- Is winning (4%, 110 Votes)
Total Voters: 2,746
Loading ...If you have another answer, write it in the comments. Results tomorrow!
He will suffer the wrath of the woke, but they have nobody else to vote for.
The GRR is dead, finished, expired!
Definitely not fit to be leader.
Ash Regan it should be, Kate Forbes it will be.
On your March 8th post you said: “Humza Yousaf will not be the next First Minister of Scotland. We’re calling it now”
Do you still believe that? I’m getting increasingly worried that they’ve stitched it up so that he wins.
“On your March 8th post you said: “Humza Yousaf will not be the next First Minister of Scotland. We’re calling it now”
Do you still believe that? I’m getting increasingly worried that they’ve stitched it up so that he wins.”
I do still believe it, but I always included a qualifier about the possibility of it being flat-out fiddled, and I do still think that might happen. I think he has no chance of winning a fair vote.
It’s been totally banjoed and Yousaf will stroll it, but never mind, he’ll be out on his ear by autumn, giving Regan and Cherry enough time to put through an SNP 1, ALBA/ISP 2 strategy for next year’s election
My vote is for (4). Promise everything, deliver nothing a la Sturgeon.
What sort of mickey mouse poll is thi9s? I am only able to vote in it once!
Conficius say.
” When the wise man points to the moon ,the idiot looks at his finger”
Confucius say.
” When the wise man points to the moon ,the idiot looks at his finger”
OK Stu, Where is option 6 total tit?
BREAKING NEWS: Kate Forbes and Ash Regan have just announced that, if either of them becomes FM, they will enter the chamber for FMQs doing cartwheels and will answer all questions whilst standing on their head.
My view also Jim Scullion, promise anything then deliver what he wants. He is so untrustworthy it’s frightening
I’m seriously
considering joining my Grandson in Australia if Yousaf wins.
Not that transgenderism isn’t rampant there too, but the betrayal I feel towards the SNP for using my indy votes to erase me & single sex-spaces is fathomless.
THE BASTARDS!
He is an out and out fake.
He changes his mind with the wind.
It gives me hope when he got heckled over his GRR stance.
Even if he wins, he won’t last long
Murrell caught lying about membership numbers.
Mike Russell says we can’t change vote and its open to hacking. By GCHQ who they want to secure the process.
MiVoice according to Angus McNeil says the company has told him the members can, but are under strick instructions not to do so.
It’s time the SNP members who don’t get a say step up and put an end to this sham election.
I’d be willing to crowdfund an interdict. We can’t let these crooks get away with this. It affects us all. You can’t put a price on Independence. Scotland needs Ash Regan to win.
“ … says whatever he thinks will be the most popular thing with whichever audience he’s talking to at any given moment.”
Started saying he’d attend the AUOB march rather than the Coronation, now he’ll “try” to attend both. Schrödinger’s politician.
Sleekit disnae begin tae describe him.
And in trying tae please everyone, he’ll please naeb’dy.
There appears to be a typo in your poll.
It says “Earpiece Failure” when surely it should read “Arsepiece failure”.
“I still believe it, but I always included a qualifier about the possibility of it being flat-out fiddled, and I do still think that might happen. I think he has no chance of winning a fair vote.”
In less than a decade Sturgeon has reduced Scotland to a political wasteland.
Does he actually WEAR earpiece?
He’s “at it”. (Rearrange spacing to your personal preference)
Can I give you another option?
He’s moved his position on this to be in line with Kate Forbes so he can serve in her cabinet.
With only 5 days of voting to go there can’t be many votes not already cast so the result is probably already known at SNP HQ. Everything that has gone on the last few days with Forbes not protesting the fairness of the vote, Sturgeon’s PR exercise and now Yousaf’s about turn suggests to me a deal has been struck that says Forbes will be FM with Humza as deputy or some other senior post in return for Sturgeon ensuring all SNP MSPs and possibly the greens vote for her in Holyrood.
If Humza remains in cabinet it will be a sign that the Murrell’s are in control of Forbes and still in control of SNP HQ.
For the good guys to win we need the brown stuff to be hitting the fan whilst Sturgeon is still in post otherwise Forbes will be the patsy and when she’s forced to resign Yousaf will leader by default.
If enough people express a preference for cheese and onion crisps today, we shall have a pledge to lower the price of just those multi packs tomorrow.
The opinion shifting / back tracking / collusion has been painful enough. The lack of taking him to task on it, in some quarters, has been shameful.
taqiyya explains all
Kate’s silence on the possible vote manipulation is deafening. I think Team Murrell have moved to secure her silence when she takes office. Kate has won this and Humza is looking for a place in her government.
We could be getting fooled again folks. The cover up continues.
I think “she’s turned the wains against us” for reason no 6
Here’s a conundrum then…
If the SNP has tried everything to rig the contest in favour of the Useless Pretender and despite everything Kate Forbes still wins…on that basis is it still OK to anoint Kate the winner despite all the problems with membership numbers in general and the numbers of eligible voters in particular?
If Kate has won easily despite these problems is her ascension still tainted somehow or would an easy win put that issue to bed?
Good try, Humza, but somehow I don’t think the Wokies and the Greens are in any mood to be let down gently.
Saying anything to please the crowd only gets you so far. Play that game and you soon run out of road. If you do make it to FM, your crash and burn will be spectacular. If Kate wins and is daft enough to make you deputy FM, she will be pulled down with you.
I suspect that when the wokebeards flounce off to the Greens we’ll all be surprised how damn few of them managed to make so much noise
Skip_NC says:
22 March, 2023 at 1:26 pm
BREAKING NEWS: Kate Forbes and Ash Regan have just announced that, if either of them becomes FM, they will enter the chamber for FMQs doing cartwheels and will answer all questions whilst standing on their head.
Thank God that’s one indignity Mrs Murell did not inflict upon us. We must be grateful for small mercies. The sight of M’s battle scarred underwear would have been a step too far.
all of the above?
Humza knows he’s out.
He won’t get more than 50% in first round.
Kate knows she’s in.
Ash will drop out at first round vote Kate will take all of Ash’s 2nd preference.
Kate will win the 2nd round.
What else explains the volte-face about the voting system?
Humza hears Sturgeon’s voice in his head without having to wear an earpiece.
I voted for 2, but Ash Regan thinks I should be able to change my vote so now it’s 3. If he has seen the advice then this is one of those rare occassions when lawyers can have no doubts: the Government of the United Kingdom has found the woo woo Bill threatens the settled law of the land and thus under the Scotland Act can be halted. Which it has been much to the delight of the Scottish voters.
He has, like Sir Humphrey Abbleby, “rearranged his priorities”.
No. 4.
Beauvais- A bit like Anthony Perkins in Psycho….”Shut up mother!”
Vivian O’Blivion says:
22 March, 2023 at 1:39 pm
“ … says whatever he thinks will be the most popular thing with whichever audience he’s talking to at any given moment.”
Started saying he’d attend the AUOB march rather than the Coronation, now he’ll “try” to attend both.”
He’ll buy* another TV so he can “attend” both at the same time?
* Expenses at interim Bute House.
He is NOT a people pleaser. Certain person(S) pleaser perhaps
Re other options I doubt he has the brain, cognitive function to operate anywhere but the right this minute.He is phrase adept and has a wee bank of them yet he can & has used such totally out of context. Anyhoo if he becomes FM I doubt he’ll make it for 3-6months without a breakdown, a national disaster or 10. It is however possible he will become some one else, like AR or MR and survive as FM to torture Scots & Scotland for a few more years. May your God/Dog or none, saves us all.
Read the gRauniad article. Liked this from Kate though:
“I have recently had a baby – at the 20-week scan they discovered the fact it was a little girl. It wasn’t assigned, it was a little girl. It’s critical that there aren’t conversations going on that don’t seek parents’ consent.”
@ Jeanie McCrimmon
I have a NZ passport, if Humza wins instead of getting a mortgage for half the house for my ex wife I’ll just sell up and move.
The men in the grey kilts need to sava the day.
If Humza wins the Independence movement will be tainted. He will have to explain if he really won the election after all.
It will be political suicide.
We don’t deserve this. We deserve so mucho more. The dream of Independence. We’ve suffered long enough with the Sturgeon cabal.
People should be allowed to change their vote. Failing that, call the interdict and halt this sham election.
Kate Forbes, an adult human female, will walk up the steps of Bute House carrying an infant human female while thumbing her nose at HY by way of saying: the majority of Scots don’t want him or his GRR bill. And following close behind will be a smiling Ash Regan, who is wanted.
THE END
He’s beat.
But they might stitch it.
Naw, they can’t be that blatant.
Is that right aye?
Yousaf will say anything to anyone to further his career, he and Forbes give me the dry boak, its torture watching this contest knowing the fix is in, where either Forbes or Yousaf wins it, and the only candidate that could obtain independence and help Scotland prosper will come in last with the help of GCHQ, a foreign country’s communications security service that utterly opposes Scottish independence.
Mike Russell guided by Murrell and Sturgeon are making sure Ash Regan doesn’t win this leadership contest, the contest is far from open and above board but Russell and his handlers don’t give a toss.
There’s still for the membership to stop this travesty, Scotland will continue to go down hill rapid when Yousaf or Forbes is eected as FM.
Anybody with half a brain would have seized the chance after the weekend debacle to put some clear water between themselves and the old guard. At the same time they would be pledging to open up and restructure the party – new broom and all that.
Painting himself as a ‘continuity’ candidate just says, ‘more the same lies and posturing, nothing more to offer’. Even he must see that, but his strategy appears to be go quiet and issue anodyne, vague slogans and promises. Throw in some bribes which no-one can be confident will every be delivered.
Just a feeble, schoolboy effort. D-
It might help to understand behaviour better if we acknowledge that a person may come from a different national culture and identity which is rated number 140 (jointly with Uzbekistan, Myanmar and Mauritania) in the global Corruption Perceptions Index.
link to transparency.org
Which reminds me, most countries now have an Anti-Corruption Minister. Scotland does not. Maybe it should.
As the author James Kelman said ‘If you want to know your identity look at who your relatives are’
While partly borrowing from another’s humour; When someone is pointing at the moon, Humza Yousaf only sees the finger… we’re witnessing disturbing times in today’s political mega-shambles, however, Please remember link to salvo.scot
Presently, far too few of us are aware enough yet, so please share that Salvo address…
Salvo was formed to restore Scotland’s constitution. Salvo is not a political party. We are the campaigning arm of Liberation Scotland.
Gordon Ross says:
22 March, 2023 at 2:52 pm
He’s beat.
But they might stitch it.
Naw, they can’t be that blatant.
Is that right aye?
aye right indeed they’ll stitch it, more than Frankenstein did on his monster, they muppets assume we’re inconsequential but wait and see what happens to them at the next ballot box if HY get the main gig
he’s a tube
“The game’s a bogie”
Humza Useless the pick n mix candidate he’ll appeal to Allsorts
Less than a month into any prospective Humza led scotgov this decision will have to be made, I can’t see the Greens voting for Humza for FM without a qualifier on it first, so they could be leaving the coalition should said challenge not go in. The shit storm will see another few thousand woke SNP members strop out and leave the party as another hastily held broom cupboard plea ain’t gonna work a second time, I feel a minority government may be the end result and I cant for the life of me see Humza being able to pull the necessary cross chamber democratic acrobatics off. Things are gonna get worse for the SNP government for the next 18 months odd till a disastrous GE 2024 result forces him to resign and we are going to go through this all again next autumn (I say autumn as I can’t see Rushi clinging on till November unless the usual pre election give away budget next spring looks unlikely to reinvigorate tory support by the summer).
Cheer up; Yousaf will win this fixed election, but he is that hapless he’ll be out on his ear by _this_ autumn, giving the party the time to get a decent leader before the GE
I seriously wonder at the percentage of people in Public life who are just LARPs.
The bookies are still confident that Humza is going to walk it. They are usually well informed on these things (probably keeping an eye on who is popping out of Bute House for a flutter).
Wasn’t a certain A. Salmond useful for the odd betting tip?
Mind you at Humza’s current odds the Murrells will have to ante up £2.4 million to make up the lost £600k.
Why cant we actually appreciate a guy who has such a dynamically fluid mind and the ability to change it in this ever changing world.
No doubt similar attitudes available from the many of the SNP Members…sadly.
I know Folk here are hoping the Membership will be the last hope, I doubt that’s a possibility. The Empire has won.
Most of the Membership signed up to be behind Independence and look no further than seeing SNP as the most likely vehicle to get them there ( I know I know)
A few SNP members may drop out, or even see the light with no Nikla but on the vote, most will just tick for Humza or Kate seeing a professional politician and thinking “Theyre nice!” and not actually see the dead end street ahead once one of those two get the leadership..
He’s actually a ventriloquists doll and the whole time he’s had Sturgeon’s hand shoved firmly up his backside making him talk… NS’ hand has cramped up and he’s having to try and think for himself… if only he had a brain Dorothy…
@scotrenewables 1.21pm…I see what you did there, you clever sausage!! That made me laugh.
Muscleguy says:
22 March, 2023 at 2:47 pm
“I have a NZ passport, if Humza wins instead of getting a mortgage for half the house for my x wife I’ll just sell up and move.”
I bet you won’t.
Unless you live in a 10-20 bedroom mansion in Scotland all your money will buy you in NZ is a shed. Can’t even buy a campervan over there now as they’re all about to become illegal unless they have a toilet.
Pretty much all of NZ (except the far south of South Island) is worse than Sydney/Melbourne in terms of housing costs now – and both of them make London look cheap.
You’ve missed the boat (literally) by a decade or more…..
This daylight robbery will continue in Scotland under the guidance of Yousaf and Forbes WHEN one of them is “elected” and becomes FM.
Only independence and Ash Regan has a good viable plan for it could’ve stopped it, but the fix is in and the SNP membership are to cowardly to actually do anything about it, its your party its your country (you have the vote) do something about it, or forever carry the shame of what comes next when Yousaf or Forbes enters Bute House, via this corrupt and obscure farce of an election.
link to twitter.com
Re my previous comment as Neale Hanvey who zealously stood up for Scots at PMQs today with that excellent statement, by the looks of the SNP MPs around him not one of them applauded his stance on defending Scotland which is utterly shameful.
link to twitter.com
Debatable – If Humza wins , then the SNP Mp’s will elect him. They will get telt. Many will do so through gritted teeth. He will get the numbers, but not the support.
So he won’t last very long , and hell mend the SNP.
I reckon People Pleaser.
Trump was a master at it, he said whatever people wanted to hear at any given moment no matter how untrue or whether he contradicted himself. I remember one interview piece in Tennessee where the reasons for voting for Trump included “I have no medicare” and “I lost my job in the coal mines” – they each must have just heard what they wanted to hear. Boris Johnson was the same.
And more fool Scotland, Sturgeon was no stranger to the tactic either, how many popular and sensible sounding policies did she promise but never deliver?
Notwithstanding the obvious of Humza being incompetent in his previous ministerial roles. I was surprised about the research that the SNP membership are ABC1’s and aged males. Fits with the narrative of Humza won’t win in a fair contest. I often wonder who is representing my views. Aged white educated males, former working class gadgee, turns out it’s the SNP membership. No wonder Nicola binned party input and participation. I am happy to be in Alba now, I get updates all the time and invitations to party events.
2.
He’s definitely not a people pleaser.
He’s an arrogant Muppet.
His votes are already cast. He’s lost, but in the interview last night, it appears Kate has already offered him a spot on the gravy train.
As for Kate, the Times Tory favourite. The unions safe pair of hands. She’ll not scare the horses or set the heather alight that’s for sure.
I think we can all abandon the SNP if she wins as the membership will have proved they’re no longer a party for Independence. A shame that Ash is ranked so low – proving plan b was an insight they were already captured so long ago & it’s just a slogan for votes.
It’s number 4. Otherwise known as the Starmer Gambit
Just what is the justification for having hustings taking place after the voting has started. Members who voted based on what candidates were saying their policies were in the first week could now totally disagree with their chosen candidate based on his/her expressed policies in the second week.
Candidates can change their minds, but voters can’t.
Be mad if Ash won and Russell declared the result null and void : )
He has seen the advice, and it says not only will he lose, but it will hurt the whole time he is losing.
I know the poll will come out as ‘people pleaser’ but he isn’t – he’s a Yousef pleaser. So it’s #2 for me.
He needs Kate, because she is a shoo-in, and she doesn’t care for him at all. He now needs to look compliant to the conservatives.
Scotland is still the Sunday Post and the Kirk – the Silver Surfers are conservative, the gunwales of Holyrood creak under the volume of legals, and bankers stappit in there – and they are all conservative.
If Scotland wasn’t conservative in her bones, we would have been independent long since.
Sturgeon went off her nut – as the world went right, she turned left, and had to go. Murrell bet the farm trying to keep the lid on her, but couldn’t survive the inevitable collapse.
Humza must become conservative to get anywhere near a cabinet – another loose canon need not apply.
Kate is the right-wing continuity candidate, the establishment candidate – not Humza. Humza is the shysters candidate, and the heid shyster just got his jotters at the behest of the establishment. As for Ash – well, she’s there to keep the SNP carrot dangling,
All bases are covered – the conservatives cannot lose this, Ash & Kate are guaranteed a position either way, but not Humza, unless he gets with the program.
Humza Yousef does what he must for the good of Humza Yousef, and the world will turn.
Then the votes come in, and I’m totally wrong ¯?\?_?(???)?_?/?¯
He’s a(t it)
The cringe on his face when Dougie Ross exposed his hospital waiting times ! The the wee witch tried a bit of CPR on the corpse. Naw, hen, yer hocus has its limits. Anyway, who appointed him in the first place ?
OT
300k a year! Is that not double what the FM gets…
link to news.stv.tv
link to twitter.com
Some things Boris and Nicola have in common.
Both are serial liars.
Both surround themselves with useful idiots.
Both are terrible negotiators.
Both don’t listen to their members or voters.
Both are arrogant and obnoxious.
The only difference is that Nicola could talk a good game, Boris couldn’t string a sentence together.
Humza is 1/4 on at the bookies. Someone somewhere must have the live results. The bookies are not daft.
Tried to vote and it says:
You Had Already Voted For This Poll. Poll ID #65
If you have another answer, write it in the comments. Results tomorrow!
Am just in and haven’t voted!
Why is British curling run by an English man in England. Its a Scottish only sport. Another example of cultural colonialism. If Scotland is good at anything, it’s taken away from us and claimed for GB.
I went right off Eve Muirhead when she said she was in tears at her national anthem and the flag. She was talking about the English anthem and butchers apron of course. Despite Scotland competing independently at curling in everything else but the Olympics. She chose that flag!
The worst kind of Scot.
Vestas @ 3:54
That is bullshit. Prices up north are still cheap- I’ve just sold my property, 5 acres and 3 bedroom house for under 275,000 pounds. If you’re looking at Auckland, then yes, it;s going to cost you 500,000 pounds average. Plus right now the Kiwi dollar has tumbled to a new low.
@Big Jock 5:53pm
The bookies form the initial market whether that’s politics, horses or football. Thereafter bets placed determine betting odds. The bookies react to where the money is going. The smart money was on Kate Forbes to win some time ago. The money placed recently on Humza to win has been misplaced.
Have I lost a week am I suffering from memory loss, what happened to the GRIT and Challenge of Ash, what happened to all the bluster and promises of EVERY election will be fought on a independence vote
Was it all piss and vinegar is SHE just another self server who is more interested in the salary and pension rewards , has SHE been promised something or has she just been threatened with deselection
Have ANY of these cowardly cretinous politicians got any integrity , honesty or backbone , is it Scotland’s punishment that we elect and allow scum self serving amoeba to run and destroy our freedoms, organisations and nationality
Ash Regan gave HOPE to indy supporters, the other 2 were there to ensure the NO CHANGE policy of sturgeon and the other troughing devolutionists, ALL the brave talk of being the instrument of CHANGE, the FUTURE pride of Scotland, the challenge to work with other independence supporting parties to FLUSH this VILE CANCER into the GUTTER where they belong
ALL it would take is for Ash Regan to WANT to be remembered as the person who showed that lies and corruption were NOT ACCEPTABLE in the party of independence was to stand up to the deplorables and DEMAND the ballot be restarted
But it appears CAPITULATION and cowardice is a requirement within the sturgeon nusnp
@Vestas
Well firstly I’ll likely not go until I’m retired. So it will be a small retirement unit most like. Secondly Yes the Deep South for me. Dunedin is the city of my heart. There will still be bargains to be found. Somewhere to do up. Up an unfashionable hill.
I chose people pleaser, not because he is, he’s too inept and arrogant but because he most likely knows he needs to be. He is a pathetic creature with the worst case of reverse Midas touch I have ever seen. Let’s hope he doesn’t ever get real power!
@ Big Jock 5.59
Whereas blood and soil racism against the English just for being English makes you a ‘good kind of Scot’?
Funny, I used to watch curling in Lockerbie and seem to remember more than one team from south of the border. I just googled it and apparently the English have also been at it for 200 years. Wha’s like us, eh?
@Maureen at 5:56 pm
Tried to vote and it says:
You Had Already Voted For This Poll. Poll ID #65
…
Am just in and haven’t voted!
––––––––
When I first came to the site I wasn’t offered a vote at all, just had a view of the results (so far). Then had occasion to refresh the webpage and voilà! I was offered to place a vote. Try refreshing the page — might work, might not.
Dear God, I’m so depressed with all this shit. These people are playing fast and loose with our destiny, our children’s inheritance. I despise them for it. It reeks, REEKS, of Empire, of entitlement, of their greed. Talk about useful idiots, and loose women – however you define that. FFS, when are we going to rise up and take our country back? Are we seriously going to let this charade play out on such dodgy numbers – whether that is 25k, 50k, 75k or whatever. We are a country of some 5.5 Million and allow ourselves to be beholden to this Brit state sponsored nonsense. Crowd-funders not-withstanding, if this comes to pass let’s get on the streets on the AUOB march, and let’s obliterate them at the next election.
A Bruce says:
22 March, 2023 at 6:09 pm
Vestas @ 3:54
“That is bullshit. Prices up north are still cheap- I’ve just sold my property, 5 acres and 3 bedroom house for under 275,000 pounds. If you’re looking at Auckland, then yes, it;s going to cost you 500,000 pounds average. Plus right now the Kiwi dollar has tumbled to a new low.”
I’m curious now – where was your property? Middle of nowhere I’m assuming?
Pretty much all the towns I know of you’d get hee haw for £275k and Auckland is a lot more than £500k for anything other than a rabbit hutch.
A NL/NZ dual citizen I know sold his fathers place for just under £1.5m – 5 bed farmhouse with 15 acres (pigs & sheep). Was valued at £300k when he inherited it back in 2015. He’s bought a (much) smaller place in NZ and a flat about 5km from Amsterdam which he AirBnBs & uses himself when he’s back over there.
@twathater
I think you’re being a bit unfair she’s give it her best shot but she’s up against it, I think your anger should be directed towards the spineless SNP members who sit quietly by and do nothing about the way she’s been treated, I can weep for this country at times
“British Gas owner Centrica paid its boss £4.5 million last year as its profits tripled to a record £3.3 billion.
Chris O’Shea’s remuneration was five times higher than in 2021
link to twitter.com
“British Gas boss takes £3.7m bonus despite criticism”
link to bbc.co.uk
While folk were freezing in their homes, and 800 admitted to hospital suffering hypothermia due to high energy prices, it’s good to know at least one person could afford to keep warm off the back of Scotland’s gas.
link to mip-prd-web.azurewebsites.net
I just tried to vote and it says:
You Had Already Voted For This Poll
Im just in and haven’t voted!
is this run by mi-voice, LoL
When I first came in there wasn’t the little boxes to tick, I ran the cursor over the options and it told me that I had voted for the first one the cursor touched. I feel cheapened, I am not a number…
There is no doubt in my mind that this was sewn up in the early days for Yousaf, but it’s no matter: Regan and Cherry will have him out on his ear by autumn, in time for an SNP 1, ISP/ALBA 2 strategy in next year’s election
Despite the tin foil hat interpretations placed upon the election by some of your less balanced posters here, the truth is Sturgeon was a chancer, incompetent, and given the history of her legal career, quite possibly a crook, too. Nonetheless, you elected her. And the hangers-on around her. Again and again. And you wonder why things in Scotland are so dire. Really? You really can’t work this out?
Thanks Peter C. Opened Wings in a new tab and it registered my vote.
Don’t despair Kate Forbes will turn out gold.
You fail to understand that everything she says now, or doesn’t say, is geared to winning this contest, not broadcasting her principles on Independence.
We all knew that removing the Murrells would cause upheaval but we had no option. As I have said previously who wants to live in an “Independent” country controlled by the Murrells.
Right we’ve got our priorities which firstly means cleaning up what will be left of the SNP, then presenting the detailed economic and social plans for Scotland’s future. Only when we have convinced real Scots of the viability of these plans, and I mean ordinary voters cultists, can we even think of Independence.
Kate is young and will be a political figure of Salmond’s stature in five years she speaks well and can reach out to un-converted. Give the Lassie a chance.
twathater says:
22 March, 2023 at 6:28 pm
Have I lost a week am I suffering from memory loss, what happened to the GRIT and Challenge of Ash, what happened to all the bluster and promises of EVERY election will be fought on a independence vote…
I haven’t heard anything contrary to that, but then I’m not a TV watcher.
My concern about Ash is that the support she has might be external, coming from people outside the SNP who have some perspective, but in the shady world inside the SNP, we shouldn’t forget those nasty Children of Midwich, who’ve been very quiet lately. The devious little bar stewards will be up to something.
This whole scenario must be such a drain on anyone’s enthusiasm and positivity, but it’s still Ash Regan or bust as far as I can see.
I’m currently just checking some occult literature to see if ships which fall over on dry land is some kind of sign, like some kind of supernatural omen or prophesy about Birnam Wood marching to Dunsinane, or some other portent of Scotland’s doom if we get the vote wrong…
I know it’s dark but can anybody go outside check if there are any seagulls are flying around upside down?
Or maybe see if there’s some hurly burly looking done, when the leadership battle’s lost and won? If they answer’s no, then we might still be ok…
Aye and Scots voted for the blood and soil racist, Boris Johnson and all his hangers on. Oh, wait…
And we wonder why things are so dire in the so-called united kingdom. How can we possibly work this out? Jings, help ma boab, the union must be doomed!
It is now pretty clear now that Useless is a man of principle. He has so many in fact that if one doesn’t suit, he can champion another one.
How come humzah can change his mind re the challenge with only so few days to go re the voting
Could it be that he garnered votes on the basis that he WOULD challenge Westminster?
If so a new vote should start
Kate Forbes is a very capable and intelligent young woman and apparently astonishingly honest and principled by politician standards.
However, her strategy for independence, namely run the country well so child poverty for example is eradicated and everything is hunky dory and that will convince the no voters to support indy, just isnt logically coherent.
First, Westminster will make damn sure that that goal is never unachieved.
Second, if by some unlikely miracle she does manage it, that WON’T encourage no voters to vote yes. Why would it if everything is OK as it is?
Ash has a much more logically cohesive vision for a path to independence.
Can’t change my vote now but I voted Ash/Kate so I’m still happy with that.
Hopefully we get Kate as FM and Ash gets the vision thang job and they work together.
@ Andrew scott at 7:50 pm
Indeed, with the candidates changing their positions on certain policy after voting has started I call for the Runaround a la Mike Reid show option to be enabled with Mi-Voice so voters get a chance to change their minds on who the select.
link to youtube.com
In the early days of the election Humza said he was unequivocal about fighting the “35” I wish I had counted how many times he said unequivocal
At no time did I hear him say unequivocal “in a ring fenced sort of way”
Lying unequivocally or lying now ?
Who takes over Sturgeon’s rancid SNP is about as important as whether the village idiot in Dunblane picks her nose with her left index finger or her right.
The SNP will remain the lost cause it has been for 8 years and Indy will be going nowhere so long as the membership and muppets who vote SNP refuse to see that the pretendy party of Indy is infested with troughing devolutionists and biology deniers who tout for votes in exchange for public money and don’t give two figs for anything or anyone else.
Whether it be Yousless, Regan or Forbes, they can polish the SNP turd for as long as they like, but it’ll nonetheless remain a turd.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect about this media-mounted contest has been the indignant attitude of many English commentators. How dare these Jocks discuss independence on our TV and in our newspapers!
Certainly the only amusing aspect.
[REPOSTED DUE TO ACCIDENTALLY TRIGGERING MODERATION]
There’s a rare planetary alignment on the 28th.
Five planets in the same area of sky at once, visible shortly after sunset. Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and (no sniggering at the back) the one that triggers moderation.
Reported in the Zeig Heil, but probably still true.
Fucked if I know what it means, but c’moan, one day after the winner is supposed to be announced …
I feel a quote from Julius Caesar coming on, but don’t worry, I will suppress it.
Has Humza updated his policy on “white people”?
Seems only a couple of years ago he was ranting about there being too many of them.
akenaton says:
22 March, 2023 at 7:10 pm
” Don’t despair Kate Forbes will turn out gold. ”
All that glitters ……
” …then presenting the detailed economic and social plans for Scotland’s future. ”
Aye , fine , ‘cept ” the detailed economic and social plans ” she has in mind are the very ones that are failing miserably – everywhere . She’s fully locked into uncut Neolib dogma , wae a nice smile . Great
The fallacy continues ……” we need to prove we’re economically viable before we can get Independence ” . Naw , we need to get Independence in order to EVER be economically viable
The recent outbreak of ” Independence-as-nebulous-aspiration ” comments from Trough Central just confirms what was already apparent ie the SNP have downgraded the pursuit of Independence to ” Low Priority ” status . This will continue under K Forbes
Stuart,
Yousaf is a man of straw. He might win with a giant-sized fiddle. However, his “reign” will be one of the shortest in history.
Robert I agree. This prove ourselves worthy of independence nonsense. Is the kind of self pitying inferiority complex that gets us nowhere.
We don’t need to prove ourselves in a union we are trying to escape. We just need convince people we can do better than this shitehole UK state.
Why would we make the best of something that is rotten,to convince Scots to leave it. It doesn’t matter about the corruption with the Murrells or failing economics. These things are happening under devolution, not independence. Bad politicians exist everywhere in thd world, its not a reason for not being independent.
We need to get out of this conditional independence mindset. Independence is unconditional, it’s our God given right.
@ Chic McGregor
Indeed, with all the major influencing powers residing under London Rule, Scotland will never be allowed to flourish as strings will be pulled to hold us back.
I was looking for a different clip of Alan Bissett talking outside Holyrood but can’t find it at the moment, but this 3 min one from before the 2014 Indyref will suffice and shows he was pretty prescient in explaining things.
link to youtube.com
Very worth a read.link to archive.vn
Eradication of child poverty requires the eradication of awb’dy’s poverty and the only way that is happening anytime soon in a rigged economic system is through a massive transfer of wealth through taxation/exemptions or a re-definition of child poverty. My non-existent money is on the latter.
If Kate Forbes makes independence dependent on eradicating child poverty, then that’s possibly a signal that the independence can is being kicked way down the road.
Still politicians generally talk policy-bollocks during leadership elections so who knows really?
Does Yousaf claim to be a Muslim?
The month of Ramadhan has started when Muslims fast during the day and feast during the night.
Is he following that rule?
Correct Phil. Electioneering before being
in office, is different to being in office. Playing to the crowd.
Kate might go hardline on independence, or she might run away from it. One thing we do know. We were going backwards under the Murrells. So even a small step forward would be an improvement.
Dan
Is this what you were looking for link to youtube.com
Anyone know what Nicola’s recent meeting with Sunak was about.
Did she leave with a brown envelope.
Here we are Wednesday and nobody has been arrested, no election restart announced.
I got a big bag of popcorn in specially.
Westminster is preparing to normalise overriding holyrood, jack has been appointed viceroy, the Westminster agreement tears up the UK market, the supreme court says we belong to Westminster and have no rights and Humza takes issue with gender rights mularkey.
Are the SNP totally incapable of seeing the cliff edge
I still see people advocating Kate Forbes (a Devolutionist) for FM, who now claims that there is nothing to see here and the corruption doesn’t exist, happy to see the can kicked further down the road while our assets are raped and our children go cold and hungry, claiming to support independence. FFS
Robert Hughes – agreed.
The *I’ll eradicate poverty* pish.
Naw ye willnae. Not on pocket money & wasting £600 million mitigating all thier other pish you won’t.
It does my head in the dross they come out with in answer to banel questions from banal TV commentators on stuff that’s fucking reserved! Jeez! Instead of saying ‘thats a reserved matter’ they fecking chunter on a load of senseless shite. Instead of hammering it home they’ve hee-haw powers.
Tax, employment, drug deaths, oil & gas, pish poor benefits..all fcking RESERVED ya dumb arses! Quit talking how you’ll make all that shit better! FFS!
And then there’s the fkn English yoons in the audience – *I’ve just moved to Scotland. Can you all shut up about Independence? It’s upsetting me! What will YOU do to make me feel fking better?*
Get yerself tae f…. LOL
*And breathe* LOL
Alan McHarg..
Yes, Kate the Tory. *persuade, persuade, persuade & when YOU’VE persuaded, persuade some more. Sums, sums, ZZzzzzzz*
No thanks. Haven’t we just suffered eight yrs of that bullshit?
It’s a competition – he’s chasing votes.
So. When are we starting the legal challenge against this whole election process? Or is it ‘too feart’ again? Or do we just move on in our votes as we’ve already moved on in our party memberships? Focusing on identifying and vetting candidates who WILL stand on an ‘Independence majority = start the negotiations’ ticket, regardless of what silly games the SNP are playing?
@Geri says:22 March, 2023 at 10:35 pm
If tax is reserved, how come income taxes are higher in Scotland than in the rest of the UK?
I am still waiting for one of the candidates to come out with a statement about that. Seems to me that a commitment to abolish those extra Scottish taxes could be a vote winner.
But it’s like all the other continuity “non subjects” – not up for discussion.
Covid emergency powers? Naw, the candidates are all for keeping them. Might be needed in case Scots ever do discover their sovereignty, and need locking down or locking up again.
HY? Seriously?
Wee Dougie Ross will have him for breakfast! He’ll need to keep that earpiece in with NS’s voice telling him what to say.
As for the woke brigade they will eat him alive if he doesn’t waste OUR money on a court challenge…Kate’s a safe pair of hands..but whose hands will be pulling her strings…also wonder about her anti-abortion stance…how will that fare for Scotland’s women?
Got to be Ash for Independence…but I don’t have a vote…Just lot’s of popcorn.
Geri. I watched Scotlands secret escapes on the Nine channel. They went to 3 holiday places. Dumfries, knoydart and Perthshire. Every single one was run by English incomers. I tell you , rural Scotland is virtually run by them.
We have tourists from around the world wondering why Scots have Cockney and Lancashire accents. It’s cultural colonisation. Scots are foreigners in their own land.
Went for he knows he’s losing.
A Machiavelli would shop around legal advice that he can claim that a legal challenge would or even better leak it so it doesn’t get pinned on him. Then that puts the oncoming FM in the position where they would find it difficult not to challenge.
The reason I don’t see him winning is because the SNP membership grew so large before the invasion of the woke. Even if the balance has shifted in their favour they haven’t driven out enough pro independence support to favour the woke candidate.
Add to that Sturgeon’s game was ensuring no obvious challengers. Forbes got her job through accident and not design and was probably better at it than Sturgeon found comfortable. Good enough that replacing her wasn’t an option.
Youssef is one of the Dan Quale like human shields there to prevent an assassination, figuratively, of the dear leader as success would be a form of self harm. There so she could stand out in a sea of mediocrity. His claim to fame is the Hate Crime Act. A law so poorly written the police may never enforce it.
@Louise Hogg who asked:
“When are we starting the legal challenge against this whole election process? Or is it ‘too feart’ again?”
Great questions Louise. We are all awaiting the answers
Remember “The great only appear great to us because we are on our knees. Let us rise”
Louise Hogg
I wouldn’t start it. What would it really achieve? Absolutely nothing. SNP are dodgy as..best to let them pay for that at the next election.
John Main
We have very limited tax raising powers. A poisonous chalice Sturgeon landed us with Smith Commission. We had WM by the bollocks & she came out with shite. You want fancy services, Scotland? You raise taxes to pay for them! Weren’t you listening during 2014 or later with Richard Murphy? We have a tight budget. England spends less on its services, we get less, that includes the NHS. It’s devolved – it’s budget is not.
Your taxes aren’t higher unless yer on mega bucks. Have you ever lived in England? I have – there’s a cost on absolutely everything. Council tax, water meters, prescriptions, seeing a Dr, rents, tuition…stop greeting. The mega rich pays more because they use the services too.
Big Jock.
I know & it’s only getting worse. They’ve snapped up all the properties in the Highlands then greet like fck everyone doesn’t speak ‘normal’ to them & start poking thier beaks into how local schools etc. It grinds on my last nerve to hear these eejits greet about how they feel about our Independence. ‘Its so divisive’ well that too bad!
The clearances never ended. While Scots have nowhere to live – they snap up all the properties for renting. SNPs thousands of house builds – bought by whom? Same with Edinburgh & St Andrews – it’s mini England. The more you see it the more it’ll always be a ‘naw’ vote unless, dare I say it again, the franchise is changed. A native population has rights under int laws. They’ve done the exact same to Wales. Typical colonial bullshit. They’ll hold on no matter what..
Big Jock, “Every single one was run by English incomers. I tell you , rural Scotland is virtually run by them………It’s cultural colonisation.”
But I thought immigrants were a good thing according to the Left – or is just English people you object to ?
@ Graeme George and Breeks , I know that Ash Regan has a mountain to climb especially with the brain dead membership who are still suffering from heed MAMMY abandonment , BUT she was the one who nailed her policies to the cross, she was the one who PROMISED change, she was the one who promised CHALLENGE, all I see is capitulation and fear or is it self preservation
Does anyone think that the deviant cabal will allow her back into the body of the kirk, does anybody believe that the sturgeon clique will forgive her wee outbursts and not work against her to get deselected
SHE is finished in the snp and she is stupid if she doesn’t know that, they will make her life unbearable within the party and FORCE her out, even if she thought of accepting a position with Forbes the gradualists won’t trust her and will constantly work against her
IF she had any gumption or integrity she would challenge the whole putrid clusterfuck in court, she will be made a pariah what has she got to lose , and the best thing about it is if she WINS it will show the world how rotten and rancid the sturrell corporation is with their election fixing attempts
The quote that will follow him forever – To the Ukranian refugees in Scotland
‘WHERE ARE THE MEN?’
Nuff said forever.
msdidi says:
22 March, 2023 at 9:33 pm
Interesting that one of the producers of that film was the bidey- in to Emma “The Cheat” Harpie. A woke Yank that comes across as Harpie’s puppet master.
I’m just hoping that the best worst case scenario just now, is that more of the SNP members and voters waken up to some of what’s been going on and will switch to Alba.
It’s going to be a longer grind, that’s for sure.
It’s all been said. Yes it looks so rigged for Useless to win.
I just have a wee bit faith left that enough members vote for Ash Regan.
She should though mount a legal challenge on the process .
HY goes to Poland on a State Visit.
“Where are the big white bears?”
Makes you so proud to be Scottish.
@Buck Stradler says:23 March, 2023 at 2:40 am
just English people you object to ?
Yup. Specifically, white English. Soz.
Anybody else, legal or illegal, is a genuine New Scot, and welcomed with open arms.
I keep pointing out that it’s the overcrowding and relentlessly increasing pressure on English services, housing, etc. that is driving the exodus across the border into Scotland, but seemingly that’s racist talk.
We’re determined to be the nicest wee country in the world, and everybody will be Jock Tamson’s Bairns, right up to the point when we become a minority in our own country.
Maybe the New Scots will have what it takes to get us Indy. It certainly looks like one of the New Scots is on course to become Indy leader.
The optics of this to just about everybody else in the world who is looking on at Scotland are crystal clear.
A statement from Ewan Kennedy on the need for full disclosure on the Salmond plot. Ewan is a retired lawyer who lives in Argyll and is a frequent correspondent on Yours for Scotland.
“Three years ago this week there ended a show trial of the sort we used to rightly deride when we saw it going on in the old German Democratic Republic, the persecution of a former leader on the basis of evidence faked by his political opponents.
Against all the odds, including a ruling by the judge to disallow witnesses who would no doubt have exposed conspiracy, the jury accepted that at least one witness, on the most serious charge, had committed perjury, while others had retrospectively revisioned trivia.
Granting life long protection from identification to the conspirators then created a bizarre situation, putting innocents under suspicion and giving the guilty freedom to publish what they want, should they want to.
Matters were compounded by the State broadcaster covering the prosecution case in detail, while ignoring the defence, then subsequently putting out what has given rise to a new word in the language, the warkumentary.
The combination of the official suppression of truth and a biased media means that rumours are flying about. One, which I earnestly hope is untrue, is a suggestion that individuals may have identified and tracked down one or more members of the Salmond jury, which would be a massive criminal act.
We have recently seen those who engineered, promoted, investigated and prosecuted the Salmond case all depart for well upholstered futures, leaving behind a legal system that is in a worse state than at any time since I joined it in 1968. There is a desperate need for the fullest disclosure of everything that went on in this dreadful case. Without that, trust in the system will never be restored.”
Robin McAlpine:
“She traded Scotland’s chance to become an independent country for the sake of her own vanity and we will never get that opportunity back.
“For that, for all of it, I will never forgive her for what she has done.”
link to robinmcalpine.org
Buck stradler don’t be so obtuse. Maybe the Left does like immigrants, I however have my concerns. I don’t mind a multiracial society so much, I object to a multicultural one when my own culture is being submerged.
Wow, saw this Craig Murray’s twitter, this should make for very uncomfortable reading for the WGD crew… all of it true.
link to archive.vn
Geri @1:29
What could it achieve ?
Depends what the definition if “it” is.
An injunction on Mi-V for being a suspected pound shop dominion and indulging its clients in arms length corruptions of the democratic process* could throw enough sand in the machine to reach all manner of consequence.
First and funniest (or not, as case may be) being labour having to beg the acting FM to keep on carrying on with the gRR – and Humza getting her to throw in an apology for all the (alleged) one night stands of Ayrshire’s other bonnie lass, Roberta, whilst ‘at it’.
*Bearing in mind first strike wars have been fought for less (allegedly)
John – The English are indeed the biggest ethnic group in Scotland at 11% , and growing. That is not healthy for several reasons.
They have vested interest in Stopping our independence. Indeed they did so in 2014. They tend to come here and take over communities , rather than blend in with the locals. You only have to listen the news to hear it. St Kilda has 3 permanent residents. All from England. Many islands are virtually English colonies. The wealthy areas of Edinburgh are the same.
We are talking about Scottish cultural erosion and implantation. It’s the clearances by another name and method.
When I go on holiday to the Highlands. I really find it totally insulting being taught my history by people from England. It makes my heckles rise , and so it should for any Scot.
It’s not normal migration at these levels, it’s a gradual takeover. It’s a ticking time bomb , as soon independence will become impossible. Due to the reduction of indigenous Scots to a minority in certain parts of Scotland.
twathater says:
23 March, 2023 at 3:30 am
Does anyone think that the deviant cabal will allow her back into the body of the kirk, does anybody believe that the sturgeon clique will forgive her wee outbursts and not work against her to get deselected…
I think we are approaching a crossroads in Scotland.
Either we take the Constitutional route, which totally resets everything we know and take for granted about Scottish politics and government, and witnesses Holyrood and Holyrood’s Scotland Act being swept aside as focus switches to Scotland’s Constitutional Sovereignty and status under International Law, or we don’t.
Once we take this road, the significance of a Holyrood First Minister, indeed the whole misadventure of actually having a subservient Scottish “government” at all, will simply run out of traction. Does modern France have any nostalgia for it’s Vichy Government? Of course not.
The other fork in the road, the road I hope we don’t take, is the coward’s retreat from Independence and allow the SNP time to restructure and style itself again as the core of the “reinvented” Independence Movement, which still has no constitutional awareness, and no idea how to outsmart the traps and tripwires of Devolution, nevermind Scotland’s subjugation by Westminster. Neither a heart nor a backbone, just a mooth.
NOBODY should be leading the campaign for Scottish Independence without having a cohesive strategy for delivering it. For the last eight years, we might as well have had a crash test dummy leading the campaign for Independence because the SNP seems to have no strategy, no vision, no plan, no hunger, no direction, and even seem devoid of self awareness. How can expectations be met when we are giving the task to a rabble of underachievers?
I find it utterly ridiculous that the SNP, which was invented to pursue Scottish Independence as it’s fundamental raison d’etre, could even be infiltrated by Sturgeon’s Trans Taliban. I mean how, in the name of god was that even possible?
When did the SNP cease being a vehicle driving us to Independence, and suddenly become tour bus for so many delinquent arseholes who see Scotland’s insatiable exploitation by Westminster as their personal fkg meal ticket? Have they no shame?
When did Scotland stop producing hardy, stoic folk who were tolerant and enlightened yet grim and immoveable in their determination, and start producing so many lame and needy, whiney nobodies who’s only lifeskill and achievement is to talk utter shite and worm their way into influencial positions they simply don’t have the acumen to honour??
Scotland’s Independence team should be staffed with the very best of us; the smartest, the cleverest, those gifted in strategy, all round awareness, and encyclopedic knowledge of the situation; the ones who are on top of their game, yet “somehow” a douchebag rent-a-gob like Humza Yousef is front runner for the job? Wait, what???
I mean, if we split Scotland 50 / 50 in a leadership contest, I seriously doubt Mr Yousef would survive the first round cut. But to be one of the top three options for FM???
What the fk is happening here? Who gives control of something so important and valuable to a gas-lighting liar?
Once there was a lament written about Flodden, …The English for ance, by guile wan the day,: The Flooers o’ the Forest, that fought aye the foremost,: The pride o’ oor land lie cauld in the clay…
Maybe it’s time we lament it’s Scotland’s capacity to lead itself which lies cauld in the clay, the same way we have apparently forfeited our rights to defend ourselves and our rights.
Get off your fkg knees Scotland. We don’t need to these charlatan deadbeats blocking the pipes so our Nation cannot flourish.
Independence has two fronts; ending the dominance of Westminster, aye, but just as needy, maybe more so, is bringing an end to Scotland’s feckless infirmity, perpetual weakness, and our obsequious toadying disgrace.
We go over, we go round, we go through, but we march for Independence. Hingers on and charlatans beware.
Tom , thanks for that brilliant but so sad link.
Big Jock says
Indeed. A common statement I’ve heard asked of people holidaying in Scotland . Did you enjoy your English experience.
The only way to secure any kind of Scottish liberation on any subject is to change the franchise and only allow indigenous people the right to participate. That would be the same as any other European country, but don’t ask politicians to protect the Scottish people, even Alex Salmond has stated categorically that he will have none of this nativist stuff so there you are he doesn’t give a shit about Scots.
@Big Jock says:23 March, 2023 at 8:41 am
Projections for when the UK, if it holds together, will be minority white indigenous vary between 2051 to the 2060’s.
We can probably guess that England will lead the charge and become the first of the 4 nations to transition.
Scotland will continue to be the destination of those older and more affluent English who are unhappy with their demographic destiny, in the teeth of all efforts by the MSM to persuade them that this is a good thing.
Personally, I don’t think Indy will be possible by democratic means after this decade, i.e. after 2030. Possibly sooner, if various global disaster scenarios come about.
As I also believe Indy won’t be allowed under any circumstances as long as the war continues, I see only a narrow window of opportunity remaining for Indy.
Which is why only AR, who has a plan to try for Indy now, must win.
The other plans, for some time in the future, won’t work. By the time that future comes around, the natural Scottish constituency for Indy will have ceased to exist.
Please do not tar us all with the same brush. I came here 20 years ago for a new relationship – an independence supporter, as I am. I have two Scottish grandchildren. I would limit the franchise.
I wish Robin McAlpine was running. That’s a man I could get behind and I think he’d be hugely popular. Sadly, I suspect he has far too much integrity to even consider it.
I note some sturgeonites having a dig at BoJo and others comparing him to sturgeon.
BoJo – exposed by the media for what he is, forced into resigning from his party in disgrace, now up in front of a parliamentary committee and likely to be found as a liar and his political career is done, what remains of his party will pay the price for what he did and lose the next election.
Sturgeon – exposed by (some of) the media (the Rev and a couple others) as a liar and of being the orchestrator of a conspiracy to pervert justice and jail Alex Salmond, unlike BoJo not a single one of her party has the courage to speak out and have her removed from power, appears in front of a parliamentary committee where she commits perjury and she rigs the committee itself to ensure that she gets away with her crimes and faces no consequences, oh let’s not forget she instructed justice minister Humza yousaf to excuse her from giving evidence and perjuring herself in Alex Salmond’s criminal trial, along comes an election and the SNP cult (including some regulars on here) vote for her again (despite advice from people like the Rev warning what would happen), she’s returned to power and sets about trying to erase her crimes and generally rubbing the entire country’s nose in it, now (it appears) the law has caught up with her for something else and she’s been tipped a wink by the corrupt chief Constable so she resigns and will swan off into the sunset as if she’s never done anything wrong…. And guess what, next election the SNP cult will re-elect the SNP even though many of those who played a pet in the crimes of Nicola Sturgeon are still in the party.
Wha’s like us eh!
Gordon Bain.
Ash Regan worked for Common Weal, she’ll know Robin McAlpine pretty well and will probably be, or have been, taking advice from him, if Regan wins (what am I saying the fix is well and truly in) independence will be obtain and Scotland will begin to prosper.
Buck Straddler…
I commented on a previous thread in relation to “White flight” which you may have missed, but basically this stems from parts of England being considered too multicultural/multiethnic.
The result is that those, (by “those” I mean WASP – White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant), living in England’s major conurbations who feel that “home” is changing beyond recognition, are relocating to rural parts of England which are less ethnically diverse, Cornwall for example, but also to Wales and to Scotland.
The effects of such an influx upon rural communities in Scotland, Wales and Cornwall, which have distinct cultural and national identities of their own, can be profound.
As with ex-pat communities on the continent, those coming north inevitably bring with them their own culture baggage… attitudes, expectations, traditions, language, customs and preconceived ideas of what living elsewhere will be like.
Some new to an area will actively seek to adapt and fit in. Others will not – why should they you might ask, it’s not as though they’ve moved “abroad”, they still live in the “United Kingdom” after all. “Birds of a feather…” may also feature in civic society – school PTAs and Community Councils in rural areas can be devoid of ‘local’ accents, with ‘locals’ themselves feeling displaced.
Problems do exist in rural areas of Scotland with the replacement of indigenous communities by those moving from England, (whose numbers far outweigh “immigrants” of other nationalities), but politicians generally run a mile for fear of the “R” word being banded about.
The problem with being “pro-” anything is you’re perceived as “anti-” something else, and it’s not ‘cool’ nor is it a vote winner to be “anti-” a specific ethnic or cultural identity – even when trying to protect something that is itself worthy of protection.
Gordon Bain says:
23 March, 2023 at 9:11 am
I wish Robin McAlpine was running. That’s a man I could get behind and I think he’d be hugely popular. Sadly, I suspect he has far too much integrity to even consider it.
Alex Salmond was right, we need to take Independence out the hands of politicians, and Sara Salyers, through SALVO, is hopefully going to provide the mechanism of doing that, where it is Scotland’s Community of the Realm, the people, who take command of Scotland’s sovereignty and drive us towards Independence.
I can think of no better way of cherry picking the best of us, from high flying politicians right across the spectrum to Scotland’s determined and motivated little people, and harnessing their strengths into a single collective, which can represent Scotland internationally through a Constitutional Convention, or Convention of the Estates.
I wish folks would stop dwelling on Holyrood. Holyrood is a placebo, a puppet show. It promises a fix it can never deliver. Scotland’s real medicine, the actual remedy to what ails us, is Constitutional Sovereignty, and you can’t access that through a Vichy Holyrood or Holyrood’s Scotland Act… whoever is the “leader”.
robertknight @ 9.30am
Living in the southwest of Scotland, I agree with all of your observations and endorse what you say as regards this ‘flight’ of the English of (mainly) the SE of England to the rural and scenic areas like Wales, Cornwall and Scotland. To that list, I would add Cumbria, particularly the Lake District.
It is a complex issue and as you say politicians would rather tiptoe round it than address it but all of the areas mentioned suffer from the same effects – rising property prices, pricing out local people – but also cultural effects. If you raise this issue here, though, it can be closed down by using the claim that it is racist to question. This ignores the fact that parts of England are suffering from the same effects. I have met people from all of these areas mentioned in England who make the same complaints about the hollowing out of their communities and social change which disadvantages local people.
It’s something else that the SNP has been unwilling to confront. Yet another real ongoing issue affecting people’s daily lives which they would rather skirt round than try to deal with.
Outrageous piece by Mackay in today’s Herald seeks to include Salmond’s time in charge as contributing to the downfall of the SNP that was brought about by Sturgeon alone! He’s apparently heard from someone inside the SNP who said:
‘The “kinder answer”, they added, is that after the 2007 election victory, when Alex Salmond formed the SNP’s first government, the party faced “the global financial crash, austerity, the referendum and its loss, a change of leadership [to Nicola Sturgeon], Alex Salmond “going a bit, err, off”, Brexit, the “crisis” between Salmond and Sturgeon, Covid, war and the cost of living crisis.’
What planet is Mackay on? Between 2007 and 2014 (during which period Salmond won an outright majority in 2011) the SNP went from strength to strength proving it could govern responsibly. Once Sturgeon took over, that all went to pot, and the current shambles is entirely down to her, not Salmond.
No wonder journalists are as mistrusted as so many politicians.
Big Jock 11.52pm.
I stopped watching that type of programme years ago because they are so depressing. I actually had the dubious pleasure some years ago while walking in the west highlands in an area we had visited many times over the years, to “get off my land” by an Englishman who had just bought the estate we were walking on. He didn’t understand about the right to roam, and probably still doesn’t.
Soon there will be entire islands, where the Scottish accent has died. Families from England , bringing up their kids in a bubble of English migrants. We have seen this already in some places. I want to know why people are letting our very accent disappear in some places. It’s utterly depressing.
John – similar to me. A Geordie once told me I couldn’t cross his field as he had sheep in it. I said to him “in Scotland I can go where I please” , and he should not be locking gates in fields, as that encouraged fence climbing.
I carried on with him watching me on his quad bike. I have never been pulled up by a Scottish farmer for crossing a field.
wullie says:
23 March, 2023 at 9:04 am
…. even Alex Salmond has stated categorically that he will have none of this nativist stuff so there you are he doesn’t give a shit about Scots.
I don’t agree with Alex Salmond on this, but I can appreciate his perspective.
Alex doesn’t want Scottish Independence degenerating into anti-English hostility or prejudice which the meat-heads at the lower end of every society can agitate into a problem. Nor do I of course, but there’s a significant risk that a franchise which excluded a particular section of society would alienate people and fuel animosity. (Especially since we all know “who’s” media would be explaining the franchise to the population, don’t we?)
Nobody in their right mind can possibly want that aggro, but I think there’s a broader spectrum of opinion when it comes to the “risk” of it.
I believe Alex Salmond is on record as saying he wants Independence without as much as a nosebleed… or words to that effect. I think that’s a noble aspiration to have, and I refuse to condemn the man for having it, but I just think we’ll have to be extraordinarily lucky to pull it off.
Alex Salmond is a better man than me. For my part, I’ll be satisfied with Internationally recognised protocols for franchises on Constitutional Referendums, which are distinctly different from the 2014 internal domestic franchise.
You’re wrong Wullie, Alex Salmond is at the very opposite end of spectrum from not giving a shit. I myself however, am not. Had Scotland adopted these protocols in 2014, YES would have won in 2014. That’s what I give a shit about, not the kindly franchise.
It’s not that I’m a blood thirsty person or a prejudiced bigot, at least I hope it isn’t, but if I moved to England, or France, or anywhere that wasn’t my home by birth, why would I feel entitled to a vote, or feel aliented to be excluded from my adopted country’s constitutional decisions? My instincts are that even given a vote, I would choose not to use it. I’m still the visitor in their country, a “probationary” citizen probably for the rest of my life.
I didn’t move there to “own” the place. What is so monstrous about the notion of adopting protocols which are recognised internationally, and as far as I’m aware, nowhere else are considered even contoversial?
I respect Mr Salmond’s opinion, but respectfully disagree with it. Noble aspirations create somewhat lofty benchmark thresholds.
I believe that the shambles that was our census was bungled deliberately, so that the natives would sleep on peacefully, while their country was colonised. We don’t really know how many incomers have arrived in the last few years. The evidence of my eyes and ears tells me that the numbers are uncomfortably large.
I used to live in Poolewe. ‘Nuff said.
@Breeks.
I’ve lived in France for eight years now and, although I can vote, I don’t. It’s not my country. That will only chande if I ever see LePen gaining traction.
Big Jock says:
23 March, 2023 at 8:41 am
When I go on holiday to the Highlands. I really find it totally insulting being taught my history by people from England. It makes my heckles rise , and so it should for any Scot.
I was born in England and moved up to Scotland just before my 15th birthday. Felt I had come home as soon as I arrived, and 55 years later I feel the same. No way do I ever consider myself English, and neither does anyone who knows me.
My first job after leaving school in Inverness was as an assistant warden on Culloden Battlefield working for NTS (spit). I was an extremely good guide, and could discuss anything about Culloden intelligently from different points of view. I got £10 for a 6 day week.
All was going swimmingly until a redneck Texan (Mcleod by name) announced loudly to the assembled tour party that he ‘wasn’t going to be showed round the graves of his ancestors by no long-haired English monkey’
Turned out he was a guest of Inverness Chamber of Commerce. I was subsequently given a month’s notice, which I worked cutting the grass on the graves of the English. I was not allowed any further communication with the public.
The island I have lived on for the last 20 years is full of English voices. I resent it, not because they are English voices per se, but because they have brought Little England with them. There is a flourishing branch of the British Legion, the last local council house has been acquired in a house swap by yet another person from Yorkshire and they want to put street lights up and traffic lights on the bridge.
However, I also know many ‘white settlers’ (mostly NOT from Yorkshire) who are independence activists and cannot wait to get a Scottish passport. I have met many who are running thriving local businesses (such as our local shop) who bring an energy and vitality to our communities and are not just retirement tourists.
So – I have very mixed views about proposals to restrict the franchise. I think there should be a residence requirement, say 5 years full time. I think that would perhaps be adequate, but 10 might be better. And perhaps there should also be a cultural test . . . .
Like all things indy, this is more of a minefield than simple ‘native born only’ rhetoric, which is another example of looking for a simple solution to a complex problem. If you go down that route, for example, you open up the question of votes for expats – and expat Scots I know (quite a few from Uni days in Aberdeen who moved South for the English shilling years ago) are pretty much universally hostile to independence.
As I said, an attempt to apply a simple solution. People say ‘if only native born Scots had the franchise in 2014 we would have won’. Maybe. You can’t tell though. The ‘Blood and Soil’ narrative could have scared some of the ‘Soft Yes’ vote off. We will never know.
But posting what can be interpreted as a ‘blood and soil’ narrative is not, IMO, helpful. No currently constituted party – ALBA included – is going to put such a franchise forward, and a residency route seems much more appropriate as a partial solution.
I wonder if he woke up this morning with the same beliefs that he went to sleep with last night. Perhaps a vision has come to him in a dream.
So, all the English coming here to buy up houses and land. Who do you think is selling to them? Happy to take the English gold.
You will never get the No’s to vote for indi if you are that racist.
I agree Breeks
It is a mystery to me how anybody can think it’s ok for English people to have a vote on Scottish independence, It’s beyond parody.
Just to be clear I have nothing against English people, or English people living here, some of the nicest people I’ve met in my life were English, but it goes without saying that English people uniquely among all other nationalities have a vested interest in Scotland remaining under their motherlands yoke that no other nationality has.
It doesn’t make them bad people it just makes them human but equally biased in the interests of their own homeland,
If I was in any another country including the British Isles and was given a vote on their independence I would abstain considering it none of my business, in my view that would have been the decent thing to do
You only have to look at the percentage of English people who didn’t do the decent thing that voted NO at the 2014 referendum higher than any other nationality and it was that vote that cost us our right to independence.
The Scots didn’t vote No in 2014 the English did it for us
I’ve said this before on here and been called a racist or natavist and some other names besides and that’s perfectly fine I don’t care, calling me names won’t make me wrong or change my opinion
According to English/British nationalists all nations and people who fought for their independence from the English/British empire were racists. Why couldn’t they have just been good little oppressed people and accepted English/British domination. It’s god’s way after all. And god is English/British. It’s in the bible, don’t you know.
Breeks says:
23 March, 2023 at 10:59 am
a franchise which excluded a particular section of society would alienate people and fuel animosity.
The only people being excluded is the indigenous population. Im sick of being considered second class, not a new Scot.The poorest people in our own country. The ones with the lowest life expectancy.
When you consider that at the time of the union the population of Scotland was 40% of the UK. Where are we now. Animosity you say. FFS.
Born in Scotland of Scottish born parents then your fine otherwise NAW
Or. You can search the old Scottish Parliament before 1707. To be considered a legal Scottish citizen native etc. You had to be Born in Scotland of Scottish born grandparents.
The same franchise as every other nation if you don’t mind.
PS I enjoy your articles emmensly
Mrs Murrell, if you’re reading this, could I ask you a question, ‘Was it worth it’?
@Jan says:23 March, 2023 at 11:29 am
I agree with you.
I also agree with Big Jock.
And Graeme George.
It’s a desperate situation to be in. In effect, I don’t have an answer. Neither does anybody else, because the only “reasonable” answer is forever ruled out.
All I can say is that if we are looking for a route to Indy, we really should not be starting from the place we are currently in.
Nor should we be traveling in our current direction.
In fact, we should not even be facing in our current direction.
So, we are in a bad place, and each day Scotland moves further away from where she needs to be, if we Scots are ever to get Indy.
L says:
22 March, 2023 at 1:47 pm
Does he actually WEAR earpiece?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++====
Yes but its been stuck up his rear end since the tricycle incident
Jan 11.29am. “Who do you think is selling to them?”
Often it’s farmers who are finding it increasingly difficult to scrape a living off the land. Across the central belt large builders, usually English, make offers to farmers that they can’t refuse. I can understand why they give up the struggle when they are offered a way out.
These large builders are building new houses in their thousands, usually at prices that most Scots can’t afford. You can hardly blame people for feeling resentful when they see their culture being squeezed out, only to be replaced by an alien one.
There seem to be certain topics which appear on auto-repeat.
Stop cringing about the english and their dirty deeds – we all know the score
Blood and Soil LITTLE ENGLANDERS
turn up to the scenic parts of Scotland to buy out the locals using unearned wealth from cashing out their homes, made valuable by a southern property bubble inflated, in large part, by North Sea Oil.
– then the brass-necked bastards try to make you feel guilty for “noticing” and calling you a “racist”; and then “racist” being a magic word, the limp brained middle class capitulate immediately because being called a racist is like, the worst thing, ever. But native Scots are not allowed any such descriptions, even though we qualify
link to un.org
oh aye, and the “Scots dun slavery” so, we don’t count, or something.
Our census, still not available, is being messed with, I imagine, and held back to avoid showing us that the English are taking over large chunks of the Highlands, remembering that when you get to 30% and bloc vote, with these toytown-weirdo voting systems we use, they can dominate local politics.
Almost NONE of any of these people would ever consider themselves to be “New Scots” – and the final irony, the fucking chutzpah of it all …
about half of these pricks are, essentially, “on the run” because THEY ARE RACIST BASTARDS, themselves – “4-REAL”
Aye, Merrie Old England got a bit “too ethnic” for them, entirely due to policies they pursued – greed, economic reasons – and it was all okay because the middle class could, with their money, buy themselves lilywhite enclaves. But now it’s all gone a bit wrong, and they want to reset, to go back to “ENGLAND 50 years ago”, which they intend to recreate in Scotland.
– these people are a pestilence, a fucking disease, locusts all, and need to be called out, then chucked out on their fucking arses. A vote – I would never give any of them, or their descendants a vote on anything.
@ confused
Well said!
Re immigration being mentioned above, it appears to be alright to moan about the English but it is a social faux pas to mention Govanhill where you can have an unprovoked assault carried out against you in the street by a “Nu Scot” and they will be either not identified despite being on cctv and their signature being used in the bank prior to you or they will be caught and released without charge within an hour with the police telling you that basically their hands are tied and that this is not their choice. Both of which have happened to me.
Under the SNP we have had two grooming gangs investigated in Glasgow, Operation Cotswalds, taxi drivers and kebab shop workers in North Glasgow and Operation Cerrar, a grooming gang made up 100% of asylum seekers or people who had been granted asylum which was operating at the four corners/Boots corner in Glasgow city centre. A compliant press stayed very quiet about these and when word began to leak out of the latter that is when the Hate Crime Bill was released, purely a coincidence, no doubt.
In comments under articles in the Herald some independence supporters played the R card when these were mentioned with some actually saying that it was right for the media not to report on these. In my sphere of work I regularly see the WWC bypassed in favour of the Nu Scots and for those talking about the English up North it is not they who are being complained about in my area of work but white people as a whole, too many white people in Inverness etc.
I understand that people do not wish to address this issue and I am used to the word vile being brandished, it is the new ghastly.
@Confused
Yup, all of that.
Scotland is getting it between the hammer and the anvil – wealthy c0l0nists, and then there is the obsession with mass immigration from the 3rd world (an insane idea, which solves no problems whatsoever, not even the incomers – who made them refugees, how and why?)
– Govanhill is a lab experiment, which has not escaped containment; the middle class and media remain silent about it, mainly because the reality of what goes on contradicts liberal dogmas about “diversity” and “multiculturalism” solving all. For example, the problems often get blamed on “bad landlords”, and no further information given; dirty secret, almost all of these landlords are “asian”, from that mercantile spiv class on the south side. Be careful who you slander! You might be a racist.
Diversity etc, is very patronising and insulting as if “all the rest of them” are one single thing; kurds and turks, pakistanis and indians, hindus and muslims, asians the afro caribbeans – these are all different people, and they might not like your rainbow flag.
Whenever I see something written about Govanhill – “the vibrancy” – the author is usually writing from the west end, across the river, far away and safe.
– getting back round to our immediate problems : England tried the multicultural experiment, most of them don’t like it and the ones with money (who caused it to happen) now want to “escape” for a “better quality of life”, often advertised, ironically, in the Daily Mail, which hates all Scots and all things Scottish.
@Confused
Re the landlords, a large chunk of what was social housing in Govanhill was sold to them without it ever going on the market, it went from public to private ownership without ever being advertised as being on sale.
Re what you mention re omerta, in my own case it has led to social Siberia for talking about it with the exception of a couple of female friends who moved out of the area to escape the crime and squalor and being followed home etc. The ones who have airbrushed me out of history are management class socialists whose only connection to the area is BTL ownership and/or membership of charity boards.
When I complained to my social housing landlord about Nu Scots using my close doorway as a 24/7 gang outpost the housing officers response was to threaten me.
Listening to all these boak-inducing “tributes” to Sturgeon, I find myself wishing Margo MacDonald had been spared and was still there.
I wonder what she would have said.
As regards our Glorious Leader’s farewell speech, I noticed two vitally-important people in her life who were not mentioned: Wee Eck (not unexpectedly) and her husband.
I can definitely see a D.I.V.O.R.C.E. coming down the track, as both Wee Eck and Wee Peter are clearly non persons.
The ranting of folk moaning about people from down there moving up here is kinda funny on a site hosted by a man from up here moving down there.
@Socratesmcsporran,
Indeed. A self serving monologue rather than the grace to acknowledge what she owed to one particular political giant helping her achieve what little she actually did.
The truth will out at some point to all who currently still adore her carefully and ruthlessly crafted image rather than her reality.
Ultimately we go again because sitting still is not an option.
How on earth will you all manage to survive without Nicola Sturgeon to vilify? Perhaps you will have to resort to criticising the real enemy.
This woman represents the pavement scrapings of political integrity devoid of any honesty or loyalty.
Whatever her motivation in destroying the SNP and setting independence back years she will be remembered as the betrayer of this nation and my earnest wish is that she ends up in jail.
desimond
But it’s ok for people from down there who are living up here to vote in a referendum to keep us tied to a government down there we don’t want.
Aye that’s ok.
Thank f*ck we’ won’t need to listening to that twisted lying b*stard Sturgeon at FMQs again, today was her last appearance at them and her clapping seal sycophants MSPs applauded her every word.
The sociopath that Sturgeon is, she tried desperately at FMQs to show that she’s left Scotland in a better place than when she found on becoming FM in 2015, when the complete opposite is true.
I can only hope over the coming years that both she and her husband find themselves in prison for what they done. Unfortunately Mike Russell will make sure (along with the help of GCHQ) that Forbes or Yousaf is appointed FM to keep Sturgeon and Murrell’s dirty little secrets safe.
Only Ash Regan as FM can make a difference and obtain independence.
@McDuff
I’ll second that
@Izzie
Isn’t it time for your afternoon nap ?
Sadly i think Independence could be a lost cause as too many stupid f u c k wits about like the one who above thinks you are the problem and not Sturgeon.
What planet have they bern living on? Even if you take Sturgeons betrayal of the Independence movement out of the equation and concentrate on her and Governments record , unless you are a half wit (and yes I’m talking about you Izzy) then you have nothing but serial failure from the Education system to the Ferries. An unmitigated disaster for Scotland and our Independence Movement.
Thankfully History will not be kind to her and fellow ("Quizmaster" - Ed)s.
As to the folk selling expensive housing down south then to Scotland buying up the housing stock and spending cash on new kitchens ect, refurbishing does not come cheap.
They soon discover the four seasons in a day Scottish weather and use further cash to jet off to warmer climes 2 or 3 times a year.
The end result is the cash after a few years is now heavily depleted, then the realisation sets in, they can never move back to Englands green and pleasant land, where house prices have rocketed since they moved away.
Now the Brexit factor then kicks in along with inflation, money is tight foreign trips to sunny shores become a memory, being scunnered turns to bitterness as the sense of self entitlement gets a kicking.
They have only the monarchy/butcher’s flag and the english fitba games left to console themselves, but hey ho it was not their fault it was the Scots and Scotland that done it to them, aye right more like greed and xenophobia, that never went away.
The SNP mantra of trying to convert these soft no’s to yes is a busted flush, it always was, many activists who chapped doors know this !
@McDuff 2:05pm
Well said. Sums it up perfectly.
When it rears it ugly head english nationalism is imported to Scotland by the influx of immigrants from England,
The attitude it not, ” when in Scotland do as the locals do, but rather to continue seeing Scots as the opposition to England while Colonising Scotland.
I to believe that the (Scots did not) vote against independence in 2014, but the english and EU voters did,
The ingrained attitude of not being Scots or intergrating to become Scottish is there for all to see in comments posted here on a site that supports Scottish independence, it is hard for most from england to think they are not english.
This can be seen in many holiday resorts that have become known as english takeover resorts in foreign Countries, spain or France are good examples.
For the last decade or so British papers down South have been been running adverts on Cheap buys in Scotland Wales and Ireland,
Locals sell because they often have very little control or choice over their employment when legislation is passed on them from afar with regards withdrawing farming, fishing, harbours, building ships and boats, textiles,
And yes the Scots are often penalised and taxed more than england for such items that are transported,
I remember the issue on certain alcohol a few years ago mentioned in the papers being more expensive for Scots than its counter part down south.
Another good example is the energy bills in Scotland are often higher than down south even although most of the energy in Britain comes from Scotland.
For me one of the best instances of the English mindset is wrote down in Westminster parliament time and again where Englends politicians refer to England as the owner of the treaty of union and of the Empire
Here is the perfect example.
Repeal of the Union (Ireland), HC 1881.
Sir Robert A Fergusson presented a petition from the Apprentices of Londonderry against the Repeal of the Union between ENGLAND and Ireland.
A Hon member, under the Gallery said, That Repeal of the Union would so completely separate ENGLAND from Ireland, that the latter would no longer form part of the Empire.
Doug says:
23 March, 2023 at 11:44 am
“According to English/British nationalists all nations and people who fought for their independence from the English/British empire were racists.”
50% of slave owners and slave overseers in the Deep South and Caribbean were Scots. Robert Burns accepted a job as a slave overseer did not go because his poems took off. The KKK was founded by Scots colonialists – hence the fiery crosses. The Confederate flag is a St Andrews flag in Navy/Red with stars. Many colonial civil servants (incl. my dad worked for the Kenyan Education Service 1958 – 62) were Scots. Tea planters and merchants were Scots. And why do you think most Commonwealth countries – from Canada to Pakistan to Kenya have military pipe bands? Because so many Scottish regiments served in the empire. Oh, and a Scot founded the Bank of England.
The point of my little lecture is that as someone of Scottish ancestry, born Scottish, lives in England, has an English husband with Scottish ancestors I have an interest in English and Scottish history. I have read books and don’t rely on Holywood and Holyrood for my facts. I am fed up with the “Braveheart” simplistic view of history vis a vis the Scots and English. It is complicated. 1200 years ago the King of Strathclyde straddled NI, North Wales, NW England and SW Scotland. The Kingdom of Northumberland reached from the Tyne to Edinburgh. The current countries of England and Scotland countries did not firm up till the late 14th century, when Norway handed over Caithness, and Orkney, Shetland to the Scots. (Until the 19th century the locals spoke a type of Norwegian, not Gaelic) The early medieval wars between the Scots and English were not so much about the two countries, but Anglo and Scots Norman lords fighting for power and land. They had land both sides and were French in ancestry. Robert the Bruce’s father had land in modern day London as well as Scotland! Family name Robert de Brus – his ancestors came over with the Norman conquest of England. The Stewarts came to Scotland from Brittany, via England. I don’t think the average English or Scottish peasant, who was forced to fight by their lord gave a monkey about their nationality 600 years ago. And they did not wear kilts or woad!
Re the claims that it is all English white supremacists buying property here, a couple of years ago the Guardian, in its where to buy with the money gained from selling your London house section, recommended Strathbungo. Take a walk around that area and Shawlands if you want to see the results of that, people who zealously support the brainwashing of children into actions which will render them infertile.
James Barr Gardner @ 2:33 pm
“greed and xenophobia”
From Albert Memmi’s ‘Portrait of the Colonizer’:
“Today, leaving for a colony is not a choice sought because of its uncertain dangers, nor is it a desire of one tempted by adventure. It is simply a voyage towards an easier life. The change involved in moving to a colony, if one can call it a change, must first of all bring a substantial profit. Spontaneously our traveler comes up with the best possible definition of a colony: a place where one earns more and spends less.”
Breeks
I agree. The indy movement shouldn’t hitch it’s waggon to the sliding scale of a political party. It should be totally separate. A convention of the best heads & as Sarah has alluded, no comfy seats or egos. No one person at its head.
It has one aim, Independence.Thats it.
To cure the franchise problem we should seek an international election with observers & rules. They have rules & protections to favour the native. We’ll get nowhere with a domestic ref that’s open to being rigged or a winning vote not being enacted by WM.
—–
Robin McAlpine
He’s been great on Prism the past few months where he’s had a guest spot. He is so scunnered with Sturgeon & her cabal. Raging she had absolutely nothing prepared for SC decision. He hasn’t said much about Ash other than she’s not had media training.
Ash – someone mentioned she’ll be given the cold shoulder. She will. The harpies will make sure of it. Maybe she’ll walk after Tuesday? Tory Kate seems more interested in appeasing Humza with an open job offer but has blanked Ash. Even when Ash complimented her on finance there was an *awkward silence* in response. So much for being best buddies & distancing herself already.
So it was Englands Empire that made a treaty of Union with Ireland.
Apparently having forgotten that it was in a treaty of union with another Country, and that Britain was not England.
Izzie…
I believe that “I’m with Nicla” extends to joining her and her “husband” under the rock they were last seen scuttling beneath. Off you pop!
Oh you’re still at it Izzie. Why do you bother?
You are representative of the people who kept right on supporting Sturgeon and her cabal so that they kept right on ruining Scotland and the case for independence. But you and your ilk ignored it all, just kept telling yourselves that it was all Unionist propaganda so that you didn’t need to wake from your comfortable dream. It’s a human failing – once you’ve given your heart, you can’t bear to admit you were wrong so you carefully avoid all evidence that might show you were wrong.
In fact Sturgeon’s clique were actually being aided by the Unionist media which avoided investigating any wrongdoing – especially over the Salmond case when they avidly supported the conspiracy to have Salmond jailed. ( Where are you on that one, Izzie? Swallowed the BBC and press one-sided accounts whole did you? You even use their well-worn phrases ‘yesterday’s man’ and ‘flawed individual.’)
You’ve been an SNP member since the 70s and haven’t noticed how the presently-constituted SNP has morphed into an authoritarian organization whose much-lauded internal democracy was dismantled by the leadership. Seriously?
It’s a lost cause, I know, trying to enlighten a closed mind like yours but try reading the links given above and here and learn something of what the awful Murrell regime was really like.
link to archive.vn
link to robinmcalpine.org
But I know you’ll just go away and come back with another trite little comment that you got off twitter or off the knitting bee on the WGD site and won’t ever dare read commentary from another perspective.
I think it’s important that immigration issues can be aired without the screams of “racist” or “xenophobe” being used to silence concerns. Scotland is a small, thinly populated country in places and immigration can have serious effects on the indigenous population. For a 2nd generation Pakistani to complain that Scotland is “too white” is a very worrying occurrence.
Humza church leaders have told him. GRR ? “no way” and he’s listening now the votes are in.
@McDuff at 2:12 pm
But it’s ok for people from down there who are living up here to vote in a referendum to keep us tied to a government down there we don’t want.
Aye that’s ok.
Aye it is.
They stay here.
If people live here as residents then they deserve a say. Its that simple. You don’t earn loyalty points by birth or working the land. You don’t need a number of stamps to qualify for a vote. You stay here, you have a voice here.
Regardless of how it happened, opportunity or emergency, We all came here once.
I would suggest a few folk be very careful of the path youre considering walking down there.
The way that Scotland is viewed and advertised by the main stream down south as a place to escape a failing over crowded England, should inform everyone from outside Scotland moving here, that to import their same attitudes and mindset, policies, to Scotland with them would be a disaster not only for Scots, but also the new Scots,
If that way of thinking has begun the ruin of England, why would you want to bring it with you to ruin your new home and environment?
If you come to Scotland for a change of what you do not like happening from where you came from, why copy or replicate what drove you away from your home to Immigrate in the first place,
Not wise to make Scotland another Little England,
But much wiser to be prepared to adjust to join a new way of thinking, with new politics, a new Country to you, and to blend rather than import the old failing English Empire,
That is now changing England into a foreign region for its locals.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
When in Scotland, do as the do.
And most Scots do not want their Country to turn into a failing overcrowded Imitation England.
So why import those issues to your new home in Scotland, become a Scot, not a enemy.
Love Scotland , love its people, its beautiful Country as a newbee Scot,
Vote for a independent Country so Scotland can always be a safe harbour for you, join in, instead of standing there wishing Scotland was the same as England and its failing Empire, chain smoking war after war, depleting the resources of your wonderful Britain,
Your in Scotland now, a new beginning, help the Scottish people to Help you, young Scots and returning Scots and become a nation that cares for its people.
Coming to Scotland and thinking the Scots are your problem or enemy is just plain stupid when it was England you may have Run from.
Desimond – I can’t be bothered checking the timeline.
You said it was Ironic we were moaning about white settlers from doon Sooth. While Stu Campbell was a Scotsman in Bath.
Not really comparable I am afraid. The Scots are economic migrants to England , and always have been. We are outnumbered 10/1. So Scots are no threat to England’s culture. We went over the decades because there were no jobs here.
The opposite is true for most English people coming here. They are mainly wealthy middle classes ditching England because it’s overpopulated and generally unhealthy in it’s culture and outlook. As someone once aptly said: ” The wealthy Englishman thinks Scotland is a place to collect butterflies”.
In other words they come for the land not the people. The ones in the highlands open gift shops and hotels and generally look after themselves. They don’t live in council houses and work at the local petrol stations or co-ops. Struggling to pay their rent and heating.
But worst of all they take over. That’s what the English do. And it’s why they anger the locals so much. They shout the loudest and want to change everything they came for in the first place.
James – Spot on.
Scotland needs to get control of who comes here, and I really mean south of the border. Otherwise independence will never happen , and in 50 years time there will be whole parts of Scotland with English accents. They will basically buy us out of our own land.
SusanAHF.
To complain that Scotland is “to white”
It is also “extremely Racist” to quantify a nation by colour.
He is extremely racist in his bigotry speech.
Ding dong the witch is dead!
Worse than Thatcher.
A narcissistic psychopath who should be reminded daily that she achieved fk all.
She turned Scotland into a basket case & has overrun Holyrood with a bunch of dunces.
Rampant Autogynephilia & pedophiles with more rights than the average joe, prozzies pedos & rent boys making government policies & painted fking windaes on ferries.
Whit a legacy! Don’t let anyone revise it.
Goodbye Murrells, ya fkn nyaffs. I hope they come & bang you up with a few queer hawks in nappies who are partial to a bit of a kink for live cannibalism! Play nice now – you don’t want to hurt thier feelings.
The exact same munters you think the rest of us should live with.
Roll on Tuesday. Either SNP is reset with Ash – or it’s completely dead & Yes moves to pastures new…
Desimond- Deliberately missing the point!
I will repeat.
The English are the biggest nation in the UK. They outnumber Scots 10/1. They are the biggest ethnic immigrants in Scotland at a whopping 11% . 80% of them voted no in 2014. Why? Because they fear Scottish independence, because it will make them have to address their singular nationality English. They want Scotland to remain British for their own personal insecurities. This is why they will stop independence. They did it in 2014 and will do it again.
Except this time there are even more of them here. The Brexit migrants came in their droves. Even Brexit is not enough for them to accept Scottish independence. They just can’t leave their British baggage behind. There are exceptions, but the absolute majority will never change.
This attitude does not exist amongst Poles, Irish , French etc. They think differently. They recognise Scotland as a nation , and not part of their own nation. The English see Scotland as the same country as England. It’s really that simple.
This is not racism, how the fuck could it be. It’s nothing to do with their origin, it’s to do with their attitude, and colonisation of Scotland. You cannot escape a colony by appealing to the colonisers!
Not that I need to state it. But I have an Irish name, and 80% of my ancestors came from Ireland in the 1830’s. So the idea that this is a blood and soil idea is wrong. It’s about winning independence , and not letting another nation Trojan Horse our mandate.
Did Nicola mention the dream of independence continuing beyond her tenure. Did I miss it. Is it all over.
Did she finish with I did a great job???
Big Jock,
It is so stupid for people coming to live here, running away from a failing other half of Britain, to want the same thing to happen in their new home.
I am pretty sure that no native born Scot sees a english born body as a instant enemy,
However when they bring the mindset of the Englander colonial empire with them in their move and are unable to adjust to their new surrounding and new neighbours in Scotland,
Then they voluntary choose to become and stay a intruder and outsider in that Country they moved to.
This has been the colonial mindset in every Country they ever took by force,
To see them selfs as superior to the native populations.
However it makes the native populations in their own Countries to alway want and never give up, to rid themselves of the foreign virus that attacks their people,
And Colonialism is a Virus of the mind, and the only cure eventually is to be innoculated against the disease is to separate and put some distance from the seed causation of that illness.
We are decended from many peoples,, Early Historic Scotland was a melting pot of different groups – the Britons, the Picts, the Angles, the Gaels (Scots) and the Norse – and you can see this mixture reflected in place-names around the country, from Ben Macdui (Gaelic) to Stornoway (Norse) via Aberdeen (Pictish). Maybe we should take DNA tests to qualify for a vote! Scotland should and mostly is a welcoming place, if you live and work here, pay your taxes, then absolutely you should have a vote.
Colonialism is a Virus of the brain, it feeds on other Countries resources.
And eats the flesh of of other nations.
It is also known by its alternative common name, the British Empire of Westminster.
@ Jan: voting on the very existence of a country is not normally open to everybody who lives in that country. Nor are votes on matters pertaining to the constitution of a country. Even a UK general election has restrictions on who can vote.
Plenty of articles and comments have been made on here and other independence blogs about the practice in many other countries e.g. Denmark, Germany, France. Those countries do not allow every resident to vote in national elections, even, but only in local elections. In our 2014 referendum the franchise was a “local election” franchise – that was a grave mistake.
So there is nothing inherently “wrong” or racist about excluding categories of residents from a vote.
Big Jock.
I don’t know where you got the figure of 11% for English incomers. Is that a recent calculation? Here in the Falkirk area it feels like more, or is that just my perception?
Jan – That’s well and good.
However at the very least there should be a minimum 10 year residency. Does a student from Hemel Hempstead studying at St Andrews get a vote , because he works at Tesco? Does someone from Kent with a second home in Scotland get a vote? Does a footballer who has been here 6 months get a vote?
This is not voting for a government , it’s much more important than that. It’s voting for the very right of a nation to exist independently. Paying taxes has got bugger all to do with it.
Jan,
That is the point,
Scots are not racists, but the politics in Britains propaganda sets it up to appear that way, to cause divide,
History says the Scots are very nice people as a race, and are less war mongering as a whole than their counter parts over their borders.
They have not instigated many wars on their own behalf, but have been impelled to join wars under the British flag and Crown.
Basically they are better at defending, than creating war, Scotlands people do not want Weapons of mass destruction in their back yard ,
But the Westminster says it has to,
This is a big difference in attitude between the two nations that is often over looked.
And now Westminster in England, with Rushi Sunaks permission, without (seeking or asking Scotland) is sending depleted uranium to another Country to help blow it up and contaminate land and humans with cancergenic material,
Britain is going into WW3 by proxy, without a by your leave from the people of Wales, Scotland or Ireland.
It has not been voted on by the three other countries that make up the english British Empire.
England thinks it is Britain.
I believe it’s deliberate.
England put plans in action during the last indyref to make sure that if it ever happens again (especially if it’s through international pressure) it’s a guarantee of winning the naw vote. Blood & soil English. All legal & above board. England can breath a sigh of relief. The cash cow is safe. As you were minions. Yer going nowhere, yer our possession & we’ll still treat ye like the fkn dregs.
SNP can’t build houses fast enough. Yet Scots can’t find anywhere to live.
Pay extortionate rents, live with yer parents or fk off elsewhere is the message.
Jan @ 4:21 pm
“if you live and work here, pay your taxes, then absolutely you should have a vote.”
According to the UN, the self-determination of ‘a people’ is an ‘inalienable’ right, i.e. it is not transferable to other ‘peoples’.
The Scots are a defined ‘people’ with a distinct culture, history, heritage, language(s), identity, feeling of nationhood, and common suffering (i.e. colonial oppression).
Here we go again. Persimmon Homes have just been granted permission in principle to build 500 new houses at Plean. Plean has a population of 2000. So the size of the population will probably more than double. From what I’ve seen of Persimmon’s style in the past 500 houses will just be the start.
Sarah.
You said it better than I,
I believe Scots in general make many others welcome to Scotland,
but a colonial takeover is not acceptable to any Country, as it converts their culture, their language, their homes, their land, their sea territory, their laws, their rights to self determination, and the migration of their people from their homeland through enforced legislation resulting in poverty, and having to sell up and move.
Maggie Thatchers de-industrialisation of Scotland was a prime example of foreign policies that effected the Scottish laws and population.
The stealing of part of the Scottish sea territories by Westminster was another excellent example.
Scotland has been treated as if it was a Colonised Country and foreign laws and legislation were passed in Westminster after the so called ” Treaty of the union” ” that had Colonial Stock” Scotland acts. That indicate Scotland is not in a treaty with Englands parliament at all. But a colonised Country.
I agree with Graeme George.
I met EU immigrants who abstained from voting in 2014 as they felt it was not for them to influence the Constitutional future of their host country.
Not only have I yet to meet an English immigrant who abstained, I’ve yet to meet an English immigrant who even CONSIDERED abstaining from that vote!
I HAVE however met several who were offended when I raised the issue. And several more who failed to understand the EU immigrants’ logic even when explained to them. Due to blinkered entitlement I can only assume.
An internationally organised vote is the only way to remove Westminster Imperialist rules from this decision. And Westminster Imperialist rules can be summed up in the words: ‘rebellious Scots to crush’.
If England decided to have a vote on wether it should become independent, does any one here think that it would allow, “the other three nations” to join in that vote in England.
Westminster already has a law passed that states, “Scotland” cannot have votes on “English matters.”
So Sunak has published his Income Tax details for the past 4 years. On income of £4.766m he has paid £1.053m which is an effective tax rate of 22%. Given, as an example, even the 40% tax rate kicking off at circa £50k and the 45% rate at £150k per annum we are obviously not all in it together! Basically over the 4 years £4million should have fallen into the 45% tax bracket. Clearly there will be no tax evasion there,only avoidance, but what a kick in the teeth for the general population.
Scots cannot have votes on English matters.passed legislation in Westminster, that still stands,
Westminster passes laws for and on behalf of England separately.
Why should english have votes on Scottish matters.
I hope an interdict is put to the courts tonight.
The house of Murrell. Operation branch form. The twin roles of the lord Advocate. And all of the rotting, stench of corruption wafting from the breath of Nicliar Sturgeon. The Betrayer.
Her woke, tartan journalist jailing Pariah state. Now trying to fix the election. The missing 600K. Trousered and woven through accounts. And the public services of the day in tatters.
Alex Salmond was a true Statesman. I am not. I want her locked away in Cornton Vale. And when she’s released in an Independent Scotland, she’ll be the old lady. Going for her milk in Ayrshire. And no one will know her name. There will be no statue for the destroyer of women’s rights. The seller of ScotWind.
And she’s got the personality and like ability of a cardboard box. I won’t be buying her Biography of Amnesia.
It wisney me. Says Nicola. Good riddance.
Desimond
England completely dominates the entire UK. We are constantly outvoted by the superior numbers of English MP’s on especially vital decisions that directly affect Scotland, Iraq Brexit to name but two.
Almost the entire MSM is English from news to entertainment to football. When was the last time Scottish football was shown in England. Why are rUK newspapers not reviewd in the morning news. I could go on and on but it always results in “England expects”. I want out of this sham UK and you seem to think I should be happy with thousands crossing the border almost all of them voting NO in a referendum.
Well I ain’t happy.
Scotland will be Independent.
Her successors will outshine her. There will be statues of the liberators of Scotland.
Forever in big Eck’s shaddow. Until the end of time. I hope her porridge is cold.
If Amber Heard was a politician. She’d Nicola Sturgeon.
Goodbye to Scotland’s Amber Heard.
Take your hands of me. I don’t belong to you you’ll see! Say hello and wave goodbye!
She’s finally gone. Time for champagne. Crack open the top shelf malt. We owe it to ourselves.
As far as i can recall my snp mp has never once even mentioned independence,let alone done anything about it!
There is a video somewhere on youtube of him though kissing the arse of one of those old labour troughers,before he was elected!
And i remember Alex Salmond having to get him out of trouble during
his first speech in the house where a labour mp was making him look
like a dick!
As far as i’m concerned the people who voted for independence in 2014 have been completely ignored by the snp since then!
And as everyone seem’s to be saying these day’s…Enough is enough!
Only independence can allow us to tailor our immigration needs and only Ash Regan can deliver it, the other two candidates have no viable plan for indy except to keep begging Westminster for an S30.
They’ll be no curtail on the exodus of English folk heading North to Scotland, until independence is achieved this is why there MUST be a huge outcry as to the way Mike Russell is handling this corrupt clandestine farce of an election, everything hinges on Regan winning and we know the fix is in and the enemy of Scottish independence GCHQ has also been welcomed in.
Retiring English folk who fancy leaving the rat race for a life in Scotland and buying a house in Scotland will continue to flock here because Scots have no way of regulating their own immigration, that act is held in a foreign country (England) at their Home Office.
Its critical for Scots that Ash Regan becomes FM, some don’t even realise this, if Regan loses, and we know the fix is in, then Scotland loses big time, its a simple as that.
No Regan, no indy, no progress, no check on immigration from South of the border.
JFC, the Britnat media can’t stop showing that evil witch, Sturgeon the Judas who f*cked Scotland over, what’s even more galling is that Sturgeon the sociopath actually thinks she did a good job as FM.
Sturgeon is the Scottish equivalent of Boris Johnson, a lying deceitful self-serving devious nasty evil b*stard, and that’s her good points, good riddance to her and her equally evil husband.
I wish Mike Russell would just f*ck right off and an honest person within the SNP took over the running of this contest.
Here’s one for you Stu…a Twitter poll…perhaps a choice of three, four perhaps even five people to take over from Peter Murrell, each one being potentially worse than our late dearly beloved…so the question would be who is the worst choice to take over from Peter Murrell (making life for the SNP even worse)?
If you wanted to be a real stirrer one choice could be she who cannot ever be named…
”Sturgeon is the Scottish equivalent of Boris Johnson”
I think you’re being a bit unfair to Boris there
Crocodile tears. Just watched her closing remarks.
Nothing about Independence. Nothing about Scottish History.
She only knows the words to God Save the Queen.
I suspect she’ll be at the Coronation when Ash Regan wins and leads the Independence March through the streets of Glasgow.
Hail Alba.
Total waste of time Scottish MPs in Westminster, London with 73 MPs increasing to 75, meantime Scotland with 59 decreasing to 57, that’s just London alone, if you think Scotland has a say in Westminster you are kidding yourself ! As for the house of the dead don’t even go there !
I have not yet voted. I have read Regan’s proposals re treating a vote for any independence supporting party as a mandate to negotiate on Day 1. I would like to know to which parties has she been talking. And with whom would she negotiate.
Ferguson’s accounts indicate a strong possibility of going bust.
I hope they name Hull 802 ‘Nicola Sturgeon’ before it is scrapped. It would be a fitting tribute to her time in office, and would properly represent what she has achieved for Scotland – F-all, at a huge cost both in financial terms and in how she has scuppered independence.
Re the Murrells, in todays Guardian there is an article about a Nigerian MP and his wife exploiting a vulnerable man to steal his kidney, this made me think of them, part of an international organ harvesting ring, I wouldn’t put it past them.
Pishy Pete or creepy as fk (lock up yer bairns) Mr Nicholson.
Would be the maraschino cherry on top of this clusterfk lol.
David Hannah
Aye, the nutter Amber Heard. *Everyone in the whole wide world is wrong* The court is wrong, the jury is wrong, the evidence is wrong, the *Randos* are all wrong. Even the dogs grumpies were wrong. (Waits for photographer to pan room) *Sniff* lol.
@ Izzie: Ash Regan listed the party leaders and others she had spoken to about joining a Convention to advance independence, and gave their responses on twitter.
From memory they included Independence for Scotland Party, Scottish Socialist Party, Alba Party. There were more groups than that but I can’t remember them. Perhaps someone else can help?
@James Che said;
“Scots cannot have votes on English matters.passed legislation in Westminster, that still stands, Westminster passes laws for and on behalf of England separately.
Why should english have votes on Scottish matters.”
They absolutely shouldn’t, and for very good reason, because it’s always one-sided.
The United Kingdom is a Union of two equally sovereign kingdoms, each of which are represented in the UK’s Parliament by a body of their own MPs. But Westminster’s internal voting system completely ignores that essential fact of their sovereign duality, because it misrepresents the United Kingdom instead as a Union of 650 non-sovereign constituencies. This leads directly to constitutional and democratic injustice, and actual abuse.
Basically, that lets a majority vote by England’s MPs pass legislation binding on the UK, even in spite of a majority vote by Scotland’s MPs against it. A decision English decision unilateral, and since Westminster is the Union Parliament and not the English Parliament, an English decision on its own cannot be considered a valid Union decision, since England’s MPs cannot and do not represent the Union on their own. Thus, any legislation passed by such unilateral decisions are automatically ultra vires, and so unlawful.
England’s MPs have no damn business overruling Scotland’s MPs on any Union matter.
The only valid Union decisions are those that enjoy majority approval from England’s MPs and majority approval from Scotland’s MPs, because only together do they represent the Union.
The conclusion I draw from this is that a lot of UK legislation may be literally unlawful because it wasn’t passed by joint agreement of both partners of the Union. Since both founder partners are sovereign, these unlawful laws represent a serious breach of the Treaty all by themselves.
Robertkknight & Graham George please note name calling and derision is not the way to engage in debate.
Where is Smitty?
Has he been assassinated?
Izzie you don’t know the meaning of debate, so do one
Agent Sturgeon: ******* return to base mission accomplished*******
SusanAHF one what?
Here’s a question, who appointed Mike Russell to oversee this leadership contest, it should not have been Peter Murrell, especially with him standing down and being part of a live police investigation, nor should it have been Nicola Sturgeon with her standing down as FM, she too should have no part in it at all.
This to the SNP membership, it should be up to YOU to decide in a vote who is appointed to oversee this leadership contest, its YOUR party, and with so much at stake, Scotland’s future, one bright and progressive, the other more of the same, it should be the membership that calls out for who should oversee this contest, there’s still time for the membership to halt this farce of a contest that is secretive and clandestine in nature, and “monitored” by GCHQ which is an arch enemy of Scottish independence.
Do people not realise the significance of this leadership contest, just how vital it is that its seen as open and transparent, on one hand independence can be achieved by 2026 between now and then if Ash Regan wins the infrastructure will be set up central bank, a new currency etc, which will run in conjunction with with good governance on every day matters such as the NHS, education etc.
The other side of that coin is Mike Russell working on Murrell and Sturgeon’s behalf making sure either Forbes or Yousaf wins, from there its much of the same both are not interested in independence the S30 route being their route tells us that, NHS will continue to faulter, as will education, poverty will continue to rise in Scotland, and things will remain bad though both Forbes and Yousaf will roll out the old chestnut, a but we’re doing better than England with regards to the NHS.
Only Ash Regan can save Scotland from continuing down this dead end road to oblivion, however the membership MUST demand that Mike Russell is removed and a vote taken to appoint his successor with everything being open and above board, we’re running out of time.
Its either independence and all the levers of government which will lead to a better Scotland, or its the status quo and a slow decline as Forbes and Yousaf make a f*ckin arse of it.
The stakes couldn’t be higher for Scots.
I know SNP politicians don’t take a seat in the Lords, but can they accept an MBE or an OBE or some other honour for services rendered to the British state, I can’t think of anyone more deserving than oor Nicola, and if so could we petition the appropriate authority to have that honour bestowed on her, it would be such a fitting tribute don’t you think
Sarah @6.47pm.
If I recall correctly Ash Regan spoke with Tommy Sheridan (Solidarity)
Alex Salmond (Alba party)
Robin McAlpine (Common Weal) Ash Regan used to wok for the Common Weal.
(ISP) Independence for Scotland Party, I’m not sure who she spoke to though, here’s the link to their website.
link to isp.scot
There may have been or two more but I’ve forgotten who they are, what I do recall though is that they all gave good feedback and were onboard with Regan’s plans for Scotland and independence.
The Greens snubbed Regan, no surprise there then.
Ash Regan wants to do what Sturgeon never wanted to and that’s unite the indy movement.
John H . You can’t be far from me. I live in Maddiston. Quite a few English up here, but not overun with them. Down the road in Linlithgow. A young person simply couldn’t stay there. The house prices are twice what they are in Falkirk.
Probably 25% English. It’s a crackin town, but losing it’s soul. A mini Edinburgh.
How many of Scotlands MPs and MSPs applied for and received an Irish passport since the UK left the EU. There are over 300 between the HOC and the HOL.
jist askin.
Gramme- SNP policy is not to take honours at all. However Sturgeon might be the first to break that rule,when she leaves Holyrood. She has broken every other rule, so why not.
Unless of course Police Scotland grow a pair.
Republicofscotland says:
23 March, 2023 at 7:49 pm
Sarah @6.47pm.
If I recall correctly Ash Regan spoke with Tommy Sheridan (Solidarity)
Prove you’re making this up – Tommy Sheridan folded Solidarity two years ago and has been a member of Alba ever since.
lzzie 6.37
Why don’t U F OFF & find your own information an your vote is immaterial to us Now do one .
Republic of Scotland thank you I can see why that would reassure people that Regan was reaching out to other groups but I fail to see why that strategy would move the cause forward. Basically agreement between anyone who gain voted in2025 then what? We still need the UK to negotiate and if they say ‘now is not the time ‘ ?
Wullie. Exactly. I couldn’t get one unfortunately. Has to be a grandparent born in Ireland. I let my UK one lapse. Haven’t left Scotland since Brexit. I just can’t bring myself to take that new English passport.
Forbes has declared that if she doesn’t win, she’ll walk. And I’ll guess that Regan will do the same, both thanking their God’s that they don’t have to clean up the mess left – which of course leaves Humza. With the best wishes in the world, with his appalling record in every department he’s been involved with, he’s the walkin’ talkin’ gift to the Unionists
@ Izzie, and Republicofscotland at 7.49: thanks for the further detail. Izzie was wanting to know who in other parties/groups Ash Regan had approached.
Proof the SNP members are deluded, and the party is out of step with reality.
link to heraldscotland.com
If they elect him then they deserve everything that’s coming.
@Big Jock: your contributions (and those of others) today have been frank and valuable.
Even in the early 80s in my experience, Mull and Ardnamurchan were becoming marginal Scottish places as far as Gaelic was concerned and things have only got worse since.
One thing happened quite recently in Skye which I think I mentioned originally on O/T, maybe last year.
I have visited a township on Skye regularly since 1974. Recently, there was an attempt by new English croft-owners to take control of the common grazing to potentially sell off the land to allow the construction of holiday homes/hobbit houses.
This would have meant that the autochthonous (!) inhabitants would have been unable to maintain their flocks and so their livliehoods.
Fortunately, the proposal was narrowly defeated but IMHO it will only be a matter of time before the scheme goes through and the locals can take a flying Gove to themselves (technical term).
Ultimately, it’s a matter of respect and most English “New-Scots” simply don’t have any.
As several posters above have mentioned, I would not dream of voting in a national election or referendum in France or Italy etc. because I am not of that nationality.
*This just in* I couldn’t anyway because I am not French or Italian.
It’s not that easy to understand, is it?
@Izzie says:23 March, 2023 at 6:37 pm
I have read Regan’s proposals re treating a vote for any independence supporting party as a mandate to negotiate on Day 1
The idea is to turn the next election (HR or WM, or both) into a plebiscitary one, by stating beforehand that votes for the pro-Indy parties will be deemed votes for Indy, if the majority do vote for these parties.
Unclear to me if a majority of seats, or a majority of votes cast is meant. Would have to be votes cast, IMO, to avoid international scorn.
Nothing to stop the anti-Indy parties refusing to play along, or maybes forming their own plebiscitary group, so that a vote for them will be counted as a vote against Indy.
So it’s a high-risk strategy from AR, but all of the low-risk ones have been tried, or wrecked, or deemed beyond the abilities and competence of the SNP.
The key advantage of AR’s idea is that it could be done soon. The “plans” of the other contenders will take years, by which time no majority in favour of Indy will be possible, as us Scots will have become minoritised in oor ain land.
Graeme George @ 7:38 pm
“some other honour for services rendered to the British state”
The plum UK Gov-sanctioned (UN?) posting should be announced shortly, I hear.
Re my above: Easy=hard.
In my defence, I’m almost 70 🙂 .
Graeme George @ 7:38pm, Norman Irons, SNP former Lord Provost of Edinburgh received a CBE. At one time, it was customary for the Lord Provost to get that. Not sure if it still is.
If Yousaf wins and the Murrells go on trial, as is suggested, how long will it take for Yousaf to be brought down by his close association with their actions and what he did or didn’t know?
HY says:
“this poll demonstrates that support for my progressive campaign is growing”
“grow support for independence through radical policies in government”
Predictable shite.
I am surprised by the percentage support figures for SNP and SLab. Doesn’t seem to be too much between them.
Looks like the days of peak SNP are in the past, along with peak woke.
” We still need the UK to negotiate and if they say ‘now is not the time ‘ ?”
Izzie @8.16pm.
Izzie, as Ash Regan has said, quite a few countries have left the British Empire via independence, and Westminster has started out by saying no, but like those countries Westminster would soon come round, Westminster would look foolish and probable suffer internationally for denying Scotland its democratic right to dissolve the union if the people voted for it, a union that falls under international treaties laws.
If Scotland wasn’t a co-country in this union we’d never have had a indyref in 2014. We all know that Sturgeon only dangled the indy carrot and had no intentions of achieving it, so when the likes of Theresa May and Boris Johnson said now is not the time that was music to her ears.
The fact is Scots deciding to dissolve this union has nothing whatsoever to do with Westminster, Ash Regan has the right plan by taking it out of the hands of Westminster, begging for an S30 (Forbes and Yousaf’s plan) and using every election from now as as a indyref at the ballot box which bypasses Westminster.
This is why its so crucial that Regan wins, this is why the fix is in to stop this happening, and to protect Sturgeon and Murrells dirty little secrets.
@Izzie who asked:
Q “We still need the UK to negotiate and if they say ‘now is not the time ‘ ?”
A The newly declared Independent Scotland will deal with that refusal in terms of international law
Big Jock. We’re in Shieldhill, so not too far away. There are quite a lot of English people around us, mostly nice people, but none of them would vote for independence I’m pretty sure. Our best friends are English and Welsh, and there’s a fair smattering of other nationalities too. I’ve got nothing against incomers in general, in spite of what I’ve written here today. But one nationality is outstripping the others, and that’s the danger.
John. Agree. It’s not about individual incomers. It’s about mass migration from one nation. And voting as a block against independence.
During the referendum. We had a Finnish lady who couldn’t believe we voted no. She voted yes. A black South African guy voted yes. No English people I know voted yes. Indeed they got quite uppity and animated at the mention of it.
One English girl from Yorkshire spent her day trashing Scotland. Absolutely zero respect for people like me who were born and bred here. Apart from anything else, it’s just bad manners. Arrogant!
Izzie,
Ash’s contact with the other parties (ISP, ALBA, Scottish Socialist Party, Greens) and other groups (All Under One Banner, Commonweal) was to discuss the idea of participating in a Constitutional Convention. All except the Greens responded. Positively.
(Whether Green votes would/could be counted towards a pro-independence majority of votes, would depend on the Green Party’s view/policy/manifesto during a particular election.)
In the event of a majority of votes in a Westminster or Holyrood election going to pro-independence parties (after shared conclusions reached by a Constitutional Convention), Ash (if leading the SNP as likely to be the largest component of this group of parties) and the SNP, would invite the Westminster Government to enter negotiations.
While also informing the UN etc that the Scottish electorate has granted her permission to do so on their/our behalf, as First Minister. (Expect London to try some trick involving oaths of loyalty at that point.)
As she points out, on dozens of previous occasions, the Westminster Government has refused to accept such a demand, but then ALWAYS gone on to accept and begin negotiating.
The majority proportion of population of a colony rejecting London Rule, the International view of a colonising country ignoring that, the limited resources for declaring war on us and the poor reception that would have domestically in England (not to mention the disruption to their electricity supply etc), all mean that negotiation IS the route they would go down.
I’d say the 3 key elements required to SUCCEED in pressuring a reluctant London Government are:
1. Evidence via the ballot box that a majority of the population want Independence.
2. Sufficient organisation within the pro-independence movement to supply a team to begin negotiations. A clear group for international ‘referees’ to work with.
3. A leader of the pro-independence movement who will communicate that demand to the London Government and publicise it to the international community for oversight and enforcement.
Ash aims to be the 3rd of these, with the parties, Convention and Scot Gov supplying the 2nd, and BOTH awaiting the choice of the Scots to provide the 1st at any future election the Scots see fit.
(Scotland is unusual in ALSO having a very strong legal case relating to the Claim of Right and ongoing breaches of the Treaty of Union.
Ironically this has muddied the waters by obscuring the colonial reality of our situation in amongst theoretical arguments that we are in a ‘voluntary Union’.
However, if the above procedure was followed, our legal status would strengthen our hand during the negotiations en route to our successful return to Independent Country status.)
So how can London prevent this?
Offering us a (fair!) referendum, would increase our opportunity to simply repeal the Acts of Union, as an ALREADY sovereign nation which has never lost that sovereignty legally.
Refusing us a (fair!) referendum, rejecting the result of a Westminster or Holyrood election or trying to further block our exit route would strengthen our case that we are a colony being held against our will. (Eg if they closed Holyrood or even left us with no option but the combined result of the 32 Council Elections in which to express our ‘settled will’.)
What London CAN do, is control the media, control the legal system and Scottish Government via MI5 agents, intimidation, bribery, discourage people from voting, adjust the franchise, and all the other dirty tricks they’ve always done. But cranked up to max! (As they are desperate for our resources, convinced they are entitled to own us, and our rejection of their Rule will hurt their pride.)
As with Norway’s secession from Sweden, it is very much up to the population to decide.
Ben madigan would that not place us in the same position as Catalonia?
Ben madigan would that not place us in the same position as Catalonia? Additionally countries like India had a great deal more support than we do at the moment how could we sell this to the other 59 percent of our nation?
Big Jock.
I can’t believe we voted no either. In fact, indigenous Scots voted yes by 52.7%. I realise now that it wouldn’t have mattered how we voted, because they would have done anything they had to to hold us in this so called union.
@Louise Hogg: “As with Norway’s secession from Sweden, it is very much up to the population to decide.”
Yes, but crucially Norway had its own independent media, hence the massively high 90+% vote for independence. And it all began from a relatively obscure dispute over the issue of embassy protocols IIRC, not something as grave as our very future existence. Another twenty years of this crapola and the tipping point will probably have been reached and we will truly be strangers in our own country.
What do we have? Principle-free presstitutes and churnalists working for tax-dodging billionaire proprietors well furth of Scotland.
Add to that a “Scottish” educational system devoid of meaningful Scottish historical, cultural or linguistic content and it’s not surprising most Scots have little sense of their own identity.
Arrividerci, Erchie…..
I used to respect Mark Felton the military historian until he posted this on YouTube tonight. It’s not really o/t since it’s about the SNP during WW2. I deleted the http// so I hope the link works.
youtu.be/IOzf5XXftrU
John. For all we know we actually may have won.
My biggest suspicion. Was that the 2 biggest yes areas. Glasgow and Dundee. Also had the lowest turnout. Yet the most no area Edinburgh, had the highest turnout.
Coincidence? I don’t think so.
Lizzie. No.
Spain has a constitution preventing Catalonian succession. The UK does not. Scotland is registered as a country at the UN. Catalonia is not.
Scotland was an independent country before 1707. Catalonia has never been an independent country.
Catalonia is attempting to become a country, Scotland already is.
Only 50% of Catalonians voted in their referendum. In a Scottish election that would not be the case, or highly unlikely.
I see the link I posted didn’t work. Hopefully some one else can make a better job of it than I did. Mark Felton is linking the wartime SNP to the nazis. Completely unnecessary.
I agree Big Jock, but it’s all in the past now I’m afraid.
Scotland’s problem in microcosm is displayed here btl and on other blogs I occasionally dip into.
Don’t get me wrong, I find a lot of the debate fascinating.
We spend most of our time discussing the Why of independence.
Which is already self explanatory!
Or we respond to trolls, hours, days spent on trolls.
Our energy needs to focus on the How?
The action required to make independence happen is ultimately all that currently really matters.
Get there and we can discuss blueprints for a new nation to our hearts content.
To get there requires a bit more ruthlessness, a bit more boldness.
Are we just too nice to win our independence?
This a bit sensible link to bbc.com so presumably will be attacked as terf nazis propaganda. It would be good to get back to what is common sense e.g. the SNP’s purpose is independence. Just a thought.
Big Jock says:
“For all we know we actually may have won.”
I would agree, Big Jock. There were far too many anomalies in the voting patterns to make the result valid. I think the vote was in favour of independence by a significant margin. Unfortunately, as we can see from the SNP leadership contest, it’s not the votes that count, but who controls the voting mechanism that counts!
Tartanpigsy @ 11:34 pm
“Our energy needs to focus on the How?”
Or even what independence means, why it is necessary?
link to salvo-cor.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com
“ Big Jock @ 0843pm” . How convenient for a “ poll” to appear on the last lap of the “ leadership contest” favouring HY . No doubt this has been arranged to “ normalise” the fix
The country is in a far worse state than it was when the 1st munter took office A litiny of failures n the biggest one is she/he?? never moved the indy % up Frank get the door am aff n leaving this shit show
States recognise other states.
That’s all that’s needed.
No one ever gets thier independence by asking the bully for thier permission.
If Ash wins & indy wins then the simple negotiating tool to get the UK to the table is to hit the UK with its most prized possession on the world stage & that would be thier permanent seat & veto on the security council. Their top prize at warmongering & playing at being a superpower.
Do they want to keep it? How can they when Scotland is no longer a consenting member of the United Kingdom? The United Kingdom won’t exist anymore when the vote is in. unless through force & that would be an embarrassment. The wee yap in its death throes.
They’re amongst countries who aren’t thier friends either. On the one hand they’ve had first hand experience of the colonising barstewards in thier own countries & on the other they have the 26 EU totally pissed at their obnoxious & entitled attitude.
It requires balls. We’ll not get indy until we vote & declare the result.
We won’t get it with the SNP if Ash doesn’t win. They’ll be finished & unelectable. The membership will have decided it’s too chicken shit or it’s been totally captured.
Good to hear trans identifying men have been excluded from women’s elite athletics. Now for their removal from all other levels of women’s athletics and from all women’s sports. Shame the same can’t be done for 46XY DSDs.
@Geri says:24 March, 2023 at 3:20 am
“They’re amongst countries who aren’t thier friends either”
FFS. Countries don’t have friends. Countries have interests. Where these interests align, they have trading partners and allies. Where these interests don’t align, they have competitors, or enemies.
“they have the 26 EU totally pissed at their obnoxious & entitled attitude”
Really? The news that a solution to the NI border problem has just been negotiated eluded you? How about the UK’s front rank position in the EU and wider European efforts in the war in the east? That passed you by too?
Apart from these obvious howlers, Geri, a good post though.
@ Big Jock, John H and Saffron Robe: I have always found the 2014 referendum result impossible to believe. First, public support for ‘No’ was conspicuous by its absence. There were no marches and rallies for ‘No’, Better Together leafletters were ignored, and Better Together itself was just an astroturf campaign concocted and fronted by unionist politicians.
Then there’s the fact that every on-line poll, even those on ‘No’-supporting sites, put ‘Yes’ at between 70% and 95%. I didn’t see a single poll that put ‘No’ ahead. Were ‘No’ supporters uniquely incapable of voting in on-line polls?
And it immediately struck me as extremely odd that the lowest turnouts would be in those areas which supported ‘Yes’ most strongly. Given that all the enthusiasm and energy in the campaign came from the ‘Yes’ side, that makes no sense at all. Even in supposedly ‘No’-voting Edinburgh, there were Saltires and ‘Yes’ banners everywhere. Very, very few Union Jacks. So who were all those supposed ‘No’ voters?
I don’t understand why most people seem to have been prepared to accept the result at face value.
Tommy Sheridan is now a member of the Alba Party and also does the Hope Over Fear rallies.
Robin McAlpine on Common Weal:
“Why has not a single journalist in Scotland ever shown any curiosity in Peter Murrell or what has been happening in SNP HQ?
“Because there was no press release, no statement, nothing to require them to do so.”
link to commonweal.scot
Hmmm.
Izzie is a Yoon troll methinks.
Yawn…
Keep thinking about Forbes backing the legitimacy and integrity of the election process…
Surely she must fear the possibility of the Humzafix. So why endorse it when there is a chance you might have to say the exact opposite very soon.
The only explanation I can think of that works is that she knows she is going to win. She’s been told.
Alternatively if the Humzafix does happen and Forbes goes along with it for a top job then that would probably be the end of all hope for the SNP and the kiss of death to her as future leader.
So yeah it is a strange one. If I had been her I would have backed Ash Regan. The only explanation that sort of works is if she knows she is well ahead and will win.
Just about every aspect of this election is fixed to favour, one candidate, Yousaf.
Forbes would be off her nut not to think there was a real risk it would be fixed in other ways. So why doesn’t she.
Sturgeon inherited a strong political base after the unfortunate resignation of AS. She squandered the opportunity to move Scotland forward by becoming in thrall to to the deviants who are working all over the globe to mould society in their own image.
Independence and everything which was beneficial to our nation was side lined, public services infiltrated and misdirected.
Our children were targeted before our eyes, and to our eternal shame we allowed this to happen with little objection, except from a few immigrants who found the message unbelievable.
Fortunately gender self ID proved a step too far for some , not all, of our women and the epidemic was interrupted.
This interruption may be brief unless we realise that what was attempted here in Scotland is also being pushed in most other Western Nations.
The Sturgeon years must make us aware that “Independence” is not a “Fixall” for any nation and we must make sure that we are driven by strong values which reflect human reality, the need to produce children, create family structures and protect the innocence of our young children. Be assured, the fiends are at the gates and some of them are dressed as sheep. That is why I have supported Kate Forbes throughout, she carries no targe or claymore, but instead a young baby in her arms, which in these times signifies something more important than Nationhood of any description.
Our so called enemies in Westminster perhaps for dubious reason saved us from ourselves, as without doubt, if Sturgeon’s act had passed our future would have been sealed in a box with keys only for perverts and deviants. Society as we knew it would have ceased to exist.
Kate will not go to war for Scotland but she will, given her real humanitarian views, guide and direct our people back onto the path of righteousness in the true meaning of the word.
John Main.
Semantics. FFS of course they’re not fecking friends but they’re not sycophants to little England who has absolutely fuck all to offer them besides some money laundering.
NI protocol? And?
8 yrs of shit & thier priority, thier ONLY priority was protecting the GFA, not little England.
War in U? And?? What are they offering? A whisk & a pot lid?
UKs front rank position in the EU? Eh?
To get UK to the negotiations for our exit would by easy. Once you strip the UK of everyone else’s trade it has fk all to offer but tea & jam. Once it’s stripped of its seats around the globe it’s the emperor with no clothes. It has no war chest & nothing to fund one either.
It is not a question of IF the 2014 was result tampered with but a a question of HOW MUCH.
1. to turn a slight NO into a convincing NO
2. to overturn a slight YES and make it a convincing NO
3. to overturn a convincing YES and make it a convincing NO
Personally I think 2014 was closet to number 2.
We only got a referendum in 2014 because it was believed YES had no chance of winning. YES was so far behind they felt supremely confident in granting a referendum.
So when it became apparent that YES was indeed going to win, all bets were off. The legitimacy of the referendum was secretly rescinded and insurance was taken out to ensure that even if YES won, YES would lose. There was just no way they were going to allow us to waltz out the door like that.
And this is the catch-22 of the independence movement…
As soon as anyone actually come closes to achieving independence they become defined as ‘a threat to national security’ and an enemy of the state and the gloves are taken off to make sure the threat is eliminated.
Our leaders are not allowed to actually purse independence folks, just like our leaders are not actually allowed to make peace with anyone (that will get you killed in a hurry).
Wingers who take the trouble to follow the link to Robin McAlpine which Tom posted above at 8.46am might get an idea of how, if fix there is, the SNP high heid yins think they can get away with it.
The lack of media scrutiny today is disgraceful. As a young journalist I used to have to sit through boring local council meetings, listening to half-with justifying their status, before doing exactly what their paid officials wanted them to do. But, our paper covered the meetings.
We then typed-up screeds of local information stuff which helped the public know what was going-on. We also got a lot of help from the councillors – the non half-wits, because, they knew their decisions were being scrutinised.
Today’s councillors get away with murder, Quite often, the first item on any council committee or full meeting is to exclude press and public. They mainly now operate in secret.
With proper journalistic scrutiny, this election would have been declared null and void.
“They” get away with it today, because they can and they know they can.
Also, media bias comes into play. In The Guardian, the normally reliable John Crace who was clearly way outside his comfort zone when he wrote it, has penned a First Ministers Questions sketch of amazing banality.
This has attracted over 660 BTL comments, of which only 227 or so are visible. I submitted a btl comment, which was up for a few minutes, before vanishing into the ether.
I think my mistake was mentioning The Salmond Stitch-up, the missing £600,000 and her “husband;s” resignation. I get the impression these subjects do not fit into the Guardian’s strategy in dealing with Sturgeon.
I looked through the published comments, and nobody mentioned them their either. Mind you, DRoss gets pelters, as usual.
Wonderful thing media bias.
Mac, If Kate wants to win the FM contest, she has to say she agrees on the integrity of the process….as there is no other process available, or likely to become available.
This is often referred to as “Real Polic” and people who wish to survive in the political rat-race all practise it.
What is in their hearts usually comes to light after they have gained power….So it shall be with Kate, the aberration that was Sturgeon can be mainly laid at the door of a stupid and indoctrinated electorate with their eyes on a a bright blue flag rather than the rights of women or the safety of their children.
Geri – well said.
John Main – Telt. Again.
Tory Kate will do absolutely nothing to advance the cause of Independence. She is Sturgeon part 2. She’s made that crystal clear.
I find it unbelievable that indy support wouldn’t back the only indy candidate but instead back the failed section 30 candidate.
AndyH @ 8.56am
Izzie is a Yoon troll methinks.
The problem is that Izzie could be either. It’s hard to distinguish a unionist troll from a genuine average SNP member since they seem to suffer from the same low-info prejudices.
The residual SNP member mostly relies on information bias from the SNP itself which, as we know, is less than enthusiastic about independence and has next to no campaigning on it, or they are part of the WGD fan club or the National fanzine.
These mostly confirm Unionist tropes about why we can’t be independent so it’s hardly surprising that the membership are timid and cowed about the all-powerful Union and are uninspired and paralysed into inactivity.
The one thing they are commonly assured of is that they must not go near a site like this as they obey SNP or media high command. Izzie then could be a lone unionist troll who does turn up from time to time just to waste your time or an SNP member who has begun to wonder and decided to venture onto the wild side out of curiosity. It will soon become apparent which.
On Sturgeon the narcissist:
A caller on LBC the other day (an ex-police detective) during her questioning of a proven liar, was told by a psychiatrist expert witness, that to that person (the fantasist liar), there was NO SUCH THING AS OBJECTIVE TRUTH, only THAT WHICH SUITED THEIR OWN PURPOSES AND AIMS. An interesting summation of character and some.
Sturgeon. Has she gone yet?
On Sturgeon the narcissist:
A caller on LBC the other day (an ex-police detective) during her questioning of a proven lyre, was told by a psychiatrist expert witness, that to that person (the fantasist lyre), there was NO SUCH THING AS OBJECTIVE TRUTH, only THAT WHICH SUITED THEIR OWN PURPOSES AND AIMS. An interesting summation of character and some.
Sturgeon. Has she gone yet?
(reposted to try and get round moderation)
Three things to watch out for if Kate wins:
1.The team. Do Ash and Humza get ministerial posts? If both, then she is trying to please everyone (personally, IMO Humza shouldn’t be let near a position again). If only Humza is rewarded, then it’s business as usual, I’m afraid (highly suspicious).
2.The enemies. Do those wokie SNP MPs and MSPs that more or less threatened to jump ship if Kate wins, actually stick to their word? Or do they say “Ah well, not my choice, but Kate has given us assurances blah blah blah (and stick around like little cowards – all talk). If so, be careful Kate, they will bide their time and stab you in the back at the earliest opportunity.
3.The opportunity. Do you stretch out a hand and make peace with the rest of the independence movement (and start showing up at events and actually listen to people)? If not, then again it’s business as usual.
Sadly, I don’t think Ash Regan has enough support this time (Ash as FM with Kate running finance would be my dream ticket). As for Humza, if he wins (as the bookies expect and the wokies anxiously await), then all hell breaks loose. He would be lucky to last six months and the SNP may take years to recover (if at all). Popcorn ready – just in case.
Kate being a bit Tory isn’t a bad thing IMO.
Don’t get me wrong I’d rather Ash Regan won and the Jury is out on what Kate Forbes will actually be like as a FM.
But maybe a wee bit of business savvy is what we need now?
The SNP was at its best when it stuck to being in the middle, it should be a broad church with the focus on proving independence is the best way forwards for Scotland instead of whining about not being allowed to.
“We only got a referendum in 2014 because it was believed YES had no chance of winning”
I disagree with this. I am of the opinion we got a referendum in 2014 because the leader of the SNP in control of an absolute majority of MSPs in Holyrood REALLY wanted to deliver a referendum therefore USED all the tools at his disposal to negotiate and force the hand of England as the Uk government.
Scotland is in a voluntary union with England. This is often overlooked or deliberately ignored by SNP politicians, particularly MPs because it gets them into the difficult territory of having to admit the power to end the union lies with them, and direct confrontation with the crown, the main beneficiary of this treaty.
The basis of this union is an international Treaty. When you are in control of Scotland’s Parliament or a majority of Scotland’s MPs, the only thing you have to say to force the hand of England as the Uk government is:
“You have two choices. Either you agree to a referendum and you WILL abide by the result, or we will pass a bill to revoke the treaty of union and act of union with England, communicate our intention to terminate this treaty to both you and the UN and request objective arbitration from them because we anticipate you are going to be a hostile partner.”
“As you know, the latter will result in the end of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the end of every international treaty Great Britain signed since 1707 and the end of any trade agreement signed as the UK. No need to remind you that England will have to apply as itself for the NATO seats and any other perks it has enjoyed for the last 300 years as “the UK”.”
“Ah, and by the way, once we start the divorce negotiations, we EXPECT a fair share of the common assets we have been contributing for the last 300 years, and that of course includes the army, embassies, every other administrative structure”
“We will expect of course, compensation for the vast opportunity cost the incompetence and self-servitude of successive England as the UK governments have inflicted on Scotland (clue – Scotland should have by now an oil fund very similar to what Norway has with that level of riches, it should have a very healthy demographic, not a reducing and aging population because of the toxic politics of the union)”
“BUT, we can be generous. If you agree to this referendum then we quite happily accept for the Kingdom of England and appendices to become the continuator state of the UK and keep some of the perks like the NATO and UN seats, embassies etc, as long as we are compensated for the loss of those, to which we also contributed”
But you need a leader with a backbone and who MEANS what they say when they claim they WILL deliver a referendum.
If you look at Sturgeon from the perspective of a pro-independence leader, allegedly having fought to get independence since she was 16, then she turned out to be the most spectacularly incompetent, the most useless, the most ineffective and the most wasteful SNP leader Scotland has ever seen and possibly will ever seen. This is because after her underwhelming performance, the electorate is not going to tolerate another charlatan all-noise-but-no-substance like her for long very long.
If you look at Sturgeon from the perspective of a closeted unionist whose only aim has been to deliver some increased form of devolution (full fiscal responsiblity of some crap of the sort), then she also appears spectacularly inefficient, ineffectual, wasteful and incompetent. Over 8 years on and she has achieved zero extra powers. This is because despite her best efforts, she couldn’t manage to trash the enthusiasm of the yes voters nor bulldoze the support for independence to bring it below the safety level above which more devolution is a loss cause because it will not mitigate the expectations for more autonomy.
But if you look at Sturgeon from the perspective of a political fraud who might have stabbed Scotland in the back to waste our majorities and mandates in some kind of deal with the powers that be, to put labour back in power in exchange for some more fake powers and the illusion of constitutional change, then she has played a blinder. She has done this by actively dividing the yes movement, by presenting the SNP and parliament as totally undemocratic, corrupt and completely out of touch with reality, she has put people off independence, she has permanently downgraded the matter of independence in the list of priorities of the party, and she has made the SNP completely unelectable.
Sturgeon has enjoyed continuous control of absolute majorities of Scotland’s seats in Westminter and also the largest share of the seats in HOlyrood. It is unforgivable that we have not got independence never mind a referendum. It is unforgivable that we did not have a referendum and we are not independent now because the reason is not that Westminster does not give “permission”. It is because this political fraud never wanted to upset the crown, never had the intention to revoke the Treaty of Union for independence, never had the intention to contest the multiple violations of the treaty and Claim of Right which happened undedr her watch in the last 8 years, and never seriously wanted Scotland to be independent.
Yousaf and Forbes are cut by the same cloth. All carrots and no will. It is embarrassing and an insult to the intelligence of the average yes voter that despite having led us to a blind alley and having wasted us EIGHT YEARS of opportunities, neither Yousaf nor Forbes have yet a credible plan to deliver independence other than the usual nonsense of “converting no voters”. Looking at Scotland’s demographics and the continuous influx of immigration that represents a huge percentage of Scotland’s overall population, I honestly do not know who they think they are fooling.
The current assumption in the SNP that once a leader has been elected the movement is going to reunite and disenfranchised yes voters are simply going to go back when the two favourite candidates haven’t even thought of a plan for independence, brings back memories of Labour. The same contempt for voters, the same deafness. Yousaf and Forbes have shown that the only urgency of the SNP under their stewardship is going to be to keep the gravy train going at the expense of Scotland’s independence. But of course, the carrots will keep dangling, This is simply unacceptable.
Should Yousaf or Forbes win the contest and for me the SNP ceases to exist. 8 years full of opportunities wasted is more waste I can cope with. I am not prepared to give SNP charlatans another second of my time.
Deliver independence or shut the F up and move aside.
The lack of update from Smitty, general lack of any inside information or journalist’s questioning Sturgeon has me worried that the leaks have been plugged or that Sturgeon has now assumed total direct control of affairs at SNP HQ and all other staff are being excluded.
I now begin to wonder if the only person with access to the voting information is Sturgeon and she is using that to assist Yousaf whilst at the same time keeping Forbes in check.
Forbes did put out a tweet praising Sturgeon which to me stinks of Sturgeon making it clear to Forbes that any messing about with Sturgeon’s legacy and leaving parades will ensure that if Forbes wins she will not get enough votes in Holyrood to become FM.
However Forbes is mad to play along because it gives Sturgeon a free hand to manipulate the vote and I think Yousaf will be announced as the winner.
Sturgeon will not allow Regan to be anything other than a distant 3rd.
“Don’t get me wrong I’d rather Ash Regan won and the Jury is out on what Kate Forbes will actually be like as a FM”
Is it? From where I am standing she has already downgraded independnece in her list of priorities as leader. If independence is no longer the main priority of the party under her leadership, then the party is no longer a vehicle for independence and loses all value in the eyes of those of us who have been voting SNP for the exclusive purpose of achieving Scotland’s independence.
Personally, I have no interest or intention in wasting my vote in a copycat of labour or a labour enabler.
At most, Forbes, just like Yousaf, will be another carrot dangler. The only difference is that she might be a tad more skilled and subtle when doing the dangling.
Thanks, but no thanks. Either Ms Regan wins or the SNP as a vehicle for independence dies. If Ms Regan does not win, I think it is time to stop wasting our time in false hopes and find ourselves instead another vehicle from where the wheels cannot be removed by another political fraud like Sturgeon.
“Forbes did put out a tweet praising Sturgeon”
In my personal opinion, that was a stupid move that gave her game away. Forbes presented herself from the beginning as the “honest”, “principled” candidate.
If you praise Sturgeon after the misery she has left the party in, after the £600,000 went missing and 50,000 (at least) members left, after she allienated so many women and after 8 long years of continuous failure, disappointment and spectacular mismanagement of resources, then either you are completely oblivious to what is happening around you and therefore you completely lack the judgement needed for the position of FM, or you are lying. If the latter, you are actively jeopardising the “honest”, “principled” PR image you were so careful building for yourself at the beginning of the campaign.
Given the last u-turns of Forbes, I fear that, on the right scenario, Forbes might just become the same vacuous PR-product and political fraud Sturgeon currently is. Just give her time.
@Geri says:24 March, 2023 at 10:12 am
absolutely fuck all to offer them besides some money laundering
What are they offering? A whisk & a pot lid?
fk all to offer but tea & jam
it’s the emperor with no clothes
Let me guess. You’re not a fan.
Let’s accept for a moment that everything you write is correct. Do you understand just how damning it is for us Scots that we remain defeated by that?
Nobody ever wins any fight by underestimating the abilities of their opponent.
No fighter (Scotland) can win any respect or admiration whatsoever by claiming that the opponent that defeats them over and over and at every turn (England), is useless, a nonentity, a busted flush, a waste of space.
You’re parroting your inner Rab C. Nesbit, Geri. See England, they’re nothing so they are, but see Scotland, we must be less than nothing, cos we can’t lay a glove on them.
FFS. Learn to think.
Let’s wait and see what happens.
They say a lot of things to get voted in, it’s their job.
I’m just holding out hope, she’s actually going to make big changes and focus on sorting this mess of a country out.
If not it’s just more timewasting and kicking Indy into the long grass again.
Depressing really, would be great if we acted like the French and took no shit.
I’m no fan of what has happened with SNP or Nichola but there is a list of past achievements
No Tolls, prescription fees, more free nursery hours, best performing A & E etc.
None of the parties are willing to reveal their membership numbers but god knows they should and transparency send to be something they can’t see through.
I recall Dippy Dugdale was made leader with very few votes from very few members who cared enough to vote.
What chance the Tories telling you they dream of having 50,000 members
and of avoiding the 70 years without a Scottish majority turning into 100 years.
Just love the Tory puppet running the Bank of England that supermarket food price increases
hurts the least well off.
The 11 recent interest rates he has applied to increase the average mortgage cost by £350 per month isn’t in some way having an impact on everyone outside the 10% very rich.
socratesmacsporran says:
24 March, 2023 at 10:20 am
“Also, media bias comes into play. In The Guardian, the normally reliable John Crace who was clearly way outside his comfort zone when he wrote it, has penned a First Ministers Questions sketch of amazing banality.”
I actually emailed him to explain how he’d got it wrong.
He acknowledged that he wasn’t aware of many of the “possible reasons” Sturgeon “exited stage left, leaving jacket & handbag behind”…
As far as BTL on the Grauniad goes – well “comment isn’t free” and hasn’t been since Viner took over. Britnat propaganda only now….
The damage at Bute House was caused by backed-up drains which had become blocked with flushed mandates.
Mia says:
24 March, 2023 at 12:08 pm
“Forbes did put out a tweet praising Sturgeon”
Given the last u-turns of Forbes, I fear that, on the right scenario, Forbes might just become the same vacuous PR-product and political fraud Sturgeon currently is. Just give her time.
It was confirmed at one of the hustings that both Humza and Forbes would still advocate the dumb “Both Votes SNP” strategy next Scottish Elections.
That puts Ash Regan in a one horse race for the sensible vote.
@Geri says:24 March, 2023 at 10:29 am
Tory Kate
Poor Kate, she’s had the ‘T’ word deployed against her. There can be no comeback from that nuclear option.
Haud oan though. In much of Scotland, the indigenous Scots see things much as they always have: work hard, save for a rainy day (that national stereotype of thrift), mind your own business, extend a helping hand to those in genuine need, and deliver a kick up the arse to the scroungers and chancers.
Small ‘c’ conservatives in other words. People who know that charity begins at home.
Given that the days of Clyde-Built are long gone, posters who continue to cling to the outlook of Red Clydeside maybes need to wake up and check what century it is.
Maybes explore a route to Indy accessible to Scots of every political persuasion and none?
Xaracen.
Just catching up from yesterday on you’re comments,
As you will realise by now I had an appalling and abusive education and I try not to think in defeatist terms with regards to that time period of horrors.
Yesterday you eloquently commented and phrased what I had made many attempts to say.
Thank you.
Effijy says:
24 March, 2023 at 12:22 pm
I’m no fan of what has happened with SNP or Nichola but there is a list of past achievements
No Tolls, prescription fees, more free nursery hours, best performing A & E etc…
Yeah, but that list shortens dramatically if you take out initiatives started and delivered by Alex Salmond.
Pretty sure that includes bridge tolls and free prescriptions straight away,, and that’s just off the top of my head.
But irrespective of whatever Sturgeon did do, squandering Independence in 2016 when she capitulated on Brexit instead of backing up the Claim of Right with a Scottish Backstop, plus of course trying to stitch up Alex Salmond as a sex offender, there isn’t enough Brasso in the world left over to polish Sturgeon’s halo once she’s finished polishing that brass neck of hers.
The pink elephant in the SNP room is still the LGBTXYZ movement. It is far more determined, aggressive, assertive, propagandist than the independence movement appears to be.
This very minority concern needs to be put back into its niche.
Vestas @ 12.23pm
Thanks for posting that. Just shows, while John Crace is on-point when it comes to Commons Sketch Writing, like the rest of the Metropolitan Media, he finds Scotland a small, far-away country, of which he known nothing and cares even less.
And the SNP’s Feeble Forty-odd on the green benches are so busy fitting-in, they forgot to remind the Unionists around them, just how different Scotland is.
Maybe, if the SNP members had jolted the Commons out of their comfort zone occasionally and fought harder for Scotland, we’d be closer to Independence.
I see even the Rev has given up all hope of any extraordinarily developments happening in the SNP leadership race.
We seem to have meekly surrendered to the status quo.
No court interdict.
No Ash Regan fightbacks.
It’s all over.
Not a peep about the leadership race in the Scottish media, nothing to see here…
And what happened to the imminent arrests of the Murrels?
Teflon Sturgeon has done it again.
Going on Loose Women was her way of saying “get it right up the fuckin lot of you “.
When are we ever going to see that bastatd meet her maker?
Effijy says:
24 March, 2023 at 12:22 pm
I’m no fan of what has happened with SNP or Nichola but there is a list of past achievements
No Tolls, prescription fees, more free nursery hours, best performing A & E etc.
All these achievements are actually Alex Salmonds, not Sturgeons. She is just the same as Yousaf, claiming other peoples’ good work as her own. The backlash against the indyref NO result which gave a huge majority of seats to snp in the year or so after 2014 and the membership rise in that time was also reaction to the fire in the Yes movement which was inspired by AS.
Sturgeons only ‘achievement’ has been the baby boxes which also spectacularly failed to cut infant deaths as she claimed they would, so was in effect just another failure to add to her long list of non-achievements. Her self-congratulatory speech had something of the desperate about it, ‘methinks the lady doth protest too much’, in her efforts to convince us all that she was a success.
AndyH @ 11:25 am
“But maybe a wee bit of business savvy is what we need now?”
Facilitating the continued external plunder of Scotland’s lands, seas, privatised monopolies and other resources by offshore financial interests is not ‘business savvy’. This is the main purpose of a colonial administration does – it protects the interests of the colonizer. That is what ‘continuity’ means.
Forbes and Yousaf say that poverty is their priority. But in an under-developed colonial nation the extent of the peoples poverty – and half of Scots today live in or close to poverty – is broadly equivalent to the extent of the plunder. By enabling plunder to continue this suggests continued poverty is indeed their priority.
The devolutionists in the SNP- and this group includes Forbes – give themselves away by their insistence that ‘soft No voters’ are the people to be persuaded to support independence.
Real nationalists are concerned with soft Yessers and Don’t Knows, two groups who would be sufficiently receptive to an assertive and real indy campaign to make the difference.
The devolutionists would defer independence indefinitely, since they have what they require from devolution.
Just heard from a friend on Skye who tried to vote for Forbes and Regan but not Yousaf and who was denied voting access when he tried to put in the code.
Since heard pthere have been many many reported instances of members being denied votes.
Just more confirmation of how the voting is rigged.
Just read BBC propaganda web site about the Sturgeon legacy.
Drug deaths, high taxes, attainment gap didn’t shrink, fudging a bar chart on greenhouse gas reductions to look like we are at the same level as England, weird dotted chart showing independence poll trends.
The BBC are trying to be supple but are completely and utterly biased in every way possible
In support of the glorious empire and jobs for the friends of Boris.
John Main.
Congratulations! you have just qualified for a “jewel encrusted scarab” as the three good posts rule has been amended to one excellent post, which was your “24th March 2023 at 12:26 pm” Ake.
In the 2014 referendum my nearest neighbours were Americans, and they owned one of the biggest houses and grounds roundabouts.
No matter where they came from, we got on really for well many a year,
I used to visit them and they used to call on us at our little cottage,
They loved living in Scotland they told us,
Just prior to the 2014 referendum we started discussing Scottish independence, as you do,
I was staggered to learn they had the right to vote on Scottish independence and they were both going to vote against it,
They explained that they thought Scotland was part of the UK and it should remain so.
These two Americans however used to invite friends and family to their home, ( including us) in July to celebrate America’s day of independence.
The irony was beyond belief.
They have now returned to America due one of them becoming ill.
But they left Scotland behind them after having been part of thwarting Scotlands independence, while they celebrated their own independence from the British empire.
I worked with a polish lady whom did the same. And sold her house in Scotland to return to Poland when both her husband and herself retired.
There is much left to be desired in our voting system here in Scotland,
John Main
I always assumed you needed English Ellis to bring out the total wanker in you.
But I see you are doing a grand job in achieving it all by yourself.
Who’d a thunk it?
No doubt you still pine for a return of the days when you and your shadow Ellis would endlessly disrupt every thread with your pedant crap.
But at least you are trying your hardest to fly the Ellis flag.
socratesmacsporran says:
24 March, 2023 at 10:20 am
Today’s councillors get away with murder, Quite often, the first item on any council committee or full meeting is to exclude press and public. They mainly now operate in secret.
It’s no different to when I was a kid and the Foggs were claiming tens of thousands of expenses on the old Renfrew District Council and the locals saw them only at election time.
So long as you have the monkey vote reflex voting candidates according to rosette colour, not according to, this arrogance and entitlement exists – doesn’t matter what the party.
PR was meant to stop this, but when it means creating a class of parties like the LibDems and Greens whose sole raison d’etre is to prostitute themselves to the others in return for a little power and committee chair bonus allowances, the same old issues have arisen in a new way.
laukat says: 11.45am
‘The lack of update from Smitty…’
The lack of update from Smitty suggests he was at it.
Mia says 11.47am
‘At most, Forbes, just like Yousaf, will be another carrot dangler’
Forbes total silence while on extended maternity leave is telling. Why would anyone with her beliefs and strong opposition remain incommunicado at a time of intense hostilities in HR over GRRB? With her leading the rebellion alongside Ash Regan, the strength and fall out over this bill would have split the party much sooner. Regans opposition was a distraction, but with Forbes on board it would have been a whole different ball game.
It’s hardly credible that she and Sturgeon were not in contact, with a clandestine deal the only plausible explanation.
@effigy
Got to lol at the “I’m no fan of nichola (sic)” and then see you trot out drivel apportioning things Salmond did as sturgeon’s achievements and then flat out lie about the NHS in Scotland.
Tell that to my father inlaw who collapsed with a known heart condition then spent 3 days lying on a trolley in a corridor in ERI and had to forceably object to the hospital sending him home when he couldn’t even sit up in bed unassisted. He eventually got put in cardiology where he should have been and was in there for another fortnight after they tried to send him home. The way he was treated was disgusting and when you get to speak to a Dr who will tell you the truth about why things are so bad they don’t mess about… it’s Nicola sturgeon and that moron Yousaf.
The NHS in Scotland is an utter shambles, the worst of it is the SNP have been lying about statistics for years and spinning them to such an extent you can’t compare them to anywhere else. Sturgeon still lies about cutting nurse training spaces when she was health minister and it’s decisions like that affecting the NHS today.
But anyway I can see where this is heading, when yousaf is anointed the sturgeonites will start to reinvent history and soon we’ll be back to the usual crap about how wonderful everything is and of course it’s all so much better than England…. Where of course they have over 10x as many people to deal with and less money per head of population.
From what I’ve seen the SNP is done, it needs erased, and if anyone wants to mump about certain voters ruining Scotland then they need look no further than the idiots who have been voting SNP since Salmond resigned…. Who interestingly are often the ones doing the mumping.
Scottish Greens /Sex Party to quit government if new FM does not challenge UK Gov veto of GRR.. well tickle my tits till Tuesday, but that’s the best news Ive heard this week. Harvie and his ginger rodent mate are imo deviants and there is fuck all Green about them and their party. They are obsessed with sex and our children and represent a danger to the decent folks of Scotland. They need to go and never return to political life in Scotland.
Trying to figure out who actually is members of the SNP.
And the only conclusion I can come up with is that it’s made up of Labour voters who had had enough of the way Scottish Labour was being run.
They saw that the SNP where offering a brighter future, (within the Union), so the obvious thing to do was join the SNP.
I think this is where the inherent hatred of Alex Salmond comes from.
And they are more than happy with the way Sturgeon kicks the Indy can down the road.
That is the only possible reasons I can come up with regarding the current SNP membership.
They are a shower of ex Scottish Labour devolutionists.
John.
What do you think devolution actually is?
It’s a straight jacket. Nothing good will ever come from it. It’s designed that way. A talking shop of no fking future.
We’d all be small c. Unfortunately we’ll never be in that position because we do not control the levers of change. Scotland is forbidden to be a success. That’s the point of Devo. Why do you think there’s over 5,O00 civil servants? For the scenery in Scotland?
Kate is a HUGE Tory. Big difference. More unionist than Sturgeon. She will deliver hee-haw but continued mediocrity. All she can craw is she squeezed some more change out of Sunak. That’s not something I’d craw about – it’s an admission she never aimed high in the first place.
One thing to come out of this clusterfck for me is that the SNP inst an independence party. All the yapper MPs who claim they want indy have all rushed to the ones who aren’t even offering it. So it’s Labour in a yellow frock, oops! I mean rosette.
PS – name me five things England & Wales have to offer ANY country in the event of Scotland growing a spine? I can’t think of anything. Enlighten me. Fox did a world tour 3 times & the only thing he came back with was jet lag.
Scotland is the highest contributers to the UK. Withdrawing their world status is in our gift. What they gonna do? Be a P-tin? That’d just seal the deal…
Synonyms for DEVOLUTION.
corruption
debasement
decay
declension
decline
degeneracy
degeneration
degradation
dissipation
dissolution
downfall
downgrade
evil
excess
fall
gluttony
incontinence
intemperance
lasciviousness
lechery
lewdness
licentiousness
regression
sensuality
sybaritism
Think that just about covers it.
«Devolution» nae mair?
Hell hath no fury like a Wokist scorned.
Nicola achieved nothing.
Everything on the SNP achievement list was Alex Salmonds.
Even the baby box. Robin even explains how she butchered even that policy which was an initiative to value women & children but went straight to the gift for the photo op & fanfare. Funny, a bit like painted windaes on ferries. Anything for the selfie.
Increasing weans payment – something she could have done a loooong time ago instead of squandering copious amounts of money on prostitutes & pedophiles *feeling*
The revisionists are already busy I see..
But there you have it. Two schemes if you really, really, really squint hard enough.
Radio Scotland puffing a podcast series on Sturgeon. Played a clip where she said John Swinney was the most important person to her outside her family… strangely exactly the same thing she used to say about salmond.
What a piece of work she is, but you see that’s the SNP way spin, lie, gas light and rely on the fact that most of their voters are too effin stupid to see they are being played
That Kate Forbes tweet is appalling.
“Few get the opportunity to work with somebody as exceptionally compassionate, dedicated and brilliant as Nicola Sturgeon”.
Exceptionally compassionate?
Does Forbes know what Sturgeon did to Alex Salmond? If she does know yet publicly calls Sturgeon “exceptionally compassionate” then Forbes is an arch deciever.
If she doesn’t know what Sturgeon did to Salmond then Forbes must be naive, uninformed and suffer from a serious lack of curiosity, and therefore be unsuitable for directing and coordinating the work of a government.
Ron Clark, I agree.
They’re safe to vote SNP cause:
1. There was never any danger of indy.She even assured everyone of that. Kate & Humza have both assured that will continue.
2. The £600 million they mitigate. They’re not daft.
That’s why the plan Ash has would separate the wheat from the chaff.
They’d be voting on a clear mandate for yes.
I think some here are still trying to promote “Independence at any Price”, or perhaps “A bid for Independence no matter how futile”.
After the exposé of our “Nationalist Party” who have been shown as naïve fools at best or criminals at worst, does anyone seriously believe that a win for Indy is possible in the short or medium term?
We seem to have been saved from the first option by the horrid Tories, but a futile bid would certainly mean the end of the Indy dream for at least 30 yrs.
So we are left with Kate who is saying things that the Bravehearts don’t trust, but Bravehearts dont trust anything but the King across the Waatter and Grannie’s purrich.
Kate’s hands are clean her social views are normal, she has a proper husband and young child, she is a mother and blessed with a good brain and the ability to be coherent amongst other politicians, a good base to set the country back on its feet, if the damage of the last decade has not been terminal in relation to Scottish society.
Mr Main is correct, believers in Scottish independence come in all shapes and sizes. Too many here are still fighting the wars of the last century and appear to have again adopted the Shortbread tin view of our country.
Watched Craig Murray last night commenting on how a few Scots may need to throw themselves under a bus, or in this case a tank, and die for Scottish independence.
Not impressed with his attitude that maybe ten or more people in Scotland would have to sacrifice their lives.
No body should have to sacrifice their life in any Country to live as free people. Not while there are alternative methods, which some he avoided mentioning.
First we need to recognise that we are always out voted in numbers. And that we need to ensure the Scottish parliament system is actually a new Scottish parliament system , after all (we) paid for building it.
Secondly we have to withdraw our MSPs from Westminster! No matter which party is in Hollyrood.
Thirdly To have ready our Own banking system, even if it is only on paper as a suggested first option system.
Fourth, We have to our own civil Servants to deal with driving licences, taxes, education, NHS. Etc.
Fifth Then we can declare that we are repealing our half of the Treaty of the Union, if a excuse or reason is needed there are many available to Scotland, included that Scotland has been treated as a Colony, with legislation passed under domestic law in Westminster regarding Colonial stock (Scotland) Acts, and land grabs of Scottish Crofts under Colonial Agriculture and Fisheries boards from Westminster.
Or that the Burghs were removed in Scotland.
Or that Westminster repealed and reformed Scots Laws.
To name but a few of the Many breaches of the Treaty of the Union by Westminster parliament
Sixth is to recognising that no other Country has ever gained its independence through begging constantly for a referendum. Knowing that their election votes are rigged. And the Franchise owned by people outwith our Country,
Scotland is its own Country, We are a territory, We sre a nation, and we know where the line is that is our border of Scotland We have territorial waters.
We already have recognition as a Country and a nation,
What we do not have, is organisation of the people and our constant pressure on our politicians.
If we had those in the works,
Nobody or any one person needs to be thrown under a bus or a tank to give their lives for independence of Scotland,
Lets gain independence for Scotland in a step by step Logical and legally above board method and process,
We withdraw our MSPs from Westminster on the legal basis of breaches of the Treaty of the Union by Westminster parliament since 1707,
@beauvais
Yes she does know what sturgeon did to Alex Salmond… in fact all SNP MP’s and MSP’s (including sadly Ash Regan) know exactly what she did. They all witnessed the witch hunt, the lies, the spin and the corruption. All of them are tainted and the fact that none of them did anything about it shows what happens when a nest of vipers get together.
Even Joanna cherry, yes she spoke out (a bit) but why didn’t she resign the whip and do what David Davis did?? Imagine that, a Tory actually showed more friendship and loyalty to Alex Salmond than any of his former colleagues in the SNP. Only thing is I wish Davis had gone further, he probably thought his speech would be enough to start the tidal wave that would erase Sturgeon from public life but it turned out that Scotland is full of craven weak minded idiots who voted her back in again.
Beauvais
She did the same the other night on the Times hustings..
‘Nicola has been *pioneering* for women and girls’
WTAF nonsense was that?
I can only assume she means hiring dunces because they have a vagina. Real or imaginary. Whoop-de-do!
“Does Forbes know what Sturgeon did to Alex Salmond? If she does know yet publicly calls Sturgeon “exceptionally compassionate” then Forbes is an arch deciever.”
For FS the lassie is trying to win an election with an electorate still under the influence of years under a Sturgeon govt, not very bright in the first place and now utterly confused by the implosion of their heroes, what do expect her to say? “the whole Party is a heap of shit and needs to be binned to day”? Aye right! The real reason so many here don’t like Kate is the fact that she is honest about her social views, views that the majority of the public hold but are unwilling or unable to expound, due to pressure from media, public bodies and a multitude of woke pressure groups.
We live in a social prison and Kate seems to be our only means of escape.
“Beauvais says:
24 March, 2023 at 1:40 pm
That Kate Forbes tweet is appalling.
“Few get the opportunity to work with somebody as exceptionally compassionate, dedicated and brilliant as Nicola Sturgeon”.
Exceptionally compassionate?
Does Forbes know what Sturgeon did to Alex Salmond? If she does know yet publicly calls Sturgeon “exceptionally compassionate” then Forbes is an arch deciever.
If she doesn’t know what Sturgeon did to Salmond then Forbes must be naive, uninformed and suffer from a serious lack of curiosity, and therefore be unsuitable for directing and coordinating the work of a government.”
One’s compassion is not measured by one’s relations with a single yesterday’s man in the dim and distant past. It’s in how you act in government. Nobody doubts Sturgeon’s compassion for social justice in the community other than hysterical Daily Mail Union Jackists and their curiously similar handmaidens, ie, you lot.
Sturgeon’s crime in government was to be asleep at the wheel, hands-off, in areas such as education, transport and health (same could be said during your dad, Salmond’s, tenure). Nobody doubts where her symapthies are, except the above-mentioned zoomers.
Frankly, anyone who thinks there is the slightest possibility of ALBA (the less than 1% mob) achieving government or leading Scotland to independence, needs more than their heid examined.
Independence by stealth or fast track?
As an alien observer i cant help but sense this process is languorous/languid, going on rather too long to point of tedium.
Most of the interested will have made up their mind within 48 hours as to which is «the one», if any.
The SNP needs a nominal helmsman/woman and that truly speedily.
Procrastination and over-caution are the bane of Scottish political life.
Hasn’t the Sturgeon administration been all about stealth? A learning curve which some would repeat.
Scotland is one hundred and more years behind the world’s political clock. Catch up time surely?
akenton @2:11
“For FS the lassie is trying to win an election.”
Yes, the unscrupulous will do or say anything to win.
Etticus
Sorry to hear your personal story and it isn’t acceptable.
I suggested on BBC radio to Richard Leonard the the NHS A & E services were the best
Performing in the U.K.
They fact checked it and agreed with it.
Per head we have more beds, doctors and nurses and we pay them more.
We have free hospital parking free prescriptions.
NHS England has been privatising more and more NHS services with Tory supporters luckily
having stakes in the companies receiving contracts.
If this cuts the NHS spend in England it cuts the Scottish budget.
Where the English Tory Government has caused the only 2 Doctors Strikes in history and the first nurses strike in history while refusing to sit and negotiate with them even with a real terms 20% pay cut due to inflation.
Do you remember Baroness Ruthie waving a NHS report in Holyrood stating only 2 of 91 hospitals named inside were meeting their targets?
Best thing ever when SNP Claire Haughy, a former nurse advised that the 2 hospital hitting target were both Scottish and the 89 English and Welsh.
Good luck to all if you feel we would do better to perform like Englands NHS and wait for the 40 new hospitals Boris has promised but still sit on the drawing board without pencils.
@James Che said;
“Yesterday you eloquently commented and phrased what I had made many attempts to say.
Thank you.”
Thank you, James, but I did mess up the start of one sentence that must have been confusing, and not just to you;
“A decision English decision unilateral, and since Westminster is the Union Parliament and not the English Parliament, an English decision on its own cannot be considered a valid Union decision, since England’s MPs cannot and do not represent the Union on their own.”
The first part should have said ;
An English decision carried by overruling a contrary Scottish decision is unilateral
Much more sensible.
I do appreciate that you can have difficulties with the written word, but I have seen nevertheless that it doesn’t stop you from making entirely sensible statements. Some come out well, others not quite so well, but please don’t worry about those ones. You make the effort, and I understand that only a tiny minority of readers of blogs comment on them, so you are doing far better than those who don’t comment at all.
We clearly agree on some matters, but not on others, and that is perfectly normal. Challenging each other on them forces us to develop and refine, or re-examine our arguments, and that helps others to better understand these matters themselves.
So you just carry on!
Akenaton
Not true.
I don’t like Kate for the following reasons..
1. Hasn’t ruled out a waste of space challenge to self-ID
2. A fan of buffer zones that’s not necessary.
3. A fan of conversion therapy bill.
4. Cowardice over GRR vote.
5. Missed a vital vote that would’ve banned rapists from women’s jail.
6. Has done a number of u-turns over the course.
7. Has thrown Ash under a bus on a number of occasions.
8. Isn’t offering me anything new.
9. Bored over sums that’d bare no relationship to indy.
10. Freeport fold.
11. Makes a liar of herself regards Sturgeon.
12. Has lied she can eradicate poverty.
13. She sat in cabinet & signed off on Sturgeons bullshit funding for deviants.
14. On maternity to hide from GRR but a sniff of power & she’s soon back challenging her bestie..?
14 reasons – but watch this space..
@ Rev: can you give a glimmer of light, and hope, about there being someone who is seeking an interdict on this latest appalling piece of SNP cheating i.e. the leadership election?
Or is nothing happening?
Whilst I am on record as a Salmond sceptic, I cannot let the latest Sturgeon soundbite pass without comment.
Referring to the resignation of John Swinney, she was falling over herself to state that he had been a greater asset to the SNP than Alex Salmond. Never in the proverbial month of Sundays.
Well Nicola, you can go and get redacted. (Your pal John knows how)
Geri I have only ever had one reason for not favouring ASH Reagan.
It was impossible for her to win. Yousaf is indentured to the Murrells so must be stopped or Independence is over and Scotland is shamed socially.
What Kate has done under Murrell control and what she will do under her own steam are yet to be seen, she is intelligent, with the common Scottish touch, she is our only option and I am hoping for the best. What is your future scenario?
Well unless there’s some sort of intervention (much needed) come Monday afternoon, Mike Russell, and GCHQ will have successfully installed either Forbes or Yousaf as the next FM, and in the process Sturgeon and Murrells dirty little secrets will be safe and secure, and Westminster will be able to breathe a sigh of relief, and can get back to robbing Scotland blind.
Also the only chance of dissolving this union for years to come will have gone in the form of Ash Regan, and I’d imagine man of the SNP membership will know the games up and tear up their memberships, and move to Alba, which will be the REAL part for dissolving the union, and the SNP will gradually go the way of BLiS.
As for Ash Regan, its more than likely she’ll be deselected and that will be that.
@effigy
That reads like your standard “but in England” nonsense from SNP spin HQ. No wonder it had no basis in reality.
Not just my father in law, I waited 4 years for an operation that meant I had to suffer discomfort while working all that time. A relative who classed as a suicide risk because they suffered an extreme trauma and was told they’d have to wait a year for counselling… for a suicide risk!!! So they went private and spent thousands. It goes on and on.
Let’s forget the tinkered with and meaningless stats the SNP pump out, let’s forget the culture in the SNHS, basically whistleblowers are told to “wheesht for Indy” and if they won’t they are threatening into silence by SNP placemen. Let’s forget the huge amount of extra funding the SNHS gets to spend per head and yet still achieves disaster after disaster which is then spun as being excellent service and “better than England”.
Worst of it is the people that voted for this disaster can’t even put their hands up and admit their mistakes.
“Watched Craig Murray last night commenting on how a few Scots may need to throw themselves under a bus, or in this case a tank, and die for Scottish independence.”
James Che.
Scots are too gutless to throw themselves under a bus to save their country, we even allowed a 78 year man (Brian Quail) to lie under the nuclear convoy that passes through our city streets on its way to Faslane carrying warhead, whilst the rest of us did nothing.
Scots aren’t the Irish or the French, we take shit and them more shit until its coming out of our ears.
Bye Nicola, where have you been the last 9yrs mate.
link to munguin.wordpress.com
How can anyone say they want and support Independence and then say by Nicola.
Akenaton @2:48pm, your argument for not favoring Ash Regan is, if I may say so, illogical. If one candidate wins more than 50% first preferences, how the rest vote does not matter anyway. However, if one wishes to stop, eg, Humza Yousaf, one can easily vote Ash Regan 1 and Kate Forbes 2. If Ash Regan is eliminated in the first round, it’s as if one had voted for Kate Forbes. In that case, your single vote gets transferred to the candidate you most favor after your first choice is eliminated.
@Wilson McBride says:24 March, 2023 at 12:50 pm
Fàilte air ais!
Thocht ye were deid.
” The real reason so many here don’t like Kate is the fact that she is honest about her social views, views that the majority of the public hold but are unwilling or unable to expound, due to pressure from media, public bodies and a multitude of woke pressure groups.
We live in a social prison and Kate seems to be our only means of escape.”
Akenaton.
It doesn’t matter how many times you spell it to folk like Akenaton they never listen.
Forbes has no plan for independence, I’ll type that again just incase it goes straight over the his/her head Forbes has no plan for independence.
Without independence very little will change for the better.
If Ash Regan doesn’t win and we know the fix is in via ghost members (ex-SNP members with no vote boosting Forbes or Yousaf tally, along with GCHQ’s part in making sure Regan loses) then dissolving this fetid union is over for years to come.
Of course that will suit a little Britnat like you down to a tee eh.
Effijy says:
24 March, 2023 at 2:27 pm
‘Good luck to all if you feel we would do better to perform like Englands NHS’
Week after week, Sturgeon bleated out the same answer to opposition pussy cats attacking her with feather dusters over SNHS.
To pontificate about England and Wales performing even worse sets the bar about as low as it could go: it’s like saying McJobs are doing better than the unemployed or the homeless, and pointing out all the ‘good points’ of being on zero hours contracts.
It’s simply a case of an appalling administration being held to account by a pitiful opposition.
“Nobody doubts Sturgeon’s compassion for social justice”
Well, I most certainly do. Your amateur attempts at psychological blackmailing do not impress me, do not intimidate me nor will stop me speaking my mind.
In fact I am going to laugh at and defy your your tacky attempts at ad hominem by pushing the matter further: Judging by her actions over the last 8 years, I consider this woman has no compassion whatsoever nor respect for anybody other than herself, and for nothing other than her own ambition and public profile. In my view, those who claim she is compassionate either lie or are in denial.
Using women and children as collateral to score political points is not compassionate, it is perverse.
Using your position as leader to destroy a political party from within and then go on to transforming it into a shell so the labour party can win the next election is not compassionate. It is political fraud towards its members and voters.
Deliberately putting violent male rapists in female prisons is not compassionate. It is negligent and showing the most disgusting contempt for vulnerable women locked in a place where they cannot leave from.
Denying women the right to defend their rights and womanhood is not compasionate. It is cruel.
Forcing women to call male freaks, fetishists and perverts women is not compassionate. It is degrading.
Attempting to bypass democracy by opening a consultation about conflictive legislation for Scotland to the entire world, so the people of Scotland could be gagged is not compassionate. It is undemocratic and dishonest.
Blaming Westminster of being undemocratic when you have just forced a piece of legislation through parliament knowing the majority of the people of Scotland opposes it in the strongest possible terms is not compassionate, it is the pinacle of hypocrisy.
Attempting to erect barriers between children and their parents so the latter cannot protect their own children from the paws of corporate big farma or paedophiles is not compassionate, it is vicious and abhorrent.
Deliberately trashing the barriers that are protecting children from paedophiles and women from rapists is not compasionate. It is morally repugnant.
Abusing one’s position of power to collude with the civil service to push your political oponent out of your party is not showing compassion. It is cowardice of the highest order and the silent acknowledgement you know you are so mediocre you cannot possibly win on a fair field, so you resort to dirty games.
Abusing your position of power and your moment in the limelight to throw more dirt at your political oponent when they cannot retaliate is not compassion. It is unprofessional, embarrassing and unprincipled.
Deliberately leading on yes voters with carrots to a blind alley for 8 fucking years while stabbing them in the back with manufactured obstacles with zero intention in delivering is not compassion. Is taking the electorate for idiots.
I could go on and on for the rest of the day to show you examples that prove this woman is anything but compassionate. And guess what? I do not get my info from the Daily Mail.
As per your “Union Jackists”, let me tell you that from where I am standing, the biggest “Union Jackists” are Sturgeon and the troughers in the SNP. It is not the Daily Mail who has kept Scotland trapped in this union for the last 8 years despite majority after majority and mandate after mandate. It was Sturgeon’s deliberate mismanagement of our MP majorities, it is her contempt for our democratic mandates, it is her dishonesty giving away free vetoes to Westminster and of course it is the vested interest of the troughers surrounding Sturgeon for keeping the gravy train going.
“One’s compassion is not measured by one’s relations with a single yesterday’s man”
Compassion is measured in everthing you do.
You write “a single yesterday man”. That will be wrong. I believe Mr Salmond is married, he is not single. Also, Ms Sturgeon not only did not show compassion towards Mr Salmond. She behaved like a coward who to save her PR personna after she messed something up, would throw under the bus whatever SNP MP or MSP male was on hand. If she thought we did not notice, she thought wrong.
You call Mr Salmond “yesterday man”. Your poor attempt at psychological blackmailing is not going to take you very far here. There is nothing “yesterday” about Mr Salmond. Mr Salmond is actively campaigning for independence and leading a party that starting from scratch no long ago and has already more members than the libdems and I would dare say the Greens. Can Sturgeon, the “yesterday woman” say the same? I think not. Where Mr Salmond was building up, Sturgeon was demolishing down. Sturgeon inherited party at its highest popularity and with 90,000 members. What has she left?
So let me tell you that from where I am sitting, the one who deserves the qualifying of “yesterday” is Sturgeon and all the SNP troughers who have been enjoying the free gravy train ride under Sturgeon’s disastrous stewardship of the party. Coming to the next GE and, hopefully, either those gravy train raiders are deselected or ejected from the seats, whichever is faster.
“in the dim and distant past”
Distant past? Well, it must have something to do with age, but I remember it like today, and there is nothing dim about it. I will remember it for a long time because that was one of the most disgusting, unbelievably dirty and cruel attempts to get rid of a far superior poltical oponent I have seen in my entire life. In fact, every time I see Sturgeon’s, Swinney or Angus Robertson’s faces, I rememeber it all over again.
“Sturgeon’s crime in government was to be asleep at the wheel”
Nope. Sturgeon’s downfall was thinking WE, the voters, were asleep at the wheel because she had us all fooled with her carrots and fake PR persona.
“Frankly, anyone who thinks there is the slightest possibility of ALBA (the less than 1% mob) achieving government or leading Scotland to independence, needs more than their heid examined”
Well, I take no moral lessons nor advice from somebody who considers “Sturgeon” compassionate, despite all her actions pointing to the precise opposite. So yes, if Ms Regan does not win the contest, I think ALBA has a very strong possibility because after the monumental mess Sturgeon and Murrel have left behind for everybody to see, after the pathetic spectacle that was watching how the party troughers almost fell over themselves to endorse the continuity candidate, after watching a couple of idiots invoking “trumpism” to try to silence dissent regarding the irregularities in the leadership contest, after watching Russell scrapping the bottom of the barrel by denying a re-vote, and after watching how Yousaf and Forbes didn’t even think of a plan to deliver independence nor consider it important for their campaigns, I think ALBA has just been promoted to the post of the most likely political vehicle for independence. Please note that I say political. There are other non-political vehicles in the pipeline as we speak.
By accident or design ( and I very much think it has been by design), The SNP under the political fraud Sturgeon has just become a low grade copycat of labour. Same principles, some crap policies, same broken promises, same contempt for the voters, same urgency to preserve the union. In other words, another yesterday party.
Go ALBA!
REPUBLICOFSCOTLAND 3:15
Craig Murray is right. The goddess of Freedom is partial to blood and her thirst is not easily assuaged, certainly not with libations of sweet words and good intentions.
Scotland’s case is one of being reluctant to make even a faith offering in «the cause».
However, the world governments’ led Covid years of fear did make the masses cower, especially so in Scotland where «fear» has been an establishment weapon of first resort for centuries, and an effective one.
The psychological moment knows no fear.
DMcV @ 2.12pm
Are you from a parallel universe where Nicola Sturgeon is more sinned against than sinning? Where she is compassionate and caring as witnessed by her doing – what? You seem to be a bit of a ‘zoomer’ or ‘handmaiden’ yourself with your strange perspective on Nicola Sturgeon and all her works.
Personally I don’t care what happens to the SNP. It has been so restructured by the Murrells as a party machine that exists just to govern that it would need root-and-branch transformation. I don’t see anyone within the SNP able to do that. (Many posters on here are making that same mistake in pinning their hopes on one person to do all that would be necessary. It is unrealistic to base hope on such thin evidence anyway. The machine already exists to make the leader fit its rationale.)
In truth Nicola Sturgeon did not accomplish the empty shell that is the present SNP by herself. She knew how to choose her accomplices and they collaborated willingly. Her ministerial choices were usually based on how loyal they were to her, not to their talent which was often woefully absent. Once they were all in place then each knew what to do to keep the party machine on the rails which was all that was required of them. (Apart, that is, from keeping Sturgeon and her narcissistic ego front and centre – except of course when things were going badly.)
As for compassionate, I have met people who could turn it on and off like a tap, knowing when to make the right gestures that would impress the impressionable but it is far more useful to view the totality of someone’s behaviour to gain a better understanding of whether they are truly empathetic or not.
To dismiss her behaviour, as you did, towards Alex Salmond as ‘(her) relations with a single yesterday’s man in the dim and distant past’ is itself crass in its callousness and displays a singular lack of judgement. It is precisely that behaviour which involved lying and conspiring and led to a case being brought against Salmond in court through a process which had already been dismissed by a judge in the Court of Session as ‘unfair and tainted by bias.’ This ill-judged process cost the tax payer a considerable sum of money in damages.
I would rather read Robin MacAlpine’s appraisal of Sturgeon’s era than your hagiographical distortions because his assessment of Nicola Sturgeon fits far more accurately to the person we have observed over the past 8 years and the little she has accomplished.
You do fit the picture of an SNP loyalist, or even insider, since you regurgitate the twitter attitudes and phraseology – as well as the familiar stock insults. That’s actually what the SNP did among other things throughout her tenure – dividing and marginalizing those who did not follow the set narrative. She was undemocratic to her fingertips and the only unity she would permit was in undivided loyalty to her leadership.
In one aspect you are right, she could not have achieved what she did unaided – but she can’t be exculpated from the travesty of a party that she helped create while she was busily having her image polished. She was a failure in government and a case study in narcissism.
I usually skip over the longer posts (or fall asleep mid-way!), but Mia totally hit the nail on the head.
SNP have a vanishingly short window of opportunity to turn this around, that I can only see Ash being able to deliver, and then only with the enthusiastic assistance of her party.
Failing that they are the first obstacle to our aspirations and will need to be dealt with accordingly.
@Republicofscotland says:24 March, 2023 at 3:52 pm
Of course that will suit a little Britnat like you down to a tee eh
FFS Republic.
I have family members who are not even in double figures, but they already know that when you have to fall back on insult on social media or online platforms, you have lost the argument.
Try to up your game. It’s not that difficult.
That is true in the sense that I commented on yesterday,
There is a distinction with this side of the border.
Scots in general have a different character and personality as a race and nation of people.
The only time that aggression happens here is if some of us has had one to many at the weekend, and the price hike on drinks that will become less and less.
However some of the qualities Scots characters and personalities have as traits and have always been known for, is their contribution to thinking, inventing, medicines, engineering, hard workers and participating in the age of enlightment,
So while deflating our warmongering or aggressive qualities is to be admired. It must be stated that our other qualities have and must shine through, the pen is often mightier than the sword.
We can do independence by organisation, some integrity and a determination.
I think Salvo and the many other projects being thought through at the moment will be our answer.
We do not need to join in with them, we just need out smart them.
And on mass starting with the Councils who are not part of the Scotland Act, nor are the burghs in existence anymore which was a key part of the articles in the Treaty of the Union.
Colonising the treaty of the union by Westminster is an breach of that union with Scotland, and there is enough info on Colonial Stock from Westminster to Scotland under internal domestic legislation and other subjects to move forward now and withdraw our MSPs from Westminster,
Never mind reparations for the Scots (head taxation) called “poll tax” one year before the rest of Britain,
Or the Reform Scotland bill that deleted some Scots laws, that were wrote into the Treaty as being retained to Scotland.
We use our heads and put local pressure on local councils and politicians nearest us,
This will be quicker than trying to gain someone else’s approval! Or trying to hit our heads against the top protected politicans,
You need to watch the SSRG video on you tube to see the fragility and actual position of Scottish Councils.
That is a interesting and informative piece of info.
Republicofscotland.
My last comment was meant in response to your comment to me. I forgot to put your name at the top, just back from a walk and jumped straight in. Hope you will except my apologies.
Mia @ 407. I’m afraid Alex Salmond is yesterday’s man. He is flawed and tainted. Whatever he did or didn’t do he cheated on his wife.
JGedd.
Noteworthy, it would not be the first time that some pin the tail on just one donkey.
The SNP were never the independence grass root movement in Scotland, they were simply the supposed vehicle/ tool to move independence forward.
And that had reasonable success under AS,
However the old SNP also begged and suggested that the old Empire should give us permission to be free.
This is not the method or way forward, it knocks the sovereignty of Scots and the “Claim of Right” in to second position.
And yet it is part of the constitution, not only of Scotland but of Britain, in the Treaty of Union perhaps more so than the “bill of rights” for England that Westminster has been busy de- contructing.
The way forward is to withdraw our MSPs from “Westminster parliament” on their Breaches of the Treaty of the Union.
That is our starting gate,
And if they do not do as we request by withholding financial support for the system,
I have been Watching Englands new uprising against Monarchy, Local Councils, and bad governance, and this is one of the ways they are going forward.
Izzie… so what. What has cheating on his wife got to do with his political ability? Some people need to grow up.. .
I like the articles that the Rev Stu writes and then turn to the comments. Dearie me!
It would be refreshing to see some different names but I mostly see the same posters writing the same comments umpteen times per day. I exclude the founder members of the BPHB whose posts are simply excruciating to read therefore I don’t bother.
A few years ago, pre covid, I was sitting on a bench at the foreshore in South Queensferry admiring the view. There was an English couple near by, doing exactly the same and talking in glowing terms about the bridges. A wee fat Scottish woman and her wimp of a man heard them and the woman piped up ‘We don’t want your kind up here’. The English lady was puzzled and asked ‘What do you mean’? ‘We hate the English’ was the response. At this, the Scotsman man seemed to be fascinated with his shoes. The English woman was clearly hurt as the Scottish lady walked away puffing at her fag, no doubt pleased with herself.
I felt so embarrassed to be Scottish and apologised to the English couple, stating it is only the minority of Scots who are like that. Reading some of the comments on this thread I am not so sure however I take some comfort in knowing that only 0.001% of Scots post on here and the majority are mostly over 60 and living in the past.
You may not like it but EVERYTHING in life changes. Embrace it or spend your days writing shite on here.
Sturgeon appears to have got her exit strategy to work and there is so far no sign of the MSM taking the least interest in reversing their years long neglect of investigating her crimes and corruption. This – along with the realisation that Ash has no real chance – has occasioned a good deal of pessimism on Wings and elsewhere among real nationalists.
However, I don’t think the situation should be seen as especially gloomy, although it does at the moment give such an appearance.
Firstly, it should be understood that the type of strong, ruthless, ultra-narcissistic and personally ambitious person Sturgeon is, really is fairly rare, and far rarer still is the type of scenario when such an individual finds the stars aligning for them to gain power in the way Sturgeon did in 2014.
She will not be succeeded in the SNP by anyone of her kind. Humza is merely a ridiculous Keystones Cops version of his boss who is not going to dominate should he win. While Kate Forbes is simply just a bog standard ambitious politico with little ability to hold away over others.
So with Scotland coming back to its senses after the strange Sturgeon/Murrell hold has evaporated then the way is clear for Alba and Salvo to gather the huge numbers of real indy believers and push on.
The UK is such a terminal shambles now, and when things are like this and people despair then history tells us that mass movements arise, some salutary some not, but arise they do.
There is nothing directed from London that could ever again capture the mass of the Scottish people. The genuine independence movement can and will capture that mood and with the lessons of 2014 learned and a new maturity, as is shown by the developing strategies of Salvo and others, the way forward to independence is clearer than it has ever been.
Izzie @ 5.14pm
Well, if that is your criterion for supporting politicians there is hardly a marriage that has remained intact in the SNP. It has been a merry-go-round of changing partners there over the years but it hasn’t stopped you being a member though.
You should all recap on Sturgeons speech to Holyrood after being elected FM.
The turnaround in 8 years was remarkable. She thanked Alex for his 20 years of mentorship and states that without it she would not be FM.
The wonders she would perform were inspiring, the things she would build beyond description,but were actually glitter and cardboard.
She was a great talker, but not a great achiever. Her priorities changed from serving Scotland to image building and cultivating a loveable persona.
It all went wrong and it was on her watch.
I’m not surprised people still respect her, but I remember that even Margaret Thatcher remained worshipped by many.
Making idols to worship is never a good idea, especially in politics.
Izzie @5:14
Cheated on his wife eh? What, along with 90% of all male politicians in the world who’ve done likewise.
Scotsrenewables@5.31 I completely agree but that’s what middle aged elderly people will judge him by. He is tainted. I know that it hasn’t handicapped Boris but Scotland is different.
Golden Bough (2015): Wheel of Fortune: East Neuk of Fife:
“…Lassie I’ve got gold and silver
Lassie I’ve got ships on the ocean
Lassie I’ve got hooses and land
I dinnae want yer gold and silver
I dinnae want yer hooses and land
I dinnae want yer ships on the ocean
All I want is a good young man…”:
link to tinyurl.com
Well, what a comedown after the breathless tales of the last weeks of incriminating emails and impending doom for the SNP high heid yins and various other self important public figures.
Fair put the buidseach on it noo, so it seems.
Whatever happens, there are going to be a lot of unhappy people on Monday evening. Popcorn ready.
From above-
To pontificate about England and Wales performing even worse sets the bar about as low as it could go:
So being under English control with no fiscal levers of our own we shouldn’t comment on how we do a bit better with what they give us after their management fees.
Setting the bar higher can only happen with independence.
Does anyone seriously think that anything is going to change within the SNP whoever becomes leader?
Nothing can change in a State where the police and justice system are rotten to the core.
What sort of police can’t find in two years how, when and by whom the £600,000 was stolen?
Any competent accountant given full access to the accounts can find exactly what happened with the money within a month if not much sooner.
Why was Murrell not arrested or sacked for denying access to the books?
Support for Regan is justified so far, but be prepared for another betrayal and whitewash if she takes up a post under Yousaf or Forbes, or even if stays in the SNP.
If Regan and Cherry remain in the SNP, it will only be because of their personal ambitions.
Because it will not be because of a genuine desire for independence.
Quite the rant chas but what’s your point?
JGEDD and Mia thank you for saving myself and I assume many more of us having to respond to this snp moron DMCV
100% Yes I have responded many times to tris’s fawning over sturgeon but it makes no difference , unfortunately her latest boak inducing post has sailed past her previous sycophancy efforts , I enjoy the comedy and jokes but lots of her commenters are just as sycophantic as her, it’s like PayPal Paul version2 with sycophants and apologists dominating , what’s even more sickening is that tris being a woman cannot see sturgeon for the amoral scum that she is
Akenaton Kate forbes is your daughter isn’t she and I claim my prize , either that or your her meenister
What if Humza Yousaf won, as by now he very well may have done? That would be thanks to early voters, many of whom must now have buyer’s remorse, as well as non-members, deceased persons, fictional characters, and so forth. Yousaf has the support of enough MSPs to confirm him in office as First Minister, as has to happen under the Holyrood system. But how long could he possibly last?
Then there will presumably be a byelection to succeed Nicola Sturgeon at Glasgow Southside. Not much could persuade me to advocate voting for a Holyrood or Westminster candidate who was in favour of Scottish independence. Indeed, the only thing that could, would be to advocate voting for Alex Salmond or Craig Murray at that byelection.
Thanks 100% Yes for the link to Munguin’s New Republic. I didn’t know he was still going. That article and most of the comments below are quite shocking. An elderly English woman said to me years ago that she thought that the Scots were gullible. After reading that I think she might have been right.
Reading Izzie’s ridiculous post of 5.14pm merely proves, 238 years on from Burns penning his great poem – Holy Willie lives.
Izzie says:
24 March, 2023 at 5:14 pm
“Whatever he did or didn’t do he cheated on his wife.”
With your insider knowledge of your Nicola, could you confirm to us all that your Nicola has not cheated on her husband?
Could you also squash the rumours that your Nicola broke up things in a certain hotel when she found out that her girlfriend had left her for someone else.
Great story Chas…but we both know that it never happened.
Here’s my made-up anecdote…I was down in Oxford and I went to the nearest pub to watch the South Africa v England Rugby World Cup final. The match was close to kick-off and the camera settled on Gordon Brown for twenty seconds. The assorted drinkers gave old Gordon an ovation like I’ve never heard before. They all agreed he was a top bloke who had calmly waited for the top job and they were even more happy that he was there as a Proud Scot supporting England. I piped up that I was Scottish too and I wished for a great game and may the best team win. At this I was raised aloft and given free beer for the rest of the night.
Or maybe the opposite happened and that’s the true story…
@twathater
I don’t know Kate Forbe’s meenister but I did know the current Wee Frees’ moderator very well. Iver Martin is a fine principled and intelligent man and was a great semiconductor engineer before he took the cloth. I was so glad when I heard he got to the top in his
vocation.
I doubt, however, his current reesponsibilities would allow him the time to assume an on line persona.
A few years ago… Chas., I was leading the purchase of a large, very expensive piece of machinery from Germany for installation in Scotland. following on from a progress visit to the German factory with the English agent for the German manufacturer we were invited to dinner by our German hosts.
At the dinner the English agent decided to tell a joke -” the Scots are like piles, a pain when they come down”. To break the embarrassed silence I touched upon the difference between English and Scottish culture, and then recited “To a Mouse”. I then explained that the message of the poem was the damage that can be unwittingly done to others by pursuing your own goals without consideration to others. Our German hosts fully understood the stupidity of their English agent.
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
Just read this article by Sara Salyers!
“The cludgie stane must stey”
James Che.
No apology required most of us in here want to dissolve this rancid union, this might be controversial to the cupcake indy supporters but I’ll take it (independence) anyway I can get it.
No country that ever stuck two fingers up to Westminster and declared independence by hook or by crook has ever asked to go back.
Everyone who wants independence and reads the Rev’s excellent blog post knows what’s going on and they also know that Ash Regan is the only candidate with a viable plan to exit this ball and chain union, so you know when the usual suspects start their BS with Forbes in mind its just that BS.
Meanwhile the Britnat media (STV news) is still reporting that the leadership contest, in its final days, that no one knows yet which candidate will win it, they must think we’re fu*kin stupid, we know its already cut and dried and that the only candidate who would make a real difference (Ash Regan) will lose, and along with her loss, Scotland will lose big time as well.
Izzie says:
”I’m afraid Alex Salmond is yesterday’s man. He is flawed and tainted. Whatever he did or didn’t do he cheated on his wife.”
Here’s the thing Izzie when I vote for in an election I care about the candidates politics and their intelligence so I’ll vote for who I think will best represent me and my beliefs, their morals are really none of my business and I don’t care it’s because it’s none of my business
On the other hand if I was voting for someone with impeccable moral values but didn’t care if they were an idiot I’d vote for you
OMG rolls eyes. What I am trying to point out that there are barriers to Alex Salmond being able to reinvent himself. Scotland is conservative (small c) he was never popular with women. If anyone can be bothered check out posts 29th August 2018 857
”I’m afraid Alex Salmond is yesterday’s man. He is flawed and tainted. Whatever he did or didn’t do he cheated on his wife.”
Here’s the thing Izzie when I vote for in an election I care about the candidates politics and their intelligence so I’ll vote for who I think will best represent me and my beliefs, their morals are really none of my business
On the other hand if I was voting for someone with impeccable moral values but didn’t care if they were an idiot I’d vote for you
@Izzie,
Salmond has no need to reinvent himself. I do not choose a surgeon because she is attractive. I choose her because she can do the job and has the experience to prove it.
“he was never popular with women.”
Izzie.
Yet Salmond was cleared of any wrong doing by a jury made up mostly of women, whilst Sturgeon has done her utmost to roll back women’s right in favour of the transgender brigade.
Strange how you are looking for barriers, when the rest of us are looking to break them down to exit this bucket of sewage union.
We are playing a game against a stacked deck and there are folks who say we shouldn’t put our best players forward. Alec Salmond has always known his place and shown respect. I want him to play on my team, don’t care what position. He was cleared of all charges, it’s in black and white. I read it somewhere.
Have we ever considered the number of unscrupulous players there are on the establishment side? Probably not because the media doesn’t tell us, in fact they probably party with them.
In life when someone we like does something wrong, we feel for them, show compassion, understand. When it’s someone we don’t like who does the exact same thing, we think they the scum of the earth. Sometimes it’s got nothing to do with the act or alleged acts, sometimes we just don’t like people.
I’m still wanting him to play.
Never met the Rev! Jees some of things he says, wow, but I’m picking him in this fight!
Izzie,5:14pm
Please provide evidence that Alex Salmond cheated on his wife. Dates, places and with whom. Or are you just another snp troll continuing to smear an innocent man, under Sturgeons instructions. And not just any man but a Scottish national hero! Which Sturgeon the treachwerous betrayer and alleged adulterer will never be.
@Mia
Outstanding! Every. Single. Word.
Graeme. I agree. Every French president has a mistress. It’s common knowledge, but doesn’t get reported in the press. Just because Sturgeon has an injunction,it doesn’t mean we don’t know what’s going on.
Humza had an affair with his secretary. He cheated on his wife. Robertson is no saint, as was McConnell. Is it only Salmond that we are singling out as moral hazard.
The truth is. It’s irrelevant. It doesn’t make you a bad FM or CEO. We are not electing the feckin Pope
Lizzie you are a feckin gullible hypocrite.
Scotsrenewables says:
24 March, 2023 at 5:31 pm
“Izzie… so what. What has cheating on his wife”
Shame on you Scotsrenewables for spreading the lies and smears of the Sturgeon cabal to denigrate AS, who has done more for independence than any other.
Can you provide evidence of this alleged ‘cheating’? With whom, when, where?
AS knew beyond any doubt that he was constantly being spied on by MI5 and by the MSM desperate to hang some, any wrong-doing on him to discredit him – but they were never able to find a shred of evidence until they got the perjurious alphabetties to stand up and claim he pinged their curls or made jokes about ‘killer heels’. I have no doubt whatsoever that a search of the perjurious alphabetties’ bank accounts around the time these false allegations surfaced would have been of huge public interest.
@ twathater at 6.01
Munguin/Tris is not a woman (as John H alludes to in his post right after yours). Still annoying that he’s fooled, though.
The jury we hope would have been impartial and had examined and internalised the evidence. I am talking about before this debacle Salmond was not popular with women Sturgeon raised the support within this group. Believe me when I say it broke my heart when Alex left for the good he said of the party. I just don’t think that there is a way for him to be reinvented as the saviour of the cause. My guess is that Regan will defects to Alba.
@Mia Spot on, SNP is a deader than dead parody. It is no more. It has expired. Thanks to NS and her handlers. Let’s watch as she swans off into the sunset, unscathed, untouched, lauded by her new friends. Here, she will be hated, and rightly so. Time will not be kind to the tractor. Or, will they throw her to the wolves, I doubt it though because they have to handle the next wave of useful idiots.
“I’m afraid Alex Salmond is yesterday’s man”
Not in my eyes. You can repeat that same lie 1000 times if you wish. My response will continue to be the exact same: You are wasting your time.
“He is flawed and tainted”
Not in my eyes. I am well aware THEY TRIED very hard to taint him and make him look flawed because he is, so far, the ONLY pro-independence leader who has the ability AND THE WILL to end this union and he is therefore the ONLY pro-independence leader the UK establishment fear.
He is of course head and shoulders above the useless Sturgeon, so for as long as he was on the same platform as she was, her mediocrity, lack of strategy, lack of integrity, undemocratic ways, lack of ability and will to progress independence were far too obvious to be missed.
And that is why they all colluded into attempting to make the electorate think he is tainted. But some vested interest portraying him as tainted and flawed does not mean he is.
In fact, they say what does not kill you make you stronger. In my eyes, he walked out from both, the civil case and the criminal case much stronger. Those who attempted to sink him, failed and ended with all the shit they tried to throw at him smeared all over their faces.
Sorry. You are preaching to a stone here and you will go nowhere with your attempts to undermine him in my eyes.
“Whatever he did or didn’t do he cheated on his wife”
And that will be his business and his wife’s, not yours or mine.
None of my work colleagues ever got sacked from their jobs for cheating on their partners. They were not hired for their moral high ground but for their professional abilities.
For the same reason, I couldn’t care less about a politician’s private life or who they sleep with, as long as it is consenting adults. However, I do care about unprincipled perjurers who falsely accuse a man of rape or attempt rape to finish him politically because they are so mediocre and think so little of themselves that they cannot do that on fair terms. I care about them because these cowards give women a bad name and undermine real sexual assault against women.
The only thing about a politician that interests me is what they promise to deliver to get my vote and what they deliver after they got my vote. And the reality is that, despite having EIGHT YEARS of MP majorities, enough mandates to form a enciclopaedia and steady support for independence, Sturgeon FAILED catastrophically to get us any further than Mr Salmond did with far, far less at his disposal.
Sturgeon is and will always be in my eyes a busted flash. A dishonest charlatan. A con-artist. An empty vessel. All noise and no cargo. Mr Salmond, on the other hand, is and will always be in my eyes a pro-independence political leader.
Izzie might have a degree of credibility if they weren’t oblivious to, or ignoring all the sexual antics of current and recent departure of SNP officials…
I dont post but watch a lot of the comments have done for years it keeps me sane, thanks guys.
Micky Mouse Russell newest bestest President of the SNP and his philandering is well documented on Wiki link to en.wikipedia.org
“Russell previously separated from his wife for a time after he lost his seat at Holyrood in 2003 and had an affair with his researcher Eilidh Bateman.[47][48] Bateman, who was 21 years his junior, later dumped Russell just 10 days after he publicly announced he was leaving his wife.[49][“
@Mia (4.07) –
Bravo and hear hear.
I see The Virgin Mary has dropped in to warn us about Big Eck – blimey! This place gets aw the bestest commenters eh?
Why are you fuckwits feeding the troll (Izzie)?
Are you stupid or what?
Its been obvious since it turned up what it is so WTF are you idiots playing at responding to it?
Morons.
Bob Mack says:
24 March, 2023 at 6:46 pm
@Izzie,
Salmond has no need to reinvent himself…
No need to, I agree, but I’d like to see Salmond driving forward an apolitical Constitutional Convention with the Claim of Right at the heart of it, and unhindered by any interference from the 1998 Scotland Act.
I say apolitical, which isn’t the correct word, but I mean it’s not dominated by any political party or persuasion.
Salmond wants to win Independence through a clean and fair fight.
So do I, but to be a “fair” fight means offsetting the Unionist media and all the Establishment’s dirty tricks, just to level the playing field a bit. I happen to believe the Claim of Right puts the proverbial iron horse shoe in Scotland’s boxing glove.
I would like to see a re-invented, (or maybe just tweaked a wee bit), Alex Salmond getting full square behind the Claim of Right, even to the extent that Constitutional rights and considerations outrank democracy.
However I believe he’ll be very reluctant to do so. He has more faith in Democracy than I do.
I want to see SALVO’s initiative being in the driving seat, supported by Scotland’s political class, legal class, industrial class and grassroots… the modern “Estates”, all participating in a Convention of the Estates addressing our constitutional crisis.
I don’t want to see SALVO subordinated merely to support a political initiative and campaign. When push comes to shove, Scotland’s Constitutional Sovereignty trumps everything else… democracy included.
I get it, that Scotland maybe doesn’t need the Claim of Right if Independence is the people’s right to self determination, or maybe Scotland can secede from the UK, debt free with England allowed to be the Continuer state. Maybe Decolonization is the route to take… Independence can be pursued through all these channels.
But I “feel” the Auld Constitution of Scotland in my bones, the auld sovereign Kingdom of Scotland, and Independence actually puts right a wrong and removes an injustice that was forced upon Scotland all those years ago.
We entered the Union as Constitutional equals, we should exit the Union as Constitutional equals. Why should Scotland secede as the lesser State? In fact, why shouldn’t Scotland dominate the whole damned process? They subjugated us in their arrogant stupidity, and broke the Union through their own reckless misadventure! Screw secession, an Independant Scotland should seek reparations for a breached Treaty.
In the Glasgow debate Ash distanced herself from Alex very nicely.
A lot of folk on here do not seem to understand that in a short election everything is basically a sound bite if Kate or Ash were to start railing against HQ, Nicola, past records etc etc They would do themselves a lot of damage (remember it is a short campaign)
Alex Salmond is one of the best orators I have ever seen!
Just popping in, not caught up with previous posts, sorry if already pointed out…
Humza, ‘If the Legal advice says ‘no’ re S35, I’ll drop it’…. No yi winnae. Legal Advice is NEVER published, so we winnae ken what it is, and you winnae tell us, and then you’ll do what yi want.
Sleakit wee bam.
Don’t feed Gizmo after midnight. Or is it Lizzie?
The BTL comments on here are usually excellent except when high quality commentators get sucked into replying to low quality commentators, who constantly aim to make it personal instead of just expressing their own views.
Express what you think rather than be consumed answering what some low awareness individual thinks. It is much more interesting, trust me.
Just catching up…
Meet the poundshop Danny MacAskill…
link to twitter.com
And 5mins of the real deal.
link to youtube.com
Feels like this ‘calm before the storm’ is generating a lot of static and stress the longer it goes on.
But I won’t be the only one hearing very positive stuff via the grapevine.
And if I’m hearing wee snippets here and there – and I don’t do any social media bar The Twitter – we can only guess what’s being picked up by Stu.
So here’s to you all on this Friday night. The final Friday with You-Know-Who as FM!
(Don’t forget – it wasn’t that long ago we were wondering glumly if this day would ever come.)
This time next week, for better or worse, we’ll all have our wee counters back at square one and the great game will restart.
Cheers!
😉
David Jamieson nails it yet again.
Has really impressed me with his big picture thinking. In his first article in the New Statesman.
link to twitter.com
Oh my god, Scottish schools have had lessons on “white privilege ” so-called “embedded” in the curriculum. Are white people to be forever burdened with guilt for things they personally didn’t do? Home schooling is looking more and more attractive
@Mac 8:44
I’m struggling to think of any regular on here who hasn’t made it personal at one time or another.
Why don’t you list these impersonal exemplars for us?
Won’t take you long, trust me.
IB 8:55
Fingers crossed that this time next week, we won’t be looking back at today and thinking these were actually the good old days!
NS is bad, but there is still room for things to get worse for Scotland.
Izzie 5:14pm
Dear God – you’re gonna shit a kitten when you find out who the Murrells have been shaggin’
Clue: it’s not been with each other!! LOLz!
Can’t wait until media get thier finger out thier ass.
Murrell was missing from the fake united front of standing by his missus final day yesterday. Probably off friggin in the rigging of the goodship lollipop..
Mia, Agreed re Sturgeons compassion. Zero. I even think the witch was taking the piss out of Scots yesterday in her final act of wearing Thatcherite blue just for the lolz.
Chas – who do you think yer fooling with yer wee jackanory story there?
Sturgeonite ultra Emma Roddick has tweeted that
“Nicola Sturgeon’s legacy is not just her policies, it is also those she has lifted up with her as she climbed.”
Aye Emma, a few of those who rose with her might get lifted again!
xaracen : good post over at lawson the other day
antondecadent : not surprised about the housing selloff (which sounds illegal)
People like yourself have been left behind by the (new) “Left”. You are just a “white racist” now, when once you were a “working class Scot”. People need to go with the flow and re-brand.
– if I was ever really low I would style myself a “trans asylum seeker” and plonk myself down on the street outside Oran Mor, dog on a string, starbucks cup as a begging bowl, telling stories for my supper
… makes me think of a french film (possibly remade in Hollywood) about a grifting tramp who gets himself taken in by a middle class couple … gerard depardieu was probably in it, as he is in every french film
Izzie 6:30pm
That seemed no more than a unionist lie. The bollocks of the brain dead ‘I’d vote for independence but I can’t stand Alex Salmond’ pish.
Is exactly that-Pish.
As if anyone would vote against thier own country & turn the first ever indyref in over 300 yrs into popularity contest instead FFS!
Yes & majority Yes voters are Female. All the more crazy the SNP are on a suicide mission to obliterate the female vote with GRR. It has Yoon written all over it.
Susan. Similar to the idea of collective apologies for the slave traders during the empire.
Those crimes were committed by the wealthy few. The ordinary Scots were as much victims to these tobacco Lords, as any of the colonies. Because Scotland was and still is a colony. We pay everyday for that privilege.
My ancestors were probably kicked out of Ireland by them. Sent to work in the pits in Blantyre. Then living 10 to a room in tenements, and dying at 45.
Where is my ancestors apology. My Grandad was 36 when he died of Malaria. Sent to war by the Brits. Came back half a man, never recovered. The glory of war.
My granny brought up 3 boys on her own in Maryhill. She herself died at 65 of arthritis.
We are all victims of British rule.
I have no faith in My-Voice.
I have no faith in Murrell and now Mike Russell. Who lived in Bute House. With his 11 point plan to styime Independence in the illusion of Scottish democracy.
I am hoping the SNP members pull the plug on the sham election this weekend.
It’s a scandal.
The men in the grey coats needs an 11th hour rescue or its going to be Humza the cheat.
Where are they?
Horrified that the election hasn’t been cancelled yet.
We know the fix is in for Yousaf. He’s cheating his way to Bute House.
The men in the grey kilts. The modern day nights. The guardians of progress.
We need you to stand up and save Scotland.
Save the vehicle of Independence.
Come on. Don’t give up the fight. We need transparency.
The election needs to be opened up.
Now’s the day. And Now’s the hour. The time is running out. The clock of corruption ticks on.
David. The tragedy is, we might never know how much cheating went on. On the plus side. If body language is anything to go by. Humza certainly doesnae look like he has won this.
The bookies made him favourite 3 weeks ago. But do they actually know anything?
Beauvais
‘Aye Emma, a few of those who rose with her might get lifted again!’
LMAO!
Gawd, wouldn’t it be divine justice if a few were banged up with a nappy wearing nutjob as a new roomie..
@Gregor – do you maybe need a therapist? The NHS is fecked at the moment but a friend of mine used to advertise on Welldoing.org. There are other websites out there, too, ofc. There’s a lot they can do with things like ERDM where you don’t even need to talk much about the trauma.
I think some of what has happened in and to our movement has originated from, and further compounded, trauma for those caught up in it. But these things are treatable. I wonder if we will need some sort of truth and reconciliation commission before long. It feels like the alternative is recrimination, self destruction and oblivion.
Good wan Twathater! :0) In reality. the late lady wife and I had four boys, wann wass a twunss! I remember going in to see her in the old Rankin Hospital on the day they opened the Erskine Bridge.
I arrived outside the hospital and was told I was the father twins, but was alarmed to see the wife in floods of tears, the moment I stepped in the door she exclaimed “Oh my god A+++ wan o’ them’s got rid hair!!!” One twin was just over 10lbs the other just under 9lbs, both breach births….A tough cookie the wife!
Always wanted a daughter and would have been proud if it had been Mrs Forbes, I value honesty and she’s fair bonny.
I’ve known a few Wee Free ministers and they were aw gey crafty, but single minded and determined in all they attempted. Kate will have been well schooled in the ways of politicians.
Big Jock. Love your posts.
Check out Stu’s twitter feed. Humza says he knows he has a significant lead in the polls.
How can he possibly know that!!?
This is a fix. I’ll tell you.
Someone needs to put a stop to this corrupt election. I’m telling you.
John. Thank you for your kind words.
There will probably be an election in autumn if Humza gets the job.
He will pass off everyone on day 1. He just can’t help being an arsehole. His ego will be the end of him. All mouth and nae troosers.
I’m still a Mike Russell fan.
I’m convinced he is 100% indy over many decades but has had to caw canny midst a plethora of moles, agents and closet Us.
He came out for Ash, against the cabal zeitgeist.
I already gave a plausible reason for his refusal to open revoting.
Time will tell if he was justified in doing that.
If Regan has to cross the floor, I trust Alex will do the right thing for Scotland by standing down so she becomes leader. It will then get really interesting re who walks and who doesn’t.
Stu’s shills go full metal Trump saying the referendum was a fix. Someone complaining about lessons in white privilege. Daily Mailian diatribes against Sturgeon. Deluded claims that ALBA isn’t irrelevant. Anti-vaxxery. Anti-Englishness.
You lot make the SNP look good. Or at least sane.
It is important to fight this American import, critical race theory. White children should not be inculcated with guilt over the actions of others, it’s unhealthy. And by the way, Europeans didn’t capture black Africans for slavery, they couldn’t tolerate the climate and diseases. Black Africans were captured and sold by other black Africans and later by afro-arab Mohammedan slave raiders.
Well said Susan!
Thank you akenaton. I doubt it will be a popular comment.
Breeks.
7 55:55pm.
Way to go, 🙂