Striking a blow for equality
The SNP have plumbed some real depths recently, but this is a new low.
Although we suppose on one level you could spin it as a positive, namely that disabled people really are just like everyone else – they can be despicable scumbags too.
Jamie Szymkowiak is a disabled SNP list candidate for Highlands & Islands region, where he’ll benefit from the controversial new candidate ranking system that could see him take the #1 spot on the list even if he doesn’t get a single vote from members.
So with such a comfortable safety net in place we don’t suppose that he feels like he has very much to risk by telling disgusting lies about Colette Walker of the ISP, a blind woman who wrote a piece this site ran earlier today.
Colette certainly did NOT “endorse Esther McVey & Iain Duncan Smith by describing the dehumanising Work Capability Assessments and PIP process as a ‘necessary hurdle'”. She’s just about the last person on Earth who would do so, having struggled against those very things for years on behalf of her blind and severely-autistic son.
And nor, incidentally, would this site, which has unequivocally condemned WCA and similar tests since the SNP’s junior-fascist wing was in nappies.
(The SNP, of course, should already have taken over control of disability benefits, but have been far too busy promoting transgender ideology instead, and so the switch has been pushed down the line by years.)
All Colette’s article actually said was that there should be SOME verification of claims for disability benefits, rather than just automatically giving them to anyone who self-identified as being disabled – an obvious common-sense position that we suspect would be agreed with by just about everyone in Scotland.
But that cuts no ice with the modern SNP if they perceive you to be any sort of threat, however slight, to their political hegemony. That makes you a “Tartan Tory”, apparently, and a grave disappointment to the foul little bullies of the Twitler Youth.
(And of course it was really all about the trans.)
We expect no more of filth like “researcher” Kiehlmann, and didn’t know Szymkowiak before tonight, but Ross Colquhoun, an SNP “strategist”, really ought to know better than this. And it seems he does to some extent, because he appears to have deleted the appalling “Tartan Tories” tweet now. But all the other ones in this article are still live, and the SNP should be ashamed to the pit of whatever now passes for its soul.
As I posted on the previous article, I have relatives who are disabled and understand the process and the difficulties.
The do not have appeared to have read the article correctly, and that comment by Kiehlmann needs someone on Twitter to report him for attacking a disabled person.
I can’t even be disgusted anymore. I have no anger or outrage left. Nothing surprises me now. Nothing.
And here is Jamie whining to the National only today
https://twitter.com/sunscotnational/status/1360986408014532611?s=21
Also weren’t ScotGov meant to take over PIP assessments but the spectacularly useless Shirley Ann Somerville has been to busy rainbowing to get it together to take them over,
Whatever happened to the SNP’s Respect agenda????
Szymkowiak isn’t much of an electoral strategist is he? He’s just handed the ISP a propaganda victory in the H&I List election. Vote SNP2, get bigotry.
Incidentally the much delayed SNP replacement for PIP incorporates assessments. Whilst it aims to rely on a mix of claimant, GP, consultant and other relevant medical evidence, additional assessments will also be used in some cases.
I look forward to Jamie, Ross and Jonny speaking out against the dehumanising actions of the SNP towards the disabled any moment now.
The problem has clearly become in that, in trying to create a political party home for the independence movement that is strong enough to achieve the outright majorities at Holyrood needed to challenge Westminster, we have inadvertently created a party that now thinks it alone gets to decide on what’s important or not and that if you’re not with them you’re against them.
This has also led them to take the view that regardless of whatever else they propose they still expect a Yes vote as supposedly the only way of achieving independence.
More than ever it has become apparent that a pro-indy majority needs to be constructed across multiple parties to avoid this concentration risk.
Just when you think you couldn’t hate this lot more, I’m assuming they see the ISP as a threat which is good news, and also Stu for folk who apparently hate you they appear to like reading your blog.
She did the unthinkable and posted an article on Wings so her words are twisted and she is demonized. Of course, as the National only prints one side now, Wings has become by default the only counter to the NS cabal.
Expect much more of the same, the ones doing this are despicable people.
Oh and ‘Be Kind’ everyone…
I used to have a lot of time for Ross Colquhoun. This kind of childish and dishonest attack on a severly disabled women is deeply disappointing, what a shame he turned out to be a bit of a knob.
I see Fiona Roberson waded in too, no surprise there
@Muscleguy says:
14 February, 2021 at 9:42 pm
Szymkowiak isn’t much of an electoral strategist is he? He’s just handed the ISP a propaganda victory in the H&I List election. Vote SNP2, get bigotry.
Does that not deserve a one of these?
#votesnp2getbigotry
It is because of nonsense like this that I resigned my SNP membership. I also recently joined ISP, I will be adding a few extra quid to their fundraiser tomorrow, all thanks to this crazy response to a well written article.
Having read the article, and speaking as someone who is also registered blind, those SNP tweets are a disgraceful slur on Colette Walker.
As anyone who’d actually read the article would be fully aware, Colette is advocating reasonable checks to stop impostors from gaining unfair advantage or even committing fraud.
The problem with the DWP is that they don’t accept reasonable checks like being examined by your NHS consultant and then registered blind.
Instead, the DWP force people to spend months jumping through a series of degrading hoops, wasting their time and the public’s money.
Having done that, the DWP routinely reject people who clearly meet the criteria for assistance, so that those people have to wait for up to 18 months before the overloaded appeal tribunals can hear their cases and make an award.
It is a disgraceful system which exactly matches the character of the Conservative Party, and no party which thinks smearing Colette Walker by trying to associate her with that system will be getting any votes from me.
The supremely vapid Shirley Anne Sommerville was handed the social security brief by Jeane Freeman and decided straight away it was too complex and had to be delayed until 2024.
Shirley Anne Sommerville has an unrivalled reputation at Holyrood for sending problem back to sender and thus it has been with social security.
She went on to sort on trans issues instead for Scotland 17No trans folk (there may now be more than 17No, now that life is so much better for trans folk)
I believe that a couple of social security offices were set-up by Jeane, one in Glasgow and the other in Dundee. I don’t know what ever became of them. Does anyone else know?
This is the kind of crap that comes from having swapped a principle – independence – for the sole aim of staying in government.
Scotland is in real trouble…three to four joke parties and the SNP quickly morphing into the Stasi party.
God help us…
Disappointed with Ross Colquhoun. Seems everyday now there is someone you would have agreed with and found common ground with but turns out to be talking pish.
My teen daughter has autism. And anxiety and dyspraxia. She is sleep disordered and can’t tell day from night. She’s academically very bright with a high IQ but has absolutely no social skills and struggles with everyday things like getting on a bus or remembering how to put clothes on. Her balance and muscle tone is very poor so she falls over a fair bit.
We went through a functional assessment. It was stressful for her but the assessor was kind and understanding. I was stressed watching her get stressed. However, without it, she wouldn’t get her bus pass. She wouldn’t get any assistance as she wouldn’t be deemed as having additional needs. She wouldn’t get the scribes that helped her through exams as she can’t write as her muscle tone is so poor.
I view the assessment and letter of entitlement she was given after the functional assessment as a gateway. Without it, she would be struggling. Her disabilities were being recognised and her additional needs identified.
I can’t tell you how much is pisses me off that there are some low enough to self ID themselves as disabled to benefit themselves at the expense of registered disabled persons.
There is a special place in hell for them.
If you didn’t know better you could almost believe that the SNP hierarchy had been ‘got at’ and were doing everything in their power to lose voters and cripple the movement.
But that can’t be true, can it? Peter Murrell is an honourable non-binary, as indeed are they all, honourable non-binaries…
SNP morphing into Scottish Labour, as they spit venom when talking about other Parties who challenge their position.
The baseless smearing of anyone not fitting their facist ideology is the go to strategy of these inhuman monsters that have infested the SNP.
First they went after woman and no one said anything,
then they went after the disabled and no one said anything,
it will be the BAME next and no one will say anything,
and when the self iding SNP parasites come after you there will be no one left to say anything.
If I was Ross Colquhoun I’d be ashamed to admit I was an SNP strategist as it appears there hasn’t been any strategy for about 7 years now but it appears the panic-driven tactics are to play really dirty now.
What is really awful about this is someone who has been through the system and can’t self identify out of what life has given her is treated this way. They honestly have no empathy or decency. Dyslexia in their minds equates to being blind and severely autistic. Anything to get on that SNP ladder.
alzyerpal
Another hung Parliament would do the Murrell’s just fine.
Backed up by Harvie’s useless Green’s again.
This new look SNP = Ragin
@Captain Yossarian
Pre-Covid they were holding recruitment events at the Glasgow office, as far as I know most of the staff are currently working from home. I believe they’ve taken a five year lease on the office but beyond that I’ve no idea.
Has this non-entity Ross Colquhoun came out and faced the music tonight, or is he still hiding under the kitchen table?
And they have totally missed the point Colette Walker was making in her brilliant article: that checks need to be in place to stop political opportunists making life even harder for disabled people rightly claiming benefits.
Or they’ve not missed the point but are deliberately … words actually fucking fail me here.
Thanks Rev
I’m seeing this stuff and all I’m thinking is ..
That’s not what she said
That’s not what she said
That’s not what she said at all !!!
You’d have to have a reading age of about 8 to think Colette said any such thing.
So either they are really that stupid or they think their readers are .
Stunned by this level of ignorance – pishy pete I can understand, if there is a wings bad bandwagon going, he’s on it regardless – but holy feckn feckn feck.
We have this and Nicola remains silent!
The Wokerati keep finding new depths to sink to and the leadership stay silent.
Please use that list vote well. Unite behind the ISP.
I cannot understand why all those elected politicians remain silent. You should all be ashamed of yourself.
Silence! Total silence! Except for their pitiful pleading for money and “both votes…SNP”
I was angry when I gave up my SNP membership…but that was nothing in comparison to how I feel tonight.
By the way, Colette Walker is running a fundraiser on behalf of the ISP here:
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/isp-scottish-elections-may-2021-campaign-fund
There really are no limits for these SNP wannabes . Is there?
First they came for womens rights and now those of disabled folk.
Conveniently adopted to get a job at the Holyrood club.
Do they own any scruples at all ?
Well I suppose the scatter gun approach would suit some people, this seems to be the method of and endorsed by a lot of people in this particular brand of SNP , We are the only ones to push for Independence it’s our way or the highway , they treat other Indy seeking parties who in the end have the same destination marked on their map they treat them like any other Unionist Party it’s our Baw and our game so bugger off or else .
That might be acceptable if their way was working or even making some progress but everyone apart from their Dug refuses to accept this SNP ain’t fkn working , a simple request is met with your a unionist your a infiltrator your stopping Independence and this is just for asking a fkn question.
The more I see and hear convinces me this current SNP are dangerously off track they not only have lost their way they seem to be going in a totally different direction it’s baffling and really sad
How did the Highlands end up with the most useless bunch of cretins on that list? The top spot is going to one of 4, which will likely result in a seat.
1. Rhiannon Spear. Over promoted, over protected, toxic and viciously nasty piece of work. She will knife you in the back, front and side to get what she truly believes she is entitled to. Claims to be disabled.
2. Emma Roddick. Untrustworthy, extremely dangerous individual, who leaks to the press, fabricates her life story and has had some questionable relationships within SNP. Really questionable. Claims to be disabled.
3. Sarah Thanet. He has a history of online bullying and bizarre behaviour but always claims to be the victim. Not declared to be disabled. Yet.
4. Jamie Symkowiak. Not heard much about him, but disgusted with what he said. He is genuinely disabled.
Well Highland folk, take your pick or maybe cast your vote elsewhere.
Most ordinary voters would overwhelmingly agree that to get disability benefits you gave to pass some tests. Identity peddlers seeking to badge themselves with often frivolous conditions, to get priority access to the Holyrood trough is unconscionable. Colette called it right.
The SNP ‘tactician’ highlights the SNP Government’s incompetence in still not being ready to take over the benefits tests.
The upcoming election campaign will be a belter.
NS is keeping silent because they are HER attack dogs. They’re doing what she wants. Utter scum the lot of them.
The bar must be down near the Planck limits.
How low can you go?
(& get away with it)
…….
Auntie is a malignant,arrogant old bint.
That sort of smearing is really all you can expect from the establishment, when it’s faced with an existential threat.
Given what’s publicly known, how can anyone justify allowing someone (who may be central to what’s commonly known as the conspiracy theories) a platform to call justice into question, and set the narrative for the coming finale?
Colette’s article was impeccable in tone and content and I have shared it widely. I am sure that she will rise above the predictable inanities and detritus of the Wokerati on this occasion as she has done previously. This is a lady with guts, intelligence and integrity. Bravo, Colette.
We should all join ISP immediately!
Hugh Jarse says:
14 February, 2021 at 10:43 pm
The bar must be down near the Planck limits.
How low can you go?
I believe they can go as low as two Planck lengths. Two very short Plancks, in fact.
Nine years?
ww1 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918
ww2 1939–45
Ms somerville is not a lady in a hurry.
I am, thankfully, not usually given to swearing …..but fuck me Szymkowiak needs expelled from the party. Immediately.
As for the rest ……I have no words.
May will be a SNP bloodbath. And the above will be responsible.
I will make my feelings known to my constituency SNP MSP.
I feel I should rejoin the SNP just so I can leave again, I think it’s fair to say I will never vote for that shower again and still can’t get my head around how things have come to this.ISP for list and the the rest can go throw snow at themselves ,Highland Perthshire and Scotland deserves better.
SPOIL1 ISP2
#NOVOTESSNP
The New SNP, or Sturgeon’s Nasty Party, have morphed into a puppet regime of the British State, without any intention of acting in Scotland’s interests. They are controlled by the lunatic fringe on all issues except the constitution, whereby they elect to play by Westminster’s rules – just ask Martin Keatings.
We have become part of a political experiment.
Cybermidge
Aye, but only with strings attached.
🙂
Wow, I never thought anyone in the SNP could have any sort of opinion near to what has been shown on Twitter today, especially by those people who have positions within the SNP.
Utterly disgusted at those members of the SNP involved in all of this, they should be ashamed of themselves.
The NEC better be taking appropriate disciplinary measures on these vile cretins!
Today was the final nail in the coffin of any of my votes going towards the SNP, I cannot support a party who has members who treat people in such an abhorrent way.
Bella Caledonia decided to join the pile on against the blind lady with the disabled son. I feel like we’re at the stage where I hate some of the supposedly pro-indy almost as much as I hate the British Government. Maybe it was just past time to realise that you get some major arseholes in every movement and SNP just seem to have hoovered a lot of them up with the decent folk slipping out at the same time.
Just read a few posts upstream and for the life of me I can’t believe the replies from supposedly SNP reps or associated with this SNP management to the article .
My own MSP as far as I Know is reasonably good I suppose never having the need to contact him by people I know seem to believe he’s pretty able , my MP on the other hand can go fk a Duck if he thinks I am giving him my vote my only interaction was like having a conversation with a answering machine and just as satisfying , as good as he might be my MSP is on pretty shaky ground by his association with this current crop of political shysters.
I really hope these Quiet MPs and MSPs get their act together and search for a bleedn SPINE .
And we thought the SNP couldn’t play dirty? Pity they don’t do it with Westminster.
Wishart defending him. Sounds as if Pete will develop a limp any minute.
Pete, just to let you know I am going get you unelected. I will work my socks off locally get you out if you should stand again, and I Do know a lot of people!
What a loathsome thing the SNP has become, i am white hot with anger. All those disgusting MP/MSP`s who remain silent are endorsing Sturgeon`s madness and her deliberate destruction of the SNP.
Was planning to vote ISP on the list and SNP for the fptp part. Don’t think I’ll bother with fptp now.
@crisiscult.
Poor Mike Small seems to have been driven mad by the numbers this blog does relative to his. It’s terribly sad to see someone so consumed by jealousy but I think he’s beyond help.Shocked but not really surprised to see him taking it out on a woman.
Hugh Jarse says:
Cybermidge
Aye, but only with strings attached.
?
OK, you win ?
I really wish the the remaining candidates of sound sense in every party – who see the present roots and crops of dangerous nonsense for what they are – would very publicly resign their memberships and all stand as independents, each with their own forthright and honest manifesto.
Only then could voters readily be rid of the dregs currently sloshing about or festering stagnant in the bilges of the parties.
Tonight has been an absolute PR disaster for the SNP. Trigger happy responses and doubling down when they are called out.
The National front page goes with ACH swearing on ZOOM. The man is an arse but front page news?
Look I’ve been disabled for seventy odd years. In all that time I have been assessed often, usually by qualified and understanding people, or my GP has declared me ‘disabled’. I have fortunately missed out on the present punitive and inhumane system of awarding benefits, mainly because of my age… but no doubt they will eventually get around to my age group. I agree absolutely with Colette Walker that their must be some form of checking, no matter how liberal….. there are always a few folk who can work any system. Let’s have a good, humane and understanding approach to awarding benefits…. when we eventually get around to taking them over. We all have varying ideas of what disability is, are we now going to say we are all disabled to some degree? I think not.
Wishy can’t resist , he clearly hasn’t read or understood the piece.
He says
“ The attitude towards disabilities and equalities from the social conservative and illiberal baad bloggers, their followers and their proxies is simply appalling. At least we know what this ISP is like now.”
Absolutely mad.
NOBODY has signed the plebiscite (top right at the link below) in the past two hours.
C’mon peeps, let’s make our preference known!
https://www.isp.scot/
A women just filleted Mr Szymkowiak on twitter.
“Try self id ing yourself out a wheelchair. I cant”
It is plain now that they think they have absolute carte blanche to attack any person who might venture an opinion which is not approved by the Politboro. Such is their arrogant belief that the Scots will vote for a donkey with an SNP rosette that they believe they can do anything, however low and dishonest – like attacking and falsely representing a disabled person who happens to have relevant experience from which they can make an informed opinion, and thus a contribution to a debate which the SNP do not want you to have. Instead they will tell you what is going to happen. As a result the Highlands have the worst piss poor selection of candidates they could possibly have engineered. This is SNP ‘democracy’.
And all the time they have been fighting their own candidates and constructing witch trials, while neglecting basic governance. If they are so outraged by the PIP tests, as they claim to be, then they can explain why they have given up taking them over, not to mention the myriad of other policies which they could have been getting on with. Instead they posture and preen, fighting twitter wars and constructing PR stories for the media, while actual disabled people are left to struggle with the PIP. Absolute hypocrites and useless do nothings.
Brian Doonthetoon : The plebiscite petition is with the unreliable (I am being very charitable here) change.org.
I signed a petition regarding BBcollaborator Scotland bias some years ago – which actually trended. Very unusual for a completely Scottish petition. The petition was abandoned by change.org for a reason never explained.
It remains my belief it was abandoned because the red tories spoke.
After signing the petition my e-mail was bombarded with guff. Possibly a coincidence – but I don’t think so.
You want me to sign – use another (possibly more honest) organization, please.
McDuff say
What a loathsome thing the SNP has become, i am white hot with anger. All those disgusting MP/MSP`s who remain silent are endorsing Sturgeon`s madness and her deliberate destruction of the SNP.
I could not agree more if the silent majority of MP/SMP had spoken out sooner and registered some sort of controlling influence against direction the party was going you would have thought there was hope .There is no hope the SNP is a morally bankrupt party as can been seen from their use of social media to attack anyone who disagrees or tries to expose them with out of context lies and smears
McDuff say
What a loathsome thing the SNP has become, i am white hot with anger. All those disgusting MP/MSP`s who remain silent are endorsing Sturgeon`s madness and her deliberate destruction of the SNP.
I could not agree more if the silent majority of MP/SMP had spoken out sooner and registered some sort of controlling influence against direction the party was going you would have thought there was hope .There is no hope the SNP is a morally bankrupt party as can been seen from their use of social media to attack anyone who disagrees or tries to expose them with out of context lies and smears
Hi Astonished.
I am not a member of the ISP, so have no influence on their tactics.
However, I would suggest that, as a big enough vote for their option of a plebiscite would show popular opinion, it could be worth supporting.
I’ve been signing these “change.org” petitions for yonks and they haven’t resulted in massive spam to my inbox.
I see there was a 53% turnout in the election for the Catalan Parliament.
While the pro-independence parties won 51% of the vote, it represents around a quarter of their total electorate.
Looks like they have given up.
These SNP spokespeople truly are vile scum.
Making up vile lies and promoting them as having been said by severely disabled woman is as bad as you can get. And all endorsed by the millionaire lush Peter Wishart MP their vile lies are a ringing endorsement as to why no one should be voting SNP in May.
There can be no place whatsoever for people like these. They and their rotten party must be gone . and this latest dirty deed will only serve to deliver that. So here’s the Well the message toilet people in the SNP, we know that you know that your days are numbered. Like new Labour your time is up.
The May elections will be the opportunity to clear out the pig sty and replace you, and replaced you will be. W
This is just the pits. As WRYC says higher up the thread, the time for being shocked or angry is past and it’s now just a numb disgust. We have here a lady who despite being blind has achieved a good deal and who has fought cruel Tory benefit policies on behalf of her disabled son, being portrayed as some kind of right-wing monster because she had the temerity to ask these thin-skinned control freaks a question. Well Colette, all I will say is that you, and Joanna Cherry, and Craig Murray, and Stuart Campbell, and Alex Salmond, have more to be proud of in your small toe than that lot have put together, so don’t let the bastards get you down. I voted SNP in every election from 1992 to 2019 and was a member from 2012 to 2018 and am now ashamed of it.
Every day someone in the leadership clique does something absolutely outrageous. This site, as well as a handful of other journalists worthy of the name (here’s looking at you Mandy Rhodes and Iain Macwhirter) has the nerve to call it out. And every day the same gruesome crew spout dross about it. If I could stomach reading Wishart’s Twitter no doubt every fourth post would be slagging off this site- no doubt because he’s jealous that despite his decades of well-paid “service” in Westminster, it’s this site’s author who convinced many to support independence. They’ve turned into Scottish Labour at it’s absolute worst.
Deep down, they all know what they’ve done. I stand by my unpopular prediction that they are in for a nasty surprise at the impending election. Who knows what that will do to our poor country, but they’ll certainly deserve to lose. Fuck them all and the horse they rode in on.
I absolutely LOATHE what the SNP AND those who have made it so. I want a sensible, reality based nonPC party to vote for. This nonsense has gone on long enough.
‘Astonished says:
14 February, 2021 at 10:53 pm
I am, thankfully, not usually given to swearing …..but fuck me Szymkowiak needs expelled from the party. Immediately.’
You do realise, of course, that the reason they are having a disabled person say this, is so that, if you take offence and call them out on it, you can instantly be called ‘ableist,’ (or whatever made-up yank term they feel like throwing at you that day) and what you say can be safely ignored by ‘decent’ members of society? These people are human shields, supposedly untouchable because of their disability, and are being used as such. Beyond disgusting, and incredibly patronising.
Dear God! A response to that quietly dignified and sensible article is a vitriolic diatribe of lies then a pile-on? What an embarrassment the Scottish political environment has become. I’m ashamed for my country and repulsed by those who purport to represent me. Ugh!
They could all claim to be disabled, if illiteracy cunts, sorry I mean counts.
Surely it must be illegal to say your are disabled when your not, especially if you are standing for political office as these charlatans are.
Report them to the authorities as soon as they state they are disabled.
Its amazing how many people suddenly need walking sticks to get around, yet most days they walk around without them, there is a street in greenock called westburn street, you could not park your car there for blue badge holders, problem was the disabled person was not in the car that one of their relatives was driving.
And I was led to believe if you could walk one hundred yards you where not classed as disabled, yet all the so called disabled people where out walking round the shops with no difficulty at all.
My wife was bi/polar and I wrote and asked for a badge and made it plain that I did not want any benefits for my wife having one
They said people with mental health problems are not entitled to the badge as they are not disabled
I had to lock all my doors and take the keys to my bed with me to make sure she never went out the door at night when I was sleeping, I gave up my business because of her bi/polar, took me a year to get DLA for her, they had all the info of her years of ill health from the medical people
I remember a letter coming in one day after years being on DLA, it said her DLA was being reduced by £80 a month due to change of cirumstances.
I wrote to my MP at westminster explaining that she had not informed them of any change in her condition and I wanted that decision changed right away as I was not going to fight these idiots anymore
It was reinstated at once thanks to my MP, as anyone who has had to deal with these people knows, its a bloody nightmare to get through to them, as they are so stupidly incompetent
while its nice to settle down with some hot choc and post some off colour humour on wings, this stuff is beyond satire and not really funny; the rev has in his last few posts hit all the marks anyway. One thing strikes me tho – the SNP seems OBSESSED WITH FAKERY in all its forms, but never the real thing
– fake independence
– fake women
– fake r4pe claims
– fake disabilities
and actively attacks the genuine versions of these.
Another thing that bugged me today – Woman H, still anonymous, gets on the telly (not exactly media shy) to try and, yet again, overturn her court-room failure in the eyes of public opinion – it is a shame that the JURORS are forbidden from talking about the case in which case we might get a different story : “lying btch was not credible … aye, we saw right thru her … “. Terribly one-sided, but we expect this by now. And whatever the reason for her anonymity, this is an abuse of it.
– found some links of general interest; this is hard hitting – on the state of journalism, wokeness, cancel culture, all the current themes
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-journalistic-tattletale-and-censorship
(wokeness is a new religion; a modern form of puritanism, but that’s a whole essay worth in itself.)
and some even deeper stuff – trade, finance, history, war, gold, oil, the dollar – good interesting read; long, but worth it – even skimming the first several paragraphs provides a history lesson.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/02/michael-hudson-changes-in-super-imperialism.html
I will quote one sentence from it :
“as long as you can have IDENTITY POLITICS FRONT AND CENTER you can do whatever you want ECONOMICALLY TO CRUSH the people that you PRETEND TO BE REPRESENTING”
(enjoy the schadenfreude of all these woke arseholes -?”woke-holes”? – deeply in debt, massive student loans, worthless degrees and shit jobs while they prattle about “social justice” and all the phobias of the day … )
One rather depressing thought – if we finally get there, at some point some guy has to – “set it all up”; some SNP guy … is there anyone who is operating at the Hudson level? Or will it be some stuffed shirt who will simply do -whatever- “the other guy” (Bank of England, Goldman Sachs, IMF) says. Imagine Kate Forbes, staring them down.
The “embarrassing surpluses” envisaged in McCrone should be used to create a world class infrastructure for the next century (especially in the highlands) and a country that runs entirely on renewable energy – there’s a good chance, even independent, we still end up getting robbed, except by means more subtle.
Hudson has the habit of calling the UK/Britain, simply “England”, which is telling.
One theme of the piece is that : the USA is not, and never has been a “friend” of “England” at all; it slapped them around after WW1 and WW2, it was a full takeover – this is a useful fact that some nationalist politician, skilled in international diplomacy, could utilise (someone, please??). Also, Harold Wilson, the last political leader to give the UK deep state/establishment, a “kicking”, managed to do so because he had the americans at his back, a secret deal to support the pound. For us to get rid of the anglos, we will need the americans, at some point, to some degree (- even just as referee, to stop the shenanigans the perfidious ones will attempt); whether or not Biden gives a shit about us is “problematic”.
The relevance of the high level view to the UK is this – they live vicariously, their dreams of continued empire via their association with the US – “The Anglo American” world order; the americans see them as simply, another one of their “b1tchez”, a gimp with a chain round its neck. The UK is like that weaselly cowardly kid who always hangs on the bully’s coat tails. Losing 60% of the real wealth via Scottish independence, and probably the nukes, puts a massive dent in their prestige, their sense of identity – and often people will go to any, sometimes insane lengths to stop – all their dreams being shattered. An England on its own is an over-crowded and mediocre place, gazing enviously at a rich northern neighbour.
the SNP now operate on the principle (tweaking Hudson)
“as long as you can have IDENTITY POLITICS FRONT AND CENTER you can do whatever you want to CRUSH THE NATIONAL ASPIRATIONS of the people that you PRETEND TO BE REPRESENTING”
mr thms says:
15 February, 2021 at 12:30 am
“I see there was a 53% turnout in the election for the Catalan Parliament.
While the pro-independence parties won 51% of the vote, it represents around a quarter of their total electorate.
Looks like they have given up.”
That turnout is 2.5% more than the 2011 Scottish election and only 2% less than 2016. I wouldn’t give up on the Catalans just yet. They also have political parties led by people who are willing to go to jail for their independence as opposed to a dominating, pseudo independence party, whose leadership is willing to put other people in prison in order to avoid delivering independence.
#NoVotesSNP I mean that. Can’t even hold my nose we and vote for them.
Reading here that the SNP have done nothing about disability assessments, but could do if they so chose. Is this correct? Because if it is, and I may be wrong in the way I have picked this up, but what this filth is is nothing but deflection from their own inadequacies (i.e. their whole style of government, in a wider way) and trying to push it onto somebody else. I’m not even disgusted anymore. These vile, arrogant cunts do not resemble any Scottish person I ever met in my life up until now. They are more like pond scum.
.
Stuart,
Thank you for clarifying the earlier point in Collette’s article as that was open to exactly this disgusting Sturgeonite McWoke spin.
The simple fact is…
Shirley-Anne Somerville is a lazy, lying cuunt who is way worse than Ian Duncan-Smith. At least with Duncan-Smith you know the Tories are inflicting a snake on people with disabilities.
The self-absorbed sour faced harridan Somerville made herself to be a salvation of the disabled in Scotland to steal the crippple vote (I am a crippple).
Yet Somerville has done LESS than nothing to help people with disabilities and spent a lot of her taxpayer funded time pushing her own McWoke agenda.
Somerville needs to read http://www.calumslist.org
She really is a slug of a creature.
Regarding the catalans, this election was forced on them by Spain. They didn’t want it and had delayed it until the summer, when the Covid situation might look better.
The Spanish courts overturned their decisions, with the active support of the Spanish government, who hoped to capitalise on Covid-suppressed turnout.
The fact that they still smashed PSOE and the unionists gameplan despite the crazy Spanish yoons having the field tilted heavily to the disadvantage of independence supporters Is impressive.
Confused, I saw that Glenn Greenwald thing a few days ago; Matt Taibbi posted it, and i actually used it myself in a new piece for my blog that I will put up later on today online. Incredibly horseshit. America is fucked, from top to toe. However, your quote aboot identity politics seems a bit out of context to me. I read parts of the article you graciously enclosed, but some of it is beyond my head. However, the quote you are talking about, to me, is saying, in essence, that somebody will take a dick up their arse if it is from somebody the same colour as them, and won’t question it is much. It had a very specific context, kind of removed from the usual general identity-politics shitflinger arena. Still interesting, though.
“At least we know what this ISP is like now”
No, what we really know from this little exchange is that Pete Wishart is a low-life piece of shit.
#NOVOTESSNP
I am not on twitter and don’t really understand how the hash tag thing works but that one above definitely needs repeating everywhere.
Robertknight nailed above with Strugeon’s Nasty Party.
But to be fair not even the tories would be so astonishingly tone-deaf and up themselves to launch vicious ad hominem attacks against a genuinely disabled person solely for the sin of writing an article on here.
It really sums it up when Sturgeon’s Nasty Party out-nasty the original Nasty Party.
It is a perfect demonstration of the fact that ad hominem attacks are the only tool they have in their toolbox. When all you have is a hammer everything becomes a nail.
And they are so used to doing it that they just launched as usual.
Only this time they are piling-on and smearing a genuinely disabled lady and her son in public without even a hint of self awareness of just how craven and disgusting they appear doing it.
#NOVOTESSNP
I see many postings by folk I have never seen even mention independence, saying they are on a regional list for the SNP. All I see, is ‘I support x minority’, or I support x group that doesn’t have a voice’. No mention of independence.
Just looked through some twitter feeds, and guess what? No mention of independence. These folk are careerist entryists pushing their own personal agendas, to get themselves a very, very well paid job doing nothing.
So, no matter what you think of the SNP, might I suggest that in most areas, voting for the SNP on the second vote will have zilch to do with independence, and a lot to do with careerist folk pushing their own intolerant woke agendas, with a view to a very well paid job (the equivalent of which they weould NEVER be qualified for in REAL LIFE).
These are the kinds of clowns who ruined Labour. The SNP needs to wake up, and stop all this nonsense.
As an aside, since I have seen folk mention it, how the f*** do you ‘self ID’ as disabled? You either are or you are not diabled. Or am I missing something?
Looking at everything which has happened in the SNP recently, I can only conclude one thing, the SNP has a vacancy for a leader. Nicola Sturgeon, it seems has just decided to abdicate responsibility for the worst excesses and abusive behaviour by some within the party.
We should group fund taking out an advert in the national papers, ‘vacancy for SNP leader, desire for independence not required’.
mr thms says:
15 February, 2021 at 12:30 am
” I see there was a 53% turnout in the election for the Catalan Parliament.
While the pro-independence parties won 51% of the vote, it represents around a quarter of their total electorate.
Looks like they have given up.”
No , it’s not that they’ve given up – the low turnout ( very unusual in Catalonia ) is mostly down to our variable friend Senor Corona . My partner teaches English here in Barcelona and many of her students were telling her particularly older people were not willing to go the polling stations out of fear of being infected .
Such is the * success * of almost a year of relentless fear propagation . Expect the same in Scotland in May , though unlike in Catalonia where there is no postal voting except for those living abroad , postal votes could help increase the turnout
I’m a former SNP voter that will be lending my vote to the ACTUAL Tories for the one and only reason that it might mean someone other than Alyn Smith is elected in Stirlingshire.
List vote goes to ISP.
How do you like that, Ross Colquhoun, Mhairi Hunter and Pete Wishart?
A vote for the SNP is a vote for a Fascist future, where it will be possible for the government to jail people at will, by diktat. And it is NOT a vote for independence. Rather, for a particularly nasty form of dictatorship (please note the connection between ‘diktat’ and ‘diktatorship’).
This becomes clearer and clearer by the day, if not by the minute. Nicola Sturgeon reveals herself for who she actually is – not the persona you see in her mask, masquerading on television – both a) every time she acts and b) every time she fails to act. If we don’t open our e’en and see what is plain in front of our nose we will be allowing the evil that is to come, and colluding with it.
Pleading that ‘we only voted for her / her New Nicola-coloured SNP in order to get independence’ (even though we’re not getting it now, because she says we’re not ready for it) will be a vain and very feeble excuse. We now have to organise ourselves FOR independence and simultaneously AGAINST the Nicola Sturgeon vision of a future Fascistic Scotland, with herself dressed up as Charlie Chaplin in ‘The Dictator’, if you get my meaning.
Maybe that will be her next great part once Covid subsides and she’ll need a new role to star in, complete with thumbnail moustache and frock.
Seriously, we’ll have to stop this – it’s no joke. And no matter what the outcome is in May, we will still be very much in need of the wonderful services provided by Wings. Not only to keep fighting FOR independence (even if – heaven forbid – the outcome is the disaster of an SNP victory that kicks the prospect further and further away) but also – JUST AS URGENTLY – AGAINST the Fascist take-over of our country.
There are no end to the lengths and breadths which a ‘person of ill-will’ will go to, if she – and it is ‘she’ in this instance – is given the chance. When Alex Salmond used that term, ‘a person of ill-will’, I think he did so advisedly. He knew exactly what the term means, and the depth of evil and deceit involved. After all, no one was more deceived by that person of ill will than he – and over such a long period of time, as she awaited her chance – and no one has so far felt the full tsunami force of the underlying evil involved than he.
AS knows exactly what he is talking about, more than any of us, when he used that term. Of course, he is no angel himself, and no saint either, as he openly admits. But he is not criminal, and he is not evil, in the way that this other one is. We haven’t seen anything yet. Or rather, what we have seen so far (which should already be enough to make it self-evident to everyone) is only the tip of the iceberg. If the SNP win a majority in May, we won’t know what has hit us until it’s too late. And it won’t shilly-shally around any more.
The evil that is clearly there, although it still tries to camouflage itself a bit will come full tilt at us, no delay, and no messing. And it will throw what remains of its camouflage to the wind. The SNP, as now (re-)constituted – which is to say as now perverted from its original purpose and turned into an agent of something else altogether (the New Dragon, if you want), must now be stopped in its tracks by every possible electoral means.
I will be voting FOR a pro-Indy NON-SNP candidate on the List. And on the constituency vote I will be voting AGAINST the SNP candidate, by voting for the best (i.e. the most reasonable) available alternative, whatever their Party. I am hoping that that will be a NON-SNP pro-Indy candidate on the constituency vote which, I am told, is a possibility in my area, though not yet sure. If it turns out that there is no such person standing, I will even vote for whoever seems the most moderate and sensible Unionist candidate, something I never thought I would ever say or do.
In truth, my vote will not be a vote for that person, but AGAINST the SNP’s fake-all candidate. No way am I going to vote for the New SNP, with its Independence-for-Scotland-Next-Century policy. Or for its ‘Meanwhile-Pass-Me-the-Gravy while You-Just Do-as-you’re-Telt, or We’ll-Stick-it-on-ye and Stuff-ye-in-Barlinnie-for-Life’ fake-all, unmanned-Fascist candidate.
I am really surprised I am saying this, and I expect pelters for it. Some will be telling me ‘But you’re letting in a Unionist candidate’. My answer: No, I am not: I am helping to PREVENT the most dangerous Unionist candidate of all – the SNP one – from winning the seat.
If you have only Unionist candidates to choose from, vote for the best of them. not the worst. And certainly not the fake whose Scotland has nothing whatever to do with the Scotland you love and hope for. And who really has it in for you, big style. And whose real aim is to finish off the Scotland you know and love and dream of for ever and a day, once and for all.
O/T Alex Salmond inquiry: This cover-up has damaged Sturgeon and co-Ever since Watergate we have known that the cover-up is more damaging than the crime it conceals.
https://archive.is/dS8kB
These cuckoos in the nest are going to cost the SNP dear.
You’d have thought a stalwart indy supporter like Pension Pete would welcome another independence-supporting party but the fact he attacks them rather than his mates on the tory benches says it all.
maybe they are paving the way for some people to self ID as non-conspirators.
On the last comment I sent in, it should not read ‘Nicola-coloured’ but ‘Nicola-cloned’. Narcissists always want to see images of themselves everywhere. The gerrymandered, or rather nicola-mandered SNP candidate selections, both Constituency and List, only go to prove that.
She must be looking forward to having a Holyrood full to the gunnels with Nicola-cloned MSPs. Then, as she looks around, she will see her own image incessantly smiling back at her and shouting ‘Hurrah’ (not even ‘Hooray’) all the time. That’ll ‘cheer’ her up! And bring a badly-needed smile to her *recently worn-out-looking) face …
This, she hopes, will be the self-ID parliament. As all her sycophant MSPs, male or female, self-identify as ‘Nicolas’ … And find their true home together in Holyrood’s Ladies Toilets …
A new kind of – dare I say it? – ‘Better Together’, perhaps …?
Mhairi Hunter really needs to join the Greens. Even tweet she makes just confirms her as a single issue wannabe wokestar. I really hope the nascent Welsh independence movement can keep its eye on the prize like the SNP used to before it was taken over by the Children of the Corn.
And if the Gents Toilets in Holyrood ever become redundant, as looks increasingly likely, maybe they will turn them into a special ‘wee room’ where all and sundry will be able to ‘pop their head round the door’ and have unregistered we chats with the FM which will be NEITHER government NOR Party business and which will therefore, quite rightly, remain unrecorded, and unregistered anywhere.
I am told that at one point, a while after Watergate and Nixon’s consequent fall, it was rumoured that Henry Kissinger was going to run for President. At the end of a long and extremely rare television interview which the disgraced Nixon gave at the time (quite a scoop for the interviewer – it might have been David Frost), I am likewise told that the final question was about this possible candidacy: Nixon was asked ‘Have you any advice for Henry K, if he does run?’ Nixon bent forward and stared right down the camera, saying ‘Sure, I have – and here it is. Henry – just one piece of advice: make sure you turn the tapes off!’
Indeed … And the transcripts, and every other piece of evidence as well. Just like the Holyrood Enquiry has done. And is doing … That’s a lot of leaky taps to turn off all at the same time! Must b quite a headache …
https://caltonjock.com/2021/02/15/the-irish-struggle-for-freedom-from-english-misrule-lessons-for-scotland-abstentionism-works/
At 2015 Northern Ireland elected 8 Sinn Fein MP’s to Westminster all committed to the abstentionism policy which prevents participation in any of the activities in the House of Commons.
But the power and influence of Sinn Fein is progressing well in Northern Ireland and in the Republic and the heady ambition of reuniting all of the people of the island of Ireland under one parliament is very much on the horizon. The Abstentionism policy has been vindicated.
These tweets show exactly what is wrong with some people – not been able to deal with grey areas that must be dealt with, everything must be black or white:
1) No being able to deal with the different consequences of varying degrees of gender dysphoria gave us the idea of gender self-recognition
2) Not being able to deal with the different consequences of varying degrees of disability gave us the idea of disability self-recognition
3) Not being able to deal with the different consequences of varying degrees of heated discussion gave us the idea that all critics can always be insulted
This only-black-and-white also leads to the idea that there are no clashes between various human rights (e.g. woman v transgender) – when the reality is that clashes between various basic rights get debated in front of the ECHR on a daily basis.
Sure, there are things that are pretty black or white (your either pregnant or not), but even things like independence can be somewhat grey – is Greenland independent? what about Republika Srpska within Bosnia? Somaliland? Kosovo? Taiwan? are EU countries actually independent?
The list of people I can’t vote for in Highland region grows ever longer! I have a son with CP and he has had to fight all his life to receive the benefits he needs! The assessments are shit but they are necessary! Can’t tell you how raging I am at the idea you can just self identify as disabled and bypass all the years of struggle that come with a diagnosis to jump to the top of a list!
The snp basically have’nt bothered their a@se about enforcing anything for Scotland. Born in Scotland,have a uk driving licence? You’re getting the butchers apron on it, NI drivers exempt from this brit nat branding, my brother who got his jag yesterday in england could fill his nationality in as white british, white Irish, anything but Scots/Scottish. So he was forced to settle for white brit. Yes, definitely the cultural extermination of a race. And no objections from those snp wokerati barstewards sitting on their A@s#s and big pay packets.
goodness gracious, Magnus Linklater (Unionist to his core) writes admiringly of Wings in this morning’s Times:
https://archive.is/dS8kB
Jamie Szymkowiak
Ross Colquhoun
Peter Wishart
Three useless lying farts, aka Joe Binden’s love weans, ofc there is no love in these three kuntz
There is a finite resource available to help those in society who require assistance. How can we ensure that those most in need receive a share of what is available?
The SNP are a completely lost cause. I agree with the comment above that there is now a ‘Labour before the fall’ arrogance emanating from them. Multiple votes lost from my household. I hope we are not alone. I wish there were a way to inform the wider public about their real agenda.
A wee note on Jamie, someone who I know well and am proud to say I brought into both into Yes Edinburgh North and Leith in 2013. He is straight up brilliant and wow do we need his energy and experience in Holyrood. Please don’t lump him together with the other folk these pages have highlighted as going for a disability slot on the list. He has built up significant businesses including one in oil and gas recruitment, worked internationally, driven a local Commonweal group to the point of overachievement and got all party agreement on the 1 in 5 campaign. He is incredibly well respected by local, actual indy campaigners and SNP members. He gave Ben MacPherson a very good run for his money in the Edinburgh Northern and Leith candidacy poll in 2015, with many long term SNP supporters canvassing for him. He is from Dunoon and has therefore lived work and grown up in the region. Play the ball not the man here please. He is someone we need in the parliament.
I would have hoped that a Career Politician would now the basics.
Smith is an MP, is not standing for Holyrood, so can’t be re-elected in Stirling for another ~4 years.
Are there honestly still people on here who don’t know the difference between HR & WM, who their MP & MSP are?
This level of political illiteracy is why we end up in the these situations.
The comments in the twittersphere are foul, filled with venom & are a good example of the current SNP.
Can we honestly say we don’t deserve it, when political engagement & awareness is so piss poor on the most read Scottish Political blog? I dispair.
If a person self ids as disabled and would not be able to pass any of the criteria to access state help. Surely that would be a bit fraudulent.
Abomination – a thing that causes disgust or loathing.
This current incarnation of the SNP, Sturgeon’s SNP is an abomination. Who would argue against this anymore.
But it is only an incarnation, one that took six years to birth and it can be destroyed very quickly, if we decide to.
Right now this Sturgeon SNP is an imposter, it is standing in the shoes of the real independence movement. It has displaced the real independence movement and crowded them out with woke arseholes who could not give a crap about independence. The SNP is just their vehicle to pursue all their woke guff. This is how Sturgeon sees the SNP so why wouldn’t all her (corrupt NEC) carefully selected acolytes.
We currently have a raft of MPs & MSPs who are not worth a f**k. They are standing in the shoes of the candidates we should have had, where future leaders would have come from…
Instead we have this shower of shit, taking up their places. Who knows the talent that was cast aside this last six years so muppets like Mairi Hunter etc could get preference over them. No wonder we are looking around at our MPs and wondering WTF…
As bad as things look however, they are not, but only if we are ruthless.
We can destroy these imposters in one election cycle. (As wull points out above, we simply don’t have any choice anymore.)
Wiping out (or at least severely politically wounding) this current abomination incarnation of the SNP, i.e. Sturgeon’s SNP, will be cathartic for the Independence movement.
It will be politically liberating, it will be that moment we realized (i.e. made real) that the independence movement does not need the SNP, that the clothes of the SNP had become piss stained rags around our shoulders. We can simply cast them off and find new clothes and be ready to go again at the very next cycle.
First we have got to get the imposters out of our shoes and blocking the way forward.
Destroying this abomination of an incarnation of the SNP clears the way. It allows new talent to come through and the new shoots of the independence movement to quickly sprout up.
All it would take it for AS to form a competing party and the remnants of this incarnation of the SNP, Sturgeon’s, would be dead in the water. Who would even look back…
It is not too late for us but only if we clean the SNP out, and that means we have to be ruthless.
At this point I would haze no compunction voting for whatever constituency candidate was the biggest threat to the SNP. This strategy obviously excludes seats like Joanna Cherry’s. I would still vote SNP selectively for a good-guy candidate but we are talking about a handful of people now.
Robert Hughes 07:29
As long as Covid Vaxcism rules, independence is effectively dead.
More ‘cases’, more ‘deaths’ and the Globalists and their fear dealing Vaxcist fellow travellers have got democracy where they want it, in the recycle bin.
The pathetic ruling clique in the SNP know whose paying the piper.
Scotland, Catalunya go to sleep for hundred years.
Unless….
Mandy Rhodes over at Holyrood Magazine ..
https://www.holyrood.com/editors-column/view,something-rotten?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Holyrood%20Morning%20Roundup%2015%20February%202021&utm_content=Holyrood%20Morning%20Roundup%2015%20February%202021+CID_5c340d97f5f78711a37198dd64a4146a&utm_source=Email%20newsletters&utm_term=Something%20rotten
https://twitter.com/55iscoming55/status/1361010827076268041?s=08
I would also argue that if you are of a mind that Nicola Sturgeon and her husaband are perhaps not working for us the Scottish People then wiping the slate clean is also the best thing to do.
It takes a hell of a long time to get someone like Sturgeon into place, into a position where she can inflict meaningful damage. (And boy did she ever.)
If Sturgeon is an ‘asset’ then we can see the great lengths they go to protect their assets… because assets like Sturgeon are precious, they are very difficult to acquire and get into place.
So wiping out Sturgeon’s SNP is a set-back for the independence movement that is true. It will cost us 2-4 years. (But this time was lost anyway under Sturgeon.)
But doing this is nowhere near as much of a set back as it is for the people who run Sturgeon.
A new ‘wild-cat’ independence movement is a nightmare to these people, a nightmare. Wild cats being very Scottish, it is perhaps no surprise.
‘They’ think they have done us with Sturgeon. And to some extent they have.
I would love to see the horrified look on their faces as we destroyed their asset in front of their eyes.
To see the pregnant look as they slowly realized that what is coming to replace their Sturgeon SNP will be in comparison completely uncontrollable, wild again.
Ottomanboi @9.06 .
Indeed .
This virus will truly turn-out to be the ” greatest threat ever to humankind ” . Just not in the way our snake-eyed ” Protectors ” would have us believe .
In vast mental and physical ,societal , political collateral damage .
” Worse than the Spanish Flu epidemic” . Yes. Much worse .
All my life’s a circle…
https://hyperallergic.com/313435/an-illustrated-guide-to-guy-debords-the-society-of-the-spectacle/
Your move wing man
Shameful woke fringe plus Pete the nasty.
I am glad I have distanced from such a party
Career Politician says:
15 February, 2021 at 7:30 am
I’m a former SNP voter that will be lending my vote to the ACTUAL Tories for the one and only reason that it might mean someone other than Alyn Smith is elected in Stirlingshire.
Wrong election, Smith is your Westminster MP! Your SNP candidate replacing Bruce Crawford is Evelyn Tweed and I have already emailed to explain to her personally why I won’t vote SNP.
Grow some balls folks, TELL THEM WHY THEY’VE LOST YOUR VOTE!
The Herald article in Stuart’s post shows that the Scottish Government’s welfare system should have been in place by now, but it has been delayed until 2024 and probably beyond.
This is only one of a mutlitude of systems that an independent country would need to function and they can’t manage it, even when no other new systems are required at the same time.
Little doubt then, that the SNP will continue to block independence because they do not have the calibre of people needed to establish an independent country.
They do have the calibre of people needed to control the thoughts and deeds of the public for the benefit of themselves and their tiny clique, however.
This really does show how far down the rabbit hole the Murrell’s SNP have fallen. That these utter clowns, attacking Collette Walker in this way, highlights the desperate levels that they will go, in order to smear and make it all about them. The sooner there is a clear out of this lot the better, as this SNP ideology won’t change anytime soon.
If only someone had scanner powers to get into the hierarchy and sort this mess out. I think most of the SNP inner sanctum self ID as astronauts.
I don’t know if NS is an ‘asset’ but there is enough evidence to suggest she’s been captured by the Clinton Foundation and all it implies.
Hence the new SNP s obsession with Democrats and US wokeism.
BClinton friend of Epstein, Andrew Windsor, Hilary connected with BGates.
No coincidence that Chelsea C was praising NS to the skies.
Devi whatsit, advisor to SG over Covid is also involved in this foundation.
NS has her sites set much higher than us, she is using the hopes, desires and dreams of the Scottish people to become a player.
Whether this was always the case or her own personal psychology took her down that direction, who knows
The SNP have morphed into the Labour Party and believe that it’s their right to be in power. Anything or anyone that threatens it is attacked all in the name of independence.
Why are they doing this? I can accept the idea floated around that some in the SNP want to be in a minority gov/in opposition(!) come the summer – it might just have some merit – but even so, to be so publically horrible, presumably just to impress the clique – these people must be brainwashed. They look so nasty. Is that how they enjoy being perceived? It quite upsetting.
“disabled people really are just like everyone else – they can be despicable scumbags too”
Just a thought on Transgender people, accepting that the above applies to them as to most groups of people, on the other side of that coin must be Transgender people who see the harm a small group of abusive and vocal Transgender Activists are doing in their name.
If they do not speak up as Colette Walker did for disabled people, are we to assume all Transgender people agree with the policies now being pushed by the SNP and that being more important than Independence.
Anyone who has dealt with public / housing / neighbourhood vendetta type complaints (such as an experienced MP) will know from experience that Disabled Parking Badges were applied for (and obtained) by all and sundry prior to a substantial tightening up of the vetting process.
If they are prepared to do that to save themselves the effort of walking 100 yards to the shops, anyone in public service who naively thinks they won’t leap at the chance to fraudulently claim bigger prizes, is too stupid to breath.
on the other side of that coin must be Transgender people who see the harm a small group of abusive and vocal Transgender Activists are doing in their name.
Absolutely. There are a large number of genuine transsexuals – ie people with gender dysphoria who transitioned – two are horrified by what’s being done in their name and don’t support self ID for precisely the same reason Colette talks about with disability. They understand GD is a psychological condition, that people should have the chance to talk it through and think about it before transition, and that if someone goes through that then transition (a hellish process) the end point of gaining a GRC and having the legal right to change sex is merited. If a load of men without GD and with no intention of transitioning can have that same right simply on their own say so, it makes life far harder for them.
The abuse those people get from the much larger, louder and often deeply nasty TRAs and “trans allies” is horrific. We even had the barkingly mad case last year of a transsexual person being taken to court by a non-trans one for “transphobia”. (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6764763/Britains-transgender-hate-crime-trial-halted-one-day.html)
@Daisy Walker
Just look at what happened when Covid mask mandates first came into play. Every chancer around was self-IDing as disabled just so they didn’t have to wear a mask in Asda. It was only remedied by verification.
The SNP and supporters of SNP policy have living, breathing, very recent examples of what happens when you let people choose to self-ID in whatever way gives them the best advantage in life. Yet they keep supporting this stupidity anyway.
Tartan Tory SNP attacking a pro Independence Party. What a brilliant wee rats nest of a country we are being turned into. Nicola Sturgeon should resign but then she would lose control of the Fabiani Circus of Morons.
Liz
Her rush to publish the video to appease the woke runaways certainly shows she’s been captured by somebody. Nicola was quick off the mark to show the appropriate level of penitence in case somehow her prospects were damaged.
It’s almost as if there is some shadowy international woke organisation like Spectre in the James Bond movies that is running the show.
Most of the worst politicians have gotten to Holyrood on the List system. It stinks to heaven.
@Daisy Walker
Therein lies the crux of the matter. The SNP have chosen to go down the route of self-ID naively assuming that opting in will only be done by those eligible. Not only that the criteria for eligibility look to be so nebulous and wide-ranging that it makes a nonsense of any system. The whole point being the present system is so demoralising and hard to navigate that people needing benefits and help via mobility aids or specialist equipment lose out.
Whether Self-ID is the initiating presentation for disability or gender or any other characteristic requiring protection for vulnerable individuals there must be gatekeeping and if the SNP cannot see that they are fools. That gatekeeping can be done with respect and preservation of dignity but it has to exist in some form.
Midwits
Listen to Colette ‘Through A Scottish Prism’
https://www.barrheadboy.com/scottish-prism-5th-feb-2021-colette-walker/
There may be less to Mike Small than we realise.
Aye Liz, I believe Nicola speaks very highly of Hillary as well. Big admirer I think.
I used to think Sturgeon modelled herself on Merkel (which would be bad enough) but it is clearly Hillary Clinton who she emulates.
When you think of what she has been doing this last few years, it is very Clinton’esque.
Did Hillary not turn the democratic party into her own personal political fiefdom as well. Screwing over real democrats who would have beat Trump first time around. Totally lacking ethics and morals while in power. A totally bent power couple at the heart of a political party that they co-opt for their own corrupt uses. Hmmmm quite a few parallels when you start looking at it. lol.
Then you have that beaming selfie with Alistair Campbell. It is like Nicola totally lacks any moral compass whatsoever.
I mean the Clintons are also heavily connected into the world of spooks as well. So if their foundation (pay-to-play) is what Nicola has been ‘captured’ by then it all dove-tails very nicely with her working for someone else the whole time.
While it is fun to speculate as to what drove Nicola to do what she has done this last 6/7 years it does not really matter anymore, knowing does not change what still has to be done.
She needs removed from power.
That Hate Bill is a clear statement of intent given the atrocious behaviour of the SNPG and COPFS over the last 4-5 years especially.
The hate bill is an incredibly sinister and dangerous piece of legislation.
But coming from this particular SNP government it should be a huge alarm bell as to what they plan to do with it.
People don’t see that they are slowly putting a noose around their necks and gradually tightening it a little more every day.
It is becoming clearer what the ‘strategy’ of the SNP is for this election:
Present your opponents as Tories, Red, Blue, Yellow, and now Tartan.
Double down on any criticism of SNP policy as ‘illiberal’ lumping your opponents, however mild their criticism, in with Trump supporters and right-wing conspiracy theorists.
Women who support NS are always right – even if they are men who say they are women because women ‘never’ lie.
Women who support AS are always wrong. They are not real women. Women are always kind and are only allowed to be angry if their anger is sanctioned by NS.
If you have been identified by NS supporters as any of the above not only are your words and behaviour wrong, your thinking is also wrong and must be policed.
I have cerebral palsy and dormant epilepsy. Were I resident in Scotland, I would have a simple response to those who criticize Colette Walker (whom I don’t know and have never met):
Colette Walker gives voice to my opinions.
I am incredibly fortunate that my parents taught me from an early age to at least try and solve the hurdles I faced each day. It is a useful skill. By the same token, it sounds like Colette Walker’s son is lucky to have Colette Walker for a mother.
As a young man, I qualified as a football referee. Then I got a flat in Edinburgh and went to get a golf course season ticket. The person who issued me with the ticket insisted that I qualified for a free ticket. Why was that? He pointed out that a disability closes off some employment for you and retards earnings. (True, to a point, but I have never had much difficulty finding work.). He said I would never be able to drive. (Also true, in my case, in the UK and a handful of other countries. That saved me a fortune. I just made sure to live near several bus routes). I pointed out that my referee earnings paid for a season ticket several times over. All to no avail. I walked out with a card that let me play six good golf courses and 65 quid still in my wallet.
Did I need the free season ticket? No. Would I have minded being told I needed a doctor’s note to get one? No. Why should I take up the doctor’s time with a frivolous issue? Football and golf kept me fit and I was happy to use part of my earnings to reduce the cost of walking round Portobello golf course several times a week.
When we encounter someone not like us, our instinct is to “put them in a box.” Instead, what we need to be doing is recognizing people for their abilities, whilst recognizing when they may need help with disabilities. It is not offensive to be tested on the help required. Of course, the testing must be appropriate but it IS necessary on public policy and public finance grounds.
Finally, Twitter doesn’t count as legitimate public debate. The tweets listed above look like a series of hit-and-run offences. It is one thing to run someone over, but at least have the strength of character to stop.
That ‘broad church’ they are so proud of seems a bit narrower and exclusive now.
Daisy Walker –
‘Disabled Parking Badges were applied for (and obtained) by all and sundry prior to a substantial tightening up of the vetting process.’
My disabled mother has a blue badge, and that extra space you get in the disabled spot is vital for getting the wheelchair in and out of the car, not having to deal with kerbs etc.
Every two years we have to re-apply for the badge, and even though it’s a pain in the backside, I’m happy to do it because it means we have a greater chance of getting a disabled bay when out for the day.
There is nothing worse than having to turn round home again because a space wasn’t available.
@Stuart MacKay,
Patrick Harvie,
SNP need the Green MSPs or they lose Holyrood,
Patrick Harvie wants something in return,
and if you have seen the Green manifesto it is mostly all about self id policies,
he also doesn`t want to lose his levers at the next election so he pushes for SNP/SNP which will lose SNP seats but help Green,
and now they see ISP as maybe taking some seats he has pushed for SNP to distance themselves from ISP.
Stu, The National is a very tame pro NS Indy paper but there are no others out there. If you don’t intend to start a new party, stand as an MSP or you still intend to give up after May if NS is still FM and I know you’ve previously replied to me that the costs of setting up a new national Indy paper is just too prohibitive. Then what would it cost to produce a fully updated Wee Blue Book that contains a full explanation on why voters should vote ISP2, why the current SNP leadership need to go and print it and distribute it to every household in Scotland? Is that something we could fund with another crowdfunder?
Pension Pete doubling down on his earlier comments.
https://twitter.com/PeteWishart/status/1361246831326490625
A pretty strange situation right now
Mrs Murrell right now on LBC London Radio being praised to the heavens because of the restrictions imposed on international travelers arriving in Scotland by Air , if the program continues it will morph into, free prescriptions,free this free that,no bedroom tax etc .
Ha Ha well played Mrs Murrell she has instead of meeting the Independence movement head on she just moved around the whole movement that are being awkward about no progress made .
SHE DOSENT NEED YOUR SUPPORT because she is walking on water and you plebs are just a pain in the Arse to the SNP management so get stuffed the lot of you.
Anyone have a alternative opinion ? .
@David 11.40
Its amazing how so many SNP politicians suddenly feel liberated to be their true selves these days. Its obvious that some are now the elect, above all criticism and free of the restraints that used to curb their behaviour. I’ve been shocked at the seemingly total changes of personality that have occured in the last couple of years.
Is there any likelihood of the ISP getting any household names on its list?
If a pro-indy list party had (e.g.) Salmond and Cherry on its list, we might see a really significant shift in 2nd votes.
OT yes but let’s have the wokesters read this:
https://archive.is/T85dx
Oh no! jeremy clarkson! i don’t like him so he must be wrong! #twatsonstilts
just look as the FACTS. yes ok no references but if you want to diss what he says you have to do the research.
what’s the matter wiv politics these days is that it’s all ad hominem attacks, no-one cares about what’s really happening.
Uch you people are just no gettin the message –
WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY & IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
Now that is all ye know and aw ye’s need to know…
Meanwhile ‘equality’ in Australia means reading books to pre-school nursery kids titled;
‘Pink is for Boys’ and ‘Julian is a Mermaid’
Road to hell is, for sure, paved with acts of kindness.
Self ID – on any subject – is the road to destruction, chaos and misery.
It’s a mental illness at best. A destroyer of societies at worst.
Mac @ 11.18 (as well as earlier) is absolutely correct:
“She needs removed from power.
“That Hate Bill is a clear statement of intent given the atrocious behaviour of the SNPG and COPFS over the last 4-5 years especially.
“The hate bill is an incredibly sinister and dangerous piece of legislation.
“But coming from this particular SNP government it should be a huge alarm bell as to what they plan to do with it.
“People don’t see that they are slowly putting a noose around their necks and gradually tightening it a little more every day.”
Nicola Sturgeon is a person who is not fit for public office. She ought to be excluded from it for life. And that goes for her gang of sycophants as well.
tartanfever says:
15 February, 2021 at 11:27 am
Daisy Walker –
‘Disabled Parking Badges were applied for (and obtained) by all and sundry prior to a substantial tightening up of the vetting process.’
My disabled mother has a blue badge, and that extra space you get in the disabled spot is vital for getting the wheelchair in and out of the car, not having to deal with kerbs etc.
Every two years we have to re-apply for the badge, and even though it’s a pain in the backside, I’m happy to do it because it means we have a greater chance of getting a disabled bay when out for the day.
There is nothing worse than having to turn round home again because a space wasn’t available.’
Hello Tartanfever – I am totally in favour of the parking badges, and I’m sorry if the way I worded the above caused offence. The point I was trying to make, is they became so easy to obtain, and some people were abusing them, that more stringent vetting came into being in order to qualify for obtaining them.
My Dad now has one as he is no longer so able to walk any distance and has bad arthritis.
People from all walks of life, can and will knock the arse out of something if there are no controls over distribution, its just a fact of life.
Scotland has Swiftly become Lilliput under Queen Sturgeon and her fawning courtiers, enforcing their irrational rules and beliefs.
Stuart, what’s the chances of you publishing a list of Scottish Independence Candidates, party and the region they are representing, other than SNP candidates, for the forthcoming Scottish parliament elections. Independence voters can possibly co-ordinate themselves so to have viable MP’s for independence in parliament.
ISTR a time when Disabled Parking Badges were stolen and used fraudulently. The nature of the badges may have changed to prevent this.
It tells you something about some of those who would abuse the system.
Daisy Walker:
‘I am totally in favour of the parking badges, and I’m sorry if the way I worded the above caused offence.’
Communication mix up ! I was agreeing with you !
Like you, parents suffering from arthritis and other illnesses (the arthritis can be particularly cruel). Yeah, totally in favour of the vetting and application of blue badges.
Best to you and yours.
Sturgeon on TV now (‘Coronavirus Briefing’), weaponising the virus to keep herself in power.
There is no way she will the public to meet in numbers before the Holyrood Election. Word would spread far and wide about her Govts criminal corruption. She wants us isolated.
-Mac, Liz-
Oh aye, she’s certainly very much like Hillary Clinton.
Let’s just remember what happened to her…
Well I’m voting for anyone in May. Indy will need to wait. I’m not prepared to condone this bunch of creeps lording over me.
I’ll decide on list vote on the day if there’s a candidate in my area worth voting for.
SNP; dividing society into little packets since fuck knows when.
—–.—-
Liz says:
15 February, 2021 at 10:26 am
Quote:-
“I don’t know if NS is an ‘asset’ but there is enough evidence to suggest she’s been captured by the Clinton Foundation and all it implies.
Hence the new SNPs obsession with Democrats and US wokeism.
BClinton friend of Epstein, Andrew Windsor, Hilary connected with BGates.
No coincidence that Chelsea C was praising NS to the skies.
Devi whatsit, advisor to SG over Covid is also involved in this foundation.
NS has her sites set much higher than us, she is using the hopes, desires and dreams of the Scottish people to become a player.
Whether this was always the case or her own personal psychology took her down that direction, who knows..”
Now that is an interesting angle, if a particularly disturbing one, for all Scots.
Despite being super fit and active, in my late 40s, I spent over 3 years drooling from a wheelchair, profoundly disabled due to multiple bacteriological & parasitic infections which attacked my central nervous system. I wasn’t expected to live. And for the first time in my life, I sought disability benefits.
Thanks to a miracle doctor in Washington DC, my life was saved and I have returned to “normal” in as much as I am able to function perfectly well all by myself & no longer need state support.
Was I assessed? Of course. And rightfully so because I was witness to others who gave all the appearance of attempting to game the system.
But it’s not the system of gate-keeping that was then or indeed now, the problem. It is the economics of running the system that gave cause for real concern – giving private companies a financial incentive for NOT approving benefits.
To me, that is the wrong way to operate a system designed to help the most needy. We can also argue about high the bar is set in order for someone to meet the criteria to receive a benefit or support.
But what we surely cannot argue for, is permitting everyone and anyone suffering nothing more than difficulty with spelling, a free pass to claim whatever they think because they somehow feel disadvantaged.
Life itself is unfair and almost all of us are disadvantaged in some way. Short of being born into a wealthy family with powerful contacts, almost all of us have to get through life using nothing more than hard work and merit.
A free pass is for the very few & even that is still too many.
We must not open the floodgates to allow snowflakes triggered by nothing more disturbing than a pictogram of a man outside a gents toilet, to abuse the system and undermine the value of the process that is designed to support those in genuine need of support.
Scot Finlayson
re: Patrick Harvie
The great thing about shadowy figures in the background (Spectre, MI5, Arcus Foundation) is that it’s a lot more fun than the simple reality that the Ernst Stavro Blofeld that Sturgeon cringes before is none other than Patrick Harvie.
Glad I don’t live in the Highlands with that mad bunch of self serving candidates. Emma Roddick now claiming to be disabled? I did not know that covering up for her paedo pal who was sending dick pics to kids was a disability?
Re the mention of Hilary Clinton further up this Thread.
I remember when in 2014 [IndyRef1 year] she was being interviewed, a few days before our Referendum on the BBC One Show at 7pm week-days.
The two hosts —the man and the woman, asked her if Scotland should vote Yes, and she brusquely said “NO. BetterTogether” with a smile on her face.
Both BBC hosts beamed like Cheshire cats.
I was shocked that blatant politics could ‘sneak’ into what is basically a BBC Chat Show, or was it a ‘planted’ question?
No right of reply was on offer from the two hosts.
O/T Joanna Cherry has just posted on Twitter “I’ve spent the morning arranging enhanced security at my home & reporting another incident of concern to police. Unfounded allegations & calls to arms on twitter have consequences & I hope politicians from all parties will bear this in mind”.
https://twitter.com/joannaccherry/status/1361296123575599104
“Play the ball not the man here please.”
Zounds, the irony. Until such times as he mans up and apologises to Colette for those disgraceful smears and lies, he’s a cunt and he can go and fuck himself with whatever specialised equipment might be required for the purpose.
THE ULTIMATE VILE BLOGGER FROM BATH declares our very own shadow leader of the House of Commons – Peter Wishart.
And who could he be talking about. Bath is a big place. Maybe it’s our you know who. Certainly tells you that Cosy Toes is taking a certain interest in a certain blog from a certain blogger. Seems like the Bath Blogger has become an essential read for our man and his chums.
Busy boy must therefore be our Cosy Toes. Would love to see his face as he reads the Bath Bloggers blog. Turn on, tune in, and freak out Cosy – you’ve been found out.
Sylvia,
Thanks for the link. Nice to see CornesLawNZUK come out and say essentially the death threats will stop when you support trans rights – lovely.
https://twitter.com/PencilInnCt
OOPS
Meant to say NOT VOTING in MAY above.
Pretty despicable from Wishart and Co, attacking and twisting a blind woman’s post on disability benefits, what kind of sick human beings would stoop that low to aid their own party politics.
If anyone still has doubts that people won’t exploit Self ID they need look no further than the current SNP grubbers looking for a way into Holyrood.
avocado devil
Thanks for the link. Clarkson loves to stick his nose in where it’s least wanted but the info on the West Africa Squadron was interesting.
There’s more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Africa_Squadron From there page linked to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Black_Joke_(1827) reports the captain as one William Turner not Henry Downes.
Disabled people do have to jump through hoops sometimes to get any help, and the Tories have certainly made life harder for disabled people, but taking away any gate to anything, and making it entirely self-ID is madness. Why do these people have to make everything so extreme? They seem to be incapable of thinking rationally in any situation
It stands to reason that you cannot just self-ID on everything. We desperately need to get away from this insanity that has captured our society, and not just the SNP, or we will end up with people demanding to self-ID as surgeons or builders because they have a feeling in their deluded bonce that they were meant to be surgeons and builders even though they are utterly handless and have no co-ordination.
It is a recipe for the crumbling of society as we know it, and when that happens, you can be sure as sure that some evil-intended bar steward is out there just waiting or the opportunity to make hay.
Pension Pete has stooped to a whole new level. He is probably now the biggest moron in the SNP but he knows how to look after his tax payers pot of gold.
This cabal of entitled desperate slimy snakes that have taken over are far worse than anything you can throw at Westminster. They are so fixed in their bubble of entitlement they no longer see any criticism as they slime their way into positions. It’s a bit of a shame as I think the majority of members of the party would like to eject them but as we know they are untouchable and worked out how to use the system!
Won’t see this on any snp platforms.
https://www.facebook.com/12503116997/posts/10158576870386998/
These words written by Stephen Noon who worked for Alex Salmond makes one realise the
I worked for 20 years for the Scottish National Party and was very fortunate to be able to work for the leader of the party as we grew from being on the political fringes to being a majority Scottish government. I was involved in policy development and strategic communications, working for the party at Westminster, Holyrood and in the Scottish Government. It was in so many ways a dream job and I loved the sense of hope and optimism that had become central to the way we tried, as a party, to engage with people and with the world.
But, despite all this, there was still something missing.
Poor Mr Salmond must be as confused as his friends as to why the women have gone so against him – when at the time – it is clear – there was a great working relationship.
John Ross, can you elaborate on your post at 12.58. It sounds intriguing? Might be a useful thing to know given our current crop of list contenders.
Many may now have received from SNP HQ Mi-voice voting papers asking them to rank candidates.
But how much do ordinary members know about what they are voting for.
Do they for example know which candidates self certified as Bame or Disabled. Not all disabilities are visible and of course disability varies widely in type or severity.
And does the wider membership know how the party system is going to rank candidates after the members have voted to rank them. Does the party system fish out the Bame or Disabled and then rank them again to select one to go to the top of the ballot paper.
Or what if there is only one Bame or Disabled candidate who gets only a few member votes compared to let us say a much more popular candidate who maybe got a few thousand votes. A simple stark example maybe. But how does it all work. Who goes to the top of the ballot. And could there be abuse.
Of course the practical corollary that flows from this is that an unpopular self certify candidate unreflective of members choice might very well similarly reflect wider voter unpopularity. And then of course there may, if not almost certainly be legal challenge. Well party lawyers think that.
Anyway the question being put is do ordinary members understand the system. I’ll bet for the most part they don’t. And to use as an example, could members be selecting a Number 1 candidate whose policies are to use the women’s toilet every time he can and or piss off Wings readers.
Of course voting SNP with your second vote is a wasted vote. The last election where 953,000 SNP got four seats and 956,000 votes got forty five Unionist seats tells you that.
So in truth who really cares about the SNPs list candidate selection process. Second vote SNP makes no sense. No sense whatsoever! In fact same could well be said about many of the others too.
If you can ‘self identify’ as disabled, why not as BAME?