Surrender when you’re winning
Let’s start with what we know.
The SNP tell us that independence support is currently at 53%.
They tell us that most Scots want a referendum within the next year:
And we know that it’s absolutely unequivocally possible for the SNP and Greens to trigger a Holyrood election which would serve as a de facto referendum not only within a year, but within weeks. Scots could entirely realistically go to the polls this August or September, or even on the date Nicola Sturgeon promised less than a year ago.
So why are the SNP choosing this of all moments to give up?
Last night the party put forward as its representative on BBC Scotland’s Debate Night programme Ben Macpherson – an MSP who has already said that independence is not achievable in the short or medium term, perhaps not for “decades”, and that the SNP should “go down a gear” in its pursuit of its core aim.
Macpherson made those comments months ago, his views are well known, so his selection as the SNP’s voice on the panel is a clear endorsement from the leadership. Everything he said was effectively coming straight from Humza Yousaf. So let’s break it down line-by-line and translate it:
“The challenge, actually, in this next chapter of devolution – so we’ve had about 25 years, we’re going into the next one – is how we move beyond the polarisation that has been perpetuated by different perspectives in our politics.”
That might sound like empty waffling politician boilerplate, but if you listen it’s actually really important. Firstly he implies that he’s talking about another 25 years of devolution (entirely in keeping with his comments from March). Secondly he wants to “move beyond polarisation” and clearly there’s nothing more polarising than a vote on independence, which has only two sides.
“And actually think about where’s the common ground? Where’s the common ground on the constitution where we can move forward?”
There’s only one place where there’s political common ground on the constitution in Scotland – devolution.
“How do political parties work better together?”
“Better together”? That’s a familiar-sounding phrase. Can’t quite place it.
“I also think, sir, with all due respect, the way you characterised your question – focusing on the negative, not acknowledging the fact that we have many benefits here in Scotland that have been delivered by devolution – is part of our collective problem.”
Jeez mate, you love devolution, we get it.
“Rather than criticising each other, let’s be constructive. Rather than being tribal, let’s work together on how we move forward.”
Does this bleating milksop know how politics works? Tribalism is its entire foundation. The parties who aren’t in power are called “the opposition”, not “the co-operators”. Their entire objective is to kick the party in power out and take its place.
It could not possibly be any clearer that Ben Macpherson is a devolutionist. He doesn’t want independence, he just wants “MORE independence”, ie devolution.
He doesn’t want to break up the UK, he wants it to be “a different kind of united”, a “united federation”, not with actual autonomy for Scotland but just a “sense of” it.
In short, readers, he’s Gordon Brown.
As such Macpherson belongs in the Labour Party, and his comments could be seen as softening up SNP supporters for the idea of a pact with Scottish Labour in the next administration, since current polls suggest that while the SNP will still be narrowly the largest party, even with the support of the Greens on what looks like a wildly over-optimistic 17 seats they’ll be short of a majority.
Labour would of course demand as a condition that the SNP abandon all pursuit of indy. But it’s an all too plausible idea, and it explains why the party is so desperate to keep kicking its independence strategy down the road for months and years at a time, so they can limp to 2024/6 and then say “Oh well, indy majority gone, we have simply no choice but to do a deal with Labour for a wee bit more devolution”.
Even some of the diehard carrot-munchers in the party membership are starting to smell what’s going on, and they don’t like it. And for The National to be quoting SNP sources in such strong terms really is a big red flag, if you’ll forgive the term.
We mean to say, dear God in heaven and all the little angels, even Pete Wishart and the Aberdeen Independence Movement now back the Wings strategy.
A few weeks ago Michael Gove – of all people – predicted that the SNP was about to effectively rebrand itself as a devo-max party.
There are no reasonable grounds on which to dispute that analysis. Ben Macpherson all but spelled it out in neon lights last night.
And having blown their big moment by electing the useless Humza Yousaf in March, SNP members are now on their last last chance to save the one-time party of independence. If they back the capitulation policy in Dundee later this month, the SNP will become just a third cheek of the Unionist arse. Let’s hope they wake up in time.
All the F@ckwits like Macpherson in the SNP aren’t even Free Staters.
They are simply British Unionists who want to hold, and enjoy the trappings of, power forever. At our expense.
We know they are Fraudsters. And now they are bold enough now to tell you that they are fraudsters.
I’ve often thought that Toony Benn’s “Commonwealth of Britain” was the best idea. It would have satisfied the Unionists, while providing a good off-ramp for any part of the British Islands which wanted it’s full independence, just like we managed to achieve with most of the old Commonwealth countries.
“This next chapter of devolution.”
Why even bother saying anything else? What a smug, smarmy, arrogant, ignorant cunt.
I will have to grit my teeth to put my X in the box for this bunch of chancers.
Tragic. Unbelievable that the wonderful positive revolutionary movement of 2014 has been tricked into the position where nonentities like MacPherson can talk of devolution being the aim, and 25 years the timescale for anything more to be achieved.
How are these SNP and Green allowed to busk along as if everything is fine and dandy with them “in charge”?
Meanwhile females and children are exposed to these same people pushing paedophilia and fetishes of all kinds on to the populace. What a swamp our society has become, aided and abetted by police, judges, prison service, Councils.
Sorry, can’t even laugh at it any more.
Stuart wrote: “If they back the capitulation policy in Dundee later this month, the SNP will become just a third cheek of the Unionist arse.”
That’s an impossibility because they are already the haemorrhoids between the cheeks of the Unionist arse. Caused by pushing all that shite too hard.
The last sentence of Rev Stu’s article is wrong. The SNP is already another cheek of the Unionist arse.
Almost all of the party’s self-serving MSPs and MPs are more interested in protecting their personal gravy trains than achieving indepedence. Fuck ’em.
Calling McPherson a devolutionist is being too kind to him. I would not hesitate in calling him a unionist.
There’s a lot of them in the SNP now. It is not now, and hasn’t been for years, a party of independence.
When the SNP membership voted in Yousaf with the help of Murrell and GCHQ that said it all really, in my opinion the SNP became a party for devolution when you exposed Sturgeon in your Betrayer thread, from there on in the SNP on the indy front went downhill rapidly.
We’re left with the Alba party we must give our votes to them.
vote Alba, Join Alba do it for Scotland.
I know we shouldn’t criticise appearance but nuSNP is awash with bald, bearded, woke clones.
Is there a factory churning them out.
We need to get these fuckers gone.
I know Alex S has sent out another unity plea, maybe to expose these troughers or because he is genuinally heartbroken at the turn the SNP has taken.
They’re a dead weight round the necks of the indy movement.
I will vote only Alba or ISP at the next elections.
The SNP do not think Independence is achievable, or indeed desirable. Clearly they wish to retain the safety net provided by being part of the UK and are playing the stalling game to ensure that remains.
What are the prerequisite conditions for the SNP to leave the UK? Whatever they are they will never be met. People have literally given up their lives for Independence.
The SNP can’t give up suckling at the teat of Westminster which laughably gives us nothing more than doling out to us our own money in any event.
Cowards every one of them.
The SNP, having realised that they are losing a lot of their own supporters, have turned their attention to the ‘No’ voters and are saying “trust us, the Union is safe in our hands”.
Their duplicity knows no bounds. They will do anything to hang on to power. And too many people will go along with it.
The ‘Run with the hare and hunt with the hounds’ Party.
I wonder what the progressives in the SNP who didn’t want independence but instead wanted to carve out their socialist niche in Scotland are starting to think. With a “closer relationship” between the SNP and a Labour Party that is sliding to the right that would all seem to be in jeopardy.
It’s the same story with the Europhiles. Unless Sunak and then Starmer are intent on the long game of getting the UK back into the EU then all those that pinned their hopes on an independent Scotland getting readmitted are going to come up empty handed.
So the unionist, neoliberals are in charge of the SNP and are doing their best to reintegrate Scotland into a future lead by Johnson or Truss.
There’s still a large faction of the Tory Party who believe in the Singapore on Thames model for the UK. All those incompetents who think that Better Together is the easy path to a life overflowing with gravy had better think again, lest they be first on the chopping block.
Maybe Michael ‘arsehole’ Gove is actually in charge of the SNP, behind the scenes and via handlers obviously?
Everything he said was effectively coming straight from Humza Yousaf.
Humza is not a nationalist and has already told ‘white people’ he doesn’t like them.
What does he have to do to get the message across, spit on Greyfriars Bobby?
Maybe We should open a Scottish parliament.
Instead of the the devo max federal Westminster legislated one under the Scotland Act Colony one.
Does anyone know for sure whether or not the SNP does analysis with typical voters to assess reaction to this type of thing before saying about it publicly.
You know, ‘market research’? I got asked to do it once, was invited into the McLellan Galleries, got asked about 30 questions about a new design of container for Jaaps Health Salts, then got a free Mars bar.
Reason I ask is that I don’t believe the SNP are even bothering with that type of thing (if they ever did) for two reasons, the first being that it costs dosh they don’t have and secondly, they really don’t fuckin care.
They’re just making it up as they go along and they’re getting away with it because we let them.
Sarah, upthread, nails it:
Does anyone remember being stopped in the street and asked questions about all that stuff either? Or promises in the manifesto promising ‘a guy wearing his old dear’s kit, for every library and school‘?
So what is the SNP actually for? They have acted as colonial administrators since Sturgeon took charge. They aren’t particularly effective at running the services that are already devolved. Why on earth would anyone give them any more to control?
Of course, Kevin Pringle wrote a column recently in the Courier saying that the SNP should ally itself with Labour.
Interesting that they do this as Keir Starmer’s popularity is plummeting in Scotland and independence is at 53%. They’ll do anything rather than back a route to independence.
To think we were laughing at George Robertson in 2014 for saying that Devolution would kill off Independence. We just didn’t realise that the SNP would be instrument of its destruction.
They sound desperate.
Btw if MacPherson would put on some lippie and steal some ladies’ luggage he could pass for Sam Brinton.
Attacked by the unionist’s,ignored by the sturgeonite’s and now
laughed at by Nu snp!
Are the clinger’s on really gonna let these waster’s steal thier
independence votes again?
In my opinion Scotland is absolutely ready to vote for independence
(and i think most people know it)…this version of the snp certainly does as well!
But this version of the snp is doing all it can to stop us…Who and
what are they?…whatever they are they need sent packing…PRONTO!
Too many still have the blinker’s on!…we are being conned!
It’s as plain as the nose on cyrano de bergerac,s face.
So time to admit, scratching your head while still backing Sturgeon
was a mistake…a huge one,and we were all guilty of it at some point…even her old boss!…but…
To error is human nature. To admit and correct errors creates human
dignity!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsr9HCOgQe0
NOW LET’s FORGET 2014 AND START AGAIN…this time from over 50%,hehe
That bloke’s my MSP. I haven’t a clue what he’s done since being elected, other than junior ministerial jobs and a couple of unconvincing, anxiety-ridden appearances on Debate Night. I think he’s less use than a chocolate fireguard.
The SNP is playing a dangerous game and its one they will not win. Devolution entirely belongs to the Unionist the SNP might have benefited from devolution as a political party in the short term in the past. As the electorate more and more considers Independence is the only option they aren’t stupid and will seek seek to look elsewhere.
If like me you have watched QT and last night Debate night the general public is turning away from the SNP as the party to deliver Independence and if the SNP can’t govern well then why would anyone want them to continue governing with devolution.
Even Pat Kane was having a go even though you could see he was holding back what he really thought. On QT the SNP bloke was saying that the SNP owned Indy and the woman from the audience ripped into him explaining that the SNP is going to end up a dead flush, the written is on the wall for the SNP but it isn’t to late if they listen but listen is something they will never do, if anything in last 9yrs has told us its the SNP is incapable of listening.
The next Westminster election will be one event I wouldn’t suggest anyone miss, because when seat after seat starts fall its the likes of KB, HY, MR, who’ll they’ll blame along with really bad governance of Nicola Sturgeon.
At the next Westminster election for the SNP to stand on a ticket of devolution while all other Indy parties are standing on Independence the SNP will be hammered by Labour, Alba and ISP they will have no one else to blame.
Tartan Tories (SNP) Magenta Tories (Labour) Cabbage Greens and that which Bevan once noted is “lower than Vermin” …
“And for The National to be quoting SNP sources in such strong terms really is a big red flag, if you’ll forgive the term.”
If only… the Red Flag was torn up for floorcloths a long time ago. Certainly; the SNP long-abandoned social justice as any kind of genuine objective long before they got power. It’s hardly surprising that independence has also become something inconvenient to their real purpose… Which is, like all the other parties to keep the noses of an elite few firmly in the public trough.
Disaffecting and alienating voters is a ‘good’ strategy for such types. The childish cross-party sniping and posing; virtue-signalling and self-aggrandising… these thing repulse most ordinary people.
…The ‘designed to fail’ projects and policies such as the DRS exist only to create conflict and (as a side process) line a few cronies’ pockets.
It’s all nothing more than circus… performative politics… no panem though; except for the chosen few and a few crumbs for those that pay homage to the self-appointed tin gods…
OF COURSE THE SNP HAVE ABANDONED AND BETRAYED THE CAUSE OF ACHIEVING INDEPENDENCE just as the pitiful shadow that once was the Labour Party has abandoned Socialism and social justice. And indeed just as what once was the Ecology party has morphed into something very queer (in the sense of being just peculiar and dysfunctional) with no real concern for the environment… ‘the sky is falling’ they say; and they are the sole manufacturers and distributors of pit props.
What did y’all expect them to do?
Politics generally; it isn’t just a load of old bollocks – it’s HYPERBOLLOCKS. Democracy (in any meaningful sense) left for the coast a couple of generations ago.
VOTE BLANC! – None of these people deserve the steam off your piss let alone your vote!
I know this has been said many times by many people, it always comes down to money and resources, the first day that Scotland will cost England/Westminster more than it costs to keep, we will be jettisoned. I know there is more nuance to this, but is still basically the same.
Keep your heads, play them at there own game, it doesn’t matter which big party you vote for anymore, they are ALL the same, don’t be beholden and use this to vote ta tactically I’m your area, cripple the ba$%@&*s.
Good hunting.
Plenty of people wanting charge ahead for Indy. And none of them with a plan for what that would mean.
Trade? Write off the EU and EFTA for trade deals unless there’s a S30 referendum. And write off rUK unless Scotland does it with a S30 referendum, and takes on a proportionate share of U.K. national debt.
Currency?
Central bank? Write off the Scottish financial sector without one of those, and that’s 8% of Scottish GDP you won’t see again.
Credit rating? Watch your mortgages go to eye-watering levels without a currency, central bank, and a reputation for walking away from your debts.
About 55,000 UK public sector jobs disappearing without trace.
International recognition? Write that off as well from all serious countries, unless there’s a S30 referendum. You might get Yemen, South Sudan and North Korea onside. But that’s about it.
It’s going to take about 25 years to come up with a serious plan.
Perhaps the SNP have it right?
Why would anyone vote for SNP candidates in an upcoming election for independence, and then put them into power in Holyrood?
Just like last time around “hold your nose and vote for Kranky”,it doesn’t work.
You have to bring in competent candidates who can run departments understand what they need to do, and get things done well.
If you just want a 4th world education system, NHS, transport network, sinking ferries, stifled ambitions, an obsession with gernder, fetid Law and 100 other crappy SNP notions, then vote the sem guys in again -but don’t expect independence in any true form.
Scot abroad/sensible Dave
Go and fing a unionist site where you can shine
Someone should start a petition on Jamie Hepburn being made a minister is costing the tax payers money, when the SNP isn’t seeking Independence other than devolution.
I expect a considerable number of establishment types ensconced themselves in the party at the beginning of the Murrell dynasty. No doubt they’ll all communicate across party boundaries – hence Gove’s prediction. I’d say there is very little chance of the SNP standing under a YES banner at the GE. The once in a generation myth may well come to pass 🙁
3.02pm…www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfelvI_ikf4
no deal!
AnneDon says: 8 June, 2023 at 2:01 pm
“So what is the SNP actually for? They have acted as colonial administrators since Sturgeon took charge.”
And for long before that… Who was it presided over the long-planned decimation of the Scottish FE sector? Made a revenant shadow of what it once was after more than a decade of firefighting.
Who crawled like a bubble-headed schoolgirl up Trump’s arse to the detriment of Aberdeenshire?
Who presided over that infantilised lunatic Stephen ‘Supercop’ House (well-connected Private-schoolboy) becoming Chief Constable of Strathclyde then Police Scotland?
I can remember sitting in the pub with my old Head Of Department at the MCI Department of Stow College in the June of 2007, as we broke up for the summer… How hopeful we were that all the years of trauma we’d experienced since the turn of the century were over; and the we could look forward to getting on with building a world-beating Creative Industries department…
“Social justice Matt, that what I want and that’s why I voted SNP” spake my esteemed colleague – I nodded in firm agreement, as I had too for the same reason.
The next five years saw the department descend into a toxic hell – destroying people’s lives, livelihoods and even their sanity as the political wrecking ball swung; turning colleague against colleague. I resigned in 2012; it was literally killing me… by 2013 the entire college was gone!
I think you actually answer your initial question yourself. – Colonial Administrators… The Holyrood Raj!
I’ll go and find somewhere else when the WoS commenters are looking for a serious plan for post-Indy Scotland, rather than half of them moaning about ancient guff, and the other half wanting to run like lemmings over the cliff edge of economic reality.
ASA @ 15.02
25 years to achieve workable solutions ? Surely you jest.
In the space of some 7 years a certain Mr Salmond ran, initially, a minority government, balanced the books, achieved competent governance and built up support for independence from around 8% to around 48%.
Dare I suggest that had we a competent devolved administration, more interested in building an equitable and fair society than in political posturing and nest feathering,
along the lines of the executive run by Mr S we would by now have achievable goals to address the issues you raise.
Even more importantly, such a demonstrably non extremist and competent administration would have every chance of influencing the “soft no” vote who would require to be convinced to vote yes in a future referendum or plebiscite election.
Here in Scotland we do not lack resources, talent or ability; what we have lacked for the past 9 years has been an administration willing to forsake headline grabbing, grievance making and self aggrandisement and profit.
Bring back the type of local councillor and trades union steward we had when I left school in 1960, men and women to whom public service and the betterment of their fellow citizens were more than soundbites and just see what could be achieved.
3.02pm,straight in there lol,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfelvI_ikf4
For those wondering where ‘The Sturge’ has been hovering, they gave her some crayons to write a piece (of what you may well ask) in the ‘Glasgow Times’ the other day. I thought it worth addressing…
https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/23571282.nicola-sturgeon-wants-gorbals-starbucks-plans-axed/
“In fact, a clear pattern has now emerged in Scottish politics. ”
Yes it has Nicola… One where the entire political landscape is dominated by self-serving, self-aggrandising and deeply dishonest people. People who more often than not lack real-life experience or useful education. Instead they are products of a ‘closed loop’ – an elite. Quite often from private schools… assured places on ‘degree’ course in ‘nothing in particular’ then parachuted directly into equally-assured ‘career politics’.
For the record – I happen to be a dyed-in-the-wool ‘small n’ Scottish Nationalist. – One who ‘can’t understand why we let someone else rule out land, cap in hand’. – And one who is sickened by what the SNP has become; just another Unionist party… Tartan Tories in sheep’s clothing. Who do you vote for when you cannot get a fag-paper between them, the Magenta Tories (Labour) and those who Bevan once described as ‘lower than vermin’ .
Democracy is a myth… and it’s people like you Nicola, and your cronies that have made it so; you don’t reflect the will of the people – you attempt to dictate what it is.
“We are increasingly seeing policies deigned to tackle serious issues – in this case air pollution and climate change”.
No… we are increasingly seeing policies designed to ‘turn the screw’ on the working classes in the interests of a Rentier elite. Part of the ‘pattern’ in Scottish (and UK) politics being the Siphonapteric relationship between our politicians (of all shades and grades). – You and the party you run is and has been very much a part of that. – In fact recent events surrounding your party indicate that it has become bereft of basic integrity at any level. – The rats currently deserting the sinking ship would do well to at least be honest about why the are going.
Big Margo must be turning in her grave!
“It has happened with the proposed Deposit Return Scheme”
… A scheme that is designed to undermine the council-run (publicly owned) recycling schemes that have already been implemented; and divert what money can be made from waste into the pockets of (a select few) big private concerns. A scheme that would require an increase in the transport of waste by motor vehicle; and the abdication of responsibility for that transport – foisting it upon the already hard-pressed ordinary public. A scheme that can only drive food inflation, at a time where, in living memory, people have never struggled to much to put sustenance on the table.
It’s simply dishonest to compare these proposals with what happens in Germany or elsewhere… or what used to happen with ‘Ginger bottles’ or Milk. Because ALL these proposals do is further-privatise the potentially profitable bit of waste collection. – If you were serious Nicola, you’d be investing in more jobs for Waste Collection and Recycling operatives on the public coin. – Putting SERIOUS recycling initiative in place that repurpose these materials locally.
– But no… that doesn’t benefit the cronies, does it?
“and now on the Low Emission Zone too.”
… ‘Social Cleansing’ Zones which further pressure and exploit those who don’t happen to be high earners. You’re banning Euro 5 diesel vehicles many of which are so ‘low emission’ in nature that they are exempt from road tax. – These aren’t ‘old cars’ or ‘most polluting’. Of course as ‘social engineering’ policies go, this well-suits the ends of the Spivs and Speculators of the Rentier set so beloved of (and often forming) our political overlord-class (of all grades and shades!) … their cronies, and their self-serving interests.
The aim of the ‘LEZ as implemented in Scotland is to encourage people to SCRAP vehicles that not only meet very high emissions standards, but are not even a fraction of the way through their natural lifecycle. – The wider environmental implications of that are horrendous. And who else benefits?
In its ultimate form all this nonsense has nothing to do with protecting the environment. – It’s about large mining corporations seeking to replace the finite fossil fuel resource (and the lucrative feeding frenzy they’ve enjoyed for generations) with another; that of exploiting rare earths and metals… This, together with keeping consumers tied to the debt cycle (big finance corporations) through the constant replacement of goods with relatively short service lives.
The more often you have to replace your car; the better it suits them! God-forbid somebody should produce something actually sustainable and serviceable that could be kept on the road for 30 or more years; upgraded along the way. It’s entirely possible; just not in the Rentier’s interests. – Likewise look at the resistance to alternative (sustainable) fuels etc.
The strategy adopted by the Scottish Government is to price the working poor out of personal transport and/or bind them to the debt-cycle. – Such schemes are FAR more profitable for the Rentier classes and their cronies than investing in proper traffic management… re-routing, satellite parking etc. which would operate in the longer term; and allowing cars to ‘become cleaner’ through the more organic process of mandating for improvement in the manufacture of cars and allowing older vehicles to simply ‘pass away’; as they inevitably do.
“Early evidence also suggests that it will be effective – on the first day of the LEZ coming into force last week, it is reported that levels of nitrogen dioxide in Hope Street fell by a third. ”
It was reported Nicola yes… but it turned out to be a croc based on misreported statistics and has been debunked. The Herald claim that NO2 in g/m3 was (at 09:00hrs on each day) 64.8 for May 30th… 61.7 for the 31st… 45.13 for the 1st of June and 45.9 for the 2nd.
In fact DEFRA’s chart tells us that the figures were 66.34 for the 30th, 63.41 for the 31st, 46.28 for the 1st and 41.11 for the second. – So the figures don’t tally – But surely the general trend is still proven? No… More telling are the peak figures over the day.
On the 30th of May the peak was 70.05 at 07:00am
On the 31st it was that 63.41 at 09:00am
On the 1st of June, when the LEZ was introduced it was 72.48! – just an hour after the ‘headline’ 9:00am figure
On the 2nd of June peak NO2 was 101.28 at 19:00hrs… the morning peak having been 58.71 at 08:00
And so it goes on… 72.86 on the 3rd, 42.84 on SUNDAY morning (the 4th) 61.58 on Monday the 5th…
WELL in excess of 99% of all real-world businesses in the UK are actually sole traders and/or microbusinesses… most suffered badly during the COVID crisis many with little or no meaningful support. – Many people were shut down for three years without a blind penny in cash nor kind! Those people are on no politico’s radar. – Nor really are the ordinary workers and consumers this will drive away. – Just remember Weegies; Glasgow no longer belongs to you!
My company has a very simple response to the LEZ and similar schemes: We will not be taking any vehicle of any kind into any kind of congestion charging or low emissions zone whether the vehicle is ‘compliant’ or ‘exempt’ or we can ‘pay a fee’ to enter or not. They can shove their no-go zones up their flying Aspidistras! As these places clearly don’t want vehicular traffic, we’ll happily help them meet that objective!
This effectively means of course that we won’t be doing business at all within the Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee or Aberdeen LEZs. – To be fair, we actually withdrew service from Glasgow city-centre last October; having finally become sick and tired of the ‘Hazzard County’ style traffic management schemes… given the experience of which, we’re not coming within a country mile of the LEZ boundaries because we really don’t trust the City of Glasgow to signpost them properly.
And yes; we do believe ‘entrapment’ is something GCC would do in order to raise revenue and that this is about revenue raising; regardless of the denials.
In fact; by way of example take the old Stow College building which itself is actually outside the LEZ. The very short section of West Graham St behind it, Scott Street and Shamrock Street are however inside the ‘no-go’ zone! – Meaning it’s physically impossible to access this building (which is outside the LEZ remember) without entering the LEZ – and potentially getting fined!
That one leapt out at me as I know the place particularly well; but if there’s one example of this sort of thing there will be others.
Another place affected by this carelessly drawn boundary is the PDSA… where the clientele tend to be less-well heeled and if they own a vehicle at all, more likely to be driving something older; distraught impoverished pet-owners being used as cash cows sums up the GCC mentality. – Chinatown no-more too! – The once-lively industrial estate around Kyle St; another place that is being figuratively razed by a policy that is about nothing about stats-fiddling and revenue raising.
Rote management… C Northcote Parkinson outlined it back in the ’50s; and I dare say it wasn’t a new phenomena then. – The tail of vacuous and often falsified statistics wags the dog of function.
… And while the ‘Little Neros’ of Castle Greyskull (Glasgow City Chambers) an the ‘chummies’ at Holyrood continue to fiddle the figure merrily; Glasgow – in commercial and business terms – continues to be razed. Soon to be followed by Edinburgh which is putting a hospital and the university behind a ‘paywall’
I wonder how long it will be before some or other of them floats a proposal to reintroduce wild Boar to the City Centre?
“a healthier environment, and the creation of city spaces that are more liveable,”
Liveable for who? – What are you going to do when you can’t get the streets swept, the tables wiped nor the lavvies cleaned in your elitist Utopia? Because people cannot afford to take jobs in the City Centres!
You’ve already created the situation Nicola where many an honest and good trades person CANNOT AFFORD to provide service, or to buy or to sell in Glasgow. Where already established businesses in places that aren’t really near the City Centre are being forced out of business! Were tourists are expressing shock and dismay and planning NEVER to return to Glasgow, Edinburgh or Dundee (such is the paucity of information)…
I’m not particularly supportive of yet another ‘drive thru’ run by some megacorp either. But then we need to see your comments in terms of your track record. It might well be the case that businesses forced out of the City Centre will gravitate to places like the Gorbals, Springburn, Bridgeton etc… ‘Just like Boris & Co’ – might it be the case that you’re actually planning on extending the ‘no go’ zones such that they creep like a cancer ? What was it those ‘conspiracy theorists’ were saying about 15-minute ‘prison cities’.
Who do you vote for when there isn’t a candidate on the ballot paper that is fit to lick the streets? When all we get are madcap virtue-signalling, stats-fiddling schemes that so anything but ‘response to real problems.’ but more often than not are the CAUSE of real problems!
I’ve been saying for years that what we need is a meaningful ‘vote blanc’ option which, if returned as the majority in any electoral ward or region, BARS all the candidates from holding public office for at least 6 years. And maybe we should also put a limit on how long these clowns can serve – two terms maybe? – Put an end to these ‘parachuted in’ nonentities with degrees in ‘nothing or use’ for whom politics is a cushy gig.
A Scot Abroad says:8 June, 2023 at 3:33 pm
“I’ll go and find somewhere…”
Good idea; mind the door disnae bang yer erse oan the way oot.
Which voters are the SNP now openly appealing to? Would be handy if we had reliable figures from a well managed ‘recent’ census to help out.
Sven, @ 3:35pm,
I don’t disagree with a word of what you say. When I first came into WoS, I suggested ten years. Not too far adrift of the 7 years you state, but Alex Salmond hadn’t addressed the currency or central bank issue, so that’s perhaps a difference.
The trouble is, it’s going to take at least 15 years to get rid of the current infestation of elected people who do nothing but sloganise, while the rest of the world slowly gets the notion that Scotland can do things for itself, and is trustworthy.
There’s no reason at all that an iScotland cannot prosper: it would sit about half way up the world table for area, population, higher up for resources, and comfortably in the top quarter for GDP. But it takes a serious plan to be taken seriously, and so far, apart from a brief mention of EFTA on the Alba website (no details given), there ain’t any plan at all. So, 15 years to get rid of the current useless lot, plus ten years to make a plan.
Excellent piece, Stu! Looks like we’ve hit-the-wall; a wall that many of saw coming quite a while ago. That’s not defeatism, it’s the only rational conclusion. By voting Alba and placing Salvo/Liberation.scot at the centre of the movement and working amongst the public in a dedicated and imaginative manner, the vacuum bequeathed us by the now openly-devolutionary SNP can be quickly filled.
Alf Baird’s analysis, as laid-out in his shamefully neglected book Doun-Hauden, predicted the colonial administration’s capitulation, and is so obviously deserving of many more readers within the movement. The realisation that we’ve hit a brick-wall can be viewed either with despair or, as an opportunity to completely revitalise the movement; this time without demagoguery, and in a form of our own choosing.
Everybody is either being far too forgetful or far too forgiving.
How many times have these grifters played bait and switch with an Independence mandate, yet here we are, ”Well, you know, let’s listen to the sales pitch one more time.”
Why don’t we adopt the SNP’s MO and implement the “Moorov” doctrine ourselves, and recognise the pattern here; that when they’ve lied to us and conned us eight straight times on the bounce, they’ll do it again, so that maybe we don’t trust the fkers with opportunity nine.
The SNP’s only enthusiasm is for giving perverts access to minors, and sticking the knife in ALBA. They’re a disgrace and a fkg outrageous liability.
Screw the SNP. Build ourselves the Constitutional Cathedral which so terrifies the UK Establishment and trust that enough of the faithful will come.
Shug 3.20 pm, i read that quickly as ‘go and find a unionist shite where you can shine’.
Matt Quinn 3.47pm,aye but apart from that…ctc,etc,lol!
I hear politician’s talking about mental health problem’s a lot,apparently it’s it’s increasing.
…Thanks politicians!
Matt Quinn 3.47pm. Great post Matt.
ABritAbroad is back from leave, I see.
25 years! Lol.
The Bismarck of Cheltenham.
Buttery Ben finally, inadvertently, does Scotland a service by making it completely obvious that nuSNP are 100% unionist.
This oleaginous chancer is so like Tony Blair in the early years. Next, like Blair did, he’ll be talking about a Big Tent politics.
This week was the anniversary of D-Day. Would any of these useless, appeasers have survived the Second World War without being hanged for treason? Doubt it. Some fights you just have to win or the consequences would be monumentally dire for everyone affected.
“Ooh, let’s not rock the boat. Let’s try and co-operate on issues where there never can possibly be co-operation, just dismal compliance and failure…” This is the ordure that we have been fed daily day for nearly nine, miserable years now. The people in the SNP are living in Cloud Cuckoo Land. The reality is that to win anything, you have to be competitive; you triumph, you have to be prepared to do what needs to be done; and only then can you be magnanimous.
If independence is genuinely too difficult for ANYONE to achieve, without plunging into an abyss of war, then, for the love of god, tell us in no uncertain terms. Neville Chamberlain told the British people that we could make terms with the German Nazis. Self-evidently, we could do not such thing unless we were willing to comply with fascism. While I usually deplore the quoting of fiction to make historical and political points, ‘Fatherland’, by Robert Harris, sums up very neatly what would have happened had we succumbed to Nazi co-operation. I’m not saying that Westminster and Whitehall, and the British State, is totalitarian/fascist, but we have gone some way down that path in recent years. The SNP – with their totalitarian compliance with the Hate Crime legislation and GRR and other insane Green initiatives, all rainbow clouds and fluffy ‘just be kinds’ – have also come pretty close.
If we want to achieve our independence and save ourselves from another great lurch to the right, launching from the hard left, as per, we had better start thinking about how we go about it in earnest. The sooner the SNP is swept away, the better. The GE will not do it, but the SE might well do so. They are simply an obstacle now. We need to be ready and to have real independence parties in place to give momentum to a real and concerted push towards independence. No more talk of referendums. Just do it, even if it is few years later than we imagined. Who knows, though, something quite momentous could happen overnight between now and 2026.
Unionist A Scot Abroad keeps asking for all the details of how Scotland could manage to remain a viable country… whilst seemingly oblivious to the reality of being in this supposedly great union when we can’t even buy eggs in the shops!
To paraphrase John Main “Show me the fucking eggs”
jockmcx: if you tell people, especially the youth, often enough that they have mental health issues, they’ll believe you and start having mental health issues about being told they have mental health issues. I listened to a group of young people talking on television as if they were in the midst of a war zone. They were middle-class, well-fed, well-clothed young people who, yes, had come through a difficult time with the pandemic and were finding it hard to adjust to being back at school.
Adjustment to circumstances is part of life. It’s called growing up. From 1939 to 1945, children endured hardships that this lot could not even begin to imagine: bombing, rationing, being separated from their parents as evacuees, being told that their father, uncle, brother had been killed in action, and so on. Some of them, just a few years older than those on television would have fought in battles, flown planes, sailed as seamen or merchant seamen. The girls would have been recruited to grow food or been shipped off to munitions factories or to man anti-aircraft guns.
Even after the war, rationing continued for a number of years, and life was hard for most. If adults stop telling children they have mental health issues, that they can bunk off school if they choose, that they can change sex, that life is a fluffy rainbow cloud on which you just float off into the sunset as a fully-fledged swan, and start acquainting them with reality, they will make a good fist of growing up to be productive and decent citizens. As it is, we are in danger of creating a generation of potential narcissists. Yes, protect them, yes, be decent, strong adults they can emulate, and, yes, cherish them, but let’s not handicap them by allowing them to deny reality well into their teens and early twenties.
https://dailysceptic.org/2023/05/09/the-truth-about-generation-snowflake-is-even-worse-than-we-feared/
I will never vote for the SNP again.
Never in my life. I’d rather vote for the Tories, shit in my own hands and clap than cross the box for that shower.
Antoine Roquentin @ 4:14 pm
“Alf Baird’s analysis, as laid-out in his shamefully neglected book Doun-Hauden, predicted the colonial administration’s capitulation”
Thanks Antoine. We are fortunate to have the decolonization template from postcolonial theory enabling us to follow so many other liberated peoples on the long road to freedom. As you imply, this predicts the collapse of the dominant national party that colonialism has co-opted and corrupted. It also informs us that we are now shifting, thanks to better understanding of what independence means, from an independence movement to a liberation movement: https://liberation.scot/
https://salvo-cor.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/THEORETICAL+CASE+FOR+SCOTTISH+INDEPENDENCE.pdf
Any political party that operates from the devolved government, works for and under Westminster,
And the oath to Crown, the Crown replaces the Scots laws with Westminster laws.
So anyone in that sense, that working in the devolved government including Alba would be automatically working for For Westminster, under the Scotland Act. Which was also legislated from Westminster.
The purpose of the devolved government was to ” prevent” Scotland achieving independence, it was a Labour brain child.
It has been active and controlled from within since it began, Margo MacDonalds reason for leaving, as she stated way back, was the SNP had been infiltrated,
There is nothing to stop Scotland starting up it own real Scottish parliament at the present.
We do not need to beat around the bush with conventions that is equivelent to barrier building
There is no preset rule guidance on how and who should form a Scottish government wrote down in the Scottish constitution,
In fact their are no rules wrote down in the Westminster limited Constitution that states how England should decide what government Scotland should have,
There are no articles or rules in the mythical treaty of union that states Scotland cannot reform a brand new parliament.
The fallacous treaty of union only States that the Scottish parliament was extinguished in England, by the terms of the treaty agreement,
There is absolutely no reason not to do this in Scotland,
As the treaty articles does not mention this. Or prevent a brand new Scottish parliament coming into being, only the old parliament is extinguished that was in the treaty for a short period of time during the hypothesis of a treaty of parliamentary union.
But there is absolutely no mention in the articles that Scotland could not have a brand new Scottish parliament in 2023.
Dan,
plenty of eggs in the shops here. Perhaps you need to tell your favoured shop to sort their supply chain out.
David Hannah says: at 5:44 pm
“I will never vote for the SNP again.
Never in my life. I’d rather vote for the Tories, shit in my own hands and clap than cross the box for that shower.
I wouldn’t do that because at spoiled ballot paper adjudication I could envisage a gravy slurping SNP politician arguing that a smear of shit actually was an accurate representation of themselves so the vote should be counted as for SNP.
Of course IDOX counts the votes electronically now so it would be down to the programmer and hardware including scratch and sniff technology.
Will Alex Salmond/ALBA now , finally , stop trying to find common ground with the Labour wannabe SnP . How much more apparent must their ( SnP ) worthlessness become before they ( ALBA ) declare war on them , and do to them what his SNP did to Scottishish Labour ?
Someone upthread said he’ll vote for them ” through gritted teeth ” . FFS , why ?
Why would ANY Independence supporter vote for that mob of useless treacherous bastards ?
I will never vote for any Unionist Party . Nu SnP are nothing more than a rainbow tartan version of one of those Scotland Last entities . Even worse , in fact , as at least Lab/Con/Lib are openly anti-Independence ; whereas the Nonce Party pretend to be pro-Independence whilst mere using the pretence to harvest votes
Anyone who by now can’t see for themselves what that Party has become deserves to have their intelligence and faith insulted and will have zero right to complain when their lives are further negatively impacted by the demented clown show of Nu SnP * governance *
Lorna Campbell.
Well said,
If they do not grow up soon perhaps we could start a industry to sell them nappies, and rubber pants, and knit them bonnie bonnets with ribbons,
Mind you the politicians would nick them.
Economic viability as a state has little to do with being an independent state.
It seems only Scotland must fulfil the former requirement, the diabolic «case for independence» which no other state on the planet has been required to.
Independence of a nation needs no «case» to be made, only those opposed might think it necessary.
I read Stu’s as normal real honest appraisal and exposure of Macphersons and the rest of the trougher crews incompetence and LIES
And FUCK ME on only comment 3 we have wibbly wobbly saying
“I will have to grit my teeth to put my X in the box for these chancers”
WTAF WHY would anyone even think of putting an X in the box to show SUPPORT for this shower of lying, corrupt, incompetent,deviants and perverts who are more interested in the sex lives of our children AND Minor Attracted Persons or Paedophiles or as they are commonly known to right thinking NORMAL people as reviled disgusting SCUM
If you vote for these people YOU are ENCOURAGING them and their fellow perverts and deviants to continue with their reviled disgusting policies and further encouraging them to think up more sexual abominations that they can inflict on our innocent children
YOU can try and convince yourself that you are voting for them to get independence, BUT as Stuart Campbell and other bloggers are continuously EXPOSING, THEY have done nothing in 9 years to get indy and are showing daily they aren’t in the least interested in getting indy , what you are doing in supporting these scum is BETRAYING your innocent children , grandchildren and your fellow Scots
I wasn’t too long out of nappies (learnt to use potty and toilet trained as a toddler so not one of those weirdo nappy fetishists!) when this was going on.
Years late and 200 million over budget sounds familiar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Lithgow
The mental attitude of the average politician whom believes that you can change your biological sex without mutilation of the human must be equivalent to children told fairy stories at 0–5 years.
We should award them by giving them pacifiers every time they open their mouths crying this stupidity just like any other one year old whom is not capable of understanding the real world.
Show us a dummy and we will give you one.
Lorna Campbell,5.25pm,well said!
Does anyone,the nhs perhap’s provide a treatment for politicianitis?
Indydepressant is free i hear,if there’s enough demand!
Ottomanboi @ 6.10
Agreed. Independence is a state of mind
All this political debate is irrelevant.
Roughly 70,000 people signing up to Salvo (they need 100k signatures) have been diverted to a cloned fake page of Salvo by the English security services.
https://thehub.scot/+Indycar/status/572453
Alba should declare war on the SNP.
Up the anti in terms of attack. The SNP are cowarding behind some Internet troll task force.
They don’t like being exposed.
Declare war. Destroy the SNP.
Watched the longer version on youtube and a more positive take from it would be Pat Kane’s enthusiasm for AI.. especially if we can find a way to fix the broken politics and leverage Scots Rockstars into regulatory positions rather than the type of supranational orgs that (still!) appear to have no remorse over trying to give the worlds populations a mental illness over common cold.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CYZ6q7Wr9c
Scotland’s leading Pro-Devolution party is seeking a new CEO.
Can I humbly suggest Gordon Brown be invited to assume the post, unopposed.
Whatever you think of him, he fulfills every attribute required of a CEO for the SNP.
Think about it…
How do you go down a gear from reverse?
What kind of vehicle is Hum Haw Youz Ef driving?
And is it insured?
Or even insurable?
Who will insure a liability like that one, with what must be not one but two reverse gears?
Is the extra reverse gear designed to allow high-speed backward movement, with quicker-than-ever acceleration?
If so, will the Hum Haw vehicle in which it has been fitted crash?
And when it does, how many victims will it take with it?
These are the questions which need to be answered. So – finally – Why did Question time never ask them?
I saw the images of SNP MP David Linden smooching with some blonde on the Labour benches at PMQs.
He didn’t even care where he was sitting.
He’s living it up in London. Fuck knows how many private members clubs these swines are members of.
They probably get tickets to the opera. Go for dinner in Covent gardens every night.
Every single one of them to a man. The ugliest people ever to grace this planet.
Republicofscotland,
“ a cloned fake page of Salvo by the English security services”.
Honestly, you do make stuff up. First about GCHQ meddling in the SNP leader election, when all they did was to provide via the NCSC their standard support to any political party (a legal duty laid upon them), and now somehow the “English” security services trying to fakeSalvo’s support away from them.
Zero evidence from you. Zero credibility on you.
SNP. Living it up in London. They love the London lifestyle. A city paid for by Scotland’s oil. Scotland’s impoverished citizens. While they shag everything that moves down there.
Snorting kit kat on their gums.
These people.
Declare war on the SNP. Send them to hell boys.
@WingsScotland
·
3h
Ben Macpherson is just a baldy Gordon Brown.”
Hope not.
Brown is known for his light touch regulation of the banks that allowed them to engage in risky mortgage loans being taken out in the USA. The increase in interest rates there caused massive defaults on loans. The collapse spread to the UK. Brown and Darling bailed out the banks, exited and the Tories gave us austerity.
Brown also imposed light touch regulation on Foundation Hospital Trusts. The Trusts are semi-autonomous and could engage non-NHS doctors and nurses without paying NHS rates of pay, The Trusts were intended to compete with each other and with private hospitals. Light touch regulation with this kind of competitice set up carried risk for patients.
Light touch regulation also carried risk for patients when doctors causing harm were ignored. The whistle was blown on Ian Paterson more than once but he was allowed to continue to harm his women patients. Paterson worked for the NHS and privately and over 14 years did unnecessary surgery and incompetent surgery on hundreds of women. Many died and around 750 have had compensation
One of the great scandals of England’s NHS is that of the Mid Staffs hospital. The BMJ carried an article on it and there’s plenty online.
Management reduced nursing numbers to save funds. Patients were left without adequate care. Doctors and nurses had inadequate training. Receptionists did the triage of patients.
Food and drink was left out of reach of patients and was then taken away uneaten and undrunk. Patients resorted to drinking water from vases of flowers.
One patient had no bath or shower in her stay of a month. Because no-one was available to escort patients to toilets they were told to “go” in their beds.
All of this happened over years despite complaints from family members, one of which related to an elderly woman whoc contracted a C difff infection in the hospital. Her daughter said she had often to remove faeces from her mother’s hands.
Despite the complaints the level of care of the hospital was judged to be adequate, and later good by the bodies charged with doing care assessments.
There have been other desperate scandals in England’s NHS.
How degraded by governments has the UK become.
Alf Baird, at 5:50pm,
you’ve just written yet another excuse for 50 years of achieving nothing. All non-scientific academics do is to waste time and confuse everybody. That allows them to spend time writing yet more requests for taxpayer funding.
Better troughers than SNP politicians. All an academic really wants is an unchallenged sinecure until they get a handsome pension they don’t really deserve.
I had been thinking for some time, that the entire reason for the Sturgeon/SNP go slow and delays over indy were down to one thing, they had already quite a few years ago done a deal with Labour. Sturgeon was a devolutionist, so the plan would have been that as soon as Labour got elected to Westminster, they would kick into action a devo max option, which the SNP leadership have already agreed to. In essence, agreeing to a plan by Gordon Brown.
This explains the dithering over brexit. They full expected Labour to be elected at Westminster last time around, or at the least for the Tory government to fall. This explains the failure to actually change tack following the English ‘supreme’ court decision.
This also explains why they tried to frame Salmond, and to this day, keep bad mouthing him and the Alba party. They know he would not ever agree to such nonsense.
This ALL now fits.
Of course, due to English voter attitudes, Labour could never say they had a deal in place with the SNP, indeed I think they doth protest too much on that point.
Once Labour win in Westminster, however, then it will be played as ‘The vow’ 2.0. Sir Starmer will tell English voters he will ‘fix’ the Scotland problem for good. It will be the union 2.0 locking Scotland to English colonial rule forever. They will tell us, ‘look we’ll give you all these new diddy powers for your wee pretendy parliament, but London will still rule’. The SNP will just sit and nod their heads.
The SNP, the ‘please let us stay in the union’ party.
A bunch of charlatans, an absolute parcel of rogues.
At the next SNP conference they will be singing rule Britannia, instead of Scots wha hae (which they used to sing).
ALBA is the obvious choice.
Unfortunately, the weak point of the SNP/ Green nonsense will not be addressed because ALBA won’t challenge them on home care deaths.
Matt quinn at 347pm,
Excellent post regarding the utter bullsh*t called the low emission zones. You are right, the only way to deal with them is to boycott any and all businesses and services within those areas, even if you have a ‘compliant vehicle’.
Let’s be clear, they will need to generate revenue to keep all thos ULEZ cameras running, so year upon year, they will increase the restrictions. You might be compliant now, but they will soon change that.
People need to wise up at the lies they are getting told by the greeny loonies/SNP. For example, Edinburgh has among the very best air quality in the entire UK, and then there is Dundee, where most of the city centre is pedestrianised anyway, so what is the point of even adding a ULEZ, especially in such a tiny city centre. Absolute nonsense.
Oh, and the number plate recognition cameras for the ULEZ? Give it a year or two, and they will be used for tracking people – you know the 15 minute cities green fascist nonsense, where you will be forbidden from going from one side of Glasgow or Edinburgh to the other.
Viz Mode on/
Get round pesky LEZ restrictions by simply driving a historic vehicle with no CAT / DPF or other emission control kit fitted. Enjoy the liberty and freedom of gassing the few remaining city dwellers with the added bonus of not having to fork out for road tax or an MOT!
Or get a motorbike as they are exempt too. Princes Street gardens could soon be reborn in Nu Auld Reekie stylée with the aroma of Castrol R as classic 2 and 4 stroke engines work hard to climb The Mound.
Ha, this could be Edinburgh in the near future! Classic cars and a 2 stoke on The Mound. Back to the future ya bass!
Big Country – Restless Natives (3 min clip)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ_Mg7m-ZfY
Dan @5.10pm.
Dan.
I urge you and other to ignore this Britnat shill/useful idiot paid or not.
@Lorna Campbell says:8 June, 2023 at 5:01 pm
If independence is genuinely too difficult for ANYONE to achieve, without plunging into an abyss of war, then, for the love of god, tell us in no uncertain terms
Knock out comment of this thread so far (Sorry Dan, the eggs is good, but just not good enough).
A sneaky little thought that has crossed my mind, more than once. Why invent all of the tractor, colonisation or sabotage tropes when Occam’s Razor suggests that maybes the simplest explanation, it’s just too fucking difficult, explains everything?
Another sneaky little thought follows. Have Sturgeon and the SNP been telling us this all along? What about AS? Did he resign simply because he realised the job was beyond him? Beyond anyone?
NS: I’ll answer the question. You want answers?
Wings BTL: I think I’m entitled to them.
NS: You want answers?!
Wings BTL: I want the truth!
NS: You can’t handle the truth!
Hollywood (Hollyrood) Fiction! Or is it reality?
The SNP died under Sturgeon. That is her legacy. I hope she is proud.
Hi Dan.
The section with the sheep…
Couldn’t make up my mind whether it was SNP ‘da management’ trying to herd their members, or herd the wider independence movement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ_Mg7m-ZfY
I see the SNP are advertising for a new chief executive.
—–
The successful candidate has also to be familiar with financial and risk management.
—–
I lol’d hard at this statement, I bet they do – probably someone more familiar than most, anyone specialising in finanicial crime, hiding money trails and willing to jeopardise their own reputation most welcome no doubt.
—–
The chief executive job comes with a salary of £95,000 a year. Applications are open until the end of June.
—–
I wonder if this salary has been cleared by the SNP NEC or in fact the party members themselves as it comes directly out of their monthly fees.
Link: https://archive.ph/kS3Bp
@ BDtt
If it helps: Once you are awake, it’s hard to go back sheep…
Ooh, looky here, I’m sure I’ve seen those stats somewhere before.
https://twitter.com/AlbaParty/status/1666867690647195648
Mmmm! Castrol R – an aroma to be enjoyed.
Political manipulation has always gone on, but more recently the
‘Left’ has been diverted from economy to identity/green/WOKE politics, first in the US, then across Europe. – it sure looks like a global agenda.
Until folks admit to themselves that their media lies to them, then there will be no progress.
Start with 911 – How does a 47 story building, not hit by a object, collapse at free fall speed into it’s own footprint?
Therein lies the basis of the coming fascism.
Scotland needs a party like Sinn Fein. Abstention from Westminster by its MPs.
Why are so many of the “Devo or death” fundamentalist folically challenged?
Ben Macpherson, Peter Murrell, Patrick Grady, Toni Giugliano, Marco Biagi, Martin Docherty-Hughes, Stephen Gethins, Kevin Stewart, …
John Main @ 8:27 pm
“Why invent all of the tractor, colonisation or sabotage tropes when Occam’s Razor suggests that maybes the simplest explanation, it’s just too fucking difficult, explains everything?”
Laziness, incompetence and lack of commitment among the SNP hierarchy seems evident. However, postcolonial theory refers to the ‘petrification’ of the national party leadership at the crucial time as one of the main reasons for the delay to independence; they fear ‘the colonizer’s tanks and planes’ or whatever other forms of ‘force’ or coercion pertain. Colonialism ‘is force’ efter aw. Independence needs leaders with sufficient courage to confront that colonial ‘force’. The SNP is a petrified and hence motionless leadership, unable to move.
New pro-indy blog Off-Topic Scotland aims to complement the work of other independence-supporting websites had a great first article from Campbell Martin, The State – Who does It Work For. Put up on June 3rd. Another piece by Eva Comrie on the 5th. Today there is coincidently? an editorial by L Bertrand, “It’s propaganda Jim, but not as we know it” that is about John McAfee and his wee video that Ian Brotherhood was asking about a few days ago! http://www.offtopicscotland.com/post/the-card-you-picked-is-not-there
All independence movements have to accept the inevitable conflict that comes with liberty. Liberty is not given, it is taken.
The SNP are comfortable in devolution. Independence and the fight for independence represents the unknown for the SNP. They are a bit like an abused wife. They know devolution is a half life, they know they will get bullied and abused. But they are terrified of simply walking out the door.
This is what 25 years of devolution does. The SNP have become institutiolnised. They are not on the outside looking at the machine, they are now part of its mechanism. The SNP are now a British mainstream party. They are Yellow Labour.
The sooner people realise that they are not abandoning the SNP. They are in fact abandoning a unionist party. Then the sooner we can begin a new chapter.
The SNP must wither on the vine. The people in the Yes movement need to stop trying to save them.
Republicofscotland, at 8:11pm,
don’t worry, whenever I notice you post yet another lie about GCHQ or the “English” security services, or lies about other things, I’ll be here to call them out.
Doug@ 9.16pm:
You suggested that Scotland needs a party like Sinn Fein, who won’t take their seats at Westminster. ISP have already stated that they will stand candidates at the next GE but will not take seats at Westminster or swear Fealty to Charles III!
It’s become very obvious that if you believe in an Independent Scotland then there is no point in ever giving the present SNP another vote! That only leaves us ALBA and ISP. Unfortunately, there are some deluded SNP supporters, who haven’t yet seen the light (or looked at the facts) that will vote SNP and that will split the vote and, no doubt, let Unionist candidates in. However, it will be a very short term victory for any Unionist candidate who wins a Scottish seat, because:
(1) They will never have the respect of Independence supporters, and
(2) When the votes are added up, they will find that the 3 Scottish Parties: SNP, ALBA & ISP won more votes than them!
At the end of the day the SNP will realise that their time is up! The present incumbents have ruined a party that was founded by people with more vision, determination and selflessness than any one of the present Cabinet members!
One thing I’ll never understand is why SNP members are willing to pay fees and vote for a Leader, who stood up in the Scottish Parliament and objected to the fact that the population of Scotland is WHITE! As far as I’m concerned, a scruffy, unkempt BROWN man, who is ignorant about the history of Scotland, is not the right man to lead Scotland towards Independence! However, he has already told us he has forgotten about Independence!
Good luck Yousaf – they’re leading you well away from the job you’re supposed to be doing!
Living in Clydesdale constituency I have never had an SNP MP so hopefully will be able to vote Alba or Isp in next election
@Alf Baird says:8 June, 2023 at 9:23 pm
they fear ‘the colonizer’s tanks and planes’
That could well be right.
Seems to me that nothing stiffens the sinews of any national independence movement better than a dose of the coloniser’s tanks and planes. If WM is as devious as is claimed, they won’t make the crass error of deploying them.
But I don’t need to explain this to anybody capable of learning the lesson from the global news we see reported every day.
I have mentioned it before, but more devolution can be – in fact must be delivered by whatever party governs in Scotland – even the Tories.
So effectively, by backing Devo Max, the SNP just killed itself off in its entirety.
We can get Devo Max from the Tories – really, we can. If it’s polls, and surveys we’re after talking about, Scotland unequivocally wants Scotland governed from Holyrood, and wants more powers for it, short of full Independence.
Any party in power in Scotland which doesn’t deliver that, will be swiftly out on its arse again, and there really is no special reason it should be the SNP delivering it.
A sad demise, but just sad for us. The rest of the world is used to parties coming, and going, and filling voids, we have just been a bit bereft of that. If it’s 25 years yer wanting, plenty of time for the SNP to be a footnote in Scotlands political history.
Bye, nice knowing you once.
When the chips are down. We’re all in. The SNP will never estinguish the Independence flame.
53 per cent in the polls and rising.
“If they back the capitulation policy in Dundee later this month, the SNP will become just a third cheek of the Unionist arse. Let’s hope they wake up in time.”
Do you seriously still have any hope in them?
The SNP has been corrupted beyond redemption, the process starting from the day Sturgeon became leader.
Meanwhile, is anybody doing any of the difficult, complex and nuanced thinking about how an iScotland makes its way in a complex world of trade deals and global finance and a multi-dimensional network of millions of established and trusted relationships?
….Tumbleweed blows by…
No. It’s all ancient guff and localised BTL hating on the SNP. All irrelevant in the big picture.
Indy scheduled for the late 2090s then. At the earliest.
@Radical Cartoons who said at 12:45 pm:
“I’ve often thought that Toony Benn’s “Commonwealth of Britain” was the best idea.”
Ireland will not join any “Commonwealth of Britain”.
With Sinn Fein the leading party in Northern Ireland and the Republic, Ireland is moving towards Reunification. NI will be integrated into the EU, not any “Commonwealth of Britain”.
Scotland must do as she wishes.
I hope (have always expected) she would (eventually) opt for Independence. But if a “British Commonwealth” and “devo max” is the sum total of Scotland’s ambition/vision for herself, who can gainsay that?
@Iain mhor says:8 June, 2023 at 10:37 pm
The rest of the world is used to parties coming, and going, and filling voids
Indeed, and Europe too, and within the EU too.
Greece, Italy, Denmark, even France and Germany are getting in on it. Not even England immune, WTF was UKIP all about?
If there exists a genuine demand, some narcissistic “look at me” will come out of the woodwork to fill that demand. If that person is persuasive, eloquent, photogenic and interviews well, some people with contacts and money will step up to bankroll them in the hope of making big profits.
It will help enormously if the new leader is intelligent, educated and competent, but these qualities aren’t fundamental to the project, WTF was Blair all about?
Get the snowball rolling, and it can cause an avalanche.
Can Scotland do this? Of course.
Does the Scottish void exist? Time will tell.
As a former member of the SNP (I resigned on the Saturday after the launch of Alba and joined Alba), I can say that I emailed my MSP and MP (Fitzpatrick and Law) about the state of the party in February 2021, with no reply.
The SNP has lost the “joining up” they had with their membership they had in past years. The cabal at the top of the SNP management think they know best, about whatever agenda they are pursuing; the remaining membership is merely cannon fodder fed with carrots, to achieve that agenda.
The good independanistas have already left the SNP for ISP and Alba. It’s up to us, the grassroots independence movement, to campaign to educate the Scots who aren’t politically aware, about the real truth about the SNP – particularly regarding the tray-tors to the independence cause known as “the alphabetties”.
We all know who they main perjurers were – tell people!
@Matt Quinn who said at 2:35 pm
“The Red Flag was torn up for floorcloths a long time ago”.
Take heart from the fact that Mr Joe Cusker, 59, of Cambuslang, near Glasgow was inside the Clutha pub when a police helicopter crashed through the roof.
His coffin was draped with a red flag and a single white rose was placed on top.
https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2013/12/21/minds-are-fixed-on-self-and-place/
@BDTT (11.17) –
More power to ye mister.
😉
In reply to “The Scot Abroad” @ 11.00 pm:
Why do you continue to make comments on this site? Perhaps you have been banned from other sites? You puir wee soul whO is still clinging on to the “British Empire”!
Galloway Lass,
not aware that I’ve been banned from anywhere.
And you clearly aren’t aware that the nature of politics is that there’s debate of all sides. If you want a “safe space” because you can’t cope with someone who thinks differently, then maybe you’d better find one by closing out the outside world.
Even we have become stale.
We have been posting the same comments for nearly four years now.
We are going round in circles. Chasing our tails.
And with the same sprinkling of Trolls.
The Dreghorn Dyke has got a lot to answer for.
Would anybody really bother if she died a long slow painful death?
A nasty, evil piece of work.
Ted Moult,shot himself in 1986,depression they say!He was english!
Maybe it’s the english who hate themselves!
they do seem to respond well (or is it badly?)to hating…(see tories)…
Why do people hate the English ? | Devolution | British Politics | Take Two | 1975
Good grief!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVs-1b9jq0E
Ron Clark.1.44am
“Even we have become stale”!
No we heven’t,
we’ve come a long way since 1975,
we are having to wait for the cling ons to admit they’ve been conned!
They’re clinging on to the snp like they clung on to labour,
Hugh MacDiarmid,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is8aqEyw7P0
“Better to go down a gear and take the journey at a reasonably safe speed, than crash trying to rush things”
Really? How can you go down a gear when you have been in neutral for the past eight years?
Forget about your precious devolution. If you don’t move fwd you end up going back, which is effectively what’s now happening. We have been in reverse gear since the SC decision. Nowhere to hide anymore. But hey ho, keep up the pretense. Some of you might just hold on to your seats, but not all of you will.
“The SNP tell us that independence support is currently at 53%.”
You believe the SNP ?
This from the ScotsLanguage website.
“From the end of the 1920s the advent of talking movies, radio and television, from which Scots was excluded, ensured that Scots speakers were now regularly exposed to the English sound system and, in particular, the American form. In 1948, for instance, the writer Naomi Mitchison claimed of Glasgow children They do not speak any real variety of Scots, but a blurred, debased English, or since 1942 American. The Third Statistical Account described the relationship between Glasgow Scots speakers and the media in 1958:
They are inclined to be intolerant of city produced programmes and they are practically unanimous in running down the Glasgow accentin the cinema a Glasgow audience responds with laughter to any use of the Glasgow accent from the screen.
Having said that the same writer commented further although Glasgow cinemagoers laugh at the Glasgow accent on the screen, they tend to dislike what they call the English accent. On the other hand, the same Account described the flourishing state of the Glasgow dialect in the theatres and music halls in which it is possible for English visitors to spend an evening there and not understand one word of the comic sketches. What these accounts describe is the way in which the education authorities had succeeded in conditioning Glasgow people to self-censure their own language in favour of English and to self-denigrate Scots generally.”
@Ron Clark says:9 June, 2023 at 1:44 am
Let me repost this with interpretative boards for the thick as shit:
Even we have become stale.
We have been posting the same comments for nearly four years now.
We are going round in circles. Chasing our tails.
“Ron” says, shit, we don’t have a clue.
And with the same sprinkling of Trolls.
“Ron” says, that every time some awkward bastard questions us, it’s obvious that shit, we don’t have a clue.
The Dreghorn Dyke has got a lot to answer for.
Would anybody really bother if she died a long slow painful death?
“Ron” says, try the usual MO again. Yeah, back in my comfort zone! Might just work this time. Name calling. Gutter, vicious, insults and innuendo. With a big side order of irrelevant, cos she stepped down months ago.
“Ron” says, cmoan, what else can I do, cos shit, I don’t have a fucking clue.
A nasty, evil piece of work.
“Ron” says, let me tell you a bit about myself before I pass out.
This from the Irish Times, 2018. Worth a read.
“Last month, some video footage went viral in Ireland of a group of English men verbally abusing young women at a Dublin housing crisis protest. The men, it turned out, were part of a stag party from Bristol and seemed to be dressed intentionally to look like a cartoon of landed gentry, in tweeds and the loudly coloured trousers widely beloved by braying men of a certain kind.
It would have been a strange incident in any case, these English men who look like relics of the landlord class shouting at young Irish people rendered desperate because of skyrocketing rents, but it was to become more absurd still. After calling the women “scroungers” and demanding to know whether they had jobs, one of the men took the decapitated head of a pigeon out of his pocket and threw it at them.
That particular fact won’t make any more sense the longer you look at it, and yet it goes on being true. I watched the video footage over and over, looked at earnest news headlines that simply read, “The footage shows a man verbally abusing protesters, before the head of a decapitated pigeon is thrown”, but no explanation was forthcoming. Why did the man throw a pigeon head at the protesters? More important, why was he carrying one in his pocket, ready, seemingly, to be launched as soon as a worthy adversary appeared?
But stranger still – or perhaps, upon reflection, not strange at all – was the gap between the English and the Irish when it came to interpreting the Pigeon Incident. While Irish people complained on Twitter about these brash bird-head-wielding English tourists coming to our country and performing their odd little colonial pantomime, sensitive Britons were eager to ask why it mattered that the men were English. They’re just louts, they said. Why does it matter where they’re from? After all, all that occupation business was so long ago.”
@sam says:9 June, 2023 at 7:31 am
Great post, Sam.
Class, race, gender, history and animal rights. You only needed trans for a full card and Bingo!
Seriously though, I rejoice that we live in a time and place so lacking in real problems and issues that effort can be devoted to the retelling of a tale like this one.
BTW, did they ever find the rest of the pigeon? Did anybody give the heid a decent send off?
So many unanswered questions.
I ate it. Washed the blood oot the breeks. Didn’t read the piece in the Irish Times, did you? Maroon.
Sam 7.31 am. Surprised there were no Irishmen around who did’nt give them a good f/in kicking.
Getting a bit fed up with Wings Indy polis on here trying to shut down posts from @ASA, because he points out some obvious road blocks to Indy etc, The site moderator/owner does not ask what side your own before accepting subscriptions. You pay your money , you make your points. So to anyone suggesting @ASA goes elsewhere , STFU or goes elsewhere .
Have noticed that for some reason there has been zero flow of Norwegian gas coming into Easington Langeled terminal over past few weeks. Could just be a seasonal or contractual arrangement, or possibly maintenance or technical issue. But there was usually significant volumes coming into that terminal. Notably with that flow diminished, the volumes through St Fergus have increased. Best illustrated by scrolling down page slightly to see blue bar charts.
https://mip-prd-web.azurewebsites.net/InstantaneousView
I guess it can’t be the wrong type of gas though as CCGT is generating 24% of GB grid power.
https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/
An other energy related article from yesterday.
https://commonweal.scot/its-about-power/
@John Main
I’ll make it simple for you, you mean, dour, Scotch sweaty sock.
ygUDuh
ydoan
yunnuhstan
ydoan o
yunnuhstand dem
yguduh ged
yunnuhstan dem doidee
yguduh ged riduh
ydoan o nudn
LISN bud LISN
dem
gud
a.m
lidl yelluh bas
tuds weer goin
duhSIVILEYEzum
e e cummings
geddit?
Den says:
9 June, 2023 at 9:11 am
Getting a bit fed up with Wings Indy polis on here trying to shut down posts from @ASA, because he points out some obvious road blocks to Indy etc, The site moderator/owner does not ask what side your own before accepting subscriptions. You pay your money , you make your points. So to anyone suggesting @ASA goes elsewhere , STFU or goes elsewhere .
How exactly do you know ASCAB is a subscriber?
@Anton Decadent
Just wanted to say that it was a pleasure to finally stumble across someone commenting on this blog that is able to put 2 and 2 together on many subjects and not just a few pet ones. A fellow Noticer.
I hope you find more of us in the real world for some support.
I have to consider the impact versus the risk of saying the kind of things we say here, even though my hands are tied on some issues, and ultimately the situation is like talking to a brick wall while potentially violating hate speech laws.
The above comment from Sam at 7:31AM pretty much sums up the real disconnect – an Irish times article about some idiot English from 2018.
2018.
As if nothing has been going on in Ireland since that time on the subject of the Irish losing their country.
We have about 14 or so reasons to continue doing what we do, so I will, but not here.
Just as an aside – I wonder who could have been responsible for Gemma O’Doherty of the Irish Light becoming such a despicable radical?
Good luck.
“So why are the SNP choosing this of all moments to give up?”
Personally, I think the entity we still call “SNP” chose to give up already in early 2015. This was the time when all polls were predicting a landslide for the SNP and when support for independence was even higher than the official referendum result.
The British establishment was already preparing for a EU ref the following year knowing Scotland and England would vote for opposite things. So this situation made this the point in time when the UK political union was at its highest risk.
At that hour of desperate need for the union, the political fraud Sturgeon stepped in and rushed to save the day by bringing the SNP’s journey towards independence to an emergency halt and by preparing the ground so, the following year, she could undemocratically and in violation of Scotland’s Claim of Right, subjugate Scotland’s EU ref result and democratic will to remain in the EU, to England’s (and the crown’s) will.
It is my opinion Sturgeon facilitated the imposition of absolute rule on Scotland by the British establishment. I have often wondered if she would have been charged with tre(son should this had happened in 1706 rather than 2016.
She saved the union by telling us that a vote for the SNP was no longer a vote for independence, nor even a referendum, neutering that MP majority until 2017. I am convinced this was deliberate and done precisely to stop the breaking of the union after a brext vote. In the same way I think the 2014 referendum result was known even before the vote took place, I also think the result of the EU ref was also pre-determined before it was even announced. The “campaign” was just the tool to make that result credible.
Murrell’s electoral success in the elections since 2014 was, in my opinion, nothing more than a reflection of the delay between what is happening in politics and the main bulk of voters catching up. In other words, the success of the SNP for the last 8 years has been, in my opinion, the legacy of Mr Salmond and his government, not the product from the political fraud’s actions.
In my opinion, what the political fraud Sturgeon had been doing since 2015 until the day she resigned, was to contain and manage by political starvation Mr Salmond’s pro-indy vote legacy. She did this by denying us of a proper pro-indy campaign and instead abusing our votes to peddle dodgy policies and assaults on Women and children’s rights. Her political starvation of the yes movement did not finish it off. But one wonders how far it would be now should she have not starved it politically.
Now that people are catching up with her dirty deeds, the management for containment of the yes vote needs to take a different direction: that of disinfranchising yes voters while stopping them flowing towards Alba and ISP.
We are about to experience the legacy of the political fraud because voters are beginning to catch up. They are catching up not just with the betrayal of the party’s constitution, but actually with the trail of destruction her disgraceful stewardship of our public services has left in so many areas. Having as leader somebody like Yousaf which is not exactly popular and has no intention whatsoever to pursue independence, makes it clear their objective has always been to stop independence even if that meant to sink the party.
Judging by the polls, the outlook for labour-as-the-SNP is not good, meaning the legacy of Mr Salmond’s pro-independence politics is no longer driving the SNP vote. I suppose this is exactly what Sturgeon (and her masters) have been frantically working towards since 2015.
Right before the 2015 GE, and knowing the SNP would win over 50 seats while they still held the absolute majority of the seats in Holyrood, what the political fraud Sturgeon was shamefully seeking was a meagre “fiscal responsibility”, which is nothing more than a rebranding of Gordon Brown’s Devo Max.
Personally, I do not think the party’s goal has changed at all since then. They simply have been waiting for the right time to deliver it. It is also my personal opinion the political fraud STurgeon cut a deal with the British establishment to deliver it “when the time is right”. I wouldn’t be surprised is such deal was cut even before the 2014 ref took place.
There is no point in delivering something which is going to be immediately rejected by the people of Scotland and fuel even further the interest for independence, particularly if, after having deliberately locked any other avenue, the only exit route you have left is the demanding from our political representatives to ditch the straight jacket that the Scotland Act is and unilaterally revoke the treaty of union exercising Scotland’s legitimate and sovereign rights under the treaty of union.
Because, personally, this is all what the fuss and the hijacking of the SNP by Labour has been all about since the beginning: the (mis)management of the yes vote to ensure preservation of the original political union so England can retain all the rights the Uk has, and of course the current royal line can secure their continuous right to the Scottish crown (and access to Scotland’s profitable assets).
They cannot deliver Devo max while the SNP holds the majority of the seats because that will finish the party forever in the eyes of the voters. This would be bad because would leave the troughers without gravy train seats but more importantly, because it would immediately create a vacuum that would be quickly filled up with another, more radical, pro-indy party.
When there is around 50% support for independence, this is dangerous for the establishment, hence the media blackout of Alba and ISP, and the disgusting collusion and abuse of so many state elements in their attempt to unlawfully remove Mr Salmond from politics forever.
Considering all of the above, in my view, what we have had for the last 9 years is nothing more than an exercise of damage limitation by the British state. They have used a cottery of political frauds, of whom Sturgeon is just one, tasked with
1. Ban from Holyrood and Westminster the man who has the will and determination to deliver independence
2. systematically destroying, bit by bit, the ability of the SNP to deliver independence
2. ensuring the party as it is becomes unelectable so labour can claim resurrection and take the seats
3. disinfranchising and gagging the bulk of the strong yes voters. This is appears to be a change from the Better Together strategy deployed in 2014. Then, the Better Together concentrated on the weak yes and weak no voters to swing the result towards no. Because the polls are now giving advantage to yes, now they are concentrating on the strong yes by gagging them and disenfranchising them by leaving them without a party to vote and hoping they will not approach the polls, so a good chunk of the yes votes disappear from the election. That is what that drone in the video is doing.
It is all about ensuring there is no longer a majority of anti-union MPs at Westminster next election. Until 2019, the carrots were still working so they could afford having a neutered SNP in Westminster with a political fraud on the leader seat ensuring it would go nowhere. They could still pretending to pursue independence, but actually doing the precise opposite.
Voters are sick and fed up of the S30 and the procrastination now, therefore that strategy does no longer work. So the solution is either to officially rebrand the SNP as another cheek of the unionist arse (which has already been in practice since 2015), or to make it completely unelectable. But the latter will only work if there is no real alternative yes voters can vote for, hence Wishart’s desperate jibes at Alba.
Their desperation to ensure a majority of anti-union MPs is not sent to Westminster is so huge, that they are pursuing both approaches simultaneously. Putting Useless in control of the party and a woeful cabinet ensures it remains unelectable. Drones like the guy in the video are being sent to position the brand as a unionist party. It really is just marketing strategy rather than politics. The last stages of the brand positioning will be to change the name of the party and the logo. But you cannot do that unless you are sure your voters are going to move to the new brand. The last thing the gravy train riders would want is to rebrand too quickly leaving the faithful behind.
I see that Yousaf is following the exact same strategy the political fraud Sturgeon was taking: that of sending a poor value drone to deliver the bad news, to distance the “leader” as much as possible from them and retain their reputation intact. I have never seen Sturgeon as a master strategist, therefore whoever was pulling Sturgeon’s strings, must be pulling Yousaf’s too.
Yousaf’s status as leader was already shredded to bits the minute he capitulated to Scotland’s subjugation by handing, withour our consent, Scotland’s stone of destiny to England so the English king could be coronated with the English crown while sitting on Scotland.
I did not trust the official result of the 2014 referendum. I did not trust the official result of the 2021 Holyrood election, but, until now, I have trusted the official results of the UK General Elections. I am afraid that ends today. The words of that SNP drone in the video together with the way Yousaf was forced on us as FM and leader of the SNP, his immediate capitulation sending the stone of destiny, and the continuous insistence of Prof Curtice and others in labour’s resurrection in Scotland, makes me think those reports ‘predicting’ 30 or so Labour MPs from Scotland are not really predictions. They are warnings of what will happen because that is what the UK powers that be have already decided will happen so they can preserve the union while foist on us a rebrand of Devo Max to shut us up.
The SNP is no longer coupled with independence. The unionist drone in the video has officially confirmed it. That is going to drive serious yes voters away from the SNP and towards other pro-indy parties. The only way they have to make those anti-union votes for ISP and Alba disappear is by rigging the election. I doubt a black-out of those parties in the press will work anymore. The cat is out of the bag now.
sam @ 7:27 am
“What these accounts describe is the way in which the education authorities had succeeded in conditioning Glasgow people to self-censure their own language in favour of English and to self-denigrate Scots generally.”
The effect was/is Scotland-wide. ‘Self-hatred’ of indigenous native culture is a key part of the cultural conditioning process in colonial societies. We call this phenomenon the ‘Scottish Cultural Cringe’. It is closely linked to the theory of Linguistic Imperialism (Phillipson), as well as the ‘cultural obliteration’ objective of colonialism (Fanon). The ‘condition’ is also referred to as Internalised Racism, or Appropriated Racial Oppression.
Awbody shuid hiv telt oor daeless SNP Cultur Meenister Robertson, an thon Scottis caibinet wha shoud pertect Scottis langage an cultur. Thay rogues dinnae e’en lairn oor bairns in schuils oor ain braw Scots mither tongue.
As MacDiarmid said, oor ain Scots mither language gie’s us Scots oor ain naitional identity – it is therefore central to the quest for independence: peoples in self-determination conflict are always linguistically divided, and; independence movements depend on the solidarity of the oppressed ethnic group (Hechter).
As Yeats said: “his language is his before it is mine”.
https://grousebeater.wordpress.com/2021/07/04/scotland-in-the-21st-century-2/
@SR I don’t, but I am and don’t mind reading his posts, there are several posters on here , who as soon as I see their name I scroll right past. I don’t tell them to stop posting because I do not like the content.
I’m afraid that the cautious posters like ASA are correct. The waving of flags and outbursts of hatred towards other nations will result in a continuation of the sort of representatives who have achieved nothing politically and wrought destruction socially to our country. Our problem is that we tend to believe the propaganda that Independence now will repair all the damage, but it’s patently obvious that is simply wishful thinking, we need a political and economic plan which is believable and which will alter the social balance of power to appeal to the present and future Scottish electoral demographic.
Taking into consideration that this will mean a long and painful battle against 90% of the media and the rooting out of the certifiable pressure groups who represent LGBT+++++ a free workable Independent Scotland seems at least a decade away.
A short video clip on Ash Regan’s twitter yesterday is well worth listening to. In a Holyrood debate to mark the tercentenary of Adam Smith’s birth, she discussed ideas from Smith’s 1759 book, The Theory Of Moral Sentiments.
Ash said:
“Adam Smith’s belief in free speech was tempered by respect and empathy for others. We need to be free to think, debate and free to offend. We need to base our critical thinking on facts and science. There is immense value in robust debate; that clash of competing opinions – benefits both society and government.”
@sam says:9 June, 2023 at 9:24 am
Aren’t you going to call Joe at 9:49 a mean, dour, Scotch sweaty sock too?
Don’t tell me you’re face down on the floor, gnawing at the carpet!
@ Mia says:9 June, 2023 at 9:59 am
Yousaf’s status as leader was already shredded to bits the minute he
I really and truly just cannot fathom the apathetic and supine acceptance of Yousaf’s flawed and fraudulent election to SNP leader and hence to Scottish FM.
It speaks volumes of the cringing acceptance and kow towing to any form of authority whatsoever that afflicts Scotland and the Scots that even as outspoken an exponent of Indy as Mia is prepared to just roll over and accept the corrupt and criminal status quo.
Without so much as even a strangled peep of protest.
An alarming Telegraph report today on how NHS England & Wales patients may find themselves guilty of discrimination if they refuse the care of a transgender medic. Even people who have dementia could be challenged and their families even asked to leave the premises.
No doubt it will just be a matter of time before something similar is attempted in Scotland too. If so, the charity Alzheimer Scotland would hopefully stand up against it.
http://archive.today/sMwWJ
Here is a definition of “othering”.
“Othering is a process whereby individuals and groups are treated and marked as different and inferior from the dominant social group. Disenfranchised groups such as women, people of divergent ethnic backgrounds, working-class people, homosexuals, or migrants may all be othered and, in consequence, suffer discrimination.”
Crude forms of othering are the use of Paddy to define Irish people. “No Blacks, no dogs, No Irish.” is another.
Crude forms of othering the Scots are to label us as dour, skinflints, lovers of fried Mars Bars.
I othered John Main up in this thread to let him know there was more to the Irish Times piece than he cared to explore. The incident with the pigeon head is about othering, in my view.
Othering is a necessary part of colonialism in my view.
Othering appears in many forms. The Tories use it to demonise the disabled, calling them scroungers.
It is used as a justification for violence in many places, Myanmar, Croatia, Serbia, Northern ireland.
It underlies the stop and search of some UK police.
The ee cummings poem points it up.
“Our problem is that we tend to believe the propaganda that Independence now will repair all the damage, but it’s patently obvious that is simply wishful thinking,”
Akenaton.
Dross of the highest order there from you as usual, independence allows Scots to choose which direction the country should move forward on, diverging from a foreign countries governments ideology (England) would be the first step, retaining our assets and shipping out US/English nukes would be a priority as well.
Economically we could join EFTA which would allow Scotland access to the EU and UK markets, at present Scotland is in a preposterous situation, a prime example is England making a trade deal with Australia and New Zealand and Scotland had absolutely no say in it.
The above is just a starting point a central bank and our own currency, I favour it being called the Merk would also be top priorities, allowing a foreign country to strip our assets and make important decisions for us such as on immigration has left Scotland in a sorry state, of course Sturgeon sold us out which hasn’t helped the cause. The right FM in place at Holyrood would move Scotland forward quite rapidly I think.
SteepBrae says:
9 June, 2023 at 10:29 am
…..No doubt it will just be a matter of time before something similar is attempted in Scotland too. If so, the charity Alzheimer Scotland would hopefully stand up against it.
On past form, it’s not likely is it.
sam says:
9 June, 2023 at 7:31 am
This from the Irish Times, 2018. Worth a read.
In similar vein. In 2005 the Sun reported on a kilted Scottish groom who sat on his new brides lap to pose for photos and left a skidmark on her dress. Hilarious!
Mia @9.59am.
Good comment Mia, spot on.
The Sturgeon/Yousaf/SNP fanzine the National running an article showing where to go to sign the petition to remove MP Margaret Ferrier.
What a shitrag the National is.
https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenational.scot%2Fnews%2F23578282.margaret-ferrier-can-sign-petition-remove-mp%2F
A History of Scotland
(The Decolonisation Years 2023-2043)
Extract (pages 102-104):
In June of the year 2023, the Scottish National Party finally revealed its utterly compromised position and abandoned all pretence of pursuing independence for Scotland.
This, as it transpired, was exactly the outcome Scottish independence strategists had anticipated.
The SNP, having served its purpose, was then discarded by the Scots.
However, the truth behind the SNP’s demise, which later came to be known as ‘The Great Scottish Summer Reveal’, not to be confused with the Edinburgh games of the same name where hundreds of kilts directed at a Union flag are lifted in quick succession, became public knowledge shortly after the party’s total collapse.
History tells us that the SNP was never intended , or indeed expected, to survive the inevitable and overwhelming attack that would eventually come from Scotland’s oppressor.
That attack had taken eighty years from the inception of the SNP to manifest, because until 2014 the SNP was not considered a serious threat to the ‘union’.
The Scots had correctly calculated that the SNP would become the main target of imperial forces and adopted the game of chess’s Queen’s Sacrifice strategy.
Scotland’s bane immediately fell for the ploy and exposed its true nature for all Scots to see – the real ‘enemy’ had finally been revealed.
The SNP – in reality the Scottish independence movement’s sacrificial Queen – was thus duly sacrificed, clearing the way for a ‘pawn’s promotion’, a pawn that became a replacement Queen, around which the Scots people rallied in overwhelming numbers, and was called ‘The Scottish Colonial Resistance Assembly and Movement’ (SCRAM).
The Unionist attack that had begun in earnest shortly after the 2014 referendum – and had continued with increasing severity until, after a brief but unedifying final struggle, Scotland ultimately gained its independence in the Autumn of 2025 – had failed.
Scotland was at long last released from its colonial yoke of oppression.
The Scots then proceeded to dismantle and rebuild all of their government, education, and social institutions, and to clear out any remaining Anglophone stragglers from top positions within those institutions. Many of whom chose to remain in Scotland and who were welcomed as new Scots after swearing their allegiance to the Scottish nation.
The people of Scotland declared themselves a republic and unanimously elected Professor Alfred Baird as its first ever President. He being the first lone voice to correctly identify Scotland’s colonised status.
Indigenous Scots loyal to Scotland, and only Scotland, were appointed to lead the nations institutions in government, education, the arts, and social welfare.
The new Scottish Republic demanded, and was paid, reparations, with the support of the international family of decolonised nations, for resources stolen over the course of three centuries by its oppressor.
Huge swathes of land were reclaimed from foreign private owners to be utilised for the benefit of indigenous Scots. No compensation was paid to those land owners on the grounds they had been defrauded by a seller who never had the rights to sell the land in the first place.
Energy, transport, and other large and privately owned corporate enterprises were compulsorily acquired by the Scottish Republic. Again, no compensation was paid on the grounds that those private enterprises had already defrauded the people of Scotland over previous decades.
The Faslane Submarine facility owners and operators were charged the sum of £100 Billion for every year it took them to dismantle their weapons systems and remove them from Scottish territory. A process which took just over ten years and cost Scotland’s former coloniser a total of a trillion GBP.
Temporary secured borders were put in place to deter any rearguard action by Scotland’s former bane.
Sweeping social and economic changes continued to be introduced throughout Scotland to the great benefit of indigenous Scots. And Scotland was eventually to become one of the richest nations for its size in Europe, if not the world.
After a period of re-adjustment and having established friendly relations with its once deluded oppressor, Scotland eventually re-opened its southern border in 2037.
To this day Scotland continues to send aid to its Southern neighbour in the form of energy, water, food, and technical expertise in all fields of human endeavour in an attempt to help it’s former oppressor adjust to its new role, as a relatively small and insignificant nation with few natural resources of its own, within the international family of nation states.
Northcode (2063)
It’s pretty simple. If the SNP are pushing independence to the margins of a 25 year plan, then they are not the independence party at all, and therefore have no purpose other than gaining power under devolution. They should then change their name to what they are – the Scottish Devolution Party, or similar. They have exploited the desire for independence for years, in order to feather their nests. At least Macpherson admits it, with his timid doffing of the cap to Westminster.
But let’s put an end to the misrepresentation of the people by this party of middle class managers and chancers, who have shown how inadequate their skills are even for those limited ambitions. And then we can have a proper transparent debate about independence v devolution with parties which represent those positions honestly. Until then, the whole thing is a charade, conveniently propped up by people whose personal gain is paramount, and who are steeped in deception to maintain those gains.
Time for the SNP to split into parties which actually say what they intend to do, and give people real choices, not phoney promises and never-ending deferrals.
The chaos and incompetence of government in Scotland is a direct result of the concealment by the SNP of their subterfuge and dishonesty – everything stems from that. So let’s get it out in the open and regroup, so we can have honest debate and honest representation.
dasBlimp, SteepBrae
It’s a tenet of the doctor-patient relationship that the doctor is non-sexual in every conceivable way. The same is true for nurses and probably all medical staff to a large extent. A trans identity is entirely based on sexuality. It’s fundamentally at odds with delivering healthcare that is based on trust.
The medical profession is pretty rigorous about defending it’s position in society. I wonder how they will react to this – assuming it’s coming from a faction in the NHS administration. It would appear to be in their long term interest to oppose this, otherwise they might substantially weaken their long term position once this ideology gets consigned to the dustbin of history.
dasBlimp 10.44am
“On past form, it’s not likely is it”.
Sadly, many would agree with you.
Mia @9:59am
That there is a delay between the politicians and the political climate in the general population is an interesting observation. That says that the SNP will continue to try and deliver on Sturgeon’s vision for the foreseeable future.
However the apparent increase in support for independence even as support for the SNP is falling would appear to be a strong signal that the SNP and the electorate are in a parting of the ways. That would also suggest that the Unionists “Grand Plan” if one exists, is coming unstuck as well.
Can Alba and the ISP pick things up from there? I don’t think that is currently possible or desirable, right now. Indeed, expecting to simply pickup where the SNP left off is a mistake. Instead it should be up to the likes of Salvo and the broader Yes Movement to start to put real daylight between Scotland’s expectations and the dismal future that The Union has to offer. Once that fracture becomes an abyss then the political parties can sweep up.
“Mia is prepared to just roll over and accept the corrupt and criminal status quo”
?????
Which part of my comment above makes you think I “accept” the status quo, never mind its corruption and criminality? Please do not put words to my pen.
I appreciate it was rather long, but did you actually read the comment? Because I think you should read it before going on to make false assumptions.
I am saying I have ceased to trust the official result of elections concerning Scotland pretty much since 2014. In other words, I am saying what we are presented as democratic elections/referendums are in my view staged events to ensure “the correct” result (for the crown) is delivered. How is that “rolling over” and accepting the status quo?
I am expressing my personal opinion the British establishment colluded with elements of the SNP in the attempt to imprison Mr Salmond to preserve the status quo. How is that accepting it?
I am expressing my personal opinion Scotland’s main party of independence was hijacked by the powers that be so the status quo could be preserved. Again, how is that “rolling over” and accepting the status quo has any legitimacy?
I am implying that, in my opinion, there are no longer political parties, but just different brands of the same corrupt product controlled by one single entity for its own interest and moved as you can move pieces in a chess board. How is that accepting the status quo?
I have stated many times in here that, unless there is a political party that fields candidates on a manifesto to not take the seats, to not swear allegiance to the crown, to revoke the Treaty of Union and to start immediately negotiating Scotland’s independence, I will add in my own option to the ballot because I am determined to vote for independence no matter what. How is that “rolling over and accepting the status quo”?
I am saying what we call SNP has effectively stopped doing politics and all what they are now doing is now marketing for the union. How is that rolling over to the status quo?
As per Yousaf, when exactly have I ever accepted this man as leader of anything? Did you read my comments on this blog at the time the leadership election was taking place?
There were, in my view, around 8,000 votes with single preference for Yousaf that I found very suspicious at the time and said so in one of the threads of this blog.
They were very suspicious because it is those votes what determined the “victory” of Yousaf on the basis of first preference and ensured the contest did not go to second preferences. Had the contest moved to second preference and Yousaf would have lost.
Those votes were suspicious to me because they were issued after several party apparatchiks were trying to claim the vote should only be on first preference. They were suspicious because when you removed those 8,000 votes and looked at the numbers and proportions of the second preference vote, there were not much of a difference between those who voted for Yousaf and those who voted for Kate. In other words, those 8,000 votes without second preference were totally at odds with the trend of the rest and certainly with the proportion of single preference votes for the other two candidates. These votes looked to me as planted.
There was also some miraculous coincidences between the predictions of the percentage of overall votes they would receive. The first predictions were issued BEFORE it was announced a drop in the membership, so those were predictions made on a falsely high number of members. Yet, despite 50,000 members less, the actual proportion of votes received compared to the overall membership was spot on. It felt like that proportion of the vote was not really a variable but rather the determinant. That is not what happens in a democratic vote.
Not for even a second I have accepted that election was legit, in fact I am convinced it was rigged. I was convinced it would be rigged the minute I watched Hosie making a complete arse of himself on TV with that maniacal laughter and the horse-box man full on gaslighting to attempt to remove legitimacy from the concerns about potential rigging of the leadership election.
Of the three candidates Yousaf was the only one for whom the crown have the certainty he would bend over and let the stone go. Ms Reagan had already explicitly said she would not allow the stone to go.
Yousaf was the crown candidate. And we all know that, with the vacuum for brain occupying the SGov cabinet, the hungry troughers in Holyrood and Scotland’s MP seats in Westminster, and the political frauds within the SNP, what the crown wants, the crown gets because to roll over is what all those are there for. Hell, they even let an unelected representative of the crown sit in the middle of the cabinet so the crown can continue to laugh at us and make a complete mockery of democracy by vetoing from entering Holyrood any piece of legislation it does not like. A magnificent example of this is the Independence referendum bill.
In other words, Yousaf, just like Sturgeon did before him, is allowing the crown to indirectly control the legislative body of Scotland, against the interests of the people of Scotland, to ensure the status quo remains. That is not a democracy. It is absolute rule.
In what parallel universe have you ever heard me accepting the present “status quo” as legit?
Thanks Mia!
Can I suggest, then, that you cease to use constructs like the following:
Yousaf’s status as leader
and explore options such as:
The Great Pretender Yousaf
or
Yousaf’s pretendy status
or
Yousaf’s status as pretendy leader.
Here’s a good one:
The New Pretender Yousaf’s pretendy status as pretendy leader
Perhaps a wee bit OTT to some eyes, but it leaves no doubts whatsoever in the reader.
@ sam says:9 June, 2023 at 10:35 am
Thanks Sam.
Can you other Joe now. He didn’t seem to rate or understand your post either.
Seems to me that partial or selective othering is no kind of discrimination whatsoever. It’s just good, old-fashioned personal rancour dressed up to look sophisticated or intellectual.
Thanks in advance.
Oh, and BTW:
It underlies the stop and search of some UK police
That’s certainly an interpretation. Another interpretation is that as some segments of society are more prone to criminal behaviour than others, it is merely efficient practice for the police to focus on those specific segments.
Stuart MacKay 11.10am – good points. You said:
“It would appear to be in their long term interest to oppose this, otherwise they might substantially weaken their long term position once this ideology gets consigned to the dustbin of history”.
You would hope so but what chance is there of this eventually being consigned to the dustbin when the ideology is so ‘woven through’ the day to day running of organisations?
A culture of challenging people is being established. Accepted language is being changed. Funding sources could be at risk if organisations fail to comply. Charities’ Articles of Associations, their rules and articles, are being changed to gender neutral.
It’s a complex topic that needs open debate but folk are scared to do or say the ‘wrong thing’ especially when their job and the wellbeing of loved ones depend on keeping quiet.
sam @ 10:35 am
“Crude forms of othering the Scots are to label us as dour, skinflints, lovers of fried Mars Bars.”
The colonizer’s stereotypes employed to ‘debase the colonized’ form an essential part of colonial societies (Memmi). Dependency culture means that even the native joins in; hence ‘Appropriated Racial Oppression’ whereby the oppressed native ‘appropriates’ certain negative features about himself. He accepts his poverty, deprivation, lack of opportunity, and hopelessness as deserved due to his group’s ‘obvious’ inadequacies and inferiority, which the oppressor group constantly remind him of.
Aime Cesaire summarises the basis of the colonial relationship:
“colonial activity, colonial enterprise, colonial conquest, is based on contempt for the native”.
“Can I suggest, then, that you cease to use constructs like the following: Yousaf’s status as leader and explore options such as: The Great Pretender Yousaf”
You are welcome to suggest what you wish. I am, of course, free to choose if I wish to follow on your suggestion or not. This time I choose not to and I will tell you why:
From my point of view, ALL current party “leaders” bar Alba’s and ISP’s are the exact same thing: crown puppets acting to maintain the status quo for the benefit of the crown. That is the same purpose of the HoLs.
In that respect, there is no difference between Yousaf, Starmer, Sunak or indeed Sturgeon (I see Sarwar, Cole-Hamilton and Ross in a different category: sub-puppets. Puppets of the puppets).
For this reason, if Yousaf is to be called “The Great Pretender”, all the other UK “leaders” would have to be called Great Pretenders as well.
The way Starmer became “leader” of labour after the character assassination of Mr Corbyn makes his rights as leader also questionable from my perspective.No great difference there with the way Yousaf was catapulted to the post despite the membership. The way Sunak was elected was also questionable.
We like it or not, Yousaf is (in name only) the “leader” of the SNP. Not because the membership elected it or heaven forbid, because he has the talent for it, but because the powers that be want him there and therefore put him there.
We all know the real leader of the SNP is somewhere down in London when not in one of the castles nearby. This of course also applies, in my view, to all the other UK parties.
@ Mia at 9.59 a.m.: “Personally, I think the entity we still call “SNP” chose to give up already in early 2015.”
Yup.
Alf Baird 12:26pm
“Crude forms of othering the Scots are to label us as dour, skinflints, lovers of fried Mars Bars.”
Absolutely, Alf. I, and I’m sure others on here, have been the butt of some of those crude forms of othering most of my life from when I was a child.
When I became aware of the true nature of this supposed ‘jolly banter’ I began to push back against those who would use it against me.
And, boy, do they hate being confronted about their behaviour.
Sometimes, though, othering takes a subtler form. And I began to identify that subtler form not by what was said, but how it made me feel.
Without exception victims of the subtler forms of othering are made to ‘feel’ uncomfortable, inferior ,or diminished in some way. Often with no clear indication of why they should feel so.
Now if I encounter it, no matter who is the source, I either just walk away without explanation, or I pull them up about it.
They usually feign ignorance of what they’re up to, and maybe they are, but they get short thrift from me either way.
And like all bullies, once you ‘smack them on the nose’, they tend not to try it on with you again.
I’ve also come to the realisation that those who participate in that racist type of behaviour are more often than not projecting the truth about themselves.
@Mia –
Hear hear.
There’s a long way to go before we get this all unpicked.
If, as seems to be the case, Yousaf is just a tool and the Murrells are using him, we need to know why he’s following orders and who those orders are, ultimately, coming from. Who’s been ‘handling’ Sturgeon et al all these years?
Just because certain characters are feart of asking the hard questions doesn’t mean we should stop.
Northcode, at 10:56,
so you’ve now joined in with Alf Baird in writing works of total fiction?
As for the reparations, not ever going to happen. And if your fantasy iScotland tries confiscating land and other assets, and paying no compensation, then it’s going to be a pretty bleak place, what with no currency, central bank, trade deals or external investment. Probably not too many people, either, as the intelligent and productive ones move abroad. You’d be left with the pensioners and workshy bennies claimants.
We all now know ( thanks to Stu), just how devious and betraying the SNP have become since Alex stood down.
Its part of the plan for them to ditch Independence and become pro devolution.
The sadness and anger at this betrayal is crippling to so many who gave so much for that party, believing it would deliver independence when it could.
It can, it wont!
Time to expose them and back Alba.
The SNP as we knew it is dead.
If the SNP are prepared to swear allegiance to the English crown, then they are subservient to that crown!
Its a position that has left many nationalists uncomfortable for decades. Only now, that they have the power can we see where their loyalty really lies!
@A Scot Abroad 2:21pm
Not fiction.
I am not from your time. I merely sent an extract from a future treatise already written forty years from now.
And by ‘now’ I mean your time, not mine.
So many other factors are about to come into play in your near future (my distant past) which you are unable to foresee, or even begin to contemplate.
Humankind is standing at the threshold of a new and golden age of enlightenment and freedom – especially for the Scots.
If only you could see humanity’s bright new glorious future from where I am in the space-time continuum.
My, how we’d laugh together over a friendly cup of mead at the insignificance of our previous (previous for me – current for you) disagreements.
@Northcode
On the chance you might still read this thread. there is a piece in The Conversation about the effect of stereotyping on groups of people.
“The terrifying power of stereotypes..”
Small part of it about the effect of racial stereotypes.Scottish Cringe?
“This mechanism is due to what psychologists call “stereotype threat” – referring to a fear of doing something that would confirm negative perceptions of a stigmatised group that we are members of. The phenomenon was first uncovered by American social psychologists in the 1990s.
In a seminal paper, they experimentally demonstrated how racial stereotypes can affect intellectual ability. In their study, black participants performed worse than white participants on verbal ability tests when they were told that the test was “diagnostic” – a “genuine test of your verbal abilities and limitations”. However, when this description was excluded, no such effect was seen. Clearly these individuals had negative thoughts about their verbal ability that affected their performance.”
@Mia 12:32pm
Yousaf is (in name only) the “leader” of the SNP. Not because the membership elected it or heaven forbid, because he has the talent for it, but because the powers that be want him there and therefore put him there.
We all know the real leader of the SNP is somewhere down in London when not in one of the castles nearby. This of course also applies, in my view, to all the other UK parties.
Exactly right, Mia. The SNP, and the ‘Scottish Government’, is unravelling before our eyes.
It’s unedifying and disturbing to watch, but I’m afraid the ‘fight’ for independence was never going to be a clean one.
In some ways we who support an independent Scotland should, although it’s hard to bear right now, be thankful that the conniving and scheming that has been going on in the shadows for so long is now beginning to emerge into the light for all to see, and not just the few who have seen the truth of it for some time now.
I get the sense that Scotland’s struggle to free itself from the crippling chains of the ‘union’ is moving into a new, more urgent, phase.
@Sam 3:25pm
Thanks, Sam. I haven’t come across the concept of “stereotype threat” before. Interesting stuff.
More from The Conversation.
“Stereotype threat effects are very robust and affect all stigmatised groups. A recent analysis of several previous studies on the topic revealed that stereotype threat related to the intellectual domain exists across various experimental manipulations, test types and ethnic groups – ranging from black and Latino Americans to Turkish Germans. A wealth of research also links stereotype threat with women’s underperformance in maths and leadership aspirations.
Men are vulnerable, too. A study showed that men performed worse when decoding non-verbal cues if the test was described as designed to measure “social sensitivity” – a stereotypically feminine skill. However, when the task was introduced as an “information processing test”, they did much better. In a similar vein, when children from poorer families are reminded of their lower socioeconomic status, they underperform on tests described as diagnostic of intellectual abilities – but not otherwise. Stereotype threat has also been shown to affect educational underachievement in immigrants and memory performance of the elderly.”
Mia
There’s a big difference between those elected into a position in accordance with a pre-existing and scrupulously followed constitution, and those elected into a position by something that might be charitably described as a fraudulent fudge.
You may choose to pretend these are the same because in both cases, you don’t like the results, but they are not the same.
Not the same at all.
Soz.
The SNP is in a uniquely fraudulent position when compared with the Tories and Labour. The honour of Scotland, to use an old fashioned concept, is impugned. Denying this won’t make it go away.
“There’s a big difference between those elected into a position in accordance with a pre-existing and scrupulously followed constitution”
???????
Constitution? In what constitution is acknowledged as legit to character assassinating a current leader because he was “too socialist”, insuficiently neoliberal and not pro-Israel enough for the British establishment?
What on earth are you talking about?
“The SNP is in a uniquely fraudulent position when compared with the Tories and Labour”
You must be having a laugh. When was the last time the UK had a legit party leader election where ALL members of the party and only party members without external intereference were included in the vote?
Take a look at Sturgeon’s case. She was unopposed. Looking at how uterly useless she turned out to be, doesn’t that strike you as rather odd?
Now look at the way Truss was removed from power after a few weeks and billionaire Sunak was elevated to the podium. If that ain’t a fraudulent fudge, what is.
“The honour of Scotland, to use an old fashioned concept, is impugned”
The honour of Scotland has been systematically impugned since 1706 every single time new Scotland’s MPs and peers are sent down to Westminter and instead of acting for the benefit of Scotland they act for the benefit of the crown and the preservation of the union at all costs.
@Sam 6:42
Could you provide an example of a group that is not “stigmatised” in some way or another?
Don’t get me wrong. I am amazed and impressed by your ability to find stereotype threat effects everywhere you look. It certainly plays well with the current fad for finding everyone to be a victim of something or other.
Are you really claiming that women underperform in leadership roles? Seriously? That’s your claim?
Are you really claiming that the underperformance is due to “stereotyping”? Are you really claiming that the half of the population that are women are “stereotyping” female leaders into under performance? Alongside of the other male half, natch.
Seriously, Sam?
Mia
Have it your way.
According to you, Yousaf will do because in the final analysis, you don’t agree with “billionaire” Sunak (an out and out lie – he is not a billionaire) and you didn’t agree with Sturgeon either, or so you now claim, years after the memories have faded.
Whatever, have it your way.
I don’t doubt you speak for a minority of Scots. I greatly doubt you speak for a majority.
Yousaf is an order of magnitude more unacceptable as leader of the Scottish Independence movement. Huff and puff all you like, engage every whataboutery you can think of (Israel, WTF?), but that won’t change.