The Asset
Posted on
January 30, 2021 by
Chris Cairns
The world's most-read Scottish politics website
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Wings Over Scotland is a (mainly) Scottish political media digest and monitor, which also offers its own commentary. (More)
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A tall tale
Wee Books
Video
Probably a robbery
Transphobia
Absolutely a pure belter Chris !
Another beauty Chris!
You always raise a smile in this house. Especially welcome in these dark times. Thanks
Talking about Recruiting Sergeants, I notice all Church denominations – CofS, RC, Muslim have petitioned Scogov asking for Churches to be re-opened to allow worship.
In the most Trumpian affidavit from the Swinney delivered via an underling and via Twitter they have all been told by a ScotGov to feck-off. Churches stay shut.
Some are advocating closing Holyrood for a time. I’m coming round to that idea myself. Never in a million years are they able to run Scotland.
Great cartoon.
So, The thoroughly hated English First Minister, Boris De pfeffle Johnson (a descendant of the Scotland-hating genocidal, Butcher Cumberland), chose to travel all the way to Scotland, for NO GOOD REASON.
Why was he not arrested? Is he exempt from the law? I thought it was only in dictatorships that political leaders were above the law.
Somebody online raised the question, Imagine if Scotland’s First Minister chose to travel to London to swan around places not wearing a medical mask, and breaking social distancing rules, for NO GOOD REASON, would the response be the same????
Re: captain Yossarian ~ keeping churches closed is absolutely the right thing to do, what possible justification for opening them could there be?
Further, that’s the absolute opposite of trumpian, who took limp wristed covid measures, and bent over for churches at every opportunity
Probably briefed “under no circumstances are you to be in the company of female employees of The Scottish Government unless there are witnesses present at all times” before setting out.
I’d vote Bojo before Sturgeon. Neither will deliver Scottish independence, but Bojo doesn’t want to lock me up over what I say at the dinner table – probably with statements from a made up, imaginary witness.
HA HA another belter Chris. The boys in blue should have lifted him.
Bojo now in isolation as he been in contact with
a Scot.
After receiving thousands of complaint about the Prime Ministers’s unnecessary travel and visit to premises in Scotland, Police Scotland were apparently issuing the following response –
“ Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s visit to Scotland is a working visit in his official capacity as Prime Minister and we are policing the event appropriately. Exceptions within the Coronavirus regulations include travelling for work, and we will not be taking any further action “
Quite how travelling to Scotland supported by security protection teams, ministerial aides, Andy press aides for a photo opportunity party political constitutes work is quite astounding. There are specific legislative regulations restricting travel and restricting work.
The Police response is therefore in disregard of not just the law but also in total and utter disregard for the public health message of not travelling, staying at home, working at home where possible. Police Scotland have both consented and abetted in the breaking of public health legislation.
No doubt influenced by political direction, Police Scotland at a stroke have signalled that it is all right to travel across the country for non essential work. In doing so they have also undermined the effort of the ordinary police officers going about their daily duties. Quite how officers can issue fines as they are now doing for travel breaches and for more than family members meeting in a house I do not know. This will not make their job any easier and it destroys trust between the Police and Citizens, a trust that is very important, and a trust that is now being broken.
There was absolutely no need for this clown to travel to Scotland with his armed protection units and extensive entourage to traverse the country for a media stunt. No need at all. It was unnecessary and the message is clear from Police Scotland, or at least Police Scotland senior management, that they are not on the side of public health or enforcement of the law.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Nail, head, whack, Chris.
Re the Police Scotland response. I have yet to meet a polis who wasn’t a Tory voter – even the ones of my acquaintance who weren’t Masons, voted Tory.
Eddie Izzard the comedian who states he is a Lesbian in a man’s body
was on TV as he is on a treadmill trying for 31 marathons in 31 days.
I hated this confused product of English Boarding schools coming to Scotland
at Indy Ref 1 to tell us how lucky we were to have England rule over us.
He appears to have stepped close to his Lesbian aspersions having developed
breasts and insists he is referred to as She and Her.
Signs were there when he was last up here, he acted like a complete Fanny throughout
telling another country what they must do as a male political pundit with lip stick and suspenders on.
Let us hope she stays in her own country next time to play with his red, white and blue nail varnish.
Spot-on, I think.
@DoogidGolf – Many are open as Foodbanks anyway. Mosques continue to feed the hungry of all denominations.
Many of the old and most venerable will have been vaccinated already or will be close to being vaccinated.
You do not impart information like this, which to some is more important than anything else, via Twitter.
All at Scotgov are turning into self-important tubes….wouldn’t you agree.
AM
Well my son is a police officer and most of his colleagues are a mixture of SNP and Labour.
The Tory voters in the police are the very senior officers.
And as to today’s very apt cartoon I do note the ambivalence to public safety of the Prime Minister being cast not wearing a mask as he sits in his car.
Bet you if his name was a Margaret Ferrier MP the police would have had him up on a charge of culpable and reckless conduct!
“Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s visit to Scotland is a working visit in his official capacity as Prime Minister and we are policing the event appropriately. Exceptions within the Coronavirus regulations include travelling for work, and we will not be taking any further action “
That only applies if the work is deemed essential, and cannot be done from home, so wrong on both counts!
Socrates MacSporrin.
There are many very good police officers doing a good job in difficult circumstances. Many of these officers will be appalled at the utter bias in the application of the law. Undermining public trust in our Police is where we do not want to be. Societally this is absolutely crucial.
Police only police by consent and through public trust. Let us not underminevthe good officers doing a good job. They are after all people just like us all.
I like the Pig’s nose
The more senior police and their reps I’ve met are right wing Tories.
I tried to discretely enquiry why they are anti SNP when the Scottish Force
wasn’t cut during Tory austerity while England cut their number by 17,000.
I also noticed that Scot Gov tried to maintain their lucrative pension deal
the Tories were cutting but they said they would apply Westminster taxes
to any Scot Gov pension subsidy given to the police.
The fact that Boris openly declared his hate of the Scots I would have though
was icing on the cake for despising him and his party, but no?
We have seen evidence in recent times that the Senior Police are corrupt
and in the pocket of Westminster and act only for their own benefit.
It always amazed me that in pretty much all documentaries about U.K. criminals
like the evil Kraye Brothers that they retrospectively boast of having the top brass
in their pocket.
No one every put forward into any investigation of such claims as they know it and
they cover for each other.
Too many police see the law is not to be applied to them but by them.
RE Bojo’s visit, can the police tell us what essential service would not have been provided if he hadn’t come to Scotland?
He interrupted essential workers for photo shoots, damaged the environment by flying up on
the largest of military aircraft and cost fortunes in police protection to ensure the public never got near him.
There’s something seriously amiss if Scotland’s cause is significantly dependent on the likes of Boris Johnson. What many seem to fail to realise is that support on the back of a British Prime Minister – however despicable, or Brexit – however disastrous, is not reliable. The British Prime Minister can be removed. Perceptions of Brexit can be managed by the British propaganda machine. When these things fade from the public consciousness the support for Scotland’s cause goes with them. And experience tells us that they will fade from the public consciousness. Quickly!
The only support for Scotland’s cause that can be relied upon is that which is built on a solid foundation of awareness of and opposition to the Union. Even support built on one or other of the myriad ‘visions’ of independent Scotland is vulnerable to attack by the British state’s propaganda machine. As we saw in the 2014 referendum campaign.
The anti-independence campaign’s most effective weapon was doubt. There are lessons in this that really should have been learned by now.
I’m of the opinion we was only up to divert attention from the chosen one. If only we had a way of finding out how far in advance the visit had been planned. Great cartoon keep up the good work.
@Peter A Bell – Robin McAlpine alluded to building Scotland’s future built upon solid foundations too.
The analogy is a good one, not too complex and easily understood.
The problem we are grappling with at the moment is alleged criminality within the Scotgov and Crown Office. You cannot build on top of that.
Sort this out first, then every single one of us will all be with you.
You are absolutely right about that peter a bell. We should have a stand alone case for indepence but it would help if Boris were still pm if a referendum were ever called.
Defence and new currency is where you build from. These are two of the weakest points we fail to address constantly and the unionists know.
The rest would fall into place as there just policies. People need security first and foremost .
If ‘Bob the builder’ can do it, so can we. We just need two strong arguments when confronted with these issues, and they shouldn’t be handicaps.
What is he recruiting for? And for whom? More corrupt police for the Met? The corruption is indeed everywhere in this society. And especially so in the BBC media.
When I think of the coven of Wark and Smith and Garavelli stirring their pot in that dreadful smug film about AS made with public money I despair.
Any cursory recognition of the satirical humour of eastern European countries will tell you exactly where we are.
Its nice to see some people’s rights are protected under the SNP and will be protected in spite of oblivion. Sadly Alex did not fit in that category.
@Peter A Bell,
Absolutely spot on. No positive case for Independence made over 6 years apart from “Hate the Tories” or hate the Tory leader.
We need a positive vision and a positive business plan for the future. We are being played like a fiddle.
Nicola cannot lead much longer.That is the first step.
link to spectator.co.uk
Many of you will have seen this before but this from an academic with no political axe to grind one way or the other.
He is just ashamed of the malfeasance which is going-on in Scottish politics and law.
Together with the other malicious prosecution which is currently in the news…that of the Duff and Phelps administrators, this shameful political and legal double-act needs to be excised.
Otherwise, Scotland will take its place at the table alongside Hungary, Uganda and all of the other failed states we have dotted all over the world.
If you’re unable to speak to the people who your trying to convince about staying part of the union, then he failed. It was never about coming to Scotland it was about speaking to English and taking the heat of his track record on covid-19 and that over 100,000 people mostly English had lost their lives, so yes it was a stunt and it backed fired on both accounts. How despicable did it looks to be saying if your weren’t part of the UK then we’d be glad your citizens are dying because you’ve decided to vote for Independence and join the EU and because of this Virus any thoughts you had about Independence then this is your neighbor response about staying part of the union, do think about it. No decent leader of the 21st century would use a pandemic to try and make the argument to vote against the union.
…. maybe he was delivering vaccine?
I rather think the s**t show performance by the EU over the last few days will be added to the list in PF2 when it comes.
robbo 10.02am
So you say the starting point for an independent Scotland is a good Defence.
So what are you talking about, something similar to Ireland or something along the lines of Israel?
Would you keep the nuclear missiles?
How many fighter jets are you talking about?
Would we take one of the english Navy’s aircraft carriers?
Can you be a bit more specific?
Because all I can see you need a goof Army for is being able to build a Covid testing centre, or pick up rubbish if the bin men go on strike.
Or are you planning starting illegal wars in the Middle East.
I could think of a few other things that need sorted long before we start throwing money on jets or aircraft carriers.
Look forward to your reply.
“Some are advocating closing Holyrood for a time”
Well, those “some” certainly do not include me.
“I’m coming round to that idea myself”
Sure you are.
From where I am standing, the only ones who are advocating closing Holyrood so England can impose direct rule over Scotland are English and British nationalists.
“Never in a million years are they able to run Scotland”
Who will never in a million years be able to run Scotland?
If you are referring to Holyrood as Scotland’s Parliament and government, then I believe you are wrong.
Holyrood when run by the democratically elected representatives of Scotland, without the continuous malign, self-serving influence of the British State, can act perfectly well as a parliament and government.
Scotland is perfectly capable to run itself for itself and that is precisely why England feels it cannot let it do so. If it did, it would lose control over Scotland’s assets, on which it relies on.
The only reason why Scotland gives today the appearance of not being able to run itself at present is because it has been designed that way by the British state.
Every single democratic structure in Scotland and that is across the whole spectrum and not just politics, appears to have been infiltrated by the British state to ensure they are just pretend democratic structures and to ensure England can keep absolute control of Scotland at all times. This is now obvious in the SNP by the way the NEC has been taken over by individuals masquerading as genderwoowoo.
But if what you mean is that Sturgeon’s corrupt government or Slab, Stories or Slibdem or any other political arm of the British state cannot properly run Scotland, then absolutely, I am with you 100%.
None of those parties, including Sturgeon and Murrell’s fake SNP, are parties that have the interests of Scotland at heart. They are political parties who have been dismantled and infiltrated in a way that they only have as a priority the interests of the British state, that is England’s ruling classes for you and me.
Their problem now is that the cat is out of the bag. Enough people have seen right through their deceit.
Sturgeon’s SNP has been running Scotland on behalf of the British state for the last 6 years by pretending to keep a veneer of autonomy and the illusion that the only thing Scotland needs to be fairly governed within a British state fully dominated by England, where Scotland is subjected to exploitation and to the biggest democratic deficit in Western Europe, is its own British state political arm, one that has a name that gives the illusion of Scottish nationalism but that in reality is fighting against that nationalism.
But we have seen right through. Sturgeon’s SNP is no longer the SNP Mr Salmond left. It is the version of the SNP that the British state likes to see and is comfortable with.
If Sturgeon’s SNP was really a Scottish Nationalist party, it would have been impossible for Scotland to be governed within the British state, because a real Scottish nationalist party would have never surrendered Scotland’s autonomy, sovereignty, powers, right and assets like this fraud Sturgeon has done.
A real Scottish nationalist party would have never allowed England to force its brexit over Scotland without demanding the union to come to an end. A real nationalist party would have never allowed this British state political troll unit maskerading as “transgender” to force the party 180 degrees away from its main constitutional aim.
A real nationalist party would have never put up with the embarrassment and humiliation of having an SNP MP chairing or taking part in an allegedly “Scottish affairs committee” that includes England MPs in it, when EVEL was brought up to ensure only England MPs made decisions about England’s affairs.
We can see now that both Sturgeon, Murrell and many of those MPs pretending to represent Scotland, like Smith, Blackford, Blackman, Black, Wishart, McDonald etc are nothing but Westminster puppets who have been directly or indirectly working for the British state to ensure it holds control of the SNP to stop independence.
That is why, at a time when the independence supporters are starting to see the benefit of voting for an alternative pro indy party in the list, threatening to expose the fake pro-indy veneer of Sturgeon’s SnP, and at a time when the SNP members ae beginning to see what is going on and there is a threat that a real pro indy member could take control of the SNP, this is what happens:
Sturgeon and the British state throwing the kitchen sink at attempting to stop the SNP becoming again a vehicle for independence. They are doing this in several simultaneous ways:
1. By gagging members – by stopping them forcing a plebiscitary election entering the party’s manifesto.
2. By blocking any potential pro indy leader to take over. They are doing this by catapulting the gender woowoo unit into the NEC by the back door. They are yet again using that unit to smearing Ms Cherry with transphobia or antisemitism crap and Mr Macaskill by attempting on him a Ferrier job.
3. By leaving the committee toothless for as long as possible to ensure Sturgeon remains in power until the election, when it will be easy for the puppet to win a seat and take over from her. Has anybody else apart from me asked themselves why this committee has not asked specifically for murrell’s texts? is this because they have been told they cannot by the powers that be mouthpiece, the Lord Advocate, or is it because they might suspect Murrell could be a British asset that must be protected?
4. By ensuring the party does not win a majority in the next election. We have all seen the 11 points of deception, where the fraud Sturgeon is only prepared to deliver indyref if the sNP wins the election, didn’t we?
These people are so transparent that makes it impossible to think any of the British state operatives here, and that includes Sturgeon and Murrell could have ever been the brains behind the conspiracy against Salmond. They may have been resource investigators, shapers, implementers, but not the brains. Certainly they must have a plant here, which is who might have came up with the idea that throwing millions at the police to bring about a bogus criminal case against Mr Salmond would help the conspirators simultaneously to keep anonymity and to ensure the most crucial evidence could not be released unless heavily redacted.
But looking at the botched job they are doing right now at the end, using effectively brute force to stop the evidence coming out and to keep Sturgeon in power, the way they are parachuting Robertson to the Edinburgh seat, the stupidity of the vietnamgroup, the ridiculousness of Sturgeon pandering to a tiny minority in order to alienate everybody else, the obvious way they are trying to stop Ms Cherry and Mr Macaskill, it is evident they are lacking a complete finisher here and clearly the British state does not care how the job is done, as long as it is done.
What we need is to expose the SNP for the British State political tool it has become. we need to neuter Sturgeon’s SNP. Not Holyrood like you would wish to do, but just Sturgeon’s version of the SNP.
How do we do that?
By giving our votes to another pro independence party/ies and by doing what we can to ensure our vote is not stolen by the British state as it was in 2014. If we have to follow the ballot boxes ourselves as it was done in 2015, so be it.
Sturgeon’s SNP can only look pro indy when it is put directly in comparison with the other political arms of the british state. That is why we need real pro indy parties in holyrood:
a) to re-establish the balance
b) to expose the SnP for the fraud it has become under Sturgeon
c) to control policies and stop the genderwoowoo nonsense
d) to depoliticize COPFS and the police by ensuring they are no longer under the control of government, but they become instead independent bodies
e) by scrutinising much more what entities the government is subsididing with taxpayers’ money to do their political work for them -Rape Crisis Scotland?
We have ISP in the list. We need a pro indy alternative to the SNP in the constituency. I think it is time we start looking at other options. The SNP is finished. We have 3 months.
🙂 Another belter, cheers Chris!
__________
This is what Sturgeon has sacrificed Indy & at least several thousand women for. And most of Jo Public are not even aware yet. link to twitter.com
Try this one: link to twitter.com
By how much has Scotlands resources been looted since Ms Sturgeon came to the head of the SG. A monetary value would be helpful.
Socrates MacSporran Maybe where you live, perhaps due to being in South Ayrshire but i have a few Polis on my FB friends who are Pro Indy.
Others I know are Labour, So like the general population , different polis have different Political views.
wullie says:
30 January, 2021 at 10:55 am
“By how much has Scotlands resources been looted since Ms Sturgeon came to the head of the SG. A monetary value would be helpful.”
I would bet they have spent more trying to get Salmond than they spend on the entire Scottish Welfare Fund’s yearly budget-45 mil.
@Mia – ‘Sturgeon has been running Holyrood on behalf of the British state for the past 6-years’ – No, she hasn’t.
The British State has left her to get on with it and she has allowed corruption and nepotism to take over.
You have a political axe to grind and that clouds your judgement. There is just no basis in fact for making the statements that you make on these pages.
The British State are not involved. This calamity has been caused by Nicola Sturgeon alone. Is that not what the academics and the diminishing number of straight lawyers we have left in Scotland are saying?
A quick return to the Alex Salmond brand of combative but fair politics is what we all deserve and I think that there would be very few people reading these pages that would disagree with that.
Remember at the end of the Westminster expenses scandal, several politicians went to jail? Do you think the same thing will happen here and if so, to whom?
I’ll give you a clue….Holy-Willie during the Westminster expenses scandal was Nicola Sturgeon….that could never happen in Scotland….well a lot worse has happened and what is she going to do about it?
Forget Sturgeon. She’s a goner and if Holyrood doesn’t get its act together shortly, it will be a goner too.
The SNP is full of crooks in high places. Get your head round that and we can continue this debate.
Mia @10:48
A very good analysis of the situation.
Isn’t one of the problems with Police Scotland that senior officers are increasingly being recruited from England and “Norn” Ireland? It’s the old Scottish regiment but English officer syndrome/control mechanism, surely.
Most ordinary polis seemed sympathetic and low-key during the AUOB marches.
Out for Indy!
Out for Indy!
We’ve got to get Sturgeon out if we want indy.
Many thanks Tinto Chiel for your kind words on the other thread.
@Socrates MacSporran
Presumably you are a Freemason or you would not be able to tell which polis was or wasn’t.
I am not a Freemason, member of a political party, member of a religious organisation or a golf or any other sporting club.
I know quite a few policemen and women who do not vote Tory. If you are going to attribute ‘pish’ to me, at least make sure of your own journalistic incontinence.
“No, she hasn’t”
Yes, she has. Because if she didn’t, there is no way she would have handed over to England Mps the control of our assets or would allow them to force brexit on us without demanding the end of the union first. Remember that this woman has had the power to end the union since 8th May 2015.
“The British State has left her to get on with it”
It has left her get on with it because she is working for them.
“You have a political axe to grind”
Indeed I do. I have nothing to give but contempt by those who use their position of power to abuse others, to send innocent people to jail, to waste taxpayers’ money in political vendettas or to deceive others.
“that clouds your judgement”
My judgement was clouded until 31st January 2020. On that day, suddenly “the cloud” disappeared.
“There is just no basis in fact for making the statements that you make on these pages”
Show me the evidence that they are wrong.
“The British State are not involved”
Show me the evidence that proves it. The evidence that is in front of my eyes tells me that UK civil servants have been involved in this.
“This calamity has been caused by Nicola Sturgeon alone”
No. She has had an army of UK civil servants and plants within the SNP to help her.
“Is that not what the academics and the diminishing number of straight lawyers we have left in Scotland are saying?”
In the same way that by brain says there is a man in front of you when what I see is a male dressed as a woman, no matter what Sturgeon says, when I look at the evidence that is available, my brain says the British state has been involved on this since the word go. What any lawyer says does not even enter the equation.
“A quick return to the Alex Salmond brand of combative but fair politics is what we all deserve”
Yes, but not within the SNP. The SNP was killed by Sturgeon and the British state on the 14 November 2014. We need another pro indy party.
“Remember at the end of the Westminster expenses scandal, several politicians went to jail? Do you think the same thing will happen here and if so, to whom?”
Whoever is the weakest link. Who is the less valuable asset for the British state right now? I think you need to ask that question to the British state, not me.
“Forget Sturgeon”
I will start to forget her when I see her sent to prison.
“If Holyrood doesn’t get its act together shortly, it will be a goner too”
What do you mean by “gets its act together”? Please elaborate.
“The SNP is full of crooks in high places”
You call them crooks. I call them British state assets.
“Get your head round that and we can continue this debate”
My head is exactly where it needs to be, thank you. I do not think there is anything here to discuss, actually. It is clear to me the British state has its hands on this up to their armpits and until the time you provide any evidence to the contrary, no matter how much words you put in your comments and how much of a patronising attitude you choose to adopt, my head will not be going anywhere.
Bring the evidence forward that backs your position and, at that point, we can START the debate.
@kapelmeister: 🙂
Mair poo’er tae yir elbuck.
…. down here in England, we are waiting, with baited breath, to hear Ms Sturgeon’s support for the EU’s decision to introduce a hard border in Ireland.
I read In the Daily Hail that the enquiry into the disastrous
Edinburgh Labour Council Tram fiasco is now in its 7th year and the enquiry
cost so far is £12.8 million?
The enquiry is even later than the tram system itself so maybe there will be an enquiry
into the enquiry and another few million can be wasted, given time?
They can have this for free- Labour couldn’t run a piss up in a brewery.
The streets in Edinburgh renowned for being awash with utility services
that are too near the surface and specific location of never recorded.
What they needed was Electric buses ran on dedicated lanes.
Would have saved 30 years of excessive Dept, years of disruption to business
and commuters and more than just half of the intended network would have been built.
Don’t do it again!
There we are in just 2 minutes, 8 years and £12 million saved!
Story in the press regarding the Lord Advocate again.
Looks like 2 Rangers directors picked up £10 million each
for wrongful prosecution.
Looks like another 7 year long whitewash enquiry will be required
and another £10 million down the drain.
Thank God there is always money available to cover corruption and incompetence!
“Boris Johnson should stay out of independence debate, No campaign boss urges”
Please forgive me if i’ve missed the grand announcement but since when has McDougall the Poodle been the No campaign *boss*? Self-appointed? LOL! Coward wouldn’t even take on Stuart Campbell in a live debate challenge, he bottled it after all his usual bullshit bravado. Even louder LOL! link to archive.is
BTW, McDougall, Bozo’s the PM of the UK so too fricken right he should be involved. After-all Scotland deserves the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Scotland needs to see what it gets for its ‘No vote’.
Sensible Dave 11.31am
And I can’t wait to get our own hard border built between Scotland and Manky Land.
Oh the joy.
How are you doing sensible we have missed you.
As you well know there is no ‘hard border’, nobody standing stopping the traffic or searching cars. They have placed restrictions on a American/German firm based in Belgium transporting vaccine outside the EU.
The strange thing is that unionists are outraged at this, but not at the fact the Westminster government has set up a system where British troops travelling to N Ireland have to fill out EU import export forms.
Take a moment to think about that, to move across the UK the British army need the EU’s approval. And Westminster agreed to it!!
Stephen Gethins tells Catalonia’s most popular media outlets on Scottish independence- “The Independence Ship in Scotland Has Sailed”
link to thenational.scot
Good cartoon Chris, but bojo should have had his push bike on top of his car, so he could travel seven more mile illegally and thumb his nose at the Scottish police too.
Slab leader hopeful Monica Lennon has said that Scottish Labour needs to get away from wheeling out party grandees to preach at folks.
LOL. I think she means you Gordie Broon.
Mia @10.48 am – Spot on. I agree with every word.
.
I don’t think there is enough time to start a new party.
.
Might I suggest that ISP puts constituency candidates up against the worst offenders. Nicola sturgeon, Kirsty Blackman and Humza useless should suffice. The rest of the SNP MSPS are, in the main, spineless cowards but I cannot see how dislodging them will help achieve independence at this time.
.
I cannot believe as a SNP member that I am more and more thinking of ways to defeat them without handing the advantage to the yoons.
.
To the spineless cowards in the Scottish Parliament – the key phrase for you is “at this time”.
Tinto Chiel says:
30 January, 2021 at 11:19 am
“Isn’t one of the problems with Police Scotland that senior officers are increasingly being recruited from England and “Norn” Ireland? It’s the old Scottish regiment but English officer syndrome/control mechanism, surely”
This has been the case since before amalgamation. During McConnell’s administration, it was raised as an issue after it was noted that the chief constable of every police force in Scotland was English.
@Mia – I admire your indefatigability – that’s an oblique reference to George Galloway, by the way. I was never his biggest fan, but on the subject of the present day SNP, I’m in full agreement with him.
Would George Galloway be confident of winning a debate against Sturgeon, Swinney and James Wolffe?…..I think he would.
Would he be confident of winning a debate against Alex Salmond?….No he wouldn’t.
There’s your answer.
The leader of the Holyrood opposition, Baroness Ruth Davidson, is half retired, half interested and doesn’t give two hoots about what goes-on around her. She is culpable too.
What can you say about Willie Rennie and Jackie Baillie – Holyrood is just a job for these two. They get by, by doing as little as humanly possible.
Holyrood is supposed to work for people. As I understand it they ignore people and don’t even answer correspondence. What good is that to anyone?
Holyrood doesn’t work, Mia. It need reform. I always reckoned that Alex Salmond for the SNP and Ian Murray for Labour would give it fresh legs, but both these options were too far-off in the end.
One last thing – there is some evidence which would support my use of the term ‘crooks’ to describe the SNP. I don’t believe there is any evidence for you to be calling them British State operatives. I think they are just crooks….simple as that.
“Might I suggest that ISP puts constituency candidates up against the worst offenders”
I am not sure running ISP candidates both in the constituencies and the lists would be a very good idea, to be honest. Remember that Sturgeon’s genderwoowoos are mainly in the lists. If you put an ISP candidate in the constituency and the ISP win, the ones in the ISP list for that constituency will not get in, opening the door of Holyrood to Sturgeon’s genderwoowoos.
No, I think we need 2 different pro-indy parties (I do not include the SNP as a proindy party anymore), one running in the constituency and the other in the lists to maximise the yes vote. The Rev has explained this many times.
Stu Foster
you might not think a plan for defense and currency is very important but you better believe the unionists do and they will be banning on about it.
Given our neighbors I would think a Swiss style army would be good.
BTW Faslane is the best card in our deck and must be played wisely and not thrown away carelessly
Just had a thought : If ISP adopt my proposal. I would suggest that they should also put a candidate up against a single SNP MSP (drawn by lottery) – who has not spoken up about the genderwoowoo by a specified date.
.
Like the company innocence -we have to make it much more difficult for those who are complicit with the genderwoowoo.
Stu Foster says:
30 January, 2021 at 10:47 am
robbo 10.02am
So you say the starting point for an independent Scotland is a good Defence.
——-
You carry on old champ. Obviously you have it all sorted. You’re going to take this, get rid of that, do this do that to the English..
No idea why people like yourself visit indy blogs, really don’t.
Good luck, I’ll go back to observing for now. I won’t engage with fools.
Good luck with baiting others.
Mia – I don’t think they would win. However I agree a separate party would be better – but I don’t think there is time.
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Putting up four constituency candidates would increase the media profile and show that ISP mean business.
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However I am not yet a member.
Yo Shug, me old mucker!
Interesting times. Folks in Ireland waking up to the fact that the EU didn’t really care about them and they were just used as a pawn.
Scottish Elections coming up in a background of the s**t show surrounding Ms Sturgeon and Mr Salmond.
Doom mongers that forecast chaos at the borders post Brexit keeping v quiet.
U.K. vaccination programme showing EU to be bumbling autocratic mess.
“Events” dear boy, “events”.
For anyone interested in politics and news, these are very interesting times.
PRO BONO PUBLICO & all that crap.
This is one post millennial not taking the bait.
link to spiked-online.com
Though the influencers in the SNP appear very on message.
@Stu Foster says:
30 January, 2021 at 10:47 am
robbo 10.02am
“So you say the starting point for an independent Scotland is a good Defence.
So what are you talking about, something similar to Ireland or something along the lines of Israel?”
Defence policy means having an effective military with the capability to defend Scotland’s assets, provide support in areas of conflict (eg Somalian pirates) and humanitarian support – an example of humanitarian support was the UK sending two field hospitals to Rwanda in the early 90s.
There is also the question of future threats. No one knows what will happen in 10, 20 , 50 years time.
You do not need a large military, but you need an effective one.
Nice cartoon.
It made me think of Nicola as the SNP ‘recruiting sargeant’ for an ever wider range of minority interest groups as being the revised purpose of the SNP under her ‘leadership’.
But never to further the interests of the longest and most oppressed minority ethnic group still held in the UK known as ‘the Scots’.
Davie Oga @ 12.03
Sounds a bit like colonialism?
Sensibledave
ha ha never mind the folk in EU don’t care the folk in Westminster don’t care.
Westminster politicians care more about the pencil on their desk than they do about anyone outside their bubble.
As soon as the pencil has lost its shine it is tossed in the bin and another one found.
Folk in N Irelend and Scotland need to waken up and take back control!!
“I don’t think they would win”
They don’t need to. If all what you want is some of Sturgeon’s most unsavoury candidates (including herself) out of the constituency seats, the only thing you need is to divide the yes vote enough in the constituency to make Sturgeon’s candidate lose the seat. This can be done with another party or with a good independent candidate as a contender.
But then you will have to ensure Sturgeon’s SNP doesn’t win the list seat either, otherwise you would be letting the genderwoowoos through the back door.
The idea that Sturgeon is putting some of those unpalatable genderwoowoo characters first in the list as a threat to make people think that unless they vote SNP in the constituencies they would be letting the genderwoowoos in, has crossed my mind more than once.
We need the ISP running in the list and another pro indy party that is happy to use the election as a plebiscite running in the constituency.
Any takers?
@Mia
To suggest that NS and PM aren’t being “run”, given what is known about the British state, needs “evidence” in the way the statement: “Tea is grown in India” does.
@Effijy,
`don`t do it again`,
Edin council has green lighted the trams down Leith and on to Newhaven,
the leader of Edin Council is Leith Councilor Adam McVey,
this was the selling point,
`In the first year of operation, the council predicts 16 million passengers will use the line.`
that would mean 45,000 people per day going to and from Newhaven, (why? i have no idea)
nothing wrong with Newhaven my Grandparents and my Dad were from Granton/Newhaven and nothing wrong with Leith as my alma mater was Leith Walk Primary.
@Josef Ó Luain
I agree.
Shug
I guess the serious point in all of this is whether all these “events” improve the chances of an indyref and Scottish Independence – or reduce them.
As an independent observer, I would judge the latter at this time.
Long blog Mia, but spot on.
Maybe we should distinguish between the SSNP and SNP. I vote SNP but not SSNP ( Sturgeons SNP Vs the SNP is where we are)
The logic of maximising a vote for the ISP is a must. And of course, depending whether there is an SSNP come the election then there can be alternative targeted constituency candidates.
This is a fight the SSNP will not win
Mia’s right about Brit involvement in this shit bucket. I’ve thought that since ever I heard for the second or third time ‘Whitehall advised against…’
And yes they did say that; officially. But what’s said over a snifter of brandy in the civil service club would be entirely different, probably ending with something like ‘of course we will deny all knowledge’.
Another thought, before covid when yoon mp’s all got up and walked out whenever a Scots mp got up to speak they would only do that if they know there’s not a fight, nothing to worry about, none of the snp are going to say anything untoward or anything that might unsettle them so why hang about and hear the drivel? No need. If it were otherwise they would’ve been there for sure.
Scotlands in safe hands with Nic Tractor and the Gang of Its.
Sensibledave says:
30 January, 2021 at 12:19 pm
Yo Shug, me old mucker!
“Interesting times. Folks in Ireland waking up to the fact that the EU didn’t really care about them and they were just used as a pawn.”
Classic English take on things. All comes down to this inbuilt belief that The Irish are going to come back to the mothership of fools one day when they realize their mistake. Its been a hundred years pal and they aren’t ever coming back.
I woke up in Ireland this morning. It’s one of the richest, most socially just countries on earth. A Republic of free men and women. A fantastic place to run a business and somewhere with generous social security system for people who are struggling.
No educated Irish person would ever trade what there is now for what was, nor would they trade it on the basis of perfidious promises of what could be.
Almost as delusional as Patel thinking that they should threaten Ireland with food exports. A country completely dependendent on foreign food threatening to start a food trade war with a country that produces a massive food trade surplus.
I’ll tell you something else Dave. Plenty of people here could watch you starve without batting an eyelid or raising a hand.
BritNat Blair MacDougal urges the “Asset” to stay out of the indy debate.
The ex-Better Together chief knows Johnson is a liability.
link to msn.com
Meanwhile Cherry blocks Blackman on Twitter.
link to msn.com
I notice all Church denominations – CofS, RC, Muslim have petitioned Scogov asking for Churches to be re-opened to allow worship.
Not true. I understand it’s mainly fringe sects doing this. Certainly CofS and the Scottish Episcopal Church have distanced themselves from the action.
Salmond’s team have a statement from a named SNP official (a SPAD) who states that Scotgov knew that they would lose the judicial review against Salmond (and hence all the money) but that they were sure to get him at the criminal trial.
This is the sort of stuff that Salmond promised would see the light of day after the trial and after the pandemic.
Pretty devastating if this does see the light of day. Somehow, I cannot see it remain hidden for too much longer.
Worrying times for James Wolffe QC…an political agent of the SNP?
RepofScot @12:53
McDoughball acknowledges that the UK PM is an embarrassment in Scotland. In that case Blair, what is the use of the union?
Effijy, what on Earth is going on with your line breaks?
@Beaker 12.23pm
Well said. The defence spending angle was always a potential strength for the Yes campaign that was IMO criminally underused in 2012-14. Little has really changed in the interim. Scotland contributes circa 9% to an annual UK defence budget of £40 billion (2.2% of GDP).
There is no way any sane post indy government could justify that level of expenditure: even 50% of our share of that level would be more than adequate to provide an adequately resourced military establishment which protected Scotland’s EEZ and contributed to UN peacekeeping, disaster relief and if required to NATO.
Given that the expenditure would also be able to be directed much more directly for spending on infrastructure in Scotland and with Scottish technology companies, shipyards etc, we’d also get more direct economic benefit from our defence £’s. We alos wouldn’t have to wait for the RN to send a ship from Portsmouth to chase the Russian Navy out of the Moray Firth as at present.
When yoons start bloviating about GERS, none of them ever have an answer when they start frothing at the mouth about the “£X billion black hole” when it is pointed out that independence immediately allows you to pocket an annual saving of at least £2 billion pounds we won’t be contributing to the bloated UK defence budget, not to mention the ratchet effect of spending a higher % of the Scottish defence budget in Scotland.
Part of the weakness in this area is that the SNP appear not to be that interested in defence and security as an area, and like so many other areas (like currency) effectively abandoned the field to British nationalists without ever really commissioning any third party non-UK experts to put the alternative case.
Davie Olga
No David. I do not hope or wish anything of the sort with respect to Ireland. It is your projection and prejudice that results in you see everything through that prism.
I don’t live my life on the basis of the outcome of historical events, often that happened 100s of years ago.
I am ambivalent on the issue of Scottish Independence. If the majority of Scots want Independence, then so be it. Just like when I voted Remain, and was outvoted. If a people vote, democratically, for a particular outcome, then that MUST be enacted.
Your final comment is exactly the sort of comment that tends to come from people of low intelligence and wit, so I won’t hold it against you. Have a nice day.
“I woke up in Ireland this morning. It’s one of the richest, most socially just countries on earth. A Republic of free men and women. A fantastic place to run a business and somewhere with generous social security system for people who are struggling.”
Ireland also has gender self id which has not caused the sky to fall in on it’s women.
dakk
“Ireland also has gender self id…”
Naw, they have ‘it’s yourself’ id.
Mia @ 10:48
Excellent summary and I’m with you on all those points.
We have to remember that Nicola’s ‘Special Advisors’, have their grubby hands all over this and essentially report to the English Civil Service.
Once you get it into your head, that the leader of the SNP colluded with the Civil Service to bring down Scotland’s greatest ever politician it becomes clear in my eyes that there is more to this than a personal vendetta. The fact that not one media outlet or politician is willing to bring this out in the open speaks volumes.
Another option is that she is Naive beyond belief and was played like a fiddle from day one which I don’t believe for a second.
Alf
If looks, walks and quacks like a colony..
I once got out of a tricky situation in Nigeria when a street boy was questioning where I’m from. I said Scotland. He said, “You were colonised like us.” We made common ground.
Maybe I should have lectured him about how I was personally responsible for the slave trade, offered him compensation, and recommended that he heads to Scotland, wearing a bra and lace panties, for a guaranteed positive asylum application and instant political influence and power.
Really excellent cartoon Chris. I thought last weeks was good but this one beats it!
Willie says:
“There are many very good police officers doing a good job in difficult circumstances. Many of these officers will be appalled at the utter bias in the application of the law. Undermining public trust in our police is where we do not want to be. Societally this is absolutely crucial.”
I’m very glad you said that Willie. I used to live in one of the most deprived areas in Glasgow and there was more than one occasion when I had to rely on the police for the safety of my life. I have also witnessed them having to deal with sectarian violence at great threat to their own life. Like all organisations it is not the ordinary worker who should be victimised but the culture of governance which comes down from management (and in the case of the police the management are generally colonial administrators i.e. English). Similar to the SNP in fact; seen in the gulf between the leadership cabal and the ordinary grassroots supporter of independence.
I agree with other commentators that a new Scotland must be built on solid foundations – which to my mind are those of truth, justice and equality for all.
And I like it Kapelmeister: Get Sturgeon Out for Indy!
Ottomanboi says:
30 January, 2021 at 12:23 pm
PRO BONO PUBLICO & all that crap.
This is one post millennial not taking the bait.
link to spiked-online.com
Though the influencers in the SNP appear very on message.
The NGO / Corporate funding webs make the Scottish Government shenanigans look amateurish by comparison
@ Astonished at 12.01
Kirsty Blackman is a Westminster MP.
Davie Oga @ 1:16
“If looks, walks and quacks like a colony..”
Aye, as The Corries used to say, “If the hat fits wear it”.
I also did quite a bit of travelling working in transnational research projects and was often asked ‘if any of the academics in Scotland’s universities were Scottish’?
I agree totally with Mia @ 10.48 that we need another new pro-Independence Party to challenge on the constituency vote. The ISP won’t do it, according to what we hear from Muscleguy, but it still needs to be done. I would urge ‘Action for Independence’ to rise to this challenge, either giving the ISP a free run for the List votes or (perhaps more difficult) making some kind of accommodation with them (the ISP) regarding the List.
I know ‘Action for Independence’ (formerly ‘Alliance for Independence’) was originally conceived as a List-only Party. The idea then was vote SNP on the constituency vote, and AfI on the List. But that was when the SNP was still believed to be a genuine Pro-Indy Party. Not the bunch of kick-the-can-for-ever-down-the-road Procrastinators, whose real priorities were other (entirely different, horrific and totally unacceptable) agenda, which we now know them to be (thanks above all to their being exposed by Stuart Campbell on this website).
Things have moved on since AfI was conceived as a List Party, and the launch of the ISP means that boat has already sailed. I think the AfI can still find the right candidates, sufficiently high profile either locally or nationally, to win some constituencies.
It probably should not run everywhere, but target especially two kinds of constituencies. First, those few which are held by a Unionist Party. And second, especially, those many where the SNP are putting up a candidate whose support for independence is either lukewarm or an out-and-out lie or, quite simply, entirely secondary to other agenda.
These fake people in Nicola Sturgeon’s fake Party need to be exposed for what they are, even during the campaign. And we need a good AfI/genuine-pro-Indy candidate running against her in Govanhill as well, if she is still around by then.
Somebody has to stir up a stooshie. That stooshie should have already begun to happen within the SNP itself, and be out in the open by now – in much bigger numbers than the four or five who have so far put their head above the parapet. Just the threat of the AfI going for the constituency votes might be enough to make it happen.
This might even be the tipping point that would make them get rid of Sturgeon before the May election. If that is the outcome, it would already be beneficial, hopefully preventing the SNP from shoeing in their preferred Sturgeon lookalike to replace her as leader in the election’s aftermath. (Angus Robertson cannot become leader if he is neither an MSP nor an MP).
I know there are pitfalls and objections, but couldn’t AfI think about this? And come to some arrangement with the ISP?
crazycat – thanks for the info re Kirsty Blackman. rage just made me see red.
@mia, 10.48
Well said especially
A real Scottish nationalist party would have never allowed England to force its brexit over Scotland without demanding the union to come to an end. A real nationalist party would have never allowed this British state political troll unit maskerading as “transgender” to force the party 180 degrees away from its main constitutional aim.
A real nationalist party would have never put up with the embarrassment and humiliation of having an SNP MP chairing or taking part in an allegedly “Scottish affairs committee” that includes England MPs in it, when EVEL was brought up to ensure only England MPs made decisions about England’s affairs.
As regards working for the UK state, how on earth did the SNP Westminster parliamentary group come to employ Neal R Stewart, linked to the UK intelligence psy-op Integrity Initiative?
I agree with you 100% cirsium. It only began to twig after that damp squib of a speech by NS almost exactly a year ago – when we were all expecting her to reveal the plan for Indy we thought she had kept up her sleeve all the time.
Instead, we got ‘no plan for Indy’. Then what came out in the next twelve months was her truly terrible plans – and dastardly deeds – for all kinds of other things that would only undermine the independence cause. The kind of things which no one in his right mind, or with even a modicum of common sense and a minimum appreciation of justice, would ever countenance.
When you have a choice between right and wrong, you can’t choose – or vote for – what is clearly or inherently wrong. The SNP needs a massive turn-around BEFORE the May election. Pressure must be brought to bear, not least by the emergence of a new and genuine independence Party.
Captain Yossarian@1.01pm
just heard exactly those words on the BBC at 6pm. prefixed with the information that … “The BBC has seen a document…. trial of Alex Salmond …. but that they were sure to get him at the criminal trial” more or less word for word resembling your post, without the last bit about Wolffe.
dakk@1.08pm
Ireland does have gender recognition but I understand that you cannot change your birth certificate therefore if you are born a man you stay a man, but you can choose to live your life as a woman if you so wish. However, if you commit a crime you will be sentenced according to your birth certificate, i.e. your sex at birth. So, no trans gender women in jail with cis gender women.
Open to correction if I have this wrong folks.
Captain Yossarian…anyone who quotes George Galloway favourably is a Brit Troll. Galloway is fronting another Better together Brit nat/77 Brigade dirty tricks strategy. He moved across the border, bought a house in Dumfriesshire and is now embedded waiting to feed off the ensuing shit storm which we are going to face very soon indeed.
I have always maintained the Salmond stitch up was Westminster led via Civil Service personnel, who at the top are English( Lloyd, Evans) and or ‘loyalist'(McKinnon) ..Westminster pretended not to support the retrospective changes that led to the industrial misconduct charges against Salmond. Whether Sturgeon is a ‘sleeper’ or a malicious paranoid wee eejit is irrelevant. They all worked in concert.
The result is a Unionist wet dream: Salmond versus Sturgeon and a tsunami of sewage is guaranteed to sweep away any chance of a May majority in Holyrood for the totally compromised SNP. Leaving the movement leaderless. I said months ago on here that if we were on the cusp of nationhood why were all the usual suspects grabbing golden parachutes? And even while time marches on the rest sit silent like a petrified forest of political prostitutes. They are all, with a very few clear exceptions, complicit with the sabotage of our movement. But we the ‘YES’ people must come through this shameful betrayal being perpetrated and drive out those befouling our political system.All the parasitical qu*slings sidelining our Independence and pushing men in party frocks as a priority must be cast out into the wilderness of political ignominy.
“You Yes Yet?” (enquired pointing Hamish) ~
Yes aye am.
Aye Be.
CC.
Lochside
Correct, the unionist establishment in Scotland are also in this pretty deep according to the evidence so far. What Osborne called ‘the arms’ of the British state in Scotland – copfs, police and UK civil servants in Scotland – nothing would have happened without that tripartite. The SNP elite may have pointed the direction for the hounds to run, but the latter did the rest.