The Broken Mike
Mike Russell, currently at the centre of controversy over his appointment as chair of the Scottish Land Commission, hit the political big stage during Scotland’s first ever SNP administration under Alex Salmond, whom, in turn, Mike had previously seen into office as Salmond’s campaign manager.
In 2007 he was appointed as Minister for Environment, then in 2009 he became the Minister for Culture, External Affairs and the Constitution, and his conventional ministerial career concluded when he went on to replace Fiona Hyslop as Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning until the end of 2014.
Following the 2014 independence vote, the pre-referendum era ended with Salmond’s dignified (albeit temporary) stage exit; Nicola Sturgeon took the helm and began to reform what had been left to her by her predecessor.
A core pillar of Sturgeon’s centrist reform was the construction of an almost entirely opaque ivory tower of power from which both SNP and the state would run their covert affairs with subversive, centralizing, strong-arm granularity, cleverly camouflaging its sinister implications from the public through cult-of-personality media management.
Instrumental in this, among a very few select others, was Mike Russell.
Under Sturgeon’s lead, everyone – from local authority to public body, government-affiliated charity, local group, party branch and all sorts of other public stakeholders – would spend the next 10 years losing agency and influence, while ‘gaining’ additional external, up-the-ladder oversight and decision makers, all of whose paths lead straight to and from the Sturgeon/Murrell front door.
While occupied at Glasgow University as Professor of Culture and Governance, Mike Russell’s first Sturgeon-era Scottish government appointment as Minister for UK Negotiations On Scotland’s Place In Europe in August 2016 came a matter of weeks after the Brexit referendum.
Readers will remember that period in Scottish politics as one of widespread fury. Representatives were barking their heads off in Westminster, Holyrood and the media, foaming at the mouth about the anti-democratic outrage of Scotland being dragged out of the EU against its will. The SNP and Scottish Greens did their utmost to virtue-signal about how “we’re a’ Jock Tamson’s bairns” toward so-called “New Scots” into any microphone and camera within their grasp on a daily basis.
More than that: First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s inward-migration charm offensive (starting immediately after the Brexit vote, with the strategic masterstroke of sending a letter to every obtainable Scottish address where a New Scot might have been known to reside, stating that non-UK and EU citizens were ‘welcome and valued’’ here) was so successfully projected across all of the UK that a significant number of utterly Brexit-scunnered rUK residents, many of them English, moved to Scotland.
They came to join our wee rebel nation in the hope that uprooting their lives would protect them from losing their personal EU citizenship and all the other obvious negative consequences observably flowing from Britain’s leaving the EU.
In theory, this not only aided Scotland’s particularly precarious population growth (half of which was entirely dependent on EU citizens migrating here), but also, according to polls from the time, also significantly bolstered support for Scottish independence, especially from within the ‘Other’ (read: non-Scots) quarter which thus far had been roundly scapegoated for preventing a YES win at the 2014 indy ref.
By June 2018, Russell had returned to the corridors of Sturgeon’s inner sanctum, appointed to go and see men about dogs as Scotland’s Secretary for Government Business and Constitutional Relations. Readers may recall him publishing cognitively defective “strategy” like his infamous 11-Point Plan, which was hailed as the assured route guaranteed to lead Scotland to the holy well of independence.
In May 2018 the Scottish government had published the Sustainable Growth Commission; an incredibly lengthy, neoliberal, integrity-void independence “white paper”, produced by Andrew Wilson (a former SNP MP, then of mysterious lobbying group Charlotte Street Partners) on behalf of the Scottish Government – seemingly ‘selflessly’, without any monetary reward what so ever.
As you will no doubt recall, within the Scottish political landscape and among the people of Scotland the Growth Commission went down not entirely unlike the Brexit referendum lead balloon from a few years earlier, and Mike Russell received his latest deployment orders as the Trusty Wet Blanket of Flame Extinguishment.
It was then, after the roaring non-success of his previous appointment, that I – in my then role as creative director for EU Citizens for an Independent Scotland – first had the lasting displeasure of having to interact with Russell personally.
A theme of fly-by-gaslight strategy was swiftly emerging in the way he handled all his professional affairs: “Problem? What problem? I think you’ll find I have been very clear in saying that we take full responsibility for openly claiming we never promised to take responsibility.”
He took the same approach when the independence grassroots grew discontentedly restless, having been marched up the indy hill twice by their tartan-heeled First Woman Minister. While SNP internal democracy was being effectively and perceptibly eroded away from the membership, tangible steps that would have been undeniable indicators of the Scottish government’s preparing the way towards independence continued to be notable only by their absence.
During his tenure as Secretary for Government Business and Constitutional Relations the party’s NEC was reformed (chiefly by Angus Robertson) to remove a significant number of membership-elected representatives and to include a number of seats directly appointed by and filled through Nicola Sturgeon’s inner circle and staffers.
Party conferences were either being cancelled or gutted to remove any opportunity for meaningful, democratic debate on policy, strategy and internal transparency. The SNP’s CEO, the First Minister’s husband, Peter Murrell, had personally implemented a policy that made it next to impossible for local party branches to effectively contact and coordinate with each other.
In his time as Glasgow Uni’s lecturer on Culture and Governance, Mike Russell might have had something valuable to say publicly about such anti-democratic manipulation of governance procedures and what devastating effect they would have on the political culture, not just of a single political party but an entire nation. But from within the Cabinet, not a peep was heard.
Russell accepted the honorary position of SNP President at the SNP’s November 2020 conference. But he made no efforts to resolve the questions troubling a growing number of members: what actually happened with the £600k+ independence campaign crowdfunder? Why is Scotland imprisoning a whistle-blower journalist? Why do membership policies overwhelmingly voted for through established SNP democratic processes get silently binned without any hint of party-wide discussion?
And, pivotally: Why is the First Minister’s SNP CEO husband refusing to offer any access to, nor meaningful explanation of, the party’s financial accounts, not even to the party’s own elected financial office-bearers?
He did, however, take up the role of head of the SNP’s “independence unit” (isn’t the entire SNP supposed to be an “independence unit”?) in 2021, standing attentively by the fire extinguisher as an series of further underwhelming “white papers” have been intermittently produced and universally ignored, and “broadcasting platforms” and “rebuttal units” have sputtered briefly then vanished, or simply never happened at all.
Before suddenly resigning to take up his controversial new role, Russell spent most of his three year SNP presidency repeating that everything was absolutely fine (“we’ve got LOADS of members!”), the party accounts were in perfect order (“as per my last letters…”) and that any issues with life, the universe and everything should be directed to sauron666@westminster.gov.uk.
Every political open wound Mike Russell has been sent in to apply a sticking plaster to in the last decade went on to fester under his Band-Aid facade, right up until the unmistakable stench of backbone necrosis became impossible to ignore, or for even Russell to continue deny.
And then, once again, Mike Russell’s re-deployment orders arrive.
We know what he wants people to think about the reasons that made him decide to resign the from the prestigious role of SNP President – alongside his actual decades-long party membership – in order to take a self-sacrificing career step down to become the Chair of the Scottish Land Commission, five years after the average UK male retirement age and three years after Russell had said he was too old to continue as an MSP.
But readers might wish to note a statement released by the Scottish Land Commission itself immediately after Mike’s article was published, in which SLC essentially state that they neither asked for nor had intended to hire Mike Russell themselves but that the Scottish Government is the final decision maker in this – as far as they are concerned – still ongoing recruitment process.
This should strike you as an extraordinary event, especially given that it directly challenges the government’s and Russell’s narrative. If you should be wondering whether the previous SLC chair that Mr Russell is set to replace may just have been an ineffective hack, ideologically unsuited for the job, you might want some background.
Andrew Thin had been the SLC Chair since 2017, getting formally reappointed by the Scottish government every couple of years since taking on the role. He recently announced his departure from this position just 16 days after his most recent re-appointment, discreetly declining to offer any explanation of how that decision came about.
The tone and thrust of his public statements while still fulfilling his role are clear, show genuine commitment to meaningful, systematic land reform, and bravely do not shy away from challenging the default non-reform mode of the government he was appointed by.
If you have ever had an interest in and desire for pro-social land reform for Scotland, then Andrew Thin’s sudden departure from the Scottish Land Commission and the foisting in of a political appointee to fill his very big boots should make you concerned about what plans must be in motion for land reform underneath the muddied political surface of the post-Sturgeon era.
The fact that the chosen candidate for that foisted appointment turns out to be Mike Russell really ought to send ice-cold shivers down your moral spine.
For a man who raised Alex Salmond to Holyrood power, went on to prove himself as loyal to the Ivory Tower Of Sturgeonite Power as a mercenary’s commitment to a cart of gold, and announced his retirement from Holyrood in 2020 when things started getting a bit too complex for him to handle, Mike Russell has shown himself to be surprisingly short-fused as well as lacking in strategic insight and conveniently oblivious to both his own and any of his handlers’ shortcomings.
For the sake of the long-suffering cause of land reform, we can only hope that a man whose record is that of a flag-waving, wilfully-blind pallbearer undergoes some sort of Damascene conversion when freed from the straitjacket of party politics.
.
Ellen Joëlle Dalzell is the Founder and Director of community campaign design agency Artivism Scotland. Holiday Boy is on holiday again.
Thanks Ellen (+Rev) for another piece lifting the lid on the fermenting cesspit of cronyism and incompetence that is the SNP.
Indy for Scotland!
SNP Out!
Thanks.Been waiting years for someone to explain what’s really been going down with that little bastard Sturgeon
Paragraph ending in ‘but an entire nation.’ is repeated.
There has to be something wrong with “democracy” when we elect our brothers and sisters to govern us and then all they do is look after themselves.
There should be a better system where we can unelect them quicker than after four or five years.
Great article, but now I’m festering sad!
The sheep in wolfs clothing is the devolution parliament sent up here to manage all aspects of Scotland,
The SNP pretending to discuss immigration is a reserved matter to UK parliament as far as I understand,
There is no such thing as Scottish passports for EU citizens, they are under Uk.
Many of the burbled issues that foam from the mouths of these politicians in holyrood parliament are not for Scotland to decide under the devolved government Scotland Act,
And Spouse @ 15.34
It would be nice if we even had a procedure to recall errant MSPs individually (think former Finance Minister Mr Mackay on full salary & expenses for over a year without even going into Holyrood).
Unfortunately when Mr Blair & Mr Dewar inflicted the D’Hondt closed list system on Scotland they also neglected to build any safeguards into the basic administrative system of Holyrood.
I’m so angry I can’t type…..
Not much hope of that Damascene conversion. Seems ‘too old’, by own admission, to stop keeping on doing the ‘same old… same old….. same old………. thing’.
Here we go again, one more time ladies and Gentlemen, as the broken record shifts around from one position to another, getting scratchier and still scratchier with each new move.
I used to think well of him. But that was a long time ago. No longer!
I believe the text about the real ‘Damascene conversion’, concerning Saul (later re-named Paul) of Tarsus, said something to the effect that ‘the scales fell from his eyes’.
So much for Paul.
Can’t see any such scales falling from the eyes of Broken Mike. But maybe they have from mine – at least in regard to him.
These kind of ‘scales’ make people blind. And when the blind lead the blind, the crash into the inevitable pit (or pitfall) will be mighty. In his case, so far at least, it just gets mightier and mightier!
Mike Russell should do himself and the world a favour. Get in that grave you disgusting old fart.
Excellent article, it just about sums up Mike Horsebox Russell, and the SNP post Alex Salmond (2015 onwards).
Ah, so Mike Russell was a Professor of Culture and Governance at the University of Glasgow.
What is it with the University of Glasgow elevating entirely unqualified and inexperienced candidates to Professorial status (this is a rhetorical question as the answer will become apparent)?
In May 2000 the Herald exposed Deputy Director of the Lockerbie Trial Briefing Unit, Andrew Fulton as a senior MI6 officer. Fulton had been granted the position of Professor of Law the previous year despite never having practiced the discipline (Fulton was a graduate of the School of Law at the University of Glasgow but was recruited by MI6 while still a student).
In August 2022, the University made Director of The John Smith Centre (formerly John Smith Centre for Public Service), Kezia Dugdale a Professor of Practice in Public Service. Dugdale lacks the PhD which would normally be required for a Professorship and has no verifiable teaching experience.
The University of Glasgow is a veritable hotbed of activities for the British, Secret Intelligence Services.
University alumni of interest include Elizabeth Smith née Bennett (The Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill). Smith read Russian at the University of Glasgow and went on to work with Sir Fitzroy MacLean at the GB – USSR Association, before becoming a Director at Hakluyt.
Also, “Meta” Ramsay, a contemporary of Smith and a senior MI6 officer specialising in Scandinavian issues.
One notable graduate from the University would be Director General of MI5, Ken McCallum 2020 to present. McCallum graduated with 1st class honours in Mathematics 1996.
This article explains why Humza managed to climbed the greasy pole arse first.
Excellent piece from Joelle.
I’m sure the quote from Craig Dalzell’s Common Weal piece she references will encourage some, and enrage all the usual suspects. Perhaps one of Rev Stu’s future polls could usefully update the figures? Imagine if it transpires that New Scots voting disproportionately Yes actually tipped the balance of a future vote from No to Yes.
That’d mean the nativists calling for New Scots voting rights to be restricted wouldn’t accept such a result as valid, right….?
One of my biggest bugbears when it comes to Scottish independence polling is the lack of basic data on sentiment amongst “New Scots”. The best we have at all comes from Panelbase (which is one of the reasons I study their polls more closely than those from other companies) and even that is woefully insufficient. Results are broken down by country of birth only into three categories. Scotland, England and “Other”. This means that the poll combines results for EU and non-EU immigrants with immigrants to Scotland from Wales and Northern Ireland. I understand the reasons for not breaking sub-samples down into much smaller categories (see the 2021 Demographics of Independence paper for details of that methodology) but I really would plead with polling orgs to at least provide a column showing Country of Birth as Scotland, rUK and Other (and for efforts to be made to break “Other” into EU and Non-EU).
Such that it is though, “Other” voters are now by far and away the most pro-independence demographic in Scotland, exceeding even those born in Scotland by a substantial margin and have hit their highest level of support for independence ever. Voters born in England have seen a similar boost in support for independence, also approaching record levels ever. The boost amongst voters born in Scotland has been much more muted however though the worrying drop in support observed throughout late 2020 and into 2021 appears to have arrested in 2022 and at least partially recovered.
link to commonweal.scot
In the olden days, when politics was a career for the statesmen and stateswomen with integrity, rectitude and courage, paid with small money and large gratitude, things were difficult but sane.
Lobbying brought money in and politics attracted the greedy, narcissistic sociopaths and psychopaths, in it for themselves and nobody else.
Personality cults, financial scandals, corruption, drugs and other abhorrent deviant practices (Jeffrey Epstein didn’t kill himself) are par for the course with these defectives.
We are governed by the worst dregs in our midst.
It’s time to pull the guillotine back from the museum.
Mike, the man who went down to Westminster to negotiate the “vow” and came back with nothing….I wonder why Mike ?
@Sven 15.34pm
It would be nice if we even had a procedure to recall errant MSPs individually…
The right of recall by voters and of impeachment of MSPs should be high on the list of things to do for the first post independence administration.
I seem to recall that in Ireland the only way for a TD to be removed is if they are declared bankrupt, or sentenced to a jail term of more than 6 months. Opinion in Ireland seems split on the issue of recall elections for TDs, as there are a lot of TDs elected with a fairly small number of first preference votes in their STV system. Some regard having recall votes as a threat to the representation of minority parties, but I suppose it would depend how low the threshold was set for calling a recall vote?
I know that in Denmark they have a special impeachment court which can impeach current or former ministers, which is composed of 15 Supreme court Justices and 15 people appointed by the Danish Parliament, the Folketing (though sitting MPs cannot serve). A simple majority in the Folketing can initiate the process. I quite like the sound of that…!
“More than that: First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s inward-migration charm offensive (starting immediately after the Brexit vote, with the strategic masterstroke of sending a letter to every obtainable Scottish address where a New Scot might have been known to reside, stating that non-UK and EU citizens were ‘welcome and valued’’ here) was so successfully projected across all of the UK that a significant number of utterly Brexit-scunnered rUK residents, many of them English, moved to Scotland.”
I was at a local event today. To begin with their were 13 of us in the hall – 2 of us were Scots – the rest from Englandshire. By the time the two of us left the hall there were 25 people of whom 5 were Scots. I doubt whether man of these white settlers would vote Yes in another referendum and I know at least some of them definitely would not. This in an area that gained over 50% of a Yes vote in 2014. I despair.
Great piece but missing one essential element. MR fused two separate education agencies together to ensure that no genuine critique could take place of government policy. We no longer have a politically independent Inspectorate or school improvement service. Hence the painful decline in our once respected education system.
Cronyism and mediocrity go hand in hand.
Just hoping this is Russell’s last posting before going back to his handlers in Whitehall
Excellent article, Ellen. Are we surprised about anything to do with the compromised and corrupted SNP leadership?
I think many of us concluded that the SNP were lost regarding land reform when banker Benny Higgins, who held a land manager position with the Duke of Buccleuch, became an adviser to the First Minister.
No chance of even discussing Graeme McCormick’s annual ground rent scheme after that, or any other radical measures which might threaten the powerful vested interests of landowners in Scotland.
Meanwhile Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen owns 221,000 acres in Scotland. Of course in his own country, foreigners simply cannot purchase land like that.
The benefits of independence, eh?
£400k a year quango job. Everything that is wrong with Scotland is embodied in this arsehole.
@4:04.
And imagine if it didn’t?
Respondents to an *opinion poll* are not actually voting intentions. I could say anything I wanted to someone cold calling me. It doesn’t mean it’s how I actually intend on voting in the booth on the day.
The *natives* have already been analysed in a real time event. 2014.
***The Scottish Referendum Study; It is run by academics at the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Essex, and is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.***
Are you suggesting they’re moon howlers too?
Regardless, Scotlands constitution is for Scotland. It’s their treaty. Not settlers & ppls auntie Jeannie to decide who’d quite like to move to to what’s fast becoming a massive nursing home.
Polling should show a breakdown of demographics.
£400K? Seriously?
@4:04.
And imagine if it didn’t?
Respondents to an *opinion poll* are not actually voting intentions. I could say anything I wanted to someone cold calling me. It doesn’t mean it’s how I actually intend on voting in the booth on the day.
The *natives* have already been analysed in a real time event. 2014.
***The Scottish Referendum Study; It is run by academics at the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Essex, and is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.***
Are you suggesting they’re moon howlers too?
Regardless, Scotlands constitution is for Scotland. It’s their treaty. It’s their country. Not incomers & ppls auntie Jeannie from across the border to decide her status.
Incomers who’d quite like to move to to what’s fast becoming a massive free nursing home.
This is nothing controversial. Every country follows it, including the English government.
Polling should show a breakdown of demographics. Tho I don’t see much point for the reasons already stipulated. No one knows until they’re actually in a voting booth.
@Andy Ellis
“That’d mean the nativists calling for New Scots voting rights to be restricted wouldn’t accept such a result as valid, right….?”
Restricted voting rights for non-nationals is accepted practice internationally. Few people in those many other countries would appreciate being referred to as “nativists” for merely doing what they and others have been doing for years. What’s so different about Scotland complying with what everyone else considers as perfectly normal? BTW, I’ve lived in several other countries so know, first-hand, that voting-restrictions for non-nationals is unquestionably the case.
While I don’t live in Scotland, I have no objection to Scottish independence, but it seems to me a majority will never vote for the level of economic restructuring that would be needed to make an independent Scotland viable. That is the heart of the problem. The SNP clearly understands this and has recognised their only approach can be to pretend this is not the case, and focus on a never to be forthcoming referendum and keep taking the money. While the only focus is trying (but failing) to get a referendum, no need to speak about the realities of independence and everybody’s happy. Salmond must have known this too.
Mike Russell is such a disappointment but I’ve read through the grapevine, from those who’ve worked with him in Holyrood, that he is a plant.
I remember during Brexit – one of my followers on twitter kept tagging him on her eviction back to the EU & he continually ignored her questions & concerns. It was awful. Her Belgian husband was disabled & her autistic teenage daughter was adamant she was staying in Scotland. She ended up leaving with absolutely no help from Mike & the SNP.
Coward? Plant? Or Hen pecked by Sturgeon to be a completely useless buffoon who just nods along to instructions? SNP seems to have a real problem with shuffling around FAILURES instead of showing them the door – or maybe that’s the plan. Forever stagnant & devoid of any progress suits the Brit establishment just fine.
He
What do we see here other than a fake nationalist feeding at the colonial trough for decades who retires on a colonial pension and is then invited back to the colonial trough. Never a Scottish nationalist in his puff. If he had any interest in independence, as constitution minister he would have parked a Scottish Government delegation in the UN Decolonization Committee C-24 until we were liberated.
Vivian O’Blivion @ 4:00 pm:
“The University of Glasgow is a veritable hotbed of activities for the British, Secret Intelligence Services.”
Looks to be the case, handing out professorships willy-nilly to ex politicians (i.e non-intellectuals) who helped block independence and each lacking the normally required doctoral research qualification. But what pro-independence research do we see from any of Scotland’s 19 higher education institutions? Answer is None. No anti-colonial research is published never mind funded by colonial institutions.
Antoine Roquentin
Absolutely.
& ‘Natives’ on here aren’t restricting voters. There should be a set limit on residency & no fudging results with Holiday homes & Landlords.
No other country allows new incomers to decide their constitution. It’s a no brainer & why every country follows int best practice. No country has a free for all.
Especially one with a hostile neighbour.
@Geri 4.04 pm
Time will tell no doubt. Single polls don’t tell us much of course, but that hasn’t stopped nativists fetishising the one study showing that non-native born voters flipped the 2014 vote. Of course I don’t think those who carried out the research and/or polling are moonholwers, any more than I or any reasonable person would attribute such views to any organisation commissioned to to such work. You’re straw manning won’t work with me, take it elsewhere. Or of course, the ignore button is now an option.
How ever many times people here compare apples with oranges, others will point it out. The international custom and practice for self determination referendums is to use residence criteria, similar to – and often in fact more lenient – than that used in 2014 for #indyref1. It’s simply factually wrong to say every country would or does follow a restrictive franchise for self determination votes, or would deny those not born there or who hadn’t been resident for “x” years.
Your mistrust of polling is noted. We (and the original OP referred to) agree that the demographics should be broken down more, but absent a sudden surge of polling on this specific issue, the later polling referred to in Craig Dalzell’s piece is just as valid (and more recent) as the polling/study you reference.
Of course the only real test is an actual vote, and polls can be inaccurate or just wrong, but you can’t just ignore polls because you don’t like the results, particularly if there were to be a number suggesting a trend.
@Antoine Roquentin 6.17pm
You’re not comparing like with like. The citizenship based franchise used by already independent countries is decidedly NOT the usual practice for self determination referendums. The vast majority of these since WW2 have used broad, residence based criteria to determine who was allowed to participate.
Post independence, Scotland will like all other nations be free to have it’s own citizenship criteria. However, anyone advocating the restriction of the current franchise – which would render it out of place with international custom and practice despite your assertion – is leaving themselves open to the appelation of nativism. It’s certainly not civic nationalism, not does it have any appreciable political support in pro-independence parties.
A voting franchise that favours the incomer disenfranchises the indigenous people
**Of course the only real test is an actual vote,**
Aye & imagine if you will, the UK government finally agrees in 10 yrs time..
20 yrs we’d have waited to get THE EXACT SAME RESULT.
England is already in action watering down the pool.
Scotland doesn’t need to be different, kind, absolutely bonkers just to appease voters who may not even wish to stick around.
It’s insanity to repeat failure in the hope you’ll maybe get the right result.
Besides, they’re not Sovereign Scots so the constitution isn’t up for debate. They have their own constitution to concern themselves with.
Brexit wasn’t a free for all. Neither is General Elections. Scotland shouldn’t be singled out because you think it’d be nice.
XL Bullies are trans labradors you bigots
and new labradors are labradors
there are only dogs, and breeds do not exist
civic dogitalism is the only way
make the case for NOT-BITING to the Soft Noes of the trans labrador community
we need a DRR so XL bullies are legally labradors by identification and can enter the childrens petting zoo and be taken round the old folks homes
Andy Ellis @ 4:06 pm
“Imagine if it transpires that New Scots voting disproportionately Yes actually tipped the balance of a future vote from No to Yes.”
A widna haud ma breith. Dalzell’s data shows ‘new Scots’ (sic) from England (who account for over half of all in-migration to Scotland) still voting 70%+ against liberation of their host nation’s people.
‘Others’ at approx 50:50 Yes/No is better, however since Brexit this will be a reducing percentage of the vote overall.
The data does not substantiate in any way the article statement that “a significant number of utterly Brexit-scunnered rUK residents, many of them English, moved to Scotland” or that this necessarily raises the Yes vote. The voting preference data suggests it does not, especially for those from England.
People do not move to another country in order to liberate its people; they generally move for their own socio-economic advantage and the data confirms that most ‘new Scots’ continue to actively oppose and block our liberation.
@Geri 6.36pm
No other country allows new incomers to decide their constitution.
That’s just factually inaccurate Geri. Do the research. Come back and tell us the franchises for all the self determination referendums since WW2 you can find.
The franchise to qualify for citizenship post independence, or to participate in constitutional votes after independence, are decidedly different from the custom and practice of who gets to vote in self determination referendums.
No amount of wishful thinking will change the facts.
& you are correct. I don’t much trust polling.
People can say what they like. It doesn’t need to match reality on the day.
Renfrewshire by-election for example – it was supposedly going to be a labour landslide. Hardly the earthquake everyone anticipated. 60% didn’t even put their coat on.
Brexit was never gonnie happen either & Corbyn was gonnie win the GE for a ppls vote..
Those didn’t romp home either despite polsters. D’oh!
Not blaming polsters but the public doesn’t need to be honest when earning their reward points filling in a survey.
For the record his salary looks to be around £13 000 pa. -1 day a week
Not the 400K made up by yoon fantasist Den.
link to landcommission.gov.scot
Page 34
Pro rata c.£90 000 full time
One might have imagined that an expert on land reform in Scotland would be appointed, someone like, oh I don’t know, Andy Wightman.
I realise that I’m being somewhat naive in making this comment.
Andy Ellis @ 7:04 pm
“That’s just factually inaccurate Geri.”
On the contrary, the Belfast Agreement between the British and Irish Governments defines ‘the people of Northern Ireland’ as comprising ‘all persons born in Northern Ireland..’.
I assume you still maintain that this would be too ‘blood and soil’ for Scotland?
link to assets.publishing.service.gov.uk
@rev Stu £400k plus incentives.. par for the course for Scotlands on message Quango chiefs. Source: Caltonjock
@Geri 6.56 pm
It’s not me you have to convince Geri, it’s the rest of the movement and the international community. Neither of them agrees with nativism. Alex Salmond and Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh both publicly poured water on the franchise restriction case.
Unlike you and a minority of others. we’re not ready to throw the civic nationalist baby out with the nativist bath water. There isn’t likely to be a referendum in any reasonable timescale, on that at least, we are agreed. Plebiscitary elections are the way forward.
Scotland isn’t being singled out: you and others are the ones advocating singling Scotland out by proposing a self determination franchise nobody else uses, and which risks jeopardising international recognition.
wullie @ 6:55 pm
“A voting franchise that favours the incomer disenfranchises the indigenous people”
The Belfast Agreement and hence the British and Irish Governments appear to agree with you Wullie, in that the self-determination of ‘the people of Northern Ireland’ will be restricted to ‘persons born in Northern Ireland’.
The UN-sanction franchise used in New Caledonia is another instance, where ‘secondary criteria’ limiting the votes of non-indigenous peoples sought to protect the rights of the indigenous population to self-determination.
@vivianoblivion
GU has been rotten since way back; around 1910 there was a history professor called Rait, who was well-in with the Milner crowd, i.e. the people who ran the empire at the time. This comes out of Quigley’s AAE. Actual conspiratorial skulldguggery.
– there are some queer things in that book; like Lionel Curtis thought Scotland was the model for how Ireland should be treated (! – worked well, …) and that in 1919 the commons passed a motion 187-34 calling for the devolution of all host nations (nothing happened). Of interest to Che/Xaracen – this would have meant a new “english parliament” and maybe that was thought too much a can of worms no one wanted to open. In an abstract sense it was consistent with their plan of a world, federated, empire.
The Milner Group/Rhodes are the intellectual godfathers of the modern west, they set up chatham house, LSE, so many institutions, the rituals at the cenotaph and their ideas are embedded in the DNA of the US foreign policy folks. They are the original “globalists”.
Well worth a read, but a review would be too long.
@johnlm as reported on Carlton Jock as I stated , but you go ahead and believe what your spoonfed by the Scottish Government websites . The £600k is woven through the accounts 🙂 Some people never learn fucking idiot
@Alf Baird 7.19pm
The franchise for a future border poll is in the gift of the Secretary of State. The Good Friday Agreement is (intentionally?) somewhat vague.
“As part of the Good Friday Agreement, an explicit provision for holding a Northern Ireland border poll was made in UK law. The Northern Ireland Act 1998 states that “if at any time it appears likely to him that a majority of those voting would express a wish that Northern Ireland should cease to be part of the United Kingdom and form part of a united Ireland”, the Secretary of State shall make an Order in Council enabling a border poll.
It is not clear exactly what would satisfy this requirement. The Constitution Unit suggests that a consistent majority in opinion polls, a Catholic majority in a census, a nationalist majority in the Northern Ireland Assembly, or a vote by a majority in the Assembly could all be considered evidence of majority support for a united Ireland. However, the Secretary of State must ultimately decide whether the condition has been met.
The Order in Council must specify the details of the poll, including the date, franchise, the question and “any other provision about the poll which the Secretary of State thinks expedient”. The referendum would be regulated under the UK’s Political Parties, Election and Referendums Act 2000 and overseen by the UK Electoral Commission, which would have a statutory duty to assess the “intelligibility” of the referendum question.
The legislation stipulates that a secretary of state may not make provision for a border poll within seven years of a previous poll.”
link to instituteforgovernment.org.uk
For the idiot Johnlm lifted from Carlton Jock: December 2023:?A row broke out after it emerged the SNP-led Government appointments committee had nominated Michael Russell to be chair of the Scottish Land Commission SLC Quango on a split decision.?Russell had stood down as SNP President in anticipation of being appointed to the near £400,000 annual salary and incentives post. A full vote of MSP’s will now consider the appointment at Holyrood.
Keep taking the koolaid .. knob
pwgc @ 6.26.
I was with you all the way until your final sentence about Alex Salmond.
The SNP has been a complete fraud since he resigned as leader. Sturgeon and her gang completely conned the people for years into thinking they were genuine about independence, which was the last thing they wanted
There was no pretence about Alex. He actually achieved the goal of getting a referendum. The SNP did a hatchet job on him to stop him coming back and having another (successful) go. That enabled the SNP to carry on with their fraud without a threat from someone of his calibre.
Their desperation to stop him is shown by the depths to which they sank in trying to frame him for things he didn’t do.
They came to think that they were untouchable, and with absolute power, became absolutely corrupted, which led inevitably to them forcing disastrous policies on an unwilling people. Such is the way in politics.
The SNP will pay the penalty of their hubris:they have become their own nemesis. And if they don’t finish themselves off, Alex Salmond will continue to be the other nemesis who will do the job and put them out of their miserable existence.
It can’t come too soon.
@Den
Post your sources before I have to correct your ramblings in future.
Prick !
Andy Ellis @ 7:37 pm
‘the people of Norther Ireland’ are specifically defined in the Belfast Agreement. The British and Irish Governments both agreed that the self-determination of ‘the people of Northern Ireland’ will be restricted to ‘persons born in Northern Ireland’.
The question you do not wish to address is why this is not also the case for the self-determination of Scots?
A key word here is ‘self’; self-determination generally excludes peoples from other countries because they retain their own rights to self-determination within their country of origin.
The UN also maintains that the self-determination of ‘a people’ should not be subject to interference by other peoples, governments, media etc. Indyref 2014 was clearly subject to considerable ‘external interference’, the latter costing Scots their liberation.
@Alf Baird 7.54pm
Even if it is true that the Secretary of State seats the franchise as being only those born in Northern Ireland, rather than something else, the reason it isn’t particularly germane to this discussion (any more than the cases of New Caledonia or Timor L’Este which are unequivocally cases of non self governing territories) is that Northern Ireland isn’t the same, due to the nature of the relationship between the Republic of Ireland and the UK and the international treaty aimed at dealing with the end of the troubles.
The more interesting question is why you so determinedly ignore the many more much more similar examples of residence based franchises for independence referendums, including all the former republics of the USSR and Yugoslavia?
None of those examples excluded peoples from other countries. A number of them had MORE inclusive franchises than ours in 2014. Some of the former Soviet republics even enfranchised Soviet army personel from elsewhere in the USSR!
The people chiefly responsible for Scotland not being independent now are the Scots who failed to vote for it.
@Johnlm correcting me???? Don’t make me fucking laugh , however your suggestion from your sources that Mike Russell would get outta bed for £13k a year gave me a chuckle, you’d get more for cleaning caravans at Parkdean one day a week. It’s because of gullible idiots like you swallowing the SG bullshit this country is in the mess it’s in. Keep swallowing and don’t spill fannybaws ?
It’s still a mystery as to why Alec Salmond hasn’t simply whipped his kek’s down so that he can turn his arse in the SNP leadership’s direction in order to blow the mid-wits away with the whiff of his fart.
That’s all the guy would need to do in order to vanquish the mid-witted imbeciles.
Humza Yousef, for example, is among the ugliest motherf*ckers to ever prowl this landmass that we call Scotland. Nobody likes the mid-wit. No offence to the guy, but it’s the truth.
Salmond should ditch the startup, and then simply seize control of the main vehicle. Dislodging these mid-witted Muppets would be easier than lifting a feather with one of those litter-picker thingies that a school janitor carries around.
Another of the posts on wings that has visceral effect. Thank you Ellen. In so many aspects of life we see the impact that the individual can make. People matter. We matter.
Alf: have you never noticed that anything that is not ‘orthodoxy’ is never studied? Can you imagine a PhD student doing a thesis on rUK voters and their antipathy to Scottish independence? No, neither can I. Or to investigate ‘trans’ sexual crimes? Nope, me neither. Free thinking is not encouraged in any university in Scotland, in the UK or in the West these days. Toe the line is the maxim. That is what we are up against: sheeple and the captured. We are going to have to declare our independence unilaterally, in the end. That is a very interesting point about NI. Had forgotten about that. Mind you, they by-passed Scotland and allowed NI to remain in the EU while also being a part of the Brexited UK, so I wouldn’t go holding my breath. They always seem to make an exception of us, and never in a good way.
Ah , ol Mikeee wae the wee goateee ( he drove the slowest horsebox in the west – Mikeeeeee ) .
Doesn’t he just exude gravytas ( sic ) . Takes real skill to be so useless for so long and in so many different areas n still be in receipt of hefty wedge courtesy of the public pap . All that time studying under the Master , the Gollum of Grift , the Liberace of Celtic Rock ie Sir P Wish has proved invaluable .
He’ll make an excellent No Man’s Land Reform form-filler and will do his utmost to ensure not a single acre of land is reformed without proper queues being formed and the correct forms filled . Inertia will be respected at all times .
The Counter-Land-Reformation begins : by 2030 the Highlands will be for sale on Amazon , you’ll be able to bid for Glesga on eBay n- if Mike’s still around , buy yr maw Perth for her birthday .
Ah ! but no if yr Scottish ; you’ll be skink AF n wondering WTF happened to Scotland
Good grief – not nativism again.
Practicalities folks – who will be tasked with collating this new franchise?
Andy Ellis @ 8:05 pm
“the reason …is that Northern Ireland isn’t the same”
Ireland was a colony of England, Northern Ireland remains a colony of England, and Scotland is likewise still a colony of England.
The people of Northern Ireland and the people of Scotland both seek self-determination and independence, which the UN refer to as decolonization.
Fundamentally we are therefore the same and Scots should insist on a similar self-determination franchise to that of Northern Ireland.
The link below is to a long discussion over a broad range involving two economists. Essentially they are showing us the money. Though the references are to the USA economy what is said has application to the UK, including Scotland and the SNP.
Take it in chunks. I think it is worth it.
link to progressivepulse.org
Why do people insist on saying that Sturgeon had a personality cult. When everyone knows Sturgeon doesn’t have a personality.
@KT Lorimer 8.38pm
The Office of the Franchise Inquisitor perhaps? Maybe we’ll have to show our birth certificates at the polling place? Perhaps they’ll enfranchise the circa 800,000 Scots born folk in the diaspora?
I seem to remember hearing the Catalans compiled a completely new electoral register for their referendum. They also allowed Catalans abroad to vote, and – just imagine – had an even broader franchise than ours in 2014.
@Alf Baird 8.48pm
You saying Scotland is a colony, and it being true, are two different things Alf. I know quite a few agree with you and some probably see some colonial aspects to the relationship and are prepared to accept it – at a stretch – as a rhetorical device. I doubt many Irish folk accept that the experiences of Scotland and Ireland are comparable, still less the same: I know none of the Irish folk I know give it any credence, nor I suspect do most Scots really buy it.
More importantly of course, the UN doesn’t buy it either: if they did we’d be on the list of non self governing territories wouldn’t we?
“In theory, this not only aided Scotland’s particularly precarious population growth (half of which was entirely dependent on EU citizens migrating here), but also, according to polls from the time, also significantly bolstered support for Scottish independence, especially from within the ‘Other’ (read: non-Scots) quarter which thus far had been roundly scapegoated for preventing a YES win at the 2014 indy ref.”
Wasn’t there research by Edinburgh Uni which suggested that a majority of Scots Born people voted for Indy, and if I remember correctly the polls said that EU and English Nationals were 3 to 1 against Independence
Andy Ellis @ 9:05 pm
“More importantly of course, the UN doesn’t buy it either: if they did we’d be on the list of non self governing territories wouldn’t we?”
The UN regarded Ireland as a former colony so there seems no reason not to add Scotland onto the List. That should have been the responsibility of the Constitutional Minister Michael Russell but he wasted his and our time knocking on the door of 10 Downing St, the ‘administrative power’, rather than the door of UN C-24, the vehicle of self-determination. The UN has as yet no concept of Scotland’s predicament mainly because no nationalist politician has bothered or been able to explain it.
Scotland has aye been portrayed as ‘an aberration’, much as Ireland once was too, but evidence of our ‘colonial condition’ is all around us still, and within us, and has even been removed from our re-written history, a colonial norm, as is a violated treaty.
Colonialism is ‘like a cancer, it only seeks to spread’ (Cesaire).
@Alf Baird
“Northern Ireland remains a colony of England,”
link to sluggerotoole.com
” Kitson’s experiences in Kenya – described in his book Gangs and Counter-Gangs – would become the basis of the “false flag black ops” brought shortly after to the streets of Belfast in the shape of the Military Reaction Force The MRF gathered intelligence, but more controversially, instigated parallel tactics of intimidation through the assassination that were carried out on identified members of what Army command perceived as the insurgent support base. The mushrooming loyalist paramilitary groups also seem to have offered a readymade local model for similar acts of intimidation against the insurgent support, following tactics that Kitson had already developed in other theatres of conflict.
In addition, Kitson initiated a policy of strict army influenced control over the media representation of the conflict.
“In order to influence opinion effectively it is necessary to control the means of communication”
This was effected by what Roger Faligot described as a close censorship of reportage and the grooming of “Journalist soldiers” working closely with the Army to create a controlled narrative. This approach theoretically extended to influencing the work of the judiciary also.In Low Intensity Operations Kitson argues
“The law should be used as just another weapon in the government’s arsenal and in this case it becomes little more than a propaganda cover for the disposal of unwanted members of the public.”
Mark McGovern in his paper “Collusion, Counterinsurgency and Colonialism: The Imperial Roots of Contemporary State Violence”, explains what this [means]
In other words, and entirely in keeping with a ‘peculiarly British way’ of counterinsurgency, the key problem was to ensure the civil authorities generated a juridical order that allowed state agents to do ‘what was necessary’ to preserve its interests. The key question for the political system was to find ways to ensure the protection of state agents in conducting counterinsurgency operations by making, if required, what might otherwise be illegal, legal.
Kitson’s approach to the army’s management of the law and media reporting essentially made Northern Ireland a place very much apart from what were the recognised English norms of the period on such matters.”
@Alf Baird 9.59pm
Get back to us when you and the others have made the case to the UN and they’ve agreed, huh? In the meantime the rest of us will just get on with the real work.
Tell us Alf, how do you think it’ll go down with the UN disenfranchising New Scots like the author of this article?
@ Andy Ellis
“I doubt many Irish folk accept that the experiences of Scotland and Ireland are comparable,”
That depends….the failure of the potato harvests… Charles Trevelyan, he of the slaving family ensuring those affected by hunger in Scotland and Ireland had to work for it thereby condemning those unable to work to their fate.
@Lenny Hartley 9.52pm
Yes, although the back up data for the Edinburgh study appears not to be publicly available it found native Scots votes 52% Yes, whereas others voted 70 No which was enough to turn the overall result to No.
The polling referred to by Ellen Joelle in her piece however is more recent & shows that things may have changed, particularly post brexit & given the SG now plan to enfranchise many of those excluded last time like voters from EU who may now be more inclined to vote Yes.
Of course another tack is to try to to increase the Yes vote amongst native born Scots & increase turnout from the (admittedly already) high 2014 levels to Quebec levels which were several % points higher in the low 90% from memory.
The Dominions of Canada and Ireland had their own parliaments but the UK parliament “reserved” the power to prevent legislation that it did not wish to go through.
Similar treatment for Scotland and Ireland by similar methods.
Another example of the SNP being unable to govern with the required level of competence. The clearest path to independence is through adequate management to convince the undecided voters and increase the polls above 60%. As a previous yes voter, I’m now leaning towards the no side of undecided, based on the SNP management of the country.
Unless there is a change of leadership the issue will be dead for another generation. The talent doesn’t appear to be there, despite some concerns Kate Forbes appears to be someone who represents traditional Scottish values.
The Times article (27 March 2015) I thought was archived but I can’t find it. However , a Google search turns up…
“Majority of Scottish born voters said ‘yes’
Findings from Scottish Referendum Survey show Scotland stayed in Union because of views of those born in other parts of Britain and further afield”
Excellent article. Complex sophisticated insight….expressed so well. Impressive
Good article.
What a shower of..
As Baz Lurmahnn said politicians aren’t noble but will philander..
Whit a shambles!
However Imagine if this level of investigation was done on Westminster?
Enough to fill God knows how many websites!
Makes you wonder when we little people stop being blind and do something about it!
Nativism or whatever you care to call it is a distraction that plays into the hands of the unionists.
It gives credence to the idea that independence is just about grievance – most Scots have English relatives and contacts.
There is no way a franchise of only those born in Scotland can be collated until after Independence.
Stop dreaming about a fantasy and work towards a real end to the union and a future that works for the decent people of these islands.
Sturgeon didn’t want to be the Mugabi of land reform.
Someone find that quote?
Sturgeon the betrayer. Mike Russell. An evil old man. Rolfe Harris look alike.
Corrupt to the core in my opinion. Vile toad.
Andy Ellis said;
“Scotland isn’t being singled out: you and others are the ones advocating singling Scotland out by proposing a self determination franchise nobody else uses, and which risks jeopardising international recognition.”
Blethers; on constitutional matters other countries are far more selective about who gets to vote on them. This is not just a self-determination exercise, and it isn’t nativism, this is Scotland re-establishing her sovereign authority, a sovereignty that has been illicitly suppressed by the English establishment for centuries.
Your argument is irrelevant for Scotland given that its constitution, guaranteed by the Treaty, states that the people of Scotland are the sole owners of Scotland’s sovereignty, thus any formal plebiscite of their views on a constitutional matter like Scotland’s independence can and must engage that sovereignty, meaning their decision may not be legally overruled by any one else, even if outvoted by a non-sovereign majority. That is why the franchise for Scotland’s independence must be properly designed to ensure the sovereign Scots get their full say on their own country’s future, because they are Scotland’s true owners, not its recent incomers.
It is also a part of the UN’s Charter that the native population who are taking part in a self-determination exercise to potentially free themselves must be prioritised over non-native incomers to ensure their decision is not interfered with by outsiders.
If sovereignty means anything at all, and Westminster swears by its own all the time, then Scotland’s sovereignty is entitled to, and demands, full respect in our own damn country. We’ve had 300+ years of nothing but abusive shit from Westminster, and we’re taking no more from ANYONE!
wingers with an attention span greater than a goldfish will notice a “shift system” in play, and/or the recycling of the handles; there always has to be some tit constantly spewing the reheated yoon-shit.
and … the comeback kid …
with no added arguments whatsoever, reliant on a new gang of mugs who know no better
A guy who knew how to do it right
link to youtube.com
FFS Ellis – is this a medley of your “greatest misses” are you here to do the end of the pier show with slade and spandau ballet?
you want to talk about civic nationalism and that rigged-to-fuck franchise that put us in this shitty predicament?
you want to defend that ??
if indy is not mainly for the indigenous, native, aboriginal, Scots – then who is it for??
the middle class anglo incomers are doing alright anyway, see Edinburgh
anyone else who is in a protected group with special privileges because of alleged victimhood? they be fine …
any foreigner at all who can just turn up and carpet bag the place?
how much do we have to give away?
are we bad people for demanding a little for ourselves, alone? for a change.
shall we give our enemies a veto on our self determination?
Glasgow University had a proud history.
But now, how now can it be a centre of excellence when it appoints politicos with no doctoral qualifications or in fact any academic qualifications, or with no real interest in research and teaching save for security services work.
Trading on its name most of it’s student are foreign. Its a commercial business first and foremost and I say this with no slight to the foreign students who for the present come.
Maybe not quite the Ultima Brassiere Company set up by a wee barrow girl hairy, but it’s headed that way.
Confused @ 11.03
Thanks for that . I had noted Civic Andy had puttered into town again .
When I seen the three prongs of his plastic spoon ” Civic Nationalism ” ” Nativist ” ” Moonhowlers ” had been so quickly deployed I first thought … ” must be an election imminent ” ; then I thought …” Where’s wee Johnny Main ? ” .
The next thought was …” if only that ” Ignored ” function was working “
Where are the geniuses on here who are going to explain the process of collating a franchise built on birth in Scotland that avoids all the anomalies?
Looks like a bit of a dispute between the professional managerial elite to me.
Land reform where? In my own home area there are no locals left in the smaller settlements? And in the larger ones we are down to around a third at best. But let us reform the system so that the lower middle class can have a go at what the professional managerial caste consider to be under their control. By all means out, out and out again a rat like Russell, a fuckin stinking turncoat if ever there was one. But for what? Are we to believe that a person who is already a citizen of an independent country cares a jot for the rights of the Scottish nation, its men women and bairns?
If I am wrong I apologise in advance but I remain to be convinced living as a i do as a Scot in a world of gobshites in my own land.
You want your cut? Then go and speak to Scholz and Baerbock and ask them how they did it.
And here we have the return of the prodigal scum , Andy Pandy who the rev put into moderation and he went away in a huff because Stu didn’t appreciate his brilliance even although andy pandy was forever crawling up Stu’s arse, Andy, for the info of newcomers had his own website but he was lonely because naebody visited it maybe because he can bore for engerland,so he decided to swamp the best independence blog with his incessant pish and insults, oor Ruby had the measure of him , don’t worry peeps his tag team mates will arrive shortly to back him up and further swamp the comments section
You will find that andy pandy uses we and us an awful lot without producing any evidence to support their use, but if anyone else uses we or us andy DEMANDS evidential proof of numbers
Andy Ellis
**None of those examples excluded peoples from other countries. A number of them had MORE inclusive franchises than ours in 2014. Some of the former Soviet republics even enfranchised Soviet army personel from elsewhere in the USSR!**
Scotland is a country with her territory intact. Judging by what you say you seem to think we’d be up for negotiating territory. We wouldn’t be.
What other countries allow for their referendums is irrelevant. I noticed you said AFTER they became independent. So you aren’t describing the same situation.
A country decides it’s franchise. Scotland is a country. In a union that it can leave at any time. Even without a referendum at all if we wanted to. 56 MPs was all that was officially accepted before Mayhem & Sturgeon entered the scene.
KT Lorimer
**Where are the geniuses on here who are going to explain the process of collating a franchise built on birth in Scotland that avoids all the anomalies?**
The UK government manages it perfectly fine so it can’t be rocket science. If you don’t qualify on the electoral roll you’d simply not be issued a polling card.
Andy – we are a colony.
We can’t vote to leave. *check*
We can’t have full control over our own resources. *check*
Set*lers swamping the election pool & land grab *check*
Do you think because they let us vote in their pretendy General Elections, where Scots have nae danger of ever influencing their rigged result, that we’re not?
& EU citizens took part in the last ref. They helped a great deal by voting naw. Apparently they were spooked by project fear so chances are they will be again. I bet we’d find they’re away hame now too – back to their own country.
However I’m sure they wouldn’t give a rats ass sitting out of another country’s referendums. I know that if I was a visitor to another country, I certainly wouldn’t be greeting about it. I’d recognise its not my concern.
As for Alex & Tasmina – they better wise up & fast. You don’t invite yer nemesis, whose sole mission is to deny you leaving in the first place, to come in & outvote you.
That’s just stupidity & demonstrates they obviously don’t mind losing again. Scots Sovereignty & her constitution isn’t up for debate with outsiders or we may as well just give up now.
I hope someone writes a book.
How Scotland was betrayed. Would be a good title.
Vivian o blivion at 4pm,
You make a very valid point. Glasgow University seems to be the place for failed politicians to suddenly, with zero academic input become pretendy ‘professors’. Time and again we have seen folk from politics with zero academic credentials (and absolutely not worthy of the position of professor), getting such positions at Glasgow.
Something within Glasgow University stinks in this regard. Some of their actual REAL PROFESSORS are academically superb, and fully deserve their title, so I have no idea why they tolerate this chicanery for failed politicians, who have zero academic credibility. And make no mistake, these are not ‘honorary’ titles.
Sadly, however, a few other Scottish Universities seem to be going down that route. Former MP, and potential SNP candidate Stephen Gethins is reportedly (and I was genuinely surprised), a ‘pretendy’ ‘professor’ at St.Andrews University!!!
Perhaps folk need to start asking, just what was the theme of failed politician Stephen Gethins doctoral research?? (HINT: He has none).
It genuinely take an enormous degree of personal brass neckery, for folk such as Gethins to go around telling folk they are professors of ANYTHING. It is also an enormous insult to genuine academically talented, very hard working REAL professors.
All kinds of folk get what are termed honorary doctorates and degrees all the time, but none pretend that this actually means much more than a recognition of something within their lives elsewhere (a famous actor, or TV personality). It is well known and nobody minds. Really just a bit of fun overall. But this is different, these failures truly do call themselves ‘professor’.
link to st-andrews.ac.uk
To strut around Scotland calling yourself an ACTUAL professor, with zero academic credibility, is just something else entirely. Utterly, utterly ridiculous.
Universities need to stop this nonsense, if they wish to retain any kind of academic credibility. At most these should be merely ‘honorary’ titles, but even then it is stretching things.
Journalists really need to start asking questions about this utter nonsense.
Is there like a civil servant dude that shows Humza what way is East.
Oh God!
I ended up sounding like a parrot who had been taught to swear. 🙂
I ain’t going there anymore. I don’t want any more PMT.
Andy Ellis is for sure getting the X.
His ‘red & green will never be seen’.
@Geri 5.34am
You’re entitled to your opinion that we’re a colony, but as noted above the majority of the movement probably disagrees with you. the majority of the population certainly does, and the international community and UN don’t accept that places like Scotland are colonies or non-self governing territories. Repeated contradiction won’t change the facts.
We can leave: all that’s required is for enough people to put a cross on a ballot paper. The right to self determination may be a jus cogens under international law, but that law isn’t going to drop independence in to our laps. The right isn’t unlimted or automatic.
I can see why Alf Baird and others desperately want to believe we are a colony, and persuade others to buy their snake oil, because being a colony would make things easier in some respects. The argument is spurious however: the effort expended on it would be better directed at just building a better case to convince undecided voters to choose independence in plebiscitary elections or a referendum.
As for EU citizens voting No in an (unlikely to be granted) #indyref2 given brexit, you’re delusional. I don’t know a single EU national who now wouldn’t welcome independence: that may be subjective, but only detailed polling or the actual vote would prove otherwise.
With regard to Alex and Tasmina, it simply shows that even Alba has rejected nativism. It therefore has zero political support, being limited to a small if voluble coterie of fringe figures, often sophomoric far lefties with a penchant for other fringe issues. They’re the last people capable of converting undecided voters, or of convincing most existing pro independence voters to support their fringe views.
The fact you regard New Scots as outsiders simply demonstrates the problem and the regressive nature of the views of nativists. You’ve never managed to tackle Rev Stu’s original demolition of the nativist case, and continue to be butt hurt that the movement as a whole reviles your blood and soil nationalism. thankfully of course we can all red box & ignore unreasoning contributions in here now. Hopefully the full functionality will soon be available and those marked for ignore will disappear from our TL’s altogether.
Russel is just another item of political ephemera who will leave a trail for good and more likely ill.
Yousaf’s «independence will make you rich» nonsense is another trail to nowhere.
Independence, if it means anything at all, signifies having the right to make your own mistakes and not be subject to suffer the consequences of those made by unaccountable others.
May not be «show us the money» pie in the sky rhetoric but one firmly rooted in the solid ground of reality.
A good place to locate the liberation dynamic.
@Geri 4.48pm
Scotland is a country with her territory intact. Judging by what you say you seem to think we’d be up for negotiating territory. We wouldn’t be.
It makes no difference. The international community doesn’t care about our colourful past. They’ll regard self determination for Scotland according to accepted norms. The presumption in international law is for territorial integrity: that would apply to Scotland just as it applies to other newly independent countries: it’s why nobody accepts that the Crimea can simply be annexed. We could of course make a case for asking for Berwick on Tweed back: the locals might even support it!
What other countries allow for their referendums is irrelevant. I noticed you said AFTER they became independent. So you aren’t describing the same situation.
Another case of nativist know-nothingism I’m afraid. Go and do the actual work. Check out the (extensive) sources about how all the newly independent states in Europe gained their independence. They all used inclusive, residence based franchises for the referendums which LED to their independence. A few (like Montenegtro) imposed limited time periods for residence before the vote, but none of them were long, usually 24 months. Not a single one restricted the franchise to native born people, nor would the international community have been likely to accept such a franchise.
A country decides it’s franchise. Scotland is a country. In a union that it can leave at any time. Even without a referendum at all if we wanted to. 56 MPs was all that was officially accepted before Mayhem & Sturgeon entered the scene.
The country has, and only the lunatic fringe want to change it. The only thing stopping Scots leaving the Union is their lack of collective political balls. A referendum isn’t the only route: plebiscitary elections are just as valid & probably preferable in current circumstances. Nobody is stopping the movement advocating that and standing on that basis: all it needs to do is convince the Scots people it’s the right course & get their votes. Go do!
A majority of Westminster MPs is only a mandate for independence if it represents a clear majority of Scottish votes and is in response to a clear platform that a majority will be taken as an automatic declaration of independence. the international community will simply ignore it otherwise.
Anyhoo…off to the red box of ignoredom with you. Your limited entertainment value has worn off by now.
Robert Louis @ 07:41
The source of Stephen Gethins’ Professorship is the same as Dugdale’s, probably Russell’s and most definitely Andrew Fulton’s. These are very real and substantial salary payments made by the British, SIS and routed through academic institutions. A money laundering operation for services rendered.
That Thames House is sufficiently content with Dugdale’s efforts to subvert Scottish politics through the medium of Poststructuralism, speaks of the humongous nature of their budget (£4b) rather than actual delivered performance.
Prior to infiltrating the SNP as a SPAD for Alex Salmond (and who conducted the vetting for that?), Gethins was employed by NGO LINKS doing shady, political influencing work in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
Chair of the John Smith Centre (at the University of Glasgow), Catherine Smith shares this aspect of Gethins’ employment history. Smith described NGO LINKS in her site biography as “London based”. NGO LINKS was based out of the University of Arizona. Why the clumsy attempt at misdirection? NGO LINKS was funded by the US Government, National Science Foundation. Why would an organisation ostensibly focused on furthering scientific research within the territorial boundaries of the US be funding political influencing operations in the former Soviet republic of Georgia? Is the National Endowment for Democracy losing its utility as a front for the CIA / State Department?
The rapidity with which Gethins was hired by the School of International Relations at the University of St Andrews on losing his seat in the crash GE of 2019 was positively indecent.
Andrew Thin had been the SLC Chair since 2017, getting formally reappointed by the Scottish government every couple of years since taking on the role. He recently announced his departure from this position just 16 days after his most recent re-appointment, discreetly declining to offer any explanation of how that decision came about.
discreetly declining to offer any explanation of how that decision came about.
Saying nothing isn’t very discreet. It speaks volumes.
I wonder what he actually said?
I’m saying nowt?
Mike Russell Chair of the SLC! When that SNP hot air merchant came to the Borders a few years ago to spell out the SNP EU action plan the local SNP activists and others expectantly turned up to hear the golden boy share the action plans for staying in Europe.
Mike took the mic and Waffle! Waffle! Waffle! The non action plan damp squib impacted on everyone like a bag of soggy nappies. Most everyone left the hall, tripping over their long faces. A big hint of what was not to come with Sturgeon’s SNP. I wish I had taken tbe hint then and quit – but there again there was as yet no Alba to offer hope. (Anyway, I now support EFTA).
@Alf Baird says:6 January, 2024 at 7:04 pm
Knock out post of the thread so far from Professor Baird:
People do not move to another country in order to liberate its people; they generally move for their own socio-economic advantage
No Shit Sherlock! That’s exactly what I have been pointing out for ages. These New Scots are here to coin it in.
and the data confirms that most ‘new Scots’ continue to actively oppose and block our liberation
Hmmm. So if true (and who is really refuting it), these “New Scots” can clearly see the bleedin obvious – Indy will make us, and them, poorer, so they want no part of it.
And then again, the stoutest Indy supporters never tire of boring us with all the disadvantages of Brexit. So these New Scots, hearing about that, will be determined not to make the same mistake – leaving a bigger empire to make a futile attempt at self governance – for a second time.
The way I see it, the biggest obstacle to Indy is not just the geriatric, fossilised politicians bowing and scraping to their fraudulent, pretendy and wholly inappropriate FM Yousaf.
It’s also the tribalist, reality-denying eejits that put these politicians in place, blindly voted for them for decades, and even now, insist that the same tired and failed policies of 15 years ago still have to be maintained forever into the future.
Blind folded reasoning:
Scots did not vote to join the treaty of union.
Why the necessity for a vote to leave the treaty of union?
Just as a wee reminder to those who cannot understand, because they use the blind fold method to maintain their ignorance,
It States on the UK PARLIAMENT SITE.
They decided not to give the vote to the Scots in 1706/07 to join the Union, as the Scots would probably vote NO.
The logic is that it was England whom defined Scots as a Separate nation of People. Even from the Scottish parliament in that statement.
ANDY ELLIS
As i come from a region of the world rich in examples of colonialism, material and psychological, i would not put too much faith in official definitions, definitions arrived at post factum.
All situations have unique historic and experiential elements. The Tunisian case is not like that of Lebanon nor Lebanon like that of my ethnic community struggling to survive in the plains of Nineveh and south east «Türkiye».
Alf Baird and co have an existential point to make that is all that can be done at this stage.
Post independence would see a flowering of such analysis no doubt.
The indigenious Scots do not need any particular vote to leave the union,….. they were never given a vote invitation to join,
And another thing.
I am sick to the back teeth of reading posters greetin about the loss of their “EU citizenship”, whatever the feck that is.
The reality remains that there is no country in the EU that won’t accept any Scot, who is prepared to do the necessary paperwork, learn the language, bring a useful and productive skill and a positive work ethic with her. None of that has changed.
To the agnostic lurker, nothing screams ambivalence about Indy louder than the so-called pro-Indy zealot who can’t wait to get her EU citizenship back so that she can feck off from iScotland to the Costas just as soon as she can get her flat on AirBnB.
If I had my way, I would remove all passports from Scottish citizens on Day 1 of Indy. To be returned in 20 years time. Force all of us to stay and make a go of the New iScotland. Nae fecking off if the country goes pear.
That would concentrate a few minds.
Sooner or later The people of Scotland will recognise the “scam rhetoric” of unionist regarding percentage votes required from Scots or referendum votes , or when they tell Scots they need a permission vote to get out and leave the Union.
And its simple.
If Scots did not vote to join.
The nation of Scots do not need a vote to leave,
That’s TURABDIN got the X now & so has Geri.
Just before I click the ‘Ignore X’ can I just point out that both you and Andy Ellis are way off topic.
There’s more than enough to discuss in the above article no need to regurgitate the SSDD that has already been done to death on this forum.
My X goes to everyone who responds to those I am ignoring.
I have one rule for everyone even if you they made many interesting posts in the past.
Bye Turabin.
@Andy Ellis says:7 January, 2024 at 9:53 am
A referendum isn’t the only route: plebiscitary elections are just as valid & probably preferable in current circumstances. Nobody is stopping the movement advocating that and standing on that basis: all it needs to do is convince the Scots people it’s the right course & get their votes. Go do!
Of course! And if you don’t mind me pointing out, a bleedin, in-your-face, obvious solution to the current political logjam.
My usual 30-seconds of research suggests that the fee for registering as a candidate at a UK GE remains £500. 59 people need to find £500 plus a bit more if they wish to loosely aggregate as the Plebiscite Party and register thus. WM GE coming up this year, so an ideal time to get started.
All over Europe, and indeed the world, new parties are coming from nowhere in very little time, in response to urgent democratic needs, and in frustration at the failures of the establishments. Harnessing social media to get the message out. Short circuiting the MSM, the establishment, etc.
Absolutely no need for Scotland to be left behind. IMO, if Scotland is left behind, it will speak more realistically about the true desire for Indy than years of greeting posts on here, WGD, etc etc.
Robert Louis @ 7:41 am
“Universities need to stop this nonsense, if they wish to retain any kind of academic credibility.”
These and other institutions cannot be adjusted within a colonial society. If we are to understand what colonialism really means, we also need to understand that in a colonial society all institutions are colonial in nature and in terms of their ‘values’, i.e. in what they regard as ‘significant’.
In other words, colonial institutions do not exist for the benefit of the native people, far less for their aspirations to develop their nation and its people. Colonial institutions protect the interest of the colonizer and haud doun the people:
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
No need to use BOLD to quote someone you can just use blockquote.
Bold is deafening. It’s worse than the SHOUTING IN UPPERCASE.
Blockquote is stylish and it helps distinguish who is say what to whom.
I will re-upload by basic html tutorial.
Now watch Scottish land policy diminish to the whim of the Buccleuch estates and of course accommodate the libertarian Freeport project the SNP have inflicted upon us.
John Main says:
Brext means no country in the EU WILL accept any Scot, who is not prepared to do the necessary paperwork, learn the language, bring a useful and productive skill and a positive work ethic with them.
Whereas, All EU Citizens enjoy the equal right to Free movement of their goods. Free movement of their capital. Freedom to work, establish and provide services. And Free movement of their family people.
John Main you talk pish….ALL OF THAT has changed since BREXIT.
And then you say, ´If I had my way, I would remove all passports from Scottish citizens on Day 1 of Indy. To be returned in 20 years time. Force all of us to stay and make a go of the New iScotland. Nae fecking off if the country goes pear?.
Bravo pal, cos THAT is exactly the Legislation being enacted in UKRAINE…
People physically dragged from their cars while on family trips with their children and then served with conscription papers…
Aye, Nae fecking off if the country goes pear under a US NATO Pantomime…
On a broader field, a dewy eyed view of the EU, the USA, NATO and the UN should give good cause to ponder the calibre of the political goods on offer.
Real independence, the notion that dare not yet voice its opinion.
Robert Louis at 7.41am
You raise absolutely valid points about the integrity of universities like Glasgow when they parachute politicians into positions as professors.
Can you imagine a university let us say full of Nazi Party inserted professors and teaching staff. |Doesn’t sound too clever but this sets the picture of what this issue is about.
But turning this around a bit there is today a press piece about a rather expensive ferry that has turned out in its very short life to be an very expensive and unreliable ferry.
No it’s not the Glen Sannox or the Glen Rossa. We all know about these two boats. Rather this is about a lesser known vessel called the MV Hallaig that provides the lifeline service between Skye and the island of Raasay.
Procured against academic advice that cautioned that the boat would be expensive and potentially with problems, the boat was nevertheless built against that caution and launched in a fanfare of publicity by none other than Nicola Sturgeon.
State of the art, world leading was her proud boast. However as foretold by the academics it was not to be and with their clear warnings coming to pass.
And so after a very short life the boat, the MV Hallaig, a hybrid diesel electric had a fire and broke down in September 2023 causing folks to have to be rescued and the essential lifeline island service disrupted.
And now with the state of the art boat allegedly fixed and back in service it turns out that it’s not fixed. Rather due to very serious, if not fatal technical issues, and the small matter of £1.5 million pounds to replace the ships batteries, which it seems cannot be replaced, or at least not until some time in the distant future with extensive ship modifications, the much vaunted ship has been converted to run on diesel – the expensive electric planet saving aspect having been quietly ditched!!
And the academic who advised against the diesel electric hybrid being the way to go? Well, and this is the point, the Government complained to his university about his advice.
And that I am afraid, is a working example of how politicians like Sturgeon and her acolytes try to muzzle and stifle our universities.
And as is the way, the islanders and the public purse pick up the huge additional expense – just like the Glen Sannox and the Glen Rossa.
Yes, folks don’t really understand how deep and far reaching the tentacles of the state actually are.
@TURABDIN says:7 January, 2024 at 10:58 am
In realpolitik, a country either has an empire, or is embedded in somebody else’s empire.
I would like to see an Independent Scotland, but I won’t deny the reality that we will function as a part of somebody else’s hegemony. Our geographical position makes us too strategically important to be left alone.
Barring miracles, the EU looks to have shot its bolt. The US remains the best bet for the foreseeable future. Their recent economic statistics are looking excellent, as they onshore industry and double down on energy security. Besides, they continue to make the best TV and movies, as well as driving most of our truly popular culture.
But the litmus test remains to be the direction in which the millions of impoverished are traipsing. And that’s overwhelmingly towards the US and those in its sphere of influence. An awkward chiel of a fact that winna ding.
The day the BRICS are fighting off the eager migrants and asylum seekers with a shitty stick will be the day my opinion changes.
Vivian @9.55am.
Excellent comment Vivian, junk tanks funded by dark money are effectively creating policies for governments, most have benign names often with the word democracy in them, but in actuality they are far right neoliberal organisations.
The Atlas Network has a whopping 500 (and growing) junk tanks aimed at influencing governments and important bodies around the globe, many are funded by big oil and big tobacco, the Ford Foundation and the Koch Brothers.
link to wikispooks.com
link to en.wikipedia.org
link to grousebeater.wordpress.com
Although it may annoy the «stay on topickers» the experience of my ethnic community with outside meddlers, Byzantines, Arabs, Ottomans, British etc has parallels with the centuries of the Britishing of Scotland. In both cases the job could not have been done without significant inside help.
Tom Nairn called that «internal colonialism» a far tougher nut to crack than the obvious external form. Internal colonialism, betartaned, proudly Scottish and even overtly «nationalist» is where the nut is at the most durable.
Have a good day!
It would appear this grifting trougher is getting a little bit nervous as we get closer to a GE.
“Tommy Sheppard: Scottish independence is off table if SNP lose vote”
Vote Alba, Join Alba.
@Xarecen 11pm
Just more regressive Scottish exceptionalism I’m afraid. The international community is agnostic about all the minutiae of hundreds of years of Scottish history. they and we know what we have to do to become independent. There are no silver bullets or short cuts, however earnestly those obsessed with the Treaties of Union, Salvo, Conventions and Sovereign Scots status wish it were otherwise. If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.
This is a particularly egregious piece of regressive nativism on your part:
…thus any formal plebiscite of their views on a constitutional matter like Scotland’s independence can and must engage that sovereignty, meaning their decision may not be legally overruled by any one else, even if outvoted by a non-sovereign majority.
So you plan is to disenfranchise non-native Scots and declare independence on the basis of less than 50% of the Scottish people voting for it? Good luck with that! You and a minority of cranks don’t get to randomly separate the goats from the sheep in support of your vision of ethnic purity, because you don’t represent the independence movement, any political party which supports independence, or any political figure of any note who support independence. Get back to us when any of that changes.
This is a bit of a ramble to save time just go to the end of the post where it says ‘ Pay attention!
I just found the Pay attention! image at the last minute.
link to tinyurl.com
I have to use a picture to show what html tags look like because if I type them in a post they will just convert to html & disappear.
See above image.
Each html tag contains an opening & closing tag. They are both more or less the same except the closing tag has a forward slash / to indicate that is the end of whatever it is you want to make bold, italic etc.
In between the two tags you type whatever it is you want to make bold.
It would have been better if the picture showed this. It’s pretty difficult to find images of these html tags in full.
Those who already know how to do bold will already know this.
For those you who dont you do opening tag the word, text you want in bold italic etc then the closing tag that’s the one with the forward slash /.
Ignore the bit about ‘underline’ that doesn’t work on Wings.
The only tags that work are
bold, italic, strike through, & the brilliant blockquote.
bold & italic does what it says
strike though is this
strikethroughblockquote
Quite a few poster use the blockquote. I like it.
If you look at the top tag in the image. The bold tag in red
link to tinyurl.com
where it has a b you would just replace that with
blockquote.
If you have any problems with that Red can help you out.
Hope this works without a preview I can’t tell it’s always easy to miss a / and get it all wrong.
Fingers crossed.
Oh look I found something.
link to tinyurl.com
This is a better example
Pay attention!
You can see here how it works.
You would just replace the ‘Pay attention!’ with whatever you want in bold.
Replace the b with an i for italic s for strikethrough and blockquote for indented quotes edged with a grey line. Very stylish.
@TURBADIN 10.13am
Ottomanboi, is that you?! I actually agree that each case has to be seen and judged on its own merits or lack thereof. Thus, although the cases of Catalonia, Scotland and Quebec seeking independence from the larger “metropolitan” power are often seen as analogous, they all have some similarities and some differences. Similarly, they are regarded both “officially” by the international community/organisations and academically as different categories from more traditional cases of decolonisation.
As others have noted in the past, international law may be imperfect and incomplete, and – particularly given recent events – the rules based system of world order may need to be looked and even replaced, but the $64,000 question is with what?
I’m all for trying something different, but as the old Irish directions have it: “If I was going there, I wouldn’t be starting from here!”
The nativists existential point is spurious. The rest of us can see it even if they can’t.
Our beloved FM and Sturgeon puppet Humza Yousaf speaks the truth here, but not because he’s determined to achieve independence, no from now on in until the GE Yousaf and his party which is teeming with grifting careerists will laud the benefits of independence to obtain YOUR vote but do nothing to further the indy cause
The sad thing is that we could be a more progressive and richer nation with independence.
There are absolutely NO BENEFITS to Scots or Scotland being in the union, none whatsoever, that’s why Britnats use fear, lies deceit and intimidation to keep Scotland, a country tied to England and treated as a colony.
Down with the union.
vote Alba, Join Alba
“SCOTS could enjoy the higher living standards of countries such as Denmark, Finland and Ireland under independence with the average household more than £10,000 better off, the First Minister is expected to say.
Humza Yousaf will highlight the “prize of independence” when he speaks at Glasgow University tomorrow in what is being billed as the first of a series of major economic speeches.
He is expected to say that the Brexit-based UK economy has failed people in Scotland and that UK-based political parties are offering no alternatives to a “failed Westminster economic model”, while outlining how independence would raise productivity and living standards.
He will say that although it will not happen overnight, independence will mean Scotland can begin to start catching up on more prosperous countries such as Denmark, Ireland and Finland.”
JOHN MAIN
I know well what you mean. The USA and more particularly its soft power through entertainment and its phoenix like cultural myths may sway even the most «grounded».
America is the wide open spaces of aspiration, open spaces rich in a tomorrow that is unlikely to come. But when you have nothing that is a something.
I do not have a problem with hope as long as it is not of the forlorn variety.
My family history knows the latter fairly well…..promises, promises etc.
I should not be a skeptic at my age, i am told….but it «secures» the mind.
We are independent if the Scots did not vote to join the union as UK parliament state on their site.
The constant ruse / trick ls to make Scots believe they need to vote in a election of some sort to leave,
You too TURABDIN. Bonne Dimanche!
Trying to crack the ‘internal colonialism’ nut is what us «stay on topickers» as you call us are trying to do.
I thought that would have been obvious.
Neither you nor Tom Nairn are giving us any clues on how to do that.
It gets a bit tedious when all we hear is ‘Scotland is a colony’ ‘Scotland is corrupt’ we need to ‘get the SNP’ out but nobody comes up with any answers to how we change things.
You get my ignore X if you reply to anyone on my ignore list. I think that’s fair enough don’t you?
Republic @11.43
Tommy Shepherd said: “This year’s vote is about whether the journey continues, whether we can create circumstances to move towards our independence”.
Weasel words.
“The Journey” is the trip to no-where on the SNP Gravy Train.
The rest is meaningless waffle which indicates a distinct lack of ideas and intention. Independence is the last thing the SNP want.
I remember Russell in Clydesdale as a candidate in the 1980s and he was a good quality chap.
The recurring problem I have us where was he when.
A conspiracy was hatched.
When complaint process were changed.
When an innocent man was arrested and charged and information leaked to the press.
When an innocent man proved his innocence.
When a number of guilty women were protected from prosecution.
When one daft policy was created only to be followed by a dafter one.
He was either part if the problem or he turned a blind eye to it.
I have to ask why??? Why would one of the good guys suddenly become a front man for a corrupted party.
Better go! I feel my ‘parrot who learned to swear’ coming to the fore.
Remember Scott he was accused of stalking Andy Ellis’ wee girl.
I liked Scott. I hope you comes back.
He had rubbish taste in food but like me he had a ‘parrot who learned to swear’ on his shoulder.
Andy Ellis @ 11:59 am
“The nativists existential point is spurious.”
Ethnic Scots voted 52% Yes, 48% No
Ethnic English voted 70% No.
I.e. the large difference is due to an ethnic (i.e. cultural, linguistic, national identity etc) divide.
The Scots Yes vote would have been even greater without the ‘colonial mindset’ effect.
A colonized people remain subject to institutionalised racism and hence ethnic oppression; which explains why the existence of ‘an independence movement depends on the solidarity of the oppressed ethnic group’ (Hechter).
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
@TURABDIN
“America is the wide open spaces of aspiration”
A deception, though believed, as you say.
This link about 1.37 tells you more about this religion,
link to progressivepulse.org
Well done Confused and Ignored! You co -wrote the funniest and most biting piece of satire I’ve read in a long time. Positively Swiftian. If Ricky Gervais delivered this it would be on every viral feed.
Confused
Ignored says:
6 January, 2024 at 7:02 pm
XL Bullies are trans labradors you bigots
and new labradors are labradors
there are only dogs, and breeds do not exist
civic dogitalism is the only way
make the case for NOT-BITING to the Soft Noes of the trans labrador community
we need a DRR so XL bullies are legally labradors by identification and can enter the childrens petting zoo and be taken round the old folks homes
YCBS! FFS! FFFS!
If you don’t know what YCBS means think John McInroe
Everyone knows FFS don’t they?
FFFFS?
The first three F’s are the same as the middle F in FFS
only the first F ends in ‘ity’ and the 2nd & 3rd in ‘ing’.
Here’s a clue. It’s embroidery! Who can be offended by embroidery? It’s not like ‘the parrot’ who learned to swear.
link to tinyurl.com
I’ll leave you to guess what the last F stands for.
S for poo. You would have probably guessed that.
You’ll know in future what I mean when I post
YCBS! FFS! FFFFS!
I have another which you might now be able to guess.
YCBS! FFS! FFFSUTMS!
and a few more.
Just trying to keep it short & snappy!
Ruby @ 12:21 pm
“It gets a bit tedious when all we hear is ‘Scotland is a colony’ ‘Scotland is corrupt’ we need to ‘get the SNP’ out but nobody comes up with any answers to how we change things.”
An essential start is for a colonized people to first ‘understand their oppression’ before they can hope to find ‘the only remedy’ (Fanon):
link to salvo-cor.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com
Alf Baird,
The demographics of who votes in Scotland at the moment and who does not vote is neither here or there and neither is the debate for old or ancient history,
For the Uk parliament has bought this predicament right up to date on their parliament site when they state the Scots were not allowed a vote to join the union in 1707 as they would probably have voted No.
So in 2023/24 the UK parliament state the Scots from the beginning were not in the treaty of union,
I remember Mike Russell well in his role as ‘Education Secretary’. His classist contempt for the FE sector and fear of its potential for ‘raising up’ those from the schemes, was palpable.
I remember him as a ha’penny snob; and meeting him as one of the turning points in coming to realise that – as a dyed in the wool ‘small n’ nationalist’ and lifelong SNP voter – the SNP were absolutely taking the piss out of me and those like me.
The writing had of course been on the wall for many colleges since at least the turn of the century… the more principled Principals and their SMTs had spent decades firefighting; at least one of my acquaintance becoming quite ‘broken’ with it all.
They replaced him (when he retired, old beyond his years) with a tawdry ‘Swiss Tony’ character; a sleazy second-hand car dealer (literally!) who would oversee and trough his way towards the ‘merger’ (read destruction) of at least three much-needed and greatly respected colleges. -‘Tony’ trashed promises made (by the old Principal) to the community and denuded the (largely trades-oriented) college he ran to the point of uselessness.
He wasn’t unique; such things went on all over Scotland – latterly with SNP hands on the tiller. Party of social justice my arse!
– The revenant remains of the three colleges I’m particularly thinking of that were merged, (a pattern that was repeated across the country) are a pale shadow of an even paler shadow. Where before tradespeople and practising industry professionals had staffed the chalk faces; ‘those who can’ were harassed (often bullied and abused – sometimes to the point of mental and physical breakdown at least one I knew to the point where it was the death of them) out of their jobs, to be replaced by the ‘nominally qualified’ holders of dumbed-down ‘degrees’.
– The ‘those who can’t’ types identified by Shaw.
Where a legitimate Tradesperson or Professional will baulk angrily at the concept of a vocational teacher being ‘one page ahead of the students’; this became the desired state of affairs from middle and upper management…
Actually passing on real professional skills gained through decades of industry experience became a sort of ‘crime’… a crime against box-ticking mentalities, fiddling statistics and potentially exposing the cold hard fact that very often the people being brought to the chalk faces just didn’t know the basics.
Having examined the current state of play; I’d say that’s very-much the case today; they seem to fear legitimate knowledge and experience.
On Russell… many of us (foolishly) expected the Salmond Government to deliver social justice; particularly those of us working in FE. We hoped for the war against the once-great community asset that was FE to be ended. Instead it was the wrecking ball that swung ‘further and higher’. – Mike Russell being a particularly enthusiastic lever-puller when set behind the controls of the excavator which dug the grave for FE in Scotland.
And they wonder why it’s now so hard to find a properly-trained (and properly qualified) Spark, or Brickie, or Plumber; or even Television Producer!
– Apparently (according to Wikipedia) “Russell previously worked as a television producer and director” – did he? Aye? And a writer tae…
“Pull over and stop the car (if you dare) and walk into the closes smelling of urine and rubbish, cluttered with dirt and debris. It is not uncommon to have to step over a comatose body, with or without a needle by its side.”
– From his 1998 “travel book” ‘In Waiting: Travels in the Shadow of Edwin Muir’. Rancid, classist, and largely inaccurate trash!
This – his background as an alleged writer, ‘Television Producer’ (did he maybe work in a factory that made tellies at one time?) – brings me to the “broadcasting platforms” …The ‘Scotland’s Voices Show’ can still be found on YouTube and apparently numerous other so-shall meeja platforms… Twat-Tok, Farcebook, InstaBam etc.
Whit a hoot! – Hardly broadcasting, is it? Poorly shot, badly edited, badly lit green-screen. I had to laugh at one of the comments praising it for its ‘high production value’- or production quality as people outside the trade would call it…
Let’s go back 23-24 years; had NC (that’s straight out of school wi’ nae Highers) students of mine still been turning in work of that standard at the end of a year – I’d have been carefully reviewing and considering remedial strategies for moving them on to the HN level… and wondering where I went wrong!
In other words; this is kid’s stuff! – Complete with the usual ring-lit ‘webcam licking’ contributions in a box and graphics by Crayola! – Amateur (hauf!) hour!
I don’t doubt somebody’s well-connected ‘pal’ had their pockets well-lined for making this… but ‘broadcasting’? No; it’s just a bit of camcorder-club/webcam-licking (think windae licking) attention-seeking of no particular note or (as the stats surrounding it indicate) impact.
Now… if only former (alleged) Television Producer Mike Russell hadn’t been instrumental in trashing Scotland’s once justifiably-proud and extensive grass-roots Creative Industries education facilities!
Should he no be retired by now though? – Planting tatties in the extensive grounds of his fancy 18th-century cottage on the Cowal Peninsula – far far away from aw us smelly scheemies and other working-class trash wi’ our stinkin’ closes and needles in oor airms?
I guess there’s still a trough for him to snuffle at!
“You get my ignore X if you reply to anyone on my ignore list. I think that’s fair enough don’t you?”
…I think it disnae matter a jot. The only person who can see who you’re ‘ignoring’ is yourself. And the ignore button seems to do precisely nothing – except highlight the person you’re ignoring!
Personally – I was hoping it would work to hide and eliminate the demented shite (which generally comes from a small number of individuals) that generally makes the BTL section of this blog unnavigable… and maybe allow the wheat to be sorted from the proverbial chaff.
– But it seem to do precisely bugger-all of any use.
Quote from the Herald…
” Tommy Sheppard said the vote, expected in the second half of the year, would be “about whether the journey continues” towards “national autonomy”.
More brass around the neck than a full team of brewery Clydesdales. These gravy train tossers are more and more insufferable.
“When” the SNP vote plunges, it won’t have any bearing on Independence, but it will be a shocking indictment of SNP tr(eachery) and the delinquent, anti-Science, Woke horseshit agenda they’ve been peddling on the the back of Independence momentum and popularity.
Away back to your bitter wee club Sheppard.
No, Not your “comedy” club, I meant the Labour Party.
RUBY
Start a blog of your own maybe and argue with yourself, X yourself in your own unique universe?
Being X’d i trust you will ignore this comment.
…..et bonne dimanche, ce qui en reste au moins, à vous aussi.
@John Main 10.39 am
Well indeed. I’m at something of a loss to explain the apparent stasis in Scottish voting intentions. Even after everything that has happened with the SNP. Perhaps a good skelping at #GE2024 will open the floodgates? I expect the scales will fall from the eyes of more lumpen SNP loyalists after their imminent drubbing?
That being said, it’s not as if new parties have a great record of establishing themselves in the UK. I keep hoping that the Scottish electorate will do to the SNP what Irish electors did to the IPP in 1918, but it’s said more in hope than expectation.
I see some of the usual suspects are already bleating that Alba isn’t doing what they want it to, and insisting there’s a great appetite for their particular brand of nativist snake oil.
I’m waiting with bated breath for the launch of the new Poplar Salvo fur the Liberation o’ the Commun Weal to lead us to the sunny uplands……
ANDY ELLIS
Your starting point is all. Knowing where route devolves from that.
Rather like over reliance on satnav at the expense of studying the roadmap, and double checking the provenance and accuracy of the same.
Thanks Ellen: Great piece of writing on the dreadful career of the odious Russell. Many questions to be asked but the barefaced shame of this toffee nosed fraud is breathtaking. Showing no interest or aptitude for something doesn’t stop you being handed an SNP sinecure it seems. In today’s Scotsman trougher Tam Sheperd the comedy impressario who became a political joke is in full keep ma joab mode. A vote against the SNP will kill of independence, says the well-lunched liar. Aye right! A vote for the SNP and its collection of career grifters, globalist neo con goons and intersectional space cadets is what will really bury independence for good. Vote Alba.
@Alf Baird 12.38 pm
The answer to the figures you quote, as has been pointed out numerous times, is both to persuade many more native born Scots to grow a pair and to increase turnout from 84.5% to the low 90’s% as it was in both Quebec referendums.
As Craig’s article linked to in Ellen Joelle Dalzell’s OP pointed out, it’s quite possible that in future New Scots – particularly non UK ones – could vote decisively Yes, perhaps even in large enough numbers to turn a No vote in to a Yes vote.
I noticed you never answered the question of whether you’d accept independence delivered by the votes of non-natives Alf: I wonder why that might be?
If as you say:
the Scots Yes vote would have been even greater without the ‘colonial mindset’ effect and our colonized people remain subject to institutionalised racism and hence ethnic oppression; which explains why the existence of ‘an independence movement depends on the solidarity of the oppressed ethnic group
then you and the fringe groups in the movement who agree with your regressive worldview don’t seen to be doing a very good job of convincing the poor benighted colonised subjects to rise up and throw off their chains and ceasing to lick the hands that feed them. No new party, no polling evidence, no La diada style protests, no politicians of any note agreeing with the “Scotland as colony” schtick. Nada.
Why it’s almost as if the movement thinks it’s a load of old codswallop Alf.
@Andy Ellis 2:31
The list of countries where political parties that essentially did not exist in 2020, but are already in coalition government or on the cusp of outright rule, is a long and growing one.
In each case, these new parties have come about because of strong desires for change in their host populations: sometimes about the cost of living, or sometimes agriculture, or often immigration.
If the same strong desire for change really does exist in Scotland, then its most obvious manifestation would be a meteoric rise in support for a new(ish) party pledging to address that desire.
We Sovereign Scots just cannot be that different to other voters around Europe and the rest of the world.
Alf Baird.
Excellent retorts to the usual suspects, these mutts need to have a go at you, because your comments on colonialism with Scotland in mind make perfect sense.
Keep the good work up Alf.
@Turabdin 10.58am
As John Main noted above, when the BRICs countries are fighting off economic migrants and people fleeing political oppression, the prospectus of those calling for some form of as yet unspecified New World Order, looks somewhat threadbare.
The current rules based international community, liberal democracy, capitalism and free markets all have their issues of course, but to paraphrase Churchill they are the worst possible systems…..apart from all the others that have been tried from time to time.
I wonder what “real independence” means for you? Given recent global events and the prospects of another Trump presidency, I could certainly be persuaded of the need for something different: the question is what?
I have a different opinion to you re the ‘ignore X’. I think it’s very good.
I see the ‘red & green warning’ and I have enough self-restraint not to go there.
This might have come about due to my two terms of PMT.
PMT = pre-moderation time.
The other good thing about the ‘ignore X’ is it prevents people clyping continually to Stu because they don’t like what you post.
Stu can just advise them to press the ‘ignore X’
We are all adults probably all have cars/bikes or scooters which require us to obey the rules of the road. OK the green light says go and here on Wings the green X says STOP!
That is probably Stu trying to keep us all alert.
If there is a complaint about the ‘X ignore’ it’s just that the X should be RED for STOP or even a no entry sign.
But Matt surely you can restrain yourself from reading the ‘demented shit’.
Choosing what you read BTL on Wings is similar to the selection you make when choosing a book.
You’ve experienced of a certain author and thought the book was rubbish. In my case it would be a book about vampires, shape shifters, LGBTQ+, fantasy & even Reverse Harem & Regency romance.
You spot an author aka poster who posts ‘demented shit’ you are not likely to read that author again. The ‘ignore X’ helps to remind you that his/her genre is ‘demented shit’ so you don’t pick up that book.
You wouldn’t expect a bookshop to cover up all the bookshelves containing authors you don’t like they would expect you as an adult to be able to pick the book you think is worth reading.
PS. It’s only me who needs to see the ‘red & green’ warnings.
I know this ‘self-restraint’ malarky isn’t easy but that’s life! 🙂
O/t and @Stoker
With regard to your post in the previous thread, during the late 90’s and early to mid 00’s there were a number of sectarian murders carried out by supporters of both sides of the O/F but fans of the old Rangers were ahead scorewise. In response to this Strathclyde Police were including fans of the old Rangers who had been murdered by other fans of the same team as sectarian murders to skew the numbers. When this was commented on all of the evidence, records etc, on these matters held by Strathclyde Police was destroyed. Strathclyde Police commented that it had been carried out by a lone wolf and that it was unlikely that it would ever be discovered who was behind it.
I have two old computers on which I used to bookmark stuff like that, I should fire them up to try to retrieve just the bookmarks without going online with Windows XP etc.
Shortly before the team went belly up I was doing a college course and one of my classmates was a member of Rangers in house media organisation. They boasted that all of the software they were using for their work was ripped, they had not paid for any of it. With further reference to the media, when the Herald installed an editor taken from the Daily Rangers he took a number of the sports scribblers with him, apparently.
@John Main 3.05pm
I remain unconvinced. British and Scottish voters have in modern times proven remarkably immune to the siren calls of mould braking parties. The SDP then Lib Dems never really fractured the two party system in the way many hoped/expected. The Referendum Party/UKIP & now Reform impacted the Tories certainly and served as the catalyst for the leave vote, but it hasn’t led to a re-arrangement of the system.
Even in Scotland, the SNP just cannibalised Scottish Labour and hollowed it out, only to turn itself in to a tartan version of NuLabour.
Perhaps after the impending UK General election we’ll see some movement in the Scottish political scene: I certainly hope so. In the UK as a whole though…? I tend to doubt it.
I think most little Englanders will just keep on keeping on. Predictions of the collapse of the current party political system, demands for electoral reform, radical action on the NHS or immigration or inequality or climate change & net zero all seem a bit…well…overwrought.
The English don’t really “do” meteoric do they?
FFS! YCBS! FFFFB tags! all over the place 🙂
Plese see this post Matt?
link to wingsoverscotland.com
FFFFB tags
Matt Quinn says on 7 January 2024 at 2:08 pm: “And the ignore button seems to do precisely nothing – except highlight the person you’re ignoring!”
I think you’ve hit on something there, given every other permutation has been trialled by several of us to try and determine how this X thing works.
As you say, it seems to be just a facility to highlight individuals a person wishes to ignore. The only other possibility is the X function is entirely something else but it’s just not working on here, at least for some of us if not all of us.
Most of the time i don’t, as a rule, deliberate ignore anyone. If i don’t reply to someone who is addressing me, 99% of the time, it would be because i’ve not seen their comment. I can’t understand why anyone would need reminding of individuals they have previously chosen to ignore.
If i chose to ignore anyone then i’d imagine those individuals would have to have done something seriously bad and i think i’d remember them. I wouldn’t need reminding that i’m ignoring them. The whole X facility thing is truly baffling but your suggestion seems to be the only fitting explanation thus far.
Isn’t it strange? The Jock Abroad disappears and suddenly Ellis pops up.
Posting BS continuously.
@Stoker 3.24
The ignore button doesn’t make those you “X” disappear – more’s the pity as many have already observed. The full functionality is meant to do that, but apparently it doesn’t work on all WordPress versions, particularly if they’ve been customised a lot, which I’m guessing might be the case with WoS, though I have no technical insight on the under the bonnet workings.
You’re probably stuck with scrolling past the red boxers for the time being.
link to wordpress.com
I need reminding of loads of things!
Easy to drift into reading a post that you would have preferred to ignore to prevent being wound up by their ‘antagonistic flame-baiting’.
Easier when you see a pic of ‘Max Headroom’ for example but not so when there is no pic.
I like the ‘red & green’ warning which is a good substitute for the lack of ‘Max Headroom’ pics.
@ Anton Decadent on 7 January 2024 at 3:19 pm
Yeah, i remember that period you refer to but was unaware of the detail you mention. Thank you! I can also remember the time when the old Rangers visited Celtic Park and a large percentage of their following ran amok and totally smashed up the toilet facilities.
An off-duty police officer was one of the rioters identified. After this was revealed in the media i never seen any further media mention of the case. To this day i often wonder what, if anything, happened to those responsible and did that officer get to keep his job? I guess we will never know.
A bit like those riots in George Square, Glasgow, carried out by a large number of BritNat Rangers fans a few years ago. Police Scotland initially made aa trivial amount of arrests but added they were actively investigating and they will continue to pursue those responsible blah blah blah.
That case also seemed to drift into obscurity. You would think a responsible media would have the moral duty and professionalism to keep such matters alive, wouldn’t you? Not the pathetic excuse for a media we have here in Scotland though – unprofessional & corrupt as feck it would seem.
And you can bet on your life that had that been pro-indy supporters who tore-up Glasgow city centre the story would never be off the front pages until every single individual responsible was dealt with. Even then the BritNat media would never stop reminding us of how violent and aggressive we are etc.
“If the same strong desire for change really does exist in Scotland, then its most obvious manifestation would be a meteoric rise in support for a new(ish) party pledging to address that desire.”
John Main.
Its only been twenty-odd years since Scots voted for their own parliament in that time we’ve had an indy ref and been betrayed by every FM except Salmond, not to mention a plethora of House Jocks loyal to a foreign country, yet the desire for indy still hovers around the 50% mark, perhaps more if we didn’t have a treacherous bunch of SNP MPs/MSPs since Sturgeon the betrayer took over.
Add in that Scots are propagandised 24/7 by the foreign media in Scotland that passes as Scottish, that independence is bad, I’d say that the call to dump the union from Scots has held steadfast, and I predict it will grow when the right person is in Bute House.
As for BRICS as your best buddy Ellis points them out, they’ve welcomed five new countries into the bloc this month, it should’ve been six countries but Argentina decided to destroy itself and it economy by electing Milei, who appears to be a Great Satan (US) admirer, Milei is one of the few leaders moving towards dollarisation, most are moving away from it, what happened in Chile with Margaret Thatcher’s great friend in mind (General Pinochet) might happen in Argentina.
Stoker wrote:
“The whole X facility thing is truly baffling but your suggestion seems to be the only fitting explanation thus far.
Other than poor UI implementation and design perhaps?
I rarely post or respond here… actually; I don’t often find the patience to scroll through all the incoherent babble and read what there might be of sense or relevance. – The facility to ‘de clutter’ the comments section would perhaps make it readable. – It would also be useful if some sort of ‘threading’ could be incorporated and perhaps even the facility to upvote/down vote posts. …Things that were ‘discovered’ to be beneficial in the late 90s.
Hey ho… not my monkey, not my zoo.
Strangely enough I have work to do and a business to run; a real life. I don’t live my life on the internet and certainly not here an odd little side alley which I sometimes pass by. – Having been online since before the WWW even existed, it had all got quite passé by about 2001, when I found myself in a lecture room teaching others HTML. -The clue here being that it (HTML) is not a new thing or something known only to the cognoscenti.
The advent of the idiot-phone (and ironic consequent dumbing-down of the online world) and platforms which facilitate ‘computing for the stupid’ has not improved matters online.
For example …as someone who has spent their entire working life (44 years and counting) behind a broadcast camera (figuratively as well as literally); some demented fanny waving their pathetic wee plastic phone in my face ‘threatening me with ‘exposure’ on YaChoob or FuckwitBook or more-comically still Twat-Tok – is the online equivalent to some ill-bred educationally-challenged primary school child, threatening to write bad things in crayon on the school lavvy walls; or make up a tall tale to tell the teacher.
I can think of one particular individual (at St Catherine’s Primary Barmulloch 1968-74) who did actually keep a list of people they ‘weren’t talking to’; the rest of us were supposed to fear inclusion… not that the individual concerned was particularly popular or likeable or bright; in fact they were (on later reflection) something of a narcissist with possible burgeoning mental health problems.
– But they took inexplicable delight in telling people they were ‘on the list’. Whereas nobody on the list actually gave a fuck. …Still; it saved the Janny time having to rub crayon off the lavvy.
The cross remains (to most of us living in the real world) completely pointless… Just poor UI implementation adding to that which is already stuck in 1997!
Ruby..
**That’s TURABDIN got the X now & so has Geri.**
*Fckin gutted* LOL
The one greetin’ about moderation is now moderating everyone else LMAO!
Touche tho…
P.S. The discussion followed from the original article regards EU polling for Indy. EU citizens didn’t vote indy last time & I doubt Ellis claim. Most feel nationalism as anathema. They’ve first hand experience of the wrong kind. They’ll hardly move here to support it.
Main – the giant nursing home is deliberate. No outlook. No prospects. They move here for free childcare, healthcare, prescriptions, eye care, dental, better NHS, no water meters, no extortionate rates, free elderly care & cheaper properties. All the stuff Scots mitigate £600 million+ against – Then they vote yoon knowing fine well SNP will fix it through our pocket money.
They aren’t moving here to vote Yes. Proof is in the rise of Tories since 2015. We nearly had those feckers extinct. TWICE. Only to make a revival as soon as SNP built thousands of homes.
Pretendy badges & baubles have been around for centuries. The House of Lords is stuffed full of them. No better an example then Baroness tank commander, Roof the mouth.
Achievement’s = zero.
Achievement’s to Scotland = zero.
Yet there she is shaping UK laws.
The SNP will soon join them. It’s been well documented they see themselves & shaping themselves as a new Labour party & I fully expect they will transition to going Nationwide soon enough. Those doff capping serfs won’t want to miss a place at the trough.
Pretendy titles & baubles is what the Brits are famous for to keep things tickety boo..
Ruby 11:52
Is that your idea of staying on topic?
Teaching HTML when no one asked you too?
LMAO!
Didn’t take you long to break yer own rule eh?
You couldn’t make this shit up.
Stick to topic.
@Andy Ellis,
Your framing is as dishonest as ever.
“So you plan is to disenfranchise non-native Scots and declare independence on the basis of less than 50% of the Scottish people voting for it?”
I see your dishonest calculation there; the sovereign Scots would be the real ‘Scottish people’ for the purpose of the independence referendum, so the non-enfranchised Scots wouldn’t therefore count towards the total of which we want 50%+. We therefore only need 50%+ of the enfranchised electorate on this matter, not 50%+ of the total electorate which would require a different franchise.
“You and a minority of cranks don’t get to randomly separate the goats from the sheep in support of your vision of ethnic purity”
That’s not what we are doing; we are advocating a franchise that respects the sovereignty of the native Scots in a constitutional matter of existential importance to them in their own country, and their sovereignty entitles them to make the final decision on the matter, because that’s precisely what being sovereign means! Randomness doesn’t come into it, that’s the point.
You can also fuck off with your ‘ethnic purity’ slur; I’d have no problem with the franchise accepting non-natives of suitably long term residence, which doesn’t depend on ethnicity at all, and also has the backing of the UN Charter for these matters. Nevertheless, the majority of the franchise will still likely be ethnic Scots, at least if we don’t wait too long! The bottom line for me and others is that Scotland’s sovereignty is really important here, and should not be casually ignored, nor casually conferred!
PS, I’m not the crank wearing a rubber wig.
“you don’t represent the independence movement, any political party which supports independence, or any political figure of any note who support independence.”
Neither do you. And don’t bother to get back to us if any of that changes.
Republicofscotland 12pm
**He will say that although it will not happen overnight, independence will mean Scotland can begin to start catching up on more prosperous countries such as Denmark, Ireland and Finland.”**
I hope someone from the audience pipes up to ask what they’ve done in the last ten years in government while they had six mandates on Sturgeons desk.
If SNP win the next GE they will do the exact same – sit on their arse. We don’t need crap from Dumbza telling us all what we could’ve won. It’s them that failed to do anything – not WM & not the electorate who gifted them repeated golden tickets to get off their arse. Brexshit took 6 yrs to exit – it’s not like it came as a fckin surprise to them.
Not a single thing. No way are they getting another 5 years.
For a bit of context for new visitors reviewing Andy Pandy’s ruminations ,Andy has returned home recently from the south of engerland where he spent 30 years or so, Andy has a english wife and daughter who he assures us will vote for independence hence his insistance that the franchise should remain as is, Andy has also stated PUBLICLY on this blog that if anyone DARES to change the franchise he will most definitely ACTIVELY work against independence, Andy also unarguably KNOWS what the ICJ UN and every other international body is thinking and what conditions they will accept on any given subject
Andy thinks he is unique as does John Moan his other name in proposing plebiscitery elections for independence because commenters BTL have been too stupid to realise that that is the way to go, but when you’re a narcissistic gobshite only YOUR opinion counts
ANDY ELLIS
Without becoming too mired in worldviews, Scotland is by default part of anglo-american aka anglosphere. Whether it is happy their depends on how conditioned one is to the powerlessness of inhabiting a house designed and built by others.
I am not part of this sphere, i may take it or leave it at will.
We live in a world with many options. Independence entails the courage to consider those options and climb out of the well worn rut of custom.
Stay in the rut and eventually the wheels of the jaggernaut will crush you.
He is also dishonest about the international community.
Plenty of countries have agreed to terminate a treaty without asking anyone at all. They are SOVEREIGN. They can do what the fck they like!
Scotland IS SOVEREIGN.
She is in a Union.
She needs no permission to leave a treaty.
She especially doesn’t need to ask Betty Fae Manchester what she thinks & whether it meets her approval or not.
It was fully recognised by WM too. All Scots had to do was send a majority of MPs & declare they were leaving.
No ref, no fanfare, no section 30, no asking Betty fae Manchester, Pedro fae Spain or some English twat in WM.
A declaration after a democratic event IS accepted by the international community. The ballot box has spoken. It IS an authority.
In fact, it was recognised so much that it was actually SNP policy for decades before Sturgeon got her mitts on it.
Ellis just makes shit up as he goes along & pretends to be a world authority on not only the independence movement but on international law too FFS.
Maybe he missed where Alba has already sought international advice on the matter. I bet they’re thinking thank fck for that! Or was pie would be in every meet telling everyone where they’re going wrong ZZzzzz.
@TURABDIN 6:06
The “house designed and built by others” owes much of its design and construction to the millions of Scots who went there in its formative years.
If my own family is anything to go by, it was the brightest, the hardest grafting, and the most ambitious that left. Today’s Scots, largely the descendants of those who lacked that essential “get up and go”, are much reduced as a result.
@Turabdin 6.06 pm
I dunno, do you really think that post independence Scots are suddenly going to decide to “go it alone” particularly after recent events and the decision of Sweden and Finland to join NATO?
Much as certain folks may have the hots for the idea of neutrality, or doubtless if some had their way joining the CIS with their mates Vlad and Aleksandr, most Scots are likely to continue with a broadly pro Atlanticist liberal democratic path.
Doubtless if they decide not to, they’ll vote for parties advocating for a change. Ah hae ma doots!
I cannot stand Horsebox Russell.
Total coward, eyes like two pissholes in the snow, and an huge enabler of the two biggest rats in Scotland in a hundred years.
Greasy, slimy, corrupt SNP appointee, with a foul stench of betrayal about him.
All the world is queer save thee and me even thou art a little queer..
@Geri 6.17pm
You seem a bit triggered mate. Nobody buys the “all we need is a majority of MPs” schtick anymore. Get with the programme. It’s 2024, not 1974. A majority of MPs at Westminster may have been enough before Holyrood, but nobody is going to recognise an independent Scotland without a clear majority vote, in response to a clear question on a specificallt plebiscitary platform.
It matters not whether it’s a referendum or a plebiscitary General Election at either Westminster or Holyrood. Preferably the latter for most of us now I reckon.
You shoot yourself in the foot: it WAS SNP policy, it isn’t now, because they’re not mental even if they are useless.
I’m not making stuff up. I’m not an authority, but unlike you I’m pretty well versed in the arguments because I studied the subject in depth. Inchoate screeching about sovereign Scots on your part doesn’t help.
As for Alba’s international advice, do tell: we’re all ears. Put up or shut up time. Or perhaps as we suspected all along you’re just a blow hard? The red box ignore awaits, but I’m sure undecideds wait your response with bated breath.
Geri.
Yousaf will give his speech in the University of Glasgow, a known unionist safe house and Britnat staging post, I’m fully expecting no difficult questions for Yousaf tomorrow, a bit like a Question Time episode where the audience is stacked, usually in favour of the Tories and the union.
I’m fully prepared to see an Orange Jacket Man pop up in the audience, possibly a Scotland Matters plant invited in.
Yousaf might shoot the person down in a planned exchange of words, the Britnat media will then report it as Yousaf defending independence, and those that are unaware that Yousaf has no interest in ridding Scotland of this rancid union, will think Yousaf is our indy champion and vote for the SNP at the GE, when the that couldn’t be further from the truth.
link to archive.is
The only person I can ‘moderate’ is myself and that is what I am doing.
You didn’t ask for lessons in basic html but you really should imho. 🙂
What does the ** or the single * mean?
I was expecting some reference to these at the end of your post.
Good luck with your ‘pissing contest’ with Ellis. I’ve seen it all before hence the reason for the ‘self-moderation’
Are really fuckin’ gutted petal?
Soz!
“Ah hae ma doots!”
@6.32pm.
Careful John Main, you are beginning to get your personas mixed up.
**most Scots are likely to continue with a broadly pro Atlanticist liberal democratic path.**
I must’ve missed the democratic vote we had on joining NATO.
Scotland, I believe, would be heart fcking sick of paying into Unions for not a lot back, don’t you?
A country should pay for it’s OWN defence. Not rely on paid outside forces who may not actually take your side in a conflict eh?
Post independence Scotland has vast waters & resources that need protecting. Having & building our own defense.
I believe Scotland would join an alliance. Not a mafia protection racket which is what NATO has turned into being. Along with a huge chunk of free real estate. It’s colonised half the world already under the pretendy banner of *peacekeeper* while it breaks international law & goes rogue at the behest of America.
@ Ruby on (previous btl thread) 7 January 2024 at 8:42 am
No problem, you’re welcome. I found it quite therapeutic, got a lot off my chest too. LOL! 🙂
______________
@ Andy Ellis on 7 January 2024 at 3:46 pm:
Yeah, i seen that the other day when it was first posted on here and tried but failed to simplify an understanding of it. When it comes to anything tech-related i’m in the clueless ignorant halfwit category and my shutters come down PDQ. When i need help with tech i conference-call my 12-year-old grandson ffs. LOL! But i do get the general gist of your post though, thanks.
Sturgeon the betrayer of Scotland refused to take Alf’s advice and now the taxpayer will fork out yet again. Alf for FM you betcha.
“A hybrid electric ferry hailed by Nicola Sturgeon is now only running on polluting diesel because a £1.5million battery is taking 18 months to replace. The MV Hallaig was the first in the world to use a system which cut carbon emissions by 20 per cent when it was launched in 2012.
But the battery broke on the £10million vessel in September and bosses have admitted it could be April 2025 before it’s fixed because the replacement part is no longer available. It’s now the third problem ferry in Scotland after the controversy over the MV Glen Sannox and MV Glen Rosa which are six years overdue and £260million over budget.
Alfred Baird, formerly professor of maritime business and director of the Maritime Transport Research Group at Edinburgh Napier University, said he was consulted on the hybrid ferries but advised against them. He claims officials at the Scottish Government then complained to his bosses about his work and tried to stop his research being published.”
link to archive.is
No I wont be going anywhere! I’m going to stay here and keep a very close eye on you and your name changes.
Sometimes folk here can be slow to catch on because they are very trusting unlike myself who has a very suspicious mind.
I’ve got my eye on you TURABDIN!
@Xaracen 5:53
As a matter of principle then, any Indy party standing on an election platform of pursuing Indy via referendum must specify the franchise requirements in advance.
Taking the votes of any, in order to get to the situation where a referendum will be held, but on a restricted franchise, is unacceptable, if not clarified beforehand.
To put it in a form suitable for TwatHater: “Vote for us, AND we will hold an Indy REFERENDUM where you won’t BE allowed a vote” will go down LIKE a plate of puke on the DOORSTEPS.
AND to be QFH, with most fair-minded Sovereign SCOTS too.
In fact, when you see it SPELLED out like this, YOU start to see that the restricted FRANCHISE idea is such a non-starter, that no SAVVY political party will ever go NEAR it.
I don’t think anybody is going to vote in favour of being denied a vote.
I’m shocked but not surprised by this.
“On average, 79% of U.S. adults nationwide are literate in 2023.
21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2023.
54% of adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level (20% are below 5th-grade level).
Low levels of literacy costs the US up to 2.2 trillion per year.
34% of adults lacking literacy proficiency were born outside the US.
Massachusetts was the state with the highest rate of child literacy.
New Mexico was the state with the lowest child literacy rate.
New Hampshire was the state with the highest percentage of adults considered literate.
The state with the lowest adult literacy rate was California.
On average, nationwide, 66% of 4th grade children in the U.S. could not read proficiently in 2013.”
link to thinkimpact.com
Shame your post ended up at the end of the last thread where it won’t be widely read.
I think it deserves to be re-posted many times.
Andy Ellis
You have RoS triggered too with your “Ah hae ma doots”.
Are you thinking what I’m thinking?
You drop the occasional “Show us the money” and I’ll reference “Moonhowlers” from time to time. It’s all good stuff on the shits and giggles front!
A majority of MPs sent to Westminster is what we call a MANDATE.
It’s is exactly the same today as it was yesterday & will be tomorrow.
Only stupid people think it wouldn’t matter & come out with bullshit like Gold standards, international community, pretendy new rules & the latest trick of including % targets & set periods they’ve only just dreamt up.
All IRRELEVANT.
Scotland is a country . She is sovereign. The treaty belongs to her & her people. Not you & yer mates. & will have conducted a democratic event. She has issued a MANDATE to carry out her wishes.
BUT she is under no obligation to ask anyone. She can simply terminate the treaty on the grounds of being obsolete, not fit for purpose & consistently breeched if she chose to & not anyone in Westminster, or the international community, can say otherwise. Scotland has a constitution. She is also a partner. You continually put Scotland into the category of subordinate. Not an equal signatory. Are you supposed to be independence supporter? Could’ve fooled me!
That’s what happens with contracts. They’re declared void when they’re breeched & the boss doesn’t ask the employees if it’s OK with them first LOL.
The Great Satan (US) in Taiwan, two can play at that game, but no missiles required.
“Tianjin Port in North China launched a direct route to South America on December 21, 2023… Ten ships carrying 3,500 to 4,500 containers each will serve the route, transporting regional products such as shrimp, beef, tropical fruits, wine and grain from South America and China-made products ranging from glass and steel to bicycles and automobiles.
“The expanding sea routes reflect strong trade flows between China and the region. In 2022, China-Latin America trade approached the $500 billion mark, maintaining a rapid growth for six consecutive years.
“ ‘China and Latin American countries have high economic complementarity, which generates ample room for foreign trade growth on both sides,’ said Zhou, noting that free trade agreements (FTAs) will accelerate the process.”
link to globaltimes.cn
Link to full text of application by South Africa to institute proceedings against Israel for committing genocide:
link to d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net
RoS
The situation is even worse where arithmetic is concerned.
Across the US, 65% pass the basic tests and are considered to be numerate, but a whopping 47% fail and so are innumerate!
It’s claimed that in as many as 10 states, up to 90% of adults score below the average score for the adults in that state.
Maybe posters can show a bit of courtesy to others in this site, at least in the first couple of days of the article being publish, by saying at beginning of their post that is off-topic if it isn’t relevant to the article?
@John Main 7.23 pm
Ah well: moonhowlers probably enjoy just howlin’ in to the void though right? I’ve decided to act as though the ignore function works as it was designed to and treat anyone red boxed as nonexistent.
It’ll be a bit like the relationship between Bes?el and its “twin city” of Ul Qoma in China Miéville’s novel “The City and the City”. 🙂
The new season of ” Ellis In Blunderland ” is shaping-up to be as shite as all the previous ones . Netprix needs to up it’s game .
The elevation of former minor character ” Johnny Main ” to a more prominent role was a BIG mistake : that endlessly repeated catchphrase of his – ” Show us the honey , mummy ” is tedium taken to cruel and * unusual * lengths .
It was never the same after ” Hatuey ” left : n it was pretty crap to start with .
The hypocrisy of the Genocide enabling West is there for all to see.
“By the end of 2022, 18 journalists had been killed covering the war in 404. It was a deadly year for reporters – 67 killed worldwide. The journalists of 404 won a Pulitzer for their sacrifice.
In just 3 months, Israel has killed 109 journalists in Gaza, 3 in Lebanon”
The great Satan & it’s minion, the English government .. aren’t very fond of journalists.
They aren’t very fond of international law & the UN either.
But somehow they’ve to be obeyed & their word is gospel or Scotland won’t be accepted into their club LOL
I can’t think of a worst country to agree with. I’d immediately recognise I was on the wrong side of history.
I had a wee look at the ‘Commenter Ignore Button’
plug in.
I seems this is an out of date plug-in. Hasn’t worked with the last three versions of WordPress.
That’s been since 2014 around the same time as the ‘SNP plug-in’ stopped working and was no longer compatible with the latest version of the electorate.
I have a lot of experience with out of date software and it’s bloody annoying only in my case I have the opposite problem my software doesn’t work with the latest three versions of the Mac OS.
However I’m not that bothered about the ‘CIB’ not working properly I’m fine with the ‘red & green’ warning.
How is the ‘moderating plug-in’ doing? Are folk still getting caught out with the ‘banned words’?
Tommy Sherpard: “If the SNP lose the election in Scotland, the debate on independence stops.”
Fuck the SNP. Fuck the SNP. Fuck the SNP. Fuck the SNP. FUCK THE SNP.
Die!
Warning to potential SNP canvasers in this year’s coming election. You will be spat on.
Mark Beggan says: 7 January, 2024 at 8:40 pm
From the comments on this site, there won’t be any as the party has alienated and driven away most decent activists.
I finally realised just how much of a fraud Mike Russell was when I questioned him about Plan B options at a meeting in Elgin.
He became really flustered and agitated when pushed for an answer.
He came back with an angry “well what would you suggest?” long after all the proposed options had been aired by numerous people with far more clout than me
Absolute fraud, and quite possibly a longterm UK plant in the ranks.
In other news I see Andy Ellis has miraculously reappeared spouting the same shite as before
It’s almost like tag team “let’s bring this one out of cold storage “
Thank god for the new ignore function
@Robert Hughes (7.48)
🙂 🙂 🙂
It is very interesting to watch Sturgeon saying her care planes may not work.
Quite surprising really given not much else she did, didn’t work very well.
On top of that Shepherd is saying independence will stop if the SNP don’t win. It has already stopped you bampot!! You are in the way.
Did his comedy club every explain why the staff suddenly found a speaker’s proposed talk so offensive they were not going to open. Never heads of club staff giving up a shift. Wonder where the idea came from Tommy?? Must check the zipper on the back of my heed!!
Oh and I see they must have found another Murrell IOU in the cash box!!
Is that 6 months since police Scotland started their investigation. These boys can really move!!
I suspect independence will definitely stop, if the SNP win. There is no reason to assume otherwise.
Past performance is a guide to the future or at least a good indication.
Robert Hughes
Hatuey famously predicted the Covid Spreaders would invade Taiwan by Xmas 2022. There was never any come back from that level of delusional self certification.
Regarding the “show us the money” challenge, you should take it up.
Millions of Indy votes to be won with a convincing spiel, so take your time to get it right.
matt quinn, good comment
Chomsky wrote a piece, about 20 years ago, about how the universities were going down the stank; in theory a uni is an ideal workplace, a community of people doing work which enthuses them, but like so many things, it’s turned to shit. A grind and a rat race like anywhere else. The rise of the administrators is to blame – this class of people, who don’t do any teaching or research has progressed immeasurably over the years. Everything is short time contracts, teaching not done by lecturers but the postdocs.
GU, is a great/bad example; it has seen a building boom, so there is money there, but I suspect it is driven by overseas student fees. They created a “graduate school”, while shutting down the research students club, a small property of little matter – but they seemed to take a vindictive approach to it, like it was a nest of subversion.
The basic physics degree is now 5 years, an MPhys and if you want a PhD, then that probably gets spun out to 5 years as well. Instead of getting doctored at 24, you will be nearer 30.
Being a postdoc was a vicious competition for temporary posts which paid nuthin (even at “top unis” like oxford); in spite of the ongoing boom, “tenured” jobs, being actual lecturer, professor, are very rare. In theory, everyone dies in the end, but why not just get more postdocs, on short term contracts?
Students are now customers, and those degrees are being paid for, so, take it easy with the marking. Don’t annoy the students, or their parents will turn up. (Given how easy it is to cheat, it’s sad they still can’t make the effort – google, chatGPT, youtube vids, github, the social media/blog of a guy who did the course last year).
Then there is the woke nonsense; a relative of mine told me the students, some of them, -changed- their gender identity on a daily basis … and you had to respect this. She is now retired, happy.
The vice chancellor becomes like a lord monboddo character in a Gray novel, untouchable, subtle, devious, and thoroughly malign.
Uni, for the kids, becomes like a big party, for a while; they stumble to the end with an inflated degree class (costumers!) and find a massive hangover awaits them; stone cold sober at 4am, with a blinding headache, a massive debt (not yet in Scotland), not covered by bankruptcy laws, and without academic position or career you thought you should have. It’s a bait and switch, you have been sold a bill of goods. This may not be much fun, masters in medieval history, competing like a dog for an entry level position in starbucks, but it seems harmless enough (if rotten for the individual) but it’s not; consider from the 70s onwards we have a generation of arts graduates who had to be schooled in queer/gender/critical/race theory – there were never enough jobs for them in academia, so they spilled out into larger society, and it is arts graduates who make up the government bureaucracies and HR departments of corporations – you have an army of the disgruntled whose only ability is to do social engineering.
– and all this is because the universities were retooled from being “centres of learning” into becoming businesses. Another neoliberal wrecking operation.
The good jobs which exist seem to be dished out as prizes, for loyalty and deeds done; nothing to do with ability, and so you have an entire grifter class of insiders who flit between these succulent, knife and fork jobs; Russell, to give him some credit, seems to have been ahead of the curve, knew how it was going, how it worked. People like this are not going to charge the machine guns for independence.
– what’s Kezia’s publication list like since she became a “professor”? Trebles all round.
@RoS 7:51
It’s quite a dilemma, eh?
Enable a questionable genocide, or, by turning our backs, enable a certain one.
Myself, I’d rather have neither, but there are two sides, each sworn to wipe the other from the face of the earth. One side or the other will pack it in eventually, but they’ll take their own sweet time. Meantime, the eventual ultimate body count matters not one jot to both sides. Harsh, but true.
Such a shame we’re not the doughty colonialist invaders of old. We could step in and crack heads together until they stop. But then you’d be head of the queue to find fault with that too.
And so the killing continues. Some deluded nutters believe that some weasel words from the UN, proposed by the laughable SA asset stripping tyrants, and backed up by the likes of imperialist President P, are going to make it all stop.
Laughable, naw?
the ellis-cat has been “belled” almost immediately, without the tedious weeks/months of many folks taking him at face value
– and he turns up without even any “new material”. Poor show.
Not got a new album out? Holyrood Prison Blues?
– no, that will be a Murrell production, Peter No-Cash and the Camper-Van Wokehovens, with Harvie on the maracas, doing a Bez
“Scott” did not mind wasting his time beasting Ellis nightly – maybe he needs a recall
just use your common sense folks : people who post constantly with posts that reek of hatred and contempt for the Scots and Scotland, are not for independence
main – get up and go had nothing to do with anything, you scrofulous yoon-arrhea – this historical worldview of yours is out of ripping yarns, zulu and 633 squadron, i.e. fabricated wank for the crimes of the worst entity in human history – empire
@John Main 9.10pm
There was definitely a wee want about yon Hatuey. His Nostradamus like powers obviously let him down about the Middle East too. Still, as we know there are quite a few posters who see the world as they would like it to be, rather than as it actually is.
They’ve even somehow convinced themselves that “Sovereign Scots” represent more than the modern equivalent of the Tooting Popular Front.
It is funny what you learn from life.
Words we use like Good and Evil have (many) other duals that mean exactly the same thing. For example…
Good versus Evil is the exact same as Truth versus Lies.
This blog and the GG folk on it are fighting for truth, that has been obvious for a very long time.
I don’t know any of you really but I am on your side.
@John Main 9.23pm
I love the thought of Sa taking the moral high ground after refusing to arrest Sudanese dictator and genocidal maniac Omar al-Bashir when he visited in 2015, despite the ICC warrant for his arrest. Indeed they threatened to leave the ICC, only backing down when the SA courts declared withdrawal unconstitutional. The headcount of Al-Bashir’s regime in the Darfur genocide makes you wonder why they’re not pursuing him….?
Perhaps there are other reasons than just the disparity in numbers…? alert readers can draw their own conclusions no doubt.
I’ve had a few good laughs today.
A special thanks goes to Robert Hughes, Confused and the Australian comedian I saw on Stu’s twitter thread. The one who loves the L the G the B the T and the Q.
Sovereign nations decide what treaties they want to remain in & which ones they don’t.
Scotland is a sovereign nation.
In a treaty with an equal Sovereign nation.
Neither nation has power that trump’s the other.
Two Sovereign nations who can each end the treaty whenever they like without having to invent fictitious rules according to Ellis & his yoony mates.
The English government isn’t the Great Oz.
Sovereign states recognises other sovereign states.
NOT fictitious permission slips granted fae England.
Suck it up, buttercup. Yer Empire is deid.
Here he is:
link to twitter.com
Warning: CONTAINS ADULT LANGUAGE & THEMES
Confused @ 9:20 pm
“Chomsky wrote a piece, about 20 years ago, about how the universities were going down the stank”
In the research for my book ‘Doun-Hauden’ I looked at some 30 departments academic staff at three of Scotland’s ‘ancient’ universities. My findings suggested that only around 1 in 10 academic staff at Scotland’s elite institutions are Scottish, hence most come from outside Scotland. The ratio for postgrad research staff was rather similar, whilst at undergrad level there appears to be at best around 1 in 3 students who are Scottish and with evidence that Scots have great difficulty gaining access to courses.
To remedy this longstanding failure to provide Scots with educational opportunities my proposal for an independent Scotland would be to establish a National University of Scotland. This National University would have a primary aim to nurture Scottish academics and focus on meeting the needs of Scottish students and Scottish society/economy, giving Scots opportunities they currently do not have access to under the present set-up.
Scotland’s universities are basically international businesses masquerading as charities and mainly interested in high fee student income from outside Scotland. They are also high status-conferring bastions of British unionism run by an elite who are mostly not Scottish and who know and care little for their host nation or its people. The elite universities in particular are effectively holding back development of Scots and of Scotland.
Alf
I don’t doubt what you say; when you come to do grad work you find all your supervisors are english, especially oxbridge. Maths/Physics is a specifically Cambridge mafia.
– just over 20 years ago now there was almost an anti-anglo pogrom at Edinburgh Uni; the insular, entitled, overprivileged rich anglo students had pissed off so many people, there had been a toxic atmosphere created and everyone was talking about the “YAHS”. There was even a comic strip in the student news paper; the yahs complained this was bigoted language like use of the n-word … no self awareness. Decent, working class english students would introduce themselves with “Im not a yah …”
I think the final straw was when the police were called to a new town flat (no ordinary students live in the new town) – a dead animal was hanging outside the building. The yahs were hanging a game bird, since they like their meat near rotten. The plebs didn’t understand all this, but the mutterings grew.
The next year, supposedly, the admissions office tweaked their points system for entry in order to get less of these types and the problem went away. The daily mail went mental about this.
I love Edinburgh, but it feels like occupied territory; the amount of construction work being done there is amazing, and they seem to be operating / aping the “trickle down” economics of London and South East, to Edinburgh and the A720. Shame if you live “beyond the rim”.
Buying a flat for your student while at Edinburgh, was an english trick, and they almost always made a nice profit on it. Then there is the dark matter of the electoral register.
Nothing is Scottish anymore.
Even Police Scotland has bussed in a helper, Jo Farrell, who doesn’t even live here & will know absolutely hee-haw on Scots judiciary.
They’re really, really pushing this *one nation* shite.
Scots were far too academic minded for the thick in WM. Across the board in invention, medicine, the enlightenment – they had to curb it/dumb down so as not to embarrass their own woeful track record & what better way than to grant certificates on who can fart the loudest in class.
Oxford & Cambridge dump out pure dross to become PMs with a certificate only in entitlement & exceptionalisim.
It is interesting to see the furore that has erupted after the tv programme Mr Bates v The Post Office.
After about 20 years, suddenly the public has been made aware of this shocking miscarriage of justice against the post office workers. After all the court rulings in their favour,£58 million-was awarded, but only £12 million left for the victims of the computer failures. The bulk of the money went to the establishment lawyers, surprise, surprise !!
Does this not sum up the present UK situation and the corruption at the top of all government controlled organisations.
Good luck to all wingers that think it is time to get the gloves off.
Andy Ellis @ 9:32pm,
You and Hatuey were very much on the same side when it came to treating unvaccinated people worse than second class citizens to the extent that you likened us to drunk drivers.
You were high on your own pomposity when advocating for the creation of an untermensch.
Yet here you are on your high horse again calling people nativists because they don’t share your view on the franchise of who should or shouldn’t be allowed to vote on constitutional matters in Scotland.
Welcome back.
Republicofscotland
Ignored says:
7 January, 2024 at 3:06 pm
Alf Baird.
Excellent retorts to the usual suspects, these mutts need to have a go at you, because your comments on colonialism with Scotland in mind make perfect sense.
Keep the good work up Alf.
Same sentiments here Alf.
The pattern of ad hominem attacks is proof you’re getting under their skin… or at least trip-trapping over their rickety rackety bridge. 😉
The great Scottish Independence Swindle 2014-2024.
@Breastplate 11.57pm
Ah, another red boxer to be ignored hereafter!
Thanks for the welcome back bud. Hatuey may have been a tad odd, but even a broken clock is right twice a day. From memory his views on the “great unvaxxed” did seem a bit out there. My views were only those of the vast majority.
I know it kinda stings for those on here intent on spamming a once useful resource with their hobby horse takes on [insert tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theory du jour here], but such is life.
I can’t be held responsible if BTL comments here are in thrall to a small coterie holding fringe views on a variety of issues.
The good thing about the new ignore function is that, even if it doesn’t allow us to make the screeds of moonhowler content disappear, they are more easily identifiable and ignorable. You’re eminently qualified for inclusion, which would appear to be a result for both of us, eh?
@Benhope 11.29pm
The Horizon scandal has been talked about for years, so you’re right that it is odd it should take a prime time drama on TV to actually get people to sit up and take notice and (suddenly) demand action. Small wonder the country is in such a mess when it takes performative publicity fronted by actors the public like for anything to actually happen.
Perhaps we’re all on the wrong track: if we can persuade Ant & Dek to shoe-horn Scottish independence into their output, or promote it via “Celebrity Made in Chelsea on Ice Bake Off in the Jungle” we might actually make some progress.
Breeks @ 3:54 am
“trip-trapping over their rickety rackety bridge”
Aye, colonialism is a crime, according to the UN/ICJ. It is increasingly difficult for ‘the watchdogs of colonialism’ to defend their crimes’ The colonizer inevitably sink deeper into the mire grasping for colonialism’s fascist roots in order to keep the plunder going and the people oppressed (haud-doun); they are ‘condemned by their own hypocrisy’.
ANDY ELLIS @6:32pm
Then, alas, Scotland should bid farewell to the notion of independence.
The anglo-american ascendancy, Britishness and the anglospheric virus are well established in the insular «res».
Scottish nationalism has yet to offer an antidote.
But times and events may alter perspectives, as they are in European politics.
As a cosmopolitan outsider i do trust they will for Scotland’s sake.
Otherwise nasty nannie Britannia will have won.
@Alf Baird 10:31
It must be a generation ago that I twigged, from personal experience, that Edinburgh and St Andrews are the pre-eminent English universities in Scotland. There may well be others.
I’m guessing too that these varsities would form the nucleus of “breakaway republics” should iScotland ever come about.
Heck, if we can ever find people prepared to fight for us, amongst the non-confrontational peaceniks that seem to constitute so much of our toothless Indy movement, we could try to shell them into submission to Edinburgh rule!
But to be serious for a mo. It’s not a Scottish phenomena so we shouldn’t get too worked up about it. No way can London be regarded as an English city any more, and plenty of other English cities are now effectively third world enclaves.
It’s only the absolutists who think they will be able to hold Scotland together post Indy. If some areas, Edinburgh say, are now effectively colonised, I would prefer to let them go their own way, over starting a shooting war.
The same goes for obvious geographical areas, such as the Northern Isles, where integration with Norway is a far more obvious local preference.
Don’t get me started on pretendy FM Yousaf’s one million New Scots target! How Innarestin it is that there has been zero pushback against his plan.
Andy Ellis,
Yes, I’m sure the ignore button will come in handy for avoiding self awareness of your Dunning Kruger affliction and turning down the volume of your cognitive dissonance.
I’ve already explained to you, many moons ago, that history is littered with the majority being wrong but I have no doubt you will continue to believe you are right on any given subject, simply because you swim with the current.
Feel free to pretend you haven’t read this.
ALF BAIRD
Colonialism, however defined, has many faces and not all are bad. It was agents of «colonialism» that took an interest in Egyptian civilization, la Déscription de l’Égypte is a monumental work of enlightenment science. The French, and to a certain extent the Italians, brought beneficial aspects of modernity eg town planning to their colonies. The Germans in theirs established vocational schools