Wings Over Scotland

Just tried to share via Twitter several times but the tweet won’t send for some reason. Does Twitter block particular domain names, perhaps? Nothing would surprise me. Of course, it could also be that I’m just incompetent. Happy New Year, Stuart!

This site has always been about calling people out for the statements they make, any hipocrisy within them or the downright falsehoods published by our politicians.

Mr Whishart said this. Does he believe it? Only he can answer.

As for the site, it is Stuarts, he can do with it what he wants.

Hahaha, Magic Stu. Feeling down and that lightened the day.

I tried to post on twitter from your Facebook post,but it wouldn’t allow it.

I wish I could get odds at ladbrooks that Wishart disappears up his own arse rather than take you upon this one.

Same experience as Craig Watson (and same doubts about competence) …..

I had that as well but then it changed its mind.

Posted on Twitter & Facebook fine for me.

I’ve tweeted Pete the link. Funnily enough I had to unblock him first. I have a low BS threshold these days. I’ll let you know if I get a reply.

While I’m here a good new year to you Stu when it comes and all the best for 2022.

I’d love to help Stuart, but slippery Pete has had me blocked for a long time. I think it’s because I support Scottish independence.

Happy N’erday and I hope you have a guid New Year and Happy and prosperous 2022.

Happy New Year and best wishes to all the Wings family.

Thanks for that Stu, I’m now blocked. How am I supposed to read all his informative tweets now?

Sadly it has been blatantly obvious from time immemorial that the SNP are a unionist organisation, bought and sold by Westminster and riding on the backs of blind feminist / woke emotional support, while stuffing their pockets.
Sadly it seems Alba is infected by the same, unwilling to actually address real issues of the growing feminisation of our culture, fearful (with reason) that doing so would loose them the votes of 51% of the population. Single parent families, children growing up fatherless. The demonisation of everything masculine, which actually had a very large part in creating what we not now enjoy and which so few show any gratitude for. Our culture is sick and no one is prepared to address the problems. Scotland should take a good hard look at itself in a mirror, it’s not pretty.
Alba? Every time I watch one of their posts it reminds me so much of the Reverend I. Am Jolly, and it’s not funny at all.
Thanks for everything you’ve done and tried to do Stu, you were a bright comet in a dark sky.
Fare ye well 21,
22? Jez

Ah, Pete the mystifier, the professional mesmerizer and brazen con man.

Good luck and all the very best to you and yours in the coming year!

Delighted you’ve made a little foray back into vile cybernattery.

I’m just hoping the SNP wokeratti continue to annoy you – As they annoy the hell out of me.

Your money is safe . Wishart has no appetite for independence.

P.S. Fancy doing a bit of digging into Rhiannon Spears’ downfall ? I heard that she had fallen foul of the genderwoowoo – although I think that is fanciful.

He has most of real indy blocked! ?
I’ll share it tho.
& Happy New Year!

Here is a brief lecture for SNP MPs and MSPs on what independence means:

link to facebook.com

Forgot to say all the best for 2022.

Happy New Year Stu and to all wings folk.

The downfall of the SNP will commence soon the supporters and members will look for a new home when the penny drops that there’s no activity on the independence front.

ALBA needs to stay clean and credible and if it does former SNP folk will receive a welcome from real independence supporters.

I believe that prior to making progress on independence we have to see the fall of the present SNP which will delay things and we may have to suffer a the rule of a unionist party for a short time.

So far his response has been to tweet a rather uncomplimentary article on Bella Caledonia about Stu to anyone sharing the link to this article in a futile effort to distract from the fact he’s a liar.

Hahaha! I wondered which one of the SNP the article title was going to refer to 🙂

Be careful what you wish for, he’s a greedy bastard and an SNP led referendum, with a devomax(imising SNP income aka vow 2) optionwould be designed to fail.

The only thing that might put him off is the the unpredictability of those pesky,by now mostly blocked voters.

General election plebiscite is the way.

Pete Wishart was recently quoted in The National saying he wanted St Nic to sit on the Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster.
I kid you not, this is a direct quote from him in the article.
“Her evidence will be invaluable in considering the ongoing work between the UK and Scottish Governments, and how this relationship could be strengthened to benefit the Scottish people.”
So Pete wants the relationship between Scotland and the UK to be “strengthened”.
Add to that a recent quote from Nic herself in Vogue magazine where she says she “works well with Michael Gove”.

What more evidence do the SNP faithful need?

I would if he hadn’t blocked me almost 18 months ago for the audacity to ask him what he as an individual MP was doing to progress independence for Scotland. No dialogue or debate – blocked.

Entitlement

Politically separatists are seen to be
And who could say that we’re otherwise?
The fact of having a right to something,
Persons who’re supporting separation of
Two separate nation-states: belatedly!?

© Ewen A. Morrison ???????

Good to read you Rev and sharp as a tack as usual.

Happy New Year to all who want an independent Scotland and may 2022 be our year.

A guid new year tae ain an aw and mony may ye aw see.

An tae aw yon SNP ‘settled-doon-ers’ jist twa wee wirds fur ye aw:

tick tock

Pishwish has me blocked but I’ll do my best.
It’s SO good to see a post from you. I do wish you felt fit enough to return in 2022 because I and many others miss you tremendously. SO UNLESS you’re writing the GSN (Great Scottish Novel)- in which case… Anyways, have a great New Year and the very best 2022 – because you deserve some good stuff happening to you.

@ Ros at 3.52pm

Indeed, here’s a wee reminder of just one aspect.

link to twitter.com

Wasn’t remaining in the single market a red line for she / her at one point?

Aw the bestest come Neer-day Stuart and all Wingers let’s hope that 2022 can be better than 2021 .

I bet you a hundred quid that Comfy Pete doesn’t take you up on your bet.

Nice to see this post in my in box , but let’s be honest there is NO CHANCE of Wet Pishfart or ANY other SNP pervert or deviant taking up your bet because they know the truth, that Nicla is a shitebag up against WM the same as they are shitebags against the perverted one
Sturgeon would take you up on your bet because she would INSIST on a devo max option on the ballot and her communication dog would write it for her because he has previous experience selling out his country

Have A Great New Year Stuart

“Wasn’t remaining in the single market a red line for she / her at one point?”

Dan @4.17pm.

Yes Dan it was as Ian Blackford said Scotland won’t be dragged out of Europe against her will.

Its the SNP MSPs that I’m angry at they know exactly what’s going on yet not one of them has the guts to make a stand or whistleblow on what’s going on. Instead these spineless and gutless troughers sit behind Sturgeon at FMQs and like nodding dogs agree with everything she says, whilst the country goes down the toilet.

Republicofscotland says:
31 December, 2021 at 6:53 pm

Its the SNP MSPs that I’m angry at they know exactly what’s going on yet not one of them has the guts to make a stand or whistleblow on what’s going on. Instead these spineless and gutless troughers sit behind Sturgeon at FMQs and like nodding dogs agree with everything she says, whilst the country goes down the toilet.

—–

If any of them had Scotland as their prime concern they would speak out.

We had an election this year so even if Sturgeon kicked them out of the NSP for doing so they then have 4.5 years as independent MSPs to hold her feet to the fire in Holyrood (Assuming they dont join either Alba or ISP).

They would be more effective as opposition than toeing the NSPs lines, but the bulk of them are career politicians or from the gender woowoo brigade, their paycheques & pronouns are more important to them than our country and it shows.

—–

Brian Doonthetoon says:
31 December, 2021 at 7:18 pm

link to twitter.com

—–

Just use a private browser/tab, it saves having to log out in your main browser.

Back in 2014, George Robertson was the figure independence supporters baited on twitter when they were bored. It is a sad indictment of Pete Wishart that an SNP MP has taken Robertson’s place.

Lord Wishart of Broomhead will no doubt be hiding behind the mound of tumbleweed in his office, hoping something else will be along soon to distract supporters of Indy from the SNP’s constant prevarication when it comes to Indyref2.

Just checked his follower count – 53,862

Does that reduce when he blocks someone?

Everyone is blocked by Cozy Slippers except me.

I’m not blocked because I don’t do twitter.

However I feel as do many woman in Scotland that I am blocked by the First Minister. She ain’t listening.

Any news of the party Chez les Murell?

Happy New Year Abdee!

All the best everybody. I have a good feeling about 2022.

Happy New Year to you Rev Stu and all fellow Wingers (and lurkers).

“Here’s tae us. Wha’s like us? Damn few, and they’re a’deid.”

Unfortunately mair Scottish Patriots have died waiting on our nation regaining her independence this year as our elected representatives do fuck all but watch their bank balances grow!

Hope 2022 is guid tae all.

Hope the NuSNP get skelpt in the Council Elections by Alba and the ISP.

War criminal gets honours !

Soon SNP Troughers Snouts will be lining up fer honours an’ pensions !

Do ye get the feel noo that ye huv awe been shafted ?

Happy New Year, Stuart.

Surely £5k is a big enough carrot to lure Weet Pishfart

How’s this for a small independent nation that was once part of the British empire.

“The Irish language will become a full, official language of the European Union from midnight.”

“On January 1st, it achieves full status with all documents published by the EU being translated as Gaeilge.”

link to newstalk.com

@Jockanese 12.56 am

“Hope the NuSNP get skelpt in the Council Elections by Alba and the ISP.”

From your lips to God’s ears mate: it may be too much to hope that there will be a major breakthrough, but seeing some of the reactions online to Tony Giugliano’s recent outbursts, I went and looked at the 2017 figures for Edinburgh Council to see what the scale of the task might be to get Alba councillors elected:

There are 63 seats on the council, so a majority requires 32 seats. Pro indy parties won 27 in 2017 (19 for SNP, 8 Greens). Most of the wards in Edinburgh have electorates in the high 20,000’s or low 30,000’s and return 3 or 4 councillors. The quotas for electing a councillor after transferred votes range between a low of 1699 votes in Sighthill/Gorgie, to a high of 2858 in Corstorphine/Marrayfield.

Five of the councillors elected in 3rd or 4th place did so on the basis of only 1100-1300 first preference votes, and 8 on around 1500-1700 votes. The lowest First Preference % of the vote that resulted in election was 11.7% (1244 votes) for the Green councillor in Craigentinny/Duddingston.

Though Edinburgh might not be the most fertile territory for Alba, it shows the scale of the task at hand. Winning council seats here depends on getting >10% first preference votes in some wards and picking up enough transfer votes to get over quota. Those might come from “disaffected” SNP voters, or they might come from unionist voters trying to limit SNP numbers (although I’m not sure how many britnats would want to give their lower preferences to a party that is more radical on indy than the SNP!).

Note use of ‘fail’ in Joanna Cherry’s recent tweet.

“Excellent poll for the SNP predicting 56 seats at next General Election & Tory wipeout. If current strategy fails to deliver referendum promised in 2023 it will be vital we use this election wisely to further our primary aim.”

Alf @12.05pm.

Totally agree Alf.

If you want to throw up now would be a good time…

The CMO for Scotland Dr Gregor Smith is also to be given a knighthood.

ref link to theguardian.com

JUST REMEMBER NOW, BOTH VOTES FOR INDY.

wonder if he will knock it back……doesn’t matter, it’s the thought that counts.

@Jockanese 12.56 am
@Andy Ellis 11.16am

Like many, I’ve been frustrated by Alba’s focus on strategy rather than street-fighting; this may be explained by my preference for Rocky Marciano rather than Gentleman Jim Corbett.

However, Alex Salmond has earned his portrayal as the consummate politician and has certainly made a detailed plan of attack for the forthcoming council elections and beyond.
But make no mistake, the outcome of these council elections is crucial, and will determine whether ALBA has a future. Failure to make the breakthrough in May 2021 was understandable, failure in May 2022 is unthinkable.

Prospects are good, however. Turnout is much lower in the local’s, which should help. Alba voters will be more committed than most which will result in a much higher % of our followers turning out. More voters will also be aware of the importance of using second and subsequent preferences wisely. There is no SNP 1 & 2 for local elections.

Then there is the ‘protest’ factor where voters take the opportunity to give the ruling party a poke in the eye. Whether Sturgeon can maintain her current approval rating must be highly questionable, as understanding of her policies and failures becomes clearer.

Another factor is that at the 2017 locals, not only had SNP reached their zenith, but so also had the Cons under Baroness Ruthie, who was at that time was very popular and openly talked about as being the leader of the UK Cons, even future PM.
Both SNP and Cons could be expected to lose ground this time round.

The final and most critical factor is the huge commitment of foot-soldiers, now firmly on board the Alba steamroller. Much of the preparations so far by Alba has been locally as seen in Nov by the national LOCAL push. That is what made SNP so powerful, and time will tell if this strategy bears fruit for us.

I’ve no idea what the benchmark is for success, but the timing is as good as it can be, with the sequence 1. Council, 2. GE, 3 HR. giving Alba the time to build the momentum needed for 2026.

The Rev and AS may give the outward appearances of being gamblers, but this is a false depiction: gamblers take a chance and play against the odds, these two are wily and calculating. Whether AS is more calculating or gambling on this strategy, only he knows. The rest of us will find out in May.

@Ebok 2.33 pm

I don’t think we should be too hard on Alba to be honest: it’s still pretty early days and Covid certainly hasn’t helped. It’s no small thing to stand up a new party and as you say expecting anything to happen by May 2021 was always unrealistic. The Scottish electorate have proven time after time their ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, but perhaps they need to be led to the edge of the abyss and dangled over it before they wake the fuck up?

The SNP have set up a few hostages to fortune, particularly the assurance that #indyref2 will happen in the first half of this Holyrood parliament. When that doesn’t happen, I doubt they’ll just be able to shrug it off, particularly if it’s twinned with a continuing deterioration in the economy and no real progress on any other issues.

I wouldn’t be that downhearted if there isn’t a big breakthrough in May: the real goal has to be Holyrood 2026. I have my doubts participating in the Westminster charade is worthwhile at all: if Alba does so, it should be on an abstentionist basis like Sinn Fein. If nothing else, I’d be tempted to target particular SNP seats to ensure the particularly egregious devolutionists lose.

Fiona Leverick, Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice at the University of Glasgow, has published research into jury decision-making in which she found “overwhelming evidence” that jurors hold “prejudicial and false beliefs” about rape that affect their evaluation of evidence at trial. These include the belief that a “real” rape victim would have injuries and that even a short delay in reporting a rape is suspicious.”

It might be a good thing if the public were told what a ‘real’ rape victim is.
ie Why they would delay in reporting the crime. Obviously a delay would mean there would be no signs of injuries.

It would help if victims of rape were encouraged to report the crime immediately.

If you start inventing lots of new crimes then you will end up with a huge backlog and if you don’t convince the public that these new crimes are serious then you will end up with a jury with “prejudicial and false beliefs” ie touching someone’s knee is not a crime.

If the jury believed the person in the dock was a woman would they not be more inclined towards an innocent verdict being that their “prejudicial and false belief” would be that women cannot rape?

It would also be helpful to know the difference between a sexual offence & flirting.

Is kissing someone on the cheek & telling them they are handsome really a sexual offence?

What about touching someone’s knee or hair?

The public need lot of education before they can serve on juries. I wonder if you can be excused from jury service if you claim to have “prejudicial and false beliefs”. ie a woman cannot rape.

What skills does a judge have that juries don’t to determine whether someone is telling the truth or not?

100%Yes…

“He knows Independence has been stonewalled.”

The turkey my family enjoyed last week had been decapitated, disemboweled, plucked, stuffed and roasted. By the time we’d finished with it, it was unrecognisable.

If you include all that our turkey endured in your definition of “stonewalled”, then I’d tend to agree.

It’ll be “stonewalled” turkey for next Christmas again, I’m sure.

Tom Stoltman- World’s Strongest Man !

Well done big lad.

Hatuey @3.56pm
Andy Ellis @4.13pm

I’ll respond to Andy first because he has a better understanding of what I’m getting at.

‘I don’t think we should be too hard on Alba to be honest’
‘the real goal has to be Holyrood 2026’

I’m not being hard on Alba at all Andy. They have shown very clearly that their approach is geared towards 2026, the ‘real goal’ as you put it. My comment merely expresses the opinion I hold, that all the eggs are now in one basket – subject to ‘events’ unfolding, over which we have no control.
WM 2024 is a non-starter, as you say. It would be incredulous if ALBA increased its current representation, particularly if they don’t make an impact in May.

@ Hatuey says
‘I’d much rather see Alba dedicating itself to giving structure, leadership, and power to the untapped mass movement of independence supporters out there who, let’s not forget, represent more than 50% of the population.’
Don’t you get it Hatuey?
That is exactly what they have been doing since the formation of the party. That was the whole point of my comment!
What I am questioning is whether the softly, softly, approach is good enough. I’d much prefer if we included some hell raising actions to alert the public of this administrations appalling record, to rattle a few cages, and to highlight the arrival of Alba. But it’s not happening so all we can do is put our faith in AS.

You ask me to define what a successful result would be in May, so you clearly didn’t fully read the comment ‘I’ve no idea what the benchmark is for success.’
However, if you want a number, then 10% of first preferences is a minimum, which would likely result in around 120 of the 1220 total. That would enable Alba to replace the Libs as 4th party, and perhaps give parity with Independents.
The difference success would make in these council elections is that it would give momentum, a clear yardstick of progress, and offer an alternative to voters in subsequent elections. But if after 15 months Alba can’t establish itself locally then there is no pressure on SNP, nothing to build on, and little hope of becoming a major player in the short term. We’d be set back a further 5 years.

You said in a previous comment ‘If you read my comments carefully you’ll see that 99% of the focus is on data, facts’.
Well, here is something for you to chew on: Alex Salmond said on Scottish Prism that 95% of voters had no real interest in politics.
SNP has lost around 60,000 members. These members were interested enough in politics to join a political party, pay dues, contribute, complete bank mandates etc. So, it is a safe bet these 60,000 were among the ‘other’ 5% Alex referred to. They will know who AS is and they will know about Alba.
Alba has 6 or 7000 members, mostly I would suggest, ex SNP. So where are the other 53,000 former SNP members?

This is what really bothers me. There seems to be an acceptance that SNP will implode at some point, but I think it would be dangerous to assume that SNP voters will simply move on to Alba.
If 53,000 of 60,000 committed voters, who joined and paid good money to SNP, are not interested anymore, at a time when no other party commands an ounce of respect, then perhaps the final sentence of your 3.56pm comment will be typical for many at all elections.

It took two shots, but Twitter did accept the tweet. Unfortunately, I’m blocked, so I’m depending on retweets to get my message to the man who would be speaker.

Ebok “‘I’d much rather see Alba dedicating itself to giving structure, leadership, and power to the untapped mass movement of independence supporters out there who, let’s not forget, represent more than 50% of the population.’
Don’t you get it Hatuey?
That is exactly what they have been doing since the formation of the party. That was the whole point of my comment!“

It isn’t actually. What they’ve been doing is working on the infrastructure of Alba. There’s a difference.

It’s possible we both are urging the same sort of thing from slightly different angles and I agree when you say;

“What I am questioning is whether the softly, softly, approach is good enough. I’d much prefer if we included some hell raising actions to alert the public of this administrations appalling record, to rattle a few cages, and to highlight the arrival of Alba.”

Either way, I’d prefer to see them devote time to engaging with grassroots organisations who have been systematically ignored and marginalised since Sturgeon took over.

More than engage, I’d like to see them co-opt them and make the indy movement a massive immovable object at the heart of Scottish politics.

Your 53,000 missing members is a huge assumption that I find difficult to take seriously. I agree with Salmond on that score, though, that 6000 members is pretty impressive for a party that just fell out of the traps, has been denied media platforming, and has been unable to canvas due to covid.

Alba has done a lot right so far. The next phase is going to come down to taking the message to the streets and doorsteps, bypassing the MSM, and how much support each and every single one of us is willing to supply. And we need to stop arguing about crap and get on with it, otherwise we are all fucked and the assholes win.

.
Happy New Year Stuart,

Thankyou for this PishFart post which has cheered me and hopefully others right up.

I can pretty much guarantee a way you WILL get a response from Wetminster Wishart.

Have IndyPoster Boy or equivalent print 5,000 x A3 sized posters stating…

DOES THE LOCAL MP LIE?”

Below the headline a summary and web-link of your bet.

For good eye-catching measure, have the footer part of each poster in large bold font state…

REVEREND CAMPBELL WAGERS THE LOCAL MP £5,000 CASH THAT PETE WISHART IS LYING ABOUT HIS SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE PROMISE?

The reason this style of approach works is my old boss did something similar in another constituency. The local newspaper picked it up after seeing dozens of posters appear in shop and house windows and the MP LOST the seat (in another part of the U.K).

In 2019 that was rescued to 7550, but in reality is requires just half that 7550 to change the vote and to make it possible for Wishart to BE GONE from Westminster by 2024 at the latest.

Just 3775 voters whom, on the evidence of the 2017 majority of 21 voters are just lending their vote to Wishart. Pretty much all of Pension Pete’s majority is highly volatile.

Mr Campbell, I think Wings has a very, very good chance of politically decapitating Wishart.

The poster campaign could be refreshed every three months, for example….

“A QUESTION FOR PERTH MP PETE WISHART: DID THE POLICE EVER FIND THE £600,000 YOUR BOSS “WOVE” AWAY FROM DONORS UNDER QUESTIONABLE PRETENCES?”

Of all the odious Woke captured spineless reptiles in the current SNP leadership, I now believe the supporters of Wings Over Scotland can get rid of one of the worst.

Fluck being banned by wonky Twatter algorithms off of social medial. Go directly to the constituency. There WILL be thousands of voters in the Perth & North Perthshire constituency who LOATHE Wishart and would gladly put an A3 poster in their shop or house window.

What a brilliant result it would be to behead this pretentious political parasite from his Westminster sinecure.

I pretty much guarantee that your bet would appear on the PishFart Twitter timeline once he and his little pickle panted fan club started witnessing a constituency-wide campaign to show what a lying piece of excrement they have squatting in the Palace of Westminster for his own financial benefit.

@Hatuey 2.01 am

“It isn’t actually. What they’ve been doing is working on the infrastructure of Alba. There’s a difference.”

It’s necessary to learn to walk before you run tho’ Hatuey! Having seen a branch being established first hand, it’s not something that just *happens*, people have to do it, devote their time and often money to putting the basics in place. Given recent experience with the SNP, and the fact as Ebok pointed out that many doing the actual work in Alba are former SNP activists, members and voters we have an opportunity to show the electorate something better, both in policy terms and in terms of party democracy and openness?

In my view Alba should avoid trying to be all things to all men, and in particular it should avoid trying to “co-opt” grassroots indy movements as you put it. Co-operate with them on areas of common interest by all means, but make it clear that the indy movement isn’t the property of the SNP, as the serial electoral failure Tony Giugliano recently asserted when he talked of excluding Alba from “their” movement.

In the medium to long term, and indy movement consisting of a number of political parties (probably in our case the SNP, Alba and Greens) and various grass roots interest groups is the way forward. We had a shot in 2012-14 of using a “big tent” approach, with one overweening party supplying the engine of the movement, and everyone else putting their policy differences aside, and working towards the common goal: “eyes on the prize” and all that. Those days are gone.

Like it or not the SNP are still likely to be in a dominant position in the short to medium term: only its members can force change from within before the next Holyrood election. Many of those who were most motivated to effect change in the party have already left in disgust: there is clearly little appetite amongst those left.

An electoral gubbing is probably the only thing which will bring about change in the SNP. Alba can certainly play a part in that, but while I agree it’s important to do the work on the streets and publicise policy differences, it’s also important not to raise false expectations that there will be some imminent breakthrough.

The idea police force for the Tories seems to have arrived.
Mindless Bullies who put themselves above the law and operate
like they have their own kangaroo court.

I’m in no doubt they will all collude to prosecute someone who had
no criminal convictions and were caught out demanding basic human rights.

I have never been charged with anything and neither has anyone in my family.
In fact I have aided the police in the past but no I’ll stay well clear of them as they
are as likely to be more dangerous than other street thugs as long as they have the
power to manufacture and appoint crimes.

In recent times the police sold a story about raiding Cliff Richards home.
Officers have committed murder and rape, they take pictures of murder scenes
for Social Media, they falsify evidence and they refuse to go look for evidence of
illegal Tory Xmas parties.

The average response time they have to get an officer to a domestic break-in is over 4,hours.
They seem to have a spare 20 officers on hand if a drunk staffers in the street.

We need a police force but it isnt the one we seen now!

Anyone have a link to the Stop Tony Blair’s Knighthood petition.

U.K. media has the story but of course no link to join
the 150,000 signatures recognising his illegal war killing and
displacing millions, his formula for creating the right wing Labour Party
and his pathetic pleading with Pres Bush to let him into their investment cartel.

Blair could have assets of up to £100 million knowing that means the more he has the less
those have at the other end of the spectrum.

Yes Tony, some people renting from your property portfolio can pay you rent or eat or heat.

His mate Brown will no doubt be joining him as Lord Liar of Scotland, yet another Labour Party millionaire.

Was it Jock Stein that said “football without fans was nothing”? We didn’t think we would ever find out but it turns out that he was wrong, whoever it was — it’s crap but not quite nothing.

Under Sturgeon we have seen something similar — politics without people. Sturgeon from day one done everything possible to keep ordinary people and grassroots groups at arms length; it’s the best evidence there is that she had no intention of ever pressing for independence and knew in advance that ordinary people and the grassroots would be getting shafted.

That was a huge mistake, on a number of levels. She is now completely dependent on the alacrity of BBC Scotland and other facets of the British MSM and State. And she has left a power vacuum at the heart of Scottish politics that represents a huge opportunity for Alba.

Alba can’t be another political party along those same lines and must do everything possible to differentiate itself. The people of Scotland aren’t “exceptional” but most of them remember the way Scottish Labour shafted them and are facing the grim reality that the SNP are now doing the exact same thing again. It can’t happen a third time.

People when it comes to politics can’t be treated like football fans — expected to turn up, cough up, shut up, and applaud.

The success of 2014 was driven by offering people much more than that. Nobody who was involved with the people of Yes groups and Hope Over Fear in 2014 finds it difficult today to explain the electricity of that campaign or its success. There’s no mystery. As much as I like Salmond and admire the role he played back then, the engine, dynamics, and momentum all came from ordinary people below.

And it can happen again. It could happen next week. There’s no requirement or anything in stone that says all those hopes and dreams need to wait for some political process to unfold over the next ten years (if you believe that, you’re basically fucked from the get-go because you don’t understand what you’re dealing with).

The indy movement is sitting like a freight train just waiting to be fired up and rammed right through the heart of Scottish politics. Forget council elections and opinion polls — it’s all crap. Holyrood too. You’d need to be a bit stupid to get any satisfaction from Holyrood.

Perhaps rape should be divided into two different categories.
1. What the public ‘consider’ to be rape. Where the crime is reported immediately and the victim has injuries. ie victim attacked in the park by a stranger. No question about the person being raped.

2. Where the ‘rape’ happens for example at the end of a date and the question is whether the woman consented or not. There are no witnesses alleged rape not reported immediately how would you go about deciding guilt? I would think that would be nearly impossible.

@Hatuey 12.39 pm

Sounds like wishful thinking to me. If we’re to ignore elections, Holyrood and opinion polls and place all our faith on this train with no fuel, I’m still waiting to hear how this train gets rammed through the heart of Scottish politics? The heady days of Yes Scotland seem like a lifetime ago, never mind 7 years.

I’d love to think we’d see outraged pro-indy Scots of all political persuasions do a “la Diada”, but do you seriously think that’s on the horizon? SNP members and voters can’t even rid themselves of Sturgeon, and just proved in May that they still largely think the SNP will make good on their promises.

I’m all ears to hear what it is you think is going to propel this currently powerless indy freight train down the tracks to independence central. Perhaps there will be some political earthquake – whether here or in Westminster – that serves as some catalyst, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on it.

It’s all very well for folk to say: “Labour shafted you in the past, the SNP are shafting you now, so we can’t trust another conventional political party or process to deliver” but what’s your realistic alternative?

Mahatma Gandhi
Nelson Mandela
Martin Luther King
Che Guevara
Emmeline Pankhurst
Michael Collins

All these various movements had strong leaders.

The Scottish Independence movement has no leader.

Can anyone imagine Nicola Sturgeon or Patrick Harvie as the revolutionary leader required by the Independence movement?

Alex Salmond filled the role in 2014. Can he do it again or has he been destroyed by the NSNP?

A leader is needed. Could Angus Brendan MacNeil fill the roll?

“It struck me that the promise of jury-less trials, whilst being another card being played from the #metoo hand, the timing seems more likely designed to split #womenwontwheest vote and head off opposition to self-id – now that it seems to be gaining momentum.”

Stuart @7.28pm.

Stuart.

Juryless trials are being promoted as away of rising the conviction rates on sexual offences and to help clear a backlog of cases, putting the outcome of a trial in the hands of a judge is fraught with danger, you just have to look at what happened to Craig Murray with no jury, and then see how Alex Salmond faired with one.

Juryless trials will open the door to abuse of the system, all manner of folk including indy bloggers will be fair game, and could find themselves up before a judge and whisked off to prison, we’ve already seen the likes of Mark Hirst, Craig Murray, Marion Millar and David Llewellyn feel the force of the law for committing no crimes other than speaking the truth or protesting injustice.

Scotland is fast becoming an authoritarian state under Sturgeon, where truthful reporting (Especially by indy bloggers) will not be tolerated.

You can’t tell me that the SNP MSPs that sit behind Sturgeon on FMQs don’t know what’s going on, yet not one of them has broken ranks or spoken out for the sake of the whole country, what does that say about them? as they sit there clapping like seals every time Sturgeon spits out a witty riposte, meanwhile the country circles the plughole.

In case folk missed it in the midst of the Festive Season, and excellent piece from Sonia Sodha in the Grauniad recently, WRT the College of Policing’s guidance that the police should record all non-crime hate incidents, as perceived by those taking offence at them, is an unlawful incursion on citizens’ freedom of expression. Some interesting comments in the twitter exchanges too:

link to twitter.com

“There is no democracy without freedom of expression. That the police have unlawfully acted to shut down legitimate political debate in 21st-century Britain should remind us that, even in mature democracies, the most basic human rights should never be taken for granted.”

The full judgement haded down on 20/12/21 is here:

link to judiciary.uk

The Speaker of House in the English parliament Lindsay Hoyle, has spoken out to defend the war criminal Tony Blair’s coming knighthood.

link to 12ft.io

I shouldn’t have included
“Pensioner among 125,000 Scots caught at illegal parties during lockdown’

in the previous post.
that had nothing to do with the incident at the ‘Avant Garde’ pub it was a link to another article.

“Files released today by the National Records of Scotland show the Labour-Liberal Democrat Executive of 2006 reclassified material with the explicit aim of thwarting FoI requests.”

“The move involved classifying background factual information as advice to ministers, as such advice is exempt from release under FoI law, subject to a public interest test.”

“The initiative was led by Labour’s minister for parliament Margaret Curran and finance minister Tom McCabe.”

You can bet that Sturgeon has used this trick when it comes FoI’s.

@Hatuey 3.39 pm

“Scotland could achieve independence this year.”

How? I’m not interested in fond imaginings and what *might* happen.

What is it you think could or should happen for Scotland – by which presumably you mean the “ordinary people” – to move from our current situation to reading out the declaration of independence on the front steps of Bute House within 12 months?

I agree we have some impressive political minds, but they’re people not magicians.

link to 12ft.io

Is this type of row good or bad?

The SNP MSP said:
“Paedophiles and predators are people. Not bogey men under the bed.”

Very unfortunate choice of words particularly at a time where people are asking about the ‘Sex Survey’ and if the reason for it it is to justify lowering the age of consent to 14 years.

She goes on to say

“Not Mac wearing flashers in the street, faceless and nameless.”

Flasher are paedophiles and predators & even worse as was seen in the case of Wayne Couzens.

She seems to be dismissing flashing as unimportant.

This MSP has expressed herself really badly.

She says to Chris

‘You know fine well what I mean.’

TBH it’s difficult to figure out what she means!

According to the Sun:

“Officers carried out a routine visit at a licensed premises on King Street, Glasgow around 11.30pm on Friday 31 December 21.”

If this is true then they weren’t called to sort out a situation.

It looks as if they may have created the situation.

Why the need for so many officers & six police vans to carry out a routine
visit.

Why were they marching around the pub like the Gestapo?

link to tinyurl.com

More info needed!

Andy: “What is it you think could or should happen for Scotland – by which presumably you mean the “ordinary people” – to move from our current situation to reading out the declaration of independence on the front steps of Bute House within 12 months?”

I’ve already said it’s for people like Salmond to work that out. All I know is that there’s majority support for independence, and significantly more latent support than there was on 2014. We can expect that support to rise in the months ahead along with energy and food bills.

I sense that you’re poised to shoot everything down that doesn’t involve going though the formal constitutional structures and processes and that’s fair enough. There’s two things you need to accept though, unless you want to be labelled a moon-howling reality denier;

1) the formal constitutional structures and processes aren’t working and possibly aren’t able to facilitate their own destruction which is what independence would amount to. The SNP has achieved 6 mandates since 2015, yet the formal constitutional system has provided no referenda.

2) historically it’s really abnormal for a country in our sort of situation to find a constitutional route to independence. I’m happy to discuss more normal routes, but the route you are advocating which doesn’t work (based on 1 above) is, as a matter of record, extremely unusual.

As for more normal routes, once Alba has engaged and mobilised the independence movement, and I don’t think it would be long before the SNP was forced to play a supportive part, anything becomes possible.

Have you ever stood in front of a freight train as it speeds towards you? Ever tried arguing with one?

It wouldn’t be unusual once majority support has been established and mobilised to call a general strike and force the issue. That’s one common approach, historically speaking. If you got to that sort of situation, the debate and power dynamics would change dramatically and British diplomats would be keen to show you how very reasonable they can be.

Once freight trains like that get moving, it’s hard to stop them. It’s odd that I need to explain that and the power of democracy to someone so seemingly enthusiastic about democratic process.

The lady wearing the leopard-print dress is filming the kerfuffle on the floor. One of the policewomen makes a grab for her phone, then gets up and grabs her arm and swears at her, uttering something like “*uckin’ phone”, before getting her on the floor.
As someone above commented, she seemed to be over-aggressive for the situation occurring.

The petition to rescind the war criminal Tony Blair’s knighthood passes the 300,000 mark, and climbing.

link to change.org

Hi Robbo @ 8.00pm. I had the same email.
Don’t know the reason why but strange. Set up on the same bank details. Will call bank when they open on Tuesday.

link to change.org

330,000

link to change.org

That potion is on fire!
New signatures every 3 seconds so 500,000
an easy number to hit.

Will those listening Tories or Royals give a damn if
if it reaches 1,000,000?

No, it’s only Plebs after all .

Ian B @ 11.40

I clocked that remark too : nothing like a wee bit of gratuitous stereotyping to reinforce a prejudice eh ?

That whole polis * operation * was ridiculously OTT , the arrests the result of bad handling by them , if they had let the guy get his coat it needn’t have escalated as it did , looked to me they were pissed-off because the guy was not being suitably deferential

Bear in mind this is the same Police Force in the process of accepting the lunacy of Self-ID , the implications of which will inevitably make a complete mockery of judicial procedure and previously accepted standards of justice .

Robbo . I had the same thing happen : my monthly ALBA DD refused for no apparent reason . Frustratingly , when I replied to the message from ALBA informing me of this telling them I had no idea why this had happened I received no answer back , and only the issue being raised here has reminded me to try again .

IanB, I agree , he was perfectly polite and wanted his jacket. What I saw was an oaf of a policeman trying to provoke.

Happy New Year my lovely and I hope that we meet again some sunny day!

Stuart @ 10.58

Indeed .

The Stop Blair the Multi Millionaire War Criminal’s Knighthood petition
has already reached 400,000 signatures.
All the U.K. media outlets reported the petition but none willing to show you the link to join in

Weasels of Mass Money Production have been found!

link to change.org

” If nothing else, I’d be tempted to target particular SNP seats to ensure the particularly egregious devolutionists lose.”

Hmmm sounds like a plan and in an APT thread [whatever] too!!