The Empty Hearse
There’s been a very unfortunate typo here.
“Scotland’s independence” should read “SNP’s gravy bus”.
Because it couldn’t be any clearer what Robertson means.
The first sentence, it should be noted, is a lie. The basis for the 2014 referendum was Alex Salmond persuading David Cameron to grant it in the belief that it would result in a convincing victory for his – Cameron’s – side and put the issue to bed. (The same reason he also granted the Brexit vote, though he didn’t manage to scrape through that one.) The SNP having a Holyrood majority had no material effect whatsoever, as the Supreme Court later confirmed. It was a purely political decision.
As it happens, the second sentence is also a lie – the legal circumstances have in fact NOT changed, as the protocol of Supreme Court judgments is that they establish not only what the law is but also what it has always been. The Supreme Court does not MAKE the law, it only INTERPRETS it.
And that of course means that the third sentence is also a lie. A pro-indy coalition in fact carries precisely the same weight politically and legally as an SNP-only one, which is to say: absolutely none.
But the paragraph is still instructive, as it tells us that the SNP has now openly ditched any notion of working with other parties to secure a mandate for independence. (Which does somewhat entirely nullify their resurrected “indy convention” from yesterday.)
As far as the SNP is concerned, if you vote for any pro-indy party that isn’t them, you don’t actually want independence.
What that translates to, obviously, is “Both Votes SNP”, which all sane and/or numerate people know will only serve to deliver more Unionist MSPs. We’ve written extensively about this already, but let’s try something simpler: a single table.
(In the table above we’ve chosen seats entirely at random from the largely-new ones that will be contested in 2026 after numerous boundary changes, and we’ve adjusted the SNP list vote for regional variations because, for example, they usually do better in Glasgow than they do in South Scotland. The red column is the vote share that was required for the final list seat in each region in 2021, ie the “cheapest” one.)
Current polling suggests the SNP will take well over 50 constituency seats next May, leading to a Parliament that’ll look, sound and act almost exactly like the useless one we have now. (And in which, as Wings has been telling you for over two years now, the only stable possible administration would be an SNP/Labour one – unless, that is, you’d prefer Alex Cole-Hamilton as Deputy FM.)
But defenders of the “both votes SNP” policy shriek that all the polls which have said that for at least the last six months might somehow turn out to be wildly wrong, so in our table we’ve depicted an absolute nightmare evening for the SNP where a series of narrow and/or freak results see them take just 32 of the 73 constituency seats.
The upside of that slaughter is that their list vote would then be divided by much less than it would if they’d won most of the constituencies. In 2021, for example, the SNP won nine of the 10 seats in North East Scotland, which meant their list vote was divided by 10 (1 plus 9 seats), reducing it to 4.1%, which was nowhere near the 5.7% that would have been required to win a single list seat in the region.
In our apocalyptic hypothetical, where they secure just four constituency seats in each region, that means the divisor is only 5 rather than 10. But unfortunately for them, their list vote is currently polling at around 26% rather than the 41% of 2021, so the final share (the fourth column in our table) works out pretty similarly, and would not be enough to win a list seat in any region.
Now, obviously if the SNP have only won 32 constituencies, that means that the other parties (most plausibly Labour in most cases) will have to have won them, which will affect their own divisors and improve the SNP’s list chances a bit. But set against that are three factors which will counteract any advantage.
(1) The Lib Dems got just 5% of the list vote last time, which won them 0 list seats, but are currently polling around twice that, which would all but guarantee a seat in every region (as at best they’re only credibly likely to take one or two constituencies from the SNP).
(2) The presence of Reform, who are unlikely to win any constituency seats but have a list vote that would get them a nailed-on two seats per region and possibly three (and will also help the Tories on the list if the Tories have lost constituencies as a result of Reform splitting their vote).
(3) The creation of a new party led by Jeremy Corbyn, which again would be unlikely to win any constituencies but would probably take enough left-wing votes from the SNP, Labour and the Greens to form a substantial bloc of 8-10% that would also comfortably reach the threshold for list seats.
There are, then, effectively three brand-new players in the list race, all of them likely to win list seats in all or most regions (mainly at Labour’s expense). And so overall, the SNP’s chances of any list seats even in the worse-than-the-worst-case-scenario we’ve imagined, let alone the one that’s actually likely to occur, are basically nil.
(You’d probably be looking very broadly at Reform 2-3 per region, Tories 2, Labour 1-2, Lib Dems 1, Greens 1, with local variation but no room left for the SNP.)
So we’ll say it again: whether they’re SNP politicians like Angus Robertson, deranged bloggers or suspiciously anonymous social-media “monitors”, anyone who tells you to vote SNP on the list next year is telling you, knowingly, to elect a massive cohort of Unionist list MSPs.
(We can only speculate, in the latter two cases, as to their motivations for doing so. But it doesn’t take a genius to work out why the SNP want it.)
And obviously, in a situation where the SNP had won just 32 constituency seats, that would mean a Unionist government, but WITHOUT the saving grace of the complete destruction of the SNP.
This site has often stated its belief that that destruction is a prerequisite for any hope of independence in the foreseeable future, but we’d much prefer that it was achieved by voting on the list for other pro-indy parties who could replace them and subsequently become strong enough to win constituencies too. Leaving the SNP as a lame-duck presence, but still in suffocating possession of the political arm of the movement, is the worst of all possible worlds.
If you vote for other indy parties on the list, you might get Unionist MSPs but you’ll at least be laying the basic foundation blocks for rebuilding. If you vote SNP on the list you’ll still get Unionists, AND you’ll delay getting independence back on track for at least five more years. It’s your choice.
But if anyone continues to tell you that the SNP are going to win list seats next year, show them that graphic and ask them how it could happen. Ask them which regions the SNP might win fewer than four constituencies in (and thereby have a larger list share and more chance of a seat), or which regions 5% of the vote might deliver a list seat in. We’d love to hear their answers, because those are the only two ways it could possibly happen – short of a miraculous overnight doubling of SNP support, which definitely ISN’T happening.
(Though of course in the former case any list seats won would only be replacing the lost constituency ones, leaving the SNP’s total still stuck on 32.)
In our experience of reasoning with the demented, though, there will be only silence.
Vote 1 and 2 or don’t vote 1 and 1 don’t vote 2 and 1 don’t vote 2 for 1 but voting 2 before 1 definitely 2 but not 1.
Confused don’t worry about it.
It couldn’t be simpler: No Votes SNP.
One Scot One Vote.
Never has a political party been so wilfully determined to sabotage its own chances. As you say Reverend, the gravy train has to keep rolling on, heaven forfend that these people had to do something that might derail it.
The SNP don’t want independence apart from paying lip service to it, that much is clearly apparent.
So we are stuck going round in circles, since the SNP are not going to do anything about it, it looks like it’s going to be external events that will drive things.
If Starmers government collapses that may open up a path, but that’s not something we can count on.
Totally agree – NO VOTES SNP.
SNP have abandoned INDY and indy supporters should abandon the SNP.
I was prepared to give the SNP the constituency vote but that went out the window along with the trust. My family will vote for any Indy Party but not the Greens. Scotland First Always !
I get it, but No Votes SNP just doesn’t do it for me.
It’s like being mugged, forgiving your mugger, but failing to address the thorny little problem of the assault and theft which the mugger suffered upon you..Take no action, and you thus nullify mugging as a crime.
The SNP actively betrayed Scotland. Let that gross impropriety slide, and we have set a very low benchmark for political accountability. In any land where treason is met with clemency, then rogues will flourish.
QED.
Even simpler for me: No votes for any candidates / parties that will swear fealty to the English Crown / UK head of state.
Yes, no votes SNP is the only possible answer. Angus Robertson’s book, ‘Vienna’ is quite brilliant, but, when it comes to the SNP, and independence, he has a blind spot. Is it loyalty to a discredited party? Or something else, because it cannot be about independence: the SNP cannot and will not do anything to achieve it. Indeed, they will thwart it if they can. Now, this could be because low of wanting to hang on to jobs, or, again, something else.
Angus has shown himself to be a fine political historian. He should, perhaps, write a book on the fall of Redmond’s Irish Party and the subsequent break with Britain , followed by civil war, the murder of Collins, the supremacy of the ultra conservative De Valera, and, eventually, a republic. Unification has yet to be achieved, but it is not the pipe dream it was once either.
I’m not advocating a civil war, but I am saying that the break with the UK we might have will not be a smooth transition to full independence either, and reality and pragmatism demand that we stop pussy-footing around and get down to business as soon as possible in order to stave off the worst possible scenario. The SNP and its cohort of gender advocates and wokies seem determined to scupper independence, but public anger and unrest will not be kettled for very much longer. Omission can be as much of a crime as commission.
Long ago in Athens the people voted with a white pebble or a black pebble. Athens grew to become a great power. Then one day a selfish little bastard wanted it all. So devised scribbling the names of people you don’t like on back of plates and cups. Athens quickly fell into the abyss.
Not strictly true, Mark.
A small segment of the people voted. Male, free (not slaves), property owning.
They also drank hemlock. But that’s not the point. People don’t understand it and are too scared to ask. Meanwhile dangerous nut cases like Harvie and gang creepy crawly in the back door.
I’m waiting patiently for a comprehensive and lacerating Wings piece on the twin disgraces of NHS Fife / the dangerous gender ideology in Scotlands public and private bodies.
Appreciate it nay not be published until after the Tribunal ruling.
“I’m waiting patiently for a comprehensive and lacerating Wings piece on the twin disgraces of NHS Fife / the dangerous gender ideology in Scotlands public and private bodies.
Appreciate it nay not be published until after the Tribunal ruling.”
The main one will indeed have to wait for the judgment, but we had a piece on NHS Fife’s gender madness just last week.
Plus ca change plus ca meme chose.
Is that Scots? Fa’s Northcode tae tell us?
Silence from the demented? I think you’re forgetting about a certain blogger on Scot goes Gaza.
Haha…
Donald Trump has delivered an unprompted attack on former Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon, describing her as a “terrible first minister”, PA Media reports.
*He’s no wrong*!
Trump made the comments on Air Force One as he travelled back to Washington following his five-day visit to Scotland. During his stay, he had a two-hour dinner on Monday with current first minister John Swinney, alongside Keir Starmer.
Swinney, who also met Trump on Tuesday morning, said he had used the talks to push the president to exempt Scotch from US tariffs. Speaking to reporters on his flight home, the president was asked if he offered to drop the levy on Scotland’s national drink.
He replied: “No. We really didn’t discuss it much. But I have a lot of respect for him [Swinney].”
*So Swinney dropped the ball on behalf of the Whisky industry!*
“Journalists began asking questions again before Trump interjected: “I didn’t have a lot of respect for the woman that preceded him – I thought she was terrible as a first minister of Scotland. But I think John is doing a very good job of first minister.”
A source close to Sturgeon responded: “Trump’s lack of respect for women is hardly news. That said, the feeling was entirely mutual.”
There’ll be no visits to America for Sturgeon while the Donald is in charge!
“A source close to Sturgeon responded: “Trump’s lack of respect for women is hardly news. That said, the feeling was entirely mutual.”
Sturgeon added on her Instagram account: “Feeling was mutual, Donnie. Forever proud to represent all the things that offend your view of the world.””
Forever saddened to think I voted for your party under your control albeit (you) were acting completely under false pretences.
PS: saw yer picture with pal Val in the Herald.
Heck, go easy on those cakes or you’ll be needing a Brazilian butt lift above your front bottom..
Mind you, maybe you’re looking to imitate your “landlady” pal Val..
Just saying an that..
Why would Swinney bother about tariffs on Scotch. As far as I am aware the whisky industry is owned outwith Scotland al the monies and taxes made from this industry go to the English treasury . None of the benefits from this so called national drink come to Scotland. Is there anything Scottish in Scotland that benefits Scotland.
see link to scotch-whisky.org.uk
“In 2022, the Scotch Whisky industry, defined as the production
and sales & distribution of Scotch Whisky, generated £7.1 billion
Gross Value Added (GVA) (direct + indirect + induced) in the UK
Out of this total, £5.3 billion was generated in Scotland
The industry supported 66,000 jobs across the UK and 41,000 in
Scotland
The manufacturing of Scotch Whisky is highly productive and
generated £6.3 billion GVA across the economy, of which
£3.4 billion was directly generated by production.”
Well y’know safeguarding jobs, creating jobs, the CC sort of thing tariffs could affect…
He’s a narcissist. Narcissists never forget.
He’ll still be sore that Sturgeon removed his Global business ambassador for Scotland name badge.
Other than being remembered for that he’ll not know, far less care, what a wee diddly branch office does on a daily basis. I doubt he even knows their names.
A diddly administration will forever drop the ball on international matters. What part of a ‘devolved administration’ is he struggling with? He has hee-haw authority over trade deals & tariffs, those are reserved matters. If he wants a chance at that authority he should’ve taken his chances & called an independence referendum. He didn’t. It’s all just tantrums & pantomime with the SNP thinking the public will swallow that ‘at least he tried’ bullshit.
Scotland has no say on anything until it is an Independent country.
As for the musical chairs bs on Holyrood. Robertson knows fine well the only seats that matter in the UK are the green seats at Westminster & he fcked that up when he had 56 MPs elected & where he was their leader. He’s a plant too. He helped orchestrate Sturgeon & her hubby to remove party democracy & render the conferences & it’s membership mute.
Indy movement needs a ‘No Votes SNP’ election strategy (seat by seat) that maximises the chances of Indy candidates at the 2026 Holyrood election.
Definitive proof of that old chestnut about a stopped clock being correct twice a day. Donald-John Trump had noticed that Sturgeon was a terrible First Minister.
Mind you, he then lost any credibility this amazing observation might have gained him, by suggesting Swinney is doing a fine job.
Swinney does as good a job as First Minister as Donald-John does cheating on the golf course.
Any POTUS comes around me dissing Scotland’s Mammie and I’ll do time!
[With grateful acknowledgements to PE]
1st vote Liberate Scotland 2nd vote any other Indy party from Alba, ISP .
No votes SNP
Isn’t Robertson Cabinet Secretary for Constitutional Affairs?
Isn’t he on record as saying a vote for Indy also doubles as a vote for EU membership, because that’s official SNP policy – we’re too wee and too poor to go it alone?
I wonder if President Trump ventured any views on that.
Sorry Stu I don’t see Reform getting anywhere near your worst case predictions.
I reckon from talking to folk and from Crossgates Centre blog on Facebook and Alba posts going out on Facebook and Instagram that Alba will pick up way more list seats than Reform.
Reform is not liked up here.
Reform received 167k votes across Scotland in GE24 bang small I. The middle of the Greens and lib dem hauls in HR21
With support that high they’re getting elected candidates for sure, given how woefully crap Labour,(and to some extent the SNP domestically too), have been since, I reckon more will be convinced to give them a punt. Most yoons I know think HR is an overblown district council,given their disdain, they could get a whole lot more votes. (I do hope you’re right of course, however I just can’t see them not taking the bait)
With three different voting systems it’s no surprise that understanding the most confusing one is in itself a huge issue. Widespread misunderstanding of a voting system isn’t a great basis for democracy.
In summary, the usage of the D’Hondt method in Scottish Parliamentary elections was a deliberate choice by the UK government at the time of devolution, formalized in the Scotland Act 1998 by New Labour, as part of the Additional Member System – chatgpt.
Seems about right. Get the fix in early.
Remember Spitting Image had John Majors puppet painted grey?
I wonder what colour they would colour Provost Swinneys puppet?
My first thoughts/ suggestions:
Grey, stick to precedent.
Deathly pallor off-white, self explanatory really (with the added bonus of p1ssing of Humza Useless).
Marmite brown, no-one seems to like him but The Donald professes to be a fan.
Magnolia, suitably boring.
Faint remains of half scrubbed off rainbow colours.
Bank of England £50 note red, the colour that keeps the SNP ticking.
Orange, the colour of carrots.
Feel free to add to the list..
Nae penis purple, YL Sah!?
So it’s true then – you are sober.
Yet again; every accusation you make is a confession of your own guilty pleasures..
.
36 hours now, YL Sah!
What’s your personal best then? In recent times mind. Be honest, we’re all pals on Wings BTL and nobody judges.
Much 🙂
Public sanity appeal!
Does anyone have an internet fly-swat thingy?
We are getting irritating fruit flies on this site all year long that would benefit from a terminal electric shot..
Yellae? Like aw SNP elected majorities.
I been saying on here and to other that next year isn’t about Independence and its not so why vote SNP.
The SNP is in big trouble as the Indy vote isn’t supporting the party as they used too and why would they, the SNP also has a problem with Reform party and Jeremy Corbyn’s party will have a huge effect on the SNP.
“Jeremy Corbyn’s party will have a huge effect on the SNP”
If Jezbollah gets any kind of significant support at all in Scotland, every political party will be hugely affected.
For the first time, the organised, ongoing Islamification of Scotland will be exposed to the blinding glare of full day, and nothing will ever be the same again.
I agree, Hatey. However, the independence parties might be hard hit as many people will mistake Corbyn for a socialist when he is actually hard left and, as we should all know by now, the hard left, and even the more moderate left are completely opposed to the b real-up of the UK. The Tories are more likely to give us independence (but only if they are forced into a corner) than the Labourites.
Prick.
« “Scotland’s independence” should read “SNP’s gravy bus”. »
_________________
No argument with that as far as it goes. Just that it lets gate-keepers off way too lightly. There is surely something far darker than wallet-stuffing at work in the upper echelons of Scottish society. Secrets upon which no glimmer of light must ever shine…
Definitely.
Bit slow. Just realised the article’s title — ‘THE EMPTY HEARSE’ — invites questions regarding the whereabouts of buried bodies.
Could someone at SNP HQ ask Angus Robertson why he doesn’t understand anything above and is he being paid by Westminster to concoct a plan that ensures list votes for unionists.
Can anyone in the SNP try to justify this simple arithmetic insanity.
You couldn’t sell ten pound notes to that lot for a Fiver.
He understands all too well. I hate to mention his wife, but she understands too!! Don’t mistake evil for stupidity.
Swinney and his fellow fuckwits don’t really care whether they win constituency seats as long as there is the possibility of list seats, it doesn’t matter if they are not the government they are happy for someone else to take responsibility to govern Scotland,they are content to collect their salary and pension credits whilst slagging off others attempts to govern
I bet all the hierarchy are top of the list for any list seats that do come available, Swinney,Forbes,Robertson, Brown and a few others whilst the rest of the DROSS shite themselves at losing their generous salaries
Did you even attempt to understand the Rev’s article
before writing drivel like this….???
“Swinney and his fellow fuckwits don’t really care whether they win constituency seats as long as there is the possibility of list seats”
“I bet all the hierarchy are top of the list for any list seats that do come available, Swinney,Forbes,Robertson, Brown”
Jesus wept !
Are Liberation Scotland going to have constituent candidates or just list candidates?
It costs a lot of money to put someone in every seat. I suspect they will try and cover all the list seats or at least have 4 or 5 candidates ranked within the alliance to cover each region.
Thanks.
@ agent x: Liberate Scotland will stand in constituencies as well as regions – a list of 19 of their constituency candidates is on the Liberate Scotland facebook page for 26th June.
Thanks.
Swinney “Scotland’s place as an independent nation in the European Union” -will you listen to yourself man, you want to be taking orders from Ursula von der Leyen?
Actually, you probably do, so why don’t you just exit quietly stage left.
and
“The Supreme Court has ruled ….” have they really?
They might get a surpise someday when they realise what little power they actually have when it matters.
At the moment, with a cowardly Holyrood stuffed with placeholders and mouth-breathers they might be sitting smug and pompous, but that won’t always be the case.
Hey – Ursula is a hottie 🙂
I think you are confusing with Ursula Andress back in the day.
No votes SNP in 2026.
That is the strategy for moving forward.
The SNP are an anti independence Trojan Horse.
Sturgeon added on her Instagram account: “Feeling was mutual, Donnie. Forever proud to represent all the things that offend your view of the world.”
—————————————
Just imagine – this woman could have been representing an independent Scotland on the World stage. Ya know – negotiating trade deals, defence strategy etc.
Negotiating who gets to take the credit for the work of negotiators and diplomats? There would be no negotation there. Woe betide anyone who gets between her and the Camera.
Does anyone else remember the totally unstable SNP administration of 2007-2011? Thought not. How did they manage to do anything with only 47 MSPs?
I have had a month off happy to report nothing has changed. We booked a cruise with the money we were going to spend on our candidacy for 2026. The SNP will win the election in 2026. Welcome to Scotland, critical independent thought is absent. So much for the Enlightenment.
Half a millon pro independence supports stayed at home last July instead of voting SNP? How many will stay at home next year spurning all pro independence parties?
I take it Felix Winter will be welcomed in the men’s jail.
Born female? Then – no.
«The British Empire perfected its machinery of colonial domination in Ireland, transforming the island into a laboratory for techniques of conquest later deployed across the globe. The Irish people suffered three genocides linked to English and then British imperial conquest and misgovernment in the modern period. This colonial laboratory first tested strategies of dehumanization, displacement, and mass starvation that would become hallmarks of British imperialism from North America to South Asia. The same ideological framework that justified the Tudor conquest of Ireland and the Cromwellian genocide would later shape Empire’s approach to Palestine, with devastating consequences that reverberate today in Gaza. » (‘Gaza & the Great Irish Hunger’, blog article by BLOSC [Fearghal Mac Bhloscaidh / Feargal McCluskey] July 29, 2025)
link to blosc.wordpress.com
What’s happening with the Alex Salmond trial? Anybody any updates?
I’ve not seen anything about it.
Also:
“Chainsaw-wielding attacker with female pronouns disfigured OAP in row over tractor
Donald Sandilands, known as Donna Sandilands and referred to in court as ‘she’, but who is being held in all-male Perth Prison, was apprehended by armed police in a quiet Scots farming town.”
———————————————-
I hope he enjoys his time in Perth prison.
Aah!
More “kindness” from the terminally and dangerously deluded brigade..
Thanks ever so much Thatcher (you witch) for “care in the community”, working out well eh?
Any chance of a wee clarification, x?
It’s not clear if you’re referring to a tractor, or a Wings BTL “tractor”.
Posted on scotgoespop article at 21:14 300725 and reposted here as he’s too scared to post it.
“I bet you £100 James that SNP win zero seats on the list.
I’m going to post this on Wings post today as I know you’re too feart to allow it here.”
PEERS CALL FOR ‘MISGUIDED’ EFFORTS TO DEFINE ISLAMOPHOBIA TO BE SCRAPPED
Peers have called for plans to create an Islamophobia definition to be scrapped, warning of a “chilling effect on free speech”.
In a letter signed by 36 members of the House of Lords, the Peers called the attempt at a definition “misguided” and stated that it would only increase division in communities. A working group has been set up to agree suitable wording for the definition, but has been widely criticised.
The Labour Party’s current definition, which has been slammed for being too broad, claims: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.”
THREAT TO FREE SPEECH
The Peers warned that although the definition would be non-statutory, it would still have consequences, particularly in universities: “defining ‘Islamophobia/ Anti-Muslim Hatred’ and urging universities to prohibit it will inevitably inhibit legitimate academic research about Islam.”
They cautioned that “any member of a university that says or does something that falls foul of the definition would face potential penalties”. The letter gave the example of Trevor Phillips, who was suspended from the Labour Party under its non-statutory Islamophobia definition, before later being cleared.
Other concerns included that any new definition “will likely include legitimate criticisms – as well as accurate observations – of the religion of Islam”.
The Peers highlighted how the term ‘Islamophobia’ has already been misused, noting: “Sarah Champion, the Labour MP who exposed the grooming gangs in Rotherham, was shortlisted by the Islamic Human Rights Commission for ‘Islamophobe of the Year’, as was Baroness Casey.”
UNNECESSARY
As well as the threat to free speech, the Peers also argued that a definition is unnecessary: “there are already laws on the statute books that protect Muslims and other racial and religious groups from hatred and discrimination, such as the sections of the Public Order Act 1986 that criminalise stirring up racial and religious hatred, the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, and the Equality Act 2010”.
Using the example of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition, they wrote: “The lesson from the rise in anti-Semitism over the last 20 months is that embedding an official, government-approved definition of a particular form of racial or religious hatred in civic speech codes – and threatening people with penalties if they breach those codes – is a wholly inadequate way of tackling hatred and discrimination.”
Fiyaz Mughal, founder of Tell MAMA, which monitors UK anti-Muslim hate incidents, said: “I know full well that existing laws are robust enough to prosecute genuine Islamophobes. They are used effectively by police forces up and down this country. What is needed is better enforcement of existing laws, not new speech codes.”
UNDERMINING DEBATE
In response to the Islamophobia Working Group’s Call for Evidence, The Christian Institute explained: “A new term risks confusing criticism of Islam as a religion – a democratic right – with hostility to Muslims as people. This confusion is most explicit with the term Islamophobia.”
The Institute continued: “Formally embracing a concept of ‘cultural racism’ risks threatening the freedom to criticise aspects of Islamic culture. A member of an organisation that has signed up to this kind of definition could be disciplined for Islamophobia if they criticise mandatory female head coverings or suggest that UK law is preferable to sharia law.
“Free speech protections are afforded for discussion and criticism of religion under section 29J of the Public Order Act, which do not apply to race. If defined as a race, Islam could therefore receive special protection from criticism, thereby undermining healthy debate and democratic discussion.”
(Christian Institute 29 July 2025)
WTAF this is what happens when indigenous natives become second class citizens in their own country, but never mind our progressive virtue signalling arseholes will be at the forefront of imposing this pish , just like the opinion silencing IHRA
The Donald Sandilands, known as Donna – is really sick. It reads like a Texas chainsaw massacre movie. Really sick. These skin walkers are utterly unhinged.
And then the female trans nazi. They say everyone that disagrees with them is Nazis but she’s on a Nazi discord forum and plotting death and destruction.
It just goes to show you that the transgenders really are the nastiest type of people- out of all of the groups in the civilisation. They hate life. They are anti life. They worship Satan.
Thank you for that post at 11:38 pm, Fearghas.
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh wrote:
“As well as the threat to free speech, the Peers also argued that a definition is unnecessary: “there are already laws on the statute books that protect Muslims and other racial and religious groups from hatred and discrimination, such as the sections of the Public Order Act 1986 that criminalise stirring up racial and religious hatred, the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, and the Equality Act 2010”.
Every time an ‘orange walk’ takes to the streets it is stirring up religious hatred against Catholics. And they do it with the support of local council authorities and Police Scotland, under the guise of “culture”.
Somebody has to keep an eye on those paedophile priests.
Well – these have qualifications of sorts:
link to m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Sturgeon doesn`t even know what a woman is,
and happy to give male predators a free pass to women and girls safe spaces,
also happy to continue the chemical and physical mutilation of confused young women,
telling off Trump who has stopped this abomination in its tracks in America.
The learning curve.
I have not watched Redacted. before yesterday, and presumed I would not watch it all, however decided to, as it included Neil Oliver.
It covered many topics regards Scotland and the world in general and ended up watching it to the end,
It was good to add not only a different perspective but a longer term vision on the outlook for the world.
It’s amusing, sort of and only up to a point, how some colonialists here drone on about the foreign and alien laws that supposedly bind Scotland to England in perpetuity – as if law sits above the will of the people.
Any law only lives and serves the people because the people (in a democracy anyway) have granted it their permission to do so.
However, the Scots have a great problem when it comes to the law currently ‘serving’ in Scotland – the problem the Scots have is it’s not their law.
Scotland was invaded by a foreign power and the law of that power was forced on the Scots.
And despite all the nonsense about the Scots retaining their ain law it was only allowed them when England saw fit to allow it… as is the case today.
The foreign and alien law of England is incompatible with the history and cultural identity of the Scots. It is incompatible with the Scots as a unique and ancient people and so in Scotland the Scots are more or less constantly at odds with English rule. We Scots are all criminals, in the eyes of England at least.
English law is vastly inferior to Scots law and is based on the ideas of ‘I’m alright Jack’ and ‘what’s mine is mine’ and ‘what’s a community?’ and the utterly nonsensical idea of the divine right of Kings and Queens to rule over the ‘common’ folk; an idea that often has God convulsing in fits of laughter by the way.
The Ingles murdered their king a while back and stole the sovereignty – prised it from his cold, dead hands – given to their monarchy in the first place and then put it in the cold, heartless hands of a few hundred ersholes in the ‘mother of all parliaments’ (what a joke); whereas the Scots people ARE the sovereign power in Scotland.
By the way, King Charles *Zahl Three is king of England only – he has bugger all to do with the Scots apart from being the current face of the murderous criminal gang (they called it an empire… but lexical semantics tells us the truth of it) that invaded Scotland three hundred years ago and is still stealing whatever it can lay its hauns oan.
The Scottis croun symbolises the Scots people and when it’s worn on the head of whoever the Scots have chosen to temporarily wear it on their behalf and to represent them, signifies the supremacy of the people over the monarch.
The Scottis croun is gaitherin dust in a cupboard the noo until such a time it be pit oan the heid o whaiver the people o Scotland deem wirthy o neist buskin it – that’s if thae sae chuise to hae anither monarch at aw; mibbe we Scots will fancy a republic fir a change efter independence… whae knows?.
A’m fir haein a King or Queen fir natiounal decoratioun purposes an tae shaw aff a wee bit pageantry noo an agin.
Aye, an tae gie Scotland’s royal faimly Balmoral fir tae hae thair hoildays in at the same time thon Windsors (or should that be the *Saxe-Coburgs?) used tae – whit a joy it’ll be tae rub England’s turnit-up nase in aw things it’ll hiv lost alang wi losin’ its precious last colony.
* Zahl = German word for ‘Number’
* Saxe-Coburg = In 1917, the First World War caused king George V to officially change the family German dynastical name from “Saxe-Coburg and Gotha” to “Windsor”.
The Divine Right is indeed nonsense which is why it was revoked around 1700.
And of course Scotland had its own nonsensical divine rights that James IV brought to England:
‘The Scots textbooks of the divine right of kings were written in 1597–1598 by James VI of Scotland . . . The conception of ordination brought with it largely unspoken parallels with the Anglican and Catholic priesthood . . . James, after becoming James I of England, also had printed his Defense of the Right of Kings in the face of English theories of inalienable popular and clerical rights . . . He based his theories in part on his understanding of the Bible, as noted by the following quote from a speech to parliament delivered in 1610 as James I of England:
The state of monarchy is the supremest thing upon earth, for kings are not only God’s lieutenants upon earth and sit upon God’s throne, but even by God himself, they are called gods’ (Wikipedia)
Wheesht!
If NC is posting screeds of shite on here, he’s not down his local high street, shouting at people doing their shopping.
SCOTLAND IS AT THE CUTTING EDGE OF THIS,
link to archive.is
LOVELY GUY SWINNEY AND MATES.
An independent Scotland would not be «SAFE»….so stick with the safety first Scottish Neofa party, always ready to help.
Northcode.
Indeed if the divine right of kings and Queens was god given, then England has thumbed their nose at god time and again,
Think of Henry the eighth putting to death all his Queens,
And the execution of Charles 11 and Mary queen of Scots,
And getting rid of king James,
Only a divine right if some body on earth and in England decides otherwise an consider themselves above their god given right.
Northcode,
It is interesting how the monarchs and certain parliaments make use of their great Seals.
Some times if they haven’t got one they invent a new one to try give themselves some authority. or they use an old Seal on a Country thats not theirs after they get rid of the monarch.
A bit like stealing the stone of destiny, and sticking it under a different throne in a different Country,
It of course does not lend any authenticity to the claims made, its just propaganda.
Stealing or allowed to steal. After all in a quarry it’s hard to identify a stone.
For those who don’t know what a carpetbagger is and are too lazy to find out for themselves:
“The term carpetbagger, used exclusively as a pejorative term, originated from the carpet bag, a form of cheap luggage, made from carpet fabric, which many of the newcomers carried. The term came to be associated with opportunism and exploitation by outsiders. (lifted fae Wiki)”
The term ‘carperbagger’ seems fitting when applied to all those who selfishly seek to exploit Scotland and the Scots no matter where they come from.
Now we need a term for those Scots who would rather be English and are content tae exploit their ain fowk for their own benefit and that of their Southern maister.
And here comes the Scots leid to the rescue:
Swinney, the roag wi nae rug atap his heid.
For somebody forever wanging oan an oan aboot words and language, NC, you display an unusually advanced talent for spectacular spelling errors.
Or is “carperbagger” simply a Brythonic term you sneaked in to check if we’re paying attention?
Should the ‘rugs’ be allowed to vote in your Scotland?
Why nae? The rug munchers are.
For ever researching history and reading I became interested in how the phrase turnclock / turncoat came about,
It has a interesting history of usage.
Quirks in history,
The Three estates under the claim of Right, state to England that the union of Crowns had ended with king Charles because King James had never taken the Scottish oath to be monarch of Scots or the territorial kingdom of Scotland,
What were they saying, That Scotland was a republic Country, and therefore the three Estates had no authority. To act without taking the Oath?
Mark beggan.
It surely is difficult to identify a Stone,
Just like trying to identify if the great Seal of Duncan 11 is authentic or not that was discovered in 2017.
The English monarchs just didn’t feel Royal enough without that stone. What if the stone was an old lintel from a barn with a few rings hammered into it! The English eh!
Divine right of kings propaganda goes well back into history prior to James taken it into England,
If you read up on the Great Seals of the Realm. I think Edward 1 is mentioned.
Legitimacy. Queen Elizabeth’s coronation used the same tacts as Athelstan the first English king to legitimise her ascendancy. Henry VII went to extremes to legitimise his bloody claim. He invented MI5.
JK Rowling is like that Dutch kid who stuck his finger in a dyke.
You’re a day early. Fringe doesn’t start til the morra.
That suburb of London. That black hole of disappearing public money. Nay! The West is the best. Get here and we’ll do the rest.
Regarding ‘Divine Right of Kings’. Aidan O’Neill KC has explained why this was not part of the Scottish tradition. The following is very much abridged:
3. THE SCOTTISH CONSTITUTIONAL TRADITION: THE CROWN LIMITED BY POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY
Tracing the history of Scottish constitutional law: sovereignty resides in the people
3.1 The Scottish constitutional theory of the power of the Crown being received from the people and limited by the law was first systematically set out by George Buchanan (1506 CE – 1582 CE), the celebrated European humanist scholar and poet, citizen of the Republic of Letters, historian of Scotland, tutor to the young James VI and constitutionalist who, in his dialogue ‘De iure regni apud Scotos’ (1567) noted, among other things, that in Scotland
“the people who have granted the king authority over themselves dictate to him the extent of his authority, and require him to exercise as a king only such right as the people have granted him over them”; and
“the power received by our kings from our ancestors was not unbounded but was limited and restricted within fixed boundaries”; and
“if the greater part of the people can pass a law and elect a magistrate, what is to prevent them judging the magistrate themselves or appointing judges to try him… Why should it seem unjust to any man if a free people have provided themselves in a similar or even in a different way with the means of restraining the harshness of tyranny.”
3.2 According to George Buchanan, therefore, the law and customs and immemorial constitutional tradition of the Scots in relation to the Crown is one of a limited constitutional monarchy involving:
(i) subordination of the Crown to the law;
(ii) the Crown’s answerability before the courts; and
(iii) in the last resort, the people’s right of revolt against a monarch in fundamental breach of his or her duties.
[…] 3.8 In this early modern period, models of constitutional government are expressed in the terms of political theology. The ‘religious’ is ‘political’ precisely because in defining the terms of the Church settlement in a territory you define the source and extent of power of the State. So in Scotland at least, the term “Papist” translates into a believer in absolutist government; “Episcopalian” into a supporter of constitutionally limited Monarchy; while “Presbyterians” hold to a democratic model in which the Electors delegate defined and limited powers to those whom they appoint to hold office.
— Extract from UK Supreme Court: Article 50 ‘Brexit’ Appeal [2016] (IWGB Submission – Aidan O’Neill QC)
link to gobha-uisge.blogspot.com
Is this at the root of the English civil war?
Mark,
Clearly complex dynamics at work. Kenny Smith has a short and readable historically informative ‘Scottish Field’ article online which finishes with:
« At the root, perhaps, of the problem was the difference
between the Scottish and English experiences of Stuart
monarchy. The Stuarts had ruled Scotland since 1371 and
England since 1603. They may have been weak,
injudicious, opinionated, divisive and profligate kings – but
they had been our kings for a much longer time. »
link to scottishfield.co.uk
However, the narrower focus of Kenny Smith’s ‘King-versus-Kirk’ reductionism can be compared with a richer breadth in lawyer Aidan O’Neill’s “religious proxy” constitutional analysis (see O’Neill quote plus link in my post above @ 31 July 6.01 pm).
For example, Aidan O’Neill continues:
« 3.6 This tradition of popular sovereignty within the Scottish constitution reached its apotheosis with the decision by the self-convened Scottish Parliament in 1689 to declare James VII to have forfeited the Crown on the basis of its claims that he had over-reached the lawful limits placed on his executive power. The use of the word ‘forfeited’ was of particular significance because it was consistent with the terms of the 1320 CE Declaration of Arbroath as well as with the constitutional writings of George Buchanan and Samuel Rutherford.
« 3.7 The Bill of Rights 1688 declares that “the pretended Power of Suspending of Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority without Consent of Parliament is illegal”. This is echoed in the Claim of Right’s declaration that “That all Proclamations asserting an absolute power to Cass [anglice Quash] annul and Disable laws… are contrary to Law”.
« But the Scottish constitutional tradition of popular sovereignty which the Claim of Right 1689 was articulating may be contrasted with the (English) Bill of Rights tradition where, as Conrad Russell notes, the prevailing “theory of legitimacy” was one “where authority, however much it might feel the need for consent, was ultimately descending”. Accordingly, rather than speaking of the king being deposed in the Glorious Revolution, the English Bill of Rights employed the legal fiction that the king, in fleeing to France, had chosen to “abdicate” his throne, thereby preserving the fiction that the existing constitutional order in England continued.
« The English Declaration and Bill of Rights 1688 are also to be contrasted with the Scottish Claim of Right 1689 in that the English document makes no reference to James II’s oath on entering government that he will “rule the people according to the laudable laws”. Nor does the English document claim that James II had expressly breached any of the terms of his (English Coronation) oath.
« And the English document similarly makes no reference – unlike the Scottish text – to James II and VII invading the “fundamental Constitution of the Kingdom” and of that constitution properly being understood as a “legally limited monarchy”.
« Nor do the English, in terms, accuse the James II of attempting to subvert the constitution that he was in office to uphold, complaining instead only of specific acts of “arbitrary power” (namely “prosecutions in the Court of King’s Bench for Matters and Causes cognizable only in Parliament and by diverse other Arbitrary and Illegal Courses”), rather than the root and branch corruption of power which the Scottish Claim of Right of 1689 had identified. »
— Extract from UK Supreme Court: Article 50 ‘Brexit’ Appeal [2016] (IWGB Submission – Aidan O’Neill QC)
I didn’t vote in the last election. I think it was a council election. I can’t even vote Alba now, as they are finished. Really there is no party I will vote for now.
So that’s both votes don’t give a fuck from me. Holyrood isn’t even standing up for Scotland these days. We might as well be a colony without any self government.
Starmer is about to steal our water, and has closed our oil refinery.
Its the classic colonial attitude. Bleed it dry then blame the natives. There will be nothing left of Scotland in 10 years.
Glasgow is crumbling,indigenous Scots are diminishing and soon the numbers will be enough to overturn any Scottish vote.
Time is the enemy. The English won’t vote for independence in numbers more than 10% , why would they.
I disagree .Alba is very much alive so I can only assume you (and one or two others on this site ) would wish otherwise.
Anne I am still paying my subs to Alba. Its not wishing their demise, it’s a total lack of progress. You shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Alba are just not winning people over.
Sturgeon has left a decades long mess. We are in the wilderness in terms of coherent strategy.
IMO the only ones worth voting for are either ISP or liberate Scotland I4I (Independents for Independence) at least they are FIGHTING for Scotland & Scots all the other parties are BOUGHT and part of the troughers
The witchhunt against Sandie Peggie continues. Closet lesbian, serial conspirator and failed Judas – Nicola Sturgeon destroyer of women’s rights.
And Aunt Lydia QUEEN HANDMAIDEN OF SCOTLAND. Gravy bus barbie Given has come out to slag off Sandie Peggie and back NHS Fife on the television it seems.
Fuck the SNP. Fuck NHS Fife. Fuck Kelly Given – she’s a disgrace.
NO VOTES SNP
This “porn ban” got me thinking.
I remember finding girly mags stashed in the woods as a kid; tame stuff by modern standards, for what is commonplace now would be considered criminal a couple of decades ago. Extreme acts of violence, degradation and humiliation can thus enter into the public mind, become normalised. One of these is DP – i.e. “double penetration”; women, having more holes than men can take a dick in each, at the same time. Also, a “spit roast” is when one is added in the mouth.
– the point is : “you are getting FUCKED FROM BOTH SIDES”
and this is the crux for Scots.
If we stay in the UK, then we are in trouble; it is not “merely” that an under-resourced england will, yet again, steal all our stuff, rob us blind, it is that our nation will be changed, annihilated in fact, as a consequence.
The english middle class, essentially “on the run” from the consequences of their own failed multicultural experiment will migrate to the highlands, borders, edinburgh, increasing their strangehold on our middle class; but being narcissists, they cannot ever admit the truth about themselves, and so will continue to promote – for others, i.e. the Scots, the failed policies they have never had to feel the consequences of.
“for thee, but not for me”.
This creates an “apartheid system” but is stealthy, it operates by the price of housing, and what you can afford, and what you can borrow and thus what job you do, and what school you went to. Rising house prices essentially produces an ethnic cleansing, without the need for men with guns, armbands, all that. And no one is allowed to say “this is being done to you” because – it’s just “economic forces”, which are laws to themselves. Not “things people did”.
– the Scots, the indigenous, the natives, will be increasingly corralled into our own “strip”, along the M8 and central Scotland, the bantustan.
The Scots will be GETTING FUCKED FROM BOTH SIDES by
– the ANGLO MENACE (seizing the best bits and putting up walls)
and
– the 3RD WORLD BAME MYSTERY MEAT experience (dumped into their midst)
And anyone who says anything, even anyone who “notices” will get shutdown by the “morally righteous” as RACISTS, BLOOD AND SOIL, and so on … the swarm attack will be so quick and devastating, all will be silenced.
Our own politicians will be complicit in this slow genocide, they will be the spellbinders, the bedazzlers, the confusers – they divert the discourse, run us up blind alleys, preventing us from solving our problems via politics. And courtesy of feminism, our indigenous birth rate being down at 1.4, means our numbers slowly die off, ending as a strange gang of old people, on our reservation.
the thing about “civic nationalism” is that it presupposes the incomers are all lovely and “want to be like us”; but maybe they do not want to “join your gang”, they have a gang of their own, and their intention is to – setup their own shop, once they have the numbers. They may even intensely hate you, but hide it. This is where the english get it so wrong – that they have fucked over almost every country on the earth is “ancient guff” to them, but not so to e.g. the here-legally “commonwealth immigrant”. They hate the english – a concept the english cannot grasp – and remember, they have a plan, and they see it as righteous that they now recolonise their colonisers, a karmic vengeance. Attacking the children of the enemy may also be some sick psychological theme.
– point is, you don’t want to be ball-and-chained to these annoying muppets when they finally go down. Nor do you want them up here, shitting up the place, stuffing the middle class, enjoying their superior rights and privileges, while adding chutzpah that somehow, “they are really doing us all a favour”.
link to archive.ph
Well said!
Very well said!
Confused. I agree.
The problem is not incomers per say. It is incomers from the one country we are actually trying to free ourselves from. They have a vested interest in stopping us. Much like they did in India and Ireland. Those countries got rid of Britain before they completely eradicated their culture and identity.
This is not about immigrants. It’s about colonisers and cultural appropriation.
Witness how quickly Starmer told Trump it was UK investment, when Trump suggested it was all for Scotland. Starmer was behaving like a father chastising his young children. That’s how they behave, it’s how they always think of us. They own us, they own Scotland.
We are like fleas on a dog. Passengers!
Hi “Big Jock” !
Tell us whaur ye bide !
You really are the worst foreign troll on this site !
NOBODY speaks like this in Scotland !
The vocabulary, phrasing, sentence construction are ALL WRONG.
LMAO !!!
Big Jock has been posting here for years, it is only yoonionist interlopers like you and yir cringing FAKE Scots BUTS that are a waste of oxygen, you are tooooo stupid to realise that they are fucking you up as well
Intelligent folk do speak like that and make apposite points.
And another hitting the nail on the head!
Well said, very well said!
@ Big Jock: well said. But Starmer really is the worst of the worst, isn’t he? His absolute refusal to do the right thing in the Middle East, on top of his reversal of all the domestic policies promised before the election, plus his betrayal of his parents views when they named him after Keir Hardie. The man hasn’t a particle of decent principle in his entire body.
” Starmer was behaving like a father chastising his young children. That’s how they behave, it’s how they always think of us. They own us, they own Scotland.”
Indeed so, according to postcolonial theory that’s how the paternalistic colonizer from the ‘mother country’, our ‘procurer’, thinks of us, as an inferior being. The same goes for the native elites who sold us, and the same social class that continue to sell us out; they also look at us ‘through the eyes of our procurer’, as inferior (Memmi).
Hence colonialism is defined as ‘hateful racism’ (Cesaire).
If he really wanted to liberate Scots, John Swinney and the ‘nationalist’ SNP Scottish Government we have elected should be backing the Liberation Scotland petition at the United Nations, to seek recognition of Scotland as a Non Self-Governing Territory (i.e. a colony) and thus to give us Scots the ‘inalienable’ right to self-determination and independence.
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
Do you think the SNP leadership are now realising Indy supporters no longer believe the shit the likes of Angus Robertson and others spout about ‘clear routes to independence’? 10 years of this crap has turned us all not just into cynics but actually wanting to do damage to the SNP. You get the feeling the SNP now have a growing fear of the Indy movement, a beast it can longer control and which is getting angrier by the day. 2026 can’t come quick enough for many Indy supporters who are determined to punish the SNP and ‘peeble them wi’ stanes’.
I see Seamus Logan SNP MP for Moray has received a lot of criticism from Indy supporters for his opinion piece in the National about his first year as a member of the Westminster parliament. Logan is another one who has quickly forgotten he is there to settle up and not settle down and become just another member of the SNP-Westminster set content to do effectively nothing. Instead of being a radical disrupter to further the Indy cause Logan in many ways is a British collaborator enjoying a privileged Westminster lifestyle so remote from the everyday concerns of his constituents. Abstentionism has never been so badly needed.
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh,
Thank you for for clarifying the limited Scottish monarchy, limited because the Scots decide how long a monarch holds his or her position, depending if he or she goes against the people and their laws of Scotlands constitution,
It is interesting to note that this lack of understanding by the parliament of England and the line of succession by the monarch of England was very early on displayed in the treaty of union,
The two separate kingdoms constitutional for a kingdom of unions are incompatable.
The union as far as I can interpret was a political parliamentary and trade union,
And could and did not include the The Scots or their kingdom due to this constitutional anomoly between the two kingdoms,
Every royal assent given or pronounced by the monarch of England since 1707 on Scotland Acts over the kingdom of Scotland lies in question.
Including the theory that anyone across the border from the kingdom of the Scots, including the Monarch of England acted against the wishes of the people of Scotland.
Such acts that included the territorial extent into the kingdom of Scotland by the monarch of England like the
Highland Services Act 1715 ( also known as the disarming act)
And the 1725 Act.
And the
Act of proscription 1746,
Were in fact the monarch of Englands lack of understanding that the territory and kingdom of Scotland was not owned by the monarch or the three Estate conventions nor the old parliament of Scotland.
But by the people,
Perhaps they did know, when they debated wether or not to Ask the Scots to join the treaty of union, but decided against it,
As the Scots in their kingdom would probably have voted No.
Which ever the case may be, there is certainly an presumed territorial over reach into the constitutional kingdom of the Scots by the monarch of England passing acts to extend its territory to Scotland, and using the parliamentary political treaty of union as a disguise.
The lack of understanding or the deliberate lack of understanding constitutionally of who owns the territorial kingdom of Scotland was not then or now the monarch, king, Queen or parliament.which Scots have the ability to end, dispose.or To get rid of should they become dispotic or tyrannical to Scots.
If the Treaty of Union could not merge the kingdoms of England and Scotland, then why does Article 1 state:
I. ‘That the two Kingdoms of (fn. 1) Scotland and England, shall, upon the first Day of May
next ensuing the Date hereof, and for ever after, be united into one Kingdom by the Name
of Great-Britain, and that the Ensigns Armorial of the said united Kingdom, be such as her
Majesty shall appoint; and the Crosses of St. Andrew and St. George be conjoined in such a
manner as her Majesty shall think fit, and used in all Flags, Banners, Standards, and Ensigns,
both at Sea and Land.
Hi Aidan,
I respect the fact that you have academic credentials in International Law. My own formal qualifications are in Art, so beyond knowing what two colours make green I am winging it.
In answer to your question I can only take recourse yet again to quoting Aidan O’Neill QC/ KC. Beyond that I would be struggling to elaborate. O’Neill wrote:
« 2. SCOTTISH CONSTITUTIONAL LAW AND THE UK CONSTITUTIONAL COURT
« 2.1 Article 50(1) of the Treaty on the EU (TEU) [1/8] provides that “any Member State may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements.” The proper interpretation of Article 50 TEU is a matter for the CJEU, but it is for this [Supreme] court to determine what the UK constitution requires for the Article 50 TEU procedure properly to be invoked.
« 2.2 Answering that question shines a spotlight on just what the UK constitution is. But UK constitutional law has been the law that dare not speak its name. This is because the 1707 Parliamentary union between England and Scotland undoubtedly created a new State, but it did not create one Nation. Various schemes for a wholly incorporating ‘perfect’ Union of Scotland and England had, unsuccessfully, been proposed to the English Parliament by James VI, King of Scots, after he had acceded to the English throne in 1603. The 1707 Union differed from these earlier schemes in that, while ensuring the depoliticisation of Scotland, it put into place measures intended to protect – and indeed to strengthen – other aspects of Scotland’s distinctive continuing nationhood. Conrad Russell put it thus:
« « “That the Scots found a perfect union politically unacceptable, and the English an imperfect union intellectually incomprehensible, provides the basis for the odd mixture of the two which was set up in 1707. The English got the unitary sovereign power which they wanted, and got it in the form based upon the existing English Parliament, with an English majority in it. The Scots got their recognition as a separate sovereign state, both from the form of the Union of 1707 as an international treaty, and from the survival of Scots law and the Scottish church. It is that claim that Scotland is a sovereign nation state which is reasserted whenever the English forget that 1707 was not a ‘perfect union’ and has recently been repeated in the Claim of Right. Scotland in accepting the Union in 1707 remained a nation and as a result any sovereignty in the British parliament could not be national sovereignty. This has always been hard for the English to understand.” » »
« 2.3 In the 300 years of that 1707 Union, there is no doubt that the English constitutional tradition has been the dominant and, at times, overwhelming influence; but a distinct Scottish constitutional tradition has never entirely been lost and may, indeed, be said to have been revived by the devolutionary settlement for Scotland. Dicey and Bagehot, Coke and Blackstone may well be reliable guides to the English constitutional tradition, but their views are not necessarily determinative or reflective of what the UK constitution now is. Like the English common law, the Scots constitutional tradition is not an ossuary.
« One thing is clear, however. When the UK Supreme Court has to speak of UK Constitutional law it enters into perilous waters because the two constitutional narratives and traditions to which the UK is heir – the English historical myth emphasizing the sovereignty of the governing institutions of the State (the Crown, and the Crown in Parliament) and an unbroken continuity since Magna Carta in 1215 CE; and the Scottish tradition, since at least the Declaration of Arbroath of 1320 CE, of the sovereignty of the people limiting the powers and rights of the Crown (and Parliaments) – may pull in different directions, but yet have to be reconciled if this union polity is to survive. »
link to gobha-uisge.blogspot.com
With calls from all the neighbours for H’mas to disarm, the mask has finally slipped. The Muslim Brotherhood or any other organisation which poses a risk to the monarchies in the region are persona non grata. Along with the people who vote for them.
Everybody really is in cahoots with the final solution to the palystinian problem. All the talk about recognising the state along with that supposedly independent media organisation which is on the payroll of the monarchs in UAE are simply lifting the lid a little to prevent the pot from boiling over.
I wonder if the Rev’s No. 1 fan really gets that he’s part of the problem and plays an active part in the sacrifice of all those women and children.
The “final solution”, as you put it, is for them to discard their fat and comfortable leaders and get new ones who are prepared to get along with their immediate neighbours. Or at least stop lobbing explosives at them.
Those women and children “sacrificed” as you put it have been blown to bits, and then the survivors starved, because their leaders prioritise their own yellow hides over the safety and security of their own people.
Plenty of Scots seem to want to make common cause with the Palestinians – goodness knows why. Sane and rational Scots need only look at what can happen to a country if you allow the deranged nutters to take complete control, and learn the appropriate lesson.
It’s obvious we Scots have plenty of our own deranged nutters. Our own safety, security, comfort and relative prosperity depends on us keeping them well away from any context that gives them power over us.
Should indigenous Scots seeking the liberation of their country from English oppression cast a vote using the ‘rigged-to-favour-England’ electoral system at the upcoming Scottish Parliament election in 2026?
For the below listed operating under the Liberate Scotland umbrella then the answer is YES:
ISP: YES.
I4I: YES.
For any other party or independent the answer is NO. If an ISP or I4I candidate is not running in your constituency do not vote, do not participate (not even to spoil a ballot).
Enough Scots refusing to legitimise the ongoing subjugation of Scotland and the Scots by silently not participating in England’s ‘Scottish’ elections will send a powerful message to their oppressor and, incidentally, to all the folks in those parts of the world paying attention (it would be a mistake to think they aren’t) to Scotland’s predicament.
England will sell Scotland and the Scots to any buyer for any price to save its own tattered imperial skin. Do not lend it a helping hand by voting SNP… or any other English political party.
As a useful guide here’s a list of English Nationalist parties:
Reform
Scottish National Party
Scottish Tories
Scottish Labour
Scottish Lib Dems
Any party registered in England with ‘Scottish’ in front of its name.
Scottish Greens… probably
NOTE: In my view (as ever, each to their own) there’s a bad smell coming off Alba and I don’t believe it can be trusted by independence supporting Scots.
@ Northcode: Sovereignty Party is also part of the Liberate Scotland umbrella group along with ISP and I4I. I would happily vote for any of them.
Thanks for the info, Sarah. I’ll be sure to mention the Sovereignty Party next time I talk about Liberate Scotland.
The so-called “Liberation” movement “umbrella” has more political parties than it does actual voters.
Very seldom I disagree with any of your comments NC but I disagree with NOT voting at all in the Scottish elections, I agree that it is a engerlish managed and run FAKE election but if you just ignore it altogether if there is no real Scottish indy reps it just suits the politicians and political parties as evidenced with the 750,000 missing snp voters at the last GE,the snp lost lots of seats deservedly and the turnout was risible but the political parties ignored the turnout and still claimed it was a great win,I would much rather promote a mass grouping collectively writing on the ballot paper NONE of the above CLOWNS and IDIOTS,irrespective of turnout these politicians and their parties have shown that NOT voting doesn’t have an impact, if you had had those 750,000 snp voters writing INDY NOW OR NO VOTE on their ballot paper the snp may have had the kick up the arse they deserved
“I disagree with NOT voting at all in the Scottish elections”
I appreciate that each of us must form our own views on such matters, TH.
And I’m aware that my view might be contentious and seen as an abdication of civic responsibility within the context of a free and democratic society; the problem Scots have with that sentiment is that they, as a people, do not live in a free and democratic society.
If it is accepted that Scotland is effectively a colony – it is undeniable that Scotland is treated as an annexed territory at least – and that the Scots are “out of the game” as Alf Baird tells us, then logically the Scots have no democratic voice regardless of appearances to the contrary; for instance, the Scots were completely ignored despite an overwhelming majority voting in favour of remaining in the European Union.
I’m also aware that my preferred approach appears counter-intuitive and on the surface might seem to work against the objectives of the independence movement.
However, I believe that participating in the illusion of democracy lends credence to that illusion and legitimises a fraudulent process designed to thwart the political aspirations of the Scots and ultimately any chance of Scottish independence.
If the majority of Scots persistently refuse to participate in such an unwinnable political process then their obviously considered disengagement from ‘democracy’ could in itself be presented as an expression of their desire for self-determination and of their contempt for their oppressor.
“if you had had those 750,000 snp voters writing INDY NOW OR NO VOTE on their ballot paper the snp may have had the kick up the arse they deserved”
An individual might derive some personal satisfaction from such action but it is unlikely to have much effect on the consciences of those Scottish politicians happy to assist in the suppression of thair ain fowk for personal gain and to satisfy their psychological craving for the approval of their English masters.
You are mistaken, though, if you have interpreted my comment as a call for folk to completely reject the notion of participating in Scottish Parliamentary elections – I blame myself for any such misunderstanding and my failure to properly express my intended meaning.
There is a thin crack in England’s Scottish illusion of democracy that might be exploited by the Scots if they can organise a concentrated political offensive against that weak point in the ‘rigged-to-favour-England’ Scottish Parliament electoral system.
The Liberate Scotland initiative is one I support and one that might be worthwhile for Scots to pursue at the ballot box while at the same time the decolonisation route is pursued through the United Nations.
If an ISP, I4I, or Sovereignty party candidate is running for office under the Liberate Scotland group umbrella I would advise those Scot whose constituencies they are fielded in and who support Scottish independence go out and vote for them.
I don’t profess to have all the answers on how the Scots might escape their current predicament trapped as they are in a suffocating union with England and I’m willing to concede that perhaps your way is best and I am wrong; but for now I must follow my own conscience and refuse to participate in the illusion of democracy.
As ever, though, each must arrive at their own conclusions.
Northcode having a wee greet over the UK voting to leave the EU.
And a wee lie too – the Scottish vote to remain was never the “overwhelming majority” she claims.
“If it is accepted that Scotland is effectively a colony …”
But if it is not accepted? What then?
But her post is an instructive one, never-the-less. It demonstrates the erroneous conclusions any fool can reach when building a multi-storey fallacy on foundations of lies.
Sorry Northcode!
As far as I can surmise, The Scottish “Claim of Right ” is stating that there was no personal union of Crowns under king James of England and a king in Scotland due to him never taken the Oath,
Did that mean that Scotland ran as a Sovereign peoples republic since Charles 11 ?
And when the Sovereign people of Scotland protested and rebelled against agreeing to the treaty of union, it was the convention of the three Estates that went ahead acted treasonous to the Scots.
Indeed selling a Crown, regalia and kingdom they did not own.
The fact that they signed the treaty document, doh, and received finances written down for doing so, doh, implies that the sovereign Scottish nation have ample evidence of a fraudulent treaty,
But here is the other version of that 1707 treaty of union,
The Scottish parliament and the three Estates are by their signatures witnessed actually are the only people in Scotland that signed up to and entered into the 1707 treaty of union.
Without a incumbent monarch on the throne in Scotland chosen by the Sovereign Scots,
As the three Estates claim that king James was not the recognised king of Scotland.
Nevertheless the three estates proceeded in offering a crown and regalia belonging to the Scots to become the crown of England , the Crown and regalia are nothing more than objects but are definately not where the constitution of Scottish Sovereignty lies.
Perhaps it is telling that the commissioners picked by the monarch of England and not raised herself in Scotland would only hold the one view of monarchy’s divine rights of kings/ queens.
Still it has to be said.
There is a treaty of union between (as defined) by those whom signed the treaty in Scotland, and England but that the Scottish parliament was Dissolved from that treaty shortly afterwards.
Fearghas Kenny Smith article.
Thanks for that interesting read. It seems to me the Stuart’s like the Romanovs failed to bend with the wind. It is also clear that the Stuart’s considered Scotland a dispensible commodity in their lust for supreme power. You could say Scottish history crept up and hit Charles in the back of the neck.
Sir Keir Starmer is a seasoned barrister apparently accomplished in International Law. He has never heard of Inalienable rights and that is the human condition that existed a long time before a couple of hundred years ago and the advent of the modern Police Force. I don’t need his permission to defend my grandchildren. The MOD has failed, The Royal Navy has failed, The Air Force are reduced to hoping nobody attacks us, The Army are hollowed out. The police are polictised even in Scotland. Under the new Act it will be interesting if Police turn up at my doorstep. Never a conviction, speeding fine or parking ticket. But Sir Keir will have me in jail. This new online Act is evil.
Headline:
“SNP rebels challenge John Swinney with radical independence plan”
“Rebel SNP members have laid down the gauntlet to John Swinney by rejecting his independence blueprint and setting out their own radical alternative.
They have unveiled a plan to open independence negotiations with the UK Government if nationalist parties get a majority of the popular vote in next year’s Holyrood election.
It invites the conference to instruct “the Party to prioritise obtaining a mandate from the sovereign Scottish people to deliver independence.”
This will be possible if the independence-supporting parties – the SNP, the Greens and Alba – together achieve a majority of the ballots cast in the regional list vote for Holyrood, it states.
Graeme McCormick, one of the people behind the strategy, told The Herald: “If we get a majority of pro-independence votes on the list, we’ll open negotiations with the UK Government around independence. If the negotiations aren’t successful, then we’ll move to dissolve the union. It’s perfectly legal to do so.
“Our plan is coming from members with experience of how states work – we aren’t just dewy-eyed ‘the dream will never die’ nationalists. We’ve invited John to come and speak with us, and look forward to discussing this with him. I think the strength of what we have requested is clear.””
————————————————————-
If the negotiations aren’t successful, then we’ll move to dissolve the union. It’s perfectly legal to do so.
But they don’t explain how that will be done.
Meet the new carrot, same as the old carrot… 🙄
It would appear the SNP branches are taking action on Independence.
Have a read, not before time.
link to grousebeater.wordpress.com
“If the negotiations aren’t successful, then we’ll move to dissolve the union. It’s perfectly legal to do so.”
No explanation how they will do that.
A charity has been praised after serving more than 18,000 meals to police officers during US President Donald Trump’s visit to Scotland earlier this week.
The Rapid Relief Team (RRT) provided free hot meals and welfare packs to officers deployed across the country between July 21 and 30.
———————————————–
Why the fuck should the Police receive charity meals and packs?
@Agent X
Simply because their higher echelons don’t care for their welfare. My brother is an ex Police Fed guy (Double gallantry award has he constantly reminds me). 7000 Police deployed for the Trump visit. An overreaction?. I think so. Too much MSM coverage of possible demonstrations. Far Right ye know. A new MSM narrative. We are being told what to think. He breezed in opened his golf course absolutely no worries whatsoever.Job done!
Like many in the movement. I feel numb with the morass we find ourselves in. I used to post on here about 4 times a day. But now it’s about once every few months.
There is a reason for this. Nothing is happening. I just feel scunnered. They say in science that kinetic energy feeds itself.
If you think about the lead up to 2014. It was an explosion of energy, driven by hope, passion and Scottish pride. It was like a springtime for our movement , everything just burst into life.
What we need is a light to reach for. We are all still here, but we can’t grow in the dark. We need a leader like Salmond to show us the path.
People underestimate how important Salmond was. He was the modern day William Wallace. Compare him to Sturgeon and Swinney , and you will really appreciate his leadership.
He took a minor party into government, ran a tight ship and gave Scots the confidence they lacked under Labour and the Lib Dems.
Most countries who have freed themselves from colonisers. Have always had great charismatic leaders. Collins in Ireland, Gandhi in India, Washington in the US. Very few have gained independence with bland bank manager leaders.
We need a rabble rouser, not afraid to upset his colonial masters. We need to light the flame. There has been a decade of bland, dull tiptoeing leadership.
Swinney is a complete fraud. He gave up independence years ago.
Sigh.
“All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men (and women) to do nothing“…
There’s plenty going on as per the likes of regular ISP weekly bulletins produced by Julia Pannell, which can be found and linked to from the Voices for Independence site.
link to voices.scot
But for some insane reason, folk are still tuning in to twats that state there’s nothing going on, or engaging in pointless arguing and divisionary bullshit which is just a distraction and pissing away yet more time that could actually be spent working towards ways to fix the problem.
For a nation that was in the past such a driving force in enlightenment and development, it ain’t half become a complete and utter shitshow of inadequacy and helplessness.
Start a revolution? Most folk can’t even start a fucking Briggs and Strattion lawnmower engine.
I was gifted a 1950s Qualcast mower. No engine. Made the lawn look like Wembley. It was heavy roller at the back wot did it. When I left Dundee 3 times I tried to donate it to the local lawnmower expert and 3 times they didn’t collect it. Albeit during Covid. Dumped at Riverside before I left. Possibly the best cut of a lawnmower I have seen. Now I have an electric lawnmower with an inferior cut. Doh! Sometimes the old way is the best
LOMAIRE-FEÒIR
Chuala mi lomaire-feòir
gu h-àrd anns an adhar
a‘ gearradh tron ghuirme.
Chunnaic mi air oidhche fhuair
fras reòite uaine mar dheòir
a’ deàrrsadh fon ghealaich.
LAWNMOWER
I heard a lawnmower
high in the sky
scythe through the blueness.
I saw one cold night
a green shower of frozen tears
gleam below the moon.
“An optimist will tell you the glass is half-full; the pessimist, half-empty; and the engineer will tell you the glass is twice the size it needs to be.”
Oscar Wilde
TROD??
bhuail glainne
fìona an sinc
TIFF
glass of wine
hit the sink
Transition formatting garble:
Title should be just TROD with no question marks.
@ George
Hope you had a braw holiday break and your health is good.
That Qualcast sounds like the original keep fit model, where it was powered solely by the efforts of the human pushing it.
The evolution of the lawnmower pretty well sums up the modern day world in terms of machinery and human.
In the beginning a quality UK made long-lasting well engineered product was produced as a tool for a human to use to keep their grass under control.
Then the mowers needed to be powered because humans are lazy bastards.
Qualcast produced a small lightweight cylinder mower that was powered by a 240v electric motor. But having a live mains cable attached to a machine with sharp blades getting pushed about a garden inevitably led to sparks. Plus the reduction gear from electric motor pinion to cylinder blade used a small toothed timing belt, which meant if even a small piece of gravel got caught between the rotating cylinder and fixed blade it resulted in stripping the teeth off or snapping the belt, and a partially cut lawn until replacement parts were sourced.
The nadir of lawnmower and human development in leccy mowers is now the robotic mower, whilst some over complex silicon chip filled mower cuts the grass whilst the human owner can sit on their arse getting fat drinking beer and munching doritos whilst surfing the internet.
Petrol mowers have been around for ages, but these have similarly evolved from once being sturdy UK built machines into cheap foreign built crap.
Inherent issues such as carburettor diaphragms that can’t handle the chemical properties of our petrol and ethanol blend fuels means they distort and cause running issues, and primer bulbs specifically designed using polymers that mice find extremely tasty.
TBH it’s no wonder the whole rewilding ideology has garnered such success, when it’s the perfect excuse for folk not to get some exercise and do fuck all to maintain their gardens with a useless modern designed machine that rarely operates correctly.
Just to move to the Sandie Peggie case reports are suggesting that NHS Fife’s legal bill is now nearing £700k
That figure of course pales into insignificance when the NHS staff costs, human resources personel, data coordinators, computer data extraction and analyst and all the other people involved over the last eighteen months.
Then of course there are the replacement cost for the suspended Nurse Peggie and potentially similar for stsnd ins for the medics who rather than practicing medicine were instead engaged on the case.
The costs of this black fiasco in truth runs to many millions of pounds.
Against this its maybe no surprise that the NHS, and the government are spinning it that they have only spent £220,000 on legal fees and this cost doesn’t really have any impact, as it’s all paid for in a way that doesn’t have any impact.
Oh really, why do we need cuts, have service shortages, hospital queues, when you can spend magic money on cases like Sandie Peggie.
But do not be sceptical here is the good old BBC telling it like it is –
” Under the Clinical Negligence and Other Risks Indemnity Scheme, the Scottish government’s health and social care directorate is initially responsible for costs above the £25,000 threshold.
This money is then recouped from member bodies in their annual contributions to the scheme which aims to ensure frontline clinical services are not affected ”
Eh, so that’s it then, clinical negligence and paid for by the various boards ‘
Aye Right! Suck that guff up suckers.
Dan ask yourself this. Are we closer to independence than September 2014? If you are honest the answer is an emphatic no.
Sure, we have the polls running 50/50. But without a political force behind it. It is simply a theoretical pipe dream.
All the talking shops in the world will not move us to independence. We don’t need more think tanks , or focus groups.
We need an elected government and a leader driving us. Without this, we are just passing in the wind.
It’s 11 years since 2014. We are not even close to another vote, or a cohesive plan to get independence.
As much as I am fed up with politics. We do actually need a government behind the movement. Westminster can ignore us forever. But they can’t ignore a government forcing the issue on the world stage.
I get that SALVO are exploring this. But they don’t have the elected powers to make things happen.
@ Big Jock: the lack of a political force is why we need to spread the word about the political parties/groups who DO mean business about regaining our independence.
The umbrella grouping of Liberate Scotland contains 3 groups/parties at the moment – ISP, Independents for Independence, and Sovereignty Party. If Alba join then that would boost the number of votes.
Unless the wider public hear about these parties and the plan, nothing will change.
“We do actually need a government behind the movement.”
The ‘nationalist’ Scottish Government should be fully supporting the movement’s Liberation Scotland UN initiative given the SNP’s main purpose is to become a UN Member State and deliver genuine self-governance:
link to jpti.ch
The Scottish
GovernmentPoundshop Administration of Devolved Powers wanting “a detailed seabird compensation plan”. FFS, I’m pretty sure most Scots struggling to get by in private and business life due to ridiculous energy costs would like a detailed compensation plan to account for those in power pretty much giving away an energy resource to foreign owned companies with little to any tangible benefit to Scotland.“The Scottish government said the approval was subject to the company producing a detailed seabird compensation plan outlining how any adverse impact would be tackled.”
link to bbc.co.uk
Scotland really does need to keep up oil production, if for no other reason than to keep copious supplies of Vaseline Petroleum Jelly readily available to help ease the continued corporate ass shafting trajectory we’re on.
Getting rid of a few thousand landfill ducks is a win win, less bird flu carriers and a reduction of fish supper thefts from unsuspecting tourists visiting coastal towns.
Pretty two-faced of the RSPB to reject the proposal when they were bidding for the research project to study the impact.
The clueless BBC had to show a picture of kittiwakes when the species of concern is gannets.
It’s interesting that you see the spending by commercial organisations of tens of billions of pounds as ScotGov giving stuff away.
I guess that by your logic, Tesco gives stuff away too. All I have to do is invest a few tens of pounds first.
I was annoyed by the weasel-worded reporting of the new windfarm. Infrastructure that “could” power twice as many homes as Scotland possesses is how it was framed.
Alert readers would want answers to the following questions:
On a bad day of no wind, how many homes would it be powering? Do we all sit freezing in the dark, or do we pay over the odds for standby fossil-fuelled power?
When will the connection and distribution infrastructure be ready? If the answer is years after the windfarm is ready, what will the curtailment charges work out at for every Scottish bill payer?
On a good day of lottsa wind, who gets the surplus of generated power, assuming it can be brought onshore?
BTW Dan. It’s not ducks stealing your fish suppers. You either need new glasses, or a crash course in bird recognition.
The dumb fuck bot twat’s programming doesn’t realise landfill ducks is slang for seagulls…
Dan says:
“dumb fuck bot twat”
Classic. Yeah, I didn’t know that. And you did so you’re superior. And in the time-honoured tradition of insecure habitual losers everywhere, on discovering that for once they know something somebody else doesn’t, you just have to get the playground insults out to ram home your little victory.
Something to remember the next time you’re greetin there’s no serious debate about important subjects on here.
But hey, shit happens. You enjoy your sweet, sweet moment, Dan. I guess the rest of your day, maybe even your week, is gonna be a sad anticlimax.
Earlier today I read that the one of Alexander Dennis sites in Scotland has been put up for sale.
If you want to gain support for Independence it may increase support if you keep Alexander Dennis open and working
You should concentrate on real issues and not pandering to a selfish intolerant minority who can’t recognise biological fact.And stop persecuting a nurse who does
If you can’t your are not competent and unfit for election and power.
Before you make any comment contact this useless shower a bastards and tell them to get get their arses in gear.
With Laura Mitchell standing as the Woke SNP Candidate in Moray I wont be voting on the Constituency vote for anybody. SNP are determined to lose seats by the looks of it. I am the wrong side of the boundary just to vote for Fergus Ewing. I might vote for Fergus on the List.
Another thing worth fighting for in Scotland is (Private rights, which are unalterable ) in the treaty of union.
I mention this occasionally While opposition tell us we ( Scotland ) are tied to the treaty.
It should be tested.
Especially with the Hate Crime Bill and labours introduction and monitoring of everyone which is an intrusion into the private rights that for Scotland is unalterable,
Ie, it cannot be repealed or words removed or changed,
There are things that the people can do an challenge at all levels,
Just think outside the box,
For instance, Do you and each and everyone of you work for nothing for the Council without pay, without holidays, no weekend breaks stipulated, no sick pay, no contract and you’re Stamp not payed.
The answer is yes for most of you, and yet there is no legislation passed that says you are employed to work for nothing,
WITH THE ASSETS SOLD and the British state down to the fixtures and fittings why do so many Scots stick with it?
Unionism is an overfitted algorithm delivering learning prejudice & bias in the national, political neural network.
Terms require rewrite. Not convinced the current political class possesses the requisite skills.
The average person pays Council tax for the Council to provide a service of picking up rubbish from your home,
The Council however do not pay you, or contract to you to sort rubbish out, separate glass, wash cans and bottles out, sort clothes out, separate wood and metal out. And it does not pay or contract you in employment to transport with, you own vehicle at your own cost in fuel and road taxes to recycle centres.
And if you do not have a vehicle to transport these things, you are not allowed in as a pedestrian, which is discrimination,
However out of kindness the Council will charge you extra above your Council tax band for them to uplift the things that you sorted out for them,
Now what legislation did you receive that states you are employed and contracted by the Council to work for nothing and use your own transport for the Council service that you already pay for above and beyond in your Council Tax,
It was sold to us in such a way that most people do not think out side the box about the legislation required for employment.
I don’t think the sorting out and depositing household waste into several different wheelie bins is a good example of unpaid work.
My thoughts are that we all should try to do our bit to help towards making our lives and environment a better place to exist in.
It’s far more efficient for us to put our items in one of a few bins than for it all to be thrown into one bin, then collected and compacted on a bin lorry, then unloaded and sorting through all manner of containments to try to pick out certain items.
Are so many people’s brains so fucked up and lacking critical thought that they cannot even grasp what bin a certain bit of waste goes in.
Other countries manage to run with a better societal ethos than this shitstate of laziness and shirking responsibility.
I’ve been taking someone to dental appointmemts a couple of towns over as there’s no viable public transport to get there. Whilst waiting the first time I noticed a load of discarded waste and old vapes had been thrown in the burn that runs through the town.
So the next time I went up I took my wellies, a litter picker and a couple of bags and climbed over the fence and spent 40 mins clearing the 75m section. Got a couple of dozen old vapes collected before their batteries started to release chemicals into the watercourse, and all manner of general waste too.
A few old timers spotted what I was doing as they walked back from shops and thanked me for the efforts. No problem I said, I just wish more folk had a similar outlook.
Unfortunately the snp scum exem plify that what we have as governance are more interested in what is in our kids underwear than addressing societal issues, that is why we desperately need to elect people like yourself who understand the nuts and bolts of what is required to run a caring empathetic society
“Glasgow Scottish Greens trans councillor runs up huge council tax debt as residents hit with increase
Exclusive: Elaine Gallagher made history in 2022 by being elected as Glasgow’s first openly trans councillor but has failed to pay much council tax since then.”
—————————————–
Of course the answer is not to bother paying that annoying Council Tax.
Send in the bailiffs.
Mind you, God knows what they would find in its lair..
Big Jock,
There are things that we can all do to make the changes, we do not have to be the ones in the lime light, nor do we have to be the hero that saves Scotland,
We just have to work together as people, as a Community, as a nation,
Like Dan quoted,
“All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing”
WHAT’S THE GERMAN FOR HEARSE?
link to archive.is
Off Topic.
I see that a trainee Prison Officer has bern dismissed by GeoAmey in his final week of training owing to his refusal to regard biological men or women as self diagnosed trans in the pronouns used to refer to them.
He is taking the company to an Employment Tribunal and is represented by Solicitor -Advocate Margaret Gribbon, who represented Ms Peggie in her action against Fife NHS Board.
The fight for sanity continues.
Can I say totally on topic! The Scottish government is behind this. Getting public servants to scream and threaten to close this and sack that person. All paid for by us. They all need to go. Threatening the tax payer. Ignoring the supreme court and the vast majority Scottish people.
You got it Mark Beggan. Swinney and his wacko trans government have unlimited magic money to squander of brutalising people in their employment to accepts trans ideology.
Th trainee prison officer issue is just another Sandie Peggie situation.
The squader of money in public service just goes on.
Like Thatcher, the Laddie Swinney is not for turning
I thought Alf Baird and ors would be rejoicing at the good news that the Scottish Languages Bill has now passed and is an Act of the Scottish Parliament.
The Bill gives the Gaelic and Scots languages official status in Scotland and makes changes to the support for the Gaelic and Scots languages in Scotland. This includes changes in relation to Gaelic and Scots education.
Read it at your leisure here: link to parliament.scot
The Colonised have risen and there should be dancing in the streets!
Tha am Bile a’ toirt inbhe oifigeil do Ghàidhlig agus Scots ann an Alba agus a’ dèanamh atharrachaidhean air an taic a chuirear ris a’ Ghàidhlig agus Scots ann an Alba. Tha seo a’ gabhail a-steach atharrachaidhean mu fhoghlam Gàidhlig agus Scots.
The Bill gies the Gaelic and Scots leids official staunin in Scotland and maks chynges tae the uphaudin o the Gaelic and Scots leids in Scotland. This includes chynges in relation tae Gaelic and Scots education.
For those you didn’t understand my last comment.
I am afraid socio-linguistic prejudice and institutionalised ethnic discrimination against Scots and Scots language speakers continues.
Unlike state funded English and Gaelic language medium provision, even with this supposed language ‘Act’ there is still:
– no Scots Language TV Channel;
– no statutory requirement to teach Scots language in schools;
– no Scots Language Higher;
– no Scots Language Degree;
– no statutory requirement for any Scots language knowledge;
– no state budget to deliver the above.
Ah so not happy then. Understood.
No explanation from you as to how any of the things whose lack you complain about would increase an ordinary Scot’s wages, improve her employment prospects, put food in her wean’s bellies, or a roof over their heids.
You’re every bit as bad as the trans activists you despise. The ideological goals you pursue are just as divorced from the everyday realities of ordinary Scots.
And for ordinary Scots, just as pointless, diversionary and divisive.
The scum Trump’s recent visit to soil Scotland taught me something I had not known before: he has Scottish fans. These stinking clowns are normally unionists, they want Scotland to stay under the boot of the English parasite government. They’re pigshit thick, know nothing whatsoever about what the ‘man’ (loosest sense of the word) is doing in America, call him the ‘big man’ as a sign of respect…and they’re a total embarrassment to this country. I’m ashamed to breathe the same air as these disgusting bastards.
I mean, I had theorised Scotland was braindrained, but to have these knuckledragger chimps want the turd to come across and rule Scotland – it’s all the evidence I need in support of my theory. It’s also a symptom of having American political and cultural swill jammed down our throats. Ten years ago these arsepickers would never even have heard of Trump, because he was never on the Scottish cultural radar before he opened his money pit first golf course. What a blissful different, rich-white-trash-ignorant time that was. Shaking my head sadly here.
If there was a single country in the world for our political class to copy we could not have done worse by avoiding the United States. Instead we have had dropped on our heid’s US extremist identity politics, gender and race ideology. Private Equity, corporate asset strippers, come on in and poison the culture while you are here. Land, businesses, residential property? Help yersels. I wouldn’t worry about Trump too much, they weren’t any better before him and will be no better after he is gone. He is just more nonsensical.
We should be an independent country with native industries and restrictions on foreign capital. These fuckin’ wolves aren’t our friends.
Sadly I have to agree.
Go to bed !
You won’t be any the wiser in the morning but at least you might be more sober !
Clown !
Says the yoonionist Scotland HATER Insider
That’ll be the football started again
On Israeli war crimes, John Swinney is correct.
A Scottish weaver describes the life of ordinary indigenous Scots living in 21st century Scotland in a conversation with a visiting King Charles No.3:
Written doun here, faithfully and accurately, as it was reported in the ‘National’ newspaper just the other day.
Although I think the National might have pinched the conversation from a story called ‘The Young King’ taken from Oscar Wilde’s collection of fairy tales titled ‘The House of Pomegranates’ first published in 1891.
I think the National might also have nicked its mission statement from Wilde, too:
At least the National has at last openly admitted that the Scots are slaves… although it stops short of naming their oppressor, England.
Awww. Ye puir, wee slave, Northcode.
Does yer maister creep intae yer wee bit bed at nicht, tae force his unwelcome, depraved attentions on yer abused, wretched body?
There’s a post we all want tae read! Dinna keep us a’ in suspense noo 🙂
BTW. Fits a weaver? Oor young fowk ken a’ aboot beavers. Bit weavers? Naw.
Northcode says:
“At least the National has at last openly admitted that the Scots are slaves… although it stops short of naming their oppressor, England.”
——————————————-
As you point out – based on a fairy tale.
@ALF BAIRD,
WHAT IS SCOTS? defining what «is Scots» what constitutes that language in general terms of grammar, syntax, lexis and orthography so as to distinguish that language from Scottish English might be rather harder than the enactment of a sympathetic language bill. The use of deep learning computing has the potential, if seized, to be of great service in language restoration. An input of all extant texts in the many varieties of Scots/Scottis in the various registers in which the language was employed would be a huge step forward in that regard, providing a comprehensive data base for a much needed modern Inglis-Scottis Dictionar. AI could be used to track how the language might have evolved and developed had not the anglicisation of Scottish culture taken place. The use of such an increasingly sophisticated technology based on human neural networks is the future of minority language planning.
This matter is of course a question of political will. In that respect Scotland might need the equivalent of a Haroun ar-rashide at the controls, minus the beheadings obviously.
If this forum contained only submissions in Gaelic, it would have a very small response rate, and many of the usual suspects would be conspicuous by their absence
.
You can say much the same for submissions in Scots as well.
There are one or two who can write in it – possibly after several hour’s effort with a translation programme. But even they submit most of their dross in the King’s English. They know damn well that’s the only way they’re going to be understood by the readers!
This is only as a consequence of colonialism, Hatey, where the oppressed group borrow the colonizer’s language; and when colonialism is finally removed the native will quickly revert back tae thair ain mither tongue.
As Albert Memmi wrote:
“…the colonized no longer knew his language except in the form of a lowly dialect. In order to emerge from the most elementary monotony and emotions, he had to borrow the colonizer’s language. In recovering his autonomous and separate destiny, he immediately goes back to his own tongue.”
Memmi didn’t have the advantage of modern air travel, Alf.
If he did have today, he could fly to ex-colonies like India to see for himself how their repudiation of the coloniser’s language is going.
South Africa, New Zealand and Australia too.
And if we were to consider the ex-colonies of Spain and Portugal, we could crowdfund Memmi a trip to the Caribbean and South America. Heck, we could even get him Spanish and Portuguese phrase books for the trip, so he could ask them how their repudiations are going.
Facts, eh, Alf? Did Memmi bother with them much? If he did, he’d have to write a whole new book if he was still around.
The BBC is reporting that Jezza’s Jezbollah party is still not officially named. In fact, he’s wanting its members to name it and is canvassing for them to come up with suggestions.
There’s no limitations on using Lefty McLeftface that I know of, so any Jezza or Sultana supporters reading on here – please feel free.
“The name should sum up in one simple phrase the pure essence of what the party is all about”
Yup, the Lefty McLeftface Party nails it.
Too long. Though I disagree with the obviously crass slur, ‘Jezbollah’ is surely the one?
In the end it will be something obvious like The Left Party. Anything fancy, poetic or abstract always fails. I actually quite like Your Party but it is too touchy-feely and would spell doom.
Thinking about this seriously, the obvious thing to say is the party is doomed anyway, but you never quite know as there is a groundswell of people wanting a genuine ‘sensible’ UK left wing party, as there isn’t one (whether this party can be ‘sensible’ remains to be seen and one has one’s serious doubts).
It would take a lot for me to vote for them but I would not rule it out. I am old school, 70s Labour mixed-economy left wing and hardly alone in that. I saw Corbyn literally on his soap box in a park during the 2017 campaign that he shocked everyone by doing well, and he is genuinely good doing that kind of campaigning. He had genuine charisma though this does not translate to TV.
It is easy to slag him but he does tap into something quite a lot of people want. And the more he is ridiculed, the more that support grows – look at the example of Farage and Reform with that kind of ‘mainstream’ progressive attack. It is grist to the mill of their supporters. Attacks from the right on Corbyn’s party could have same effect as they can look just as desperate and pathetic.
Corbyn has far more support and credence than someone like Galloway. Maybe in Scotland this is not apparent.
In one of his superb books, Jack Vance introduced the Life, Peace & Freedom party.
As he wrote, a name like that made it impossible for anyone to vote against it.
Ha, yes. Mind you it has given me an idea for a new party: Death, War and Slavery Party. Going for both the ironic vote as well those actually into those things.
And in Scotland, how about the Colonial Bondage Party? Ticking lots of boxes there. Confused is leader (obvs.), Baird Home Sec and Northcode heads up the Bondage Dept.
All those comments do is emphasise that if your language is suppressed by another Country under punishment and yer banned from wearing yer national dress, playing your choice of national instruments and you’re laws have been banned and repealed then you are Colonised,
Mentioned here often, those that still suppress the thoughts, actions and language, mock and deride the Scottish people are advertising themselves to the world in general that colonial oppression and suppression continues,
personally I never stop those people doing it, I never complain to Stu to remove them, because they help the Scottish people and others that read this site to recognise the mind set of the Coloniser in modern times to continue to subdue the people, by their attitudes and approach to Scottish peoples thoughts, language and comments.
Metaphorically the attempts by the hangman and the methods of suppression they still use today has changed little over the hundreds of years,
The brow beaten is continuous.
The right to self determination refused to the Scots,
The right to self governance refused to the Scottish nation
Let the hangman come to the party, an bring his own mechanism to hang himself by his own petard.
Extremely helpful while asking other nations to take a closer look at the details and actions of Colonialism.
@James
The fact that you and some of the other usual suspects bang on ad nauseam about the “Scotland as colony” trope doesn’t mean that it’s a valid argument, or even if one is inclined to give it some slight credence, that it has gained any traction amongst Scots in general or within the independence movement more narrowly.
Constant repetition doesn’t make the case (such as it is) more convincing.
Rev Stu is nothing if not accommodating given the reams of off topic, intellectually half baked dross posted by a coterie of hard of thinking nativists in here.
One might have thought that if these arguments had any intrinsic merit, or if people thought they were attractive and served as a valid part of our struggle for independence, we might see some kind of evidence for that. Instead, what we see is the much vaunted petitions gaining fewer signatures than the average works menage, and no appreciable electoral or online uprising of parties or organisations promoting the quixotic post-colonial argument.
If we were seeing La Diada style demonstrations, or if Alf’s magnum opus “Doun Hauden” were flying high in the Scottish best sellers list this strange fixation might be easier to explain.
As it is, those punting these outlandish arguments just look like a bunch of fringe nutters, little different from those the electorate routinely ignores when they push other far left wedge issues like TWAW or Jockistinian support for the perpetrators of 7/10 or how uncle Vlad and his great bunch of lads are just misunderstood opponents of the Davos inspired space lizards promoting the great reset.
If it weren’t so crushingly boring it would be comical. Instead it just renders BTL commentary in this place somewhere that fewer and fewer ordinary people bother with: if they wanted to listen to pub bores they can at least get a pint and some other company in a real pub.
Jesus could you crawl any further up Rev Stu’s arse ya creep, you complain about the repetition of others, FFS there is no one more boring or repetitious than you and yer nativist moonhowling shite, you never have anything constructive to say you just love siding with the other Scotland HATERS to undermine independence for Scotland, have you got an apple for Stuart ya fuckin creeper
TH demonstrating how to build bridges and make friends – Scottish style.
It’s a bank holiday today, so he’s got the day off from his job in the Tourist Information kiosk.
His on call shift for the Samaritans starts at 6 PM.
Awa wi yer bletherin an haverin.
I’ll set that tae a desolate pibroch an dance the hielan fling in full fig while I play it.
While awaiting my punishment 🙂
Jeezo. What reality are you living in inside yer heid?
I might have said this before – I’m not sure, but it’s always worth repeating such is the intense loathing of the Scots perpetually exhibited by the colonialists on here:
It’s noticeable that the frequency and intensity of anti-Scots rhetoric increases when the truth about England’s oppression of its Scottish annexed territory, the Scots language and the Scots as a people is clearly and plainly set out here.
As Oscar Wilde tells us… “Most people are boring and stupid” I wonder if he was thinking of unionists in particular when he scribbled that line down.
I might have said this before – I’m not sure, but it’s always worth repeating such is the intense loathing of the Scots perpetually exhibited by the colonialists on here:
It’s noticeable that the frequency and intensity of anti-Scots rhetoric increases when the truth about England’s oppression of its Scottish annexed territory, the Scots language and the Scots as a people is clearly and plainly set out here.
As Oscar Wilde tells us… “Most people are boring and stupid” I wonder if he was thinking of unionists in particular when he scribbled that line down.
You’re the one voluntarily self-identifying as a slave in a country of free men and women.
Why would you do that if you don’t want to be abused and ill treated?
It’s a recognised kink – harmless to consenting adults, so nobody is judging you. Most subjugation practitioners like to keep it behind closed doors. Only you feel the need to broadcast it to the world.
So don’t be surprised if some folk want to help you get right into your fantasy. You should really be thanking them.
Yes Northcode, as the colonialists demonstrate over and over again, “colonialism only works by de-basing the colonized” (Memmi) confirming that colonialism always involves “hateful racism” (Cesaire).
Only certain natives are accepted, i.e. the ‘culturally assimilated’, while all others are rebuked and disregarded.
Northcode likes to post that some Sovereign Scots calling out other Sovereign Scots as deluded online eejits is racism.
Maybe he even believes what he posts. How would anybody ever know?
Of course, if he does, then the accusation goes both ways. Some Sovereign Scots calling out other Sovereign Scots as deluded online eejits is racism too.
Make you think, eh Alf? Or perhaps more accurately, makes you laugh.
Anyhoo, hope you’re having a good day. Hope it’s free of “living in fear” and “slavery”. Northcode likes to post he suffers from both afflictions.
Hey, maybe he really does. But ah truly hae ma doots.
Do you shower pick up a lieu day for working the day?
Oh, of course you’ll get the English holidays eh?
Naw James Bastard TAX MOAN gets the engerlish and dewish holidays all the time