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The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else

Posted on August 12, 2025 by

As more and more of Nicola Sturgeon’s memoirs ooze out into the public sphere like pus leaking from a burns-victim’s blisters, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of rank, festering untruth spreading out in all directions.

First she audaciously attempted to blame Alex Salmond for supposedly leaking the news of his own arrest on false sexual-assault charges to the press, a laughably mad allegation totally derided by everyone involved including the journalist the story was leaked to (by Sturgeon’s own chief of staff, Liz Lloyd).

For good measure she then accused the MSPs investigating her conspiracy against him of being mere puppets controlled and directed by Salmond, an obvious nonsense immediately refuted by them directly, in case the idea of Murdo Fraser taking orders from Alex Salmond wasn’t already too idiotic to contemplate.

And her spewing sewage cannon still wasn’t done, managing to dredge up another smear that Salmond had been secretly opposed to equal marriage in 2012, an assertion so laughably obviously disproved by entire truckloads of evidence that making it can only have been a result of the gravest desperation.

(Or perhaps pure jealousy that Pink News never made HER their “Ally Of The Year”, as they did with both Salmond and David Cameron.)

But even so, this might be the boldest Hail Mary attempt of all.

Because even for Nicola Sturgeon, trying to rewrite time itself is an ambitious move.

The justification runs like this:

So, prior to 6 October 2022 that “rational debate” was still possible, was it?

The point at which a rational debate becomes impossible is the point at which you say your opponents’ views are not rational. It’s one thing to believe that they’re wrong, but asserting that they’re not even valid eliminates any possibility of good faith. You’re saying that those views are so absurd that no reasonable person could even hold them, let alone argue for them.

Sturgeon continued that she’d “listened very carefully” after holding two consultations on the matter and concluded that her gender reforms constituted no threat to women’s rights – redirecting Scottish voters’ attention to Texas for some reason – and so that was the end of the matter and everyone needed to shut up and comply.

She had of course done no such thing. The SNP conference and NEC had never been allowed to debate the policy. Feminist groups couldn’t get anywhere near a minister, or were treated with barely-masked contempt on the rare occasions they they did, as described in this paragraph from “The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht” about a 2018 meeting of Women’s Spaces In Scotland – a forerunner of For Women Scotland – with Scottish Government civil servants.

As indeed was almost everyone else who tried to speak up.

Sturgeon wouldn’t even listen when the Equality and Human Rights Commission intervened – still months before Rowling had worn any t-shirts – to urge the “pause” that Sturgeon now says she should have undertaken.

The Scottish Government had refused to even publish the public’s responses to the second “consultation”, perhaps because – as Sturgeon subsequently revealed – voters were gradually starting to notice what was going on, with the Isla Bryson case being the flame that really lit the fuse.

Everything had been fine while voters were still in the dark, but as soon as the things people had been trying to warn her about for the previous six years started to actually manifest themselves in reality, Sturgeon threw a sulk about it.

(They were of course never “abstract” – there were numerous well-known examples before Bryson, she just didn’t care about them, which isn’t the same.)

It’s not possible to have a rational debate in good faith with someone who says your views are invalid and that you’re aligned with a bunch of far-right extremists just because you happen to share a view on a single subject.

And rather than attempt to refute Rowling’s t-shirt with facts and reason, as one might hope from someone who saw themselves as a mature stateswoman of “emotional intelligence”, Sturgeon simply went on to more and more openly deploy the petulant smears of bigotry against her opponents that she still – even despite her attempts to portray her book as regretful self-reflection about her own failings – insists are true.

Perhaps we’re meant to conclude that “You’re a bunch of Trumpian transphobes!” was supposed to “elevate the debate or illuminate the issues at the heart of it”.

But what’s striking is that amid her bleating that an opinion expressed by a popular author on a t-shirt in a tweet went beyond the bounds of “robust and uncomfortable challenge”, Sturgeon – who as First Minister was accompanied by armed bodyguards everywhere she went – was now “at risk of possible physical harm”, a concern she wasn’t inclined to extend to the women locked up in prison with rapists like Isla Bryson. Sturgeon, of course, is always the real victim.

It’s manifestly clear from her recent comments that Sturgeon regrets nothing about the Gender Recognition Reform Act except her hamfisted failure to get it into law. She plainly regards Isla Bryson as a woman, but lacks the honesty to say so out loud, resorting to calling him “they” in all her interviews to promote the book.

(Even then, she tries to weasel out of it by saying it “sounded like” she didn’t have the courage and that she “seemed” weak and evasive. It didn’t SOUND LIKE that, it simply WAS that, and still is. She’s not in government any more, she’s not standing for re-election, and she’s already had her £300K book advance. She has no reason to avoid a simple answer any more, yet she still stammers and vacillates and swerves, absurdly postulating that Bryson’s sex is dependent on which crimes he’s committed.)

Gender-critical campaigners tried for seven years to get Nicola Sturgeon to listen like a grown-up to their objections to self-ID. (The SNP’s pursuit of self-ID started in 2016)

Everything they attempted to warn her about was proved right. In return she ignored, marginalised and finally publicly insulted them. By the time JK Rowling put a t-shirt on, any pretence at discussion on Sturgeon’s part had already long been abandoned. She even, most infamously, whipped her MSPs to vote down an amendment targeted specifically and solely at sex offenders, such was her sheer spiteful intransigence.

It’s arguably a bigger insult, though, to pretend that everyone doesn’t know this. Sturgeon waved away the opposing view as “invalid” more than a YEAR before Rowling’s t-shirt, and had turned a blind eye even earlier to vast torrents of foul abuse and rape and death threats aimed at Rowling, gender-critical women in the SNP (much of it coming from within the party, emboldened by Sturgeon’s silence or even open endorsement) and anyone else who spoke up. It’s like burning your own house down and bitterly blaming the fire brigade because what’s left of your stuff is water-damaged.

She was NEVER interested in a rational debate, because gender ideology is not rational and cannot survive debate, which is precisely why transactivists adopted the “No Debate” mantra.

Even now, Sturgeon can’t say what a woman is, what gender is or what sex Isla Bryson is, and plainly you can’t intelligently debate things you refuse to define. And since Sturgeon hasn’t changed her actual views one iota, clearly her Damascene conversion to the powers of dialogue actually just means that she wishes she’d looked like she was willing to talk about it, before doing what she wanted anyway.

Because in her head, Sturgeon is still the progressive fount of all wisdom, all kindness and all decency. Her book pretends, vaguely, to half-acknowledge some errors in the course of her career, but she doesn’t mean – or actually say – a word of it.

The true message of “Frankly” is that everything bad that happened during Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership of the country was someone else’s fault. If only people had been more reasonable, if only they hadn’t made compromise impossible by wearing a t-shirt, if only they hadn’t been such bigots, they’d have seen she was actually right all along.

It can only be hoped that after the first-day frenzy of Sturgeon’s diminishing fan club buying the book, both it and its author finally disappear from public sight with all possible speed. The book will inevitably, whether sooner or later, end up in the bargain bins. As for Sturgeon herself, any sort of bin will do.

0 to “The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else”

  1. Joan Savage says:

    Every nail hit squarely on the head, Stu.
    Thank you. AGAIN.

    Reply
  2. Cuphook says:

    She really is desperately trying to traduce Salmond’s character to save her own.

    Have you seen the Telegraph story, ‘Sturgeon: Late Queen asked for gossip on Alex Salmond’?

    She’s such a fantasist I’m waiting for the bit where Martin Luther King asked her to save his people. #SturgeonSays

    Reply
    • Sven says:

      Cuphook @ 13.27.

      Although, rather than “Having a dream”, she’s providing a nightmare.

      Reply
  3. Peter Campbell says:

    So it turns out that Nicola WAS able to pursue manifesto commitments after all? Who’d have thought it?

    Reply
  4. Ian says:

    I wonder how much of her book was rewritten after Alex’s death when libel was no longer an issue.

    Reply
    • Nae Need! says:

      All of it.
      She’s a barrel scraper extraordinaire.

      Reply
  5. Mark Beggan says:

    The Ted Bundy of Scottish politics.

    Reply
  6. Lorn says:

    Thank you for this, Rev. Your archive must be hugely extensive, and you are right: she was and remains a believer in this crapola.

    I want one interviewer to ask her some cogent questions: 1. what is gender; 2. what is ‘trans’; 3. where is the evidence that can refute and obliterate the biological truth?

    Like Thatcher, she was driven by her own ideology and exported everyone else to fall into line. Thatcher believed that a country could be run like a household budget in a lower middle-class family. The absolute absurdity of such a stance was bulldozed over and through, and almost every ill that besets the UK today can be traced back to this woman’s own intransigence.

    Nicole Sturgeon, likewise, adopted a mindset on gender woo woo that nothing and nobody could shift. She is the very epitome of Bonhoeffer Stupid. That is to say that even intelligent people (neither she nor Thatcher could be classed as unintelligent people) can fall prey to a certain ideological stance that renders them blind and deaf to everything around them – to anything at all that does not fit the prevailing narrative.

    People like this are highly dangerous to any society because no amount of evidence contrary to their own mindset will ever turn them from what they see as their very purpose in public life. They would happily destroy every aspect of the society they claim to support in pursuit of their misbegotten goal. These people need to be rooted out early or they will bring huge dissension and almost civil war-like conditions to bear. Often, their relentlessness does, in fact, lead to civil war and, even, a wider conflict.

    I think that, latterly, Salmond tried to get through to her and brought retribution down on his head but, I also believe that he always knew what she was really like and should have broken their agreement when the referendum failed. Most politicians are ruthless, including Salmond, but he always put Scotland first. Sturgeon always put herself first.

    Reply
    • Mark Beggan says:

      Thatcher did know the difference between a boy and a girl. She was a major power on the world stage. A powerful woman in a mans world. Brought down by her own. Britain was bankrupt when she took over control. The IRA tried to kill her. Britain was changed forever and she is still loved and hated to This day.

      Sorry Lorn there is absolutely no comparison.

      Reply
      • James says:

        You’re in some weird parallel universe there.

        Keep taking the tablets.

      • Hatey McHateface says:

        Of course.

        Not forgetting that many, many governments since Thatcher’s day, including the three Blair consecutive administrations, had all the headroom and all the popular support needed to reverse Thatcher’s changes.

        But they never. And the majority of voters couldn’t care less.

        What is it with this juvenile fixation on pantomime villains anyway? Now Sturgeon fits the bill for the individual who has to take sole responsibility for everything wrong under the sun.

        They’ll be burning witches next.

      • James says:

        So, proud Scotchman #SitePrick1 is a Thatcher apologist now.

        Who would ever have guessed?

      • Hatey McHateface says:

        That’s right, keep it short, James. Easier to type with one hand.

        Use as inspiration that which you’re squeezing with your other hand.

      • Captain Caveman says:

        Shush, Fatso, the adults are talking.
        Get back under your bridge, thicko.

      • James says:

        Two in a row. Bingo!

      • Lorn says:

        I did not say she didn’t know the difference between a girl and a boy. I was referring to the psychology and the intransigence. Of course the UK was in dire straits – when has it not been in modern times? Do you actually believe that her ideology worked? If women in a man’s world cantle change anything and make life better for their sisters, as well as for everyone else, what is the point? All she did was line the pockets of…powerful men. Sturgeon handed over blithely women’s rights to…men.

        Blair’s New Labour were merely Tories wearing a red coat who were immensely relaxed about people have lots and lots of money. By ‘people’, they meant themselves es and their cronies.

      • Lorn says:

        Hatey: no one is saying that they must carry the entire can for all that has gone wrong. Don lt be silly. Politicians, like the rest of us, are in thrall to much bigger forces. It’s the constant, unceasing obeisance to lobbyists who represent everything that is contrary to any kind of decency for ordinary folk. Your never-ending cynicism is wearying. We all carry the can when we elect spineless sock puppets instead of decent people.

      • Hatey McHateface says:

        @ Lorn says: 12 August, 2025 at 8:10 pm

        “We all carry the can when we elect spineless sock puppets instead of decent people”

        Maybe.

        Perhaps a people get the leaders they deserve. So look at our Scottish leaders – our so-called finest. What does that say about the Scots?

        Then look at the people currently squatting and starving in the rubble of their country in the ME, while their leaders wax fat, wealthy and content deep underground. What does that say about them? What does it say about the Scots on here who support them?

        I’m agnostic about karma. But sometimes I think – it could well be true – just look around and see how it is manifesting itself.

      • Captain Caveman says:

        @Lorn

        ‘… Blair’s New Labour were merely Tories wearing a red coat who were immensely relaxed about people have lots and lots of money. By ‘people’, they meant themselves es and their cronies.’

        I must confess, Lorn, I find it immensely vexing when people blithely claim that Blair’s “New Labour” were de facto Tories – usually justified either by (an increasingly infirm) Thatcher’s claim that Blair couldn’t have happened without her (probably true in comparison to Labour dinosaurs like Foot et al, but ultimately irrelevant and doesn’t make him a Tory) and/or Mandelson’s crass quip that you allude to (“immensely relaxed about people being filthy rich” or somesuch).

        In the case of the latter, it’s true to say that the Right is honest enough to promote personal wealth and prosperity a high priority – as much as that might rankle crass, outdated (and downright harmful) British cultural sensitivities (it hasn’t done the USA – or China for that matter – much harm).

        But so what? The methodology personified by Thatcher (and the Right in general) is for small government/small State, minimal public sector, low tax economy where people get to keep more of their hard earned in their pockets. How they spend it is up to them; the downside (there is ALWAYS a downside, as much as the conceited Left would deny it in their case) is a reduced safety net, and that means some casualties.

        Blair’s “New Labour”, on the other hand, was pretty much “Labour” in most respects that actually mattered; his government vastly increased the size of the bloated Public Sector (massively upping salaries and other costs in the process) – hardly “Tories in disguise”. Of course, being Labour, they also completely fucked stuff up as well – tearing down the previously very largely effective financial regulatory framework (Barings Bank excepted) that had kept us all safe for decades since the 1985 “Big Bang” (which was objectively highly successful by all fair accounts), and replaced it with the useless FSA/BoE which catastrophically failed to the greatest economic detriment this country has ever had the misfortune to face since WW2. Make no mistake: Brown openly admits to failing to even understand the banking system, which is a bit of a problem when the country is relying on you to regulate it (and you’re passing radical laws purporting to do just that, when they do nothing of the sort). The Great Recession broke us as a country – we have never recovered from it. All we have done is borrow more and more money, and sooner or later the chickens will come home to roost. All thanks to Labour and their idiotic schoolboy politics that’ve literally never worked anywhere, for any large scale, comparative economy to the UK’s.

        Of course, it would be remiss not to also mention Labour’s catastrophic foreign policy, from Iraq and Afghanistan (nuff said surely), but also Blair’s crass surrender of Thatcher’s hard won EU rebate, sowing seeds of discontent with the UK’s “deal” with the EU as he did so. Look how that turned out.

        So yeah. TL;DR – New Labour did not resemble the Tories beyond the most cursory and superficial, neither in terms of policy and most certainly execution and results.

      • Lorn says:

        When I said New Labour were Tories by any other name, that is what they were but in a mirror imagine way. Both Tories and Labour respond to ordinary people and the mess they are in by pretending that they can fix everything. They can’t because they won’t. Everything they do and say is performative – all surface gloss. You are right, though, that the Tories are at least honest about their tendencies. Neither would ever stir their stumps to actually do anything to help anyone in society other than themselves and their own, although they introduce policies and make as if they are doing just that.

        The woke/DEI/’trans’ horse manure is symptomatic of that performative governance: it means absolutely nothing and both right and left indulge in it. Frankly, there is little to nothing to choose between any of the mainstream parties, including the SNP. What they do change, they change because it perpetuates their own situation and comfort and their elitism is absolute. Nothing they do that harms those on the lower rungs of the societal ladder affects them, so they can coat it in sickly virtue-signalling without having to lift a finger or change their own lifestyles.

        What is different about today’s elites, in contrast to those who went before, is that they immerse themselves in ‘good causes’, in worthy pursuits among the ‘marginalized’ (without actually doing anything specific) who, when you look closer, are just the same ones who are at the apex of the ‘marginalized’ pyramid – i.e. usually males who are not members of the elite but who could prove to be a real thorn in the side of the elites, so they must be placated. Women are deemed to pose no risk, hence the men in dresses.

        What had happened is that, in the past 10-15 years, all of these ‘good causes’ and ‘marginalized’ groups have intersected on the road to ‘worthiness’ and those who are now deemed to be less ‘worthy’ and, therefore, less ‘marginalized’ must be extrapolated from the ‘herd’ and kicked further down the heap to the bottom (usually women, and from all the ‘marginalized’ groups). This always happens in times of great economic flux, but never so blatantly as today.

        Any dissent, either against right-wing or left-wing elitist policies, is met with the same fascist/totalitarian response – cancellation, curbing of speech, hate laws, etc. As a female, I have never felt so threatened, but neither will I back down, even as I concede that women are their own worst enemies and are so often the willing tools of the unscrupulous.

  7. Confused says:

    In a Dark/ Mirror/ Parallel Universe, an “EVIL NIKKI” (with a little goatee) was doing the following

    – arranging for another INDYREF to be organised and run by an INDEPENDENT(!) INTERNATIONAL BODY, sourced from the UN and major powers, and policed by international CORPORATE FRAUD EXPERTS.

    – declaring all subsequent elections to be “PLEBESCITES”

    – reform VOTING RULES to reflect international norms re: indigenous and s3ttl3r peoples

    – off to the side, preparing parallel INSTITUTIONS to take over once independent

    – having well-prepared, ready to go “boil in the bag” solutions for the CURRENCY, central bank and anything else we need

    – use “CONSTITUTIONAL LAWFARE” regarding the sovereignty question and treaty of union; and supporting anyone who would independently attempt these attacks

    – declaring the intention to create a NATIONAL ENERGY MONOPOLY (oil and renewables) modelled on statoil

    – declaring the intention for serious LAND REFORM, and to ban foreign ownership

    – generally REFUSE TO CO-OPERATE with westminster about anything

    – being prepared for the multipart conflict which independence will be; WARGAMING move and countermove

    – making the NECESSARY FOREIGN ALLIANCES needed to counterbalance the power imbalance with London; you want the EU and the USA (most of all) on your side, or at least staying neutral, acting as an impartial referee

    – prepare separate, ACCURATE ACCOUNTS for Scotland

    – prepare a detailed historical accounts, to be used in a claim for REPARATIONS

    – adopt an ANY/MANY approach to independence and not this broken, doomed to failure “gold standard” called Section 30, which has no actual legal requirement

    – have a NEGOTIATION TEAM AND STRATEGY ready for when independence talks begin (- as the other side will -really- try to screw us)

    – actively ATTACK THE UNION AND ITS BLOODY HISTORY; the british empire, the slaughter and pillage at every opportunity should never be forgotten; deliberately provoke and attack the unionists

    – use the DECOLONISATION framework of the UN to further our cause

    – download and fill-in the application form for EFTA

    – create faster TRANSPORT LINKS direct to the continent and Ireland, so we are not dependent on cross border traffic

    – fix the FERRIES

    – declaring “MEN HAVE PENISES, WOMEN HAVE VAGINAS, BIOLOGICAL SEX IS IMMUTABLE, PHYSICAL REALITY IS NOT A LITERARY DISCOURSE …”

    aren’t you glad you live in the “Good Universe” and not the “Evil Universe” where such horrors could take place?

    Reply
    • Alf Baird says:

      Good summary, Confused, to which we might add – LAIRN OOR AIN SCOTS lANGAGE TAE SCOTS BAIRNS – ensuring that oor ain fowk are no longer burdened with a confused identity and false persona.

      And ensure that Anglo elites are never again permitted to assert in oor ain laund that oor Scots langage is not valid.

      Reply
    • Hatey McHateface says:

      No contract to be issued for your mobile gas chambers, Confused?

      Don’t tell us you’re catching Sturgeonitis of the heid too – the convenient memory loss that serves to cover awkward historic episodes.

      I see you’re going cold on manning the border, sten in hand, shooting to kill too. Whassa matter? Feart we’ll end up really colonised next time around?

      And that the incoming tanks will crush your sorry arse into the ground 🙂

      Reply
      • Confused says:

        If I recall correctly, it is you who is an ardent supporter of those lovely folks who :

        SHOOT STARVING PEOPLE QUEUING FOR BREAD

        “why do they hate us?”

        link to archive.ph
        link to archive.ph
        link to x.com

        and you never fail to defend history’s greatest murderers. Bolshevism was not rushan.

        link to ynet.co.il

        “cries out in pain, even as he strikes you”

        And let’s not forget about the ANGLOS – who poisoned Gruinard with anthrax, and didn’t clean it up till activists sent them envelopes with spores in them.

        Then the RAF dropped poison gas on mesopotamain tribes in 1919 and suggested it could be used for striking miners.

        – but hey “its alright when we do it” – the cry of the supremacist narcissist everywhere.

      • Hatey McHateface says:

        “If I recall correctly”

        Naw.

        You don’t.

        But I do recall correctly your enthusiasm for gas chambers and for shooting down the English where they stand.

        Beats me why you’re in denial, Confused. If you don’t think these ideas help Indy, you should have kept it zipped.

      • Confused says:

        You forgot about EATING THE ENGLISH

        – that is my favourite plan.

        You would have to hang the meat for a while though, for the flavour.

      • Hatey McHateface says:

        You forgot you are what you eat.

        Is that you confused again, Confused?

      • Confused says:

        you must eat a lot of shit then

      • Hatey McHateface says:

        “you must eat a lot of shit then”

        Course I do, Confused, I’m Scottish.

        Don’t you live in Pilton, or some other such high-rise slum? Top notch grub served up there, is it?

      • Confused says:

        yeah, but you like it, don’t you

        and you want the rest of us to like it too

  8. John Jones says:

    “End up in bargain bins” I would respectfully suggest the word bargain can be safely and reasonably be deleted for accuracy.

    Reply
  9. duncanio says:

    When confronted the obvious truths from overwhelming evidence about their own shortcomings and personality disorders the narcissist, in one last desperate attempt at deflection, will always project their character defects onto others.

    Nasty Nic is no different.

    Reply
  10. Geri says:

    She’s a narcissist & they’re expert at rewriting history.

    Spoken like a typical abuser too. If only we’d done as we were telt she wouldn’t have been such a failure in her day job across the board. It’s no surprise it’s everyone else’s fault & no surprise she’d clutch at straws over Salmond. What a despicable, low life scummy thing to do not even a year since his death.

    She had no mandate for Self-ID. She’d plenty for indyref2 though along with funds some ppl could ill afford. This TRA pish was her deliberately throwing the game. I’m sure she’ll be rewarded handsomely with some trinket later down the line if Perfidious Albion don’t renege on it beforehand. I hope they do. She can scurry off back under her rock.

    A ‘Jeremy Hunt’ whose only achievement is to be despised by 100% of the population now instead of the original 55. Only adored by fetishist weirdos & perverted criminals – what legacy! I wish she’d fck off already.

    Reply
    • Hatey McHateface says:

      “only achievement is to be despised by 100% of the population”

      I see you’ve crept out from under your own rock, Geri. Better watch Sturgeon doesn’t coorie up in the space you’ve created.

      And that line of your post I’ve repeated. Citation needed.

      Otherwise it will look like you’ve just gone straight back to making stuff up.

      Reply
      • Marie says:

        No one makes up more Shyte than you Hasbara.

      • Hatey McHateface says:

        @ Marie says: 12 August, 2025 at 8:23 pm

        “No one makes up more Shyte than you Hasbara”

        Great post, Marie. I’m often guilty of underestimating the intellectual abilities of posters such as yourself. It’s good that you remind me from time to time what you are capable of achieving.

    • Nae Need! says:

      You and Duncanio, spot on.
      They won’t renege on it.
      She IS and WILL continue to BE well rewarded.
      Spesh when she’s living in her motherland = London.

      Reply
  11. Iain More says:

    She still needs to do Jail time. Although in her case that might be a reward.

    Reply
  12. Young Lochinvar says:

    That list of gender criminals and where they are incarcerated is interesting; it really should be put out there somehow publicly to deflate their apologists lie that Isla Bryson(sic) was just a one off aberration and that all trannies are actually all lovely and the very image of kindness.

    DEI needs defunded, it’s simply a breeding ground for all this crap.

    Reply
    • Lorn says:

      The actual truth is that most ‘trans’ offenders are in prison for sex offences and many of them declared themselves to be ‘trans’ way before Scotland’s GRR Bill reared its ugly head. The v last majority are sexual transvestites and we do no one any favours by not acknowledging that fact.

      The figures for ‘trans’ offenders is very much higher per capita in prison for sexual offences than for sex offe enders in the straight prison population, and they stand testament to the fact that this is a movement dedicated to transvestism, not to gender dysphoria or any other excuse.

      They were self-declared ‘trans’ before committing their crime, most of them, not after committing their crime, which rather throws Sturgeon’s and many others’ perceptions askew. We all knew what they were yesterday, but, today? They are all the most put upon, stunning and brave chaps in the history of the world. DEI is the means of spreading the contagion throughout our public institutions and services.

      Reply
    • Nae Need! says:

      Indeed. DEI is dangerous stuff.

      Reply
  13. Macbeda Blackstone says:

    ?????
    Excellent article.

    Reply
  14. Frank Gillougley says:

    ‘It’ is the only thing in the world, which i will not listen to speak, or watch any film of. Any image of ‘it’ that I have to glean is bad enough. This is the only thing in the world I will be like this towards. Come to think of it, John Carpenter’s 1982 movie, ‘The Thing’ was uncannily accurate a depiction.

    Reply
    • Nae Need! says:

      Frank, you’re not the only one.
      I feel the same way too.

      Reply
  15. Mrs Grimble says:

    I’m thinking that a letter from a certain legal firm is being primed for launch right now….

    Reply
  16. Andy Wiltshire says:

    Slightly OT: will Nicola Sturgeon be called as a witness in the Peter Murrell trial? Legal opinions welcome.

    Reply
  17. 100%Yes says:

    From the Grand Tour to Ms obscure. I’ve done my rounds as I do as a Indy member and from what I’ve heard the library’s and charity shops are going to have a run on her book.

    The National has her face plastered all over its paper as if it was a Tory tabloid reporting on Margret Thatcher.

    The only reasonable thing I’ve heard from Sturgeon in the last ten years, is she’s gone to leave Scotland, I have a couple of thoughts 1 how can I assist 2 who will john the moron cope and 3 what about peter.

    Reply
  18. Confused says:

    the rave reviewers of Frankly are an interesting crew :

    alan cumming (ohh er, missus) who has made a career out of being “camp” all the time, for no reason whatsoever; that is his acting range – “camp” – he goes from the EMCEE in Cabaret to Frank n Furter in the Rocky Horror, and everything in between

    shirley manson, who is a very good and successful rock singer; she does have this annoyingly militant feminist schtick she peddles in any interview – all about patriarchy and the “industry” and all that; but there she is, in a big band with a bunch of guys, shakin it for all to see … would she not be more comfortable in the safe space of an all female lesbian folk rock collective, singing songs about the pain of childbirth and the gender pay gap? Free from the oppression of hollywood, playing stadiums with all the guys, being objectified?

    shuggie bain – some guy who wrote a book about being a working class kid in Glasgow who was gay, i.e. “bumming up a close” – and won a prize.

    andrew o hagan, who is a proper writer, but I can’t remember reading any of his stuff.

    nikki should be doing jailtime for perjury, fraud and criminal conspiracy and what else “malfeasance in public office” (is that a thing) – someone should have asked her – “hypothetically” – that if she ever went to jail, would she be happy sharing a cell with “isla bryson”? Then counted how many blinks she could manage in 3 seconds.

    the journos in this country are a disgrace, its all “under arm”, and with no follow up; sturgeon has this really annoying trick – she answers in a way that, to a casual listener, it sounds like she said something, but she really didn’t, it was something else. Someone who insisted on straight answers would eat her alive.

    a song for nikki from one of her fans –

    link to youtube.com

    Reply
    • Nae Need! says:

      Straight answers . . . you only get a straight answer from a narcissist when it’s a categorical denial of something they did.
      The straight answer you get, in that instance, is a lie.
      And of course she pushes the boat out further with her ‘I can’t recall’ bollocks.

      Reply
  19. MaryB says:

    I just read Joanna Cherry’s article in yesterday’s Scottish Daily Mail. It’s a pretty comprehensive and factual account of all Nicola’s treacherous and duplicitous behaviour. Couple that with Robin McAlpine’s Commonweal piece from yesterday and between them, they take Nicola and her reign apart very effectively.
    I’m looking forward to Joanna’s book – coming soon – and hoping it will redress the balance for herself, the late Alex Salmond, and expose some who are currently senior SNP MSP’s.

    Reply
    • Joanna Cherry’s Book
      ********************

      I, too, look forward to it, sooner than later! I’ll definitely buy it.

      Reply
      • GM says:

        I await your new books’ arrival Bill. I am sure it will be an interesting read and bit of the puzzle filled in kind of thing.

    • aLurker says:

      ” JOANNA CHERRY: She’s promised to tell the unadorned truth… but will Nicola Sturgeon’s book answer any of the embarrassing questions that REALLY matter? Frankly, I doubt it”

      link to archive.is

      Reply
  20. Effijy says:

    She has her MSP money while doing nothing,
    The book money will be great as the unionist media use it to trash independence and Alex-S,
    Will she get the marital house, half Peter’s secret stash and the giant mobile home.
    The unionists will get a well paid job for as with Wee Baroness Ruth picking up £82,000 for a few hours in the boardroom of Royal London.
    Glad to see the back of her as she heads off to the bank.

    Reply
  21. Sven says:

    Andy Wiltshire @ 15.51.

    I believe that if called as a witness Ms Sturgeon would be competent, but not compellable to testify against her husband.
    The position is slightly nuanced as there are certain circumstances in which a spouse may be compelled to give evidence against their partner, however theft or embezzlement do not fall within that category.

    Reply
    • Attention: Andy and Sven
      ************************

      Re Murrell’s High Court trial for embezzlement, I could see two things happening:

      1. By plea-bargaining, he could pleed guilty to lesser charge, thus preventing the case going to court. One or two years suspened sentence?

      2. In open court setting, Sturgeon would be called as a Prosecution witness – waffle not allowed!

      Any other ideas?

      Reply
      • Hatey McHateface says:

        “Any other ideas?”

        Self-id as trans – plead guilty – call in favours to get himself time in a women’s prison.

        Then there’s the Epstein option as a final resort. Could be somebody else’s final resort – not his.

        The Orcs do this so much better with their defective window catches!

    • Ex President Xiden says:

      The restrictions on spouses no longer apply once they parties are divorced. See Section 264 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995. So an ex spouse could be compellable .

      Reply
      • agent x says:

        I believe they are not divorced yet.

        If they are not divorced by the time of the trial it will be interesting to see if her money is taken into account in any fine (which I am sure will be the outcome rather than prison) and repayment of monies embezzled.

      • Nae Need! says:

        Interesting.
        I don’t think they are yet divorced, but I can guarantee you they WILL be, with plenty of time to spare, IF any trial is to proceed.

      • am firinn says:

        Under the current version of s264(1) it matters not a jot whether the spouses are divorced or not:-

        (1)The spouse or civil partner of an accused is a competent and compellable witness for the prosecution, the accused or any co-accused in the proceedings against the accused.

        Interestingly this change was made, perhaps presciently, in 2010 under Mr Salmond’s government.

  22. Ian says:

    Hopefully Sturgeon’s pathetic visibility will end soon. Sadly probably not because of any legal charges but simply as other fluff stories replace it. With a year now to the election, that will leave the SNP as a party to answer for themselves and in particular their record on what is (I assume) supposed to be the SNP’s core objective of independence. So let the focus be on the history of the SNP since 2014 and it’s achievements.

    I see that the SNP website top 100 achievements still has something done in 2008 under Salmond as it’s No 1 (free tuition). So desperate for successes are the SNP that they rehash it at No 12 (lowest student debt in UK). No mention of Salmond though. The list of achievements during Salmond’s time as FM is outstanding by any measure (No 29 – removed hospital parking charges – 2008). The difference from when Sturgeon took over is as stark as it could be.

    No 28 (World leading climate target) 2019. Fluff so typical of the post 2014 SNP. Words without any substance or chance of success. Maybe the SNP’s 100 record needs to be split into two – achievements up to 2014, and lies and deceit since then. ‘Scotland will not be dragged out of the EU’, ‘we will establish a public not for profit energy company’, etc. Not sure if 50 would be enough to catch all the big post 2014 SNP ‘mistruths’.

    The election is only a year away. The SNP need to have their record over the last 10 years relentlessly highlighted for it’s utter failure and for this to be the only subject that they are asked about. Relentlessly. Playtime is over. It’s time for grown up stuff now before voters get to make their choice again.

    Reply
    • Hatey McHateface says:

      “It’s time for grown up stuff now”

      We could all start here.

      Haha, I do like my little jokes.

      “The election is only a year away”

      Naw. Nine months. And as this is the silly season when feck all happens, in reality there’s only 8 months to go.

      Reply
  23. Mark Beggan says:

    Jimmy Carr would be the best person to interview Sturgeon.

    Reply
  24. agent x says:

    Sturgeon: “In football parlance, I lost the dressing room.”

    A rather unfortunate turn of phrase in view of the Peggie case.

    Reply
  25. agent x says:

    “Ms Sturgeon revealed in the book that she was sexually harassed by a male MSP from another party as she opined about the need to make the “public sphere” safe for women and girls.”

    However, Rowling did not hold back in her criticisms of the politician, sharing an annotated note that reads: “Are you fucking kidding me?”.
    ——————————————–

    Rowling treat Sturgeon with the disrespect that she deserves.
    I wish others would be as honest in their reviews of the Book of Lies.

    Reply
    • Nae Need! says:

      That’s it.
      From now on it shall be called ‘The Book of Lies’.
      No more apt a description yet exists.

      Reply
  26. Sighing says:

    Poor wee Nicola is just an innocent wee victim of fate and chance and bad luck and the duplicitous scheming of others. Nothing is ever her fault, to a pathological level. What an absolute car crash of a human being. Truly one of the worst things ever to happen to this country.

    Hope she’s satisfied with her legacy of abject failure, lack of loyalty, and lack of achievement, adding up to the blustering, blistering square root of fuck all. Know I wouldn’t be. She self-served her country well. Fuck her and everything she ever stood for.

    Reply
  27. LESLIE HALLS says:

    Amazing how much someone can rememberand recall when one is writing their book and not testifying in front of a comittee of parliament. Perhaps if she had been paid to give evidence.
    Meanwhile Liz Lloyd is now working for the Starmer disaster government. Good to see her being rewarded for service.

    Reply
    • Nae Need! says:

      Indeed.
      LL working for Starmer?
      I didn’t know that.
      Makes sense.
      She’s a good fit.

      Reply
      • Dan says:

        Hmm, as stated several times already, I’m fairly sure that’s a different Liz Lloyd.

        link to archive.is

      • Nae Need! says:

        Dan says:
        13 August, 2025 at 7:44 pm
        Hmm, as stated several times already, I’m fairly sure that’s a different Liz Lloyd.

        Point taken.

      • Nae Need! says:

        Dan says:
        13 August, 2025 at 7:44 pm
        Hmm, as stated several times already, I’m fairly sure that’s a different Liz Lloyd.

        Point taken.
        Thanks, Dan.

  28. Campbell Clansman says:

    Nicola Sturgeon typifies everything that’s wrong with Scotland’s governance.
    But she didn’t emerge as FM out of a vacuum
    Who put her in power?
    1) Alex Salmond, who promoted her to deputy and then to FM.
    2) The voters of Scotland, who elected her and her party to office.
    3) Many of the commenters here, who voted SNP for her and her party (but now claim they she misled them).
    4) The SNP MSPs.

    If you want to know who has to take some of the responsibility for Sturgeon, anyone who supported the SNP in the past should look into a mirror

    Reply
    • Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

      “If you want to know who has to take some of the responsibility for Sturgeon, anyone who supported the SNP in the past should look into a mirror”

      What about the opposition who failed to provide an electable alternative?

      Reply
  29. TURABDIN says:

    EXTRACTED FROM «FRANKLY».

    The established narrative now, though, is that I went hell for leather for a second referendum immediately after the Brexit vote. It isn’t true. On the contrary, I spent the next nine months doing the precise opposite. I tried hard to persuade the UK government to pursue a compromise option… It was in good faith, therefore, that we published ‘Scotland’s Place in Europe’ in December 2016, mapping out what a different outcome for Scotland might look like and how it could be achieved. I was explicit that this was a solution for Scotland within the UK; in other words, AN ALTERNATIVE TO INDEPENDENCE.

    Reply
  30. Liz says:

    I was WO in my branch
    I only took the post because of the GRR
    Mhairi Hunter was convenor
    Myself and others provided evidence showing the plans contravened the 2010 EQA

    We tried to get a vote on sending an email to HQ asking them to pause the process to ensure compatability with the 2010 EQA.
    Hunter blocked the suggestion
    That’s when I resigned from the SNP

    Reply
    • Lorn says:

      They all knew it was illegal (and immoral and anti female human rights), Liz. Yet, they pressed on with it in full knowledge that they were aiding and abetting a takeover of all female rights, conventions, spaces, etc

      I am certain that the government’s legal staff would have told them the legal position, too, but, as in the Salmond debacle, they ploughed on regardless. Politicians and others in public office need to be held accountable for their decisions and prosecuted or fined if they take decisions that are glaringly obviously illegal, immoral or would disrupt society. Anyone can make an honest mistake, but, so often, they ignore not just public feeling, but legal advice, too.

      There are people who would know the truth about what went on both in this instance and in the Salmond case but who have kept quiet. They are equally culpable.

      Reply
  31. If you only read one review of her ‘frankly shite’book, make it this one…
    The Rev is a default for many, 1st for anything Scottish, and I think he’s being too kind here.

    Reply
  32. TP says:

    I agree with everything int this except that she thinks Isla Bryson is a female.
    She doesn’t.
    Noone thinks this, except the clinically insane, but they followers pretend to because .

    Reply
  33. Big Jock says:

    Why would anyone read the memoirs of a serial liar? You have to cast doubt on every single anecdote you read. It’s like Michelle Mone on steroids.

    Reply
  34. Tartanpigsy says:


    TURABDIN says:
    12 August, 2025 at 6:40 pm
    EXTRACTED FROM «FRANKLY».

    The established narrative now, though, is that I went hell for leather for a second referendum immediately after the Brexit vote. It isn’t true. On the contrary, I spent the next nine months doing the precise opposite. I tried hard to persuade the UK government to pursue a compromise option… It was in good faith, therefore, that we published ‘Scotland’s Place in Europe’ in December 2016, mapping out what a different outcome for Scotland might look like and how it could be achieved. I was explicit that this was a solution for Scotland within the UK; in other words, AN ALTERNATIVE TO INDEPENDENCE”

    That woman has earned her place in hell that’s for sure

    Reply
  35. robertkknight says:

    The publishers missed a couple of words off the title…

    Nicola Sturgeon
    FRANKLY, WHO CARES?

    Reply
    • Onlooker says:

      Or Frankly, My Dear, I Don’t Give A Damn.

      Reply
      • Hatey McHateface says:

        Perhaps more true to the actual, lived reality:

        Frankly, My Queer, I Very Much Do Give A Damn.

        Isn’t that what the Sturgeon Years were really all about?

    • Nae Need! says:

      Hatey McHateface says:
      12 August, 2025 at 10:38 pm
      Perhaps more true to the actual, lived reality:

      Frankly, My Queer, I Very Much Do Give A Damn.

      🙂 Lol. Indeed.
      Damn about what exactly, though?
      I suppose the obvious answer is: herself.

      Reply
  36. Alan Scott says:

    Nicola was a great leader. I can’t understand all of this carping and criticism.

    Reply
    • Hatey McHateface says:

      She kept us all safe through the Covid Years, when the evil BoJo would have killed all of us Scots, just as he once promised he would do.

      She will always be Scotland’s Mammie. However much we might become estranged from our Mammie, the blood ties that bind us can never be severed. Secretly, in our hearts, we all know this to be true.

      Reply
    • robertkknight says:

      I managed to keep a straight face for about 5 seconds there, Mr Scott. My apologies… I’d hoped to string it out to nearer 30.

      Best laugh I’ve had all day, thanks!

      Reply
  37. Big Jock says:

    She has gone full lesbian now. Gone are the sharp business suits and thin figure. Replaced by men’s jeans and pot belly.

    My question is why she hid her sensuality. She couldn’t even be honest with herself, never mind the public.

    The reason for the book is simply for her own ego. She wants her false version of history, rather than the actual history.

    This women is devoid of any humility or scruples.

    Reply
    • Young Lochinvar says:

      Big Jock

      Well spotted!

      All political careers end in failure.

      She’s just unwittingly lit the blue touch paper to hers; if so minded then get the popcorn out!

      Reply
    • Lorn says:

      Big Jock: never understood that either. Who would have cared? The fact that she did keep it hidden in plain sight and tried to introduce self-ID just makes her reign even more heinous: it’s all about me, me, me and my ‘community’, and I’ll just force everyone else to bend the knee. There’s a word that encapsulates people who get themselves elected into a party that has a founding principle in order to push their own agenda, having pushed the founding principle over a cliff – tyrant. She knew from day one of the co-leadership role why she wanted it, and it was never for independence.

      Reply
  38. Sally Hughes says:

    There’s a huge amount of financial reward, from big pharma, re the gender/woke issue.

    Perhaps, one day, the evidence of it, leading to our political sell outs, will come to light.

    I wonder, if Nikklas’ book doesn’t sell, will she have to return the advance, or will the British Establishment go out and bulk buy it, to save her face.

    What I find most disconcerting is her account of flushing her miscarried baby down the toilet. Most adult females that I know, would have called an ambulance for such a medical emergency, (and it would be considered a medical emergency!) follow up treatment/checks to be done, etc. Most loving husbands’ would have encouraged/insisted on the same. But that action would have date stamped hospital attendance, and incurred medical witnesses.

    It’s almost unbelievable, as if it was a made up story, said for sympathy and attention. Perhaps I’m a cynic.

    Reply
    • Young Lochinvar says:

      Thought provoking post Sally.

      I think you are right to be cynical as she will be angling on most men not daring to even venture into this aspect of the “story”..

      Reply
    • Marie says:

      I don’t believe a word that woman says.

      Reply
    • MaryB says:

      Well said, Sally. Especially to remind us of the role of big pharma to drive the trans debate and to keep conning our young people to be something that will probably give them endless physical and mental problems for all of their lives. It’s noticeable that the media and pro-trans lobby keep very quiet about this.

      Reply
    • George Ferguson says:

      @Sally Hughes
      I think you are right to be suspicious about her Ibrox account. And if it is true she was medically foolish. In my wife’s case I phoned for an ambulance. She was given a general anaesthetic and a D and C in hospital. Other treatments are available MVA use of drugs but the final outcome must be a removal of residual tissue in the Uterus to prevent infection. There is also evidence of long term medical consequences of spontaneous abortion. Once again Nicola Sturgeon does women no favours by underpaying the seriousness of this situation. There is also the psychological impact on women to consider. In my wife’s case she had given birth before and after this incident. And the long term medical consequences is minimal for her. Thank goodness.

      Reply
    • Lorn says:

      Yes, Sally, the financial rewards for Big Pharmaceutical, Big Tech, etc. are enormous – a capitalist’s dream – but it goes way beyond that. AI is just in its infancy, and it will have many upsides for humanity, but also many downsides, especially for young women and children whose faces are being stolen as we speak. They are being used to mould humanoid robots for sexual activities. It is Stepford Wives with the children included in the experiment. Transhumanism is the goal. Ira Levin foresaw it decades ago. Please, folks, do not put yourselves or your children on Facebook or any other platform.

      As ordinary people, we really have no idea how this will pan out; it is like the Burke and Hare era when poor people were murdered and their bodies dissected supposedly to enhance medical science and advance humankind. In reality, the professors knew that the bodies were being stolen from graves, and, at worst, that they were being murdered. Human beings are of no importance and their lives of no consequence when there are experiments to carry out and money to be made. Remember Auschwitz and Mengele. Remember the collusion of the German political, social, medical, legal and educational establishments. To most – not all, but many – dissident Germans and Jews, Slavs, Gypsies and others, were fodder, grist to the mill of fascism/totalitarianism.

      Reply
    • Liz says:

      Good point
      I could imagine flushing the toilet in panic
      But I could never imagine calling your husband in for a look first.

      Utterly heartless bitch

      Reply
    • Nae Need! says:

      Spot on Sally for the first 3 paras.
      Personally, I don’t believe a word of her PERSONAL account.
      She’s a proven liar.

      When it comes to narcissists one can NEVER be too cynical.
      This is something that normal, kind, unsuspecting humans don’t initially get. Until they have protracted dealings with a narcissist.

      Then they know what the game is.

      IF they have survived the ordeal to tell the tale.

      Reply
  39. Young Lochinvar says:

    Perhaps I’m being lazy not searching but how many pages are there in this book?

    Lordy Rev; this looks to be one long hard read and process of factual evisceration ahead for you; could be your finest moment in the making however in setting so much that’s honestly wrong to rights.

    You’ll have spent more energy doing that than her coven of carefully selected bottom drawer underachieving nonentities did on their kid-on humanities and politics “courses”, that’s for sure..

    Reply
  40. Young Lochinvar says:

    Can I also just add, the “re-elect now” 2016 election image in the article:

    I certainly don’t remember/ recall such sentiments in that elections mandate, not one iota of it!

    Perhaps it had a limited or targeted circulation but certainly never made it my way in battleground Lanarkshire so I never voted for that crud and never believed it had been a manifesto commitment!

    Probably a leaflet for certain city areas letterboxes as trust me, if ld seen it I would remember.

    Effin charlatans..

    Reply
  41. James Barr Gardner says:

    Nicola Sturgeon’s interview with Julie Etchingham is just as big a car crash as Prince Andrew’s interview with Emily Maitlis.

    Reply
  42. Ex President Xiden says:

    Which prime minister closed the most coal mines in the U.K. and was the first to stop school children receiving free milk? Clue, the answer us not Margaret Thatcher.

    Reply
    • GM says:

      Ted Heath?

      Reply
    • agent x says:

      Harold Wilson (Labour) closed 253 pits as against Margaret Thatcher (Conservative) 115, more than twice as many. However because there were fewer pits left it is without doubt that Yorkshire was decimated by Thatcher in the ratio of about 1 Labour closure to 10 Conservative.

      The one who closed the most pits in one 6 year term from 1957 to 1963 was Harold Macmillan (Conservative) with 246,

      link to healeyhero.co.uk

      Reply
      • Young Lochinvar says:

        Interesting AX

        Yet there’s no getting away from it that the bulk of early closure pits were small worked out coal ones and the plethora small ironstone ones, one of which sadly claimed my grandfathers life.

        The big ones: the really big ones were the ones that were axed under Thatcher or thereafter under her political legacy.

        As for Yorkshire pits, it’s a matter of record the pay rate (regardless of productivity) was higher there which is why they refused to support the miners strikes in the early 80s.
        They say England looks after its own- think about Scunthorpe steel, but Thatcherism caught up with the Yorkshire pits in time too.

        What a wicked heartless harridan she was; creator of the London “loads a’ money” mentality that surely has a parasitical end-by date.

        Then what’s left?

        Oh yes, North Sea oil and gas revenues.

        No wonder they dare not “allow” us to go..

      • Hatey McHateface says:

        Odd to think that where there’s a demand for stuff, they’re digging it up like there’s no tomorrow. Rare earths, for example. Bauxite. Uranium.

        It’s like nobody wants the bloody coal!

        Odd too to think that when some heartless bitch closes a mine, her successor, who will be along quite soon, could re-open it or order a new one to be started. Yet that never happened.

        Again, it’s like nobody wants the bloody coal!

        And, as a matter of fact, that’s the reality. Nobody wants the bloody coal!

        I do predict though, that will change in the not too distant future, as the twin scourges of the energy crisis and The War really begin to bite. Then, when people do want (desperately need) the bloody coal, new mines will be opened. Highly automated using ROVs, etc, but still. A few well-paying jobs for immigrants. Safe jobs too.

        But never mind all that. Let’s hate Thatcher instead so we can feel better after some snivelling self-pity. We became really good at fixating on that, to the extent we failed to notice or react to anything else.

      • Lorn says:

        Very good points, agent x, YL, Hatey. It is fact that it was the smaller pit that went first, before the Thatcher era. What singled out the Thatcher era of destruction of pits and other industries was that it almost purely ideological (hence her similarity to Sturgeon) and most of the industries closed down were both productive and necessary. This came out in a report – sorry, vague recollection – well after the pits closed. The lies told by the government and others about the viability of the pits and other industries was proved soon after Thatcher fell from power.

        The fact is that we are now importing coal, steel, iron, aluminium, etc. from elsewhere today at massive cost – more than it would have taken to keep these home-grown industries open and functioning. To an extent, you need imports to balance your own exports or nobody would buy from you, but Thatcher wanted a service economy where the elites could make most money, not a semi industrialized one where ordinary people were essential to production. The recent closure of the oil refinery and its relocation elsewhere and the dire straits in which the water industry (including ours, but to a far lesser degree) shows that the same short-termism is endemic in British (and Scottish) society.

      • Captain Caveman says:

        @Lorn

        I’d suggest we do need to move away from political cliches when retrospectively assessing Thatcher; separate (often convenient) myth from fact. To compare Thatcher with Sturgeon in the context that you’ve done is bordering on the absurd.

        ‘… Thatcher wanted a service economy where the elites could make most money, not a semi industrialized one where ordinary people were essential to production. ‘

        Literally nothing could be further from the truth. It’s a fact that Thatcher – unlike the “New” Labour lefty muppets that followed her (knowing f*** all about industry, being a bunch of crap lawyers just like today) – believed in the vital role of industry in a modern, balanced, diverse economy (and by extension, foreign investment).

        Again, one has only to look at undeniable fact:

        ‘… During the Thatcher years great effort was expended to encourage foreign companies to establish factories in Britain. Nissan was attracted to Sunderland in 1984 partly by subsidising the cost of land, which was provided at agricultural prices. Nissan was one of many. By 1989 about 100 Japanese firms were employing 30,000 Britons.

        Mrs Thatcher recognised that governments were in an economic contest and acted accordingly, as her remarks to Parliament in 1981 testify:

        ‘We have gained considerable contracts. The Government have operated behind private companies when we have been negotiating contracts overseas. We have achieved a very great measure of success.’

        Every other country was helping companies so why not the British Government? She said with some pride that:

        ‘Foreign Governments stand behind their companies when contracts are negotiated. On occasion, they add aid to those contracts; so do we. We are operating on a similar basis and winning contracts in the teeth of international competition.’ …’

        link to civitas.org.uk

        One cannot argue with “100 Japanese firms” had set up shop in the UK and were directly employing 30,000 (high value, high skilled jobs), which probably meant c.300,000 in the total supply chain. Big numbers, via direct governmental intervention too. Thatcher

      • agent x says:

        @ Young Lochinvar

        “Yorkshire miners strongly supported the 1984-85 miners’ strike. The strike originated in Yorkshire, with miners at Cortonwood colliery walking out in protest against pit closures. Support for the strike was particularly strong in Yorkshire, with a large number of miners participating and remaining committed throughout the year-long dispute”

        It was the Lincolnshire miners that were scabs.

      • Captain Caveman says:

        @Lorn

        Sorry I accidentally submitted by post before finishing it. Sure you got the gist though.

        It’s ironic that it was not Thatcher who believed in a skewed, unbalanced economy whereby a bloated Public Sector could supposedly be bankrolled by the City (banks) – but (left wing) Labour (idiots). “No more boom and bust” etc.

        The rest, as they say, is history. That’s what happens when you’ve people who’ve never had a real job running the country.

      • Lorn says:

        Captain Caveman: I do agree with you that the public sector was becoming bloated and that, again, to an extent, the unions ensured that this would continue. I believe that all public services/utilities necessary for life and for the movement and communication of people should be in public hands. It has seemed to me to be a dereliction of sense to not run all the public utilities, etc. with efficiency and economy, whilst keeping up standards.

        However, the very fact that Thatcher had to destroy the strongest union of them all and tear apart union cohesion and solidarity by attacking the mighty coal unions is testament to her intentions. I recall, in about 1983/84 saying to a friend that she would turn the higher education system into a business and, in future, our children would have to pay for their education.

        I also recall saying, when the big public utilities were sold off, that we would see the day when none of them was working properly and we would be paying a helluva lot more for the same services we had under state ownership. Privatization works only for massive global corporates or for the corporate, global financial services or for SMEs (traditional British small and medium businesses, the backbone of the UK, once). For any public service sector, it would always be a disaster, as it has proved to be, with high costs and less service. You are perfectly entitled to disagree with me, and I respect your right to do just that, but she destroyed decent businesses and sectors which were still viable and still productive. She also spent the oil money on keeping former working men on the dole.

        Not saying she did not do some good. Not saying she was not intelligent, but she was wrong, and, yes, Blair and Brown also contributed to the overall mess, but she started the ball rolling to a distinct lack of social cohesion and the end of the social contract. Despair led to drug-taking (drugs brought in and sold by out-of-work ‘entrepreneurs’), there was a lack of social housing because she took away the right of councils to borrow to build them, while those in council hands were open to being sold off, too. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

      • Hatey McHateface says:

        “Despair led to drug-taking (drugs brought in and sold by out-of-work ‘entrepreneurs’)”

        Interesting to consider some of the places that don’t have drug-taking problems (Singapore?).

        Do they lack despair?

        Or do they treat those who would happily profit from other people’s misery like the subhuman scum they are?

        These are rhetorical questions BTW.

  43. socratesmacsporran says:

    Two weel-kent Ayrshire women have launched their autobiographies in the past week.

    Sturgeon’s tome has attracted nearly all the media attention – which is a wonderful achievement for what is a pile of self-serving shite.

    A far-better book is Elsie Cook’s ‘A Kiss Far Pele’ the autobiography of the Godmother of Women’s Fitba in Scotland. Elsie’s book is all the better for being written in Lallans, the language which Elsie speaks all the time.

    Not only is the better read, Elsie Cook did more for women, through her work in getting women’s fitba recognised than Sturgeon could ever dream about.

    Two Ayrshire women, one a relatively unsung National Treasure, the other a National Disgrace.

    Reply
    • Willie says:

      The extent to which the media has piled in with huge coverage of Sturgeon’s book reflects in absolutely clear light the institutional bias of the establishment.

      The Sun, the Scottish Sun no less was on its second day of five full pages. Page 1, 2 and 3, and 4 and 5.

      And as for tone, yesterday’s front page emblazoned a picture of Alex Salmond holding the publication about Scotland’s future but with the huge headline –

      ” Salmond didn’t even read indy blueprint

      Now one thing for sure Alex Salmond was an utterly skilled statesman absolutely capable in Debate, and feared by many in the House of Commons and beyond.

      That puerile feed the donkey mass a one line front page headline together with the four pages of dross within tells you all about how the media is controlled and plays it part in influencing public opinion.

      The MSM is an absolute toilet of propaganda and the last two days, with the Sun in particular, shows it.

      Alex Salmond the best First Minister Scotland ever had. His policies from no fee higher education, to free prescriptions, to the removal of parking charges at hospitals, to his proposals for economic development were game changing. His leadership exploded a belief in Scotland where support not just for the SNP but others too absolutely blossomed.

      And now after his death, and an attempted Brig Gen Sir Frank Kitson style establishment criminal stitch up, the media continues to destroy his memory.

      So there you have it Alex Salmond didn’t even read the blueprint for independence.

      And we think Soviet Russia has a propaganda controlled press.

      Reply
  44. Mike says:

    Sturgeon is a raging covert narcissist with delusions of grandeur and psychopathic tendencies.

    I have a family member much like this and have learned slowly over time not to supply their narcissism with the fuel they crave. All you can do is simply walk away.

    I do hope that public interest in Sturgeon does the same and she is left to wither away like the disgusting old narcissistic hag she truly is.

    Reply
  45. James Cheyne says:

    Sturgeon and Snp ignored our mandated vote time and again for independence.

    Perhaps we should all wear the same black T shirts.
    SNP read them,

    Reply
  46. James Cheyne says:

    Who advised Sturgeon is now advising labour,.
    Plenty of S,s

    Sturgeon.
    Scumbags.
    Swinney
    Shite.
    Stupid.
    Starmer.
    Self- serving.
    Sex fiends.
    Story-tellers.
    SNP.
    Going through the S,s like there is no tomorrow.

    Reply
  47. TURABDIN says:

    ALT TITLES FOR biogs or autobiogs of NS.
    I am what I am,
    Après moi le déluge,
    You Can fool all of the people, all of the time.
    Catch me if you can.
    The Mole wears Geiger.

    Reply
  48. robertkknight says:

    £11.65 on Amazon (Prime)

    “The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht”

    Publisher: Constable
    ISBN-10 1408720728
    ISBN-13 978-1408720721

    Once arrived, I think I’ll make a point of donating my copy to The National Library.

    These wokies don’t like it up ’em, Captain Campbell, they don’t like it up ’em!

    Reply
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh says:

      ‘THE WOMEN WHO WOULDN’T WHEESHT: Voices from the Front-line of Scotland’s Battle for Women’s Rights’.

      Compilation of Essays.
      Edited by Susan Dalgety and Lucy Hunter Blackburn.
      Published by Constable (30 May 2024).

      THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

      “On the 25th anniversary of the Scottish Parliament, this book captures an important moment in contemporary history: how a grassroots women’s movement, harking back to the suffragettes and second wave feminists of the 1970s and 1980s, took on the political establishment – and changed the course of history.”

      “Through a collection of over thirty essays and photographs, some of the women involved tell the story of the five-year campaign to protect women’s sex-based rights.”

      “Author J.K. ROWLING explains why she used her global reach to stand up for women.”

      “Leading SNP MP JOANNA CHERRY writes of how she risked her political career for her beliefs.”

      “Survivors of male violence who MSPs refused to meet are given the voice they were denied at Holyrood.”

      “ASH REGAN MSP recounts what it was like to become the first government minister to resign on a question of principle since the SNP came to power in 2007.”

      “Former prison governor RHONA HOTCHKISS charts how changes in prison policy in Scotland led to the controversy over Isla Bryson.”

      “It is the story of women who risked their job, reputation, even the bonds of family and friendship, to make their voices heard, and ended up – unexpectedly – contributing to the downfall of Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first woman first minister.”

      “Above all, it is the story of the women who wouldn’t wheesht.”

      Contributions also by Susan Dalgety, Lucy Hunter Blackburn, Lisa Mackenzie, Kath Murray, Professor Sarah Pedersen, Susan Smith, Ann Henderson, Joan MacAlpine, Sally Wainwright, Jenny Lindsay, Claire L. Heuchan, Gillian Philip, Johann Lamont, Shereen Benjamin, Fiona McAnena, Pam Gosal MBE MSP, Rachael Hamilton, Ms M, Lorna Irvine, Elaine Miller, Caroline McAllister, Mandy Rhodes, Kathleen Stock, Iseult White, Magi Gibson, Nina Welsch, Nicole Jones.
      =====

      Reply
  49. James Cheyne says:

    Forgot,

    Sychopant.
    Speech freedoms.
    all have a lot in common. But the most common. Is our leaders in governance,

    And sturgeon and Starmer don’t know what a women is.

    Reply
  50. Callum says:

    Amina Shah, CEO National Library, on the eve of her first day in the job, she said: “It is the honour of a lifetime. A real dream, truly emotional and a huge responsibility.”

    “My vision for the library is that it belongs to everyone in Scotland. We collect the cultural memory, the written memory of Scotland. And we need to make sure that everyone’s voices are in there and that we are representing all the amazing stories from across the whole of Scotland.”

    Yes, well!

    Reply
    • Alf Baird says:

      At least NLS now has copies of ‘Doun-Hauden: The Socio-Political Determinants of Scottish Independence, but only because I sent them two copies.

      The book explains why many institutions in a colonial society are not led by the native people:

      link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com

      Reply
    • Hmmm. says:

      “We collect the cultural memory.” Hmmm. Seems like the cultural memory of certain people only goes back a very short distance. You can bet the halfwits in the national Library who complained about this book, if they even exist, are all Muppets in their 20s and 30s with blue hair and American attitude problems.

      Reply
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh says:

      The National Library of Scotland / Leabharlann Nàiseanta na h-Alba has a free online archive provision, richly diverse, pertaining not only to historical literature but also to imagery and sound. Extraordinary goldmine to browse:

      link to digital.nls.uk

      Reply
  51. James Cheyne says:

    When ones mental capacity is this low, and it inflicts pain on children and women, should you be allowed to govern a Country,
    When you allow rapist in women’s facilities, prisons, spaces, when you let dangerous prisoners out, but lock someone up for speaking freely.
    When you remove their rights of freedom of speech to object ( in both Countries) to these cruelties you impose on them and your IQ is that low, Should you be a leader at all,

    In times past, not so long ago and when you’re thoughts were out of sync with the rest of the world populations, we would lock these people up and provide mental help for them. So they could do no harm to others around them,
    Today perhaps we should also turn our attention to those that aid and abet, but encourage this wrong thinking rather than helping.
    Usually the mass population is well aware when ‘someone’ has gone of kilta,

    Reply
  52. “Frankly’s”a novel, right? It has a non binary lead, who self declared they felt like an impostor? Right? Who fooled some of the people a lot of the time Who came from Ayrshire,and in their dreams, saved Scotland from itself.Their dream was our waking nightmare.Turns out having brought Scotland to it’s knees,and then kicked it, they want to wake up in London as it seems a better fit for them. Much much smarter than they,have sunk without trace in that particular shark tank.

    Reply
  53. James Cheyne says:

    We should not shy away from talking about mental illness, especially if it effects people in high positions of responsibility.

    Reply
  54. James Cheyne says:

    We all know that if you sell something you own and then pay for selling it, that is mental illness.

    We the population, all know that if you think men are women or female children, or women have penises that is mental illness.
    Let us call it what it is, let us not pretend, let us not feed their illness until it to grows into a monster, harming the public.

    Let us not pretend any longer that a thief, a rapist, someone that sells your property, someone that constantly lies to cover their wrongs, or if you think its ok to let really bad people go free from jail,
    Someone that bullies to shut you up, someone spending your money without your say so, someone that is cruel to the young and the aged,
    or someone that that believes that you should be replaced with a different population has gone of the rails, holds on to mental insanity,

    That they are in Sync with the rest of the mass populations?
    These thoughts are the signs of mental illness that have slipped through the net of those trained deal with them, long before and prior to them ever becoming any sort of leaders,
    These mentally ill people are harming the public, and Society, they are dangerous.
    NS and KS, JS should be like the days past when these things were medically diagnosed in an asylum to obtain help.
    That old saying comes to mind.
    Where the people from the asylum ……are running the Country,

    Reply
  55. David says:

    And, not to forget, attention seeker Nicola, has now got a slutty lower back tattoo on her arm. Looking at it, I believe it resembles 666 – mark of the beast. It is positively demonic – just like her personality.

    There’s never been a nastier, more bitter and twisted woman I’ve ever known and will ever know. She is the Judas, bought and sold for 30 pieces of silver.

    She’s a disgrace. I loath her. Destroy her.

    Reply
  56. David says:

    It’s time for David Davis to release the Whatsapp emails around the Salmond conspiracy. I hope the stress keeps her awake at night knowing that at any given moment, Davis could reveal all of her LIES with Parliamentary Priveledge.

    It’s time to name the alphabettie SCUM.

    Reply
  57. James Cheyne says:

    Insanity seems to have spread like a disease or virus in amongst the elite, at a far faster rate than in the ordinary people around the world.
    Perhaps its all that inbreeding and incest.

    Reply
    • Insider says:

      And even among some of the heaviest contributors to Wings !

      Reply
    • Mark Beggan says:

      I agree. The Left Wing eat their own genitals.

      Reply
    • Hatey McHateface says:

      “Perhaps its all that inbreeding and incest”

      I’m astonished that despite the unstoppable outbreaks of lunacy we all hear about every day, nobody has yet wondered if it was Covid, the fake vaccines, or both.

      Credible scientists are now starting to predict that when the final, long-term butcher’s bill is totted up, the lockdowns, the vaccines, and the hysterical over-reaction will have caused a greater death toll than the Covid virus ever did.

      Yet nobody is wondering if, among all the vaccine side effects, there could be one that affects cognitive processes within the brain. I find that odd.

      Anyhoo, if you’re interested in inbreeding and incest take at look at some of our New Brits. Their partiality for the practice has real consequences for their general health, and for the costs to the UK taxpayer of dealing with the disabling outcomes that arise form this “cultural” practice.

      Yet publicity and efforts at education are officially frowned upon. Can’t have whitey dissing a third-world culture – even one that is self-evidently flawed – that would be elitist and judgemental.

      Reply
    • Lorn says:

      No, James, purely self-interest against the masses.

      Reply
  58. agent x says:

    “A major Edinburgh Fringe venue has come under fire after banning Kate Forbes due to her views on trans issues. Summerhall Arts were also mocked after it was revealed that a “safe room” was set up for artists when the Deputy First Minister spoke at a show there last week.”
    ———————————-

    The Sturgeon effect.

    Reply
    • Onlooker says:

      If the net had never existed, and the young middle class SNP and student halfwits had not been able to pick up on all the latest deranged American intersectionalist trends, this country would be in a helluva better shape. Copying idiocy coming out of a huge open air insane asylum failed state, because you like their music and movies and books and net shows, is insanity and idiocy at its finest.

      Reply
  59. socratesmacsporran says:

    I may have to wait some time, however, I live in hope that the final word on Nicola Sturgeon will be delivered by a judge in the Court of Session and that word will be “down” – as in “take her down”.

    Reply
  60. Shug says:

    I do hope Rowling take unmbridge at the accusations and throws the legal system at her costing her any money she got for the book
    Justice!!

    Reply
  61. TURABDIN says:

    NICOLE STURGEON, despite the tartan footwear did not love Scotland enough to risk all.
    In that she is not dissimilar to many who vote SNP but have a distaste for strong politics preferring the dish vanilla flavoured.
    The system will never willingly return sovereignty to Scotland, the consequent end of the UK is unthinkable. Besides is it not for Scotland to reclaim her sovereignty rather than for England to relinquish it, however unwillingly.
    It was the collapse of sovietic communism that provided the opportunity for Soviet bloc countries to flee the fold, a systemic collapse of England might be such an opportunity for Scotland, and Wales.
    Such an opportunity is unlikely to taste of vanilla.

    Reply
    • Mark Beggan says:

      The only problem with this theory is size. Britain is to small and Scotland is too big a part of it. The countries concerned were part of a political ideology that collapsed and the resulting vacuum led to national awareness. A natural reaction to nothingness.

      Reply
      • TURABDIN says:

        UNIONISM is more than political, it is an exceptionalist worldview, more gut instinct than brain. That might explain how tenacious it can be. A comfort in times of trial when the world appears to have gone mad.
        Stick with nannie.

      • Hatey McHateface says:

        “UNIONISM is more than political, it is an exceptionalist worldview, more gut instinct than brain”

        That’s why your typical SNP voter and many Indy supporters too still intend, after sobering up on Day 2 of Indy, to get our leaders away to Brussels to beg them to accept iScotland into the EU.

        At heart, whilst fiercely reacting against the “too wee, too poor” jibe, their policies prove they nevertheless accept the jibe is true.

      • James says:

        #SitePrick1 wrang – yet again.

        Ever heard of EFTA, ya dumb bastard?

      • Hatey McHateface says:

        @ James says: 13 August, 2025 at 6:42 pm

        You’ll need both hands free to check this out, but the ScotGov policy of joining the EU immediately after a vote for Indy was online the last time I checked.

        I’m sure if that had changed I would have heard about it – the likes of you would have been loudly squealing for starters.

        If the policy has changed, why don’t you post a link?

        If you can only spare one hand, just post your usual spendings.

      • Alf Baird says:

        “UNIONISM is more than political, it is an exceptionalist worldview, more gut instinct than brain.”

        Yes, that might also be related to what we know as ‘British Exceptionalism’.

        However, Pettigrew defines British Unionism as “a culturally-intertwined political identity” and as an “ideological nationalism”.

        Scottish nationalism is essentially about liberation of Scottish people and culture from the cultural illusion of ‘Britishness’ and its associated oppression.

      • Hatey McHateface says:

        @ Alf Baird says: 13 August, 2025 at 9:51 pm

        However, McHateface defines European Unionism as “an economically-intertwined, virtue-signalling political identity” and as an “ideological comfort blanket”.

        I note, Alf, that you fail to deal with my point that a major strand of grassroots Indy support and the governing SNP see it as both desirable and inevitable that an Independent Scotland should be ruled from Brussels. To this day, on the slightest pretext, they will start greetin about being “dragged oot o the EU”.

        I’m afraid the perception that many Indy supporters, on our streets and in our government, believe Scotland is incapable of standing alone as a viable nation won’t go away just by ignoring it.

        On the subject of “‘Britishness’ and its associated oppression”, you must be aware of the Eastern European EU members who feel quite oppressed by the dictates coming out of Brussels these days. There’s every reason to believe the usual suspects on here would be bitching about them too if we were still in the EU.

    • Mark Beggan says:

      Let me ask a question.
      What would happen in Scotland if the Royal Firm collapsed.
      What would be the result. Would the Scots take to the streets flags in hand or would there be a civil war. The bloodiest of all wars.

      Reply
    • Hatey McHateface says:

      “It was the collapse of sovietic communism that provided the opportunity for Soviet bloc countries to flee the fold”

      You won’t find more enthusiastic supporters for the former USSR colonies to be rounded up and returned to the RF fold than on here, TURABDIN.

      If there are any parallels between the former imperial USSR and the former imperial Britain, they’re lost on the usual suspects.

      In their exceptionalist world view, Scotland deserves Independence. Every other small country barring Gaza needs to be subjugated at gunpoint.

      Reply
    • Nae Need! says:

      Is this not part of the problem?
      A systemic collapse of England will never happen whilst they can leech, a parasitical relationship, from resource rich Scotland/Wales.

      And of course, in the NOT so much background, there’s the USA and their economy problems, also leeching from us.

      Parasites killing their host?
      And only then dying themselves or, moving onto a new host.
      I don’t see an obvious new host on the horizon.
      Rock and a hard place.

      Reply
    • TURABDIN says:

      should have read…BESIDES it is for Scotland to reclaim her sovereignty rather than for England to relinquish it, however unwillingly.

      Reply
    • Southernbystander says:

      I have lived here all my life and I can tell you England is not collapsing. Of course I understand you want it to, but the wish fulfillment is in your dreams.

      Reply
  62. James Cheyne says:

    TURABDIN,

    It is looking inevitable as England goes from woke to broke, and sanity goes to down the plug hole to be replaced with tyrannical dictatorship,

    At least Scotland knows we have crazy leaders installed here over the past number of years, England is only just waking up to this and it came to a head with labour, as they realise they are being replaced with a new foreign army.

    Reply
    • TURABDIN says:

      THE LIONESSES, some have noted how patriotic the women are in proclaiming there Englishness, compared to the men.
      Farage has apparently garnered considerable female support recently too.
      The Scottish response so far amounts to baah, baah…

      Reply
      • Hatey McHateface says:

        “Lionesses” is an offensive term, TURABDIN.

        You dare not call one of the woke luvvies an actress. She’s an actor – no sexist, gender-specific term is acceptable to her.

        The England women’s team should be called the Lions for consistency. Especially when it’s much the same demographic of po-faced faultfinders patrolling both the acting profession and women’s sport. If “Lions” is already taken – tough shit.

      • Southernbystander says:

        But tyrannical dictatorship by whom exactly?

    • Nae Need! says:

      There’s no stopping the Great Replacement.
      Yet 🙂

      Reply
    • Southernbystander says:

      I can assure you the chances of England succumbing to a tyrannical dictatorship are virtually nil. Where do you get these mad notions James?

      Reply
      • Hatey McHateface says:

        “the chances of England succumbing to a tyrannical dictatorship are virtually nil”

        They may not yet be high, but to claim they are virtually nil is burying your head in the sand.

        50,000 floaters across the channel since Starmer took over. Every sign it will be more next year, and more every year after.

        Where do you intend putting them all? You do realise that as most of them are young, single, unemployable men, that’s the equivalent of a decent sized town you have to fund and build every fecking year?

        So now Labour is going to hike taxes again, and come after anybody who has anything left when they snuff it to divert those riches to feeding, clothing, housing and giving freebies to the sharp elbowed of the world’s worst shitholes.

        Do you seriously think the English won’t snap? I think they will.

  63. James Cheyne says:

    And it seems that England has as many a dodgy justice systems with human rights being used, going over the top an only protecting the wrong uns, and injustices against minor offences turned into jail major sentences,
    When lawyers and judges regain their mental equilibrium…..
    When England gets its laws back.
    When Scotland gets Scots law back..
    For at the moment we are both becoming lawless nations

    Reply
  64. James Cheyne says:

    You know what would be really crazy,
    If down sized and de funded your army, if you down sized and defunded your police forces,
    bought in a foreign army, to feed and house and train these people so that they could overpower your own forces
    Of course its crazy, no one is introducing a new fighting age men into Britain and dispersing them around The Country into accomodations in the ready.
    The police think every thing is hunkydory, and the army are asleep,
    So everything is fine. I must ignore the trolls, What a crazy thought.

    Reply
  65. Mark Beggan says:

    “Sturgeon collected enemies like other people might collect fridge magnets”.

    Reply
  66. Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh says:

    (From LANARK by Alasdair Gray, Chap 22)

    One morning Thaw and McAlpin went into the Cowcaddens, a poor district behind the ridge where the art school stood. […]

    “Glasgow is a magnificent city,” said McAlpin. “Why do we hardly ever notice that?”

    “Because nobody imagines living here,” said Thaw.

    McAlpin lit a cigarette and said, “If you want to explain that I’ll certainly listen.”

    “Then think of Florence, Paris, London, New York. Nobody visiting them for the first time is a stranger because he’s already visited them in paintings, novels, history books and films. But if a city hasn’t been used by an artist not even the inhabitants live there imaginatively. What is Glasgow to most of us? A house, the place we work, a football park or golf course, some pubs and connecting streets. That’s all. No, I’m wrong, there’s also the cinema and library. And when our imagination needs exercise we use these to visit London, Paris, Rome under the Caesars, the American West at the turn of the century, anywhere but here and now.

    […] Of course our industries still keep nearly half of Scotland living round here. They let us exist. But who, nowadays, is glad just to exist?”

    “I am. At the moment,” said McAlpin, watching the sunlight move among rooftops.

    “So am I,” said Thaw, wondering what had happened to his argument.

    After a moment McAlpin said, “So you paint to give Glasgow a more imaginative life.”

    “No. That’s my excuse. I paint because I feel cheap and purposeless when I don’t.”

    “I envy your purpose.”
    ———
    Extract from Beckett’s ‘Waiting for Godot’ is from frontispiece of Gray’s LANARK:

    VLADIMIR: Suppose we repented.
    ESTRAGON: Repented what?
    VLADIMIR: Oh . . . (he reflects) We wouldn’t have to go into the details.
    ________

    Reply
    • Alf Baird says:

      The assimilated colonized always look to the mother country for the culture they have exchanged for their own.

      As Fanon wrote, the colonized intellectual “must seek his culture elsewhere, anywhere at all; and if he fails to find the substance of culture of the same grandeur and scope as displayed by the ruling power, the native intellectual will very often fall back upon emotional attitudes and will develop a psychology which is dominated by exceptional sensitivity and susceptibility.”

      Which helps explain why many colonized peoples including Scots are drawn to the metropolitan capital as they seek to soak themselves in that ‘superior’ culture.

      However, “the colonial system totters” and the cultural illusion dissolves when the native decides to return tae thay’re ain cultur an langage; “each native who goes back over the line is a radical condemnation of the methods and of the regime”.

      Which confirms Fanon’s thesis that “independence is a cultural emotion”.

      Reply
  67. Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh says:

    (French version of above post — Extract from Alasdair Gray’s LANARK (chapitre 22, Éditions Métailié, Paris, 2000):

    Un matin, Thaw et McAlpin allèrent dans Cowcaddens.

    « Glasgow est une ville magnifique, dit McAlpin. Pourquoi est-ce qu’on ne le remarque presque jamais ?

    — Parce que personne n’imagine vivre ici », répondit Thaw.

    McAlpin alluma une cigarette et dit : « Si tu veux bien m’expliquer ça, tu peux être sûr que je t’écouterai.

    — Pense à Florence, à Paris, à Londres, à New York. Celui qui visite ces villes pour la première fois n’est jamais un parfait étranger, parce qu’il les a déjà visitées dans les tableaux, des romans, des livres d’histoire et des films: Mais quand une ville n’a jamais été utilisée par un artiste, même ses habitants n’y vivent pas dans leur imaginaire. Qu’est-ce que Glasgow, pour la plupart d’entre nous ? Une maison, l’endroit où l’on travaille, un terrain de foot ou de golf, quelques pubs et des rues qui se croisent. C’est tout.
    Non, j’ai tort, il y a aussi le cinéma et la bibliothèque. Et quand notre imagination a besoin d’exercice, nous utilisons ces structures pour aller visiter Londres, Paris, Rome au temps de César, l’Ouest américain au début du siècle, n’importe où pourvu que ça ne soit pas ici et maintenant.

    — […] Bien sûr, grâce à nos industries, presque la moitié de l’Ecosse habite encore par ici. Elles nous permettent d’exister. Mais qui, de nos jours, est heureux de seulement exister ?

    — Moi. Pour le moment, répondit McAlpin en regardant le soleil se déplacer parmi les toits.

    — Moi aussi », dit Thaw en se demandant ce qui était arrivé à son argumentaire. Au bout d’un moment, McAlpin demanda :

    « Alors, tu peins pour que Glasgow entre dans l’imaginaire ?

    — Non. Ça, c’est mon excuse. Je peins parce que je me sens nul et sans but quand je ne peins pas.

    — J’envie ton but.
    ———
    Du Frontispice de LANARK, un extrait de ‘En Attendant Godot’ de Beckett :

    VLADIMIR: Et si on repentait ?
    ESTRAGON: De quoi ?
    VLADIMIR: Eh bien . . . (Il cherche) On n’aurait pas besoin d’entrer dans les détails.
    ————

    Reply
    • agent x says:

      Was there a reason to give a French translation as opposed to Mandarin Chinese, Swahili or evens Scots?

      Reply
      • Andy Wiltshire says:

        Perhaps the little blue men who live in Fearghas’ radiator all speak French.

      • Southernbystander says:

        I think Beckett wrote most if his work in French, then translated it into English. I think he liked to do that as writing in a second language that he had only passable abilities at, helped him hone is prose down (and perhaps give it an odder quality)

      • Hatey McHateface says:

        French is the language of diplomacy – the Lingua Franca in fact.

        The reason is that it permits ideas to be clearly and unambiguously stated and communicated, to a greater extent than other modern languages. Thus, when politicians, friends and enemies are communicating there is far less room for misunderstandings and mistakes.

        I believe the court of Poland in their period as a great power spoke French, as did the court of the Imperial Tsars. As neither country was ever invaded, conquered or colonised by France, it makes a mockery of Professor Baird’s claim that we all speak English on here because Scotland is a colony.

        As in other times and other places, people choose to speak the language that is most useful to them.

  68. Callum says:

    So National Library of Scotland found “twelve (LGBT+) butchers for a jury, and a Jefferies (Sir Drummond Bone) for a judge!” to condemn and censor The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht book of GC essays. Lord Byron would be disgusted by such behaviour.

    Reply
  69. David Holden says:

    Oh well the Nicola book launch is in danger of being over shadowed by the meeting of the USA president and the the Russian whatever he is. How dare they steal the thunder of our former dear leader with minor issues like nuclear war and the future of Europe. Not sure what odds you would get on the Rooskies coming away with a large chunk of Europe and A return of Alaska to the motherland. We live in interesting times.

    Reply
  70. Dan says:

    Can’t help but think Scotland would be in a much better place if Sturgeon had never got into politics, and instead just got a ridiculous bowl haircut, tats on her bingo wings, some sun shades, and worn a bling tow chain round her neck then fucked off to Ibiza to dance alone.
    It’s a quick dream result for a narcissist without having to wreck an entire country and lives over a protracted time.
    Has anybody with a ChatGPT account created a Sturgeon Final Boss image yet?

    Exterior and Interior Scorchio! as it is. I briefly had high hopes Arthur’s Seat had awakened with an eruption that would piss lava everywhere and melt the Holyrood poundshop Parliament and the town of my birth, thus liberating us from the Scotland controlling skipfire that Nu Reekie has become.
    No doubt on news of da heat on Arthur’s Seat, Underbelly were considering quickly setting up blockades around the Edinburgh bypass and charging denizens of the toon 15 quid to get out and away from being burnt alive.

    Reply
    • George Ferguson says:

      @Dan
      Thank you for enquiry previously into my health. I am doing great, a brilliant operation done by the SNHS. There is hope for us after all. I am not sure my wife fancied a reconstituted husband restored to his best but that’s another matter. I too which wish the extinct volcano of the Law Hill consumes the SNP Dundee my native City. I wish the last 10 years never happened but the more Sturgeon talks the more we can challenge her assertions. Above is a post to challenge her Ibrox account. True or false doesn’t matter. Either way she was unfit to be a Health Secretary.

      Reply
  71. agent x says:

    “Nicola Sturgeon knew she would lose independence court case – but still spent £250k of public cash on proving this”
    ————————————————

    Every extract from her Book of Lies just proves how rubbish she was.

    Reply
    • Young Lochinvar says:

      A bit over simplified AX.

      SHE sent her place-person Breathy Bain down there with no greater mandate or cunning legalese plan than to declare first year undergraduate level RANK ignorance and plead that if their honours would deign to decide as she is clinically incapable of making her own mind up..

      When you consider that the whole counter case from WM seemed to revolve about the unsuitability and so called “world order” crisis that would ensue should the Jockonese get to “separate” (sic) from the UK (sic) if it was decided in their favour says much about both parties and indeed the foundation of sand the regional cooncil of certain devolved powers at Holyrood is built upon.

      He who gets to write the rules gets the last laugh I suppose; cheers Donald..

      I think you’ll find that’s where the whole hullabaloo about Union of Equals and rights to determine yer own future/ colonialism really dug in.

      Just a pity the leadership was more focussed on Stonewall queer “no debate” mantra at the time..

      Eye off the ball AGAIN Nikla?
      On your only mandate..

      Special place in hell and all that..

      Reply
  72. James Cheyne says:

    How is the sale of that foreign Island going, has you know who, finished paying for it to taken of his hands,
    Actually the price went up, so it will a long term repayment plan by instalments.

    This deal was done by a man that needed the supreme court to tell him what a women was.
    That also believes in free speech, just not for everyone.

    Scotland has problems with its so called leaders, but apparently is not on its own when it comes to quality or sanity.
    As long as they both shut down free speech and both follow gender dysphoria, and both sell bits of their Countries, and both encourage a replacement of population theory, and use justice systems to push injustice, and to be free of juries for trials,
    They have displayed the loyalty to the cause, whatever that ideology may be, they both follow the same format with a few tweeks with timing and wording to appear different,

    They have been raised at the same table. And ate from the same spoon,

    Reply
  73. Stephen says:

    Does NS’s book have anything to say about the painted window ferry launch? I have always thought that is one of the best examples of an own goal in public life.

    Reply
  74. James Cheyne says:

    If it hadn’t been for those brave (Scots women) challenging that men should be recognised as men when in Womens spaces,
    He) down south would still NOT be able to recognise a women, or a child come to that,

    The leaders have both been raised at the same table and have fed from the same spoon.
    With a bit of tinkering around the edges……it ends up being the same format long term.

    Reply
  75. James Cheyne says:

    Pretty sure that Ireland and Wales are dealing with, the same set of on point these problems from their leaders.

    Reply
  76. Marie says:

    I see Faslane is leaking like a sieve with radioactive water being poured into the loch from poorly maintained pipes. Of course if the Greens and SNP prioritised obscenities like this and not gender shyte even I would consider voting for one of them.

    Reply
    • Dan says:

      Ach, I’m sure SEPA will be all over the issue, pulling or suspending MOD and Navy operating licenses, issuing big fines, and the site cleared up of all legacy waste by the end of the week…

      Reply
    • agent x says:

      It’s Coulport on Loch Long that has been leaking – not Faslane:

      “Sepa said the flooding at Coulport was caused by “shortfalls in maintenance”, resulting in the release of “unnecessary radioactive waste” in the form of low levels of tritium, which is used in nuclear warheads.”

      Although all the news reports have photos of Faslane.

      Reply
    • Willie says:

      SEPA are rotten to the core. It is not just the areas around the nuclear bases that are contaminated.

      Few people know it but literally only hundreds of metres away from Balloch and the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond sits a landfill site with millions of tonnes of every conceivable type of waste.

      And does this toxic timebomb pollute the area. You bet it does. With slipped hillsides revealing huge unlined pits the local watercourses draining into the River Leven and Loch Lomond are polluted.

      Year on year toxicology testing has revealed that pollution is exceeding specified limits. But did SEPA take any enforcement action. No they didn’t despite them being advised of the problem.

      And did they know of the tens of thousands of tonnes of waste buried outside of the landfill pits. Seems that they didn’t. But the Revenue did when they slapped a £98 million charge on the tip operator.

      And how many know of the subsequent court case wher the Judge commented that burying material without testing records was “reprehensible”

      So where were SEPA. And where were they when a hillside slipped to reveal an unsealed landfill and where despite saying that it would be remediated the exposed landfill was left leaching discharges for years.

      And what about the smell pervading the area for many years. A smell that could depending on winds could be smelled miles up and down the Loch and neighbouring towns and villages.Despite being in breach of the landfill operators licence no enforcement action was taken.

      That I am afraid is the reality of our regulatory body. Rotten to the core.

      Reply
  77. Rob says:

    As my wife pointed out, after closely working with Salmond for many years since she was a young lass there is not even a hint from her that he was ever “inappropriate” with her.
    I wonder why.

    Reply
    • sarah says:

      Rob, there was so much evidence saying the same as your wife from other women who had worked with Alex for decades. It is intolerable that the press didn’t report any of this – they only printed the lies.

      Reply
  78. socratesmacsporran says:

    Just read a cringe-worthy whitewash job on the Sturgeon memoirs, by Martin Kettle on The Guardian website.

    Inaccuracy after wrong facts, insisting her biggest flaw was her support for Independence. He’s so out of touch and off the pace he could be writing from outer space.

    FFS, no UK politician did more to avoid Scottish Independence than her, maybe that’s why they love her down in London.

    Reply
    • sarah says:

      It is extraordinary how ignorant journalists, and people in general, in England are of Scottish politics. Or is it deliberately so in the media?

      Reply
  79. Old John says:

    “The Endless Evil of Everyone Else”
    Nice piece of alliteration, and most appropriate.
    Equalled only by HP Donleavy’s
    “The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B” perhaps.A novel not at all dissimilar to.that recently scribed by the former Chief Mammy.

    Reply
  80. Dan says:

    #SelloutSwinney

    link to dearscotland.substack.com

    Reply


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