Wings Over Scotland

You are remarkably restrained, today, Chris?

O my giddy aunt!

No point in watching any J & H hustings as it’s clear they can bring nothing new to (the party) i.e. Brexit.

As for the sidekick ……….well?

Thanks for another “Rubens” Chris

Boris with a Stars and Stripes lapel badge and Ross Thomson with his union jack lapel badge. Brings out the full meaning of the caption.

The tail end of a fool conga,with Trump leading the way.

@winifred
I think it’s a case of that they know its only going to be a caretaker PM before an inevitable GE so any dickhead will do, and probably even better to get him out of the way.

Then Labour can take over for a short time to take the flack for their disastrous mismanagement before they regroup and try and find someone who actually has some credibility.

But then again typical Tory’s, like David “we’ll never have to face a referendum” Cameron and Teresa “we’ll win a majority” May, we will probably end up with this fool longer than they expect.

Boris is such a balloon even one of Chris’s fab cartoons do not do him justice

OT: The non-story about a ‘rumoured possible date’ for the Alex Salmond case has now been the lead story on BBC Scotland website for 19 hours !!!!

I wonder why?

The Plan B of Angus McNeil and Chris McEleny will not be debated at SNP conference. At a time when Westminster is gearing up to grab more and more powers from Scotland is it wise to dampen activists’ ardour and morale in this way?

Does the Scottish Government have a more sophisticated strategy than repeatedly and politely requesting a Section 30? London will likely ignore the decisions of the vaunted Citizen Assembly same as they already ignore the pro-independence majority at Holyrood.

Perhaps the SG cabinet have a clever plan worked out. The trouble is that keeping opponents in the dark often entails keeping your own rank and file in the dark also. Encouraging signals can however be given to the troops without giving details to the enemy.

Now imagine folks having that wee weirdo as your campaign manager in Scotland? Wow !. He could always hold his hustings in a phone box or public lavatory. Looks like Boris has got him literally in his back pocket!

I didn’t believe people would vote Trump. Even with that experience I struggle to accept that Boris will be our new PM (I know he will). Will the people of Scotland re-elect Ross?

The choice is quite simple. We either become an Independent country or you accept the horror which is about to unfold

Brilliant cartoon. Reminds me of spitting image when David Steel was in the pocket of David Owen. As for foreign aid, read reparation for past colonial exploitation.
Maybe Scotland should apply post independence. Not surprised some older folk are against foreign aid. They were brought up in an age when the UK was ripping off the colonies.

Winifred McCartney @ 7.36am

In his very-funny memoir: ‘The General Danced at Dawn’, George Macdonald Fraser offered the view that: “The Jocks would follow their ‘Ruperts’ (public-school educated officers) anywhere – usually out of a morbid sense of dread.”

Since Boris is a classic “Rupert”, perhaps the pbi of the Toerag party are simply following the same habit.

kapelmeister says:
13 July, 2019 at 8:37 am
The Plan B of Angus McNeil and Chris McEleny will not be debated at SNP conference. At a time when Westminster is gearing up to grab more and more powers from Scotland is it wise to dampen activists’ ardour and morale in this way?

Utterly dismal and depressing, but Peter Bell had a very good critique worth thinking about. He applauded the initiative to do “something”, but cautioned that making a General Election a de facto Independence Referendum sees you competing for votes on a single issue ticket, whereas your opponents can conspire and contrive to defeat you across the whole spectrum of issues, and thus dilute your support. I wish I had the link, but if my memory is correct, it was a BTL comment in a blog, or a retweet.

If Plan A for the SNP is a referendum in 2020, it will mean the SNP has led pro Europeans up the garden path for 3 years, when the SNP’s only plan for Brexit all along has been to navigate its way through Brexit, as if it was an interruption and distraction from the issue of Independence. All the rhetoric about EU Citizenship, and the opportunities presented by the brazen Constitutional Colonialism of Scottish Sovereignty being subjugated by Brexit will be utterly squandered without a metaphorical shot being fired.

So I agree Kapelmeister. Let’s hope the Scottish Government does have a plan to deliver on it’s rhetoric that “Scotland will not be removed from Europe against its will”. There will be a heavy price to pay if they don’t.

abulhaq at 8:55 am

Stalinist suppression……lololololol

I doubt you could have a more apt living metaphor of what yoons want the relationship between UK and Scotland to be than Boris Johnson and Ross Thomson.

Some britnats blame the unemployed so they say let’s have more austerity

Some britnats blame drug addicts so they say let’s have more sanctions and withdrawal of services

Some britnats blame foreigners so they support brexit and Dungavel and and Serco evictions that make refugees homeless

They say they’re taking all our jobs
They’re crowding our schools and hospitals
Taking up all our doctor appts
Abusing the benefits system

What a miserable way to live but the britnat way is all about kicking people when they are down they are not seeing that helping those that need help is the only progressive way to live and yes there will be a small number who abuse the assistance systems but it really is a small in fact a tiny percentage that cheat the system.
I know this because I worked for DWP for decades.

Tories want to get rid of taxation completely they hate it , they want to get rid of taxation because then they will privatise all healthcare education housing in fact all services including pensions and benefits will be privatised, there will be no local authority councils providing free services you will have municipal areas that charge for everything but only things you use, sounds good until you discover how much they charge and tot up what you use .
The rich will become much richer the rest much poorer.
The environment you live in will become a mess , a permanent mess.

Then the tories will talk of charity.
Sure some people will be charitable but inevitably it will never be enough for what is needed we know this because history shows us that the reason why services to help those who fall on hard times, self induced hard times or otherwise, was introduced is because society hit rock bottom with disease death robbery desperation ravaging every town and city.

The rich and privileged have short memories , overconfidence , irrational loss of empathy for the less fortunate , history also shows that the rich and privileged died from the diseases robberies and desperate acts of the poor in times gone bye.

Really , we DONT want to turn the clock back

We need to help people addicted to alcohol drugs food etc and help those who don’t work for whatever reason and yes that means investing over and over again even when it shows little or no progress because changing most of these problems in a society does indeed take time and money invested continuously from one generation to the next so that the children of those unfortunates addicted or not working and their children too, see an improvement in their lives, an improvement paid for and provided by the rest of us if the actual parents cannot or will not do it themselves.

Initially it may look as if it’s money wasted but it’s not, every baby every toddler child youth can be lifted to live a beautiful life , a life that is a world away from their parents drug alcohol food etc addiction or poor long term unemployed poverty but we must invest and plan and care closely about these families over decades to ensure that the children of the future don’t get caught up in the same traps , we can do it and what a marvellous transformation it will be.

The Scottish government baby box , free prescriptions , free eye tests, free school meals, new social security benefits system , free bus pass and other social improvements is a good start on a limited budget.
Just think what can done once we get back control of our country from England.

I’m confident it’s going to happen and looking forward to the feeling you get when you know you are part of a truly good thing

Whenever I see Boris Johnson being interviewed he always looks like a schoolboy up to mischief it’s as if he’s about to say something naughty and then run off to hide , only to reappear a minute later with a cheeky smirk on his face to say the opposite to what he had previously said !!

He’s just unfathomable as a politician , unreliable for any serious meaningful proposals .

Sure he’s clever has great knowledge but the imperfections are stark, he’s not a personality that you could trust to represent you in important negotiations.

I’m sure he’d be fun at a midnight rave in the woods somewhere in deepest Middlesex for all the pot smoking cocaine sniffing Tory MPs but as a politician for the serious business of government…NO WAY

Breeks@9:40am

I agree with yourself and Peter Bell that making a Westminster GE a de facto indyref would be a bit too difficult. However the SG could call an early Holyrood GE and campaign around the question of ‘Which is it to be, Scottish democracy or Scottish servitude?’.

Since independence is the only way to keep Scotland in the European family and independence is now the only way to retain the Scottish NHS, the only way to retain a meaningful Scottish Parliament, then the single issue ticket would be a very broad and resonant one under these circumstances.

The time for the cautious approach has passed. Labour could do nothing in 1979 to protect Scotland from Thatcherism because, unlike their party’s founder, they didn’t believe in Scotland being free. If the SNP plays within the system even just a fraction too much then they’ll render themselves impotent to stop Boris Johnson and the Britnat maniacs from wasting Scotland.

The Dream Team right enough, for us. I think Chris has captured the gravitas and vision that oozes from that pair like an oil slick.

A lot of folk fretting over this section 30 thing because the UK politicians keep saying they’ll refuse the transfer of power when the time comes

Does anybody really expect them to say any different, Johnson and Hunt ar vying for the leadership of their party so they’ll say anything to keep the troops happy in order to be elected, which it looks very much like Johnson more or less is the definite choice

England has to be kept secure in the knowledge that their government rules the world and especially Scotland or they’ll lose confidence in their overblown selves

So far a section 30 has not been officially requested, when it is they’ll make a lot of noise and pretend a lot of stipulations and say they’ve agreed many caveats and changed much of the detail and that the wording will be different or that piggies will fly over the skyline next to the cows, but the section 30 order will be handed over nonetheless and Scotland will have the referendum they’re legally antitled to as previously agreed upon in the 27th November 2014 Smith Commission report that they signed up to

Or the UK government will have to go to court to overturn its own legally agreed legislation

How do we think that’ll work out for them especially when their own shouty Attorney General admitted the same thing and agreed they could legally not deny a Scottish government demand for that transfer of section 30

So when you keep hearing them saying NAW, why is it people are prepared to believe that yet believe and know they tell lies about everything else
Tom Harris on Radio Scotland this morning tried to claim the British people voted for no a no deal Brexit and a woman slapped him around all over the place for making an untrue statement…..they lie and they lie all the time and hope the people will fall for it and just give up all hope and die, it’s how they’ve always done things

Lie, cajole, threaten then win, but only if folk are soft enough to let them

Yes, a Boris Johnson government will be disastrous. However that does not automatically mean that he or his ilk won’t be in power at Westminster for a very long time.

When the effects of a hard or no deal brexit manifest themselves – there’s not as much difference between hard brexit and no deal as many suppose – the brexiteers will be in full denial for years about their catastrophically bad choice. They’ll blame everyone but themselves. They’ll blame the EU, blame the Celtic nations. They’ll even end up blaming the Yanks too most likely.

They’ll elect a Farage government to create the true little Englander heaven they’ve been prevented from getting. What remains of Scottish democracy will be a favourite target to take their frustration out on.

The numbers of simpleton true believers are there to orient English politics to the xenophobic hard right for decades.

We cannot assume Johnson as PM for a time will result in a resumption of sanity in England’s political scene and that there’ll be a second Edinburgh Agreement in a wee while if we wait and see.

I don’t think they’ll pretend at all. They can’t help themselves. They think they control us, and to quite an extent they do. They won’t leave us to it that’s for sure. Where’s the control in that?

I have been saying on here for ages, the SNP is not acting correctly in making life difficult for the ruling Westminster government and their supporters on either side of the House.

Robert the Bruce didn’t take-on Proud Edward’s Army head-on, instead he fought a fantastic guerrilla campaign, and won.

Why don’t the SNP’s Westminster members do this. For a start, did Alex Salmond have the only copy of Erskine May, and did he take it with him when he left the HoC?

Just as the English members have EVEL, then the Scottish ones have the Scottish Grand Committee (the SGC)O. Surely the SNP could have, at several points during the long, drawn-out passage of the Brexit Bill through the Commons, convened the SGC to debate the effects of the Brexit Bill on Scotland.

For sure, they6 would never have got any of the SGC’s decisions passed by the whole House, but, by coming-up with amendments, by making the public aware – Scotland voted 62/38 to remain, they would have shown everyone in Scotland – that we are being ignored and dragged out without our co9nsent.

They must take every opportunity to demonstrate how different Scotland is from England politically, and by demonstrating this, they will surely bring Independence closer.

The SNP, being a membership-run party, more-so even than Labour, with the right tactics, run rings round the Unionist parties.

Where is the tactician to organise such tactics?

England’s dysfunctionalism topped by a flaky Johnson premiership offers the best opportunity for the SNP to assertively press home Scotland’s case for independence. No more playing by their rules, no more procrastination waiting for something to turn up, for with Johnson it definitely has, no more timorous, cautious ‘Scotch lawyer’ attitudes, no more weird fixations with contentious anglosaxon, libertarian social engineering.
Seize the Day is the ‘sluagh gairm’ and the SNP leadership needs to be prepared and alert to the psychological moment. Misjudge and the consequences, given the said dysfunctionalism, would be too horrific to contemplate. This is our do or die time. There may not be such a solid gold second chance.

Aye all we need to do is hand them a big gun so they can blow both feet off at the one time

If it were on offer, would the SNP opt for dominion status? The feeling that casting off entirely from Britannia is a consummation devoutly not to be wished continues to trouble. Thou shalt make no mischief it seems in these turbulent times.
The Peter A Bell piece cited above suggests all is far from well in the inner court of the queen bee.
Are we even seeing the shadow of a Fianna Fáil v Fine Gael replay?
While we wait, Floreat Etona!

O/T1

A couple of days ago, the Co-operative Bank tried to tell me that ‘.scot’ wasn’t a valid email address. Bar-stewards! Closed my account on the spot.

O?T2

Buying online just now from BlueMountain.com, and their list of countries (where you give your postal address) offered ‘SCOTLAND’! Never seen that before! Things are looking up!

@ Albuhaq.

The Scottish Government are constrained by the devolution settlement, which is what we sort of voted for in 2014, so demanding action out with their remit is counter productive to say the least. I’m sure they have plan, and they are right not to broadcast it even if it makes the rest of us kind of nervous. The Parliaments ours though because we democratically voted that back into existence.
Any suggestions on how we make our Parliament work for would be welcome.

Good one Chris, Boris, England’s version of Trump.

Me @ 3.24
And not forgetting ….
If Westminster don’t sign up to respect the result!!
Then Holyrood doesn’t have to either and unlike 2015 wouldn’t be obliged to say the next election wasn’t about Independence.
Westminster need to win a No with a section 30 if they were ever to any chance to “settle” Scotland for any length of time. .

Liz g says:
13 July, 2019 at 3:32 pm
Me @ 3.24
And not forgetting ….
If Westminster don’t sign up to respect the result!!…..
Westminster need to win a No with a section 30 if they were ever to any chance to “settle” Scotland for any length of time….

If a Section 30 Agreement is needed for the result to be respected, then where is the vital Section 30 Agreement between Westminster and the EU which “allowed” the Brexit Referendum to happen and the result to stand?

One rule for some…

Siver Darlings

A ‘few titbits’:

link to caltonjock.com

Johnson epitomises the Tory membership – bumbling geriatrics who have zero responsibility and an over inflated conceit. The London elite can’t help but big up his “intelligence” because they can’t face up to the reallity that they are being out witted by a half wit.

Nobody has the remotest clue what is going to happen in the months ahead – least of all Johnson. For certain it is going to be interesting.

I wonder who is planning what with Johnson as the glove puppet fronting their evil intent.

Johnson wouldn’t even be a thing of Corbyn wasn’t equally dire.

You know when you just catch a snippet of somebody’s conversation?

Well, I was in a pub in deepest blue Essex this lunchtime and on my way to the gents heard a lady of advancing years proclaim ‘Just you wait until Boris is in charge, THEN they’ll be sorry!’
I sh*t you not.

Greetings frae oor sunny east coast, fine Scotland

Let’s get up to sum mischief dis weekend

Ahm awe IN

One of England’s propaganda news channels in Scotland, BBC Shortbread “news” is in the process of picking the new House Jock, to replace the old very obedient House Jock Jackie B.

link to archive.fo

Breeks @ 4.09
As I understand it Breeks…
There was a section 30 for the EU referendum.
There is a section 30 for a General election.
It’s a standard bit of legislation for the Westminster Parliament to acknowledge a vote , any vote.
It wasn’t necessary for the EU to sign it,because they don’t have a say in whether Westminster will or won’t acknowledge a vote…
Also the EU have article 50 the Treaty of the Union between Westminster and Holyrood obviously does not!

But you have touched on the nub of the matter…
The EU can disregard all the votes it wants to but if their member votes to end the current Treaty arrangements then the Treaty gets ended!!!

We want a section 30 to smooth the way but we don’t need a section 30 and it most certainly isn’t required to make the referendum legal! As much as Westminster would like to pretend it did!!!
The power to hold referendums is already devolved the only way to make a referendum illegal would be to remove the power from Holyrood to hold any referendums at all.
What Westminster are pinning their hopes on is that because it’s about the reserved Constitution they are not bound to pay any heed to a Yes result…. Which is why the bigger the Yes vote the better is the way to go!!!

O/T our old friend HYFUD, who was chased back to Political Betting (aka Stormfront Lite) is now also a figure of ridicule there, due to his fandom of Boris. ?

It’s bad enough for one country to abuse another then to tell them it’s their fault that they’re losers

Nicola Sturgeon is one of the people of Scotland no different from all the rest of us, and that makes her an abused woman, but there’s a difference with the FM, she’s an abused woman with friends education and a dirk

The dirk’s in and they’re bleeding, it’s when she pulls it out they’ll start dying

Some folk don’t agree with the FM and make a lot of noise about not agreeing with her, and that’s their right, she is a politician it comes with the job she chose, but what not one single one of those people have to do is put up with the massive amount of personal abuse the FM takes every single day, more abuse than I can remember any politician taking in my lifetime

The FM could be your sister, your daughter, niece, cousin
what would you do if one of your family was subjected to what she takes from some of the foulest mouthed Bastirts the Internet can dig up, not to mention opposition politicians, I bet you’d change your job

She’s still here

Nice one Dr Jim. Nicola is a great lassie and politician and knows what she is doing. She will get us there despite unionist malevolence and some gobshites who appear here regularly and know better than she does. Lucky them they don’t have to put up with the horrors thrown Nicola’s way every day. Where is Robert P?????

@Bill McLean 6:25pm

Robert’s probably fed up with the horrors being thrown at him every day by the same suspects, and quite heavily at times, It wouldn’t surprise me,
Robert can be brusque but that’s his style and if folk don’t care for it they don’t have to either read it or abuse him for it, he’s not the enemy, just like the FM, some folk get confused over who they think they’re fighting against

Dave McEwen Hill@6:02pm

I wasn’t saying that I thought this Plan B was undeniably excellent Dave. I just think it’s not wise to close down debates or options. Why should consideration of a Plan B be conceding on Plan A to the enemy? I’ve always been instructed that confusing opponents is a sound stratagem. Then there’s the question of morale and not making the rank and file feel completely left out of the loop.

As for faith in the U.N. Charter. It’s not quite as clear cut on the issue of self-determination as is sometimes assumed. There is undoubtedly a lot of sympathy for Scotland worldwide but that doesn’t guarantee an overwhelming degree of solid political support from foreign governments. As the independentists of Catalunya have rather bitterly discovered.

There’s a face I’d be happy to see under a bus……

Of course, Boris is in the picture too!! 🙂

Ah just asked a friendly neighbour…

Did you vote for independence?

She said “I voted to stay here”

Correct answer

Yes knows

SO… HOW WE DOIN’ SCOTLAND?

Hey it’s Saturday nite!

Up tae?

Toon talk…

Love the eyes Cairnstoon, U got em doon tae ah tea

The Johnson is the Trash Heap:

link to youtube.com

Sassenach 6.39 – buy a few Scottish history books. Get a broad perspective on Scottish history.

Hey There Cactus 🙂

Well said Terry =)

@Abulhaq

I suspect it could well be a good tactical move. If the Plan B is said to be before it is enacted then the Yoons are very likely to bring a pre-emptive spoiling judicial review of it.

So just like you shouldn’t stop your enemies making their mistake we should not let the ‘enemy’ know our strategy.

I’m as impatient to go again as the next person on here (in a heartbeat Nicola, a heartbeat) but getting the strategies and tactics right in advance without interference is necessary.

Just like the criticism of SNP efforts to stop Brexit. We have to show the international community that we tried EVERYTHING to no avail and so ‘this’ is our only option. We will need international support for whatever it is.

New post and a tiny sub sample figs poll. Plus ‘plan b’

link to scotgoespop.blogspot.com

Hey 907

William Wallace

Aye summon thee…

Plan B, ensure Plan A works!

Regarding the SNP having the expertise on strategy and not letting your enemies know what you are doing:

Prior to indyref1 the SNP told the UK Govt their Pound sharing proposals long in advance of the indyref. The SNP working on the presumption of mutual co-operation and gentlemen’s agreement (The Edinburgh Agreement). We see how that went.

Assuming co-operation from the UK state in Scottish independence was a blunder on a monumental scale. Sharing the Pound as a political campaigning strategy was also a huge blunder.

I think it’s fair to say few could have expected the sheer flagrant bias and interference by the BBC and UK Civil Service. The Vow was a flagrant breach of “purdah” convention, as it involved David Cameron who was then Prime Minister.

It’s basically the same people in charge (minus Salmond) at SNP headquarters / Scot Govt, as then. Is there evidence that the incompetency of the SNP in their campaigning strategies have been resolved since then? The most recent litmus test of this, the UK GE of 2017 was, in my opinion, the worst ever SNP election campaign.

Some people believe the lack of revealed plans this time around means lesson learned: they have good plans but are not revealing their hand too early this time. However, that is an assumption.

An alternative equally plausible explanation is: there was no strategy to reveal, no plans, no preparation; the SNP were totally unprepared for another independence campaign despite this supposedly being their whole reason for existence.

What is the truth? I don’t know. Like almost every other commentator, I am left to speculate.

Aweright Colin A on a Saturday night ~

How ye dayin’, mate…

Huv ye ever read The Digger?

Aye have

Word

TD @ 6.25
If you say so TD
I only vaguely remember reading that section 30 orders were standard business for a plebiscite with Westminster and couldn’t argue it…
But thanks for the information…

Thepnr @ 9-13pm

Well said, sick and tired of the moaners (who are really just about disruption and splitting our votes).

We trusted Nicola to bring us this far, of course the BritNats, on here, would love to see us try and overthrow our FM, and so many repeat posts on here are suggesting this (or burning our SNP membership cards!!!).

It’s so obvious a tactic, are we really so stupid that we don’t recognise the unionist themes? I don’t think so.

Let Nicola finish the job.

Ken500 at 9:23

“Scotland can get an S30 in the Courts because of the way the Westminster unionists have treated Scotland.”

No it can’t. An order under Section 30 of the Scotland Act is an order in council made by the queen on the recommendation of the Westminster government. The courts cannot make a Section 30 order.

There could be a role for the courts in bringing about independence, but if there is I suspect it will be around the sovereignty of the Scottish people. I can see a legal argument which might go something like this:

1. The Scottish people are sovereign as a matter of legal fact.
2. Therefore if the Scottish people elect a government which is pledged to hold a referendum, then that is what should happen.
3. Irrespective of S30 of the Scotland Act 1998, the Scottish people’s will must prevail.

Each point in that argument would need to be argued in court and if we failed on any one, we lose. But if we win…

Ironically, the more we try to get a S30 order out of the UK government, including if anyone tried to do so through the courts, that is an admission of the sovereignty of Westminster. If Nicola is successful in getting a Section 30 order for a referendum, that will be acknowledging Westminster’s sovereignty. But that doesn’t matter if we get the referendum and win. And of course the same legal argument could be used to go straight to independence – skipping the referendum. But that would be risky – it could and no doubt would be argued that the election result did not prove the majority will of the people – only a referendum can do that.

All in all, it will be much simpler and probably quicker to ask for the Section 30 order. But we should only do so when we are as sure as we can be that we have the majority with us. The good news? It’s all moving our way rather nicely, even if a little slower than we would like.

Not debating is not the same as rejection.
SNP leaders will choose the right time to adopt alternative strategies to get to Independence.
Sure we’re all frustrated but showing our hand in public debate would suit London just fine.
Time to keep a calm souch and realise with opinion polls showing SNP support rising, the UK is nearing its end game.

The Queen and her power

She has none, not even the power over a public lavvy
The House of Commons (note: House of Commons and NOT Prime Minister) controls every public word she says and all documents deemed to be requiring her signature are convention for appearances only to give the masses the idea that somehow there’s some sovereignty involved in their lives but there isn’t, she goes where she’s told and she says what she’s told to say and signs what they give her whether she likes it or not

Actually in some respects she’s got less freedom than any of us, at least we can say whatever the hell we like (almost) and at least the people of Scotland are sovereign whereas unfortunately the people of England are not (they just don’t know it)

Some of our ancestors were quite clever that way

It’s why the Scottish parliament must carry out the will of the Scottish people but Westminster doesn’t have to do that because Westminster is sovereign in England, not the people

So all that guff about the will of the people is and was just that, guff (they don’t have to do anything the English population say, they can reject anything they want, they chose not to)

She even has to negotiate the amount of her yearly Giro

I’d forgotten I had a working knowledge of how culture works. Bits of it are coming back though.

Time for a paradox? We’re all individually special (some of us more than others 🙂 ), and none of us are special, as we are all “rights-bearing” human beings of comparable human ‘value’. Unless you are Bojo and a bit of a social Darwinist who links human value to intellect and utilitarian/economic potential. A bit of a biological deterministic and cultural chauvinist, frankly. A misogynistic nationalist, in other words.

Being brought up to think of yourself as ‘special’, increases the probability you’ll turn out messed-up and self-regarding. The same can happen to cultural institutions and social cognition (see the full-English Brexit).

Cultural transmission and social communication: a cognition and culture approach to everyday metaphor about knowledge, learning, and understanding

Abstract

Cultural transmission theory and methods focus on the qualities of cultural artefacts (e.g. religious beliefs, supernatural ideas, folk stories) to understand how and why some spread and last better than others. This epidemiological approach is part of a broader project, cognition and culture, which seeks to understand links between mind and culture. Cognition and culture is concerned with universal, recurrent cultural phenomena, whose developmental acquisition and patterns of distribution and variation may be linked to innate mental competencies.

Anthropologists, ethno- and cognitive linguists, and cognitive and developmental psychologists have established that metaphor exhibits exactly these characteristics—universality, cultural variation, and developmental acquisition patterns. Yet, the cultural transmission of metaphor has not been addressed in the cognition and culture literature. This thesis proposes a novel application of an epidemiological account of cultural transmission to small-scale, linguistic, cultural artefacts-everyday, sensorimotor metaphorical talk about knowledge, learning, and understanding.

Serial reproduction tasks, experiments, interviews, and metaphor analysis were used in a mixed-methods approach to investigate the use and transmission of metaphorical language. Three initial experimental studies, which aimed to investigate transmission advantages of metaphor, showed no statistically significant effects of metaphor on transmission fidelity of short stories across serial reproduction chains.Four further studies were conducted to follow up on these findings. Results of the first follow-up experiment, more sensitive to the agency of speakers in communicative exchange, indicated that metaphorical prompts to invent stories yielded more metaphors in the story endings and descriptions.

Findings from experimental and conversation-based judgement tasks suggested that metaphorical language provided more inferential potential than non-metaphorical language to support assessments of the verbal material and inferences about the speaker. The final qualitative study revealed ways that metaphor is used to support social interaction and co-operation in more naturalistic conversation contexts.

Overall, it was found that social and pragmatic aspects of communication, undetectable in traditional serial reproduction experiments, contribute significantly to the wide distribution, or cultural success, of metaphor. An account of the cultural success of metaphor based in inferential processes that support social interaction is proposed. Reflections are offered on its theoretical and methodological implications for the epidemiological view of cultural transmission and its generalisability to different types of cultural artefacts.

link to etheses.lse.ac.uk

Aweright Arran Lenny, Dr J knows

Try me laters, watch the clock

Arran

Hey you et fuck you, iScotland is soon

Cheers lurkers…

Ye’ll B here soon

Cactus, Good evening. Hope you’re having a guid yin the nite.

No, haven’t read the Digger. What’s it about?

Fucking midnight and beyond Colin…

Ahm still here

Colin

I’m cooking with gas tonight. 😉

CROSS-CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY
CRITICAL THINKING AND CONTEMPORARY APPLICATIONS

THE BELIEF PERSEVERANCE EFFECT: “DON’T CONFUSE ME
WITH THE FACTS!”

In our attempts to understand the world around us and to navigate our way through life, we adopt a wide variety of beliefs, the content of which ranges from the mundane (the best brand of detergent, the most flattering hairstyle) to the profound (the meaning of life, the existence of God). One of the most significant characteristics of our beliefs is the degree to which we become personally invested in them. The attachment may be so strong that our beliefs feel as if they are a vital and indispensable component of our very identity.

What happens, then, when our beliefs are challenged by new facts (such as research data)? Particularly those beliefs that we happen to like? Or those that we regard as important?

Or those that we have come to accept as truths? If we were to respond to such challenges in a purely rational manner, we would simply detach our personal feelings from the dispute, evaluate the substance of the challenge as objectively and dispassionately as possible, and then, if appropriate, modify our beliefs accordingly. We would, in other words, accommodate the new information by modifying our preexisting schemas (see assimilation bias, p. xx).

But we are not always so rational. In fact, sometimes we are not rational at all. Specifically, when our beliefs are being challenged, we are prone to feel that we personally are being challenged. When our beliefs are criticized, we feel criticized. When our beliefs are attacked, we feel attacked….

link to epdf.pub

P.S. this text is pretty much essential reading, if you want a concise ‘know-how’ of how culture and society work.

Dj, twas reading earlier…

It’s the conversation that counts, aye fuck aye

Let’s FUCK like

(for the people)

FUCK TOMORROW

FUCK TODAY

Hey!

FUCK EVERYTHING ’14

How ye doin Colin…

One must find his way HOME…

Can you help me Colin A…

Have aye fucked you?

Nae chance…

Ah only FUCK the birds

Love the pussy

Ahm in Crail, there are people awe aroon me…

People are good

Peeps…

Dude’s ahm on main street

Love is sumfin’,

Big headache ah comin

School you fuckoids fuck

Let’s see whit happens ra morra you FUCKING CUNT you

Love the LOVE you cunty fuck and fuck U

Mon the cunt

Interesting article in the Mirror tmrw. Seems the fragrant Isobel Oakshott may be involved in the leaking of the UK Ambassador to USA’s e mail. Seems the lady is also the lover of the Brexit Party’s chief and he has been calling for the UK Ambassador to be replaced with someone who is pro Brexit.
Police and Official secrets concerns could make this quite an interesting development. Maybe she’ll have to miss some episode of Question Time. Cover blown now!

Fitting there was a typo… The pointless concern for a small attention to detail. *Sigh

Hi from Tassie

Just want to add my concern that Robert P is ok. Wings is the poorer without his input.

Morning folks, I don’t comment so much on WOS at the moment, seems other regular posters are the same, as they have stopped posting.

I always read the blog, but I too have noticed that Robert Peffers has not been posting. I hope that it’s his IT problems and not his health that’s causing the lack of postings. I know that he has been getting a lot of flack recently from certain other posters, so maybe he’s just having a wee rest like a few of us seem to be doing.

If anyone has news of Robert a few of us here would be pleased to hear how he is doing? Anybody?

Fkn unreal.

BBC Propaganda leading with Sunday Mail publishing UK Ambassador’s tweets, despite being warned not to by police. …So Sunday Mail as far as I can see is interfering with ongoing legal investigation, potentially putting it in jeopardy just like a certain Yaxley Lennon. Never mentioned of course…

Then BBC Propaganda wheels out a media “Expert” who says while the police might pursue the whistleblower for breach of trust, it would be very unusual for the police to bring prosecutions against the publisher of leaked material. I’m guessing Julian Assange might disagree there. Again, no mention of Assange of course.

That’s me watched about 20 seconds of BBC Propaganda and I’m already reaching for the sick bucket.

Abulhaq at 9:02 am

Why would the SNP MPs fear de-selection because of their pro-life views? Has John Mason MSP been de-selected over his pro-life views?

It was a free vote. The MPs were not whipped by the SNP into voting a certain way. They were allowed to vote according to the dictates of their conscience not the dictates of their party.

If an NI MP can interfere in Scotland. The SNP can support the principles of same sex marriage and abortion rights in NI. The considerable disproportionate funds being distributed in NI because of the illegal Partition and the inequality. The DUP want to be part of the UK but do not want to uphold UK/International Law. They are a Law unto themselves. Breaking the Law at every opportunity.

The Scottish Gov can easily apply for an S30 through the Courts. Re Peat worrier. The Westminster Gov has judgements made against it, through the Courts every month because of illegal activities.

A HAPPY BASTILLE DAY TO ALL OUR FRIENDS IN SCOTLAND AND WORLDWIDE.

“La Marseillaise”. July 14th, 1989. Jessye Norman, the famous operatic soprano at the Place de la Concorde,Paris.

La marsellesa, interpretada en París en 1989, en el doscientos aniversario de la revolución francesa.

VIDEO:
link to tinyurl.com

Wings is an interesting wee site this weather with more and more genuine Independence supporters disappearing into the ether to be replaced by many who clearly don’t support Independence at all. Whilst posts like Nana’s, for one, were constantly being put into moderation the trash that we’re being subjected to through the night continues to appear on here unabated. No ‘’moderation’’ for them (him). We lose Nana whose contribution was absolutely invaluable to this site, for helping us greatly to acquire our Independence in general, whilst we promote comments that are at the very least off-putting. How on earth are posts like that going to garner support for our cause? If someone knows something that I don’t please enlighten me, ASAP. People are also allowed to come on and say what they will about other posters, such as in my case (which I have no problem with), but when a rebuttal is posted it is put into moderation and then removed altogether. Just wondering what exactly is going on … on here?

………………….

The trans issue, linked to the Yes movement, continues to be a key subject on Twitter ..

Stu: ‘’If you don’t think this affects you, or Scotland, or the Yes movement, you’re really *dangerously* wrong.’’

link to twitter.com

……

Whilst the Scottish Government has kicked this into the long grass for now.

‘Gender recognition law will not be discussed at next SNP conference.’

…’’Instead of pushing through a new Gender Recognition Act, the Government will now commission new assessments to ensure the new measures did not damage other people’s rights.’’..

link to thenational.scot

Bill McLean says:
14 July, 2019 at 10:58 am

“Persuaded an uncommitted acquantance to read “Wings” if he wants to find out some truths about our situation in Scotland. I also had to assure him that there is no very little foul language – he’ll probably think i’m a liar now. Very sad!”

While Cactus is quite entertaining, I think he should perhaps tone it down a bit. I know it’s not my place, I don’t have any hammers, but just a wee bit less of the Fs would still be just as effective.

@ Meh merrilees @ 2.06am

Hi Meg, unfortunately the wagons are being circled around Isabel and many are leaping onto the freedom of the press bandwagon.

A couple of days after Darroch story broke Oakeshott was on Sky papers review…defending her position…so I think come September when QT starts up…she will be guest of honour.

What seems to be more troubling to me is that she seems to be untouchable…and when one considers who she associates with you start to wonder whether, these associates of hers have certain Brexit Tory politicians connected with Leave EU , over a barrel….names/dates/places….this stinks to high heaven.

Tice on Newsnight calling for resignation of Darroch ( before Darroch did resign) and he stated he thought a pro Brexit businessman should be the new UK ambassador to US….apparently he did not see fit to mention his relationship with journalist (hack) who broke the story…according to sources this relationship has been well known for over a year…but no one in media felt relevant to mention.

So what else does the press know and are suppressing ?

Remember Ruth Davidson has been justifying Brexit as a democratic exercise ….so if shit does hit the fan the SNP should be calling into question her judgement and indeed her fitness as leader of Tories in Scotland….no one who has promoted or accepted Brexit should come out of this unscathed…this is indeed a political coup and we all know who is behind it…as do the so called powers that be…so what is stopping them from pursuing this fully…May knows too but it is, as per, party before country.

At the risk of sounding like headmistress Petra I too think the time is right for Cactus to cut back on the gratuitous swearing posts.

By the way I think both Petra and Cactus are both “good guys”. In their very different ways they are both strong independence supporters.

So come on Cactus you can post better than that.