“Changed her mind more often than she changed her drawers”
starlaw
5 years ago
Totally failing to read the situation, with National and Scottish politics, time for a career change.
manandboy
5 years ago
Excellent, Chris. Love the slip note.
Not quite Brutus backing Caesar. But then, Ruth is much smaller fry than Scotland’s Unionist media make her out to be.
Cubby
5 years ago
Great toon. Truthless Davidson like her Better Together partner Dugdale and Wendy Alexander and Douglas Alexander and Jim Murphy and on and on……. is on her way to political obscurity. Like the UK she represents she is a fraud.
Effijy
5 years ago
Wee Ruth is right behind her own behind.
Of course UK Media don’t want this exposed or
The two faced immoral liar would be seen in her
True nasty blue colours
Greannach
5 years ago
What a horrible wee jobbie Colonel Flipflop is.
Breeks
5 years ago
All the tickets in the sweepstake bar one, and still loses.
Colonel Ruthie lives by the words of that great thinker Marx,
`These are my principles. If you don’t like them I have others`.
Hamish100
5 years ago
Nice one…… Just for the record is Mundell away packing his bags to make way for a so called part time referee o something similar?
manandboy
5 years ago
Ruth Davidson MSP, two-faced calculating, manipulating, flip-flopping, smearing, Scotland-hating, bullying, self-serving, lying leader of the former English Conservative & Unionist Party, Scotland Branch, – now just the Tories.
And that’s just the stuff we know about. Election expenses, Cambridge Analytica and dark money? For another time. Still waiting to be brought to light.
It will be interesting to see if Boris Johnson MP as PM will back Ruth Davidson.
Frank Gillougley
5 years ago
Effijy 8.08
Yes, with reference to the Wizard of Oz, now the transparent curtain of zero media scrutiny is drawn back, it reveals ruth (who) has actually been talking to no other than herself!
A beautifully illuminating cartoon, Chris.
Ken500
5 years ago
One of the best ever. Cairns not failure Davidson. The Tories into oblivion. In self destruct button mode as per usual. Maybe two years to go before this farce ends. For even more chaos. What an absolute mess and shambles the Westminster unionists get in. Time and time again.
Boris or Hunt will be a disaster. The usual Tory comedians who are no joke. Can anyone believe it the dope on a rope. He will not last until October. Then they will have another ‘leadership’ election. Elect a handful of muppets. No a ounce of ‘talent’ between them. Westminster unionist the world embarrassment. 124,000 members continue with the farce.
Flower of Scotland
5 years ago
Ruth Davidson , Alex Cole Hamilton and the Bettertogether mob were at the Royal Highland show together and taking selfies. They proudly put them up on Twitter.
Losers all of them!
Capella
5 years ago
What does the FM do all day? Well here she is at the RHS, campaigning for Independence.
Of course, for balance, the BBC have to interview TWO Tories to contradict the FM. Not Ruth though, surprisingly. Perhaps she didn’t want to be asked if she is now supporting Boris Johnston, who is now all over the front pages for a “domestic”.
Hunt and Johnson ‘out of touch’ with Scotland, Sturgeon says – link to bbc.co.uk
Socrates MacSporran
5 years ago
If I was Sarah Smith, I’d be worried. Even BBC London must now realise, Labour in Scotland is finished, but, they will need someone with London’s best interests at heart as Scotland Editor.
With BoJo in Downing Street, Ruth is yesterday’s burnt toast as far as the Tories are concerned – so, a return to Pacific Quay, as a replacement for Smith, would seem like the best, next move for the good Colonel.
She’s a chancer, looking after Number One. Sarah, be afraid, be very afraid. I can see the next big BBC Shortbread production: Ruth’s Return.
Abulhaq
5 years ago
As an ardent nationalist ‘fundamentalist’, every nanosecond Scotland remains shackled to England, stuck in the shade and not in the sun, is a pain.
That there are Scots like Davidson seemingly content with such a marginal, inconsequential status for their country and its people is in the current political environment beyond comprehension.
We may mock these people but their influence is way beyond a joke.
They are dirty players.
On the subject of dirty, Iran is not to be ‘taken out’, at least not yet.
Terry callachan
5 years ago
Proud of the renewables industry in Scotland ?
I was , until I read this !
We could become Independent only to find that Scotland is already almost completely foreign-owned. What’s the point of that!
Capella
5 years ago
BBC still hasn’t got the Scottish Front pages up so, of course, one checks The National to see why.
Here it is. Today they start their Independence Campaign. Buy a copy and use it to persuade one other person of the merits of Independence – which should be easy now!
Hahaha, her wee fat gerbil face is gonna blow up. Poor Dierdrie Mundell must be shittin a brick too – his fading star burnt out all too soon, oh my sides!
manandboy
5 years ago
Perhaps too many SNP politicians in long-term cushy jobs, living the good life, have forgotten what it was like before they were elected. Money changes people. The more money, the more change.
Are our leaders now insulated from, and out of touch with, the reality of the vast majority of Scotland’s people?
Are they still motivated for Independence – or motivated just to keep their jobs and their seat on the Holyrood gravy train? Such a big temptation, as can be seen elsewhere.
Right now, it’s hard to tell. With some, like Nicola, it is clear to see she is putting in a shift every day, but what about the rest whom we rarely hear about.
All the while we remain under Colonial rule from Westminster. And suffer as a result. Now we’re told everything has or is being sold off.
galamcennalath
5 years ago
A one trick cuddie whose only real interest is preserving her precious union.
On other politics she says what she feels best for her union at that moment, but will u-turn on anything and everything.
Mind you, if she were ever to u-turn on the union, we know it’s definitely all over!
Capella
5 years ago
Oh look – the BBC has managed to get the front pages up 12 minutes ago. The British front pages are normally up before midnight the day before (as I’ve pointed out any times).
Now you see why the english conservatives dont listern to the likes of davidson thats why they pulled out the vow when she said not to as if they went her way we’d of won in 2014 and been shot of England and its london dictatorship.
Alex Smith
5 years ago
Is that Daphne Broon?
Socrates MacSporran
5 years ago
Alex Smith @ 10.00am
You Sir are a cad and a bounder; to malign the fair Miss Daphne Broon, of 10 Glebe Street – by suggesting she bears a resemblance to Colonel Yadaftie.
Miss Broon is a lot fairer, and with a far-nicer personality.
auld highlander
5 years ago
Daphnie Broon looks a hell of a lot better than that sack of .
Eppy
5 years ago
I think that there is lots more potentially bad press about Boris, and too many people know about various things in his background that will upset even the Boris supporting Conservative electorate. Comments in the last few days about how Boris was spending fathers day and how many children does he actually have may be irrelevant to people prepared to forgive him as “a bit of a lad”. But the comments of “would you trust him with your wife?” may highlight issues of disloyalty which all but the most ardent brexiteers may not be willing to dismiss.
In June 2013, the press covered rumours which had reportedly shocked David Cameron about an affair between two senior members of the Conservative party. An announcement was then made that neither was a member of the cabinet and the matter was then swept under the carpet rather rapidly.
At that time, Boris was not in the cabinet as he was the Mayor of London. The question remains if it was Boris, who the other party to the affair might be, and why was Cameron so shocked?
The British press, constrained by fears over Levinson did not take the matter further but other countries had their own spin. The Jerusalem Post of June 19 2013 was able to speculate away.
Gove declared his cocaine use to avoid situations in the future coming back to bite him. I suspect he at least knew a bit of Boris’s past that could be highly damaging with the party faithful.
In Scotland we say *As long as there’s one hundred of us alive we’ll fight for Independence*
In England they say *As long as there’s one hundred of us voting Tory in Scotland we rule Scotland*
One of these statements is dictatorial
In England they say *We voted for Brexit and won*
In Scotland supporters of England say *Quite a lot of us voted for Brexit and we lost but in Tory democratic law we won*
In England they say the Tories have a mandate to rule no matter what the percentage of victory
In Scotland the Tories say the SNP have no mandate to rule because we decide on how much of a percentage is enough
In the first referendum for a Scottish parliament my father counted as a NO voter because he was dead
These are the kind of rules that Tories will always invent in order to keep themselves in power
Tories in Scotland know and understand perfectly well they are wrong and unpopular so why do they still remain wrong and unpopular, why do they never change their minds when faced with the truth
Tory ideology is that they are superior to the rest and must rule regardless of truth opinion or fact
Just because a Tory woman wears a twin set and pearls or a Tory man wears a smart dark suit and lives in Perth makes it no less the uniform we know them by
Who are the foreigners the Tories keep complaining about
Well in Scotland, it’s them, it’s the Tories who are the foreigners because every other colour creed and religion vote against them yet they still insist it’s their God given right to rule over every person of every type even if all those persons oppose them
Who are the people who are really a cult? It’s them, Tories,
whose ideology is and will always be 1+1 will only ever equal what we say it does and we reserve the right to change our minds should that rule unfavour us
Paul Newton
5 years ago
I met Ruth and her lovely baby in a restaurant a few weeks ago, we didn’t discuss politics, just the baby but she could see I was wearing a pro independence T shirt.
We don’t need to be personally insulting about her appearance, sexual orientation or even her personality, we just need to keep up the wonderful work on campaigning, persuading and convincing voters to back self determination.
Ruth probably already knows she on the wrong horse, sure it brought a narrow victory in 2014, and a Tory improvement in 2017, but she knows the handicapper has caught up and she’s now on the same horse that finished Johanne, Jim, Kezia, Blair and many others political careers.
She has her reasons for trying to defend the indefensible, if we keep working hard and feeding her out more rope….then we’ll all get what we want.
(i’m more worried about Arlene moving over here after Ireland votes to become united)
Brian McGowan
5 years ago
the changes in her facial expression through those 6 pics is brilliant
Doug
5 years ago
But, but, but, the British nationalist media, especially the BBC, think she’s infallible.
kapelmeister
5 years ago
The third picture never actually happened. She only supported Mick Gove for 3 hours and never got to stand at a microphone and endorse him.
Norway has a Trillion dollars surplus in the bank in case of shocks to their country’s system and the world applauds their prudence
Scotland has a few million left over from their budget and Unionists in Scotland and England scream slush fund
Unionists scream Scotland must have a deficit to prove Scotland’s useless, but when the SNP don’t have that deficit they’re con artists rogues and don’t care about the poor
Labour Tory and Liberal Democrats all agree with each other on this yet when former Labour FM Jack McConnell returned hundreds of millions to Westminster unspent because he claimed he couldn’t think of anything to spend it on, these same parties supported that decision
The Tory party, all inclusively open to the other Unionist parties in Scotland who are all just as Tory as the blue one’s but they call themselves different names so you’ll think you’re voting for something else
You’re not!
Josef Ó Luain
5 years ago
@ manandboy
You’ve answered, if obliquely, your own questions.The dearth of ambition amongst the Scottish middle-classes/politicians has stymied the country’s development for generations. Witness: Davidson and Mundell.
“Aw forget it” indeed.
That should be Colonel flip-flop on the way out now.
Her reading to this whole pantomime has been very poor.
As former “Darling of the Party” she could make sweeping statements and be the talk of the Tory steamy. Cute wee Ruth telling it as she saw fit, slagging May’s rivals, towing the party line every time – and the great Tory hope of installing one of their number as FM of Scotland.
Well, good luck with that last ambition.
As for the rest of it, the Colonel is now experiencing a rebellion in the ranks – her position as party mascot has evaporated and her “wise” council is irrelevant.
What is it they say…
Live by the sword, die by the sword.
Joe
5 years ago
@Dr jim
Good posts. The Tories like to frame themselves as merely ‘conservative’. They are not. They are the party of an utterly corrupt, self serving classist establishment of high profile, generational criminals. Thats why I could never be one despite being no fan of the left.
kapelmeister
5 years ago
Tory MP Antoinette Sandbach has revealed she was sent messages by a male Tory MP saying she is a disgrace who should quit the party. All because she had supported Rory Stewart in the leadership contest.
This, along with the video clip of Mark Field shows the new ever nastier Tory Party that is locked in a race to the right with the Brexit Party. All to win the votes of the reactionary hordes in England.
We don’t need a Yes version of Project Fear to win independence. We just need to say “look”.
Pete
5 years ago
Must say, I thought Mark Field was quite in order in what he did.
I think we’re all far too soft nowadays.
If someone came into my house uninvited I know what I’d do to them.
Time to toughen up!
Auld Rock
5 years ago
Brilliant but I forlornly hope she would ‘FORGET IT’ in fact, I wish she’d get lost.
TheBuchanLoony
5 years ago
Re Boris, this bit caught my attention…’When contacted by the Guardian on Friday, police initially said they had no record of a domestic incident at the address. But when given the case number and reference number, as well as identification markings of the vehicles that were called out, police issued a statement saying: “At 00:24hrs on Friday, 21 June, police responded to a call from a local resident in [south London]. The caller was concerned for the welfare of a female neighbour.’…met police involved in a political cover up??
Re: the ‘Boris altercation w/ partner allegation’.
Puts you in mind (for those of us of longer memories) of that episode of Yes Minister when Jim Hacker is elevated to the Premiership.
Do you recall that prior to being the winning candidate – and coming through the middle, threatening to destroy the credentials of the last two candidates – he was stopped for drink-driving? Nothing came of that, of course, (for the sake of the plot), and Hacker swept into Number 10 on the ‘patriotic ticket’ of ‘saving the British sausage.’
With the current situation in the Tory Party, the episode is well worth a re-visit.
“At a debate hosted by the Policy Exchange thinktank last week, the strategist Lynton Crosby, widely expected to run Johnson’s first general election campaign if he becomes leader, sketched out how he thought the Tories might win again. The model is Scott Morrison, the Australian politician who confounded pollsters, bookies and pundits by winning a surprise re-election victory shortly after assuming the leadership of the governing Liberal party. Morrison had, Crosby explained, pitched himself as the man for “quiet Australians” – people who don’t follow politics closely, aren’t active on social media, and just want to be left to get on with life – and won by aligning himself with their gut values. The next Tory leader should also pitch themselves as being on the side of what the Australian prime minister Robert Menzies famously called the “forgotten people”, better known here as John Major’s “silent majority”, Tony Blair’s “hardworking families”, and David Cameron’s middle income “strivers”. It may seem an oddly retro approach for the unpredictable times we’re living through, but Crosby clearly still believes elections all come down in the end to telling a story of shared, broadly socially conservative values.
And that’s why the Mansion House incident matters; it’s a perfect litmus test of where people stand on those values.”
Whether such a strategy will be able to override the all-dominating and deep Brexit divide between Leavers and Remainers, must be in serious doubt. We shall see. But at least we have been warned.
By then, Ruth Davidson’s ‘booming bully’ profile, may have been reduced somewhat to something approaching a pip squeak. Here’s hoping.
Scotspatriot
5 years ago
The Tory week just gets worse. HMRC name the head Tory Fundraising honcho as a Tax Cheat.
This shouldn’t come as any surprise to anyone outside Tory Circles !
I think it surprised The Herald, who’s got the story up, right now.
Sorry, don’t know how to do archive !
Republicofscotland
5 years ago
Good one Chris, however Davidson will squirm and contort into any shape or pose needed to back Johnson in the long run.
jfngw
5 years ago
If this cartoon was expanded to include every Ruth Davidson U-Turn Chris Cairns would have his next book wrapped up within the day.
donnywho
5 years ago
Tories and violence against women.
The incident at the Dinner, the Protester and the Solidarity shown by those attending by “table thumping” their delight! Thus expressing their support for the assault and man handling of the lady in red.
Put together they made me flashback to scenes in “The Handmaidens Tale”.
They shows the same contempt for women, human rights, common decency and humane conduct as their fictional counterparts.
But like their fictional counterparts they then applauded violence against those who would question their god given privileges. And justify it as upholding the law and protection against “potential” terrorism
Robert Peffers
5 years ago
@manandboy says:22 June, 2019 at 9:32 am:
… Perhaps too many SNP politicians in long-term cushy jobs, living the good life, have forgotten what it was like before they were elected. Money changes people. The more money, the more change.”
Yes, manandboy, and perhaps they have not, but I suppose that perhaps there are unionists who would perhaps want others to believe that perhaps they have.
” … Are our leaders now insulated from, and out of touch with, the reality of the vast majority of Scotland’s people?
Are they still motivated for Independence – or motivated just to keep their jobs and their seat on the Holyrood gravy train? Such a big temptation, as can be seen elsewhere.”
Indeed and despotism can also be seen elsewhere, dictatorship and warmongering also. Even those who were ready to attack and kill innocent people over a shot down unmanned drone.
” … Right now, it’s hard to tell. With some, like Nicola, it is clear to see she is putting in a shift every day, but what about the rest whom we rarely hear about.”
Well I not only hear about many of them working their socks off all the time but I post links to videos showing them doing so. Just the other day I posted a link to an Ian Blackford meeting on the Northern Isles. A very well attended meeting and an obviously well informed group of attendees.
Of course if you rely upon the SMSM, both dead tree and broadcasting, you are not going to know what these SNP councillors, MSPs, MPs and MEPs are doing, but then, perhaps you really do not want to know nor want others to know.
Now before you go crying like a baby because someone casts doubts upon your motives on an open independence supporting forum, manandboy, consider this – it works like this, if you perceive it is all right for you to cast aspersions about people not here to defend themselves then is it less all right to cast aspersions at you who is here to defend yourself.
Are you, perhaps a desperate sleeper now coming out of the woodwork to attempt to damage the only political party, or indeed the only actual path to independence, that exists in Scotland simply because you personally, “never hear”, about what they are doing?
Tories only manage to get into power by hiding their true attitudes, opinions and objectives. They wear a veneer of acceptability.
However recently, with the rise of the far right especially in England and increasing public acceptability of expressing nasty views, the Tories are letting their veils slip with increasing frequency.
In certain quarters, being seen as nasty is now an asset!
Scotland isn’t immune and Tories politicians here have some particularly nasty streaks – look at their WM voting record.
I know Tory voters who definitely aren’t nasty in their everyday lives. IMO those ones have to be gullible to not see true nature of their chosen party. Perhaps others remember a different type of Tory – ones willing to bring investment to Scotland. Or maybe Tories-of-old were just better at keeping their guards up – I remember the 60s Support Rhodesia stickers.
I do wonder if within the ranks of Tory voters, some might be offended by the ‘new nasty right’? I wonder how many are comfortable with a PM who has the sexual morals of a feral cat? Just how much lying does it take before some Tory voters see liars before them?
Clearly a lot of Tory voters don’t care as long as their wealth and privilege is protected. However, they aren’t all quite so callous.
Where else could she get such a job with so few skills?
Self serving. In an independent Scotland she would disappear into obscurity as she deserves. This is not about principle or a precious Union. It is about being able to pay her bills.
Glenn Campbell, any excuse to feature Ruth ‘Booming Bully’ Davidson in the BBC’s headlines, reminds Scotland of the inconsistencies and contradictions in Ms Davidson’s policy statements. She wants to stay in the Union in preference to
leaving the EU, a minority view in her party.
She also seems to want to ban Divorce altogether as if the Marriage between Scotland and England was agreed as being in perpetuity. Silly lassie.
“In response to the YouGov poll she said: “There are a number of people in the Conservative Party that need to take a long hard look at themselves.
“Of course we’ve got to deliver Brexit but not at the expense of breaking up the United Kingdom”.
She should brush up on her reading skills – the writing has been on the wall for ages. You can’t do both, Ruthie.
The Brexit avalanche continues to rumble and crash its way downhill sweeping away everything in its path.
I read that as inflatable at first… 🙂 Almost correct.
Petra
5 years ago
Spot on Chris. And, eh, Ruth actually agrees with you. Next up Ruth’s kiss of death for the Tories in Scotland. Bury them along with their Better Together Labour mates.
‘Tory leadership: Ruth Davidson apologises for Michael Gove ‘kiss of death”
..”Immediately after the result was announced, Ms Davidson tweeted an apology to Mr Gove for giving him the “kiss of death”.”..
Here’s what i think is an illuminating view to shed some light on the smokescreen of justifications on the Mark Field fracas.
Bear with me here – this incident reminded me (and long forgotten about til the other day) when as a boy being in church, one rare hot Sunday, a dog walked into the church while mass was going on as the doors were open. To my astonishment, the priest actually stopped whatever he was doing or reading and he went over and grabbed the dog by the scruff of its neck and flung it outside.
Now, the point I am trying to make is obviously not to compare the woman in question to a dog, but that to me, from an anthropological viewpoint (concerning human societal cultural relationships) Mark Field’s choice of action was clearly demonstrative in grabbing her neck, in that he wanted it to be seen by his peers that this ‘other’ human being, was to be accorded no more respect than that given by a huntsman throwing a fox to the hounds. That the neck was chosen to show that he had the power of life or death over this person. And that for me, was his crime. He had zero honour and zero respect for his own.
Just shocking. There was no need for that behaviour. Clearly, he was also grandstanding to his collected ‘conservative’ peers. These people are not ‘conservative’ by any stretch of the meaning of the word. They are literally beyond description.
Just see how sharp those teeth are, beneath the veneer of respectability.
Capella
5 years ago
@ Welsh Sion – how to archive:
1 Right click on the link and click “copy link address”
2 Open archive today – http://archive.fo
3 Paste your copied link into the red text box “my url is alive…
4 Click “save”.
5 If the link is already archived a notice will pop up and tell you so. Just accept that and use the already archived link
6 If it hasn’t been archived, archive today will start the process of archiving. May take a few minutes.
7 When complete you will have a link in the address bar like this: link to archive.fo which is your archived link.
8 Bookmark Archive today for future reference.
🙂
manandboy
5 years ago
Robert Peffers says:at 12:15 pm re @manandboy at 9:32 am:
“Now before you go crying like a baby because someone casts doubts upon your motives on an open independence supporting forum, manandboy, consider this – it works like this, if you perceive it is all right for you to cast aspersions about people not here to defend themselves then is it less all right to cast aspersions at you who is here to defend yourself.”
Two wrongs don’t make a right, Robert. Your assumptions, like your logic, are flawed. But hey, we’re all human. As for ‘crying like a baby’, well I haven’t done that since, let me think, since in fact I was a baby, and that was just after the War.
Sure, I’m a bit nippy today, set off by the Robin McAlpine piece on, among other things, the sale of some of Scotland’s renewable assets to the Chinese, and I know it’s not devolved, but ScotGov could and should have kept us abreast of such activity and made a noise about it. Not even the outstanding Ian Blackford MP, to my knowledge, has made any public comment about it. I await information to the contrary.
Ps. I trust you are reasonably well, and glad of it that being the case.
jfngw
5 years ago
Ruth Davidson and her MSP’s are actually now a sideshow, they hoped to make her FM so that Holyrood’s powers would be given up with consent. They have abandoned that plan and plan B is now in operation, this is to transfer most of Holyrood’s powers to David Mundell (or whoever replaces him). They have already started the process, even having their MSP’s calling Holyrood dysfunctional.
They are making it plain, there will be no independence through the democratic route. If you want it you will need to take it, Westminster has never given up its possessions voluntarily.
Maybe they will claim they are taking over to protect the majority they claim are calling for intervention, think Sudetenland.
manandboy
5 years ago
Frank Gillougley says:
“To my astonishment, the priest actually stopped whatever he was doing or reading and he went over and grabbed the dog by the scruff of its neck and flung it outside.”
Good story, Frank, but did he do it with a smile on his face. In his shoes, or those of any butcher, baker or restaurant owner, in the same circumstances, I suspect most people would do something similar. BTW, was the creature a Catholic dog, in which case my sympathy lies with the dog.
Tories now complaining the FM is *hoovering* up voters from Irish Republicans, Muslims,Unemployed, Unemployable scroungers,Illegals,Sectarian bigots,Paedophiles,Thieves and Sex offenders which adds up to their 45% of the electorate, they say
I’m just amazed at the competence of the SNP to keep crime at a 43 year low considering the Tories say almost half the population of Scotland according to them are terrible people
It seems to reinforce the truth of who Tories think they are that being an Irish Republican, or a Muslim should be seen by them as criminal and or unworthy and as far as sectarian bigots is concerned I think the Tories have cornered the market in that regard, as for the unemployable category that sounds like a set of people who probably require assistance of some kind, ie: folk suffering from mental or physical health problems which again says everything about Tory compassion for the weak or vulnerable
As far as the *scroungers* are concerned, given that Scotland has only 3.4% unemployed, which is the lowest unemployment in the British Isles well there just aren’t very many of those folk in Scotland
We come to the last section of people the Tories complain about, the actual criminals, which once again brings us back to the crime figures in Scotland which are lower than any other country region territory of the British Isles, and those are not just SNP figures, those are Police Scotland figures
So by highlighting all of these people the Tories have once again demonstrated clearly to anyone who can read words and has a functioning brain that they are in fact a seriously set of very bad people who tell seriously bad lies and are prepared to lie seriously about anything that pops into their lying heads at any given time then share these lies with their sister parties the Lib Dems and Labour to spout all over again
One more thing must be pointed out, the Tories by these statements, feel that if you are NOT one of them you must therefore be ready to be hoovered up by the SNP making you, whoever you are and whatever you support *Unworthy*
So how do you like being *Unworthy* Scotland, because the Tories say you are
jfngw
5 years ago
Another unionist mantra, the oil should be left in the ground if Scotland is independent but obviously utilised to the full if we remain in the UK.
It’s a neat idea, you can discount the assets of an independent Scotland but use the same assets to enhance the UK GDP, hence prove how difficult independence will be without the encompassing hands of the UK.
Petra
5 years ago
C’mon folks. Support the only newspaper that supports us. Buy it or subscribe (£1.53 a week).
‘Let’s have 10,000 conversations about independence in Scotland today.’
…”The National asks readers to pick up an extra copy to share our eight-page special feature with friends, family and colleagues over a conversation about the future. It is hoped that these 10,000 conversations will help address the questions voters might have about why they should choose independence, and that the fact-filled spreads we’ve created will deliver plenty to talk about.”..
It being a surreal kinda day, I remember talking to the dog in question afterwards. He explained that he tended more toward the Amish approach to life, eschewing all matters technological.
Ah now, i replied, ‘That would be an ecumenical matter, Duke.’
Ken500
5 years ago
One of the best ever. Cairns. Not Davidson The Tories are toast. Johnstone the dope in a rope another altercation. He would not last until October for another leadership’ election. The Tory/unionist imbeciles not a worthwhile ‘candidate’ between them. Only two years to go into oblivion. What an absolute mess and shambles. The Westminster unionists a total world embarrassment.
Ken500
5 years ago
Subscribe to the National (reluctantly the Herald Groundhog Day).
Also buy it wherever it is available. One of the only Indy supporting MSM.
Wings is genius. Beats them every time.
Petra
5 years ago
The Union (England) without Scotland has nought to offer anyone at all. Jim Rodgers:- ”Without Scottish oil, little England won’t have much to sell to the outside world anymore.”
The wheel chair tennis really is amazing. What a speed they go at. The strength and skill. So entertaining.
Ken500
5 years ago
It is only because of SNP wise policy and investment that they are surplus renewables to sell off (to the Chinese) in an open market. The monies and profits raised can be set against further future investment. A win win situation. Good SNP investment policies. Taxes etc still raised agin it. Alex Salmond/SNP investment being realised for cheaper power for consumers. The turbines turning for cheaper clean power and fuel in Scotland. It could raise even£Billions more come Independence. One of the reasons for it.
HandandShrimp
5 years ago
Boris looked to have this sewn up. I wonder if his stairheid rammy is going to scupper him?
His hope will be that Hunt is seen as Maybot MkII. Still it does beg some interesting questions. What will no 10 be like with those two lobbing plates at each other. Posh Eastenders?
Ruth is out on a limb regardless. She didn’t back either of them at any point in the race until it was too late to be credible.
Ken500
5 years ago
More Tory/unionists tax dodgers. Illegal donations a total waste of monies. The Tory/unionist money wasters are facing oblivion. What a waste of time, space and money. GE election will wipe them out
Good riddance.
Ken500
5 years ago
Common Weal just do not understand business. In a green space paradise nonentity. Not in the real world. The cheap fuel and power, taxes and profits realised will outwith any concerns about about ownership. A great investment into Scotland. A win, win. Great clean low cost energy. A great investment in.
All the political commentators and news presenters when they talk about Scotland make the exact same brainwashed propagandised mistake whether deliberately or by accident
And it’s this …..
Scotland cannot leave the UK because Scotland IS the UK ergo you can’t leave yourself
Whenever the commentators make this *mistake* what they’re doing is making the assumption that England and it’s properties are the UK…….that’s 100% wrong, inaccurate, untruthful and tosh
When Scotland decides not to continue to participate in the continuation of the UK, that title does not revert to England or anywhere else, that title vanishes, gone disappeared, meets it’s maker,dissolved, a dead parrot if you will
Scotland on Independence day terminates the UK
If they’re going to continue calling us names I would rather enjoy the title of *Terminator* it kinda makes me feel more Swartz Svarts Swartsineggery
Oh Big Arnie like!
Marcia
5 years ago
Farage’s propaganda leaflet arrived today with the usual junk leaflets. Returned to the printer who printed it with a note.
Cubby
5 years ago
Dr Jim
A series of excellent posts. Back on form today.
schrodingers cat
5 years ago
asked who i’d support, bojo or mike hunt……….. in truth, i dont care but it is very clear that the unionits here dont want bojo, ergo……..
also, the scottish conservative and unionist party but in england it wa only ever called the conservative part. recently i heard it frequently called the conservative and unionist party
schrodingers cat
5 years ago
vicious rumour about bojo shagging keunsberg…….
cant retweet this often enough 🙂
Ottomanboi
5 years ago
If Johnson is PM I think the SNP may well have to change tack, if not upgrade the ‘craft’. He is an erratically manoeuvring HP power boat, enjoys making waves and does not care about the backwash. There are benefits to be had here. Readiness for attack, is always the best form of defence.
Scott
5 years ago
Why is Davidson shouting about this is it because she knows its a lot of 8rap.
Scotland set to get hundreds of millions of pounds more in ‘direct funding’ under new Tory PM.
call me dave
5 years ago
@Scott
Because their latest is to by-pass the SG and Sottish parliament to sow money into areas / projects that benefit the unionist agenda.
That is in Unionist voting areas where the have a foothold
It is called pork bellied politics (American name).
It is getting down to their last beezer ideas in the Tory bag of tricks.
Phil
5 years ago
BBC Shortbread Sat, 22 June 2019 : GMS, Izzy Fraser squeezes in Iain McWhirter for his sage analysis. Listen at about 08:27 +/- a minute or so. His theme of Scotland having been given the resounding message “NO” is used to reinterpret the latest You Gov poll which reported
“60% of Tory members/voters prefer Brexit to keeping Scotland within the Union”
which Iain analyses out to mean 60% of Tories say no to another Scottish Indy Ref.
But there is no time to discuss this further – of course!
So, the Rev’s post of 18,June 2019 was all wrong. Was it?
McWhirter’s view of Scotland’s shackled position is changing. Methinks Iain supports Scotland less and less.
Proud Cybernat
5 years ago
O/T
Changes to franchise rights with regards to residency:
Ian McWhirter is a firm and lifelong supporter of his wages and whoever pays them
Terry callachan
5 years ago
To Ken500..your post at 2.51 pm
You said
“ It is only because of SNP wise policy and investment that they are surplus renewables to sell off (to the Chinese) in an open market. The monies and profits raised can be set against further future investment. A win win situation. Good SNP investment policies. “
Honestly Ken , did you even read the common space report about this by Kenneth MacAlpine ?
I guess you didn’t because what you say just does not make sense
What robin MacAlpine is saying is that Scotland’s resources continue to be sold to the highest bidder the most recent being renewables which he says could be built engineered and owned by Scottish business but instead of that it is being sold off to China who will obviously give all the best well paid jobs to their own and will then sell our energy back to us making a hefty profit and forcing us to pay higher prices for what should be cheaper energy on our doorstep.
I love what the SNP do and think Nicola Sturgeon is absolutely wonderful
I do not know if they could stop this happening , I doubt it because it’s not devolved but they should be making a huge noise about it in Holyrood and Westminster
selling the rights to build renewables off the coast of Angus to a Chinese business , no less than the actual Chinese government owned company by the way , is absolutely crazy for the simple and obvious reason that Scotland loses control of how it’s done ,who is employed and that includes losing the ability to train local people and award jobs to them as well as the skilled people we already have.
Scotland is a world leader in this industry so giving it over to another country to develop what will be the biggest wind power and wave power plant in Scotland is just so wrong.
Sure let’s build up SNP and Nicola Sturgeon but let’s not make out that somehow the bad has to be good so we can praise them for something that they have little control over
Our oil and gas is sold to private business and we have no control
Now the same is happening with wind and wave power
As Robert MacAlpine says Scottish people might think they are socially minded
but our country is the most capitalist privately owned country in the world
Anyone but us owns our oil and gas
Anyone but us own our land
Anyone but us owns our wind and wave power
Same for many many other wealth producing assets
Get angry for heavens sake it’s the future of our children and grandchildren that is being stripped away
Ottomanboi
5 years ago
@Terry Callachan
Sturgeon & the SNP are a means to end. You don’t have to “love” either of them. It’s politics.
If the goods are delivered, they’ve done the job, but until then curb the sentiment.
bjsalba
5 years ago
Read a piece from the Express today. They are griping that the EU is not democratic again. They want an EU wide vote for the President of the Commission. What they mean of course is one they can buy with dirty money and Facebook ads and ”news”feeds. We see how well that has worked out in the USA.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a President of the Commission at odds with both the EU27 council and the Parliament. Now that would really be democracy in action ~~~ NOT.
Inverclyder
5 years ago
The 6 faces of Unionism.
Abulhaq
5 years ago
“LGBTQ+pride” link to thenational.scot
Give ‘em an inch and they’ll want a mile.
Some people are just never satisfied.
We could do better without the socalled Greens and their social engineering.
A collection of odd balls, misfits and weirdos.
Robert Peffers
5 years ago
@Ottomanboi says: 22 June, 2019 at 6:53 pm:
… If the goods are delivered, they’ve done the job, but until then curb the sentiment.”
Where did you get that daft idea?
The name of the party is, “The Scottish NATIONAL Party”. It is not the Scottish Nationalist Party. That is it is the party of the nation of Scotland. Which is why, in government, they do their level best for the Nation of Scotland.
They will not disband on day one of independence. What will happen is that those who only became SNP members to gain independence will slowly drift off to whatever right left and centre parties replace the Labour, Tory and LibDem English Nationalist parties but we have no indications what these new Scottish Parties will be as yet.
mike cassidy
5 years ago
OT
Its a Saturday night.
So enjoy this young Fifer who has spent the last decade establishing his standup credentials.
Elsewhere in this shamocracy of the Disunited Kingdumb …
7% more in favour of independence for Wales
22 June 2019 at 12:20 Updated at 15:04
There has been a 7% increase in the number of people in favour of independence for Wales between 2017 and 2019, according to a new YouGov survey.
The 2017 questionnaire was commissioned by Yes Wales, an organization for the independence for Wales.
This time, 1,133 people were questioned, and they were asked to rate how strong they are for independence for Wales – with 0 making them totally opposed, and 10 meaning they are fully supportive.
0-4 is counted as opposition, 5 as neither supportive nor opposed, and 6-10 supportive.
There is no record of those who said that they do not know either way.
The questionnaire was completed online between May 10 and 15 this year, and only people over the age of 18 were asked.
Outcomes
14% stated that they were very strongly in favour of independence (10 on the scale), compared to 10% two years ago.
4% stated that they were number 9 on the scale, compared to 2% in 2017.
5% had identified number eight, while 6% had stated that number two years ago.
6% had identified number seven in both instances …
while 7% had indicated number six this time compared to 5% in 2017.
Overall, therefore, 36% put themselves between 6-10, compared to 29% two years ago.
Only 47% say they oppose independence (0-5 on the scale), compared to 53% in 2017.
What is the purpose of principles and why would anyone look for them in a Tory? Principles make life easier as they define a set of values and moral logic that have been tested through time. Subsequently, we don’t have to rely on our individual moral intuition to guide our actions, when we face a conflict of interest. It’s just a pity that British nationalist like (t)Ruthless, appear ignorant of basic principles of moral democracy and the rule-of-law. Then again, British nationalism is the practice of Tory ethos and tradition.
(t)Ruthless is a media construct designed specifically to maintain the Union, she has no concern for Scotland’s well-being, IMHO.
The Phenomenology of Democracy
Abstract
Human beings originate votes, and democracy constitutes decisions. This is the essence of democracy. A phenomenological analysis of the vote and of the decision reveals for us the inherent strength of democracy and its deficiencies. Alexis de Tocqueville pioneered this form of enquiry into democracy and produced positive results from it. Unfortunately, his phenomenological method was inadequate and he missed the essential core of his ‘associative art’. The frequent association of democracy with rationality misleads us about its nature and its requirements. The phenomenology of democracy aligns with the governance concept of democracy. Many attempts to reform democracy, or impose it on others, are misplaced because they do not attend to the essence of democracy.
Welsh Sion So still an 11% lead for No to independence in Wales then and only 14% strongly in favour of independence. Remember too Wales voted Leave by almost exactly the same margin as the UK as a whole
Ken500
5 years ago
The wind farm would not be built without Chinese investment. It is investment that will bring unfathomable gains to Scotland. £Billions of clean cheap energy. Scotland is the best place in the world to invest in renewable energy. Wind and wave because of geographical conditions. Without the Chinese it would not be build. The monies needed to build and construction and being put up by the Chinese, it is Scotland that will benefit in billions when the cheap energy is harvested and sold, A combined effort, Either the Chinese put up he investment or it would not be built, That is the point.
The Scottish Gov does not have the necessary funding to invest, Either the Chinese funds help with the investment and funding. Or Scotland loses all the associate benefits, Loads and loads of benefit of cheap clean energy at the disposal. Providing jobs and profits in Scotland.. International investment. The way of the world for improved investment in loads of cheaper clean energy.
The greens should be delighted. Instead they find a way to turn the success into a negative, Do they not want Scotland producing loads of clean cheaper energy to the benefit. Just like Norwegian world investment. Clean cheaper energy production benefits Scotland and the whole world, The green negative arguments are suspect, The usual suspect negativity. Cutting off their nose to spite their face as usual. Total lack of business acumen. Trading and investment in good beneficial project. A win win all round. A success story. Inward investment into Scotland for a quality project, Creating monetary gain all round.
Ken500
5 years ago
Andy back in form
Lenny Hartley
5 years ago
For anybody watching your cheatin heart im on in a min heid banging to a tune ???
Ken500
5 years ago
Gas & Oil, fuel and energy ar taxed to the hilt. The taxes on profits goes to Gov. £Billions depending on world price,
Ken500
5 years ago
Scotland has a right to roam. Anyone can roam where they like. The Scottish people are socially minded and care about others. Especially the SNP Scottish Gov. Especially when compared to others. The Scottish economy Gov raises £60Billion in revenues to disposed, it could be even more if Independent and the monies put to better use. £80Billion like Norway,
The Chinese buy plenty of salmon and whisky Scottish products, All 1.3Billion of them. International trade and investment. Direct flights. Plenty of Chinese tourists and students handing over their investment and monies. Scotland pro rata one of the most visited place in the world. Brings in £Billions.
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
Here’s one for those still uncertain whether they are Scottish patriots or British nationalists.
In Our Name: The Ethics of Democracy
When we find ourselves appalled by our representatives’ actions, should we feel responsible for their behavior? What can we do to reduce our complicity with the actions that the government putatively takes on our behalf? These are the questions that animate Eric Beerbohm’s thoughtful and expansive book. Though group intention and collective responsibility constitute themes of major import within moral philosophy, political theorists have not regularly turned to this literature to explain democratic commitments. Beerbohm does so with elegance and verve, helping us to assess our obligations as citizens, and to understand the consequences when we, or our representatives, fall short….
Bugger after thirty years ended up on the cutting roam floor, was in the original honest!
Ken500
5 years ago
Nothing is being sold off to the Chinese. The Chinese are investing in producing billions of cheaper renewable energy in Scotland. The best place in the world to produce it. To bring benefits to Scotland. Either used or the surplus sold off. For profits in Scotland, Cheaper in comparison all round than other destructive fuel. Scotland gets the profits, taxes and benefits, in cheaper fuel and energy and jobs. For everyone’s grandchildren. It is not a protectionist market. Worldwide,
Terry callachan
5 years ago
Geeo ..really you shouldn’t post when you’re drunk
Drink and tablets together not a good thing
Keep taking your medicine
Lay off the sauce
I hope you get well soon
Terry callachan
5 years ago
Ottomanboi
Get real Otto.
Scottish independence is all about sentiment
If you don’t have it , you’re in the wrong place my friend
Terry callachan
5 years ago
Geeo…trying to be anonymous , failed
Scottish independence is coming geeo you try and try to put people off but it’s pointless , only those who really care about Scottish independence come on to wings ,you accuse so many who come on to wings of being British nationalists you are such a busy bee for the britnat cause trying to put people off Scottish independence.
It doesn’t work
Our will to succeed is too strong for you
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
I’m getting back into practice, so here’s some Social Psychology on when sentiment becomes good, old-fashioned, prejudice. Full text.
The motivation to express prejudice
Abstract
Contemporary prejudice research focuses primarily on people who are motivated to respond without prejudice and the ways in which unintentional bias can cause these people to act inconsistent with this motivation. However, some real-world phenomena (e.g., hate speech, hate crimes) and experimental findings (e.g., Plant & Devine, 2001; 2009) suggest that some expressions of prejudice are intentional.
These phenomena and findings are difficult to explain solely from the motivations to respond without prejudice. We argue that some people are motivated to express prejudice, and we develop the motivation to express prejudice (MP) scale to measure this motivation. In seven studies involving more than 6,000 participants, we demonstrate that, across scale versions targeted at Black people and gay men, the MP scale has good reliability and convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. In normative climates that prohibit prejudice, the internal and external motivations to express prejudice are functionally non-independent, but they become more independent when normative climates permit more prejudice toward a target group.
People high in the motivation to express prejudice are relatively likely to resist pressure to support programs promoting intergroup contact and vote for political candidates who support oppressive policies. The motivation to express prejudice predicted these outcomes even when controlling for attitudes and the motivations to respond without prejudice. This work encourages contemporary prejudice researchers to broaden the range of samples, target groups, and phenomena that they study, and more generally to consider the intentional aspects of negative intergroup behavior.
“Scotland has a right to roam. Anyone can roam where they like. The Scottish people are socially minded and care about others.”
Technically the right to roam is now covered in the Scottish Outdoor Access Code.
It’s not carte blanche to do as you want though, as there are responsibilities to adhere to when accessing the land.
Mountain biking is a great example of one of the benefits we have in Scotland with access to explore our amazing land and scenery.
Most folk are responsible but we still get the odd group of arseholes that dump their rubbish along the trails.
My local mtb groups organise trail maintenance days and occasional litter picks to keep the area neat and tidy.
Iain mhor
5 years ago
Value for money cartoonery as ever.
Was just thinking, Ruth is as isolated as she can possibly be really.
The mother church Conservative party doesn’t want her, the DUP, (as Unionist as got oot) thinks she and her ilk are anathema, Near half of Scotland doesn’t want her and (wait for it) most of the other half doesn’t want the Conservatives or her either.
She must have no sense of smell whatsoever.
Roses all around and every morning she wakes up and only smells shite, and just smiles, but why?*
Perhaps she must be surrounded by sycophants whispering in her ear continually and is deaf to reason – in which case she’s now rapidly running out of senses; as her backing of every failed English Tory candidate shows daily that she is out of touch. That just leaves her sight and only half at that.
She has no insight meaning she can only have single vision – that is the crux of the matter – she “sees” a myopic and megalomaniacal vision of herself as some saviour of Scotland & the Union; hoist aloft by adoring crowds, nodding left and right, a wave of the hand and crowned Princess of Everything.
Delusional. She is delusional isn’t she?*
*Sentences end with question mark, hammer falls repeatedly, exit pursued by a bear…
Petra
5 years ago
Let’s show our appreciation for Paul Kavanagh, one of the most hardworking and influential of independence activists. If you can afford to please donate to his annual crowdfunder.
The latest news from Professor John Robertson. News items that you won’t hear about on the BBC / STV or read about in the Unionist controlled newspapers.
OK, wwaaay O/T here – can any computer folk tell me why I have a Hewlet Packard security update dialogue box suddenly appear on my Toshiba pc screen? There seems no way to get rid of it other than click OK, which I haven’t yet. Would it be safe to click OK?
Capella
5 years ago
Is it for printer software?
TJenny
5 years ago
Capella – says it’s for my hp255g2 nottebook pc. don’t hhave one.
Capella
5 years ago
Sometimes pressing alt + F4 closes a window without clicking.
Capella
5 years ago
Sorry – Fn + F4
shug
5 years ago
what really astonishes me is the degree to which the BBC protect Ruth by not asking pertinent questions
TJenny
5 years ago
Capella – Fn + F4, brought up a project menu, but dialogue box still there. Haven’t got a printer but I did used to have an HP pc and a printer, does system maybe not know I haven’t for about 6 years?
Capella
5 years ago
If still a problem try task manager – Ctrl Alt Del.
It might still have you on a database but sounds dodgy. I think it is Alt + F4. I’m on a tablet and so no keyboard to jog memory!
I’d try the task manager and see if its listed. Failing that I’d probably just close down without clicking OK.
TJenny
5 years ago
Dr Jim – yippeee, restart removed it. A big thanks to you and Capella for your help. Everday’s a learning day on WOS. 🙂
Camz
5 years ago
Chris for national political cartoonist!
Capella
5 years ago
Great. You should probably check your programs list and uninstall any old hp software if you have it. Tomorrow!
TJenny
5 years ago
Capella – will do. (try)
Night, night.
TJenny
5 years ago
Capella, thanks, will do.
schrodingers cat
5 years ago
mmmmm
UK, YouGov poll:
Wales independence referendum
Pro independence: 41% (+8)
Against independence: 59% (-8)
If you’ve uninstalled the programme previously you might have bits of broken registry left over so you need to look in your programme list and uninstall again, if you can’t find it to get rid of it then you need to clean the PC
If you don’t have a cleaner there are plenty of free ones online that’ll give you a free trial, these will remove some of what you want then you uninstall that once you’ve used it then find anothe free one and do it again otherwise you have to pay loads of dosh for the McAfees and the Nortons and to be honest they’re a lot of money for not very much protection when you can get Avast or something for free
Hope you get sorted before you throw it out the window
Computers eh!
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
What price do you put on the Statue of Liberty? For scrap metal I mean, since it seems that’s all it’s worth.
I would remind you too America, you are a nation of uninvited immigrants.
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
OT from the Rev.’s twitter, re. Deborah Roseman and “It is impossible to overstate how inhumane and terrifying this is. The Trump administration simply doesn’t believe migrants are people.” That’s Anglo-American neo-liberalism that is, which is the domination of financial markets over humanity. Plus some good, old-fashioned, prejudice, I’ve no doubt.
This one isn’t for viewers in Scotland, our civil society is shaped by English Tories (see the full-English Brexit). We don’t really have a democratic say in the matter, frankly.
Launch of final findings – Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society
This two-year Inquiry has published its final reports into the state and future of civil society in England today.
Where is change most needed and how do we get there?
How can we put power in the hands of people and communities? How can we prevent an ‘us and them’ future, connect us better and humanise the way we do things?
forgive me, but have I missed a whole pile of opinion polls that suggest that there is decisive majority now pulling for Scottish independence?
Effijy
5 years ago
Laughing at Tory on BBC news trying to defend Boris the Mistress Beater.
He is outraged that a neighbour contacted the Guardian to report the story. Why would someone do that he squeals?
They and the Guardian are just anti-Tory and Boris.
I think the neighbour had a few reasons for selling the story to the Guardian. First one is like the Tories money is everything and morality nothing. Secondly they may feel that the country deserves to know about the despicable character of the next English Prime Minister and thirdly who the hell would want to live next to Bojo The Clown?
Perhaps he will relocate to the country to hide his failings.
Many Tories claiming we have no right to ask Bojo personal questions about his personal life?
What even if he a violent thug?
I still laugh at the Tory Daily Hail condemning Scotland’s duly elected First Minister for having the funds to buy her own home coffee maker. Its her own purchase for her own pleasure and not a Tory Expenses fiddle but how dare she spend a couple of hundred pounds on a kitchen appliance when the money could be spent negating Westminster Austerity cuts. lol
Pathetic 2 faced B*****ds!
Ken500
5 years ago
Dealing with rubbish is everyone’s responsibility. Not exporting it to other countries. Banning some plastic except for medical or urgent use. Water is now being sold in cartons at the same price. Or take a reusable container. Simple. Anyone can go into a cafe and ask for a glass of water. In a reusable vessel. Often at little or no cost. Scotland has good drinking water. Unlike some countries where it has to be bought (in) or recycled. With some unhealthy effects.
Ken500
5 years ago
Johnstone caught out again. What a disaster. Wait until all the other lies come out of the closet. The Tories are toast. Into oblivion. They could not make a bigger mess. Shameless. An international embarrassment.
Breeks
5 years ago
brian lucey says:
23 June, 2019 at 7:42 am
forgive me, but have I missed a whole pile of opinion polls that suggest that there is decisive majority now pulling for Scottish independence?
Dunno Brian. Did I miss a surge in Unionists who would try to actually settle a referendum by winning it fairly, rather than just suppress Scotland’s democracy to prevent it happening?
Didn’t think so.
I’m with WGD on the subject. I’ll respect the 2014 result once the Unionists respect the promises they made to win it.
Capella
5 years ago
What does the First Minister do all day?
Well here she is out campaigning for Independence and in a sing-a-long “Caledonia”:
Now that’s interesting , I had to read it twice , well most of it twice , reading it encourages self examination but that in itself is not necessarily going to lead to accurate results is it as this study shows.
There you have it the raising of the bar. Not a majority but decisive. Shades of 1979. The Britnat idea of democracy:
52/48 EU ref = the will of the people.
52/48 Scottish ref for devolution = not the will of the people
There is only a faux democracy in Scotland as long as the UK exists.
Terry callachan
5 years ago
To Ken500 your post of 7.55 am
Well said , I’m amazed at just how widespread the use of bottled water has become in the younger population , one of my sons and many of the young people I know drink nothing but bottled water , imagine it ? crazy , bottles and bottles at great cost.
When I tell them that Scotland has the cleanest healthiest tap water around they say they don’t like it because it tastes metallic .
The plastic from these bottles is waste, let’s face it bottled water is totally unnecessary we can all buy a reusable water bottle such as one would use at the gym and just keep refilling it, hey presto huge cut in plastic bottles kicking around our streets and floating in our rivers and seas
Terry callachan
5 years ago
To effijy..your post at 7.46am..
Do we know for sure that Boris is a mistress beater ?
Now , I don’t like his politics , the thought of him being PM is bewilderment that such a person could be PM .
But as I understand it a neighbour called the police who visited but made no charges.
I believe Boris has five children .,!
Left his wife last year and moved in with this new woman who used to work for the conservative press office.
Let’s face it we don’t really know much about his private life apart from this kind of thing.
We don’t know he is a mistress beater for sure , do we ?
Maybe I’ve missed something
Terry callachan
5 years ago
Scotland’s economy growing despite the threat of brexit
Elsewhere in this shamocracy of the Disunited Kingdumb …
schrodingers cat says:
23 June, 2019 at 1:58 am
Wales independence referendum
This excludes 29% (+2) undecided.
———————-
Seems to suggest the independence for Wales campaign is also gaining new adhereers because of unionist party failure and incompetence. The increase of the undecided might suggest that more are starting to think about the possibility and have dropped the automatic support of the union and are starting to think about the possibilty of an iWales.
Automatic voting because the family always voted a particular party is slowly dying out. Possibly due to the imformation age, internet and bloggers for and against independence succeeding or failing, as appropriate, to offer alternate choices to the younger generation and opening the eyes of the older generation to the sham that is Westminster.
A positive trend either way. England, without the other three nations, would probably not be able to wage war on all and sundry for profit as a stand alone country. We shall see sooner than later I hope.
Terry callachan
5 years ago
SNP and Scottish government doing so much to help people with housing and doing so with the restricted budgetary constraints set by Westminster
link to thenational.scot
Rather pathetic Mr B. Has the SNP run out of ideas? Curtain twitching, old maidish ‘Holy Than Thouism’ all that’s left in the armoury? Do grow up man!
Socrates MacSporran
5 years ago
Anent Boris’s private life, referred to in posts by Effijy and Terry Callachan.
I recall the press outrage at HRH The Duke of Rothesay’s conduct in marrying the then Mrs Parker Bowles; one media commentator wrote: “When one marries one’s mistress, it immediately creates a vacancy.”
By moving-in with his “bit on the side,” Boris, a man once described in another newspaper article as: “A man who hasn’t required to have a wank since he left Eton,” will almost certainly already be looking for another.
“Once a shagger – always a shagger,” another popular belief.
He should maybe join the Lib-Dems, such conduct is more David Lloyd George than Winston Spencer Churchill.
Sky TVs Sophy Ridge just interviewed Nicola Sturgeon
An excellent interview with no badgering nonsense and the FM given time to answer the questions, she came across very real and rounded unlike every single one of the opposition fakes we normally see being interviewed
Dan
5 years ago
@Ken and Terry
Re. Plastic rubbish
The cynic in me is just waiting on it being large scale monetised by the powers that be with subsidies being paid by the people to large plastic recycling corporations marketed as “cleaning up our world” who will then profit from processing what is actually a very valuable resource.
TBH I can’t believe it hasn’t happened already Black Mirror style…
It’d be easier to just collect a plastic tax at source from the companies that produce the stuff in the first place with that money going towards setting up the infrastructure to efficiently process the end source waste they originally created.
1p per item isn’t going to stop people buying a product.
There’s 5.5 million folk in Scotland so if we conservatively say we use just one item per day that’s 55,000 raised daily towards the running costs of a processing plant, which could ultimately be self fueled as it processes the waste.
Plastic packaging is something like 40 MJ/Kg calorific value which is pretty much the same as heating oil which as we know is expensive. Modern home oil boilers are efficeient in converting oil to heat, but they still pump out emissions without the exhaust passing through a catalyst.
People can have a word with their butchers and fishmongers and ask if they would consider adopting more environmentally friendly packaging.
I was chuffed to see and have a chat with my local butcher that has made the switch. Good on them for taking the initiative. Shame on others who continue to use un-recyclable packaging when alternatives are available.
Ottomanboi
5 years ago
@Terry Callachan
Plastics leach estrogens into food which may well be carcinogenic and cause low sperm count and ‘feminization’ ie boobs in males. As to environmental consequences people just need to look around them.
The water bottle thing is an expensive, consumerist ‘health’ fad. Virtually all tap water is safe but trace estogens are almost impossible to remove. . The bottled stuff has had periodic problems with toxins. link to ecologycenter.org
galamcennalath
5 years ago
A question which has arisen in interviews with Johnson is, how many children does he have?
He never answers.
4-5-6? Perhaps he doesn’t actually know!
McBoxheid
5 years ago
CameronB Brodie says:
23 June, 2019 at 6:12 am
That’s Anglo-American neo-liberalism that is, which is the domination of financial markets over humanity. Plus some good, old-fashioned, prejudice, I’ve no doubt.
_______
In my opinion, Anglo-American neo-liberalism is starting to fail. As people globaly become poorer and more aware of environmental concerns, that failure is quickening. Hence the emergence and advancement of the extremism of right wing politics over the last decade.
In parts of Kwazulu Natal (KZN), tourism agencencies have started to work with the local community in a symbiotic arrangement. A local community provides labour to a lodge and gains mains electricity, tapped water and job security. Additionally, the local Zulu people are changing the way they treat their environment. Litter is being picked up instead of being dropped, environmental awareness is growing due to Ramsar status and inproved education. They know that unless more environmental protection is aspired to, then they will lose their Ramsar status.
Eucalyptus farming is being reduced, because people are starting to realise that the largest fresh water lake in South Africa is disappearing. No lake, no Ramsar status, no tourism. The latter does not like rubbish everywhere and South Africans are starting to collect their litter. Not only in KZN.
In my example, the Zulu people have seen that working with ecotourism agencies for profit to both themselves and the lodge provider, brings them both wealth, a cleaner, more sustainable environment and a more comfotable way of life than selling land for short term profit (to the king) for monoculture that is causing a great water loss to lake Sibaya, potentially leading to the loss of Ramsar status and a consequential collapse in tourism and therefore a loss of job security and wealth.
Sustainable eco friendly economy will always out last environmentally damaging short term gain. The biggest pronlem is that politicians mainly look as far as the next election and to their own personal wealth. If only they would realise that long term planning and a sustainable and ecofriendly environment for all people would bring them more wealth in the long run, as the would be reelectable as everyone would gain. (Even if it just a cleaner environment.)
McBoxheid
5 years ago
Sorry about the typos. I think my post at 10:16 is still just readable though.
Marcia
5 years ago
According to twitter the Sunday Times has Yes ahead by 6% in their latest Panelbase poll.
Fergus Green
5 years ago
From the Times – MPs plan to oust Johnston after 24 hours:
Boris Johnson has been warned that he is at high risk of being prime minister for just one day as Tory MPs launched a secret plot to stop the Queen asking him to replace Theresa May.
The Conservative chief whip, Julian Smith, told Johnson campaign chiefs Gavin Williamson and James Wharton on Thursday that there was a high likelihood he would lose a vote of no confidence within 24 hours of taking the job.
Smith revealed that two Tory MPs were on a “high-risk” watch list to defect from the party, destroying its majority in parliament and that a “handful” could jump ship to bring him down.
Key aides of Johnson and Jeremy Hunt were summoned to a meeting at Conservative campaign headquarters (CCHQ) on Thursday where Smith and the party chairman, Brandon Lewis, outlined plans for May to tender her resignation to the Queen after a final appearance at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, July 24.
Smith explained that Labour MPs had been placed on a “hard three-line whip” for the following day, when Jeremy Corbyn is expected to table a motion of no confidence in the new government — and warned that it could easily be lost.
Former ministers Guto Bebb and Phillip Lee are on Smith’s high-risk watch list. After the Tory MP Chris Davies was removed on Friday for expenses fraud, the Tories have a working majority of just four.
If they lose next month’s Brecon and Radnorshire by-election, caused by Davies’s demise, that will go down to three — meaning just two MPs switching votes could bring Johnson down.
Chief whip Julian Smith said two Tory MPs were on a ‘high-risk’ watch list to defect
In one “doomsday” scenario, party bosses fear Bebb, who holds another Welsh seat, could defect to the Liberal Democrats in order run in the by-election against the Tories.
Johnson is facing five plots to derail his premiership before it has even started:
? Tory MPs plan to write to May saying they will not vote for Johnson in a motion of no confidence, making it difficult for her to recommend that the Queen invites him to form a government because he will not be able to command a majority in the House of Commons.
? Dominic Grieve, the former attorney- general, yesterday confirmed that even if this does not work, a sizeable group of Tory MPs is prepared to vote with Labour to bring down the government if Johnson persists with his plan to leave the EU by October 31 come what may. He said another Tory could be summoned to the palace instead.
? A cross-party group of MPs is planning a second attempt to seize control of the parliamentary timetable to force a binding vote that could stop no-deal in its tracks. A previous attempt failed because the motion was proposed by the Labour front bench. “We won’t make that mistake again,” said one plotter.
? In an effort to press Johnson towards keeping a version of May’s Brexit deal, a group of 26 Labour MPs in leave seats, who say Brexit must happen, have held secret talks about bringing forward their own Brexit motion in order to show that Labour leavers would support leaving the EU with a deal over no-deal.
? Leading Brexiteer hardliners, headed by former Brexit minister Steve Baker, are warning Johnson that they are prepared to force a no-confidence vote of their own in the autumn if Johnson does not stick to his pledge to take the UK out of the EU at the end of October. “We made him and we can break him,” said one MP. “If Boris reneges on his promises, he’ll be out quicker than May was.”
The most serious immediate threat is a no-confidence motion in the final week of July. The Sunday Times has spoken to several MPs involved in the plot who claim they are prepared to risk a Corbyn government to stop a no-deal Brexit.
Remain-supporting MPs, including Lee, Grieve, Sam Gyimah, Richard Harrington and Antoinette Sandbach, were seen plotting in Portcullis House on Thursday afternoon.
A former minister said: “There comes a time when you believe something will be so damaging for the country that you come to the decision that the only way forward is to lie in front of the tanks.”
Another former minister said he would prefer to sit as an independent than continue to represent a party that has been “taken over by extremists”.
Johnson is being urged by his allies to reach out to the rebel remainers and vow to protect them from deselection if they promise to support him in motions of no confidence in the Commons.
This weekend, Johnson finds himself at the heart of a tug-of-love over his Brexit policy. Members of the European Research Group group of hardliners, who want a no-deal departure from the EU, are demanding that two of their number — Baker and Marcus Fysh — join the negotiating team, along with trade experts Crawford Falconer and Shanker Singham.
However, Johnson allies say the job of chief negotiator is more likely to be taken by David Frost, a former diplomat and businessman who was Johnson’s special adviser when he was foreign secretary.
At the same time, The Sunday Times can reveal that EU diplomats have launched a secret outreach effort to Johnson.
A senior European diplomat last week used an intermediary to tell the Tory leadership frontrunner that EU leaders in German, France, Holland and the European Commission are prepared to do business with him.
Both commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, have signalled that they want to get Brexit finalised “on their watch” before the autumn and both are prepared to break off their summer holidays to meet him.
While the EU remains resistant to reopening the withdrawal agreement, Johnson has been told that they could add to it, will rewrite the political declaration on a future relationship and could wrap the whole thing up in a new “umbrella” deal.
That is unlikely to go far enough for Brexiteer hardliners whom Johnson has had to woo to help him secure the leadership.
chicmac
5 years ago
You’re dreaming Chris. There is no ebb low enough.
Actually I think the FM didn’t answer the question of which team she’d support now that Scotland’s out, because she doesn’t care that much about football in general, she just cares about Scotland football, that’s different
I’ll be supporting ABE as will many of us I guess
They still don’t take that wee hint do they, how much bigger do we need to make it
Robert Peffers
5 years ago
@Terry callachan says: 22 June, 2019 at 9:49 pm:
” … Geeo ..really you shouldn’t post when you’re drunk
Drink and tablets together not a good thing
Keep taking your medicine
Lay off the sauce
I hope you get well soon”
Terry, if you continue with these unsubstantiated claims that certain Wingers are drug and alcohol abusers you will be formally complained about.
This type of abuse is unwarranted.
chicmac
5 years ago
Besides, I’ve a feeling Hunt will get it. A month’s a long enough time for a reality check, even for Tories.
+ hustings = BoJo has to say stuff.
Hunt for Red October GE in the Spring.
Fergus Green
5 years ago
@Marcia 10.31
The Times says ‘Boris Victory will end Union’
Boris Johnson could be the midwife of Scottish independence, according to an exclusive Sunday Times poll that suggests a majority of Scots would vote to leave the UK if he becomes prime minister.
The Panelbase survey of 1,024 voters, conducted last week, confirms the worst fears of close allies of Scots Tory leader Ruth Davidson — pointing to a six-point lead for the “yes” campaign if, as expected, the former London mayor succeeds Theresa May.
Today’s poll suggests that Johnson, with a personal approval rating in Scotland of minus 37, is even less popular north of the border than Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, who shares an approval rating of minus 24 with Johnson’s leadership rival Jeremy Hunt.
The most popular Tory leadership candidate by far is international development secretary Rory Stewart, who was voted out last week after what was widely considered a poor performance in the TV debate with the other contenders.
His Scottish approval rating, at minus 4 (representing the difference between those who think he does a good or bad job), is just behind Nicola Sturgeon (whose rating is neutral) and Davidson on minus 1.
In recent days the SNP leadership has sought to exploit unease among many Scots over Johnson, with Westminster leader Ian Blackford labelling him “racist” and accusing him of being unfit to govern.
Nationalist strategists are hopeful that a significant number of socially liberal voters in Scotland who helped secure a 55%-45% vote against independence in the 2014 referendum and have had second thoughts since the UK voted for Brexit may be tipped into their camp by his premiership.
As things stand the poll puts support for Scottish independence at 49% (up one point since last month), and opposition at 51% (—1). But when asked how they would vote in the event of Johnson leading the UK government 53% say they would back independence, with 47% opposed.
Last week senior Tories confirmed privately that they are anxious that Johnson could prove catastrophic for the Union, driving Scottish voters towards independence. They are also alarmed at a lack of support for the Union among grassroots Tory members in England. It comes after a YouGov poll indicated that a majority of Conservative members would be willing to consent to independence for Scotland, which voted against Brexit, if it means the rest of the UK leaving the EU.
Speaking at a political festival yesterday Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard warned: “We need to take on the English nationalism of Boris Johnson. Because we are witnessing the abandonment of Conservatism and unionism and the rise of a new and dangerous nationalism.”
John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, said: “The attraction to Conservative members south of the border of electing Boris Johnson as their leader is clear.
“Polling consistently suggests the figurehead of the ‘leave’ campaign is best placed to win back the many voters the Tories have lost to Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party in the wake of the failure to deliver Brexit.
“But [this] poll today reveals that the calculation facing Tory members north of the border looks very different. Boris Johnson seems unlikely to bring the party much electoral dividend while he could put at risk its hopes of keeping Scotland in the Union.”
But while SNP MPs have cheered publicly over Johnson’s success in the Tory leadership contest, some senior figures close to Sturgeon are concerned that he may yet prove less unpopular among Scots than he currently seems, particularly if he shows sensitivity in his dealings with Scotland.
May, Hunt and Johnson have all set their faces against a second independence referendum any time soon, suggesting that the nationalists do not currently have a mandate for one.
The jump in support for independence is likely to lead to that position being underlined but our poll indicates that the SNP and Greens may be able to force the issue at the next Holyrood election by winning an “independence majority” of three seats.
Based on the findings, Curtice calculates that the SNP would win 61 of the Scottish parliament’s 129 seats and the Greens 5 with the Tories returning 24 MSPs, Labour 19, the Liberal Democrats 13 – and the Brexit party winning seven seats.
In the event of a Westminster general election the SNP are poised to make large gains, winning 50 of the 59 Scottish seats (up from 35), which would also help keep independence on the agenda. The Tories would fall from 13 to three, Labour from seven to one, while the Liberals would win five seats (up one).
Davidson can take some comfort from Panelbase’s finding that a Johnson leadership does not appear to signal a fall in support for the Scottish Tories whose ratings have already tumbled in recent weeks as the Brexit crisis continues.
Cubby
5 years ago
Reporting Scotland last night
Three marches were reported on:
1. An orange order march being re routed.
2. An actual march taking place in Edinburgh yesterday for LGBT.
3. An actual service veterans march taking place yesterday in Edinburgh.
So Reporting Scotland do cover marches.
However, NO mention of the Bannockburn march that took place yesterday. The place where Scotland regained its freedom. Propaganda by omission.
galamcennalath
5 years ago
Are we about to see politics in Scotland move into a totally new environment?
Sunday Times poll say Yes 53% No 47% with Johnson as PM.
Johnson will almost certainly become PM.
There seems a real possibility that support for independence will go positive and stay that was as Johnson, the Tories, and WM proceed to destroy their Union.
Everything changes when support gets positive. No longer can BritNats claim we don’t want Indy. The media may remain biased pro UK but they can’t avoid clear public opinion. Psychologically, more folks want to be seen on the winning side. The wider world (especially the EU) will take more interest. And the SG and Holyrood with their clear mandate can’t continue to prevaricate!
Also, rather interestingly, the net approval rating for Johnson was minus 37 while that of Corbyn was worse at minus 44. Good to see that Scots are now dismissing Labour and Corbyn as an antidote for the Tories.
HYUFD
5 years ago
That Panelbase poll was conducted by Yes Scotland and including Don’t Knows Yes is still under 50% so no certainty.
Also interesting as you say despite supposedly being less popular than Edward IInd in Scotland Boris is still more popular with Scots than Corbyn is
chicmac
5 years ago
Of course if there is no Brexit at halloween then the main GE combatants will be the Brexit party and the Fibbies.
Joe Swinson as PM and Wullie Renege as Governer Corporal disnae bear thinkin aboot.
Abulhaq
5 years ago
@Socrates MacSporran
Private life ought to be private, even for so called public figures. The Anglo-saxon media culture is puritanical and prurient about sex, particularly about the sex lives of others. What people get up to in their space is their business. In the public space cool circumspection ought to be normative but with self obsessed people including politicians exposing themselves, literally, on very public social media platforms the art of circumspection and discretion has gone out of fashion.
People who expect politicians to be saints patently do not understand human nature. First stones etc.
Johnson does not chat about his private life, a commendable and mature approach. He should be judged solely on his public politics not his personal antics. Ad hominem ‘critique’ is always a bad move.
HYUFD
5 years ago
As reported recently Boris actually wants a FTA for GB and let Northern Ireland voters decide on the backstop in a referendum rather than No Deal
When asked by Andrew Marr about the 63% of Tories who would rather see an English Brexit concluded to their satisfaction and to hell with Scotland, Liam Fox said..
*I am a Unionist and the Union is not a Union of countries it’s a Union of people who move around and are better together and happier together*
I’d be interested to see this different historical document treaty agreement of people
chicmac
5 years ago
Dr Jim
Well they were different countries when he claimed English troops were braver than Scots. AFAIR.
ronnie anderson
5 years ago
AUOB has updated its rules concerning caterers after an ‘incident’ at Oban. It requests 20% of *takings* – not profits – from commercial caters and 10% of *takings* from non-profit outfits. Bear in mind that this is public land.
Please Share . Auob have no rights to demand monies from any stallholders , they dont hire the park , anyone intending to attend the Ayr march dont contribute to the bucket collections .
Abulhaq
5 years ago
The alternative to Johnson is this. link to inews.co.uk
Hunt is a clockwork BritState apparatchik, imagination, insight blah blah…forget it.
He could propel independence into the 70s….
Michael Portillo says Boris Johnson wants rid of Northern Ireland because it’s a burden and a problem he does’nt want, so a referendum gets them out of the way and Boris can forge ahead with any kind of Brexit he wants
Phillip Hammond has already stated quite clearly that Brexit is unaffordable without Scotlands assets
But we already knew that didn’t we
McBoxheid
5 years ago
Robert Peffers says:
23 June, 2019 at 10:40 am
@Terry callachan says: 22 June, 2019 at 9:49 pm:
” … Geeo ..really you shouldn’t post when you’re drunk
Drink and tablets together not a good thing
Keep taking your medicine
Lay off the sauce
I hope you get well soon”
Terry, if you continue with these unsubstantiated claims that certain Wingers are drug and alcohol abusers you will be formally complained about.
This type of abuse is unwarranted.
—–
A bit hypocritical, Robert. Anyone who uses words that you diagree with gets preached at, then accused of being a troll when they defend themselves.
It is your ilk that is preventing real discussion on this website.
ATL, this website is very eyeopening.
BTL, not so much. In the main, people that discuss isues you don’t agree with as branded trolls and worse. Not everyone of course. Some people prefer discussions to be multifaceted. This leads to healthy debate from which opinion is formed. Your kind of opposition to healthy debate, intentional or otherwise, is making the BTL comment a closed bubble. Everyone is encouraged to comment. You and your ilk are not moderators as far as I know. So go ahead and report if it makes you feel better. I am pretty sure the Rev Stuart does read the comments and he will hit people with hammers if they are breaking his forum rules.
Effijy
5 years ago
Terry callachan says:
23 June, 2019 at 9:17 am
To effijy..your post at 7.46am..
Yes Terry with this latest Mistress having to screen to get Boris off of her,
As heard and recorded by neighbours I’d say there is no doubt he used
Physical restraint to try and stop her screening.
If there was an explanation to the events that the public would swallow
He would then be willing to present it to the many who have asked.
A descent man would explain their actions and apologise to all for his actions
And pledge never to let this be repeated.
Again I’d like to compare our First Minister denying French Gate to the entire UK Media
And they called her a liar throughout and to this day the Spectator doesn’t accept that Unionist
Carmichael was the liar and he let £1 Million be wasted on an enquiry.
So yes Boris uses physical force against an innocent woman in her own home!
I have no doubt his Eaton Chums could make the neighbours disappear or tag them as Iranian Secret service insurgents.
GUILTY!
Scotland’s next not voted for prime minister wants Scots put in a ghetto and eliminated
Insults Muslims and Blacks of Africa’s Decent.
A man who states he would always invest in England over Scotland.
Yes I’m guilty of doing my utmost to stop this clown from ruling over Scotland
Cubby
5 years ago
Police numbers.
Scotland – 32 officers per 10k population.
England and Wales – 21 officers per 10k population.
Oh FGS first up on Brewers is Ross Groper Thomson supporting Nutter Johnston. Did anyone ever hear if an investigation was carried out in relation to his, Thomson’s, behaviour at the Commons booze up and if so what was the outcome? He says that, “Boris would be the SNP’s worse nightmare and that Boris is going to set up a “Union Unit” in London to strengthen the Union.
Robert Peffers
5 years ago
@Dan says:22 June, 2019 at 10:34 pm:
” … Technically the right to roam is now covered in the Scottish Outdoor Access Code.
It’s not carte blanche to do as you want though, as there are responsibilities to adhere to when accessing the land.”
It never ever was carte blanche, Dan. There was no English style trespass law in Scotland but there always was laws to protect the privacy of residents in the close vicinity of dwellings and the right to claim damages from people on, “private”, property if they caused damage.
” … Most folk are responsible but we still get the odd group of arseholes that dump their rubbish along the trails.”.
I can remember reports in the media of such things as a piano and a model T ford car among a long list of other junk having to be removed from the peak of Ben Nevis. If memory serves that was back in the 1950s.
The original Right to Roam laws implied that both owners and those who roamed respected each other. The new laws only emphasised that respect. BTW: there are exceptions to the Trespass laws but these were mainly for the safety of those who would roam in dangerous places such as Railway lines, MOD property, (such as bombing ranges), and I believe also motorways.
It was always an offence to intrude close to dwellings unless invited or, in the absence of a notice (like, “No Hawkers”, or, “No cold callers”, to go by marked paths to main entrance in order to contact the legal occupier(s).
Furthermore certain providers of services, such as water, sewerage, telephones, gas and electricity could,(can), go into close proximity to dwellings.
However, even the police are restricted in doing so unless they have firm evidence of criminal activity actually taking place on the premises or when in actual pursuit of a criminal. Police can only gain access to a dwelling by invite or with a properly issued search warrant.
And in case anyone wonders – that also applies to BBC Licensing, “investigators”, who have no legal right to be even close to private dwellings without a warrant than any other member of the public.
Brian Doonthetoon
5 years ago
O/T…
As I understand it, mobile caterers are licenced by a local council (for which they probably pay a licence fee), to operate on a public land within the council’s remit.
This seems to be a can of worms opening up. Note below, “AUOB charges a levy of 20% of takings”.
It seems to read that AUOB are adopting a position above the local council who, presumably, are happy with the hygiene regime of mobile caterers or else they wouldn’t licence them.
From AUOB’s Facebook page:-
“All Under One Banner
Yesterday at 08:54
IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR PROSPECTIVE CATERERS TOWARDS #AUOBAyr & BEYOND
All Caterers who wish to be considered for permission to do Catering at Ayr on 6th July must make direct contact with us by Friday 28th June.
Please attach scanned copies of all of your relevant certificates and outline the nature of your catering outlet.
AUOB charges a levy of 20% of takings for commercial caterers and 10% of takings for not-for-profit organisation caterers, made payable to AUOB on the 6th July after making evident a note of your takings.
Funds we receive from catering is one of 4 revenue streams for AUOB which is itself a not-for-profit voluntary run community led organisation, and as such all proceeds help to fund this year’s 8 massive marches & rallies across Scotland and beyond.
As Organisers we value the health and hygiene of every single participant who attends AUOB demos and so should any caterers not fully comply with our application process and operational terms then we retain the right, in the interests of public safety, to stop any such rogue caterers setting up and serving potentially lethal food to the public, and to this effect we would liase with local authorities and Police Scotland to ensure any such rogue caterers are not allowed to operate on the event days.
As event organisers our level of duty of care towards all participants must come first and this is why we are outlining this.
We hope everyone has a great weekend in sunny ? Scotland and is gearing up towards our next massive Demonstration at #AUOBAyr in only 2 weeks time.”
This is from Lindsay Bruce’s (AyeMail) Twitter.
“Lindsay Bruce
?@RogueCoder250
They have no legal authority to do this. It’s public land. This is just the latest draconian edict from AUOB regarding stallholders. It’s why ayeMail doesn’t do their marches any more.”
This is from Jason Michael McCann’s Twitter:-
“Jason Michael
?@Jeggit
AUOB has updated its rules concerning caterers after an ‘incident’ at Oban. It requests 20% of *takings* – not profits – from commercial caters and 10% of *takings* from non-profit outfits. Bear in mind that this is public land.
…
Jason Michael
?@Jeggit
11 hours ago
Just in case any ‘rogue traders’ – those who refuse to cough up their share of their takings – don’t comply, there is a wee threat included. I will be speaking to Ayr Council through the week to clear a few things up.”
Friends of Wings Over Scotland will have a stall at Ayr but it will probably be the last one.
Marcia
5 years ago
The Panelbase poll is an exclusive Sunday Times poll and not a Yes Scotland poll as claimed by one of our resident cynics.
Scott
5 years ago
Brewers show,has anyone else noticed that the Lib Margaret Smith always seem to be on his show Wen and Sun is she being grounded to take over.
Dawn in NL
5 years ago
This article by Fintan o’Toole is quite long, but worth reading. Having lived in the Rep of Ireland (before the property bubble) I recognise his point about having to take responsibility for ourselves after independence. “National freedom isn’t another word for nothing left to lose. It is another word for no one left to blame – that is, except yourself. If you make your own choices, you become responsible for their consequences.” link to thenational.scot
You are championing healthy debate in your post. I fail to see how Callachans comments can be classified as such. In the spirit of healthy debate care to enlighten me.
Scott
5 years ago
I see that Hunt is coming to Scotland just to see his faithful and will get an easy ride from the MSM I bet no one will ash him about this.
Jeremy Hunt refuses Foreign Office support for Nicola Sturgeon Brussels visit ‘to talk up independence’
Or this.
Jamal Khashoggi killing: Saudi crown prince ‘should face investigation’
There is credible evidence that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other high-level officials are individually liable for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a UN expert says.
Abulhaq
5 years ago
@Petra
Johnson’s musings on the Union. Essentially England would be cut down to size.
I don’t believe he is a genuine unionist at heart. Maybe the reason Davidson keeps her distance.
The better together mantra is sentimental not logical. It recalls nostalgic ‘past glories’ not present realties.
Petra
5 years ago
@ Dr Jim at 11:06am …”Hammond / Scotland’s assets.”
Interesting Dr Jim. Do you have a link for that?
………….
Brewer’s Sunday Politics:-
OO Clegg, Daily Rag political editor, actually admitting that Johnston as PM would push up support for Independence. Looked as though he knows it’s coming (yet for a’ that). Also came out with a fairly complimentary comment about Nicola Sturgeon. No “SNP Baad” guff for a change.
Margaret Smith, former Libdem MSP, in making comparison with (vile) Johnston stated that she trusts Nicola Sturgeon, such as when visiting Brussels / the UN, and knows that “she’ll not let Scotland down.” Wee Wullie will be beiling this morning, just as Brewer surely was.
You are championing healthy debate in your post. I fail to see how Callachans comments can be classified as such. In the spirit of healthy debate care to enlighten me.
——–
Callachan’s comments can not be classified as such I was pointing out Robert’s hypocricy.
Petra
5 years ago
@ Brian at 11:03 ….”AUOB.”
Amazing to see that Mr Singh, who sticks up two fingers at Police Scotland when trying to control him to safeguard the public, will look to them for support in controlling the caterers. The latter being dealt with by the Council, surely?
They’ve to fork out 20% of their takings!!!!! And what if that is less than the profit made? Daylight bl**dy robbery. “Robbery” being the key word. Time for them to afford the public access to their accounts. In saying that there’s no paper trail when you’re also using buckets to collect money. They should have stuck to crowdfunding and publicised, in detail, what they’ve made and what they’ve spent. Keep it simple and above board.
kapelmeister
5 years ago
The Tories will be moving ahead after brexit with their dismantling of devolution. Their plans are in place. Jeremy Hunt agrees with that every bit as much as Boris Johnson.
Hunt can no more save the union than Johnson can.
galamcennalath
5 years ago
kapelmeister says:
Hunt can no more save the union than Johnson can.
Indeed. Both men, their politics, their party, and their undemocratic parliament, are catalysts driving the cause of Scottish independence. They aren’t a solution, they are the problem.
All the BritNats won in 2014 was a delay – that became obvious within months. The question moved from ‘IF’, to ‘WHEN’.
At some point soon Scottish public opinion will move to pro Indy, with help in no little part by the Tories themselves. Tories clearly fantasise about many things, throwing more petrol onto a fire to put it out is one of them.
admiral
5 years ago
Petra says:
23 June, 2019 at 11:15 am
Boris is going to set up a “Union Unit” in London to strengthen the Union.
I believe they had one of these before. It was called the Colonial Office.
Breeks
5 years ago
Rather than going for your guns, (and conscious I’m perhaps rushing in where angels fear to tread), isn’t this 20% levy on caterers at AUOB marches described as an income stream for AUOB?
If people don’t like the levy, and who could blame them, isn’t it a more constructive idea to discuss an alternative funding strategy which covers costs but doesn’t step on peoples’ toes?
I’m thinking crowd funding… Many hands makes YES work.
I agree with you that Callachan ‘s comments cannot be classified as healthy debate. How would you describe/classify them? Do you find them acceptable?
You say Peffers is being a bit hypocritical. I don’t think I have ever seen him post using the type of language used by Callachan. Like many I have had Peffers saying a post of mine is tosh, balderdash etc etc etc. Didn’t offend me at all – part of healthy debate.
I personally have never reported anyone for them to be removed as I believe in free speech. But that is Peffers right to do so as he is following the site rules.
Peffers has been of immense service in providing info to readers. Callachan on the other hand parades his bigotry, refuses to answer questions when challenged and then spouts offensive comments. I know which party IMO is more worthy of criticism and it ain’t Peffers.
galamcennalath
5 years ago
The Tories have ignored everything Scotland’s duly elected representatives have said, proposed, or requested. Completely blanked out the will of folks here. Sidelined at every occasion. Hunt even stopped the FO giving The FM assistance when visiting the EU – a FO we help pay for!
And yet they say they want to maintain their union!
There is only one conclusion – it’s only ScotLAND they want, and they don’t give a rat’s arse about the Scots themselves.
Jack Murphy
5 years ago
Dr Jim said at 9:51 am:
” Sky TVs Sophy Ridge just interviewed Nicola Sturgeon
An excellent interview with no badgering nonsense and the FM given time to answer the questions, she came across very real and rounded unlike every single one of the opposition fakes we normally see being interviewed ”
Petra AUOB have never published Tax Returns in the last 4 years there is more to them than meets the eye . Bruno Cellini put up a crowdfunder as week before Galasheilds for a van repair £ 3.100 , the van was sitting at Galasheilds . Their scaming the Yes movement they have £ 22K from previous crowdfunders .
Dont give them a penny Wingers I will put up the Wings Stall at Ayr & they wont be getting a penny from that venture
Dave McEwan Hill
5 years ago
Petra at 11.51
As I have been saying for some time the Record is on the turn. It might be a purely commercial move as about half their readership are now yessers. Sister paper Sunday Mail gives full page to Nicola today (and good cover on other pages). Virtually no cover for Labour in either paper anytime.
Sign of the times.
Must read article by Fintan O’Toole in today’s Sunday National (Seven Days section).
Brian Doonthetoon
5 years ago
Interesting comment from James O’Brien on the recent poll of Conservative members.
@ Abulhaq says at 11:41am …. “Essentially England would be cut down to size.”…
Aye in more ways than one Abulhaq, especially when Trident gets returned to sender. England, sad to say, will become a poor little nonenity breeding and fostering racism and of course social unrest. Divided forevermore. I was just reading that of the ten key right wing Nazi-type activists in the World five of them are British. English? The legacy of propaganda that has promoted their despicable Empire and so-called “past glories” has just led to their current false sense of entitlement and superiority: And of course for blaming “others” and the EU for the absolute, overall, mess that England is experiencing in relation to everything that their politicians touch on.
Johnston, to my mind, doesn’t give a toss for the Union either, his party or the country in general. It’s all about finding himself in a position to receive as much attention as possible (for being a good or bad boy). Get his massive ego massaged. Davidson doesn’t like him because he shows up the Tories for the charlatans that they truly are but in the main, like her, try to hide from the public.
And then there’s Brexit. A majority in England voted for it to regain, they said, their sovereignty, ability to control immigration and form trade deals. What we see now is that their sovereignty is going to be controlled by right wing nutters such as Johnston and Farage, immigration is rising with immigrants coming in from, for example, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh to compensate for kicking out EU Nationals and they basically have nought to export, in particular when they lose our oil, as per Jim Rodgers. Most of this delusion that they suffer from, including the myth that the Scots are subsidy junkies, has been brought about by MSM propaganda which is now going to backfire on them …. big time …. and not before time, imo.
Robert Peffers
5 years ago
@chicmac says: 23 June, 2019 at 11:02 am:
” … Well they were different countries when he claimed English troops were braver than Scots. AFAIR.”
Far as I recall, chicmac, the last time I looked the union was still titled, “The United Kingdom”, and the United Kingdom resulted from an international treaty between two independent kingdoms.
Has someone changed that in the last two seconds?
Joe
5 years ago
Just taking a break and seeing a lot of nonsense on social media. Not much new on here either. I will make 2 points:
– Anybody that thinks the worst thing about Boris Johnson is his lack of solid positioning, lies, incompetence, lack of finesse, bigotry etc need to expand their horizons on their sources of information because there’s worse hidden in there.
– The left/democrats using dead kids as a political weapon on the border issues in the U.S are quite possibly the most repulsive, politically conniving and vomit-inducing hypocrites I have yet come across in the cesspool that is social media. If any of you find yourself getting all teary about it consider this: 30% +/- of kids crossing with ‘parents’ are discovered not to be related to the adults they are crossing with. Let the potentialities of that sink in and then ask yourself what is the only option to cut human trafficking in this way? A period of detention to sort out details. Full stop. Are we seeing names and faces of kids who have died under the drug smugglers, pedophile rings and other criminal organisations while crossing the border? Does anybody care if its not politically expedient at this moment in time?
The same with people dying in the Mediterranean on old boats – its not them to blame. Its not the people who argue for upholding immigration laws either (me). Its the people who have destabilised their countries (big capital) and the do-gooders/NGO’s who encourage them to make the trip. Yes, ive been to borders and seen whats in leaflets NGO’s give potential illegal immigrants. Its criminal lies.
Its like living in a parallel dimension where people have squeezed their brains out along with their morning dump and the only thing that counts is having a 3 year olds perception of ‘good intentions’ and fluffy wishes for the future. Ive heard beauty pageant contestants have more realistic and clear goals on curing the worlds ills than the shite im seeing being posted with the ‘utmost emotion’. The use of 3 tearful emoticons is so indicative of deep heart wrenching feeling.
Oh well, a few sips of their sugarfee, fair-trade, whipped, fluffed, creamy, double skinny latte will get them back into mental shape for finding the next thing to show their social media mates on how woke they are.
Capella
5 years ago
Hi Dawn in NL 11:26 am – nice to see a new face posting. Welcome to WoS comments. Fintan O’Toole always has something insightful to say. I’m glad to see The National has him on board.
Archive version : link to archive.fo
@Jack Murphy
Sturgeon is not saying anything new. Still banging on about ‘progressives’ banding together to keep the Tories out, essentially a UK Westminster concern. In the Scottish context of doubtful benefit.
Her opinion on the burqah, not a requirement in Islamic ‘dress code’ and banned or discouraged in some Islamic states ie Morocco as a security risk, is rather mealy mouthed.
Burqah wearing has actually been satyrized in sections of the Arabic press in terms similar to that of the mail box.
Abulhaq
5 years ago
@Petra
The prob for Tories with Johnson is that he is a wild card, predictably unpredictable and too wayward for many Tory tastes who’d find Hunt safer hands.
Either way an interesting development to be relished and exploited to the full.
Ken500
5 years ago
It cost a fortune to hold marches and rallies and fees etc. £Thousands. It would be difficult to compile records of accounts of all Marches and Rallies as people give time and monies voluntarily. The funds raised would not even cover that. People’s free time and varied funding arrangement.
The Councils take £Thousands of Funds in permits, insurance, steward requirements etc. Trying to put obstacles in the way.
One of the first Edinburgh Yes Marches Rallies in Edinburgh 2013? All organised and advertised, with people coming from far and wide.With hotels, transport booked etc. It nearly had to be cancelled. At the last minute the Council started to demand £Thousands for insurance fees. Somebody in the know managed to get an entertainment licence for £10. Otherwise the March would have had to be cancelled with all the ensuring disappointment and expense for many people. A blott on the YES movement.
Always support the YES Rallies with funding and help if people can manage and are able.
Ken500
5 years ago
Stop going on about people’s National dress. It is their choice to keep off the sun in excessive climates.
Ken500
5 years ago
The English population, of those who vote, voted almost 50/50. There are many remain supporters, some of whom did not vote. Electorate 45million. A just over a third (1/3) voted Brexit. Not an overall majority. Remain support is increasing.
Ken500
5 years ago
Morocco is secular
Ken500
5 years ago
All caterers pay a fee for a stance, everywhere, to cover expenses. Either to the organisers (to pay the council authorities). Or to the Council direct. Depends on the permit and H&S regulations etc. It is the Council/local authorities covering expenses. For clean up and route administration/changes etc. It take weeks/months of organisation to support a Rally/March depending on size and scale.
Terence callachan
5 years ago
To effijy…your post at 1110am about Boris
You could be correct but the police were called
They did not take any action against Boris
Neighbours saying they heard things and taped things , sorry but that would not be ignored by the police who would have talked to the neighbours as well as Boris and his partner.
I think we can conclude that the partner said there was not a problem
Perhaps she was too frightened to say there was a problem
The thing is we don’t know the facts of what happened
Most of what has been printed is assumption
I’m not saying Boris didn’t do anything wrong but keeping things in perspective is helpful
I don’t like the man at all for all the other reasons you have mentioned but that doesn’t mean I will accuse him of things he is not guilty of
Capella
5 years ago
Clip of Steve Bannon speaking to Front Nationale supporters about their plans to take over the world. Now advising Boris Johnston:
It is 20% a (1/5) on profits. Same as corporation tax after expenses. No profits no payment. A small amount after expenses. Minimal. Hardly anything.
Ken500
5 years ago
Brewer struggles to get anyone to come on ‘his’ show. It is of such low standard. No one watches it. No viewers. No programme.
Cubby
5 years ago
Sunday Politics Scotland
The usual Britnat chat show at the end of the programme. Brewer, Clegg and former Lib Dem MSP Margaret Smith. Well knock me over with a feather. They were very positive about Sturgeon and independence on its way. They seem to be accepting independence as inevitable.
Things are changing when Clegg looks like he has had enough and is giving up.
The penny is finally dropping for a lot of people in Scotland – the union is not important for most people down south. In addition a growing number resent Scots as they see Scots as subsidy junkies spending English tax revenues.
Independence is coming to a place near you soon.
Ken500
5 years ago
£22,000 for eight Marches/Rallies is cheap. Average cost spent £2.500+ Many would cost much more than that to fund. When all expenses are added in and added up. Many people are giving their time and money voluntarily at no cost. Otherwise the Marches/Rallies could not be held. Bands, Speakers, Organisation, stewarding, fees, transport etc.
Robert Peffers
5 years ago
@McBoxheid says: 23 June, 2019 at 11:08 am:
” … A bit hypocritical, Robert. Anyone who uses words that you diagree with gets preached at, then accused of being a troll when they defend themselves.”
I’ll be generous and just say you seem to be rather mixed up, McBoxheid.
I have never since I began posting to Wings ever accused anyone of being a Troll.
” … It is your ilk that is preventing real discussion on this website.”
That too is claptrap. How can holding and stating a different point of view from someone else be preventing, “real discussion”? If everyone agreed with each other there would be no, “discussion”.
” … ATL, this website is very eyeopening.
BTL, not so much. In the main, people that discuss isues you don’t agree with as branded trolls and worse.”
o.k Can you quote even a single instance where I accused anyone of being a troll, McBoxheid?
You will be unable to do so because I have never done so. I have, and will continue to do so, accuse those who so of being anti- FM, SG or SNP and I will not just accuse I will indicate how they do so and will accuse them, and rightly so, of acting against the best interests of the independence movement.
Furthermore, not even once have I said people should not hold different views from the FM/SG/SNP, heaven knows I have frequently done so. What I have done, and will continue to do so, is tell these people, who are harming the independence movement, to take their complaints directly to those they disagree with.
If they are SNP members that place is their local branch where they can argue to their heart’s content about whatever it is the disagree with – that is what branches are for. What’s more their point of view may stand a chance of making a difference. It won’t do so here on Wings where it will only benefit the unionist cause.
If they are not SNP members there are SNP, Holyrood and Westminster websites that will pass emails onto the person you disagree with and again will perhaps influence the person concerned. Then the Holyrood Parliament has ways to communicate directly with any and all MSP as does the European Parliament.
It is only common sense that complaining to the person you disagree with is going to have an effect. This could have more than one effect – it could get the complainant to understand the other persons POV or could influence the other person’s POV.
Just what do you expect dripping your differences of opinion on Wings will do? I’ll tell you a couple of things it will most certainly do. It will encourage unionists – where the hell else do you think all those stories in the SMSM and broadcasters about SNP civil war come from?
The other certain effect will be to encourage ever more unionist activists both openly unionist, and false-flaggers who claim to be independence supporters ever ready to encourage dissent among indy supporters.
” … Not everyone of course. Some people prefer discussions to be multifaceted. This leads to healthy debate from which opinion is formed. Your kind of opposition to healthy debate, intentional or otherwise, is making the BTL comment a closed bubble.”
Absolute piffle. How can disagreeing with someone who disagrees with you be discouraging disagreement and debate?
” … Everyone is encouraged to comment. You and your ilk are not moderators
Absolutely brilliant Chris!
Ruth who?
The bluff and bluster summed up superbly.
The flip flop queen
As we used to say
“Changed her mind more often than she changed her drawers”
Totally failing to read the situation, with National and Scottish politics, time for a career change.
Excellent, Chris. Love the slip note.
Not quite Brutus backing Caesar. But then, Ruth is much smaller fry than Scotland’s Unionist media make her out to be.
Great toon. Truthless Davidson like her Better Together partner Dugdale and Wendy Alexander and Douglas Alexander and Jim Murphy and on and on……. is on her way to political obscurity. Like the UK she represents she is a fraud.
Wee Ruth is right behind her own behind.
Of course UK Media don’t want this exposed or
The two faced immoral liar would be seen in her
True nasty blue colours
What a horrible wee jobbie Colonel Flipflop is.
All the tickets in the sweepstake bar one, and still loses.
Colonel Ruthie lives by the words of that great thinker Marx,
`These are my principles. If you don’t like them I have others`.
Nice one…… Just for the record is Mundell away packing his bags to make way for a so called part time referee o something similar?
Ruth Davidson MSP, two-faced calculating, manipulating, flip-flopping, smearing, Scotland-hating, bullying, self-serving, lying leader of the former English Conservative & Unionist Party, Scotland Branch, – now just the Tories.
And that’s just the stuff we know about. Election expenses, Cambridge Analytica and dark money? For another time. Still waiting to be brought to light.
It will be interesting to see if Boris Johnson MP as PM will back Ruth Davidson.
Effijy 8.08
Yes, with reference to the Wizard of Oz, now the transparent curtain of zero media scrutiny is drawn back, it reveals ruth (who) has actually been talking to no other than herself!
A beautifully illuminating cartoon, Chris.
One of the best ever. Cairns not failure Davidson. The Tories into oblivion. In self destruct button mode as per usual. Maybe two years to go before this farce ends. For even more chaos. What an absolute mess and shambles the Westminster unionists get in. Time and time again.
Boris or Hunt will be a disaster. The usual Tory comedians who are no joke. Can anyone believe it the dope on a rope. He will not last until October. Then they will have another ‘leadership’ election. Elect a handful of muppets. No a ounce of ‘talent’ between them. Westminster unionist the world embarrassment. 124,000 members continue with the farce.
Ruth Davidson , Alex Cole Hamilton and the Bettertogether mob were at the Royal Highland show together and taking selfies. They proudly put them up on Twitter.
Losers all of them!
What does the FM do all day? Well here she is at the RHS, campaigning for Independence.
Of course, for balance, the BBC have to interview TWO Tories to contradict the FM. Not Ruth though, surprisingly. Perhaps she didn’t want to be asked if she is now supporting Boris Johnston, who is now all over the front pages for a “domestic”.
Hunt and Johnson ‘out of touch’ with Scotland, Sturgeon says – link to bbc.co.uk
If I was Sarah Smith, I’d be worried. Even BBC London must now realise, Labour in Scotland is finished, but, they will need someone with London’s best interests at heart as Scotland Editor.
With BoJo in Downing Street, Ruth is yesterday’s burnt toast as far as the Tories are concerned – so, a return to Pacific Quay, as a replacement for Smith, would seem like the best, next move for the good Colonel.
She’s a chancer, looking after Number One. Sarah, be afraid, be very afraid. I can see the next big BBC Shortbread production: Ruth’s Return.
As an ardent nationalist ‘fundamentalist’, every nanosecond Scotland remains shackled to England, stuck in the shade and not in the sun, is a pain.
That there are Scots like Davidson seemingly content with such a marginal, inconsequential status for their country and its people is in the current political environment beyond comprehension.
We may mock these people but their influence is way beyond a joke.
They are dirty players.
On the subject of dirty, Iran is not to be ‘taken out’, at least not yet.
Proud of the renewables industry in Scotland ?
I was , until I read this !
link to commonspace.scot
Biggest wind farm yet off the coast of Angus sold to a Chinese company
Can’t Scotland do this itself ?
Sad
link to commonspace.scot
Biggest wind farm yet off the coast of Angus sold to a Chinese company
Can’t Scotland do this itself ?
Sad
I live in Dundee , heard nothing about it until reading this report on common space
link to commonspace.scot
We could become Independent only to find that Scotland is already almost completely foreign-owned. What’s the point of that!
BBC still hasn’t got the Scottish Front pages up so, of course, one checks The National to see why.
Here it is. Today they start their Independence Campaign. Buy a copy and use it to persuade one other person of the merits of Independence – which should be easy now!
link to twitter.com
Right on the button, Chris, as usual.
Hahaha, her wee fat gerbil face is gonna blow up. Poor Dierdrie Mundell must be shittin a brick too – his fading star burnt out all too soon, oh my sides!
Perhaps too many SNP politicians in long-term cushy jobs, living the good life, have forgotten what it was like before they were elected. Money changes people. The more money, the more change.
Are our leaders now insulated from, and out of touch with, the reality of the vast majority of Scotland’s people?
Are they still motivated for Independence – or motivated just to keep their jobs and their seat on the Holyrood gravy train? Such a big temptation, as can be seen elsewhere.
Right now, it’s hard to tell. With some, like Nicola, it is clear to see she is putting in a shift every day, but what about the rest whom we rarely hear about.
All the while we remain under Colonial rule from Westminster. And suffer as a result. Now we’re told everything has or is being sold off.
A one trick cuddie whose only real interest is preserving her precious union.
On other politics she says what she feels best for her union at that moment, but will u-turn on anything and everything.
Mind you, if she were ever to u-turn on the union, we know it’s definitely all over!
Oh look – the BBC has managed to get the front pages up 12 minutes ago. The British front pages are normally up before midnight the day before (as I’ve pointed out any times).
link to bbc.co.uk
Now you see why the english conservatives dont listern to the likes of davidson thats why they pulled out the vow when she said not to as if they went her way we’d of won in 2014 and been shot of England and its london dictatorship.
Is that Daphne Broon?
Alex Smith @ 10.00am
You Sir are a cad and a bounder; to malign the fair Miss Daphne Broon, of 10 Glebe Street – by suggesting she bears a resemblance to Colonel Yadaftie.
Miss Broon is a lot fairer, and with a far-nicer personality.
Daphnie Broon looks a hell of a lot better than that sack of .
I think that there is lots more potentially bad press about Boris, and too many people know about various things in his background that will upset even the Boris supporting Conservative electorate. Comments in the last few days about how Boris was spending fathers day and how many children does he actually have may be irrelevant to people prepared to forgive him as “a bit of a lad”. But the comments of “would you trust him with your wife?” may highlight issues of disloyalty which all but the most ardent brexiteers may not be willing to dismiss.
In June 2013, the press covered rumours which had reportedly shocked David Cameron about an affair between two senior members of the Conservative party. An announcement was then made that neither was a member of the cabinet and the matter was then swept under the carpet rather rapidly.
At that time, Boris was not in the cabinet as he was the Mayor of London. The question remains if it was Boris, who the other party to the affair might be, and why was Cameron so shocked?
The British press, constrained by fears over Levinson did not take the matter further but other countries had their own spin. The Jerusalem Post of June 19 2013 was able to speculate away.
Gove declared his cocaine use to avoid situations in the future coming back to bite him. I suspect he at least knew a bit of Boris’s past that could be highly damaging with the party faithful.
In Scotland we say *As long as there’s one hundred of us alive we’ll fight for Independence*
In England they say *As long as there’s one hundred of us voting Tory in Scotland we rule Scotland*
One of these statements is dictatorial
In England they say *We voted for Brexit and won*
In Scotland supporters of England say *Quite a lot of us voted for Brexit and we lost but in Tory democratic law we won*
In England they say the Tories have a mandate to rule no matter what the percentage of victory
In Scotland the Tories say the SNP have no mandate to rule because we decide on how much of a percentage is enough
In the first referendum for a Scottish parliament my father counted as a NO voter because he was dead
These are the kind of rules that Tories will always invent in order to keep themselves in power
Tories in Scotland know and understand perfectly well they are wrong and unpopular so why do they still remain wrong and unpopular, why do they never change their minds when faced with the truth
Tory ideology is that they are superior to the rest and must rule regardless of truth opinion or fact
Just because a Tory woman wears a twin set and pearls or a Tory man wears a smart dark suit and lives in Perth makes it no less the uniform we know them by
Who are the foreigners the Tories keep complaining about
Well in Scotland, it’s them, it’s the Tories who are the foreigners because every other colour creed and religion vote against them yet they still insist it’s their God given right to rule over every person of every type even if all those persons oppose them
Who are the people who are really a cult? It’s them, Tories,
whose ideology is and will always be 1+1 will only ever equal what we say it does and we reserve the right to change our minds should that rule unfavour us
I met Ruth and her lovely baby in a restaurant a few weeks ago, we didn’t discuss politics, just the baby but she could see I was wearing a pro independence T shirt.
We don’t need to be personally insulting about her appearance, sexual orientation or even her personality, we just need to keep up the wonderful work on campaigning, persuading and convincing voters to back self determination.
Ruth probably already knows she on the wrong horse, sure it brought a narrow victory in 2014, and a Tory improvement in 2017, but she knows the handicapper has caught up and she’s now on the same horse that finished Johanne, Jim, Kezia, Blair and many others political careers.
She has her reasons for trying to defend the indefensible, if we keep working hard and feeding her out more rope….then we’ll all get what we want.
(i’m more worried about Arlene moving over here after Ireland votes to become united)
the changes in her facial expression through those 6 pics is brilliant
But, but, but, the British nationalist media, especially the BBC, think she’s infallible.
The third picture never actually happened. She only supported Mick Gove for 3 hours and never got to stand at a microphone and endorse him.
Norway has a Trillion dollars surplus in the bank in case of shocks to their country’s system and the world applauds their prudence
Scotland has a few million left over from their budget and Unionists in Scotland and England scream slush fund
Unionists scream Scotland must have a deficit to prove Scotland’s useless, but when the SNP don’t have that deficit they’re con artists rogues and don’t care about the poor
Labour Tory and Liberal Democrats all agree with each other on this yet when former Labour FM Jack McConnell returned hundreds of millions to Westminster unspent because he claimed he couldn’t think of anything to spend it on, these same parties supported that decision
The Tory party, all inclusively open to the other Unionist parties in Scotland who are all just as Tory as the blue one’s but they call themselves different names so you’ll think you’re voting for something else
You’re not!
@ manandboy
You’ve answered, if obliquely, your own questions.The dearth of ambition amongst the Scottish middle-classes/politicians has stymied the country’s development for generations. Witness: Davidson and Mundell.
“Aw forget it” indeed.
That should be Colonel flip-flop on the way out now.
Her reading to this whole pantomime has been very poor.
As former “Darling of the Party” she could make sweeping statements and be the talk of the Tory steamy. Cute wee Ruth telling it as she saw fit, slagging May’s rivals, towing the party line every time – and the great Tory hope of installing one of their number as FM of Scotland.
Well, good luck with that last ambition.
As for the rest of it, the Colonel is now experiencing a rebellion in the ranks – her position as party mascot has evaporated and her “wise” council is irrelevant.
What is it they say…
Live by the sword, die by the sword.
@Dr jim
Good posts. The Tories like to frame themselves as merely ‘conservative’. They are not. They are the party of an utterly corrupt, self serving classist establishment of high profile, generational criminals. Thats why I could never be one despite being no fan of the left.
Tory MP Antoinette Sandbach has revealed she was sent messages by a male Tory MP saying she is a disgrace who should quit the party. All because she had supported Rory Stewart in the leadership contest.
This, along with the video clip of Mark Field shows the new ever nastier Tory Party that is locked in a race to the right with the Brexit Party. All to win the votes of the reactionary hordes in England.
We don’t need a Yes version of Project Fear to win independence. We just need to say “look”.
Must say, I thought Mark Field was quite in order in what he did.
I think we’re all far too soft nowadays.
If someone came into my house uninvited I know what I’d do to them.
Time to toughen up!
Brilliant but I forlornly hope she would ‘FORGET IT’ in fact, I wish she’d get lost.
Re Boris, this bit caught my attention…’When contacted by the Guardian on Friday, police initially said they had no record of a domestic incident at the address. But when given the case number and reference number, as well as identification markings of the vehicles that were called out, police issued a statement saying: “At 00:24hrs on Friday, 21 June, police responded to a call from a local resident in [south London]. The caller was concerned for the welfare of a female neighbour.’…met police involved in a political cover up??
Pete@11.22am
Like a bit of violence do you?
In case you hadn’t noticed it was not Mark Fields house. The protestors just walked in – no one stopped them – through an open door.
So your analogy of them breaking into someone’s house is just mince.
Try and get your facts correct before advocating violence. Mr Hard man.
TheBuchanLoony @ 11.25 am
Re: the ‘Boris altercation w/ partner allegation’.
Puts you in mind (for those of us of longer memories) of that episode of Yes Minister when Jim Hacker is elevated to the Premiership.
Do you recall that prior to being the winning candidate – and coming through the middle, threatening to destroy the credentials of the last two candidates – he was stopped for drink-driving? Nothing came of that, of course, (for the sake of the plot), and Hacker swept into Number 10 on the ‘patriotic ticket’ of ‘saving the British sausage.’
With the current situation in the Tory Party, the episode is well worth a re-visit.
Kapelmeister@11.15am
“We just need to say look”
Great point.
Link to Truth in the Irish Times.
link to irishtimes.com
Enjoy the schadenfreude
“Tory tensions and keeping the UK intact” article on BBC Scotland website by Glen Campbell.
Campbell always refers to Scottish nationalists but never British nationalists – doesn’t see how biased that looks within Scotland.
I am sure Mark Field will have wee Ruthies full support.
Boris Johnson at the centre of shouting and screaming and pandemonium and police called to the house.
That’s not a report. It’s a prediction of when he’s PM and “the house” being the House of Commons.
Gaby Hinsliff flags up the Lynton Crosby/Tory strategy under Boris Johnson for the next GE
link to theguardian.com
“At a debate hosted by the Policy Exchange thinktank last week, the strategist Lynton Crosby, widely expected to run Johnson’s first general election campaign if he becomes leader, sketched out how he thought the Tories might win again. The model is Scott Morrison, the Australian politician who confounded pollsters, bookies and pundits by winning a surprise re-election victory shortly after assuming the leadership of the governing Liberal party. Morrison had, Crosby explained, pitched himself as the man for “quiet Australians” – people who don’t follow politics closely, aren’t active on social media, and just want to be left to get on with life – and won by aligning himself with their gut values. The next Tory leader should also pitch themselves as being on the side of what the Australian prime minister Robert Menzies famously called the “forgotten people”, better known here as John Major’s “silent majority”, Tony Blair’s “hardworking families”, and David Cameron’s middle income “strivers”. It may seem an oddly retro approach for the unpredictable times we’re living through, but Crosby clearly still believes elections all come down in the end to telling a story of shared, broadly socially conservative values.
And that’s why the Mansion House incident matters; it’s a perfect litmus test of where people stand on those values.”
Whether such a strategy will be able to override the all-dominating and deep Brexit divide between Leavers and Remainers, must be in serious doubt. We shall see. But at least we have been warned.
By then, Ruth Davidson’s ‘booming bully’ profile, may have been reduced somewhat to something approaching a pip squeak. Here’s hoping.
The Tory week just gets worse. HMRC name the head Tory Fundraising honcho as a Tax Cheat.
This shouldn’t come as any surprise to anyone outside Tory Circles !
I think it surprised The Herald, who’s got the story up, right now.
Sorry, don’t know how to do archive !
Good one Chris, however Davidson will squirm and contort into any shape or pose needed to back Johnson in the long run.
If this cartoon was expanded to include every Ruth Davidson U-Turn Chris Cairns would have his next book wrapped up within the day.
Tories and violence against women.
The incident at the Dinner, the Protester and the Solidarity shown by those attending by “table thumping” their delight! Thus expressing their support for the assault and man handling of the lady in red.
Put together they made me flashback to scenes in “The Handmaidens Tale”.
They shows the same contempt for women, human rights, common decency and humane conduct as their fictional counterparts.
But like their fictional counterparts they then applauded violence against those who would question their god given privileges. And justify it as upholding the law and protection against “potential” terrorism
@manandboy says:22 June, 2019 at 9:32 am:
… Perhaps too many SNP politicians in long-term cushy jobs, living the good life, have forgotten what it was like before they were elected. Money changes people. The more money, the more change.”
Yes, manandboy, and perhaps they have not, but I suppose that perhaps there are unionists who would perhaps want others to believe that perhaps they have.
” … Are our leaders now insulated from, and out of touch with, the reality of the vast majority of Scotland’s people?
Are they still motivated for Independence – or motivated just to keep their jobs and their seat on the Holyrood gravy train? Such a big temptation, as can be seen elsewhere.”
Indeed and despotism can also be seen elsewhere, dictatorship and warmongering also. Even those who were ready to attack and kill innocent people over a shot down unmanned drone.
” … Right now, it’s hard to tell. With some, like Nicola, it is clear to see she is putting in a shift every day, but what about the rest whom we rarely hear about.”
Well I not only hear about many of them working their socks off all the time but I post links to videos showing them doing so. Just the other day I posted a link to an Ian Blackford meeting on the Northern Isles. A very well attended meeting and an obviously well informed group of attendees.
Of course if you rely upon the SMSM, both dead tree and broadcasting, you are not going to know what these SNP councillors, MSPs, MPs and MEPs are doing, but then, perhaps you really do not want to know nor want others to know.
Now before you go crying like a baby because someone casts doubts upon your motives on an open independence supporting forum, manandboy, consider this – it works like this, if you perceive it is all right for you to cast aspersions about people not here to defend themselves then is it less all right to cast aspersions at you who is here to defend yourself.
Are you, perhaps a desperate sleeper now coming out of the woodwork to attempt to damage the only political party, or indeed the only actual path to independence, that exists in Scotland simply because you personally, “never hear”, about what they are doing?
Scotspatriot,
Here you go.
link to heraldscotland.com
(Although I don’t know how to archive, either!)
Tories only manage to get into power by hiding their true attitudes, opinions and objectives. They wear a veneer of acceptability.
However recently, with the rise of the far right especially in England and increasing public acceptability of expressing nasty views, the Tories are letting their veils slip with increasing frequency.
In certain quarters, being seen as nasty is now an asset!
Scotland isn’t immune and Tories politicians here have some particularly nasty streaks – look at their WM voting record.
I know Tory voters who definitely aren’t nasty in their everyday lives. IMO those ones have to be gullible to not see true nature of their chosen party. Perhaps others remember a different type of Tory – ones willing to bring investment to Scotland. Or maybe Tories-of-old were just better at keeping their guards up – I remember the 60s Support Rhodesia stickers.
I do wonder if within the ranks of Tory voters, some might be offended by the ‘new nasty right’? I wonder how many are comfortable with a PM who has the sexual morals of a feral cat? Just how much lying does it take before some Tory voters see liars before them?
Clearly a lot of Tory voters don’t care as long as their wealth and privilege is protected. However, they aren’t all quite so callous.
She genuinely does want to keep the Union intact.
Where else could she get such a job with so few skills?
Self serving. In an independent Scotland she would disappear into obscurity as she deserves. This is not about principle or a precious Union. It is about being able to pay her bills.
link to bbc.co.uk
Glenn Campbell, any excuse to feature Ruth ‘Booming Bully’ Davidson in the BBC’s headlines, reminds Scotland of the inconsistencies and contradictions in Ms Davidson’s policy statements. She wants to stay in the Union in preference to
leaving the EU, a minority view in her party.
She also seems to want to ban Divorce altogether as if the Marriage between Scotland and England was agreed as being in perpetuity. Silly lassie.
“In response to the YouGov poll she said: “There are a number of people in the Conservative Party that need to take a long hard look at themselves.
“Of course we’ve got to deliver Brexit but not at the expense of breaking up the United Kingdom”.
She should brush up on her reading skills – the writing has been on the wall for ages. You can’t do both, Ruthie.
The Brexit avalanche continues to rumble and crash its way downhill sweeping away everything in its path.
Including the Union.
Hark the Herald story archived.
link to archive.is
PS:
The BBC thought Ruthie was infallible!
I read that as inflatable at first… 🙂 Almost correct.
Spot on Chris. And, eh, Ruth actually agrees with you. Next up Ruth’s kiss of death for the Tories in Scotland. Bury them along with their Better Together Labour mates.
‘Tory leadership: Ruth Davidson apologises for Michael Gove ‘kiss of death”
..”Immediately after the result was announced, Ms Davidson tweeted an apology to Mr Gove for giving him the “kiss of death”.”..
link to bbc.co.uk
………………..
Flip Flop Davidson video.
link to twitter.com
Here’s what i think is an illuminating view to shed some light on the smokescreen of justifications on the Mark Field fracas.
Bear with me here – this incident reminded me (and long forgotten about til the other day) when as a boy being in church, one rare hot Sunday, a dog walked into the church while mass was going on as the doors were open. To my astonishment, the priest actually stopped whatever he was doing or reading and he went over and grabbed the dog by the scruff of its neck and flung it outside.
Now, the point I am trying to make is obviously not to compare the woman in question to a dog, but that to me, from an anthropological viewpoint (concerning human societal cultural relationships) Mark Field’s choice of action was clearly demonstrative in grabbing her neck, in that he wanted it to be seen by his peers that this ‘other’ human being, was to be accorded no more respect than that given by a huntsman throwing a fox to the hounds. That the neck was chosen to show that he had the power of life or death over this person. And that for me, was his crime. He had zero honour and zero respect for his own.
Just shocking. There was no need for that behaviour. Clearly, he was also grandstanding to his collected ‘conservative’ peers. These people are not ‘conservative’ by any stretch of the meaning of the word. They are literally beyond description.
Just see how sharp those teeth are, beneath the veneer of respectability.
@ Welsh Sion – how to archive:
1 Right click on the link and click “copy link address”
2 Open archive today – http://archive.fo
3 Paste your copied link into the red text box “my url is alive…
4 Click “save”.
5 If the link is already archived a notice will pop up and tell you so. Just accept that and use the already archived link
6 If it hasn’t been archived, archive today will start the process of archiving. May take a few minutes.
7 When complete you will have a link in the address bar like this: link to archive.fo which is your archived link.
8 Bookmark Archive today for future reference.
🙂
Robert Peffers says:at 12:15 pm re @manandboy at 9:32 am:
“Now before you go crying like a baby because someone casts doubts upon your motives on an open independence supporting forum, manandboy, consider this – it works like this, if you perceive it is all right for you to cast aspersions about people not here to defend themselves then is it less all right to cast aspersions at you who is here to defend yourself.”
Two wrongs don’t make a right, Robert. Your assumptions, like your logic, are flawed. But hey, we’re all human. As for ‘crying like a baby’, well I haven’t done that since, let me think, since in fact I was a baby, and that was just after the War.
Sure, I’m a bit nippy today, set off by the Robin McAlpine piece on, among other things, the sale of some of Scotland’s renewable assets to the Chinese, and I know it’s not devolved, but ScotGov could and should have kept us abreast of such activity and made a noise about it. Not even the outstanding Ian Blackford MP, to my knowledge, has made any public comment about it. I await information to the contrary.
Ps. I trust you are reasonably well, and glad of it that being the case.
Ruth Davidson and her MSP’s are actually now a sideshow, they hoped to make her FM so that Holyrood’s powers would be given up with consent. They have abandoned that plan and plan B is now in operation, this is to transfer most of Holyrood’s powers to David Mundell (or whoever replaces him). They have already started the process, even having their MSP’s calling Holyrood dysfunctional.
They are making it plain, there will be no independence through the democratic route. If you want it you will need to take it, Westminster has never given up its possessions voluntarily.
Maybe they will claim they are taking over to protect the majority they claim are calling for intervention, think Sudetenland.
Frank Gillougley says:
“To my astonishment, the priest actually stopped whatever he was doing or reading and he went over and grabbed the dog by the scruff of its neck and flung it outside.”
Good story, Frank, but did he do it with a smile on his face. In his shoes, or those of any butcher, baker or restaurant owner, in the same circumstances, I suspect most people would do something similar. BTW, was the creature a Catholic dog, in which case my sympathy lies with the dog.
Tories now complaining the FM is *hoovering* up voters from Irish Republicans, Muslims,Unemployed, Unemployable scroungers,Illegals,Sectarian bigots,Paedophiles,Thieves and Sex offenders which adds up to their 45% of the electorate, they say
I’m just amazed at the competence of the SNP to keep crime at a 43 year low considering the Tories say almost half the population of Scotland according to them are terrible people
It seems to reinforce the truth of who Tories think they are that being an Irish Republican, or a Muslim should be seen by them as criminal and or unworthy and as far as sectarian bigots is concerned I think the Tories have cornered the market in that regard, as for the unemployable category that sounds like a set of people who probably require assistance of some kind, ie: folk suffering from mental or physical health problems which again says everything about Tory compassion for the weak or vulnerable
As far as the *scroungers* are concerned, given that Scotland has only 3.4% unemployed, which is the lowest unemployment in the British Isles well there just aren’t very many of those folk in Scotland
We come to the last section of people the Tories complain about, the actual criminals, which once again brings us back to the crime figures in Scotland which are lower than any other country region territory of the British Isles, and those are not just SNP figures, those are Police Scotland figures
So by highlighting all of these people the Tories have once again demonstrated clearly to anyone who can read words and has a functioning brain that they are in fact a seriously set of very bad people who tell seriously bad lies and are prepared to lie seriously about anything that pops into their lying heads at any given time then share these lies with their sister parties the Lib Dems and Labour to spout all over again
One more thing must be pointed out, the Tories by these statements, feel that if you are NOT one of them you must therefore be ready to be hoovered up by the SNP making you, whoever you are and whatever you support *Unworthy*
So how do you like being *Unworthy* Scotland, because the Tories say you are
Another unionist mantra, the oil should be left in the ground if Scotland is independent but obviously utilised to the full if we remain in the UK.
It’s a neat idea, you can discount the assets of an independent Scotland but use the same assets to enhance the UK GDP, hence prove how difficult independence will be without the encompassing hands of the UK.
C’mon folks. Support the only newspaper that supports us. Buy it or subscribe (£1.53 a week).
link to thenational.scot
……………..
‘Let’s have 10,000 conversations about independence in Scotland today.’
…”The National asks readers to pick up an extra copy to share our eight-page special feature with friends, family and colleagues over a conversation about the future. It is hoped that these 10,000 conversations will help address the questions voters might have about why they should choose independence, and that the fact-filled spreads we’ve created will deliver plenty to talk about.”..
link to thenational.scot
………………………
‘Question Time woman praised for comments on knife crime in Scotland.’
link to thenational.scot
……………
QT Programme.
You tell them Missus. 45 mins in.
link to youtube.com
Never kiss anyone with a 5 O’Clock shadow
Mooth Davidson… more faces than a deck of cards.
Thanks, Capella.
Copying and pasting your info. for future use! 🙂
Manandboy 1:12
It being a surreal kinda day, I remember talking to the dog in question afterwards. He explained that he tended more toward the Amish approach to life, eschewing all matters technological.
Ah now, i replied, ‘That would be an ecumenical matter, Duke.’
One of the best ever. Cairns. Not Davidson The Tories are toast. Johnstone the dope in a rope another altercation. He would not last until October for another leadership’ election. The Tory/unionist imbeciles not a worthwhile ‘candidate’ between them. Only two years to go into oblivion. What an absolute mess and shambles. The Westminster unionists a total world embarrassment.
Subscribe to the National (reluctantly the Herald Groundhog Day).
Also buy it wherever it is available. One of the only Indy supporting MSM.
Wings is genius. Beats them every time.
The Union (England) without Scotland has nought to offer anyone at all. Jim Rodgers:- ”Without Scottish oil, little England won’t have much to sell to the outside world anymore.”
Posting this again for new visitors to the site.
link to youtube.com
The wheel chair tennis really is amazing. What a speed they go at. The strength and skill. So entertaining.
It is only because of SNP wise policy and investment that they are surplus renewables to sell off (to the Chinese) in an open market. The monies and profits raised can be set against further future investment. A win win situation. Good SNP investment policies. Taxes etc still raised agin it. Alex Salmond/SNP investment being realised for cheaper power for consumers. The turbines turning for cheaper clean power and fuel in Scotland. It could raise even£Billions more come Independence. One of the reasons for it.
Boris looked to have this sewn up. I wonder if his stairheid rammy is going to scupper him?
His hope will be that Hunt is seen as Maybot MkII. Still it does beg some interesting questions. What will no 10 be like with those two lobbing plates at each other. Posh Eastenders?
Ruth is out on a limb regardless. She didn’t back either of them at any point in the race until it was too late to be credible.
More Tory/unionists tax dodgers. Illegal donations a total waste of monies. The Tory/unionist money wasters are facing oblivion. What a waste of time, space and money. GE election will wipe them out
Good riddance.
Common Weal just do not understand business. In a green space paradise nonentity. Not in the real world. The cheap fuel and power, taxes and profits realised will outwith any concerns about about ownership. A great investment into Scotland. A win, win. Great clean low cost energy. A great investment in.
All the political commentators and news presenters when they talk about Scotland make the exact same brainwashed propagandised mistake whether deliberately or by accident
And it’s this …..
Scotland cannot leave the UK because Scotland IS the UK ergo you can’t leave yourself
Whenever the commentators make this *mistake* what they’re doing is making the assumption that England and it’s properties are the UK…….that’s 100% wrong, inaccurate, untruthful and tosh
When Scotland decides not to continue to participate in the continuation of the UK, that title does not revert to England or anywhere else, that title vanishes, gone disappeared, meets it’s maker,dissolved, a dead parrot if you will
Scotland on Independence day terminates the UK
If they’re going to continue calling us names I would rather enjoy the title of *Terminator* it kinda makes me feel more Swartz Svarts Swartsineggery
Oh Big Arnie like!
Farage’s propaganda leaflet arrived today with the usual junk leaflets. Returned to the printer who printed it with a note.
Dr Jim
A series of excellent posts. Back on form today.
asked who i’d support, bojo or mike hunt……….. in truth, i dont care but it is very clear that the unionits here dont want bojo, ergo……..
also, the scottish conservative and unionist party but in england it wa only ever called the conservative part. recently i heard it frequently called the conservative and unionist party
vicious rumour about bojo shagging keunsberg…….
cant retweet this often enough 🙂
If Johnson is PM I think the SNP may well have to change tack, if not upgrade the ‘craft’. He is an erratically manoeuvring HP power boat, enjoys making waves and does not care about the backwash. There are benefits to be had here. Readiness for attack, is always the best form of defence.
Why is Davidson shouting about this is it because she knows its a lot of 8rap.
Scotland set to get hundreds of millions of pounds more in ‘direct funding’ under new Tory PM.
@Scott
Because their latest is to by-pass the SG and Sottish parliament to sow money into areas / projects that benefit the unionist agenda.
That is in Unionist voting areas where the have a foothold
It is called pork bellied politics (American name).
It is getting down to their last beezer ideas in the Tory bag of tricks.
BBC Shortbread Sat, 22 June 2019 : GMS, Izzy Fraser squeezes in Iain McWhirter for his sage analysis. Listen at about 08:27 +/- a minute or so. His theme of Scotland having been given the resounding message “NO” is used to reinterpret the latest You Gov poll which reported
“60% of Tory members/voters prefer Brexit to keeping Scotland within the Union”
which Iain analyses out to mean 60% of Tories say no to another Scottish Indy Ref.
But there is no time to discuss this further – of course!
So, the Rev’s post of 18,June 2019 was all wrong. Was it?
McWhirter’s view of Scotland’s shackled position is changing. Methinks Iain supports Scotland less and less.
O/T
Changes to franchise rights with regards to residency:
link to legislation.gov.uk
Ian McWhirter is a firm and lifelong supporter of his wages and whoever pays them
To Ken500..your post at 2.51 pm
You said
“ It is only because of SNP wise policy and investment that they are surplus renewables to sell off (to the Chinese) in an open market. The monies and profits raised can be set against further future investment. A win win situation. Good SNP investment policies. “
Honestly Ken , did you even read the common space report about this by Kenneth MacAlpine ?
I guess you didn’t because what you say just does not make sense
Here is the report
link to commonspace.scot
What robin MacAlpine is saying is that Scotland’s resources continue to be sold to the highest bidder the most recent being renewables which he says could be built engineered and owned by Scottish business but instead of that it is being sold off to China who will obviously give all the best well paid jobs to their own and will then sell our energy back to us making a hefty profit and forcing us to pay higher prices for what should be cheaper energy on our doorstep.
I love what the SNP do and think Nicola Sturgeon is absolutely wonderful
I do not know if they could stop this happening , I doubt it because it’s not devolved but they should be making a huge noise about it in Holyrood and Westminster
selling the rights to build renewables off the coast of Angus to a Chinese business , no less than the actual Chinese government owned company by the way , is absolutely crazy for the simple and obvious reason that Scotland loses control of how it’s done ,who is employed and that includes losing the ability to train local people and award jobs to them as well as the skilled people we already have.
Scotland is a world leader in this industry so giving it over to another country to develop what will be the biggest wind power and wave power plant in Scotland is just so wrong.
Sure let’s build up SNP and Nicola Sturgeon but let’s not make out that somehow the bad has to be good so we can praise them for something that they have little control over
Our oil and gas is sold to private business and we have no control
Now the same is happening with wind and wave power
As Robert MacAlpine says Scottish people might think they are socially minded
but our country is the most capitalist privately owned country in the world
Anyone but us owns our oil and gas
Anyone but us own our land
Anyone but us owns our wind and wave power
Same for many many other wealth producing assets
Get angry for heavens sake it’s the future of our children and grandchildren that is being stripped away
@Terry Callachan
Sturgeon & the SNP are a means to end. You don’t have to “love” either of them. It’s politics.
If the goods are delivered, they’ve done the job, but until then curb the sentiment.
Read a piece from the Express today. They are griping that the EU is not democratic again. They want an EU wide vote for the President of the Commission. What they mean of course is one they can buy with dirty money and Facebook ads and ”news”feeds. We see how well that has worked out in the USA.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a President of the Commission at odds with both the EU27 council and the Parliament. Now that would really be democracy in action ~~~ NOT.
The 6 faces of Unionism.
“LGBTQ+pride”
link to thenational.scot
Give ‘em an inch and they’ll want a mile.
Some people are just never satisfied.
We could do better without the socalled Greens and their social engineering.
A collection of odd balls, misfits and weirdos.
@Ottomanboi says: 22 June, 2019 at 6:53 pm:
… If the goods are delivered, they’ve done the job, but until then curb the sentiment.”
Where did you get that daft idea?
The name of the party is, “The Scottish NATIONAL Party”. It is not the Scottish Nationalist Party. That is it is the party of the nation of Scotland. Which is why, in government, they do their level best for the Nation of Scotland.
They will not disband on day one of independence. What will happen is that those who only became SNP members to gain independence will slowly drift off to whatever right left and centre parties replace the Labour, Tory and LibDem English Nationalist parties but we have no indications what these new Scottish Parties will be as yet.
OT
Its a Saturday night.
So enjoy this young Fifer who has spent the last decade establishing his standup credentials.
I remember him starting out as a schoolboy.
Shared a stage or two but that’s another story
link to archive.is
link to youtube.com
Callachan on full on concern troll mode today, i see !
Flogging the usual essenpee are crap mantra.
Fooling nobody with at least 2 functioning brain cells.
Elsewhere in this shamocracy of the Disunited Kingdumb …
7% more in favour of independence for Wales
22 June 2019 at 12:20 Updated at 15:04
There has been a 7% increase in the number of people in favour of independence for Wales between 2017 and 2019, according to a new YouGov survey.
The 2017 questionnaire was commissioned by Yes Wales, an organization for the independence for Wales.
This time, 1,133 people were questioned, and they were asked to rate how strong they are for independence for Wales – with 0 making them totally opposed, and 10 meaning they are fully supportive.
0-4 is counted as opposition, 5 as neither supportive nor opposed, and 6-10 supportive.
There is no record of those who said that they do not know either way.
The questionnaire was completed online between May 10 and 15 this year, and only people over the age of 18 were asked.
Outcomes
14% stated that they were very strongly in favour of independence (10 on the scale), compared to 10% two years ago.
4% stated that they were number 9 on the scale, compared to 2% in 2017.
5% had identified number eight, while 6% had stated that number two years ago.
6% had identified number seven in both instances …
while 7% had indicated number six this time compared to 5% in 2017.
Overall, therefore, 36% put themselves between 6-10, compared to 29% two years ago.
Only 47% say they oppose independence (0-5 on the scale), compared to 53% in 2017.
Source: link to golwg360.cymru
Translation: Welsh Sion and Google Translate
See also:
link to nation.cymru
What is the purpose of principles and why would anyone look for them in a Tory? Principles make life easier as they define a set of values and moral logic that have been tested through time. Subsequently, we don’t have to rely on our individual moral intuition to guide our actions, when we face a conflict of interest. It’s just a pity that British nationalist like (t)Ruthless, appear ignorant of basic principles of moral democracy and the rule-of-law. Then again, British nationalism is the practice of Tory ethos and tradition.
(t)Ruthless is a media construct designed specifically to maintain the Union, she has no concern for Scotland’s well-being, IMHO.
link to researchgate.net
Welsh Sion So still an 11% lead for No to independence in Wales then and only 14% strongly in favour of independence. Remember too Wales voted Leave by almost exactly the same margin as the UK as a whole
The wind farm would not be built without Chinese investment. It is investment that will bring unfathomable gains to Scotland. £Billions of clean cheap energy. Scotland is the best place in the world to invest in renewable energy. Wind and wave because of geographical conditions. Without the Chinese it would not be build. The monies needed to build and construction and being put up by the Chinese, it is Scotland that will benefit in billions when the cheap energy is harvested and sold, A combined effort, Either the Chinese put up he investment or it would not be built, That is the point.
The Scottish Gov does not have the necessary funding to invest, Either the Chinese funds help with the investment and funding. Or Scotland loses all the associate benefits, Loads and loads of benefit of cheap clean energy at the disposal. Providing jobs and profits in Scotland.. International investment. The way of the world for improved investment in loads of cheaper clean energy.
The greens should be delighted. Instead they find a way to turn the success into a negative, Do they not want Scotland producing loads of clean cheaper energy to the benefit. Just like Norwegian world investment. Clean cheaper energy production benefits Scotland and the whole world, The green negative arguments are suspect, The usual suspect negativity. Cutting off their nose to spite their face as usual. Total lack of business acumen. Trading and investment in good beneficial project. A win win all round. A success story. Inward investment into Scotland for a quality project, Creating monetary gain all round.
Andy back in form
For anybody watching your cheatin heart im on in a min heid banging to a tune ???
Gas & Oil, fuel and energy ar taxed to the hilt. The taxes on profits goes to Gov. £Billions depending on world price,
Scotland has a right to roam. Anyone can roam where they like. The Scottish people are socially minded and care about others. Especially the SNP Scottish Gov. Especially when compared to others. The Scottish economy Gov raises £60Billion in revenues to disposed, it could be even more if Independent and the monies put to better use. £80Billion like Norway,
The Chinese buy plenty of salmon and whisky Scottish products, All 1.3Billion of them. International trade and investment. Direct flights. Plenty of Chinese tourists and students handing over their investment and monies. Scotland pro rata one of the most visited place in the world. Brings in £Billions.
Here’s one for those still uncertain whether they are Scottish patriots or British nationalists.
link to ndpr.nd.edu
Bugger after thirty years ended up on the cutting roam floor, was in the original honest!
Nothing is being sold off to the Chinese. The Chinese are investing in producing billions of cheaper renewable energy in Scotland. The best place in the world to produce it. To bring benefits to Scotland. Either used or the surplus sold off. For profits in Scotland, Cheaper in comparison all round than other destructive fuel. Scotland gets the profits, taxes and benefits, in cheaper fuel and energy and jobs. For everyone’s grandchildren. It is not a protectionist market. Worldwide,
Geeo ..really you shouldn’t post when you’re drunk
Drink and tablets together not a good thing
Keep taking your medicine
Lay off the sauce
I hope you get well soon
Ottomanboi
Get real Otto.
Scottish independence is all about sentiment
If you don’t have it , you’re in the wrong place my friend
Geeo…trying to be anonymous , failed
Scottish independence is coming geeo you try and try to put people off but it’s pointless , only those who really care about Scottish independence come on to wings ,you accuse so many who come on to wings of being British nationalists you are such a busy bee for the britnat cause trying to put people off Scottish independence.
It doesn’t work
Our will to succeed is too strong for you
I’m getting back into practice, so here’s some Social Psychology on when sentiment becomes good, old-fashioned, prejudice. Full text.
link to ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Ken500 say: at 9:41 pm
“Scotland has a right to roam. Anyone can roam where they like. The Scottish people are socially minded and care about others.”
Technically the right to roam is now covered in the Scottish Outdoor Access Code.
It’s not carte blanche to do as you want though, as there are responsibilities to adhere to when accessing the land.
link to outdooraccess-scotland.scot
Mountain biking is a great example of one of the benefits we have in Scotland with access to explore our amazing land and scenery.
Most folk are responsible but we still get the odd group of arseholes that dump their rubbish along the trails.
My local mtb groups organise trail maintenance days and occasional litter picks to keep the area neat and tidy.
Value for money cartoonery as ever.
Was just thinking, Ruth is as isolated as she can possibly be really.
The mother church Conservative party doesn’t want her, the DUP, (as Unionist as got oot) thinks she and her ilk are anathema, Near half of Scotland doesn’t want her and (wait for it) most of the other half doesn’t want the Conservatives or her either.
She must have no sense of smell whatsoever.
Roses all around and every morning she wakes up and only smells shite, and just smiles, but why?*
Perhaps she must be surrounded by sycophants whispering in her ear continually and is deaf to reason – in which case she’s now rapidly running out of senses; as her backing of every failed English Tory candidate shows daily that she is out of touch. That just leaves her sight and only half at that.
She has no insight meaning she can only have single vision – that is the crux of the matter – she “sees” a myopic and megalomaniacal vision of herself as some saviour of Scotland & the Union; hoist aloft by adoring crowds, nodding left and right, a wave of the hand and crowned Princess of Everything.
Delusional. She is delusional isn’t she?*
*Sentences end with question mark, hammer falls repeatedly, exit pursued by a bear…
Let’s show our appreciation for Paul Kavanagh, one of the most hardworking and influential of independence activists. If you can afford to please donate to his annual crowdfunder.
WGD:- ‘Bent bananas in the ears.’
link to weegingerdug.wordpress.com
The latest news from Professor John Robertson. News items that you won’t hear about on the BBC / STV or read about in the Unionist controlled newspapers.
https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com
OK, wwaaay O/T here – can any computer folk tell me why I have a Hewlet Packard security update dialogue box suddenly appear on my Toshiba pc screen? There seems no way to get rid of it other than click OK, which I haven’t yet. Would it be safe to click OK?
Is it for printer software?
Capella – says it’s for my hp255g2 nottebook pc. don’t hhave one.
Sometimes pressing alt + F4 closes a window without clicking.
Sorry – Fn + F4
what really astonishes me is the degree to which the BBC protect Ruth by not asking pertinent questions
Capella – Fn + F4, brought up a project menu, but dialogue box still there. Haven’t got a printer but I did used to have an HP pc and a printer, does system maybe not know I haven’t for about 6 years?
If still a problem try task manager – Ctrl Alt Del.
@ T Jenny
Restart
It might still have you on a database but sounds dodgy. I think it is Alt + F4. I’m on a tablet and so no keyboard to jog memory!
I’d try the task manager and see if its listed. Failing that I’d probably just close down without clicking OK.
Dr Jim – yippeee, restart removed it. A big thanks to you and Capella for your help. Everday’s a learning day on WOS. 🙂
Chris for national political cartoonist!
Great. You should probably check your programs list and uninstall any old hp software if you have it. Tomorrow!
Capella – will do. (try)
Night, night.
Capella, thanks, will do.
mmmmm
UK, YouGov poll:
Wales independence referendum
Pro independence: 41% (+8)
Against independence: 59% (-8)
This excludes 29% (+2) undecided.
Fieldwork: 10-15 May 2019
Sample size: 1,133
@ T Jenny
If you’ve uninstalled the programme previously you might have bits of broken registry left over so you need to look in your programme list and uninstall again, if you can’t find it to get rid of it then you need to clean the PC
If you don’t have a cleaner there are plenty of free ones online that’ll give you a free trial, these will remove some of what you want then you uninstall that once you’ve used it then find anothe free one and do it again otherwise you have to pay loads of dosh for the McAfees and the Nortons and to be honest they’re a lot of money for not very much protection when you can get Avast or something for free
Hope you get sorted before you throw it out the window
Computers eh!
OT
Shame on you America.
link to nytimes.com
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
What price do you put on the Statue of Liberty? For scrap metal I mean, since it seems that’s all it’s worth.
I would remind you too America, you are a nation of uninvited immigrants.
OT from the Rev.’s twitter, re. Deborah Roseman and “It is impossible to overstate how inhumane and terrifying this is. The Trump administration simply doesn’t believe migrants are people.” That’s Anglo-American neo-liberalism that is, which is the domination of financial markets over humanity. Plus some good, old-fashioned, prejudice, I’ve no doubt.
This one isn’t for viewers in Scotland, our civil society is shaped by English Tories (see the full-English Brexit). We don’t really have a democratic say in the matter, frankly.
link to cdn.baringfoundation.org.uk
forgive me, but have I missed a whole pile of opinion polls that suggest that there is decisive majority now pulling for Scottish independence?
Laughing at Tory on BBC news trying to defend Boris the Mistress Beater.
He is outraged that a neighbour contacted the Guardian to report the story. Why would someone do that he squeals?
They and the Guardian are just anti-Tory and Boris.
I think the neighbour had a few reasons for selling the story to the Guardian. First one is like the Tories money is everything and morality nothing. Secondly they may feel that the country deserves to know about the despicable character of the next English Prime Minister and thirdly who the hell would want to live next to Bojo The Clown?
Perhaps he will relocate to the country to hide his failings.
Many Tories claiming we have no right to ask Bojo personal questions about his personal life?
What even if he a violent thug?
I still laugh at the Tory Daily Hail condemning Scotland’s duly elected First Minister for having the funds to buy her own home coffee maker. Its her own purchase for her own pleasure and not a Tory Expenses fiddle but how dare she spend a couple of hundred pounds on a kitchen appliance when the money could be spent negating Westminster Austerity cuts. lol
Pathetic 2 faced B*****ds!
Dealing with rubbish is everyone’s responsibility. Not exporting it to other countries. Banning some plastic except for medical or urgent use. Water is now being sold in cartons at the same price. Or take a reusable container. Simple. Anyone can go into a cafe and ask for a glass of water. In a reusable vessel. Often at little or no cost. Scotland has good drinking water. Unlike some countries where it has to be bought (in) or recycled. With some unhealthy effects.
Johnstone caught out again. What a disaster. Wait until all the other lies come out of the closet. The Tories are toast. Into oblivion. They could not make a bigger mess. Shameless. An international embarrassment.
brian lucey says:
23 June, 2019 at 7:42 am
forgive me, but have I missed a whole pile of opinion polls that suggest that there is decisive majority now pulling for Scottish independence?
Dunno Brian. Did I miss a surge in Unionists who would try to actually settle a referendum by winning it fairly, rather than just suppress Scotland’s democracy to prevent it happening?
Didn’t think so.
I’m with WGD on the subject. I’ll respect the 2014 result once the Unionists respect the promises they made to win it.
What does the First Minister do all day?
Well here she is out campaigning for Independence and in a sing-a-long “Caledonia”:
link to twitter.com
CameronB Brodie..your post 1016hrs 22nd
Now that’s interesting , I had to read it twice , well most of it twice , reading it encourages self examination but that in itself is not necessarily going to lead to accurate results is it as this study shows.
Brian Lucey@7.42am
“Decisive majority”
There you have it the raising of the bar. Not a majority but decisive. Shades of 1979. The Britnat idea of democracy:
52/48 EU ref = the will of the people.
52/48 Scottish ref for devolution = not the will of the people
There is only a faux democracy in Scotland as long as the UK exists.
To Ken500 your post of 7.55 am
Well said , I’m amazed at just how widespread the use of bottled water has become in the younger population , one of my sons and many of the young people I know drink nothing but bottled water , imagine it ? crazy , bottles and bottles at great cost.
When I tell them that Scotland has the cleanest healthiest tap water around they say they don’t like it because it tastes metallic .
The plastic from these bottles is waste, let’s face it bottled water is totally unnecessary we can all buy a reusable water bottle such as one would use at the gym and just keep refilling it, hey presto huge cut in plastic bottles kicking around our streets and floating in our rivers and seas
To effijy..your post at 7.46am..
Do we know for sure that Boris is a mistress beater ?
Now , I don’t like his politics , the thought of him being PM is bewilderment that such a person could be PM .
But as I understand it a neighbour called the police who visited but made no charges.
I believe Boris has five children .,!
Left his wife last year and moved in with this new woman who used to work for the conservative press office.
Let’s face it we don’t really know much about his private life apart from this kind of thing.
We don’t know he is a mistress beater for sure , do we ?
Maybe I’ve missed something
Scotland’s economy growing despite the threat of brexit
link to thoughtcontrolscotland.com
More police per head of population in Scotland than in England and Wales
link to thoughtcontrolscotland.com
Welsh Sion says:
22 June, 2019 at 9:16 pm
Elsewhere in this shamocracy of the Disunited Kingdumb …
schrodingers cat says:
23 June, 2019 at 1:58 am
Wales independence referendum
This excludes 29% (+2) undecided.
———————-
Seems to suggest the independence for Wales campaign is also gaining new adhereers because of unionist party failure and incompetence. The increase of the undecided might suggest that more are starting to think about the possibility and have dropped the automatic support of the union and are starting to think about the possibilty of an iWales.
Automatic voting because the family always voted a particular party is slowly dying out. Possibly due to the imformation age, internet and bloggers for and against independence succeeding or failing, as appropriate, to offer alternate choices to the younger generation and opening the eyes of the older generation to the sham that is Westminster.
A positive trend either way. England, without the other three nations, would probably not be able to wage war on all and sundry for profit as a stand alone country. We shall see sooner than later I hope.
SNP and Scottish government doing so much to help people with housing and doing so with the restricted budgetary constraints set by Westminster
link to thoughtcontrolscotland.com
link to thoughtcontrolscotland.com
link to thoughtcontrolscotland.com
link to thenational.scot
Rather pathetic Mr B. Has the SNP run out of ideas? Curtain twitching, old maidish ‘Holy Than Thouism’ all that’s left in the armoury? Do grow up man!
Anent Boris’s private life, referred to in posts by Effijy and Terry Callachan.
I recall the press outrage at HRH The Duke of Rothesay’s conduct in marrying the then Mrs Parker Bowles; one media commentator wrote: “When one marries one’s mistress, it immediately creates a vacancy.”
By moving-in with his “bit on the side,” Boris, a man once described in another newspaper article as: “A man who hasn’t required to have a wank since he left Eton,” will almost certainly already be looking for another.
“Once a shagger – always a shagger,” another popular belief.
He should maybe join the Lib-Dems, such conduct is more David Lloyd George than Winston Spencer Churchill.
Sky TVs Sophy Ridge just interviewed Nicola Sturgeon
An excellent interview with no badgering nonsense and the FM given time to answer the questions, she came across very real and rounded unlike every single one of the opposition fakes we normally see being interviewed
@Ken and Terry
Re. Plastic rubbish
The cynic in me is just waiting on it being large scale monetised by the powers that be with subsidies being paid by the people to large plastic recycling corporations marketed as “cleaning up our world” who will then profit from processing what is actually a very valuable resource.
TBH I can’t believe it hasn’t happened already Black Mirror style…
It’d be easier to just collect a plastic tax at source from the companies that produce the stuff in the first place with that money going towards setting up the infrastructure to efficiently process the end source waste they originally created.
1p per item isn’t going to stop people buying a product.
There’s 5.5 million folk in Scotland so if we conservatively say we use just one item per day that’s 55,000 raised daily towards the running costs of a processing plant, which could ultimately be self fueled as it processes the waste.
Plastic packaging is something like 40 MJ/Kg calorific value which is pretty much the same as heating oil which as we know is expensive. Modern home oil boilers are efficeient in converting oil to heat, but they still pump out emissions without the exhaust passing through a catalyst.
People can have a word with their butchers and fishmongers and ask if they would consider adopting more environmentally friendly packaging.
I was chuffed to see and have a chat with my local butcher that has made the switch. Good on them for taking the initiative. Shame on others who continue to use un-recyclable packaging when alternatives are available.
@Terry Callachan
Plastics leach estrogens into food which may well be carcinogenic and cause low sperm count and ‘feminization’ ie boobs in males. As to environmental consequences people just need to look around them.
The water bottle thing is an expensive, consumerist ‘health’ fad. Virtually all tap water is safe but trace estogens are almost impossible to remove. . The bottled stuff has had periodic problems with toxins.
link to ecologycenter.org
A question which has arisen in interviews with Johnson is, how many children does he have?
He never answers.
4-5-6? Perhaps he doesn’t actually know!
CameronB Brodie says:
23 June, 2019 at 6:12 am
That’s Anglo-American neo-liberalism that is, which is the domination of financial markets over humanity. Plus some good, old-fashioned, prejudice, I’ve no doubt.
_______
In my opinion, Anglo-American neo-liberalism is starting to fail. As people globaly become poorer and more aware of environmental concerns, that failure is quickening. Hence the emergence and advancement of the extremism of right wing politics over the last decade.
In parts of Kwazulu Natal (KZN), tourism agencencies have started to work with the local community in a symbiotic arrangement. A local community provides labour to a lodge and gains mains electricity, tapped water and job security. Additionally, the local Zulu people are changing the way they treat their environment. Litter is being picked up instead of being dropped, environmental awareness is growing due to Ramsar status and inproved education. They know that unless more environmental protection is aspired to, then they will lose their Ramsar status.
Eucalyptus farming is being reduced, because people are starting to realise that the largest fresh water lake in South Africa is disappearing. No lake, no Ramsar status, no tourism. The latter does not like rubbish everywhere and South Africans are starting to collect their litter. Not only in KZN.
In my example, the Zulu people have seen that working with ecotourism agencies for profit to both themselves and the lodge provider, brings them both wealth, a cleaner, more sustainable environment and a more comfotable way of life than selling land for short term profit (to the king) for monoculture that is causing a great water loss to lake Sibaya, potentially leading to the loss of Ramsar status and a consequential collapse in tourism and therefore a loss of job security and wealth.
Sustainable eco friendly economy will always out last environmentally damaging short term gain. The biggest pronlem is that politicians mainly look as far as the next election and to their own personal wealth. If only they would realise that long term planning and a sustainable and ecofriendly environment for all people would bring them more wealth in the long run, as the would be reelectable as everyone would gain. (Even if it just a cleaner environment.)
Sorry about the typos. I think my post at 10:16 is still just readable though.
According to twitter the Sunday Times has Yes ahead by 6% in their latest Panelbase poll.
From the Times – MPs plan to oust Johnston after 24 hours:
Boris Johnson has been warned that he is at high risk of being prime minister for just one day as Tory MPs launched a secret plot to stop the Queen asking him to replace Theresa May.
The Conservative chief whip, Julian Smith, told Johnson campaign chiefs Gavin Williamson and James Wharton on Thursday that there was a high likelihood he would lose a vote of no confidence within 24 hours of taking the job.
Smith revealed that two Tory MPs were on a “high-risk” watch list to defect from the party, destroying its majority in parliament and that a “handful” could jump ship to bring him down.
Key aides of Johnson and Jeremy Hunt were summoned to a meeting at Conservative campaign headquarters (CCHQ) on Thursday where Smith and the party chairman, Brandon Lewis, outlined plans for May to tender her resignation to the Queen after a final appearance at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, July 24.
Smith explained that Labour MPs had been placed on a “hard three-line whip” for the following day, when Jeremy Corbyn is expected to table a motion of no confidence in the new government — and warned that it could easily be lost.
Former ministers Guto Bebb and Phillip Lee are on Smith’s high-risk watch list. After the Tory MP Chris Davies was removed on Friday for expenses fraud, the Tories have a working majority of just four.
If they lose next month’s Brecon and Radnorshire by-election, caused by Davies’s demise, that will go down to three — meaning just two MPs switching votes could bring Johnson down.
Chief whip Julian Smith said two Tory MPs were on a ‘high-risk’ watch list to defect
In one “doomsday” scenario, party bosses fear Bebb, who holds another Welsh seat, could defect to the Liberal Democrats in order run in the by-election against the Tories.
Johnson is facing five plots to derail his premiership before it has even started:
? Tory MPs plan to write to May saying they will not vote for Johnson in a motion of no confidence, making it difficult for her to recommend that the Queen invites him to form a government because he will not be able to command a majority in the House of Commons.
? Dominic Grieve, the former attorney- general, yesterday confirmed that even if this does not work, a sizeable group of Tory MPs is prepared to vote with Labour to bring down the government if Johnson persists with his plan to leave the EU by October 31 come what may. He said another Tory could be summoned to the palace instead.
? A cross-party group of MPs is planning a second attempt to seize control of the parliamentary timetable to force a binding vote that could stop no-deal in its tracks. A previous attempt failed because the motion was proposed by the Labour front bench. “We won’t make that mistake again,” said one plotter.
? In an effort to press Johnson towards keeping a version of May’s Brexit deal, a group of 26 Labour MPs in leave seats, who say Brexit must happen, have held secret talks about bringing forward their own Brexit motion in order to show that Labour leavers would support leaving the EU with a deal over no-deal.
? Leading Brexiteer hardliners, headed by former Brexit minister Steve Baker, are warning Johnson that they are prepared to force a no-confidence vote of their own in the autumn if Johnson does not stick to his pledge to take the UK out of the EU at the end of October. “We made him and we can break him,” said one MP. “If Boris reneges on his promises, he’ll be out quicker than May was.”
The most serious immediate threat is a no-confidence motion in the final week of July. The Sunday Times has spoken to several MPs involved in the plot who claim they are prepared to risk a Corbyn government to stop a no-deal Brexit.
Remain-supporting MPs, including Lee, Grieve, Sam Gyimah, Richard Harrington and Antoinette Sandbach, were seen plotting in Portcullis House on Thursday afternoon.
A former minister said: “There comes a time when you believe something will be so damaging for the country that you come to the decision that the only way forward is to lie in front of the tanks.”
Another former minister said he would prefer to sit as an independent than continue to represent a party that has been “taken over by extremists”.
Johnson is being urged by his allies to reach out to the rebel remainers and vow to protect them from deselection if they promise to support him in motions of no confidence in the Commons.
This weekend, Johnson finds himself at the heart of a tug-of-love over his Brexit policy. Members of the European Research Group group of hardliners, who want a no-deal departure from the EU, are demanding that two of their number — Baker and Marcus Fysh — join the negotiating team, along with trade experts Crawford Falconer and Shanker Singham.
However, Johnson allies say the job of chief negotiator is more likely to be taken by David Frost, a former diplomat and businessman who was Johnson’s special adviser when he was foreign secretary.
At the same time, The Sunday Times can reveal that EU diplomats have launched a secret outreach effort to Johnson.
A senior European diplomat last week used an intermediary to tell the Tory leadership frontrunner that EU leaders in German, France, Holland and the European Commission are prepared to do business with him.
Both commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, have signalled that they want to get Brexit finalised “on their watch” before the autumn and both are prepared to break off their summer holidays to meet him.
While the EU remains resistant to reopening the withdrawal agreement, Johnson has been told that they could add to it, will rewrite the political declaration on a future relationship and could wrap the whole thing up in a new “umbrella” deal.
That is unlikely to go far enough for Brexiteer hardliners whom Johnson has had to woo to help him secure the leadership.
You’re dreaming Chris. There is no ebb low enough.
Actually I think the FM didn’t answer the question of which team she’d support now that Scotland’s out, because she doesn’t care that much about football in general, she just cares about Scotland football, that’s different
I’ll be supporting ABE as will many of us I guess
They still don’t take that wee hint do they, how much bigger do we need to make it
@Terry callachan says: 22 June, 2019 at 9:49 pm:
” … Geeo ..really you shouldn’t post when you’re drunk
Drink and tablets together not a good thing
Keep taking your medicine
Lay off the sauce
I hope you get well soon”
Terry, if you continue with these unsubstantiated claims that certain Wingers are drug and alcohol abusers you will be formally complained about.
This type of abuse is unwarranted.
Besides, I’ve a feeling Hunt will get it. A month’s a long enough time for a reality check, even for Tories.
+ hustings = BoJo has to say stuff.
Hunt for Red October GE in the Spring.
@Marcia 10.31
The Times says ‘Boris Victory will end Union’
Boris Johnson could be the midwife of Scottish independence, according to an exclusive Sunday Times poll that suggests a majority of Scots would vote to leave the UK if he becomes prime minister.
The Panelbase survey of 1,024 voters, conducted last week, confirms the worst fears of close allies of Scots Tory leader Ruth Davidson — pointing to a six-point lead for the “yes” campaign if, as expected, the former London mayor succeeds Theresa May.
Today’s poll suggests that Johnson, with a personal approval rating in Scotland of minus 37, is even less popular north of the border than Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, who shares an approval rating of minus 24 with Johnson’s leadership rival Jeremy Hunt.
The most popular Tory leadership candidate by far is international development secretary Rory Stewart, who was voted out last week after what was widely considered a poor performance in the TV debate with the other contenders.
His Scottish approval rating, at minus 4 (representing the difference between those who think he does a good or bad job), is just behind Nicola Sturgeon (whose rating is neutral) and Davidson on minus 1.
In recent days the SNP leadership has sought to exploit unease among many Scots over Johnson, with Westminster leader Ian Blackford labelling him “racist” and accusing him of being unfit to govern.
Nationalist strategists are hopeful that a significant number of socially liberal voters in Scotland who helped secure a 55%-45% vote against independence in the 2014 referendum and have had second thoughts since the UK voted for Brexit may be tipped into their camp by his premiership.
As things stand the poll puts support for Scottish independence at 49% (up one point since last month), and opposition at 51% (—1). But when asked how they would vote in the event of Johnson leading the UK government 53% say they would back independence, with 47% opposed.
Last week senior Tories confirmed privately that they are anxious that Johnson could prove catastrophic for the Union, driving Scottish voters towards independence. They are also alarmed at a lack of support for the Union among grassroots Tory members in England. It comes after a YouGov poll indicated that a majority of Conservative members would be willing to consent to independence for Scotland, which voted against Brexit, if it means the rest of the UK leaving the EU.
Speaking at a political festival yesterday Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard warned: “We need to take on the English nationalism of Boris Johnson. Because we are witnessing the abandonment of Conservatism and unionism and the rise of a new and dangerous nationalism.”
John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, said: “The attraction to Conservative members south of the border of electing Boris Johnson as their leader is clear.
“Polling consistently suggests the figurehead of the ‘leave’ campaign is best placed to win back the many voters the Tories have lost to Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party in the wake of the failure to deliver Brexit.
“But [this] poll today reveals that the calculation facing Tory members north of the border looks very different. Boris Johnson seems unlikely to bring the party much electoral dividend while he could put at risk its hopes of keeping Scotland in the Union.”
But while SNP MPs have cheered publicly over Johnson’s success in the Tory leadership contest, some senior figures close to Sturgeon are concerned that he may yet prove less unpopular among Scots than he currently seems, particularly if he shows sensitivity in his dealings with Scotland.
May, Hunt and Johnson have all set their faces against a second independence referendum any time soon, suggesting that the nationalists do not currently have a mandate for one.
The jump in support for independence is likely to lead to that position being underlined but our poll indicates that the SNP and Greens may be able to force the issue at the next Holyrood election by winning an “independence majority” of three seats.
Based on the findings, Curtice calculates that the SNP would win 61 of the Scottish parliament’s 129 seats and the Greens 5 with the Tories returning 24 MSPs, Labour 19, the Liberal Democrats 13 – and the Brexit party winning seven seats.
In the event of a Westminster general election the SNP are poised to make large gains, winning 50 of the 59 Scottish seats (up from 35), which would also help keep independence on the agenda. The Tories would fall from 13 to three, Labour from seven to one, while the Liberals would win five seats (up one).
Davidson can take some comfort from Panelbase’s finding that a Johnson leadership does not appear to signal a fall in support for the Scottish Tories whose ratings have already tumbled in recent weeks as the Brexit crisis continues.
Reporting Scotland last night
Three marches were reported on:
1. An orange order march being re routed.
2. An actual march taking place in Edinburgh yesterday for LGBT.
3. An actual service veterans march taking place yesterday in Edinburgh.
So Reporting Scotland do cover marches.
However, NO mention of the Bannockburn march that took place yesterday. The place where Scotland regained its freedom. Propaganda by omission.
Are we about to see politics in Scotland move into a totally new environment?
Sunday Times poll say Yes 53% No 47% with Johnson as PM.
Johnson will almost certainly become PM.
There seems a real possibility that support for independence will go positive and stay that was as Johnson, the Tories, and WM proceed to destroy their Union.
Everything changes when support gets positive. No longer can BritNats claim we don’t want Indy. The media may remain biased pro UK but they can’t avoid clear public opinion. Psychologically, more folks want to be seen on the winning side. The wider world (especially the EU) will take more interest. And the SG and Holyrood with their clear mandate can’t continue to prevaricate!
Also, rather interestingly, the net approval rating for Johnson was minus 37 while that of Corbyn was worse at minus 44. Good to see that Scots are now dismissing Labour and Corbyn as an antidote for the Tories.
That Panelbase poll was conducted by Yes Scotland and including Don’t Knows Yes is still under 50% so no certainty.
Also interesting as you say despite supposedly being less popular than Edward IInd in Scotland Boris is still more popular with Scots than Corbyn is
Of course if there is no Brexit at halloween then the main GE combatants will be the Brexit party and the Fibbies.
Joe Swinson as PM and Wullie Renege as Governer Corporal disnae bear thinkin aboot.
@Socrates MacSporran
Private life ought to be private, even for so called public figures. The Anglo-saxon media culture is puritanical and prurient about sex, particularly about the sex lives of others. What people get up to in their space is their business. In the public space cool circumspection ought to be normative but with self obsessed people including politicians exposing themselves, literally, on very public social media platforms the art of circumspection and discretion has gone out of fashion.
People who expect politicians to be saints patently do not understand human nature. First stones etc.
Johnson does not chat about his private life, a commendable and mature approach. He should be judged solely on his public politics not his personal antics. Ad hominem ‘critique’ is always a bad move.
As reported recently Boris actually wants a FTA for GB and let Northern Ireland voters decide on the backstop in a referendum rather than No Deal
Erm JO Swinson apologies
Liam Fox point blank lies on Marr
When asked by Andrew Marr about the 63% of Tories who would rather see an English Brexit concluded to their satisfaction and to hell with Scotland, Liam Fox said..
*I am a Unionist and the Union is not a Union of countries it’s a Union of people who move around and are better together and happier together*
I’d be interested to see this different historical document treaty agreement of people
Dr Jim
Well they were different countries when he claimed English troops were braver than Scots. AFAIR.
AUOB has updated its rules concerning caterers after an ‘incident’ at Oban. It requests 20% of *takings* – not profits – from commercial caters and 10% of *takings* from non-profit outfits. Bear in mind that this is public land.
Please Share . Auob have no rights to demand monies from any stallholders , they dont hire the park , anyone intending to attend the Ayr march dont contribute to the bucket collections .
The alternative to Johnson is this.
link to inews.co.uk
Hunt is a clockwork BritState apparatchik, imagination, insight blah blah…forget it.
He could propel independence into the 70s….
Michael Portillo says Boris Johnson wants rid of Northern Ireland because it’s a burden and a problem he does’nt want, so a referendum gets them out of the way and Boris can forge ahead with any kind of Brexit he wants
Phillip Hammond has already stated quite clearly that Brexit is unaffordable without Scotlands assets
But we already knew that didn’t we
Robert Peffers says:
23 June, 2019 at 10:40 am
@Terry callachan says: 22 June, 2019 at 9:49 pm:
” … Geeo ..really you shouldn’t post when you’re drunk
Drink and tablets together not a good thing
Keep taking your medicine
Lay off the sauce
I hope you get well soon”
Terry, if you continue with these unsubstantiated claims that certain Wingers are drug and alcohol abusers you will be formally complained about.
This type of abuse is unwarranted.
—–
A bit hypocritical, Robert. Anyone who uses words that you diagree with gets preached at, then accused of being a troll when they defend themselves.
It is your ilk that is preventing real discussion on this website.
ATL, this website is very eyeopening.
BTL, not so much. In the main, people that discuss isues you don’t agree with as branded trolls and worse. Not everyone of course. Some people prefer discussions to be multifaceted. This leads to healthy debate from which opinion is formed. Your kind of opposition to healthy debate, intentional or otherwise, is making the BTL comment a closed bubble. Everyone is encouraged to comment. You and your ilk are not moderators as far as I know. So go ahead and report if it makes you feel better. I am pretty sure the Rev Stuart does read the comments and he will hit people with hammers if they are breaking his forum rules.
Terry callachan says:
23 June, 2019 at 9:17 am
To effijy..your post at 7.46am..
Yes Terry with this latest Mistress having to screen to get Boris off of her,
As heard and recorded by neighbours I’d say there is no doubt he used
Physical restraint to try and stop her screening.
If there was an explanation to the events that the public would swallow
He would then be willing to present it to the many who have asked.
A descent man would explain their actions and apologise to all for his actions
And pledge never to let this be repeated.
Again I’d like to compare our First Minister denying French Gate to the entire UK Media
And they called her a liar throughout and to this day the Spectator doesn’t accept that Unionist
Carmichael was the liar and he let £1 Million be wasted on an enquiry.
So yes Boris uses physical force against an innocent woman in her own home!
I have no doubt his Eaton Chums could make the neighbours disappear or tag them as Iranian Secret service insurgents.
GUILTY!
Scotland’s next not voted for prime minister wants Scots put in a ghetto and eliminated
Insults Muslims and Blacks of Africa’s Decent.
A man who states he would always invest in England over Scotland.
Yes I’m guilty of doing my utmost to stop this clown from ruling over Scotland
Police numbers.
Scotland – 32 officers per 10k population.
England and Wales – 21 officers per 10k population.
@chicmac 11:02am
What kind of person says a thing like that about servicemen of any country in a war
Liam Fox is an appalling excuse for a human being
@Dr Jim
“Better together and happier together”…..positively Orwellian slogan from the Doc.
Re BoJo:
link to archive.is
Oh FGS first up on Brewers is Ross Groper Thomson supporting Nutter Johnston. Did anyone ever hear if an investigation was carried out in relation to his, Thomson’s, behaviour at the Commons booze up and if so what was the outcome? He says that, “Boris would be the SNP’s worse nightmare and that Boris is going to set up a “Union Unit” in London to strengthen the Union.
@Dan says:22 June, 2019 at 10:34 pm:
” … Technically the right to roam is now covered in the Scottish Outdoor Access Code.
It’s not carte blanche to do as you want though, as there are responsibilities to adhere to when accessing the land.”
It never ever was carte blanche, Dan. There was no English style trespass law in Scotland but there always was laws to protect the privacy of residents in the close vicinity of dwellings and the right to claim damages from people on, “private”, property if they caused damage.
” … Most folk are responsible but we still get the odd group of arseholes that dump their rubbish along the trails.”.
I can remember reports in the media of such things as a piano and a model T ford car among a long list of other junk having to be removed from the peak of Ben Nevis. If memory serves that was back in the 1950s.
The original Right to Roam laws implied that both owners and those who roamed respected each other. The new laws only emphasised that respect. BTW: there are exceptions to the Trespass laws but these were mainly for the safety of those who would roam in dangerous places such as Railway lines, MOD property, (such as bombing ranges), and I believe also motorways.
It was always an offence to intrude close to dwellings unless invited or, in the absence of a notice (like, “No Hawkers”, or, “No cold callers”, to go by marked paths to main entrance in order to contact the legal occupier(s).
Furthermore certain providers of services, such as water, sewerage, telephones, gas and electricity could,(can), go into close proximity to dwellings.
However, even the police are restricted in doing so unless they have firm evidence of criminal activity actually taking place on the premises or when in actual pursuit of a criminal. Police can only gain access to a dwelling by invite or with a properly issued search warrant.
And in case anyone wonders – that also applies to BBC Licensing, “investigators”, who have no legal right to be even close to private dwellings without a warrant than any other member of the public.
O/T…
As I understand it, mobile caterers are licenced by a local council (for which they probably pay a licence fee), to operate on a public land within the council’s remit.
This seems to be a can of worms opening up. Note below, “AUOB charges a levy of 20% of takings”.
It seems to read that AUOB are adopting a position above the local council who, presumably, are happy with the hygiene regime of mobile caterers or else they wouldn’t licence them.
From AUOB’s Facebook page:-
“All Under One Banner
Yesterday at 08:54
IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR PROSPECTIVE CATERERS TOWARDS #AUOBAyr & BEYOND
All Caterers who wish to be considered for permission to do Catering at Ayr on 6th July must make direct contact with us by Friday 28th June.
Please email your application to-
allunderonebanner@mail.com
Please attach scanned copies of all of your relevant certificates and outline the nature of your catering outlet.
AUOB charges a levy of 20% of takings for commercial caterers and 10% of takings for not-for-profit organisation caterers, made payable to AUOB on the 6th July after making evident a note of your takings.
Funds we receive from catering is one of 4 revenue streams for AUOB which is itself a not-for-profit voluntary run community led organisation, and as such all proceeds help to fund this year’s 8 massive marches & rallies across Scotland and beyond.
As Organisers we value the health and hygiene of every single participant who attends AUOB demos and so should any caterers not fully comply with our application process and operational terms then we retain the right, in the interests of public safety, to stop any such rogue caterers setting up and serving potentially lethal food to the public, and to this effect we would liase with local authorities and Police Scotland to ensure any such rogue caterers are not allowed to operate on the event days.
As event organisers our level of duty of care towards all participants must come first and this is why we are outlining this.
We hope everyone has a great weekend in sunny ? Scotland and is gearing up towards our next massive Demonstration at #AUOBAyr in only 2 weeks time.”
This is from Lindsay Bruce’s (AyeMail) Twitter.
“Lindsay Bruce
?@RogueCoder250
They have no legal authority to do this. It’s public land. This is just the latest draconian edict from AUOB regarding stallholders. It’s why ayeMail doesn’t do their marches any more.”
This is from Jason Michael McCann’s Twitter:-
“Jason Michael
?@Jeggit
AUOB has updated its rules concerning caterers after an ‘incident’ at Oban. It requests 20% of *takings* – not profits – from commercial caters and 10% of *takings* from non-profit outfits. Bear in mind that this is public land.
…
Jason Michael
?@Jeggit
11 hours ago
Just in case any ‘rogue traders’ – those who refuse to cough up their share of their takings – don’t comply, there is a wee threat included. I will be speaking to Ayr Council through the week to clear a few things up.”
Friends of Wings Over Scotland will have a stall at Ayr but it will probably be the last one.
The Panelbase poll is an exclusive Sunday Times poll and not a Yes Scotland poll as claimed by one of our resident cynics.
Brewers show,has anyone else noticed that the Lib Margaret Smith always seem to be on his show Wen and Sun is she being grounded to take over.
This article by Fintan o’Toole is quite long, but worth reading. Having lived in the Rep of Ireland (before the property bubble) I recognise his point about having to take responsibility for ourselves after independence. “National freedom isn’t another word for nothing left to lose. It is another word for no one left to blame – that is, except yourself. If you make your own choices, you become responsible for their consequences.”
link to thenational.scot
Jeremy Hunt say there’d be chaos in the UK if Scotland became Independent
Chaos in England yes, but the party fun in Scotland would defo be chaotic
That’s better!
McBoxheid@11.08am
You are championing healthy debate in your post. I fail to see how Callachans comments can be classified as such. In the spirit of healthy debate care to enlighten me.
I see that Hunt is coming to Scotland just to see his faithful and will get an easy ride from the MSM I bet no one will ash him about this.
Jeremy Hunt refuses Foreign Office support for Nicola Sturgeon Brussels visit ‘to talk up independence’
Or this.
Jamal Khashoggi killing: Saudi crown prince ‘should face investigation’
There is credible evidence that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other high-level officials are individually liable for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a UN expert says.
@Petra
Johnson’s musings on the Union. Essentially England would be cut down to size.
I don’t believe he is a genuine unionist at heart. Maybe the reason Davidson keeps her distance.
The better together mantra is sentimental not logical. It recalls nostalgic ‘past glories’ not present realties.
@ Dr Jim at 11:06am …”Hammond / Scotland’s assets.”
Interesting Dr Jim. Do you have a link for that?
………….
Brewer’s Sunday Politics:-
OO Clegg, Daily Rag political editor, actually admitting that Johnston as PM would push up support for Independence. Looked as though he knows it’s coming (yet for a’ that). Also came out with a fairly complimentary comment about Nicola Sturgeon. No “SNP Baad” guff for a change.
Margaret Smith, former Libdem MSP, in making comparison with (vile) Johnston stated that she trusts Nicola Sturgeon, such as when visiting Brussels / the UN, and knows that “she’ll not let Scotland down.” Wee Wullie will be beiling this morning, just as Brewer surely was.
Cubby says:
23 June, 2019 at 11:35 am
McBoxheid@11.08am
You are championing healthy debate in your post. I fail to see how Callachans comments can be classified as such. In the spirit of healthy debate care to enlighten me.
——–
Callachan’s comments can not be classified as such I was pointing out Robert’s hypocricy.
@ Brian at 11:03 ….”AUOB.”
Amazing to see that Mr Singh, who sticks up two fingers at Police Scotland when trying to control him to safeguard the public, will look to them for support in controlling the caterers. The latter being dealt with by the Council, surely?
They’ve to fork out 20% of their takings!!!!! And what if that is less than the profit made? Daylight bl**dy robbery. “Robbery” being the key word. Time for them to afford the public access to their accounts. In saying that there’s no paper trail when you’re also using buckets to collect money. They should have stuck to crowdfunding and publicised, in detail, what they’ve made and what they’ve spent. Keep it simple and above board.
The Tories will be moving ahead after brexit with their dismantling of devolution. Their plans are in place. Jeremy Hunt agrees with that every bit as much as Boris Johnson.
Hunt can no more save the union than Johnson can.
kapelmeister says:
Indeed. Both men, their politics, their party, and their undemocratic parliament, are catalysts driving the cause of Scottish independence. They aren’t a solution, they are the problem.
All the BritNats won in 2014 was a delay – that became obvious within months. The question moved from ‘IF’, to ‘WHEN’.
At some point soon Scottish public opinion will move to pro Indy, with help in no little part by the Tories themselves. Tories clearly fantasise about many things, throwing more petrol onto a fire to put it out is one of them.
Petra says:
23 June, 2019 at 11:15 am
Boris is going to set up a “Union Unit” in London to strengthen the Union.
I believe they had one of these before. It was called the Colonial Office.
Rather than going for your guns, (and conscious I’m perhaps rushing in where angels fear to tread), isn’t this 20% levy on caterers at AUOB marches described as an income stream for AUOB?
If people don’t like the levy, and who could blame them, isn’t it a more constructive idea to discuss an alternative funding strategy which covers costs but doesn’t step on peoples’ toes?
I’m thinking crowd funding… Many hands makes YES work.
McBoxheid@12.07pm
I agree with you that Callachan ‘s comments cannot be classified as healthy debate. How would you describe/classify them? Do you find them acceptable?
You say Peffers is being a bit hypocritical. I don’t think I have ever seen him post using the type of language used by Callachan. Like many I have had Peffers saying a post of mine is tosh, balderdash etc etc etc. Didn’t offend me at all – part of healthy debate.
I personally have never reported anyone for them to be removed as I believe in free speech. But that is Peffers right to do so as he is following the site rules.
Peffers has been of immense service in providing info to readers. Callachan on the other hand parades his bigotry, refuses to answer questions when challenged and then spouts offensive comments. I know which party IMO is more worthy of criticism and it ain’t Peffers.
The Tories have ignored everything Scotland’s duly elected representatives have said, proposed, or requested. Completely blanked out the will of folks here. Sidelined at every occasion. Hunt even stopped the FO giving The FM assistance when visiting the EU – a FO we help pay for!
And yet they say they want to maintain their union!
There is only one conclusion – it’s only ScotLAND they want, and they don’t give a rat’s arse about the Scots themselves.
Dr Jim said at 9:51 am:
” Sky TVs Sophy Ridge just interviewed Nicola Sturgeon
An excellent interview with no badgering nonsense and the FM given time to answer the questions, she came across very real and rounded unlike every single one of the opposition fakes we normally see being interviewed ”
Here it is, uploaded on YouTube:
link to tinyurl.com
Petra AUOB have never published Tax Returns in the last 4 years there is more to them than meets the eye . Bruno Cellini put up a crowdfunder as week before Galasheilds for a van repair £ 3.100 , the van was sitting at Galasheilds . Their scaming the Yes movement they have £ 22K from previous crowdfunders .
Dont give them a penny Wingers I will put up the Wings Stall at Ayr & they wont be getting a penny from that venture
Petra at 11.51
As I have been saying for some time the Record is on the turn. It might be a purely commercial move as about half their readership are now yessers. Sister paper Sunday Mail gives full page to Nicola today (and good cover on other pages). Virtually no cover for Labour in either paper anytime.
Sign of the times.
Must read article by Fintan O’Toole in today’s Sunday National (Seven Days section).
Interesting comment from James O’Brien on the recent poll of Conservative members.
link to lbc.co.uk
@ Abulhaq says at 11:41am …. “Essentially England would be cut down to size.”…
Aye in more ways than one Abulhaq, especially when Trident gets returned to sender. England, sad to say, will become a poor little nonenity breeding and fostering racism and of course social unrest. Divided forevermore. I was just reading that of the ten key right wing Nazi-type activists in the World five of them are British. English? The legacy of propaganda that has promoted their despicable Empire and so-called “past glories” has just led to their current false sense of entitlement and superiority: And of course for blaming “others” and the EU for the absolute, overall, mess that England is experiencing in relation to everything that their politicians touch on.
Johnston, to my mind, doesn’t give a toss for the Union either, his party or the country in general. It’s all about finding himself in a position to receive as much attention as possible (for being a good or bad boy). Get his massive ego massaged. Davidson doesn’t like him because he shows up the Tories for the charlatans that they truly are but in the main, like her, try to hide from the public.
And then there’s Brexit. A majority in England voted for it to regain, they said, their sovereignty, ability to control immigration and form trade deals. What we see now is that their sovereignty is going to be controlled by right wing nutters such as Johnston and Farage, immigration is rising with immigrants coming in from, for example, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh to compensate for kicking out EU Nationals and they basically have nought to export, in particular when they lose our oil, as per Jim Rodgers. Most of this delusion that they suffer from, including the myth that the Scots are subsidy junkies, has been brought about by MSM propaganda which is now going to backfire on them …. big time …. and not before time, imo.
@chicmac says: 23 June, 2019 at 11:02 am:
” … Well they were different countries when he claimed English troops were braver than Scots. AFAIR.”
Far as I recall, chicmac, the last time I looked the union was still titled, “The United Kingdom”, and the United Kingdom resulted from an international treaty between two independent kingdoms.
Has someone changed that in the last two seconds?
Just taking a break and seeing a lot of nonsense on social media. Not much new on here either. I will make 2 points:
– Anybody that thinks the worst thing about Boris Johnson is his lack of solid positioning, lies, incompetence, lack of finesse, bigotry etc need to expand their horizons on their sources of information because there’s worse hidden in there.
– The left/democrats using dead kids as a political weapon on the border issues in the U.S are quite possibly the most repulsive, politically conniving and vomit-inducing hypocrites I have yet come across in the cesspool that is social media. If any of you find yourself getting all teary about it consider this: 30% +/- of kids crossing with ‘parents’ are discovered not to be related to the adults they are crossing with. Let the potentialities of that sink in and then ask yourself what is the only option to cut human trafficking in this way? A period of detention to sort out details. Full stop. Are we seeing names and faces of kids who have died under the drug smugglers, pedophile rings and other criminal organisations while crossing the border? Does anybody care if its not politically expedient at this moment in time?
The same with people dying in the Mediterranean on old boats – its not them to blame. Its not the people who argue for upholding immigration laws either (me). Its the people who have destabilised their countries (big capital) and the do-gooders/NGO’s who encourage them to make the trip. Yes, ive been to borders and seen whats in leaflets NGO’s give potential illegal immigrants. Its criminal lies.
Its like living in a parallel dimension where people have squeezed their brains out along with their morning dump and the only thing that counts is having a 3 year olds perception of ‘good intentions’ and fluffy wishes for the future. Ive heard beauty pageant contestants have more realistic and clear goals on curing the worlds ills than the shite im seeing being posted with the ‘utmost emotion’. The use of 3 tearful emoticons is so indicative of deep heart wrenching feeling.
Oh well, a few sips of their sugarfee, fair-trade, whipped, fluffed, creamy, double skinny latte will get them back into mental shape for finding the next thing to show their social media mates on how woke they are.
Hi Dawn in NL 11:26 am – nice to see a new face posting. Welcome to WoS comments. Fintan O’Toole always has something insightful to say. I’m glad to see The National has him on board.
Archive version :
link to archive.fo
Trump and silencing the truth tellers.
link to washingtonpost.com
@Jack Murphy
Sturgeon is not saying anything new. Still banging on about ‘progressives’ banding together to keep the Tories out, essentially a UK Westminster concern. In the Scottish context of doubtful benefit.
Her opinion on the burqah, not a requirement in Islamic ‘dress code’ and banned or discouraged in some Islamic states ie Morocco as a security risk, is rather mealy mouthed.
Burqah wearing has actually been satyrized in sections of the Arabic press in terms similar to that of the mail box.
@Petra
The prob for Tories with Johnson is that he is a wild card, predictably unpredictable and too wayward for many Tory tastes who’d find Hunt safer hands.
Either way an interesting development to be relished and exploited to the full.
It cost a fortune to hold marches and rallies and fees etc. £Thousands. It would be difficult to compile records of accounts of all Marches and Rallies as people give time and monies voluntarily. The funds raised would not even cover that. People’s free time and varied funding arrangement.
The Councils take £Thousands of Funds in permits, insurance, steward requirements etc. Trying to put obstacles in the way.
One of the first Edinburgh Yes Marches Rallies in Edinburgh 2013? All organised and advertised, with people coming from far and wide.With hotels, transport booked etc. It nearly had to be cancelled. At the last minute the Council started to demand £Thousands for insurance fees. Somebody in the know managed to get an entertainment licence for £10. Otherwise the March would have had to be cancelled with all the ensuring disappointment and expense for many people. A blott on the YES movement.
Always support the YES Rallies with funding and help if people can manage and are able.
Stop going on about people’s National dress. It is their choice to keep off the sun in excessive climates.
The English population, of those who vote, voted almost 50/50. There are many remain supporters, some of whom did not vote. Electorate 45million. A just over a third (1/3) voted Brexit. Not an overall majority. Remain support is increasing.
Morocco is secular
All caterers pay a fee for a stance, everywhere, to cover expenses. Either to the organisers (to pay the council authorities). Or to the Council direct. Depends on the permit and H&S regulations etc. It is the Council/local authorities covering expenses. For clean up and route administration/changes etc. It take weeks/months of organisation to support a Rally/March depending on size and scale.
To effijy…your post at 1110am about Boris
You could be correct but the police were called
They did not take any action against Boris
Neighbours saying they heard things and taped things , sorry but that would not be ignored by the police who would have talked to the neighbours as well as Boris and his partner.
I think we can conclude that the partner said there was not a problem
Perhaps she was too frightened to say there was a problem
The thing is we don’t know the facts of what happened
Most of what has been printed is assumption
I’m not saying Boris didn’t do anything wrong but keeping things in perspective is helpful
I don’t like the man at all for all the other reasons you have mentioned but that doesn’t mean I will accuse him of things he is not guilty of
Clip of Steve Bannon speaking to Front Nationale supporters about their plans to take over the world. Now advising Boris Johnston:
link to twitter.com
It is 20% a (1/5) on profits. Same as corporation tax after expenses. No profits no payment. A small amount after expenses. Minimal. Hardly anything.
Brewer struggles to get anyone to come on ‘his’ show. It is of such low standard. No one watches it. No viewers. No programme.
Sunday Politics Scotland
The usual Britnat chat show at the end of the programme. Brewer, Clegg and former Lib Dem MSP Margaret Smith. Well knock me over with a feather. They were very positive about Sturgeon and independence on its way. They seem to be accepting independence as inevitable.
Things are changing when Clegg looks like he has had enough and is giving up.
The penny is finally dropping for a lot of people in Scotland – the union is not important for most people down south. In addition a growing number resent Scots as they see Scots as subsidy junkies spending English tax revenues.
Independence is coming to a place near you soon.
£22,000 for eight Marches/Rallies is cheap. Average cost spent £2.500+ Many would cost much more than that to fund. When all expenses are added in and added up. Many people are giving their time and money voluntarily at no cost. Otherwise the Marches/Rallies could not be held. Bands, Speakers, Organisation, stewarding, fees, transport etc.
@McBoxheid says: 23 June, 2019 at 11:08 am:
” … A bit hypocritical, Robert. Anyone who uses words that you diagree with gets preached at, then accused of being a troll when they defend themselves.”
I’ll be generous and just say you seem to be rather mixed up, McBoxheid.
I have never since I began posting to Wings ever accused anyone of being a Troll.
” … It is your ilk that is preventing real discussion on this website.”
That too is claptrap. How can holding and stating a different point of view from someone else be preventing, “real discussion”? If everyone agreed with each other there would be no, “discussion”.
” … ATL, this website is very eyeopening.
BTL, not so much. In the main, people that discuss isues you don’t agree with as branded trolls and worse.”
o.k Can you quote even a single instance where I accused anyone of being a troll, McBoxheid?
You will be unable to do so because I have never done so. I have, and will continue to do so, accuse those who so of being anti- FM, SG or SNP and I will not just accuse I will indicate how they do so and will accuse them, and rightly so, of acting against the best interests of the independence movement.
Furthermore, not even once have I said people should not hold different views from the FM/SG/SNP, heaven knows I have frequently done so. What I have done, and will continue to do so, is tell these people, who are harming the independence movement, to take their complaints directly to those they disagree with.
If they are SNP members that place is their local branch where they can argue to their heart’s content about whatever it is the disagree with – that is what branches are for. What’s more their point of view may stand a chance of making a difference. It won’t do so here on Wings where it will only benefit the unionist cause.
If they are not SNP members there are SNP, Holyrood and Westminster websites that will pass emails onto the person you disagree with and again will perhaps influence the person concerned. Then the Holyrood Parliament has ways to communicate directly with any and all MSP as does the European Parliament.
It is only common sense that complaining to the person you disagree with is going to have an effect. This could have more than one effect – it could get the complainant to understand the other persons POV or could influence the other person’s POV.
Just what do you expect dripping your differences of opinion on Wings will do? I’ll tell you a couple of things it will most certainly do. It will encourage unionists – where the hell else do you think all those stories in the SMSM and broadcasters about SNP civil war come from?
The other certain effect will be to encourage ever more unionist activists both openly unionist, and false-flaggers who claim to be independence supporters ever ready to encourage dissent among indy supporters.
” … Not everyone of course. Some people prefer discussions to be multifaceted. This leads to healthy debate from which opinion is formed. Your kind of opposition to healthy debate, intentional or otherwise, is making the BTL comment a closed bubble.”
Absolute piffle. How can disagreeing with someone who disagrees with you be discouraging disagreement and debate?
” … Everyone is encouraged to comment. You and your ilk are not moderators