Wings Over Scotland

Just Brilliant!

He’s not ready for his close up Mr de Murrell.

With Nicola Sturgeon as Mother.

Let’say that YH gets in.
One of his first jobs will be to seek a judicial review of the Sec35 (which he now must do because he said he would).
But he must follow legal advice (Bain) which is unlikely to support it.
So, does he ignore that advice and press ahead?
If the JR rules aganst him, WTF does he do then? The decision to review could itself be subject to an investigation.
Instantly, he looks stupid but will obviously milk the whole thing as being symptomatic of the imbalance between HR and WM, even thoough it will be a Scottish court (CofSession) that decides.
Very messy in terms of ScotGov credibility.

Brilliant. From the hustings it’s clear that Ash rightly doesn’t have much respect for Yousef. In fact her body language and facial expressions when he is speaking shows total scorn for him.
Her description of his best qualities was very short and included “charming”. One speculates that this is sarcasm caused by Yousef loosing his short fuse with her over her refusal to countenance the vile GRR.

the dont knows are winning

and that is no surprise to me

?? The Ts&Cs made me laugh!

Humza in this starring role surely brings to mind Guinness.

Not Sir Alec, I mean we want to drown our sorrows.

Viscount Ennui says:
4 March, 2023 at 7:35 am

“Instantly, he looks stupid but will obviously milk the whole thing as being symptomatic of the imbalance between HR and WM, even thoough it will be a Scottish court (CofSession) that decides.”

Then he’ll play the race card.

Who are the people that get the Indy movement out on the streets whenever there is a march for independence ?

Surely now is the time for whoever it is to get thousands on the streets. Not marching for independence but marching for democracy.

What has been clear for at least 30 years now is that this fight between capital and Labour has changed beyond all recognition of what it used to be.

Now we are all either Globalists v’s Westerphalians. Fixed exchange rate vs floating exchange rate. One currency vs multiple currencies. Autocracy vs democracy.

The first battle we all must win is retaining the ability to change anything. As across the whole political spectrum money has hijacked everything.

Viscount E…

“Very messy in terms of ScotGov credibility”

That’s a bit like “military intelligence”… words that shouldn’t appear together in the same sentence.

Say what you like about Humza (which wouldn’t take long) but he does have lovely long eyelashes. I suspect they’ve been doing all the heavy lifting throughout his life.

Not sure I’m comfortable with the idea of him becoming FM and setting our taxes…. he couldn’t manage to tax his own car when transport minister… it doesn’t bode well.

I find it strange that Beattie has endorsed KF. Why is he not getting with the programme? If, as has been reported, he has been spoken to by plod re the 600k then what did he tell them? I guess they would want more specific answers than “woven through the accounts”. Has he perhaps done a deal, and is now free from the clutches of the Capo? So many questions….

Great Cartoon.

Matched by this great line :

Beauvais says:

“He’s not ready for his close up Mr de Murrell.”

It is possible Humza will limp home. Or Kate Forbes might win it on the transferred second votes.

Ash has a fighting chance – With all the yoon papers hating her- Surely even nuSNP members must see she’s the one the yoons fear.

I don’t think that will be the end of it.

Nailed it, Chris

In case anyone thinks that hustings and leadership contest isn’t rigged.

“Of course no-one got to hear about the party’s hustings until all the tickets were already allocated. The first hustings had seats that should have been for local members taken up with staff from SNP HQ. Murrell has hand-picked audiences (the stories of constituency conveners not being able to get to hustings are very real).”

link to robinmcalpine.org

Good cartoon but the film won’t win an Oscar says Robin:

link to robinmcalpine.org

Stewart McDonald MP has a column in The Scotsman. NATO fanboy is being payed twice (possibly thrice) times over to regurgitate CIA talking points in a Unionist rag.
They ain’t even pretending at this stage.

Available now on DVD.

People who like this also liked “The Collected Speeches Of Nicola Sturgeon “.

I don’t think bracketing Regan and Corbyn is going to do much for Independence, unless you are referring to his animosity towards the European Union, which was to me his one positive view.
Holyrood should be “redded oot” and refitted with people who have the future of the country and its ordinary citizens at heart, people who are not motivated by personal power or money.

I think the shrewd and honest Mrs Forbes is the leader we need, but given that the SNP members are still unbelievably in thrall to the Murrell faction, she may have a hard fight on her hands.

If Yousaf becomes First Minister then it will be time to start voting to destroy the Party which has led us to this pass by promoting an ideology which is foreign to our people and a danger to women, children and traditional family life.

Well done such a great advert for a loser in politics, and hopefully not the new FM.

Just received a two page glossary Annual 2023 report card / Calendar from Neil Gray ( Airdrie n Shotts MSP ) its feking 4th March just goes to show he hasn’t the volunteers to deliver his bumf.

He might get some volunteers from his preferred candidate Humsa lol.

link to twitter.com

According to this twitter account Humza Yousaf had an affair with Anum Quasir the SNP MSP. And begged his ex not to divorce him until he was elected. Then told everyone she wasn’t a good enough Muslim.

That’s nasty don’t you think?

There is no Unionist Plot.
We have been done over by our own, if you even recognise Murrell &Co as a Scottish institution.
The rank and file are still in denial of this stark fact and squealing about the evil Unionists does no good and deflects from the sins of those who have run our devolved assembly like a Ponzi Scheme. If we don’t get a hold of this sickness then the Murrells will be incarnated by another group of Nationalists in Name Only, using “Murrellian” tactics.
All that went wrong in the last three years, we allowed to happen without any, or much assistance from Westminster.

I thought Muslims weren’t allowed to get divorced?

I don’t care what happens to the SNP but I do care about the massive damage it has done to the independence movement. Robin McAlpine’s latest article is blazing with anger and is a justified and excoriating attack on the Murrell-led SNP.

Robin concludes:This is a big moment in the SNP’s history and it is shaming itself. I’m disgusted with the whole thing. It feels like Scotland’s reputation is being dragged back decades just now. That the SNP machine would rather humiliate the nation than risk a fair contest which might result in a candidate who would reform it tells you all you need to know.

Hell mend the SNP. God help Scotland.

@Alf Baird

The UN is right. Independence is decolonisation

Naw. It’s nae richt.

I’d tell you what decolonisation is, if I could be arsed to put up with the inevitable pelters. But I don’t need the aggro right now.

Indy is part of decolonisation, certainly, but we need to borrow from Mrs May to get the whole.

Decolonisation is decolonisation.

Ask the Indians, the Pakistanis, the ANC. They know.

@Big Jock,

Easier than you would believe.

Graf Midgehunter.

Great minds think alike, says I with tongue in cheek, anyway the decks stacked, the games rigged, the dice are loaded as they say, Murrell must pick who wins or the dam will burst, and all his and his wife’s dirty little secrets will be uncovered.

Yousaf is a obedient dolt on which Murrell and Sturgeon can rely on to keep the status quo intact, which will safe guard their machinations and keep the House Jocks and Westminster fairly content.

Only Regan has a plan that will benefit Scots, and it begins with the most essential item on the agenda and that’s independence, if that is secured then everything else that a country benefits from will follow.

“The historic Stone of Destiny should not be used in the King’s coronation, former first minister Alex Salmond. Historic Environment Scotland said last year the stone would be moved to London before returning north of the border after the coronation.”

England takes what it wants from Scotland when it wants it, with the help of House Jocks, only independence will stop this and only Ash Regan is putting forward a quick and credible plan for it.

It would be madness to elect an avowedly anti white candidate in a 96% white country. Never mind his other faults so amply discussed by others

@ J Gedd

Aye , J , Robin dispenses with his customary restrain and empties both barrels at the ” moronic inferno ” that is this leadership contest & Nu SNP generally .

If there wasn’t so much at stake , I’d love to see Humza the Yummy Dummy * win * . The comedic possibilities are endless .

But , there IS so much at stake . Not least the probable extinguishing of whatever dim hope remains of any of us seeing Independence in our lifetimes , or anyone’s lifetime ; certainly that’s the case if Yousaf wins , probably ditto if Forbes wins

Ash Regan being the only one offering the prospect of progress on Independence and a reorientation away from the * gender * ideological mind-warp . Two reasons why she is unlikely to win . A third reason being , in all likelihood the fix is in and the continuity of abysmal failure candidate will be duly installed to ensure a smooth transition from Worst Minister to even Worse Minister . Though THAT would be an achievement of sorts . Just not the kind we urgently require .

Excellent cartoon as per , C.C

@Geoff Anderson
Aha! That Ellie Gomersall- I thought I recognised the face. He/she was on the news talking about the GRR bill but was not introduced as an activist/journalist but just presented as an ordinary member of the public.

Never trust what you see on the BBC news.

This kind of sums up what a farce this contest is turning out to be.

link to twitter.com

As if Humza Yousaf isn’t compromised enough without this, this will be another tether used by the Britnat media and the Sturrells to keep Humza an obedient puppet when Murrell declares him the next FM.

link to twitter.com

Ebok says: 4 March, 2023 at 2:15 pm

“The remaining politicians are enforcers, enabling the extraction of every last penny from the working class while turning a blind eye to racketeering in protection, gambling, corruption, drugs, money laundering, prostitution and trafficking.”

Yet this is what Scotland has suffered the last 8 years of Sturgeons reign and likely you voted for it at the time, so own it now with pride.

The pure political wreckage Sturgeon has left behind her self serving idiocy.

Ron Clark says:
4 March, 2023 at 12:18 pm

“I remember the days, not so long ago, when we used to look down on the Tories and Labour Party and say, Our SNP will never end up like those corrupt and undemocratic losers.

And here we are, a few years later, where our beloved SNP is now the most corrupt Party in the UK.”

With hindsight, we can say it was all predictable.

On comments on Wings Over Scotland, Yousaf was glowingly talked about as a future leader by Robert Pfeffers among others.

(The Rev. Stuart Campbell can look that up if he doesn’t believe me).

Alex Salmond is one of the very few exceptions, but one can never trust politicians.

Cherry has been talked up as a leader but IMHO, she is nothing more than a Sturgeon in waiting.

If she could fight for the useless cause of reopening the Westminster parliament, she could have challenged the SNP establishment now and stood for leader.

There was nothing to stop her from standing.

But she didn’t want to risk her comfortable Westminster seat.

That is why she is still in the SNP instead of really fighting for independence from within ALBA.

If Yousaf “wins”, Forbes and Regan should leave the SNP and join ALBA.

If they don’t, we will know how much they really care about independence.

It’s my impression folks that Humza, in addition to all the other advantages the party has thrown his way, might also be said to have his own ring fenced constituency in this election. By contrast, the two woman candidates appear to be battling it out for all the rest. Am I wrong in this? From an “anybody but Humza” perspective this could be very difficult, if true.

I admit I am anti trans in my life. I reject transwomen (trans identifying men) because they’re men and transmen because they deny that they’re women. Who wants to deal with such high maintenance fuck ups?

Big Jock says:

‘I am sure there are other things I have missed. But for God’s sake, the guy is a laughing stock.‘

You forgot his latest ‘achievement’……banning certain anaesthetic gases from hospitals due to ‘climate change’. Clown world.

Tommmo, fuck off.

@susan etc
Tommo go fcuk yourself!!!!!!!!

The talk seems to be this one and that one wouldn’t make a good leader?

How did Boris get on with a disparaging report from his school master.
Having been sacked twice from jobs for lying,
Leaving his wife and Mother of his children when diagnosed with cancer,
Making 5 different women pregnant,
Not being able to understand what constitutes being at a Party,
Having the Police called after physically restraining Carrie who is screaming,
Saying black women have watermelon smiles and Muslim women look out thru letter boxes
Called Scots vermin,
Illegally tried to close parliament.
Lied to parliament

How is that for the type of character you need to better?

OK here is where I am, three hustings in.

I have three criteria.

In order of importance.

1 Who is most genuinely for independence?

2 Who do I trust the most?

3 Who has the political nous to deliver?

So far the scores are

Kate Forbes 3

Ash Regan 2

Humza Yousef 1, maybe, and in the least important category.

I have to admit that on that third hustings I had to, FF Humza because the platitudes were just too grating.

I have a friend who has been a member of the SNP for many years. He was and still is at heart loyal to Nicola Sturgeon. Talking to him recently, it’s obvious that he has now transferred his adherence to Humza Yousaf.

I sometimes wonder if being a nationalist is some kind of game to people like him. To them is independence something to be pursued, but never to be attained? A kind of hobby that gives them something to do, without ever having to worry about the responsibility that would come with independence. He’s now started talking about 60% being the goal we must aim for. Something that, without a strong campaign we are unlikely to achieve, particularly when we have people flowing north over the border at the present rate.

He doesn’t seem to be a rarity in the SNP at present.

John H

I know plenty of them too. The 30/40/50 year badge of membership is all. They see the Party success (continuation) as all.,

The are soo conditioned to identify as “SNP” that they have forgotten why the joined the Party in the beginning.

That Party logo is now more important than the future of Scots. They even repeat the TransCult mantras as if they actually believed it…as if that is why they joined the Party. I have less and less in common with them with each passing year. Sturgeon has delivered her MI5 handlers objective.

John H, McDuff…

Sturgeon’s rancid SNP is stuffed with Wee Ginger Fud types who think it’s a social club for pensioners, or the social anarchists who think that because society won’t accept how a minority want to live their lives, they, like a bunch of spoiled, needy brats, want to tear up every social norm and convention in a kind of retaliation against the grown-ups.

The whole SNP project is now a slow motion car crash thanks to Sturgeon/Murrell and their acolytes. I hope they all rot in jail – not that justice can be found anywhere in this country these days. More’s the pity…

JFM…

“Do you think we would have got the same deal as Ireland if the catholics and protestants in Scotland had been blowing each other up for the past 20 years?”

Nope – because there are no heavy weight politicians of Scottish Catholic descent on Capitol Hill, or in US politics in general. Do you think the Windsor whatever would’ve been done if Uncle Sam wasn’t insisting the EU/UK NI/RoI/GB mess be sorted to ensure the continuation of the Good Friday Agreement? It’s the future of the GFA, on which any US/UK post-Brexit trade deal hangs, that’s driving it – nothing else.

I will say it again: SNP = Scottish Nonce Party.

@ akenation you obviously didn’t watch ROS link to the Inverness knitting bee where the snp cultists were applauding anything Forbes or Useless uttered but were so reserved when the rebel Regan put forward reasonable suggestions

You said Forbes had persuasive arguments in trying to convince no voters and undecided voters to vote for indy, and that’s what she said her policy would be to SHOW voters the benefits of independence

That would be a reasonable position to put forward and for indy supporters to get behind
BUT
I have said it endlessly WHAT have the snp done or produced in the last 8 years to convince ANY voter to vote for indy, where is ALL the educational material, where is ALL the repudiations of WM lies , where are the figures to show voters that indy is doable , where are the figures to show WM is ripping us off , where is the evidence that Joe and Jill public will be better off
So Kate Forbes is going to do the same as sturgeon, tell us mutts to get out and convince people and wait another 8 years for NOTHING , NADA , ZILCH

TBQH I want the snp and everyone in it to be DESTROYED,the snp is no longer a political party it is a haven for deviants, perverts and paedophiles , supported by a shower of cultists who cannot think for themselves

@twathater,

I think your are exactly right . I enjoy this site I am not for or against independence or for or against W/M , I am absolutely disgusted at the state of politics and the lack of integrity throughout . So really it’s fertile soil .

I would love to hear some convincing information and particularly around the economy and how that would be taken forward . But that’s not what I get . By the end of the first sentence it’s normally laden with an insult . I have only met one man who is able to explain some of it and has a very sharp mind on economic matters .

I listened the other night and thought I heard absolutely nothing of a plan , just sound bites . No actual substance and that’s what I am sitting waiting on and I think one line is not enough . It ok saying get people chapping doors but now I would be wary of opening a door to anyone political . I would however sit and read a good proposal that was well written .

Is that so impossible . No one has every asked me what would convince me . A thriving economy.

Right now all I see is a brain drain of talent . Most of my friends kids are heading south or abroad . A relative moved a thriving business abroad . This is what I see . I would love to hear a plan that might encourage the next generation to stay .

Right now I have never been so far removed from politics in my life .

I see we’ve been treated to some classic craig Murray again.

He knows Humza Yousaf is a liar, a cheat, an adulterer, incompetent, stupid, arrogant, corrupt, part of the Sturgeon/Murrell cabal, was involved in the anti Alex Salmond conspiracy, puts the rights of rapists before women, a hypocrite, a danger to women and children, won’t progress independence….

And yet craig Murray would vote for that man.

That says it all.

This sort of deranged cult behaviour is why we ended up with Nicola Sturgeon and it’s why craig Murray’s opinions on anything are worse less than zero.

Humza Yousaf has no place in politics, any party that selects an idiot like him as even a candidate let alone a leadership candidate needs to take a serious look at itself.

Craig Murray doesn’t support independence, he’s just got an axe to grind with the UK gov for firing him. Before he got in bother he was quite happy being a Lib Dem. His muddle headed hypocrisy exposes him every time.

“ Twathater says @0310 am “ . “ So Kate Forbes is going to do the same as Sturgeon “ , hopefully not ! My interpretation was that Kate Forbes recognises where Sturgeon has failed ( No strategy and a list of associated failures which you highlight within your comments). Hopefully Kate Forbes realises that it requires our FM to propagate the case for Independence and the economic case will be a significant factor . Hence my interpretation is that Kate Forbes if elected will take the lead on this by making the economic case for Independence going forward . She needs to demonstrate to the people how they can have a better future as an independent state.
As you say she needs to show where Scotland is being “ ripped off” by Westminster ( oil& gas for the past 50 years and now renewables ) . She needs to show how a small country should have a much lower administration cost as a proportion of GDP compared with the ridiculous 45 percent or thereabouts re the current Westminster government. She needs to commit to the establishment of the current “ reserved “ ministries to our major cities ( department of Energy Aberdeen , Tourism & environment Inverness, Home office Edinburgh , Health & Social security Dundee , Defence Stirling/Perth , Employment & Trade / Industry Glasgow etc
Etc with the repatriation of thousands of Whitehall jobs to Scotland . Thereafter she needs to demonstrate how OUR Civil service can be run much more cost effectively than the present Westminster shambles .
She needs to show how our Capital city of Edinburgh can benefit significantly economically & culturally from the influx of foreign embassies to our newly Independent state. . She needs to show how our Export led economy ( what’s left of Oil&gas , renewables, agriculture & fisheries , our unique & world class whisky industry etc etc would underpin our Scottish currency instead of being stolen from under our noses by Westminster, as is at present) .
She needs to robustly counteract one of the principal arguements which will be deployed against Independence by the unionists ie Defence , by having a policy in place to ensure that Scotland will have a highly trained & skilled military with the very latest in technology as regards hardware . She needs to emphasise defence cooperation with our nearest neighbours both within the former UK and with our Scandinavian neighbours , Norway , Sweden, Finland Denmark , Ireland , Iceland , the Baltic states etc . ( Obviously NATO membership would be retained/expedited .
In summary , not only does our new FM have to manage the devolved day to day government but concurrently move forward with the STRATEGY for INDEPENDENCE ( This is where Sturgeon singularly failed since 2014 ) and MAKE THE CASE to our people from DAY 1 ).
My hope is that Kate Forbes not only knows what is required , she has given an unequivocal undertaking as I see it to take Scotland forward to Independence.
If she wins , appoint Ash Regan as her deputy FM , as at the very least she has shown some “ guts” at the hustings . Something sadly lacking in recent times .
Yes No more “begging “ Westminster for permission to have a vote on Independence. Hopefully “ those days are past”

Etticus…context!

Craig said he would take Humza over Ross or any other unionist leader. That is not what you are suggesting. He is not endorsing Humza at all. He is suggesting he is the least worse out of 4 turds.

President Xiden

Or Trigger’s Broom, Or Glasgow Rangers?

@big jock

The problem with that is that some people (like Humza Yousaf) have no business in politics no matter what the context.

Craig Murray seems to think living under a single party state, where freedom of speech (even inside your own home) is banned, the party leader is a puppet of corrupt people like Peter Murrell, where elections are rigged, where criminals are not only protected but the state conspires with them, where people are expected to ignore their eyes and ears and believe the “truth” the party dictates is independence.

Independence should be about person freedom, about being closer to the decision making, making politicians accountable for their actions.

What Craig Murray and the rest of the SNP cult want is anything but that, it’s about turning scotland into an open prison.

In my view all 3 of the NewSNP leadership candidates are fundamentally flawed and will be incapable of winning over the people they need to, no voters.

Yousaf I’ve dealt with. Regarding Forbes, anyone that believes in science denying creationism, while they can have these views if they want, isn’t fit to run a country and as for Regan she seems to be dealing in fantasy where things like mortgages and roofs over peoples heads don’t matter and she’s alienated all the people she needs to win over.

The NewSNP is done in my view, it needs time out of government and if say Ash Regan is serious about having a top place in politics going forward the best thing for her to do would be to lose rather than inherit the poisoned chalice of SNP leadership now. No matter who wins I think the party will split and it will need to go away and rebuild itself because trotting out the same tired old crap it has been for the last 10 years isn’t working. The SNP hasn’t had a fresh idea or a leader who can win people over since Alex Salmond resigned.

Just look at the state of the Westminster party. Stephen Flynn and Mhairi Black, one a dribbling idiot who’s a classic example of dunning Kruger who seems to have got high on his own supply, the other a parody of a poor person dreamt up by her well to do parents. Then we’ve got the Alyn smiths and Jon Nicolsons of this world, a pair of creepy self obsessed troughing parasites if there ever was such a thing. What a state. All thanks to people like Craig Murray. If someone isn’t fit for politics they aren’t fit, it doesn’t matter what colour rosette they wear because it won’t change who they are.

North Chiel
The sturgeon didn`t “fail” she was a great success, given her “strategy” and behaviour which can only be interpreted as a desire to destroy the SNP and with it independence.

I love this Ash Regan, just listened to her on Kussenberg. She’s brilliant!

The Independence convention.

The Independence infrastructure.

The independence thermometer.

The independence case in the hands of the people. 50 + 1 test. Clear. Straightforward, internationally recognised.

It’s a Yes from Ash. She wants to surround herself with the best.

North chiel @ 8:48 am

“my interpretation is that Kate Forbes if elected will take the lead on this by making the economic case for Independence going forward . she needs to show where Scotland is being “ ripped off” by Westminster”

What does Forbes know about ‘the economy’, she is barely out of uni with a history degree? Any new FM should first read this by Sara Salyers and Salvo:
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com

A new FM would be better advised to take these multiple treaty violations (which includes our nation being ‘ripped off’) directly to an international court. As the treatment of Scotland has been and remains unlawful then this must be remedied.

Looks to me as if Forbes and Yousaf, like Sturgeon, are more than content to leave Scotland subject to a repeatedly violated and highly damaging treaty agreement, happy to administer the colonial department on behalf of our oppressor, nothing more.

Oh dear a very wishy washy interview by KF this am on the guiser prog
Unimpressed

John Main: “….It all hinges on that misinterpretation of the EU Referendum question that leads to the trope that Scotland was dragged out of the EU against its will….”

We voted to leave then did we?

You’re an unashamed Tory Brexiteer.

Only a fool would vote for Brexit. How’s your fruit and veg supply doing?

@john main

I suggest you get better at research. The free church campaigned for the teaching of creationism in schools. I used to work with a wee free whose father in law was a wee free Minister.

Outwardly an intelligent and capable guy, but he was also an alpha course tutor and as fundamental Christian as you could get. Now nothing wrong with that but it meant that he would not make a good leader of a country as his beliefs meant he ignored scientific fact in favour of scripture.

@effigy

A yes vote in 2014 would have mean scotland out the EU and UK and I was perfectly happy with that being an old school jim Sillars type nationalist.

Pretending scotland would slip seamlessly into that corrupt, broken and anti democratic shambles that is the EU is just fantasy. It would not be independence either; we’d be subservient to unelected Eurocrats.

The reasons scotland has declined these last few years is Nicola Sturgeon. Instead of working with people to encourage business and enterprise like Salmond did she’s made free enterprise a crime in Scotland. People genuinely think that the way to get ahead is for the state to provide, a state that Nicola Sturgeon bankrupted. Sturgeon has achieved nothing these last few years; her time in office will looked back at as a black hole, a dark ages so to speak where the scotland we all know and love was snuffed out by a corrupt and incompetent personality cult

Of course the reason Nicola Sturgeon was allowed to do this was people who ignored their eyes and ears and elected her despite the fact she was unfit for office, corrupt, incompetent (and at the last election they also knew she was a criminal). So ultimately the people responsible for the current state of Scotland are NewSNP cult members. I hope they are proud of what they’ve done.

This is how you do it.

A bottom up grass roots approach instead of a top down economic approach.

When moving vasts amounts of both skills and real resources which are the only constraints you have as a nation. You run a job guarentee beside it to catch the unemployed. You reign in The rent seekers and force them to compete for Labour for the first time in 50 years. Knock them off their monopoly perch from which they extract rent.

You reign in the commercial banks.

You take the view that monetary policy is largely useless as a stabilisation device, and what is known as the horizontal circuit (“bank money”) should be left to operate as a market rather than being manipulated all the time. Therefore you leave the base rate at the natural rate of 0% and stop artificially trying to hold it above that, particularly stop moving it around.

What that means is that government stops paying banks “welfare on reserves” payments. No Interest on Reserves. No Bond Coupons. Any income banks earn they have to get by discounting collateral in the private economy and charging for that service (aka making loans).

System stabilisation can then be done using the vertical circuit (“central bank money”) which is added and removed as required to commercial bank’s balance sheets and forcibly creates additional bank deposits in the hands of individuals – because bank money is pegged one-to-one to central bank money.

The result is that the bank money system operates within a containment vessel defined by fixed banking policies, not ones that change month to month, and the banking system ebbs and flows within the policy boundaries, with the government’s vertical system counter cyclically matching the ebb and flow.

This is where the Job Guarantee sits. The wage is paid with vertical money and matches the ebb and flow of bank money spending countercyclically. But importantly it does the same thing on the production side with labour hours – injecting and removing labour hours countercyclically with private and public sector demand keeping labour hours near constant relative to the working population.

A guaranteed alternative job replaces bank credit manipulation as the stabilisation process. The production system gets a change in output, not a dead loss. You get income in your pocket, not a debt millstone around your neck.

And that’s how you get to true full employment and price stability within an economic system where demand is satisfied.

link to new-wayland.com

There’s no reason to issue government debt. The only bonds an independent Scotland needs are Granny bonds.

link to new-wayland.com

Financial Stabilisation:

When you move from the JG to the private sector, government spending reduces as the private sector spending increases. This is because your wage is now paid by the private sector, not the government.

When a private sector firm goes bust, you lose your private sector wage and get a job guarantee wage – which may be lower. That increases government spending as the private sector spending is withdrawn, and nips back any boom wages that may not have been justified since the bust operation failed to push forward productivity.

Those payments and reductions are spatially targeted precisely where they are required. So you can have an area where private sector employment is increasing. Government spending on JG jobs will reduce in that area. While at the same time, the JG is increasing spending in a weak area elsewhere in the country.

That’s the financial stabilisation half.

Expectation Stabilisation :

The JG wage is a fixed living income wage. It never competes on price.

Because there are people on the JG, working and turning up every day, that is a greater threat to the living wage worker in the private sector – since they can be more easily replaced if they ask for more money.

However, the worker doesn’t have to put up with sweat shop wages and can move to the JG at will. So Uber et al have to pay a wage that reflects the risk and reward of the job or they won’t get any labour.

Similarly if a firm tries to raise its prices because they now can’t pay sweat shop wages, then that negates the “non-competitive” protection in the JG and JG labour can be used by social enterprises/local democracy to replace the operation trying to raise its prices.

The result is that firms that drive quantity expansion by automation are favoured. Firms can shed labour as automation proceeds, safe in the knowledge that the JG will catch those people and make sure they have a job and an income in the area they want to live in.

Demand stays up and productivity is driven forward, and that is where the higher level wage increases can come from.

That’s the expectation stabilisation half.

JG is a credible threat to both workers and firms. The only degree of freedom left is to do more with less.

Both the financial half and the expectations half work together to anchor wages and prices.

Either you have an unemployment buffer doing the stabilisation (as we have now) or you have an employed buffer. The MMT analysis is that the employed buffer is superior, to the extent that it can replace the interest rate targeting mechanism we have now and base rates can be left at 0% permanently.

Which ensures mortgages remain low.

Can someone please explain, what is this “Nu SNP”? They appear to be the same seat warmers who were always the SNP.
I joined by being influenced by Jim Sillars, Salmond and a few others whom I felt were authentic, The rump of the Party were always apparatchik arseholes, this was brought home to me after conversations with our Argyll MSP and has anyone actually tried to converse with Mike Russell?
I’m beginning to think it is simply an extension of the Braveheart cult, tailored to provide as much gravy as possible to the incumbents of HR.

The dream is dead and I don’t think given the state of world politics, we have time to resuscitate it.
There is a distinct possibility that we are gobbled up again by the failing EU and looking forward I visualise involvement in a killing war with the East, US isolationism and permanent enslavement. We have not been concentrating for the last 20 yrs, the world has moved on while we re-enacted Culloden, Flodden, The King ower the Watter, The Clearances, Evil Thatcher, Glasgow Rangers. Ah blame it aw oan the “pictures” masell?!

@James says:5 March, 2023 at 10:50 am

We voted to leave then did we?

The UK voted to leave, yes. It was a UK vote. Read the question again, maybes you will understand it this time around.

You’re an unashamed Tory Brexiteer.

Deploy the insults! The arguments aren’t working!

Only a fool would vote for Brexit.

If you say so. I guess then, that in your world, only fools vote for a smaller country to leave a union with bigger countries, in the hope that the smaller country will do better for itself. Whoopsee! The case for Indy just sunk without trace!

How’s your fruit and veg supply doing?

I’m a Scot. I never touch the stuff. Assuming you are a regular consumer, it’s not doing anything for your cognitive abilities. Maybes cut down eh?

The useless Fergus Ewing bigging up Kate Forbes, Ewing even has the chutzpah to say that its Forbes that Westminster fears becoming FM, when its actually Ash Regan they fear.

There’s only one true independence candidate and that’s Ash Regan, the ruddy faced Ewing should stick to what he knows best, and that’s coming out of my local Sainsbury’s with a bottle of alcohol in each hand, head down afraid to look anyone in the eye incase they ask him a question on why the SNP under Sturgeon’s tenure has been so bad.

link to 12ft.io

The MASSIVE issue with Kate Forbes which will cause huge problems for us is that Kate completely fails to understand

The paradox of productivity.

Her History degree fails not only to understand it but not even recognise it.

The neoclassical Keynsian, monetarist and Austrian view still believes that the economy tends to fix itself. If we just sit back economic growth will go back to its maximum. That’s Kate’s belief.

Unemployment will drop to 2% what we consider full employment but it might need some help now and then. The Paul Krugman mainstream view. That There are no business cycles. Remember that when the globalist neoliberal UK Parliament via Gordon Brown claimed the business cycle is dead. That’s Kate’s world view that neoliberal globalist Brussels will save us.

However, you could have the purist free market economy in the world but still have BIG unemployment numbers because the system tends to move towards breakdown.

Why ? Why does the system tend to move towards breakdown ? Kate has no idea it even tends to move towards breakdown. Human Mynsky understood it very well.

“Why can’t it be that higher wages force firms to invest in better management techniques and the most advanced technologies in order to get the most out of their higher cost labour?”

That’s known as the paradox of productivity. Productivity improvements just lead to falling prices, so firms try to avoid doing productivity improvements and prefer to try and obtain monopoly power instead. That’s what a ‘market niche’ is. That is what neoliberal globalism is.

Oh boy have we seen this monopoly power as the public sector was transformed into rent seeking monopolies. With a big 2 or 3 in each sector rigging the prices between themselves.

Higher wages will lead to some firms failing, which releases people onto the labour market, driving down wages. If you try to hold those jobs up, and force losses onto the other side you end up with an investment strike and the whole house of cards collapses into stagflation.

Remember those privatised public services threatening the government with investment strikes last year. I do as the rent seekers refused to cooperate .

Failing to match higher wages with higher product *must* result in *both* investment capital and the demanding wage earners taking a cold bath. The economic system is a referee. It must not favour either side in the football match.

” And why would firms in a competitive capitalistic system ever try to avoid productivity improvements? ”

Simple-

Compare the cost of a concert violinist to a loaf of bread in the 19th century vs today. That’s what productivity increases do over time – because it takes less human time to produce an item, and time is really what everything ends up being priced in.

That’s the paradox of productivity. Productivity improvements ultimately leads to cheaper prices not increased profits. Because that’s what competition is there to do. The profits can go further – in that they can buy more stuff. But capitalists and rent seekers like to accumulate units of account.

In essence and what Kate doesn’t understand the dynamics of pure competition leads to an oversupply in the market which brings prices down until firms start to go bust to eliminate the oversupply. Therefore market players try to stop competition happening by constantly seeking a monopoly perch on which to extract rent.

Oh boy we have we seen this happening time and time again.

The myths of free market beliefs say it all sorts itself out. It clearly doesn’t. The system has to force competition onto essentially reluctant players, and eliminating the clarion call of “what about the jobs” is one way of doing that – let bad firms go bust. Create a job guarentee to catch the unemployed so that the dead wood can be purged from the system.

A company that can produce more with the same inputs (costs) is going to do that if there is a market for their product.

That’s the huge problem, there isn’t. Because the costs is the income that is used to buy the product (in aggregate). Henry Ford was the first to point that out.

If you expand output then you are selling to the same income which implies the price must go down to shift the increased amount of stuff. Theoretically their competition will eventually learn how to do the same and the excess profit will disappear.

Not theoretically. That is exactly what happens. The dynamics of market share maintenance then kick in and prices go down. You get a short uplift and then a nosedive. When you’ve been in business long enough you know that getting into a niche is better than constantly trying to run up the down escalator. Because items are ultimately priced in person time used to create them.

Kate fails to understand this. Believes in the free market tooth fairy.

Crucially what it boils down to is actual demand must match actual supply at the point of effective demand – whatever Kate’s plans are. She simply doesn’t get it.

” Effective demand” is a whole different ball game compared with aggregate demand. Not recognising effective demand is the failure of supply side economics. Kate’s world view.

As explained beautifully here – Training does not equal jobs. Effective demand does.

link to billmitchell.org

@republicofscotland

I’m presuming you were a NewSNP 1&2 voter last election.

Etticus.

You presume wrong.

Etticus – of course I respect you have your own opinion on the EU.

I can’t see why anyone wouldn’t want to be in the world’s biggest trade market.
28 countries had seen the benefit and their is a queue to get other countries in.

Quite a thought all those countries are wrong and the English Tory elitists are right.

If Scotland was in the EU we would be an equal partner rather than our current status of a controlled English Shire with no economic leavers or real powers.

It was never explained to me at Indy Ref 1 how if Scotland broke away from the U.K., the U.K. being a treaty between Scotland and England only, the England would remain in the EU when their declared equal partner has ceased the UK’s existence.

How could a country called the U.K. that no longer exists remain in the EU.

If Scotland was asked to reapply then equally England would have to.

Sure the EU is far from perfect but as I’ve listed many times look at the catastrophic disaster Westminster and the English electorate has imposed on Scotland.

I seen Kate Forbes on TV earlier and like every other SNP official I don’t see them prepared with the right answers to Unionist questions.

I.E. Scotlands islands needs many more new ferries- how can they trust SNP?

What the answer should be is that they tried to save jobs in Scotland for Scotland.
We tried to put experienced professionals in post to carry out the work and it has been a let down.
Can I ask you the interviewer if you or the BBC has asked Tory Ministers if they could ever be trusted with £150 million down the drain with Grayling’s nonexistent Brexit ships, or the late and £600 million over spend on London Crossrail or the HS2 English rail project now estimated at £60 BILLION overspend and no longer starting or finishing in the desired destinations. You could also ask them about the £45 Billion on the world beating Track and Trace project no other country would touch with a barge pole.

While we are looking at performance you can look at Labours Edinburgh’s Tram link disaster and the Holyrood build that again was late on the £30 Million proposed cost that had the plug pulled on its accounts when it reached £400 million.

The BBC can answer how their director general got the job for introducing Boris to a contact willing to give him access to £800,000 unsecured loan.

Attack the bastards with a mirror and facts at every opportunity.

Look how we’ll Ireland is supported and how just about every EU member has more workers rights, better pensions and earlier retirement.

@craig Murray

I tell no lies. You know how unfit Humza Yousaf is. You know Yousaf pulled strings as justice minister to protect Nicola Sturgeon and allow her to avoid giving evidence in court during Alex Salmond’s trial. You know he is an enemy of free speech. You know he’s been a failure at every single thing he’s done. You know the consequences of electing him will likely include innocent people going to jail and the crimes of Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell being erased….

Yet You choose to ignore your eyes and ears because the fool standing for election is wearing the right colour of rosette. Thing is you are not the only one who is prepared to wheesht for Indy but given the information you are privy to regarding the endemic corruption of the SNP your stance is worse than some ordinary Joe voter who’s swallowed the lies of the national.

And while I have your attention, I have no idea what you are playing at re MacDonalds emails. If it had been me in your shoes I’d have handed them over to various journos anonymously and hoped they did their worst as well as getting them hosted on a website somewhere so anyone could read them. No one would have known it was me it just would have happened. Sitting on and editing them looks awfully like them being used for self promotion tether than ripping another piece of the scab off the SNP.

I never thought I’d be wishing we had more journalists like Elizabeth Oakcroft or whatever her name is, but they way she has exposed the clown Hancock is tremendous. Just dump the whole putrid mess out in the public forum and let the public decide. That’s how you do it.

@effigy

The EU stopped being a free trade block the day it was created out of the EEC. The EU is about creating a European superstate and destroying nation states in the continent of Europe.

If the EU was so great why is that after 30 years of membership scotland trades 5x more with the England wales and Northern Ireland than it does with the entire EU? That’s because the EU is not about trade, it’s about bribing nations into giving up their democratic freedoms. I’m of the view that the EU is not going to last, people’s will only allow themselves to be bullied into compliance for so long. .

I also detect a little element of excusing SNP corruption because of disasters south of the border. Excusing the SNP got us here, they have done their best to destroy everything that Alex Salmond achieved and we’ve gone from his approach of using good governance as a means of converting people to making an utter mess of everything and then saying “aye but in England” or “it’s englands fault”. Sturgeon seems to have gone through life screwing up and the. saying “it wisnae me” and some bizzare reason she got away with it and for some even more bizzare reason millions of Scot’s have bought that life strategy as a credible way to run a country. It isn’t.

Etticus – That’s seems easy enough to answer. The EU does want to build a super state with free easy movement and trade between them.
Protecting each other and giving smaller countries equal status at the negotiating tables.
They funded numerous projects in poorer areas in Scotland and Wales that England neglected.

Scotland trades mainly with England because that is the way England designed it and imposed it.

I’ve got to laugh out loud at your suggestion the EU bribing nations to give up their democratic freedoms.

You have noticed that if every single possible Brexit vote in Scotland we would still have been dragged out of the EU against our will?

You did notice every English Party walk out of Westminster walk out as SNP stood to deliver their thoughts on Brexit?

You did notice that Englands Supreme Court ruled that Scotland has no powers whatsoever
that England cannot over rule?

I recall Canada seeking a trade deal with the EU where every state was in agreement except
Wallonia, a very small state in Belgium that has very significantly more powers than Scotland.
The agreement was tweaked to take account of Wallonia’s grievances.

We owe it to Westminster corruption and lies that we never got to benefit from our oil reserves like Norway who are our almost identical neighbour who live debt free with world class infrastructure an health care and with £110,000 surplus in the treasury for every man, woman and child in the nation.

Now tell me again about how mighty and important Scotland is in the U.K. and how we are better off with retirement at 75 and a privatised health service.

@craig Murray

“I have directly offered access to the emails to several newspapers, including the Herald and the National.”

Lololol!

I’d have put them on multiple untraceable usb drives and posted them to every single political journo I could think of. I certainly wouldn’t offer them to the national! Fgs they’d hand them straight to SNP HQ for guidance!

They’d also be hosted on some conveniently non UK based website, perhaps in the USA, where freedom of speech trumps upsetting the SNP HQ where anyone could find them.

And your comments about NATO say it all, pre the war you were banging the drum for Putin only to be forced into an embarrassing uturn when once again your shocking judgement was exposed. Now you’re back at it again. How anyone could even try to justify Russia invading Ukraine is beyond me.

Any moment now this Cairnstoon will come to life and some political character will emerge from the dark circular hole declaring “That’s All Folks!”

In essence, Yousaf is a Looney Yoon.

Here is Humza Fudd preying on the gullible SNP members:
link to youtube.com

Effigy has never heard of “ever closer union” either.

Astonishing how people will post about sovereign Scots and the destruction of our legal system, national language and particular cultural heritage, then post a few hours later on how we just have to be in the EU, or the EFTA.

That kind of cognitive dissonance might be possible if you suffer from Scottish Exceptionalism – Scots will drown under free movement, and our unique culture will disappear under harmonised laws and standards emanating from overseas, but at the same time we will be an Independent Sovereign Nation.

The BS meter is off the scale on that one.

What Effijy says is he respects other opinions, sees clearly how Indy ref was stolen by the promise No keeps Scots in the EU where the majority appeared to won’t and that was irrefutably confirmed by 62% of Scots in the Brexit referendum.

We may never again see 62% of Scots agreeing on anything.

The first thing I want is independence from the most corrupt and immoral Westminster government I have ever know, one that Scots never voted for, one that has decided they
Own Scotland and we can only do what they permit.

Secondly we can have an EU referendum and that result I think can be easily predicted but I’d happily follow the will of a Scottish majority.

North Chiel.

In my opinion the candidates should be judged first and foremost on their plans for independence, and Ash Regan stands head and shoulders above the other two on that, for without independence Scotland cannot move forward, they’ll be plenty of time to surround themselves with experts on matters of governing, but that means nothing if independence isn’t obtained.

No country can really compete on the international stage with one hand tied behind its back, and only independence can give Scotland that fighting chance.

Basically if Ash Regan doesn’t win this contest it will just be more of the same.

@James 3:10

Read my post again. Read the EU referendum question again.

You are allowed a dictionary to help with your comprehension. It’s not an exam.

I would ask if you have a grown up in the house to help you, but don’t want to be misinterpreted, so ignore that.

John Main; brilliant, keep on digging.