The non-useful idiots
Now, it hasn’t come as any surprise to us that “Bonnie Prince Bob”, who is this week’s darling of the Scottish media and is running for the Edinburgh Central seat against Angus Robertson, is a deeply tiresome faux-revolutionary Bella Caledonia-type poseur straight out of the most insufferable kind of student drama society.
We were already aware of the fact because he’s been morbidly and creepily obsessed with Wings (and in particular my sex life for some unfathomable reason) for years.
Bob is a dedicated self-publicist to whom the election is just an opportunity for a bit of attention-seeking and grifting. He’s raised over £8,000 for unspecified purposes in a campaign that’s being conducted almost entirely online at next to no cost.
But hey, everyone’s got bills to pay, so good luck to him on that. There was a gap in the market for a cross between a slightly less clever pro-indy Neil Oliver and the oblivious wearing-outdoors-accessories-indoors bombast of George Galloway, and he seems to have cornered it with a modicum of aplomb.
His other goals are a bit more suspect, though.
Because Bob’s standing as a man of the people, a firebrand proletarian class warrior aiming to give Edinburgh back to the downtrodden masses through the medium of sarcastic YouTube videos. He told Holyrood Magazine, for example, that he intended to fight the “flogging and whoring of every square metre of public space to crap hotels and fetid Etonian spivs”. Admirable stuff indeed.
Yet for some reason he’s not standing on the Lothian list, where just 6% or so of the vote is enough to make you an MSP. Instead he’s contesting a constituency seat where the departing incumbent, Ruth Davidson, needed five times that share to edge out the SNP in 2016 in one of the night’s biggest shocks.
What that tells us is that Bob has no interest whatsoever in actually becoming an MSP, with all the boring hard work and suit-and-tie wearing that entails. Because while 6% is just about conceivable for an independent with some media profile and presentational ability, and could – at least in his wildest dreams – put him into Holyrood where he could try to effect change, he has absolutely no chance of winning the individual seat, and running for it is purely a self-glorification exercise.
But that’s not to say he couldn’t still make a difference.
The last time round, the Scottish Greens’ no-hoper vanity candidate Alison Johnstone almost certainly took enough votes that would otherwise have gone to the SNP to give Ruth Davidson her victory by just 610. She’s standing for the Greens again this year, and while the Tories have put up a relative nobody to try to defend Davidson’s seat, a combination of the Greens and Bob could very plausibly do enough damage to stop Robertson recapturing a seat the SNP has only ever held once.
(It had hoped to take it way back in 2007, when it surged to its first ever election victory, but put the job in the hands of the ever-hopeless Shirley-Anne Somerville.)
The result of that would be that the intervention of the Great People’s Revolutionary Champion would have ensured an extra Tory in the Parliament – a major boon for the very “fetid Etonian spivs” Bob is ostensibly riding into battle to combat, but a prospect about which he’s intensely relaxed.
Now, full disclosure here, readers: we’d not exactly be rending our garments and shedding floods of tears if Angus Robertson lost. The SNP stitched up the seat to keep Joanna Cherry out of Holyrood and he’s part of the problem in the party, not part of the solution. We’re no hypocrites. But we’re also not the ones standing on a supposed platform of saving the working-class from the Tories while seriously risking letting a full-strength bona-fide Tory MSP in.
In 2016 the SNP got no list MSPs in Lothian despite only winning six out of the nine constituency seats in the region, so it’s possible – and dear God let’s hope – that their horrific lead list candidate Graham Campbell wouldn’t get in even if Robertson was defeated, making it a clear net Tory gain.
And who knows, with polling poised on a bit of a knife-edge that one extra seat could even be enough to turn a pro-indy majority into a Unionist one, all for the sake of briefly inflating Bob’s needy ego.
But what’s weirdest about it all is that despite that real danger, neither the Greens nor Bob are being bombarded with the sort of vicious and relentless abuse from SNP supporters that the Alba Party are, even though Alba aren’t fighting ANY constituency seats (the Greens are fighting 11 others, none of which they have any hope of winning) and are telling their supporters to vote SNP on the first ballot paper.
The SNP’s jealous fury seems to be solely reserved for Alba, and we suspect that reveals rather a lot about whether the SNP are really in this election for independence or to preserve their own monopoly on pro-indy politics.
May 6th, Scotland will get what Scotland deserves.
“with all the boring hard work and suit-and-tie wearing that entails”….. a bit of hard work from any of the idlers in Holyrood and the country might be in a better place.
So basically he’s on the field and his only objective is home own goal.
There’s a dude standing in the Inverclyde constituency as an Independent candidate.
However, he has a photo of himself up on Lyle Hill, Greenock, wearing a lot of mainly blue tartan.
Some wonder aloud, if all this tartan he’s got on, scarf, and tartan hat, etc, is to deceive unsuspecting voters into thinking he maybe for Scottish Independence.
Well, he isn’t for Scottish Independence, but we do think he’s trying to flog the “Christian” voters!
So, don’t be fooled by that one, in Inverclyde, folks!
have you checked out what school he went to and his family background
Yes, this is just about Wingsian analysis at its best, and typically, bloody obvious when you simply make the effort to look at the cold hard facts, which few apparently ever do. No idea what Craig Murray was thinking when he was bigging up “Bonnie Prince Bob.”
Meanwhile the bastions of New SNP reaction have done a sterling job of stitching up this election with the attack-soundbite/tropes “sex pest” and “transphobe”. Big Lies which have been every bit as effective as the equivalent demagogic nonsense like “but Hillary’s E-mails!1!” and “but Corbyn hates teh Jews11!”
I’m not hopeful.
I did like his Jim Murphy spoof, however.
Oliver and BPB
They do have a type of Lochlan and Mornay scent to them
Mikey d says:
2 May, 2021 at 8:51 am
May 6th, Scotland will get what Scotland deserves.
Not really, we have a baffling and gameable electoral process which is based on everyone having perfect information when allocating their two votes and responding rationally to that information.
The information,especially regarding the electoral process itself, is far from perfect.
So Scotland will get what the gatekeepers of that information,process or policy, deem fit.
Not the ambitious, just government all nations deserve.
However, if BPB allows one tory over another to lord over edinburgh central, there won’t be many tears shed here.
Speaking of idiots, Dross is floundering even under softball questions from Andrew Marr at the moment.
If she just keep saying, ‘the peepul of scotlan’ in her best Mel Gibson voice they might give her the crown.
Thanks Rev, about time this Clown was called out.
I have very little time for idiots and their egos who think it clever to make politics a joke.
We see that all the time in the English General Election Results, and I’m always quietly pleased that we don’t have that kind of nonsense here.
What do Westminister expect when they play dress up and speak as if they are auditioning for a costume drama, but they seem to like it !
Nevertheless ….
A seat in a Parliament is a serious thing and affects people’s lives and health,it is not a stage to be played on.
We/ Edinburgh do not need a Parody we need a Parliamentarian and I hope those who have an ego learn pretty dam quickly the voters here are no playin.
We have precious little time for campaign exposure because we are treated as though we are having a ” regional ” election and we should waste none on plastic candidates.
I hope this fool and the Twat in the Hat who thinks he’s a Cat are the demonstration that we are no interested in this buffonary in Holyrood elections.
Good article, Rev Stu –
If only the Scots MSM could do stuff like this, the wider electorate might be better informed.
I’ll keep tellling folk about Wings, in the hope (probaly forlorn) that more and better analytical information seeps out into the general populace.
That should have been ‘probably’, now I’ve found my reading specs.
It is shit living in Scotland.
It has to be the most pathetic, subservient, ignorant electorate in the World.
We had a chance to be a truly independent nation in 2014 and we blew it.
And now the same electorate are willing to give Sturgeon and her Freaks their Vote, AGAIN.
All through ignorance and gullibility.
Don’t be labelled a Freak.
Don’t Vote SNP.
Liz g says:
2 May, 2021 at 9:37 am
Thanks Rev, about time this Clown was called out.
I have very little time for idiots and their egos who think it clever to make politics a joke.
Under the current leaderships, holyrood and abroad, that is the strategy and clearly the point.
Liz g
“I have very little time for idiots ….who think it clever to make politics a joke.”
———-
Do you think it clever to make Boris Johnson out to be anything else?
Sturgeon’s claim to fame in her home town of Dykehorn was allegedly when she stood in the middle of the town square and screamed:-
“I’m the only Gay is this fuckin Toon”.
Allegedly…
Don’t quote me on that, it came from a dodgy source.
But if she is allowed to lie to very people who elected her, then I suppose anyone else can.
She started it, so to speak.
Don’t Vote SNP.
Coming from Speaker Wishart’s Twitter feed in 5… 4… 3…
“Once again the Bath-based blogger has made ridiculous allegations about my party. The SNP is NOT a pro-indy party. It never has been. In fact, in the entire history of the SNP I challenge him to find one single mention of independence. Apart from possible misprints.”
Eugene Henderson says:
2 May, 2021 at 9:45 am
It is shit living in Scotland.
It has the same problems as any other colony.
It has to be the most pathetic, subservient, ignorant electorate in the World.
Why is that?
We had a chance to be a truly independent nation in 2014 and we blew it.
Anyone and everyone can make a mistake, but surely they all deserve another chance?
And now the same electorate are willing to give Sturgeon and her Freaks their Vote, AGAIN.
All through ignorance and gullibility.
Don’t be labelled a Freak.
Don’t Vote SNP.
Yes, vote SNP in the constituency, Alba on the region.
We need two nationalist parties to utilise the votes that are there.
If Alex Salmond returns to holyrood, our current first minister will bluster and exit.
The husk of the SNP will then be revivified.*
*That is a hopeful reasoning, I would prefer another nationist party to assert itself.
Slightly O/T but does anyone remember this post from last year – https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-cat-and-all-the-pigeons/?
I wonder why we’re not seeing the polls reflecting it? It’d be fantastic if it happened.
Was calling out this charletan a few months back when certain individuals (hello Craig Murray!) were blibbering over him in spite of all the evidence he was a self-seeking attention seeker.
Another quick wee reminder for those with VERY SHORT MEMORIES of what Bonnie Prince Bob had to say about Wings Over Scotland … straight from this very site:
https://wingsoverscotland.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/princebob.jpg
He may have scrubbed his incriminating Twitter account with the above on it, but his vanity Instagram page, also under the name of NonideeFixe, is still up:
https://www.instagram.com/nonideefixe
Oh, and just in case he tries to scrub the evidence:
https://imgur.com/I68AoXZ
The same person who called Wings Over Scotland a ‘Snake Oil Selling Charatan Piss Artist’ three years ago (on top of what Stu’s mentioned here) now wants WoS readers and supporters to vote for him on May 6th 2021.
Tell this aging wannabe ‘celebrity’ to fk off!
I think imelda sturgeon is beginning to panic. Good.
The woke are now being fought on all fronts all across the world. Double plus good.
And humza useless is looking a lot less likely to be returned to Holyrood. What’s not to like ?
Bonnie Prince Bob may be a chancer but I’d much rather him than angus robertson macbeth.
Still I’ve decided SNP1 and Alba 2. Max the Yes
Paul 10.01
Sturgeon will go nowhere if she is reelected.
And as for her “running” because Alex Salmond is in the chamber just confirms what I said about the Scottish electorate.
Sturgeon, having the last say at FMQs will just scream at Salmond, telling him she will not take any lessons from a man who STILL hasn’t apoligised to the women he tried to sexually abuse.
That clip alone will be the headline story on every news bulletin and newspaper thereafter.
See what I mean about guys like you being gullible and ignorant?
I myself would be more than happy to see Bob scupper Robertson’s chances, regardless of the implications for any hallowed pro-indy majority (which I am convinced would do precisely nothing towards independence anyway).
Once you assume independence is a complete pipe dream for the next 5 years, quite a lot falls into place.
The first thing that falls into place is an understanding of who is really to blame for this whole mess that we find ourselves in.
This is the end that I talked about back in October, Armageddon, as far as Scottish politics as we know it is concerned. It’s all gone.
The second thing that falls into place is a realisation that the only way to fix the situation is to do political harm to Sturgeon’s SNP. That’s a logical goal, not an emotional or vengeful goal.
Political systems like economic systems need to experience “corrections” every now and then. They’re painful but necessary.
It will take 5 years to get back on track and get through this, at a minimum. If the election goes as badly as I think it will for the SNP, we can get rid of her quickly and use those 5 years to build and prepare.
The idea that we should concern ourselves with Robertson’s election prospects, given what we know about things, is possibly the most bizarre thing I have heard in the last few bizarre years.
I was convinced the moment the powers controlling the SNP blocked Joanna from this seat that they did it so the tories could win the seat, alienating a good section of the SNP voters by foisting Robertson on the seat.
Now, those figures above could suggest the only presence of the greens in that seat was to stop the SNP winning it, so the tories could get it instead.
But what jumps at you immediately is that Davidson “won” that seat by a whisker. 610 votes. And that was the poster girl of the tory party. After brexit (Edinburgh was one of the most pro EU cities in Scotland), the theft of powers, the corruption in the tory ranks, having an absolute buffoon as the poster boy of the tory party, and having a candidate less popular than Davidson, it was clear the same strategy of just having a green running in the seat to stop a pro indy candidate wining the seat would not cut it this time.
In fact, I am convinced that if had been Joanna contesting that seat, the tories would lose the seat, greens or not. And that is another reason why I have been wondering for quite a while now who the hell is controlling the SNP. Now I wonder who is controlling the Greens too.
So a rearrangement of the strategy was needed to ensure the seat was kept by the tories. The obvious addition to the strategy was to block the favourite SNP candidate and put instead a ninny imported from somewhere else to deliberately alienate a good chunk of the voters.
But that would leave two problems
1. some of those alienated pro SNP voters will not be seen dead voting for the ninny, and that could lead to an embarrassing increase of spoiled ballots or decrease in turnout that might just expose the whole game of deception to the public.
2. Fed up of Labour being useless, disgusted by the anti-women stance of the Greens and appalled by the libdems voting for the hate bill, some of their natural voters may choose to vote SNP instead.
Solution: to put some flamboyant paper candidate with no chance in hell to win the seat but that may have enough appeal to give those orphan pro indy voters and disgusted labour and libdem voters an opportunity for what they think will be a protest vote.
But this paper candidate cannot possibly appeal to tory voters at all because that will defeat the purpose.
And when the push comes to the shove, what are the two main tory voters’ priorities?
tax avoidance and the monarchy.
So, what would be the best repellent for tory voters?
to present the paper candidate as a flamboyant, long haired provocateur, aiming to empty your wallet with taxes. An unashamed socialist who directly attacks local businesses demanding public ownership and that (gasps) cometes the biggest sin of them all: openly pursues the abolition of the monarchy rendering meaningless all those aristocratic titles and imperial bubbles the wealthy tory middle class has received or is expecting to receive in exchange for loyalty to the monarchy.
It seems to me BPB is a text book paper candidate working for the tories.
I am beginning to think we are all taken for a ride and that the result in that constituency (like in a few others) has been already decided, so the vote is just a formality to keep the pretence of democracy.
When you look at things from this perspective, you begin to wonder until what point elections are just a manipulation game and “democracy” in Scotland is a complete and utter farce.
It seems so clear to me that BPB is there to ensure the tories get the seat that the immediate question for me is why is it so important that the tories retain that seat in particular?
What does that seat have that is so special?
Is it because of symbolism as it is the capital city of Scotland and a very much pro-EU city?
Is it because there is something in that constituency, let’s say some MI5 station or society, that is a serious risk of being exposed if an MSP other than a tory has an opportunity to stick their nose in it?
Is it because there are some really dodgy tory money dealings going on in that constituency that may be forced to stop if another tory does not keep the lid on it?
As a lot of postal votes have gone in already, this thread topic is a bit late.
Almost suspiciously late.
If the SNP keep putting up Perverts and posers what choice do the voters have?
They put Woke candidates up on the list under the guise of BAME or disabled. They rig the rules to give Robertson a free run and then get angry when the voters turn the offer down.
I don’t want the current SNP leadership OR those in elected roles who remain silent as the damage is done to Scotland.
It is not BPB’s fault, or the Greens nor the voters. It is those MSPs and MPs who sit silently and let Sturgeon wreck our hopes of Independence.
Robertson had no chance regardless of BPB standing. However Joanna Cherry would have taken that seat with a large majority. The leader of the SNP lost that seat to the Tory candidate because of her ego and fixation with the transcult.
The BBC & ITN say they won’t allow Alba to take part in Holyrood Election debates because Alba have never won any Holyrood seats.
Yet, in the London Mayor debates, Libdems and Green candidates have been included, despite neither party ever winning a London Mayor election.
His real surname isn’t Macock….it’s Hyde-McComb.
@Gordon Keane says: 2 May, 2021 at 9:04 am
There’s a dude standing in the Inverclyde constituency as an Independent candidate.
However, he has a photo of himself up on Lyle Hill, Greenock, wearing a lot of mainly blue tartan.
Some wonder aloud, if all this tartan he’s got on, scarf, and tartan hat, etc, is to deceive unsuspecting voters into thinking he maybe for Scottish Independence.
Well, he isn’t for Scottish Independence, but we do think he’s trying to flog the “Christian” voters!
So, don’t be fooled by that one, in Inverclyde, folks!
It’s John Burleigh, who runs Burns Bunnets for people whose lives won’t be complete without a Tam O’Shanter bunnet in an “utter twat” size more befitting the Ecky Thump episode of The Goodies.
Guess what? It’s a publicity stunt.
Businesses abusing the election free mail drop has been a problem for decades – they did change the rules to block the delivery of leaflets that was clearly just free advertising after What Every Woman Wants took the piss with their Value Party (which backfired big time on them) even more than the “Natural Law Party” had, but if a candidate mentioned that they own a particular business in their leaflets there’s little the returning officer or post office can do.
Cenchos
Postal ballots
/
The number of postal ballots submitted and the turnout on the day is an unknown.
The only thing I would say is that there will be a disproportionate number of young voters on Election Day, due to covid, which is good for the SNP and everything woke.
Shug at 9.06 am
“have you checked out what school he went to…”
What school he went to ??? Are we really still doing this? Now, at this time, this is all that bothers you? Arse.
Can anyone post extraordinary long irrelevant pish?
Thanks.
Late last year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art unveiled “Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China,” the institution’s first survey of contemporary art from the country. Situated within the museum’s Chinese art galleries, the exhibition interspersed the old with the new, adding context—or, perhaps, simply conserving space. In the permanent Ming Scholar’s retreat, an aubergine rubber scholar rock by Zhang Jianun cast a long shadow over its limestone brethren, while unusable furnishings by the artist-activist Ai Weiwei—a wobbly stool constructed like craniopagus twins, and a table folded at the middle so its four legs have become two legs and two arms—seemed poised to animate and wander away from their sixteenth-century predecessors. Resistance to tradition is a prominent theme in Ink Art, as is the importance of writing in—subtext, of course—a country with an active policy of censorship.
The exhibition looked at the evolution of China’s calligraphic traditions, but its most powerful statement came with works that play on an idea of language, rather than on actual words. Song Dong’s 1996 performance Printing on Water (Performance in the Lhasa River, Tibet), in which the artist futilely stamped the water’s surface with a large wooden seal, alludes to the hopelessness the act of writing can evoke, particularly if it leaves no trace. The final two works in “Ink Art” are also concerned with meaningless writing—but they combined to create a more comforting message. Xu Bing’s installation Book from the Sky filled the last room with scrolls covered in block-printed Chinese characters. The text cascaded in soft arcs across the ceiling, wallpapering the room and coming to rest in neat piles on the floor. The careful organization evokes a calm—which is abruptly displaced when one learns that the text comprises four thousand nonsense characters. Most Western viewers wouldn’t be able to read the text anyway, but the realization that no one can is transformative. An expanse of gibberish becomes an inhabitable space of words: the viewer is absolved from the act of reading.
For anyone who has engaged in the struggle of communicating through writing—namely, every literate person—the idea of writing for its own sake, rather than for meaning, is incredibly alluring. This isn’t an anti-intellectual position; the creation of a nonsensical non-language consisting of thousands of characters is surely a Herculean task of perseverance and ingenuity. Consider Xu Bing’s Book from the Sky as a counterexample to Borges’s Library, where an endless expanse of rooms containing infinite numbers of incomprehensible books led to chaos. For Borges, the search for a message in the mess leads to insanity; for Xu, the lack of message allows for a focus on, and celebration of, writing as a visually aesthetic art form.
The final work in the exhibition, Cai Guo-Qiang’s Project to Extend the Great Wall of China by 10,000 Meters, took meaningless writing to incendiary levels. In 1993, Cai and a team of volunteers laid a ten-kilometer fuse leading from the edge of the Great Wall to the Gobi Desert and lit it from one end, videotaping the process and the results. The explosion was visible from outer space. As the charge traveled, sparks and smoke lit up the night sky, painting a line like brushwork across the terrain. The sound—like the hiss of cymbal vibrations punctuated by tympanic explosions—echoed on the plains, bouncing off the crevices of the earth. Though Project to Extend’s ambitions are predominantly architectural, when paired with Book from the Sky it becomes a monumental act of writing. Like Book, there is no literal message, yet if Book is a celebration of writing’s visual form, Project exults in its action. The traveling charge, moving with the swiftness of a pen or brush, creates the eloquent impression of writing: full of drama, force, destruction, and creation.
Lilly Lampe is a writer and art critic based in Brooklyn. Her writing has appeared in Art in America, ArtAsiaPacific, Art Papers, Artforum.com, and Modern Painters, among others.
Sad to say I called this one wrong: I was inclined to vote for BPB, but the more I see and hear of him the less I like him.
Looks like I’m back to spoiling my constituency ballot then? 🙁
Yep stu, that ego inflated you tuber is no match for you!! He is outed as a me me me me me hypocrite!
As for him and the greens, super ego, no hoper, alison johnstone, they are very comfortable with a woke anti Independence SNP.
Only Alba party has any credibility here.
Anyone calling himself Bonnie prince bob is a right suspect character if ever there was one!
Given what you exposed about BPB, even angus robertson has a slither more credibility and we all know about the skeletons on his cupboard!
” ma hame city” cries Bob. Well its mine too ya chancer, and one more long haired, unwashed smelling hippy in Tory knickers is Not what MY city needs!!
So take your unionism and do one!
Is being on your ‘bad weeks’ a valid legal defence?
The Daily Record giving it large for NS this morning. A unionist rag (among others) showing such interest and support for a so-called Nationalists and “supporter” of Independence? Interesting.
Andy Ellis says:
2 May, 2021 at 10:39 am
Sad to say I called this one wrong: I was inclined to vote for BPB, but the more I see and hear of him the less I like him.
Looks like I’m back to spoiling my constituency ballot then? ?
Reply
Mornin’ Andy! Well done for owning up to your miscalculation.
“And who knows, with polling poised on a bit of a knife-edge that one extra seat could even be enough to turn a pro-indy majority into a Unionist one, all for the sake of briefly inflating Bob’s needy ego.”
What are the implications of spoiling your constituency ballot & the possibility of a Unionist majority?
I’m sticking with SNP 1 ALBA 2 in Edinburgh Central
It’s street performance art & he’s passing round the hat
Might cost Robertson SNP a chance of a seat …some might be more upset by that than others
Scottish Parliament constituency ballot voting intentions (BMG / Herald):
SNP 49% (+1)
Labour 21% (+1)
Conservatives 19% (-2)
Liberal Democrats 8% (-1)
Scottish Parliament regional list voting intentions:
SNP 37% (-5)
Conservatives 22% (-)
Labour 17% (-)
Greens 9% (+1)
Liberal Democrats 8% (-)
Alba 4% (+4)
Seats projection (with changes from 2016 election): SNP 68 (+5), Conservatives 25 (-6), Labour 18 (-6), Greens 9 (+3), Liberal Democrats 7 (+2), Alba 2 (+2)
SNP: 68 seats
All others: 61 seats
SNP OVERALL MAJORITY OF 7 SEATS
Pro-independence parties: 79 seats (61.2%)
Anti-independence parties: 50 seats (38.8%)
PRO-INDEPENDENCE MAJORITY OF 29 SEATS
Bob’s video for election is a neat mockumentary soon dismissed as a spoof; too pat by half, studied backgrounds, crash edits, with and well-rehearsed phrases to catch our conscience. Johnny Rebel with no political background.
The question I wanted to ask him was: “Who do *you* vote for?”
O/T AS has come out of recent events looking like a serious man of integrity and purpose, in command of himself and his subject. I hope that he is as good as his manifesto and sweeps away the vile wokery and anti-women nonsense and any vestiges thereof left on the statute book. The HCB and GRA are about control of the populace and emphatically not about righting wrongs or delivering justice. If he gains an influential vote share then we may yet escape from a grim and scary future.
It looks like the SNP is now the party that rejects heteros and gay people who do not conform to its gender agenda.
It’s a very small corner to paint itself into.
It will cruise into this election on the back of the support it has gained in the past, but once its new thought crime laws start jailing people the penny will drop for most of the electorate.
It’s a balance between trying to get Angus Roberson out, but at the cost of what. I don’t know.
That cut-up doll video of BPB is strange and weird even by woke standards though.
Labour only projected to be down 6 seats in this latest poll.
I wis hoping we could take the lot off them , but ah well , thankfull for small mercies.
I see once again south of the border labour are expecting a drubbing in the local english elections , with the tories expectd to take many seats off them in the old red wall areas?
Hopefully our welsh brothers give labour a good kicking as well.
I read everything you just wrote and still say he’s a lot nicer than Angus Robertson and wife.
https://tinyurl.com/23w9v33j
#AlbaWomenRising
Good video!
Some of the women use the English pronunciation of Alba which I think if fair enough.
I don’t think it was a good idea to listen to Pete Wishart!
Imagine if French, Italian, German, etc speaking politician were to correct foreign words that were ‘mispronounced’ in English!
@Thomas 10.47am
Geez….a few short years ago I’d have been ecstatic at the thought of an SNP overall majority.
Now, I look at Sturgeon’s performances in recent interviews and the direction of travel of the SNP as a party over the past few years and all I feel is a sense of foreboding.
Another five years of freewheeling, with zero progress on independence and more stasis from the SNP as they achieve little and blame Westminster for not giving them the extra powers they need, while failing to have the balls to tell not ask.
It’s akin to looking back to New Labour’s “Things Can Only Get Better” moment after the Iraq War.
In dubio abstine. 🙁
“Almost suspiciously late”
What do you mean. Please elaborate.
Craig Murray
Yes.
“Out damned spot”, I think I can hear her say.
Grouse Beater,
A very good question.
I guess people see just how toxic Angus Robertson is and were looking for an alternative that wasn’t a Tory, Green or Labour, and BPB appeared at first glance to fill that gap, how wrong we were to think that.
On Labour Scotland’s branch manager Anas Sarwar appeared on Clyde2 radio this morning, and was asked straight out by a woman caller if he thought men (dressed as women) should be allowed into women and girls safe spaces ie toilets, changing rooms etc. Sarwar did a Patrick Harvey and filibustered for the next thirty-seconds and didn’t answer the question.
If I recall correctly SLAB voted with the Greens and the SNP to enable the HCB, so I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that the Labour branch office in Scotland also doesn’t care about women’s rights.
Thing about it is Rev, that a Tory victory in the constitutency seat will get rid of Robertson, and it will simply lose the Tories a seat on the List. And at least as far as I’m aware the Tory candidate isn’t married to a dugshite. And I’ll be doing all I can to make sure the List seat goes to ALBA and not that other dugshite Graham Campbell. Worst case I do get Campbell, whose a dugshite, instead of Robertson, who’s also a dugshite.
So it’s BPB for me, secure in the knowledge that he won’t get elected either
Craig Murray,
I think whatever way you look at it. It’s seems that it’s a competition for the least smelliest turd.
Mia 11.00.
Bad choice of words, not what I meant.
Republicofscotland says:
If I recall correctly SLAB voted with the Greens and the SNP to enable the HCB, so I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that the Labour branch office in Scotland also doesn’t care about women’s rights.
Reply
Possibly he would be focused on racism & Islamophobia when voting for the HCB.
Labour introduced the Gender Recognition Act in 2004 and evidence would suggest they are 100% for the GRA reforms.
Is it possible to catch-up on Radio Clyde 2?
The new pro-indy kid on the block.
https://twitter.com/JaggyBlog
@ andy ellis.
I know mate , but from my personal point of view we are between a rock and a hard place.
SNP 1 ALBA 2 for me , i dont think personally we have any other option this election , then see how the dice falls.
I cannot under any circumstances tolerate letting unionists in , especially those labour party scum.
@David Ferguson 11.04am
I just couldn’t bring myself to vote Tory under any circumstances, but the logic of tactical voting here would probably be to vote for the Tory candidate Douglas Scott. I don’t know much about him: councillor for Murrayfield/Corstorphine since 2017, ex Edinburgh Academy, graduated from Edinburgh Uni in 2010 with a degree in Politics, head of PR and public affairs (naturally…!) at Fife College.
Defeated the better known Councillor Jo Mowat who was knocked out in the first round of voting. Looks like a young man on the make if you ask me given the background. I’m sure Conservative Central Office have been all over him.
Much as I wouldn’t vote for him, I think I’d actually prefer him as an MSP to either Angus Robertson or Graham Campbell, particularly if his victory deprived the Tories of a list seat.
Ruby.
Sarwar’s talk-in finished at 10am this morning you might be able to listen to him bat away questions here.
https://planetradio.co.uk/clyde-2/player/
Jaggy.Blog is a welcome edition to the real indy camp. Thistle do nicely.
OT. I note that
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-56510773
( Who to vote for and what are their policies)
is saying that Sturgeon’s top priority is a referendum for independence:-)
“The leader of the SNP lost that seat to the Tory candidate because of her ego and fixation with the transcult”
The leader of the SNP (whoever that leader is, because sure as hell is not Sturgeon) did not lose that seat to the tories. They are HANDING it to the tories, helped by the Greens and BPB.
Looking at the figures as the rev presented them in the article, looking at how the SNP blocked the best candidate for the seat and looking at the paper candidate BPB, it seems more and more like the seat owner has already been decided in advance, behind closed doors among parties colluding with each other to frustrate democracy. The voting process appears to be just a formality to make it official.
I would not be surprised if there is a stock of properly labelled postal votes in standby somewhere in case they need to be deployed to ensure the result in that constituency is the “right” one.
The real question for me is: why is it so important for the British state that this particular seat is under control of the “right person”? What is this constituency hiding?
@ republicofscotland
Cheers fur the link pal.
Looks like the Freaks Charter will sail through the Parliament.
All done without one mention of the “I” word.
ALBA will be lucky to get five seats.
All SNP voters, you lot own the shite that is coming down the line and your names are noted.
Don’t Vote SNP.
A combination of spoiled ballot papers from scunnered SNP supporters and an increased vote for the son of the governor of Punjab from the 18% Asian vote in Govanhill could see Nicola voted out.
Look at all politicians, BPB is no were near the bottom of the pile, he puts on a good show, Labour gave us #GulfWar2, Westminster gave us war criminals 20th March 2003. MSPs and party members tried to jail an innocent person. Yes I would give BPB my vote.
@ Stephen.
LMFAO.
You wish you mean. Or have labour got peterborough vote rigger tariq mahmood on the postal ballot case?
Breastplate,
But those are the choices our daft electoral system threw up. And Robertson is extremely dangerous, Nicola’s preferred glacialist successor, plus someone the UK military and security services are comfortable with. Without mentioning other stuff.
LABOUR SLEAZE: Prominent Cllr Speaks Out As Residents In Peterborough Report Widespread VOTE FRAUD By Labour Party
https://vote-watch.com/2021/04/26/labour-sleaze-prominent-cllr-speaks-out-as-residents-in-peterborough-report-widespread-vote-fraud-by-labour-party/
Thomas
So you want Sturgeon to remain?
That takes masochism to new levels!
She is the one thing which is holding back independence at this time.
Sarwar is no threat.
He bends the way the wind blows.
It’s like the opening of The Exorcist: evil against evil.
Turns out that Pazuzu‘s evil might outweigh his benefits.
Anas Sarwar doesn’t give a monkeys about poverty in Scotland his family business didn’t even pay the living wage, when rumbled Sarwar said, he didn’t pay it because it was voluntary to do so, as if that was some sort of valid excuse for paying minimum wages and maximizing profits.
In contrast his one time boss, and real socialist Jeremy Corbyn did pledge to raise the minimum wage to £10 per hour if elected as as PM.
Republicofscotland says:
2 May, 2021 at 11:16 am
Ruby.
Sarwar’s talk-in finished at 10am this morning you might be able to listen to him bat away questions here.
https://planetradio.co.uk/clyde-2/player/
Reply
Thank you found it!
https://tinyurl.com/vjw8cs9h
Anas Sarwar
Starts at 2.22
Question re women’s rights.
Starts at 49:03
Big gap in HCB but yet he voted for it!
Gordon,
You’ve made my day mentioning Lyle Hill in Greenock! My dear departed Granny who I miss to this day lived in Greenock (Waverly St initially then Campbell St IIRC, anyway 2as,doon by the wata) for the last 60 years of her life, died a month short of her 100th bless her.
Many a walk up the Hill and view the Free French memorial, plus gazing over the Clyde to the stunning beauty of Argylshire, happy days!!
Bob can’t make politics a joke, it already is. I don’t live in this constituency but if I did I’d vote for him just for the hell of it. Who cares what his background is, jeez look at who we’ve had in HR. Who cares what he’s said about Wings. I really hope Angus Robertson gets his ass kicked along with many others. The SNP don’t deserve our votes. I’m spoiling the constituency and going Alba on list. I see all this shit about holding your nose, that’s not for me. We ain’t getting Indy with Queen Nic at the helm. No one is taking over from her, who can you see as a potential FM?
It’s time to oust the SNP and regroup with Alba or another party of yessers in 5 years time.
Craig Murray,
I agree.
Ruby says:
2 May, 2021 at 10:57 am
https://tinyurl.com/23w9v33j
#AlbaWomenRising
Good video!
Some of the women use the English pronunciation of Alba which I think if fair enough.
Great stuff. That’s quality messaging.
I might be in the minority mibbe, but I only heard about the Gaelic pronunciation “Aliba” a few weeks ago and will continue saying “Ahl-bah”. I’m not a Gael, so it feels a wee bit odd to change. I didn’t like it when Peking changed to Beijing, and in my increasingly Meldrewian middle aged ways I feel sympathy for Montgomery Burns:
I’d like to send this letter to the Prussian consulate in Siam by aeromail. Am I too late for the 4:30 autogyro?
I suppose I’ve probably been saying Dalriada wrong all these years an’ all. Smithers, unleash the hounds.
I see no reason to doubt that the SNP will win the election at a canter, so what is the need for all the Nicola puff-pieces in the media?
Is it because even a few % bleeding the wrong way, while not enough to stop her winning, will cause her headaches? It’s the only thing that makes any sense because if they thought for a minute that the vote would divert to unionist parties, they’d not be bothering, surely?
Red says:
2 May, 2021 at 11:48 am
Ruby says:
2 May, 2021 at 10:57 am
https://tinyurl.com/23w9v33j
#AlbaWomenRising
Good video!
Some of the women use the English pronunciation of Alba which I think is fair enough.
Great stuff. That’s quality messaging.
Reply
Typo looked worse in bold. I’ve corrected it.
Very pretentious when people use foreign words in English and pronounce them with a French, German,Spanish etc accent.
Like you I’m going with “Ahl-bah” and Pete Wishart can ‘pòg mo thòin’
pronounced ‘poke ma hone’ 🙂
In all the eight years I’ve been a reader and supporter (fundraisers) of Wings, I can barely remember a time when there there has been such nastiness and bitterness BTL. That is truly one of the great disappointments of this election campaign.
Anyway, latest polls would seem to indicate the SNP and Greens will do reasonably well, and combined will form a fairly substantial majority.
Therefore, there is an even greater imperative not to waste SNP votes on the list. SNP 1 & 2 will not garner more independence~supporting MSPs in the Scottish parliament.
But voting Alba on the list assuredly will. SNP 1 Alba 2
DJ
Nastiness
/
Looking at the comments through the night, these seem to be the worst,
Best avoid this time.
Alcohol is probably partly to blame
I’m with Craig Murray and humanity. Angus Robertson simply isn’t an option. I think the technical term is “cunt”.
I listened to Nicola today on the radio and the message has changed as I predicted — vote SNP if you want to focus on recovering from covid and want to give Scottish people the choice on Indy…
You can expect more emphasis on that Indy carrot in the next few days. There’s a bunch of self-mutilating mugs who fall for it every time so who can blame them for taking advantage…
Today I’m in the radioactive coastal resort of Dunoon. I like the place. You always go home with a bit of a glow when you visit Dunoon.
Stephen, never thought about that. You are probably right!
“… and we suspect that reveals rather a lot about whether the SNP are really in this election for independence or to preserve their own monopoly on pro-indy politics… ”
The latter, Rev. The latter.
Ruby – Ha! To be fair to Pete, he’s singlehandedly dispelled the tired old stereotype that musicians are cool.
DJ – 95% of the btl unpleasantness is literally one wee guy using half a dozen different names to post the exact same dopey garbage all day, every day.
Anas and DRoss unable to answer a question – they just bounce around the issues even when getting a very tame interview with Andrew Marr – compare and contrast with the interview with NS – constant interruptions, constant heckling – wonder whose side Andrew is on? We are not asking for special treatment just fairness – and of course the complete blackout of Alex Salmond by the media is outrageous. Cant wait to see Kirsty Wark have to announce Alex is back in Scottish Parliament along with at least 10 others.
@Andy Ellis says:
2 May, 2021 at 10:39 am
Sad to say I called this one wrong: I was inclined to vote for BPB, but the more I see and hear of him the less I like him.
Looks like I’m back to spoiling my constituency ballot then?
My constituency; my dilemma too!
I see his favourite book is ‘Flowers in the Attic’
And his two favourite TV programmes ‘The Jerry Springer Show ‘ and ‘Sex and the City’
Favourite film?
you guessed it:
‘Broke Back Mountain’
https://twitter.com/bridgesforindy/status/1388740643967672322
@Craig Murray says: 2 May, 2021 at 10:57 am
I read everything you just wrote and still say he’s a lot nicer than Angus Robertson and wife
Until he starts slagging you off, then he’ll be the Whore of Babylon and “in the pay of MI5” no doubt.
C’mon the Sarwar.
Kick the poison elf out of Scottish Politics for good.
Vote Sarwar in the Glasgow Southside Constituency Vote and ALBA 2
You know it makes sense.
It’s Scotland’s only way out of this mess.
Can you imagine a Holyrood WITHOUT the weirdo from Dykehorn?
Oh the joy!!!
DO NOT VOTE SNP.
Mark Boyle
Quite who is in the pay of MI5 we shall never know.
Craig Murray perhaps used to know a few, although he will never tell I’m sure.
He has been out of the loop for a long time though.
He may receive tips from time to time but will have no way of corroborating them.
Spoiling your paper, as if anybody cares. what a pointless thing to do.
William Wallace never had a vote, its because of brave men like him over the centuries we are where we are now.
And they think a spoiled paper matters, MADNESS ?
For the Nth time, Craig Murray should have stood against Robertson on anti corruption ticket and raked up all the filth, corruption and criminality that surrounds Robertson, for as many of us know he has a key involvement in the Salmond situation and has shown himself to be a corrupt lying bastard many a time.
Instead for whatever reason Craig decided to back someone who looks like he lives on a park bench and who is as genuine as the Chinese made tat they sell in Gold brothers up the royal mile.
But we are where we are so one can only hope he gets enough votes to keep the bastard Robertson out.
His parody history programme about Jim “Saviour of the Union” Murphy was superb. Maybe this election campaign is not to be taken too seriously either.
@Mark Boyle
Mark
Say something nice about someone…anyone!
Signed
Concerned
David Caledonia
You mention William Wallace.
I don’t know if he actually said this but he is reported to have done –
“There is a difference between us. You think the people of this country exist to provide you with position. I think your position exists to provide those people with freedom. And I go to make sure that they have it.”
These words could be addressed to Nicola Sturgeon now.
During the referendum on whether or not we wanted a Scottish Parliament, I voted ‘yes’ along with more than 70% of Scots.
When it opened, we were promised that it would be honest and folk’s feet would be held to the fire (for how long now have we been listening to this tiresome skitter?)
During the early days of Holyrood when it was under the leadership of Jack McConnell, Henry McLeish and Alex Salmond etc it wasn’t perfect but the problems were accepted and things were sorted-out in the end. I’m thinking about the Shirley McKee case in particular.
During Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership we have seen the emergence of an all-powerful elite at Holyrood and the civil-service. They don’t think they need to answer or apologise to anyone. It’s a grotesque and overwhelming arrogance that has no place in a democracy and disgraces all of us.
Nicola Sturgeon gives us the option of following her or following Boris Johnson as if it’s either one, or the other. It’s neither. She represents the government of Scotland and it is her job to work with Boris Johnson to deliver for Scots. That’s not complex and if she cannot do that then she needs to move-on.
The investigation into the money used to pay for Boris Johnson’s flat refurbishment illustrates the point. Whatever the cost of that was I think we can all agree it was a small fraction of the money wated on the Salmond trial and subsequent Inquiry. Yet, it is being treated as a criminal inquiry and anyone losing Emails etc will be subject to the force of the law. Compare that to our Fabiani Inquiry.
For me, David Davis called it right in the House of Commons. What we have at Holyrood is a parody of government that wouldn’t be acceptable anywhere else in the world.
Whoever folk vote for on Thursday, I can see no happy outcome in an independence supermajority led by Sturgeon, Swinney and Wolffe.
This is not anti-independence at-all and, in fact, I see great value in having Alex Salmond at Holyrood but the aforementioned three, I can see no value in any of them.
Independence will come when the majority of Scots look at who are leading them at Holyrood and choose to follow them instead of Westminster. It sounds easy doesn’t it?
**** Cynicus says:
2 May, 2021 at 9:47 am
Liz g
“I have very little time for idiots ….who think it clever to make politics a joke.”
———-
Do you think it clever to make Boris Johnson out to be anything else? ***
Aye… Well Cynicus we all knew that , but that’s Westminister and the English Electorate seem quite happy with him and with their 17th century parody of a Parliament .
And they don’t seem minded to make any changes any time soon and that’s why the Union will never work fairly …..
I’m speaking of not wanting such things in Holyrood and although we have our stupid MSPs they don’t actually know they are stupid …. a different thing , I think , from a cartoon MSP … 🙂
“… deeply tiresome faux-revolutionary Bella Caledonia-type poseur straight out of the most insufferable kind of student drama society…”
Just brilliant, Rev.
He missed the golden opportunity of changing his first name to straddle. The End
@Stephen says: 2 May, 2021 at 1:03 pm
Mark Boyle
Quite who is in the pay of MI5 we shall never know.
Craig Murray perhaps used to know a few, although he will never tell I’m sure.
He has been out of the loop for a long time though.
He may receive tips from time to time but will have no way of corroborating them.
People really ought to have stopped taking seriously “in the pay of MI5 after the Andy Carmichael affair that forced Stella Remington’s “retirement”. It encapsulated what a complete farce British intelligence’s “infiltration” of “subversive groups” truly is.
No joke but Pol Pot would make a better MSP than the charlatan that is Angus Robertson and his wife Jennifer D. A couple of real Haw Haws.
So, anyone but Angus – even Pol Pot.
Mark Boyle @ 1.37 pm
British intelligence was successful when it came to Northern Ireland, don’t you think?
If you care about the women in your life then come the 6th of May you’ll give the ALBA party your list vote.
https://twitter.com/ChrisMcEleny/status/1388600286097416193
DJ
You took the words right out of my mouth.
Stakeknife I think.
Infiltration was the preferred tactic.
Perhaps it still is.
You have to expect a few failures.
Listened to a programme on radio 4 the other day about a senior CIA operative in Afghanistan running a small behind the lines group infiltrating and influencing local tribesmen to impart information.
And in doing so they were able to locate the positions of insurgents where upon they were able to communicate insurgent location to bases in the USA, the Philippines, the Middle East on offshore warships to launch missile, drone and sub nuclear impact air bombs to targeted locations.
And how on occasions did the CIA operatives get information. Ah well when yo7 give folk a couple of million dollars it changes allegiances and loosens tongues.
Bully, brutalise, blackmail or bribe. It’s tried and tested. And for some of our MPs and MSPs the price I suspect would be quite low.
Another rainbow fascist.
The Tories are the incumbents in Edinburgh Central.
If they retain the seat, there is no reason to suppose they will “lose a list seat”, or that Graham Campbell will gain one. Either or both of those things might happen, but would not inevitably do so.
If the SNP regain Edinburgh Southern and/or Western, there’s even less chance of GC getting in.
@ Paul at 9.27
That’s not strictly true either. The electoral system is based on allowing voters to choose a favoured candidate in the constituency and a favoured party on the regional list. (That is what I shall be doing; “none of the above” is the current front-runner for the constituency, though I might change my mind, and I shall be voting for Alba because they have the manifesto that most appeals to me, not for tactical reasons.)
The part of your post that I have quoted applies only to people who do wish to vote tactically. For them, it is absolutely true that perfect information is both necessary and lacking, so it will always be a gamble.
Stephen @ 1.48
Spot on…
Boris Johnson’s latest. Lifted from the English press.
«Plans could include a spending spree on Scottish road and rail links as well as student exchanges between UK nations, the Sunday Telegraph reports.
Matt Hancock, the Health secretary, is also working on plans to treat Scottish patients in English hospitals to tackle a huge backlog caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
https://www.itv.com/news/2021-04-15/record-high-of-47-million-people-waiting-for-hospital-treatment-in-england
It comes amid fears that nationalists could win a majority in the Scottish Parliament next week – and call a referendum without the consent of the British government.
Mr Johnson will also meet with senior cabinet ministers to finalise a strategic response to Thursday’s vote.
The SNP are expected to make large gains in Scotland with one senior government source warning the result could be “bloody awful”.
Another minister told the Telegraph the nationalists saw the parliamentary election as “a referendum on a referendum”, adding: “There is no room for complacency.»
«We are in a bare knuckle fight.»
Was there ever any doubt?
Ottomanboi @ 2.21 pm
Thank you for that…eye opening
@DJ says: 2 May, 2021 at 1:45 pm
Mark Boyle @ 1.37 pm
British intelligence was successful when it came to Northern Ireland, don’t you think?
Up to a point, although the role of Ireland’s security services is (perhaps understandably) underplayed. Apart from the times of that old bastard Haughey’s premierships, where he hamstrung them every chance he got, they were invaluable – not least of all because Ireland’s security services, unlike the country’s political class, were under no illusions what sort of vermin were involved in these groups (both republican and loyalist) and why it was very much in both the UK and Eire’s interests to see them wiped out ASAP. People often forget how much successful counter terrorism is an international operation, even with the most marginal of groups.
Incidentally, to even remotely equate MI5 and Special Branches investigations into the likes of the CPGB, NF, BNP, BM, IMG and our own SnG on a similar par to their work against Northern Irish terrorists is laughable. MI5 and Special Branch regarded them as nurseries for potential field operatives in more serious work, nothing more (eg. Tim Hepple – who quickly proved a “daftie”!)
The former were largely “pub politics” by dafties who never grew out of having wee secret gangs as kids. Some of the stuff they got up to was nasty, but they were leagues below the real nutters.
Ireland’s terrorists by contrast were largely organised crime gangs coopting politics as a cover (much the same way those pathetic wastes of oxygen the Sargant brothers did in London with “Combat 18”) some of them with links to “respectible” politicians. Whenever making money’s involved, all bets are always off as to what they’re prepared to do.
This is all performance ‘art’ and will probably form part of another mockumentary laughing at ‘weegies’ with his cabal of Leith arseholes which include Kev Williamson and Mike Small.
Their contribution to political life in Scotland is to mock and laugh whilst demeaning others’ commitment. He was always moaning about the Rev making money and posted some pretty gross visual mock-ups of what he wanted people to think the Rev is.
Before he deleted his Twitter, it was a mixture of snarky envy and pseuds corner pontificating. The Jim Murphy stuff was funny but the moment has gone. He would not turn down a Creative Scotland grant and that says it all.
I would not be surprised if this is deliberate in order to promote Graham Campbell on the list.
Regarding Alba and Salmond.
” If we are not careful, the press will be having you believe the good guys are the bad guys, and the bad guys are the good guys” Marholm X.
This was true of the US media in 60s racist America and is true of our current Scottish media. They choose a side and the narrative is fed to the masses.
Malcolm.. .
I dunno… there is a significant chance it might be wishful thinking, but I genuinely think ALBA is going to do just fine.
It all just has that YES/Grassrootsy feel about it. The folks handing out leaflets actually want to be there, – as opposed to it being a necessary chore. Totally unscientific opinion poll of “just me” but I get the impression it’s public reception is overwhelmingly positive. The gripes and sourpuss reaction seems confined to SNP types trotting out the party line, but even their heart isn’t really in it. More importantly, I don’t think the SNP’s cynicism is resonating with ordinary folks.
For a new Party which basically didn’t exist a month ago, you already get the feeling ALBA could go the whole hog and form a government if it had to, and that notion of innate capability is quite uncommon when you think of other new parties or coalitions.
ALBA has put to sea, the sea trials have gone well, and she seems a watertight and seaworthy vessel. I am really looking forward to seeing how the vote goes.
And paradoxically, the media’s blanket ban on covering ALBA has already downgraded any “failure” or weak showing, (should that happen), leaving a reassuring sense that ALBA has nothing to lose and everything to gain.
It strikes me it’s very hard to “thwart” a thing that makes people happy and smile; whether that’s the media trying to thwart ALBA’s launch or TV appearance, or Sturgeon trying to thwart an ALBA supermajority or IndyRef. Thwart away, but you’ll thwart in vain, because that ALBA smile and positivity is mightily seductive…
@Ottomanboi 2.21pm
On the contrary, I think there is considerable doubt. Given the current direction of travel I doubt the British nationalists of any party – whether in England or Scotland – are seriously worried about an SNP victory on Thursday. They know Sturgeon is a paper tiger: whether by accident or design (there’s an arguable case for either) the yoons know that they have drawn the teeth of the Yes movement for at least 5 years.
Given the experience of the past six years, they’ll be hoping they can contain the pro-independence movement using very much the same tactics they’ve employed thus far, i.e. just keep saying “now is not the time” or “a generation hasn’t passed yet” or “how will you survive on your own” etc, etc., ad nauseam.
Meanwhile the toom tabard devolusionists in the SNP will carry on insisting that just one more mandate will see us through, and we have to convince the soft No voters, that there is no short cut, and we need a consistent 60% in the polls and make sure we’ve recovered from the pandemic, then dealt with the post pandemic economic situation.
The British elite can be pretty confident – if not actually intensely relaxed – about the prospects for Scottish independence because they know they’ve bearded the lion in it’s den and found it has no fangs, no talons a squeak instead of a roar.
There are a few folk in England who think that Boris Johnson may not survive the investigation into who paid for his flat refurbishment.
That’s what happens when you have law and politics working as two separate entities. The politicians don’t like it of course, but it is the only way it works.
If we had such separation here, then the Fabiani Inquiry would have had an entirely different outcome.
@Breeks,
I suspect you are right. The polls don’t feel quite right to me.
Going back to 2016, the polls got it wrong, overestimating the SNP on both Constituency and List votes significantly. Also the Greens were well overstated. (This was true of almost every single poll in themselves not just the averaged out poll of polls)
The other thing about current polls is that they all have Alba registering at least 2%. Normal margin of errors would suggest that if Alba is only on 3% then surely one or two polls would have picked up no support at all?
I suspect Alba is really hovering around 6 – 7% as of yesterday. If the Greens are being overstated in the same way as 2016, Alba might already be ahead of them. If not, it seems to me that it is Alba on an upward trajectory and the Greens sliding away under the weight of increased (but still pretty powder-puff) scrutiny.
Might be wishful thinking but there are grounds for optimism that Alba can return a decent sized team.
BPB, like Screaming Lord Sutch and others of the same mould, simply reflect how low politics have sunk. Instead of looking for theories, conspiracy or otherwise, to explain why we have reached the bottom, it may well be useful to ask why such characters gain blithe credibility in current affairs.
Why is it that ALBA is largely an unknown quantity to the electorate? We can blame MSM till the cows come home, but I don’t entirely agree. I don’t buy newspapers or subscribe to TV Licencing, but I’m fairly clued up about what’s going on. That is because I take the trouble to find out, because I care.
Most of the electorate don’t care who gets into power because it has never made a damned difference to their lives whoever gets elected, whether we’re in EU or out, whether we’re independent or not, or whether we’re governed by SNP, Con, Lab, Trans, BPB, or the Monster Raving Loony Party.
@ Red referred a few threads back (discussion still open btw, Red) to how politicians have distanced themselves from Joe Bloggs. The discussion didn’t develop, but to me, far and away the most important reasons for this are education and poverty. It is difficult to care about woke and trans issues if you have bills to pay and hungry kids to feed. Better education for all is vital, and if there is one thing I wish that Alex Salmond had changed when in power it would have been to ditch the neo-lib CfE, outcomes of this disaster still to unfold.
Blairs ludicrous 50% of schoolkids going to university and Sturgeons equally bad Closing the Gap obsession were doomed to failure because it completely fails to address why there is a gap in the first place. Sure, poverty plays a big part, but perhaps an even greater reason is an absence of a culture of learning at home. It is PARENTS who first need to be helped and re-educated, and we could even kill two birds with one stone by giving parents financial incentives, thereby helping to address poverty.
One further point about education. In many countries, even USA, the flag, the country, means everything to its citizens. Here, there is a disconnect with Scottish history in primary schools, we don’t salute the flag, we don’t sing the national anthem, and if any passing reference is made to our history, it glorifies those who have held a boot on my, and my forefathers throats, for centuries.
Breeks:
Not too sure tbh.
Some folk I know who are Yessers have had a total unreasoning “frothing at the mouth” response about Alba when they’ve come up in conversation, to the point that I was quite angry myself at the unthinking stupidity of it (“not for me” would have been fine but it was well beyond that).
That said, there seems a reasonable chance that the SNP and Greens in particular May fall below their polling as their vote may skew younger (witness that young females are mad for the SNP currently) and the youth traditionally vote at lower levels. Complacency may creep in as well (“it’s in the bag!”). A poll lately was saying SNP voters (by a distance) were reporting more certainty to vote. If this is in any way misleading, and the pollsters are not catching it with any turnout weighting, there might be a surprise in the final figures.
Conversely this could mean that Lab, Cons might do a few % better than expected. I’m not sure about the composition of the likely Alba support to even guess at turnout effects.
All pure speculation I have to admit because for all I know the pollsters are accurately getting past any differential turnout issues.
So the insignificant photo op king of Holyrood Willie Rennie has said on Sky news that he wouldn’t support an indyref at any time under any circumstances.
Of course Lib/Dem branch manager Rennie, has no problems supporting David Steele with regards to the sex beast Cyril Smith. Its thought that Steele knew of Smith’s carnal activities but kept schtum about them. Rennie was quick to jump to Steele’s defence on the matter.
Hopefully the ALBA party will decimate the Lib/Dems and the perverted Greens come May 6th.
Here’s a piccy of SLAB’s man of the hour Anas Sarwar campaigning vigorously for Project Fear aka Better Together, nothings changed since then Sarwar still wants to keep us under the heel of Westminster.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/anasbt2.jpg
It’s OK folks. Spoke to a Nikla supporter. We will be getting an indyref either next year or in 2023.
So everything is OK.
He’ll probably capture a lot of the eccentric white settler vote in Endingsborough.
If field signage is anything to go by its SNP in 1st position followed by the Tories then possibly Labour then hopefully Alba
I just hope Alba gets at least one seat to make a start. IHTF people wisen up to the Greens but the youngsters will vote for them.
It’s all an idiocracy.
So SNP councillor Graham Campbell is out campaigning in Muirhouse today (North Edinburgh) Campbell is from Glasgow, good luck to the folk of Muirhouse if they vote Campbell in, surgeries in my opinion will be held few and far between.
Republic, nobody has ever doubted his unionist position. He isn’t pretending to be pro-Indy, unlike some. He’s remained honest, in that respect. Your point is either childish or meaningless.
A bit o/t
A few things missing .
Someone up thread mentioned the Holyrood Inquiry ” fabiani ” what ever happened to that wee expensive escapade ? Anyone know the outcome ? Who was to blame ,who was fired who resigned anyone taking responsibility for over a Million pound fk up that we will pay for.
And the recurring question what happened to the £ 600000.00 ring fenced Indy ref2 fund ? Have the police concluded their investigation I am sure someone or something is holding it up or impeding what should be a very quick and simple investigation about where is the fkn money ?
Bob’s a big hit for himself and anyone who changes thier name to Prince clearly fancies themself as one of the elite. He has a nice line in designer clothes too. I find him a bit of a fanny tbh. Having said that, I dislike Angus Robertson even more so will be cheering if Bob manages to stop him winning the constituency.
Robert Graham
You can be sure that we will not hear a peep before the election.
I agree with Andy Ellis@2.29pm re the link at 2.21pm. I doubt very much that the Westminster establishment is troubled by the SNP. They will have been sniffing the wind and closely following the whole Salmond farrago. It would seem obvious to them, as it is to us, that the SNP is anxious to maintain the status quo and is not going to rock their boat.
What does cause some thought though is why are they not using all the evidence of blatant corruption that they have garnered? They and their media cronies will have amassed the evidence that is clear from the Holyrood enquiries and of that given by Salmond – as well as the abject failure of the Holyrood institutions to do anything about executive corruption and collusion in wrongdoing.
There were those on here who predicted a tidal wave of criticism and revelation being released by the UK MSM to damage the SNP chances of being elected and bring about resignations. Yet that hasn’t happened. Their silence is the answer. A ruthless SNP government pursuing unpopular policies and plainly anti-independence in place is probably quietly welcomed in Westminster.(Whether the situation is fortuitous or by design is of no immediate significance – one of those mysteries that might be answered in the fullness of time.)
What is even better for the Westminster mandarins is a hopelessly compromised government in Holyrood sitting on a powder keg while they hold the fuse.
SNP 1. ALBA 2.
Unionists in Hollyrood because we were scunnered with the SNP candidate would come back to haunt us. But… A supermajority and an SNP looking across the floor at a bright eyed and bushy tailed ALBA… Well … Lots of possibilities spring from that.
Though I don’t like his political thinking, I would vote for AR. But it would be tough.
Under no circumstances could I vote Sarwar… The millionaire rat-pack package he forms with his boss, Sir Keir Starter, does not bode well for progressive socialism.
Hatuey.
Who the hell are you talking about, go on gimme a clue, is it Rennie, Sarwar or Campbell.
Y’know I think Alex Cole-Hamilton has a fetish for Forth Crossings, his pro-mo video for reelection features him gazing lovingly at them, I’ll say no more except Cole-Hamilton has a follow up piccy with the caption “Out in Force” with delivering leaflets in mind, there’s two blokes, two teenage kids, and two women, but then again in Cole-Hamilton’s mind its a big backing crowd.
https://mobile.twitter.com/agcolehamilton
A wee addendum to Cole-Hamilton, he says he’s been cold water diving since he was sixteen. A great way to extent his Forth Crossings fetish he can view their foundations underwater as well. What a guy.
Perhaps someone can give him a brush and he can paint it.
Should keep him busy for a while.
I’ll tell you what either those two big yellow coaches can dematerialise and then rematerialise elswhere, or just about every SNP candidate has had their piccy taken next to them at one central point, for the coaches are in nearly all the candidates pro-mo pictures in their twitter feeds.
What’s even more creepy is that all of them have the ghoulish gaunt smiling face of the Betrayer Sturgeon in their photos with them, a necessary requirement I think from HQ.
@JGedd
I agree entirely. They will never say it,but the SNP under Sturgeon suits Westminster just fine. Of course the security services know where all Sturgeons skeletons are buried. Probably quite a few more that we don’t even know about as well. They will also know all about the other senior figures including Alex Salmond. The best chance Scotland had of gaining independence was in 2014 but a majority said no thanks.I think the tide for independence has now turned. The silent majority are thinking with their heads and not their hearts.
I notice that Nicola Sturgeon is ‘demanding’ that Boris Johnson produces copies of his bank statements proving that he paid for the Downing Street flat refurbishment himself. Nothing wrong with that you might think.
It reminded me of when Nicola Sturgeon was ‘requested’ by the Fabiani Committee to produce her Ministerial diary pages for the dates of the meetings with Geoff Aberdein and Alex Salmond. She produced blank pages….nothing written on them at-all.
I wonder if this would do for Boris. Would it be good enough for the London TV and press? Would they accept that? What do you think?
Maybe Nicola Sturgeon just reserves these pranks for all of us simpleton Scots folk?
https://twitter.com/bridgesforindy/status/1388740643967672322
You wait long enough for an Indy party, then 2 come along at the same time… no, that’s not it.
You wait long enough for a bus, then 2 come along with Nicla on them, and they’re going the wrong way.
Something like that.
Really good day leafleting in Perth today folks, many thanks for the help.
Saw a John Swinney leaflet ‘vote for us to keep the tories out’ ‘both votes SNP’ – nothing else. Old, tired, totally uninspiring.
BPB reminds me of that idiot LokiCrapmusic who is also a pretentious socialist and both would have supported RISE if they were running again in my opinion
Nicola Sturgeon interview with Chris Deerin where her ignorance, her now legendary bluffing, and lack of attention to detail are on full display. All the tropes and buzz words – consultation, women’s groups in agreement, Ireland had no problems, gold standard, discrimination – all the BULLSHIT is there.
She is a phoney who blags and blusters her way through. She does not understand what she is talking about.
Sorry forgot the link:
https://twitter.com/chrisdeerin/status/1388860234807009281
@Ebok says: 2 May, 2021 at 3:24 pm
BPB, like Screaming Lord Sutch and others of the same mould, simply reflect how low politics have sunk. Instead of looking for theories, conspiracy or otherwise, to explain why we have reached the bottom, it may well be useful to ask why such characters gain blithe credibility in current affairs.
With respect, Sutch was most certainly NOT of the same mould as that tedious prick Bonnie Prince Bob, who has never done a stroke in his life for anyone but himself.
Tony Benn had a lot of time for Sutch, recognising he was a product of an era when lampooning the establishment was in full cry, stemming from full blown cynicism towards a political class that had become contemptuous of those they purported to serve. Benn himself (aided by a certain Enoch Powell) had to go through the absurdity of fighting his own by-election twice due to archaic Parliamentary rules.
Sutch’s politics were undoubtedly down to his uncle, a Nottinghamshire miner who upon retirement moved to London to spend the remainder of his life appearing daily at Speaker’s Corner. He and Commander Bill Boaks successfully campaigned to get Carnaby Street and other parts of London pedestrianised, twenty years before planners or environmentalists started thinking it a “novel” idea.
“his Pals Kevin Williamson etc etc”
A quick perusal of Anguses wife’s twitter reveals Kevin and the Robertsons are extremely cosy.
Bella have also operated at the behest of the Robertsons.
-Closing down an anti air bnb campaign in the town centre after a quiet word.
It appears the Prince has disrupted the opportunity to shill for them.
How low politics have sunk is reflected in blood and soiled nappy internationalists calling the shots.
A certain amount of post-Covid appetite for change might be the SNP’s biggest threat, and one they can do little about.
Sturgeon going on about Covid recovery is a dubious tactic. If there’s recovery needing to be done it’s her government that has overseen the damage necessitating that recovery.
Anton Decadent says:
2 May, 2021 at 5:26 pm
Quote:-
“How low politics have sunk is reflected in blood and soiled nappy internationalists calling the shots.”
Aye.
In my 60 odd years one of the most important lessons learned is; it’s what’s on the inside that’s important.
In his case, it’s hard vacuum.
It would be fairer way to vote if,
You didn’t like any of the candidates in an election, there was a section that you could fill in stating “none of the above”
Right now we are forced to vote for old sterile governments parties or spoil a ballot paper, due to the lack of choice.
But that means the same old ones keep coming back every year, as they believe that it was a close call.
That’s not so, and we should be allowed to vote for none of the above, so the message is clear,
However even I am aware that this present voting malarkey is for the benifit of keeping governments in power not the people
This is something I would seriously like to see a change in.
@Anton Decadent says: 2 May, 2021 at 5:26 pm
How low politics have sunk is reflected in blood and soiled nappy internationalists calling the shots.
In 1975, Tom Sharpe wrote the satire “Blott On The Landscape”, part of which concerned a politician of the governing party whose career is threatened by the prospect of it becoming public knowledge that amongst his many fetishes is wearing nappies.
What almost fifty years ago would have killed a successful political career has now become mandatory to have one!
Jeezo oh, Daddy Bear, and the confirmed Russophobe and Sinophobe SNP MP Stewart McDonald both pen articles for the global political magazine Foreign Policy.
Stewart can’t do enough of Westminster’s dirty work for them when it comes to doing down, Iran, Russia, China and Venezuela.
I must say I used to read a few of FP’s articles, but now I see the kind of writers that they allow to write for them. I’ll think twice about the veracity of their articles.
Republicofscotland says:
2 May, 2021 at 5:51 pm
“Jeezo oh, Daddy Bear, and the confirmed Russophobe and Sinophobe SNP MP Stewart McDonald both pen articles for the global political magazine Foreign Policy. ”
Indeed RoS . These creeps are right in there with whatever warped narrative the UK State is punting , likewise S Hosie , someone I thought was far too pleased with himself way back , before the extent of the rot in the SNP Hirearchy ( sic ) was apparent .
It no doubt adds to their already abundant self-regard/importance , imagining they are big players in the global political vortex .In reality they are just pricks doing the bidding of their lords and masters . Pathetic
Mark Boyle,
You are quite wrong. BPB has been very disparaging of me in the past. I don’t do grudges from personal slight; he is still, in my opinion, the best candidate in Edinburgh Central. I don’t claim that is a high bar.
But when people are involved in stuff like conspiracy to jail an innocent man, that is of a completely different order of badness.
I want to reinforce what was said above. Edinburgh Central is a Tory seat. A Tory hold is not a Tory gain and will not change the list seat equation.
Are Daddy Bear and Stewart McDonald a couple?
Asking for a CIA friend.
Geoff Anderson says:
2 May, 2021 at 7:58 pm
” Are Daddy Bear and Stewart McDonald a couple? ”
Aye , a couple of doughballs
You can choose to live in the past, or live in the present, but you cannot do both. Whichever of the two alternatives you opt for, it is still possible to plan for the future.
Voting SNP is a vote for living in the past with no future planning. In your heart of hearts can you honestly see anything different to what has happened, or not happened, in the past 7 years under Sturgeon and the SNP?
Voting Alba 2 is looking to the future. Your conscience should dictate who you vote for on 1. However, the more votes the SNP garner the more Sturgeon will view this as vindication for HER policies and HER vision of the future.
You have been warned!
Chas. 8.24pm
Best post of the day so far.
Couldn’t have put it better myself.
And of course we have a chance to ditch the poison dwarf at the Polls on Thursday.
Vote Sarwar 1 and ALBA 2 in the Glasgow Southside.
Oh what bliss it would be.
Not having Sturgeon around the place is a win win for the Yes Movement.
DON’T VOTE FOR THE SNP,,, EVER.
They are a shower of creepy weirdos.
And if you vote for creepy weirdos, then you deserve to be labelled a creepy weirdo as well.
Does anyone know what Bonnie Prince Bob’s opinions are on Curriculum for Excellence…the Lochaber Aluminium Smelter…BiFab…Prestwick Airport…the two rusting ferries at Port Glasgow?
Is he just going to Holyrood for a laugh?…Maybe he is.
The Sturgeon/Deerin ‘interview’ feels like ‘Gold Standard’ trolling. Nothing less.
She’s practically herding Yes-supporting women and concerned men towards Alba.
Astonishing.
Fingers crossed for Team Sarwar on Thursday.
You have the chance to become the poster boy of the YES Movement.
Dump the Dykehorn Dwarf.
Do this single act on 6th May and become an instant Hero Mr Sarwar.
@Yossarian 8.49pm
Nobody cares. People wanted a non unionist (and non Green Party) alternative to vote for as a protest vote. Nobody sane expected him to do anything other than stop Robertson winning the seat. Initially I was taken in: what I’ve seen and heard since has changed my mind.
Now I plan to spoil my constituency vote. I have nobody I can support in good conscience. I won’t vote for the SNP. Ever. In any election.
As long as Robertson isn’t elected, it’s job done.
Robertson is Sturgeon’s heir apparent and his presence will ensure the continuance of her policies after she departs the political stage.
For project Sturgeon to be extinguished, both Sturgeon and Robertson need to be defeated.
Oh boy this is is good so i’ll share for free.
https://twitter.com/tomhfh/status/1388878832581677063
“Robertson is Sturgeon’s heir apparent and his presence will ensure the continuance of her policies”
I’ve seen nothing that indicates she is keen to move on and plenty to suggest she will cling on for as long as she can.
That’s what stabbing the independence movement in the back was all about — ensuring an easy ride with the BBC and MSM so that she could keep the job. People seem to forget that’s why she sold us down the river with her commitment to the British Section 30 process.
It isn’t ridiculous to assume she will be there for another 10 years. Certainly that would suit the British State and its cohorts in the media and elsewhere.
They’re fleecing us as we speak. Teams of them are ransacking our country, stealing everything that isn’t nailed down, resources that should be going towards eliminating poverty, drugs problems, homelessness, unemployment and all sorts.
Sturgeon is letting them do that, effectively helping them, in return for a job and some perks. It’s a combination of vanity and greed. She isn’t an agent or a plant — just another self-serving peasant that’s been bribed into selling her people down the river for a few shekels. History is full of them.
I’m hoping she gets knocked out at this election.
Hope springs eternal and all that jazz
cynicalHighlander – great stuff. Gave me a much needed laugh.
Polls suggest a majority. Struggling to picture 5 more years. How can people be so blind?
The SNP don’t want independence but they do need to agitate for a referendum. That’s a deadly combo.
A majority for independence supporting parties who have talked about indyref2 – and the SNP do tick that box, albeit with caveats – means that democratically a referendum should be granted.
But it wont be.
So years of grievance and moaning and hiding behind westminster – while the pent up democratic desire for a referendum become frustration and anger and in the end when there is a referendum, Yes wins because by then the nation would collectively want to stick up two fingers to westminster. (That’s why you don’t f*ck with democracy Boris / Ruth / Anas / Douglas.)
Problem I see is that this government – this party – are not preparing seriously for independence. It’s not their focus. They stumble collectively over the most basic questions around EU entry, borders, trade, currency and so on. There are some people with their eye on the ball – but mostly you get the feeling that everyone expects “other people” to know this stuff.
They don’t want it. But they might just get it.
Remember Boris’s face on the morning of his great Brexit victory? He was shocked and looked like he might blub. He campaigned for something he thought he wouldn’t get. (IMHO) Nothing compared to Sturgeon’s sour puss after a Yes vote. Couple of weeks / months and she’d be gone ‘with heavy heart’.
It’s not just that their time at the trough is over – and look, most MP’s and MSP’s work hard – it’s not a job that leaves you much room for scruffing about and watching box sets with a wine box – but it’s nothing compared to the sheer daily emergency that nation building would be. That would be burn-out territory and I don’t see that fire in many bellies down Holyrood way. Do you?
And then – for the conspiracy theorists out there – what would get sneaked into he divorce bill without us knowing? We’ve all seen what this government is capable of. Closed door negotiations with Whitehall and we would just be fed an endless stream of pap about what a great deal we were getting.
If they do get a majority this week I need to turn off from politics. The scale of what the Murrels have got away with, and what they have done to Scotland already is heartbreaking. The SNP have lost all connection as a grass roots party and have morphed into an ugly ruling party with a dirty and hidden agenda. None of what they did to Scotland in their last term was in their manifesto FFS. And the people are about to give them a ringing endorsement.
In voting terms people are tremendously easily led – but I honestly struggle to understand the sheer scale of free pass this bunch of chancers is getting.
What would Burns make of all this I wonder?
The Claim of Right for Scotland is a principle that allows the Scots to determine the form of government best suited to our needs…
Yet here we are, still endevouring to play Election Headfuck on a multi-dimensional pitch with a selection of some of the cackest politicians and bonkers policies ever to grace our land.
Do you play the short game voting to attempt to obtain the super majority with all that might bring, but in doing so elect an SNP or SNP + Green majority and effectively consent to the previous and future ill behaviours of some complete roasters…
… Or do you play the long game by trying to vote out half a dozen of the main roasters, thus failing to get that super majority, but achieving the bonus of some new replacement complete roasters from the SNP / Green lists who will then be put under the spotlight and allow the electorate to see how appalling they actually are, to the point those that blindly voted them in may finally wake up and look to switch their allegiance to more reputable and capable individuals in the future.
BPB is, to the best of my recollection, what was known as a ‘total brahmer’, and is in need of some care in the community.
Thankfully not mine.
You never know, it might be his voter who cowps the marmalade jar!
The hope must surely be for the SNP to take some big hits (Swinney/NS) and to be returned as a minority govt dependent on ALBA.
Mathematically, this is unlikely.
But there is absolutely no chance of indyref2 unless NS and JS go and I am hoping that the good people in their respective constituencies do the job.
The SNP have been taken from us and those decades of work in building the momentum must be returned a.s.a.p.
It is not disloyal to vote tactically IMHO.
Good luck to BPB, he’s thrown his hat into the ring. He might be a slick neep but at least he’s put his head above the parapet.
Just as Eck has done, albeit with the savvy to get a wee party machine going at the same time.
Politics is war by other means, if one sees an opportunity or potential advantage go for the throat.
I have seen predictions as low as two seats for Alba with the best intentions in the world they will not have the clout to stop the SNP lunatic policy implementation and as for keeping the SNP on track for independence good luck with that.
Current Scottish politics has nothing to do with sound policy and integrity it’s a popularity contest with the SNP Nicola,s Westminster blame game winning hands down so every time due to the MSM lap dogs .When Alex salmond speaks out when elected I fear people will not here the message just another knocking the lorded leader ,I fear that Scotland is headed for its very own dark ages
There will be no progress with Sturgeon. or Swinney or with heir apparent Robertson.
These people need to go. They are the absolute death to our movement. Why they have become so compromised none of us know. But they are death to independence.
Voting SNP 1 and Alba 2 makes so much sense. The SNP can be turned but not with the current SNP leadership. These two must be taken out whilst number three needs to fail to secure a seat. Achieve that and I am sure the SNP and Alba will combine to form a parliament that will be able to take on and win against Boris Johnson and the Westminster machine.
Three day, let us redouble our message. This can be the strongest Scottish Parliament ever!
Very quiet in here tonight…
…before the storm?
😉
It’s exhausting just looking at the pictures of Alex Salmond and Tasmina all over the place every day.
Not long to go!
Anyone else feeling pretty positive about it all?
Call me naive, but I’m hoping for a good %turnout with also a record number of ‘spoiled’ constituency ballots, and that some notice must be taken of the message(s) sent.
Surely to be effective and democratic, ballot-papers should include a box ‘NONE (of these candidates/parties)’, available to mark as a clear and positive option?
willie says Voting SNP 1 and Alba 2 makes so much sense. The SNP can be turned
Either start taking the medication that you have been prescribed or stop taking the stuff thats not yours .The SNP is not the party you thought it was or that you started out with ,its been hijacked and turned against all it stood for when will people see that a super majority with this lot will make no difference its a self serving one party one leader state your heading for .Alba endorsement of the SNP as a quick fix late to the party tactic for gaining seats / a way back for ALEX is not selling itself to me
I feel fairly positive. Kirk Torrance seems to be doing well here.
Hi Ian B.
It’s like the “Spirit of ’14” has been reawakened by the launch of Alba. Look at all that has been going on this weekend. Next to no coverage in the MSM – it’s grassroots up.
Wee Annie was telling me tonight that she started today, leafleting the schemes she has already leafleted but with new ‘card-type’ leaflets – that’s Douglas, Mid Craigie, Linlathen, Happyhillock, Midmill and so on, in Dundee East. She hopes to have covered them all again by Wednesday.
She took a day off on Saturday to go down to George Square, where she can be seen on various Twitter videos.
Ian Brotherhood @ 11:48
I suppose this is what happens when the MSM and every other political party are determined to make sure ALBA crash and burn Alex really worries them and all for different reasons they all have something to loose especially this version of the the SNP Alex is embarrassing them just by being around Still it wasn’t supposed to happen like this .
I have a feeling ALBA will do ok people I wouldn’t expect to bring up or talk about politics have noticed ALBA and are keen to voice their opinion to me I know it’s a very small circle but it is encouraging, I really hope the SNP get a real shock that will make the wavering members of the SNP make a move and act quickly and rid us of Mr and Mrs Murrell
@ Ian Brotherhood says:
2 May, 2021 at 11:48 pm
Very quiet in here tonight…
…before the storm?
?
It’s exhausting just looking at the pictures of Alex Salmond and Tasmina all over the place every day.
Not long to go!
Anyone else feeling pretty positive about
Well a pair of Goldfinches were as they went hammer and tongs on top of a tray of Sunflower hearts late this afternoon.
Republicofscotland says:
2 May, 2021 at 5:51 pm
Jeezo oh, Daddy Bear, and the confirmed Russophobe and Sinophobe SNP MP Stewart McDonald both pen articles for the global political magazine Foreign Policy.
Stewart MacDonald’s only foreign policy experience is briefly working as a holiday rep in Tenerife before getting in on the political bag carrier -> professional politician racket at a very young age.
At least Alyn Smith has some actual life experience outside of politics, but it hasn’t done him any good.
Stewart can’t do enough of Westminster’s dirty work for them when it comes to doing down, Iran, Russia, China and Venezuela.
They (and by “they”, I mean whoever in the Washington DC regime tells Senile Joe what to say, not idiot hirelings in the London branch office like the gruesome twosome) are desperate for war with Russia. It was on the cards when Hillary Clinton was 98% guaranteed to win the presidency, but the US then suffered a temporary outbreak of democracy.
Came very close last week. Probably the closest we’ve come to WW3 since the misunderstandings around Able Archer 83.
The plan is to bait Putin into invading Ukraine. Mad Vlad outmanoeuvred them this time, but war is still coming. It’s baked into the cake. Ukraine is every bit the chewtoy of malicious foreign powers Syria is, and there’s no peaceful solution.
The US State Department just announced they’re committed to helping Ukraine join NATO. That’s a guarantee of war, because Russia can’t tolerate NATO rolling up to its borders for the same reason the US wouldn’t tolerate Russian or Chinese missile bases in Cuba or Mexico. They’ll invade to stop that happening, if that’s the only option they’re left with. That’s the whole point.
It’s also insane. The US has no legitimate interests in the Ukraine. Neither does its British sidekick. (They do have plenty of illegitimate interests though, which is why Biden’s crackhead son was laundering bribes from oil and gas companies in the Ukraine).
NATO membership means the US/UK pledging to fight a nuclear war if necessary to defend the crooks and gangsters in Kiev. In return, we get… eh, mibbe Daddy Bear or the Club 18-30 rep can clarify once the Integrity Initiative tells them.
Like a gambler who doesn’t know when to quit a winning streak, the US/UK can’t help themselves. Yes, their wars and proxy wars in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria might look like absolute unmitigated disasters to you, and to little kids who’ve had their legs blown off, but look at it from their point of view. Bill Clinton, George Bush, Tony Blair and David Cameron aren’t in jail. They’re incredibly wealthy men, far richer than when they entered politics. They’re still welcome in polite society, or on billionaires’ yachts. None of the Neocons have paid a price for their unprovoked murder spree through the Middle East – they’ve been rewarded.
So they’ll keep pushing their luck, until it runs out.
I know it’s late, but I disagree with the argument that independence supporters should vote against BPB.
Yes, he seems like and probably is a weirdo out to feed his ego on politics. Anyone enthusiastically embraced by Irvine Welsh is suspect to me! But then again, you could say the same about Sturgeon (and Johnson and Trump and Macron etc etc as nauseam). That’s politicians for you. If I lived in Edinburgh Central id vote for him and see where the cards fell.
Foreign affairs…where le bon sens dies a slow death by analytic overreach.
The US does not want a war with Russia. Can you not hear how insane your posts sound? Since when is the UK/US on a winning streak? What does that even mean?
Dear me…
Red, I don’t think war over Ukraine is the inevitability you suggest. If Putin can guarantee unrestricted access to Ukraine’s gay scene, NATO membership wouldn’t be necessary. It’s complicated but there’s room for a negotiated settlement of some sort.
Thicko MacDonald was awarded some sort of medal by Ukraine, if I remember correctly, god knows why — I guess he showed up at something or something. Maybe he can play the part of peace envoy and save the world…
Actually, though, in all seriousness, the US always backs down when Russia goes all in. The core principle of US foreign policy since about 1776 has been to avoid wars that involve an enemy capable of hitting back. Occasionally they miscalculate and it turns out a bunch of farmers with slings in Vietnam or somewhere put up more of a fight than anyone expected, but by and large that’s the guiding principle of all US interventions.
The more likely scenario and more likely goal is an uneasy peace and lots of arms sales. NATO member or not, Ukraine promises to be a very good customer to US and British arms manufacturers.
Around 99% of US and British foreign policy revolves around arms sales. That’s always been the case. Most wars and even how they are fought can be explained by lobbyists for arms companies in the corridors of power offering bribes. And that’s a big part of the economy for us, pension companies and all sorts have a stake.
I’d offer you a bet that we don’t get frazzled in a nuclear exchange but I’m guessing you’re smart enough to understand that collecting your winnings, if I’m wrong, might be difficult.
JUST ANOTHER REMINDER ABOUT THIS , AS THERE’S JUST A FEW HOURS LEFT TO DONATE TO IT .
“ Help Elect Chris McEleny to the Scots Parliament “
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/help-elect-chris-mceleny-to-the-scots-parliament#start
@Hatuey2 May, 2021 at 9:57 pm
“Robertson is Sturgeon’s heir apparent and his presence will ensure the continuance of her policies”
I’ve seen nothing that indicates she is keen to move on and plenty to suggest she will cling on for as long as she can.”
Sturgeon has said numerous times she hoped to stay in Her overpaid job for another 5 years , I doubt the Bags under Her eyes would survive another 10. Robertson IS the heir apparent as there is very little other talent left in the SNP at Holyrood right now. If Sturgeon survives to get elected this time she will certainly be properly found out by the next one , i doubt though she will last that long once put under pressure by Alba at FM questions in the next months ahead.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/nicola-sturgeon-wants-five-more-21048669
I was reading this earlier and now trying to spot Iranians in the threads here. Mia has to be a contender due to lack of actual factual knowledge on much at all other than blaming MI5 for everything. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/iran-peddling-disinformation-to-influence-scottish-election-dlfk27npc?fbclid=IwAR2eczr_xaM3FUwo63pWtWq6Rl06c78ywGltK3RuRvUrgKWEOleeWGIXveQ
Brotherhood: “Anyone else feeling pretty positive about it all?”
I think Alba will win a few seats, possibly as many as 10. I think the SNP will have a bad night but even though everyone is sick of “her” there’s no meaningful alternative.
We can say with a lot of certainty that turnout, for reasons alluded to above, will probably hit historic lows. If it wasn’t for Alba, a lot of us wouldn’t even vote.
Sturgeon represents a festering bleeding wound on the Scottish body politic. Until she goes, it can’t heal. If she disappeared today, we’d be trying to fix the mess and divisions she caused in ten years time.
Apart from that all that, yes, I’m quite positive…
Don, I’m not sure a quote from Sturgeon suggesting she only wants five more years in any way helps bolster your point.
As for the bags under her eyes, I think she should colour them in and make them little inverted rainbows.
“It’s a double rainbow….”
Hilarious!
I gather Persia was also responsible for the Irish independence movement.
Everyone knows that celts are feckless drunkards and lack any initiative.
It’s why they so need Westminster’s rule.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/iran-peddling-disinformation-to-influence-scottish-election-dlfk27npc?fbclid=IwAR2eczr_xaM3FUwo63pWtWq6Rl06c78ywGltK3RuRvUrgKWEOleeWGIXveQ
we’re told, perhaps mischievously, that he was born Alec Macock and we’d have changed that too if we were him)
Neither ScotlandsPeople nor Ancestry record the birth of such a person (I checked for ‘Alexander Macock’ too) so I think that’s just another wind-up.
Shame on anyone who votes for Angus Robertson. He’s involved in the stitch up of Alex Salmond. Why else would he have to submit his version of evidence to the HR committee?
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if his wife was also involved. Didn’t she have a fancy for Alex “before she married Angus” & got knocked back/rejected by Alex. A woman scorned eh!
Angus is such a hypocrite. He was having an affair with J Dempsie while still married to his first wife.
He’s & his wife J Dempsie are what Edinburgh doesn’t need.
I hope voters give him a wide berth & see him out of politics for ever.
Lynne says:
3 May, 2021 at 2:46 am
we’re told, perhaps mischievously, that he was born Alec Macock and we’d have changed that too if we were him)
Neither ScotlandsPeople nor Ancestry record the birth of such a person (I checked for ‘Alexander Macock’ too) so I think that’s just another wind-up
REPLY
Lynne, I think the name is quoted tongue in cheek. Say the name over & over again quickly. Now what does it sound like? 🙂
To Andy Ellis and others who say they’re going to spoil their constituency vote.
Will you be happy with that decision if you find out that Robertson (or Sturgeon if you’re in her constituency) scrapes in by a handful of votes? Of course you won’t be! Get smart and vote with your head and not your heart – vote tactically for the candidate most likely to defeat Robertson or one of the other NS cabal. These histrionics of “I could never vote for a Unionist” are just childish. Note I am not advocating voting against the SNP across the board, only against the worst SNP offenders – Sturgeon, Swinney, Robertson, Humza & SAS.
Sturgeon needs Robertson as a potential successor to cover up for her if she moves on or is forced to resign. A judicial investigation into the conspiracy to jail Alex would probably result in her and the others doing jail time. Robertson and his wife have their own reasons for the coverup so they can be relied on to protect NS. Making sure he loses the seat would scupper that and leave Sturgeon exposed.
The two rusting ferries at Port Glasgow. where are they rusting, cause its certainly not in Port Glasgow, the yard is looking for apprentices and the work on the ferries is coming along fine.
I wish people would not make silly comments about stuff they know nothing about.
As for the present SNP, yes they are obnoxious, but we can start to do something about that after they win the election and Alba have a few good people in the parliament in Edinburgh.
By not voting SNP 1 and Alba 2, all you will do is give the unionists more MPs in the scottish parliament to feck us over on behalf of their London masters.
If you cannot bring yourself to vote SNP 1, then vote for a candidate you like to be your member of parliament, but you risk getting one you don’t like, as that person will probably be a unionist if the SNP candidate does not get elected.
That is a risk I am not prepared to take, if Alba where putting candidates up for the constituency places it would be Alba 1 and 2 for me. but that’s not happening in this election, so tactically is a case of better the devil you know as far as I am concerned
Alba for the future of Scotland
StuartM
CORRECT
Nuclear war
I read The Missiles of October many years ago, its a very interesting read for anyone that’s interested in what really happened in 63, and how they all saved face and got out of it.
As for an actual nuclear firework display, very,very unlikely to ever happen with sensible governments.
And apart from anything else, I don’t suppose any of the leaders of governments are thinking of taking their own lives, cause that is what they would be doing, killing themselves
Bonnie Bob is not going to win in Edinburgh but if he can take a few votes from the Booby prize it may help stop Angus Robertson getting the seat. It is safe to vote for Bob as he cannot win so you are never going to have to watch him flouncing about the Scottish parliament. Here in Argyll and Bute I am still on SNP1 and Alba 2 though seriously out of love with the SNP. Jennie Minto deserves her chance as she is certainly not the central office chosen one as that was our old pal Rhiannon Spear. On the list in Highlands and islands those that for whatever reason cannot stomach Alba still have Andy Wightman as a choice now that he has left the reepy Green party. I hope I am wrong but will be surprised but delighted if Alba land more than a couple of seats but they are off to a promising start given what they have managed in a few short weeks.
“The two rusting ferries at Port Glasgow. where are they rusting, cause its certainly not in Port Glasgow, the yard is looking for apprentices and the work on the ferries is coming along fine.
I wish people would not make silly comments about stuff they know nothing about”.
How many years late are they? £100million over budget? A naval architect who examined them recommended they be scrapped. The yard is looking for apprenticess now and that makes everything OK?
https://archive.is/SuWcG
It’s the arrogance I think that’s most insufferable, but the forced irony is just as tedious.
It breaks my heart to think where Scotland would be right now, if only this craven gaslighter was even a tenth the leader she apparently thinks she is.
And people malign Alex Salmond for his ego? Alex Salmond is the real deal. A genuine leader and master strategist. Sturgeon is the epitome of a fraudulent grifter, claiming to be what she is not. No wonder she suffers from imposter syndrome when the only thing genuine about Sturgeon is inadequacy.
@Hatuey – 3 May, 2021 at 1:36 am
“The core principle of US foreign policy since about 1776 has been to avoid wars that involve an enemy capable of hitting back.”
And there was me thinking you were a serious BTL commentator on this site.
But naw, ye’ve been a clueless eedjit since day 1.
Morning folks. Its freezing where I am, as my dad would say cold enough to freeze balls off a brass monkey. I remember my brother getting married in june/july about 40 years ago when it was snowing….so much for this climate emergency bullshit.
Anyhoo the snp candidate for my area is councillor marie mcnair shes taken over from gil patertson, does anyone know anything about her? I wont vote for snp just the thought is making me physically sick.
Stuart 3,23am :- a so called nationalist praying for a unionist to get elected at the cost of independent makes me really wonder about you, has to be a troll.
Hatuey@1:36
re Most wars, etc..
The current one threatening famine in the indian subcontinent (consequence of the propaganda induced lockdown being to prevent the harvest), aided and abetted by the relative silence of health service unions and (on world press freedom day) the complicity of fear mongering in the main stream media, being an intriguing exception
“The investigation that Mr Johnson has more to worry about is that by the Electoral Commission. That body has independent, statutory powers to interview witnesses under caution and gather evidence. If it concludes there was wrongdoing, it will impose a fine. If it decides that there are reasonable grounds to suspect that a criminal offence has been committed, the commission can refer the case to the police. This is the probe causing the strongest ripples of fearful panic through Number 10 and Tory party HQ.
It is also menacing for Mr Johnson that there is a good prospect of a fourth investigation, this one by the commissioner for parliamentary standards, who has rebuked him in the past for rule-breaking”.
This is how you do an Inquiry and I hope Fabiani and Swinney are watching this. Maybe the folks at the SNP really don’t want to know where their missing £600,000 went.
Rikali @ 2:41am,
It seems that in the article, they are admitting Scottish independence will destabilise Britain. They are of course correct and will use all power (that they can get away with using) at their disposal because it is imperative to them to thwart Scotland heading for the exit door.
Anyone seen the Alba video of the women outside Holyrood and all the shoes and boots?
Think you all know the tune to this one…
THESE BOOTS WERE MADE FOR VOTING
THESE BOOTS WERE MADE FOR VOTING
AND THAT’S WOMEN DO
WOMEN WON’T WHEESHT AT ALL, MY BOY
OR YOU’LL SEE WHAT BOOTS CAN DO
THESE BOOTS WERE MADE FOR VOTING
LIKE MANY A WOMAN BEFORE
TELL ME TO WHEESHT AGAIN, MY BOY
AND I’LL SHOW YOU TO THE DOOR
THESE BOOTS WERE MADE FOR DANCING
LIKE A MANY A WOMAN BEFORE
TELL ME TO WHEESHT AGAIN, MY BOY
AND I’LL DANCE YOU OFF THE FLOOR
THESE BOOTS WERE MADE FOR WALKING
INTO THE POLLING BOOTH
WOMEN WON’T WHEESHT, AT ALL, AT ALL
YOU’D BETTER KNOW THE TRUTH
THESE BOOTS WERE MADE FOR VOTING
AND THAT’S JUST WHAT THEY’LL DO
CARRY ME INTO THE POLLING BOOTH
BUT I’LL NEVER VOTE FOR YOU (Nicla)
Breeks says:
3 May, 2021 at 7:00 am
https://archive.is/SuWcG
” It’s the arrogance I think that’s most insufferable, but the forced irony is just as tedious. ”
Yes Breeks . And we know what hubris precedes : let the fall commence on Thursday . A Supermajority sans the Fraud + Robertson + a few other useless slimeball candidates would make for a truly Good Friday .
As others have noted……the avalanche of sensationalist tabloid/MSM ” Gender ” related attacks doesn’t appear to be happening : we can only wonder why , why this most obvious, exploitable line of attack is not being used .
We can only conclude it’s because the Union is in safe hands with Nicla’s toothless New SNP .
Daisy @ 8.32
Brilliant !!
You may have renounced your ” Sex Goddess ” ” Identity ” but you can put those words together with jeweller’s precision . Bravo
Thank you Robert – thing about Sex Goddess status is the Bunions. No-one ever talks about the bunions, but hey, now you know.
Robert Hughes , I thought Daisy had embraced her Vlad the Impaler side , last time I looked.
Daisy , you can identify however you want but I still like the female Vlad best. Go get them girl!
Hahaha , yea I too abandoned my Sex Goddess ambitions , no one told me the distressing chaffing lycra creates when worn under a boiler suit .
Dorothy . Daisy the Bunion Impaler is out there ( like ” out there ” ) doing what Daisy does best , fighting the good fight !
Kiwilassie says:
3 May, 2021 at 3:08 am
Shame on anyone who votes for Angus Robertson. He’s involved in the stitch up of Alex Salmond.
Reply
🙁
I’m voting SNP1 ALBA 2 in Edinburgh Central
I’m doing it for Alba.
PS Who would you suggest I vote for?
https://archive.vn/wd5RR
Spot the hypocritical similarities:-
“The SNP are a shower of Perverted Bastards, but…”
And
“I’m a Proud Scot, but…”
Stop the hypocritical shite and either go with Sturgeon, or side with the Rev, who advocates Voting for the Unionist Sarwar to take the seat from her.
As I do, and many, many others.
And remember, if you vote for Sturgeon and freaks, then she’s your baby, own it.
If all the narcissistic lanky long haired poseurs in Edinburgh voted for it it would win the constituency by a landslide,
`cause if there is one thing Edinburgh is not short of it is narcissistic lanky long haired poseurs.
Hugh Jarse says:
2 May, 2021 at 10:08 pm
You never know, it might be his voter who cowps the marmalade jar!
Reply
“who cowps the marmalade jar!”
🙂
Mystery sensation EUGENE is a member of the Henry Jackson Society and is paid in rubles by the Iranians.
AND he is “H”. No not Ms “H” but the Mother of God one.
The quicker we get the normality of independence the sooner sanity will return. Eh,Ross?
Famous 15
Don’t shoot the messenger.
Famous 15
What ever society I belong to, the Rev Stu must also belong to.
Are you too afraid to critisize him?
All mouth famous 15?
Don’t annoy me you irrelevant piece of …
No shit Sherlock?
@ Eugene Henderson.
Och bless ye Eugene. You and your unionist pals really do believe the pish you post on this site dont you?
You know , i hink wee nicky has the same political good fortune as boris johnson does down in your countries capital.
That is , despite the misgivings the electorate have , the opposition is so comically feckin inept that the plebs hink feck it , am sticking with what i know.
As for anas sarwar , its hard to know who is the bigger feckin arshole , him or his old man , my old mp years ago in Govan.
Another typical labour party champagne socialist like his son , now the governor of punjab roughing it in a palace in lahore that makes buckingham palace look like a wigwam.
Anas sarwar is the latest in a long list of anointed that is being buffed up to save the onion. Its hard to see who is the worse politician , Anas or his boss sir keir knight of the realm starmer ma da owned a tool making factory.
SNP 1 ALBA 2.
A good article
https://archive.vn/2021.05.03-081048/https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19274510.election-2021-snp-sucked-joy-yes-choice-supporters/?ref=twtrec
crazycat says:
2 May, 2021 at 2:06 pm
The Tories are the incumbents in Edinburgh Central.
If they retain the seat, there is no reason to suppose they will “lose a list seat”, or that Graham Campbell will gain one. Either or both of those things might happen, but would not inevitably do so.
….
The part of your post that I have quoted applies only to people who do wish to vote tactically. For them, it is absolutely true that perfect information is both necessary and lacking, so it will always be a gamble.
Fair enough, but the electorate should be able to vote tactically if they wish.
The two votes SNP squid ink says that they do not want people to do so.
Yes, that will certainly lose Queen N a few votes, but I suppose most nationalist view the Herald with at best suspicion and at worst vitriolic hatred?
Thomas,,,(or whatever other names you use on here),,,10.05 says,
“You and your unionist pals really do believe the pish you post on this site dont you?”
Yes, that’ll be me and my pal Rev Stu.
Are you another snowflake who is too afraid to critisize the Rev.
Go on Tam the Bam, critisize the Rev, I double dare ye.
Chancer.
And remember, all the shit Sturgeon dumps on Scotland, YOU OWN!!!
Why do we have all these crazy yah! Boo! contributions? things are getting serious and we need debate not stone throwing.
@Stuart M 3.23pm
No party is owed my support or vote. They either earn it due to their merits and platform and the extent to which their values and policies align with my political outlook and priorities, or they may get my vote “on loan” if I feel they come close enough. I don’t expect any party to perfectly reflect my world view or to be without fault, anymore than I expect individual representatives to be plaster saints.
I’ve spent most of my adult life voting tactically for parties I wouldn’t normally have supported. Generally that involved me voting LibDem both in Scotland and England because in all the places I lived it made sense to vote tactically for them to try and defeat Tories. It’s not histrionics to say that I would never vote Tory (then or now) or that on Thursday I won’t vote for any unionist candidate nor will I vote SNP or Green in my constituency. I can’t stand Sarwar, but probably could bring myself to vote Labour if I lived in his constituency for the potential prize of ejecting Sturgeon.
If Robertson scraped in with a handful of votes, then so be it. There are some lines that just aren’t worth crossing. If there was a constituency candidate I felt was worth my vote I’d cast it for them, but in Edinburgh Central there just isn’t any such candidate. I’m all in favour of a ‘none of the above’ or recall category on ballots. It would be interesting to see how many votes that would get here if Alba had advised it’s supporters to use it.
As things stand the outcome of the contest here may rest on the extent to which unionists vote tactically for the Tory, and Greens vote tactically for the SNP.
I happen to agree with you that tactical voting against the SNP is not only valid but probably necessary if we want to promote the chances of Alba holding the balance of power: the problem is the D’Hondt system makes it pretty hard to figure out how to do it effectively. I suspect turnout will also be an issue: by failing to prioritise independence again, the SNP risks doing the same as it did in the Westminster GE of 2017.
Cynical Highlander
Great article.
The contempt the SNP leadership have for the rank and file is all too clear to see.
And yet the three wise monkeys have hypnotised many into mindless support of their leaders.
What will it take for the scales to be removed from their eyes?
cynicalHighlander says: 3 May, 2021 at 10:13 am
We hear exotic conspiracy theories of MI5 plots and politicians being compromised or blackmailed. However, should we have to be honest with ourselves, stop blaming others and outside a few individuals, we need to accept that the whole Scottish political class simply isn’t good enough to run a devolved administration never mind something as complicated as delivering independence?
I know this is a bit depressing to contemplate when you can see all around you, dedicated, intelligent and inspirational individuals throughout the indy movement who care more about Scottish independence and more importantly know how to deliver it than these self serving politicians.
Mad Mitch and Aden
My mate was there with the mad fella, ( just a nickname btw )
I have seen the photos, these scots lads did not give a shit about the UK government and their go easy attitude to the killers there.
I have seen the photos that where never shown to the public, at least not officially lol
On subject of intrigue, there’s some fascinating innuendo been posted about Angus Robertson’s role in the Salmond stitch up so if he does turn out to be some sort of self IDing Ms H that’s been parachuted in to inherit the throne if Nicola resigns, and Alba gets second or third most seats, FM questions going to be way more interesting than hitherto thought possible – so, with apologies to Joanna Cherry, maybe its well worth voting Robertson in Edinburgh Central for that possibility alone..
There was a woman in england who had not been out the house for a year due to her fear of the virus.
As is often said, their are wiser folk locked up.
Being a sheep is never a good thing even for sheep, look at Dolly Dimple. mutton dressed as lamb, or as I prefer to call it, shite disguised as manure
I’m being drowned in Unionist propaganda!
Tory, Lib and Labour bumf abound but I did finally get a second SNP leaflet.
Alba had a good one that opens up for use in your window or car.
Digital billboards have multiple Tory and Unionist supporting banners.
Labour investing big there too in hope people don’t know about Sarwar.
I watched something on YouTube and the adverts that come with were for Sarwar.
The on-line newspapers All have headlines were SNP can’t answer or Sturgeon Car Crash Interview
SNP have obviously nothing left in the bank as they have little visibility anywhere.
Maybe we can get a list of the legal fees they have paid out for being stupid and of how much
Murrell has pocketed for being pretty useless?
I imagine it adds up to £600K the up your ring we are sitting on the fence fund.
We are reduced to vote for the party we think are least corrupt and who might just see public opinion
if they used a telescope from where they are currently sitting.
O/T but FFS http://www.twitter.com/EdinRapeCrisis/status/1389112490215288832
Looking like the Yoons are on total “malky” this week.
Try your posts with, Once upon a time Scotland was a utopia controlled by its loving neighbour, then it got its own parliament, and now it rubbish.
Yossa, why not get “Mr George the engineer” # legend, to fix the boats, or any other problem that undermines Scotland.
Comments on the HJ Society, I thought they were in bed with Israel not Iran.
It would be great if the HJS could highlight the apartheid(UN confirmed) and the pathetic illegal refusal to assist the Palestinians regarding the Covid vaccine.
SNP1
ALBA2 because the Father of Scottish Independence recommends it.
John Main, normally you’d be required to come up with an example that confounds, and I’d love to see you do it, but you went straight for the hollow insults.
You’ve at least saved us both some time. There isn’t an example that confounds.
Foreign policy is an important aspect of the election debate that’s been completely ignored. One of the reasons they hate Salmond is that he opposed US and British warmongering.
If the Iraq war happened on Sturgeon’s watch, she would support it. Salmond openly and vocally opposed it on his.
These things matter.
@PacMan 10.33pm
I heartily endorse your call for folk to eschew the conspiracy theory stuff. I’m generally of the opinion that such situations are usually adequately explained by stupidity or perhaps in this case political cowardice. I share much of your sense of exasperation with the current political situation. It’s clear that the current SNP leadership has signally failed us and also that the wider Yes movement appears to be asleep at the wheel. There are of course many and various reasons to account for us being where we are, rather than where we’d like to be today.
I think I would have to disagree that our whole “political class” is somehow deficient. The danger of believing that is that, like any country, Scotland gets the political representatives, governments and political classes or elites it deserves. I simply can’t accept that a country like ours, with all its advantages, has a “political class” that is less capable of delivering and governing than the equivalent “class” of people in newly independent states like the former republics in the USSR or Yugoslavia or the former Warsaw Pact countries as they reclaimed their independence when the USSR disintegrated.
It’s not innate talent or the right people we lack, it’s the right leadership.
PhilM says:
3 May, 2021 at 12:45 am
Foreign affairs…where le bon sens dies a slow death by analytic overreach.
The US does not want a war with Russia.
My analysis could be wrong, but at least it’s an argument and not a worthless drive-by insult from somebody whose name means “horse fondler”.
If the US didn’t want a war with Russia, it wouldn’t have expanded NATO eastwards. It wouldn’t have sent troops to the Baltic. It wouldn’t have created conspiracy theories about “Russian interference” (still completely unproven and very unlikely, btw) in its elections, and it wouldn’t have supported the Ukrainian coup that made the current situation so volatile in the first place. It wouldn’t have told Slow Joe to call Putin a “killer”, etc.
Hatuey says: I don’t think war over Ukraine is the inevitability you suggest.
I think it is on the present trajectory. It’s possible the trajectory might change, but unlikely given the internal dynamics of the US and Russia.
Btw let me clarify – they’re not looking to start Global Thermonuclear War.
They think they can win a small conventional war and/or get regime change in Moscow. That’s what all the rhetoric about holding Putin accountable if Alexei Navalny dies meant.
They’re hoping to do to Putin what they did to Milosevic, Saddam and Gaddafi, tried to do to Assad, and allegedly tried to do to Lukashenko just last month (a story that was completely ignored in the Western press in favour of suddenly announcing the guys accused of poisoning the Skripals vandalised a Czech warehouse in 2014).
They’re not suicidal, they’re just suicidally hubristic after the “success” of neocon adventures since 1999.
Bear in mind, the Cuban missile crisis was defused by people who were scholars and geniuses compared with the current senior leadership of Western institutions. The cognitive decline of the American gerontocracy and its hordes of effete 27 year old “foreign policy experts” who’ve never been in a fist fight in their lives has made them more dangerous. The paranoid hospital ward that was the Kremlin circa 1983 was full of old men who fought in WW2 and knew how dirty and desperate war is. Current Western leadership is full of people who think gender pronouns are a serious priority.
A strange game.
If you cast your mind back to the Fabiani Inquiry, the most impressive there was Salmond, by a mile. The rest prepared and were profesionally coached but it was obvious to all of us that they were lying.
These are the politicians, civil-servants and lawyers that you will be voting for. As Alex Salmond said, not one of them has lost his or her job…..and we’ll all be voting for them to return, vindicated.
That’s the problem, isn’t it?
David Caledonia 10:36
Those you call «killers» were defending their country against the occupying British.
Similarly in Cyprus. The Scottish soldiers were sadistic brutes, in common with the Anzac troops they are remembered with considerable distaste in Arabic speaking countries. They served the BritState very well indeed…and may well be continuing to do so.
Wouldn’t expect the Scots in the army to be anything but hostile to independence.
They have been well programmed.
Ottomanboi,
“Coming to the aid of people” by shooting them will never really go down well with the locals.
Sorry, Red, I’m not concerned and think what you’re watching is part of a sales process which I’ve watched play out 100 times. Russian troops massing on Ukraine’s border plays right into their money-grabbing hands.
“They think they can win a small conventional war”
Since Russia can hit back, that won’t happen. A proxy war would work for them, they love those — because they’re great for sales — but they know and everyone knows that Russia would knock the living daylights out of them in a conventional war in that particular theatre.
NATO expansion into Eastern Europe has been an issue since the 1990s. On a personal note, NATO was the only organisation that offered to fund my PhD back then (on the condition that I explored the issue of their expansion into Eastern Europe). I told them to stick it.
The little effeminate errand boys you refer to are only in jobs because they do what they’re told. If you look at actual policy and events, you’ll see it’s been pretty rational along the lines I’ve suggested (arms sales), even through the crazy years of Raygun, GW, and Trump.
Rev wrote in the article at the top of this comments thread:
“The SNP’s jealous fury seems to be solely reserved for Alba, and we suspect that reveals rather a lot about whether the SNP are really in this election for independence or to preserve their own monopoly on pro-indy politics.”
And that was confirmed on GMB/GMS this morning with Sturgeon declaring she would not work with ALBA regardless of the situation. The honking harlot has spoken.
Ottomanboi
“The Scottish soldiers were sadistic brutes, in common with the Anzac troops they are remembered with considerable distaste in Arabic speaking countries.“
————-
What? Who cares?
Why would Arabic speaking countries worry about the Turkish speaking Ottomans? Many of them got their independence with the collapse of the empire.
Anyway the Ottomans aligned themselves with Germany in the war of the empires (WW1). They had a right to be invaded as much as anyone in that stupid war.
And they must have the world record in the number of genocides they got away with. What was it Ottomanboi: Armenians, Assyrians, Yazedis and Asiatic Greeks?
David caledonia The two rusting ferries at Port Glasgow. where are they rusting, cause its certainly not in Port Glasgow, the yard is looking for apprentices and the work on the ferries is coming along fine.
I wish people would not make silly comments about stuff they know nothing about.
What? I saw photos of the 2nd boat last week and its in a worse shape than in a photo taken from the same viewpoint years before, looking forward to the apprentices being taken on, they certainly will not be any worse than the total fuckwits that are managing the yard just now.
Not a cheep from the Minister for Energy, Connectivity and the Islands Paul (Asleep at the ) Wheelhouse Whilst Island communities are losing much needed tourist revenue due to the incompetence of the Scots Government. Cal-Mac, C-Mal and Ferguson.
We cant even get on our ferry as a foot passenger these days without planning weeks in advance, some Alba activists were wanting to take part in Saturdays events on the mainland, they could get off the Island on Saturday Morning but could not get a booking to return as a foot passenger Until Tuesday.
Im a pensioner and I have not known it to be so bad Since the early seventies when the MV Caledonia was restricted to around 160 passengers in winter and you had to make a booking as a foot passenger. In fact its worse now, its the summer season and yet Islanders cant get to Hospital or dental appointments on the Mainland at short notice. Then there is the unreliability of the vessels in service and In many cases the port infrastructure , and poor design of new piers which means ferries cannot berth in more than a puff of wind or slight swell.
The SNP have been at the wheel when our lifeline services have been so decimated that now its a lottery whether you are going to travel when you want.
Ferguson’s incompetence has added to that mix.
Andy Ellis says:
3 May, 2021 at 11:02 am
@PacMan 10.33pm
I heartily endorse your call for folk to eschew the conspiracy theory stuff. I’m generally of the opinion that such situations are usually adequately explained by stupidity or perhaps in this case political cowardice. I share much of your sense of exasperation with the current political situation. It’s clear that the current SNP leadership has signally failed us and also that the wider Yes movement appears to be asleep at the wheel. There are of course many and various reasons to account for us being where we are, rather than where we’d like to be today.
I do not.
The neutering of the current leadership required all estates to agree.
What they agreed on was fear.
I think I would have to disagree that our whole “political class” is somehow deficient. The danger of believing that is that, like any country, Scotland gets the political representatives, governments and political classes or elites it deserves. I simply can’t accept that a country like ours, with all its advantages, has a “political class” that is less capable of delivering and governing than the equivalent “class” of people in newly independent states like the former republics in the USSR or Yugoslavia or the former Warsaw Pact countries as they reclaimed their independence when the USSR disintegrated.
It is, right now
It’s not innate talent or the right people we lack, it’s the right leadership.
No problem with that, brother.
Lenny Hartley – The ferries that sail between Dunoon and Gourock were bought second-hand from Norway decades ago and seem the most relieble on the Clyde. Very low in the water and can sail when others are winded-off. They were built for the fjords, I understand. Western Ferries run them, it isn’t Calmac.
There’s another tiny ferry, The Chieftain, sailing from Kilcreggan to Gourock and that was built on the Clyde probably in the last days of shipbuilding. That’s reliable too. It wouldn’t be surprised if that ferry is 50 or 60-years old.
Ferry designs haven’t changed that much over the years. That story that the additional costs are due to design changes was never credible.
If the yard hadn’t been Nationalised, then liquidated and ascertained damages could be applied by Calmac and Fergusons would be paying Calmac £100million to take the ferries off their hands.
Captain Yossarian
Perhaps we should ask the Norwegians if they have any other ferries for sale second hand.
Captain Yossarian.
The Western Car Ferries were built on the Clyde. An excellent service. Are you confused with the passenger ferry service that runs between Dunoon and Gourock station?
Design of ferries have not changed?
Was the “green” engines not the whole problem?
Western Ferries are the red ones, aren’t they? There are two ferry terminals in Dunoon, one in the centre of town which is Calmac and Western Ferries which is a mile or two out of town. The same Western Ferries have been sailing that route for more than 40-years and they are completely different in design to anything else I’ve seen. The chap who told me they were Norwegian was a shipping engineer and a neighbour of mine. I asked him because I noticed they were hardly ever winded-off, when Calmac’s were.
California leading the way with (as of start April) 261 transgender women transferred to womens prisons with not one rejection – on self-ID alone.
In less than 3 months we will see the pregnancies.
Probably rapes and murders before that.
Sturgeon the Betrayer saying that she’s the only leader offering serious leadership for Scotland post this election. So fitting up a former FM, trying to imprison indy bloggers for telling the truth, and blocking someone from trying to find out if we actually need an S30 is her serious business. Not to mention pushing very unpopular gender policies that impinge on women’s rights.
This from an FM who mislead (lied) to parliament, and who didn’t fire or reprimand one single member of staff for the huge cost to the taxpayer in her botched attempt to evade any detection.
Andy Ellis
Why do you so readily dismiss the possibility of a conspiracy. It has been proven that MI5 have spied on the SNP in the past so there is no doubt that they are involved now. And why on becoming FM has Sturgeon slowly and systematically alienated SNP members and deliberately undermined the case for independence. Yet she claims to be the leader of the independence movement.
The targeting and framing of Salmond with the intent of imprisoning him for possibly the rest of his life is beyond anything I could have ever imagined happening in this country.
And the deliberate singling out of Craig Murray for prosecution by the Crown office while turning a blind eye to others reeks of an agenda. Mark Hirst persecuted for trivia by the police with six officers targeting his home. It goes on, but there is no doubt that this is being orchestrated by those at the top, S G/civil service/police/Crown office.
Who above all would do absolutely anything to prevent independence?
The answer is always Westminster.
@ paul at 10.19
Absolutely; of course people should be able to vote tactically.
I do think, however, that it is important not to blame the electoral system, which is perfectly straightforward for anyone not trying to do so. (Having said that, I also think it’s important that voters have some inkling of the range of consequences different vote choices could have, and the SNP are, as you say, doing their best to prevent that.)
@McDuff 12.32pm
I’m not denying that there are MI5 assets: we know from history that it is almost certainly the case that there will have been infiltration and/or individuals in the movement who are assets. My point, and that of the person I responded to, was that it doesn’t help to gild the lily on the extent or impact of these things, or use them after the fact as an apologia for the fact that the Scots as a whole simply weren’t convinced by the arguments, or if you prefer are not genetically programmed for independence.
As I said, I disagree we are incapable or not capable of being convinced, I just think we’re badly led and to an extent subject to Jockholm syndrome. The aphorism about it being difficult to free slaves from chains they revere has resonance because it often rings true. 300 years has ingrained a cringe factor. Blaming Westminster or saying it is always responsible is a cop out in my view, which denies the agency of the Scots people. If we want the international community to accept that we are sovereign, we have to believe it ourselves first.
Andy Ellis
Yes.
But to tease out your final sentence a bit…..
The practical manifestation of the assertion of our sovereignty is out insistence that our leaders are held to account.
If not then popular sovereignty is an empty vessel and relegated to the preserve of our leaders as a means of them justifying their position and actions.
Although it’s true the current Western ferries fleet were built at Fergusons, the initial Western Ferries fleet on which design they are largely based were secondhand Scandinavian ferries which ran without subsidy at a time that the competing Cal Mac services were owned by the govenment.
The nationalisation of the Fergusons yard was probably the worst of all options in terms of costs for both Fergusons and Cal Mac. You can’t make a customer buy what it doesn’t want to buy or we are back to 1960s shipyard economics where you will pay whatever the yard decides it will cost and it will be delivered when it is ready. That didn’t work out too well for us in the past.
@Stephen 1.12pm
Agreed. Our forebears understood this 700 years ago. If our own leaders are not fit for purpose they should be driven out as subverters of their own rights and ours. Holding our leaders to account holds true whether we are speaking of those in Westminster with whom we have been in a union these past 300 years, but equally and more importantly to our “own” representatives in Scotland and more widely to the “community of the nation” encompassing all the parts of our governance system.
Westminster has the power we let it have. I’m increasingly of them view that anyone who believes we have to ask permission to exercise self determination (which I would argue is essentially the SNPs position) rather than affirming that it something we take as of right, is not really advocating independence per se: they are devolutionists who essentially agree that the rest of the UK gets to decide if we’re allowed to be independent, much as the Spanish government insists is the case with respect to autonomous communities in Spain. In the end it won’t matter if 90% of Scots want independence if the logic of the SNPs position is that we have to convince Westminster to graciously consent to it.
Apropos of nothing really, I have only just worked out what O/T means so today hasn’t been totally wasted!
@ paul at 10.19
Fair enough, but the electorate should be able to vote tactically if they wish.
The two votes SNP squid ink says that they do not want people to do so.
Absolutely; of course people should be able to vote tactically.
I do think, however, that it is important not to blame the electoral system, which is perfectly straightforward for anyone not trying to do so.
I feel quite differently, the various and many systems implemented within Scotland,at council,regional level are designed to dispirit.
(Having said that, I also think it’s important that voters have some inkling of the range of consequences different vote choices could have, and the SNP are, as you say, doing their best to prevent that.)
That I will always agree with.
I was planning to vote BPB before Alba emerged on the scene, just so I didn’t have to vote Tory to help prevent Nicola’s prize anointed turd winning Edinburgh Central. I will now be voting for Angus Robertson, much as I despise him, in order to give Alex Salmond’s plan the best chance of success. We don’t have to punish the SNP on voting day – Alba will there to hold them to account in Holyrood.
I am sorry I donated £10 to BPB’s campaign before Alba appeared. If he had any genuine interest in independence, he would have disbanded his campaign to voice support for the supermajority strategy, like multiple pro-independence pop-up parties have done. Instead, he has shown he is just using this – THE most important election for Scotland ever – deciding whether we are EVER going to get another crack of the whip – as a platform for his own ego, as the Rev has said. No doubt he’ll be reading this so – FFS, Graeme! Do something that will make a REAL difference (and a much grander statement) by stepping aside. Do you really want to be the one responsible for inflicting such a serious blow to the cause of independence? Sleep well tonight.