The Number You First Thought Of
We were very pleased to discover this morning that Johnny Ball is still alive.
But even the man who managed to make maths fun for generations of children would be hard pushed to make sense of the SNP’s membership figures.
The party’s 2023 accounts, published late last night, claim that as of 1 June this year there were 64,525 people still in the party. (It’s a bit weird for figures made up to 31 December 2023 to be talking about June 2024, but we’ll let that slide.)
It’s still remarkably difficult, though, to plot an accurate chart of SNP membership. As recently as two years ago (August 2022), we were still being told by the party that it looked something like this:
Indeed, in March 2021 its elected representatives were claiming that the number was still surging, and had reached over 137,000.
Last February the party hotly denied a story in the Sunday Mail that it had lost 30,000 members over gender reform and inaction on independence.
But just two days later Nicola Sturgeon suddenly resigned, triggering a leadership contest which forced them to embarrassingly reveal the truth: the Mail’s story had been exactly and entirely correct. The party’s then head of communications, Murray Foote, was forced to quit in shame over his indignant and sarcastic denials.
(Although so zany is the world of Scottish politics that just five months later he was back, as the SNP’s new CEO.)
But things were even weirder than they seemed. Because as well as admitting that membership had fallen to (they said) 72,186 the party also briefed journalists that over 10,000 of those losses had come since the end of December 2022, when the Gender Recognition Reform Act was forced through Parliament in a series of extraordinary late-night sittings, and that in fact at the end of 2022 the figure had been 82,598.
(The figure was affirmed in the published 2022 accounts a few months later.)
That would be broadly consistent with the 87,000 that Wings had told its readers the real membership was way back in October 2020, having calculated it based on numbers in the SNP’s accounts for the previous year.
This tells us that in a year and a half since the end of 2022, the party has shed almost 20,000 members, although if you were only reading their accounts you’d come away with the impression it was far fewer, since the 2022 accounts only mention a figure of “over 70,000”, suggesting a drop for the year of just 6,000 or so.
But of course, 1 June is almost three months ago now, and three months is an eternity in the SNP these days. Since the spring the party has lost another leader, replaced him uncontested with a failure from 20 years ago, been thrashed in a general election and most recently enraged its surviving members with a spectacularly ill-advised meeting with an Israeli ambassador. We’d be amazed if there were still more than 60,000 in the party’s tattered ranks.
So this is probably a more accurate graph:
The reality, though, is that there’s simply no way of knowing. We don’t have a clue when the party started lying about its membership, and the numbers aren’t verified in any way. There might NEVER have been 125,000 people in the SNP. Maybe they haven’t lost any at all.
That number comes from the 2018 accounts, but the income derived from those 125,000 members – £2.25m – was only slightly higher than the £2.1m supposedly raised last year from half as many, and that figure (the green line below) has barely shifted for the last seven years despite the supposed loss of 60,000 members and a pandemic and a cost-of-living crisis that you would have expected to put the squeeze on people’s pockets for non-essentials like doubling their monthly payments to a political party.
To be honest, readers, we miss the days – not ALL that long ago – when it was Scottish Labour’s opaque membership figures we used to mock with pictures of Johnny Ball. But it’s just another example in the long list of ways in which the SNP has mimicked the collapse of the party which once dominated Scottish politics.
It seems nothing will stop their determination to replicate Labour’s plunge into a ditch of bleak irrelevance that it took the North British branch office 17 years and a whole raft of increasingly-hopeless leaders to tentatively clamber back out of. (Almost entirely by default and luck rather than through any efforts or talent of their own.)
And right now, if you want to guess how many years it might be until the SNP can recover to the point where they might credibly threaten to deliver independence again, you’d be as well plucking a number out of thin air than believing any that they might tell you.
Give us the names of the sixty thousand. It would be “like hypnotising chickens”. We could sell these people anything. Just think of the money these suckers have already parted with.
I would be astonished if they have anything like 60,000 members left.
It appears that they have nothing left but lies.
“There are lies, damned lies, statistics” … and then there are the SNP finance and membership figures.
If the SNP had 125,000 members, even taking account for election spend, surely the party should have been wading in cash?
As Wings says here, it doesn’t make sense.
Add in the audio tech payments and you start to wonder if the party has been hollowed out financially.
I just cannot grasp how a party on 25k members in 2007-12 could have the merch and general marketing pomp it did, while 125k YEARLY can barely send a raffle letter round.
It doesn’t make sense.
I’d say – if there’s no openness by the SNP, on their membership figures – then it more than likely the party’s hierarchy, are hiding the true size of the rush by members, to ditch the party.
The SNP are – in effect, unsavable now – the sooner the party crashes and burns – the sooner we can, if not move forward, at least regroup – and look to the future; for the SNP since Salmond’s departure, have not only governed terribly, they’ve been the main stumbling block, to moving forward towards ditching this illegal union.
For those, who truly support an indy Scotland – there’s nothing, and no one, left in the SNP worth saving – and come the 2026 Scottish elections – we must vote the SNP and the Greens out of office – well as many as we possibly can – it goes without saying if you support Scottish independence, that you never, vote for a London HQ branch office political party in Scotland – so, that also rules out voting for, the Lib/Dems, BLiS, and the Tories, come the 2026 Scottish elections – whose left to vote for, I hear to ask.
Alba, and the ISP – where you find them standing in your constituency – is the best I have to offer, at least for the time being.
“The accounts also show that the SNP has recorded a surplus of £661,568 for the year ending December 2023 thanks to a levy imposed on local branches.”
So why have they not paid back the £60,000 loan from Murrell in 2021?
“It’s a bit weird for figures made up to 31 December 2023 to be talking about June 2024, but we’ll let that slide”
Rev, you are a very smart, good willed and also generous man. By contrast, I am an ungenerous cynic.
Whoever wrote that bit of text in the second picture claims that “the SNP is a party whose most significant source of income are their members and supporters”.
If that is truly the case, then, in my view, it is beyond weird that they refer to the membership on 1 June 2024 when attempting to justify the “income” they included in the accounts presented up to the 31 December 2023. It is suspicious.
The membership figure could have halved or multiply per 2 in the space of 6 months. I can think in two potential reasons as to why not revealing the correct membership figures up to 31 Dec 2023 could be convenient:
a) They cannot account for some of the income from all the members they claim to have had up to 31 Dec 2023 (because they either lost it or spent it on something they rather do not include in the accounts). If membership figures from June 2024 are lower, using that figure rather than the correct one could help them disguise that discrepancy.
b)If their membership figures have recently increased, then they could be attempting to attribute to membership fees some income received during 2023 that might have come from a source they rather not reveal.
I do not believe for even a second that their membership figures on 1 June 2024 are the same as they were up to 31 Dec 2024. I think the membership has decreased since Dec 2023. A few things happened since then that did not put the SNP under a good light. I therefore suspect a) is more likely than b)
This bit really made me laugh:
“Our members continue to suffer the same cost of living pressures as everybody else. This impacts not only on membership income, but on donations and fundraising income too”
This magnificent display of verbal acrobatics to justify a tanking income without mentioning the real reason behind it, deserves a medal for outstanding attempt at insulting the average voter’s intelligence.
In the context of 10 years of cock ups, refusing to progress independence even an inch, and showing the uttermost contempt for women and yes voters in general, to even indirectly suggest the decrease in membership is due to people not being able to afford the fee is a step too far. Even for them. I think they are being deliberately insulting.
They are now rotten to the core. It’s not a political party , its an old boys club.
Even the 65,000 claimed is dubious as the database of members is claimed to contain duplicates [and more], deceased and members that have resigned. The membership figures are as true as the accounts claiming over £600,000 in cash assets due to accounting conventions that are dangerous as they rely on potential income rather than actual.
TBQH I wouldn’t be surprised if the snp pervert and deviant party were not receiving financial support from other avenues and means, the deviant party pushing the GRRB and HCB are pulling the proverbial rabbit out of a very deep hat, surely the financial officer has evidence of the membership numbers in the form of individuals names and addresses which will be verified by the EC
I find it extremely hard to believe that there are 70,000 people who are so BRAINWASHED that they could entertain the belief that the snp are interested in independence in any way and that their governance over the past 10 years has any semblance of competence
“The accounts also show that the SNP has recorded a surplus of £661,568 for the year ending December 2023 thanks to a levy imposed on local branches.”
So, are we to understand that local branches are not included in the accounts of the party itself and operate as independent accounting units? How? Are they not part of the party as well?
Mmm. If the levy has been imposed on local branches and this is a recent thing only, then it means the burden for the fall on income has been transferred to/hidden within the local branches’ books.
Where do the branches get that levy to pay HQ from, because presumably the branches were not accumulating cash year on year. They were using it for something.
Goodness, is bankrupting the branches another planned strategic move to ensure complete annihilation of the party?
To see the real picture we need the local branches accounts for at least the last three years
What we do know from hearing from previous members, is the SNP is known for keeping people registered on the books when they have actually left and left some years ago.
I’m afraid lying about your membership won’t cure your debt problem if anything its only going to make matter worse.
The SNP is heading the same way as TalkTalk. At leased TalkTalk Charles Dunstone had 400million to bail this failing company out. TalkTalk was so bad it had to keep buying other companies to keep its customer numbers high only for them to leave when their contracts are up. The SNP might not be in the corporate world but there is similarities between the two.
I know dozens of people who joined the SNP between 2007 and 2012. Not one of them is still a member. I am sure many on Wings could tell the same story.
They lied to us. They betrayed us. They stole from us.
I want them destroyed. The end cannot come quick enough.
Geoff Anderson, Swinney will grant your wish quicker than you think. I’d rather see the back of the people running the SNP and if that means the SNP as well it can’t come soon enough.
enraged its surviving members with a spectacularly ill-advised meeting with an Israeli ambassador
That line triggered me to try to find out what it takes to enrage your average die-hard SNP supporter. Here’s what Swinney says about it:
I thought it necessary to outline our long-standing position on an immediate ceasefire directly, and explicitly, to one of Israel’s representatives in the UK
Wow, what sheer, brazen, N@tzi, Zonalist, Jenny Sidal bastardry, eh?
Never one to give any of the SNP apparatchiks an even break, myself, I too am nevertheless enraged at Swinney.
Thousands, maybe tens of thousands of SNP mouth breathers look set to ditch the SNP and perhaps drag themselves over on their knuckles to a new political hole, sorry, home.
Scotland really was better served with them all squatting in the SNP tent, pissing out, and/or pissing on each other.
Alba beware.
Geoff Anderson @ 7:21pm, give it time. The SNP is on the slide to oblivion. Their surplus comes from not paying branches their share of membership fees. That amount has been written down by almost $490,000. They can do that – sort of – one more time by keeping back the other $350,000. Then they have to rely on branches supplying them with money when there is a levy. However, as branch numbers fall, it is reasonable to assume there will be less money in branch bank accounts.
Their pile of Short Money is going to get even shorter in 2024 and, in 2025 it will drop off a cliff.
Although the SNP is a bit healthier, financially, than it was last year, the vast majority of what their in-house comic calls a “budget surplus” is merely a result of paper-shuffling. also observe the fifth paragraph in “Financial Statements 2023” on page 1 of the annual report. Legacies can take some time to be received but the mere mention of that in the Annual Report should worry any SNP member and certainly those on the NEC, who bear financial responsibility for the party.
enraged its surviving members with a spectacularly ill-advised meeting with an [REDACTED] ambassador
That line triggered me to try to find out what it takes to enrage your average die-hard SNP supporter. Here’s what Swinney says about it:
I thought it necessary to outline our long-standing position on an immediate ceasefire directly, and explicitly, to one of [REDACTED]’s representatives in the UK
Wow, what sheer, brazen, N@tzi, Zonalist, Jenny Sidal bastardry, eh?
Never one to give any of the SNP apparatchiks an even break, myself, I too am nevertheless enraged at Swinney.
Thousands, maybe tens of thousands of SNP mouth breathers look set to ditch the SNP and perhaps drag themselves over on their knuckles to a new political hole, sorry, home.
Scotland really was better served with them all squatting in the SNP tent, pissing out, and/or pissing on each other.
Alba beware.
300 and 30,000 do not differ by a factor of 10.
When I get enough get fucks together I will deep dive the latest SNP accounts but honestly that will probably be never. I just don’t care anymore.
It’s all those paid up members working in Thames House keeping the SNP afloat; membership subscriptions which they can presumably claim back as expenses from their employer.
Just for funs, I’m wondering if we might come up with the exact date that the SNP became Scottish Labour? My money is on the day that Auld Nicola took the reins.
Hindsight is a hell of a drug.
“Morgatron
They are now rotten to the core. It’s not a political party , its an old boys club.”
Agree that they seem rotten to the core.
Maybe it’s because it’s more of an ex-boys club that an old boys club…
Garrion, I tend to agree with you but I think the first public signs were in the aftermath of the Brexit vote. That is the point at which we should have taken our sovereignty back without asking anyone’s permission. Instead, the SNP fought tooth and nail to reverse a democratic decision by the English electorate. Shame on them.
Phantom members do not a steady, confident Party make.
MOst snp members are those 12 year old, similarly phantom, XTwitter accounts that have about 400 followers.
True pro-independence Scots will work extra hard to destroy the infiltrated and hated snp – they know this.
but have you seen the accounts, they are in surplus of shock horror a massive £600k, have they just found the ring fenced indyref money?
Wullie B, yes they found the money down the back of settees in every corner of Scotland, converted the DRS machines to cash counters and got it into the bank.
In truth, they have used accounting tricks. As an accounting professional, I hardly ever use that term but I think it is apt here. They have basically stolen from the branches by not giving them money due to branches from member subs collected. Cash at bank is almost exactly the same as last year.
The people have finally realised what postcolonial theory (Fanon) confirms: that the dominant national party ‘moves ever closer to colonialism’; that it ‘behaves like a gang’; it ‘builds up its pensions’; it ‘attacks so-called radicals in the movement’; it ‘takes the people up a blind alley’; it ‘ruptures the movement’; and it becomes ‘part of the colonial racket’. That is why the SNP is finished.
https://bpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/wp.towson.edu/dist/b/55/files/2022/05/The-Socio-Political-Determinants-of-Scottish-Independence.pdf
THE SNP must be destroyed.
Completely and forever.
There are lies, damned lies and Sturgeon-era membership statistics.
Ah…so the money is just resting very firmly in their account, one might say. The thing is, if the SNP is indeed behaving in this way then would this not result in a significant number of members being left feeling rather miffed and so packing in their membership of the party? Oh well. What can you do? 🙂
It is incredible the speed of decline of the party that under Alex Salmond, gave Scots some real hope.
Even if the SNP decided as of today, they were genuinely going to work for independence, and stop all the gender loony nonsense, I could NEVER go back to being a member.
Two main reasons, firstly those who set out to conspire against a wholly innocent man, Alex Salmond, which could have seen him taken from his wife, to die in jail in shame, have still not been punished. Indeed some in the party still cannot help but smear him with false innuendo. Secondly, I will never, ever believe a political party wants independence, when its CEO, is a former editor of a rampantly brit nat unionist newspaper, and who devised the lying ‘vow’, to the people of Scotland to prevent them voting for independence.
The SNP, in my opinion, is now a ‘puppet’ government of London, just like we used to see in colonial days abroad. They can whine and moan, but will never actually stand up to London, or actually pursue independence. All to ensure corruption, conspiracy and perjury do not reach the courts. That’s how it works – in a vassal state. Sham democracy, sham rule of law.
The whole thing stinks. Scotland is NOT a democracy, not in any way. Right now we have one MP, Iain (union jack boy) Murray, being gifted powers to do whatever he wishes in Scotland, with no recourse to the democratically elected Scottish parliament – a parliament voted into existence, let us not forget, by the PEOPLE of Scotland. Iain Murray, England’s colonial governor of Scotland. He should, with great speed be run out of our country. He has NO democratic authority to rule Scotland. None.
Meanwhile, the SNP say, they are trying to forge ‘good relations’ with the English Labour Government, and their colonial serf, Murray.
We should more correctly now refer to them as ‘England’s SNP’. Doffing their caps and doing what they are told.
“the income derived from those 125,000 members – £2.25m – was only slightly lower than the £2.1m supposedly raised last year from half as many”
Do you mean “only slightly higher”?
@Rober Louis, thats pretty much what I think also. Expect maybe its Englands, Scottish Regional Party.
Just another day in the colony.
Robert Louis, the SNP have finally become the IPP that held back the Republic of Ireland, I just hope I am alive to see a nation called the Republic of Scotland, but as years pass I fear even at the age of 49 I won’t
The Flying Iron of Doom @ 6:46am, I daresay it will take time for SNP members to realise what has happened. Branches have, or should have, reserved for fighting local elections or campaigning on local issues. The loss of the branch dividend is something that will take time to seep through. We’re three years from local elections. In some branches it never will because those in charge are the same ones that hail the increase in the chocolate ration.
I suppose the SNP will always exist in some form but, if they are to be honest with the electorate, they need to accept Nicola Sturgeoon’s most excellent advice and change the name of the party.
Alf Baird @10:53pm
> That is why the SNP is finished.
I very much doubt that. It’s currently downsizing itself to fit its future role as regional budget dispenser. Once they get a hammering in 2026, the system will revert to a two-party state, with power switching between the SNP and Labour. With direct funding through the Scotland office, Holyrood will then settle into its new role of presenting its begging bowl to The Treasury and squabbling over scraps.
It’s worth taking a step back and looking at the big picture to see what will be needed to upset the entire apple cart. Any new pro-independence party will have a difficult time breaking into a system that’s explicitly designed to prevent such an event taking place. We’ve already seen this work with the containment of Alba. Think of what’s required to break through this. A new independence movement will have to acquire huge momentum or the system will have to weaken sufficiently to allow a new independence movement to gain traction.
If you think of “change” as tidal forces then there are plenty of examples around the world to choose from. Consider the eternal failures of outsiders to break the two-party system in the USA, or the rise of the settler movement at the east end of the Mediterranean, as a result of the USA being unable or unwilling to contain them. An independence movement will need a weakened UK and most likely a weakened EU in order to be successful. That’s definitely possible in the next decade but it’s likely to take longer, much longer, without similar forces arising elsewhere in the neighbourhood.
Robert Louis ,totally agree.
Skip_NC @ 10:17 am
“I suppose the SNP will always exist in some form but, if they are to be honest with the electorate, they need to accept Nicola Sturgeoon’s most excellent advice and change the name of the party.”
Yes, the SNP elite are Neoliberals in terms of political ideology, and co-opted colonialists in their day job deceit.
They are never Nationalists; if they were Nationalists Scotland would have been independent after the election of the first Nationalist majority of MPs’.
This is Comedy Gold, from the BBC propagandist – Douglas Fraser, yes, we know the National is pro-SNP – but for a die-hard propagandist, from a die-hard propaganda news outlet – the BBC, to come out, and criticise a newsrag for producing propaganda, when his English ran propaganda news channel the BBC – is the king of pumping out British propaganda.
“A SENIOR BBC Scotland journalist is facing questions over impartiality after describing The National as “propaganda” multiple times live on air.
During a broadcast of BBC Radio 4’s Media Show with Ros Atkins this Wednesday, BBC Scotland’s business and economy editor Douglas Fraser joined the panel to discuss challenges facing the Scottish media.”
https://archive.is/bnSLc#selection-1779.3-1803.88
The ISP did okay here – they’ll do better, if we keep voting for them – and come the 2026 Scottish Elections – if we keep on voting for them – they might gain some seats – hopefully lots of them.
“The Independence for Scotland party, led by Colette Walker, came in fourth place. The party returned 8.6% of first-preference votes, beating the Tories (8.2%), LibDems (4.4%) and Scottish Greens (2.7%).”
https://archive.is/d4YJk#selection-1859.0-1869.8
@Skip NC 9.30am
Instead, the SNP fought tooth and nail to reverse a democratic decision by the English electorate. Shame on them.
I come not to praise the SNP, but to bury it but I’m not sure that criticism is entirely fair, widespread as it seems to be particularly amongst brexiteers.
In a mature democracy it would have been quite possible to fashion a post brexit settlement which allowed Scotland to retain access to the single market à la Northern Ireland, rather than for Westminster to insist that we’d have to bend over and take brexit good and hard.
Thinking unionists – a rare breed perhaps but there must be at least some – could probably see that the failure to accommodate the reasonable demands of the Scottish people in this regard could only be corrosive to the long term chances of the British nationalist project.
The intransigence is likely to blow up in their faces in the long term.
@Alf Baird 1.17pm
A majority of MPs isn’t a mandate for independence unless it represents a clear majority of those who voted in response to a specifically plebiscitary mandate.
The SNP won 56 of 59 MPs in 2015 on just less than 50 % of the vote. However, even if they’d won 50% + 1 of the popular vote, nobody would have recognised any declaration of independence made on that basis, because that wasn’t the mandate they fought the election on.
This is basic stuff. Anyone saying otherwise is selling snake oil.
I gave up warning the party before country loons in the Nationals comments section that it was what the electorate thought that matters, not the nodding donkey party membership.
So of course I was labelled a Yoon, plant or 77 Brigade for daring to point out the Emperor was strutting about in the buff..
Why exactly does it matter how many members a party has? That just highlights the numbers of voters who have suddenly lost the ability to think critically, need told what to think and need politics as some weird sort of social life..
Baz Luhrmann got it right; politicians aren’t noble, just a bunch of philanderers the whole pack of them.
The actual West Lothian (Armadale and Blackridge ward) by-election results:
The first preference votes received by each of the candidates was:
Susan Manion (Scottish Labour Party) – 795
Keith Barclay (SNP) – 777
David McLennan (Reform UK) – 519
John Hannah (Independence for Scotland Party) – 236
Douglas Smith (Scottish Conservative & Unionist) – 226
Douglas Butler (Liberal Democrats) – 122
Adam Rafferty (Scottish Greens) – 73
(This is a breakdown of the first preference votes)
Votes for pro-Indy (nominally, at least: SNP, Greens, ISP) parties: 1081 (40%)
Votes for anti-Indy parties: 1662 (60%)
In short: A victory for Labour, a big surge for Reform, and the usual handful of votes for the ISP. Pro-Indy parties lose again, by a wide margin.
The SNP is «bad» because like the right-thinking global establishments its leadership believes, among other new-think postulates, that this is «good».
https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/08/22/the-hatred-for-jk-rowling-is-truly-unhinged-now/
When «authority» speaks of gender rather than sex language is having its teeth pulled and those who believe in intellectual freedom ought to be screaming «murder».
By then it may be too late for just screaming.
O/T: Sara Salyers’ petition to Holyrood to make Angus Robertson resign has found that signatures have been blocked. Sara asks people who think they have signed already to try signing again. The petition is on https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/respect-for-international-law-angus-robertson-must-resign
So there was U Flag Day celebration, in Edinburgh today – with our treacherous, and self-coronated FM taking centre stage – as most Scots don’t realise what a vile and nasty regime – our backstabbing SNP government are supporting – including giving the vile regime £67 million quid, and taking in over 28,000 people from this regime and housing them in Scotland – when oor ain folk cannot be housed.
Its an utter disgrace – and further points out where the SNP’s loyalties lie, and they’re not with Scots.
Young Lochinvar says: at 4:46 pm
“Why exactly does it matter how many members a party has? That just highlights the numbers of voters who have suddenly lost the ability to think critically, need told what to think and need politics as some weird sort of social life..”
Well it sort of matters for numerous reasons in a properly run and functioning democratic political party.
A decent number of members are required to fill the various roles in the executive, and in the branches across the country and for meetings to be quorate.
A larger broader spectrum of sensible policy development will come from a bigger diverse pool of folk inputting their ideas, and this larger number of folk also creates a sort of natural checks and balances mechanism to kerb progression of flawed or unwanted policy.
A lot of activist members are required to do the campaigning on the ground, and as data protection regs need to be adhered to when accessing and handling the information that political parties have access to, the folk doing all this graft have to agree and commit to abiding by the party’s codes of conduct and conform to all rules pertaining to these sort of matters.
More effective campaigning can be generated with a higher number of engaged and active members willing to commit their time to an objective.
Of course, all the above is only really relevant to a properly functioning democratic political party, which as most politically engaged folk will know, is not what we have as the mainstream parties have effectively been captured by a cabal manipulating internal party processes and control for their own narrow agendas.
It takes years to build something of worth, but vandals can generally inflict serious damage and wreck it in quick time; And especially so when a large organisation can be infiltrated by folk with nefarious intents who’s actions can be either amplified or suppressed by a supportive mainstream media that’s motivated to keep the status quo and quash all challenges to those in power.
Go independent and local and eliminate many of the issues that arise with much larger corruptible national organisations.
So the energy firms, are to bump up the price of energy – yet again, by another 10% – and those Scots who can’t afford this disgraceful increase will suffer come this Winter, in a country teeming with a surplus of energy, and a plethora of energy sources.
This is what happens when, you allow a foreign country England to control your energy sources – and, you have a bunch of spineless House Jock b*stards in government – who don’t give a toss about their own citizens.
The usual shite is being rolled out, that its all R’s fault – when the fault lies with the USA – and its N-at-o minions – add in, consecutive English governments, selling-off our North sea assets for decades – to their corporate buddies and getting their palms greased in return, and oor ain politicians for the last fifty-years not doing anything to stop the thefts – and we’ve ended up here – and things are only going to get worse – and they will continue to deteriorate, until we rid ourselves of this illegal blood-sucking union.
England – didn’t colonise Scotland to make it prosperous – no it did so to drain it of assets – in whatever form it sees fit to do so.
Test with text as looks like a post with just a link won’t submit and show.
http://robinmcalpine.org/it-is-daft-to-be-pessimistic-about-scotlands-energy-future/
Sarah @ 5.29pm.
Sarah – signed it – the usual shite will be going on with the foreign English security services – which are an enemy of Scotland’s, interfering in the uploading of signatures – the same English security services created a fake Salvo website to dupe Indy supporters.
Any Scot – that thinks England and it security services, are our friends, needs to open their eyes – and see what’s really going on. The English government – their security services, and the House Jocks – are our oppressors.
The die-hard indy blogger Iain Lawson’s send-off – Iain is, and will be, greatly missed.
“The service is at Paisley Abbey at 10.30am on Monday the 26th of August.
Members are welcome to attend but the family has asked that only family and close friends be present at the burial itself.
Instead of flowers, the family are asking that donations be made as a tribute to Iain Lawson.
Links for this purpose are.”
St Vincents Hospice: facebook.com/share/p/SX7Bt5. . .
or
The Accord Hospice: facebook.com/share/p/ndJDxk…
Dan @ 18.59.
Thanks for that link, Dan. Very interesting to read what is, or is potentially, feasible.
Talking about numbers the latest bye election result in West Lothian is interesting. As John Curtis might say. never extrapolate a bye election result with a 20% turnout. But it is becoming clear that Reform are taking votes from the Conservatives. Similar percentages in 2026 would give Reform 10 MSPs therefore more than the Tories who will be in 4th place. Because the Greens are falling faster than the SNP and might not even get 5th. (ISP) The average weighting of polling over the last two years had the Greens going from 8 MSPs to 10 MSPs. That trend seems to be in reverse now. Given the GE results and this bye election. The SNP and Greens look like having a terrible 2026. Hallelujah!.
@Republicofscooby 6:15
There’s no more pathetic sight than a self-identifying, so-called “Scottish patriot”, choking on his boiling bile that another country might have the balls and guts to fight for its very own people, culture, language and identity.
Coming from somebody so damned ignorant they won’t even credit Scotland with being worthy of a capital ‘S’, it’s pathetic squared.
Current SNP treasurer Stewart McDonald is quoted in the paper today saying that the slump im membership is due the cost of living crisis.
So there you are Rev Stu – straight from the horse’s mouth.
Willie @ 20.34.
He looks more like an (silly) ass to me, Willie, being honest.
@Republicofscooby 6:49
As it happens though, it is all R’s fault.
It was the Orcs wot done it.
You claim you can’t see it, but then maybe you’re well paid to deny truth. After all is said and done, there has to be something a bit “off” about somebody who writes “Scotland” as “scotland”.
Heck, even the insult “House Jock” gets capitalised by you, but not “scotland”.
So – a company wanted to drop bombs of World Heritage site in Scotland. It make you wonder, what the foreign MoD of England – has done at Faslane and Cape Wrath.
“AN ARMS firm has scrapped plans to test bombs in the middle of a Scottish World Heritage Site.
Overwatch, a UK company, was revealed by The Guardian to have asked the Civil Aviation Authority for permission to drop anti-personnel bombs with drones onto Flow Country land owned by the Liberal Democrat peer John Thurso.
The Flow Country became the UK’s newest Unesco World Heritage Site in July, the first peatland bog to ever gain the prestigious status and Scotland’s first natural World Heritage Site.”
https://archive.is/ei9XK#selection-1775.3-1799.110
Scotland – is expendable in the yes of Westminster – or to be more precise it people were, and maybe still are.
https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-scottish-mail-on-sunday/20130324/282106339089564
“It was the Orcs wot done it.”
It was the renowned journalist – and writer Sy Hersh who revealed that the US and Norway – blew up the NordSteam pipeline. Resulting in shortage of natural gas for Europe – this act of terrorism – is costing the people of Europe a fortune – as more expensive gas is being brought in, from other countries including the USA.
Of course – the US doesn’t give a toss about the citizens of Europe – all it cares about, is its own interests – add in that consecutive English governments, have already sold-off our North sea assets to the energy companies, and the previous, and present Westminster governments of England – are allowing these energy firms to hike up the cost of our energy, that will only add to the suffering already taking place – shows us that the English government doesn’t not only give a f*ck about Scots – it also doesn’t care about poor English folk either – and, its all to cater for – American interests.
When I went to the Fringe to see Kevin Mac Guire and Andrew Pierce I knew the game was up for the Labour Government policy of withdrawal of the Winter Fuel Allowance.
A recap 10 million pensioners losing a 20 year benefit. And that’s only England and Wales. Hundreds of thousands in Scotland. A 2.5 Trillion annual spend for the UK and 1.5 billion in OAPs benefit has been cancelled. So a 1% so called black hole and that’s disputable. Scotland is a much colder place in Winter. Anyway the first Labour Government U turn. You heard it on Wings. A reversal of the the cancellation of a 20 year benefit. It was the raising of the OfGem price cap wot done it.
@ Republicofscotland
Thanks for signing Sara’s petition. At least we are showing them that there are some people watching and we aren’t happy.
As you say, too much wrong is being done by the USA or at their behest. God knows why – it is as if they are running a protection racket but it has no foundation as they won’t protect us anyway.
Harold Wilson was the last [probably the only] British statesman to refuse to go along with US wishes when he kept us out of Vietnam. Thank goodness he did.
Have just had a cursory look at the SNP 2023 accounts. What springs to mind immediately for me are:
1.It looks like the good ship SNP is keeping afloat by bleeding their branches. The levy of £670,084 (included for the first time) under miscellaneous income is said to relate to 2 levies on branch funds during 2023. The first was for the Rutherglen by election – fair enough, the relevant costs would have been expended by 31 December 2023, but I assume the bulk of this figure must relate to the “Party’s national campaigning towards the next general election” which prior to 31 December 2023 could not have been expected to occur until late 2024. Given that campaigning costs in the 2023 Income and Expenditure Account totalled only £243,512 (and would probably relate primarily to Rutherglen) I would expect the bulk of this amount would not have been expended by 31 December 2023 and the funds raised, less any relevant expenditure, should have been earmarked as a reserve or otherwise accounted for as a deferred liability in the accounts. It should certainly not have been treated as income of the year in which it was received when the corresponding expenditure would not occur until after 31 December 2023. The net asset position at 31 December 2023 would therefore be overstated by the amount of general election campaign funds collected but not spent by that date.
2.Opposition parties at Westminster are entitled to receive what is known as short money. As the party with the 3rd most seats in the previous parliament this would have been substantial. They would have been entitled to receive £22,205.86 for every Westminster seat they held and £44.53 for every 200 votes they received in the previous Westminster election. There was also a substantial allocation of travel expense reimbursement due. I can see none of these figures appearing in the SNP 2023 accounts which is probably due to my ignorance of how they would be dealt with as otherwise I would have expected them to be shown under the income heading in the 2023 accounts which is not the case. In any event, the drastic reduction in votes and Westminster seats will mean a hefty reduction in what the SNP are able to claim in future years.
3.As has been extensively reported the SNP previously raised funds in excess of £600,000 supposedly earmarked to fight a referendum campaign which never materialised. The funds then became subsumed into the SNP finances in direct contravention of the purpose for which they were donated. I am unaware if any legal claims are currently in the courts or pending for the recovery of monies donated under false pretences, but at the very least I would have expected there to be a note to the 2023 accounts to the effect that a contingent liability exists in this respect. As what happened to these funds appears directly related to a (very long) drawn out police enquiry I would have expected some reference to this in the 2023 accounts.
4.The figure for debtors in the Balance Sheet includes £557,137 as “Prepayments and accrued income against £295,687 last year. According to the National Treasurer’s Report
“the accounts reflect notification of legacies of £274,408. While this is far from unusual, it should also be borne in mind that while this income is recognised in the 2023 accounts, it has not actually yet been received. Indeed, there remain significant outstanding sums from legacies notified In previous years, making up the large majority of the £557,137 accrued Income showlng as current assets”
It would appear that only £12,958 (£295,687 + £274,408 – £557,137) of legacy income was actually received during the year to 2023 which must cast some doubt on how and when the SNP recognise legacy income in their accounts. Having just acted as an executor on a small estate I fail to see how the SNP can take account of legacies until the estate has been confirmed and I would expect payment of most legacies would follow shortly after confirmation. For the vast bulk of their legacy income to be unpaid for such a period suggests the SNP may be jumping the gun on some of the situations despite what it says in note 27 to the accounts.
The drop in SNP membership is catastrophic despite their best efforts to cover it up. Their current membership list is dodgy for all the reasons that other posters have said but ultimately it will be reflected in a huge drop in membership income. With the loss of most of their Short Money I would expect them to go bust before too long. If they are forced to repay the £600,000 + they stole from independence donors it will happen much sooner god willing.
I, for one, am shocked that the pedo fraudsters of the Scottish Nonce Party are also liars.
There has always been a myth in the independence debate that small nation government would automatically be better. More wholesome, closer to the people, honest, able to find real talent to lead.
I’d love to see evidence that is true, but from what I can see the ‘town councillor’ grade of politician with a large dollop of cronyism and corruption seems common in small states.
Scottish Labour and the SNP might be as good as it gets for leading Scotland. Independent or not.
Republic of Scotland at 910pm,
It is even worse than that. Initially the bomb company wanted to drop the bombs on the MOD testing site on salisbury plain in ENGLAND. The English MOD said no. So, of course the company then decided to just test its bombs in Scotland – I mean ‘who gives a f*** about the whinging jocks anyway, eh?’
And still Engerland wonders just why so many Scots want an end to English rule in Scotland.
Debatable lands at 0546am, The problem in Scotland’s case is too many politicians see Holyrood as a staging post to get into the real gravy train down in London.
I mean, Westmidden means a higher salary, virtually no scrutiny of outside interests or expenses, free flights for you and your family, a free second home in London, massively subsidised meals and drink 24/7, and if you are Scottish almost nothing to do. All in an environment seething with corruption and only a thin veneer of any scrutiny.
With independence, it would be Holyrood only. No undemocratic first past the post elections. No interference from England and English political parties – and they really do massively interfere at every stage in Scotland. It’s why we have the likes of Iain Murray a ‘lesser-talented’ single constituency MP from an English political party, Labour, headquartered in London, currently lording it over ALL Scottish interests, like king f***ing dick. Completely undemocratic, completely and wholly unaccountable. English colonial rule, writ large.
Small nations in general do indeed do well. Scotland, at every turn, however, and in every way, is held back by England and English colonial rule.
Debatable Lands @ 5:46 am
“There has always been a myth in the independence debate that small nation government would automatically be better. I’d love to see evidence that is true,”
The price of colonialism (aka ‘the ‘Union’) for Scots is at least £150 billion a year, and rising:
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/03/19/the-real-economic-price-of-the-uk-union-for-scots/
@Republicofscooby 9:29
We don’t have to set the bar very high in order to determine who cares about the people of Scotland. Showing us Scots the simple courtesy of writing our country’s name correctly is not a difficult hurdle for most to clear.
But you’re the exception that proves the rule.
You go on bigging up your poster boys – the imperialist, colonising military adventurer and “man of destiny” in the Kremlin, and the murdering, raping, torturing tunnel dwellers, cowering behind their human shields of hostages and beneath the mass graves of their own people – decimated as a result of the terrorism of their own self-appointed leaders.
We see what you admire and we see what you would bring down on Scotland, if you only could.
Debatable Lands
Ignored
says:
24 August, 2024 at 5:46 am
Scottish Labour and the SNP might be as good as it gets for leading Scotland. Independent or not.
Two points;
Holyrood is a colonial administration addressing the needs and demands of Westminster. Most organisms thrive once their parasites are removed, though some take time to recover their strength.
Second, your “as good as it gets” spectrum might well feature Labour or the NuSNP at the low end, but surely the appropriate calibration for the “best” yardstick would include reference to Salmond’s Government at the top.
Granted, I am bound to accept many of the current dysfunctional SNP delinquents were created on Salmond’s watch, but Salmond ostensibly got them to behave themselves, stay in line, and function. His task might even have been easier in a post Independence scenario, with “foreign influence” and hostile lobbyists abruptly curtailed.
Lastly, Scotland’s best government emasculated in this damned Union will always be inferior to Scotland’s worst government as an Independent Nation. Simple statement of fact.
Alf Baird
Debatable Lands point remains a valid one.
Accepting, for argument’s sake, your £150 billion PA as a valid figure, the current crop of troughers, grifters, incompetents and confidence tricksters making up Scottish politics would be as clueless in the management of this money as they were in the management of the “money back for jam jars” scheme, or the trams, or any of the other long list of disasters that have occurred on their watch. Plus, of course, they’d be desperate to splurge it on pet peeves, such as free sex changes on demand, or reparations for everybody living in the Caribbean islands.
Of course, we don’t have to accept your figure. It certainly seems startlingly reminiscent of the figure infamously painted on the side of a bus pre-Brexit.
We all know now the lies and half-truths that claim was based on.
I’m more convinced by the likes of Robin McAlpine. In a recent article, he outlines a plan to bring Scotland’s energy generation capacity under Scottish control. He also explains how it would perhaps take 20 years. That has the ring of truth to me.
The idea that every year post-Indy, we’ll be divvying up 150 bill between us I would politely categorise as snake oil.
@Breeks
That’s not a simple statement of fact.
It’s simple self-delusion.
We can refute your “fact” simply by thinking back to the period, well within living memory, when lots of things like employment prospects, health outcomes, housing, law & order and education were better in Scotland than they are now.
Feel free to write this off as Yoon propaganda if you wish, but the Indy movement is going backwards, and self-delusion isn’t going to reverse that trend.
“Harold Wilson was the last [probably the only] British statesman to refuse to go along with US wishes when he kept us out of Vietnam. Thank goodness he did.”
Sarah.
Sorry to burst your bubble.
“There is a myth the UK did not support Washington’s war against Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s. In fact, Labour and Conservative governments backed every phase of US military escalation and played secret roles in the conflict, declassified files show.”
https://www.markcurtis.info/2023/04/14/britains-secret-role-in-the-brutal-us-war-in-vietnam/
Harold Wilson’s – tenures as PM.
1964 to 1970 -and 1974 to 1976.
Robert Louis @6.58am.
England – has used the remoteness of some Scottish islands, to carry out dangerous experiments – in the past – are these, or similar types of experiments – still going on in Scotland? who knows.
“In 1952, just a few years after the start of the Cold War and less than a decade since the catastrophic atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a secret and potentially deadly military operation was carried out in the Hebrides.
As Nukes, Subs & Secrets reveals, the military was worried about the potential for an international ban on nuclear weapons and had begun developing biological weapons in their place — in breach of international protocols. These new weapons of mass destruction contained the bubonic plague.
A secluded beach on the Isle of Lewis was selected to host the project. Its location in the extreme north west of the British Isles offered the military space and privacy to carry out its top secret work.
Twenty miles north of the island’s capital Stornoway, pontoons containing live guinea pigs and monkeys were moored a few hundred yards from the shoreline. Clouds of bubonic plague were exploded above them and the effects monitored. In total 3500 guinea pigs and 83 monkeys were exposed to testing.”
Hatey McHateface @ 10:03 am
“I’m more convinced by the likes of Robin McAlpine.”
He writes well, but like most of the native bourgeoisie he has still to figure out that Scots exist in a colonial society.
Alf Baird says: “Yes, the SNP elite are Neoliberals in terms of political ideology, and co-opted colonialists in their day job deceit.”
You’re always on point, Alf, and never more so than above. The SNP funding obviously comes from avenues other than membership fees (the hidden hand), from short money (colonial bribes) and the wider neoliberal corporations, globalist organisations and oligarchs. This is apparent from all the policies instituted by the SNP which were copied directly from the Democratic Party playbook. After all, the SNP with only half a brain cell to share between them couldn’t think up all those harebrained social policies on their own (tools of division from within that they are)! Meanwhile, the SNP are overseeing the extreme (and obscene) wealth transference and extraction by the neoliberal forces that Scotland is subject to without any defence of the realm. Our sovereignty and our rights are eroded and degraded on a daily basis whilst we are subjected to the tribalistic politics of war triumphed by the Anglo-American-Psyonist triad of evil.
And it seems the West has learned nothing from the Second World War. This is from Albert Speer’s memoirs “Inside the Third Reich”:
‘I thought of the consequences that unrestricted rule together with the power of technology – making use of it but also driven by it – might have in the future. This war, I continued, had ended with remote-controlled rockets, aircraft flying at the speed of sound, atom bombs, and a prospect of chemical warfare. In five to ten years it would be possible for an atomic rocket, perhaps serviced by ten men, to annihilate a million human beings in the centre of New York within seconds. It would be possible to spread plagues and destroy harvests. “The more technological the world becomes, the greater is the danger…As the former minister in charge of a highly developed armaments economy it is my last duty to state: A new great war will end with the destruction of human culture and civilisation. There is nothing to stop unleashed technology and science from completing its work of destroying man which it has so terribly begun in this war…”’
Hatey McHateface @ 10:03 am
“The idea that every year post-Indy, we’ll be divvying up 150 bill between us I would politely categorise as snake oil.”
If we are not subject to colonial plunder then I suppose you must have another more valid explanation for energy/whisky /fish/tourism/etc-rich Scots being made into the poorest people in NW Europe? Do tell?
GDP-PER-CAPITA BY COUNTRY, 2021/22
Norway – $106,149
Ireland – $104,039
Switzerland – $92,101
Denmark – $60,345
Faroe Islands – $59,699
Greenland – $57,116
Iceland – $56,429
Sweden – $55,873
Netherlands – $50,546
Belgium – $49,843
UK – $47,923
Finland – $46,929
Scotland – $40,325
“here’s what you could have won … ”
https://archive.is/mHvKx
“- they are doing well enough, but imagine how great these countries could have been if they too had been part of the most successful political union in history?”
SAID NO_ONE, EVER
Alf forgot about Luxembourg. And what do these countries have in common?
– EFTA. Not the EU. And not FGS, the UK.
Scotland would be better off, have more power and autonomy as a state of the US than an “equal partner in the UK” – and that would be insane. But what does it say if “the insane thing” would be better than what you have now??
Are we “double insane”?
Norway’s wealth fund made a profit of over 200B USD last year (this is Scotland’s official GDP)
– and without hard Scots resources the UK would fall to “shithole” status. Once we leave we kick out the pegs holding that hellhole together – they want to build nukes and do AI, but they are heading for is “helter skelter”. Which will be a joy to watch, as long as we are outside of it, behind the razor wire and the autoguns, aliens style.
EFTA means you don’t get soaked by being in the EU; Norway keeps its dosh, Luxembourg can keep its secrecy and the Icelanders get to keep all their fish. Not being in the EU also allows you to avoid the insane electricity market rules described by Varoufakis. Ireland, though rich, has a political class which has gone full EU globalist, with its penchance for woke sex and mass immigration. This, we could do without.
The question of Scotlands GDP being 200B – is that a real, true number or not? It is absurdly bad given our EFTA peers are in the 600-800B USD range. But either way its bad, Scotland’s real GDP is either much higher and the wealth is being stolen/hidden, accredited falsely to London, in order to make Scotland look “poor”, or, it really is as bad as it is reported, in which case it shows chronic incompetence and mismanagement (London controls the economy). Either way, you are mad to stay.
The excellent dystopian thriller “children of men” was on a few days ago; this is where England is at, right now, the future is here. A lot of little englanders will be looking to literally “head for the hills”, i.e. our hills, to Scotland, while the rest of it falls apart and the political elite resorts to police state tactics to force the diversity, wokeness, neoliberalism and foreign war mongering down everyones throats. (Did you see how fast the justice system moves when white working class people get out of line?)
Scotland will be “on the hook” to fix the problems the english created for themselves; fuck them, let them burn. They deserve it.
Confused, have you seen the state of Glasgow recently? They’re bringing in our replacements faster than the New Labour government can imprison native English people.
@Confused 2:08
Top post.
But let me guess. Armed with all that you know about how rich we could all be, you nevertheless failed to stand for election a few weeks ago. Despite the fact that, self evidently, your manifesto promises would have been the most popular and compelling in all of UK political history.
Am I right? I’ll go further. I’m also guessing you have absolutely no intention whatsoever of standing for HR in 2026. And I’m also guessing there is nobody, inside or outside of politics, that sees your claims as having any credibility, so is willing to stand up in public to repeat them.
Despite the fact that any Scot who could deliver on them would go down in history as the greatest Scot, not only ever, but probably forever too.
It really is beyond belief that if all this wealth and dosh is there for the taking, not one single believer is prepared to put it to us Scots in a vote.
@Saffron Robe 12:00
Not every day we have a post quoting a long spiel from a real N@zi, not the ersatz ones the usual suspects have to invoke every time their fragile cognitive processes encounter a belief or idea new to them.
You’ve taken that one too far. The usual suspects like to conceal their antisemitism behind weasel words, they don’t like to quote actual N@zis in justification because then they’ve given the game away.
@Saffron Robe 12:00
Not every day we have a post quoting a long spiel from a real N@zi, not the ersatz ones the usual suspects have to invoke every time their fragile cognitive processes encounter a belief or idea new to them.
I’m thinking you’ve finally taken it too far, but in your defence, it’s informative and educational to see Wings BTL casual antisemitism getting back to its roots.
Hatey McHateface @ 10:03 am
“The idea that every year post-Indy, we’ll be divvying up 150 bill between us I would politely categorise as snake oil.”
If we are not subject to colonial plunder then I suppose you must have another more valid explanation for energy/whisky /fish/tourism/etc-rich Scots being made into the poorest people in NW Europe? Do tell?
GDP-PER-CAPITA BY COUNTRY, 2021/22
Norway – $106,149
Ireland – $104,039
Switzerland – $92,101
Denmark – $60,345
Faroe Islands – $59,699
Greenland – $57,116
Iceland – $56,429
Sweden – $55,873
Netherlands – $50,546
Belgium – $49,843
UK – $47,923
Finland – $46,929
Scotland – $40,325
Dan
Hmmm..
Well that all worked out really well for you and yours didn’t it?!
Politicians and their party drone cheerleaders; two cheeks of the same bahookie imo..
Having glanced at the SNP accounts on Wings, under “Notes to the accounts” item number 27 – Legacy Notification, it is stated that the approximate legacy of £250k cannot be confirmed until Probate is granted.
Given Probate is an entirely English legal term, does this mean the legacy is from someone furth of Scotland? Well done them!
Any legacies in Scotland would be subject to Confirmation not Probate. As the guardians of all things Scottish, can the SNP please confirm the geographical source of the legacy?
Also, if I promise a donation to the SNP in writing, will it show in the next accounts even if I have not got round to making the donation?
Alf Baird
Ignoring for the moment that the second poorest country on your list, Finland, regularly comes on top of the list of most contented countries in Europe, let’s take the numbers on your list as gospel, for arguments sake.
And let’s further assume, for simplicity, that NO Scot shares in any of Scotland’s wealth whatsoever.
The issue becomes how a legal, peaceful transfer of asset ownership can occur. In the case of Energy, RM suggests a twenty-year timescale.
That seems reasonable to me. Those in favour of sudden, quick-fix economic dislocation have the recent example of Truss, who nearly managed to wreck the entire UK economy with some announcements of unfunded policies.
I’m sure there are plenty of Wings BTL posters who wouldn’t care if their entire personal economy was reduced to a claymore and a sack of oatmeal, but I’m not one of them.
And neither, I’ll bet, are you.
Start from where we are. Everything in Scotland is already wholly owned by others. Work out a credible, internationally legal, peaceful transition that doesn’t make all of us Scots worse off, and get that programme represented politically and democratically.
That’s the task. There are no short cuts.
Alf Baird @ Hatey McHateface @ 10:03 am
“If we are not subject to colonial plunder then I suppose you must have another more valid explanation for energy/whisky /fish/tourism/etc-rich Scots being made into the poorest people in NW Europe? Do tell?”
Aye, its a difficult one for fowk in denial. Maybe you should ask your favourite indy leftie, Robin? Though the colonial bawbee haesna drappit fer im naither.
“That’s the task. There are no short cuts.”
In a nutshell.
Year in, year out. The same empty claims about the great riches of Scotland and their instant accessibility to the masses; the grass being so much greener on the other side of independence.
Where is the grownup methodology (beyond cliches, tropes, soundbites and empty propaganda). Who (or what) is going to produce it? Who will put the actual graft in?
The Indy Movement is the Agent of Change and thus it is they who have the burden of proof to show their workings – not those on the side of the status quo. But let’s get real. It hasn’t happened for 15 years and it ain’t happening now; the SNP struggle with their own bloody accounts, let alone something of this magnitude.
Alf Baird
Are you the actual, genuine Alf Baird?
I ask as you don’t seem to be your usual self these days.
If it is really you, get well soon.
Maybe you should speak to this guy :
https://campbellmartin.blogspot.com/2023/10/british-state-infiltration-of-snp_27.html?m=1&fbclid=IwY2xjawE35EtleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHZbn5BLvWANYy-bcOuRy0hPGW-3gxh7Gwcpwow2bOGHj6yL0EhebcAcDuA_aem_OjChiMTpJ7wuNKdTUViA_g
My take :
ONE QUESTION : WhyTF did the SNP allow an independence referendum vote to take place with zero voter ID security ?
NAIVITE is B.S. : a million votes disappeared by the next election in Scotland; Salmond’s private polling showed YES had won; everyBrit in England his dog (literally) downloaded a postal vote form, filled it in, sent it off (with whatever phony info necessary) and the result was stolen.
THE SNP’s reaction = dumb, silent, devolution mentality.
THE person(s) who convinced Salmond that the postal-vote system was all hunky dory are the sleeper Brits/("Tractor" - Ed)s.
“the usual handful of votes for the ISP”
That’s an interesting spin on them beating the Tories, Lib Dems and Greens, three parties with MSPs in Parliament.
“Where do the branches get that levy to pay HQ from?”
They don’t. No money has changed hands. Money which was owed to the branches will simply not be paid, and will therefore effectively appear in the books as a credit.
Hatey McHateface @ 10:28 am
“I ask as you don’t seem to be your usual self these days. If it is really you, get well soon.”
More ‘debasing the colonized’, its all you have to offer, making the Scots seem unable to self-govern, incapable, unworthy; totally dependent on external (i.e. imperial) rule. “They would not even know what to do with their freedom?” (Fanon). Which creates the ‘cultural gap’ and opportunity for ‘the privileged usurper’ (Gordimer) to rule over them.
SNP bankruptcy alert
At 31st December 2023 the SNP had £ 42,448 of cash. That is not very much for an organisation to have at the end of a year, when each month the SNP needs approximately £ 350,000 to pay staff, expenses etc. Cash management must be a tightrope.
The Independence Magazine is a loss making organ – revenue £ 79,935 and expenditure £ 83,832 ( note 12 )
The SNP will have surely needed to raid Branch coffers again in the eight months to 31st August 2024.
Has anyone heard if the SNP has been unable to pay suppliers or struggles to pay staff payroll costs ?
Are there still 27 people there ?
Is the SNP paying even more legal fees than normal this year to 31 December 2024 ?
Last year, £ 167,505 is an extremely high sum of legal fees to pay for what is a ‘ political party ‘. Where did this money go, and to defend what or who ?
Does anyone ask questions at the Conference about the money ?
Alf Baird
Hmmm. I’m kinda in the habit of “debasing the colonised” then, every time I ask somebody how they’re doing.
Come to think on’t, every coloniser who debases me in future, by asking me if I’m alright, might be in for it. Or perhaps not.
Maybe we best just leave it there.
Alf Baird at 12:25 pm
As usual your perspectives with quotations are informative.
Web search tells me that the ‘cultural gap’ is probably referenced in Nadine Gordimer’s The Conservationist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadine_Gordimer#Overview_of_critical_works
https://www.int-jecse.net/media/article_pdfs/Revitalizing_Black_Culture.pdf
I have not read any of her work.
Which would you recommend to those intending to further their understanding of our colonial condition?
Oh and, since I presume the other quotation: ‘the privileged usurper’ is similarly from her work, is it from a different source and if so, do you have a reference?
😉
aLurker Ignored @ 7:21 pm
“Which would you recommend to those intending to further their understanding of our colonial condition?”
There is an extensive list of postcolonial theory references in this refereed article I wrote which was published in an international relations journal. This includes works by Memmi, Fanon, Hechter, and Said. I would also recommend Paulo Friere’s ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’. The reference to Gordimer was taken from her introduction to Albert Memmi’s seminal work ‘The Colonizer and the Colonized’.
https://bpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/wp.towson.edu/dist/b/55/files/2022/05/The-Socio-Political-Determinants-of-Scottish-Independence.pdf
Alf Baird at 8:47 pm
Thanks Alf. Much appreciated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedagogy_of_the_Oppressed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colonizer_and_the_Colonized
😉