The Party Of The Dead
The SNP’s latest accounts are out.
And the zombie shambles on for another year.
The headline figures sound reasonable – the party has turned a 2024 deficit of nearly £400,000 into a surplus of just over £500,000. Unfortunately that’s only had the effect of increasing its bank balance by around £110,000 to £384,320.
And that should be a big worry, because 2025 was a “fallow year”, with no general election to contest. Spending figures for this year’s Holyrood vote won’t be out for a while yet, but the SNP spent £1.5m on the last one and anything remotely similar in scale will have blown a huge hole in the coffers.
And there’s no safety net left to fall back on. The party has emptied every last piggy bank, cupboard and cardboard box under the bed to survive to this point, rummaged down the back of every sofa and used up its best tricks. It’s slashed the staff budget by a third, for example, saving half a million quid a year.
The unfortunate branch offices, which have been plundered for the last few years to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds, have taken another couple of sucker punches, with the “branch dividend” (membership fees returned from the central party to local branches) slashed by 40% and insult added to injury with the imposition of a £56,000 levy to unsuccessfully fight the Hamilton by-election.
The average SNP branch now looks like Aberdeen FC at the turn of the century.
The “Miscellaneous income” table above shows that the party is also still heavily reliant on the Grim Reaper – almost 60% of its £500K surplus was thanks to legacies from the deceased. Rumours that national treasurer Peter Grant, desperate to ensure a continuing income stream, has been seen skulking around the back of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (aka The Death Star) in a dark cloak are unconfirmed at time of writing.
The party could certainly do with a bunch of wealthy supporters popping their clogs, because significant support from the living was all but non-existent. The below is the entirety of reportable donations in 2025.
There was £132,000 from the ever-generous UK taxpayer, but less than £10,000 in total in reportable donations from anyone else: £7,200 (in non-cash, premises-based contributions) from Cor Unum Ltd – a company which is itself deceased – and £2,600 to the Portobello branch from an Andrew Mackie, and that was it.
(Cor Unum appears to have been owned by lottery winners Chris and Colin Weir, although the nature of its business is somewhat opaque.)
Smaller contributions which don’t have to be individually recorded under electoral law provided rather more, but still well under half 2024’s figure.
There were some poignant notes. The infamous campervan is now as invisible to the accounts as it was to Nicola Sturgeon when she visited Peter Murrell’s mum.
But it’s the underlying story that’s really bleak, because ultimately the SNP is a party that just can’t afford to live. With Westminster, Holyrood and council elections three years out of every five (Brexit was actually a life-saver for the party, sparing the cost of European elections), and membership still falling steadily, the arithmetic is merciless.
(The figures for 2025 were given only as “around 51,000” in the accounts, a decline of around 10%, with the precise number apparently being too painful to relate and Humza Yousaf’s promise of six-monthly updates long forgotten.)
Averaged out over the five-year political cycle, the SNP is intrinsically a money-losing business and it’s running out of Hail Mary plays. Losses are bigger, and more frequent, than profits. Gravity is irresistible. Its plaintive cries about recovery of the money stolen by Peter Murrell would at best represent a stay of execution.
It’s been quite conspicuous that the party’s been uncharacteristically quiet on the subject of Andy Burnham’s coup against Keir Starmer. Normally when a new Prime Minister takes office without there having been a general election, opposition parties make a big song and dance about a vote being required in order to give the new PM a proper mandate.
But as far as we’ve noticed there hasn’t been a peep from the SNP on that subject, because if Burnham – the UK’s seventh PM in the last decade – reneged on his pledge NOT to hold a snap election it’d be a financial disaster of cataclysmic proportions.
Absent that, unfortunately, the independence movement must wait patiently for the slow erosion of time to do its work before there’s any hope of the SNP shuffling off this mortal coil and a vacancy for a serious indy party opening up. The good news is that on these numbers, that shouldn’t be too many years off now.
Sometimes, dead is better.
Murrell has apparantly stated that he will repay the £400k+ that he stole from the SNP. He obviously has this money and possibly more somewhere. If he has this amount of liquid funds available why is the tax payer funding his, yet to determined solicitors fees, through Legal Aid?
I cant help believing that this is all part of the SNP being utterly corrupted by greed and brit nat infiltration. sturgeon and her clique did a number on the independence movement whilst everyone thought she was doing things for the benefit of independence. How wrong we were.
the lesson….. blind trust in a questionable woman with extreemy shifty eyes and a hair cut a brickie labourer would be proud, of is not always the best move.
Whoa there LL!!
I was a brickies labourer prior to enlisting, it was a blistering hot summer way back then so sported the obligatory no. 4 haircut.
Just saying; In defence of brickies labourers everywhere..
🙂
Eech, two articles on consecutive days headed by pictures of the “Heather Herbert” polycule.
“Heather Herbert”…?
“Humbert Humbert”, moar like
The drop in salaries cannot be explained by Murrell’s activities alone. There must have been redundancies and pretty hefty ones at that. I do not recall seeing anything in the media about that, which I find quite surprising.
“In November, the SNP’s ruling body agreed to a more “streamlined” staffing structure and announced plans to cut jobs from 26 to 16.”
link to scottishdailyexpress.co.uk
I would not be surprised if they lined up positions for anyone leaving with one of their pet quangos or crony companies to avoid any unpleasantness.
Any problem can be solved with enough of other peoples money.
Fraser MacDonald left SNP in February 2026. He took over from Murray Foote who quit after 14 months in the post, Fraser took over and served as head of communications and research for the SNP from 2023. He had more than a decade of experience in political campaigns and communications. He previously led on broadcast media for the SNP in Westminster and he has played a key role in communications for the party of government in Scotland since 2018.
MacDonald served as head of communications and research for the SNP from 2023, and has more than a decade of experience in political campaigns and communications. He previously led on broadcast media for the SNP in Westminster and he has played a key role in communications for the party of government in Scotland since 2018. MacDonald served as head of communications and research for the SNP from 2023, and has more than a decade of experience in political campaigns and communications.
Fraser MacDonald joined the team at Linco after leaving the SNP. The PR Company was founded in 2023 by Catriona Matheson and is based on the capital’s Waterloo Place. The consultancy is now part of UK and Ireland agency Connect Group.
The Express? Well that explains it. I prefer the Beano.
I assume that the liability of the SNP to those who donated to the ring fenced fund stolen by the SNP has been omitted rendering these accounts something less than “True and Fair”. At the very least I would have expected a Contingent Liability note to the accounts spelling out the extent of the potential claim.
Good point Elmac and even if the SNP do manage to claw back the £400k from Peter Murrell, hopefully enough claims for refunds from the ring fenced indy fundraiser will wipe out any relief that brings. The sooner this corrupt and rotten party goes bankrupt, the better. Get claiming peeps!
I see from note 23 – Loans and overdrafts
Loans from former executive management – £60,000.
So they still owe their bald embezzler a chunk of cash
I notice that they spent £221,079 on Information technology (page 15) and £117,636 on Audio Visual at the Conference (page 17).
Has anyone heard when the campervan and miscellaneous luxuries go up for auction?
With no appeals, would it generally all go quite quickly?
I fancied making a bit for the weather station. Been thinking about putting one in the garden but never got round to it. I think Peter treated himself to all the accessories.
They could busk until dusk and not finance the next election.
Anyone with glass bottle returns, Embassy Coupons or Greenshield Stamps please send on to the treasurer Jackson Entry before it becomes Jackson Exit.
“John Swinney
@JohnSwinney
? The publication of the SNP’s accounts today shows that at the end of 2025 the party was in a position of formidable financial strength, having made a surplus of more than £500,000 over the year.
—————————————
Joanna Cherry KC
@joannaccherry
That is good news. Given that you have admitted that the ring fenced indyref2 fund was used to cover general party expenses how about putting the money back? Or if you are not expecting another indyref soon, reimbursing all the donations?”
————————————–
We’ll see what happens!
It’s not uncommon that the undead are still there years and years later, shambling around shopping malls accosting people who have what they don’t: brains.
Then, there’s also zombie movies. 🙂
Lothianlad mentioned Nicola Sturgeon as the architect of the SNP’s demise. She is greatly responsible, but the rot set in very early on in the late 90’s.
After the Scottish Parliament was established, careerists surged to the SNP like seagulls on chips. It was a weird time for party activists, and morale was very low the first time Alex Salmond tried to hand over the leadership to John Swinney. The Salmond comeback and subsequent SNP renaissance was all down to him – Salmond was a rare personality type, a leader. None of his predecessors have any leadership capabilities, but they call themselves leaders. Nobody had a good feeling about Waffling John except Alex Salmond. Alex’s worst flaw was he trusted people too easily. I think he like most activists, just assumed if you turned up and claimed to love Scotland that you were a friend.
SNP activists , the kind of folk you’d rely on for years to help man stalls and put leaflets through doors with you in the rain, didn’t fully understand at the time what was going on. Many debates and silly newspaper articles were had about the supposed split between SNP ‘gradualists’ and ‘fundies”.
But we were wrong. We were, like Alex, too generous.
The emerging split wasn’t over strategy at all. John Swinney, Nicola Sturgeon, Humza Yousaf, fundamentally don’t care about independence. They don’t even believe Scotland should continue to exist, except as a free reception centre for anyone from the Global South who wants to come and compete with your kids over jobs, housing and public services. They don’t like you, and they certainly don’t mean you well. They didn’t go into politics for your benefit.
What have they done with the powers we gave them? Stripped away our vestigial rights to free speech with Humza’s Hate Act. Thrown open the voting franchise to every foreigner in Scotland to dilute our votes. Tried to impose the creepy named person act, which was about installing a blue haired, rainbow lanyard political officer in every Scottish family to tell them their baby is trans. Relentlessly persecuted Scottish people who just want to have a drink, a smoke, or a buy one get one free packet of Jaffa cakes. They have helped kill the Scottish oil industry, and turned Aberdeen into a dump.
Hugh McDiarmid got chucked out of the SNP for being a communist, and the communists for being a nationalist. Today, the SNP would never allow a Scottish nationalist to stand as a candidate. Nicola could not have done this alone. The psrty hierarchy was riddled with bad, untrustworthy, often cowardly people who went along.
That’s how they turned the party of Scottish nationhood into the party of binders for schoolgirls and World Hijab Day. They were embedded in the party already. It was a long con, and the Scottish people are the marks.
A sound analysis.
Helpful analysis, Red, and where the impending ‘disintegration’ of a national party that has been ‘co-opted by colonialism’ and which has ‘ruptured the movement’ is all part of the decolonization process (Fanon):
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
“all part of the decolonization process (Fanon)”, eh, Alf?
What does Fanon say about the hijab and tea towel wearers?
Are they gonna gift us Scots our Independence?
Or are they gonna sign Scotland up for the New Caliphate?
I realise there’s no way to stop you eternally quoting Fanon, Cesaire, Memmi, Elkins and the Jonesy boyo, or plugging your book, but is there any way you could actually provide us with some useful predictions?
What happens next?
After all, in the real world, the power of any theory, the power by which it stands or falls, is if it can predict outcomes.
What is your postcolonial theory telling you will happen next in Scotland, and when?
“What happens next?”
Postcolonial theory is clear, Hatey, there are only two possible outcomes with colonialism (Memmi):
1. colonialism is ended and the people are liberated (i.e. decolonize), or;
2. colonialism continues and the people continue to assimilate where they, their culture and nation, are in the process of perishing.
This is the stark and urgent reality facing the Scottish nation.
link to cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com
Cheers, Alf, that’s a great help.
I’d ask you for a weather forecast, but I’m confident you’re gonna say that either the weather will stay as it is, or it will change.
“I’d ask you for a weather forecast”
As that seems difficult for you to understand, I’ll make it easier for you, Hatey.
Colonialism is like a violent perpetual whirlwind that destroys native cultures, peoples and nations. This is why Fanon described colonialism as ‘cultural obliteration’.
Racial hatred (including self-hatred) of native culture ‘is a con-substantial part of colonialism’ (Memmi). Which is why Cesaire tells us that colonialism is ‘hateful racism’.
Good grief, Alf, thought you might’ve taken the (very clear) hint from this site’s Editor last time: give it a fucking rest.
You’re like a 1970s children’s talking doll with a pull string in your back:
“We are colonised”
“Fanon”
“Cesaire”
“Hello my name’s Barbie”
You are beyond tiresome.
Once again, Alf, many thanks.
As you write, it seems difficult for me to understand. But ultimately, I’m not seeing what blind bit of practical difference it will make, even if every Sovereign Scot in the land learns to repeat after you “Aye, we’re colonised”.
Indy is still gonna need a political vehicle, with pragmatic, useful policies, owning majority democratic support among us Sovereign Scots, with competent, honest, grounded, determined, marginally charismatic leadership.
I think your time and effort would be better utilised making a start on that.
Whilst realising that if you bamboozle the already fed up electorate with yet more third world juju, they’ll turn off en masse.
And also twigging that the scenes we’ve witnessed this week in Ceuta, of ex-colonial citizens two generations removed, desperate to escape their third-world shithole, brings negative connotations to the entire concept.
Great post Red.
I only got involved in independence around late 2000’s but I always remembered that nationalism was a dirty word that nobody dared speak back then.
That fits in with what you said where the SNP and the independence movement was co-opted by the carpet-baggers and Johnny come lately types from Labour.
The only hope is that the SNP goes bankrupt and a genuine nationalist party can rise out of the ashes of it.
“Nicola could not have done this alone”
The killer punch line in a knock out post.
Powerful post indeed Red.
Needed said.
When are you people going to realise that the SNP don’t need huge wads of cash, they are secretly funded from down South and vote rigging as in the last election – makes sure they’ll get back into power, no other “party” in Scotland wants to become the colonial admin, its a game – to make sure the status quo remains unchanged.
SNP one and two is the status quo’s mainstay.
How about Murrell’s loan?
The SNP is refusing to pay it back, if I’m correct.
Sorry Naw, clad YES. The SNP lost its true supporters and ended up with tits and morons as a membership who elected the racist then the Mini Me version of Nicola Sturgeon (John Swinney) instead of Ash Regan.
If if Swinney wore a wig and called him self Alex Salmond he’d still be a loser, no one believes a guy who’s a bare face liar and not even a very good one.
I can’t have Independence but if I could have the death of the SNP it would be something before I die.
I would vote for the greens to stop the SNP winning the cash point from Westminster. For me stopping the SNP obtaining that short money they get from Westminster in 2029.
I willing to bet before the next Westminster election the SNP membership has fallen even more.
100 percenter
That raises the fundamental problem.
If an alternative Indy party is not nurtured then the death of the SNP simply means Westminster will conclude its (again) the settled will of the people and chances are it’ll be a century not a “generation” to have another go.
Sorry Rev but that’s why I struggle with a SNP has to go then something else surely will come along approach.
As for the Scotch Greens, they need their a7ses sewn up and have zero desire for independence other than the chance that they may gain a fiefdom of their own to foist their sex abominations on.
Sorry
Meant to add..
The “next” party..
What’s to stop the grifters and SPADS from just jumping ship to the winning team and the same crap goes round again funded by big pressure $$groups$$..
Read Joe Pikes book “Project Fear” to see how the SPADS “jump ship” mentality works when they worry they are on the losing team.
Too few apprenticeships, too many meaningless degrees leading invariably (if they can’t handle teaching) to politics and 3rd sector nothingness..
Priority should be firmly given to STEM subjects and achievement and Thatchers legacy in such fields here thoroughly erased.
If the SNP gang bankrupt an’ restart again wull it be ca’d the Newco SNP, jist asking fer a freind……..
Large amount of assets disposed of. Looks like the auditors have done a thorough inventory of what was actually owned by the SNP and they’ve found a lot of stuff wasn’t there. They’ve also written off most of the Software Development assets.
Wish they would just, collapse and disappear – repugnant lot. The MacGhost of a dream that should now just fade away in to a pink,, white and light-blue mist.
Mail absolutely ripping into the scarce believable story that is Jason Arday:
link to dailymail.com
I really want to believe that this tax-payer funded insanity is kept out of Scotland by Hadrian’s Wall, but I can’t.
In fact, I suspect it’s just as bad here. How else can we explain FM Humza Yousaf?
Perhaps it’s just me that thinks that Scotland desperately needs a new, indigenous political movement, intent on Indy AND on removing the woke and the woke-enabled grifters from public life and our taxpayer-funded institutions.
It was Glasgow that first made Arday a full time prof.
That was the time to put his academic record thoroughly under the spotlight, he had only five years of post doc experience with nothing remarkable. Though to be fair quangos were also falling over him.
Cambridge are getting the flack, but taking a prof from Glasgow, what at one time might have been thought as reasonably prestigous, should not have seemed all that unusual.
Why the hell Glasgow made him a professor is far more questionable.
“Why the hell Glasgow made him a professor”
Same reason all 19 higher education institutions in Scotland mostly appoint people from outside Scotland as professors – it is primarily because so very few Scots are funded to undertake doctoral study in Scotland; without a doctorate one cannot normally become a professor.
What does DEI mean again?
Oh yes, “Didn’t Earn It”.
The road to WOKE is paved with the worst kind of intentions.
@Ian Smith it seems Glasgow may be an innocent party here. Arday’s claim that he was a “full Professor” at Glasgow later morphed into a claim that he was a “Visiting Professor”, while Glasgow denies any knowledge of the ludicrous mountebank in any form at all.
“Glasgow denies any knowledge of the ludicrous mountebank in any form at all”
They’ve most certainly heard of him now!
It appears I was wrong. Glasgow did in fact award him a full professorship. I think it was the Dugdale Chair of Unqualified Liars.
Yes, I read that piece that Hatey linked to the other day with incredulity giving way to rage, rage giving way to dread. Humanity has really peaked, hard to see how anyone can unwind the last 20-odd years of this left wing insanity.
Still, “oH nOzes iT WoZ tEh daILy MALE” no doubt.
Honestly, the wife and I are planning to emigrate at this point. Enough.
Had a wee chuckle at a Reform supporter stating they’ve had enough of the UK, and he and wife now want to leave UK and thus become immigrants…
That’s right Dan.
Fed up of twats like you.
Ach, now yer jist acting out like a spoilt bairn due to yer lack of tolerance of other folk’s often similarly held views.
Yer trying to agitate and disrupt rather than ever agree or work constructively to find alignment with others. But that’s your (along with several others) play on this site isn’t it…
I’m actually pretty centrist in my political outlook, and that I get flack from folks masquerading as either right or left leaning seems to confirm that’s the case.
So the UK is circling the pan, and has reached the point you feel like you want to leave due to the efforts of ongoing London Rule where all major powers reside.
Westminster is basically jist English governments, that are pretty much always elected by the near ten times larger electorate in the KoE, so suck it up because it was yer fellow English countrymen and women than got us here, and maybe stop whining about the state of the UK State on a backwater of a site which is supposedly supportive of Scottish Independence and which has little to no influence in altering the trajectory voters in the KoE choose to proceed on.
You could always invest a Strutter Bubble…
3 mins and contains a fuckload of fucking swearing.
link to youtube.com
Oh do be quiet, thicko. It wasn’t Englishmen “like me” who promoted this fake professor and lauded him to the world: it was lefties like you, that’s who. Ditto “women with penises” and all the other stuff off written about by the Editor of this site (whom I wholly agree with), together with uncontrolled immigration of people who will cost us a fortune from Day One. Anyone who disagrees is “Far Right”.
You and/or your mates are rapidly running out of people to pay your benefits.
So another day and yer still acting an arse and pathetically jist casting untrue derogatory assertions about in a woeful attempt to tarnish individuals.
And yer making even more of an arse of yersel trying to state I am a lefty wokist, as there is no way you could possibly think that if you have read my comments over the years.
I’m self-employed these days, mainly doing bespoke engineering projects nobody else can do, last one was for a Reform supporter whose engine builder, and race engineers couldn’t do the complex conversion work I carried out to improve the car. 4 races, 4 class wins so far…
Prior to that I worked in oil industry developing the technology and building the million quid machines that facilitated the deep water subsea intervention capability to access new fields.
Not too bad for a thicko, and I don’t claim benefits.
Yer mo and lingo used btl is like an alter-ego franchise fanny. Odd how the two of you have never gone full on hammer and tongs against each other though…
Would have thought that would have made an excellent celebrity deathmatch barney. FF would be giving you grief for not accepting all the folk rocking up on this island aren’t “NuBrits” and should have a vote.
He was in full flow on this linked thread if you CTRL search “xeno”.
link to wingsoverscotland.com
And here’s what I’ve stated on the subject of migration.
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Dry your eyes, Dan. You were the one mocking “Reform supporters” for bemoaning what even you (now) consider to be “wokeist left” outcomes and situations. Now it’s the familiar “none of this is down to people like me” cobblers – it IS down to people like you, ergo left wingers.
Look at the mess you have all made, and own it. Don’t be surprised if the rest of us feel bitter about it.
“Had a wee chuckle at a Reform supporter stating they’ve had enough of the UK, and he and wife now want to leave UK and thus become immigrants…”
Anglo-imperialists don’t see the irony, Dan, as their options reduce.
We might imagine Hatey – in preference to living in a free Scotland – heading off to his beloved Is***l having to change religion and learn a new language to be allowed to become a sett**r in a segregated racist society unlawfully occupying someone else’s land and despised by all its neighbours.
Alf said: ‘Same reason all 19 higher education institutions in Scotland mostly appoint people from outside Scotland as professors’.
You make this claim often but what is your actual evidence – do you have statistics and does it differ from other places where professors are appointed with no reference to nationality (obviously)?
As for Arday, he is clearly a fantasist who has fooled a lot of people but once someone has been awarded a PhD (in this case from Liverpool John Moores University), there is no reason anyone would query the detail of that – yes, certificates are required as proof but no way would you then get hold of all appointees’ theses to check for academic misconduct, even if they had applied for a professorship (and incidentally, you don’t actually need a PhD to be made a professor as it is based on research standing generally).
The big question for me is actually of John Moores because that is the stage where such scrutiny should have happened. And when it comes to plagiarism, the idea of an ‘honest mistake’ (as they quoted) is highly dubious: you either cite sources properly, or not. Yes, you might forget one or two references and that could be overlooked if everything else is in order, but reports say there were numerous uncited chunks in Arday’s thesis (though it must be said, we only have vague assertions about this at present as far as I know).
“what is your actual evidence”
I looked at some 40 departments in three of Scotland’s ‘ancient’ universities and found that only 11% of academic staff were Scots, much less at professorial level, i.e below 5%.
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
@Alf
FYI the propelling of Cambridge Professors in this manner isn’t the fault nor desire of “Reform supporters” – they’re the ones (vainly) trying to stem the tide. In fact, this is allegedly down to lefty academics driven not by facts but blind ideology and political agenda (ring any bells?) Ditto also the complicit left wing parties (Labour and likely others) and institutions (BBC and the Met).
Still, expecting a cogent (or even coherent, relevant) response from yourself is a vain hope indeed, Professor.
Thanks Alf.
One thing though you say you looked at three ‘ancient’ institutions but say above ‘all 19 higher education institutions in Scotland’, so is that simple extrapolation regarding professors?
And I wonder how this might apply to English ‘ancient’ institutions?
The thing about such universities is that they have great international pulling power and they will always try and get the most prestigious people wherever they are from and given the population of Scotland and the very high status of those Scottish ancient unis, is it that surprising not many professors are Scots?
This is not to dismiss your point entirely, but there are a number of factors at play here. More, wider research needed.
” is that simple extrapolation regarding professors?”
The ‘phenomenon’ (i.e. the tendency to not employ Scots) seems to affect all ‘Scottish’ universities.
Here is an example of an entire Scottish univ department (non ancient) with virtually zero Scottish academic staff or researchers, i.e. it is run by and for people virtually all of whom come from outside Scotland:
link to strath.ac.uk
Aw, Alf, I’ve only just noticed your name check.
So you’re an antisemite too? It figures.
Is that something else you got from Fanon? Or is your pathetic bigotry all your own work?
It has been quite a journey of discovery for me to learn how much grassroots Indy has been infested and dirtied by the filth of antisemitism, Alf, but ultimately I’m glad it has all been made clear.
As I’ve observed before, it’s all a long way removed from what we thought we were being promised in 2014. But maybe you and the rest of them were just keeping it all under the carpet even then.
£20 towards your moving expenses, no problem.
Just say the word.
Good riddance.
lol as if you have £20 James
No, no Aidan, I’m actually quite touched that Fatso would give me his life savings to help move out. 🙂
£20? That’s about 30 cans of “Ace” lager, isn’t it? 😀
He probably hasn’t twigged that you’ll still be able to post on the internet, exactly as today, from another location ?
I’ll be sure to do so too, just for him – marguerite in hand. 😀
*margarita even 😀
Jeez, what a typo… don’t want Fatso to think I’m holding a French white daisy for him 😀
Well, it’s not going to be cheap to have your ego shipped to another country. Perhaps a GoFundMe might be the way forward? 😉
Sure! Keep the cash rolling in. £20 on the meter so far. 🙂
Never done a good grift before, sounds like fun. A lot easier than grafting for it!
Have you thought about moving to South West Scotland? It’d be nice to get some more English voices into the mix
Southwest Scotland would be awesome 🙂
Sadly though. It comes down to tax. I’m about to go for early retirement and am selling our business. In Greece, we get 7% rate of tax for 10 years on all pension income, dividends, interest. That’s an unbeatable package (plus I get to go sea fishing YL and BBQ sea bream every day 🙂 )
It’s a no-brainer, sadly in many ways.
You’d be a scrounging immigrant in either place.
Just like the rest of them.
Reform shills obviously don’t do irony.
Alex spoke about there being no actual Union between Scotland and England but took the wrong road in placing party before people and Scotland,
We were his neighbours at one point
The fall of the SNP poses a bigger problem not for Independence that’ll happen without the SNP, its The National, GingerDug, Kelly’s Eye, Riddock and like.
Sorry but I’m a bit excited at the thought of the SNP going tits up.
The National been running with the line subscribe while you can for £20 I’d rather give it to Peter Murrel for him to waste it on crap.
Lets just say the SNP has died thank god, which Indy party should we get behind because I for one am not convinced that ATLS is the best, I reckon the best people are in ISP.
The insanity of having two English governing bodies means both sides of the border craziness.
After all England suggested devolution for Scotland seeing that Scotland had no Scottish parliaament since 1707 in the Englands GB parliament.
Trickery to sort a long term error.
100% Yes,
We don,t require a new movement, we require our own parliament with our own people running it.
Rather than placed actors
That’s why getting rid of the SNP is important and will move things along.
After the 2014 referendum the SNP ruled the waves and Sturgeon threw it all away for what, petty theft.
The Traitor (Sturgeon) believes Scotland is a region of England, she advocating Scotland should be given the model of the good Friday agreement, didn’t she realize all her time in the SNP that Scotland is a country not a region.
The constitutional question has to be returned back to the country it belongs to.
Whats needed is for the power to be devolved completely on the constitutional question without the need to ask a foreign country.
What Sturgeon is advocating is we still need Westminster permission. Now you see why I don’t buy or subscribe to the crap paper called the national, the paper has NO MORAL COMPASS when it takes her opinion with any dredit.
Virtually nowhere in the developed world has managed to get decent people from the native community running themselves.
All are got at by the WEF, the CIA future leaders programs, interships and conferences at the UN.
Then they all act in concert on climate, on covid, on Ukraine, on censorship, on immigration. Hold office for a decade then award each other medals and future sinecures on the conference circuit, think tanks, international organisations, quango boards.
There is a full time political/public sector cadre that have captured the country just as the sector has ever expanded, who rise higher and higher without ever making a notable achievement, rarely if ever proven outside of public affairs.
The SNP are utter dross, but not orders of magnitude worse than anywhere else. God knows how we ever get over this.
Just out of intetest who is ‘our own people’? Have you got any names?
Means ‘not you’.
Hopefully the staff cuts have been on the demented pronoun police types, but that’s unlikely.
Probably managed to weed out the last few independence supporters.
The SNP leadership has capitualted to the notion of westminster soverignty!! Thats something the SNP NEVER did util sturgeon took over.
She was compromised and controlled by the brit nat establishment. In the words of the song… her picture hangs in the traitirs hall of fame.
Presumably they’ll have the “Murrell Money” to rely on for next years accounts?
An interesting article on how the pro-EU government recently voted into power in Hungary is gerrymandering the constitution to ensure there can be no backsliding:
link to unherd.com
Don’t get me wrong. My long-term antipathy to the EU was always partly based on its wishy-washy ineffectiveness. I actually admire its recent attempts to grow a pair and try to lick the disparate former independent countries of Europe into something that might be able to compete or even thrive in our new multi-polar world.
It’s just that now, more than ever, the fatuous folks parroting “Independence in Europe” grind my gears. The days when the policies of the EU could be influenced by the likes of Scotland are long gone.
To quote the article’s author:
“As for Hungary, the strategy seems clear: the EU is bent on punishing the rebellious colony — by making sure it can’t rebel ever again”
Note the ‘C’ word there. Readers who have swallowed whole Professor Baird’s “Scotland as colony” thesis can’t seriously be calling for us to simply shift the colonial headquarters from London to Brussels.
” Note the ‘C’ word there. Readers who have swallowed whole Professor Baird’s “Scotland as colony” thesis can’t seriously be calling for us to simply shift the colonial headquarters from London to Brussels.”
But that’s the point: they’re doing just that very thing, apparently unaware (or uncaring) of this glaring double standard, such is the hypocrisy and paucity of their case.
And with 27 current EU nations, a 28th (Scotland) will have even LESS of an influence than it has now.
Yet according to the latest polling, 3/4th of Indy supporters (and 88% of SNP voters) want to be ruled by Brussels!
Caveman, (he of mega-loot and high-flying career) regarding your 11.41am comment: I was wondering whether you might be a well-informed professional when reading your statement of credentials in an earlier thread but have more doubts after your assertion that ‘left wing’ influences have brought ruin to these Isles. In the absence of definition of terms (which you have not yet supplied), it appears that ‘right wing’ influences are the dominant cause of ruination.
If you are an experienced engineer (civil or otherwise) have you found it necessary to work with established terms of reference? Useful discussion of history/current affairs/politics cannot proceed effectively without referents.. I do not use the terms ‘left’ or ‘right’ (discarded those terms decades ago). Will you provide a substantive reply?
No response Jay… I guess CC is busy listing his Rangey and Porsche on Marketplace, and packing his belongings for his upcoming flit.
Personally, like you I’m not a big fan of the EU, Hatey.
But really this should have been and is a matter for sovereign Scots, not at the whim of England’s MPs as our dominating colonizing power.
Sure, Alf, but our membership of the EU was never on the basis of a multi-party treaty between the individual states comprising the “mythical” UK and the EU.
Interesting too that you write off the greatest popular democratic vote of the century – so damaging to our governing elites that they won’t ever allow its like again – as a “whim”. You’re embedded in the elites, aren’t you, Alf? You can’t abide it when the grubby voters speak something different to what you say.
The UK joined the EU as an integral state, following an integral vote, and integral negotiations, so had to leave on the same basis. The time for the Indy supporters to kick up a fuss was when we joined. But then, of course, Scotland would never have got the same favourable terms negotiated by that big economic beast – the UK.
Sure again, if or when an Independent Scotland joins the EU, it will be decided by the Scots (although it’s a dead cert that if the pro-EU faction can gerrymander the vote by extending the franchise – because it will suit them – they will).
It will be decided too by the EU. It’s Scottish Exceptionalism to assume we’re a slam dunk. By then, the EU’s big countries will likely be what is now termed “far right”. Who says the policies they might demand we sign up to will be acceptable to our trendy Scottish progressives?
For somebody so hot on Scotland’s colonial status, one would logically expect you to be against Scotland being keen on becoming a colony of Brussels.
Sometimes it seems to me that scratch every die-hard Scottish Indy supporter and you’ll find somebody scheming to fuck off out of Scotland at the first opportunity.
No doubt about it. Anybody grifting in Edinburgh looks with envy at the grifts possible in London, with Brussels an even more tantalising grift. Superb restaurants too, to enjoy on the expense account whilst “fighting Scotland’s corner” day after day after day.
main –
What part of EFTA did you not understand you persistent eructation of bad faith argumentation?
– I did a full rundown of the EU a while ago.
Fact is, IMO, Scotland would be (within a few years) “too rich” to be in the EU and if it ever joined it would get -hosed- so … you don’t; in any case its a matter of the Scots and them alone to decide. Same thing with NATO. (NATO is one of those clubs YOU NEVER LEAVE, for many reasons, but its something you can work to your advantage).
Orban was a great barrier to the EU, but – they said he was “corrupt” (I dunno) – fact is they tried to have their cake and eat it with “orban lite” and the guy turned round and immediately shat it at first pressure from Ursula. The hungars should have stuck with the real deal, not the fake. The dynamics of it all was real lousy – the EU wanted to give that fucking crook z lensky 90B euro, and orban says WTF and blocks it – fury follows – the EU then get zenksy to literally “turn off the gas” for hungary – that looks like extortion to me and interfering in the internal politics of a member nation (which sounds against the rules).
This new thing, even worse – the rearmament for a war in 2030 or so … ? … WTF a million times, mad vlad wants to SELL YOU CHEAP GAS without having nuclear missiles and biowarfare labs 20 minutes from moskow – so, cop this, Ursula (her dad was a nazi, a real nazi, for real and a gladio terrorist) – wants to do what Napoleon and Hitler, could not … does this sound like a “plan” or reasons to get “sectioned”. Can you imagine the woke youth of today prevailing where the grand armee and the wehrmacht failed? All vlad has to do to send them screaming is misgender the snowflakes …
Ursula already wants to destroy yoorp by sucking up as much of africa as it can, but then fighting a war of a kind it has never won – it is crazy.
– its entropy, in time everything turns to shit, and the EU as a trading bloc for the advanced western european nations – without the fucking UK and the trojan horse english, and without the beggars of eastern europe – was a pretty great idea and worked so well the english begged to get let in, they were so poor. Remember that, you moronic brexit cunts.
Having said all that – just to remember something : the EU doesn’t take all your cash, hand you back cents on the dollar and call you a subsidy junkie who should be grateful.
– at least that would be one thing we could avoid.
Oh yeah that’s a cracking idea that, let’s keep North Sea oil and gas in the ground but instead by it from Vlad so we can fund the outbreak of full scale war in Europe. That’s a lovely idea.
Sometimes I wonder what the look would be on your face when you realise the whole subject of economics and the entire suite of published and audited economic statistics isn’t just one grand conspiracy to hide Scotland’s unimaginable wealth. However, the reality for bottom feeders like yourself and “James” is that the state won’t let you starve, it’ll be the other productive members of society who face big tax rises and means testing of public services like the NHS to close the fiscal gap.
That’s before we get into either EFTA/EU. Go down to your local supermarket and see how many food products are marked “not for EU”, and it might give your a glimpse of the impact of the hard border all the way from Greta to Carlisle. I spoke to someone working for a medium sized drink supplier who were planning to stop selling in Scotland purely because of the bottle return scheme. You can expect a similar response to the much more onerous customs/biosecurity requirements, and the need to airfreight fresh products in, or at least divert via the long slow ferry from Rosyth (which would run in this scenario). That’s partially why goods are 25% more expensive in RoI than here.
What a fucking clown you are, Adrian. You keep good company.
Cue the SP.
Extraordinary, Confused, that you still can’t bring yourself to get onside with a former colony fighting desperately to fend off a hideously aggressive recolonisation drive by its former imperial master.
You’re actually cool with the idea of a colony being eliminated, its customs and culture destroyed, its language suppressed, its leaders killed, imprisoned or exiled, its history re-written by the occupier.
Man, with the likes of you driving Indy, Scotland really did dodge a bullet.
Most of Scotlands people are not aware that the UK is a mythical State or that Scotland had no parliament in GB parliament for over three hundred years, and not a unit Country.
In the same way Most people today are not aware that Scotland has oil and does not need to buy from another Country like russia.
The Status of the England, annexed Wales and Ireland parliament of Great Britain which is actually the UK unison Countries joined the EU.
The 1707 Scotland parliament was dissolved and Sine die in Scotland,
If the Scottish people knew that they could quit the pretend Scottish parliament. and re- opened its doors properly instead of piggy backing or trading on the smaller Branch office of Westminsters devolution package, the Country has the possibility of not being attached to the mess that England is making of open borders and ideology.
After all Englands Westminster parliament does not include a Scottish parliament that had long since been exitted and dissolved from England,
the mythical 1707 treaty of union between Scotland and England and the Crown of England was discontinued under Sine Die and disolution,, And left Englands Westminster parliament with no legal position to even offer Scotland a Devolution, parliament.
It happens due to the lack of knowledge of the people in Scotland and England, Wales and Ireland, ….and those that do know are well aware not to mention it,
Likewise as was the McCrone report in later years.
The policy of keeping the people blindly ignorant from the reality of facts allows for the people to be easily controlled.
The UK, the Great Britain parliament and the State of Great Britain has the following Countries in it,
England, annexed Wales and sections of Ireland,
As Scotlands parliament was dissolved from the treaty in 1700s in England and withdrew under Sine Die in Scotland from the same treaty.
When The parliament of England made the Ireland and England agreement in 1800s Scotland had already left by almost a hundred years chronolgically.
Again free speech is being censored by moderation, no swear words, no attacks on diversity, no disagreements with others included, just speech on the union, and Scottish parliament. Which would include the SNP position,
Maybe, just maybe your ‘speech’ is being censored because it is the same shite over and over again?
The learned professor could be your twin in that respect.
If the 1707 treaty of union were a reality Scotland would have complete ” freedom of speech ” under “”Private Rights of the subjects of Scotland”, agreed in the treaty which is unalterable by the parliament of Great Britain or Scots law in the devolved governance, unless England and Scotland wish to breech the treaty they claim does supposedly still exist,
Treaty of union article XV111private Rights Scotland.
It is or it ain’t real.
“It is a spectrum, none of which is any worse, or less or more worse, but it is a spectrum of things that constitute one homogenised word rape”
That’s where the they/them pronoun people score over the rest of us. They have two brains so they can see far more clearly than we “normies” ever will.
We must make the best use of them while we can. I fear they won’t be favouring our wee pretendy parly with their superior intellects for long.
There’s a vacant professorship going at Cambridge, and on the evidence of that statement above, they’ll fit into it like a greased …
Naw, that’s enough.
Reading through this thread, reminds me of my being te first voice to point out that they/them had discarded all/any ambition towards indy; immediately after the stolen referendum she silenced all indy talk and determined to be the devo-Queen of Scotland. Upon coronation she was finally cajolled into including a sentence or two for an indyref2 should England vote for Brexit (item 15 on the 2015 SNP manifesto. I was attacked by almost everybody for my views about they/them.
Still, I never saw the woke destruction of the SNP and Scotland byy they/them – my wonder is this destruction permanent – my thinking is yes.
I would add, the same people who attacked me are the same gullibles travels, believing Hamas are freedom fighters and Palestine is subject to genocide rather than the breeding pool of brutal killers who would actually carry out genocide and kill every jew on Earth. Thick, useless minions.
The “I won’t say any more on the matter” Sturgeon:
“She argued the scrutiny she faced had a gendered dimension. “I’ve heard it so often in the last number of weeks: ‘she must have known.’
“I’m just going to ask you to reverse this for a second. Imagine I’d been a male first minister, and my wife had committed the crime. Is that what would have been said? Or instead, would the narrative be, he was busy, he was running the country, how was he meant to know what his wife was doing?
“So I’m not trying to escape legitimate scrutiny and accountability. I just also think there’s an element — a big element — of sexism and misogyny in how I’ve been treated in relation to the crimes of a man, that wouldn’t have been the case had I been the man.””
————————————————–
What about if hypothetical wifey was the CEO of the SNP?
If roles were reversed, maybe the wife would have bought a smaller camper van, and a smaller Jag.
And no super glue.
Still not believing the male FM would have not noticed the vehicles.
So in this scenario if it was the wife who had been defrauding on a massive scale, buying camper vans and the like and the husband was the party leader who was responsible for signing off these expenses then yes I would say he must have known, particularly if he gave a no comment interview when given an opportunity to set the record straight. Next question.
Just saw this Turkish proverb somewhere:
« The forest was shrinking but the trees kept voting for the axe as its handle was made of wood and they thought it was one of them. »
A video interview relating to discussions upthread referencing Hungary. Provides context.
(Tried posting variations of this a couple of times but both went into moderation. Have used initials for the professor’s forenames this time to see if that gets it through…)
Seriously, which part of
“If your comment does not appear immediately, DO NOT REPOST IT. Ignore these rules and I WILL KILL YOU WITH HAMMERS.”
is it that I need to fucking rephrase? It’s RIGHT ABOVE THE COMMENT BOX.
If your comment got held up by the filter there’s a reason, and when I check the mod queue I’ll decide whether it goes through or not. The chances of any particular comment being approved are NOT improved if I have to read the thing four fucking times and note that the commenter doesn’t give a shit about my rules.
Not one to celebrate, today is the 1503 anniversary of the so called “Marriage of the Thistle and the Rose” or as I prefer to think of it; The Beginning of the End..
This saw James IV (under diplomatic pressure) and Margaret Tudor married in what was supposed to herald a perpetual peace. Not only was Margaret fat but there was similarly fat chance of England holding to any pretence of perpetual peace being a rogue piratical entity that would ultimately become a pariah state on so called reformation.
Ultimately, this marriage would place their offspring somewhere in the English Royal line of succession while also tainted with bad Tudor blood.
Against the odds, succession to the English crown did happen a century later when auld dried oot Lizzie Tudor shuffled of the mortal coil childless to the benefit of James VI.
As predicted by English Margaret’s father Henry VII “the larger always swallows the smaller” Scotlands fate was sealed as James VI and his offspring became more English than the English. Little surprise really that after a less than golden age for Scots the political Union took place just over a century later after relentless shenanigans and pressure applied to the Scots.
More of a warning from history about getting into Unions than anything to celebrate.
I’m 100% certain that a Middle Ages fat quine would be regarded as super model material today. She was probably lucky not to have been burnt as a witch. How else could she have avoided the tapeworms that kept just about everybody else thin?
Got to hand it to you, Auld Lochnagar, you’re not one to get bothered about what happened in 1707, when you can go a full 2 centuries earlier.
Jamie VI… A man of dubious morals and questionable intelligence.
Dr Johnson probably had him mind when proclaiming “The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to England!”
James pissed off to England less than a fortnight after Elizabeth’s death saying he’d return every 3 years.
He came home once, in 1617, only to return to London where his boast was that he ruled Scotland with a pen.
George Buchanan should’ve slapped him harder!
“a warning from history about getting into Unions”
Annexation inevitably resulted in the territorial alienation of Scots and Scotland, the essential remedy for which is reclaiming oor fractured sovereignty.
Which implies that mair ‘devolution’ in whitiver form simply means territorial alienation of Scots will continue:
link to youtube.com
Mair mince.
You’re determined to never focus on anything practically useful, Alf.
I bet if you spent an afternoon on any Scottish High Street and asked 100 Sovereign Scots what “territorial alienation” is they’d laugh in your face.
Seems like Jason Arday isn’t the only academic trying to bamboozle the gullible!
“I bet if you spent an afternoon on any Scottish High Street and asked 100 Sovereign Scots what “territorial alienation” is they’d laugh in your face.”
Yer deid richt, Hatey, maist Scots fowk dinna ken thay’re colonized.
That’s accause ‘colonization is obscured by assimilation’ (Memmi), an the naitional pairty ‘has never undertaken a reasoned study of colonial society’ (Fanon). Which means ‘the people’s understanding (of their oppression) remains rudimentary’.
Sae we hiv tae spell it oot for yersel, an ither fowk tae.
“Sae we hiv tae spell it oot”
In yer ain time, Alf.
Spell oot fit “territorial alienation” is wi oot ganging a’ Jason Arday oan us.
Asking fir 100 Sovereign Scots who ye likly dinna want tae hae tae meet face tae face. Could be tae quick tae ca’ “blethers!”
Alf Baird argues that “territorial alienation” occurs when land is transferred from public control to external or private authority, resulting in a de facto loss of territorial sovereignty.
This alienation undermines the right of Scots to permanent sovereignty over their own natural resources, a principle referenced in UN General Assembly Resolution 1803.
In summary, Alf claims that:
I’m finding it difficult – impossible, actually – to come up with a counter-argument in the face of the overwhelming evidence supporting Alf’s argument.
Alf also frames reclaiming sovereignty as a form of decolonisation intended to restore Scotland’s democratic control over its land and resources – I can’t argue against that either.
Hatey
The likes of you and me simply do not understand the position we are in. It is only people with huge brains, like the learned professor, who can grasp the situation.
Alf sits at his desk, every day, trawling through the comments section following EVERY Wings article, trying to find any where he can shoehorn his mince in by way of a reply.
He is ably assisted by his big book of ‘Quotes from people nobody has heard of and nobody is interested in’. Also, close at hand, is his book of Scottish words that he and a few acolytes deem suitable. Local words, local spellings and pronunciation would not be allowed in his brave, new Independent Scotland. I use words every day that do not appear in your Scots dictionary Alf. Should they be banned?
What is Scots and Gaelic for washing machine, telephone, electron microscope, internet? Just a few words as an example Alf-there are lots more.
Your posts are tediously boring. Even worse than that, the likes of you and Che, Cheyne (whatever it is calling itself this week) stop sane people from commentating on Wings as they do not want to be associated with cranks and nutters.
@Northy
“Alf Baird argues that “territorial alienation” occurs when land is transferred from public control to external or private authority, resulting in a de facto loss of territorial sovereignty.
…
I’m finding it difficult – impossible, actually – to come up with a counter-argument in the face of the overwhelming evidence supporting Alf’s argument.”
Well, you haven’t tried very hard then.
Professor Baird’s rather childish argument paints a romanticized, almost feudal picture of land belonging to “the people” in a literal sense, ignoring that a completely publicly owned landmass implies a command economy,ergo Communism or some such, and we all know how that ends.
A nation doesn’t fear external capital; it leverages its sovereign power to regulate and tax that capital for the public good, providing jobs, infrastructure, public services like healthcare and investment as it does so. This is how the world actually works.
(As far as UN Resolution 1803 is concerned, it is my understanding that this specifically establishes the principle that nations have the right to regulate and tax foreign investors, and to nationalise assets with compensation where called for. It absolutely does not suggest that private ownership or foreign investment somehow violates a nation’s sovereignty – it actually does the complete opposite and protects the role of foreign capital. So then, more disingenuous, inaccurate, misapplied drivel).
“Rural Scotland is still overwhelmingly privately-owned accounting for 83% of rural Scotland. For the purposes of this study, private ownership excludes public, heritage and community landowners.”
link to andywightman.scot
“Legal entities (companies, trusts and partnerships own more that 65% of all privately-owned rural land with around 35% owned by individuals.”
“Well, you haven’t tried very hard then…”
Here we have a perfect specimen of Dominion-Pattern behaviour.
Dominion patterns collapse conceptually — they collapse into managerialism, technocratic reduction, and the weaponisation of “practicality” to erase structural truths.
This is mistaking procedure for structure, and management for meaning.
Sovereignty is not an economic model.
It is the ground beneath a people’s world.
When that ground is fractured, the people become world-less, regardless of how efficiently the fracture is administered.
This argument describes how systems preserve themselves.
It doesn’t describe how peoples remain whole and unique and intact as distinct peoples.
“It is only people with huge brains, like the learned professor, who can grasp the situation.”
We have seen this commenting pattern deployed before in this place – let’s take a closer look at it:
First, the comment expresses hostility toward Alf Baird by mocking his intelligence, his academic work, and his use of the Scots language.
Then, instead of engaging with any substantive point, the comment relies on ridicule, personal insult, and social signalling to reinforce in-group identity.
Finally, it frames Alf as an outsider whose presence supposedly deters “sane people” from participating, using derision as a tool of group cohesion rather than argument.
It’s not an argument.
It’s not a critique.
It’s not even a disagreement.
It’s a sort of status-performance ritual.
This comment is a performance of:
It’s not about Alf at all.
It’s about the commenter reassuring their group that they belong.
link to diffleypartnership.co.uk
“This approach provided robust data on public opinion, which is complemented by nuanced qualitative insights to help inform policy.
Consistent patterns emerged across the wide range of engagement, with calls for:
• an end to hidden land ownership, people want transparency about who owns what land
• large landowners to be held more accountable for the way their land is managed
• limits on how much land can be owned by one person or company, to prevent increased concentration of land ownership
• communities given real power over land decisions that affect them
• land reform policies that help deliver more local jobs and housing
• some form of land tax to fund these transformative changes
Participants expressed concerns that the “invisible power” of large landowners is the underlying cause of government inaction. They see this as causing a “vicious circle”, and noted the complexity of legal and financial frameworks and the cost of land as some of the key barriers to land reform.”
@Northy
“It is the ground beneath a people’s world. (etc.)”
I hate to be the one to break it to you, but don’t fund schools, hospitals and roads with “structural truths”. Dismissing basic economics and statecraft as mere “managerialism” just highlights a fundamental lack of knowledge as to how an independent nation actually has to function.
Calling reality “technocratic reduction” doesn’t in any way change the fact that any country must have a viable, interconnected economy to survive and prosper, not “post colonial theory”, which butters no parsnips. Obviously.
What exactly is being objected to here? The private ownership of land in Scotland? I am not aware of any mass land sell-off planned by the U.K. or Scottish Governemnts unless I have missed something.
In the study you linked Sam, only 1% of people admitting to knowing “a lot” about land reform. That means 20 people out of a c.2,000 person sample.
Land usage and reform is a highly technical area intersecting law, agriculture, economics, environmental protection etc. It is an area where politicians need to make good policy, not just policy that might appeal to the instincts of the electorate. The average person will not be in a position to make effective judgements on the subject based on their own aptitude and experiences, just as with many other technical areas. So that study is virtually irrelevant to deciding what a good outcome would be.
“I hate to be the one to break it to you…”
You’re describing the mechanics of a system.
I’m describing the ground beneath a people’s world.
These are not the same.
Economics explains how a nation functions.
Sovereignty explains why a people exists.
When you reduce a people’s world to budget lines you reduce their identity to a set of accounts.
@Northy
Ah, so just yet more of the same: a bare, base appeal to emotion.
Your response as to how an independent nation will actually function, whether in terms of funding, management, laws (national and international) and/or fundamental execution etc. is to talk of “identity” and “existence”, in so doing creating (another) false dichotomy.
A nation’s (and an individual’s) identity doesn’t exist in some standalone, romanticised vacuum, somehow exempted from economic, political, constitutional, corporate ownership and legal realities. A “people’s world” collapses pretty instantaneously without the means to fund society – hospitals, schools, infrastructure, government and defence. Further, this identity is inextricably linked to economic mechanics; a prosperous nation has a very different identity as compared to one with the kind of lawless, structureless “banana republic” basket case command economy you appear to be advocating.
Also, sovereignty is a tool – not capital. It (rightly) gives citizens the right to make their own choices (again, in stark contrast to the command economy model you appear to admire), but it does not exempt them from consequences arising from said choices, and nor does it somehow pay for public services. I mean, all very boring I’m sure, but this stuff matters.
“Land usage and reform is a highly technical area…”
Technical domains explain how land is managed.
They don’t explain what land means to a people.
When you treat a people’s land as a specialist subject, you mistake expertise for sovereignty.
A people doesn’t need technical training to recognise when their world is being taken from beneath them.
“mocking … use of the Scots language”
Ah, c’moan noo, Northy.
Why would anybody need to mock the users of the Scots language here, when its most enthusiastic supporters, attempting to build a critique of the “mockers”, post entirely in the King’s English?
What’s the Scots for “Speak as we say, not as we do”?
But thanks for clearing up Professor Baird’s “territorial alienation” secret.
To return to my 100 ordinary Sovereign Scots for a moment, it’s best explained to them as envy and hatred of those with bigger houses and gardens.
Because, of course, what it always boils down to throughout history is that after the revolution, the country estates and the dachas magically end up in the private hands of the new elite.
Whilst the plebs remain firmly in their place, looking over the walls for a glimpse of the new aristocracy.
“A people doesn’t need technical training to recognise when their world is being taken from beneath them”
What you mean is; a people don’t need any technical training to engage with my conspiratorial rabble rowsing nonsense, in fact it helps if they don’t know what they are talking about.
I don’t see how “what land means to the people” is even a relevant principle here. How is that instructive for example, in ownership and development rights, land management, agriculture etc.
link to thelandmagazine.org.uk
“Interviews from back in 2021 with enthusiastic representatives of Savills and Knight Frank show what is going on:
We are perhaps on the cusp of [grouse shooting estates] being repurposed for more climate-efficient purposes.
Enthusiasm for buying wild upland land is high. One reason is that you can plant trees, but there’s also the peatland and the carbon. There’s a new demand for these types of assets, which underwrite the asset value, and which gives more confidence to owners that there is an asset value without the sport. There are new revenue streams.
We went to the market at £650,000 for 2,700 acres of moorland in the south-west. It’s in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and contains a Site of Special Scientific Interest. We had a huge amount of interest, both locally and from the green investment funds and multinational companies looking to offset their carbon footprint. It’s a whole new side of the market, especially with the Environmental Land Management scheme coming down the line, and carbon sequestration through tree planting and peat. Offers we have received are well above the guide price.5”
link to thelandmagazine.org.uk
“Much environmental work on such land is then paid for by the government, land rights campaigner Peter Peacock points out:
Wealthy institutions can afford to spend millions buying up bits of Scotland and are then expecting the taxpayer to pay for the planting of the trees they plant, all enhancing their existing wealth. … This is likely to see, once again, the Highlands being sold from under the feet of local people to external forces who can out-compete other interests for land, forcing up land prices, and undermine communities in their ability to take a lead in tacking the climate emergency while also promoting wider social and economic benefit under local democratic control.8
Wightman is concerned that this “gold rush” for land in Scotland will push land prices up and make it even more difficult for communities or other public interest owners such as the John Muir Trust to purchase land. The Langholm Initiative in southern Scotland had to raise millions of pounds to buy land from the Duke of Buccleuch who insisted on selling part of his large landholdings at market prices. The community managed to raise the money to purchase part of the land they wanted with the help of the John Muir Trust but it was very difficult. If land prices go up even more such community buy-out initiatives would be impossible.9″
link to thelandmagazine.org.uk
“Who Owns The Land Matters
The Scottish Land Commission has found through extensive research that having a system dominated by large land holdings has a negative impact on local communities as well as society as a whole. Large landowners have both economic and political power. Many have a direct line to key figures in government, some of whom will be in the House of Lords, and also have a number of lobbying bodies such as the Scottish Landowners Federation. Local government is also heavily influenced by large landowners in the area, seen as major sources of income and employment.
Perhaps most worrying however, was the fear of repercussions from “going against the landowner” expressed by some people. This fear was rooted firmly in the concentration of power in some communities and the perceived ability of landowners to inflict consequences such as eviction or blacklisting for employment/contracts on residents should they so wish.11″
“Local government is also heavily influenced by large landowners in the area, seen as major sources of income and employment”
That is it in a nutshell, the Scottish Estates provide significant amounts of high quality employment for local people, for which there is no replacement. If the estates are broken up and no longer used for highly lucrative sports, there is no alternative use for the land that will provide that income and no alternative for young people in those remote communities. Not only that, but the investment in tracks/bothys/bridges etc that we use to hike or bike into remote areas will also be lost, meaning those access routes deteriorate to the point of being difficult or impossible to use, as has happened elsewhere.
It’s just yet another Green Party proposal to take one of Scotland’s great economic strengths and trash it. Just like shutting down the North Sea, Grangemouth and Mosmorran. I wonder what’s next, the whisky industry to be nationalised and used as a cleaning agent for paint brushes?
“Highly lucrative sports”? Is that the old huge economic boost created by shooting line being floated per chance.
link to commonweal.scot
link to revive.scot
An interesting thread.
I await with interest sam linking to a study proving that immigrant ethnic minorities are greatly under-represented when it comes to owning land in Scotland.
Hopefully the study will tell us what must be done to correct that historically racist imbalance, and make restitution for generations of prejudice and unfairness.
After all, that’s where sam always goes with every other subject he posts about on here. Once you strip away all the layers of obfuscation and get down to the basics.
Whether it’s ostensibly about child poverty, educational outcomes, or health. It always boils down to the forced transfer of resources and wealth from the indigenous to the newcomers in the end.
Sam seems to be telling us “there are some land owners who aren’t 100% perfect” in 30,000 (cut and pasted) words.
Genius. Who knew eh?
Next up: “Water is Wet”, a 4-volume series.
Large estates in Scotland historically have not been good for the Scottish people on them.
According to Andy Wightman
“83% of rural Scotland is owned by private entities (individuals, companies, trusts etc.)
421 landowners own 50% of the privately-owned rural land compared to 440 in 2012 and 2588 landowners own 70% compared to 3161 in 2012.
Of the 42,8% of privately-owned rural land where such analysis has been conducted, 22.8% of privately-owned land has been owned by the same family for over 100 years,19.7% for between 50 and 100 years and 57.5% for less than 50 years.”
Anders Povlsen owns 1% of all Scotland and is Scotland’s second biggest landowner.. He pays no tax on his Scottish estate. Denmark taxes him on his Scottish holdings.
On another topic.
link to theferret.scot
“Offshore companies which own Scottish land are breaking the law by failing to reveal who they really represent. Authorities aren’t bothering to check…
..We found that around two-thirds (956) of the 1,447 overseas firms which own Scottish land and should appear on the publicly-available log are absent.
Their assets, typically owned via tax and secrecy havens, include castles, sporting estates and prime city centre real estate worth tens of millions of pounds.
Offending landowners have been linked to fraud and money laundering, while some firms who oversee landowning entities previously failed to prevent serious financial crime risks.”
“According to Andy Wightman”
Explains a lot.
“He pays no tax on his Scottish estate”
It’s always intriguing to consider the mindset of those who believe that ownership of anything must automatically qualify the owner for taxation.
I’ve never seen the connection myself. But that’s the POV that now causes many ordinary people to choose to own nothing. As saving, thrift, and working for things are penalised, and the spendthrift grifter believes he has a right to a cut of the hard working saver’s possessions – usually his house, an ever expanding army of grifters is attempting to live comfortably off an ever decreasing pool of grafters.
For any ordinary working Jock, ownership of any big ticket item such as a property or motor requires years of graft, skimping, planning and being soaked for taxes at every turn.
Then along comes some bleeding heart lefty and says “nice house and motor you have there – cough up for those who aren’t so ‘lucky'”.
With the ‘unlucky’ nearly always turning out to be somebody who arrived here this century, often illegally, or their numerous offspring.
For all the talk of soaking billionaires and making the rich “pay their fair share”, it’s always the easy targets of the working people that get soaked. Regardless of who is in power.
The Register of Persons Holding a Controlled Interest in Land (RCI) is a public register in Scotland that provides information about individuals or entities who control or influence the decisions of owners or tenants of land and property. It aims to improve transparency regarding property ownership and became operational on April 1, 2022.
Why would you fail to register a controlling interest in Scottish land?
This and much more from The Ferret site.
link to theferret.scot
“Large estates are among unregistered properties, making it unclear who makes decisions about a range of issues including conservation, sporting activities, forestry, energy projects and public access.
Parts, or all of Kinpurnie Castle in Angus, Calgary Castle in Mull, Farleyer Estate near Aberfeldy, Murdostoun Castle in North Lanarkshire, Auchinfroe House estate near Cardross and Edinburgh’s Dundas Estate are absent from the RCI. So are the Gualin, Struy, Pitlundie, Shurrery, Pitmain and Glenbanchor Highland estates…
…The Ferret found that Aberuchill Castle, an unregistered Perthshire estate, is owned by Liudmila Lisina via a British Virgin Islands firm. In 2022, it was reportedly held by her husband, Russian oligarch Vladimir Lisin.
The billionaire is sanctioned in Ukraine, Canada and Australia for allegedly providing steel to Krmlin weapons firms and bankrolling V Put in’ s party.
Overseas governments and banking giants are behind some offending firms. They include the Crown Prince of Dubai – a member of the UAE’s ruling royal family and owner of a firm behind Rynagoup Wood near Forres.
The State of Qatar enjoys unrecorded salmon fishing rights in rivers at Cluny Estate near Kingussie via a Jersey firm, while the governments of Singapore and Alberta, Canada are behind nearly £35m of unregistered Glasgow property via Luxembourg and Jersey entities.”
Andy Wightman has reported non compliance to the police and Crown Office neither of which has done anything about such illegality.
Some of this “analysis” borders on being absurd and is clearly written from the standpoint of another agenda.
– Nobody is proposing turning the centre of Edinburgh or prime farming land in borders into a sporting estate, we are talking mostly about very rural, remote, non-arable lands that will not be used for anything else.
– Employment in these kinds of sports is secure, well-paid and productive (gva of around £64k per worker, higher than the national average).
– most importantly, there is no other alternative employment for many people in these remote areas. So it’s either these estates, or depopulation, or the Government pays a lot of money to create unproductive non-jobs to allow people to live there.
– the estates also bring wealthy people who stay in high end hotels etc. which further provides well paid, secure employment.
– the estates DO pay tax, unless there is some provision I am unaware of that means estates are exempt from rates, employment taxes, VAT etc.
– As I said above, the estates also pay to maintain access for walkers and cyclists, in their absence, that won’t happen, as you see in places like Caithness, or in rural Norway/Sweden etc.
Compared to those benefits, I don’t see the list of petty grumbles above as even moving the scales.
james 6 is one of the biggest fannies ever to have come out of Scotland, and spineless too.
– he bends over for the people who killed his mum. Fsake.
– and he is a gayboy, really. Always on the lookout for nice boys. Mind, taking his willy might get you a dukedom.
– with any self respect he could have destroyed england; looted it senseless, set it at war with itself and then tipped the wink to the french and spanish to do a job on it that the
romans after carthage would have said “ooh that’s a bit harsh”; if you want a great tale of revenge read about olga of kiev, what a wummin. We could live in a world where “the english” were simply an archeological mystery, part myth, like the tuatha de danaan (we could contemplate them from our starships, 3 centuries more advanced).
– his trouble was he tried to be a “Good King” to the english, but they actually like a tyrant, like Henry 8 or his even more vicious daughter, the bastard Elizabeth who liked to
disembowel people.
– he got involved in their religion. Bad idea.
– he got obsessed with witchcraft; he pretty much ran out of Scotland since he was terrified they were going to kill him. Now, this is not as daft as it sounds because … witches were real; forget the supernatural nonsense, think more of secret societies, sex clubs and poisoners rings. The earl of bothwell ran a coven, for example.
He never really gets control of the place, everything keeps getting worse and it sets up a whole load of shite which culminates down the line in the 2nd civil war, invited coup, of the glorious revolution and ends up with us getting siamese twinned to these – bhe biggest wankers on earth, for the next 3 centuries. One consequence is the imperial rampage which followed.
James could have “sorted the shit” out if he had a pair (of balls); gays, once they are in charge, its a mess – at least the english had the good sense to treat Eddy 2 with proper courtesies.
“biggest wankers on earth”
“gays, once they are in charge, its a mess”
It’s a lot of fun to point out to Confused something that’s been eluding him for decades.
Simply what it says about Scotland and the Scots if, according to Confused, we’ve been defeated at every turn for 3 centuries and counting by wankers and shirt lifters!
Alf , ignore your troll ,it obviously spends its time dolling out facile insults and adds absolutely zero to any debate. I wonder why it spends so much time scrolling through Wings comments when it has so many other things it could be doing.
I comment on various issues. You obviously missed them! Good to see that you are defending the esteemed professor who is always reluctant to answer any questions asked of him for some reason.
No doubt you will be looking forward to the posts from Alfie boy later today, tomorrow and every day thereafter ALL saying the same thing. Some folk are easily pleased.
Alf…
Trying to tell your average Scot that their country has effectively been colonised under their noses is like trying to tell an alcoholic they’ve got a drink problem.
You’re pissing into the wind until the penny finally drops, and it’s only the alcoholic who can drop the aforementioned penny.
Not at all, Bob.
It’s completely irrelevant whether Scotland is or isn’t colonised.
What are relevant are the popular policies, plausible leadership, and practical strategies that are going to grow the solid, majority support that is needed for Indy.
All that Alf does is describe a prognosis for what ails Scotland.
You wouldn’t waste your time with a doctor who had no ideas for the course of treatment that would cure your illness.
So why waste your time on a would-be politician who has no practical ideas either?
Sitting there repeating to yourself “we’re colonised” and parroting the words of Fanon day after day does SFA to move Indy forwards.
That’s called psychiatry, you garrulous glabrous guffspout 🙂
Short and to the point, MH.
But couldn’t you have phrased it in Scots? For the True Sovereign Scots reading on here?
Nae neeps fir ye till ye try hairder.
Ach, OK, I apologise for the aliterative wordplay. Mind you, it wasn’t as gratuitous as the time when I referred to Miss Minceheid #2 as a “peremptory pulchritudinous polisquine”. I was glad that she didn’t take her asp home with her, you know? 🙂
Now you’re just boasting about the better class of rammie you enjoy in your hoose.
We’re traditionalists.
“Ach, shite!” delivered often enough with sufficient vehemence and volume always wins.
But I’m working on my delivery and confidence, and one day soon … victory shall be mine!
Well said, diabloandco.
Those 4 Yoon trolls are endless. Here all day, every day to divert, distract and divide.
As soon as one posts the others appear; like flies round shite.
What useful activities do you spend your day doing that you can be “diverted” and “distracted” from?
Isn’t that how to deal with a fatberg?
Divide it into smaller lumps that can then be individually flushed.
DELUSIONAL ANGLO BULLSHIT sometimes takes your breath away :
link to archive.ph
– england extends its “nuclear umbrella” to yoorp
The UK’s nuclear deterrent is worthless and useless and may not even work; the last 2 missile tests were failures, dumping themselves in the sea.
– also, it’s a “rental”; we do not have an independent nuke deterrent – we would only launch at US order
– the boats hulls have worn out by now and can likely be heard all over the atlantic; the boats are probably picked up by rushan attack subs just south of arran
– the french by contrast already have an independent system developed without america
also, its just … stupid … suppose you are in NATO, what do you gain from the UK’s 100 warheads? Because – the yanks have 7000 warheads and 10 carrier battle groups – we have 2 carriers, one was turned into a helo carrier since they couldn’t afford to put planes on it, and while the other one got planes, they did not get the right number, plus the turbines have problems (and they shat it and ran from the houthis)
So, the PM is offering the eurocrats literally “nothing in an empty bag of nothing” for single market access; but why would you need SMA since brexit has been so brillyunt?
Flip it around – suppose the nukes are totally ours, totally work and we are totally sincere about “extending the umbrella” … right, so
– one day Poland turns round and says “fire a trident at the rushans – boo hoo we’re so butthurt about them … ”
would you do it?
– really??!!
the poles/rushan/germans/baltics have a whole ocean of bad blood there going back to charlemagne, attila the hun, who did what to whom and when … why do you want to get involved in that?
Someone in the civil service thought this up – it is stupid on so many levels it takes the breath away; at least in the old days it was sneakily devious flashman level moustache twirlers, now what do we have? … arday-level diversity hires?
Anglos seem to be able to gaslight themselves and expect others to fall for it; another telegraph cracker was about how the UK will become an energy powerhouse -exporting- leccy to yoorp (based on nuke plants and SCOTS RENEWABLES, wind and hydro, plus every field in flatland made into a solar plant).
More telegraph shite – they have a torrent of this
link to telegraph.co.uk
– the city is a wealth sucking parasite, that is all; think of it like the facehugger in alien, if you try to remove it, even if you -touch- it a little bit, it threatens to strangle the host. Burnham is getting a warning
C
Loved the last part, quite a picture you painted!
Made me smile. 🙂
“Someone in the civil service thought this up”
Why not say what you mean? They’d have been telt by TA!
I’d be careful posting details about the UK’s nuclear deterrent on a site like this one. After all, if you randomly get something right (and statistically, enough blind stabs might eventually hit something) you’ll not be getting early release from wherever you’re flung.
So stick to the delusional lies, fantasies and wet dreams. It’s safer for you.
HMcH
Fash not so Hatey!
A bit of a civil servant sore point over-reaction from you there. 🙂
I don’t think anyone is pointing fingers or risking revealing the deep dark “in this life or the next” official secrets act oath-bound deep state secrets of the Scotchland Office Tea Trolley Division in Edinburgh so you should be alright “old Boy”..
Apparently, and all that..
Maybe poster here GP should illuminate matters for us all eh?
In the interest of “normal sane rational peoples” doubts – “ on a site like this” -an’ all that..
🙂
Off topic & apologies for that – it’s now been three weeks since David Hendry & Sean Clerkin handed in their dossier of evidence to Police Scotland… I wonder if they have had a response yet?
@ Knuckle_Heid, thanks for keeping tabs on the David Henry/Sean Clerkin action vis a vis the police. As ever, I am hoping for the best.
“No further comment” Tricky Nicky is on the interview circuit/ circus yet again and is getting more and more bleaty about how harsh everything and everyone is to her.
I suppose there’s some small chance she will just shut up and fade into the background?
No of course not.
A psychiatrist could have a field day analysing her..
A whole team of psychiatrists would have their hands full with that one.
No doubt in my mind – Sturgeon was corrupted by her own greed and ego. By the time she had drank from the posioned chalice, it was too late.
Look at her eyes and facial expressions. She was controlled. worse than that, she was willing to sell a country, betray friends and sell out completely to save herself, and promote her ego.
Greed was her downfall. Scotland pays the price!!
On the subject of land reform / land use, there’s been a lot of discussion about it on the MSM lately.
Although that has focused on the more obvious facets of the story – droughts, floods, wars, fires, etc.
Crop yields are down across the UK and Europe. Major exporters of foodstuffs are struggling, from the Baltic to the Middle East.
Land management techniques are being blamed for wildfires.
There’s a tsunami of food price inflation that will be hitting us all by Xmas. It’s already too late to do anything about this. To avoid it being even worse next year, radical reforms are needed in many areas of policy.
Such as stopping the influx of mouths to an island already unable to feed itself.
There may well be a forum on which rational, concerned, ordinary people could discuss these issues. Wings BTL is not that forum.
But, as always, some sane responses by the supporters of Indy could help build the wider Indy support they all claim to want. Even as they pointlessly point score about their own, personal, irrelevant shibboleths.
Oh do fuck of with your pish, Hatey Main.
There have been plenty attempts to discuss more Scottish self-sufficient existences btl over the years, it’s jist that cunts like you would always try to wreck any sensible conversation with your whataboutery.
Folk should try waking up from distorted influences on the internet, and consider and prioritise what they actually need to continue staying alive. (A wee nod to disco music there because some fun in life shouldn’t be totally banished).
So basically healthy food for sustenance, and energy to cook it, and keep warm in winter due to our geographical location would be a start. Then the ability to produce both those elements at a reasonable price based on the wage levels in our society is right up there as an important factor.
If any twat says access to and pissing about on the social mediae is more important than food and energy then they should be put on a list for further assessment to see if they have any worthy credentials that makes saving them worthwhile for wider humanity, or for them to jist be made into dogfood.
Fuck the datacentres hoovering up power that are just going to be filled with proportionally more useless crap like AI generated cat vids and whatever shit folk continue to post on Arsebook and the Twitter or equivalents; And more sinisterly all the data held from shit you get up to which should be private. What’s the point in owning a sporty car when the data logs you doing more than the speed limit. You’ve been a bad person so it’s dogfood time for you.
Instead of using considerable amounts of power to keep ridiculous amounts of pointless data, why not use the power to light and heat the soil so we can grow crops all year round.
Seagreen windfarms off the Angus coast regularly sit in curtailment mode overnight with close to 1GW of power not being produced, so generate it and bring it ashore to warm the soils in lit polytunnels in Angus farm fields.
Iceland can grow crops all year round even though it is dark and freezing at times, because they have the sensible intellect to understand they can generate the power required to do so from the volcanic activity in their area.
@Dan – we’ve discussed this before, I don’t think many Scots are up for living the basic subsistence life you’re suggesting.
On the last point, I don’t know if you’ve been to Iceland, but the food there is both very expensive, and also limited in both range and quality. Why would we force that on ourselves when we are blessed with the geography and infrastructure to bring in an excellent range of fresh foods from Southern Europe and North Africa at a much lower cost?
Where do I suggest basic subsistence living you utter plonker! I’m talking proper commercial level food production. Not grubbing about in the dirt like you are trying to infer.
The price of local sustainable food production is the price it will be, and I mention that being a factor and requiring to be an important aspect.
Of course to short-sighted idiots like yourself that always revert to the current cost, the whole point is that we choose to do things differently in our own economy and not be hostages to fortune and reliant on importing produce from far-flung lands which may be susceptible to significant price fluctuations due to things like war and climate change.
“Show me the money” folks like yourself are jist exploitative fuckers if you think importing foodstuffs grown from areas on the planet with borderline viable water reserves to a place with decent water reserves is good practice.
And especially so when that produce needs shipped using vast amounts of fossil fuels to power the vessels.
I’ve previously stated it is worth watching the programme (even with the chronic American accent commentary). H20 – The Molecule That Made Us, because it uses modern tech to map and show that the way food is grown relies on huge amounts of water in the place the stuff is grown, for a tiny amount to be shipped in the end product.
Plus the whole food production process is an industry that could generate jobs and income here in Scotland, rather than just giving that opportunity and benefit away to far-flung lands.
Also posted links to massive fish farming projects in Eygpt showing how they made the choice to work towards being more self-sufficient. Plus posted links to much better Salmon farming methods used in Faroe Islands unlike the cheap arse dodgy methods used here.
But no, other country can do this stuff to a higher standard, but not here, because greedy and lazy twats refuse to pay for and do the necessary graft here.
Case in point in the Carse of Gowrie at the moment. 2000 acres of prime farmland (next to the biggest river in the UK so ideal for irrigation) being considered to be turned into a huge solar farm, even though as mentioned, Seagreen about 30 miles away regularly sits in curtailment with 1GW not being generated.
Yes i’m interested in the “current cost” because that’s the cost that I and others have to pay, and I’m not buying the pie in the sky idea that all these highly energy and capital intensive, and therefore very inefficient, methods of food production are going to suddenly come right down in price either.
Ultimately what you are proposing here is making food more expensive, and reducing the availability, and for what purpose? To create poorly paid agricultural jobs which we then have to fill with migrant labor because not enough Scots want to do that type of work. What is the actual benefit you are promising for this pain?
It madness Dan, there’s a clue in the places you quote: the Faroes, Iceland, places that are nearly a week away from Spain etc. by truck. There’s absolutely no way the Icelandic or the Faroese would be doing indoor farming in their climates if they could get a truckload of cheap fruit and vegetables from Spain in 30 hours.
If there’s one area of expertise in which Dan is King, it’s the making of soup.
Only fair we also allow him to claim some knowledge on the growing of the basic ingredients.
The King Of The North In The South has announced (from his holiday) that it’s “not possible” to do anything about the early release from prison of the heinous murderers.
How quickly things change!
Only a few weeks from The Messiah coming to save us all to “Sorry, boys, but I lied. My hands are tied”.
“But naw, you’re still not getting a General Election”.
Of course, scum, racist Farage stirs it by pointing out there’s something like 11,000 foreign cants doing time in the UK. Maybe that’s 11,000 places that could be freed by deporting the cants? Or paying a place like El Salvador to put them up at the UK taxpayer’s expense?
I guess that’s “not possible” either.
I never realised that the Carse of Gowrie was right next to the river Severn Dan. Everyday is a schoolday on Wings. You learn so much here!
Chas there, showing what a pathetic twat he is in trying to get one over on somebody, and responding to the wrong comment in doing so. A fucking muppet if ever there was one.
Actual flow rates is what I was referring to when using the term biggest, being that that aspect is the important factor rather than length of river when talking abut potential volumes that could be extracted for irrigating farmland purposes.
“The River Tay in Scotland has the most flow (greatest mean discharge volume) of any river in the UK, averaging roughly 179 cubic meters per second.
The River Severn has an average flow rate of 107 cubic meters per second at Apperley in Gloucestershire, making it the most voluminous river flow in England and Wales.”
Which is the biggest number Chas, 179 or 107?
Waits for the next angle stating that the water can be brackish between Dundee and Perth due to tidal surge… So run pipe from a few miles upstream.
Fuck me, “terrorist” Gaddafi built huge tunnels to transfer water across Libya, but these small-minded yoon cunts insist everything is jist too difficult or expensive.
link to en.wikipedia.org
Dan
I agree we should be doing everything towards reaching zero reliance on importing agricultural production from elsewhere except where people want to choose fancies from abroad.
Food and energy self sufficiency sounds a very good place to aim to be IMO and would place a lot of other places in shame..
‘Case in point in the Carse of Gowrie at the moment. 2000 acres of prime farmland (next to the biggest river in the UK so ideal for irrigation)’
The above are your words Dan. Nothing about flow rates in your original comment. Who is the pathetic twat?
“terrorist” Gaddafi built huge tunnels
No shit, Sherlock!
Who knew terrorists could build tunnels, funded either by oil revenues or useful idiot’s humanitarian aid? Get the experts in and they’ll even put tunnels under your local primary school!
On the subject of irrigation. What steps are the planners for our Independence taking to monetise our vast reserves of fresh water to become supplier of choice to our captive, drought-stricken customers south of the border?
Surely there must be some studies and plans in the (ahem) pipeline?
Or is it the usual Little Scotlander response – let the Anglo cants drink pish?
We will inherit something like a 10% share of the UK’s eye-watering national debt. There’s 10% of the money the UK still owes for the EU divorce settlement. There’s the cost of defending all those highly vulnerable turbines away out in the ocean. Something even the UK can’t do right now, so Scotland is gonna have to pay somebody to do it – maybe Norway.
These are all practical revenue streams, positive and negative, that an Independent Scotland is gonna have to have a handle on on Day One.
So where are the plans, projections, costings and draft treaty proposals?
“….Who is the pathetic twat?”
Still you, Bubba.
Did anyone notice that the BBBC managed to televise the European athletics competition from Birmingham? Pity they couldn’t shake their wee money box for the Commonwealth Games.
BBC Alba showed it for about 5 hours every night – highlights from the day and also live events.
Woop de doo, I’m sure that got maximum viewing across the rest of the UK.
And it was very bitty , though I acknowledge they tried.
There is no common wealth. It’s in either London or The Cayman Islands.
Why promote the myth?
Aw, c’moan noo, diabloandco.
Wasn’t the CG ruined fir mony by those boys strutting aboot in kilts an tartan an that?
I mind weel the comments oan here.
If ye’re sic a fan, why didnae ye spik up at the time?
“New guidelines for broadcasters on using more respectful camera angles when covering live athletics events have been implemented for the first time at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) developed the guidelines following discussions with female athletes to avoid sexualising the sporting action with unnecessary camera angles.”
link to bbc.co.uk
———————————————————–
Incredible – the women run in tight bikini bottoms with a bare midriff and full make up. They are beautiful role models for youngsters.
AX
Don’t watch it myself but the argument could be made for such camera angles to see which female athletes are sprinting, boxing (or whatever) with todgers whalloping around..
Who knows in this day and age..
Worlds gone mad, it’s gonna implode long before any climate “apocalypse” IMO..
If everybody competes in a letter box, then what’s the problem?
Demographics tells us that’s what will happen eventually. So why not get ahead of the curve for once?
Smart investors should snap up all the advertising real estate available on a letter box (compared with traditional athletic garb) before the prices skyrocket.
You heard it here first, folks!
Anniversary today of the 1460 crowning of James III in Kelso Abbey.
Not regarded as the best monarch he however walked the tightrope of neighbouring English civil war in the so called Wars of the Roses, while continuing his fathers policy of liberating Scottish land still under English “Pale” armed occupation.
A patron of the arts and architecture he was undermined by the Red Douglas Earl (overly friendly with the English), the 5th “Bell the Cat” who hung the kings artisan advisors at Lauder bridge to undermine him, something of a shame as the imposing nature of Edinburgh castle owes a lot to them; the historic keep being over where St Margaret’s chapel stands, not where the impressive Crown Square now stands where he and his had it laboriously vaulted up to level creating the space recognised today.
He and his what?
HMcH
Those artisans hung At Lauder Bridge.
From Robin McAlpine’s latest:
“independence is our ‘product’ and the current available specifications of our product are rubbish, filled with vague promises and requests to just take our word for it…”
Hard to argue with any of that.
But then there’s this:
“It took only a few hours for five per cent of the Scottish public to change their minds on independence when they saw it as a credible solution to Brexit”
WTAF!
Self identifying expert believes a country can be Independent and ruled by Brussels at the same time, and applauds those Scots cursed with similar intellectual challenges.
Ah well. With Robin it’s always necessary to sift tons of dross to find the scarce flakes of gold.
Hero to Zero in 3 weeks:
link to theguardian.com
Got to hand it to the Guardian. It must have taken a little courage to write and publish what many of us are starting to think about The King Of The North In The South.
But not real courage. Not the kind of courage needed to speak truth when the penalty for doing so is imprisonment. Or worse.
In other news, over in Orcland, voting against The War has now been criminalised.
Ah Hatey, you raise a point.
Number 10 North. The relocation of Nr 10 function to Manchester. Its a strange old affair.
Announced by Prime Minister Burnham on the 24th July 2026 one has to wonder how with him only having been prime minister for a number of weeks officials were able to conclude a lease around May long before he was Prime Minister or even an MP.
Additionally signing a lease is only the end of a process. Indeed with security,and specification of what is required for the new cabinet office the decision has to go back further.
So does this mean that Burnham knew he was going to be the Prime Minister. A shoe in, an establishment dark hand placement. If Mandelson get the job as ambassador to the US when there was formal recommendation not to appoint him, the placement of a Prime minister could just as easily have been attached. Thats how it works in a faux democracy.
Just saying like.
Incredible. Hope everybody flocks to buy this worthless upwards-failing racist clown’s probably-ghostwritten toilet roll book, where he seems to exploit his in-laws’ experience in Gaza. Sure his alleged drug-dealing relative, conveniently exonerated of all drug dealing and murder charges, will get a big glowing chapter, as will the Scottish public, who will be thanked profusely for the huge bribe we paid to get hitherto-unknown-writer-ambitions Yusaf’s relatives out of Gaza. Can’t wait for this one! Guaranteed page turner!
link to waterstones.com
SCOTTISH voters will not accept there is an “‘off limits’ when it comes to democracy”, Prime Minister Andy Burnham has been told.
SNP depute leader Keith Brown issued the message to the Prime Minister after a new Scottish independence poll, conducted exclusively for The National, found that Scotland would vote to leave the Union if a second referendum were held tomorrow.
The survey of 1020 Scots, run from August 4-10 by Find Out Now, found 48% of Scots said they would vote Yes, while 45% would vote No. With the 7% of “don’t knows” removed, the poll suggested a second independence referendum would see Scotland vote for independence by 52% to 48%.”
link to archive.ph
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Ah – another “exclusive” poll of National indy supporters.
“Scotland would vote to leave the Union if a second referendum were held tomorrow”
Selfish basturt cants care nothing for people who might already have plans for tomorrow.
“The survey of 1020 Scots”
Just out of interest. For the purposes of the poll, what definition of “Scot” did they adopt?
If it’s the commonly accepted one on here of a “resident of Scotland who supports Indy” then Indy’s in a lot of trouble!
“definition of “Scot””
An interesting point, Hatey. We may say there are different forms of nationalist ideology at play, and identities, especially for a land and people lacking sovereignty and therefore subject to all sorts of imposed cultures and ‘values, including:
– Civic nationalism, which is woke, where anyone of any culture and identity as ‘a Scot’, be invited to stay and given a vote to block the liberation of indigenous Scots if they are minded;
– Imperial-nationalism – where indigenous Scots are forced to endure domination by another culture/values and identity, and where the psychological effects of this domination make them assimilate into another identity and reject their own liberation;
– Self-determination nationalism, where the indigenous people have the right to determine their own future without external interference by other peoples and cultures.
Folks might notice that only the third form of nationalism frees the Scots, whilst the others continue to oppress them.
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
I guess the imperial nationalist Scots aren’t “True Scots”, what with being brainwashed and all. If they might be concerned about being governed by a set of rank amateurs and woke eejits, and perhaps suspect that the past performance of stupidity, incompetence and criminality may indeed be a strong pointer to what Scotland could expect post-Indy, then that’s just them adopting the alien mindset of the coloniser.
As for the civic nationalist Scots, we must assume that even although they would have come to Scotland for a better life, more money, political freedom, lebensraum, etc. they’ll turn their backs on the prospects for even more of the same post-Indy just to spite us.
Sorry, Alf, not convinced.
A rising tide lifts all boats, as they say. All Indy has to do to persuade imperial and civic nationalists both is make a convincing, plausible and evidenced case.
It’s not even as if you have that many Scottish voters to convince. As Robin McA writes, growing Indy support from around 50% to 60% needs to convince only 10% of the electorate.
Regardless of what “kind” of Scot they are.
Batman had the Batmobile, the Pope has the Pope Mobile, JFK an open top saloon, the King a carriage and The Donald an elevating airport catering truck.
Ah, the classics..
I daresay even an airport catering truck is preferable to, say, a luxury campervan paid for with embezzled funds. 🙂
Well hold on there Bald Eagle!
True.
I uncharacteristically missed that one 🙂
“Bald Eagle” 😀
Love it. Hand me the Pledge and duster
Somebody would have had to count the pies and sandwiches, etc, before and after.
If it’s the same employee that is tasked with collection and storage of The Bowel Movements for secure destruction, I hope he washed his hands.
Or her hands. I see no reason to be sexist about that role.
HMcH
I suspect it was the Diet Coke supplies that got hardest hit.
He’s a fan apparently.
Gordon Brown had a black-windowed cavalcade of Range Rovers when he went to his ‘How To Save The Union’ meeting with The Prince of Wales in Holyrood House.
Captured by Channel 4 who were told to stop filming
OL
Probably to hide the fact he hadn’t fully thawed out, plus all the resuscitation equipment he requires when brought out of deep freeze storage..
FILTHY LUCRE…
link to archive.is
the spawn of a major war criminal keeping it in the family.
Generally speaking, TURABDIN, in our culture, we don’t expect the offspring of anybody to be held accountable for the sins of their father.
It’s an unwritten rule I personally favour very much indeed.
Not because my dear old dad was in any way a sinner.
But because it’s the best defence against the historical injustice grifters, the climate accounting chancers, the colonial reparations frauds, and all the rest of the thieves and scroungers who delight in attempting to get poor old Whitey on the hook for shit that happened generations ago.
Well spotted Turabdin. The Ruling Class.
security, war & collateral damage futures, a stock that never fails…certainly worked in Iraq.
But first you must destroy & kill then move in to pick up the «reconstruction» contracts.
GERS
when the people who robbed you, tell you how poor you are
– let’s talk about GDP per capita and compare ourselves to the EFTA nations
GDP figures are from the world bank IMF and not lying english bastards
so, officially, we get “subsidised” to the tune of MORE THAN 20B – now that’s a budget black hole …
– so, if Scotland went indy, it would make England richer … and yet no one seems to be in favour of it; it’s like they have this pathological altruism, stuffing our mouths, saying TAKE MY ENGLISH MONEY YOU INGRATE SCOTS even though you don’t deserve it … these people who robbed the entire world senseless, stealing everything not nailed down, then the nailed down, then they stole the nails … now they exist to GIVE US MONEY BECAUSE THEY LOVE US SO MUCH
link to archive.ph
sure, you can lie with numbers, and the ukgov has an incentive to lie.
Meanwhile, in another reality –
the fund profit is double our budget.
link to archive.ph
been a bit hot darn sarf of late … they are in drought; imagine. So – when are THEY GOING TO STEAL OUR WATER, EH?
– if they do this and YOU DO NOTHING ABOUT IT you have no right to exist as a nation. That’s the last straw.
Cut any water pipelines going south, and once you have done that, cut the oil/gas ones too, as well as the electrical interconnector. The only way you will get these historically most evil cunts on earth to leave is if you make them pay, for real, something like a genuine net cost of say 100B per annum; they can’t afford that, they are skint. Bleed it.
It has already been considered; and serious people, not bojo, but the engineering council have looked at it, favourably.
link to bbc.co.uk
I hope flatland burns, its inhabitants with it. We don’t want them and their islam up there – we want the freedom to walk dogs, eat bacon rolls, believe in the trinity and enjoy high IQs courtesy of not fucking your first cousin.
Quite smart, Confused.
I note you have no intention of cutting the trucking routes heading north. The ones shifting the bulk of the stuff we eat and drink, and most of the tat we buy. Also, since recently, all of the refined petroleum products we all need.
Are you sure about the cousin thingy? It’s just that somebody completely ignoring who owns the weapons and who orders their users must himself be struggling from IQ issues.
Spot the loony!
Aye, we can all see you.
Reflecting a far better understanding of our ever-worsening colonial condition, it finally looks like maist Scots have haed eneuch an decided we dinna need anither jubous referendum tae end oor unlawfu annexation an domination via thon mankit UK ‘union’ that niver wis:
“Scots give verdict on unilateral declaration of independence”
link to thenational.scot
Scots hiv tae tak thair human richt tae sel-determination an leeberation ony wey it comes based on international law, no the doun-hauder colonizer’s law, an suiner the better.
“ALMOST half of Scots would back the Scottish Government declaring independence without a referendum or Westminster’s permission, The National can reveal.
Research has found that, when don’t knows were excluded, 45% of voters said they would either strongly or somewhat support the Scottish Government “unilaterally declaring independence from the UK”, while 55% would oppose the move.”
——————————————
The National then goes on the fix the figures by trying to interpret what the “don’t knows” really mean!
Just as well no understanding of statistics is needed to design a ferry, eh, Alf?
Just as there is a pathology associated with colonialism, there is likewise a pathology associated with procurement of ferries and much else in a colonial society where ‘a mediocre meritocracy’ (Memmi) is the best we can expect:
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
Quite hard to understand how our “colonised mediocre meritocracy (Memmi)” managed to lead the world in practical engineering, such as ship building, and in theoretical sciences. Kelvin and Maxwell come immediately to mind.
Arroll built the Forth Bridge and it still hasn’t fallen down.
Must be a lot harder to explain all that, eh, Alf?
Face it. Memmi is just another fraud in the long line leading to Arday.
I will ask you yet again Alf, who forms an honest, competent Government if Independence was achieved any time soon. Some names would be helpful.
Will I get an answer this time? You can even respond in the cute wee Scottishy words you like.
….and I’ll ask you again, sunshine; do you mean competent government like the duds in the English parliament at Westminster?
Go on – tell us.
No response from the learned professor….again but Scotland’s greatest fisherman has. Of course, his prowess is due to him being a Master Baiter.
If Scotland wants Independence somebody, anybody has to give us an alternative. A plan would be helpful.Where is it? The onus is on Scotland not Westminster.
“who forms an honest, competent Government if Independence was achieved any time soon”
As Memmi wrote:
“..the destiny of the colonized does not concern him (i.e. the colonizer) and that what the colonized will do with their freedom concerns them only.”
I never said the onus was on the English parliament, chum.
But you’re just a charlatan, here to disrupt like the rest of your ‘flies round shite’ pals.
You are the shit in this analogy right?
Nah, it’s your four’s posts that are the shit…..
Isn’t it “wash ‘n brush up” time for you? Chop chop.
You are so funny James.