The Party’s Over
On a day like today, all an honest person can really do with the Scottish National Party is make like Pontius Pilate and wash their hands of it.
Because there ain’t no resurrection from this.
Whatever was left of the SNP gets well and truly crucified in today’s papers.
Business as usual, right? But the difference is that now the attacks aren’t coming from Unionist hacks. This time the calls are coming from inside the house.
It’s all a bit grim given that we’re just six months away from the second indyref.
The Mike Russell interview in yesterday’s Herald was as telling a piece as anything else. His admission that independence was out of sight was just about the only truth he was willing to face up to. He said his main focus was “how we can create a new Yes movement that allows for different visions but conducted in an atmosphere of mutual trust”, but then almost immediately went on to blame everyone else for the SNP’s woes and make it clear that there was no genuine prospect of them being prepared to work with anyone else but the grotesque, toxic Greens.
Russell even gamely tried to downplay the scale of the ongoing police investigation and referred to the missing £600,000 as a “conspiracy theory”.
Which perhaps isn’t surprising coming from someone who’s been stridently insisting for some considerable time that there WAS no missing £600,000 at all.
(Sadly, the Herald interview was so busy elegantly skewering Russell that it didn’t have time to ask what point of his 11-point plan for independence we were up to now.)
(We are, however, pretty sure that “SNP will hold legal indyref and dare Westminster to challenge it in court” isn’t how the plan panned out in practice.)
This site has for three years said that there was no route to independence while Nicola Sturgeon was leader of the party. That qualifier assumed that whenever she left, her replacement would be someone with an actual plan. Unfortunately, when the moment came the SNP membership completely fluffed it.
Rather than urgently assess where the party stands on its core purpose, the new leader they elected intends to commit to a legal challenge which is bitterly opposed by most of the Scottish population, will cost a fortune, deliver yet more disastrous headlines and which has absolutely no chance of success.
Nicola Sturgeon’s obsession with transgender ideology has been catastrophic not only for herself and the SNP, but is backfiring badly on trans people too, who look set to end up with fewer rights after the Scottish Government provoked the UK government into considering whether the Equality Act needs to be clarified in favour of protections for biological women.
The hyper-aggressive tactics deployed by the trans movement have caused a backlash generally, with several sporting bodies having now adopted much more stringent policies about allowing males to compete in female events, but one of the biggest catalysts turning public opinion against transactivism was the placing of male sex offenders into Scottish women’s prisons, which was so stratospherically unpopular that it forced Sturgeon to trash her government’s entire official “trans women are women” stance and break the SNP’s own “transphobia” policy.
Unfortunately her successor now looks set to go to war in defence of rapists, backed up by a highly-partisan and one-sided cabinet which made a mockery of his claims to be a new broom who would unite a divided party.
Unfortunately, as Humza Yousaf isn’t implicated in the criminal investigation into the SNP’s finances, we cannot imagine a scenario ahead of next year’s UK general election which would lead to him standing down. And given his determination to press ahead with hated policies like gender reform and the calamitous Deposit Return Scheme, it’s difficult to see how the SNP’s poll ratings – already down to 36%, only five ahead of Labour – won’t continue to slide in the intervening time.
It’s not like they weren’t warned. This site has been exposing the huge rifts in the party for years, and we weren’t alone. Many of its members had fought valiantly for years to try to return it to its true purpose, with the struggle for internal democracy repeatedly revealed by the likes of Wings, Yours For Scotland, Craig Murray and Robin McAlpine.
But the prophets of truth went without honour in their own land, and the leadership continued to crush any dissent mercilessly. The former champion of the cause was betrayed by his once-disciple, setting the template for the vilification and forcing out of anyone who tried to stand up for the party’s rules and constitution. More met the same fate in his wake, and eventually most of the good people simply gave up.
The treasurer and most of the finance committee walked away when they were denied their legal obligation to scrutinise the finances as the moneylender ruled the temple. Thousands of members quit and joined parties like the ISP and Alba, leaving only the blindly loyal behind, who rejected those who could have done what was needed and dutifully voted instead for a “continuity” candidate, apparently having not noticed that they were voting to continue a headlong charge towards a cliff edge.
The new leader of the faithful, having first paid some token lip service to his people, has pledged his true fealty to Rome and the Emperor.
There is now no stopping what’s coming. There’s little left to analyse. We’re all of us helpless spectators just waiting for the inevitable, dreading the work of cleaning up and rebuilding from scratch. The last chance of salvation was spurned by the mob.
The movement for Scottish independence, having worked miracles, finally faces a painful destiny, and the time of its second coming is unknown.
Aye let’s all go and vote for Alba and ISP instead, because Ukraine has shown us what a great idea throwing away our nuclear defence is
“Aye let’s all go and vote for Alba and ISP instead, because Ukraine has shown us what a great idea throwing away our nuclear defence is”
Just so we’re clear… you think Russia would invade an indy Scotland next?
We can trot out pacifist twaddle while we shelter under NATO’s nuclear umbrella, or we can play our part like grownups. If we do wreck GB’s nuclear defences, then yes we will see British communities and enclaves abroad suffer markedly, and indy Scotland will be a laughing stock in military alliances. But all good as long as Yes stalwarts get to re-live their campus glory days.
The history books will be deservingly harsh when describing Sturgeon’s legacy on the campaign for Scottish independence. She’s set the cause back at least 15 years, possibly 20+ years. I’m sure she’s been a worthy investment for her unionist matters.
Dooomed ah tell ye doooomed
.
As the Americans say…
“Go woke, go broke.”
Can we crowd fund two tickets to Panama City please?
Alba will only get a look in if it gets MSM attention, and lots of it. Even a shit ton of negative attention would do. But if MSM continues to do what it has done so far – ignore Alba’s existence….
And the SNP shit show will play right into this, drawing the gaze.
I don’t know what the solution is, but there won’t be one without seeing the problem.
How do the Elsie worshippers feel now? Do they have Easter egg on their face? They probably still think it’s all some Yoon/Britnat/Tory/MI5/MSM conspiracy, the wingnuts
And yet there are still those who’ll defend her to the hilt.
Since 2014 I’ve felt like I’ve been trapped inside a Shakespearean tragedy.
Yes, Sturgeon and her sycophantic supporters have done a great job in damaging the SNP and by implication the cause of Independence.
Ironic, given that as leader of the SNP she should have been working to advance the cause of Independence.
Stu, you’ve reported this for the last few years and backed your allegations up with evidence. Question that remains unanswered is, why did the Scottish Media ignore what has happening in front of their own eyes?
Heard today that the real membership figures are hovering just above 45000 which means ipso facto that more votes were counted than really exist . SNP is rotten to the core
So I have only one question Was Sturgeon and Murrell driven solely by greed or were they plants?
I fear it was just greed
Do you think Humza will hang on until the humiliating losses at the General Election?
I may have been wrong in an earlier post where I speculated the denouement that we are now witnessing was sparked by UK investigations into the Gupta deal.
It could well have been Interpol rather then the SFO because the latter would have been cautious and possibly influenced to go easy on the Queen of the Union and her husband.
Credit to WoS not so much for his journalistic skills but his stamina. I know that he was almost defeated by the stupidity of the Scottish electorate but he will have his day by shining sunlight on parts of Nicola Sturgeon that many of us would prefer not to see.
HIDEEEEEEEE HIIIIIIII CAMPERS! I’M FREEEEEEEloading…
Just seen this article which appeared an hour ago, came on here to post it and seen Stuart had beat me to it. Here it is for anyone wanting a read.
Police ‘seize high-end campervan in SNP finances probe’
link to archive.is
If it turns out that the Sturgeon/Murrell household has used £110k of money that was supposed to be used to help fight a referendum then I hope not only does Murrell serve time, but that the SNP are electorally destroyed in all elections until the entryists leg it realising the game is up.
As for the Greens, I’m ashamed to see a party I supported turn into an anti-science/working class/business activist group where they give more support to rapists in their ranks than they do people trying to make a living or indeed, the environment. These Greens are most definitely not eco-socialists and have exposed themselves for the arseholes they are.
I also cannot believe Yousaf is going to waste hundreds of thousands of taxpayer money fighting the S35 order just in order to look like he’s ‘doing something’ for TRAs and those SNP supporters who can’t see what’s actually happening. It’s a massive waste of time and money which any independence supporter should condemn, especially as the SNP never put any real effort into fighting for a Section 30.
But the SNP haven’t been about independence for half a decade at least.
Did you push that Daily Record Lorna Slater photo through an AI gilter for hilarity’s sake?
I mean, I know the truth, that’s a genuine photo. So much so I completely forgot about the contents of the rest of the article and had to try very hard to hold in my laughter.
This is a very good summary of events of SNP and its eventual endgame.
As for the rebuild, I do think Alba and ISP will be the way forwards.
The MSM are going to have to give them press time.
The BBC even interviewed Alec Salmond about Murrells arrest.
So when SNP disintegration happens finally all media will turn to ALBA and ISP for comment .
Sturgeon is a vile piece of excrement. She is not alone. All of them left in the inner cabal are rotten to the core. It’s taken them less than 10 years to turn the prospect of independence into smouldering bin fire.
They’ve attacked Scotland’s women and used the education system to indoctrinate our children and fill their head with dangerous woke garbage. I loathe them. I utterly loathe them. In my honest opinion they’ve done more harm to Scotland than Thatcher.
I hope they rot.
From Beebie today : ‘Sturgeon told assembled media: “Peter’s at home as you would expect it to be. Peter’s not able to say anything.’. Interesting choice of pronouns there Nicola!
Fugazi – by Murrellion.
Or maybe ‘She chameleon’
Get ma coat.
It’s not all bad. In parts.
Yes, the SNP is collapsing like burst balloon after a wild spree.
That’s the good bit.
The bad bit is that it will take a couple of years to get the wheels back on the cart. The cart needs to be repainted as apolitical and not the property of a single party.
What should be the case is that conservatives, labour supporters, socialists, communists and even greens may support independence and not have to take sides with a political party whose views are repugnant. This is our country and it does not belong to one political party and should not ever become a fiefdom of a self-perpetuating clique. (We have seen what that involves over the last few years.)
One thing all sides must surely agree on is that the government of an independent Scotland needs to be competent. That would be something, wouldn’t it?
Go Humza, your proposed legal action on the trans ‘rights’ issue will alienate even more of the country against you and this clown administration.
@Scott
I hope he does. Let him “be his own man” as he claimed he would be despite knowing he’d be taking his orders from his real gaffer on the benches behind.
I’d be against the rerun of the election. I wouldn’t wish the state of the Party on anyone else right now. Let those who backed Sturgeon and the “continuity” candidate suffer all that’s coming. They deserve all that’s coming and there’s a way to go yet. Others out here are suffering too of course and have been for quite some time. The clearout isn’t anything like over.
We should be careful not to discuss the retirement of Sir Iain Livingstone – it’s an ongoing expiry.
Time to take to the street and support the next AUOB march like never before, showing the politicians that independence is beyond party or parliament! It is about us – we, the people.
.
Heavier,
You are spot-on about the MSM ignoring Alba. It was, of course, deliberate. It was also stupid.
The MSM were stupid because Alba now have MSM supplied clear blue water between them and woke-captured STD infected NuSNP.
Yesterday, I had thought by some high calibre statesmanlike work by Alex Salmond, a raproachment might be possible between Alba and the SNP. Mainly so any decent lifelong SNP members who have tried to repair the malicious Sturgeonite bin-fire admin., from within would still have a home.
But after this orchestrated litany by the Main Stream Media to completely and relentlessly extinguish the NuSNP, it is totally clear this is just an opening salvo.
The three letters… SNP may as well stand for Sexual Nonces & Pickpocket party.
The SNP are finished. Dead. Expired. An ex-party.
But…
The MSM are dying too. The dead tree media no longer control the narrative.
Stuart Campbell has already demonstrated how powerful direct communication is. Whether via this website, or the Wee Blue Book.
Even the orange painted baboon, Donald Trump cut out the MSM press and went straight to the voters through social media.
A helpful contributed to Wings BTL put a link to the reinvigorated Alex Salmond yesterday*. Alex was every part the statesman. Not one snide word about Murrell or Sturgeon.
What jumped off the video of Alex was the Wee Alba Book.
The greatest First Minister we have ever had has been through the mill and traduced. Yet he is rebuilding the YES movement, Brock by brick, meeting by meeting, town hall by town hall.
It really IS within our grasp to reache every single household in Scotland and without bursting the bank.
Hell may have no fury like a woman scorned, but an innocent man framed for something he didn’t do and by a bunch of chancers now experiencing a visit from Old Bill themselves is likely to bring a lot of people back onboard to Alex Salmond.
Methinks that whether slowish of very quick, that Holyrood will soon have Alba MSPs in Holyrood. The least is Alba shall replace the toxic greens and imploded SNP.
Oh Stuart Campbell, when you came out of retirement, I bet not even you had an idea you were going to get this busy.
Time for a new broom to clean up Holyrood.
Whilst Nicola gets driving lessons for her old broom.
Karma.
P.S. Why is it that Alex Salmond almost always makes you feel good (where’s Sturgeon has rotten tomatoes being hurled at the to screen).
* Here is the legitimate future of Scotland on top form…
link to m.youtube.com
Car trouble……..
link to facebook.com
“Rev. Stuart Campbell says:
9 April, 2023 at 1:51 pm
“Aye let’s all go and vote for Alba and ISP instead, because Ukraine has shown us what a great idea throwing away our nuclear defence is”
Just so we’re clear… you think Russia would invade an indy Scotland next?”
I’d no idea Pete Wishart posted on here either!
I care not one jot what Murrell has done with the £600k given to him by SNP members. Murrell and Sturgeon have played the SNP grass roots like a fiddle (pardon the pun) and if they could not see that when most could than that’s their problem , what I’m concerned about is the selling off of Scotlands assets failing or not for financial kickbacks , “gifts” such as camper vans and buying half of Ben Nevis for fiver. follow the money to Ferguson marine and the fort William smelter. (Millions are unaccounted for) That’s were the story is here
I thought ‘The Good Wife’ was a highly enertaining if far-fetched US legal drama originally on Channel 4 now on Paramount.
Silly me, I didn’t realise it was actually a blueprint for the SNP manifesto
As her career comes to an ignominious end, I truly hope history remembers her as The Troon Tabard (wish i knew who coined that one as they deserve real credit for it) she is, not only the destroyer of women’s rights but also destroyer of the SNP. Though every cultist careerist and coward in the SNP that allowed it to happen also deserve credit.
There may well be, as Rev Stu writes, no scenario ahead of next year’s WM GE that will lead to Yousaf standing down.
But there aught to be the cast iron certainty of the leadership election being declared null and void, with a rerun of the campaign from scratch.
That has to happen before anything else.
Yousaf is a fraudulent leader of the SNP, a fraudulent FM, and no leader of Scotland, or of any Scot.
Truss lasted 44 days. Yousaf is now on Day 11. Scotland has a golden opportunity to show the world we can be number 1 at something – sacking lame ducks.
Let’s seize that opportunity.
She has a point.
The fact is the police can only seize assets when they have ‘probable cause’ to believe that the assets-are-linked-to-illegal-activity.
And again, the only way this is done is through a court order or by obtaining a warrant from a judge.
So she has a point about the SNP’s growing pains…
The police have
(a) ‘probable cause’ of illegal activity.
And the police must also have
(b) sufficient-evidence-to-go-to-court to acquire,
(c) a judge looking at the ‘probable cause’, looking at the sufficient evidence and on balance, issuing a warrant to seize the asset. And (d) is…
The SNP as a brand has been fatally wounded, there’s no bouncing back from the multitude of scandals that we’ve witnessed, and others that haven’t seen the light of day yet. Sturgeon/Murrell and their clique destroyed the SNP and more importantly its credibility and reputation.
No its now time to switch to the Alba party, yes it will take time but what options do we have, lets begin with voting for the Alba party if there’s a by-election in Margaret Ferrier’s Rutherglen constituency, then at the next GE remove the twenty-years long trougher Pete Wishart and Co, Wishart has been remarkably quite on these scandals.
Finally lets get Alba MSPs elected to Holyrood in 2026, making it a wee bit easier for the few half decent SNP MSPs to cross the floor to the Alba party.
The SNP are finished the brand is tarnished and the party’s now untrustworthy, no to mention there’s no plan for independence.
It’s long been obvious that the SNP were a barrier to independence and that continues to be the case. Indy needs a new leadership and it has to be broad. No more identity politics. No more centralisation either. The only hope I can see are local assemblies of multi-interest Indy supporters feeding into a Scotland Convention, not just on the constitution, but on all the issues that matter.
Sadly I think you are right Stu, When a party starts to hide its finances from members and even those on the NEC as well as auditors and the actual Treasurer then you know something is seriously wrong.
The money is gone ,but more importantly so has the trust of many like myself who donated.
Still people defend Sturgeon and her husband by trying to contrive outlandish excuses which bear no scrutiny. No doubt more will emerge in the fullness of time
Many are more devoted to the SNP than they are to creating a free nation.
We pick ourselves up and begin again. We may not see Indy in my lifespan but I still want it for my grandchildren.
Thank you Stu. You dish out hard remedies which are difficult to swallow, but set one on the road to recovery.
Is it just me or does anyone else see Nikla as Scotland’s version
of the Marcos’ in the Pillippines? I wonder if she has three thousand pairs of shoes like her Asian sister.
The thing is if we had had Scotlab in power instead, does anyone think they’d be less corrupt than this gruesome twosome? Problies
a bit unlikely.
All of this has been necessary, I’m afraid, at least since about 2016 when it became obvious that there was no intention in the SNP hierarchy to actually even attempt to bring in independence. To go even further, I’d say they never intended that independence would be a priority for any of them, once the referendum was over and Alex Salmond had stepped down out of their way – at least, that’s what they thought.
It became evident from early 2015 that the ‘woke’ element had already entered the party, by 2016 that they were well-established within the party structure, and the alliance with the Greens cemented its fate. So, we can safely say that, from late 2014/early 2015, any impetus towards independence had already left the party, to be replaced by ‘wokery’ and treading water, scooping large pension pots and, generally, making life for the ordinary Scots as hellish as possible.
That is why I am not too bothered about what is happening to the SNP. It deserves to die off because it has deliberately caused the mess we are in by allowing a vindictive and vile ideology to gain a foothold. The parallels with Ireland pre 1918 are stark. I do not believe that independence is 50 years off. That is what the likes of Michael Russell want us to believe, but they are nothing if not deliberately obscuring the reality. As happened in Ireland, it is very likely that events will start to happen very quickly, as the SNP collapses under the weight of its own hubris. Something will take its place because independence is far from being dead or even in a comma.
Bubbling beneath the surface is the real independence spirit, and, if this gender baloney goes ahead and wastes more time and more public money, the whole shebang is likely to explode, clearing the way for a new independence party or a hiatus that will give the movement a breathing space for a short time, but long enough for the next phase to begin. Michael Russell’s interview with Kevin McKenna was a masterclass in obfuscation and denial of reality, and, if we were ever in doubt, Russell’s complicity is laid bare no for all to see – except, of course, those ultra loyalists who are in denial or just too captured to see the light.
(d) precisely as Stu summerises. ‘there’s little left to analyse. We’re all of us helpless spectators just waiting for the inevitable, dreading the work of cleaning up and rebuilding from scratch. The last chance of salvation was spurned by the mob.
‘Thomas Box says:
9 April, 2023 at 1:31 pm
Heard today that the real membership figures are hovering just above 45000 which means ipso facto that more votes were counted than really exist . SNP is rotten to the core’
If this is correct, and more importantly, if sufficient evidence can be produced to give reasonable cause to suspect, this has happened, then we are talking about a criminal act of fraud to install a First Minister of a country.
If true, it goes beyond the rough and tumble of internal party politics, where a degree of dirty tricks could almost be considered part and parcel of the nature of the beast, and enters clearly into the realm of criminality.
One thing to selectively count the votes of a party as they select a leader, who will become FM. Its not right, and ‘technically’ it is probably fraud, but its sort of ‘in house’ and kind of expected.
But to create, out of thin air, 5000 member voters, to install your selection. That would be clearly, criminally, illegal.
You’d think another few weeks of this and a group of MSPs/MPs would finally muster the courage to just leave the party. Surely?
So a campervan worth about £110K is purchased in 2020/21. A few days after the police start enquiries in June 2021, the NEC meets and Mr Murrell agrees to lend the party £107K. Hmmmm.
Weanwhile, Andrew Rawnsley thinks that SNP down = Labour up. His column headlin:-
“As the SNP loses its iron grip on Scotland, Labour must seize this golden opportunity”.
Haven’t read it yet; thought I’d go for a walk first…
“Alba will only get a look in if it gets MSM attention”
Heaver.
Like what happened to Ash Regan (ignored by the MSM) the MSM will continue to snub Alba because its a threat to this rancid union, now that the SNP has committed hari-kari on itself, Alba and of course the ISP are the only REAL indy parties in town.
Alba should grow big enough, and then the Britnat MSM cannot ignore it, though they’ll try.
Vote Alba, Join Alba.
Powerful and depressing.
Sturgeons personal make up is to blame for all of it.
Her personality is broken.
She’s weak, vindictive, spiteful, self centred but with great speaking talent.
She could have taken Alex on board as an advisor.
He would have recognised the upcoming failure of the catastrophic financial deals made.
Yes Sturgeon fooled him but he’d have seen through frauds on the make.
She’s ruined Scotland financially, morally, intellectually and set back indy.
From the enlightenment to a bunch of woke thick as mince eejits.
The BRS is another fiasco in the making.
Because of her fragile ego, we have braindead cretins in power.
Had heard before about her iron grip on the NEC.
When people voted in decent members to check the finances, protect womens rights, they were blocked and shouted down, so they had to resign.
The possibly illegal gerrymandering of the list vote, got rid of more decent folk.
I’m so glad I resigned ages ago.
The SNP is dead, long live the independence movement.
Oh, so *now* they will talk to Alba! Also, I always wonder who the pretty young women are at the front of the trans rights march? They look like hired models to me, like some of the people in the pro-Brexit crowds.
@Terry Darvel,
Having watched the performance of the Russian army in Ukraine
I do not think they are likely to try and invade any European country for a while.
If Humza Yousaf was a leader which he’s not, he’d ask Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell to resign from the SNP but he hasn’t.
Humza Yousaf own position is in question when he’s continually praised Mike Russell who’s a W*nker and doesn’t seem to know anything and Nicola Sturgeon and her Husband.
The trouble Scotland is facing is entirely down to the SNP membership what a bunch of no useless tools apart from them that voted for Ash Regan, even if the election was to be re-run Kate Forbes would be worse for Scotland cause of Independence than what Humza is, all we can do is just sit and wait for it all to fall apart and hope people see the light and vote for Alaba.
Mike Russell should resign as president he doesn’t f*cking know anything.
Talking of the static for two years campervan.
Reminds me of Breaking Bad.
Oh dear
OT… there’s a great big pot of money put aside for the decommissioning of oil rigs… which used to be a condition of them being granted a drilling licence.
I’m saying ‘used to be’ because I researched this in 2014 for Indyref1. At that time, the pot was £5 billion.
From memory, I think the oil industry was lobbying hard to have this requirement removed…
And uncorroborated/unsubstantiated I heard that oor Nikla was first compromised in 2013 when she agreed with the Oil companies over this and agreed to be the one to bin it.
Interestingly, and perhaps quite legitimately, in some of the FOI released docs, from Scot Gov, the Guptas, Scottish Steel and Alu Smelt ops were looking to expand into the decommissioning of oil rigs.
Also of interest, in a passing way… international finance companies, such as, but not exclusively, DWS Infrastructure (bought over Stagecoach last year) very interested in Green energy, not just because of the energy outputs and sales, but because, a forecasted energy output can be used to obtain loans, really, really big loans. Perhaps even before the renewable infrastructure is in place to generate the energy for market.
Far too complicated for me.
Anyway, with regards the demise of the SNP, thank goodness some had the presence of mind to recognise a party that had sold out and the foresight to start a new party for Indy and select a leader with a proven track record of delivering.
Some were extremely vocal and beligerant about that. Do hope they take time to reflect.
Terry Darvel #1
Let me know when Ireland is due for invasion. I’ve some friends there who may be interested.
Cheers!
Let be honest Sturgeon came out of her front door not to defend but to say Me Me Me Me, this has been what her leadership has been about since day one, its all been about Me Me Me Me. She won’t even take any blem for all her failures and for god sake theirs plenty and say I’m sorry I’m to blame. She is a maggot and deserves to be junked out of the SNP and deselected as an MSP she bloody useless and as human being. If I never heard or seen from her again it be to soon.
I left the SNP when Sturgeon has that Westminster poster saying lets make Westminster work, I thought wasn’t the idea to get out of Westminster and here was the Pro-Indy leader promoting staying part of it.
Terry Darvel said
“Ukraine has shown us what a great idea throwing away our nuclear defence is”
Ukraine never had nukes, they had Soviet nukes located in their country, these nukes where under Moscow’s command, Moscow had the codes to opperate them the entire time, Kiev never had these codes. The Russian Federation became the successor state to the USSR and so the USSR’s missiles were returned to them, they after all had the experise and facilities to look after them, everyone agreed. The idea Ukraine “give up” ther nukes is a complete myth.
As for the analogy, Sturgeon has done for the cause of Scottish independence what Zelensky and Euromaidan have done for Ukraine’s future. Clearly it’s time for new options.
link to vanlifematters.co.uk
@ Terry Darvel: Most countries of the world don’t need or want nuclear weapons. Why on earth would Scotland, a relatively small country with a population of a little over five million, need them? What’s so special about Scotland that we need the ability to destroy life on this planet at a stroke?
So where to now ?
The #IStandWithNicola maws of Twitter and Facebook really think this bad press is unwarranted, suggesting it to be a Westminster funded psyop.
They really invested pieces of their own souls into this woman, didn’t they? And for what?
Thomas Box says:
9 April, 2023 at 1:31 pm
“Heard today that the real membership figures are hovering just above 45000 which means ipso facto that more votes were counted than really exist . SNP is rotten to the core”
If this is true then what we have witnessed is a coup d’etat.
TERRY DARVEL
Why should an iScotland care about British communities abroad? They would be foreigners. Scotland has been part of state with military alliances in the service of which it has been a handy supplier of cannon fodder.
As for Nato, without America’s paranoia over Russia, Iran, Syria, China,North Korea and its fear of political decline there would be no need for the organization.
Certainly an iScotland would gain no benefits from membership. An iScotland’s biggest threat might prove to be an aggressive, revanchiste England, bent on having its pound of flesh for the demise of the UK and loss of international prestige.
I was born in Iraq after the US «liberation». I and my family know about US/UK adventurism.
“Do you think Humza will hang on until the humiliating losses at the General Election?”
Useless got in and will hang on for as long as SNP MPs and MSPs let him cling on. It was MSPs and MPs who allowed this farce of leadership contest to continue after all, and it is SNP MPs and MSPs who are now indulging Yousaf into wasting even more of our taxpayers’ money into the GRR and that other return scheme crap.
It is unfair to ping all the blame on Sturgeon and Murrell for the present state the SNP finds itself in.
Yes, Sturgeon and Murrell might have been the ones who detonated the bombshell that started the controlled demoliltion of the SNP, but all those MSPs and MPs have had 8 effing years to push them out of the party controls as soon as the first signs of damage were evident, and there were many signs. The only thing they had to do was to rebel time and time again to teach the political fraud who’s boss. Only two MPs had the balls to do that. They are today in Alba.
If the signs of damage were evident to the average member or even the average voter, then that those signs were not obvious to the MSPs and MPs is not credible. Yet, MSPs and MPs chose to hold onto their paycheques and ignore the signs.
MSPs and MPs are now indulging Yousaf into wasting even more of our taxpayers’ cash in the GRR money pit. HOwever, I do not remember any of them making any serious move to press Sturgeon on to appeal to an international court the decision of the English court regarding the referendum.
The only credible conclusion from this is that the SNP MSPs and MPs did not want a referendum either and the farce of the supreme court was just a convenient way of flushing down the toilet their accountability for not delivering indyref by conveniently transferring that accountability to an unelected lord advocate and an English court operating under English convention and with a clear vested interest for the union to continue.
By sitting on their hands, SnP MSPs and MPs have been helping Sturgeon and now Yousaf to transform the SNP into another unionist party which is conveniently made unelectable in preparation for the next GE.
The biggest threat to the union is a functioning majority of serious anti-union MPs. The impeccable timing for this controlled demolition of the party to ensure total implosion at the next GE suggests SNP grandees might be in cahoots with other external forces with a vested interest in preserving the union.
If losing seats to stop a majority of anti-union MPs is not what the SNP has been making itself unelectable for since Sturgeon took over in 2014, what is.
May all SNP MPs and MSPs succeed in their quest to lose their seats.
James Jones,
Xaracen.
My apologies for having very little time to reply yesterday, so here goes.
If I had to choose one set of Act out of the many it would probably be “The Scottish reform Acts”
Which changed the international Treaty of union for Scotland from a treaty into a “Colony.” Of Westminster in particular.
It reduced and amalgamated County Burghs, elections, , Scots laws, Jurisdiction, it extended the right to vote ” to persons of Property and intelligence”
The Act and Governments intention was clear, for on the 23rd September 1831 Lord Advocate Jeffery told the House of Commons that he, ‘ Gloried in making the avowal that no Shred or rag, No Jot or tittle of the old System was to left,
What it does little to illuminate however, is the extent to which the reform legislation was framed and debated as a renegotiation of the relationship between England….Wales, Scotland and Ireland with the Empire.
In Scotland, this meant that the extensiveness of the reform tended to revolve around different interpretations of the Union of 1707, and therefore Scotlands subsequent history and development
This argues that the combination of the nature of reform as a renegotiation of the union.
Although there are many other laws of “Scots law” that were breached at a very early stage in the treaty of the union that Westminster parliament had promised would remain as Scots law.
One of the earliest was the Scots law of ” Treason” in 1708.
It could be argued that it may have been improved by the Westminster parliament alterations at that time,
However there was heated debates in Westminster, that it breached the treaty of the union, and there may be a up-rising in Scotland as a result.
The way around most of the breaches of the treaty was not to inform the Scots directly of the changes.
This is still the preferred method of Westminster parliament, as can be observed with the MacCrone report.
There were very few Scots sitting in on these Committees, they were mainly run by peers and lords of England.
Would have thought Norway would be easier and higher up the list of countries to invade over Scotland.
That said, maybe 15 quid a pint is enough of a deterrent to keep thirsty invaders at bay…
Thought for today: How exactly does a big f*** off motor home square with net zero and 20 minute neighbourhoods?
Thought for today: How exactly does a big f*** off motorhome square with net zero and 20 minute neighbourhoods?
“ Michael Laing @0356 pm said why on earth would Scotland require nuclear weapons? “ Possibly the obvious answer is that England requires them Michael , not Scotland as you say . . ( Scotland being the first line of defence on behalf of England ).
This is my 3rd age of politics, having moved from anti Tory, to pro indy, my vote is now anti SNP. I will vote for whoever will end their rule.
I have rejoined the ISP after seeing their sensible response to the S35. I’m not active in it any more since I’m trying to rebuild my health and fitness. But once done I may well get active again.
For a few hundred million quid, Norway could get Shetland and Orkney out of hock to Scotland.
Life for the Shetlanders and the Orcadians would be so much better than living under the yoke of the SNP, whom they detest, and get them out from under the yoke of the ghastly Leith Numptorium.
Would a putative SNP One Party State ever give independence to choose Separation to Shetland and/or to Orkney? Would they fuck!
Just so we’re clear, ANY MSP or MP attempting to defect to Alba should be told to get to fuck.
They had their chance and went along with the Murrels for their own enrichment/benefit.
A very small number of them boaked at the GRR but apart from that they weren’t any different to the troughers. They still didn’t leave the party so they made their beds. Lie in them.
That’s ALL of them. Cherry, Regan, Forbes, whoever. None of them can be trusted ever again.
The SNP is toxic and so is EVERY elected SNP representative.
Toward the tail end of his essay “How Bad Is This,” Robin McAlpine writes this… “My guess is that Kate Forbes will be SNP leader by Christmas and her challenge is enormous. (Can you see why they were so desperate to get the leadership election over by the Easter recess which was always likely to be when the police made their move?) I will return to Forbes’s challenge if things play out like they look like they’re going to.” I wonder why, any ideas Mr Campbell?
link to robinmcalpine.org
Heaver says:
9 April, 2023 at 1:27 pm
“Alba will only get a look in if it gets MSM attention, and lots of it. Even a shit ton of negative attention would do. But if MSM continues to do what it has done so far – ignore Alba’s existence….
And the SNP shit show will play right into this, drawing the gaze.
I don’t know what the solution is, but there won’t be one without seeing the problem.”
Obviously hasn’t noticed that Alex Salmond has been getting quite a bit of media attention over the last couple of weeks, that will only continue to increase as support for the party increases.
Vestas,
The sensible thing is to encourage them to set up their own parties. That at least will scare off the work-shy and those who are a little soft on that independence thing.
As an exiled Glaswegian I have mixed feelings about a separate Scotland. What a lost opportunity for a Scottish government to demonstrate that Scotland could do a great job of governing themselves. This is especially true during the past 15 years of incompetence in Westminster. Seeing how much better off they would be outside the UK the Scottish people would soon vote for independence. The SNP have not only scuppered their own party but also put the Scottish people off the whole idea of separation. Housaf is attending the Coronation, he knows where his future lies.
Let me play a wildcard here! The arrest of Murrell and the detonation of the corruption revelations surrounding the party could have happened at any time over the last 2/3 years following the exposures by Rev Stu, Robin McAlpine and Douglas Chapman and the other auditors and NEC members. But, despite Stuart writing to Scotland’s “leading” journos, silence, no action here.
Which begs the question, WHY NOW? Why now has this hit the headlines, Sky News etc. The denouement has occurred NOW which would indicate that the timing has been carefully chosen to detonate at precisely this point. But why have the sacrificial lambs been thrown to the wolves at this point in our independence campaign? Perhaps because we have a very important constitutional event on the immediate horizon?
The Coronation of King Charles III and his Queen, Camilla is imminent. We have a nonsense debate about whether the Stone of Destiny should be lent to the ceremony. But what is the ceremony. Which Crown is Charles inheriting? Is it the Crown of England, or, does it also incorporate the Crown of Scotland? Is the Crown of Scotland worthy of a separate ceremony?
Should he be crowned King of Scots in England or in Scotland. Are there differences in oaths of allegiance pertaining to each Crown? Are there Constitutional implications and consequences relating to this Coronation.
Meanwhile, I see no information made available in respect of this in constitutional or political press reports. The National is particularly poor. Perhaps Adam Tompkins can inform us. No exploratory articles or questions raised by either our political party leaders, MSPs or MPs. Humza needs to advise us of which Coronated Kingdom ceremony he will attend as First Minister and, perhaps, graciously extend a public invitation to King Charles to his coronation under the Crown of Scotland with it’s attendant sworn oath to uphold the Claim of Right of the People of Scotland.
Meanwhile, the Murrell/Sturgeon circus takes up our attention and headlines. Everything else goes under the radar!
Whilst this is all heartbreaking and throughly gut renching not to mention totally mortifying for us down here who have spent a fair bit of time trying to persuade our friends and neighbours the SNP were a good government, is this Police investigation really all about £600,000 pounds?
It’s peanuts compared to what the Tories have -spaffed up a wall- over recent years. Not to mention what they have given to their entitled friends and Lords for fraudulent PPE and Craig Murray alluded to something else going on. Is this a possibility? If it can be spoken about of course.
Terry Darvel,
Since nuking Madrid to save the plucky Brits on The Rock or levelling Buenos Aires to save the sheep farmers is part of your worldview then it’s probably for the best if we take these toys and put them on the top shelf – well out of reach of genocidal, little fingers.
“Thousands of members quit and joined parties like the ISP and Alba”.
I’m sorry, but that’s grossly over-simplifying.
Thousands of members quit and a tiny fraction joined parties like Alba – and only Alba (the rest are beyond irrelevent) is nearer the mark. Most will simply be lost to politics at least for now having received the granny of all scunnerings.
It was a mystery to me how scots could vote for the Murrells and their gender nonsense and pronoun pish.
It just didn’t square with what I know of the no nonsense Scottish psyche.
Thank goodness that normal service appears to have been restored and most have now recovered their senses.
It is as though people have been under a spell.
I’m truly saddened by it all tbh.
They were preaching to us in the movement about converting soft no voters to Yes by making a strong case for independence and their part in that was to demonstrate good governance and inspire confidence in the “indy reluctant” people of Scotland, that we could in fact run our own affairs. To that end they have failed and failed catastrophically.
I can’t help but think of all the people (including some on here) who have passed away now and never had the opportunity to see our country free. I’m starting to think that many more of us will end up the same way. Independence has never felt further away in the last decade than it does today.
I got over the betrayal some time ago with thanks due to Stu, the commenters BTL here and others within the movement who saw the writing on the wall and were not afraid to express that. Sometimes at significant personal cost and much abuse from the party faithful.
Can we rise up with Alba (and others)? Can we start again with the foundation we have now and build a bigger, stronger and ultimately better movement with proper political representation that can unite us all? Do we have that in us as Scots? Can we get past this significant setback and re-ignite the flame until it becomes and unstoppable fire that sees our country free of the rule of Westminster once and for all?
I want to remain optimistic. I want to continue to believe. I still have hope and I will continue to try to do my bit on our journey to independence. We might be wounded but, I do not believe for one minute that we are defeated. Far from it. We are a creative and tenacious bunch and we are as stubborn as they come. The British Establishment would do well to remember that. We are not finished yet.
I only hope I have enough years left in me to see a free and flourishing independent Scotland and I hope you all do too.
ROB
Setting the barrier so high few countries would manage to get over it.
Scots need to get real about the nature of the world. That level of perfection just does not exist.
The US and the UK are hardly role models of probity either.
Btw independence is NOT about being «better off».
A naive, rather prosaic reasoning. Some people are just not «worldly» enough.
Why do ALBA supporters assume that the destruction of the SNP(Thank God) will in any way lead to Independence by their Party being in a majority within the Scottish Parliament ?.
The people of Scotland are finally waking waking up to the corruption and incompetence at the very heart of the Independence movement.
If there is any doubt about this read the Headlines over the past 3 months.
There is a lack of real qualified talent within the Independence community as a whole ,leading to clearly stupid people being in charge of literally life changing decisions which,in turn lead to poor souls losing their lives,livelihoods and future opportunities.
Independence is finished and with any luck the Unionist parties will rally to give the people of our country the chance to live their lives unfettered by the myopic wasteful politics of Nationalism, in more prosperous and forward looking Scotland.
Let’s not forget that Regan and Forbes were in leading positions in the degenerate SNP. Just like “born again Starmer” thought the antisemitic old “anybody but the West” Corbyn, would make a good PM, so Regan and Forbes never resigned from the nasty party. (Having said that, it was Forbes who was the danger to the Union if only because everyone likes her and her social views align with not only most Scots but the English too). The task now since Labour will mop up the SNP vote is to make sure they win enough Scottish seats to prevent any possibility of a coalition type deal with the nasties.
Whatever way you look at it the SNP is finished, there will be some who will cling on until their last breath but there will be no coming back from this.
Do I think anyone will be held accountable for the criminal and dodgy deals done by Sturgeon and co, No.
That farce of a show by Police Scotland was nothing more than theatre.
No matter that no one will face any charges the damage has now been done to the reputation of the SNP just as it was with Alex Salmond.
We know he was set up and although found not guilty on all charges his reputation took a massive hit.
The opposite is true of the SNP, we know there are those within who are guilty but they will be protected by the establishment, no evidence of wrongdoing will be found, many will feel sorry that Nicola was put through this, saving her reputation will be priority, destroying the party is imperative.
The pressure to get to the truth of all the dirty dealings became too great for the hierarchy to ignore so I expect a deal was done, Sturgeon stands down and Humza becomes the chosen one to take the fall when unionists take power at the next election, even if he is replaced it’s still the end for the party.
The establishment know that destroying the SNP put’s independence back at least a decade.
They know it will take that long for Alba to garner enough support because they did such a good job of damaging the reputation of Salmond.
Come the next election I expect Labour, maybe through a coalition will take control, this will happen because many will move from the SNP, some to Labour, some to Tories and probably more to Alba, At least we’ll have Alba in Holyrood and hopefully within the next decade we might see Alba as the ruling party but by then support for independence will have dropped drastically.
Personally the only thing I see left to hope for is that the time will come when Alba takes control and at least we’ll get good governance,
It will take at least a decade to get there simply because so many were turned against Alex Salmond and as much as I admire the man hindsight makes me wonder if maybe Alex being at the helm was such a good idea after all.
As they say mud sticks so there are folk who’ll never vote Alba under any circumstances just as there are many who will never again vote SNP now.
So, I am a member of Alba and I will only vote Alba in any future elections but I do so believing that I am voting for a day when we will once again have a competent govt in Holyrood.
Until then we’ll be back under Westminster’s rule because if the past few years have shown us anything it’s that as a nation we are indeed too stupid.
The only thing left to say is Sturgeon did her job and did it well.
She fucked us in every way possible and once the circus dies down, Sturgeon and Murell walk away with a clean slate and the SNP implode we’ll hear from our colonial masters how the SNP demise came about because the most formidable FM we had stood down.
It’s enough to make you boak.
If this was reporting from Russia, our helpful and unprejudiced media would be describing the events of the past week as the actions of an authoritarian regime suppressing democratic opposition.
The good Rev seems to believe the British State is doing Scotland a favour by dismantling the only popular (and democratic) political Party – however much one agrees or disagrees it’s current “priorities”.
Of course, the only way to change the SNP’s internal leadership/governance is to be there, in it, not shouting from the outside inviting and slavering over it’s destruction.
I’m sorry, I simply don’t believe ALBA is going to become the poltical force Stu assumes – even if it does, it will face the exact same problem the SNP has arguably failed to control – the influx of so called “progressives” whose priorities are not contingent on or inspired by Scotland’s potential independence.
So long as the SNP seeks to position an independent Scotland IN Europe, it needs to at least replicate that groups social agenda.
All across Europe, GRR reforms are being introduced – perhaps better managed and publicly presented than here.
Instead of doing the Union (and British State’s) work of bringing down the SNP, to create an independence vacuum, Stu would do well to go back to his roots in exposing and dismantling the activities of the British State in it’s efforts to deny all in Scotland of any vehicle for independence.
There was a time for Alex Salmond in the story of Scotland’s progress to independence – it is not now and he is not a William Wallace offering his entrails to be splattered rather than surrender Scotland.
He is certainly a man a considerable ability, unfortunately that does not and perhaps never has included an ability to put his country before himself. To believe anything else is just a dream that will not go on.
Take a bow, Wings Over Scotland ..
link to heraldscotland.com
@Keviano,
Yes. You are indeed an idiot!!
@Otto 4:11
Paranoia over Russtiland, eh?
You’re a genius. They’re hell-bent on annexing a good chunk of the European alliance we are constantly told iScotland will have no choice but to join and your advice to the nations in the jaws of the aggressor is “chill, dudes, you’re seeing things that aren’t there”.
Incidentally, where’s that bloke who pops up every time I respond to a sophomoric post like yours to tell me to keep to the script? How come you get a free pass to post your drivel on the “forbidden subject”?
@ Vestas I have been saying the same thing for yonks ALL the troughers who have remained in the snp have SHOWN their true colours by remaining silent and complicit in the DELIBERATE DESTRUCTION of THEIR party , I personally don’t give a flying fuck about any political party ALL I care about is independence , and the way things are going the messianic atributes given to AS are just going to repeat our folly
AS is only a man , he is NOT invincible he makes mistakes like every other person and he made them in 2014 and he will make them again, HE agreed the current defeatist WM proposed franchise for the 2014 indy ref and has stated Categorically that the same franchise will be used in any further referendum, ergo just like sturgeon he is not listening , he INSISTS that any convention of the estates will comprise of politicos , business leaders whoever they are , and the usual assortment of middle class self serving troughers, an array of the WE KNOW BETTERS
IF AS were so clued up in our history and how to get our independence why didn’t HE assert the claim of right in all his years in WM, or when in government in Scotland challenge WM through the international courts
It is only through the emergence of SALVO that ANY of the political class have wakened up , YET they still insist it is a political convention which indicates they ONLY want to remain in CONTROL
What does Alba need to succeed?
Loadsa munny?
Or superiority in quality of bullshit?
I think they need both.
The fat portly one is neither halfway nor there.
The SNP is finished…
Not politically, but financially, which will ultimately lead to both.
There is absolutely no way that the party will be able to compete with the business backed Tories or trades union backed Labour in any future election campaign.
What modest business support the SNP enjoyed will not come near henceforth. Membership revenue is haemorrhaging at an alarming rate, and the short money derived from MPs is going to take a serious hit at the next UK GE if a Yoon Alliance forms.
I’d give Sturgeon’s rancid SNP 5 years tops.
Georges says on 9 April 2023 at 1:30 pm:
“Question that remains unanswered is, why did the Scottish Media ignore what was happening in front of their own eyes?”
Never interrupt your enemy when they’re making a mistake.
OR! Papers only print what the owners allow.
May very possibly be both. Not to mention the “Scottish” media is as corrupt and inept as Sturgeon & Murrell’s SNP.
@twathater
The thing about AS is he’s bulletproof. There’s nothing to be dug up on him. Never was, hence the alphabetties perjury/conspiracy. Brit state has had 40 years to compromise him and failed.
Its a decent starting point given the SNP is dead.
Disclaimer – I’ve been a member of Alba since day 1 – before AS was their leader BTW.
@ Keviano
The SNP needs to replicate the progressive policies to keep the youth vote
/
I disagree.
What the young want is what they have always wanted.
They want to do their own thing.
They don’t want to be constricted by a system which tells them how to behave.
This Gender reform agenda is just as proscriptive as the Calvinism of the old conservatives.
Tommy Smith (2022): Embodying the Light: Transition:
(A Dedication to John Coltrane: Spartacus Records):
link to tinyurl.com
twathater says :@ 6.21
You have hit the nail on the head there. Politicians only ever want power. I still have the video where Mr. Salmond states he HE will have none of this natavist stuff. Who the fk does he think he is. So you Scots can go and take a flying fk, its the English way or no way.
Alba want a referendum as you say with the same franchise as 2014, the suicide option. The convention Mr Salmond speaks of is a distortion and an untruthful message to the Scottish people. And the convention he has in mind in my opinion will consist of the worst people possible, the good and the great. What have they ever done for Scotlands indigenous people, throughout centuries they have sold us down the swanny.
I have one question
Was it just greed OR was it that they were both working for the British state
My fear is that it was just greed! How could you betray Scotland for money? Nicola and Peter had better leave Scotland forever!
Who is Terry Darvel and why is he so obssessed with NATO and nukes? Is he Stewart McDonald or Alyn Smith in disguise? They should all go and join the New Labour tribute act led by Sir Cardboard; an idea free shadow of its former self.
Terry Darvel says:……
Please nothing else. Sorry but painful.
Alba should start to thrive as the SNP members realise what is ahead.
I do not think this mess will influence people that believe in indy.
The difficulty I see is it will be in Westminster interest to keep the SNP alive to split the vote.
Any guesses on the next piece of shit to hit the fan in the coming week
Let’s face it. We knew independence was dead under the Murrells corrupt leadership. We all knew that 5 years ago. The media and the members are just catching up, well some of them.
So what is happening was predictable, depressing,but absolutely necessary.
The SNP is over. The party is dead. We moved on 5 years ago. What remains of the faithful is jumping ship. They aren’t going to go to unionist parties. That’s just fantasy.
So we need a new national party. That can either be Alba or a combined independence party. Either way Alex Salmond will need to be a big part of it.
There are some good MPs, not so many good MSPS. But people like Cherry and McNeil will be needed for our new party.
The SNP must be left to die. The brand is toxic now. Nothing can change that. Even a complete clear out won’t fumigate the stench of rotten corpses. If they were in hospital it would say ‘ do not resuscitate. Forbes talking about a new election is nonsense, and pointless. Let Humza lead them over the cliff. Better a quick death than a life support for a zombie.
These are the early days of a better nation. We have the chance to do things differently. Independence will never die as long as we keep the flame alive.
England has wounded Scotland, but we are better than this. We will come back stronger. The Murrells can burn in hell.
@Mia
culpa…! may all the troughers lose their seats on the gravy train. It is time they understood, the party (SNP) is over… the future left the station, they remained in the waiting room while sturgeon took the other train, south!
It’s incredibly depressing that it was handed over to a grifter and then after that a careerist and then well :E, Nicola was quality in the beginning for sure, there can be no question that she was amazing for exposure and energy but well…. quality competence legitimacy etc.
Not naming names but it’s really dispiriting to see the aggression towards Alex Salmond upthread.
As if he hasn’t had enough shite to deal with, FFS.
🙁
If ‘the franchise’ is still a problem (and I’m not happy with it, same as many others) then the only ‘democratic’ answer is to join Alba and kick up fuck about it. (And good luck with laying out the specifics.)
In the run-up to the referendum, was ‘trans rights’ an issue? I don’t believe it was, outside of academia. But it is an issue now. And Alba has made it plain where it stands. Tasmina Ahmed-Sheik confirmed, on Thursday night in Coatbridge, that Alba will ‘enshrine biological reality in the constitution’.
If we are at the stage, in political life generally, that the mere statement of biological fact is deemed important enough to use as a campaigning tool (cause let’s be honest – that’s what it has become) then discussion of ‘franchise’ should not be feared.
That debate may not find any definitive answers but the discussion – ipso facto – will highlight the many legitimate concerns about who can/should have a say in Scotland’s future.
Alex Salmond is big enough to share the stage with SALVO, so why should any of us fear telling him exactly what we think of the franchise? Just tell him, listen to his answer, and take it from there. It’s called ‘conversation’ and it’s the basis of any democratic party. From what we’ve heard about Sturgeon in the past few days/weeks it’s apparent that she, somewhere along the way, lost sight of that basic truth.
I don’t know what the answer is, but maybe we should stop idolisung individuals and parties. I’m guided by Country before Party and will vote accordingly
“We can trot out pacifist twaddle while we shelter under NATO’s nuclear umbrella, or we can play our part like grownups.’
You didn’t answer my question.
Congratulations NuSNP, your corruption has registered on a global scale. Bernhard at Moon of Alabama sees fit to include it in his weekly roundup of events.
She’d much rather be FM still, or installed in her cherished UN post, and she can’t be happy with the situation. But looking at the pictures from yesterday and her facial expressions it’s clear that she’s perversely enjoying being the centre of all this negative publicity. That’s how those addicted to the limelight are.
Beauvais says on 9 April 2023 at 9:18 pm:
“..But looking at the pictures from yesterday and her facial expressions it’s clear that she’s perversely enjoying being the centre of all this negative publicity.”
Couldn’t agree with you more. I took one look at that ‘Herald’ front page up there in Stuart’s article and it infuriated me and turned my stomach, in equal measure.
How the f@ck can any true indy supporter go around smiling at a time like this? was my first thought. I’ll spare you my preceding thoughts in case i end up with a visit from the plod.
Knowing what you’ve done to the indy movement and the image of independence yet you can still walk around financially secure with a huge grin on your puss? Beats the hell out of me. It’s way beyond any comprehension.
One can only reach the conclusion that she was either never truly interested in getting back our right to self-determination or she was turned somewhere along the lines. Either way, that grinning like a Cheshire Cat is just another stomach churning ‘up yous’ to the indy movement.
And note the flashy expensive-looking watch. A far cry from her days of jeans and a black pilot/bomber jacket. And she’s left Scotland stranded in Westminster’s cost-of-living nightmare. Utterly sickening!
link to heraldscotland.com
Well done Kevin!
Den 2:25pm
The £600+K wasn’t just SNP member’s donations. It was donations from across the wider independence supporting movement hence the real scandal/crime and why the issue won’t go away.
In 1979 the SNP were all but buried. Who in 2015 would have thoightbthey would be in this position again.
That’s the power of mi5!
I fear Alba won’t cut it, too much bad press at launch time
We need a fresh, new, all encompassing independence party
Replace Alba and ISP , possibly allow a couple of SNP folk in, maybe
Terry Darvel 1.09 .
I expect to find some clowns on here but not the clowns posting 1st
There’s no OUR in the nuclear defence system / its just parked in Scotland with the launch codes thousands of miles away Piss OFF .
Georges says on 9 April 2023 at 1:30 pm:
“Question that remains unanswered is, why did the Scottish Media ignore what was happening in front of their own eyes?”
Because it wasn’t anything to do with Rangers, duh!
We are better off now!
With the SNP in Government it was endless carrot chasing. We can at last start a real path to Independence now……10 years is better than NEVER under the TransCult Party.
Ragman Rolls are the collection of instruments by which the nobility and gentry of Scotland subscribed allegiance to King Edward I of England.
700 years later the `nobility and gentry of Scotland` are still happy with bending the knee to a foreign monarch.
Listening to the Prism show.
Sounds like Nicola overruled the party membership on a new Independent currency.
As she had all the power and final say.
She’s traumatised from the police investigation. I see she was hiding her wedding ring for the cameras. She’s throwing Murrell under a bus and thinking of herself.
I hope she’s had a horrible Easter.
On the plus side, I’m happy to be planning a wee wander around Glasgow on give-the-German-a-spiky-hat day.
I’m optimistic that it’ll be busy, but we’ll see…
Go Woke…go broke…and the SNP are broken beyond repair!
Poor me, poor me, poor me a drink. Nicola Sturgeon as ever thinking of herself.
She’s a loonball. I hope she’s locked up. She won’t be getting the UN Job. Thank goodness. She’d destroy Scotland on the international stage.
I hope she likes porridge. I want to see her going down. Suspended from the party and charged using the mechanism her cabal devised to get Alex Salmond.
Her behaviour has been a disaster. If only she could have been a better woman. If only. But she’s not got an honest bone in her body. Scotland’s suffered long enough with her in charge. 8 years of stagnation and malaise. Thank god we don’t need to suffer watching her dour face holding our country down. That’s all she’s done.
The ones I feel sorry for are the true Nationalists in thee SNP. A decade of inaction and sound bites, may the true Nationalists vote for anyone but the more of the same.
“What is a game?” Marx said. “It’s tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. It’s the possibility of infinite rebirth, infinite redemption. The idea that if you keep playing, you could win. No loss is permanent, because nothing is permanent, ever.”
? Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
The next step must be the right one,
The likes of sturgeon et al are not worthy
Of the people of Scotland…
What was the yes movement at the 2014
Referendum?
Who set it up…led it…abandoned it after the
Result?
Reform it …the biggest lobby group in the uk
Lobby,..I keep hearing lobby group,
Politicians seem to be feart of lobby groups
Don’t we have the biggest lobby group in the uk
If there is a yes movement (gigantic lobby group) all money
Time resources effort ideas can be cantered there!
The politicians will have to prove themselves prior
To admittance!
The likes of Pete wishart seems to have been
Warning Westminster of this scenario for years
Now!
And how the fuck do u spell scenario…lol
It,s time for the people now…if u want to help…prove it!
How does a party with only one goal divert off plan so badly
If let them back in by Shuffling the pack and a name change you will end up with the same result thats a 100% bankable
Devolution was never a vehicle that could progress to independence and was geared up to restrict .
That aside the current crop of leaders and SNP are so lowgrade and so mired in blame culture that I cannot see how anybody would want to trust them with restarting a modern Scotland
The game would have to be upped and sensible plans in place to bring the average voter to follow anyone down the independence route under this lot Scotland would start off bust and end up sunk if the current crop had full powers of a nation to look after .
London thinks the Clyde Estuary/Scotland will act as a nuclear decoy. As usual they are deluding themselves. Sure Faslane would be a primary target for the Russians but there is nothing surer than that London would be completely wiped off the face of the map.
OT
Scottish curlers win world Curling Championships in Canada v Canada
Brill
“Unfortunately, as Humza Yousaf isn’t implicated in the criminal investigation into the SNP’s finances, we cannot imagine a scenario ahead of next year’s UK general election which would lead to him standing down.”
He is 100% implicated by association with the one under criminal investigation and was elected with the support of the corrupt criminals who betrayed the cause of independence.
It is not the job of of Alex Salmond,Jim Sillars,
Robin MacAlpin ,or even Rev Stuart Campbell
To lead Scotland to independence,it is your
Job to do that!
All they can do is point the way!
The’ve been pointing for some time now,
And a smarter electorate would already have the job done,
Time to get smarter!
A very long read but worth it
link to caltonjock.com
Stephen says:
9 April, 2023 at 1:31 pm
So I have only one question Was Sturgeon and Murrell driven solely by greed or were they plants?
=========
Neither
It was the much simpler, age-old story of “power corrupts “.
Big props for Wings from the Herald but if as Kevin writes Stu has been light years ahead in his reporting (we all know this to be true) why haven’t any print media people taken advantage of this ? Surely better to be a week late with a story rather than 2 or 3 years ?
The motorhome was not exactly a discreet purchase, especially when the 600 K was still an issue
London Scott says:
9 April, 2023 at 2:55 pm
“So a campervan worth about £110K is purchased in 2020/21. A few days after the police start enquiries in June 2021, the NEC meets and Mr Murrell agrees to lend the party £107K. Hmmmm.”
The bastards we are dealing with are far from idiots.
An 18 month long police investigation into the missing £600,000 suddenly found a £110,000 asset at the mother of the home of the chief suspect?
IMHO, the asset and loan are being deliberately linked to cover up far bigger crimes by all involved.
The whole charade is a cover up by all concerned, not an attempt to make the criminals pay for their crimes.
Doesn’t matter if you’re despondent about the SNP, doesn’t matter if you lack confidence in ALBA, doesn’t matter if you think Independence is holed below the waterline…
You owe it to yourself to get to Glasgow on 6th May and make the AUOB March for Independence a huge event, hopefully one of the biggest there’s ever been.
Independence is far, far, more important than the SNP, and the whole of Scotland needs reminded of it. I don’t know what the record number is for a March, but we should aim to top it.
Let all these critics relishing the demise of the SNP see the streets of Glasgow being awash with a sea of Saltires, and explain away why nobody saw King Charlie puttin’ his hat on, because everybody was struttin’ their stuff in Glasgow and making a racket wae pipes and drums and motorbikes.
“Aye Scottish Independence is off the menu and doomed after the SNP…. what’s that? There’s how many of them in Glasgow? But,… but…”
Spread the word. Dust off the flag in the cupboard, get the pipes out their box, get the Scottish drums and the Indian Dhol drums and aw the kilts and bunnets all sorted, and get the mood really buzzing for this one. Talk about it, at home, at work, wear a badge. If you’re a biker, get your steed to Glasgow. Turn this march into a street-fillin’ Festival for Independence.
Just remember the shite that’s going to broadcast on all channels on the 6th May, and have a wee thought whether you’d rather be stuck in the hoose squirming in your seat watching UK pomp and pageantry at it’s most grotesque, or out in the sunshine, (don’t worry, it’s booked, sunshine there will be), carrying a saltire through the streets of Glasgow with thousands, tens of thousands, of fellow Scottish Believers aw makin’ a din.
It’s a Saturday, you’ll no be at work, … and don’t forget it’s the Coronation Street Omnibus on the Cooncil TV all day. Dinnae go to the fitba.
link to eventbrite.co.uk
If we make it huge, it will be a welcome shot in the arm for all of us. Don’t wallow in your despondency. Make these charlatan f&#kers in the SNP fear the very sight of us after selling out Scotland for a fkg Winnebago.
Spread the word people. Even if you’re not really a marching type, break the habit of a lifetime. Even if you don’t have a saltire to wave, just come. (Though there’s plenty time to get one). Don’t get angry, get weavin’, Bring water for the dogs, they’ll be fine, just come, bring the family, and put the smile back on Scotland’s face.
Let the Big Day on the 6th of May belong to Scotland and be remembered as a big day in our fight for liberty, not Charlie and Camilla being presented with more gold to wear and Humza on his knees waving a wee Union Jack for wishing Blighty well.
And hey, can we think up some new and catchy slogans? What do we want? Independence! you know, it’s ok, but a bit tired and picket line strikey if you know what I mean, , and I genuinely giggled the first time I heard “Nae mair shite, use the Claim of Right”.
From now on, it looks like the SNP is now the wolf we stop feeding, and the “Scotland United” ALBA, SIP, SALVO, SSRG, YES, is the wolf pack we do.
steve davison says:
9 April, 2023 at 11:32 pm
“How does a party with only one goal divert off plan so badly”
For the simple reason: power corrupts.
In terms of betraying the cause of independence for preserving their own comfortable positions, the current SNP MPs and MSPs are the most corrupt ever.
The latest time for the likes of Cherry and Regan to quit the SNP was the day Yousaf was “elected” leader.
Any MP or MSP quitting the SNP now must be compared to a rat abandoning a sinking ship (no offence meant to real rats).
ALBA should not accept anyone of them if it doesn’t itself want to be corrupted.
Alex Salmond is a very rare politician who has never been corrupted by power.
He shot the ball to the goal as soon as the SNP, under his leadership, got the opportunity.
Despite what he has been put through, he never says anything that might harm the cause of independence.
I’ll be there…
So much talk…why make something so simple
Seem so complicated…
You want Scotland to be an independent country
With a government answerable to the people of Scotland!
Easy peasy lemon squeezy!
All you have to do is!…wait for it…!
Tadaaaa!
GET AFF THE FU***N bus!
it’s their bus…not your’s
Taking u where u don,not want to go!
Plenty of other’s have done it before u!
It’s all been said before,there’s no barriers
Just get off!
Breeks
I mentioned it when the AUOB Rally was announced that you must try and get yourself into Glasgow if you can on 6th May.
As a show of strength to the media that we are still here,,,but also as an aside,,,to show that we support Scottish independence, and we are not interested in the least in what might be happening on the same day at Westminster Abbey.
Charlie can shove his English crown right up his English ass.
We have our own priorities.
Scottish independence, always top of our agenda.
Let’s face it, Alex Salmond has had his run. Sadly, mud sticks, as it was meant to, and he has baggage. He comes off like somebody who just can’t let go of past glories. I am not insulting him, just saying how I see it. He has already established Alba. He needs to put aside his ego and let somebody new and untested step up and take control. Otherwise the party will never get anywhere. I think people would appreciate a total change of faces from the last decade or so of Scottish politics. To me, that is. What can I say? Shrug.
@ Breeks
Rousing post , B . Just one ( rhetorical ) question ….where will Alex Salmond be on May 6th ?
Not AUOB Glasgow . No , he like all the other * obedient servants * will be in attendance at the latest Great Windsor Costume Drama
” Oh , as member of the Privy Council he’s obliged to attend ”
No , he’s not ” obliged ” , or only so as a fully compliant participant in yet one more English Establishment anachronism . There’s nothing stopping him saying – in so many words – ” take yr Ancien Regime mince n ram it , ahm gon tae Glesga to address * my * people ” .
What kind of message is that sending ALBA members n potential members ? That it’s leader opts for HM ( proper ) Charlie over AOUB Scotland when , as your post passionately states , we should be demonstrating that even if ” The Party is over ” the Spirit 0f/For Independence is most assuredly NOT .
So as the SNP financial scandal gets worse and worse the answer is to head off to Glasgow on May 6th and fill the coffers of another bunch of shameless grifters, AUOB.
We’ve all seen the photos of the AUOB organisers getting blootered with the cash from the collections buckets, at least Mr and Mrs Murrell tried to be a bit more subtle about it. Who knows what the rest of the cash has been spent on.
As Einstien said, Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
link to archive.is
” Troubled SNP is the only game in town for Yes supporters.”
Sorry Ms Riddoch. In the nicest possible way, go and do one.
Stop pedalling so hard with your eyes closed.
Or is it’s you’re remembering all the nice things you’ve said about ALBA?
Breeks at 1242am,
Yes. Totally agree, we need to make the march on the 6th the biggest ever, in Scottish history. The SNP are finished, but independence marches on.
We can make it happen. Besides what else would folk be doing? sitting at home watching Humza useless on bended knee doon in England worshipping the English ‘king’. Mibbes Humza useless should just not bother coming back.
So there’s the choice, sit and watch some rich, tax-payer funded, English, self-entitled, unelected ingrate ponsing aboot in London, with flunkies and all, wearing a crown, or head to Glasgow to make Scotlands utter contempt for it all known. Some folk in Scotland used to like auld lizzie, but I haven’s met anybody that actually likes Charlie. He’s a bit of a dud – and unlike some in the media who appear to have developed a very selective amnesia, I can still remember how he treated his first wife.
Etticus says:
10 April, 2023 at 7:08 am
So as the SNP financial scandal gets worse and worse the answer is to head off to Glasgow on May 6th and fill the coffers of another bunch of shameless grifters, AUOB.
Does that mean you actually paid somebody an entrance fee to join the march Etticus? I think somebody saw you coming.
Or is it that you’ve never ever been to a march in your puff and don’t know what you’re talking about?
Oh…. And hearty congratulations to Scotland’s World Champion curlers.
“ Andrew Scott @1147 pm , Scotland win world curling championship “ . Yes and listened to local radio throughout the night from the Sky news centre, on the hour every hour no mention of this whatsoever, only English football & the US masters ). I am quite certain if England had won ANY world championship we would have it rammed down our throats non stop for at least a week . What really annoyed me when we finally got a genuine local ( Scottish) news person at 0700 am , still not a mention of our own country winning a sporting world championship . An absolute disgrace .
I despair.
Been reading lots of comments of SNP members/supporters on FB.
It really is a brainwashed cult.
This is going to be a long one methinks.
Breeks
AUOB is one giant grift, always has been, always will be. The collection buckets get passed round and the organisers pocket the cash. There’s a reason why the independence movement is full of grifters, let’s see if you can work it out.
Now you can deny that all you want but considering you were on her advocating voting SNP last election we all know how good your judgement is. You knew Sturgeon was a wrong un and you voted for her anyway. The Rev beat his head against a brick wall telling you what would happen and you ignored him and you still have the cheek to pontificate about how we are going to achieve independence.
I’ve also just heard Blackford getting a soft ball interview on BBC Radio Scotland. Nothing to see here. Everything is fine with the party. Humza is great. Cabinet full of talent. We’re going to push GRR because we are right. Police investigation not even mentioned… and on and on and on it goes. The SNP needs extinguished, parasites like Blackford have no respect for any of us.
And guess what Breeks, I bet next election you’ll be here campaigning for people to vote SNP again.
‘The Road Ahead Is Now Clear’
SNP Road Map..
Rule number 1. Blame Westminster for everything.
Rule number 2. Deter any vote to end the Union.
Rule number 3. Jam tomorrow.
Rule number 4. When we get rumbled, start again, at….
Rule number 1.
I hope the AUOB march organisers have a cardboard cut-out of Humza Yousaf ready, just in case he doesn’t turn up as expected.
Breeks@ 10 April 2023 12.42. am
Everyone on the AUOB march should also wear a crown signyfying our sovereingty over all, including Charlie boy.
My local Tesco is full on Coronation tat everywhere. T Shirts, bunting , even the security shields. We will have this crap shoved down our throats for months.
Worst of all. No doubt my daughter will be forced into a tea party at the school at some point. She knows the score, won’t touch a Union Jack, boos whe she sees one.
My question is. Who speaks for the republicans? We know that there are roughly 50% of us in Scotland.
No doubt there will be some misguided Rangers fans buying the bunting, and some unthinking sycophants. But most folk in Tesco were giving the bunting a very wide berth.
@Robert Louis 7:28
“unelected, self-entitled ingrate poncing aboot in London with flunkies and all”
Ach, it’s a holiday, leave Yousaf alone for just one day.
Return to the fight the morn. We have to shift him sooner than Truss at 44 days.
@wullie 8:21
“Everyone should wear a crown”
Maybes think that one through, eh, Wullie?
On STV player just now is a new drama “Six Four”*, about a lying, corrupt SNP politician who rises to the top but may be a MI5 sleeper agent on a mission to destroy the independence cause.
Just how do they come up with these plots…
*I’ve not watched the series yet but a few people who have say that’s part of the story.
As Privy Councillors Useless, Salmond and Sturgeon and Hosie will all be at the Coronation. Have no fear. They love it.
Proving that absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Can someone contact Stu via twitter re the post at 8.02 today which libels Alex Salmond. He may want to delete it asap.
Aye let’s all go and vote for Alba and ISP instead, because Ukraine has shown us what a great idea throwing away our nuclear defence is”
Just to be clear, Ukraine did not have nuclear weapons, Russia did .. Stationed in Ukraine. On the same topic, Scotland does not have nuclear weapons, England does. Do you really think sturgeon is cutting around with the codes in her purse? To be even more explicit, we are far more likely to be attacked by England than Russia
“I’m also entitled to a little bit of privacy”, snarled the woman who criminalised having opinions inside our own homes, and demanded to know how often wee children were having anal sex.
@Robert Hughes
One problem associated with Alex Salmond, apart from his proven inability to judge character, is his seeming lack of self-awareness. Of course he should be in Glasgow on May 6th, and few if any Alba people should seriously think otherwise!
Well done to Scotland’s men’s curlers.
That’ll give Steve Cram some difficulty when he commentates at the next Winter Olympics. He’ll have to refer to them as World Champions while maintaining his policy of never saying Scotland.
I hope to be there on the 6th and meet some old familiar faces – if my hip and knees hold up!
Flag is at hand!
Ethics 7.56am
What money do you pay to attend a Scottish independence Ralky?
I have attended many, and to date I have not been charged a penny, unless you wanted to voluteraly pay for something at one of the stalls.
The Wings stall even has its own merchandise that you can buy things from.
The whole indy “thing” has made a lot of people very rich, from politicians to journalists, to merchandise.
I don’t know how much AUOB have to pay Glasgow City Council, but that cost will need to be met, including stewarding the event.
And if you turn up and don’t want to spend a penny on the day, then there is no one going to force you to part with your hard earned cash.
So lighten up a wee bit, turn up with a flask and a sandwich, and you can go home with your wallet intact.
We really must try to start coming together, if not we are going to be stuck in this stinkin Union for ever more.
@ Breeks & Sarah
Have suggested this previously, but might it not be a good opportunity at the AUOB event to collect signatures towards the Salvo / Liberation.Scot initiatives.
That’s actually have a group of folk organised and actively working through the vast numbers of the crowd at the start and during the march rather than just a static table at a stand at the end of the march.
panda paws says:
10 April, 2023 at 8:49 am
Just how do they come up with these plots…
*I’ve not watched the series yet but a few people who have say that’s part of the story.
Thing is Panda Paws, when you realise Sturgeon’s betrayal of Scottish Independence is so profound that MI5 could scarcely have done a better job themselves, then a point is reached when it ceases to matter whether it actually is MI5, or just the shambling incompetence of a deluded wee narcissist.
When the truth seems more bizarre and intricate than the wildest conspiracy theory, we are left without a yardstick to calibrate the importance of what’s actually happening.
It’s not that we can suddenly ignore what’s gone wrong, but that the remedy is largely the same. You cut away the bad and rebuild from a sound base with good. We have a lot of rot and suspect material to cut away, but I’ve a suspicion very little of it will ever be missed.
The big irony is, and probably the one we shouldn’t broadcast too loudly, is that using “players” to destroy the SNP from within might have the very reverse effect than intended. If “new” and emerging characters added to the script cannot now be trusted, (Ash Regan, Kate Forbes etc), the Movement will instead begin to trust those it already knows, those who’ve already been targeted and attacked, but who’ve come through their ordeal by fire undiminished.
Alex Salmond will be fully rehabilitated, perhaps even back to a Leadership roll of the whole Movement, and the tide will also turn on those who’ve criticised Rev Stu. Neither buckled under extreme duress. How many others can say the same?
North chief
To be fair the main-sports news on BBC breakfast did report on this achievement
Snd the final was shown live on bbc sports iplayer last nite
Mouat and crew were awesome beating Canada in Ottawa
Brill
While i loathe sturgeon and her sect with every fibre of my being i am also disgusted with the gutless SNP MP/MSPs (apart from a very few) who have sat back and watched their party and country being flush down the pan, their priority being their gravy.
I will never again vote for the SNP.
I love how you don’t think you’re part of the problem Stuart, and your fawning acolytes on this site will never suggest that, just like the fawning acolytes of Sturgeon wouldn’t provide insight to her.
Nationalism under the SNP became a dictatorial, intolerant monster many years ago – I actually can’t recall a tipping point but it was a long time ago. Probably about the time I stopped visiting my relatives in Scotland when my English family was regularly subjected to mockery and casual discrimination by Scots (not my family it should be noted) that would be viewed as unacceptable towards people of colour from another country. The SNP, in its bigotry towards the English, deliberately excluded and smeared tartan Tories, and refused to accept the arguments or logical risks regarding independence – and just forged on with a Nationalist, anti-English project.
In allowing Nationalism of the worst kind, based on anti-English or anti-Tory bigotry, to develop and flower in the last 15 years, in order to achieve an objective of Independence for Scotland you have accompanied people I frankly regard as evil instead of calling them out. Like those in the SNP you prioritised Independence above all, above common decency, and once set on that route it was inevitable that the bigotry would become more and more extreme – it was just the English to begin with, then tartan Tories then women. It’s gone on to corrupt the good governance of Scotland in its health and education services – Independence is always the priority.
All the SNP had to do was govern the country competently, include everyone in its tent regardless of their nationality or social politics, and people could have been convinced – like Brexit – that sovereignty is well worth the possibilities of economic difficulties. But no, their tent was for true believers in their mould only, and like any cult or revolution, they started chucking people out that they thought they didn’t need or didnt look like them; and refused to face up to the logical arguments as we did with Brexit. Brexit was the model to follow – convince people about the merits of sovereignty over economics, and you win.
I see you’ve accidentally forgotten to include any examples of my doing these things, Ian.
Can anyone clear this up – is Alex Salmond attending the coronation or not?
We could also rename the Rally in Glasgow on the 6th May as the “Fuck you Charlie” Rally.
If that is what it’s going take to get you to turn up.
Terry Darvel says:
9 April, 2023 at 1:09 pm
Aye let’s all go and vote for Alba and ISP instead, because Ukraine has shown us what a great idea throwing away our nuclear defence
You are spot on. Ukraine has shown that you can stand up to a super power’ and call their bluff over nuclear weapons. You have to challenge and show that you will defend your principles/country!
Russia and the US have shown that nuclear weapons are an idle threat. War is still a meat grinder with last man standing the outcome. Complex weapons only kill more at a time. Russia has tried using its for e of numbers to obliterate opposition and towns, nothing sophisticated. Resistance can and will prevail.
Why ever vote for SNP again?
The next opportunity to actually vote for end to the Union, in all likelihood, will not even include SNP on that General Election ballot paper list.
You can take that to the central bank.
There’s an outside chance the name may be incorporated into a new alliance party, listed on the ballot paper, however, the initials SNP has become so toxic, even that is unlikely.
YES! Say goodbye to SNP!
Ian Stewart 10.10AM…WTF
There may be a short window to pressure Humza out, similar to Liz Truss. Leave him, the numpty cabinet and the greens in charge for the next 6 months and profound damage will be done to the country, never mind the party. Gender woo-hoo, net zero, highly protected marine area, and bottle charging zealots will be embedded and entrenched into all the renewed and resigned positions.
Any SNP members, primarily MPs and MSPs who care for the party, and possibly the movement, need to make their thoughts known ASAP.
@ian stewart.
You’re on the wrong site pal.
Get yourself onto the Daily Mail BLC.
Having said that the DM BLC are not as untruthful as yours.
Only whinging BritNats talk about anti English instead of pro Scots.
It’s the same propaganda that equates pro womens rights with anti trans.
Your paranoia can be seen from outer space.
Either that, or You’re a liar.
Happy Easter.
I’ve been toying with the idea of joining ALBA for a while now but if its true that Alex is going to be attending England’s pomp & pish I don’t think I could bring myself to do it.
I never imagined how quickly SNP would disintegrate.
Most certainly better for all concerned, even the SNP politicians, to bring the shutters down on the brand.
SNP’s financial crisis, is likely to hasten that end.
Tartanpigsy says:
9 April, 2023 at 10:11 pm
‘I fear Alba won’t cut it, too much bad press at launch time
We need a fresh, new, all encompassing independence party’
Trouble is any party that doesn’t get ‘too much bad press’ is not regarded by the msm (or MI5) as a threat to the union, either because it’s considered ineffectual or it’s known to be a replacement for nuSNP. The bad press should be regarded as a minimum qualification for attracting our support. Overcoming the effects of bad press by use of social media and word of mouth and however else we can is one of our necessary tasks.
Ian Smith 10.28
You make a very valid point.
You may also have inadvertently hit on the awaited new indy alliance party’s name.. ASAP
Independence.. As Soon As Party! 🙂
jockmcx, seconded! And it is more than long winded too!
Scottish World Curling Champions , hurray!
I know of a wee girl who just became the British Junior Swimming champion – don’t know which discipline but I do know she is Scottish!
seemingly something big hits the fan tomorrow ?
@IanStewart
The trouble with comments like yours is that they’re long on accusations but you’ve provided no details. I think many here would agree that there was a casual anti-English attitude in Scotland when we were growing up in the 50s, 60s,70s and maybe in the 80s but that disappeared quickly as I remember it from somewhere around the mid-80s onwards when civic Scotland began to push against Thatcherism and its destruction of Scottish industry. This anti-English attitude had nothing to do particularly with the SNP or nationalist politics…it was held by many, many ordinary Scots.
Your own casual dismissal of everything that’s happened in Scotland over the last twenty years shows to me that your views are coloured by ‘confirmation bias’. What is anti-Tory bigotry? Why not anti-Labour or -Libdem bigtory because these two parties are frequently disparaged and certainly as much as the Tories. If you are misunderstanding how Scottish party politics works, then it’s a deficiency in your understanding.
Again, how have Tories been excluded? There are so few Tory independence supporters that I’m not sure how such exclusion operates. Tories still run businesses, own huge estates, run councils with Labour…if you provide no details, then your little rant makes no sense.
As for inclusion, people have gone out of their way to be welcoming to English independence supporters, some of the stalwarts of the movement are English and it’s never an issue that they’re English. The term New Scots encompasses everybody who comes here if they want to adopt that term. Some hate the term but it’s rarely got anything outwardly bigoted about it.
You’ve taken a bit swing and missed entirely I’m afraid. What I suspect is the case is that you don’t understand a cultural phenomenon for which you are entirely without sympathy. You detest that it hasn’t gone away and you probably think Scotland has been ‘ruined’ by nationalism/independence. You won’t be able to comprehend how being tied to Westminster has led to Scotland’s underdevelopment and you probably see Scotland as typically ‘hills and glens’ and love our wide-open empty spaces.
I actually detest our empty spaces. Barely viable villages with no shops, towns with few amenities, and a handful of cities where economic activity is concentrated but which cannot follow an independent trajectory of development as our money is always heading to Westminster.
Some might find your diatribe plausible but it’s just detail-free anecdote. How do we even know anything on which to make a judgement when your so-called experience happens in Scotland or it’s connected to your relatives living in Scotland. If we had English relatives we would likely be very specific where they live whether by town or county or even region but we are all lumped together as Scotland and in Scotland, a country of 5.5 million people in a land that’s three times the size of Wales, twice the size of the Netherlands or Switzerland, thin bigotry is out of control. Maybe we could even say with wide-eyed fear that in Scotland we’re all DOOOMMEDDDD!!!!! Doomed especially when we ALL hate anything resembling a vegetable, when we wake up to a breakfast of Buckfast and fried Mars bars, and go on grievance marches to show the world how bigoted we are.
Is it possible that you have in fact become, perhaps without realising it, an anti-Scottish bigot? I see more evidence for that than any evidence to back up the content of your diatribe.
Some people in Scotland who are nationalist minded still support the monarchy. I know a few of them myself. So Alex Salmond is in a bad position here and really can’t win. He’s going to offend some folk whether he attends the coronation or not. Like all politicians he has to walk a tightrope sometimes, but he will never please everyone.
An interesting line for further investigation is the Gupta purchases of key Scottish assets with SNP connivance.
Some of the documents have been published but are heavily redacted.
One hopes that these Guptas are not related to the South African ones who caused such havoc there. Interestingly they operated there by gaining economic and political influence through kickbacks to Zuma.
Again, hopefully there are no parallels with Scotland…..
You’ve been a fellow traveller Stuart. Your heart is clearly in the right place (sorry if that sounds patronising but it’s sincerely meant), and you could be right about Independence being ultimately beneficial for Scotland. But I don’t need examples to show this – your whole strategy on this site has been about prioritising Independence above all else – and in pursuing that strategy so obsessively you’ve effectively contributed to the monomania, and that then leads to intolerance of the views of others.
I’ve just gone through all the comments and an awful lot of them dip into anti English racism; there are a few that are anti Royalist – because they’re English too I suppose. How can you get a tent big enough for Independence to win if you start excluding people? My argument is that when you start excluding people you exclude more and more, as the SNP has done.
And if you want my evidence of your fellow travelling – you supported Ash Regan in order to get Independence happening as your only objective – not good governance of the country; and I’d argue that sacrificing, or excluding, the rights, views and broader interests of others in the pursuit of this one single goal would always fatally undermine achieving that goal. I feel you needed to call time on the current drive for Independence and start again – bringing as many as you could along as a fundamental strategy which could lead to success. This could have been achieved if the SNP government had run the country competently in collaboration with the other parties – not as a mere sideline on the way to Independence. This obsession has resulted in very poor governance, and put off potential supporters of Independence.
But I believe you and I fundamentally differ here. I was eventually convinced by Brexit to sacrifice economic well-being for the long term benefits of sovereignty and supported Brexit with no regrets. It’s people like me you could change. It didn’t take long – UKIP took 20 years to convince enough of the electorate.
In passing, thanks for maintaining this forum and for your incredibly well researched articles. And your work on the trans stuff is superlative – I quote and link to your site extensively. I’m maybe being hyper critical of you here, but I am extremely disappointed to see such incompetence in Scotland’s governance.
It is quite amazing having followed Wings for some time how the rah rah Scots for St Nicola have suddenly endowed her with characteristics of a conspiracy devil with MI5, GCHQ, Westminster etc. I am English and have moved to Scotland as has my daughter. All we want is to be able to identify a future which has some measure of stability and economic reality. When Scottish Nationalists can make a credible case based upon facts and statistics which will not impoverish a significant percentage of the population I will be fully onboard. Until then, all the nonsense on here is so much pish and wind.
@PhilM
You’re right that I’ve had a big go. I don’t support Independence but I see the argument for its benefits – how could I not, as I supported the same arguments on sovereignty over economics for Brexit?
And it’s a fair point that I may have adopted anti Scottish sentiments myself – when I see the Nationalist racism (and in my view it’s blatant racism, check out some of the comments above alone referencing the English specifically – a huge proportion of these supposed ‘English’ weren’t born in England) it turns me against that group of people. I don’t want to be considered as part of a group that hates others because of their place of birth or political views. But if I’m going to be a fair minded person it’s correct that I need to ignore that as it isn’t the common view. But why is it not condemned more widely in Scotland by those supporting Nationalism?
My understanding is that there are a lot of tartan tories in the electorate – am I wrong?
O/T
since this topic is mentioning NATO, worth repeating
link to archive.is
@ Paul Davies: …”make a credible case based upon facts…which will not impoverish …the population..”
How can Scotland fail economically if it gets to keep and own ALL its income/resources? Which it will do with independence.
@Iain Stewart
So just how does the status (stasis) quo of the union get a big enough tent to accommodate those who have had enough of its shenanigans? Many countries have left the tent. And you ignore the stated objectives of London parties not to work with nationalists.
Just how do you equate brexit with good governance when the NHS and the tourism sector are chronically under-staffed?
There is a maxim to the effect that the hardest part of conversation is intelligent listening. If that is true, it is only true in part – it ignores intelligent reading as a pre-requisite.
@ Paul Davies
Scotland is a net exporter, England is a net importer. Please explain how Scotland can ever economically thrive under London Rule when the Kingdom of England has approximately 10 times the political representation of the Kingdom of Scotland, and the conflicting interests borne from the differing trading realities of the 2 constituent parts of the UK will always be biased in the KoE’s interests.
300 years of union has allowed the KoE’s population to grow from approximately 5 to 10 times that of the KoS’s with all the economic advantages gained by that population growth disparity.
No political will under London rule has addressed this trend which actually breaches the terms of the union as no constituent part of the UK should have an economic advantage over another.
Ian Stewart @ 10 April, 2023 at 11:12 am
The SNP under Sturgeon has done exactly what you have said by being more diverse and inclusive of views as much as it can to mirror that of Scottish society.
The problem for the SNP’s strategy, to be charitable, is that in doing it that it has diluted the argument for independence that they are not campaigning for independence so much and what they are campaigning isn’t much different from the status quo.
You simply can’t make an argument by trying to include and accommodate everyone’s views. All you are doing is appeasing everyone but please no one.
You win an argument by making a stronger and more credible one than what is being currently offered.
As to this anti-English racism accusation you have thrown is absolutely absurd, there is no such thing as an English race. It is simply a tactic to shut down conversation that contains any criticism, whether negative or positive, towards English people.
I try to be positive and diplomatic when it comes to discussing thing but some people say it as it is but doesn’t mean they are bigoted. If you think they are ‘anti-English racist’, then please provide an example and explain in detail why it is ‘anti-English racist’?
IAN STEWART
A timeworn argument, govern Scotland well and possibly in time the masses will see the virtues of independence including the Unionist parties which will contritely repent their folly: pure fantasy stuff.
There will be a substantial hard core who will want nothing to do with independence no matter how brilliant the governance. They will obtain succour from the British establishment which itself will fight tooth, nail and dirty tricks to prevent the end of the old order.
Independence and the political «liberation» psychology driving it must be the measure of all. The Sturgeon SNP signally failed in that endeavour. The hard core unionists will not go away but they should be impeded from constantly «queering the pitch» by a nationalist mindset that «structurally» neutralizes all opposition to sovereignty whether internal or external.
The SNP allowed the enemy just too much freedom and missed many opportunities to radically challenge the system, and given Scotland’s geo-strategic importance may possibly have been subverted by British state intelligence. The Nato issue is suggestive.
There are many types of democracy and the «smug» British variety is at the very heart of the problem as is the entire racist mythology of «Britishness».
“I am English and have moved to Scotland as has my daughter. All we want is to be able to identify a future which has some measure of stability and economic reality.”
It’s a shame you couldn’t get that in England.
We’re all of us helpless spectators just waiting for the inevitable,
Stuart, that accurately describes electorates in every Western ‘democracy’ today.
They don’t work for us.
They don’t even like us.
Small point. Alex Salmond is on the Accession Council. He is there to represent Scotlands interests under a new Monarch.
Yousaf is not.
… but generally speaking, the Scots don’t like the English. For evidence of this read the comments above.
@ Dan at 09.48: ” a good idea to collect Salvo/Liberation signatures along the 6th May march, not just a stall at the end?”
Excellent idea, Dan. I will email it in to Salvo and suggest you and many others do too. Imagine 10,000 + signatures added in a day!!! [Mind you the system will probably seize up but still…]
sarah says:
10 April, 2023 at 11:33 am
How can Scotland fail economically if it gets to keep and own ALL its income/resources? Which it will do with independence.
————
It won’t own anything just like now.
@Ian Stuart
I think the problem you are trying to address is similar to what keeps me well at bay when it comes to the political question of Scottish independence.
I understand your frustration but what you may be talking about is not just anti-English bigotry, its much more than that.
Take myself as an example
I love my country and I think we Scots are a gifted people who have contributed enormously to the worlds development despite the attempts to hold us down from London. Our decisions, all decisions, should be made in Edinburgh by people that the Scots elect.
Further I absolutely advocate that every other Nation on earth be given the same consideration.
From etymonline (Nation c. 1300, nacioun, “a race of people, large group of people with common ancestry and language,” from Old French nacion “birth, rank; descendants, relatives; country, homeland” (12c.) and directly from Latin nationem (nominative natio) “birth, origin; breed, stock, kind, species; race of people, tribe,”)
These things are not enough however in the Scottish Independence movement.
The reason for this is that the Scottish Independence movement has been ideologically hijacked by what can broadly be described as neo-marxists (Neo-bolshevik would be more accurate but this leads down dark rabbit holes that puts the average person off), who are operating similarly in almost every Western nation now.
(I reserve the right to label them as such given how it’s factual and given how freely, and inaccurately, the label ‘fascist’ is pinned on everything.)
To try to summarise the evidence we can consider this – why does every so-called left wing concern whether its Feminism TM, Trans Rights TM, Gay rights TM, Minority Rights TM, BLM TM, Climate Change TM and the others seem to be so riddled with hypocrisy and double standards?
The reason is that these are not grass roots movements anymore (the ones that ever were) and are instead weaponised narratives used to attack civil society, create chaos and political division and turn on groups, individuals and political parties. In short it becomes the Woke Orthodoxy wielded by those who maintain the narratives.
Ultimately we are looking at international corporations, globalist groups, NGO’s and think tanks.
Interestingly things such as transgenderism (including sex change for children), pushing of paedophilia, critical theory and the general corruption of what have been considered traditional values were pushed by the same interests before in the 1st half of the 20th century and the backlash helped significantly in the growth of the fascist and National Socialist movements. There literally is nothing new under the sun
The Scottish propensity for legitimate left wing concern, such as economic and social equality, has made us an easy capture and have blinded us to the true nature of those supposedly altruistic movements.
So to summarise – the top down fake left globalist ideologies that too many in Scotland automatically associate with Scottish Nationalism is the root of the issue now. They aren’t against the English per se, they are against anybody seen to be to the ‘right’ of them.
The don’t hold these idea’s, these ideas hold them.
The fact that the mainstream media, corporations (right up to the banking establishment), universities and their obviously undemocratic governments push the same ideas doesn’t seem to deter them from thinking of themselves as brave radical warriors against the establishment.
Thankfully I am optimistic that we have reached peak ‘woke’ and more and more people might just be able to reconsider things from a more reasonable standpoint.
Anyway as an aside I think England is a great country with a great people, I just hope the English can deal with the ideological poison infesting their nation better than we can.
‘A timeworn argument, govern Scotland well and possibly in time the masses will see the virtues of independence including the Unionist parties which will contritely repent their folly: pure fantasy stuff.’
No it’s actually true. If the SNP had governed sensibly a la Alex Salmond for example the support for independence would have been huge.
WOS made the point before – with the absolute cluster fudge that was British politics for several years, and that the SNP had delivered more than 50 MP’s to Westminster just prior it really was the SNP, and the ideology that underpinned the SNP, that ruined it.
This is where the Scottish independence movement itself is to blame – too many fools put up with too much nonsense for too long and kept voting for them.
Garavelli Princip says:
10 April, 2023 at 11:58 am
“I am English and have moved to Scotland as has my daughter. All we want is to be able to identify a future which has some measure of stability and economic reality.”
It’s a shame you couldn’t get that in England.
I could but I moved from Asia and my daughter from Los Angeles. We chose Scotland because of our Scottish friends ands my wife loves Scottish dancing. In the above columns was one comment which makes my blood boil.
“How can Scotland fail economically if it gets to keep and own ALL its income/resources? Which it will do with independence.”
From the Scottish Governments own economic figures there is NO current case for independence based upon the income generation and asset base of Scotland and all the airy fairy nonsense talked about stolen assets and impoverishment of the Scottish people by Westminster is not going to make a blind bit of difference to facts.
Buckle down, run Scotland properly, generate investment based upon some certainty of Government policy and then lets see whether the case makes sense.
“anti-Tory bigotry” …????
It’s ‘bigotry’ to take a firm stance against a parcel of rogues who espouse hatred of the working classes (i.e. discriminate against people on the basis of the circumstances of their birth) and have a track record of destroying that which they rely on; to the entire benefit of a self-entitled elite minority… Manipulating the more gullible, dishonest and/or weak-minded of that number into toadying for them.
-Inflicting the most inhuman cruelties on the weak and the vulnerable in the process; returning the British Isles to a ‘GeoVictWardian’ model of inequality and deprivation – ‘boiling the frogs’ to the point where their strategies of wealth extraction (for the benefit of an ever-shrinking proportionate few) become unsustainable and obvious to most… apparently.
40-odd years (that I’ve experienced) of every social advance made since WW2 being systematically destroyed, every asset stripped, the journey towards meritocracy slammed into reverse…
Feel free to call me a bigot (call me what you like; the cawing of idiotic claques doesn’t interest or phase me) when I express the firm view that to vote or be a Tory is an act of complete moral bankruptcy; and no that’s not bigotry!
Just as no-one born into a criminal family is obliged to follow criminal ways. – Nobody is born a Tory; i.e. a type of parasite that is (as Bevan put it) lower than vermin. …It’s not ‘bigotry’ to call somebody out on an evil they embrace by choice.
Paul Davies writes:
” I am English and have moved to Scotland as has my daughter. All we want is to be able to identify a future which has some measure of stability and economic reality.
When Scottish Nationalists can make a credible case based upon facts and statistics which will not impoverish a significant percentage of the population I will be fully onboard. Until then, all the nonsense on here is so much pish and wind”.
Well Paul,
This is a classic of the genre. I see recent events are emboldening the naysayers seeded amongst us – the fifth column infiltrators.
I am guessing that no matter what ANY Independence-minded Scottish government did, they would never quite pass your test.
This is precisely why, when we next come to decide on OUR independence from YOUR mother country, the franchise will reflect the fact that OUR national SELF-determination will be NONE OF YOUR EFFIN BUSINESS.
The key term here is SELF determination. For you, that resides in YOUR native land – not MINE.
Anti English is something that may be bred into every Scot, it comes from having to put up with the casual racism we hear on a daily basis from our English neighbours.
England is the most racist nation in Europe.
If you are not born white Anglo-Saxon, then be prepared to be racially abused.
For proof read Brexit.
The English just couldn’t wait to dump those pesky Furriners.
So dry your eyes sunshine. You lot are world leaders at dishing out racism.
Plausibly evidenced example (caveat these stats have been around a good while now so to be more accurate would need finessing) where the revenue streams generated by all UK assets have to service 65 million people, but with Scotland’s considerable and much better resources to population figures a self governing Scotland could run the exact same policies as the UK but the revenue stream would only have to serve the needs of 5.5 million.
SCOTLAND WITH ONLY 9% OF THE UK POPULATION HAS:
32% of the land area.
61% of the sea area.
90% of the fresh water.
65% of the natural gas production
96.5% of the crude oil production.
47% of the open cast coal production
81% of the untapped coal reserves
62% of the timber production
46% of the total forest area
92% of the hydro electric production
40% of the wind wave and solar energy production
60% of the fish landings
30% of the beef herd
20% of the sheep herd
9% of the dairy herd
10% of the pig herd
15% if the cereal holdings
20% of the potato holdings
90% of the whisky industry
70% of gin production
Now compare to the stats to England.
ENGLAND WITH 91% OF THE UK POPULATION ONLY HAS:
68% of the land area.
39% of the sea area.
10% of the fresh water.
35% of the natural gas production
3.5% of the crude oil production.
53% of the open cast coal production
19% of the untapped coal reserves
38% of the timber production
54% of the total forest area
8% of the hydro electric production
60% of the wind wave and solar energy production
40% of the fish landings
70% of the beef herd
80% of the sheep herd
91% of the dairy herd
90% of the pig herd
85% if the cereal holdings
80% of the potato holdings
10% of the whisky industry
30% of gin production
Re. Accuracy of figures, bare in mind the recent ScotWind block sell off has the potential of 10 times the wind generation of what we currently have. Which is already enough for us to pretty much power ourselves most of the time, and often like today, export considerably more than we are using to England.
link to extranet.nationalgrid.com
“Dan says:
10 April, 2023 at 11:46 am
@ Paul Davies
Scotland is a net exporter, England is a net importer. Please explain how Scotland can ever economically thrive under London Rule when the Kingdom of England has approximately 10 times the political representation of the Kingdom of Scotland, and the conflicting interests borne from the differing trading realities of the 2 constituent parts of the UK will always be biased in the KoE’s interests.
300 years of union has allowed the KoE’s population to grow from approximately 5 to 10 times that of the KoS’s with all the economic advantages gained by that population growth disparity.
No political will under London rule has addressed this trend which actually breaches the terms of the union as no constituent part of the UK should have an economic advantage over another.”
Scottish people are fleeing Scotland because there is no economic certainty in Scotland and there will be no inward investment which will provide jobs for people to stay around until such time as there is certainty as to the political environment and that it will allow the Country to flourish through sensible, economic planning. When the Nationalists can prove to the Unionists that they can efficiently run more than a welk stall then independence is in business – until then, forget it.
dasBlimp says:
10 April, 2023 at 12:02 pm
… but generally speaking, the Scots don’t like the English. For evidence of this read the comments above.
You entirely miss the point. It is not a question of liking or disliking the English ( I have many English friends – and in fact there are a number of apparent Scots on here that I cannot abide).
What is simply unconscionable is that anti-Scottish English people living here are determined to do their level best to prevent OUR national liberation.
A matter that is none of their business.
JOE
Please explain why Scotland must be the exception i.e demonstrate the ability to do «good governance» before being allowed out to play with the other guys?
That is a hurdle no member of the UN could jump.
Least of all the US and the UK.
The notion does have sufficient of the «when you are ready» to be colonialist in tone.
Breeks says:
10 April, 2023 at 12:42 am
You owe it to yourself to get to Glasgow on 6th May and make the AUOB March for Independence a huge event, hopefully one of the biggest there’s ever been.
Here’s a thought, with the Ruritanian Farce wall to wall coverage, there will be a bit of a choice for Manky Jaikit and his butchers apron wavers where to be on that day !
‘England is the most racist nation in Europe.’
Apologies but your programming is now running up against facts.
It was in England that slaves were considered free men should they set foot there and it was the Royal Navy who set about destroying the Trans Atlantic slave trade.
If England was a racist country we would have armies of men marching against the fact that the 3 largest cities in England are now minority white while Diversity TM, Equity TM and Inclusivity TM are pushed to the point that nothing that was traditionally English will remain so.
If England were truly a racist country then we’d have severe back lash to grooming gangs and the mass importation of Africans and Middle Easterners.
The racism in England is currently pointed directly at the English themselves. As it is with Scots here in Scotland. With the full power of the state and judiciary behind it.
Ian Stewart @ 11:12 am
“I am extremely disappointed to see such incompetence in Scotland’s governance.”
What did you expect from a compromised colonial administration? Postcolonial theory confirms that all a colonial society can ever expect is a ‘mediocre meritocracy’; so long as a nation is plundered and exploited it will never be able to properly develop, and neither will most of its people, many locked into colonially-induced poverty, deprived of opportunity and access to their own resources.
@ twathater
2 April, 2023 at 3:20 am : –
‘I see some people are still maintaining there are some good people within the snp but are not naming them’
Rev not naming them either, TH, in his piece above: –
‘The former champion of the cause was betrayed by his once-disciple, setting the template for the vilification and forcing out of anyone who tried to stand up for the party’s rules and constitution. More met the same fate in his wake, and eventually most of the good people simply gave up’
I have made several references of the sort you refer to, so let me explain.
First, when using it, I have always used quotation marks because it is a quote from Alex Salmond. He has used it more than once while I was present at Alba gatherings, and on video discussions on ‘Prism’ and elsewhere. There is no doubt that Alex believes this. There is no doubt that others in Alba believe this too.
Second, like most folks, I have no way of influencing politics other than by taking part in big demo’s and/or voting. We, the masses, give our trust to those we believe in, and Alex Salmond and Alba has been, for me, our best political route to Independence. If Alex and his confidants were insisting that ‘good people’ remained I bowed to their much greater knowledge of what was going on behind the scenes, but I said at the start of the leadership contest that this was the end game for that rationale. It was time for the ‘good people’ to show their true colours.
For a flickering moment, I thought that Alex was to be proven right with the sudden emergence of Regan and some rebels, but what an enormous anti-climax that turned out to be. All the drama and promises from week 1 quickly turned into a damp squib. The final hammer blow came when every single SNP MSP voted for Yousaf as FM: no queries about the process, no rebel abstentions, nothing.
I don’t think it was wrong to give Alex the benefit of the doubt and can’t help but think what might have been if Regan had come good, but alas, another false dawn.
I have spoken to a lot of Indy die-hards since, all are bewildered at events and cannot understand the softly-softly approach from Alex, Alba, and YES. We get it that Alba is still quite small and shouldn’t be expected to do all the heavy lifting, but there are nearly 2 million Independence supporters out there, many feeling angry, rudderless, and leaderless. And until Indy leaders match fine words with fire in their bellies and passion in their hearts, we will remain trapped in limbo, feeling sad, deflated, and cheated.
I admire your uncompromising attacks on SNP, Twathater, and understand why your utter contempt for politicians. The revelation that Alex Salmond CHOOSES to kneel before the King of England rather than roar in defiance from Glasgow epitomises everything you say. It is an appalling misjudgement at a desperately difficult time for many of us, more so because time is a precious thing that I, and others, don’t have in abundance.
The dream IS fading fast for my generation, still 3+ years till the ‘changing of the guards’ (one for you, RH), then a return to a unionist HR for a further 5 years.
Ah well, there’s always Mac R.
link to youtube.com
English people living in Scotland have exactly the same rights as everyone else.
Paul Davies says: at 12:37 pm
“Scottish people are fleeing Scotland because there is no economic certainty in Scotland and there will be no inward investment which will provide jobs for people to stay around until such time as there is certainty as to the political environment and that it will allow the Country to flourish through sensible, economic planning. When the Nationalists can prove to the Unionists that they can efficiently run more than a welk stall then independence is in business – until then, forget it.”
And yet you and your daughter still came here…
But what you have written actually shows just how poorly served Scotland is under London Rule, because Westminster is where all the major influential powers reside that could be utilised to assist building a country worthy of keeping its native population, rather than them being forced to leave and displaced by effective colonising practices.
OK everybody – no point responding to PD – he will never see that all is better than nothing. Just a timewaster, I’m afraid.
Moving on to something important, Kenny McBride’s tribunal crowdfunder, link given on here at “Inside the Cult”, needs donations.
Humza the continuity idiot
link to archive.ph
Excellent Stu, Brilliant !
”
Dan says:
10 April, 2023 at 12:35 pm
Plausibly evidenced example (caveat these stats have been around a good while now so to be more accurate would need finessing) where the revenue streams generated by all UK assets have to service 65 million people, but with Scotland’s considerable and much better resources to population figures a self governing Scotland could run the exact same policies as the UK but the revenue stream would only have to serve the needs of 5.5 million.”
Well Dan, if that is the case and Scotland is so well endowed with these resources, what’s the story about the total failure of Scotland to be able to make a sensible case for independence based upon the exploitation of these resources. It doesn’t and it hasn’t and don’t blame some nefarious goings on down South because that’s just an excuse. for a total lack of performance by the Scottish elites Companies will invest in Scotland if they see an environment which gives them certainty that they can grow and have stability. Frothing at the mouth racist Nationalists such as the kind who stood on the borders with England with their racist signs aren’t conducive to a welcoming environment. Greens with their nonsense aren’t conducive to investment, and don’t tell me about the potential of oil and gas – that’s out of the window now with the environmental nonsense. If you are going to talk about resources, lets talk about the drain on resources having to pay for those benefit dependents who seem to contribute mightily to the Nationalist claims for independence and who are statistically demanding a huge share of the Government financial plot to the extent that Scotland has to be supported by the UK. If you think Scotland can stand on its own two feet and develop those resources which you have enumerated for me, then have the Scottish administration close off the Barnett formula. Until then, don’t give me statistics. .
Garavelli Princip @ 12:33 pm
“The key term here is SELF determination”
Yes, as we see, even a dominant national party elite has yet to understand this, or that independence means ‘decolonization’, according to the UN. As Albert Memmi put it: ‘independence is a matter only for the colonized’.
Those who think that national independence is about ‘competent governance’ might wish to read more:
link to bpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com
Russia has enormous amounts of resources, yet the median citizen lives in pretty depressing hovel; Singapore has next to no resources but has rocket up the quality of life rankings.
Oil, gas, coal, agriculture are worthless if you believe the Climate Emergency grifters, that started on banning hydrocarbons and are now moving on to both farm animals and fertilisers.
And now they are on to hobbling he alcohol industries with bans on marketing and advertising.
All the while far too many indy supporters want to hand any independence in resource management over to EU and other pan global agreements.
@Dan
The love of Scottish country dancing apparently outweighed any negatives.
And where’s the international banker and SNP Treasurer and his woven-through Referendum Appeal Fund in all of this?
link to thenational.scot
@Joe (12.13) –
Thought-provoking stuff there, and this bit in particular:
‘To try to summarise the evidence we can consider this – why does every so-called left wing concern whether its Feminism TM, Trans Rights TM, Gay rights TM, Minority Rights TM, BLM TM, Climate Change TM and the others seem to be so riddled with hypocrisy and double standards?’
The use of left/right has become all-but meaningless. My children (in their early 20s) don’t get their information from the cooncil telly, they go to blogs and podcasts. Whenever we had a blether, trying to ‘put the world to rights’ etc, they would sometimes refer to this or that character as ‘left’ or ‘right’ and if I knew the name (say, Jordan Peterson or Joe Rogan for example) then, more often than not, I believed the person to belong to the opposite ‘camp’. As you can imagine, this tended to bog down conversation so we have agreed not to use either term.
We now know that Blair was a criminal and shyster, but the New Labour project at least made an effort to address the infantile polarity of it all by suggesting a ‘Third Way’. That, perhaps, is why it was so successful. It could be argued that the SNP followed a similar strategy. Again, that may help account for their success over the past decade.
But we’re still stuck with this left/right dichotomy and it helps no-one. Who could say, hand on heart, whether the SNP, right now, is more ‘left’ than Labour?
Very recently I saw a video featuring what looked like a homeless dude, perhaps in Canada or Australia, I can’t remember. Like some modern Diogenes, giving forth, looked quite happy in himself. His explanation was that if you have pure capitalism with no socialism then you end up with fascism, and if you have pure socialism with no capitalism you end up with communism. That, to me, seems about as good a description of the ways things are as any other.
‘Please explain why Scotland must be the exception i.e demonstrate the ability to do «good governance» before being allowed out to play with the other guys?’
Because that’s the reality of our situation. It’s not what I’d choose.
Without the benefit of continuous popular support, which could be achieved by continuous good governance in the face of the farce in Westminster, we are going nowhere.
Good governance is our only option given that the main levers of propaganda are in the hands of people who do not share our views.
Unless we as minority separatists continually vote in ideologically captured (and probably blackmailed/bribed) psychopaths, as has happened for years now, to literally eviscerate all our credibility and then demand that the majority support our cause?
”
Alf Baird says:
10 April, 2023 at 12:49 pm
Ian Stewart @ 11:12 am
“I am extremely disappointed to see such incompetence in Scotland’s governance.”
What did you expect from a compromised colonial administration? Postcolonial theory confirms that all a colonial society can ever expect is a ‘mediocre meritocracy’; so long as a nation is plundered and exploited it will never be able to properly develop, and neither will most of its people, many locked into colonially-induced poverty, deprived of opportunity and access to their own resources.”
Interesting comment divorced from reality. Look at African independence and its utter failure due to the tribalism of its leaders and not colonialism, as opposed to the success of Singapore. Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA, etc all colonies but I am struggling to see the failure to develop their potential because of their former colonial masters. Excuses are fine but do tend to indicate a lack of intellectual curiosity.
Someone here posted the Coatbridge event many thanks. I listened to Mr Salmond and his comments on our territorial waters which Tony Blair gave to England, saying the prize is Independence without the whole of Scotland then the Alba party aren’t the party to be negotiation ever when Scotland becomes Independent.
OT
I see no way, by which Alex Salmond can attend Chuckies do instead of the March in Glasgow.
I appreciate his expertise and experience…. but as it leaves the reek of hypocrasy in the case of Humza…. it would be a genuine kick in the guts if Alex were to attend also.
Different if it were not the date of the march… but it is.
A more diplomatic route, might be for Alex to pull a sickie that day and not attend either event… but while diplomatic, that is not exactly leadership.
The best and most fitting option I can think of is if Alex has personal / health reasons for not being able to go to London, and needs to remain in Scotland… and makes a fleeting visit to the people on the march _ not on stage, giving a speech you understand, but in with the crowds.
If he attends Chuckies do, then I suspect I will need to consider my Alba membership. Same old, same old, playing by HRHMajGov’s rules just won’t cut it anymore, and if that is what Alex wants it to do (when its his bum on the fancy seat and slap up dinner), then I’m afraid Alba is a tame beast, not intent on delivering.
However, we shall see, and I shall hope not.
Someone on Wings posted the Coatbridge event the other night. I listened to Mr Salmond and his comments on our territorial waters which Tony Blair gave to England, saying the prize is Independence and that we might have to give up on what Tony Blair gave away, I would add if this is Alba Party policy that part of Scotland remains part of England so we can become Independent then the Alba party aren’t the party to be negotiation ever when Scotland becomes Independent. When the people vote for Independence its the whole of Scotland that becomes Independence.
Maybe in all of this the reality is that we are all governed like sheep by very powerful forces.
Scotland or at least the majority of the people in Scotland are not prospering. They vote for a party or a thing and do not get what they vote for. The SNP got mandates after mandates but what did they deliver. The Scots voted against Brexit but what was delivered.
No national investment bank, no state energy company whilst all the while oil, gas and now renewable energy gets plundered out of the country whilst the people go fuel poor, as the social infrastructure breaks down, as society becomes ever more totalitarian.
Clearly voting does not work, is of no consequence. Everything is controlled, manipulated and the hidden hand is never far away.
It truly is the sheep in a pen syndrom. The didopian landscape that Orwell warned of on his 1984 and Animal Farm novels. And we accept it like the animals accept their trip to the abbatoir.
Maybe that is our lot. And maybe nothing will change until such time as the people decide they want change. One thing for certain is that it can change, people can make it change, but will they, and when?
Today,the 10th of April, is the 25th Anniversary of the signing of the Belfast Agreement. Much spin and celebration abounds about what was a hard hard won peace from a war that should never have been allowed to persist for 30 years.
But Northern Ireland is still unresolved business. There is no power sharing government. The Tories unionist bedfellows will not allow it to be formed. Moreover, were it not for US and EU interventions Boris Johnson’s government would have broken the Treaty.
We should all remember that as today our media fills with celebratory remembrances because the truth is that Northern Ireland is still unfinished business that could again come back to haunt a new generation.
CaltonJock
link to twitter.com
Paul Davis 12.31pm
There would be no point in citing the success of small countries similar in size and many with less resources. But let me ask you this.
Scotland has had half a century of oil and gas revenues and should be as filthy rich as Norway, but it isn’t.
So where has all the money gone??
Re the corporate ownership of the Left, on either this or the previous two threads there have been posts on the communists abandoning the trans lobby and the independence movement having a tent big enough to accommodate everyone from Conservatives to Communists. No mention was given to fascists abandoning the trans lobby or the tent being big enough to accommodate them which is understandable. The thing is, Communism killed probably as many people as fascism. I fully expect some people on here to dispute this via capitalism being a branch of fascism etc, if you look online for the figures you will see this being applied in most discussions.
The question is, why has Communism been given a free pass despite a huge death toll under it? Why does it not have the same negative reaction as fascism?
100%Yes says: Someone on Wings posted blah, blah Alba, blah,blah!
Was it not your friend ‘seed of doubt’that did that?
You know, your other post-seeds-of-doubt twin.
@100%Yes
Wasn’t Donald Dewar also instrumental in the giving away of Scottish territorial waters?
Ron Clark says:
10 April, 2023 at 12:34 pm
Anti English is something that may be bred into every Scot, it comes from having to put up with the casual racism we hear on a daily basis from our English neighbours.
England is the most racist nation in Europe.
I f you are not born white Anglo-Saxon, then be prepared to be racially abused.
What!! Anglo-Saxon England was defeated in 1066. Since then it has effectively been a Norman/French colony, Their land was stolen, and their language was outlawed. Ever heard of the harrying of the North? Even today their rulers and landowners are of mainly Norman/French stock. Their monarchy has been French, Dutch, Scots, Welsh, and German. The Anglo Saxons were peaceful folk. The ‘English’ (whoever they are) and the Scots are both victims of the Norman yoke,
Garavelli Princip says:
10 April, 2023 at 12:39 pm
dasBlimp says:
10 April, 2023 at 12:02 pm
What is simply unconscionable is that anti-Scottish English people living here are determined to do their level best to prevent OUR national liberation.
A matter that is none of their business.
————
Scottish independence (of which I am a ardent supporter) will affect the whole of the UK and is not a solely Scottish concern.
A couple of links
Economic Figures relating to Scotland (with plenty hotlinks in blue in this article too).
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Stolen Seas
link to craigmurray.org.uk
Paul Davies @ 1:15 pm
“Look at African independence and its utter failure due to the tribalism of its leaders”
We might say the same of Scotland as we are reminded that colonialism is ‘always a cooperative arrangement’ with native elites (Fanon). It is not just the colonial oppressor who enslaves the people, considerable local assistance is usually needed to ensure the plunder and privileges continue.
“Scottish independence (of which I am a ardent supporter) will affect the whole of the UK and is not a solely Scottish concern”.
It will indeed affect the whole of the UK, but that is beside the point.
The decision has to be Scotland’s alone – otherwise the concept of self-determination is meaningless.
Why would a colony have to seek the permission of the coloniser to gain national liberation?
To give the imperial power a veto over national liberation is the very definition of absurdity.
I am glad you are an ardent supporter of our independence, but unless you are a Scot living in Scotland, then with respect, you are a spectator – as I am when I support the Scotland football team!
@ Daisy Walker at 1.26: re whether Alex Salmond should attend the coronation.
It is very very useful that Alex Salmond is in the Privy Council – it gives him direct access to the monarch, and it is the monarch who has to authorise legislation. There will be occasions when AS could go to the monarch and tell him not to sign off an Act, or give him other advice.
Is that not worth a bit of keeping in with the in crowd for?
Ian Stewart says :
Nothing but Tory ideological placard waving, slogan shouting drivel. Ian accuses a lot ( everybody apart from the Tories) for the failure to gain independence.
In Ian Stewart’s world view there is no mention at all of respecting democracy and respecting the results of the last Scottish election that promised another referendum denied by Westminster. English Nationalism under the Tories became a dictatorial, intolerant monster many years ago – I actually recall a tipping point and her name was Thatcher followed by Farage. As the far right infested British politics. As the Overton window was moved to the middle of the right wing spectrum.
In Ian Stewart’s world view the left are to blame for everything even though they have never won an election for 50 years. The Tories far right or liberals right of centre which is now in the middle of the right wing spectrum won every election. The economic policies he hates pushed by the WEF, the neoliberalism he hates was created by Thatcher and fully supported by the liberals. The true left have had absolutely nothing to do with this abomination of our sovereignty.
When Thatcher stood up and shouted there is no such thing as state money only tax payers money. Ian never even challenged her and stood up waving a £10 note in his hand above his head and shouted back but Maggie it is written on the front of the note where it comes from. That all the money we use IS state money.
When fiscal conservatism was introduced by English Nationalism that became a dictatorial, intolerant monster under Thatcher and Blair and even worse under Farage. That said government finances are like that of a household budget. Ian was not there shouting from the roof tops that the government budget deficit is the household and business surplus. Ian voted to slash the household and business surplus at every election. Ian voted to destroy our savings. Ian Voted at every election to reduce the national debt the number of government bonds in existence. That we hold in our savings portfolios, our pensions funds, or buy directly from NS&I. The savings we earned during our working lifetime that we to pass onto our children and grandchildren in our wills to give them a good start in life.
When fiscal conservatism obliterated government spending and replaced it with bank lending and caused 2008. Where was Ian. Ian wasn’t there shouting that his ideology had failed. Far from it. Ian defended a failed ideology and kept on voting for it. Continued to vote for an English Nationalism that had became a dictatorial, intolerant monster.
When fiscal conservatism built on the tax payer money myth and government finances are like that of a household myth. Accepted by idiots as gospel from some priests economic text. That moved massive amounts of skills and real resources out of low end manufacturung, mining and ship building into services and high end manufacturing creating millions of people unemployed and hollowing out communities and replaced family values with individualism and greed. Ian was not there marching against it. Even though the free market tooth fairy never showed up with their cheque books open ready to hire them. The capitalist ruling class with their low wages that the state minimum wage has to keep increasing just so people can live. Ian kept voting for it thinking he could move humans around the economy like ignots of steel.
Even after the public sector got turned into a rent extracting monopoly under fiscal conservatism. WEF 101. Rent seekers put a toll on the Skye bridge, healthcare, education, communication, utilities, energy, mail, TV, rail and roads, the central bank. Ian still continued to vote for it. Under fiscal conservatism as the private sector was turned into monopolies as a big 2 or 3 in each sector rigged the prices between themselves. Ian still voted for it. When the rent seekers go on investment strikes to get the cheap labour they require he still voted for fiscal conservatism.
When English Nationalism became a dictatorial, intolerant monster and promised us all if we all worked weekends and businesses stayed open passed 5 o’clock and embraced computers. We would all become so well off we would have a 3 day working week Ian believed them. That when one parent could go out to work and support an entire family easily and that free market, fiscal conservatism would be better than that Ian believed them. Continued to vote for it even though in front of his very eyes under that ideology. Both parents now work more than 1 job just to survive. Work as much overtime as they can to put food on the table.
The only fact Ian got right was a no brainer. To become independent you are run neither by London’s or Brussels fiscal conservatism. You rule yourselves using a different economic model.
So Ian can deflect as much as he likes and blame Thatchers neoliberalism that he voted for. Blame the fiscal conservatives in the SNP the economic model he voted for in England for many years WEF 101, IMF 101, OBR 101, IFS 101, world bank 101. Or stupidly blame STU.
The very last thing Ian will do is blame himself and his voting patterns over the years. That have landed this country in such a mess. In true GB News style who are also in complete denial. Ian and GB News will continue to try and find a bogeyman holding a straw man to blame for what has gone wrong. Rather than blaming themselves for continuing to vote for the very same economic model planted firmly on the right wing spectrum. Full of myths and lies and that have caused this mess.
Everybody will be blamed for the food banks this economic model has created. The true left will be blamed and called the radical left by Trump and Farage even though they have not had power or policies introduced for 50 years, Stu will be blamed because of his blog. Everybody will be blamed apart from the fiscal conservatives who’s ideology created it. The English Nationalism that turned into a dictator that starved Scotland of funds and turned England into a monster.
The SNP under Forbes adopted fiscal conservatism written throughout Brussels treaties. Neither Forbes or Ian will be held to account or take responsibility for their actions. They will both deflect and blame an ideology that hasn’t been in Britain since the 70’s. A bogeyman a straw man to protect the failed economic ideology they both believe in. A liberal, Tory ideology that produces food banks.
dasBlimp @ 2:12 pm
“Scottish independence (of which I am a ardent supporter) will affect the whole of the UK and is not a solely Scottish concern.”
Yes, there is the ongoing economic plunder and cultural exploitation to consider; however, such factors materially and psychologically disadvantage primarily the oppressed group, i.e. the Scots. Which explains why, as Albert Memmi put it: ‘independence is a matter only for the colonized’.
perhaps if more Scots had to live in the New English ghettos of the highlands then they too would be angry.
we have villages in the Highlands dominated by retirees boasting about how much they have in their pension pot after selling the house down Souf.”Your houses are so cheap!”
The Scots are paying for their freebies. They boast of using their adress for Nephews and Neices to get a free University slot.
I don’t care if this upsets the “Be Nice” brigade.
You don’t live in our new Scotlandshire.
The UK state has just weeks ago confirmed that Scotland is a de facto colony of imperial England.
KCIII is the head of that state. The English Crown. It’s the sovereign power of the English Crown that is administered by UK Parliament to deny Scotland self-determination.
Any Scottish politician who attends KCIII’s coronation under those circumstances will be a hypocrite.
If arse-licking the imperial oppressor, the King of England, is more important to Alex Salmond then he should resign as leader of the Alba Party.
english folks bleating about anti-english “racism” on wings should just GTF; these “incidents” which are typically described generally whenever I get the details, becomes – english people being loud, obnoxious and offensive generally, a Scot eventually gets pissed off with it, tells them off about it … english person shocked, outraged …
I wish I had the link – US professor explaining “what words really mean” to 2 US news anchors, they get very uncomfortable; everyone is a fascist nowadays, supposedly.
the perversion of language and the creation of conceptually-invalid concepts, e.g. “gender”, pollute the mind and make rational discourse impossible – this is deliberate; people so baffled are then easily manipulated and given slogans to spout and an enemy to attack; consider today’s woke neo-puritanism, with witch-hunts and “burnings”. NB there are sophisticated psych-war techniques being used here, the kind that e.g. cults and timeshare bandits use.
– the youth were born 15 years after the class war was lost and have no knowledge and hence no context to measure their ideas; left-right once made some sense up till 1990, for you knew what you were – worker, management, professional – and where your economic interest lay, there was more political choice available, some real differences among the parties.
“left” is now just a synonym for “good” and “all the shite I believe in no matter how daft”
“right” is the opposite; and so you get nonsense like “far right” is truly evil beliefs like – “women don’t have penises”
class got swamped by a multitude of often irrelevant, but sometimes silly and even dangerous “identities” each of which promotes its own interest using techniques drawn from civil rights; how soon till MAPs (minor attracted persons, aka paedophiles, which is now hate-speech) agitate for their civil rights, to be free of “oppression”. This balkanises society – pits all against all and -coincidently- works to the economic advantage of elites.
– and then the youth, because they know nothing, have tied themselves to invalid concepts and “don’t do” logical, skepticism and critical analysis, find themselves as the unwitting footsoldiers of a system they think they are “fighting” (- “identity politics is the leftwing of neoliberalism”). The sad thing is it is pointless to sit them down for a talk – they have to wake up on their own, hopefully before they hit 30.
@’
sarah says:
10 April, 2023 at 2:43 pm
@ Daisy Walker at 1.26: re whether Alex Salmond should attend the coronation.
It is very very useful that Alex Salmond is in the Privy Council – it gives him direct access to the monarch, and it is the monarch who has to authorise legislation. There will be occasions when AS could go to the monarch and tell him not to sign off an Act, or give him other advice.
Is that not worth a bit of keeping in with the in crowd for?’
Sarah, had the Coronation been on any other day, and perhaps even on any other march day, I would agree with you.
But given the battering Yes has had, particularly in recent weeks, given that Glasgow is our biggest Yes City, given that many have decanted from RumpSNP and are politically homeless, or tentative Alba, given that the Yes movement has had ZERO Leadership in the last 8 years, given that many in the movement (on both Alba and SNP camps) are saying – realistically in my opinion – it’s this year or bust.
Then ‘no’. Alex cannot be seen to attend Chuckies big do. Humza – as First Minister – put the cat amongst the pigeons, when he said he would prioritise the march over the coronation…. and then renaged. But he is First Minister.
Alex is not (at the moment). Just last week Alex was shouting for the Stone of Destiny to be withheld from the ceremony…. now it looks like he’ll be the man wanting to get his photae taken with it and Charlie sitting on it.
Just this year, Alex was instructing Neale and Kenny to disrupt His Majesties government at Westminster at every opportunity.
Now His Maj is having a party and Alex wants a seat at the slap up.
The timing of this March in Glasgow, will show, whether the Yes movement has got its dinger up and is going to fight, or whether it’s all over. It is pretty much that serious.
If Alex attends KCIII’s do, then he’s broadcasting, same old, same old, instead of rallying the troups and declaring ‘game on’.
He MUST not go to KCIII’s do. He might make excuses, and then not be able to attend Glasgow, I get that, and it is probably wise…. but if he goes to KCIII’s slap up, he will be all over the papers, and not in a good way. Instead of Humza getting that treatment.
As for advising the King about legislation – that is the FM’s job. Pretty sure Alex would do it better than Humza (actually my dog could do it better than Humza), but the King won’t be chatting to Alex for advice unless, or until Alex has got Indy won.
Ian blames Stu.
On the 6th March the BBC allowed somebody on the TV who told the truth. For the first time in 50 years.
link to mobile.twitter.com
But the sheep who have been potty trained from the age of 5 to believe the exact opposite will fight against that truth no matter what.
That’s why we don’t have independence already.
By the way Mariana Mazzucato new book – The Big Con
Explains in depth why the SPN under Sturgeon failed so miserably. What Robin has been highlighting for years now.
Blah blah Blackford is obviously worried about losing his seat with his latest hectoring of people to unite behind Humza.
The new freedom of expression in the SNP didn’t last long. I’m so surprised
The problem here is the confusion regarding TORY and Conservative.
There are very few members of the Conservative and Unionist Party(Tories) who would support Scottish Independence, but regularly on this forum conservatives, social and economic, are abused for their views although most of them believe strongly in Independence.
This is crass stupidity and does the movement no good at all, even leading to one of our finest young talents being deprived of her place as FM and allowing the Murrell’s place man to step in.
We shall live to regret that action if the Murrell’s survive the present investigations.
Wokery seems to reside in this site, the Labour variant, which sees evil in everything which does not follow the “equality and diversity” mantra, when these are the very ideologies which have weakened us and instilled shame and victimhood in our people. This site should be fighting for political AND social freedom.
Presumably everyone noticed Nicola’s wedding ring hand never left her pocket throughout the statement?
Anyway, as to how indy proceeds from here, the objective surely is not to get a referendum, it is to win a referendum. That won’t happen until there are clear answers to the usual questions about the deficit, trade with the UK and the border, the currency etc. Until whoever is running Scotland has answers to these well known questions, including that the answers are a plausible reality, then it is too soon to try for a referendum because it is highly unlikely to be won. For example, if you are a floating voter pensioner and the SG says that after indy, the UK will pay your pension, but the UK says the SG will pay your pension and the SG numbers show that the only way to get rid of the deficit is for the UK to pay the pensions – which is what Common Weal says, how do you vote? There’s no way most would take a chance if they are risking their pension. Going into a referendum with this kind of open goal would be pointless. Much to be done, because not much has been done.
@Daisy Walker 93.34) –
FWIW, I agree with you.
I had no idea, until today, that AS intended to go to this embarrassing farce. Didn’t even cross my mind. I should’ve paid more attention to the Coatbridge recording because, apparently, he was asked about it and managed to avoid a straight answer.
Aside from anything lese, the optics will be awful. It’s not that long since AS was nearly sent to prison and it would probably have finished him – does anyone believe that auld pervo Charlie or any of his dutiful minions would’ve lifted a finger to help overturn such a miscarriage? Would they fuck.
Privy Council be damned – just because he’s ‘expected’ to attend doesn’t mean he is obliged. Leave it to The Murrells, they get off on all that mediaeval flummery.
I am fuming, disgusted and properly pissed-off. In that order.
🙁 🙁 🙁
“You can take our lives, but you will never take the Mother-in-laws camper van”
link to order-order.com
@ Ian Brotherhood,
Alba Party has an official policy of Republicanism, or a free vote for same.
We might have to find out, on the day, what Alex does or does not do. If he provides a diplomatic excuse to the Crown for non attendance, he can hardly broadcast that now.
Actions, however, speak a great deal louder than words, and the timing for such actions has never been so urgent/ or relevant.
800 new houses being built in my villate (pop about 2000). 90% already sold to English folk from darn south.
If Alex does attend KCIII’s do, for me it will be a deep betrayal.
It really is this year or bust.
Some commentators are complaing about AS attending the coronation of CIII.
Why? He’s a descendent of the Stuarts, and his title harks back to the Stuart Kings CI and CII.
800 new houses being built in my villate (pop about 2000). 90% already sold to English folk from darn south.
How much and where?
This did not surprise me in the least.
A “conservative” champion of the TransCult is the SNP Twitter champion.
link to twitter.com
Cant believe so many people throwing the toys out of the Pram if AS goes to Chuck the turds coronation, FFS really are you saying im no voting for Independence because one person accepted an invitation where he can chin wag with scores of heads of state and advise them of the real state of Scotland under the Sturrells , like it or lump it , we will not gain our Independence without other States recognising us, and face to face communications matter greatly.
For full disclosure my great and great great Grandfathers were Kings, of the Island of Inishkea South in County Mayo Ireland, but keeping with Celtic Tradition is was an elected position.
If it came to a vote in Scotland, i would vote for the abolition of a hereditary head of State ,we could call the Elected head of State anything we want including King
GOSH…haven’t the 77th got a whole BUNCH of new ‘names’ on the go!?
What time’s the march start on the 6th and where? See youse there.
I can’t find any story or announcement about Salmond going to the coronation. Are we sure it’s not just some SNP fanatics deliberately starting a rumour?
@ Anton Decadent and @ ayemachrihanish
I would suggest you watch the video and listen because its a shocking answer from the former FM and would upset a lot of Scots. This has nothing to do with Dewar,
Salmond was asked what he would do regarding the 6000mile of water given to England by Tony Blair and he said he would do nothing he’d allow them to keep it if it mean’t Scotland could be Independent.
Dewar represented a London based unionist party.
100%Yes 1.26pm
You say Alex Salmond and the ALBA Party are not going to fight to win back the land the English took from the South East of Scotland.
I find that absolutely astonishing.
I was always led to believe that the minute Scotland became an independent nation, that the UN would Immediately overturn that theiving English land grab.
So really surprised Alex Salmond would say such a thing.
ALBA have a few priorities to sort out by the looks of things.
akenaton says:
“even leading to one of our finest young talents being deprived of her place as FM”
Kate Forbes the neoliberal globalist, fiscal conservative, who promotes the tax payer and govt budget is like that of a household myths I take it ?
Can you name 6 economic policies of hers that would have benefited Scotland ?
And
How her austerity budgeting that she supported would have helped Scotland ?
And how she would have reduced Scottish households and businesses savings they have worked to earn to down to below 2% of GDP would have helped both households and businesses?
Since as the real data shows the private sector surplus is the asset side of the government budget deficit liability on a government spreadsheet.
link to businessinsider.com
Maybe the reason why Tories want Forbes to run the SNP. Is if we do win independence then the Tories ( fiscal conservatives) can finally win a general election in Scotland.
Then sell everything and hand the NHS to the rent seekers and carve it up for profit. Royal College of Nursing signed up to
Tory govern’t privatisation bill 2021.Wage suppression & down skilling key to profit maximisation on helthcare. Profits before voters needs.
Jeremy Hunt, when Health Secretary, sold the state-owned NHS blood plasma supplier – Plasma Resources UK – to Bain Capital, a US company co-founded by Mitt Romney, in a £230m deal.
Bain Capital then sold it on to the Chinese Creat Group. For £820m.
Now they can put a toll on it from which to extract rent aka Skye bridge style. Why GB News and numerous right wing blogs push to privatise the NHS are funded by the right In America.
Mitt Romney made £590 million for doing nothing.
Please akenaton don’t lie and tell Kate Forbes myths that an independent Scotland couldn’t afford the NHS and run it ourselves free at the point of entry. The myth that it is funded by tax payers lol and that an independent Scotland government budget that issues the currency is like that of a household lol.
Just so rent seekers can get their hands on it to extract economic rent.
When you write down the long list of public services that have been privatised in the UK that the government used to fund under the heading “tax payer money myth.”
Why have taxes not decreased dramatically and now about 5% ? Because taxes didn’t fund the public sector in the first place. They serve a whole different purpose than advertised. A completely different story that was given to you sitting on a potty in an education camp from the age of 5.
The purpose of taxes is to *eliminate* private sector employment so there is somebody for the public sector to hire. Releasing the skills and real Resources and Driving the Denomination.
Duties levies change behaviours.
Taxes are there to release the real resources and skills necessary for the government to fulfil its socioeconomic programme that was in its manifesto. They reduce the quantity of jobs offered by the private sector and therefore all taxes are taxes on jobs. All political parties will need to tax to stop the private sector hiring the people they need to use in their economic programme.
That separates that task from the task of duties, levies and fees which is to alter behaviours – disfavouring one area and favouring another – or hypothecating a particular cost. Those are all fully political choices that can be cancelled completely by one side or the other.
For example, So Fuel Duty on Fossil Fuels should perhaps be directly matched with a subsidy on Electric Vehicles and supporting infrastructure. Then as fuel duty declines the matching subsidy declines in tandem.
Independence-or separation from the UK if we rejoin the EU,will only be won on either front by economic competence ie we can support ourselves.
In the real world most voters don’t give a shit about the Claim of Right or all the other historical guff and conspiracy theories that clog up this site.
At the end of the day it’s always the economy- how many swing voters went YES on the back of Salmonds forthcoming oil bonanza?- lot more than Murray Foote’s Promise – which to this day I’ve never read- Political Promises-how many voters really believed that?
Time to get real.
You can’t sell “corrupt Westminster/Tories” anymore .
Time to build a country- not sell more dreams.
The only way we can get things back on track sooner than later is if the SNP leadership contest is rerun, and Ash Regan wins it.
There have been calls for this contest to be rerun, as the first contest was clandestine and laced with irregularities such as the time frame, the candidates had to get their proposals across, the tiny amount of campaign funding, SNP HQ openly aiding and abetting Humza Yousaf, and Peter Murrell calling in GCHQ and being part of a live police investigation.
The contest MUST be rerun, I’m finding it difficult to believe that only 11.1% of the SNP membership voted for the only candidate (Ash Regan) that had a very good plan for independence.
Rerunning the contest would not only be good for democracy and give a sense of clarity it would also give the SNP a bit of credibility back, and if Ash Regan wins, the prize would surely be independence, I cannot stress enough how important it is to rerun this contest.
Lenny Hartley 5.04pm says “we will not gain our Independence without other States recognising us, and face to face communications matter greatly”.
Absolutely right. And an alert friend has just sent this text:
“The thing is, since that court case, Alex has been treated as if he’s guilty. He SHOULD be seen in public now as often as possible – the tables are turning”.
Bear in mind that it’s Alex who has been touring the country this last year, speaking at over 50 Wee ALBA Book events, explaining and discussing how we get independence. We should be thanking him for galvanising support and not get side tracked into questioning his judgement about 6th May. Keep things in proportion and focus the heat where it belongs.
Tolkein. I doubt if Charles has any Stuart blood in him. Anne was the last true Stuart. After her it was George an Austrio/ German 2nd cousin of Anne. Anne had no children. So the Stuart blood was not passed on. As for tge last Queen. She claimed to be related to Bruce, but it’s pure fantasy. No-one knows going back that far.
Most Scots are probably descended from the Bruces. You can make up Amy old crap.
Craig Murray made a video about the stolen sea some time ago and according to him getting it returned to an independent Scotland would be a trivial matter, He made the video from Carnoustie pointing out that if you looked out to sea from there your looking at English waters.
The SNP does not dare disclose its republican stance because they know how unpopular republicanism is in Scotland.
Self-amputation from the UK which was created by Scots for the benefit of Scots is unpopular enough (less than 38% of the electorate voted yes in the once in a lifetime referendum) but to add in republicanism would make the SNP as unelectable as Alba and the Scottish Socialist nutters are already.
If you want to see what the general population of Scotland think of their monarchy, go and look at the turnout for the solemn procession from Balmoral to Edinburgh and to Turnhouse.
Geoff Anderson @4:47pm, I followed your link and landed on a tweet by WoS which linked to an article in the National about the YSI International conference. It was made to sound very grand. The thing is, it’s being held at the SNP Club in the New Town. Now, it’s been 35 years since I was there, but if this is the SNP Club on St Andrew’s Street, I recall it being modest. Plenty of room for Mungo Bovey’s adoption meeting for Edinburgh East in 1987 and a decent bar, but hardly conference venue level. I can’t imagine it would comfortably hold more than a few dozen, unless it has been extended.
@ Graeme George
I hope so, I wouldn’t want who ever leads us to Independence to start given away territory just to get Independence. It wants to be the whole of Scotland or else.
Big jock, you can trace back thousands of years now, using Y DNA which as the name suggests traces the Male line you can take a Male back thousands of years and Identify what Clan they came from. however as all European’s prior to the Industrial revolution came from either Neolithic Farmers as per declaration of Arbroath and YDNA or the later Beaker people from what is now eastern Ukraine / Western Russia (the Stepps) it dont make much difference, genetically there is no difference between Chuck living in A palace or Chuck living in a Scheme.
I would be interested to know if Chuck in the Palace is predominately Neolithic Farmer or Beaker Person.
There is quite an interesting mix throughout Europe , in what is now the British Isles (inc The Island of Ireland) 90% of Woman are from Neolithic Farmer (builders of the Megaliths) and 90% of Males are Beaker People, suggesting the Beaker People did not bring many females with them .
As somebody once said “we’re all Jock Tamsons Bairns “
I thought about a cardboard cutout of Humza to take to the AUOB march, just in case he doesn’t show. Just had another crazy idea – can you imagine a few hundred marchers wearing Humza masks? That would be hilarious. Even the MSM couldn’t resist reporting it lol.
I’ll get ma coat.
@Big Jock,
Sorry you are wrong. David succeeded the Bruce and then Roberts grandson via the female line succeeded him.
Charles is via the female line descended directly from the Bruce.
I see all the fannies are here today. Brilliant! For those people I have one simple question.
Why do you consider Scots to be uniquely incapable of governing their own affairs?
I like Mr Salmond and he’s a decent bloke but he wants to remember when he’s dealing with the British state he’s not dealing with decent people and comment like once in a generation might be excellent comment for the moment but it affects the rest of us when we have to continue to listen to the Unionist saying it hasn’t been a generation.
@Ebenezer Scroggie
My, my, and to think that the vast majority of countries in the world are republics as weel. Do we hate all of them?
Veritas
How dare you come on here and spout the truth.
The BPHB will not like it.
Luigi, it shouldn’t be the case, but I fear Humza masks would backfire. Rather too easy for our opponents to accuse us of “blackface.”
Gordon Bain
Spoken like a proud member of the BPHB.
‘Why do you consider Scots to be uniquely incapable of governing their own affairs’?
Have you had a look at our politicians lately? Not sure of the exact number required to form a ‘Cabinet’ Where are they?
Are Wings running a stall at the Glasgow indy rally on 6th May?
Big Jock says:
10 April, 2023 at 6:01 pm
Tolkein. I doubt if Charles has any Stuart blood in him. Anne was the last true Stuart. After her it was George an Austrio/ German 2nd cousin of Anne. Anne had no children. So the Stuart blood was not passed on. As for tge last Queen. She claimed to be related to Bruce, but it’s pure fantasy. No-one knows going back that far.
Modern DNA testing is now common place, there are loads of historical samples available. However, you will NEVER see the so called royal ruling ruritanians lining up to submit to any testing, that’s a Pandora’s Box that NEVER be opened !
I put the tongue twister in jist fer fun…….
EBENEZER SCROGGIE
A poll by British Future conducted last may indicated 45% support for retaining the monarchy in Scotland and that was when there was a «popular» queen.
The current monarch is likely to be less popular.
The young, I can assure you, are not at all interested in this antique monarchy.
Gordon Bain says:
10 April, 2023 at 6:32 pm
”I see all the fannies are here today. Brilliant! For those people I have one simple question.
Why do you consider Scots to be uniquely incapable of governing their own affairs?”
As much as it pains me to say this Gordon right now we don’t look we’re capable of running our own affairs, Scotland is mired in institutional corruption and cronyism at almost every level of society from our police force to senior government officials and everything in between, not all of it is Sturgeons fault this is a long standing problem making us look like a tinpot banana republic and an international laughing stock and we need to clean it up fast
It seems that too many people are on the we don’t want to upset the establishment mindset to get independence, I was one of the first people to celebrate the formation of another independence party to CHALLENGE the corrupt snp and I was especially excited that AS had been elected leader of that party because I BELIEVED what AS said at his trial that there was a lot more to come out that was the TRUTH but NOW with covid it was not the time
I understand all the optic arguments about other countries and leaders but IMO this deference and submission if it happens just encapsulates the falsity of the statement SOVEREIGN SCOT, the fact is that Alex would be there to CELEBRATE the crowning and coronation of someone who DELIBERATELY brought a designated killer disease into Scotland knowingly suffering from it and putting Scots citizens at risk neither caring about the self same optics
@ Gordon Bain 6:32
“…Why do you consider Scots to be uniquely incapable of governing their own affairs?”
A heady blend of internally colonized House Jocks and English Exceptionalism. You know when this lot crawl out of the swamp something is afoot…
@PacMan says:10 April, 2023 at 11:55 am
If you think they are ‘anti-English racist’, then please provide an example and explain in detail why it is ‘anti-English racist’?
Good one! Thanks for the larff!
SpecSavers 2 for 1 with a free eye test. Should be open 9 AM tomorrow.
<b.BBC Main Evening News tonight. Just one story, a Spaniard wins a golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia.
No mention whatsoever of Scotland’s Team Mouat winning the World Curling Championship, beating a Canadian rink, in Ottawa, the Canadian capital.
Curling is an Olympic Sport, when the same rink won Silver at the last Winter Olympics, they mentioned it.
Of course, they’re Sweaties an inferior breed.
At least BBC Shortbread led their bulletin with the news.
akenaton,
Kate Forbes believes in the free market tooth fairy even though it NEVER turns up with their cheque books open ready to hire ALL of the unemployed.
She believes in the free market tooth fairy because a cafe opens up in a wee fishing village and hired 3 people and paid them the minimum wage lol.
Can somebody please drag history degree kate Forbes into Nannies the cafe by the scruf of the neck. Ask Kate to look in Nannies till. Ask Kate to take a £10 note out of the till and read it. So she fully understands that the free market tooth fairy didn’t put the £10 in the till @ Nannies. The government, the state, put the £10 in the till.
History degree Kate just loves Charity in her wee conservative fishing village. Kate loves nothing more than collecting £’s from rich people in the village and giving those £’s to the poor. Our even worse use charity to buy the local life boat. Or ask volunteers who already have a job to pick up litter and fix walking paths and plant flowers and paint fences, depriving the unemployed in her area a job.
If the UK government using an index finger and a computer keyboard bought the local lifeboat.Instead of Tunnocks Teacakes buying the local lifeboat via a charity contribution. Kate would scream Zimbabwe and scream hyperinflation.
So you catch the ideological drift from a neoliberal globalist, fiscal conservative monster.
If Tunnocks buys the lifeboat as a charity payment all is good in her world. But if the government buys the local lifeboat we will turn into Zimbabwe.
Where did Tunnocks get the £’s from to buy the lifeboat as a charity payment. Let’s read the note before Tunnocks hands it over to the boat builder shall we. Oh yes, Tunnocks got every £ they have ever earned in a 100 years from the state. It is written on every note they have ever received.
Exact same for the BBC’s Pugsy bear. Every penny Pugsy has ever received came from the state. It’s written across the front of every note that HM Treasury even signs with a signature.
So if Pugsy bear and Tunnocks can buy life boats without causing zimbabwe. Macmillan cancer research can buy goods and services without causing zimbabwe. So can the state, there are obviously enough skills and real resources available to build the life boats and cancer research without causing zimbabwe.
Get US who hand the state £’s to Pugsy bear and Tunnocks out of the whole equation. Allow the government to fund these things directly.
Allow the government to buy the unemployed at £15 per hour to fix the walking paths, plant flowers, paint the fences and all the other jobs that are currently done by charity. Or by those who already have a job denying others of a job.
So another 3 or 4 nannies can be opened in the wee conservative village.
That then allows these people to learn new On the job skills that makes them more attractive to the private sector. Rather than long term unemployed and Kate Forbes charity handouts.
Talk that Sturgeon will be gone real soon. Anyone got a suggestion to an alternative to popcorn. Got to give credit to WoS, thankyou.
@twathater says:10 April, 2023 at 6:52 pm
designated killer disease
It’s a bit less dangerous than seasonal flu.
Do try to keep up.
@ SteepBrae: “Alex should be seen in public as often as possible”
Good point by your astute friend. Alex has been ignored [and smeared] without any opportunity to show the wider public how capable he is compared with the pitiful bunch we’ve been run by for 8 years. The more public networking and publicity he gets, the better for Scotland’s cause.
Is it ok to wear greasepaint, a red nose, size 23 squeaky red shoes, and a big green wig in order resemble Humza?
Or is that coulro-appropriation?
The future of the 6,000 sq miles of Scottish waters stolen by Tony Blair should be a question for the “Community of the realm” and not a political decision. After all the land and resources of Scotland are not for the Crown nor political class to negotiate away. You can’t ignore the “Claim of Right” and the power of the “Community of the realm” yet use them as a means of vote winning. If you put it to the people I believe that there would be a resounding “We’ll have our territorial waters (with their several oil fields and fishing resources) back…thank you!
James 5 11pm
The AUOB March in Glasgow on Saturday 6th May starts 11.30am
meeting at Kelvingrove Park and marching through the city, finishing up at Glasgow Green.
Why do some Scots carry such a mega inferiority complex on their back but yet despite being bent double with weight fail to see the chains on their feet.
Graeme George says:
10 April, 2023 at 6:03 pm
Craig Murray made a video about the stolen sea some time ago and according to him getting it returned to an independent Scotland would be a trivial matter, He made the video from Carnoustie pointing out that if you looked out to sea from there your looking at English waters.
Nevermind the sea, when is Berwick coming home?
From 2008… “But local newspaper The Berwick Advertiser decided to organise an online poll to ask their readers whether they would rather be governed by England or by Scotland. 78% of all those who voted said they backed reunification with Scotland.
link to celticcountries.com
After what the murderous Longshanks did to the place in 1296, I reckon 78% is on the low side. There’s an open invitation to come home says I. How about organising an AUOB march through Berwick sometime?
Maybe we could offer England St Boswells in part exchange for Berwick, and get rid ourselves of SBC HQ as part of the deal… A win, win scenario for Scotland.
@socratese
Hang on the golf was a MAJOR (only 4 in a year)won by an european person so beloved by snp
Golf BTW is an olympic sport
What about the wasted money……or was it?
link to archive.ph
Like I said further up thread the rerunning of the SNP leadership contest is a MUST, if Ash Regan won it we’d be much closer to independence, what do we have to lose by getting behind the rerunning of this contest, we’ve already lost with Yousaf as FM.
This time though it MUST be open and clarity must prevail every step of the way. Redemption can still be achieved for the SNP, and more importantly if Ash Regan wins (in a fair contest) independence could be within touching distance.
link to archive.is
Socratise
Only 15,000 curlers in Scotland = very minority sport
Mind you the “trans” lot are a minority but they/she/her/him whatever get plenty coverage
Well done to mouat and crew
@Gordon Gekko says:10 April, 2023 at 6:59 pm
So can the state, there are obviously enough skills and real resources available to build the life boats and cancer research without causing zimbabwe
There you go again, Gordon, with your “government money is magical stuff and can be conjured up out of nothing”.
Yet when I asked previously why therefore ScotGov doesn’t just pay all adult Scots to be MSPs, you went all huffy and deployed the personal abuse.
Here’s what I think about government money. Governments borrow from future income to pay for things now. The only future income any government has is its citizen’s income. Governments have no money of their own, they only have what they can finagle from the people they govern.
Governments all around the world have borrowed everything they can from us, they have borrowed everything they can from our unborn children, and now, they are borrowing from our unborn grandchildren.
Are you happy with that, Gordon? The unborn of 2 future generations ahead will be on the hook to pay off debts we are incurring now because we are too fucking lazy and too fucking entitled to live within our means.
Not so fucking clever when spelled out like that, is it Gordon?
This will probably not see the light of day. Anyway…
The sight of waving saltire flags, is now giving me the boak.
This saga, should have been done and dusted, independence signed and sealed.
Sturgeon has proven the game’s bent. It makes me wonder, did she suddenly turn or has it always been a game? I don’t think she’d make that decision on her own.
Looks to me, since the Edinburgh Agreement was signed, we’ve been playing silly buggers, all along.
Brexit hard on the heals of that fantasy.
A pantomime of the highest magnitude.
As much as some think the sun shines out Salmond’s arse, between he and Sturgeon, how could they both accrue so many arseholes within the one party?
Needles to say, I’m fucking sick of the whole thing!
Scotland can hand back Doncaster to the English if they hand us back Berwick.
The Scots had no objections to “colonisation” when it was they who were about to pursue the Darien Scheme. The English and the Dutch pulled out but it was a Scottish idea and they continued with it, to ruination. Union with England was their salvation, accepted voluntarily but apparently without gratitude. The use of the word ‘colonisation’ in this forum as if an invasion is ludicrous.
Yousaf’s creation of a ‘Minister for Independence’ is a great idea if the minister can come up with a realistic, detailed vision for Scotland’s future. The GERS reports aren’t encouraging yet currently Scotland receives more support per head than England. If all fossil and wind energy were Scotland’s (to own or tax) would that be enough? I’m not sure. Let’s hear a clear case.
Silly MI5 conspiracy theories aside, the fiscal, political and electoral misdeeds of Scotland’s devolved, elected government would make even an avuncular state hesitate to grant independence. You might say the devolution experiment has failed.
KCIII: “He’s a descendent of the Stuarts, and his title harks back to the Stuart Kings CI and CII.”
The monarchy is the House of Saxe Coburg Gotha and their cousins are Battenburg. They changed names to Windsor and Mountbatten to sound English when German Gotha bombers were bombing England during WWI.
Charles II was the last monarch to be crowned King of Scots in a Scottish coronation – and he betrayed Scotland.
KCIII won’t be crowned King of Scots; he will be crowned as King of the United Kingdom.
There is no royal United Kingdom; it’s united kingdoms: Two kingdoms united under the same monarch.
The coronation will hide this fact. Scotland’s true constitution of a King of Scots who can only legitimately reign subject to consent of the sovereign people of Scotland, will be ignored. UK Parliament now decides who the heirs are. It will be an English coronation for all the UK.
That’s the UK Imperial lie. Scots who attend, will be giving support to the subjugation of Scotland by the imperial Crown of England.
@Breeks says:10 April, 2023 at 7:13 pm
After what the murderous Longshanks did to the place in 1296
New readers are invited to consider if Breeks is posting seriously. Fucked if I know.
Ok, let’s play. I have a keen interest in the Kingdom of Northumbria. We should look at its historic claims. One distinct advantage of ceding Northumbria’s original territory back will be that we will be shot of Holyrood once and for all.
Hell, let’s be generous and give them Holyrood’s incumbents too. AS excepted, good riddance to every damn one of the rest.
The few half-decent SNP MSPs must fight for the soul of the party, they must stand up for what is right, beginning with calling for a rerun of the leadership contest.
Yousaf’s tenure as FM must be declared void an null, the clandestine and deceitful way that Peter Murrell ran the contest whilst being part of a live police investigation and the interference of GCHQ further show that the contest wasn’t above board.
Those half-decent SNP MSPs must realise that the SNP and their livelihoods are now in serious danger of collapse with the SNPs credibility and reputation taking a battering, the day can still be saved if the contest is rerun and Ash Regan wins, but we need those MSPs to stand up and be counted not just for the good of the party but for the good of the entire nation.
A rerun and a Ash Regan win will put us firmly back on track.
John Main and off course nobody lived in the Northumbria you refer too before the Germanic Tribe invasions of the 5/6th century.
George of Hanover was second cousin of Anne, the last Stuart monarch. So I would dispute that the Stuart bloodline really carried on after Anne. Or it became so watered down , as to be tenuous at best.
The fact is the current Royal family are Saxe Coberg in origin. They became Windsor to sound English. So we essentially have an Anglo German royal family ruling over Scotland. The Queen was born in England, so was Charles, so was the Queen Mother. None of them are actually Scottish.
Claiming some 1/100 Stuart blood does not make you the heir to Scotland. The Robert the Bruce connection is just laughable. That was 700 years ago! It just cannot be proven. Or again if it can it’s like 1/1000th. Utterly stupid.
@James Jones
You’re bringing up topics, most of which were put to bed years ago. The onus is on you to bring better arguments, perhaps even some links (but no PDFs!!!!!) to substantiate your line of thought. I’m sure you’ll find someone ready to take the bait but mere assertion – using the word colonisation is ludicrous, MI5 (which no-one can talk about ever apparently) – is not worth a single minute of anyone’s engagement.
What does it matter if Alex Salmond goes to the coronation? After all , a fellow Scot, Patrick Doyle has been commissioned to write a Coronation March , so the more Scottish representation on 6th May , the better.
However, whether or not we have a King of Scotland, is a choice for the people in an independent Scotland.
Someone needs to represent those Scots in favour of a King.
The SNP are too quick to make decisions about what happens AFTER independence . Ironic really, considering they have no strategy as to how to get there and sometimes it feels like no intention of getting there.
Go for it Alex! I might watch it now.
Colin-Woven-Through-The-Acounts-Beattie is, apparently, contradicting himself.
link to thinkscotland.org
@Anton Decadent
‘The question is, why has Communism been given a free pass despite a huge death toll under it? Why does it not have the same negative reaction as fascism?’
Id refer you to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
Or to quote another ‘people believe that communism was the overthrow of capitalism by the masses. In truth communism was the overthrow of the masses by the bankers.’
But that’s where I stop on this forum.
@Ian Brotherhood
Yes, the left right stuff is meaningless now. The trouble is when trying to explain things its a starting point.
To keep things short I disagree with pretty much every mainstream commenter or pundit on the issue of fascism/communism/capitalism/national socialism.
As Anton decadent hinted at – we have been immersed in atrocity propaganda from a young age about the death toll and the perpetrators of one side, yet have been lead away from information concerning the death toll and the perpetrators of the other (which included networks of death camps, millions of victims, secret police, plans of world conquest, utter brutalisation of citizens, death quotas etc).
That should immediately arrive us at an obvious conclusion – there’s something worth hiding
John Main says: 10 April, 2023 at 6:53 pm
With this Trans issue, we have become aware of a few concepts. Two of them are gaslighting and DARVO (deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender).
This ‘anti-English racism’ is nothing but gaslighting and DARVO. It’s just pure manipulation to close down debate. It worked years ago but now we have wised up to it.
Re ‘Alex should be seen out and about as often as possible’.
Yes, and he can choose to be seen leading the Indy movement in Glasgow on 6th May, or he can choose to hob nob with KCIII, as a lowly wee Privy Cooncilor, with Humza in front of him in the pecking order.
As for the stolen seas, it wasn’t their to steal, and its not Alex or the Alba Parties to endorse the give away. What was it he said recently about the Stone of Destiny, and them helping themselves to it for the Coronation.
We have this year to win, after that Indy is done. There is no more time for softly, softly.
James Jones 7.57pm
Someone hand you this hotchpotch of points to throw out there?
None of them is worthy of a response – especially that a ‘state’, avuncular or otherwise, could ‘grant’ independence!
@Colin Alexander says:10 April, 2023 at 8:01 pm
Scotland’s true constitution of a King of Scots who can only legitimately reign subject to consent of the sovereign people of Scotland, will be ignored
Nice try, Colin.
Certainly true that Scots royalty was elective, rather than hereditary, but it is nonsense to assert that the Sovereign Scots choosing the next King ever consisted of more than a small group of nobles, landowners, ecclesiastics, etc.
The people (alright, men) who wrote about “as long as 100 of us remain …” would have been outraged if any of us riff-raff were to presume to be counted among their number.
Ditto with the gentry choosing the monarch.
It would be fun if a convention of our modern-day great and good were to be allowed to choose our new Scottish King, mostly because the howls of outrage from on here would raise the roof!
The royal family does not rule anything.
The monarch reigns, not rules.
Sure, Orders in Council are profoundly undemocratic in nature, but they are never initiated by the monarch. They are only ever initiated by the democratically elected government of the day.
Two responders not willing to address the issues raised then?
How would this have turned out if Westminster had granted the SNP full authority? Better, you say?
Sadly there are African nations shaking their heads at this fried-banana republic’s self-inflicted woes. Own it. Address it. Or just blame the English.
I am an Alba member and I don’t think Alex should be anywhere near the English Coronation. However it’s his choice, I just don’t think it’s appropriate for any independence supporter to cow tow to English establishment events.
Surely we want independence to break away from the Union Jack fests, and colonial pageantry.
Hi Gordon, my you must have a lot of time on your hands to write such lovely long comments. I’ve just got in from a hard days roughcasting…..at nearly 79 yrs. On the free market of course so I take a pride in what I can still do.
Just for information, I used to be like you and believed in “equality”, “diversity” and all that shit, believed in high tax, to look after people who didn’t want to work and who shamelessly work the system, look after unending streams of economic migrants who oil the wheels of the black economy, and price tradesmen like me out of the market.
You know what happened? I grew up in my mid twenties handed my YCL card back to King street said goodbye to all my leftie pals, got married and had four kids! By Christ life was hard, but I was harder and I’ve done OK and nobody starved, but I did it not on handouts but by strength and determination.
People like me are almost extinct, as LGG once said “ye need smeddum tae be richt coorse or richt kind”
The type of society you visualise Gordon will probably come to pass even in Scotland where we will lose everything to the apparatchiks and social invertebrates where we can do and be anything our masters demand.
Naw thanks Gordon gie me wee Katie’s free market any day…the alternative I’ve seen close up and it stinks.
The SNP are finished. They are cashing in.
Selling off Glasgow. Planning to charge for the M8 making a motorway a green emission zone.
They plan to demolish the Buchanan galleries and St Enoch’s centre.
They can’t give the homeless of Glasgow an indoor soup kitchen. Suichehall steet is a rotting cesspit of vandalism, flithy streets and empty shops.
The botanic gardens now charing. Council tax up. Parking levvys introduced everywhere in the city. Green space being sold off to Cala Homes.
Male rapists in female jails. Corruption. Corrupt leaders. The party chief arrested for fraud.
The whole Government needs brought down now. And not before time. They are criminal.
The poll tax on cans and bottles.
The Alba Party will replace the SNP. As soon as possible.
Ferries that will end up in scrap. It’s up to the Alba Party.
Independence non existent now that Humza has been appointed. It’s disgusting. It’s disgraceful. The Tories look good compared to this lot.
Nationalisation without the benefits. Record ticket rail hikes. Services Cut.
You can’t go green cutting rail. SNP. Hitting the buffers. Derailed.
Time to make an article. Go through every one of their policies and make it easily digestible just how unpalatable that lot are.
Scandal after scandal. The Sandyford clinic shutting down for the chemical castration of autistic and gay children and the rest.
Holyrood needs shut down. The polling will show Labour will be ahead within weeks. Days even.
“What does it matter if Alex Salmond goes to the coronation?”
Where is the coronation?
If Charles is going to be coronated King of Scots the coronation must take place here, in Scotland. Otherwise it is a complete and utter farce. Where elsewhere in the world have you seen the king of a kingdom coronated in another country. I see absolutely no place for ANY representative of Scotland to waste their time and our taxpayers’ money going down to England for the jolly of watching the coronation of an English king with their English crown. That is of no consequence to Scotland. Scotland’s crown is in Scotland. If Scotland’s representatives want a jolly, they can pay it themselves from their effing pocket.
Needless to say that if Charles wants to sit his backside on the stone of destiny, HE should come to the effing stone, not the other way round.
Sturgeon should go to jail for the billions of pounds she’s squandered in the reverse ScotWind auction alone.
Never again will I vote for the SNP. I spoiled my ballot. My concience is clear. It doesn’t matter if they are replaced by Labour. They are the yellow Tory party. Yellow bellies on Independence. Totally captured.
They offer nothing. They are nothing. They have been nothing to us 8 long years of Nicola Sturgeon.
I’m glad their caravan has been siezed by fraud cops. I’m glad her nicker drawer has been raided by fraud cops. It couldn’t have been more deserved. The honest officers of police Scotland. I wish them well. I hope they do the right thing.
Alex is a privy counsellor is he not? While we’re still stuck in the banana monarchy, he is an advisor to the head of state. Until we change that, I’ve no issue with an appointed advisor advising. Scooter otoh is going for less constructive reasons.
@PacMan says:10 April, 2023 at 8:35 pm
This ‘anti-English racism’ is nothing but gaslighting and DARVO. It’s just pure manipulation to close down debate. It worked years ago but now we have wised up to it
Yet I can mind the pseudonyms of a couple of regulars on here who usually only surface to print an anti-English rant.
I won’t mention names as I don’t want to summon them from their pits.
As for DARVO, I like the RVO bit and find it useful. Here’s one:
Hell will freeze over before the proud, patriotic people of Pakistan will choose a white Christian as their leader.
What’s that then, PacMan? Is that racist, or DARVO? Is it a cold, hard fact?
If it is a cold, hard fact, what then, eh?
Should we just suppress statements of fact? What’s that saying about telling the truth being a revolutionary act?
David. Glasgow is an embarrassment. It used to have a vibe about it. Now it just looks manky. It’s like the soul has been ripped out of it.
OK some of it down to Covid, some down to the SNP paying compensation to female workers,due to Labour’s legacy.
But I go to other cities, and they are recovering from Covid. Glasgow is still a mess.
Glasgow was a city reliant on retail trade and white collar footfall in the business district. Both have abandoned it to a large degree. Home working, home shopping lack of investment.
But cities have to reinvent themselves. At least give the place a lick of paint and clean the streets in the meantime.
The city is a shithole. Ever since Susan Aitken entered the city chambers. She’s let the people’s palace wilt. Rot and die.
It has never looked more filthy. It’s frightening. The housing stock is a disaster. The buildings crumbling. The concrete road bridges crumbling.
Sturgeon gives away £60 billion of our renewables energy future.
There’s nothing going right for it. Subway closes at 6pm on Sundays.
You’re charged to pick up and drop off at Glasgow airport.
It is a disaster. The hotels going up. No imagination. Nightlife dying. It upsets me greatly. Everything spontaneously combusts.
They are not making the lives of the people of Glasgow better. They are destroying this city.
@James Jones
Fried-banana republic…African nations?…you’re just an argumentative idiot looking for an online fight. No-one owes you a response and you won’t get one by indulging in out of date stereotypes. The issues you raise are done and dusted.
Provide evidence for your assertions or get used to no responses at all.
Historians. Charles III is a direct descendent of Mary Queen of Scots. She was descended from Robert the Bruce through the marriage of James Stewart who married his daughter and became JamesI.
The Old Pretender had two sons. Bonnie Prince Charlie of shortbread tin, Speed Bonny Boat and Culloden fame. He was a drunken wife beater who had no legitimate children. His brother Henry was an RC Cardinal so obviously had no legitimate children.George I of Hannover was the grandson of James VI/I. He was supported by the Protestant people of Scotland. The Jacobite rebellion was about religion, not nationality.
The current Jacobite heir to the Scottish & English throne is the 87 year Duke of Bavaria. He is descended through the Wittelsbach and Savoi families from the sister of Charles II. She married the younger brother of Louis XIV of France. In spite of him being homosexual and a transvestite they produced a daughter!
The English/Scottish wars of the Medieaval period were about a bunch of Normans both sides of the border jockeying for power, rather than feelings of nationalism. Think NY mafia dons in the 1930s. Many had land both sides of the border. Indeed Robert the Bruce’s (de Brus) father had English land in modern day London. History is more complicated than Holywood and Holyrood make out.
Still not engaging with the issues then?
David . I live in the Falkirk area,but used to work 5 days in Glasgow. After covid and home working. I am only in 2 days a week.
I wasn’t there for 2 years during Covid. Then I came back and couldn’t believe the mess. It’s almost on a Detroit scale, the level of abandonment. Virtually nothing but pound shops on Sauchiehall Street. Alleyways filled with rubbish and rats. Streets crawling with muck. Empty shops everywhere.
Go in the shops at lunchtime and you will be lucky to see 12 people in each one. It’s a shame. Because I always argued that Glasgow had the true culture compared to Edinburgh.
Now if I was a tourist I would be giving it a wide berth. I always thought Naples was the most disgusting European city I had been in. Trust me it is manky. But Glasgow is fair catching up.
.
Hi Ian Brotherhood,
I agreed with your earlier posting about the depressing anti-Alex Salmond comments popping up here on this BTL section.
Firstly, there ARE bad actors on this website. They post shyte and troll. Many are paid a lot to do this.
You can spot them. Often it’s the Bantz you get at 77th Brigade HQ. Typically when the squadie type vernacular seeps out… “you’re ‘avin a larff” is one such phrase a temporary troll on duty from the 77th here comes out with.
If anyone doubts that bad actors inhabit Wings Over Scotland, then study what has happened to the SNP since the IndyRef1 result was declared in 19th September 2014.
Ian, the ONLY person I trust to get Scotland out of this almighty bourach is Alex Salmond.
It was Alex, by his commitment and his deeds who got Scotland to within a whisker of becoming Independent.
That my friends, is an undeniable fact.
Nobody, but nobody else has done more to get Scotland to an IndyRef vote and campaigned to ensure it is a YES result than Alex Salmond.
To my fellow BTL commenters here having a pop at Alex Salmond for going to the Coronation.
We were within a 5% swing of becoming a properly Independent nation at IndyRef1, 18th September 2014.
You have heard this so many times: “every vote counts” Alex knows this. He also has the psephological reports and demographics. Approximately 11% of YES voters support the Monarchy. Scots who have served their country and given an Oath to their sovereign the Queen or now the King.
What do you do about that?
Insult the 11% of YES voters who believe in serving their Sovereign? Work your damnest and be damned by getting rid of that vital 11% so we can lose IndyRef. Again.
From listening to Alex Salmond over many years, I’d suggest first treating ALL voters and indeed all citizens and/or subjects with respect.
On this very day, 10th April 1998 the Good Friday Agreement was signed.
We and particularly our friends in Eire and Northern Ireland have had 25 years of peace.
On 8th May 2007 staunch Unionist, Rev Ian Paisley was elected First Minister in Northern Ireland.
Never, ever in a millennia of Sundays could I have imagined Ian Paisley serving directly with provisional IRA^ member Martin McGuiness. Let alone as a result of the St Andrews Agreement signed within yards of my home.
So before anyone on here, professing to SUPPORT SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE starts slagging off Alex Salmond, maybe show Alex a little respect please? He has a fair idea of what he is doing and why.
It was on this very websites MANY of us asked, begged Alex Salmond to re-enter Scottish politics and do something about this bag of poison…
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Frankly, the state of Scottish politics just now, ONLY ONE THING MATTERS.
That is get to IndyRef2.
AFTER that has happened we can all debate KC3 or NATO or Trans or whatever. Each issue can have a vote… IN AN INDEPENDENT SCOTLAND.
But until that time, PLEASE wise up…
1. Learn to recognise TROLLS on this site.
2. Learn to spot false-friends at your local SNP Branch (if you are still a member). I ripped up my membership.
3. Maybe just rip up your SNP membership and join ALBA.
The ONLY way that the ONLY thing that matters to Scotland will ever be brought back to life… INDYREF, is with Alex Salmond at the helm.
Lest we all need reminding, Alex was found NOT GUILTY (with one orphan not-proven lurking and by a female judge to boot).
Far worse have come back to politics. The m@le r@pist that sits in the Speakers Chair on occasion at Westminster snaked himself back in.
Dozens of crooks and criminals have gotten back in.
Somehow and it will be revealed likely here, an innocent man will again lead the Scottish YES movement.
His name is Alex Salmond.
If you have doubts, especially what a proper Scottish statesman sounds like, treat yoursel’ …
link to m.youtube.com
On topic: Stu., you are right with the header for this thread. The Party Is Over, for the SNP. But it has only just begun for Alba and Alex Salmond.
Original post from Ian Brotherhood for reference: link to wingsoverscotland.com
This just in from Smitty. He’s seen the seating plan for the Chamilla bash in Westminster Abbey. They’ve put Sturgeon and Salmond next to each other in Scotch corner. Gordon Brown gets the aisle seat so he can get up and walk about a bit when he gets cramp in his arse.
Sarah, Daisy, Ian B, Lenny.
Should AS attend Chuckies big do in London?
Yes he should.
As a Privy C. he is our man in the heart of WM/Monarchy and is privileged for information from the centre of the beast. It’s a resource for him which is (partly) why he could run rings around the English Government in Parliament.
Remember, on that one day he’ll mingle directly with most of the world’s Head of States or their representatives and political leaders. A lot of them will be in town for 2-3 days so plenty of chances for AS to get stuck in.
The AUOB march has loads of good speakers and AS would only be one of them, 10 mins and then the next one please..!
Our target is Independence but the tactics of how to get there is very important. It’s got nothing IMO to do with betraying the people/AUOB but simply using your brains to get more for your buck.
So where is AS more useful on that day..?
London Scott
Some correction needed: Robert Bruce was succeeded by his son, David II, who died without issue. The crown then devolved to the son of Marjorie Bruce, daughter of Bruce’s first marriage. (Marjorie had died either in childbirth or soon after.) She had married Walter Stewart so her only son, named Robert, became Robert II and first of the Stewart dynasty. James I was the son of Robert III.
Your description of the Wars of Independence is quite a simplification of what was a complex series of events but it’s too late at night to get into that discussion and anyway, I don’t see the point of it.
Ron Clark says:
10 April, 2023 at 5:34 pm
“I was always led to believe that the minute Scotland became an independent nation, that the UN would Immediately overturn that theiving English land grab.
So really surprised Alex Salmond would say such a thing.”
Unlike folks here faulting him on trivial matters, Alex Salmond can see the bigger picture, which for him has always been independence.
If you know that the UN would step in, surely Alex Salmond does too?
Why start an argument now about the stolen waters knowing they would automatically come back?
I would love to see Alex Salmond attend the coronation and being seated next to Sturgeon.
Proven innocent by a court, would Sturgeon greet him in the same way she greeted war criminal Blair’s spin doctor?
Big jock
George 1 was a great grandson of James 6 that is why he got the throne, that and being protestant.
The current monarch is descended from the Stewart’s. The BBC constantly link them to the English monarchs but this is classic fake news and rewriting opf history. The BBC constantly present the British crown as English and they are quite incorrect.
Mia says:
“Needless to say that if Charles wants to sit his backside on the stone of destiny, HE should come to the effing stone, not the other way round.”
—————–
This I absolutely agree with..!
AS not going to chuckies do won’t generate much headlines, if any, but Scotland refusing to send the Stone down south, now that is really going to fck up the English media.
If you want Independence you’ll have to fight for it.
Al. A point I would disagree on. You say 11% of yes voters are pro monarchy. So we should accommodate them. Yet 89% who are anti monarchy should just accept it?
Here’s the thing. I will vote yes whether Salmond kisses Charles’s bare toes,or attends a garden party at Buckingham Palace. It doesn’t mean I have to agree with it, or go along with it. I just have to put up with it.
But if that 11% won’t vote Yes because Salmond didn’t lick a royals ass. Then what dies that say about them?
As for the wider public. We lost in 2014 , despite the SNP being pro-monarchy. I honestly don’t think it should feature in a decision on your country.
I am old fashioned. I prefer principles to popularity.
But I am not having a go at Salmond. I would just prefer he stuck by his principles. I don’t think he is a royalist.
Al-Stuart says:
10 April, 2023 at 11:03 pm
“Ian, the ONLY person I trust to get Scotland out of this almighty bourach is Alex Salmond.”
I trust two persons – Alex Salmond and the Rev. Stuart Campbell – to do their damn best.
But the tractor Sturgeon was allowed far too much time to severely damage the cause.
Not least by her adoring fans right here on this blog who used to hound anyone who dared to criticise “our Nicola”.
Al-Stuart, do you remember the days when a few posters here were calling for folks to vote Labour to try to get her to lose her Glasgow seat?
Glasgow is a great city but after 70 years on Labour Donkeys on the council gravy train the city has gone backwards.
Do not forget Labour spent over 10 years and £100’s of thousands on lawyers to stop female works receiving equal pay.
SNP did the decent thing and paid up 10 years back money that has really burst the City budget for many years to come.
The Tories selected 61 areas that required extra funding with 59 being in Tory seats.
What chance the Tories giving Scotland anything when they know we haven’t given them a majority in 70 heading toward 100.
These Low Emission Zones are going to kick hell out of footfall for the shops and Bars that are few enough already.
Debenhams No More, Forsyth, Dallas, Arnott Simpson, Watt Bros, Sauchiehall St Marks- All gone for good.
Peeps – stop using the makey-up adjective “coronated”.
The monarch is CROWNED at a coronation, not ‘coronated’.
Glasgow is a great city? I never got that myself. Perhaps because I was born on the East Coast. Good human rights record in Glasgow but mired in sectarianism. At the 2015 Caird Hall event in Dundee. Nicola wouldn’t call Yes City. Dundee 57%. Glasgow 53%. She was never good at maths or money and especially our money.
Red Squirrel says:
10 April, 2023 at 9:57 pm
Alex is a privy counsellor is he not? While we’re still stuck in the banana monarchy, he is an advisor to the head of state.
———————————————–
So can you tell the people of Scotland the benefits of being an advisor to the head of state , and what advice the head of state has taken in respect to Scotland.or even how has all these privy counsellors past and present advanced things for the people of Scotland
Or is it maybe just the case that the monarch doesn’t give a flying F++k what AS or any other privy parasite advises them and is happy to go about ignoring them and accepting their deference because it feels good
Why do we continually have cap doffers and establishment lackeys promising to set our country FREE and in the next breath they capitulate and eagerly embrace the very rancid establishment that they are SUPPOSED to despise, we have trolls coming on here to berate and denigrate Scotland and Scots, they ironically are the perfect example of why any indy ref should be restricted to Scots born citizens , they feel entitled to throw about the false english entitlement narrative of the Scots subsidy junkie where everything that we have has been GIFTED to us by the munificence of our english masters
As has been said numerous times these people have NO INTENTION of being thought of as new Scots they only want to spread their own version of colonialism, a version that our political classes are only too keen to promote and continue adhering too
I see the failing Herald is getting its knickers in a twist about Scottish ferries again.
I reckon, if the SNP-led government is due censure for the state of our ferries, it can only be for NOT carrying-out a complete clear-out of the management at Caledonian-Macbrayne.
Getting in a management team with a management strategy and the ability to carry it through just might be the answer, since the current lot clearly couldnae run a menauge.
On another topic: Brian Doonthetoon @12.19am I blame the malignant influence of our trans-Atlantic cousins for the use of “coronated.”
If a leadership re run was called I wonder who would actually want the job ?
If Kate runs, how strong would she be in cleaning out the dead wood ?
Is Ash strong enough? she might be, but probably not enough track record to woo the voters
Humza will have a death grip on “First Minister” and only relinquished from his cold dead hands
” The ONLY way that the ONLY thing that matters to Scotland will ever be brought back to life… INDYREF, is with Alex Salmond at the helm. ”
Really , Al , the ONLY man that can bring about our liberation is Alex ? That’s quite a responsibility . What if something happens to him ,eg …illness . Would it be all over then ?
Will he come trailing clouds of glory ? On a chariot of fire , maybe ?
I’ve stated my respect , admiration and FWIW affection for Alex many times on here – and elsewhere ; but laying this messianic mission on him is both unfair on him and myopic in the extreme .
I’ve also said I would love to see him take back his rightful place at the heart of the Independence Movement & Scottish Politics generally – fuck knows , the country is crying-out for a man/politician of his calibre – and see his reputation restored and the bastards that attempted to destroy him thrown to the dogs . Whether that can/will happen remains to be seen .
His going or not going to the Coronation is not of earth-shattering importance either way and will not in itself make much difference : but if we’re still at the stage of trying to placate this group or that group eg not scaring the horses – we’ll never get anywhere , because there will always be yet one more group whose imprimatur we require before we can become ” a Nation again ” .
The symbolism of Alex rejecting the Royal flush and playing the ace-card by addressing his natural constituency of Independence-minded people is worth more , much more that being seen to be part of an antiquated ritual that will do NOTHING to improve the lives of Scotland’s residents .
Let the scrawny , fawning likes of Sturgeon and her ilk take their place and display their deference on May 6th .
WE have better things to do that day
@Al-Stuart says:10 April, 2023 at 11:03 pm
“you’re ‘avin a larff” is one such phrase a temporary troll on duty from the 77th here comes out with
WTF? You aving a …
Haud oan – looks like I’ve been rumbled.
Or maybes naw.
Tell you what though, Al. Accusing posters whose arguments you can’t beat as being 77th and then calling for respect for all posters, in the same fucking post is defo having a something.
An episode, maybes.
Other than that, a good post though. Me and the rest of the lads on the night shift all agree on that, even the rupert.
John Main says: 10 April, 2023 at 9:58 pm
Why don’t you educate us as to what ‘anti-English racism’ is and include examples from this site as illustrations?
@Robert Hughes says:11 April, 2023 at 7:22 am
being seen to be part of an antiquated ritual that will do NOTHING to improve the lives of Scotland’s residents
I’m struggling to see what staying away will do to improve the lives of Scots – I would say NOTHING.
Other than that, a good post. I agree that AS has a great role ahead of him as Scottish Indy’s elder statesman, but he’s not leadership material. For a start, he’s too old. The USA and Russtiland provide perfect examples of what happens when you let the geriatrics retain control.
Luckily, it takes only a few years for completely new politicians at the head of completely new political parties to come through. Just look at what they are doing in Europe. Scotland can surely do the same.
If the new, energetic, charismatic and untainted leader of Scotland, whoever she or he may be, engages with AS as the behind-the-scenes guiding hand, Indy will be on course for victory.
The collapse of the SNP and the nation shaming travesty of Yousaf provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Indy to re-invent itself for the second quarter of the 21st century. Simply turning the clock back will not provide the kick start Indy desperately needs.
Whatever it was AS had, and he certainly was inspirational, has been lost, he looks old, fat and defeated. In addition, women still do not like him, he is damaged goods.
New people for a new era, but waving the banner wont cut it these days. To reinvigorate this population will take years of work and planning, maybe impossible as the demographic slowly changes and we are overtaken by world events, but the old men of yesterday wont get through to our bewildered youth.
akenaton 8.03am –
Bollocks
RE Alf Bairds: The Theoretical Case For Scottish Independence
Just wanted to address something about the above document that’s very relevant to the discussion now.
The following factors are highlighted:
Culture
Language
Ethnicity
Demographics
Colonialism
Nationalism
Institutions
Constitution
Self-determination
To summarise – the struggle for Scottish autonomy is far wider in scope than can fit under party politics and requires leadership, and active participation in, a number of different areas.
What is required is a movement for national revival from the ground up that goes beyond marches and political activism.
This will not be done by adhering to mere politics alone. The idea that advocating for this or that person is enough for Scotland to survive the coming decades is naive.
The cart is firmly before the horse. When a population is so demoralised and divided there will be no political solution.
Politics can only be seen as viable once a strong homogenous movement, led by high quality non-political thinkers and writers, has been grown in order to shape the political discussion from the outside and raise the collective morale of the people. From that basis will emerge the politicians that we need, not simply the politicians we hope for.
There are a number of obstacles to this:
1 the most significant being the astroturfed corporate funded fake left causes that continue to split the pro independence Scots
2 the inbuilt feeling of caution Scots (and all Europeans) have of being seen to ‘go too far’ with their nationalist spirit which is purely a result, as I have mentioned before, of shamelessly peddled atrocity propaganda to which we are exposed from childhood and which is used to beat us down when our ideas of nationhood gets into the realms of real self-preservation.
3 the lack of awareness of The Big Picture. The Grand Scheme and the threat to Scots, as well as all other sovereign peoples that the mainstream does a very good job of obfuscating.
4 the idea that Civic nationalism is anything other than Globalism by a different name, and that in a time of mass migration into our territory the concept of civic nationalism is an invitation for Scots to lose their say in their homeland forever.
The above problems have to be addressed by education and deprogramming. Most of what most of us believe come from an establishment that wishes to keep us ideologically neutered and too afraid to get ideas that would properly threaten the status quo.
A deprogramming of the century of lies (20th century) needs to happen and this will automatically align the views of those who have the veil lifted because once this is done things become very obvious and there’s far less room for disagreement.
I understand how over the top this sounds but if we do not do this we are going to a very dark place.
Bear in mind that my contributions to the discussion here over the course of years included warnings of dire consequences should certain issues be ignored including government responses to ‘the bug’, the trans movement and what it will do to the independence cause, the true nature of the SNP (indeed all parties in the Scottish Parliament) and how it aligns with most political parties in the Western World, the continued and planned slow economic implosion, the preparation of laws that make it difficult for us to talk about non-european groups that would herald the beginning of mass importation of the same into our country (to be later politically weaponised against us) and so on.
Despite being dismissed and often derided my record has been excellent. That’s not because im a genius but because im not afraid to look in the right direction from where all of the above comes from, which most people won’t even contemplate.
My biggest criticism of Professor Bairds document, which is otherwise a superlative start, is that none of the above originates in Westminster. This is a critical point. Indeed Britain as a whole is to suffer the same fate as Scotland.
Lastly a lot of what I am saying here applies to other countries, including that of my spouse. My father in law is a prominent person in his nation and has had numerous television appearances for his advice on his area of expertise. He is a nationalist who loves his country and people but sees it slipping bit by bit as his people are slowly displaced and the corporate ‘left’ trade mark astroturf causes get pushed on the young and serve to limit group cohesion.
I have had numerous deep conversations with him and what I have just written applies to his country as much as mine.
Sorry Alf, I wanted something more sleak which your document deserved but in the end I have to think around the playing of a toddler and I have work to do also. Those are my thoughts and again the document is brilliant and a real start.
“women do not like him” – that’s a somewhat sweeping statement , this woman does and agrees he is the person to lead us to independence , with the help of Neil Hanvey, Kenny McAskill and several others.
C’mon ALBA!
Re RACISM
As someone who has been faced with dumb prejudice..anti arab, anti muslim (i’m neither) and «racism», you know it when you are in receipt of it.
Anti english «racism»? It is certainly possible to be anti english, as it to be anti american, politically etc. but compared to the full on «racist» variety it is a mere scratch to the very big ego.
Ottomanboi, I was talking about institutionally supported racism against a particular ethnic group, not the mindless comments of knuckle draggers.
If you don’t want to allow yourself to see it then that’s fine.
What Joe said, 11 April, 2023 at 8:36 am
Great post, Joe.
I only know of 2 who women who make it clear they don’t like Alex Salmond one is an idiot and the other is a man hater, neither can give a rational reason for their dislike of him,I personally think the real problem some women have with him is that he’s a white middle aged heterosexual male, to these women we are the lowest form of humanity and the scum of the earth
Ian Murray @7:15
If leadership election needs re run most of those expecting to be cleared out could easily be deemed to have pre selected themselves by ‘coming out’ for either Humza or the gender reform rubbish that took out Sturgeon earlier* – so its not nearly as difficult a job as might be imagined.
That said I’m convinced you’all just ripping the proverbial at this point, ie setting aside the wisdom of buying a camping car, in your mum in laws name (or her buying it for you), on assumption your feet will reach the pedals before it gets flogged to the chippendales in exchange for housework & massage, the precedent police scotland (FFS) is setting in seizing it is phenomenal in event arbitrary law is not being invoked (see art 9 & 12 declaration of human rights)
That is to say, it being 3 years since economy, morale and ethics were taken to absolute zero over common coughid, the police have just established the line for suspected corruption in the civil service – and that line (to the great interest of many with memories, however vague, of the American dream) is that a couple with no children, and combined salary in the order quarter of a million pounds plus, cannot reasonably be expected to be able to make payment on a motor home in the current climate (let alone buy it outright)
Accordingly, every above average civil service employee/ contractor claiming (or hiding/planning a surprise gift involving) ownership of assets to the value 10% of a motor home (ie new set of wheels, gearbox, full tank of petrol for same, etc) must now be subject to the tent in the front garden treatment at the discretion of secret courts who cannot possibly be acting for the Crown but may, or not, be acting for others.
*Admittedly Humza’s claim that Sturgeon was ever so proud to have voted for him might be the most difficult part to resolve in such a scenario since, taken at face value, it risks precluding them both from being the unifier on grounds of honesty (ie refusal to endorse any candidate)/ poorly timed footshooting (ie in parallel with the arrest(s?) that ‘his’ SNP has yet to condemn).
JOE
Scots had a major role in the creation of the supranationality British. Heavy weights like Walter Scott, John Buchan, Macaulay, Hulme, Carlisle shaped an imperial identity based on «refined» English cultural models that made Scottish a synonym for rustic, provincial and «wild».
There was an Edinburgh based Scottish Enlightenment but it was perceived as a product of Britishness and the new «improving» Union with England. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Murray and the Oxford English Dictionary were typical of that new identification with global, imperial Great Britain. Magnificent in its day, however, that is now history. The British empire is finished. The grand rationale for Unionism has gone with it.
All that is left for Unionists is memory. Memory of how Scotland served a particular purpose by being something else.
A «party» certainly over, like Imperial Russia, Ottoman empire, the Raj.
akenaton
I very strongly don’t believe in high taxes. In fact, in an independent Scotland. I could get rid of a lot of them. After I have introduced a job guarentee.
Why ?
Because they don’t fund anything. It is very clear from your response you have fallen for the tax payer money myth. At your age you should know better.
“If a leadership re run was called I wonder who would actually want the job ?”
Ian Murray @7.15am.
It would NEED to be Ash Regan, she had a good plan for independence, the other two, Yousaf and Forbes had/have no plan for indy.
The quickest way to get the indy cause back on track is a rerun of the leadership contest, and an Ash Regan win.
Regards the franchise.
If we allow everyone a vote on the independence decision. We might as well not have a national identity at all. Because what is the purpose of being a nation in the first place?
It’s birth, culture, heritage, language and brother and sisterhood. We share a Scottish identity. Take that away and it becomes a business decision. And a lot of the debate in 2014 was framed around economics. It became dry and sterile because of that.
Independence is a cultural awakening for a captive people. I don’t expect English settlers to feel the way I do about my native land. They can’t feel the same, because they come from another nation. But expecting me as a Scot to feel the same way they do , or be shouted down by them, is certainly not on. That’s the very essence of colonialism.
So I am not anti-English, I am just not English. I don’t feel or think like them. We are different , and that’s what the movement has been about since day 1. We have drifted away from that in the obsession with being seen as civic.
So what do I propose is fair? A 10 year minimum residency for any incomers in any future vote on Scottish independence.
Once we get independence then all citizens can claim a Scottish passport and citizenship, (if they choose). If we never get independence because we allow one group to incomers to decide our fate. Then we haven’t really understood what being a nation means.
The idea that we can persuade the majority of English migrants to vote for Scottish independence is fantasy. However once we get it, then they will have the choice to stay or go, along with any other immigrant groups. But they should not be the ones deciding our fate, it’s for the Scots and long term residents to decide.
I’d rather see a GE at Holyrood than an SNP leadership election re-run
link to afr.com
Ottomanboi
That was very informative and well written, thank you.
But I’ll give you a good example of the difference between myself and you when it comes to the artificial perspective that is pushed on us.
Your name here contains the reference to an empire that was just as guilty of every other sin of the others. Indeed my wife’s grandmother and the people of that generation would talk of how the women would have to dirty themselves while working in the fields as Ottoman soldiers would simply rape them for not being Muslim. The women would then hide the fact from the men as they knew any backlash from them would result in mass murder of their village. This in the 20th century.
My point is that nobody is forcing atrocity propaganda on you and trying to guilt you into thinking against your ethnic or cultural group interest right now anywhere in Britain.
Instead that discrimination is reserved solely for the native inhabitants of these islands.
You are allowed to strongly advocate for yours. Im not.
‘Whiteness’ is talked of as a disease to eradicate and a problem to solve.
Its so in your face now that anybody who pretends not to see it is either insane or intentionally missing the obvious to preserve their ideological world view.
We are becoming the unwelcome element in our own nations and laws are in place to limit our ability to even mention it publicly.
@Joe says:11 April, 2023 at 10:22 am
Good post.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with standing up for your own culture and belief system in your own country.
In fact, a culture and belief system that people are too feart or apathetic to stand up for is fated for oblivion.
I can almost understand apathy. But to abandon any defence of your own culture because you are feart of somebody saying “wacist” to you is contemptible.
socratesmacsporran As somebody who’s travel plans have been fucked over once again this week by Cal-Mac I disagree that the Scots Govt only issue was not a clear out of Cal-Mac.
The Govt should have got Alf Baird in and used his expertise to develop a plan probably using Catamarans to upgrade the service to one that is suitable for purpose.
For the first time ever (excluding Winter in early seventies) folk have had to book as foot passengers
As the capacity on the Ship , the Isle of Arran is not sufficient to meet demand.
Our normal ship the Caledonian Isles went away for a refit expected to last a month in January. Its still not back as issues such as rusting hull and major engine issues discovered.
We had two smaller ships the old trusty Isle of Arran (built for this run in 1983 and relocated to Islay around 1994 as capacity could not meed demand and the Caledonian Isles introduced.)
Another ship the Hebridean Isles was meant to share the load with the Isle of Arran, it lasted under two weeks before it had issues with the bow visor and could not use Ardrossan and was designated freight only from Troon, which lasted another couple of weeks before issues of control developed (Faulty rudder I believe) it still has not been repaired.
The whole fleet is falling apart, that is 100% the Scottish Governments responsibility.
Cal-Mac, C-Mal and Transport Scotland are also not fit for purpose, i sent the new Transport Minister a message congratulating him on his appointment and advised him of the issues facing Islanders, and the consequences of doing nothing more than patching up obsolete equipment. I have known him for over thirty years as I worked with him on his first day as an SNP Activist trying to get Bryan Adam elected as a Councillor. He has not even bothered to respond, so I dont see any change anytime soon.
So ive got a job to do taking photographs at a Motorcycle Road Race event in Scarborough this coming weekend, normally I would leave here first thing Friday morning and about six hours driving to Scarborough. My booking which was made over a month ago has been cancelled as the Caledonian Isles is not back in service, now i have to go on Standby tomorrow (Wednesday) from around 10.00am, and hope im going to get off the Island by the 1800 sailing, if not i have to drive to Lochranza get in the queue there and stay overnight in the car park and make a four hour detour
Otherwise I would face a near 12 hour drive on Friday.
Now this would just be about acceptable as a once off (shit happens) but around 50% of my journeys away in my motorhome in the last couple of years have meant that detour either coming or going, its simply not acceptable.
Dorothy, maybe that was too sweeping a statement, but a very large number of women do dislike AS just mentioning his name is enough to get the eyes rolling, and his smugness used to have an old world charm which today is simply irritating.
I don’t think the unlikability factor is all Alec’s fault as middle aged women are revolting and Alec’s foibles are an easy and delicious target.
Time to move on.
‘I can almost understand apathy. But to abandon any defence of your own culture because you are feart of somebody saying “wacist” to you is contemptible.’
When it comes down to it the future of my child and all of our children and grand children are at stake.
The current attitude towards ethnic European peoples is coming from the same place as the trans movement and will ultimately do to us as ethnicities what they intend to do to women.
There is only one option – get real, drop the niceties and put up a fight for the future of our bairns and in the long term our people. Most of all – act as one.
John Main says
” Yet when I asked previously why therefore ScotGov doesn’t just pay all adult Scots to be MSPs, you went all huffy and deployed the personal abuse. ”
And
“Here’s what I think about government money. Governments borrow from future income to pay for things now. The only future income any government has is its citizen’s income. Governments have no money of their own, they only have what they can finagle from the people they govern.
Governments all around the world have borrowed everything they can from us, they have borrowed everything they can from our unborn children, and now, they are borrowing from our unborn grandchildren.
Are you happy with that, Gordon? The unborn of 2 future generations ahead will be on the hook to pay off debts we are incurring now because we are too fucking lazy and too fucking entitled to live within our means.
Not so fucking clever when spelled out like that, is it Gordon?”
Okay John I will spell it out for you but you won’t listen or even look at the accounts to see if I am lying to you or not. You feed off ideology instead of actually looking at The assets and liabilities.
John your first question just shows you fail to understand the constraints on ANY type of spending from bank lending to government spending to consumer spending are skills and real resources and how both effect productivity.
Not that you’ll even look at it because your ideology and GROUPTHINK will stop you from doing so. This TED talk explains it beautifully.
link to m.youtube.com
By asking why ScotGov doesn’t just pay all adult Scots to be MSPs is a stupid question. If everyone was a MSP who would deliver the skills and real resources everybody needs. This is why basic income guarantees fail everywhere they have been tried. Just giving people money to sit and do nothing and not produce goods and services causes inflation. See the pandemic for details.
On your second point – ” Governments borrow from future income to pay for things now ” – very clearly shows you don’t understand money John. Have fallen for the government finances are like that of a household myth.
Government borrowing is nothing but a reserve drain. It pays for nothing. Government borrowing is just an asset swap.
Allow me to put it in layman terms for you John using facts and the govt balance sheets.
1. The government doesn’t need to borrow like a household does. A household is a currency user the govt ISSUES the Damn currency John.
2. At the end of each day if there are ” excess” reserves in the commercial banks balance sheets from the government running a deficit for the day. That is the government put more money into the system than they have taken out with taxes. The banks try to get rid of these excess reserves from their balance sheets. This drives the overnight interest rate to zero if the BOE does not step in and drains the excess reserves.
It even has a name John – The overnight interbank market.
At the end of each day some banks have excess reserves and some banks don’t have enough reserves. So those with excess reserves sell them to those who don’t have enough. If there are still excess reserves in the system. The BOE will step in and sell bonds to the banks with excess reserves and drain the excess reserves out of the system. So that the BOE can hit its overnight interest rate target.
If at the end of the day the government has run a budget surplus and all of the banks are short on reserves and don’t have enough. Then the BOE will step in and buy back bonds the banks hold to give them more liquidity and the reserves they need.
3. When you or I swap our cash for a bond that does NOT fund the government John. Quite frankly it is an absurd notion and shows your TV has poisoned your mind.
First of the all the government gave me and you the cash that we use to buy the bonds. It is written on every bank note before you exchange it for the bond.
Second it is just an asset swap exchanging a reserve balance for a government bond. It is a 2 column excel spreadsheet operation at the BOE.
Reserve balance ————-> Bond
When we cash in our bond
Reserve balance Bond
That’s not leaving debt to our children and grandchildren John are you insane ? That’s earning more interest on our savings to give to our children and grandchildren in our wills.
What you call paying off government debt is simply this
Reserve balance <———— Bond
Replacing the bond back to cash plus interest. You are passing more of your savings to your children and grandchildren John.
Don't believe me. Think I am playing tricks on you. Lying to you John. Look at the accounting yourself or simply hear it from the horses mouth – Frank Newman is an American banker who served as the United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. Talking about people like you who spread false myths about government borrowing. It's 14 mins the best 14 mins you'll ever spend to educate yourself and think for yourself.
link to m.youtube.com
John your complete failure to understand money and view government budgets like that of a household has got you into this mess. You start from the wrong starting point and it grows arms and legs. No wonder you hate government spending if you think it works the way you do. I would if it worked like your TV says it does. But it doesn't and never has you have fallen for the propaganda.
You have a he'll of a lot of learning to do John.
@ Oneliner at 11.15: “Sturgeon and Salmond next to each other” at the coronation.
My goodness, either the planner has no idea whatsoever or they have a very unpleasant, sadistic sense of humour.
While the union of the crowns existed before the Treaty of Union, Scots Kings barely if ever visited the country. The King/Queen is still recognised in many Commonwealth countries without a specific in-country ceremony. Many Northern European and Scandanavian countries that we apparently admire remain monarchies. Very few of the republican countries in Europe whose systems we may prefer still never produce widely acceptable presidents.
So while the monarchy is far from ideal, and at least the next two monarchs appear to be hypocritical entitled idiots, happier to hang out with the national and global billionaire class than their own subjects, there are bigger immediate issues towards getting independence.
A militant attitude to the monarchy, and anyone associating themselves with them will create more ill will and distraction unnecessarily, particularly putting off the more persuadable converts to independence.
It can and should all be dealt with later.
I agree with your analysis Joe. There is a strong anti-white movement sweeping Western countries, full of guilt-tripping for past sins in an attempt to destroy white civilizations.
John Main,
The national debt clock when you look at the ” Asset” side of the government balance sheet is actually a private sector ” Asset” clock. Our savings that earn interest.
Please tell me John what is factually wrong with this lecture at one of the top universities in America.
link to m.youtube.com
Your understanding of money does not reflect the government accounts John. Your version is a fairytale, upside down and back to front.
I look forward to reading why you think the lecture is wrong.
I have now given you 3 lectures from universities including Frank Newman who was in charge of the US assets and liabilities at the US treasury department.
I’ll give you a fourth from Bloomberg – This Is What’s Actually Happening When The Government Auctions Bonds
link to bloomberg.com
And a 5th that all backs up 100% the truth and what I say. From the BBC
link to m.youtube.com
And a 6th John from Mike Norman who appears on every channel on US TV. Mike Norman is an economist and veteran trader whose career has spanned over 30 years on Wall Street. He is a former member and trader on the CME, NYMEX, COMEX and NYFE and he managed money for one of the largest hedge funds in the world and ran a prop trading desk.
link to m.youtube.com
Now do you believe me John. Or still think I am lying to you , or playing a joke on you. Or manipulating you like your TV has for 50 years. Your worldview is wrong John. Spend some time learning the facts and the actual balance sheets. Increase your understanding of how money works. Or the starting point how you view money will always be wrong. Thus always come to the wrong conclusions.
@Joe
Yes indeed, Alf Baird’s Doun Hauden is a remarkable and timely piece of work.
May I also recommend: Orientalism – Edward W. Said
The New Age of Empire – Kehinde Andrews
Sometimes the commentators here make me think of that Gary Larson cartoon where the scientists, with their magnifying glasses, surround and are examining an elephant, each coming to different conclusions – “it’s a snake!” – “it’s a unicorn” …
Once saw a surfing competition (bear with me) – one surfer had been wiped out and got caught “between the waves” (very dangerous place); and from his position he could see another massive wave coming to smash him … it looked bad, but here was the thing – the people on the shore could see there was another even bigger wave behind the first … (can’t remember what happened to the guy, hospital at the very least)
– for us, the union is the next wave coming to smash us; the second wave is the oligarchs end-game – “globalism” – a worldwide techno-feudalist surveillance state.
But – first things first, which is why people need to ignore those who, e.g. go on about the EU, sure it has problems, but it is nothing really. There is no comparison whatsoever between the humiliation and exploitation of the UK and the, relatively decent, deal you get off the EU.
The importance of Alf Baird’s work is that he “comes out and says it” – what a lot of people had been thinking for a while, using bullshit phrases like “de facto colony” … “like a ” … “pseudo” … COLONY !
– the great thing about accepting the C-word is its practicality; the tools you need to free yourself have already been created at the UN, and the most important part is this – you do not need to “ask permission” or even involve the UK in this. NB – the UN would never have allowed the rigged franchise of 2014.
It is very important to keep England, the UK, the English away from anything to do with independence; they are bad actors and can’t be trusted, con-men, in other words. And they are all at it, “left” and “right”, they are all little englanders at heart.
Simon Jenkins, some fool who writes for the world’s worst newspaper, the Guardian – was going on about “sturgeonism is dead but nationalism is still a threat” (- threat to what? the price of your house? retirement options?) and he was suggesting some hot air about “FEDERALISM” – more autonomy based on the swiss canton model …
– anyone who falls for this needs to be shot. If we are all still here in 2033 talking about Super-Devo-Max-the-Vow, then we are all stupid cunts and deserve what we get; I hope an asteroid hits us all before that happens.
John Main
Best if you just ignore the clown.
John main,
In the very simplest terms so a 5 year old can understand it.
The UK national debt is nothing more than a total of ALL of the £’s ever spent by the UK government.Minus what was taken out of the economy by taxes over That period.
That households and businesses decided to swap for bonds. Instead of holding that private sector surplus as cash.
@Joe
Re your spouse, my background was far Left, my partners went from centre Left, active member of the Labour Party, to extreme far Left, active members of the Communist Party, SWP etc. I just went along, wilfully ignorant, doing the right thing etc. I then went into a relationship with someone who is from a country whose entire identity is threatened by its Communist closest neighbour and they told me that in the West we have no idea what Communism actually is. This prompted me to educate myself with regard to Communism and Globalism, I had already read two of Solzehenitsyns’ books in my late teens and over the last two decades I have been studying more.
What really turned my head was going into the spheres of further education and the public/educational charity sector and encountering a hostile network of blatant prejudice, nepotism, cronyism and political, and more so, ethnic favouritism which would make the Masons blush. The people behind this use a shield of permavictim status whilst indulging in outright anti white racism and also pushing the trans message. Whilst I am being physically attacked in Govanhill and my attackers let off by the police because they have been told to do so I am victim blamed by my peers who are active in promoting the people who are attacking me as brave victims of whiteness and part of the international struggle against whiteness.
After awhile you have to conclude that it cannot be an unending series of coincidences and that these people actively hate you and yours and wish to see you gone forever in your own homeland.
@Confused
So the Scots are to treat all the English as agents of subversion while the United Nations and possibly the EU should be our go-to guys in order to keep us out of international treaties and political blocs that the globalist oligarchs have set to entrap us?
Gordon G,
The concept of a National Debt was invented by a Scotsman, William Paterson. He created the Bank of England to issue and administer such debt. The King was delighted and became the largest shareholder. Previously, there had only been the King’s debt, usually to fight wars. Now money could be created out of thin air and the would be no obligation to pay back the value of the debt.
Paterson went on the create the disastrous Darien scheme which bankrupted Scotland and subsequently led to the creation of the Union of the Parliaments. ‘The Emolument’ was a bailout to the formerly wealthy idiots of Scotland of approx £400k, a lot of money in those days. They actually set up a new bank to adminster that money. It still exists and is called The Royal Bank of Scotland.
Eventually more Scottish idiots ran that bank into the ground through fecklessness and incompetence. The Chief Economist had for some years been someone who needs no introduction here.
It took two Scotsmen, Alistair Darling and Gorm Broon, tens of billions of BoE money to bail that one out and to prop up the Bank of Scotland and some lesser Scottish financial institutions such as the Dunfermline Building Society.
The idea that a central bank can conjure infinite trillions of Dollars/Pounds/Euros indefinitely is nonsense. All they are doing is debasing the currency. Any idiot can do that and quite a lot of idiots do exactly that.
One of the reasons why the IndyRef failed was that a putative amputated Scotland would have no central bank to act as a bank of last resort. A country which cannot control its own ‘money’ (currency, actually) is not really a country at all and is certainly not ‘independent’.
Iain b can u archive that article @1016, subscribers only
@ Lenny Hartley
Here is the archived version.
link to archive.is
FYI if you cannot access a page it is often worth copying the link then going to one of the archive sites and pasting it in to check if it has already been saved. That was the case with Ian’s link.
Hope you have a fine time at the bike racing after what sounds like rather convoluted travels. I had a braw bike ride to Glencoe last Friday.
Does anybody know anybodybthat loves in Dumbarton?
link to glasgowtimes.co.uk
Lenny Hartley @ 10:47 am
“The Govt should have got Alf Baird in and used his expertise to develop a plan probably using Catamarans to upgrade the service to one that is suitable for purpose.”
Yes Lenny, the Catamaran Ferry Group have (again) offered a solution and await their call, though I don’t expect it will happen until most of the CalMac fleet is unusable and laid-up in Port Glasgow and the Holyrood piggy bank is empty:
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
Ebenezer Scroggie
Who said anything about creating limitless amount blips out of thin air ? Not me EVER!
So what are the real constraints on how much can we create ?
link to m.youtube.com
The main problem is two fold…
1) People have been house trained like little puppy dogs to think of money as it was under the gold standard and fixed exchange rates. Imprint that reasoning and theory on fiat money.
2) People have been house trained like little puppy dogs to always only look at the liability side of the balance sheet. NEVER look at the asset side.
They even do it with exchange rates. When the £ is falling they talk as if the sky is going to open up and ground beneath our feet is going to cave in. Nothing bad ever happens life continues as normal. They completely ignore what it means for every other country who’s currency just got a lot stronger. Which is bad for them if they export their way to growth.
It ‘s called balance sheet itis. The failure to look at both sides of what’s happening. Driven by the media to instill fear.
The mainstream media drives this nonsense when they report on the deficit they say things like this ….. Only using the liability side of the balance sheet.
” The Government continues to create a big black hole in their finances. The deficit increased by £325 million ”
” We continue to live out with our means as the deficit increased by £325 million ”
” we are fiscally irresponsible as the deficit increased by £325 million ”
The narrative and framing used is to fill people with fear as they have been house trained to believe the deficit is like our own household budget.
Using the asset side of the balance sheet. We can all take a deep breath and feel good about it.
” The private sector surplus increased by £325 million. The money households and businesses use to buy goods and services increased by £325 million ”
Only thing we have to worry about is – Do we have enough skills and real resources to produce the extra goods and services within the increased demand the £325 million will generate. If not could be inflationary.
link to businessinsider.com
Idiots think funding the money is the problem it isn’t. Skills and real resources is what you can run out of not money.
Ebenezer Scroggie,
If you are interested in the actual history of what took place around the Darien time you might like these.
MONEY AS A CONSTITUTIONAL PROJECT
link to moneyontheleft.org
And
AMERICAN COLONIAL CURRENCY
link to neweconomicperspectives.org
Anton Decadent
Very interesting post and thanks for sharing that. Good to see others speaking the same language.
Humza’s alloted task here is to make the SNP as unpopular as possible so as to increase Starmer’s chances in the general election. Starmer is the anointed one.