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The Party’s Over

Posted on April 09, 2023 by

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.

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Terry Darvel

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

Terry Darvel

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.

Giesabrek

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.

Andrew scott

Dooomed ah tell ye doooomed

Al-Stuart

.
As the Americans say…

“Go woke, go broke.”

robertkknight

Can we crowd fund two tickets to Panama City please?

Heaver

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.

Cameron Lochiel

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

Jim Bo

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.

Georges

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?

Thomas Box

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

Stephen

So I have only one question Was Sturgeon and Murrell driven solely by greed or were they plants?
I fear it was just greed

Scott

Do you think Humza will hang on until the humiliating losses at the General Election?

Viscount Ennui

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.

Stoker

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

John C

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.

oh my word

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.

Ian McCubbin

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 .

GlesgaJim

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.

Steve

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!

ScottieDog

Fugazi – by Murrellion.
Or maybe ‘She chameleon’
Get ma coat.

Antoine Bisset

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?

President Xiden

Go Humza, your proposed legal action on the trans ‘rights’ issue will alienate even more of the country against you and this clown administration.

sadscot

@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.

Oneliner

We should be careful not to discuss the retirement of Sir Iain Livingstone – it’s an ongoing expiry.

DJ

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.

Al-Stuart

.
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

James Barr Gardner

Car trouble……..

link to facebook.com

David

“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!

Den

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

AndrewN

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

meg

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.

John Main

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.

ayemachrihanish

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…

Republicofscotland

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.

Red Squirrel

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.

Bob Mack

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.

moone

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.

Lorna Campbell

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.

ayemachrihanish

(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.

Daisy Walker

‘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.

solarflare

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?

London Scott

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.

Derek

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…

Republicofscotland

“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.

Peter A Bell

Powerful and depressing.

Liz

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.

Karen

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.

Bob Mack

@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.

100%Yes

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.

Liz

Talking of the static for two years campervan.

Reminds me of Breaking Bad.
Oh dear

Daisy Walker

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.

robertkknight

Terry Darvel #1

Let me know when Ireland is due for invasion. I’ve some friends there who may be interested.

Cheers!

100%Yes

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.

Carnyx

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.

Gerry
Michael Laing

@ 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?

KLF

So where to now ?

AK

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?

Grouser

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.

Ottomanboi

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.

Mia

“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 Che

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.

Dan

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…

President Xiden

Thought for today: How exactly does a big f*** off motor home square with net zero and 20 minute neighbourhoods?

President Xiden

Thought for today: How exactly does a big f*** off motorhome square with net zero and 20 minute neighbourhoods?

North Chiel

“ 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 ).

William Russell

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.

Muscleguy

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.

Ebenezer Scroggie

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!

Vestas

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.

Rob

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

Wullie Halliday

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.

Stuart MacKay

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.

Rob

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.

carmens+mum

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!

Meindevon

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.

Stuart MacKay

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.

Mark Boyle

“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.

Scot

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.

William Wallace

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.

Ottomanboi

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.

DavieC

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.

Ted

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.

Helen Yates

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.

keviano

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.

Tom

Take a bow, Wings Over Scotland ..

link to heraldscotland.com

Bob Mack

@Keviano,

Yes. You are indeed an idiot!!

John Main

@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”?

twathater

@ 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

Ebenezer Scroggie

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.

robertkknight

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.

Stoker

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.

Vestas

@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.

Scot

@ 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.

gregor

Tommy Smith (2022): Embodying the Light: Transition:

(A Dedication to John Coltrane: Spartacus Records):

link to tinyurl.com

wullie

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.

Stephen OBrien

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!

Marjorie Thompson

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.

Colin Spalding

Terry Darvel says:……

Please nothing else. Sorry but painful.

Shug

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

Big Jock

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.

JockMcT

@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!

chossy

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.

Ian Brotherhood

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.

SusanAHF

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

Vivian O’Blivion

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.

Beauvais

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.

Stoker

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!

Big Jock

link to heraldscotland.com

Well done Kevin!

Alan McHarg

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.

Lothianlad

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!

Tartanpigsy

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

ronald anderson

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 .

Mark Boyle

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!

Geoff Anderson

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.

Scot Finlayson

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.

David Hannah

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.

Derek

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…

Saffron Robe

Go Woke…go broke…and the SNP are broken beyond repair!

David Hannah

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.

Davie

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.

Robert Hughes

“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

Jockmcx

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!

steve davison

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 .

Chic McGregor

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.

Andrew scott

OT
Scottish curlers win world Curling Championships in Canada v Canada
Brill

Kcor

“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.

Jockmcx

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!

boris

A very long read but worth it

link to caltonjock.com

Cynicus

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 “.

Ian Murray

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

Kcor

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.

Breeks

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.

Kcor

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.

DJ

I’ll be there…

Jockmcx

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!

Ron Clark

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.

JustAThought

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.

Robert Hughes

@ 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 .

Etticus

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.

Breeks

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?

Robert Louis

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.

Breeks

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?

Breeks

Oh…. And hearty congratulations to Scotland’s World Champion curlers.

North Chiel

“ 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 .

AndyH

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.

Etticus

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.

Stephen O'Brien

‘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.

Luigi

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.

wullie

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.

Big Jock

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.

John Main

@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.

John Main

@wullie 8:21

“Everyone should wear a crown”

Maybes think that one through, eh, Wullie?

panda paws

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.

Sandy Howden

As Privy Councillors Useless, Salmond and Sturgeon and Hosie will all be at the Coronation. Have no fear. They love it.

C Mackay

Proving that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Natal XY and proud

Can someone contact Stu via twitter re the post at 8.02 today which libels Alex Salmond. He may want to delete it asap.

Dean Clark

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

Rogerborg

“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.

Antoine Roquentin

@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!

Beauvais

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.

Dorothy Devine

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!

Ron Clark

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.

Dan

@ 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.

Breeks

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?

Andrew scott

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

McDuff

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.

Ian Stewart

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.

Ian Brotherhood

Can anyone clear this up – is Alex Salmond attending the coronation or not?

Ron Clark

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.

Frank Anderson

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.

Stephen O'Brien

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!

jockmcx

Ian Stewart 10.10AM…WTF

Ian Smith

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.

Liz

@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.

Gordon Bain

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.

Stephen O'Brien

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.

Algae Pondlife

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.

Stephen O'Brien

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! 🙂

Dorothy Devine

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!

KLF

seemingly something big hits the fan tomorrow ?

PhilM

@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.

John H.

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.

Scot

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…..

Ian Stewart

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.

Paul Davies

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.

Ian Stewart

@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?

PacMan

O/T

since this topic is mentioning NATO, worth repeating

link to archive.is

Defence Committee Oral evidence: US, UK and NATO, HC 608 Tuesday 15 March 2022

Members present: Mr Tobias Ellwood (Chair); Stuart Anderson; Sarah Atherton; Dave Doogan; Richard Drax; Mr Mark Francois; Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck; Gavin Robinson; John Spellar; Derek Twigg.

….
….
Q29 Stuart Anderson: That is interesting. You talk about the polar opposites and I agree that P^t1n has been successful in uniting everyone, as probably all parties believed would happen. Looking at the unity we have got from the U***** crisis, hindsight is a wonderful thing. Is there more that NATO could have done in the build-up to what has been happening in the U***** crisis?

Lord Robertson: It is difficult to know precisely what could have been done, and in many ways we did do quite a lot. I am not entirely certain that P^t1n had a long-term plan for the invasion. A lot of what has happened since then has suggested that it has been ill-thought-through, badly planned. This is a radical thought for me to give you, but I wonder: did we goad him into doing it? Was he assembling the troops around U***** in order to harvest some security guarantees but, at the end of the day, felt that his credibility would be diminished if he did not invade? That is a heretical notion, and history will prove me right or wrong, but a very senior R*****n was in London before the invasion saying, “There is no way he is going to invade, but every day he doesn’t invade he loses a bit of credibility.”

So, what NATO could and should have done, and did do, was to be ready and conscious of the fact that U***** is not a NATO member but is a partner country, and to do as much as we possibly could to prepare it for the possibility that R***** was going to invade, as it seemed to be threatening with the troop formations that were put in place.

Q30 Stuart Anderson: Can you expand on the point about whether we goaded him—as you said, that is quite radical thinking. If it was viewed that way, do you still think he would have invaded if we did not actually do the build-up we did?

Lord Robertson: I do not know the answer, and I cannot see inside Vladimir P^t1n’s head. He is a very different individual to the one that I dealt with when I was NATO Secretary-General and I met him on nine occasions. All I am suggesting is that some of the more optimistic views that he must have had about how easy it was going to be to invade showed signs of a lack of preparation, a lack of intelligence, on his part. We thought we were right in exposing our intelligence that he was going to invade, that he had made preparations for the invasion, but then he would, if he was going to extract the maximum from the bargaining process. Only history will tell, but there is no doubt at all that this has been a badly planned operation, and he will rue the day that that invasion took place in the way that it did.
….
….
….

sarah

@ 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.

Oneliner

@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.

Dan

@ 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.

PacMan

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’?

Ottomanboi

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».

Garavelli Princip

“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.

Red

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.

Bob Mack

Small point. Alex Salmond is on the Accession Council. He is there to represent Scotlands interests under a new Monarch.

Yousaf is not.

dasBlimp

… but generally speaking, the Scots don’t like the English. For evidence of this read the comments above.

sarah

@ 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…]

highlander

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.

Joe

@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.

Joe

‘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.

Paul Davies

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.

Matt Quinn

“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.

Garavelli Princip

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.

Ron Clark

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.

Dan

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

Paul Davies

“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.

Garavelli Princip

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.

Ottomanboi

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.

James Barr Gardner

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 !

Joe

‘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.

Alf Baird

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.

Ebok

@ 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

Tom Harrison

English people living in Scotland have exactly the same rights as everyone else.

Dan

Paul Davies says: at 12:37 pm</