The Portillo Moments
It wouldn’t be human not to take a brief pause to enjoy a victory.
But this is only one battle.
Because all last night achieved was to give the independence movement a fighting chance of achieving its goals again, by taking back a measure of control of its main political arm from an intolerant, extremist, entryist group pursuing other agendas with no real interest in independence as a principle.
(And who knew that the actions of transactivists up to this point had in fact been a demonstration of “reconciliation”?)
The rage last night at a simple expression of democracy was telling.
That second one, from the convener of the hyper-woke, trans-captured Young Scots for Independence faction, is especially telling. It sourly complains not that the entire membership didn’t have a vote in the NEC elections, but specifically that some over-represented “affiliate groups” (ie theirs) didn’t get special privileges in the voting that would have allowed them to override the wishes of the wider party.
Because the way that small but determined special-interest entryist groups manage to capture large organisations is through things like the NEC elections, where only a few hundred conference delegates (out of a membership of tens of thousands) get to vote.
If you’re stealthy and dedicated, you can effectively mount a coup with a microscopic fraction of an organisation’s membership, simply by turning up to branch meetings that most people can’t be bothered with, getting your people nominated as delegates, and then springing the ambush at conference.
The difficulty with that strategy is that it only works as long as you can cling onto the power that you seize. You can’t pull off the same surprise twice, because people are watching for it and they see you coming. The transactivist faction are so furious today because they know the game’s up and there’s no way back.
Cailyn McMahon, of course, was one of the signatories to the appalling letter targeting Joanna Cherry, Joan McAlpine and others on Friday. Sane people in the SNP probably owe a significant debt to whoever put that letter together.
Its content was SO toxic that it couldn’t have been better timed for the “gender critical” movement. Many of the NEC votes were won by narrow margins – the awful Fiona Robertson was edged out as Equalities Convener by just 62 votes, for example.
It doesn’t seem like a wild leap to imagine that significant numbers of people were sufficiently horrified by the letter when this site made it public on Friday night – Wings certainly got HUGE traffic on it, and even more so on Monday when covering Joanna Cherry’s fightback – to rouse themselves to vote against its supporters, and to tip the balance in a key number of close contests.
The closeness of the power struggle was indicated by some of the seats that the woke faction DID manage to cling on to. Graham Campbell, another shameful signatory to the backfiring letter from the aggressive trans faction, held his position as BAME Convener against the excellent young woman Sameeha Rehman by just SIX votes out of nearly 2000, for example.
Astonishingly, someone who is currently SUING the party (and who was blocked from addressing conference on the opening day) also came within a hair of being elected to its top role, that of National Secretary. David Henry lost out to Stewart Stevenson by just 48% to 52%, having actually been ahead with just two rounds of transfers to go.
(Craig Murray, incidentally, also put in a highly creditable showing for the ceremonial position of party President, securing a quarter of the votes against the very popular veteran figure Mike Russell.)
So we should be in no doubt that the elections could very easily have had a much worse outcome. Last night’s victory for sanity and decency and women and gay people achieves nothing in itself, but it had to be won for there to be even a chance of saving the party and the campaign for independence.
The onus now shifts firmly onto those elected last night – Joanna Cherry, Caroline McAllister, Douglas Chapman, Neale Hanvey, Dot Jessiman, Catriona McDonald and more – to use the power the SNP’s members have given them in some key positions to guide the party back towards its primary goal. There is still time. The good guys are in a clear majority on the NEC now, and this site will keep their actions under the same scrutiny as their predecessors.
But for the first time in a long time, the grassroots SNP and Yes movement are feeling some hope this morning. It’s been a good day in other ways too – Keira Bell has won her landmark court case, the ramifications of which will be much discussed in the coming days. And as we write this we’re also watching a very interesting session of the Salmond inquiry playing out at Holyrood.
Hope is a fragile thing, but it’s precious. Just for today, let’s enjoy it.
Kirsty Blackman MP signs off with #ProperFeminist
Wtf does that mean?
I’ll take that fragile hope any day over the crushing despair of what’s gone on.
But, there needs to be a monumental change with some urgency. A reckoning is coming – it’s about time the grown-ups had their say.
Stu, this would not have been possible without
Rot in the state of Denmark
The power of the people
Democracy. I can only see Scotland stronger now
[…] Wings Over Scotland The Portillo Moments It wouldn’t be human not to take a brief pause to enjoy a victory. But this is only […]
Excellent news overall, that some me and friends nominated hot into key positions.
There is a wee bit of hope ??
I couldn’t help but be amused at the deliberate ‘misspelling’ in the file name of the first image.
This is also a good day for gender dysphoric and trans people who are sick of seeing there cause hijacked by intolerant bullies. Thanks for the good work Stu. We are all breathing a little easier today.
Sorry to correct you wings but you have to look at both columns. The first column is the quota and the second the excess – you need to add them both together to get the total vote
“Sorry to correct you wings but you have to look at both columns. The first column is the quota and the second the excess – you need to add them both together to get the total vote”
So where is there an error?
Superb summing up Stu.
Thank goodness we have you.
Watching the enquiry as well, very interesting.
Today is a good day.
So good not to have to groan in despair at one of your postings, Rev. Stuart. So good to see something like decency and sanity taking precedence at last.
Dear Cameron chappie/chappese,
No, not some deep reflection needed at all.
Some deep fucking off required.
That’s the right thing to do for some of those
demanding extra special privileges for minority groups.
Leave the party if you don’t agree it’s up to the entire membership
to vote for the priorities and objectives that the majority want.
Many have left because of your behaviour so for each of you leaving
We might have 3 or 4 come back.
If you are Trans good luck to you in life but we are not putting born females
in danger to suit you.
God help you if you turn to Boris as a better alternative.
Racist, Sexist, Adulterer, Compulsive liar,etc.
The petulant death rattle of the SNP Gender Cult. Sod off to the Greens where you belong.
Aww Naww is that the term ‘twittler youth’ finished ?
Channel 4 reports
“UK government figures make it absolutely clear that Scotland has subsidised the rest of the UK in most of the last 40-year period.”
Who would have thought that?
I recall seeing a government document from 1919-20 where
It showed Scottish income to the treasury was Circa
£118 million and £35 million was sent back for Scotland to spend.
I’m pretty sure we have been robbed blind in most years since 1707.
If any of the woke mob are planning to leave Scotland over an NEC vote then I am more than happy to cough up for an outbound one way flight. I am sure we could do a whip round on here and we could probably even bump them up to first class
Hopefully the scales will have fallen from the eyes of those who were unaware of the true nature of the biology denying zealots and carpetbaggers who would use the SNP purely as a vehicle to deliver their Woke utopia.
The SNP remains in danger of being hijacked by such individuals and the action, or should that be inaction, on the part of the Dear Leader will no doubt give them encouragement to fight back.
Those still in the party who believe that Indy should be the priority need to beware the plotting for the attempted coup that will no doubt have already started today.
The Wokerati will not give up their position without a fight.
As for their vision of utopia, the following 3 mins ought to do it…
youtu.be/URz-RYEOaig
do the twitter youth ever look in a mirror?
it would appear not, as if critical word used against those seeking independence could possibly be said to be ‘right back at ye’
Not so much the night of the long knives but the night of the small dirks. And Daddy Bears porridge was too hot this morning as well. What’s not to like? I will think about rejoining. It’s getting back to being a party that represents the people that vote for it.
Very happy with the election results. The fight back has got off to a good start and the leadership would be wise to recognise that much more progress is needed to take Independence forward. The ordinary members have spoken.
Well played Stu. It’s been a fine few days work there.
Exposing that woke suicide note of a letter and then covering Joanna Cherry getting piled on by the usual suspects will have tipped the balance. They dinnae like it up thum. Braw times.
Wise note of caution: The science-denying authoritarians will try to come back. They must not be allowed to. All the affiliated groups should be disaffiliated and decisions should be OMOV. These afiliates coalesced into a tiny but powerful agency with overlapping memberships and agendas, giving them influence well beyond their numbers. This must end and direct democracy introduced.
“Some people are planning to leave Scotland over this vote…”
I can fit 4 in my car. More than happy to dump them over the border. Might even slow down first.
LOLZ
Thank you Stu for your tenacious and forensic journalism in these very gloomy last few months. I am sure it has been very stressful as you have yourself admitted.
As you have not had a crowd-funder this year, I am sure many readers would think this would be an appropriate time to launch one to bolster the coffers for the fight ahead.
Those heading for the border probably haven’t seen the latest outbreak of common sense prevailing elsewhere…
link to news.sky.com
Dave Beveridge @ 12.38
you made my laugh till I cried with that one – it’s the afterthought… you might even slow down….. great!
I am astonished to note that CeCe will no longer be voting yes as she didn’t get his way. Very telling.
Should we all just start calling him “diddums”. Or will I be in Humza’s black book ?
Regarding mr yusuf I suggest he immediately withdraws his idiotic thought crime bill and then resigns.
As a dedicated Wokeefenokee, I just want all of you “Wingers” to know that me and all my mates are going to totally flounce out of the SNP in a tantrum and set up like a new party of our own.
Deprived of our strategic genius and tactical nous, the SNP will collapse in disarray. Our new party will totally win the next election, and when we’re in government oppressed minorities who go out on dark rainy nights and eat wet dogshit off the pavement will totally have their own two-hour daily prime time BBC Scotland TV programme. Which is exactly how it should be…
I wonder if ‘Leave a light on Daddy Bear ‘ was using it to dry his eyes last night. Never liked the smarmy type and couldn’t see why the SNP thought highly of him.
Achievements- zilch, nada, Another wet pishfart on the Gravy train
I savoured every word of that excellent piece; I had it with ice cream. Good news indeed.
It is the utter arrogance of the Woke that angers me. They are harming the LGBT community with their intolerance. Genuine people with gender dysphoria and some who trans are being harmed by the intolerance of the Woke. I sincerely believe that they are using the “transphobe” insult for a purpose which has no real concern for the welfare of trans people.
The Keira Bell case highlights that the current response to gender dysphoria is child abuse and in some cases should be prosecuted for serious assault. Mermaid and even many children’s charities require urgent examination.
How did the independence movement allow itself to be hijacked by these obsessed people. They do not give a damn about the people they falsely claim to support.
‘Mon the Terfs!
Don’t want to throw in a big downer when folks are enjoying some good news for once…
But IF Scotland is going to make any Constitutional attempt to protest it’s subjugation and colonial usurpation of sovereignty, and thereby compell Europe and Westminster to extend the Transition Agreement and hold Brexit in abeyance until the last ditch Scottish Constitutional Backstop can be resolved, then we have four weeks in which to do it, and that’s over Christmas too..
Rejoice and be happy, but please, please, please, can we give this option some serious and speedy consideration?
Scotland can yet short circuit the whole Brexit debacle, stave off Westminster’s asset stripping and deregulation of Scotland, and have the Treaty of Union in terminal condition on a life support machine before this year is ended, but WE MUST ACT QUICKLY. There is NO time to waste.
Dispute the Constitutional integrity of Brexit at the UN.
“Ian says:
1 December, 2020 at 11:59 am
I couldn’t help but be amused at the deliberate ‘misspelling’ in the file name of the first image”
Aye, always like the wee messages, never saw that one.
“Aye, always like the wee messages, never saw that one.”
I wish I still had the energy to put alt-text captions on pics these days.
Both of Alyn Smith’s eyebrows must’ve been doing a double-Spock all night.
Personally, I think for every weirdo who says they are abandoning indy after this… you will find that you get at the very least two voters more prepared to (1) return to yes (2) definitely not move from “undecided” to “no”.
If they are in the No camp, that will be an enormous boost when campaigning among the sections of the population still not convinced by indy (age group, ethnicity).
Stu yesterday put up a list of all the horrors in the SNP and Greens. That list alone would have been enough to kill indy stone dead among the good voters of Scotland for the next 300 years.
“affiliate groups” – is this newspeak for a faction?
Interesting times indeed.
The Caravan of Opportunity has stalled for the Campaigners…so where to next?
DO they jump aboard Anas Sarwars “open outlook” bus?
Will Wullie Rennie open a door?
Are the Greens open to ideas?
or do they just sit back sulking and pissing ( standing or sitting regardless) all over the tent from within…
Hold on..I suspect given their choices…Douglas “open to all bar Gypsies” Ross might have potential membership increase to crow about soon!
“So where is there an error?”
For example it appears that,
David Henry got 823 at stage 4
Stewart Stevenson got 1002 and so won by 179 votes. Or Stevenson got 55% and Henry got 45%. Funny how 45% keeps coming up.
The explanation for the figures is that 1002+823=1825 votes were cast.
Quota, the number of votes needed to be elected is 1825/2=912.5
So the surplus of Stevenson, the amount by which he exceded the quota is 1002-912.5=89.5 .
I hope this is helpful.
Kenny@1:04pm I think you’re right; jettisoning the wokeists and their agenda will bring others back.
Just to add, in my humble opinion, derailing Brexit by citing the unconstitutional subjugation of Scotland’s popular sovereignty will be, and is, our last chance to take the shot at an open goal.
If we don’t take it now, then if or when we ever do secure and win an IndyRef in the future, Westminster will have a legitimate precedent to cite. Why should it be bound to recognise any future Scottish democratic edict, when it’s refusal to recognise Scotland’s democratic rejection of Brexit wasn’t even challenged?
Scotland MUST defend it’s sovereign constitution.
At last some good news.
The more normal folk in the party need to be alert to the danger of the aggressive mentality ill folk with serious sexual issues returning.
I think the SNP need to examine their democracy to allow all members a vote, this would see the aggressive ones off for good.
I won’t re join the party just yet there are still others who need to go at the top of the SNP.
None the less excellent day for sanity don’t ya think?
If standing up for Women, Children, Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals and against intolerance, misogyny, bullying and temper tantrums is bigotry then where do I sign?
There is a danger that we are all so relieved to have achieved a ‘win’ that we take our eyes off the ball.
What are the Brit Nats Up To? Because they will be up to something.
Boris and Mogg handed St Nicla a great big stick to beat the Indy drum in the last 2 weeks. As inept and England First as they are – they have others behind them pulling the strings. They’re stupid, but they’re not THAT Stupid.
That was gift, given deliberately for Nicla to play.
And she did – the Biggest Threat to Devolution met by her Strongest Hint yet of the Promise of an Indy Ref soon.
In the same time period – Sweiney – went to the press to report – that while he was in Cabinet with Alex Salmond – Alex reviewed the case to open up a public enquiry on historic child abuse and decided – quite probably on justified grounds – that it was not in the public interest to do so at that time.
Did Honest John raise concerns about it then, has new evidence come to light that wasn’t available then, did he resign from Cabinet out of conscience about the decision then? No he waited – over 10 years – to go to the press and make / provide a smeary type article to the media. One week before the SNP Conference. It’s not even a good attempt at a smear.
Why? Was he leaned on. Was it to bad mouth Alex in the press again and prevent calls for him to be welcomed back into the party? Ahh, that could well be it. They really, really are scared of big Eck aren’t they. But who does that to their own party, and to the cause of Indy. A responsible high up party official, determined to achieve Indy, would be practicing Damage Control and Limitation, not attempting to dig up new stories for the press.
The same Honest John who, when Mhairi Black took an adult sexual entertainer into a Primary School with a Twitter Account full of indecent images – did very, very little about disciplining her regarding the matter. He cares such a lot about child safety – obviously. But of course a Deputy First Minister has so little clout.
I’m delighted at the outcome of the St Andrews Day rout. But folks, what ground needs to be covered. And if its not being covered – one there is no more time, so if they ain’t doing it now, we’re screwed – then we need to cover it, and those not doing their jobs are the new problem.
Your critics have been silenced. You are a true patriot.
Take a bow, Reverend Campbell
A note of caution…
In respect to the title…I can clearly remember being in The MacDonalds Forge Car Park and the news announcing the Enfield Southgate seat result and that Portillo had been ousted.
My mate and I cheered so loudly.
We stupidly thought that was gonna be the start of something new and beautiful with Blairs Government.
How wrong were we!
These American-minded brats saddened me. The only fight they are truly undertaking is against reality – and they’re losing mightily. No real problems in their lives, so they have to create phantasmal enemies where none exist. Cos, I mean, who is trying to take rights away from minorities? ZEROBODY. Still, I suppose everybody needs to feel like a Cliche Guevara windmill-tilting superhero, even if only in their own deluded, paranoid, boring, tunnel-visioned minds.
@Daisy Walker
Granted, lots of trust still has to be restored but let’s enjoy the moment. I am having a Snaw-Ba (snowball) with my tea just now.
Stuart Mackay, 1.21, in a nutshell.
Just a word of warning.
The SNP has no say over government policy.
The NEC has no say over the manifesto.
These matters are entirely in the gift of the FM / party leader.
The new NEC needs to get to work to remove as much executive power from the leader and party HQ as is practicable. That means a forensic examination of the constitution and the submission of resultant amendments for adoption at Conference – possibly even a special Conference for that specific purpose.
Might seem boring but without doing this, the only prospect of anything changing any time soon is a change of leader and CEO.
Even if we do get a new leader, those changes will still be necessary for the future well-being of the party.
“Rev. Stuart Campbell says:
1 December, 2020 at 12:20 pm
“Sorry to correct you wings but you have to look at both columns. The first column is the quota and the second the excess – you need to add them both together to get the total vote”
So where is there an error?”
You do actually have an error there – e.g. your percentage for David Henry vs Stewart Stevenson. The figures should actually be 45% to 55%.
The problem is there is a bug/inconsitency of data presentation in the mi-voice software that when somebody makes quota, the quota figure is printed in the Tally column rather than their actual vote Tally.
So the calculation should be for David Henry:
823/(823+912.5+89.5)* 100 = 45%
For Stewart Stevenson:
(912.5+89.5)/(823+912.5+89.5) = 55%
HTH.
Oops. Meant:
For Stewart Stevenson:
(912.5+89.5)/(823+912.5+89.5) * 100 = 55%
I would imagine the verdict in the High Court today may well put the brakes on trans funding as well. This will go all round the globe as a judgement to listen to.
Their day just got a whole lot worse.
Also you said Sameeha Rehman lost by 6 votes – it was actually 11 votes she lost by.
Same issue as above.
This is great news and lifts the depression that was setting in. All thanks to Wings, Iain Lawson etc.
Make no mistake this would not happened without the blogs opening our eyes.
The sense of entitlement from these spoiled people! Is this the first time in their lives that somebody has refused to indulge their nonsense?
On a broader level, if we look at the spread of this warped trans fanaticism across the world, this looks like the first time that anybody has stood up and said boo to this particular goose.
A fantastic result, great news.
As I recall, a few years ago, when the snp where leafleting in our area, I had a discussion with a ex labour turned snp woman in the snp caravan, Mr Stevenson was also there,
I argued two to one that Scotland could use its claim of right, that the Scottish people in them selfs were the ones that were sovereign, and could decide their future, that we do not need to wait for permission
They argued that the Scottish parliament should hold that position of sovereignty first and foremost,
The woman was ex labour and said she would go back to them at the drop of a hat,
Mr Stevenson opened my eyes and disappointed me on that day,
He will never get my vote, as I believe he says one thing to us and believes another.
To take the peoples sovereignty and place it as second in stature to a parliament is totally the wrong thinking,
As we can see with the wokery inside the Scottish parliament, and the little cliches that have formed, terminating the grass roots of independence, that any parliament that has sovereignty over people can go horribly rogue, we only need to look towards Westminster parliament to ascertain what happens if politicians claim sovereignty above people.
We must use or Display sovereignty above that of Holyrude for it to be sustainable and not stolen.
Bigots now seems to be the ‘word’ to use! They are accusing the vast majority of members, who exercised their democratic right to vote for someone they preferred of being bigots. Go figure!
As for ‘affiliates’ not getting a vote, go join a party which does allow people to pay to vote, Labour. I have no doubt these same people would be totally opposed to OMOV, as they could never control,anything.
Their ‘call to action’ certainly worked but not in the way they planned.
Now OUR Party can get on with Independence.
@Wings
Where is the error
Lynne won by 124 votes not 62
Dummies being spat out.
Much throwing of toys out of the pram.
Feet being stamped.
My favourite reaction is the #FromYestoNo….would that be a ‘soft’ Yes then…..as seems a tad quick conversion, based on just one event, to then conclude because of this DEMOCRATIC vote that you no longer want independence for your country.
I may be being a tad cynical in suggesting that if that is the case then your Indy credentials were obviously not as sincere or as strong as your other more ‘personal’ agenda…..an agenda that you tried, via infiltrating a political party, to divert attention away from Indy and superimpose with your own more personal and oh so ‘important’ TO YOU/THEM agenda (#ForTheFewOnly) which was something like #FromIndytoSelfID….right ?…..or was the Indy part really just a cover.
On a more positive note at least this now exposes their true colours to those individuals who told us to ignore all of this…..perhaps for some Green will now be their favourite colour of political choice….one lives in hope….or perhaps for the forever hopeful Alex C Hamilton , who is a member of the renowned Scavenger party, some scraps can be picked up… say like one from the supposed newly converted #FromYestoNo voter who must now be looking to join a Unionist party…….Good luck with that.
Ironic how THEY/THEM/HIM/HER aka #MeMeMe all attacked us for our opposition to the SNP on the Gender Recognition Bill prior to this NEC vote….. to then find that post the NEC vote that THEY/THEM/HIM/HER are now the ones doing the attacking……on the SNP……
The SNP who for some of them was their party of choice as a prime target for…. infiltration…with one major flaw in their plan being not IDENTIFYING that the actual ‘other’ MEMBERS of the party having a say/vote obvs THEY/THEM/HIM/HER collectively too SELF absorbed to IDENTIFY that crucial factor….best laid plans and all that results #Fail…..you know we can GLOAT as they all GLOATED at WOS Twitter account being expelled from Twitter thanks to THEM/THEY/HER/HIM etc etc
Like a petulant child, but with a sinister side , tis inevitable that eventually the grown ups have to take back control before any real lasting damage is done……
However this is but the FIRST step to us taking back control…..long overdue IMO but better late than NEVER…..we now have the REAL more pressing task of trying to separate the Wheat from the Chaff…..if you know what I mean.
the people have spoken!
– the … bastards
and so the glitterball comes down, and the DJ turns off the techno …
“standing in the door of the pink flamingo, crying in the rain …”
– with them on the run, we should counter-attack immediately, to finish them off
Howsabout a public petition for a national referendum on the proposition : “Trannyism is a mental disorder and its sufferers to be sectioned under the Mental Health Act, and sent to the State Hospital” – could be a winner? There they can have vibrant conversations with “Napoleon” and “Jesus” about their struggles as being “a real woman”. Youtube could livestream it.
Glad you are keeping up your journalistic integrity Stu.
It’s refreshing to be reminded of what real journalism is.
Thank You.
Breeks at 12.57 and 1.17
Incisive. “Debate The Constitutional Integrity of Brexit at the UN…..”
62% is a clear Democratic position from which no leverage has so far been obtained by our Talkyhoose
The wokeists are pouring it all out online, “bigots” and “reactionaries” being favourites.
What’s “bigoted” about biological reality?
What’s “reactionary” about wanting to accept biological reality?
It sounds like half-baked uni politics (and it is). It’s not “progressive” to legislate on gender identity, so called. It’s all pish and deserves the same treatment -flushed away.
No need to turn on trans people.
They have asked for too
Much and their card has been marked.
The vast majority will give them respect as long as
others are not endangered to give them concessions.
We do respect their human rights!
We honestly should stop caring what they call us, bigots, transphobes, homophobes, racists, faschists, terfs etc etc, the way these names are thrown about these days they’re utterly meaningless.
I’m all of these things and more in somebodys eyes we probably all are it’s impossible not to be unless you believe in everything and if you believe in everything you believe in nothing.
Just looking at the “twitter” images above reminds me very much of what my granny would have said if she was still alive ,
“ Och the weans are just having a greet to themselves , leave them to greet and they’ll soon learn that having a wee temper tantrum doesn’t work with the grown-ups in the room . LOL .
@ Effijy @ 2.28pm
” No need to turn on trans people”.
Agree and well said.
A lot of the Trans community are against the Self ID mob.
I agree it is very satisfying seeing all their complaints, especially as you point out they were never up for reconciliation with opponents within the party before, so now when they feel they’ve lost ground, I’m not ashamed to say I’m rather gleeful to witness their distress after all the distress they’ve caused others. However my cynicism about the victory from late last night is even more to the fore today, seeing how close some votes might have been and if some people abstained as was claimed then that always sickens me. Good first step back and I know you’ll hold the new office holders to the same critical examination you give to most things, so I have no fears of them being held to account – but how much can they realistically accomplish in such a short time with the present leadership still in charge and once they and their woke faction regroup, reorganise and become reinvigorated with leadership support – for I don’t believe for a minute many will leave the party for the greens, any more than they will leave Scotland because of this. I hope I’m wrong but there really doesn’t seem time to succeed with anything useful before brexit and the election even if they had the power and hit the ground running.
Someone said something before on the lines ‘it’s better than the news we could have woken up to’ but had the Smith faction held on to NEC, at least everyone would be sure where to go and what we had to do. Now, we ordinary voters or members are hanging on again, waiting for the new lot to show their strength and act. We waited years for Sturgeon’s leadership to act as she said she would since brexit vote, then hearing the grumbling from those individuals opposed to the leadership direction and the abuse given out but they didn’t act either. Thank goodness for all the work ordinary members/people have done to get to this point, but more waiting, more hoping/believing in SNP party is now unavoidable. With the same leadership, or a Robertson follow-on, I fear greater heartache further down the line. Fantastic news about Keira Bell and her case though, that should have reverberations here and elsewhere and has potential to be a far greater blow to the woke leadership than a loss on NEC.
Stevenson isn’t the leadership candidate that was Marco Biagio but he got scunnered with the Edinburgh Central shenanigans when he stood against Robertson so pulled out at the last minute.
Does anyone know if Stewart Stevenson and Alex Salmond are friends?
The Oui Coupar @ 2.18
“62% is a clear Democratic position from which no leverage has so far been obtained by our Talkyhoose”
And no leverage has likewise been drawn by 81% of Scotland’s national elected representatives, the 48 Nationalist MP’s who actually hold sovereignty on behalf of the people.
What do Scotland’s 48 National Party MP’s think they were elected for? To sit on their bums twiddling thumbs? Nationalist MP’s have only one purpose and need to get on and do it, now.
Damn. I’m busy today during big, mad party on Wings over Scotland, can’t get enjoying myself. Sheeet..
Keep some of that ‘Fkn Rub-It-In’ oil for me, guys ‘n’ girls!
I saw that the Midlothian MP ( A careerist if ever there was one) has slithered on. Keep a watch on him, he has a vested interest to be on it.
The “woke faction” is not feeling very well today.
To quote Noel Coward (was it?) I really hope it’s nothing trivial.
Slight O/T.
Wonder how the polls would look about now?
Or Oscar Wilde?
Hmm
Too right Alf Baird.
Day and daily, and from within some of our ranks too we are reminded that Westminster is sovereign.
Well the sovereign majority of Scottish SNP MPs should just tak themselves oot of Westminster and call time on the busted union.
Willie,
The SNP did walk oot, then waltzed back in again to the warm seats and free meals! Thats what Scotlands SNP MPs have morphed into.
Bought and sold for a beef lasagne and a free first class travel pass.
I think Stuart’s diligence over the past few days and weeks cannot be praised highly enough, but I find myself echoing Breeks’ note of caution. A challenge must be made to the UN regarding the illegality of Brexit and the breaking of the Treaty of Union, and it must be made before the end of the year. After all, the purpose of the UN is to resolve disputes between nations. If we do not stand up for our sovereignty now when it is imperative that we do so, and when every moral, legal and democratic justification is on our side, then it becomes that much harder to do so in the future.
“I think Stuart’s diligence over the past few days and weeks cannot be praised highly enough, but I find myself echoing Breeks’ note of caution.”
I mean, literally the second line of the post is “But this is just one battle”.
Of course it would be ideal for the SNP MPs at Westminster to declare the Treaty of Union over and leave that chamber for good, but many of them have ingratiated themselves at Westminster too much to understand the meaning of duty and integrity. I am not sure if their senses can be restored in time but would that it were so.
I forget how to respond to good news and good results. It’s been years since we had anything to celebrate in Scottish politics.
“Alex Salmond returns to politics with Covid ‘action plan’ for Nicola” Sturgeon”https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18911856.alex-salmond-returns-political-frontline-covid-action-plan-nicola-sturgeon/
These are the early days but we are ascendant. The NEC results and Wings’ visitor traffic figures indicate that there’s a groundswell of support for an alternative to what Sturgeon offers. There are other indicators too.
If you think the British State and MSM have been kind to Sturgeon lately, I suspect you’re going to be surprised at how blatant and vicious that support gets in the next few weeks.
They’re on the same side when it comes to keeping us (the rabble) in line. Ordinary people are always the target. The propaganda attacks the leaders but the “action” is directed at the real target, the people. And there’s a good reason for that; it’s our country.
It’s time for AUOB to mobilise and for all pro-indy groups to get behind this. The latent power of the people needs to be encouraged and directed. With momentum and majority support of the people, which we have, anything is possible.
What’s the plan? That’s the easy part. First we take the party, then we take the government, and finally we take the country.
Fuck your Section 30 process. We don’t need it.
Is it Cameron Archibald’s and Tristan Grays bad week? I thought only menstruating women had them? I see that the Wokers are showing their true anti Scots Indy colours today = fuck them!!!! Or GTFR out of my country if you hate Scotland that much.
Harassment Inquiry Part 2 under way…
link to scottishparliament.tv
-Iain More-
It just goes to show that they have never given a rat’s arse about Indy and that their membership of the SNP has been a means to power to enact their crazy agenda.
The Keira Bell case in England today is proof of how sick these people are: most of the kids that underwent “reassignment therapy” were on the autistic spectrum. Nothing like mutilating special-needs children, is there?
Excellent News
“Some people are planning to leave Scotland over this vote”
Take care now, bye bye then
Ha harrrr harrrrr
Effijy says:
Indeed
.I’m pretty sure we have been robbed blind in most years since 1707.
I used to have information regarding Scotlands wealth in 1707. According to customs receipts Scotland was growing at about 5% a year.
Ye merry olde England was bankrupt, owing around £80 million at the time.
The only people bankrupted by the Darien adventure were toffs mostly landowners from the south of Scotland probably of Norman decent. They did not give a shit about Scotland, same attitude today.
Scotlands burghs were extremely wealthy and awash with cash. That is the reason for the union, money its always about money.
And London got all of Scotands cash because of Englands little helpers, same as it is today.
link to spiked-online.com
Great stuff. Sometimes the good guys win. Ultra thanks to Stu, who was right again.
“It’s not the end. It’s not even the beginning of the end but perhaps it’s the end of the beginning.”
Winston Churchill.
Aye well tantrums oh shucks eh how frightfully sad isn’t it, fair rips yer knitting eh .
Now get Tay Duck yah bunch ( due to current politically correct restrictions the next part is censored ) so it’s. =+^%#€}{?!} there now I feel better , a little different from the rancid bile that seems to pass for everyday comment from these disturbed individuals .
The only regret that they have is them being rumbled , for some time they have been working away in the shadows beavering away working on their grubby twisted plans out of sight it’s amazing what a bit of sunlight does eh fair cleanses most surfaces gets rid of the unwanted infections.
Just to end on a lighter note News from England’s high court regarding gender transition must be pushing these individuals close to the edge , oh it hasn’t been the best of days for some folk eh
The ones abandoning indy because they don’t get to dictate the terms. Were never real independence supporters. They have jumped on a perceived bandwagon of their own Utopian dream.
The movement doesn’t need you. Independence comes before every opinion I may have on party policies. You don’t pick your country, your country picks you!
We will really miss the 0.05% of our vote share when these bams feck the hell off back to whatever they did before.
BTW – The newly elected representatives, need to act with extreme haste. Lets get our country back on the right path to freedom!
Smith and Spears got terfed oot. If that gag hasn’t already been made.
A few sensible heads on currency/MMT are now in positions to hopefully influence policy as well; Timothy Rideout, Kairin Van Sweeden, and Chris Hanlon. Another positive to take from the results. SNP leadership will hopefully find it harder to silence both criticism of Andrew Wilson’s Growth Commission nonsense, and debate on our own currency.
Yeah, it’s just a start, and there’s a lot of work to be done, but I for one am feeling a lot more positive about things than I was a couple of days ago.
Some of us are shouting in the dark to the rest of the independence movement who are literally sleepwalking into losing their sovereignty here in Scotland.
And like breeks and a few others we realise the emergency, that we only have weeks to remedy this issue.
It’s a critical moment for Scotland’s people, Who will carry on doing what they usually do, talking small talk,
And who will realise the danger of being distracted, to the point of losing something very precious to the people of Scotland.
The snp could have, and should have walked out of Westminster ages ago and challenged internationally that the treaty of the union was not being ignored and changed by Westminster, but they didn’t then, and they are not considering it now,
The Scottish devolved government does not have sovereignty from Westminster, and for a very brief time, Westminster does not have sovereignty over the Scottish nation,
but Brexit is seeing huge changes for the constitution of Britain, and that includes taking sovereignty of people away from them and placing it into the hands of Westminster,
Although I believe in covid, I also believe that Westminster has seen an opportunity to use it for the impowerment of government against its countrymen, taking freedom and liberties away from them, it is now against the law to protest about that government and you have the police going against the law of policing by consent, you can’t meet family friends, you can’t decide on music or parties, students are locked in, police bend and take the knee to wokery and people tearing down statues are allowed a get out of jail free card along with serious offenders of sexual abuse,
Anyone that does not open their eyes today in Scotland of how this will affect our nation for hundreds of years to come are as complicit by their inaction and small talk as the people who sold our country for England’s gold over 300 years ago,
Where do you want to be one year from now?
Tristan Gray must have had an irony by-pass. No, the trans lobby was perfectly happy to relieve a MAJORITY of their rights and safe spaces, but, hey, women? Are they even human? Some of the tweets give the game away completely. Independence was never their suit – never – and they are ‘gaslighters’ when they bleat about their lack of rights. They have ALL the same human rights as the rest of us, and there is absolutely no requirement whatsoever for them to enter women’s spaces in order for them to live their lives as well as the rest of the population. We have won a couple of very important battles, but the war still has to be won decisively, and that will be won when we have independence.
Great news about the courts in England listening to people who know, and putting the brakes on transitioning and hormone-forcing of children. Now, we need to have a review of the sex education our children are receiving to discover whether it is fit for purpose and not just pseudo ‘woke’ propaganda, and a FoI on where the trans lobby’s government funding goes, and if it has to answer to government for its funding destinations. I also think that politicians have to answer for their backing of this stuff.
Effijy couldn’t agree more… Live and let live, whilst demonstrating a little understanding and kindness can go a long way. As for the SNP lets see how things unfold but with the names that were elected I see that as a step in the right direction for promoting the primary goal of independence.
The main event of the inquiry day – John Somers, coming up after the adverts…
link to scottishparliament.tv
@ Jonathan Marshall @4.49pm
Well said Jonathan.
As Daisy said a while back, although this is great news, be assured that there is, at the risk of sounding a wee bit tinfoil hatty, a plan B (ironically) to disrupt and obfusticate any real progress to actual independence.
Obvs. the next important task is to delegitimize and get rid of the current SNP senior executive and leadership, who it’s pretty clear now are either inadequate or bad actors, and discreetly and massively supported by MSM and some quite alarmingly sophisticated facebook astroturfing and sock puppetry.
Also want to say that now that we are here, Stuart’s much questioned decision to focus on and criticize the faction that came very close to destroying the SNP from the inside should be acknowledged as the critically important work that it has been. Thanks for that.
John Somers coming over clean as
d a whistle
Robert @5:23.
When is a draft document not a draft document?
@Sharny Dubs
When it is a final document.
After all that’s happened/nearly happened/may yet still happen. Sorry Jonathon Marshall, all my understanding and kindness have been used up. Live and let live is a two-way street and I don’t see anything good coming from the other way. So no I won’t be kind and understanding anymore. The goodwill has been abused.
Somers – Scot Parl TV switches off jus as it becomes potentially interesting!
I’ve every sympathy for someone who feels that the only path to happiness is painful surgery, psychiatric counseling, hormone therapy and the risk of being ostracised by friends, family, colleagues and/or being physically/verbally abused by strangers. It takes courage to make the decision to transition and sadly, for many who do, it often fails to live up to expectations – happiness is a scarce commodity in life irrespective of gender dysphoria.
Such individuals should be afforded all the assistance the NHS can offer and be protected in law from discrimination in all its forms.
However…
None of the above need, nor should, come at the expense of the rights of women. Furthermore, those rights should not be eroded to accommodate anatomically male individuals who wish to dress up and play at being women, including gaining access to women only safe spaces, simply to pander to a fetish or to enable their supporters to stick two fingers up to wider society with their Woke virtue signalling.
The SNP must not be hijacked to push the misguided and dangerous agenda being driven by those individuals seen in Rev’s article.
The rights of women and girls, and of those individuals suffering gender dysphoria, are already protected in law. These rights should not be eroded in order to mollify aggressive and misogynistic drag queens, or facilitate access to women only safe spaces for those men who should be nowhere near them.
Well said robertknight@5:39pm.
I was speaking to a friend involved in the Children’s Panel.
Of course he would never allow individuals to be recognised
From his discussion but he told me of a growing number of
Kids and Youths from very disturbed backgrounds that urgently
Need help but there is very little available.
Mental health support is so difficult to access especially when it’s urgent.
I’d agree that this minority group does need to be a priority for SNP.
A ray of sunshine after the dreich.
All political parties should be one member one vote. Hopefully the SNP have learned that lesson.
Alex Salmond should be invited to re-join along with an apology for his erasure from SNP history.
Grouse Beater, Gareth Wardell, should be issued an apology for his SNP Kangaroo Court expulsion and defamatory accusations of anti-Semitism.
Denise Findlay is also owed an apology.
Well done to all who have attempted to rehabilitate the SNP NEC in the hope that the SNP will once again become champions of the restoration of Scotland’s national sovereignty.
The twitler youth remind me of the zombie fungus:
‘When the fungus infects a carpenter ant, it grows through the insect’s body, draining it of nutrients and hijacking its mind. Over the course of a week, it compels the ant to leave the safety of its nest and ascend a nearby plant stem. It stops the ant at a height of 25 centimeters—a zone with precisely the right temperature and humidity for the fungus to grow. It forces the ant to permanently lock its mandibles around a leaf. Eventually, it sends a long stalk through the ant’s head, growing into a bulbous capsule full of spores. And because the ant typically climbs a leaf that overhangs its colony’s foraging trails, the fungal spores rain down onto its sisters below, zombifying them in turn.’
The SNP is the ant.
Action is also required about the terrible abuses against Joanna Cherry and Joan McAlpine and others.
Questions need to be asked about the SNP accounts regarding the missing indyref fund and whether members’ funds were used for Alyn Smith’s personal legal costs.
@ James Che , Alf Baird , Breeks and others , WHY???? are our MP’S the likes of Angus B , Joanna C , Kenny McAskill who obviously want indy as much as we do not doing what is being suggested , do they NOT believe in our Scots citizens sovereignty , if NOT why don’t they tell us their reasoning , if they DO, WHY are they not shouting about it and doing something about it
Are they constrained in some way by their party or the party leadership , do they consider the party MORE important than the citizens of Scotland, THEY MUST KNOW as well as we do just how desperate the situation is for their constituents and the impact our FORCED removal from the EU will have and is already having on jobs , food supplies , medicines with worse still to come ,YET they are content to adhere to an obviously FAILED ill conceived non plan by an intransigent narcissistic non strategist
The doors are there to be kicked open and CHALLENGE WM with their alleged sovereignty, by walking out of WM and immediately registering a claim against WM in the ICJ to ratify who holds the sovereignty of the Scottish People
It is NOT rocket science and whilst NS and Co pfaff about with sect30 pish OUR country is being denigrated and robbed blind with more still to come
FFS MP’S DO SOMETHING TO EARN YOUR SALARIES AND GET BACK SOME RESPECT
Nice to see Alex Salmond and Alex Neill in the National come up with a post Covid plan for jobs
His rehabilitation is underway.
New taxation bill ‘could also contain clause breaching international law’
The BBC’s Faisal Islam reports that the government’s new Taxation Bill may contain clauses which could allow the UK to deactivate parts of the Northern Ireland protocol by handing the UK power to decide itself which of its goods are “at risk” of passing into the EU via Northern Ireland – and thus which goods should be subject to tariffs.
Re the Harassment Committee Enquiry.
I watched a bit earlier when Gillian Russell was giving her evidence.
Her role as – I forget the name… a person you can tell stuff to in confidence… sorry – age. Was created on the 13th November 2017 and Complainer A was interviewed by her in full on 22nd same month. I think Somes and the Alison who got the ‘lost the battle, we’ll win the war’ message, had contact with A first and signposted her to GR.
Since the AS trials collapsed/failed – her job has not really been promoted internally, and she has not had many staff persons to deal with in this capacity.
What was interesting was she was asked if she referred any of the complainers to the Police – she did not.
She was asked if she knew which Police Officer had dealt with the complainers in the first instance – she had not been involved in that process and declined to answer.
She referred to document already submitted to the enquiry – and highlighted that the name of the investigating officer had been redacted – to prevent jigsaw identification. She asked the enquiry to respect this position.
She was asked if she knew – given her previous role which involved liaising with Police in various ways – which Police Officer was Likely (words to this effect) to have been contacted regarding this.
She confirmed that is was likely she had provided the name/s of Police Officers who are qualified and in the department to deal with this type of offence. And that it was possible /probable that she had passed this name on to her line managers.
The enquiry then went on to ask if the Alison person (of aforesaid message) had also been informed of the full nature of Complainer A’s allegations. It appears she may well have been.
It is quite clear that the Enquiry is attempting to find out who knew, what and when. For obvious reason.
Which provides them with a very useful chain of evidence.
A fundamental line of evidence, drummed into all Police Officers, when dealing with a Rape (or Attempted Rape) allegation is to trace and note a full statement from the FIRST person to whom the victim discloses the allegation.
Lets call them Witness Number 1.
I’ll repeat that, one of the very first things a Police Officer will do in an allegation of rape, is trace and note the statement of the first witness to whom the victim disclosed the incident. It is considered a VITAL part of the enquiry and they must do it.
And since during the enquiry Police don’t necessarily know who Witness number 1 is, they need to follow the chain of disclosure / witnesses back and note statements from them all.
Further to this, regardless of who goes on to take full ownership of the enquiry by the time it goes to trial, when the first criminal complaint was made, the officer who noted it, and then filed it, will have put down the time, date, locus of the alleged offence, AND Time, Date, Locus of Time Reported.
The officer who noted the complaint is also a Witness.
So, not to put to fine a point on it, Scot Gov can redact the name of the Police Officer who dealt with the complaint of attempt rape to their hearts content.
But standard, proper Police procedures mean, that the officer who noted the initial complaint should be listed as a witness on the Prosecution Report.
The time and date, of when reported will be noted on the Police Crime File,
The names and statements of every witness to whom the allegation was disclosed will have been taken, and will have to be listed on the Police Crime File, even if they were never needed for the Prosecution Report, and finally, witness Number 1, will have to have been traced, identified as witness number 1, and their full statement noted for the Crime File and the Prosecution report.
Due to the nature of Police enquiries, and a Police Officers job, I find it beggars belief that the Scot Gov is alleging that the name of the enquiry officer needs to be redacted to prevent Jigsaw ID. However, there’s more than one way to skin a cat.
Just to clarify a Crime File is the working documental record of all lines of enquiry for the noted crime – so if there are outstanding witnesses to be traced – that goes on and if those witnesses did not see anything (and would therefore not be needed by the Prosecution) that also gets recorded, along with the evidence that does prove the case.
The Prosecution is or should be the final document for the PF – listing all the evidence recording and proving the case.
AS’s defence team will have full access to all the Police documents regarding the above.
Re Harassment and Complaints Committee ,
From the Judicial Review page ,
The Deputy First Minister wrote to the Presiding Officer and Convener on 1 December 2020 in response to the Convener’s letter of 26 November regarding the release of legal advice.
“I have discussed this issue with Cabinet colleagues this morning and I am keen to consider with you how we might establish a practical way that enables the Committee to have access to the information it seeks. Ministers are anxious to avoid creating a precedent that will impact negatively on the future ability of Scottish Government administrations to seek and receive legal advice in confidence consistent with the long-standing principle of legal professional privilege.
I recognise, given the timescale for the Committee to complete its evidence gathering, the need for urgent progress on this matter. I would like to propose an initial discussion between officials tomorrow at which the Government will propose mechanisms to establish an appropriate way forward on this matter. I am committed to resolving this issue swiftly to respond positively to the decisions of the Committee and of Parliament and would be grateful for your assistance in taking this forward. “
link to parliament.scot
@MaggieC –
Cheers for that.
Very interesting.
Probably involves the committee members going into a special wee room one at a time to view the advice which they cannot then mention to each other or anyone else for the rest of their lives.
There is now a clear and present danger that Murdo Fraser’s head will actually burst during live transmission of the inquiry.
The article from the National ,
“ALEX Salmond has unveiled ambitious plans for a strategy to get Scotland back on its feet in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The former First Minister has today called for “action now” to prevent “a tsunami of job losses” in the coming months. His plan has been drawn up with SNP backbencher and close ally Alex Neil. “
link to archive.vn
@MaggieC 6 24
Thanks again MaggieC. I don’t think Swinney’s overture will be accepted by the Inquiry. BBC already reporting some members want full disclosure. You cannot see and unremember what you saw. Is Swinney trying to split the Inquiry team 4-3 broadly along SNP/Green versus opposition party lines?. That won’t work because the Parliament demands to see it as well.
Assuming snp are looking good for the constituency votes I don’t see why they even bother putting candidates up for the lists. That would be a radical decision.
A plan from Alex Salmond to create jobs is a hell of a lot more relevant to the needs of most Scots than Sturgeon’s grandstanding.
It would also take the sting away from the lazy unionist mantra of “stick to the day job”, and would show we were capable of solving our problems.
I imagine we’ve all seen the “SNP members in support of equality”/#sayyestoequality campaign get underway
Given the credence oft lent within the party to people like Mhairi Hunter & Stewart MacDonald, & their insultingly radge narratives, I wouldn’t be surprised to see an “NEC results show the danger of social media being used to game elections” smear play out soon. I imagine it will reference people like Women’s Pledge and members who’ve tweeted lists of whom to vote for if you support this/that policy etc.
Quite a bizarre position to hold, really, that if you go from door to door handing in leaflets, or if you write & send emails to people, that’s fine, but if you make the process more efficient (at least in relation to the limited demographic that uses social media), that makes you some kind of foreign asset.
Anyway…we’ll see, I suppose.
With all due apologies and to paraphrase Bjorge Lillelien:
“Nicola Sturgeon, can you hear me? Nicola Sturgeon, I have a message for you: We have knocked the Woko Haram out of the NEC in conference. Nicola Sturgeon, as they say in your language in the boxing bars round Madison Square Garden in New York: Your boys/girls/non-gender specific misogynists took a hell of a beating!”
At the end of the month Scotland is being taken out of the EU against the will of a majority of its citizens while Sturgeon’s woke clique seem more concerned with what they fancy may or may be in their pants.
BTW being young does NOT automatically equate with having a head stuffed full of woke fluff.
? Hiz Daddybear gon intae hypertension yet , he’ll rue the day he started another party within the SNP .
Very interesting proposals from Salmond and Neil.
Lots to like, comes across like FDR’s New Deal.
One thing I think they’d need to build in if they want houses prices to lower is to prevent one person buying loads and leaving them empty or you still end up with a supply problem.
Won’t pretend I’ve done all the maths but I think it could be difficult to do all this from Barnett money similar…..but I believe the authors know it’d be difficult out of existing budgets as well.
Is the idea to get a Sturgeon or her allies to throw up their hands and say “we can’t afford that while we don’t have control of our own finances/don’t have our own currency/aren’t independent”?’ so that right-thinking folk say “hadn’t we better sort that quick to prevent all that damage then?”.
Cos it’d be a bloody good plan if so…,!
This is the end point of the first bit. Seeing how it’s Xmas let’s give out prizes. Well, one.
By my reckoning Rev, you’ve been investigating this lot for the best part of a year, often in the face of relentless abuse, unwarranted aggression and of course being hounded off Twitter.
In the good ol’ USA they have that Pulitzer prize for journalism for various fields of endeavour, including investigative work.
You can be the first recipient for the Scottish equivalent. I can’t think of a name for it, but have it anyway.
Very well done.
It appears from FOW tl, that after the NEC vote results were released, wee woke Ross Greer tweeted, at 12.02am this morning, join The Green Party. Obviously salivating at the thought of his party gaining the greeting faced narcissists from the SNP. It’s probably their natral home anyway.
It’s also why wee need to vote for another indy party on te list as we don’t want hte Greens to hold any balance of power in HR or God knows what they’d force the SNP into.
Its a step in the right direction, now of course we need the new NEC members to be proactive very quickly and push anything positive related to independence, including a Plan B.
Report from the Bbc on this mornings Harassment and Complaints Committee ,
“ Scottish Government “ inquiry hears complainers were reluctant to go to police ,
link to archive.vn
I have changed the above wording on their header as it’s the inquiry into what the Scottish Government did in the Judicial Review . I refuse to call it the Alex Salmond inquiry .
Sadly Effijy that is true from my own experience in my profession there is not enough help for our most vulnerable kids and youths… As an ex coach, it is a simple numbers game the less athletes I have the bigger impact I can have. In education and the services that it uses there are too few professionals for the numbers that require their help.
Susan I can sympathize, but given I am a humanist I would be a hippocrite to suggest otherwise. That said I also have serious concerns over the impact of some of the agenda getting pushed in the Trans debate at present.
A very good day for Wings supporters, but, and there is always a but. Our First Minister backed this woke group at every turn and probably without her support they probably would not even exist.
For evidence, her tweet in defence of Rhiannon Spear but zilch to support Joanna Cherry.
We have cut away the bottom branches but the tree is still standing.
I agree with other comments. We have four weeks left to make a decisive intervention.
What about the(Robert Bruce Spider Prize) for literature to The Rev Stu Campbell !!!
Alex Salmond dipping his toes back into politics in Scotland, go Alex. Find a way back into Holyrood.
link to thenational.scot
link to thenational.scot
A great wee BBC article today, but I am disheartened that there’s been no mention of Wings!
link to bbc.co.uk
Soz about all the typos. 🙁
@ Katherine Hamilton, ‘In the good ol’ USA they have that Pulitzer prize for journalism for various fields of endeavour, including investigative work.
You can be the first recipient for the Scottish equivalent. I can’t think of a name for it, but have it anyway.
Very well done.’
Agreed – extremely well done – would love it if the Scottish Pulitzer got called
The Jaggy Thistle
it lends itself to a suitable shaped trophy too.
Facundo.
Thanks for that link, its as though the BBC realise, that change is in the wind.
@ MaggieC says:
1 December, 2020 at 6:24 pm
Re Harassment and Complaints Committee ,
From the Judicial Review page ,
The Deputy First Minister wrote to the Presiding Officer and Convener on 1 December 2020 in response to the Convener’s letter of 26 November regarding the release of legal advice.
“I have discussed this issue with Cabinet colleagues this morning and I am keen to consider with you how we might establish a practical way that enables the Committee to have access to the information it seeks. Ministers are anxious to avoid creating a precedent that will impact negatively on the future ability of Scottish Government administrations to seek and receive legal advice in confidence consistent with the long-standing principle of legal professional privilege.
I recognise, given the timescale for the Committee to complete its evidence gathering, the need for urgent progress on this matter. I would like to propose an initial discussion between officials tomorrow at which the Government will propose mechanisms to establish an appropriate way forward on this matter. I am committed to resolving this issue swiftly to respond positively to the decisions of the Committee and of Parliament and would be grateful for your assistance in taking this forward. “
link to parliament.scot‘
I KNOW WHAT THEY’RE GOING TO DO… they will allow the committee to view the evidence and then wipe their memories clear with a Men In Black style zapper. Justice is served.
O/T – the clock on my laptop is stuck at 18:34. Anybody know what would cause that or how to fix?
“TJenny says:
1 December, 2020 at 8:06 pm
O/T – the clock on my laptop is stuck at 18:34. Anybody know what would cause that or how to fix?”
There’s a good chance that turning the laptop off will clear whatever the problem is.
Really off though. Not just asleep. Take out the battery for a minute. Start it up again from scratch and see what happens.
Not 100% guaranteed, but a good chance.
I see Kirsty Blackman continues to keep digging that hole…
link to twitter.com
Hopefully the party’s new NEC members will make an example of her and ensure she is at least disciplined if not ejected from the party?
If I was one of the folk rushing to rejoin I’d make sure pieces of work like Kirsty were dealt with first “pour encourager les autres” before declaring victory over the Woke Stasi?
red sunset – ta, I’ll give it a go. 🙂
As The Dissident suggests @1:37pm, the SNP’s constitution appears to need revision. So that the legal status of natal women is protected from political manipulation in the future. Policy might actually become supportive of Scotland’s democratic self-determination then.
link to idea.int
“In recent decades, women’s participation in constitution making bodies has become more systematic and widespread compared to earlier generations. At the same time, gender-sensitive constitutional design has also improved: only 58 per cent of constitutions developed between 1960 and 1969 included explicit guarantees of gender and/or sex equality, compared to 100 percent of constitutions developed between 2000 and 2017. Despite these gains, women’s participation as constitution makers still falls short of parity with men, and gender-sensitive design remains a work in progress”
Rev. Stuart Campbell says:
1 December, 2020 at 4:19 pm
“I think Stuart’s diligence over the past few days and weeks cannot be praised highly enough, but I find myself echoing Breeks’ note of caution.”
I mean, literally the second line of the post is “But this is just one battle”.
Yes, Stuart, you are right to point that out, apologies for my poor wording. I didn’t mean to suggest otherwise.
twathater says:
1 December, 2020 at 6:05 pm
WHY are they not shouting about it and doing something about it…
I’d like to know the answer to that question too.
For all the time I’ve been banging on about Scotland’s Constitutional Sovereignty, I don’t recall anybody putting forward substantive arguments against the strategy. Plenty cynicism from some people, but cohesive counter arguments have been thin on the ground.
The closest they came was arguing that a non-democratic dissolution of the Union might provoke civil unrest, and so it might. But why should Unionists draw advantage from the possibility? Why shouldn’t there be a reciprocal fear of civil unrest and disorder from us, outraged when Scotland is subjugated and Brexited against it’s will?
Another reason runs that a constitutional dissolution of the Union would fail and Independence collapse if there was a conflicting democratic majority for staying in the Union. I think that’s incorrect. If the Treaty of Union was formally dissolved, it could not be resurrected. IF there was a dominant majority in favour of a UK Union, there would have to be new Treaty drawn up, and it seems inconceivable that Scotland would submit to any semblance on the former Union.
The third argument runs that perhaps Scotland’s Sovereignty was indeed extinguished by the Treaty of Union, and testing the issue would only serve to disadvantage Scotland and affirm UK Parliamentary Sovereignty as legit. I don’t believe that opinion would prevail because Scotland’s Constitution is sound and widely documented, as is Westminster’s perfidious opportunism and rampant colonialism.
Some people will always find an excuse to do nothing, because doing ‘something’ can be unsettling.
twathater @ 6.05
I know if I were a Scottish Nationalist MP I would have taken my sovereignty back home long before now, and the Tories used to taunt what used to be a mere handful of SNP MP’s to that effect. Now we hold what is a third successive Scotland majority of nationalists – an oor daeless 48 bawheid MP’s dae naethin wi hit!
Perhaps the new NEC could pass a ruling that whenever there is a Scotland majority of SNP MP’s elected then these MP’s must serve notice of Scotland’s withdrawal from the UK? The NEC could also give each SNP MP a copy of the Treaty of Union so they might learn something of Scotland’s constitutional status, because they mostly appear clueless.
A couple of weeks to go. An noos the day an noos the oor!
Breeks
What matters is if notice to withdraw is lawful and democratic. A democratically elected Scotland majority of SNP MP’s withdrawing Scotland from its treaty obligations is both lawful and democratic.
In addition to giving notice of Scotland’s withdrawal, eventual withdrawal could if necessary be subject to a confirmatory plebiscite.
But essentially there is nothing stopping the 48 SNP MP’s (81%) from asserting Scottish sovereignty – that is their primary purpose, efter aw.
red sunset – seems to have sorted iteslf out without my help. Strange, but good. Thanks for your help.
@TJenny says: 1 December, 2020 at 8:06 pm
O/T – the clock on my laptop is stuck at 18:34. Anybody know what would cause that or how to fix?
The clock is set by the power supply through the electricity grid, sometimes it can move ahead or behind due to changes/disruption in output/frequency, particularly during winter months.
Though if the clock has stopped this is most probably due to dust/grime accumulating on the adapter connection to your laptop over time, your laptop will still charge though a bit slower, but the time update is interrupted as this is managed at the higher end of the frequency.
To clean the connection, fill a glass with warm/boiling water and add a couple of teaspoons of salt, stir it, and while it is stirred, plug in the adapter, place the laptop connection end in the glass, hold it firm and switch it on power for 20 seconds.
It may take 2 or times to clean it thoroughly. You can test by plugging it back into the laptop and checking if the time has updated correctly.
If this doesn’t work, it could be because of heat build up in the laptop is impacting the time controller, this is usually caused by reduced performance in the fan, in older laptops due to a build up of dust/grime. To fix this, switch the laptop on, turn it upside down, and use a basting brush soaked in warn/boiling water to remove the dust and clean the fan through the vents on the bottom of the laptop. You will hear the fan kick in once fully clean.
If this doesn’t work, remove the back of the 3 pin plug, as if rubberised this can interfere with the time frequency, once removed, switch on and plug back in. Make sure and remember to reattach the back of your plug once your time is up.
These 3 methods will only fix the time on laptops belonging to Colin Alexander, Ayrshire Rob, Hatuey, Alf, Willie and their colleagues.
Tx Stuart. Your column is indispensable in raising my conscious as a lefty lib independence supporter. Hers is an additional piece of info about the Conference chair as an anti- vaxer.maybe there is a anti science trend here.
link to thenational.scot
@ El Gordo – your last message is Deeply Dangerous. Appreciate it is ‘probably’ meant as a joke. But even so.
Jonathon Marshall@7:47pm: sorry if my post came across as blunt, I find it difficult expressing myself on my tiny smartphone screen. I guess what caught me was the ” a little understanding and kindness” phrase. This has been used by TRA’s as code for ” shut up women and give up your sex-based rights”. Of course I feel some sympathy for genuinely dysphoric individuals but that has led to the current give an inch and they take a mile scenario. Added to which, much of this has been attempted in a stealthy, underhand way.
So, no I do not feel the need to be kind and understanding to those who want to usurp my rights as a woman.
@ Alf Baird and Breeks , IF our craven reps in WM were to withdraw from parliament as you suggest and STATE their reason for doing so is the continued refusal of WM to accede a sect30 to enable a referendum of sovereign Scots to determine the future of Scotland and it’s governance , that would surely meet the conditions required to attain international approval and recognition , it would then be up to WM to challenge the authority to do so in an international court
As breeks has stated MANY times IF our reps in WM were to do this it would throw a spanner into the withdrawal negotiations as the EU would not be able to ensure the eventual negotiated terms with the ruk would be acceptable or binding to a newly independent non EU member
It would also have the benefit of throwing the rabid brexiteers into a frenzy which would be quite apt as they would then DEMAND that Scotland be ejected from the yookay
If you stop to think about it the POWER that Scotland has over WM is immense if only we had a leader who had the passion and fight for real independence
Unfortunately all we have is an independence impersonator who is willing and eager to capitulate to WM bullying instead of challenging the bully to a legal fight
Alf Baird says:
1 December, 2020 at 10:01 pm
Breeks
What matters is if notice to withdraw is lawful and democratic. A democratically elected Scotland majority of SNP MP’s withdrawing Scotland from its treaty obligations is both lawful and democratic.
Yes, but I don’t see any fundamental difference in principle between a democratic mandate to end the Union, and a democratic mandate to remain in Europe which is then subjugated by another Nation. They are simply alternative routes to a common destination, – asserting Scotland’s sovereign ascendancy.
Sovereignty cuts two ways with equal validity. It enables Scotland to act upon its own initiative, as in voting to end the UK Union, but it’s the same sovereignty which denies another nations right to force its will upon us. Whether used in attack or defence, it is the same sovereign principle. It is the same sword being used to strike or parry.
There is however at least one material difference, and that Scotland electing to end the Union becomes the party responsible for collapsing the Union, and there could be ramifications, costs and liabilities which stem from that. On the other hand, if Scotland is compelled to assert its sovereignty as an act of self defence from colonial subjugation, the culpability for those ramifications lies upon Westminster, not Scotland.
It’s a clumsy parallel, but there’s perhaps a liability on using sovereignty as a first strike weapon rather than a retaliation that has been provoked.
I think too, in the latter case, our imminent subjugation warrants a more immediate and truncated process. It becomes a state of emergency and act of self defence which demands speedy intervention, rather than a choice of volition which lacks the same immediacy. I think that would mean the issue might be addressed in emergency session at the UN rather than joining the queue and the issue dragging on for months and maybe years.
One final difference is that ending the Union by our volition still requires an explicit mandate, but ending the Union to avert subjugation already has it’s emphatic democratic mandate in the bag…our Brexit mandate from 2016.
.
Nicola,
You are looking very tired. I’ve seen that guilty look that ages people…
link to wingsoverscotland.com
An early tell-tale of your over-promotion to First Minister seemed trivial but gave away a LOT of the REAL you. When you spent Scottish Government money satisfying your personal fan-girl infatuation of Danish actress Sidse Babett Knudsen I cringed…
link to archive.is
At least Sidse had the class to reject your amateur fan-girl overtures to become “besties”.. friends by your offering the Danish actress a taxpayer funded VIP tour of the Scottish parliament and you abusing the office of First Minister to satisfy your own personal private fan-girl wishes.
Nicola, your evident semi-stalking of this actress who starred in the Danish television series “Borgen” with its female Statsminister has the aroma of your ex-Finance Minister Derek Mackay about it. Neither you nor Derek “you’re cute for a 16 year old boy” Mackay seem able to control your urges of attraction and separate them from the taxpayer bank account.
There is a truism: “All political careers end in failure”.
Your time as Scotland’s Statesminister is coming to an end. You have diminishing control.
Once your hands are removed from the levers of power, you will be like our version of McTrump. A lame duck First Minister of Scotland. A former TV personality. He fronted The Appprentice. You fronted NIcola’s Covid TV Show. You even had your own catch phrase from trans-cult supporting Janey Godley: “Frank get the door”.
But hear this Nicola, whilst Trump sorts out presidential pardons from future criminal prosecution for his sons and daughter (possibly even himself), you have NO such power.
A new First Minister will have the keys to Bute House. A new First Minister will get to see the accounts and read the files. A new First Minister will find the Alex Salmond material. Those shredders you have turned up to 11! They ain’t good enough to extinguish all your administrations guilty secrets and Nicola you know Alex Salmond very very well. Do you honestly think he will let the Hell on earth he was put through lay unresolved? Aye lassie, nae wonder you have that grim panda-eyed haunted look about you lately. As Joaquin Phoenix once said: “Swing away Murrell”. Then the big bad green bald monster was history. That’s Penfold Murrell. He will be getting his jotters as SNP CEO soon enough.
Today we got rid of a large tranche of your toxic trans-cult. Soon we will get you voted out of office.
The majority will demand we concentrate on IndyRef2. Many will forget or blot out the 6 years and many mandates wasted by you.
Nicola, you will know the ending of the Borgen TV box set off by heart. Birgette Nyborg did not get to come back as First Minister. Neither will you.
Maybe you can earn a crust by practising law as a solicitor. But such is your legacy, the echo that something is rotten in the state of Denmark and Dreghorn is sitting like a political UXB. It only takes one really pi$$ed-off person to walk into a police station, after you are removed from office. Anyone with evidence can make a formal complaint.
On 20th January 2020 the world will breathe a sigh of relief as the Orange CockWomble Fake President Donald J. Trumpet is dumped from office.
But what about you?
What happened at the end of your favourite TV programme..
link to archive.is
Time for you to consider leaving whilst you are able to do so with dignity.
Some of us are out of patience.
I read what Stuart Campbell and Breeks wrote on this article. Yes the REAL SNP has gotten rid of many of your Wokerati.
They are right. We are running out of time.
Thank God Alex Salmond is doing the right thing: concentrating on the Scottish economy and post-Covid recovery.
Nicola, you and your beardy Penfold Murrell have had your chance. Time for you to leave. The sooner the better. The longer you leave it the more is spent in time, money and effort looking into alleged criminality under your tenure.
Framing a former First Minister for rape ain’t done without consequence. You have answers to give in that matter. You have few folk left to throw under your famous bus.
Twathater
I agree with you that the power lies in Scotland’s hands. That is the definition of sovereignty after all. If Scots are sovereign then we (and the majority of our elected national representatives) hold the power.
Breeks
Independence (which is arguably also decolonisation) was never achieved by any people through a majority of their elected nationalist representatives sitting on their airses.
@Breeks
The difference is that Scotland didn’t vote to remain in the EU on its own. 62% voted for the *United Kingdom* to remain in the EU in a UK-wide vote. These and 40-odd percent of people in the other constituent nations were outvoted. Indeed the votes of Leaver Scots tipped the balance (if 700K had changed their minds, everyone would have stayed in)
So the democratic will of Scots to stay in the EU, leaving the rUK behind, has not technically been demonstrated by any vote
You can certainly make a moral argument, but in matters of law (particularly international law), technicalities win the day.
If you still disagree, can you point to a democratic event that shows that Scotland alone wants to stay in the EU as an independent state?
The only arguable, but still dubious way would be to prevent rUK leaving as well, but then that denies the democratic rights of people across the UK (including Scots) who wanted to leave.
Am I saying this is pretty, no. Am I saying this is morally fine, no. But I don’t see the legal route you are expecting ScotGov to follow.
And since we’ve already left the EU back in January, I’m not even sure what you are asking them to do
Can I ask.
Did we join the EU as the United Kingdom or did the EU recognise that it was Scotland Wales Northern Ireland and England as different entities that were joining.
I would be interested in how EU saw these islands when entry was being negotiated .
John Digsby says:
2 December, 2020 at 8:33 am
@Breeks
The difference is that Scotland didn’t vote to remain in the EU on its own. 62% voted for the *United Kingdom* to remain in the EU in a UK-wide vote.
Doesn’t matter. The people of Scotland are sovereign, and if the majority of sovereign Scots voted to stay in Europe. If you want to be pedantic, that is a sovereign mandate for the UK to stay in Europe, and thus it remains an act of unconstitutional subjugation to overrule the sovereign will of Scotland.
The English majority makes no difference because their mandate is not sovereign, and even if it was, it has no jurisdiction in Scotland.
If Scotland is sovereign, then it properly have a sovereign veto, just as EU Member states have a veto, because they are sovereign and the EU is not. It is overruling Scotland’s veto which constitutes an act of colonial subjugation.
The equivalent scenario of Scotland in UK would be the UK voting to leave Europe but being told by Europe that they cannot. That cannot happen, because the EU is not sovereign. Neither is the UK sovereign if Scotland withdraws it’s consent as Scotland did over Brexit.
Beeks..
What an idiot you are..
What’s good about the ” heart of Europe”
That we can’t do ourselves ?
Why are you so desperate to give Scottish sovereignty away even before Scotland has won it for ourselves ?
If you believe Scotland will be sovereign at the heart of Europe you a complete and utter clown.
This is what the ” heart of Europe” means
link to ec.europa.eu
So tell me what is good about that ?
It’s Wilson’s growth commission because his growth commission was a copy and paste Job of an EU convergence program.
What good is going to come out of destroying Scottish householders savings and Scottish business savings from 8% of GDP down to zero?
The biggest poison that has poisoned the Indy movement for over 20 years is that the loons think you have to give up your Sovereignty just to sell fish or whiskey
Or even more deluded that you give away your sovereignty to get imports.
It is fooking crazy…
You don’t have to surrender your Sovereignty to do any of that.
After explaining to the nut jobs in the Indy movement for 8 years that foreign currency reserves is a Fixed FX phenomenon and not a floating rate phenomenon.
Are not used to protect your currency. That some now understand.
We still live with this poisonous myth that you have to give away your sovereignty to trade.
Tie yourself in neoliberal globalist knots tied to the EU fiscal rules forever as they asset strip the country.
Are you insane ?
Or just stupid ?
This is what the excessive debt procedure meant for Croatia
link to eur-lex.europa.eu
Excessive debt meaning debt to GDP over 60% of GDP
Considering debt is just everybody’s savings that earn interest. The total amount of savings held by everyone that holds the new Scottish currency is not allowed to go above 60% of GDP.
Criminal as us Scots like to save a lot especially for our pensions.
What do you think ” structural reforms” means in English ?
What does YOU HAVE TO implement structural reforms mean to destroy everybody’s savings
Structural reform – code for smash the worker resistance
link to bilbo.economicoutlook.net
Large budget deficits are bad for banking profits..
Of course they are because deficits are our savings.
Slash the deficits to zero and force people into the arms of the banks on the Clyde and in Edinburgh. Force people and businesses to take on more loans.
Drown people and businesses in a sea of private sector debt then asset strip the place. Why is every third person you meet in Scotland Irish ?
They fled the place to find work here.
link to michael-hudson.com
Under the Eurozone’s rules Wilson’s growth commission, central banks are not allowed to create much money. As a result the economies of Europe are shrinking into austerity. Greece is the most notorious example. You have unemployment among youth up to 50% as the economy suffering from the worst depression since the 1930s. Yet the government is not able to spend the money needed to rebuild the economy. The banks won’t let them do it. The aim of neoliberals is to prevent governments from spending money to revive growth by running deficits. That’s what EU convergence programs are.
Their argument is: “If a government can’t run a deficit, then it can’t spend money on roads, schools and other infrastructure. They’ll have to privatise these assets – and banks can create their own credit to let investors buy these assets and run them as rent-extracting monopolies.”
The bank strategy continues: “If we can privatise the economy, we can turn the whole public sector into a monopoly. We can treat what used to be the government sector as a financial monopoly. Instead of providing free or subsidized schooling, we can make people pay £50,000 to get a university education We can turn the roads into toll roads. We can charge people for water, and we can charge for what used to be given for free under the old style of Roosevelt capitalism and social democracy.”
This idea that governments should not create money implies that they shouldn’t act like governments. Instead, the de facto government should be the banks. Instead of governments allocating resources to help the economy grow, banks will be the allocated of skills and real resources.
But if you don’t have a government that can fund itself, then who is going to govern, and on whose terms? The obvious answer is, the class with the money: Banks and the corporate sector Andrew Wilson’s club. They clamor for a balanced budget, saying, “We don’t want the government to fund public infrastructure. We want it to be privatized in a way that will generate profits for the new owners, along with interest for the bondholders and the banks that fund it; and also, management fees. Most of all, the privatized enterprises should generate capital gains for the stockholders as they jack up prices for hitherto public services.”
That’s what ” heart of Europe” means
The reason you don’t have to sell your sovereignty down the river and hand it to Frankfurt just to trade is very simple.
The reason you export is to get the currency you need to buy your imports. That’s why you trade. To get stuff you can’t make yourself.
But if you promise everyone a job like a new deal. You’ve just created full employment. It attracts foreign direct investment like flies in shit. That keeps the new currency strong.
Exporters will be running round the block to sell Scots their products and some will even do it in our own currency. Discount their currency for ours.
We don’t even need to do anything or export to get out hands on their currency. If we have full employment at home by offering everyone a job who wants one.
They use their skills and real resources to sell us stuff. We use our skills and real resources on public purpose.
IF the Scottish government maintains a peg with the UK then there isn’t really such a thing as a ‘trade deficit’. It’s a work of accounting fiction as the Scottish government has then decided to remain a county of the UK within the UK currency zone.
The reality is based around the function of the government account, and where it is based. Let’s say they have it at the Royal Bank in the same way that the Finnish government has theirs with Danske Bank.
The Royal Bank can then provide the Scottish government with an overdraft (since the restriction in Article 123 of the EU treaty only apply to central banks, not commercial ones) and charge the Scottish government an overdraft interest rate. That interest payment is then given to Royal Bank shareholders. The overdraft is reduced by the sales of Scottish fixed interest debt – but that is nothing more than a transfer from RBS shareholders to holders of Scottish debt. The payment is still the same, and still in Sterling.
As ever you have to forget about the numbers and look at the reality of the situation. Find the people who are able to say ‘no’, and how they can enforce that. The no happens when commercial banks refuse overdrafts and people refuse to buy the state debt which then means government cheques bounce. At that point the purchases are not purchased and real output collapses – including the supply chain that relies on that circulation.
For the transfer of Sterling into England to happen, somebody somewhere has to do the ‘borrowing’ that allows the saving – or the import sales into Scotland cannot happen in the first place.
The way of looking at it is that foreigners have to take Scottish pounds or they won’t be able to sell anything to Scotland. Those that find a way of taking Scottish pounds (by discounting them into their own currency via their own banking system) will get the trade. Those that don’t will lose the exports to Scotland.
A Scottish government should refuse to operate in anything other than Scottish pounds and should offer import opportunities to those foreign salespeople prepared to take Scottish pounds over anybody else. You open up your country to exporters to your nation. If there are no takers then you cut your coat to your cloth based upon the current terms of trade.
It becomes easier to see if you think about it from the point of view of a net exporter to the rest of the world.
If you export to excess you gather foreign currency. You have no choice because there is insufficient imports to swap all your earnings to the local currency.
So how – as a net exporter – do you pay all your staff who want local currency?
Answer: you sell the foreign currency to your bank who then creates the local currency for you in return.
This is obvious when you think about it. Foreign currency is an asset – a loan to a foreign nation. Once the bank has hold of it in the asset column it can just mark up your local currency account and ‘credit’ you with the exchange value.
And this is how net exporters work in aggregate. They hold foreign currency hostage (or foreign currency bonds if they can get them) so they can discount the correct amount of local currency against it. It makes the accounting look good at banks and central banks and has the added advantage of draining domestic circulation abroad making more space for your goods and services exports.
Now think about it in terms of multi-national banks. If I’m banking with HSBC there will be a local branch in Japan and a local branch in the UK. If a Japanese company has an excess of Sterling it needs Yen for, then the local branch in Japan will move the Sterling to its account at the UK branch (HSBC Japan – Sterling Asset a/c) and then mark up the Japanese company’s account in Yen. The Sterling then becomes just an intra-company loan of no significance to the overall accounts. If there is a build up of Yen on the UK side, the bank can do an internal swap to eliminate the currency on both sides and shrink the balance sheet (which reduces the liquidity ratio requirements on both sides).
So if you eliminate interest paid on UK government assets and force foreigners to hold just currency, they will likely continue to hold it within their banking system as the offsetting asset to local currency creation. Because that’s what you have to do to continue being a net exporter in a floating rate currency (the alternative is to get 18 other countries to sign up to use your currency Eurozone style implement austerity and export your unemployment to the smaller countries).
They may have to go through a cycle or two of excessively high currency rates (and therefore we have low currency rates) and trade collapses before they get the message. It all depends how astute the foreign politicians are and whether they care about their own economy or some other political end.
For every trade there are *two* transactions. The first is the real transaction of real goods and services and they cross borders as you would expect.
The second is the finance transaction in the opposite direction.
In every finance transaction that happens the buyer gets to use what they want to pay for the transaction, and the seller receives what they want to receive for the transaction. Everybody has to get what they want in finance terms *or both legs of the transaction would never have happened in the first place*.
The job of the finance sector is to match the mismatches, allow more finance transactions to complete and scrape a bit off for enabling that process.
So you can buy UK goods and services with anything you want – bottles of wine, even Bitcoin and your friendly neighbourhood finance sector will sort it all out so the seller at the other end gets what they want.
So if I’m in the UK and I’m an anarchist with a deep distrust of government, I will want Bitcoins. I may even charge for my stuff in Bitcoins. Then I’d use a finance invoice processor (like coinvoice) which allows buyers to pay with whatever they fancy and I’ll get Bitcoins.
However at some point I’m going to have to pay my tax Bill and so I’ll use another payment processor to pay my tax bill with Bitcoins.
But none of this is magic. The finance sector is just doing the exchanges in the background. If somebody pays me with dollars and I want Bitcoins, then that gets matched with somebody paying in Bitcoins and wanting dollars. And what happens in effect is the person paying with Bitcoin pays me, and the person paying me in dollars pays those wanting dollars. It’s a simple swap transaction that redirects the currency flows back into the currency area.
Matching those flows is what moves the currency prices relative to each other until everything matches up.
The key point is that in every transaction the buyer pays with what they want to pay with and the seller gets what they want to receive. Otherwise the transaction will never happen. So all that nonsense about the UK *needing* dollars to pay for things is rubbish. If we have Sterling we pay for things in Sterling and the exchange system matches that up. If there is no match. If liquidity dries up then the *transaction fails* and never happens.
What that tells you is that the ‘trade deficit’ is a result of transactions that have succeeded. Therefore the other side must have wanted Sterling savings of some kind or the excess transaction would never have happened in the first place.
Switch yourself around to the point of view of a Chinese producer. Put yourself in their shoes.
Then what happens is this.
There is insufficient demand at home to keep your factory going. Just not enough orders coming in. So you either close or you entertain these orders from a foreign nation offering funny green bits of paper that are worthless to you.
So you have a word with your local PBC branch and they let you know that they’ll take the funny green bits of paper and give you real money in exchange. And they can even tell you how much real money you’ll get.
That reassures you and off you go producing safe in the knowledge that you’ll get real money for your output which you can spend in the shops in China.
So how does the PBC do that.
Again, put yourself in the shoes of the PBC. In the hands of a bank foreign currency is a loan asset. It’s collateral. What does a bank do with collateral? it discounts it for the local currency.
The transactions are DR Foreign currency assets, CR local factory owner’s deposit account
Now read that again. What has happened?
The bank has gained ownership of a valuable foreign asset *and created local money against it*.
This is how foreign export-led economies maintain circulation of their local money in the face of the drain to savings. They hold foreign currency assets to make the balance sheet look good. It is far, far easier politically to discount against so called ‘hard currency’ than it is against the apparently nebulous ‘taxpayers equity’ asset. Even though functionally it has precisely the same effect – injection of local money into the economy.
Let’s take another example of Norway.
You’re an oil producer in Norway and you earn in US dollars. But the Norwegian government taxes you heavily in Krone to avoid a ‘Dutch disease’ issue and to ‘save’ for future generations.
So what happens?
The government pays the tax amount, in Kroner, into the Government Pension Fund using the usual mark up routine. It charges the oil funds the tax amount (as corporate taxes and licence costs). To get the Kroner, the oil company swaps USD for Kroner – effectively with the Pension Fund. The Oil company now has the Kroner and can settle its tax bill.
The Pension Fund now has USD which it uses to buy equities from abroad and that approach drain more USD in income (and Euros, GBP, etc). The fund puts a huge ‘hard asset’ on one side of the national balance sheet which can be discounted quietly by the Norwegian central bank to maintain the circulation of Kroner in the face of the drain to savings.
You can do much the same with Denmark – except that the pension funds there are privatised.
The Indy movement is going to get Scotland trapped in neoliberal globalist Europe.
Because the Indy movement does not understand any of the above.
The Indy movement is going to sell our sovereignty down the river and agree to everything the EU offers.
Regret it for the rest of their lives.
They didn’t figure out how we could easily do all of this ourselves without any problems at all and interference from Brussels.
The Indy movement are too busy chasing squirrels.
Those in the Indy movement who actually do understand how it works have deluded themselves to believe they can stop the SNP ( the liberal left) at the last minute.
Those that could set up true independence without interference from anybody within 3O days. Actually believe they can stop the SNP ( the liberal left) at the last minute.
As Robin Macalpine says he does not have the money to take them on or Civic Scotland who adore the EU. It would finish the Common Weal off.
(I have The emails to prove it he has relatives in Greece apparently and understands what it means so he says)
Are all about to realise what it feels to get trampled over at conference and voted against at the last minute. Their Indy dream in tatters with Brussels as our new masters.
Their strategy will fail no matter how many times Robin is told his strategy will fail. He carries on regardless as he has ran out of options. He hasn’t the money to stop them.
They are about to feel what having real power feels like as Andrew Wilson gets ready to flick the switch. Tramples them all under his feet.
Too much money to be made for SOME!
Rome burns whilst everyone chases squirrels fighting over whether they can wear a skirt or not.