The process of softening up
We’ve been meaning to talk about this for a few days, but other stuff kept coming up.
(Click pic to enlarge.)
Alert readers won’t have failed to notice a steady drip of stories being fed to the media in recent weeks from SNP figures talking down the idea of the next general election as a de facto referendum.
Many in the party, such as new Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, are clearly very uncomfortable about having been pushed into doing, well, pretty much anything to actually try to achieve independence, even if it’s still two years away, because having (in most cases only recently) acquired themselves some lovely lucrative Westminster careers and pensions they’re not keen on suddenly risking losing them.
But the column above is an illuminating one.
Marcus Carslaw, the Vice-Convenor of the SNP’s Kelvin branch, is an ambitious and slick young apparatchik from the party’s creepy Twitler Youth wing. That group is impervious to the SNP’s normal rules, which is perhaps why he feels sufficiently emboldened to flat-out challenge the official party line – something that would normally be sternly frowned upon.
Carslaw’s stance is that Westminster would say no even if such a vote was won.
(We must admit, we’re struggling to pinpoint “the international goodwill that has been evident since Brexit” in any tangible way. Nor, incidentally, can we picture what fighting the next election “on Brexit” would actually look like in policy terms, since no UK party is going to be standing on a “rejoin” platform and even 59 SNP MPs would have no impact on that.)
Charitably, one might suggest that it at least shows the ability to learn a lesson. The SNP’s official policy for the last eight years has been that if we just kept piling up “mandates” the UK government would magnanimously concede the right to another vote, and that certainly hasn’t happened.
But what, then, is his alternative strategy?
Oh. A blind-faith belief that it’ll somehow magically happen if an unspecified size of polling lead is established for an unspecified length of time.
And how’s progress going on that?
Hmm.
A strategy that’s taken support BACKWARDS in eight years isn’t “gradualist”. Gradual implies a steady advance towards your goal, and that demonstrably isn’t happening with independence, so it doesn’t meet any conventional definition of “successfully”.
But if, on the other hand, you’re a keen young tyro and your goal is simply to get yourself a nice long career in politics, going nowhere in the polls is absolutely ideal. Nobody wants to find themselves running after the gravy train after it’s pulled away from the station, after all, especially to an uncertain destination.
It suits both those already ON that train, and those looking to join them, for things in Scottish politics to stay very much the way they are for as long as humanly possible. The SNP’s passengers – and we use that word very deliberately – are settled into the comfy First Class carriages and the buffet car is lavishly stocked, so it’s perhaps no surprise that they’re warning those in the cheap seats to prepare for a long delay.
Did no one send you the memo Stu? Nicola has a new secret plan. All we need to do is believe in her!
I am emigrating to the Bahamas
Where is that Lottery ticket for tomorrow?
Posted on previous thread by mistake Rev.
In my opinion Sturgeon and her SNP are where they are purely through using “grievance politics”.
All they do to keep their voting numbers high is to blame Westminster and the English Tories for every conceivable problem that has blighted Scotland over the last eight years.
Whether it’s not enough funding, to blocking IndyRef2.
EVERYTHING can be blamed on the English government.
Health service.
Education.
Local government.
Employment.
Every department of the Scottish government is in freefall.
All Sturgeon has to do to keep her gullible flock onboard is blame the Tories
And up to the present day it’s working.
Even the Gender Bill that has just been passed at Holyrood looks likely to be slapped down by the Evil Tories.
And surprise surprise, her tactics of using grievance politics will kick in again, and she’ll scream from the rooftops about how those bad Tories blocked her once again.
Her ratings will get another boost, and the poison Dreghorn dwarf will live to fight ANOTHER day.
If it wasn’t for her grievance politics, she would have been out the door long ago.
Bit like Labour pushing for workers rights, they keep talking about them but are scared that it might happen, as who would need the labour party if workers rights were good. Like the SNP, scared independence comes about, as who will keep supporting the SNP in an independent Scotland.
Another secret plan: a blind-faith belief that it’ll somehow magically happen if an unspecified size of polling lead is established for an unspecified length of time.
Aye right.
We’ve got Dumb and Dumber at Westminster trying to wrangle the bench warmers and Nicla and her acolytes at the Westminster Branch Office checking everybody’s pronouns and privates.
Anybody left in Scotland still believing that Sturgeon’s rancid SNP are remotely interested in Indy is completely delusional.
The SNP have become the 21st Century equivalent of the Irish Parliamentary Party. Feeble and directionless. That said, the people today have access to information on a level unthinkable a century ago, so for all the (justified) criticism if the SNP leadership, what does it say about the timidity of the Scottish people, that half of the population still thinks the status quo (despite every open goal since 2014) is the preferable option?
Like it or not, the fact independence is going nowhere is due as much to the peoples’ apathy and fear of change, as it is the utter incompetence of the so-called gatekeeper of the YES movement.
Yessers have allowed themselves to be pushed into stupid positions by Brigade 77. There is another way.
link to wp.me
It is beyond doubt that the era of politicians is over. Grooming Scotland since 2014
I think its now safe to say that the SNP in now nothing more than a careerist machine for many within its ranks, its kept afloat with lies and deception, time to stop voting for these people, and give our vote to the Alba party.
“A blind-faith belief that it’ll somehow magically happen if an unspecified size of polling lead is established for an unspecified length of time.”
Carslaw? Sounds far too similar to Carlaw (Scottish Tory) for my liking. Seems to be a new Pete Wishart in the making. Out with the old, in with the same. LOL!
The SNP has changed into a vehicle for troughers. Where has all the talent gone? All I see are unintelligent drones. Sturgeon has driven the party into a ditch.
This is (just one more reason) why I never look at the National, who the fuck cares what Marcus Codswallop thinks. Where do they keep finding these creepy little Stepford Kids. (Shudder.) Half Boys From Brazil, half Rick Astley. 100% creepy.
You get independence by getting a mandate for it through a referendum or if that is denied by making it your sole policy in your manifesto turning every UK General and Scottish election into a series of never-ending ‘rolling referendums’.
I understand this is what the SNP used to do in its earlier history.
I found it amusing the way the article breathlessly leads with the spintastic “In less than three months…” like it is imminent and the clock is ticking, instead of being months and months away, when instead they could have simply had 50 zoom calls by now if they had wanted, or just met up in a room and talked instead of waiting months and months and months, wasting more time, yet again.
All of this is moot anyway while the betrayer is running the show. Total waste of time.
Yes, why is it apparently the case that “gradualism” is still the strategy to be pursued (as per Carlaw)?
You can see why it made sense when, realistically, decades were needed to build up support from miniscule levels to a critical mass, at which point you ought to kick the weakening door in and seize your chance. This point was reached in 2016-7 at the absolute latest.
The SNP want to pretend they are still a small party (in effect) when it suits them – as if they are so weak and enfeebled that “gradualism” still makes sense and they need decades to get enough support for what they are proposing, when they should be kicking at that half-open door with urgency.
If you think of independence as a train, support built up slowly over decades and then was picking up steam, at which point the SNP themselves have been the ones slamming down hard on the brakes at every opportunity (for the reasons you raise plus the fact that they are probably not capable of negotiating their way out of a paper bag, far less a Union, and know it).
Even if you are charitable and take at face value that they genuinely believe their strategy is the best one, it is actually the wrong one at the wrong time, at least 6 years out of date and perhaps more.
Bright-boy Marcus is showing the higher ups that not only is he completely on message but he can competently sell business as usual with no risk of interruptions at the trough that might cause indigestion or palpitations. The lad will go far. The quest for independence, not so much.
Yup, it was clear when these equivocating articles, tweets & commentary started appearing, particularly from Sturgeon allies & acolytes, that they must’ve been given the nod, one way or another. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons they opted for a Westminster GE over Holyrood? Easier to back out of (as well as less risk of winning).
Hardly anyone in any other field would pretend at 23 to give an authoritative opinion on anything but for some reason politics is different and these ardent young souls are indulged and pampered. Armed with six highers, a 2:1 politics degree and six months working for an MP/MSP no-one’s ever heard of clearly gives one the experience and insight to lecture lesser beings on the difference between strategy and tactics.
Novels published by writers in their early 20s are often considered as juvenilia but politics must attract all those old souls who know everything right from the start like this SNP staffer who evidently thinks he’s some fountain of authority on referendums even though in 2014 he wasn’t old enough to vote.
Politics is not a place for youthful prodigies, so that’ll be me sticking my fingers in my ears, saying ‘na na na na na’ over and over until the Marcus Carslaws of this world try living in it first before lecturing us about it.
Does this mean that Bill Cruickshank needs to find a new hashtag to replace his ‘Scottishindependence2023’one?
Will his riveting radio show with bore of the century Norrie Hunter have to continue for another decade?
We need to know
Bill has spent years fighting off the British Secret Service interfering with his twitter account as he creates hashtags for the masses from his basement as he wanks furiously to his wee Nicola shrine.
The Constitutional Issue – Strategies by Party
Scottish National Party (SNP)
By various means, attempt to persuade the British government to grant a Section 30 order.
Scottish Green Party (Scottish Greens)
By various means, attempt to persuade the British government to grant a Section 30 order.
Alba Party (Alba)
By various means, attempt to persuade the British government to grant a Section 30 order.
British Conservative Party (Tories)
Preserve the Union at any cost.
British Labour Party (Labour)
Preserve the Union at any cost.
British Liberal Democrats (Lib Dems)
Preserve the Union at any cost.
#DissolveTheUnion #ScottishUDI #NoSection30 #ProudMalcontent
“Alba Party (Alba)
By various means, attempt to persuade the British government to grant a Section 30 order.”
That is not Alba’s policy, Peter, and it does you no credit to pretend that it is.
Mac
‘Half Boys From Brazil, half Rick Astley. 100% creepy.’
LMAO! Excellent description!
Sturgeon is done. No amount of pish can save her. The just another mandate has been done to death.
The party who cried wolf 5 times too often.
SNP is in the toilet because Sturgeon put it there with her progressive equality drive of appointing fuckwits over brains & ability. It was never going to end well. They couldn’t stratagise getting the lunch order.
This reminds of that ludicrous episode when the SNP announced they were forming a ‘Taskforce’ to figure out how to get Independence. After some scratching of heads amongst the independence movement it was pointed out that the SNP were the fucking Taskforce we formed to get independence.
And now they need to wait three months to have a meeting to work out a strategy to get independence… like it is some new problem they have just discovered. It sounds a lot like a very very slow ‘Taskforce’. Or maybe Taskfarce.
They just keep peddling the same deceits to kick the can down the road giving Nicola more time to poison the independence well while blocking any new SNP leadership that might actually do something that works.
Young Carslaw’s preliminary trial balloon from January 3rd is long past. Far weightier voices have joined the dae nuttin’ chorus.
Stewart McDonald is one of the more recent. McDonald attended the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars for a “Defeating Disinformation Workshop” (3rd – 9th Feb. 2020). The WWICfS is a de facto annex of the US State Department.
McDonald has been on an, ahem “political journey”. As an aspiring candidate, he burnished his credentials as a supporter of Palestinian rights going so far as to extol the “ .. need to get Netanyahu in front of a war crimes trial”. Now safely ensconced in the comfortable sinecure of the State, he employs a rabidly pro-Zionist supporter of Netanyahu as his Westminster, Research Assistant.
Young Carslaw aspires to a seat on the big, yellow, gravy bus.
McDonald is comprised. Bribery or blackmail, who really knows? In any case, the one-time holiday rep. enjoys a substantially more comfortable existence than he ever would working for a living.
in fairness yes has been in the lead recently. not sure a poll from 8 months ago is the current situation. We haven’t gone backwards, we’ve just not gone forwards any quicker than a snail.
i do agree though with the general premise that Westiminster politicians are too comfy.
link to archive.is
I’m worth £2,000 a day, chief entrepreneur Mark Logan tells MSPs
They need these guys to help them out.
I do not believe that th SNP/Scottish Government really want independence. It also seems highly likely that Westminster will resist it ever happening. The UK government will make the EU Brexit negotiators look like fairy godmothers if and when it comes to the crunch.
If we look back at the 2015 general election, the SNP won 56 of 59 seats. In the Scottish Parliament following the 2011 election the pro-independence parties (SNP and Greens) held 71 of 129 seats.
A convocation of all elected representatives, MPs and MSPs would have been able to deliver 127 votes for independence out of 188, that is, 67.5%of the votes. That is over 2/3.
Had such a vote been taken it would have been perfectly in order to secede. Such an occurrence is set out in the UN charter. Independence could not be have been legally resisted by the UK government.
It did not happen. Consider that. An extraordinary opportunity arose that would have justified immediate, legal, secession. It did not happen. Why?
My answer is that vote for the SNP is simply a vote for swindlers, flimflam artists who are able to carve lucrative careers by promising the electorate that their dreams may be fulfilled.
The question of how to replace Nicola Sturgeon as leader needs answered before any realistic progress on independence can be made.
If she had been a genuine supporter of independence she could have ensured her Mps and Msps that if they lose their seats in any scenario, then they’ll all still have jobs in an independent Scotland.
It’s true that many top jobs in Scotland have been given to unionists and all of them would need to be replaced.
This would disarm their fears about being unemployed and boost their enthusiasm about completing, briskly and competently,the task they have been set by their voters. They would have no reason to kick cans down the road, or prolong the task longer than necessary.
But, so long as Nicola Sturgeon is leader, nothing tangible is going to happen concerning independence as she’s far more interested in deviant sexual practices.
I posted this on the previous thread but it works here too.
link to archive.is
SNP MP warns independence could be killed off for generation in de facto referendum
Says longest serving nationalist MP with his fingers crossed.
Must be time for Sturgeon to resign and hand over to someone who can find something better than
“just about the worst possible way to settle the constitutional future of Scotland”
I also posted this
Alba hire lawyers to probe alternatives to SNP’s de facto vote
link to archive.is
How about the SNP hiring Alex Salmond as advisor? I bet he would do it for less than £2k per day. He might even do it for nowt.
Bugger the Panda says:
12 January, 2023 at 2:51 pm
“I am emigrating to the Bahamas
Where is that Lottery ticket for tomorrow?”
If you play online you can get your stake money back tomorrow. A free go – worth a shot.
If he decided to return to being a holiday rep he would be restricted to working in the UK unless he was prepared to work illegally.
Sturgeon circular to all SNP MPs and MSPs:-
“Keep your mouth shut and I’ll make you rich beyond your dreams”.
Maybe people in Scotland would be more inclined to vote for Independence if a Political Party set out, for scrutiny, the benefits that would accrue.
For some unknown reason ‘trust us. it will all be fine’ does not cut it with me. I suspect others might be in the same boat. I used ‘boat’ instead of ‘ferry’ for obvious reasons.
Peter A Bell on his Blog today taking credit for educating us all on the News Headlines being what the writer wants you to think……funny! I thought that was Stu in the early days of Wings.
Let start off by going back to the last SNP conference when Nicola Sturgeon stated she was going to remain FM for a long time to come, now I don’t know what anyone else thought but I thought this isn’t the words of a FM seeking to become PM of Scotland.
For starters if I had been FM I would have asked a backbencher to put the Referendum bill into the chamber so it would have been passed and prevented the need for the lord advocates involvement but I’m sure Nicola Sturgeon as a lawyer and a politician knew this, the last thing I would have ever done is precisely what the NUSNP has done and that’s given the UKG the legal right under UK law to say no and from now to eternity they’ll keep saying no.
And regarding this article it states “To be fair to the FM she has not had the chance to put forward the actual detail of the plan and people are surmissing on something which has not been published yet.” I thought Independence wasn’t supposed to be about one person and we all know who’s flouting these ideas in the background.
For me there is only one option to call an early Holyrood election and allow everyone the chance to vote and another reason is, if 16 and 17 year olds and EU nationals are aloud to vote then I feel sure that the 60% margin will be met which would reverse the referendum which was held in 2014 from 45% to 60%+ given the yes said a far bigger majority than the NO side got in 2014.
But we all know who’s calling the shots in the background and Independence has never been her priority since she took over from Alex Salmond. I bet the SNP NEC will choose the leased option that allows the MPs in Westminster to keep their jobs. While in Scotland our people who I might add is willing to vote for Independence that’s has taken 300yrs.
Scotland constitutional question has always been about one person and she keeps telling us she the only one who matters and the rest of us are to follow suite.
There has been a number of articles from various SNP politicians urging caution [as if they know anything else] suddenly appearing in The National. Wishart, Alyn Smith, Uncle Mike Russell and three or four from SNP MSPs whose names I can’t remember and even if I could I’d still ask, “Who?”.
It’s definitely a “process of softening up” in anticipation of the SNP leadership reneging on any future de facto general or Holyrood election.
Thankfully there were plenty of comments BTL telling these SNP politicians to either find some guts or GTF. But how many read the articles in the printed edition without seeing the comments BTL and are susceptible to politicians’ persuasion?
These articles disappear suspiciously quickly from the “most read” list whenever there’s a plethora of “gutless SNP” comments.
Peter a bell now attempting to take over WOS with his deliberately misinterpreted comments , BEWARE Rev you are EXPOSING the snp lies, inconsistencies and treacherous plans too much it enrages the PARTY LOYALISTS , ONLY the Sturgeon Nonce Party are capable or entitled to get us indy , Nicla has a plan
BBC in Scotland Text Service reporting 7 people in Scotland reported to the Fiscals Office for not completing last years census.
I wonder how all those arrests are coming along after the Huns rioted in Glasgow City centre? You know, all those arrests the corrupt Police Scotland assured us all would happen? Things gone quite quiet on that front, eh! With all those scummy sewer-dwellers who caused it being safely back home in Norn Irn.
The BBC in Scotland Text Service also using any excuse for reporting about ‘The King’. Telling us all that after Harry’s book release “The King is performing his first engagement” by visiting *hardship organisations* in Aberdeenshire. He is taking a short break from his “Holiday Home” on Balmoral to do so, apparently.
What a f@ckin’ brass neck! Both the chief parasite and the bbc. Bow before me you scrounging Jockanese peasants.
And in other BBC in Scotland Text Service news: Sturgeon & Sunak to hold *private* talks on Thursday night (tonight) in the Highlands where several topics will be discussed including the economy and the NHS. They then tell us an announcement will follow on 2 Freeports being opened in Scotland.
“Private”, eh? Anyone think indy will be on that list of topics for discussion? Nah! Me neither!
Doug says on 12 January 2023 at 6:18 pm:
“These articles disappear suspiciously quickly from the “most read” list whenever there’s a plethora of “gutless SNP” comments.”
Several million quid to the newspaper industry over a few years would buy quite a lot of co-operation i would imagine. 😉
So here they are the two-sites for freeports that Sturgeon the Judas and the English PM Sunak agreed on.
“The Press and Journal yesterday ran an article quoting UK Government sources as saying Cromarty Firth would be one of the sites selected for free port status alongside a Firth of Forth bid.”
Freeports breed crime and tax evasion, and will be of little benefit to Scots. Is there anything left for Sturgeon the betrayer in Scotland to sell-off/giveaway to the detriment of Scots.
Meanwhile a vital charity that delivers food to the very vulnerable and house bound has had its funding cut by the SNP ran Glasgow City Council, FoodTrain will stopping delivering vita supplies in a few weeks, I foresee these very vulnerable people who rely on the service ending up in hospital and taking up vital beds.
Get the SNP out wherever you find them, at council level, at MSP level and at MP level.
Vote Alba, Join Alba.
Chas says:
12 January, 2023 at 6:06 pm
Maybe people in Scotland would be more inclined to vote for Independence if a Political Party set out, for scrutiny, the benefits that would accrue.
For some unknown reason ‘trust us. it will all be fine’ does not cut it with me. I suspect others might be in the same boat. I used ‘boat’ instead of ‘ferry’ for obvious reasons.
Alba has! link to albaparty.org
Peter A Bell Thinker, Listener, Talker, Reader , Writer. What a man! We could also add Blocker, Potty mouth and Arse to that list and I am sure a few in here have a few more to add. Peter your tea is out.
You are supporter of independence Chas why don’t you set out for the people of Scotland who read this blog what benefits you think would accrue?
There’s an immediate fatal flaw in Coleslaws argument about 2015 which he uses to setup the rest of his article with, quote from said article:
Of course, the SNP won 49.97% of the vote in the 2015 UK General Election and if you include votes for the Greens, a majority voted for pro-independence parties
Except that in 2015 – only a mere 5 months and 25 days after becoming party leader following the 2014 independence referendum result and heading into the UK 2015 General Election the then & current Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon stated to the press that:
“A vote for the SNP is not a vote for another referendum. It is a vote to have Scotland’s voice heard at Westminster.”
Ref: link to archive.ph
and:
“If you vote for the SNP you are not voting for independence you are not even voting for another independence referendum. You are voting to make Scotland’s voice heard in that system that has so often in the past tended to side-line and ignore Scotland.
Ref: link to archive.ph
A couple of very pro-union statements and less than 6 months after becoming leader of the pro-indy Scottish National Party too.
Indeed the SNPs 2015 Manifesto was not a manifesto for independence, it wasn’t even a pro-independence manifesto, it is quite clear that it was a pro-union manifesto – it even stated as much the foreword written by Nicola Sturgeon and throughout the entire manifesto pages in which it only referenced the word “independence” 5 times, one of which was about Personal Independence Payments for people with disabilties and the other 4 were not for the purposes of standing on an independence ticket in the election – but were used instead to justify reasons for bedding down in Westminster and embracing the union.
You can read the entire SNP 2015 Manifesto here for a refresher, its quite obvious it’s not a pro-indy manifesto when you strip out all the filler:
link to ucrel.lancs.ac.uk
When Coleslaw writes that “Knowing the difference between tactics and strategy is key in politics” he completely omits another critically important element of politics – electoral history.
Specifically his partys own electoral history and the history embedded within their 2015 pro-union manifesto – the same year that he references in order to build his “we’d have won 50%+ of votes in 2015 with pro-indy votes” argument which his entire artice uses to justify its very existence with and falls completely flat on its arse as any vote for the SNP under their 2015 manifesto was most definitely not a vote for a pro-indy manifesto nor was it a manifesto for another independence vote.
The 2015 UK GE landslide election result in Scotland was a duped-vote on the back of losing the indy-ref in 2014 and a shameful abuse of the good-will built up by the indy movement, including the goodwill generated by this sites own Wee Blue Book, which was usurped by the new SNP leader to capitalise on vote share and for SNP Westminster MPs to not fight for independence and instead work off of a pro-union manifesto for a planned entire electoral cycle until that snap UK General Election in 2017 called by Theresa May in order to justify her position as PM following the EU vote threw a spanner into their important work of idling on the green benches.
That’s the same 2017 UK General Election you might recall the SNP paid for dearly in as they lost 21 MPs and -13.1% of the vote share in Scotland – that among other obvious reasons was the electorate’s response & electoral-price Sturgeon paid for her previous pro-union 2015 manifesto which once again threw Scotland under the dark cloud of Tory rule where we remain to this day.
That’s probably electoral history that Coleslaw would love to forget about and clearly why he never mentioned the topic of electoral history in his “key in politics” line – which is quite frankly an embarrasing attempt at taking the moral high-ground over the great-unwashed and probably why he completely omitted the electoral history mentioned above and instead opted to cherry-pick a few token items in an attempt to make himself sound competent.
@Vivian O’Blivion 4.44: yes, Stewart McDonald’s “journey’ is the time-honoured one of “Lefty” agitator to right-wing sell-out and bench-warmer. His support for the country east of Poland and its third-class (impressive!) Order of Merit is of course in tune with Israel’s incredible, recent support for elements of the Azov battalion.
It’s strange bedfellows à gogo in the SNP.
Yesterday (11/01/23) the BBC in Scotland reported on a case where a nonce, who used computer gaming to get to his victim, was jailed. The bbc referred to that c@nt as “a rapist”. Sure! He is, but he is first and foremost a paedophile. His victim was only 13-years old ffs. Seems the BBC in Scotland, like their head office in London, has a thing for protecting ‘kiddy-fiddlers’. I wonder if the scumbag will self-ID as a Jimmy Savile lookalike woman?
In other news: A 60-year old man has been charged with assault and abduction. He apparently wrestled a 67-year-old Sheriff to the ground and accused him of being corrupt as he pinned him to the ground by sitting on him. He said he was making a citizen’s arrest. He grabbed the Sheriff as he got out of his car outside the Court.
LMFAO! ((( GAUN YERSEL FELLA! )))
🙂
I can’t help but wonder where support for independence would be if we had a competent SNP in control of Holyrood – or maybe we would already be independent.
Alba is now clearly the only hope we have of securing independence.
The SNP will not deliver independence they are now a pro devolution party.
They are also a pro bearded men in dresses party, how any sane person can continue to support the SNP is beyond me.
If you want independence join Alba become a member you will be welcomed.
Ruby
Under the SNP NONE!
Tell us what benefits YOU think would accrue. Points to consider are finance, economy, health, education, tax etc. I am certain you can think of more.
We are all waiting.
Twitler kiddie has a point tbf – ie rather than hijacking the defacto referendum to mean electorate rather than seats, and, worse yet, hijacking a win on same to mean the right to ask UK government for the right to ask disenfranchised scots if they agree Scotland should be an independent country, they’d win far more respect simply by declaring the treaty ended and calling a referendum to confirm the decision..
That said, I heard on grapevine that Andrew Bridgen MP is himself slightly vaccine damaged – something which, if true*, suggests your** votes risk not counting for much ever again anyway.. so the confirmatory referendum might not even be needed 🙂
link to youtube.com
*Talking of twitler and the scourge of common cold wars, Mario hosts a great ‘spaces’ on files released to date but nonetheless interesting to learn that Odessa “before” the war seems to have been about as concerned about covid as Boris party guests and Canadian truckers (as described by trudeau) might have been about hindu symbolism decorating 10 & 11 downing st.
link to twitter.com
**I dont get one, fortunately!
Poster Chas seems to have landed on the wrong blog.
Scotland in Union is just along the corridor Chas, now off you trot.
@Tinto Chiel 7:08
If Marcus is supporting the right country in the war, then he goes up in the estimation of most decent Europeans.
What is it about a free country fighting for its existence against murderous imperialism that annoys so many on here?
Once again, Rev Stu produces his flatlined Indy support graph. Nearly a year now, but you have yet to notice that supporting the wrong country in the war is winning Indy no friends outside of Orc land.
One important one is there will be absolutely no need to vote SNP.
I was trying to explain how to do smileys/emojis on the other thread but I think I may have made of hash of it.
Let me know if the following makes sense.
To make a
Sad face
:-
and add
(
Smiley face is the same except use
)
instead of (
winky face
;-
then add )
Can you do a smiley, winky & sad face for me Chas to show you have understood?
🙁
Maybe you could tell us you are an independence supporter and add a winky face. 😉
Cheers!
🙂
@John Main (8.30) –
‘Nearly a year now, but you have yet to notice that supporting the wrong country in the war is winning Indy no friends outside of Orc land.’
Main there, showing exactly why many would like to see him join Ellis in a self-imposed purdah. (BTW Andy, if you see this, well done, you’ve been as good as your word and many of us appreciate it. Bravo!)
There is no visible, coherent Peace movement in this country. But the causal monstering of ‘the enemy’ as some inhuman beast is just part of everyday banter.
Strange days indeed.
🙁
Two question for you.
1. Who is Marcus
2. Why are you concerned about Europeans?
I thought you were a hard core Brexiteer. We used to be Europeans but now we are just plain old British Brexiteers.
@John Main: “What is it about a free country fighting for its existence against murderous imperialism that annoys so many on here?”
Au contraire, John, I’ve been a supporter of Scotland against the English yoke all of my adult life. Please keep up.
@Ruby 8:36
Your assertion that post-Indy there will be no need to vote SNP implies your belief that pre-Indy we need to keep on voting SNP.
Ploughing a very lonely furrow there, Ruby.
Hardly any poster on here any longer believes voting SNP will bring Indy.
Won’t you be more comfortable on WGD?
John Main says:
12 January, 2023 at 8:30 pm
no friends outside of Orc land.
——–
Please keep your ethnic racism to the btl section somewhere else thank you very much.
We’ve had enough of that against the Scottish people for over 300 years without you being racist to other ethnicities.
Potentially huge breaking story in The Times.
Just had a flashback there to when – who was it? – would post the front pages of the Sunday papers at whatever time on the Sat night. Who was it again? Wasn’t TJenny, but another stalwart back in the early years.
Anyway, this is more than enough for anyone to be going on with so it is…
😉
link to twitter.com
Does Scotland even deserve independence? I am beginning to think Scotland was some kind of monster in a previous life. This is our punishment ,and we have to suck it up.
Being Stateless, is like being in eternal purgatory. We can see heaven, but the gates are closing inch by inch, until they close forever.
Peter A Bell
I have already put Colin Alexander rite on posting that rubbish of Alba wanting a S30 .
Post a link where that shite appears .
@IB 8:53
Calling for peace right now. Join me, our combined efforts will stop the war.
Meantime, we must applaud the humanity of the murderers, torturers and rapists released from Russti prisons and sent across the border to lovingly embrace their fellow countrymen and women.
As for these whiny Eastern Europeans, what are they like, eh? Kill a few of their kids and flatten a few of their hospitals and they take offence. They need to chill. Monstering the murderers is so unacceptable.
If the SNP want a majority of people to support independence, then maybe they should pursue policies that unite people in Scotland rather than divide them.
I was all in in 2014 on the chance of doing something new and different.
I’m almost glad now that we didn’t get independence because I do not like this SNP now.
The GRC is hugely divisive and I can’t see anything good coming out of it, and to be honest, I can’t see why they are so all in on a policy that effectively alienates 50+% of the population to give equality to a tiny minority.
Not to mention the increasingly slopy shoulders when it comes to the NHS Scotland, education, the economy and pretty much everything in between.
I’ll not vote SNP again and will not vote YES as long as it means an SNP govt.
And, incidentally, John Main, I doubt Charles de Gaulle’s grandson has skin in the Scottish Game of independence but as a general in the French army he is perhaps better informed than either you or me (mere aerosols on the internet) on the dangers of facilely Orcifying a member of the UN Security Council: link to euroweeklynews.com
Anonymoose
Awa bile yer fat heid.
Endless wacism oan here, wik efter wik, yet ne’er a squeak frae ye til noo.
That Twitter thread from an insider at the 2014 vote was very revealing and suggest to me that similar polling is taking place atm and is revealing that there are many folk who will, in an opinion poll, vote YES to indy but who would not do so in a genuine plebsiscite.
That for me is the real ‘crime’ in the current strategy. Focus on grievance as a way of covering-up extremely serious problems with poor governance.
Soft marginal voters are not persuaded by NS or Swinney.
We need rid of both and to put some genuine people up there at the top who can a) govern, and b) promote a positive vision of an independent Scotland.
But the SNP are too thick to do that.
He’s right in a way he doesn’t understand. A party which has done next to nothing in promoting independence, getting people behind it, creating an optimistic sense of a future scotland, will be taken apart in the election when it can’t answer the deluge of questions it will get – most importantly ‘what are you going to do the day after the election if you ‘win’ your mandate? They will have no coherent answer, other than ‘negotiate with WM’, the same old guff they’ve been havering about for years. No wonder they are getting cold feet, as they realise their leader has led them up another garden path, without any cogent arguments or vision.
I don’t suppose they would ask their members, because they have been ignored and sidelined. So it is up to these largely uninspiring lack of intellects to come up with some decent arguments. Don’t hold your breath.
I guess the reason they are obsessed with self ID is that they have been cross dressing as an independence party for years, and think it is enough to declare yourself that way inclined without any examination of their credentials.It is an act, a performance which makes them feel comfortable. And you mustn’t question them, they won’t feel safe. So we all have to pretend what we see is what they say they are. How very insulting to our intelligence as the charade rolls on.
Sturgeon will NEVER lead an independence campaign.
Ever.
The SNP disgust me.
What does it say about these people that they would sell our freedom for silver.
I see the incompetent former finance(lol) minister is trying to rehabilitate himself on tv with a friendly STV journalist,
What do you mean by we?
Have you noticed there are a hell of a lot of people voting for the SNP?
I presume they are voting for the SNP because they claim to be a party for independence.
Once we are independent there will be no need to vote for any party that supporter independence.
I was trying to point out to your friend Chas that it was very silly to assume that Independence would mean the SNP would be in power in an iScotland.
Interesting article and comments for a Yoon like myself. The support for independence in opinion polls has remained in the high 40%s for some time now. Sometimes you get a bit over 50% then it drops back. While there’s lots of stuff about the gravy train and betrayal I don’t seen any strategy suggested here that’s going to win you the hearts and minds of the Scottish people to get you over the line. Without that I can sleep easily in my bed about independence. Although I do worry about the wanton destruction the SNP is heaping on the economy, culture and civic institutions of Scotland.
It is clear that the vast majority of SNP MPs, MSPs and party officers, from the leader down, are dead against independence because of their own self interests.
They are the new parcel of rogues.
The SNP political leadership is not going to further the cause of independence.
The SNP must have been absolutely sure that their case would be rejected before taking it to the Supreme Court.
The SNP is not going to take any risks that might lead to independence.
The question that needs to be answered is what can ordinary independence supporting folks actually do to further the cause?
Can some “sovereign” Scot not come forward to take on the challenge?
One can only be “sovereign” if one can challenge the rulers (SNP), without the help of the rulers (SNP).
IMHO, the “sovereignty” of the Scots was never worth the paper it was written on.
But I would be happy to be proved wrong if the first “sovereign” Scot ever came forward now to lead Scotland to independence.
Alan+scott 9:52
The hearts and minds of many undecided Scots may well be marvelling at the constant, casual sniping and dissing addressed at fellow Europeans who are putting their lives on the line for their nation, culture, identity and freedom.
Reading this I am not surprised that Alba now have over 6000 members and counting.
Anyone who has not figured out yet that the SNP have no desire for independence please contact me as I have a ferry for sale to be built by Ferguson Marine.
If Scotland wins a de facto referendum the tactics should be to request negotiations for independence and if this is refused begin agitation and practicing/teaching civil disobedience to patriots of Scotland.
However that is just my personal opinion and I would trust Alex Salmond more than myself when it comes to these things so do the right thing folks and join the good fight.
Alba and wings can take us there with our support.
link to albaparty.org
Join the fight for independence folks with the party that actually wants to achieve it. 6000 members and counting.
link to albaparty.org
Am I banned or is posting links to Alba not allowed?
alan+scott @ 9:52 pm
“I don’t seen any strategy suggested here that’s going to win you the hearts and minds of the Scottish people to get you over the line.”
Postcolonial literature tells us that ‘a people’ subject to colonial oppression may reject their liberation due to their ‘colonial mindset’.
In an effort to obscure and diminish its deep and damaging psychological and wider adverse health effects, we even gave the colonial mindset another name – the ‘Scottish cultural cringe’.
As this is a ‘psychological condition’ there are various symptoms, not least self-hatred of one’s own ethnic group combined with a strong respect for and desire to become just like that very impressive model – i.e. the colonizer – all helped along through the process of cultural (or colonial) assimilation.
The cure? Liberation, of course, together with the removal of an exploitative oppressor and his culture, which also requires the ‘self-recovery’ of a subordinated people and particularly thair ain naitural cultur an langage.
However, in order to better understand what independence means, our erstwhile nationalist leaders and the population more generally really do need to first undertake what Frantz Fanon termed ‘a reasoned analysis of colonialism’, something which they have clearly yet to do.
link to wp.towson.edu
John Main says:
12 January, 2023 at 10:16 pm
Alan+scott 9:52
The hearts and minds of many undecided Scots may well be marvelling at the constant, casual sniping and dissing addressed at fellow Europeans who are putting their lives on the line for their nation, culture, identity and freedom.
Sorry, John, I don’t understand what you mean.
Alf, you make a great case for the evil of empire and the curse it lays on the oppressed.
You say
The cure? Liberation, of course, together with the removal of an exploitative oppressor and his culture, which also requires the ‘self-recovery’ of a subordinated people and particularly thair ain naitural cultur an langage.
While that might be true my question was what is the strategy to get there. Happily I can’t see it.
@Alf Baird 10:30
Your ‘Scotland as colony’ theory is certainly gaining traction.
I think it needs updating to address why ScotGov is actively pursuing policies to combat witchcraft, burnings, conversion rapes, and some of the other un-Scottish practices we were reading about just a few days ago.
Strikes me very forcefully that there are a number of colonisation efforts ongoing in Scotland. It is ultimately futile to focus on just one of them. All of them are destructive to Scotland’s culture, laws and the rights of her people.
Ok class, your task today is to invent a name for the next generation of patriotic Scottish heroes.
Tarquin Dugdale
Lady Ruth Rees Mogg
Boris McSecretaryshagguer
Marcus Carslaw
Lord Blenkington McFuque
Sir Backinyerbox McJockerson
@Ian Brotherhood
Thanks for posting that link about that *allegedly* corrupt sheriff. I might’ve missed it otherwise.
There’s much more to come about corruption at this level in Scottish society. Congrats to the fella in the story for not backing down. Weirdly, I think I’m right in saying that only our glorious leader, Nicola Sturgeotti, performs the final final act in removing a shrieval member of the judiciary. Bearing in mind the actual details of the Times story that will make for a very interesting process. I wonder who they’ll get to be on the tribunal…oh the anticipation! Definitely one to watch…cheers again Ian!
I wonder if Sturgeon and Sunak managed to have the Union secured and Scotland stitched up before they’d finished their first course.
Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?
Sunak to Sturgeon:-
“Name your price Nicola, just as long as you promise to keep on doing what you’re doing”.
Sturgeon to Sunak:-
“Don’t you worry your little head rishi, I have these clowns up here eating out the palm of my hand”.
John Main @ 11:11 pm
“I think it needs updating to address why ScotGov is actively pursuing policies to combat witchcraft, burnings, conversion rapes, and some of the other un-Scottish practices”
Fanon refers to such practices as ‘mystification policies’, which are intended to make it look like the national party is busy, and seek to divert attention away from the lack of progress on the most urgent matter, which is the liberation of the people.
The main task now is ‘to educate the masses politically’ and ‘to teach the masses that everything depends on them’ and that ‘the magic hands are finally only the hands of the people’.
alan scott @ 10:42 pm
“While that might be true my question was what is the strategy to get there. Happily I can’t see it.”
The national party leaders have yet to undertake ‘a reasoned analysis of colonialism’; they have still to realise that independence and decolonisation are one and the same thing. They remain oblivious to the fact that they are dealing primarily with a psychological condition. Economic arguments won’t alter that; the denial of oppression by an oppressed people is part of the ‘colonial mindset’ – thay refuise tae see it. Scotland could be one of the richest nations on earth – as it arguably was when oil was fully flowing – yet a culturally subordinate people still handed their sovereignty over to a paternalistic ‘superior’ culture.
Chas 8:06pm
Stop being a chump! Yer on a site that has thousands & thousands of articles & a fucking book for your perusal on the benefits of Independence.
I think the glaringly obvious one is tossing the envelope marked pocket money & collecting the one marked pay packet instead.
No one here is going to spoon feed you & clutter up the comments arguing about 11 yr old pish that’s been done to death.
Its just the usual deflection tactic favoured by yoons.
But here’s one for you.. explain how beneficial those exact same things have been under the Union.
The floor is yours..
Robert Knight
That would be stitched up & settled at the aperitif stage.
John Main
Did you learn absolutely nothing from Iraq & Afghanistan?
& There won’t be an SNP party post indy.
The new parliament will hold elections with new political parties who register. I’m sure SLabber, lie Dumbs & Tory twats wont just fade off into the sunset.
& It’s also worth remembering that the Yes movement isn’t the SNP. Believe it or not it’s cross party & from all backgrounds. Thier party ignores them because they can when there’s no chance of a referendum.
SNP last election win was on Independence. They’ve fecked that vote now since adopting the Greens nonce manifesto & doubling down on it when they had absolutely no good reason to do so other than it being thier devious plan all along.
That’s going to be a spectacular fail at the next one. They can be dumbfounded like Mhari Hunter: How did I lose?
Umm, let me think!? You spent 24/7 noising up Yessers on twitter would be a good starting point. 😀
The Constitutional Issue – Strategies by Party
Scottish National Party (SNP)
By various means, attempt to persuade the British government to grant a Section 30 order.
Scottish Green Party (Scottish Greens)
By various means, attempt to persuade the British government to grant a Section 30 order.
Perhaps PAB would like to explain, list or show proof of the various means or measures that the snp and or the greens attempted to PERSUADE the brutish government to GRANT a section 30 AGREEMENT
MAYBE Peter is talking about the 1 time that Nicla asked Teresita , or is it maybe the 1 time she NEARLY asked bozo
Sturgeons other gift was to turn the Yes movement into being party political & all about the SNP.
The question on the ballot is ‘Should Scotland be an independent country’
Not political party, education, health, devolved rubbish or who’s wearing nice shoes at the polling station.
The Scottish Greens are immediately discounted by WM.
They’re unelected & don’t have an MP. They told Caroline, who could’ve put in a word & has a vote should the matter arise, to piss off until she bends the knee to wee Harvies demands to embrace misogyny & kiddie fiddling with gusto. 😀
So that just leaves the single entry to Mayhem. In 5 elections. & 8 yrs. So a piss poor effort then..
So the softening up process begins. Backtracking already. Well that didn’t take long (anyone surprised?). However, there’s a chunky bluebottle in the ointment that may spoil the party. Some people have already taken to the street. The demonstrations have started and the protests will only grow louder and angrier. Let’s see how those selfish cowards that pretend to be politicians deal with that.
She always looks so happy when meeting Riki 2 snacks. In a secret informal meeting in a hotel. Not quite the bi lateral talks. It’s ridiculous.
She’s sold off the ScotWind sea bed sites, Scotland’s renewables energy future, gone for a quick buck and a selfie with an auction maximum cap. That upsets me greatly.
65 avoidable deaths each week NHS Scotland. Her performance at first minister’s questions was a gross insult yesterday. The nurses are going to strike, gaurenteed. The level of arrogance and delusion from her is unbelievable.
She wants to shut down oil fields in 20 years. She wants to destroy industry like Thatcher. Nicola Thatcher. Can’t stand the woman. Free ports. Ach, thank god wings is back. You can articulate everything we need to say. Get Sturgeon out.
What Carslaw et al forget is that since 2014 Sturgeon was at pains to say before every GE or HR election that they were NOT plebiscites. I’m not an SNP apparatchik but I noticed.
What’s Carskaw’s excuse?
Tinto Chiel says:
12 January, 2023 at 9:20 pm
And, incidentally, John Main, I doubt Charles de Gaulle’s grandson has skin in the Scottish Game of independence but as a general in the French army…https://euroweeklynews.com/2023/01/04/grandson-charles-de-gaulle-defends-russia-slams-eu/
That’s interesting, and encouraging, because I agree very strongly with a lot of what he says.
The “situation in the East” if I can describe it like that, is complex. Yes, there are elements to it which polarise opinion, but the whole situation is murky and difficult. The good guys aren’t all good, and the bad guys are often like ghosts.
When it comes to Yookraine, I find NATO’s roll deeply, deeply unsettling, the EU’s handling of it seems negligent and grossly disappointing, and the USA’s roll is borderline satanic.
But don’t go thinking that’s a free pass for Mr P either. I believe he too is using Yookraine as a springboard for greater things. Not the conquest of Europe which many suppose, although it’s clear that puts the fear of god into former Soviet territories, who might thus be forgiven for pumping in their stockpiles of tanks and munitions. But there are others sending arms and munitions who really ought to be ashamed of themselves. It is dangerous and unqualified warmongering, and already prolonging the fighting when it’s conclusion would otherwise be reached.
The invasion itself marked a steep escalation in the Cold War style tit-for-tat relations between the Superpowers. And yes, I think it did give the Ruskis the initiative which caught the US off guard. But don’t forget, the alternative narrative would be a bulwark of US missiles and defences established right on Rus.. Border. Arguably, the small war we are seeing, however tragic, is acting like a pressure valve to dissipate the likelihood of a much greater war… it may be the proverbial lesser of two evils.
And incidentally, the rate at which Yookraine has chewed it’s way through massive stockpiles of ex Soviet hardware and billions upon billions of cutting edge modern NATO tech and hardware, “perhaps” we ought to be thanking our lucky stars that Ruskiland ISN’T set on global domination. Every wargame in that scenario ends up ugly and nuclear.
So am I relaxed? Not really. It’s not mentioned in the broadcast politics, but beneath the Nazi narratives circulating about Yookraine, there is an undercurrent of bitter antisemitism. We have the dark vocabulary of WW2, but there’s a component to the hatred with a Middle Eastern flavour to it, a legacy of the proxy war between East and West in Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Iran, and the perceived influence of the Israelis. All the ingredients for the same cocktail as WW2, but the proportions are changed.
Be warned too, the West’s “dalliance” with transgenderism is a new hatred on the block. When “we” think it’s a perverts charter for pedos, you probably don’t want to know what the Slavs are thinking…
It really is quite the can of worms. Maybe it always was, but I’m back agreeing with De Gaulle’s grandson. Default to factory settings, and peace in Europe requires Ruskiland’s full participation. It simply does. We are all European. Glasnost and perestroika could have been the lasting end of the Cold War had the West recognised Ruskiland was not the Soviet Union any more.
It also puts Scotland in a tricky situation too; at least a Scotland which wants Independence. If Scotland was to side with America and antagonise Mr Put, and BRICS nations, (and we have the necessary thunderdunces in the SNP to do that), we become NATO stooges. Yet if we’re not NATO stooges, then NATO will close ranks to sink Scotland’s Independence dreams.
If only Sturgeon the Betrayer had respected the SNP’s traditional anti-war neutrality. Sadly there seems no bottom to her incompetence. How I ache to see the back of that feckless cretin. Scotland’s greatest failure; and that’s quite an accolade given the list…
Interesting claims on twitter yesterday from a YES insider that the Murrells were sabotaging independence BEFORE the vote had even taken place in 2014. A NO vote would of course result in a Murrell coronation.
John MainStreamMedia doing his best to disrupt the thread with his straight-from-the-donkey’s-arse incisive reportage .
Might have to replace Orwell’s metaphor of a boot stamping eternally on a defenceless face as the defining image of Fascism with another equally horrific one ….
Our man JMSM the Travis Bickle of E.K standing in front of his bedroom mirror , beer gut tumbling over his yellow n blue y-fronts n matching stetson n ” I *Heart* Zelly ” sweatshirt giving it……
” You talkin’ to me , Vlad ? Then who the hell else are you talkin’ to? You talkin’ to me? Well I’m the only one here, Vlad. Who the f**k do you think you’re talking to , Vlad ? ” ; the room bedecked with Union Flags ( Confederate & UK ) MAGA posters , a blow-up Nigel Farage doll and – in pride of place , a wall covering sized photo of the Windsors in all their monarchical glory – yip Andrew included .
Taken-in any UK rain refugees yet , Johnny ? Na , didn’t think so
Maybe worth saying that the UK Supreme Court did not exist at the time of the Union. How can it have been placed over us without consent? Indeed, if one looks closely, the terms of the Act of Union have been abrogated in a number of areas?
Tom Clark to James Connolly, GPO building, Easter 1916:
“You do realise this might lead to a penny increase in income tax, don’t you?”
ScottieDog says:
“Interesting claims on twitter yesterday from a YES insider that the Murrells were sabotaging independence BEFORE the vote had even taken place in 2014.”
I think this is probably one of the most under-investigated subjects out there. What are these claims on twitter because I would say they should definitely be taken seriously until proven otherwise.
After it became glaringly obvious what Sturgeon was/is her role in 2014 and the YES campaign should have been re-scrutinized through the lens of her being a wrong’un, a betrayer. But I have not seen any real investigation nor analysis of it anywhere.
At the very least she and Murrell would have been able to spy on the very inner sanctum of the strategizing and tactical approach of the YES campaign but they also would have been for sure doing things to weaken and undermine it… it is a racing certainty.
What was Sturgeon’s role during 2014 and in the years leading up to it. Because I guarantee you her role was malignant. The evidence will be there somewhere…
Cracking story about the sherrif being detained, similarly minded citizens might find some fascinating, if slightly contradictory, information below that suggests you can only* make a citizens arrest for serious common law crimes more serious than a breach of the peace (which itself is classed as a serious common law crime) if you are sure the crime was comitted, ie in which you are a direct witness or victim – the serious common law crimes in Scotland being : abduction, assault, breach of the peace, fraud, theft, robbery, malicious mischief and willfull fire raising
link to nfps.info
However the right/ obligation to make a citizens arrest will necessarily have been enhanced pari passu with criminal justice Scotland Act (2016) which apparently came into force 25 Jan 2018 and removed the distinction between arrest and detention in Scots law. (ie it modified the power of arrest from one that was undertaken with the intent of charging a person with a crime and bringing them before a court of law to one that allowed arrest on simple suspicion that a crime had been comitted.
Accordingly msps might find urgent debate on the matter to their advantage, especially if they dont want to be subject to perfectly legitimate (and random !) citizens arrests, if only to try and establish the circumstances where medical abductions and assaults, climate change theft and robberies, and malicious mischief and fireraising in form of war or party political propaganda against (sovereign) citizens can be justified.. or prevent genuinely concerned citizens forcibly detaining UK PM pending S30 agreement, eg for suspected crimes against democracy, next time he comes to dinner, etc.. 🙂
*depending on moral conventions and things like the French/EU (?) non assistance to persons in danger statute it may even be obligatory when feasible
Like many others (on all sides) Carslaw irretrievably muddies the water by identifying the barrier to a ‘legal’ independence as the ‘Westminster Government’. The effective, true, constitutional barrier is the House of Commons. It is not inconceivable that some twisted plotting or sheer incompetence might lead to the UK Government mistakenly agreeing to a Referendum (David Cameron did, after all). It is inconceivable that anything like the present set of MPs of all parties except SNP and Greens would ever agree to changing the boundaries of the United Kingdom.
Peter A Bell,
It’s a bit presumptious to ride on Wings’s coat-tails to promote traffic to your site.
I wonder how you would react if anyone tried that with yours?
Of course, you may have asked for and received Wings’ permission first, in which case, I apologise.
Muscleguy says:
13 January, 2023 at 7:42 am
What Carslaw et al forget is that since 2014 Sturgeon was at pains to say before every GE or HR election that they were NOT plebiscites. I’m not an SNP apparatchik but I noticed.
I can’t help but see every SNP reference, to any election being a plebiscite, as anything but disingenuous, because you don’t just wake up one morning and decide you’re having a plebiscite.
Because you’re going the “change” the emphasis of the election, in other words, make it mean something different from the declared purpose of the election, you have two essential requirements which MUST be in place and roundly understood months ahead of the vote. You cannot just spring it on the people.
The first requirement is unifying the vote behind a binary issue. That means all independence party politics set to one side, and a single YES vote candidate standing for a election on the binary manifesto that a vote for them is a vote for Independence. When people talk about Scotland United, this is what they mean… a “vanilla” Independence Candidate who stands for nothing else.
The second requirement is doing all the legwork at home, but especially abroad, so that the International Community is alerted to what’s going on, is anticipating the result, and has been primed to recognise the result of the Plebiscite as a Constitutional and lawful expression of the Nation’s will. If you’re trusting the international community to read about it in the newspapers, you’re already screwed.
You will not be using the UK Government’s election protocols in the way which the UK Government intended them to be used, so you cannot expect the UK Government to endorse the result. They won’t. They will contest the result vociferously. You will thus require the vote to register over the heads of the Westminster Government, and register with the UN and International Community and be recognised by them, to stand any chance of securing international recognition for Scottish Independence.
There is an absolute mountain of preparatory work to be done, an inordinate amount of international lobbying to be done, and an immediate armistice across the whole Independence Movement so that YES movement is not divided.
Unless you see ALL of that happening, and furthermore see firm preparations for a transitional status to end the Treaty of Union in an orderly manner, not unlike the Brexit Transitional Negotiations,… then I would argue you are NOT being serious about actually securing Scottish Independence, but instead you’re just flying a kite.
Nevermind “ALL” of that happening, I don’t see ANY of that happening. Instead I see the more familiar pattern of the bone idle SNP only plotting and scheming to get the SNP back in power, where they don’t give a flying fk about Independence.
In my humble opinion, this unitary YES organisation, Scotland United, or whatever you want to call it, must neither be focussed on Westminster or Holyrood, but come together under the red sovereignty of Scotland’s Constitution and the Claim of Right. It virtually has to become Scotland’s interim Government. Yes, that’s correct. You are indeed very close in essence to Ireland’s 1916 Proclamation of an Irish Republic.
It must either “be” a Convention of the Estates, or be a body set up by a Convention of the Estates, and be purged of all subservient instincts and inclinations towards Westminster. The purpose is not to elect a Scottish Government, nor serve a UK Government. The sole and singular purpose is to have Scotland end the Treaty of Union. That MUST be understood, and unequivocally understood, or there is no point to any plebiscite.
There is however a complication.
If it’s a Westminster Election, it’s OK. Don’t listen to anybody else, 30 seats is our mandate. It represents an unassailable democratic majority of Scottish MP’s elected to Westminster seats. It’s not a government remember, it’s forcing through our plebiscite result. The threshold is 30 out of the 59.
If it’s a Scottish Election however, ok, people can rejoice that 16 yr olds can vote, but don’t forget we then have Constituency Seats and List Seats to win, which is going to leave us with the complication of needing two parties “like” the SNP and ALBA, but who in their right mind is going to trust the both Votes SNP brigade to deliver?
Here’s the bottom line.
If Scotland is serious about a Plebiscite Election, if you actually want it to happen, then step 1, Nicola Sturgeon has to go and go soon.
I’ve been debating so-called “independence” with RevStu among others since BT (Before Twitter) and the secret to understanding the strategy of Sturgeon or any other pro-indy leaders is simple.
It’s to keep promoting process and never substance. Because, when substance is called for, none exists: i.e. there is no comprehensive explicable case for breaking up the UK that doesn’t make Scots poorer in many ways, economically, culturally, security-wise etc. If it ever gets to substance, actully explaining in hard facts and real numbers how foolish it would be, you lose.
A De Facto referendum might not be a great idea, but it is still process, at least until the result comes in, and so staves off the evil day when facts and evidence becomes the dominant currency.
Because that’s the day the dream dies.
O/T re yesterday’s “Sturgeon Out” protest at Holyrood: I’ve seen a report from the organisers that it was a good and successful protest and caused FMQs to be halted.
They also said they were interviewed by STV. I haven’t got a TV licence so couldn’t see the news. Was it well/at all reported, does anyone know?
link to archive.is
Ukrainian refugee went home for treatment to avoid Scottish NHS wait
Alex Cole-Hamilton, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, claimed
Fact or fiction?
“The wait was so long that it actually made more sense for her to risk travelling back to a war zone to see her doctor in Kyiv, and so she did,” he said. “The air raid sirens, the drone strikes and the cruise missile attacks of the Ukrainian capital were less daunting to Maria than the wait for treatment on Scotland’s NHS.
You can watch STV catch-up online without a licence.
@Bob 8:09
Good one!
Now, to get full marks in justification for your pretendy-Indy award, complete the following sentence:
I believe countries, nations and peoples who aspire to independence and self-determination must be invaded, enslaved or otherwise destroyed because …
Take your time, give as many reasons as you need. Remember, you are not just writing for some of the regulars on here. There is a wider audience of “lurkers”, and these innocent dupes of the MSM may be feeling some sneaking sympathy and even admiration for those people defending their nation and culture.
You have to persuade these people that imperialist subjugation is right, and that all right-thinking Scots Indy supporters believe this.
Then watch support for Indy soar!
Ruby 10:31
It’s been reasonably widely known for a few years now that Eastern Europeans coming to the UK and Scotland for the medium to long term often organise their own medical and dental care facilities and personnel.
link to archive.is
The Yogyakarta Principles: women’s rights were not considered
Wintemute now wonders whether the GRA should have been passed at all. Instead of changing the person’s legal sex, the law could have simply sought to protect people from violence, harassment or discrimination based on gender non-conforming appearance or behaviour.
I totally agree with that. The GRA should be scrapped and there should be zero sex changes. I would also like to see ‘woman face’ becoming a hate crime.
link to youtube.com
link to twitter.com
“50,000 excess deaths ‘clearly concerning,’ says health secretary”
It’s hardly surprising that your hospitals are overwhelmed. The truth of what is causing it is overwhelming too.
Sorry, but this de-facto GE idea is just nuts. It’s a knee-jerk response made in panic and could end up doing more damage than the ‘once in a generation’ line ever did.
If by some miracle over 50% is ever achieved (and, trust me here, it won’t be) then the result will be ignored – Unionists citing first that the SNP by itself didn’t achieve the threshold and are simply attempting to claim the votes of others (they don’t recognise the Green/SNP mandate, after all) and/or secondly, and quite correctly, that a GE isn’t a single issue election and there is no way of knowing why people voted the way they did.
Worse is what happens if 50% isn’t reached.
Those exact same people unwilling to recognise it as a de-facto referendum and who under no circumstances would recognise a +50% result as a mandate if ever achieved will then turn volte face and state the SNP tried, failed, and that this proves there is not just no mandate but no appetite for constitutional change – which the press, who are lazy, will adopt as a political truth for some considerable time to come.
If the SNP are back-pedalling, and I’m not so sure they are, I don’t detect much in the the way of political strategy at play, it’s because they’ve finally realised this approach kills not just Indy but the golden goose too.
link to archive.is
Can Sunak force trans people to change sex at the border?
But south of the border you can’t become legally female just by putting on a dress and a dab of lippy. A transgender person there requires a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria and must live in their new sex for 2 years before convincing a panel of experts to change their birth certificate.
I don’t really see that being legally female makes that much difference. In Scotland and south of the border you can put on a dress and a dab of lippy and you are recognised as female.
Is anyone asking these men in dresses and a dab of lippy to show their GRC?
Even if they were asked to produce their GRC they could just say I don’t have a GRC but I am currently going through the process which requires me to live as a woman. They could be going through the process of living as a woman forever.
Equally in Scotland they could be doing their three month stint as a woman. If you require someone to live as a woman you cannot ban them from women’s spaces.
link to youtube.com
All those complaining about Wings being obsessed with gender issues should watch this.
It’s heartbreaking!
@ Ruby: thank you for the tip on watching STV. I also wanted to get an idea as to how far the news of the protest had spread. There were 2 coachloads of supporters plus speakers etc.
Nicky left the highlands quick….
link to tinyurl.com
link to archive.is
No charges for merkin flasher.
Should all these fold who complain not be charged with wasting police time?
test
John Main,
For every pro independence movement there is an anti independence movement.
It’s just a matter of which side has the upper hand.
You’ve been going on and on about murderers this and murderers that for some time now, it was the Kyiv regime that kicked off all the murdering by bombing the shit out of a People (who were seeking autonomy)and your argument seems to be that this is somehow not only allowed but necessary.
Please, please get a grown up argument for all our sakes.
Scotland is being let down by nationalist party’s not being honest in their presentation of independence and what it means.
Alba, for a recent small example explains that borders won’t be a problem, people and goods will cross freely and probably at no cost. What a load of guff! There is no way in an independent country will goods be able to pass without first listing the goods, paying the duty and account for the taxes.
They then say we will have our own currency which I agree with but that means every transaction will have a currency conversion charge.
At a rough estimate that will add 10% to the cost of goods and that doesn’t take into account the probability of a weaker currency.
I know of many Scots that work in England many also live and work in England, many go to English Universities etc etc these people will not be able to pass a border freely they will need residency papers, work permits and passports etc.
Scotland can become independent but please, let’s have honesty, we are better than that!
G-Man @11.15.
Good post. I have been saying something similar for a while.
I wouldn’t be surprised though if there is some back pedalling following the ’emergency’ conference, if there are any rabbits left in the hat to pull out. Not to say carrots.
Scottydog says:
13 January, 2023 at 12:51 pm
Oh my oh my. I don’t know how the Europeans cope with it all eh! Dem dam borders they’re a right pain.
Ever been to Europe MR? Ever worked in Europe MR? Naw didnae think so.
@ Scottydog: borders need not be a problem. On holiday in France near the shore of Lake Geneva we were driving in and out of Switzerland with no checks at all. There was a border post at each point where the frontiers met but we were never stopped.
It is a question of attitude.
I can tell Mr Carslaw one interesting disctinction between tactics and strategy. Real independence supporters must stand against the SNP in all elections, including first past the post ones.
That may tactically seem a setback in that it may well cause a few seats to switch from the closet unionist SNP to the openly unionist parties.
But strategically it is the only possible way for those who actually want independence.
Just to let readers know, I am now blocked from Twitter. I have not been able to log in for a week and every attempt to do so diverts me to the Help Centre where, whatever avenue I try, the answer comes back that there is no record of any such account, no record of my email and no record of my phone number.
Hi Craig.
Your Twitter page is still there – last comment on 6th January.
Try logging out of Twitter and go to:-
link to twitter.com
You can then take a screenshot of the page to prove you have an account.
@ScottyDog
I’m taking you as raising an honest concern based on a genuinely held fear. Borders are important, after all.
Perhaps ask yourself this. How is it that people from Eire enter, live, work, find love and settle in this country at will. Indeed how can they still claim a UK pension (based in contributions) even when they leave here for other shores. And then ask yourself why IndyScot’s would be any different
Now Brexit’s a dog, I’ll grant you, but again ask yourself this. How is it that the UK/EU/Eire are on the cusp of signing a new border agreement to allleviate all the issues created by NI and then ask yourself why they wouldn’t also apply to an IndyScot, too?
Finally, if you still have concerns that there would still be issues ask yourself this. Why would the rUK post Indy want to punish Scotland and why you, as a fellow Scot, would like to remain with such an abusive partner?
Personally, I think common sense would prevail (at least at the political level) and we’d both rub along fairly find as equal neighbours.
Broad smiles on Sturgeon the Judas face and the face of Sunak as they meet and find ways to exploit Scotland, as in the freeports that breed crime and tax evasion. Sturgeon the betrayer has been exploiting Scotland and Scots for years.
Vote Alba, Join Alba
Get the SNP out wherever you find them, at council level, MSP level and MP level.
link to 12ft.io
Here Sturgeon the Judas, does her usual fingering pointing at Westminster blaming the foreign Tory government for not giving her government more money for the NHS.
Of course this is all just deflection, if Sturgeon the betrayer hadn’t sold Scotland out on Brexit and achieved independence, we’d be able to invest more in our NHS and diverge away from the foreign parliaments NHS set up that Sturgeon so desperately wants to keep us under its rule.
The Judas really has done a number on Scotland since slinking into Bute House, the wretched creature is only interested in fulfilling her own twisted and debauched agenda along with the Greens.
“THERE is “no indication” that the UK Government will provide additional funding to Scotland in order to avert NHS strikes, according to the First Minister.”
link to 12ft.io
These people are wasting their time for as long as Sturgeon the Judas and the Greens are in office we’re going nowhere, not that I want a full membership of the EU, EFTA would be my preferred option.
The SNP government and the Greens are far more interested in pushing their perverse agenda, having passed the unamended GRRB which could see rapist and paedos enter women and children’s safe spaces as pretendy women, the HCB has already passed but isn’t active yet. Polls have shown that Scots have more pressing matters needing attended to, than those of the tiny minority who are already covered by Human Rights like the rest of us are.
Vote Alba, Join Alba.
Get the perverse SNP and Greens out of office.
“MULTIPLE groups are planning co-ordinated action in the lead up and on the third year Brexit anniversary.
Time for Scotland and Yes for EU both have action planned to follow the theme of light.
Time for Scotland – the group that organised rallies on Supreme Court Verdict Day – is hosting the event on January 31 outside the Scottish Parliament.
Yes for EU is planning a short, “but visually striking action to expose three years of Brexit darkness”, outside the UK Government Hub on Sibbald Walk in Edinburgh the week before.
The demonstrations are particularly timely given comments made by Scotland Secretary Alister Jack in the House of Commons yesterday.
He said: “There’s no desire in Scotland to have membership of the EU” and the MP stood by this, even in the face of a recent poll which showed that 69% of Scottish voters wanted to rejoin the EU.”
link to 12ft.io
The Greens top man wants Police Scotland and the Scottish parliament to investigate protestors who protested outside Holyrood with regards to the unamended GRRB.
A protestor can clearly be seen holding a sign saying “Sturgeon the Betrayer” possibly in a nod to the Rev’s excellent article a few years back.
I won’t go into the Greens top man’s association with a PIE founder in the past.
link to 12ft.io
@Ruby
Now that citizen arrests on suspicion are obligatory, one way to dissuade womanface might be to genuinely mistake them for an anonymous one, or better yet the prosecutor/ judge, suspected of fraud or malicious mischief in the Salmond/ Murray saga.
Biggest common law risk* I can see with such behaviour might be if you get one that was not recently boosted and authorities are not prevented from treating their disappearance as suspicious – at which point, given the intent to charge and bring to trial is no longer a condition precedent to the detainment, and depending how many they manage to collect/ get formally charged, it might be the concerned citizen that ends up on the sex register rather than their prisoners in the wrong body.
*over and above its ignorance
Apparently the pope has been commenting on Scottish independence.
“Pope Francis appears to have ‘re-entered’ into the Scottish independence debate by saying that the UK has “resolved the requests of Scotland”.”
The pope then went on to add.
“the Church cannot make propaganda for one side or the other”.
Erm….he just did.
link to archive.is
Sturgeon the betrayers foot soldiers drop investigation into Holyrood gallery flasher, no case to answer.
This non incident supposedly happened during the SNP/Greens and a few other MSPs from the Britnat parties passing the unamended rapist/paedo enabling GRRB.
link to archive.is
I wonder what deal She/Her and Sunak made,
`you allow GRR to pass and i`ll forget about independence for a decade`
`you don`t allow GRR to pass and i will withdraw SNP MPs force a Holyrood election based on independence anull the Treaty of Union and let slip the dogs of war (
metaphorically)`.
I’d rather have the Scottish parliament dissolved completely, that way we take away the Scotland act and then revert back to the claim of right. Keeping Sturgeon and the SNP in money and power isn’t as important to me as getting Independence. For the last 8yrs who can hold there hand up and say the Scottish parliament has been a benefit to Scots, well it hasn’t and the SNP/Greens has used it for their own benefit.
@Breastplate 12:31
Here you go, grown up argument.
Big empire, breaks up, colonised nations get independent and do Indy stuff, like different laws, systems of government, alliances, treaties, etc.
Old imperial power gets antsy, really wants all rich resources of former colony back, manufactures grievances (they are going to attack us), co-opts God as witness that former colony has no right to independent existence.
Old imperial power swarms over border, killing, torturing and raping, special squads following with the lists of those who must disappear in order to ensure former colony’s independent government is exterminated.
How’s that then BP? Simple enough for you? See the parallels between iScotland and rUK post-Indy yet?
Of course, one obvious parallel fails: There are not half a dozen other former colonies watching unfolding events and wondering when it will be their turn in Scotland’s case. We will be on our own. Considering how many of the Eastern European former colonies are in the EU, and how many Scots seemingly think we have no future outside of the EU, simple realpolitik suggests we need to avoid being on the wrong side of this.
How’s that for clarity BP? Need me to repeat in single syllable words? Pictographs?
John Main,
If you think that’s clarity, perhaps this is where you’re going wrong.
If you care to decipher the ramblings then please do.
I’m open to anybody else translating it in to something recognisable for me because I don’t understand what you’re trying to say.
@Breastplate (5.32) –
I don’t understand it either, but that’s probably because neither of us is ‘the smartest guy in the room’.
It’s ‘Mainsplaining’.
😉
@ Breastplate
John Main might have more credibility if he was able to produce any of his past expressed concerns for the plight of the YooCranian folk from around 2014.
Without “showing us that
moneyevidence”, it’s almost like he is jist a bandwagon jumper…Troughing SNP MP Tommy Sheppard doesn’t mention the most likely way out of this onesided prison of a union which is dissolving Holyrood and holding an election as an indy vote that would also allow 16 and 17 year old’s the vote, and it would minimise the interference from the foreign Westminster government.
Instead Sheppard wants us to use the next GE or the following Holyrood elections. We know the next GE is being billed as a de facto indyref by the Judas Sturgeon, when the reality of it is, that its all about getting us to vote for the SNP MP candidates to put as many of them in office, once that goal has been obtained the indy carrot will be put back in its box.
Vote Alba, Join Alba.
Get the SNP out wherever you find them at council level at MSP level and at MP level.
link to 12ft.io
This must be right up Sturgeon the betrayers street as the English PM refuses point blank to entertain any notion of an indyref, instead the foreign leader focuses on holding the dis-United Kingdom together, he (Sunak) and Sturgeon on Scottish independence are singing from the same hymn sheet.
link to 12ft.io
Get the SNP out they’ve wasted eight years and countless mandates and will never deliver independence.
Vote Alba, Join Alba.
Its as if they want to crash the NHS and make folk pay at the point of service, I say this as a big part of the NHS in crisis problem is bed blocking, as many folk who can leave hospital are forced to remain as there’s nowhere suitable for them to stay such as a carehome.
Here it shows that at least a 5th of carehomes in Scotland have closed in the last decade, carehomes that could have been used to free up hospital beds and ease the pressure a wee bit on our precious NHS staff.
link to publichealthscotland.scot
Carehomes are still continuing to close at an alarming rate.
link to edinburghnews.scotsman.com
One of the main reasons for the closures is in my opinion that carehomes are unwilling to pay workers a decent wage to begin with.
Tommy Shepard
saying the Snp should have a long term plan FFS / We’re living the SNPs long term plan / Just another trougher looking after his pocket .
There’s room at the Scottish taxpayers trough as Sturgeon the Judas allows another snout to suck the taxpayer dry.
“NICOLA Sturgeon has appointed a chief business adviser to help drive sustainable growth and long-term economic success for Scotland.
Ellis Watson, former CEO of DC Thomson, has taken up the post after holding several positions at a number of companies including First Group, John Menzies, and Syco.”
link to 12ft.io
Referring to the above.
“It’s a bit odd considering there’s already a “Chief Entrepreneur” who’s paid £200k a year for 2 days a week”
link to twitter.com
We’re being robbed blind by this SNP government, the missing 600k and the tens of millions wasted on two hunks of metal passed of as ferries springs to mind, and then there LE’s superb benefits package given to her by the Judas after she cost the taxpayer £500,000, given to Alex Salmond and the £10 million wasted looking for dirt to fit up the ex-FM.
The Scottish taxpayer paid it all.
Get the SNP out from council level, to MSP level to MP level.
vote Alba, Join Alba.
On freeports, (forget the green in the name that’s a whitewash there’s nothing green about them). There’s a divergence between the rapist and paedo enabling parties in office in Scotland on them.
This is the real version from Sturgeon the betrayers sidekick PH.
“Freeports are a failed and dated Tory gimmick that will only hand public cash over to multinational corporations.
They offer big tax breaks to businesses while driving down terms and conditions for workers and risking significant damage to the environment.
In the past they’ve have only made regional inequality worse by moving jobs around the country, rather than creating new ones. Internationally, they’ve been consistently associated with crime, money-laundering, smuggling and low wages while driving down environmental standards.
Under the deal struck for Scottish freeports there are no hard requirements for the companies to meet climate targets or implement fair work practices. Warm words don’t protect people from greedy corporations, legal obligations do.
Freeports will only benefit the super-rich and the big corporations who have pushed hardest for them. Local people and communities certainly won’t see the benefit if precedent from across the world is anything to go by.”
Republicofscotland says:
13 January, 2023 at 7:03 pm
Its as if they want to crash the NHS and make folk pay at the point of service, I say this as a big part of the NHS in crisis problem is bed blocking…
Yeah, but at the same time, something isn’t ringing true. Apologies, but not being an expert on this, I just googled the numbers quickly, but…
England’s NHS has 100,000 beds for roughly 55 million people. 1 bed for every 550 people.
Scotland’s NHS has 16,500 beds for roughly 5.5 million people. (I know, I’m tweaking figures for easy arithmetic.) 1 bed for every 333.3 people.
Scotland has well over half as many again beds as the English NHS, so I’m confused why both NHS are currently being hit with the same bed shortages.
I’m not disputing the NHS (both of them) are struggling, but there’s “something” not ringing true with the narrative. England would need to increase it’s bed spaces by 83,000 just to reach parity with Scotland. No wonder they’re packed out in corridors and waiting in ambulances, but how and why can Scotland’s NHS be having the same problems?
Is the reporting of these problems observing like for like criteria? Or is it our friends at the BBC leading the narrative here? Eleanor Broadford or whatever her name was, might have moved on to a cosy number at Glasgow Uni, but we all know how much the BBC loves agitating problems for our NHS.
Granted, perhaps private healthcare is taking a lot of the strain down south, but there is something about this which is comparing apples with oranges.
I don’t know what’s going on with this, but there’s “something” suspicious and not quite adding up in the narrative.
“England’s NHS has 100,000 beds for roughly 55 million people. 1 bed for every 550 people.
Scotland’s NHS has 16,500 beds for roughly 5.5 million people. (I know, I’m tweaking figures for easy arithmetic.) 1 bed for every 333.3 people.
Scotland has well over half as many again beds as the English NHS, so I’m confused why both NHS are currently being hit with the same bed shortages.”
Because Scotland and England are not very similar countries. Scotland HAS to have more capacity per head than England because its population is more thinly spread, otherwise folk from Stornoway would have to go to Aberdeen for a doctor. But it’s no use having a bunch of extra doctors/empty beds in Orkney and Shetland when you’re queued out of the door at an A&E in Edinburgh.
Ian Brotherhood 5.49: “It’s ‘Mainsplaining’.”
That was most amusing.
Let’s hope there is no EK version of ‘Manspreading’ 😉 .
Didn’t this also cost the Scottish taxpayer ten of millions of pounds in payout fees. Scotland is corrupt from top to bottom, a goo clean out is required.
“EXCLUSIVE: A sheriff who owned shares in Rangers FC is to retire after it emerged that he colluded with a senior police officer before submitting a dishonest and misleading report during the botched police investigation into the takeover of the Ibrox …”
link to twitter.com
Welcome to Scotland… 🙁
Can anybody trump these rip off merchants selling Scottish energy to Scottish businesses.
Verastar Ltd trading as Clear Business registered in England and Wales.
£3 a day standing charge and £1.22 a unit!
#NotBetterTogether
@Dan 8:15pm
Owned by Vitruvian Partners an International Private Equity venture. Just raised another 4 billion in July 2020. Has a reputation of being secretive. The group specialises in buying into existing business to business markets that are ripe for technological disruption or major regulatory reform. And sell them on later or via an IPO. An example being Just Eat It’s no secret after this winter the UK Energy market will be fundamentally reformed. If only we had our state own Energy Company or politicians that are proactive in reforming the market to benefit consumers. You ain’t seen nothing yet if Private Equity get a hold.
@Ian Brotherhood, at 9.05 pm 12th January
IIRC, it was “Marcia” who used to post the late night Sunday papers headlines/front pages.
@Quinie (10.11) –
Aha!
Cheers aplenty.
😉
This is Broadsword calling Marcia…are you there Marcia…come in Marcia…
Ruby
‘Ukrainian refugee went home for treatment to avoid Scottish NHS wait
Alex Cole-Hamilton, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, claimed
Fact or fiction?
“The wait was so long that it actually made more sense for her to risk travelling back to a war zone to see her doctor in Kyiv, and so she did,” he said. “The air raid sirens, the drone strikes and the cruise missile attacks of the Ukrainian capital were less daunting to Maria than the wait for treatment on Scotland’s NHS.’
Strange she chose a war zone instead of a train to England or Wales. That’s his imperial masters Brexshit Britain. All the key workers in the NHS like nurses, porters, technicians all preferred fking off too, back to a war zone, rather than stay in the hostile environment the Tory’s have created & the rise of thier fascism. Europeans are all too familiar with the early warning signs..
That guy grinds on my last nerve. He’s one of the vilest trolls in that parliament & he spills it over onto twitter to noise ppl up.
Mr fucking irrelevant.
Scottie Dog
Re borders.
Common Travel Area. Grown ups make border agreements for the free movement of people across borders. Goods would require some level of checks. They can’t allow HGVs full of heroin or weapons for example. The unionists lie & try say Scotland would *not be allowed* to have such agreements with Ireland etc. Do the speak for the government of the Republic of Ireland now too?
Currency isn’t a problem either. Plenty of other countries do it even in the middle of wars.
Craig
I hope you get your acc sorted.
I also agree with you. SNP need completely removed from power in order to rebuild because even if a Plebiscite were called – there’s no way they’d win it now since Gender Reform, Sturgeons dictatorship & the SNP militant. It’ll take time to rebuild. If SNP remain they’ll just kill indy stone dead.
It’d also give the yoons a stint in government. Tough choices to make on whether to retain mitigating all the *free stuff* they despise so much.
“Republicofscotland says:
13 January, 2023 at 7:03 pm
a big part of the NHS in crisis problem is bed blocking”
In Edinburgh at least, there are no longer convalescent hospitals; presumably too expensive and unprofitable. Post-surgery patients would be the natural inhabitants of these for a while before they go home; in the meantime they’re the bed-blocking villains (according to the media).
Original song by Eric Gudmunsen
Written specially for THE CHAIN OF FREEDOM
link to tiktok.com
Test: drivel
Russia? Ukraine?
Sorry Stu. Trying to find which everyday words and expressions are banned by WordPress is a wearisome business. I thought someone might have created a list on the internet but I haven’t found one.
“Russia? Ukraine?
Sorry Stu. Trying to find which everyday words and expressions are banned by WordPress is a wearisome business. I thought someone might have created a list on the internet but I haven’t found one.”
For the avoidance of doubt: I have no interest in allowing Wings to be used for people to yell competing conspiracy theories about Russia and Ukraine at each other. It has no bearing whatsoever on Scottish politics and I’m quite sure there are plenty of other places people can do it.
Regards Murrells…
It’d be believable considering thier past record. Look at the lengths they went to stitch up Salmond, block Cherry (even in event of a court case) & at shuting down dissent etc. They’re gradualists & have no hurry to lose their salary. Phantom Powers film proved the gradualists mindset within the Scottish parliament a few years ago. I can’t remember the title. The one with Bissett.
Jim sillars (on Scottish Prism) – said they’re totally inept with no plan & still haven’t even if indy went ahead. Mandates wasted & talking mince about closing the oil fields. That was funny 😀 something along the lines of like asking India not to burn coal now that everyone else’s industrial revolution is over! ‘Away ye go ya daft laddie!) 😀 😀
I remember Margo MacDonald pissed off very early too (2013) during lead up to indyref that ‘the right hand didn’t know what the left one was doing’ with regards Blair’s Yes Scotland & was spitting feathers at the nonsense of having a currency union with the very ones we were leaving.
She always warned of ‘dark forces’ in the SNP too & it’d been captured – which would explain Sturgeons willingness to employ Unionists at every level.
John Main says:
13 January, 2023 at 4:52 pm
John, if you insist on regaling us with your views on geopolitics, try to do more than just regurgitating the infantile drivel you’ve been spoonfed with, which you’ve dutifully swallowed.
Yourcrane isn’t a football match. You clearly have no idea what is happening there, informed as you are by the “superb” coverage of the Guardian – a paper that literally performed a 180-degree volte face the day after the intervention. Another poster has previously pointed this out to you, in a challenge that you chose to duck.
And you clearly have no idea why things are happening there, as you are one of those bovines who ascribe to the view that history began on 24th February 2022, and nothing of any consequence happened before that.
I occasionally respond to your comments on China, as they are similar ignorance-based rubbish. Why don’t you make yourself a bit better-informed by accessing some alternative views, rather than spending all day in an echo-chamber and parroting whatever you hear there?
[Stu – apologies for the other stuff. Picking your way through the meinfeld of everyday words and expressions that WordPress won’t let you use is a wearisome task.]
Spot-on , David .
I would normally ignore the pig-ignorant ravings of yr man , but he shouldn’t be given carte blanche to spew his poison unchallenged .
I see the caravan has moved on, the usual dogs snarling and yelping in its train.
It’s passing marked by the familiar trail of insults and name calling.
Not one of the usual suspects has produced one iota of evidence to justify their fervently held belief that the cause of Scottish Independence is aided and abetted by the destruction of a sovereign country and nation on the eastern boundary of the continent of Europe and the political and economic entity that is the EU.
Not one single fucking justification for the other fervently held belief that Scotland and the Scots should resolutely and adamantly sit on the fence while the most dangerous, destructive and disruptive events of the 21st century so far unfold – the Little Scotlander view that is frankly laughable coming from those who are so quick to hurl the Little Englander insult in the opposite direction.
Not one grown up able or willing to address the fact that the world changed irrevocably in February 2022, and that as a result, the good old days of 2014 ain’t never coming back.
John Main,
Why is it you find it so difficult to understand that the people who instigated and actioned a violent overthrow of a democratically elected government, then started a civil war that escalated beyond their borders.
Which part of that are you having difficulty with?
BP
Just call for extermination of the Yooks and victory for the Russtis.
Just stop the never-ending “ah but what about …”.
Just, for the love of God, have the guts to write down what you really want. Just what keeps you in this state of fear?
Incidentally, if it ever comes to fighting here between Scots and English, and I pray I never see that day, are you going to call it a “civil war”?
Just write down what you believe, the Yooks are a bastard group with no right to independent existence. You will be cheered to the rafters on here.
Rev. Stuart Campbell says:
14 January, 2023 at 1:36 pm
Not sure why you’ve chosen to direct your ire at me.
1. My comment was a direct response to one by John Main. It was one of several by him and others on this and other threads, leading me to believe that R/U is considered a legitimate subject for debate.
2. By my recollection it’s the first time I’ve ever posted on the subject. Out of all the comments I’ve seen, I would say that mine least deserves to be derided as “yelling competing conspiracy theories”.
“Not sure why you’ve chosen to direct your ire at me.”
It was a general point about the word filter.
Rev. Stuart Campbell says:
14 January, 2023 at 1:36 pm
Not sure why you’ve chosen to direct your ire at me.
1. My comment was a direct response to one by John Main. It was one of several by him and others on this and other threads, leading me to believe that R/U is considered a legitimate subject for debate.
2. By my recollection it’s the first time I’ve ever posted on this subject. Out of all the comments I’ve seen, I would say that mine least deserves to be derided as “yelling competing conspiracy theories”.
@David W Ferguson 2:49
Here’s some wee quotes from your post:
“bovines, infantile drivel, spoonfed, ignorance-based rubbish, echo-chamber, parroting”
Yup.
Yelling competing conspiracy theories seems about right.
As it happens, I disagree with Rev Stu’s assessment that the war has no bearing whatsoever on Scottish politics, but it’s his site and his rules.
David W Ferguson,
I think think the Rev was directing his Ire primarily at John Main and I.
My apologies Stuart, I can’t access off topic from my iPad for some reason and I thought there would be no harm debating on a thread that was pretty much finished.
I agree with John Main that this subject has a direct bearing on Scottish politics in quite obvious ways.
From the blue and yellow flag on the twitter profiles of our political representatives that highlight their hypocrisy, the hypocritical diplomatic address of foreign affairs, the manipulation of the sheeple by the billionaire owned MSM to the price we pay for energy and the impact that has on our society.
It impacts Scottish affairs and Scottish politics immensely.
I understand that it’s your website and once again offer my apologies but I believe an exchange of opinions is always good, of course it does help if it is kept civil.
If the SNP Truly believe we can gain independence, then surely they would pull out all the stops to achieve this as soon as possible to stop the rot that is happening within Scotland right now. Anyway, if they( snp) are worried for their jobs , surely they would stand as m.p.’s in a independent Scotland and help to forward our country and achieve the great things we are bragging about right now .. So come on all you independence supporters, get yer glad rags on and push for independence for your country NOW .. !
“knowing the difference between tactics and strategy is key in politics”
Actually knowing what tactics and strategy are seems to be the SNPs biggest problem.