The theory and practice of Crimestop
In an attempt to freshen up its usual panel of tired and tiresome politicians and pundits, last night’s Question Time (ostensibly from an oddly-vague location in “the North East”) featured moderately-known circus fortune-teller Gypsy Rose Petulengro, crossing her palm with silver for some analysis in a short break from one of her celebrated seances.
The clip above was her take on whether Nicola Sturgeon would resign if either of the current inquiries found that she’d systematically and repeatedly lied to Parliament and broken the Ministerial Code, and the strange thing about it was that for someone who was professing to be looking into the future, she didn’t even appear to know the basic pertinent facts of the present or the past.
Because in fact there’s no doubt or debate at all about what the public thinks.
Two separate polls last month – one Panelbase, one YouGov – both found majorities in the region of 2:1 saying that Sturgeon should resign if it’s ruled that she did indeed mislead Parliament. So it’s not close. It’s a bigger margin than Scotland voted Remain by in 2016. It’s overwhelming and unambiguous. Even half of SNP voters believe she should go in such circumstances.
For a person being presented to viewers as some sort of insightful analyst, it really is quite extraordinary to be so ignorant of the known facts and/or so grossly misrepresent them. Or at least, it SHOULD be. But Scotland’s great tragedy is that it’s actually the standard modus operandi of its political commentariat.
Because dear God above, how else can people STILL be honking THIS guff?
It’s now more than nine years since this site definitively and unarguably destroyed the myth that “progressive” politics in England needs Scotland for anything at all.
If we’re to assume – and this is a whole other argument – that “progressive politics” means “a Labour government at Westminster”, the votes of Scotland are and always have been completely irrelevant.
That isn’t an interpretation or an opinion. It’s an arithmetical fact. Every single majority Labour government in history was so because it won enough seats in England and Wales. Scottish seats have NEVER been important to getting Labour into Downing Street. Even in 2005, when they won power on just 35% of the vote, Tony Blair would have had a comfortable majority of over 40 seats if Scotland had been independent.
It’s a truly monumental feat of deliberate and shameful dishonesty to keep spewing such arrant garbage at people. But as ever, Orwell saw it coming over 70 years ago.
The key article of faith of the ancient, ossified Scottish orthodox punditariat is that Labour are the solution to all ills, the one road to a Utopian federalist future in which “separatism” shall finally die and we’ll all be happy Brits together, just like in The War.
Any facts incompatible with that belief must therefore not be grasped or perceived or understood. The lie must simply be chanted like a mantra, deaf to all reality. But it’s an ideology that ultimately even crosses over petty dividing lines like the constitution, as Kenny and Gypsy Rose – two of a kind in every way – demonstrate for us above.
That ideology is this: there are no facts. Two plus two makes whatever you want it to at any given moment, nobody knows what the real answer is anyway, and the lumpen public just don’t care. As long as the airtime and the column inches are filled and the paycheques delivered, there is no such thing as truth. War is peace, freedom is slavery and – most and above all – ignorance is strength.
Well thanks for that as it just reminded me why I have her blocked on twitter. She was big Kat Boyd fan when all the RISE nonsense kicked off so her common sense has to be questioned.
Credit to Haggerty – she has managed to fashion quite a good career out of the minimum of talent.
She’s an airhead, however.
I maintain, with the help of Fabiani and her feckless committee, Sturgeon will survive and lead the SNP into the Holyrood election – when she will be unable to brush-off the tsunami of shite the Unionists and their tame media will throw at her.
The longer she remains at the head of the SNP, the more damage she will do to the cause of INdependence.
“Credit to Haggerty – she has managed to fashion quite a good career out of the minimum of talent.”
As far as I can tell she’s now entirely dependent on the BBC for a living, so she at least has the animal cunning to know which side her bread is buttered.
I can’t ignore the shoots of corruption and misdirection from the SNP
but if I don’t vote for them I’m letting in the Westminster parties which
in turn will be acclaimed as the appetite for Independence is gone.
She has popularity from those who don’t use social media so can we get
a majority in Holyrood if they she her leave in disgrace?
I actually wish this all fully developed after the election but that is unfair on
Alex and the electorate.
Lest we ever doubt the towering idiocy of Ms Haggerty…
https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/16369918.angela-haggerty-congratulations-sir-cliff—just-done-sex-offenders-big-favour/
All comes back to who pays Kenny’s mortgage
Opens with yesterday’s ironic Twitter mantra that this is only onTwitter and no one else cares.
Well said, as ever, but it’s later than we think. Orwell wrote that 72/73 years ago.
As for Kenny F; a journalist with a jobby-stained spurtle where the pen should be
“Animal cunning” is an excellent and very apt turn of phrase.
I remember clearly this epithet being ascribed to a sitting Labour councillor, on the then Renfrewshire Council, in the early 90’s. This comment was made by an ordinary member of the public to describe a creature he had known since the thing was a child.
It is distasteful in the extreme to witness the dehabilitation of individuals who were, apparently, firebrands of the Scottish Independence campaign adding to the smokescreen/whitewash of the Sturgeon wrong doing.
Of course, the plans of the wokeratti must have been hatched around 9 years ago. Possibly earlier.
“Well said, as ever, but it’s later than we think. Orwell wrote that 72/73 years ago.”
I think you’ll find that the article has always said that, Winston.
If the Scottish Government had hired Kelly Macdonald, Kate Dickie, Laura Fraser, or even Tracy Ullman to stand in front of a lectern and intone the daily homily – thoughts and prayers – then any one of those actresses would now be seeing their political popularity at record levels.
For Auld Nickla not to have contacted Joanna Cherry immediately on hearing about the rape threat tells you everything you need to know about this person. Even a two-minute call would have done it.
Quoting from ‘Ostracism’ on wikipedia: ‘[in ancient Athens]…ostracism was often used preemptively. It was used as a way of neutralizing someone thought to be a threat to the state or potential tyrant’.
Quite.
This is the standard of journalism in Scotland where humans without a spine, conscience or a brain can have such influence.
Such special creatures.
In future we may see them in a sweetie jar in surgeons hall museum.
The look on Baron Forsyths coupon at the end was priceless.
And he’s an ubertory!
Haggerty seems to be going for the quirky, mad spinster aunt look as her USP ticket to the talking heads gigs.
Surely, a couple of shifts at the ‘sauna’ is less demeaning than this ?
In any functioning democracy, the most important thing of all is the ability to hold the government of the day to account.
To do that, you need a legal profession which is fully independent of government, a civil-service which is answerable to the public and a government opposition which is honest.
In Scotland just now, we have none of these things. Hence, we are all drowning in corruption. The UK media can pick us off at any time now and it is all our own fault.
Rev.Stuart Campbell @ 11.45 am
Of course it has. Dear, dear, I nearly strayed in the direction of wrongthink there.
They really think the public are as thick as they are in Scotland. It is always the same old crap, the wider public don’t know about it or anything. My 82 year old Mum, who reads the Dundee Courier (Tory Rag) the paper not my Mum, knows enough about the enquiry and thinks if Sturgeon lied then she has to go and my Mum likes Sturgeon.
I actually thought she had acquired some common sense in recent months after her last appearance on BBCQT but apparently not. The argument that someone is popular but might be criminal so never mind, is one that seems to be fairly prevalent (see the current Impeachment proceedings in the US).
Scottish public life is a morass and is being kept as such by folks like Haggerty and Farq. How did we get here? And how do we get out?
This is not really linked to the article but just general comment as I dont do many on your site.
So if or when Nicola Sturgeon & the other UK Civil Servants in Scotland sleeper cell unit are found guilty what’s next? How much damage will this do to SNP image to the Scottish public? Will this mean people will refuse to vote for them on the constituency vote? Will we see a yoon media backlash like never before seen 24/7 Scotland is shite & ultimately will this scupper the election & independence referendum? These are are questions that are most concerning for the average punter like me!
When should we be thinking of a backup plan, a way forward out the Yoon backlash Armageddon coming our way! If she goes will this change peoples views to vote unionist I very much doubt it. I think the biggest of questions of all remains & I find it increasingly annoying that Wings doesn’t comment on this (I maybe wrong), is a path out of this shitstorm & to independence asap. I’m sure everyone interested in gaining independence wants this discussed as this giving time to give us some form of hope there is potential for independence or is it over from the foreseeable?
“When should we be thinking of a backup plan, a way forward out the Yoon backlash Armageddon coming our way! If she goes will this change peoples views to vote unionist I very much doubt it. I think the biggest of questions of all remains & I find it increasingly annoying that Wings doesn’t comment on this (I maybe wrong), is a path out of this shitstorm & to independence asap.”
Um, maybe you should read a little more regularly.
I have thankfully steered clear of her output for some time now. Having read the Cliff Richard piece linked above by 1971Thistle, I’m quite glad of that. That’s probably one of the most revolting things I’ve read in a mainstream newspaper. She really is a twit.
We must remember the proles don’t care – so nicola and co. can do what they like. Haggerty is beyond ridicule.
Every moment nicola remains in the party, never mind in power, does immense damage to the independence cause. And that is why the MSM are saying nothing.
When engerland has done with her she will bee thrown to the dogs (if we haven’t rid our party of her first).
Effijy @ 11.31
For the first time in my life I’m considering not voting in May. I cannot in good conscience give the SNP my vote but as I still want independence, I’m left not knowing what to do. Maybe the ISP will field someone.
If the SNP vote drops significantly, I hope it won’t be inferred that ‘the appetite for independence is gone’, rather that the people have woken up.
PS Thank you Wings for singlehandedly keeping us in the loop.
Appreciate the video that I watch and listen to again since I was distracted by the atmospherics and details of her grotto. How very odd.
It was quite a panel line-up: a gypsy, a HOL relic, a chancer, a sincere self-proclaimed entrepreneur, and a sane person – Jean Freeman.
So according to this pine cone, because we are in the midst of a pandemic it is perfectly acceptable for politicians to lie and deceive the public. So if Boris Johnson wanted to lie and deceive the Scottish people to their detriment at this particular time it would ok with her.
The level of ignorance displayed by this woman is impressive and allowing her this little pro Sturgeon speech is no accident by the BBC.
Progressive politics in England?
Feck progressive politics in England.
The English are a great people who are quite capable of making political decisions without Scotland holding their hands.
The fact of the matter is , England has seen through the sham of progressive politics ie; the labour party.
You only need to see this in action when the “progressives” in England tried vainly to piss on the back of the English brexit vote for three years if not more , headed by “progressives” like Starmer the blairite , and what happened?
The English electorate went out and hammered them at the ballot box in December 2019.
Most of us on here spend a lot of our time hammering the tories , rightly so , while forgetting the damage the “progressive” labour party has dont to our country over the last 100 years.
I would literally crawl a thousand miles to piss on the backs of those so called “progressive ” back stabbers in the labour party.
The tories look you in the eye as they stab you from the front , labour put their arms around you and stab you in the back.
Anyone who votes for “progressive labour” in Scotland to save England from itself needs their head examined.
What sort of fucking argument is that? Oh, she may well have misled parliament and broke the ministerial code but Johnny Punter likes her and you know Covid so never mind.
Dunno who that Rose Petulengro is but she can fuck of with that intelligence insulting bullshit.
Orthodoxy means not thinking–not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.
Ms Haggerty,
Is well connected with the current SNP leadership, even has the health minister helping with her personal shopping at the height of the Pandemic,
link to twitter.com
Now also a besty of Godley “The Neds Heroine” doing wee voice overs of her kid and Ms Sturgeon praise the unique hilarious talent.
If you add this to her HNC at Cardonald College, you can see we are getting her filtered and intellectually low balled skewed opinion.
Next week I expect Question Time to have wee Jeannie from the Bus Stop on the panel, at least it would be more intelligent.
Re Harassment and Complaints Committee ,
The Committee will next meet on Friday 12th February at 2:00pm when it will consider its work programme in private. This meeting will be held virtually.
.
And I posted this late last night on the previous thread ,
Levy & McRae, acting on behalf of Mr Salmond, emailed the Convener on 11 February 2021 regarding his written evidence and appearance before the Committee ,
Email from Levy & McRae, representing Alex Salmond, to the Convener 11 February 2021
Dear Ms Fabiani,
Further to today’s Court proceedings we are considering the impact of the variation of Lady Dorrian’s Section 11 order with our client on the evidence previously submitted by our client to your Committee.
We will review the variation granted and consider the written judgment of the court when it becomes available (expected Monday). We hope immediately thereafter to be in a position to re-submit both Mr Salmond’s submissions on the Ministerial Code and his final submission.
Our client hopes that today’s decision will enable publication of the relevant evidence and thereafter an early oral evidence session.
Our client remains keen to attend.
Yours sincerely,
David McKie
Partner
Levy & McRae Solicitors LLP
.
So hopefully we’ll get a decision today that the Committee will take Alex Salmond’s evidence and if they don’t we’ll then know just corrupt the whole inquiry has been from the beginning .
Just love the way this woman of the people thinks the issues involved here are too complicated for us plebs to understand.
And “progressive politics in England” made me laugh out loud. Might as well wait for the second coming.
‘Meteoric’ Angela – she Rose from nowhere…
I keep toying with the idea of buying a TV, then I see things like this and know why I won’t waste my money.
That was a magnificent piece of writing. Thank you.
Reminded me of Nancy Spungeon wi a Scottish accent.
Was half expecting Sid Vicious to pop his heid up.
“God save the queen
She’s not a human being
and There’s no future
And Scotland’s dreaming”
@ Effijy 12 February, 2021 at 11:31am
“I can’t ignore the shoots of corruption and misdirection from the SNP but if I don’t vote for them I’m letting in the Westminster parties. I actually wish this all fully developed after the election but that is unfair on Alex and the electorate”
“Shoots of Corruption” ? “Shoots” ? As in Sturgeon apparently plotting for years along with the equally corrupt Sturgeon worshippering Cabal to have the ex-leader of the SNP Jailed for years of His life all just to be able to hold on to policial power and the personal wealth it brings for Herself and Her Husband ? I wonder if you ever veiwed the Ceau?escu regime in the same way and would have continued to vote for them too, perhaps you weren’t even born then ? There are lessons to be learnt from History , Wikipedia might be your best friend in the meantime. You wish “all this corruption” had started AFTER the May Elections ? Wow just Wow, don’t the Scottish Electorate deserve what they actually voted for any more ?
“Shoots of Corruption” £300 million of Scottish Taxpayers money spunked away on 2 rusting ferries without Engines over a period of 3-5 years, is the £300mn spent now resting in the same bank accounts as the £600K Crowdfunded money ? Where did it all really go because Sturgeons team doesn’t want to talk about it anymore because it appears she had her hands in that issue too link to heraldscotland.com
It seems Haggerty and Farq have found a comfortable niche like Wishart and co. They would be quite happy (even Farq) to have an independent Scotland if it was EXACTLY the same as it is now. Nothing uncomfortable about how we run our country, NS doing her thing on the international stage. Jobs at the BBC as ‘foreign’ correspondents.
This is how they want it, different but the same.
@ thomas 12 February, 2021 at 12:08 pm
“Progressive politics in England? Feck progressive politics in England”
There doesn’t appear to much progressive politics in Scotland nowadays either to be fair , how come we seem to be completely blindsided to this yet the SNP have been in power 13 years ? What can there possibly be to need hiding till after the Holyrood election after 13 years in power ? Maybe too much Taxpayers money is going in the new Scottish elites pockets nowadays instead of the genuine needy Scots kids who will be the voters of tomorrow and won’t forget things like this quickly. link to scotsman.com
Captain Yossarian says:
‘….To do that, you need …….. a civil-service which is answerable to the public…’
No: it would be impossible for democratic government to work like that — you need Civil Servants to be bound by the Civil Service Code, and Ministers to be held accountable and responsible for everything that the Code-compliant Civil Servants do. We don’t know for certain what happened with the Civil Service in this case, but when it does become clear, I’m sure we can rely on Gordon Dangerfield to explain it to the rest of us!
The good old publicly funded BritNat Brainwashing Channel.
Reliably churning out the same old pish from anyone considered to be ‘on-message’.
We really need to keep sight of what is really wrong here. Misleading Parliament will be the trigger to have Sturgeon removed (a bit like Al Capone and tax dodging). That is the cover-up.
But the real crime – and it is a CRIME as well as being downright evil, is the conspiracy to deprive a man of his liberty, possibly for the rest of his life.
That is what the lying is meant to cover up.
{SilverDarling says:
12 February, 2021 at 11:56 am
I actually thought she had acquired some common sense in recent months after her last appearance on BBCQT but apparently not. The argument that someone is popular but might be criminal so never mind, is one that seems to be fairly prevalent (see the current Impeachment proceedings in the US).
Scottish public life is a morass and is being kept as such by folks like Haggerty and Farq. How did we get here? And how do we get out?}
The way out surely has to be getting information to the public? How many mums and dads out there, not on Twitter/SM, believe they’re voting for Scottish Independence when they vote SNP, and have no idea about GRA/Self-ID, the Hate Crime Bill etc, and the effect these policies will have on their children, what they are taught at school, or the right to freely disagree & criticise government and policy? I’d suggest that a large proportion of them would have no truck with any party pushing these agendas.
All of this is being done while independence is the distraction…look at the shiny shiny.
But what is the mechanism for informing the public of what is actually happening?? The MSM don’t appear to be interested, or are ticket holders on the Woke Express themselves. It’s a bleak situation.
@ Don.
Is this some half hearted defence of labour here?
What was the last labour governments record on poverty?
Labour’s record on poverty in tatters
Ministers abandon targets for children as new figures reveal rising number on breadline
The full scale of Labour’s failure to help the poorest in Britain was laid bare yesterday with revelations that hundreds of thousands of people were being plunged into deprivation even before the recession hit, and that the Government had been unable to make any impression on the numbers of children and pensioners in poverty.
link to independent.co.uk
gies peace don. It will be a cold day in hell before i vote labour ever agaon
Has Kenny Farquharson ever written anything that added to the education or enjoyment of his despondent readers,
his only ability as a hack is that he can blame and defame Scotland for whatever subject his editor tells him to scribble about.
SECRETARY TO ANTTORNY GENERAL, ALBERTA COSTO, (Tory) on Talk Radio speaking to mike Graham, on the 11/ 2 / 2021.
At the very end of the programme refers to Nicola sturgeon and Alex Salmond fiasco, What is interesting to all of us about the interview is the terminology and turn of phrase at the very end of the programme where he refers to Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon have to go. And all the snp out of office.
Who says that the plan was not to rid Scotland’s holyrude of both of them and the snp.
There are definitely big fish in the planning to bring down the snp in Holyrude before the election. And do relate to Westminster.
Rev says
‘War is peace, freedom is slavery and – most and above all – ignorance is strength’
The most worrying part of this is the stuff being taught in schools. The neo-lib woke drivel that kids have been exposed to under CfE for more than 10 years now will have consequences. Like any type of indoctrination, it takes a long time to shake off.
That’s what I was suggesting in a rant from a previous comment: –
…..You cannot criticise
Or say what you think
They’re listening and watching
Because there’s always a link
Echoes of ‘Brave New World’
And Big Brother ‘1984’
Huxley or Orwell
A reality you cannot ignore
And as they foolishly dismantle
Our acclaimed education
We see the attempted creation
Of a New-Age style
Indoctrinated nation
Obscurantism will be practiced
Like a sermon from John the Baptist
Dogmas will be recited
Repeated and retweeted
And when truth and propaganda
Are headed for collision
Truth is the one
Taking the road to Perdition……
@Frank Waring – The civil-service ethical code is just like that of any other professional institution. One of the first items on the list is: ‘do not mislead’.
If a civil-servant has misled, or a lawyer has misled, they should be bagged. Just try doing any of that in the US, Frank.
What we have in Scotland just now is the First Minister misleading, other Ministers misleading, lawyers and civil-servants misleading too.
The public get shafted when this is going on.
We need a good media-led inquiry. Forget Linda Fabiani. She’s got het old snout in the Holyrood trough and doesn’t really care.
“Dear, dear, I nearly strayed in the direction of wrongthink there.”
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.
Forsyth on QT was he, eh .Where did they find that auld git, in the same crypt as Gordon Brown.
Pair o fannies.
It’s always tempting to have a go at Haggerty who has basically sold her soul to the BBC unionist cause years ago. But, being in the free market, I know how important and difficult sales can be and, without commenting on the quality of her product, nobody could criticise her skills when it comes to closing deals.
This idea that people aren’t interested in the Salmond scandal crops up a lot, even on here. It defies reason, everything we know about public relations, and our understanding of the role played by the media shaping public opinion. It’s essentially a truism that people take an interest in whatever the media serves them and, since the media has been largely quiet on this, it’s hardly surprising that levels of public interest seem low.
We can expect that to change. If this was a story about a woman that managed a chip shop in Inverkip trying to stitch up her old boss, it would still make the headlines and generate huge public interest. But we are talking about Government here and the FM — it’s an astonishing story, one that still baffles me even after all these months, and I have no doubt that when the public hear it they will be left in a state of shock and disbelief.
Those that say the public have no interest in this are going to be left feeling very stupid when the public finds out about it. If it wasn’t for shills in the Scottish media like Haggerty, they’d know about it now, the SNP would have a new leadership team in place, and we’d be eagerly marching towards the election and independence.
Of course, thats the last thing the BBC wants and that’s why they hire people like Haggerty with her straight-talking “girl next door” attitude, always happy to explain to the bewildered herd what is and isn’t of interest and importance to them.
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING ME.
I am so happy.
I love Big Brother
Ay, see, ah think like this: it’s no the time tae be takin down the FM cos, ye see, we’re living in bad times an that, whit wi this pandemic and Brexit an that. See, ah think when times is tough, ye’ve goat tae stick thegither an let aw kins o bad hings happen and bad folk dae things that, ay, mebbees arenae right an that, but the end justifies the means, know, like yer man, whatshisface, said? Ye just hiv tae turn a blin ee at times like this cos folk are no interested really, are they?
Stalin? Hitler? Pinochet? Pol Pot? Mao? Ay, bit… Ah mean, ye just dinnae see they hings comin, dae ye? Ah mean, were they that bad, eh? They wis aw popular an that, wisn’t they? Dead popular. Mind ye, none o them thought that men wis wummin… bit still… ay…
Apart from all this, the SNP have hijacked the whole concept of Independence, and think it is theirs alone to bestow or withhold. The sooner the SNP, at least in its current form, is out of the picture, the better the chance of Independence.
If there is no single ‘party of Independence’ then there is no single entity for any unsavoury careerist or other disrupter types to target and infiltrate. A looser coalition of groups with Independence as an UPFRONT and over-riding cause, and, most importantly, unburdened by a single figurehead such as Sturgeon, or Salmond, would also cause the unionist MSM major problems with their strategies of distracting metonymy. This is exactly what happened in 2014, when the MSM and the ‘No’ movement overwrote the idea of Indie with their idea of Alex Salmond (y’know, the smug gambler, and the idea that a Yes vote was a vote for Salmond.). If a Sturgeon-led SNP were to front a new Indie ref, it’d be wall-to-wall MSM Wee Jimmie Krankie for months.
A future referendum with the SNP being seen to be leading the Indie movement will end in failure, as it will simply function as fodder for the MSM and opponents to conflate the Indie cause with their invented idea of whoever happens to be SNP leader. Remember, in 2014, the ‘No’ / ‘Better Together’/ whatever movement was basically a sort-of collective, with no one particular, identifiable head.
Similarly, a hyrdra-headed Yes movement would be much less easy to decapitate than one led by the SNP, especially now.
@Black Joan – BIG BROTHER in Scotland will lock you in a concrete cell in Govan Police Station for 6-days and nights for feck-all.
Where else does Big Brother do that? Do you think they do it in Saudi Arabia, for example?
Maybe not, Joan. Big Brother is, I suspect, John Swinney; part of Holyrood’s semi-authoritarian double-act. He’s not going to be around for much longer.
Black Joan?
No one of that name has ever posted on this site.
It’s the MSM and the SNP that tell us ‘a vote for the SNP is a vote for independence’
But – it is only a vote for independence if the SNP have it as the sole policy in their manifesto.
If you vote for the SNP under any other circumstances, then it is only a vote for the SNP, not independence.
There are opinion polls that tell us what the support for independence is, we don’t need to vote in an election just to give them another opinion poll. In fact, I think it’s a waste of time. If pollsters can’t look behind the reasons for voting one way or another, they are pretty useless pollsters.
So people fearing what the MSM might say, still vote for the SNP so it’s reported that ‘a vote for the SNP is a vote for independence’ : perpetuating that lie. The only time there is a vote for independence is when it is categorically stated that’s what you are voting for. Anything outside that, you are just voting for a political party on the policies and values they are standing on.
The SNP in the past unequivocally stood for independence – but that has not been the case for some years now – and it has been said unequivocally that they were not in some elections – so a vote for the SNP is NOT a vote for independence.
Elections should not be glorified opinion polls that don’t even reflect that opinion – we need an actual vote on independence – and if we aren’t given that choice in this election, a vote for the SNP is meaningless, in relation to independence.
That’s my thinking – I don’t care what the MSM says – and in fact, a huge discrepancy between ‘yes’ support and the SNP seats won in Holyrood, exposes the fact of the SNPs ambivalence towards independence (and our knowledge of it). I’m not suggesting that’ll happen, I still hope for big changes before the election, but barring that, I feel no drive to fall for yet another falsehood.
Stopped following Haggerty several years ago when she started giving her version of the truth without evidence.
Ideally suited to the BBC.
Let’s hope your facts Stu, keep on reaching more people and FM has no option but to resign.
If I were running ScotGov as a business, I would at this stage be seeking an urgent re-brand and a change in leadership.
What we have now is:
SNP = independence
SNP = corrupt
Therefore independence = mass corruption
I would have a very distinct manifesto with a commitment to justice, scrutiny, and accountability. That would be refreshing and inspiring. But they cannot say that because they cannot do it, and they have had 14 years.
All we are getting just now is, “Give us independence”.
No-one is explaining what that means to Joe Bloggs.
“…but these aren’t normal times…” that numpty in the video says.
Well, I would like to know what she actually means by “these aren’t normal times”?
because by heck I really hope she does not consider “normal times” watching how an utterly corrupt government haemorrhages millions of pounds of Scottish taxpayers money in malicious prosecutions and bogus criminal cases to buy anonymity for conspirators and to supress evidence.
There is nothing normal in having to watch in disgust and disbelief how a parliamentary inquiry voluntarily takes out its own dentures and willingly cooperates with the conspirators and corrupt government into becoming an embarrassing toothless farce.
This toothless farce is now willingly being used as another of this corrupt government’s damage limitation tools as another opportunity for the conspirators to continue smearing their actual victim rather than allowing this inquiry to do its job which is to hold to account the corrupt government responsible for the existence of such a victim in the first place.
There is nothing normal or smart in publicly threatening to compel Mr Salmond, a private citizen and victim of a political conspiracy, to attend the inquiry, but then make no meaningful attempt whatsoever to compel attendance in the exact same manner and with the same determination one of the most crucial civil servants at the core of the corrupt government under scrutiny here, which is Ms Sturgeon’s chief of staff, the person most in direct working contact with Ms Sturgeon and no doubt the best placed to provide corroboration on procedures, dates, events, meetings, attendees to meetings affecting Ms Sturgeon.
There ain’t anything normal about any of it, and frankly covid is not going to make any of that sht look “normal times”.
Such “non-normality” needs addressing and pronto. Sturgeon’s popularity doesn’t even enter the equation. The question here is if those who are in a position to actually scrutinise her government’s conduct, are ready to do their work or not.
Judging by the kind of cowardly and stubborn response issued by Wightman yesterday to Lady Dorrian’s ruling, or the insistence of Fraser to call in Mr Salmond, even by using their powers to compel him to attend, but totally forgetting the elephant in the room which is the fact that Sturgeon’s chief of staff, a member of that government, has not yet attended for questioning, the answer to that will be a resounding no.
So this woman in the video above got it all wrong. It is not Sturgeon’s popularity what will save her arse. It is the collusion of an awful lot of vested interests, among them the British state no doubt, in to concealing or supressing evidence, what will.
Sorry,
“SNP = independence” should perhaps read, “SNP might one day consider independence”.
For years MI5 vetted all BBC employees, which they claim they no longer do -“Aye right”. Vetting was probably a camouflage for recruitment of a “patsy”. It has even been known for undercover agents to pose as journalists, as in the case of the notorious spy Guy Burgess (Cambridge Five 5 ring)
link to bbc.co.uk
Haggarty …… that one would be out her depth in a sink , she’s deffo made a little go a long way.
It is becoming more and more obvious day by day that there are internal mechanisms at work to ensure that Scotland remains attached to England, judging by the interview I posted above,
Big brother and more,
We the ordinary people are wrangling with more than the NS against AS and how inept the snp are, and have become. We are up against the big leagues here, behind the closed doors of politics, and justice,
The set up by Alberta COSTO refers to eliminating AS,NS, and the removal of the snp from Holyrude office.
@Mia – I cannot agree with you there. It is BBC Scotland’s political editor who is ignoring this. The UK media is not ignoring it any longer and so the problem is home-grown and comes, along with all of the other shit in Scotland just now, from the front benches at Holyrood. From Sturgeon and Swinney. What do you think Robert Burns would make of these two spoofs?
Sorry meant to say referred to, by Alberta costa,
Apologies, meant to write referred to by Alberta Costa.
Not going through in comments, try 3rd time. My apologies, I meant to write “ referred to by Alberta Costa” .
AYRSHIRE ROB 12.51pm
“Forsyth on QT was he, eh .Where did they find that auld git, in the same crypt as Gordon Brown.
Pair o fannies.”
So ROB, if those two “Pair o fannies” call for the corrupt wee bastard from Dreghorn to resign, and the fat “Laird o Skye” Blackford says “No, she must stay”, who are you going to side with?.
Poor wee Kenny and Angela:Tame-house-jock-syndrome (THJS), nothing more, nothing less. The only known cure for the condition is the presentation of a P45 certificate to the sufferer.
Unfortunately, those who might be expected to administer such healing are equally debilitated by THJS thus the circular nature of the ailment has remained unbroken.
Its funny as feck watching all the incognito brit nats running around this site at the minute.
Dont confuse our displeasure with sturgeon and her clique with any sort of abandonment of support for scottish indy.
I can tell you all now , there is not a chance in hell i will ever vote for any british party at any election.
So crack on wae your softly softly approach while we all have a wee laugh at you.
A timely reminder of the Panelbase and YouGov polls.
Clearly the public are happy to do without the Chairman’s daily broadcast.
Bet Kenny farq still goes on about “Nats”.
He’s like an auld da that hasn’t come to terms with the fact under 40 year olds are now overwhelmingly indy leaning.
In a time warp. He thinks he speaks for the pragmatic majority but hasn’t realised half of them have died out since the early 2000s.
Labour party still struggling in the polls …
Latest Westminster voting intention (9-10 Feb)
Con: 41% (n/c from 2-3 Feb)
Lab: 36% (-1)
Green: 7% (+1)
Lib Dem: 6% (n/c)
Reform UK: 3% (n/c)
SNP: 5% (n/c)
link to yougov.co.uk
Craig Jones.
Look cunt, don’t reply to my posts and I’ll do same, right.
How many fucking user names will you use ya clown of a boy. Samuel and awe the rest of yir clown psuedo characters.
poor auld blairite sir keir knight of the realm starmer…
Which of the following do you think would make the best Prime Minister?
Boris Johnson 33% (n/c from 2-3 Feb)
Keir Starmer 31% (-2)
Don’t know 34% (+4)
link to yougov.co.uk
It is with great sadness that I have to announce that the inventor of the anagram has died of covid 19.
May he Erect A Penis.
Thomas- Correct.
The reason we are angry at Sturgeon is because she isn’t serious about independence. The other reason is that she is morally bankrupt.
Being morally bankrupt is a prerequisite for being a unionist. We are angry because we don’t want any part of Sturgeon’s corrupt leadership. We reject the corruption of the British state. We don’t want Scotland to be corrupt when it becomes independent. So the trolls thinking this has anything to do with independence, need to think again.
Leaders come and go, but your country is forever.
Some strange characters and comments above I guess the day shift is being pushed to cause a bit of disruption.
Carry on chaps
Seen it all before
Carry on boys
Same Shit different day.
Thanks Sylvia at 1:17PM.
The article begins:
” For decades the BBC denied that job applicants were subject to political vetting by MI5. But in fact vetting began in the early days of the BBC and continued until the 1990s.
Paul Reynolds, the first journalist to see all the BBC’s vetting files, tells the story of the long relationship between the corporation and the Security Service…”
It’s a long read but well worth the bother.
Of course it doesn’t happen now……..?!
link to bbc.co.uk
I’m fed up with this tired trope which we’re continually fed that hardly anyone in Scotland is on social media. I’m nearly 70, my wife who is older than I am is on Twitter, my siblings are on Facebook and/or Twitter, every OAP and his or her dog is on Facebook. It would be hard to find anyone in Scotland who ISN’T on social media.
Due to struggling with technology and getting forgetful I think it would be wise for me to call it a day,
I have enjoyed listening, responding and general commenting with you all,
I will continue reading the comments when I remember, lol to you all.
“give us some form of hope there is potential for independence or is it over from the foreseeable?” @David MacKechnie says at 11:56 am
If you want Independence it is simple David.
In May vote as follows.
Constituency = SNP (or Pro Indy Candidate if there is one standing against say a known Woke/Glacial type – it will require nose holding for many, myself included)
Region = ISP
Maximum SNP return on Constituency but more importantly this maximises Pro Independence MSP return on the Regions which will potentially wipe out the Wokist Greens and The FibDems while at the same tim also reducing the number of British Labour in Scotland and the Tories from Scotland benchwarmers like Annie Wells.
Large Pro Indy Coalition (ISP keeping SNP honest/Indy focused and removes potential for HCB and GRA passing).
Hope that gives you hope!
Well said big jock.
Angus ‘odious’ Robertson and John Nicolson are both ex-BBC @Jack Murphy says at 2:07 pm and @Sylvia at 1:17PM.
Is there any reason why can’t we drown witches and old hags anymore?
It amazes me that people can’t think logically.
‘Indy has never been closer’ we have the 11 point plan
‘Leave this to after indy’ because a corrupt compromised cabal will get us independence, the Brits will never use the dirt they have on them
‘Both votes SNP’ arithmetic like biology is optional.
‘Ok the SNP are awful but we need to vote for them’ because rewarding them will make them change
‘This blogger that’s campaigned for the SNP since 1970, is a pretendy Yesser or maybe MI5’
I could go on
Thank you for letting me rant.
Just watched Question Time ” aye I know ” anyway
I have just had confirmed my opinion of that arse wipe Murray and Tory Forsyth how disgusting these two imposters are and as Unionists they are reading the situation from a unionist point of view and as usual they think they are on a winner, tough shit boys yer on to plums .
Whatever my opinion of what has gone on I hope and believe most Independence supporters will give their first vote ” even if they hold their noses ” to the SNP at this late stage there is no alternative on the other hand the second “list vote ” is the only viable way we can keep the SNP ” no laughter now” eh ” honest ” they must be pressed to keep on track.
Most people won’t side with any of the Unionist parties just because Nicola has pissed a lot of people off now that really would be shooting both feet off and taking a clean head shot , the time for changing management will come because there is no time for any alternative so please don’t fall for the unionist trap she will go when she has outlived her usefulness not because Unionists think they are about to score a winner, close but no Cigar Chaps.
@Robert graham – and do think there isn’t a plan B to dispense with Sturgeon, Swinney and Wolffe?
Could plan B be to shut Holyrood? Jist askin, you know….
Is that true what i was just reading there that the last survey taken in 2017 of Her majestys imperial british nationalist labour party illustrated how far the party had moved away from the old working class it was created to represent.
77% fell within the ABC1 grade , half the party members live within london or south east England , and 57 % were graduates.
This confirms more than anything her majestys imperial brit nat labour party over the last thirty years have transformed into a southern english woke liberal middle class champagne socialist globalist party largely hollowed out of working class influence and representation , as epitomised by the leadership of sir keir knight of the realm starmer , himself a true “working class hero”.
You have to laugh at these labour party muppets.
They are reduced to fighting with the tories for south east english right wing votes while the north of england and scotland shun them forever.
On top of that , they just cant get to grips with the elephants in the room , scottish indy and brexit.
Village Idiot says:
12 February, 2021 at 2:49 pm
“Is there any reason why can’t we drown witches and old hags anymore?”
who gets to decide who the witches and old hags are?
@Jockanese Wind Talker 2.30pm
Sadly your proposal is very unlikely to deliver independence in the short to medium term though. Unless the SNP supertanker’s course is changed – which is a task for it’s membership, who appear totally unfit for the task on the evidence of the past few years – then voting SNP 1 & ISP (or Green or SSP) 2 is most likely to deliver an outright SNP majority and a handful of other pro-indy MSPs, or (if there is a downturn in current polls) another SNP minority most likely propped up by the Greens.
That’s hardly progress.
Unless the Sturgeonistas, gradualists and Woke Wahhabis are seen off, we can kiss goodbye to #indyref2 for the duration of the next Holyrood parliament.
Listening to Joanna Cherry’s interview with Mandy Rhodes of Holyrood magazine, and seeing Cherry’s recent tweets about being committed to staying in the SNP and fighting for change, it seems unlikely the ISP is about to make any significant political breakthrough in the next 3 months. The best it can probably hope for is a handful of list seats as a platform to build a “full fat” alternative to the SNP for 2026.
Independence certainly isn’t dead, but anyone who thinks it is imminent or inevitable needs to give themselves a shake.
Some poor elitism going on here today and i cant say the Gypsy Fortune Teller gag was the best move. Slag someones opinion sure but lets leave clothing, environment and as for some even citing levels of education, poor show.
I reckon Angela Haggerty makes a valid point and this Very point is something that would have been discussed during War room situations at the Mundells.
Its not that the public are too stupid (which usnt what Haggerty alluded too despite some claims above), its thats they only know what they know..if mainstream media are showing nothing on case Facts but also showing Nicola front and centre of Covid then public see her fighting the good fight. Framing any error balanced against that may see enough of the public to ride it out.
The Rev may show those polls but polls are not real life actions.. they are expectations..and we know that expectations can be managed
“The problem is home-grown”
That there is some kind of home-grown problem, I have never doubted. But that all THE problem is home-grown is an assertion I cannot possibly agree with.
No. There is no way Sturgeon would have ever got away with this political conspiracy without somebody else’s help, with somebody else’s direction and power to get away with or to brush away dodgy, unlawful things without the opposition parties or Westminster as much as raising an eyebrow.
If you look at the carelessness, the level of confidence and arrogance with which this complaints procedure was forced through, in the face of clear legal advice that it was unlawful, coming at least from Mr Salmond’s council, you realise that the brains of that process or the power to control it were not in Holyrood.
These people simply thought they could not be brought down. Anybody else would very quickly start to wonder and put safeguards in place. These people didn’t. They simply ploughed through. It is clear to me those brains where somewhere else outside Sgov and the SNP executive.
There is no way some of those conspirators would perjure themselves risking their careers, livelihoods and prison sentences unless there were convinced all risk of that ever happening had been removed. Sturgeon could not remove that risk, only the British state could.
There is no way Murrell, Sturgeon and others would have survived in power this long after the catastrophic judicial review without the support of the opposition and the British state. There is no way some of those civil servants, some of them seemingly a sandwich short of a picnic, would come up with this.
You seem to keep forgetting that neither the crown agent in control of a COPFS that seems to be suppressing evidence and now owning to malicious prosecutions, or the UK civil servants right at the centre of this plot are neither SNP nor front bench.
You appear to forget the enormous and varied number of actors that are participating here. expanding the boundaries of this well beyond the cabinet or the government itself. All those actors appear to be colluding on one point: to derail the SNP as a credible pro independence party – for that to happen, to remove Mr Salmond from the party was the obvious first step.
Follow the money, they often say. Well, let’s follow the money then:
Who is the main beneficiary of the SNP being neutered as a pro indy party? The British state.
Who is the main beneficiary of stopping Mr Salmond returning to politics? The British state.
Who is the main beneficiary of Salmond being thrown in prison and stopping his RT programme? The British state.
Who is the main beneficiary of a smooth transition from a corrupt Sturgeon to a British state puppet that may have already been compromised directly or indirectly by this plot and therefore with a vested interest in toeing the line to stop certain evidence emerging? The British state and the conspirators
Who is the main beneficiary of the democratic structures of the SNP being overruled in order to stop Joanna Cherry getting anywhere near Holyrood and that evidence? You got it, the British state and the conspirators.
who is the main beneficiary of stopping HE 2021 becoming a plebiscitary election? That is right, the British state.
The belated intervention of the unionist MSM is most interesting because it comes at a time when the pro indy bloggers have already done all the hard work and are just about to uncover the whole plot and worse, the extent of the level of interference by external actors.
What are the odds the unionist MSM is coming late to the party because they have been tasked to exercise damage limitation by controlling the narrative and stopping some inconvenient names linked to the conspiracy being revealed or some dormant assets being uncovered?
What do you think would be the consequence of the people of Scotland finding out that the british state has been trying to send Mr Salmond to prison in order to derail the SNP and rendering it innocuous as a pro indy party?
In addition, there are still an awful lot of unanswered questions as to who, when and what triggered the fishing expedition that landed Ms Harvey’s private phone with no less than 16 messages.
Apparently those messages were sent on the 31st October 2017 and were looking for information about possible Mr Salmond’s indiscretions not in HOlyrood, but in Westminster. It also seemed that they were not seeking info about other MPs but Mr Salmond.
Those emails were sent well before the Uk gov cabinet had asked Evans to review the complaints procedure and before any ideas of a bespoke, unprecedented complaints procedure against former ministers had even been materialised.
I invite you to have a nice read at this:
link to en.wikipedia.org
You will see there that at the exact precise time the witch hunt was being conducted against Mr Salmond, a witch hunt had been conducted also among Westminster parties, namely the tories and labour.
It is interesting to find out that the “touching the knee” was also used to oust some of those London politicians. Even more interestingly, there is this “In April 2018, The Sunday Times reported that a rape allegation had been made against Elphicke in November 2017, at the height of the Westminster sex scandals, but that the police had not informed him of it for about five months”.
This brings a dejavu with the “we will sit on this and hope we do not have to deploy it”.
There seems to be a repetitive pattern here and an unbelievable coincidence in timing.
Who was at the heart of this expedition, I don’t know, but sure as hell it was not Nicola Sturgeon, her cabinet, her civil servants and SNP staff members who were fishing about indiscretions from labour and conservative politicians in London. It was a UK wide expedition, so this was not just a “home-grown” matter. The letter from the UK cabinet on the 3rd November was the opportunity, the metoo crap the excuse.
I have not had the chance (nor the inclination) to find a common link among all those targeted and expelled, but I am sure there will be one.
When exactly did the fishing expedition looking for indiscretions that could be pinged on Mr Salmond started? Who gave the order for this to start, who from the SNP agreed to it and who decided who to contact and why? Who contacted the police?
Robert graham says:
12 February, 2021 at 2:51 pm
Whatever my opinion of what has gone on I hope and believe most Independence supporters will give their first vote ” even if they hold their noses ” to the SNP at this late stage there is no alternative on the other hand the second “list vote ” is the only viable way we can keep the SNP ” no laughter now” eh ” honest ” they must be pressed to keep on track.
Most people won’t side with any of the Unionist parties just because Nicola has pissed a lot of people off now that really would be shooting both feet off and taking a clean head shot , the time for changing management will come because there is no time for any alternative so please don’t fall for the unionist trap she will go when she has outlived her usefulness not because Unionists think they are about to score a winner, close but no Cigar Chaps.
—-
I have voted SNP all my life, but I will not be told who to vote for by some wheeshter on the internet so you can take your “wheesht for indy” bollocks and fuck off right back down whatever retchid hole you crawled out of!
The trio at the top of the SNP party do fuck all but try to hide the scandalous crimes of the party leader.
I will most definately not be voting SNP in the constituency nor the list, not with the current corrupt management of the SNP still in their jobs who are siphoning off members money to pay for their comfy lifestyles, expensive lawyers and fat £100k+ salaries.
We have people in most Scottish towns and cities having to use food banks and voluntary kitchens just to be fed and survive, and you want us to wheest for the corrupt arseholes who are stalling independence? fuck right off cunt.
“I and other journalists are banned from telling you a lot of the truth which, believe me, is utterly shocking and which some very senior people in the Government and the party will continue to do everything they can to prevent the people from knowing that truth.”
Martin Hannan
If Martin Hannan finds it shocking, then it is shocking.
Andrew Morton says:
12 February, 2021 at 2:18 pm
I’m fed up with this tired trope which we’re continually fed that hardly anyone in Scotland is on social media. I’m nearly 70, my wife who is older than I am is on Twitter, my siblings are on Facebook and/or Twitter, every OAP and his or her dog is on Facebook. It would be hard to find anyone in Scotland who ISN’T on social media.
Hello AM i’d just like to say hello to you, i’m not on twitface and never have been and i live in the highlands
Looking across internet hys’s it seems Wings is now the favourite site for unionists to go.
thomas says:
12 February, 2021 at 2:57 pm
the novel “Fame is the Spur” springs to mind. Most Labourites these days seem to believe that the only way to improve the life of the working class is to make them middle class.
As I would rather make love to Ian Blackford than watch Question Time (actually, maybe it isn’t THAT bad), I assumed that this woman was in fact a fortune teller called Gypsy Rose.
As for the Labour Party, it just sucks beyond measure. It’s won a working majority five times (1945, 1966, 1997, 2001 and 2005). Three of those times were with Tory-lite Tony Blair and the other two were with rather traditionalist, moderate men. Starmer is as unelectable as Corbyn. I doubt Britain will ever see a Labour government again.
@ wee chid.
Im from govan , and i never knew i was middle class till i went to London.
Jockanese Wind Talker @ 2:35 “Angus ‘odious’ Robertson”
German mother and fluent in German. Worked as a foreign and diplomatic correspondent in Central Europe for the BBC World Service, and then for the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF. According to the grapevine, he has been less than loyal to AS, particularly in recent times.
The murrells eh, the imelda and ferdinand marcos
Of Scotland.
Mia@3.02
Thanks for the very interesting and well argued post.
I have no problem accepting the long arm of the British State had a hand in fitting up Alex Salmond and I readily accept that however this pans out, the cause of Independence is seriously wounded but definitely not dead and the fight continues.
What I am struggling with is why Nikla embraced the plot so wholeheartedly. Did she stupidly think she could control the narrative?
Whatever, she colluded in a plot to get an innocent man jailed. Utterly despicable and utterly unforgivable.
Captain Yossarian 2.54pm. Well if plan B is to shut holyrood, it will be interesting to see how many “Scots” take to the streets to ” send them homewards to think again”.
“What I am struggling with is why Nikla embraced the plot so wholeheartedly”
Only time will tell.
What if we took money away from everything??
@Mia, 1.15
how a parliamentary inquiry voluntarily takes out its own dentures
That says it all and brought a smile to my face.
We have a lot of third rate people with the right identity in Scottish MM at the moment. Haggerty personifies it, Many speak with bools in their mooths to show they are a class apart. . Many now now ape the Glesga brogue to be in alleged touch with the troops the SNP needs to love Tsarina Nikola. Give me Lesley Riddoch, or Kevin McKenna any day. People who can write not just gabbing apologists.
Wishart seems to back up Haggerty that ‘most people don’t care’.
link to twitter.com
Imagine being proud that your party is corrupt but because most of your voters don’t know what is going on. He is happy with that.
“So long as they (the Proles) continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance…Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbours, films, football, beer, and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.”
Don’t think too hard about stuff people. Get your jag and vote SNP.
Another aspect of this that doesn’t seem to have been focused on.
The involvement of the FM’s Chief of Staff in the meeting with Geoff Aberdein.
The Scottish Government’s Code of Conduct for Special Advisors 2017, states:
Section 16:
“Where a special adviser wishes to undertake work for a political party which does not arise out of government business they may do this either in their own time, outside office hours, or under a separate contract with the Party, working part-time for the Scottish Government. They may not use annual or unpaid leave for this purpose.”
Section 9:
“… It is also the First Minister’s responsibility to ensure that their special adviser(s) adhere to this Code of Conduct. …”
With the involvement of the First Minister’s Chief of Staff, who identifies herself on LinkedIn as “Special Adviser and Deputy Spokesperson for the First Minister”, she is bound by the Special Advisors’ Code of Conduct, and the First Minister is duty bound to ensure she adheres to this code of conduct.
It would appear, from Section 11, there would need to be a separate contract with the Scottish Government to specify when and how she can engage in party business outside office hours.
Otherwise, her presence in this meeting is either a breach of her own code of conduct, with the collusion of the First Minister, or it is automatically Government business.
The Scottish Government Code of Conduct for Special Advisors.
link to gov.scot
“Section 11” in my original post above, should have read “Section 16”.
Though Section 11 may be relevant in other ways.
And yet, SD, as Orwell reminds us, hope lies with the proles.
It sure as hell doesn’t lie with the middle-classes.
Cue Alf Baird and Franz Fanon.
;).
The SNP are proving themselves quite the Westminster party these days
“If we’re to assume – and this is a whole other argument – that “progressive politics” means “a Labour government at Westminster””
I think that this is not necessarily a Labour government, but one that has the people – rather than businesses – in mind; we’re harking back to the creation of the Welfare State, so the obvious assumption would be Labour but the party has moved away from that position.
It’s been well documented how Tony Blair moved the party to Conservative territory; very much like boiling a frog.
Sadly, with a Conservative majority, and with the “reasonable” Conservatives excised from those elected to Westminster, there are not many opportunities to win votes.
If Scotland becomes independent, the number of opposing voices decreases and the Tories’ majority increases. An English friend of mine (who lives in Edinburgh, and has done for 30+ years) once said to me that he had no problem with Scottish independence, but he wouldn’t much like to live next door to the country that was left behind. Remarkably prescient for the mid-90s…
She should call herself Gypsy Rose Pee, what a load of pish she talks, but one thing did really shock me, do people still watch
wretched time, I gave up on it years ago
Jim Sillars is not voting SNP, glad he took my advice lol
@Anonymoose 3:07 pm;
Totally agreed the “wheesht for indy” bollocks can fuck off right back down whatever retchid hole you crawled out of!
But.
The LOT (not trio) at the top of the SNP party (and most of the middle) do fuck all but try to hide the scandalous crimes of the party leader.
“We have people in most Scottish towns and cities having to use food banks and voluntary kitchens just to be fed and survive” – yeah, I saw photo of folk queing in the snow to get food parcels on FB recently, and the corrupt arseholes who are stalling independence are more to blame than the bastards who vote Tory. This treachery alone would condemn them all to the 9th level of hell.
Unfortunately any vote not cast, or far worse, cast in favor of a pro union party, endorses this shitshow. Voting SNP is the slightly lesser of the two evils; mind, it wasnt that long ago when unemployed and disabled were being considered as “free” replacement for migrant farm labour post brexit. Which covid ‘paused’.
Bad laws can always be removed and corrupt politicians jailed. A broken life is much harder to heal.
Here’s a poem by my English teacher which was read at the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. Read it and weep.
Let our three-voiced country
Sing in a new world
Joining the other rivers without dogma,
But with friendliness to all around her.
Let her new river shine on a day
That is fresh and glittering and contemporary;
Let it be true to itself and to its origins
Inventive, original, philosophical,
Its institutions mirror its beauty;
Then without shame we can esteem ourselves.
Iain Crichton Smith
from Variations on a New Song: poems from the Holyrood Poetry Link Scheme (Edinburgh: Scottish Poetry Library, 2000)
link to scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk