The washing of the hands
The Scottish National Party, in legal character, is what’s known as an unincorporated association. (The same form of entity as Wings, local colour fans.)
This has a number of interesting ramifications.
The one that’s relevant to us today is this one:
Because it may go a considerable distance to explaining this:
The above are this year’s nominations for the SNP’s ruling bodies – the National Executive Committee (NEC), and its ostensibly crucial Policy Development Committee (PDC). These are theoretically positions of considerable influence and power, shaping the conduct and direction of a political party which forms the government of Scotland for at least the next two and a half years and determining who will or won’t be put forward for lucrative MP and MSP jobs.
So you’d think people would be falling over themselves to get seats on these committees. And yet of the 46 places available (29 on the NEC and 17 on the PDC), almost half of them – 21 – are either uncontested or, remarkably, have nobody at all willing to put themselves forward.
Not one single SNP member anywhere in Central Scotland wants to serve on the Policy Development Committee. And since the SNP is divided into eight regions and claims to have almost 74,000 members, that means that there are approximately 9,250 members in the area, none of whom want anything to do with forming party policy.
The party is having particular trouble with its all-women shortlists. Out of the seven positions that have nobody at all volunteering for them, six are on AWSes. Of the very few all-women shortlists that will actually go to a vote, one of them is being contested by a man, Amber Roberts.
(Allowing Roberts to stand for election in this role is almost certainly illegal, as pointed out by the feminist group For Women Scotland.)
Bizarrely, the SNP’s rules stipulate that while in (for example) Mid-Scotland And Fife there are no candidates for the female-only seat and two candidates for the open seat, and there are two seats available, they will NOT go to the two males who’ve been nominated for the open list.
Instead, one of the two males in MS&F who are willing to sit on the NEC will be rejected and the party will have to beg a woman who isn’t willing to do it to take up the job. If they can’t find one the seat will go unfilled, because the SNP would rather have nobody than let a man do it.
It’s worthy of note that it’s specifically women the SNP can’t recruit, but we suspect the party’s rampant “woke” misogyny isn’t the main issue, and nor is it even that the NEC is now a toothless rubber-stamping body purged of dissent and regularly kept in the dark about vital issues of party governance and finances.
The real problem here is that anyone signing up to join it, given the SNP’s legal status, is putting themselves personally on the hook for the party’s debts, and the party is flat broke. Wings is not a lawyer, and we’re not sure whether any new NEC members would be liable for debts incurred before they were on the committee, but what anyone with half a braincell will have observed is that its current parlous fiscal state has not stopped the party from continuing to waste money with wild abandon.
The SNP’s finances are extremely unlikely to improve any time in the near future. Membership continues to plummet by around 1000 a month, and a UK general election – the party’s biggest single item of expenditure – looms next year. It still owes £60,000 to its former CEO, hundreds of thousands of pounds to other suppliers, and Operation Branchform could wreak unimaginable havoc in the coffers if the party has to foot the bill for defending Peter Murrell, Nicola Sturgeon or Colin Beattie.
In truth, what’s remarkable is that under these circumstances anyone at all IS still willing to serve on the NEC. We suspect that many of those seeking election to it simply aren’t aware of what they’re opening themselves up to, and we hope this article is of some service to them.
Joanna Cherry warned the NEC that they were liable when “the good guys” were thwarted and she resigned.
It appears that, on this one occasion, the SNP NEC were capable of listening to a gender critical woman. If only to save their own skin.
Can they not just liquidate, form a Newco SNP, and buy the party’s history from the SFA?
Ice cream and jelly time again, lads.
That’s a good article and I have nowt to say, other than it contains two very odd and uncomfortable looking photographs in it.
Some if the names actually standing for election are, by no means, imbeciles.
That makes this business even curiouser. Why clamber into a coffin alongside a body that has the stench of death about it and faces very expensive funeral costs for which you will be partly liable?
If they get their self-id through will it not be perfectly legal for Amber and anyone else to be on the all-women shortlists.
What’s happened with Eddie Susie Izzard
Fingers crossed we get the ‘Party of Adult Human Females’ standing in Scotland.
How many Amber Robertses are SNP members? Is the Amber Roberts standing in the AWS for Equalities Convener the same Amber Roberts standing on the Open list for Lothian?
Where does it stop or begin with these discriminatory short lists?
In parliamentary terms, “black” people are under represented, should we have “all black” short lists? Homosexuals are massively over represented, should we have “all straight” lists.
Or should we rely on a rather dim electorate to strike a balance?
“OK then. We are going to draw lots to see who pays for the camper van, the Deposit Scheme, the GRR legal fees, and of course, for the ferries… Hey come back!”
Where’s Murrell and Sturgeon these days.
Where is the expensive motor home. Has it been sold to pay the debts. Or is it in deployment in Rutherglen and Hamilton. And did we ever find out who authorised the spending of the £600k that was collected to fund another referendum campaign that never happened. Or did the fairies just take it.
And with huge mandate after mandate squandered by a party that ditched independence does anyone believe Yousaf’s road to Damascus conversion last week that the SNP will sue for independence if they get 30 seats at the next election.
Ha ha ha, fooled us once, fooled us twice, fooled us three times but not again. The current SNP will not be suing for anyone for independence.
They are gone. Rebirth without them is what’s happening. Just wait till the 5th of October by election is declared.
And I say that as an ex near forty year member, and an active member at that, of the SNP.
Mr ‘I can’t tell it’s not butter’ will probably get away with it. Having been a second wave feminist for many years (but not a “we can everything that a man can do” type) I have never really been in favour of female-only lists, although I do acknowledge that they can be necessary, on occasion. However, having said that, I have been utterly disappointed in, if not completely alienated by, many of my own sex who worship at the feet of the male-idol-in-a-frock brigade.
These females appear to have scooped out their own brains with a spoon and replaced them with pink candy floss left over from the showies and past its sell-by date. Even some of the brightest and sharpest females have succumbed to this idiocy (Margaret Atwood, author of ‘Handmaid Tale’ and Dame Helena Kennedy, who is overseeing the so-called and putative misogyny legislation) but, then, females are, historically and psychologically, more susceptible to being suckered, brainwashed, fooled, affected by societal contagion, persuaded into cults and everything that is against their own best interests. They positively revel, too often, in destroying their own sex in favour of manipulative, controlling and abusive men which is why we are in a perpetual dance of ‘two steps forward and one back’ all the time.
Many females, however, show remarkable courage when called upon to do so, so I think you may be right, Rev, that this is less about the gender nonsense and more about not wishing to be trapped into becoming liable for the SNP’s debts, women as a sex group always, in every country, in every era, having far less disposable income than men (unless you are a 20-year-old Mhairi Black, of course) as a sex group, albeit vast disparities exist across both sexes. Not even the young ones, inexperienced or otherwise, are daft enough to fall for this. Most will be bent double under student debt. Nonetheless, the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election will show just how far the SNP has slipped in female esteem, and I doubt that it can be recovered any time soon. The dearth of activist volunteers is testament to that.
Scotland feels at times like it hasn’t moved on since 1843. Think of the SNP as ‘The Auld Kirk, the cauld kirk, the kirk wi nae people’ and let’s say ‘other parties’ are ‘The Free Kirk, the wee kirk, the kirk wi nae steeple’, and you only need to look at how many wee churches we have in wee towns to see how long that split lasted and how much of our resources we poured into the crack.
Apropos of nothing…are these voluntary part-time gigs or paid jobs / expenses gravy train joyrides??
Here we go. Wait until the money men come calling and the so-called party leaders start squabbling among themselves, blaming each other. Everyone dives for cover. Who gets left holding the ball?
Earth-shattering cries of “It wisnae me!” as the brown stuff hits the fan.
It’s only a matter of time, folks. Popcorn ready.
Seems as though this bankrupt failing party still attract power seekers who don’t read the small print.
Well if they are so woke let tkem take the heat and maybe responsibility of learning will happen.
Let’s hope ISP win Rutherglen
Not a lawyer either but I’m going to have a go at this one and maybe somebody with the ‘knowledge’ will appear BTL and do a proper clarification.
I think the ‘personally liable’ matter might not be the first issue here. The governing body, the NEC, will be the one to look at first. I suspect that anyone joining the NEC will be as liable as the oldest-standing member because these governing bodies are clearly the important element within the unincorporated association and anyone wishing to join it will be expected to realise this. So whether they knew of the parlour state of the association’s finances or not, they will be expected to have ‘constructive knowledge’ of the extent of the legal obligation they’ve entered into, so ‘how was I to know’ won’t matter in the slightest.
The important part might be where a contract has been entered into by a member that was unauthorised by the other members. In that case, I believe that single person will be personally liable. This might be important given the secretive nature of what was going on at the top of the SNP post-Salmond when all the democratic structures were deliberately destroyed. So if Peter Murrell was involved in unauthorised matters without the knowledge and authorisation of the rest of the NEC, he will be (and unfortunately Nicola Sturgeon may be) in deep financial doo-doo and the creditors will take everything from him personally.
Now…will some passing lawyer please shed light on all of this for us mere mortals scrambling about in the dark…
Maybe someone else can find more, but I can only see Stuart McDonald, Chris Law and Alison Thewliss as the only Parliamentarians out of over 100 full-time politicians that want to influence party policy and management. We can only assume the rest are happy to be paid well to say what they’re told to say rather than move the dial…
Can a few more of the blokes not put on a dress?
Problem solved.
Stu,
Are you not missing the bigger legal picture as to the ramifications of what the SNP are as a Unincorporated Association is and what it means to the independence of Scotland.
1: A Unincorporated Association usually has a Constitution.
2: A Unincorporated Association cannot be sued by its own members as it would be akin to sueing itself,
3: a Unincorporated Association owes no duty of care under Statue or Common Law,
4: a Unincorporated Association are not a formal structure like a Company.
5: a Unincorporated Association do not have to submit Annual returns like other Companies.
Stu,
These are just a few of the rules I researched in “law firms sites” for you and every one else reading here today.
Q. Does the Unincorporated ( SNP) Association have in its written Constitution ” aquireing , gaining, or a aim to leave the treaty of Union,
Can it be sued by none members of the SNP for misleading the public?
Can Scots sue individual members of the SNP of the Unincorporated Association
Q: Does the SNP Unincorporated Association have a written Constitution over changing the gender and indoctrinating Children to porn School education while not informing Parents.
Q: And as a “non legal Entity” of a “Unincorporated Association” can the SNP interfere in Laws of Scotland or pass laws in Scotland such as the Hate Crime bill,
Wings is not a lawyer, and we’re not sure whether any new NEC members would be liable for debts incurred before they were on the committee
‘The matter went to appeal. It was held that members of the governing body of a unincorporated association are personally liable for payment under contracts entered into by them.’
I presume the them means the unincorporated association.
Does this not suggest that they would be responsible for all the unincorporated association’s current debt.
When I see the the word contract I think of major projects like ferries but isn’t everything requiring payment a contract even for simple things like coffee & biscuits.
I understand that the SNP have a number of unpaid suppliers.
Unincorporated Assossciation, on taxes and ” debts” incurred on non members might be worth a investigation, like the public.
I know nothing about the law, accounts or bankruptcy. I only know how to ask questions.
I always get an answer BTL on Wings.
What happens when an Unincorporated Association goes bust.
Could these SNP members be thinking this Unincorporated Association is going to go bust pretty soon so I’m not going to be liable for anything.
The unpaid suppliers will get their money through the sale of the Campervan, coffee machines, Le Blanc pens and le Crueset pots.
Are they wrong and will their property have to be sold to pay the debt?
Have the SNP Unincorporated Association made and stated its own “Constitution” to the public while acting in a supposed public capacity of governance, while not being a legal entity.
@Lorna Campbell says:20 September, 2023 at 12:29 pm
not a “we can [do] everything that a man can do” type
I think you maybes sell yourself (and women) short.
Here’s a wee quote from John Steinbeck:
in our time a beard is the one thing that a woman cannot do better than a man, or if she can her success is assured only in a circus
See? One thing. There are quite a few men who have been careful to cultivate a beard, solely because of that quote. Allegedly.
I am not sure if a “SNP non legal entity” can act as a “legal entity ” in making laws or legislation in Scotland.
Was the SNP Unincorporated Association in operation in 2014 and under AS?
Good questions PhilM.
‘and unfortunately Nicola Sturgeon may be’
Some may not think it’s unfortunate if she is.
Some may think it’s just her very bad Karma ripening.
What about Pete’s house in Portugal can the creditors take that & everything stashed away in his hoose in Portugal like the coffee machines, le Crueset pots & all the ‘woven’ tapestries.
Did Operation Branch Form search his house in Portugal?
Amazing how interesting stories about ‘Unincorporated Associations’ can be.
A Unincorporated Association such as the SNP one, has the legal Status of a Charity or Club according to the law firms I have researched.
It is not a company,
It can pass laws in its own capacity to its own members,
But Can it pass laws not in its “constitution” to the PUBLIC outside its ” Constitution” in general that are outwith the Unincorporated Association.
It appears the SNP have not been entirely up front as to its legal status before or during the election processes,
Well that cheered me up!
May the end come quicker than I expected.
That hasn’t aged well.
Is he referring to hair on the face before we had testosterone?
Or is he referring to a woman like Nicola Sturgeon or David Mundells wife who are/were better beards than any man I’ve ever heard of.
Good question,
If the SNP are incurring “public debt” in the name of Scots and Scotland, whilst operating as a Unincorporated Association I think they would be liable for that debt,
My understanding, ( but I will have to read up further on this to be more accurate,) is that you can sue the people in the Unincorporated Association i ” think” individually.
Are the Green party flying under a Unincorporated Association in Scotland,
Stu,
Out of curiousity Have you ever read what the full “Snp Unincorporated Association “Constitution” reads?
Humaf may regret becoming leader of the SNP Unincorporated Association as well as Murrells,
Perhaps this means that gravy train careerists who shat in independence supporters may be liable for costs?!
Owen Thompson MP may find that those who he groveled to ( SNP leadership) are willing to also abondon him and those like him!
KARMA
Are the Green party flying under a Unincorporated Association in Scotland
I heard the Scottish Green Party operates out of a clapped out, dirty old Ice Cream Van with a sign saying “Free Sweeties”.
Charley Says never talk to strangers.
Members of a Unincorporated Association wiill find it difficult to sue each other as it is akin to sueing themselves.unless it has something specifical mentioned in their Constitution,
Forbessolicitor.
More info.
Net Lawman.
But none members can sue members individually is my understanding so far,
So anyone not in the SNP I presume,
I’d be prepared to vote for the SNP. If they back a Scotland United for Independence. And yet.
Every time I look at the news. They so something else that frustrates the life out of me.
Miminum unit alcohol prices are to be raised from 50p to 65p.
That policy convenor is a bellend. Biagi. The Byres Road gentrified mafia.
Record drug deaths. Record alcohol deaths. Because the pubs have closed. And people turn to the can on the sofa. Their failed policy and MUP WILL KULL BUSINESS AND LIVES.
STOP THE SNP.
None of them can run the country.
Amber Roberts is a man with a beard. A snowflake. He’s not trans. He’s not right in the head. Get your cock out of the female toilets you pervert. Seek medical attention. Your mother obviously dropped you on your head and that’s why you’re putting her clothes on.
The wokeratti are a disgrace. Leave the kids alone SNP Sex pests.
Gender Self ID. And Nicola Sturgeon the destroyer of women’s rights. The women don’t want anything to do with the SNP.
Your court case will be costing millions.
Teachers are fighting back. We don’t want to teach kids the creepy schools sex survey. The gender petal. Or ask primary school kids about their sexuality.
We don’t want your congestion charges.
We don’t want your LEZ.
You just won’t listen. These people are clowns. If I had a packet of mince I’d walk into that board room and throw it at them.
They make me sick. Every single one of them.
Red,
You mace my laugh for today,
Mind you, if the Greens are in a coalition with the Unincorporated Association following their same Constitution, they may be just as liable.by association.
Mind you This gender issue and the hate crime bill promoted in Scotland by a “non legal entitiy” passing these laws perhaps unlawfully of their personal Constitution of could backfire on them and be be sued for in Scotland,
Really, just when you think there can be no more. More comes knocking at the door.
Everyone duck.
Save the pubs.
No to MUP rise.
Protect women’s spaces. No males breaking the equality act badly disguised as a 1950s stereotype of a woman.
No to gender self ID. Don’t listen to the SNP. They are so out of touch they are not listening to you anyway.
Make them pay at the ballot box. Rutherglen. Make them pay.
I don’t know the detail in law, but I do know that Criminal liability is non transferable, whereas Civil liability, cash and debts and stuff, can be a collective responsibility which falls on the incumbent committee or Trust on the day of the judgement. It can also jump to spouses and heirs… (I think). Criminal liability however, cannot.
You also can’t indemnity yourself against criminal prosecution, but for negligence or impropriety under civil law, such as Architects for example, you can get some forms of Professional Indemnity Insurance for Civil actions against you, but I have no idea whether an Executive Committee can limit its liability in the same way. Maybe it can, especially if it’s a limited company.
If however, there are already dodgy shenanigans afoot, those signing up to the NEC cannot plead ignorance, and accordingly I don’t see them getting any worthwhile protection, even if it was theoretically possible.
But hey, what do I know? Look at the billions upon billions which the Tories can hand their pals with total impunity apparently, and to my knowledge nobody in their upper echelons of power gives a flying fk about it. Nor do many prosecutors.
So if the NEC has done anything criminal, those who are innocent are in the clear, … well kinda. They’re in the clear from criminal prosecution.
If it’s a Civil action they’re facing, that’s where they could be personally liable, but I’m guessing only liable for repayments rather than punitive damages like America. Damages will be for the aggrieved to pursue themselves individually. If the fight is over the missing £600k, they may have to return the £600k, but I suspect that will be the size of the judgement.
It’s still a hefty old cost, but it’s £30k each or so, less whatever deals can be done behind closed doors with the lights out.
Thing is, if the whole “unpleasantness” leaves the SNP teetering on the brink of insolvency, it won’t just be the one party nervous about getting their money that’s owed. It will snowball, and creditors will appear from every direction, because insolvency law is a big enough scam / racket all by itself. Even the dead will rise and claim they’re owed money.
The SNP can play at being gormless douche bags as much as they want. Won’t save them once the sharks circling the boat smell blood.
The status of a Unincorporated Association is that of a ” club” or a “Charity” of two or more members that usually agree to some form of Constitution for a commom purpose.
And usually managed by a committee,
It does not have limited liability,
They are not a formal structure like a Company, and therefore do not have to submit annual returns,
if acting out-with their remit as a “non legal entity” in the public domain creating debt to the public and to a Country,?
Passing laws and legislation on to the public while not a legal entity may be a entirely different legal case.
James Che at 2:37 pm
Any claim (sueing) would be worded in such a way that it would be the Individual as opposed to the body, but you would point out why they were liable ( them being part of that body)
My reasoning is all MPs,MSPs and Councillors are potential targets as is the Branch officers including The conveners
Folk should have noticed when Sturgeon registered a limited co recently, but that I doubt will save her cash
(and it’ll hurt more as she see that going away)
Oddly looking at this again the one that can walk away(if he does it right) Is Murrell
PS
There a few choice grifters in that lot including Graham Campbell,Biagi
Doesn’t rule by Oor Ain Folk constitute a wonderful argument for Independence?
Maybe I begin to see why it’s only a pretendy independence that is sought, with powers of supervision being granted to the EU (i.e. France and Germany) and NATO (i.e. the USA).
The Scotnaz party advances such an unmanly proposition: is this in any way related to their penchant for confusing male and female?
“Is the Amber Roberts standing in the AWS for Equalities Convener the same Amber Roberts standing on the Open list for Lothian?”
Yes.
“Apropos of nothing…are these voluntary part-time gigs or paid jobs / expenses gravy train joyrides??”
These are unpaid roles, but very helpful in career advancement.
“What happens when an Unincorporated Association goes bust.
Could these SNP members be thinking this Unincorporated Association is going to go bust pretty soon so I’m not going to be liable for anything.
The unpaid suppliers will get their money through the sale of the Campervan, coffee machines, Le Blanc pens and le Crueset pots.
Are they wrong and will their property have to be sold to pay the debt?”
If the sale of the SNP’s assets didn’t raise enough money to pay the creditors, then yes, the individual members of the NEC would be liable to make up the difference.
Lothianlad,
I hope so,
But I also want to know if the “SNP as a Unincorporated Association” akin to a “club” or “charity” status sitting in a Westminster’s devolved Scottish government have the legal capacity to pass “public wider legislation” as a , NOT LEGAL ENTITY.
This matters, when you consider wether the Hate crime bill is bias, racist or legal to Scots.
This matters in the case of indoctrination in childrens education, parents retrictions, phedophillia, and Scottish womens rights,
And wether Trials without fair justice and juries will be imposed on Scots,
by a non entity Unincorporated Asscociation that may have…. no more legal status in making laws in Scotland, than your next door neighbour.
So Private Eye also read Wings, if a bit slow, and also don’t give Wings credit.
link to leftungagged.org
Amber Roberts, Ungagged:
“I won’t be silent, I won’t back down and I certainly will not accept it when people like Joanna Cherry, Ash Regan and Kate Forbes continue to stand up for tearing away the rights of people like me.”
Well we Won’t be silent. The women won’t be silent.
Women won’t wheest. Get your cock out of Scottish policy making. You bellend. The country has gone to the dogs with morons like yourself running it. We’ve had enough.
You’ll never cancel women. Adult Human Females. You’ll never be a woman. Adult human females. Leave the women alone arsehole.
Stonefree,
You raise good points, and it did worry me also when I heard the word CEO, in the SNP.
I am not a authority on SNP or any other Unincorporated Associations, but it worries me considerably that this is who, is behind the Running of Scotland,
Along with the Green party and all the ridiculous and restricting laws being passed on people living in Scotland, regardless of wether soft NOs want a independent Scotland or not.
They to will come under the hate crime bill, the wokery and gender issues, and getting rid of energy without a sustainable up and running replacement,
If this is not by law recognised as a legal Entity running Scotland, it matters to us all,
The best references are law firms as it is they deal with this legally.
I typed into google and read: How to form a Unincorporated Association,
I also typed into google: Can a Unincorporated Association be Sued,
I also typed into google, What is a Unincorporated Association,
There is plenty of advise through law firms names and companies explaining all these things that are in a legal capacity the know,.
I will research more myself this evening when I have more time, and post it here that being ok with Stu, if any new information comes forth.
“The real problem here is that anyone signing up to join it, given the SNP’s legal status, is putting themselves personally on the hook for the party’s debts, and the party is flat broke. Wings is not a lawyer, and we’re not sure whether any new NEC members would be liable for debts incurred before they were on the committee,”
Retrospective punishment?
Now just where have we seen that applied in recent times?
Oh yes, of course! That well known ‘defender’ of due process principles and standards known as ‘His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition’ proscribed membership of, or any kind of association with, – no matter how loose – several groups which can best be described as organised initiatives just over two years ago and subsequently applied that proscription retrospectively.
Since then they have gone on to sack their own elected Councillors in a number of Local Authorities from key positions whilst at the same time doing the same thing to local elected Constituency and Branch Party Units – including what can only be described as the open theft of their assets raised locally – with no discernible or recognisable due process other than diktat.
At least they are being consistent in such internal procedures – which have seen the application of standard due process reversed on a regular basis. Where members are suspended and expelled on the basis of allegations where the member has to prove their innocence rather than those making the allegation prove their guilt.
Can anyone imagine the legal and judicial system of a country run on the basis of the internal processes of the Labour Party?
You’d end up with this:
link to twitter.com
By section 427 of the Insolvency Act 1986 a debtor who is adjudged bankrupt is incapable of being elected to or of sitting or voting in the House of Commons, or on any committee thereof, until the adjudication is annulled, or until he obtains his discharge from the court.
Would all the members of the association be bankrupt in the event of bankruptcy?
What does until ‘the adjudication is annulled mean’
Shame if they give up their time FOC for career advancement and then find they are incapable of being elected to or of sitting or voting in the House of Commons and they have to sell their house.
I wonder who owns the Sturgeon-Murrell home could it be Murrell’s mother’s name that is on the deeds.
If the Campervan is in Murrell’s mothers name then that could not be seen as the associations assets so that would mean more for the members to pay.
Does Murrell own anything? He won’t be able to pay his share of the debt if he owns nothing and has no money.
Did he ever get his loan paid back.
Breeks,
This may be more encompassing than just public debt and personal liabilies they incurred while NOT actually being a public body, but a “non legal entity”; equivalent to a club or charity status,
It also would cover elections, what authority they had in a legal capacity, and whom and what private contracts they installed for the ” franchises” of counting the votes in Scotland,
It also covers ( wether they had informed ) all Scottish voters pre- elections that the SNP were a Unincorporated Association, with their own constitution was separate from Scotlands legal Constitution.
It also would cover funding, taxes, and inland revenues. As a unincorporated Association.
It covers laws, Scots laws, their legal authority, legislation, proposed bills, and promises made during elections without full disclosure,
I think “Stu” has pulled a blinder with this one, the snp may fall on their own sword quicker than supposed,
But it may apply to other political parties in Scotland as well, like the Greens for instance, we will have to wait an see.
It turns out bankruptcy is called sequestration in Scotland.
Haven’t found any info yet about sequestration & becoming an MSP.
Could it be that it’s only Murrell’s loan of £107,620 that is preventing the SNP going bankrupt?
Good article Rev, I wonder if this article will give some who have decided to stand for nomination for the NEC second thoughts on doing so, knowing that they might be liable for huge debts.
Speaking of debts where has the SNP got the funds from to contest the Rutherglen and Hamilton by-election, I mean hiring a private firm to leaflet door to door etc costs money.
On leaking members like a sieve, you’d have thought that a change of tact or course would have been on the cards to prevent this from continuing, in saying that I think the SNP has burnt its bridges with most women in mind.
It would also appear that the party is charging headstrong into the next GE without the hierarchy stopping for a moment and thinking to themselves, that we’re onto a hiding when voters utterly reject us, or maybe they have thought about it, and know that they will lose many MPs at the next GE and will push on regardless Sturgeon and Yousaf are determined to destroy what’s left of the SNP.
Vote Alba, Join Alba.
I will correct myself later if I am wrog this evening,
But on a quick read,
I presume you can sue members of a Unincorporated Association individually,.
That is any member can be sued of that Unincorporated association by anyone outside the membership,
I read it as anyone of us not in the Snp Unincorporated Association can sue them personally individually.
We could do with a lawyer posting here. My thought is whether there is joint and several liability. In other words, can any judgement be collected from one person rather than all equally? So, for instance, Chris Law might have to sell his castle to pay for those who really don’t have the cash.
These sorts of things are usually joint and several liability, but I have no experience with political party financing.
Ruby @ 4:57pm, good question. As at 31.12.22 the SNP had net current liabilities of GBP866,618. Of this, GBP837,600 was owed to branches, being their share of member subscriptions. Given that the SNP can withhold that as necessary (whether that is morally right or not is another discussion) one can say that their net current liabilities were GBP29,018. Therefore, their ability to pay debts as they fall due was, at the end of last year, only possible because of the loan from Peter Murrell.
Whether the GBP60,000 is really a loan or a reimbursement for unauthorized expenses is something we cannot know, based on information publicly available.
The loans from branches are what kept the SNP from being insolvent at 31.12.22.
Who’s the guy beside Amber – her government-appointed community carer?
ames Che says:
20 September, 2023 at 3:32 pm
The status of a Unincorporated Association is that of a ” club” or a “Charity” of two or more members that usually agree to some form of Constitution for a commom purpose.
And usually managed by a committee,
A charity is a legal entity, regulated by OSCR, not the same thing.
If this unincorporated association has no legal entity then how can it enter into contracts?
Does this mean that the £660,000 is not a debt? Is that money now accepted as being spent by the SNP HQ.
If so what does “ring fenced” mean?
@ Robert Knight
Not sure but guessing either Michael Jackson or Humza Yousaf, if it’s the former at least Amber might learn to ride a scootay properly!
Two 9 second clips to help you decide.
link to youtube.com
link to youtube.com
Do the SNP accounts really tell the whole story?
Are they able to rely on ‘angels’ as in theatre pruductions?
Perhaps the angels have flown away now plod is poking about.
I can state with absolute certainty that several ex members of the NEC asked directly about whether the Party had any insurance or other protection to stop them risking being personally responsible for any debts. They did this immediately after the NEC voted to ignore legal advice on the “ closed” election of list places where the results were kept secret. The legal advice warned that anybody who lost out due to this process would have a high chance of success if they chose to sue the NEC. He warned the damages could amount to many hundreds of thousands pounds.
No answer was forthcoming and as a result a number of NEC members ( those with assets) stood down at the first opportunity.
How can I be certain of this?
Because I spoke directly with a number of them at the time and since.
As in all manner of things people are willing to accept the rewards both financially and socially when things are going right but when the shit hits the fan those same achievers disappear like shit off a shovel
We have the tranadian slater responsible for £80 million of taxpayers money squandered and lost, whilst being an unelected drag in by sturgeon
We have £500 million squandered and wasted on ferries that are unfit for purpose and don’t know whether it was sturgeon or big Deke the very highly paid procurer who likes to be friends with young boys that is responsible for THAT clusterfuck
These extremely expensive cockups and others will continue to take place because NO ONE faces responsibility for them, no one is punished for their GROSS stupidity, they just carry on regardless with their high salaries and higher expenses
And so it will be with the incompetent wasteful cabal that is the snp, the only way things will be different is if the suppliers FORCE them to pay the money outstanding to them and FORCE them into administration
Surely the UK government will keep SNP solvent – they can’t afford to lose such a useful instrument for keeping Scotland enslaved.
We do need a legal brain or preferably a lawyer that is for independennce,
It brings to bear and perhaps question the knowledge that JC and other lawyer and barristers would have had regarding the Snp being in a unincorporated Association,
We need to know and learn more of the legallities and ramifications of this, as well as the SNP Constitution in full disclosure prior to elections.
Would this mean Leeona June Dorrian should be struck off due to supporting/defending an illegal bill in the supreme Court, knowing, as a cabinet member, that the SNP is an Unincorporated Association?
John Main: I was actually thinking of strength. Men have, on average, a much greater strength and women cannot, in the normal way, compete against that. It is the single most telling advantage that males have over females. Both males and females are remarkably similar in their intelligence, with some small differences on one side or the other. The advantage that females have over most males is in the area of sex and attraction.
Recent psychological studies – and not so recent ones – all show, consistently, that females score higher for empathy, but, unfortunately, also for negative feelings (usually about themselves) and are more drawn to seemingly less advantaged people (‘trans?) who then take full advantage of them. Females do, generally speaking, look to men still, to protect them and it is fair to say that most decent men do fulfil that role of protector.
I think it is also fair to say that most decent men would not dream of breaching women’s and girls’ boundaries in the way that ‘trans’ identified men appear to relish, although there are some men, and women – most of them SNP apologists – who tell women to shut up and put up with what is happening in case they rock the independence boat. Rock it? The female vote – or lack of it – is going to sink it.
The SNP, by backing the Greens and the ‘wokerati’ in their own party, picked the wrong horse here. They have tried to silence us and we will silently remove our vote from them. I would fully expect the ‘wokerati’ to decamp to another source of power if the SNP falls, as it will, eventually, if it is incapable of change. Power iOS what they seek – that, and financial control of public services such as the NHS for their billionaire American and Canadian backers.
Robert Knight @5:56
Well, this could get confusing!!!
Iain Lawson: spot on. The SNP has made a speciality of ignoring legal advice and adopting illegal advice (usually from Stonewall and its poisonous arms in Scotland). The fact that their auditors turned over evidence to Manchester Police suggests that illegality was expected of those auditors, or the SNP was too dumb to know something was not right with the books, but in the English jurisdiction. That would have had the effect of widening the issue to both jurisdictions. NEC members would have been mutually and severally liable, as you say. New NEC members, though, not having been present at the time, could not be held liable, I should have thought. Whatever, this thing will either drop out of sight as if it never happened or it will blow up in their faces. It remains to be seen which it will be.
It’s a sharp wee point, but we’re dancing on the head of a pin about whether the SNP’s actions have been legal or not.
If Scotland’s constitutional status is indeed popular sovereignty of the people, then that lawful distinction should matter, because it renders both the SNP’s cowardly inaction over Scotland’s Brexit subjugation, and indeed the very existence of our Vichy Holyrood assembly posing as a Parliament itself, firmly on the wrong side of Scots Law, and the extant Claim of Right.
You want the SNP in the dock over something? How about that? Supine acquiescence to Scotland’s unconstitutional subjugation, perhaps even bordering on t r e a s o n.
What else do you call criminal disregard of Scotland’s constitutional sovereignty and surrendering Scotland’s interests to a foreign government?
£600k, even if embezzlement was proved, seems a trifling distraction when you step back and take the wider perspective of long term damage to Scotland’s interests, economy and fabric.
@Breeks says:20 September, 2023 at 8:07 pm
If Scotland’s constitutional status is indeed popular sovereignty of the people
That’s an ‘if’ right there, but let’s ignore that and say for argument’s sake that Scotland’s constitutional status is indeed popular sovereignty of the people.
How has that popular sovereignty been expressed to date?
By holding elections, over centuries, continually expanding the franchise to get ever more Scots politically active and entitled to vote.
What have they been voting for?
Groups of potential delegates, each one of whom if he/she wins a mandate, takes up responsibility for a fixed period of time with the delegated sovereignty to govern.
It doesn’t matter how this gets dressed up, that is not going to change. Sovereign Scots will appoint delegates to govern on our behalf. There is no other way – 5.5 million of us cannot be consulted daily on the business of our nation.
Absolutely nobody was complaining about any of this 10 years ago, when the system seemed to be on course for delivering the result Indy supporters wanted. A great raft of SNP voters are now suffering from “buyer’s remorse”, because the SNP has been spectacularly unable to deliver. Clinging onto the Sovereign Scot myth allows them to ignore that a majority of Sovereign Scots are still waiting to be convinced of the merits of Indy.
Changing to some new system that “empowers” Sovereign Scots in some as yet to be defined way, “empowers” those opposed to Indy, as well as those in favour. That elephant in the room cannot be ignored.
Far, far better to work within the systems and structures we already have, which are internationally accepted as legal and constitutional, and by putting in the hard work, build a clear majority for Yes.
It really is time to ditch the “and with one bound, Scotland was free” chimera.
I can’t be the only one that finds it embarrassing the snp crooks are scrabbling about for a few hundred thousand. C’mon , even the Mayor of Middlesbrough and his mates are in the millions of public money and the Tory covid bonanza saw billions pocketed.
“The important part might be where a contract has been entered into by a member that was unauthorised by the other members. In that case, I believe that single person will be personally liable. ”
Unless the other members have failed to exercise their responsibilities with due care and diligence e.g. by having appropriate processes and procedures in place to ensure they are aware of significant developments and issues (like buying a six figure vehicle …).
I’m stunned in this day and age that any significant organisation is still running as an unincorporated association.
Off Topic: Any news on the trial of Fergus Ewing today?
Sarah @ 21.19
The hearing was postponed as Mr Ewing has advised he has tested positive for CoronaVirus.
It seems that Mr Yousaf may have returned to Holyrood by the time Mr Ewing feels fit enough to be ‘tried’.
Thanks, Sven. Covid certainly is still with us – a lot of it where I live.
Top stuff from Robin, don’t hold back lad!
“lessons learned”, “trees planted up arses” plenty swearing too. 😉
link to robinmcalpine.org
That Private Eye piece is from 1606 of a fortnight ago. A new one arrived in the post today; there doesn’t seem to be anything relevant in it, from a very quick skim. I’ll have a better read over the next couple of days.
Who benefits from extending the production of oil consuming machines for five years from 2030 to 2035? Is it poor people? Or is it oil companies? Perhaps one of the pumpers who live here can explain?
Are Alba cool with it? If so, why are Alba and the Tory right punting much the same energy policy?
@ John Main, and others,
has anybody ever settled upon a definition of “a sovereign Scot”?
Seems to me that there’s 20% of Scotland below voting age, then another 5% or so being English retirees or business people, possibly another 5% of first generation immigrants who are still working a ticket to a passport, then another 10% who live in Scotland but aren’t actually Scottish. Quite quickly it’s down to 60% of the population, and that’s before one adds in the Irish diaspora.
And what about the Scots who went abroad? Per the last census in 2021 in England and Wales, there’s 750,000 of us. Scotland hasn’t managed to publish a census, given crap civil servants.
Could get tricky, this “sovereign Scot” nonsense.
Breeks,
the Claim of Right is utterly meaningless. In a practical sense, and since 1707. There might be a bit of history and royal theatre being given lip-service to it, but in functional terms, it’s completely irrelevant for well over 300 years, and no grown ups take it seriously.
Some info regarding the 2022 census.
Key Findings
“Pro-YES sentiment among those persons born in Scotland was around 52% in the 9 months after the Referendum and just under 50% in the first half of this year meaning that underlying level of support for Independence has remained roughly the same (albeit there have been significant oscillations in the interim period).
YES support among those born in England has increased significantly since the aftermath of the Referendum from around 25% to 34% in the first half of this year thus implying that two out of every three persons in this cohort remain in favour of the British Union.
For those born outside of Scotland and England support for YES has risen from around 33% to 55% on average over the period, making this cohort currently the most YES-friendly.”
Implications.
With respect to Scottish born people Independence leaders need to be ready and able to capture any momentum generated during upswings in YES sentiment in order to permanently raise underlying levels of support to higher than 50% of this sub-population.
Whilst Independence support among those born in England has increased steadily and significantly over the period around two-thirds of this cohort continue to be in favour of the British Union, making this segment of the population potential decision-makers in a close future campaign on Scotland’s constitutional arrangements.
Those born neither in Scotland nor England are now the most YES friendly grouping with just over half in favour of Scottish Independence, with closer political and economic ties to Europe probably the most important factor in their conversion to YES.
Opinion
Previous studies based on National Records of Scotland mid-year population estimates have shown that Scotland continues to be drained of its most pro-Independence segment of young people as the under 35 year-olds leave the country in search of work and seeking a living elsewhere.
These are being replaced to a large extent by NO friendly newcomers from England, a cohort forming an ever increasing proportion of Scotland’s population, although this development is being mitigated by the uptick in YES support from those born outside of Scotland and England.
With pro-Independence support overall stagnating at around the 50% mark it would seem that YES is running fast just to stand still.”
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
Somewhere between off- and on-topic…
Been reading a book about the murder of Maltese journalist/blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia, Murder on the Malta Express, and it begins with a short history of the island. What struck me as the history get closer to Maltese independence was the setting up of the Maltese Nationalist Party (PN) as a ‘cadre party’ in the late C19. I knew the term ‘cadre’ though I never really gave it much thought but I had never heard the term ‘cadre party’. Apparently, the latter is a party formed and run by a societal elite as against the type of mass party we’re used to in the UK. It made me think that there’s a missing element here where mass parties, in recent UK history under pressure from big business as in the 80s and 90s, slowly lose the ‘mass’ element as party elites gradually disassemble internal democratic structures in favour of rule from the top, often happening under the banner of the need for ‘electability’. Under New Labour, this got even worse as the Cabinet (and the civil service) was often sidelined in favour of what was called ‘sofa govt’.
You can see where this is going…everywhere you look, this has happened to the SNP and to be extremely fair to history, this process began well before Sturgeotti appeared. Campbell Martin mentions SNP leader John Swindley’s admiration of New Labour and his desire to position the SNP as a right-of-centre party, presumably without consulting the party membership.
Obviously, under the baleful influence of Sturgeotti and the shadowy Vienna-educated Gus Robbo, this practice reached its apogee, and now continues under Humza ‘Hutchie’ Yousaf, the Major Major of the SNP (that reference was for you Capt Y).
So what is the point of all this?
Well, sometimes you have to find the right language to name something (Exhibit A: Doun-Hauden) and naming something correctly just makes it a little easier to do something about it, whether that’s trying to change what happened or to stop it happening again in another party. Let’s just say it makes Ben Franklin’s ‘eternal vigilance’ less tiring on the eyes.
As for Murder on the Malta Express, a quick look shows a society of corrupt elites, abandoning any pretence of the rule of law in favour of an unaccountable elite, who all know each other, who socialise together inappropriately, who couldn’t care less about the ‘people’, and who get rich by peddling influence, by handing out positions, and of course through all sorts of financial chicanery.
The moral of this is…thank f*** we live in Scotland, that beacon of enlightenment, that shining broch on a brae, where secrecy is frowned upon, where the corrupt are brought to book, and where nothing bad happens ever to anyone…I
I for one will sleep more soundly, knowing that Scotland is immune from such corruption.
As we like to say up here…Och aye the noo!
A Scot Abroad @ 10:40 pm
Could get tricky, this “sovereign Scot” nonsense.
Yes, Camp Zeist as sovereign Scottish territory, internationally recognised, for the duration of the trial rather suggests its not nonsense, but inconvenient fact. The existence of Scots Law informs the international community that Scotland, unlike Wales, is not totally subject to English Law – yet.
I’ve been thinking about this, and I think the only way we’re going to escape the current crisis of a movement with no real leadership is to reinvent the Scottish Constitutional Convention which kept the fire burning for a Scottish Parliament as the nation reeled from the combination of Thatcherism and the Feeble Fifty Labour MPs who much like the current SNP
Dealt in platitudes but no action
Alternatively I foresee very little that will bring independence any time soon.
Our opponent and coloniser is a wily old fox
Our greatest leader and hope refuses to accept they may have to pull the strings away from the limelight
I see a Scot, a broad, and J Main haven’t bothered their arses to comprehend the Stirling Directive. Sovereignty is NOT delegated to the politicians and they can be removed in a constitution based on direct democracy as has aye been in Scots Law.
King Charles spaniel swore to uphold the claim of right so sneered at by the Broad, so how do you figure it’s irrelevant? Much more relevant is he failed to take the oath of succession as it made home liable to protect the common weal in the use of our natural resources. Take your clown shoes off before you respond
I am so angry. I am so fucking angry.
Lorna Slater. Fuck you and your congestion charge.
#BBCDN
“The answer for the people of Rutherglen to visit Glasgow is to take the train”…
700 trains cut.
Night buses cut.
Get these fucking smarmy bastards out. I hate them. Absolute vermin.
“The answer for the people of Rutherglen to visit Glasgow is to take the train”…
Who do they think they are?
We’re not paying £15 a day to commute to work.
She’s a fucking thief.
God guys. Save us.
I can’t stand this
SNP merchandise idea…don’t say I’m not uncharitable…
Here it is…a yellow T-Shirt, black text, saying…
SNP DEBTS
It wisnae me!
Now I realise the market for this product is quite a small one but this would make a great Winterval gift for your on-the-hook loved one…
Dan – For big houses and big buildings, an alternative way of heating them is with a wood burning boiler. This is not the type of thing that we have in our houses, which heats up the walls of the stove and that gives off radiant heat. These things remain cool and keep all the heat inside. They are big and so the approximate size of a portaloo, and they look something like a portaloo.
Woodburning stoves sometimes had a boiler at the back but these things are only a boiler. They are a furnace really as they burn predominantly gas.
I’ve seen one installed and working for the first time at the weekend. Each one gives off 110kW which is about four times the average domestic boiler and so only useful for big houses.
You fill it with wood every 2-days and clean it out every fortnight, which is nothing really. They must be sited outside though in the garden. Each one consumes about 30-40 tons of wood per year which does sound a lot but it costs around 30% of the cost of oil or gas, which are the only alternatives around here.
By the way, the work off gasification and so the wood tends not to burn with a flame, but just smoulders and turns to charcoal. The heat comes from the smoke which is blown into a gasification chamber to burn. I saw two connected in parallel which can produce a few hundred gallons of water at 80’C so good for heating and great for hot water. Something like 98% efficient believe it or not.
If you’re not at home for a few days, just cloze down the heating zones and the wood stays glowing for 3 or 4 days ready to reignite when the zones are opened again. They’re American manufactured and great quality.
PhilM – a great post and I agree entirely with your observation re Humza.
Dan – one last point on the woodburning boilers. I have a woodburning stove in the house and it’s rated at something like 7 or 8Kw and I am aware of how much smoke comes out the chimney when it is running. So, these boilers have two chimneys, one per boiler, but there should have been about 30 times the amount of smoke coming out the chimneys, but there was nothing like that. That’s the difference; these boilers actually burn the smoke and so what you are seeing coming out of the chimneys is just exhaust gasses, CO2, CO and a small amount of smoke and some heat haze. Each boiler contains over 1000 litres of water and that is fed to the house via a buried HDPE pipe.
Breeks at 807pm,
With you on this point. The fact is, that the Scottish claim of right is written into the treaty of union, for all time coming. If, as some suggest, the treaty and claim of right are no longer relevant, then Scotland is independent, merely by default. That treaty of 1707, is what stands between Scotland under England’s jackboot, and independence. The Scottish claim of right, and, QED, popular sovereignty in Scotland, is hard-wired into the treaty. Indeed, it is one of the very first things clearly stated in the Act of union.
In other matters, despite the fact I despise Tories, it was indeed nice to see Sunak actually talk like an adult yesterday on the environment. It is hard to put in words, the seething anger that exists in greater London (and Glasgow) over the ULEZ. It has NOT gone away. That and other loony ‘green’ ‘bash motorists and commerce’ policies will be what stops Starmer ever becoming Prime Minister.
If there were a council election in Edinburgh tomorrow, I might very well vote Tory, just to stop the loony traffic nonsense that is going on in the city. Utter waste of taxpayers money, while schools, and social care have budgets cut. Cycle lanes are more important that child welfare, apparently. I know nobody who is happy at what is going on.
Oh aye and Scotland is shite has no resources and we’ll never get our Independence because we are all dumb
This for those who don’t know is flame-baiting.
I’m trying to convince Stu that flame-baiting should be a bannable offence.
In the meantime I don’t think you should be PMT’d for personal abuse if it involves flame-baiters or trolls.
PMT = pre moderation time.
Interesting comment. Uncomfortable for who?
I’ve called the 2nd photo ‘Manspreading’ and I think it’s a work of art.
Humza sitting there with his legs wide open will certainly be uncomfortable for the two women sitting either side of him. I don’t think it’s too far fetched to suggest ‘manspreading’ could easily be considered sexual assault.
It’s a work of art because Humza’s ‘manspreading’ symbolises what is happening to women in Scotland very much supported by Humza ‘manspreading’ Yousaf.
Yes man is spreading all over the place.
Lets have a ‘manspreading hate crime’ or include it as a misogynistic hate crime. Oh no hang on man is even spreading into the laws that are designed I presume for adult human females.
I’m pretty fed-up with the ‘manspreading’ and being sexually assault every time I’m on a busy bus etc.
You want to take lead in ‘tackling toxic masculinity’ Humza then I would suggest you lead by example and not sit between two women with your legs wide open. It’s obscene!
What is this manspreading body language supposed to indicate that his balls are so huge that it’s the only way he can sit.
Happy to hear from men re ‘manspreading’
Is it the only comfortable way to sit?
Do you need to manspread?
Should we provide larger seats for men only?
PhilM @ 11.50
Another excellent post .
” in recent UK history under pressure from big business as in the 80s and 90s, slowly lose the ‘mass’ element as party elites gradually disassemble internal democratic structures in favour of rule from the top, often happening under the banner of the need for ‘electability’. Under New Labour, this got even worse as the Cabinet (and the civil service) was often sidelined in favour of what was called ‘sofa govt’. ”
As with the comments and quotes Alf Baird posts here and elsewhere , the quote above could easily and very fittingly refer to the SNP – as you are aware . The only difference between the complete corruption of Labour away from it’s founding principles and the equivalent trajectory of the SNP is the shocking speed at which it’s occurred in the latter .
” Wheesht for Indy ” – in fact , ” shut yr dumb mouth and put up with any amount of shit from us whilst we stuff our pockets with gold for Indy ” – is the SNP’s equivalent of ” Electability ” .
Looking like that particular trance-inducing incantation is losing it’s power and the demise of Nu SNP will be even more rapid than the rate of it’s internal poisoning .
9 years to FUBAR it , 4/5 to administer the coup-de-grace .
Some kind of record , surely ?
@ Cpt Yossa
Biomass boilers no doubt can kick out a lot of heat. But they also require leccy to run and need kept fed with suitable wood pellets. You may recall the cash for ash saga that effectively brought down the NI administration through the fiscal issues created by folk ripping the pish out of the subsidies.
Similar is happening here, in that all the big estate houses near me have huge biomass boilers at sometimes near £200k to install and plumb in to properties. And they can then get claim a Renewable Heat Incentive susbsidy from the taxpayer. It’s all a bit of wheeze as to gain the subsidy the wood pellets need to be bought from certain suppliers so the usual profiteering kicks in.
Modern wood burning stoves should run pretty clean if they are burning properly seasoned wood, have a good flue design, and are not choked down by shutting the air control valve too much to prolong the burn time between refilling with more logs. That is why appropriate sizing of the stove to suit the application is very important to get them to run at optimal setting.
To be compliant in certain zones, some stoves now have an adjustment screw to stop the airflow control being shut too much so the stove can maintain a flame to burn clean rather than drop down to a slow smoulder which creates more reek.
As mentioned, biomass boilers also require an electrical supply to keep control system, fans and pumps running. So not much use in a power cut, plus more to go wrong and service.
For those reasons I’ll stay oldskool and just run a decent stove with a small heat exchanger above the stove on the flue to capture some of the flue heat whilst not cooling the combustion box, and that will be plumbed for thermo-syphon flow (no pump required) to the water cylinder so I have no reliance on leccy for my heat source to operate.
Had wondered if a small pump could be used to aid circulation to a water tank which could be powered by a Peltier device like the stove fans use.
@ Phil M and Robert Hughes
link to en.wikipedia.org
Lessons learned!
Why do we need politicians who need further education that costs £billions?
We need politicians who
‘Don’t need no further education and don’t believe in thought control.’
What’s the matter with private education & universities these days?
PS Hey teacher leave them kids alone.
Dan @ 10:07
Guessing ‘each others’ could be a good substitute for ‘theirs’ in this instance.
Hard to disagree with Mairi McAllans official response if all the blame has been put on Swinney (or any representative of the people for that matter) for we are not (that)* corruptible – as Robin correctly implies via the solution proposed.
* who am I kidding, but irrational, unreasonable and defacto unlawful legislation (minimum pricing, children’s face masks, etc) doesn’t half muddy the waters
Even in so called democracies countries need leaders who are prepared to break the rules to reach the goal.
Scotland, despite the crying need, does not yet have such a person. The rules still come first the goal a poor third and the whinging continues.
A true leader makes the rules to suit the occasion and to hell with the «lawyers».
Alea nondum jacta est.
The Rubicon has still to be crossed.
“Cycle lanes are more important that child welfare, apparently. “
Cycle lanes are an important part of a serious child welfare strategy. Maybe only folk with real kids at risk will get that.
Edinburgh (my home town) has just done traffic suppression rather than an integrated safe (and cheap) travel plan. It’s awful to drive in and I rarely find a reason to go there anymore, not being a foreign tourist.
Cycle lanes are more important than dualling the A9, and with that sort of money they could be far better combined into a roadscape still dedicated to private motors whatever obstructions the bumbling local politicians have concocted to try looking relevant.
I’m in the stats age bracket 18-25 and I do not see what this piece about Sunak and «net zero»….
link to thenational.scot
…has to do with the process of achieving national INDEPENDENCE; all much too Greta-landish and deep GREEN, in every sense.
Dan – this boiler isn’t biomass, it’s a traditional log burner in many ways. It produces a great amount of smoke, but it burns the smoke and that’s the way it works. The company that fitted it do biomass as well, and my next-door neighbour has one but this type of boiler is very rare and is practically a new invention and the chap that fitted it told me that was staggered by the output.
My old father in law used to live in a block of modern flats in Glasgow and they had a maintenance guy that worked 8-hours a day. This is the type of system that could be used in these buildings, or big single occupancy buildings, it is used to heat greenhouses and swimming pools in the US. I put logs in my log burner every half hour when it is running and so you need to be fit and resourceful to run one, but this you only fill every 2-days.
It tells you on your phone when it needs filled, the temp of the circulating water and all the rest of it. Look them up when you have the time and their website shows you how it works. It burns smoke remember, that’s the main point and smoke burns at a higher temperature than wood. They are called “Central Boiler” – American. It does need a power supply though, not only to run the fans and all the rest of it in the boiler itself, but to run the pumps because it is just a hot water heating system at the end of the day.
Robert Louis says; ‘It is hard to put in words, the seething anger that exists in greater London (and Glasgow) over the ULEZ. It has NOT gone away. That and other loony ‘green’ ‘bash motorists and commerce’ policies will be what stops Starmer ever becoming Prime Minister.’
If it is any consolation the same situation exists in Wales after the imposition of a blanket 30 to 20 mph speed limit. Every household has been sent a propaganda sheet by the assembly which is full of carefully culled ‘statistics’ but is suspiciously quiet about the effect of this on our ‘net zero/ carbon footprint etc etc’; had ‘the science’ supported this angle they would be crowing about it ad nauseam; they’re not-from which we can safely conclude it doesn’t.
An online petition against this was at over 250,000 last time I looked, in a small population. However it’s not going to make a blind bit of difference as the majority of the population is in the South Wales valleys and will always vote tribally for Labour.
Devolution, eh? Dontcha love it …?
@David Hannah
“People of Rutherglen aren’t paying £15 a day to go to work” (by suggested train)
15 quid?
Its £4.10 return at peak times…and fares are going off peak from Oct 2nd.
Are you coming home for a cup of team every 2 hours to get to that sort of costing?…have you ever been an SNP Treasurer per chance?
@Alf Baird says:21 September, 2023 at 12:01 am
Camp Zeist as sovereign Scottish territory, internationally recognised
Innarestin example, but flawed due to its internationally exposed fitting up of an innocent man.
In so many ways, a prototype for everything that has gone wrong with our legal system in the years since.
I get angry about politics. I need a new outlet!
link to tfl.gov.uk
The congestion charges are £15 a day. That’s £200 a month.
The SNP Green Morons want to introduce congestion charges. She said on BBC debate night last night.
“Yes I do. I am in favour.”
When asked in relation to Rutherglen literally on the border.
So commuters may have to pay £200 to commute to work with no other choice.
These mofos have no mandate for green polices. When they cut public services 700 trans.
You can go green while cutting public transport then taxing drivers.
They have no mandate. It’s so frustrating.
Our city is a flithy strewewn chewing gum city everything damaged everything filthy.
Stealing from Peter to pay Paul who’s blown the cash.
£24 million for Malawi and Rwanda to build their coal fired power stations… All in the name of the climate justice fund.
What are we going to do about it to stop them imposing this hardship on drivers?
You don’t have a mandate for green.
When you Cut public transport.
You can’t go green.
When you cut public transport.
“How should we pay for it, she says?”
That’s what she said. Accept the budget cuts. Accept the tax rises.
Listen to this. This their viewpoint. I’ve been arguing with the intellectual pygmies. My green friends for ages over this:
“I don’t get what your point is though? This LEZ is a tiny additional cost compared to car finance or fuel or insurance. It is the preserve of the elite. You use public transport which has massive under investment and disastrous privatisation. Ultimately do you want everyone to drive a car, which will never work (look at America and the inequality there) or do you want better transport for everyone?”
London congestion charge below: £15 a day.
‘the tiny additional cost’
link to tfl.gov.uk
John Main said;
“@Breeks says: If Scotland’s constitutional status is indeed popular sovereignty of the people
That’s an ‘if’ right there, but let’s ignore that and say for argument’s sake that Scotland’s constitutional status is indeed popular sovereignty of the people.”
There is no IF about it, that IS Scotland’s true constitutional status, but it has been pointedly ignored and deliberately suppressed by the Union’s Parliament in favour of England’s constitution, which that parliament has no genuine formal authority to impose over Scotland.
“Changing to some new system that “empowers” Sovereign Scots in some as yet to be defined way, “empowers” those opposed to Indy, as well as those in favour. That elephant in the room cannot be ignored.”
Scotland’s Sovereign Scots are already formally empowered in a well-defined and long-established constitution, and that’s the whole point. It is Westminster’s English establishment which has been egregiously exceeding the limits of its actual authority which is the real and rampaging elephant in the room. We don’t need a new system, we just need the English part of the existing system to BLOODY WELL BEHAVE ITSELF!
“Far, far better to work within the systems and structures we already have, which are internationally accepted as legal and constitutional, and by putting in the hard work, build a clear majority for Yes.”
OH, IS IT REALLY?
The real issue is that we are unconstitutionally disallowed the right and the means to hold such a vote in the first place, and that is a direct denial and suppression of the sovereignty of the Scots right there! And the clearer that majority gets the more trenchant Westminster’s denials will get.
Those systems and structures we already have may well be accepted as legal and constitutional internationally, but that is only because Westminster’s English establishment has being comprehensively lying to them just as much as it has been lying to us.
“It really is time to ditch the “and with one bound, Scotland was free” chimera.”
Your snide summing up of Scotland’s fight to have its legal and constitutional rights properly recognised and respected is typical Unionist smugness. It’s your and their position that requires to be properly justified, and that means not lying about the fundamental basis of the Union.
As a brand new convert to the cause, the first thing I would like to point out is the fact that the current SNP leader is nothing but a London plant, and that practically everything the guy does is calibrated for the purpose of, and is geared towards, deliberately alienating people away from the goal of returning proper nation status to Scotland.
Today’s headlines in the London-centric newspapers illustrate this fact perfectly, in my view. Jacking the price of alcohol up, under the laughable guise of trying to address Scotland’s alcohol deaths, is a classic example of how the SNP now do London’s bidding by deliberately alienating the public.
A starker example of these deliberate alienation tactics can be found in Humza’s infamous/racist speech, whereby, London plant boy deliberately got the public’s hackles up by ranting about too many white folk in too jobs in Scotland.
The sooner the bloke is away, the better. And it is high time for him to be confronted publicly about his blatant and deliberate alienation tactics. He will crumble as soon as he is publicly rumbled.
The congestion charge and the LEZ £60 fine have to go.
Support the additional review,
To scrap the green apartheid city in Glasgow.
Let’s take out their cameras.
Let’s destroy their Israeli military surveillance system spying on the massess.
Chief Mammy leave us alone. Get out our heads.
TURABDIN
The Alba contributor sees the “sense” of keeping the oil flowing to support a Scottish economy fit for the 20th century. Does that not gladden your heart?
It’s Bright Green (i.e. marxist greenwash) policies people here love to hate – me too. The relationship between environmental sustainability (and therefore economic sustainability) and Independence (from the destructive policies and mores that built the Empire) should be obvious to someone with such an elegant take on things – or to any educated creature.
Mr toad and Mrs piggy want to turn Glasgow City centre into a post apocalyptic nuclear wasteland.
LEZ is a scam. It bans older cars. Not more polluting cars. You could drive in with a modern Jeep 4 litre engine more polluting than an older vauxhall corsa.
Their new argument is to say to the people outside of Glasgow that you are not contributing to our city centre – Which is a filthy mess!!
A congestion charge in London raised half a billion in 3 years. But Glasgow doesn’t have millions of drivers. Scotland is rural we need to drive in from the country and hills around Loch lomond, Bearsden etc.
Glasgow’s subway isn’t adequate closes at 6pm Sunday. Train cut by 700 night buses cut.
They want green tax rises with no infrastructure to subsitute.
LEZ is a scam, congestion charge is a scam to make everyone poorer. By punishing drivers in rural Scotland.
It’s going to make business poorer. Because businesses will say, well our employees can’t afford to commute £15 a day through Glasgow.
What happens to the nurses and the hospital workers already under strain?
People are going to stop going into glasgow with a congestion charge. She’ll kill the city centre.
She’ll make everyone poorer. To raise money for all the public spending they have wasted. For example £80 million on DRS! And the millions on gender court cases! The £500 million on the ferries.
What do they suggest people do?
We can’t rake the train from rural Scotland to get to work?
Businesses will close down, shops will close down. Less traffic into Glasgow.
I can’t afford to pick it up just across the boundary. The people of Rutherglen will drive out so silverburn or somewhere else at click and collect. These people are nuts.
You can’t do you local shopping across the boundary at Tesco…. Unless you want to add £15 onto the bill.
Who do they think they are in the city chambers?
We’re not getting adequate public services.
Council tax rises and now a tax on workers commuting.
The doctors and nurses, and cleaners and care workers that start at the crack of dawn. That are poor and travel miles for work, have no other option. To pay the SNP green congestion charge.
It’s absolutely disgraceful if they introduce this.
And that cow Lorna Slater says she will.
They don’t want you living in Glasgow City.
People commute to Glasgow for work from falkirk linlithgow, and all the suburbs.
There’s not adequate bus transport.
There is nothing but cuts.
£1 million. Already stolen nothing but cuts.
And then they want a tourist tax as well, to take pictures of a toxic nuclear waste dump. Chewing gum city.
It’s like they don’t want tourists. It’s like they want to destroy our city.
They just don’t get it! They are not working for us. We need to fight back. Straight talking. Tell her to fucking ram her tax!
Tartanpigsy @ 12:05 am
“Our opponent and coloniser is a wily old fox”
Indeed, and they sure know how to play the game, leaving many obliterated nations and cultures in their wake. And how is the game played?
Census data indicates that over the past 20-25 years population inflows from rest-UK into Scotland have exceeded one million people. Historic census data also shows that people from rest-UK, mainly England, constituted by far the main inbound migration group into Scotland since census records began over a century ago. Over the same period millions of Scots departed to escape poverty, inequality and the lack of opportunity that the blessed ‘union’ provided them.
So the ‘identity’ of Scotland’s population has fundamentally altered, and this is an ongoing process over a rather lengthy period. This to a large extent explains the irregular anti-independence vote (50%+) relative to other peoples who became independent after positive votes usually well above 80%.
We might imagine if one million or more Germans moved into neighbouring Denmark within the past two decades – also leading to a 20%+ change in the identity of the population there. We know that this would not be possible, not least because of the tight regulations in a sovereign Denmark on people from other countries buying property there.
Inbound migration is clearly one of the main reasons for the significant ‘No’ vote in Scotland. The other reason is that many Scots suffer from a ‘colonial mindset’, which is a form of ‘internalized racism’ which we know of as the ‘Scottish cultural cringe’. In essence, therefore, the ‘No’ vote is largely due to the consequences of colonialism.
The national parties, and the people, have yet to understand this – which is why their understanding of the urgent need for independence ‘remains rudimentary’ (Fanon). They do not yet know what independence means or why it is necessary:
link to salvo-cor.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com
@Xaracen says:21 September, 2023 at 10:27 am
The usual name calling, a shame but that’s par for the course.
The problem you have when you try to rediscover Scotland’s constitutional sovereignty is that virtually nobody cared a fig for it for at least a century. That’s an enormous dead weight of millions of Sovereign Scots who were tacitly accepting of the status quo.
So now you are trying to backtrack on history. Fine, at least be honest about that.
The real issue is that we are unconstitutionally disallowed the right and the means to hold such a vote in the first place
Naw, we’re not. Why do you persist with this lie?
It is in the remit of every political party standing for election in Scotland to declare the intention to make the election a plebiscitary one on Independence. SNP, Alba, even the fecking Greens. Zilch and nowt stopping them going the plebiscitary route, singly or in alliance. WM or HR, or both.
No fucking obstacle under the sun is stopping that, other then a cringing feartiness in the parties themselves.
A feartiness of rocking the boat maybes, but IMHO, given the flatlined polls, a feartiness of getting their arses handed to them by us Sovereign Scots.
If that’s your real issue, it’s the most tissue-paper thin issue I ever encountered. Just ask Ash Regan for her views.
FFS.
@Dan
Yes, I had heard of this Iron Law before, probably from a Sociology textbook (actually from pp.292-4 of Giddens’ Sociology 3rd edition).
(Takes a minute to pour libations to the God that is the Internet)
What’s interesting today, for me anyway, is that someone like Galizia, a single person, can have such a galvanising effect in challenging elites, especially in such a corrupt polity as Malta became. Her single woman crusade can be over-emphasised though, because she would also publish readers’ pictures of the corrupt socialising together on her blog , so she was also a kind of ‘hub’ that brought like-minded people together. Of course, this kind of thing is much easier to do in a tiny over-populated country like Malta.
There are comparisons to be made in Scotland’s case but thankfully we’ve not been reduced to the savagery of how Galizia met her end. In the UK, dissident types usually get smeared and shamed rather than blown to pieces these days.
Mmmm…I was going to blurt out some personal stuff but I think that is for another day…
BTL is getting interesting again…cheers chaps!
@ Cpt Yossa
I’m not interested in installing an overly complex heating system for the reasons I have already mentioned. An app on a phone to control your heating, just get in the sea with that, because all that superfluous tech just adds to the carbon footprint of using such fancy gimmickry. And none of it works without leccy power anyway.
Plus I would far rather not be burning wood due to the considerable effort collecting and processing it, then burning it with the emissions it puts out.
Instead we should just have our heating needs provided at a reasonable price by using the ever increasing abundance of renewably generated power we have here in Scotland. And pissing around installing solar PV and ASHP on unsuitable properties is a fucking joke in terms of being green.
Again we are exporting more than we are using to England.
link to extranet.nationalgrid.com
@Alf Baird says:21 September, 2023 at 11:05 am
Census data indicates that over the past 20-25 years population inflows from rest-UK into Scotland have exceeded one million people
Over the same period millions of Scots departed to escape poverty, inequality and the lack of opportunity that the blessed ‘union’ provided them
Naw, that can’t be right. Those numbers don’t stack up.
I will grant you that white flight to Scotland is a real thing, but when you look at the emerging situation in England, it’s hard to avoid concluding that Scotland is, in the long term, getting the better deal.
All the Indy movement has to do is persuade the incomers that they will be better off in iScotland. That will make them vote Yes, especially when they see how England is continuing its slide down the pan.
What everybody concerned about immigration has to understand is that immigrants represent the grasping, sharp-elbowed segment of society who are sufficiently motivated to get off their flabby erses and do something. Nobody migrates to make themselves worse off. The key to getting their support for Indy is to show them the money in the promised iScotland.
Or you could try to engage their support with tales of the Clearances and 1707. Aye, right.
David Hannah says:
21 September, 2023 at 10:31 am
The congestion charge and the LEZ £60 fine have to go.
Support the additional review,
To scrap the green apartheid city in Glasgow.
My £700 1.2 Clio I bought from a pole in Paisley is OK inside the LEZ
The idea that this is a tax on poor people is simplistic to say the least.
It is effectively a tax on diesel vehicles bought before 2016, vehicles that the UK government encouraged people to buy with a tax differential on diesel and petrol. This includes delivery vans and big luxury diesel cars.
Diesel particulates kill kids.
Saying it is part of the class war is stretching things more than a bit.
Alf baird 11.05.am.
Nail absolutely on the head Mr Baird, well said.
So as per link in my previous post Scotland is currently using about 2.5GW and we are still able to generate (through renewables) and export knocking on for double that amount at 4.2GW to England.
Yet GB grid is still burning gas in England to generate 32% of GB Grid demand to meet demand…
link to gridwatch.templar.co.uk
Gas fields in Scotland’s geographic area produce about 50% of the UK’s domestic gas production. (Gas is still imported to meet England’s needs)
link to data.nationalgas.com
David Hannah says:
21 September, 2023 at 10:55 am
LEZ is a scam. It bans older cars. Not more polluting cars. You could drive in with a modern Jeep 4 litre engine more polluting than an older vauxhall corsa.
LEZ is about particulates. My Renault Clio is 16 years old. It is allowed in the LEZ. Nearly all petrol cars sold before 2006 (17 years old and newer) are compliant, including the Vauxhall Corsa you quote.
So your statement that it ‘bans older cars’ is nonsense. It bans vehicles that output dangerous levels of particulates and nitrous oxides.
This is a tax on people who were unwise enough to buy diesels. They should probably be given some form of compensation, as their cars are now relatively worthless when traded in against equivalent petrol models.
Encouraging a popular uprising because you want diesel vehicle owners to be allowed to cause more childhood asthma, to exacerbate their granny’s COPD and to generally make our city streets more obnoxious for pedestrians and cyclists is not going to b e the majorly popular cause you seem to imagine, certainly not if the facts are known.
Stop portraying this as a tax on small people and go buy yourself a 2007 petrol car.
@ Dan
Thanks for the link to that wiki article .
He , also , had a good grasp of what happens – with soul-destroying – predictability – within Political Parties .
Predictable , yes , but I’d question this tendency’s inevitability
It’s only – as he characterises it – an ” Iron Law ” because the members of those Parties allow it to happen . Exhibit A – the SNP membership keeping it’s collective gub shut tight and resolutely looking the other way whilst Sturgeon et fuckn al destroyed the Party/severely damaged our Independence aspiration and then – * unbelievably * electing ( if that farce can be called an election ) the Continuity of Abject Failure candidate – Mr Net Zero Credibility .
I happen to believe * Human Nature * ..ie .. the perennial excuse for the depressing capacity of people to betray their own and those of others’ most admirable values is NOT immutable : nothing is fixed , nothing is inevitable , there is no Iron Law ; because something has happened for a long time does NOT mean it must always happen . Change , political/social & – above all – psychological change is ALWAYS possible . First , though , for any radical , beneficial transformation to occur , what must happen is complete change of perception , how we understand and make sense of ourselves , the world , and our relation to it . In other words …..the nature of Reality itself .
A tall order ? Sure , unquestionably , but it’s the only thing that will get us – all of us – out of the rapidly increasing spiral of destruction we as a species are in .
John Main said;
“It is in the remit of every political party standing for election in Scotland to declare the intention to make the election a plebiscitary one on Independence. SNP, Alba, even the fecking Greens. Zilch and nowt stopping them going the plebiscitary route, singly or in alliance. WM or HR, or both.”
As you know fine well, that is a very poor second choice to a properly organised referendum, because of the confounding issues regarding all other possible reasons why voters voted as they did in a general election.
A referendum provides a clear binary choice in a dedicated plebiscite which should require a very different voting franchise than a general election would use.
And in Scotland’s case in particular the matter of the sovereignty of Scotland being vested in its people rather than a monarch or a parliament means that any formal plebiscite of that people can engage that sovereignty, and on a constitutional matter like Scotland’s independence, that sovereignty IS engaged, so the franchise needs to take that into account, because Scotland’s sovereignty is legally and constitutionally entitled to full recognition and respect. Even from you.
And I didn’t call you a name, I challenged the provenance of your assertions, including your final one.
Whatever your take on nuSNP’s obsessions they are only ingredients in the omelette, first the chickens have to lay sufficient eggs or «first catch your hare» as the old saying has it.
Reality check, Scotland is nowhere near either conditions.
Who, what will provide the basics?
Any answers that do not involve negotiating tortuously winding legalistic lanes?
Remember, the shortest distance between two points is the straight line and spéculative quasi «theological» argumentation has no place in a politics where urgency is now key.
@ScotsRenewables says:21 September, 2023 at 11:40 am
It bans vehicles that output dangerous levels of particulates and nitrous oxides
Hmmm.
I infer from that, that it allows only vehicles that output safe levels of particulates and nitrous oxides. Whatever “safe” means.
Aye, right.
Every individual vehicle presents different levels of pollutants in its exhaust, depending on wear and tear, mileage, service history and any history of neglect.
A fair approach would have been to set up a sliding scale over time of ever-reducing acceptable exhaust pollutant levels. To be assessed at yearly MOT time.
Instead, we are going to see scrapping of cars that in reality don’t pollute, just because of generalised assumptions, and permitting of cars that may well be over the supposedly “safe” level.
Naw, the purpose of this legislation is to soften up drivers to accept the new reality that the government can legislate them off the roads at will.
It doesn’t matter how legal you are, how careful you are, how considerate you are as a driver, how meticulous you may be about maintaining your vehicle. Just get used to the idea you can be turned into a pedestrian overnight.
John Hannah –
Train Rutherglen to G Central; anytime return ticket £4.10.
Train every 10 minutes. Just saying, like.
Anas Sarwar has just said everything I have just said. Verbatim. I respect that massively.
He obviously reads wings.
I suggested some Unionist friends that the nurses and hospital workers are going to pay the price of £15 a day to travel to Glasgow Royal.
They are not going to take shifts at the hospital if that happens.
£200 a month. £2400 a year off their wage.
Shona Robinson. She says the £15 a day congestion charge for nurses is
“progressive taxation”
She’s a fucking bellend. We have to take these bastards on.
Cyclists bloody cyclists No 1
I’m fed up having to do the thinking for cyclists.
The ones who have a driver’s licence and know the rules of the road are usually fine but the ones without a licence are a big problem. The lycra clad cyclists are also usually fine although they might want to watch out for speed cameras in 20 mph zones because they regularly speed along at 30 mph with their lycra clad legs going like bloody pistons. I like them.
There is a perfectly good cycle lane in Holyrood Park but nobody uses it? Why?
The Lycra Boys are fine but the unfit cyclist struggle to get up the hill is not. Why aren’t they using the bloody cycle lane and forcing me to drive behind them at 5 mph while watching their big fat bahookies struggling to get up the hill one painful pedal at a time.
Cyclists bloody cyclists will be continued in a series of posts this is just ‘Cyclists bloody cyclists No1’
PS. How many actual adult human females post here. There don’t seem to be many.
@ Scot Renewables
Diesel cars would not kick out so much soot and emissions if there was legislation in place that stopped supermarkets selling shitey low grade diesel that doesn’t combust as cleanly as the normal grade diesel sold at the likes of BP and Shell stations.
It’s not joe public that is the issue, we are just caught in the vortex created by those with the actual power to oversee and determine the course our society takes that are the issue.
She says no one is suggesting
“progressive taxation” for Rutherglen.
That fucking cow on BBCDN last night. Loopy lorna Slater your government minister,
Says she’s going to tax drivers.
She wants £2400 off the wage of every nurse in Glasgow.
Who do they think they are?
James, you cant
You can’t carry wood. Tins of paint on trains. Goods. Supplies.
You can’t transport anything. Like a new microwave on the train.
What you going to do?
Pick it up in the car.
You need to go to the hardwear store and drive the items home.
I’ve never seen anyone transport a washing machine back from town have you?
What you going to do? Get it delivered. Pay the delivery firm the congestion charge to drive it home from the shop
?
It’s a nonsense. We all know it.
Never seen a man take a microwave home on the train. You can’t carry goods.
You will kill the city centre.
The 700, Scotrail cuts with no mandate go green policies.
The government are a disgrace.
Start the revolution now.
@Xaracen says:21 September, 2023 at 12:04 pm
I have been wondering just what is stopping any Scottish Indy party from making a manifesto commitment to having a referendum about the referendum.
Manifesto commitment: “In the event of being elected at HR to form a majority or coalition government, we will as first order of business organise a referendum to be addressed to the voters of Scotland with the following question:
Should the Scottish Government at HR organise a referendum on Scottish Independence? Answer Yes or No”
I don’t see how WM could stop that first referendum from happening. I don’t see how they could maintain further opposition to an Indy referendum if the first referendum returned a thumping majority for Yes – we want a referendum. And if they did, there could be no doubt or fudging in anybody’s eyes. The Scottish Government would have a crystal-clear mandate from the people of Scotland to go ahead and organise the Indy referendum.
I’ve never seen anyone on a train with a a washing machine?
Who pays the congestion charge for the delivery driver?
You pay that’s who.
We’re not paying for the yens of millions that lorna Slater and the SNP have squandered.
While they give Rwanda £ 24 million pounds to build their core fired power station.
Support the judicial review. Cancel lorna Slater and the SNP.
The reason for banning the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 is to force the transition – investment in infrastructure – while there is still recoverable oil to tempt the monster corporations to delay things as they have been doing for 30 years or more. We can see they got to Sunak.
Poor people do not buy new cars so the measure does not harm them. The opposite: forcing oil-free systems into being should cheapen basic transport – although this bunch could cock that up.
But there is an alternative. Cap the price of new cars, say £12,000 in today’s money, and insist they do 60+mpg, with a fuel tax discount for 80+ mpg. They would have to be lighter so all of the “built to do 120mph safely” engineering, is steel, rubber and plastic, would have to go. Repeal any laws in the way. Call it the Spartan. Build them here, from scratch. For inspiration speak to the Honda 50 designers who motorised Asia and Africa.
David Hannah @ 12.26
She thinks that with, I believe, 6,116 votes she’s an MSP & a Minister in the devolved assembly, David.
Great system this closed list (which she was third on for the Greens) D’Hondt way of voting which messrs Blair & Dewar inflicted on Scotland.
A dose of classic Roman wisdom.
«First try all other means, but if the wound does not heal then use the knife, in case the disease should spread to the clean»
[Ovid]
As good now as it was 20 centuries ago.
Plus ça change etc.
fruitella the hun @ 12.44
It’ll never happen, but this old pensioner is just loving the philosophy behind your suggestion, Fruits.
Nice one.
Teachers and nurses pay the £15 a day congestion charge. To travel into Glasgow.
BBC question time. Lorna Slater. Listen to what she says last night.
Today. Shona Robinson rebutted Sarwar’s question with “nurses and teachers get paid more money than ruk…”
She’s Implying that means it’s okay to change congestion charges.
Rent in the city of Glasgow is out of control people live further afield like Livingstone and Stirling and commute to work. Every day.
While the SNP are chauffeured around in ministerial cars. Sauntering in at 11pm. You see that Mhairi Macallan. She saunters in at 12pm with her laptop!
While cleaners, the rest of the country has been up at 5pm heading to commute into glasgow.
The Edinburgh elite, sitting staring at their laptops. Ministerial cars like Emma Roddick for 5 minute journeys.
They have no mandate.
They drive ministerial cars.
They have no mandate for green Polices.
They have no idea.
They might be able to take the train to work for 12pm. They’ve been in bed. While the rest of Scotland so a real job and work for every penny.
These scumbags sit on £70,000 and tell us progressive taxation is a congestion charge.
Not a fucking chance. We will not accept that.
Cyclists Bloody Cyclists No 2
When I am leaving the main road and turning left into a side road I expect motorist & cyclist to know that the flashing light on the left hand side of my car means I am turning left into a side road and I don’t expect cyclist or motorist to undertake me.
I always do the thinking for the cyclist by checking my mirror to ensure there is no cyclist that doesn’t know what the flashing light means.
That’s fine I can check my mirror and wait for the cyclist/cyclists to pass.
The motorists behind me are probably not too happy that I’m taking so long to turn.
However if I am leaving the main road and turning right into a side road there are problems with cyclists.
Most motorist know markings or no markings you do not stop in front of a side road.
Lets say there is a situation where the side road is close to traffic lights and all the cars are stopped at the lights leaving a space for cars to turn right into the side road.
The cyclist don’t seem to appreciate that they too need to leave a space.
The tricky bit about this is when you are turning right you can’t see the cyclist who doesn’t know he/she needs to leave a space.
Similarly if a motorist stops to allow you to turn you have to stop again to check for cyclists who are not as accommodating as most drivers or do not know the rules of the road.
Here again you have to do the thinking for a lot of cyclist who do not know cars are stopped for a reason.
link to google.com
“SNP Ministers take 20 taxpayer-paid car trips of under a mile in just one month while waging war on motorists”
Shona Robinson Her legs don’t work:
She takes ministerial cars. She’s too good for walking short distances. She thinks she’s too ignorant.
Shona Robison – Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance
June 6 – St Andrew’s House to Edinburgh Castle 0.8 miles plus returns journey
June 20 – St Andrew’s House to Holyrood.
No mandate for green taxes on drivers when you can’t even walk. They can’t EVEN WALK LESS THAN A MILE.
@fruitella the hun says:21 September, 2023 at 12:44 pm
Good post.
And exactly the opposite way to the approach being taken by the electric car makers.
They are going all out for SUV tanks because it maximises their profits and allows lazy engineering solutions when they struggle to fit in all those bulky batteries.
Volvo has announced they don’t intend to make small or medium-sized cars at all – it’s gonna be SUV’s for all, or bicycles.
Cyclists bloody cyclists No 3
I’ve never had a problem with motorcyclists undertaking me when I’m turning left or not appreciating cars are stopped for a reason. I suppose it’s because m. cyclists all have a drivers licence.
Leather clad bikers and lycra clad bikers are OK.
Get back you ‘non quiche eating’ bikers no offence meant by grouping you together with the Lycra boys. I know you are the bikers vroom! vroom! and they are only the cycling bikers.
Dan – The CO2 emissions are set by US law. I don’t know what they are but they’re the most efficient boilers on the market and ergo the lowest in terms of CO2. For a big house, they make a hell of a lot more sense than any kind of heat pump.
We should have the lowest electricity and gas prices in Europe, but we may have the highest. That has been an open goal for the SNP for the past decade. The fact that they have given-up on it tells me they are finished.
Katy Louden on congestion charges.
Shona Robinson lied today in Holyrood. She mislead Parliament. When she suggested no one is suggesting to the people of Rutherglen congestion charges.
“The SNP’s candidate in the Rutherglen And Ganton, appeared to back congestion charges.
Katy Loudon said commuters had to be encouraged to leave their cars at home when heading into the city when quizzed on the issue at her campaign launch on Saturday.
said: “It’s essential that we encourage people to be looking at different ways of getting into the city centre.”
TAKE THE TRAIN. SAYS SNP.
WHILE WE TAKE THE MINISTERIAL CARS.
THAT IS THE SNP PHILOSOPHY.
Scots Sovereignty,
Well confirmed by that same Westminster parliament in 2023 is the information that the Sovereign Scots slipped through the “joining the treaty of union net” over 300 years ago,
if old history like the “Claim of Right” is defunct, it is equally parallelled by the old history that the treaty of union is defunct in that capacity also,
But The Parliament Westminster of England has been persistent in “claiming the Scots are Sovereign,”
They have bought their history of Great Britain up tp date in 2023 on their parliament site,
It States, that (they ) decided not to let the Scots join the treaty of union. Because they would vote No anyway,
TheWestminster site also states in 2023, that the “1707 parliament of Scotland” was extinguished in Englands treaty 1707,
Finished nicely by the present, king of England, France and Ireland not being crowned king in Scotland this year, because of their own act of settlement.
You could not get a more Sovereign nation,
Up to date information from the Westminster parliament in England their are no Sovereign Scots
Hi David
I thought at first glance you were being personally abusive & swearing!
You can’t take tins of pain on Lothian buses nor a take-away coffee. Not too sure about bikes. Big opaque bag required when going to B&Q for the magnolia or a smaller one for your trip home from the Starbucks.
During the Festival when all the buses were absolutely chokka and manspreading was rife I did see someone on the bus with one of these old fashioned standard lamps with the big frilly shades! Remember them or are you far too young son?
link to tinyurl.com
A original Scottish parliament detached and extinguished from the treaty of union in 1707,
A Scottish nation of people not asked to join the treaty of union in 1707, after Westminster debate,
A England monarch not able to be Crowned as a Scottish monarch. In the same ceremony 2023.
We have the Claim of right in Scotland that says Scots are Sovereign
,but we also have Westminster parliament in their up to date 2023 site on history, backing this Scots statement up,
And with a further twist of knife, let us remind our selves that Westminster parliament confirmed it in 2018.
The people in hot denial whom ignore all aspects of history and are using selectively chosen snippets of history only have to be helped mentally surely, not mocked,
Breeks,
The Claim of Right in meaningless because nobody has ever defined who is a “sovereign Scot”. Until that happens, it’s unenforceable. And it won’t happen.
Surely those whom are fed up here, of all the legislative extremism passing through the devolved parliament from England to Scotland through a SNP Unincorporated Association have plenty of legal political ammo to wipe the Snp of the political board in Scotland,
It would automatically wipe out the coalition with the Green goblin perverted party,
Did the Snp Unincorporated Association provide full disclosure to all voters pre election of their “full Constitution” by leaflets, broadcasts or public meetings ?
Did the SNP Unincorporated Association have any legal remit to “pass any laws” that it had not had not fully disclosed, such as ULez,
Go researching what was full and open and what was hidden or restricted information to the public.
You may not have to sue with your own money if you can prove that this was not specifically mentioned prior to a election,
Was the Coalition with the Greens mentioned prior to the election,
Can a SNP party that has not disclosed it is a Unincorporated Association and therefor under law has “no duty of care to the public”.
The Electorial commission may be forced to do this for us.
Surprise Surprise,,,I see they have picked some English bastard to coach Team GB women’s football team for the tournament in France next year.
They can shove their “Team GB” right up their English arses.
I will be supporting any team that is up against this “Team GB”
This is just another example of English rule,,,what they say goes.
Well they can fuck right off with this for starters.
link to tntsports.co.uk
Cyclists bloody cyclists No 4
Not so long ago there was traffic chaos on Holyrood Road. When they first announced the disruption I thought it was going to be about potholes bloody potholes but no it was all about building a fancy cycle lane.
It’s only a very short cycle lane about 500 yards the same distance as the MSPs tax payer funded taxi ride to get them from the parliament to the ‘World’s End’ pub.
There are three maybe more side roads on this stretch where this new super duper cycle lane is.
I can’t see the point especially when the cyclist go from this short stretch onto the Cowgate.
Is Lorna planning on making the Cowgate into a cycle lane with motorist having to take the scenic route through the meadows.
There are many pubs on the Cowgate. Will Lorna suggest all the barrels of beer be delivered by Deliveroo?
There are so many pubs and drunks on the Cowgate that it has to close at night.
Just wondering how the cyclists who wear all black and have no lights on their bike will fair on the Cowgate when it’s full of drunks or will cyclist also be banned from the Cowgate even the very narrow pavement where they often cycle.
Cyclist who wear all black and have no lights are a nightmare
Two questions
1. Can you drink & cycle?
2. Are cyclist allowed to ride on the pavement.
That is the end of the ‘Cyclists bloody cyclists’ series of posts
Next series will be about
Trick Cyclists and whether or not Lorna and the Green Party might need more Trick Cyclists I think I’ll call it
The Green Party, Lorna and the Trick Cyclists
Ruby – I just assume any man wearing lycra and riding a bike is some sort of weirdo, who probably has stupid opinions.
It saves time.
Actually Westminster themselves defined who were Sovereign Scots in 2018 when it passed in their parliament,
In 2018 Westminster cefined Sovereign Scots,
That means those people in the territory of Scotland, the old Scottish border territory as was under the Claim of right.
I’ve done this before. A “sovereign Scot” is someone who is entitled to free prescriptions in Scotland and that ain’t you mate.
All you can claim to be in Scotland is a online flame-baiter.
Better make hay while the sun shines mate ‘cos I am trying to persuade Stu to make flame baiting a bannable offence. If that comes about we’ll be saying:
Adios ASA Hasta Nunca
Maybe so Red but they usually know the rules of the road and and it easy to tell if they should be in the ladies loo or on the woman’s team
Warning this contains adult content
Ms Naughty’s Porn For Women
Penis-A-Rama At The Olympics
link to archive.ph
@ Ruby
“tins of pain”
Think I’ve had some of these.
🙂
Me too Sam but it’s not until the next day that the pain hits you.
Scots people and the territory of their kingdom are Sovereign.
The unionist are in hot denial against their own recorded history that states otherwise,
The Scots in general have not considered these transient points of contradiction,
@ Ruby, why are you making yourself out to be a complete moron?
Hating on cyclists, for everything that is wrong in the world you get your knickers in a twist about cyclists. Pick on an outlier group why don’t you.
Could be said to be a hate crime. No doubt you advocate for drivers to plough right through vulnerable road users, eh?
Have you actually tried to cycle on the roads to find out what it is really like?
@ Red 2.25 pm
Another clown, you simply haven’t a clue have you?
@ Cpt Yossa
The US setting CO emissions is a bit of a lol isn’t it. Th at country with a population of 350 million really don’t give a shit and still sell the likes of the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon with a 392 cubic inch (6.4 litre) V8 Hemi engine putting out 470bhp. Totes eco planet saving friendly my arse!
Meanwhile to save the planet us 5.5 million Scots are being forced into using the latest snake oil version of the Sinclair C5 to get about in.
Legally I want to know if a Snp Unincorporated Association whom did not provide full disclosure to the electorate of their Constitution status,
Are able to pass any legal, laws, bills or legislation while not having a duty of care to the public or to the public purse?
Can you take a horse into a ULEZ?
Back in Auld Reekie as a young un I mind the Quality Police had muckle big nags to ride aboot on, and occasionally they would produce epic dumps emissions on the roads. People even used to collect those poops to put on their veg growing beds as manure.
Cyclists bloody cyclists No 5 – I’m a cyclist and I have a beautiful red Colnago which was built in Italy in 1986. A traditional steel-framed model of the highest pedigree. There are several of us on here. I remember a few posted during the Tour de France and they obviously knew what they were talking about.
Stu was tweeting on a cycling incident the other week. It was a maneuver by the cyclist who was following and sitting right behind a car which was intending to turn left, but the cyclist tried to undertake the car (by going straight on) at the left turn junction, even though the car had indicated and the cyclist wasn’t actually in the start of the designated cycling lane which started about 10 yards before the junction.
Some defensive riding by the cyclist could easily have avoided the contact. I’m suspicious some these incidents are actually folk trying to get a claim and damages.
Found the tweet.
link to twitter.com
Is Nitter down now? I’m getting a 502 bad gateway message.
Ruby,
I’m entitled to free prescriptions in Edinburgh, if I need them, because I’m still registered with a GP there.
So that makes me a sovereign Scot, by your judgement. And I’ll make sure that if ever there’s an IndyRef again, that I’ll have a vote in either Edinburgh or Perthshire, at my sister’s guest cottage on her farm.
It’s the lowest for CO2 Dan from all those tested be it American or European. Take a look when you have the time and you’ll be surprised the way it works. The chap who ordered this is American and he’s flying back from the US tonight to see it. There is nothing else comparable to it, believe me on that. The chap who fitted it is the local heating engineer and he said the same. He’s fitted all types of heating systems around here, including to my house, but nothing like this.
There’s a few cyclepaths on here today.
@ Cpt Yossa
Wood doesn’t contain the same energy density as fossil fuels and still produces smokey emissions. Some comparative figures on this page.
link to forestresearch.gov.uk
How much is that fancy wood gasification system you mention going to put out in a power cut? Answer = None.
I’ll therefore stick with the reliable wood burning stove setup I have for the time being.
I have wired my house during the renovation with the cables to install electric heaters powered by renewably generated electricity. But that will only happen if this shithole of a country ever gets its act together to return to self governance so we can then provide the basic utilities to the population at a reasonable price, instead of London Rule allowing corporations to continually rip the fucking piss out of us.
26 comments from James Che today!! Sounds like a team to me.
Me too Captain my bike is static and comes with videos of different scenery some of Italy where they built your wee red bike and also the Agostini or maybe it’s Agusta bikes which I believe are red too.
I might be getting mixed up between the biker and the bike.
Dan will probably know but he might be busy at the moment making quiche & jam for tomorrow.
My wee nephew is also a cyclist his bike has no pedals. He’s a brilliant wee pedaless cyclist.
I’m not hating on cyclists only cyclists who don’t know the rules of the road, don’t use cycle lanes and pedal about with no lights wearing all black.
Did you not read that I love the Lycra boys who know the rules of the road and can overtake me in a 20 mph zone. They are well fit.
Any photos of the Captain wearing lycra with his wee red vintage bike?
There are many ways out of this hoax treaty of union.
That would put a almost immediate stop to the extremist laws being pushed through the parliaments of Westminsters devolved government to Scotland,
1: the Colonial status of Scotland,
2: Salvo and SSRG approach ,
3: the Sovereignty of the Scots, Claim of right
4: recognising that Scotland is still a separate Country and kingdom from Englands due to the Act of Settlement on the succession of the Crown and monarch being on England, France and Ireland,not Scotland.
5: the act of extinguishing the Scottish parliament from the treaty of union in 1707.
6: The many Breaches of the treaty of union by Westminster parliament.
7: Politicians debating and concluding in 1707 not to give the Scots a vote to join in treaty of union.
8: was the 2014 independence vote interfered with by foreign actors,
9: The Westminster parliament acted solely as the parliament of England in 1800 to create a treaty with Ireland. and later created a trade agreement treaty with America as the parliament of England.
10: did the parliament of Westminster act legally by creating a devolved government in Scotland according to the articles of the treaty of union of one government of Great Britain ever after,
There are a multitude of reasons to enable us to just walk away and let the parliament of Westminster occur the cost of contesting these issue,
What we do not have is a Unincorporated Association independent constitutional Parliament of Sovereign Scots.
🙂
I’m so glad I posted about ‘Cyclists bloody cyclists’ & made the odd typo.
It’s resulted in the best jokes I’ve ever seen here BTL on the Wings.
And here’s a thought on the path we were led down.
We were told to buy diesel cars as they were the future. The dash for gas was around the same time iirc.
But instead of going down the path we took, we could have flipped the fuels and used the LPG to power cars. LPG has massively reduced emissions compared to diesels.
So vehicles would have been way cleaner and less damaging to health.
The diesel could then have been used to produce leccy power in power stations located away from people in a far more efficient steam turbine setup where the combustion process and exhaust emission reduction systems could have been incorporated.
Internal combustion engines in vehicles struggle to get 40% efficiency when burning diesel.
Ach, I’m sure Kelly Given will know all this and be on the case and that’s why SNP choose her over the likes of me and my engineer mates…
The ‘me next’ SNP brigade are getting cold feet. Unfilled vacancies, phantom leaflet distributors in Rutherglen, odds declining in the bookies on electoral success. But hold on has Labour pulled defeat out of the Jaws of Victory?. Whatever your position on the continuum of a Green response to Climate change and how ‘just’ that transition should be. Sunak was closer than any other person on how to proceed because he got the one thing right. Public Consent!. In Scotland we already know about that.
Dan – Burning wood has the lowest of all CO2 emissions and so this type of boiler is the lowest of the low. We don’t tend to get power cuts around here but if you did, you can get a standby generator just to keep the boiler and the pumps running.
Ruby – I seem to remember PhilM is the other cyclist, but I might be wrong about that. I have a photo of me descending the famous Col Du Galibier taken in 1982. It’s on my living room wall next to the fireplace.
Dan @ 16.33
I don’t know whether I get more disheartened when I read some of your commonsense posts about heating & electricity generation, or more really pissed off at this posturing, troughing bunch of self absorbed, preening, entitled incompetents who have been busily engaged in wasting the past 9 years in power in Holyrood.
The same applies when it comes to Professor Baird’s input on Catamaran Ferries and other maritime matters.
Aye OK whatever. You can self-id as whatever you want even a bonkers Scot who travels from Norfolk Broads to Edinburgh to see a doctor.
Did you know that the well know brand of ointment for piles (which is banned here on Wings, the word not the ointment or suppositories) cost only £2. It seems to me it’s a bit bonkers to travel all that way costing you goodness knows what all just for the sake of getting a £2 box of suppositories, a supply of Diocalm & some blue pills.
Diocalm is only £2 in Poundland. I have no idea what Viagra costs. Maybe the Captain or John Main might know.
Maybe if the blue pills are £50 each it might be worth it.
Careful with these HRT pills they might cause you to need Triple strength Viagra at £150 a go.
Is your GP NHS or private and is he bonkers too? Maybe you could ask him if there’s a cure for flame-baiting.
I expect you’ll claim you are entitled to a bus pass,free personal care for the elderly, free university tuition and when the GRRB gets passed you’ll insist that you should be in the woman’s ward in Royal Ed even if you are sectioned way down there in Norfolk Broads.
When Scotland becomes independent you’ll be screaming ‘Oh No I am not a Scot. Please let me keep my British passport & please, please do not send me to Rwanda.
@ Cpt Yossa
Has it gone completely over your head that we could heat our houses without burning stuff if we instead used the extra leccy we help keep the lights on in England.
Aye, burn wood for a back up if a power cut occurs. But if you run that fancy gasification or a biomass setup you’ll be needing to hook up your internal combustion powered generator* to produce leccy to run that over-engineered boiler setup.
* Hope you didn’t store the petrol generator with ethanol containing fuel in the tank as you’ll probably have to strip the carb to get the fucker to run seeing as ethanol containing fuel is hygroscopic so attracts moisture, and that will start dissimilar corrosion between the alloy carb body and the brass jets, so will have produced a float bowl full of gunk or if left long enough talcum powder…
Plus howz that work when you’re miles from home, and the power cut has also taken out the phone signal. You’ll be cycling about on yer old pushbike like Sam Bell “searching for long range comms” so the app on your phone can talk to you boiler. That my friend is not the way I choose to go.
Good to know the tricks you Unionists get up to.
You could be out of luck next time when the franchise is changed.
Why the need for this trickery do you not believe there are enough NO voters in Scotland.
You don’t even need an address in Scotland you can just rock up and claim to be homeless & hey presto you’ve got a vote. I think ‘Better Together’ may even pay the cost of your travel and throw in a few cans & some spare change.
Dan – I said we should have the cheapest electricity and gas prices in Europe and instead we have the most expensive. Of course we should all be able to fit electric storage radiators but no-one can afford to and that is the battle Nationalism ought to be fighting.
There’s really only one way to convince “No” voters to vote yes, and it’s not by giving them a whole lot of historical misinformation. Basically, you have to convince them that they and their families will be better off in an independent Scotland. Sadly, little has been done in recent years to convince them of that. It’s the present and the future that matter. And this stuff about “sovereign Scots” is just silly – in reality, the Scottish people have never been sovereign.
“Captain Yossarian says:
21 September, 2023 at 3:42 pm
…Colnago…”
I almost bought a steel Master frame/fork a few years ago. Didn’t. I have, however, recently bought a titanium-framed Airborne road bike. Not finished yet, but I have just drilled the seized cable adjusters out of the downtube bosses and chased the threads clear. It’s a nice thing.
The information by law firms on how to form a “Sovereign Scots Unincorporated Association” is on line.
Now that would be one to join,
If you have in the constitution sovereign Scots, Claim of right, independent Scotland, the territorial border of the old kingdom of Scotland in 1707,
And a few others you could think of or add,
Not so far fetched as that is what the ” unincorporated association Snp” like minded delay independence party have done, only the the opposite of what we would stand for,
Truth of history and records could be included.
Ruby: I’m too old and should no know better. I’ll take a break from Scottish politics for my mental health. It’s all so exciting however. We live it. We breath it daily. It is our lives in motion! Swimming against the tide!
Independence for Scotland. Save Fergus Ewing!
Captain Yossarian,
The British Nationalists south of the border have a pretty good deal with Scottish resources so no need to fight it, the British Nationalists north of the border are a bit on the thick side so won’t understand that they’re losing out.
Dan @ 10.07pm what a refreshing post from Robin, one that I have been shouting about and proposing for ages, a PEOPLES ASSEMBLY where US the citizens and taxpayers hold our politicians , our parliament , civil servants and political parties to ACCOUNT, BUUUUTTT I can hear John Moan and his fellow Scots Buts complaining, NAW we canny because the working class are stupid and we need REAL politicians tae dae things, my question to John and his fellow negative Scots is WHERE the fuck are they and why have they not sorted this debacle out ,”where have all the good politicians gone long time passing” at 72 years of age I would be pushed to NAME ANY, whether it be WM or HR NO ONE can argue that we are having the pish ripped out of us by ALL the political parties and MOST of the greedy bastards who class themselves as our betters
I truly believe 100 ordinary citizens would GOVERN Scotland better than the dross we have currently in HR, but they are not there to govern they are there to ENSURE HONESTY AND INTEGRITY from the arseholes we elect to govern
Does anyone think the tram fiasco , the Holyrood fiasco , the ferries fiasco , the PFI fiasco , the PPE fiasco , the Salmond fiasco , the Sturgeon enquiry , the redacted lies , the redacted whatsapp , the GRR ,the HCB ,the £80 million BRS , the sending back £1.5 billion by McConnell to WM because he couldn’t find ANYTHING in Scotland to spend it on. Would have went ahead with a People’s Assembly in place
ALL of these things have been ALLOWED to take place and happen because we have a MSM and broadcasters who selectively turn a blind eye and selective deafness to these happenings and move on and NO ONE is held responsible, it suits politicians NOT to challenge the broadcasters as we have ALL witnessed time after time because they need them on their side
I believe a People’s Assembly is IMPERATIVE in an independent Scotland to hold TRUTH to politicians , if not it will just be the same old same old, they will fuck up and still get rich with great pensions whilst we pay for their incompetence and stupidity
Two SNP grifting troughers are set to fight it out for a Glasgow East End seat, David Linden will take on Alison Thewliss (if she’s selected) at the next GE, Linden is an ally of Stephen Flynn whilst Thewliss is a close ally of Humza Yousaf.
According to a Times report Thewliss is also standing for a Glasgow North seat, after sex pest Patrick Grady failed the vetting process.
Linden currently holds the East End seat.
Hopefully Alba has candidates lined up for both seats at the next GE and ousts these deceitful charlatans.
“Ruby says:
21 September, 2023 at 1:27 pm
Cyclists bloody cyclists No 3
I’ve never had a problem with motorcyclists undertaking me when I’m turning left…”
When your car’s stationary, presumably? I was taught to “make progress” on a bike whenever possible – this means getting to the front of the queue at the lights, overtaking lines of slow-moving traffic and so on. If you’re unsure about a move, back off until you can be sure. Doesn’t take long and prolongs verticality.
Labour oppose devolving Employment Laws to Holyrood, oh Starmer’s minion and BLiS manager in Scotland Anas Sarwar, bemoans and sheds a few crocodile tears over his bosses decision, whilst privately he’ll be punching the air in delight being a die-hard unionist and a member of (BAP).
“The BAP started in the early 1980s, when Michael Foot, the first non-Atlanticist Labor leader to emerge since World War Two, was in charge of Labor. When the CIA was concerned about the power of the Labor left and its ‘anti-American’ views, the BAP sought to influence British progressives to adopt a pro-American political stance.
Investigative journalist Paul Foot, writing in Private Eye, compared the BAP to “CIA front organisations” set up in the 1960s “to promote ‘sensible’ elements in British Labor”. “
@Ruby
ASA probably comes up to get his tins of pain as well as his Assnulo. Bet he doesn’t open them.
@twathater (6.10) –
Hear hear.
😉
Meanwhile Humza Yousaf calls Sunak’s roll back on climate pledges unforgivable, we know that what Yousaf and Sturgeon have done (with independence in mind) is unforgivable, I’d imagine Lorna Slater is urging Yousaf to throw oil and gas workers under the bus. The Greens are determined to destroy the Scottish economy.
“He (Sunak) is to roll back on phasing out gas boilers from 2035 and will delay the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by five years to 2035.”
In my opinion if they try to quickly to phase out oil and gas among other things for the benefit of climate change, it will cause more harm than good, the UK never mind Scotland is badly prepared and not ready to ditch oil and gas.
It sounds to me as though Yousaf is trying to play to the gallery to win hearts and minds, which he hopes will equate to votes and donations to the SNP.
Why would (BAP) member Humza Yousaf hold talks on consumptions rooms with New York’s Public Health Commissioner, when the likes of the Netherlands have had drug consumption rooms since the mid 1990’s in which they have a wealth of experience in operating them.
It was just a matter of time before the SNP grifters attacked Alba’s plan to join EFTA after independence. Daddy Bear aka Alyn Smith will launch a paper soon showing that Alba’s EFTA Plan is flawed.
Smith wants to wait and have full EU membership after independence. Whereas Scotland could join EFTA weeks after independence.
Smith will launch his document on the matter at an event in Dundee on Friday, it sounds like more of an attack on Alba than on EFTA membership.
@Ruby says:21 September, 2023 at 5:03 pm
I have no idea what Viagra costs. Maybe the Captain or John Main might know
OK, Ruby, I’ll rise to your bait.
Happy now?
No Derek it’s when I’m in motion signalling to turn left.
I understand about cyclist going ahead to wait in the cyclists bit at the front of the queue at the traffic lights.
There are some traffic lights here in Edinburgh with a extra green traffic light for cyclists. It stays on for such a short time it’s probably not that helpful maybe more for motorists who get into gear as soon as they see the wee green cyclist.
I don’t think cars & cyclists mix well even with cycle lanes.
Tram lines are also a problem. I believe there was a cyclist killed because her front wheel got stuck in the tram rail.
Maybe at some future time there will be cycle lanes that never come into contact with cars or trams and have some sort of protection from rain and high winds. Cycling in rain & when it’s windy must be extra dangerous. How on earth do cyclists hear anything when it raining or blowing a gale?
@twathater says:21 September, 2023 at 6:10 pm
a PEOPLES ASSEMBLY where US the citizens and taxpayers hold our politicians , our parliament , civil servants and political parties to ACCOUNT, BUUUUTTT I can hear John Moan and his fellow Scots Buts complaining, NAW we canny because the working class are stupid
I reckon I’m working class myself. I certainly work and pay taxes. A working class SOVEREIGN Scot from more generations of Sovereign Scots than I CAN count. And that’s not because I’m a FECKING EEJIT.
Anyways, liking the PEOPLES ASSEMBLY idea. How do I get PICKED?
What, you think it’s JUST gonna be for the KINDS of Scots who voted SNP 1 & 2 for the past decade?
Feck THAT. You all HAD your chances. You fecked UP big time.
what is the cyclist hate?
– you should all be forced to ride a bike for a month, find out the meaning of fear and how bad most drivers are.
If you have a numbers mindset you can show statistically if you cycle for more than 10 years, 50 miles a week, then a car will hit you eventually.
Out on a 30 miler, say 2 hours; a variety of roads – how many cars will pass you in that time? It only takes one bad driver and you are jam on the road.
Try getting catapulted through the air at a junction by a driver running the lights and talk to me about “were you wearing a helmet” “did you signal” “did you have a warning light”
I loved cycling but I tell people not to do it – at some point you will be staring at the sky, neck brace on, wondering if you are going to be the new stephen hawking, without the big maths brain.
The cyclist cannot hurt the car driver, he is like the opposite of the HGV driver – when you have no skin in the game (literally) and no consequences for you, of your actions – nasty behaviour ensues.
Drivers are weirdly given a pass for their killing (if you want to commit murder and get away with it, run someone over) – consider the Glasgow Bin Lorry, or a similar case up by Strathclyde Uni where an SUV mowed down 2 young lassies. When a cyclist is involved there is always this assumption that -the cyclist- “was doing something wrong”.
then there is pure psychopathy –
link to news.sky.com
@Captain Yossarian says:21 September, 2023 at 5:32 pm
we should have the cheapest electricity and gas prices in Europe
Hmmm.
Gas is internationally in demand. We could “give it away” to ourselves, but then the revenues of an iScotland would tank. How would we pay for all our progressive policies then?
All of the renewable electricity infrastructure is still being paid for. How will we do that if we sell the electricity cheap? Are you aware (I haven’t seen it mentioned on here) that the most recent auctions of renewable electricity generation licenses attracted zero bidders? Because the guaranteed price per unit to the prospective suppliers did not cover their costs.
I know the “cheap and plentiful energy” is a shibboleth of the traditional Indy movement, but in the real world, the market rate will continue to drive things. If it doesn’t, the economy of iScotland will collapse.
Facts. Awkward feckers.
@Republicofscotland 6:16pm
And so it begins, there are several terms assigned to this behaviour. Carpetbaggers, Parachute candidates and so on. In a political declining context, incumbent elected officials for the SNP will seek a safe seat. As every other political party candidate beforehand has done so. Let me reassure them there is no such thing as an SNP safe seat anymore. Despite Labour’s inability to score a goal for 3 metres you will have to win the seat on merit. A change for the SNP.
0/T. Well done Aberdeen good performance in Europe. Hoping for the Rangers in Europe to do well tonight as well.
An innarestin article on the BBC website: “How Norway Outstrips US On …”.
“US” being the United States, not us.
There’s a bar-chart near the bottom of the article, with Norway way out in front.
Hooda thunk it? Wee Norway, the country always being held out as exemplar for our aspirational iScotland, leading the world in something few if any posters on here have any time for.
The times, they are a-changing.
I sense everyone is getting a bit rebellious. It’s great what happens when you’ve been off the carrots for a year or so.
Can I look forward to being part of a ‘Convoy type protest’ about all the proposals for motorists.
All cyclist fit or unfit can join in because all the traffic will be going at 10 mph or less. In fact the cyclists can lead the protest. Front paniers required to hold the Lorna & Patrick dolls for end of protest bonfire.
No idea why the cyclist should join in except being part of a ‘Convoy’ will be fun and I didn’t want anyone to think I hate cyclists.
link to youtube.com
Ah, breaker one-nine, this here’s the Rubber Duck
You gotta copy on me, Pig Pen, c’mon?
‘we got a little ol’ convoy
Rockin’ through the night
Yeah, we got a little ol’ convoy
Ain’t she a beautiful sight?
Come on and join our convoy’
Dan says:
21 September, 2023 at 4:33 pm
And here’s a thought on the path we were led down.
We were told to buy diesel cars as they were the future. The dash for gas was around the same time iirc.
But instead of going down the path we took, we could have flipped the fuels and used the LPG to power cars…
I get that sinking feeling about electric cars. We seem to be moving with undue haste.
Look at this video Dan;
link to youtube.com
I’m sorry it’s been dubbed into Spanish, the original was American, but I can’t track down the original. He makes his own electrodes from stainless steel, but the video keeps secret the additive you need to make the water an electrolyte to enhance the conductivity and speed the Hydrogen is produced, but it works. There are other videos of guys doing very similar things.
I’m pretty sure the mysterious additive is simple Hydrogen Peroxide or some derivative of it. That’s your new fuel cost though… buying the additive to turn your water fuel into a more efficient electrolyte.
Obviously, there’s quite a difference between running a generator on water, and upscaling the principle to work for a car engine… Maybe it doesn’t work, but what if it does?
The point is, if all the modifications are external to the engine. It’s a complete new fuel system, but that’s not an insurmountable problem. It’s doable, and then in theory, you should be able to convert an existing engine that runs on petrol or diesel, and convert it to hydrogen. Ok, so maybe that isn’t practical for all cars, but on the other hand, there are a lot of cars with internal combustion engines which are going to be scrapped before 2030, and maybe they don’t have to be.
Let’s ask the car industry what they think…. Oh.
Recycle the damn car that burns petrol as a whole damn car that burns hydrogen, you’ll still need traditional oils and lubricants, and there might be issues of corrosion in a fuel delivery system with steel components, but it’s still doable. How different is a fuel line that’s fuel proof from a fuel system that’s water proof? Don’t forget, do the electrolysis in the tank, and there’s only Hydrogen gas in the line. Perhaps the issue is fire, not rust.
I think it’s kinda interesting, and I bet there are plans that are far more advanced than the video.
I suspect there might be a big drop in performance… like when a car runs air conditioning, only worse. A significant % of the power will be producing the hydrogen for your fuel, not driving the wheels.
There’s something Red-Neck-Tech meets Mad Max about it… lol. How to turn your car into something where blowing up becomes a fair to middling possibility… I love it. Every journey is an adventure… ha! Ha!
I dunno. But I think it’s a lot more positive than manufacturing huge great batteries and sucking the planet dry of Lithium. Hydrogen is everywhere.
To me, Electric cars feel so Betamax, and Hydrogen cars are the future VHS.
@ ROS
Just as Labour about-turned on the * Gender * lunacy , so the Tories are doing likewise on Net Zorro . It’s all about the impending G.E. int’it ? Aye , it is . Once in power they’ll do what the fuck they like . QED.
It’s likely the Tories will gain more from their * climbdown * than Labour will from their’s , for the reason that more people have a tangible sense of the impact of climate-related measures on them personally, they’re feeling it already in things like LEZs , new heating systems , increased costs on selling/buying/building houses and understand that these extra expenses will only get higher – and compulsory .And that’s in addition to the possible resentment when things people have taken for granted start to be restricted .. eg .. foreign holidays/football games etc .
It will probably come down to which gang of feeble/dishonest fucks can cause the most fear , be the most alarmist , whilst simultaneously promising each n every schmuck economic abundance & eternal happiness , if , and only if , they vote for them . The * system * of – what passes for – Democracy itself is pretty fucked . The demos have been doped , duped n if things continue ” as expected ” – dumped
The costs of the next General Election are mentioned. What about the next Referendum did this not cost the SNP £400,000 last time out?
Don’t worry there must be £600,000 sitting readily available somewhere, set aside for the “save the date” Referendum this October or am I mistaken. Or like Oliver will they come back for more.
@John Main 7:27pm
Poor decisions on the Nationalisation of our energy industry were made by politicians of all colours. Regulatory Authorities namely Ofgem have been duped by Energy Utilities time and time again. Dividends for Institutional and foreign Investors took priority. Let’s use an alternative example to illustrate. Scottish Water is under public ownership and the Water Utilities in England are subject to market forces. They paid excessive Dividends instead of investment in their infrastructure. To all and intent purposes water companies in England are bankrupt. Bail outs coming up by the UK Government. I am all for the free market in principle but not for the human necessities of energy and water industries.
And the Scottish Water paradigm proves it.
John Main – The problem is that we have possibly the highest energy prices in Europe and that shouldn’t be the case. Our model for energy pricing? – maybe not the fairest model for the paying public. Most countries that produce excess energy manage to look after their own public first and foremost and it’s not that complex if you make up your mind to put that top of your agenda, instead of bottom as it is here.
What Robert Hughes said ?
How much did it cost you to do that?
My question was how much does Viagra cost.
Is it worth ASA coming all the way from Norfolk Broads to get it free in Edinburgh from a doctor who registers patients living in England.
It must be a private doctor I don’t think SNHS doctors would get away with having English residents on their books.
Cost of Viagra more or less than cost of journey from Norfolk Broads to Edinburgh.
The question I should really be asking is how much does a prescription cost in England and is Viagra available on the NHS?
Would you be able just to self-id as someone who needs viagra or can anyone get it.
Good Morning Doctor Can I have a prescription for viagra I need it for my job.
Doctor ask: What job is that?
Any guesses what his answer was?
It might be possible that ASA is talking through his ‘you know where’ hence the need for so many hemorrhoid suppositories & so many bottles of diocalm.
Yes Sam I don’t think he opens his ‘tins of pain’ he mistakes them for his suppositories and shoves them up his rectum.
Rectum? Damn near killed him!
Ruby and cyclists.
You do know that you have no right to turn left cutting up any two wheeled vehicle that is to your left? It is incredibly dangerous to do so. If you were on a two lane road in the outer lane, signalled left and then just crossed the traffic to turn left expecting cars to pull up you would be both insane and liable to be done for dangerous driving. You should wait until they have passed – they should not pull up to allow you to do so either as that is also dangerous and wrong. Exactly the same thing applies with a single lane and cyclists to your left: you wait until the road is clear – they are not undertaking – it is you who have stopped, so wait. You say you do this which is good but it is totally what you should do according to the rules of the road.
As for turning right, there is no rule that says road users have to leave a space for people turning right into a side road unless road markings indicate you must. I try and do it if traffic is more or less stationary but it can be difficult to judge and no-one should be stopping if traffic is moving as it is dangerous.
@ Breeks
It’s not something I have done but google suggests sodium or potassium hydroxide in solution to increase hydrogen yield during electrolysis in an HHO generator.
A mate built a small HHO generator to feed a small amount of hydrogen into the inlet manifold of his naturally aspirated diesel. He reckoned it gave a slight performance and mpg improvement. He was quite scientific about it and commuted from Dundee to Aberdeen so could trial system and compare results.
It does alter the combustion process but would need some pretty high end scientific kit to accurately discern power or emission related changes.
When I was using electrolysis recently to remove all corrosion from my brake calipers and carriers, I used washing soda crystals to increase conductivity of the electrolyte solution between the cathode and anode. The hydrogen was just a waste product in my process though.
LPG (autogas) burnt in what is effectively just a petrol engine makes for a very clean running engine. So clean burning in fact that even after many thousands of miles the engine oil barely changes from the golden colour it has when new. Whereas petrol and diesel engine oils turn brown and black with all the sooty deposits.
I was planning to build and run my next vehicle on LPG but I read earlier that they are planning to phase out LPG / autogas at the few filling stations that currently sell it next year, so that’s that idea fucked. I could have built a vehicle that runs way cleaner than most but this screwed up brain dead society won’t allow it.
Been through all this before and tbh it’s tedious as fuck. Want to reduce harmful toxins, then stop the refineries supplying low grade fuels to supermarkets that don’t burn cleanly and also doesn’t get as many mpg as they could if run on better fuel.
Crap fuel also leads to loads of issues with EGR systems and DPFs sooting up and needing a regen. Mate with a garage has several Discovery Sports that routinely come in and require to connect his diagnostic machine to trick the ecu by telling it there is a new DPF fitted (there isn’t) so he can then do a forced regen to clean the original DPF. Plus the EGR filters on those vehicles are notorious for choking up, especially when run on shite supermarket fuel.
He keeps telling the owners to stop using crap fuel as this would alleviate the ongoing issues, and they would actually get increased mpg by using regular diesel from BP or Shell which would negate the slightly higher price per litre, but they don’t so he just keeps getting paid to resolve the issues created by dumb owners who won’t listen. And all the time this is happening they are actually producing even more emissions as they work to sort the faults…
I got caught out by the moderator bot for using a banned word.
I added an * and re-posted
Take note of that word and also the other medical term for erse which is also banned.
Be safe if you want to write about the rec*tum or an*us better just use erse,arse or bum.
I think the moderating bot is fine with these words.
Derek – All agreed on that and if I was 20-years younger, I would go for titanium too. My bike is for old-men/grandfathers. A bit like a Ford Capri.
I have been doing my trademark 30-seconds internet research.
Norwegian petrol around £1.78 per litre so more expensive than here.
Norwegian gas and electricity is more complicated, but a figure of 2000 kr (heating, electricity, gas) is quoted for a 2-person flat for one month. This is £151, so not particularly cheap.
Bottom line: Norway, the country held up by many as the example iScotland should be following, doesn’t appear to be flogging its energy resources cheaply to its citizens.
So, no reason other than wishful thinking to believe iScotland will be a utopia of cheap fuel and electricity.
“So, no reason other than wishful thinking to believe iScotland will be a utopia of cheap fuel and electricity.”
Settle for the utopia of the best public health care, public transport, education etc.
Sure you pay a lot in tax, but you get a lot back. Here? Not so much…
The amount of dividends paid by Water Companies in England since 1991 is 57 billion pounds. Almost the amount they invested in their infrastructure. Now we have a grovelling apology by them, they got their priorities wrong. Standby for a UK Government handout. Now I have been critical of SEPA in the past but England has special individual water monitors. Individuals using their free market time because they don’t trust the discharge into rivers. And the sea. Individuals spending their free time on water quality. But the debate has been deflected to petroleum prices in Norway.And Norway with one of the largest Sovereign funds in the World per person. My definition of an own goal.
“Ruby says:
21 September, 2023 at 7:12 pm
Cycling in rain & when it’s windy must be extra dangerous. How on earth do cyclists hear anything when it raining or blowing a gale?”
It’s surprising how much you hear just by not being in a metal box; you hear more on a motorbike too, even with the wind noise.
It’s amazing how much noise motor vehicles make that isn’t exhaust noise. I was walking back from the shops yesterday when I heard a woodpecker over the road. I had an idea roughly where it was but I couldn’t see it so I waited for the traffic noise to die down so’s I could hear it again. 5 minutes later I started walking again because the noise hadn’t died down.
@John Main 9:20pm
Oh we have changed to petrol prices in Norway. 57 billion pounds is the dividends paid to shareholders by the Water Companies in England since 1991. Almost as much they have invested in their infrastructure. Bleating to the UK Government now for support. Perhaps Norway with one of the largest Sovereign wealth funds per person was not a good example.
Ruby,
I don’t need to go to Edinburgh, 300 miles from Norfolk, to see a doctor. If I need a quack, I’m registered locally as well as in Edinburgh.
I keep on my GP registration, and I pay the council taxes on the flat I rent out in Edinburgh just to keep my connections to Scotland part of the government record, so I woudn’t have a problem with citizenship if there was ever an iScotland. The GP registration costs me nothing, my tenants pays the council tax via their rent. It’s not difficult.
The road I was referring to does have road markings saying leave space clear however most motorist would leave the space clear even if it didn’t if they were required to stop in queue of cars waiting for the traffic lights ahead to change or for some other reason.
The thing about that situation is I can’t see the cyclists my view is blocked by the stationery cars waiting for the lights to change.
It’s traffic lights queue of stationary cars side road with space marked ‘leave space clear’ then more stationary cars after the leave clear space for motorists turning into the side road. Got it?
The side road is approx 100 yards from traffic lights.
I cant see the cycle lane only got a short time to cross while traffic lights are red and cars are stationery big queue of cars behind me who want to go straight on. I’m preventing them from progressing because I’m turning right.
What should I do?
Sometimes motorist just stop to allow you to turn right. You know the scene they flash their lights when they see you want to turn right. Here again it’s not possible to see the cyclists.
What should I do?
Big problem turning left at night when the cyclists have no lights and and are wearing all black. Or lights that are so weak they could be mistaken for a cat or a rabbit caught in headlights.
The other day I saw a cyclist cycling while on his mobile phone.
I couldn’t believe my eyes! He did a grand job cycling no hands and checking his phone at the same time but like all the pedestrian who walk along checking their phone he couldn’t see a thing in front of him.
I would agree there are some bad drivers. I have my moments. I have driven without lights just forgot to put them on but fortunately there are many helpful drivers on the road who will let you know. I have also driven with my left hand wing mirror folded in. That was very weird I couldn’t see a thing on the left hand side. Very dangerous for cyclists.
I have seen cars with broken wing mirrors. They would definitely not be able to see cyclists when they were turning left.
Not too sure what happens with broken wing mirrors. Do you get time to get it fixed in the event of the police spotting your broken wing mirror. If the police don’t spot it could cars be driving around for ages with broken wing mirrors?
If cyclist see a car ahead signalling to turn left would it not be more prudent to slow down and not race ahead trying to beat the motorist?
If they see cars ahead stopped before a side road shouldn’t they be aware that there might be a car turning right into that side road and not speed across that side road.
Ruby, strikes me that you shouldn’t be driving at all if you don’t really know the rules of the road. As it is now. Not as it was way back when you passed your test.
That’s not a personal dig. It’s more a reminder that all of us need to keep up to date with the Highway Code. I passed my driving test in 1983. The rules now are hugely different.
FFS you lot
Everyone of you, troll and genuine Indy supporter are falling into the same trap!
The former knows and revels in this.
I despair
John Main says:
21 September, 2023 at 9:20 pm
I have been doing my trademark 30-seconds internet research.
Norwegian petrol around £1.78 per litre so more expensive than here.
Norwegian gas and electricity is more complicated, but a figure of 2000 kr (heating, electricity, gas) is quoted for a 2-person flat for one month. This is £151, so not particularly cheap.
Your 30 second research might be more informative if it included the average household income in Norway
I plead guilty to generally wearing black. My bicycle, however, has exceptionally good lights!
Weird the tricks British Nationalists have to play. Guess they know there aren’t enough NO voters living in Scotland.
You might have a problem with Scottish citizenship in England.
Don’t you remember ‘Better Together’ saying Scots in England would become foreigners?
You would probably be better not crowing about being Scottish because you would be considered a foreigner and the RUK would deport you back to Scotland. You could claim refugee status I suppose but then you could be on a plane to Rwanda or forced to live on a barge.
Since your country Scotland has decided to leave the RUK up shit creek without a paddle there wont be a lot of love for the Scottish tractors.
If I were you I would start pretending to be English and go for British citizenship or whatever it might be called. Little British?
There ain’t going to be no dual Scottish-British citizenship. Didn’t you listen to what Better Together said during the 2014 Indy Ref.
No dual Scottish-British citizenship. We are not going to pay these tractors a heating allowance and there will no pensions.
Might also a good idea to sell your flat in Edinburgh if you really have one that is who knows there might be different regulations in iScotland regarding foreigners owning property.
The National might be interested in your story should I send them to talk to your tenants at Ramsay Gardens. It should be an easy enough job to track them down even if investigative journalism isn’t the National’s strong point.
The headline could be
The Tricks Unionist played to get 55%
Easiest means of ensuring that those who vote here genuinely are here is via tax code. No ‘S’ on your HMRC reference, no vote. Simples…
John Main – While you’re Googling “Cost of Living in Norway” have a look at the price of pint of beer? Norway is, as they say, an “outlier” in terms of the cost of living.
Have a look at the mess that is UK energy policy.
“National Grid, in its 2016 study Future Energy Scenarios, considered four alternative views of UK energy supply and demand up to 2040. While these may be useful as a framework within which to plan, they say nothing about one essential factor, security of supply. For each of the scenarios, we estimate the possibility of meeting an established risk baseline: a grid supply failure occurring in no more than four winters every hundred years (as used prior to privatization).
The maximum demand for energy, occurring early in the evening during winter, has to be met consistently if the risk criterion is to be fulfilled. Even with the use of all available means to reduce peak demand, including voltage and frequency reduction, the risk of power outage is significantly higher than 4% for all four scenarios.
The dependable (dispatchable) power from installed conventional, nuclear and hydro generators plus continental inter-connectors would be insufficient to meet peak demand, and this gap could not reliably be bridged using wind generation. Solar generation would make no contribution at all to meeting peak demand.
To meet peak demand in the period up to 2025, an additional 5 to 12 GW of firm, despatchable generating capacity would be required: six or more gas-fired power stations. As renewable energy capacity is increased, these power stations would lie idle for large periods, but would be essential to maintain security of supply in the winter.
After 2025, two of the scenarios – Gone Green and Consumer Power – appear to offer security of supply but only if European inter-connectors can be fully relied upon.
In these circumstances, we strongly recommend that the security of the UK’s electricity supply is reviewed again from first principles and appropriate steps taken to ensure that consumers,industry and economic growth do not suffer.”
link to iesisenergy.org
Sam
A nuclear physicist and a grid director write a paper published by the Scientific Alliance. Who they? Quick look at Wikipedia:
“Bob May of the Royal Society has criticized the Scientific Alliance for holding a forum for groups involved in climate change denial and for its links to the George C. Marshall Institute, saying that the “climate change denial lobby” had a “poisonous” influence on the media.[4] In December 2004 the organization published a joint report with the George C. Marshall Institute in Washington,[5] a thinktank that has received $715,000 in funding from the U.S. oil company, ExxonMobil.[6] The Alliance’s director, Martin Livermore, wrote that “The Scientific Alliance has never received money from ExxonMobil”[7] and according to the Alliance, “donations are only accepted without conditions and afford no influence over [the group’s] policy”.[1]”
But yes, energy policy has been ridiculous for decades, with lttle effort to reduce demand
Oh Derek please get yourself a yellow vest.
It could help keep you safe and might come in useful when we have a yellow vest protest.
So you enjoy the song of the woodpecker when you can hear it over the noise of the traffic bloody traffic.
Do you agree woodpecker is an awful name to give a bird?
The Spanish for woodpecker is pajaro carpintero. I think that’s a great name.
Pajaro = bird
@George Ferguson says:21 September, 2023 at 10:02 pm
Perhaps Norway with one of the largest Sovereign wealth funds per person was not a good example
Certainly not disputing the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth fund.
It’s often the case on here that original points get lost in the welter of accusation and counter-accusation.
In this case, the original point was a claim by somebody that iScotland will have cheap energy, and I was pointing out that iScotland’s most-quoted exemplar, Norway, has anything but.
As somebody else pointed out, Norway has high incomes and correspondingly high taxes. High costs too, for beer and meals out. It’s probably because they wisely determined to do all of these things that they have that fabled Sovereign Wealth fund. They wouldn’t have it if they had “gifted” their assets away at cost price or less.
And to me, the lesson for iScotland is clear.
@George Ferguson says:21 September, 2023 at 10:02 pm
Perhaps Norway with one of the largest Sovereign wealth funds per person was not a good example
Certainly not disput ing the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth fund.
It’s often the case on here that original points get lost in the welter of accusation and counter-accusation.
In this case, the original point was a claim by somebody that iScotland will have cheap energy, and I was pointing out that iScotland’s most-quoted exemplar, Norway, has anything but.
As somebody else pointed out, Norway has high incomes and correspondingly high taxes. High costs too, for beer and meals out. It’s probably because they wisely determined to do all of these things that they have that fabled Sovereign Wealth fund. They wouldn’t have it if they had “gifted” their assets away at cost price or less.
And to me, the lesson for iScotland is clear.
robertkknight says:
22 September, 2023 at 4:27 am
Easiest means of ensuring that those who vote here genuinely are here is via tax code. No ‘S’ on your HMRC reference, no vote. Simples…
Except I wouldn’t trust HMRC as far as I could spit, and be sure of spitting them in the eye.
Scum of the earth.
It’s weird what happens when language changes and new slang words are introduced.
Poor old woody the woodpecker is stuck with a rude name.
The RSPB should campaign for an official name change for Woody.
Does anyone use the phrase ‘keep your pecker up’ anymore?
Not quite sure what the theme will be today. There are so many to choose from:
Heating bloody heating!
Browsers bloody browsers!
New words bloody new words!
Genders bloody genders!
Flame-baiters bloody flame-baiters!
Banned words bloody banned words!
Spam bloody spam!
I might cover them all I’ll start with browsers bloody browsers. In my case it’s Firefox bloody firefox.
Why when I do a search on Firefox it searches on Ebay only?
I do not what to do a search on Ebay for viagra.
Thank you very much.
I’ll no doubt get a load of spam from Ebay now trying to flog me viagra.
I just wanted to know the cost of viagra and if it was available on prescription and if you could just self-id to get viagra as you might to get HRT & testosterone.
Patient: Mornin’ Doctor! Can I have a free prescription for viagra I need if for my work.
Doctor: Sure thing here you go.
Patient: Thank you doctor have a nice day
Doctor: You too. Keep your pecker up. BTW what work do you do?
Patient: My job isn’t in Scotland doctor I’ve only come here for the free prescrition. I live in England and work in the film industry.
Have you actually tried to cycle on the roads to find out what it is really like?
Roads are for cars, which is the method of transport grown ups use for important journeys.
They are not a personal exercise track for middle class men with too much time on their hands, who want to show other men their lycra clad bums while making them late for work.
Sam
You might expect an analysis of energy requirements coming from members of a professional organisation that prides itself on adopting a Systems Approach to problem solving would consider the demand side as well as the supply side. They do not. Their report is worthless as policy analysis, except as an insight to how they think. It’s also six years old.
Maybe it’s too much to expect folk with careers in an industry (in this case nuclear and grid supply) to “see the bigger picture”. We have known for decades that the primary response to overuse of fossil fuels is a combination of demand reduction and renewable generation.
Demand reduction of course flies in the face of every profit-seeker and gets relentlessly squashed, even now when the stupidity of that is plainly evident.
[I posted a quick reaction from bed on my phone but it hasn’t appeared, no doubt due to clumsy fingers]
Sweeties bloody sweeties I love em
Just spotted a bloke on Twitter who has just bought ’10 tons’ of old fashioned sweeties.
I’m guessing the boxes contain midget gems, cherry lips, sweetie cigarettes, sherbet dabs, spangles and all those old fashioned sweeties that contain actual sugar.
What I would like to know is what is he going to do with all those sweeties.
I don’t think he has a sweetie shop.
Are all his friends & family getting a goodie bag of assorted sweeties for Christmas?
Maybe rewards for his subscribers?
Do e-kittens, swans, squirrels, foxes, badgers & rats like a wee midget gem now and again?
I know bears like ’em they’ll eat anything but they are particularly fond of the midget gem & the sweetie cigarette.
Bear patrol wardens never take a bag of sweeties out with them on patrol especially not in their heated vest pocket.
Bears can smell these sweeties from miles off. It can be very dangerous.
So what do you think? What is this person going to do with ’10 tons’ of old fashioned sweeties?
Demand reduction of course flies in the face of every profit-seeker and gets relentlessly squashed, even now when the stupidity of that is plainly evident.
It’s a bit early for drugs, Fruitella.
Of course we have demand reduction, why do you think they forced you to buy halogen lightbulbs, before forcing you to buy LED? What do you think all those increasingly tightening energy use regulations for domestic appliances are for, if not demand reduction? Efficiency savings from mandating lower power devices – along with outsourcing manufacturing to China – is what allowed the UK and EU to get by with gradually running down their electricity production capacity over the last 20 years, even while the population soars due to migration.
Even in France, which used to take pride in its atomic power infrastructure. Their nuke plants are ancient and crumbling now. The Chinese are building more power plant in a year than Western Europe builds in a decade.
Efficiency savings such as swapping old lightbulbs are one thing, telling people they’re not allowed central heating or transportation is quite another thing.
Anybody who wants to impose that type of demand reduction on you and your family means for you to live in poverty. I don’t intend to live in poverty for the sake of googly-eyed weirdos such as Patrick Harvie. I would like my people to enjoy comfort and plenty.
Scotland Free, or an Angel Delight.
2 min cycling song covering some of the types on two wheels.
Contains a lot of swearing so probably posting this is a hate crime and could also get you fired if you play this and work alongside a prude or two or more.
TBH if your work has more prudes that swearers then you’re probably best outta there anyway.
link to youtube.com
RUBY 08:26
straight from the dictionary.
PÁJARO(pah-hah-roh)
Masc. noun.
1. (animal)
bird
a. bird
El pájaro en el alféizar de mi ventana llena el aire de música.The bird on my windowsill fills the air with music.
2. (colloquial) (male genitalia) (Guatemala) (Venezuela)
a. pee-pee (colloquial) (United States)
Se sacó el pájaro y empezó a mear.He took out his pee-pee and started to piss.
b. willy (colloquial) (United Kingdom)
Juanito, ¡deja de tocarte el pájaro!Juanito, stop playing with your willy!
3. (extremely offensive) (homosexual man) (Caribbean) (Costa Rica) (Ecuador)
a. fag (extremely offensive) (United States)
b. poof (extremely offensive) (United Kingdom)
All depends where you live.
Mitsubishi innocently called an SUV «pajero» which is the appropriate name for those who drive those gas guzzling tanks.
Mi primo es un pajero que se pasa el día viendo porno.My cousin is a wanker who spends his days watching porn.
As usual it is America that queers the pitch in English language usage. Stick to woodpecker and shame the yanquís.
Spangles, count me in.
@fruitella the hun says:22 September, 2023 at 9:21 am
the primary response to overuse of fossil fuels is a combination of demand reduction and renewable generation
Hmmm.
Reference the “demand reduction” part, that is code for no longer doing some of the things the previous generation (or even our younger selves) took for granted.
Like comfortably heating our Scottish homes, for example.
But it’s a weasel code too. It’s not “demand reduction”, it’s more “demand transfer”. Investigation shows that the world consumption of oil, gas, and even coal, is still rising, and that the expert estimation of when the world will reach peak oil, gas, and pesky coal, is still some years in the future.
So we are beggaring ourselves and freezing ourselves while those third-world consumers can’t believe their luck.
All that luvverly oil, gas and coal, just for them. With a side order of guilt-tripped dosh from us for “flooding/baking/drowning/washing away their countries”.
Does anybody know the maximum temperature differential between inside and outside a house you can maintain in Scotland in midwinter by vigorous virtue signalling?
Cremola Foam as a mixer</b.
Maybe the boxes contain some Cremola Foam.
Cremola Foam is great as a mixed or to dull the taste of a not too great cider or beer.
Hello barman! Can I have a Cremola Foam shandy please.
Barman: Certainly Strawberry or Lemon? Sorry we've run out of Raspberry there was a cycling club in here earlier all dressed in black lyrca who took the last of my Raspberry Cremola Foam. These boys do love their Raspberry Cremola Foam Shandies they even insist on a cherry & wee umbrella in their beer.
Would you be wanting a cherry on a stick & umbrella in your beer.
Nobody answered my question re drinking & cycling.
Any signs anywhere saying don't drink & cycle?
Is it illegal to drink & cycle?
Can you be banned from cycling for a year if you're caught after too many Cremola Foam shandies?
Oh shit! I didn't mean to do 'cyclists bloody cyclists' today. That was yesterday's theme.
It’s all your fault Red!
@John Main 8:28pm
I don’t usually compare with Norway as it reminds me of how Scotland should have been in terms of the public ownership of Electricity Companies and their oil wealth creation over the last 60 years. Too late was the cry. Perhaps but transitioning to net zero is an opportunity to seek public consent to distribute our energy assets more fairly. Hence I promote public ownership of Electricity and Gas assets. How we do that is up for debate. Have a good weekend I am out and about now.
Low energy consuming 10 watt led light bulbs just mean that you need to turn up the heating more to compensate for the lack of the 90 watts of heat the oldskool 100 watt bulbs used to put out.
If you use a fossil fuel derived heating system then this is a regressive planet wrecking step seeing as Scotland’s leccy generation is almost entirely generated by renewables.
I’m incandescent with rage that more folk can’t see this and won’t buy my new old stock of dual output bulbs that act as both a light source and heater.
Other top tip: Folk will notice the temps are dropping for winter. Soon we will be at parity levels between ambient and fridge temps. (If you spaffed many thousands of your own or taxpayer’s pounds to install an ASHP on an unsuitable property you may already be there! 😉 ). That being the case you will be able to switch off your fridge to save energy costs for a couple of months, and obviously when it gets below freezing you can turn your fridge back on again to keep stuff warm.
Ruby – These boys do love their Raspberry Cremola Foam Shandies they even insist on a cherry & wee umbrella in their beer.
He is worse than a cyclist, he is – may Allah forgive me – a vegan.
Sorry forgot the closing thing on the closing bracket hence Cremola Foam post all in bold
link to youtube.com
Irn-Bru Cremola Foam!!!!
I lot of adult content in that post. You need to warn folk who might be of a sensitive disposition.
I’m fine with it glad to learn a lot of new Spanish words.
I’ll be careful I don’t get birds & cocks mixed up.
Not too sure about pronunciation is that South American.
I tend to pronounce the j (jota) more like the Scottish ch sound as in loch.
That could be very difficult for English people because they they can not do the ch sound they think it’s pronounce like the k sound in lock.
How do you think they would get on learning Arabic?
PS I’m going to post a general warning that all my post contain adult content.
Adult content from adult human female.
Red, JM
Both of you pounce on the mention of “demand reduction”
Funny that.
Jerks labelling any of the typical personal green actions as “virtue signalling” have always been with us. Self restraint us deeply uncool to their swaggering overgrown adolescent kind. Of course communications consultants will use such personas to target that demographic. So if John Main is himself and not a hired persona, he may be well be no smarter than he comes across here.
I tend to ignore Red’s posts since he claimed that all kids were at risk from green ideology. He hates greens and that fits with the old-style marxists I’ve known – even those who pretend that they do see some environmental limitations on their idea of progress. They are the ones doing most of the virtue signalling greenwask, along with a few skeekit tories. If they really cared about the future for kids they would be fully backing the earliest release from dependence on fossil fuels,
Show me your massive insulation project
Maybe about 15 years ago I had to change my leaking water boiler.
The lmmersion heater in the new tank didn’t appear to work and neither did the replacement.
Local tradesman was mystified.
Having a back boiler in my fire, I have no need for an immersion heater but do wonder if they are quietly lowering the voltage.
Twathater, 21 september 6:10 pm.
Ian Brotherhood, 21september 6: 42 pm.
Hear hear,
Older generation seem to be the ones with brains.
The rest are waiting for a hero, even if the hero would steal their sovereignty,
I think most are here to chat about other subjects that are secondary or even third to the main issue,
Nothing can be done or achieved without the first one,
Time to indulge your inner sanctimony, self righteousness and neo puritanism.
link to off-guardian.org
People who dwell in glass houses?
It couldn’t be more obvious that the top turnips in the SNP are there to stymie and stifle a proper crack at becoming an independent nation again, and it raises suspicion in me why the comment I made yesterday was sin binned. Part of clearing the SNP out will revolve around drawing attention to that fact, so it is quite odd that my first ever post here was sin binned. Especially given that nobody else seems to be pointing that obvious fact out. Does the long arm of London control this site?
Searching on Ebay bloody Ebay Sorted
Has your browser defaulted to searching on Ebay?
I did not want to search on Ebay for butterflies. I just wanted to know the origin of the word butterfly. Are butterflies particularly fond of butter.
I also wanted to know the origin of the Spanish for butterfly
La Mariposa.
Also want to know what la mariposa might mean in Spanish other than just butterfly.
I wouldn’t want to say ‘I hate butterflies in Spanish’ and find myself arrested for a hate crime.
Then there is Spanish Fly. What is that and why is it called Spanish Fly.
More Importantly
Any news about the content of the big sweetie boxes
pipinghot wants to know if he’ll be getting some Spangles
I would like some of these wee round sweeties (can’t remember what they are called)
a bit like the midget gem but they were small & round they tasted good and they made great earrings. You could just lick them and stick them to your ears.
We’re way off topic now. 🙂
Stu maybe too busy opening his big boxes to write a new article.
Spanish for big boxes another one to watch. Big boxes & balls kinda similar.
Oh cajones!
He’s got some really big boxes!
One of the many useful things done by the now deceased Colin Gibson was to state that UK governments have long left the security of electricity supply to the market.
There is no energy security in the UK.
I prefer the opinion of Colin Gibson to that of fruitella who, I guess, has not run an electrical system. Colin Gibson did.
Colin Gibson was also of the view that the National Grid, which he managed, should be a non-profit organisation.
Wind and solar power have high capital costs. Costs increase with the increasing integration into the grid of a larger proportion of intermittent energy.
In his youth he was a road racing cyclist.
I can’t figure out The Greens.
One thing they are definitely not doing is protecting kids.
It looks to me as if they just want to close everything down.
But hey that will definitely solve the recycling problem because we will have nothing to recycle.
We’ll all be starving going about naked with no shoes and that definitely ain’t going to be good for the children.
Maybe we need start studying the caveman and how he survived.
What is the origin of the word ratatouille does it involve rats? Will we be eating a lot of ratatouille in Lorna & Patrick’s brave new world?
RUBY
Dictionaries, books liable to contain words some people may find offensive.
Aardvaark….sounds like….?
When naming products think outside the box of your own language.
The japanese produce a sports drink called «sweat» and a cigarette called «pis».
Any product calling itself zeb, zob, zub, zoub should stay well clear of the arabophone world?
There is no point in ridding ourselve of the snp to replace them with he other same old political parties that run Britain for the past three hundred years or more.
That are of the same calibre as the Snp,
Self serving politicians into extremism of politics that has very little effect on the politicians or the very wealthy, but a terrible dangerous detrimental effect on the average family and man and woman economically.
There all at it,
when Scots were Scots independence was the main aim,
So we could plan the future of our nation away from Wars, poverty and create industries, to be able to manage our own future,
Speaking of many things on here that are not achievable under the same kind of continued politics and politicians as the last lot means you are happy with the gender policies being promoted in Scotland which is perverted,
It means you are content to loose the ability to drive your own vehicle of your choice,
It means you are happy that you might be imprisoned under the “hate crime bill” which is racist towards the Nation of people living in Scotland, no matter where you were born, this is a bill passed for Scotland not Britain,
It means that you must be happy that the women and children of your families have to succumb to women with beards,
A police force that will monitor your speech , but do very little when someone has broke into your house and stolen or trashed your property.
Is this the Scotland you want,
Laws being passed that are not equal to all human rights, but are selected to benefit or profit a few
To be locked down in Ulez and continously paying high priced fine’s towns and Cities in Scotland,
Your home and purse constantly in debt with extortionate bills to every Council or big service provider.
This is not the Scotland the older generation Scots want, because unlike the younger generation, they see what is coming
And it de- humanises humanity and sets us back in our standard of living and a new type of Colonial and financial enslavement by two or three hundred years.
We need a independent Scotland so that we steer a different path for humanity in Scotland,
Then you can make your own laws on bridges, boilers, perverts, migration, house building,
A fair and open justice system that still has a jury,
who avoids taxes that should be paid in Scotland , who owns Scotland, our resources, and Sovereignty.
But the people must want their Country to be independent Scotland as the first criteria,
Or we can carry on with the same old politicians and political class that are all for anti- humane policies. To fine, imprison, charge you in every area of you life just for living, restrict you in every imaginable way of your personal life.
Ruby says:
22 September, 2023 at 12:07 pm
I can’t figure out The Greens.
The packet of sweets, and the cheeky wee smile are a clue though.
I’m not sure if they all have detatchable penises or if that’s just most of them, but I do keep a crucifix handy just in case the Green Party ever tries to canvas me.
TURABIN,
Russell Band is in a long list of individual Journalist being witch hunted by old MSM,
The find a reason, to the point a finger, to bring them down, sling em up and hang them out to swing by public social media without a real jury or trial,
If you do not spout propaganda only,
It is another julian Assauge, lock in up and throw away the keys.
And the new one to be de-platformed, Neil Oliver,
The man that believed his great Britain was free, at the same time as believing Scotland did not have the right to be free,
Maybe now he knows what a being a “hypocrite”: actually means when (he) thought only special people in Britain were allowed free speech and freedom to choose your own future,
Does the older generation have more brains than the younger generation?
Just because someone is over fifty doesn’t make them a Karen. Just because someone is only sixteen doesn’t mean they have no brains or that they are cool.
Polls if you believe them give some indication of the ‘intelligence’ of different groups.
Sad to say many more of the older generation support remaining in the Union than do the younger generation.
Does that make them more or less intelligent?
Generalising about one group or the other is bigoted and pretty much how racists think.
Some of the older generation have memories like goldfish and some are as sharp as a tack.
It would be unfair to say the oldies can’t even remember what they did yesterday.
Those with memories like goldfish can read & post the same thing day after day and are quite happy with that and others like to cover different topics.
It’s impossible to stay on topic for 300 post or even a 100
Most poster make their initial contribution on the subject say at the most 10 posts and then run out of things to say.
This article about ‘unincorporated associations’ was surprisingly interesting however I don’t think even a lawyer or expert in sequestration could have managed to stay on topic for 300 posts.
On the subject of independence I believe most posters have nothing new to say on that topic.
All that seems to be happening is some flame-baiter comes on winds folk up demanding to be shown the money or something similar and then posters regurgitate what they’ve said a million times already probably in answer to that same flame-baiter.
Perhaps now that the hand that fed Mr Oliver has turned on him he will realise the value of having a different alternative Social Structure in a independent Scotland.
Maybe not,
He has been indoctrinated through his education and financial employment and MSM to hate the idea for to long I presume,
But freedom of Speech is Valuable and something that Scotland has never had,
But when the hand that feeds you turns on you and that same MSM employing you, start to witch hunt you…….
Apparently Ruby you are right from my observations.
@fruitella the hun says:22 September, 2023 at 11:09 am
I’ll see if I can respond to your post without resorting to insults and name calling. Should be easy.
If they really cared about the future for kids they would be fully backing the earliest release from dependence on fossil fuels
Uh-huh. And there are a number of ways to do that, including efficiencies, insulation, and massive expansion of alternative energy sources and distribution infrastructure.
And also, of course, we can make fossil fuel dependency just too, darn expensive. The time to do that is when the other alternatives are onstream, not before. As finally noticed by Sunak.
I’m not going to pretend I lose sleep over our kid’s futures too much (what kids? we Scots are hardly breeding at all), but forcing them to endure cold, damp homes and other privations when the country is hoaching with oil and gas is a strange way to show the love.
I note you failed to respond to my other major point – that while we in the “advanced” west ration ourselves, those in the “backwards” part of the world are going full steam ahead for maximum fossil fuel consumption. Yup, their kids might well be expecting to do just fine.
I say “backwards”, but really? Just how “backwards”, compared with us, are the Gulf States these days? The millions of Chinese and Indian middle classes?
Yup, as I expected, that was easy. Zero insults. How come it’s beyond you?
Aim for net zero, FtH.
“This site advocates Scottish independence”
So I always try stay on topic, independence of Scotland no matter what method,
Ruby,
I’m Scottish. I have a U.K. citizenship. None of your fantasies about deportations between Scotland and rUK are going to happen, largely because iScotland isn’t going to happen, but even if it did, it’s not how the separated countries work work together.
“The time to do that (cut oil dependency) is when the other alternatives are onstream, not before.”
Have you heard of “opportunity cost”? As long as there is oil to pump the investors will not build the alternatives. Ask Alex Salmond, he said something like we need to keep the oil industry going so we keep the skills needed to build renewable systems. Well those skills can’t be in two places at once. Alba have repeatedly indicated they will take the oil because it is needed to build a viable Scotland (in their economic theory)
Your other point, you’ve made it before, I answered ages ago (9th Aug). To repeat:
“Maybes we don’t agree that Scots should shiver in the dark so that the brown and yellow people can have their unimpeded turn at wrecking the environment.”
We do agree, we can drastically cut our carbon emissions without having to “shiver in the dark” or ‘live in caves” or any of the other Project Fear (Oil Business Security edition) standards. You know everything so you’ll know that.
As for what the brown and yellow people do, as they assert themselves after two hundred plus years of imperial attention destroying the fabric of their societies, that’s up to them. The climate damage caused by burning fossil fuels bears down even harder on their territories.
Sam
You’re spot on, I’m not an electricity distribution expert. I’m sure their examination of the energy supply system is (or was) competent. My criticism is that they identify a shortfall without any examination of the mitigation measures which would reduce demand. They also assume that a growth-based economy would need more energy. We didn’t really have a growth-based economy in 2017 and hadn’t for nearly a decade. Maybe we’ll get one sometime soon (I hope not – it will just speed up the destruction) but I suspect their projected demand is wrong. Of course they are not economists so that’s fair enough.
But they are engineers and quite capable of speculating on the various demand reduction techniques that could be built in to our society. That would qualify as a Systems Approach and be of much practical use.
My own conclusion is that they simply have no incentive to or interest in looking at anything other than a profit-driven model – the basis of prosperity for those well placed.
Ruby, 21st Sep, 10.55pm
I do understand what you are saying and it is all quite complicated really. What is worth bearing in mind is that one of cyclists’ worst problems is drivers turning left, often not indicating, and simply ignoring them, cutting them up in a very dangerous way. I would also slow down if I had time and a motorist was indicating left but the other thing to bear in mind is that bikes also have momentum and pulling up quickly is not always that easy on a two-wheeled vehicle, plus the far left of roads is also often rutted and difficult, making falling off a real possibility. But yes cyclists also act in a cavalier and bad way with no lights and dark clothing. There is no excuse for this.
‘Sometimes motorist just stop to allow you to turn right. You know the scene they flash their lights when they see you want to turn right. Here again it’s not possible to see the cyclists.
What should I do?’
Very good question and the thing is if traffic is moving, motorists are really not supposed to stop to let other cars turn right because it is potentially dangerous. It seems courteous but it is not a good idea. And yes, one the reasons is things like cyclists being caught out by it and you not seeing them in time. Put simply, people shouldn’t do it.
Southernbystander says: at 7:20 pm
What is worth bearing in mind is that one of cyclists’ worst problems is drivers turning left, often not indicating, and simply ignoring them, cutting them up in a very dangerous way. I would also slow down if I had time and a motorist was indicating left but the other thing to bear in mind is that bikes also have momentum and pulling up quickly is not always that easy on a two-wheeled vehicle, plus the far left of roads is also often rutted and difficult, making falling off a real possibility. But yes cyclists also act in a cavalier and bad way with no lights and dark clothing. There is no excuse for this.
So having said that, what do you make of the incident I posted upthread in this post? As someone that cycles a lot, rides a motorcycle and has competed in motorsport so I understand speed, mass of vehicles, road positioning, hazard perception, and defensive driving, it’s my view that the cyclist in this clip was riding like an idiot.
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Direct link.
link to twitter.com
Dan, it is the classic situation isn’t it? The car did not give much time from indicating to turning and did they see the cyclist? I agree the cyclist ignored the indicator and carried on regardless and put themselves in a dangerous situation but should the driver have turned regardless and knocked them off? One must assume they didn’t see them or is a sadist!
Had that been me cycling I would pulled up and let them turn because I could guess what would happen otherwise, but would also have been annoyed they thought they could just do this rather then let me pass first. They would never do it from an outer lane with another car to their left. Why is it okay to do it to a cyclist to their left? Had I been driving I would have let the bike pass because otherwise they would have had to stop and causing another road user to stop or even slow down so you can turn isn’t right, is it? Not sure but I once failed my test doing that!
However having said all that, I think the issue here is that the car was ahead of the cyclist so *probably* has right of way. Cars are forbidden in the highway code from overtaking a cyclist and turning left but is rather vague about one just behind. All it says is:
183
When turning
keep as close to the left as is safe and practicable
give way to any vehicles using a bus lane, cycle lane, cycle track or tramway from either direction, including when they are passing slow moving or stationary vehicles on either side.
So had the cylist in the video been in a cycle lane what the motorist did would be against the highway code. Unfortunately it says nothing about where there isn’t a cycle lane.
The bump does actually occur in a cycle lane which starts just a short distance prior to the incident. But the car brake lights and the indicator come on prior to the start of the cycle lane so an alert cyclist should have clocked them and gone defensive mode.
There is also the matter included in the highway code of stopping distances and maintaining adequate distances from the vehicles in front. Even the 2 second rule clearly isn’t being adhered to by the cyclist. These aspects are included in the highway code for the obvious reasons that they give a better field of vision and also time to react and respond should the need arise.
There are times in that vid when the cyclist is hovering right on the car’s back bumper giving little if any time or distance to react should the car have to brake suddenly for any reason.
TBH the whole road setup with limited lane widths, multiple differing types of junctions in close proximity, and bus stops, means that the addition of a cycle lane in the mix probably just increases hazards and potential for incidents rather than if vehicles and bikes just flowed along in the one lane maintaining safe recommended distances which afford everyone using the road better overall vision of other road users and hazards.
It is a 20mph zone after all.
I didn’t notice the cycle lane, but I agree, I did think the cyclist was too close.
Southernbystander says:
22 September, at 10:32 pm
“I didn’t notice the cycle lane…”
Hmm, well this kind of highlights the whole issue.