The wheels of the bus
…appear to be about to roll over Leslie Evans.
Which in itself raises some extremely serious questions about the judgement of the First Minister who extended Evans’ contract by two years in January 2020, long after she’d known about the series of disastrous and costly blunders Evans had made in the Salmond investigation.
But that’s not even the real story.
Because Wings has learned this weekend that in an attempt to limit those held responsible for the fiasco to Evans and others in the civil service, and protect the First Minister and other senior figures in the SNP and Scottish Government, the Fabiani committee has been persuaded to withdraw its intention to obtain a raft of key documents from Alex Salmond’s lawyers, as he offered them two weeks ago, and as revealed by Craig Murray on Friday.
(And now confirmed in the Sunday Post, weirdly tacked onto another story.)
There are no legal obstacles to the release of these documents. The Section 23/24 orders which would have enabled Mr Salmond’s lawyers to hand them over are part of the Scotland Act, and cannot be countermanded by any power of the Parliament. The decision to withdraw them was made entirely by the committee, dividing again along party lines – Unionist MSPs wanted the documents, but the SNP members and Andy Wightman outvoted them.
The range of information they would reveal is breathtaking. According to our source close to the committee, documents would address/provide proof of:
– early “interference” in Judith Mackinnon’s investigation by special advisers.
– the answer to this question from Jackie Baillie, dodged by the Lord Advocate:
– concerns that were being expressed in the SNP NEC in January 2019 about the “suborning” of witnesses, after the police investigation had begun.
– letters from the Crown Office threatening to send in the police to enforce a search warrant the Scottish Government was refusing to comply with.
– the “construction of evidence” by senior SNP officers, as alleged by Alex Salmond during his appearance before the inquiry:
– evidence of the division of complainers in the criminal investigation into two groups by Peter Murrell, one to be handled by SNP compliance officer Ian McCann and the other by SNP chief operating officer Sue Ruddick. (Significant because it happened some time after Alex Salmond had resigned from the SNP, and was therefore none of the SNP’s business – contact with the complainers should have been left to the police.)
– text messages between various senior SNP officers about pressurising witnesses and “fishing” for evidence, including high-ranking SNP officers issuing instructions to contact non-SNP members as well as members.
The latter group included people like Anne Harvie, who refused to participate in what she perceived as a “witch-hunt”.
(This was done on their own initiative, NOT under any requests from the police, who again should have been the sole investigating body.)
– and finally this carefully-vague statement from investigating officer Judith Mackinnon, which our source tells us is flatly contradicted by documentary evidence pointing not to Nicola Richards but once again to… Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans.
– and much else besides.
———————————————
We expect some of these issues to be raised in what promises to be a very interesting week before the Fabiani committee has to produce its report eight days from now.
The Scottish Government’s obstruction has successfully hidden great swathes of key evidence from the inquiry and has managed to run out the clock – considerably aided by the SNP members of the committee and Andy Wightman, who have dithered and blocked and eaten up large blocks of time.
(We cannot explain, for example, why two weeks were allowed to elapse following Mr Salmond’s offer before an order to obtain the above evidence was considered.)
It is plain beyond a shadow of rational dispute that the entire approach of the Scottish Government and SNP has from the very beginning been to deflect all blame onto civil servants and conceal evidence of any wrongdoing by the First Minister and other Scottish Government and SNP officials, at a minimum until after the election when they hope they’ll be able to ride out any consequences.
(And by which time, from the perspective of independence supporters, it’ll be too late to make any difference to anything anyway.)
The next eight days will tell us whether they’ve succeeded.
But if nothing else, they’ve learned well from their role models.
I hope AS comes back to politics.
And I hope Andy Wightman is democratically booted out of politics.
Genuine question – why haven’t the 4 non-partisan members of the enquiry declared it a sham and walked out? The obstruction and obfuscation means it’s going to be a toothless white wash anyway?
And still the sheep keep bleating “stick with it for Indy” on SM.
Christ….
The wheels ON the bus …
link to twitter.com
Happy Mothers’ Day!
“The ruling class in every age have tried to impose a false view of the world upon their followers”. Orwell
‘All of which is being fronted by the complicit, Machiavellian MSM augmented by social media, whose leadership themselves are on the same #ToryAnalytica team. However their misdirection theatre will, with decreasing plausibility, maintain their fake news narrative to seal us within a fake ‘reality’ that blames the internet and all men by precedented #MeTooMatrix ‘Rampant Sexism‘ propaganda, for democracy’s and society’s ills respectively.’
Awake not woke
That’s exactly what I would have done.
Rev Stu, Sturgeon is going to get away with this isn’t she?
@Karen says:
14 March, 2021 at 6:31 pm
The wheels ON the bus …
…go round and round…
It will be surprising if the committee manages to make a meaningful agreed report, given the SNP/Wightman majority.
It will also be surprising if the public sees the report before election day.
Doubleplus surprising if the Hamilton report is seen by then.
quote. the competance and professionalism of the civil service -matters. the independance of the crown office-as acting in the public interest-matters. acting in accordance with legal advice-matters.concealing evidence from the courts-matters.the duty of candour of public authorities-matters. democratic accountability through parliament-matters.suppressing evidence from parliamentry commitees-matters.and yes,ministers telling the truth to parliament-matters.
Brilliant post Stuart .
It’s all unravelling at the rate we envisaged , whatever the eventual body-count , the onslaught of damaging material and it’s reporting will increase daily .
It’s difficult to get an objective sense of the public mood , our vision coloured by the information we ingest , but I think this SNPG is mortally wounded , and the pack is closing in .
The kindest thing may be to put it out of our misery
It would seem that this “ enquiry ”, once it is concluded will be a prime case for a judicial review. Which is where this all started
Their duplicity and chicanery knows no bounds. But they can depend on the most supine and inept committee of all time, constructed of course to ensure there could be never be a real inquiry and to whitewash the whole scandal. But the malicious, illegal behaviour of the cronies goes way beyond simple political bungling or civil service ineptitude. They have colluded to destroy evidence, withhold it and obfuscate the entire process, preventing vital witnesses from giving evidence to the point of threatening them. It is an enormous scandal, from which they perpetrators should never escape responsibility, and for the person in charge to throw a few of them under the bus in order is callous political calculation in the extreme. It is the end for many people to retain any belief in intentions of this group of people, chief of whom of course is Sturgeon. None of them should ever hold public office again, or remain in the employ of the Scottish taxpayer, for whom they have shown nothing but contempt and indifference. And they have the gall to expect to remain in office. An utter travesty, which the pathetically compliant (and financially compromised)
Scottish media will do nothing to challenge.
Our Sturgeon nightmare could be all over on the 6th of May 2021.
How good does that sound???
If Evans is sacked, won’t she blow the whistle?
Why wouldn’t she?
Glasgow Liar, give it a rest.
If your campaign as Sarwar’s election agent is successful Sturgeon will almost certainly get in on the list.
What now? How do we get the truth out?
Andy Wightman is lower than a snakes belly, we all saw him during Alex Salmond’s session saying he wanted new evidence supplied but it turns out that he was just saying that while running a back hander with the SNP members to delay and ultimately stop the evidence being seen. The twisted bastard is clearly fishing for SNP list votes. No way Andy. You’re done in politics.
Craig Murray is correct of course to refer to breathtaking levels of corruption. I wonder if anyone can offer the name of any other world government where this would be acceptable? We really do need to get serious and consider the merits of jailing someone. It’s unlikely that would be Leslie Evans….much more likely to be Swinney and Wolffe. I think the Scottish public of all political allegiences would support such a move.
This whole thing is truly appalling
I’m sure Mr Salmond is well advised but he has pulled his punches. This is not a case that should be dealt with by a committee of partisan halfwits and a gentleman (Though no doubt capable) fetched in from Ireland;
This requires not a political/ public perception/termination of employment type outcome; it needs and deserves a full criminal investigation-though clearly that cannot be done quickly and not by the next election date
I assume a complaint to the police will be required or a referral of the evidence they have heard from the Committee (Yeah,ok) or the Irish former ‘DPP’.
Presumably an agreement to do an illegal act is a conspiracy under Scottish law; doing an act tending and intended to pervert the course of justice likewise (that can occur during the investigative stage as well as after charges are brought). I am sure the police would pursue this on a credible complaint; they can actually enforce search warrants but it seems Mr Salmonds lawyers have most of the stuff anyway and Im sure would co-operate. Anyone know why this isn’t happening?? Please?
ScotsRenewables says:
14 March, 2021 at 6:52 pm
If Evans is sacked, won’t she blow the whistle?
Why wouldn’t she?
———————————————————-
Would her generous pension be in jeopardy if she was sacked for wrongdoing?
The factor above all else that has impacted on the Inquiry’s inclination to do its job is media attention. Interest in this was at fever pitch just a couple of weeks ago but then, quite suddenly and inexplicably, media attention was switched off. Without that close scrutiny, the Inquiry has been left to do as it pleases.
But this isn’t over by a long shot. It’s going to serve as the big stick with which the unionist parties and press will beat the SNP in the run up to the election. If they’ve held back until now, it’s because they didn’t want to give the SNP the time to replace sturgeon before the election.
Now is probably a good time for them to reignite the story.
Tomorrow is the ides of March.
Evans was always going to be the fall guy should one be required. The real answer on why her contract was extended is that she needed to be kept in post as a bodyguard for Sturgeon and others.
The more interesting question will be does Evans go quietly or is she willing to tell her story?
Scots Renewables
You are beginning to become a pest.
Give it a rest.
We all know you want Sturgeon to stay on as leader.
But I don’t,,,therefore I have a different opinion to you,,,are you going to deny me that???
So let’s leave it at that, and agree not to agree.
It’s called democracy.
It makes me sick to the pit of my stomach. Scotland is nothing more than a jumped up banana republic.
And people are seriously going to vote for the SNP? Just fucking abstain and don’t vote for anybody, make it the lowest voter turnout in history.
If you’re an honest man or woman, how can you ever vote SNP and condone corruption?
If anybody does, then they’re not as honest as they like to think they are.
Evans will be fine. It’s theatre for the masses, no actual (governmental) blood will be spilt.
The truth will come out, and sturgeon cant hide behind the brit establishment forever.
The indy movement needs to remain strong. Get rid of the careerists and liars
Bob Costello @6.46pm.
Bob.
As you rightly point out the committee, or parts of it including the chair, have hindered this investigation. it should’ve never been left to party MSP’s to conduct it, party politics has superceded access to the truth on this occasion.
Re: There are no legal obstacles to the release of these documents. The Section 23/24 orders which would have enabled Mr Salmond’s lawyers to hand them over are part of the Scotland Act, and cannot be countermanded by any power of the Parliament. The decision to withdraw them was made entirely by the committee, dividing again along party lines – Unionist MSPs wanted the documents, but the SNP members and Andy Wightman outvoted them.
That is not true. There has been no vote in Committee on this matter. On 2 March, the Committee agreed (with no division) to write to Levy & MacRae. Since that meeting there have been no divisions in Committee. Check the Minutes if you don’t believe me.
“That is not true. There has been no vote in Committee on this matter.”
Then how has the decision been changed?
Glasgow racer,
I want Sturgeon replaced as leader ASAP, but I don’t think voting Slab is ever going to be the answer. Apart from anything else, if the SNP drop a Glasgow seat they will almost certainly pick up a list seat and Sturgeon will be in anyway.
We can agree to differ on this, it s a free choice.
Anyone care to hazard a guess at what will come out tomorrow?
There is now the very real possibility that Nicola Sturgeon will lose her constituency seat come the 6th May 2021.
In 2007 Surgeon very narrowly in a 41% to 39% vote took the seat from Gordon Jackson and in the next two election increased her vote by 5% and then 14% in the post referendum SNP popularity.
But since then her personal popularity has started to collapse. Half of the SNP party members have left and the other remaining half are deeply disgruntled.
Moreover over the recent month the SNP has according to the polls fallen back by about ten percent in both constituency and list which is not a a good sign. And all too reflective of discontent with Sturgeon.
And it will get worse, of that there is no doubt. Sturgeon personal reputation and that of her government has turned electorally toxic.
A sitting leader losing her seat…..
The arrogant assumption that they would be without effort simply revoted in, that they were the only choice, is turning against them.
No wonder the party is in absolute panic.
ScotsRenewables, I am not so sure that if NS loses her seat, they will pick up a list seat in Glasgow. I ran some numbers assuming that the Glasgow list vote remains the same from 2016 and the SNP losing one seat. The result was no change in SNP list seats. If the SNP loses two constituencies in Glasgow, there is a possibility of an extra list seat, but it is a three-way fight between SNP, Conservative and Green (I think it’s green. I deleted the spreadsheet after I’d done the math.)
Why should Scotland’s future rest on the thoughts of a few individuals on an inquiry?
Who gave them the power to decide on who lives and who dies?
“Evily Lezzily – The Mocumentary”
along the lines of Spinal Tap, will run for many seasons, big profit.
Yet another unique Scottish export from a happy nation, blessed by freedom.
Mist001 says: at 7:13 pm
“Scotland is nothing more than a jumped up banana republic.”
That’s bullshit!
I aspire to the idea that Scotland can progress to being a banana republic, because if we can make the positive steps to reach that status, then we’d at least have enough sun and warmth to grow more fruit, and not have to pay for the monarchy…
Unfortunately that scenario is some way off in the future, because at the moment the predominant bent yellow organisms on our land appear to be packed into Holyrood and forming oor
GovernmentAdministration. 🙁So how and when are these things – along with the other stuff many of us know but can’t say – going to come out? Can they be released somehow or do we have to wait for a potential judge led inquiry or malicious prosecution case?
McMillan and Allan are seeking re-election.
I hope their dishonesty in this matter is a millstone round their necks.
If this becomes an issue for the partial media (and as sarwar can claim a labour revival……) then the two above will have to defend the hiding of evidence and the GRA/Hate crime bill
“A?brechnung” seems appropriate.
Abrechnung (possibly obvs)- its old german for reckoning. I believe.
Undoubtedly folk smarter than me will explain it. The nazis used it against the Jews. And then the Jews used it for their retaliation.
@Bob Costello
Just so there’s no confusion…the report of this inquiry cannot be the subject of a judicial review in the Court of Session, however a judge-led inquiry is an entirely different matter whether statutory or otherwise.
Surely somebody from the Alex Salmond legal team
Could simply – and very publicly – hand over the documents in question
@Skip_NC,
Well, I will shed no tears if Sturgeon loses her seat, provided we do not end up with a Unionist majority.
An SNP majority of 1, Sturgeon losing her seat, Craig Murray and Tommy Sheridan in on the AFI list… Probably close to my ideal.
I presume that if she does lose her seat and there is no list safety net that means an instant leadership contest? In which case, I hope that smug toad Robertson also doesn’t get in.
@Glasgow racer… I don’t for a minute imagine Scotland’s fate depends on the outcome of this enquiry. I believe Sturgeon is fatally wounded whatever the result, she and her adoring worshippers just don’t realise it yet.
I anticipate that the 4 Unionists on the harassment committee will declare themselves unable to sign off the committee’s report, citing the delayed release and redaction of documents, and that all data has not yet been released. The harassment enquiry would arguably then require to be resumed after the Holyrood election.
OK, I’ve redone my maths. 2016 list was 4 Labour, 2 Conservative and 1 Green
If we use the list vote share from 2016, and the SNP lose one constituency in Glasgow to Labour, it becomes 3 Labour, 2 Conservative, 1 SNP and 1 Green.
If the SNP lose two seats to Labour, it becomes SNP 2, Labour 2, Conservative 2, Green 1.
So, if NS loses her seat, she only gets back in (absent internal shenanigans) if the SNP loses a further seat in Glasgow. In other words, they would simply be standing still, swapping two constituencies for two Labour list seats.
Of course, without polling in each region, we don’t know how well the SNP is doing on the list in Glasgow. If they lose votes there, it could easily cost them the seventh list seat.
You say the unionist members of the committee supported requesting the documents, but the article quotes the Lid Dem member saying it they didn’t request the documents because it would break the law.
Is Ian Blackford Self IDing as Rowley Birkin these days?
Cough, eh Hate Crime Bill mate.
link to twitter.com
Skip_NC,
Do you really imagine that if Sturgeon loses her seat and the SNP get one list seat, the BAME can idate will get in ahead of Sturgeon?
geesabrek… No-one can be that naive. Said BAME candidate will suddenly develop ‘personal circumstances’ that will force them to stand down.
@Dan says:
14 March, 2021 at 7:53 pm
“Is Ian Blackford Self IDing as Rowley Birkin these days?
Cough, eh Hate Crime Bill mate.”
He’s getting ripped apart. Even Ruth Wishart is disagreeing with him.
Has there ever been a case where the citizens of a country have taken legal action against that country’s legal establishment?
I’m just thinking aloud here.
How does one set about bringing someone like The Lord Advocate to justice if the legal system itself is (albeit temporarily, as Alex Salmond suggested) not fit for purpose i.e. hopelessly corrupted?
The transcript Rev has published above (Wolffe’s exchange with Jackie Baillie) is typical of his behaviour throughout the whole inquiry process, be it in person or correspondence – endless dithering, obfuscation, pedantry, and, of course, downright refusal to answer perfectly straightforward and reasonable questions.
The idea that this character could end up just walking away from all this is sickening.
Judicial review is a possibility; or a petition nobile officium, as there appear to be exceptional and unforeseen circumstances which require resolution, namely the two competing public interest matters:
1. The need for anonymity for complainants in sexual cases
2. The need for Parliament (through the Committee) to have access to all material necessary for them to properly carry out their review.
The problem is that only the Crown Office and Mr. Salmond’s lawyers have the material ( which could be considered in a ‘nobile officium’ by the court as it is specifically provided for in legislation ). ‘Every wrong must have a remedy’
So it is putting the ball back into Mr. Salmond’s court, as his solicitors are not allowed to share it with anyone else, and goodness knows he must be pretty weary with court proceedings by now.
Can’t think of any other way to get it all out into the open.
the unionists have the whatsapp messages and will release them in the final weeks of the election together with blanket coverage fro BBC and MSM
link to twitter.com
ScotsRenewables @ 7:55pm, hence my use of the words (absent internal shenanigans) in my post at 7:47pm, which you may not have seen before your latest post.
I would not be surprised if number 1 on the Glasgow list was suddenly indisposed.
It’s going to serve as the big stick with which the unionist parties and press will beat the SNP in the run up to the election.
I really doubt that. The last thing the unionists want is to help Salmond in any way. That’s why this committee is so crap. None of them want Salmond’s evidence, or the obvious truth, because they all wanted him buried. For different reasons, maybe. And half of them also want Sturgeon buried. But not a one of them has any interest in the truth, especially not if that involves restoring Alex Salmond’s reputation any. So there will be an anodyne report which says nothing and then radio silence in the entire Salmond issue.
given the compelling and forensic detail provided by Murray, Dangerfield and Rev. Stu this debacle should have already done for NS. Looks like the scottish MSM (along with the other arms of state-CO, police etc) have been nobbled. The bastards are going to get away with this.
Cath says:
14 March, 2021 at 8:03 pm
100% that. well said.
Learned well from their role models? Parole models, more like it.
Is there any glimmer of hope of good news…? Anyone?
O/T..Any one else noticed. Since several countries have suspended the use of the Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine, suddenly today, the BBC have dropped the “Oxford word” and it is now just the Astra Zeneca vaccine.
Cath, Shug, Donald etc
“the unionists”
Perhaps the time has come to discard the term ‘unionists’; there is no UK ‘union’. We are talking about colonialism, reflecting the actions, known and unknown, of the British state against the interests of Scotland and will of our people. Moreover, independence is decolonisation, according to the UN, and we should recognise it as such.
The good news is that AFI appear to be, as the former Minister of Internal Affairs in the Republic of Guinea, and poet, Keita Fodeba said regarding national liberation, “unfolding the actions and ideas around which the popular will will crystallize”:
link to afi.scot
“AFI shall also campaign for a simple majority of the popular vote for pro-indy parties across both the constituencies and the regional lists, at the “Independence” election, and for such a majority to be understood to be a mandate for independence itself. AFI calls on all pro-indy parties and the YES movement to also adopt this position. Action for Independence – Putting Scotland before Party”
That’s the offer of a mandate for independence folks. Use it or lose it.
Nicola Sturgeon was told about Patrick Grady’s alleged behaviour 3 years ago…
link to archive.is
“No complaint was received until last week…”
And no Investigating Officer was appointed to contact the alleged victims and invite their complaints.
It’s blind optimism to think that things will sort themselves out if Sturgeon goes. The SNP are corrupted from top to bottom, and the Murrell’s have deep tentacles into the Civil Service. The MSP’s are clapping seals, and there’s no process for members to change anything.
And people, good people, have stood by and let it all happen. There’s questions to be asked, thousands of them, as to why this was ever allowed to happen. AS must have had some idea what was going on. The WMP’s must have known. I’ve no doubt many of the media knew. And no one did a thing.
This isn’t just about who fired the gun. It’s about those who hid it, and who looked away. And continues to look away.
The only choice I’m left with is to spoil my ballot, and no one will even notice. Frustration doesn’t cover it. Independence is going backwards, strapped to the back of the Murrell’s personal ambitions.
Skip_NC says:
14 March, 2021 at 7:24 pm
ScotsRenewables, I am not so sure that if NS loses her seat, they will pick up a list seat in Glasgow. I ran some numbers assuming that the Glasgow list vote remains the same from 2016 and the SNP losing one seat. The result was no change in SNP list seats. If the SNP loses two constituencies in Glasgow, there is a possibility of an extra list seat, but it is a three-way fight between SNP, Conservative and Green (I think it’s green. I deleted the spreadsheet after I’d done the math.)
I did a casual look at the 2016 results (not really number crunched) and came to the amazing conclusion that it is possible, though highly unlikely that Nicola Sturgeon could lose her seat, constituency OR list.
Anas Sarwar is a better known name than the candidate in 2016, he’s now the branch manager so will have all party and media support thrown at him.
There are a lot of disillusioned, disgrunted independence-supporting (former) SNP voters who are not happy with Nicola Sturgeon and the direction she has taken the party in. They might just stay at home, or spoil the FPTP ballot and vote for ISP or AFI or whatever on the list. Or even tactically vote for Anas Sarwar (yuck!) on the contituency vote just to oust Nicola Sturgeon.
Tory and LibDem voters might smell blood and tactically vote for Anas Sarwar just to oust Nicola Sturgeon from her FPTP seat. It would be quite the scalp.
Nicola Sturgeon’s seat isn’t even safe on the list – she’s second on the list – if enough people vote SNP 1 to deliver enough FPTP (contituency) seats the SNP might get 0 (zero) list seats, like in 2016, or one. If they lose one or more constituency seats, one or two list candidates might get in.
However, the political situation is different from 2016. New indy list parties (ISP, AFI), might eat into the SNP list vote enough that the 2016 numbers are not a good predictor.
Who knows how it will go?
I think Nicola Sturgeon will win her costuency FPTP seat, despite everything. Anas Sarwar will get in anyway, on the list. Nothing changes. How depressing.
Civil servants tend not to be sacked. They are moved sideways if they s**t in their own nest. She would possibly be moved south out of harm’s way.
I have thought all along that the women had been used to some extent. I am fairly certain that a subpoena was threatened in at least one case, perhaps more. Whatever anyone believes, or thinks of Alec Salmond, it is the illegalities and the cynicism behind them that we should be concentrating on.
If the pseudo ‘wokerati’ have captured the party – and they have – the last thing they would want is independence because independence would destroy their agenda which requires to be worked out to its conclusion, and independence would be a major hindrance to that. Enter Alec Salmond stage right, offering to play a major role in regaining independence. Exit Alec Salmond stage left with a court case hanging over his head.
Had the retrospective procedure not been flawed and illegal in itself, Alex Salmond would still have been exited stage left because the earlier complaints would have destroyed him. In other words, no way was he ever going to be allowed to help us to regain independence, threaten the pseudo ‘woke’ agenda and throw a spanner in the works of another SNPG term where yet another dangly carrot was awaiting the faithful, always just out of reach.
The committee held off from accessing his lawyers’ papers because they need to run out of time and allow the election to go ahead on the SNPG’s terms. The FM probably can’t hang on much longer, but it is now all too late. Westminster and Whitehall, whose fingerprints may well be all over this after the fact, or even before the fact – they have used the situation to make hay or even given it a little push from behind the scenes – must be sniggering into their warm beer.
What’s bin did and
What’s bin hid and
What’s bin bid for
What’s bin did.
(apols. to Donovan)
Without a conclusive result to the Inquiry, Alex Salmond (understandably) will probably look to take further legal action to clear his name.
And thus, the whole point of this juggernaught action, will continue to do what it was designed to do, and keep Alex away from driving the independence political movement.
I hope he outplays them, and does so by standing for election in May.
In the mean time, as long as Nicla is useful to the BritNats, the media will damage – but not destroy.
If it starts to look as if NS is in danger of being voted out – Sarwar and / or the BAME candidate at number 1 on the list seat (most likely) – either one will ‘step down’ for one reason or another while she continues in role, until a suitable replacement can be found.
Such is the pathetic state of the SNP ‘leadership’ now, that even if the SNP suffer major defeats and losses, but manage to limp on, as the biggest party at Holyrood, even if not a majority, then I cannot see the party loyalists having the were-with-all to get her to stand down, and I don’t see anyone reputable to step up to the plate and put the wheels back on the bus.
While all eyes are looking to Angus Robertson as the annointed replacement, the only ‘poetic justice’ on the horizon is Alyn Smith sharpening his knife in the background. Not what anyone would call an improvement.
Scotland’s indy movement is awfully, awfully fucked at the moment.
Meanwhile the 2 new parties – both having made big noises about Plebiscite Indy Elections – have both declined to put anything like that in their published ‘policies’.
In terms of timescale, and do-able agenda’s to aim for – introducing Plebiscite Indy Election via the list seat vote at Holyrood (so that voters can ‘safely’ express that option as a protest vote) is absolutely the best way to get the concept into the voters minds – in preparation for the ‘real’ Plebiscite Indy vote at the next GE 4 years away. When we would have plenty of time (and vaccinated ability) to campaign fully – as BritishEngland goes full Brexit/Asset stripping Scotland to destroy us.
Both parties have published their desire to push for another IndyRef. Yawn. The legal wrangle on that will make the current ScotGov Inquiry into the JR/Alex Salmond affair look positively speedy and efficient. And while that is happening no-one will be campaigning, and that means no-one will be pointing out all the shit being done to Scotland and going on with Brexit and the economy.
So, ISP and AFI, you now have less than 2 months before Holyrood election, where’s our Plebiscite Indy Election?
No more carrots.
ScotsRenewables says:
14 March, 2021 at 6:52 pm
If Evans is sacked, won’t she blow the whistle?
Why wouldn’t she?
What if she, a UK civil servant, was offered another job in the UK civil service? Inspector of Sewers in Lower Mitchum or something, with the same salary and pension.
Why would she blow the whistle on herself?
Certain MSP’s within this inquiry need to tread very carefully, if they are not already complicit in this crime, then they are about step into it.
This post is really dynamite, and staggering. The sad thing is I expect it to make zero difference to anything.
The fix is in.
A very Scottish coup wouldn’t you say?
Keep at them Stu.
Dan @7:35pm.
Well the SNP have finally managed it, uniting the country together. Against them.
SNP members, Yessers and Unionist all tearing him apart. Toe curling the lack of awareness. They really don’t get how unpopular the HCB is do they?
AwakeNotWoke says:
14 March, 2021 at 6:31 pm
Genuine question – why haven’t the 4 non-partisan members of the enquiry declared it a sham and walked out?
Who can say, but if I were on the committee, I would stay on it to the bitter end, and refuse to sign the final report: because then I would get the occasion and the right to explain to the Parliament exactly why the Committee’s work had been engineered to fail. If/ when this happens, then — unless old age and a failing judgement have led me to a pitiable and pathetic misunderstanding of the norms of public life in Scotland — the government of Scotland will descend into chaos.
It’s a shame this story hasn’t attracted much interest internationally, otherwise some sympathetic Anonymous hackers might have got hold of the documents and posted them online, don’t they like exposing corruption in government?
@Calum says:
14 March, 2021 at 8:30 pm
“Is there any glimmer of hope of good news…? Anyone?”
Angus Robertson might have his chances scuppered with the recent photos…
Would Lesley not be restricted by the Official Secrets Act,
which i think would make it illegal for anyone to repeat anything she says unless authorised by the State.
No shit Sherlock! Slow hand clap for being so many years
ahead ofbehind the curve ya roaster…link to twitter.com
On Twitter, @Jeggit said:
“Just saw the weirdest thing. A cat burying its shite”.
One reply said:
“That’s nothing. I’ve seen a government doing that”.
I cannot describe with words the contempt I feel right now for the actions of those 4 SNP members of the committee and Wightman.
The way they have aided a corrupt, possibly criminal, and unfit for purpose government to deny us the crucial evidence, has to be the most obvious, unjustified and embarrassing attempt at a whitewash in modern history.
Their names will be forever associated with helping the corrupt and amoral Sturgeon to limp along until the next election, denying the electorate their right to see the evidence that proves she should be in prison, not in a battle bus leading a campaign of deception based in more lies, symbolic mandates and false promises.
How can we trust anything Fabiani’s farce publishes when that committee has refused to actually look at the evidence?
How can we trust anything in Scotland’s politics when it is evident all the political parties, COPFS, crown agents and other colonial envoys, civil service, police, parliamentary committees, judges etc appear to be working together to stop that evidence ever reaching the public and stopping Mr Salmond returning to politics?
This is nothing but a whitewash of colossal proportions and it clearly has been designed by the powers that be as the last resource to stop any evidence of the fraud’s wrongdoing ever reaching the public before the election to stop her having to hand control of the SNP to somebody else, but more importantly to stop Mr Salmond just in case he had the audacity of fronting another pro indy party calling the fraud’s S30 bluff.
Scotland has become a one party state. Every single political party sitting in our parliament is unionist. They are not even concerned in looking moderately democratic. Political parties under any rosette, parliament, COPFS, crown agents, government, civil service and police all appear to be engaging in the fight of their lives to preserve the union. The pretend of democracy and justice have become collateral victims, just like the divide between right and wrong.
It is all smoke and mirrors, isn’t it? There was never any democracy, any choice, any justice or even a real parliament. It all seems an illusion to keep us compliant with this colonial arrangement.
@ Alf Baird
Just read your link to AFI’s road map.
‘4. AFI shall campaign for a majority of pro-indy MSPs, at the “Independence” election, to affirm a mandate for indyref2 in 2021, with or without Westminster’s co-operation. AFI shall campaign for a supermajority of as many pro-indy MSPs as possible to emphasise the strength of that mandate and to replace Unionist MSPs in Holyrood with pro-indy MSPs.’
Seriously – who, apart from Tommy Shepherd and George Galloway, who the hell communicates in this way. It’s so badly written, and what does it mean, ‘at the Independence election?’ ‘affirm a mandate’ ‘supermajority’ ’emphasise the strength of that mandate’. God help us.
5. AFI shall also campaign for a simple majority of the popular vote for pro-indy parties across both the constituencies and the regional lists, at the “Independence” election, and for such a majority to be understood to be a mandate for independence itself. AFI calls on all pro-indy parties and the YES movement to also adopt this position. Action for Independence – Putting Scotland before Party.
‘AFI shall also campaign for a simple majority of the popular vote’
So wait, I thought we wanted a ‘supermajority’ but now it can be ‘a simple majority’, but only if its ‘the popular vote’ – ehh. What the fuck is a ‘popular vote’ when its at home? A vote is a vote, it really is about numbers.
simple majority – ‘for pro-indy parties across both the constituencies and the regional lists, at the “Independence” election, and for such a majority to be understood to be a mandate for independence itself.’
Well petals, I hate to burst your bubble, but you cannot define the manifesto policy for other parties. So if the SNP are standing on a manifesto of a S30 order agreement or nowt – even though they still like to pretend to be an Indy party – even if their votes, plus your votes – amounts to a ‘supermajority’ you cannot just claim it as ‘understood to be a mandate for independence itself.’ And I rather think the Electoral Commission will be having words with you if you try.
Once again you mention ‘Independence’ election. Without specifying what it is.
I’m really sorry to be such a bitch about your poorly written policy, but its crap. Muddled thinking, badly written crap.
Try this.
AFI is standing on the list vote only to maximise the Yes vote and enable every voter in Scotland the chance to vote to express their support for Scottish Independence and achieve it via the policy of direct Plebiscite Independence Election.
Cath: “ The last thing the unionists want is to help Salmond in any way.”
No. The last thing they want is independence.
They obviously had or have concerns about assisting Salmond because it could lead to her being deposed and replaced with someone who was serious about independence. But they need not worry about that now with around 6 weeks to go until the election.
It’s a fluid situation but you’ll see a renewed interest in the Salmond scandal in the coming weeks, now that it’s too late to replace her as leader. The goal will be to damage and weaken her – if they can deprive the SNP of a majority, it’s a huge victory for them which they’ll say proves people don’t want independence.
The worst nightmare for the Unionists was someone like Cherry taking over and opening up the idea that we don’t need England’s permission to leave. That threat is over for now, so the goal for unionists naturally switches to weakening Sturgeon, by any means necessary, in order to avoid even having to answer her section 30 request with a “no”.
Sturgeon created this diabolical situation. Once you accept we are screwed and a referendum is at least 5 years away, because of Sturgeon, you’re as well using the election to punish her and use the next few years to clean out the stables or start a new party. Either way, maximum damage to the SNP is in the interests of independence supporters.
You’ll know the game is up for Sturgeon when BBC Scotland starts throwing the boot in. They’ve been systematically supporting her and propping her up for a year now. If BBC Scotland wasn’t helping her, she’d have been toast long ago.
ScotsRenewables says:
14 March, 2021 at 6:52 pm
‘If Evans is sacked, won’t she blow the whistle?
Why wouldn’t she?’
Please somebody correct me if this is wrong: Leslie Evans could only be sacked if it were to be proved that she had broken the Civil Service code — specifically, if it were proved (to the ‘management inquiry’ standard of proof) that she had acted on her own behalf, and not simply as the implementor of her political masters’ instructions. The Harassment Inquiry is not in a position to make this judgement.
The doctrine of Ministerial Responsibility surely means that government failures must be attributed to ministers, doesn’t it? So far as I can see, the only area that the Committee can whitewash over, is the extent to which SNP staff and officials colluded with the ‘Scottish Government’ in their action against Alex Salmond. (Salmond, himself, as I understand it, does not use the word ‘conspiracy’, because, I assume, there is a very high evidential threshold to be crossed before the major crime of conspiracy is proved.)
My guess at the moment is that the SNP Governent will try to get it accepted that the bottom line is : ‘Yes, we made a few mistakes, but it was in a good cause’. Are the unionist parties prepared to argue that it was not in a good cause? I hope I’m wrong about the answer to this question.
Can Joanna Cherry, or Kenny McCaskill use Parliamentary Privilege, in Westminster and read out word for word, the text messages showing?:
“the pressurising of witnessess, and collusion of witnessess. And the construction of evidence as the police are deemed inadequate”
I despair. We can not allow them to get away with this.
Santorini has less whitewash on the walls than SNP has stockpiled to save Sturgeon.
The party has gone rogue.
Oh, what to do come May. What to do…
“.. Angus Robertson as the anointed replacement..”
He’s standing in my constituency, I think – aiming to replace the retiring Baroness. Spoiled 1 / indysomething 2, I suspect. Never spoiled a ballot before.
Spoilt const vote. I have my written list of shite.
ISP prob although Tommy has come out against GRA, HCB, but not the others. Need to get their act together bdq
Thank you Stuart for posting all these details at, I’m sure, not unconsiderable risk to yourself.
I am so fucking glad I don’t live in Scotland anymore. I’d be tearing my hair out with rage at the corruption of this “independence ” party. Everybody MUST see how crooked they are but still so many sheep bleat “snp for me snp for me I heart nicola”
It turns my stomach. I can’t vote in any elections ( that’s fair enough, I’m not affected … other than making me feel heartsick for my siblings and extended family who still live here) but I am at a huge fucking loss to understand why so many people are happy to vote for these self serving nonentities.
Aren’t you embarrassed by the calibre of the SNP MSPs? You should be . And don’t try the old WM deflection. This is yours and my country we’re concerned about, and only the Scottish people can sort it out. If not … hell mend you.
Astonished says: 7:40 pm
“Abrechnung (possibly obvs)- its old german for reckoning. I believe.
Undoubtedly folk smarter than me will explain it. The nazis used it against the Jews. And then the Jews used it for their retaliation.”
———————–
It’s a perfectly normal word used in everyday german. (Even the nazis spoke normal german.)
Same as in english, words often have many different meanings.
What you’re saying is that the nazis were getting even/a reckoning with the Jews.
In the two german state elections today, the CDU lost heavily as an “Abrechnung” for their bad governance during the Covid pandemic.
link to dict.cc
Daisy Walker
AFI’s offer seems well set out and clear to me, and the team Dave Thomson is building looks impressive. Next week its list candidates will be finalised, and I very much hope it might even include AS, and possibly some senior SNP people who have seen the light, and other surprises, who knows.
Do you see a better offer? If you do, let me know.
In light of all the available evidence, giving no-quarter to any candidate choosing to associate their reputation with the SNP in the May elections, shouldn’t present any great challenge to anyone genuinely interested in justice.
Choices, in my experience, are rarely that straight-forward
The buck stops with the Scottish electorate. If they keep voting SNP then they,and Scotland will get what it deserves. Only a mindless idiot could vote for them now. Unfortunately I suspect there are plenty of mindless idiots out there.
Andy Wightman may not get as many votes as he thought now!
Ah. Fuck it, lets face it, you are a subservient type people(insert nomadic/gypsy. Etc. Whae’s like you’s.?? Naebody.
Thankyou Wings for your dogged persistence in these sordid affairs of the Government’s own making.
The Lord Advocate, the Crown Office, the Permanent Secretary and even the First Minister, the First Minister, being dragged into this mire!
Tut. Tut.
“If scandal is to your taste Miss MacKay I shall give you a Feast!” [The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie].
A Big Thanks to Stu.
Even if the commitee cover up for Sturgeon. Is it not up to Hamilton to reach an independent conclusion.
If he isn’t part of the cover up. He could only conclude that Sturgeon is guilty. He will be fully aware of what is being hidden.
The enquiry is just a cosy fireside chat for sturgeon.
You fucking scottish scum..now now dont get on your high horse, thats what bojo thinks about you.
merganser says:
14 March, 2021 at 7:55 pm
Judicial review is a possibility; or a petition nobile officium, ………..
Can’t think of any other way to get it all out into the open.
merganser, that’s very interesting.
Can a nobile officium be used against unjust actions by the crown?
Punting this film idea to Netflix.
Genre: Dystopian Reality Documentary
EXODUS! Escape from Jockland
The year is 2021… Scots, having recently had their EU freedom of movement taken against their will, and then having been held in lockdown for a year to avoid a “deadly” pandemic virus, now find that there is an even bigger threat to their liberty and very existence… in the sinister form of their politicians going rogue…
Follow the precarious and desperate exploits of the last remaining group of rational beings as they endevour to escape persecution from the increasingly hostile and out of control state apparatus.
This was predictable the day Sturgeon very carefully removed herself from the deciding officer role and replaced herself with Evans, her human firebreak.
Evans always knew this was her ultimate role, after wrecking havoc on Sturgeon’s behalf, to be the sacrificial scape goat.
Well fuck that and fuck you. It was you Nicola. No one gives a shit about you throwing this hideous lackey under the wheels.
Any other peoples would bring this pretend parly to account. But the jockanese are terrified of brenglish mastersm
Grow a spine you scottish bastards.
Ken whuh? Eh’m scunnirt.
After Winnie Ewing won Hamilton in 1967, I started doodling SNP logos on my jotters (I was in 4th year at the time).
I turned 18 in April 1970. My first vote was the 1970 GE. As the SNP had no candidate in Dundee West, I voted Tory, after seeing the mess that Labour had done from 1966.
My council elections thereafter, were for the individual who “did the joab” – Labour, Lib-Dem and SNP.
I have voted SNP in every GE and HE since the first in 1974.
This year’s HE – I am swithering. I have nothing against Joe Fitzpatrick – I think he was stitched up over drugs policy.
However, I emailed certain individuals a few weeks ago and have only received automated replies from Joe and Chris Law (MP, Dundee West).
Here’s what I emailed, without any response, to Chris Law, Joe Fitzpatrick, the secretary of Dundee West constituency group and the convener of the same group.
—————————————————–
From: Brian Doonthetoon
Subject: The State Of Our Party
Date: 3 February 2021 at 00:35:19 GMT
To: Chris Law chris.law.mp, joe.fitzpatrick.msp
Cc: catherine.eric.xxx, Heather McLean
Hi Joe & Chris.
Once upon a time, the SNP was a political party driven forward by the desire of independence of its ordinary members, through the branches and so on.
However, I’ve just discovered that the party that used to be a “bottom up” organisation, has become a “top down” organisation.
I wasn’t happy about your sacking, Joe. The fact that Scottish drugs deaths were not revealed to be recorded differently from other countries should have been mooted in your defence – but your boss threw you under the bus.
And Chris – I still have the ’Spirit of Independence’ pen you gave me at City Square in early September 2014, which I used to mark “YES” on September 18th.
It seems that Bob Costello was right all along.
I will state that a woman is an “adult human female”. A transwoman is a “transwoman”. A transman is a “transman”.
Spaces reserved for “women” should not be opened up to anyone who decides to self-ID as a “woman”, or fetishists from Aberdeen who are male but like to impose themselves into female toilets and are quite proud that they do and announce it on social media.
The penultimate nail has just been hammered into my coffin of SNP membership. The only reason I am hanging on (for the moment) is to have a vote in the next leadership election.
The sacking of Joanna Cherry – and the accusation of her “homophobia” by Nicola’s acolytes – was sheer stupidity.
The stitch-up Alex Salmond and the resultant cover-up. Anyone remember Watergate? I despair.
When I saw Blackford state umpteen times in the House of Commons, that “Scotland will not be dragged out of the EU against her will”, I actually believed that the upper echelons of the party had a great plan that would be unveiled at some point.
Then came Nicola’s speech of January 2020, as we were dragged out of the EU against our will.
What a disappointment!
She had spent so much time trying to overturn the democratic vote of England & Wales to leave the EU, attending a rally in London and so on, that she lost the will to see the bigger picture that the “material change” had taken place and that Scotland was being dragged out of the EU “against our will”. The reason for holding a referendum on independence. And she bottled it.
Then the fact that I was at every march/rally for independence in 2018 and only missed the Oban march/rally in 2019, but NEVER saw Nicola at any of them, although they were attended by SNP MPs, MSPs and councillors. I was even on the Glasgow march in January 2020, walking with Craig Murray for a while. No Nicola. However, she did have the time to be at “gay pride” type marches/rallies.
Was this supporting the SNP’s raison d’être of independence for Scotland?
I’m guessing you both read ‘Wings Over Scotland’? You want to read the comments btl, if you want to get a feel for what we, ‘independistas’, are feeling about the state of the party. There are so many leaving the SNP and joining the ISP that it should be worrying the ‘high head yins’.
The only thing that will save the SNP is if it has in its manifesto that the May Holyrood election is a plebiscite election, like in the old days of the SNP. Along the lines of (I paraphrase slightly from the link)…
“The Scottish people are sovereign, and we hereby announce our intention to declare Scotland independent and submit that intention to the will of the people in this election for their approval.
Accordingly, if the Scottish National Party should secure more than 50% of the constituency votes in this election, we will consider that a clear mandate to withdraw from the Treaty Of Union, declare Scotland to once more be an independent state, and seek recognition from the international community on the basis of Chapter 1, Article 1 of the UN Charter, the right of all peoples to self-determination, that self-determination having been expressed by this vote.”
link to wingsoverscotland.com
No more faffin’ about with a ‘roadmap to a referendum’ – what we want is a roadmap to INDEPENDENCE!
I’m getting’ on… I want to see an independent Scotland before I pop my clogs.
I thought about making public this email when I send it to you. However, I would prefer to hold it back until I receive replies from you both, affirming that WE, the ordinary members, with your help, can remake our party as a ‘bottoms up’ organisation.
If I don’t receive any response with seven days, then, regretfully, I will have to put this email, and lack of response, into the public domain.
link to wingsoverscotland.com
One more thing before I finish.
At any next election, whether it be Westminster, Holyrood or local council, I will not vote for any individual who feels the need to add to their social media profile, the terms “Pronouns she/her”, or “Pronouns he/him”.
I act towards people as I find them. I don’t need THEM telling me how to treat them.
Och, really lastly… I will not be voting SNP for my regional vote in May. There’s no point. Unless the SNP really melts down in the constituency vote – and that doesn’t look likely, going by recent polling. This SNP 1+2 nonsense is just that. Have a look at this:-
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Nah, this is lastly. After a couple of hours snooze, I woke up to find that our party, once proud to fight for independence, has become the butt of the joke. Really, you should read the comments up to midnight, if not further.
link to wingsoverscotland.com
If that’s me expelled from the party, so be it. The ISP beckons…
Brian Doonthetoon
Unless you are naive, gullible or a WGD reader, you know there is no chance of a referendum if the SNP are elected. As being put so sufficiently in here with their referendum promise as being Jam tomorrow.
Therefore, anyone voting in May is doing so on purely party political lines rather than on an idealogical basis as to who will deliver independence.
In this scenario, it makes to vote tactically in order to unseat the SNP bigwigs like Nicola Sturgeon if possible and temporarily electing a unionist politician.
So everyone hopes Alex rides to the rescue? He was found innocent on some hideous charges but has previously apologised for his behaviour and admits it wasn’t good enough at times. A fine upstanding person especially given recent events.
SNP have done nothing for years but people bought into it. Saying anything against them resulted in abuse because you were “a Tory or the media is bias”. Instead of focusing on achievable goals or helping to convert people on the fence to independence they have floundered, further their own pockets and ensured that they can keep the gravy train rolling.
They aren’t getting an independence ref anytime this decade so unless the SNP is overhauled or there is a magical party / policy / event which changes then we are stuck with this corrupt version of the SNP doing as little as possible to further the main goal but ensuring they stay in power.
Ah well i’ve had me vaacs. And even though my accent is scottish, my passport is irish. And i’m off to pastures new. Fuck you unionist BASTARDS. you are not the people i want to socialise with abroad with. Even though i meet you in social gatherings. I detest and avoid you if possible..
Andy Wightman is over on twitter denying that the committee have voted against requesting the evidence from Salmond’s lawyers. He says the committee wrote to the lawyers requesting them two weeks ago and again last week.
The plot thickens…
link to twitter.com
Of course, there’s nothing to stop MF or JB denouncing the inquiry as a sham, a miscellany of misdirection and hidden evidence, whitewashed by partisan puppets.
Several commenters above are wondering why so many still appear to support and be willing to vote for the SNP. I can think of three reasons:
1. It’s difficult for people to accept that a party and a leader that they so strongly believed in has cheated and lied to them. They can’t believe it and don’t want to face the truth.
2. BBC News. If the BBC doesn’t actually lie to its audience, it simply omits inconvenient facts and fails to present the full, unbiased picture. And of course it always represents the views of London. Unfortunately, the BBC is still regarded by older generations as being trustworthy and impartial; probably the lingering hangover of Second World War propaganda.
3. Wokism now appears to be widely accepted and deeply entrenched amongst the younger generation and social-media users. They don’t see what’s wrong with the absurd nonsense that men are women and it being made illegal to say otherwise.
People aren’t necessarily stupid because they are unable to question these things. The media creates their reality, fake as it is.
Re: Scotland and her comatose electorate.
I think one of the main facts to emerge from the 2014 Referendum was that Scotland is the only Colony ever to reject becoming an independent nation.
When Andy Wightman left the Greens I said to two different SNP voting family members that he hadn’t actually left the Greens but had been sent out to do whatever it took to get a place within the SNP after the next election.
Mia..”The illusion of choice,
There is no choice”..George Carlin.
Scots, whaes like us,.STUPID.
Another powerful, informative and well researched contribution Stu. Evans and her coterie of senior civil servants must not be allowed to resign and retain their public pensions and generous lump-sum payments. Their conduct in this whole sorry saga has been declared illegal, unfair and biased. They are responsible for this illegal and unfair investigation and must be punished for a combination of malicious conduct, incompetent conduct and illegal conduct. Dismissals not resignations are the least we can demand. The political responsibility for this stain on public life lies with the leadership of the SNP. That is clear. Consequences must also follow.
However in relation to the May election I and AFI will continue to make the case for the irrefutable logic of the Max The YES strategy. Voting SNP in every constituency and AFI in every regional list will not be a victory for Nicola Sturgeon, Angus Robertson or any other individual SNP leader it will be a victory for the YES Family, for the independence cause. A solid group of AFI MSPs elected on the unequivocal mandate of prioritising independence above any other issue will also be a victory for the independence cause. Craig Murray is now an AFI member and has been nominated as one of the AFI candidates on the Lothians List. Hopefully he will top that ballot and lead the AFI challenge in Lothians. Hopefully Mark Hirst will lead the AFI challenge in South Scotland. Hopefully Dave Thompson will lead the challenge in Highlands and Islands. Hopefully some of the 15 women AFI members also nominated from amongst the 41 nominees already submitted will lead the AFI challenge in other regional lists areas. The AFI call for SNP 1 / AFI 2 is the right call for the independence movement. Both votes SNP is all about the SNP not independence. Both votes independence is about the independence movement. It is about Scotland Before Party.
To those who raise the issue of closer unity amongst the pro-independence alternative parties AFI’s leader tried to convince the ISP and others to sit and talk about practical compromises that maintained the integrity of each party while building unity around the single demand of a socially and environmentally just independent Scotland. Solidarity engaged with those talks and negotiated a mutually beneficial arrangement. The ISP refused. It is not possible to divide up regional list areas between each party. Failure to stand in every region leads to the loss of your right to a Party Political Broadcast and a post office delivered election address across the whole of Scotland. AFI is always willing to listen to others who want to join the umbrella independence alliance party but time is running out before deadlines demand submission of official forms. AFI Regional branches are meeting all across Scotland this week to agree further nominations. 41 nominations have already been agreed. AFI is growing in strength, numbers and credibility. Independents like Martin Keatings are on board. Former MEP Hugh Kerr is on board. Hundreds of Indy activists who believe the cause is bigger than any one party or individual are on board. I would appeal to readers of Wings to also come on board.
@Michael Laing
“3. Wokism now appears to be widely accepted and deeply entrenched amongst the younger generation and social-media users. They don’t see what’s wrong with the absurd nonsense that men are women and it being made illegal to say otherwise.”
It is only entrenched amongst those BAME and LGBTQ+ who stand to gain from the institutionalisation of it – no matter how irrational or downright unfair – and the tertiary educated, particularly those who have taken courses of bugger all use in the real world and so under psychological strain to prove it wasn’t a waste of time, and all they have left is the old crumb of comfort of “I’m smarter than you therefore better than you”.
Those outside of that echo chamber have complete and merciless contempt for it – as the Brexit vote shock of 2016 ought to have got over to them if the research of Matthew Goodwin is anything to go by. Or for that matter Labour and the LibDems’ 2019 “Go Woke, Go Broke” disasters.
Glasgow racer 11.03pm. Well you cant argue with stupid scottish stupid.
You have exposed the inquiry for what it is, Stuart – a whitewash.
How can there even be SNP members on the committee, let alone a majority of them, when they are the party under investigation?
We can all see the malfeasance as clear as day but since there seems to be no mechanism in place to bring Nicola Sturgeon and her leadership to account, then we can only vote them out. I intend to spoil my constituency vote by writing, “This is not democracy. I vote for an independent Scottish republic.”
Glasgow racer @ 11.03
“Scotland is the only Colony ever to reject becoming an independent nation.”
It didn’t help that around half of ‘No’ voters were not Scottish and hence did not have a Scottish identity to begin with; why would they want to alter their nationality to ‘Scottish’? Much of the other half of the ‘No’ vote reflects the condition of the bourgeoisie native under colonialism who tend to “mimick the colonizer” in terms of language, culture, and values (Albert Memmi).
The demographic trend is not in ‘our’ favour, as the likes of Gove well know. Somebody might also want to look at the irregular use of a local government franchise for a national referendum.
Thanks Tommy for clarifying that about ISP knocking back approaches for taking them under the Umbrella, as AFI seem more organised and have better candidates I will be supporting AFI, for the good of Scotland I urge ISP to bury their ego and join the Yes list vote coalition.
“Boaby says:
14 March, 2021 at 11:05 pm
Scots, whaes like us,.STUPID.”
Speak for yourself. Is that the royal “we”?
TOMMY SHERIDAN @ 11:05 pm
A very positive update, thanks for that.
SNP1 / AFI2
Max the Yes.
No derek. What you are saying is. You are STUPID.
Reading the letter of 2nd March referred to by Mr.Wightman it asks for evidence regarding
1. A prerecognition statement of a witness who alleges that a SPAD told them in Nov 2018 that the judicial inquiry was doomed but that they would ” get him in the criminal court”
2. Transcripts of the commission and diligence process
It does not ask for the crucial WhatsApp or text messages the crown have so far refused to hand over.
Well, thanks to Tommy Sheridan for explaining where he and AFI stand on various matters.
It’s a political priority of AFI to endorse SNP on the constituency list, though. And I am sure I understand the reasons for them wishing to be seen publicly to do that.
There are matters beyond politics to be addressed in May, though. By that I mean matters that are to do with principle and morality, as well as personal.
I believe the best thing independence supporters can do in May is vote against the SNP and teach them a lesson.
The SNP leadership team is out there laughing at independence supporters right now. They think we are all thick. They think we have no choice but to vote for them. They think they can dangle the indy-carrot in front of us and get us to do anything they want.
If you vote SNP in May, you’re voting to be treated like a mug. And if you vote to be treated like a mug, you are a mug.
“It is plain beyond a shadow of rational dispute that the entire approach of the Scottish Government and SNP has from the very beginning been to deflect all blame onto civil servants and conceal evidence of any wrongdoing by the First Minister and other Scottish Government and SNP officials, at a minimum until after the election when they hope they’ll be able to ride out any consequences.”
No constituency vote for these corrupt criminals.
Vote them out and put them in jail.
Alf baird. Lets face it alf. If we exclude any hhmm. Expats(english immigrants). Then we are racist. I say fuck them. You are not entitlted to vote in the destination of our country
TOMMY SHERIDAN,
“Voting SNP in every constituency and AFI in every regional list will not be a victory for Nicola Sturgeon, Angus Robertson or any other individual SNP leader it will be a victory for the YES Family, for the independence cause.”
Tommy, you are totally totally wrong.
Every vote for the SNP will be considered a vote for Sturgeon, Robertson and their fellow corrupt criminals.
The bigger the SNP vote, the bigger the endorsement of Sturgeon, Robertson and their fellow corrupt criminals.
Vote out the corrupt criminal SNP.
They are not entitled.
@Hatuey,
So you believe the best thing for indy supporters to do in May is to put Unionists in control of Holyrood?
You think you know better than Craig Murray, who knows far more about SNP betrayal than you do?
I smell shite.
Listen to Craig, listen to Tommy, not the nobodies gnashing their teeth and virtue signalling on here. Theirs is a council of despair.
(Assuming they are even real)
Politicians come and go, but the Civil Service rolls on.
IF the SNP throw Evans and some of the otehr civil servants under the bus – tyhen the SNP, while remaining the biggest party in Holyrood, loses sufficient MSPs to set-up either a minority government, or a hung parliament – that just might be the opening Westminster will need to: “in the national interst and to ensure stability at a vital time,” restore direct rule from Wstminster.
They will then move the goal posts to ensure, we will have to wait at least 50 years for anotehr Independence Referendum.
And it will all be down to Sturgeon and her corrupt clique.
Mia says,
“It is all smoke and mirrors, isn’t it? There was never any democracy, any choice, any justice or even a real parliament. It all seems an illusion to keep us compliant with this colonial arrangement.”
Scotland in a way has political democracy because of Proportional Representation.
By deliberately not giving your list vote to a pro Indy party, you should not be complaining about lack of democracy. You are denying yourself the democracy available to you.
Off topic. Anyone had an appeal for easter eggs for deprive kids? Unionists can apply to westminster or ibrox.
C’mon Tommy, 11.05pm
I have followed your progress throughout the years and for you to endorse the corrupt SNP is a blot on your decision making abilities.
The SNP are about the most corrupt Party in Europe and If I were you Tommy, I would put clear honest water between you and Sturgeon.
I will personally be campaigning against her in Glasgow Southside.
Wakey wakey Tommy.
Saw comments that the passing of the Hate Crime Bill ticks so many UN boxes and then it dawned!
“Scotland’s First Minister chosen as UN world ambassador for equalities”
Was I dreaming?
mike cassidy says:
14 March, 2021 at 7:41 pm
Surely somebody from the Alex Salmond legal team
Could simply – and very publicly – hand over the documents in question
———–
I’d think so! Defiance seems to be the only course of action – and that would surely have to get press coverage.
Socrates direct funding of our councils is already happening. The SNP are powerless to stop it. That shows you how weak Holyrood really is.
WM can take us out of the EU, direct fund our councils, deny us a referendum and bloody well shut Holyrood down if they want.
The SNP are watching this happening, and doing nothing, not even fighting against it.
Well dads irish, mums scottish, so thank you ireland for my provo passport.l
I just see no alternative to SNP1. Corrupt they may be. However I will never vote for a British party , as a point of principal.
My aim in life is to end British rule, not throw it a life ring.
You don’t have to vote SNP in the constituency vote in order to vote AFI on the list. The AFI and their candidates can recommend that, but they know fine well that you do whatever you like when you are casting your vote. It’s a secret ballot.
Of course if the SNP do do well in the constituencies, they will have less seats from the list. That will give AFI (or ISP, if that is your preference) more chance of gaining list seats. The more seats the SNP have in the constituencies, the less they will have on the list.
And the more seats the AFI (and/or the ISP) get, the more these smaller Parties will be able to put pressure on the SNP to go full out for independence.
There is, therefore, a logic in the AFI and/or ISP encouraging us to vote SNP in the constituencies, but nobody is obliged to buy into it. For many of us, it will simply be a matter of picking out whoever seems to be the best, or least bad, constituency candidate (if we can find one), and doing likewise on the list. That would be applying conscience, rather than trying to second-guess outcomes, and voting tactically in function of these hoped-for (but far from guaranteed) outcomes.
@ Boaby
Does that make you a Black and Tan ?
You’re not paying attention.
Disgraced Liam Fox, the former cabinet minister, said in WM PMQ’s that ministers
had a “clear duty of care” to protect civil servants.
Boris agreed check Hansard ! Not specifically the Salmond affair.
But they are circling the wagons around Evans and Sidwell.
Where was the plan was hatched? by metoo ……
Sturgeon is but a moth caught in the flame.
Cue Blazing Saddles Mongo Gif.
If it were me, and i held what’s been hinted at evidence wise,I’d wait until the inquiries report, and only then drop the bomb.
Maximum impact.
Release in two dumps, & there’s a ‘double tap’ effect.
Maximum exposure.
Tommy Sheridan, you could have beaten Anas Sarwar to it by declaring to stand against Sturgeon in her constituency.
I am pretty sure you could have unseated her.
Craig Murray stupidly advocated both votes for the SNP, but finally saw sense.
If he continues to advocate a constituency vote for the SNP, who are responsible for trying to put him in jail, he will lose all credibility as far as I am concerned.
You are stupidly damaging your own credibility by advocating a constituency vote for the New SNP which is led by corrupt criminals.
You know perfectly well that the more SNP MSPs there are, the less influence AFI MSPs will have on them.
The power hungry and greedy corrupt SNP criminals don’t give a damn about independence or about Scotland.
You are being very very dishonest by advocating a vote for the SNP.
In earlier times you would have been the first one to call for their corrupt criminal leaders to be prosecuted.
Shame on you.
Leslie Evans has a lot to gain by giving up her job. She is 62 and an early retirement with a greatly enhanced pension and a lovely lump sum and no hassle – what’s to be worried about?
She maybe decide to go back to the land of her birth where she can enjoy most of the privileges accorded by being a member of the EU. I think Ms Evans is going to be handsomely paid for services rendered.
Big Jock says,
“I just see no alternative to SNP1. Corrupt they may be. However I will never vote for a British party , as a point of principal.
My aim in life is to end British rule, not throw it a life ring.”
You will be throwing a life ring to the corrupt criminals Sturgeon, Robertson, Swinney and Co., who should be jail rather than in the Scottish parliament.
The chance of this lot ending British rule is ZERO.
If they had cared about independence, Scotland would have become independent instead of being pulled out of the EU against its will.
If the SNP wins, Wings Over Scotland will cease to exist.
I trust all you SNP voting guys will adjust to commenting on the Wee Ginger Dug blog.
The destiny of Scottish Independence, for a generation rests on Alex Salmond.
The evidence he claims to be true must be revealed. From then on its checkmate for Queen Sturgeon, her rooks bishops and nights. They won’t be running as MSPs.
I can see all the moves in play.
Here we go again…
ScotsRenewables: “So you believe the best thing for indy supporters to do in May is to put Unionists in control of Holyrood… you think you know better than Craig Murray, who knows far more about SNP betrayal than you do?”
You’d probably save yourself and others a lot of time and effort if you just typed “Vote Nicola in May, blah, blah, blah” about 70 time per day.
Craig Murray, Tommy Sheridan, and anyone else who is standing for election, by definition, is speaking from a sort of party political position. I can understand why they wouldn’t want to antagonise potential voters by appearing to oppose the SNP.
The reason for that is quite simple; they know that there’s still a lot of idiots out there who, like you, are hanging on to the hope that the SNP might deliver on indyref2 in the next few years. I’ve stopped caring about that, I think there are more important issues to be addressed, although I think the chances are exceptionally slim.
But I don’t speak from a party political position. I speak from the position of someone who feels robbed, quite literally since I donated to the ring-fenced fund, and who has been watching in horror at what these unscrupulous crackpots have been doing for the last 3 years.
For independence supporters, the only thing that makes sense is to punish those who have let us down and, in doing so, build for the future.
The SNP thinks we are a bunch of mugs. If you vote SNP, you are a mug. They’re laughing at us. We need to teach them a lesson.
LE didn’t prosecute AS behind FM’s back during fag breaks.
She needed NS to pass laws making the molehills she had into legal mountains, to make tittle-tattle look like testimony and to make the overlap land on AS. It has “Nicola” written on it in big neon lights.
But N couldn’t make these laws matter without Westminster doing the donkey work. Neither party could even begin their Machiavelliation without the other. NS. And Westminster.
So forget whether AS was “inappropriate towards women”. And actually let’s even forget the perversion of the course of justice. We have an FM who’s working with the other side.
If proof were wanting, LE is directly responsible to NS. And she’s still in her job now.
“You are denying yourself the democracy available to you”
And where exactly is that democracy? Because I see none. What I see is the pretence of democracy. Even the pretend part is quickly disappearing.
Being forced to choose what you do not want and that will harm you because you are purposely denied the options you want is not democracy. It is an illusion of democracy. It is abusing your vote and using it against you.
Since 2016 Scotland has had a democratic mandate for a vote for independence. That mandate expires in 7 weeks. How many political parties have asked for that mandate to be respected and delivered as every party did with brexit claiming it was “the will of the people”, Kcor?
How many?
NONE.
Every single one is denying us that vote, EVERY SINGLE ONE, and either denying us the option to that vote completely or fooling us into asking us to give them another mandate for another vote.
In other words, they are forcing us to vote to normalise the letting of a perfectly valid democratic mandate to expire, to accept our perfectly valid mandate that expires in 7 weeks is and has always been worthless and to accept that we can be lied to with false pretences in order to fool us into vote for those who want to harm us.
That is no democracy. That is an illusion of democracy if not abuse.
To have every single political party, the COPFS, crown agents and even a parliamentary committee circling the wagons to protect the most corrupt FM and government in political history while denying the public the evidence of their criminal actions is no democracy. It is abuse of power.
You cannot cast an informed vote if you are denied the information to do so. For instance, how do you know if you are voting unintentionally for one of the perjurers if you are not allowed to know who they are? Would you be happy to know you are voting for an individual with such lack of scruples and poor moral compass that is willing to lie under oath to send an innocent man to jail? I wouldn’t.
This is not a democracy and I challenge you to prove otherwise.
Well said Mia @1.12am.
@Kcor says:
15 March, 2021 at 12:36 am
“If the SNP wins, Wings Over Scotland will cease to exist.”
The SNP are not going to win. Not with a steady trickle of scandals coming out.
Note also the polling figures have a new approach. Instead of the “55% for yes”, it’s now “55% want an indyref in the next 5 years”.
@lumilumi 14 March, 2021 at 8:50 pm
“If Evans is sacked, won’t she blow the whistle?
Why wouldn’t she? What if she, a UK civil servant, was offered another job in the UK civil service?”
Are you completely dense ? So dense in fact you can’t understand the meaning of this ?
link to civilserviceworld.com
Mia says,
“And where exactly is that democracy? Because I see none. What I see is the pretence of democracy. Even the pretend part is quickly disappearing.”
As the saying goes, you can take a horse to the water but you can’t make it drink it.
You can’t see anything because you don’t want to see anything.
You want a party to promise something which it has ZERO chance of delivering.
Democracy is not tailor made to suit each voter. You make the most of what you have.
If you don’t want to use your list vote, it is upto you, but it is a democratic vote and the vast majority of posters here intend to make the most of it by giving it to a pro indy list party, without making an unreasonable and undeliverable demand.
Beaker says,
“The SNP are not going to win. Not with a steady trickle of scandals coming out.”
Hope you are right.
Leslie Evans will not be thrown under a bus she will be eased aside any attempt to do otherwise would raise the larger questions and make the SNP leadership complicate. The committee report will be a watered down version of events the lack of zeal shown in the gathering of evidence has always made it apparent that this will be the case
So why are so many still on-board with endorsing this bunch of crooks who have gained power under false pretences and showed nothing but disregard for democracy .Anyone who helps them into power is deluded if they think that they can be brought to account after the election .You vote them in and they will rightly believe they have a mandate to do pretty much whatever they want and will have the hate crime bill to call on to stamp on any who speak up
To those who say that there are good people still in the party Where are the voices to be heard ,Muffled I fear by the trough they have dipped their heads into
A spoilt ballot if you can’t stomach any of the other options but don’t vote for this pack of degenerates who have used the time in power to achieve one thing that is to feather their own nests
@Tommy Sheridan
Are you really asking me to tell my daughters and grand daughters that I voted for a party that makes laws to take away their rights and puts them mentally and physically at risk ?. REALLY !
@alf Baird @big jock
Rev Stu has shown once again just how corrupt the SNP are and you pair still come out with “SNP1”.
Are you pair actually taking the piss? Are you meant to be parodies of the sort of mindless cult like grovelling support that led the psychopath Nicola Sturgeon to believe that she could treat Scotland with utter contempt? Surely you can’t be genuine?
And as for you @Mia, this has nothing to do with unionists or yoons or whatever you want to call them. This is 100% home grown SNP corruption, caused in part by people like you who cannot see the truth in front of their faces. No wonder Sturgeon thinks Scotland is a country of mugs. If Nicola Sturgeon spat in your face I bet you’d apologise to her. Wake up, see the truth and cut the head off the “New SNP” snake and get our party back.
Andrew Neil, Frazer Nelson and Stephen Daisley of The Spectator have already said thet they will publish any information pertaining to the Salmond case.
They were talking specifically about the Aberdein statement, but other information would be included. What they want to do is prove that prior collusion took place.
The Spectator wento to the Court of Session on Salmond’s behalf and incurred a high legal bill in so doing. They have been in the game for a while and will not want to lose.
There is a real lesson here, for students of politics. If you are given a political mandate (in this case for Scottish democracy and independence), but DECIDE instead to pursue your own PERSONAL pet projects, do not be surprised that those who surround you, take it as a green light to do whatsoever they wish too. Playtime, you might say, for politicians with nothing else to do.
Nicola Sturgeon has failed for one very simple reason, with a clear mandate for action, she decided to dither, and dither and dither, whilst indulging her own petty-minded personal obsessions. When a party or movement is not moving forward, the factions develop, and people start playing power games. That is EXACTLY what is going on in the SNP.
What we, the ordinary voters can see, is just the tip of the iceberg.
Had Nicola Sturgeon did what she was elected to do, and fight tooth and nail to keep Scotland in the EU and remove unwanted English interference in Scottish affairs via independence, the SNP would be doing well. Her inaction, has allowed the current mess to develop. As the saying goes, ‘Idle hands do the devil’s work’. Alex Salmond always knew that, he knew he had to focus the energy of the party towards independence. He pointed the way, and people followed. Nicola merely dithered and squandered the opportunities given, and so the MSP’s, MP’s and others found other things to occupy their time. Make no mistake, whilst others are just as complicit, it is Nicola Sturgeon and her completel failure to lead, which has caused all of this.
I do not doubt for one second, she is, at present, still dithering over how much focus to put on independence in the manifesto. The entire focus should be on independence, but still she dithers. That is NOT leadership.
She should resign, after SACKING Leslie Evans first. Neither of them are fit for high office. Oh, and please, please, please, come back Alex Salmond. Scotland (and the SNP) needs a REAL leader. It’s rather urgent.
Shocked- Do you not think the SNP not getting a majority is giving them exactly what they want.
If you know me and have read my posts. I am the opposite of a cult member. I left the SNP in disgust 3 weeks ago after 32 years.
I despise Sturgeon. I am on Salmond’s side. However I am wise enough to know that you play your enemy as they play you.
You give them a majority and then hold their feet to the fire. The SNP will be the next government. The yoons just don’t have the numbers.
An SNP minority is the worst of all worlds. 5 more years of Sturgeon, without any pressure for her to deliver Indy. The movement in the wilderness for 10 years. Boris laughing at us for saying no to independence.
I ask you this. Who is being played , and falling right into the divide and rule trap.
SNP 1 and other Indy on the list. Is the cool headed , strategically smart move. Rage just let’s your enemy on both sides defeat you.
Just want to add, as others have pointed out, despite the mess, I will abstain from the first vote, at most. Definitely NOT SNP in the second vote, since that Campbell bloke has been PLACED at the top of the SNP lothians list.
I will not be voting for any of the England-controlled parties (Labour, Libdums, Tory). I might be angry at the SNP, but having witnessed the hatred and homophobia of the Tories under Thatcher, I will never vote for them. As for Labour, well, they are no different, happily jumping into bed with the Tories to thwart Scottish democracy and an end to English colonial rule in Scotland in 2014. Red Tories, blue Tories, I see no difference, they are both subservient to English colonial rule.
As for the libdems, well aren’t those the ones who at the first chance jumped into bed with the Tories in London, whilst abandoning ALL their stated ‘principles’? Anything for a ministerial mondeo, as they say. Or to put it more bluntly (and truthfully) Libdems are political prostitutes, propping up Labour in Scotland, then propping up Tories in London, in turn.
So, there you have it, the English-ruled parties, red, yellow and blue tories. ALL have their headquarters in London, England, and that tells us all we need to know.
@Big Jock – Despots the world over are elected and re-elected on exactly the premise you describe. Ferdinand Marcos of the Phillipines for example. He was so crooked he was paid in gold bullion at the end. Is that what you want? We have a delinquent government and they need to be removed, not supported.
.
Not keen on I told you so, A
and the Wheels On The Bus Might Go Round & Round but NOBODY in the ESTABLISHMENT is going under the number 57A bus from Glasgow Central past Nicola (lock up your puppies) de Ville de Sturgeon.
Leslie Evans was already been offered a Damehood. The dust now has to settle because of the Salmond fuss. But Evans has already confided she is in line to be given a peerage for weathering the storm and winning the war in Scotchland.
Whereas whatever we all say, see, think and know, about the poison backstabber Nicola Sturgeon is NOT a member of the Establishment. She’s been signed in as a member’s guest, but she is, in the words of Sir Nigel Pilkington-Smyth of the Colonies Office (Scotland division): “That frightfully awful little woman from the Dreghorn needs to go old chaps. Don’t you know, what what old bean. In her youth she was often mistaken for a boy. That’s where Clive got the idea to confuse the jocks with all this Lady Boy malarky and it seems to have worked. A gong for Clive is in the post as I said Yes Minister to that award”
The British Establishment are about to dunt and shunt Nicola under the metaphorical 57A bus to her office. They have the “Diana Oil” ready for deployment. Not on the brakes of a Mercedes-Benz W140, but this time on he brakes of a double decker Leyland Atlantean bus.
Sturgeon is due to be retyred.
It is now 15th March 2021 and within 4 weeks we shall see the major ramping up of media stories questioning whether Nicola Sturgeon is an evil barsteward wrecking Scotland. This is one of the quick-flowering seeds already planted in the Establishment Thunderer…
link to archive.is
Rod Liddell has written a very clever article. It is actually aimed at fellow journalists and not Jock and Janice McGumpher fae Largs.
Why?
Because it strikes at the very nature and freedom of the press…
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”
Source: Evelyn Beatrice Hall. A mere second class woman (a lot of that going about just nowadays and I wonder why). Evelyn Hall had to write under the male pseudonym S. G. Tallentyre.
It will take a couple of weeks before the entire U.K., press catch onto this Orwellianisation of Scotland. Then it is GAME OVER for IndyRef2 until 2055. De Pfeffel Johnson has his Legacy and can rightfully tell David Cameron and George Osborne they can duck orf. Boris wants to let them know they are both political Neville Chamerlains. Whilst Boris is political son and heir to Sir Winston Churchill.
The international media such as CNN already have the news that Scotland has gone into Woke-overload. They are playing it down because President Biden has been captured by the Yank Wokes. Sounds like something painful and pubic.
Even so, CNN will be flying their U.K. Correspondent to Barnhill on the island of Jura as soon as Covid restrictions are lifted. The 1984 Thought Police angle is too tempting. Even for Wokeyish CNN.
Unpleasantly, Humza Yousaf is being lined up for a villainous ending under the Goodyear tyres of that Big Dara Obriain Mega Bus. I loathe Humza with every fibre since meeting him and where you get to see the arrogant body language and smell the sense of entitlement oozing from his sweaty pores. But I do NOT want to see him under a bus as it brings into action all other chapters of the secret squirrel playbook that the Good Ambassador Murray would fairly give an honest opinion on. The last thing Scotland needs is Islamophobia woking its way up the SNP agenda as IndyRef goes subterranean on the priority list.
Ambassador Murray WOULD have had a lot to write about all of this, especially about the 5,806 employees working out of Cheltenham on a 3 BILLION £££ budget. A large tranche of which has been devoted to their multi-million pound plan to kill off IndyRef2, euthenise the SNP and guarantee the Scottish Colony remains a possession of the British Empire.
But Craig Murray has now been given free room and board with permanent residence under the U.K. Sword of Damocles Department (sorry Craig, I’ve been through some of what you are going through and it is truly horrible).
What does all this mean?
The multi-million pound Teresa May Colonial Recovery And Protection Unit (CRAP-U) set up in October 2014 to GUARANTEE that Great Britain NEVER AGAIN risks losing its prized Scottish Colony has done its job exceedingly well. Watch out for tell-tale knighthoods with similar lower class awards in the Queen’s birthday honours. Including military honours for the 77th. We’ll done guys. Seriously, respect where it is due. You gamed the fuck out of this. The 77h Brigade DOES exist and they played 3-dimensional chess, whilst Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell were throwing McWoke monkey dung all over the joint. By the way, the CRAP-U acronym is an attempt at humour. There IS a multi-million pound department set up to keep the Scottish Colony. That unit does have a name but the Official Secrets Act is being dusted off and made ready for use in case a Humza’s Hated HCB Illegal Law fails to fuck up Scotland enough.
Nicola is finished. She may limp back in, but she will be packed off to a non-job as some highly paid Commissioner on International Sanitation Units in Kazakhstan or wherever it is that Borat lives.
If Boris gets his way, and remember he sacked a ton of his own Tory MPs before the last election when he had a paper thin majority and needed them most. It gamed well and he got back in with a stonking majority. Boris plays the Clown to great effect. But actually, he is no dunce.
Nope, Boris Johnson WANTS the impossible. If he can secure a ConDem or even a functional Lab/Lib “Scottish Executive” he will have won a huge political LEGACY.
To be on topic: Boris paints toy buses he makes out of cardboard.
But he imagines real buses driving over his political enemies and he HATES the Scots. He perceives Nicola Sturgeon as his arch nemesis. Back in the days when we all believed in Nicola (remember then, we really did believe her Academy Award winning performances); back in those days Nicola REALLY got under Boris Johnson’s skin.
Boris will politically and publicly defenestrate Nicola Ferguson Wallace Sturgeon. Oot the windae or under the bus. The Dreghorn Dirker’s time is almost up and Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson wants it known that he used the Diana Oil on the brakes of the bus.
Good Lord. Stuart Campbell, you best buy some extra ink for your quill. You arr going to be VERY busy during this next three months. The most frenetic week starts on 30th April when U.K. Media will be in full Steven Spielberg JAWS shark feeding frenzy. Ever second of every hour of the final seven days leading up to 6h May 2021 will be filled with fifty shades of media shite. Buy a snorkel, you will need it.
But the summer will also have a ton of drama starting with Boris “I’m full of spunk” Johnson (his words, look it up) as he organises a huge press photo-op to REMOVE all of Alex Salmond’s “Scottish Government” signs like USSR statues of Lenin when the Berlin Wall fell. He has been boasting about this photo op for weeks now!
In their place are returned the old signs: “Scottish Executive” with the byline “get back in your box you sweaty Jocks.”
This last paragraph is for Stuart. If as is planned by Boris, the Holyrood election is won by one seat with Ross or Sarwar in Bute House, Sturgeon will be banished. Stuart, imagine how busy you will be? Wings Over Scotland will soon be back from this dystopian Alice In Wonderland world of Pete Women Hating Wishart and Nicola Stilleto to the shoulder blades Sturgeon as they will be on their way to a Souh a American country with non-extradition treaties with the UK.
Normality will soon be restored, Wings Over Scotland will become a full-on pro-INDY website once again. Wokes begone.
Shocked
Do you have a better option?
As Big Jock says: “SNP 1 and other Indy on the list. Is the cool headed , strategically smart move.”
AFI in my view has the greatest momentum, potential and the right people for a very large list indy vote. The list vote is then both an anti-SNP vote AND a pro-indy vote at the same time, albeit leaving a wee bitter taste re SNP1.
The present corrupt SNP leadership will be removed, sooner or later. Voters also have a chance to help this change along in certain targeted constituencies such as Glasgow South, Swinney’s and Yousaf and Robertson. By voting against the SNP ONLY in these specific constituences on the first vote could give the indy movement its ‘Portillo Moment’.
‘Smart strategy’! Max the Yes AND remove the rotten SNP cabal.
As far as I am concerned, it is not enough for her to be replaced. I want complete and full exposure of her misdeeds, and of the SNP connections who worked with her.
Her actions need to be reviewed, and legal action taken against her and the others involved.
I hope I’m well enough known that nobody doubts my commitment to Independence, but if integrity and human decency isn’t enough to purge the SNP of it’s crooks and feckless leadership, then all we have left is an election to deliver the withering rebuke which the SNP has earned itself.
‘IF’ that leads to a hung Parliament, even Heaven forbid, with a Unionist coalition government, it seems self evident that, that’s what it will take to give the SNP the bloody nose it deserves. Then, it must be hoped, the ‘real’ SNP will finally decide to clear out the trash and re-apply itself to the matter of Scottish Independence, and see what, if anything, can be salvaged from Sturgeon’s scorched earth.
Spoiler alert, the outcome of ‘national’ elections for Westminster’s Mickey Mouse assembly called Holyrood is actually much less significant for Scottish Independence as getting rid of Sturgeon with all the ignominy we can muster. Only then, can her and her crooks be booted into the stratosphere and their places filled with true patriots and fighters who will actually deliver Independence.
A Constitutionally Sovereign people does not require ‘legislation’ from the colonial outpost of Holyrood to rise up in defence of it’s Constitution. They have a Constitutional “Right” to do so, and that Constitutional Right pre-dates and outranks democracy.
‘IF’ we lose at Holyrood, then we head to the UN, and that my friends will be progress, and the beginning of the end for Treaty of Union. Where the stupid, self obsessed Politicians have failed Scotland, we must hope our determined Constitutional Lawyers can deliver us.
It DOESN’T MATTER whether a UN initiative is backed by a majority mandate. It is the pursuit of justice in law, a principle of International Law, we will be seeking. This is the end game for the United Kingdom, because Scotland has been wronged and subjugated, and the UK Union cannot properly survive the consequences of that.
Evans may become the scape goat in all this and the
other key players will stay in their corrupt positions confident
that they can get away with anything.
Evans will receive a visible 18 months salary that will be a 6 figure sum
and be given a wonderful new job by Westminster that pays even more.
PS Great piece of real journalism by the Rev, yet again.
Hatuey, let me see if I can summarise your position.
– You are pure in thought and deed
– Craig and Tommy are corrupt
– Anyone who votes SNP1 worships NS
– Unionists in power at Holyrood is the only way forward
Have I got it right?
SNP 1?
Get real!
All that does is allow them to keep circling the wagons around Sturgeon and give her Woke Praetorian Guard the green light to put down any dissent.
Indy will get kicked far down the road and any list MSPs from pro-Indy parties will be subject to the sort of scrutiny, abuse and monstering in the press that SNP MPs at Westminster were subject to during the 80’s – all at the hands of the SNP and their friends in The National.
The only thing that’ll get rid of Sturgeon will be a leaked document or a whistle blower. But let’s face it, the MSM have been told to muzzle their dogs, so too the Office for the Union or whatever it’s called – Scotland’s friend Sturgeon is actually Britain’s friend Sturgeon. (The same applies to Robertson in the unlikely event she does go).
The SNP needs purged, therefore there’s nothing else for it…
SPOIL 1 ISP 2
robertknight says:
SPOIL 1 ISP 2
Reply
Does this mean you want to see a Unionist party in power at Holyrood?
What are the implications of having a Unionist party in power at Holyrood vis a vis IndyRef2?
robertknight says:
15 March, 2021 at 8:16 am
SNP 1?
Get real!
Indy will get kicked far down the road
Not as far as it will if we let the Unionists in.
If they get their hands on Holyrood you can guarantee no indy party will ever be allowed to rise again.
It is those who are wanting to hand our parliament to a Unionist coalition who need to ‘get real’
Renewables, you forgot the most important thing which ought to be at the top of your list; I think you’re a lightweight cheerleader.
I used to face crowds of people as loud and deluded as you. Now you stand out in the crowd, not me.
The SNP leadership has been treating people like Craig Murray and Tommy Sheridan with contempt for years, btw. That is to say, the people you worship and serve have been conspiring against them for years.
I not only respect Craig Murray and Tommy Sheridan, I adore them, just as I adore Salmond who your leaders tried to imprison.
But that’s the sort of insincere twisting of the facts that we’ve come to expect from people like you and your role models.
We are all sick of it. The grassroots (also treated systematically with contempt) are sick of it.
.
.Good morning Breeks at 8.05 comment.
I agree wholeheartedly with your analysis.
The saving grace of a temporary ConDem or LabLib coalition at Bute House is of course it will disinfect us of the Sturgeon Mad Bovine Disease.
A helluva price to pay for being infested with McWokes and women hating SNP careerist sycophants like Pete-No-Blood-On-My-Hands Wishart.
I believe a few years of this rancid man at the very top will sicken a huge part of our nation and we can heal some of the Humza damage and all coalesce around pro-INDY again.
This is part satirical and ironically a lot of truth about Boris Spunkanator 23 Kids Johnson…
link to archive.is
@Tommy Sheridan
Are you really asking me to tell my daughters and grand daughters that I voted for a party that takes away their rights as women and puts them mentally and physically at risk ?. REALLY!
“this has nothing to do with unionists or yoons or whatever you want to call them. This is 100% home grown SNP corruption”
That there is home grown corruption and compliance is undeniable, as without it no matter how much the British state attempted to mess things up, this would have never happened. But if you might want me to believe the whole thing is not a plot designed by the British state to get rid of Mr Salmond and to thwart independence and that Sturgeon, Robertson, Murrell and Roddick, Evans and the rest are not useful idiots of the British state, you are wasting your time. I can see the dirty fingers of the British state in all this, from the intervention of the crown agent, the full cooperation of the UK civil service, the compliance to this astonishing level of corruption by ALL the opposition parties, the cooperation silence from the press and broadcasters and of course that convenient fishing expedition in 2017 that landed politicians all over the UK and from different parties in the same boat Mr Salmond was.
“caused in part by people like you who cannot see the truth in front of their faces”
I think you must be projecting your own inability to see the truth. I can see very well what is going on here, thank you.
“If Nicola Sturgeon spat in your face I bet you’d apologise to her”
I do not know where you got that idea from. I am not fan of the woman and blame her for all what we are going through. I have been blaming her since January 2020. I am of the opinion she is a untrustworthy political impostor who willingly cooperated with the British state to not only denying us our right to self determination but to hand over our powers and control of assets to England MPs. I doubt I would ever be within her spatting range.
“Wake up”
I am wide awake, thank you.
“see the truth”
I have seen the truth since January 2020. You can argue it was already too late as others saw it much sooner.
“cut the head off the “New SNP” snake and get our party back”
You do not get rid of a dandelion just cutting the flower off. You need to go for the roots. Same here. The malignancy is not just in the surface, it runs very deep because somebody planted it there. When you have long term members like Murrell, Sturgeon, Swinney, Robertson, Smith, Russell and Fabiani willingly participating on this, you know the entire edifice is compromised.
The SNP is not my party. I have no party. I will align with whatever party that gives me what I want:
a vote on independence. Not a vote for a mandate on a vote on independence and more promises of jam tomorrow. I want what we have been democratically demanding since 2016 and every political party playing the game of the democracy of illusion is deliberately refusing us: a vote on independence.
Does such party exist?
Hatuey, previously you said I worshipped Sturgeon.
Now apparently I worship Craig Murray and Tommy Sheridan, just not fervently enough. Unlike you, a true believer.
I worship no-one, but I do recognise BS when I read it, and I smell shite every time you post. You ‘adore’ Alex, do you? Adoration is for idiots and religious worshippers.
Your assumption that you speak for the majority of the Grassroots shows just how out of touch you are. Even on Wings in the Current mood here you are struggling to find approval for your increasingly bizarre statements.
I will take advice on how to vote from Craig and Tommy, and from Alex should he choose to give it. I will not take it from you.
I’ve been listening to Swinney on BBC Radio Scotland. Very interesting line of questioning… EIS accusing Sturgeon of sending schools back early in order to distract from the Salmond scandal, Salmond warned Sturgeon about Grady years ago, Derek Mackay still on wages, etc…
It’s the ides of March. Mark this day. It’s he beginning of the end.
Mia,
No, such a party does not exist.
Get real.
ScotsRenewables says:
It is those who are wanting to hand our parliament to a Unionist coalition who need to ‘get real’
Reply
Is our parliament not already in the hands of a Unionist coalition?
Renewables, every time you talk to me, I make you look like a lapdog fool.
Be off with you, little pesky fly.
@bigjock
You’re so on Salmond’s side you want re-elect the person who tried to send him to die in prison, Nicola sturgeon, as first minister of Scotland.
This is how dictatorships are created. You want to keep Scotland under the jackboot of the sturgeon cabal. The fact is the SNP is now dead, it is now the “New SNP” and the SNP will never return until sturgeon murrell and the rest of the corrupt bastards are out of politics for good and hopefully rotting in jail.
Anyone who voted for the SNP in any form is condoning what happened to Alex Salmond and is condoning it happening to anyone else that gets in Sturgeon’s way. If the “New SNP” get back in they will also start come after “hate sites” like Wings, make no mistake of that fact, all of us are being watched now.
Someone else asked what do we do? My view, we make it clear that until sturgeon and the rest of her corrupt cabal are out the party the SNP is unelectable. No exceptions as all current SNP MSP’s are simply patsies chosen because they lack the wit and intelligence to think for themselves. If they weren’t we’d have seen a back bench rebellion by now calling for Sturgeon to go and installing a new leader. We make it clear that grass roots former party members are going to actively campaign against Nicola Sturgeon. Extreme I know, but the problem is that the “New SNP” is not behaving like any normal political party, it has become a personality cult around Nicola Sturgeon. Any normal party would have cast Sturgeon aside like the tories did to thatcher or as Labour threatened to do to Blair if her didn’t step aside. The gloves have to come off because at the moment they think we are all idiots who will vote for them no matter what.
As in the Sunday Post story, it appears the committee, despite previously voting to do so, have not served a Section 24 order.
Andy Wightman on Twitter has linked to some of the minutes of the committee.
On 24th February the committee voted to serve the section 24 order:
link to parliament.scot
On 2nd March the committee agreed to write to Alex Salmond’s lawyers:
link to parliament.scot
The letter written to Alex Salmond’s lawyers on 2nd March says explicitly ‘The Committee is of the view that it does not require to serve a notice on you in order for you to provide key documents cited by your client.’
link to parliament.scot
Looking at the minutes, the committee voted to serve the section 24 order, but when they actually wrote to Alex Salmond’s solicitors, they chose not to use the powers granted to them under the Scotland Act to compel evidence.
Wightman’s criticism of this article appears to hinge on the author’s use of the word ‘outvoted’. The minutes of 2nd March do not show a division, but it’s nevertheless clear that the decision of the 24th February has been backtracked. Alex Cole-Hamilton, in the Sunday Post article, claims that this was due to legal advice received by the committee.
The issues of ‘serving a section 24 order’ and ‘asking Salmond’s solicitors for documents’ have been conflated.
But they are not the same thing. Given the Lord Advocate’s own conduct has also been brought into question, and the previous broad interpretation of court orders when redacting evidence, it appears that Alex Salmond and his lawyers still face possible contempt of court proceedings if they respond comprehensively to the committee’s request.
It seems farcical at best that there is evidence that Parliament is not allowed to request and not allowed to see. The lack of true Parliamentary privilege must be considered a structural problem with the institutions of the Scottish state.
“No, such a party does not exist.
Get real”
I got real in January 2020, thank you. The question is, when will you?
Until such party emerges and we are given a real democratic choice rather than attempting to fool us with a pretend one, I will spoil both my ballots.
I refuse to play anymore the game of the democracy of illusion. I have played it long enough. Either I vote for independence or I vote for nothing at all.
Party discipline is important. I acknowledge that. What also is important is the ability of party members to think occasionally for themselves and speak out when they see obvious injustice being done in their name.
At Holyrood al! I hear is silence over what happened to Alex.
A few not sitting in Holyrood have spoken, but not those in it. There must be. some among the SN P benches who do not believe what is happening is fair but they remain silent.
That is approval. They improvements Hate Crime Bill because it is the “done” thing, and thus let women down badky.
Now you want to vote for them again.
This time however the replacements for thos.e. retiring will be even more subdued by party leadership.
Mia is right on this. It is rotten to the core. Many great branches. Many great members, but nothing can thrive because of being pruned like a Bonsai by leadership.
They have to go whatever it takes or Scotland becomes a desert of despair, because Nicola isn’t going to stop and you know if as wel! as I do.
Shocked says
Someone else asked what do we do? My view, we make it clear that until sturgeon and the rest of her corrupt cabal are out the party the SNP is unelectable
Reply
Do we make that clear by electing a Unionist party?
@mia
When i say cut the head off the snake I’m referring to sturgeon and everyone connected to her for as long as any of them are involved her and murrell will continue to pull the strings. They all need to go.
And if you believe that the British state are behind this then I’m assuming you don’t believe wings or anyone else who have provided screeds of evidence to prove who is behind this.
As I said, sturgeon is currently spitting in your face and you are apologising for her and blaming other people. You need to go and lie in a darkened room and listen to some whale song or something.
@bob Mack
Mia is going to vote for the bastards.
‘Do we make that clear by electing a Unionist party’ – It really doesn’t matter whether it is Unionist or Nationalist, if Holyrood fails to work then it will be closed.
We are not on a hampster wheel here and things will have to change soon. If Holyrood Inquiries cannot get to the truth in a simple case like this one, then things have to be changed.
@ Alf Baird at 7:46 am
I see little moral issue for folk living in certain constituencies using their first vote to either abstain or even vote against key SNP MSPs who are directly responsible for allowing us all to get into this mire through their inaction or possibly nefarious activities.
For those that are appalled by such a suggestion, ask yourself this, if Scotland being stuck under unionist Party governance is so detrimentally bad for us, why hasn’t the SNP utlised any of the democratic mandates they have previously been supplied with to give Scotland the opportunity to permanently liberate ourselves from unionist control?
Plus, the SNP have also been actively undermining their own main campaigning argument, namely that Scotland should be independent because it is wrong that Scotland should have to endure policies we don’t want foisted on us by governments made up of political parties we continually reject, when the SNP themselves, who we did elect appear quite happy foisting policies on us we do not want.
@Shocked
“If the “New SNP” get back in they will also start come after “hate sites” like Wings, make no mistake of that fact, all of us are being watched now.”
There’s nothing Sturgeon can do about Wings and well they know it. Stu’s based in England, and the Quality Polis can’t even control a bunch of drunken Orcs after “the master race” win the Mickey Mouse league, so any fear of them find some legal reason for forcing the WoS internet hoster to close it down is groundless.
She may be a “big deal” up here, but outside of Scotland like those other two First Ministers of regional parliaments she’s nothing.
@Shocked,
Mia “I vote for Independence ,or I vote for nothing at all”
Doesn’t sound like it.
@mark
I know that wings is safe… those that live in Scotland aren’t.
“And if you believe that the British state are behind this then I’m assuming you don’t believe wings or anyone else who have provided screeds of evidence to prove who is behind this”
I believe every piece of evidence Mr Campbell and Mr Murray have provided on this That evidence has demonstrated beyond any doubt that the SNP and the SNP government is corrupt to the core, that the SNP is no longer a party of independence and that the SNP and Sturgeon have colluded with elements of the British state (such as the UK civil service and the crown agent) on this. But that evidence, as far as I can see, does not disprove the intervention of the British state on this.
I cannot deny what my eyes see and what my common sense tells me.
We are told until we are blue in the face that this is a devolved government, allegedly with no power for anything, not even power to stop us being unlawfully dragged out of the EU against our constitutional rights and democratic will, powerless to deliver a non-binding referendum despite having countless cast iron mandates or powerless to stop the theft of our powers and assets including our water and NHS by England MPs. We are expected to believe our parliament has no power at all either when it comes to the deciding if it must follow or not the clearly dodgy, self-serving and ultra vires “instructions” of elements from the COPFS, despite a judge telling in a court of law quite categorically that it is up to the parliamentary committee and nobody else to decide what evidence to see and despite the fact that there is no way on earth the UK parliament would ever allow a corrupt entity like COPFS to restrict its power of decision. And yet here you are expecting me to believe the same powerless government can completely gerrymander the entire COPFS, police, UK civil service, crown agents, judges, opposition parties, parliamentary committees, the press and broadcasters and the metropolitan police?
You cannot be serious.
I see the dirty sticky fingers of the british state operating from behind the scenes and I believe they have been operating for quite some time. I also firmly believe Mr Salmond was part of the UK-wide fishing expedition conducted in 2017 in preparation for the EU withdrawal agreement to get rid of no compliant MPs both in labour and tories – this was the time the backstop was agreed. It seems to me that Mr Salmond and the man in Wales were convenient political targets too. This was part of a strategy to ensure the compliance with the botched EU agreement, which broke our treaty of union and to conveniently derail independence by engineering division in the yes camp and destroying the only person that so far has had the balls to take us anywhere near it.
This is not the fraud Sturgeon’s plan. The woman has shown for 6 years she does not have the strategic mind to even arrange a pish in a brewery. She is an implementer and just another pawn in a bigger chess board, like those useful idiots in SNP HQs and UK civil service in Scotland.
So yes, I do believe Mr Campbell’s evidence but I also believe the British state has been behind this from day one.
The theory being applied by all sides of this argument is as follows
“You are an idiot and I am right”
I’ve never seen that as useful in winning hearts and minds. I will decide how I vote as will most people in Scotland. Some will arrive at that through a complex assessment. Some will just follow a basic belief model. Very, very few will be influenced by the current debate on Wings. Very different from the influence of Wings itself.
I think we are reducing the focus on list voting maximising pro Indy representation and turning it into a negative campaign which is very ineffective.
Like it or not most Independence supporting voters are still SNP voters. Keep telling them they are idiots, fools, morons etc is not going to win them over. The current posts are more likely to make them dig in and vote SNP 1/2.
The list vote will only be maximised for the new Indy a Parties if current SNP voters switch their 2nd. vote to the list. Do you really think insulting people is a vote winner?
“Doesn’t sound like it”
Sound? Sound has nothing to do with it.
The sad thing about the whole sorry saga is that the majority of the Scottish electorate will not be aware of, or really care about what has happened and is happening in our Country.
Scotland was previously a world leader in ‘Education’, standards have fallen so far to the extent that collectively we are thick and cannot see the wood for the trees. Another report is hidden until after the election.
Salmond was right. Our ‘leaders’ in politics, the judiciary and the Civil Service are corrupt and are simply looking after their own self-interests. I have no idea who to vote for in May. Who will even make a start to clean up the pigsty? One thing is absolutely certain-it is not the SNP.
Ruby writes
“What are the implications of having a Unionist party in power at Holyrood vis a vis IndyRef2”
The same as Sturgeon’s SNP in power, it’ll never happen. There’ll always be an excuse – Boris probably. Not withstanding there’s no money and no appetite for it in the SNP leadership. Sturgeon ran the SNP’s IndyRef1 operation and lost, but it was Salmond who fell on his sword. She won’t risk it – too much Woke work still to be done.
Scotsrenewables…
We’ve got an SNP Govt. at Holyrood and a majority of Scottish MPs at Westminster under the SNP banner. And yet…
*Brexit
*UK Internal Market Act
*Bypassing of Holyrood and direct funding of Scottish Local Authorities by Westminster
*UK Civil Service relocating to Scotland ahead of more direct rule
Yet what has that SNP Govt. and its SNP Social Club at Westminster done about it ?
I’ll tell you…
The square root of bugger all !
What is more, should Westminster go further and reduce Holyrood’s ability to function as an effective legislature, do you know what that same SNP will do ?
I’ll tell you…
The square root of bugger all !
In short, it is not a possibility of a Yoon coalition at Holyrood that is the clear and present danger, but Westminster in the here and now and a toothless, gutless, gormless SNP standing between it and us.
The next 5 years are already lost – whether the paper tigers in the SNP form a Scottish Government or not, there’ll be no IndyRef2 and a continued chipping away of Holyrood’s powers.
All we can do is play the longer game of Indy via plebecite in 2026.
At the moment, SNP 1 is simply rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. We need to be getting the tarpaulins off and stocking up the lifeboats so they can be lowered in 5 years time.
Captain Sturgeon and her Crew of biology denying troughers will have us all going down with the ship at this rate, and I’ve no intention of doing so!
@Mia,
I appreciate you might be feeling a bit snippy but please read my post in context as the reply to “Shocked”.
I’m actually supporting you.
If this happens then it will enable the people who falsely accused Salmond and the supporters of ‘equality’ to continue to smear him via the press, social media and their well funded pet organisations.
The SNP and their government is corrupt. They know they can get away with it by waving the indyref carrot in front of people and they’ll give them “one more chance” regardless of he fact that it gives them and their mates 5 more years to impose their identity politics driven policies on Scotland.
I pity the poor man that gets in the way of these strong and brave women without the money and profile of Salmond.
@Ruby
“Do we make that clear by electing a Unionist party?”
We wouldn’t be electing ‘a’ Unionist party, would we? It would be a coalition. Here’s the thing about coalitions, they tend to be rather ineffective. One of 3 things would happen:
1. They would be a raving success (so unlikely as to be almost impossible)
2. They would muddle along, managing not to do anything too grotesque mainly by cancelling each other out and bickering. (Very likely. Westminster would support this, mainly on a ‘don’t frighten the horses’ basis)
3. Complete disaster (for them), all out warfare between the parties, disgust from the population etc etc (more likely than 1, less likely than 2).
Apart from 1. these would be of huge benefit to the independence movement. You get a few years to get rid of the utter fuds and potential criminals in the current leadership, you get time to formulate a truly workable and convincing plan. You also get a population increasingly fed up with the status quo and much more likely to vote for your new, improved, not corrupt, untainted, well led Independence Party. You also get a selection of convenient scapegoats for the inevitable post-covid hardship to come.
There is going to be a lot of trouble ahead.
A lot of protests, riots, civil disobedience due to corrupt parliament, post Brexit/Covid economy etc etc
Nobody will be paying any attention to the HCB.
Boris has softened his stance on IndyRef2 he’s gone from ‘once in a generation’ back to ‘now is not the time’. Could this be because he sees trouble ahead, a lot of trouble?
Voting for the ‘Nouveau SNP’ to handle all this might be the only power we have at the moment to punish them.
Today’s decision is to vote for Angus Robertson to watch him handling all this trouble.
I remember when Alex Salmond stepped aside saying how sad I felt to see him go only to be scolded by a fellow YES voter that I should be rejoicing at the SNP’s first female leader. I remember thinking what an odd and tone-deaf thing to say.
Same person accepted the Salmond accusations at face value and talked about the women being ‘let down’.
She refused to lend any support to AS whatsoever when the media etc were smearing him daily and hid behind ‘I will let the courts decide’ for years.
Now much of the facts are out there, no recognition whatsoever, no condemnation of what Team, Nicola did, fuck all.
Now criticizing Salmond for rocking the boat etc etc…
This was someone I really liked, that I respected.
Right now I cant stand the sight of her. I feel total and utter contempt. Sadly there are many others like her. They give me the boak.
This is what Sturgeon’s legacy really is. The split is real, its there, its done.
Bartleby64 says
Apart from 1. these would be of huge benefit to the independence movement. You get a few years to get rid of the utter fuds and potential criminals in the current leadership, you get time to formulate a truly workable and convincing plan. You also get a population increasingly fed up with the status quo and much more likely to vote for your new, improved, not corrupt, untainted, well led Independence Party. You also get a selection of convenient scapegoats for the inevitable post-covid hardship to come.
Reply
I did post something like the above in an earlier thread but I’ve changed my mind.
You could do all these things without having a Unionist coalition.
Ruby writes…
“Boris has softened his stance on IndyRef2 he’s gone from ‘once in a generation’ back to ‘now is not the time’. Could this be because he sees trouble ahead, a lot of trouble?”
Boris will approve a S30 when it’s a cold day in Hell and his advisors tell him he’ll win by a bigger margin than in 2014 – with or without dodgy counting and postal ballot rigging.
As for Robertson, everyone on here already knows he’s damaged goods and the reason why. If not, then you’ve not been paying attention. Very much a case of “meet the new boss, same as the old boss” with his feet under the desk in Bute House.
I smell a rat.
An Indyref2, right now, would be lost on a rigged postal ballot.
The noises I am hearing now about having an indyref2 along with how No are leading the polls, are ringing alarm bells with me.
Now – is definitely not the time. Before covid, yes, not now though.
Our window has passed (thanks to NS) and we must now be patient.
@Ruby – You have utterly determined people in charge, Ruby. The only thing you can do is vote them out and this is your only chance. You don’t vote for a semi-authoritarian Government. No-one in the world does that. We’re the country of the Enlightenment…of Robert Burns. He wouldn’t touch Sturgeon and Evans with a bargepole, so why vote for them?
Breeks @ 8:05 and Al-Stuart
I agree completely that the primary objective of this election is to remove Sturgeon from power.
We should be supporting any efforts to remove her from her seat, from her office or from her party leadership. The possible consequences, as you say, are unpleasant but pale into insignificance next to the prospect of another 5 years of her non-league standard premiership.
She deserves this for her attitude to Independence alone. The Salmond stuff, the GRA, the HCB and all the attendant virtue-signalling and double-standards simply amplify the need.
Strategically I would say losing power to a Unionist coalition is the best possible outcome. We will have to suffer a couple of years of unrelenting triumphalism for sure but once that ebbs there is no way such a coalition will survive the strains of office.
It would give us time to clear the decks in the SNP or (should that not be possible) organise an alternative which might attract some of the real nationalists who remain in Holyrood.
The political landscape in 5 years with a reborn, reunited pro-Indy standard bearer going into battle against a beleaguered unionist camp fighting like ferrets in a sack would be appealing and most certainly a far better platform from which to launch a drive for Independence than anything a Sturgeon led administration is now able to provide.
So, despite being a friend of my current MSP for close on 40 years, I will be voting for whichever candidate I think is best placed to defeat not her, but her boss’s ticket.
I would strongly encourage anyone who is thinking of simply spoiling their constituency ballot to seriously consider taking their logical thoughts to their conclusion. There is no point in half-doing something and hoping somebody else might do the less palatable part for you. Take responsibility. Take ownership. Do it.
Do not think that if push came to shove your MSP would not do the same to you. Spoiler alert – they already did.
Ruby
Boris is just dangling another carrot to get Sturgeon re-elected. He knows the SNP have no intention of going for a referendum because of Nicola’s personal legislation agenda. Remember also that the economy needs fixing because of Covid and Brexit before any possibility of a referendum can be contemplated.
I was just thinking, what would happen if the iranian government passed a law that allowed men to pick what gender they are.
Would the general population stand meekly by and accept it.
All replies on a fifty pound note to the society for the terminally stupid
So Leslie Evans might get a transfer to some other highly paid role with her gold plated pension… and that is supposed to be her comeuppance is it.
This person and several others involved should be looking at jail sentences for attempting to pervert the course of justice and in some cases for perjury. So should Nicola Sturgeon and her shitbag husband.
And people are still going to vote for this rotten regime… dearie me.
Lots of people talk the talk about the independence movement not being the SNP and vice versa. But then when we clearly need to delouse the SNP they cling to it as if they believe the very opposite.
We clean the existing rats nest out, we replace them with new candidates. It is not that complicated.
Knowing what you do now about what Team Nicola did, if you vote for them (and that is what you are doing) then you are lost. It is actually quite scary what you can get people to vote for just by sticking ‘independence’ to them.
We are the independence movement and we are not going anywhere. This pathetic dependence on the SNP is well into battered wives territory at this point, going back yet one more effing time for yet another ‘surprise” kicking.
If I was a civil servant, I’d be mega worried if a senior politician specifically asked for my contract to be extended…
I am usually a week ahead of the dogs in the street in figuring things out. If I can understand how wrong this thing is, it is a matter of time until they do.
It’s not nearly as complicated as it looks. A man was framed, the evidence exists, and the only frustration is the pathetic way the weasels have delayed their day of reckoning.
Seems to me that Sturgeons opponents are merely waiting for the right time to drop the bombshells.
link to bonappetit.com
I’m doing some research re protests.
Does anyone know if the SNP occupied two floors of the Gentle’s Entry office block or just one?
Stuart MacKay says:
15 March, 2021 at 10:21 am
Ruby
Boris is just dangling another carrot to get Sturgeon re-elected
Reply
You just gave me an idea for a protest.
Holyrood covered in ‘dangling carrots’
@mia
You’re so wrong about what has happened and who everyone involved in this works for and is trying to protect through destroying and withholding evidence and lying on oath that I don’t have the strength to go through everything.
Needless to say you’ve fallen into the trap Sturgeon has set you, as has everyone else who thinks mysterious forces of the British state are to blame. You are doing Alex Salmond and the people of Scotland a disservice trying to excuse sturgeon the way you are.
“I would strongly encourage anyone who is thinking of simply spoiling their constituency ballot to seriously consider taking their logical thoughts to their conclusion. There is no point in half-doing something”
Precisely. Why would you want to vote out a lying, corrupt scumbag who has no intention whatsoever to deliver independence just to vote in another lying, corrupt, dishonest scumbag with no intention to deliver independence either but sailing under a different flag?
Shame shit different arse.
No. If you don’t want to half-do something then you will have to go all the way and that means bringing the entire rotten edifice down.
The edifice is not just the SNP, that is just the dressing room. The edifice is the colonial structure that is strangling our democracy, gaining legitimacy from our conditioned votes and remaining in place by systematically depriving us of real democracy while creating the illusion of one. In this illusion of democracy, the main options, the options we want and need and that is the one of voting for independence, are being deliberately denied to us to force us into voting for what we do not want: an indyref that will never come.
The way to tackle this is to refuse to vote for anyone until the time either the powers that be are ready to offer a real democracy where the options we really want are not taken away from the equation, or the farce of the elections and faux democracy falls flat on its face.
That means spoiling both ballots in masse. Voting for unionists is like voting to keep the exact same rotten edifice but changing the locks and moving the dressing room to a different part of the building.
Same shit, different arse.
Dan Fyffe says:
15 March, 2021 at 10:33 am
I am usually a week ahead of the dogs in the street in figuring things out. If I can understand how wrong this thing is, it is a matter of time until they do.
It’s not nearly as complicated as it looks. A man was framed, the evidence exists, and the only frustration is the pathetic way the weasels have delayed their day of reckoning.
You are reading the mood out there wrong.
I have spoken at length with family and friends, YES voter whose opinions I respect. To a person they have bought the ‘Alex is rocking the boat’ narrative.
This mindset is impervious to reason.
The ten or so loud voices on here telling us to not vote or to vote Unionist will make no headway, the SNP are going to get in.
Maybe if Alex or Stu or Craig or Tommy tell everyone to spoil their papers, then we might see significant numbers. Otherwise, youse are pissing in the wind.
The only choice is, majority government or minority government. And we know only one of these will be regarded as a mandate by WM and the wider international community, no matter how stupid that is.
@ Brian Doonthetoon.
I’ve just gone through the comments. Can’t find mine. It looks like I may have unknowingly put the spotlight on one of the alphabet women. Thankfully Rev Stu has taken the post down. Living in NZ I’m just going with my gut instinct with information I glean from different sites I visit. Looks like I hit the nail on the head there.
I sincerely hope Angus Robertson doesn’t get voted in. He who was supposed to have been a friend of Alex’s.
My god with supposed friends like that, who needs enemies. Eh!
I would imagine a privileged mp such as say kenny mcaskil could enlighten the public with his knowledge knowing he cannot be prosecuted ?
ScotsRenewables says: at 1:18 pm
“The only choice is, majority government or minority government. And we know only one of these will be regarded as a mandate by WM and the wider international community, no matter how stupid that is.”
Says who, and with what consent and authority?
As I see it that view is only going to be held by Scots that don’t have the gumption to ensure that our citizens, and the outside world recognise that democratic decisions on Scotland’s constitutional future are completely separate from the democratic decisions on who we elect to administer the day to day devolved powers held in Holyrood.
Scottish politics has been screwed since that initial material change in circumstance mandate was given and not acted on.
I made this post over the weekend.
link to wingsoverscotland.com
To me it is becoming evermore clear that a large number of our politicians are absolutely useless at strategic planning for the betterment of our society, because they apparently lack the ability to comprehend how what they think and plan in their heads is then meant to be rolled out in the real world.
It’s all just theoretical fodder backed up with little if any skills in the practical application it.
This probably explains the seemingly continual display of muck ups or lack of action seen in such areas as the Edinburgh trams, ferry contracts, ports development, land reform, social security responsibilities, etc.
.
I am reluctant to converse with ScotRenewables as he seems to be in his own little echo chamber.
He knows best.
He doesn’t listen to reason.
He is horrendous at debating.
Anyone who disagrees with him is an idiot.
He caught a social disease off of Nicola.
Scottish Renewables, were there any mirrors in the small room where you were canvassing everyone else in? It’s just that all the former SNP and crucially the formerly Labour voters who LENT their vote to Alex Salmond have said Nicola can go for a long walk off of a short pier, ScotRenewables like so many ardent SNP SturgeonBots you arrogantly assume Scotland’s VOTE belongs to you. How do you think the SNP got 56 MPs?
A LOT of non-SNP people LENT their VOTE to the SNP.
Newsflash: a LOT of folk have repossessed their VOTE from the McWokes.
You TELL everyone here we MUST vote for that backstabbing bag o shite Sturgeon and her Pervy Jimmy McSaville Derek Mackay.
‘
You TELL us we must give the delusional Sturgeon McWokist an effing majority. FFS no chance. I will never vote for Sturgeon, Smyth, Blackfart, Twitler Youth and PishFart.
You keep TELLING everyone here what to do as if you are the font of all reason.
Aye right.
Are you alright ScotRenewables. You are either on the wrong forum, or your wee bit of brain-cheese just fell out of your pizza head.‘
ScotRenewables do you find you shout at those windmills in your avatar?
Maybe you should self-I’d as Don Quixote. Tilting at windmills.
Whatever else you do, you are definitely filling up each thread with 20% of monotonous drivel saying black is white and denying facts such as Alex Salmond was framed by person or persons unknown, but it wisnae Queen Nicola. It was a big bad boy that framed Eck and ran away.
You are wrong and eventually the truth WILL come out.
As for the contagious social disease, naw it’s no Covid, it is narcissistic wokerati me, me, me disease.
I am with the rest of the folk who use their brain and have figured out the only way to clear the political drains of all the shite might be a painful four years of Yoons at Bute House but it is worth it to properly get of Sturgeon and her Klingons,
Also worth an outside bet…
CONSTITUENCY VOTE – SPOIL THE BALLOT. Something imaginative like: “Where is the £600,000 YES money you stole ya thieving weaving wee butt plug.”
LIST VOTE – ISP or AFI. PREFERABLY THEY MERGE and Joanna Cherry + Alex Salmond join.
ScotRenewables, please don’t call us, we will call you. Bye.
As Leslie Evans said herself during her questioning from the committee, Civil Servants don’t make any decisions, they simply act on orders of government ministers.
The Westminster Giv would be perfectly within their rights to demand that it is the minister rather than the civil servant who carries the can for any wrongdoing.
Nicola won’t get away with throwing civil servants under a bus like she has done several times with SNP ministers, the civil service will not let her set this dangerous presitence.
Kiwilassie, stop being a fucking arsehole.
Stop writing comments which can be taken as ‘jigsaw i.d.-ing’ complainants in the Salmond court case. Their identities are protected by law.
You could put Rev Stu in trouble with the court, since he is held responsible for all comments left on his website.
Kiwilassie, your comments are ok in NZ, but they are *not* ok here on a UK website.
And ffs Brian Doontoon stop encouraging her – she’s putting this site and Rev Stu in harm’s way.
Hi David.
I wasn’t encouraging her! I haven’t commented on this page since 11.08 last night, where I pointed out the error of her ways – after checking that the offending comment from the afternoon had been removed so couldn’t be referred to.
Mia says,
‘Either I vote for independence or I vote for nothing at all.”
Democracy is not tailor made to suit every voter and it is clear that your stupid condition for voting for one of the pro indy list parties is not going to be met.
It is clear that your agenda here is to put off genuine independence supporters from giving their list vote to one of the pro indy parties.