The whole caboodle
Posted on
October 05, 2024 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
While we get on with some tinkering behind the scenes in the absence of any Scottish political news – we have an exciting new comment system and the Contact form finally works again! – readers may wish to enjoy the full marathon three-and-a-quarter hours of last month’s fun indyref anniversary event at the Glasgow Science Centre.
If not, probably don’t click on those links.
Holiday Boy is… well, you can guess.
I still can’t understand the apparent optimism from people I would have thought would know better by now. Repeated assertions that the SNP is not a lost cause and that the solution is for all the branches of the independence movement, including the SNP, to come together in friendship and co-operation. How on earth do they imagine this could possibly happen now?
Yes especially in light of rejecting Ash Regan as leader & then again by voting against her plebiscite proposal .
I dunno how many times they need a smack in the face before it eventually sinks in. Its fast becoming another ‘A labour government will give us an indyref” no matter how many leaders said they absolutely would not.
The SNP is only interested in LGBTQWERTYS2++++ Any vote for them will be taken as such.
Yep. 99 % blocked.
I’ve just quickly scanned through these videos. I’ll watch them at a later date.
What impressed me was the high quality of these videos.
I thought the whole thing was a brilliant idea.
In what alternative universe did the “Ayes” have it–let alone, “still” have it?
“Yes” got 44.7% in 2014. Indy lost–by a wide margin. In every recent poll, Scots oppose Indy.
And in the 2024 parliament election, Indy supporting parties (including nominal Indy parties like the SNP) got only 35% of the vote.
Give it a rest, eh? It’s a show title, not a UDI.
As you well know, titles are what most people remember.
And if the Salmond show headlines an untruth, misleads viewers, that’s significant.
The three ‘Ayes’ being interviewed by a fourth ‘Aye’ still have ‘it’ in my book.
Semantics, dear boy.
No, seriously, give it a rest. It means nothing. It’s making no factual claims about anything to anyone. Stop being so fucking tedious.
I wonder if anyone else will dare to point out the personal abuse in your post?
“I wonder if anyone else will dare to point out the personal abuse in your post?”
It’s my site. I get to do what the fuck I like.
“It’s my site. I get to do what the fuck I like”…. says the REVEREND stu cambull.
Excellent ………therefore, a good idea for all of sane mind, to give this site and many other communist/ masonic sites, a miss.
“Excellent ………therefore, a good idea for all of sane mind, to give this site and many other communist/ masonic sites, a miss.”
I’m going to let that through just because “communist/masonic” is a new one, and I don’t get many of those these days.
he has you campbell, the logo is clearly the egypian “winged disc of the sun”
so mote it be
we met upon the level, and departed on the square
– where is billy carlin when you need him?
“communist/masonic” is a new one, and I don’t get many of those these days.”
I don’t suppose you do….but some us are intrigued by the fact that Scotland has more masons per head of population, than of any other country in the world….yet we hear so little about them….even from a renowned sleuth like yourself. It’s all very mysterious…. and somewhat disturbing. Are you one of us….or one of them?
Also, in what universe is a 45 to 55 loss “a wide margin”?
Even more so when evidence since 2014 is that independence support has remained solid and probably increased a few points, particularly given the absolute bin-fire that is Scottish politics thanks to the SNP.
“Also, in what universe is a 45 to 55 loss “a wide margin”?”
Indeed. A mere 6% swing would’ve seen a different result.
So too if the franchise had been set along Brexit principles…
In 2014, 52% of Scots voted Yes but the non-Scots (rUK/EU) swung the result to 55% No.
In 2016, 52% of Brits* voted Leave but the non-Brits (EU) were excluded. Had the non-Brits (EU) been included, they’d probably have swung the result to 55% Remain.
But it’s only Scotland, so standards applied elsewhere, without so much as a fart being released in protest, don’t apply!
*Brits, for sale of argument, includes Irish citizens resident in the UK and entitled to vote under Common Travel Area (1922) legislation.
(Testing the image facility….
I take your point about the inconsistencies.
But it remains the case that arguing passionately for remaining in one union (the EU) just shoots yourself in the foot when arguing to dissolve another union ( the UK).
And now we get regular posts claiming we need to be in BRICS!
It’s a great shame so many pro-Indy voices have so little faith that Scotland could ever survive as a truly independent country.
Personally, I recon Indy Scotland would be best testing the EU waters via membership of EFTA, EEA and possibly the Schengen Area before full blown EU membership.
But that’s a conversation for another day.
More immigration and English custom officers on theTweed?
Jeezuz – Not when those Unions are completely different. Honestly, can we please stop parroting lines spouted on twitter by 12 year old unionists?
Many of us just want to be like every other country in Europe, that has much more independence than we have within the UK, but are able to work, travel and sell our goods within the EU.
As was proven during Brexit, every member country is allowed to leave whenever they want. Brussels is not coming back to them saying “Now is not the time”.
If you want Scotland to be “truly independent” – ie. isolationist, then feel free. But many of us don’t.
Applying logic to the situation Martyman? It’ll never catch on amongst the “usual suspects”.
Their worldview doesn’t extend much beyond their Brigadoon fantasies of a Scottish Socialist Republic existing in splendid isolation while fluffing for BRICS and all the regressive dictatorships because apparently Uncle Sam is the devil incarnate and all the world’s evils are attributable to WEF, George Soros, Davos etc.
It’s not that far removed from truthers banging on about chemtrails, fluoridation and vaccines.
You are bonkers.
Capitalism, neo liberal policies & Anglo American imperialism is fucking isolationist, ya plank!
1. It cuts off nations from trading with each other on the say so of ONE.
2. It enforcers fucked up policies on entire populations through withholding loans , investments or issuing debt punishments for not complying.
3. It privatizes everything that isn’t nailed down to asset managers & vulture capitalists. Making the poor rent services they’ve already paid for to keep the wealthy more wealthy & suck a country dry of its wealth. Buying up hospitals, carparks, anything that’s not nailed down.
4. It makes countries dependent to follow like lemmings or else they’ll be overthrown, assassinated or invaded.
5. It leaves nothing for future generations.
All the exact opposite of BRICS.
But let’s look at those “regressive dictatorships” you speak of..
1. Self sufficient. Can trade with who it wants.
2. State owned technology, manufacturing, natural resources, military, media, sciences, industry, energy
3. Not a sniveling fuckwit to uncle Sam & his band of paid terrorists destabilising whole regions.
4. Not colonising anyone.
5. Not invading & setting up 800+ military bases.
6. Not assassinating world leaders.
7. Uphold international law.
8. Believe in the right to self determination.
9. Can use its own currency perfectly well without being tagged to the volatile misfortunes of just one country.
10. Can vote how it likes at the UN.
11. Can choose for itself what allies & wars it wishes to accept or deny taking part in.
12. It can have its very own foreign policy.
There’s just a few.
China is the word superpower on manufacturing & industry exactly because it became self sufficient & DIDN’T deindustrialise on the fucking say so of Uncle Sam & it didn’t let neo liberal bullshit asset strip it.
Where exactly are they & Europe now? In the toilet with not a pot to piss in. Why is Europe in the shit? Oh, uncle Sam again. He punished his little soldiers in an attempt to strike one. Ho hum, collective punishment seems a common theme with them eh?
You seriously need to stop projecting, yer colonial racism is showing..
.
Isolationist is a word beloved of unionists, is it nor?
They would be using it accurately when talking about those who want to shut themselves out of eveywhere.
Civic nationalists are *meant* to be better than regressive blood and soil nationalists and the far right spivs who pushed brexit though Robert.
The same standards applied here as in virtually every other self determination referendum, so your point that a different point was appled here is utter bullshit I’m afraid.
Sadly, as we’ve seen over many, many months the regressive bigots pushing the franchise restriction agenda are immune to facts as well as political realities.
I look forward, Andy, to your heading up the campaign to run the Brexit referendum again, but with EU citizens permitted to participate this time, on the grounds that the blood and soil BritNats who infested the British Government in 2016, and who determined the franchise, were nothing more than a collection of regressive bigots.
BTW. Scotland doesn’t need self determination. It simply needs to invoke existing legislation (CoR) and revoke an international treaty, which a regular contributor here will no doubt argue is itself invalid.
But sadly, in the minds of BritNats and Afghan men alike, an abused wife still needs a husband’s permission in order to obtain a divorce, and even then…
You’re doing that thing franchise restriction fannies always do though Robert, comparing apples with oranges. Self determination referendums and votes on constitutional change are not the same thing, therefore it is entirely unsurprising that the electorates can be different.
I am however glad you acknowledge the overlap between the regressive brexiteer bigots and their franchise restriction coevals who soil the independence movement.
You and a small coterie of naifs may have convinced themselves that there are cunning plans which will result in independence and that Scotland is somehow unique and can use a magical shortcut to achieving independence.
The majority aren’t buying it though, whether in the independence movement, in Scotland as a whole and still less in the international community.
I know the usual suspects in here scorn even the concept of the international community or its recognition, but they aren’t going to get far without it, however hard they wish it were otherwise.
Oh..and if I’m somehow obliged to head up a campaign, mebbe you or some of your blood and soil mates could start a campaign platforming your regressive, bigoted plans and see how that pans out, huh? I know some of them like to disparage Alba’s performance, but I suspect their showing would make Alba look like an electoral colossus in comparison.
Feel free to prove us wrong.
You’ll be obliged to do nothing because yer a hypocrite. Yer campaign would crumple the moment you opened yer gob.
You bang on about blood & soil bigots while you’ve the brass neck to fully support & endorse a fascist apartheid state where even the original “natives” are excluded from voting.
You bang on about franchises while ignoring the UKs Brexshit franchise & ordinary restrictions.
You claim to support a right to self determination but not for those pesky ‘Orcs. Theirs must’ve been rigged (funny, they fully support Palestines right to statehood too but lookie who didn’t)
You don’t believe we’re a colony. We just gave all powers over our own resources to our neighbour out the goodness of our hearts while we eat grass.
You don’t believe in an Internationally recognised treaty, where non negotiable terms were set out & remain alive today, Scotlands claim of right.
You’d also start name-calling everyone who didn’t agree with your views as Brigadoon tankies..
So no, I’d leave campaigning if I were you.. take up dominos or something..
In elections in THIS universe, a 10% loss (actually, 10.6%–that’s me being factual again) is considered a “wide” margin.
I suspect your used to inflating the size of things to others Campbell.
If 52% for Brexit is widely accepted as a closr result, 55% in favour of unionism is nowhere near a wide margin.
So you attack me for making factual comments, but give a pass to all the non-factual nonsense posted here?
That show’s your priorities.
BTW “shut up” isn’t exactly a persuasive, let alone intelligent, response.
If you insist on being so tiresome, I’ll make it happen.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZIFx-FWsAg7ngG?format=jpg&name=900×900
LMAO!
Geoff – Soooperb. Best comment for ages.
Possibly, I like it so much because it will infuriate Sturgeon.
You know you can post images directly now, right?
Like this:
I was just getting used to the old one. Too many buttons on this one.
Yea, it’s a bit of a challenge for you with all them buttons.
I guess the problem is that whilst support for Independence (the ayes) has remained (and still does) fairly constant in the country; as yet no vehicle for obtaining it has been universally recognised and adopted.
Plebiscite election ? I’m patiently awaiting Hatey to put himself forward as an Independent candidate standing on this ticket to give us a lead. Though he’s probably too concerned about the spelling and capitalisation of other folk’s screen names to be bothered with any active or constructive involvement.
Independent, non party candidates ?These would be excellent, however many potentially suitable activists are facing enough challenges just scraping by in daily life to be able to devote the time and effort required in canvassing, fund raising etc.
Constitutional Change ? It’s underway, however it’s likely, I fear, to be a lengthy process and fraught with legal arguments and delays.
And meantime time passes and we’re no further on in the land which gave the legal world ‘Jigsaw Identification” and a system which protects those whom many of us believe attempted to see an innocent man jailed … and succeeded in imprisoning Mr Murray.
Take care of the details, Sven, and the big picture will take care of itself.
Float an ambitious prospectus though, which on closer inspection is found to be no more than badly painted canvas, and, well, you get the idea.
My 7 YO granddaughter knows Scotland gets a capital ‘S’. To miss it out smacks of ignorance, laziness or disrespect. Once it has been pointed out, to persist with it is simply juvenile, petulant foot stamping. Not a good look for those insisting we’re a serious people ready to take our place with the other sovereign nations of the world.
As for myself standing for election on a Plebiscitary Election mandate, I don’t have the answers, neither do I believe there is majority support for Indy.
But this site is hoaching with those who claim it’s all settled, and that Indy support is in the majority. I would like them to expose their certainties to the real world. Maybe I would learn something – most likely they would.
And there’s a serious point to be made. If all the professional politicos are as crap, greedy, tractorous and lazy as is forever being claimed here, why don’t the amateurs show us how to be excellent, selfless, honourable and hard-working?
Sorry, but the too poor excuse doesn’t wash with me. Anybody who’s committed won’t care about the money. Anybody with grassroots support won’t starve. It’s simply a convenient cop out.
To get a sense of the futility of Alex’s seeming mission to squeeze juice from the dried , shrivelled husk of the former ” Party of Independence ” look no further than Fergus Ewing ; talking the talk at this get-together and a couple of days later walking the walk to Holyweird to vote against Ash Regan’s proposal – the only ( relatively ) straightforward route to Independence immediately practicable.
I sometimes get the impression Alex’s * real * aspiration is to regain his position as leader of the SNP .Which would in many ways be a vast improvement over the grey miasma of insipid blandness being spread over that Party by Jake The Mortician .
If that’s in any way accurate , it’s easy to understand .
He gave a large chunk of his life to the SNP , rescued it from the political rigor mortis of Swinney’s 1st woeful tenure ( his 2nd is shaping-up to take woefulness to hitherto unplumbed depths ) ; turned it into a formidable election fighting & winning juggernaut AND gave Scotland it’s – so far – only opportunity to sever the bonds of * Union * . He clearly loved the Party .
Look what that Party done to him as reward for his love , devotion & achievements on it’s behalf .
And that’s the entire post-Salmond SNP . Not one of them stood-up for him when he needed them most .Not fckn one of them .
Whatever his inner thoughts on the subject , they don’t deserve him and I feel he’ll eventually have to accept that the Party he gave so much to is gone : irreversibly fucked beyond salvation .
Walk on Alex & don’t look back
He’s resuscitated it a few times . The 79 group & reprising leadership roles a few times but I’m afraid the SNP is stone deid, captain. No even a pulse.
I don’t think Jesus could even save it & make it get up & walk again.
And would he want the headache? A bunch of poisonous inbred cretins who still make out he’s guilty of something only demonstrates how completely captured & overrun with plants the whole SNP was right back to Sturgeons intake of duds in 2015.
& Holyrood now no different. Greens running a muck & plants everywhere, in every department, working against Scotlands interests.
He needs to move on & get behind Salvo & Liberation. The time is now because the whole world is about done with Colonialism over at the UN as country after country takes to the podium.
” He needs to move on & get behind Salvo & Liberation. The time is now because the whole world is about done with Colonialism over at the UN as country after country takes to the podium. ”
100% .
He would do well to invite Alf B for a productive tete-a-tete , eg on Scotland Speaks . I for one would be really interested in hearing those two discuss Alf’s perception of our * condition * .Pretty sure many of us would be interested . Not clear what Alex’s views on the subject are ; other than that he doesn’t seem interested or deem it to be relevant .
? ros. Thanks for your truth
He has got competition, to be fair.
An absolute f*ckin disgrace those b*stards at Tammany Hall don’t give a toss about poorer Scots.
“More than 40,000 people have signed a petition to keep Glasgow’s night shelter open after it was served with an enforcement notice by the city council.
Homeless Project Scotland is a charity run entirely by volunteers and looks to offer a safe haven for those experiencing homelessness.
As well as offering advice the organisation is known for its soup kitchen, which serves hot food 365 days a year, a 24/7 emergency hotline to provide advice to people across the country and a mobile food van which serves free meals to vulnerable people in multiple locations. ”
More than 40k sign petition to keep Glasgow homeless shelter open | Glasgow Times
If you read the article, a more nuanced view can be reached than that presented by the poster from scotland.
Anti-social behaviour and crime blighting the area. The people who live around there have rights too.
And as there is no planning permission for the shelter, nobody can know if the shelter meets fire safety regulations.
I bet the purveyors of synthetic outrage would be beside themselves with even more synthetic outrage if the place burnt down with casualties and there were no extinguishers, detectors, alarms or fire exits.
Again, no mention of our colonial reality at this ‘independence’ event? Whit dae aw thay bricht mynds pit on the stage think independence means?
As postcolonial theory tells us, the peoples understanding of independence ‘remains rudimentary’; this is primarily because the national party has never undertaken ‘a reasoned study of colonial society’. The political leaders have never told the people what independence means or why it is necessary.
Fergus Ewing is wrong to say that the Salmond stitch-up is the biggest scandal facing Scotland. The biggest scandal is the SNP elite being ‘co-opted by colonialism’ and becoming ‘part of the colonial racket’. That is why we see the colonial administration persecuting independence campaigners and delaying independence, facilitating the ongoing economic plunder of our country.
If we need a definition of a failed nationalist politician it is these former SNP MPs and MSPs retiring on colonial pensions after being given 6 elected nationalist majorities. And they have the cheek to blame the people!
So yes, we still need to explain to the people their colonial wretchedness. And essential information has been provided on this (including the textbook ‘Doun-Hauden’), including here the summarised explanation of what independence means (decolonization) and why it is necessary (liberation):
link to salvo-cor.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com
Even for you, Alf, that’s a lot of uses of “colonial” in one comment.
If all you have is a hammer every problem looks like a nail. Alf is so enamoured of his (faulty) understanding and application of his pet post colonial idee fixe that there is simply no comment on any particular issue which cannot be seen through the post colonial lens.
Alf gives every indication of being the independence movements equivalent of the academics in the old Eastern bloc who were forced (or in many cases acquiesced as they had little choice) in the co-opting of their subjects by class based Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy.
Yer famous “international community” has been in discussion for about a week at the UN about imperialists, expansion, coups, soft power, resource theft & the famous five of fuckwitery thinking it rules the world..
Except you Scotland. You escaped colonialism according to #AskAndy. You & yer resources are free to walk out the door at any stage..
You possess all the hallmarks of the condition. A serf all too eager to bow to yer imperial master & immediately think it’s yer superior while beating ‘brigadoon tankies’ with yer cringe.
I think yer in the wrong movement. Britnat is that way —->
Yes Stuart, certainly a lot more use of the C word than was in evidence at the indyref anniversary event. It is as if nothing has been learned of our colonial condition, as if those invited to speak are too culturally assimilated to acknowledge our colonial reality; denial of course is an important part of the colonial ‘condition’, as is the role of the native bourgeoisie.
The decolonization template is there, still being played out in full before us, if we care to look for it:
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
Or, y’know, none of us thought it was pertinent or helpful.
We might remember that colonialism ‘is based on psychology’ (Cesaire).
If we are unable to correctly diagnose (or accept) our colonial condition we will be unlikely to find the only remedy – i.e. liberation. A correct diagnosis would therefore seem essential, never mind pertinent and helpful.
For those who refuse or are unwilling to define independence as decolonization (i.e. the UN and postcolonial theorists definition), it may be informative to learn what you think independence means otherwise, and any theoretical basis in that regard?
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
@Alf – your definition of colonialism is so absurd it would apply to any people (or perhaps a person) who can come up with any grievance (real or contrived) against their home state. As someone in their early 30’s who pays significant amounts of tax, far more than the value of services I receive, I must be a deeply oppressed colonial subject.
If Liberation/Salvo is the answer, can you refer to one single source of authority (I.e. not your own opinion) which would support or suggest that it would be an effective legal strategy?
Why do you feel you have to denigrate or demean Alf Bairds use of the word colonial as if it is not pertinent, yet myself and others have been asking you to post your beliefs and feelings regarding Salvo and the other Liberation organisations
I will honestly say that I believe your wee blue book and wee black book had a bigger impact on the positive independence result than anything Alex Salmond or any of the other troughers said or did
Salmond TBF negotiated the referendum but then he disengaged the accelerator pedal and handed over the reins to clowns and tractors for which we have suffered greatly and still do
,he supposedly by many accounts here and elsewhere is the great tactician , yet after many years in WM as a politician experiencing and dealing with the constant denigration and contempt shown to Scotland and Scots he FAILED MISERABLY to recognise that the WM establishment would do ANYTHING to destroy independence
I haven’t watched any of the excepts you posted from “the ayes have it ” which I may do later but it appears to me to be Alex Salmond grandstanding and aggrandising about a FAILED independence referendum
Maybe the Scum Nonce Party being in power since 2007 would have been better concentrating on educating and illustrating to the Scottish voters how extremely wealthy Scotland’s natural resources are and how they are being stolen and used by england to modernize and renovate London and the south, BUT no every year they allowed the FAKE GERS figures to be trotted out without producing the truth which enabled the unionists to keep heaping the scorn
You may feel that Scotland and Scots are not treated as a colony but you then have to identify the relationship that you consider appropriate
Aye Alf (and Robert Hughes in a comment up-thread somewhere hidden away in an shitey awkward to follow Arsebook ADHD style comment system “upgrade” to the site), you both point out the utter hypocrisy displayed by some of these supposed brightest and best pro-Indy minds.
Been saying it for a good while but I’m now officially done with anybody and site that continues to state and promote the idea that “there’s nothing going on politically in Scotland”.
When someone shows you who they are, best believe them the first time…
No ongoing scrutiny of the far reaching implications of Freeports and special Economic Zones, No scrutiny of the implications of the ongoing antics in energy infrastructure developments in Scotland.
Aye, there’s nowt going on richt enough if you want all that continued exploitation of Scotland and are happy and comfortable to jist sit back and allow these detrimental developments to be implemented on the qt.
Which begs the question, just what kind of future society do these supposedly brightest and best minds want for Scotland if they see no issue with what’s being rolled out…
The whole point of positive activism for returning Scotland to self-governance surely isn’t jist to have a Scotland that continues with the sellout to global corporate interest and profits at the expense of our own folk, because if that’s what these leading minds in the Indy movement actually want, there’s no need for Indy at all because we can get all that shite with continued London Rule.
ISP at least seem to notice some of what’s actually going on.
link to isp.scot
link to offtopicscotland.com
Yes there’s a lot going on. Especially during a media blackout with alternative news sites filling the void until they’r ceremoniously removed from American owned platforms for some secret reason they won’t say.
Soon we’ll be jettisoned back to the 1940s where we all sit around a radio by candle light to hear BBC Pravda punt propaganda shite 24/7.
I’d like to read more about Freeports too & the Scotwind giveaway.
I think the Freeports will come with fracking the fck out of Scotland. Back to being Englanders lab rats.
We can but hope. It’d be a blessed relief for all the non moonhowlers!
Where’s the evidence for widespread – or indeed any – support for the sub RISE Cappuccino Commie guff though? Will the roughly 30% of Scots who are right of centre support it? The centrists? The social democrats?
Will they fuck.
The road to independence doesn’t lie with fringe nutters espousing sophomoric Wolfie Smith revolution any more than it does with those so convinced we’ll be wafted to the sunny uplands of independence by Salvo and clicking our heels three times while invoking the Claim of Right.
“This should be fun: now we can find out what folks really think about some of the bile posted in here.”
How’s yer numbers looking, Big Man?
Is that a tramp sleeping awkwardly askew a clothes horse in your wee piccy? I can’t quite tell? ;?
You’d have thought someone with your know-all on all things that countries are recognising they need to return to being self sufficient in all manner of things from energy security to military.
Your world view is coming to an end. Its run out of debt to dump & countries can’t fall out with their trading neighbours on their say so for much longer either. Isn’t that why yer beloved EU is in the toilet?
I think Scotland would be very interested to know who bought Scotwind for a song. I bet it was our neighbours.
Look at you, you don’t even recognise Internationally recognised treaties so you aren’t in any position to say what will gain independence either cause you’ve already folded to the main stipulation of the union ya fcking eejit.
Wooo hooo! We can edit?
I’d fucking *love* stu to do something on Freeports for no other reason than to pin down the salvo/freedumb absolute 100% bullshit that has been posted about them.
Whats worse is two things –
The absolute fucking roasters who *believe* the shite being posted – its an embarrassment to indy voters
The fact idiots like you think its some kind of indy vote winner to spout 100% demonstrable bullshit about them. It turns people off mate. Its like screaming with spickle flecked rage into someones puss that the Earth *IS* flat and independence for Scotland will PROVE it!
Now before anyone goes off on one – I actually agree that Freeports bring (very) questionable ‘benefits’, but the actual lies people believe about them is the stuff of nonsense. Had some daft woman on Twitter exclaim fearfully something about all the buildings in Winchburgh!!! When asked what about them… silence… Fucking filled with dread about lies other folks who should know better post online.
‘Activism’ is a great idea and should be encouraged.
When its sensible, fact-based and properly presented.
The kind most of ‘Salvo’ radge on about is no better than some homeless mentally ill jakey screaming at passers by on Princes Street.
Why don’t you do something on Freeports instead?
I did – read above
So you agree that there are issues with Freeports/Greenports*, but get wired into calling me an idiot by trying to link my pointing this out to me being a Salvo roaster/ bullshitter/ radge/ homeless mentally ill jakey.
You use language and an approach jist a bit too similar to what Andy tried in his response to my post where he tries to equate me pointing out the lack of scrutiny of ongoing political matters in Scotland as me being a moonhowler supporter of sub RISE Cappuccino Commie guff and a fringe nutter espousing sophomoric Wolfie Smith revolution.
Aye, defo playing the ball and not the man and in no way personal abuse.
And yesterday Breeks’ post got deleted for basically pointing out he doesn’t bother interacting with some on here because of the bile they spout…
*
Here are a couple of links on the Freeports matter.
link to commonweal.scot
link to commonweal.scot
Now let’s see if Stu will allow you to throw that same kind of derogatory abuse at Robin McAlpine and Craig Dalzell…
Some of the more measured issues with Freeports I fundamentally agree with, as I very clearly said.
Salvo eejits believe –
They are already in place – they are not – the big lines on the maps are just the geographic limits where an organisation might apply for a tax or import zone to be created. None have been granted as of today but I am aware of submissions being prepped.
The land in the defined freeport areas has all been sold from under owners. Not even going to countenance a response to that total and utter fabrication. Some Salvo window lickers think they can lose their house…
Fracking – fucking gets on my tits. Fracking is banned in Scotland due to planning powers (which are reserved). The SG calls in every application and refuses it. That does not change in a Freeport. If you believe it does then you’re a mug.
I am aware of one large development that I can tell you for a fact would be in Poland if the tax breaks were not going to be available in Scottish Freeports. I dunno, maybe attracting development isn’t on indy supporters agendas? This is where it gets difficult. Can we not attract investment without these breaks? Will the workers in this very large development have the same protections as elsewhere? Is it better to have the jobs at any cost? etc etc
They are not a great idea, but fracking, planning, CPO’s, loss of ‘sovereignty’ or ownership??? get in the fuckign sea with that pish
You said “I am aware of one large development that I can tell you for a fact would be in Poland if the tax breaks were not going to be available in Scottish Freeports”
I don’t know why we even bother trying to extract tax from all these foreign neoliberal companies who basically are attempting to hold countries to ransom, we could even offer them millions of pounds to locate their businesses in Scotland OH WAIT we already do that adding to their massive profits, but don’t worry I’m sure they appreciate our generosity and won’t threaten to pull out when other countries offer them better incentives
FFS nae wonder companies rip the pish out of the SG, YOUR proposals are a neoliberal dream a veritable race to the BOTTOM
Aye , Freeports are just braw , like everything devised by Neoliberal Capitalism – designed for purely altruistic motives : no , really , of course they are going to benefit ” ordinary ” people
link to sussexbylines.co.uk
link to theguardian.com
Always the fucking same.
I criticise Freeports, but not for the moon-howling reasons shared *everywhere* by indy voters and people respond by trying to ‘educate’ me by sending me to the same sites spouting moon-howling pish every time.
Its like folks have forgotten how to fucking read.
I don’t have the slightest interest in ” educating ” you , pal . I put those links up for anyone interested in what the potential negatives are re Freeports .
I expect the Winchburgh wifey was concerned that, stripped of all authority over freeport areas, the owners will be able to do as they wish, which includes fracking. Fracking causes subsidence and worse.
You see – this is lie number one.
Planning is reserved in Scotland and Freeports don’t change that fact by one single fucking iota. The planning regs apply in Freeports as they do everywhere in scotland and arguably even more so given every development in the Freeport has to show some link to green credentials.
I feel sorry you’ve been taken by this.
You probably think – like the wifey in Winchburgh – that their homes have been sold from under them… fucking clueless.
From the late Iain Lawson’s blog/response to article by prof. Alf Baird; read and educate yourself, chum;
“Freeports will not enrich Scotland; they will perpetuate control of large, important areas of Scotland to non Scottish control with any wealth and profit being swiftly removed, with little or no benefit for the local communities. They also provide legal loopholes where a wide variety of legislation can be ignored. This includes laws which protect workers rights and which prevent fracking for instance. They are designed to further asset strip our country, made easier by rules that protect the asset stripper. It speeds up the process of robbing Scotland in front of eyes which raises the question what the hell is the SNP government doing supporting this? Are they mad?”
Some of what you favour might well have been possible in an Independent Scotland.
Yet the best and brightest, plus many of the usual suspects on here, never had an Independent Scotland as their goal.
They wanted that oxymoron of “Independence In Europe”, the last refuge of those who secretly believe we’re too wee and too poor, but dare not say it out loud.
Still being hankered after by some, as we regularly see, but in others, replaced by the risible new promise of BRICS.
Wee Scotland to thrive as an equal partner with the people who gave Meat Grinders to the world, the people who gave Covid to the world, those who settle political differences by necklacing, and those who worship cows.
Not forgetting Brazil. At least from there you could walk to the US, along with all those millions of others. 🙂
Still nae a “geno-cide”.
Naebody gives a flying feck about Palestine – not even their co-religionists. It’s a handy stick to beat cringing, western virtue-signallers with, though.
Just say for a moment it is a “geno-cide”. What should we make of their neighbour, Egypt, who stated on Day 1 not one single refugee is getting across that border? Not one.
<b>To control every single country in the world</b>
Haha, just say for a moment you believed that.
The total futility of ever bothering to post pish on here would ensure you would go get yourself another hobby – maybe developing a detector that will warn you of endless orgies going on somewhere.
<b>wrong side of history</b>
Haha, did you get out of the wrong side of the bed this morning?
Hope it was your bed! 🙂
Geri’s simplistic and deeply conspiracy theory addled worldview is on on a par with those insisting that sinister cabals control the world economy, or are satanists and control the world from the basement of a pizza restaurant.
It’s the Marjorie Taylor Greene-ing of politics. Doubtless Geri thinks “they” can control the weather too.
“Geri’s simplistic and deeply conspiracy theory addled worldview is on on a par with those insisting that sinister cabals control the world economy”
Ever heard of a place called Germany? The EU?
Its economy is tanking cause some bastard blew up their cheap energy supply & instructed them to issue sanctions against their biggest trading partners. (Who actually doesn’t need them.
Or is that just a conspiracy?
Those who control the world’s currency, the world bank, world payment system & the IMF, control other countries economies – add in a scattering of sanctions & penalties for misbehaving like Hungary is finding out.
o
Good news tho – that’s ending as countries dump the $ & will no longer be tied to the misfortunes of another country & transition to BRICS.
Go get yer tin foil hat, grandad – its coming at ye fast. Go tell yer handlers tae stay awake.
BTW – loving Slovakias check mate, fck you to Von.
No to NATO but sure, let the most corrupt country with territorial disputes, gross human rights abuses & religious persecution join the EU. We’d welcome it. Its a great idea!
Your move! Sunshine…
Get out of that one LMFAO!
Spain & Germany now realizing sanctions aren’t a great idea after all towards their biggest customer. They forgot about the pigs & dairy. Too late. China seen the voting results. I guess they’ll look for other suppliers.
Yer beloved EU is imploding on the direct instructions of another & like lamas they’re all rushing for the cliff. But sure, it’s all just a conspiracy. There’s no cabal. Go back to sleep.
I’m not accepting my understanding of Independence is “rudimentary”. I can lay out the route in three simple steps:
1) Develop and publish a credible, facts-based prospectus for an Independent Scotland, covering all the areas of concern for ordinary Scots, such as the economy, currency, the political structure, public ownership, inwards investment policy framework, international policy framework, defence, immigration, etc. Be prepared to accept that all of these positions must remain live and under review, because we live in a period of instability and uncertainty.
2) Find a leader and a cadre of potential cabinet ministers, along with enough personable, rational, candidates to stand in all of Scotland’s constituencies. Insist they contain many new faces, not tainted by past failures and scandals, insist they match Scottish demographics (no over-representation of sexual or ethnic minorities), insist they can hold up their end of a televised interview using multi-syllable words.
3) Publish a Plebiscitary Election Policy manifesto and stand at all future WM and HR elections on that.
<b>Make it crystal clear beforehand that winning a majority of Scottish seats at WM, or a majority of seats at HR, will be treated as a cast-iron democratically derived starting gun for the process of dissolving the union</b>.
Thus, internal resistance (Yoons) and external resistance (e.g. Madrid) can be discounted.
Not difficult Alf, is it? And I never mentioned “colonialism” once.
Wings BTL regulars assure us that 1) is in the bag, although it’s not too obvious to me. So we have 18 months until the next HR election to get 2) up and running. As our European political friends show, over and over again, 18 months is plenty of time to get a new political movement up and running, and jockeying for real power.
So, WTAF is the problem in Scotland?
“Make it crystal clear beforehand that winning a majority of Scottish seats at WM, or a majority of seats at HR, will be treated as a cast-iron democratically derived starting gun for the process of dissolving the union”
That’s all we ever needed, which the daeless co-opted SNP elite has failed to deliver every time. Those serious about independence have been telling the movement this for years, so well done you for catching up:
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
I never noticed that any party ever made an explicit plebiscitary election promise before any of the elections you allude too.
I don’t believe they did. If anybody believed the nudge, nudge, wink, wink, “vote for us for Indy”, well, they should have read the small print.
The entire point of the explicit plebiscitary election promise is that the anti-Indy parties can stand against it, and so if the pro-Indy party wins, there is no longer any doubt whatsoever – Scots voters want Indy.
And that certainty, nowhere to hide for anybody, will revolutionise the process.
They did, ya eejit.
Do you not remember Ruth the mooth tank commanders ‘vote for us to save the Union’ ‘Tell Nicola naw to indyref2 ‘
..& lost.
You never noticed cause yer not all that bright. The SNP ran every election for indyref2.
The unionists ran every election to stop it & failed.
You must be quite young. A majority of nationalist MPs = independence was always the party’s raison detre – until the people gave them such a majority and they decided instead to be ‘co-opted’ as colonial administrators, instead taking their direction from the colonial power.
Election of a majority of nationalists in any former colony = decolonization and should have been the same here.
Nobody will take any notice unless the majority of MPs or MSPs represents a majority of the electorate.
Everyone remembers 2015 when the SNP won 56 of 59 MPs with 49.9% of the vote.
This is 2024 not the 1960’s and nobody sane buys the line that Scotland is a colony. If they did wouldn’t you and the misguided claque in here who agree with you be able to point to some evidence of support for your views?
You seem to struggle with definitions.
Ask Santa for a dictionary..
Colony:
a country or area under the full or partial political control of another country and occupied by s**ttlers from that country.
Which bit are you struggling with?
You seem to struggle with definitions.
Ask Santa for a dictionary..
Colony:
a country or area under the full or partial political control of another country
Which bit are you struggling with?
Also, Scotland only needed to send a majority of seats, not over 50% of the electorate.
The funny thing about it Alf is that the 2 pushing the plebiscitery route incessantly are unaware or don’t care that some of us have been arguing for the same thing for 10 years with NO movement from the Scum Nonce Party and it is only recently that Salmond has actually raised it as a possible route to indy, it is the quickest and most efficient way to determine the wishes of the electorate, it is effectively a referendum
It was SNP policy.
I think it was Iain Lawson who said over on his blog that it was Angus Robertson who changed party rules the moment Sturgeon took office with her husband.
Another plant with the whiff of agent about him.
I think the original article was the downfall of the SNP or something like that – where he detailed systemic changes to internal party rules & democracy. Including just fkn ignoring conference votes & then just removing participation altogether. (Currency being one Sturgeon continually ignored) Straight through to NEC changes & party scrutiny.
It was an excellent article. RIP Iain. He’ll be sorely missed. He had first hand experience of that side of the party & all the shenanigans behind the scenes.
You know folks I think we may have to entertain the possibility no matter how horrifying it is to us that the one guy we all love for his on going contribution to truth and who is a unifying point in our lives regarding independence has opinions outside of that realm that we would find disagreeable…
What a c**t!
(100% humour for the avoidance of doubt)
My biggest fear is that Ellis and Main… are the Rev! Could you imagine the fall out… lol.
That’ll be a new biggest fear then.
Up to now, from the tenor of your posts, your biggest fear seemed to be that we’re all going to die.
For providing lukewarm support to another country fighting to get out from under an aggressive, colonialist, exploitative, culture and sovereignty denying neighbour.
Your old biggest fear did not look at all good on a pro-Indy site, so congratulations to you on getting a better one.
Slainte Media are brilliant. It has been a very clever move on the part of Alex Salmond & Tasmina to set up this media company.
They are doing an excellent job producing interesting programmes in a very professional manner.
“‘The Ayes Still have it’ was a brilliant idea.
I don’t know how this was financed possibly through the sale if tickets.
I would like to say thank you to ‘Slainte Media’ & to all those who bought tickets enabling me to watch these videos totally free of charge.
There is a lot of potential for this sort of format.
‘What about ‘The Ayes Still Have it Question Time?’
How very modern 🙂
Pleased the whizzy-back-to-the-top button has survived the ‘refresh’.
Interesting to see the new comments system is already having an impact:
Will be worth checking back in a couple of months to see if the attention seekers are still around or are cajoled into making more measured comments.
“derail” = interject facts, figures and logic.
”conversation” = echo chamber monologue.
Happy to help!
The new format may be a matter of taste, but being able to nest comments directly under a post has to be superior to the previous system. Far clearer and easier to follow.
Time will tell whether it leads to a return to the heady days when each article used to generate several hundred comments from more than just the usual suspects.
The plus and minus facility will always be used by partisans to punish those they disagree with and favour those they agree with. Such is life.
Perhaps the relative handful of xenophobic, blood and soil bigots who regularly soil BTL discourse with their brain farts will find in due course that their worldview isn’t as popular as they keep assuring us it is? Early days yet, but time will tell.
Is this another case of the MSM catching up with Wings. I recall a story here about amazing amounts allegedly being spent on SNP office refurbing.
link to dailyrecord.co.uk
As an avid reader of & very occasional contributor to this site, I’d just like to state that the move away from time-sequenced posts to the current mode of reply-within post-within reply ad nauseam simply doesn’t work.
I know that I last visited the comments at 1800hrs last night. I want to read posts since that time. I don’t want to scroll through every comment to find ones that have been made since my last visit.
Please change back. If not, you’ll lose readers & clicks.
I’m a bit annoyed that the plugin doesn’t seem to have that feature directly in among all its other buttons for showing you the most popular comments and such.
However if you leave the page open in a tab then come back to it later, the green “bubble” at bottom left will show you just the new comments.
In the meantime I’ve added a new sidebar plugin that displays the 30 most recent comments on all pages.
a lot of high red numbers there, some folks making multiple posts, without any in the green.
– maybe the new system has not been explained : there is a cut line, like in golf and any nett red number people will get euthanased next week – you will be designated
posten unwertes posten
BTW – direct image posting; maybe not a good idea. The ability to write a sentence does operate as a filter, and now you are at the mercy of every moron with a “memes” folder. Expect everything, including porn, maybe self made by the owner, gore, sick crap, and also things which are very funny, but we shouldn’t laugh at, harry potter as a nazi memes, for example.
Sheesh…the new system has only been up a matter of hours. It’ll take some time for folk to get used to it. Of course the pluses and minuses will reflect the views of those posters and readers who are most active and involved.
Do they reflect the whole readership? No, of course not.
Do they reflect the whole movement? Even less so.
Do they reflect the whole Scottish electorate? Even less still.
Back in the day every WoS article used to see several hundred responses from a fairly wide spectrum of folk. Changed days indeed.
Given that from what I’ve seen some of Rev Stu’s own replies have nett red numbers because he’s trying to educate the pork that is the usual suspects in here, I doubt your proposed euthanising of those who don’t make the cut will happen.
It is earnestly to be hoped that some of the (many) people who have abandoned commenting will return. Seems to me the new system will encourage that rather than discourage it, which is why of course so many of the usual suspects hate it so much.
Ellis fears the mobile gas van.
“reading the room”
– whistle a happy tune, statistical fluctuations and all that, the law of large numbers, reversion to the mean, the central limit theorem … maybe – seems like a lot of “cope” going on.
I have some, very mild, redness myself, here and there – and I have not said anything all that political for a while, nothing controversial, not by my standard. Some folks will poke you with a red anyway – I think this is just “I don’t like him”, which I don’t approve of. I always actually read a post if I vote on it.
As for the diversity of posters – pots and kettles – do you not think lurkers are put off by your own spammings – its always one thing, with the same hackneyed phrases – and as for main, with his scattergun bug eyed spittle flecked crap – who would want to dive into the midst of this?
Another thing – this “personal abuse” ban – I think insults are an art form. The Scots invented “flyting” after all; main came in there for a pop and I bopped him back but both got deleted, but there is nothing in it. People should try that french costume drama “ridicule” about the court at versaille who vied for influence on the basis of their witty insults; humour can be devastatingly powerful.
I didn’t expect any “mobile gas van” references before the anniversary tomorrow.
Congrats on getting in early.
Some people want it both ways: they don’t like people posting stuff they disagree with and deride them for it, then complain about personal abuse bans.
If you don’t think there’s abuse coming from the usual suspects, i’m doubtful you’re reading all the posts.
You are correct, humour can be devastatingly powerful. Shame it isn’t much in evidence here.
I don’t happen to agree with John Main about much politically, but I’d take his input here over the verbal diarrhoea coming from the claque who are (at least in my view) responsible for driving away many of the lurkers and former regular contributors with their sub-Trumpian blood and soil nationalism, love for Uncle Vlad and fluffing for Hamas.
Horses for courses I suppose: time will tell whether the new system changes things at all, and if it does whether it’s for the better or not.
Have you ever been banned then, Andy?
I remember when I first started commenting rather than lurking & that one didn’t exactly lay out the welcome mat.
He really does suffer delusions of grandeur & just look at the bigotry & racism drip from his every comment trying to fit in an angle of “usual suspects” somewhere.
I suppose, like all narcissists do, that ppl from those regions of the world won’t be living in Scotland or can’t possibly be part of that “international community recognition” he spouts about so often. Tsk! Tsk!
Main can hardly string a sentence together but narcissists do love thick sycophants to finesse their superiority complex so that was a given. I don’t see an more tho LOL
“Back in the day every WoS article used to see several hundred responses from a fairly wide spectrum of folk. Changed days indeed.”
Ever wonder ppl may have left because there’s fck all worth commenting on?
Its hardly the heady days of 2013- 2019 anymore where ppl still believed indyref2 & Wings was the much sought after source to debunk Unionist pish & was our best fact checker.
Yer like a stuck record harking back to a bygone era that’s past.
Plenty of YES bloggers & sites have given up. Sites deserted – some even as early as 2017 when I know one who closed saying Indyref2 just wasn’t going to happen under Sturgeon.
Fck all worth commenting on?
What colour is the sky on your world?
Yes the old britnats like to hanker back to the heady days of the past , during the WAR Grandad
I did enjoy that! Thank you.