To the faraway towns
Voting is now open in the selection contests to determine who the SNP’s candidates at next year’s election will be. Given the extremely dodgy secret-Survey-Monkey-ballot shenanigans recently adopted by the party NEC, we’re uncomfortably reminded of a famous quote attributed to Joseph Stalin: “it’s not the people who vote that count, it’s the people who count the votes”.
An excellent blog by the former SNP Trade & Industry spokesman Iain Lawson today highlights the near-impossibility of effecting change from within the SNP now, due to changes made by the leadership to eliminate the influence of ordinary members.
Indeed, so secure do the party’s controlling faction consider themselves that they now feel able to openly call their own supporters “bitches”.
But not quite SO secure that they still don’t want to cheat.
A startling number of people sent us this yesterday:
It’s an email sent by Stirling MP Alyn Smith to all branch members using the party’s internal mailing system. While phrased innocuously it’s a direct attempt, against SNP rules, to cynically influence the outcome of the Stirling selection by presenting a very thinly-veiled preference list of candidates to the electorate.
(SNP elections are conducted by Single Transferable Vote, so voters can rank every candidate in order of preference.)
Smith’s “offer” of a shared MP/MSP office is intended to put pressure on gender-critical feminist candidates – primarily the only one excluded from his list, Sameeha Rehman, a young woman who’s had the endorsement of the SNP Women’s Pledge group.
(Whose convener was this week, as alert readers will recall, blocked by the NEC from seeking the Dumbarton seat despite being the deputy leader of the SNP council group in the constituency. The person mentioned last by Smith, Susan McGill, is along with Rehman the only other Stirling candidate who signed the Women’s Pledge, which is an extremely innocuous list of statements nobody could reasonably object to.)
How so? Because “Daddy Bear” staffs his office almost entirely with the aggressive and misogynist young men of the party’s hardline transactivist wing, so he knows it would be a deeply hostile and unwelcoming environment for someone like Rehman. Dressed up as a money-saving convenience, Smith’s “offer” is in fact an underhanded and sneaky attempt to intimidate Rehman and to morally blackmail anyone thinking of supporting her, via the same financial figleaf as was used to block Joanna Cherry.
People could of course try filing complaints about such behaviour, but we already know that the Executive has selectively deaf ears and simply ignores any letters about things it doesn’t want to deal with, even if they’re from senior elected representatives.
By way of example, we’ve recently come into possession of an exchange – if it can properly be called that – between East Lothian MP and former justice secretary Kenny MacAskill and the party’s business convener Kirsten Oswald.
17 SEPTEMBER 2020
“Dear Kirsten
I am writing regarding the above What’s App message that was sent to me anonymously and which I have forwarded to the Parliamentary Clerks in the Holyrood Inquiry. I have also sent it as a courtesy to Alex Salmond and the Crown. The document is I believe accurate and that raises huge concerns.
Both the Justice Secretary and the Westminster Spokesperson on Justice have been talking about the rule of law. I have copied both in as this message raises concerns over the actions of the Chief Executive and the Chief Operating Officer of the SNP.
Peter Murrell is both the CEO of the Party of Government and the spouse of the First Minister. For him to be even seeking to put pressure on or interfere in a police enquiry is simply unacceptable. I therefore look forward to hearing from you as a matter of urgency on action you are taking to protect the integrity of our party.
Yours for Scotland
Kenny MacAskill”
5 OCTOBER 2020
“Dear Kirsten
I’m writing regarding the above. I note that the Party are now paying for Shepherd and Wedderburn to provide advice to the Party CEO. I also understand that similar arrangements have been made for the Party COO with another firm.
My understanding of the position of both the Party and the Scottish Government with regard to not just the Holyrood Inquiry but more widely is to be as open as possible and provide as much information as can be released.
I now have an interview with police. They are acting on the instructions of the Crown for my having made available to the committee and the public an item I received anonymously but which is highly relevant to the inquiry. Given recent actions of the latter organisation therefore notwithstanding my huge admiration for the former, I will be taking and acting under legal guidance.
I’m sure you’d accept that it would be perverse for the Party to be funding officers who are apparently seeking to restrict the availability of information and not support an elected member seeking to make information available in support of it. Can you therefore confirm that you’ll meet my lawyers’ fees as is being done with Peter Murrell and Sue Ruddick?
I’ve copied in the Group Convener and Westminster Leader as I along with every other member pays a party levy and it seems appropriate that Group members be accorded the same rights as staff, especially when policy is being adhered to by one and not by the other.
Finally, I know you have simply refused to reply to previous correspondence which I find discourteous. But again, for the Leader and Convener if that is to be your way then I reserve the right to go public on this. These issues are causing concern within the wider party and they are entitled to know what is going on.
Hence, I look forward to hearing from you as a matter of urgency.
Yours for Scotland
Kenny MacAskill “
9 OCTOBER 2020
“Hello Kenny
Many thanks for your email. I am just seeing this now, so I will come back to you.
Best wishes
Kirsten”
12 OCTOBER 2020
“Dear Kirsten
I look forward to hearing further from you.
On another issue though relating to party expenditure that I and others fund, can I raise the following?
1 On what date and in what capacity did Cllr Jessica Mennie first come onto the Party HQ payroll?
2 Was the current post she holds advertised internally or externally and if so, can I receive details?
3 Who appointed her and when was it approved by NEC?Kind regards
Kenny”
Mennie, incidentally, is an Aberdeen councillor and the sister of SNP transactivist Josh Mennie, convener of the hyper-intolerant “Out For Indy” grouping, a man who proudly proclaims his fondness for using women’s toilets regardless of women’s objections.
She was office manager to Mark McDonald, and is thought to have been instrumental in the undermining of his position on deeply suspect allegations of sexual harassment based on a joke about an autocorrect error in a single text message. She now works for party HQ in a new job which was not advertised and for which nobody else was interviewed, widely believed to be her reward for her part in his destruction.
MacAskill has received no further replies from Kirsten Oswald regarding the issues raised in the letters above, despite also CCing in his Westminster group convener and leader, Deidre Brock and Ian Blackford – just as he hasn’t done over his inquiries concerning the SNP’s accounts. The party executive’s approach to anything awkward is to simply stick its fingers in its ears, close its eyes and hope it somehow goes away.
(The Electoral Commission, incidentally, this week assured this site once again that it intends to publish the accounts next month. It has, however, already promised it would do so in August, September – twice – and October, and missed all those deadlines.)
The current candidate selection will be a test of that “hear no evil” policy, though it’s far from the only test the leadership faces in the near future. Supporters of the Women’s Pledge group have issued a list of candidates backed by their members, whether as full endorsements or “least worst” options:
Tellingly, the recommendation list has already come under furious attack from the Yes movement’s woman-hating wokebeard faction:
As well as deliberately misrepresenting the list as “official endorsements” when the WP group had specifically said that they weren’t, Beaton’s complaint about it comprising mostly men is deeply disingenuous. 10 of the 21 recommendations on the list – 48% – are women, which is a notably higher proportion than the number of current women at either Holyrood (35%) or Westminster (34%).
(And it’d be almost 55% – 12 out of 22 – if the NEC hadn’t blocked people like Caroline McAllister and Joanna Cherry from contesting nominations. The objection is of course doubly ironic as the woke faction enthusiastically backs the unlawful presence of men on all-women shortlists.)
For now, all members can do is vote in good faith and see what happens. The outcome will tell us a lot about whether the SNP is a party of Scottish independence any more. Those of us not who are not members and have no vote can only cross our fingers.
And of course the only other Stirling candidate that disagreed with Smith, Susan McGill. Signatory to the Women’s Pledge.
It’s pretty obvious that one of the first thing that needs to happen in the SNP is a root and branch reform of its processes and the way it handles and responds to complaints from members and office holders. It should not be acceptable for ANY organisation – but particularly not for a political party largely dependent on public funds via parliamentary short money and member subscriptions – to simply stonewall and refuse to engage, still less answer, in the fashion.
Any “new” NEC which we have to hope will emerge if there is any hope of saving the party from the clutches of the trans extremists, must make it a priority.
History will not be kind to those who have sat on their hands and tolerated this kind of behaviour.
This cannot be lawful. Scots common law provides checks on abuse of power in institutions like this as do numerous statutes. The Court of Session and the Scottish legal system are I believe the world’s oldest legal system, and with good reason. Anybody up for using it?
Sturgeonites’ shady dealings in woke filled rooms.
It is a waste of time and money to go to the courts.
Before toy story Stan tries to bludgeon me to death let me say the only answer for the SNP of which I am no longer a member,is for members to cleanse the NEC and then the hierarchy.
Utterly disgraceful raft of malpractices from those
Peddling fake promises of a people’s party, one operating
with truth and transparency as they fight for Scottish independence.
Scotland is being robbed, rap***, lied to and disrespected and your focus
is to get party jobs for friends and family and the right for Trans people to
Pee wherever they like no matter what dangers that brings to the many!
Please, please let there be a real people’s Independence Party before May’s elections!
I think the way the SNP are acting towards their members and supporters is. Putingthem in danger of losing the next election but hey maybe that is mi5 plans all along so we badly need anew party to lead for independence consisting only of Scots no Incomers we can look after our own affairs ourselves we don’t need any outside help thank you
“ London calling to the faraway towns
Now war is declared and battle come down”
And while we are on strummer/jones
“The new groups are not concerned
With what there is to be learned
They got Burton suits, huh, ya’ think it’s funny
Turnin’ rebellion into money”
Just replace “new groups” with “New SNP”.
This is scandalous.
The list just keeps getting bigger peter murrell, angus macleod,kirsten oswald, gail ross and jessica mennie.
MSPs -there is no hiding from this. Sitting on the fence is condoning these abuses.
” In a battle between the powerful and the powerless : to remain neutral is to side with the powerful”
Gandhi
Voted in Stirling: Rehman 1, McGill 2, Hunter 3. Fingers crossed.
[…] Wings Over Scotland To the faraway towns Voting is now open in the selection contests to decide who the SNP’s candidates at […]
Has the SNP now become a constitutional monarchy?
Discuss.
Thanks Stu for getting information out. No one has to agree with you but it’s essential to know what’s going on. We should all support that. Thanks Kenny.
I find it not surprising that Smith sees himself as the leader of a Wokified SNP aided and backed by violently aggressive people who vent their hangups(violent Misogyny) on to outsiders(people who are not of their mindset)
Smith as next leader???
Hells bells there is going to some amount of trouble
Sturgeon has well and truly fucked the SNP,with this carry on
I’m looking forward to ambitious Daddy making his push for the leadership. I suppose he’s letting Angus Robertson have his turn first, knowing it is likely to be a brief and unsuccessful endeavour. I almost hope he gets it, it would be like something out of an unpleasant sitcom.
The members of the Snp have to think very carefully about how and who they vote for in the selection of candidates standing for the constituency seats . Remember to use all your votes ranking the candidates 1-6 if you have 6 candidates standing as its the STV voting system .
Also hopefully the members have enough sense when it comes to the elections for the Nec that they are able to get it cleared out and and get a decent Nec committee elected . It’s time for the members to regain control of the party .
They’ve all forgotten that the one aim of the party is to get Scotland back to being an Independent nation .
The nepotism and rewards for party loyalty in the SNP are getting worse, this is horrendous, it’s like something from the corrupt communist era.
Regards Women’s Pledge and female candidates – I’ve spoken to one who privately supports the Women’s Pledge but is too afraid to speak publicly. She has asked them not to endorse her due to fears from abuse from the trans lobby. She told me she’s not the only one.
It’s certainly the case that gender critical women get a lot more abuse from trans activists on social media than men do, so it’s somewhat ironic when trans activists complain that there aren’t enough of them coming forward – it’s down to their own vicious attacks.
#themurrellsmustgo
Thanks for covering this.
I am not and have never been an SNP member but have voted SNP (for independence). I am currently a Scottish Green Party member and voter.
[…] Over Scotland has yet another article today about the goings on of the leadership of the SNP Faraway Towns. On reading this latest instalment of what is going on with the leadership of the SNP and the […]
Is there actually *anyone* in the SNP that can be trusted now? I ‘m thinking Angus MacNeil, Dr Whitford and Joanna Cherry remain sane and unaffected by the wokie, id politics contagion spreading through the party, but I’m probably wrong as I no longer know wtf is going on with the SNP.
I feel some MSP’s / MP’s must have concerns about all of this but want to hang on to their jobs so say nothing.
I feel like I’ve been totally taken in. I no longer recognise the party I was a member off and paid into. Who do I vote for now? As much as I want Indy, I could not vote for the SNP now. I no longer buy that voting for them will get us Independence. Spoil my paper? Is this becoming an option for others too?
Any connection between the lack of 2019 accounts & fact that SNP have launched a prize draw 1st prize £10,000. Tickets received & binned yesterday. They are taking the mickey!
These petty and spiteful wee people only derive their power from the Murrells. Take that pair down and a substantial amount of the SNP’s troubles would disappear.
“I am not and have never been an SNP member but have voted SNP (for independence). I am currently a Scottish Green Party member and voter.”
In this context that, uh, seems a little like leaping from the frying pan into the fire…
just voted
@ClanDonald
The othering of people – particularly women – who refuse to bow to the diktats of the Woke Stasi betray the roots of the TRA movement: it is a creature of the libertarian/alt-right, no platforming movement in the USA.
The woke beards in the SNP and their fellow travellers simply lack the wit to see they are being used. They aren’t on the side of progressives, they are on the side of a regressive, misogynistic bunch of anti-liberals.
If they are unchallenged on this, they won’t stop at silencing gender critical feminists and folk protecting the rights of women, they will extend their purview to other areas where only unconditional acceptance of their weltanschauung will be acceptable.
They may start by coming for the gender critical, but such is their presumption that they will soon be coming for others guilty of wrongthink: anyone critical of Israel will be othered for antisemitism for example. We all saw how that went in the Labour party.
Of course, much as many of the twitler youth spouting their misogynistic bile on line would deny it, they actually have far more in common with Trump’s core support and the populists in Poland, Hungary and elsewhere than they do with classical, progressive social-democracy.
That’s why getting shot of this “party within a party” is so vital for the SNP: either the rank and file membership take a stand against them and ensure they are removed, or they risk losing even more support. Few parties are monolithic of course, and some divergence of views on particular issues is to be expected, even encouraged as healthy.
The problem for the party and the movement now, is that the TRA extremists have such a manichaean outlook, that I’d find it impossible to campaign with them and stand shoulder to shoulder with them in the fight for independence as part of a broader Yes movement, still less share a party with them.
The pseudo Scottish National Rollo Tomasi* Party
*(spoiler) they don’t get away with it!
Great work, vile blogger, this has fair cheered my bleak Sat afternoon.
Oh, and that tweet at the top from Gail Ross is the most extraordinary piece of hubris. To behave in that way in public shows a breath-taking arrogance and contempt which is quite extraordinary to see. They must truly be feeling untouchable now.
@ Graham King
As Stu observes above, your decision to abandon the SNP for an organisation which is even more in thrall to the woke Stasi is at best quixotic. For all the SNPs issues with TRA extremism, at least the leadership hasn’t actually made believing TWAW an article of faith and told anyone who won’t uncritically accept it that they aren’t welcome inside the party.
Try asking your party leadership their views on the matter, then get back and tell us how the Greens are in any sense an improvement?
Christ it just goes from bad to worse with the SNP top guns, We really REALLY need another INDY Party, an HONEST INDY PARTY, & most definitely NOT a CAREERIST PARTY Settling for They pay packet. A party that will stand against these people, & A huge call out to everyone that is already in the SNP & are against what is going on within the party, especially with NEC & the GRA lot. You Should bloody leave the party, leave them to their wee wokist club. What we need is a party that screams INDY First, Last & Always. Come on Alex, Joanna, Kenny, Angus, Phillipa, Christine, Joan, the MANY more truly decent hard working Politicians. Your country Needs you. now more than ever..
Who to vote for ? ,
Years ago that would be a stupid question well by Duck it’s really confusing now ,a vote for any unionist party means the removal of Free Precriptions amongst all the other benefits we enjoy here and because of political dogma are not available in England, it would also mean the introduction of a whole range of charges that the well off middle class are not having to pay , they don’t and never will vote for a Independent Scotland but are happy to enjoy the benefits, parasites come to mind .
Voting for any unionist party guarantees no Indy Ref 2 that’s a nailed on given so that’s out.
Voting for the SNP more or less continues all the Free things Scots appreciate and approve of , now here comes the BUT like all the unionist parties given the distinct lack of progress since 2014 it also means a vote for them the SNP mimics and Mirrors all the other Unionist parties, so there is the dilemma , they are not doing what they were first formed to do not only that they are off in a wholly unacceptable direction pursuing stuff most people don’t want ,not just don’t want are actively against and find weird and totally unacceptable to most normal people if they found out.
Bringing me back to Who to Vote for ?
Who is behind all this confusion ? the answer like it or not can be laid squarely at the Occupants of Bute Houses front door , it can’t be dodged avoided or explained away all this Shite emanates from there that is the centre of operations if you like ” Woke Central ” I really am wondering who’s worse in this Scottish political bleedn shit show that has emerged because we weren’t paying attention
I’m reminded of the first Jurassic Park movie…
Examining the activities of the SNP is the equivalent of Dr Sattler’s attempts to establish the cause of a poorly Triceratops – you’ll soon find yourself up to the elbows in shit!
What a cesspit of snakes the SNP has become.
Once again Stu we are in your debt.
What a disgrace these people are.
Independence? At this price?
Remember that the there is only a troublesome minority of around 97% of SNP members who are against the party’s woke agenda. The vast majority – nearly 3% – are in favour.
Josh-Aaron Mennie is on the NEC
Dreams of a Scotland that’s gents toilets free
A unisex lavvy fills him with glee
Then no one can tell him where to SNPee
The whole situation is abominable.
I too worry about who is doing the counting.
It’s near impossible getting a straight answer from the in crowd.
The fact an MP doesn’t get one, means the rest of us are stuffed.
We should be able to challenge the results if anything weird comes up like SAS romping it.
The previous thread mentioned Covid restrictions, Travelling Tabbie publishes the stats,the death rate has been around average since the end of April.
It’s a con but too many have fallen for it.
The Stalin quote about who counts the votes being the only thing that matters, reminds me of the days of SNP conference in the mid-80s. When certain people (who now effectively run the party) would push themselves forward to ‘count’ the votes for all the NEC positions. And guess what the outcome was – the people counting the votes and their cabal would come from nowhere to jump near the top of the various lists.
That same cabal now run the SNP and occupy many of the executive positions. Scary, isn’t it. So simple a tactic yet so effective.
In my opinion the SNP is gone. Eaten up from within by the Queen Wasp and her minions. Independence isn’t the primary function of this group now – staying in power is. Whether that is running the country or in opposition it won’t matter, as long as these people pull the strings, they don’t really care.
A second pro-indy party (with strong leadership like Alex or Joanna) is probably the only hope now for independence before the middle of the century.
Oh well, I am strangely comforted in that it really didn’t end too well for the Ceaucescus did it?
I’m 64, a couple of years ago I was confident that I would see an independent Scotland in my lifetime. Now I’m confident that I will not because the ‘party of independence’ seem to be hellbent on making themselves unelectable by dint of becoming more New Labour than New Labour. Corruption is at the core of the SNP now & I fear that only a considerable time out of office will allow them to rehabilitate themselves. What happens in the meantime is anyone’s guess.
Isn’t it “effect change”, not affect ?
If we have a right to chose whom governs us, let’s do it,
I do not wish or want to be governed be governed by .holyrude.
I do not wish or want to be governed by Westminster,
I do not want or wish to be governed by anyone associated with civil servants,
[ I DECLARE THAT I WISH AND MUST BE GOVERNED BY THE PEOPLE AND NATION OF SCOTLAND AS A WHOLE BODY OF WHICH I INCLUDE MYSELF AS A MEMBER. I HEREBY DECLARE THE TREATY OF THE UNION NULL AND VOID IN MY CHOICE OF GOVERNENCE.]
Perhaps someone can enhance the wording in a legal manner, but basically it comes down to no frills and the Scottish people at the end of the day,
No political party can do this for us, we hang this message out of our windows, we put the message on social media, we place it on the borders, we have it on our cars, on your golf trolley and golf balls, on your business, on posters, on your face masks,
While we fight squirrels in a corrupt party we W haste our time for a independent Scotland,
The ruling governances at the moment are hushing yours/ours voices,
YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE WHOM GOVERNS YOU, DO IT.
‘Feel free, bitches.’ I love when Scottish people, especially the species of misandristic, misogynistic clown now vying for SNP power, talk like Americans. Why don’t these fucking mentally subnormal shite-drooling fuck-Muppets just call the party The Wannabe-American Party? Cos that’s how they all jabber on Twitter, sounding like cast-off white middle class Americans, posting Beyonce videos, using black slang, quoting Michelle Obama and such shite, like they’re important on the world stage or something. An absolute embarrassment to this country, third-rate anti-intellects, gibbons without portfolios. This country is fucked. No matter when we get rid of Miss Head Misandrist, the horseshit she and her clown car cabal have unleashed on this country will take a long, long time to repair, if indeed it ever does get repaired. That woman should be in prison for the Salmond debacle. And all these pesky pestiferous pestilent clowns need fumigated from the party and country.
link to youtube.com
PS: got the Clash ref in the title, Stu. 🙂
Yet again, we have the pre emption of legal status for trans women. So, not only does the SNP bend, break and remake the rules as they go along with the NEC nonsense, but they actually break the law itself. Yet they whine and moan when Westminster does the self-same thing. Didn’t Johnson break the law when he tried to proprogue parliament? Ergo, until such legislation comes on to the statute book, proclaiming men to be women, and against millennia of scientific knowledge, perhaps the ‘wokists’ could contain themselves and act like proper grown-ups instead of a particularly wayward and narcissistic band of first year university students keen to virtue signal to all in sundry? Look how good and right-on I am, Mummy, or should that be Daddy?
As for the tweet by Gail Ross, the FM should make her sit on the naughty step until she’s out of her teens. Love, respect and humanity also mean that you don’t trample other people’s rights to forge your own, lassie. It means that you don’t say you are something you are biologically and scientifically not, and never can be, in order to muscle in on the space and rights of others. That a tweet like this should be made by an elected representative is yet more proof that lack of nous rules at Holyrood. Can’t Scotland find intelligent people to represent it, anymore? If one of Gail Ross’s trans women candidates were to be dug up several hundred years down the line, the skeleton would show a male, and you know what? I don’t think anyone would give a toss whether the flesh on the skeleton, when it was alive, proclaimed itself a ‘woman’. It would still be recorded as a male skeleton.
And as for the biggest bairn of them all, Alyn Smith should be sent an industrial tin of Brasso for that massive neck of his – this is someone who was parachuted straight into a seat at Westminster from the EU parliament without a by-your-leave. And he has an office full of MEN. That’s discriminatory, Alyn. You’d have to get the industrial tin of Brasso from England, of course, because we have nothing industrial left up here. Nicola, take a wee break from the Covid crisis and get your kindergarten back into some kind of order before you lose the election in 2021, and lose Scotland for all of us.
“They may start by coming for the gender critical, but such is their presumption that they will soon be coming for others guilty of wrongthink: anyone critical of Israel will be othered for antisemitism for example.”
That’s not a future concern. It’s already happened to Denise Findlay and Gareth Wardell.
“Isn’t it “effect change”, not affect ?”
I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU MEAN.
In Stirling it has to be Susan McGill Number 1.
She seems to be the most genuine and honest candidate. The motives of the rest are dubious to say the least.
Daddy Bear Smith has well and truly poisoned the whole constituency.
o/t English people protesting against all the Covid restrictions and what is the cry
Freedom
Freedom
Christ I thought I was watching Mell Gibson in Bravheart for a minute ,
Aye Glasgow city council would soon put a stop to that lot protesting eh , I guess BBC Scotlands propaganda unit will be attempting to implicate All Under One Banner as being behind this Civil Disobedience,
If you didn’t laugh at the way people are being herded into a police state and told what direction to walk in what the can buy when they can go out , the authorities know that they can’t control the public they don’t have the resources or the manpower , if they lose public trust they are fkd and they know it , the first time I saw the was during the petrol tanker delivery drivers strike when for a week the government had absolutely lost control and most of them were shit scared, we are within touching distance of the same thing happening .
‘Andy Ellis says:
24 October, 2020 at 1:35 pm
@ClanDonald
The othering of people – particularly women – who refuse to bow to the diktats of the Woke Stasi betray the roots of the TRA movement: it is a creature of the libertarian/alt-right, no platforming movement in the USA.’ WRONG. It’s from the ostensible ‘left’ in the USA.
@ Rev Stu
True dat. Gareth’s defenestration was of course the proximate cause of me cutting my SNP membership card up. I’m fairly sure the twitler youth were largely the ones behind the suspension of both our twitter accounts (not that mine was anything like as important of course: just shows that no dissenting voices in the movement will be tolerated, it’s not just “high profile” bloggers).
I rather liked this quote from Fred Siegel in his review of Robby Soave’s book “Panic Attack: Young Radicals in the Age of Trump””
“As the great historian of French Bolshevism, François Furet, explained, Communism appealed to aristocrats and intellectuals because it promised to crush the bourgeoisie. Today’s would-be aristocrats carry on in that mold. As Soave shows, they are trained in the soft Stalinism of intersectionality, under collegiate social control—then they graduate, eager to wield political correctness as a cudgel to smite the deplorables.”
link to city-journal.org
The party does appear to be very ill, and determined not to acknowledge that the denial of biological reality harms us all. So what they need is a bit of “An interpretative phenomenological analysis of identity management and coping strategies of transsexuals in the workplace”. That way they might appreciate their dogmatic stance is simply not compatible with open society, and so may become electable to a wider demographic.
link to e-space.mmu.ac.uk
“Different though the sexes are, they inter-mix. In every human being a vacillation from one sex to the other takes place, and often it is only the clothes that keep the male and female likeness, while underneath the sex is the very opposite of the above.” – Virginia Woolf
Is it even possible now to get the party back on track to independence? Will Sturgeon and Murrell stand down due to the inquiry some time early next year, having been found to be lying to parliament? Will Sturgeon have a successor in the wings that will carry on this odious agenda, alien to much of the membership after she’s gone.
So many questions, so little time to the next Holyrood vote, and who to vote for.
“Will Sturgeon and Murrell stand down due to the inquiry some time early next year, having been found to be lying to parliament?”
If they care anything at all about either the SNP or independence, sooner than that.
@WRYC 2.41pm
It’s the “ostensible” bit you have to unpick. As many US commentators who have studied the phenomenon of no-platforming have noted, there are a lot of commonalities between “ostensibly” left leaning radicals in the US and the alt-right. Such extremists tend to be so far on the extreme that they end up coalescing at the opposite side of the circle.
What a disappointment @Jeggit is. He not only liked and retweeted that disgusting tweet from Gail Ross, he actually thanked her for it. He’s now claiming that “bitch” isn’t an insult – oh no, but we women need to be kind and respectful. LOL.
He’s now indulging in a long whine about the “hatred and venom” he’s received on his timeline. I’ve looked through it and it’s mostly indy GC women and men arguing with him in a reasonable way. He picked out one piece of abuse he got from a troll account with 23 followers and presented it as if it was typical of the replies he’s received. So dishonest.
You’ll also not be astonished to learn that Miss Leeze has waded in to defend Gail Ross. The latter is, apparently, not standing again in May. Makes you wonder what the rest of them would say about us if they weren’t running.
@ ClanDonald at 1:13 pm
Your post says exactly what the problem is with Sturgeon’s SNP..She, having created it , and should get fixing it
Jeggit is a drama queen. He’s flounced off twitter before when people disagree with him.
I have had him on mute for months
Sturgeon and Murrell, the despot and the pisspot whose malign control has messed up their party big time. Leaving Scotland with all guards down and confronted by a vicious neo-colonialist Tory party.
Fairliered @1.50pm
Assuming your figures are correct ie 97% of membership are against the “woke” menu.
What I worry about is, as this post demonstrates, the folk in charge are surrounding themselves with the 3% who are holding all the cards……at the top end where decisions are being made.
In fact it’s beyond worry now, it’s now a MAJOR CONCERN, especially to most in this parish.
Readership here has probably dropped a bit. I suspect the numbers/visits here who are Indy Supporters & probably still above the actual SNP Membership which also seams to have dropped off.
Not a mention of North Ayreshire C. A. Being put into special measures in the National
No gender or gender claim can be held as equality, if in doing so, try’s to eliminate the other genders that have existed for thousands and thousands of years,
No one is saying that those whom claim to be of a new gender in this century are not real to them selfs,
But it does not or should not cancel out recognised female gender or male gender, because then it is dictatorship and totalitarian, and dangerous to human kind as a whole.
Let them choose their gender, but do not interfere with what already exists,
For those whom wish to categorise themselves into a new gender, do so, create your own new world, your own toilets, your own bathing facilities, your own rules,
Women have been fighting for the right to be recognised as equal humans, for equal pay, to have the choice to make decisions for themselves, to have property in their own rights, to fight for pensions, to fight for their freedom, they have gone to prison for those equal rights. Some even
starved themselves to fight for those rights.
Do you really want to destroy someone else’s fight for freedom and equal rights, so you can be recognised,
be as brave as women and fight for your own fight, do not latch onto another’s hard won freedom to benefit yourself, do not impose yourself onto women or their privacy in toilets, like leeches.
Go fight for your own rights, stop intruding where you shouldn’t.
And before anyone accuses me of being a male bigot, I am a women writing this on my husbands site with his permission, it’s a women’s point of view.
They are beyond saving now in my opinion, they’ve got the whole system stitched up to work for their benefit, I hate that I was taken in by these dangerous ideologists for 5 of the past 6 yrs, I honestly don’t know where we go from here, we are indebted to you and others for exposing these charlatans.
I think the selection process will show whether the SNP can be redeemed.I thought we would have to wait for conference and NEC elections.
Casting around I cannot see an alternative vehicle for independence but hope to be corrected.
Murrell’s recruitment of lawyers suggests they’re digging in – Murrell just has to be kept away from that committee by whatever means necessary, even if it involves spending every last penny of SNP members’ dosh. So long as he doesn’t answer their questions, there’s no point in them calling Nicola Sturgeon because she can just bat away anything even remotely connected to him/Whatsapp/Alphabet ladies and whatever else: ‘These matters are currently the subject of legal proceedings and I have been advised not to say anything which might have an impact on that process’ or somesuch boilerplate Keep Out Of Jail card. Taking the Fifth.
I suggested this to someone who claims to know all (bar two or three) of the players in the Salmond inquiry. He replied that I might think that but he couldn’t possibly comment. And he added a winking emoji…
😉
Once again, a very clever headline title for the article. Doesn’t clash with my thoughts.
Famous 15, you are the vehicle, we are the vehicle, you have the right to chose whom you like as a government in Scotland.
It is not a political party.
My view is that this has to be fixed from within the party. An alternative Indy party might attract activists but the general public who never see a tweet or read a blog are going to vote SNP. Rise and others have been down this road.
If there are MI5 shenanigans going on they would just try to do the same thing to a new party with entryists, division, dissension. Not that I’m convinced it is MI5, I think it much more likely the whole woke thing is just a heady zeitgeist of bubble politics and a desire to be seen to be doing right. No decent person wants to be wrong side of history. Those throwing stones at the civil rights marchers of the 60s don’t have a hallowed place in the archives. That said the civil rights people of the 60s had a lot of dignity whereas the so called “woke activists” have a strange notion of how to win hearts and minds…although Twitter seems to drive people to be unpleasant. The last sentence in the above Tweet for example is totally unnecessary and invites antagonism. Blessed are the cheese makers and all that.
The answer to securing the democratic accountability of the party lies from within. It is an issue regarding the NEC and the Standing Orders Committee that transcends fringe issues. It is about things like land reform, the environment and currency that will shape the country for everyone regardless of creed, colour or gender.
Anything else will set back independence years. If the SNP win next May, it seems likely, from leaked Tory think tanking, that a vote will be grudingly conceded, possibly with another sodding vow as a second option. If a majority SNP government do not pursue such a vote, and I will be surprised if they dont, then the game is a bogey. We will have to build a new party hopefully with the support of a large number of SNP politicians like Cherry, Whiteford et al but lets not fool ourselves that it will be easy to carry the voting public over this. Time and again the voters have shunned fractious parties. It will take time to rebuild.
Do we have time or do we win in May and take it from there? Do the Yoons want you to vote SNP? I don’t think so.
You are the vehicle, look to no party, no government, we are the ones that should make the changes,
As a general rule we are failing ourselves when we look for others to fail us.
We have the claim of right, to choose who governs us, let it be the nation and people of Scotland.
Never a political party.
The British Establishment have been know to favour divide and rule and it seems infiltration of the SNP as I likely candidate to help explain what is happening.
That tactic has also been used to cause conflict in a colonial country that is about to gain independence and their rule is ended.
Sovereignty resides with the people in Scotland so dealing with such divisions and conflict should not get in the way of asserting our sovereign rights.
At least some in the SNP still get to vote. Mid Fife and Glenrothes are stuck with the present incumbent.
Ticks all the Woke boxes. Woman (are we allowed to call her that?), gay, pertner ex Labour leader and, most important of all, largely absent when asked to explain Equalities.
I will hold my nose, bite on a stick and vote SNP 1 but my second, Regional List vote will go to the ISP
My membership renewal was due in September.
I belong to the “constituency” Europe which means I pay GDP 25 + bank fees and conversion rates so my dues are almost double.
We have no representitive for msp to vote for.
It’s taken a while for me to decide what to do, but I’m afraid I can’t support a party that blatently abuses its members trust anymore. I’m now ex-snp, it’s not my party of choice.
I long for the day AS or someone in the same vein – JC,PW maybe, come to the fore and brings back some sanity. 🙂
Apart from all the shenanigens with mandates, non-drive for Indy, Alex S farce, etc. etc., the last couple of years have turned the party of the people for independence into a den of snakes.
Woo Hoo and backstabbing abound, as for the cult like guru wannabies at the top.. jeezes fkn christ..!
The Rev Stu was the one who did most to uncover the duplicity and sheer dishonesty behind the leadership. AND that despite the doubting Thomases everywhere.
Graf Midgehunter
Was worried for a second or two when you said PW could bring back sanity. Then quickly realised you meant Whitford, not Wishart. Good post.
Westminster; obsessed with regalia.
Holyrood; obsessed with genitalia.
You’re welcome.
I don’t agree that we should give up our membership of the SNP but fight within for a change at the top of the leadership starting with the NEC.
The 79 Group was a faction within the Scottish National Party (SNP), named after its year of formation, 1979. The group sought to persuade the SNP to take an active left-wing stance, arguing that it would win more support, and were highly critical of the established SNP leaders. Although it had a tiny membership, the group caused sufficient disquiet that it was expelled from the SNP in 1982, although its members were subsequently readmitted and many attained senior positions in the Scottish Government after 2007. Former First Minister Alex Salmond (2007–2014) was a leading member of the group.
I was active in the SNP at this time and it did change the party! We need to fight this within or there will be no SNP and No Independence for Scotland.
We who have membership of the SNP can start with nominating David Henry to be Secretary of the SNP.
Shirley-Anne Somerville
Sorry . Slipped up there.
M
My wife and I both voted for Michelle Thomson yesterday. Seems she has a lot of support in the Falkirk area.
Sturgeon and her allies are getting bolder by the day now. She’s even promoting Shirley-Anne Somerville quite blatantly. I am praying that something is being done behind the scenes to rescue the party.
I know that cunt Connor. A self-important wanker. Also, thick as mince. Part of the Dundee women-hating woke brigade.
‘John H. says:
24 October, 2020 at 4:34 pm
=
Sturgeon and her allies are getting bolder by the day now. She’s even promoting Shirley-Anne Somerville quite blatantly.’
Payment for mendacious services rendered.
I would like to ask a serious question here. If, in a blog entry, you post a ‘rumour’ (which you basically believe to be true) as being a rumour, and identify it as such…but of course it’s much deeper than that, which is why you’re publishing the info (which everybody basically already knows anyway)…is it legally actionable? Like, say, identifying a person’s real sexuality despite this not being their public image? Do you get what I mean?
The hierarchy of the SNP is becoming quite an exclusive club, as are the favours handed out for rendering services.
The SNP as it was is dead Im afraid. Beyond redemption because the crazy folk hold all the power cards and utilise public humiliation as their weapon of choice.
I’ll look at the other Indy party’s instead because simply if these cretins keep their positions then Indy is surely dead in any event. They have no interest in Independence. The party is just a means to an end. What a shame.
I guess Indy will have to wait if The SNP win again.
Imagine even writing such a thing.
Just posted thread, more detail on the SNP HQ preferred Stirling candidate Moraig Henderson, Director of Operations, SNP Leadership Office’at Westminster, bloody chancers all of them.
link to twitter.com
I don’t think I can vote SNP on the constituency in the light of these disturbing shenanigans. And my SNP Msp isn’t on the Women’s Pledge recommendation list.
@susanXX
Good luck getting a straight answer out of *most* that you might ask about their position. 5 will get you ten most will either ignore the question of trot out some platitude about it being an important issue and we have to come together which leaves you none the wiser about their actual belief or what they’d do if they actually won.
Mumsnet has a vew things to say link to mumsnet.com
O/T.
Guy that set up drug injecting van in Glasgow to give addicts a safe environment charged by police for doing so.
Lets not forget why he set it up in the first place because Westminster won’t allow a injecting centre to support drug addicted Scots.
link to archive.is
In reply to susanxx, which seat are you in? I have analysed all candidates so could give you the lowdown on your candidates.
@PhilM says:
24 October, 2020 at 1:07 pm
“Has the SNP now become a constitutional monarchy?”
Unconstitutional by the looks of things.
Or choose one from the following (think of it as digital Christmas selction box):
Autocracy – one person one vote, not other bugger gets one
Aristocracy – no dross (with apologies to Fawlty Towers)
Democracy – too many syllables, sorry
Republic – belongs to the people – aye right
Extra bonus – Statism. Power in the hands of the state at the expense of individual freedom (found this one on Wiki tbh never heard of the term).
Seems to be amongst the FaceBook Indy supporters , that the Term Wokes is very seldom used. I suspect, they are not familiar with the term or its meaning. Can anyone suggest how to descibe wokes in simple terms to educate these people.
Abalha I’m in Inverness.
Hi Stuart, please add Susan McGill to your list of candidates who have signed the Women’s Pledge. Both Susan and Saheema have also opposed Smith’s bullying tactics to bring the new MSP under his control as an office sharer. Dave Llewellyn has added Susan to his grid of non Wokes.
“Hi Stuart, please add Susan McGill to your list of candidates who have signed the Women’s Pledge.”
The article already notes that in paragraph 9.
Lolly’s mum says
Did the same last year,except I returned them with the appropriate letter,unstamped of course.
One Urban Dictionary contributor defines woke as “being aware of the truth behind things ‘the man’ doesn’t want you to know”. Meanwhile, a concurrent definition signals a shift in meaning to “the act of being very pretentious about how much you care about a social issue”.
If the SNP are not going to act democratically within its party structure, why should I trust them to act in the interests of Scotland’s democracy?
It will be interesting to see how this internal process goes.
I’m an non member of the SNP.
Who are the candidates in Aberdeen City and ‘shire?
And more importantly which ones are Wokoharem (in case they get selected)?
“I’m an non member of the SNP.
Who are the candidates in Aberdeen City and ‘shire?”
Well, you don’t have a vote so it doesn’t really matter. But AFAIK any constituency not mentioned on that list only has one candidate.
Hoping Perthshire South & Kinross-shire members select Jim Fairlie.
Good, knowledgeable, local individual with many previous endorsements from the likes of Joanna Cherry and more recently Lesley Riddoch.
link to twitter.com
Disappointing Mr Gethins is parachuting into this selection process when NE Fife would be more suitable, but isn’t Humza’s wife going for NEF now so that may explain him being squeezed out?
link to twitter.com
Thank you, Rev (and Mr McAskill).
Frightening times.
Thought Sturgeon, Murrell, Smyth (and his followers) might have been good guys but obviously not.
I hope the good ladies in the Party triumph to allow Independence to flow and the detritus to be shown the door.
SNP members – please do the needful (as my Indian friends might say).
I feel I need to add to the list of constituencies that are riddled with careerist, anti independence, nature denying, careerist ( said that) ok CAREERIST politicians and members.
I introduce you good folk to – MIDLOTHIAN!.
@ BLMac at 6.49pm
The selection process and who is ultimately selected as the constituency candidates will be a watershed moment as it effectively defines where the party is heading.
Remember that if Scotland moves to end the Union in the next parliamentary term we absolutely want the sharpest pro-indy folk in positions to oversee, negotiate, and scrutinize the process, not some lame ineffectual wannabees.
@G H Graham (4:06) –
😉
Aye, they’re where the big nobs hang out.
WhoRattledYourCage says:
24 October, 2020 at 4:57 pm
I would like to ask a serious question here. If, in a blog entry, you post a ‘rumour’ (which you basically believe to be true) as being a rumour, and identify it as such…but of course it’s much deeper than that, which is why you’re publishing the info (which everybody basically already knows anyway)…is it legally actionable? Like, say, identifying a person’s real sexuality despite this not being their public image? Do you get what I mean?’
—-
Is it legally actionable? Quite probably, if you cannot evidence it you leave yourself exposed. But even if not, if, as an example, you were intending to post a rumour that someone was in the closet – that is considered to be deeply unkind, and not your place, or mine to do so – it would backfire big time.
It is NEVER a good idea to post anything you cannot evidence, or substantiate.
You can however ask the question. ‘I wonder why the happy married couple – mr and mrs so and so, are never seen together?’ is one.
But if the intention is to steer up prejudice against (again as an example) gay people – in this day and age, most people will think badly of you, rather than them, and those opposed to Indy would use it as a stick to beat us.
If on the other hand the intention was to show a lack of integrity – i.e. living a lie – it will not be taken as that, regardless of ‘good’ intentions.
Hope that is of help.
Ian Brotherhood – ‘Aye, they’re where the big nobs hang out.’
Aye, in frocks.
Bob @ 3.44
On “The British Establishment” in Scotland, folk really should have twigged when the supposedly independence minded ‘Naitional Pairty’ first got ‘into power’ in Scotland 13 year ago and decided to leave in post (and still) an established and privileged Unionist Anglophone meritocracy running Scotland’s several hundred social institutions including ScotGov departments. The Naitional Pairty has itself now been absorbed into the British Establishment and its cause forgotten.
“Can anyone suggest how to descibe wokes in simple terms to educate these people.”
WOKE theory was devised as a means of decolonising educational and legal practice, to enable resistance to neo-liberalism and the radical right’s war on social justice. In theory, it incorporates both critical feminist and critical race perspectives, so does not deny the significance of biological reality.
I’m a bit of a critical, post-colonial, woke bloke. 😉
link to blogs.soas.ac.uk
.
I agree with Mark….
#themurrellsmustgo
BUT who on earth do we vote for?
This is a dystopian nightmare.
If/when the “New” McWoke SNP win the May 2021 Holyrood election, those who WANT Independence will NOT get Independence. Instead we will all get…
The Hate Crime Act 2021.
This Orwellian piece of litigious excrement WILL BE used to do more than just close down the likes of Stuart Campbell’s Twitter account, the Hate Crime Act 2021 WILL BE used by this 0.85% tranny fifth column haters to kill off sites like Wings Over Scotland.
What Daddy Bear and Sir Derek Saville-MacKay don’t realise because they lack perspective and are light on IQ points is that the Hate Crime Act will come and bite them in the ARSE, and not in a good way (as in “cute” 15 year old male rugby players nibbling MacKay’s nether bits).
Why bother with Scottish politics anymore? Too few are doing too little too late.
As Dad’s Army, Corporal Fraser said and as WILL be the fact FOLLOWING next year’s May 2021 Holyrood election…
“We’re all doomed”
As a poster BTL says, Nicola Sturgeon has made a good job of utterly fucking-up the SNP.
It will take a long generation to sort out this mess. Most of us on here will be dead and gone by the time IndyRef2 is placed anywhere near the electorate again.
o/t
re the current situation that has been introduced in Wales closing off some sections in Supermarkets if they display any items that are not deemed eh essential ! .
I wonder who appointed the fkr who decides what in their world is essential or is allowed to be essential in our world, a bloody open air prison camp that’s what this looks like
I wonder if this is being trialled by the Westminster Tory Government to see just how far people can be pushed before they really lose it , the only ones who are going to be on the receiving end of people’s anger will be shop workers , they don’t matter to this Mafia government so they just wait and watch and bugger the ones caught up in the fallout, after all it’s just a game to them .
Anyone care to predict the next one of our civil liberties that will have to disappear precluded by the comforting statement of just on a “temporary” basis to protect our health and wellbeing ,Cash suddenly will be in short supply and because of the possibility of infection by transmission the authorities are protecting you by withdrawing its use just in a “temporary ” basis to protect your health and wellbeing of course.
Although these temporary measures have been introduced the authorities will do everything possible to return your life to normal,
Something keeps niggling me and it is the Peter Murrell Wiki entry there are a lot of gaps. Like
When did he go to Uni and what did he study and what qualifications gained? Leaving date
When did he start in Alex Salmonds office straight after leaving Uni or years later?
There is so much missing from that period of his life one wonders who he was he actually working for.
Forgot link.
link to en.wikipedia.org
Reply to susanxx well you’ve Fergus Ewing or Fergus Ewing there’s no contest and he is implacably against GRA, has spoken up at cabinet about it, so you’re fine on that score.
Shame to see Dornan recommended. A Murrell poodle and gradualist.
Daisy Walker – thanks.
Thanks Abalha, things not quite as bad as I thought then.
Cynical – Pre 2000 Murrell was on the Jason Bourne programme. They found him half drowned in Leith with a strange mark on his back.
Well that’s my theory anyway. Beware the enemy within,they are more dangerous than the enemy with tge sword.
@Big Jock
I just find it weird, no family history like fathers occupation working for MI5(made that up) it’s like it is a complete facade hiding his true identity.
Don’t worry folks, all the issues around Alex Salmond’s attempted imprisonment, the trans (or whatever it is) takeover of the SNP leadership, Sturgeon’s sexuality, Murrel’s background and behind the scenes shenanigans, enthusiastically legalising men going into women’s toilets etc. etc. etc. will all come out into the open.
It will be a few days before the next election or referendum (remember The Vow?) and will fill the mainstream media. Documents which the SNP have been desperately trying to hide will magically appear in the public realm. The SNP will be totally blindsided and even if they are capable of responding intelligently they will be ignored by the MSM and the damage will be done.
Sturgeon’s carefully crafted image will be destroyed forever. She will be lucky if she can walk down the street without people spitting at her. She will go down in history as the biggest ("Tractor" - Ed) to Scotland in living memory. I hope she has been putting on one side some of the £300.000 + p/a that she and Murrell have been getting cos she’s going to need it.
I hope I’m wrong.
I know I don’t have a vote Rev. am trying to see who the SNP are planning to field (and if they are Wokoharem).
So basically the following constituencies may only have 1 SNP candidate and therefore they will automatically be selected (even if a potential Alphabet conspirator?
Aberdeen Central
Aberdeen Donside
Aberdeen South & North Kincardine
Aberdeenshire East
Aberdeenshire West
Does anyone know who the chosen ones are and if they are Woke?
@cynicalHighlander –
Aye, he’s the Mystery Man for sure.
To be in that job for 21 years he must be really soo-fekkin-perb at his job, and yet no-one in the msm ever seems to have taken much interest in finding out what he’s all about, what makes him tick. Even if he’s just a ‘modest’ sort who doesn’t court publicity or exposure, that shouldn’t exempt him from the attentions of a healthily curious press.
It’s yet another reason why he can’t afford to appear before this (or any other) committee – any light is shone upon him, he’ll do a Christopher Lee number.
@Robert Graham who said
“I wonder who appointed the fkr who decides what in their world is essential or is allowed to be essential in our world, a bloody open air prison camp that’s what this looks like”
I agree it seems like a rather arbitrary policy and choice.
AFAIK since supermarkets sell a lot of goods that are not food, the non-essential goods were covered up to prevent unfair competition against the shops selling such goods that had to close
The government said the measures were “not for the sake of being difficult”.
“Supermarkets can keep selling items you can find in other essential shops – such as stationery/greeting cards,” it said.
“The purpose of selling essential items only during firebreak is to discourage spending more time than necessary in shops and to be fair to retailers who have to close.”
It added that people in Wales must “do everything we can to minimise the time we spend outside our homes” to save lives and protect the health system.
link to news.sky.com
Why is it only politicians who seem to use the phrase:
“my comments were taken out of context”
I’d love to meet someone else who actually uses that phrase, because it seems to be trending again…
Now that Nicola wont be cancelling christmas and the Wokiist gaining access to our education system will the SNP delivering anatomical dolls to every Scottish child’s christmas stocking .
Ronnie Anderson @ 9.45
Well… if they don’t dae ye want us tae crowd fund one fur ye Ronnie ?
liz g 9.45 i’ll reply tae that comment by phone lol
Christmas isn’t gonna be cancelled noo?
And there was me hoping nae crimbo consumerist pish would be the one positive oot o’ this whole malarkey… 🙁
However, this does mean the New Year Loony Dook in the sea is getting nearer.
Wonder if dookers will still be having to pay Underbelly for the “privileged” of jumping in the sea at South Queensferry like last time…
Yet another bug-related tragedy…
One of my in-laws lives in a sheltered housing complex. Approx 40 flats, only about two years old, very nice facilities for the residents.
A group used to meet in the Common Room twice a week to play card games, dominoes etc. That was scuppered when lockdown started and hasn’t been allowed since, even when restrictions were eased. The room has remained locked.
There are married couples in some of the flats but most are single occupancy and the Common Room meetings were the main events of the week apart from occasional gatherings for birthday parties and suchlike.
Last night, or perhaps very early this morning, one of the residents died. She was a widow, but was known to everyone in the place because she liked to sit at the central part of the complex, near to the mailboxes, where she could talk to everyone as they came and went.
She had become good friends with an immediate neighbour who has problems cooking for himself. She would make breakfast for them both and he would join her. It was a fixed thing. No monkey business! They were close pals.
This morning he went in to get his breakfast and found her dead.
What happened? No-one seems to know yet.
But what is known is that someone from ‘the council’ told the woman, months ago, that she was no longer permitted to sit at her favoured spot near the mailboxes because of ‘the covid’. She was told to go back to her flat and stay there.
I’m not going to over-egg this – deaths occur in sheltered housing all the time. I found my own uncle, dead, on the morning after the big Friends of Wings gathering in Glasgow, April 2014. He was in a very similar complex. It’s not unusual at all. But what is notable, right now, is the extent to which authorities are going over and beyond the letter of mercurial restrictions being imposed from Bute House.
There is a brutality about it all which cannot be represented in graphs at daily briefings.
Perhaps no-one will ever know the extent to which solitude and despair contributed to that woman’s death. But one thing’s for sure – if she’d been allowed, after the big lockdown was over, to get back to her seat near the mailboxes, there would’ve been a chance of someone picking up on whatever was wrong with her.
And that’s just one wee example, from one day. The mind boggles, trying to take in the sheer magnitude of the misery being endured nationwide.
As Alex Salmond said when he emerged from that trial, ‘God help us all.’
🙁
Jockanese Wind Talker
The MSP for Aberdeen Central is Kevin Stewart and from his replies to my concerns about GRA, I am of the opinion that he will certainly support it.
Ian, my Mother died in a nursing home on 11/8. I last saw her on 15/7.She went into hospital on 21/4. She fell over & broke her hip in hospital,had a partial hip replacement & then was treated very badly.
The NHS abandoned her to a care home where she was found to have bed sores. I was not allowed to see her. She died alone.
She did not have covid & neither did I.
I will never forgive all the people who did this. Social services were worse than useless,our local hospital not much better.
I’ve lost faith in so many institutions that I held dear.
Oh, & my parting shot, fuck the SNP.
Alex always has the ability to be very profound when required.
” The dream will never die”. I remember watching that on the news. I was tearful. It felt like he was betrayed personally , along with the other 45%.
It was like a fallen heroes last words before the darkness.
Ian Brotherhood@10.03pm
I’ve quoted this before however it’s becoming more relevant by the day.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities”. Voltaire.
They have the majority believing in absurdities and the atrocities, like your example and like many other examples of lockdown caused deaths are well under way.
@Elizabeth Stanley (10.26) –
‘She died alone.’
I’m so sorry Elizabeth. That is just horrendous.
I don’t know how we ever allowed ourselves, our families and communities to be treated like this. It’s beyond comprehension.
Right now I just hope to live long enough to see some form of reckoning, justice, but that won’t ever cure the pain and damage that’s already been caused.
Cirsium, a regular here, called it out months ago, as a ‘crime against humanity’. Day by day we’re seeing how true that is – the wilfully ignorant are as culpable as the architects and they will not be forgiven.
They know who they are.
Very sorry to hear that, dreadful situation.
Could it be that the local authority person told the lady she couldn’t sit at the thoroughfare to decrease the risk that she might herself contract the virus? Being elderly would put her at greater risk of serious illness if she contracted the virus.
It is certainly absurd to believe that the will of man stands above the forces of nature, but this is exactly what those who control the NEC would have you believe. So the NEC isn’t only an obstacle to our self-determination, it poses a threat to open democracy and global sustainability. How did this come to pass, when the NEC share the same anti-foundational position as hard-core British nationalists?
Hamerdoon that’s an example of jobsworth. I saw my Mother’s total lack of the will to live because of the abandonment of everything that was normal for her. She was put in a room away from what she knew without any family contact.
I could accept she died of covid. She died of cruelty.
The first “lockdown” started in spring when the days were getting brighter, warmer, and longer, with the positive mental health benefits those aspects offer.
People were able to chat in their gardens or the street whilst adhering to
socialphysical distancing measures.The clocks go back tonight, so darker, colder, shorter days for the foreseeable with the negative mental health affects that brings.
Time to start taking a decent doze of Vit D if you aren’t already coz your body will struggle to produce it during the winter months with the sun rarely out and low in the sky when it is.
I heard of an old acquaintance who was in his thirties taking his life earlier in the week, and hear many others are beginning to struggle through my neighbour who is a mental health nurse at the sharp end dealing with folk when they are at their most vulnerable.
If you have the time it would be good to contact friends and acquaintances for a chat on phone or walk in the park as even the smallest of efforts and distractions can pull folk back from darker places they may find themselves in through the isolation.
Thanks,
@Margaret E says at 10:26 pm
Re: the MSP for Aberdeen Central.
Elizabeth Stanley @ 10.26
I’m so very sorry to hear of your loss Elizabeth xxx
I hope there’s a “crumb ” of comfort for ye to know that I for one share your anger at this treatment of her.
Please also know that you have friends here, just ask if you think there’s anything we can do , and don’t hesitate to vent the anger and hurt your entitled to feel either my friend, we’ll listen!
Also
When you feel you can , tell us of your Mum too, the good, the bad , the funny…. so we can be more than just sad with you …we can cherish her memory with you as well xxx
@J Galt –
I posted a response to you approx 15 mins ago but it didn’t appear.
Just wanted to say ‘hear hear’.
I hope wingers will take note of what Elizabeth Stanley posted here at 10.26.
We face up to such testimony as it is, knowing that it must be traumatic even to write it, or else we abandon whatever it is in us that makes us truly ‘human’.
In this interwebbed culture, where we can do our own research on any subject under the sun at any time we choose, ‘I didn’t know what was going on!’ is not an acceptable excuse for ignorance.
Self-education isn’t some form of hobby or luxury – it’s a duty.
cynicalHighlander says:
24 October, 2020 at 8:09 pm
Forgot link.
link to en.wikipedia.org
……………….
Interestingly enough Murrell is around 5 – 6 years older than Tasmina Ahmed Sheikh and both went to Craigmount High . She must have some history of the family I assume. It’s likely Murrell didn’t finish his degree – but there’s no shame in that per se.
Murrell likely went to Aberdeen to seek his fortune during the oil-rich years of Aberdeen. It might be interesting to know which company he worked for. After all the SNP has been part of his power for the past 21 years and that’s a long time.
Elizabeth, my condolences for your loss. Very, very difficult circumstances.
I think you touch on an aspect that is extremely difficult to balance. If the local authority took no action and the elderly lady (not your mother) had contracted the virus, then I think it reasonable to think that affected families might not have been happy with the management of their loved one. It is an impossible position to be in (what do they do to manage the risk?), with no solution appearing to be satisfactory in all circumstances.
I’m glad I don’t have to make their decisions.
Thank you Lizg & Ian. I didn’t really want to share such personal stuff but felt it necessary in the wider context.
What saddens me is that thousands of families have gone through this. The platitudes of our FM’s daily regrets of all these deaths I find quite sickening.
@Elizabeth Stanley –
I don’t know if you saw it, but this is what I posted yesterday, at 1.23pm.
It is unedited personal testimony.
I can’t imagine how anyone could reasonably look at what you’ve posted here tonight, along with what is reproduced below, and not conclude that something diabolical is happening.
A little discrepancy,
Mr Murrell was appointed Company Secretary at Independence Merchandising Ltd on 16 Sep 2003
link to companycheck.co.uk
Wikipedia says “Murrell has been Chief Executive Officer of the Scottish National Party (SNP) since 1999”
“Murrell was formerly the Company Secretary of Independence Merchandising Limited”
link to en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia may not always be accurate
Dan @ 10.59
That’s ( as far as I know) great advice about vitamin D.
Also if it’s not helping it can’t hurt !!!
One of my friends Tweeted today that everyone of her family now knows or knows someone who knows someone….that’s taken their own life’s since the first lock down.
While I’m fortunate not to know personally of anyone in such distress your advice is spot on Dan.
And made me think that……
I might not know , I know, so … Yes …. we all need to pay attention and bloody well ask!!!
The toll of this virus is more than we can imagine, we’ll all have to act in our own bubble..
But I still can’t help but be resentful of what else we could have done had we the powers and not be tied to Boris Johnston and his ineptitude…
I did read that Ian. Shocking.
It chimes with a telephone call I had with a good friend tonight. She was refused NHS medical treatment for an illness that is not life threating but invited to a private consultation by the same medical practice, in Scotland I may add.
We seem to be Trumped.
I want to go out on the streets with spears & fire at the moment.
Elizabeth Stanley @ 11.38
I’m glad you did feel you could share Elizabeth, as Ian has said …. we need personal testimony to understand everything in the round.
The announcements and platitudes are all very well, but we know two things.
Firstly… That their plans are unenforceable without our cooperation.
Secondly… To judge what we will reasonably comply with we need true testimony as well as scientific facts….we need to apply the advice to our actual lives….and as they are our lives …the judgment is ultimately ours.. which is where your testimony comes in.
So thank you for telling us your Mums story,..it must have hurt to do so…and I don’t know what if any difference it will make ( I have a very little voice) but I’m now speaking where I speak with your dear Mothers awful experience in mind…. take care of you Elizabeth xxx …
Ian Brotherhood says:
24 October, 2020 at 11:54 pm
@Elizabeth Stanley –
I don’t know if you saw it, but this is what I posted yesterday, at 1.23pm.
It is unedited personal testimony.
I can’t imagine how anyone could reasonably look at what you’ve posted here tonight, along with what is reproduced below, and not conclude that something diabolical is happening.
——
That’s because what this person is describing is not covid-19.
Her relative may have had a rare corona virus which there are many. Some are bad, some are really bad, highly contagious, airborne and lethal to a lot of people.
This corona virus was given the name covid-19 because it was the year it first hit and turned into a pandemic.
I have a personal tragedy in my family a few decades back. My little sister picked up a virus ,went to the doctor same day because she felt awful-no covid 19 back then. The doc checked her over and immediately sent for ambulance for admission to hospital with irregular heartbeat. In hospital they tried her on many anti virials-she didn’t make it. She died within 24 hrs, she was 22 years old.
That above i didn’t ever want to write in context to this – 30+ years i’ve carried that.
VIRUSES ARE DANGEROUS.
That’s why i personally get miffed when people can’t take this seriously .
Sturgeonistas crawlin out of their holes tonight.
Has Sturgeon sent you lot on a special mission tonight to divert us away from saying anything bad about the wee poison dwarf bastard.
@Elizabeth Stanley –
Just to let you know…
I am going to contact the council to find out who is responsible for locking the door of the Common Room in my in-law’s sheltered housing.
I will ask that person why it cannot be unlocked so that the residents can resume social activities, observing ‘social distancing’ measures. If they can go to a supermarket cafe, or a pub in daytime, why can’t they meet in their own ‘home’?
I will let you know how I get on.
Thank you for your comments here tonight – I’m sure they will be seen, digested, and provide food for thought for many considering similar action.
😉
I don’t know if this is o/t but anyway
Every single day since this House Arrest Started on every single TV, Radio station even utube we get this do this do that instructions , all these daily sometimes hourly brainwashing instructions have turned perfectly normal people into walking Zombie like extras for dystopian horror movie,
Has any of this worked ?
Well doing the same things that obviously haven’t before are now being attempted again I can confidently say because all previous attempts have spectacularly failed I can’t see the point in repeating the excercise again ,
Trying to get simple things attended to is a nightmare just now nothing seems to be working try to contact any service provider Gas , Electric , Doctors Surgery a simple thing that used to take a short time now involves countless wasted hours of real frustration, this coupled with this incessant bloody save lives rules bombarding everyone its a bloody miracle people are finding the self control in order to keep them from going bloody crackers .
I really believe some government phycological units are attempting to see how far people can be pushed and what the government can get away with before we all snap .
Stan Broadwood @ 12.36
Read the room Stan… we’re speaking with bereaved people here.
Have ye nae sense?
@Robbo (12.29) –
Do you honestly think that anyone in their right mind stays up until this time of night discussing ‘whatever’ unless they ‘take it seriously’?
Frank Gilloughly @ 2.04 I think Imelda had more shoes though!
Suffice to say, Alyn Smith’s e mail convinced me to vote for the one name he had missed of the list. Joanna Cherry endorsed her – that’s good enough for me.
The Sunday National twitter,,,
link to mobile.twitter.com
I have deleted a number of comments from this thread because FUCKING BEHAVE YOURSELVES YOU FUCKING CHILDREN. Jesus.
It looks like there’s possibly something in the water these days. It’s time for some calm reflection and incontrovertible truths.
Robert Graham asks, “Has any of this worked?”
Resoundingly, yes, some of it has worked. The first lock down worked very well. I’m reliably informed that you had more chance of catching Dengue Fever than coronavirus in Glasgow back in July.
The idea that coronavirus is fake or is being exaggerated by the authorities isn’t even interesting to me but let’s entertain it for a few seconds.
Where’s the motive? Oh they want to create some new world order? They want to see how far they can push us? It’s a mind control exercise?
I feel like apologising to other sane people who come here for seeming to take this seriously. Let me assure you that I don’t.
All of that stuff is just crazy and if they had the means to pull that sort of stunt off, well, why would they bother going any further? If you believe this nonsense, you believe they already have the sort of control and power over us that you are defining as a motive. It makes no sense.
Ian Brotherhood talked last night of hobgoblins and suggested they’ve been deliberately scaring the crap out of us for decades. That’s true. Their motive, if you look into it, was economics – convince people the commies are coming, alqaeda, or some nutter in the Middle East has WMDs and you can justify directing billions of tax payers money into the right hands.
That’s all baby stuff. But there’s no such baby stuff with coronavirus. There’s no economic motive in scaring the crap out of us here. As I tried to explain, the opposite is true. Coronavirus is costing ‘the powers that be’ money, huge amounts in lost revenues and business.
Finally we are arriving at the truth and, as it turns out, it’s almost the opposite of what has been suggested. The ‘powers that be’ want us all back to work. They want to keep us all working and slaving away for them, regardless of the dangers. Evidence is everywhere. They want to downplay the dangers of coronavirus.
They want to get back to business as usual – making truck loads of cash – and they don’t seem to care how many of us die as a consequence. They’re more or less saying exactly that on the front pages of the tabloids – “stfu and get back to work”. That’s usually a good indicator.
The polls suggest people aren’t as dumb as they had hoped though. Around 70% are consistently saying we need to lock down and take this virus seriously. Why are ordinary people so concerned? Why don’t they trust the politicians, health experts, and the tabloids?
Here’s a link to a page that commemorates the deaths of around 200 NHS staff who died of coronavirus, up until May, note the number of young people on the list; link to theguardian.com
You’re welcome.
There was an interesting exchange on Twitter earlier on between two people; I have removed the names. And what they say is absolutely true, sadly and disgustingly. The SNP do indeed treat people with utter contempt. To wit:
“Is there any other political party in the UK that speaks to its members and voters the way @theSNP speak to us? We’ve been called cybernats, Russian bots, Jeremy Hunts, transphobes, bigots, bitches and racists by the very people we elected. They only care about our votes, not us.’
‘Then there’s Boomer, Transphobe, bigot, homophobic, white privileged, Right wing Christian fundamentalist Trumpists, Nazis, Anti Semites, Tories, Yoon plants, MI5,MI6, Russian, KGB.’
When you add it all up…a bigger picture emerges.
Elizabeth Stanley, in reference to private medical consultation, I think you would find this documentary interesting, if a bit depressing:
There’s a disturbing pattern when it comes to politicians, bands, boxers, everything it seems. Success ruins everything. We are all at our best when we are hungry and chasing it.
There are 4 big issues of concern for Sturgeon if she goes into the election as leader; 1) the Salmond fall out, 2) the gender-bender stuff, and 3) failure to achieve indyref2, and last but not least 4) the abysmal handling of the pandemic, which I predict will come back to haunt her big time.
Those 4 issues are going to combine and translate into hundreds of thousands of votes lost, making it impossible for the SNP to achieve a majority next year. That’s true no matter what happens in the next few months. They’re fucked, in other words, unless there’s big changes.
If anyone wants to find some interesting information on Covid 19 from a medical expert I’d suggest searching Dr Mike Yeadon.
He’s quite clear it exists and can be dangerous but equally asserts that current actions are futile and unnecessary.
He studied alongside Patrick Valance and is quite clear that he too must be aware current actions are pointless.
Worth a listen if you can find his podcast
Bengal Lancer…
LoL
In reply to Dan at 705pm.
We can only hope members in Perthshire South and Kinrosshire see the light and elect the wonderful Jim Fairlie, a truly decent person. Bloody beaten by John Nicolson in 2019, of course short campaign and sadly assume people went on name recognition.
As for Stephen Gethins standing in that seat he won’t have gone for NE Fife, where he was MP until 2019, because the expectation is Willie Rennie will hold his seat next year AND he’ll be HQ’s choice. Just spotted although he was born in Glasgow he grew up in Perth, so has some connection to the wider are.
Rev @1:29.
Hear hear, the same thought occurs from time to time.
Come on people we are here for one reason and one reason alone, let’s stick to the same page and pull together.
Ignore the trolls and don’t give them oxygen.
O/T, but needs said
I see this week Tory MP’s were unhappy at being called scum. The problem is, that when they remove free kids meals, whilst enjoying massive taxpayer subsidy on their own meals, they are by definition, Scum. When those same Tory MP’s also then threaten to remove government support for good businesses who offer to step in to provide free meals because the Tory Scum won’t, then by definition, they are scum.
Tories might not like it, but mibbes they need a good long hard look in the mirror, because if they do, and reflect on their own actions, they will see nothing but scum looking back at them.
It is high time, when we have a truly vindictive, twisted, evil, heartless bunch of Tory mp’s, who enact evil policies on our most vulnerable, that we call them what they, in fact are, SCUM.
This is not about left or right anymore, or tweaks and changes to tax laws, no, this is something very different. It is evil.
Srurgeon and Murrell are not only destroying the SNP but they are destroying the asperations of a country and it’s people and it’s chance to be independent, to break free of this terrible union.
They are really rotton.
Is it just for money and power?
Who are they?
Extended the thread on Alyn Smith’s favoured candidate in Stirling for whom a twitter acct has, as if by magic, appeared yesterday (first tweet on 18/10 but did not come up in a search til 23/10, beyond me)This is truly freaky shit, I don’t say that lightly.
link to twitter.com
And could she be related to Alyn Smith’s partner Jordon Henderson, I don’t know yet either way.
link to twitter.com
Abalha @7:34
A clue that they’re related might be the unusual spellings of their first names. Moraig instead of Morag and Jordon instead of Jordan.
@Hatuey
Lets not talk shite. ‘The powers that be’ are not invested in Mary’s Tea Shop or in Susan the Hair Dresser.
The vast majority of companies you can buy shares or bonds for are functioning and making money. They US stock market is back around all time highs. The investor/wealthy class of people are doing just fine.
Covid measures are gutting the working and middle class. Who, incidentally, happen to collectively form the largest competition against the large corporations.
As for the rest of you shite (though not quite on the same level of shocking reality-denial as your denial of the existence of culture) I am afraid you are completely wrong.
If you think that the end goal for ‘the powers that be’ is merely the acquisition of more money then you lack knowledge or even imagination. The end goal is total power. That involves a removal of democratic systems and the power of people to influence decisions made on their lives.
That’s just the practical side of it but it should be coming clear for any who at least try to maintain a clear perspective.
The other side is so mind bendingly horrific that to go from being your average working voter who stays on top of the news to near full realisation takes years. I’d hate to be in the position where covid is waking me up. That would be very rough.
Do we believe that Orwell had some magic ball? Or that he is just good at guessing? Or that he was even unique in his insights?
None of these things. There are plenty of works written by prominent people at the 2nd half of the 19th and 1st half of the twentieth centuries that clearly in black and white spell out the ideas that powerful people want to enact.
The trouble is that truth is stranger than fiction. And far, far more brutal. It is all there if people want to look.
When it comes to covid – the official numbers are all there. But looking at those numbers and comparing it to the government response and media spin has the same effect. It forces to people to look at the very real prospect that they are being lied to, manipulated and forced into a kind of health-bondage which will merely serve as a beach head for the larger power grab that comes after.
Its all there to know but its a test of psychology more than reading or knowledge.
Today’s Times, Judith Mackinnon to give inquiry evidence remotely AND only in audio AND Salmond to be the penultimate witness and you’ve guessed Sturgeon last ffs.
”A key witness in the Alex Salmond inquiry will give her testimony remotely and in audio only this week, after she was targeted on social media.
”As head of people advice at the Scottish government, civil servant Judith Mackinnon was at the centre of its handling of allegations against the first minister.
”She was also involved in the judicial review the former first minister won after the Scottish government conceded that it had acted unlawfully while investigating harassment claims against him. The Scottish government requested that she did not have to appear in person on camera, amid concerns it could lead to further abuse.
”Members of the special Holyrood committee investigating the Scottish government’s handling of complaints against Salmond are considering its decision to appoint her as investigating officer into the allegations in 2018, despite the fact she had previously spoken to the complainers about their allegations against him.
”One said that meant the investigation was “doomed from the start” as it left the government open to accusations of unfairness. The botched process cost taxpayers more than £500,000 when a court ordered the Scottish government to pay Salmond’s legal fees.
”On Friday, Salmond demanded the government release legal advice justifying its decision to continue to fight the judicial review. It followed the publication of the open court record showing officials admitted the “bias” issue that tainted the process two months before it conceded the case.
”Salmond is expected to appear as the committee’s penultimate witness in December to be followed by Nicola Sturgeon”
Abalha @7:55
The SP begins it’s festive season recess on 24th December. It would be typical of Sturgeon to wangle it so she appeared at the inquiry on the 22nd or 23rd, when folk are preoccupied with Xmas.
The Story goes that Bojo the Clown has the 77th Brigade
and anything else he can lay his hands on to again interfere
in the US elections by promoting Trump for a second disaster
or term, as he would call it.
If Trump wins, Bojo is happy to go with No Deal Brexit as hell can
Wave a US Trade Deal paper at us before he reads it and after he
signs it.
If Trump loses then he will need to concede on a number of issues
with the EU as the Democrats are not quite as corrupt as Bojo required.
Let us hope for another Oven Ready, World Class Track & Trace, Whack a Mole
All in it Together- Tories and England First Trade Deal?
All roads lead back to Nicola Stalin and Peter Mugabe.
Old Nicola has systematically purged the SNP in a manner that would make Old Joe blush. Replacing the pre2014 SNP with an abomination of a post2014 SNP. Stuffed full of psychotic vicous woke vermin that are only loyal to Nicola and dont give a fuck about Independence. These are her wokerati nutcase army doing all her dirty work for her.
Peter Mugabe meanwhile has been trying to jail his political opponents in a manner that makes Zimbabwe look like a model of democratic and legal probity.
It is really astonishing what this pair of backstabbing weasels are doing and thus far getting away with.
Is this the point I wonder… to make us think that within one generation the SNP has descended to part sinister state and part banana republic in equal measures. These two running the show (into the ground) and their wokerati army are both deeply sinister and pathetic at the same time.
Fuck these woke arseholes. If we go after them for once I guarantee they will melt. Look at how over confident they are. They are absolutely ripe for the taking.
Cunninghame North has three candidates. Home to incumbent Mr Kenny Gibson MSP, husband of Mrs Patricia Gibson M.P. Mr Gibson has two people standing against him; Ms Corri Wilson (ex.MP for Ayr carrick & Cummnock from 2015 to 2017) & Mr Osama Bhutta, born in Glasgow and a former head of Communications for Al Jazeera, then he held the same post for Amnesty International the latter of which he had to step down from to stand in the Holyrood election next year.
However, members have been informed that the online hustings have been cancelled, apparently by HQ, amidst rumours of internecine party factions. See email below:
“On Wednesday night (14th October 2020) the National Secretary decided to cancel the hustings arrangements made by Cunninghame North Constituency Association. I do not in anyway dispute his right to do so.
I am concerned that there then appears to have been an attempt to prevent this decision being communicated to constituency members. As a consequence, I have spent a large part of the last two days fielding individual enquiries from members who had already booked places on the hustings but had not received joining instructions.
As far as I am aware the National Secretary has made no formal announcement about his decision, and no other hustings arrangements have been notified.
Due to restrictions placed on branch officers use of internal SNP e-mail facilities during the present selection contest I have been unable to advise the membership of the situation until now.
I apologise to those of you who are not Cunninghame North members, but I am using the only party mechanism available to me.
Yours for Scotland
Ian K Stewart
Convener
Cunninghame North CA”
Hatuey,
It’s already been reported that the super rich have gotten richer yet again.
Regarding the government telling people to go to work or stay at home, Matt Lucas explains nothing has changed
link to youtube.com
Also as Joe points out, it’s big businesses with friends in politics that will gain, the same as it ever was.
You seem to not be able to believe this so I’m not sure I would be able to convince you otherwise but I would ask you to contemplate what you think has been happening at the Bilderberg group’s annual get together of the most influential people in the world for half a century.
We don’t actually know what happens there as it is incredibly secretive but I would hazard a guess that any plans cooked up will not benefit the little person one iota.
For the avoidance of doubt regarding the coronavirus, yes, it certainly does exist but the information to hand now tells us it is nowhere near as dangerous as first thought.
As I’ve commented on here before, we are doing much more damage to society than SARS CoV2.
You don’t need to believe that but you should at least try to explain why all or most of these draconian restrictions are indeed necessary because so far you have fallen woefully short in your argument.
Believing that the sociopaths and psychopaths wouldn’t do such a thing to us doesn’t quite cut the mustard.
This is the only place where Covid can be discussed sensibly.
Did anyone see the 104 year old lady begging to ‘be allowed’ to see her family.
First time on twitter, responses were fairly sensible re Covid. Normally the hysterics screech about killing your granny.
If you follow the stats, the number of deaths have been normal since May.
To those saying Sturgeon will be found out over the excessive Covid restrictions, I have my doubts, it’s worldwide control and damned scary.
Yes Liz,
It’s a self fulfilling prophecy, we have been told from the beginning that the virus was going to be devastating to our society and it will be but not in the way we were told.
The measures taken to combat a virus, of whose danger has been systematically downgraded by the WHO ( other studies show even less danger) and I suspect will be downgraded even further will have consequences for our children and our grandchildren. The next generation will feel the effects of the damage done here and now financially, psychologically, physically and socially for decades.
The more damage we do now the more that needs fixed later and some of it may well be irreparable.
Of course we should have restrictions but they should be proportionate to what we are dealing with.
Is that too much to ask?
@GrahamKing
This is an issue aobut Trans champions and you are a member of the Green party which is MORE gung ho for GRA than the SNP are. If the GRA bill is returned to parliament the Green MSPs will vote for it en mass.
Do you have your fingers in your ears or something?
I used to be a habitual Green voter on the List, to no avail here in the NE sadly. But no more. I will not vote Woke. Hell mend your party which with the honourable exception of Andy Wightman has lost its way.
Come over to us in the ISP. We are pro women’s rights, more keen on Indy than the moribund SNP or Greens and we will push the SNP on Green and Environmental issues. I’m no the policy committee and the Environment sub committee and will make it so. Suggests welcome.
@Muscleguy
I’m not sure Whightman’s grovelling apology for having dared to attend an Edinburgh University event because he was monstered by the woke Stasi makes him an honourable exception.
He’s a Green MSP and must therefore accept the party orthodoxy that TWAW, otherwise he wouldn’t be welcome in the party.
In reply to Cuilean, very interesting, so has there be no more said about what next with hustings or voting etc?
@ Abalha at 10:31 am
“best buddy of the Sturrels, Scott Martin.”
Interesting
Scott Martin is I believe a solicitor “for the SNP” and is also the “Data Controller”.
That differ from what McCann said and was said late last year, by SNP Hq
If Murrell is deep in it, then I wonder about Mr Martin’s position long term
In my opinion covid is a social experiment, a test to see how the public can be controlled en masses all over the world,
Yes people do die from it, as with any other illness when they have a weakened health system, but when the balance is weighed more people are dying from other illnesses during covid for many reasons, and this is not being broadcast by mainstream media, no raging headlines, no hype about how we’re all going to die because we’re unable to get nhs treatments, or how the mental social experiment is having a effect on people dying and being locked and isolated, how many suicides are not headline news,
Or the New draconian legislations that are being passed while we’re under lock down,
Even the choice of the word lockdown is psychologically a play on words, lockup is more accurate, it’s not even a open air prison, because sometimes you have to stay in doors and not go out house, or room in the case of old people as mentioned above,
This social experiment also encourages people to tattletale on others and create an atmosphere of fear,
Hittler did this with the Jews and in the ghettoes, and then when those poor people had gone, they came after the Tattletalers, fear was the driving force to encourage people to act against each other, and if you think it might not happen that way and you would recognise it if it did, well more fool you, it has already started.
It might take a little while for it to sink in in Britain, but you already find people willing to put others down due to fears and manipulation of information and facts being controlled,
Yes people die of covid, and cancer and viruses and lung problems, of accidents, flu, etc, but these numbers and stats are being under played for a reason,
I refuse to live in fear or to report my neighbours, this experiment has already been done and it was so subtle at first the Jews did not realise it was not just the shop owner, or the business next door they were coming for, but it would eventually be all of them,
”A key witness in the Alex Salmond inquiry will give her testimony remotely and in audio only this week, after she was targeted on social media.”
Does Judith Mackinnon even have a Twitter account? I’m not aware of one. Smells like total bullshit.
Abalha
Nothing.
I don’t buy newspapers at all but I was informed that the alleged issues at Cunninghame North made front page news in either the Scottish Mail on Sunday and by another English Nationalist right wing paper the following Monday, with pictures of SNP councilors and the sitting MSP. I tried to find these articles online with no success so….
I am now hearing from local members that lawyers have been instructed following these newspaper articles, which may be why the hustings have been halted whilst the allegations are investigated.
Is anyone able to reproduce the newspaper articles about Cunninghame North? They were apparently published this month.
In reply to Cuilean
1/The original Sunday Mail story
link to archive.is
2Today’s National. Aye they so want bloody chancer Osama Saeed Bhutta, Humza Yousaf’s cousin to win this nomination.
”The Sunday National has learned that National Secretary Angus MacLeod has initiated a probe into allegations of “bullying or harassment” by Gibson” Aye they so want bloody chancer Osama Saeed Bhutta to win this nomination.
link to archive.is
The right-wing are simply desperate to downplay covid-19, and convince us all that it’s safe to return to work and keep the economy healthy. Thank fuck the general public aren’t thick enough to follow for that shite. Those there are plenty btl on WOS, who bang the science-denying drum well for the radical right.
Rev Stu aks; Does Judith Mackinnon even have a Twitter account? I’m not aware of one. Smells like total bullshit.
Had look earlier, nada I can see.
A reminder of who she is from 01/19
”A CIVIL service boss at the heart of the botched Alex Salmond probe came straight from a public body dogged by controversies, The Scottish Sun can reveal.
Judith MacKinnon, 51, was HR chief at the Scottish Police Authority during years of scandal before she led the inquiry into harassment claims by two women against the ex-First Minister”
link to archive.is
Sorry for the typos, I’m hungry not angry. Though I’m getting rather annoyed with the proliferation of alleged ‘public health’ experts on WOS.
Social engineering is a well known fact in plenty of leaflets, magazines and books, in all parts of the world and in all languages, and is a science.
And it is always interesting to note that there are those whom wish, that people’s thinking should be monitored, kept in a box, and not allowed out in case the dammed public start thinking for themselves or start analysing statistics, for some it seems, there are thought police, and their job is to deride any other opinions that might be different, to encourage only one train of thinking on a subject,
It would be wise not to be so obvious, in helping social thought engineering with so many links.
In today’s Sunday National I posted link to at 1232 they refer to Osama Saeed Bhutta as a ‘former SNP aide’ WTF
1/ He was a researcher at Holyrood for a nano second in 2008, 12 bloody years ago, since then the dodgy charity SIF and the £400000 of public dosh, the carry on over the Salmon/Sturgeon ‘lunches for sale’ to raise cash for his 2010 WM bid to beat Sarwar, he lost, and well the rest. Our media regardless of position on indy is shameless, do we reckon Richard Walker now poss candidate for Ayr, has really NOTHING to do with the Sunday edition?
”Two others – former MP Corri Wilson and former SNP aide Osama Bhutta – have emerged to challenge him. But while SNP members elsewhere are currently voting for the person they want to represent their party in the 2021 election, officials have frozen the process in Cunninghame North”
@Cameron B Brodie
When was the last time you needed to earn a living?
Joe
What sort of question is that, if not to diminish my standing? The thing is, you can’t defend your position without attacking the man rather the argument. At least when I attack you, I support my argument with ethically sourced facts and stuff.
Are you still a Trump supporter and Euro-skeptic, the latter now being a defining characteristic of English/British nationalism? Which is now openly hostile to international law and order (see Brexit).
‘Rev. Stuart Campbell says:
25 October, 2020 at 12:03 pm
”A key witness in the Alex Salmond inquiry will give her testimony remotely and in audio only this week, after she was targeted on social media.”
Does Judith Mackinnon even have a Twitter account? I’m not aware of one. Smells like total bullshit.’
What exactly does ‘targeted on social media’ actually mean?
Has she been the victim of a crime – i.e. the issuing of threatening, offensive or abusive messages? In which case have the Police instigated an investigation (which is not the same as, have the Police been notified – Police can be ‘notified’ look at the facts and break the news that as much as the person doesn’t like the message, it falls short of actually being a crime). In which case they would be able to disclose the above.
Should she be afforded ‘full witness protection status’? This is nearly always reserved for informants in major Serious and Organised Crimes – where risk of life is a realistic issue.
Or have people been criticising her on Social Media? How dare the tax payer do such a thing – to a public servant. Don’t they know their place.
I was ‘targeted’ / called names in the school playground, no way I’m ever going to do jury duty, they’d better never ask.
I do hope the Enquiry has the balls to call this out.
Susan Rudiock’s CV is similarly a joke. One cushy job after another. Started working for the SNP after working as a Swimming teacher I read…So I doubt she came out of school as high flyer.
All of these people around Sturgeon are the same. Promoted way beyond their abilities, nearly all female, man hating, woke nutters who all tell Nicola what she wants to hear.
Sturgeon must feel like Albert Einstein surrounded by these borderline morons, maybe that is the point as well.
Listening to the odious Leslie Evans for just a short time made me want to stick my foot through the screen.
Dreadful people. They say a man is known by the company he keeps. Well it certainly speaks volumes about Sturgeon seeing the people she has surrounded herself with. Toxic, low intelligence lackeys and hangers on prepared to do anything at any cost to keep their falsely held positions.
I can’t believe just how awful and vile Sturgeon and Murrell have turned out. It is shocking.
@Cameron B Brodie
Because, pal, in my experience the only people who refer to ordinary working people being concerned that a large scale government action might adversely financially affect them ‘right wing’ are the kind of arsehole who hasn’t had to earn a penny in many a decade and are subsequently utterly detached from the concerns of the same people.
Whether it’s concerns for ‘Covid measures’, mass immigration, diversity quotas – its the same thing.
It’s not an ‘attack’ either. You are questioning, continually, other people’s experience and education for anything they write that you might disagree with.
Im questioning whether you share the same concerns as others while astride that large critical legal theory stallion you prance around on while picking up your benefits package that tax payers like me pay for.
Get it?
Re Osama Saeed Bhutta and the Scottish Islamic Foundation.
According to the Herald article – Audit Scotland investigated the loss of around £200,000 of public moneys and found indaquate record keeping. That article was in 2020.
SIF started up in 2008, folded in 2009, and completely closed/folded in 2013.
I cannot find the report on Audit Scotland’s web site (and this could be user error on my part).
I would think the report would be published. And I would think some disclosure of it would be published via Freedom of Information request presumably to The Herald.
Anyone more tech savvy able to have a wee look.
Joe
“Because, pal, in my experience the only people who refer to ordinary working people being concerned that a large scale government action might adversely financially affect them ‘right wing’ are the kind of arsehole who hasn’t had to earn a penny in many a decade and are subsequently utterly detached from the concerns of the same people.”
First off, I’m not your pal. Second, British society has been spoon-fed right-wing cultural indoctrination for the last four decades, thanks to the hegemony of Anglo-American neo-liberalism. Which is a radical movement that is hostile towards ethical government and social justice. A hegemony supported through the unhealthy relationship between the state and our media. Third, you appear not to have noticed I’ve been linking folk to contemporary scientific, bio-ethical, and post-positivist legal theory, which supports a “grounded” public health framework for policy decision. So I think you are simply misrepresenting me, which is your habit.
“Whether it’s concerns for ‘Covid measures’, mass immigration, diversity quotas – its the same thing.
It’s not an ‘attack’ either. You are questioning, continually, other people’s experience and education for anything they write that you might disagree with.”
That’s because I have a professional training that enables me to support public health and democracy, and I know not to trust science denying populism, and the judgements it supports. Have you not looked at any of the phenomenology or legal philosophy I’ve also been linking folk too?
“Im questioning whether you share the same concerns as others while astride that large critical legal theory stallion you prance around on while picking up your benefits package that tax payers like me pay for.
Get it?”
I’ve been a (disabled) student, a civil servant, homeless, an entrepreneur and employer, and now I’m doing my best as an (unpaid) online educator. That’s because I also know how to support international human rights law. Where as, you certainly walk and talk like a ‘duck’, and I’m pretty you do not hold the public’s best interests to heart. I’m also pretty sure your efforts to promote far-right views, have not gone unnoticed. 😉
CBB,
What the fuck is an ethically sourced fact?
While I’m here, I suggest you give those nasty Swedish People and their scientists what for, they obviously haven’t been on the same social science courses as you.
Send them a stiff letter explaining why they should shut down their country immediately.
In reply to Mac at 123pm
Sturgeon must feel like Albert Einstein surrounded by these borderline morons, maybe that is the point as well.
THAT I’m very sad to say IS exactly the point. Salmond surrounded himself with very smart, very challenging people;Kevin Pringle, Stephen Noon, Geoff Aberdein, to name 3.FFS Kevin Pringle, the smartest non media background I’ve come across, he really understood how it worked, was replaced by the bloody hopeless Fergus Mutch, standing for slection in Aberdeenshire West, WHO had basically been Salmond’s bag carrier before that.
Joe, breastplate, etc., when your argument relies on links to YouTube videos and vague guesses at what they discuss at bilderberg meetings, you actually don’t have an argument. You have something resembling a feeling.
Joe informs us that the stock market has almost recovered one one hand, but then tells us that small businesses have been gutted on the other. This is all in line with some cunning plan (bilderberg again, presumably).
However, in the U.K. in 2019 small business accounted for about half of the working population – employment in small businesses was 13.2 million (48%). link to gov.uk
What’s that noise? Can you hear that? That’s the sound bad arguments make when they collapse.
Let’s cut to the chase. The government has borrowed and ploughed billions into the economy to prop it up. Are you seriously suggesting they want to do that? Are you seriously suggesting they want to destroy half the economy?
You really think this is a plan cooked up at a bilderberg meeting because they want to destroy half of their economies and spend billions feeding ordinary people? Because, as Joe points out, it’s about “power”, right? And the best way to get power, as we all know, is to destroy your economy…
Give us a fucking break. Idiots.
Breastplate
What the fuck is an ethically sourced fact?
I take it you’ve not looked at any of the social epistemology I’ve been linking folks to? I’m very rusty, but my training focused on the politics of knowledge production, so I know a bit about how to tell fact from fiction. I also get the impression you’re not that clued up on post-positivist science. So it would help if you stated you’re scientific and moral position, so that we can judge the nature and quality of your perspective.
link to fore.yale.edu
@Hatuey
Sorry but im going to have to skip replying to your post. Its simply divorced from reality and in parts emphasises my own points.
@Cameron B Brodie
You mean you don’t have to work and are enough of a c*nt to belittle the real concerns of people who do by throwing labels on them?
I fucking hate progressives.
Joe
I’m signed-off work due to PTSD and depression linked to a serious brain injury I gave myself as a young man, though I don’t see how my economic status undermines the competence of my judgement. It is not snobbish or exclusionary to point folks towards “THE ETHICS OF KNOWLEDGE CREATION, TRANSACTIONS, RELATIONS AND PERSONS”. Where as, your politics appear to be empty of ethical reason, and devoid of empathy towards Others. Remember, I’m a bit of a critical, post-colonial, woke-bloke, so I’m trained to tackle cultural imperialism and the radical right. 😉
link to berghahnbooks.com
@ Cuilean at 12:04 pm
Sunday Mail ,Daily Record, Herald Sunday Times or the Times
and I think 4 others.
And to be clear it is not just about selection,P.Gibson launched an attack Faceboak at one specific person. there a a load of members have complained about K Gibson, on other matters
Hatuey,
At what point do you not entertain logic.
You have commented on the need to enforce a lockdown quite a few times.
There is no need for a lockdown, it is simply a strategy utilised by our government, sensible restrictions yes but to labour the point, there is absolutely no need for a lockdown as Sweden has proved.
These are facts, no conspiracy theories, no YouTube links, just simple facts.
I’m sorry if this is beyond your comprehension.
If anyone reads Cameron’s last post it might seem like hypocrisy some of the things he says given that he basically accuses others of precisely what he does himself. Also if you look at the fairly deft switching of ‘someone who himself doesn’t work’ to ‘his economic status’ you see whats going on.
Cameron IS indeed trained in this ‘stuff’. It is an absolutely killer to an argument when you totally shamelessly project your own behavior onto someone else. It typically leaves a person coming from an honest point of view unable to answer coherently.
If the object is to actually learn from someone it is useless. But if you are on someone elses blog say and are intending to belittle opposing points of view in the eyes of passive observers then it is simply the most effective method.
If you are psychopathic (or just brain damaged) enough to not have any shame:
1 – project your own negative behaviour onto the other
2 – accuse them of projecting when they point this out
3 – when they get understandably annoyed pretend that this is because you are winning the argument
4 – always have the last word if you can
Couple this with constantly reframing the other persons argument to either make it look like a nasty attack on themselves or others. I.e equating ‘if you don’t have to work you don’t feel the same pressure as those who do’ as an attack on someone economic situation.
THEN overall pretend you are ‘here to point out the lies and the deceit of the ‘far right’. ‘Far right’ in this case being anyone who steps out of the accepted technocratic narrative set by those perennial academics – critical theorists.
It is extremely effective and is designed for a purpose. If Cameron wasn’t so personally limited it would be more obviously effective.
This is why I appreciate him. He IS actually a lesson to be learned, but not in what he thinks.
CBB,
You still didn’t explain what an ethically sourced fact is.
Posting links to highly subjective theory and opinion does not add gravitas to your argument.
Breastplate
So you’ve still not taken the opportunity to educate yourself then. It’s pretty clearer who you wish to keep political company with though.
CBB,
You’ve got me, I’m not intelligent enough to understand the content of the links you post so could you clarify and explain in layman terms what an ethically sourced fact is please?
I’m sort of hoping it’s more than my facts are better than your facts argument.
Cameron Brodie I am Sorry to hear about about your ptsd and depression, and have full empathy for you regards being truly homeless, ie, no roof at all over your head and no where to sleep or cook, no electricity or toilet facilities, this is something that I experienced for six years, I went from working two jobs and living in beautiful country cottage to homelessness in 24 hours due to governmental decisions, it rocked my world, and I had no recourse to have a hearing, and still trying to gain justice now, except the world has stopped turning, no solicitors, lawyers or barristers in offices, and for the few that are there, they are on the payroll of government departments. Conflict of interest they tell me, the poor did not have access to lawyers in 1707, and the poor don’t have lawyers now, a heart rending time,
We all have to live with what happens to us through our own fault or no fault of our own, we all deal with it to the best of our ability, you got to keep swimming or you sink,
However I try not to repeat What I was taught, or alter people’s mind and thoughts to suit myself, I actually enjoy the wide variety of conversations and thoughts that individuals bring to many a topic here, with hand on heart
I say what my opinion is here, and realise this is just my opinion, people do not have to agree with it, and they can contradict it ,or ignore it as they free to do, and that is how it should be, free thought and free speech develop progress.
Breastplate
I’m way to rusty to give an ethically robust account of post-positivist science and post-colonial theory, which face strong opposition from both the radical ‘left’ and ‘right’. That’s because both ideological positions pretty much share the same anti-foundational and authoritarian approach to political and legal practice. Brexit and the Scottish GRA amendments are classic examples of the sort of cultural dogma that anti-foundationalism supports. Both articulating an anti-democratic denial of the Natural law of things.
That’s why I’ve been pointing to sources that can do epistemic justice to the subject. I’m no brain of Britain, and this stuff is not impenetrable, with a little effort anyway. So here’s another view of “The production of knowledge and the ethical-political project of Social Work”.
link to prezi.com
“We live in times of densification of the socio-metabolic control strategies of capital, among which are linked new structural dimensions of control over the established work processes, among other aspects, through the socio-technical division of labor and its necessary articulation with the ideological support that , in the words of Mészaros (2011, p. 99), must be “fused so that they can characterize the condition . . . of hierarchy and subordination as the unchanging dictate of ‘nature itself’”.
Materialized through the intensification of the forms of control, exploration/oppression and precariousness of work, counter-reforms and the dismantling of social and civil rights that put democracy in Brazil, especially after the 20161 Coup, this idea is imposed as a duty to be unquestionable; naturalized. To this end, the socialization of conservative, authoritarian, and prejudiced values becomes central.
The resistance to this idea requires the apprehension of sociohistorical determinations that appear disconnected, but which are peculiarities of sociohistorical reality that are not feasible to the empiricism that evidences them as natural and dilutes them from the own process in which they are materialized. In the field of morality, without the procedural connection necessary to apprehend them, such particularities figure as a defense of a priori values, similar to conservative ideas.”
James Che
I was fortunate to only be without a place of abode for about 16 months, as I had massive health points due to my PTSD and stuff. I also appreciate open discussion, but I’m able to spot when others are simply presenting obstacles to our achieving enlightenment. Which is largely dependent on due diligence to epistemic integrity, a,k,a. how we learn what we know. Unfortunately, respect for epistemic integrity is the vital component that is missing from contemporary Anglo-American politics, and only takes us down a path towards authoritarian totalitarianism
Cameron. While learning finance/markets I realised 1 thing:
The subject is fundamentally rather simple and understandable, which the ordinary person would grasp the important basics very easily if it were not for the highly intellectual cloak they deliberately obscured it with.
Unfathomable language is the tool of the deceiver or a cloak of the ignorant.
Joe
You’re certainly a twister, if you think you’re right-wing populism is helpful to any but those already privileged.
sorry….your not you’re
So here’s another peek into “Decolonizing Knowledge Production”.
link to genurb.apps01.yorku.ca
I never said there was a need for a lock down, breastplate. We could just let the virus run freely and kill about 1.5 to 2% of the population. That’s more or less what they are doing anyway. You and the other useful idiots on here are helping them.
The goal in the U.K. remains to regulate the flow of infections and deaths, not to prevent them. That’s what it has been since the start. It’s reprehensible and unnecessary.
Some trick they pulled getting guys like you and brotherhood to support their murderous scheme.
As for Sweden, the last time I looked about 7000 had died. Hardly a huge success with a population of about 10 million. They’ve avoided a government managed lock down and the sort of restrictions in place here, and have instead left individuals to make their own informed decisions. It looks like they’re about to ditch that strategy though;
“ Sweden shifts towards lockdown measures: Chief scientist says he is now considering short ‘chain-breaking’ localised restrictions, amid spike of cases in Stockholm” link to dailymail.co.uk
The Swedish population is less dense than that of the U.K. and that helps. They’re also generally healthier if you look at the data on things like obesity. Strange as it may seem, obesity and poor health generally associated with poor diet are widely considered to correlate with poverty.
Be proud, then, what you’re arguing for here in the name of the working man and ordinary people would disproportionately kill those very people. They’re the ones most at risk.
According to the following site this year there’s been 4 million deaths caused by smoking and 2 million from alcohol.
If preventing death is the name of game then why has there not been a lockdown on selling smokes and swally.
link to worldometers.info
Hatuey,
Bring a bit more to the table than pitiful lies please.
First, yes you have said there is a need for lockdown and it is in black and white on this site.
I have been explicit in my views regarding CoV2 what we should do. At no time have I said that we should let people die.
I have specifically stated that those vulnerable should isolate and those not vulnerable should be allowed to go about their normal day to day business with some reasonable restrictions.
Perhaps you see me as a useful idiot, i on the other hand see you as worse than useless, you are actually detrimental to our society.
I believe you are incapable of approaching this subject with reasonable or logical thought and that I may have better luck trying to explain the laws of thermodynamics to a chimpanzee.
I’m quite sure you will believe what you want but at least come up with better excuse ffs.
Dan,
Correct Dan, the hypocrisy stinks yet it doesn’t stop them getting up on their high horses.
Hatuey,
I forgot to add the WHO have IFR at 0.6% not 1.5 to 2% that you have quoted.
Again, if it doesn’t suit your argument, this does not entitle you to make stuff up.
Dan
Neither smoking or alcohol, or any other common non-covid-19 cause of death, has the potential to overwhelm our health system and destroy the economy. That’s why from a public health ethics perspective, we need to priorities bio-security over short-term economic expediency. Or a misguided libertarian resistance to ethical reason, which has been drummed into us for four decades by our media.
CBB,
Are you saying in order not to destroy the economy we should destroy the economy?
I think there may be a hole in your plan.
I didn’t mention IFR. Try looking at the CFR. Actually the CFR was estimated to be over 2% in Wuhan back in February, when your friend Boris was putting his herd immunity plans together. And that is the side you are on here, let’s be clear about that.
Nothing is necessary and I’ve certainly never argued that lock down was. Only idiots think things are necessary, except as means to ends. As a means to an end, lock down has effectively helped suppress the virus and save lives.
The restrictions and measures in place now aren’t intended to save lives. They’re intended to regulate the flow of deaths. Only in that sense are they effective and that’s the government plan. If the end goal was to save lives, we’d do things very differently.
None of this is rocket science btw. And we have examples of working systems in place around the world that really are aimed at minimising deaths. They work very effectively. All you need to do is lock down until the virus is virtually gone, control the ports and airports to stop it getting back in, and firefight outbreaks properly when they appear.
Had we done that, lock down would be over, about 300 thousand people in the U.K. would still be alive, and the economy would be in full swing. Japan have done it, South Korea, Singapore, and many others. We could have done it too if it wasn’t for idiots giving encouragement to sociopathic maniacs like Boris.
Breastplate
Have you any background in science, ethics, law, or government? If you can convince me you’re not simply a narrow minded individual who thinks they’re something special, just because, I might not feel compelled to distance myself from your politics.
Hatuey,,
Woulda, shoulda, coulda, stop talking about what’s done and catch the fuck up to the here and now.
I’m glad you now understand that lockdown is not a necessity, so what do you think we should do now? Please notice that the operative word is now.
CBB,
Please feel free to distance yourself from my politics.
Breastplat
My politics support international law and order, as well as human rights. So you might just have outed yourself as not being ‘one of us’. Or at least as someone who’s views appear to clash with a scientifically and ethically informed, post-colonial, legal perspective. So I think it only sensible that I’m no longer keen to associate with your politics.
@ CamBB
Re. Overwhelming the health service.
What I would like to know is why after the initial fear inducing headlines when clusters occur such as at the Coupar Angus chicken factory (200 testing positive in that cluster), and more recently various universities with much larger numbers, there is little in any follow up news informing us of the statistics on how the individuals that tested positive fared through the course of their infection.
At one point for the University De Geordietoon I recall approx. 800 tested positive with only 78 showing symptoms.
Why would this information not be newsworthy as it is surely in the public interest?
Dan
The media is not primarily concerned with informing the public with facts that hurt the vested interests of the state, or the vested interests that support and feed-off the state. Which includes the media, which has an unhealthy relationship with power.
CamBB
OK, it’s a given our shitey MSM won’t inform us, so why won’t our elected officials bypass the MSM and tells us directly?
They’ve nearly all got social media accounts so they could, but choose not to, thus keeping the electorate uninformed and enduring the prolonged anxiety that goes with it.
Dan
Why ask me, as I live in a bubble that is removed from reality, apparently? 🙂
Seriously though, I’d have been able to make a pretty good stab at answering that a quarter of a century ago, as had a full grasp of how to hold government to account, back then. That’s what a bit of epistemology and phenomenology can do for you. Trust me, I’m trained as a ‘cultural clinician’. Not that I’m claiming I was ever particularly good at it though. 😉
You are absolutely wrong about Jessica Mennie having anything to do with Mark McDonald’s situation. You couldn’t be more wrong. Where are you getting your information from? ask Mark himself if Jessica had anything to do with that whole carry on. You are way out of line making public accusations about people especially when there’s not an ounce of truth in them. You have done nothing but try and split this party apart and the sad thing is you have managed to fool quite a number of people with the rubbish you write. Shame on you. I’m sure there’s a law about slandering people publicly and telling lies to discredit their character. I will be seeking advice on this as I will not tolerate someone lying about my daughter. Again I will inform you Jessica Mennie had nothing to do with the situation Mark McDonald found himself in. If you have any sense of credibility you will retract that statement about Jessica as it is utter nonsense.
“If you have any sense of credibility you will retract that statement about Jessica as it is utter nonsense.”
TBH Julie, if I were you I’d be a lot more concerned at having raised a son who thinks it’s fine and dandy to just breenge into women’s toilets on a regular basis, the horrible creepy wanker.
However, when Kenny MacAskill finally gets a reply from SNP HQ to his questions about Jessica, if it turns out there were any inaccuracies in this piece I will of course be happy to correct them. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for that reply, though.
CamBB
Ach weel, only asked as thought you may be able to add some input on the ethics of the behaviour of the media, and also those that we elected to represents us, and how they appear to be wantonly withholding information that would help educate us and which may ultimately alleviate the anxiety many will be suffering at this time.
Dan,
Our governments and media have changed tack.
The focus used to be on the daily death rates but since they dropped it was harder to sensationalise now the focus seems to be on the number of infections which number in the thousands, well that’s much easier to scare the bejesus out of people with.
Dan
It’s a very long time since I was trained in critical media-studies, interpretive phenomenology, medical philosophy, sociological jurisprudence and stuff. I’ve not watched much of the briefings as I can’t stand rank hypocrisy. Don’t get me wrong, I support effective public health law and policy. But you’re not going to get that from a government that denies a legal respect for the human genome.
“stop talking about what’s done and catch the fuck up to the here and now…”
I see where I’ve gone all wrong… didn’t realise you were a ned with the usual requirement for binary solutions.
Hilarious.
You know something’s funny when tea comes out of your nose…
We truly aren’t fucking worthy.
@ Julie Mennie, ‘I’m sure there’s a law about slandering people publicly and telling lies to discredit their character. I will be seeking advice on this as I will not tolerate someone lying about my daughter’.
That legal advice your seeking… will you be paying for it yourself, or is that something the members of the SNP will have to fund?
@Rev Stuart Campbell, name calling is such a childish way to behave. You’ve really got a bee in your bonnet about my son Josh. Many times you’ve written crap about him which he found extremely amusing. You’re comments are pathetic. You write trash and untruths about many good people and sit back and watch others believing your lies. I’m proud of Josh an Jessica both are extremely caring, hardworking, honest people. They have something you obviously don’t seem to have and that’s integrity. Slander away if you must but all you are proving is what kind of person you really are. Stirring the pot and trying to destroy the snp. It beggars belief that some people actually believe what you write. I feel sorry for them. You will find out you are wrong about Jessica being involved in the Mark McDonald issue.
Julie Mennie, you keep saying things like “stirring the pot and trying to destroy the snp” and “it beggars belief that some people actually believe what you write.”
Maybe you could be more specific. I’m one of the people you refer to and would be extremely happy to see you supply evidence that confounds one single thing that Wings has ever typed.
Maybe you’re biased because your kids are on the SNP payroll. That’s understandable. But Wings isn’t on anybody’s payroll.
Ooh, on the subject of trash talk, untruths, stirring the pot, and destroying the SNP…
“Scotland won’t be taken out the EU against its will”
“Stronger for Scotland”
“Stop ‘Brexit'”
“Scotland’s Future in Scotland’s Hands”…
It’d be braw if aw the above wasn’t just a stinkin bag o’ shite, as we lose oor EU Citizenship, have the powers our Parliament does have control of reduced, and still won’t hold a referendum with out a Section 30 from Westminster.
Quick, order another lorry load of carrots! There’s dangling to be done.
So all the mega important stuff above isn’t getting much attention because the SNP is embroiled in pushing divisive policies on us without mandates, whilst continuing to hoover up taxpayer monies and MSP’s time due to the ongoing Salmond inquiry which many incompetents in the SNP created.
“I’m proud of Josh an Jessica”
I’m nearly 53 but my maw would still skelp my lug for me if I was cutting about the place barging into women’s loos and bragging about it. What a truly pitiful thing to be “proud” of. No wonder the country’s so fucked.
“Many times you’ve written crap about him which he found extremely amusing.”
Believe me, not as amusing as a grown man sending his mammy to fight his battles for him.
@Rev Stuart Campbell, You make assumptions i.e “a grown man getting his mammy to fight his battles”, that actually made me laugh. Again you are sooo wrong. It seems to be a trait of yours to make assumptions based on rumour or your own opinions then write them up on this pathetic blog as FACTS. Also where in my post did I say anything about “barging into womens loos”? You seem fixated on that one comment Josh made and churn it out every time you want to dig at him. The truth is you target him because he stands up for what he believes in, fairness and equality for all. Your comments/blogs are full of divisive poison which will certainly fool some people but not anyone who knows the truth. You slate good people in the SNP, yet you don’t even know them. How very shallow of you and anyone else who jumps on your band wagon. You have posted absolute lies about Jessica and you don’t even have the decency to withdraw them. You target a young woman because you want to get at her brother. That’s what kind of person you are. For your information Jessica worked very hard for Mark McDonald and was the back bone his successful election, him winning by a huge majority. She has worked her butt off for the party, she doesn’t sit and whine or complain about things she doesn’t agree with. She rolls her sleeves up and works hard to make improvements and positive changes. This slander campaign you have going which targets decent , hard-working SNP members and politicians is wrong. It’s strange that you portray your view as supporting independence for Scotland when you have gone out of your way to cause division within the SNP and you’re not even a member.
‘It’s strange that you portray your view as supporting independence for Scotland when you have gone out of your way to cause division within the SNP and you’re not even a member.’
Im happy to say that I view the SNP as a nest of absolute fucking vipers and are now what I consider ("Tractor" - Ed)s in the truest sense. Anybody who is currently not at least considering in distancing themselves from them at this moment are either mentally challenged or ‘one of the club’.
Ive been talking about what the SNP are for a few years now and before WOS made any public statements on the subject. The simple fact is that just 1 drop of honesty would ’cause division’ in that shit show party of mediocre careerists and social justice heroes.
Im not going to comment on your personal issue as I don’t know, but when you speak in general terms i can feel free to respond.
Ive taken late Sunday morning hung-over shits that are more wholesome than that party right now.
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