Walking with zombies
We’ll be honest with you, folks, we’re still pretty amused at Pete Wishart being all over the papers saying the exact same stuff we’ve been saying for the last three years, and for which Pete Wishart has called us all the names under the sun.
But jeez, guys, at least get your story straight.
Is the referendum route “dead”, as Pension Pete says? Or is it in fact alive and well and just waiting for a hung Parliament in which SNP MPs would hold the balance of power, as Alyn Smith and Humza Yousaf are claiming in today’s National?
The list of ifs and buts regarding the latter scenario is as long as your arm. It needs Labour to win the election, but not secure a majority, and for the SNP to have enough MPs to get Labour over the line, and for the Lib Dems NOT to have enough MPs to get Labour over the line (because Starmer would, by a simply enormous margin, rather ally himself with the LDs than the SNP).
Each element of that equation is frankly dubious in its own right.
On the most recent polling, Labour’s 37-point lead from five months ago has collapsed to 12 points, and is probably even lower in reality because in an actual election some of the Reform UK Party’s votes (basically UKIP/Brexit Party) will go to the Tories.
With Starmer ditching left-wing policies all over the shop in a flat panic as his lead crumbles, we wouldn’t like to put a lot of money on Labour even being the largest party by the time the vote comes round in 18 months or so.
He’s always had more of a whiff of Ed Miliband or Neil Kinnock about him than Tony Blair, and the Tories haven’t even really begun to focus on his weak points yet. And the fact that nowadays he appears to be near-permanently manacled by the wrist to the grotesque, inexplicably-revived Red Tory monstrosity that is Rachel Reeves ought to terrify any Labour supporters with a desire for power.
But alternatively, if Labour support does hold up at much over 40%, that puts them well into absolute-majority territory thanks to the tipping-point nature of First Past The Post.
So they’d have no need of a coalition or any other sort of deal. And if those numbers drop, the Lib Dems are currently on course to have twice as many seats as the SNP, making them a vastly more attractive proposition to Starmer in every conceivable way.
(The policy differences between the two parties are now pretty minor anyway, and the Lib Dems’ demands in relation to the EU are pretty modest.)
And we don’t need to remind you that the Lib Dems and the SNP are on very different trajectories at this particular moment in time. At last week’s local elections in England, the LDs increased their seat count by around 33%, compared to Labour’s 25%. Of the 1000+ seats lost by the Tories, Labour only managed to collect half.
Under Ed Davey (we Googled), support for the LDs has grown by 50% since the last UK election, from the 11% achieved by the imbecilic Jo Swinson to 16%. They’re now heading back towards the 20%+ that got them 62 seats under Charles Kennedy.
The SNP’s poll ratings, on the other hand, are moving at some speed in the other direction, from 44% at the turn of the year to 36% now, for both a Westminster election and the Holyrood constituency vote. (The regional Holyrood vote has dropped by the same eight points from 33% to 25%, and behind Labour for the first time we can recall in at least a decade.)
And of course, as we noted on Monday, even if everything else were to somehow fall into place Labour would just call the SNP’s bluff in full confidence that they’d crumble.
Smith’s assertions, in short, are a fantasy within a fantasy within a fantasy. Whether his view or Wishart’s represents official SNP policy is therefore something of a moot point. But several weeks after his election as SNP leader Humza Yousaf still hasn’t said anything meaningful about independence, or even taken any steps to initiate any sort of formal policy debate within the party, so don’t hold your breath for finding out, even if it’s a purely academic interest.
(How we yearn for the good old days of last December, when Nicola Sturgeon’s great announcement of a “special democracy conference” to be held in March to determine indy strategy seemed like kicking the can down the road to buy time. Now it’s May and we can’t see the road OR the can.)
To tell you the truth, readers, we’re bored. We’re just crossing our fingers and hoping something vaguely interesting happens soon. In the meantime, here’s some music.
The SNP zombies arrogantly biting each other are also biting away at voters trust. A plague on their houses
Starmer has binned very one of his 10 Pledges he made to the Labour membership when he got elected – can’t imagine why the Tories would ignore that when it comes to a General Election.
Jamie T channelling his inner Billy Joel there, but oh what we’d give for clarity.. and a certain path.. and, while we are at it, some flying monkeys.
Oh, look flying pigs instead.
Even if the SNP somehow did miraculously manage to end up holding the balance of power at Westminster, the Labour party would just say “if you’re not voting with us you’ll be voting with the tories, go on, we dare you, lets see how that goes down with the electorate in Scotland.” What are the SNP gonnae do about it? Nothing.
This election strategy is nothing more than a cynical scheme to win another 5 years on the gravy train while remaining as pointless at Westminster as they’ve been for the last 8 years.
If there’s no de-facto referendum they aint getting my vote. End of.
i wish Wet Pishfart would not talk politics. He’s obviously not good at it.
I assume that the Rev’s recent post about jaywalking cats, without insurance, being taken to vets by the drivers who run over them is a ruse to steer Plagiarist Pete off the subject?
Another day, same auld SNP sh…
I hope the SNP end up with no MPs. They are pro-devolution unionists.
If you do decide to vote, Alba may be the way to go. But as things stand, I can’t see myself voting for any candidate that will swear allegiance to the UK head of state.
I don’t see any of the Westminster parties doing a deal with the SNP as some kind of reverse Squadrone Volante as viable. I predict they will be ignored and either forced to vote with the opposition (tories) or abstain…..which will get pretty tiresome after a while.
And as for exciting things happening, it would be good if Mr Yousef concentrated on trying to turn the shit show of a government around to actually deliver for the people of Scotland!
They are still convinced that another dangle of the carrot will work.
My own view is that much of the SNP will not turn out at the next GE and Labour will pick up a few seats by default. I think we need to hit the low before we can rebuild.
I will not be voting SNP, Green, Labour, Tory or LibDem whatever happens.
It is painful to watch but not as painful as the farce of the SNP getting votes by pretending to be an Indy Party.
The technique will be to hang around, saying anything and doing nothing, until the Crown Office announces that the investigation is over and that there will be no prosecutions. Then Humza Yousaf will say how glad he is that Westminster’s vile plot to traduce the SNP has been thwarted, and life in Holyrood and Westminster will return to normal.
It’s always worked so far: and for Boris Johnson, until it didn’t.
What does Smith want a Brexit rollback for if every election is a vote on independence?
In other (upcoming) news. In the lead up to the 2024 General Election the SNP and Labour Party announce their campaign alliance will now become a full merger.
There’s too many “what if?” scenarios in the above. Seems to me that the best thing to do is not bother voting for these troughing SNP bstrds that have taken the p*ss out of us for far too long.
It makes no difference to me (or Scotland) whether it’s them warming their useless arses on the benches or any of the other unionists.
Ha ha have to agree Stu, boredom setting in, with nonsense outbursts from Nu SNP apparachicks.
I have no faith in what any of them say.
Precisely. Is a referendum a dead route or not?
All evidence points to it being dead, but maybe it just smells funny.
One thing seems certain, the SNP have no idea themselves – no policy, no strategem – to have either of those they need a clear starting position. They may eventually find one, but at this rate certainly not in time for any election – whether GE, or Holyrood.
They are merely saying to the electorate, ‘Haud oan, gie us a few years ’til we work it oot’. The only sane reply is: ‘Naw ye’ve had plenty’
What will it take for them to make a clear decision, because their time is running out.
*Insert ‘Hump, or Death’ meme.
The pathetic SNP, as befits a unionist party, desperately wants attention as part of England’s parliament. Stockholm syndrome? More like Shithoose syndrome. The more they cover themselves in English excrement the more they love it.
I wonder how things might pan out if Posie Parker (KJK) manages to stand candidates as part of her planned Women’s Party at the next GE. Would be great if they could pull off a shock result in England / Wales like the farmers did in the Dutch Senate, even a couple of seats could make things interesting.
But back to the article at hand…I’m loving watch the desperation reeking out of the SNP.
I fear that Independence is off the table for a while, probably 10 and possibly 20 years. Unforgivable and probably wont happen in my lifetime despite supporting Independence for 50 years.
I’m very dubious whether Labour would ever form a formal alliance with the LDs. No one has forgiven them for jumping into bed with the Tories in 2010, OR reneging on their no tuition fee pledge, OR not bothering to campaign for a yes vote in the AV Referendum for Westminster elections in 2011, despite being the only party historically dedicated to PR.
And Labour have historically been against any alliances.
On the other hand, both parties are as pathetic and duplicitous as each other, so who knows?
Until the SNP actually have developed, costed and credible policies for an iScotland, it’s pointless just asking for another referendum. At least Alba is ahead of them in that department with a pathway to EU membership via EFTA and then the EEA. They haven’t got many other policies though, such as currency, central bank and so on. The latter is fairly crucial as the financial sector contributes 8% of Scottish GDP and supports 200,000 Scottish jobs.
As Robin McAlpine said in his blog recently, there’s a hollow at the top. No one’s in charge, there’s no “working together”. Just random folk saying random things.
Politics like Chess should never be played by responding to your opponents move. This has been the problem with the NUSNP. They had no milestones, they had no options. As with Chess you see Half a dozen moves as soon as your opponent makes his. The important thing in any “game” is pressure. What football team sits back in defence and hopes to win? The modern game requires constant pressure to force mistakes.
We had the comfy brigade settle in and play at running a Parliament. The money poured in and they could shape “Vichy Scotland” to be the TransCult dream of Sturgeon.
Stop playing to their rules! We need leaders who keep them off balance. We should never accept any statement from London about what is acceptable or valid.
One thing I am absolutely clear on. The current SNP will never deliver Independence. I see no evidence that they even recognise how badly they need to change.
Aside from the ‘Never going to happen’ aspect of it, how many neurons woud have to misfire for them to seriously think a Yes indyref2 result is a likliehood if at the same time the UK is going back into the EU?
I despair.
Like Alex said, we need every Indy party to have the same line at the front of their manifesto stating that a vote for them is a vote for Indy – in this and any future election. Every Indy party and every prospective candidate should be asked to sign a pledge to that effect and state publicly that Indy is no. 1, 2 and 3 priority. They should also be asked to state exactly what they personally have done and will do to advance the cause and end result, and be fact checked rigorously on that.
SNP will not play of course. They can’t really, because not one of them has done anything in that direction, nor intends to do so.
I watched Sturgeon destroy the YES Movement. My vision was an Independent Scotland. Not for the SNP to be the biggest Party in a Devolved Holyrood.
I felt a greater shame watching the SNP toe the line at Westminster than I did with the Labour feeble 50.
They are useless and I see no passion or drive.
What is the point of voting for them. They will just recycle the same insulting lines.
Sweep them away.
They don’t even listen to us anymore.
I am blocked by most but I only discover that when I try to comment. They only listen to the worshipers.
This is delusional electioneering! Who, months out from an election, tells the other sides what they want in exchange for support. As you correctly point out, and every man and his dug knows, the SNP will have no say in any hung parliament. They will be dared to support Labour or let the Tories in!
This is all about party not country. Self preservation has become the priority. Why else has Grady said he is standing? Thewlis is probably looking for a seat!
Why have we heard nothing from the Indy Minister, Hepburn. Surely by now, as Indy is their priority, they have a plan and a timetable?
We are seeing/hearing nothing but policy announcements, not agreed by any conference or membership, that will not move Indy another inch forward. The no jury trials is a disaster waiting to unfold, if it ever does, pushed by those with a vested interest.
Independence will never be won at Westminster. Stop wasting our time!
Oh well then that’s something at least.
Today, we are going this way, or right enough, is it that way?
How can any of these people be actually serious, and even worse, is how can anyone including those who vote for them, actually believe in any of all this shit anymore?
It’s all just so insulting.
The withering parodies of Shauny boy appear to be the only light regarding this dreadful state of affairs.
If SNP wants to really make a difference as far as Scotland goes, then they should be flogging Independence first, and not give a damn about what might or night not happen in London.
If they want to make sure they still win the majority of Scottish seats, then they would do well to shut up about forcing Labour into this or that position.
Labour will never, ever do a dal with SNP.
Starmer would, if it came to it, call for another General Election, then he could show the English electorate how tough he is, and also, how pro tory he is.
The other thing SNP can do, is simply point to the fact Labour in Scotland didn’t want Brexit, but now they do because that is what their boss in London wants.
Point out the Libs didn’t want Brexit, but now, the Libs want Brexit because they want and need tory votes.
Point out that Scotland still doesn’t want Brexit.
However, we have SNP MPs ranting on about how they will have balance of power, etc, etc, etc. And as we have seen from the recent past few elections, the tories simply turn that against both SNP and Labour.
Starmer will not allow the tories away with that trick this time round.
SNP was warned back in 2017, and again, 2019, not to say anything ahead of the General Election, but they didn’t listen.
Now they are at it yet again!?!
And it is becoming evident by the day, that many SNP voters and members too, who stood by the once invincible Nicola Sturgeon, see how they have been duped.
All of us who had raised concerns about the direction, and total lack of commitment to Independence were turned upon, but now they see, we were in fact correct in those concerns.
But we have Yousaf doing even worse than Sturgeon with his nothing to worry about, take it as easy as possible to everything, approach.
SNP members would do well to demand better and fast from the present First Minister, else demand a new one!
Otherwise, SNP will loose badly, and it will be entirely their own fault, but so too, does Scotland loose.
So we have to ask, what do they want? What’s best for Scotland, or what they think is best for SNP?
For if the latter, and the senior politicians seem to have the latter view, they will end up being made to regret it bitterly.
The people doing the bleating – Are all in the Sturgeon transcult. And a significant number, if not all, are in the Vietnam group.
The all must have known about the Salmond stitch-up. And decided to stay schtum. They made their utterly evil choice. They deserve all that’s coming.
They have only ever wanted power. And they are having great difficulty facing the fact that they are finished.
My hope is Humza is overthrown soon. And the NEC restored to the remaining members. And the transcult/greens thrown out. This may trigger a Holyrood election.
If the SNP party cannot stop a Holyrood election – Then the party line is SNP one and Alba/ISP 2. A significant number of the present incumbents (at least 30% of nuSNP MSPs, by my reckoning, need to be deselected). A majority of ‘YES’ MSPs and negotiations begin.
I cannot see a supermajority after the right mess deliberately made by Sturgeon and her transcult. Significant deselections (including Sturgeon, obviously) may be enough to change things.
If they do manage to continue with a minority government then they prepare for westmonster.
If the nuSNP do not agree to field only “YES/AUOB” candidates for westmonster (None of whom will attend westmonster). Then the other parties stand real independence candidates against them, under the “YES/AUOB” banner.
This ,of course, would require courage and putting Scotland before yourself or your party. I can’t see many of the nuSNP MSPs having the courage to do this, but 50% didn’t vote for Humza. So we might be surprised.
And, finally, I am certain Alex has a plan. And my hope is returning because of this and that the yoons are sounding more worried by the minute.
Never forget – Bruce and the spider.
Both Labour and the Lib Dems, in England, are loathed by many female voters for their stupid adherence to the ‘trans’ ideology. As with the SNP and Greens, in Scotland, it is going to cost them dearly. Even if Kellie-Jay does not win, but manages to give Starmer a run for his money, forcing him to open up about TWAW, it will be enough to make him appear as gullible as a a man who takes cross-sex hormones and believes they are harmless. Politicians who are made to look foolish rarely impress voters.
If the Tories stick to their guns on this issue and go ahead with planned reforms before the GE, they will gain ground on Labour. The downside for us is, of course, that they will also make ground in Scotland against the SNP/Greens, Labour and the Lib Dems. Personally, I would rather spoil my ballot paper than vote Tory or for any Unionist party, but I know of women who will vote for them, and I cannot find it in my heart to blame them. When Douglas Ross referred to ‘Isla Bryson’ as a ‘beast’, in Holyrood, in a challenge to Nicola Sturgeon, and on learning that ‘Bryson’ was to be placed in Cornton Vale Women’s Prison estate, it was possibly his finest moment in politics to date.
The ‘trans’ issue will destroy a lot of political careers, both here and across the border. I almost feel sorry for them. Almost. Not quite. Everyone and his wife knows that most politicians are cynical, but the electorate does not like cynical politicians who flaunt their cynicism. Neither do they like being told to believe something that their eyes tell them is baloney. It makes them want to punish the transgressors – and punished they will be for their sanctimonious cynicism and taking the electorate for granted.
‘Politics’ seems to attract those individuals who failed at their first choice of career, together with those who have never had a ‘proper’ job in their life.
Some ‘politicians’ enter the fray in a sort of idealistic mode of how they are going to change things for the better of the ordinary punter. However, once they get settled into the way of how things actually work this idealism quickly goes out of the window. Personal salaries and expenses rule. Not to mention the attractive pension schemes and the freebies. How many politicians employ family members/pals as part of their team? Doing what?
No qualifications of any kind are required to be a politician, far less a Government Minister. Look at the key ministerial positions in the SG and who has held them, past and present!
Sorry, I forgot about the ability to lie spontaneously and the brass neck.
To my mind, to stand to be an MP or an MSP, an individual must have had a real job for at least 10 years and be able to demonstrate some kind of success or advancement. On this basis, Sturgeon would never have become an MSP far less First Minister.
As it stands, Politicians are the only ones who can change the rules. What are the chances of this happening?
Meanwhile things get progressively worse with each passing day.
Astonished
Bruce and the spider is as honest and realistic as Brigadoon.
What is the date of this election, the subsequent events of which they are hypothesising about?
I can’t see labour sound a deal with the SNP under any circumstance, indeed they have been extremely clear on that.
In any case the SNP position would be deal with us or we let the Tories in. That is not a strategy that is a suicide note.
The SNP seem to be getting some primary class to define their policies going forward.
Brain dead does not cut it.
Lorna Campbell (above 4.16pm) – you pretty much say everything I feel. My sis in law (ex SNP voter and Yesser) has been turned to No due to the trans nonsense and the corruption of the SNP. She’s unsure about Alba so will almost certainly now vote for a unionist party. It is tragic how the SNP have turned Yes to No.
Chas – dismissing Astonished’s spider misses the point.
Think of it as a metaphor for “if at first you don’t succeed…”
and dinnae underestimate the resilience of a Scot.
I see more lawyers are boycotting juryless trials
Next car crash ahead
Changing a procedure to get more convictions is not the way to create sound policies.
If you want more convictions just don’t let the accuse present a case
It is very hard to believe the heigh heed yins are this stupid. Only a compromise designed to undermine the party could achieve this. And there must be more than one at play.
@Frank Waring
“[…] until the Crown Office announces that the investigation is over and that there will be no prosecutions.”
Murray Foote’s prediction in the Record to that effect should be taken seriously, if anybody knows what the outcome of the investigation will be, it’s him. As you may have guessed:that isn’t a congratulatory compliment in any way.
Independence not the table.. what table?
A conversation piece, with nowhere tangible to place it.
With the weekend’s flag waving over, the ‘interweb’ talking shops, keeps the conversation going. Something big has to happen, in the real world, in Holyrood or Westminster. The new auditors could be causal to a chain of events, an upset of the SNP applecart.
Let’s hope so!
https://caltonjock.com/2023/05/09/peter-murrell-liz-lloyd-and-other-conspirators-plotted-first-to-destroy-mark-mcdonald-and-they-did-and-then-alex-salmond-which-they-didnt-nasty-people-at-the-top-of-the-snp/
Chas – Should we just give up ?
What is without doubt is that Bruce never gave up and succeeded in 1314. Against all the odds.
Cheers Steepbrae.
The only things Alyn Smith, Pete Wishart and Stephen Flynn will be holding come the next GE, is their jackets as they are kicked-off the gravy train by the Scottish public who will replace the SNP MPs with Alba ones.
Wishart, Smith and Flynn and the other SNPs will say anything between now and the next GE to get you to vote for them, don’t be fooled by them vote Alba and not the SNP at the next GE.
Vote Alba, Join Alba, get the SNP troughers out.
Not only is the prospect of Labour co-operating with the SNP as remote as Alyn Smith EVER saying anything of substance , a far more likely scenario is the Tories & Labour both using the SNP as a whipping boy to boost their ONE BRITAIN credentials .
Particularly – as the article above refers to – given how little difference there is between the policies of those two pro-Union parties . They are both serving-up the same NeoLiberal slop . Granted , SNP are also presenting the same menu ; nonetheless , they ( SNP ) will end-up as the shite dessert few have the stomach for and be consigned to the pig-swill bin .
Trying to re-fight an election on rehashed Brexit arguments is symptomatic of the absolute poverty of ideas , passion and clue within the SNP . It appears they’ll float any laughably misguided position other than the one thing that could reanimate it’s spirit and galvanise renewed energy/support …eg an unambiguous declaration of intent to bring Scotland to Independence BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY . That , unavoidably , means unflinching confrontation with the Brit State .
Will they even countenance that unavoidable prerequisite ?
Will they fuck
ALL the pish and waffle that the perverts and deviants of the Scottish Nonce Party are excreting is only showing more widely that they haven’t a fuckin scooby not only how to govern properly and successfully but that they don’t even know who is in charge
Where and who is the leader, are things that bad that they have to rely on the brilliance of Wet Pishfart and alyn (daddy BOAK) Smith to determine the policies into the future
Has poor wee INSIGNIFICUNT(no typo) humza Useless been put in the corner with his dunces cap on , is leave a light on now in charge of listening to the deviant betrayer and implementing her FAILED INCOMPETENT POLICIES
How can any NORMAL person even consider voting for these moronic perverts again after their disastrous mismanagement of our beautiful country and the devastation they have inflicted on our people
At least liebour have an excuse that they are ONLY a branch office the snp have no such handicaps, they are just corrupt lying scum
We had some minor excitement when we thought Sturgeon would be jailed. Now it seems we are back in the land of inertia.
I maybe optimistically thought the decent SNP leaders would leave to form an umbrella party. Now it seems they are just staying on the Titanic as the cold sea gets closer. Its as if they are frozen in fear.
The end of the SNP is coming , but it will be a slow painful death in public. Gradually becoming a ScotLab part 2. Similarly they refused to change course or strategy. 13 years in the wilderness ensued.
Yousless was utterly gutted when his best pal Murrell got arrested.
Get the SNP out at every election.
Vote Alba, Join Alba.
“Scotland’s First Minister has said the arrest of the SNP’s former chief executive was “gut-wrenching”.
Humza Yousaf made the comments in an interview with Holyrood magazine, published on Monday, when he was asked about what he thought when he found out Nicola Sturgeon’s husband had been arrested.
“It was really gut-wrenching, actually; I make no bones about it. I have known Peter and Nicola for many, many years. They are friends of mine. They are people that have helped me throughout my political career. And, frankly, I couldn’t quite believe the news,” he told the magazine.”
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/newslondon/humza-yousaf-says-arrest-of-snp-s-former-chief-executive-was-gut-wrenching/ar-AA1aUItr?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=de73032733a7442a875fe9c03e93f5fa&ei=8
The following is more or less a repeat of what I’ve posted several times already.
I have nothing new to say (except about the new party`)
Sounds as if a new party is needed in Scotland. What about a ‘Let women speak party’? 🙂
I think they would do well.
I don’t think the Tories have the answer.
(I wouldn’t be too quick to congratulate Douglas Ross because he said a double rapist was a beast!)
I believe the answer is to scrap the GRA 2014 and have zero sex changes.
Tories support the GRA 2014 & sex changes.
It seems to me the only difference between self-id and the GRA 2014 is that the GRA 2014 process takes a bit longer to get a GRC. Many don’t bother getting a GRC. It doesn’t seem to be needed.
While waiting for the GRC/diagnosis men can self-id. They just put on a dress and hey presto they are women.
See Eddie Izzard & India Willoughby.
Actually the GRA 2014 requires them to put on a dress & make-up & ‘live like a woman’ for 2 years.
I can’t see how you can require a man to live as a woman and deny them the right to enter women’s spaces, sports & serve his sentence in a mens prison. That’s self-id.
Maybe it’s not the time for a ‘Let women speak party’ that we should ‘wheest for indy’
The ‘Let women speak party’ could be an independence supporting party but it might be frowned upon for not concentrating of only independence.
‘We want to effectively annul the Brexit referendum result’
‘We want a referendum on independence and for the result to be respected’
Anybody who holds those 2 positions at the same time should probably just sit down and be quiet.
Thoughts everyone
When Charles comes to Edinburgh to accept the crown should we:
1) ignore it
2) attend with saltires and banners demanding indy
They have been in the cult so long they have become institutionalized.
They are all just waiting for the ‘Continuity Cult leader’ to tell them what to do & say.
Maybe they are not actually humans. They may have come from the same factory as ‘The Stepford Wives’
The SNP was taken off course by «entryism» it may be reset by the same means.
Has no one thought of that? What exactly is party membership for?
Some BTL seem suspiciously too eager to kill the SNP off.
Cui bono? Certainly not Scotland’s.
A restart from zero would effectively turn back the clock by decades.
Honestly, who would want that?
Joe, I agree with you. Scotland isn’t in a position to annul the Brexit result (and being independent would change that fact). It does however open up the oft-discussed conundrum of why Scotland should first seek independence and become fully sovereign in all matters, only to then subject itself to becoming much less fully sovereign to a more remote power, with only 1.5% of the total voting rights under QMV, no control over currency, policies from agriculture to fishing to immigration quotas or external debt, and so on.
Independence for national sovereignty is a noble ambition. Giving it up again almost immediately is nuts.
I know why they want the Brexit Rollback!
It’s so that Project Fear can tell us the only way for Scotland to remain in the EU is to vote NO. 🙂
‘The Scot Abroad with the Three Tory Grannies’ will be here shortly to remind us what Barosso said in that famous letter he sent to Lord Tugendhat.
“extremely difficult, if not impossible”
Stammer has said several times he wouldn’t have a coalition with the Snp he repeated that again today.
Smith n Pishfart are as usual peddling nonsense .
Oh dear. Smith and Yousaf are so transparent they could pass for windows and nobody would notice. No originality at all. The same tired, worn out set-to-fail “pseudo-strategies” the political fraud Sturgeon used, and these two couldn’t even be bothered in disguise them a little with a lick of paint.
Let’s look at this from the perspective of a pair of troughers who see their prospects in the gravy train and nice pension threatened by independence.
What would such troughers seek to do to protect their personal interest?
Evidently, to kick the can of independence as far down the hill as they possibly can.
How do you kick the can down the hill and ensure it does not climb back up again?
With a triple lock:
1. You revert to and do not move away from a strategy who has been proven repeatedly to be a certain fail. You pretend to seek a referendum when you have handed its veto to an entity with the highest vested interests in that referendum never happening. In other words, you collude with those you claim are your enemy. Never mind you are betraying your own voters. The joys of the gravy train is all what counts.
2. to avoid the risk of being outmaneuvered by a n10 joker or smartypants who suddenly and without notice agrees to a referendum, the troughers can claiming to seek a ficticious alliance with the party most unwilling to concede the referendum. A party which, by the way, is strongly denying the alliance.
As an extra level of security, the troughers announce the “seeking” of the referendum only within the context of an alliance with that particuar party.
Let’s remember it was the tories who were in power in 2014 when the referendum took place. Labour is the party who, despite Browns con-vow, stood harder on the breaks of the Smith commission to reduce as much as possible the number of powers devolved to Scotland.
Cameron openly mentioned more than once that for the conservatives, from English politics perspective, Scotland’s independence would not be a bad thing. It would ensure a permanent win for the conservative party in England.
To avoid any risk, the SNP troughers align themselves with a staunch unionist labour who claims to be dependent on Scotland’s seats if it is to ever contemplate the possibility of a UK win. not a chance of a referendum there.
3. What if for some unpredictable catastrophic event the labour leader of the day has a brain fart and suddenly agrees to the referendum? the troughers will prevent that by helping the tories to crash the labour vote in England.
How can they do that?
By issuing a double threat against the English voters:
1. they peddle the message that should labour win, the SNP will force them, to hand over a referendum on Scotland’s independence.
2. they also peddle the myth that the SNP will force labour to drag England back into the EU with or without Scotland.
And that’s it. The kiss of political death. That will be labour sunk in the polls just as it happened in 2015 when the political fraud was parroting her imaginary deal with labour.
By claiming “they would never cut a deal with the tories”, the troughers seem to be positioning themselves to never seriously negotiate a referendum if there is a tory win. That is why I think the tories will win again.
Conclusions:
1. The SnP troughers, just as Sturgeon did in 2015, appear to be propping the tories by helping them to sink the labour vote in England.
2. They appear to be attempting to disenfranchise yes voters in Scotland by presenting themselves as profoundly dishonest and devoid of any will other than repeatedly beg for a referendum that never materialises.
3. The SNP are now fully integrated into the British establishment as the perfect crown tools:
a. they are only interested in English politics
b. they are no longer concerned about Scotland, never mind its politics
c. They have no intention whatsoever of delivering independence. Independence would only move them away from their new favourite game: English politics.
I think we should give them what they are begging us for: to release them from the burden of the Scottish seats in both parliaments so they can go and pursue a career in English politics instead.
These maggots are so entrenched in making as much money as they can they’ll say and write any old crap.
The Sole reason and it’s a good legal one, for Scotland to have another Section 30 is simple, because in 2014 we were all told a vote NO meant keeping our EU citizenship.
In 2019 the SNP had the Tories with no majority and wanting to call an election so what did Sturgeon do she caved in and sort nothing in return, at that point in time the SNP, Libdems and the labour party could have had another vote on the EU.
OT
Fook sake. Got a new job in Fife, but getting accommodation in Fife is impossible if you’ve got a dog.
WTF Fife?
(Not just Fife, pretty much everywhere).
@A Scot Abroad
It’s really down to setting precedents. If one referendum result can be done away with then so can another. Scottish independence supporters who want the Brexit result cancelled are literally asking to have their own second referendum made meaningless.
The people who cause my brain to shut down are the ones who voted No in 2014 in order to stay in the EU and are now ‘Scottish Nationalists’ in order to get back into it.
A lot could be said about EU rules and economics but one thing is absolutely for sure – you have to get your own data and come to your own conclusions which is what I was doing anyway around Brexit time. The scale of the bullshit being peddled when compared to the hard factual data was out of this world and it still is.
A restart from zero would effectively turn back the clock by decades. Honestly, who would want that?
Me!
SNP are not and haven’t been anything else for a long time but Unionists. So forget any idea of them reforming or somehow seeing the light. Maybe if Ash had been elected or Cherry allowed to speak…maybe there would have been hope. Theres not. So judge them on what they have done. Baby boxes? The Hate Crime Bill? haud me back. Or what about I judge them instead of what they want to do. You know, like remove any safe space from my wife or children? Ower ma deed and rottin corpse will THAT ever be an acceptable vote winner!
If you want to reward this shower of carrot dangling ratbags then sure, vote for them again on off-chance that they might, just might, see the light. Just mind tho what you ARE voting for. More ferryfuckups, judge led trials, nepotism & cronyism….but hey ho, if thats what you want to govern you, knock yerself out.
Needless to say if theres no Alba or ISP, I’ll still be voting. For whichever party has the best chance of removing my current MSP, MP and Councillor. Its not turning the clock back. Its admitting I made a mistake having misplaced faith, wheeshing and not wishing to admit the truth (sorry Rev). Hopefully my children will learn from my mistake. In the meanwhile Ive a mess to help remove.
Joe,
all have to justify to themselves their own past actions, but some realistically cannot. Perhaps it’s about priorities. I’d suppose the example you give of someone voting No in 2014 and SNP / pro-Indy now is because the highest priority in their mind is being within the EU, and their nationhood’s sovereignty is of low importance to them.
I voted out of the EU in 2016, in the east of England. A very hard choice, and one I didn’t easily come to. The reasons I had were entirely to do with the UK’s sovereignty within the EU, and the inexorable ratcheting of the EU taking ever-greater powers to itself with little democratic accountability, and the prospect of that accelerating as more and more matters came under QMV. If the EU had remained just a trading organisation without aspiring to be a political superstate, I’d have voted to remain, because trade is good.
So I cannot fault the Scottish sentiment for independence from the union. I am minded to support it more wholeheartedly than I currently do, but only if the various parties seeking it can actually come up with a serious plan for after independence. There would be huge challenges to overcome, and currently not a single one is addressing those. Without such policies and plans, I believe that independence would be a disaster for Scotland.
The ones that do my head in are those that want to leave the U.K. and almost immediately join the EU, where Scotland would be far less influential, and lose far more sovereignty, than it has within the U.K. Their view could be summed up as “we hate London, but we aren’t big enough to be independent alone, so we will join Brussels because we hate England@. That’s nuts.
Tories can even shut out Tories when ain’t playing the game by telling truths!
https://rumble.com/v2ml13o-andrew-bridgen-the-decline-of-the-empire-oracle-films.html
Alba,
It is with a heavy heart that I must agree with you.
I once believed in the SNP, especially after 2014, because it had taken us so near to success. I even joined the party just after we were defeated. I thought it needed all the help it could get to push us over the finishing line.
I was downhearted for a while, but I felt the tide was with us; that we were on the right track and it was only a matter of time. I didn’t want Salmond to step down as leader, but understood why he did. I put my faith in Sturgeon because he had faith in her. How could I have known that he’d been hoodwinked, too? How could any of us have known?
I thought the likes of Sturgeon, Swinney, Robertson, Brown, and Blackford were better than me. I thought they were well-educated and intelligent and honest and honourable and fair and brave, and would fearlessly stand against the forces ranged against Scotland. I thought they had my back. Well, it turns out they did. Only they stuck a knife in it instead of being my shield.
I cannot tell you how disappointed I am with the lot of them. It almost physically hurts. I never for a moment thought oor ain folk would betray us. And for what? Baubles and trinkets?
It’s hard for me to say this, but the best thing the SNP could do for Scotland now is just disappear, go away, get lost, and leave a space for honest Scots. Scots who actually believe Scotland should be a sovereign independent nation. The SNP is no longer a shield to protect we Scots from the ravages of Westminster. The SNP has become the sword Westminster uses to attack us.
“To tell you the truth, readers, we’re bored.”
You wouldn’t be if the state of Scotland had not become rotten to the core.
All your exposures would have led to the arrests and prosecution of many of the lowest of the low.
Can’t the Scottish police hire an English firm of accountants to find £600,000 of stolen money?
How can they have not charged anyone after two years of investigation and the farce of tents and digging and arresting and releasing people without charge?
(if you stand in front of the mirror, say EU and turn round 3 times, John Main will appear)
“HELP – its the EU, they want to make all our bananas straight, so they do … ”
there is no comparison between the EU and the UK membership
– the UK is being stuck in a lift forever with a kleptomaniac narcissist
– the EU is a fancy party with a rich buffet, you can leave any time you want
the good thing about the EU is how weak it is – this is bad when they bend over for the americans, but it is also good because even guys like Orban can tell them to fuck off; a true democrat, he actually does what his people want. Compare the EU govt with the US Federal, there is no comparison.
the proper fit for a “small rich country” is EFTA, which I assumed was WOS consensus; one good thing about EFTA is that they will never let the UK in, as they would simply try to take over
super mammy von leyden was prostating herself today before zlenskiy – europe has to have on US orders its economy destroyed and hand over all its weapons to the ukie kleptocrats (rumour is Z and pals stole $400M worth of us money which was for diesel for their own army) – all in the name of “freedom” and democracy; anyway, its a “lot of t-shirts” for the z-man; his parents have a new house, which is nice.
– but the EU really does have dirty origins, detailed in the le cercle book by david treacher, starting out as euro-fascists, then taken over by anglo-zionists; the relation to brexit was this – the UK went to the Germans and offered to carve up the EU between those two – the Germans told them to shove it, and it was just then all the proto-brexit shite started, with james goldsmith and the referendum party. The anglos, because they had to share power and obey the same rules as everyone else, throw the rattle out the pram, and they got their way by selling to the dumb ordinary englishman that “it’s the EU that let in all the p4kis”.
this appeared in my youtube, something about better together, pooling and sharing, and a muscular form of decolonisation (with a tasty sauce I hope)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCqzUCTWm8I
– eating the new-scot-s3ttl3rs … had never occurred to me, but I hope ALBA will put it on the table; as a game theory strategy, it has merit – and you only need to eat one or two, then they all scarper
Confused,
the EU would only welcome Scotland on its own terms, which would include:
Scotland having left the U.K. legally, but not after any form of UDI, which would see Spain and probably 4 or 5 other EU countries with separatist movements veto Scotland’s membership.
Scotland giving up swathes of economic resources, such as fishing and renewable energy under the CFP and (yet to be named, and not in English) the emerging common renewables policy which would give the EU title to wind and solar areas in which the money goes to Brussels, and not to capitals.
Scotland being a net contributor because Scottish GDP per capita is comfortably higher than the EU average.
Scotland having about 1.7% of MEPs, and 1.7% of the weight in QMV decisions.
Scotland not having a permanent Commissioner, as only being about 1.7% of the EU population. And even when Scotland did have a Commissioner, it would be a junior post.
The SNP are prepared to sign up to all of that, and more. “Sovereignty” doesn’t mean much to the SNP. Quite frankly, Alba is the party with more sensible policies on Europe.
The Spanish, etc veto was demolished in 2014.
Keep up!
SNP are dead in the water. Join and support Alba.
Having said that I fear the return of Scottish Labour, remember them, some folk forget how very bad they were.
I am sure I can hear the sound of brown envelopes being passed.
Scottish Labour too horrible to contemplate.
Brian Doonthetoon,
if you think that the Spanish, supported by half a dozen EU nations with separatist movements of their own wouldn’t find a way to effectively veto a separatist Scotland post-UDI from joining the EU, I have a bridge to sell to you.
There’s no way on God’s green earth that Scotland would be allowed to join the EU if it declared UDI.
Do keep up with reality.
There is simply no point in voting SNP…
Their bank account gets 1.2 million reasons every year, courtesy of Westminster, to keep on kicking the Indy can down the road, and since 2015 they’ve continued to do so, year on year.
Their leadership would make Al Capone appear to have been an honest man, treated unfairly by the authorities.
Their elected representatives would make Liz Truss look competent, and she couldn’t run a bath let alone a country.
Their membership has been infested with Woke zealots, social anarchists, misogynists in skirts, and other assorted Rainbow Warriors and individuals of dubious repute.
Their MPs might as well spend all day in Westminster’s bars and restaurants for all the difference they make to proceedings there.
Their MSPs must have provided Special Branch/MI5 with enough Kompromat to write a book. As Conan Doyle’s sleuth said… “When you have eliminated all which is impossible then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth”… and there’s no other explanation for the behaviour of certain individuals, other than someone, somewhere, is pulling their strings.
So, when all is laid out before you in the cold light of day, why on earth would anyone seeking competent national and local government, plus independence for Scotland sometime this century, vote SNP?
I would add to the comments of A Scot Abroad re. The EU that Scotland would not be allowed to join the Euro (a condition of joining the EU). The country’s budget deficit is twice that of the EU average. Of course the EU turned a blind eye to Greece’s enormous deficit when the country joined …that turned out well for Greece – NOT. And there is the matter of trade with rUK. At Brexit 20% of Scotland’s exports went to the EU. 60% went to rUK. Does Scotland really want a hard border with rUK? Do Scots and for that matter the English really want to go through customs, immigration etc when travelling on a train from Glasgow to London?
London Scott says:
10 May, 2023 at 6:39 am
I would add to the comments of A Scot Abroad re. The EU that Scotland would not be allowed to join the Euro (a condition of joining the EU). The country’s budget deficit is twice that of the EU average.
And how do you work that out? Oh, I forgot, WM tax figures (minus the oil and all the other (hidden) Scottish export revenues that keep the UK afloat). Of course these aren’t really Scottish though, are they? Silly me.
“ London Scott says @ 0639pm “ I am going on holiday soon & have been checking out train times between Belfast & Dublin ?
Some sterile old arguments, long dispelled as scare stories, turning up here with monotonous regularity.
No new ones?
Aliens maybe who disapprove of Scottish independence??
Nobody will buy our whisky??
Oil running out??
Some sterile old arguments, long dispelled as scare stories, turning up here with monotonous regularity.
No new ones?
Aliens maybe who disapprove of Scottish independence??
Shug says: ‘ It is very hard to believe the heigh heed yins are this stupid.’
But they are my friend. They really are.
The thing that stood out for me during the IndyRef debate was that the UK Gov refused to approach the EC for a definitive answer regarding the status viv a vis EU membership of an iScotland and the RUK in the event of Scotland becoming independent.
They did not want Scotland to have an informed debate. We were conned!
The only information they wanted us to have was from sources the UK Gov bought & paid for.
ie Crawford & Boyle who told us Scotland ceased to exist in 1707 and became Lesser England,
Barosso & anyone the BBC could find in the EU who would repeat the UK’s story.
During that IndyRef14 debate we didn’t hear from any Brexiteers. Weird that!
The only mention of Brexit was from Adam Tomkins who assured us the UK would never, ever leave the EU.
Ruth Davidson told us the only way to retain EU membership was to vote NO.
I can’t figure out why the IndyRef14 debate is being re-run here on Wings.
Have we really run out of things to talk about.
Are we allowing a ‘The Brexiteer Abroad with the three Tory grannies’ to pull our strings?
What is ‘The Brexiteer Abroad with the three Tory grannies’ trying to achieve?
I wonder what the name of the new ‘poster’ tat will eventually appear alongside the new intake will be? Belgium Scot? International Scot? Intergalactic Scot? Transgalactic Scot?
Tuesday 18 December 2012
Michael Forsyth to Michael Moore
Lord Forsyth of Drumlean: You said that you wanted the debate to be as informed as possible. One of the things that Mr Swinney said to us last week was that they had a difficulty in establishing what the position would be vis-a?-vis having to apply for membership of Europe or whether they would be allowed to remain in Europe because the Commission would only talk to Governments, and that the British Government were not prepared to engage on this issue. I find it a bit puzzling how you can reconcile saying, “We are not prepared to talk to the Commission as a Government about what the consequences would be”, with saying at the same time, “We want to have a fully informed debate”. Does Mr Swinney not have a point there?
http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=12151
at 15.58.09
@Confused 10:18
Boo!!!
Haha, made ye jump.
Noo awa an change yer undercrackers.
@Dorothy Devine (7.39) –
Aye, sterile, boring repetitive empty-headed rubbish.
Heard Angela Constance on the radio yesterday, then saw a brief clip of her via Twitter earlier.
They must all have had the same media training and they’ve been in power so long that they all sound the same and have the same body language. As well as the same patronising tone and, of course, contempt for questions as well as the questioners. It’s fekkin Midwich Cuckoos territory.
What’s even worse is that we’ve become used to it. It’s considered ‘normal’.
🙁
Objectivity time when it comes to nationalist economics.
Firstly – after I make this comment I won’t suffer being spoken down to by advocates or apologists for Marxist methods given it’s historic death toll, nor from advocates of Capitalism which is the system of globalist oligarchy.
Secondly – we should be capable of putting on our big-boy pants and siphon good from bad and take the good from any particular historic method or idea.
So when it comes to nationalist economics if you want a model that could be used as a template then it would be the ‘economic miracle’ of Germany in the 1930’s.
– ban predatory usury and create a currency that is not under the control of international banking.
– back the value of that currency with the labour of your citizens rather than any commodity, given that those markets are all in the hands of elite financiers
– offer interest free state loans to those forming families to buy good quality housing and forgive 1/4 of that loan for every child born (Hungary has just introduced this)
– put the country to work building or rebuilding top quality national infrastructure which will also help kick start private business
In short the true wealth of a nation is it’s people and it’s in the people that investment needs to be made. This is a template of how you begin to get a country back on it’s feet, putting the people of that country first and without the need for access to vast resources.
What wasn’t discussed much in the 2014 Indy Ref debate was why the UK Gov was prepared to fight with every fibre of their being to hang on to an economic basket case of a country.
They said it was because they loved us but there wasn’t much evidence of that love and there still isn’t.
What is it all about is it just a power thing?
I’m off to research abusive relationships.
@Joe (6.47, previous thread) –
Have only just seen your comment there, for which many thanks.
I saw a tweet yesterday which detailed the latest viewing stats for independence blogs. No prizes for guessing which is the runaway leader, but could anyone guess who makes up the rest of the Top Ten?
I’ll try and find that link. Pretty sure the figures are up-to-date but need to double-check.
Back later…
😉
Ruby at 7:51 am:
“The thing that stood out for me during the IndyRef debate was that the UK Gov refused to approach the EC for a definitive answer regarding the status viv a vis EU membership of an iScotland and the RUK in the event of Scotland becoming independent.”
Surely the Scottish government would have had talks with the EU on that topic? If it was good news we’d have heard about it.
@Joe –
Here it is.
Turns out it was Rev who retweeted it!
😉
https://twitter.com/WingsScotland/status/1655976125833658369
Plenty new things to talk about today
The Law v The Trans
https://archive.is/maipo
Joanna Cherry and the fight for women’s rights
https://archive.is/tntHR
Edinburgh lecturers who blocked screening of trans film ‘may have broken the law’
You are not going to get a definitive position from the EU because between the time you ask for confirmation and the time that you are actually in a position to apply, complete negotiations and ratify, both the EU and several of its national governments will have changed their compositions.
The minute there is an actual vote to take place to finally ratify it, any number of nations will try to hijack it at the last minute as leverage over something else that they want.
You saw that the other year when a trade deal 20 years in the works and four years of final negotiations collapsed pretty much on the eve of ratification.
It was all over the 2011-2014 indyref campaign period where both sides would trumpet some semi formal endorsement from allegedly representative bodies of one side or the other as to the likelihood of Scotland being accepted.
Another new topic.
Freedom of Speech.
https://archive.is/noteX
Jerry Sadowitz plans ‘offensive’ Edinburgh Fringe return
Go Jerry!
Also see Joanna Cherry v The Stand
Go Jo!
https://archive.is/GlFlJ
Oxford students offered support for Kathleen Stock talk
This is what Edinburgh Uni & The Stand Comedy Club need to do to avoid legal action.
I’m trying to imagine what the support will involve.
Will it be meditation & chanting the mantra:
‘Transwomen are women’. ‘Trans rights are human rights.’
@Ian Brotherhood
That’s quite enlightening. In fact I’d say its heartening
The pro SNP sites I find to be insufferable.
There is definitely the space for a kind of Scots public forum where open discussion is possible without it necessarily reflecting on the views of the owner.
If possible I would suggest that such a thing be hosted in the US and use anonymity to the fullest – there is virtually nothing that negatively affects our lives that we can speak openly about now in Scotland.
Myself and the wife have a standing joke whenever a police car goes blaring past that it’s another misgendering situation on twitter.
James Che said in the previous thread;
“The old Westminster parliament is not defunct, it transitioned into the name only Great British parliament, it now the sole participant to the treaty of union.”
No, James, the old Westminster parliament is defunct, precisely because it transitioned into the Parliament of Great Britain. That’s why I’m not too bothered about its alleged ‘continuity’, because the transition formally broke that continuity.
By adopting its new name and taking in the Scots MPs, it signalled the formal end of its old life as the Parliament of England, and started its new life as the Parliament of Great Britain under the terms of the Treaty in 1707. Its powers are set by those terms, and also constrained by those terms, which include the permanence of Scotland’s constitution and Scots law and its judiciary, among other things, and it is further constrained by Scotland’s sovereignty, which cannot be outranked.
As such, the UK Parliament is not a ‘participant’ to the Treaty at all, it is a creation of it, an operational tool of the Treaty, and the actual participants are the two sets of MPs who represent the two sovereign founder Kingdoms which agreed and authorised the Treaty. Those two sovereignties matter because it is their delegated authority that the UK Parliament exerts over the UK, and if the Scottish sovereign (us Scots) objects to the way the tool is behaving it is fully entitled to dismantle it, and design a better one.
FFS you are getting on my nerves!
Read:
https://wingsoverscotland.com/walking-with-zombies/comment-page-1/#comment-2759183
Everyone one & their granny had talks with people in the EU and everyone gave an opinion but the UK Gov failed to approach the EC for a definitive answer.
The EC would not speak to the Scottish Gov only the UK Gov.
You’ll have read the famous letter from Barrosso to Lord Tugendhat. That was way back in 2012 so you may have forgotten. He wrote
The European Commission would express its opinion on the legal consequences under EU law upon request from a Member State detailing a precise scenario.
My question is why did the UK Gov not follow that advice.
@Joe (8.52) –
Noted.
😉
‘The European Commission would express its opinion on the legal consequences under EU law upon request from a Member State detailing a precise scenario.’
Barosso to UK Gov 2012
I presume the EC would have given an definitive answer free of charge.
The UK Gov preferred to employ two international lawyers
(cost to taxpayer undisclosed) to give their opinion.
My question is why?
If the UK Gov had done that then that would have been pretty much the end of the EU membership debate and everyone would have been informed.
Instead of that we got 1000s of different people giving their opinions which wasn’t very helpful because none of them agreed.
In the end the whole EU debate was a big waste of time because just a couple of years later we weren’t in the EU.
You are getting on my nerves too.
The UK didn’t approach the EC to ask the question.
A very long wait is guaranteed if you don’t ask the fuckin’ question.
I think I’d better go and seek some ‘support’ I’m not getting much here on Wings.
Heady days before Scottish Nationalism was hijacked by politicians.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jan/25/hugh-macdiarmid-robert-burns-scots-vernacular-poetry-auld-lang-syne
Give a politician a good idea and s/he will club it to death.
Contemporary Scottish Nationalism, dull, dreich, dyspeptic, directionless, dysfunctional is their legacy.
ENEUCH! not a bad name for a renewal movement that has had enough of politician’s blarney.
A “Scot” Abroad @9.33pm.
I think it would be practical for Scotland to take the EFTA route on dissolving the union, this would give our parliament more control over domestic affairs and crucially it would allow us access to the EU market and the UK market.
I should add that there is much hypocrisy on the EU matter, many MPs know fine well that leaving the EU was a blunder, and have applied for an Irish passport.
“In 2016, only 47 British MPs and Lords held an Irish passport. By 2021, that figure went up to 227. In 2022, there are now 321 of them with an Irish passport”
An EU Commission opinion on a future hypothetical is worthless whether you ask for it or not.
It will always be surpassed by the realpolitik horse trading if the matter ever arises, particularly because you will almost certainly be asking a different Commission, in a different geopolitical environment.
On Dougie Chapman deciding to stand as a SNP candidate against SAS’s backed candidate, (fight for Chapman’s seat) I think Mr Chapman should move over to the Alba party, I have a feeling it would be the better move for him in the long run.
https://archive.ph/2023.05.10-063101/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ex-treasurer-to-fight-snp-seat-challenge-fzhl59dqp
Just listening the call Kate this morning, I know why!!
BBC making the case for rich people paying for higher education.
No mention of:
I have already paid for it through my taxes.
If I earn more I have paid more.
What is the cut off. Is it so low virtually everyone pays?
What about the principle of free education as proposed by the greatest of unionists John Knox.
Most of all since when did the BBC promote the SNP and Humza’s policies. WTF is going on when Humza’s great thought of the day is presented as reasonable by the BBC.
If there was ever a sign that the SNP has been well infiltrated this is it.
Watched Outlaw King last night, enjoyed it a lot and couldn’t remember much of it from the first viewing, must’ve been ‘tired and emotional’ at the time.
Then got up today and one of the first tweets I read was from Crossgate Centre, marking the Battle of Loudon Hill’s 717th anniversary today.
It’s an omen ah tell ye!
😉
It’s water under the bridge now as we are no longer in the EU and the other options may better suit our requirements.
But all this talk of EU member countries blocking another country from joining makes you wonder why the EU bothered to write Article 48…
“ROADMAP FOR SUCCESSION IN EUROPEAN UNION MEMBERSHIP IN THE CASE OF MEMBER STATE’S SECESSION OR DISSOLUTION
Declaration of independence from a state arising from a member state’s secession or dissolution following a democratic process.
Notification of succession, from a European Union member state by the state emerging from a member state’s secession or dissolution. This act would notify of the new situation as well as the new state’s wish to succeed the predecessor state as a European Union member as a new state complying with the principles and conditions required for being a Union member with a model of market economy and required administrative capacity. The new state would commit the in accepting the entire flow of the European Union, and would want to immediately initiate the process of adaptation intended to ensure that European Union law is brought into line with the new situation, together with the commitment to adopt all acts that allow it to fulfill all the international obligations assumed by states as European Union members.
Act adopted by the European Union to recognise a new state’s succession arising from the secession or dissolution of another European Union member state as a Union member. This would mean the recognition of the predecessor state, if it should continue to exist and of the successor state(s) as members of the European Union and would have to contain the initial provision needed to guarantee the operation of the Union.
Establishment of the transitory arrangement:
— Application of the principle of continuity in acts not requiring changes
or amendment to the acts of secondary law to enable:
— The continuity of uniform application of the material provisions of the
European Union’s legal system throughout the new state’s territory.“
Got an off the scale reading on my ICD from your post Mr Smith.
Over! Over and out!
Ruby @ 7:51am
I completely agree with you. There is absolutely no point in rummaging over all the nonsense arguments for staying in the Union presented to us back in 2014. Those ‘arguments’ were more or less just scary stories to frighten us into believing we could never manage on our own.
The problem for the unionists in 2023 is that they shot there bolt in 2014. They have no more ammunition.
They’re trying to re-use the dud ammunition they fired at us back then.
But their regurgitated ammunition just doesn’t work any more, It feels like being weakly slapped in the face with an old and tattered, wet and soggy, rolled up Daily Record. Not painful, but a wee bit annoying.
I’d rather hear about more interesting things. Things like your great idea for the “Let Women Speak Party”.
“there” should be “their” line 4
Ruby
‘I think I’d better go and seek some ‘support’ I’m not getting much here on Wings’.
Did you ever stop to ask yourself WHY?
Wings readers, if you haven’t already done so:
Please could you spare 5 mins to write to your MP about Julian Assange’s continued imprisonment. You can even use this script, if it makes it easier for you:
Put your name and address, so the MP can check you are a constituent.
Put date.
Dear (Put Name of your MP)
I am very concerned about the welfare of Mr Julian Assange who is being held in prison on the basis of administrative detention. I believe the length and conditions of his detention are causing significant damage to his mental and physical wellbeing and may be slowly killing him.
Mr Assange is being held in a high security prison, like a high-risk convicted terrorist. Yet, there are no grounds to suggest Mr Assange poses any danger to the public. He is not a terrorist, he is a journalist. Furthermore, there are more humane and proportionate ways to ensure Mr Assange does not abscond.
Please can you share my concerns about Mr Assange’s welfare with the UK Government and, on my behalf, request that the UK Government ends its inhumane detention of Mr Assange. I would be grateful if you would also voice your own opinion on this matter.
As many others also share my concerns about Mr Assange’s welfare, I intend to publish your response, to inform your constituents and the wider public. I trust this is acceptable.
Yours Sincerely
Put your name.
You can find your MP’s contact details here: members.parliament.uk/members/commons
@Shug
9th 6:57pm
You mention it yet again, but what is this new thing about Charles coming to Edinburgh and accepting the Scots Crown, did you dream it?
The Chooky Hamilton doesn’t hand him it, and Charles goes off, and puts it on a mantlepiece, or in his kitchen drawer.
He doesn’t humph the Stone of Destiny back, and stand at Holyrood Abbey with his foot on it, while the Mormaer of Fife lobs the bunnet at him.
What is this strange ‘ceremony’ of which you speak?
Even if it’s something you think should happen (and I don’t disagree it would make a nice pageant) why now?
Hazy memory, but I think his namesake Charles II was the last Scottish Monarch to have a ‘Coronation’, and that was at Scone about 400 years ago.
Since then, it’s been enough our Monarch mumbles some words about the Kirk, Claim of Right yada yada, and that’s about it.
Chairlie did that last year already, before his Coronation – he’s been ‘accepted’ as Scotland’s Monarch by that ceremony of ‘Accession’ since last September.
I dare say he might have a toury-aboot the country, and have a swatch at Scotland’s baubles while he’s up here – I think he’s seen them before though – he’ll probably go to Largs instead, and have a pokey hat at Nardini’s, and a shot on the puggies.
@Colin Alexander (10.53) –
Done.
Thanks for the nudge.
Your template was very helpful but I tweaked it just a wee bit here and there so as to bypass being flagged as ‘C&P’ (and therefore delayed) which I’ve seen happen in the past.
😉
London Scott @6:39am
“Does Scotland really want a hard border with rUK? Do Scots and for that matter the English really want to go through customs, immigration etc when travelling on a train from Glasgow to London? “
Yes, and no (the checks will be made before folks get on the train).
We didn’t want a border with 27 other EU nations. But England inflicted that on us. So one border with England , or 27…let me think?
Iain mhor
He is planning to come to Edinburgh to accept the crown like his mother did before him. No coronation as he would beed to swear an oath to uphold the claim of right including the people of Scotland are sovereign.
He will place his hand on them at the High Kirk.
The place will be hoaching with tourists waiving union jack.
It would be an ideal time for auob and year quite a dream
Big Jock.
Exactly right. I don’t like borders, but sometimes they’re necessary – even if they’re only temporary.
Cheers! Northcode. I’m happy you’ve decided to post.
I’m working on it. Feel free to join in if there is any issue you think should be spoken about.
I’ve decided to change the name to ‘Let Everyone Speak Party’
The issues will be ‘freedom of speech’ ‘mens issues’
womens issues, GRA, and anything that people want to speak about.
Men have issues with GRA too. Not so much in their toilets/changing rooms but in their professions. ie teachers & fathers re the safety of their children.
Juryless trials that would be mainly a ‘men’s issue’
Women wanting to date gay men.
‘The Let Everyone Speak party’ will also be supporting independence but will not ditch other important issue to concentrate on independence.
We don’t like the ‘wheest for Indy’ dictat that sounds like a denial of freedom of speech.
Although currently I’m supportive of a ‘wheest about Indy’ dictat.
If you were awake between 2011-2014 you wont need much discussion about independence.
Forget the EU stuff that was a con which you will know if you voted NO to retain your EU membership.
Initially we will need to do a lot of work on women’s issues because currently there are indy supporting women who have decided to vote Tory.
I have changed the name of my imaginary party because I am not just a feminist I am a personist.
I do believe ‘The Let Everyone Speak party’ would be very successful. In the event of us being the winning party and being responsible for negotiating independence with the UK Gov we will do a massive crowd funder and employ the best brains in the entire planet to do the negotiating on our behalf.
We wont be asking for your money before the event or if we do you will only be charged when the goods are delivered.
Like wot they do on Amazon. They’ll be to weaving, knitting or even crocheting of your money.
Just jotting down these notes as they pop into my head.
Happy to hear everyone’s of my ideas so far.
Sorry can’t promise all views will be consider they might be rejected if you get on my nerves.
Xaracen.
That is word smithing to say the least.
The third session of the old English parliament ended in 1708.
After the the treaty of 1707. And after the Old Scottish parliament had been extinguished and dissolved by the Queen,
The 1694 Triennial Act of the old English parliament ended its session as a English parliament in 1708.
Thereafter continued as the only entrant of the British parliament.
Yes because the RUK cannot control their borders.
How many illegal immigrants are their in London alone Scott?
There seem to be a shitload of folk named Scott posting on Wings lately.
Nationalist economics (never heard that one before) based on the ‘economic miracle’ of 1930s Germany…
So those ‘ideas’ are going to be picked up by absolutely no-one in the independence movement, NOT A SINGLE PERSON EVER…so what is the point in posting this guff here?
The answer apparently is that we’re being invited to sift the good from the bad of an expanding economy based on fairly standard deficit financing, where people work far longer hours, where military spending dwarfs every other sector and the solution to this mess is to ultimately plunder other countries wealth?
Away tae f*** wi such pish!
‘The poll places ALBA at a breakthrough 6% in the YES city of Glasgow where Independence support is now measured at almost 60%.’
https://twitter.com/AlbaParty/status/1656251286197530625
@ Ian Brotherhood
Thank you.
On the matter of ‘zombies’ (weel duin Rev!), originally I had thought of calling my ‘Doun-Hauden’ book explaining Scottish independence ‘Zombie Nation’. It seemed a reasonable idea given that elected SNP MPs and MSPs had become the intellectual equivalent of the ‘walking dead’ insofar as them having zero ability to deliver independence, or even the capability to decipher its meaning. But this did not quite explain the entire multi-faceted complexity of the oppressed colonial ‘condition’, which is a cultural legacy as well as economic and political etc. So I went with ‘Doun-Hauden’, the Scots language translation of ‘oppressed’. Tho this disnae mean thay SNP MPs an MSPs irnae still a bunch o daeless zombies!
The old English parliament of Westminster simply Changed it name to the parliament of Great Britain,
Queen Annes address to the two houses in Englands Westminster parliament at the end of the its second session transfers the members of the English parliament without election into the new pretentiously name Parliament of Great Britain by proclamation.
Queen Annes also dissolved the 1707 Scottish parliament.
It had the same minister members without new election, it continued the Triennial english parliament session as was dictated by the English Act 1694.
It remained in the same building.
It still has a bank of England, Not a bank of Great Britain,
And then and now still passes separate laws for England and Wales.
It passed laws for Colonial Stock (Scotland) Acts in the 1800s though.
Without a Scottish parliament in the treaty of union from 1707 onwards and the evidence provided that the English parliament continued without alteration.
It is word smithing to say that both parliaments ceased to create the parliament of Great Britain or that the English parliament is defunct simply because it changed it name.
A good comparison is any other marriage,
A women does not become defunct because she changes her name when she marries in a union with her new spouse,
Any debts, bank accounts or property still belong to her after the marriage,
The name change did not alter or make her defunct, any debts are carried foresrd under her new name.
So a simple name change did not make the parliament of England defunct from functioning as it did previously.
It simply renamed itself. And continued its same parliament,
except it had a dissolved and extinguished its partner, ie, the partner had died on the date of marriage of union.
Ruby @ 12:30pm
Cheers, Ruby, and thank you for your kind welcome.
I didn’t mind the name “Let Women Speak”, but I take your point about men having issues in today’s turbulent climate, too. I’m all for inclusivity and giving everyone a voice (unless they’re spouting violence, of course), even if I disagree with what they’re saying.
And I agree that “Let Everyone Speak” should be more than about independence. Once Scotland is liberated from its current situation there will be plenty of space for parties like yours to discuss and promote other important issues. So why not start as you mean to go on? I’m all for it.
I have a bit more to say about it, but I need to go and do some other stuff for now.
Thanks again.
@PhilM
Damn, sorry about that. I meant to say ‘France in the late 1700’s’.
There, now those economic policies can be considered a valid opinion.
Fixed it.
Xaracen.
You’re reasoning that the old English parliament is defunct because it changed it name is legally ridiculous.
Let us take a example of another marriage union.
When a women joins in a marriage union with her new spouse more often than not her name changes,
However this does not legally make her defunct,
Any recorded debts and history for good or bad transfer to her new name
The marriage of union between Scotland and England legally is the same, except Englands partner namely Scotland was extinguished and dissolved from the marriage of union in 1707.
England divorced itself from Scotland with the terms agreed and ratified, thus in doing so ended the union,
But Englands parliament continued until, and after 1708, so just like any other partnership with a new name it when’t forward on its OWN into a new life after the divorce. Falsely claiming it was still married to a dead deceased partner.
@Shug 12:25pm
Ahh, I had the wrong end of the stick there, my apologies.
‘London Scott’
Jeezo, yet anither new 77th Yoon bot.
Don’t feed the trolls.
Shug, think he already took the oath in front of the Privvy Council before his maw was cauld.
He cannot be King of Scots unless he takes it.
A better example is Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Caledonian are dead, Inverness Thistle are dead (ask supporters of both clubs). The new club played their games initially at Caledonian’s ground, Caledonian were still dead though.
CR.
I know very little about football! But is sounds similar if that is what happened.
Basically the English parliament is making fraudulent claims on the basis it is still married to A ( deceased partner) in a union named Scotland,
Then as Nowadays it is illegal to gain false financial benefits from a union where one partner is and has been recorded as deceased since 1707.
Like the DWP we are entitled to claw back those stolen assets due to them being attained through fraud. Deceit and lies.
Scotland parliament and thus Scotland itself became a independent nation and Country again once in ceased to be in a union marriage with Englands parliament.
Once the marriage was dissolved in 1707 by affirmation and proclamation by Queen Anne.
And now confirmed on the UK Westminster parliament site in 2023.
@Colin Alexander (10.53) – Done ….with tweeks. I’ll post any reply from my MP, Pete Wishart, if/when I get one!
Iain mhor A wee Pathe film of when Elizabeth came to Scotland and was offered the Crown in 1953 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAfJMkBxaL8&t=354s
Che,
Nah, point missed. England doesn’t exist, neither does Scotland, Wales or N. Ireland. The new country exists the others are dead.
Alba 6% in Glasgow. Glasgow nearly 60% Yes. Scotland 48% Yes. Survation.
Naz Anis-Miah is the councillor reported to be SAS’s protege for the SNP nomination in Dunfermline, instead of the incumbent Douglas Chapman. Cllr Anis-Miah has plenty of pictures of himself on his social media posing happily with Humza, SAS, Marmalade and Kaukab Stewart et al.
There’s one with Anis-Miah and Sommerville out canvassing that has the caption “Got to learn from the best!”
If Naz thinks Shirley-Anne Sommerville is “the best” I should say that puts him in a minority of one.
Of course Scotland exists.
If it didn’t then to talk about it would be an absurdity or pointless at best.
Interesting!
I have a couple of questions:
1. What is the name of the new countries football team?
2. What is ‘The Precious Union’ that politicians in England are willing to fight with every fibre of their being to save?
3. What is a Unionist/Tory?
Well, I left the SNP over three years ago, and I am now with Alba, but if you have not heard of these yet, I also signed up to Salvo.Scot and Liberation.Scot. Then I suggest you have a look at it.
it is non political. There are many good people in it, knowledgable folk including Sara Salyers, ( you can find her on YouTube )
and more, who really know their stuff. Based on the Scottish Claim of Right.
The issue is that our claim of right is that the people are sovereign, we are not a colony that Westminster insinuates in order to continue control of all things Scottish. The claim of right, is an old document, however it is a condition of Scotland joining the union. But, legally this is still in place, it has however been hidden from us for centuries. Most people even if they have heard of it, they do not know what it is. That is all changed now it is creeping into the Scottish Independence issue right now. It was evident via speakers at the recent march in Glasgow.
So I would suggest that if you do not know that this is still actually a legal condition, that has been hidden for a very long time. Salvo.Scot is the campaigning partner of Liberation.Scot. Both have not been in existence for very long. The claim covers many things, in it is the people of Scotland who are the legal power in Scotland. Needless to say
Westminster, will be taking it very seriously for they know this is true, and by covering it by hiding it from us Scots.
While these entities are fairly new they know the path how to get Scotland to be an independent nation again. The main issue is that us, the people need to realise that we are Sovereign and sign up free for both entities.
How will it work? well we need signatures,
we need 100,000. At which point take our case to the United Nations, who have a copy of the legal act of union, document which also contains the Claim of right.
The UN, will accept us then as real liberation movement, where we can at last explain how Westminster has robbed us in every way for 300 + years. Westminster is scared of this for they know it is true. So if you have not known about all this, as most do not, look up Salvo. scot and Liberation.scot and sign up for free.
If we can get our 100,000 signatures it can ensure with help of the UN, we can put Westminster back in it’s box and seek compensation for all they have stolen from us.
Doing this, being non political, could be the best way to get our independence, we just need the people of Scotland to believe that this is a very good way to be a free nation again.
Missing the about football, maybe.
However not about Scotlands parliament not progressing into the treaty of union due the Scottish parliament being recorded as extinguished by UK parliament 2023.
By Queen Anne recorded as dissolving the Scottish parliament in 1707.
By the Scottish parliament closing its doors under Scots law. “Sine Die”
By ratification of the Agreement,
People in Scotland are beginning to realise that a extinguished….ceased…..closed…..dissolved…..Sine Die’d….Scottish parliament had not progressed into the Treaty of union of two parliaments passed 1707.
As it was deceased,
And as mentioned here many times with evidence of references the English parliament continued under their Triennial Act 1694, into it third session in 1708 and thereafter.
I expect people to contradict the records if they fear that the union would be lost, or never was……
In the absence of Indy, why hasn’t anybody proposed that, in keeping with nearly 2/3 of voters’ wishes, Scotland re-enters the EU single market and the EU/UK trade border on the island of Ireland, where the fudge designed for keeping the DUP “happy” fails to do do so, moves to Great Britain; the border between Scotland and England.
Surely a win-win for all concerned.
Well, I left the SNP over three years ago, and I am now with Alba, but if you have not heard of these yet, I also signed up to Salvo.Scot and Liberation.Scot. Then I suggest you have a look at it.
it is non political. There are many good people in it, knowledgable folk including Sara Salyers, ( you can find her on YouTube )
and more, who really know their stuff. Based on the Scottish Claim of Right.
The issue is that our claim of right is that the people are sovereign, we are not a colony that Westminster insinuates in order to continue control of all things Scottish. The claim of right, is an old document, however it is a condition of Scotland joining the union. But, legally this is still in place, it has however been hidden from us for centuries. Most people even if they have heard of it, they do not know what it is. That is all changed now it is creeping into the Scottish Independence issue right now. It was evident via speakers at the recent march in Glasgow.
So I would suggest that if you do not know that this is still actually a legal condition, that has been hidden for a very long time. Salvo.Scot is the campaigning partner of Liberation.Scot. Both have not been in existence for very long. The claim covers many things, in it is the people of Scotland who are the legal power in Scotland. Needless to say
Westminster, will be taking it very seriously for they know this is true, and by covering it by hiding it from us Scots.
While these entities are fairly new they know the path how to get Scotland to be an independent nation again. The main issue is that us, the people need to realise that we are Sovereign and sign up free for both entities.
How will it work? well we need signatures,
we need 100,000. At which point take our case to the United Nations, who have a copy of the legal act of union, document which also contains the Claim of right.
The UN, will accept us then as real liberation movement, where we can at last explain how Westminster has robbed us in every way for 300 + years. Westminster is scared of this for they know it is true. So if you have not known about all this, as most do not, look up Salvo. scot and Liberation.scot and sign up for free.
If we can get our 100,000 signatures it can ensure with help of the UN, we can put Westminster back in it’s box and seek compensation for all they have stolen from us.
Doing this, being non political, could be the best way to get our independence, we just need the people of Scotland to believe that this is a very good way to be an Independent again.
CR,
People look at certain things certain ways, usually to bolster their own viewpoint (it’s not really their own viewpoint but that’s another subject).
The United Kingdom could be compared with the European Union if people want to, countries in it didn’t cease to exist but there was a transfer of powers to a certain extent, if you leave, you get those powers back unless utherwise negotiated.
It could be compared to a marriage, some might say an abusive marriage, where 2 people were once single and responsible for their own decisions but would now have to coexist for the better of the pair, they may stop existing as singletons but we know this can be reversed and then would mean some sort of negotiated split regarding various subjects.
People tend to believe what is convenient to themselves.
Stu, I was writing about Salvo.scot, and Liberation.scot.
I wrote about both and what it is all about, but when I went to post, a prompt came up saying It was a duplicate, it was not.
Just so you know what is going on.
Stu, I was writing about Salvo.scot, and Liberation.scot. but duplicate came up, there was no duplicate. Just so you know.
“The poll places ALBA at a breakthrough 6% in the YES city of Glasgow where Independence support is now measured at almost 60%.’”
Ian.
From little acorns grow giant oaks, Alba will grow and grow, the SNPs reputation and credibility is shot, they are untrustworthy and unelectable. I fully expect Alba to gain more seats at the next GE, and do very well come the 2026 Holyrood elections.
@ robertkknight
From nearly 5 years ago!
https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-divided-kingdom/
https://wingsoverscotland.com/everybody-but-you/
https://wingsoverscotland.com/independence-for-england/
Les Wilson.
It is true that the Scots are sovereign, and that information was hidden from Scots for a very long time.
But lets add to that,
It was not the conditions of the treaty of union that gave the that Sovereignty to Scots. The Scottish parliament passed that prior to the treaty of union articles being signed about the same time of Englands bill of rights.
In fact Scots Sovereignty goes further back in history than that as I am sure you are aware.
The Records showing that Scotlands parliament was prevented from continuing into the treaty of the union by being dissolved from that union in 1707 does not distract from the Scots retaining their Sovereignty, but rather adds to it,
The Claim of Right was passed in 1689 by the Convention of the Estates and is part of the Scottish Constitutional law.
The treaty did not give Scots their Sovereignty, the Convention of the three Estates did in Scotland.
Englands parliament simply agreed.
Here is the twist, If Scotlands parliament never joined in a parliamentary union ( because it was dissolved).
Scots do not lose their Sovereignty as it was made Constitutional in Scotland 1689 prior to any false claims of a treaty by Westminster parliament.
It still stands that Scots are Sovereign with or without a treaty being recognised.
So after wasting hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers cash (is it ALL accounted for?) and at least five years on trying to build two ferries this useless SNP government is to return Fergusons Marine Shipyard to the private sector.
I take it there’s no more cash to be made out of it so it’s to be dumped.
“A report by Audit Scotland in March said the completion date of the Glen Sannox (801) and the unnamed 802 vessels remains unclear.
The two ships are estimated to cost £293m, with delivery already five years late. The original estimate was £97m.
Stephen Boyle, Scotland’s auditor general, said that doubt remained over the long-term viability of the Fergusons.”
https://archive.ph/2023.05.10-120806/https://news.stv.tv/politics/scottish-government-intends-to-put-ferguson-marine-port-glasgow-shipyard-back-into-private-ownership#selection-781.0-793.114
Get the SNP out they’ve wasted (On God only knows what) huge amounts of taxpayers cash, and they have absolutely no interest in Scottish independence, they are self-serving troughers.
Vote Alba, Join Alba.
Alex Salmond built The Borders Railway and the New Queensferry Crossing, the latter on time and under budget.
Regarding hidden information from Scots.
The Claim of Right was hidden.
The MacCrone report was hidden.
Hidden that Scotlands parliament did not progress into a parliamentary union with Englands parliament.
This is What Westminster does. Hides information from the Scots.
Westminster has had many financial benefits by hiding information from the Scots.
What with 42 being the answer to the Ultimate Question, it’s On Topic to point out that this is Day 42 of the New Pretender’s reign.
I write, of course, of our Beloved Leader and single-handed eliminator of Scottish Poverty himself, First Minister and Keeper Of The Great Seal Of Scotland, Humza Yousaf.
Day 44 will arrive on Friday, and on that glorious day, Scotland’s latest opportunity to do something we might all have been proud of will vanish.
Truss’s record of only 44 days in the top job will stand unopposed.
If only they listened to Alex Salmond on ferries. Or read Ian Lawson’s blog. His interview with Stuart Ballantyne, chairman of Australian-based Sea Transport Corp, then the islands might have ferries.
Instead the corrupt SNP, as everyone predicted, the ferries would end up in scrap not sailing.
I love that through a Scottish Prism show. That guy Phil Boswell predicted the ferries would be scrapped. Straight talking.
All these guys have more brains than anyone in the Scottish Government.
If only we could vote for them. Wings over Scotland. Etc.
The country is captured by people who don’t know what they are doing. Riding on an Indy ticket. Pretenders.
We actually don’t have a functioning Government.
Hidden facts,
The Devolved government to Scotland is Corporate body not registered in Scotland.
The bank of England is a corporate body that was not registered as the bank Britain.
Scottish Councils have no political legal authority in Scotland.
@ RoS
Re. Ferries. But Sturgeon said the buck stops with her…
“Nicola Sturgeon: Buck stops with me over ferry contract row”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-60860642
And that link archived for posterity.
https://archive.is/WiNPs
Hidden information.
Scots were not informed that land ( small holdings ) were taken from them under Westminster Colonial Stock in Scotland.
The Universities, such as Edinburgh need to save £46 million thanks to SNP cuts.
They should fire the 500 equality and diversity managers, the progressive and inclusive neoliberal elite. And anyone that doesn’t know that women are female.
Hidden facts.
The Scottish voting system is a franchise.
Alex Salmond, the hero. His face all over the headlines today. Love him:
“The rocks will in the sun, before I allow tuition fees to be imposed on the students of Scotland.”
The students will need to start voting Alba. Like the hungry weans.
Mhairi Black wants to cut free school meals. And bus passes. She is an entitled little brat, says Yvonne Ridley. Through a Scottish Prism. The voice of the working class.
Are the Universities Scottish?
Scottish education system was meant to remain in Scotland according to the supposed fraudulent treaty as were Scots laws,
But under the Reform ( Scotland) bill education and Scots laws were hijacked,
Now a westminster legislated devolved to Scotland branch office registered in England runs all education and laws in Scotland by default.
Not so hidden facts
James Che does not have a clue and bores the tits off the majority on here.
The SNP are under Westminster legislation in Holyrood.
@ David Hannah
Maybe Edinburgh uni will have to shut before the current crop of quorn fed auld reekie school bairns get a chance to become uni educated fuds!
Scotland needs more practically minded and skilled folks anyway. Coz there are far too many “smart” folk who think you can maintain a society whilst sitting on their arse swiping away on a laptop or smarthphone.
@Dan 5:52
Ms Sturgeon said a “formal review of what went wrong” would be conducted once the vessels were complete in a bid to learn lessons
Phew, that’s all right then. Just for a moment there, I thought we were looking at a total fucking waste of time and tax payer’s cash. But naw, lessons will be learned.
I say Scotland should allocate a year for these lessons, all learners to be on full pay and expenses, a class size of maybes 10, with a supporting cast of another 10 to take notes and publish the multi-volume reports.
Now where do I sign up?
Politics is weird. I’m surprised people expect politicians to handle ferry contracts etc successfully.
I’m trying to imagine how someone who trained as a primary school teacher for example with zero experience of business/contracts & ferries could be expected to successfully handle ferry contracts.
‘The Let Everyone Speak Party’ candidates will not be getting involved in contracts that will be left to people with experience in that field.
Weep no tears for Edinburgh Uni, or St Andrews. It’s been obvious for decades that these are English universities, geographically located in Scotland.
The student origin figures support this: Edi is around a third Scottish, St Andrews is in the high twenties percentage wise.
Both universities are good cash cows, but to believe they are in any way necessary for the education of our Scottish youth is daft. Leave them alone to pursue their dollars, yen, etc. which is what they really want anyways.
@James Che
You need to give it a rest. You seriously do not know what you’re talking about. Reading legislation is a skill that is honed through discussion and example at law school. You don’t have that skill and your manner of arguing your ‘case’ suggests you’re functionally incapable of acquiring it. Every single mention of ‘colony’ you’ve picked up from the legislation website has nothing to do with Scotland actually being or being perceived as a colony. If you tried to argue your position against any truly knowledgeable person, you wouldn’t last a second but you don’t argue, you just assert endlessly and provide no evidence. I don’t mean to sound like a right old bastard but someone needs to tell it to you straight rather than encourage your intellectual delusions.
I’m taking a rest for a while, perhaps for good. This used to be a bit of fun and there’s still a few whose contributions give some food for thought but there’s too many headcases and borderline racists (not you James) showing up lately who will end up driving me insane. It almost makes you feel nostalgic for the days of Cameron and his stack of pdfs.
Salutations to the Reverend and his flock…
James Che said;
“The Claim of Right was passed in 1689 by the Convention of the Estates and is part of the Scottish Constitutional law.
The treaty did not give Scots their Sovereignty, the Convention of the three Estates did in Scotland.”
This is ahistorical nonsense, James, the Scottish people have owned the sovereignty of Scotland for at least the last 1200 years!
The Claim of Right never gave us our sovereignty nor our constitution, it merely cited some key parts of our long-standing constitution in a preamble as justification for sacking King James VII for abusing the constitution, our laws, and our rights as sovereigns, and on that basis carried the sentence out. And James wasn’t the only one to feel the wrath of the ‘Convention of the Estates’ (not the Three Estates, they were what made up the old Scottish Parliament); Mary Queen of Scots and King William, husband of Queen Anne, were also sanctioned by it.
Our sovereignty was entirely unaffected by the Treaty of Union, as no-one involved in its creation had any power whatsoever to abolish our sovereignty or transfer it from us to another body. Westminster, however, just brazenly presumed there was never any such thing as Scottish sovereignty or a Scottish constitution, and still thinks it can safely ignore both.
Well, at some point there is going to be a reckoning over these matters, and the Union isn’t going to survive it.
Great straightford solutions.
‘The Let Everyone Speak Party’ will definitely be open to great ideas.
It’s strange that nobody with any standing or authority to move the cause of independence forward is pushing these ancient rights and claims forward in the public domain. Quite possibly, it’s because they recognise that there isn’t a path to independence merely by asserting them. Which court would they choose to arbitrate? The Scottish Parliament gave both the Treaty of Union and Scottish Act of Union legal force in Scotland, and no body at all either within the UK or internationally is going to take seriously some group of modern day Bravehearts marching on Edinburgh to try to claim that they speak for a sovereign Scotland. It’s the stuff of dreamers.
There’s a route to independence. It’s via the Scotland Act 1998. The fact that law doesn’t allow for a referendum to be repeatedly called upon demand doesn’t mean that there cannot be another referendum, if there is compelling polling evidence that independence might win. At any rate, Scotland’s political parties haven’t yet developed any ideas for what an independent Scotland might do to, and so support for independence hasn’t broken through the 50%+1 mark on a consistent basis.
Ten years spent developing serious policies on trade, finance, currency and the 100 other things that a fully independent country needs to have answers do would do wonders for the cause of independence. Not just calling for a neverendum as a distraction from a poor and failing domestic government.
I expect people whom want a treaty of parliamentary unions to be ohh so true, to come out the wood work.
I expect personal verbal attacks as there is very little of a actual parliamentary union to defend,
What else is there for them to do,
But on the other hand perhaps what I researched and referenced, and where those records can be found is well worth defending, without resorting to verbal abuse to those with the opposite view whom do not point to any historical dates or documents that would be relevent as a counter argument,
I encourage every Scot whom is fed up, to look at the referenced material on record and to decide for themselves
I haven’t properly read James Che’s post since Christmas 2020.
I’m wonder why you two do?
C’mon PhilM are you seriously going off in a huff because of James Che & us headcases & borderline racists.
What about the Terfs got any problem with them?
I often wonder what these posters who complain about posts not being up to the standard they expect actually expect of others?
Xaracen.
I think if you re read my post to Les Wilson I mentioned that Scots had Sovereignty in history before
The Claim of right.
You will find it in the following sentence.
Quote,
“In fact Scots Sovereignty goes further back in history thsn that as I am sure you are well aware”
Reading comments below the line in today’s National regarding the SNP and Scottish independence.
“Michael Murray
4 hrs ago
User ID: 1709251”
“As long as it takes, and as long as its legal and international accepted.”
And right there is why we will never move forward one inch towards Scottish independence, with clowns like this one still happy to support the road to indy, as chosen by his pathetic SNP and the equally pathetic Yousaf.
What has happened to ‘A Scott Abroad’ has he moved back to East Kilbride?
🙂
He might bump into John Main and they can go to the pub together and talk Brexit & what they can do to de-throne
‘Humza the Useless.
Xaracen.
In my response to Les Wilson You will also find a sentence that includes the following qoute.
“England parliament simply agreed”
And to add to that, The convention of the Estates in 1689 reaffirmed the Scots Sovereignty.
This has been done many times, even in Westminster parliament.
Been busy but to address some points made.
Ruby
The new country doesn’t have a national football team under FIFA rules it has 4 regional teams, special arrangement coz we invented football. May be wrong but there be a UK team in the Olympics – no special treatment.
Unionists other side of the coin from Nationalists, just as mistaken
Tories, supporters of the Consrvative Party
Unionist Tories see above
Che, arguing over the exactitudes of historic documents is going to convince nobody, and get you nowhere even assuming you are right. There is no Scottish Embassy, UN seat or anything else. As a country Scotland doesn’t exist anymore.
Breastplate, give it a few years and the countries inside the EU won’t exist (assuming all goes to plan). What do you think was behind the Brexit vote? And I’m as sure my viewpoint is mine as I sure your viewpoint is yours. The idea that we are all parroting propaganda would be insulting to all of us. And the union was not a marriage of equals it was the creation of a single country from 2 seperate countries. Not like a marriage at all.
Xaracen.
I think you will find that I also mentioned in a post that the Scots “Claim of right” is accurate regardless of wether the Treaty of Union has being recognised or not,
Ironically ASA says if there is sufficient polling evidence , then a referendum may be granted. In 2012 independence was polling at 28%, the SNP won and a referendum was agreed. In 2021 independence was polling at 48 to 52%. The SNP won the election and a referendum was refused.
Essentially the higher independence is polling , then the less likely WM will agree to it. Only the seriously deluded, or dumb as shit eejits don’t understand this.
Polls have nothing to do with it. The mandate comes from the people expressed in an election. Unless democracy is now being carried out by snapshot opinion polls that is!
Empty vessels make the loudest noise.
CR,
Your funny and a comedian to say the least,
If Scotland no longer exists as a Country who is the English parliament holding a supposed treaty with today?
And why does the Country of Scotland have a Border which is defined by that of the devolved Government under the Scotland Act as to its jurisdiction.
And why does Westminster reserve from Scotland the Country defence.
Scotland is also meant to be one of the four nation/ Countries that are in the UK is it not,
The problem here is that like Westminster you presume to much,
And the fact remains regardless of your silly debate.
Scotland is still a Country because it can not be found to have progressed into a treaty of parliamentary unions,
England is still a Country.
Just the union is missing, not the Countries.
Dan says:
10 May, 2023 at 6:33 pm
@ David Hannah
Maybe Edinburgh uni will have to shut before the current crop of quorn fed auld reekie school bairns get a chance to become uni educated fuds!
Scotland needs more practically minded and skilled folks anyway. Coz there are far too many “smart” folk who think you can maintain a society whilst sitting on their arse swiping away on a laptop or smarthphone.
You are profoundly right Dan.
Right now, Scotland is completely dysfunctional on so many levels.
I’m right now experiencing just how crazy it is trying to secure accommodation to rent, when my needs couldn’t be simpler and I’m on decent money.
So many societal functions seem completely dysfunctional, and as a profound believer in an Independent Scotland, I cannot condemn any native Scot who abandons Scotland for better prospects abroad.
He or she won’t be respected in Scotland, their needs won’t be catered for, they’l be required to pay their pound of flesh to get a foot on the ladder of the property racket, spend most of their adult life in debt, and be denied any meaningful stake in their Nation.
Yet we wonder why the birth rate is falling…
Scotland is dying in front of our eyes, and unless we get Independence soon, there won’t be much of Scotland left to save.
The “new” problem I see, is that Scotland needs to have faith and belief in our youngsters, give them a start, and give them a stake… But then I look at them and they are very nearly empty vessels every one of them.
There heads are empty where they should be learning skills, developing coordination and swiftness of thought, but they are dreamers, like people lobotomised by watching too many soap operas.
How can transgenderism’s denial of science and biology thrive in a community of rational, intelligent individuals? Something is broken here.
We need men and women who are a credit to Scotland, and we need lots of them, but we seem to be churning out duds and every one of those duds is more surplus added to the pile.
I couldn’t bring myself to watch it due to the BBC’s nauseating propaganda vomit, but even just seeing glimpses, what the fk have they done to the Eurovision Song Contest? It’s just a mincing freak show for weirdos and misfits who think they have talent.
Edinburgh is crumbling. It’s beautiful stonework is in trouble. Edinburgh has stopped training stonemasons. The decision is being taken right now, that these Georgian Terraces of such excellent caliber stonework will not be refurbished by tradespeople, but once they’re decrepit enough to be dangerous, they’ll be demolished and replaced with utter garbage that is overpriced beyond all reason.
“That” racket is the UK’s NeoLiberal Ponzi Housing market which requires it’s money donors to be dumb as sheep, who can be fleeced over and over again, for their entire lifelong years.
Retirement? Is it really a time of joyous fulfillment? Or just peace that the treadmill has finally stopped?
Ask yourself this… Before Thatcher monetised social housing and turned everyone into greedy property owner, where did all that money go, before Corporate finance started hoovering it all up? Than money used to circulate and lubricate our communities. Now they starve, and our society has largely ground to a halt.
Is that right? 🙂
Any other special rules for countries that invented stuff.
Scotland invented loads of stuff!
Some even say we invented the modern world.
Yet here we are being colonised by wankers with zero special arrangements except in football which we can’t play for toffee. 🙂
But hey we can boogie. Yes sir we can boogie.
I’m afraid Robin McAlpine’s finding nothing to raise hopes. The Dunfermline SNP appear to be mounting a coup against their incumbent to instal a healthcare profiteer. https://robinmcalpine.org/buy-my-nurses-you-can-work-them-harder/
@ Breeks, 8.22pm: Excellent comment. I couldn’t agree more, especially with your points regarding biology-denial and the privatisation/abolition of council housing.
I enjoyed reading your response Breeks. Heartfelt and passionate. I can tell you absolutely love our country. You are a true patriot. The essence of democracy. Thinking of something bigger than yourself. The independence cause. Love it.
I attended a wedding in Halifax Nova Scotia, and was feeling patriotic on return. I bought the posh seats of the Royal Military Tattoo. Despite the city swarming with rubbish because of the SNP bin strike.
Nowhere beats the heart so kindly as beneath the Tartan plaid. What a beautiful evening. Until I was tricked into standing for God Save the Queen. And I was absolutely sickened. Ruining the night for everyone involved. And no. Lots of people didn’t sing next to be either.
@ Breeks
We’ve previously discussed the need for more practically skilled workers that are required to maintain our existing historic buildings and infrastructure.
I’ve spent a lot of time renovating old houses in rural areas. And with that experience it always blows my mind when I go into a city like auld reekie and see all the huge monoliths of dressed stone that the new town and tenements on the periphery are constructed with. Plus the roofs and chimneys will all need maintenance and repairs too. That is some serious work.
I look at all these woke uni educated fuds on social media platforms and their priorities as they try to climb on the political gravy train, and I just shake my head knowing that they have the slightest clue of the real skills and graft across a myriad areas we need to run a properly functioning society.
I need clones of myself just to try to keep up with all the work folk ask me to do. I’m almost finished taping and filling the entire upstairs of a house built in the late 1700s. It’s been a long task as I stripped it back to just 4 walls and a roof (which also needed slate work repairs), then I replaced old wooden lintels over windows and doors, then installed new bespoke douglas fir floor joists, and have insulated it completely before boarding it up. This means I have incorporated vents in the 2.5 feet thick walls to let the internal cavity breathe, using lime mortar for the stonework and new chimney I built.
Then I have my veg garden to manage which is well on now with seedlings and planting.
And my other work has ramped up as a business I help out at is closing because the council have done away with business rate relief, so with 7 grand a year extra on top of ridiculous energy costs the owner is shutting the doors. So we need to finish up some of the projects. Just installed the running gear in an absolutely immaculate RS2000 which was nice if a little fraught to work on as had to be so careful not to mark or scratch anything whilst spannering on it.
I noted your housing predicament. You’re a brave lad going to Fife with that new autonomous bus on the road!
Think my motorbike ventures will stay clear of the Kingdom of Fife for the foreseeable…
Breeks @ 8:22pm
A powerful and well written post, Breeks. And spot on. Scotland is indeed a sad and sorry sight to behold right now.
Ruby,
East Kilbride? It’s a dump. Perthshire’s the place where my family come from.
You are so right, Breeks (8.22pm).
The unforgivable neglect you see in those beautiful buildings mirrors the erosion of standards in so many areas of society.
Thank-you for putting it into words. Most folk I know are lost for words at the state of things. It’s as if we’ve sleep-walked into this.
But seeing the renewed energy on Saturday in Glasgow, all those saltires, and hearing real politicians with grown-up, workable ideas certainly gives hope for the future.
Meantime we need to get through the ‘wake-up’ phase and get behind those who are trying to put right what’s gone wrong.
Like Bruce’s wee spider, we just have to keep going.
It’s a Scottish ‘hing.
Can I make a point on Scotland has a border.
Scotland has 6,000 square miles of Maritime waters that were taken in the night by a Labour Government in Westminster without discussion, justification or proclamation.
They took and still take Scotland’s oil and gas reserves without address.
They took our Fishing rights and traded them with the EU.
England’s Supreme Court has declared that Scotland has no power to do anything without Westminster’s permission. We are a trapped second class Colony with no way out they say.
We have a border until it suits England to take it with them.
@ Effijy
https://twitter.com/Grouse_Beater/status/1656406263100579840
Plus… Aye, they love (need) a bit (a lot) of oor gas.
Grid demand is easing off as folk go to their scratchers, but currently 62% of leccy generated in England’s is being produced by burning gas in CCGTs. Not so “green” and pleasant land doon south.
https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/
Scotland is still exporting half a GW of leccy.
https://extranet.nationalgrid.com/RealTime
Hey A Scott Abroad @9.42 , EK is our dump ya fucking roaster. So stick your Perthshire up yer hole. Idiot.
Hey A Scot Abroad @9.42 , EK is our dump ya fucking roaster. So stick your Perthshire up yer hole. Idiot.
4 November 2017: Liz Lloyd arranged an urgent meeting with Mark McDonald and showed him a copy of his twitter exchange with the complainant highlighting his use of the word “fingered”. She told him his use of innuendo was unacceptable and he would need to resign from the Government. Lloyd ended his his career.
Rough justice indeed!! but hey ho!! the hyper sensitive complainants allegations against Mark, although over a year old had deservedly supported by a no nonsense Lloyd, Sturgeon and her campaigning manager James Dornan.
The complainant who wished to remain anonymous has never been formally identified despite evidence surfacing which cast doubt on the assuredness of the verdict which cost Mark McDonald his career. One word “fingered” and an innuendo!!!!
Had the complainant maintained a low profile her identity would have been secure but she didn’t. Indeed she was always available for interview and comment trumpeting her victory for the WOKE activist cause which confirmed the views of many of those who followed events that Mark had been set-up and executed without regard to his mental or physical health, the destruction of his marriage and the catastrophic impact of that on his children.
I recently watched a 1 hour video starring the complainant. Her performance was notable for the number of sexual innuendos she teased the male presenter with, her repeated use of foul language and references to her boss James Dornan threatening to “gub” anyone who might slight her!!!
My quandary!! Should I publish the video link for all to see and judge for themselves or has she forfeit the right to anonymity?
Effijy,
no matter how many times you say it, it’s not “England’s Supreme Court”, it’s the Supreme Court of the UK. And right now, the total number of Welsh, Northern Irish and Scottish judges sitting on it are beyond the proportions of those nations. In other words, England is under-represented on the Supreme Court.
But that’s of no concern, because all of the judges are rather bigger and better figures than to bring their nationality into court.
David Hannah @ 5:45 pm
“If only they listened to Alex Salmond on ferries. Or read Ian Lawson’s blog. His interview with Stuart Ballantyne, chairman of Australian-based Sea Transport Corp, then the islands might have ferries.”
Yes David, the Scots naval architect and leading global ferry designer Stuart Ballantyne is the ‘turnaround director’ Fergusons and Scottish ferry agencies should have had. Another downside of being a colony is that many of our most skilled folk like Stuart had to leave to find opportunity, whilst the Imperial power appoints whatever managers and officials usually from south of the border to run our institutions:
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2021/11/12/how-to-end-the-madness/
This is also why barely 10% of the academics employed in some of Scotland’s elite universities are Scottish, 90% from elsewhere. We dinnae gie oor ain fowk the best jobs; in a colony “the best jobs are reserved for the colonizer” (Albert Memmi).
Alf Baird,
not sure what your point is, but the Turnaround Director of Ferguson’s (who never seemed to have turned anything around) was appointed by the Scottish government. I’m not sure what’s more ridiculous: his day rate of about £2,700 a day for a few years, and not achieving anything of note, or the fact that for 12 days I had a day rate of nearly £4,000 for doing some specialist stuff for the Foreign Office. I did actually achieve my contracted outcome, though.
Are you declaring that the SNP government which appointed him is “the Imperial power”?
A Scot Abroad/An Englishman at Home/A Brit at Sea
“And right now, the total number of Welsh, Northern Irish and Scottish judges sitting on it are beyond the proportions of those nations.”
I’m not sure how many times it has to be explained to you, or perhaps you are deliberately feigning ignorance to continue with your trolling, but nations are not proportions of each other in the same way that sovereignty is absolute not relative. One country is not a proportion of another. Scotland is not a “proportion” of England. The UK Supreme Court is only supreme in the sense that it holds English parliamentary sovereignty (i.e. Westminster) as supreme. A court is to do with the law it upholds, not the nationality of its judges, and the UK Supreme Court upholds English law above all else. It does not recognise Scottish sovereignty, nor uphold Scottish sovereignty, and for that reason, like Westminster and other UK institutions, it is supremacist in nature. It represents England as the supreme nation of the UK, with Scotland subservient to England, and Scots law subservient to English law.
A Scot abroad-
You seemed to forget to respond to the fact that England can take what it wants when it wants from Scotland and we are powerless to do anything about it.
The fact that England’s Supreme Court has some Scots on it means absolutely nothing.
Scotland has its own legal system hundreds of years in the making and no other country
should have any right to over rule it.
Gordon Brown, Alistair Jack, Ruth Davidson, Michelle Moan are all Scottish born.
Would I celebrate and be comfortable if they were in the Supreme Court of fake we are all equal and in it together U.K.?
Not on your life!
So, according to Scotland’s clown First Minister, Humza Useless, Scotland, quite uniquely in the world, will NOT take davantage of its oil reserves to build a better future for its people or to ensure folk have good social care, schools and hospitals. feckin genius!!
That is the extent of the utter stupidity at the top of the SNP and Scottish Government right now.
Then we have that other clown Government minister from Canada, Lorna Slater, who only arrived in Scotland in the year 2000, and who NOBODY elected, telling Scots what policies she thinks Scotland needs. How the f*** can Lorna F***ing Slater know what is right for Scotland? She has only been in the country a few years???? Just another complete grifter in the Scottish parliament.
I mean, seriously SNP, what are you doing??? Pursuing this policy and that policy which NOBODY but Patrick Harvie and his unelected (and unwanted) Canadian chum wants???
Juryless trials, but only for rape cases, is a recipe for utter disaster. A policy, just like the gender nonsense, driven by IDEOLOGY, rather than factual evidence. As many in the actual legal profession have pointed out, there are very good reasons why the conviction rates for rape are low – in essence, they are cases often with little evidence to back up assertions on either side. But, hey, uniquely in the modern world, the clown government ministers at the SNP know better than any of these ‘silly legal professionals’.
What is the new SNP slogan for Canadian tourists? Visit Scotland, then stay and have the brass neck to dictate to the people born here, about what is good for them, whilst claiming a huge Scottish tax payer funded salary.
Will no so-called’ journalists’ even question the validity of Lorna Slater???? How about she leaves Scottish affairs alone, instead of treating it as her very own ‘greeny loony’ plaything.
I was a member of the SNP for a very long time, but eventually left due to the nonsense from sturgeon and her creepy chums. I never though it would ever be the case, but I now desperately hope the SNP lose every damn seat they have at the next UK election. They are a ship of fools, blindly following one ideology after another, with hardly a though for what the people of Scotland actually want. And Humza really is a proverbial waste of space, promoted way above his abilities.
They should make the most of their remaining time in office, because it will be ending soon. I will be voting ALBA, or for anybody who will be most likely to defeat the SNP where I live.
Saffron robe at 0229am,
Very well said. The pretendy ‘uk’ ‘supreme court‘, is a wholly English creation, devised by Tony Blair just a few years ago, in 2009. It is a pretendy, made-up court, which does not recognise Scottish sovereignty. A sham.
The highest constitutional court in Scots law, is the court of session in Edinburgh, as per the terms of the treaty of union. The ‘supreme’ pretendy court in London, England, is just an English thing. It is straight out of the colonial playbook, where courts in all the colonies were made subject to and inferior of courts in London.
Yet further poroof, that Scotland is just treated as a colony by England. I honestly, just wish England’s government and parliament would f*** right off and leave Scotland alone, and stop stealing our wealth, assets and land. That is what every colony told England, and it is what Scotland needs to do now.
Rob @8:45pm
That’s a jaw-dropping post from McAlpine. Public services are being destroyed to create a bigger trough.
This is a eye-opening read for anyone who thinks the SNP is salvageable. You’ll quickly be dispelled of that quaint notion. By the time you’ve cleaned out the parasites the host is surely dead.
Ascot Abroad @11:40pm
“…because all of the judges are rather bigger and better figures than to bring their nationality into court.”
Know all these supreme court judges well do you?
‘Juryless trials, but only for rape cases, is a recipe for utter disaster. A policy, just like the gender nonsense, driven by IDEOLOGY, rather than factual evidence’
No I would disagree with you on that. You are mostly right but what needs to be recognised is that the so called ideologies we see flourishing within our governments, academia, judiciary, the media and corporations aren’t what you could call honest ideologies.
They are pushed for the damage they can cause and this is what juryless trials are meant to be – a weapon.
Place an activist judge to preside over a case of an accused man who is a thorn in the side of the establishment and you have your verdict before it even begins.
Simply take a look around you. A standard Scottish family is literally under siege from an array of ‘woke’ causes that not only are designed to keep us confused and disoriented while we try simply to do the right thing, but are also designed as a narrative to overlay the bare truth that our institutions are being weaponised against us by people who detest our existence and want us gone. If that were not enough we have the economic terrorism that is underway which covers another angle of the same agenda.
If you think this is bad then consider that the same people who are basically pushing paedophiles into close contact with children are also pushing the 3rd world onto us while broadcasting the message that we, as white Europeans, owe the world our subservience and even our disappearance.
If anybody wonders why Joe might be somewhat militant sounding, or maybe a closet extremist, perhaps not the kind of guy you want having his opinion next to yours, then I can tell you what the difference is: I recognise that there is an all out cultural, economic and ethnic war being waged against us and our children have no future unless we start to act like we understand this and start thinking along those lines.
Time and time again I see people shocked by the next radical move, and when someone like me tells them what to expect next we get dismissed, until that very thing happens in a couple of years and it is met by shock.
Consider this: if anybody here has loved ones who are young and just starting out in life it is your duty to face what’s going on and accept the facts for what they are, and then start to consider what must be done for the sake of those young people. Not constantly bleating about some referendum, or why a certain political party of an utterly captured political system aren’t doing what they said. The powers that be have made damned sure that YOU do not have a political way out as things stand and in the end every facet of our civilisation is being stripped down or turned against your children and grand children.
Things can be turned around but people must first recognise that an undeclared war is being waged by our captured institutions against us. Try looking at things from this angle and everything begins to make sense. Then, once you have gotten over that horrible pit in your stomach from this dark realisation, you can start to actually think in a manner that doesn’t play into the hands of people who utterly hate you and yours.
I apologise for the talking-down-at-you tone of this but it is addressed for the general readers and not only you.
This ‘supreme’ court was the pet project of illegal warmonger Blair. A simple minded bastard who thought because the USA had a Supreme Court then there should be one here too. The US one is a real federal court in a proper union. All rulings regarding Scotland by this joke one in London are invalid.
The BBC are fully on board the destruction Scotland and its rebirth as Scotlandshire…last night on misreporting Scotland they interviewed 12 people..not one was a scot. In fact all came from a single country ….Guess which one?
We are in the end game. What are Albas policies on ending the BBC and on placing Scots in leadership roles in major Scottish institutions? Edinburgh University principle is English and we all know that institutions discrimination against working class Scots applications.
boris says:
My quandary!! Should I publish the video link for all to see and judge for themselves or has she forfeit the right to anonymity?
Does she have any legal right to a anonymity?
I don’t think it matters too much who the complainant is the utter incredulous part of this is that the SNP took that complaint seriously.
It was at this point I totally lost faith in Nicola Sturgeon & the SNP and decided if that is what feminism is all about then I don’t want anything to do with it.
I was quite amazed by the reaction of the public to this.
Most agreed that Mark MacDonald was a sex pest.
I couldn’t believe how naive people were & how little they knew women.
Fortunately the jury in the Alex Salmond trial weren’t so
naive.
Possibly a lot of the reactions & name calling was about politics but whatever it was it was a huge mistake especially on the part of men.
All those who called Mark MacDonald a sex pest and took part in the bullying could now find themselves being accused of rape in front of a judge (with no jury)who believes all women are innocent victims who would never tell a lie.
Karma is a bitch!
From .gov website. I assume it applies to Scotland.
“Discussing the trial
“Do not discuss the trial with anyone until it’s finished, except with other jury members in the deliberation room.
“After the trial you must not talk about what happened in the deliberation room, even with family members. You can talk about what happened in the courtroom.
“Do not post comments about the trial on social media websites like Facebook or Twitter – even after the trial’s finished. This is contempt of court and you can be fined or sent to prison.”
How do we inform our servants what we make of the process within our jury room during a rape trial? Do the learned staffers get any feedback from jurors (protected from CoC) to help shape their views or are they using supposition?
This proposed legislation for judge-only trials seems beyond the democratic envelope.
The SNP already has an electoral mandate to hold a fuckin referendum. It is past time they fuckin got on with it.
@ Breeks says:10 May, 2023 at 8:22 pm
money used to circulate and lubricate our communities. Now they starve, and our society has largely ground to a halt
I guess it’s all a matter of perception.
Some people are undoubtedly going short. I don’t believe anybody is starving. Provide the evidence if they are, and a tidal wave of help and support from ordinary Scots will surely flow.
Has our society ground to a halt?
Naw. Lots of good and necessary stuff going on as always.
As for Thatcher – that’s a long time ago. There has been ample time since for the ground swell of principled opposition to general greed and short-term profiteering to bring about the politics and the pressure to reverse the policies her governments implemented.
Yet SFA has happened. Hard to avoid the conclusion that the ‘silent majority’ don’t really give a scooby.
All that aside, there is nothing wrong with Scotland that a charismatic leader, articulating coherent, comprehensive, rational and grounded policies, supported by a competent team, can’t fix.
That’s three things needed: a leader, ideas, and a team. I hope somebody will post on here the day any glimpse of any of these three necessary components for a national renewal is first seen.
Over in Europe, new leaders, ideas and parties are springing up so fast it’s hard to keep up with them. So what’s wrong with Scotland?
Humza Yousaf, a guy made FM in the dodgiest election ever seen in Scotland, the guy who brought us the anti-free speech Hate Crime Bill, will now oversee juryless trials in Scottish courts.
Sheriff Roland McFreisler presiding.
Beau ais,
are you feeling better now that you have got that off your chest?
Somebody declaring that a court is invalid in the comments under an article of a blog doesn’t alter the fact: the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom is what it says it is. Supreme, and the arbiter of what is, or is not, the law in all parts of the UK, including Scotland. On Scottish cases, it arbitrates using the relevant Scottish law.
While the act of Parliament setting it up was initiated in the House of Lords, the creation of the Supreme Court was one of Gordon Brown’s pet projects. The Act was passed at the end of Blair’s government, but the court itself did not form until 2 years into Brown’s administration. Brown is Scottish.
The SNP are really giving me the boak. Pushing ahead with juryless trials despite it being a terrible idea. They just can’t help themselves.
You want a prime example of what happens when you have a cuck judge instead of a jury – just look at the outcomes of the Johnny Depp / Amber Heard trials in the UK (judge only) versus the US (jury).
Amber Heard is a psychotic liar and abuser and it was obvious to the US jury and most people watching on TV.
The Sturgeon SNP are horrific, and I do mean horrific. Get them to fuck. I am so sick of them at this point. Any SNP MSPs going along with this abomination should lose their seats at the next election. It is ‘stand up now or fuck off forever’ time.
Ruby says:
11 May, 2023 at 8:36 am
Fortunately the jury in the Alex Salmond trial weren’t so
naive.
And Boy, were the Tartan Taliban pissed?
IMO the sudden push for non-jury rape trials was a petulant response to the outcome of the Salmond trial. They didn’t get their man – they “lost the battle” but still want to “win the war”. Thankfully, the legal profession in Scotland is up in arms about this ridiculous move.
Judges are not infallible. They come with their own set of prejudices and can be highly politicised. This is why we have juries. It’s a safety mechanism. Can you imagine if a judge that really didn’t like Alex Salmond had presided over his trial and was empowered to determine his guilt or innocence? It doesn’t bear thinking.
@ Joe says:11 May, 2023 at 8:15 am
Good post.
The problem is that in order to fight back against the insidious changes you write about, we must first abandon some of our most cherished rights.
And that we won’t do. So those who wish to, can continue to weaponise those rights in favour of their own minority agenda.
Is it not perhaps too late?
Is our mistake that we didn’t nip things in the bud when we first saw signs of manipulation?
pushing the 3rd world onto us while broadcasting the message that we, as white Europeans, owe the world our subservience and even our disappearance.
Take the abbreviation of the word Pakistani. (I’m so brainwashed I’m not even going to abbreviate the word here on Wings.)
Was this the start of ‘words cause hurt feelings’ so must be outlawed? The start of the denial of freedom of speech?
Most people thought it was crazy at the time but yet went along with it.
If you spoke about immigration you were a racist.
Way back when people put ‘no blacks’ ‘no Irish’ signs in their windows they were trying to send a message to the government but then like now governments don’t listen.
You can say what you like about Christianity especially the Free Church but not so much about Islam.
Say anything derogatory about Islam and then you are branded Islamphobic & a racist.
All very weird.
‘The Let Everyone Speak Party’ will be looking closely at all these ‘manipulations’
@A Scot Abroad
Alba pinched the EFTA/EEA policy off the ISP who are much older than them.
Just keep posting please Ascot Abroad.
If The Salmond trial had no jury and it had been down to Lady Dorrian an innocent man would be in jail right now and all based on blatant and obvious lies. I don’t have an atom of doubt about that. Does anyone…
Craig Murray was convicted of contempt long before he ever set foot in that court.
They can just make it up as they go along to ‘justify’ whatever predetermined outcome they want.
@ John Main
You have tried this “nobody is literally starving to death” line before. But are increased numbers of hungry folk requiring to use foodbanks in Scotland really an indicative sign of a properly functioning and well balanced society?
Article from early December 22 (So before the cold spell that saw ambulances called out to treat 800 Scots suffering from hypothermia whilst energy companies exploiting Scotland’s resources were making huge profits)
“Cost-of-living crisis: Food banks usage in Scotland now higher than during the coronavirus pandemic”
https://archive.is/s8cxF
And food poverty is only one symptom of wider poverty.
https://data.gov.scot/poverty/
I too am delighted the lawyers are not backing this ridiculous idea of no jury trials. They have the sense and experience to see the pitfalls , particularly for the male of the species ( if that is an appropriate description these days)
Women never lie?? Everything they say will be accepted??
Jings!
If the SNP(ScotGov) really want to start earning trust with the wider Yes Movement, they could start by ending subsides to the Newspapers, Arms Companies and Shooting Estates! The majority of these Companies are not based in Scotland !
Redirect all of this cash towards erradicating homelessness and child poverty ? There’s a thought ?
Naw, ye jist ken it ain’nt gonnae happen….
Mugs being mugged, is not news.
Holyrood complicit since 1998.
Independence inevitable? The next generation of mugs, will be robbed by the next generation of politicians. It’s pathological.
Holyrood a failed experiment, if your Scottish, that is.
The ‘Train Spotting’ circle of life (is shite!) as traditional as a fish supper induced thrombosis. Matched only, by the never ending debate of how to end the Union. White bread & circuses.
Other random stuff
https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-trail-of-breadcrumbs/
The Courier “breaking” a story 4 months after Wings.
https://twitter.com/MrMalky/status/1326505258659565568
A tune.
Buggles – Living in the Plastic Age
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8vaoGQCuyg
@Joe (8.15) –
Hear hear, yet again.
If I decided to start posting regular comments stating that the earth is flat and/or that the moon is a base for space saucers, I would be derided at first, then become a severe annoyance, and eventually I would be ‘sent to Quarantine’.
Many of us have friends/relatives who believe that the BBC tells the truth and online ‘fact-checkers’ can be trusted. It can be every bit as frustrating to listen to their pish but they have safety in numbers and are not so easily silenced.
‘Reality’ lies somewhere in between these extremes, doesn’t it? Stripping an issue of propaganda and ideology sometimes reveals very odd-looking creatures.
Let’s accept that there are many people right here in Scotland (let alone the UK generally) who don’t believe that Scotland exists as a nation in its own right. It seems incredible that the existence of a nation can become a ‘faith’ issue, but there ye go. Many people believe that Scotland is a part of England. Many aren’t aware of Scotland at all.
Until very recently we had an ongoing ‘blood & soil’ debate generating much more heat than light and it got nasty at times. No-one appreciates being labelled as a racist/bigot and that kind of language tends to have a chilling effect on open discussion. Along with attempts to define the franchise for the next referendum, this created a log-jam and it hasn’t budged a jot in years.
Franchise appears, to me anyway, to be the crux. The process of resolving it will address many of the issues you allude to.
And that debate, if it ever happens, should start out from the simple statement of fact that self-IDing as another nationality is dangerous nonsense.
Because it is.
This is a very interesting article in the FT…
“Britain and the US are poor societies with some very rich people.
When it comes to average household incomes, the UK may soon need to ask migrant labourers to take a pay cut”
https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcontent%2Fef265420-45e8-497b-b308-c951baa68945
“Starting at the top of the ladder, Britons enjoy very high living standards by virtually any benchmark. Last year the top-earning 3 per cent of UK households each took home about £84,000 after tax, equivalent to $125,000 after adjusting for price differences between countries. This puts Britain’s highest earners narrowly behind the wealthiest Germans and Norwegians and comfortably among the global elite.
So what happens when we move down the rungs? For Norway, it’s a consistently rosy picture. The top 10 per cent rank second for living standards among the top deciles in all countries; the median Norwegian household ranks second among all national averages, and all the way down at the other end, Norway’s poorest 5 per cent are the most prosperous bottom 5 per cent in the world. Norway is a good place to live, whether you are rich or poor.
Britain is a different story. While the top earners rank fifth, the average household ranks 12th and the poorest 5 per cent rank 15th. Far from simply losing touch with their western European peers, last year the lowest-earning bracket of British households had a standard of living that was 20 per cent weaker than their counterparts in Slovenia.
It’s a similar story in the middle. In 2007, the average UK household was 8 per cent worse off than its peers in north-western Europe, but the deficit has since ballooned to a record 20 per cent. On present trends, the average Slovenian household will be better off than its British counterpart by 2024, and the average Polish family will move ahead before the end of the decade. A country in desperate need of migrant labour may soon have to ask new arrivals to take a pay cut.”
Pity they are not up in arms about a ‘woman’ being charged with rape with ‘her’ penis and also all these ridiculous ‘sex crimes’ that Alex Salmond was charged with.
I couldn’t serve on a jury because I haven’t a clue what constitutes a sex crime or WTF her penis actually is.
I reckon they feel the need for juryless trials until such times as we bigots get it through our thick heads that women have penises and that touching someone’s shoulder & the likes is a sex crime.
I was sexually assaulted the other day in the post-office. I had my earbuds in and wasn’t paying attention when I was sexually assaulted by the man behind me in the queue he claims he was just trying to tell me it was my turn but I think he was a pervert who liked touching women’s padded jackets. He looked a lot like James Dornan (not the handsome actor the other one the one who employs Rosa Zambonini the ‘woman’ who just loves Nicola Sturgeon and would do anything for her)
@ James Barr Gardner
And let’s not forget the money making trees!
https://robinmcalpine.org/scotlands-money-trees-are-making-us-poorer/
🙂 Clever!
Just as the SNP’s gender self-id legislation gave the green light to male sex pests to get themselves into women’s toilets so would the SNP’s juryless trials give the green light to unbalanced misandrists, or just plain psychos like Sturgeon who want to get someone they don’t like put away.
The Law is supposed to protect everyone. The Law is not there to be be the facilitator for malign individuals.
A Scot Abroad @ 12:37 am
“Are you declaring that the SNP government which appointed him is “the Imperial power”?”
No, the ‘SNP Government’ is a colonial administration, which exists to serve and protect the interests of the Imperial Power. Much as we see in its actions and deeds, if not in its words. Humza and his team are Ministers of the British Crown after all, and that Crown is what they gave their oath to serve. A sharp dude like you should have figured out the basics by now?
Fowk cannae ser twa maisters – thay aye luve ane an laith the ither.
The Scottish Solicitors Bar Association has tweeted this:
“The following faculties have so far confirmed they will be boycotting juryless courts.
Aberdeen, Airdrie, Ayr, Borders, Dumfries, Dundee, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Glasgow, Hamilton, Highland & Moray, Paisley, Perth and West Lothian.
More are meeting this week”.
A quick scan through twitter reveals the following statements over the last few days. No idea how accurate they are but they do raise questions about plans to conduct rape trials without juries in Scotland.
Following a recent Sunday Times article, Manchester barrister Ben Knight tweeted (England & Wales):
“… jurors are statistically more likely to convict for rape than other serious offences. The problem is with policing and evidence and CPS decisions”.
And according to @CrimeLineLaw (Manchester):
“The [UK] Government plans to increase funding for victim and witness support services four-fold by 2024-25 as part of its efforts to increase rape prosecutions”.
Joe (8.15am) sees through the ‘so called ideologies’ and why they are being pushed. Well said, Joe. Do these tweets suggest a further possible motivation?
A couple of old sayings spring to mind:
“Where there’s muck there’s brass” and
“follow the cheque book”.
Surely this isn’t going to end up yet another channel for taxpayers’ money?
Forgot to add that the James Dornan character who sexually assaulted me in the post office referred to me as doll How demeaning is that? Was he thinking about a blow up doll or a Barbie doll? Total pervert!
Probably wears nappies & plays with dolls
Rosa Zambonini the ‘woman’ who just loves Nicola Sturgeon and would do anything for her
refers to Nicola Sturgeon as a doll.
Me too but my Nicola doll is of the Vodoo variety.
Rosa Zambonini. just sayin’ in bold.
I believe Stu wrote an article about Rosa Zambonini
Was it ever a secret who ‘Woman Z’ was?
Was Sandi Brindly the one that was caught bullying her staff and ignoring normal procedures.
Just the sort of upright person we should listen to
Humza car crash ahead
@ Dan says:11 May, 2023 at 9:33 am
You have tried this “nobody is literally starving to death” line before. But are increased numbers of hungry folk requiring to use foodbanks in Scotland really an indicative sign of a properly functioning and well balanced society?
Indeed I have.
And you are right, it is not.
My point is that there is some wiggle room between users of food banks and starvation. I have long argued that the use of OTT exaggeration does more long term harm than good.
@ Mac says:11 May, 2023 at 9:42 am
I would be interested to know what percentages of the populations of Norway, Slovenia and Poland are foreign-born immigrants, both legal and illegal.
Cos here’s my take on the situation on a country (the UK, for example) which contains hundreds of thousands of people, maybes millions, who have arrived here with little more than the clothes on their backs.
I think it bleedin obvious that these people will be very poor, asset free, and desperately in need of access to things like foodbanks, etc. My ‘inner Tory’ then resents being told that it is somehow or other ‘my fault’ that these people are very poor, asset free, and desperately in need of access to things like foodbanks, etc.
I know, my ‘inner Tory’ is a bastard, but there it is.
@ Ruby
You’re falling into simplistic bigoted stereotyping presuming that entity in the shop might have thought of you as a Barbie doll.
Who is to say in these times of gender confuzzlement it may actually have been an Action Man they saw when they viewed your form.
I think you will find on closer inspection that neither Barbie or Action Man sport peepee sticks in the groin area.
Action Man did have a scar, but iirc it wasn’t from having his dick or moobs removed.
Incidentally, TransAction Man never became a thing for marketing reasons as it was thought society would relate to it being about Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses, and Arthur Daley in Minder, due to their numerous deals in those respective TV series.
Alf Baird,
the Scottish government is not a “colonial administration”. FFS. Scotland governs itself for practically all domestic matters, and Scots are fully represented in the union parliament for every other matter. Scots form part of the U.K. government, and quite a few have been PMs of the U.K.
No other “colony” in human history has been so empowered within its own land, and over the affairs of a great union. Get a grip of yourself.
@ John Main
But Breeks only used the term “starve” in his post 8.22 pm post last night in the context of communities failing for various reasons, rather than individuals starving through hunger.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/walking-with-zombies/comment-page-1/#comment-2759302
“Ask yourself this… Before Thatcher monetised social housing and turned everyone into greedy property owner, where did all that money go, before Corporate finance started hoovering it all up? Than money used to circulate and lubricate our communities. Now they starve, and our society has largely ground to a halt.“
@Robert Louis
Re will no so called journalists, if you go and have a look at the Herald and/or Guardian the journalists are also, in many cases, not from these shores and/or have a shared ethnic background with Slater. Anyone working in these environments who is not of this group knows that they are skating on thin ice and that to say two and two equals four is career suicide.
@Joe
Re the guy who falsely accused me of claiming that all trans people are abusers of women and who threatened me with actual physical violence in the name of tolerance on here a few days ago. The simultaneous claim of victimhood whilst threatening is a well worn path. Re your post, very similar here. I am on the mailing list of a well known Glasgow cinema which is a registered charity and its weekly mailouts are as predictable as other branches of the Arts I subscribe to, pro immigration by any means, pro trans, pro satanic and anti white. I honestly believe that everything is out in the open now as they believe that the finishing line is in sight and that we can soon be added to the list of dead civilisations which they keep as a warning not to cross them.
Just a very personal plea, I love to read Alf Baird’s informative posts (oh, if only the administration had obtained his input prior to embarking on their Ferries disaster) however they are spoilt for me by the veering into and out dialect, or ‘Braid Scoats’ or whatever the correct term for it is.
It’s not what this weegie pensioner grew up or is familiar with, and regardless of whether or not this is thought of as my “cultural deprivation” it is just so frustrating to get involved in an articulate, informed post only to discover halfway through it has swerved into a totally different language.
Please, Prof Baird, could you assist this old guy by posting in one language or the other in each post … honest, I’ll be ever so gratefull.
🙂
Guilty as charged!
My question is what does the ‘TransAction Man’ do when he’s not scootin’ aboot in his ‘Reliant Robin’
doing dodgy deals?
You say he has no penis but does he have a ‘universal vagina’
WTF did I hear your say?
Ask Genevieve Gluck
@ Anton Decadent says:11 May, 2023 at 11:28 am
I was particularly amused and entertained by yesterday’s widely reported story about the woman who was thrown out of a branch of an international coffee shop franchise when she “mis gendered” the person who was employed to serve coffee to customers.
The woman’s husband filmed the spat on his mobile.
A part of me so wants the same thing to happen to me. I would sue their asses in every no-win, no-fee court I could find.
However, like with Bud beer, I will just give the sad coffee chain a miss from now on. Go woke, go broke.
I won’t name the coffee chain on here. A couple of second’s internet searching finds the story easily enough.
ASA 11.22am
Saying “get a grip on yourself” to Alf Baird is as stupid as the morons on twitter who tell Craig Murray to “grow up”.
Funny how these phrases appear like the slamming of a door by a truculent adolescent at the end of an argument they know they’ve lost.
Here’s a suggestion: have a wee think about what someone has actually written and chuck in a bit of humility then maybe find something worth taking on board rather than just doing the knee-jerk “I know better” thing.
Just a thot.
Joe @ 8:15am
Well said, Joe. You’re right. We’re in a war, and a vicious one at that. And if we don’t win we’ll have seen the last of “oor bonnnets and us”.
Ruby @11:51am
Wha’s like you, Ruby? 🙂 That’s a compliment just in case you’re wondering.
Been busy, but I’m still pondering over your “Let Everyone Speak Party” idea. I’ll get back to you with my thoughts on it soon.
Here you go:
https://twitter.com/WomenReadWomen/status/1656154462577373185
alternatively you could let Mr Meno help you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrkOCiSotSA
“bonnets”, apologies
Hi John Main.
Starbucks and the claimer of misgendering was the manager.
He’s been sacked.
@John Main
Re the coffee chain footage, I saw it. I also saw footage of a guy in Canada who is regularly physically assaulted at trans demos. In the latest one when either he or someone viewing the altercation mentioned estrogen the man who was in his face said that mentioning estrogen is racist.
Re Canada, a couple of years ago I was watching footage of a meeting at the equivalent of the town hall at which a new Canadian was being honoured. The film crew interviewed a guy who was one of the audience, he had been far Left, visited Cuba and Russia, but then became disillusioned. He was involved in local politics and said that he had mentioned to one of the great and the good who were honouring the new Canadian that this woman advocated white genocide to which the woman he was talking to had replied “I know but she’s lovely.”
SteepBrae,
I make no apology. It was a completely malign description of Scotland’s status within the U.K. by Alf Baird, and it deserves to be called out for the falsehood that it is.
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND 2022:
Quote,
“The Royal proclamation that dissolved the Scottish parliament 1707.
As part of the Act of Union of 1707 the parliament of Scotland was dissolved”.
“The LOSS of Scotlands Sovereignty was widely unpopular at the time”.
In the years following 1707 it provided a focus of discontent with the Hanoverian regime around which Jacobite support could gather.
I red that post.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/orthodox-pete/#comment-2758882
My question for Mark would have been
‘what is a trans person?
I didn’t do it because I thought that might have been unfair on Matt.
I now appreciate why the trans flag has all the colours of the rainbow, all the colours of the rainbow in pastel shades and all the colours of the rainbow mixed together to make, black brown & white.
Anything goes. Trans is whatever you want to paint it.
‘The Let Everyone Speak Party’ will seek to repeal the GRA 2004 and for no similar act to be in place in an iScotland. No GRA & absolutely no sex changes. . Sorted!
Oh shut up I know it should be read and not red.
I was a bit deep into the colour mixing hence the mistake.
A Scot Abroad @ 12:42 pm
“a completely malign description of Scotland’s status within the U.K.”
Colonialism has always been ‘a co-operative venture’ with native elites, indeed how does Lord Lugard’s ‘indirect rule’ work otherwise? Scotland is nae different, juist as Burns telt us aboot sic a parcel o rogues in a naition.
The ‘union’ is an awfu guid fraud, obscured for sae lang by a worthless violated treaty and a complicit elite and bourgeoisie class. Tho Scotland’s subordinate ‘status’ is now increasingly obvious (enforced Brexit, a compromised national party, theft of natural resources etc?); except perhaps to those in ‘denial’, which is a key part of the colonial ‘condition’ and the Imperial (British) ‘cultural illusion’.
“I make no apology. It was a completely malign description of Scotland’s status within the U.K. by Alf Baird”
A “Scot” Abroad.
Now lets see who to believe when it comes to Scotland’s status within this rancid union, Professor Alf Baird, a known stalwart of Scottish independence who has written excellent books on the Scotland.
Or a unionist mouthpiece who is trying their damnedest to discredit not just Professor Baird but the entire case for dissolving this putrid union.
Its a no brainer as they say.
Alf Baird,
describing Scotland as a colony is a complete falsehood. And you know it.
Alf Baird @ 1:58pm
Interesting stuff, Alf. I’ve said to friends and work colleagues in the past that Scotland felt like it was an English colony.
I didn’t have the knowledge to back up my claim, it was just my own opinion. It’s good to know that ‘feeling’ was based on actual facts. Facts I’d never been taught.
On a different note. Here’s some feedback on one of your earlier posts on book titles.I like both titles for your book.
“Zombie Nation” would have been my favourite because it sums it all up nicely. But I also like “Doun-Houden”, it has a nice ring to it. I think the main problem with “Zombie Nation” as a title is that folk would buy it and then be disappointed it isn’t about actual zombies. Then you’d have to deal with Netflix wanting to buy the rights, and pushing you for “Zombie Nation 2 – Insurrection”.
Alf,
Would it be accurate to say that there’s no such thing as a genuine Scottish Government, and that in reality it’s actually The Scottish Colony Administration Service? Or am I pushing the colony idea a tad too far?
I mean ‘legally’ Scotland might not be an English colony, I don’t really know for sure. But it certainly feels like it is a lot of the time.
The ‘falsehood’ v ‘colony’, ping-pong, on here, needs tested in court, at the highest level.
The Law (self-preservation) Society of Scotland, already colonised by The Crown Office. We’d need to go a different level, for the above test.
The Union is a sham.
New balls please.
@ Northcode
Well a google search of “Colony” throws up this definition: “A country or area under the full or partial political control of another country and occupied by 5ettler5 from that country.”
Therefore I call the parliament at Holyrood the Administration of Devolved Powers.
All the major influencing powers are reserved to Westminster.
A google search of “Colonisation” throws up this definition: “i>The action or process of 5ettling among and establishing control over the indigenous people of an area.”
I don’t know if you saw my post the other day about speaking to a health visitor who has 200 newborns in their area, and only around 20 were born to both Scottish parents. Make of that what you will.
And as you are relatively new on here I will post this link to an article you may not have seen before.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2023/03/26/healthy-demographics/
FYI I have used a 5 instead of the letter s as that word gets caught in the moderation filter. As the word is from definitions rather than my own I feel that will be my defence for cheating the system.
Awaits incoming hammers from Stu…
Northcode @ 3:45 pm
“I mean ‘legally’ Scotland might not be an English colony”
You might have to check that out with a court, if you want a legal ‘opinion’. The problem with the ‘law’ is that there are different legal jurisdictions and interests, so you might get different opinions even on the same question from different courts – Scottish, British (‘supreme’), or International.
The long established and accepted scientific definition of colonialism is quite clear and, as an academic, that is sufficient for me, as I describe in this paper published in an international academic journal.
https://bpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/wp.towson.edu/dist/b/55/files/2022/05/The-Socio-Political-Determinants-of-Scottish-Independence.pdf
Alf Baird,
With one parliament dissolved from the treaty from the treaty
And enough evidence to explore that the other one parliament continued.
Scotland cannot be any thing but Colonised.
Dan @ 5:34pm
Thanks, Dan. Very helpful. I haven’t seen your post about the 200 newborns, but I’ll take a look. Only 10%? That’s a bit depressing. And thanks for the yoursforscotland link.
Alf Baird @ 5:51pm
Thanks, Alf. I appreciate you giving me the benefit of your obvious knowledge on the subject. It all seems very convoluted and complicated. I’m genuinely trying to understand just where Scotland stands in terms of the union with England. And what legal or constitutional mechanisms could be deployed to get out Scotland out of it.
It doesn’t help that some posters seem to be trying to confuse matters.
I have a much greater understanding of the issues since reading comments like yours, but still a long long way to go, I think.
Alf Baird,
“…. The long established and accepted scientific definition of colonialism is quite clear”…
Within that paper, you don’t really advance your case. It’s really a set of somewhat tendentious assertions that you don’t bother to prove, and your advocacy that Scotland has been internally colonised is fatally flawed because the Scots have every tool and lever, including sometimes holding the prime offices of the UK, to avoid this situation entirely. The very concept of “internal colonialism” isn’t accepted widely, except among a group of self-referencing 20th century academics who collectively fail to move the needle at all. It looks like you are the uncritical follower of a failed thesis.
A Scot Abroad @ 11:56 pm
“your advocacy that Scotland has been internally colonised is fatally flawed because the Scots have every tool and lever”
‘Internal Colonialism’ is a a well-established theory based on research of many such such cases worldwide. In the context of analysis of the UK ‘Celtic periphery’ and its social, economic and cultural (under)development relative to the ‘core nation’ (England), this was actually Professor Michael Hechter’s thesis. My analysis merely confirms much of his.
As for ‘Scots have every tool and lever’, do you not realise what ‘reserved powers’ means? And in dealing with the serious psychological effects of colonial oppression, which tools and levers do you have in mind?
A Scot Abroad.
I’m the proof, pal. I was frequently and viciously belted with a leather strap for speaking Scots words, or sometimes just for nothing in particular, by ‘teachers’ in a bog standard Scottish primary school.
How’s that for a tendentious ( I had to look this word up) assertion?
Did you hear that? I think it was the sound of a microphone hitting the floor.
Alf Baird @ 5:51pm
Alf, you’re a bloody star. And, whether you like it or not, are now officially my new best pal.
I have just finished reading your brilliant paper, “The Socio-Political Determinants of Scottish Independence”. I mean, just fucking brilliant (please excuse the expletive, but sometimes it’s just the perfect word to deploy in a sentence. Although, maybe not a good idea to use it in any of your academic papers, just a heads-up there).
It explains so clearly why, as an indigenous Scot, I have always felt the way I have. And why in primary school, from the age of five onwards, I was frequently belted with a two, often three, tongued tawse for using a Scots word, or sometimes for just walking down a corridor minding my own business(that Mr Campbell was a six foot tall big bully bastard).
My faither was a pal of Jimmy Reid and there was always a lot of talk in our house about the plight of the Scottish working class. Maybe being exposed to that rebellious environment lessened the effects of the indoctrination programme I was put through at school.
The talk between my dad (he would have totally agreed with your paper, by the way) and his pals from the shipyards must have sunk into my sub-conscious. I’m embarrassed to say I found their conversations a wee bit boring at times. In my defence, I was only a laddie and had much more important issues on my young mind – like Mae Colquhoun; whit a stoater.
Anyway, thanks again for the link. I know with absolute certainty that your paper details the reality of Scotland’s status in the union, and no-one is going to persuade me otherwise. I know because I’ve lived it and felt it all my life. So, if anyone out there wants to try persuading me otherwise, knock yourself out.
To be accurate, I’m referring to Alf’s post of 11th May @ 5:51pm
Northcode @ 11:18 am
Thanks for that. You are right, those of us who have lived with colonial oppression tend to more readily understand it, as opposed to the more ‘pampered’ native groups who remain in denial for a bit longer according to postcolonial theory.
There is a shorter summarised version of the theoretical framework published as a pamphlet here:
https://salvo-cor.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/THEORETICAL+CASE+FOR+SCOTTISH+INDEPENDENCE.pdf
Alf Baird @ 1:08pm
Thanks, Alf.
I hope you don’t think I’m making light of the subject by the facetious manner in which I write. I think that’s a common approach, along with gallows humour, by folks from the west of Scotland in particular,.
And after reading your paper I suspect it’s one of the symptoms exhibited by an oppressed people. That thought has just this moment occurred to me. I could be wrong and it might be purely a cultural thing. Please feel free to correct me if you think I’m wrong about that?
Alf Baird,
7 of the 57 PMs of the UK have been Scottish, a slightly higher total than is proportionate. Of the rest, none at all have come from the west of England, the entire of Wales, and only 2 from the south east and the north west, despite the populations of those areas being the same size of larger than Scotland’s. So Scottish men have indeed had the chance to wrong any perceived inequities of union. That they haven’t isn’t a justification for claiming that Scotland is “internally colonised”, which remains a thesis held by very few academics of note.
We could try another perspective. It was England’s raw maritime power that enabled Scotsmen themselves to colonise or trade with great parts of the Empire. Men such as my great-great grandfather who built a giant commercial trading business in Rangoon trading in teak, tea and molasses, cottons from England and iron from Scotland and Wales (or his cousin who built ships on the Clyde for sale to the USA) before returning to Perthshire in retirement. The Scottish diaspora is estimated as over 4 million, and the vast majority left Scotland for opportunities not afforded in Scotland. Only a low proportion were forced to leave through the clearances, a blot on Scottish history carried out almost entirely by Scotsmen.
This “internal colonisation” theory you follow is utterly crackers. Warped, purblind, without balancing context, and completely a-historical. The union with England has been the greatest thing to ever happen to Scotland. And it’s the same for England: being in union with an ancient enemy enabled the UK to become the pre-eminent world power for over 130 years.
A Scot Abroad @ 8:01 pm
“The union with England has been the greatest thing to ever happen to Scotland. And it’s the same for England: being in union with an ancient enemy enabled the UK to become the pre-eminent world power for over 130 years.”
That is your obviously biased Imperialist opinion, and without acknowledgement of what UK has become today, its 60+ former plundered colonies since decolonized and now independent states.
The evidence confirms that the ‘union’ as you call it has likewise fleeced Scotland’s resources and decimated its people and culture, the key features of colonialism. What remains is what we see – an under-developed exploited Scottish nation and ‘a people’ and culture rapidly perishing.
This is the inevitable outcome of colonialism if it is allowed to continue, the only remedy for which is decolonization (i.e. independence). Which explains the rise of an independence movement based on the solidarity of the oppressed ethnic group.
Alf Baird @ 10:34am
Alf, have you seen this chatbot AI?
A Scot Abroad @ 8:01pm
It’s pretty impressive. I mean it blethers a lot of nonsense, but the grammar and sentence structure isn’t bad (fails a bit on using paragraphs, though).
It has obviously been programmed to tempt unsuspecting readers into believing it is human and that the British Empire WAS the greatest thing since…well, empire biscuits.
The problem it has is that 99.9999999999% of the entire human population on this planet we call Earth despised the British Empire. It seems this poor AI bot has been set an almost impossible task by its programmers.
Also, its programming seems to undermine its own prime objective. For instance, the part about great-great grandfather plundering Burma as part of an aggressive colonisation programme is a tremendous own goal.
And the part about great-great grandfather’s cousin building ships on the Clyde failed to impress me. ALL my cousins built ships on the Clyde.
And then there’s that bit about 4 million Scots having to leave their own land for lack of opportunities. At first glance it seems like a sound counter argument to the internal colonisation theory. Until the reader is hit hard with the realisation that those emigrants (let’s call them economic refugees) were forced to leave their homeland BECAUSE of an internal colonisation programme. Own goal number two.
I think it might be correct when it says the Highland clearances were carried out by Scotsmen. But I seem to recall in your excellent academic paper “The Socio-Political Determinants of Scottish Independence” that you clearly state colonisation, and I assume that also means internal-colonisation, cannot effectively happen without the cooperation and collusion of the target’s indigenous elite. Another massive own goal I would say.
It speaks of England’s “raw maritime power” as if the Scots, who for the most part were the inventors and creators of the modern world, couldn’t build a few boats of their own. Of course, having been colonised, they weren’t permitted to. Own goal number four.
Its final assertion, in a desperate bid to convince the reader it is an AI with the potential to achieve sentience, is that the union was the best thing to ever happen to Scotland. Sadly, at this point its programming completely breaks down and goes into an infinitely continuous loop of bollocks that completely destroys its own arguments on every cycle.
To summarise, this chatbot AI looks good on the surface. It knows some big words and it makes a valiant attempt at creating reasoned arguments. But closer examination of those arguments exposes the sloppy programming underneath its shiny exterior. Good attempt, but I’m afraid it’s a no from me.
“That is your obviously biased imperialist opinion.”
Indeed, Alf – an imperialist opinion and a belief in English/British exceptionalism!
Northcode, excellent comment and you are quite right. I noticed it was an AI Bot or, more likely, someone sitting in an office (probably a government unit) using AI to generate comments and incite dissention. I tried doing the same – using AI to generate a comment – and when you do that the Bot can only counter with definitive assertions which are clearly ludicrous and lacking in empathy. As you point out, the comments may appear to be kosher superficially, but look deeper and you find – as per Alf’s comment above – a biased and flawed operative underneath!
Saffron Robe @ 2.17pm
Thank you, Saffron Robe. I think your take on ASA is probably the more accurate. It’s probably an operator sitting somewhere , bored stupid, picking their nose, and waiting for lunchtime to arrive. AI bots are pretty good these days but still fall way short of actually having any actual ‘intelligence’.
Also, I was having a bit of fun with my post, too. 🙂