Wings Over Scotland

Lower than a vipers gonads.

Aaaargh I right-clicked on the whole thing and got confronted (or affronted) by a picture of Davidson and Cameron!

I love the front page:
‘A stronger economy at home
Renewed respect abroad
Real change in Europe’
My sides!

Mmm, it went as well as this bit: “DAVID CAMERON MP
Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party”

Now working on the Mark 3 version as the current Beta one went Gamma.

Conundrum –
How do you reset expectations of English voters, to the UK’s real position in the world, in terms of economic & political strength, when those voters will not listen?
Double conundrum – when those same English voter’s drag Scotland down because their world view cannot be properly reset, what is the excuse?

midnight tommy robinson could be elected to eu

The fishing boat shown is registered in Brixam England.

bookie from hell @ 2.27pm

That’s not including such charmers as Ann Widdecombe, Carl Benjamin, and of course the big Farago himself. (And that’s only on this side of the water, too.)

Lets not get sidetracked by making it all about Boris. Its about so much more than that.

Apart from one small part of Scotland all the results are expected between 10pm on Sunday 26 May and about 2.30am on the Bank Holiday Monday.

A Scottish voice at the top table, Mundell? Such heft!
This would in other circs. be funny except that the joke is on the Scottish electorate.
However, if even the hypothesis of Scottish independence scares Unionists, the joke does lose its punch line.

They definitely had a more seriously co-ordinated graphic design back then and that’s got to count for something, surely? Eh?

Just like a cow pat. All hard and shiny on the outside, but inside… oh, don’t titter, fill in the rest yersels.

It is more about when or if the SNP will ask the Court of Session for a ruling on whether the original Section 30 is still valid.

Mind you if they do that I bet No10 will do something to withdraw or cancel it, except they know that doing that would drive many Scots into the Yes camp.

So, essentially both the SNP and No10 are in a Mexican standoff over it.

That is the only reason why the court case is not already going on.

@Ryan M says: 26 May, 2019 at 1:56 pm:

” … Just another example of Ruth’s never ending backtracking. Do you think her feet point backward she does that much walking backwards?”

Did you mean like this, Ryan?

link to youtube.com

The Rise of Scotland – It’s Time.

As a Nation, fettered and restricted by limited devolved powers, Scotland does not bad. We manage reasonably well, despite Westminster interference in our economy, finances, trade, taxes, policies and other fiscal strategies.

Considering the lack of control over our own finances, and the ongoing exodus of talent, and economic migration, we still, as my Grandmother was apt to say, ‘make ends meet.’ This is not to ignore or diminish the problems that Scotland has, particularly around ‘standards of living’ and ‘child poverty’. Nor is it to suggest that Scotland should be satisfied. We will come on to this.

We are a country rich in beauty, history, open space and natural resources. The Scottish culture, personality and humour are an international brand, backed up by an enormous diaspora of people who are proud of their Scottish heritage. Scotland is a country with a beating heart, and a kind soul. The Scottish brand is better than the UK. And better 100% of a vibrant respected Scottish brand, than 10% of the Great Britain brand focused on London and sullied by clumsy diplomatic policy and illegal foreign wars. In the past, Chinese media described Great Britain as a has-been country.

The idea of Brand for a country applies particularly well to tourism and produce. It is affected by the personality and values of its people. It connects well to what a country looks forward to in the future. For these reasons, Scotland has a particularly valuable brand, in its produce, people and potential.

Scottish whisky, water, beef, scenery, wilderness, islands, glens, tartan, tweed, bagpipes, poets, music, heather, thistle, salmon, kippers and New Year. Just some of the Scottish brand that we need Independence to grow. And some of the negative reputation ascribed to Scotland as part of the Union, which we need independence to improve or shrug off – Drugs, alcoholism, violence, obesity, poverty, subsidy junkies. These are not who we are. These are labels generated by others as part of the overall devaluation of Scotland’s worth. The myth of second-class subsidy junkies.

Less brutally, some in England see Scotland as a big rugged, natural, national park, fit only for visits, or if you are wealthy enough, a cottage. But equally damagingly they don’t consider that Scotland is a Nation that should be allowed to manage their own affairs, by and for the benefit of the people who live there.

Then there are those in English Politics who ignore the UK deficit, yet call Scotland’s deficit, a subsidy. And it’s no ‘invention of Scottish Nationalism’ that Scotland is indeed the poor neighbour in this unequal UK community.

Scotland played a disproportionately positive and influential part in the Enlightenment and also have a disproportionate number of significant historical inventions given our size. Sure, it’s in the past, and there is no need to list them all here. Suffice to say that there is something in the Scottish culture and psyche that generates a unique level of ingenuity and creativity. We are in danger of losing this unique part of who we are as a culture, but there is every reason it should recover in a wholly Independent Nation.

Scotland has enormous potential, the determination and the flexibility to rise again. Scotland doesn’t want to be ‘Great Scotland’, or ‘Powerful Scotland’, we want to be ‘Progressive Scotland’ and again contribute something to the world. Scotland wants the opportunity to rise again. It was Voltaire who wrote, ‘We look to Scotland for all of our ideas of civilisation.’

While Scotland struggles to fulfil her potential inside this Union, the UK as a whole, is a social, economic and political disaster. Its political and economic leadership has been deficient for 40 years or more and looks, with the Brexit time-bomb and Faragism on the horizon, likely to worsen. It’s hard to imagine that Boris could possibly be allowed to become PM, yet the Tories don’t have much else. And they need a maverick who is willing and able to damn the consequences of a ‘No Deal’.

It is worth looking at the results of 40 years of Westminster leadership. It’s easiest to see when you compare the UK with its natural peers, the countries of Northern Europe: in general, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland who are all richer than the UK, and when you go there it feels like it.

Unlike these countries, the UK has not earned its living in the world for the last 40 odd years, running a permanent balance of payments deficit of about 2-3% of GDP, and this despite North Sea oil, despite massive privatisation, despite repeated devaluations of sterling, and despite it being easier to sack staff here than in Northern Europe.?

The UK is the least industrialised, has the lowest GDP per capita, and has the lowest productivity of all the nations of Northern Europe, with exceptions, in some respects, of France and Finland. Yet, despite the successful economic example of its neighbours, the UK national debate about economic success is couched almost purely in terms of less regulation – less EU interference – and hardly ever in terms of infrastructure investment, including apprenticeships and engineering degrees, and reliable long terms credit for business (as opposed to freedom for banks to chase short term profit and fleecing retail consumers).

Germany, for example, attributes its success to investment, including infrastructure and training, and has recently reduced its university fees. Note that against German and other currencies the pound has devalued by factor of about 4 in the last 40 years.?The UK already has the most flexible workforce in Northern Europe and the least successful economy. The excuse? It was the EU.

The UK is the most unequal society in Northern Europe with the lowest mobility between income groups from one generation to the next: Google Gini Index, OECD social mobility rates, percentage of women in positions of power, executive pay as a percent of lowest paid, percentage of youth in training, cost of tertiary education. Note there is no country in the world that has both high inequality and high social mobility between groups that the UK has. (So, the EU gets the blame again.)

This not only makes the UK a less pleasant place to live, it also means that it is making worse use of its main asset, its people. This in turn makes it less able to compete economically and so more reliant, like the USA, on immigrants. This in turn increases social divisions: German research shows, unsurprisingly, the demand for private schooling increases with the percentage of immigrants.?The UK has arguably some of the worse social problems than its peers: Google life expectancy, obesity rates, cocaine usage, teenage pregnancy rates, % of the population in prison. (Must be the fault of the EU?)

It is worth asking why the leadership of the UK is so poor? Is it really that it has been unlucky for a whole generation or more in the people who lead and all it has to do is keep changing them until a good lot turns up? Really? It seems more probable that the problem is structural. (Must be the fault of the EU) Of course, one wonders if Farage played a part in the EU being less beneficial for the UK than it could have been. Every Farage intervention in the EU over the past decades must have had some negative impact.

Consider the predominance of the South East of England. The combination of Westminster’s centralised control of taxes and spending, and the phenomenal growth of a poorly regulated financial centre. This has led to a monopoly of power and influence in London and the surrounds.

Monopolies tend inevitably to incompetence and corruption (does anyone still doubt that Westminster is corrupt?).?The centralisation of power started with Mrs Thatcher and continued under Blair. She wanted to make a country where worthies like her father could prosper but they have made a playground for crooks like her son. (Probably the EU’s fault)

The FPTP system of voting coupled with a lack of local authority power is a democratic deficit, steadily eroding civic virtues and people’s belief. Without some kind of proportional representation (the norm in Europe) if you hold a minority opinion your view is not represented.

But the modern world is increasingly made up of groups of minority opinions, often unrepresented and resentful. Fewer and fewer UK citizens are members of major political parties Add to this the low levels of social mobility, i.e. entrenched privilege, and the fact the South East has not experienced any recessions, and it means that the metropolitan chattering and political classes are insulated from the effects of austerity or other social policies. They are free to indulge not just in the ideologies of left and right, but to take up without consequence almost any position on any topic. In other words, politicians are all out of touch.

Good leadership is about constancy of purpose but in the UK everything is up for grabs, everything is about careerist politicians or business leaders: hence there can be no consensus on long term policy, nothing for example like the agreement between German unions, Business and Berlin on apprenticeships. Any positive vision of the UK is usually a politician’s career construct.

So, decades ago, the UK was the ‘Sick Man’ of Europe. Now the UK is the ‘Sick Man’ in the EU, openly blaming the EU for their illnesses. Although the same EU maladies didn’t infect the Germans or the Dutch for example.

The UK has also a historical legacy, the idea of Britain being Great (powerful) on the world stage, which not only tempts – Blair and Iraq illegality, but deludes – May, Boris et al, inappropriately lecturing the worlds leadership while overestimating their own ability and competency.

But the above simply distracts from the business in hand: in the end, there is no power, and little social welfare, without economic success.

Thatcher gets much credit from the right, for ‘improving the UK’. But did she? Her methodologies were to kill the Unions and Workers rights. And meanwhile running down the UK’s financial assets. (Oil, Nationalised Industries, Coal and Steel, and of course people) There was something in Thatcher’s psyche that was inherently against the poor, against the blue-collar workers, against nationalised interests, and anyone who stood in the way of pure capitalist ambition. This is where the legend, ‘Thatcher hated Scotland’ came from.

If we could roll the clock back and replace Thatcher’s destructive methodologies (kill or cure) with the kind of enlightened thinking on the Workforce that abounds in the more successful and progressive organisations (or countries) of today, we would not have the debate that the whole of the UK is having now. Tory and Labour polarised across South and North. Brexit versus Remainer. An archaic, elitist and self-serving Westminster was unable and careerist politicians unwilling to do anything about it. The UK class structure cannot accommodate real pluralism or true (fair?) democracy. It’s all been ‘smoke and mirrors’

But sadly, and surprisingly, Thatcher did not turn the average resident of Scotland towards Independence, it has taken what many people see as ‘Labour Betrayal’ to start to turn the tide of generations of labour voters (Old father / son traditions die hard in Scotland). It wasn’t quite enough in 2014. People dislike change, especially when blitzed and carpet-bombed by Westminster Propaganda.

The last three years Scotland has been remarkably patient about Brexit. There should be much more anger that Westminster hijacked our democratic right to remain in the EU. Indeed, Scotland should be furious over the Labour and Tory betrayals over the past thirty years. The imaginary Scottish Conservatives and the Pretend Scottish Labour.

Take the long list of incompetent Leaders and pretenders to the throne, who did nothing for Scotland, and should frighten the life out of people. (Blair, Milliband, Brown, Cameron, Corbyn, Gove, May and many other who have passed.) Now Farage, Boris and the rest of the would-be PM’s are portents for the future of the UK and our children. Sorry, did I put Corbyn in the past? But as far as Scotland is concerned, Labour is passed as long as it works with the Tories and does nothing for Scotland.

Scotland is a Labour colony no more. Scottish poverty and austerity were the catch 22 that kept Labour in power in the North. (And we got Lamont, Grey, Dugdale, Murphy, Ballie and Sarwar to name a few doughnuts) Luckily they were exposed between 2012 and today)

For Scottish Tories, we get the ‘No Surrender’, one trick pony, with its ‘Independence is bad’ battle cry on some kind of 8 track repeat. They are like the Charge of the Light Brigade, poor communication, wrong target, took direct orders from above regardless of the consequences, contributed little to the battle … But probably made as much noise.

But the real Conservatives have already done enough damage with austerity programmes. They charged the innocents. They ran down people like animals. They killed, hurt and starved people and this cannot be changed. This is written in the history of the last decade. Our civilised country lost its humanity. May cried and Scotland cheered. She “loved her country” Sure she did. Spoken like a true English Nationalist.

But the only way is to move forward and change. People need to leave the misdeeds behind, never forgive or forget, but start to do something that leaves behind a legacy to be proud of (Can you imagine explaining to your Grandchildren the politics of the last 40 years? It reads like a sick horror story)

The residents of Scotland have the opportunity to be what they want to be. With Independence we can recover more quickly from the Westminster economic, ‘criminal neglect and waste’ of the last 40 years.

Pluralism is healthy. And if the increasingly bitter Westminster Brexit disaster doesn’t damage and divide her citizens, Scotland has a chance for real change and positive improvement based on decent economic principles and competent Government. In other words, a new start, a clean slate. Scotland owes it to Scotland to avoid the Brexit contagion. Scotland voted to stay in the EU two reasons. One, the EU works for Scotland generally. Two, we had prior experience of ‘Fear Campaigns’ and were less fooled than the South by the Leave Propaganda.

Fear is a form of control. It is meant to steer the recipient away from the intelligent debate of the alternatives. It is designed to worry and confuse the electorate. It is designed to ensure that the undecideds ‘play safe’ with their voting choice. It is intended to ensure that the Establishment and the elite get the ‘democratic’ result that they want.

Fishermen and their communities in Scotland have long memories, since their betrayal by Heath in the 70’s. But supporting Brexit doesn’t solve their problem. Fishing rights will always be an expendable currency in any Westminster negotiation. Tories in the South will not support fishing communities in Scotland as long as they can trade for some advantage for themselves. The South care nothing for the North.

Residents of Scotland deserve much better from their so-called Government (Westminster) and the twisted rhetoric of fear from the Tories, Better Together, Farage and the Brexiters. The UK is broken. Westminster is broken. Politics are broken. Scotland does not have to be subsumed by populist politics imported from the US.

Have you ever stopped to wonder why Labour and Conservatives in Scotland, are dead against independence? Why do they hate the very idea, when it’s clear that independence has many advantages? They are so terrified of Independence that they will not admit it has one single advantage, out of hundreds. Don’t you think that is strange?

There is a very simple reason for this. They are both Political Parties run from London, and their politics will always be in the interest of the South, and never Scotland. There is a genuine financial case for a United Kingdom in London and in the heads of the ‘defenders of the status quo’. The epitome of this was the McCrone Report. These major political parties were complicit in the illegal suppression of this information.

Brexit has taken us closer to the edge. Scotland needs to take action now to avoid decades of hegemony, deprivation, stagnation and obscurity. It’s time for Scotland to return and say hello to the world.
If Scottish Independence does not happen this time, then the monopoly of power by Westminster and the South East, strengthened by Brexit, will ensure that the UK’s slow-motion train wreck will continue to right-wing mayhem.

On a positive note for the South. Scottish independence may, just may, trigger a re-think in England. English Independence is a possibility. Westminster needs to be closed. It’s not the Mother of Democracy, today it’s the Bitch of F**k-ups. It’s no longer fit for purpose.

Scotland has a massive potential to explore and exploit. It is a country that has suffered from arrested development as a result of the Union. From the plateau of arrested development great things can and will evolve.
Support Independence as the only legitimate legacy to allow the young people of Scotland, fairness, opportunity and social justice. Support Independence because Scottish government of the people, by the people, for the people… is the only way to a brilliant future.

The UK, an equal partner in the EU, blaming the EU for all it’s forty years of poor performance. Scotland an unequal partner in the British U

For residents of Scotland, there should be no case for the Union or Brexit, except wooden boxes, where they should be laid to rest together and buried without memorial. Now is the time.

Mac – excellent piece!

When comparing and contrasting uk and Scotland with other countries in Northern Europe, always worthwhile looking at the Irish!

Higher overall exports than Scotland, despite having a smaller population and no oil.

Higher GDP than the uk.

Higher standards of education.

Ability to network effectively internationally and push brand Ireland!

All this, from a being the butt of uk jokes, who is laughing now.

Would this have have happened under uk rule? No!

Braw post, Mac!

schrodingers cat

In 2014 all the councils had declared by 11.30 pm. Western Isles tomorrow.

@schrodingers cat says:26 May, 2019 at 5:49 pm:

” … what time do they announce the scottish results?”

I don’t know but there is an EU Election count special on Broadcasting Scotland at 07:00pm

link to youtube.com

It has a reminder thingy if you go to the link now.

This week, we are bringing you your Full Scottish a bit later to coincide with the EU Elections in a special Scotland Counts programme.

Lewis Cedar will be in the studio with guests and we hope to be bringing you reports from the Highlands count in Dingwall with Victoria Johnson and from the count in Ayr with Corri Wilson.

As polling has been taking place all across Europe, we will have reports and discussions about what is happening in the rest of Europe with Pilar Fernandez live from Galicia.

We will continue until all the Scottish results are in across Scotland, except for the Western Isles which will be counted tomorrow morning, but we hope by the end of this evening to give you a picture of what the results in Scotland will be.
link to youtube.com

Declaration times for the #EuropeanElections2019

see here
link to twitter.com

@Mcdenster says:
26 May, 2019 at 1:53 pm

Lower than a vipers gonads.

Could limbo dance under a vipers gonads with a top hat on.

You can also follow this account for results as they come in

link to twitter.com

There is also a live blog but they are having some tech difficulties right now. You can access it from the twitter link above.

Mac@5.18pm

Get yourself a book deal.

BBC Radio 2 Claudia Winkelman – good 20 mins on “our girls” could bring it “home” . What I wondered are they talking about. Us, We, Us, the lionesses!

Then it dropped – cmon Engerlund cmon win it for us says the commentator for the British Broadcasting Corporation. Women’s World Cup. First game England play a team called Scotland.

Come on Scotland – getitinterum!

Turnout in the Holy Loch area of Cowal over 50% at all stations. Significant increase on last EU vote.

While we wait…

Aye ah need two new tyres put on mah beastie like

Funky Sunday 🙂

Ten percent of the voters in Scotland are English people living in Scotland and ninety percent of them are against Scottish independence , they will vote tactically to support England’s Westminster reign over Scotland.
I expect a high turnout in Fife Orkney Shetland borders Edinburgh all the areas where there are large numbers of English people.
Scottish people have already made their feelings known they voted remain in the brexit referendum and don’t see these EU elections as being as important as English people across the UK see them.

English people living in Scotland will turn out in high numbers to vote in these EU elections because every vote to them is a vote to retain England’s control of Scotland so expect the Lib Dems to do well in these EU elections in Scotland.

@Robert Peffers
Wow. That video is incredible.
15 mins of comedy 🙂
Piers Morgan is clueless, unprepared and patronising.

That leaflet has a photo of an oil platform. The photo having been reversed, the field name on the side of it is obscured. It looks to me like ‘Saltire’.

Well, reading that manifesto was quite the challenge!

A work of true fiction, a contender for some prize surely.

Particularly liked the part dealing with broadband…

oil*

Hi Robert Peffers at 8:23 pm.

You typed,
“O/T: I came across this on YouTube – it is a clip from 5 days ago of Nicola being interviewed. I nearly wet myself at the English interviewers bad manners, total ignorance and obvious desperately anti-Scottish bias. It looked like Nicola thought them hilarious too.”

I watched a video of that interview later on that morning, that somebody had done a video of, as they watched it on their TV. I think I came across it on Facebook. I think I may have it downloaded and saved it at work. I’ll have a look tomorrow.

Onnyhoo, that “official” Good Morning Britain video on Youtube, that you linked to, cuts off too soon and does not show what Piers Morgan said when the interview was concluded.

He congratulated Nicola as being a straight talker and the only party leader who had accepted their invitation to be interviewed, then threw the gauntlet down to Teresa May and Jeremy Corbyn to be as open.

If I have it on my work Mac, I’ll link to here tomorrow.

Brian doonthetoon. Yes I posted that on the morning of the interview with Morgan. His words were she had more bottle than may or Corbyn. Obviously some in here thought I was mibbees trolling.

RP @8.23pm Robert I’m glad you nearly wet yourself at that interview with Piers morgan and Susanna Reid , I personally was incandescent with anger , this ARROGANT AGGRESSIVE TAG team were deliberately out to demean and denigrate ANYTHING NS had to say , they weren’t interested in any of her reasoned explanations or discussion of her views , this constant raising of 36% of SNP voters were against remaining in the EU can easily be demolished by saying , well that means 68% of SNP voters wanted to remain in the EU so does that mean that we have to do what the minority want , yet the wastemonster government tell us repeatedly and continuously that brexshits 51% to 49% is the will of the people and must be enacted irrespective of people’s change of mind

Also I don’t think NS should think that her treatment by these people should be considered to be hilarious , NS should be OUTRAGED at their conduct and should insist that she not be continuously interrupted and should insist on being allowed to answer their accusations

NS is a seasoned politician who should be extremely adept at answering and dealing with awkward biased interviewers but this was a cringeworthy and amateurish presentation of our FM , their aggression and insulting behaviour should have been met with positivity and a determination to DEMAND respect instead of awkward smiles and grins
I cannot stand aggressive bullying people but you will never gain the respect of these imbeciles by being meek and mild , this is why tRuthless thinks she has the upper hand at FMQ’s

In 2014 the UKOKists won 4-2. If the indy side can reverse that result tonight, mark that down as a major achievement and a declaration of intent that Scotland will stay in Europe.

Twathater10.06pm my thoughts exactly. My wife and I watched the interview, and I’m shouting at the screen .ffs will you tell that ignorant pr**k Morgan and his sidekick, ” if you’ll stop interrupting me and let me speak’. F*****g grrrr.

Radio 5 live gives some good news for SNP with 3 vote totals in Scotland in. SNP topping poll in all, Brexit Party well down but 2nd in two and Labour 2nd in one.

SNP seem to be drawing votes from across board says BBC.

Sorry was catching bits & pieces of it faintly from a distance.
🙁

Renfrewshire mentioned?

Hi Bobp (and Robert Peffers).

After I had posted my previous comment, I remembered that I had stuck the video on a Flash Drive that goes back and forward between work and home, so I could stick it on my boss’s wintelbox, for him to watch. So I checked my troozer pocket – and found it!

I hope you don’t mind, Bobp but I have uploaded it to Youtube, to facilitate linking to it here. As you’ll know, it includes the preamble before the interview but also includes the stuff in the last minute or so, that was not included in the official video.

link to youtube.com

But, I would remind you of this:
Check out the last comment, in red, at lower right, from Piers Morgan, which I took the liberty of adding to Rev Stu’s original poster. (That’s me for the hammers…)

Brian doonthetoon.even my English wife couldn’t believe the vitriolic way Morgan and Reid continually interrupted the FM. I think she couldn’t believe it herself.

Glen chats to Lesley Lairdon Scottish tv channel.
Neither looking happy. ‘Scots@ Labour getting hammered.

Prof Curtis predicting 39% – 40& of votes in Scotland.

Am I hearing right that Carlos puigdemont and oriol junqueras have been elected as MEP’s.? For catalonia. Brilliant.

East of England returns had over 9000 spoilt votes if I heard it right!

Plaid doing well in North Wales
BREAKING: Local results from the EU elections…

Anglesey – Plaid: 7,144, Brexit: 6,791, Labour: 1,890, Lib Dems: 1,603, Conservatives: 1,157, Greens: 941, UKIP: 668, Change UK: 382
Gwynedd: Plaid: 18,009, Brexit: 7,886, Labour: 2,761, Lib Dems: 2,224, Greens: 1,826, Conservatives: 1,335, UKIP: 886, Change UK: 513

Scotland thinks—–the rest of the UK doesn’t!

Getting drunk on Yoon tears.. Brilliant

Exit poll for Wales:

Brexit Party – 32.5% – two seats
Plaid Cymru – 19.6% – one seat
Labour – 15.3% – one seat
Lib Dems – 13.6%
Conservatives – 6.5%
Greens – 6.3%
UKIP – 3.3%
Change UK – 2.9%

Labour vote the big story of the night – on latest figures down to 9%. That is pretty damn close to political oblivion.
Will the North British accounting unit simply shrivel and die?
Or rethink its death wish in allying with the Tories to oppose IndyRef2?
Odds heavily in favour of the former, methinks.

Wales results – official

Brexit Party – 271,404 – 32.5% – Two MEPs – Nathan Gill and James Wells

Plaid Cymru – 163,928 – 19.6% – One MEP – Jill Evans

Labour – 127,833 – 15.3% – One MEP – Jackie Jones

Lib Dems – 113,885 – 13.6%

Conservatives – 54,587 – 6.5%

Greens – 52,660 – 6.3%

UKIP – 27,566 – 3.3%

Change UK – 24,332 – 2.9%

(Rejected ballot papers – 5,655)

First time ever Plaid Cymru beat Labour in a national election. (Sorry about the Brexit Party vote, folks – but a great night for us Nats.)

Votes in Wales for hard Brexit parties (@brexitparty_uk plus @UKIP) = 298, 970

Votes for clearly pro-Remain parties (@Plaid_Cymru plus Lib-Dems, Greens and CUK) = 354, 805

Votes for parties with less clarity (@WelshLabour plus @WelshConserv) = 182, 420

@Welsh Sion
Great result 🙂

Stirling SNP 38.2 % Tories and lib dem 2nd equal on 15% each, Brexit on 12%.

After 26 out of 32 declarations %
SNP 36.9
Brexit 15.1
Lib Dem 14.6
Conservative 12.2
Labour 8.8
Greens 7.8

Well it looks very like Corbyn’s Labour has just died.

Down to around nine percent in Scotland is political extinction and in England the LibDems took more of a vote than Labour in Corbyn’s own Islington constituency.

Labour are finished, wiped out, dead, and the people know it.

Well done the SNP who are doing well. This is now the time to push to jettison English Tory / Brexit / UKIP control of Scotland against our will.

Final figures, save for Western Isles will confirm .

Chap on BBC R4 had an argument with Presenter that BBC is not reporting the statistics properly, obsessed with Farage but actually if you add up the votes cast for Plaid SNP Lib dems Change UK then Remain is actually in the lead and it’s high time the facts were reported correctly i.e. the people of the UK actually want to Remain.

BBC presenter refused to accept that the BBC is misleading and not reporting correctly!!!

Interesting few minutes of live radio…

Actually had Kirsty Blackman on discussing how well the SNP are doing tonight.

Terence (oops it’s Terry now ) Callachan@8.41pm

Callachan the anti English bigot shows his racist colours once again. Do comments like his help the campaign for independence?

Final stats for you tonight from Wales:

Brexit Party 32.46% (+32.46) 2 Seats

Plaid Cymru 19.60% (+4.34) 1 Seat

Labour 15.29% (-12.86) 1 Seat

Lib Dems 13.62% (+9.67)

Conservatives 6.53% (-10.90)

Green 6.30% (+1.76)

UKIP 3.30% (-24.26)

Change UK 2.91% (+2.91)

Looks as though Labour has lost its two seats in Scotland. With the votes that are in so far the SNP have 3 seats, Libdems 1, Tories 1 and Brexit 1.

Listening on R4 they finally go to Edinburgh to hear what’s happening on Scotland.
Sadly it had to be rudely interrupted to go to Southampton – a very important region. Now they’re back in London talking about the Brexit Party. Now Nigel Farage addressing the Nation.
BBC.

Well I hope the first person Nicola Sturgeon thanks is Ruth Davidson for asking the electorate to send her a message lol

Tommy Robinson: stone cold last. !!oh how we laughed.

BBC now interviewing Nigel Farage.
They’ve clearly never heard of Scotland down there. Fortunately, Stu is tweeting results so at least there is one source of info.

Good map showing Scotland nearly all yellow.
link to twitter.com

BBC: Ann Widdecombe is going to Brussels.
Mike Russell: Could she not go a wee bit further?
lol

Curtice doing a balance of leave v remain but ignores snp votes, Jesus wept.

I see from Stu’s Twitter that “SNP beat ChUK *in the whole UK*”.

So maybe now we’ll get better coverage than them on the Beeb news and That Panel Programme.

=cough=

Remain vote beating leave mentioned on BBC but darn Sarf when counting up the parties votes no-one (no-one) even mentioned Scotland – SNP! 🙁

PETRA 4.46 AND RAB PEFFERS 4.49 DID YI MEAN THIS BEEZER OF CON-SERVATIVE AND UNIONIST D.U.P.-ING PARTY CABINET MEMBERS link to comicvine.gamespot.com

SNP won 29 out of 31 LAs so far, LDs first in Orkney and Shetland, but SNP gained vote share in both. Shetland was close all the same:

Shetland Islands, Scotland
Liberal Democrats Share %29.6 (-4.4)
Scottish National Party Share %25.9 (+8.6)
The Brexit Party Share %19.7 (+19.7)
Green Share %11.2 (-1.2)

Orkney Islands, Scotland
Liberal Democrats Share %33.5 (-1.9)
Scottish National Party Share %24.2 (+7.3)
The Brexit Party Share %16.2 (+16.2)
Green Share %11.3 (-0.7)

link to bbc.co.uk

zoom in and out

Labour Party has completely collapsed!

Even Duncan Hothersall is calling for resignations!

Many people asking Branch office leader ‘Reginald Dickson’ to resign, claiming no one knows who he is anyway!

‘Buckfast Socialist’ Neil Findlay, is partly blaming Kez for Labour coming in third place (must have posted his message when they were at the heady heights of third)

Kez responds with a tweet saying ‘Yous are fifth mate’ Yous? has she left Labour already?

I think we might have to order some popcorn in for the next few days, this looks like it might be about to start getting messy!

BBC did briefly go to Edinburgh where an English accented reporter (no idea who) opined that the big winners in Scotland were the SNP and the Brexit Party! So that’s that.

Now back to Europe to talk about all the right wing parties there, soon to be joined by lots of Brexit Party reps.

There are no Scottish politicians available to talk to the BBC. I suppose they’ve all gone to bed. Luckily Jo Swinson and Nigel Farage have stayed up.

Okey doke. 2014 result for Tories was 231,330 17.2%, Current percentage is 11.7%, so they’re DOWN 5.5%. Yes, down down down, down 5.5% in Scotland. We’ve seen peak Tories, they’re going down. And down. Bye now, please take your mud with you on your tackity boots.

From 2014:
WESTERN ISLES
SNP 3,310, Labour 1,842, UKIP 847, Con 761, Greens 500, Lib Dems 243, Britain First 88

so that’s going to make no effective difference to the overall result, except it should make it 30 out of 32 LAs for the SNP.

Patrick Roden @ 01:25,

It’s because we don’t exist. (Except when we want to bail out of the UK, that is.)

Patrick Roden
Don’t blame me. I’ll not clipe this time, so you’ll have to check up thread for the correct source. 😉

BBC1: Anne Widdecombe chuntering on like a big wean, whilst looking like a bl**dy madwoman, saying that the Brexit Party will now have a say in the Brexit negotiations. Farage is stating this too and saying that their EU wins will be reflected in a GE. She’s then told that the negotiations have been formally terminated, so what can they do now, and responds by saying, “so the next Tory leader is going to sit around doing nothing after they are elected”, leaving me with the notion that they plan to pop in and out of No 10 over the next 5 months. So with Scotland once again voting overwhelmingly to remain in the EU we’ll no doubt be excluded from talks and be telt what to do by a coalition of Tory, DUP and Brexit party vipers.

Curtice saying that it’s a one issue (Brexit) election and that the results show that it’s a draw. So in other words we’re (England) back to square one with the Brexit party versus Libdems / Greens. We’re a polarised country he says. No doubt referring to England only again. He goes on later to state that the SNP EURef vote share of 40% falls far short of the 50% plus that we need to win IndyRef2 and then says, with a smirk on his face, that we won’t get a Section 30 anyway.

…………..

Call me Dave says …. “Where’s Dickie?” Gone into hiding with Ruthie the wee wummin that’s been telling everyone that she’ll be the next FM?

…….

Congrats to Wales, Welsh Sion.

……..

Looks as though Angela Merkel is in trouble.

………

Iain Blackford is on now and getting the Independence message across as brilliantly as usual and stating that the SNP is the best performing party in the United Kingdom. Oh and just loved seeing the map of Scotland totally coloured yellow right down to the border with a couple of orange blobs covering the Orkneys and Shetland due to voting for the Libdems who of course want to remain in the EU too.

As for, errr, ummm, Labour that’s it nearly forgot the name:

link to twitter.com

Time for Robert Leotard to do the swan song dance. He cost David Martin the election.

Yes and for Mad Ruth the Mooth, she called for voters to send Nicola Sturgeon a message – and they certainly did.

Where to now for the Blimp one has to ask. Back to pushing the prom and or playing toy soldiers. The wummin ain’t no front line politician.

Yeh, send Nicola a message!!

Mmm, quick EP analysis, bearing in mind iScotland membership / transition.

Greens so far 70, but also add 3 SNP MEPs for 73 – up from 51.

ALDE at 107 which lost the 2 ScotLab MEPs, but should gain the LobDem one for 108 – up from 68.

EPP lost some seats 179 from 216 and so did S&D 150 from 189, which means they don’t jointly get a majority – so that strengthens the position of the Greens and ALDE.

Which is not a negative for iScotland, and could be a +ve.

Ruth Davidson:-

link to mobile.twitter.com

………..

Nicola Sturgeon:-

link to mobile.twitter.com

Those were actually projections, so probably NOT plus 3 for Greens and 1 for ALDE. My bad.

@RJS
Yes you’re right, my bad – again! David Martin and Catherine Stihler were indeed of the S&D group.

yesindyref2 @ 03:14,

To save you any more brainwork at this, the hour of the wolf, you can find the projected results as a graphic if you scroll a little way down the following page:

link to euronews.com

I should have been in my bed long-ago but I can’t find a text I found a couple of days back. I couldn’t switch-off with it niggling me. I didn’t mark the page as I thought it a bit technical, but I’m on a bit of a role so here’s a different perspective on legal theory, that might be of interest. Btw, I had been looking for a paper called “OPPORTUNISM AS CRUCIBLE: RETHINKING EQUITY IN VIEW OF RELIANCE INTERESTS AND LEGAL EVOLUTION”. I thought it topical (I’ve got the pdf, which I might drip-feed in installments). 😉

Anyhoo…

EVOLUTION, POLITICS AND LAW

I. INTRODUCTION

The law begins and ends with human behavior. The ends of the law focuses on human flourishing, and the means of the law is to channel human conduct. The needs and wants of humans ground the norms of the law, from the overarching to the secondary. Hence, for the law to be suitable and effective, it must be based on a clear vision of the human condition.

Evolutionary psychology is a discipline that helps to meet this requisite, for it is a powerful, but controversial, vehicle for analyzing and understanding human behavior, and hence, legal and social doctrine.

The aim of this article is to demonstrate the potential usefulness of evolutionary psychology. To achieve this, I discuss the controversy over the discipline and identify the political roots of the debate. In the end, I hope to show that evolutionary psychology provides a valuable tool for those involved in the ordering of society….

scholar.valpo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1341&context=vulr/

yesindyref2
A source you might be interested in, I’d forgotten all about it.

Official Journal of the European Union
Information and Notices
link to eur-lex.europa.eu

Now we’re cooking with gas. That’s me done. And so is the UKOK plc., mk.

The European model of constitutional review of legislation
link to academic.oup.com

.
Good morning Craig Murray,

I stopped buying the Herald but do see it’s front cover when buying The National. You are right about disgusting Tom Gordon and the Herald not noticing Scotland anymore.

When the subject of dead tree media short-changing Scotland arises, I reach for the PressGazette and abc circulation….

link to tinyurl.com

The Herald parent company lost £7,000,000 in the last statutory accounts and of course have killed off the Sunday Herald. The only thing that worries me is The National drowning along with the sinking ship that is the MV Herald.

Craig please keep up the good work with your website. The fleet of Scottish independent and independence websites are the way to go.

My main media wish is the disreputable BBC Scotland could be closed down and a proper, independent terrestrial broadcaster created. I fear that BBC Scotland keep 5% to 10% of voters in the NO camp and depriving Scotland of it’s future.

Best wishes, Al.