Wings Over Scotland

@ Ruglonian

Agreed 🙂

An excellent interview/chat, cheers for sharing the unclipped cut

The video should assist former no voters on their journey to Yes

It’s said 1 week is a long time in politics, this time next Thursday

Listened all the way through, Stu, and glad to have done so. I’m left with the idea that once the broad canvas has been created, the present, and possibly future, interest lies in exploring the important details. Notably the tension between waiting to see how Brexit unfolds past October 31st,on the one hand, and on the other hand, the itch in the Yes Movement to get organised, get ready, and have something prepared to move Independence forward.

Boris Johnson’s elevation to PM came as no surprise whatsoever, but his choice of Cabinet surely revealed an almost ruthless intent to bulldoze his way to leaving the EU.
Adds a bit of urgency to the Independence timetable, does it not.

An extra helping of Stu. Grand.

BoJo is now promising a new golden age. Deluded isn’t a strong enough word.

Off topic.
Johnson on PMQs…wind in sails, England arising? Anglo-Saxons sweeping like wolves on the fold? This may be just a flash in the pan, public school debating society performance. If not, and you do need to take stock of his entourage, do we possess those with the ‘know thine enemy’ skills and chutzpah to stir up a fine cleansing Scottish storm?
Truly there is no finer, and more easily targeted sight, than the English ruling clique on the make.

Well done Stu for highlighting the failure of the SNP to establish in law whether an s30 is needed for an indyref.

Or if it is, and refused, what is the legal basis for Scotland to exercise it’s right of self-determination. Such as a majority win for pro-independence manifesto MPs.

When I say indyref, I don’t mean an opinion poll but, a legally authorititive vote on whether Scotland should dissolve the Union.

The SNP have grown too comfy in their Scottish Parliament devolution seats as administrators of the British Empire’s Scottish colony.

Following the EU Withdrawal Bill, the devolution powers of the Scottish Parliament have ALREADY been pre-stripped ( if Brexit goes ahead), with powers reserved to Westminster.

Expect even further action to nullify the Scottish Parliament and SNP while the SNP administer their British Empire devolution.

And Tweet about the injustices of it all.

The SNP will be left to decide who can decide who is a man and who is a woman and administer the austerity cuts on councils and the Scottish NHS.

And it seems that’s been the role the SNP have been happiest doing since 2014 under Nicola Sturgeon’s “leadership”.

New Craig Murray article out today:

“Johnson’s Westminster Cabinet is Far to the Right of Thatcher”

A fine and hot sunny afternoon to you Alex Salmond

Hmm, now that you have interviewed the excellent Wings…

Would you like to consider writing a guest article for WOS?

Cheers for all to date Alex, ahm ah big fan 🙂

I wonder Why a couple of my comments went on the pre-moderation?

Aussi, fair play and comment to our politicians from and of the Scottish National Party, presently holding the tory party in their HOC to account

Check out JRM nervously squirming in the background, they’re all static

You’re going down Johnson

Two observations from yesterday…

Did you notice:

– Former PM Theresa May being upstaged by her hubby’s reactive comment of “that wisnae me” when a protester shouted out “Stop Brexit”, she lost her place ha ha ha then said “I should think not”

– Boris the Johnson arriving to meet the queenie and having to be told by the 2nd greeter to turn and wave back to the people, he forgot

Ain’t it fun!

Mark

Haun’s aff. The internet free cave is bagsy’d.

Great stuff Stu and I can’t wait for Alex Salmond to clear his name. If you’re reading this Alex I’m sending all of my love and best wishes to you and Moira X

……………………

BBC news reporting that Ruth Davidson is raging about Mundell getting the heave-ho and talking about breaking away from England again. Not on their online site yet (if ever). Just wondering what they’d actually do if they did dump England? Support remaining in the EU? Aye right!

link to capx.co

……………………….

Johnston gets telt by Iain Blackford:-

link to bbc.co.uk

Ooops (Blackford Video) meant to add scroll down to ‘latest updates.’

This is worth a scan.
link to quora.com
Especially so in the light of the new English pm’s exalted views on ‘being British’ and being independent.
It also implies that if we truly desire independence we must be prepared to boldly go ahead and seize it.
Whether that ‘we’ constitutes a majority is academic, as it is the case that a minority of hard liners, supported by the British state apparatus is holding Scotland back and that under the new régime that apparatus will not be lacking in aggression.
As for ‘grievance’, the notion that Scotland doth complain too much is based purely on an anglocentric, blithely colonialist and cultural supremacist perspective. The subtext of history books tells a different story for those with the wit to work it out.
Put simply, there are some views that will never change no matter how much ‘preaching’ they might receive. What then, brothers and sisters, is to be done?

Looks like Ian Duncan is staying as the other minister at the Scottish Office.

So the SO ministerial team is a major landowner who has hardly ever spoken in the Commons and a failed candidate who was ennobled and put in parliament literally within days of being rejected by voters in the 2017 election.

Thursday afternoon, fuck it! (that’s me quota for today, mibbies)

Our former no voters be The Changeling’s:

link to youtube.com

Knock yerselves out!

NB There are 10 songs within the L.A. Women album

With Boris and his extreme right wing government, we’re definitely facing the end game one way or another. I hope this is the catalyst to shake the SNP into action. This is all or nothing territory now.

I cannot see the EU granting a extension for the UK to sort its shit out – what has changed? There is even less likelihood of the current WA terms on the table being agreed by WM.

They may grant a token short extension to see the results of a GE but it will be futile as a GE is all pointing to a Tory / Brexit Party coalition.

All those Wings BLT waiters – how long do we keep waiting?

Everyone in WM/HR has fucked off for holidays like it’s a normal governmental cycle!!!!

Time is now, time to act. Forget stopping Brexit get on with independence.

IF nobody has any objections… think ah’ll try out the other eight, within space and time

Don’t ye just not LOVE the Theresa May as she’s NOW walked oot the door.

link to youtube.com

Scotland has been down SO GOD DAMN long under Westminster overrule

Break the lock & key

New analogy forthwith:

See with the Johnson being ‘king’ of the present UK…

link to youtube.com

He be the crawling snake… don’t you know

What ah room eh (NB Jim sounds very Scottish within THIS song)

Hey marky mark!

I’m deeply concerned that the First Minister’s petition to show support
For Independence is well short of the paltry 300,000 signature target she set.

While the Irish among many others were willing to lay down. Their lives to
Free their country from the stifling grip of Westminster, it seems Scots are
Unwilling to put their name on a petition.

So many of you wonder why Nicola has fires the starting gun for independence
I think the obvious answer is she hasn’t been given any bullets.

Unless this target number is reached, we are giving the Unionists a silver bullet
That kills off the idea of breaking away from the Union.

I’d be grateful for any post explaining why People can’t be bother to sign up when the alternative
Is Bojo’s Tory abuse of our country, a fascist future and economic disaster.

Have you got a double over at the radio chat Cactus?

Decent watch, filled out some rather obvious editing on the previous video which left me wondering what had been cut.

Not at all sure Salmond “got” online indy media properly.

Johnson and his crew are the neo-Elizabethans.

They’re all just in it for the lute.

Do one thing every day that scares you, said Baz…

But don’t vote for ukUnionist parties

Why would ye vote for the dying?

Fireproofjim @ 14:29,

Well said. The existence of pro-indy parties across the political spectrum would also frustrate the usual BBC/STV tactic of heavily front-loading news and topical programmes with BritNat voices (all in the interests of political “balance”, natch!).

I watched the original programme on the AS Show. I’m glad to have watched this today.

All the best Stuart!

Effigy @ 4.o3 pm do you have a link for that petition , I have signed so many petitions re Scotland’s independence that I have lost focus and count ,

I commented on a previous post that Nicola has asked the Scottish people to let her know when they want indy , but she has never supplied the official methodology or avenue to gauge the people’s opinion or number . It is all very well asking people to sign a petition but as we all know these methods are open to abuse and disruption ,also it relies on the people to inform others of its existence rather than a broadcast from our government to inform people ( I know ,I know not allowed ) .

The idea floated in the past re Clearpoll apart from a referendum would be the most indicative of opinion

The problem as I see it is that the efforts are not focused enough there are too many people and organisations working independently from the central point although they have the same goal , the very fact that the people voted the SNP and Nicola into government for Scotland where their very reason for existing is independence negates any further confirmation

I know that there are some ( ahem ) who supposedly voted for the SNP for better governance in Scotland but shurely they are not stupid enough to think that independence would NOT be the ultimate goal , but there again when we vote in a referendum they will have a choice , Scotland independent with a choice of good governance , or remaining in a union with a corrupt ineffective imbecilic shower of racist xenaphobes who treat them and their country as FODDER

Their choice will be made at the ballot box ( maybe )

“Effijy says:
25 July, 2019 at 4:03 pm

I’m deeply concerned that the First Minister’s petition to show support
For Independence is well short of the paltry 300,000 signature target she set”

I think that’s more a case that fewer and fewer of us think Mr & Mrs Murrell are likely to ever call a plebiscite, regardless of how many sign up.

One of them needs to go, simple as that.

Scotland’s future can’t be in the hands of a husband & wife team, both of whom make a very nice living with the current constitutional arrangements.

I’m sure many of you will disagree however I’ll leave you with this thought :

What the fuck is the point of another “mandate” if you’re totally unwilling to act on any of the existing mandates you hold?

I no longer believe the current SNP leadership has independence as its first priority.

No more excuses, what do they want – a fucking alien invasion?

Effijy @ 16:03,

It’s the old chicken-and-egg conundrum. Ordinary people – not least during the holiday period – have other more-immediate interests to pursue, whether we obsessives like it or not. It’s deeply regrettable, since it’s everyone’s future, not just ours, but I fear more won’t get engaged until a campaign is fully underway.

It will require real political courage and a resolute shrugging-off of dependence on focus groups, polls and suchlike. Given such leadership from the front, the latent frustration and wish to escape from this mess will explode, I feel. By whatever means, we require action on the pro-indy side to open up a tangible process for exiting the UK that offers a more plausible alternative way forward for the future than BoJo’s claim to “cut the Gordian knot” with an abrupt Brexit at Halloween.

But we probably have to wait just a little longer to see that claim exposed as hollow, and for events to demonstrate conclusively that the pro-EU BritNats like the FibDems can’t possibly deliver either. All comforting illusions shattered.

Still, in the meantime a visible hardening of the SNP position would be very welcome, as a definite declaration of intent. Significantly upping the pace of important preparations such as the Referendum Bill, for example.

Thank you, a very enjoyable and informative watch.

I’m going to show this to my friends who work at YLE, our national broadcaster that still gets almost all its British news from the BBC, usually quite uncritically.

Thanks to Stuart, I enjoyed the video.

When talk was about s30 and Edinburgh Agreement, am I the only yin that wanted Stu to ask Alex:

“Do you accept that that was a mistake, that the SNP Scot Govt didn’t go to court to establish if an s30 was even needed?

The new laird claims no-deal would not be seriously damaging.

Yet another Brekshiteer who fails to grasp how fucked up the 1st November will be for those outside the landed gentry.

It’s not that the UK can’t survive outside the EU and it’s not that it can’t do a no-deal successfully, it’s that in order to do that safely, it takes a hell of a lot longer than the three years we’ve already had to invest in new infrastructure and processes across the entire economy to prepare for it properly.

The Rev retweeted a brilliant thread on Twitter about the impact to Mars bar manufacturing and the only responses were “well, mars bars make us fat so it’s a good thing”. None of them grasped the fact that it would take years of investment and training to upskill any of the UK ports to be able to handle cocoa to the same level of expertise as Rotterdam – which somebody has to pay for. Companies exist to make money and you’d think our entrepreneur Tory laird would understand that. Raising and spending the sums required doesn’t happen overnight and companies would prefer to avoid hocking themselves out to build a new cocoa processing plant if it turns out they didn’t need to after all because politicians were able to do sensible things.

Replicate that across the entire UK. How much of our food supply chain involves processing outside the UK border? Chocolate, vegetables, fruit, meat, sugars? Dairy? And then there’s other business sectors. Medicines? Clothing material?

Leaving on no deal means there will be no cost or time saving in spreading the supply chain across the EU. So then there are only two options: do everything in the UK or import completed products from elsewhere.

As mentioned, doing everything in the UK requires a lot of time and money to do right. Meanwhile, you have shortages and rationing of those products. Or you import stuff already made elsewhere and how do you think those Mars employees in Slough will feel because Mars bars will be imported direct from the Netherlands (like HP sauce, BTW) making them redundant?

Renting out tents and storage lockers might have made him rich but that doesn’t mean he understands how business works.

Joy Worrall could have been YOUR late mother

HOW does that make you feel Scotland?

Love yer maw xxx

Enjoyed the 12” version even more than the radio edit!
Surely that ‘our man in Moscow’ quip was staged though? Everyone knows that’s Alex! (He may yet turn out to be a spectacularly elaborate double agent who, after years of pretending to be anti UK establishment, gets close enough to Putin’s inner circle to pass vital intelligence back to his handler, Fluffy Mundell)

Seriously though, not sure I remembered it in the shorter version of the interview, but AS questions about swearing / controversy leaving you open to attack from Unionists were well put and tbh I wasn’t blown away by your answer. ‘They’ll attack me anyway’ is absolutely true but giving them the ideal opportunity not to take your message seriously should be, well, taken seriously.
Don’t get me wrong, I love it when you refer to a Unionist dullard on Twitter as an imbecilic wankpuffin (you can have that one, gratis) but AS as devil’s advocate representing the ill informed masses, does have a point.
More generally, I thoroughly warmed to AS the interviewer having been thoroughly lukewarm about AS the politician for decades so there’s progress there. You also come across extremely well. Confidently assured, genuine, intelligent and eloquent. All of Bojo’s cabinet are missing at least one of those qualities although that’s a pretty ropey point of reference.

Vestas says: “…what do they want – a fucking alien invasion?”

It might have happened about twenty years ago…

link to youtube.com

Albuhacker

“….What then, brothers and sisters, is to be done?”

R u T. Sheridan esq. by chance?

Lol

Thank you for the video, Stu. I was left wanting to hear more about the section 30. It is a matter that I really want to hear being properly discussed at all levels (not just legally, but rationally and logically) and nobody seems to be really getting their teeth into it properly as they should by now.

Like you, I would like to see a real court challenge to that section 30 order. But differently to you, if I understood you correctly (apologies if I didn’t), I am not really sure that an English supreme court would be the place for it. In my view the place for it would be a Scottish court, because that section 30 order is, in my opinion, impairing Scotland’s right to self determination, Scotland’s claim of right and Scotland’s right to unilaterally dissolve an international treaty whose circumstances have changed dramatically in the last 300 years. The English supreme court is an entity whose existence relies on Scotland giving its consent for the union to go on, so I do not see how such a court could be considered impartial enough to treat such matter.

I must admit I have never understood the need for this section 30 order and who in fact should be issuing this if indeed there was a need for one.

If I understand correctly this section 30 order is merely an agreement to accept the result of a plebiscite in Scotland.

Well, who should really be accept the result?

Primarily Scotland itself, so in a way, if anybody here has to issue a section 30 order at all it should be the Parliament of Scotland because this is the only Parliament in the UK that exclusively represents Scotland and where every single MP has been elected by the people of Scotland. To me this is a no brainer. I would understand that such parliament would need to issue such document to guarantee that ALL the political parties in Scotland will respect the result and with it the democratic will of the people of Scotland.

The UK
Why should the UK issue a section 30 order? What is the UK? The UK is not a new state independent from Scotland. It is not a state that “owns” Scotland. As a matter of fact the “UK” only exists because Scotland allows it to continue to exist. The UK will cease to exist the minute Scotland votes for independence or files for dissolution of the treaty of union. Entities such as the UK gov and UK parl only have legitimacy to act over Scotland for as long as Scotland gives them such legitimacy. So how can credibly be any entity whose existence depends on Scotland giving its consent for it be the one that determines if Scotland can dissolve it or not? Doesn’t that point to a massive conflict of interests there and therefore partiality on a mammoth scale? Isn’t stopping Scotland having a referendum a for which its people has already given a mandate a violation of Scotland’s right to unilaterally dissolve that treaty?

How can it be possible then for Scotland to unilaterally dissolve the treaty, as it must be its right, and not possible however to run a simple independence referendum that will determine if the people of Scotland gives a mandate to dissolve that treaty?

Those are, in my view, reasons why the UK issuing a section 30 order is absurd and violates Scotland’s right to unilaterally dissolve the treaty.

I think it is also absurd because there are only 2 partners to that treaty that Scotland signed: the kingdoms of Scotland and England – the UK is both. So isn’t it silly that Scotland has to give the section 30 to itself? And if it has to give consent to itself, isn’t it more logical and rational that such consent comes from the real Parliament of Scotland, the one that is elected 100% by the People of Scotland, that is located in Scotland and that represent exclusively Scotland and that whose existence will not be threatened by such referendum?

As per the Kingdom of England, which is, in my view, really who in practice is giving/denying this section 30 order because every single MP in the gov cabinet is from England and 90% of those sitting in the UK parliament are representatives of the Kingdom of England, it really begs the question: why on earth should the Kingdom of England or any of its legitimate representatives have any say whatsoever in Scotland’s own constitutional matters and own constitutional decisions? If Scotland dissolves the treaty, the treaty is over, no matter if the Kingdom of England wants it to continue or not. The kingdom of England on itself will not be able to preserve that treaty.

This brings us to the same situation as the EU and brexit. Did the UK gov ever requested a section 30 order or similar from the EU to “avoid brexit being challenged in the courts” or to ensure the 27 would respect the vote of the people in the UK?
No. Why should then Scotland have to request one?

The only situation I can see whereby Scotland needs this section 30 order is if Scotland is not an equal partner in the union and it is not in any union at all. It is in fact a dominion that has been absorbed by a partner who has abused an international treaty to implement a take over. That is the only possible situation where I could understand the requirement for this. In this instance, it will not be the “UK” issuing the section 30 order but rather the Kingdom of England.

But if this is the case, and Scotland is a colony, then why they continue calling it “union”? And if Scotland is a colony, why has our gov and parliament, the minute the vow was breached, Scotland’s vote overruled and our devolution settlement bulldozed, not applied directly to the UN and request the immediate commencement of decolonisation procedures under the charter of the UN of which “the UK” is a signatory? We gave a mandate to the Scottish gov for a referendum and that is, if I am not mistaken, contemplated within the articles of the decolonisation charter of the UN as a reason to facilitate by the main state what is required for that plebiscite to take place.

I think all this must be explained and explained in full detail and comprehensively. There are far too many questions now, questions regarding the real status of Scotland in this union, questions regarding the real authority of a UK gov and parliament to limit Scotland’s right to self determination and to end a treaty and the requirements of a section 30 order when the same was not required for the UK to trigger A50.

I think we are having both bad worlds combined into one here and that is why I think it is time the real status of Scotland is revealed:

We are treated like a colony, and the idea that Scotland even requires this section 30 order to exercise its right to dissolve the treaty is a clear example. Yet, because they Kingdom of England’s representatives talk about a “union” to deceive us into believe the Uk is a real union, then they escape scrutiny and escape the decolonisation charter of the UN that they signed to.

So what is it going to be then, is Scotland a colony and therefore requires a section 30 order and consent from the Kingdom of Engnland’s representatives to hold a referendum and can therefore request the start of decolonisation process under the UN charter, or Scotland is an equal partner in a voluntary union where it retains all the rights to unilaterally dissolve the treaty of union and therefore the requirement of a section 30 order is just nonsense?

I understand that attorneys like Mr Tomkins and others (unionists the lot of them) who advised the UK gov regarding the need of this section 30 order, have claimed and still claim that the “union” is considered a reserved matter under section 29 of the Scotland Act and that is the reason as to why a section 30 is required because allegedly, the parliament of Scotland does not have competency for reserved matters.

I am not lawyer and have no legal education, but I do have a brain that I like using and subjecting to challenge as many times as I can. Like anything else in nature, in a 21st century democracy law cannot pretend to supersede or escape logic or rationale and then expect to remain credible or acceptable – that is what a dictatorship would do.

On the basis of this, I question this “reserved matter argument” and would much appreciate if anybody out there has the energy and will to read this rather long and boring comment and would be so kind as to offer a credible, verifiable, reasoned and expressed in lawman terms please, explanation.

I question it because if it is true under international law that international treaties can be unilaterally dissolved after a material change of circumstances or after the failure of one of the partners in the agreement to respect the conditions/articles of the treaty, like for example attempting to impose on the other partner/s its own interpretation of the treaty for its own advantage; doesn’t in fact such restriction in the Scotland Act by unilaterally “reserving” matters of the union actually constitute at all effects an attempt of the Kingdom of England to impose on Scotalnd its own interpretation of the treaty?

I question this because until what point is it legitimate for the UK state/UK Supreme Court/UKgov which actually relies on Scotland’s consent for its legitimacy to continue to actually impose any limitations at all in Scotland’s right to unilaterally dissolve the treaty of union? Wouldn’t it be far more logic that the matter of the continuity of the union be if anything reserved to the Parliaments of Scotland and England which were the ones that passed the Acts that gave legitimacy to the UK parliament to exist in the first place?

Shouldn’t therefore be those the Parliaments that should legislate to end the union?

Am I the only cynic here that thinks that perhaps the reason why the “union” has been selected as a “reserved” matter is because England does no longer have its own parliament and therefore Scotland can stop this union whenever it wants but England cannot because that would mean having to use officially the Parliament of the UK as if it was England’s parliament and this would completely destroy the idea that the UK parl was ever a UK parl at all?

I also question this “reserved” issue from another angle, the one of clear breach of contract. The Scotland Act was an agreement between 2 parties, the Kingdom of Scotland and the UK(Kingdom of England??). That Scotland Act may say that matters of the union are “reserved”, but it also makes the assumption that all the powers that are not reserved are devolved. That Act also included the right of the kingdom of Scotland’s parliament to pass bills.

Now, those 2 staples of the devolution contract between Scotland and the UK State (The kingdom of England?), have been violated unilaterally and without the consent of the people of Scotland.

In business, if one partner breaches a contract or informs the other partner that intends to breach the contract, not only this leads to potential lawsuit for damages but it gives the other partner the right to end the contract for breach. If one partner does not longer abide by the conditions of the contract, then it cannot expect that the other partners must continue abiding by the conditions of the agreement as if nothing happened. In other words, the contract comes to an end because the trust and the agreement has been broken.

The Scotland Act/Devolution settlement was essentially a contract between 2 parties. One of them was Scotland, the other I am not sure if the UK state (of which Scotland is part of so it seems ridiculous that Scotland is doing a pact with itself) or the Kingdom of England. That contract was breached truly and fully with the power grab and the recent ruling of the England Supreme Court regarding Scotland’s bill. This to me means that the demands from the UK state/Kingdom of England now for us to continue abiding by the conditions of that breached contract are just complete nonsense.

In conclusion. I have looked at this from many angles and, admittedly without a legal perspective, I have failed every single time to find any logic in this section 30 thingy. The only possible scenario where I can logically understand this is in the colonial situation, but even in this case, and in line with the UN charter, as there is already a mandate from the people of Scotland for this referendum, the UK cannot simply turn round and deny this. Perhaps this is the reason by Jo Swinson has been given the brief of repeating, repeating and denying and denying again that Scotland has a mandate.

Here is a link of a Tomkins’s article in 2012 where he discusses this and says interesting, very interesting things about the repercussions of the question in the ballot, particularly because it would be Holyrood who chooses the question. He also mentions that what is reserved is the union between the Kingdoms of Scotland and England,. Interestingly, the union with the Kingdom of Ireland does not appear to be reserved, which begs the question as to why, but that is another matter entirely).

link to ukconstitutionallaw.org

I particularly like this part:

“Recall also the rather elementary point that something can be binding in the British constitutional order without it being legally required in the strictest sense. Referendums are not opinion polls: their purpose is not to test public opinion, but to make decisions. They are appeals directly to the people to make a decision that, for whatever reason, is felt to be more appropriately made by the public than by a legislature. As the House of Lords Constitution Committee observed in its authoritative report on referendums and their place in the UK constitutional order, even where a referendum was legally only advisory, “it would be difficult for Parliament to ignore a decisive expression of public opinion” (12th report of 2009-10, HL 99, para 197). This sense of the binding/advisory distinction may therefore not amount to very much.”

“it would be difficult for Parliament to ignore a decisive expression of public opinion” (12th report of 2009-10, HL 99, para 197)

This bit, in my view, explains very nicely why the unionists (colonialists?) are so, so desperate to stop a referendum even if is only advisory: because once the people of Scotland has voted for independence it is a mandate for dissolution of the treaty and they cannot turn round to the world and say that they do not accept it.

And this is yet another reason more why I think this section 30 order is pure bogus and just another tool to add obstacles to independence and to create the illusion that the UK state/Kingdom of England have any say in Scotland’s referendum.

Last item on CH4 news tonight suggests the Tories are gearing up for a GE.

In the past 24-48 hours the Tories have flooded Facebook with hundreds of targeted adds. Apparently this will help them to get a better handle on what issues/approach plays well with voters. They monitor the likes/shares etc to get an idea of what plays well in different areas.

Straight out of the Cambridge Analytica playbook. And one that requires very, very serious amounts of money which the Boris party clearly already have in abundance.

So get ready.

? is meant to be a thumbs up sign. Comes out wrong on my phone

If England wanted to dissolve the union would they ask Scotland for a section 30

I watched Mr Johnson speak earlier at Westminster and he let slip,in a response to a question by Ian Blackford, the word ‘campaign’ or ‘campaigning’?

Will the General Election come before or after Brexit?

Ahm an animal

Tomorrow Scotland

Tomorrow

Stu, ahm in the best wifi bar in the east side of Scotland…

Somebuddy just walked in with THAT emblem

The suicide song… happy happy happy

NB Suicide is BAD, they say it’s painless and it brings on many changes

Ah’ve never felt it… there be ah personal share fur ye right there

A section 30 transfer of power order has not yet been requested or demanded so as yet it has NOT been refused, just because some politicians bump their gums before the event means nothing
It’s unlikely to be refused unless the UK government want to take themselves to court and overturn their own legislation of 27th November 2014 as laid out in the Smith commission and agreed to (paragraph 18)(It is agreed that nothing in this report prevents Scotland from becoming an independent country in the future should the people of Scotland so choose) Ian Campbell Honorary visiting professor, school of law University of Liverpool says in the unlikely event of a refusal of a section 30 order if the Scottish government took this to court I do not envisage them losing such a case

I’ve been pointing this out for some time and informed the party also, but until now I still have had no reply from anyone, and that’s unusual, and that in itself tells me much

cynicalHighlander says:
25 July, 2019 at 8:14 pm
Cactus there are only 24 hrs in a day not 124 lol””
……..

Not the way Cactus lives it there isn’t

Legerwood

I know

for his playlist.

David Hayman – The Great Dictator

Legerwood @ 21:25,

Apologies. I must surely have subconsciously registered your previous posting and transmuted it unattributed into “rumblings”.

Other factors to consider from his statement at Westminster.

Mr Johnson also confirmed the status of the 3.2 million citizens of the EU resident in the UK.

This would mean that in a referendum on independence, EU citizens living in Scotland and on the voters roll for local elections would be eligible to vote.

He also mentioned GMO crops.

Not sure why he thinks this is a vote winner?

I always put products made with modified maize back on the shelf.
He

Like son, like father.

“Boris Johnson’s father makes bizarre gaffe in interview with Iranian state TV”

link to archive.is

Wullia and Maria F,

I too agree the section 30 is nonsense. Sadly, I am of the opinion, that the FM/SNP is using Westminster’s refusal to give a section 30, as an excuse to do nothing right now as regards independence (and I know not everyone agrees with that). Yet, with each passing day, independence for Scotland becomes even more urgent. But, no matter what apparently the FM wants to hold it late next year, regardless of circumstances, or events, or, indeed, Scotland getting dragged out of the EU against its wishes.

Wullie, in my honest opinion, you make the really pertinent point, that were England wanting to leave the union, they would NEVER feel the slightest need to ask Scotland. And it is this which angers me about the current SNP leadership, they simply refuse to stand up for Scotland’s right to hold a referendum or indeed leave the UK if it wants to. I have lost count of the number of extremely tenuous ‘technical’ reasons they state for not leaving the union, none of which England would give a second thought to, if it wanted to leave.

England would leave the union at the drop of a hat, if it wanted to, and I see no reason why the Scottish Government keeps creating new hurdles it must overcome to do the same.

Donations to Johnson.

link to fnlondon.com

(wouldn’t archive)

Re Scotland asking for a Section30

Its the UK government at Westminster who would be asked

Not England.

Likewise England would have to ask the UK government.

Not Scotland

I’d pay good money to see that particular farce.

Which would presumably take place during EVEL time!

Just finished watching the video. What a tonic.

After the depressing spectacle of a Boris Johnston cabinet and PMQs and the appointment of a callous sounding SoSfS, Alistair Jack, it is great to hear Stu and Alex talking about Scottish politics.

A weekly show would be great.

Dose a general election campaign no suspend parliament?
Which is apparently what he wants!!
Either way Johnson’s best chance may be to take a chance on winning a General Election.
It could get the DUP of his back and allow him to just put the border in the Irish sea,which they’ve probably wanted to do all along.
Neutralise Farage who said he won’t stand against a party that he’s convinced is taking Brexit seriously,which Johnson is bending over backwards to do.
Corbin is facilitating it all by sayin Labour will campaign for remain and really really wants a General Election..
So all things considered an election looks likely.
Even looking it let’s him of the hook and as leader he can concentrate on winning the next one with the UK safely back in the EU…

Me @ 10.19
Losing it….. Obviously DUH!!

Here’s somebody who thinks Baldrick Johnson has a cunning plan.

It makes as much sense as anything else.

“Soft Brexit is more likely than ever, thanks to Boris Johnson’s new hard Brexit cabinet”

link to archive.is

mike cassidy says:
25 July, 2019 at 10:17 pm

“Its the UK government at Westminster who would be asked”

And I ask: Why?

Why should the UK gov be asked about Scotland’s exclusive constitutional matters and Scotland’s right to dissolve unilaterally an international treaty that has been breached and whose circumstances have changed in the last 300 years?

The “Uk gov” is not an independent entity that “owns” Scotland. The legitimacy of the UK gov to rule over Scotland lies entirely in Scotland giving that entity consent and legitimacy to do so.

A referendum on independence will be directly questioning that legitimacy, and therefore it is totally absurd that an entity whose legitimacy to rule over Scotland is being questioned is the one that decides if Scotland can question the legitimacy of this entity and act upon its decision. This is a massive conflict of interests and does not make sense at all.

Scotland should be part of that UK gov and this means that Scotland has to ask permission from itself, which is also completely absurd.

“Not England”
Well, I challenge that. Take a look at the highest political figures of the so called “UK”: PM, Leader of HM opposition and every senior member of the cabinet with portfolio. Every MInistery is being held by an England MP. Not a single senior minister holds a seat from Scotland, Wales or NI. How can you even consider “UK” gov an entity that is formed exclusively by England representatives? It may be the UK gov in theory, but surely as hell that is not a UK gov, that is England’s government.

“Likewise England would have to ask the UK government”
England is the UK gov.

“Not Scotland”
So why is Scotland expected to ask England’s gov?

Maria F

I’m not disagreeing with you.

Just pointing out that if the SNP go down the section 30 route it will be the UK government who will be asked – not England or a non-existent English government.

And that would be the case whether the members of the UK government were all English, all Welsh, all Northern Irish or even all Scottish.

Petra and Dr Jim @10.14

Smashing it out the park yet again. Great posts.

Cannot wait for the spin on the next indypoll..!

B.Johnson PM may be off his trolley, but Dominic Cummings isn’t.

Hae the Sassenachs ran oot ‘o watter yit?

Dinnae gie them oany till they let us gan’ free!

Sorry … it must be the heat stroke.

That or I had a whiff of whatever Cactus has been sniffing.

Scoltand’s future has got nothing to do with any Englishman or Woman, living or dead. … It is the Vichy Scots and the Fearties who are holding us back.

Recap…

Brexit shall NEVER darken OUR independence day

“Take that one to heart!”

Said Axl

@ manandboy says at 11:18 pm …. ”B.Johnson PM may be off his trolley, but Dominic Cummings isn’t.”

Agree. He’s one seriously dangerous individual, manandboy. THE one to watch, imo, that is if we know where he is. What he’s getting up to.

link to newstatesman.com

link to chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com

“All kinds of scenarios are now possible, many of which end in an early general election.”

Please read.

If GE, one issue only in the SNP manifesto: a vote for the SNP is a vote that ALL the affairs of Scotland are decided at Holyrood by the people of Scotland.

We are taking back control from Westminster.

A.K.A Dissolving the Union, aka independence.

I’ll vote for that.

Sláinte Cactus,

I’ve taken no part in “the struggle” for a number of years for one reason or another. Though a lifelong nationalist, not too enamored with the SNP’s “Boss Class”, who seem to me to be cut from a similar cloth to the Blairites.

Never given serious consideration to voting for anyone else though.

Legerwood – thanks for the heads-up re a General Election. I was thinking that he would need to call one to consolidate his hold on the office of PM. If he goes for Brexit on 31 October, he would attract the voters away from the Brexit Party which could end up giving the Conservatives a workable majority of English MPs.

Lost mah beer…

Just found mah beer

Life has been good to me SO far

Cactus

Lucky your sane after all you’ve been through…

Cheers Col, you know

.
Stu.,

“SALMOND & STU DISCUSS INDY FOR YOU”

A michty powerful way to go. Said it yersel… the most viewed Alex Salmond show in it’s history.

P.S I am an old school dinosaur and in spite of the BRILLIANT spectrum of downloadable formats on WoS I wanted to buy one of my NO voting friends a WEE BLUE BOOK as she is ripe to go YES.

So went on EBay to see if a physical copy was available.

Stu., it is SHOCKING to see what you have done to the Wee Blue Book…

link to tinyurl.com

.
.

Lets assume that there is a General Election before the EU deadline of 31st Oct then what might that mean for Independence?

First off I think it likely that the SNP will increase their number of MP’s at Westminster and there is a good chance that both Labour and the Tories end up with just 1 or 2 seats each.

That’s not really important though, there are really onnly two scenarios we aught to be concerned with and that’s who ends up being the largest party.

It seems very unlikely that any one party would win enough seats to win an outright majority so in order to form a government there must be an agreement between 1 or more parties os as they have a majority in parliament.

Scenario 1 see the Tories being the largest party and forming a government with the Brexit party and if necessary the Lib Dems.

A fantastic result for the cause of Independence I would argue. Another 5 years of Boris backed up by Farage! I honestly cannot envisage a situation more likely to encourage Scotland to vote for Independence.

Scenario 2 Labour miraculously are the largest party after an election but still require the support of other parties in order to form a government. For the Independence cause that means the world is their onion.

Eh Cactus isn’t that right 🙂

Aweright Col.Blimp IV, ahm back HOME now wae mah guest ghostie, be ye well?

What’s the 1st thing that you will do when Scotland returns to being independent?

We have SO much to do

@Cactus

You are right! well most of the time. Watch this it’s for you.

link to youtube.com

Just give us a shout.

@Robert Peffers.

Glad to see you commenting again. Hope someone can read this to you if your sight is bad.

Great stuff from Alex and Stu. Warms the cockles of your heart to hear some REAL Scottish politics for a change instead of all the British/English rubbish.

Hey Scotland

Whenever yer ready…

Aye am

Are you?

Aye LOVE meeting new company

New people are cool

Scotland is…

@ Thepnr who said:
26 July, 2019 at 12:32 am
“Lets assume that . . .”
With all due respect Thepnr and believe me I have a lot of respect for your posts and views and have no wish to quarrel or start a diatribe but . . .
We’re beyond that type of analysis now, beyond calculations of “he might ” “they might” she might”
It’s now Scotland’s time to act if she wants Independence
Let’s hope she rises to the occasion and makes our land a free land

@ben madigan

Yes it is time to act, there really cannot be a better time. I’m happy though just to give Boris a wee bit more rope for now. I’m pretty sure he will use it and then we win.

Ahm gonnae head back tae the harbour afore ah head HOME

There be things that need tae be seen and felt

Thereafter and then to be socially shared…

The beach is beckoning

There may be water

There will be a tide

Hey Scotland in the morning

Tis toddy time…

Nae challengers

Cool