Worms Everywhere
So Andy Wightman just won’t stop lying.
As we’ve repeatedly pointed out, Wings has made NO comments about the “workplace harassment” allegations made against Alex Salmond several years ago. We’ve only commented on the CRIMINAL allegations, and workplace harassment isn’t a crime. (It’s a matter for an employment tribunal, not the police.)
But the real question is WHY Andy Wightman is so doggedly attached to these two complainers that he’s determined to keep digging himself further into a hole of lies. And everyone knows what you tend to find when you start digging holes.
Wightman’s repeated assertions that these women are the victims of (extremely minor) wrongdoing appear to rest on his claim to have “interviewed” them.
And it’s worth taking some time to examine the circumstances of that interview.
They can be found here, from pages 133 to 143.
The tone is set at the very start.
The entire premise is that the complaints were true, even though the meeting took place a year after Salmond had been acquitted on every charge, including some which formed part of the initial investigation.
Over the next 10 pages it is plain that the committee was operating under this assumption, and therefore that they must have assumed – at least for the purposes of the meeting – that the verdicts in the criminal trial were a miscarriage of justice.
There is no sign that a single aspect of the complainers’ testimony was challenged or scrutinised in any way, even when it contradicted previously established facts. By way of example, on page 139 we read this:
Which doesn’t sound much like this, from months earlier:
It’s clear, then, that the interview was a wholly sympathetic hearing, not interested in establishing truth but in merely finding out how Ms A and Ms B felt about what had transpired. Indeed, the report’s introduction (on page 4) makes that exact point.
It was a point which had been stated repeatedly by the inquiry committee chair, Linda Fabiani, whenever the committee met.
(The sympathetic character of the hearing was emphasised by later comments from committee member Alex Cole-Hamilton, who revealed that he’d been “supporting a complainer privately” at the time in an apparent serious conflict of interest.)
So it’s difficult to tell what part of the interview Andy Wightman feels gives him grounds to repeatedly publicly question the fact of Salmond’s innocence, something which very obviously DOES “revisit” both the criminal trial and the “substance of the complaints” from the original Scottish Government investigation.
Because every part of Wightman’s tweet above is untrue. The investigation WAS concluded, albeit that its findings were later set aside for being completely crooked and biased against the former First Minister.
Of the nine allegations originally made by Ms A and Ms B which were the subject of the investigation, which were lettered from A to I, three were heard in the criminal trial (complaints C, D and I), and found to be untrue.
Of those which were listed in the original complaints but NOT considered strong enough to be brought to trial – a trial which, remember, DID showcase such charges as “pinging someone’s hair” and “recklessly opening a bottle of water in a car” – three more (B, E and F) were adjudged to be “not well founded” even by an investigation that was catastrophically and systematically biased against Salmond.
It seems reasonable to assume that allegations thrown out even by a completely bent investigation (and considered less heinous by police and prosecutors than opening a water bottle) would not be upheld by a fair one, which leaves only three.
And manifestly, none of those in any way amount to “sexual harassment”.
EVERY ONE of the allegations that could conceivably be considered to have a sexual aspect HAS in fact, contrary to Andy Wightman’s claims, already been investigated and dismissed, either by the original investigation or by the High Court jury.
All that’s left are accusations that – even if true, and all were denied – would be at worst cases of impoliteness: two mild and fleeting infringements of personal space, in public, and one “boss shouts at employee a bit” incident.
That might be why Wightman’s latest tweet slyly omits the word “sexual”. But after five days he still refuses to answer any of the questions from our original post on Sunday, and continues to smear Alex Salmond by insinuation and innuendo, as well as casting doubts on the integrity of the police, Crown Office and trial jury.
The most generous interpretation of his actions is an attempt to deflect attention from his own gross failure to properly and impartially fulfil his duties at the Parliamentary inquiry. The less generous interpretations, readers can consider for themselves.
“And everyone knows what you tend to find when you start digging holes”
Actually Stu, I think you credit too many with the ‘everyone’ tag. Anyone embroiled in Green politics or in the (post-Salmond fiasco) hierarchy of the SNP should not deserve to be included. They’ve no feckin idea and the transcult blinkers obscure far too much.
A stitch up from beginning to end!#GetSalmondNoMatterWhat
Sounds like he’s baws deep in A and/or B.
One has to wonder what it is that makes him so invested in his narrative, hubris apart…
I fully support Stu doing these investigations and analyses, tearing disingenuous, lying fools like Wight and apart.
However.
While he’s doing this, what not attack the Westminster opposition as well? This site has just been one long attack on the SNP for long enough. Which is fine, they deserve it. But why not do something independence supporters can show to undecided voters on the subject?
Do an expository article on The Vow, how none of it was fulfilled after being promised, to show up what a pile of shit that was. Explain the SNP links to the prick that printed it, and his links to Lloyd. Or just leave it at what was promised and never delivered. That’s tangible.
“Do an expository article on The Vow”
An expository article exposing what?
(1) There was nothing concrete in The Vow in the first place, it was vacuous puff.
(2) In so far as it said anything, it WAS upheld. Holyrood got some significant new powers (chiefly around tax).
(3) We analysed that stuff in depth at the time. There’s nothing left to say.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/?s=%22the+vow%22
(4) We’ve already said everything we can legally say with regard to the relationship between Clegg and Lloyd.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/all-the-jolly-boys-and-girls/
(5) The public isn’t listening about independence any more. A decade of inaction from the SNP has convinced them – correctly – that it’s going nowhere any time soon, so why waste their mental energy on it? That won’t change until the SNP is destroyed, so that’s the current priority task.
Seems Wightman is very involved with both women in what they shared.Not good in any shape or form.
Is Wightman not trying to rely heavily on the difference between criminal standards of “sure”/”beyond reasonable doubt” and 51%/”balance of probabilities”? If so, perhaps he’s even influenced by the idea that a less serious (and usually hence much more common) claim is more likely to be credible than more serious ones. I’ve no idea what the court actually said about some of the claims but my feeling from what you’ve written there, Rev, and Wightman’s tweets is as follows:
1. Wightman thinks those three allegations A, G, H are more trivial, so more believable, while simultaneously believing
2. those three actions A, G, H are unacceptable in the workplace and should be dealt with through a formal complaints mechanism (with what consequence for an ex employee I’m not too sure)>
I’d hate to work somewhere where Wightman rights the policy. You’d be instantly dismissed for superficially plausible claims. I mean, if you want to cure our permissive society and workplaces by disciplining people for invading your personal space, talking to you too loudly, and so on, that’s interesting and maybe an argument some people want to listen to, but do they also want you operating such a zero tolerance/puritanical policy that sets a very low bar for proof? What could possibly go wrong?
Onlooker @
There are no undecided voters. Didn’t you watch the election.
Genuine question for Wightman…
“IF” the complaints levelled against Salmond were indeed fictional, and the “evidence” was concocted by disingenuous individuals colluding with each other, (who knows, perhaps the same individuals who’s actions were already tainted by bias, and thus had an axe to grind), at what stage, and on what evidence did Wightman dismiss this possibility?
Why, in detail, did he choose to adhere instead to the dubious and unsubstantiated narrative which accused Salmond, but which the Trial jury comprehensively dismissed?
Neil @3.45pm – It does, doesn’t it.
Of course, he could be positioning himself to get a 2026 list place in Sturgeon’s nuSNP ?
When the truth comes out Wightman will have no excuses. And we will all see him for what he is.
I’m so fed up with this idea that people (and it’s not just always women) who make allegations should be believed without evidence, and the findings of courts should be ignored.
Surely we have seen enough of the high profile and powerful trying to hijack the #metoo movement for their own ends by now?
I’m so disappointed with Andy Wightman’s behaviour in all this.
Honest to god if Alec decides he wants to go after all these bastards – male and female – who attempted to put in him in jail and/or not keep the insinuation going, I will be there with my hand on the donate button as fast as possible.
It absolutely drives me around the bend that pricks like Wightman keep this shit up. He should slink off back to whatever dirt pool spineless scum like him live and never trouble the rest of us again.
‘The most generous interpretation of his actions is an attempt to deflect attention from his own gross failure to properly and impartially fulfil his duties at the Parliamentary inquiry. The less generous interpretations, readers can consider for themselves’
I’ll go with that.
The rest of the article is precise enough for we the general public to understand. I don’t suppose we’ll get much more than bluster and innuendo from Wightman the Land Reform man. Maybe when the truth comes out and twitters version of the knowing wink just doesnae work any mair.
‘(5) The public isn’t listening about independence any more. A decade of inaction from the SNP has convinced them – correctly – that it’s going nowhere any time soon, so why waste their mental energy on it? That won’t change until the SNP is destroyed, so that’s the current priority task’.
50% or so seems to be interested in independence enough to support it as it stands. They are not interested in the now fake SNP other than to see them get what they deserve, which has already started. To focus only on the SNP is pointless. One thing at a time doesn’t work. It’s not a game of chess. The amount of information that is available to make the case for independence and against staying within the UK is staggering, but it’s scattered all over the place. If the objective is independence, then having that as the priority is what’s needed. Sorting out the SNP is just part of it. Besides a powerful and comprehensive case for independence would in itself play a big part in helping address the SNP’s political failure to do so.
The ‘who’ of driving for independence is a massive blockage at the moment, but that doesn’t mean that the ‘why’ of independence shouldn’t be strengthened and promoted. At the rate and way that the UK is going, not getting ready for independence is crazy. Politicians come and go. Independence doesn’t. That is the priority.
When standing on the shoulders of giants, don’t shit.
When standing in a skitter, don’t stamp.
Odious wee man.
Wightman says in his tweet: “I said there is no evidence they are false”
Right, where is the evidence they are true? A historic statement that cannot be properly probed and corroborated and Wightman’s blind desire to believe it does not constitute evidence.
Looking at “cause for concern H”, it seems to me the complainer had just made a complete arse of something and did not take well at all being reprimanded. It seems more a case of a bruised ego rather than “harassment” per se.
In that “cause for concern” it says that the reprimand was “about a trivial matter”. Well how trivial the matter was will be for the reader to decide. Speaking personally, after all what I have read of the case I do not trust neither the judgement nor a single word coming from the accusers, civil servants, prosecutor, crown office, members of the Fabiani Farce or government officials. Not one. As far as I am concerned, they all should bloody know better than to waste taxpayers’ money in this utterly scandalous and unjustifiable fashion when there are children in Scotland below the poverty line.
I will decide how trivial the matter is when I can read in detail what the matter is and the full context where it took place. Until then, and as the “matter” has been carefully and deliberately “redacted out” of the “cause for concern”, it is impossible to establish if it was trivial or not. Consequently it is not possible to establish if the reprimand was deserved or not, nor if if it was proportionate. Without that information, this “cause of concern” is meaningless.
“Cause for concern A” reads much bigger than it really is simply because of where it has been framed to be: a hotel room. As soon as you read “hotel room”, instinctively you think in a closed door and a bed close by. But a sitting area is a hotel room. A conference room is a hotel room. A meeting room is a hotel room. If the exact same thing had happened at the hotel reception it would have been laughable. Again, it appears to have been deliberately extracted from its context to make it look worse than it is. It does not say anything at all of what kind of hotel room it was, what time of the day it was, how many people were present or the circumstances in which it happened. It has been worded to make you think it was completely out of the blue. As an independent reader, I consider this lack of information about the context suspicious therefore I do not see it as a valid “cause of concern” either.
With regards to “cause of concern G”, for goodness sake, do these women think they are still in the school playground that they run to tell on someone because they pulled their hair and touched their chin? They are portraying women as delicate flowers who cannot stand for themselves. Again, as in the other two cases above, we are not told anything about the actual context where this happened.
After reading these, I have to ask, are these women or Wightman serious?
Don’t these people have any ethics or professionalism at all?
Ian
Ignored says:
25 July, 2024 at 5:51 pm
‘(5) The public isn’t listening about independence any more…
Spot on Ian. Absolutely true. Tons of good folk still working to that end. The SNP are have blocked Independence and are now acting a block the people and the work they do coming together.
The best case for Indy is that in a small country with a traditional Left/Right/Centre political playground, there’d be no place for the ‘broad kirk’ type of fourth party that is the SNP, which would therefore promptly disappear up it’s own arsehole.
Indy for Scotland = SNP Out!
(I suspect the SNP know this hence their obvious lack of enthusiasm for their own demise).
@Ian 5.51 pm
I agree, Ian.
Brendan O’Leary makes the same point about preparation for Irish re-unification years in advance. It makes the case clearer for both supporters and opponents.
A similar idea was floated in an online research paper titled a “Scottish Clarity Act”. Unlike O’Leary’s proposal it does not deal with what an independent Scotland would look like. It argues that it would be useful to have clarity on the “when and how” of Scottish independence.The paper tries to set out what such an Act would look like.
I think there are likely to be broad agreements over some aspects of Scottish independence and I think it would be very useful to have discussion here of a vision of an independent Scotland
I think Mr Salmond is duty bound to bring these bastards to book because it was he who put the sociopath there in the first place. Bring them down then retire.
He’s absolutely desperate this Andy Whiteman isn’t he?
He’s insecure. Very insecure… And because of his desperation and lack of self-worth, he is easily manipulated. The alphabetties are of course absolutely insane nut jobs.
and I suspect they’ve preyed in Whiteman the weasel’s weaknesses.
They may or may not have taken advantage of his willingness to do anything for sex, leading him to engage in behaviors that compromise his integrity or well-being.
Look at him. He has the face of thunder. He’s like Shrek.
I suspect he’s baw’s deep in Ms A and Ms B myself.
Absolutely disgraceful from Whiteman the weasel.
Pathetic. God bless Alex Salmond. Innocent.
This piece of human filth is so interested in the sex life of others isn’t he?
I wonder what Whiteman the weasel’s sex life is like?
A very very ugly man.
A face only a mother could love.
Ms A and Ms B. They’ve played Whiteman the Weasel. They’ve wrapped him around their fingers.
We know he’s a pathetic man. He’s confirmed it with his tweets and hatred for Alex Salmond.
If only Whiteman the weasel had been a better man.
Excellent work from Wings Over Scoland as ever. Set the truth free.
Jail The alphabetties.
If only we knew the identities of Mrs A and Mrs B and their close relationship to Mrs Sturgeon? If their identities were in the public sphere then their lies would probably be easily exposed right ?
They must be absolutely sick that they failed to jail him when they had packed the entire procedure against him but they are still trying to ruin him professionally. Politics across the globe are breathtakingly crooked and staffed by truly the worst kind of people with the puppet strings almost visible.
Rev Stu says –
” A decade of inaction from the SNP has convinced them – correctly – that it’s going nowhere any time soon, so why waste their mental energy on it? That won’t change until the SNP is destroyed, so that’s the current priority task ”
Never a truer word spoken Rev Stu. The SNP as it has become needs to be destroyed. It is fould, full of troughers and anti independence. It has to go and it will go.
The Hollyrood election in 2026 will see to that.
Pity “Green” Mr Wightman didn’t have the baws (for fear of committing workplace harassment against brain melts in his old Party and “government”) to call out the insanity of pissing away hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ monies installing air sourced heatpumps on totally unsuitable properties, and fitting solar PV on north facing roofs.
I’d call anybody that suggested rolling out that sort of pish a fucking ignorant idiot.
It’s so substandard it means the EPC certificates for Scotland’s properties is a pointless load of piffle because you can now miraculously turn an old property with single glazing and virtually no insulation which was at the worst end of thermal efficiency ratings into passive haus A+ as good as it gets by fitting a few LED bulbs and solar PV on north facing roof. Just get in the fucking sea with that as it means future analysis of data on how Scotland’s housing performs means nothing.
Don’t even think your close to being green when you did fuck all about making an effort to upgrade our sewerage infrastructure so we don’t continue to pump untreated effluent into our rivers. Or not implement and deposit return scheme for disposable vapes so thousands of lithium batteries aren’t thrown away as litter and begin to breakdown into our ecosystems.
What a bunch of total thick arseholes the political and civil service class have become.
Of course those that spout Indy is off the agenda for the foreseeable would appear to be comfortably enough off to ride the storm and/or lack the scruples in conveying that Scotland will never be allowed to to come close to achieving its potential within the Union, whilst all major powers reside in Westminster which perpetuates the ongoing exploitation of our resources and assets, and facilitates the total shitfest of the corruption of limited power we do have here playing out.
Howz that internal uk migration going… Aye, nae rush there.
I’m at the point of realising that folk that spend all their time on the internet talking about politics generally haven’t a fucking scooby about the practical realities of what it takes to try to maintain the services and infrastructure a society requires to get by.
Go and build a house, or run a farm and see just how much effort and multi-skills it takes. It’s no wonder the actual working class (at all levels of wealth and class) that do the real necessary graft in our society just shake their heads when observing most things political these days.
Ian @ 5.51
Great post .
It’s a testament to the strength of the case ( & desire ) for Independence that despite the almost unbelievable mess the post-Salmond SNP have made of EVERY.FUCKING.THING the support is still holding at circa 50% .
I understand and – with a couple of caveats – agree with Stu’s prioritising the elimination of SNP above all other issues . Though they’re doing a pretty good job of that themselves .
There are other things going on , nonetheless . Be a shame if the righteous cause of eliminating the SNP became an ” idée fixe ” at the expense of other – arguably as important – subjects .
eg , I share the general appreciation of David Davis , specifically for his 2nd attempt to shine a light on the contemptible attempted political assassination of Alex , and for being a decent human being / politician .
No comment however on the equally admirable ( on this issue anyway ) Andrew Bridgen for his attempt to get justice for the many vaccine-injured victims of the Covid Hysteria , and , like DD , shine some truthful light on the political machinations that caused them . Notable that the * Chamber * was almost empty for his address : good to see Neal Hanvey stayed to listen ; unlike the SNP walking dead , predictably .
Granted the latter is ” not related to Scottish Politics ”
Except…. it is .
Because the same arrogant ” we know best n the public will believe what we tell them n who cares if it doesn’t ? ” attitude , the same intelligence-insulting , infantilising narratives and the same frantic post-event attempts to bury all evidence of their culpability and/or pass the buck is evident in both instances . The Brit State has been more successful in this than the bungling amateurs of the Sturgeon Cabal : SHOCKA !
Of course , it’s in the former’s interest that maximum damage is inflicted on the latter – or , rather , on the real object of it’s malice , ie the Cause of Scottish Independence itself .
When Ms A and Ms B are jailed, Wightman should voluntarily accompany them.
“We’ve already said everything we can legally say with regard to the relationship between Clegg and Lloyd.”
That suggests to me there is much more to be said about it, IMHO illegal dealings between the two.
If someone made false or true allegations of sexual harassement against Wightman, would they remain anonymous as those who made the false allegations against Alex Salmond?
I dearly hope the coward-liar, Wightman, posts another foot-shooting tweet; I thoroughly enjoy seeing him being systematically dismantled, discredited, and professionally shamed on this site.
To think I helped fund that piece of shit, that horrible little man, when I thought he was one of us? The Wightman we have now come to know has sold his tainted soul in pursuit of something unsavoury, something that now smacks of ill-repute.
Wightman thought he’d be smart, instead he’s inherited the wind.
Yes, do another one, Wightman – you craven ass.
I’m a bit confused by something. Are people assuming that the Ms A and Ms B of the Harassment Report are respectively the same women who were assigned those letters as witnesses at the Salmond trial? because I can’t see anything that would automatically make that the case.
It’s possible Whightman is defending A & B because they themselves have expressed anxiety to him about their roles in the Salmond Affair and the possibly consequences if they have perjured themselves.
Evetually, Salmond’s civil action will be heard. How hard then will it be to be able to justify the life – long annonimity
order for this group? Especially when one considers that the allegations each member made against Salmond, he was found not guily ofby the jury at his trial.
Remember on WoS a month ago, where all the usual Moonhowlers were vowing to spoil their ballots in protest? And how this ballot protest was going to sweep the country?
You don’t hear much about that any more, do you? The same Moonhowlers are silent on the subject. Amnesia, perhaps?
I bothered to look at the number of rejected (for all causes) ballots in the July 4th election. And the Moonhowlers have once again been exposed as a handful of online cranks who infest WoS.
Turns out there were no more rejected ballots than usual.
Bathgate and Linlithgow: 42,065 votes cast, 92 rejected
Livingston: 44,840 votes cast, 121 rejected
North Ayrshire: 42,423 votes cast, 161 rejected.
And for context, Stevenage in England: 42,870 votes cast, 155 rejected. About the same (a little higher, actually).
The number rejected was so tiny, even if all were done on purpose the number would impress nobody. It was an irrelevancy.
In this the Moonhowlers failed about as decisively as Scotland failed against Germany in football.
50% support independence but how many regard it is a top priority?
Sometimes you’ve just got to know when to relax and let things develop.
We are already seeing the fruits of the SNP demise. Davis’s whistleblower, the sudden rise in the number of SNP people willing to question and condemn Sturgeon, etc., and we can expect more.
There’s a bunch of things that are going to come to a conclusion in the next few months, one way or another. Meanwhile, the SNP are in dire straits financially and support is collapsing.
The British State will want the SNP to linger on, muddying the waters, dividing the vote, getting in the way of progress, etc. The best way to thwart them is to put everything you have into wiping out the SNP as a party.
And that’s what we’re gonna do…
I dispute the claim that the public is no longer interested in independence.
We’re still here, still wanting it, but simply abstained from voting SNP or voted ALba, or god help us, Labour.
The Unionists and the MSM have stopped talking about it because they think we are beaten. They control the platforms for public discussion, but that only 50% or less of the voting population.
Try, try, and try again, and stop fighting on the fields chosen by the enemy.
“Campbell Clansman
Ignored
says:
25 July, 2024 at 10:55 pm
Bathgate and Linlithgow: 42,065 votes cast, 92 rejected
Livingston: 44,840 votes cast, 121 rejected
North Ayrshire: 42,423 votes cast, 161 rejected.
And for context, Stevenage in England: 42,870 votes cast, 155 rejected. About the same (a little higher, actually).”
That’s quite a narrow – and random – sample. Got any stats on general Scottish percentages compared to English percentages?
@ Roger Mexico at 10.25
They were assigned different letters in the trial.
Derek
26 July, 2024 at 12:23 am
Campbell Clansman
That’s quite a narrow – and random – sample. Got any stats on general Scottish percentages compared to English percentages?
Those were all the Scottish ones I could find online. You’re welcome to do YOUR OWN research on the numbers. And report back to WoS.
He finally said it.
“Do yOur OWn rESeaRcH”
Thanks Kampbell. Made my day.
Can anyone confirm if this is happening in Scotland?
A distant relative claims that she has completed a Nursing Degree.
She and her fellow students were assembled and congratulated but then
advised that there were no jobs for any of them.
One student returned to say that she would head of to Canada or Australia to where there is work. She was advised that she wouldn’t be accepted there as you must have at least 1 year’s post qualification on the hospital wards.
We know there is a major shortage of nurses and fortunes are being spent on Agency Nurses by the NHS so how can this be possible to waste the costs in training, the years lost by the student and the finances lost in employing expensive Agency staff.
You can almost imagine Andy and thev Reluctant Complainers in a rerun of Alex Cole Hamilton grandstanding for his rent boy with the axe in the gallery.
@Mark Beggan
Did you look at the turnout? It was woeful. 58.75% here in Dundee the Yes City. Since no determination of support can be gleaned from non voters and pollsters tend to exclude them to only include 2024 voters.
So they must then be considered Undecided. They were so Undecided they didn’t even rock up and post a NOTA style invalid vote.
If anyone has invalid vote stats I’m all ears.
Effijy 5.20am
“We know there is a major shortage of nurses and fortunes are being spent on Agency Nurses by the NHS so how can this be possible to waste the costs in training, the years lost by the student and the finances lost in employing expensive Agency staff.”
Can’t help wondering if you’ve answered your own question. A quick google reveals no fewer than eight nurse recruiting agencies here. Further privatisation by the back door?
@ Muscleguy
A quick search on constituency voting results and here’s a couple of links showing info that includes spoiled ballots and the reasons they were deemed so.
https://www.dundeecity.gov.uk/general-election-2024/election-results
This one is a single page pdf.
https://www.angus.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2024-07/Declaration%20of%20results%20Angus%20and%20Perthshire%20Glens%20Constituency%202024.pdf
This will only be resolved when the anonymous pitches names are revealed.
If the original Ms A and B feel so aggrieved, drop your anonymity and go for it.
They either won’t because they’re ashamed of what happened or liars.
I know if you’ve been seriously assaulted, it’s a traumatc experience and you maybe want to hide away, understandable
None of these complaints were serious but they can’t stop themselves moaning on
Grow a pair ladies or STFU
Remind me, was David Clegg asked to give evidence to the committee at the Salmond enquiry?
It IS bizarre that Mr Wightman has re-opened his part in the inquiry given that there were those who could (and maybe should) have asked for clarification of his attitude and impartiality after an interview he gave to the BBC as an ‘Independent’ MSP
Quotations from this interview:
Mr Wightman’s role was crucial, with the four SNP members voting together on most issues and the two Conservative, one Labour and one Lib Dem MSPs doing likewise – leaving him effectively acting as the swing vote.
He said he could understand that “the weekend was difficult for the first minister and her team because of the leak of the more controversial recommendations and conclusions of the committee”, which had been leaked in the middle of a meeting.
Quotes from a private session with the two women who originally made complaints were also disclosed to a Sunday newspaper, leading them to submit a formal complaint to the parliament.
From the outset of this ‘discussion, it was made clear by Stuart Campbell that Mr Wightman had absolutely NO business referring to the honesty of the witnesses ‘A’ and ‘B’ because IT WAS NOT THE REMIT OF THE INQUIRY.
Mr Wightman appears to be digging a deeper and deeper hole for himself (and perhaps others in that enquiry) BUT at the same time I think he is intellectually backing himself into a corner from which he is going to find it difficult to escape.
He may, of course, prefer to disappear down his hole.
Re spoiled papers – Downloaded from the HoC Library and truncated from an excel spreadsheet:
I only hope that my crude attempt at formatting will work here….
Constituency name Electorate Invalid votes
Aberdeen North 75,925 115
Aberdeen South 77,328 178
AbrdnshireN & MorayE 70,058 170
Airdrie and Shotts 70,199 95
Alloa and Grangemouth 70,680 74
Angus Perthshire Glens 76,668 224
Arbroath & B.Ferry 76,149 161
Argyll Bute S.Lchbr 71,756 216
Ayr, Carrick Cumnock 70,340 120
Bathgate Linlithgow 72,185 92
Brwckshr, Rox Selkirk 76,438 138
Cthnss, Sthrlnd ERoss 74,627 122
Central Ayrshire 69,413 123
Coatbridge Bellshill 72,667 115
Cowdenbeath Kirkcaldy 71,845 106
Cmbrnld Kirkintilloch 70,350 170
Dumfries and Galloway 78,541 162
Dmfr, Clyde Tweeddale 71,900 133
Dundee Central 74,221 153
Dunfermline and Dollar 72,824 140
EKilbride Strathaven 76,414 131
East Renfrewshire 74,626 141
Edin East Musselburgh 76,188 206
Edin North and Leith 78,411 173
Edinburgh South 70,838 125
Edinburgh South West 73,784 147
Edinburgh West 76,490 137
Falkirk 73,584 131
Glasgow East 68,987 143
Glasgow North 67,579 166
Glasgow North East 72,610 81
Glasgow South 70,219 144
Glasgow South West 68,871 51
Glasgow West 69,028 186
Glenrothes Mid Fife 70,655 124
Gordon and Buchan 69,605 166
Hamilton Clyde Valley 75,480 183
Invrclyde Rnfrwshre W 70,126 101
Iness Skye W.Ross-shire 77,927 168
Kilmarnock and Loudoun 74,628 134
Livingston 78,043 121
Lothian East 75,456 132
Mid Dunbartonshire 73,603 132
Midlothian 73,554 162
MorayW Nairn Strathspey 77,243 167
Mwell Wishaw Carluke 71,777 125
Na h-Eileanan an Iar 21,325 53
North Ayrshire Arran 72,176 161
North East Fife 69,762 147
Orkney and Shetland 34,236 106
Paisley RenfrewshireN 71,103 144
Paisley RenfrewshireS 71,574 133
Perth Kinross-shire 77,261 142
Rutherglen 72,674 129
Stirling Strathallan 76,284 242
WAbrdeen Kincardine 72,994 161
West Dunbartonshire 69,074 123
The lawyer for the prosecution at Salmonds trial was very well briefed and tried every which way to infer wrongdoing on Alex’s part. It failed because most of it was lies. If a QC at the time with all the resources of the Crown could not provide evidence I fail to see how the Inquiry could simply by asking those who made these accusations.
It stinks.
Nicola Sturgeon has betrayed the Scottish independence movement and did the dirty work of the British state by attempting to jail the man who almost broke the UK.
I hope Alex gets justice and I hope it means Nicola and her poisonous cohort end up in a Scottish jail.
Any lingering SNP supporter who cannot see this are as blind and stupid as Trump supporters are.
There was I believe a clear case of proven perjury by a complainer but no prosecution by the police. Surely in any other case action would have been taken. I hope one day if/when we have an SNP government of honesty and integrity those who appear to have been protecting certain individuals will be held to account and severely dealt with.
@ Tartan Tory at 09.18:
Many thanks for listing the spoilt ballots for every Scottish constituency. It is interesting/disappointing to see how few there were after the effort by Peter A Bell and Alan Petrie to spread the idea.
So, if I am reading this correctly we have Wightman and Cole-Hamilton who have both made it clear they were biased against Alex Salmond, taking part in the inquiry. FFS.
Reading all this makes me furious all over again, it brings the corruption unfairness, and injustice right back at you. How Alex lives with this every day beats me. He is a strong man, that’s for sure and I hope one day he gets justice.
Re spoiled papers
The numbers are certainly small and I admit much smaller than I would have expected and hoped. But the numbers tell their own story.
For example, let’s start with the constituency mentioned by Muscleguy. According to the HoC library, For GE 2019 the number of spoiled papers in Chris Law’s constituency was 92. For GE 2024 this number raised to 153. That is a 66% increase and this is despite Alba having a candidate in this constituency. If it only a question about voting for a pro-indy alternative to SNP, you would expect the numbers of spoiled ballots to go down, not up.
Of significance is that Law went from having a crushing over 12,000 majority in 2019 to a 675 majority. oooft!
Interestingly, in Alyn Smith’s constituency and according to the HoC library, for GE 2019 there were 105 spoiled ballots. For GE 2024 that number raised to 242, that is the highest number of spoiled ballots of all constituencies in Scotland in 2024. That is 130% increase in spoiled ballots. I think Mr Smith can proudly boast about achieving the most in something during this election- He appears to have driven the largest number of people in all constituencies in Scotland to spoil their ballots.
In David Doogan’s constituency, the number of spoiled ballots went from 92 in 2019 to 224 in 2024. That is 143% increase.
In Joanna Cherry’s constituency, the number of spoiled ballots went from 91 in 2019 to 147 in 2024. That is a 60% increase.
In Brook’s constituency, the number went from 105 to 173. This is roughly a 65% increase.
It is interesting that in the constituencies of Edinburgh where the seat was not held by SNP, the number of spoiled ballots hardly changed. In Ian Murray’s constituency, the number went from 122 in 2019 to 125 in 2024. In Jardine’s constituency, the number went from 124 to 137. So there is definitely something linked to the SNP responsible for the increases seen.
In some constituencies the number of spoiled ballots actually decreased. This is the case for Angus Brendan McNeil’s constituency, where the number of spoiled ballots went from 65 in 2019 to 53 in 2024. But Mr Brendan McNeil run as an independent here against the SNP, so voters had an alternative.
In Neale Hanvey’s constituency, the number of spoiled ballots went from 108 to 106. Again, here Mr Hanvey was running against the SNP and represented an excellent alternative to the SNP.
John Nicholson’s constituency went from 131 spoiled ballots to 74 in 2024. But this time, Eva Comrie was standing as an independent and Kenny Mcaskill for Alba in this constituency. So voters were spoiled for choice.
Martin Day’s constituency (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) went from 105 spoiled ballots in 2019 to 92 in 2024 (Bathgate and Linlithgow). Again, in this constituency there was an alternative as ISP candidate to vote for, John Hannah
Let’s look at East Refrenshire. This is Kirsten Oswald’s constituency. The number of spoiled ballots went from 176 in 2019 to 141 in 2024. Again, this constituency had an alternative to vote for: Colette Walker from the ISP.
While it is only symbolic, indeed it seems that the presence of an alterative pro-indy candidate/party had an effect on the number of spoiled ballots. If the political parties do not get themselves in gear and serious about independence, that number may just increase in 2026.
David Clegg, MI5?
What a suspicious character.
It would make a huge amount of sense for reasons we can’t legally discuss.
@ sarah
These strategies were always destined to fail because those who come up with these ideas seem completely unable and unwilling to interact outwith their own wee internet bubbles, and comprehend that wider society doesn’t have a scooby who all these political internet performers are and what they stand for.
I see there’s another new “Pro-Indy” Party being formed now…
Aye, totes braw divide and rule idea that coz Party politics has been proving itself to be a total success of late.
Divide and Rule has never enjoyed such stunning levels of great success.
If all these “leading” individuals for Scottish Self-Determination had even minuscule homeopathic trace levels of ability to reach a consensus with other folk that share the same overarching ideal then just maybe we wouldn’t be finding ourselves in this ongoing predicament.
But no, all big egos sporting their way or the highway mindsets.
I’m at the point of thinking we could change the game and get rid of all these pesky cretins of human politicians that have trashed conventional Party politics with their relentless rivers o’ pish, and we should instead just create an *AI For Scotland Party where ChatGPT forms policies based on logic and actual digital data rather than us having to continue to endure the hellscape created by the type of human that wants to be in politics.
Choosing between a properly programmed HAL or Kirsty Blackman ain’t a difficult choice for me.
* Alert readers will note I’ve utilised the cunning idea stolen from an other “great political strategist” of using an A for the Party name so it appears at the top of the ballot paper because that cunning idea worked so… oh, scrub that.
I mangled a song for my own amusement; to pass some tedious time I had lying about the place. And I decided to bless readers here with a dazzling display of wit by sharing my lyrical musings.
Andy painting, Andy tired
Andy take a little snooze
Tie him up when he’s fast asleep
Send him on a pleasant cruise
When he wakes up on the sea
He’s sure to think of us and you
He’ll get out the whitewash
And he’ll paint over what’s true
What a jolly deceitful thing to do
Well, that used up a minute. Not sure what to do next while twiddling my thumbs waiting for independence…hope it doesn’t take too much longer to arrive.
The absolute worst thing about the ‘Union’ is its limitless pedestrianism; its boundless capacity to bore; its infinite humourlessness; and its titanically tedious and mercilessly mundane machinations.
I know that the mindless monotonousness induced by the mere thought of the ‘Union’ is the least of Scotland’s worries, but the beckoning hyperbole of boredom and the lure of alliterative lunacy got the better of me.
Apologies to the memory of David Bowie for ruining his ‘Andy Warhol’ song lyrics.
“25. Ms A and Ms B also said that there is quite a lot of information that they had only become aware of through evidence to the inquiry, as it had not been shared with them at the time.”
Seems to me they are being influenced by others and not entirely from their own experience. Perhaps they were being briefed.
@ Sarah
The number of spoiled ballots went up from 6,944 in 2019 to 8,025 in 2024. It is a modest 15% increase, but an increase after all which may start a trend. Unless the political parties get in gear, the number may just increase even further.
However, what is most interesting though is the fall in turnout and what this represents for the election to actually be considered democratic. The establishment of course is keeping quiet about it.
For GE 2019, the official percentage of “valid vote” (which does not include spoiled), was 68%. The official percentage of “valid vote” in 2024 was 59%.
Okay, if you look at the result overall, 59% is low, but still a healthy 9 percentage points above 50%.
But if you look individually to each constituency, then the picture changes quite dramatically. In 2019, there was no constituency in Scotland where the number of “valid votes” was 50% or less. Well, there is now. In 2024, there is already one constituency for which the “valid vote” is below 50% – Glasgow North East. The percentage of “valid vote” in this constituency was a meagre 47%.
In my personal view, that constituency should have not declared any candidate as a winner because the majority of the constituency refused to cast a vote for any political party. That is a point blank rejection of the system not the endorsement of labour.
That they ignored this as if it the people who do not cast a vote did not count, despite surpassing the number of people who actually vote for any of the candidates, is undemocratic and demonstrates the UK is not a democracy at all. If the ballots had included the option “none of the above”, this option might have actually won in this constituency.
It is obvious majorities are only considered by the UK establishment when they are majorities for what the establishment wants. If they are not, they are simply ignored or buried. The candidate officially selected as “winner” in that constituency has a “majority” of a minority. That is not democratically representative. The election should have been repeated in that constituency with different candidates.
Besides this, there were 3 constituencies for which the percentage of the “valid vote” was just 51%; another three for which the percentage of the “valid vote” was 52% and one for which the percentage was 53%
Ruby and James Che were right. No voting was the way to go on this election. Sadly, despite their strategy having been successful in at least one constituency where the percentage of “valid vote” fell below 50%, the entire establishment machine in London and Scotland are deliberately ignoring if not downright hiding it.
For what is worth, I wish to congratulate the no voters in the constituency of Glasgow North East – the establishment may have buried your victory, but there is no doubt you won the election and you won comprehensively by 53% to 47%.
In addition to this, it was fascinating to see that the electorate in 2024 Scotland for a GE has miraculously increased from 4,053,056 in 2019 to 4,078,303 in 2024. How is that even possible if the number of mortalities in Scotland have been surpassing the number of births for at least the last 5 years is beyond me, unless of course we are being supplied with free voters from England, Wales or NI, because migrants from outwith the UK and asylum seekers are not entitled to vote in UK GE unless they naturalise. So, where exactly do those extra 25,000 voters come from?
I cannot wait to see how much the electorate for 2026 has increased compared to 2021 in Scotland after all the migrants from England, Wales, NI, outwith the UK and all the asylum seekers are included in the census. Never mind that mortality has surpassed number of births for several years on a row and therefore the natural population keeps decreasing. The figure for the electorate in Scotland seems to only be moved one way and that is up.
@ James Caithness
Re. Briefing / coaching
You may want to read over this article and comments from 2021.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/everything-falls-apart/
“David Clegg, MI5?
What a suspicious character”
Suspicious indeed.
Let’s think about the picture published by the Rev years ago about a trip to the USA for the jolly boys and girls.
Clegg was in that picture. We know what his role has been in the smearing of Mr Salmond
Liz Lloyd was in that picture. David Davis revealed Lloyd as the source of the leak
Neither Clegg nor Lloyd have been disciplined or held accountable despite leaking and publishing that information being against the law. Are they MI5 assets who might be exempt of prosecution if they break the law in the name of “national security”?
Dugdale was parachuted to the Smith Centre. What is she doing?
What about the other boys and girls in the picture of that trip to the USA? How many of them were involved in the Salmond affair and what are the other ones doing to put to good use the “leadership training” they received? How many of them are MI5 assets?
What about Evans? She was the main responsible for the generation of an unlawful complaints procedure using taxpayers money. She was also responsible for keeping the civil case going by hiding information from their own counsel. She sent the infamous message of failing to win a battle but not the war which clearly shows her “political impartiality” is a myth bigger than Jupiter. Yet, like Lloyd, she was never disciplined never mind sacked. She was never held accountable for what she did or for all the wastage she caused to the taxpayer. Why? Is she also an MI5 asset who is entitled to break the law in the name of “national security”?
It has been reported elsewhere that the crown agent David Harvie was, at least at some point, MI5. Is this the reason why he was not disciplined either despite seemingly lying to the parliamentary inquiry and abusing power to gag the inquiry and suppress information from the public? Is this the reason why, instead of being held accountable, he was sent away from the Crown Office into some sheriff court out of public exposure?
How many of the Lord Advocates are MI5 assets? Could this be the reason why none of them were disciplined or held accountable for the malicious prosecutions or for abusing power to gag the inquiry, suppress information from the public or allow the civil case to continue by hiding information from the government’s counsel?
How many of the alphabetes are MI5 assets?
How many of the civil servants involved in the complaints procedure were MI5 assets? Could this be the reason why some of them were allowed to submit reports or speaking by phone rather than actually being interviewed and properly scrutinised with questions like the rest?
Are Sturgeon and Murrell MI5 asset too? Could this explain why operation branchform has not progressed noticeably for so many years?
How many current cabinet ministers and their staff are directly or indirectly involved in the case and might have a vested interest in keeping the lid on the information down?
How many in the higher echelons of the SNP are MI5 assets?
Per Mia Moonhowler:
4,078,303 Scottish voters in all
8,025 spoiled ballots.
11,784 Alba Party votes
678 Independence for Scotland Party votes
Even when you combine the bottom three, you only get to 1/2 of 1%.
Moonhowler mega-fail…. AGAIN.
Comparing 2019 vs 2024 election results:
In 2019 there were (per Mia Moonhowler) 6944 “spoiled” (actually, rejected/invalid, for the usual variety of reasons) ballots. If we take that as the norm for Scottish elections, the 8,025 in 2024 is only 1,081 greater.
Which suggests that, at best, only 1,000 Scots heeded the Moonhowlers and deliberately spoiled their ballots.
About 20 per constituency.
Dan @ 11.32 am
‘Divide and Rule has never enjoyed such stunning levels of great success’
The successful division of any party can only occur when people begin to lose faith in those they’ve elected, normally when the party deviates from its overarching goals.
Politics and politicians across the whole spectrum have reached such sub-sewer levels that divisions are inevitable, and (former) supporters will look for alternatives.
If politicians are hired by constituents on a 5-year contract, then these constituents should be able to insist, like every other employer, that those hired sign a binding terms and conditions contract.
Constituents are the employers, not party leaders or pressure groups, and no politician should have the right to deviate from or introduce anything not covered by their pre-election pledges.
Gov.UK says: –
All employees have an employment contract with their employer. A contract is an agreement that sets out an employee’s:
• employment conditions
• rights
• responsibilities
• duties
Politicians appear to be exempt from the above, but until such changes are introduced, nothing changes.
Mia again confirming that she really has no clue when it comes to politics. It takes real ignorance to talk as confidently as that about highly complex issues like turnout.
Okay, time for another quick lesson…
Low turnout does not, as Mia assumes, reflect dissatisfaction with what’s on offer. That’s really basic stuff and it’s amazing that I need to point it out. Research shows turnout is affected by a multitude of factors and, contrary to what some people think (especially dolts), there are often cases where low turnout is taken to reflect increased degrees of satisfaction with what is on offer.
“what is most interesting though is the fall in turnout and what this represents for the election to actually be considered democratic.”
More bullshit from Mia. There is no level of turnout that denotes an election in the UK is or is not democratic. She’s literally making things up.
Try looking up paltering, Mia, you might not know it but it’s all you’ve got.
Now, then, the campaign to spoil or “repurpose” ballot papers was a total failure, as I predicted it would be. It had no impact in the newspapers and made no difference anywhere. Nobody read out the profound messages on the spoiled ballots, nobody referred to them in news articles, it was a pointless and stupid distraction that could have made a very negative difference in some places — thankfully not enough stupid people took part.
Those who argued for spoiling their ballots on here have no right to take any pleasure in the result which was a resounding victory for those of us who know that the way forward is to get the SNP to fuck.
The moral of the story; don’t listen to idiots and if you are an idiot please try and fuck off and stop attention seeking.
“Even when you combine the bottom three, you only get to 1/2 of 1%.
Moonhowler mega-fail…. AGAIN”
The conspirators responsible for the case against Mr Salmond sought to destroy his reputation and stain his name using the dirtiest of the strategies possible because they were aware they are so useless, so incapable, so unconvincing and so mediocre that they could not possibly fight him in fair terms and win.
They had to force Mr Salmond down to their bottom of the sewer which is the natural level these filthy individuals operate in.
Trump used a similar strategy by continuously adding some derogatory adjective whenever he had to mention an opposing candidate. Classic ad hominem: if you cannot fight the argument, fight the man. Trump may be obnoxious, but he isn’t an idiot. He knew at the first election he stood as candidate he was the underdog. I am sure he will use a different strategy this time, so he can capitalise on the disgusting attempt of assassination against him that took place recently and, in my view, led Biden to give up.
I see that you are also following a smearing strategy here. You are continuously insulting me by adding the term “moonhowler” next to my name. This can only be because you feel so insignificant, inadequate and out of your depth that you are incapable to actually write a reasonable comment without resourcing to petty insults.
The thing is, in this particular case you had a solid argument to pursue, but you choose to trash it by adding the unnecessary insults to make you feel better. I guess that, in your mind, your counterargument is not convincing enough so you resource to adding the insult to balance it out.
I am really sorry to cause this much pain to your pride and ego, pet. I feel terrible now. Goodness, what is it about my comments and my arguments that make you feel so emasculated?
Now, coming back to the spoiled ballot thing. Was it a mega fail? It all depends on your perspective and what you were hoping to win. If you hoped for the number of ballots to reach the number of votes any of the political parties got, then yes, it is an epic fail. But that was unrealistic even in the most optimistic of the scenarios. However, if what you were actually pursuing was simply to make a point and to offer those who actively wanted to deliver a “fuck you and your rigged game” to the establishment, then it was not a fail. It was a success. The proportion in the number of spoiled ballots increased compared to last year despite being a much stronger underlying tendency to vote apathy. The ratio of spoiled ballots/official “valid votes” has also increased.
Remarkably, some of those constituencies which presented a clear alternative to the status quo (the constituencies with the two ISP candidates and Eva Comrie’s constituency) showed a fall in the number of spoiled ballots. It was interesting to see that Alba, in most cases, was unable to stop the increase in spoiled ballots, albeit they may have mitigated it. For instance, we do not know in Chris Law’s constituency how many spoiled ballots there would have been if Alba had not run in that constituency getting over 800 votes. The same applies for Mr Hanvie’s constituency. The number of ballots in his constituency did not increase, but it may have increased if he did not run.
What you seem to be missing is that the threshold for “taking notice” is not the same for spoiled ballots than it is for “valid” votes or even for not voting at all. As I mentioned above, there is already one case where in a constituency the people choosing to not vote already constitutes the majority. Yet, the establishment has pushed through and pinged on that constituency a labour candidate, despite representing only a majority of a minority vote. If the UK was a democracy, that constituency should either repeat the election or leave the seat vacant. There were not a majority of voters endorsing a candidate for the seat.
What is the threshold of spoiled ballots for the establishment to take notice? We don’t know yet, but you can be absolutely certain it is much lower than the threshold for “valid votes” and certainly for “not voting”, which, judging for the result in that constituency, required more than a 50%.
Currently, the proportion of spoiled ballots to “valid votes” is below 1%. What will happen if that percentage rises to 5%? and where there were 100 votes there are now 500? Will the establishment stand up and notice?
I am sure they will.
In the big picture, you cannot look at the spoiled ballots on their own. When you have 750,000 pro-independence voters staying at home, you cannot hide those under the banner of “voter apathy”. That is a mighty rebellion against the status quo. The non voters and those who spoiled the ballot stand on the same side on that fight: against the status quo. They are simply using a different weapon. There is already one constituency where that side has won. How many more constituencies do we need to tilt the scale?
Mia @ 12:46 pm
How many …. are MI5 assets?
All of them, and more, seems the only plausible answer, especially considering the ongoing immunity from prosecution; ‘authorised crime’ it is called, according to the Act.
Should we expect anything less ‘whenever colonialism is imperiled’? And ‘the native seldom looks for justice in a colonial environment’.
Which all fits rather well with postcolonial theory, where the colonial hoax and racket depends on these ‘confidential agents pensioned off at ransom prices’:
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/05/25/the-three-phases-of-decolonization-lessons-for-scotland/
I wonder if those humans who view their dubious and sinful actions as justified in defence of the earthly realms they serve think themselves immune from the judgement of an infinitely higher authority than that of an insignificant mortal coterie of self-appointed overlords.
They probably do – the voices of their masters on this tiny planet being the limit of their pitifully earth-bound consciousnesses.
I suspect their harsh education in what it means to be a soul without sin will span countless lifetimes.
Oh, well. God works in mysterious ways and always towards the redemption and ultimate salvation of its ‘children’ – regardless of how painful that education might be in the process of raising an awareness to a higher, more expansive, plane of consciousness.
God loves all its children – even the badly behaved ones.
In the end forgiveness will be granted to all souls and all sins will be washed clean in the light of God’s grace – and all will be well, and we will all be one again.
My apologies. A theologically metaphysical tsunami of incoherent thought patterns the vibrations of which temporarily overwhelmed my simple mortal programming intruded upon my reality.
I am told the medications will help suppress such wild fluctuations in my perceptions of reality (whatever that is) – but I wouldn’t bet on it.
I have access to coffee, but yet I remain in a state of boredom. A state frequently visited upon me as I traverse what remains of this mortal adventure. I believe it is all part of my ‘education’.
The boredom will pass; and when it does I will post more cogent comments relevant to the subjects under discussion – possibly.
@Tartan Tory (9.18)
Thanks for doing that list, it’s very interesting, as are Mia’s comments.
Must have taken a fair while and it’s not the sort of thing we’re likely to see appearing anywhere else.
Much appreciated.
🙂
I’m not done pontificating yet – the boredom still sits heavily upon me. Which is bad news for readers here…scroll on by if you choose not be preached to in a didactic and sanctimonious manner.
Who questions their own sanity?
Who questions the validity of their decisions; the logic which underpins and motivates their actions?
Who questions whether their understanding of a perceived problem might be flawed; that their solution might be incorrect and could do more harm than good?
Who considers the possibility that their thoughts, and their activities derived from such thoughts, might be the result of some kind of madness – temporary or otherwise?
Who cannot be persuaded by logical argument to take an alternative view from a view they might have long held to be the truth?
I’ll tell you who do not question their own sanity, or ever entertain the slightest doubt they might be ‘in the wrong’, or can be persuaded to change their flawed thinking in the face of incontrovertible truth…the ‘insane’.
So, if you ever find yourself questioning your own sanity, or admitting to yourself that your thinking might be flawed, or changing a dearly held belief when confronted with a cogent counter-argument – it’s a sure sign that you are, generally, sane.
What a comforting thought…or is it?
Because there can be no doubt the sane often find this world an uncomfortable place to live in.
It’s home time, class. Have a good weekend.
Mia @12.45pm.
Of course they are assets for the English security services how else could this have happened, incompetence? I think not, as for David Harvie a one time Scottish Crown Agent, Craig Murray outed him as Mi5 a few years back.
Harvie entered the court when Craig Murray was about to be sentenced and had word with the judge.
For me any Scottish politician who takes up their seat in the foreign parliament in England is helping to maintain the union whether they realise it or not.
@Rev. Stuart Campbell says:25 July, 2024 at 4:14 pm
The public isn’t listening about independence any more. A decade of inaction from the SNP has convinced them – correctly – that it’s going nowhere any time soon
Hmmm. Who to believe, the immensely respected author of the world’s most-read Indy blog?
Or the disrespected nobodies who post BTL?
Myself, I think the professional politicos are furious that Sunak disrupted their summer plans by calling the snap election. All those cancelled holidays and missed weddings.
The mind boggles to think of the professionally perfect white teeth that must have been ground out of alignment in frustration.
And we still have the Silly Season (August) to get through, when everything grinds to a halt and even the MSM is down to a couple of interns posting clickbait about inconsequential nonsense (more so than usual, I mean).
By mid-September, we should be able to see if any Indy-related topic is going to gain traction. Perhaps a credible plebiscitary election strategy from one of the more active enthusiasts, suitable refreshed and re-invigorated after their month abroad.
May 2026 will come round soon enough. Even if the truly committed, whoever they are, only devote half of their time to credible plans for Indy, and the other half to lining up cosy sinecures for their post-politics careers, it will still be an improvement.
And maybe the public will start listening again.
Is there a problem with the page? Some comments seem to be disappearing into the abyss.
@Republicofscotland 26 July, 2024 at 4:43 pm
For me, any so-called supporter of Scotland who can’t or won’t capitalise the name of my country is either a knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing ignoramus, or far more likely, an implacably hostile fifth-columnist who’s casual contempt for Scotland and us Scots is so all-consuming he won’t even deign to conceal it.
Perpetually miss-spelling the name of my country, and indeed any country, long after this has been pointed out, is akin in verbal speech to a true patriot of the country so insulted, to spitting every time the country’s name is uttered.
It’s that level of disrespect, yet it goes unremarked on here day after day, month after month, year after year.
Wightman playing amateur armchair lawyer is cringe-making. He actually thinks he is being terribly clever, lol. But his agenda is plain as a pikestaff (whatever that is).
It is notable that chooses a double negative (there is no evidence that the allegations are false). No, you cannot prove a double negative, it is a rhetorical device to make it seem that what has not been shown to be true is still somehow a fact, despite his admission that there is no evidence). It is an illogical and misleading, incoherent statement designed to imply, by innuendo, that just because it wasn’t proven in court that the allegations are still ‘facts’, which allegations clearly are not. So something that does not exist, as far as everybody can tell, still exists. This is worthy of Paul Daniels, or indeed any two bit internet conspiracy theorist. See any ‘not proven’ conspiracy theory regarding alien abductions, UFOs 9/11 etc etc. Just because the evidence isn’t there doesn’t mean those things didn’t happen. See, it’s easy if you try. Or as Donald Rumsfeld famously said, ‘just because we don’t have evidence of the Russian super missiles/pland to attack us, doesn’t meant they don’t exist, in fact it proves that they are so cunning we don’t know about it’
Yes you can ‘prove’ anything, float any allegation with this technuique, And so Andy does, in his most pompous barrack room lawyer way. Let’s see if we can apply it to him. So they’re allegations that Andy murdered someone, but has successfully hidden all the evidence and would get cleared at a trial. He has abducted children and keeps them in his basement, but no-one has produced a shred of evidence for it. Yes, but despite the lack of evidence and lack of criminal conviction, it doesn’t mean these allegations aren’t true. What impeccable logic.
Wightman, you are first year undergraduate writing an essay which you smirkingly hand in as proof that they entire reason and evidence based legal system is wrong in every acquittal it has ever made. Grade F, for fail.
Yes the Westminster masters had brown stains at the close call in the ‘14 ref and there was an obvious determination that it wasn’t going to happen again.
Isn’t it just a tad odd that as soon as the sturgeon took power prominent SNP figures like Manny Singh, Mark Hirst, Craig Murray and of course Alec Salmond were hounded and prosecuted by there own party. She then thrusts the highly unpopular Hate Crime bill and Woke x100 down the throats of the electorate.
Then there is of course the financial corruption and the on on on going police investigation, all designed to kept the SNP and of course independence in a negative light. And we know the desired result. SNP Wipeout. Job done. And as the rev has rightly said, the SNP have got to be kicked out of Holyrood before we can begin anew.
At tartan tory, Mia and Dan thanks for your exposures of the votes , Mia I would rather look at your possible positive exposure of what it may mean for alert voters to arrange and combine with others to challenge the current electoral PISH than to malign and denigrate ideas that may have some traction
IF you look at the previous election where the big beast parties in england were positive that the electorate only had a hobsons choice who to vote for, their commupance came in the form of The Muslim Vote (TMV) which coalesced around individual local Muslims outraged at the ESTABLISHMENTS stand on Pal estin e , OUR problem is that as Dan has referred to on many occasions the people standing for election are constrained by the party system which forbids independent thought and is dictatorial and subject to manipulation as we have experienced
There are comments disappearing into the ether.
I have been trying to post a response to Hatuey four times now. I have reworded the comment and changed it each time, but none of them have appeared. I did not get a message saying that the comment is in moderation as I did other times when including some forbidden word. This is obviously selective, because my comment from 5.56pm had no problem at all in being posted.
Is anybody else experiencing the same?
Well it looks like the House Jocks and Westminster will force the Commonwealth Games onto Scotland, for other nation don’t want them, the Australian state of Victoria had the sense to dump them, but England’s weakest minded colony Scotland more than likely will host them in what is commonly known a a bread and circuses act, where the heads of Scots are turned away from the myriad of problems that afflict Scotland today and onto these now defunct Imperial games.
Of course you can watch right now the Olympic Games or as they are better known this year the J-en0cide Games, of course Scotland isn’t competing in the games as Scotland’s athletes, but you wouldn’t know that by the over enthusiastic Scottish athletes eager and willing to rub shoulders on the track with the country’s athletes that’s committing J-en0cide West Asia,
@ Ebok
Re. The theoretical contract between elected officials and their constituents.
As I’ve suggested multiple times before, let’s change the game and offer a much more meaningful and powerful direct contract between constituents and those individuals they specifically elect to represent them.
Is that not one of the most significant reasons to want Scotland to return to self-governing status in the first place; So the Scottish people have a better more purposeful type of democratic control on steering our country’s trajectory on a course that we want.
This perpetual skipfire of the Kingdom of Scotland being in the “equal” Union with the Kingdom of England but us rarely ever getting the governments we actually vote for because we are outvoted by a factor of approximately 10 to 1 is bad enough.
But to add an extra level of impediment to controlling our Country’s democratic processes and destiny through a devolved administration packed with politicians representing English Parties, elected through a voting system designed and implemented by Unionists which gives the impression of being more fair due to its guise of having a proportional representation element, but which actually just serves to have Unionist cuckoos in the nest to stifle progress.
How daft are people to continue playing along with this horseshit.
Factor in the quickening of the political party system which is now riddled with shills and grifters punting their agitation and /or globalist woke bullshit we end up rather poorly served.
Conventional use of the Master’s tool will not dismantle the Master’s hoose. So we break with convention and approach this differently.
We have witnessed how the powers that be influence outcomes, a task made much easier for them because Parties appear to be so corrupted and packed with unsavory individuals that can be used to taint the prospects of the all too occasional good individual.
We remove that Party aspect and work locally. But as can be seen from ballot spoiling ideas and I4I candidates, this won’t happen with just musing online in a wee bubble a few months before and democratic event. It will take years to put in place on the ground in our respective constituencies. There are generally existing YES groups but they really have to consider changing tack now. If what remains of these YES groups are of any worth they will have to drop all allegiance to Parties and work locally to help identify 57 local honest respected individuals, and there’s 5 years (maybe less due to repeal of Fixed Term Parliament Act). We work the 50% of Scots that want to return Scotland to self-governing status and elect representatives to end the union.
There’s a reason we will get nowhere listening to ADHD like political commentators who spend far too much time online distracted by the current political circus antics leaving them precious little time to consider other ways of doing things, and just how much effort tasks take to accomplish in the real world away from online bubbles.
We don’t need and can’t rely on “leaders” from afar, that is a route for the weak and unimaginative, instead we need to step up and find the strength in ourselves and use that to deliver locally. That way we are much more able to do what needs to be done on our own terms and much less vulnerable to be attacked by the powers that be.
@ Mia
There are indeed issues with posts not appearing. Depending on the browser and device you are using, you can hover the cursor over the date and time stamp that appears below each post and it shows in the bottom left of your screen that post’s details and chronological order. But I can see there are 7 posts missing between your 7.27pm post ending 518 and the preceding post by twathater at 6.16pm ending 510.
The Greatest Ever Commonwealth Games was held in Glasgow according to their own officials.
Holyrood asked Westminster for some additional funding but also Not One Penny sent to support us.
The recent Commonwealth Games Held in Birmingham received £778 Million form Westminster the last I heard but they did ask for more.
So obviously with inflation and based on how much they love their favourite Colony a compatible donation from Westminster would be in excess of £800 million.
If we had an independence party or a Labour Party that wasn’t a London centric Labour Party
someone in their ranks would seek confirmation that we are supposed to be equal and treated as equal.
Effijy @ 9:14 pm
“The Greatest Ever Commonwealth Games was held in Glasgow according to their own officials.”
Unlike Paris, which as we can see in the Olympics opening ceremony has a vast number of vessels using the Seine, Glasgow has turned its back on the Clyde, the council preferring to install low bridges which inhibit navigation; added to the fact the Tories sold the port and river to offshore equity funds, just like most Scottish utilities. And ditto the Forth and Tay. Sunak-Forbes freeports simply add to our colonial exploitation resulting in Scots having the lowest GDP-per-capita in north-west Europe:
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/03/19/the-real-economic-price-of-the-uk-union-for-scots/
Test.
At time of submitting this post at 23.15pm there is one post by Effijy ending 534 and one post by Alf ending 547 showing, so nearly 20 posts not showing which suggests some issue with posting on the site.
Mia: “I have been trying to post a response to Hatuey four times now.”
I’m protected from above.
Anyone who makes a habit of distracting from the priority of trashing and destroying the SNP might as well go and join the SNP, as far as I’m concerned.
Thats the only thing I care about and, as I see it, it’s the only thing any of us should care about.
Instead of hurting the SNP, the campaign to “repurpose” ballot papers could very easily have helped the SNP. And, at the same time, it was clear that it wouldn’t do any good whatsoever.
I actually think the situation is such right now that arguing for independence probably helps the SNP.
As for comments going missing, people should learn to stay on topic. The topic is ‘fuck the SNP’.
Join the dots.
I love summertime in Scotland…it’s my favourite day of the year.
Northcode , can you give me an advanced warning of its arrival – I want to hang out a washing and a flag!
Scotland may move toward independence when Scots stop reciting the pathetic self-hate mantra and when, to quote, the last minister is strangled with the last copy of the Sunday Post.
Scotland certainly got the shitty end of the stick with Knox and his Calvinist pandora’s box of horrors: the road to Unionism was made of such.
Now Grow Up, Move On….Century 21 beckons and btw self-love is no sin.
I am not sure if this comment will ever see the light of day, but in the event it does:
thank you, Dan.
Following your advice, I have been looking at the information of each comment and it looks like the number of comments disappearing has been increasing.
Whatever/whoever is doing this appears to be selective. The number of spoiled ballots was very low, but it seems it has been enough to rattle such entity. That and the fact that there is now a constituency in Scotland for which those endorsing a candidate are in the minority.
By the way, I think your suggestion in the comment you posted at 7.44 is the way to go.
Sorry, Dorothy. Summer’s arrival in Scotland is an erratic and unsolvable mystery. Best just to have the washing ready to go and grab your chance when it comes…if it comes at all.
I drink so much coffee I just wrap items of clothing around my kettle to dry – saves me using the tumble dryer and cuts down on the leccy bill.
But if the flag you want to hang out is a Saltire then it doesn’t matter what the weather is like…it always looks good come rain or shine.
Dan @ 7.44pm
Thanks for the feedback, Dan.
@8.54pm (and Mia)
‘There are indeed issues with posts not appearing’
I’ve only experienced this once (a few months back), but I don’t comment much.
What is noticeable though, is that several prolific commenters have collectively gone silent.
“If someone made false or true allegations of sexual harassement against Wightman, would they remain anonymous as those who made the false allegations against Alex Salmond?”
Not automatically, no. A judge would have to make an order. The Salmond complainers were not legally protected until the first day of the trial, the anonymity order was passed because of James Doleman.
Comment identifiers are assigned by WordPress internally, and I don’t think they necessarily follow an exact single unit of separation sequential numbering pattern.
There might be gaps in comment numbering due to the internal ID generating parameters – a time-stamp might be involved, for instance – used by WordPress.
Using the sequential numbering of comment IDs to ascertain whether comments posted are missing or not is probably an unreliable methodology without knowing exactly how the IDs are generated.
“Mia again confirming that she really has no clue when it comes to politics. It takes real ignorance to talk as confidently as that about highly complex issues like turnout.
Okay, time for another quick lesson…
Low turnout does not, as Mia assumes, reflect dissatisfaction with what’s on offer. That’s really basic stuff and it’s amazing that I need to point it out. Research shows turnout is affected by a multitude of factors and, contrary to what some people think (especially dolts), there are often cases where low turnout is taken to reflect increased degrees of satisfaction with what is on offer.
“what is most interesting though is the fall in turnout and what this represents for the election to actually be considered democratic.”
More bullshit from Mia. There is no level of turnout that denotes an election in the UK is or is not democratic. She’s literally making things up.
Try looking up paltering, Mia, you might not know it but it’s all you’ve got.”
I’ve just put two people on pre-moderation and you’re one more personal attack from joining them. Everything in your comment could have been said, and more effectively, without the personal abuse.
Northcode @ 09.23.
Terrible thing to admit, I know, however the SNP as a party have succeeded so well in identifying the Saltire with themselves that I’m getting a wee bit gunshy of it Northy.
When I viewed it as a national rather than SNP symbol it was great, now some of my pleasure in seeing it has been diminished by them.
“My bad” as our US cousins may say.
@ Dan
re Peter Bell’s proposal for a new Independence Party .
I’ve previously thought/said I didn’t think there was * space * for another such and that it could be more effective to unify the non-SNP Independence Parties/Entities against the latter : in the process attempting to bring ( what remains of ) the broader Independence Movement together under a CREDIBLE I.P .
Those reservations remain , but , at this stage in * game * I’m open to * any * coherent suggestion that might further our cause
Peter’s proposal – it’s intention & orientation – has merit .
The question will be if has sufficient merit to gain the requisite traction for lift-off .
That remains to be seen . I’m happy to support it nonetheless .
Though , like yourself , I’m extremely circumspect another Political Party is what is required ATM .
Time will tell
All noted, Wings. I’m just sick of the grandstanding that goes on. Instead of admitting the “repurposing” campaign was a complete waste of time and votes, we see an effort to conflate it with low turnout and make out it was a success. It’s revisionism.
Anyway, apologies. I’ll stick to Jedi mind tricks instead of overt personal attacks. That’s more my forte anyway.
I see that there’s no cartoon today so…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZAHI-fbFSk&t=98s
You know, the art in that Hancock film The Rebel was actually brilliant. That film’s a classic but I don’t know where you go to watch films like that these days.
Stu,
The Scottish pretend parliament is full of select Worms and worm holes acting as agents for everyone and every where else except for the benefits of Scottish people,
From civil servants to politicians,
With the Crown of England started overseeing “Scots law” by extending the kingdom of England and the Laws of England into Scotland in 1707 after the treaty of Union date,
That small detail is worthy of investigation by a good worthy journalist to be sure for it implies that the Monarch of the kingdom of England was not the acknowledged Monarch of Scotland at that time period,
Thus we see the Crown prosecution and the Supreme Court by that 1707 EXTENDING ACT after the treaty was signed by the parliament of England, entering and illegally stating presidence over “Scots laws” allowing arrangements from civil servant agencies and actions of foreign entities to worm their way into Scotland,
Breaching the very treaty that states Scots laws will remain the same after the union as before the the treaty of union,
But it will take a exceedingly good and honest journalist to unpick why there is even a second parliament sent to Scotland that Breaches another article of the Union of there only being One parliament in Great- Britain on the ratification.
Scotland has two British parliaments over- seeing it laws and two British parliament making passing laws on Scotland while Westminster act and governs solely as the separate parliament of England and Wales.
A good journalist with a curious personality would be asking the appropreate Question,
Why did the parliament of Westminster need to pass an act ” AFTER” the treaty of union was signed ( ratified ) to Extend the Monarch of Englands kingdom and the Crown of England into Scotland ?
If the Monarch was already the Monarch of the kingdom under a shared Monarch of Scotland as a we are told by the parliament of Westminster,
The ” Crown” in Scotland and all it entails as it appertains to double extended “laws of Scotland” has a distinctly bad odour.
Even as a retired cartoonist I have enough journalistic curiousity to wonder why Westminster parliament in 1707 needed to extend the Monarch of Scotland’s kingdom into Scotland at all,, ..IF she was already the Monarch of Scotland pre- union,
But then some people just except that “extending” the kingdom of England, the Crown, and the monarch of England into Scotland (after the treaty of union) means the monarch must have always been the monarch of England and not a shared monarch or kingdom with Scotland up until the extention Act after the treaty of union,
So really no point in blethering on about the pretendy parliament sent to Scotland under the extended Crown of England and all the worm agencies within it acting for the Crown of Englands laws.
In both both cases, the monarch not being shared monarch with Scotland pre-union, the Crown not being a shared Crown with Scots, and the Crown laws altering and breaching the treaty of union articles that Scots law should remain e same after the union as before.
I don’t agree with lifting the two child cap. No chance someone with 7 kids should get all this free money.
Salmond wants to lose votes.
It struck me during the interminable and “Paris on ketamine” #Olympics2024Paris opening ceremony last night, that if Palestine, Guam, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands can send teams, why can’t Scotland….?
Perhaps “real” nationalists should start a campaign to deconstruct TeamGB for the Olympics?
After all, it it’s good enough for football and rugby….
People with a disabled child are getting £4,170 per year.
They’ll say their kid has autism. Some nasty people out there do these things. So that they don’t have to work.
Or £3,455 a year for 2 children. = £7 grand for 2 kids. So they then want even more money.
Make work pay I say. Raise the wages. Not raise the benefits.
https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/50140-public-support-retaining-the-two-child-benefit-limit-as-starmer-gears-up-for-first-rebellion
Salmond and the Alba Party. Take note the Two Child Payment And nothing more.
It’s not fair for most of Britain to be paying handouts to these people that don’t want to work that just want to have children.
The foreigners that is. They don’t deserve free money. We must deter. Not encourage.
The French Olympic ceremony. There’s a group called Christine and the Queens that have murdered Pachelbel Canon in the D.
With their song Full of Life. The lyrics are repulsive of course. An absolutely woke enough for Amazon to use the song in their adverts.
Demonic stuff from the French. Why is it all these artists seem to hate Christians. Madonna is the same. and Sam Smith. They hate Christian values don’t they?
Never mind.
Sven @10:42am
I disagree, Sven.
I’ve never identified Scotland’s symbol of nationhood with the SNP. Although at one time I thought it was appropriate and legitimate for a political party devoted to Scottish independence to use Scotland’s national flag in its promotional material.
This from the website of The Scottish Flag Trust:
The Saltire or St Andrew’s Cross is an ancient symbol of nationhood; the SNP’s ‘corporate’ logo is now a contemporary symbol of falsehood – the two cannot be conflated despite the SNP’s attempts to claim the Saltire (and the independence movement, too) as its own.
Corruption, betrayal, lies and ineptitude are the ‘symbols’ the SNP has successfully succeeded in identifying itself with; the Scots have removed the Saltire from its duplicitous grasp and it will never be associated with the SNP again.
Perhaps the Cross of St. George (adopted by England in 1190, more than 350 years after Scotland adopted the Saltire) is now a more appropriate national flag to associate with the SNP.
The Saltire will always symbolise the people and nation of Scotland; Decade after Decade, Century after Century, Millennium after Millennium, Eon after Eon, Era after Era, Period after Period, Epoch after Epoch, Age after Age, Eternity after Eternity to infinity…and beyond.
The hyperbolic mixed use of Chronological units and Geochronologic units in increasing orders of magnitude is fun – well, it is for me anyway.
Can anyone remind me which letters M/s A & M/s B were assigned during the trial?
Northcode @ 12.14.
I wasn’t attempting to justify my, doubtless emotional, response to the sight of the saltire these days, Northy.
As I said, it’s “my bad”.
However, in this old buffer’s conditioned response our national flag and the SNP have to an extent merged.
Christians including Elon Musk have slammed the Paris Olympics opening ceremony for an apparent parody of the Last Supper as technical hitches and rain-drenched performers meant only Canadian singer Celine Dion could save it.
With critics branding the four-hour show as the ‘worst ever’, viewers reported poor audio caused by the near-torrential rain and even joked online that organisers needed to ‘stop the boats’.
Hundreds of thousands of spectators watched 6,800 athletes covered in plastic ponchos attempted to keep spirits high as they travelled down the river Seine in a huge flotilla of 85 boats.
But others were less impressed, accusing organisers of creating a ‘woke’ parody of the Last Supper – a painting by Leonardo da Vinci depicting Jesus’ last meal with his disciples.
Tesla and SpaceX owner Elon Musk, who has come under criticism for his conservative beliefs, including towards his own daughter, wrote on X – formerly Twitter – claimed the performance was ‘extremely disrespectful to Christians’.
He added: ‘Christianity has become toothless.’
I’ll not watch it. I’m glad it pissed down on the French.
Miserable bastards the French. Everyone knows it. And they’ve gone woke as fuck. Destroying Angellelic music like Pachelbel Canon in D – Music that’s like Angels talking to you. Now it’s the last supper for the Christian faith.
Woke is mocking Christian Values. Get the woke to fuck. I Hope the French get fucked in every medal! I hope they come last!
LES FARCE! Fuck the French!
At least there’s no cheating transwomen at the Olympics this time.
The World has moved on. Thank goodness. Well done to Sharron Davies and all of the other brave women that say no to male cheats.
Apparently the French had a drag child on a float down the Siene. Stop the Boats. Rhu Paul Drag kid. Disgusting.
It doesn’t matter if it’s Madonna. Or Sam Smith. They are so predictable. And not very interesting. They hate Christians. It’s always got to be demonic. Satan worshipping sexual deviancy forced down the throats.
Like that Balenciaga brand – you may have seen what they came out with. Really really sick people.
I think my Christian values are getting stronger – but obviously I support the gays and God loves gays. If you actually read the bible. There is a disciple that Jesus loved. But he unnamed. I think there is a gay part to Jesus.
Not that these fucking woke toss pots would ever understand that though.
The “disciple whom Jesus loved”. Who was this man?
I think Jesus could have been bisexual don’t you know? I think he did love a man. This disciple he loved.
But unfortunately these woke fucks just don’t give a damn about Christian values anymore. They hate our country. They hate our way of life. And it’s terrible.
David Hannah is rapidly turning in to Wings’ very own BTL tartan Alf Garnett or Father Jack Hackett.
Who let the fascist in?
“…our national flag and the SNP have to an extent merged.”
Then you must strive to separate the two, Sven.
You have been hoodwinked, ensnared in the insidious tentacles of a fiendish cult. Captured by the false lure of independence dangled ruthlessly before those the SNP seek to convert to one of its mindless acolytes – to one of its drones.
Cast the SNP from your mind, Sven. Cast it from your mind and free yourself from its stifling embrace; its cloying, whispered promises; its cobwebbed lies of brighter futures and a stronger Scotland.
Run from the SNP, Sven, run as fast as you can (given your ancientness and all).
you know I’m taking the mickey, right? The SNP have certainly ‘done a number’ on the Scots and it might take a while for Scotland to regain her balance after being so cruelly deceived.
David Hannah @ 13.03 & 13.05.
I look forward with interest to your exposition of “phileó” and “agapeó” love as mentioned in the context of John’s gospel, David.
On the subject of worms…..when will the Scottish «worm» decide to turn?
Thought you liked fascists, Ellis… oh well, wrong again.
The whole immigration thing is complicated, by race, history, religion, skin colour, and politics. In turn it complicates and exacerbates a million other problems, housing, health care, social relations, etc.
From memory, the Scottish population is expected to shrink by about 2% over the next 20 years. On top of that, we are all getting older and living longer… the combination of these factors raises some big questions.
Who is going to jump on a bicycle with a big square backpack and bring you junk food when you’re older?
Logically, you should probably be rewarding people who have more than two kids rather than punishing them. And it goes without saying we that need more immigrants too, not less.
But we also need more David Hannahs, even if they occasionally get things wrong.
I never watched the opening ceremony nor will I watch any of the games. Did see the clip of them mocking the last supper with that assortment of things… not surprised.
The idea this woke filth was ever about tolerating them and how they just want to live their lives in peace is total shite.
They are out to denigrate and pervert everything that is not filth like them, to piss on the entire world, to make them into the fucked up weirdo cunts that they all are.
My tolerance levels are now at zero. Sharia fucking law is looking pretty good at this point.
There is going to be a massive backlash just a matter of when not if as they just can’t stop themselves. They are they utterly repellent. It is like looking at satan’s deformed offspring or something, physically disgusting.
I guess if Wings BTL has exhausted every other avenue that could potentially lead to Indy, there’s no harm in attempting to revert to Christian Values.
It’s exactly the kind of thing the Tories would try though, so be careful!
In the spirit of forgiveness, let’s all comb through our previous posts and apologise for everything we’ve ever written that is clearly un-Christian in tone, attitude, or opinion.
Frankly, this is going to take some time, but SFA is going to be happening before September anyway.
Le «Macaron» ensconced in the Élysée should not be asked to go, he ought, in good revolutionary manner, be thrown out bag and anglo-saxon woke baggage.
What exactly are these «elected» plutocratic monarchs, aka presidents, for.
@Hatuey says:27 July, 2024 at 3:22 pm
The whole immigration thing is complicated, by race, history, religion, skin colour, and politics
Naw.
It’s about different value systems and their compatibility. More relevantly, their incompatibility. It’s my conviction you know this well, but you have long used this forum to push your own, personal agenda. The widely accepted value systems currently in use in this society empower you in your efforts to insert your own. It’s a flaw in our value systems – our tolerance leads to our people being blown to bits or beheaded on our streets.
And it goes without saying we that need more immigrants too, not less
Naw.
We need far more of our own indigenous people to get off their flabby, entitled, arses and do some productive activities for their families, neighbourhoods, and nation.
But again, those with an ulterior motive will continue to push the narrative that only the kindly, altruistic immigrant can grant our salvation.
Right up to the moment, as evidenced by thousands of historical precedents, when the kindly, altruistic immigrants have reached the critical mass they need.
Hatey McHateface @ 5.01pm says
“Right up to the moment, as evidenced by thousands of historical precedents, when the kindly, altruistic immigrants have reached the critical mass they need.”
Sadly our wee village,almost certainly the last sizeable one in the Highlands to be colonized, has exceeded critical mass and the indigenous population is fucked. From a population of around 1200 about 20 years ago we are down to about 850 in the last census, owing to emigration of indigenous population when the very major employer closed, older/childless couples from down south arriving, air b&b’s and holiday homes.
@silverfox (5.25) –
We’re keen to hear first-hand testimony from those affected by what you describe.
If you’d like to write your account of what’s happening (no word limit) we’ll publish on Off-Topic Scotland. People are, understandably wary of raising their voices on this issue so you could use that name or any other pseudonym you prefer.
Just mail, anytime, to offtopicscotland@protonmail.com and mark FAO Rab.
(Same offer extends to anyone else who is concerned.)
@Hatuey 3.22pm
If we’re going to talk about things you got wrong it’s going to make one of Mia’s posts look like a haiku bud.
The answer to the questions posed by an ageing and shrinking population may be complex, but they’re not insoluble. Unless you think there are no economic and social benefits to be had from immigration (in which case, you have to explain who is going to be doing all the jobs, paying the taxes etc in an ageing and shrinking population like Scotland’s), the challenge is to find politicians who can come up with and enact political narratives that foster tolerance and social cohesion.
The reason the right have been making inroads, and that attitudes like those of Mr Hannah and his far right ilk have prospered, is that those narratives haven’t been developed, and we don’t have politicians worth a damn capable of doing so, or it seems in most cases of stringing two coherent sentences together. That goes for both the UK and Scotland.
The spittle flecked invective of fringe nutters like Me Hannah is not something we need more of.
@Hatuey 3.22pm
If we’re going to talk about things you got wrong it’s going to make one of the usual suspect’s interminable posts look like a haiku bud.
The answer to the questions posed by an ageing and shrinking population may be complex, but they’re not insoluble. Unless you think there are no economic and social benefits to be had from immigration (in which case, you have to explain who is going to be doing all the jobs, paying the taxes etc in an ageing and shrinking population like Scotland’s), the challenge is to find politicians who can come up with and enact political narratives that foster tolerance and social cohesion.
The reason the right have been making inroads, and that attitudes like those of some of the moonhowlers in here and their far right ilk have prospered, is that those narratives haven’t been developed, and we don’t have politicians worth a damn capable of doing so, or it seems in most cases of stringing two coherent sentences together. That goes for both the UK and Scotland.
We need less extremism, not more. Independence won’t be won by those espousing fringe views.
@silverfox 5.25pm
Aren’t the issues being experienced in the Highlands common to lots of other areas? The same can be said of Cornwall, the Lake District, parts of Wales, even the East Neuk of Fife.
Hard as it is for locals, and much as we might want to see things done differently, what % of the Scottish population live in the Highlands and what impact will they have on achieving independence?
Hautey
Maybe or maybe not you should take a tip from Ellis and instead of naming Mia and risk being pre-moderated for personal abuse you should use some code and assume Stu won’t know who you are referring to.
No worries silverfox others are experiencing similar issues.
Not many people live in the Higlands silverfox so in the grand scheme of things they don’t matter certainly not when it comes to achieving independence.
@ Rab Clark
Aye, there’s plenty bonnie rural areas in Scotland that have and continue to endure the influx of white flight from Englandshire.
I took a hurl on my motorbike up a glen in Perthshire last year and stopped several times to ask groups of locals directions. All voices were English with not a Scottish accent to be heard.
I spoke to a health worker last year and they stated there were 200 newborn children in oor locale but only 20 bairns to both Scottish parents.
Maybe Oor Ellis who speaks for the majority don’t you know could pen an article informing us of the benefits of loads of aged auld crumbly English folk rocking up here in their retirement and outbidding oor local indigenous young uns and buying up all the hooses.
That time I saw a load of grey haired auld retired geezers from England racing about my local in a fire engine putting oot all the fires hasn’t happened yet. That’s why some rural fire stations can’t muster a crew when the pagers go aff because there are not enough young folk able to live and work in these rural areas.
The stats in this article are worth considering.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2023/03/26/healthy-demographics/
Surely if the population of Scotland is ageing and shrinking there will be less and less jobs requiring to be done and less and less tax required to pay for the ageing and shrinking population unless the immigration you are proposing is ageing folk from England which I suspect it is.
Would immigration not then have to be restricted to the young? Hardly worth talking about immigration being that Scotland has no control over immigration.
Surely if the population of Scotland is ageing and shrinking there will be less and less jobs requiring to be done and less and less tax required to pay for the ageing and shrinking population unless the immigration you are proposing is ageing folk
Oh aye, so we Scots can jist get back in oor box and patiently await for London Rule to address Scotland’s demographic predicament because similar issues affect places in England…
The French clearly desecrated the Last Supper. Leonardo Da Vinci – With drag artists and trannies portraying Jesus – including the drag kid.
What’s that all about?
A tiny slither of the elite imposing their ideology on the World.
I’m offended for the Christians. I think I’ll read more of the bible as a result. The more woke attacks Christianity. The more I’ll read and go the opposite way.
Also check out Craig Houston talks.
Video footage has been released of the Manchester Airport police officers being violently attacked by a gang of muslim thugs. Before the footage is released of them being kicked and tazered on the ground.
The way the media is portraying this is that the white security guards were the criminals.
They were doing their jobs!!…
Check out Craig Houston talks.
Leaked
NEW Manchester Airport CCTV footage moments before the suggested “compliant” victim incident.
The media want to destabilise the UK. They want to demonise whitey.
The opposite narrative is true!
The media making out that the manchester airport were innocent members of the public, being attacked by police brutality.
they’re Muslim thugs violently attacking the airport security. If you look at the leaked video.
There was rioting in the muslim section of Leeds last week. The media wants sectarian violence on the streets of Britain.
That’s what’s happening. And white males are under attack. Change my mind.
Ellis…
“Aren’t the issues being experienced in the Highlands common to lots of other areas? The same can be said of Cornwall, the Lake District, parts of Wales, even the East Neuk of Fife”.
Being priced out of your future ability to live and work and raise a family in the place of your birth, with all the associated family, social, linguistic and cultural ties and dimensions, simply because foreigners with different social, linguistic and cultural traits have financial clout which you can never hope to match, (Not just the English I might add), is nothing to be sniffed at.
We’re witnessing the modern clearances of the indigenous populations of the Highlands and Islands and our wonderful SNP Govt. isn’t and hasn’t done shit about it.
Chickens are coming home to roost when Doctors, Teachers, Nurses, Dentists, Lecturers, plumbers, electricians, mechanics and everyone else required to make communities function can’t live in the areas where they’re most needed because properties are snapped up at ridiculous prices just so people can retire “up north” and run a f**king B&B!
‘Cornwall, the Lake District, parts of Wales, even the East Neuk of Fife.’
Also Balearics.
Link Tourism.
Silver Fox says:
owing to emigration of indigenous population when the very major employer closed, older/childless couples from down south arriving, air b&b’s and holiday homes.
Andy Ellis
Ignored says:
27 July, 2024 at 6:26 pm
Hard as it is for locals, and much as we might want to see things done differently, what % of the Scottish population live in the Highlands and what impact will they have on achieving independence?
Hard, is it?
Therein lies the same Neoliberalism which dispenses with craftsmanship and honourable built-to-last tradition, in order to secure the minimum cost as the sole and sacrosanct governing criterion.
I see the world differently, thank god, and I value Scotland’s rural communities because they typify, and contribute towards, the living essence of Scotland; land of the Scots. Aye, I know, there’s not much left, but still…
I value Gaelic because it exists, not by how much it costs. What would it be “worth” to know what Pictish language sounded like, or what their oral traditions were? Pictish music…
Once upon a time, progressive societies built libraries to protect their literature and culture, and I don’t suppose a single one of those libraries was intended to turn over a profit, but they still put their heart and soul into building them. Scotland, where Scottish society exists for the Common good!
Fast forward to today – survival of the richest. Aye, who have we to thank for that invasive “culture”? Scotland of the Enlightenment? Where once it was unlawful to profit from another’s misfortune? We all know the answer to that.
Fuk their money. Invest in our culture, not theirs. Feed the wolf that’s indigenous, and feed it better than it we’ve been feeding the pare critter lately.
Scotland is a wealthy and profoundly beautiful Nation, and it is absurd that our young despair at the future Scotland offers them. If the place was governed properly and the grasping parasites removed off their back, our young should be thriving, here, and there should be queues at Immigration for Aussie, NZ, and Canadian diaspora coming back to the Auld Country to “top up” the Scottishness in their veins because “being” Scottish is still a badge of honour in a grubby world of greed.
Your NC500? I’d put a big fkg gate on it. Road Closed on the Sabbath. Welcome tae Scotland. An’ me an atheist annaw…. 😉
@Breeks 8.39pm
Hard, is it?
Therein lies the same Neoliberalism which…
Very elegiac I’m sure Breeks….but we seem to be having enough trouble persuading a majority of Scots to put an X in a box to rid themselves of British nationalism: I have my doubts taking on global neoliberalism is going to be high on their priorities, or likely to make the prospect of becoming independent easier rather than harder.
Who knows tho, eh? Perhaps the prospect of a People’s Republic of Scotland will move the dial over 50%.
Good luck with that….
Northcode
27 July, 2024 at 12:14 pm
This from the website of The Scottish Flag Trust:
“The St Andrew’s Cross or Saltire is Scotland’s national flag.
Tradition has it that the flag, the white saltire on a blue background, the oldest flag in Europe and the Commonwealth, originated in a battle fought in East Lothian in the Dark Ages.
It is believed that the battle took place in the year 832AD. An army of Picts under Angus mac Fergus, High King of Alba, and aided by a contingent of Scots led by Eochaidh (Kenneth mac Alpin’s grandfather)…”
Perhaps the Cross of St. George (adopted by England in 1190, more than 350 years after Scotland adopted the Saltire) is now a more appropriate national flag to associate with the SNP.
When the usual suspects delve into Scottish history, they usually get it wrong. That’s the case here.
If “Northcode” cited what the Scottish Flag Trust ACTUALLY says, he’d note that even the Trust labels this story “The Legend of the Saltire.” What he also leaves out is that allegedly King Angus (or Alba, not Scotland) prayed for help he day of the battle and saw the St. Andrew cross in a cloud in the sky, and was inspired by it. A truthful person wouldn’t ave left out these points.
In fact the first firm evidence of the Saltire as a national symbol comes from 1385, and even that is debatable. Use as a flag, with the colors we see today, can be fixed at 1507 or 1542, depending on the source used. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Scotland
People should credit the proven, rather than the “Legend.” But I guess some people prefer a “Legend” to proven historical facts.
https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/01/27/have-we-reached-peak-neoliberalism-in-the-uks-covid-19-response/
commodifying health is bloody dangerous for yer health.
Slainte
Ellis: “The answer to the questions posed by an ageing and shrinking population may be complex, but they’re not insoluble. Unless you think there are no economic and social benefits to be had from immigration (in which case, you have to explain who is going to be doing all the jobs, paying the taxes etc in an ageing and shrinking population like Scotland’s)”
I’ve probably spent more time than anybody in here arguing in favour of immigrants and immigration, and I’ve got the scars to prove it. Sometimes you need to listen to the objections of others and take them on board, though, even if you find aspects of their objections repugnant.
My opinion today is that we should call a halt to immigration until such time as we are independent and in a better position to accommodate and cater for more people.
We simply don’t have the facilities in Scotland right now and there’s really no immediate incentive to bring in migrant workers when our economy is largely in the hands of the UK Government. Immigration to Scotland right now probably benefits the UK economy and chancellor more than it benefits Scotland.
As for the insolubility of the issue, I would actually say it’s so complex that words like that are completely inappropriate.
Let’s say Scotland decided to build 300 thousand new houses over the next 15 years. We simply don’t have the workforce for that. Okay, so we decide to bring in 30 thousand suitably skilled workers.. where do they live? What schools do their kids go to? What dentists, doctors, opticians, hospitals, etc., do they use? We are already short in all those areas.
The increased demand on services and associated social problems that result from immigration are left to fall on the shoulders of ordinary Scots who are already struggling — Westminster increases its tax base, people like Nicola get to virtue signal and act all inclusive, while ordinary people pay the price on a range of different levels.
If we were independent, I’d take a very different view and happily open the doors to a couple of million migrants. Right now, the negatives outweigh the positives,
Silver Fox says:
owing to emigration of indigenous population when the very major employer closed, older/childless couples from down south arriving, air b&b’s and holiday homes.
It would be interesting to know why the major employer closed.
Was it due to Brexit, green issues, because they couldn’t recruit employees in that area due to lack of affordable accommodation, infrastructure?
The issue here isn’t due to immigration unless people coming from down south are considered immigrants.
Would you consider aging Ellis and his even more aging relatives who came here only after Scotland decided to remain in the Union as immigrants.
Did all these aging people give any considering to Scotland’s aging population problem before they decided to come here buy up property and use services?
No point talking about ‘immigration’ when that isn’t the problem in Silver Fox’s village.
Aging Ellis & his even more ageing relatives also expect to be able to vote in Scotland from the minute they arrive here which also creates yet another problem.
Immigrants from where?
I would say if you are looking from young immigrants the best solution would be immigrants from the EU.
I’m just making a guess at this but it seems immigrants from EU countries don’t stay forever whereas immigrants from third world countries never leave.
With EU immigrants there isn’t the problem of caring from them in their old age.
Would there be any restrictions on these couple of million migrants Hautey. ie Age, skills, language, culture etc?
Accepting the court ruling of apparent bias, I have not seen a clear explanation of why they wanted to get him. Was it fear he would return to politics? Some personal grudge? A feeling they should do something for the MeToo movement?
I ask because it seems such a stupid thing to do. Fortunately done as incompetently as so many other things from this gang.
COULD IT BE TRUE,
no one has a clue,
what to do,
‘bout this Scot Nat hullabaloo.
A generation in its dotage?
Stay safe, secure and stable with political stasis.
Morning, Ruby.
Seen the Scottish Clarity Act proposed?
Also, Expat Scots majority now favour independence. Small sample size. Caution.
The Labour Files (especially the opening sentence) seem very relevant just now.
Just a suggestion for those who still believe in Scotland becoming independent.
Stop thrashing about in the new growth of entangled political branches that are taking over Scotland and get down to the roots of the problem,
Scots are not in the treaty of union…… Westminster parliament statement.
The monarch of England was not recognised as the Monarch of Scotland pre- union, or during the union……..Westminster parliament 1707 act to “extend the monarch” of the kingdom of England into the kingdom of Scotland.
Old Westminster parliament of England continued as the same parliament into the British parliament through the “House of Lords”
Scotland has not had a Scottish parliament since 1707.
When Westminster parliament placed the Scottish parliament under dissolution in 1707 the treaty of union between Scotland and England Ended.
The Scots whom Westminster parliament state are not in the treaty of union have not had Scottish representation in Westminster parliament since 1707.
The Crown in Englands parliament is Sovereign . The Crown in Scotland is not Sovereign in any Capacity……the people are.
The Scots “claim of Right” is acknowledged in Westminster parliament.
The treaty of union which the Sovereign Scots were not invited to join and have never been asked to join to this day……has been altered,repealed, made obsolete and Breached by the Westminster parliament that still …….separately governs England and Wales,
When will all of this information enter the Scots subconscious?
Is this place full of unionist pretending to want Scottish independence? So do not strive to hard to cut through the sh..te?
If any one is even remotely interested in finding their way out it is through the blind door we entered
I have not the time or the care anymore to help those that do not want to be helped but want to wallow in self pity blaming Westminster for their own stupidity,
Or to pretend we are talking to people on Wings who want Scotland to Rise and be a nation again,
So in exasperation for now I leave those pretend Scottish independists and unionists on Wings to enjoy thrashing out in the branches.
I have enough to contend with, without trying to educate people on the massive flaws to the treaty of union and whom wish to remain Colonial Captives.
God help Scotland and all of you that cannot see the wood for the trees.
Hatuey @ 1:14 am
“If we were independent, I’d take a very different view and happily open the doors to a couple of million migrants”
That’s a big ‘if’, at the moment. And some basic understanding of what occurs in a colonial society might be of advantage.
The reality here is what previous census data tells us, since records began; that population change of such magnitude has probably already occurred in Scotland, and has merely intensified since devolution (i.e. ‘democracy without power’).
Moreover, historically, the organised removal of several million of Scotland’s people began not long after annexation (i.e. the Union hoax) in the 1700s, peaking in the 1920s/30s, and continuing well into the 1970s.
We should remember that population management (e.g. displacement of a native people) is one of the key levers of colonialism; here there is an emphasis on reducing (and replacing) the indigenous population, as well as eradicating their ‘national consciousness’ through the colonial/cultural assimilation process.
A colonized people are effectively ‘out of the game’ in all matters and respects. This is why they must seek self-determination (i.e. decolonization) in order to survive and exist as ‘a people’ and as a nation.
A colonially oppressed, hence much diminished (obliterated, even) people and culture must be allowed to ‘self-recover’; decolonization is therefore not about ‘opening the doors’ to large numbers of other peoples mainly from/via the former imperial/oppressor power.
What you are proposing is that Scotland should remain subject to existing ‘colonial procedures’ even after independence / decolonization; which negates the purpose of liberation, i.e. ‘self-recovery’ of ‘a people’ and culture.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2021/10/26/determinants-of-independence-demographics-2/
I love being a Scot. Why would I diminish myself, my country, my cultural history and identity wishing to be something lesser?
And even though my country has been grievously insulted; my culture belittled and diminished; my people betrayed and doun-hauden and forced to endure 300 years and more of ‘Union’ with a partner grossly undeserving of my people’s great and generous spirit, I would still rather be a Scot.
I find the alternatives…unappealing.
@Hatuey 1.14 am
My opinion today is that we should call a halt to immigration until such time as we are independent and in a better position to accommodate and cater for more people.
Who is this “we” of whom you speak…? We’ll be able to do SFA about immigration policy until we’re independent, after which time we’ll have the same opportunities – and the same problems – as any other independent country. Whether a newly independent country will have policies which are significantly different from those in operation currently, or will change them for a different approach (whatever that might be) remains to be seen of course.
I’d expect there to be an increase in immigration post independence from Scots born people abroad deciding to come home. Doubtless the nativists in here will have no issue with that since they’re pure bloods?
If you have a labour and skills shortage, and you’re not prepared to allow ANY (or at least sufficient) immigration to solve that, you’re either going to have to accept the economic hit for that as the services won’t be provided, the taxes won’t be paid, the houses won’t be built etc or you’re going to have to increase the number of people already here working and “upskill” them.
I’m not sure the issues you discuss are going to be soluble by any immediate post independence government such that they could allow a few million extra immigrants. The fact we’d have control of all the economic levers and be able to decide all our own policies in every area wouldn’t be a magic wand we can wave to suddenly create an ideal society.
Plenty of other countries like Denmark and Sweden are having their own issues with and debates on immigration policy and approaching them in different ways. Scotland post indy will no doubt be little different.
Al Jazeera news, yesterday, had a feature about the island of Santorini and how it’s being strangled by tourism.
It’s enough of a problem in itself, catering for such huge numbers, but the serious long-term damage is caused by those ‘tourists’ who think ‘Hmmm, yeah, I’d like a wee slice of this’, then buy a property, use it a few weeks of the year, rent it out to other tourists the rest of the time, wreck the local housing market for the islanders and generate ill-feeling all round.
Sound familiar?
http://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/9/11/without-rules-we-cannot-live-greece-seeks-ways-to-tackle-overtourism
As «an immigrant» belonging to an extended family which owing to wars/politics no longer lives in the land of the ancestors, I reckon Scotland would benefit from the fresh blood of immigration, young, bright, eager, ambitious what is not to like?
Either that or an a retirement home for England’s elderly?
Maybe, have a attempt at making babies?
Not exactly theoretical physics.
Aging Ellis & his even more ageing relatives also expect to be able to vote in Scotland from the minute they arrive here which also creates yet another problem.
So now the nativists, bigots and moonhowlers want to disenfranchise Scots born people who happened to move abroad for work before returning home too? Are we obliged to wait for some qualifying period too I wonder?
Will the 750,000 Scots born people in the rest of the UK find themselves similarly disenfranchised by Westminster and demand that they be allowed to vote in Scottish elections as putative citizens? I wonder how many of them support the kind of sophomoric marxist policies all the Brigadoon types in here seem so enamoured of? 🙂
That seems a fairly extreme shift even by their carpet biting standards, doesn’t it? Perhaps once you’ve accepted the initial extreme position, it’s just necessary to keep getting ever more extreme?
Odd also that apparently it’s OK for young people from the EU to move here, but not old people, or coffee coloured people, because they’ll never go back. I imagine the EU might have something to say about that, given their attachment to free movement, which the usual suspects in here will no doubt find problematic.
Doubtless that’s why quite a few of them are anti-EU and even anti-EEA. In fact, they’re sounding more and more like the kind of folk who would be more at home in Orban’s Hungary. Perhaps the normal majority in Scotland could encourage the moonhowlers to move en masse to Hungary: I’d be happy to contribute to a crow funder for theor one way tickets.
The murder of crows should be made illegal…as should funding them.
I apologise, Andy Ellis. I don’t normally point out obvious typos (that would be pedantic and crass) but that one amused me and I couldn’t resist.
David Blake
Ignored says:
28 July, 2024 at 9:02 am
Accepting the court ruling of apparent bias…why?
I think the answer is to be found within the personality of Nicola Sturgeon. It is obvious to me anyway that her administration was useless partly because it was only permitted to do as she instructed. As with her government She initiated the process intended to ruin Alec Salmond. It was her idea, she wanted him ruined. She wanted to stay at the centre with the cameras and the press always focused on her. Why did senior people in the civil service, the police and the crown office go along with her plan ? I’m more interested in getting that question answered. We might get more honest and capable institutions out of it.
Careful Northcode, you know what they say about flying wi’ the craws….!
Are you now claiming that you, your wife & aging in laws are all Scottish born and went abroad for work?
Presumable that would be when they were over 16 years of age?
The question was did you or your aging relatives give any thought to our aging population problem when you moved to Scotland after Scotland voted to remain in the Union.
Are you now claiming that you, your wife & aging in laws are all Scottish born and went abroad for work?
Your original post referred to me and my aging in-laws. Presumably you wouldn’t dispute that I as a native born Scot am entitled to vote when I decided to move home after living in England for 25 years? Or is there some quarantine period that xenophobic nativist bigots think is necessary before we’re considered Scottish enough?
As for my in-laws, unsurprisingly their decisions are their own. I doubt they’d have listened to me if I told them not to move: perhaps your in-laws are different. From memory the monster in law would in fact qualify for Scottish citizenship as one of her grandparents was Scottish.
Life is complicated. Quite a few of my relatives both by birth and marriage have moved from Scotland to England, others from England to Scotland and a few have gone further afield still.
Why should my in-laws feel they’re not welcome in Scotland as opposed to staying in England when both their children and all their grandchildren apart from 1 live in Scotland? In terms of a cost/benefit analysis, maybe they’re actually contributing more to the Scottish economy than they’ll ever take out of it.
Sadly given their age and the burach native Scots have made of the independence campaign, I doubt it will make much difference as we won’t be independent in any reasonable timescale. The way things are going we’ll all be deid long before the happy day of freedom arrives.
I’m all out of ideas on what to comment on…beyond writing some poetry in various styles and telling fascinating anecdotes from my many past lives.
Like the time I woke from a troubled sleep on the morning of the Battle of Athelstaneford back in 832AD.
King Óengus II had just brought me over a nice cup of hot coffee and told me of a dream he’d had the night before.
“Northcode.” he said, in a strong Pictish accent. “I had a dream about a flag – blue it was with a white diagonal cross on it.”
“Oh, aye. Did ye?” said I.
“Do you think we should ask MacAlpin if he wants it as a symbol for that Scotland thing he wants to set up in a few years time?”
“Aye, go for it. Sounds good to me. Ken’ll love it. He telt me just the other day he was thinking aboot hivin a flag tae symbolise Scotland and the Scots. ” said I.
“What exactly is MacAlpin’s notion of a Scotland, Northcode?” said Óengus.
“It’s an idea Ken’s got fer a braw new nation. He wants you Picts tae join in wi us Scots and together we can invent stuff fit for a modern world. Stuff like electric kettles tae quicken the brewin’ o’ coffee.”
“What a grand idea, Northcode. Tell Ken I’m up for it. But what’s ‘electric’?”
“Dinnae mind, Óengus.” said I. “Ye’ll no understand – I don’t even know masel an it’ll be a thousand years yet before it’s even discovered.” we laughed the hearty laugh of warriors about to join together in battling a vicious enemy and we immediately forgot all about the electric.
After we won that wee fight I told Ken about Óengus’s dream and the rest is history, or legend as some folk insist on calling it.
And that is the actual truth of how the Saltire came to represent the country of Scotland way back in 832. I know – I was there. In fact we might not have had the Saltire at all if it wasn’t for me.
Ken wanted to go with a red horizontal cross on a white background, but I managed to talk him out of it.
I miss those guys, Óengus and MacAlpin . What laughs we had around the camp fires whilst brain-storming ideas for a glorious new nation.
Andy Ellis
Ignored
says:
Odd also that apparently it’s OK for young people from the EU to move here, but not old people, or coffee coloured people, because they’ll never go back. I imagine the EU might have something to say about that, given their attachment to free movement, which the usual suspects in here will no doubt find problematic.
The Twisted Tales of Ellis Tying Himself in Knots.
If you are looking to solve an aging population with immigration surely it makes no sense to important more ageing people.
I made the comment. Why do you attribute it to some fictitious group called ‘usual suspects, moonhowlers, carpet biters.
Is this you way of trying to avoid being accused of personal abuse by Stu
Are you suggesting that I should leave the country?
That is pretty bloody abusive!
Andy Ellis
says:
Careful Northcode, you know what they say about flying wi’ the craws….!
Who are the craws?
Are the craws moonhowling carpet biting, fringe nutter racists?
I’m just thinking about a fifth verse to the ‘Three craws song’
Sat upon a wa in Budapest!
Maybe Northcode could come fly with me! Go on ‘NoCo’ live dangerously!
@Andy Ellis
Scottish Clarity Act?
You should be treated the same way as any other immigrant.
10 years of residence for everyone!
Cheerio!
Sam
It’s on my list.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-923X.13417
@sam 12.24pm
That rather depends on what it says. The Quebecois didn’t much like the Canadian Clarity Act: from memory they rejected it altogether and passed their own act in response emphasising the right to self determination under public international law.
Scots could do worse than insist that our own parliamentarians mirror the aptly named Quebec Mirror Law, which states:
“No other parliament or government may reduce the powers, authority, sovereignty or legitimacy of the National Assembly, or impose constraint on the democratic will of the Québec people to determine its own future.”
Alf: “What you are proposing is that Scotland should remain subject to existing ‘colonial procedures’ even after independence / decolonization; which negates the purpose of liberation, i.e. ‘self-recovery’ of ‘a people’ and culture.”
That’s correct, except for the negating part.
The theory on immigration isn’t even debatable which is why a plank like me can come on here and say quite astonishing things like; every economic boom in history had an abundant supply of migrant labour at its heart. I’ve said that a few times but what I am referring to there is a causal relationship. Nobody has ever confounded that claim.
I respect your opinion, Alf, and I believe you’re sincere about culture, I’ve prodded and poked you on it to the extent that I’m satisfied that you believe what you’re saying, but I don’t have any sense of culture, I don’t know what it is, and it’s artificial to me.
Quite a lot springs from that difference but it isn’t a matter of opinion that Scotland lacks people of working age, lacks skills, and unless it brings in those people will be economically hamstrung. Lots of very wealthy countries find themselves in the same position.
From memory, if Scotland’s population had grown in line with other European countries over the last 300 years, there would be around 12 million living here right now.
So, to sum up, yes, we continue to be “subject to the same colonial procedures”, as you put it, but the difference is they would benefit us, Scotland and Scots, rather than those who are essentially managing our country for short-term wealth extraction rather than long-term development.
I will always fly with you, Ruby. You are my Wings muse – my goddess of inspiration.
You’ve been quiet of late. I’ve missed your wit.
I am a Scottish craw; and as such pay little heed to the ‘buckshot’ of hurty words and rude gesticulations.
Remember, I fought alongside kings at the Battle of Athelstaneford on a cauld and frosty mornin’ in 832AD (I actually hid in the woods but don’t tell anyone).
“Who is this “we” of whom you speak…? We’ll be able to do SFA about immigration policy until we’re independent”
That’s almost the point I was making but Sturgeon seemed able to influence and encourage immigration to Scotland above and beyond levels we might have seen if she had not been a virtue signalling, useless, moron.
Look no further than her own constituency if you want to see how badly immigration has been managed, with shortages in housing and basic services of a scale you would expect to find in a third world ghetto.
Immigration to Scotland should be opposed and put on hold until we are independent and that includes immigration elsewhere in the UK. Unless you are able to prove you have a job and somewhere to stay, you shouldn’t be allowed to come here and make the existing problems we have due to shortages worse.
“I will always fly with you, Ruby. You are my Wings muse – my goddess of inspiration.”
I’ve seen you called many things on here, Ruby, but nobody has ever accused you of being inspirational.
Starting to think Northcode could be from Balornock.
” Immigration to Scotland should be opposed and put on hold until we are independent and that includes immigration elsewhere in the UK. Unless you are able to prove you have a job and somewhere to stay, you shouldn’t be allowed to come here and make the existing problems we have due to shortages worse. ”
Agreed . Good to see you add a bit more nuance to your position on Immigration , H .
For my part , I have no problem with what may be called ” organic Immigration ” , ie people/families choosing to come to Scotland to escape hardships of various kinds and/or simply improve their material prospects . Haven’t humans perennially done this ; Scots included ?
What I object to is Immigration – Mass Immigration – being used by the wrong people for the wrong aims .
It is documented fact that , eg the EU , has been & is deploying a strategy of virtually Open Borders , the results of which are plain to see in countries like France , Greece , Germany etc .
It can’t be stated often enough that there are nefarious entities whose intent in flooding European nations with vast numbers of immigrants from wildly different cultures is to eliminate National Identities , sow discord and have even more people fighting amongst themselves for whatever crumbs fall from the Neoliberal/Capitalist high table . Ditto in the U.S & the West in general .
Immigration along with * Gender * lunacy , the * Racism * Industry , ” Climate Emergency ” and the ongoing attack on Free Speech are the weapons of choice of the Elites that are inflicting incalculable harm on our Societies , with the ultimate aim of imposing a World Government on us : or as close to one as possible .
This partly explains the absolute refusal of the Elites to interact with and treat as equals those countries that refuse to bend the knee ( and the intellect ) to the New * Progressive * World Order embodied by the fanatics in the E.U , US * Democratic * Party , ( the Republican Party not much different ; nor , for that matter the UK Labour Party ) , Big Tech/Pharma et al . Not only treating such countries , eg *ussia , *hina , *ran etc as inferior species but actually waging relentless aggression – Economic and/or Military – on them .
They won’t , ever , succeed in bringing those last named countries under their dominion .
They may , however , * succeed * in destroying large swathes of the Planet & it’s inhabitants in the attempt .
We should be glad there are still some countries with total commitment to resisting Elite Psychopathy in the World ; because it seems there are none – or very , very few – in the West doing so . That is to say , ” very , very few ” of the Political Class in the West ; the actual peoples of the West are not onboard with this shit but are having it rammed down their throats whether they agree or not
Hatuey 12.54pm:
“…but I don’t have any sense of culture, I don’t know what it is, and it’s artificial to me.”
With respect, Hatuey, therein lies a fundamental problem. A Scot’s sense of culture is very real. It doesn’t need explaining, one Scot to another, and is probably something that can’t be explained to a non-Scot unless they themselves have a deep sense of their own culture.
An inner sense of Scottishness is what breathes life into the independence movement. Art, music, literature, language, customs, the native soil, the folk who went before – it’s all of this and more. Just as it is in other cultures. No mystery; nothing unusual. Absolutely to be treasured though.
To see this being wantonly neglected by the very people we vote for in favour of self-interest while doing their masters’ bidding is shocking. Easier to turn a blind eye. The least they could do, as well funding things that matter such as rebuilding Glasgow School of Art, would be to reinstate comprehensive Scottish studies into the curriculum. It wouldn’t take a great imagination to make space in the school day…
As Hugh MacDiarmid said in a speech at Glasgow University over fifty years ago, “It is the cultural questions, the language and literary questions, that have been the decisive factor in the national regeneration movements of many European countries, and it will not be otherwise with Scotland. No nation was ever restored to its proper dignity owing to a demand for merely practical measures, better wages, better conditions of employment, better transport and all the rest of it. These are vitally important, but they are subsidiary and first things must be put first.”
MacDiarmid observed that, back then, “Scotland is emerging again, culturally at any rate, into the modern world as a separate entity with something of its own to say, some contribution to make to the common pool of culture that no other people can make.”
We can’t afford to take our culture for granted.
Oh light of ages! My joy; my comfort; my soothing salve; my saviour; my guide in the darkness; my wings to carry me aloft and lift me far above my mortal pain; my hope; my faith; my breath; my soul; my reason for being; my life…my love. Mornin’.
This is how bidie-ins are greeted first thing every day. It’s how things are done in Balornock
Farage could be PM in 2029 once it all plays out; this is bad for us he is a viciously bigoted little englander, an anglo supremacist who thinks the English are the Master Race and maybe a lost tribe as well (“should have taken the Hess deal”)
– to people like that Scotland = a region of England and no amount of historical documents, or tight arguments from the likes of Xaracen matter. What matters here is power – and we don’t have any, or any leverage with the outside for protection.
Scots need to wake up; this country is going to be over-run, carved up, sold off, split, and the bit the indigenous people are left with, poor, overcrowded and dependent. Just because it didn’t happen overnight does not mean it is not happening, look what happened to the middle east (- civic nationalism doesn’t work with ethnoracial-supremacists.)
https://archive.is/vb6sq
On wings we have covered – the pillage of the hydrocarbons, the theft of the wind, the bad decisions, the awful infrastructure and lack of investment, the UK’s crazed obsession with all things nuclear, the desperate comparison with our peers in EFTA – and making the point you cannot even try to fix any of this without independence, and yet people seem complacent and passive as this all seems rather abstract; they are in the eye of a hurricane, where all seems calm, failing to notice the upcoming and more direct threats to their very existence. The anglo “has a plan” for you, boy, many evil plans are in play.
– there is going to be looting and restructuring you have never seen. There will be good jobs and good homes in nuScotland, but they are not for you, they are for middle class anglos (cheap by SE England standards, unaffordable to the Scots); the Scots will also likely be dumped upon by large numbers (relative to our population) of aggressive 3rd worlders, who will have special protections in law, even complaining about them will be a “hate crime”. Note that the furore over the “asylum seeker”/refugee nonsense, where everyone gets called “far right”, conveniently hides the other side of the thing, internal clnisation from “nice white people” (don’t notice that, just blame the brown people). Calling people who are mostly working class and socialist “far right” is a nasty, but effective, form of guilt tripping; ignore it.
A couple of infographics you might have seen are “Palstine from 1948 onwards” and/or “Red Squirrel/Grey Squirrel habitats, UK, 1900 onwards”.
– you can see “interesting” trends and I reckon something similar is planned for the Scots, the natives, the people who were here before the johnny come latelys, the rightful owners and rulers of this land.
the trend is clear – the Scots are going to be offered a “2 state solution” with their own little strip, the M8 corridor.
When we all end up on the reservation, will we even be allowed a casino?
Northcode @ 14.54.
Sorry to disagree, Northy, (though not I trust disagreeably), however that wasn’t how things were done in Balornock in my long gone day.
Not e’en when a “wee swally or two” had been previously consumed.
The Balornock joke?
Is it the one where ‘lady bidie-ins’ from all over the world are asked what they say to their ‘male bidie-ins’ in the morning?
ie France: Oh la la Cheri your are ze most wonderful luver in all ze world. You make my earth move!
and so on all around the world and then they ask the Balornock ‘bidie-in’ and she says
Oh light of ages! My joy; my comfort; my soothing salve; my saviour; my guide in the darkness; my wings to carry me aloft and lift me far above my mortal pain; my hope; my faith; my breath; my soul; my reason for being; my life…my love
Senza Nespresso!
I was told a totally different ending but I think it was about a another part of Glasgow. Something that suggested that lovers from that part of Glasgow were indeed the greatest lovers in all the world.
PS The ‘bidie-in from Auchenshoogle said Jings Crivens help ma boab!
But I am! The proof is in the pudding! 🙂
What’s wrong with Balornock?
Sven
That was in the past, Sven. Things have changed in Balornock since your day.
Balornock bidie-ins have rights nowadays.
In fact, it’s now illegal in Balornock to address folk in a curt manner and the use of pragmatic language is banned. Now folk who live there are obliged by law to address others using the most flowery and sustained prose they can possibly muster – and using received pronunciation
taetoo.Apparently these new Balornock bye-laws for bidie-ins, passers by and others are to be rolled out across central Scotland by the SNP soon.
That’s right, Sven. It will soon be a hate crime not to greet wives, husbands, partners, girlfriends, boyfriends…and of course, bidie-ins, with the most saccharin, whispered or otherwise, sickly sweet nothings.
The good new is that Tuxedos will not be an obligatory dress code in the many new casinos that will soon be popping up across central Scotland.
Good day to you, Sven. I trust, and dearly hope, that you will enjoy a delightful summers efternoon oot in yer garden. Perhaps, with luck, the weather might sustain the deployment of a small paddling pool you might dangle yer feet in tae cool yer heels.
Did you think I was back on the naughty step? So did I!
Stu wrote that there are two new ‘in mates’ doing time on the NS.
When I read that I started posting again to check.
I used to be able to figure out why my posts were going into moderation but I haven’t clue anymore but it doesn’t seem as if my every post is being pre-moderated.
As Police Scotland’s officers numbers continue to drop, and as many Police Scotland Police Stations and building are sold-off to try and raise capital to maintain the police force, it has come to light that a £300,000 pounds vehicle bought by Police Scotland with taxpayers cash years ago is sitting doing nothing in a Police Scotland training ground and it has been sitting doing nothing for years.
The vehicle is a bulletproof heavy armoured Sandcat that is used by the likes of the army and police forces in Mexico to smash drug cartels safe houses/buildings open. No current Police Scotland officer has been properly trained in how to use this heavy duty vehicle, and no maintenance of the vehicle has been done in years.
There have been calls for this vehicle to be sold-off and the money ploughed back into to Police Scotland, which in my opinion is the right thing to do.
Below is a picture of the Sandcat vehilce.
https://i2-prod.dailyrecord.co.uk/incoming/article33339183.ece/ALTERNATES/s810/3_sandcat1.jpg
As Police Scotland’s officers numbers continue to drop, and as many Police Scotland Police Stations and building are sold-off to try and raise capital to maintain the police force, it has come to light that a £300,000 pounds vehicle bought by Police Scotland with taxpayers cash years ago is sitting doing nothing in a Police Scotland training ground and it has been sitting doing nothing for years.
The vehicle is a bulletproof heavy armoured Sandcat that is used by the likes of the army and police forces in Mexico to smash drug cartels safe houses/buildings open. No current Police Scotland officer has been properly trained in how to use this heavy duty vehicle, and no maintenance of the vehicle has been done in years.
There have been calls for this vehicle to be sold-off and the money ploughed back into to Police Scotland, which in my opinion is the right thing to do.
Below is a picture of the Sandcat vehicle.
https://i2-prod.dailyrecord.co.uk/incoming/article33339183.ece/ALTERNATES/s810/3_sandcat1.jpg
Ruby Sunday @4:13pm
“Did you think I was back on the naughty step?”
The thought had crossed my mind, Ruby – not that I considered any of your recent posts deserving of placing you on the NS. But I suppose it’s for the Rev to make judgments on such things this being his website.
I’m glad to see you haven’t been ‘naughty stepped’, though – I’d miss your inspirational comments. 🙂
Test posting this here from OT seeing as posts are showing held in moderation then disappearing in MT and OT.
Not sure if I’ve been stuck on pre-moderation or it’s just the site not working as other folk are having issues…
@ Tinto
Braw sunny day for a hurl on the motorbike, so I’m posting this whilst sitting on the stone at the top of Glen Quaich.
Managed to get up the steep single track road nae bother, and didn’t even need to take a foot off the pegs on the tight hairpin bends.
Northcode @ 16.03.
“Sickly sweet nothings” in “Received pronunciation” no less, you say.
Well, that proves a great relief to me, Northy. I had fears that as we progress inexorably, yet somewhat slowly, on our route to Scottish independence I should be expected to master (or mistress should one prefer) “wir ain fine mither tongue”.
For, when it comes to independence, “Eit mál er als ikki nóg mikiò.”.
Which, I am sure, a gentleman of your erudition will recognise as this Scot’s ancestral mother tongue. You must surely have encountered Faroese at some point in one of your many previous lives.
For myself, I remain content once to live, and then the judgement.
I fear that a 5 week flare up of Sciatica remains obstinately with me, thus prohibiting my hobbling out to gardens or paddling pools.
SteepBrae @ 2:25 pm
“MacDiarmid observed that, back then, “Scotland is emerging again, culturally at any rate, into the modern world as a separate entity with something of its own to say, some contribution to make to the common pool of culture that no other people can make.””
Aye, MacDiarmid was well ahead of most Scots intellectuals, never mind politicians; many of the more culturally assimilated privileged native group basking in a ‘state’ of cultural confusion, and illusion (and yet still), especially those gey few elite natives permitted into the higher echelons of British academia.
Postcolonial theorists subsequently confirmed MacDiarmid’s cultural thesis, in that:
– a peoples culture is the central feature of their national consciousness;
– without this national consciousness there can be no desire for national independence;
– independence is about ‘the struggle for a national culture’, and;
– independence is therefore ‘a cultural emotion’.
Which also helps explain why ‘Culture’ is the number 1 determinant in the only theoretical framework to be developed explaining the subject of Scottish independence:
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2021/06/27/paper-one-in-the-10-part-baird-series/
Is inhabiting an eccentric parallel universe a requirement for btl on Wings?
Diverting but highly unlikely to kick that noisome Union into oblivion.
Axed minster Lorna Slater intends to stand again as co-leader of the Scottish Greens next year – Slater’s botched Deposit Return Scheme cost the Scottish taxpayers million, and its not over yet the waste management firm Biffa which is in the process of taking the Scottish government to court over the scheme – is seeking £200 million pounds compensation, which again will be left to the taxpayer to pick up the bill if Biffa are successful.
Apparently Green insiders are not happy that Slater wants to stand again for co-leadership of the party.
Hatuey @ 12:54 pm
“every economic boom in history had an abundant supply of migrant labour at its heart”
Scotland is not needing ‘an economic boom’ far less mass immigration to achieve it. What Scots need is our rightful share of our own national wealth, and from which we can then afford to provide our people with adequate services, utilities and opportunities.
Scotland is already a very wealthy nation, the problem we have is that the native folk do not receive their proper share of this wealth, much of which is plundered by external interests.
Based on Scotland’s very low (i.e. artificial) GDP-per-capita compared with our near neighbours, I have estimated the cost of colonial plunder of Scotland’s assets and resources to be £150 billion or more per annum. This is the price of the UK Union, of our being subject to colonialism:
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/03/19/the-real-economic-price-of-the-uk-union-for-scots/
@Dan 5.04: glad you got to the top of the Glen Quaich road on the bike today. It can be a wee bit different in the snow on steep sections, though.
I’m sure you noticed the fine farm on the glen floor: the beasts looked healthy and thriving when we were there.
Apparently almost all the original inhabitants (cue “autochthonous”) “left” for Canada in the 19th century. Some might call it Clearance…
The kirkyard at Amulree tells us a lot.
May The Force be with you.
SteepBrae, no offence, and I mean that, but your definition of culture falls to pieces as soon as you try and define it in any detail. Feel free to prove me wrong; I wish you would.
We can see that in historical terms the idea of national culture came along just when it was needed, as a pretext for carving up Europe into nation states.
They put a lot of effort and money into that sort of thing; and they had to, because it was very difficult to explain what farmers in Calabria had in common with industrial workers in places like Milan, etc. (nothing)
Benedict Anderson’s landmark book ‘Imagined Communities’ covered these trends in great detail across various regions as they were incorporated into nation states;
“The nation is imagined as a community because, regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship.”
In Britain, believe it or not, the imagined idea of Scottishness and Scottish culture was essentially defined by English aristocrats and Scottish Unionists. It was these sort of people that gave us The National Wallace Monument which, with its British Imperial Crown on top, was intended to celebrate the Union, not Scottish nationalism. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEdODi0_kTM
I don’t need to explain to anyone here how Britishness itself was imagined and invented. You can go through other countries and you will find the same artistry in their national origins.
It’s really quite absurd that they managed this in places like the United States, Australia, etc., as they bludgeoned and poisoned the real natives (or nationals) into extinction, but nationalism doesn’t let facts like that get in the way of a good story.
I’m afraid, then, that the only explanation or justification for Scottish independence, rests on the simple idea of self determination, i.e. those who live here ought to control and manage their own affairs, and not national identity (which really wouldn’t be worth defining even if you could).
Re the Olympic opening ceremony..
It was an embarrassment & shows how far the West has sunk in the toilet to think that shit would be “entertaining” to anyone but the fcking depraved.
The whole Z bullshit worshipping their false God.
Regards immigration – it’s manufactured by the neo cons to strip countries of their culture, traditions & language. When a place is saturated with a population that doesn’t give a fck about anything & has no historical connection to the area – it’s easier to plant an outsider to oversee its assets. Colonialism is still alive & well. The yanks stole America the exact same way. Free land to anyone who could buy the boat fare.
I find it hilarious that it’s all falling apart before their very eyes as their so called “democracy” currently has Macron refusing to fck off, Z the unelected warhawk, unelected Harris to replace Biden & the EU slithering around looking for ways to remove Orban & Yahoo (a wanted war criminal) attending congress barking out orders on who to arrest for not bowing to his illegal occupation & NATO bumping up the prices cause more wars are on our horizon.
Oh & sanction, sanction, sanction, protectionist bullshit flounces..
BRICS must be pissing themselves laughing at the shit show on full display. Traditional, family orientated & with conservative values watch on at the fcking horror the yanks like to call the envy of the world. They must be thinking thank fck we’re not like them.
A new world order is coming & it’s not a moment to soon or it’ll be bairns gyrating for the next opening ceremony.
@ Alf B
” Scotland is already a very wealthy nation, the problem we have is that the native folk do not receive their proper share of this wealth, much of which is plundered by external interests. ”
Quite so , Alfredo . And could the same not be said of just about every country ? Not that every country is ” already very wealthy ” , but that they are all subject to the same exploitative/extractive Economic system , ie Neoliberal Capitalism .
Colonialism is a fairly accurate template on which to view Scotland’s present condition ; but it’s not the only one .
It’s not just ” Westminster ” or the ” Union ” that are holding us back and – basically – robbing us blind ; it’s the above mentioned also .
For Scotland to ever be truly Independent it would need to be truly independent from the worldviews & systems that are fucking-up everything of value .
I’m confident we could come-up with much better ways of organising our country than the Darwinian scramble we’re currently locked into .If not , we’ll just be another bit player in someone else’s Blockbuster
@ Tinto
Aye, the farm fields on the glen floor around Loch Freuchie looked very lush and green.
Twa sheep tried to block the wee road in what looked to be a highland highway hold up, but as I approached I think they saw the blue YES badge on the fairing and thought “Ah, we’ll let this decent Scottish cunt through and stick to heisting tourists”.
#RestlessOvines
Anyway, once I was at the top sitting on the stone looking north towards Schiehallion and beyond it’s very obvious that Scotland is actually pretty fookin big with regard to huge areas of unused land, but also as bald as oor First Minster’s napper with regard to the lack of trees on the mountains.
It’s not just the lack of trees that I notice. Nearly 150 miles on bike today and only got two decent sized insect splats on the helmet visor. Somethings very much amiss in the insect world this year.
Robert
BRICS is the answer.
Countries taking back their Sovereignty & trading with each other in their own currency.
No more American hegemony, forced American foreign policy & no more being held to ransom with sanctions or threats of war/regime change.
No more NATO either. It’s a failed experiment as U has effectively demonstrated – unelected war hawks where fck all works, not everyone wants to get involved & others are wondering what all their GDP contributions were actually spent on & it only mobilizes for ONE country’s interests.
It’ll go back to alliances.
UN is also on a shoogly peg for the exact same reasons. It serves only two countries interests & fck everyone else & they can bend int law to suit themselves. It’s about to catch up with them.
Hatuey. I have some sympathy with what you say about national culture. Here in England the question of what is English culture is also aired rather tediously on a regular basis. S-called British culture gets even more ephemeral.
When you try and define national culture, it tends to slip though the fingers. In fact it is sometimes outsiders who have better handle on the bigger picture. and this is where I would disagree with you – there is such a thing as national culture but it is almost impossible to define and always evolving and in that I agree that an independence movement driven by nationalism (is it ever anything else?) should primarily be about political self-determination for whoever is living in the nation.
In the 21st century anything more ‘ethnic’ and national cultural oriented is likely doomed to failure anyway as it creates division within the culture (whose culture?) and division is the enemy of autonomy.
Sven @5:05pm
There can be no doubt that having other languages (even a little) gives folk a deeper understanding of other peoples and their cultures, so I’m with you on that one.
Sorry to hear of your Sciatica flare-up. I hope it subsides soon.
@Dan: “#RestlessOvines”: 🙂 . We need more Restless Native action nowadays and no mistake…
“Somethings very much amiss in the insect world this year.”
Agreed: we’ve had pipistrelles for as long as we can remember flying around here and I’ve hardly seen any this year, and no ladybirds, honey bees or even earwigs. For some reason bluebottles seem more plentiful, however.
What still brings a lump to my throat is seeing the hazy mountains of Scotland diminishing, beautiful rank upon rank, into apparent infinity from a peak such as Schiehallion.
Toaty but independent countries like the Netherlands and Belgium would kill for such a landscape and yet we in Scotland seem happy to give it away for others to exploit while we sink into more and more poverty.
Wake up, Scotland, FFS.
Robert Hughes @ 7:49 pm
“could the same not be said of just about every country”
Our near neighbour independent countries far higher gdp-per-capita than us (i.e. double and more!), despite Scotland having even more resources than most, suggest the external interception of our national wealth to be far more extensive than for any of them. The opportunity cost of this ‘colonial plunder’ also has to be taken into account – e.g. Scotland is clearly not a competitive economy internationally, and hence suffers from zero economic growth.
‘Democracy without power’ is the colonial/devolved reality whereas independent states do hold and use their national power to more effectively deal with national priorities, including preventing economic exploitation.
A key function of government is to halt excess interception of economic rents. Successive UK governments however have promoted and facilitated such interceptions in Scotland, e.g. through privatisation of public utilities and monopolies, and licensing of natural resource extraction with zero royalties going to a Scottish treasury (the latter non existent); plus inadequate investment in infrastructure, and punitive factor costs such as high energy prices; electricity cost is four times higher in Scotland than in Norway.
The economic ideology of Westminster towards governance of Scotland (or any colony) is largely geared toward our exploitation. Only independence and reclaiming sovereignty offers the possibility for a new government regime to halt this exploitation.
I tuned in to the BBC coverage of the Olympics to watch Andy Murray play doubles.
All going well with the match on a knife edge and the BBC cut the match off to play a
Recording of an interview with a top French Swimmer.
The guy would later win a final in which an English swimmer would participate.
The Double Olympic Gold winner, Andy, was dumped in order to watch an unheard of
English swimmer come 4th.
More swimming discussed at sickening length as Englands Double Gold winning Adam Peaty
was looking to win a 3rd Gold.
Wasn’t that exactly what Andy was aiming for?
Disgusting BBC insult to Andy and Scotland but what’s new BBC Englandshire and Colonies.
@ Tinto
Indeed, when you get high enough up into the hills to see the vast expanse and just how much unused land there is in Scotland it really makes an impression, and you query why a tiny building plot is some how worth 100 grand, and a wee cottage near quarter of a million.
“We need more Restless Native action…”
Ask and you shall receive.
Big Country – Restless Natives song and film clip. (3 mins)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ_Mg7m-ZfY
A lot of the young uns I speak to have never even heard of that film. 🙁
This reminds me in amongst all the other work I’ve to do, I really need to get on with my classic Suzuki 2 stroke bike build. It’s actually going to be called Restless Native.
It will have a few nice modifications.
I’ve rebuilt the front section of the expansion chamber exhaust and going to paint it blue as a nod to the taken too young Kiwi engineer John Britten who built the Britten V1000.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britten_V1000
I’ve made a stainless steel heatshield to fit over the expansion chamber and got a mate to create a CAD graphic program file so I can get Restless Native and a Saltire flag cut out of the stainless steel plate with a CNC water jet cutter. This will allow the lettering and flag cut into the silver stainless steel to be back coloured with the blue of the exhaust.
Disc brake conversion and running Brembo calipers too.
There’s a lot of thought, measuring up, machining and effort to make everything fit and work properly. Engine has already been completely rebuilt replacing any worn components with new old stock parts sourced from ebays around the planet.
Maybe this winter I’ll get some time to crack on with it…
Well we have heard a lot about Colonialism. Of course other cultures and religions are waiting to invade and impose their version of order. According to Stu on X. We are due for Sharia Law in Scotland. An island up for sale. £3 million raised already. London, Manchester and Birmingham are lost already if only we voted Yes in 2014. The solution lies in the Parliament in Holyrood. The first duty of the State is to protect the indigenous population. I could send a photograph of my platoon in the seventies to prove my point. ( Erm all white) Nobody protects us anymore the Army or Police or the Judiciary.
@Dan: on reflection, I’m hoping the low insect count is just the temporary result of our dreadfully wet and cool spring and summer. Must be all that global warming we keep hearing about 🙂 .
Great to see all that footage of Embra chaos as those lovable scamps produce anarchy on the streets. I have a soft spot for the film because it was so refreshing and rebellious and because Ninian D, the writer, was a good pal of a childhood friend of mine who died before his time and we both did eulogies for him.
Yon Britten V1000 stuff was way above my understanding since Morris Minor and Wolseley 4/44 engines were the limit of my technical ability via my Dear Old Dad in the 60s.
Maybe we should restrct our cyber-intercourse to O/T in future.
Wouldn’t want to annoy the intellectuals on here 🙂 .
The Murrells are getting noticeably fatter by the day…they cant go out so junk food takeaways and binge eating for the nerves
Alf, I think Robert Hughes has sufficiently answered your point and, as I have said many times on here, Scotland is effectively double colonised — by England and by global corporations. The net effect is a rather anemic free-for-all of a country that anyone can come along and take advantage of.
And as you yourself pointed out before (when we discussed this before), achieving independence will enable us to deal with these things head on.
As for the need to develop and for immigration, that’s a much more straightforward thing. We simply lack the skills and manpower needed to effectively develop to our full potential. We are at least a million men short, probably more.
We are also short on other things, hospitals, industrial infrastructure, sea ports, roads, airports, schools, a manufacturing base, a viable military, navy, and airforce, etc., etc., etc.
When Ireland escaped the clutches of Britain and joined Europe, it tooks over ten years and billions of dollars in European aid to turn their economy around.
As you might expect, the population of Ireland has almost doubled since independence was achieved in 1949, from about 4.3 million to well over 7 million today, and over 90% of that increase in population coincided with the economic development that European funding fostered after 1972.
In short, economic development on a significant scale will require massive investment and a massive increase in manpower. Who knew…
On a more positive note, attracting both should be easy for a country with the sort of resources and potential Scotland has.
Alf @ 9.20
Good reply mon frere 🙂
@ Geri
Greats comments .
If BRICS succeeds – is * allowed * to succeed – it will totally change the game ; but it remains to be seen – assuming it does succeed – if the formation of another Power Bloc will lead to more genuinely egalitarian/redistributive governance than what exists currently .
The question is , as always …” who has the real Power and what are they doing with it ? ”
Doesn’t seem like the leaders of any country , anywhere , are really interested in sharing Power ; on the contrary , they want to take the little agency so-called * Citizens * have left away via increasing streams of prohibitions and restrictions .
This is true irrespective of the professed Ideology of whatever country . Alas .
Southernystander: “When you try and define national culture, it tends to slip though the fingers.”
Yip, well put.
I don’t know why anyone would have a problem with the idea that independence might be driven by and based on self determination rather than culture or ancestry anyway…
Guess what — the vast majority of people who live in Scotland are also natives of Scotland with Scottish ancestors, and their cultural identity (if it exists) isn’t going anywhere.
@ Tinto
Ach, there’s been plenty of aspects in our few posts this evening that could have been picked up and run with by les intellectuals.
Land reform (what’s that Mr Wightman up to these days… oh best scrub that!), lack of trees / insects, sheep, engineering, film culture…
Maybe we need to ask the Kiwis how they manage to manage (hmm, that sounds weird but does work) their land and are somehow able to export meat from the other side of the planet to a place that could be growing our own. Does New Zealand have oil and a refinery to produce the fuel to power the ships that deliver their lamb to Scotland.
Ach, I’m aff tae ma scratcher but expect by morning someone avec beaucoup des matter grise dans le napper can tell us lowly plebs aw aboot how such matters are successfully dealt with by le/la/les communitée internationale, and why it will be impossible for Scotland to do it. Probably be along the lines of “You’ve got the wrong type of lamb”…
(I have no idea why I have lapsed intae communicating in Frottish in this post, could be down to the combination of altitude sickness and being exposed tae too much fresh air)
Hopefully a braw nicht’s sleep will provide a system reset and I’ll awake and no longer overthink or question any of the reasons why I have that nagging feeling that it’s shite being Scottish.
When someone tells you that they want you and yours replaced believe them even when they change tact and try to act nice. Look up who they quote.
here’s something – I was chatting to an oul fella and he was giving me his reactionary views … apparently, did anyone know this? …
you can stick your penis up the front hole (sometimes called a “vagina” or as he put it, a fanny)
and … somehow … it’s not explained anywhere I think … google? chatgpt??
you can use this method to :
MAKE NEW PEOPLE
and, this could be important, coz like, we all get older, and then we get sick and die, and as we pass out the door, we need new people coming in at the other end; and while we are not dead yet, but in a care home, other people, younger people, will need to e.g. wipe our arses, and do knee replacements, all that. It’s an interesting theory, this pervy sex, done in the other place, has an auxiliary purpose.
I told him the best way to get new people was to import them from BAME-land, and that the balloon knot is the only sex organ, and only fascists think otherwise.
– he then called me “a wee pouf” and that I had “never hud yir proper hole, ya fuckin bufty”
and then he said “all this shite, at times I feel like going back to Ghana, where we put a lid on this”
Mr Ndembe was always very forthright. Don’t get him started on jamaicans (“the trash we got rid of … and made a few bob on”)
Scotland doesn’t need immigrants, it just needs to get fucking – and for that to happen we need indy and the power to put in place the economic incentives, primarily aimed at young women, to reverse their current plans and go – family first, then career. This will be an almighty bribe, but worth it in the end; it will be better than feminism, really “having it all”, not some cheap con-trick, a bait and switch.
The future of work across the western world is open to question (AI and all that shit) – but what is certain is most of the migrants trying to get into europe these days have no economic value, unless you want to add their criminal activities to your GDP, but then that gets offset by the huge welfare bill you get from – people with no skills and plenty needs. Not every dollar on GDP is the same, coke dealing, prostitution is the same as making computer chips and flatscreens. The people on zodiacs don’t look like chip designers to me, more of the former.
– by the numbers
https://archive.is/mHvKx
https://archive.is/OPrCO
– we have all that these countries have, altogether
If an indy Scotland did what Norway did, we could BUY england, lock stock and barrel, and burn the fucker down just for the LOLZ. Strip it down to nothing, sell it off, plough salt into the earth, and if they whine then say “its just free markets, baby, don’t you believe in capitalism?” At the very least turn the english into a cow for us to milk, for a change.
There’ll be no super power. That gig is up.
American dominance is over no matter what puppet they choose in November. The world is turning it’s back & it’ll be multi polar. Just in time. The yanks now think they’ll colonise space lol. They also didn’t sign the world treaty not to have nukes there either. They’re a threat to everyone & everyone is moving on away from them.
BRICS is already happening & there isn’t a thing they can do to stop it as countries are not buying American debts, the Anglo Americans can’t be trusted with other countries currencies, other countries assets, with international laws, with treaties & agreements & they sanction the fck out of poor countries while asset stripping.
They’ve shafted the EU too with their sanction shit that even they will abandon them if they’ve any sense at surviving what little they have left. They’ve already blew up their gas supply, insulted China over trade & Taiwan & trashed their economy. They’re busy looking around themselves to find they have absolutely hee-haw that doesn’t depend on the yanks.
They told U & Brussels to start punishing Hungary & Slovakia to cut off their oil supply from R – so Slovakia, in response, turned off their supply of diesel & lights. Now there’s no cash lines in U for ppl to get money. Way to go guys! That takes a special kinda fckwit not to see that one coming ..
They’re so fecking thick that it’s painful to watch. Like threatening China they’re next on their war list – ummm, hello? Do they forget who supplies the nuts & bolts for their military toys? That’s another thing that will stop – American puppets influencing everyone elses governments too thick & too dumb to see obvious long term problems ahead.
The yanks are trillions in debt with interest alone. They’ll go back into their box & be a pariah state alongside I (which will probably no longer exist) for the same reasons. They’re also itching for a war they can’t even win right now. They’re being gubbed by mountain ppl used to herding goats & want to use nukes ffs.
Or civil war will take up all of their time cause ppl are angry now at the military complex that’s completely trashed their world status, their economy, trillions wasted on wars & over 800 military bases they can no longer afford to maintain along with all their warring in places they’d be unable to find on an atlas. Couldn’t happen to two better countries. Report card reads “Needs to learn to live with others & fast”
Sad that an Englishman and a Scotsman can’t define English or Scottish culture.
I suppose if you don’t believe something exists it’s impossible to define.
I think the pair of them are totally bonkers.
“family first, then career.”
Away ya go ya big pouf lol
It was a massive con they’d have a career. They ended up doing both anyway.
It’s low pay that kills everything, imo. Two, three incomes needed just to get the bills paid. It sucks the life out of any thoughts of procreating. Young folks can’t even buy a house.
Scotland couldn’t even introduce a baby box without the usual arseholes having a meltdown that their tax £s would benefit someone receiving some baby wipes.
Thatchers Britain. Where everyone is a selfish knt just like little England. They even cheered in parliament when free school meals was defeated.
Oi Google; Whit’s “National culture” when it’s at hame?
Google;
National culture is the norms, behaviors, beliefs, customs, and values shared by the population of a sovereign nation (e.g., a Chinese or Canadian national culture). It refers to specific characteristics such as language, religion, ethnic and racial identity, cultural history and traditions.
Seems clear enough to me, thanks Google… mwah xxx
“I think the pair of them are totally bonkers.”
This is the part where I ask you to prove we are bonkers by defining Scottish culture.
Soon to be followed by the part where you ignore the question…
“It refers to specific characteristics such as language, religion, ethnic and racial identity, cultural history and traditions.”
Lol okay. Not great resolution in your answer but I think most of us speak English, I think most of us are christian, most caucasian, and I wouldn’t know where to start on cultural history and traditions (Christmas holidays maybe, New Year, that sort of thing? It’s not my bag)…
Anyway, thanks for the effort.
Just one problem; everything there could be said about English people, probably Americans too, and Australians…
“everything there could be said about English people, probably Americans too, and Australians…”
No. They invaded someone else’s.
I’d give up if I were you. You’re right. It’s not your bag. Nothing much ever seems to be…
Care to explain away the enormous number of individuals with Scottish surnames who are to be found in the USA and Australia? It’s almost as though we figure pretty fucking prominently in the “them” or something. Awkward…
Not awkward at all.
The aboriginies & native Americans didn’t pretty much speak fucking English did they?
& The Scottish surnames is a result of Empire, clearances & the scandal of orphans deported to work as slaves.
I’m sure as they sit as 2nd class citizens in the reservations, in their own lands, they think Gee, I dunno what the fuck national culture means. This is a benefit in disguise innit?
How anyone can claim they don’t know what a native identity is or that language, beliefs & traditions are not important to a ppl are ignorant in the extreme.
We don’t even share common beliefs with the English. They’re warhawking selfish bastards who vote warhawking self bastards into power.
Scots on the other hand are socialist & not much into invasion.
When a distinctive and recognisable Highland peoples with their own language, settled way of life and homeland are cleared off their land and evicted from their own country to far off places to make way for sheep, it’s hardly surprising that Scots names abound in Canada, the Antipodes and other far flung places.
That they took with them their culture and national characteristics is, perhaps, reflected in the many Highland Gatherings and Clan Societies to be found in those lands.
It is understandable that to any who lack a national sense of identity or culture this intangible and indefinable, yet still genuine emotion, remains an enigma.
Perhaps it is best summed up in the native language of the Gael by the word, “Cianalas” .
As with so many words in this fine language only a native speaker could truly grasp the full depth of meaning and emotion in the word. So, I trust I may be excused if I suggest it holds the meaning of a deep seated and heartfelt longing and affection for a homeland with which you feel a strong connection, though you may never have visited it.
Or, perhaps just, “This is my own, my native land.”
Absolutely right, Geri (9.02am). Not awkward at all and nobody needs to tie themselves in knots trying to show that culture is somehow elusive. It’s at the very heart of who we are. It’s all around us.
Nor is it elitist to love the culture of your nation. That’s why it’s so important that every child has the opportunity to learn about their own culture and also respect other folks’ culture.
Artists, musicians and writers have always expressed their love for the country of their birth and its people, language, customs, landscape etc. Our lives are enriched by the legacy they leave us, no matter who we are or what our social status or personal circumstances are. It’s such a mistake to assume culture is ‘highbrow’. If you love your country, you love your country. It doesn’t need an explanation.
The rose of all the world is not for me.
I want for my part
Only the little white rose of Scotland
That smells sharp and sweet—and breaks the heart.
MacDiarmid
“How anyone can claim they don’t know what a native identity is or that language, beliefs & traditions are not important to a ppl are ignorant in the extreme.”
Not the best syntactic structures I’ve ever seen, but I think I understand the point you hoped to make. Of course, you’re using the language of an alien culture and we forgive you.
We all have a vague idea of what national culture is supposed to mean. It’s just full of problems and generalisations that are ridiculous. I’m not saying the ridiculous idea itself doesn’t exist.
You seem to define English national culture for us which is convenient;
“They’re warhawking selfish bastards who vote warhawking self bastards into power.”
Are you saying they are all like that?
Why then have the Scots who are “socialist & not much into invasion” been so keen on hanging around with them over the last 300 years… as they invaded and fleeced so many others?
If I wasn’t approaching this in the spirit of exploration, I’d ask why the socialist Scots let “warhawking bastards” run their country.
You see how ridiculous it all gets…
9.40am Sven – we had that exact conversation recently with a relative who had been to Nova Scotia. Spot on. Eloquently put.
I’m not going to ignore the question you cheeky besom!
I will answer you over many posts. I hope you appreciate my efforts.
I’ll start with language.
English, Gaelic, Scots, Doric, and lots of different dialects/slang.
Weegie etc.
Cheeky besom for example is Scottish not sure with if it’s part of a language or just slang but it’s definitely Scottish.
I doubt if you could find many English,Americans or Australians using Weegie slang. They have their own different languages/slang which I find very interesting.
Scottish culture does not include ‘talking like a Texan’ or speaking Cajun for example.
We don’t call flip-flops thongs that’s an Australian thing.
Sven: “Perhaps it is best summed up in the native language of the Gael by the word, “Cianalas” … As with so many words in this fine language only a native speaker could truly grasp the full depth of meaning and emotion in the word.”
Thanks for the explanation of Scots culture which according to you is best explained in a language that 99% of Scots don’t understand.
I’m not out to annoy anyone here and I respect your right to believe whatever you want.
I just don’t see why we need any of this to argue for independence when we already have a perfectly good basis for doing so (that actually holds water).
The good news is there’s no need to argue since our different views on these things aren’t at odds and the important thing is we all want independence.
Anyway, for what it’s worth, I think shared culture makes a lot more sense in smaller communities; the smaller, the better, in that sense. Class culture makes sense to me on a certain level, possibly even corporate culture, but national culture is a bit silly.
Bored with this now, so toodle pip.
“If you love your country, you love your country. It doesn’t need an explanation.”
I agree. And so do most people in most countries all over the world.
Good note to end the discussion on…
In my next chat I will be covering the secret invasion of Taiwan by China that took place two years ago, something almost nobody knows a thing about…
Maurice Hurley had an idea. An idea that led to the creation of a universally feared antagonist.
Many of the characteristics given to Hurley’s creation appear to derive from the culture of merciless acquisition commonly observed in peoples pre-disposed to the colonisation and subjugation of other peoples.
Those colonising peoples who, lacking in ancient customs and long held traditions; lacking a cultural identity, wander the Earth acquiring the cultures of other peoples in a desperate search for an identity they might call their own.
But it isn’t only cultural identities these colonisers steal – they steal the possessions, the lands and resources and lives of the peoples they assimilate, too.
Hurley’s idea led to the creation of one the most famous antagonists in TV and movie history.
The Borg are space going colonisers of a sort; wandering the universe with apparently no other purpose than to joylessly assimilate those peoples they come across into its own heartless, soulless and ultimately bland ‘collective’; destroying those who won’t comply.
The Borg ‘melt down’ peoples and their cultures and re-shape them into mindless drones – the epitome of its idea of a ‘cultural identity’.
I see quite a few similarities between the Borg Empire and another coloniser famous around the world for its propensity to assimilate or destroy what doesn’t belong to it.
Resistance is not futile – it’s the only way the Scots will retain their rich cultural identity and prevent themselves from being ‘melted down’ and turned into ‘drones’.
Hatuey @ 10.47.
Just one (I promise final) comment on this point, Hatuey. There is a difference between a summation, which I suggested, and an explanation which could run into endless meanderings about a subject which I have suggested in my original post is so large a concept that I referred to it as both intangible and indefinable.
That Scots culture remains an enigma to you I fully accept, we shall not fall out about it on my part.
I’m guessing that “Toodle pip” is, similar to Gaelic, an expression alien to some 99% of my fellow Scots.
Religion
Not Muslim. We don’t do Ramadam.
Ramadam is not part of Scottish culture. That is part of a different culture.
We’re kinda Christian. Protestants & Catholics.
We still celebrate many Christian holidays/traditions although that is being discourage for some reason.
We still celebrate Christmas & Easter.
I recently saw a lot of pancake making ingredients on sale in Asda possibly a lot of people still celebrate Pancake Tuesday and Lent.
Others might know more about the types of Christian holidays we celebrate.
We used to say grace at school that is probably no longer permitted.
We like to get married & have christenings in church.
Hatching, matching dispatching.
We also have the Orange Walk and the problems with sectarianism tied up with two Scottish football teams.
Like or not that is part of Scottish culture.
Just hang on there a minute pal I haven’t finished answered your demand for me to define Scottish culture.
Hatuey @ 10:46 pm
“Scotland is effectively double colonised — by England and by global corporations”
True, but we should be clear what colonialism means, and also what decolonisation means (i.e. independence).
Independence is never a matter of political ideologies of left or right, of socialism vs capitalism. Independence is first and foremost about ‘a people’ getting rid of a racist oppressive system that oppresses them and discriminates against them and their culture (i.e. ‘doun-hauden’ in Scots). Colonialism involves ‘hateful racism’ (Cesaire); it is about imposing an alien culture on a people that is not their own, it is about obliterating native culture, and identity. It is about the enslavement of a group – Scots were sold in 1707 and since.
The only bulwark against imperialism, including cultural imperialism, is the nations and hence national culture (Prof Edward Said).
How on earth can Taiwan be overtaken by China ffs?
It belongs to them. Settled decades ago by international law. They enjoy autonomy & don’t much care for independence despite American colonisers trying to convince them otherwise to get their hands on semi conductors they desperately rely on.
So overtaken by parasites who’ve no business there.
What exactly is your point here?
You don’t much care for borders, don’t much care for language & traditions, don’t much care for nationhood, don’t much care for the internationally recognised condition of colonialism & it’s tireless efforts to taint the voting pool & don’t much care for Scottish independence cause you’re so fucking confused over a simple question you immediately jump to a political party who won’t even be in charge post Indy…
We’ve all to live like we’re in some hippy commune & give people fresh off the bus a vote on our independence cause Colonisers don’t move voters around. No siree.. & language, culture & traditions are all just pish..
The clearances never ended ya eejit.
Are you even from around these parts? You seem awfully concerned for aliens having a vote than you do for yer own country’s statehood. & Fck off with yer insults. You’ve already been warned further up this thread..
Hatuey
Bored with this now, so toodle pip.
He’s scarpered and I didn’t even get on to the good bits.
Music
National Dress
History
Literature
Food
Sport
Myths/legends
Symbols
Swearing
Politics
Gender
Pfft! Over 12 hours later and non of the btl intellectuals have chimed in and put forward their proposals for improving Scotland through mechanisms of land reform, sheep farming and consumption, improving insect life, engineering.
Ya ken, actually working with stuff that physically exists and we need to get by.
Human bodies with our inherent chemical and biological processes cannot as yet survive consuming and producing only words and thoughts.
Even if you do nothing you are not NetZero. You’ve just offset the effort it takes to produce the stuff you need to survive onto the back(s) of someone else.
Maybe that’s the answer. We all have some kind of Black Mirroresque personal meter installed and running 24/7 and we have to maintain being a net benefit to society, or it’s time to enter the carousel a la Logan’s Run “renewal”.
OT but does the BBBC have more commentators than UK athletes attending the Olympics? And are they paid by the word??
How to ruin a display of excellence by the world’s youth – chunter on about the UK athletes and what they have been through, give them a 15 minute profile piece and then discuss it in depth, give a brief glimpse of the activities taking place and generally irritate me enough to switch off .
I can’t wait for the track and field when we will hear more from Gabby Logan, Denise Lewis , Michael Johnson and other spurious guests than we will see what’s going on in the arena and those who pay the licence fee ( like me!) will be paying they’re enormous salalries. Whoopee!
P.S I thought the opening ceremony was gross.
10:28am
Because, ya roaster, Scots don’t have any democracy.
We’ve been swindled out of it for over 300+ yrs.
Are they all selfish warhawking bastards? Obviously yes. They can outvote every single part of the the UK & they have Westminster & the HoC all sewn up. They could change if they really, really wanted to. They don’t so they obviously prefer as they are & who can blame them? They’re in fcking charge of everything, even apparently, if we’re allowed democracy or not.
What do you suggest to enforce it? Civil war? Oh aye, without an army ffs.
Let’s hear more of yer bright ideas that’s destined to fail.
Every country in the world has restrictions on their referendums & elections. Save yer bullshit that Scotland needs to be different.
“I just don’t see why we need any of this to argue for independence when we already have a perfectly good basis for doing so (that actually holds water)”.
We don’t. It’s not an argument. It’s who we are and where we come from and is unaffected by the material imperatives for independence. Not an ‘either/or’ but an ‘as well’.
You could see it as needing your bones & muscles to get around but your beating heart to keep you alive. It becomes an issue when politicians try to strip countries of their culture to weaken the (unrestless) natives’ resolve and make it easier to plunder their assets. Something we all abhor/agree on.
I’m thinking the case showing that the Scots have a millennium in the making (possibly much longer) rich and globally unique cultural identity distinct from all others on planet Earth has been well made by Alf, Ruby, Sven and others.
‘The Great Borgish Bake Off’.
‘Borgain Has NO Talent’.
‘Rule Borgania’.
‘The United Borgdom of Great Borgain…’.
‘The Great Borgish, assimilated, Countryside’.
All TV shows available from the Borgish Broadcasting Corporation.
I not bored today…I playful. Like a child playing on a sandy shore – barely aware of the vast ocean of infinite possibilities I’m splashing about on the edges of.
Mia,
Scots don’t want to know that Westminster parliament states to the world on their parliament site in 2023 and 2024.
That Scots were deliberately not asked to join the treaty of union via a vote because they would probably have voted……. No.
The people who want independence of Scotland need to go underground or something similar to discuss this, for every other avenue from the pretendy parliament to….media has been hi-jacked and controlled.
I personally would rather take the legal route of the need for some kind of evidential proof for Westminster parliament to prove that Scots are actually in the treaty of union.
That can only be achieved through the people walking away and ignoring the pretendy parliament in Scotland that Breaches the faux treaty of union anyway in a multitude of legal scenarios,
Who is Westminster going to sue for for breach of the union?
The Scottish parliament came under dissolution in 1707 by Westminster itself,
There is nobody left to sue or Challange by Westminster other than the parliament of Westminster.
It seems more than a little strange that Scots have not thought about their circumstances more deeply,
The devolved government in Scotland under Westminster parliament legislation is a Second subsiduary of Westminster parliament which also breaches articles of the fallacious treaty of union, of ONE PARLIAMENT of Great-Britain.
The treaty of union articles never at any point refer too or mention a devolved parliament being agreed too or sent to Scotland afterwards.
But simply walking away is a legal possibilty for Scotland that Westminster would find extremely difficult to Challenge having long since placed the Scottish parliament under dissolution in 1707.
Mia.
It would be very difficult for Westminster parliament to make any legal challenge on Scotland just walking away,
As every political entity or Crown Courts are structures of Westminster parliament themselves,
How do you go about challenging yourself.
Nothing in Scotland now has any legal Scottish structure left over from The Scotland of 1707.
Dan
None of that shit can be achieved until independence.
Huge swathes of Scotland are foreign owned or private estates. The MSP mentioned in this article highlighted it mostly leads to a dead end out in the Virgin isles. Who owns it? That man nobody of course.
As for the daily shit that’s also hijacked & veered deliberately off course as we seen with the trans bullshit & an effective coup on the YES movement polluted with narcissistic parasites obsessed with their gender & fck the bees attitude.
The green agenda was always a huge distraction by the world Elites for governments to waste copious amounts of money on that & it’s efforts in population control. Now they’re willingly steralising themselves better than any despot could have hoped for & everyone is sanctioning China for doing better than them in everything from turbines to cars that they now want yet another war.
Mia,
The Sovereign Scots have never been asked if they want to join the treaty of union right up present day and yet it was decussed as far back as 1706/1707.
But never applied to anything other than the old Scottish parliament, which is long since dissolved.
Geri,
Under What legal structure does anyone other than Scots own the land and sea’s of Scotland?
There has been no Scottish parliament since 1707.
There has been no Scots nation in the treaty of union ever, according to Westminster parliament.
There has been no one to represent the Scots whom are not in the treaty of union according to Westminster parliament statement for over three hundred years.
If the Scots nation as people are not in the treaty of union, then the present Crown is not Crown over Scots,
The territory of the Scots called “Scotland” is not under the Crown or Westminster parliament either.
The only participants and structure that legally entered the treaty of union by signature and Seal was the 1707 Scottish parliament, which the Westminster parliament of England immediately put under dissolution the same year in England , 1707.
I will read the reply later, as spouse is now awake and free time is limited.
Half the lies the SNP tell you are not true.
@ Geri
Quick response before I go out for another work shift.
Re. “None of this can be achieved without independence”
I’m not convinced improvements can’t be made in certain areas. But whether or not that is the case, I still think it is an imperative to spend more of our time and effort on developing policies and strategies that even if not able to be implemented under the current corrupt as heck regime, would at least begin to let folk see and consider alternative ways of doing things.
The recent protracted broken village sewer and pollution incident was another fine example of highlighting the flaws in the system and how things could be done so much better if their was a more dynamic approach taken by the organisations involved.
I see the focus on trying to finish off the SNP but not enough commitment to producing a viable proposal for what would fill the vacuum created as and when SNP are off the scene.
Proper planning prevents piss poor performance and all that.
As an engineering minded kinda of person I am extremely scunnered with the cause of returning Scotland to self-governance always seemingly being in a reactionary mode because of being ill-prepared with the tactics of the long game.
It’s utterly naive to think the established powers haven’t gamed out multiple moves they can control and implement depending on what is required at any point in time.
We need to stop playing their game and playing by their rules. That’s not a call for anything dodgy. It’s just using a different approach to reach people. And step one for me is to get as many people away from crap like Arsebook and Twitter for proper detailed political discourse.
I’ve told my mates in no uncertain terms that if they want to get serious about improving the lives of Scots then they need to wean themselves off the utter brain drain of low brow meme shite on those platforms.
James Che
Cause Scotland seems polluted with roasters falling over themselves to say ‘Yeh cannie day that – whit will the neighbours, the international community & a bunch of foreigners fresh off the train think? Nah,nah,nah..best we stick to doffing our cap so as not to upset anyone.. heaven forbid they feel excluded.
Our neighbours are now even trying to tell us we’re no different from them so we may as well just stay..
@Ruby
“We also have the Orange Walk and the problems with sectarianism tied up with two Scottish football teams.
Like or not that is part of Scottish culture.”
It wasn’t always. The Orange was imported from Ulster (pre-partition). The Orange Order was founded there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Orange_Order
It came to Scotland thus.There are different views to these.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-review-of-social-history/article/orange-order-in-scotland-between-the-wars/51FB8BBC1EA2590F3F7AFE4FE12CF3C9
@Dan
Thanks, Dan. Of course I’m intellectual…ly challenged.
Link to a chat about Land Tax. Dry as dust but very interesting to me. You need to scroll down a bit to see the talk.
We should be doing making of stuff for sure.
https://www.niesr.ac.uk/events/case-taxing-land-seminar
Northcode: “I’m thinking the case showing that the Scots have a millennium in the making (possibly much longer) rich and globally unique cultural identity distinct from all others on planet Earth has been well made by Alf, Ruby, Sven and others.”
If that’s true then you won’t have any problem telling me about one single cultural characteristic that is shared by Scots. Just one?
And to be fair, I’m not saying it must apply to every single Scot… let’s be reasonable and say 95%. I’ll wait.
According to Ruby, a big indicator is speaking in slang. Over to you on that one, Alf.
We can dismiss as ridiculous Ruby’s list which includes, music, food, national dress, literature, myths and legends (lol), symbols (double lol), swearing, politics, and gender (not a lol in sight) — these are in reality categories of things that divide us, not things in themselves, and certainly not things that we all have in common.
I left out sport because Archie Gemmil’s goal in 1978 possibly represents the one single thing that unites us culturally as Scots… on reflection, I’d say it was an example of high art, and surely too beautiful a thing to be dragged into this discussion.
lol @ “Like or not that is part of Scottish culture.”
So, sectarian division (something that divides many of us) is a an example of a unifying cultural trait that we all have in common, and we are to cherish and celebrate it too…
Words no longer have meaning.
@Hatuey
Yerra numpty.Ruby is right.
Try looking. Gowf, early development here. Footie, same. Rugby, same. Hockey, same.
Painting. Scottish Colourists.Glesga Boys.
Decorating. There’s a multitude of Scottish silversmiths, goldsmiths, embroiderers of huge tapestries.
Music. From the music of the Celts to modern rock – lots of talented Scottish bands. Aly Bain’s a wee jewel.Heard Echaness?
Engineers Bell, Napier, Telford.
It is what we make and it makes us what we are. Unique.
Lo, there do I see my father.
Lo, there do I see my mother,
and my sisters, and my brothers.
Lo, there do I see the line of my people,
Back to the beginning!
Here’s a Scottish cultural expression.
Yon roaster Hatuey seems to hae turned intae quite the antagonistic contrarian bawbag over past month.
Is this the same Hatuey that was on Craig Murray’s site?
There’s too much time spent playing oneupmanship and intellectual warfare by a few characters on here.
If aw these superior minded beings that purport to supporting Scottish self-governance are so fucking smart and know everything, they ain’t have shite at conveying the answers to all oor woes and consensus building.
C’mon Chas, put doon those golf clubs and furnish us wie the path to salvation…
Cuppa time and wee break fae work.
#Culture – The evolution of traditional Scottish folk songs
#FolkinClassics #FifeStylée
I’m an ex Ballingry mining binger
An’ it’s pure doin’ ma dinger
That my new Amazon parcel packing joab on an zero hour contract means I sometimes struggle what with the variation in working hours and resultant pay, and that’s compounded by the limited public transport services to get to Dunfermline and hame again, and thus provide food for my family’s dinner.
Granted the third line probably needs some work and condensed a bit. I’ll leave that to the arty intellectuals and go back to installing plasterboard…
Hatuey @ 1:40 pm
“If that’s true then you won’t have any problem telling me about one single cultural characteristic that is shared by Scots. Just one?”
The desire for nationhood is dependent, obviously, on a people’s national culture and their holding to the same national identity, the same ‘sense of belonging’.
Perhaps your difficulty in accepting or understanding the well-established significance of a national culture to an independence movement is because, like some other ‘notables’ btl here, you are not ‘of’ that culture? Which brings us back to Albert Memmi’s conclusion that ‘his liberation is a matter only for the colonized’.
Dan 12:47
Do you mean like a Common Weal type site? That’d be a great idea.
I think higher promotion of local council elections is also drastically needed & the importance they really are on getting local issues sorted & to get out to vote. Background checks on who is who too to get the grifters out. Poise Parker touched on this in her podcasts. This is why schools were overrun with TRA bullshit & obsessions about toilets – there was no one there to vote against so the woke went holiday daft with any meetings.
& Aye, Hatuey is like something fae the 77th of late. Everyone is just to shut up & obsess about removing the SNP even tho this site dumped the SNP at least five years ago.
As for a Scots cultural characteristics – we root for the underdog & we argue the toss & then go have a pint. We don’t hold grudges & we’ve nae lofty ideas above ourselves or to go forth & expand. We’re aww happy with our own wee patch of land & don’t covet anyone else’s. We play fair – too fair at times & we have a wicked sense of humor. We used to have our own cultural events, remember? Before England moved in & boarded up the capital city & fcked up the Fringe, street entertainers, new years & scoffed at the highland games, the tattoo, bagpipe championships & every other pastime turned into a commercial enterprise.
Alf
That’s what I suspected too. Well said.
You’re right, I’m not of that culture — I don’t think it exists.
I’d happily drop this and leave it in your imaginations.
“The desire for nationhood is dependent, obviously, on a people’s national culture and their holding to the same national identity, the same ‘sense of belonging’.”
The idea of nationhood itself is artificial too, unless you believe there really is big lines on the surface of the earth.
One of the first things European leaders embarked on when they imagined their nations was to have maps drawn up, just to make sure everybody was singing from the same hymn sheet.
The also commissioned hymns too, as it happens, commonly referred to as national anthems.
Then they created a multitude of national institutions to further bolster the idea, before proceeding to formally define their national language (no simple task in countries where “the people” used a bunch of different languages).
It’s not hard to see where that sense of belonging comes from, who put it there, and why — when you tax people and send their kids to war, stuff like that comes in handy.
Alongside the imagined national culture in the minds of those willing to suspend disbelief, we have the usual selective cherrypicking in the history books.
Nobody in Scotland wants to admit, for example, that Scots played an important part in forging the British Empire and certainly they don’t want to take responsibility for it. “Nothing to do with us” is the cry, “we aren’t responsible for what happened hundreds of years ago…”
Those same people want to celebrate the Claim of Right and a sense of nationhood that can be traced back a thousand years, according to a recent comment above.
I’m not simply trying to mock here. You are free to believe whatever fantasy you want. I’m not offended by it.
The point that is common to everything I have said above is that national identity and culture expects us to have some sort of feeling of solidarity with people that we essentially know nothing about, have never met, who live very different lives in places that we have never been to, and in some cases lived hundreds of years ago.
On what basis, then, do I support independence and the creation of a modern Scottish nation? On the basis that nation states, however ridiculous and artificial they may be, represent the organisational principle and building blocks of democracy and international law.
Within this framework you simply can’t exist as a self determining democracy, with recognised rights and protections, unless you achieve statehood.
Also, and it isn’t inconsistent to point it out, there are a range of other benefits that come from statehood in terms of collective strength, being able to build things, sharing burdens, etc.
Can we move on now?
What a load of woke bullshit.
Please point out the huge wealth & opulence that Scots enjoyed from their role in the empire.
Scotland was forging its own wee trade deals until England pissed on their parade & orchestrated them going bankrupt.
Do piss off with yer revisionist bullshit.
@Hatuey
“Nobody in Scotland wants to admit, for example, that Scots played an important part in forging the British Empire and certainly they don’t want to take responsibility for it.”
Untrue.
There have been plenty of comments btl about Scotland’s part in slavery by a good many people.
There are some attempts at reparation though unlikely to meet what Caricom might look for in a legal claim.
The Trustees of the Dick bequest are to decide what to do with its million plus and might return it to the Caribbean.
Glasgow Uni is making a £20 million donation. There wer shrieks of dismay when I posted that months ago.
@Geri
Dundas House, embra
Why are you so keen for us to move on?
Are you struggling with your bonkers argument that there is no such thing as Scottish culture?
Hatuey @ 4:24 pm
“You’re right, I’m not of that culture — I don’t think it exists.”
Our culture really has nothing to do with you. And it might seem highly disrespectful, if not rather imperialistic, for you to suggest that another peoples culture does not exist.
Many Germans would also disagree with you, after recently welcoming over 100,000 Scots mostly dressed in kilts and Scotland tops, and waving saltires, singing national songs, playing the pipes, dancing etc. We may have been the only stateless nation of 32 in the Euro finals, yet without doubt Scots retain one of the most distinctive, admired and well-liked cultures in the world.
Smothered, marginalised and ridiculed we may be by the Anglo-imperial cultural illusion of ‘Britishness’, yet our ‘moribund culture and rusted tongue’ still exists, as does our national consciousness.
Careful now….all this talk of culture could be dangerous.
Some folk release the safety catches on their Brownings when folk start to talk about culture.
The quote is often misattributed to Goering or Goebells, but actually comes from the play “Schlageter” by the Nazi poet and playwright Hans Johst.
Oh naw Ellis is here!
He hates the idea of anything Scottish.
Scottish culture is dangerous look what happened in Nazi Germany.
If Scottish culture is so strong, unique and admired around the world it’s passing strange that so many of those who produce it lack the balls to put an X on a bit of paper to ensure its survival.
Oh here comes that other spanner right on cue.
We’re Nazis now. Who knew…
Awa & run up ma ribs & take yer servile cringe somewhere else.
Those who stand for nothing fall for anything. Away & get back on yer knees..
I think there was a part German Irish man, Hans Neeson (no relation). He had two childer. He called the boy Boomsa and the daughter, Daisy. So – Hans Neeson, Boomsa, Daisy
@ Dan , I would love to discuss land reform or ANY other subject that would bring US any closer to destroying this dysfunctional corrupt union, or to make life better for Scots
Unfortunately irrespective of how good an idea is or how beneficial it would be for the wider citizenry we are continually hampered and constrained by political parties, politicians and the lack of methodology to rid ourselves from them
People are too tribal and REFUSE point blank to accept what is as clear as day , the PERFECT example is the people who voted for and elected the 9 INCOMPETENT CLOWNS who will still be INFESTING WM and will continue with their incompetence, irrespective of their folly the alternative as we well KNEW was just as bad if not worse, and so it will be repeated for Holyrood
TBQH I believe the only way we can move forward is for RADICAL, DETERMINED ,OUTSPOKEN people to put themselves forward for election as independents, the USUAL SUSPECTS are unwilling to admit the progressive civic inclusion melting pot bullshit is why we are in this lunatic asylum where TRUTH is frowned upon and snowflakes abound
Farage and his party are ridiculed and despised BUT they are winning votes , especially in engerland , they also beat Alba and ISP in Scotland so some people are listening and agreeing with their message
ALL our politicians believe WM is and holds THE authority, otherwise they would CHALLENGE even appearing in WM, WHY would ANY Scottish politician swear fealty to WM and the crown of engerland, they KNOW big ears isn’t the king of SCOTS yet they continue with the fallacy
“Scotland has no culture.”
George Robertson
Andy Ellis @ 18.05.
Or, perhaps, lack what they view as either a viable option for whom to vote, or even a disinclination to follow the Westminster route to independence.
“There have been plenty of comments btl about Scotland’s part in slavery by a good many people.”
That’s not true. In actual fact, the last time slavery and reparations featured in these comments, I was attacked then too — for saying we should pay reparations. From memory that was about 18 months ago.
Anyway, if you are all so unanimous and confident about your national culture, even if you can’t define it without reference to feelings and such, why would it bother you that one solitary Scot thinks it’s all a bit silly?
As for your question, Ruby, about why I want to move on… to be honest, I think it’s all been a bit one-sided.
I like walking in the park, but not all day long.
“it’s passing strange that so many of those who produce it lack the balls to put an X on a bit of paper to ensure its survival.”
They did. Someone invited everyone else to say no.
Then they followed up voting at least six more times for another referendum.
All denied.
What bit are you struggling with?
Your party tanked cause it’s a sure sign of insanity to keep repeating the same shit hoping for a different outcome & rather than reflect on how to win voters back yer here pissing them off & insulting them instead.
@Sven 18.05pm
If they’re disinclined to follow the Westminster route then it’s incumbent on them to demonstrate that their proposed alternative is both practicable and enjoys majority support.
Hard fail on both so far.
Mind you, now that a few dozen hard of thinking nativists, xenophobes and even out and out racists who infest BTL comment in here are on the case I’m sure it’s a shoe in….right?
As for not having anyone else to vote for, then again it’s up to them to ensure they DO have viable options to vote for, and that those options have a reasonable chance of delivering their chosen outcome. Many other peoples with a hell of a lot less going for them than us, and many more serious obstacles in their path, have managed to do it.
Andy Ellis @ 5:43 pm
“Some folk release the safety catches on their Brownings when folk start to talk about culture.”
Such is the history of cultural imperialism, which is ‘force’ (Memmi; Said), its aim the eradication of ‘inferior’ cultures, and with fascism at its colonial root (Cesaire). You do well in its defence.
Aye Sam Robertson said Scotland has no language no culture.
The UK Gov told us not only does Scotland have no language and no culture the country Scotland doesn’t exist it was extinguished in 1707 and became Lesser England.
Now they are telling us women have penises and drag queens are the new women.
@Hatuey
You posted that “Nobody” had spoken about Scotland’s part in slavery. Then you remind us that you had spoken…
Frae Medium
“The Scottish Cringe as described by Beveridge and Turnbull (1989) refers to the Scots lacking personal and political confidence in their ability to govern themselves. Beveridge and Turnbull (1989) argue the Scots suffer from a sense of psychological inferiority in which Scots have come to see themselves and they are seen by England i.e. as being inferior to and dependent upon the largesse of England. Sociological theorist Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic violence can be deployed as another means to understand Scotland’s sense of culture inferiority because this notion of Bourdieu is used to explain how the more powerful are able to structure the self-perception of the weak, so that social groups are not only conquered or colonised militarily by a more powerful nation as there is another defeat or war waged that is done via or by culture (Bourdieu and Waquarant 1992) i.e. Scots collude in and co–produce their subordination because they sincerely believe their culture is not equal to that of England. On this matter, Carol Craig (2003) argues that Scots are harshly disparaging to their own culture and by doing so create apprehension in the Scottish persona.”
@Alf 5.43 pm
The fact that I – along with the vast majority of other Scots – don’t accept your “Scotland as colony” schtick Alf doesn’t mean I “defend” cultural imperialism.
I don’t accept the reason Scots have failed to regain their independence is cultural imperialism. I’ve always thought such arguments were a cop out for a collective lack of political, moral and social courage.
We haven’t been cheated, or unjustly denied, or swamped with furriners….we just bottled it. Nobody in the real world gives a flying fuck at a rolling donut about your constant self referential postings misapplying and misinterpreting post colonial theory.
Ruby, the fight is on.
https://tribunaltweets.substack.com/
“it’s a sure sign of insanity to keep repeating the same shit hoping for a different outcome…”
Tell that to spiders, such as the one that Robert the Bruce was so inspired by.
“Some folk release the safety catches on their Brownings when folk start to talk about culture.”
And those without Brownings are expected to reach for their wallets.
As for the inability of Scots to an X on a piece of paper… as it happens, there was some research that suggested a strong correlation between those who felt culturally Scottish and voting in favour of independence in 2014.
I’m pretty sure Alf referred to this on here about 3 years ago. I believe it was a study into why Scots voted the way they did in the referendum, and from memory Prof. Curtice was behind it… could be wrong.
Better Together. Inferiority?
“Turkey threatens to ‘enter’ Israel to protect Palestinians”
http://www.politico.eu/article/turkey-nato-tayyip-erdogan-threatens-enter-israel-help-palestinians/
Thought one or two people might be interested… lol
I see Erdogan is threatening to send troops into the fray…
Just thought one or two people might be interested lol
I do seem to recall someone predicting Turkish boots on the ground a while back.
I thought it was pretty fanciful then, and it’s just as fanciful now.
Mind you I also recall the person in question predicted a new D-Day in the Formosan Straits. There’s one born every minute, huh? 🙂
I would have expected you to know all about it, Andy, as it was mentioned from the Daily Mail.
Not that I care one way or another. One of the best decisions Wings ever made was to keep that sort of stuff off this platform.
Hatuey @ 19.28.
For myself, I’m more concerned by the thought of PM Starmer or Pres Biden despatching UK or US troops into the fray.
Sven
They’ll already be there. Shit stirring doesn’t happen all by itself ya know lol.
They’ll be in the thick of it just minding their own business when a disaster will strike that was absolutely nothing to do with them, no siree..
I’ve finished scrunching my toes into the warm sand and playing on the edge of the limitless sea. The sea stretching out beyond the hazy far horizon toward the infinite.
So I thought I’d take a peek at this place to see what folk have been chatting about.
A wee bit on cultural stuff with a few other bits and pieces tossed into the mix.
On culture; I’m sure other peoples think their cultures are the greatest in the world, but in Scotland’s case…it’s true.
#ScottishCulture
Time to lob this one back in…
“Deprive the people of their national consciousness, treat them as a tribe and not a nation, dilute their national pride, do not teach their history, propagate their language as inferior, imply they have a cultural void, emphasise their customs are primitive, and dismiss independence as a barbaric anomaly“
“Nobody in Scotland wants to admit, for example, that Scots played an important part in forging the British Empire and certainly they don’t want to take responsibility for it. “Nothing to do with us” is the cry, “we aren’t responsible for what happened hundreds of years ago…”
Those same people want to celebrate the Claim of Right and a sense of nationhood that can be traced back a thousand years, according to a recent comment above.”
Very poor from you Hatuey.
Of course many Scots recognise their countrymen/women history in partaking in the illegal union, and slavery – why my home town of Glasgow has many beautiful building (ones that the city fathers haven’t let go to ruin yet) that were constructed from the proceeds of Imperialism in the (US) and Jamaica etc – infact such was the Scots clout in Jamaica that a Scottish teacher designed their national flag.
However not all Scots made a good living under the illegal union – and as for the Claim of Right – only now is it coming out into the open and the public is beginning to realise what they have been told about the union is infact a big fat lie.
The same happened with the McCrone Report and even now many Scots still don’t know what it is – for the foreign media in Scotland that’s acts as though it is Scottish, really doesn’t want to put ideas into the heads of Scots that our neighbour England has been robbing Scotland blind.
The CoR will take time to filter down and into the minds of Scots – their reaction should be one of anger and rage at what the English governments, monarchs and House Jocks over the centuries have done to the Scottish people – even today any Scot that takes up their seat in the HoC is betraying Scotland.
The English spy Daniel Defoe said on the formation of the illegal union.
“The Union has brought the English Court, to be the centre of all the wealth and ready money of Scotland, which should otherwise have circulated in a home consumption, to the encouragement of trade and enrichment of their own people.
“The Scots will be allowed to send to Westminster, a handful of men who will make no weight whatever. They will be allowed to sit there for form’s sake to be laughed at.”
On the illegal union.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/06/02/fictional-kingdom-fraudulent-state-2/
Sven, I’ve already predicted that the failed attempt to do in Trump would leave the oligarchs with no choice but to escalate. Trump is basically a cert to win the election and he couldn’t be clearer on his intention to end the war… the only solution is to escalate to the extent that Trump won’t be able to negotiate a settlement.
On that basis, you could be right to worry.
But every cloud… most transformational socio-politico progress tends to occur after big wars. There might only be a few of us left to take part, but World War III could be our best chance of securing a section 30.
Dan
Regards brain drain – there was an interesting discussion on Neutrality studies a few weeks ago where this was discussed.
China is pumping out scientists & engineers – studies on things their country actually needs..
While the West is pumping out financiers looking to make a quick buck for themselves but have no value, building & investing in nothing & ranked amongst the lowest on education & skills.
They’re about to run out of importing talent cause the talent will move to where the the work is & it’s not in the West. Places like India will be staying at home.
It mentioned too the lack of critical skills in the West. Just churning out drones who, when confronted, dunno why they believe what they believe – they’re just following the crowd lol..
Dan @ 20.54.
Hitler’s Hangman may have been a monster, however stupid he certainly wasn’t.
Trump will negotiate hee-haw.
Losers don’t get to dictate terms. They were well warned to accept the offer given to them cause there wouldn’t be another one. Too many people have died & it wouldn’t be for nothing. Unconditional surrender is next along with losing territory. Why are you listening to Trump? They’re not supposed to be there remember? LOL
Trump will be told to GTF. They’re all out of patience with double crossing dumb fks..
Everyone seems to forget the victor in all of this. How very exceptional.
BTW – listen to what they actually say directly. They’ve hee-haw interest in Trump.
There was a scathing discussion & press conference by Lavrov at the UN security council a few days ago.
The African news channels always tend to cover the UN along with the shenanigans of that thug Erdan. Another rocket who thinks he’ll bark orders at everyone & then there was good old Yahoo in the Senate, a war criminal, barking orders on who needs arrested lol
It was quite a week for meltdowns.
Dan, it’s kind of back to not having the means of production in that the machinery for materials processing (and recycling) is no longer here.
For example, lots of scrap metal around but the capacity to reprocess it has gone.
My work is in rebuilding and repairing existing things.
I’m not sure why slavery was brought into, RoS, this happened above too… It’s peculiar and suspicious. My original comment was about the role played by Scots in the British Empire. I might have said “very few Scots” instead of “Nobody in Scotland”, but apart from that, the point stands.
According to some on here, Scots are like socialist angels who have spent the last few hundred years spreading nothing but love and harmony in the world. That’s almost a direct quote. This is our cultural history or something, and we should be proud. Note that it’s essentially no different to the sort of junk British Nationalists say about railways in India. Well, the history books suggest otherwise.
I don’t see how we can claim to be better human beings than others, or more specifically better than those who colonised us, when we exhibit the very same sort of traits.
It seems to me that if you really want to demonstrate that you’re better or culturally superior, you might start by being honest and stop behaving like those you want to set yourself apart from.
That all seems pretty obvious to me.
I’ve already made my views on the CoR known and have no desire to return to that particular subject. I expect and hope to hear less about it in future, not more as you are suggesting.
Jeez
TikTok is a man down.
Jason Hickle did a study & Churchill murdered over 100 million Indians in just 40 yrs of colonial policies. What role did Scots play in telling him to calm the fck down? We hardly get a say in our own policies so that blows yer theory wide open.
“I’ve already made my views on the CoR known and have no desire to return to that particular subject. I expect and hope to hear less about it in future, not more as you are suggesting.”
You won’t be.
The CoR is important to our contract that you will be hearing more of it. It was a non negotiable term to an internationally recognised treaty..or do you not much care for them either?
Right wing u tube channel have named Southport stabber as cross channel boat refugee.
Geri
29 July, 2024 at 11:26 am
“How on earth can Taiwan be overtaken by China ffs?
It belongs to them. Settled decades ago by international law.”
Good thing you mentioned this because I was wondering about it.
Does Taiwan not have the right to so called ‘self determination’?
No one seems to talk about it.
Has international law really settled this matter?
Once and for all?
Did the 2014 Scottish referendum also settle that Scotland is part of the United Kingdom?
Once and for all?
I am really confused.
‘Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance…’ (Ronald Reagan)
Not a bad analysis, considering he said that before The Dunning-Kruger effect was coined.
Anyway, the 100 million deaths were attributed to the British and their policies in India, not specifically Churchill. Little details like that matter.
And the quote is from Confucius, not The Gipper. See what I mean about little details?
The Autosomal Dominant Compelling Helioopthalmic Outburst (h-ACHOO-ey) aka The Hawk Tuah girl, has spoken. Let’s hear no more of possible legal routes out of the Union!
It’s been nigh on half a century since I last set eyes on the wee Mae Calhoun.
Perhaps it was standing at the edge of infinity yesterday, my bare feet squidgin the wet sand and the warm breeze clearing a misted-ower memory, that made me glance behind me tae glimpse her giein me a distant wave fae the lang syne.
Whatever the reason, wee Mae popped intae ma heid and I was inspired (maybe by my Wings muse) to scribble doun a poem tae the memory o’ Mae.
And so ends the saga of the wee Mae Calhoun – my first love. Who was, after a suitable period of mourning (aboot hauf an oor), followed by my second, sweet Selina. I might write a poem aboot her tae. It’ll be pretty much the same as the one for the wee Mae Calhoun, though.
Except it’ll be Diane (my third great love) who breaks the bad news aboot Selina’s new fella (I think he’d just been dumped by the wee Mae) tae me.
The latest news emerging from Isr*el regarding the so-called ‘Right to R*pe’ debate is almost impossible to believe.
The current situation in G*za is, in itself, justification enough for Scotland to say ‘Enough – we’re off’.
If you’re not a psychopath you can’t understand how psychopaths think. The toleration of aberrant behaviour for pragmatic reasons can only stretch so far but it seems that characters like Ian Murray can happily celebrate the announcement of new trade talks with Isr*el.
We have to get out.
Even if there was no Claim of Right, no economic case for independence, no 50% support for it, we must dissociate ourselves from this unforgivable horror. Saying ‘it’s nothing to do with us’ just won’t cut it. In the eyes of the rest of the world we’re little more than a part of England and we’re up to our necks in this genocide.
So much of our discussion here over the past decade has been premised on the need to persuade wary compatriots of the positive case for independence. That’s fair enough and accords with the democratic process we’ve become accustomed to. But there is another, simpler approach based on simple common decency, one which shouldn’t require lengthy debate: are we party to this madness or not?
If not then we have to take the only course open to workers who have sickened of appealing to brutal management – we withdraw our participation. We go on strike. The ‘union’ we entered with the English parliament is rescinded because we cannot and will not tolerate what’s being done by Westminster in our name – it is diseased and diabolical behaviour and we’ve already been forever tainted by association.
But it’s never too late to do the right thing – if Stephen Flynn has any serious intention of becoming a real leader he should take his beleaguered rump of SNP MPs out of the chamber for the final time.
Little details..like Scotland not being responsible for British taxes that extracted great wealth from India with exporting goods & food for free.
What influence do Scots have in parliament at the moment on the current famine & occupation they have going on? Zero.
Where bombs are dropped? None.
What influence did we have on Iraq? None.
Afghanistan? Syria? Lebanon? U?
Reparations should be made but do fuck off with yer unionist pish that Scotland vastly benefitted & shared in Empire. Scots had feck all say on policies, taxes, imports/exports of trillions of $ of wealth or man made famines.
Karma is a bitch. Little Englanders will be repaid in kind as the tables are now turning. India will extract her reparations one way or another.
Even today those arsesholes refuse to apologise in parliament to the many countries they inflicted great harm to..
Mote.Eye.
http://qpol.qub.ac.uk/repealing-the-legacy-act-and-redressing-the-troubles/
“A group of UN experts found the Legacy Act to be a ‘flagrant violation’ of international human rights standards. More recently an independent panel of human rights experts found that the Act was a long line of ‘widespread, systematic, and systemic‘ practice of impunity to protect members of the security forces and their agents from accountability….
…We need to uncover a complete picture of the web of responsibility of state and non-state actors in violence in the Troubles. Inquests and criminal investigations only provide a tip of the iceberg in individual cases. A comprehensive approach needs to deal with collusion, hidden harms (such as sexual violence), and to acknowledge the loss suffered across the country to ensure that it does not become a source of future grievance and conflict.”
Derek says:
29 July, 2024 at 10:02 pm
“Dan, it’s kind of back to not having the means of production in that the machinery for materials processing (and recycling) is no longer here.
For example, lots of scrap metal around but the capacity to reprocess it has gone.
My work is in rebuilding and repairing existing things.”
Maybe Swinney could bung yon Gupta fella a few quid and he could help us oot.
Word on the broken streets is Sanjeev’s pretty peeved that sales of big bling alloy rims made with Lochaber’s finest melted doon Redbull and Tennent’s tins ain’t great because of the downturn in the economy, and the shit state of oor transport network means big pimp stylée rimmage will just get buckled tae fuck whilst trying to traverse the pothole fields that oor roads have rewilded tae.
My mate runs a recycling yard so I get a good look at what he hauls in. Still occasionally see some quality oldskool heavy engineering machinery coming in but it is mostly just shitey modern disposable cars.
I used to work with a guy that maintained the big vehicle fragmenter at iirc Montrose. Feed a car in and it would get shredded and the various materials would get segregated out.
It’s a shite state of affairs that oor industries have been so diminished and we’ve become a lame ass nation of consumers rather than producers in so many sectors.
Still waiting on da btl intellectuals to come up with some answers to all this, but so far for all the bravado they come out with on here it looks like they ain’t got clue about any of this stuff.
With all the leccy generated through renewables we could be powering a new induction smelter to produce steel, instead of relying on imported steel from far flung lands most likely produced by burning coal.
I recall a couple of years back there were over 100 hundred wind turbine tripod bases shipped here from China for a new farm off the Angus coast. They could only fit 5 on the ship deck at a time so it took more than 20 trips to transport all the bases here. They were not a particularly complicated design that couldn’t have been welded up here. So much for supply chain jobs for oor ain folk…
Ian Brotherhood
Ignored
says:
30 July, 2024 at 7:48 am
The latest news emerging from Isr*el regarding the so-called ‘Right to R*pe’ debate is almost impossible to believe…
Mass murdering war criminal Net@nyahu given 58 standing ovations by Congress in the USA. What a nauseating embarrassment for every American. A medal of Congressional dishonour you might say…
This goes far, far, further than Chamberlain’s appeasment of HitIer in the 1930’s; it isn’t cowardly weakness, but outright complicity with sadistic barbarism in brazen defiance of International Law.
How did ordinary and decent Germans succumb to N@zi indoctrination? They couldn’t stop it, that’s how. Like it or not, we seem to have a ringside seat as history repeats itself, with the good guys and the bad guys simply playing musical chairs.
@ Geri
Was just reading this again the other day.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2021/08/18/how-gers-worked-in-india/
@Geri
https://ehs.org.uk/plantation-slavery-and-landownership-in-the-west-highlands-and-islands-legacies-and-lessons/
“We have uncovered the scale and complexity of links between wealth derived from slavery and trends in landowning during the eighteenth – to early twentieth centuries. Between 1726 and 1939 there were 63 estate purchases in the west Highlands and Islands by significant beneficiaries of slavery derived wealth. Such beneficiaries are defined as slave-owners, or the children and grandchildren of slave-owners, or others who derived significant benefits from the wider slavery-based economy, such as sugar, tobacco or cotton merchants. This definition also includes men who married into families with slavery derived wealth…
… The racism and inequalities of wealth and power created by Britain’s transatlantic system of enslavement intersects with the history of the Highlands and Islands. It is important to acknowledge that many Gaels, of diverse social classes and backgrounds, benefited from involvement in transatlantic slavery. Conversely, many communities in the region were adversely affected by those who obtained capital and property from the British system of slavery.”
They’re satanic.
Not just that act but the Hannibal one too.
They’re also accused of brutally sodomising prisoners & remember their prisoners are kids lifted from the street.
Others used are unwilling organ donors as the mass grave uncovered.
Nazis got away with it because colonialism is fascism (& Churchill was an avid fan) we’ve been heading in that direction for a long time ramped up under Bojo who even today collaborates with Nazis in parliament.
Flynn will do nothing. Sure didn’t he hug & shake hands enthusiastically with Z in the house of commons?
Zzs have positioned themselves well. Every institution & organisation is a full paid up member & is polluted with them. Any government speaking out will find themselves sanctioned into next century & ostracised.
Brilliant!
It wisnae me doing the inspiring! If it had been me there would have been more than just kissin’ There would have been love bites, tongues and ‘slipping the mitt’
Maybe things with Diana the third great love will have a ‘a little less kissing, a little more action, please’ 🙂
I thought there might be a Scottish word for love bites so I Googled. I found ‘hickey’ but I don’t think that’s Scottish. I did however find this:
The question was ‘How do you greet someone in your culture?’
Well, I’m Scottish, so if I’m being polite I guess it would be:
A’reet bawbag how’s yer arse for love bites?
See me,see ma man see Scottish culture, we luv it!
You can say that again Hatuey!
You can’t ever know the extent of your ignorance. It’s an unknown unknown.
“Some of these families married into slavery derived wealth. However, at least two families, Cameron of Locheil and Mackintosh of Mackintosh, appear to have been directly involved in the plantation economy in Jamaica. During the 1880s, the combined land holdings of these traditional families was 690,313 acres in the west Highlands and Islands. When this land is added to the acquisitions of the new elite, it transpires that at least 1,834,708 acres of the west Highlands and Islands — more than half of the area’s total landmass and approaching ten percent of the total landmass of Scotland — was owned by families that benefitted significantly from slavery.”
@ Dan
For sure I’m not an intellectual.
First off. Ditch neoliberalism. All public assets like health,education, public transport, social care … should be in the hands of the state.
Procurement policy, local and national, should be re-written if necessary to put an emphasis on community wealth building above other criteria.
Make the economy much more focussed on manufacturing than service provision.
On land use have a legal public interest in land transactions, land use designation and a land tax. A land tax would in the long run generate more than income than income tax which could be reduced to zero.
Dan @ 8:54 pm
“Deprive the people of their national consciousness, treat them as a tribe and not a nation, dilute their national pride, do not teach their history, propagate their language as inferior, imply they have a cultural void, emphasise their customs are primitive, and dismiss independence as a barbaric anomaly“
Aye, reminds us this is precisely the racist discriminatory role of colonial institutions, and a few heid-the-baw’s btl here tae.
Alex Salmond’s first elected ‘nationalist’ administrations should have swept thaim aw awa, an sooked oot the mankit colonial slump, but they didna. Sae the doun-hauden Scots fowk still pey the price o colonialism, in mair weys than ane, as he did an aw, an mair will.
@ Ruby
Previous mention of nookie badges.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/running-away-from-the-numbers/#comment-2626309
@ Sam
State ownership of the assets you mention would seem like the way forward.
One concern I have though is I am noticing a lot of folk are jist really lazy and couldn’t give a fuck twats that are taking a wage and putting very little commitment and pride into the “work” they are meant to be doing. It’s not the best use of public money paying unproductive folk and employment law makes it harder to get rid of poorly performing employees.
I mentioned that the local council had hired in a private contractor to strim and cut hedges along a local road. To be fair the two lads put in a lot of hard graft over 4 days and made a good job. No way would two council workers have worked that hard.
I also mentioned that the council were taking the power tools off some of their maintenance workers for health and safety reasons, likely in an effort to reduce sickness claims through vibration injuries of using power tools.
Yet the same council was happy to hire a private company to do a task that involved two lads hanging onto power tools for days on end. Aye, pick and choose health and safety and let’s just farm out the injuries and sick time so we aren’t liable seems a bit aff to me.
lol @ “You can’t ever know the extent of your ignorance. It’s an unknown unknown.”
Probably true.
Brotherhood’s suggestion of a national strike is interesting. That sort of approach was outlined by a bonkers person in here before.
That’s basically the traditional route to independence too. It’s how people everywhere used to get things done.
As for the Palestinians, I was shot down in flames in here when I suggested we ought to take issue with Team Genocide (I don’t want to name names [having already been chastised] but those reading will know who they are).
It was suggested that we should only concern ourselves with the plight of our own people. Animosity towards Humza, often expressed in colourful cultural terms, served as a sort of tortured prism, with light going in on one side and only shadows being cast on the other.
This is starting to sound like a U2 song, but you get the idea (I’m a sort of anti-hero genius that deserves more credit and blah, blah, blah the Palestinians).
Whatever.
Re shadow governments becoming more brazen as we are seeing in the US, I am currently reading Private Eye #1604 from August last year. On page 14 there is an article on the investigation the Labour Party carried out on racism and harassment in the party. It found a hierarchy of victimhood in which allegations of anti semitism must always trump allegations of Islamophobia or other claims of racism. The author of the report found themselves frozen out after completing it as Starmer and his allies assumed total control of the party.
For some time it has been clear who runs the race lobby, a few months ago I posted on here how I had found that the person who ran the cross party anti Islamophobia group in Scotland was actually a Dear Fellow Whites type white academic who had been granted literally millions of pounds to carry out his work and whose star pupils were involved in other avenues of activism such as giving men in dresses access to womens toilets.
Other people who appear to be actively hostile towards their host cultures are
Victor Blank, not born in Scotland but a funder of the John Smith Institute which places New Scots into key positions in Scottish infrastructure.
Alf Dubbs, not born in England but actively seeking to ship people from other countries into it.
Alice Feldman, not born in Eire but actively seeking to ship people from other countries into it and race shame any dissent into silence.
Barbara Lerner Spectre, not born in Sweden but actively seeking to ship people from other countries into it and race shame any dissent into silence.
Ervin Kohn, not born in Norway but actively seeking to ship people from other countries into it and race shame any dissent into silence.
I could go on with other countries such as the Netherlands but it is just to show that there is a recurring pattern of behaviour which some people will be very uncomfortable with acknowledging but if we value our countries and cultures we have to be able to speak openly about.
Ruby
Emplyment law doesn’t really make it hard to dismiss folk who are not meeting standards. Fairness means you identify the areas of failure, discuss them, seek remedies if needed like training, give time to improve, monitor performance and revisit. Performance improves or oot. You don’t have to do this if there is a really bad performance failure.
Jobs ought to have meaning and porpoise. Hard to do in some areas.
Maybe inequality plays a role in all of this. The long study into the health of civil servants identified that inequality (socioeconomic status) was the reason why the less well off died earlier than those at the top.
So mebbe there should be a maximum pay limit and an upgrading by job evaluation of all so called menial tasks, the importance of which was shown by the pandemic, only to be forgotten at once.
When people are asked about relative pay scales they say that the difference between top and bottom should be no greater than 5 or 6 times.
There is/mebbe was little to nothing done in school to orient people for work. Much more emphasis should be placed on practical work in school. Some efforts have been made. Colleges don’t do much vocational stuff for the retired.
My Council has a wonderful team of gardeners judging by the work they produce.
Ruby @8:56am
You made me laugh out loud. Whit are ye like? 🙂
‘slipping the mitt’ – I might use that in my next tercet.
Sadly, the wee Mae Calhoun wisnae fir haein ony o thait nonsense (that sounded like Karen Dunbar’s ‘Teacher’ in ma heid).
Hope I’ve got this youtube link right.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qTxlPsmCPQ
The delectable Diana might have been my third great love, but she was my first great…so there might be a more graphic tale telt in verse comin’ along soon .
I don’t think that tale will fit into a haiku or a tercet; although it was all over in a flash…so it might.
Do you think the Rev will put me on the ‘ naughty step’ if I post pornographic poetry?
Northcode
“O if love were had for a deep wish
In the deadness of the night,
There’d be a truce to longing
Between the dusk and the light:
But love is had for sighing,
For living and for dying,
And there’s no one now to ask me
If heavy lies my heart.
O if love were had for taking
Like honey from the hive,
The bees that made the tender stuff
Could hardly keep alive:
But love it is a wounded thing,
A tremor and a smart,
And there’s no one left to kiss me now
Over my heavy heart.”
Venezuela’s Socialist dictator Maduro has shown Indy supporters a roadmap to Indy.
Quite simple: have the Holyrood government call an Indy referendum and, since Indy would lose (again) in an honest election, STEAL the election. Stuff the ballot boxes. Declare “victory.” Since the government will be in charge of the vote counting, “victory” will be guaranteed.
Most normal people will be outraged, but what’s one more lie to advance the cause?
Some might object because that’s cheating, that’s lying, that’s not democracy. Of course it isn’t. But that’s what Socialists and Communists do worldwide–why should Scottish Socialists be any different? Many commenters here seem to want Socialism anyway.
“Deprive the people of their national consciousness, treat them as a tribe and not a nation, dilute their national pride, do not teach their history, propagate their language as inferior, imply they have a cultural void, emphasise their customs are primitive, and dismiss independence as a barbaric anomaly“
Alf @10.42am.
Bang on Alf – worryingly.
All the detrimental symptoms of being treated as a colony doesn’t help it either I’d say.
“THE number of babies born in Scotland fell to a record low last year, with statisticians revealing the country’s total fertility rate was at its lowest ever level.
Data from National Records of Scotland (NRS) shows there were 45,935 live births registered in 2023, 2% fewer than in 2022 and the lowest total since records began in 1855.”
“And there’s no one left to kiss me now”
You just speak fir yersel, Sam. Plenty of folk wid gei me a kiss. Ma nurse geis me a wee kiss every night on ma foreheid alang wi ma medication afore she tucks me in.
Nurse Ratched is her name (like the nurse fae thon movie ‘One Flew Over The Craws Nest).
That’s some moving verse, Sam. Here’s a wee kiss fae me tae cheer ye up x
McKee – trying to point the finger for Scotland’s predicament firmly towards that of a foreign country – namely the English parliament, when Scotland is in the position its in because he and his ilk at the SNP betrayed Scotland.
“THE Scottish Government will have to find around £100 million to mitigate Labour’s cuts to the Winter Fuel Payment, a minister has said.
“Ivan McKee, the Scottish Minister for Public Finance, told the BBC that the fact his government had been given only 90 minutes’ notice of the cuts in Rachel Reeves’s speech showed Labour’s claimed reset of devolved relationships “clearly hasn’t happened”.
McKee was speaking on Tuesday morning, after Chancellor Reeves told MPs at Westminster how she aimed to make up for a £22 billion “black hole” in day-to-day spending, including cutting the Winter Fuel Payment for people not on benefits.”
“I’ve already made my views on the CoR known and have no desire to return to that particular subject. I expect and hope to hear less about it in future, not more as you are suggesting.”
Hatuey.
On the contrary – information on the Claim of Right needs to get out there, Scots have a right to know that the union is a lie – that its built on lies and deceit and propped by House Jock politicians who make a good living from it – and reinforced by the foreign media that isn’t Scottish.
The CoR needs to be shouted out loud from the finials on the rooftops, every Scots MUST know about it whether they like it or not.
Only by educating themselves – will Scots be able to free themselves from this nefarious colonial grip, that has a hold over us.
RoS: information on the Claim of Right needs to get out there…”
I agree. Information on the ACTUAL CoR needs to get out there. Not what the Moonhowlers claim is the CoR, but the ACTUAL CoR.
The ACTUAL CoR is basically a “We Hate Catholics” screed that was written by a body NOT elected by the Scottish people and who had NO democratic legitimacy.
Do you want to ban Catholics from holding office? Publishing books? Send their kids to Catholic schools? Then the CoR is your baby. And if you sincerely believe that the CoR is part of a Scottish “Constitution” (there’s no such thing, BTW) then your “Constitution” mandates all this.
You could sell anything, say anything to members of Believe in Scotland. They would eat shit if you told them that it had passed through Sturgeon first.
sam @ 8:50 am
“Between 1726 and 1939 there were 63 estate purchases in the west Highlands and Islands by significant beneficiaries of slavery derived wealth.”
The difference between the landed gentry in England and that in the ‘Celtic periphery’ is important. In England, even when class conflict and interest separated landlord and tenant, they still shared a common bond as English nationals. In the ‘Celtic periphery’ nations, however, landlord and tenant also tended to conflict on issues of culture as well:
“The landed classes in Ireland were literally of English origin in the main; in Wales and parts of Scotland they were anglicized, that is to say they regarded themselves, and behaved, as if they were English.” (Hechter)
And right there lies the main problem with much of Scotland’s Anglo culturally assimilated establishment and social hierarchy which aye runs our institutions and owns much of our land. They hold to a quite different national identity than us less assimilated native fowk, and thus thay haud tae different values an aw; and not least on the matter of slavery and the dubious private ownership and exploitation of our land which continues even today.
And of course, a colonized people remain an enslaved people, overseen by another culture, ideology and values.
Alf, if you are feeling enslaved today, there are numbers you can call.
The people manning the phones will have you freed in no time.
@Republicofscotland says:30 July, 2024 at 1:48 pm
Only by educating themselves – will Scots be able to free themselves
And I’m more than happy to play my part.
With you, it’s necessary to start at the beginning, with the elementary basics, in fact. With the oh-so-simple yet telling facts that separate the rational and competent from the bullshitters.
My country’s name is “Scotland”, not “scotland”.
Practice getting that one right for a few days and then perhaps we can move on.
Alf,
The Scots in Ulster are/were both colonisers and colonised.
Colonisers in that they took the land from the native Irish, acted as a buffer for the English against Irish rebellion and were colonised in the sense that they, like the Catholic Irish, were subject to Penal Law which prevented recognition of marriage and, of course, were regarded as inferior. See Milton. Their language was lost.
Word of the day: pachle.
A prize for who can name The Pachle from Ahoghill
I see Rwanda is back in the news again.
Looking on the bright side today, while the numbers for our Scottish kids may be declining, at least nobody’s actively killing the ones we do manage to bring into the world.
gonnae just fuck-off wae this guilt for events that occurred 100s of years ago pish
There is not a race/tribe/*identity* on the Planet that has not – at some point in their history – oppressed others .
As for Reparations ….don’t be so fucking stupid .
Will the descendants of African slaves in the US or Europe be demanding reparations from the descendants of African tribes who worked with the slavers to capture and sell their forebears into bondage ? Naw , they won’t .
It’s a fucking sick joke , * Racism * Industry poseurs and Political Class clowns going on about reparations for historic crimes against humanity whilst sickening examples of precisely that are taking place right now in *aza ; and most of them either condone it or pretend it’s not happening
The only MEANINGFUL reparation the West could offer is to make Peace in the World it’s highest priority & value .
Instead , it’s doing the exact opposite
Rev, has the Believe in Scotland email sent this afternoon altered your view?
It sounds as if written by someone who actually wants independence soon and thinks the SNP have made a mess of things.
Howver he does still say that the Convention should be led by BiS…
Hatey McHateface.
I’ve explained in here before years ago – probably before Main or your current moniker appeared on the scene – Wingate W*nkers like yourself have several online nom de plumes.
But I digress – the reason there’s no capital letter at the start of the word (S) Scotland – is because I created the handle to be the one word.
Normally I wouldn’t have bothered to reply to your comments on it – however putting you straight – has shall we say, a certain satisfaction about it.
Now do us all a favour and F*ck-Off.
“…Bannockburn battlefield: Campaigners ‘shocked’ as development approved…”
https://archive.ph/blWR7
Nothing sacred to these c$*ts?
Once upon a time, you could rely on a Scottish SNP Government to prevent this sacrilege and nipit in the bud, but we all know the SNP would rather be a Pride march with their pervy chums, than commemorating the Battle of Bannockburn beside true patriots marching in the Independence cause All Under One Banner…
Away and stick this endless source of horseshit on some shooting estate, and see how far that gets with its Planning Permission.
There aren’t half some twisted, shit-stirring c!&nts in Stirling. Don’t forget Armed Forces day on the 700th….
I wonder if Liz Lloyd’s family are proud of her?
@ Robert Hughes 4.15pm It is amazing how many of the woke civic progressive inclusive types and open borders multiculture aficionados love to heap the mountainous guilt trip on to whiteys shoulders, even when the reverse model is implemented where the minor effectively dictates to the major they are still not satisfied
The Beatles melting pot was just a dream, multiculturalism does’nt and cannot work as extremism from ALL sides proves on a daily basis , I cannot understand or accept why people feel subservient to others and are eager and willing to accept blame for situations that were not only outwith their control but also outwith the control of their ancestors
Do people of different ethnicities berate, denigrate or demean themselves when they form or participate as part of the ruling hierarchy of ANY country or is it just the white working class who should shoulder the guilt for past ills
Breeks @5.56pm
This is a national disgrace! That it is even considered shows the total disrespect for our culture and history. The councillors involved in promoting this desecration on Scottish heritage should be criminalised and deported! This is treasonous!
I wonder what our pretendy monarch has to say about it.
Hatey McHateface @ 3:30 pm
“feeling enslaved today”
Yes indeed. The bribes paid in 1707 in return for elites signing a corrupt treaty confirms that Scots were sold.
Four articles from todays Guardian, in the first two a nice piece of victim reversal re the mocking of the Last Supper for the Paris Olympics, any pushback is apparently far Right anti semitism.
https://archive.is/BYHqb
https://archive.is/7HKCY
The third is one of their periodical hit pieces on Morrissey, a few years ago as he was about to release a new album The Guardian contacted every single person who had worked on it and tried to shame them into disowning him.
https://archive.is/QNoeX
The fourth is a puff piece on Peter Tatchell with no mention of his paedophilia apologist stance. The person who penned the article used to be the papers Jerusalem correspondent.
https://archive.is/xwKei
The last I checked the Guardian was making a loss of over forty million pounds a year and is kept afloat by cash injections from Bill Gates, George Soros and Google amongst others.
Sam @1:00pm
I was scrolling through comments and came across my reply to yours @1:00pm. I feel my reply might not come across in the light-hearted manner I’d intended.
Just so you know, I didn’t mean to come across as dismissive of your post.
The verse you posted is very emotive and you must have felt some need to post it. I’m glad you did – it’s a poem (or hymn) I’m not familiar with. Who is the author, do you know? Was it George Matheson?
John Main @ 3.50pm
While walking on Sunday afternoon, my wife and I came upon a row of shops and as we approached heard sounds of great joy and happiness obviously coming from young children.
We stopped at the window, a converted store, and watched as bairns sang and danced, without a care in the world. It brought back fond memories of the time when our kids and grandchildren were that age.
The world knew, less than 24hrs later, of the horrific events of Southport. Bairns mercilessly slaughtered in the most despicable crime you could possibly imagine.
The survivors will be traumatised, for how long, we’ll never know. Parents, siblings, wider family, and school friends will live with this long after it fades from the memory of the public.
And you, John Main, think this act of unspeakable horror is a suitable subject for making one of your sick jokes, or jibes, or whatever emanates from your warped mind. There are no words that can express my outrage of your comment, and I can only hope that Stu Campbell sends your future comments straight into the sewer where they belong.
Anton Decadent.
It may surprise you to know that under Sturgeon’s tenure as FM – the Scottish government gave what is essentially anti-independence newsrags millions to keep them propped – I think the sum was £3 million quid of taxpayers cash.
The current Scottish government might still be giving the anti-independence media funding for all I know – God knows they are funding just about everything else at our expense, such as Stonewall and £67 million to that vile regime in Eastern Europe – to name but a few – whilst wasting millions at on late and over budget ferries – millions fighting the English government on the GRRB – millions wasted on setting up Alex Salmond – with a half million payout to Salmond – million wasted on the false prosecutions of RFC directors, who were paid millions in compensation, and Biffa Waste Management look likely to win their £200 million case against the Scottish government – over the failed Return Deposit Scheme.
As for the Guardian – the BBC has been buying thousand of Guardian newspapers for years to keep it afloat – of course the BBC, once it gets your licence fee uses it for a plethora of things with regards to other arms of it business – if I recall correctly several years ago Scots contributed £300 million in tv licence fees, but only £100 million was returned in output in Scotland – as there is virtually no Scottish tv to talk of, that output must’ve dropped off considerably – of course at least 750,000 across the UK have cancelled their tv licence (media reports) this year alone – and who could blame them.
@Northcode
It’s fine. i thought you might like it. Duncan Campbell-Scott.
Canadian (out of Scotland)
I can’t believe the BBC reporting of the Southport incident. All I heard was Far Right rather than concerned parents and a community speaking about the safety and welfare of their children. Quick to deny any Islamic connection. What is it going to take for the BBC that nobody is interested in your Woke, drag queen, queer, Islamic narrative?.
Sam
I do like it Sam, it’s a beautiful and moving poem – I appreciate you thinking of me when posting it and, like I said, I’m glad you did.
You know what I’m like by now, I’m sure.
Sometimes – often – I get carried away with my own smartassness and end up unintentionally offending folk when I think I’m being clever. Been that way all my life.
It’s why I have no friends and why on several occasions my parents had moved house while I was at school without telling me. I always managed to track them down again, though.
I had a look at some of Scott’s other work and came across this:
You might know of it already.
The entire poem tells of a lone, stone figure in a desolate desert; a symbol of a lost civilization evoking a sense of futility and despair.
The poem contrasts the figure as once being a symbol of prosperity with its current desolate state. It conveys a sense of loss and decay.
It made me think of Scotland and the Scots; hopefully we’ll avoid the fate of the lost civilization alluded to in Scott’s poem.
George, I bow to nobody in my dislike of the BBC but you are dead wrong about this. The usual EDL thugs are rioting in Southport because social media told them the killer was a recently channel crossing muslim. None of that is true. People mourning the dreadful events of yesterday are being further traumatised by a bunch of revolting morons.
@Andouilette 10:46pm
Far Right again. If the population actually trusted the BBC or the UK Government or for the matter the Scottish Government then conspiracy theories wouldn’t flourish. Opinions before the facts we have it all before. No parent needs your permission to react.
I discovered and got a copy today of:
‘THE WOMEN WHO WOULDN’T WHEESHT: Voices from the Front-line of Scotland’s Battle for Women’s Rights’, by Susan Dalgety and Lucy Hunter Blackburn, published by Constable (30 May 2024).
« THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ??
« On the 25th anniversary of the Scottish Parliament, this book captures an important moment in contemporary history: how a grassroots women’s movement, harking back to the suffragettes and second wave feminists of the 1970s and 1980s, took on the political establishment – and changed the course of history.??
« Through a collection of over thirty essays and photographs, some of the women involved tell the story of the five-year campaign to protect women’s sex-based rights. Author J.K. Rowling explains why she used her global reach to stand up for women. Leading SNP MP Joanna Cherry writes of how she risked her political career for her beliefs. Survivors of male violence who MSPs refused to meet are given the voice they were denied at Holyrood. Ash Regan MSP recounts what it was like to become the first government minister to resign on a question of principle since the SNP came to power in 2007. Former prison governor Rhona Hotchkiss charts how changes in prison policy in Scotland led to the controversy over Isla Bryson.??
« It is the story of women who risked their job, reputation, even the bonds of family and friendship, to make their voices heard, and ended up – unexpectedly – contributing to the downfall of Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first woman first minister.
??« Above all, it is the story of the women who wouldn’t wheesht. »
@RoS, I was aware of that, one of the rags they threw money at was The Herald. When I look at Eire their media is also owned by people from other countries who appear to hate the Irish.
@ 11.11 pm
Please ignore double question marks. Formatting glitch arisen in transmission.
Robert Hughes; “As for Reparations ….don’t be so fucking stupid.”
Interesting that it’s almost instinctive to lash out at anything you don’t understand or like these days as “woke”.
I wish I could be so carefree.
Let’s talk about the “don’t understand” part which you will no doubt be preparing to lash out as I type…
The legal basis and history of reparations has got nothing to do with “woke”.The origins of the idea (of ‘State responsibility’) in law stretch back to the early 20th century and that idea was defined by Western States and Western corporations.
We are all familiar with the reparations demanded of Germany after WWI which introduced the notion of “war guilt”. That’s just one type of reparations.
Fewer are familiar with the sort of claims for reparations that Western corporate entities were increasingly making in the second and third world going into and throughout the 20th century, as people around the world started telling the colonial powers to fuck off.
There are thousands of examples of this happening in international legal casebooks (precedent), involving companies that you will all be familiar with, but they like to keep it quiet…
The way it generally works is that a third world people wakes up and tells a western country like America or Britain that it is taking its country, mines, land, and sovereignty back.
The response is a claim for reparations — made by the very companies and countries that have essentially been exploiting the said third world people for in some cases hundreds of years…
This is all grounded in various Acts and pieces of legislation that Western Governments installed at both the national and international level.
When these sort of cases go in front of courts or are otherwise addressed, the natural response of the third world countries is to make a counter-claim along the lines of, “hang on, you bastards have been fleecing us for years, and now that the game is up you want us to compensate you for YOUR loss?”
It’s a bit like a shoplifter putting in a claim for compensation because you caught him thieving and you won’t let him back into your shop… if you don’t pay, guess what he threatens to do? You guessed it; sanctions. (Of course, sometimes he may try arrange a coup or work out another way of installing a new more “liberal” shopkeeper…)
That takes you right into a discussion about the history of western exploitation that couldn’t have anything less to do with “woke”.
It’s an interesting discussion too because in a many parts of the world the very idea of property rights as we understand it today (owning things like land, trees, mines, etc.) was a completely alien (western) concept.
It isn’t coincidence that national laws concerning property were defined and firmed up at a time when western countries and corporations went out into the world and started claiming ownership over basically everything (a process more commonly called “thieving”).
When those ownership rights started to be challenged (often as a result of decolonisation), they defined and firmed up international law as a way of protecting “their” assets…
I haven’t read about all this stuff in many years but in my recollection almost all of the conversations about reparations, history, and exploitation were instigated as I have described above, primarily by Western governments and corporations who based their claims for compensation on historical claims of ownership and historical claims of earnings and predicted loss.
Scotland, if it ever broke free of England’s grip, would find itself up to its neck in this stuff very quickly — not just with UK companies, but with companies from all over the world.
Anyway, that’s gives you an idea of the side you are on when you scoff at the idea of reparations and blame everything on “woke”. Your ire is misdirected, and that’s probably as intended.
Once you decide someone is bonkers you are not likely to read any more of their comments.
I won’t be lashing out or entering into any discussion I will just be giving the bonkerness a miss.
No bonkers today!
The song ‘No Milk today’ just popped into my head.
No bonkers today, my love has gone away
The bottle stands for lorn, a symbol of the dawn
No bonkers today, it seems a common sight
But people passing by don’t know the reason why
Plans approved for Trotting Track development on Bannockburn Battlefield !
See these women who wouldn’t wheesht they are in my opinion perfectly normal women with a perfectly normal reaction to the complete and utter madness of gender ideology.
Gender ideology is not just bonkers it is totally and utterly insane.
It’s the women who do wheesht who are the scary ones. Not just the women but everyone who is prepared to wheesht, all the doctors, politicians, media, businesses,lawyers, NHS, and not forgetting the commenters BTL on Wings.
What a country! The re-incarnation of Hitler could come along and all these ‘cultists’ would be happy to wheesht for Nazism! Sieg Heil!
A male athlete punching a female athlete is a new Olympic sport.
Drag queens are the new women.
Women have penises!
I’m having a very serious identity crisis. It’s hard enough being a woman even harder being a Scottish women what with the term Scottish being meaningless.
‘Scotland has no language, Scotland has no culture & as a matter of fact the country Scotland doesn’t even exist.’
You can just self-id as a woman and you can also just self-id as Scottish.
@Hatuey
Caricom is certainly interested today in reparation.
“The CARICOM Reparations Commission (CRC) asserts that European Governments
Were owners and traders of enslaved Africans.
Instructed genocidal actions upon indigenous communities.
Created the legal, financial and fiscal policies necessary for the enslavement of Africans.
Defined and enforced African enslavement and native genocide as in their ‘national interests’.
Refused compensation to the enslaved with the ending of their enslavement.
Compensated slave owners at emancipation for the loss of legal property rights in enslaved Africans.
Imposed a further one hundred years of racial apartheid upon the emancipated.
Imposed for another one hundred years policies designed to perpetuate suffering upon the emancipated and survivors of genocide.
And have refused to acknowledge such crimes or to compensate victims and their descendants.
https://caricom.org/caricom-ten-point-plan-for-reparatory-justice/
Hi Northcode
Yes, i know that poem.
Word of the day: gulder
Here’s a “progressive” idea for the payment of reparations.
Rather than trying to guilt trip and make an entire nation pay, why not just use means testing based on ability to pay using the wealth demographic of the citizens of that nation.
Most folk will have seen the graphs showing the growing inequality and wealth “trickling up” over the years.
Who benefited from the legacy of past exploitative historical endeavors more. The likes of the Duke of Buccleuch / Athol with their thousands of acres of land and millions in the bank, or yon ex miner fae Ballingry working a zero hours contract at Amazon who lives in a council hoose.
It’s fucking obvious who actually and still benefits from imperial actions of the past and present. Only a total bawbag could try to argue that the poorest of our society who own fuck all should pay anything towards a damages claim against the excessively rich cunts that actually did and continue to do the deeds.
#AskAndy you’re always saying you know and speak for what the majority of the Scottish nation thinks, so what’s their views on this subject.
I’m now reminded of the story of the landowner and the poacher.
A bloke is fishing and the landowner comes along and tells him to stop fishing as he owns the land.
Poacher asks landowner how he got to own the land.
Landowner says he inherited it from his father.
Poacher asks how his father got to own the land.
Landowner says his father inherited it from his grandfather.
Poacher asks how his grandfather got to own the land.
Landowner says his grandfather inherited it from his great grandfather.
Poacher asks how his great grandfather got to own the land.
Landowner says his great grandfather fought for it.
Poacher says “Alright, c’mon then, square go”.
I’m still on the look out for the Scottish word for ‘love-bite’ Dan suggested ‘Nookie Badge’ but I have never heard that term.
I don’t have a lot of experience with getting love bites except the ones I gave myself (just for practice). Obviously they weren’t on my neck.
I did have a very embarrassing experience with love bites. I didn’t have the love bites but the boy/man/idiot who invited me to his home for the week-end was covered in love bites. He thought that it was funny that his mother decided it was me who had given him the love bites. She arranged for his teenage niece to share a room with me to ensure I didn’t sneak into his room in the middle of the night to get my teeth into his neck and suck his blood.
FYI Nookie – Some say this slang term for sexual activity or the female genitalia may be derived from “nook,” meaning a secluded or sheltered place. Others trace its origins to the Dutch verb “neuken,” to have sex.
The Dutch idea is a bit far fetched! Why would we start using a Dutch word for sex?
I could be wrong and maybe we have been using the term ‘nookie’ since the 17th century.
The following words are Dutch: Boss, Yankee, Mannequin, Bazooka, Santa Claus, Bluff, Snoop, Rucksack, Frolic, Iceberg
When we talk about the Dutch Golden Age we are referring to the 17th century in the Netherlands. It was a period in Dutch history in which Dutch trade, science and art were among the most acclaimed in the world. Most of the Dutch words that are now used in English found their way into the language then.
Today you can find more than 1500 words in an English dictionary that come from Dutch.
https://www.learndutch.org/beginners/dutch-words-in-english/
I wonder what the Dutch for ‘love-bite’ is. Maybe I’ll ask Mr Menno.
I’m wondering if George Robertson thinks the UK have a language! English seems to be just ‘a language’ cobbled together from a whole load of different words & phrases from other languages.
What the actual fuck?
Get your swords out gents. They’re not fucking building on Bannockburn!
slit their fucking throats.
This is a disgrace. This is worse than Flamingo land. They want to build on Bannockburn?
Who are these people?
Defend the hallowed ground. For the sacred right to call ourselves free. It’s what we fought and died for. Wee bit hill and Glen. They are building on the spirit of Scotland herself.
Colonial English SCUM. What the hell is going on?
I can’t believe what I’ve just read???
Get this to fuck. Who the fuck do they think they are?
Defend Bannockburn. Get the fucking swords out now!
For freedom alone, which no good man surrenders but with his life, we rally to protect Bannockburn. In the name of our ancestors, in honor of our heritage, and for the future of our children, we stand united.
Scotland the Brave.
Slit the entrails of the colonial American Investment projects seeking to build on our heritage.
I wonder who signed this deal off? What’s going on? It needs a Wings Article?
Scotland for sale. Bannockburn. There will more blood shed. I will protest this. This will get me out!
WHO VOTED FOR THESE VILE SCUM
in the
BRANCH OFFICES in Scotland
of the
FOREIGN ENGLISH COLONIALIST DICTATORS
Angus Robertson, He fucking loves his zio nist lost tribe of the north doesn’t he?
DEFEND BANNOCKBURN! GET ALEX SALMOND ON THE PHONE!
I’m a bit confused about this reparations scheme is it all just about money or are African Americans wanting to return to the country of their ancestors?
Do we have plans for a Scottish reparations scheme?
@ Ruby
Money is a big part of reparations. It isn’t only money. The effects linger.It’s a bit like a chronic illness that seems incurable.
Some Scottish institutions with clear links to slavery like Glesca uni are making efforts to have some kind of reparations. I think the Dick bequest is considering passing the bequest to the Caribbean
“Fifty years ago, in 1972, George Beckford, an Economics Professor at the University of the West Indies, published a seminal monograph entitled Persistent Poverty, in which he explained the impoverishment of the black majority in the Caribbean in terms of the institutional mechanism of the colonial economy and society. The relevance of Beckford’s thesis remains striking today, and conversations about the legitimacy of democracy still reverberate around his research.
Then there are concerns regarding the standard markers of economic underdevelopment, such as widespread illiteracy, endemic hunger, systemic child abuse, inadequate public health facilities, primitive communications infrastructure, widespread slum dwelling, and chronically low enrolment and student performance at all levels of the education system. The Caribbean has the lowest youth enrolment in higher education in the hemisphere, an indication of the hostility to popular education under colonialism that is resilient in recent public policy. Extreme social and racial inequality is a legacy of slavery in the region that continues to haunt and hinder the development efforts of regional and global institutions.”
https://caribbean.un.org/en/176198-legacy-slavery-caribbean-and-journey-towards-justice
Dan: “Who benefited from the legacy of past exploitative historical endeavors more. The likes of the Duke of Buccleuch / Athol with their thousands of acres of land and millions in the bank, or yon ex miner fae Ballingry working a zero hours contract at Amazon who lives in a council hoose.”
Exactly. The same sort of people that were clearing land and treating people like cattle in Scotland… that’s the side you are on when you oppose reparations.
It wouldn’t necessarily impact ordinary people in the west, assuming you targeted the wealth of those responsible, which should be quite simple in a lot of cases.
The inherently racist colonial policies of the west continued right into the 20th century… so I don’t know why so many people want to make out this is about stuff that happened so many hundreds of years ago.
They had human zoos in Belgium up until the mid 1950s, with live Africans for your entertainment. Meanwhile, back in the jungle, right up until 1960s, Britain was castrating natives who protested at their presence in Kenya (intended as a form of torture, not population control or gender reassignment).
Anyway, apparently showing any interest in these things makes you “woke”. And it looks like the woke are up in arms today about a racecourse in Bannockburn…
The best I can come up with for a love bite in Scots so far is ‘soukie-blain’.
There’s no love in it; but there’s a fair bit of soukin up a mark on the skin.
Here’s my tercet (sort of) about a lassie’s anger at being so marked showing how to use the term it in a sentence:
A nookie noo is a children’s name for a watch in Scots.
So if you go up to a stranger in the street and ask if they can give you the nookie noo (something I often do to test folk’s knowledge of the Scots leid), your asking them what time it is.
But given that Scots is no longer taught in Scotland misunderstandings frequently occur.
Cameron of Lochiel and Mackintosh of Mackintosh and other elites are unlikely to be making any kind of reparations and will keep or sell the vast swathes of the Highlands bought with money from slavery, I would guess.
There was a BBC woman who made some reparation, can’t mind who.
‘Andouilette
says:
30 July, 2024 at 10:46 pm
George, I bow to nobody in my dislike of the BBC but you are dead wrong about this. The usual EDL thugs are rioting in Southport because social media told them the killer was a recently channel crossing muslim. None of that is true. People mourning the dreadful events of yesterday are being further traumatised by a bunch of revolting morons.’
Very well said. Banging on about the woke BBC in this context is totally ridiculous and offensive. The 17-year-old was born in Cardiff and moved with his Rwandan-born parents to the village near Southport in 2013. Several local reports site these vile EDL-style fucking cunts, not from the area, travelled there and were the mainstay of this riot. They targeted a mosque for no reason other than sheer mindless bigotry. For the record, Christianity is the largest organised religion in Rwanda; 2% is Muslim.
I am sure some local people feel great anger too about the perpetrator and may have joined in but the evidence strongly suggests they did not instigate this riot and for the vast majority in the area it is the last thing they wanted after a peaceful vigil. It is the worst kind of political opportunism for a terrible, terrible crime the rationale for which we just do not yet know.
Apologies for the couple of typos in my last post. It’s my proof reader’s day off.
Thanks, Southern Bystander. That was pretty much my reading of it. Sounds like nicer news this morning, with the whole community coming together to clear up the mess, local joiners and similar doing free repairs and the people from the mosque thanking the police and the community for their help and support. As it should be. I hope a lot of the invading EDL scum were arrested!
Taxes are collected by the Crown. The crown should pay reparations. Simple. If some lord hee-haw is sitting in a vast stately home then they should pay out too.
As for the EDL they are useful idiots of the Maidan variety, imo. Probably organized by the security services spreading misinformation online to get a few riots started. Chancers like Robinson have appeared in parliament so he’s no stranger in those circles.
Same is happening in Ireland & it could be a coincidence (but I suspect not) to coincide with the narrative social media is causing problems & governments push by the Zzs to censor the internet. They despise losing the grip on alternative media and are aching to unleash new laws where only their propaganda is allowed & they’ll use tragic events like this to push it as a matter of national security bullshit.
The more I see their tactics overseas the more I see their underhanded tactics here too.
Not far fetched either – the same Zzs were behind protests that vilified Corbyn.
My thoughts & prayers to those poor families. It’s heartbreaking xx
As some have already said – Stirling Councils poor decision to allow the development of the Bannockburn Battlefield.
“The National Trust for Scotland had already objected to the plans, saying the development is “in the vicinity of where Bruce’s army faced off against the vanguard of Edward’s army on the first day of the battle”.”
Stirling Councils terrible decision to allow development of the site MUST NEVER come to fruition – this is a national heritage site that is a huge part of our ain Scottish history – and it must be preserved for future generations of Scots.
The Scottish government MUST step in and halt this development.
Southernbystander: “It is the worst kind of political opportunism for a terrible, terrible crime the rationale for which we just do not yet know.”
That’s how it looks to me, although I don’t know much about it.
What’s the political ideology of the EDL? I don’t know much about them either. I saw a thing on TV a while back and one of them was caught on camera moaning about immigrants and talking about shooting at boats in the English Channel.
I kinda think people need more sci-fi in their lives. Where did all the humanity go?
@Hatuey says:31 July, 2024 at 10:45 am
The same sort of people that were clearing land and treating people like cattle in Scotland… that’s the side you are on when you oppose reparations
Awa and shite.
sam @ 10:35 am
“The effects linger.It’s a bit like a chronic illness that seems incurable.”
The description sounds much like Scotland, or any people dislocated from their culture and robbed of their resources or opportunity. The pathology of colonialism (cringe included!), in which ‘a peoples’ poverty is an inevitable part of the price of colonialism – today £150bn+ a year in Scotland’s case, occurring since 1707 if not before, and ongoing still:
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/03/19/the-real-economic-price-of-the-uk-union-for-scots/
whightman is just another house jock!
@Republicofscotland says:30 July, 2024 at 4:51 pm
“I created the handle to be the one word”
Sure.
Maybe you were just an ignoramus back then.
But now you’re a lazy, disrespecting ignoramus.
Spelling “Scotland” as “scotland” is the equivalent of spitting every time you say the name of my country.
It says something for the calibre and educational attainments of the frequenters of this site (and other sites) that nobody cares enough to point this out.
@ John Main
Are you going to have a go at lothianlad too?
Is his use of a lower case L exhibiting disrespect for the region I was born and other denizens of the Lothians?
Granted the place has become a shithole with the corporate takeover of nearly everything and the likes of *Underbelly charging punters 15 quid to jump into the sea for a few seconds during the New Years Day Loony Dook.
*I preferred Echobelly myself… (Which seems half appropriate what with Britain going pop)
Kings of the Kerb
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epqZrkxZ3_o
Ach well, that’s the annual refurb of the car suspension completed due to it enduring a hammering on oor re-wilded roads.
Is it really environmentally sound practice to let a country’s infrastructure go to rack and ruin, when it means increasing industrial production to create all the new parts required to repair all the worn out stuff… The new front springs were from Sweden coz we’ve nae steel industry…
This, https://aurelien2022.substack.com/p/no-left-turn is worth a read as it tries to lay out why “outsider” parties are likely to remain on the outside. As a result, it probably has a few lessons for the New Scotland Party which is making the rounds on Peter Bell’s site.
Interestingly, the author repeats the observation that Labour got in because of the collapse of the SNP. That’s useful, depending on what you think of that statement, as a litmus test to see whether the article has merit or is grasping at straws.
If there is going to be a new party to revitalise the independence question it’s probably going to have to be unlike anything we’ve seen before, otherwise the existing political operatives will colonise is rapidly and kill it off.
Hatuey – EDL are basically far right English nationalists, basically a slightly more moderate version of the old BNP – very anti-migrant, England for the English types.
They sometimes try and present themselves as just defending what they see as an under threat English way of life but you only have to scratch the surface to see a welter of hate for ‘foreigners’ but especially those who do not have white skin.
They have a special antipathy to Islam which was really their main motivation in forming (this happened during the awful Islamist violence of the noughties, so was a clear reaction). Their initial base was football hooligan firms. Interestingly their anti-Islam stance has drawn some non-whites too who also have great antipathy to Islam. They mainly indulge in street demos that often turn violent, which is their aim.
The idea that the trouble yesterday was organised in the background by the ‘security services’ is ridiculous. Very easy to say though and spread, just like the idea that the Southport murderer was a recently arrived asylum seeker.
I see the Moonhowlers latest howl is the “New Scotland Party” promoted by one Peter Bell.
The same Peter Bell who tried to get Scots to spoil their ballots in the last election–which effort flopped, bigtime.
This NSP’s instagram account has a whole–wait for it–111 followers. Their youtube has a whole 27 subscribers.
Predictably, they claim a “massive” outpouring of support for the new initiative. Presumably the same “massive” outpouring of spoiled ballots (1,000?) and the same “massive” vote for the ISP.
DARVO stands for Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender, a strategy used by perpetrators of abuse to deflect blame and avoid consequences.
The EDL and the SNP are much the same: Stupid, extreme, nationalist nut cases.
Full of hate.
New article urgently required Rev..
sam says: at 10:35 am
“…The effects linger. It’s a bit like a chronic illness that seems incurable.”
That’s like Scots suffering from #LongUnion
With all that’s been going on you’d think it would put some fire in the bellies and folk would be agitating and looking for some action. But no, the retched and unimaginative Scots are about as spicy as a diet korma rather than a burning vindaloo.
It’s a total shite state of affairs for real.
I’m well on the way to realising that what’s left of the fowk that live here don’t have anything like the full flavour behavior of what’s need to rise up and be a nation again.
Folk seem totally lacking in gumption as to how they are being exploited. I also don’t buy into the idea that they are broken people and lack the vitality, because I see folk still putting lots of time and energy into their own insular activities but little interest in wider community related stuff.
Probably something in the water or food chain, or just a legacy of Thatcher’s There’s no such thing as society mantra.
I wish Scots were more like the crowd Kasabian had at Glastonbury with some real Fire. Some say the band went to Glasto so they could see the crowd perform…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6ttJOWrfLU
Did anyone else get that email from Gordon Macintyre-Kemp with his rebuttal of Tommy Sheppard’s piece in The National?
If so, do you think GMK sounds like a real independence-seeker?
Very good question, Dan.
Don’t have any answers of my own. Googled and got a lot of history, peasants revolt, Spartacus…
This might say something? there a few things in this that make sense, I think. Lack of a leader and ststem bias.
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/psychologylse/2021/01/19/why-we-dont-rebel/
‘The idea that the trouble yesterday was organised in the background by the ‘security services’ is ridiculous. Very easy to say though and spread, just like the idea that the Southport murderer was a recently arrived asylum seeker.’
I believe the bullshit was first spread on GB news. That right wing pile of shite that is a useful tool in spreading fake news.
Why would they not check facts first before hitting the airwaves?
I have seen no mention that GB news spread or repeated the false or unfounded claims. All the evidence points to X where it was seen by millions, and a particular news outlet called Channel 3 Now that was amongst the first accounts to spread it. That channel later apologised.
Of course Farage then stepped in with his usual verbal sewage, masquerading as ‘reasonable questions’.
Mostly English nationalism is itself a sewer of hate and typically does not properly distinguish between the English and British variety. As mentioned above though, how the decent people of Southport reacted this morning was excellent.
I see the EDL are right now holding a demo in London which has already descended into violence (with flags of St George and the Union in evidence). Photos reveal the typical middle-aged thugs. These people are despicable.
Sam: “Caricom is certainly interested today in reparation.”
Of course. But that’s just one organisation that’s looking for one type of reparations. From memory, I think there are 5 legal types and the vast bulk of reparations cases involve corporate entities and their lawyers who are all too happy to delve into history when it comes to making claims.
Objectively, I don’t see how you can say it’s okay for one group to make such claims and go back as far as they like in establishing ownership, and at the same time ridicule another group who would appear to have a much more compelling case.
Every single time the issue is raised, a bunch of zombies appear to tell us they aren’t responsible, everybody committed such crimes, other people had slaves too, and blah, blah, blah.
Isn’t it spectacular though that people who complain about Scotland’s predicament and historical plight are so easily transformed into apologists when it comes to the much more harsh and miserable treatment of others…
@ Hatuey 12.30am 1st August 2024 I presume you will be furnishing a link to ALL these apologists who manufacture risible excuses for refusing to accept the BLAME for man’s past and current inhumanity to their fellow humans
You could maybe start with slavery and then move on to various other atrocities inflicted on our fellow humans and be sure to produce links for these other apologists so that they can seek redemption