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Worms Everywhere

Posted on July 25, 2024 by

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.

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Tartan Tory

“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.

ThePartyIsOver

A stitch up from beginning to end!#GetSalmondNoMatterWhat

Neil

Sounds like he’s baws deep in A and/or B.

Robert Pennington

One has to wonder what it is that makes him so invested in his narrative, hubris apart…

Onlooker

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.

Ian McCubbin

Seems Wightman is very involved with both women in what they shared.Not good in any shape or form.

Crisiscult

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?

Mark Beggan

Onlooker @

There are no undecided voters. Didn’t you watch the election.

Breeks

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?

Astonished

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.

AnneDon

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.

Andrew Davidson

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.

GM

‘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.

Ian

‘(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.

JockMcT

When standing on the shoulders of giants, don’t shit.
When standing in a skitter, don’t stamp.
Odious wee man.

Mia

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?

GM

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.

robertkknight

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).

sam

@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

Mark Beggan

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.

David Hannah

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.

David Hannah

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.

Stephen

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 ?

Anton Decadent

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.

Willie

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.

Dan

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.

Robert Hughes

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 .

Kcor

When Ms A and Ms B are jailed, Wightman should voluntarily accompany them.

Kcor

“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.

Kcor

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?

Kenny

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.

Roger Mexico

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.

Glenn Elder

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.

Campbell Clansman

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.

Hatuey

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…

BLMac

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.

Derek

“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?

crazycat

@ Roger Mexico at 10.25

They were assigned different letters in the trial.

Campbell Clansman

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.

Garrion

He finally said it.

“Do yOur OWn rESeaRcH”

Thanks Kampbell. Made my day.

Effijy

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.

Dave Llewellyn

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.

Muscleguy

@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.

SteepBrae

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?

Dan

@ 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.

link to dundeecity.gov.uk

This one is a single page pdf.

link to angus.gov.uk

Liz

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

holymacmoses

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.

Tartan Tory

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

Bob Mack

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.

Boyce Franks

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.

McDuff

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.

sarah

@ 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.

Lulu Bells

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.

Mia

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.

Greg

David Clegg, MI5?
What a suspicious character.

It would make a huge amount of sense for reasons we can’t legally discuss.

Dan

@ 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.

Northcode

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.

James Caithness

“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.

Mia

@ 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.

Dan

@ James Caithness

Re. Briefing / coaching
You may want to read over this article and comments from 2021.

link to wingsoverscotland.com

Mia

“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?

Campbell Clansman

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.

Campbell Clansman

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.

Ebok

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.

Hatuey

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.

Mia

“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?

Alf Baird

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’:

link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com

Northcode

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.

Rab Clark

@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.

🙂

Northcode

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.

Republicofscotland

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.

Hatey McHateface

@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.

Mia

Is there a problem with the page? Some comments seem to be disappearing into the abyss.

Hatey McHateface

@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.

Ian

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.

McDuff

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.

twathater

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

Mia

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?

Republicofscotland

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,

Dan

@ 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.

Dan

@ 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.

Effijy

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.

Alf Baird

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:

link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com

Dan

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.

Hatuey

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.

Northcode

I love summertime in Scotland…it’s my favourite day of the year.

Dorothy Devine

Northcode , can you give me an advanced warning of its arrival – I want to hang out a washing and a flag!

TURABDIN

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.

Mia

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.

Northcode

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.

Ebok

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.

Northcode

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.

Sven

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.

Robert Hughes

@ 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

Hatuey

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…

link to youtube.com

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.

James Che

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.

David Hannah

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.

Andy Ellis

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….

David Hannah

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.

David Hannah

link to yougov.co.uk

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.

David Hannah

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.

Northcode

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 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)…”

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.

Ruby Sunday

Can anyone remind me which letters M/s A & M/s B were assigned during the trial?

Sven

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.

David Hannah

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.’

David Hannah

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!

David Hannah

LES FARCE! Fuck the French!

David Hannah

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.

David Hannah

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.

David Hannah

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.

Andy Ellis

David Hannah is rapidly turning in to Wings’ very own BTL tartan Alf Garnett or Father Jack Hackett.

Who let the fascist in?

Northcode

“…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.

Sven

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.

TURABDIN

On the subject of worms…..when will the Scottish «worm» decide to turn?

Hatuey

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.

Mac

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.

Hatey McHateface

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.

TURABDIN

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.

Hatey McHateface

@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.

silverfox

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.

Rab Clark

@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.)

Andy Ellis

@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.

Andy Ellis

@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.

Andy Ellis

@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?

Ruby Saturday

Andy Ellis
Ignored
says:
27 July, 2024 at 6:03 pm

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.

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.

Ruby Saturday

Andy Ellis
Ignored
says:
27 July, 2024 at 6:26 pm

@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.

No worries silverfox others are experiencing similar issues.

Ruby Sunday

Andy Ellis
Ignored
says:

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?

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.

Dan

@ 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.

link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com

Ruby Saturday

Andy Ellis
Ignored
says:

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),

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.

Ruby Saturday

Ruby Saturday
Ignored
says:
27 July, 2024 at 7:04 pm

Andy Ellis
Ignored
says:

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),

Would immigration not then have to be restricted to the young? Hardly worth talking about immigration being that Scotland has no control over immigration.

Ruby Saturday

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

Dan

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…

David Hannah

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.

David Hannah

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!!…

David Hannah

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!

David Hannah

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.

robertkknight

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!

Ruby Saturday

‘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.

Breeks

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…. 😉

Andy Ellis

@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….

Campbell Clansman

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. link to en.wikipedia.org

People should credit the proven, rather than the “Legend.” But I guess some people prefer a “Legend” to proven historical facts.

sam

link to blogs.bmj.com

commodifying health is bloody dangerous for yer health.

Slainte

Hatuey

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,

Ruby Sunday

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.

Ruby Sunday

Hatuey
Ignored
says:
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,

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?

David Blake

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.

TURABDIN

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.

sam

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.

James Che

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.

Alf Baird

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.

link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com

Northcode

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.

Andy Ellis

@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.

Ian Brotherhood

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?

link to aljazeera.com

TURABDIN

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.

Andy Ellis

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.

Northcode

The murder of crows should be made illegal…as should funding them.

Northcode

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.

GM

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.

Andy Ellis

Careful Northcode, you know what they say about flying wi’ the craws….!

Ruby Sunday

Andy Ellis
Ignored
says:
28 July, 2024 at 10:27 am

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.

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.

Andy Ellis

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.

Northcode

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.

Ruby Sunday

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!

sam

@Andy Ellis

Scottish Clarity Act?

Ruby Sunday

Andy Ellis
Ignored
says:

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?

You should be treated the same way as any other immigrant.
10 years of residence for everyone!

Cheerio!

Ruby Sunday

Sam
It’s on my list.

link to onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Andy Ellis

@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.”

Hatuey

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.

Northcode

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).

Hatuey

“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.

Hatuey

“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.

Robert Hughes

” 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

SteepBrae

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.

Northcode

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

Confused

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.)

link to archive.is

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?

Sven

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.

Ruby Sunday

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!

Ruby Sunday

Hatuey
Ignored
says:
28 July, 2024 at 1:32 pm

I’ve seen you called many things on here, Ruby, but nobody has ever accused you of being inspirational.

But I am! The proof is in the pudding! 🙂

What’s wrong with Balornock?

Northcode

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 tae too.

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.

Ruby Sunday

Northcode
Ignored
says:
28 July, 2024 at 12:58 pm

You’ve been quiet of late. I’ve missed your wit.

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.

Republicofscotland

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.

comment image

Republicofscotland

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.

comment image

Northcode

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. 🙂

Dan

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.

Sven

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.

Alf Baird

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:

link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com

TURABDIN

Is inhabiting an eccentric parallel universe a requirement for btl on Wings?
Diverting but highly unlikely to kick that noisome Union into oblivion.

Republicofscotland

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.

Alf Baird

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:

link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com

Tinto Chiel

@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.

Hatuey

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. link to youtube.com

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).

Geri

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.

Robert Hughes

@ 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

Dan

@ 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.

Geri

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.

Southernbystander

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.

Northcode

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.

Tinto Chiel

@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.

Alf Baird

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.

Effijy

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.

Dan

@ 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)

link to youtube.com

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.

link to en.wikipedia.org

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…

George Ferguson

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.

Tinto Chiel

@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 🙂 .

Michael Lyons

The Murrells are getting noticeably fatter by the day…they cant go out so junk food takeaways and binge eating for the nerves

Hatuey

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.

Robert Hughes

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 .

Hatuey

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.

Dan