Yelling at the tide
We figured someone had to at least try.
So in the light of this, we’ve sent a letter.
———————————————————————-
TO: Judge Susan Walker, President, Employment Tribunal (Scotland)
Dear Madam President,
I read with considerable dismay and alarm your response to a recent complaint from a Mr Ewan Kennedy regarding the conduct of Employment Judge Alexander Kemp in the case of Peggie vs Fife Health Board and Dr. B Upton.
Like Mr Kennedy, my concern is not with the judgment itself, which I am aware is subject to appeal, but with the specific content of the judgment, and in particular the much-publicised presence of a number of entirely fictional quotations from previous cases, which Judge Kemp used to form key aspects of his decision.
The explanation issued by your office in response to Mr Kennedy’s complaint is deeply troubling. It states:
“I am satisfied that Judge Kemp did not use generative AI in drafting the judgment. It is clear from my enquiries that the source of the erroneous quotes from Forstater and Ashers was an exchange of correspondence between Judge Kemp and a judicial colleague.”
His Majesty’s Courts And Tribunal Service can surely not consider “a big boy did it and ran away” to be an adequate response to such a grave matter. While not a legal expert, as far as I am aware it is unprecedented – I am unable to find a single example in recorded history of a judgment containing multiple entirely fabricated citations – and questions therefore arise which urgently require clarification.
(1) Why was Judge Kemp consulting a colleague (who had, presumably, not heard the evidence in the case) at all? What expertise could they bring to bear that he, having read and heard all of the evidence, could not?
(2) Who was this colleague? If the judgment has been significantly affected by someone other than the person whose name it is issued in, how can accountability and transparency and public trust in the judicial system be served by that person remaining anonymous? How are people to discern whether that person may have a conflict of interest, particularly given the ongoing political issues and sensitivities around this case and this topic more generally?
(3) How much of the judgment was the unnamed colleague, not Judge Kemp, actually responsible for or exercising influence over? If they fed him false quotations, what else did they tell him?
(4) Most importantly, how did this anonymous colleague come to produce these fabricated citations? Because clearly it is no more explicable or acceptable for he or she to have invented them than for Judge Kemp to have done so. If you are satisfied that Judge Kemp did not derive them from generative AI, are you equally satisfied that the anonymous colleague did not? If they did not, where did they come from?
It surely cannot be satisfactory for the public to be dismissively told that these highly significant and consequential quotations simply materialised from thin air.
Either (i) they come from cases other than those they were attributed to (which seems unlikely, as the quotes themselves were replaced in the subsequent versions of the judgment, rather than the citations being corrected), or (ii) they were produced by AI, or (iii) they came from an unknown third party and were not checked by Judge Kemp, or (iv) either Judge Kemp or the anonymous colleague invented them themselves.
Since any of the latter three explanations, and in particular (iv), would be extremely serious, it cannot be just left hanging as a possibility, for it would reasonably cast the integrity of Judge Kemp at a minimum into doubt, and even the entire judicial system, should it be seen or believed to be the case that the matter was being whitewashed.
It is also not clear from the response on which grounds the complaint was rejected. Section 6.1 of the complaints policy lays out the following possibilities:
Grounds (a) to (e) and grounds (g) to (l) seem obviously not to apply, leaving only ground (f), which would be consistent with this passage from the response:
“I do not consider that it supports a proposition that making a mistake in a judicial decision, whether an error of law or an error of the kind that has been identified in this judgment, can be – without more – deemed judicial misconduct”.
But the Guide to Judicial Conduct says as follows:
There are three basic principles guiding judicial conduct:
• Judicial independence
• Impartiality
• Integrity
To have used entirely fictitious citations, provided by an unnamed party and not checked by the tribunal judge, in coming to a judgment which was likely to prove controversial no matter what the decision, and in the knowledge that that decision was likely to be subject to intense scrutiny, must surely place any judge’s integrity and impartiality in question, absent a satisfactory explanation of how those fictitious citations came about. “It was a regrettable error” is at once a statement of the obvious, and manifestly inadequate.
As such, then, I respectfully request that your office either:
– provides greater clarity on who Judge Kemp corresponded with, what was said in this correspondence, and what the ultimate source of the fabricated quotations was,
or
– reconsiders its decision as to whether the fabrications amount to judicial misconduct.
I look forward to your response in the fervent hope that it will go some way to restoring public confidence over these events.
———————————————————————-
As ever, we’ll let you know if we hear anything.
Well argued – good luck
I think the ‘if’ in your last sentence should have been all caps!
Superbly crafted, their response is eagerly awaited
At a boy Rev!
They will need to scrape the bottom of their bullshit barrel to produce something dressed up as a response.
For others reading this, without this site these people get away with tramping all over the truth.
Lets see who they did come?
What was I written here, Lets see what they come back with as a reply.
Who hasn’t noticed that the Scottish judicial system, under the watch of the SNP, has, in many respects, become a-law-unto-itself?
Sin 1707 “the Scottish judicial system” haes serred anely an Englis Croun.
Sure about that, Alf?
My innate knowledge of Scots, backed up by a check in the Scots dictionary, shows “sin” is no Scots equivalent of “since”.
You do your cause no good, and treat readers with contempt, when you make up your cod Scots as you go along.
sin [s?n, s?n]
adv. Since, ago, from now, from that time.
prep. Since, from the time of, after.
conj. Since, from the time that. Since, because, as.
definition taken from The Online Scots Dictionary
I’m never done correcting colonists in this place.
Here’s anither yin taken fae the online “Dictionars o the Scots Leid”:
SIN, adv., prep., conj.
Also syn, sen, san(e), sene.
I. adv. Since, ago, from now, from that time (Cai. 1904 E.D.D.).
Gen.Sc. and in Eng. dial.
See also Syne.
I have no doubt Professor Baird that irrespective of what you post Hatey McFuckwit would have to comment on it ,it is what trolls do, it seems to give them a reason to exist otherwise they just scream into the ether
The barracks must be quiet as McFuckwit seems to be out playing more
Cracker of a post, Twat H. No random caps anywhere.
You must have been a good boy. Looks like Santa got you a new keyboard.
By all means curry favour with Alf, but wouldn’t you be much more successful if you posted in Scots?
After all, if Alf has his way, only Scots fluent in written and spoken Scots will be allowed employment in Scotland post Indy. Do you know what I think? Only fair that benefits junkies like yourself should be denied as much as a groat if they too fall short on the Scots language purity test.
Better start swotting, Twat H!
Methinks Alex Salmond came to that conclusion many years ago having been the target of Scotgov & the untrustworthy SNP. He was spot on in that conclusion.I’ve spent most of my life living under the rule of English Law & know it pretty well but for the last 10 years living in Scotland I just can’t believe what the Scottish legal system & judiciary gets away with. My efforts to understand the reasoning behind decisions leaves wondering why the honest practitioners in the legal & courts system allow the corrupt to operate or is that down to Westminster trying to force Scotland to be subject to the laws of England & Wales. This decision re Judge Kemp is definitely a matter being denied & an attempt to sweep it under the carpet. It needs to be stopped.
Thanks for all you do Stuart
Strangely enough, for a nationalist, and a Scottish nationalist at that (though not SNP) I do not believe that this particular affair had anything to do with English law being forced on us – unless, as the Rev has hinted, someone with an axe to grind, and from south of the border, was involved. Scots law seems perfectly capable of the most egregious decisions all on its own. Neither do I believe that Westminster had ‘trans’ foisted on us for the very simple reason that England is as benighted as we are in this respect.
The problems lie squarely with our own legal system and the judge who allowed such an appallingly biased, false and tampered-with judgement to follow the tribunal, where he had also made remarks that could only be interpreted as biased. The whole thing stinks to high heaven.
The Rev has instituted an excellent appraisal of the meat of the judgement and found it wanting – or, at least, he wants answers to very glaring and obvious omissions, admissions and the substituting of words and phrases to achieve the opposite meaning to that which was intended in the original case’s judgement. I would add that every omission, admission and change falls directly into the ‘trans’ lobby’s orbit, skewing the evidence that was given at the tribunal and creating bias in favour of the ‘trans’ argument.
Where I, personally, might find there to have been, potentially, some interference from government, would not be Westminster, but Holyrood because of the non repeal of the failed GRRB. I am sure, many in the parties – all of them – want to have it resurrected in the future. Also, because of the forthcoming court case brought by FWS against the SG on the subject of ‘trans’ identified men in the female prison estate. Any loss now could reflect adversely on this case.
Please, folks, tear your eyes away from Westminster and Whitehall (although still being mindful of their tenacity for intrigue) and start to accept that we are, in Scotland, perfectly capable of soiling our own nest. Westminster, of course, will rejoice if the prisoners’ case goes against the SG, as it will let them off the hook, and they can point to it as a precedent for banning male ‘trans’ prisoners from the female prison estate in England, too. Let Scotland take the flak from the ‘trans’ mob. The problem for the SG is that no legislation anywhere gives men the right to enter female spaces. Even where a GRC is involved, it must be ‘proportionate’. Putting violent men in with women who are, largely, on the lower offending scale, is hardly ‘proportionate’.
From the very beginning of his hearing this case, Judge Kemp knew that one of the parties would probably appeal the decision. On this basis, why didn’t he dot all the “i’s” and cross all the “t’s” to make sure that his decision was absolutely watertight with no scope for the sort of situation he has dropped himself into?
If he didn’t – why didn’t he?
If he did – what an incompetent job he did!
Oh dear, in the real (i.e. non-government) world, he would be disciplined and sacked – I hope.
Brilliant letter. Depending on the response you almost wonder if it would be worth a concerted and focused letter writing campaign to the Justice Secretary and others. I’m certainly happy to take 15 minutes to write something.
Happy to write.Get the Rev to organise it.
Welcome to “The Colony of Scotland”.
I fancy that the expectations of the colonised Scots on here – and throughout the wider ‘natioun of Scotland’ – are based on the strange notion that they live in a modern, free and open, self-determining democratic country of their own.
It gets boring after a time seeing the same indignation expressed over and over with the ridiculous expectation that things in Scotland will improve while still part of the ‘Union’.
If folk really want to know what to expect from the Scottish justice system – or any other ‘Scottish’ institution – they should buy a copy of Alf Baird’s book “Doun-Hauden”.
Hot Tip: Don’t expect too much, or anything at all, really. Remember, if yer a Scot yer a coloniZed… and the colonised are the shit on the shoes of empires.
Wow, Northy, Off Topic by comment # 11.
Surely a new Wings BTL record.
As for self-identifying as shit, that’s gotta be a first too. So congrats are in order. You may already have submitted the stand-out comment for this thread.
Sadly, for the poster known as Northcode, an award claimed immediately by a post which implies, if not effectively argues, that the Scottish Legal System operates in a context free vacuum.
A post which also suggests that this same physical vacuous state exists between the ears of the new winner of this award.
Well done, Hatey. We knew you would not disappoint us. Can we expect an encore, perhaps? Or will you be too busy polishing the medal you just won?
“the Scottish Legal System operates in a context free vacuum”
The basic principle of any colonial justice system is that it functions primarily to serve and protect the interest of the colonizer. This is arguably what we see here and in numerous other instances.
In addition, colonial institutions will naturally tend to hold to the colonizer’s ‘values’, however dubious they may be, or ‘devoid of human values’ (Cesaire).
In the colonial context a difficulty exists whereby institutions, in ostensibly seeking to serve two masters, i.e. colonizer and colonized, inevitably end up sacrificing the latter in favour of the former (Memmi).
Colonial domination and its many myths, such as the notion of ‘a Scottish legal system’ that essentially enforces English Laws: “tends to dehumanize and deceive the colonized… supported by.. a government and judicial system fed and renewed by the colonizer’s historic, economic and cultural needs” (Memmi)
@Alf Baird
The “coloniser’s historic, economic and cultural needs” would have been best served by Alex Salmond being banged up.
I’m sure you’ll have some gobbledegook showing how some foreign, alien non-Scot, writing in French in 1926, predicted his acquittal and how this therefore validates your arguments.
In your own time.
God Almighty the colonialists on here are thick.
And their reading comprehension of the English language appears to be wanting, tae.
Surprising, them being English ye wid hae thocht thae coud spak and scribble thair dull lingo doun better than masel… but naw, it turns oot thae cannae.
” We knew you would not disappoint us…”
I wonder who the “we” and “us” are.
Must be aw its wee English chums wha fart aboot this place insultin’ the Scots…. because aw the REAL Scots oan here love me sae thae dae.
“… if not effectively argues…”
Colonists wouldn’t know an effective argument if it rocked up tae them and said “Hello, simple-minded unionist, I’m an especially effective argument against Scottish independence, please feel free to deploy me in… eh, an argument”.
Sycophancy sucks, and induces the dry boak in many Scots, by the way.
Christ !
What an utter clown you are “Northcode”
Give up son !
You’re a total embarrassment to the Indy cause !
“Give up son…”
No, Father… I will never give up, I will never surrender.
And know this, oh giver of seed; some of the greatest men to have ever lived have been monumental embarrassments to their causes… I speak of folk like “The Turbulent Trump” and the the “King of Twa Crouns, Chuckie” and “The Sleekit Swinney” and such like.
If those brave men can be gargantuan pricks on the world stage then so can I.
Look upon my gargantuan prick and weep, mortal.
And you, Father, are a total embarrassment… period.
Not least because of your over-reliance on the exclamation mark and the hideous lack of a full stop on the second line of your blasphemous comment.
It is beyond me how Mother tolerated you for as long as she did!!!!!!!!
“What an utter clown you are “Northcode”
And who was it who forced me to run away from home in the middle of the night at the age of 14 and join a circus, father?
Who was it who filled my child’s heart with dread on hearing the sound of your size 30 shoes stomping through the close when you were returning home after a night of heavy honking and tumbling?
Who was it who made me almost jump out of my skin on hearing the shocking blast of your hooter as you summoned mother at all hours to open the front door to our small tenement flat instead of ringing the doorbell or using your key as normal folk did?
And who was it who cruelly laughed in my face when squirting jets of ice-cold irn-bru into my tender eyes from the trick flower you always wore on your chequered coats lapel?
Yes, father… I am a clown, but it was you, you, the saddest and unfunniest of clowns, who made me into that pathetic figure of ridicule that everyone laughs at today.
Sorry, Northy, you’ve already self-id-ed as a shit today.
Self-id as a clown in a few days when the alert reader’s attentions have moved on.
Really, Northy, buy a copy of Alf’s book?
First, define the difference between sucking sycophancy and non-sucking sycophancy. Those of us minded to buy Alf’s book will also want to be mindful of your claim below that to Scots, sycophancy sucks.
Nae cant wants you poleaxed by the dry boak, Northy.
And mind, when developing your argument, post entirely in Scots so we can all understand it.
I gave up holding my breath for such results a long time ago. The Establishment will, undoubtedly, close ranks again rather than throw one of their compliant members under a very small minibus.
Back to my Sudoku.
Stu,
The judicial colleagues are in all likelihood the lay members of the tribunal:
Court docs show:
Employment Judge A Kemp
Tribunal Member L Brown
Tribunal Member C Russell
At employment tribunal the judgement is written and debated by the three members (two lay, and the judge). Lay members have equal standing with the judge in decision writing, for example if both lay members disagree with the judge, their majority opinion would overrule the judge’s.
Lay members of employment tribunals are typically time-served industry professionals (e.g., Senior HR), rather than practicing lawyers.
It is beholden upon all three members of the tribunal to ensure the factual basis of points written. The simple explanation is AI hallucination, far more likely in my view than a law officer intentionally introducing fabricated evidence to a written judgement. So someone’s gotta own it!
But… as one of Jock Tamson’s most famous bairns once (almost) said:
THIS
IS
SCOTLAND!
Given that Shona is to be replaced by Susan, it would be interesting if some forensic journalist were to dig into the social media histories of both.
Search for complaints about “glass ceilings”, “misogynistic patriarchy”, “white privilege”, that kind of thing. Establish if they accepted or are about to accept their positions believing they merited them, or if they know themselves the correct woke and diversity boxes were ticked.
That’s the big problem with appointees like them in the current climate. We can never look at them without a niggling doubt about their real suitability for the post. In other words, are they just the latest failures catapulted far above their competence because of diversity targets?
It’s only fair. The slightest whiff of a past record of “right wing” beliefs, or “a woman is an adult biological female” would have the usual woke nasties scweaming for the appointee’s instant dismissal.
The key to eliminating the woke from Scottish public life is to learn to turn their weapons against them. And then use them without mercy.
I think it likely that the matter of correspondence with a judicial colleague will be raised in the EAT to follow. Any reply Stu might get will therefore likely be a Stonewall.
Surely Judge Kemp must have read these landmark rulings by himself and noticed that his judicial colleague was talking nonsense.
The case went on for months and he had further weeks to come to a determination.
It is alarming and/or flat out incompetent that he did not even do this obvious research himself or did not comprehend the glaring anomalies.
Scrutiny of the tribunal findings from Genspect.
“The Tribunal maintains on the one hand that “having the protected characteristic of gender reassignment did not mean that permission to use the changing room was necessarily lawful.” Yet, on the other hand, and at the same time, Peggie’s potential legal rights to the privacy protection of her biological sex “did not result in it being inherently unlawful for a trans female, who is biologically male under the Act, to be given permission to use a female changing room at work.” The use of the descriptor ‘a trans female who is biologically male’ is as brazenly incoherent an exercise in counter-factual assertion (lying) as I have ever seen. It is an uncontroversial example of what David Hume would describe as a matter of fact and a relation of ideas; one cannot be both female and a biological male. Basic facts and logical reasoning do not get clearer or easier than this.”
link to genspect.substack.com
No legislation in existence, in Scotland or the UK, gives any man the right to enter female spaces, even where he has a GRC. It is not an automatic right and never was. Wouldn’t trust Genspect as far as I could throw it. The access has to be ‘proportionate’ and, in reality, very, very few, if any, circumstances would allow for a male to enter a female space. Saying you are a woman does not make you a woman and vice versa. I could identify as a lion and enter the lion enclosure at the zoo, but I don’t think I would be allowed to do that for exactly the opposite reason that men are not allowed in female spaces.
Hume also pointed out that, although sentiment is our immediate reaction to most things, an overlay of reason allows us to pre empt and evade the very worst of our sentiment-driven actions. What so many who support the ‘trans’ and ‘woke’ causes seem not to understand is that the sentiment morphs into ‘suicidal empathy’, as stated by Gad Saad and destroys the very thing these people are trying to save. ‘Woke’, of which ‘trans’ is an off-shoot, is a mix of post modernism, queer theory and cultural Marxism whose whole ethos is to overturn ‘norms’ and societal rules, and weaken the body politic and the body social.
What they seem never to realise is that they are, generally, the very first people to fall when totalitarianism takes over, as it will if people do nothing to stop it. Independence will become a distant, nostalgic sentiment, and, even achieving independence before this stuff is utterly defeated, will result in a totalitarian, albeit independent, Scotland – which is why it has to be defeated first.
Fair points but I will take independence first – woke or no woke.
“If you are satisfied that Judge Kemp did not derive them from generative AI, are you equally satisfied that the anonymous colleague did not?”
========
I would bet money that is at the heart of the Kemp fiasco.
The judicial ( but FAR from judicious!) colleague provides plausible deniability for Judge Kemp’s claim not to have PERSONALLY used generative AI. But NOT for the use of generative AI in crafting his findings.
Judge Walker’s account, as quoted, is reminiscent of a politician’s ‘non-denial denial’, as pioneered by the Nixon White House during the unfolding Watergate scandal more than half a century past.
“I would bet money that is at the heart of the Kemp fiasco.”
Me,too.
And “correspondence”? What part did this “colleague” play in the giving of evidence and the hearing itself.
An unprecedented number of “clerical errors”, twelve, came out of this tribunal hearing.
Ian Smith says:
“Bear in mind that AI can be prompted to agree with the type of query it is presented with.”
=======
It can also do the opposite: double down on a very obvious error when this is pointed out to it.
A few weeks ago I enquired about a recently (2025) published novel, “A Fateful Promise” by the Scottish writer , Gerald Warner.
AI conflated his details with an American author, Gerald Warner BRACE who died in 1978. When I asked AI how a long-dead author could write and publish a book in 2025, I received the reply that Gerald Warner BRACE’ s recent book was published posthumously!
I had a similar experience with Maria von Trapp of “The Sound of Music” fame. Some of her biographical details were plainly rubbish, viz. she bore 10 or 12 children (which, I cannot remember), including some when she was nudging or over 70 years of age!
It was shortly after this first experience, about six months ago, that I learned the term, “AI hallucination”
In each case AI had attributed details to people of wholly or partly similar names. Other forms of AI hallucination are available . I suspect Judge Kemp has been victim, indirectly, to several such!
Bear in mind that AI can be prompted to agree with the type of query it is presented with. If you asked it how the supreme court defined a woman, it would likely come out with the biological woman result. If you asked it did the supreme court suggest that trans women should be allowed facilities of their choice, it would come up with as much of the supporting guff as it could manage while not bothering with the contradictory details.
Precisely, Ian. Feed in what you want to be regurgitated as ‘fact’ and you have the kind of dog’s breakfast that we had with the Kemp judgement. However, given that AI might have spewed out such a judgement, it still cannot come upon with so many points of ‘law’ in favour of the ‘trans’ lobby without someone human feeding in that info first, because the law is not in favour of ‘trans’ ideology trampling upon the rights of others.
With all due respect, what Cynicus is saying is that AI can make a hash of ‘facts’ and double down on them. Okay, but all on one side of the argument, coincidentally? I think not. The point is that all those errors did not pinpoint the law because Stonewall Law is horse manure. At some point, AI would have had to hit on what is actually the real law, but it didn’t, which makes no sense without human intervention.
How would AI miss entirely the law as it stands, even the UKSC ruling, unless directed to so do? The law of probability suggests that it would have hit on at least one real law fact, surely, and how did it remove a word or phrase to ensure that the sentence read positively for ‘trans’? It cannot yet think for itself, so what was its motive? Also, as I said before, Judge Kemp showed a certain bias towards the good doctor’s utterances and a certain bias against Nurse Peggie’s throughout the tribunal.
The plot thickens. Very well done, Rev, and thank you once again for trying, directly, to improve public standards in Scotland. Robin McAlpine finds the same type of problems but doesn’t, so far as I know, do something practical to solve them.
How can he when several million Scots voters continually and consistently go out and vote for more of the same?
As we are all about to find out in May.
You would get a more coherent set of responses from a formal complaint about your energy supply. This is a disgrace beyond much of what has passed in Scotland over the past 20 years.
I really have had a moment of epiphany. Thank Rev.
In reply to your letter, we undertake to give a response immediately after the conclusion of Operation Branchform.
stick with it warrior Stu! Thank you for all you do for truth and justice
Perfect:-)
The use of American spellings are a pretty strong signal that somebody used AI… “I am satisfied that Judge Kemp did not use generative AI” is a very narrow statement to make and probably deliberately so.
Remember: In Scotland, Public body / professional body complaint processes are designed to fob you off and frustrate any attempts to obtain any real redress for service users / the public.
Another example: We always hear about how great our Scottish NHS is. It is when things go right.
When things go wrong: Misconduct, malpractice, negligence; professionals harming people or contributing to the deaths of patients.
Then it’s cover up. Cover up. Cover up all the way to the top, including Chief Executives of Health Boards and the Scot Govt.
Good stuff again Rev.
Your letter to the Tribunal President brings into sharp focus the very grave issues of concern with regard to our judiciary.
The three tenets of judicial independence, impartiality and integrity are all being exposed here as lacking and compromised. This cannot be ignored, be passed off.
Judge Kemp has been exposed as one compromised individual. But the part of others in a rotten system is also being exposed. The concerns mount.
What confidence can ordinary citizens have in the judiciary is a grave concern. If they can do this, what else does the judiciary do.
Political policing is a reality. Political prosecution is a reality. A political judiciary is that a reality too. Or is common or garden corruptio just the way the system is?
The question as to how much you need to pay to get a judge in your pocket very much becomes a real question. That is where circumstances like this lead you. Kemp has been caught with his trousers down to use a phrase, but others are now in the frame too. Thin end of a much thicker wedge.
Exposure and openess is the searchlight we need, and disinfectant is the remedy we require. This latest Wings piece brings this into absolutely sharp focus.
The judicial sty is stinking. This must be a concern for all citizens.
Great letter Stu.
I don’t know if it is of any significance but Judge Susan Walker’s CV states “She is a member of the Diversity Taskforce that has been set up by the Senior President of Tribunals”. It would be very interesting to know the remit and composition of this “Diversity Taskforce” and particularly what responsibility (if any) it has for trans issues.
@ Dave G: “Judge Susan Walker – a member of the Diversity Taskforce…set up by the Senior President of Tribunals.”
Oh dear. “Diversity” seems to be synonymous with prioritising the wishes of men with psychiatric/sexual issues over women and children’s safety.
What we do know is that current “Diversity” policy totally ignores and is definitely not about prioritising the rights or needs of the oppressed Scots minority ethnic group in the UK, or in Scotland.
If Scots were prioritised then our ‘inalienable’ right to self-determination etc would be right up there with trans and other minority laws and policies.
We therefore hardly exist as far as the colonizer is concerned. Indeed, according to Albert Memmi a colonized people “should exist only as a function of the needs of the colonizer”.
What I know, Alf, is that our inalienable right to self determination needs but a few dozen of us to organise and stand for election on a plebiscitary platform. As it happens, there’s an election in around 4 months. How convenient is that?
What I also know is that rather than take some practical steps along that route, you prefer to interminably bang on about the moon being made of cheese.
I don’t know for certain, but I have inferred from the above two facts that it’s one heck of a lot easier to post about cheese than it is to stand up for inalienable rights. And there’s precious little real interest in Independence outside of this echo chamber. Which is precisely why there is no few dozen Scots prepared to organise themselves for Indy.
“Which is precisely why there is no few dozen Scots prepared to organise themselves for Indy.”
Och aye thar is:
link to liberatescot.scot
link to liberation.scot
@Alf Baird 5:05pm
Have you considered seeking professional help?
A brilliant letter rev.
If there was a choice,and the way the world is unravelling, who knows,
would you rather be governed by Westminster or Washington.
(Obv rather Edinburgh)
There`s a few on social meja, from dan saff, in Englandshire, who say they would rather Washington than Brussels.
Such a cryptic post, Scot.
What is it about rule from Brussels that so many so-called Indy supporters find so alluring?
Perhaps somebody should commission a poll so we can find out what Scots really want. As well as the contenders you list, we would also need Moscow and Tehran.
And as the article above is just another in a very long list exposing the shambolic farce that is government from Edinburgh, Glasgow as well.
I have as much confidence in the Scottish judiciary as I have in Scotland’s politicians – zero.
Harrumph
Know your place man.
What would happen to an FOI request for the “correspondence with judicial colleague”?
Well done, Stuart. Keep at them. No one is above the law and that includes the judiciary.
Any updates on the Alex Salmond case? I hope it’s still going ahead. Be quite willing to kick money into a Crowdfunder.
Same here.
AULD LANG SYN…..or maybe not.
link to archive.ph
Thanks TURABDIN. Good SPECTATOR article by MARY WAKEFIELD.
“And look at Professor Gordon: they’re right to be scared. It’s not like university management has anyone’s back. Quite the opposite. In the countryside where I grew up, gamekeepers would sometimes hang the corpses of foxes and crows along the top of a barbed-wire fence as a warning to other predators: don’t mess with the boss. A ‘game-keeper’s gibbet’, it was called. ‘Management’s gibbet’, we could call the line of academics strung up like Professor Gordon, twisting in the wind.”
“Nostalgia is not a strategy.”
(Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, Davos WEF, Switzerland, 20 Jan 2026)
“Cha ro-innleachd cianalas.”
He also said a few pertinent things about the prognosis for small countries now that it’s finally becoming clear to everybody that the certainties of the post-WW2 international order are gone for good.
I’d post a link, but WTF, it’s easy enough to find.
And I don’t want to upset any of the regulars who quite clearly have kept their 2014 calendar up on their kitchen wall since, erm, 2014.
A good bloke, Carney, and a great country, Canada. To be expected as it’s hoaching with the descendants of Scottish colonists, thieves, murderers and jenny siders.
Whit an erse am !… I only went and postit my laist comment up oan the wrang threed.
Here it is agin oan the richt threed this time – and with a couple of modifications… improvements if you will.
Fowk cannae hae enough o a guid thing, shuir.
The Movie Critic Monthly
Kempian Law (The theory and its practical application in a Scottish court of law).
Kemp’s Law – The Series (Perry Mason without the drama, though just as grainy).
The Law According to Kemp (The dramatiZed true story of how one brave man revolutioniZed Scots law and dragged it kicking and screaming back to the stone age).
Peggie and Me (A sweet and tender transformative love story).
UnKempt (Scots law runs wild in this hilarious comedy of errors).
Sandie versus Sandy (acrimony, deceit, stupidity… and romance. A heart-rending tale of how a great love turned sour)
Walker’s Way (A tough, no-nonsense female (possibly) judge stands up for Scots women and Scots law in a multi-tasking extravaganza of a legal drama)
The Law’s an Arse… and Then Some (A dull legal drama set in Scotland with erotic undertones… and lots of rain).
Walker On The Wild Side (An unconventional judge dishes out the law… and it’s her way or the highway for those foolhardy enough to get in her way).
The Nurse the Trans and the Toilet (A magical tale set in a fantasy world filled with strange and exotic creatures… watch out for the wicked witch, though. One for all the family to enjoy).
A Judgement Too Far (A bright future and glittering career is thrown into jeopardy when a young judge caught in the glare of celebrity makes an unforgivable mistake).
“A magical tale set in a fantasy world”
Indeed so, Northcode.
Which follows on from the fantasy of a mythical UK ‘Union’, in which a colonized people will inevitably suffer imposed laws that ‘mystify’ and seek ‘to oppress’ them (Fanon), and where even the moon can be said to be ‘made of cheese’ (Cesaire).
Meantime cultural fantasies related to oppressive mystifying laws colonial legal judgments aye accord with continues unabated:
link to heraldscotland.com
Aye, ah bet it’s an English cheese tae.
Cheddar or Stilton.
Haud oan though. Fit nationality were they Fanny and Caesar boys? Dinna say it’s ane o they runny, ponging French cheeses!
“A Glasgow choir will aim to ‘bridge the gap’ between queer and Gaelic identity when practises begin next month… The choir aims to link Gaelic and queer identity.“ – from a ‘news’ story in The Herald.
I didn’t know there WAS a gap between queer and Gaelic identity… I’ve always thought the twa were one and the same – oh, wait… The Herald means THAT kind of queer.
I was raised in a different age when the word “queer” was actually of use – the Scots version is “wheer”.
The magical dark heart of the Herald story you provide a link to, Alf, seeks to persaude us common folk, us ordinary Scots wheers and non-wheers thegither, tae haud a pictur o the Gaelic fowk in oor heids as bein a rainbow people singing oot thair herts while lost in eery rapture… mibbe e’en clappin’ thair hauns and jiggin’ aboot the place and slappin’ the hell oot o rainbow flavoured tambourines.
Aye, it seems the Gaelic identity is about to undergo some considerable redefining – the days of the wheer are come upon the Gaels.
Ach, wha knaws? Mibbe it’s a guid thing efter aw.
I wonder if the Gaels will still speak in that strynge tongue o theirs after their gay entwinement is complete and they’ve aw been pit unner the vaam o’ the rainbow people.
I make light of The Herald’s story, Alf, but it’s a nonsensical non-story that should be forever hidden from the sight of men and cast into the deepest darkest mine of Khazad Dum there to be guarded by the legions of Sauron so that it might never escape that foul darkness to pollute the light of Middle-earth-middle-class-Scotland agin.
Aw the wee dwarves in Peter Jackson’s version of the fictional world of Middle-earth hae Scottish accents (sort of)… now that canna be a coincidence.
Aye, Scotland is a magical, fantastical, make-believe natioun right enough… A’m wunderin if Tolkien gat his ideas fir his wee fairytale fae leukin at Scotlan.
Scots law.
The laws that were to “remain the same as before the union” in the treaty of union.
NOT PROVEN.
This law did not interfere in the rest of Englands Great Britain in Ireland, England or Wales. It does when altered interfere in Scots Law.
It is a Scots law, the SNP and Englands Scottish governance prepared the way for in Scotland by removing the Not Proven verdict I think it was quite recently.
And altered the amount of people required to a Scottish Jury
How the Scotland Act under Westminster parliament of England burrows into Scots laws that was meant to “remain as before the union” via the that back door.
This second false parliament sent to Scotland from Westminster parliament of Englands Great Britain Scotland Act of corse breaches the treaty of union.
Of [ One and the Same parliament ] of Great Britain.
Now there are two parliaments one in Scotland and one in England.
Both altering Scots law and the judicial systems in Scotland. However only one has a legal basis in the Treaty of union if it is to Stand,
And I do not find any treaty agreement article between Scotland and England for multiple devolved government parliament federations.
Keeping in mind Scotland has never made a treaty with the parliament of Great Britain.
Alf Baird.
Scotland does not hold nor ever has done a 1707 Treaty of Union with the parliament of Great Britain,
Only with the parliament of England.as a political and trade union,
This matters as a detail because it would be England that is changing Scotlands laws.
It would be England that uses Scotlands land and sea.
Alf Baird .
Scotland made a treaty of union with England 1707.
Scotland did ( not ) make a treaty of union with the parliament of Great Britain 1707.
Scotland did ( not ) make a treaty of union with the UK parliament 1707.
Only the text articles, pre- terms and conditions of that international treaty between Scotland and England hold legally to bind England and Scotland.
The rest is hogwash,
The Scotland act proposed by England legislation with it reserved matters held to the Westminster parliament of Great Britain has no legal bases,
As Scotland holds no treaty with the parliament of Great Britain,
the parliament of Anglo-Ireland,
the parliament of the UK,
Only with the parliament of England 1707.
The parliament of England did not procure the territory of Scotland,
That was the parliament of Great Britain, which has no treaty with Scotland 1707.
It was illegal, James, from the moment only Scotland, Wales and NI devolved. England should also have devolved in keeping with the others – not as regions, but as one legal and political entity. A first-rate constitutional legal mind could tear the whole thing apart, and this is precisely why the SNP does not want that to happen – independence is simply not on its agenda now.
This is from the blog at Legal Feminist, Naomi Cunningham writing under the title “Three Questions”.
“The second question arises from the government’s arguments in the judicial review currently being brought by the Good Law Project (“GLP”) against the EHRC’s interim update. The government is named as an interested party. This is not unusual. It is there to provide clarification on the government’s position and to assist the court.
But that is not what leading counsel for the government is doing. The KC is putting forward arguments which were put before the Supreme Court and rejected. The judge has said in terms to the government’s counsel that the argument is “trying to rewrite FWS”. Government lawyers are putting forward arguments which either show a misunderstanding of the judgment or an attempt to relitigate it or interpret it incorrectly or to water it down or undermine it.”
We know the Scottish government is also undermining the FWS/ Supreme Court decision.
North Code,
A mythical and magical fantasy world of the parliament of England to be precise.
The parliament of Great Britain and the UK parliament having made no such international treaty with Scotlands 1707 parliament,
Having no such treaty with
Scotlands three estates
or with religion of the churches in Scotland.
Or with the Sovereign people of Scotland.
Or with the crown of Scotland,
Or with Scotland on an agreement as to where or whom the new parliament should be placed between Scotland and England.
Has taken it upon itself as the parliament of Great Britain that holds no treaty with the parliament of Scotland 1707…
unless it acts as the legal parliament of England .
Sam,
The Scottish government is under the legislation of the Great Britain parliament. Scotland Act,
Scotland does not have a 1707 treaty with the parliament of Great Britain.
Scotland only has a 1707 treaty with the parliament of England.
So it it a English devolved government based in Scotland, this must be understood for legal purposes and context.
Copy of letter sent on 6/1/2026 by For Women Scotland to John Swinney.
Dear Mr Swinney,
Thank you for your letter in which you state the Ministerial Code was not engaged when Ministers declined to answer questions in Parliament regarding the policy on transgender prisoners and related legal actions pursued by the Ministers. Section 1.7(d) of the Code makes it very clear, however, that Ministers have a duty to be open, candid and accountable to Parliament, withholding information only when required to do so by relevant statutes. We see no justification for failing to provide information in this instance and would reassert that the Code is relevant and has not been complied with.
Furthermore, unless the Scottish Ministers’ KC, Mr Moynihan, is currently acting contrary to your instructions by seeking a Declaration of Incompatibility from the Court of Session on the Supreme Court ruling on Schedule 3 single-sex exceptions in the Equality Act, it is also very clear that the Scottish Government does not accept the ruling of the Supreme Court. In fact, the Ministers are refusing to comply with it and are actively contesting it in the Scottish courts. This is the opposite of acceptance.
We would appreciate an impartial investigation of these issues and ask if you will refer copies of our correspondence to the Independent Advisers on the Ministerial Code for their consideration.
Yours sincerely,
Trina Budge, Marion Calder and Susan Smith
Directors, For Women Scotland
From the For women Scotland website.
“Ahead of the judicial review of the Scottish Prison Service Policy for the Management of Transgender People in Custody being heard on 3rd – 5th February 2026 in the Court of Session, we are now able to publish our written submissions.”
link to forwomen.scot
Brilliant! Unbelievable that this is necessary but thank god, someone is prepared to hold these chancers to account.
Well done Stuart.
HEALTH SEC CHALLENGED OVER ‘IDEOLOGICALLY DRIVEN’ PUBERTY BLOCKER TRIAL
*******
QUOTE: “… It is important to reiterate that gender incongruence is real and [an] internationally recognised disorder. It is defined in the International Classification of Diseases Eleventh Revision as ‘a marked and persistent incongruence between an individual’s experienced gender and the assigned sex’.” (WES STREETING MP, in a letter to Parliamentarians seeking to explain the rationale behind his decision to proceed with the trial, 13 January 2026)
*******
The planned puberty blocker trial legitimises transgender ideology and should be abandoned, concerned parents have warned.
Genspect, a group which helps families whose children struggle with gender confusion, told Wes Streeting MP that the clinical trial rests on an “activist-crafted diagnosis” that has no basis in scientific fact.
King’s College London has been given £10.7 million in Government funding for the Pathways project, which includes the controversial trial. Puberty-blocking drugs will be given to children with “gender incongruence”, who will be monitored for two years with brain scans and tests.
‘INAPPROPRIATE’
In an open letter to Streeting, the support group wrote: “Our main concern is that the clinical trial you defend rests on a diagnostic concept — gender incongruence — whose origins are political rather than scientific, rendering it an inappropriate basis for medical intervention in young people.”
It described the definition as “the product of a decades-long depsychopathologization campaign by activists and advocacy organisations, whose explicit goal was to remove psychiatric framing and guardrails around hormonal and surgical interventions”.
Genspect continued: “The activist influence is clear in the language itself. ‘Experienced gender’ is an unfalsifiable inner claim, not a measurable clinical marker. ‘Assigned sex’ is not a scientific term; it is activist language designed to obscure the reality that sex is determined at conception, observed before or at birth, and plainly immutable.”
While the support group agreed with the Health Secretary’s stated view that “unregulated self-medication is dangerous, and that some young people are in profound distress”, it challenged the notion that “testing a highly invasive medical treatment on healthy adolescents given an activist-crafted diagnosis is the only or best response”.
PUBLIC OPINION
Last month, a poll on behalf of Transgender Trend found that 63 per cent of the British public agree that the NHS puberty blocker trial should be stopped, with opposition being particularly strong among parents of under-18s.
Stephanie Davies-Arai, Director of Transgender Trend, called the results “a clear mandate from the British people to stop the trial”.
She explained: “The British public instinctively knows that medically experimenting on children is wrong. Most understand that children are too young to make medical decisions that will affect them for the rest of their lives.
“It’s not a party political issue but common sense. The government now needs to listen and do what’s right.”
(The Christian Institute, 22 Jan 2026)
link to christian.org.uk
TRANS ACTIVISTS HACK FREE SPEECH GROUP IN IDEOLOGICALLY DRIVEN ATTACK
A free speech organisation has been hacked by a trans activist group that released its recent donor information.
The Free Speech Union (FSU), founded by Lord Young of Acton, had commissioned a report on the activities of the activist group ‘Bash Back’, which then committed the cyber-attack in retaliation.
The group, which is “focused on total transgender liberation”, has claimed responsibility for a string of recent attacks, including on Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s office, a women’s rights conference, and the office of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
‘WE WILL NOT BE COWED’
In a website post, Bash Back claimed: “The Free Speech Union is a membership-based organisation which purports to protect free speech. In reality, they work to protect transphobes, racists, and anti-choice activists.”
The FSU reported the attack to the police and obtained an emergency injunction from the High Court within hours of the breach, forcing Bash Back to remove the leaked donor details. The free speech group now intends to sue for financial damages.
Lord Young stated: “Bash Back is a dangerous anti-democratic organisation that boasts about breaking the law and encourages its supporters to steal hammers to carry out ‘direct action’, including against Members of Parliament.”
“The members of this group need to be prosecuted. Neither we nor our members will be cowed by these tactics.”
‘ORGANIZED THUGGERY’
Writing in The Telegraph, author and journalist Josephine Bartosch commented that the cyber-attack has “stripped away the chintzy veil of victimhood that has long shielded the transgender movement, revealing well organised thuggery”.
She lamented: “Over recent years, law enforcement has shown greater enthusiasm for policing opinion than for confronting organised intimidation.”
“In the eyes of politicians, and those at the helm of the institutions they direct, a change of pronouns and a switch of wardrobe possess a remarkable power: they can transmute criminal behaviour into vulnerability, aggression into fragility, and organised intimidation into something approaching a cry for help.”
(The Christian Institute, 22 Jan 2026)
link to christian.org.uk
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh says:
‘Josephine Bartosch commented that the cyber-attack has “stripped away the chintzy veil of victimhood that has long shielded the transgender movement, revealing well organised thuggery”.’
===========
I’m surprised The Torygraph took so long find a commentator to call out this thuggery. Three years ago, SNP and Green parliamentarians participated in the notorious “Decapitate TERFs”, demo. I named it on this very blog: “TRANS-Fascism”.
I am dismayed that this grotesque beast still has life in it.
From MBM Policy on 12/12 /2025
“Statement
On Wednesday 10 December the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee closed our petition, which called for Police Scotland, the Crown Office and Scottish Court Service to accurately record the sex of people in cases of rape or attempted rape.
We are pleased that Chief Constable Jo Farrell has moved to fully support our petition and drawn a clear line under the confusing and offensive statements previously issued by the single service, which prompted us to submit our petition in June 2021 and persisted for most of the time it remained before the Committee. That Police Scotland is now taking account of the Sullivan Review and extending the principle of accurate recording to all crime and offences is a significant step forward. We hope this sets an example to other UK police forces.”
Link
link to murrayblackburnmackenzie.org
“We would like to thank Tess White MSP, Carol Mochan MSP, Michelle Thomson MSP, Ruth Maguire MSP, Rachael Hamilton MSP and Sharon Dowey MSP who attended Committee sessions and/or wrote in support. We would also like to thank all the signatories to our petition and all those who submitted supporting material to the Committee, including Professor Alice Sullivan.
Although the Committee has now closed the petition, we are pleased that it has also agreed to our request to write to the Crown Office and the Court Service to confirm that they will follow Police Scotland’s lead. Whilst not within the scope of the original petition, the Committee has also agreed to our request that it should write to the Scottish Prison Service for the same confirmation. We welcome its recognition of the importance of consistent and reliable data throughout the Criminal Justice System.
Lastly, we are pleased that MSPs continue to engage with Police Scotland on its handling of sex and gender more widely.”
These positions as President of the Employment Tribunal (Scotland) are dangerous, especially given the backgrounds of these women. They carry the status of a Court of Session judge.
« Marx’s secularisation of the messianic seems to me to be accurate and precise, up to this point. But can we really speak of a “society without ‘calling’” in Paul, in the same way that Marx speaks of a “classless society?”. This is a legitimate question.
« Several answers to this question are, of course, possible. Two are actually prefigured in Stirner’s opposition between revolt and revolution, and by Marx’s vast critique of Stirner in ‘The German Ideology’.
« According to Stirner (or at least in Marx’s presentation of Stirner’s thought), revolution consists in “a transformation of the existing condition, or status, of the state or society; hence it is a political or social act” that has the creation of new institutions as its goal. Revolt, however, is “an uprising of individuals . . . without regard for the institutions that develop out of it. . . . It is not a struggle against what exists, for if it prospers what exists will collapse of itself; it is only the setting free of me from what exists” (Marx and Engels, 5: 377).
« Commenting on these affirmations, Marx cites a passage from George Kuhlmann’s book, which has an unmistakenly messianic title, ‘The New World; or, The Kingdom of the Spirit upon Earth’: “You shall not tear down nor destroy that which you find in your path, you shall rather go out of your way to avoid it and pass by it. And when you have avoided it and passed it by, then it shall cease to exist of itself, for it shall find no other nourishment” (Marx and Engels, 5: 539).
« While Marx succeeds in ridiculing Stirner’s theses, they still represent one possible interpretation, an interpretation which we will call the ethical-anarchic interpretation.
« The other interpretation, Marx’s, which does not distinguish revolt from revolution, a political act from individual and egoistic need, runs into a problem, ie in the party’s being identical to class while simultaneously differing from it. »
(Georgio Agamben, ‘The Time That Remains’, pp 31,32)
All very well, Fearghas, but which is it gets us the most disposable dosh, the biggest house, the fastest car, the flashiest foreign holidays – revolt or revolution?
Asking for the majority of Wingers.
And which of revolt or revolution enables the sweet revenge of slaughtering as many English and Jewish cants as possible – by machine gun, gas chambers or even nuke?
Asking for Confused, Barbie and their groupies.
Let’s not forget the Baird/Northy axis. They want Scotland to be an English speaking desert. Which of revolt or revolution will see every successful Scottish survivor speaking, reading and writing only in Scots?
Let’s keep it real, Fearghas, by focusing on what motivates ordinary Scots.
Here Hatey you’re off on the big rant this morning.
Prof Baird is a Scot who supports the maximisation of economic development in Scotland for Scotland together with a heartfelt desire to support Scottish language and culture.
Am Fearghas balach is a Scot who very much supports Scottish culture, and language, of which he has much knowledge.
To cast them alongside mythical Scots who want to slaughter English and Jewish cants is just a rant too far. You can make some good comments, along with some tongue in cheek comments but this type of hyperbole, if hyperbole was your intention, is just not cricket, old chap.
How’s about giving us a rant about for example all of Scotland’s renewable energy and what benefit Scots get out of it, or a comment about the recently announced super sized North Berwick wind farm and what benefit that will deliver Scotland and her people.
The stage is all yours Sir.
THE THREE R’s…..revolution, revolt or resistance….Scots do have choices other than to capitulate to the «motherhood and apple pie» schmues of predatory corporate capitalism and its ephemeral blandishments.
Doing nothing coz it might hurt is a choice but somewhat lacking in élan vital.
Ah Wee Adolf McHateface, there you are, you’ve been quite subdued just lately. What was it got you all upset today? Mark Rutte the NATO chief perhaps?
What was it he said the other day? (no, it wasn’t ‘Daddy Trump’). Something along the lines that your ‘fighting friends’ in the east are winning, but the battle fronts moving the wrong way…
Try not to think about it too much eh, it’ll only upset you more. Poor Wee Adolf, it sounds a bit like something else I heard said about your friends.
It was announced a while ago, your friends were having a strategic repositioning of troops. What they meant was your friends were retreating…another sad day for you.
You can hiss spit and be stupid all you like now. I’m off, bye bye.
Who’d be Hatey?
The calls for the slaughter of English cants crop up beneath just about every article, willie. It’s beyond credibility you never see them.
The antisemitism is rarer these days since the tunnel skulking scum and their backers in Tehran got their noses bloodied a few times. But it’s still all on record and it’s not even a week since somebody was posting that the implacable enemies of our women and the inspirers of the people who like to carve up our dancing lassies with knives pose us no threat.
Professor Baird has called for only those who are fluent and literate in Scots to be employed in an Independent Scotland. Maybe that’s hyperbole too. If so, he’s repeated it several times. Maybe you need to pay more attention. Perhaps, with the advent of President Trump, we all need to consider that what some people say before they get control, they intend to do when they get control.
As for our ludicrously expensive, weather dependent, undefendable renewable energy, it’s impoverishing us and the resultant unaffordable energy it intermittently provides is relentlessly driving us into the third world. The regular power cuts will come soon enough once the end-of-life backup gas generation goes offline. As nine tenths of its construction is being subsidised by English bill payers, nine tenths of it belongs to them.
And by Day 3 of The War becoming a hot one, the undefendable sea bed infrastructure will be destroyed.
Look on the bright side, willie. We’ll all have more pressing concerns than posting “told you so” on here.
“… speaking, reading and writing only in Scots…”
Who do those folk who believe an independent Scotland would insist that everybody wanting to live and work in Scotland only speak and write in the Scots language think we Scots are… the English?
It was the English who commanded that Scots schoolchildren be viciously belted with a leather strap… a strap split at the end so it would inflict maximum damage on the young hands and wrists of weans who dared utter a word of their own language in their own country.
It was the English who forced their own language on the Scots.
Yet another English argument attempting to denigrate the Scots casually defeated with a sentence or twa and little effort.
ORGANIZED THUGGERY…..whether in the name of fascist corporatism, hallucinogenic woke or faux messianic americanism we all know it when we see it standing bludgeon ready barring our way.
You remind me of the people who claim to believe that the killing of one woman as she interferes with the apprehension of law breakers is somehow far more reprehensible than the killing of thousands as they protest over their government’s destruction of their country and their government’s demolition of their lives.
Remind us, TURABDIN. Just how many drones, glide bombs and hypersonic missiles have been fired by President Trump at Venezuela, Denmark or Greenland so far?
In among all the bluster and yes, lunacy, President Trump makes some good points. It’s long overdue for us Europeans to wake the fuck up.
It no longer matters how often we replace our political leaders with new ones with more beguiling lies about how we all deserve or comfort, wealth and freebies. Every new set of political leaders, up to and including the most rabid, Scots speaking, English hating cant, is going to have to face reality.
The party is over. Scotland occupies no “special place” that makes us immune. It’s a harsh world out there, and currently we in Scotland are going down with the rest of the west.
And meanwhile, no word from the judiciary, or comment from the Scot Gov on the grave concerns about a judge and others caught with their trousers lying and or cheating and or dissembling and exposing our judicial system to be less than wholesome.
A dishonest judiciary along with a political police force and a political prosecution service, are the hallmarks of a rotten and broken country. Or are we missing something?
Time more folks woke up to the filth that pervades our institutions and the crime boss politicos who are very much part of it.
Aye Willie, and here we are reminded that “whenever colonialism is imperiled, the colonizer reveals his fangs” (Fanon).
So why should anyone be shocked at the goings-on of a mankit one-sided colonial justice system which readily acknowledges ‘malicious prosecutions’ as well as ‘institutionalised racism’?
Which helps explain why the colonized “seldom looks for justice in the colonial framework” (Memmi); and confirms that the only remedy for the colonial condition is independence (i.e. decolonization) and ‘liberation’ from oppression (Memmi; Freire).
@Hatey McHateface
to this reader your argumentation can turn towards the confusing, however, I do share your perspective regarding the Realpolitik inadequacies of the current Scottish political class, neverthless, I shall reply regarding your reference to the weaponry.
The Trump presidency has employed hi tech weapons, Iran immediately springs to mind but my references are not to the current régime but to the ideology of Americanism, in its guises military, political, cultural, soft or hard power which the contemporary world experiences.
The American psyche’s great flaw is that of being «needy», America needs to be liked, loved, embraced like a prepubescent child uncertain of its identity, if it is not given what it wants and thereby comforted it turns nasty. America also fancies everyone on the planet secretly wishes to be like her.
America’s interest in the country of my birth occasioned fatalities within my extended family and among family friends and acquaintances and effectively it was a failure given their intelligence regarding the nature of country was deficient, albeit not on the level of their adventurism in Vietnam and Afghanistan.
May i commend two America sourced articles.
link to d8my17g3nf6npl.archive.is
link to df6lv2qfy5b340.archive.ph
“The American psyche’s great flaw is that .. like a prepubescent child uncertain of its identity”
This is a general flaw in colonialism, whereby “the colonialist who lives in a colony is always uncertain of his identity” (Memmi), no matter whether in America, Scotland, New Caledonia, or Greenland.
My, Alf, but like your sidekick Northy, you’re a tonic sometimes.
Why don’t you call for what Mummy et al claim is the only remedy then, decolonisation?
I’d be with you for that. How many Yanks do you reckon call “Scatland” their ancestral home? Ten million? Twenty million? Let’s get them all back here.
Lard arses to put our own wee, pretendy, lard arses to shame. Big mouths to hush even the biggest mouthed Wings BTL flaming pants eejit. Political views to make Farage blush.
G’oan, Alf, show us you possess the courage of your convictions. Call for the decolonisation of the USA!
Aye, TURABDIN, there’s been notable failures.
There’s been notable successes, too. Japan, the former West Germany before they were sunk by the commies, Taiwan, South Korea, some Pacific and Caribbean islands – all enjoying standards and quality of life we in Scotland have only ever been able to envy, under the benign “colonisation” of Uncle Sam.
Let he who has never warn a baseball cap, ordered a KFC or a McD, or argued the relative merits of Pacino against De Niro, argue to the contrary.
That will leave around a dozen True, Sovereign Scots. Each one of them outnumbered by a million Central & South Americans who have hacked their way through jungles, swam raging torrents and braved ocean crossings in dinghies to get a piece of the USA into their own greedy, grasping hands.
When i was a kid my parents visited some relatives and other exiles in California, we have relatives near & distant everywhere it seems. It was great, baseball caps, icecream, burgers as big as your head etc. For me it was an exotic paradise compared to my previous existence, even though that was not that deprived. It was a «fat» country and appeared a land of plenty. I know now it wasn’t but i do get the desire by many to have a slice of that American dream but it does come with a price tag once the dazzle of all it wears off.
Increased standard of livings but better quality of life?
American values that depends on the right to carry guns doesn’t work in every county that doesn’t have that right. While social media is much maligned, it does give us a more realistic viewpoint of American society without the polish and veneer of American media.
Is that the kind of country you want to live in?
“While social media is much maligned, it does give us a more realistic viewpoint of American society”
No shit, Sherlock!
How about social media in Auld Caledonia? For example, Wings BTL. Would you say it strips away the polish and veneer to reveal Scottish society realistically?
Posters claiming to be millenia-old Picts, posters droning on about a language only a minority speak, posters claiming they own the wind that’s blowing 100 miles out at sea, posters salivating about the chance to fire up the portable gas chamber and crematoria combos so they can eliminate their neighbours.
Is that the authentic Scotland?
What about those posters who claim the country that issued their passport doesn’t actually exist?
Northcode, 23 January, 2026 at 10:56 am
“It was the English who forced their own language on the Scots. “
Ignorant Rubbish.
Shortly after acquiring his English throne, James VI, King of Scots imposed The Statutes of Iona (1609) on Highland chiefs. Its chief (pun intended) aim was to destroy the Gaelic language by forcing heirs to learn English in Lowland or English schools.
Palace of Holyrood freeloaders who followed James south to the Court of St James, were unimpressed by “Slabberin Jamie’s” own efforts at his King’s English -as their irreverent nickname attests. His ain mither tung got in the way.
“Ignorant Rubbish” ?
In seeking to justify only the English language being taught to Scots bairns in school, British educationalists maintained that the Scots language was ‘not a valid language’, and hence was considered inferior. Which is of course ethnic discrimination.
(See Basil B. Bernstein. Class, Codes and Control: Volume 1 – Theoretical Studies Towards A Sociology Of Language. London: Routledge and Kegan, 1971.)
As we know, Linguistic Imperialism (e.g. language deprivation and cultural assimilation) are well established colonial procedures intended to make ‘a people’ change their identity.
“As we know, Linguistic Imperialism (e.g. language deprivation and cultural assimilation) are well established colonial procedures intended to make ‘a people’ change their identity”
Indeed.
Hence the inevitable pushback against your plans to force the minority language, Scots, on the majority of Scots who don’t speak it. And the solid opposition to your policy that in an Independent Scotland, English speakers will be denied employment.
As we know, Alf, two wrongs don’t make a right.
As we also know, a minority trying to force their language on a majority can lead to civil war.
Thank you Cynicus for some factual input.
The professor writes “Ignorant rubbish” indeed. He claims “In seeking to justify only the English language being taught to Scots bairns in school, British educationalists maintained that the Scots language was ‘not a valid language’, and hence was considered inferior. Which is of course ethnic discrimination.”.
He ignores (or does not know that) the deliberate policy of using “Inglis” as the teaching language in Scottish schools was begun before “British educationalists” even existed. The Establishment of Schools Act of 1616 was the seminal document, and was followed by several further Acts passed by the independent Scottish parliament during the 1600s and before the Act of Union. It was a choice made and maintained by Scots.
He also claimed “It was the English who commanded that Scots schoolchildren be viciously belted with a leather strap… a strap split at the end so it would inflict maximum damage on the young hands and wrists of weans who dared utter a word of their own language in their own country.” The administration of Scottish schools has always been controlled in Scotland, and the “tawse” is a particularly Scottish form of punishment. I am happy to retract this if the professor can provide any evidence for his claim that “it was the English”.
“He also claimed “It was the English who commanded that Scots schoolchildren be viciously belted with a leather strap…”
No… he didn’t, “Dances Without Facts”, I did.
It’s always a good idea to check the facts before committing them to the digital page, factchecker.
“Thank you Cynicus for some factual input.”
If only it were ‘factual input’ relevant to the comment it responds to, but as you’ll discover later… it isn’t.
Dinna be sae harsh, Cynicus.
It’s Baltic oot there. Northy needs his pants aflame tae keep warm and he’s discovered posting lies on here is the easiest means of getting a guid conflagration going.
Leave him be.
H McH: I wonder what it is in the human psyche that makes them go overboard for one cause and not another, equally deserving. It never ceases to amaze me how so many are willing to take to the streets because of Gaza (and, yes, it is a slaughter house) but not for equally horrendous, or even more horrendous, slaughters? I will not use the word, ‘genocide’ because I believe it is used wrongly so often?
Congo, Nigeria, Sudan, Yemen, Iran and others have all suffered terrible loss of life, most much higher than in Gaza, but so few appear to want to acknowledge that fact. The only discernible reason appears to be because Israel is not involved. People in far-flung places killing their own people seems to just pass so many by without a comment. The rise of anti Israeli sentiment seems to be the rise, yet again, and is actually anti Semitism.
The hypocrisy and lack of deep thinking of so many people who would call themselves “good people” is both striking and very sad. I think that easy examples are what attract people, where they believe they see wickedness and don’t have to think very hard, and allow vested interests to do their thinking for them. Is it just too uncomfortable to have to confront the truth that black people kill black people, that Muslims kill other Muslims, that white people are not always to blame for all the world’s ills, that the world is not divided neatly into ‘good’ and ‘bad’, but all shades of grey in between and that none of us is exempt from having to confront reality, no matter how painful or uncomfortable the truth might be?
If I may, can I turn attention to the Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond and the recent announcement that Lomond Shore is going to start charging for people coming to visit the Loch.
Astute readers may be well aware of the shady goings on with the proposal to give around 38 acres of iconic loch side land o Flamingo to allow them to undertake a mega housing, hotel, retail development totally and utterly out of character with the area,
But what of this recent announcement that anyone coming to visit the so called Gateway to Loch Lomond will have to pay between £2.00 and £4.00 via an airport style APNR camera reading entry and barrier exit charging for parking.
Well as things go it is nothing more than commercial Las Vegas on the Loch. Nothing more, nothing less. The fusion of vested commercial interest lurking under the business benevolent guise of a National Park authority and the Scottish Government.
Filching the public purse. It is becoming an art form in Bonnie Scotland. But who is this Lomond Shores gateway. Who or what is it.
Well folks may think it is the National Park Authority but in reality it is a private company.
From what is to be gathered, Loch Lomond Shores, is a retail and leisure destination, which was purchased in 2017 by The Waterfield Group, led by entrepreneur Donald Waterfield, from a previous Isle of Man fund, Sapphire Enterprises Limited with the area managed by Loch Lomond Shores Management. A private company, previously tax haven off shore, operating under the guise of a National Park Authority treasure.
And yes, treasure be the word. But for who as the entire southern end of iconic Loch Lomond becomes a developer paradise for big business.
That of course becomes clear with the dogged persistence of Flamingo Land, who with governmental agency support have now for over ten years been pursuing a controversial and widely opposed development of hotels, houses, chalets, retail units on some 38 acres of iconic loch side land being given to them.
Bugsy Seigel of Las Vegas fame and more latterly Donal Trump would be proud
But to go back to the recent announcement charging to visit the Loch side Shores is where we are. Pay up all thee wanting to visit the National Park. Theres money to be made, pockets to be lined.
Follow the money. Its an old saying, but it is very apt. Or is the saying about money talking more apt.
Anyway, a change of tack, with hopefully more folk asking about what is going on. Restricted openness and disclosure is something that folks disregard at their very peril. Maybe more would like to enquire of this in the public interest.
Or am I missing something?
“Or am I missing something?”
That’s my conclusion. Only one reply – this one.
Please don’t shoot the messenger.
Is she really worth fighting for “Information commissioner sues SNP Government over ‘failure to publish Sturgeon files’. I wouldn’t give her the air to breath. The woman has done so much damage, we’ll be talking about her time as FM, years from now.
We observe that the following was written almost exactly a century BEFORE the Act of Union. We note that the authors were patently identifying their ain mither tongue as “Inglische” (it indeed being an offshoot of Northern Middle English). Can we please therefore jettison the exclusivist “mither tongue” myth which colonially (linguicidally) redacts from Scottish history the existence of our actual historic “Lingua Scottorum”, in effect denying Scottish identity to millennia of Gaelic-speaking mothers –
“THE QUHILK DAY it being understand that the ignorance and incivilitie of the saidis Ilis hes daylie incressit be the negligence of gaid educatioun and instructioun of the youth in the knowledge of God and good lettres: FOR remeid quhairof it is enactit that everie gentilman or yeaman within the saidis Ilandis or ony of thame having children maill or famell and being in goodis worth thriescoir ky, sall putt at the leist thair eldest sone or, having na childrene maill, thair eldest dochtir to the scuillis in the lawland and interteny and bring thame up thair quhill thay may be found able sufficientlie to speik, read and wryte Inglische.” (Statutes of Icolmkill,1609)(Collectanea de Rebus Albanicus pp119-20)
“Forasmekle as the kingis Majestie having a speciall care and regaird that the trew religioun be advanced and establisheit in all the pairtis of this kingdome, and that all his Majesties subjectis, especiallie the youth, be exercised and trained up in civilitie, godliness, knowledge and learning, that the vulgar Inglishe toung be universallie plantit, and the Irishe language, which is one of the chief and principall causis of the continwance of barbarities and incivilite amongis the inhabitantis of the Iles and Heylandis, may be abolisheit and removit…” (Act of Privy Council of Scotland 1616)
“Thairfor that they shall send thair bairnis being past the age of nyne yeiris to the Scollis in the Lawlandis, to the effect thay may be instructit and trayned to wryte and reid and to speake Inglische; and that nane of thair bairnis sall be served air [heir] unto thame, nor acknawlegeit nor reid as tennentis to his Majestie unles thay can wryte, reid, and speik Inglische.” (Act of Privy Council of Scotland 1616)(Collectanea de Rebus Albanicus p 121)
And we might just ask at this point what is the colonial status of Ulster Scots (Ullans)??
See fit ye’ve done noo, Fearghas?
Ye’ve empowered the Baird/Northy axis tae claim we were all colonised near a century afore 1707!
Anybody ken when the moon was first turned tae cheese? Must have been in the 17th century.
“claim we were all colonised near a century afore 1707”
As noted above, Linguistic Imperialism (e.g. language deprivation and cultural assimilation) involves established colonial procedures intended to make ‘a people’ change their identity, a practice still prevalent in Scotland today.
Such forms of oppression, and others, are nothing new given the past of this land we know as Scotland (or Pictland) includes occupation and domination by Romans, Scots, Vikings and English; an aye, some of these invasions were lang afore 1707.
Great post, Alf.
And here was me thinking the people of these islands had always enjoyed quite a privileged and unique position, what with them being, well, islands.
As it has always been quite difficult to invade and conquer an island, what with all the water that provides a defensive moat. At least compared with continental countries, where invasion involves crossing an arbitrary line often appearing only on a map.
Still, Scottish Exceptionalism, eh? Wha’s like us? Wha’s been oppressed like us? So easy to maintain if you stick your fingers in your ears and go “la la la”. And never, ever get talking to a Central or Eastern European.
What’s the latest about the moon cheese? Is that what the untranslated Pictish symbol stones are about?
Say yes. You know you want to!
“Can we please therefore jettison the exclusivist “mither tongue” myth…
No!
As far as I’m concerned Gaelic is the weird language of the first invader, English that of the second.
Between the Gaels and thon Inglis they’ve made life a misery for us Picts fir ower a thoosand year and mair… the last three hunner haes been utter shit.
Kin ye no juist fuck aff the baith o ye and gie us ORIGINAL inhabitants o ‘Scotland’ a wee bit peace fir the sake of Brigid, goddess o’ poetry, and the love o Lugh, god of sun and light.
Seriously, tak yer Gaelic and yer Inglis and get yersel’s tae fuck.
Ah, c’moan noo, Northy.
Just the other day you were self-identifying as shit.
Shit should be in seventh heaven in three hunner (whatever) of utter shit.
Seriously.
I’m betting your eyes have turned brown and all.
“Seriously, tak yer Gaelic and yer Inglis and get yersel’s tae…”
Obviously I wasn’t being serious with my last comment.
The Gaels can stay.
Gaelic is exponentially closer than Inglis is to (what is known of) the language of the Picts.
“Gaelic is exponentially closer than Inglis is to (what is known of) the language of the Picts.”
I think you’re wrong about that, Fearghas, but I don’t know enough to be absolutely certain.
Everything I’ve read on the subject, however, supports the consensus among language experts that Pictish was a variant of a Brythonic Celtic language related to ancient Welsh and derived from the language of a Bronze Age people.
Bede’s early eighth-century “Ecclesiastical History of the English People”, cites Pictish as a language distinct from those spoken by the Britons, the Irish, and the English.
A cosmopolitan «littérateur» ancestor of mine wrote in Ottoman Turkish. He disliked Syriac, and had reservations about Arabic considering the former demotic and fit only for addressing the servants and the latter too provincial.
Ottoman Turkish has a large vocabulary of Persian & Arabic loanwords, the latter indirectly borrowed via the former. In sound it is soft, lyrical and an excellent medium for high end literature and discourse.
The nationalist Atatürk hated it considering it effete and in his assiduous language reforms attempted to remove the non Turkic elements and also initiated the change in script from perso-arabic to latin. The process was for most literate Turks and for my ancestor traumatic.
The result, the vast majority are not able to engage directly with their own past without learning what is effect a rather complex new language.
Taste in language can be a matter of personal prejudice which feeds into the narrative as objective and in this particular the notion of «modernity» versus old fashioned.
Language is more than the sum of its functional utilitarian communication capacities, it may in its form express something transcendent which when gone may be lost for ever. Communities which have «lost» their expression turn inwards, grieve and seek solace in alcohol or drugs.
The Americas offer numerous examples and some there are some closer to home.
TURABDIN says:
23 January, 2026 at 5:09 pm
“Language is more than the sum of its functional utilitarian communication capacities, it may in its form express something transcendent which when gone may be lost for ever.”
=========
Wonderful post.
The sentence I highlight reminds me of “The Last Man to Speak Ubykh,” by the Scottish poet John Burnside (1955-2024). The work has a personal resonance for me since I knew the last man to speak the Lorne dialect of Argyll Gaelic.
What we have been losing, as detailed on a longer scale by Fearghas and others above, is immeasurably priceless.
John Burnside · Poem: ‘The Last Man to Speak Ubykh’
Well researched and accurate as usual, Fearghas. This Privy Council decision was reinforced by several Acts of the Scottish Parliament during the 1600s to put the aims into effect. As noted, the deliberate placement of ‘Inglis’ as the language to be taught and used in schools was a decision made in Scotland almost a century before the Act of Union and was intended to eradicate the ‘Irish language’.
@ “It was a choice made and maintained by Scots.”
Hardly.
Historian, Iain MacKinnon.
“And in 1608 there was a meeting organized between the chiefs and the Crown agents – there were two leaders of them Andrew Ochiltree and Andrew Knox who was a bishop, Bishop Knox.
And they were having this meeting and nine of the Island chiefs were invited to go aboard Ochiltree’s boat for a religious service. And when they were taken on board in the harbor of Mull, the ship weighed anchor and they went off to the South and they were imprisoned. One of them Ruaidhri Mòr Macleòid [Big or Great Rory Macleod], he got wind of it somehow, so he wasn’t brought in.
(But) the rest of them were incarcerated until they agreed to sign something called the Statutes of Iona by which they agreed to various diktats. … (and) one of the statutes was that the chiefs would send their elder sons to the South for education in Lowland schools, effectively through the medium of English, and become acculturated to English-speaking norms or the Lowland Scottish norms.
There were more uprisings in the Western Isles after that and then these statutes were ratified in 1616 under the regulations for chiefs. It was much stronger in 1616. It was much more of the social elite who had to send their children away for this sort of education…”
This relates to the Statutes of Iona; my post referred to the Scottish Privy Council Establishment of Schools Act of 1616 and the various Education Acts passed by the Scottish Parliament during the 1600s to establish ‘Inglis’-speaking schools in every parish I Scotland.
Decisions made in Scotland, by Scots.
@factchecker
I appreciate and recognise the good work you do here.
Nevertheless, as I am sure you realise yourself, Wings BTL is not a forum where facts are ever much welcomed.
Not that this should be allowed to discourage you. Scotland’s future, whether as an Independent country, or as a minor satrap of the UK and/or the EU, can never be left in the hands of those who willingly and knowingly deny facts.
Keep up the good work.
“Decisions made in Scotland, by Scots.”
I’m afraid not…
England has been the bane of the Scots sin lang afore 1707.
Most of James the sixth’s family were English.
I tried posting the long list of his English relatives, some of whom were Kings and Queens of England (Henry 8 and Liz 1, for instance), but it didn’t didn’t show up on the thread although the comment appeared to submit successfully.
So, anyone who wants to see just how connected Jim was to the powers of England will have to look it up for themselves.
Shirley-Anne Somerville has sent a baby box to New York mayor Mamdani.
To show him how it works, and to celebrate the links between Scotland and the colonising, thieving, murderous Scots who played such a big part in New York’s formative years.
Let’s hope it was a super sized one, otherwise no Yank baby is gonna fit in it!
Hands up all Scots who already know that Scottish baby boxes contain books. Anybody ken what language they are written in? I bet it’s not Scots!
Perhaps Polish, Hindi and Farsi are more useful.
These baby boxes seem incredibly cruel. How have the SG got away with providing boxes to stuff a baby in when you can’t be bothered / are pissed up? Are they sound-proofed? They will need to be for NYC.
The SG foresee the day, when Scotland leads the world in woowoo and every Scot is trans, when babies will indeed be delivered in boxes.
Probably by Amazon and probably from the PRC like just about everything else that doesn’t explode on contact.
The Orcs have already cornered that market.
@ Northcode
“As far as I’m concerned Gaelic is the weird language of the first invader, English that of the second.”
I wonder which group was the first invader. Was it Mesolithic Hunters 10,000 BC? Or, Neolithhic farmers 4000 BC? Or the Gaels that followed? Maybe the Norse?
Today the genetic make up is Celtic (Gael), Pictish and Norse
All I know, Sam, is that when my folk arrived here there was naebody else tae be seen… and it was still quite slippery underfoot fae aw that meltin’ ice’.
Wuz that yer Da n Ma?
Interested?
link to atlasobscura.com
So what they say about incest is true.
Crivens, help m’boab!
“Scots has faced every pressure a language can face, and yet it’s not only still here—it’s growing.” – from “How the English Failed to Stamp Out the Scots Language (September, 2018)”
Thanks for the link, Sam – an excellent piece by Dan Nosowitz written in 2018.
“Wuz that yer Da n Ma?”
Aye, it wis… an ther wir nae buses runnin that winter’s nicht aither thae telt me. Times were tough for us Picts back then.
Linguistic professors, McLeod and Jones of Edinburgh University chart the decline of the use of Gaelic language.
“In the mid 1700’s 25 to 30 per cent of the Scottish population of 900,000 spoke Gaelic. By the start of the 19th Century, the proportion was around one-fifth of the population. By 1881, it had dropped to 6.2 per cent. By 1921, the number of Gaelic speakers had fallen to 158,779 (3.3 per cent of the national population) …. Gaelic by this time, had become a minority language in most Highland parishes.”:
There are many reasons for the decline in the number of Gaelic speakers. McLeod and Jones cite the Scottish Civil Wars of the 1600’s, the Act of Union of 1707 and subsequent transfer of civil authority to London, the demise of the clan system and the tragedy of the highland Clearances, among other factors in the great sweep of British history.
However, there is one “nail in the coffin” so to speak, that did monstrous damage to the Celtic language, “The Education (Scotland) Act 1872””
That’s OK though, sam.
The “Education (Scotland) Act 1872” was undoubtedly enacted by some big, bad, English barsturts who then ran away.
The SED [Scottish Education Department] was initially presided over by the Committee of Council in Education in London and had the same Permanent Secretary as the English Department.
It was not until 1885 that a separate Permanent Secretary of the SED was appointed.The department was still in London, not Edinburgh, despite complaints.
« Gaelic culture reached its zenith in Scotland during the eleventh century, when the borders of the kingdom were extended southwards, reaching the Tweed and Solway, and Gaelic was the language of the court and government, of the aristocracy, clergy, and intelligentsia, used throughout the royal territory.
« […] New trading centres from the early twelfth century onwards…were populated largely by speakers of of Germanic speech varieties — Scots/English, Flemings, Germans — and Scots eventually became the predominant language of commerce.
« […] By the early thirteenth century, Gaelic had probably disappeared from the core of the kingdom in the Lothians and the Forth valley; by 1400, the language shift seems to have extended to the entire east coast, including Buchan and the Moray littoral. At the same time, Gaelic probably remained in use in some upland areas of Fife well into the fifteenth century and in Carrick and Galloway until some point in the seventeenth century.
« As late as 1500, Gaelic was still spoken by about HALF THE POPULATION OF SCOTLAND, a proportion that has dropped steadily since, especially since c. 1750. »
(By Wilson McLeod, Professor of Gaelic at University of Edinburgh, and Meg Bateman, poet and academic at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Skye. From foreword to ‘DUANAIRE NA SRACAIRE: Anthology of Scotland’s Gaelic Verse to 1600’)
I see that it is trending in the UK MSM about Trumps inferred comments towards British soldiers in recent conflicts where they wre allied with the US. I wonder what Main and his compadres thoughts are on this?
Oh that fool will still be calling Donnie the worlds greatest living half Scotsman. Pitiful really.
Trumps only interest and only audience is the people of the United States of America.
The USA is NO friend of us – certainly no friend of the Scottish working class men and women sent to their foul illegal wars. The USA is of course the primary source of the female hating trannie ideology.
David Rodgers: as a male, a man, that is your privilege. It is not mine or that of every woman in Scotland. If we bring ‘woke’/’trans’ into an independent Scotland, it will be undermined from day one – and would deserve to be. Sorry, but betraying every female person in Scotland so that you can have the system you want is so selfish, it is almost criminal in its lack of consideration for others.
You are saying, basically, that it was so great to get rid of the Allies in Afghanistan, that it is worth having the Taliban in control and all women and girls having no rights whatsoever. Thank you for that insight into your psyche. At least now, every female in Scotland knows where she stands and we can expect a totalitarian but independent Scotland if men like you get their way. Thanks, but no thanks. Some things are not worth destroying for an illusion of independence in an interconnected world. I say that as a nationalist.
I wonder how many woman think Trans woman are woman as well?
“how many woman think Trans woman are woman”
I wonder how many women (and men) think the plural of woman is woman.
But hey, no doubt I’ve got this all arse over tit. Bilbo will just be writing in Hobbit.
@ Main
Got some shares in your portfolio of certain American Pharmaceutical companies?
@Bilbo
says:
23 January, 2026 at 9:21 pm
I wonder how many woman think Trans woman are woman as well?
What do you mean by ‘as well’ ? As well as who?
Along with most women, most men do not believe that it is possible for someone to change their biological sex (however much is chopped off or stitched on and however many hormones are pumped in.). Its just that men are not having any of their sex based rights threatened by these creatures and they lack empathy with biological women who are.
Time women went on a reproduction strike and left the production of the next generation to these creature things.
Lorna – I could not agree with you more- I will not vote nationalist until the woke/trans are well defeated and I say that as a nationalist too.
Sturgeon issued a statement on Friday evening, saying: “I understand Ms Darroch’s determination to get answers, and my thoughts are very much with her and others affected by the situation at QEUH.
“I hope the inquiry report, when published, will offer those affected the answers they want and deserve.
“Any suggestion that I applied pressure for the hospital to open before it was ready or that I had any knowledge of safety concerns at that time are completely untrue.
“The families who lost loved ones in the QEUH have a right to have their questions answered.
“That is why the independent public inquiry was established while I was first minister.
“The inquiry has had sight of all relevant material and has also been able to take evidence from any individual with insight or information it thought necessary for its work.”
—————————————————
So who applied the pressure to open the hospital before it was safe?
Kundi foroyskt vera upprunaliga skotska máli? ?”
(Could Faroese be the original Scots language ?). Or mayhap it was Norn. Although, despite being an English speaker myself ( at least the weegie dialect of it) I’ll settle for the welcome resurgence of Gaelic in our native land.
Sorry, Sven, too late in the day for yet another language.
Besides, Hobbit Boy beat you to it.
Regarding Norse pronunciation effects on Gaelic, the late Professor Derick Thomson wrote:
« In phonology Scottish Gaelic differs from Irish and Manx in having been influenced considerably by the Norse sound system. There is not complete agreement between scholars on this point, but it is my opinion that the Scottish Gaelic pre-aspiration (indicated here by ‘[…]’) of the consonants ‘p’, ‘t’, and ‘c’ is a Norse feature.
« Pre-aspiration — the breath which precedes these consonants after vowels, as in ‘Lea[…]pa’ (of a bed), ‘ba[…]ta’ (a stick), ‘ma[…]c’ (son) — is also found in Icelandic, in certain dialects of Norwegian, and to a certain extent in Faroese, although it is nowhere rendered in orthography.
« Among the Scottish Gaelic dialects, those of Lewis have the most ‘Scandinavian-like’ system, while the central Highlands and the Inner Hebrides often ‘exaggerate’ the pre-aspiration, making it a full consonant — causing ‘muc’ (pig) to rhyme with ‘uchd’ (breast), for instance — and some marginal dialects (the North Sea coast, the Isle of Arran) seem not to have developed pre-aspiration at all and, in this respect, are like Irish or Manx. »
(‘The Companion to Gaelic Scotland’, Ed. by Derick S. Thomson, Blackwell Reference, 1983, page 99)
My source for the following info is now lost:
« It is recorded in the Landnámabók that there were papar or culdees (Gaelic monks) in Iceland before the Norse. This appears to tie in with comments of Dicuil and is given further weight by recent archaeological discoveries. The settlement of Iceland and the Faroe Islands by the Norse would have included many Norse–Gael settlers, as well as slaves and servants. They were called Vestmen (Western men), and the name is retained in Vestmanna in the Faroes and the Vestmannaeyjar off the Icelandic mainland.
« A number of Icelandic personal names are of Gaelic origin, including Njál, Brján, Kjartan and Kormakr (from Niall, Brian, Muircheartach and Cormac). Patreksfjördur, an Icelandic village, was named after Saint Patrick. A number of placenames named after the papar exist on Iceland and the Faroes. Likewise, numerous Gaelic names are of Norse origin.
« According to some circumstantial evidence, Grímur Kamban, seen as the founder of the Norse Faroes, may have been a Norse Gael. Hann bygdi fyrstr Færeyar. The nickname Kamban could be Gaelic (cf Campbell/ Cam Beul, Cameron/ Cam Shron). Probably he came as a young man to the Faroe Islands by way of Viking Ireland. Local tradition has it that he settled at Funningur in Eysturoy.
« Scottish Gaelic and Norse have much more in common than many might realise, both in pronunciation and vocabulary (particularly sea-related terms). Here is a selection of examples (I have changed some non-standard letters to avoid them being rendered as question marks) —
OLD NORSE/ GAELIC/ ENGLISH
akkeri/ acair/ anchor
akkarsaeti/ acarsaid/ anchorage
bátr/ bàta/ boat
ármadr byrdhingr/ àrmunn birlinn/ “ship of burden”
styri/ stiùir/ rudder
tøma/ taomadh/ pour
topt/ tobhta/ (ruined) house-site
hladhamarr(vík)/ laimrig/ “landing rock”/ jetty
stallr/ stalla/ rocky shelf
boda/ bogha/ underwater rock
klett/ cleit/ rocky eminence
sker/ sgeir/ skerry
bakka/ bac/ (sand)bank
uadil/ fadhail/ ford
mol/ mol/ beach
eyland/ eilean/ island
hólmr/ tolm(an)/ islet
gjá/ geodha/ cleft
brókr/ bròg/ shoe
dorg/ dorgh/ fishing-line
torsk/ trosc/ cod
arsbag/ farspach/ gull
skarf/ sgarbh/ cormorant
baunir/ pònair/ beans
knappr/ cnaipe/ button
kr(j)úpa (to crawl)/ crùbadh/ to crouch
klofa/ clobha/ tongs
jarl/ iarla/ earl
mál/ màl/ tax or rent
vindauga/ uinneag/ window
nábúa/ nàbaidh/ neighbour
bjórr/ beóir/ beer »
a form of pre aspiration occurs in modern Welsh e,g, LL & RH & TH & CHW re the latter compare Lallans QUHA.
It might have existed in Brittonic dialects too. Not all Gaelic dialects have it apparently, Arran for example. Scholars note a Q Celtic substrate in the Scottish Gaelic language, as you are well aware, that may have impacted phonology even orthography. Irish sc>sg in Scot. The Norse impact on placenames in the West is tellingly significant of Nordification in insular dialects but Gaelic won through in the end as it did in the Viking colonies in Ireland.
Plowing through Dwelly found the following rare antique words which cognate with ArabicSemitic…BIOR a well, AILM science, FIL an elephant, ROS head cape, a few swallows do not make a summer but interesting none the less. Insular Celtic has a construct state i.e. noun +def.art. +noun similar to that found in modern Arabic and has prepositions declinable according to person e.g. SG leatha with her, ARABIC ilayha to her.
re post, should read P CELTIC not Q CELTIC
John Swinney’s party will go into the Holyrood Election with a new Chief Executive and new head of communications as long-standing press officer Fraser MacDonald is stepping down – and being replaced by Stephen Flynn’s chief adviser.
The SNP has lurched into turmoil just months out from the Holyrood Election as its chief spinner has quit – and will be replaced by a Stephen Flynn loyalist. John Swinney is gearing up for a pivotal election as a failure to win a majority of MSPs would mean the end of his independence dream for at least five years.
His party has made a swathe of major backroom changes since it was thrashed at the General Election – and lost £1m of Short money due to this. It axed 10 members of staff at SNP HQ, and have recycled through three Chief Executives, with Murray Foote going after leading them to defeat, being replaced by Carol Potter, who then stepped down so that former MP Callum McCaig could take charge.
And now there is a change at the top of the SNP’s media operation as long-serving press officer Fraser MacDonald is vacating the post he has held since 2023. He took over from former Daily Record editor Mr Foote who suddenly quit after being caught out lying to journalists about plummeting membership figures, although he blamed Peter Murrell for giving him false information.
The SNP have been leading the polls for what seems like forever and are comfortably placed to be the biggest party at HR for the 5 years after May 2026.
They’re only a single handful of seats short of a majority on the constituency vote.
There’s a lot that is looking likely to happen between now and May, and none of it is looking good for the SNP’s main opposition, Labour and Reform. The Greens are going out of fashion too, as the cold winter combines with their poverty-invoking energy policies to leave ordinary Scots skint.
All in all, it’s a brave man who would bet big against the SNP commanding HR on their own after May.
Katie Beardie had a coo,
Black and white about the mou;
Wasna that a dentie coo?
Dance, Katie Beardie
Sam;
“Katie Beardie had a coo,
Black and white about the mou;
Wasna that a dentie coo?
Dance, Katie Beardie”
======
There is another version of this bairn-rhyme:
‘Katie Beardie had a coo,
It was yellow, black and blue;
Open the gate and let her through
Dance, Katie Beardie’
Guid mornyng tae aw ye wha daunder aboot this place.
A howp ye aw hae a grand Seturday day the day and that oor Faither in Heiven sees fit tae leuk doun upon ye wi kindness in His hert… aye, and lykwise upon yer luved yins and aw yer kinfolk anaw.
Noo… let the battle fir the day begin – thaim wha are pro-independence oan here teuk the day yesterday fir shuir.
And may God smile upon His favourt folk agin the day and gie thaim wha wid see the end o a foul union the strinth and the wits tae send thair enemies doun intae the ninth circle o Hell and ther fir thaim tae keep the company o the deevil in eterne.
Morning Northy!
Sorry it’s been near 12 hours and nae cant has stirred himself to respond to your post, other than me.
You should have posted in a language we Scots can understand.
But don’t fear. I’ll always have your back when the rest of the Wingers roll their eyes and scroll past your incomprehensible efforts. Keep up the good work.
Aye, Hatey, they are a shower o cunts, right enough.
Thank fuck for you, though…
It is strange how non Scots think of the Snp compared to the majority of grass roots Scots,
In this sense non Scottish thinkers are aiming at a old target.
I presume they think that if they rid them selves of the SNP Scots will suddenly stop trying for independence,
But independence is in the heart and sole of many Scots for many centuries longer than any newbee political party,
Those that turn to the Snp as reference to a Scottish party fighting for Scottish independence are not Scots,
These are mainly people from outwith, tainted in delusion, and those that hold power to control the votes in Scotland.
As Boris Jonson said after investigations the 2014 Scottish referendum was interfered with, (so not a accurate Scots vote)
But Westminster are to sh@t scared to re run it at the same.
Even with – allowed – interference, it came too close for comfort for Westminster.
And the laws of Englands Great Britain are still as corrupt today.
So it was settled and quickly accepted as the will of the Scottish people by Westminster.
Which via their own admittance was not true.
And they think the Snp are new management team for control of Scotland.
But the Scots are well aware of this deceit. And are not voting them in, the interference derives from other quarters as usual.
“It is strange how non Scots think of the Snp …”
As if James knows how the rest of the world thinks!
90% of non-Scots (in the real world, at least) are barely aware Scotland exists. Most aren’t even aware the SNP exists, let alone what it stands for.
Many commenters to Wings seem to be under the delusion that the world revolves around them, their causes, and Scotland’s politics. It doesn’t.
@ CYNICUS
much thanks for the Ubykh link. fascinating the varieties of human expression, our humanity is depleted when these forms cease to function.
Save our Languages!
The illegal governance of Scotland as a Scottish parliament or any parties sitting therein comes from the parliament England,
due to Scotland not being in a treaty with the parliament of Great Britain.
And Englands treaty with scotland being incomplete.
It takes a little while for the Scottish people to realise that they an independent Country.
A book for you, Northcode?
Scots in Decline? The Modern Age A History of the Scots Language
Author: Robert McColl 0Millar
Here is the abstract.
“Abstract
Due to changes in politics, culture, and economics of Scotland, Scots was replaced by English as the primary written medium in the country during the course of the seventeenth century. Almost all Scots who did not have Gaelic as their primary medium remained Scots speakers well into the eighteenth century, however. As part, to a considerable extent, of the Enlightenment experiment, the urban upper middle classes, and their imitators among the urban lower middle classes, began to abandon their native vernacular for Standard English. This change was broadcast to their imitators in other parts of Scotland but was never complete. Scottish Standard English comes into being during this period. Changes in agricultural practice and technological developments at this time led to the urbanization and industrialization of a large part of the country’s population. From early on in the nineteenth century, however, language attitudes developed among the middle classes which celebrated rural dialects while stressing the ‘slovenly’ nature of the urban. These prejudices continue to be held and have fed into education policy for the country. Increasing number of middle-class Scots abandoned their native variety in favour of English. To a considerable extent Scots became a class-based dialect. The chapter concludes with a discussion of language policy in the wake of devolution. Discussion of the plantation of Scots speakers in Ulster in the seventeenth century and later language use in those regions is also given.”
Thanks, Sam… I don’t have this one and it looks interesting. I’ll have a read and let you know what I think.
Here’s another interestiing book about the Scots, Sam
How the Scots Invented the Modern World:
(The True Story of How Western Europe’s Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It) – by Arthur Herman
Aye, the Scots dwarf England, and the rest of the world anaw, when it comes to wit, humour, inventiveness, genius, and… well, everything else… with a couple of exceptions.
England, for instance, easily surpasses the Scots when it comes to thuggery and theft.
Thanks, Northcode. I’ll mind that.
Houaniver.
Timeline of the Scots Language
Since 1700
MODERN SCOTS PERIOD 1700 to Present, subdivided into:
Language scholars have not usually subdivided Modern Scots into periods, but given the differences between 18th and 21st century speech, and the various changes that have occurred over the past 300 years, we suggest the following useful subdivisions.
Early Modern Scots AD 1700-1845
In this period Scots was redefined as ‘provincial dialect’ for the purposes of the political union with England. The vast majority of people continued to speak, and occasionally write in Scots, but the Scottish elite increasingly shifted to English in order to be accepted by the new ruling class in London.
1703 Reverend James Kirkwood makes the complaint that ‘in our English Bibles there are several hundred words and phrases not vulgarly used nor understood by a great many in Scotland’, meaning Scot speakers.
1707 Treaty of Union ends Scottish independence. Scots-speaking politicians must now sit in a parliament in London and are mocked by the English because of their language.”
The wokists in Scotland are the pretendy Scottish government.
They are the ones that believe in this ideology cult, they are the ones fignting the nurses, propagandering the sources to councils, lawyers, judges and unions,
They could simply ban it in Scotland, instead they promote it,
The sooner that establishment of the Westminster parliament of England is removed from Scotland the sooner we can elect a Sovereign Scots Peoples parliament in Scotland.
North code.
Did you know that one of the first revision of Scots laws was because the applied implications (as a excuse ) that the language of Scots could not be understood in Westminster parliament in England by its members of parliament?
I did not know that, James. Thanks for enlightening me.
And the Scots speakers in the English parliament were laughed at.
However, Elizabeth I did not scorn Scots language. She understood and used it in speech and written correspondence with Scottish nobles and with Mary, Queen of Scots.
SCOTLAND….THE LAND THAT SEEKS TO DIE.
link to archive.is
quite funny –
link to youtube.com
link to youtube.com
accurate depiction of the sterility (on all aspects) of protestantism; but this heresy is dead on its feet anyway … bye bye
no one ever used the phrase “demographic crisis” in them days, and the idea of non-replacement birthrates (it’s 1.4 and you need 2.2) and thus a -need- for mass migration, was never thought of.
So, who was right, in the end? So, feminism would empower women, and with the tools of the pill, contraception, abortion – they would all make rational decisions about reproductive health … and now we have a generation of used up old hoors, barren old crones, well past the wall, screaming on tiktok and instagram that men don’t want them anymore and how difficult it is to get pregnant, for the first time, at 47 … so you went slut, harridan, cat lady and bag lady – is that not what you wanted?
Women have been sold a “bill of goods”, a con trick, which they only work out when it is too late. Looks like the old “draconian” rules, morality and social stigma about young women and their behaviours (opening their legs as if spring loaded to every ‘rong-un who passes by) – actually were good things, after all.
Doesn’t half make you feel foolish; shame is not something modern people can tolerate – it requires humility, shutting your fucking mouth, learning the lesson – and in a narcissistic culture this feels worse then murder. So they “double down”.
link to archive.ph
so where do you get all the people you need now?
Confused says: so where do you get all the people you need now.?
Dont know- but referring to women as hoors and crones sure wont help.
Why not start with actually asking women how many women they are willing to carry during their own life times and require men to otherwise ‘keep it in their trousers’.
Confused writes on humility and shutting your fucking mouth.
Sorry, words fail.
North Code.
The picts were one of the original indigenous populations of Scotland, then came the influx from Ireland of Scots, which was north and north east- Scotland.
The English version of the north- north/ East pictish language mainly originally differing from other parts of Scotland was to class it as Doric language, but fail to explain why this does not apply to the lowlands of Scotland or the West coast of Scotland and the highlands.
I believe that the gaels and gaelic language was in line or not soon afterwards in many other parts of Scotland where I was bought up,
It is the Irish/Scots language that the pretendy parliament of Scotland in particular have recently recognised as the Scots language which was a later date.
so trump spills the beans again, giving us truth
british troops in the afghan were cowardly shites driving convertibles and watching the sky tv, playing minesweeper and having a crafty wank on the porntubes when fit american lads were bayonetting the pathans
– what next?
tell us the british “nukes” are a rental, and we don’t have the codes
Has anyone asked the taliban?
no one even had the balls to chide the yanks for turning up to ww2 – 2 YEARS LATE, which was better than WW1 where they were 3
in ww2 : when the germans shot, the british ducked – when the british shot, the germans ducked – when the americans shot, everyone ducked
but in the lie, also lies a truth : britain is an irrelevant ex empire that derives ANY prominence it has in the world by riding on the coat tails of america, creating this “special relationship” with america which is “only real in its own mind”. America has only one special relationship and it’s not britain.
euro leaders are too dumb and chicken shit to play the uber shitlord at its own game :
USA pays for our defence ? – yes, your generosity is too much, we need to disband NATO and you need to take home all your weaponry and shut down your bases
– we cannot be shamed by your generosity any longer … please america stop spending money on us
It is truly outrageous how fickle Donald Trump and his administration are and how they can turn on longstanding friends and allies.
Afghanistan was an imperial disaster. An adventure in which the west lost. But to now say that the UK stood back far from the front line is an utter lie.
Respectively the US, the UK and Denmark have populations of – 341,960k, 69,786k, and 5,900k
Against these populations the foregoing countries lost the following numbers of military – 2,000, 457 and 62.
And so if you do the maths the US and UK lost exactly the same percentage of soldiers killed. ( 1 in 155 and 1 in 152) Denmark in comparison lost 1 soldier out of ever 113 Danes.
So what the absolute offensive bullshit is Trump talking. This guy would turn on his late mother. He is a scum bag that cannot be trusted.
Of course if he cared to look at Germany he would see that they lost 59 soldiers out of a population of 84,120k – or 1 in 1,425 of population.
Anyway, the message is that Trump would screw his granny. Canada found that out, Great Britain has found that out, and Denmark has found that out too – and they were supposed friends.
“… which was better than WW1 where they were 3”
Aye and it took them six months to organise themselves fully so they took no major part until the last five months.
As for Trump, he believes he’s God (big and shiny, the biggest God ever) and lives in Hollywood.
The world’s greatest living half-Scotsman (lol) has backtracked on his offensive lies – trouble is the dough ball has already told us all exactly what he really thinks. Jog on Donnie.
worth watching all the way, at least till the UN guy explains the scam
link to youtube.com
– it bears pointing out that an “independent Scotland” will be a worthless exercise if there are no actual Scots to live in it
Billy Kay on page 52 (kindle version) of his ‘Mither Tongue” book states that “Scots is descended from Northumbrian.”
However, if some cite “Pictish DNA” (not so Billy Kay) as prime reason for championing it, that logic seems not to compute.
If this is then followed up by a visceral hatred of Scottish Gaelic, despite the latter being very closely related to Pictish, we have a further non sequitur.
The above-mentioned book does however provide a clue, given the tenor of its reiteration of the traditional view of the demise of Pictish:
« It is the same today as it was when Gaelic was devouring Pictish, Norse and Welsh in its aggressive expansion out of its original western settlement….Kenneth MacAlpin crushed Pictish resistance in the mid-ninth century and absorbed the Picts into his kingdom of Alba, or Scotland. » (page 50)
Since Billy Kay (honourably) wrote that academic research has become more ambivalent about the history.
But even were it true, obsessive Gaelic-hating support for Pictish (of which mere vestiges are extant) by proponents of a Northumbrian-rooted language remains baffling. And focus on Pictish DNA (a non-linguistic proof) makes it no less bewildering.
Any DNA validation at all for modern “Scottishness” is of course untenable (alarming indeed), particularly so if atavistically invoking an indigenous Neolithic or Ice-Age origin.
For anyone seriously investigating Pictish, a good resource online is the 2015 PhD thesis by Guto Rhys (329 page pdf) —
‘APPROACHING THE PICTISH LANGUAGE: HISTORIOGRAPHY, EARLY EVIDENCE AND THE QUESTION OF PRITENIC.’
« 1.5 As we enter more deeply into the Enlightenment little credence was given to early origin myths, and a new critical approach, based on evidence and reason, emerged. The Picts were sometimes pressed into service to validate the personal and political agendas, or bias, of involved parties. Some Scots-speaking Lowlanders were placed in a quandary; just how Celtic should they consider themselves? Buying in to a Gaelic past would involve equating themselves with tribal, highland barbarians who were moreover descended from immigrant Irish, whose adherence to Catholicism in recent centuries evoked alarm. Imagining themselves as immigrant Saxons involved the danger of delegitimizing their claim, as first holders, to occupy and rule the land. Finding the means to portray Lowlanders as indigenous, in particular if this could trump Gaelic claims to the linguistically anglicised east, had great appeal.
« The Picts, details of whose language and culture were gradually emerging from the murky past, were becoming objects of increasing interest. They had left very little in terms of concrete evidence of their identity and they were ‘convenient blank sheets on which almost any tale could be written’ (Ferguson 1998, 185). »
link to theses.gla.ac.uk
Lallans speaking Scots settling in Orkney & Shetland aka Hjatland eventually ousted the local Norse, athough it survived long enough as a folk tongue until the 17c.
The hybrid Shetlandic is the result.
The last official document from the region I understand was written in Danish.
You do live in a fascinating country underneath all that British blether.
link to theconversation.com
“..Recent studies of ancient DNA have revealed waves of migration into Britain from regions that are now in France during the late bronze age and to a lesser extent, the iron age. These movements of people were not visible to archaeologists.
Of course, you cannot guess someone’s language from their genes. But these migrations provide a plausible vehicle by which Celtic speech may have arrived in Britain. And a recent study has shown that Pytheas, in the fourth century BC, placed Celts in Britain.
When taken together, these findings may support the old idea that Celtic languages were brought to the islands by migrating Celts after all. It’s certainly an exciting time to be studying ancient Celtic in Britain and Ireland.
This is the backdrop to new research underway by myself and colleagues at Aberystwyth University. We are gathering every surviving piece of evidence for early Celtic languages in Britain and Ireland before around 500AD. We shall compile the first comprehensive dictionary of the ancient Celtic languages of these islands.”
“…if some cite “Pictish DNA” (not so Billy Kay) as prime reason for championing it [Scots?], that logic seems not to compute.”
Of course that ‘logic’ doesn’t compute… it’s a stupid notion.
Who cited Pictish DNA as a prime reason for championing the Scots leid, by the way? I want names.
“If this is then followed up by a visceral hatred of Scottish Gaelic…”
Where’s the proof for the assertion that Scottish Gaelic is hated [it isn’t stated who by]… and viscerally so, tae. I want names.
“… despite the latter [Scottish Gaelic] being very closely related to Pictish…”
It’s impossible to link Scottish Gaelic to the language of the Picts because no-one alive today has much of a clue as to what that language was, although scholars seem to agree on the theory that it was based on some ancient version of an extinct Brittonic Celtic language .
Scottish Gaelic is derived from Goidelic Celtic, which is distinct from Brittonic Celtic.
The Picts left no trace of their language beyond a few place names.
The Scots leid is NOT derived from the Pictish language – whatever that language looked and sounded like – because Scots has a very different origin from the language of the Picts WHICH IS EXTINCT AND UNKNOWN.
Billy Kay isn’t saying that Pictish is the mither tongue of the Scots… he’s saying that Scots is the mither tongue of the Scots.
Pax tecum.
“Quhen he spak all cessyt”
(Virgil’s AENEID, translated by Gavin Douglas, 1513)
Meant to add this link to the online text:
VIRGIL’S AENEID, TRANSLATED BY GAVIN DOUGLAS (1513)
link to gutenberg.org
“Pax tecum”
Et cum spiritu tuo.
“An quhen all cessyt he spak”
Thanks for the link, Fearghas.
Following the archaeology of pictish digs, there is a pattern that implies the territorial boundaries and scope of pictland, i like evedence that can be asserted by investigation methods rather than that of somebodies colourful guess work perhaps a thousand or so years later.
For blood has specific markers both mater and pater for DNA, and I find it rather strange that they state there is no DNA available for pictish blood. And wonder how that claim can be made if they have nothing to compare it to.
If mixed with the other indigenous ancient populations of Scotland, or vise versa.
I believe it was the Romans that stated that the picts joined forces and came together as calidonian tribes to fight the romans.
It was also the romans that named then Scotti,
Prior to Kenneth MacAlpines time line.
I have no doubt that these tribes of Scotland and the pictish people had inter- relationship perhaps prior to the Roman period as trade was known between them by finds discovered at archaeological digs and pictish sites
A lot of pictish sites also contain flint which is not commonly found stone in the north and north east of Scotland.
The language domain is primordial in the development of what we may call the human as compared to the animal part of our makeup. We communicate in a variety of ways. Each «way» has something distinct in its linguistic worldview.
The more research the more the Scottish identity becomes fuzzy, illusive, mythic, interesting and politically rather malleable.
link to en.wikipedia.org
The first human settlers in what is today the island of Ireland may have come via present day Scotland and the European mainland during the mesolithic period crossing an ice bridge linking the two.
Picts, a confected Roman name (painted, naked men in Scotland’s climate ?) are conjectured to have settled in the north of Ireland, though the lack of «Pictish» toponyms as encountered in modern Scotland challenges that, although some NI Unionists believe the story.
Very little, not carved in stone, survives of Scotland’s pre modern heritage. The peoples of Scotland/Alba/ Caledonia were literate although much of the evidence for that probably went up in flames during wars both political and religious. This may explain why nothing in the Brittonic languages, said to have survived into the 11c, is extant.
It seems Scotland’s early history has to be sought elsewhere in old Welsh, old Irish, late Latin, old Norse and old English.
The war band of Mynyddawg Mwynfawr went forth from Din Eidyn, together with men of the Picts and men of Alt Clud, to challenge the Saxon at Catraeth……sadly they lost, ref. Y Gododdin, stuff of stirring high romance though.
William Wallace, William walas ie Welsh or foreigner, a possible link to the Men of the North.
Wow, what a fascinating country (or a bunch of countries)
link to old-north.co.uk
if you compose text offline then paste and post, do you get moderated?
it does seem so.
Not for me I have done it many times.
(Maybe add a few spaces after your paste)
As ‘a fowk’s’ langage is a determinant o the identity o the ‘fowk’ wha speak hit, it staunds tae reason that aw fowk shoud ettle tae maistly (tho nivver anely) lairn tae speak the langage whit defines thair ain identity, e.g.:
‘Scots’ for Scots-identifying fowk
English for English-identifying fowk
Gaelic for Gael-identifying fowk
Language is a human richt which means a people should not be preventit fae lairnin thair ain langage, and the Scots continue to be doun-hauden in this regard.
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
It is rather more complicated.
link to media.scotslanguage.com
1720’s Introduction to Scotland of the New Method of teaching English based directly on English models of accent and language.
1722 William Starrat is the earliest known Ulster poet writing in Scots.
1724 Allan Ramsay’s (1686-1758) Tea Table Miscellany sparks revival of interest among the Scottish elite in poetry and songs in Scots. He is the first to give Scots the alternative name Doric.
1746 Death of Lady Grisel Baillie (1665-1746) noted songwriter in Scots.
c.1750 The rise of the Moderate Party in the Church of Scotland leads to a decline in preaching in Scots in favour of English.
1754 The Select Society established in Edinburgh, which, among other things, aims to promote the reading and speaking of the English language
Its not that complicated at all. What you are describing are merely various forms of Cultural Imperialism.
Language is one of the main factors that serves to define and unite a nation, reflecting the fact that language gives people their identity.
Take away a ‘peoples’ language you take away their identity, which is the brutal objective of Cultural Imperialism and colonial oppression.
There are endless examples of this process, of which Scotland is but one, and where Cultural and Linguistic Imperialism still prevails, even with a supposedly nationalist government.
You tell me whoever it was prevented you from learning Scots, Alf, and as one, Wings BTL will seek them out and call them a cant to their face.
Bet there was nobody prevented you, or anybody else. Just as there is nobody preventing you from vowing to speak and write nothing but Scots until your dying day.
What you just can’t stand is the realisation that the vast majority of Scots don’t give a shit.
And likely never will.
“You tell me whoever it was prevented you from learning Scots”
First nursery school, then primary school, followed by secondary school.
Which means the educational authorities and institutions and the governments who fund them and determine education policies – such as including (or excluding in the case of Scots) the teaching of a language on the curriculum up to Higher level in schools, and at degree level in universities.
This Scots language discrimination is still in force today, unlike state-funded and compulsory teaching provision for English, and Gaelic, plus several other taught ‘foreign’ languages.
Get a grip, Alf. That’s not “preventing” in any meaningful sense of the word.
As for the ludicrous idea that any young Scot should aim to graduate from university with a degree in Scots and then expect to succeed in the world.
That just suggests a new joke:
What’s Scots for “Would you like fries with that?”
“As for the ludicrous idea that any young Scot should aim to graduate from university with a degree in Scots and then expect to succeed in the world.”
Aye, colonial racism, internal or external, aye comes tae the fore. Colonialism depends on ‘de-basing the colonized’ (Memmi), as you well demonstrate here.
All you need do here is change the name ‘Scots’ for any other independent nation’s national language that you ask them to forfeit and disregard and you might see the nonsense and ‘hateful racism’ (Cesaire) of your comment.
Get a grip, Alf.
Why don’t you demand that the citizens of Venezuela, say, stop speaking Spanish? Brazil now. Shouldn’t they decolonise and abandon Portugese?
I note you’ve swerved two of my questions now.
Who in Scotland really gives a shit about speaking Scots, apart from the few who think like you? Why not make it an election policy? Let us Scots deliver our verdict in the ballot box?
And what is the Scots for “Would you like fries with that?”
“Who in Scotland really gives a shit about speaking Scots, apart from the few who think like you?”
Oor name be legyowne… fir wi be mony.
“Get a grip, Alf.
Why don’t you demand that the citizens of Venezuela, say, stop speaking Spanish? Brazil now. Shouldn’t they decolonise and abandon Portugese? ”
Aye! and Alf’s next project ?
…making the USA speak apache, comanche, sioux….et al
@Alf – do you not feel that you are perpetuating the subjugation of Scotland by continuing to converse in the language of the coloniser rather than Scots?
“the few who think like you?”
As we know, “colonialism is based on psychology” (Memmi).
At least half of Scots now seeking liberation might be said to be in the recovery phase of the ‘colonial condition’, realising the colonial and cultural hoax played on them, to some extent.
This ‘condition’ includes dependency complex and internalised racism extending to ‘self-hatred’ of native culture, language etc, much as we see in your and other btl racist comments.
So you are right, there is an explanation why some Scots do not ‘think like me’ and who still reject their own freedom; but what you fail to understand is that this ‘mindset’ is due to colonialism and its effects on the minds of an oppressed people:
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
On indigenous language teaching, you would no doubt also tell the Norwegians, Swedes, Finns and Danes etc to no longer teach their bairns thair ain national languages. But in the unlikely event they took your advice their peoples would also ‘become over time something else’ (Memmi); just like the Scots and other colonised peoples when their ain language is replaced, and their identity replaced with it.
Sure, Alf, it’s racism that I don’t want to lose my livelihood because I’m not fluent in one of Scotland’s minority languages.
Could it be fascism too? I seem to recall you making that claim.
And that’s interesting because that’s how our dearly beloved national Mammie referred to those sceptical of her gender woowoo – racists and fascists.
You’re moving in exalted circles now, Alf. Us ordinary Scots, who simply want to be left in peace to speak, read and write the language of the Scottish majority – English – must learn to go quietly into history’s dustbin. Alongside the ordinary Scots who ken fit a woman is.
What you on the Baird/Northy axis really do need to do though, is develop the courage of your convictions. Tae hell wi yer posts in the lying tongue of the coloniser.
Post always and only in Scots, Alf. Lead from the front. Set us all an example.
Inspire us to teach ourselves Scots.
Chagos Islands,
Thank goodness that Trump is stopping the financial fraud of funneling tax payers money out of Britain,
Foreign policies of Britain is handing out large sums of yours and mine money to just about every Country around the world that you will never see again.
While we have high energy prices, high housing prices, and Britain feeds immigratation and hotel and housing costs,
Foreign policy has already sent million of tax payers money to proxy wars we claim we are not in,
If Britain wants to throw you money out the door and you agree to that, fair play,
But I don’t agree to us being the bread basket for everyone else, or a ATM machine, not while veterans sleep on the streets, and people are on waiting list for up to five years and the medical service of the NHS keeps people in corridors from anything from 2 hours – 24 hours. And you cannot get doctors appointments
The fraudulent funneling of finances of tax payers mony out of the Country has to Stop, if these governments teach you anything about money expenditure it is that they dont care for people suffering at home while they disperse tax finances to everyone else.
If labour, tories and the scottish governance are thinking these things up we havento say no enough is enough,
Thank god that Trump may have saved you billons of pounds in a free giveaway by Stamer of your money.
The more extensive the research the more Scottishness per se becomes fuzzy, illusive, mythic, interesting and politically quite malleable.
The first human settlers in what is today the island of Ireland may have come via present day Scotland and the European mainland during the mesolithic period crossing an ice bridge linking the two.
Picts, a confected Roman name (painted, naked men in Scotland’s climate ?) are conjectured to have settled in the north of Ireland, though the lack of «Pictish» toponyms as encountered in modern Scotland challenges that, although some NI Unionists believe the story.
Very little, not carved in stone, survives of Scotland’s pre modern heritage. The peoples of Scotland/Alba/ Caledonia were literate although much of the evidence for that probably went up in flames during wars both political and religious. This may explain why nothing in the Brittonic languages, said to have survived into the 11c, is extant.
It seems Scotland’s early history has to be sought elsewhere in old Welsh, old Irish, late Latin, old Norse and old English.
The war band of Mynyddawg Mwynfawr went forth from Din Eidyn, together with men of the Picts and men of Alt Clud, to challenge the Saxon at Catraeth……sadly they lost, ref. Y Gododdin, stuff of stirring high romance though.
William Wallace, William walas ie Welsh or foreigner, a certain link to the Men of the North.
Wow, what a fascinating country (or a bunch of countries)
Just a thought…why are the online introductory pages of DSL all in English?
Why does the DSL effectively treat the language it curates as dead?
Why does it treat Scottish English as «Scots» . Why does it persist in calling a language «Scots» when Lallans, modelled on the name Nederlands or Afrikaans would be a better term given that the Scots were Celts from Ireland.
Who runs the show? Foustie conservatifis ? What is their politics? A modern dictionary for the 21st century….airtifeicial inteligens and all that stuff.
Linguistic archeologists, collectors of old things, stuffy ancient academics, enthusiastic backward looking amateurs?
Couthie an sonsie the kailyaird ruilis dhe discours.
Have a good evening.
Scotland requires so much more than this museum mentality.
Ermmm…
Last time I checked, Lowland Scots a.k.a Lallans, or synthetic (modern) Scots, isn’t the only dialect of Scots with which the DSL concerns itself. You’ll also find Northeast Scots a.k.a Doric, and various words from the four “central” dialects and also the southern dialect.
“…why are the online introductory pages of DSL all in English?”
Whit leid sud thae be dae ye think?
“Why does it [DSL] persist in calling a language «Scots» when Lallans, modelled on the name Nederlands or Afrikaans would be a better term…”
Just a wild guess, but… and bear wi me here, mibbe it’s because Scots is the language of the Scots who live in a country called Scotland and who are Scottish?
“Scotland requires so much more than this museum mentality.”
Whit daes Scotlan neid sae much mair o dae ye think?
Independence, perhaps?
Leeberatioun fae bein doun hauden by a furrin pouer, mibbe?
Juist a thocht…
My view is that the DSL is a fantastic resource for Scots and can only get better as mair Scots discover and use it tae help them recover their ain language.
A language that has been suppressed by a furrin pouer for more than three hundered years; it’s a wonder theirs any trace of it left at aw and that mair than 40% of indigenous Scots claim tae still speak it.
“theirs “
Aye, a ken.
Great post, Northy.
See that “theirs” in your last sentence? Is that the Scots leid richt their?
Always keen tae learn, Northy.
And BTW. Your figure of 40% is wrang, Northy. 100% of True Scots speak Scots. How could it be otherwise?
“hundered “
Aye, a ken aboot that yin anaw. Whit am a like the day?
A’m aw flustered because nane o youse oan here wished me a guid mornin’ this mornyng – except Hatey… and e’en thon wis 12 oors late.
Thank fuck fir Hatey, tho…
@TURABDIN
You just don’t get it. Scots invented the modern world.
Only, the “modern” world our ancestors invented was the world that existed a century ago. Many of the regulars on here want nothing less than that Scotland stays permanently in 1926.
Cherish the gifts of the past, but do not overlay those gifts with personal additions.
Give the gifts room to be what they are in space and time.
Modernity and the past, i can embrace both without any hurt to my «soul».
Just watched the latest citizen of Minnesota beaten to the ground by ICE agents and then dispatched with some 10 bullets as his body went limp.
And guess what he was an American citizen. Just like the US cop brutalised the other day until it was realised she was a cop. Or just like the mother shot I her career.
For all of the really mouth here in Scotland who stand idly by unconcerned about the innocent peaceful and typically elderly folks arrested on terrorism charges for.expressing anodyne support for Palestine, they shstate. ould all be concerned how easily it is for renegade state to emerge.
Scotland, the UK is moving down that road. Make no mistake. It is a reality. Trials without jury. Political prosecution. Its all in play.
Aye, Willie, what’s the world coming to, eh? You can’t even threaten armed cops with your own handgun any more in the USA.
And in this country, you can’t even sabotage aircraft any more without some kind of draconian over response. Everybody should have the right to down at least one aircraft while still young and stupid. It’s only fair.
Have you thought of going on hunger strike? I’d support you on that.
Aye, there’s Wee Adolf McHateface reliable as ever. Wee Adolf, I’ve got to say it, It’d be a first for me and many others to see any US cop or four wrestling a man with a gun to the ground and you know well that’s not how it works. Usually it’s a case of guns out and let rip even on people holding telephones or toys, gunless toyless and telephoneless people making a run for it too.
Your ‘fighting friends’ in the east are certainly stupid, (and evil) I don’t know their ages though. They managed to shoot a full passenger plane down and then blamed a big boy who ran away.
The yanks managed to shoot a full passenger plane down too about two decades ago, a missile or two from one of their security and human rights ships. I believe the crew were awarded medals as well. Again I don’t know how old they were but they were certainly more evil than stupid.
Hunger strikers? What news have you been reading? The media here has barely mentioned that. It’s like they don’t want people to know anything about it, fancy that eh.
Well now, on you go and say something stupid or denigrating. Feel free but consider throwing something out of your pram first, it’d be less embarrassing than your usual ranting.
Say something stupid or denigrating.
Sure, how about “Wee Adolf”, will that do?
The use of troops to intimidate and kill protestors in Minnesota is now very much beginning to resemble the actions of British troops in Northern Ireland.
Bloody Sunday or the Balmurphy estate in Belfast are what government’s do when they want to suppress political opposition.
And although we have not yet seen such overt violence and brutality on the mainland UK, it most certainly waits in the wings as we slide down an ever more authoritarian path with the mass arrest of peaceful protestors, the removal of juries and the ever more politically biased policing and prosecution. Lord Diplock and Brig General Sir Frank Kitson would be proud.
Change is underway and it is not for the better. Time that folks fully woke up to what is going on in this faux democracy where people rights are being trampled on an every increasing basis.
Crikey, if we can’t even hold referendum to vote on independence. But at least thus far we’ve missed the NI government violence and intimidation.
What happens when governments choose to finally implement border control, Willie, and people choose to try to stop authorised public servants doing their jobs? After a democratic election when citizens said enough already of the illegals – send them back.
Keeping it pertinent to Scotland, every illegal in the country likely came from France, a country so safe and stable that tens of thousands of Scots will holiday there in 2026. What, precisely, is your problem? Is it that snails and garlic give you the boak? What about the excellent coffee?
As for holding a referendum on Indy, the plebiscitary process remains as open now as it ever was. Not anybody’s fault but the idle, useless, self-identifying pro-Indy cants who can’t be arsed to organise and stand for election.
You’ve got a greet and a gurn for every occasion, Willie. The root cause of your misery is your expectation that if you just sit with your hand out for long enough, somebody will give you everything you want for free.
Another thoroughly objectionable post by commentator Hatey.
Rather than address issues being raised this commentator goes into personal attack making comment unrelated to topics being discussed. Coat trailing, personal and objectionable his modus operandi.
This is not acceptable comment Rev Stu. It is pure invented invective and abuse.
Hey Wee Adolf, can’t you spell ‘cunt’?
They’re not doing their jobs. They’re murdering people in cold blood.
Sure, Willie. When you encounter an opinion you disagree with, then that’s abuse.
I don’t mind so much that this kind of pathetic pearl clutching is symptomatic of those on the left, and thus by extension, a sizeable chunk of the Indy grass roots.
But it certainly gets my goat that it’s kinda associated too with Scotland and the Scots in general. As a nation and people, we used to be so much better than this.
The idea that an Independent Scotland could be represented on a hostile world stage by chuntering sulks who throw a hissy fit in first response to anything contrary to their world view is beyond parody.
@Marie
Calm down dear. It’s a white guy got killed.
No boxes ticked. Nothing to see here.
Even the previous victim, a “mom” in a same-sex relationship, failed to reach the threshold for real, faux agitation. Regrettably, still white. Still from the Christian culture.
So what chance a white, heterosexual male?
If ICE take down a minority type, or one of the religion if peace, then it’ll all kick off. You can get out on the streets here too. It’ll be Floyd all over again, but this time seasoned with TDS.
You’re gonna enjoy it a lot more when the weather improves, so just bide your time.
“Prick”.
Un mot pour nous tous les vieillards…
Dominique de Villepin:
LA MORT D’IVAN ILITCH – PAR LÉON TOLSTOÏ
link to youtube.com
The question is who is funding all the disruptions,
From just stop oil,
Black lives matter,
Antifa,
Gender ideology
Climate change ideology
Immigration,
Or perversion against women and children.
And regular protesters that never seem to be at work or earning a high wage.
If we use common sense and realise Its not about one subject or topic it is about causing mayhem in public and dividing people.
Who and where do the finances come from to create so many disruptions to all our lives on such regularity, and why does it spread ( like a disease of the mind ) from town to town, city to city, and country to country so easily,
Someone provides the fossil fuel transport, someone makes the arrangements, someone provides the clothing, gear and glue or paint, and there is always someone as a leader available to stir it up to use a situation as leverage. Always a convenient method of broadcasting in the ready that aims to inflame without media bias?
Mmmm.
Who’ is being played? Who is the useful tool.
There are plenty of studies done on how to use psychology as psyops
How many people are fallen prey to these multiple provided situations of psychological conditioning..
I think You tube needs to work on its targeted ads as while watching a quite impressive often foul mouthed article about the latest Ice murder of a US citizen an advert trying to get me to holiday in the USA popped up. Not very likely and if this continues it will be interesting to see how the world cup plays out.
C’moan, noo, it’s a foregone conclusion.
Scotland will win bigly and return home, dripping with gold.
And now we can add AI imaging into the mix for confusing the narrative and directional purpose of goal.
Should we just accept all the turmoil and chaos happening simultaniosly around the world or should we question why?
The mind that is curious enough to apply questions to serious events is seldom a useful tool.
“The mind that is curious enough to apply questions to serious events is seldom a useful tool.”
I’m maybe misunderstanding this “James”, however would a curious mind not be often a useful tool ?
Can’t really say it’s much of a surprise that in the US if you aim a car or a handgun at a uniformed Federal Officer someone gets injured or dies. But then, if all your views of any legal authority are hammers, all their responses will appear as nails.
And none of it advances Scottish independence one whit.
And none of what you write in the first two lines happened.
Exactly. Why do people think using lies to justify an argument will work? We have all seen the videos and most of us do not buy into the Orwellian idea of being told to not believe the evidence of our own eyes, and obeying the command.
Sven says:
25 January, 2026 at 11:27 am
Can’t really say it’s much of a surprise that in the US if you aim a car or a handgun at a uniformed Federal Officer someone gets injured or dies.
———————————-
There are numerous live video recordings that prove neither of those things are true.
Here’s a question, x.
Is it true that with widely available apps, it’s possible to make all protagonists involved in both shootings look like they were wearing bikinis?
[Hint: it is true].
Wise, alert people who weren’t at the scene might wish to consider what image processing technology is capable of in 2026.
I’ll leave you to determine if you fall into that group.
As an enthusiast for the potential of so called Artificial Intelligence i link to the following
article on an aspect of that potential.
link to unite.ai
The last para. says it all.
Sven,
That very question you asked of the messenger rather than of the message is exactly how modern psyops works,
It allows one to continue along a chosen path without being curious about the bigger picture, it is self limiting.
I took for granted maybe ones discernment own morals and code of conduct needed of others – ultimately common sense not to pour petrol on a already burning fire.
Sorry “James”, please bear with an old duffer, I’m still not clear on if you feel being curious enough to question serious events is not useful ? Surely if they aren’t questioned we just finish up accepting whatever we’re told.
Your own “curious mind” has led to much information being posted on this site because you have questioned the serious event of the union of the Crowns and subsequent events. In what way is an inquiring (and astute) mind such as your own “seldom a useful tool”, I’m just not following you yet on this one, sorry.
TURABDIN,
AI as a assist tool in language is interesting, rather than attaining a higher intellectual grade than humans themselves whom speak the actual language.
It actually brings us full circle to what ” Stu has been posting recently here ” on judgements of the legal kind, where AI has been generated in place of humans first, original thought and attention to learning being laid aside and on judgements in trial of all kinds,
It can assist for the benefit of humans or it becomes dangerous to humans depends an awful lot on whose using it with ulterior motives.
Thanks for posting the link TURABDIN.
AI is neutral, it is sophisticated technology, but like the simple pencil it may be used to produce the sublime or to stick in someones eye.
The collection of data on the various forms & iterations of a subject is key. AI has no subjective prejudices other than those of the guys doing the training.
The latter, of course, is where the human element needs to be on qui vive.
mair regairdand dhe quaestioun o langage restorans.
link to lingodigest.com
given the right tools, imagination, invention, the appropriate «can do»mindset and now with help of AI…the limiting factor is only stubborn personal prejudice.
‘When a Language Won’t Awaken: The Hard Truths of Linguistic Revitalization’
Thanks TURABDIN for the link to this essentially sound, realistic article. Regarding Irish it says:
« The Irish language (Gaeilge) is a powerful, if complicated, example. It is an official language of Ireland and the EU, and it has been a mandatory subject in Irish schools for decades. Almost every Irish person has some knowledge of it. Yet, for the vast majority, its use is confined to school memories. Outside of the designated Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking) regions, you are far more likely to hear Polish or Portuguese on the streets of Dublin than Irish. DESPITE MASSIVE STATE SUPPORT*, bridging the chasm from academic subject to living, breathing community tongue remains an immense challenge. »
*IN THE REAL WORLD…
The reality is that what is “massive” is the cynicism of the Irish State – which undoubtedly wants Irish dead. The original requirement of proficiency in Irish for entry to the Civil Service has been long dropped. To stop people using Irish-spelled names, The Post Office have used the ridiculous pretext that their computer system can’t handle accent marks. The education system gives a ready exemption from studying Irish if they simply claim “dyslexia”. (Many go on to do German instead.) Governments buy a few years peace by setting up strategy groups to plan for revival, but when ready to be implemented the funding is needed elsewhere (as it were). Europe has arguably done more for Irish than the Irish State. Of course every stalling decade which passes loses another school-generation. The Irish government recently refused to allow bilingual labelling on food and alcohol. A brick wall is around every corner. Anger and heartbreak is the experience of Irish-speakers.
The election of Catherine Connolly as President (Uachtarán) is however, a positive:
link to youtube.com
The lust, the will for survival that is something that costs nothing but actually is beyond price if you are blessed with it.
In cultural matters false dawns are common maybe because some just try too hard.
The art is all in the mode of execution. Overfit, to use the AI term, and the field is overrefined removing the vital spark for survival.
Enough, must get my brain back into the math.
James @1.10pm. Indeed James. McHatee has “form” when it comes to celebrating extra judicial killings.
Bang!
Whoops! My bad for startling you. I honestly didn’t think you’d have a wee accident like that. Have some wet wipes.
Looking forward to the mid-terms Mr Brownshirt? You’ll be needing the tissues doll.
C’moan noo, Marie.
If you’re gonna try to play with the big boys, at least try to be original.
The Scots language is not, by any reckoning, a dead language – nearly half of Scots living in Scotland still speak it today with some competence; and although England has been trying to murder it for the past five centuries one way or another… Scots still lives.
The only way the Scots leid can be entirely killed-off is if the Scots as a people are entirely killed-off… for the pair are inextricably linked one to the other – the Scots leid being the expression of its people’s heart and soul.
The Scots language doesn’t need to be revived it needs to be remembered. Remembered by the Scots as being their mither-tongue and made relevant to them again.
The Scots language needs to be thawed out, after being frozen in time for at least three centuries, and brought once more to the forefront of Scots minds.
And the Scots language needs to catch up on three hundred years of stagnation… the inevitable forced stagnation of a language marked for extermination by an invading foreign power bent on silencing a people while it plunders the riches of their country.
The online “Dictionaries of the Scots Language” resource is more a repository than a learning tool; an archive of the vast lexicon that makes Scots such a rich and expressive and powerful language.
On its own the DSL is not enough… tools and resources designed for the learning of Scots need to be developed to work alongside it.
Resources that will help energise the Scots leid and bring it into the 21st century for the benefit of young Scots in particular growing and learning in a world greatly changed since their people’s language was consigned to rot in darkness in the early years of the 18th century.
For as long as the Scots survive, their true language, their mither-tongue – those sounds and those marks developed across the centuries and that come from their soul and express the heart of their people – will survive alongside them.
….their true language….what a can of worms you open there, more than a can of worms a veritable chasm.
However, i do agree the ethnolinguistic archeology stage is over, as is also the age of the amateur. Linguistics and language planning constitute a science which needs to be as free of data subjectivism as it is possible for a science to be.
Anent this post Northcode. Some questions.
Why did the poets (Roberts) Fergusson and Burns begin to write in both English and Scots rather than Scots alone?
Why did David Hume, Adam Smith and others choose to drop the use of Scots language for English?
To what degree if any did intermarriage of English and Norman/English elites affect the use of Scots?
The answer to your first two questions is:
“MONEY!” (The mercenary pricks).
There was obviously a bigger market for stuff written in English than there was for stuff written in the true language of the Scots… eh, Scots.
The answer to your third question is:
“It didn’t affect the use of Scots at all… among Scots.”
I’ve never been a fan of Burns – first, he was a tax collector, and second, many of his ‘songs’ are shit and some are overtly pornographic, and he wrote most of his stuff in English and some half-arsed twaddle that looked a bit like Scots.
All to do with colonialism, sam.
You’re long overdue to spend a few hours of quality time with Fanny and Mummi. Then all will become clear.
Here, aw this tak o the braw Scots leid haes pit mi in mind tae write doun anither o ma braw poems writ entire in the Scots leid… the true langage o the people o Scotland wha live in Scotland, caw thersels Scots, and hauf o wha spak Scots.
Tho maybe I should scribble ma poems doun in thon Inglis tongue in the howp o floggin’ mair o ma wunnerfu rhymes.
Aye, Northy, I hae absaelootly nae doot ye’re a much better poet than Burns ivver was.
The langer ye go unpublished and unread, the langer my confidence in ye will remain undiminished. Dinna let me doon, Northy, keep it a’ tae yersel.
Mind ye’ve nothing tae prove. Yer word as a self-identifying shit is enough.
“However, i do agree the ethnolinguistic archeology stage is over… “
Thank fuck… I was a bit concerned that you might disagree with me about the ethnolinguistic archeology aspect of my comment for a second there.
Other than that… I have no idea what you’re on about.
A veritable chasm?
I’ll say this… I’m not so arrogant that I would rock up tae somebody whose language I know nothing about and tell them what I think of it.
We Scots are a polite people.
Thanks, Northcode for your answers upthread.
Yes, Fergusson and Burns wanted to be more widely read and both had a liking for the good life. Were they not still Scots?
Hume and Smith wanted their ideas more widely known so took to using English, not Scots. Were they not still Scots?
Intermarrying between the English and Scottish elites could and did have a profound effect on Scots. Think about the Duke of Sutherland, his family and the Clearances. Was that family Scots? Would they speak Gaelic?
“Were they not still Scots?”
Certainly… as Sturgeon is a Scot, and Swinney is a Scot, and Tony Blair is a Scot, and Gordon Brown is a Scot.
The Duke of Sutherland (George Granville Leveson-Gower born in London and as English as anyone can be), orchestrator of the clearances a Scot? I think you’re taking the piss with that one, Sam
I know a lot about language on the edge of extinction my people speak one. Many imagine that because they can contruct a few sentences, remember a few words from the old fireside, have an accent etc that they speak the language concerned.
Speaking entails constant use & development which goes beyond reproducing remembered phrases from the past.
The CHASM, Scotland has three languages Lallans, currently a folk language dusted down for special sentimental occasions, is only one of them. Scotland does not have a national language, never had. Note even Florentine Italian only became the majority form of the Italian language in the 1950s.
Harsh reality is needed in this regard. If the children do not speak the language or want to speak it, see no reason to speak it, it is effectively moribund. The domain of archeology.
AI can do much to help but it cannot provide the insentivized WILL to survive.
Sad but that is the way things are. The threat of extinction may however provide the incentive, the will. Quha kens, quien sabe etc. ???????
“Scotland has three languages Lallans, currently a folk language dusted down for special sentimental occasions, is only one of them. Scotland does not have a national language, never had.”
Thon’s some vogie arrogance bein flung at the Scots ther, is it no?
Anither yin in league wi the colonists while pontificating on aw things Scottish thae hivnae a clue aboot.
Awa wi ye, ye cheeky wee shite, ye.
It seems the anti-Scots rhetoric we often see in this place isn’t limited to colonialists, Scot and English alike.
Ither natiouns, it wid appere, also feel entitled – a gift gied tae fowk roond the world by the British Empire, perhaps – to join in the denigration of the Scots.
Happy Burns Night.
“Hello love welcome home – how was your day today?”
“Just normal darling. My 3 colleagues were holding a guy on the pavement so I put a few shots in him. What’s for dinner?”
…so I could put a few shots in him.
I’m at hame the nicht.
But in ma younger days, oan Burns Nicht, we wud always get a few shots in.
As we all weep bitter, outraged and angry tears on the worlds most-read Scottish Independence site for the man cut down in his prime thousands of miles away …
Spare a thought for the perhaps dozens of beautiful, innocent Scottish children who never even got to their prime because of the scandalous shortcomings and cover ups at Glasgow’s flagship hospital.
Or perhaps not. If anybody has been arsed to post about this abomination on our own turf, by our own sanctified SNHS, under the direct management of our own pretendy politicians in Hollyrood, I haven’t noticed.
I would really like to believe I’m wrong about this, so fire away if I am.
Caring Hatey rides again.
If anybody had posted about it the chances are you would’ve laughed at them and shit all over their post.
That’s your style, It’s what you do.
# Who’d be Hatey?
Exactly, who’d be Hatey alright. He’s calling everybody shit for things they haven’t said.
He’s quite a piece of work eh.
You’re half right, Dave. Your desperate efforts to troll me do raise a wry smile, if not a full belly laugh. The fragrant Barbs retains top spot for that achievement.
As for shitting all over James, he manages that himself with no assistance needed, other than for the clean up after.
Off topic..
I see our Engerlush super(ior) efficient Anglo masters are getting things, ahem, “bigley” wrong again!!
Shock horror gasp surely not, is that just what the Celtic fringe, coloured people and “orcs”(sic) do?
Apparently not.
For a (never hits MSM) how about this belter?
A 70 year old nuclear monitoring bunker in (eee up Ecky fump) Yorkshire- does everything proper like- has done a head dive due to coastal erosion?
Er, no.
How about upcoming Sizewell ££mega bucks££ Suffolk new nuclear reactor now on the edge of coastal erosion with water lapping at its edges.
What could possibly go wrong??
Fukushima anyone.
Yup, better together with the British landmass sump that is Engerlund eh??
Remember to stand to attention and salute when the uni-trolls get back online when they are supposed to be working..
When they’re online they *are* working!
James
Are you sure you spelt the last word correctly? 🙂
Nuclear power stations need to be near a significant quantity of water, but if you don’t think anyone involved in an £xxbn project has thought about the impact of the sea on that project you could always give them a call and offer your expertise? I’m sure they would pay handsomely!
LOL. Right on cue!
Who knows what goes through the heads of our super(ior) fan daby dozy southern neighbours.
Probably have a contingency plan involving a Dutch boy/ 10 fingers/ and a dyke code named operation sandcastle..
Wow! Fukushima and Orcs in the same post.
Of course, it was an earthquake and a tsunami that fucked over Fukushima. Something not expected to happen around our own geologically stable region.
Unless, of course, the Orcs make good on their threat to detonate one of their Poseidon subsea nukes, designed to sweep any adjacent landmasses clean with a devastating, man-made tsunami.
But fear not. Not only do the Orcs have a soft-spot for us Scots, but Hadrian’s Wall will stop any tsunamis that flood England from coming north.
And the Orcs will be very careful to ensure that the ten percent of North Sea wind power infrastructure currently being funded solely by Scottish bill payers won’t come to any harm.
Greatly misunderstood, but fundamentally the salt of the Earth, that’s the Orcs.
Extracts from THE MIDGE / A’ MHEANBHCHUILEAG
It troubles me too
to see a country sink
like a sand-castle beneath the tide,
and a language thrown from us
like a faded paper flag,
and a weltanschauung forgotten
like an empty daydream,
and history disappear without a trace
like a child’s footprint on the beach.
I’ll tell you this-
I’m not Fionn;
I cannot bear my country.
I am only a cell in Scotland’s body,
struggling to be a brain-cell.
I am small and fear small things:
the cancer cell that destroys a body,
the stupid word that destroys love,
the coin that sells a kingdom,
the split atom that destroys Hiroshima,
the poisonous virus, the enemy bullet,
a mistake in the mind of a philosopher.
I learned something-
I am mortal;
maybe tomorrow will come without me.
FULL POEM ONLINE HERE:
link to gobha-uisge.blogspot.com
——
Tha e a’ cur dragh orm
a’ faicinn dùthaich a’ dol fodha
mar chaisteal-gainmhich fon làn,
is cànain air tilgeil uainn
mar bhratach phàipeir ghlas,
‘s weltanschauung air dearmad
mar aisling-latha fhaoin,
is eachdraidh air dol à fianais
mar lorg-coise cloinne air an tràigh.
lnnsidh mi seo dhut –
chan e Fionn a th’ annam;
chan urrainn dhomh mo dhùthaich a ghiùlan.
Chan eil annam ach cealla am bodhaig Albainn,
ri strì a bhith nam chealla-eanchainn.
Tha mi beag is tha eagal orm roimh rudan beaga:
a’ chealla aillseach a sgriosas bodhaig,
am facal òinseach a sgriosas gaol,
am bonn-airgid a reiceas rìoghachd,
an t-atam sgoilt a sgriosas Hioroisimea,
a’ vìoras nimheil, am peilear nàimhdeil,
mearachd ann an inntinn feallsanaich.
Dh’ionnsaich mi rud –
tha mi bàsmhor;
is dòcha gun tig a-màireach as m’ aonais.
link to mucaigandoras.blogspot.com
No bad… no bad at aw.
A’ve scribbled doun a poem tae – mibbe e’en ma best yin sae faur.
There was a young Scot fae Dunoon
Wha wantit tae live close tae Troon
But the bus that he took
Gaed alang the wrang route
And he endit up back in Dunoon
Nou thon be a braw poem… aye, and wi rhymin’ words anaw like proper poems hae.
It’s a metaphor for how life often takes folk along unexpected paths yet always draws them back to their spiritual home… back to the place they come fae.
Eat ma poetic dust, Rabbie, ye tax collectin’ bastirt ye.
That’s nae a poem, Northy, it’s a limerick.
How typically colonialist of you to perform such a brazen act of cultural misappropriation and attempt to pass it off as your own.
And how typically depressing and demoralising that surrounded by Scotland’s self-identifying finest and brightest pro-Indy bonnie fechters, it falls to me to have to, once again, set the record straight.
Thank fuck for you, Hatey.
This place has been super-dull withoot ye the day.
A limerick IS a form of poem, by the way… Google it.
“A limerick is a type of poem. It is characterized by its five-line structure with a specific rhyme scheme of AABBA, often used for its humorous and whimsical content…” a definition I stole fae the internet
“Google it”
Nae way. It’s a’ writ in Inglis, the lying language of the coloniser.
Mair fool ye fer being swicked.
Young Lochinvar,
I was raised where some of these military/ navy bases practiced and where my father would go fishing in those local waters,
He passed away at the age of 57 leaving a young family behind,
At one time they used to set of sirens so you cleared the area, water and beaches, for the purpose of immediate danger,
but not for the long term residual dangers these tests left behind locally.
I do not think they even practice the courtesy of warning sirens now, instead these things are now done under the cover of darkness and shields of paperwork and computers,
I heard mention of a new Sonic wavelength weapon that causes headaces and nose bleeding etc,
One wonders if anyone will have any warning in the future as weapons are always used on people around the world,
Not to make trees grow or for clean water and air,
However we are all meant to follow the governments climate change ideology meanwhile.prior to obliteration,
There is no choice about which way you die in government policies, living to old age is like a bucket wish list before you die, not of natural old age,
I certainly do not see the purpose of following climate change mantras with all these weapons of mass destruction to human populations. When the balance of anyone living past the age of 40 lessens day by day,
I am older and have been lucky enough to pass that age that the next generation will have to deal with,
but they are being kept busy- diverted with gender woo woo and converting of police or painting rainbows and fairies before they die of a shortened life span,
but meanwhile they are blessed with the intentional disease in the mind set by new education, so they do not see whats coming their way.
Fearghus,
A thought provoking piece of literature that should be noted by many of what tomorrow may bring or may leave behind without recognition at all.
According to the 2022 Census, approximately 54,000 people in Scotland report speaking Polish at home, making it the most commonly spoken language after English and Scots-English. In 2022, only about 0.5% of adults reported speaking Gaelic at home.
That’s right: Polish is spoken in more homes than Gaelic.
I expect the BTL commenters here to claim that this census result is just another Yoon conspiracy …
LE CAMP D’ESPOIR: Discours du chef du Parti Québécois en réponse à Mark Carney.
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon has given a powerful speech:
link to youtube.com
Plamondon references Carney’s Davos speech (readily available online), but primarily Carney’s “Plains of Abraham” speech which is online here:
link to youtube.com
Extract from Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s speech as head of the Parti Québécois:
« Nous avons devant cet environnement toxique de mensonge, d’abus de pouvoir, de gaspillage des fonds publics – d’origine coloniale et des relents de colonialisme – la responsabilité de changer d’avenir. Changer d’avenir pour donner mieux aux prochaines générations, pour faire en sorte qu’il n’ait pas à vivre cela. Nous avons donc une responsabilité de réussir. C’est une responsabilité.
« Je propose donc aux Québécois une vérité difficile pendant que Mark Carney proposera un mensonge confortable. Mais il y a un prix au mensonge confortable, et j’ai confiance que les Québécoises et les Québécois choisiront la vérité. À nous de donner un sens au passé, à nous de donner un sens à notre histoire, à nous de gagner, et finalement de faire du Québec un pays. Merci. »
[« Faced with this toxic environment of lies, of abuse of power, waste of public funds – of colonial origin and having the smell of colonialism – we have the responsibility to change the future. Change the future to improve things for the next generations, to ensure that they do not have to live this. So we have a responsibility to succeed. It’s a responsibility.
« I therefore offer Quebecers a difficult truth while Mark Carney offers a comfortable lie. But there is a price for the comfortable lie, and I trust that Quebecers will choose the truth. It is up to us to give meaning to the past, up to us to give meaning to our history, up to us to win, and to finally make Quebec a country. Thank you. » ]
Nae mentions of Fanon or Memmi?
Not even a nod tae Jonesy?
The boy’s a tube.
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND GOVT: NO LEGAL OBLIGATION ON SCHOOLS TO USE PREFERRED PRONOUNS
The Irish Govt Department of Education and Youth has dismissed controversial claims that schools must pander to gender ideology.
A new pro-trans guide from the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) told gender-confused students that schools were required to use their “correct name and pronoun in day-to-day interactions”.
But the Department of Education refuted the claim, stating that no such obligation existed in law or Departmental guidance.
TRANS STUDENT GUIDE
ICCL’s publication, ‘Know Your Rights: A Guide for Trans and Non-Binary People’, informs students that “your school must make every effort to update your name and pronoun in relevant systems and documents”.
It also states that “as a trans student you should be able to access toilets and changing facilities that correspond with your gender identity.
“If you are told you are not allowed to use a bathroom matching your gender identity, this may constitute discrimination on the basis of gender”.
The publication also assures students that schools should allow them to take part in sports “in accordance with your gender identity”, and that teachers do not need to inform parents if they ‘transition’ while at school.
‘ACTIVIST WISHLIST’
Psychotherapist Stella O’Malley said the ICCL “has no hold over school policies in Ireland” and warned that its advice “will harm kids”.
Laoise de Brún, co-founder of women’s rights group The Countess, responded: “The new guidance from ICCL is simply an activist wishlist with no legal standing.”
Speaking to the Irish Times she said: “There is no right in law for anyone to force someone else to use their ‘preferred pronouns’. Enforced speech is not a right, and freedom of expression is.”
The guide was produced in conjunction with the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and researched and written by trans activist lobby groups the Transgender Equality Network Ireland and ShoutOut.
(The Christian Institute, 28 Jan 2026)
link to christian.org.uk
Bravo, Fearghas.
This contribution is important, even on a “dead board “.
Even so, I urge you to re-publish it on the Rev’s next post -Shield of the Phantom-which is still current and live.
I can’t imagine many of the Scots who dream of independence, are in any meaningful way driven by the notion of our wee language or dialect. I think they are happy enough that we have various accents around the land.
Im my vision of independence, we trade our talents and products with world. If that means being competent in English, Spanish, Russian or Mandarin, we better start teaching it in school.
-but I strayed from the point of the article which was you are all too juvenile to discuss big issues and so just do what you’re telt.