Yet another fine mess
There’s a Calvin And Hobbes cartoon we like to post on social media when someone’s got themselves in such a pickle that they’re just flailing around desperately firing off every slogan, argument or insult they can think of to get themselves out of it.
And so, wearily, to the SNP.
This was the appetiser.
Just a single winter sunset separated the SNP’s leader and Depute Leader completely contradicting each other on the subject of abstentionism – the policy followed by Sinn Fein for the last 100+ years of not taking up seats at Westminster.
Keith Brown had more or less openly advocated the change:
Only to be slapped down by his boss by teatime:
Indeed, Yousaf helpfully explained that Brown had in fact meant the exact opposite of what he actually said.
But then came the big one.
Because no sooner had The National faithfully trumpeted that a new paper from Angus Robertson’s constitution team had “confirmed that Scotland will be nuclear-free after a Yes vote”, people started to notice that it had done no such thing.
Because what Robertson had in fact done was pretty much the polar opposite: quietly back away from a longstanding SNP commitment that an independent Scotland would sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – a commitment that had been explicitly endorsed and signed by Robertson himself.
Now, alert readers will be familiar with the position of Wings on the issue – namely that committing Scotland to the pledge is a braindead example of the worst kind of virtue-signalling gesture politics, which pointlessly throws away by far the strongest card that would be held by the negotiators of independence, as well as a non-trivial sum of money that would be vital to a fledgling nation. If it really has been ditched – although our money is on a hasty “clarification” U-turn by tomorrow – that would actually be a welcome outbreak of realpolitik and reason.
Nevertheless, the policy is a totemic one to many supporters of both independence and the SNP, and for the party to so clumsily and needlessly lob such a high-explosive hand-grenade into the already-ruinous radioactive shipwreck that is its current state almost beggars belief.
In truth, the party’s burning decks are now populated by nothing but loose cannons. The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. (Indeed, the right hand may have already been thrown overboard.)
It’s the grotesque chaos of a party in complete disarray from top to bottom, with an out-of-his-depth leader completely unable to bring any order to bear. Never mind nukes, even the Phospho Bombs and the Mordo Blasters won’t save Humza Yousaf now.
Foote in mouth.
What do you want a right hand for when the left can transition whenever it feels like it?
To be scrupulously fair, the boy on the left in the blue suit is calling for the SNP to “consider” withdrawing MPs from WM.
The boy on the right in the off-white (!) jumper is merely clarifying that he has “considered” it and the answer is “Naw”.
Is that authoritarian?
Maybes the boy on the right has a Mertilizer Beam and the boy on the left has nothing but a cannon. A loose one at that.
Devastating and accurate.
If the nuSNP are returned in any numbers, all we can guarantee is an endless supply of our cash for the transcult, transcultism being further prioritized in schools, the quite dropping of independence and much more misery for the rest of us.
I just can’t see them being returned in any numbers.
I’m still raging at their betrayal of us all.
Do the SNP still believe in anything? “Except in Women with a Penis” obviously
SNP is in its last few months of existence the above article shows this rather well.
Sadly Scottish Labour stand ready to finish Scotland off.
I support Alba but I am aware it has a hill to climb.
Perhaps when Westminster privatises Scottish Water and puts in the water meters we will see a swing to Alba.
You can only hope, very sad times.
Lots of parallels between the Tories and the SNP just now. Lots of undisciplined flapping of gums without prior engagement of brains, multiple u-turns whilst doing Warp 9, complete loss of focus on the big issues whilst farting about round the edges with pish that nobody cares about. Oh, and nobody can stand them.
Cue much wailing and gnashing of teeth (or more likely bumping of gums) from the usual suspects insisting that we both can and should remove WMD’s the day after indy.
If sophomoric politics actually worked of course, we’d have been independent yonks ago. Power to ra Peepul!
Vote SNP* The Non-Abstentionist ( but mibbie ) Abstentionist- Nuclear-Free-But-No-Just-Yet – * Trans* Friendly-Women-No-So-Much- Pro-Pronoun-Anti-Everything-Else Party .
* Special Twofer Deal. Vote SNP get a pack of Green plums absolutely free
“the party’s burning decks are now populated by nothing but loose cannons…”
We are going to see more outspokenness as the realisation that it’s all over sinks in and the troughers wonder where they’ll stick their snouts next.
Did I hear somewhere that the Branchform investigation was nearing completion?
Beware the ides of March…
Is ‘The Usual Suspects’ another cartoon strip?
At least devolution has proved that Scotland is capable of producing and electing eejits of a quality equal to any nation on the planet. If anyone required evidence that there’s barely any difference between England and Scotland, you just have to look at what people are capable of voting into power.
It’s almost as if the SNP used to be united behind one goal, and now the pursuit of that goal has been called off, it’s a garbled free for all. All those mouths, bereft of the previously clear message about Scotland’s independence, are still flapping open and shut on muscle memory, but what’s coming out is so many flavours of bumf.
In order to have anything resembling a party the SNP requires the unifying self determination drive, or a massively centralised authoritarian leadership structure.
Interesting things might happen when Humza goes on paternity leave and Keith Brown is in charge.
I’m presuming that Keith Brown will be the boss and able to order the MPs to withdraw from Westminster.
He’ll send the big yellow bus for them and they’ll all be delighted to be coming home.
They’ll jump on ‘Big yellow’ and sing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP8A9rtg0iI
all the way from London to Edinburgh.
Roddy Dunlop is great. I really like him
The British state destroyed the Labour Party in large part over the Nuclear Weapons issue, aided by Michael Foot in a donkey jacket during the Remembrance Sunday Events, and the Looney Left running of London Council…. and the Militant ejjits in the ‘red wall’ in the north of England.
They became unelectable.
All similarities to the downfall of the SNP are entirely predictable, with the updated version utilising Woke/Self ID tools from the toolbox.
Destroy the Party from within.
Replace Competent, with deeply incompetent.
Become unelectable, and tarnish the Independence Movement by association.
Insert a ‘faith’ issue, to divide the sheeple in the party. Faith requiring no evidence, and therefore being unchallangable.
Rinse and repeat.
“They put their left leg in, their left leg out
In, out, in, out, shake it all about
They do the Dumbza Yousless and they turn around
Let’s vote the bastards out. Oi!”
Angus R behaves like an intelligence asset. His sole purpose in the SNP has been to get the party to accept NATO membership, and now nuclear weapons. It’s as if the colonial state wants to hedge its bets, so that even if Scotland does choose independence it can still be relied upon to uphold the current international structure. Even if you happen to support NATO membership for Scotland, and nuclear weapons on the Clyde, don’t be blind to what’s being going on as far as infiltration is concerned
@ Debatable Lands says: 4 March, 2024 at 9:18 pm
Scotland is capable of producing and electing eejits of a quality equal to any nation on the planet
That’s debatable, Debatable.
I don’t have knowledge about every nation on the planet, but of those nations I do know about, I would say Scotland’s finest quality eejits are world beating.
Take Oor Kirsty as an example. She has already dropped two sprogs, but doesn’t know if she is a woman or a man.
“… talking about XX and XY chromosomes. I have no idea what my chromosomes are. I assume that they are probably XY, but I do not know …”
Eat your heart out, rest of the world. Wha’s like us, eh?
A slight error?
,”…Only to be slapped down by his boss by teatime…”
should read, surely:
“Only to be slapped down by his boss’ boss by teatime…”
Yousaf makws no decisions,that have not been approvwx,by his pedecessor
John Main, the SNP hire archy consist of WTF chromosomes.
You leave Humza ‘Failed Upwards’ Yousaf alone. He’s very much enjoying his preening, delusional time strutting aboot spouting shite and pretending to be Henry Kissinger (he can kissing my assinger!) spouting his wife’s prepared texts on Gaza. It’s his fifteen minutes in the big boy political sun before his inevitable casting aside when he is of no further use, like his wackjob predecessor. So you leave him alone. You pointing out the truth of the SNP’s disarray is a wee shame, so’n it is. Ya racist…or sexist…or homophobe…or unionist…or suhhin…
I’ve been feeling pretty ill for the last week but this article cheered me up quite a bit.
There’s a particular kind of foolishness that politicians are prey to and here is one of the best yet…hey, Viennetta…is that a reverse ferret doon yer breeks or are ye jist pleased to see us?
The little guy who runs the pro-autocratic state/anti-western ‘Through A Scottish Prism’ show has a bit of a dilemma on his hands. Two of the ‘stars’ of that show have had falling out within the fringe Alba Party.
One of the women in question was destroyed by John Drummond on a fairly recent TNT show on Independence Live, where Drummond made her look like a complete amateur – which is probably why she felt at home in Alba. The other seems to revel – along with the host -in praising autocratic states and denouncing social democracies around the world.
Isn’t it ironic how people who hold such views never choose to live in one of their much loved dictatorial states?
Spaceman Spiff!
Braw.
Hatuey
Ignored says:
4 March, 2024 at 9:12 pm
Ellis, you’re off topic and you’re shit stirring.
—–
Mr Ellis is one of the very few sane commenters on here. The rest are an eccentric bunch of looney tunes.
When the SNP is winning, the cause of Independence is winning….
Eat your heart out Charlie Sheen.
I despise these SNP jackasses. I truly do.
You have betrayed Scotland and exploited the cause of Scottish Independence for personal gain. How do you plead? Guilty. Every fkg one one of the bastards. In any sane world, there endeth the political career of every last two faced charlatan. Instead, they return an endless stream of political non-entities, each as tedious and deluded as Jim Murphy going to work on an egg.
When the meek shall inherit the Earth, they’ll be handed it on a plate by the contemptible bullshitting arseholes in the SNP.
I hope these wannabe Gauleiters get absolutely destroyed next election. It won’t mean the Indy cause is diminished. It will mean the SNP supporting sheep will have finally opened their eyes and seen through these grifters, and the Independence Movement has put out the trash.
Christopher Pike
Ignored says:
5 March, 2024 at 1:19 am
Mr Ellis is one of the very few sane commenters on here. The rest are an eccentric bunch of looney tunes.
Fresh
Oxymoron alert.We see you. 😉
When push comes to shove, you can always rely on the SNP to pull.
Re: SNP withdrawing from Westminster, I think that might be arranged for them by the electorate and the next GE. Bye bye WM short money the lifeblood of the SNP.
Re: SNP withdrawing from Westminster, I think that might be arranged for them by the electorate and the next GE. bye WM short money the lifeblood of the SNP.
Something to read with your morning cuppa.
http://robinmcalpine.org/the-scottish-nato-party-is-at-it-again/
The Andy Ellis fanbase is interesting!
It matters not a jot whether or not there are any Scots MPs at Westminster. The numbers tell all. They can make no difference, and never could. Independence will be the result of secession, not referenda approved by Westminster.
NATO, nuclear weapons on the Clyde and membership of the English-Speaking Union are all flannel, smoke and mirrors to distract from the utter failure to move one inch towards being independent again.
Dan, thanks I think – apart from destroying the chortle with which I started the day.
Ruby , me too for Roddy Dunlop , not so much for the fan club – particularly since their first sneer is at least a day late.
If the SNP was a horse they’d shoot it.
What a pitiful, wretched party they have become under Sturgeon and now the ghost of Sturgeon, the aptly named Yousless.
When I first saw this piece I thought it was Starmer next to Yousless… Orwell got it right yet again, they are morphing into each other in front of my eyes.
When you look at the political choices on offer in Scotland, the UK, the EU and the US right now… something is really wrong. Britain especially is really off. It is a really bad sign… Lots of indicators pointing at war here. It has already started arguably.
What’s the plan?
How do we arrange it?
I’m predicting a very low turnout with nobody knowing WTF to do.
“That’s why we need SNP MPs at Westminster, grifting for the SNP”.
“When the SNP is winning, the cause of independence is stagnating”.
There you go Dumbza, fixed them for you.
You’re welcome!
I wish Branchform would get a wiggle on.
I heard that it had been predicted that there would be 6 arrests!
Some people would take Independence tomorrow in the full knowledge that the SNP would be at the helm.
The majority of the electorate in Scotland however, are not so daft. Thankfully this number is increasing by the day.
@ Dan says: 5 March, 2024 at 8:06 am
That’s an innarestin article.
Opinions will differ, of course. Some see it as a sell-out by the SNP. Others might see it as just another painful step in the protracted adolescence of the SNP, as it gropes its way towards maturity.
And if that national maturity is not shared by many Scots, then bye bye SNP. Bye bye Indy too.
There’s been a War on for two years now, and just ignoring it isn’t going to make it go away. The EU is well along the route of putting its economy and politics on a War footing. Scotland (the SNP/Green government) intends us to be in the EU. No ifs or buts.
We can back out of greater involvement in The War, just as soon as we renege on our “Scotland In Europe” certainty. The two are joined at the hip.
As for nuclear weapons on Scottish soil, an iScotland in the EU will have to accept EU ones, for the same reason we have to accept UK ones now. Geography, strategic position, and population density. Indy will change none of these parameters.
The corpse of iScotland as the cuddliest, friendliest, nicest, most defenceless, wee country in the world has been ice cold for some time now.
It’s long overdue for burial.
Shame about Alba!
Here’s the thing Alba you cannot be pro trans and at the same time be pro women.
It just doesn’t work.
Alba used the term ‘not anti trans’ which means the same thing as pro-trans.
OK you want to be kind but you are going to have to make a decision either it’s trans or women.
By the way using 100kilotons as assumed blast yield is very optimistic indeed.
The new Ru$$ian Sarmat system can carry lots of different configurations but it would be more like 1 Megaton and maybe much more because next to Faslane dug into the hill are the silos where they keep the weapons. So they are going to hit all of that area multiple times and with weapons that can penetrate deep underground. It is going to get obliterated.
Also fallout. These facilities are obviously on the west coast. The weather typically rolls in from the west (the Atlantic) and travels east. This is why the east coast is much drier than the west, I think it is even called ‘the precipitation effect’ as the Grampians soak up much of the rain… Glasgow, Scotland’s biggest population centre by far does not have that protection, it is 25 miles as the crow flies from Faslane.
Lastly topography works both ways, our enemies will be taking advantage of it as much as we do.
Plus the entrance to the silos are near the top of the hill adjoining the loch. (They don’t even blur their location on google maps.) They are going to carpet bomb everything with nukes up and down the hill and both submarine bases on both Lochs. That is a given, a minimum, if it really kicks off.
It was a disgraceful decision to build these facilities there IMHO.
@ Dan
Read that – Typically incisive – article by Robin MacA last night.
” So Angus Robertson has just decided all by himself to overturn the party. Because he wants to, and because imposing a US-dictated Nato policy line on the SNP has proved to be his sole role and purpose in the party. It’s almost like he’s working to a different agenda or something… ” .
I’ve never liked Robertson , since even before the total degeneration of the SNP and when he was still being lauded for the incredible gift of being able to string a sentence together as leader of the SNP group in the House of Rubber Ducks .
He always struck me as a pompous , oleaginous prick , oozing self-satisfaction whilst saying fuck-all of any substance . He has probably done as much to drain the SNP of it’s lifeblood of principles and eviscerate it’s organs of internal Democracy as his * former * queen ie Stoogeon The Failure .
Robin is absolutely right that joining NATO is tantamount to handing over military sovereignty to the U.S ; don’t let any the Neo Macarthyite doughballs on here or elsewhere tell you any different . One glance at the catastrophes it has aided n abetted over THERE and over THERE currently and all the previous missteps of recent years should give pause to any ovine bowing to fearmongering propaganda . REDS GONNA GETCHA ( unless you give 30/40% of yr GDP to the altruists @ M.I.C )
WTF happened to former beacon of * Progressive * Politics ie Sweden – and Scandinavia generally – that they’ve succumbed to the poisoned fruit of U.S Empire-In-Decline paranoia/self-interest ? All they’ve done by this pathetic surrender to Yankee bidding is make the World an even more dangerous place .
Fun Fact : Sweden has went from having the lowest gun-crime rates in Europe to the second highest ; a phenomenon almost entirely attributable to it’s Immigration policies of recent years . So it looks like it’s emulating the US in all the worst ways possible . Stupid c**ts .
Yeah!
‘The Andy Ellis fanbase’ is interesting.
Well, Frantz Fanon did warn all colonized peoples, over 60 years ago, “that inside the nationalist parties, the will to break colonialism is linked with another quite different will: that of coming to a friendly agreement with it.”
Which helps explain why “the party machine shows itself opposed to any innovation” to free the people at the ‘decisive moment’ (e.g. when nationalist majorities are elected).
The independence movement is therefore “confronted with leaders who are terrified” and incapable of moving the cause forward, who refuse to reclaim their national sovereignty stolen from the people.
And now the movement begin to question their leaders on the ‘crucial points’:
“What is nationalism?
What sense do you give to this word?
Independence for what?
And in the first place, how do you propose to achieve it?”
These questions require that the problems of methodology should be vigorously tackled.
https://bpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/wp.towson.edu/dist/b/55/files/2022/05/The-Socio-Political-Determinants-of-Scottish-Independence.pdf
The Andy Ellis fanbase say interesting things!!!!!
Be careful here regarding the Trans community.
Good luck to them with their daily lives in difficult circumstances but overwhelmingly the
majority of the population do not accept that a male appendage with a skirt should never be allowed to use the facilities of those born female.
No changing rooms, no toilets and no female prisons.
Wear and dress how you like and go about life safely.
If they have had the surgery then fine. Little girls won’t be seeing anything they shouldn’t.
There are always disabled toilets if they feel vulnerable to be dressed as a woman entering male toilets.
The presence , or absence, of Sottish MPs of any party at Westminster has made no difference to anything. The numbers tell all.
The notion that Westminster will allow the separation of Scotland from the UK is delusional. The only proposition is secession or not?
Matters like nuclear weapons, NATO and membership of the English Speaking Union are flannel.
I watched some clip of a Ru$$ian political show where one of the people on it boasts about how only one Sarmat missile could effectively destroy much of the UK, just one.
They also have this new weapon called Poseidon which is an unmanned, underwater, nuclear powered, nuclear weapon that stealthily approaches your coastline and then detonates underwater to create a tsunami, this tsunami is no ordinary one, it is highly radioactive and 500-1000ft high (yep you read that right). Britain of course is an island… do the math.
These weapons are now ‘in service’. They are part of the ‘asymmetric’ weapons Ru$$ia developed in recent years (after the US tore up all the soviet era agreed treaties).
Another is their range of hypersonic missiles, unstoppable.
Then they have developed nuclear powered cruise missiles with almost unlimited range that can fly over the south pole and attack the US from behind it missile defenses. Which point the wrong way.
It goes on and on… we are very vulnerable.
Trident is absolutely feeble in comparison. And like most of hardware does not work very well. They just test fired a missile and it plopped into the sea next to the sub. Look at the sate of those aircraft carriers…
Nuclear war is looking more likely than independence at the moment.
What is trans?
How can someone looking to change sex live as a woman if they can’t use female changing rooms, female toilets, serve time in a female prisons an compete in sport as a woman?
Sorry to put you on the spot Effijy!
Effigy @ 09.36
Oh dear, Effigy, disabled toilets for “Transwomen”. We’ll need to be cautious about this suggestion once the dog’s breakfast which is the Hate Bill finally gets actioned. (When the Crown Office and the Police decide how to try to interpret and implement the incomprehensible disaster).
Dare to suggest that lipstickbedecked, wig wearing biological men are “disabled” and should use such facilities … hush my mouth !
Mac: “When you look at the political choices on offer in Scotland, the UK, the EU and the US right now… something is really wrong.”
We would be saying the same about teaching or any sector if corruption and unscrupulousness were rewarded. We basically have political systems of the Blackrock, by the Blackrock, for the Blackrock….
Aspiring politicians who propose to do anything about the corruption of the system itself, poverty, war, or anything that is at odds with the interests of Blackrock, are really up against it. George galloway types used to be everywhere in the Labour Party, now if one of them gets elected it’s the end of the world.
Blackrock itself, with around 10 trillion in assets, is a sort of conglomerate like no other in history; it puts all the huge power-blocks and corporations of the capitalist system under one roof. The MSM, arms companies, oil, tech, everything, all unified and speaking with one unified voice for the first time in history.
Politicians, all the departments of Government, the CIA, health, they all know who the real boss is. Governments of all western countries, including all their departments and offices, are essentially running the system on behalf of Blackrock.
https://archive.is/ICRG2
Green Party transwoman defends use of airport disabled toilet to dilate ‘vagina’
We really need a clean, dry, private facility for transwomen where they can lie down, take their knickers off,spread their legs to dilate their ‘vagina’.
Trans rights are human rights.
Good lighting also required so that they can photograph themselves inflating their ‘vagina’
Ruby,
‘Trans’ must be a disability then.
An inevitable next step in the entitlement stakes.
Dilation is an exercise transwomen undertake after undergoing vaginoplasty, to stretch their ‘vaginal’ canal and keep it open. Patients are advised to dilate twice every day for a minimum of 15 minutes.
There are going to have to be quite a few of these ‘Vagina Dilating Facilities’ if it takes 15 minutes twice a day.
How about they just keep their penis. These two guys featured in this article Keith Brown and Humza Yousak believe that woman have penises.
Just because you have a penis doesn’t mean you are not a ‘woman’.
Off topic but why on earth does Alex Salmond associate with the lunatic Yvonne Ridley? Surely not good for Alba to have her around.
Let me just say this before the hate crime bill comes into force.
Herbert, Heather is fuckin’ off his rocker!
It’s really tragic that nobody is helping this poor man.
Soon nobody will be able to help him because ‘conversion therapy’ is verboten
Still think Uk’s Nuke Subs a clever idea ?
HMS Vanguard, the oldest of the UK’s nuclear-armed submarines (launched 4th March 1992) returned to the Clyde in May 2023 after an extended seven and a half years in deep maintenance.The work at Devonport naval dockyard took four years longer than planned !
The original budget for the work was just over £200m but final costs have now been estimated at more than £500m !
HMS VBanguard’s planned service life was 25 years. However, by 2030 the submarine will have been in service for 37 years ! That’s assuming that it’s replacement the Dreadnought class comes into service with no hold ups ?
In February 2022 it emerged that one of the issues discovered was that workers had accidentally sheared off at least seven bolts keeping insulation cladding on reactor cooling pipes and then glued the heads back on in an attempt to hide the mistake. NIS understands that the insulation was not critical to reactor safety but a failure to secure it may have created a hazard for crew members.
Reading the bizarre information above regarding “vaginal dilation exercises”, its almost as if its unnatural and going against nature…
I don’t know anything about Yvonne Ridley except what is written in this article:
https://archive.is/lIJcV
It doesn’t tell us much except that she tweeted
“A trans woman is a woman assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity and may experience gender dysphoria.”
What does Alba say a transwoman is?
Andy Ellis, George Ferguson anyone can you help?
I’ll repeat what I said earlier. Alba cannot be pro trans (whatever they think that is ) and at the same time pro woman.
Sorry that I keep going on about the same topic which I don’t think is of much interest here on Wings.
Every time I go on the internet and see another story about this madness I get wound up again.
Fuck it I think I might transition and become a man!
Any tips guys?
What a f@ckin’ shambles they [SNP] are. It is beyond embarrassing that that lot are our “representatives”. And Yousaf has the nerve to think we will all buy into his insulting garbage that we need SNP MP’s in Westminster to ensure Scotland’s voice is heard.
The statistics alone demonstrate Scotland’s voice is only ever heard when Westminster decides it can be heard. And that is a fact no matter how many pro-indy voices are sent to Westminster. The country of Scotland can be outvoted on any issue, at any time, by any one of England’s regions. Fact!
So, Yousaf, save your BS for the braindead army of self-serving troughers falling over themselves to lick your feet. Your minions days at the trough are numbered, off to the slaughterhouse with the lot of them, metaphorically speaking of course. The day of the cull cannot come quick enough. Roll on the general election. The SNP are not *the* indy movement.
Alert readers of Scottish independence will wonder how a political party like the SNP sitting in a Westminster parliament legislated devolved government sent to Scotland can even represent Scotlands opinion on WMD.
Even if the withdrew from Westminster, they are still up here here under Westminster legislation and Statues in Scotland,
This is employed Actors politics.
They are the same two cheeks of the same arse. Under legislation and statues of Westminster.
Long ago the devolved Scottish government was known as a wee pretendy parliament of Scotland.
These pretend hot air ballon politicians based in Scotland in the Wee pretendy devolved government from Westminster continue to play their parts so well they are deserving of a Oscar for acting and following their lines,
Not one of them dare raise the obvious line.
If our original Scottish parliament had not been “dissolved from the treaty of union in 1707″ would we (even)be holding conversations of WMDs in Scotland or withdrawing from Englands House of Lords Westminster parliament to pretend to run up back to our pretend branch office parliament in Scotland.
Scotland has no say in these matter on the world stage, whilst we maintain the
The COLONIAL farce OF a ” pretend Scottish devolved Parliament” to retreat to,
Living in Govanhill almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter.
@Ruby, check this out. When it was originally published two years ago I looked into the people and found a network at the top ends of US academia, deans and board members etc. Why the media went nowhere near it is anybodys guess albeit there was a recurring theme amongst them and their fellow board members who should have held them to account.
https://web.archive.org/web/20240305113902/https://reduxx.info/top-trans-medical-association-collaborated-with-castration-child-abuse-fetishists/
Re tips, strong men also cry.
“Still think Uk’s Nuke Subs a clever idea ?”
If we allow English nuclear subs and weapons to remain at Faslane after independence, they’ll never leave, for consecutive Scottish governments will factor in the cash (rent) into policies and that will be that, not to mention the pollution of our waters and the real possibility of accidents.
I say get them out as soon as possible after indy.
Stoker
Along with the SNP , The pretendy Scottish parliament will never succeed in being part of the independence movement for Scotland either,
Not until the devolved parliament in Scotland becomes a authentic Scottish parliament with all its own powers unattached by the umbilical cord to Westminster parliament branch of restrictive statues and legislation imposed in a Colonial over Scotland.
Oh I forgot, on the nuclear blast simulator if you have not done it you should select ‘airburst’ (not surface). These things generally are never detonated a ground level.
Put in 10Mt airburst and you will get 3rd degree burns out to a range of 32.9km and light blast damage out to 42.6km which pretty much would reach Glasgow city centre from Faslane.
10Mt for a very special target of high military importance buried deep in a hill… it is easily possible. And the harder we have made it to hit the worse it will be for Glasgow as they will have break out the really big stuff to reach it.
Anton, sadly a nuclear blast would likely go unnoticed in many neglected parts of Scotland and in others it would positively tart the place up.
I notice that the For Women Scotland appeal has been stalled at under £146,000 for some time. IN my opinion the appeal lost its excitement and momentum when ‘the organisation ‘stopped publishing the amount of individual donations and allowing comments. I suspect ‘the organisation’ was unnerved by a minority of comments becoming increasingly saucy and the references to politicians becoming more and more dodgy.
@Ruby 11:15pm
The Alba policy is more straightforward than you think. The policy is based on sex based rights. Women have the right not to give consent to males in their safe spaces such as toilets, prisons, sporting events and so on. Alba also recognises in an exceptionallly small percentage of cases gender dysphoria is a real medical condition. Previously a defined medical process diagnosed gender dysphoria. The short circuit occurred when the Scottish Government circumvented the defined process by introducing Self ID into the GRRB. And Lady Haldane’s judgement that a male at birth holding a GRC for the purposes of the Law was defined as a woman. It’s a Leglisative and Legal conundrum. The sensible position to hold for all political parties is to retreat to the previous defined medical process. Alba’s policy is to then hold an citizen assembly to take the issue forward. That is my interpretation of Alba Policy but I dont hold any office. Perhaps Andy who is a founding member can explain further or better than me.
Thinking about it more I’d guess that the Faslane / Coulport complex would have to be the number 1 target in the UK. If not where else would be more important?
If the Ru$$ians only had one nuclear bomb taking out our ability to nuke them would be how they would use it. (Of course in reality they have no shortage.)
I guess maybe the US bases in the UK if they restock them with nuclear weapons (as they plan to do). So anywhere near those US bases will also have a massive target painted on to them.
But in terms of strictly UK targets there will be no bigger priority than taking out Faslane / Coulport. Cany anyone think of one?
Looking at wikipedia before they were decommissioned the largest nuclear weapons in the US arsenal was 9MT, Russia had similar, probably bigger, as is their way.
Technology has advanced a lot as well. Fuck knows what monsters they have up their sleeves on both sides.
Einstein was right about the fourth world war being fought with sticks and stones. The weapons now are insane.
What an authoritarian shithole the UK is turning in to.
“THE definition of extremism being broadened by the UK Government should be regarded as a threat to Scots’ rights to campaign for independence and constitutional change, an MP has claimed.
Rishi Sunak has asked Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove to update the Government’s definition of extremism so it encompasses more broadly those who “undermine” British values and institutions.
The change is expected to be announced later this month and is expected to include a list of groups that fall foul of the new definition.
Ministers are also considering proposals put forward by the Government’s adviser on political violence, John Woodcock, to ban MPs and councillors from engaging with certain protest groups such as Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Extinction Rebellion.”
Re my previous comment is it any wonder that Westminster is thinking of dumping its membership of the ECHR.
However the ECHR says.
“Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) specifically safeguards the right to freedom of assembly and association. Both of these are now under full scale and repeated attack from the most right-wing and draconian government in living memory. ”
https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/fundamental/mass-surveillance-snoopers-charter/
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/stricter-laws-to-tackle-terrorism-come-into-force
Polling
Sky and Election maps polling for the GE translated into seats suggests –
Lab: 473
Con: 93
Lib Dem: 42
Green: 2
SNP: 18
PC: 4
NI: 18
Bored now… the largest nuclear bomb ever tested was 50 MT.
If they dropped that above George Sq in Glasgow the fireball alone would extend to the Burrell Collection, Anniesland, Kings Park and Bishopbriggs.
Moderate blast damage would be out as far as Stewarton, Balloch, Bonnybridge and well past Larkhall.
And that is an old technology bomb now. They never stopped developing them, they just stopped testing them, now it is all done by computer simulation.
It is just best we don’t go down this road all together.
Mac;
Amen to that….there should be millions out on the streets worldwide protesting this madness every week. Out of sight out of mind I suppose….so if/when it comes – head towards the centre of your nearest big town or city, you wouldn’t want to be here afterwards. What a stupid species we are, capable only of designing new phones and bigger bombs…..
The usual suspects on here will no doubt disagree.
(“…and…que usual suspects!”)
@RoS, this week a man in Leeds was jailed for two years for sharing a template for stickers which said things like It’s Ok To Be White. The judge directed the jury that even if they felt that what the stickers said were true and inoffensive an example had to be made to stem the rising tide of anti Semitism in the UK.
On Etsy you can buy stickers which advocate violence against TERFS whilst suffragette/gender critical themed stickers are banned by the site.
Mac: “They never stopped developing them, they just stopped testing them, now it is all done by computer simulation.”
Actually, the US tested a nuclear bomb in Nevada quite recently, October from memory.
Almost nobody mentioned it, apart from Pravda and myself.
@George Ferguson
“… gender dysphoria is a real medical condition…”
Yes, it is, George, as you say.
In Ireland, gender dysphoria was found largely among children who had been in Romanian orphanages or who were autistic.
An American psychiatrist with long experience of gender dysphoria, Ira Levein, said that on reaching puberty most children desisted from their condition. All children with gender dysphoria needed professional treatment to deal with their mental distress.
There were some, very few, who could be said to be born “in the wrong body”.
Sturgeon & Youssaf thought it fitting to dress up and go to London’s English royal events.
Republicans?
The creepy semiotics could not be plainer.
The independence movement is led by nodding donkeys, nodding to a rather «spooky»*
tempo.
SPOOK…espionage argot for agent/informant/undercover operative.
Anton Decadent.
We Just have to look at what Humza Yousaf said about White people, as did Anas Sarwar if they had changed out white for brown, yellow or red, they’d have been an almighty uproar.
Both Yousaf and Sarwar’s heritage is that of Pakistani, of which I’m pretty sure the rant that both men spouted would of course see brown skinned folk filling the exact some positions in Pakistan.
Of course we had several SNP MPs attend a LGBTI+ march in Glasgow in which these MPs stood in front of very offensive boards, on the boards were descriptions of what some folk wanted to do to what they derogatory call women (Terfs) including decapitating them.
Also in Scotland the SNP and the LA and several of the judiciary wants to do away with juries in sexual offences cases, which is not on, its not about justice its about getting the conviction rates up and judge only trials do this we just have to look at what happened to Craig Murray without a jury, and would Alex Salmond have been acquitted without a jury, a jury I might add made up of predominately women, I think not.
The SNP are utterly clueless.
Not a single campaign since 14.
MPs growing very fat in Westminster.
And the worst is, they fucking don’t know how bad they actually are.
For the first time in my whole life I will not be voting SNP. I need them to feel pain. They are out of touch and doing the unionists job for them.
Eva Comrie to stand as an independent candidate.
“Each of us has our own part to play in creating the future Scotland deserves; for that
reason and a few more outlined below, I have resolved to stand as an Independent candidate for the constituency of Alloa and Grangemouth at the forthcoming GeneralElection.”
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/03/05/a-dream-to-keep-by-eva-comrie/
Eva Comrie, Yvonne Ridley and Denise Findlay all left ALBA, not a good sign? Are they going down the SNP route, rearranging the deck chairs again. Time for a new Captain?
Eva Comrie standing as an Independent in the upcoming GE. Hopefully, the first of a number of honest Scots women and men united not by some political machine, but just a straightforward belief in independence and biological facts.
Spaceman Spiff should’ve tried sanctions.
They never fail. Lol
Nukes are soooo 90’s.
@RoS, Yusaf should start a Nationalists Against Whites group to target the naw vote. I was posting on here months ago about how he and Sarwar had made the same speech on the same day in the same location but across the West a long con has been operating to brainwash people into accepting the unacceptable.
Good luck to Eva Comrie, the deliberate splintering of the movement via embracing critical theory stuff though is an absolute tragedy.
Going back a few years BTL in the Herald when the subject of the Peoples Assemblies or whatever they were called came up someone who openly despised the white working class announced that he was a member via invite and invited someone else who I believe eventually moved over to commenting BTL at the National. She was from Newton Mearns, also hated the WWC and was a member of RISE. The guy who was inviting her was like a political weather vane, SNP one week, an environmentalist the next and actually said that he considered Anas Sarwar a man of great integrity and was considering Labour. Any time the GRR came up he would try to veer the conversation away from it, it was of no importance etc. If his own words were quoted back at him further down the line he would flat out deny it and try to gaslight whoever was quoting him, sounds familiar. Everything turning to shit isn’t by accident, the SNP welcomed the absolute dregs whilst driving away its core, same with the Greens.
Sven.
I think we’ll see more and more folk standing as independents in the future, I think they’ll be a whole flurry of them at the next GE, due to the Tories and Labour stance on supporting the Zionist genocide.
We just have to look at Galloway he romped it in Rochdale off the back of the genocide, a genocide the Tories and Labour support so they had no chance of winning it.
We know the SNP are no longer a party for Scottish independence so any indy minded MP standing at the next GE as an independent should be worth voting for.
Thanks George. I think you are probably right. I’ll see what Andy has to say.
I’d prefer Calvin & Hobbes as First Minister and their depute.
Ruby: Shame about Alba! You are right, Ruby, you can’t ride two horses at once. have said before and will say again: this gender ordure will kill every party that touches it. As for using disabled toilets, no way. If you are wilfully disabled by your paraphilia or fetish that you feed daily with p**n, and want to indulge said paraphilia/fetish in public, start creating your own spaces. Terrorizing females and making them very uncomfortable is part of the fun for these guys. Vomit. They do not want their own spaces – and Stonewall and its various allies in the ‘trans’ lobby are awash with money – because the excitement lies in harassing women and girls in a sexual manner. These people are without conscience so no point in appealing to a non-existent one. I will never understand why so many people just do not get it. There is always someone who cannot resist pandering to these men. They would trample you into the dust. Do not feel sorry for them unless you are a certified masochist. They hate us.
Biological facts don’t mean much if you believe they can be changed with drugs & surgery.
Has anyone ever tried hypnosis to cure gender dysphoria?
It seems it’s what they are trying to do to the general population.
Close your eyes. Relax and just listen to my voice.
Women have a penis! Women have a penis! Women have a penis! Women have a penis!
Woman’s penis, her penis, her penis. Raped with her penis.
Slowly open your eyes. How do you feel?
I feel there is something missing! I have no penis.
I feel I need to book a further session of hypo-therapy doctor.
Doctor says: Sorry this is my last session due to new ‘Conversion therapy’ law.
Republicofscotland16.51.
Maybe just me, RoS, however I genuinely feel that even here on WOS there is a more encouraging feeling getting going.
Just the thought of local people seeing a meaningful opportunity to get decent, everyday folk involved in Scottish political activity instead of the assorted grifters, chancers and troughers (I really am trying to be restrained here) occupying Holyrood and WM, potentially even the House of Lords, could start a ground level up wave of hope and enthusiasm.
Rochdale, with independent candidates achieving great support from the electorate, demonstrated that the Party system is now in serious trouble.
@Sam 2:44pm
Agreed Sam on the medical evidence. An over politicised topic and an anvil to hammer rational debate. As the blogs author suggests the SNP/ Green Government are flailing about looking for a hook. In comedic mode it’s four wheels on my wagon and I am still rolling along. Except there is one wheel and it’s been converted to a wheelbarrow. Disruptor tactics on show again on this thread. The last thing Holyrood needs is another solicitor.
Exactly Lorna!
Herbert, Heather just wanted everyone to know that it was V day. I feel sorry for the attendant at Gatwick who had to listen to him explain why he needed a a space to dilate his vagina.
So much for the idea of keeping your biological sex a secret and Herbert, Heather just wanting to get on with his life.
We’ll see what Andy Ellis says.
I’m stick with the idea that the GRA should be repealed.
https://archive.is/XnFID
As Scottish police officers failed miserably in the past to catch Emma Caldwell’s killer, (Our esteemed FM will decide in a day or two if they be an inquiry into the failings, this comes out of the woodwork.
“The former head of a police watchdog has told an inquiry of her concerns that details of a post-mortem examination of Sheku Bayoh were given to police officers before they provided statements on their involvement with him prior to his death.
Kate Frame, Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (Pirc) in 2015, told the Sheku Bayoh inquiry this risked the group of officers choosing to “adapt” their statements to match the examination findings. Mr Bayoh, 31, a father-of-two, died after he was restrained on the ground by six police officers in Kirkcaldy, Fife, on May 3 2015.”
Of course Police Scotland officers involved in Mr Bayoh’s death, were allowed to get together to get their stories right before the inquiry on his death.
STV news reporting that Scotland’s housing crisis is now a housing emergency, and as heads of housing charities and associations met to discuss what can be done to try and ease the homeless numbers in Scotland, the SNP’s Housing Minister Paul McLennan failed to show up to talk about the housing emergency.
The SNP really are a bunch of useless b*stards.
Meanwhile the SNP have this in their sights.
“An SNP Minister has refused to rule out raising the age for older people to enjoy their free bus pass.
Jim Fairlie gave “no commitments” when asked for a reassurance on the current qualifying criteria.
“The new minister quite clearly refused to rule out raising the age limit for the older person’s bus pass.
“This will worry a great many people and the Scottish Government should clarify its plans urgently.””
Scotland will get the westminster governance it deserves, whether it be liebor or snp,
Suck it up mugs.
ROS 4.51pm, absolute way to go, independent candidates standing on an #end the union plebiscite.
@ RoS
Looking at the remit.
https://www.gov.scot/about/who-runs-government/cabinet-and-ministers/minister-for-agriculture-and-connectivity/
Maybe as Minister Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity Jim Fairlie can instruct the local councils to cut back the bloody tree branches so locals can regain their bus services as some routes are currently off limits with no service due to overhanging branches.
That said it is utterly ridiculous that it should take an MSP’s involvement to get Council to carry out the most basic tasks of maintaining our infrastructure.
As a pesky human I’m not allowed to prune a few branches off trees so buses don’t get their windows broken as they traverse our rural roads. So considering flicking over to #SuperTrans mode and identifying as a beaver so I can go full on furry unrestricted arborist, liberated from the insanity of a zillion rules and guidelines, or maybe just apply for a Scottish Administration of Devolved Powers grant to capture and train a squad of beavers to gnaw down problematic trees. The furry cretins are indiscriminately dropping hundreds anyway so it would make sense to at least get them to focus their gnawing on ones that actually are an issue.
You can say I’m not going to be taken seriously with typing the above, but I’ve already tried the proper serious route by reporting this stuff many months ago through the proper channels so the trees could be pruned when dormant through the winter season. But these cretins take so long to do anything or arrange any work that the sap will soon be rising meaning it isn’t ideal to prune trees at that time.
That’s ridiculous. My three favourite women activists for Independence have left the Alba Party.
Over a tweet? It’s pathetic. It’s all or nothing with people these days over comments made. They’ve trashed their own friendships.
If you ask me Eva And Denise were clearly jealous about Yvonne being the women’s representative in the Alba Party.
They’ve tried to destroy her reputation dug their heels in, refused to accept her apology, trashed their friendship, and cut their nose off to spite their face. By standing as Independents.
What on earth were they thinking?
Really pathetic but never mind. I wish them well and hope she wins Clachmananshire as an Independent. 100 per cent behind her regardless. She’s a class act.
Cancel the free bus pass for the entitled under 24s. That is a disgrace that they get that.
They cut about with such arrogance. Like that disgusting mob that attacked the Wallace Monument Sword – This is Rigged.
I saw some fruit cake 30 year old Irish woman was attacking the Queen Victoria Statue in Kelvingrove with Jam this week! ahah.
If she hates it here that much, then she can get back on a boat to Dublin and pay the highest rental costs in Europe!
I’ve also seen, having walked through Charing Cross today. The Brittania Hotel is OVER RUN. with Asylum Seekers.
Theres 10-15 Deliveroo just eat bikes chained outside. CHAINED OUTSIDE. Asylum seekers exploiting the gig economy. It’s a disgrace what they’re doing. Angry men loitering around outside.
And the strip club next door. I feel sorry for the girls. Definitely NOT SAFE to walk through Charing Cross during the night. Not with the angry young men and the fake deliveroo drivers at the hotel.
The Baby Grand and Seventh Heaven, dangerous places to be working if you’re one of the girls. With the Brittania Hotel clearly housing the African Asylum Seekers that probably crossed the channel.
All smoking outside, the deliveroo bikes all chained up. They’re obviously working on FAKE names.
A heads up for your own safety. It’s ground zero in Glasgow.
Dan 7:04pm, i live in a small village in england with a 20mph limit,
The sign at our end of the village is covered in algae and obscured by low hanging branches, so without informing any cnut i grabbed my wash bucket, hi-viz, step ladder, folding hand saw, and baseball hat. Job done in 20mins, one passerby said, nice to see the council tackling this. Lol.
@ David Hannah at 7.08
That seems extraordinarily unlikely, given that neither of them stood for election as women’s convenor. No genuine gender critical feminist says what Ridley said because of a “senior moment”. She revealed herself to be a fraud (my own opinion of her is the polar opposite of yours, and yes, I have met her) and should have been expelled, not allowed to step back because she was “distressed” when called to account.
That of course is just my view and no-one’s asking me any more than they are asking you.
@David Hannah 7:18pm
London Manchester and Birmingham are lost. Those people in Glasgow have never met any Old Firm supporters so as you were. I think post Independence we should be gratuitous to our English brethren in claiming asylum in Scotland. The political class in their country has failed. We are not their yet but heading that way. The role of politicians is to advance the betterment of their people. Have we done that in SNP/Green Scotland? No but change is a coming I only hope it arrives timeously.
@ Bobbyp
Careful you don’t incriminate yourself! You may have destroyed an entire ecosystem growing on that algae covered signpost.
Up here SEPA would likely go full Liam Neeson and hunt you down and kill you because as a private individual you used a non-compliant squirt of washing up liquid to wash the sign clean. Pruning a few tree branches so important road signage are clearly visible is also against the hallowed re-wilding practices spouted by the NetZero zealots, so you may well feel the fury and wrath of some lentil munching twat like Ross Greer who sports less meat on him than a butcher’s pencil.
Dan 7.55pm, ah but once they start trying to hunt people down,
The hunters once its known where they live, have to be careful that they dont become the hunted.
@ Republicofscotland says: 5 March, 2024 at 1:10 pm
Relax.
It’s no more than is going on all over the EU.
Governments are waking up to the massive vote losers that daily mobs of chanting foreigners, calling for jihad, and annihilation of the Jews, actually are.
Unless you intend to carpet bag Indy marches to do the same, you’ll be fine.
And if that is your intent, I’m of the opinion the majority of sane, rational, adult Scots will think like me, and enjoy seeing your appointment with the water cannon at full pressure.
I am assuming the best UK plants in the snp will be making as many daft and contradictory remarks as possible running up to the election.
That is what they are for, to undermine the party and oh here we go!!!
And imaging wanting to run into an election led by Shona Robison.
The tories and split and the labour are headed the same way and nicola and co still to appear in front of the beak!!!
Dan @ 7:55 pm
“the hallowed re-wilding practices”
Ah, the ‘cultural recreation of the colonizer’ (Memmi). If not sheep replacing people in the glens, how about a few wolves here, some eagles there, and ‘protected’ national parks and seas; tho protected from what? From furthering the development of the native population of course, their annexed lands transformed into whatever fits the colonizers fancy; ergo, ‘cultural recreation’.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/02/25/decolonising-cultural-heritage-in-an-independent-scotland/
@ Republicofscotland says: 5 March, 2024 at 4:51 pm
due to the Tories and Labour stance on supporting the Zionist genocide
We just have to look at Galloway he romped it in Rochdale off the back of the genocide, a genocide the Tories and Labour support
Snot a genocide though.
And the war, which is what it is, is being treated impartially by the Tories and Labour.
Fundamentally, the war will stop when both sides are ready to stop. It won’t stop just because one side decides to stop. That’s such a no-brainer I wonder at having to explain it, until I remember it’s RoS I’m dealing with – Mr Pretzel fused with Mr Congenital Liar.
Stop press: The IDF has yet to run out of munitions and troops, and Hamas has yet to run out of munitions and Palestinian civilian human shields, so on it goes.
Looks like the hopes for a Ramadan cease fire are fading. Oh well.
George.
Arrive on a boat. Get free hotel. Work fake job illegally not paying ANY TAX. and then spend it in the strip club next door. Very VERY sinister.
The old firm supporters would set about these bastards if they try anything.
Avoid Charing Cross. It’s fallen!
You don’t ned to be Angus Einstein to understand that the west costs of Scotland at Coulport, Faslane and Glen Douglas in any nuclear exchange will melt like rocks in the sun.
That is why the whole kit and caboodle of the UK’s nuclear defence is located here. The local nig-nogs to use an absolutely derogatory word are quite simply expendable. Indeed, an attack would sort out the Scotland problem and kill em dead like rats in a trap.
But hey hoe that’s what Jocko is prepared to do. Take a bullet so to speak for the colonial masters.
And the wee half German gauleiter Robertson? Well he agrees. Big time.
@David Hannah 8:33pm
Glasgow has always been the beacon light of Human Rights. An exemplar to the rest of Scotland. But recently the City seems to have lost it’s way. If the ECHR post goes to Nicola Sturgeon then we will know that Gangsta politics rules OK even in Glasgow.
Been to the Highlands recently Alf?
Seen the benefits of absentee landlords sitting in Dubai or the Netherlands? Overstocking deer numbers to the point that nothing grows over 12″ above ground level and the beasts themselves are malnourished.
Housing used for VRBO/Airbnb holiday lets with no housing for locals, particularly the youth.
Only low-skilled, low-paid jobs in hospitality, forestry, aquaculture or agriculture, and nowhere to live if you even get a bloody job.
Nat’l Parks and rewilding are just a distraction from the real issues, so the tub-thumping vested interests can maintain the status quo… Have the Factor tell the ‘keeper to take the day off, but only to stand on a corner and wave a flag, together with a couple of press ganged tennant farmers and a few white settlers from the Home Counties who, having found their retirement Garden of Eden, don’t want anything to change.
Rewilding and National Parks have their place, but not in a land where the invertebrates in the SNP refuse to tackle the issue of land ownership – and THAT’S the problem.
Your solution?
@Sven says: 5 March, 2024 at 5:33 pm
Rochdale, with independent candidates achieving great support from the electorate, demonstrated that the Party system is now in serious trouble
Ah hae some doots.
George got 40% of the votes, on a turnout of 40%.
In last year’s Rutherglen and Hamilton by-election, the Labour boy got 59% of the vote, on a turnout of 37%.
I well remember some posters on here claiming that the Rutherglen result was meaningless because of the low turnout. I don’t see what’s so different about Rochdale.
Both were by-elections anyway. History is hoaching with examples of the protest votes of by-elections, overturned when the “real deal” comes along and the voters have to think seriously about who’s going to be in power.
Defo innarestin times though, Sven!
Ach, as he is well paid for a ministerial position then here’s another conflict conundrum for Jim Fairlie to deal with.
https://www.thescottishfarmer.co.uk/news/23911617.farmers-upset-absence-beaver-release-consultation/
I’m interested to hear how the “Beavers are great for the environment” types will explain how the environment benefited from one of the many hundreds of beaver felled trees being washed down the river and taking out my village’s sewer pipe last autumn in the floods, resulting in what now appears to be many months of nasty sewerage being discharged into the wrong watercourse polluting it badly and trashing the local ecosystem and fish spawning grounds.
The beavers also went tonto trashing loads of trees and burrowing into this section of waterway’s riverbank to build lodges without bothering to adhere to proper planning consent processes. Only for them to then find that in winter the river levels rise many feet meaning they’d drown if staying in their now submerged lodges. So they just upped and left leaving all manner of issues behind them. Natch the pumping of sewer waste into the water would mean they’d soon go anyway.
Carnage, just utter carnage and probably going to cost many many thousands to sort the issue properly, so expect increased wastewater charges on your council taxes to cover beaver antics.
David Hannah: “If you ask me Eva And Denise were clearly jealous about Yvonne being the women’s representative in the Alba Party.”
I’m not so sure.
From what I have heard, the tweet or tweets at the heart of this were totally at odds with Alba’s assumed position on the trans issue. I would say, based on what I have heard, they represented a betrayal.
I know the Alba policy is to delete the tweets, forgive, and forget, but I’m not sure it’s as simple as that.
Again, based on what I have heard, we aren’t talking about a typo error… you could not say the things that were allegedly said without believing them, and if you believe them, what the hell are you doing in Alba as Women’s Representative?
Listening to George Galloway eulogizing the Red Army (and Communism) reminds me why (in addition to the utter shite he talks about Scottish Independence) I cant stand the guy, despite agreeing with about 98% of what he says.
Fuck knows what Craig Murray is doing crawling up his arse on MOAT. He characterizes Scottish nationalists as Nazis.
10 June 1944 Oradour-sur-Glane
642 villagers massacred and village burned to the ground
When later asked for comment by the BBC, SS spokeswoman, Helga Main said:
“It’s all the French resistance’s fault, using villagers as human shields”
And
“Never mind, in 70 years this will all be forgotten, ancient guff
– I crack me up !”
@ willie says: 5 March, 2024 at 8:41 pm
melt like rocks in the sun
Thon Angus Einstein loon is nae very smart. Abody kens rocks don’t melt in the sun.
the whole kit and caboodle of the UK’s nuclear defence is located here
It’s naw though. There’s a wee place called the Atomic Weapons Establishment and that’s in Berkshire.
Angus Einstein will ken that’s in England.
local nig-nogs
Could be worse. Could be Jewish sounding like yon loon Angus Einstein.
Dinna fash, Willie. Pres Poot’s Poseidon penis-extension will drown most of the UK indiscriminately, although Scotland, with the highest mountains, might get a slightly better deal.
Take up Munro Bagging to lengthen the odds in your favour.
From that Scottish Farmer article: “Head of conservation at CNPA, Dr Sarah Henshall, told the BBC: “Beavers are a keystone species.
“They have the ability to shape and modify their environment. They can restore freshwater habitats.” ”
Maybe Sarah would like to try some loony dooking in amongst some of my and my neighbours’ jobbies and pish. I mean it’s jist so natural…
John Main @ 20.51
Necessarily just my subjective view, however I suspect that such a large proportion of the electorate are so totally sickened with all the main parties and politics in general that low turnouts are now going to increasingly become the norm.
Were I you, I would be more reluctant to take the views of some WOS on election turnouts, Rutherglen included.
It seems more likely to me that the “ordinary” guy/girl in the street is more likely to turn out to vote for an independent standing for change than any of the old Parties offering, “More of the same”.
And bearing in mind the flood of some of the most committed activists for independence from the SNP I’d guess that many of them would be genuinely fired up by an independent non career politician for whom they could vote.
If aforesaid candidate makes a stand against the gender woo woo they’re really going to have wide appeal, my view.
A bit late trying to virtue signal to Indy voters to save your seat.
The United front is showing cracks, like a dam ready to burst.
Hooray!!
I am sympathetic to Independent candidates standing in the GE. But the analysis of just losing your deposit is disingenuous. As Hardmans report in the Spectator showed. To win a seat in a General Election requires a lot of money and people. 10 constituents to support you. Marketing materials and people on the ground. A close knit group of advisors. Minimum ten grand. A barrier to democracy?. That was her point. I await to hear if Alba will stand in my constituency. I get the strategy of prioritising the list vote in 2026. Have a big object in view is my response. Scottish politics is melting before our eyes. An opportunity.
@ Alf Baird says: 5 March, 2024 at 8:25 pm
Beavers, eagles and wolves.
They were all present in Scotland, long before we were “colonised”.
Much of Scotland used to be covered in trees too.
I’m curious. Is it the case that things that many Scots would like to see (the re-introduction of extinct species, an end to raptor persecution, native Caledonian Pine forest re-established in many places) is opposed by you because of ideological impurity?
These are good outcomes, but it’s the wrong people (colonists) doing it?
Fresh from his election to parliament to the British parliament, MP George Galloway spoke with RT on Tuesday about the state of media freedom in Britain and London’s disastrous policies in the Middle East and Ukraine.
Galloway trounced both Tory and Labour candidates in last week’s Rochdale by-election, winning twice as many votes than both major parties combined. PM Rishi Sunak denounced the result as “beyond alarming” and a threat to “our democracy itself.”
As Galloway pointed out, however, he has been elected to Parliament a total of seven times – far more than Sunak or Labour leader Keir Starmer.
“These people are hypocrites. Things like democracy, human rights, rule of law, rules-based international order, it’s just lipstick on a pig. They wipe the lipstick off whenever they no longer feel the need to look prettier,” he claimed.
“As Sunak’s speech outside Number 10 [Downing Street] on Friday about my election makes clear, it’s not beyond them even to cancel elections,” he added.
George Galloway is not a threat to democracy – only to the elite hypocrites running the UKREAD MORE George Galloway is not a threat to democracy – only to the elite hypocrites running the UK
British authorities have banned RT and the Iranian PressTV outright, refused to renew the license of China’s CGTN, and blocked outlets like Venezuela’s TeleSur.
“The reason is pretty simple if you think about it: Too many people were watching these TV channels. Too many people were watching RT. Not just in Britain, but even more so in Germany. That is why RT was closed down. Because too many of the public were watching it. How’s that for freedom?” said Galloway.
NOTE.
Above is an extract from a RT interview with George Galloway that is being widely blocked by security service censorship.
@Sven says: 5 March, 2024 at 9:24 pm
There’s one other factor in the mix.
Both at WM and at HR we are still dealing with the political personalities and parties that inflicted the great Covid over-reaction on us.
For many of us, it’s pay back time, whether its because we lost our jobs, saw our incomes ravaged by Covid-induced inflation, or had to abandon our loved ones to a lonely death cos of ludicrous health & safety mythology.
The MSM want us to forget about Covid cos they were complicit in enabling the over-reaction and ensuring that dissenting voices were frozen out.
I’m of the opinion there will be plenty of voters remembering and holding grudges at the next MW and HR elections.
Yvonne Ridley. She loves Scottish Independence. She’s a socialist to her core. I loved that speech she did at George square. She slated the royal family! She said Scotland is a colony! I loved it! She stood up for the Kenmure Street residents! She told us to rise up and stand up! I was wondering why she’d chosen to leave the prism show. It said she left!
Is it over this? I’m gutted. Loved listening to her every week.
It’s not the same anymore.
She said she was going to tell us all how to avoid paying TAX on the prism show! I couldn’t wait to find out the details over her opposition to Israel.
Listen, White Muslim Yvonne Ridley nobel peace prize nominee. She said made a mistake. And it’s been blown up. I believe her when she says she made a mistake.
Get her back on the prism show and lets hear it from the horses mouth.
SAOR ALBA!
Yvonne Ridley. She loves Scottish Independence. She’s a socialist to her core. I loved that speech she did at George square. She slated the royal family! She said Scotland is a colony! I loved it! She stood up for the Kenmure Street residents! She told us to rise up and stand up! I was wondering why she’d chosen to leave the prism show. It said she left!
Is it over this? I’m gutted. Loved listening to her every week.
It’s not the same anymore.
She said she was going to tell us all how to avoid paying TAX on the prism show! I couldn’t wait to find out the details over her opposition to Israel.
Listen, White Muslim Yvonne Ridley nobel peace prize nominee. She said made a mistake. And it’s been blown up. I believe her when she says she made a mistake.
I think it’s a stupid fall out. Really stupid.
Everything that Yvonne Said. From avoiding tax to protest against Israel. Standing up for the Palestinians. Out of NATO. A scotland for the Scots! She said we’re a colony. She was on all the marches. The rallies. The campaign trails. Yvonne’s been at them all. She is an incredible voice for Scottish Independence.
It’s not going to be the same without her. If anyone in the British state could consider a threat. It would be her. She’s a white muslim that despises everything the establishment stand for.
She’s brilliant. HIRED. PROMOTED. SIGN HER UP.
@John Main 10:34pm
Agreed. My son tells me his A and E department is beginning to come out of the woods. No slip trips and falls because of the weather. Nothing to do with the Scottish Government but thankfully things are improving in A and E. Covid or Brexit take your choice. I prefer Scottish Government incompetence. It goes a long way back when Nicola Sturgeon was Health Secretary.
Unfortunately. The Alba women have over reacted and completely trashed, a great thing they’ve been part of. A special, party. And they had some great friendships there. And have chosen to cut their nose off to spite their face. It’s really sad to hear this because they were brilliant together.
I wish them all well. I’ll still fund the ALBA Party. After listening to Ash Regan’s speech to Jamie Hepburn. She’s a class act as well. The strongest Independence voices in the Alba Party.
I suspect men don’t fully comprehend how strongly women feel about all this transgender stuff.
How could they?
Women are insulted on a daily basis by all this stuff. Please try to listen to women!
If I were in an organization that was supposed to be pro women and the the so called women’s convenor said ‘transwomen are women’ you wouldn’t have seen me for dust.
So no I do not think these Alba women have over reacted.
If the person who said ‘transwomen are women’ is
masquerading as being gender critical/pro women then she is a fake.
The Alba Party believes ‘transwoman are women’ or at least those with the medical condition ‘gender dysphoria’ are women.
Andy Ellis didn’t get back to me so I’m just having to make an informed guess about Alba.
Maybe what happen with the Alba women who resigned is when Yvonne Ridley said ‘transwomen are women’ they realised they were in the wrong party.
This reminded me of the Tory woman who told Neil Hanvey how he should feel.
Sorry David! I’ll let you off because I really don’t think you understand how strongly women feel about all this trans stuff.
“George Ferguson says:
5 March, 2024 at 8:44 pm
@David Hannah 8:33pm
Glasgow…
…Gangsta politics rules OK…”
Vambo rules OK, surely?
David Hannah
Ignored says:
5 March, 2024 at 11:04 pm
Yvonne Ridley. She loves Scottish Independence. She’s a socialist to her core. I loved that speech she did at George square. She slated the royal family! She said Scotland is a colony! I loved it! She stood up for the Kenmure Street residents! She told us to rise up and stand up! I was wondering why she’d chosen to leave the prism show. It said she left!
———
The farce induced Alba is the gift that keeps on giving. It has stumbled from one hilarious disaster to another since it’s inception and I doubt that it will last much longer as a party.
The woman who was torn to shreds by John Drummond on the TNT Show is set to stand as an independent. A lost deposit waiting to happen.
P.S Scotland is not a colony.
P.P.S The ‘Prism’ is pro-autocratic state/anti-western rubbish.
John Main @ 10:12 pm
“They were all present in Scotland, long before we were “colonised”.”
Sheep replacing people in the glens? Shootin estates? Aye right.
Hannah,
Cut it out with this “Covid” shit. The correct term and reason for our economic destruction is “LOCKDOWN”!
Dan
Will you give us all a break from your constant references to shite and how best to deal with it.
The only shite on Wings comes from the shite you post.
Give us all peace ya borin R Sole and head over to off topic,,, permanently.
Dan
Ignored says:
5 March, 2024 at 8:57 pm
Carnage, just utter carnage and probably going to cost many many thousands to sort the issue properly, so expect increased wastewater charges on your council taxes to cover beaver antics.
I don’t know enough about it, but my instincts are with the beavers.
I can’t get away from that Tropic Cascade story where just half a dozen wolves changed the whole ecosystem of Yellowstone Park. There were individual winners and losers, but the nett balance was a huge improvement for everybody.
Perhaps the issue with Scotland’s beavers is the omission of a natural predator; not to cull numbers essentially, but to modify the behaviour of the beavers in the same way the deer in Yellowstone started to avoid open areas where they were easy prey for the wolves. The effect of this was clearings in the forests were less heavily grazed, allowing more plants to mature / flower/ procreate, which fed and bred more insects, which fed and bred more birds etc…
Scotland’s wild has been so grievously damaged for so long that there’s virtually no chance of any trophic cascade happening here, because we’re introducing wild animals into a virtual desert, with virtually no wild predation. The “problem” with the beavers, is perhaps that it’s “only” the beavers we’ve bought back.
I’m saddened there are problems with human interaction, the same way I’m saddened by farmers losing lambs to eagles, but a stronger emotion than sadness at things which can be compensated, is anger and a deep sense of injustice and “wrongness” that Scotland’s natural habitat has itself been butchered to the point of extinction. Our seas and rivers emptied of fish, our skies emptied of raptors, our forests emptied of predators then emptied of trees themselves. By what fkg right did we do this? The damned arrogance of our species! All of this must be reversed, and we are blind as well as stupid if we don’t see that.
No doubt you’re not alone feeling a bit Billy Murray about the beavers on the golf course, but I’m on the beaver’s side. They should be there. They have the right to be there, and humans in their arrogance, had no entitlement to drive them to extinction in the first place.
If our drainage infrastructure needs beaver-proofed, then maybe beaver-proofing it is a trophic cascade style modification of our behaviour. If more eagles, more owls, more lynx, eventually more wolves and maybe even bears, are going to modify the viability of Grouse Moors or hill farms and sheep numbers, then that too is our price to pay, our contribution to the trophic cascade. And if it hurts, then that hurt is a measure of our unbalanced singularity, and the dreadfully overbearing dominance and unhealthy impact on the natural ecosystem.
If it also reveals that humans in Scotland cannot adapt to life in the wilderness, why are we Scots incapable of doing what Canadians / Ru$$ians and every other population on our latitude, and living in harmony with the environment. Can you imagine the vast Canadian or Siberian wilderness denuded of trees and turned into a desert for bloodthirsty tossers to blast away at wee birds too stupid to flee? Scotland has made its contribution to that bleakest of world realities, , and it sickens me to the core.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a wolf, a beaver or whatever. If we humans discovered a living organism of comparable stature to a maggot living on another planet, it would shake our beliefs to the core. Yet we are living in an absolute paradise, a living world packed with countless species all interdependent on each other, and we seem hell bent on destroying it. The impropriety is all ours. Money? What good ever came from money? Show me a fish or a fox with a wallet.
It’s generally accepted that politicians are liars and/or are stupid.
Until recently they were largely held in check because, if they said things that were too outrageous, they would attract ridicule.
The final collapse in the credibility of the body politic dates to around the passing of The Smith-Mundt Modernisation Act (2012) in the USA.
Before 2012, politicians generally were reacting to events which had actually occurred.
Post 2012, following Smith-Mundt, propagandising the American public became legal.
Then the way was clear for fake school shootings, fake terror events and the rest.
Europe quickly followed the US lead, with the bright young things just up from Oxford and Cambridge noticeably starting up ‘events businesses’.
The terror street theatres enabled the expansion of the police state and it has gone on from there, diversifying into trannyism, climate, scamdemic, war:
All based on faked science, faked news.
No need for hábeis corpus any more. Just trust the lying experts.
Politicians now have free rein to spout any nonsense because their lies are now legally grounded by fraudulent ‘experts’ and an entirely controlled media.
When we make lying acceptable, with no consequences; and questioning the lie, made illegal; then we are truly in a dire situation.
@ David Hannah says: 5 March, 2024 at 11:04 pm
From what you say in your post, sounds as if Yvonne was just one card short of the full progressive set.
If only she had left it there, but naw, she had to go for the Trans Supporter card too!
tell us all how to avoid paying TAX
Easy peasy, David. Stop grafting and leach off the state, the state being AKA the mugs who still pay their way.
That might still leave you paying taxes such as VAT and insurance tax, so just half-inch stuff from shops and go through life uninsured. The mugs still paying their way will throw in a little extra on your behalf.
@ Alf Baird says: 6 March, 2024 at 1:00 am
Sheep replacing people in the glens? Shootin estates? Aye right
That’s a piss-poor response, Alf.
It was you who lumped together wolves and eagles, national parks too, with sheep and sporting estates in your 8:25 pm post.
All I did was point out that there must be a few Sovereign Scots thinking like me that re-introduction of extinct species of animals and endangered species of trees might be a good-ish idea.
National parks too – even the fecking “coloniser” has them.
And on the subject of “colonisation”, the beavers, wolves, raptors and Caledonian Pine forests were here long before the Scots came to exterminate and/or ethnically cleanse the earlier human inhabitants of this land.
Charles Hodgson @ 1:08 am
“The correct term and reason for our economic destruction is “LOCKDOWN”!”
Scotland suffers from additional serious longstanding structural and economic constraints. A colony’s main economic purpose is to serve the needs of the mother country. This means its resources and goods are extracted cheaply, whilst imports dominated by the mother country are expensive. The narrow industrial specialization permitted in the colony means it is more subject to shocks. It is prevented from developing its international trade. Economic surpluses are therefore extracted rather than used to reinvest and develop the plundered economy. Which explains Scotland’s lack of international competitiveness and under-development, with the people also doun-hauden by ‘a cultural division of labour’.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2022/07/25/determinants-of-independence-colonialism-2/
@ Breeks
The issue with the beavers in this area is that there is significant conflict with Grade A agricultural land amongst other issues. Just a few were unofficially released on an estate and they have increased their numbers significantly and spread over an increasingly wide range now with all that expansion entails.
If you had read literature and studies from the likes of SNH on what is expected to happen over a hundred years then you can see why this area would not have been considered an appropriate place to release them.
As you say there are no natural predators to try to keep their numbers in check, so that task falls upon humans to carry out with all the emotional issues that stimulates in folk.
Already within a couple of decades licenses to kill have been granted whilst trapping them to ship them to other areas also occurs. Arguably that is more humane and better for a beaver rather than a painful death of being ripped to shreds by a wolf.
This is not some back of beyond area miles from anywhere. It has a lot of various activities going on. Those that live and work here already see the significant issues they create. People losing gardens, parking areas, and sheds due to water levels backing up, landowners installing huge expensive fencing to try (and failing) to keep them out of certain zones. The loss of thousands of trees through gnawing or drowning.
They have created all manner of issues along watercourses, and as there are a myriad strict guidelines, rules, and costs involved for carrying out any work near watercourses it makes it all the more difficult to carry out prevention, maintenance, and remedial measures and works.
So rather than looking at this issue from a general theoretical overview perspective of Scotland, try to consider things from the actual realities manifesting in a specific local area.
Dan@ 9.20pm
Breeks
The beavers have as much right to be here as we do. They’re a native species which was hunted to extinction a few centuries ago. In the years without them, drainage systems have been put in, rivers straightened and trees felled from riverbanks (also threatening native salmon). All the beavers are doing is putting the rivers and lochs back to their natural state.
It may look messy and untidy to our modern eyes. But crucially, their flooding activities restore vital insect and invertebrate life, providing a food source for many other species in the food chain. It’s the same with hedgerows.
There are ways and grants available to mitigate any damage the beavers do to modern drainage systems.
By look of it, I’ve not being paying nearly as much attention as Calvin but I did think I noticed a rumour of 24,000 postal votes (twice as many as were enough to win and three quarters of the total) in the Rochdale by election, a GG interview in which Galloway said he’d be accompanied into HOC (yesterday) by David Davies (for whatever reason) and a big cabinet secretary announcement heralding peace in Israel (US sponsored ceasefire last weekend that failed to materialise) used as the excuse to deny SNP it’s debate and retract the speaker’s apologies and promises..
On (ahem) brighter side, it appears France, in the name of not being “moche”(despite accepting that try), will be sending troops into Ukraine in hope of starting/ending globo thermal nuclear war quickly rather than risk being insulted by Paris 24 getting remembered (if at all) like Berlin 36 (practical completion dates, Australian flu and any inverse Spanish inquisition permitting)
The real bright side though is Eva Comrie running in the new constituency for Scotland, especially if team Liberate/ Salvo* can find a way to nationalise (or possess) Grangemouth & make Alloa the capital – regardless of what the other constituencies agree to)
Thanks Eva, and thanks to all that support ya (including/ especially YR).
* could even pave the way to team Scotland / England getting individual places and joint relays at the fore mention Games, (be they held this year or next), if the timing, and all relevant others, manage to work out well too 🙂
Dan & Breeks.
This “townie” is fair enjoying a bit of interesting “off topic” guys, (I’ve been known to meander a wee bit myself), so please keep the info coming.
And, how I wish we had you as a local councillor where I live, Dan.
Mary B…
Absolutely. There isn’t a part of Scotland that hasn’t been impacted by human activity and mostly to the detriment of native flora and fauna.
The uplands are devoid of diversity thanks to sheep and deer over grazing, fuelled by absentee landlords who don’t give two figs for the environment so long as they can persuade the wealthy to part with thousands to shoot anything that moves, and livestock compensation schemes whereby the only way to scratch a living from sheep is to overstock.
Mass planting of conifers and associated acid run off, pollutants from aquaculture in both fresh and marine environments, the list goes on.
The place is a mess, and coupled with shortbread tin tourism the future doesn’t hold much hope for Scotland’s rural areas other than morphing into the biggest open air retirement home in Europe.
As usual, SNP more concerned with allowing transvestite males into female spaces than sorting out issues surrounding land use and land ownership, but so long as the blue haired rainbow warriors are happy, eh?
Other countries seem capable of balancing these issues and creating sustainable environments and rural economies, but Scotland, as usual, gets an ‘F’ on the report card.
Yes Lockdown. All the economic woes are apparently due to COVID but not due to the massive overreaction by governments to something easily managed (Great Barrington Dec) excess death’s not even worth a mention. Where were all the EXPERTS hiding, the human rights lawyers etc when the clowns in charge were just randomly making rules up? Fucking shameful. Clap for the NHS fuck off.
John Main @ 8:17 am
“there must be a few Sovereign Scots thinking like me that re-introduction of extinct species of animals and endangered species of trees might be a good-ish idea. National parks too”
This assumes ‘Sovereign Scots’ own and run our country, which tends to ignore the reality that Scotland was effectively sold in 1707 and has been run by another country and culture ever since.
Independence is about a people reclaiming their sovereignty, which, by implication, has been taken from them and they do not currently have. I would have thought a regular commentator like you might have at least known what independence means?
We should be very careful about reintroducing species that will upset the existing balance and make life difficult or impossible for those that are currently thriving. I’m all in favour of nature, but this isn’t natural.
It’s not like the labour market where bringing in more people and increasing diversity will do much more obvious good than harm, with clearly positive spin-offs for the economy, the housing market, productivity, etc.
A lot of the natural habitats and ecosystems are very finely balanced as it is. Two wrongs (wiping out certain species then bringing them back) are unlikely to make a right.
I am reminded of communist China’s “Four Pests Campaign” which was premised on the “logic” that killing millions of sparrows would lead to increased agricultural yields. Instead it lead to famine and about 20 million people starving to death as swarms of locusts, previously held in check by the sparrows, decimated crops.
What are the lessons? There are a few; don’t assume you are God, think about unintended consequences, don’t mess around with nature, don’t listen to communists, don’t kill sparrows, etc.
Perhaps we should explore ways of reintroducing real socialists to Scottish politics?
In my opinion the SNP are now stumbling from one disaster to another (problems they’ve created for themselves).
“Scotland’s housing minister has denied the Government is “gaslighting” the public by pledging more affordable homes despite a huge budget cut.
Paul McLennan admitted the country faced a “challenging situation” after SNP and Green MSPs last week voted through a 26 per cent reduction in housing spending.”
McLennan wishes he could borrow more to do more, only independence can unleash more cash for Scottish needs.
And there’s this as well.
“Scots council house tenants are footing the bill for steep rent rises at a time of huge pressure on family budgets.
Increases of up to eight per cent have been pushed through while the SNP Government bankrolls a council tax freeze for the rich.
Aditi Jehangir, Secretary of the Living Rent trade union, said: “Freezing council tax whilst letting councils increase rents clearly shows that council tenants are not a priority for the Scottish Government.
“It is shocking the government is continuing to ignore the needs of tenants whilst the wealthiest households are able to enjoy a council tax freeze.”
“The Scottish Government needs to enable councils to freeze rents and to ensure councils are able to properly fund public services.”
Hautey
There’s nothing “balanced” about Scotland’s natural environment. All of it is managed for economic, or more often than not uneconomic, purposes.
Pollution, raptor persecution, overgrazing, erosion, rhododendron and bracken cover, habitat loss, shooting tracks, mountain hare decline, etc. etc. etc. and aside from the land (mis)management disasters let’s throw in some climate change whilst we’re at it and you’ve got absolutely nothing balanced, anywhere, just a steady decline that has to be measured in decades rather than years and which no politician therefore gives a shit about.
If by the “existing balance” you mean the status quo then NEWSFLASH!… the status quo is a shit show in need of radical solutions which this government of idiots is incapable of providing.
“Ian Brotherhood
Ignored says:
6 March, 2024 at 10:48 am
Perhaps we should explore ways of reintroducing real socialists to Scottish politics?”
Ian, I think you might have guessed you would be asked, “What’s a real socialist?”
Can’t think of too many – any – socialists that are elected politicians in Scotland. It’s all neoliberal crap.
This is comedy gold from these two clowns, they know fine well that independence is the only way to end this but they aren’t interested in delivering it.
“AN SNP MP has accused the UK Government of “undermining Scotland” after analysis found that the block grant will be the lowest since devolution.
Pete Wishart, the party’s longest-serving MP, has said the Scottish Government’s funding from Westminster would exacerbate the cost crisis facing households.
New analysis (below) from the House of Commons Library suggests that Scotland’s block grant will consist of just 3.5% of UK Government spending in 2023/24 and 2024/25, according to the Autumn Statement plans.
This call was also echoed by SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, who urged the Chancellor to boost NHS spending by £15 billion to create an additional £1.2 billion for Scottish health spending via the same mechanism.”
Wishart had the cheek to add.
““To make significant cuts to the block grant after already imposing economic chaos on Scotland shows the UK Government couldn’t care less about businesses and households here.
“Tory cuts are already causing hardship for people in Scotland – to the point the SNP Scottish Government has had to step in and spend billions to limit the damage being done to households. This cut to our block grant will make things worse.””
Only independence can end this nothing else, Scotland can NEVER prosper in this rancid union.
What we need are nuclear shelters, the return of the Observer Corp, and to copy the defence policies of Finland (underground Helsinki number two) and Switzerland etc. As warfare increasingly becomes hi-tek with drones, high energy beams and robotics those should be our greatest concerns.
@Sam (11.22) –
There must be some – maybe they’re in hiding, or heavily camouflaged.
🙂
Another one of a MILLION reason why we must end this controlling union forever, what must the outside world think of Scots for allowing this to happen, I shudder to think.
Down with the Union Forver.
“AN award-winning poet has been forced to cancel an appearance at a Scottish festival after being denied a UK visa by the Home Office.
Soukaina Habiballah, from Casablanca in Morocco, had been due to speak at StAnza, an international poetry festival set to take place in St Andrews from March 8-10, but will not be allowed into the UK.
In a statement, the festival’s artistic director, Ryan Van Winkle, accused the Tory government of making an incomprehensible decision that was “insulting and humiliating”.
Van Winkle said: “As artistic director of StAnza, we are heartbroken for Soukaina Habiballah and deeply disappointed by the UK Government’s refusal to grant her a visa.
“Countless resources went into programming her participation in our festival, as well as her first-ever tour of Scotland, working closely with our partners at Highlight Arts and senior figures in the British Council to secure her attendance. These capricious decisions by the Home Office not only undermine cross-cultural collaboration but also stifle the sharing of international art at a time when it’s needed most.”
Do you honestly believe ending the union would put us in a better position considering the fucking clown show in charge? I used to think so ten years ago but not sure now.
WTF are you doing Alex, these so called “Green” Freeports will be an unregulated disaster for Scotland. (BAP) member Kate Forbes worded tirelessly with Michael Gove to push these Freeports in Scotland.
“A HIGHLAND energy boss and former SNP backer has joined Alba, claiming that Alex Salmond’s party is the only one standing up for the oil and gas industry.
Steve Chisholm is the operations and innovations director for the Global Energy Group, a leading service and contracting company for the energy sector.
He is known as one of the driving forces behind the Inverness and Cromarty green freeport, co-ordinating with public bodies to develop a business case for the project.
He told the Press and Journal that despite being a life-long supporter of the SNP, he had taken the decision to leave due to the party’s stance on oil and gas support.”
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/03/01/salvo-acts-on-freeports/
I thought the Scots were a native species to Scotland, perhaps we should re-introduce this native species to Scotland with a breeding programme and gives them a few acres of free land as a habitat.
Yay, lets flood our Grade A agricultural land that grows a lot of our food. (I know there are questions over what conventional large scale farming has become)
But a wee question, where are you going to source your food from then, and have you factored in the increased carbon footprint of importing the food stuffs required to meet the shortfall of losing our locally produced foods, along with the economic losses to our economy and local jobs that destroying farmland will bring.
Unless you can furnish evidence this is the correct path to take at this specific time then it sounds like more virtue-signalling NetZero pish.
But hold on, has nobody noticed that ongoing austerity means there’s no money to even do the most basic stuff like road maintenance, so just where are the hundreds of thousands and more likely millions of pounds going to come from to properly mitigate for or rectify beaver activity when there are many other matters needing addressed first.
I don’t think folk quite understand that an awful lot of what the beavers are doing in this area is not changing the environment for the better because so much of their destructive activity is not in places that allow it to permanently make the improvements it is proposed to do.
The river is so big that when in spate it can rise more than 5 meters and just flushes all the hundreds of gnawed trees out to sea.
Just back from a walk and they have felled another couple of 12″ diameter silver birch along the river bank in last couple of days. This is opposite the 6 one hundred year old beech trees on the other bank they have bark ringed and which are destined to die. Those trees and their root systems were actually part of binding and holding the river bank together which would help stop further erosion. But hey, only another 20 feet more river bank erosion to go before it will start to undermine the steep slope up to the main road due to increasing the supporting slope angle, and this will of course escalate and quicken further erosion due to gravity.
Re-wilding Scotland was never put to the vote For the diminishing native species of Scots,
Of Course this is a globalist agenda ideology and was introduced into many Countries by gobalists,
It inherently will become a backdoor issue of stealing land from all locals into government hands as protected areas of parkland, similar to MOD land held by government,
For those with short sightedness that think this is akin to nature re-introduced have little intellectual foresight to see the impact it will have on land ownership in Scotland,
This happen with big estates in Scotland at one time where locals could no longer tread on the land of their forefathers without being shoot, imprisoned, or deported.
Those people in favour and being funded for this re-wilding programmes in Scotland are voluntary turning over the land of Scots and the right to roam over to trusties and parkland of the government into their land,
I am sure that people will be banned and large areas will be fenced off with prosecutions, fines and imprisonments to people living in Scotland in the future,
Re-wilding Scotland is a back door avenue to compulsory land grabs under new legislation removing it from the local inhabitants and directly into the governments hands.
The enclosure Acts to restrict people bounderies.
James Che at 11:55 am
“I thought the Scots were a native species to Scotland, perhaps we should re-introduce this native species to Scotland with a breeding programme and gives them a few acres of free land as a habitat.”
———–
Read any Ord. Survey map of the highlands/islands or fly along with Google Earth over the Glens and you’ll find thousands of deserted houses, holdings, human habitats lying empty, mostly because of the Clearances. Whether green fields or bogs, people were there.
So you think you own you house and patch of land, you have a mortgage on your property in Scotland, and you would like to leave it to your children or grand children.
Well you can kiss that goodbye if it comes under future Council or Government Compulsory orders legislation and Statues for the requirement of needing land for re-wilding Scotland,
This is not new tactics, people have been forced of off their land in the past, it has been for railways, roads and the MOD , for sheep,
Only this time it will cover moors, mountains, farm fields, waterways, woodland and the ground your house sits on. Regardless of ownership.
RoS @ 11.35
I just posted this BTL on that article, I saw it in The National:
Says it all really – after 23 years he has no idea of how Barnett Formulas works – it’s calculated as a % share of total PUBLIC SECTOR spending (currently 10.45). This graph shows the grant’s share of total government spending – a very different animal.
I’ve long maintained that the UK government can simply reduce the Barnett payment by privatising public services, thereby giving Scotland a fixed share of a dwindling pot.
Weak Pishfart has finally done as all a service by proving it with this graph!
The SNP leader cries out at Westminster for taking our assets, yet Stephen Flynn would never dream of using his position to truly further the independence cause which would wipe out Westminster’s monopoly on Scottish assets, instead our assets would be used to help Scots in a multitude of ways.
“STEPHEN Flynn told Rishi Sunak that Scottish resources are “all a game to Westminster” as he asked if the Prime Minister was “in danger of turning his colleagues into nationalists” at PMQs.
The SNP’s Westminster leader said the Tories want to use “Scotland’s natural resources to pay for tax cuts in England” and also took aim at the Labour Party for wanting to use those same resources to “pay for nuclear power stations in England”.
“Scotland’s wealth, Scotland’s resources, Scotland’s jobs all a game to Westminster,” Flynn said.”
Scotland cannot progress without independence it just can’t happen, and we know that the SNP is no longer a party for Scottish independence so if you want Scottish independence and progression for Scotland DON’T vote for the SNP at the next GE.
That leaves Alba and the ISP, if no candidate of either party stands in my constituency I’ll spoil my ballot paper in the hope of trying to, if possible, help change the status quo which is taking us nowhere fast.
I don’t know which one is the maddest Jack for claiming this or the SNP for allowing Scotland to continue to suffer greatly by keeping them in this vile union.
I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s very little difference between the SNP and the Tories.
The SNP are now a lost cause.
“SCOTTISH Secretary Alister Jack has claimed “austerity is not a thing” under the Conservative government.
He was jeered as he hit back at criticisms of the Government’s “bust” austerity approach to public finances.
“Jack’s extraordinary claim came in response to a question from SNP MP Gavin Newlands – who highlighted Scotland was set to receive proportionally the lowest block grant since the beginning of devolution.
“The SNP MP also hit out at cuts to the Scottish Government’s capital budget – which is used to fund major investments like infrastructure projects.”
Newlands said: “Capital funding to the Scottish Parliament hasn’t just been cut – it’s been slashed by 10% on his watch. That’s money that could’ve been spent to invest in schools, in hospitals and infrastructure about to be frittered away on a sickening pre-election bribe that will buy precisely no one.”
@ James Che
It’s good that you have the foresight to see where all this is going.
Similar is happening in the USA with restrictions to land access being implemented, and thus removing people’s connection to the land and curtailing their liberty to enjoy activities that go with it.
My local middle sized farm has five 250 horsepower tractors used to farm the land. Folk need to comprehend the shear amount of energy required to farm the land for food production, and consider if they could muster the physical ability to produce their own food without the use of said machinery.
I note nobody responded to my point a few days ago that a small local cooperative farming endeavour that does produce healthy food in more ecologically sound and sustainable ways has dropped down to just one wee lassie trying to keep it going.
Opportunities exist for folk wanting to choose to live a fulfilling and more sustainable existence outwith the rampant capitalist consumerist rat race, yet when it comes down to it they don’t seem to want to actually step away from the comfort zone of the current system…
The re-wilding land grab programme in Scotland will not only effect Scottish people but also anyone who moved here and bought land for a new home,
It is in everyones interest in Scotland to consider wether in future a government Compulsory order to obtain land for re-wilding vast acres would remove them and their rights to live where they do at the moment.
It does not matter wether you are Scots, English, Irish, welsh, muslim, Australian , Norwegian , American or had arrived in Scotland from Timbuktoo,.
If you used like to sit in your own garden or do walks in the Country, or like the great outdoors of camping and mountain climbing.
Donald Trump removed people from their homes for a golf corse,
That is nothing compared to the large Scale Compulsory government orders that require vast amounts of land that would be used and required for a re-wilding Scotland programme.
It is these restrictions that do not fence in animals, but an “enclosure Act ” that will remove and restrict humans by stealth.
Robert Knight, I’m wondering where you would draw the line with all this. Should we reintroduce the tyrannosaurus rex and other dinosaurs; and, as Mr Brotherhood has suggested, even socialists?
I’m only joking and have nothing against socialists (most of them mean well).
What is the general socialist position on immigration?
Gordon @ 12.53
We are all familiar with the hypothetical argument that privatisation and reduced UK spending generally would “negatively” impact the Barnett formula.
There’s no sign of that happening though. I don’t know the overall numbers but I know that health spending has basically tripled since the 1950s. I think the only area where government spending has really fallen over the decades is defence…
Of course, I think they should scrap the Barnett formula. If Scottish people want to be British, let them suffer on the same terms as other British people. Barnett is a bribe. Anyone that truly supports independence should oppose Barnett and other bribes intended to placate the Scottish people and keep them in the UK.
@Hatuey
“Barnett is a bribe.”
It’s a very odd sort of bribe. The Barnett formula means we get more if spending goes up on health, for example, and less if spending goes down.
It is based on population and not on need. Research shows that if it was based on need, both Scotland and Wales (in particular) would get far more per person for health than at present.
The same is likely to be true for education and other social services.
Joel Barnett came to believe that the system he had devised (in anticipation that it would be temporary) was unfair. It is.
Also, the Smith Commission settlement meant that Scotland needs to raise income tax per person in line with England or the block grant will be reduced.
Swinney made a mess of those negotiations or there is a viper in the nest.
Hautey…
I won’t bore you with a Masters dissertation, but suffice to say the rural environment and the rural economy, inextricably interlinked, are screwed in Scotland because successive Westminster and Holyrood governments have failed to address key issues of sustainability, diversity, ownership, etc. etc… and kicking the can down the road, or pretending that postcard Scotland in all it’s aesthetic beauty is doing just dandy, is leaving a legacy our kids will not thank us for.
Republicofscotland @11:52
What if the decisions to rename the shires and open up Freeports mean that the new constituency of Alloa & Grangemouth can both declare itself THE Independent Republic* of Scotland AND take possession of Grangemouth under current law?
All it might need is sufficient support among the constituents of said parish/ Nation, now that a candidate with the requisite determination, desire, and appropriately skilled entourage, is standing to best represent them at international level
🙂
*eg since the Crown, by definition, may have abdicated, or been discharged of, any rights and responsibilities held previously, in consequence..
Graf Midgehunter,
Dan,
I was raised in the West Coast of Scotland in Argyll to be precise, and as a child used to see many of these old highland clearance ruins of single cottages and even old villages,
I now live on the other side of Scotland and as a keen walker and metal detector around old buildings see the same had happened here, although on a different in context. It still removed the Scots from their home lands for the creation of large private estates.
Those that could no longer survive on the poor arable land often on the edge cliffs were forced to leave or died, there was not much choice, die or leave,
The re-wilding of Scotland is just the beginning by Stealth to include vast acres of land of Scotland to be cordoned off from people. and will become the modern day version of the Highland Clearance, , North, West, east and South. Regardless of where you were born. Or what you think you own,
Farmers across Europe in Ireland, Wales an England are being attacked presently and protesting worldwide right now,
The governments introduced these modern farming methods during and after WW2 and farmers had to comply with the new red tapes.
Now they have turned to blaming and attacking the farmers for this red tape legislation from themselves and europe,
There is a sustainable way to farm if only they were allowed to, and people had decent gardens or land to grow their own produce,, aloud to have hens, ducks etc,
The constant recall of food that is supposedly unsafe from shops and supermarkets makes you realise that it is probably safer to grow your own food and with less tranport required to get it to your table,
However it cunning how through government laws these avenues of looking after ourselves and localised farmers is being steadily erroded.
We need to repopulate Scotland with Scots not animals that will “kill and hunt” sheep, cows, ducks chicken, geese or that cock their leg as piss and shit on your vegetables and potato patch.
The reason that the over population of deer has happened is due to the large shooting estates ensuring that there was enough deer stock to shoot, and it was big money to payed to go on a shooting estate,
My ex was a gamekeeper on one of these shooting, fishing and grouse moor estates, I know how it works,
The estate owners burnt the hills seasonally to provide a habitat for grouse Hares , Deer etc.
This created a limited habitat for specific animals and killed many other species in the areas, young fledgings, hares hedgehogs, wild cats habitats, young Saplings and trees., wild flowers seedlings which butterflies and insects required which fed not only a variety of birds but also newts and frogs,
When work it was in the forestry, and witnessed how the ground under industrial forests was poisoned,
I left there to work on farms and witnessed farmers having to folow red tape from government departments destroying there industry to produce fresh food, witnessed many a farmer being forced out of their Dairy’s and farmers having to send young healthy cattle to be slaughtered because red tape said the cows could only reach a certain age.
If it comes land management, the invironment, animals, the forestry, farming, my family always growing their own food that did not require transportation.
If you want to See under hand land grabs by government then the forestry Commission stocks that moved people from their homes is a excellent place to start, as these were later sold to privateers.
Enough said and to long a comment
Stuart mctavish,
The incorporation of renaming shires/Burghs in Scotland “breeches the treaty of union articles”.
If you believe in the Westminster “House of Lords” fallacious treaty of union with the Westminster parliament of Great-Britain,
Remember no Scot was Asked or given the vote to join it.
And the 1707 Scottish parliament was dissolved from it,
Even the monarchy to the succession and throne of England, France and Ireland was never Coronated monarch of Scotland nor took the Scottish Oath during her Coronation in Westminster Abbey..
I fail to see any official links between the kingdom of Scotland and the Westminster parliament of the Upper house, The ” House of Lords”.
The Westminster parliament is unable to to take the 1707 Scottish parliament to Court for a breach of the treaty of union as it has been Dissolved for over three hundred years.
And the new Devolved parliament in Scotland under Westminster Statues and legislation was not a participant or party to the Old 1707 treaty of union.
Scotland does not have a agreed treaty of union with the Uk parliament.
Scotland does not have a treaty of union with Ireland.
And Scotland was under “Dissolution” dissolved from the treaty of union with Englands parliament.
Cheer yourselves up. There is a choice at the General Election for Yessers – Independents for Independence are growing.
Have a really enjoyable hour listening to Through a Scottish Prism today with Eva Comrie and Sally Hughes – standing against John Nicolson and Pete Wishart respectively – as the first two Independents for Independence. Both bright, determined, whole-hearted Yessers.
Both women have got posts on Yours for Scotland blog as well.
There’s hope again, folks! Revel in it.
The largest and by far the most urgent requirement in Scotland right now is, good Common sense and the ability to look behind the veil of the direction government legislation and statues are corralling and reducing the people of Scotlands land ownership,
and restricting the future mobility on their land, to farm and fish their own Country to be able sustain themselves physically and spiritually.
The new millennimum “highland clearances” is now screened from sight by deceit and disguise of the slow creep of legislation under the climate change agendas,
And those championing re-wilding Scotland whilst living in Scotland are attempting to encourage their own demise and committing political suicide of Scotland and Scots.
@ James Che: look no further for common sense. See my comment above re Independents for Independence. Common sense in plenty from Eva Comrie and Sally Hughes.
As if branch officer manager Douglas Ross actually has any say never mind clout on the matter, he’s London’s puppet put in place to help make sure Scots never wake up and realise that the union is a sham.
“Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross reportedly became embroiled in a heated row with both Hunt and the Prime Minister about the policy.”
“JEREMY Hunt has provoked anger from Scottish Tories by confirming he will extend the windfall tax on oil and gas companies – to fund a new cut in National Insurance.
Unveiling the Spring Budget on Wednesday afternoon, the Chancellor confirmed National Insurance would be cut by 2%, a tax reduction that will apply across the United Kingdom.
It will be funded by additional taxes on vapes and tobacco. But controversially, it will also be funded by maintaining until 2029 the windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas companies which have posted bumper profits.”
Be really interesting if Ms Hughes wins (and why shouldn’t she with two main points of her manifesto being independence and biological common sense) when she swears her osth of alleigance as a Sovereign Scot. If Mr Hoyle is still Squeaker I’d guess his head will explode rather than just turn puce.
“Independents for Independence”, yes, fits just fine on a T shirt.
Sarah,
Good to see at long last the people of Scotland have had enough the politicians that are to busy looking after their purse strings, and are now starting to participate in correcting the wrongs of being under a colonial thumb.
Its funny how all these re-wilders want to introduce animals and trees but not people. They became extinct in these areas too and as a result if the same government policies.
U want to see ford building a car plant in glencoe and people returning. People are more important than beavers and birch trees
@ Sven and James Che: yeah, the party political system is rotten to the core. It is a snare and a delusion.
It was grassroots Yessers, and the Wee Blue Book, that gor us nearly to independence in 2014. Put our trust in ourselves and get this job done.
@ sarah on 6 March 2024 at 3:35 pm.
Good news for those still wanting to vote in those areas. I’ll not be voting in any general elections regardless of who stands. Besides, Eva and Sally are not standing in my area. But i wish them all the luck going, even if they only achieve substantially reducing the SNP’s votes. That will stand them in good stead for when the Scottish elections come around. Hopefully they will still be as keen to stand for Holyrood.
I think both women need to hit the ground running and go for the jugular straight off the bat. Let their constituents know *exactly* what the SNP stand for and what they’ve been sneakily doing with women’s rights etc. And that they’ve done it off the back of an indy ticket. They will need to flood their respective areas with plenty of leaflets/info to make sure they get their message out.
They will need to be relentless with their message. And i wouldn’t be surprised if both of them experience physical SNP hostility on the streets of the campaign trail. The ‘Woo Woo’ brigade will be out in force, especially for Nicolson. Also, i think Wishart announced he’s stepping down at the next election. Has he changed his mind?
“People are more important than beavers and birch trees”
Well done. Exactly the mentality that got us where we are today.
PS This may come as a shock – the Earth isn’t flat.
I want to hear from Yvonne Ridley. I feel sorry for her. It’s not her fault that Eva and Denise have resigned. She’s done nothing wrong.
She’s a principled, entertaining, compassionate woman. The British state must despise her. Anti Nato. Anti Israel. Anti Ukraine war. Scottish Independence. Anti monarchy. And she’s a gender critical feminist. A class act.
She’s the best kind of person you can have. She said she made a mistake with the tweets. And in typical female fashion. They’ve decided to ostercise her in a failed attempt to discredit her.
Unfortunately for Eva and Denise. They’ve ended up leaving the greatest thing that’s happened to them over the last 3 years.
Every single one of them are welcome back in the party. People make mistakes. AND THATS OKAY.
I want to hear from Yvonne Ridley. I feel sorry for her. It’s not her fault that Eva and Denise have resigned.
They’ve gone to extreme lengths to discredit a good friend of theirs. That is shocking to say the least.
It just doesn’t make any sense. She said she made a mistake and apologised. Her gender critical views haven’t changed. She’s not a fraud. You don’t get paid to be in the Alba Party. You don’t get any praise for being a gender critical feminist. You don’t get any respect from the establishment for wanting Scottish Independence – and being one of the strongest voices for scottish independence. She’s a muslim – a white muslim – captured by the taliban – of course the British State despise her. She’s the perfect woman for Women’s convenor. Brave, bold, compassionate and kind and articulate. She’s funny and she’s inspiring.
It’s not her fault Eva and Denise have orchestrated a failed witch hunt – im dissapointed in Them. Not Yvonne. It’s a shame but all can be forgiven as we’re not the SNP. We’re better than them. And we’re human. not robots.
God bless Yvonne Ridley and the Alba Party.
@ robertknight
I’m well aware the earth isn’t flat. So can you please address the point I made that most of the beaver activity in the area being discussed is not going to manifest in the permanent proposed environmental benefits spouted by re-wilders, as it is pretty much all flushed away by the shear force of the floodwaters.
So all the trashed trees and undermined river banks will just lead to further erosion washing out agricultural land and other infrastructure such as the sewer pipe and road issues I’ve previously mentioned.
We are not talking a few trees here, we are talking about thousands of tonnes of trees and riverbank, so that will take massive engineering equipment and resources to mitigate these issues.
There are no natural predators to beavers so it goes without saying that human intervention will be required to keep their numbers in check and restrict the magnitude of the damage they cause.
@ David Hannah at 5.54
No-one says “a transwoman is a woman who was assigned male at birth” by mistake.
No-one says that because of a “senior moment”.
She’s revealed herself as what she truly is, and no amount of bad-mouthing Eva and Denise by you is going to change that.
Eva and Denise resigned – their choice – that’s not a “witch hunt”. Forgive as much as you like; you’re not a woman and you under-estimate us badly, as has already been said by someone else (Ruby, I think).
robertkknight
“People are more important than beavers and birch trees”
Fair point- over the last two decades or so River Trusts using (some) public money but also a lot of volunteer effort have attempted to fence and plant tributary burns on the great Scottish rivers to assist in stabilising banks and providing shade; why ?- to save the salmon and trout in Scotland. It is therefore irritating to see people casually tossing in beavers to chop it all down again; however it is fully in compliance with the Chris Packham/BBC diktats.
Some on here may say- ‘salmon fishing is for the posh folk’. No. It is a proud part of Scotland’s many gifts to the world-and supports many of the more remote communities where work otherwise would be short.
Not quite sure how this impacts on ‘Indy’, but then, does Patrick Harvie ?
Dan
Filling the place up with his usual off topic shite.
Wings has an off topic section, designed for the shite you post.
Why don’t you head over there and let the rest of us get back to talking about Scottish independence, ya borin R Sole.
Re rural depopulation, I once heard Andy Wightman (forgive me if I got this wrong Andy), suggest that wherever there was evidence of prior human habitation ie remains of settlements, wherever they were, then there should be a mechanism for people to be able to build on that land and recreate them. This would counter depopulation, both historical and current.
In the age of internet work, which can be done remotely, then this becomes more feasible proposition.
@ Dan, as a lifelong townie, enjoying the informative background info on the countryside.
Just wish we had you as a councillor locally.
That is because you are a man!
Sam @ 1.52
“It’s a very odd sort of bribe. The Barnett formula means we get more if spending goes up on health, for example, and less if spending goes down.“
Please be assured that I understand how Barnett works. I would expect that every single person that comments here does too.
What you are really arguing, which I strongly disagree with, is that the bribe isn’t big enough (that it would be bigger if allocations were based on need).
I understand your argument but you don’t seem to understand mine.
The Scottish people voted to be part of the UK so let them be treated (as far as spending and everything else goes) like everyone else in the UK.
Incidentally, outside of the ivory towers of academia, nobody anywhere gets anything based on need. It’s a cruel world.
Here’s where people usually crack up and start shouting about taxes raises in Scotland; if you chose to be part of the UK, you should get the same shitty deal as everyone else in the UK, regardless of your needs or how much oil you think you own.
The extent to which Barnett distorts that and distorts peoples’ minds is the extent to which we are being bribed.
Another way of measuring the bribe is by looking at how much government money is spent in Scotland compared to the rest of the UK. The last time I looked it was about £1500 more per head (from memory, feel free to correct)…
Yes, yes, I know, we have all that oil and stuff, the taxes raised here and blah, blah, blah.
Fuck all that.
Ultimately, if you want independence, you should be against this bribery. And instead of arguing for more money, you should be arguing for less. It’s dishonest and if people in Scotland don’t want less and don’t want to be called scroungers, etc., they should support independence.
Given the blatantly abusive comments over several BTL articles I can only assume it is true that wings does not read the comments.
Hatuey;
How can you bribe people with their own money?
Please explain.
FAO STU
Mac is making accusations again!
Andy Ellis started it!
🙂 😉 🙂 😉 🙂 😉 🙂 😉 🙂 😉 🙂 😉 🙂 😉 🙂 😉 🙂 😉 🙂 😉
Pfft, I sure would not blame him if didn’t read the BTL comments, for all the obvious reasons. I would not be at all surprised if jacked it all.
@ Hatuey says: 6 March, 2024 at 7:46 pm
instead of arguing for more money, you should be arguing for less
Further comment superfluous.
Stu doesn’t read the btl comments and I am not surprised. But I learn from a few btl comments which is why I keep reading them. Glad to see viewing numbers for WoS has retained pole position. Disruptor tactics have made no difference to the popularity of the site.
Why are the SNP so incompetent? I have a different theory.
I see various stories running about the NHS in Scotland which are attempts in way or another to say public management and ownership are inherently bad. Couple with a UK chancellor saying that he public sector productivity is poor it looks like another wave of attack on the NHS.
The Scottish NHS is now on the same downwards spiral that Royal Mail was put through with Covid being a convenient cover to move the population to private health care. Dentistry is already largely a private industry with the public finding it increasingly difficult to get a NHS Dentist to take them and even then routine checkup frequency has been dropped as Dentists can now choose a more profitable income source.
Its not just the UK government placing financial pressure by cutting taxes and therefore Barnet consequentials. The SNP are also at it by striking pay deals that the boards cannot fund to stave off strikes to kick the can down the road whilst loading more tasks on the NHS like gender affirming care and tying their hands by putting in a no-redundancy policy.
The evidence for all this is already available just by looking at NHS Scotland budgets. There is no level of reform that can make those numbers stack up and there are a number of Health boards now in risk of going into special measures/bust. Private practices do not solve this problem as the NHS has no way of generating revenue.
How does this relate to Scottish Politics? Well after the next Holyrood election the governing party will have to re-introduce prescription charges at a minimum but in reality they will either have to massively increase Scottish income tax or make it clear that the NHS cannot do everything it currently does pushing more towards the healthcare system in the USA where their public healthcare provides a very bare minimum service.
So I suspect the SNP are very much aiming to be the junior partner in a SNP/Labour co-allition or ideally the opposition to a Labour/Tory co-allition.
Either way it the NHS in Scotland is dying and I suspect it will be the norm for kids at school to be paying for private medical insurance by the time they join the workforce. It really isn’t that far away.
When you add they can also expect to pay Tuition fee’s for further education it would be worth looking for another country to live in. We already have a country you don’t want to be old and sick in because the NHS can’t help you.
@laukat 9:16m
An artificial intelligence response to the SNHS with no understanding of where the SNHS is in real time. Devoid of material information. A history lesson rather than actual understanding of how to improve outcomes.
So did Yvonne Ridley resign from the Prism show before, the whole transwoman are women statement came out?
Or was it after? I don’t look at twitter. I don’t have It. I’ve got ADHD. I can’t control what I write. I might end up sacked! I’ll never be a politician. That’s for sure.
But I know that I’ve said a lot of things I regret and I wish I could take them back, and I’ve learned the hard way on many an occasion. So I’ve got a lot of respect for Yvonne’s senior moment.
She’s said she’s sorry. I accept that. I think she’s a brilliant person. She’s inspired me and that’s a fact.
Regards,
David
laukat
RE the dentist, my rural practice was taken over and i was immediately told that it was now private and advised to take out a plan which i refused. The cost of the hygienist sored to an extortionate £102 for a basic appointment.
I contacted the SNP and was told that dentists have always had the option to go private! They couldn`t give a donald duck. I phoned eight practices and all were not taking NHS patients. So much for the left leaning government defending the NHS.
I can`t articulate how much i now hate the snp.
https://archive.is/YdaHM
Humza Yousaf launches strategy to tackle misogyny in schools
I wonder if anyone asked him to define misogyny.
It didn’t take him long to bring in gender identity.
He said he hoped the framework would help “achieve a country where everybody is loved and respected regardless of their gender or gender identity”.
Swiftly followed by his favourite topic ‘racism’
He urged social media firms to do more to protect against misogyny, racism and hatred.
This has absolutely nothing to do with ‘women/girls who are not trans’ and the white boy doesn’t get a look in unless he’s trans.
Another pair of groomers wanting to tell stories to school children.
What every happened to the Misogyny law? They couldn’t enforce it because they couldn’t explain what a woman is?
https://archive.is/7ZfyY
Comedian Hardeep Singh Kohli in court accused of sex offences
Not much information. According to another source they were not recent.
Also hearing heard in private?
McDuff
Read your post and thought of this.
https://archive.is/gxR2h
Not likely to be very productive & even able to go to work if you’ve got bloody toothache.
The whole dentist thing is a scandal.
@ laukat says: 6 March, 2024 at 9:16 pm
it would be worth looking for another country to live in. We already have a country you don’t want to be old and sick in because the NHS can’t help you
You wouldn’t have to waste much time looking. The only other place offering free health care is Cuba. I bet that if you rock up there for free health care they will tell you (in Spanish) to do one.
It was Peter Hitchens who first pointed out that if the NHS was such a great idea, it’s truly remarkable that no other country has never copied it. The reality is, of course, that it never was an affordable idea, but out of English Exceptionalism, it was turned into a national religion. And here in Scotland we were quite unable to shake off the same quasi-religious spell, meaning to criticise the NHS is tantamount to blasphemy.
Meantime, for any Scot ever visiting France, or Germany, or any other EU country, the fact the streets are not covered with the sick and dying comes as a surprise. Dig a little deeper and you discover that the citizens of these countries have better outcomes, next day GP appointments, shorter operation waiting times, etc, etc.
And the icing on the fecking cake – Eastern Europeans moving to the UK to work bring their own doctors and dentists with them – they’re not prepared to suffer under a piss-poor system if they need treatment, and Brits are going to war-torn 404 to get their teeth sorted.
It’s no longer affordable. It has buckled under the load of an aging population, an entitled class who will take no personal responsibility for their own health and well-being, and last but not least – progressive zealots who have absolutely insisted that free treatment should be given away to every crim, grifter and leech from all over the world who can make it as far as Dover.
Ruby
says:
6 March, 2024 at 9:59 pm
https://archive.is/YdaHM
” Humza Yousaf launches strategy to tackle misogyny in schools
I wonder if anyone asked him to define misogyny. ”
Now that he’s ended Child Poverty , right ?
Launched it all the way from his chair to the bin .
Or maybe Humzy is planning on tackling this terrifying Chimera ie Misoracisnaeismgynyism.. himself , directly , mano-a-mano . Taking aff his jaikit n challenging abstract nouns tae a square go . ( My money’s on the abstract nouns to win – TKO )
Those invaluable skills he learned on the playing fields of Hutchie ( mostly,the Art of Failing Upwards ) will see him good on this issue , as it has on every other issue he’s tackled .
James: “How can you bribe people with their own money?
Please explain.”
Pleasure.
You fleece them by taking all their resources and selling them to third parties, you tax the pants off them, treat them like shit at the same time, and, in order to stop them moaning too much and doing anything about it, you give them some money back (just enough to placate them). That’s how you bribe someone with their own money.
Holyrood serves the same purpose in politics that Barnett serves economically; it’s essentially another bribe that is highly targeted towards political types that would otherwise agitate for independence. I’d be wholeheartedly in favour of shutting the dump down if it didn’t offer some (theoretical) potential to achieve independence.
YW.
“The Scottish people voted to be part of the UK”
Erm…no, they didn’t.
The Scottish people voted for Independence.
Voters from the rUK/EU blocked it by turning 52% Yes into 55% No.
Imagine the outrage, in England in particular, if the British people had voted for Brexit, but voters from the EU had blocked it by turning 52% Leave into 55% Remain?
Here in Scotland, not so much as a whimper, until of course suggestions are made to ensure it doesn’t happen again… much whimpering follows.
Contains oat content. 🙂
http://robinmcalpine.org/the-incoherence-which-points-to-a-political-implosion/
I have not watched this guy in a long time due, since about 2014 in fact.
But f**k me he has undergone a bit a change to say the least.
This is excellent. Really nails it on Sunak and his little performance the other day but a lot more as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT0Ro3TiHWA&ab_channel=GBNews
https://cpag.org.uk/sites/default/files/2024-02/ecp-scorecard-scottish-budget-2024.pdf
“In setting out this assessment, it is important to recognise that we have strongly welcomed the Scottish Government’s commitment and actions to date to drive down child poverty across Scotland. Investment in the Scottish Child Payment is alone estimated to lift around 50,000 children out of poverty. Low-income families with children have seen their incomes boosted by around “a sizeable £2,000 a year” compared to those in England and Wales, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. As a result, there are families no longer relying on foodbanks, children able to join their friends in activities previously denied them, and struggling parents whose financial worries have lessened, and mental health improved. We know from our work, that the extra money has been spent on essentials, like nappies, while also helping parents travel to interviews, a new job, or college – opening up long-term routes out of poverty.
However, we are bitterly disappointed that the draft Scottish Budget for 2024-25 fails to sufficiently build on these efforts. As it stands, the Budget will, at best, stall progress in some areas, while hampering progress in others. Overall, there is a lack of concerted investment to further reduce child poverty in the short-term or to prevent it in the future. We are concerned by choices – such as funding a Council Tax freeze that will disproportionately benefit better off households whilst providing little if any support for low-income families –that do not align with the Government’s stated priority of tackling poverty. As a result, we are deeply concerned the Budget may be a step back, putting the statutory 2030 targets in yet more jeopardy.”
@Robert Knight 7.43am
You don’t get to disenfranchise some random percentage of Scots on the basis that they’re not ethnically pure enough for you, whether you’re a full on Siol nan Gaidheal nativist bigot, or just an anti immigrant extremist is beside the point.
The international precedent is quite clear: self determination votes use inclusive, residence based franchises and don’t exclude people on the basis they weren’t born there or haven’t sasified lengthy residence criteria.
If independence is to be achieved it must be based on the same kind of franchise as everyone else uses, or it simply won’t be recognised. Doesn’t matter whether it’s in a referendum or an election.
Even if the figures you quote are true (and there’s only the Edinburgh University study to go on, which can hardly be claimed to be conclusive), neither you nor any other nativist can prove what the outcome would have been if you’d gotten your way and randomly excluded several hundred thousand residents because they weren’t Scottish enough for you.
For all you know, lots of horrified civic nationalists would have refused to vote on that basis. It wouldn’t have taken that many of them to reverse your 52% figure.
Why not use the energy you expend promoting regressive, nativist bigotry persuading more than 52% of native born Scots to grow a pair and vote “Yes”, and/or to increase the turnout to the low 90’s % as they achieved in both Quebec referendums?
That’d easily overturn the numbers from 2014 surely, particularly given the fact the remaining EU citizens who haven’t left in disgust since brexit are much more likely to vote Yes now than they did in 2014.
The ongoing mess that is the SNPG is the result of Sturgeon.
For a decade she surrounded herself with incompetents because she herself was incompetent (an imposter). They also had to be slavishly loyal to her and nasty to anyone she disliked.
This mess is the result of staggering accumulated incompetency, full spectrum incompetency, overwhelming incompetency. There is just no one left who knows what the feck they are doing nor how to do it, clueless.
When Sturgeon was forced to resign all these Sturgeon drones lost contact with the central computer. Without Sturgeon there, they are all starting to drift apart and do different things that contradict each other from one minute to the next (as Robin McAlpine writes about).
All of this is totally irreversible and it is going to get worse and worse until they are swept from power.
Meanwhile the damage done (economic, societal, you name it) and being done to Scotland is immense.
The UK is just as bad. Worth remembering the Tories won a landslide victory. I have never seen a government so badly misplay their hand. They are appalling.
And the BBC and media are in the centre of the circus… cracking that whip.
@ Andy Ellis
What about the Scottish diaspora?
“A diaspora strategy has been defined as ‘an explicit policy initiative or series of
policy initiatives enacted by a sending state, or its peoples, aimed at fortifying and developing relationships with expatriate communities, diasporic populations, and
foreign constituencies who share a special affinity’.12 For many countries, ‘arguably,
the main intended goal of diaspora strategies is economic development’13 or,
perhaps rather more bluntly, ‘familiarity breeds investment’.14 Thus, diaspora networks act as an important conduit for portfolio and foreign investment between diasporas and homelands.”
And also may be a part of the GE franchise?
Too many completely missing the Tory Party goals.
They are the party of the rich for the rich by the rich.
What success they have had in making the rich 25% richer.
They aim to eliminate the weak that cost them money.
More supple than the main fascist party from the 1930’s but the same goal.
The weak are going hungry and cold. 6 million in abject poverty and if you haven’t noticed it,
Those working on salaries of around £15,000p.a. are going to be £404 worse off thanks to yesterdays budget.
The NHS is being systematically broken but the rich and the politicians can afford private health care or they just jump the NHS queues.
The 10 million treatments backlog are dying or hoping to die due to the pain.
While NHS staff strike they estimate another 500 needless deaths every week.
The huge investment in Artificial Intelligence won’t help working class people very much.
If a dentist won’t work on NHS rates no robotic system is going to extract you rotten tooth.’
It will take tax payers money and put it in the pockets of the development corporations and the Tory rich will have shares in it.
If A.I. Can remove jobs from taxi drivers, truck drivers, Amazon drivers, bus drivers etc
What do they do for a living? It’s going to be economically beneficial to kill them off slowly.
Automated retail shops, bars and fast food outlets can all but dispense with staff.
Pensions or pensioners will
Need to go as they are not making money for them.
No personal money for health treatments or nursing homes then euthanasia will be the next service provided for you.
If Trump comes back Boris will be back and all this can hit to gear.
Mac @ 9:33 am
“the result of staggering accumulated incompetency”
Yes, postcolonial theory confirms that a ‘mediocre meritocracy’ is an inevitable outcome of colonialism, in which most of the people are deprived of opportunities or access to their own resources; however, in a colony mediocrity is not limited to the compromised and pensioned-off national party elite/gang, it extends throughout all colonial institutions due to the narrow ‘cultural’ stream from which elites are selected.
#AskAndy”, wrapped in a blankey in his padded cell;
…..franchise must remain unchanged or Yes might win…
no discussion allowed….
franchise must remain unchanged or Yes might win…
no discussion allowed….
franchise must remain unchanged or Yes might win…
no discussion allowed….
franchise must remain unchanged or Yes might win…” etc
@Sam 9.55am
If those in the diaspora want a say, then they should come back and contribute and qualify for a vote. The problem for nativists and their enablers is that the logic of their blood and soil nationalism would mean that approximately 800,000 people in the rest of the UK and others further afield would qualify for Scottish citizenship post indy, using the same criteria set out in the White Paper pre #indyref1 using a pattern similar to other countries like Ireland.
I reckon it’s pretty unlikely the majority of those in the UK in particular are pro-independence. In fact I’d lay money on the majority being strongly pro-union, but I doubt there’s any polling specifically on that question.
The Generalitat in Catalonia allowed Catalans abroad to register for a vote in the last (abortive) referendum, although the number who did so was relatively low. Their situation is somewhat different however as the Catalan government prepared a new voter register specifically for the referendum (the franchise for which was even broader and more inclusive than our 2014 franchise).
As someone who was part of the diaspora in 2014, I never supported votes for Scottish born non-residents, and I still don’t now that I’m home. Those who want to apply for Scottish citizenship post independence are more than welcome of course.
I always used to ask those in the diaspora (who were invariably staunch unionists) who complained about being denied a vote in 2014, that if the only way they were included was if they were obliged to surrender their UK citizenship in the event of a Yes vote, would they still participate?
Unsurprisingly they either went quiet or refused to contemplate such a thing as most had absolutely no intention of moving back to Scotland, or probably even of applying for citizenship: they just wanted to stop independence.
Why would Scotland want someone else’s nukes?
With that comes an annexed designated area & that would be like a constant boil needed lanced.
Soon they’d assume that chunk of real estate theirs.
An independent Scotland would need that area for it’s own base.
Andy Ellis @ 9:26 am
“persuading more than 52% of native born Scots to grow a pair and vote “Yes””
This suggests that you have a strategy to deal with the effects of a ‘colonial mindset’? Do you? Centuries of ‘cultural assimilation’ and related oppression does have a proven psychological effect on ‘a people’, you know.
If you seek to ‘persuade’ someone then you first need to understand the cause as to why they think and behave in a certain way, that you wish to (fundamentally) change. If you do not first understand the ‘condition’ you will hardly be likely to find the remedy.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/03/03/the-colonial-mindset/
Andy Ellis…
Can’t see any issue with a franchise that would include everyone eligible for a Scottish Passport on Day 1 of Indy. Possible criteria being:
1) Born in and resident in Scotland.
2) Not born in Scotland but resident >2 years and married to “1”.
3) Not born in Scotland but resident for >5 years.
My English wife would qualify, so as for your “nativist” nonsense, GIRFUY!
Franchise fanny says..
“If those in the diaspora want a say, then they should come back and contribute and qualify for a vote.”
Are you going to be getting out yer green ink pen & writing a strongly worded letter to the UK government?
They allow overseas voters no problem.
Even overseas voters on who will be the next PM.
On Elections.
On referendums.
Let us know when you receive a reply.
@Andy Ellis
Why would you not support the Scottish diaspora voting in a UK GE?
There is a small study, so not representative, that suggests the Scots diaspora is more likely now, post-Brexit, to support Scottish independence.
It is, as you should know, Alba policy to use elections as a de facto referendum.
A larger study, perhaps crowd funded, might identify if encouraging the diaspora to vote in a GE is useful.
Independents for Independence can make all the difference. Get enough of them elected, light the blue touch paper, and watch a lot of very good things happen.
The first two candidates impress me. They are decent human beings for a start. They won’t “wheesht” for anybody. They are mature women who have done, and do, work at the coalface and know how awful life is currently for so many people, and what can be done about it.
The written word is usually a piss poor attempt to encapsulate the spirit of the law, rule or guideline. The spirit of the law is paramount.
Perhaps one should ponder the reason for a franchise on constitutional matters and why it should or shouldn’t be different from the more commonplace voting criteria?
Should the franchise for constitutional matters be more stringent or less stringent?
What’s new with the franchise?
@Sam 11.35am
I was referring to the diaspora voting in an indyref. For General Elections doubtless the diaspora outside the UK / expats can use existing criteria to vote. I don’t know what the figure are for the numbers of such folk voting in recent elections are, but I doubt they’re large enough to make an impact on the results in most constituencies?
Perhaps the Scottish Government should do what the Catalans did and compile a new voter registration for each indyref based on the franchise agreed. That way if those expats or in the diaspora deemed qualified to vote want to register they can do so.
https://archive.is/xuQJ3
This is interesting but obviously not as interesting as the franchise.
Andy Ellis never got back to me re Alba’s problems with their belief that ‘transwomen are women’
Too busy with the franchise I guess!
More comedy gold from this SNP government with their usual railing and finger pointing at the piss poor budget from the Tories.
Yet no matter how bad it gets for Scots and it will get a helluva lot worse for us, the SNP would never ever under Yousaf, and previously Sturgeon the Judas ever contemplate getting us out of this bucket of shit union in earnest.
“THE Scottish Government has branded new Tory spending plans a “betrayal” of public services – amid grim predictions of spending cuts.
Finance Secretary Shona Robison accused the UK Government of providing “not a single penny more” for investment in Scotland.
And she raised concerns there was “no detail on where cuts will fall”.
Reacting to the Budget, Robison (below) said: “Public services up and down the UK are in real need of investment, and they’re being sacrificed to deliver unsustainable tax cuts.”
Robison added: “Today’s UK Spring Budget is nothing short of a betrayal of public services across the UK. Our hope had been the Chancellor would have eased pressures on services – not least by providing more funding for capital.
“This would have helped support our NHS and the delivery of more affordable housing, but it would also have created jobs and economic growth, as well as helping secure a just transition to net zero.
“When more support is desperately needed for public services and infrastructure, for greater cost of living measures, and for money to aid our efforts to reduce carbon emissions – Scotland has been badly let down by the UK Government.”
Remember its not Westminster that’s keeping us tied into this vile union where many Scots are living in abject poverty, no its the SNP government that’s doing it because it suits them to, they don’t give a flying f*ck about Scots.
Vote ISP or Alba, if no candidate in constituency spoil ballot paper.
@Andy Ellis
“but I doubt they’re large enough to make an impact on the results in most constituencies?”
As a member of Alba you should know that the policy is to achieve a mandate based not on constituency results but on 50% +1 of votes cast. Every diaspora vote in favour of independence would count.
https://archive.is/YuDBQ
This is also interesting but other than post the link I’m not going to waste time with this issue here BTL on Wings.
I would still like to know about Alba’s policy on ‘transwomen being women’.
I have been very fair to Alba in expressing my feelings re their ‘women’s rights’ policy since Craig Murray came out all guns blazing for ‘self-id’
I am now going to stop.
Not sure what I will post about because FMD the repeats about the franchise are doing my head.
Maybe I’ll just have fun winding folk up!
I’m looking at you Mac! 😉
@Ruby and anyone else interested. I tried to post a link last night but didn’t work. If you go on to YouTube the Skirt Go Spinny channel which has posted sterling work on the trans lobby posted a new video yesterday on transhumanism.
The Scots voted to remain in the Uk in 2014,
Or did they?
Scottish phobia or Russia phobia,?
What is it all about?
The Russia Report as a result of a Inquiry by the parliaments “Intelligence and Security Committee, ( ISC ) into Russian activities against the UK.
These are the following news out-lets that reported on interference into the Scottish 2014 Referendum. Mostly from 2020,
Starting with a detailed explanation from,
Linkedin Director blog, Rob Diver.
Plus the following.
The Telegraph.
Sky news.
Al-Jazeera.
The Scotsman.
The Daily Record.
Standard.com.
The BBC.
The Express.
The Independent.
The Press And Journal.
The Guardian.
Thehill.com.
STV.Com.
reuters.
Sbs.com.au > news > article > Russia.
Wikipedia.
These can all be checked as they are still there on the internet,
If if the UK suspected Russia of influencing the 2014 Scottish Referendum, then the 2014 Scottish referendum should have automatically be re- run for the sake of UK democracy,
But this catches the UK between the devil and the deep blue sea, between a rock and a hard place,
Which to hate the most Scottish independence or Russia.
So the UK government sat on this information regarding the 2014 Scottish referendum and redacted most of it,
That by no means has the Ability to confirm that Scotlands people voted to remain in the UK.
Rather it suggests ” Jim will fix it interference politics ” unfairly directed at Scottish democratic votes for the sake of the UK and lying about the true outcome for saving a fallacious union,
The Colonial control of Scotland knows no moral boundaries.
Tut! That is probably because you don’t know how to post a link You Tube!
Sarah,
The demographics of Westminster interfering in our Scottish votes geographically started with “Reducing and amalgamation the Burghs in Scotland,”
Breaching the treaty of union articles on Burghs.
@Sam 12.22pm
The next Westminster GE isn’t going to be held on a plebiscitary platform though. Either the SNP has to undergo a sea-change in policy brought about by its ordinary members wresting control of the party from the current leadership (good luck with that!)so it supports “Plan B”, or the party has to be destroyed as an obstacle to independence, much as Sinn Fein destroyed the IPP in the 1916-18 period.
The 2024 GE is a waste of time. The SNP will lose a shed load of seats, the yoons will crow about independence being dead for a generation or for ever, and the lumpen SNP loyalists will finally have to accept that their party is not going to deliver independence.
That’s when “the movement” as a whole has to decide what happens in the period up to the Holyrood election in 2026. That’s the vote that counts, and that’s when every pro-independence vote will count – irrespective of what party it’s for.
If we can’t arrange for all pro-independence parties to rally around the principle of 2026 being a plebiscitary vote, with 50% +1 being de facto independence, we might as well accept it’s not going to happen for a good long time.
@Ruby and anyone else interested
I don’t think many BTL here on Wings are interested.
Here’s a link to all their videos.
http://www.youtube.com/@skirtgospinny/videos
Skirt Go Spinny channel.
@Robert Knight 10.46am
You’re doing that thing nativists always do though Robert: retrospectively imposing citizenship criteria used in constitutional votes in already independent countries, on to the “new” franchise you think would be fair (or rather move the goalposts to ensure the pro-independence side wins) for a future Scottish independence referendum, because you dislike or have abandoned civic nationalism.
The criteria you post aren’t that far from those involved for Irish citizenship, which is the kind of thing that was widely touted before #indyref1, and used in the White Paper as the proposed pattern for post independence Scotland.
It isn’t relevant to the franchise for an independence referendum, because Scotland (or any other people seeking independence from a larger state or union) doesn’t have citizens, it just has residents. The custom and practice internationally since WW2 has overwhelmingly favoured broad, residence based franchises, not “putative citizenship” criteria like the ones your are proposing.
Citizenship criteria will be relevant and used after Scottish independence to decide who gets to vote in elections and referendums.
Scotlands people has the “Right to Self Determination”
It should not be controlled by Westminster parliament unless Westminster parliament are acting as a Colonial master of the fallacious treaty of union.
However from a a different perspective and political stance, we have to take into account that that Colonial attitude of Westminster towards Scots and Scotland stems and derives from the superior knowledge attitude that the Scots have had no voice in the Great- Britain parliament for long as their old Scottish parliament came under Dissolution in 1707;
And only the old English parliament the upper house the, “House of Lords” is in the treaty of union with Great- Britain parliament and with Northern Ireland.as the UK.
False Ministers Questions was an absolute embarrassment to the World.
More so with Humza Yousaf and Douglas Ross being told off by the school teacher – sorry presiding officer.
Before entitled ‘This is rigged’ disrupted the questions 10 times. It was obviously a ‘This is rigged’ day out with the free bus passes for under 24s.
Even more chilling. Rhona Mackay, Humza and some labour twat went on to attack men as ever. International women’s day coming up.
Rhona Mackay asked Humza to agree with Lady Dorian’s statement that a sexual offenses court must be set up “and doing nothing is not an option.”
I think we can all agree here on Wings Over Scotland. That Lady Dorian should be going to jail with the alphabettie perjuers. You know the journalist jailing corrupt judge lady Dorian? And “that doing nothing is not an option.”
You know when the Alphabetties came up with FAKE disproven allegations of Salmond touching people’s legs in the back of cars when the husband was in front, and there was a telephone in between making it impossible?
Isn’t that right Rhona, ya fucking tramp!
Fuck the SNP.
It is a interesting point of view that there is support here for following the Upper House of Lords parliament of England that simply renamed itself as the parliament of Great-Britain,
for a voting system that has no relation to Scots that are not in the treaty of Union, nor do Scots have Their parliament in the treaty of union, as it came under Dissolution from the treaty of union in 1707.
This civic nationalism misleads Scots and Scotland into thinking they are in a parliamentary union with England whilst the “UK parliament site” state they are not.
Attempting to Corral, guide and Colon Scottish people into civic nationalism is a larger global ideology.
That transforms and removes the Sovereignty of the people,.
Neil Oliver is just a actor playing whatever role he gets paid for.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UjKkVd1LtU
FF 14.47
Neil Olivers post reached 7.5 million viewers.
Neil Oliver is the actor wot won it for ‘Better Together’
The Rob Shorthouse video is interesting. Any guesses why I am saying that?
@Ruby, thank you for posting the link.
Andy Ellis – tell us what the criteria are for Irish citizenship then?
John Main @10:33 pm
> The only other place offering free health care is Cuba.
Oh dear – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_universal_health_care
The words “free” and “universal” appear rather often in that list. A case of drive-by editing by unscrupulous socialists, perhaps?
@ Alf Baird says: 7 March, 2024 at 10:40 am
a strategy to deal with the effects of a ‘colonial mindset’ … If you do not first understand the ‘condition’ you will hardly be likely to find the remedy
I’m of the opinion the most widely manifesting effect of the ‘colonial condition’ is a liking for a certain level of fiscal stability and a hankering for more, personal, disposable income.
You don’t believe me? Then what the feck is RoS banging on about at 12:10? Just one whinge after another, but all of them about dosh, poverty, folding money, filthy lucre, etc etc.
Show us the money, Alf. You’ve tried everything but that. Yet it’s the key to growing Indy support.
RoS says so.
An independent who actually wants Scottish independence is standing in Pete Wishart’s (who doesn’t want independence) constituency.
Vote for her and oust Wishart from Westminster at the next GE.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/03/06/another-independent-emerges-this-time-in-pete-wisharts-seat/
David Hannah,
False ministers questions,
False Scottish ministers,
In a False non original Scottish parliament.
That came under dissolution a far back as over three hundred years ago.
A parliament under dissolution cannot legally have any members.
A parliament under dissolution cannot legally have members to represent its constituents,
A parliament under dissolution is not binding upon the successor parliament.
A Scottish parliament under dissolution therefore legally has no members to represent its Scottish Constituents since 1707.
The original Scottish parliament and its Scottish parliament members to represent its Scottish Constituents has never been reinstated,
The gap between the original dissolved 1707 Scottish parliament by public proclamation of the then monarch, and the parliament of England to present day is over three hundred years,
This is in legal terms called “IPSO DEFCTO”.
The longer this textual and legal termination holds or is held would be considered in law courts
As a termination of contract.
As The devolved Government under “statues” is part of the government and parliament of Westminsters In England Scotland can safely state that Scotlands old parliament has never been re-contracted into the treaty of union in over three hundred years,
Making it a legally spent and terminated contract,.
Lawyers like Joanna Cherry, Eva Comrie and even bad supposed lawyer like NS in the SNP could have a legal field day with this, but instead seem to have forgotten their educational vocation into law,
So as far as support goes for Scotland independence I think We can safely say these legal challenges to make things difficult for Westminster have been side lined.
Never mind that “Breaches” of the original union treaty of union that could be challenged and would find the contractual treaty of union not being perpetual on the old 1707 Scottish parliament that was and did come under dissolution.
These people that call themselves lawyers or barristers in and of Scotland are playing with the Scottish electorate.
There is no better evidence as a example than NS going to the Supreme court down South,
So to my mind all that goes on with any party members of ” the devolved government under the Statues of Westminster in England” is not worth getting het up about,
And most are extension laws of England through that media,
It should be the lawyers and barristers of Scotland we should be holding to account and challenge for legally failing us,
Where ever they sit or hide,
Well done Sally Hughes for taking on the Pishfart .
Wishing YOU all the bestest.
John Main @ 2:11 pm
“money… it’s the key to growing Indy support.”
You miss the whole point of the ‘colonial mindset’, John. You can show that mindset as much money as you like in an independent Scotland and it will still refuse to believe it and wave a union jack back at you. In other words, the colonised mind is ‘set’. ‘Decolonising the mind’ is not a matter of money.
@ Stuart MacKay says: 7 March, 2024 at 1:55 pm
Good spot!
I see Rwanda is on the list.
Let’s fly a few tens of thousands of folk to there for treatment 🙂
@ Alf Baird says: 7 March, 2024 at 2:51 pm
I think we’re going to have to agree to disagree.
If Scots will willingly trade sovereignty for better economic prospects within the EU, then the same Scots will trade the Union for better economic prospects out of it.
Plus, with that latter trade, we Scots will get the win-win of more sovereignty, not less.
Something does not add up, Alf. You see it as us being ‘colonised’ in our heids.
I see it as the simple lack of a plausible connection between Indy and better economic prospects.
If a majority of Scots want us to be in the EU, and a majority of Scots want us to be in the UK, then the same factor affects both decisions – the money. Sovereignty takes second place.
Show us the Indy money to sever the Union.
Alf Baird.
You can show As much money as you like to the Colonists, but the only thing that will do, Will make the Colonialists want to hold on to the Colony Country of Scotland even more,
Not a good idea to flash money statistics in front of Colonial eyes cos they see rolling pound signs instead of people or a Sovereign nation of people.
A bit of a disaster at Maison Chas today, The cleaner still unwell after two weeks. Mrs Chas, the Lady Louloulemon Sparkle, decided to do some of the household chores herself. Being a kind, understanding, compassionate and caring husband I decided to assist in the best way possible-I fucked off up the golf course to get oot of her road.
Isn’t it reassuring, in these trouble times, to see that Che and Baird continue to post the same repetitive pish every day. Some things never change. Che unfortunately, is now taking even more words to say the same thing over and over and over and over………………. Baird continues to demonstrate that he is the Wings cleverdick and that EVERYBODY should pay attention to his pearls of wisdom. Maybe they both suffer from Alzheimer’s and simply forget what they posted on umpteen previous occasions?
I understand that it is International Women’s day tomorrow. Hopefully everybody has something planned to celebrate the day. My intention is to read some of Ruby’s posts and be nice to her by not responding. Any other ideas out there?
‘Any other ideas out there?’
Yeah, why dont you have a head on collision with a car or bus.
Andy Ellis…
Please explain what relevance any IndyRef2 is to those whose citizenship would remain unaltered irrespective of the outcome?
EU citizens remained in the UK post Brexit. Are you saying an Independent Scotland would be incapable or unwilling to adopt a similar if not more relaxed approach to that of the UK for those residing in Scotland but who did not qualify for Scottish citizenship?
What’s that I smell? Ah yes… the unmistakable whiff of double-standards.
John Main
That’s a pretty feeble response. That’s what comes when you base your points using material for feeble pundits like Hitchens. Next you’ll be telling us that an independent Scotland will only be able to import straight bananas if it joins the EU.
Thanks Bobbyp
I will certainly take your suggestion into consideration. Thank you for your effort.
Does the p at the end of your name stand for pish, plonker or pratt?
Other ideas,
Scroll on by instead of whinging, or you could collect a free large bin of golf balls if you want 😉
John Main @ 4:00 pm
“I see it as the simple lack of a plausible connection between Indy and better economic prospects.”
On the contrary, that particular connection is extremely well proven. The reality of a colonial situation means a people and their nation will always remain under-developed. The nation is plundered and the people and their culture left to wither. This is our prevailing reality.
And this then means that ‘better economic prospects’ will only be achieved through independence, much as the extensive evidence from decolonization globally and even credit ratings agencies confirm:
“Standard & Poor’s have concluded that Scotland’s wealth levels are comparable to those of AAA-listed nations, and that as an independent country – even without North Sea oil – Scotland will qualify for S&P’s highest economic assessment.”
https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/scottish-independencesp-reveals-creditworthiness-1543822
@ Geri 11.01am YOU owe me a new laptop ,FRANCHISE FANNY priceless,franchise fanny the white flight Ellis has been missing for a few days but has decided to pay us another visit to EXCRETE his wisdom over us
The franchise fanny who said he would ACTIVELY work and vote AGAINST Scotland’s independence if he didnae get his own way, his dinner party guests were ecstatic
Alf getting sucked into the vortex of the coloniser…
Here’s an archived link to save giving that unionist rag direct hits. 😉
https://archive.is/TZq78
John Main,
People have had ample opportunity to be shown the money. The Imperial records, John Jappy, Gavin McCrone, Niall Aslen, Lord Waldergrave among others have shown that Scotland put more money in the Unionist pot than it got back out.
Unfortunately people, in general, will choose to believe whatever suits their world view, they are able to blind themselves to reality and ignore factual information. That’s what happens when people have been indoctrinated to believe black is white, man is woman and Scotland can’t afford to make their own decisions.
Change the record please, the vinyl on this one has deep scratches on it.
@ Breastplate
And on the subject of fiscal shizzle and records. Let me play the Lady in Red vid again…
2 mins of Jim Rogers, the successful international investor. John Main has yet to furnish us with his CV and list of achievements in the world of finance. Who to believe?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY2W_Okl9lE
“Remember the rules, Brian, rich countries pay in, poor countries hold their national hands out, and we will be a rich country.”
John Main @10pm 16 August 2023
Thanks Dan,
It really is worth noting that 2 countries with the same size population extracting pretty much the same amount of oil out of the same place at the same time is worthy of comparison.
One is filthy rich and has more money that you can shake a stick at, the other has the shit end of the stick, people know which is which.
@ Breastplate
And of course it isn’t just the oil…
I’ll post this again seeing as Mr Main who continues to say no explanation has been made here as to how he might be better off if Scotland returned to self-governance.
The Kingdom of Scotland has a much better resources to population figure than the Kingdom of England.
(Old stats so may not be 100% accurate but it gives the gist.)
KINGDOM OF SCOTLAND WITH ONLY 9% OF THE UK POPULATION HAS:
32% of the land area.
61% of the sea area.
90% of the fresh water.
65% of the natural gas production
96.5% of the crude oil production.
47% of the open cast coal production
81% of the untapped coal reserves
62% of the timber production
46% of the total forest area
92% of the hydro electric production
40% of the wind wave and solar energy production
60% of the fish landings
30% of the beef herd
20% of the sheep herd
9% of the dairy herd
10% of the pig herd
15% if the cereal holdings
20% of the potato holdings
90% of the whisky industry
70% of gin production
KINGDOM OF ENGLAND WITH 91% OF THE UK POPULATION ONLY HAS:
68% of the land area.
39% of the sea area.
10% of the fresh water.
35% of the natural gas production
3.5% of the crude oil production.
53% of the open cast coal production
19% of the untapped coal reserves
38% of the timber production
54% of the total forest area
8% of the hydro electric production
60% of the wind wave and solar energy production
40% of the fish landings
70% of the beef herd
80% of the sheep herd
91% of the dairy herd
90% of the pig herd
85% if the cereal holdings
80% of the potato holdings
10% of the whisky industry
30% of gin production
The revenue streams generated by the current UK government policies means the two Kingdoms’ combined resources help to serve the UK population of 67 million.
So if Scotland returned to self-governance we could even just emulate current UK policies and therefore with The Kingdom of Scotland’s much improved resources to population figures it would mean the larger proportional revenue stream generated by those Scottish resources would only have to serve 5.4 million.
Is John Main or an equivalent prevalent on English independence forums asking to be shown the money on just how an independent Kingdom of England will pay for itself…
Good to see the John Main fan-club, of which I consider myself a member, is out in force this evening. Main, you should consider a paid position as an influencer. You’ve got the knack for engagement.
When it comes to influencing and the likes of the 77th Brigade, here is what a real astro-turfing operation looks like, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39631139
Yes, it’s all about that place with the blue and yellow flag, except this time it’s Sweden. The comments are likely all from well-educated techies, and paid influencers too, of course. The level of delusion / astro-turfing is quite remarkable. These people should all be well-informed and techies are often a skeptical bunch by nature. Not there. They swallow the party line completely.
Want independence? This is the level of opposition you need to overcome, before you even think of making progress in changing hearts and minds. A much better approach would be to persuade scottish conservatives, with a small-c, that they really are being shafted, and no, Westminster doesn’t love them at all. Maybe then they’ll start to wake up and see themselves as the fools they are, and actually do something about it.
@Robert Knight 4.43pm
No, that’s not what I’m saying, you just don’t understand or are being disingenuous. I can’t be arsed dumbing things down for you any further.
@Gordon 1.50pm
What, is Google broken today or something…? Doubtless the Irish government web site will be happy to help.
Dan @ 6:36 pm
“The Kingdom of Scotland has a much better resources to population figure than the Kingdom of England.”
Great list, Dan, always good to see.
Maybe we should also add ‘granite production’, given that Glensanda is one of the biggest super-quarry in Europe exporting over 6m tonnes/yr by a fleet of dedicated bulk carrier ships and where “Reserves of granite are estimated to last at least until the year 2100”. I would guess this is at least 30% and maybe 50% of UK granite production as there is no other major dedicated ship fleet on this scale operating elsewhere in UK carrying granite.
@Dan 6:36
Yet again, you fail to engage with the key fly in the ointment.
You pretend to believe that a country with ten times our population, ten times our economic clout, maybes 100 times our military, and maybes 1000 times our reputation for cold-blooded slaughter and rapine is going to shrug its shoulders and let us waltz off with big chunks of the resources that are keeping rUK from bankruptcy.
Does not compute, Dan. Soz.
I always ask for a ‘plausible’ mechanism to get the wealth delivered into my hands, and those of my fellow Sovereign Scots. Nobody’s denying the existence of the wealth. It’s how it could get transferred that is the crux of the matter.
Maybes update your stats with the percentages of the troops, sailors and military pilots, tanks, ships, aircraft and helicopters, to get an idea of what we are up against.
By your arithmetic, you seem to be expecting 61.6 million people to go short so that 5.4 million Scots can take a step up in the world. Ah c’mon now Ted, you don’t really believe that.
@Stuart MacKay
Next you will be telling me that we can only trade with a country if we allow an unlimited number of their citizens to come and live here.
For decades now, people have been swallowing the line that trade requires free movement of people, or it doesn’t work. Have you ever stopped to consider just how daft an idea that is? Yet everybody treats it as if it is on a par with the laws of physics.
As for Scottish small-c conservatives being shafted, the daily news from south of the border shows that English small-c conservatives can only look at their Scottish equivalents with resentful envy.
Don’t believe me? Park yourself in a layby next to the M6 North and count the moving vans.
As with all arguments over the relative status of countries, economies and political systems, the only valid consideration is ultimately this one – who is moving, and in which direction.
This would be funny if it wasn’t so f*ckin infuriating, Robertson who has the laughable title of Constitution secretary but he’s not in the slightest bit interested in ridding Scotland of the ball and chain union, wants to meet with James Cleverly who is Westminster dictator man.
“ANGUS Robertson has demanded a meeting with James Cleverly to raise concerns about the Home Office’s visa process for artists and creatives coming to Scotland.”
http://markcurtis.info/2023/05/26/james-cleverly-the-uks-dictatorships-man/
Cleverly travels the world to the vilest dictatorships to sell them UK arms to be used without conditions including Israel, Robertson is a good friends with Shia Masot a one time Mossad agent sent to the UK to befriend UK politicians which he did with Robertson.
Basically Robertson talking to Cleverly is the establishment speaking to itself.
Meanwhile one of London’s puppets at Holyrood Douglas Ross is furious that Angus Robertson called him a Manchild.
If I’d have been in the chamber I’d have called both of them a couple of treacherous b*stards.
“DOUGLAS Ross has demanded Angus Robertson retract comments he made during a furious clash at FMQs over NHS waiting times, parliamentary audio picked up the word “manchild” from Robertson, which was then repeated by Scottish Tory depute leader Meghan Gallacher.
A visibly furious Ross stopped his questioning and said: “What? Is that the response we’re going to get from a Cabinet Secretary in the Scottish Government? And I hope that is withdrawn, I hope that is withdrawn…”
Looks like Robin is defo going to be a member of #OatClub when the dictates are rolled out and force oat munchers underground.
Folk will be hanging out on street corners waiting for the dealers to re-up so they can score a dime bag of oatmeal to cook up their porridge.
https://commonweal.scot/why-tweaking-wont-change-our-food-system/
John Main @ 8:58 pm
“Maybes update your stats with the percentages of the troops, sailors and military pilots, tanks, ships, aircraft and helicopters, to get an idea of what we are up against.”
First you say ‘show us the money’ and then you suggest that even if our national wealth exists, our oppressor will never let us have it anyway? Yet you still maintain that Scots are not subject to colonialism? Not sure how you can explain that contradiction.
Everything below is pure speculation. I have no secret sources or connections whatsoever and the opinions formed are completely my own and products of the imagination.
I understand that that the SNP must be in a heightened state of disarray and, with a shortage of cash and no sense of purpose, panicking at the prospect of a May General Election.
And I imagine that the mood could be compared to that of a defeated and demoralised army that is low on ammo, food, and morale. I further imagine that the dark clouds of the investigations must loom over everything and expect that party discipline has probably completely collapsed.
I can imagine that things are so bad at the SNP that bickering factions may have formed, and I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that one of those factions might have established a secret line of communication with Alba. And when I imagine what that imagined line of communication might be used for, my head spins with possibilities because, when you think about all that has happened, the only person who could possibly save the SNP is the big chap himself.
It’s been a strange week at Alba. Do we really know what happened? It feels like we aren’t being told the whole story. The imagination runs wild in situations like that, joining dots that don’t even exist. Or do they?
Okay, back to reality…
Andy Ellis…
You obviously didn’t get it the first time, so once again…
Please explain what relevance any IndyRef2 is to those whose citizenship would remain unaltered irrespective of the outcome?
@Alf Baird 10:22
Stop it, Alf, you’re making me nostalgic for the weeks of pro-Hamas propaganda.
I list some of the obstacles in the way of Indy, you refuse to accept they exist. I say they need to be acknowledged, and plausible solutions for overcoming them put forwards and ‘sold’ to the voters.
Would it be easier if you were to acknowledge the years of wrangling that went into Brexit, the deals and reparations that had to be hammered out, and the costs and expenses we are still paying, and will continue to pay long after most of us are dead?
That was what was needed to get out of a much shorter and in many ways much simpler political union.
“In one bound the Scots were free” isn’t convincing me. Soz.
Dan
I don’t know what you’re snorting,,,but it must be some fuckin gear.
Instead of going into Off Topic, you’ve went into overdrive.
Maybe it’s that bag of oats You’ve crushed up and you’re snorting that, but whatever your on, it’s definitely wasted your nut.
Dan @ 10.11
If Oats consumption is driven underground could it eventually produce it’s own culture a la ” Rave ” ?
” Kids ” meeting in motorway services waiting to learn where the illegal , word-of-mouth-only Whole Grain Bacchanal is happening .
Will ” O ” be the new ” E ” . Blue & Happy Mondays replaced by healthy bowel functioning EVERY DAY .
Oats Culture is bound to produce it’s own genre of music too eg ..Oatstep , Acid Ceilidh , Spurtle House .
” The Man ” never learns , eh ? Prohibition never solves anything , in fact , is invariably counter-productive : and so it will be with this attack on our god-given right to sow , reap and experience the oatstacy productive of our indigenous sacrament .
OATS 4 EVAH Brothas n Sistas 🙂
@ Harryass
” it’s definitely wasted your nut ”
Not as much as the wasted nut sitting at his computer at 5.17 throwing REALLY moronic insults at a complete stranger .
Nurse will be around soon with your medication . Until then try not to do anything too stupid , like think .
Even the USA is now having to address Israehelli behaviour.
But not John Main apparently.
Children under 2 in particular are beginning to die of starvation.
Mystic Main prophesied a ceasefire this week.
Main still doesn’t understand Brexshit LOL!
The reason Brexshit was *difficult* was purely down to that well known Britnat exceptionalism. Nothing else.
*They wanted to retain all the benefits without following the rules or even paying into the club.
*They wanted to break an International treaty (GFI)
*They wanted to lie, cheat, stomp their feet with an arrogance of “just agree, we’ll change/ deny it later”
An independent Scotland would have none of that shite. We have no international treaties with other countries to honour. We have no benefits from the UK to try to cling on to. Scotland walks with all of her territory intact. Only sorting out to do is divvying up shared assets.
NATO is over. They’ve just been internationally embarrassed for the lie that they are. They have no manpower. No product. Fuck all works & 180 members can’t agree the colour of shite. A peace deal was rejected, costing more lives in the process & now some territory thrown in for free thanks to the yanks LOL
But some good news, Genocide John..
The EU is over too by the looks of it. The genocide in Palestine killed it & Ukrainy killed it. I think there’ll be a push for sovereign countries to “take back control” from the absolute warmongering freaks that have captured it.
UN is also on a shoogly peg if they don’t start arresting war criminals.
So that great “international community” isn’t looking so great after all & is on notice.
There seems to be a lot of chatter on the power of independent candidates as opposed to parties standing. The system is corrupt as fck & people are sick of it. Not just in the UK but across Europe too.
Uh oh, the Kraken awakes! (or did she sit up all night doing shots?)
I hear the Great Satan is building a port to ship aid into North Gaza. Looks like it falls to me to be the first (and probably the only) one on here to say fair play to them.
As long as they can keep it out of the thieving hands of the Ham boys, the Gazan innocents may finally get a break.
The rest of the Ham boys intend to go on fighting through Ramadan. I guess, for them, the human shield body count has not yet mounted high enough.
Shame, I thought that whilst they may well be terroristic and cowardly murderers, rapists, torturers and kidnappers, they still had some sense of religious belief about them. But naw, even that is lacking in them.
Fetching shade of green though, that’s my second favourite colour BTW.
@John Main; Loving the “Nobody’s denying the existence of the wealth.” regarding Scotland! So, we can now take it as read that you have been ‘shown the money’!
“It’s how it could get transferred that is the crux of the matter.” That’s back to front, John, it’s how we stop that transfer from happening in the first place, and then enforcing reparations for the return of the vast wealth already stolen.
Clearly we can’t do that on our own, but we don’t have to be on our own, we can get assistance from the UN and the ICJ, and those options are being explored and worked towards, just as several dozen other countries have done successfully over the last few decades. There are also legal and constitutional niceties that England’s establishment have deliberately ignored for centuries, and it can be held to account for those in the appropriate court. ‘Ignored’ in this context means ‘illegally breached’.
As for “expecting 61.6 million people to go short so that 5.4 million Scots can take a step up in the world”, that 61.6 million are entirely comfortable with making the 5.4 million go short by stealing their resources and wealth from them, and then chiding them for being so poor that they have to be ‘subsidised’ by England, then chiding them again for not exactly being grateful to their English ‘benefactors’ who impoverished them in the first place.
Poverty isn’t inherent to the Scots, nor to Scotland; it has been forced on them by their neighbours. Scotland isn’t poor, it has been forcibly impoverished, that being the polite word for ‘robbed’.
I watch a lot of interviews with very insightful and interesting people and I say this without any hyperbole this is the most important one I have ever seen.
This lady is ‘joining dots’ here like I have never seen anyone do before. It is stunning, an absolute must-watch. Not only that it should be shared as widely as possible.
Everything she says here is completely correct IMHO and I have known it for a while now but to hear her confirm it all and relate it back to her real life experiences is still mind blowing for me.
https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1762249935116963993
We are in a very serious situation here folks.
Can anyone on here tell me what is the Alba party position on the Green Freeports?
Johnny Cope.
A sad case.
Building a port on Cyprus, with Israehelli vetting the deliveries.
So, no change then.
That lady in the Tucker Carlson interview above used a phrase several times that really resonated with me as I have been saying it myself… “decades in the making”.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/ferreting-about/#comment-2776768
That interview has crystallized a lot of information for me. The way she recounts it all is fascinating, she is really humble and honest.
So many things you can unpack there. The oppressor / oppressed template that was used then, that has been tweaked and used again now, replacing class with race. The struggle sessions… tearing down statues and rewriting history. Indoctrinating the youth and weaponizing them… The parallels are truly astonishing.
Watch it.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/yet-another-fine-mess/#comment-2828697
Brilliant Mac
That makes a lot of sense.
I think a lot of people have been asking what’s going on and this brilliant woman sums it up.
When the pupil is ready the teacher arrives.
It would be good if here BTL we concentrated on ‘fighting back’
Even if you don’t know anything about communism or the cultural revolution you can notice strange thing happening.
ie The party of independence doesn’t want independence.
Are the SNP Marxist? Well I don’t much about Marxism but if as Xi Van Fleet says it’s all about power then the SNP definitely want that even down to controlling what you eat for breakfast.
Also hate crimes, trials without jury.
I look forward to a ‘revolutionise’ BTL on Wings.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/yet-another-fine-mess/#comment-2828697
Brilliant Mac
That makes a lot of sense.
I think a lot of people have been asking what’s going on and this brilliant woman sums it up.
When the pupil is ready the teacher arrives.
It would be good if here BTL we concentrated on ‘fighting back’
Even if you don’t know anything about communism or the cultural revolution you can notice strange thing happening.
ie The party of independence doesn’t want independence.
Are the SNP Marxist? Well I don’t much about Marxism but if as Xi Van Fleet says it’s all about power then the SNP definitely want that even down to controlling what you eat for breakfast.
Also hate crimes, trials without jury.
I look forward to a ‘revolutionised’ BTL on Wings.
https://twitter.com/SchemesForIndy?t=vyRF2NF1ERo8XZ79ZFFgjg&s=09
Give it a follow. If Parties won’t do it……dae it yersel’
Apparently it’s
International Wo’mens Day!
I think I’ll give it a miss.
The lady in the interview makes so many brilliant observations I am still digesting them. It is definitely getting watched again.
One was that we in the West (and amazingly also today in modern China) don’t get really taught about Communism, we get endless films, books, documentaries about the N@zi’s, terrorists etc but rarely do we get the same about the communists.
I have noticed the same, folk like George Galloway blithely voicing his admiration for them. Being a communist today should be about as socially acceptable as being a N@zi but it isn’t. And that is very odd.
Listening to her explain how the cultural revolution worked, the mechanics of it, how the ground work for it was laid, over decades same as here, the template they used, and what the true purpose of it was and is, to size and retain power, I kept thinking, why is this not all understood widely in the west?
Because as she said they wanted to keep it secret so they could use these methods again on us. And they are. It is undeniable.
She survived Mao and lived through his cultural revolution and she is warning us as clear as day. This is the same. The globalists are just a rebrand of the communists. She actually says this as well.
The president of Ru$$ia also said exactly the same thing recently as well. They West is using the same methods and techniques as the Bolsheviks did on the Russian populace.
The lady gives the solution – people need to be made aware of all of this. To understand how it worked in China and for what true purpose. As soon as they are they will then instantly recognize the same is being done to them, today.
The people running the SNP are all globalists. Of course they don’t want independence, it is the opposite of where they plan on going. If we allow them.
Xaracen,
It is notable to suggest reparations,
This should be is extended further, considering that most of Scotlands wealth has been syphoned whilst “Scots” have been advertised by the Westminster parliament as NOT ever been asked to join the in the treaty of union.
The reparations for that alone would be astronomical.
However the reparations must also be considered for Scotlands 1707 parliament coming under “Dissolution” in 1707.also advertised by Westminster and UK parliament to the world.
It has now become a world “political confession” from “Westminster parliament site” in admitting that neither the Scots nor their old parliament were ever in the treaty of union since 1707, and that both have been deceived into a false situation and treaty for over the best part of Three hundred years,
It is difficult for Westminster parliament to retract their stated and well advertised position on how they have used and plundered Scotland and the Scots solely using Colonisation.
The long standing legal position of Scotland for Scots is Ipso Defacto, a treaty between Scotland and England that never progressed, a Treaty that was and has been spent since 1707.
As both you and I are aware the old English parliaments upper House, The House of Lords is the only and Sole member of the Great-Britain parliament and that Scotland nor Scots entered into a treaty of union with the UK parliament,
The discussions for damages and reparations and sharing a national debt that was not due to be payed to England whilst the Scots were not in any legal sense connected to the Great-Britain parliamentary “union parliament” adds a new perspective on how wealthy Scotland could be in the future..
There is little to share or due to England as a Coloniser whom is sitting without a valid treaty with Scotland except the return of finances to Scotland and reinstating Scotlands Sovereignty.
Everything else in Westminsters case would come under back- rent that is owed for using Scotlands land and sea. Without a legal treaty with Scots.
For Scotland and its nation it is a important starting point in negotiations to recognise its very own starting point and legal position,
This is not so difficult to achieve or prove seeing as Westminster parliament has advertised that Scotlands parliament and Scots are not in the treaty of union to the rest of the world globe for a healthy number of years now.
I bet Mac is going to be very frustrated by the end of the day.
Why?
I’m looking at you Mr/Mrs Che.
Which is it Mr or Mrs?
Maybe you both take turns.
Are you male or female James?
Mac: “The oppressor / oppressed template”
Which you (the oppressed) are sort of using now… it seems like everybody is oppressed these days. Well, I’m not.
As for the parallels with the cultural revolution, it’s a ridiculous comparison. China at that time was persecuting gays, etc., and was highly conservative in sociological terms.
The cultural revolution was more about Mao’s return to politics than anything you are suggesting. The jilted political emigres types from places like China and Cuba are always full of hate towards the governments of their home countries, and bullshit.
The American right which Tucker represents is obsessed with China and communists — to them anyone that wants to feed the poor or minimise pollution is a Marxist.
Mao was smart and he understood was that it was necessary to keep Chinese politics and the press free of Western influence if China was to avoid being re-colonised. I agree with that analysis — if you let foreigners control your media and press, you might as well hand them the keys to your parliament (we in Scotland know that, right?).
Beyond that protectionism towards the press and politics, shielding it from outside influences, there’s nothing much communist about China; it’s arguably one of the most capitalist countries on the planet, a sort of Mecca for capitalists, big business, and free marketeers…
@Mac. I am just about to watch the link you provided. I previously posted one of three important names which were involved at ministerial level in the Cultural Revolution and how their demographic was embedded in the country to act as middlemen when it opened for business with the likes of Microsoft, Apple and Intel. The person I mentioned had travelled from their own country of Poland to Russia to take part in the revolution there and from Russia to China. I recently read about the Polish Home Army during WW2, how they were fighting a two front war against the occupying Germans and the invading Soviets and how during this they were also being attacked by a homegrown partisan militia made up of a certain group which supported a Soviet takeover of the country.
A few days ago I posted about how a man who whether or not we agree with his politics was imprisoned for two years in England last week after the judge directed the jury that stickers bearing slogans such as It Is Ok To Be White were anti Semitic. We have seen a threat on here to go after peoples jobs due to their opinions, we have also seen someone calling for the complete breeding out of existence of Scots and their culture but because the person then posted that they also hate the US, England and Israel it went completely over peoples heads because they have been brainwashed to overlook calls for their own genocide.
A book I read by a famous war journalist stated that he observed that as people are being lined up for mass slaughter they sit and wait for it to happen.
Re your post from last year and you posing the question who is behind it, someone replied paedophiles, paedophiles do not have that amount of juice to use the entire global political infrastructure, the media, publishing and academia to completely rewrite history via a multigenerational hivemind long con.
Lucky you!
You must be a very good little boy!
I’m not oppressed either when I do exactly what I’m told.
Whether it’s communism, fascism or whatever you’ve got to admit there is something very strange going on in this country.
Also something very strange going on here BTL on Wings.
Ruby
‘there is something very strange going on in this country’
Aye, like Green 1, Lab 2, SNP 3?
The End is Nigh.
How interesting that Sturgeon’s wee pal Garavelli does not mention the Salmond case once in her waving of the flag for jury-free trials.
https://unherd.com/2024/03/should-rape-trials-be-juryless/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups%5B0%5D=18743&tl_period_type=3
Xaracen,
Scots nor Scotland are in a United kingdom parliamentary union with the 1800 Anglo-Irish treaty either by default of not being in a parliamentary union with England,
The Great- Britain parliament legally being the upper house of “the House of Lords” from England old parliament.
It has been a long standing deceit in the making on Scotland, And has global connotations for those connected to the Colonisation By the Great-Britain Empire.
And it is easy to see by connecting those dots, the fall of that Empire may have concerns in other Countries such as America, who uses Scotlands land and sea,
Unless Scotland can break free from the falsehood of that treaty at its founding creation cleanly, it will be up against many other Countries that have a self interest using Scotlands resources of land and sea via Westminster parliament,
We will and often are fighting unforeseen forces behind the scene of global politics.
It is in Scotlands interest to see the larger picture if it is ever going to achieve independence, to recognise these other Barrier / Countries to Scottish independence,
There have been so many treaties and alliances by Westminster parliament since 1707 that Scotland has been dragged into these scrapes under the fallacious treaty.
The only answer for total a re-set for Scotland and Scots wanting their independent Country back is to dissect and demolish the falsehood that Scots and Scotland are in the treaty of Union.
Westminster Parliaments historical records and their boast to the world stage that neither Scots or nor theIr old Scottish parliament prevailed into the political parliamentary treaty of union past 1707 is ample evidence,
For a parliament under dissolution has no members,
And therefore cannot represent Scotland,
The dissolved Scottish parliament members of the now EX old Scottish parliament under Dissolution automatically became members of the House of Lords of the parliament of England not a union of parliaments of Scotland and England,
@ James Che
A rather glaring aspect of this 300 year old union is the clear disparity of the population growth rates between the two Kingdoms that are in a supposedly equal union.
The Kingdom of England’ population was approximately 5 times greater than the Kingdom of Scotland at the start of the Union, and over the 300 years the KoE population has grown to be 10 times greater than the KoS with all the economic and democratic advantages that gave the KoE.
@ Mac
It is certainly interesting that all the global initiatives being foisted upon us are so readily accepted by so many folk. But what I notice is that whilst some folk are switched on enough to rightly question the likes of the genderwoowoo, they appear less inclined to do the same for the re-wilding narrative.
It’s my view that this is because folk are obviously triggered by different emotive stimuli.
I notice one of Breek’s posts in relation to beaver chat was included in Off-Topic’s Not Hitting the Wall posts, but was a little disappointment about that as it was in isolation it didn’t cover the other aspects of the discussion. And it is those other aspects that need to be considered for sensible well thought out policies to be developed.
Contrary to what folk might think, I am very pro ecologically sound initiatives being rolled out. But they need to be done in a sensible manner taking into consideration Scotland’s current state.
If the likes of huge areas in the vast uninhabited highlands such as Glencoe and Glenshee were covered with tens of thousands of acres of natural forests then beavers being released up in these remote areas might be less of an issue because they would be far more able to create the benefits they are proposed to do. With their activity being well out of the way of human activity and in many much smaller valleys and watercourses and rivers where they would hold up the water by creating their pools and ponds.
But that isn’t what is happening around my area because the topography of the land means my locale is already pretty much at the end of the catchment of all those smaller tributaries which have flowed into creating what is the river with the largest flow of any on the island of Great Britain.
And in this area with floodplains is where a lot of our farming and other human activity is carried out, and the huge 5 meter height range of the river in spate simply washes away pretty much all the beavers’ “work”.
That is the reality that so many pro-wildlife folk don’t seem to want to address. I’ve posted enough information that should at least have stimulated folk to consider the implications of all this, but it appears the emotive nature of the subject is doggedly kicking in with regard to re-wilding opinions in a very similar way that it does with the “no debate” / “transwomen are women” narrative.
@Mac, I am at the part where she is talking about the collective farms in rural China, I have also previously posted about the push within the circles I move in to, and I quote, decolonise the countryside. They were promoting someone who had moved to Scotland from England and on arriving is making a career out of claiming that there are too many white people in Inverness and that white direction signposts in the woods are a symbol of the white patriarchy.
Mac @ 10:52 am
“That lady in the Tucker Carlson interview”
What we are seeing now in the West is a form of Cultural Imperialism, i.e the enforced imposition and adoption of an alien cultural ideology and its values and core beliefs, rather than Communism per se. Its methodology and objective appears to reflect fascism – i.e. rule and control over the majority for the benefit of a few elites. This is not the meaning of Communism.
Happy International Adult Human Female’s (Woman’s) day!
Well US POTUS Genocide Joe Biden realises that his party is on to a hiding at the elections in the US this year due to his governments apathy in stopping the genocide in Gaza. Even with an all out aid package to Gaza it’s going be one helluva turned around to beat Trump to the Whitehouse.
Biden has completely bypassed Netanyahu and is building a port in the Eastern Med, to send supplies to the starving Palestinians very large ships can’t do the job as the waters are too shallow.
However and its a bloody big one, there will be no ceasefire, Netanyahu and his extremist government are in disarray, so much so that the Israeli police force has been caught on camera punching an Israeli woman hard in the face because she demonstrated that Netanyahu isn’t doing the correct things to get her hostage held child back to her.
It would appear that to Netanyahu the Israeli hostages are expendable (Hannibal Directive).
The EU and the UK are also sending aid to Gaza, the penny has finally dropped that the public in Europe and the UK are furious with their lack of support for the civilians in Gaza by their governments.
https://web.archive.org/web/20201026162137/https://starecat.com/this-place-could-use-some-communism-doing-a-mess-that-wasnt-real-communism/
The degenerate Greens pick up another councillor in Glasgow, but not until the 7th round by pref.
https://archive.is/xxK71
The Greens beat Humza Yousaf! Hilarious. 10 in a row in by-election defeats for Humza!
A bute house agreement without any benefits.
As for Glasgow Hillhead. They all eat with chopsticks in the West End. Not a single one of them look attractive in their handbags and gladrags – the men I’m talking about that walk around like peacocks up and down Byres Road.
They know nothing of Glasgow, none of the citys chill and their needs.
I feel sorry for the majority of the people that voted for the Labour Party candidate.
LEZ low emission zone incoming!
The creepy green councillor in the background looks like he’s put on weight. He must be feeling the pressure of the scrutiny.
I see the transgender man pretending to be woman was also there to celebrate the green victory.
Patrick Harvie also holding a stick. How embarassing. He’s no elder statesman he’s a wee nonce.
At least we know he’s beating Humza with his stick anyway.
HA HA HUMZA!
A book currently being promoted by the US media is titled White Rural Rage, The Threat To American Democracy and was written by dear fellow white people Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman.
As it is International Womens Day I suggest that women start noticing the background of a number of the men who are taking their medals and places in competitive sports.
Biden is not even in control of his own mind. He should stop giving Israel weapons his whole port plan sounds like an absolute insult to humanity.
Calling for a ceasefire has escaped him time and time again. He can’t bring himself to utter the words. He can’t face it.
I see that AOC that woke degenerate democrat that Sturgeon fancied is getting it in the neck, for being unable to say the words genocide.
Even the wokies are turning on the democrats.
Bring back Trump to restore some Law and order!
Scotland will be nuclear-free
We will also be oil, gas and job-free, but with even bigger hordes of foreigners looking for handouts in the territory formerly known as Scotland.
@Robertknight
Please explain what relevance any IndyRef2 is to those whose citizenship would remain unaltered irrespective of the outcome?
Apologies I missed this initially in the welter of later posts by the usual suspects bung fu’ wi nativist bullshitting, Treaties of Union guff and sophomoric post colonial theorising.
The franchise for indyref2 (not that one is likely any time soon) will be based on the 2014 franchise, or something close to it. There’s zero evidence of any appetite amongst mainstream parties, the movement as a whole or the voters in general to see radical change in it.
Even if plebiscitary elections are used, the franchise isn’t all that different from that for an indyref, which won’t satisfty the blut und boden brigade.
Oh dear, what a shame, never mind.
Putative citizenship would (if we follow the White Paper appraoch advanced before indyref1) follow what appear to be “normal” patterns in other countries like Ireland:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/independence-what-you-need-to-know/pages/citizenship/#:~:text=A%20baby%20born%20outside%20of,boy%2C%20Aleksander%2C%20after%20independence.
Dan,
The growth of populations between Scotland and England in the last centuries tells its own tale of what Scotland has lost in many ways under Colonialism, and I am not so sure that it comes under the heading of a treaty of union.
I too am all for re-wilding Scotland sensibly from plants to fauna, but not as a global idealogical experiment pushed for by those out- with Scotland, by placing their people in positions of government , employing and funding the agenda, whilst no consultation has taken place with the overall Scottish themselves..
I do not believe that re- introducing animals that are now extinct such as bears, Wolves and beavers along with other predators and raptors here into modern landscape system of Farming, Housing estates. Etc
The obvious case being that these animals will eventually become into contact modern life in a manner that is contradictory to the way Scotland has developed compared to other Countries over the Centuries.
Scotland is not a playground for the wealthy to convert into a open park land experimental Zoo.
This will have a detrimental effect not only on farmers, Scottish food supplies, On rivers and waterways but on home owners too as land is taken over into trustees by compulsory government orders.
Around the corner and unforeseen by those idiots spouting this ideology for Scotland comes the knowledge that there will be restrictions of availability and access to our own natural resources as these vast areas become protected parklands, very similar to the large private shooting estates that colonised Scotland in the recent past,
Where by Scots were banned by trespassing laws, fined or imprisoned.
It is repeating history, with the future loss of land ownership for Scots going from vast private estates often owned by those that did not reside in Scotland into the control of larger corporations and bodies of trusties out-with Scotland.
It is not just the damage that can be done by these re-introduced animals, it is the agenda that sells Scotland land mass, out of Scotland, but not to the nation and people of Scotland,
It also creates massive future evasion of taxation by these new trustee land owners, as those that buy Scottish Castles but donot live in Scotland.
It is in the interest of Everyone living in Scotland to become aware that this re-wilding programme is changing the own-ship of land in Scotland. the back door sale into trustees and Westminster government not by the old Highland Clearance method but by red tape.
If the Greens or SNP win any seats in Scotland, as Scots pretty much vote for neither party,
Can we call on Westminsters Intelligence and Security Committee to investigate russian interference in our Scottish elections being as Westminster UK is in a proxy war with them?
Westminster did this in 2014, even more reason to do this now if America sends its due report in.
Alf Baird
I have always understood that communism is about the collective ownership of the means of production ie land, labour and capital. Hence the collective farms. State ownership of industry. Marx saw it as the inevitable successor to feudalism and then capitalism. It did involve re-educating the masses though.
So Theresa May is to stand down as a MP at this years GE. May who’s married to a mega rich hedge fund manager was a MP for 27 years and PM from 2016 to 2019.
“Almost 100 MPs have now announced they will not fight their seats at the next election, including 64 Conservatives and former Conservatives.
This is the most Tories to retire from Parliament since May entered the Commons in 1997.”
Turnout at the by-election is reputed to be 24% – jings!
David Davis has asked Alister Jack to release the redacted James Hamilton report in full.
Excellent.
Release the information! Let’s see the conspiracy.
We’ll soon find out if Sturgeon is an agent of the union or not!
David Hannah.
Genocide Joe Biden is the only modern day POTUS to refuse to take a cognitive test during a POTUS annual medical.
Biden say he doesn’t need on and that his actions in office testify to that, enough said.
Biden went off script today (scripts written not by him, but for him) when he mentioned Illegals more than likely referring to Mexicans entering the USA.
Sturgeon’s protectors – Dorothy Bain and Lady Dorian – her jury hating judge that wants a special sexual offences juryless court – must be feeling uncomfortable right now. Knowing that they’ve been trying to cover up this conspiracy for a long time. And it’s not going away. Scotland wants to move forward! And so does the legal system!
Republic of Scotland. People are saying Biden is going to stand down and Michelle Obama could become the next presidential candidate. With more than 50 per cent of democrats supporting replacing Biden as president.
‘What’s going to happen in this next election? I’m terrified about what could possibly happen, because our leaders matter,’ she said.
‘Who we select, who speaks for us, who holds that bully pulpit, it affects us in ways sometimes I think people take for granted,’ Obama told Jay Shetty on his podcast ‘On Purpose’ in January.
I suspect Michaelle – sometimes known as Michael Obama – may well be entering the scene.
And that’s good news if you’re big pharmaceutical drug companies looking to steralise children, or NATO and the False Green Agenda.
And bad news for workers of the World.
Joan Rivers said that Michelle Obama is a transgender.
Joan Rivers was right in what she said. She speaks the truth. Michelle Obama is actually MICHAEL Obama.
And I couldn’t think of anything worse. Than having a transgender president of the United States.
Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that!
Right, we all know who the good guys are, that’s us, but who are the bad guys?
Can Ellis tell us if he is aware of any ongoing negotiations or the existence of backchannels between Alba and the SNP? Yes or No would be sufficient.
Anton, Scotland could easily accommodate a population ten times what it is now. The stuff I have read suggests there’s a very good chance of a massive exodus from areas we call “the south” to the north. By massive I mean over a billion in the next 10 to 20 years. Between climate change, rising levels of poverty, war, crop failures, flooding, there are respectable people who believe that movements like that are inevitable — actually they are saying it has already started.
Sometimes you’ve just got to accept change, and accept that you can’t stop it. That’s all I’m saying. I’m not concerned about it. I don’t think those who are natives of this country have any special rights or intrinsic superiority over immigrants. Why would they?
Independence is about democracy, not nationalism.
Would this pass as one of the strange things happening in this country?
What is the ‘normal’ turnout
@ MaryB at 9.59: what is Alba’s policy on Greenports?
At last year’s conference the vote was against these freeports. Denise Findlay’s twitter had a clip of it a few days ago. Jacqui Blijster was a speaker.
I think this old classic warrants a revival…
https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=Alba+Party+Freeports
@ Hatuey 5.22pm I think maybe you should go and tell the Israelis the Palestinians, the russkies , the 404’s, the Pakistanis the indians and every other nation from around the world that you have found the formula for world peace and you will implement it imminantly, then you can sort out the massive abuses carried out on indigenous peoples from all over the globe ,YOU are John Lennon returned from the grave and I claim my £10, BTW you can give away whatever is yours if it makes you feel good and superior but I will be keeping mine
@ Hatuey at 5:22 pm
But as you well know, this country (Scotland) doesn’t currently have control over the power of immigration to implement policy that best serves our specific needs, because that power resides in Westminster with governments Scots have rejected since around the middle of last century.
And we also don’t effectively have any representation and influence in the global decision making processes and resultant actions that exacerbate emigration / immigration, because all the other major powers like foreign policy reside with London Rule too.
So should we just suck it up and have to deal with the consequences of external actors that we didn’t elect, with one arm tied behind our backs because we don’t have control of all the necessary powers to better steer our own country’s trajectory?
That doesn’t seem like we have proper democratic empowerment for our self-determination to me.
If you don’t want this forum to be ‘bung fu’ wi nativist bullshitting, Treaties of Union guff and sophomoric post colonial theorising’ as you call it then why don’t you just ignore it?
Is it all just a pissing contest for you in which you are trying to prove you have the biggest willy?
Is it not pretty strange that there is a never ending discussion about the franchise on this forum with you always being the main protagonist just repeating the same stuff over and over and over again.
Is the franchise all you do? Are you a ‘one tricky franchise fanny?’
I was hoping you could have voiced your opinions/knowledge of Alba’s women’s right policy.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/yet-another-fine-mess/comment-page-1/#comment-2828775
Hatuey
Ellis can’t tell us much he’s a ‘one trick franchise fanny’ that gets on everyone’s nerves.
You say
Sometimes you’ve just got to accept change, and accept that you can’t stop it.
Independence is about democracy, not nationalism.
Surely independence is about being able to stop unacceptable change.
I don’t know how we are going to stop authoritarianism but I think we should give it a try.
The BTL posters on Wings are too busy to even give authoritarianism any thought.
Ruby , Hillhead is quite affluent and involved, I would have expected even in a crappy council election that they would have managed at least double that.
Tomorrow morning 10am tune in to the Alex Salmond show to see Stu in his make up.
“Republic of Scotland. People are saying Biden is going to stand down and Michelle Obama could become the next presidential candidate. With more than 50 per cent of democrats supporting replacing Biden as president.
‘What’s going to happen in this next election? I’m terrified about what could possibly happen, because our leaders matter,’ she said.”
David Hannah.
The Democrats are in big trouble they’ve already lost the most of the black vote in America, and undoubtably the Muslim vote as well.
Although I’m no fan of Trump infact I’m no fan of any US POTUS they’re all shit in my eyes, I think Trump will win this time around.
Ruby @ 5.23pm (and Dorothy)
‘Would this (24% turnout) pass as one of the strange things happening in this country’
No. Motherwell SE had a turnout of 20% four months ago.
There was a smaller turnout in a neighbouring country in 2012 when only 18.2% of the electorate voted in the Manchester Central b/e for WM.
‘What is the ‘normal’ turnout’
The average turnout in 2023 was 30.6% : –
Corstorphine – 42.3%
Dunblane – 38.1%
Tain – 34.4%
Girvan – 32.4%
South Kintyre – 31.3%
Dyce – 28.2%
East Kilbride West – 25.7%
Bellshill – 22.7%
Motherwell SE – 20%
Hatuey @ 5:22 pm
“Independence is about democracy, not nationalism.”
This kind of notion is rather simplistic and problematic.
For a colonized people ‘independence is about decolonization’ and hence ‘liberation from oppression’ (Memmi).
The colonized group ‘only become nationalists in order to liberate their nation’ (Fanon).
Colonialism ‘is a scourge and should be ended’ (UN C-24).
In the colonial situation, therefore, ‘the most urgent matter is freeing the people’
‘Democracy’, however it may be defined, is another matter.
Ruby says on 8 March 2024 at 6:57 pm: “Tomorrow morning 10am tune in to the Alex Salmond show to see Stu in his make up.”
Tune in to where, Ruby? Is he back on RT? I thought London pulled the plug on RT broadcasting in the UK?
Sorry Stoker it isn’t the Alex Salmond Show it’s
Scotland Speaks with Alex Salmond
http://www.youtube.com/@AlexSalmondShow/videos
It’s Stu tomorrow. He posted a ‘picture’ of himself in full trans make-up earlier in the week complaining about ‘make-up’ on Scotland speaks over doing the lippy.
I’ll try and find the picture of Stu with his Ruby lips! 🙂
I think it was joke.
There’s also the Turkish Tea with Alex Salmond.
I’ve just watched this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV73IERrHlw
I think that was the third one. All quite interesting!
LOL! Cheers, Ruby.
When you leave the country where you are freeborn, and move to become a citizen in another, I suggest that we take on a different legal persona.
When we are born we have not contracted to anything and only subsequently give away our rights to others.
These rights theoretically can be reclaimed.
When we change citizenship we make a contract and are definitely in control by others.
In this case there is clear way back.
Ruby, when you said: “It’s Stu tomorrow. He posted a ‘picture’ of himself in full trans make-up earlier in the week complaining about ‘make-up’ on Scotland speaks over doing the lippy.”
This immediately came to mind https://archive.is/bcqqU
Laughing my arse off.
@ Hatuey
” I don’t think those who are natives of this country have any special rights or intrinsic superiority over immigrants. Why would they? ” .
From a human perspective , no , we don’t ; at least no ” intrinsic superiority ” . If I read you correctly , your belief is all human beings are * equal * ie ..of equal value/significance : I agree .
Likewise , by this point in human evolution we *should* be aspiring to reduce barriers – of all kinds . In particular those that lead to savagery eg the projected shadow people and nations cast onto other people and nations : the ” need ” for enemies .
We’re a long from that true Civilisation , compadre . We can but Imagine . And aspire .
What about the value and significance of , let’s call it …National Identity , more broadly , Cultural Identity . The wonderful , multifarious variety of human response to being in the World ; particular parts of the World . The Philosophies , Sciences , Music , Technological marvels etc that were/are the products of humans of specific times and – crucially – places ; their distinct worldviews formed by location and culture ; the latter being deeply influenced by the former .
Would you risk losing all that for the sake of a ( possibly ) more harmonious future ?
You might say we needn’t lose anything , even National Identities by embracing the ” Melting Pot ” idea/l . I’m not so sure . Homogenisation-by-stealth seems to be happening and you have to ask why the powers that control/influence how things * run * are so down on ” Nationalism ” yet fetishise ” Identity ”
Maybe because ” Identity ” is subjective , insular , more susceptible to fragmentation , ergo …less of a threat to the secure functioning of Establishment Power . Maybe 🙂
Oops!
Should have been –
In this case there is no clear way back. For Nu citizens.
Lets see what can they do to negate this disaster, ah yes ditch this f*cked up union, and stop sending hundred of millions of pounds every day to number elevens coffers.
But no, the SNP no matter how bad things get would never contemplate actually dissolving this rancid sewer of a union.
I’m sick of listening to SNP/MSPs/MPs bitchin about this and that with Westminster in mind when they know that independence negates Westminster permanently.
“THE Scottish Government fears its funding is effectively being cut as a result of spending commitments made in the Budget this week, The National has learned.
Because of decisions made by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, the Scottish Government is set to receive around £295 million in Barnett consequentials.
But this is significantly less than what was awarded in the financial year 2022-23, despite Scottish ministers’ assumptions the money awarded then would have formed a baseline for future sums.
Previously, the Scottish Government said it had been given £470 million as a result in health spending in England. This number has now fallen to £237m in Barnett consequentials generated by the Spring Budget.”
Robert Hughes @ 8:07 pm
“Maybe because ” Identity ” is subjective , insular , more susceptible to fragmentation , ergo …less of a threat to the secure functioning of Establishment Power . Maybe ?”
National identities remain ‘the bulwark against Imperialism’ (and hence oppose oppression/exploitation); this is well established back to the Roman period and earlier (Edward Said/’Culture & Imperialism’).
Those who value diversity should therefore strive to respect and nurture national identities. Cultural imperialism seeks to obliterate national identity and national culture. Which explains why maybe half of Scots remain confused about their identity.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2021/06/27/paper-one-in-the-10-part-baird-series/
Alf, there is no real communism, (much like there is no real free market capitalism) it was a concoction, it was an ideological vehicle to fool people into being the unwitting foot soldiers of evil forces, not designed to save them but destroy them. Which is exactly what it did.
The exact same is true of the raft of woke ideology. It is all the same concoction to fool people into being unwitting foot soldiers…
The Chinese lady demonstrates this perfectly.
Communism and Wokeism are not the same, that is true, otherwise it would not work. But they are also exactly the same and that is also true.
And I have to say, historically speaking, it works on the bovine populations of planet earth. I guess that is why our evil leaders use it, over and over again. No one notices or almost no one.
Biden
Does anyone look at him & see Livia Soprano? LOL!
(Issues a hit on her own son then fakes illness when it fcks up & starts acting senile)
Alf 1:24
“Its methodology and objective appears to reflect fascism – i.e. rule and control over the majority for the benefit of a few elites. This is not the meaning of Communism.”
Agreed. The elites are losing control. Especially with those darn Ruskies. How dare they not allow them into the country to strip it bare of all of its rich goodies it has in abundance.
Quick! Invent a bogey man – the masses of stupid always fall for those.
It’s an evil & it’s intent on eradicating generations from breeding. If they can’t get them in the womb they’ll bend their heads into mass sterilisation before puberty.
Republic 2:37
Biden will do nothing. He’s had more lies come out his mouth than Starmer. Netanyahu is a racist & it would depend what kind of Jew the lady was. Life means absolutely nothing to him including his own hostages. He’s only interested in retaining power. Biden is also a racist. He’s happy to have Netanyahu to clear the area just as he’s happy to have Ukrainy men & women die until after the election instead of ending it now. He’s another only interested in retaining power. I’ve heard it’s Hilary pulling his strings but I think he’s pulling a fast one acting stupid cause they’re all war criminals & a day of reckoning will come.
Thousands have died at their hands & all for fck all.
Someone mentioned today in an interview people were P*tin luvvies & the reply was brilliant lol
If it means I’m in favour of:
*Protecting Sovereignty.
*My countries constitution.
*My countries safety & territory..
*Family values
*Peace
Then aye..
If it means I’m against
*Purple haired freaks
*Mass sterilisation
*Breakdown of the family unit
*Colonising other countries
*Stealing other people’s resources
*Endless warring
*Military bases in every country
*Nazis..
Then aye..
what’s so great about the West to covet? It’s shit & it doesn’t even have the final lie to cling onto = democracy. We see how easy the goalposts to that can change too when it suits. I have heard various people speculate the POTUS election will either be rigged or called off through some false flag event. The Elites won’t want Trump. He’s too much of a loose cannon & unpredictable.
Too late to catch up but Anton thanks for the replies. The truth has been made taboo.
Looks like Mr Salmond hopes to use “Alba: Save Grangemouth” for registration purposes for their candidates for the GE if the Electoral Commission consents.
I respect all of your opinions on my last comment.
The truth is national borders like national identities are essentially fake. They only make sense in retrospective minds and are superimposed by us on people, places, and history, for political and ideological reasons.
Nobody who lived and toiled in Scotland a five hundred or a thousand years ago was aware that his life and work would some day be relied upon to define the national character of a people.
And if you had told a random person back then that the way he likes his fish, the music he enjoys, the way he talks, etc., represented intrinsically meaningful facets of Scottish culture, I’m sure he would either have laughed out loud or prepared to square-go you on the basis that you were being a sarcastic ba****d.
We know what I’m saying is true because the concept of the nation and the national are relatively new inventions. The idea of Scotland is likewise a new invention.
That all said, I think Robert Hughes and Alf are right to attach importance and value to different cultures and different ways of life. That’s different and has nothing to do with nationalism.
Europeans with their crazy ideas and justifications have done more to trample on and destroy the colourful tapestry of human life on this planet than any other people. Nationalism is one such crazy idea, hardly likely to provide a solution.
I was named Hatuey for reasons that are important to this discussion.
And it is for reasons that seem natural to me, rather than invented, that I am against trampling on people; if being Scottish is to mean anything, maybe it can mean being decent to those our ancestors once trampled on, making them welcome here, and giving emphasis to the things we have in common as human beings rather than the things that set us apart.
“Work as if you live in the early days of A BETTER NATION…”
Sven
Ignored says:
8 March, 2024 at 9:55 pm
” Looks like Mr Salmond hopes to use “Alba: Save Grangemouth” for registration purposes for their candidates for the GE if the Electoral Commission consents. ”
Against Eva Comrie – amongst others ?
Hmmm… is that the Scotland United thing out the windae then , ’cause the SNP claim total ownership of the baw n refuse tae play the gemm it’s been abandoned ?
Hatuey said;
“Independence is about democracy, not nationalism.”
Independence is about having the right to choose our own futures in our own territory, and not having the choices of the MPs of a foreign kingdom imposed on us just because there are more of them in the Union’s shared parliament than our own MPs. Nothing in the Treaty or Acts puts England and her MPs formally in charge of Scotland and her MPs, nor vice versa, and this is exactly why all decisions of the Union must be jointly agreed.
England’s MPs are not entitled to force their decisions on Scotland any more than Scots MPs can over England. The fact of the two sovereignties denies them both of such entitlement.
Those sovereignties didn’t go away, nor did either kingdom agree to the use of a simple flat majority vote that would allow England’s ten-fold majority to sabotage Scotland’s sovereignty while vastly enhancing England’s. Westminster’s English establishment insists on using that voting system, but it cannot be properly justified on constitutional grounds, nor on democratic grounds, given the equality of the two sovereignties involved.
Anyone arguing otherwise must point to the relevant parts of the Treaty and/or Acts, and explain how exactly Scotland’s sovereignty became subservient to England’s sovereignty, and why.
Xaracen, thanks for agreeing that independence is about democracy and explaining in some detail what that actually means.
It’s enough to say that “we in this country will run our own affairs” and if some are troubled by what is meant by “we”, very few will be troubled by what is meant by “this country”; most Unionists even agree that Scotland is a country.
Transitioning from a country to a legally recognised state should be very simple formality for a country like Scotland. The British State is the only obstacle.
It’s about democracy and self determination which are not just well established in international law, but enshrined in it; concepts of national identity and national culture, by comparison, are nebulous and aren’t very well defined or received anywhere.
Democracy is a much more powerful and simpler argument than nationalism because nearly everybody believes in democracy.
Andy Ellis…
Lovely piece of not answering my question but answering the one you’d have preferred me to ask – been watching HoC TV again have we?
The citizenship and status within the UK of EU citizens did not change post Brexit. They were not entitled to vote in the Brexit referendum as they were not being afforded the opportunity to surrender their EU citizenship, as were UK citizens, nor did their status within the UK change in the event of Leave or Remain winning the day – they were entitled to apply to stay in the UK should they wished and the same applied to UK citizens in the EU; life carried on regardless.
So yet again please explain what relevance any IndyRef2 is to those whose citizenship and status would remain unaltered irrespective of the outcome, and why should such individuals be permitted to vote IndyRef2 when it was perfectly acceptable for those in a similar position to be excluded from the Brexit referendum franchise?
Robert Hughes @ 22.48.
It remains to be seen what Mr Salmond’s tactics will be, Robert, I certainly don’t know them. However I have been told that he has a number of potential names lined up to use as a tagline to the Alba header. Amongst which, I understand is one relating to independents for an independent Scotland.
Both strategically and financially I would have thought that Alba would most likely refrain from splitting an independence vote in any one constituency. However, I’m no politician.
Hatuey @ 10.39
Sound * defence * of your view , H . I pretty much agree with all of what you say , above .
I’ve long mused on the – apparent – contradiction of being highly critical of the contemporary obsession with ” Identity ” , whilst promoting , or , at least , valuing * my/our * own ..ie the identity of being Scottish .
In the end – as you rightly say , they are all constructs , creations of human thought/imagination .
But then so is everything else .
I’m of the Mind ” precedes ” Material school of thought and believe incredible damage has been and still is being done by humankind getting that essential fact back to front ; elevating the Material to supreme Value at the expense of the * Mental * ; madly – and mistakenly – considering Mind in all it’s complex forms eg perception , memory, thought , imagination etc a mere epiphenomenon of the material brain . Cart before horse scenario . This is why all ideologies fail ; the reification of concepts .The attempt to render physical what is actually mental
In our times this is manifesting in the absurd literalising of ” Gender Identity ” – which – ironically – mirrors the biblical literalism of eg ” If thine eye offend thee , pluck it out ” now remixed as ” If thine penis/breasts offend thee , get them hacked off ” . Insane .
Bit of a tangent alert there 🙂
The point being … all concepts inc National/Ethnic Identities , Sovereignty , Democracy itself should not be held/clung to too tightly , being , in essence , phantoms ie constructs .
Still , none of that means they don’t have value , even if that value is itself another construct .
You rightly point-out that National Identities / Nation States are relatively new phenomena ; so what ? eg cars and computers are even more recent phenomena and we still use and value them , indeed , have given them a central position in our Societies
I think we can use National Identity as a vehicle to achieve – as you see it – the real point of Independence ie Democracy .
To use a Buddhist analogy …..Once a raft has been successfully used to reach a particular shore , there is no longer any need for it . No point lugging it across land .
One more thing , H . Admirable as it may be to factor it in ……I’m not too hung-up on what people who lived and died many years ago did to other people who lived and died many years ago – History is a charnel house , and few cultures have not contributed to the sum total of human misery . If you’re going to hold people alive today responsible for the ” sins of their fathers ” where will the line be drawn ?
Calling for actual eg financial reparations ( I know YOU aren’t saying this , H ) for events in the distant past is just another wrong-headed literalism . Reparation could only be ” Spiritual ”
The best way we could make peace with/amends for * our * violent actions in the past is NOT by allowing our distinctiveness to be erased in futile , self-lacerating , unproductive guilt , but by working towards eliminating violence in the present – and future .
@Ruby 6.20pm
I was hoping you could have voiced your opinions/knowledge of Alba’s women’s right policy.
Why would i feel any need to interact with you (of all people BTL here) at all, or specifically answer on topics that interest you?
Anyone with an internet connection can find out what Alba’s policy on women’s rights is. You sound kinda desperate for attention. Perhaps being a better person might make it more likely that people who aren’t utter roasters will give you the attention you seem to crave?
To subject me to abuse?
You definitely felt the need 9.30 a.m this morning.
It was your fellow Alba member who suggested I ask you about Alba policy being that you are a founder member
@Robertknight 1.50am
So yet again please explain what relevance any IndyRef2 is to those whose citizenship and status would remain unaltered irrespective of the outcome, and why should such individuals be permitted to vote IndyRef2 when it was perfectly acceptable for those in a similar position to be excluded from the Brexit referendum franchise?
As has been pointed out before, the reason those whose citizenship status would remain unaltered should be allowed to vote in any indyref is that it is the accepted precedent in the overwhelming majority of cases of similar votes since 1945.
Attempting to justify or use a franchise which was significantly different from that would have significant impacts, not just on the way people might vote in Scotland, but also on the prospects of gaining international recognition.
There is no good reason Scots can advance for being a special case in this regard. >80% of the population are native born Scots, we’re not in a colonial situation, however hard Alf Baird and others try to argue otherwise: it’s not Timor L’Este or New Caledonia. The UN don’t accept Scotland, Quebec or Catalonia as qualifying as non-self governing territories.
The brexit referendum and the Scottish independence referendum are two different things.
The probable citizenship criteria post independence were set out prior to indyref1 and seemed pretty standard when viewed along side the requirements in other nations like Ireland.
http://www.gov.scot/publications/independence-what-you-need-to-know/pages/citizenship/#:~:text=Automatic%20citizenship%3A%20you%20would%20be,five%20years%20as%20a%20child).
None of this is rocket science Robert: the fact nativist bigots want to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Scots residents because they lack the confidence or wit to make the case for independence doesn’t excuse their abandonment of civic nationalism.
@Ruby 10.01am
If I want to interact I will, if I don’t want to, I won’t. Seems a simple enough proposition even for you to grasp. Mostly I scroll straight past: the beauties of the red ignore function.
I’m not an Alba spokesperson. Their policies are available for everyone to consult online. I agree with them, and they’re one of the big reasons I support them and will never support a party that thinks TWAW.
Sure one can read the policies online but it’s always helpful to have them explained.
You say Alba do not believe TWAW but that isn’t true is it.
They believe if a doctor/psychiatrist diagnose gender dysphoria then TWAW.
They believe in the GRA 2004 which means they also believe in ‘self-id’
As a woman I find Alba very disappointing.
But hey they are mostly men and I don’t believe men can understand how woman feel.
That is a interesting statement.
The UN don’t except Scotland, Quebec or Catalonia as Qualifying As non self governing territories,
Then equally the UN don’t except England as Qualifying as a non self governing territory,
As the fallacious treaty of union That Create the Great-Britain parliament only has two non qualifying Countries in it.
Scotland and England.
Are you suggesting that England is Great-Britain,
As there are only two Countries, England and Scotland that are in the so called treaty of union that created Great-Britain.so therefore Scotland is a equal self governing Country as England.
Interesting summation, Robert Hughes. I think we substantially agree.
There’s an interesting book on this sort of stuff called “Imagined Communities” by a historian called Benedict Anderson. It’s one of those books we shove down kids’ throats in universities, but I’d put it amongst the 1% of books on history that are actually worth reading.
You say:
“You rightly point-out that National Identities / Nation States are relatively new phenomena ; so what ? eg cars and computers are even more recent phenomena and we still use and value them , indeed , have given them a central position in our Societies”
But we don’t look back at people 1000 years ago who had no concept or experience of cars and argue that they are an argument for cars today. By the same token, you can’t suppose people who in all likelihood were just struggling to get by back then, without any notion of Scottishness or nations, in some way represent the essence of Scottish character and culture now.
I think historians in the future will simply see nationalism as a construct that replaced monarchy and religion as a basis for organising and administering communities. It’s just as self-annihilating as monarchy and religion when you think about it, and requires the same sort of sacrifice of the self.
I wonder what impact the Internet is going to have on all this. The emphasis historians put on the printing press in terms of explaining major developments such as The Reformation encourages me to think the Internet will probably have a more profound impact and it may ultimately destroy nationalism and the nation state. I hope so.
Andy,
Indirectly you seem to be agreeing with me that Scotland is not part of the treaty of union and is therefore operated as a Colony of Great- Britain Westminster English parliament.
Either England and Scotland are in the same position as non governing territories or you consider Westminster parliament the parliament of England, and not the parliament of both Scotland and England,
Your statement that Scotland was in the same position as Catalonia, but removes England from being in the same legal position as Catalonia. Says more than is needed in how you view the Sovereign kingdom of Scotland compared to the Sovereign kingdom of England.
Andy Ellis.
I am interested in your summarisation as to why Scotland is in the same territorial non governing position as Catalonia,
And why you did not include England as a non self governing Country.
What legally in your mind is the difference between Scotland and England governance
Perhaps you could clarify your thoughts to the rest of us here if you know what your own statement actually means.
@James Che 11.51am
That’s over-reach on your part I’m afraid. I don’t recall agreeing with much or indeed any of your output before. I don’t share your passion for dissecting the minutiae of the Treaties of Union, nor do I think it’s particularly relevant to our current position. In particular, I don’t find your take on it at all convincing.
It’s simply a fact that the UN does not accept that Scotland is a non self governing territory. I’ve never heard anyone assert England is a colony, except carpet biting brexiteers frothing about being ruled by Brussels. Presumably if enough English people were that bothered about the union, or thought they’d be better off without the Scots, they’d arrange to end the union.
Ending the union is pretty simple. 50% + 1 of Scottish voters need to have the balls to put a cross on a piece of paper. Everything else is just details.
Andy Ellis said;
“>80% of the population are native born Scots, we’re not in a colonial situation, however hard Alf Baird and others try to argue otherwise”
We are in a colonial situation beyond sane doubt, given that our formal representatives are regularly
outvotedoverruled by the representatives of an entirely different foreign country, a country that literally owns NO actual formal authority over Scotland at all.Scotland agreed to delegate governance authority over itself to the new Union Parliament, it did not delegate it directly to England’s MPs! And England did exactly the same.
Both kingdoms also provided their delegated authority in the same manner, via a physical delegation of their own MPs to sit in their shared parliament to act as the formal representatives of their respective kingdoms, there to negotiate daily the governance of both kingdoms as sovereign equals. Nothing in the Treaty nor the ratifying Acts grants the country, kingdom, and nation of England, nor its MPs, any formal authority over Scotland, nor vice versa, and the fact of their two sovereignties renders the numerics of the two MP bodies completely irrelevant in any vote.
Thus, constitutionally and formally, there are only two voters in the House of Commons in any vote on a matter; Scotland, whose vote is indicated by majority vote of its own MPs, and England whose vote is indicated by majority vote of its MPs. ‘England’ includes Wales and Northern Ireland, both being part of England’s Kingdom, and neither being separately represented as sovereign equals as neither is sovereign, and neither were formal Principals of the Treaty of Union.
Being governed by a foreign kingdom that doesn’t have the formal constitutional right to do so is rock-solid evidence that we are in a colonial situation, and that is just one of several such indications, as Alf has been pointing out in depth. Despite its sovereign equality with England, Scotland is systematically deprived of agency in the Union’s parliament, while England exerts its agency over itself, Scotland, and the Union with feral glee.
Andy Ellis.
You seem confused over the treaty of union you believe in,
First of all, Scotland is not in a treaty of union with The Great- Britain parliament. Never was,
Nor is Scotland ever in a treaty of union with the United kingdom parliament,
Scotland was in a Treaty of Union with only the parliament and kingdom of England.
Until the Scottish parliament came under DISSOLUTION by a public proclamation under queen Anne.
Due to this Dissolution
That contractual agreement is now spent, obsolete, Ipso De facto for over three hundred years,
If any reality needs a check in the UN , is that Scotland and its territory have been a independent Country from the time Queen Anne dissolved and removed the 1707 Scottish parliament from any participation or responsibility for it members to sit in the Westminster parliament of England.
It rarely surprises me, that when getting down to nitty gritty details of the treaty of non union, that the details of history suddenly become old guff and not important enough to have faith in,
And yet….. you do beleive it is overall treaty of union, , you just don’t like hearing the truth, and “the whole truth.” So help me God, kinda truth.
You prefer the whitewash shortened version.
Xaracen @ 12:37 pm
“We are in a colonial situation beyond sane doubt.”
Aye, the colonial penny has noo drapped for maist Scots fowk; tho not yet for those still in denial who remain subject to the pathological ‘mindset’ resulting from colonialism:
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/03/03/the-colonial-mindset/
Andy Ellis,
The devils in the details.
The treaty of union you believe in is a fairy story for a child.
Xaracen,
Perhaps Westminster parliament has Colonised the treaty of union is due to the fact that it believes the following,
1)
Scottish parliament and its members thus it Constituents of Scotland was dissolved from being a participant in Westminster parliament.
2)
That the old Westminster parliament of Englands House of Lords is the same by transference with out elections in 1707 as the House of Lords in Westminster parliament today,
This is confirmed with the UK westminster parliament statement that the Scots are not in the treaty of union.
And that the Scottish parliament long since dissolved was no longer in the political parliamentary treaty of union with Westminster parliament of England.
And this is the position, the type of union that Andy Ellis is spouting, that Scotland is no longer a recognised Country, but a colonised Country of Westminster parliament and has no equal governance with England in Westminster parliament as the created parliament of great- Britain by Scotland and England.
Andy Ellis appears to be supporting our analyses that Westminster parliament has Colonised Scotland and made it a non governing Country in the treaty of union by colonising the treaty to itself.
Alf Baird,
As I mentioned to Xaracen and yourself in the past, Scotland has become a Colonised Country due to The Westminster parliament in England actually Colonising the treaty of union.
And Westminster parliament favours acting as the parliament of England over Great-Britain,
This can be evidence in the Anglo-Irish treaty 1800,
And the Anglo- American trade deal.
Here is old Westminster- English- parliament inter-looping, intertwined furthering itself, but also acting as the parliament of Great-Britain,
I am not surprised that unionist think of Westminster as one and the same “the parliament of England and Great-Britain” that Englands country government and kingdom has continued.
But Scotland did not. And was subsumed into Englands territory.
“concepts of national identity and national culture, by comparison, are nebulous and aren’t very well defined or received anywhere.
Democracy is a much more powerful and simpler argument than nationalism because nearly everybody believes in democracy.”
I’d say that is false. There are international laws regarding a population & their culture.
Who are they not received by? Only by colonisers who try their best to stamp it out & eradicate it.
As for democracy – that’s debatable. Unionists practically cheering on indyref2 being denied, permanently. All while trying to flog a poppy.
Or Corbyn removed despite public approval.
Heck, even P*tin with over 80% approval is a beast that needs a puppet regime instead.
Democracy in the West is a lie. Shameful really after the untold millions who gave their life for it & still are.
Robert Hughes: “Calling for actual eg financial reparations ( I know YOU aren’t saying this , H ) for events in the distant past is just another wrong-headed literalism . Reparation could only be ” Spiritual ””
I’ve been thinking about this and I think there is a good case for reparations since people alive in the west today who claim no responsibility for the sins of their fathers are quite happy to benefit from the sins of their fathers.
But I think it should be for the people of former colonies to decide, rather than us. From memory, I think the African Union made a demand of 700 trillion… and I believe Italy has paid reparations to former colonies for the damage caused. It’s a well established principle in international al relations, “war guilt”, etc.
Gadaffi (before he was murdered by us) talked about all this stuff in a famous speech. He said a lot of the immigrants heading to the west believed they were going to get the wealth and resources that had been stolen from them in the past, that they were following the money, so to speak…
I don’t think children should be punished for the sins of their fathers, but if your father stole money from your neighbour and gave it to you, I think the neighbour would be entitled to demand that you give it back.
It always boils down to vengeance for ‘generational trauma’.
HELP!
WTAF is everyone talking about?
@Hatuey 2.28pm
Are reparations due from the descendants of those African fathers who participated in and gained from the slave trade? How about the descendants of Arab and Turkish beneficiaries of the huge slave trade that existed historically in many muslim states? How about reparations for dalits in India for the oppression they suffered as a class?
I think it is possible to make a case for structural help for societies struggling with the long term impacts of chattel slavery, particularly in places like the Caribbean, parts of Africa and elsewhere but proceeding from there to actually setting up a system for deciding what form the “reparations” might take, how much they should be, who receives them, who administers any scheme agreed is quite an ask.
I doubt many people would trust the UN to do it, and many of those who need to benefit most live in failed states or under regimes where the benefits are likely to be subject to the same kind of misuse, corruption and simple failed projects that we often see in relation to a lot of supposed aid spending.
@Xaracen
We are in a colonial situation beyond sane doubt, given that our formal representatives are regularly outvoted overruled by the representatives of an entirely different foreign country, a country that literally owns NO actual formal authority over Scotland at all.
Nonsense. If Scots had wanted, or been capable of forcing, a kind of Austro-Hungarian 1867 ausgleich, either now or at any time in the past 300 years, then it’s up to them or their representatives to make it so. There was never any dubiety about the nature of relationship: all the parcel of rogues who signed up to the Treaties of union 300 years ago cared about was their own financial position, and ring fencing their religious bigotry and separate legal system from English interference.
Nobody sane cares about the woo-woo extra parliamentary routes to independence being advanced by various fringe groups. Achieving independence just requires convincing a majority to vote for it.
If the case that we were a colony were so rock solid, then it would be a breeze having the UN and other countries recognise the fact, but they just don’t because it’s arrant nonsense. If Scottish people and their representatives in Westminster and Holyrood aren’t happy with the current constitutional situation, they need to change it.
The only way anyone outside the UK, whether the UN, other international agencies or other countries, will take any note at all would be in the case of violent suppression, or flagrant abuse of power or suppression of moves toward internal self determination by a people like the Scots, Catalans or Quebecois who are currently part of larger nation states.
So, black is white, up is down, left is right.
Must be; #AskAndy says so.
Here’s today’s crossword clue;
the definition of a country that has to ask the country next door for permission to hold a referendum on its own future;
C_L_NY
Hatuey
In this instance I have to agree with Mr Ellis , above . He just gave all the reasons why I don’t think reparations are feasible – just before I was going to give much the same reasons .
I’d only add the example of Germany having to make reparations – estimated in the regions of 68 billion marks – after WW1 and in the process totally destroying it’s economy and sowing the seeds for the rise of Nazism . Not a great ( unintended ) outcome ; I’m sure you agree .
Just in case a certain person is unaware that Scottish representatives came under Dissolution along with their Scottish in 1707,
And legally having never been reinstated.
Scotland has not had representation or representative for over three hundred years,
A bit hard for them to be active in a independence cause for those three hundred years on behalf of Scotland.
And now we have a branch of the parliament of Englands Westminster parliament sent to Scotland under statues and legislation of Westminster parliament we have TWO parliaments of Westminster running and over-seeing the management of Scotland for Westminster.
Again inferring that Scotland has no representatives in Westminster parliament since 1707.
Lovely active Colonial stuff these two parliament of one united parliament.
Perhaps I should not have mentioned to you the articles of the treaty of union, Stating that here fore ever after there will be One- parliament in Great- Britain.
Opps the old guff of breaching the treaty does not count.
I noticed Andy you avoided and did not “define” why The Country and territory of Scotland was in the same political category as Catalonia,
But, why you never mentioned the Country of territory of England as being in the same political Category as Catalonia?
The whole truth and nothing but the truth and complete details of the old guff treaty of union as you call it is important,
After all the treaty of union did not magically appear out of thin air just for Westminster parliament by itself,
Nor some of the details become to unreadable an faded because of sunshine or someone spilling a ancient cuppa over the print,
If you make a vague arm waving Statement about Scotland being in the same category as Catalonia,
but do not politically consider the rest of Great- Britain under that same heading, explain yourself. Explain how you worked that one out,
Cos at the moment I feel that your arm waving might be talking dictatorial rubbish over Scots in their territory of Scotland.
James,
He certainly has a un- controlled mish-mash version of what or how the political parliamentary treaty of union is supposed to be in-acted, left is right, down is up and Scotland was subsumed into Westminsters parliaments/Great- Britains version of Spain over Catalonia,
It is indeed a jumbled mess of conflicting truths of Andy Ellis headology.
@James 4.16pm
Either Scots grow a pair and hold a referendum irrespective of what Westminster says (as it was reported Salmond was minded to do before #indyref1 if Cameron hadn’t caved in and signed the Edinburgh Agreement basically giving Salmond everything he wanted) and see if a Yes vote resulting from such a referendum is recognised internationally, or we abandon referendums as a route and rely on plebiscitary elections.
I’m in favour of the latter.
We can’t oblige Westminster to do our bidding. As folk on here never tire of pointing out, we’re outnumbered around 10 to 1 in Westminster. Even the late and unlamented leaderene Thatcher in her oft misquoted remark that the Scots were perfectly entitled to independence if that’s what we wanted, and that they wouldn’t stand in our way if the majority wanted it. S
he was careful however to caveat it in terms that said our undoubted right to self determination didn’t entitle us to dictate what kind of devolutionary settlement short of independence we wanted Westminster to agree to. Much as i hated everything Thatcher stood for, I don’t really see the issue with that. After all, Scots or Welsh people wouldn’t take kindly to Westminster giving preferential treatment to the people of Yorkshire, or Cornwall in terms of any devolutionary powers.
If we as a people want real change within the UK, then it stands to reason that it has to be agreed within the UK. If we want independence, then that’s a matter for us: Westminster doesn’t have a veto, and it doesn’t have a say, but that also doesn’t mean that our right to self determination is absolute or unlimited.
UDI in the current international system is very difficult to achieve: just ask those who have tried it from time to time. there’s no point raging against the machine, or insisting we’re hard done by, or colonised, or being badly treated: the rest of the world doesn’t believe us, they just think we lack the balls to put an X on a ballot paper.
@Andy Ellis;
It’s not nonsense, England has NO formal authority over Scotland, and Scotland’s MPs have no business accepting the English establishment’s word for it that they do, but they are also hampered by the fact that England’s legal establishment, including Tony Blair’s Supreme Court, itself a direct breach of the Treaty, has ruled that Westminster has complete sovereignty over all of the Union.
And that is true as far as it goes, but its analysis completely ignores that England’s MPs do not embody the full sovereignty of the Westminster parliament on their own; they can only embody the sovereignty of the English half of the Union, and none at all of the Scottish half of the Union. It is only the Scots MPs who wield the Scottish half of Westminster’s overall sovereignty, and if they vote a bill down, they are withholding Scotland’s sovereignty from the Parliament, so that the Parliament cannot pass the bill as a Union bill because the Union’s two representations of the two distinct halves of its sovereignty didn’t agree to it.
With only two separate and distinct owners of sovereignty in the Union and represented as such in its parliament, the only possible majority is two agreeing to pass a bill, or two declining to pass the bill. If there is a stand-off, the bill must fail anyway, there being no majority to pass it.
The Supreme Court cannot legitimately assert that England’s MPs alone can pass Union legislation, without presuming that England’s MPs also hold sovereignty over Scotland despite the Scots MPs being Scotland’s sole representation in that Parliament.
As I said, nothing in the Treaty or Acts asserts that Scotland delegated its governance authority to England or to England’s MPs, and any analysis that claims otherwise is inept or dishonest or both.
How about reparations for still existing Colonies.
As ” James” above has points out indirectly, Scotland is still asking a Colonial master for its right to be free to self determination, And the head Colonial Master Race of Westminster keeps saying No.
Scotland and its nation are not free to leave until we your masters say so.
Colonialism in Great-Britain is alive and well.
Pfft! Ancient Guff chatter… But what about reparations for modern slavery of big corporates (with the assistance of governments) paying staff minimum wage which is below living wage.
@James Che
You trying to school me on the constitutional position of Scotland and the applicability of the treaties of Union to anything happening today is just too funny, sorry.
Nobody pays your interminable ramblings in here the slightest notice. You have no understanding of, or qualifications in, the subjects you drone on about at excruciating and barely literate length.
Nobody abroad cares about the Treaties of Union or 300 year old Scottish and British history. Self determination in the modern context has SFA to do with the minutiae of what a bunch of aristos and anti Catholic bigots from the 18th century thought was a good for their pockets.
The intellectual hinter ground of your contributions is as weak as your ability to adequately back them up with evidence or to set them out with any clarity.
Wow! It’s the Battle of the Titans.
James Che v Andy Ellis. 🙂
Lots of good material here for my story
‘The Pub than went online’
James Che wins Ancient Guff Quizz Night.
Andy Ellis is ancient but not so good with the ‘Ancient Guff’
This forum is fantastic!
Really inspiring.
Robert Hughes, the problem with Ellis’s argument (which you agree with) is that it is Ellis that is making it. It’s not for privileged westerners to dictate where justice begins and ends. From the perspective of the victims, it will be of little surprise that the perpetrator countries and their beneficiaries of historical crimes (us) do not wish to discuss compensation.
The WWI reparations represent just one example. I believe Germany is still paying reparations to survivors of the holocaust to this day… and I’ve just read that in total German has paid them 80 billion euros since the end of the war. Italy, which I mentioned earlier, has paid 5 billion Euros to Libya as a measure of compensation for its colonial crimes dating back to 1911.
In Scotland just recently, the Scottish government along with involved parties agreed on compensation for children brought up in care homes going back to the 1940s. Glasgow University has paid reparations of around 20 million in order to atone for benefitting from the slave trade. It’s the same, well-established principle. If there is to be a cut-off point or a limit on how far back lawyers are allowed to go, I’m not aware of it.
And it’s not as if we need to go back that far. Britain was still conducting brutal imperialist wars in places like Kenya, Yemen, and elsewhere right into the 1960s. Belgium built human zoos complete with simulated African villages (and Africans living in them) in 1958 (apparently in celebration of a “World Fair”).
These are complicated matters and it would be impossible to account for every penny or put a price on the pain and misery, but who could deny that countries like India have been severely hamstrung in terms of economic development by their colonial experiences? India accounted for about 30% of global economic production in 1700. By 1947, when Britain withdrew, its proportion of global production (by then measured as GDP) was down to about 2%.
It isn’t a coincidence that most former colonies are relatively poor and underdeveloped in places like Africa. Closer to home, the same can be said of Ireland which was one of Britain’s first colonies — Europeans couldn’t believe how backward and underdeveloped Ireland was when it joined the EEC in 1973, and it was only through systematic grants and the investment billions year on year that the country recovered.
Ultimately, it’s for the victims to decide if reparations are in order, not us.