Wings Over Scotland

I’m going to the NOW Scotland assembly today , hopefully to discuss and promote The Manifesto For Indy, the quickest and simplest way of restoring Scotland’s Independence, reversing the damage inflicted by Brexit, and getting international recognition right away.

NOW Scotland’s key goal is “Independence as soon as possible” reflecting the “What do we want? Independence, When do we want it ? NOW” cries (seems such a long time ago – marches) – Manifesto For Indy delivers on Independence Now.

I’d like to introduce the concept of – what happens if the SNP do not get into power this Holyrood term?

Well, the Unionists would have to form some form of coalition Government.

And then what?

They they would have to Govern.

And then what?

They would have to Govern over the next 4 years, as Brexit truely takes a hold, and as genuine powers in Holyrood are stripped from Scotland.

So?

So, they would be left holding the Baby, and the public would hold them to account, as apposed to the SNP remaining in power, but with less ability to effect change, being the useful whipping boy for the press to blame.

And? And an opposition party has much more scope to protest and campaign than a governing party.

And? And an election defeat for the SNP, might just about be the only way of removing Nicla and hubby from the SNP, getting the auditors in to clean up and putting the wheels back on. A defeated party is much less attractive to raging personality disorder carpet baggers.

But… But they will say a defeat for the SNP means there is no more demand for Indy.

Well they can say that all they want, it won’t make it true, and it might even lull some of them into a false sense of security.

If it were done…

Mark Boyle says:
21 March, 2021 at 9:57 am
For the vast majority of ordinary people, it means heehaw difference when both end up being controlled by troughers only interested in lining their own pockets at their peoples’ expense.

That’s the tragedy.

Reply

“Is five more years of the same better or worse than five years of direct rule from Westminster for independence supporters”

When I say ‘direct rule from Westminster’ I mean having one of ‘the branch offices’ in power at Holyrood.

Would one of the branch offices be better than the other?

Ross Thomson was an interesting case. I remember him as being one of the better MSP’s. He went to Westminster and was set-up on some bogus charge of sexual mis-conduct. He lost his livlihood, as has Mark McDonald, as has Alex Salmond. Is this just the way politics is in Scotland nowadays. Can nothing be done about this? If they don’t like you, they are free to tarnish your reputation for ever and none of can do anything about it?

In the meantime, the real tools of the Junta like Swinney and Dornan just sail on and no-one can touch them?

If you want the meagerest shot of either an independence ref. or more seats eaten up by Scottish arses rather than Tory’s or labourites or even tree hugging greens.
I suggest you vote 1 for SNP and 1 for another ACTION FOR INDEPENDENCE.
Anyone with half a brain should understand the voting game in Scotland. Instead of whinging on about the mess Scottish politics is in lets all think of how to save our country from Westmonster, Buggering Battered Children/BBC, politicians with hitler genes, and our own incompetent crown office that needs spring cleaned and most importantly ,
NUCLEAR FKN WEAPONS SITTING ON OUR WESTCOAST.
and FFS! stop going on aboot Robert the Bruce and William Wallace shite. we already celebrate an idiot that didn’t and couldn’t blow up parliament by handing out explosives to the public? this world is NUTS!
Then we can sort out these blundering fools we have as our country’s representatives. one thing at a time, please?

Daisy Walker says:
They would have to Govern over the next 4 years, as Brexit truely takes a hold, and as genuine powers in Holyrood are stripped from Scotland.

So?

So, they would be left holding the Baby, and the public would hold them to account, as apposed to the SNP remaining in power, but with less ability to effect change, being the useful whipping boy for the press to blame.

Reply

Why not have the SNP left holding the Baby?
Let them be the useful whipping boy for the press to blame.

Get rid of them that way?

Five years to form a new independence party.

It seems clear by now that no-one in the lower echelons of the SNP MSPs is going to stand up and call out the leadership.
Who can we vote for without getting more of the same? RSC (that’s the Rev., not the Royal Shakespeare Company) is correct in saying that this vote is the only opportunity we have to exercise power and call them to account. It would be nice to think that the rot doesn’t extend down the whole party, but there is currently no indication of where it stops.
Even in the face of the evidence, no-one is breaking rank. They must be terrified, like rabbits in the car headlights,but unable to speak or move to avert the oncoming disaster.

Bogus charges of sexual misconduct ?
You know this to be a certainty how, Yossarian?
Spouting what you believe is not the same as listing facts. A fact is something proven to be correct, not this is what I think so it’s the truth.

In my opinion sexual misconduct has become more prevalent now not because there is necessarily more of it going on. People are more likely to come forward,

So many people on here are missing the point. There will NEVER be independence under Sturgeon. She will dangle the hypocritical carrot again as always but independence is the last thing that she and her nasty corrupt group actually want. Do you want to be here again in 5 years, most likely in a weaker position than we are now with all alternative media such as Wings suppressed?

If you truly want independence then voting against the SNP is not really voting for another party, it is taking the only practical route we have which is to rid Scotland of Sturgeon as quickly as possible and start again.

Mike Russell on the Sunday Show falsely claiming that Sturgeon answered every single question put to her by the committee, when the truth of the matter is she didn’t answer at least on fifty occasions, choosing to say I can’t recall, I don’t know, I can’t say etc.

We’ve nothing to loose Rev and mibbi everything to gain.
I like the concept of NOW Scotland and the potential of it.
We saw in the past how the Constitional Convention and the Claim of Right moved things forwards.
They were outside of the political party’s but they had power and influence because they were of and from the people.
It’s undeniable that organisations who speak on behalf of thousands of members are listened to, and it’s well past time the Yes movement spoke for itself .
It’s didn’t matter when we marched who else was there we were just glad they were.
And it can’t possibly matter who the other members are when the only meaning of the membership is that Scotland being independent is the point.
I’m looking forwards to this afternoons assembly as finally after one bloody long year being able to do something …. and I’ll be looking to see if there’s anything I can bring to the table too!

Kezia on BBC R4 this morning in review of papers said that the AS complainers were interviewed in private, by the Committee, at Holyrood last week. Wonder if they got any truthful answers from them.
She then went on to say that they had been asked to … tie his shoelaces, straighten his tie and brush dandruff off his collar.
Unsure why she revealed this ‘private’ information and none of that sounds like sexual harassment to me – more like ensuring that the then FM was well turned out. Anyone employed at that level would know that is standard presentation for ‘important people’.
She was cut off by the interviewer reminding us all that AS was cleared of all charges in Court.
That was the extent of her political insight on this ‘most important election’ in the history of Holyrood to date.

@John – It has been investigated and found to be untrue. Just as Alex Salmond’s case was foun to be untrue. You don’t get sent to Barlinnie for pinging someone’s hair. Check the facts for youself. It’s Sunday, so you have some time to do it.

Whatever else is the case, and I am undecided as to precisely how to vote on each vote at present, but how can a vote (for any party btw) NOT be a vote to endorse past behaviour and all future prospective policies?

We all have reasons why we vote a particular way, but we won’t be consulted afterwards when it is interpreted in the way that the winners see fit (which may be as an endorsement of past behaviour and for particular policies on a platform which were not the ones you chiefly voted to get).

Are current SNP MSPs ‘rabbits in the headlights’?

Or are they ‘wheeshting for indy’ and planning to get their arse kicking boots on come May 6th?

I only know one list candidate personally, and on that basis, reading between the lines, I would say they are maybe wheeshting and looking their boots out.

(If any MSPs ARE looking their boots out for post May 6th and if you are reading this, ffs drop us a hint – the Wings et al camp represents a sizeable chunk of the electorate. Perhaps we could have a codeword on Twitter? I suggest ‘kicker’)

I have no evidence at present though, nor any huge hope, so Stu is right to call me out on it.

What I do believe is that the Grassroots have the tools for holding an SNP government to account, and the moral right – nay, the moral imperative – to do so.

We are on much shakier ground if we allow Unionists to assume control. There will be deemed to be ‘no appetite’.

A Unionist SG could spend 5 years dismantling all the progress we have made or, worse, stand by while devolution is dismantled and Westminster put mechanisms in place to make further secessionist dissent illegal.

There are no good options, just less bad options.

I’m not voting for the SNP at all and I’ve only voted SNP and been a member all my adult life and the reason for this is simply because of the treatment of Alex Salmond and these constant attacks on his charter and the fact that Sturgeon has come across as a arrogant and vindictive woman doesn’t sit well with me so If Sturgeon resigned I would be willingly give the SNP my 1st vote and 2nd vote to the ISP in order to secure our departure from the UK, and another reason Sturgeon has got under my skin is she has made NO effort to remove us from UK and has made NO effort to keep us in the EU.

@PhilM says: 21 March, 2021 at 10:21 am

“There’s actually one other current SWP or certainly ex-SWP member on the inaugural committee.

FWIW the SWP have pretty good campaigning chops…it depends whether you think the possible good outweighs the possible bad but you won’t know for sure unless you (meaning anybody at all) get involved.”

The SWP are beyond evil – they are little more than a “network marketing” scam aimed at fleecing anyone of a left wing persuasion, invented for people who want to spend their entire life as “student politicians” and so behave as a heavily brochialist bully boy (and girl) squadristi in a permanent state of fund raising for this week’s “cause” in order to keep full time regional officers employed as well as those at HQ (eg. the SWP employs six full time staff for Scotland).

They’re modelled identically to the 1970s Tyndall/Webster NF, except on steroids. Continuous fundraising, an endless series of “urgent” causes, confrontationalism, and lots of physical intimidation of opponents – including, for example, an assault on Gaelic poet Kenneth C Steven in his younger days at Glasgow Uni for being a “Tory bastard” (ie. wearing an SNP badge!).

This is par for their course. Ask Alan Bleasdale about the intimidation he and the actors received when filming “GBH” from SWP thugs appearing during filming to “make sure you don’t make the left look bad” – as he said, without them showing the slightest irony.

Just remember, these are the people who brought you not only Comrade Delta, but also Aamar Anwar – convicted of assualting a Glasgow University Queen Margaret Union board member on his last day there as a student when he decided to go back to the QMU to settle “old scores” (ie. daring to ban him for flyposting without permission – gasp!) amongst a litany of other offences down the years which appears to have been conveniently “forgotten” by the Scottish press.

If you want to know why “broad churches” fail, look to the SWP. If you want to know why the left continually makes idiots of itself just before elections and hands its opponents all the ammunition it needs, look to the SWP. The SWP needs the left to be in a constant state of “being in opposition” to those in power in order to exist, it’s what its funding model relies on. They have no qualms at sabotaging “allies” for the greater “cause” (ie. keeping things just as they are and their money streams flowing).

The SWP are not Scottish nationalism’s friends any more than they were Labour’s when they thought they could be their own “deniable asset” little brownshirt brigade to carry out “persuasion” on opponents, and soon found like Michael York in “Caberet” asking “you still think you can control them?”

David Davis, if Sturgeon sets the Crown Office on me and Police Scotland show up at my door, they’ll get a cup of tea and a biscuit but that’s all.

Meanwhile the SNP and the Scottish government are in full propaganda mode trying to discredit the committee’s findings which they don’t like.

What a corrupt little tinpot British colony Scotland has become under Sturgeon.

If you manage to go abroad this year, you’d better not mention that you come from Scotland, or the reply will be ah, that corrupt wee country.

link to archive.is

Another approach: vote the SNP in, even though they be a Gang o’ Bastards. Then get rid of the gang using the courts. There is no political or procedural way to do this, only the courts. Besides, they deserve to be in prison.

A sample of charges that might be brought: malicious prosection against the Lord Advocate (he has form). Conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, against most of them. Embezzlement. Other charges would doubtless apply.

Once convicted and gaoled, and the cheering is over, there would be by-elections. There would need to be some solid public figures willing to not only stand, but take sides during the prosecution process. So those responsible for taking such a plan forward would need to be attractive to voters and put their heads above the parapets early on.

It could well work, and the result is worth working towards.

No Covid pandemic stops an election for Holyrood colonial administrator parasite politicians.

Vote for Independence? Don’t you know there’s a Covid pandemic !!!

You’ll need to wait for that (forever).

John @ 10:27
Therefore In your opinion
Alex Salmond
Despite being found innocent of all charges against him is still guilty, so your umbrage about the term bogus is wrong in my opinion , the effort and resources employed to imprison one man was by far the most expensive and wide ranging police action in Scotland ever undertaken , it was without equal even in murder investigations , and still no conviction , Aye Bogus was spot on IMHO .

I think we all know that the SNP are scum and need to be punished.

Here’s my suggestion:

Vote SNP

To see them handling the post Brexit/post Covid, post Lockdown, post inquiry protests and perhaps worse.

The next five years will not be pleasant for the party in charge at Holyrood.

By the end of the five years the SNP will be finished.
Independence supporting protesters can help this along.

During these five years other independence supporting parties can built up support, recruit members etc get themselves ready for the 2026 election.

Groups like ‘Now Scotland’ etc can built up support for independence.

Voting for a Unionist Party or not voting SNP (same thing) wouldn’t mean punishment for the SNP it would mean punishment for YOU!

May will be a least-worst election.

Unionists will take a vote for them as endorsement to strip Holyrood of powers.

The SNP will take a vote for them as an endorsement of corruption and authoritarianism.

Even if you don’t want either. So you have to then ask yourself – what is my least-worst outcome?

Mark Boyle says:
21 March, 2021 at 9:18 am

“Sorry, but won’t be having anything to do with Now Scotland so long as it has Charlotte Ahmed of the Socialist Workers Party as one of those running it.”

I have to simply agree with this viewpoint. The SWP is a step too far on my very long political journey which began in 1965, the year when I first could vote.

I have chopped and changed over the years. Why?

“When the facts change, I may change my mind.”

But I will now, never *ever* have anything to do with, or support in any way, a far-left Party like the SWP.
I take this stance from very personal knowledge and personal experience.

link to archive.is

Police Scotland spent almost £850k and 14 officers investigating Alex Salmond

Whichever way you vote, it seems to me that we are at the beginning of people forming independence groups in opposition to the useless and now corrupt SNP. It’s a small start, but it badly needed and will grow over time. The SNP have set us back massively, but the only option is going forward with people who are trustworthy and committed.

“Craig P says:
21 March, 2021 at 11:19 am
May will be a least-worst election.

Unionists will take a vote for them as endorsement to strip Holyrood of powers.

The SNP will take a vote for them as an endorsement of corruption and authoritarianism.”

A real frying pan/fire election.

Craig Murray says:

I would recommend people to vote for any decent Independence supporting candidate. I would vote for Michelle Thomson in Falkirk, for example, with no hesitation. In Edinburgh Central I would vote for Bonnie Prince Bob.

Reply

How long would you expect ‘decent Independence supporting candidates’ to remain in the SNP?

Correction: build not built in earlier post.

Ruby says:
21 March, 2021 at 11:23 am

“https://archive.is/FcTEn
Police Scotland spent almost £850k and 14 officers investigating Alex Salmond”

Yet another insight into what actually happened:

“First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s most senior civil servant Leslie Evans triggered the investigation when she reported internal Scottish Government harassment allegations involving Salmond to prosecutors, against the will of the women involved.”

Remember: *AGAINST THE WILL OF THE WOMEN INVOLVED*.

But Leslie Evans, an obvious legal expert (NOT) decided – “She balanced their objections with the “potential criminality” when she told the Crown Office in 2018.”

Good old Leslie, eh? Instead of being a senior civil servant for the FM, why was “Inspector” Leslie not moved to the Procurator Fiscal department where her knowledge of “potential criminality” may have been appreciated. Or maybe not.

To heck with the wishes of the complainers.
Leslie decides that she knows best as to how this mess will be carried forward.
Did Leslie really and truly decide this matter on her own?

Really? Really? Really?

There are now not just chickens coming home to roost, but take a swift glance at the roof of Bute House and you will likely see many vultures flocking there. To me, they are very, very welcome. Let us hope that these vultures of the MSM finally grow some b@lls or feathers even, and go wild at picking on the bones of this whole sordid mess.

Does anyone have url for the NowScotland session? Tying meself in knots here…

@Vronsky –

I just got it – go to this page and click on ‘checkout’

https://www.nowscotland.scot

John says:
21 March, 2021 at 10:27 am
“In my opinion sexual misconduct has become more prevalent now not because there is necessarily more of it going on. People are more likely to come forward”

No, it’s because people no longer seem to be able to distinguish between normal social interaction and actual sexual assault. Funny how it seems to be more likely interpreted as sexual assault when it come from someone the “victim” doesn’t fancy but would be considered flattery if they did.

click on ‘checkout’

There’s no ‘checkout’ to click on

@craigmurray

You mean Michelle Thomson who made her money buying houses from people in financial distress for under value and then engaging in what can only be termed mortgage fraud?

Her solicitor was struck off for that and as a lawyer myself i can tell you I don’t know a single solicitor who would do what he did without client instructions. How she wasn’t jailed is beyond me. I wouldn’t touch her with a barge pole. Theo whole thing stank to high heaven.

Click on the Now Scotland logo above.

It takes you to the checkout. Click on the checkout button.

Sign up on the next page and it takes you to the event.

Click on live stage and you see the speakers.

Enjoy the discussion.

It’s interesting that just a couple of weeks ago the debate on here and elsewhere was about who our second votes should go to. Today we see heated debates on where first votes should go.

For me that’s progress. Those who disagree will acknowledge the situation is at least fluid and that the they’re losing the argument.

We can expect the situation to change further. By Friday, I expect the settled view will be “No Votes SNP”.

I respectfully disagree with Craig Murray’s suggestion that we vote for good independence supporting politicians, regardless of party.

This election isn’t about independence. We have Nicola and the SNP to thank for that. I say we thank them at the ballot box.

The situation will continue to develop. Its natural conclusion, based on a simple grasp of political ballistics, is “anyone that stands for election under an SNP banner is the enemy of independence and justice…”

If you’re part of the problem, you’re not part of the solution.

Hatuey says:
21 March, 2021 at 12:42 pm
It’s interesting that just a couple of weeks ago the debate on here and elsewhere was about who our second votes should go to. Today we see heated debates on where first votes should go.

For me that’s progress. Those who disagree will acknowledge the situation is at least fluid and that the they’re losing the argument.

It’s right and proper that the discussion on first votes is had, but clearly the constituency voting options are much more limited than the list voting options. That’s unavoidable. That’s the frying pan/fire element here.

I suspect this week a lot of people will have a better idea of what to do, particularly after the Hamilton inquiry publishes its findings and if they are not favourable for Sturgeon.

Sturgeon resigns plus a load of civil servants go too, it may be easier to consider holding the nose for the SNP first vote.

Sturgeon makes it a “well let’s leave it to the people to see what they think” then it will be (in my view anyway) impossible to vote for the SNP if that’s going to be taken as endorsement of her rather than endorsement for independence.

@PhilM says: 21 March, 2021 at 12:13 pm

“@Mark Boyle I’m not sure I have any real insight into the background history you’re describing or how just the comparisons are with the NF.”

The SWP were originally called the International Socialists. They changed their name as part of an abrupt rebrand because they knew “World In Action” were investigating organised football hooligans by the far left and far right as part of an even more moronic by their standards “strategy” of “controlling the streets by first controlling the football terraces” (a reworking of the old Nazi and Trotskyite opposition to football in their early days because it distracted the working classes from wanting to have revolutions on Saturdays instead … no, really!).

“So up pops a body called Now Scotland and there are two SWP types on the inaugural committee – does that taint the Now Scotland beyond repair?”

Yes. It only takes a small virus to kill.

“… if actual involvement and campaigning was a person’s level of engagement, it might be better to join and be a countervailing influence against the SWP lot.”

And when you get a good kicking outside from your new “comrades” for daring to disagree with their Rotfuhrer at the meeting, don’t come crying to the rest of us. They’re the leopard that never changes its spots. All history, all evidence shows that you cannot work with them, they should always be proscribed. It’s part of being an SWPer that they are told to subvert any organisation (especially one raising funds) to the “Central Committee”‘s whims.

Alexie Sayle’s old joke “How many Socialist Workers does it take to change a light bulb? They wouldn’t change the light bulb, they’d SMASH IT!” was spot on. The SWP is nothing more than a bully boy gang, either for people who were bullied at school wanting to get their own back on the world, brainless morons using political activity as an excuse for barefaced thuggery, and spoilt trust fund kids having their “rebellious” phase at everyone else’s expense.

But let’s illustrate what the SWP are really all about with one of their own pictures:

Look at the little hate goblin – face all contorted with her self-righteous wish to commit physical violence against this week’s “enemies”, much like the witchhunt mobs of old appealing to base instincts. Now look at the coffee cup she’s holding. Yep, she’s protesting outside Tesco for using unpaid labour c/o government “back to work” schemes, whilst happily buying from a chain that was doing the same. This is the SWP in its entirity: the old fascist “Believe, Obey, Fight!” according to what they’re told to do – and their members don’t give a damn, because it’s all about the thrill of how many times they get to put their jackboots on other’s necks.

These people are never, ever, your friends or allies.

And for those who think the Comrade Delta affair doesn’t matter:

link to theguardian.com

I guess the painful choice is the constituency vote. Although I’ve only ever voted SNP I cannot bring myself to vote for them until there is a change of leadership (cancelled my membership a few months back over that point).
We will never get independence with the Murrell’s in charge and the longer they are in power the more they are undermining what little devolution we have along the way.

For me its either no vote or a tactical vote against the SNP, if it looks like the SNP are heading for a majority I’ll vote tactically against them.

It feels like the the Murrell’s have everything stacked in their favour (i.e. COPFS) and a very loyal and unquestioning fan base (Reading WGD BTL makes that very clear). Lets hope there are enough people that have been paying attention and get independence back on track again.

o/t
Lurkers replies

Capella you ask or you inquire what has Princess Nicola done to attract all this flack , are you fkn serious ? Are you totally bleeding blind deaf and fkn stupid ? Rhetorical by the way .

As for the other clowns in the we are with Nicola gang it’s one thing sticking by someone but being blind and not taking seriously information that’s been presented in black and white by trusted people who haven’t been bought bribed or threatened by this SNP government and proof of confirmation of wrongdoing that’s been uncovered,

That says more about your character and your assessment of Nicola sturgeons ability to tell the truth you like a whole lot of other people have been had she is no more pushing for independence than my budgie , if you are so convinced show us the evidence , just one example, just one .

If the SNP suffer seriously enough, the Blackford mob will be crapping it in a couple of years. Then we will get another load of false promises.

Unless the inquiry produces enough criticism or Hamilton finds her guilty, she won’t go. A VONC will be scuppered by the Greens. Harvie has already rubbished the inquiry. If she wins in May he’s looking for a cabinet post. All these internal mechanisms and machinations are grist to her mill.

I wrote some time ago I thought it would come down to us plebs to deal with it and it’s looking that way. The discussion today with how we do it is the heart of the matter. Is it max the SNP1 to get as many indy folks in on the list and challenge her that way over the next 5 years? Or is it the nuclear option of “voting best challenger by constituency 1” to oust them and get a coalition minus SNP running the country?
Coverage in the MSM has been very limited on the sheer scale of corruption in our country at the moment. Even the leak from the committee causing the stushie is small potatoes.

Polls suggest if she doesn’t go SNP will have some form of majority in terms of seats. This for me is the dilemma between the 2 options I posit. Are there enough small majority constituencies where the SNP MSP can be defeated by tactical voting, say less than a 1000? I don’t live in one of those. Only that way can a non SNP Government be formed and Sturgeon gone.

On balance I’m still going for the nuclear option and cross my fingers, locally. Re-election of her is an endorsement of all she’s done. That simply cannot stand.

Don’t confuse this re Independence. 50%+ in Scotland still believe in it. When your eyes open to it, they never shut. This election is about much more than that, at the moment.

Our freedom will just take longer than it should have, that’s all.

Solar, the situation for Sturgeon is such that even if Hamilton absolves her, it will spur a surge of opposition to her and the SNP. She and the SNP are dammed either way.

We’ve seen these predicaments before. Look at the collapse in support for Swinson in 2019. Look at Scottish Labour’s decline. There’s countless other examples. There’s an invisible line that’s crossed, beyond which no change of people or policy will arrest the decline.

A few weeks or months ago it might have been possible to rehabilitate the SNP. With a new leader and some deep cleaning of the stables, things could be very different today. That isn’t an option now.

Once you understand that the SNP is screwed either way, a toxic and tainted brand, you free your mind up to assess the situation without emotion.

It isn’t fanciful to imagine a massive collapse in SNP support between now and the election. By massive I mean unprecedented in scale and pace — cataclysmic.

Just a point: I am represented by perhaps the most forensic MSP at Holyrood. There are one ot two others who are well regarded, but I think we could almost all agree that she is the best of them.

Seven years ago I reported that a school under construction was being built wrongly and would not work. A mistake had been made and it would be best to correct it now. I reported that to Scotgov and their private sector lawyers. They all told me I was wrong.

I therefore asked others for their opinions, worldwide experts this time, and I received more than 40No responses. They all agreed with me. The school will not work….”get it fixed quickly.”

That was 3 years ago. During that 3-years I have repeatedly asked all at Holyrood to “check this school professionally”, but no-one answers. Get it checked by the “Health and Safety Executive,” no-one responds to that either.

The First Minister responds, often, by saying that she will respond formally soon, but she never does.

I believe that Holyrood shuts-up shop in mid-week and so is she trying to dodge this for another year? I wonder.

As you would expect, not only all at Holyrood are aware of this, but all the folk you would expect to be informed of the safety, or lack thereof, of a school.

In the UK, only Unionist politicians assert national sovereignty.

So don’t vote SNP
Don’t vote for Craig Murray
Don’t vote for Bonnie Prince Bob

… apart from Anas Sarwar, can anyone on here tell me who we SHOULD vote for?

“ScotsRenewables says:
21 March, 2021 at 1:47 pm
So don’t vote SNP
Don’t vote for Craig Murray
Don’t vote for Bonnie Prince Bob

… apart from Anas Sarwar, can anyone on here tell me who we SHOULD vote for?”

The frying pan/fire election in a nutshell…

Constituency – I might make a decision on that by the end of the coming week, but can’t honestly say I have a clue yet.
List – either ISP or AFI, but no clue there either whom is the better option.

Most underwhelming choice for some time. Sigh.

You know, some people close to me ask, “Willie, how can you *not* vote SNP in May?”

I simply try to explain to them some things I have learned over more than 60 years being involved in politics and political discussions. Unfortunately, discussions are few and far between these days when it is all laid out as: “If you’re not for us, you are against us!”

Life and politics was not always like that. I wonder if civil discourse will ever return to the past times when a group of people with widely differing political views could meet up in the likes of their Local and have frank, sometimes heated discussions, but at the end of the day it was always,
“Aye weel, I dinnae agree with ye but I’ll see you next week in here again.”

It was kind of like our own little personal “Question Time”.
Ask away, any single subject you can think of. Ask the panel – a half dozen worthies standing around the bar – and then listen, argue, make your point, possibly accept someone elses point, then leave at the end of the night, possibly enlightened, possibly disappointed, but *NEVER EVER* with the thought of,
“I’ll get that barsteward next week! Him and his SNP/Tories/Socialists/etc., way of thinking, I *WILL* prove him wrong!”
We went home, went to work for another week and had another proper discussion the following week.
Life is not like that now. Voice your political opinion if you dare but be sure that you are in safe and sympathetic surroundings before you ever dare open your mouth.

Getting back to my opening line: “Willie, how can you *not* vote SNP in May?”

A blunt, short, truthful answer is:
The SNP reminds me of the old Soviet Russia!
“What do you mean?” they cry, disgusted at my comparison.

Well, in my younger days, there would often appear in the daily newspapers (remember them?) stories and photographs from out of the Soviet Union and a regular feature used to often ask, “Who is missing now?” accompanied by a photo of the High Heid Yins, but when compared with a photo of maybe some 6 months before, at least one face or maybe two might be missing from their line-up. Where had they gone? What had they done? Where are they now?

If you go to the SNP website and search on “Alex Salmond”, you will find the same kind of result. Possibly the most successful leader that the SNP has ever had does not exist. He is a non-person. He has been airbrushed from the SNP pages as precisely as the Soviet leaders in power made their own decisions as to who was worthy of a place in the Party’s history.
Someone in the SNP hierarchy (I do wonder who?) has decreed that Alex Salmond *never* existed in the history of the SNP nor even in the history of Scottish politics.

I simply cannot vote for any candidate of a Party which repudiates its very own history.
I know many will think it an old cliche, *BUT* there are many similarities to Germany in 1933.

“You are either with us, or you are against us!”
There is absolutely no middle ground with today’s SNP and I can no longer support that Party.

What do we want? Independence!
When do we want it? Now!

This is our chance to tell Westminster what we want. It is obvious that as many people as possible should vote for Parties with Independence in the party name on the list and Independence front and centre as their raison d’être. That is it, plain and simple.

SNP Branches fought for their local candidates in the constituencies. If your SNP constituency candidate is out as on-side or neutral, vote for for them.

In some places the local SNP branches did not get what they wanted as the constituency candidates. In such cases consider voting for independent candidates who are independence-supporting – Edinburgh central being a case in point.

We need to get this message out loud and clear. SNP is not the only vehicle for Independence – and we need to tell them that now at this election.

So we’re all going to now vote for corrupt unionist parties because our principles prohibit us from voting for a corrupt SNP?

Righto.

@StevieO

If neither option works for you, you always have the option of not voting at all.

link to thenational.scot

900 is thousands now is it?

The National is a farce.

StevieO says:
21 March, 2021 at 2:15 pm

“So we’re all going to now vote for corrupt unionist parties because our principles prohibit us from voting for a corrupt SNP?
Righto.”

From this message of yours, StevieO, it seems that you lack principles.

Regarding your “views” on “corruption”, StevieO –
When did a Unionist allegedly “corrupt” Party attempt to jail an ex-Minister using quite blatant false allegations? I’m listening …

And yet you seem to imply from your message that is OK to vote for a corrupt SNP Party, just because …
Because what?
Are you saying vote for the SNP because they are Scottish?
Are you saying vote for the SNP even though they are corrupt, because mebbes some corruption might show up against the Yoons?

“Righto” StevieO – I got your message loud and clear, which seems to claim:
“Corruption is quite OK in the scheme of things, *providing* said corruption is carried out by the SNP.
You seem to imply that SNP corruption should carry a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card.

I’ll bet there are some High Heid Yins in the SNP who sincerely wish that they had a “GET OUT OF JAIL FREE* card!

Willie Jay says:
21 March, 2021 at 2:30 pm

Ok. Crack on with your Tory vote then, or your Labour vote.

The great britnat machine will be eternally grateful for you lending them your support.

Being played a blinder.

@De Valera – You’ll know her from the Fabiani Committee. I’ll give you another clue: “It’s not Maureen Watt.”

Ruby says,

“Is five more years of the same better or worse than five years of direct rule from Westminster?”

If that was the choice, and it is not, IMHO five years of direct rule would be infinitely better than five more years of a corrupt lying criminal SNP government led by Sturgeon or Robertson or another such corrupt lying criminal.

With the corrupt lying criminal SNP out of the way, a new genuine independence party could stand on a plebiscite manifesto at the next Westminster election in three years’ time.

What difference would it make to the SNP if Sturgeon was or wasn’t re-elected?

Another clone of Sturgeon would become party leader.

It should be pretty obvious that there are a range of options which people will adopt. Some will hold their noses and vote SNP, others will vote for a candidate who has been particularly good, SNP or not, others will not vote SNP on principle after what Sturgeon and Murrell have done.
Yes, it is called individual choice and principle.

So what is the point of people getting all hot under the collar and abusive as if they can force others to vote the way they want or that they have somehow a superior view. Waste of time. The cards will fall according to a myriad of individual reasons and candidates. But hectoring others is sure fire way of just annoying others who might have a different view than yours, and won’t change a thing. FFS.

ScotsRenewables says,

“I don’t believe all current MSPs think that. I think many more heads will appear over the parapet after May 6th.”

Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

“I’m curious as to where you’re seeing any evidence of any of them having a spine. There’s none now, and most of the ones who even theoretically might have the clout to stand up to her are standing down this year, replaced by obedient young drones.”

ScotsRenewables says,

“Stu, no real evidence of spinal activity or moral compass among MSPs, just wishful thinking. No-one knows what to do.”

The likes of ScotsRenewables and Ruby can’t even bring yourselves round to supporting a tactical vote, at no cost to the SNP seats, of unseating Sturgeon in her constituency.

Says it all really.

If a MSP candidate said:

“I’m only in it for the money.

I don’t live in the constituency and don’t give a fig about it.

I probably won’t answer your constituency emails if elected, or I’ll get my secretary to fob you off with patronising bullshit.

I’ll just go along with whatever benefits me personally”.

Then I’d probably vote for them because of their honesty.

It wouldn’t be an improvement on the current SNP MSP. In fact it would be exactly the same. But, at least this candidate would be honest about it.

@James Che – It might be nothing to do with party politics, James. It seems to me that most who contribute to this site are Nationalists or can be persuaded to be Nationalists and that is what you want and need.