And we’re off… As it says on the running strap line at the bottom of the screen on the TV news channels, BREAKING: The United Kingdom. It doesn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention, but the Scottish Government is to seek approval in the Scottish Parliament for a second independence referendum to be held sometime between Autumn 2018 and Spring 2019. Since it can count on the support of both the SNP, who all by themselves outnumber all the Unionist MSPs combined, and the Greens, the vote will most certainly pass. Scotland will get a voice. It will get a voice because Scotland demands one, because Scotland insists on one, not because the British government is disposed to listen to us.
The only people who weren’t expecting another referendum are those who’ve spent the last couple of years in a state of deep denial, insisting that black is white, up is down, that the Vow was fulfilled, and that Alistair Carmichael is a much loved national treasure. So that would be much of the British Unionist establishment and their apologists and those who review the newspapers on Sky News, although to be fair the second of those categories is a subset of the first, those people who’ve been quite certain that Nicola Sturgeon was bluffing and who refused to be budged from their view no matter how much independence supporters tried to educate them to the contrary.
Theresa May is already claiming that the referendum would be divisive and create economic uncertainty, a bit like her Brexit is doing on steroids. An independence referendum is the cure for Theresa’s uncertainty and economic damage, it’s the result of her division. She’s only got herself to blame for provoking Scotland into seeking another vote since she herself has refused to listen, refused to engage, and refused to pay heed to the concerns and views of a country that voted to remain a part of the EU by a considerably larger margin than it voted to remain a part of the UK. Despite the claims of the leave campaign that Brexit would mean significant powers being returned to Holyrood from Brussels, Theresa said at the Tory conference that those powers wouldn’t go to Holyrood, but to Westminster instead. The devolution settlement says that all powers which are not specifically reserved to Westminster are devolved to Holyrood. Theresa May intends to rip that settlement up and unilaterally impose a new one of her own.
If Theresa wants to know what the justification for a second referendum is, she only needs to look in the mirror. Scotland is not facing a second independence referendum because of anything that the SNP or the wider independence movement has said or done. It’s happening because of the failure, the duplicity, and the ill-faith of the British government and the Unionist parties. It’s the intransigence of Theresa May that led to this happening. If she had done what she said she was going to do, to seek a Brexit that worked for everyone, if she’d prioritised her so-called precious Union, if she’d listened instead of doing an impression of a brick wall, there would be no second independence referendum.
Ruth Davidson was on telly, angrily denying that the Scottish Government doesn’t have a mandate for a second referendum. Nicola Sturgeon is always banging on about the constitution, scowled Ruth. That’s bad. Banging on about a second independence is my job, she sulked. Saying that there’s no mandate for a second referendum is a lie, plain and simple. You wouldn’t expect Ruthie to pay much attention to an SNP manifesto, but it quite clearly said in the SNP’s 2015 Holyrood manifesto that they’d seek a second independence referendum if there was a material change in circumstances, and it specifically cited Scotland being taken out of the EU against its will as something that would qualify as a change of circumstances. That’s a mandate. That’s a far clearer mandate than the one that Theresa May is relying on to take the whole of the UK out of the EU and into the hardest faced Brexit possible, despite the fact that much of the Leave campaign was assuring us all the way through the EU referendum campaign that leaving the EU didn’t necessarily mean leaving the single market. The Tories don’t really know what a mandate is though, their more Ukippish tendency think it’s a gay dating app which provokes flooding in Somerset.
Labour are once again opposed to a second independence referendum. Well, as far as anyone can be sure what Labour thinks about anything. Labour’s new slogan is Stronger Together, but they’re neither strong, nor together. At the weekend Jeremy Corbyn said that he wouldn’t oppose a second Scottish independence referendum if one was called, prompting an outbreak of zombie fever amongst the elected members of the Labour party in Scotland. Today he’s opposed again. According to Sky News he thinks it’s wrong to hold another independence referendum so soon, and the Labour party in Scotland will oppose it. Mind you, that’s the same Sky News whose press reviewers were convinced that Nicola Sturgeon was bluffing.
The Lib Dems aren’t happy either. They don’t want another referendum unless it’s another EU referendum. But that’s totally different and not hypocritical at all. Oh no. And Alistair Carmichael isn’t a big liar, Wullie Rennie is a voice of authority, and Menzies Campbell isn’t a zombie.
But the opposition of those who’ve always been opposed to Scotland seeking its own destiny is news in the same way that it’s news that if you plan your journeys using the BBC weather map as a guide, you can get from Stranraer to Aberdeen in fifteen minutes. This time, the stakes have never been higher. If Scotland is foolish enough to vote no a second time, the contempt with which Westminster treated us after the 2014 referendum will be magnified 100 times.
What’s more important than ever right now is that the independence movement, in all its glorious diversity, concentrates on the task ahead and ceases the infighting and backbiting that scarred the phony war that’s just finished. Now it’s the real deal, the real fight commences. Let’s focus our energies on challenging the scare stories and threats of Unionism. Let’s concentrate on building the case for a Scotland that chooses its own path. Let’s create a vision of a better future for a country that deserves better. We have work to do. Let’s get to it.
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Wee Ginger Dug 
Fantastic! The hard work starts now.
Oor Nicola played a blinder the day. Let’s get oot there and gie her a haun. Alba gu bràth!
I felt intensely proud when watching and listening to my, and your Frist Minister today. She stands head and shoulders above every other party leader.
First Minister.
If you plan your journeys using the BBC weather map as a guide, you can get from Stranraer to Aberdeen in fifteen minutes.
Just look inside your UK Passport it’s the same if not a worse uk weather map complete with an isobar. What other country in the world would show a fecking weather map, a distorted on at that in their countries passport? England is renowned for it’s eccentrics maybe that explains it or is it just simple plain vindictiveness, well I and my family will be voting YES for an Independent Country (passport with accurate map).
Yeeeeeeeeeeehhaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!
Off with the gloves.
Let’s do this.
Working on the Council elections just now; so it will be easy to keep working for Independence. Let’s get every single vote for Independence. The certainty of the Tories misgoverning us for the indefinite future is surely a great incentive for previous No voters and undecideds to do the sensible thing and support Independence.
Yes Paul you are correct!! The time is now for all good Yessers to come to the aid of our dear country!! Never mind what political colour you are if you believe in democracy and the sovereignty of the Scottish people then NOW is the time to come together and work for a better, more secure and prosperous future for our kids and grand-kids and our older nervous generation!!
I am one of the older generation, but I am certainly not one of the nervous ones.
I’d have thought that an independence referendum by it’s very nature aims to divide. In this case – Scotland from the rUK.
Remember folks, a better Scotland starts with each and every one of us. Be calm and polite to our detractors; don’t rise to their bait – and there will be plenty of that. Occupy the moral high ground and stay there.
The First Minister does the exact thing that she’s not only been talking about for seven months but was _in her party’s manifesto_ at last year’s election. How anyone can find this surprising is beyond me.
I have actually seen people say it is ridiculous a party is doing what it says in their manifesto. Apparently a manifesto is a piece of paper that means nothing. Goes to show what decades of parties doing the exact of opposite of what they should they would has done to some peoples minds.
[…] Wee Ginger Dug We have work to do […]
Poor No 10, it now has to look in two, may be three directions at once, the EU, Scotland and the NI impasse.
Or since it is always going on about the “fight” with the EU, it has now two, may be three fights or fronts to cope with!
Nicola Sturgeon certainly lobbed the proverbial grenade into the proceedings just before Article 50. I wonder if they are having a wee smile in Brussels and pondering, “Theresa, serves you right , hen!”
Troubled by the budget debacle, Tory anti Brexiteers, Empire2 guffaws, chaos in Trump’s White House administration….
Great to see the UK on the back foot over its own faux pas.
The EU referendum was the first big test post 2014 and Scotland and England have diverged on a UK wide issue – the EU.
Dugdale, (May herself), Davidson and most of the Tories on Scotland voted to remain in the EU.
Ironic how their little brittishness is now getting in the way of respecting the Scottish vote!!
Yoonitariat both political and media going into meltdown.
How did they not see this coming? Genuinely, how?
Did they honestly believe they had delivered the UK they promised two and a half years ago? Did they perhaps consider that their treatment of the Scottish government or the wider YES movement in the past two and a half years was acceptable? Do they think that their actions now, in the teeth of this Brexit omnishambles, towards democratic mandate in Scotland and the threat posed by a Brexit Westminster government an acceptable settlement for the Scottish electorate?
Well, another newsflash for those and such as those. No. You really didn’t. No. It really wasn’t and no, it really, REALLY isn’t.
May repeating the old tunnel vision argument. I do not think the EU will be lining up to lambast the Scots to remain in the glorious UK now? The Westminster crew have voted to leave the EU!!
I cannot see much in the way of support for May in this new Indyref coming from Brussels?
How will Trump react? Threaten us with invasion to protect his golf courses? Or more sinister, invade Helensburgh to protect Trident, the US nuclear weapon outpost from the local injuns?
Interesting times!
Excellent post Macart, and I totally agree, How many times was it reported in the MSM re Independence referendum being likely then very likely etc etc. The Unionists and media treated our FIrst Minister as a joke , a silly wee Scottish lassie who was “all bluff and bluster” “too feart ” .
Well she didn’t cry Wolf did she. She cleverly gathered the MSM media together and told them her plans, itemising her rationale in a cool professional and caring manner. This is what a real Minister does, always emphasising the true Sovereignty of the Scottish Nation . PS some folk just dinnae tak a tellin eh !
A real leader. A real statesperson.
There are even more layers Union treachery to contest this time, Sam.
Ruth Davidson is robbing bereaved widows and their children, consigning 18-21 year old jobseelkers (there are 11,000 of them) to homelessness by scrapping Housing Benefit, scrapping Employment Support Allowance of £30 a week to our disabled citizens trying to get back into the workplace, restricting Child Tax Credit to two children per family, and so much more under the umbrella of the Universal Credit scam.
Our 56 MPs must insist that DWP write to every pensioner assuring them that Gordon Brown lied to them when he bellowed that their State Pension was at risk.
There are so many Project Fear lies, threats, and warnings which have now been exposed for the garbage they were, from ten year queues for EU membership to a now farcical CU with a plummeting pound.
There is more ‘meat’ on the Independence bone now.
Yet there they gathered today, the combined ProudScotsBut Dead Tree Scrollers, Unionist to a (wo)man, Scotland deniers, peddling the same old same old, too wee too poor too stupid crap.
Now’s the day, and now’s the hour, it’s time.
Paul, brilliant as usual.
Grist for the mill Jack. The more evidence of their arrogance and ignorance they produce, the more we have to use against them.
Not that there isn’t a small mountain already, but the nature of the beast and all that.
As I’ve said from the get go, Westminster will be Westminster. May’s cackhanded ‘Politics isn’t a game’ intervention, reeked of patronising the natives. As of course did CH4s Crick commentary.
It’s started, but this time we need to finish it.
“Did they honestly believe they had delivered the UK they promised two and a half years ago?”
Some of them quite probably do. Torrance on politico this morning about the vow: “largely delivered”.
Really? In what psychedelic alternate reality would that be?
‘Largely’? Did he actually say that? Oh Jeez! 😀
“Largely honored” it turned out.
http://www.politico.eu/article/state-of-the-unionists-new-test-for-pro-uk-scots-independence-scotland-sturgeon-second-referendum-year-2018-2019/
Oh Jings! That is a fair old ramble and so weasle worded typical of Mr Torrance.
‘Largely honored’ isn’t and never will be ‘honored’, neither in word or spirit. The words of course, were those of Brown, Darling and the media who sold the ‘VOW’ as something other than what it actually was. The ‘VOW’ itself however, was in reality just as Torrance described, which was merely an unspecified promise of ‘more powers’. One hand playing off the other and both denying culpability in an inherently dishonest campaign strategy.
Nothing has been delivered that has settled anything as they are seeing today. Had true home rule been delivered, as the Scottish electorate had been led to believe was not only possible, but probable, we wouldn’t be in the epic omnishambles we see today and the YES movement wouldn’t have such a genuine case to bring forward.
All they had to do was honour, at least, the spirit of their promise.
Well done them.
I see that Herald Britland has hauled Ol’ Jim Sillars out of his bath chair to peddle Dugdale’s Federalism again.
What a silly old duffer he has turned out to be. Of course it won’t stop BBC Goebbels Quay inviting him on as an SNP Pro Independence pundit and sit back while he rambles on about irrelevant Home Rule/ Federalism, and ‘having conversations’, and Constitutional Conventions in 2039, when we’re all deid.
Torrance is merely a hack whore. Oppose Independence in print, no matter how bad a scribe you are, and the commissions will come rolling in.
I repeat, selling advertising space on the Findo Gask Thunderer awaits these Fourth Estate Fifth Columnists.
It is incredible to conclude that there is no such thing as journalism in Scotland any more.
Instead we have a bunch of bought and paid for Unionist pamphleteers telling lies for money, while widows and their children starve, 18-21 year olds are renedered homeless by Government edict, and disabled job seekers are financially penalised by Ruth Davidson and her grubby wee crew of wreckers.
Shame on you, the Dead Tree Scrollers of a rapidly dying industry.
You deserve what you get.
Like Torrance is interesting enough to take psychedelics.
And no it really won’t be anymore.
I think you’ll find that most people have a wonderful capacity for believing what they want to believe and forgetting inconvenient promises and suchlike. That’s why they never saw it coming. For once Albion’s perfidiousness seems finally to have worked in our favour. Oh Dear! Someone’s slipped the catch on the Jock-in-a-box, the trap they set for themselves has now been sprung 🙂
BTW I too think Nikola was quite brilliant. Calm, collected, and most of all _in control_. Interesting times, no?
This is a happy day. All any of us need do is talk to people we personally know and with care convince them. It takes time. I have turned three people in the last two years to vote YES and hope to get three more. Softly does it.
As Mel Gibson once said in a braw film called Braveheart….. “Freedom”
How about “Scotland Free by ’23!” for a war cry? Or is that too optimistic?
We are building an archive of good quality pro Indy videos with an emphasis on the kind of facts and reality checks that could help persuade the undecided. These will be used to create compilation CDs & DVDs addressed to different sectors of the electorate with different concerns like pensions, economic prospects etc. The DVDs or .iso files could be made available to yes groups for campaigning purposes. If anyone has any links to online videos of this nature could they post them here and I will check them.
Can we be sure that this will go through? Are there any in SNP or Greens who might abstain or not be there for the vote? I assume if PO has deciding vote he’ll go against. Just starting the worrying early:-)
‘If you can look into the seeds of time
And say which grain will grow and which will not’…..
..The seed of Independence has already been sown and can only do what it must…emerge into the light.
The potential sticking point I can see is if Ken Macintosh plays silly buggers and rules it out with Holyrood’s scope.
I doubt he would, but there was a LibDem MSP raising that very question last year.
I would have thought there would have been some talks behind closed doors with the Greens before hand. I’d hope no SNP MSP would vote against. Surely it would be career ending for them.
I’m sure there would have been, David.
One of the real challenges for the Westminster government will be how they negotiate with the EU when they don’t even know whether they can trade away Scottish fisheries, or where the EU border will be.
if Indyref goes through the scottish parliament next week , PM May and her Brexit team will no longer be negotiating for a UK exit.
FM Sturgeon has just weakened their hand immensurably
She played a blinder –
Scotland has to rise to the occasion and show they support such a stateswoman
Oh they will argue they are still UK fisheries for them to trade away.
I remember meeting you for the first time and you saying ‘We can do this’ – it’s been carved in my mind since and no matter on which word I lay the emphasis it resonates beautifully.
Strengthening and widening both information and the voices of reason is where I believe that the long campaign will succeed. Tactics employed against the MSM is where this campaign will happen.From there, heads and hearts will follow. Their hegemony of the media will fail. People will cease to listen to their lies. However, the British state will not give Scotland up so easily. Expect lies, lies and damned lies from beginning to end together with all the sneering innuendo.
Breaking news on MSM. May now to delay activating Article 50. Denials that it has to do with Sturgeon’s speech this morning!?
Now at end of March! Her Majesty had probably been lined up to give it Royal Assent tomorrow.
Great news! Clegg said haughtiness would be May’s down fall in the end.
Nice move but the FM!
All reactions by the goons predictable, heard it all before
Now May has probs on Budget, Ireland, Tory pop to Brexit, Brexit itself and now Scotland.
How is J Burd the noo?
At this time of year, one of the rites of spring in our avenue is witnessing the camellia buds on the now mature bush in my front garden burst into life, heralding spring, and the promise of warmer weather, lighter nights, and much needed escape from the long dark nights of winter.
This morning, as dawn broke, and I slurped my first mug of life giving dark dark tea, I noticed with delight that the first bud had opened up overnight, a solitary reddish pink splash of colour in the gloaming.
It is a sign for the whole neighbourhood that the worst is past. Dog walkers pause to admire the show, neighbours stop to comment while I am spring weeding.
At today’s truly historic press Conference, the bright red of Nicola Sturgeon’s outfit almost exactly matched this first flower of the year.
Her announcement of Indyref 2 engendered in me, and I’m sure many others, that sense of relief and renewed resilience. The dark days are over. Spring has sprung. Caledonia Spring.
At today’s Press conference, it was clear that the gathered Unionist Fourth Estate had been caught on the hop: in scatological parlance, they had been caught on the loo, with their kegs ‘round their ankles, and suddenly discovered that there wasn’t any loo roll.
The Usual Suspects had hastily gathered, with nothing to throw at the FM but Project Fear Uno guff.
No Trade with England, borders, out of the EU, the parlous state of the Scottish economy, opinion polls indicating that the ‘Scottish People’ did not want another Referendum, the EssEnnPee neglecting their mythical ‘day job’.
Sarah and Severin, and the motley Fourth Estate Fifth column, lost for words.
Wonderful.
Tonight I walk with a lighter step, I am 2 inches taller, and I’m so proud of this remarkable young woman, and have nothing but praise for her conduct, her commitment, and political nous.
She batted off answers to every question with consummate ease.
I could not help but compare her presentation with the burblings of Mundell, the shrieking and whining of Dugdale and Davidson, and the buffoonery of Rennie and Cole Hamilton.
Would we seriously entrust any of them to govern Scotland?
Today is Day 1 on the Road to Self Determination, and by god, it feels magnificent.
Wee Fluffy was out of us mind today on BBC. He was manic eyed, snarling, angry , kept saying we will get a good deal for Scotland. We must work together, but May and Co have been silent on Scotland etc.
The Breziteeros are livid, caught on the hop by the FM, trotting out the usual guff we have heard before!!
Stolen May’s thunder!!
I wonder if her Brittanic Majesty will be asking Scotsbtob”think carefully again”!?
Our FM made it clear today that she and the Scottish Government have heard NOTHING from May, the Darling Duds of May, or even, the Grand Panjandrum Himself, Mundell, despite working tirelessly in producing an alternative Brexit package for Scotland. Nothing from Mundell; nothing. What the feck does he do all day?
He is an ineffectual little man, who has done nothing for Scotland, rather like Murray, Carmichael, Davidson, Dugdale and Rennie. A bunch of 30 pieces of silver wasters, enemies of Scotland.
No more Mr and Mrs Nice Guy.
I really really enjoyed your post. Start to finish.
The Appaling Duds of May? 😉
Whoops, you got there first! OK lets go for “The Appalling Bawling Duds of May” then?
Well done Nicola, what a clever wee lassie! That speech today was a perfect example of what a consumate politician she is. Alba Gu Brath!
Old lies are going to be dredged up shamelessly again. Apparently Michael Crick on Channel 4 News has stated with absolute self-assurance, that Jacqueline Minor of the EU had declared that Scotland would have to join a queue to enter the EU. Remember that story at the time? Demolished then by Jacqueline Minor herself but here we are with a senior journalist trotting out the same misrepresentation as then. Oh and he repeated the Spanish veto threat, as well as that of Belgium…..blah, blah, blah.
Here it all comes again……
Yep. We’ve had NATO warnings again already.
@
Jack Collatin, aye, my camellias are out too, pink ones and cream ones. Nice post.
It warms the cockles, Gavin. Spring has sprung.
Le joie de printemps.
good to get the phoney war over , now the real shit will fly , as usual we will be treated to daily even hourly catastrophic predictions masquerading as news .
mayhem is now sitting with her advisers Polishing the Turd she is about to lob back at us , containing the sentiments , While we respect the views of the scottish people , we respectfully advise to alleviate dire financial consequences and distraction while negotiating our withdrawal from the European Union , it is the governments view , this would not be the appropriate time to cause further confusion and add to an already complex situation , therefore we reserve the right to delay a section 30 order enabling the scottish parliament to draft legislation to hold a referendum while these negotiations are in progress .
thanks Love
Treesa x x x
IN OTHER WORDS YER NO GETTIN ONE so SHUT THE F/ck UP .
And so it begins (again)
What is needed is to get as many as possible out to vote, any less of a turnout than 2014 will lead to calls of “no mandate”
What needs to be remembered is that although over 80% was high in 2014, there is the real danger of a turnout of around 60% for 2.
The currency and pensions issues need to be tackled (think Isle Of Man for currency)
And detailed facts about joining the EU.
If you thought a lot of mud was slung in 2014, it’ll be nothing compared to 2.
It id amazing the comments. A guy from eNsto, Stoltenberg, said Scots would not be able to join Nato straight away.
Scots might decide to declare neutrality. If these orgs and others do not want us, then we create other links.
It is the case in the world that orgs ate glad to have you Ob board, so why the aggro?
Cannot see other links I suppose, too caught up in the present to step out of it.
The biggest scenario is that the UK at Westminster is leaving the EU who separatist now? Scots want to stay in the EU. Our laws are in line. What is the problem world? We have not insulted you like the ukippers, we voted to remain. At least hold out the hand of friendship! No 10 has insulted you!
Westminster is really out to undo all that the original EU Common Market started.
Put things in perspective! Refocus your anglomesmerisation and see other friends in the Scots.
The last thing Scotland should do is to join NATO (the North American Terrorist Organization).
well said Guga
I was delighted when Nicola announced the start of the campaign. She was brilliant and really clear about why she was moving towards another ref. As the day has gone on I’ve got more nervous. Last time will seem easy compared to this one. I hope she has got this right, because I really, really don’t want her to have to resign She is one of Scotland’s strengths and certainly our best politician. It’s not the cr*p that will fly that worries me. She is more than capable of dealing with that and we can reinforce most things that will come up. It’s whether Scotland will actually vote Yes this time. The economics are worse now because of Brexit, and with Indy2 that increases the uncertainty. It’s people my age that pushed the No vote last time, and I know from my friends that the more uncertain things are, the more likely they are to stick with what they know. What if it’s not just people my age this time? Sorry, I know I sound pathetic. I will be better once the campaign is underway. Apologies all.
Nicola has said that there will be actual factual information available in the runup to the new referendum. There is no doubt that the yoons will do their damndest to distort these facts and generally spray sh*t everywhere because that’s all they can do. It will be up to all of us to do whatever we can talking to people to get the facts out.
Therapymum ! In answer to your worry over pensions please go to the OVER 60S FOR SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCEand you will find information that will settle your mind. You can also try the other groups ie INDEPENDENCE REALLY USEFULL FACT PAGE. Enjoy !
Thanks! Will look it up.
Therapymum, you should ask yourself this – there is an old Italian proverb
“Se non ora, quando?” – If not now, when? What option but to go for it?
Perhaps you can point out to your friends that there is no status quo to vote for, only change.
Is the change they want Brexit, and thirty years of rule by English right wing Tories with all that would bring……
Or is at least the chance of an alternative future in an independent Scotland with different views and priorities, and a government close at hand to hold to account. That government could be of the political hue the voters want, with new parties emerging.
It’s not impossible that we could loose, but a I don’t think we will. If we do Scotland will have consigned itself to crushing exploitation, and I suppose would deserve it.
Let us pull together to see it happen, both up to independence and in the hard work afterwards, as things will not be made easy.
I’m an old timer, this is my last chance and I will do all I can to see it is taken.
Thanks for that. Personally I am sure, but none of my friends are and I have found it difficult to argue against some of their arguments, mostly because they just won’t listen to them. One of them has joined Scotland in Union. Perhaps I need new friends! A bit like you, I’m older, and this is likely to be the last chance for me too. You are right about the status quo; it doesn’t exist. I will wait patiently for the new economic case and in the meantime collect the positive reporting that’s around and create an arsenal!
The economics are worse because of Brexit, we are going to see and hear a great deal of this ‘framing’ of the argument. I also read a piece that stated the economic case was not as strong as last indyref. Does anyone remember, any part of our economic argument not being rubbished last time.
Norway banked just under £13 Billion during the oil crisis, while Scotland’s GERs figures listed just £64 million. There isn’t a black hole, or deficit, just Westminster.
Westminster IS the black hole.
It is now the Yessers that have all the Project Fear ammunition and we must use it.
We need a centralised page or site that comprehensively debunks every unionist myth: about not getting into the EU, having to use the Euro, pensions, oil revenues, trade figures, whatever other trite tripe they come away with. We need to be able to direct naysayers to one comprehensively-researched website that will answer any and all of their questions. Because if we can’t, it will never fly. It’s too time-consuming to have to go round the net researching stuff with figures that may be challenged. We need the correct figures and answers in one place. period.
That way we don’t have to argue, we can just point people in the direction of the truth and let them do their own research. If they even want to believe it’s the truth anyway, mind you, cos all of this braindead ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts’ American rubbish, basically existing to cover the lying orange-hued bahookie of an insane president, has done the idea of consensus reality and information a great deal of harm. Still, if you can give them an answer to their questions…you just never know who we could convert. And the postal vote MUST be monitored by an independent country or agency. PERIOD. Not falling for that Tory-counted rubbish again.
It’s called Wings Over Scotland 🙂
And this place too, but you know what I mean. One site, comprehensively catalogued, with subsections for various sections: financial, sociological, international, etc. Easy and clear to navigate.
After the trial run in 2014 lets make sure we win this time. we must have an answer to every lie they throw at us. We must be honest with the people at all times.
Was at my branch SNP meeting last night and my MSP said we can have a referendum without a Section 30 and if it the WM Gov. does not recognise it the UN will. Bears up with what I have read elsewhere.
The Yoon Loons are already out in force on the Independent[sic]’s letters page: Batshit Jill, Martin from Edinburgh and three people expressing their well-informed opinions from such centres of Scottish intellectual life as…erm…Staines (‘On-Thames’), Honiton and Bristol. Nothing from Keith or Dr. John yet, though.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/letters/snp-indyref2-nicola-sturgeon-referendum-scottish-independence-a7627456.html
It’s going to be a long ride, folks…
No desire to read the rabid ravings of mad people. I am NOT going to subject myself to a torrid torrent of abject idiocy for the next two years – my blood pressure will not take it. Let them rant and rave at the sky, I know which way I am voting and will not be swayed by ad hominem hatred and madness, no matter what they say. Period.
Paul, please update your indylinks. These pages all need to have up to date links. Anyone who stumbles on one site can find others, but people are lazy apparently on the internet. If they don’t get instant response they go elsewhere. Munguins is the obvious one, but Derek Bateman does not update one of those two links any more.
I hope you get your own TV show once we are independent. I loved your talk in Hamilton a few months back. You are a natural for when this is over and our own National broadcaster is making its own content with our own talent in our own country.
He’s been a ‘natural ‘ for years and would make a huge difference to the campaign if he was given time in the media – which is why he won’t get it , sadly.
Sorry. It’s on my to-do list. I’ll try and get it done this week.
Would someone please explain to me a couple of issues I have.
The English government hangs on to Gibraltar and justifies this by stating that they have never broken any of the provisions of the Treaty of Utrecht. However, they have broken a number of the provisions of the Treaty of Union. For example, Scotland was supposed to retain its own mint, and Scotland was supposed to retain its own legal system.
With regard to the Scottish legal system, one of the facts is that the Scottish people are sovereign, not the English parliament. That being so, there is no legal (or moral) need for the Scottish government to ask permission from the English government to hold a referendum on independence. In addition, Scotland has the legal right to hold such a referendum under international law. We do not need to go cap in hand to our colonial masters.
The second point I would like to make, and, again, I would like someone to explain this to me, is the question of the eligibility of people to vote in our independence referendum. Most people will know that the English government refused to allow EU citizens resident in the YUK to vote in the Brexit referendum (despite the fact that they can vote in all other elections in the YUK). This was presumably because they knew that most of them would vote to remain. However, taking the English government’s actions as a precedent, why should we allow Sasunnachs resident in Scotland to vote in our independence referendum; especially knowing that most of them would vote to retain the Butcher’s Apron and to continue to bask in the glory of their defunct, misbegotten Empire and Raj?
I would take exception to your 2nd. point, it only opens up the ‘racist’ and ‘anti-english’ argument for opponents of Scottish Independence.
For example, I was born in england, but my cruel 🙂 parents moved up here… in 1964 !! I have been voting SNP since 1979, yes in 2014, and will be again. I think I have earned the right to vote for the country I live in, work in, have had children and grand children in, and love.
If our neighbours behave badly, we should rise above that, with dignity. We have a case for independence that is recognised worldwide, and again, the world will be watching us.
Let’s call it for what it is.
The Entebbe Gambit.
In June 1976 PLO hijackers forced an Israel to Paris passenger airliner to divert to Entebbe in Idi Amin’s Uganda, where the passenger swere herded into the airport lounge and used as deadly ‘bargaining chips’ in an attempt to have PLO prisoners released from custody.
Last night in WM HoC, the BritNats overturned a HoL amendment to guarantee the permanent residency of 3 million EU Nationals living and working in the UK, many of whom have been in Blighty for decades, married to Brits, with children born in Britain.
MPs voted down the amendment on EU nationals’ rights by 335 to 287, a majority of 48, with peers later accepting the decision by 274 to 135.
The Entebbe Gambit.
May and her increasingly Fascist Administration, aided and abetted by not a few of the so called Opposition, effectively herded 3 million of our fellow EU citizens into a virtual Departure Lounge, and threatened them with menace and expulsion, while at the same time putting the futures of nearly 2 million ex Pats living in, working in or retired to EU countries at serious risk.
The Mother of Parliaments took hostages. If May doesn’t get what she wants, cattle trucks will be ordered, and millions crammed on board and shipped to Dover ; their crime?
They are not English/British.
It has begun.
The Night of the Long Knives.
However, I am at a loss to identify the ‘bargaining’ element of Treeza’s Bluff.
If the EU does not secure the residency of up to 2 million ex Pat mainly frail retired Brits on the Continent, with all their rights to Free Health Care, and so on, The Nasty party will kick out 3 million mainly essential workers out of the UK?
Our NHS, hotel and catering, agriculture, University R&D departments, and so many more vital areas of the Brit economy would be expected to play ball, and take a massive financial hit as skilled staff are stripped out of their industries, just because May and her Brexiteers decide to go All In, and risk everything in this pointless game of Texas Hold ‘Em.
I recall that an additional 30,000 civil servants will be needed for the Brexit negotiations.
How many thousands more would be required to set up a Deportation Department to process 3 million EU workers who, as of last night, have overstayed their welcome?
It borders on arrogant stupidity to believe that the Brussel’s Negotiators don’t know that May is betting on a busted flush. She is bluffing big time. The Europeans know this. She has a Jack High, Brussels has a Full House. The EU will call her bluff.
The UK needs migratnt workers to survive.
I doubt that Spain would blink if half a million Brit Pensioners were thrown out of the Costas..
In Scotland, we have a choice.
Sit back and let May and the Tories (and seemingly some New Labour ) destroy our nation, or we reassert our Self Determination now.
It is well argued that we have no option now.
Independence remaining in the EU.
speaking of spain the bbc threw clanger there jo coburn on daily politics was trying to repeat spain would veto scotland from joining the eu yet at 1am the bbc news had spanish minsters saying scotland would be welcome in the eu on more lie exposed
sorry 1pm not 1am
sorry clicked reply instead of post , anyway i agree seems the old ones are the best ones , the having to join the Euro will be rolled out next , all lies but whats a few lies it worked before .
i have seen a few interviews over the last few days , being nice and sitting quiet dosnt work now when constant interruptions are the norm , it’s a case of if you cant beat them join them ,if not be prepared to we walked over . The SNP need to round up their best and give them immediate intensive media training , and only the ones who consistently perform well should be allowed in front of a camera
Forward Scotland – don’t let the doubters rob you of your prize.
Good luck.
Wales and Northern Ireland are now wanting a referendum excellent news, lets hit the Tories and westminster all at the same time. I couldn’t be more pleased, well done SNP and Nicola.
we can win this the unionists are running scared right now lets hit them with the facts while they are still in schock over how wrong they was on nicolas bluff