Herman Van Rompuy, the former president of the European Council and no big supporter of the Scottish independence movement, has warned Westminster that a no-deal Brexit means that Scottish independence becomes more likely. This is a welcome indication of how the mood music from Brussels is going to be radically different during a second Scottish independence referendum compared to the first.
In the run up to the first Scottish independence referendum, Van Rompuy was one of those EU figures who, at the behest of David Cameron’s Conservatives and the EU-wide anti-independence machinations of the Spanish Partido Popular, lined up to makes statements designed to damage hopes of independence. As a member of the rightist Belgian CDV party, Van Rompuy’s party is a part of the European People’s Party in the EU parliament along with the Spanish Partido Popular, which had targetted other members of the European People’s Party in an attempt to encourage European politicians to make statements damaging to independence movements within EU states. The Spanish campaign was being led by the Partido Popular MEP Esteban Gonzalez Pons.
Gonzalez Pons also had meetings with Ruth Davidson, at least twice according to reports in the Spanish press. He also claimed that he would be meeting with representatives of the Labour party in Scotland. Isn’t there a word having secret meetings with representatives of a foreign country in order to influence the outcome of a democratic vote in your own country by seeking their help against your opponents? Gosh. I can’t think what the word for that might be. I’m wracking my brains. Perhaps Robert Mueller might be able to help me.
Statements made by Van Rompuy and others might have been specifically referring to the Catalan situation but they were then spun by the Scottish media to assert that they were likewise applicable in all their details to the very different Scottish situation. Any nuance was lost in the general noise designed to create in the minds of voters in Scotland that the EU was implaccably and unmovably opposed to any notion of Scottish independence, and would go out of its way to discourage it. That’s what the Partido Popular and the British Conservatives were very keen to foster. And to be fair, at that time it’s true that there was considerable scepticism within parts of the EU about Scottish independence.
However that was then, and this is now. Last year that self same Esteban Gonzalez Pons said in the European Parliament that the Conservatives were taking Scotland out of the EU against its will. He then tweeted his personal belief that the EU should enter into talks with Scotland. Representatives of the Spanish government have since confirmed what this blog had been saying for years, that Spain would not veto a Scottish application for EU membership. And now we have Herman Van Rompuy telling the Conservatives that the actions of Theresa May’s government are only making Scottish independence more likely.
As Scotland heads towards a showdown on its constitutional future, following the betrayals of all the promises made back in 2014 to keep us a part of the UK, there will not be a series of prominent EU figures appearing in the British press to do the British government any favours. The EU is a members’ club. It looks after the interests of the states which make it up, but within a few months the UK will no longer be a member. The EU will no longer consider what the British government wants when it makes announcements. There will be no more favours, no more deals struck in secret behind closed doors to form a common front against independence movements. They will no longer stand in the way of Scottish independence.
On Monday in The National, the Scottish Government’s Brexit Secretary Mike Russell was quoted saying that previous scepticism about Scottish independence from EU leaders had now “gone away”, and that there was now a much stronger sympathy for Scottish independence throughout the EU. That is unquestionably true. Throughout Europe, people look with horror upon what is happening in the UK, and see Scotland as an oasis of sanity amidst a sea of Brexit madness. Scotland might not be able to save the rest of the UK from Brexit, but it can save itself. There’s considerable sympathy in the rest of the EU for any Scottish efforts to do so.
It scares many in Scotland that the only people who can save Scotland are the people of Scotland. It’s a sobering realisation that when you’re in need of a hero you have to become one, because the real hero is the one you find inside yourself. But all over this country hundreds and thousands of ordinary people have risen to the challenge with style and panache. In the end, saving yourself has to be your own choice, and all over Scotland people are standing up and saying yes. They’re going to save themselves, they’re going to save their families, they’re going to save their communities. They’re going to save Scotland from the pathology of passivity, the sickness of subordination, the disorder of dependence. Unlike the last time, this time the British media in Scotland is going to struggle to find EU voices warning Scotland to sit down, to be quiet, to trust in our Westminster bosses. The EU won’t save us, but this time round they will stand by our side as we save ourselves.
The second Scottish independence vote is going to be characterised by utter desperation and a lack of allies on the side of those who oppose independence. They won’t have the big guns from the EU coming to their aid. They won’t be able to trot out a series of bosses of global companies warning Scotland that cutting itself off from the UK and Europe will damage jobs and opportunities. They won’t be able to tell us that those seeking independence in order to retain our ties with the rest of the continent are the narrow minded xenophobes when they’re the ones defending a Brexit that’s driven by a fear of immigration. Above all, Brexit means that they won’t be able to tell us that we’re the narrow minded parochial nationalists.
The character of the second Scottish vote is going to be very different. It’s going to be dirty. It’s going to be ugly. It’s going to be unpleasant and personal. It always is when an old establishment realises that its claws no longer firmly grasp onto power. But that British nastiness, that bile, that viciousness, they only mean that we’re going to win. 2014 was then, this is now. This time it’s different.
There won’t be any updates to the blog for the rest of this week as I am off to Wales tomorrow to do a talk for Yes Cymru in Caernarfon on Wednesday. I expect to get home late on Thursday evening. If you’re going to the rally in Dunfermline on Saturday, I’ll be attending with the dug and will see you there!
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Wee Ginger Dug 
Reblogged this on Ramblings of a 50+ Female.
They are going to flog the ‘UK common market’ for all it is worth because it is all they have left.
Well, that and threatening to bomb our airports.
What a shame for them that it’s entirely mythical.
Aye, unfortunately it bears the stamp of ‘truthiness’ so we are going to have to come up with a punchy rebuttal in words of two syllables or less, otherwise people will fall for it just like they did the austerity myth of a country having to balance its budgets like a household in 2010, pensions not being paid after independence in 2014, and £350m/week for the NHS in 2016.
Is that the single market that charged Scottish electricity generators for putting power on to the grid but gave English generators money for doing so?
The same people who have closed Longannet Power Station, stopped the redevelopment of Cockenzie Power station and the mothballing of Peterhead Power Station.The only big Thermal stations are Hunterston and Torness, both nuclear with Hunterston nearing the end of it’s usefulness as a generating station. Work on Hunterston C station appears to have stopped.
The carbon capture project has been set aside, it was to have been based on Peterhead as it already has access to the pipelines carrying hydrocarbons from the North Sea depleated wells.
I understand that 30% of rUK gas consumption is sourced from the new Atlantic wells that are a secret to the majority, well hidden so as not to effect the population with ideas of going it alone, the subsidy monkeys of Scotland, as they would have the media tell us.
Being charged more for electricity generation is the kind of rebuttal needed…
I’d like to see an infographic with the following information on it showing how much better Ireland is doing now they export *less* to the UK.
Ireland in the UK (c 1900)
% exports to rUK (e.g. 80%), GDP/head compared to rUK (e.g. 0.5)
vs Ireland today
(14% (source: BBC fact check), (1.6 (source: IMF))
With a strapline like ‘want to earn more? Choose independence’
That’s the kind of easily absorbed info we need to get punters to see past the ‘UK common market’ story.
[…] Wee Ginger Dug That was then and this is now Herman Van Rompuy, the former president of the European Council and no big supporter […]
Can Scotland therefore expect a visit from Mr Verhofstadt ,any time soon ?
hope not!
a Belgian Farage imho
It’s up to our FM Nicola Sturgeon to seize the moment!
‘Ask Dublin’.
This is WM’s advice to the Business Community in Northern Ireland when they ask for answers on the border, Customs Union and FreeTrade.
WM ‘s ‘if the EU want a border then they’re going to have to build and pay for it’ huff bluff.
Rees Mogg wants of return to the Border Regime during ‘the Troubles’.
Tens of thousands of Brit squaddies will be searching bus loads of stag and hen do’s from Lurgan and Ballycastle heading to Dublin for a p!ss up and a good time being had by all?
John Redwood dismisses the 1 million Brits working or settled on the Continent. Sort out your own affairs after we make a mess of EU negotiations.
Murray Foote referred to Professor WATP (gets him the Rangers’ bigot vote) Two Jobs Adam Tomkins as a ‘decent Tory’.
Foote was writing in The Murdoch owned Times when he coupled ‘decent’ with ‘Tory’.
There is no such thing these days.
Basically the English and Anglo Scot Wealthy Professional Privileged Oligarcgy and Nobility do not give a rat’s arse about selling the people of these islands down the river.
The Wealthy, the Privileged . the dual passport holders, will not suffer one bit.
Indeed many like Rees Mogg and Theresa May’s husband will make a fortune selling the UK to the speculators.
There is of course no UK single Market.
The nonsense spouted by Davidson, Leonard, and Rennie that the rUK will no longer trade with Independent Scotland is never challenged by Glenn, or Fraser, or Brian, or Jackie, or Sevvie, or indeed the wizard of words, ‘booze fuelled sex romp’ specialist David the Clegg.
As part of Yes 2 we must make overtures to the EU offering Independent Scotland as an alternative to England as an industrial hub still within the EU, with easy access to rUK markets and the US.
It is not outwith the bounds of possibility that the Banks, Finance Houses, Insurance Companies, car manufacturers will look North to independent Scotland and relocate here, rather than start from scratch in the EU’s newest poorest member states.
We are ‘shovel ready’ as they say.
There is no Project Fear 2.
With what could they threaten us?
By bombing Edinburgh or Glasgow airport rUK would be committing an act of war against the European Union.
Of course there will be a real threat from Lord George Robertson’s aliens invading from the Planet Zircon.
How much would it cost to hire Flash Gordon. The superhero, not the anchor man at the BBC Stockade on Pacific Quay?
It is unraveling before them.
Each day the depth of their treachery and lies becomes more exposed.
Me? I’m still sitting on my hands.
.
They say they want to trade with the whole big world after Brexit but not with their nearest neighbour – an independent Scotland. What a bunch of diddies.
Cubby, they are paid to be idiots.
No more Scotch, timber, Aberdeen angus beef, shell fish, salmon, electricity, oil, gas, IT, is the cry.
They’ll buy it elsewhere.
Argentina tinned Corned beef, can’t wait.
Weel folk in Aberdeen wull no be buyin’ tins o’ corned beef.
“There is of course no UK single Market”
there’s absolutely nothing stopping anybody from any part of the UK selling anything to anybody in the UK, and there’s nothing stopping anybody in the UK live anywhere within the UK to do business
The UK is as is thr case with most countries, a single market. The complication is it’s a single market within a larger single
Well said all but especially WGD. Hope your Welsh trip furthers the Celtic cause.
That’s not the only difference between then and now.
We’re different.
They’ve spent the last four years relentlessly antagonising and alienating, not just the YES movement, but Scotland’s wider citizenry. Setting to one side the broken pledges and assurances of HMG and Better Together. They had the vote won. Narrowly, but won. All they had to do was win the aftermath. Keep a few pledges. Win a few friends. Build some bridges. They didn’t do that.
No, the British Nationalists indulged themselves in punishment exercises for the YES movement and Scottish Government. Their political class not only dumped any pretense at honouring their word, they made great public show of smearing, insulting and belittling SNP representation in both parliaments. Their media felt it was open season on all things self determination and set about a systematic campaign of denigration and trolling of Scottish representation and the indy minded.
Smith Commission, EVEL, austerity legislation and finally Brexit. Lives and life chances of Scotland’s and the wider UK population, laid waste. New Scots facing an appalling and uncertain future, their lives, jobs, even businesses left in tatters. People who had invested themselves and their lives in the communities and country they chose to call home.
They call for unity and one nation without understanding the concepts. They demand your loyalty and only under their conditions. They demand your vote whilst detesting the fact you have one to give. They’d rather you just thanked them for honouring you with their attention for five minutes, vote the right way, then went back to your misery for another five years. Back to your box and don’t forget to shut the lid.
They’re about to find out that’s not us anymore. The box is now matchwood and we don’t feel like thanking them for anything. We don’t agree with their definition of nationhood. We certainly don’t agree with their idea of conditional unity. We also won’t stand meekly by and watch a shower of self entitled clown shoed buffoons destroy our economy, our democracy, our rights and our lives.
Feck that!
Not when we CAN do something about it. And WE CAN!
Sam well said.
The concerted efforts of the MSM last week to present GERS are scientific proof that we have always been too poor, and that in an independent Scotland we would follow the same disastrous monetary and fiscal policies as WM and die of debt, coupled with the quite obscene coverage of Salmond’s sexual harassment case, has actually been written up by the usual suspects as The Death of Indyref2 and the Yes Movement itself.
WEe are shallow wee fuckers who need only a jolt from the Brit Nat hacks to snap us out of our cult brainwashed SNP-ness.
Thank you, Scoop Clegg, for saving us from our deluded selves.
Aye, right.
You can tell they are still worried by the hysteric outpourings, the obscene tsunami of smutty Salmond bilge gushing from the Dead Tree Scrollers and their buddies with mics.
That Dick Leonard has fired off FOI’s ‘demanding’ something or other.
Well, we are going nowhere; certainly not out of the EU against the democratic will of the citizens of Scotland.
1.6 million voted YES and have not gone away. In fact tens of thousand more have joined us.
Although extremely serious and stressful for Salmond’s accusers, and indeed the man himself, this sorry episode has nothing whatsoever to do with our journey to self determination and whether we remain in the EU as England and Wales depart.
Independent Scotland will then decide on permanent EU membership.
Never has the term ‘the gutter press’ been so apposite as it has been over the past seven days.
I can only imagine the stress that Mr Salmond’s accusers must be under now that the sleaze merchants of the smutty wee rags have splurged the alleged lurid details of the case all over their tawdry little scandal sheets.
So to all you hacks out there, GERS and the Salmond Case will not blunt our ardour: far from it.
We demand that our country leaves your precious Union, and takes its rightful place as an Independent nation in an ever challenging world.
When that day comes, I’ll gladly drive any of you ProudScotsBut sell outs to the border.
You have descended into Hades and sup with the devil.
Our fellow citizens are dying prematurely, hundreds of thousands of our children live in state engineered poverty, and you lot cover it up for your English and US Paymasters.
I shall never be in the same room as any of you.
You are beneath contempt.
If there are any of you still with a vestige of conscience, catch a grip.
A crowdfunder to hire a fleet of busses to drop them off at the border. Good riddance to a bunch of tractors.
Stirring words Sam. Thanks.
I’ve always maintained their arrogance will be their downfall! 🙂
Oh mumsy. Said this above:
“They’d rather you just thanked them for honouring you with their attention for five minutes, vote the right way, then went back to your misery for another five years. Back to your box and don’t forget to shut the lid.”
Now this:
HERE
Can I just say … Q.E.D?
I previously had my doubts if the Scots would see sense and go for it and become a normal country.
Now there is no doubt, you can hear folk talking things have changed with the exception of some angry old folk and the occasional daily record wasp chewer folk have arrived at independence.
We have evolved as a nation the consequences of failing to seize control of our country is now too great a risk.
People previously felt the risk was taking a chance with independence the risk now is remaining in the madness that is the UK.
That certainly backs up the latest poll claim that independence support is 51.2% and the campaign hasn’t even begun wow. Paul was correct when he said the britnats that will destroy the union they’ve done just that only haters of Scotland would want the UK now it seems and no vow to save them this time either.
Genuine question – I wonder which former colony of the British empire would most compare to the scale of and opposition to Scotland’s challenge to break free, and succeeded? Anything more recent than USA?
Ireland and India are the first to come to mind along with many African countries who had to fight for their escape from Empire. The UK has asset stripped most of the countries they have controlled for the benefit of the few, sometimes causing millions to die in the process, the first two I mentioned are prime examples of that. They have very little left to hang on to. Scotland, with its wealth, is a jewel they will not let go easily. They know, and more of us are finding out, just how much this country is worth. The Falkland Islands are being retained for the same reason, nothing to do with the democratic wishes of the islanders and everything to do with the assets in the seas around the islands.
One day soon there will just be England. Who will they rob then? I think that is the question that the less well off there should be asking themselves. They are the ones who will be going without as the “elite” start draining the last pennies available in that country. They should not leave it too long though because if they do there will be only one road left open to them and it will not be a pretty sight.
Have I missed it or is there AS YET no surge in polling support for Scottish independence? All the talk of #Indyref2 is one thing but as far as I can see most polling still showing it would lose.
What am I missing?
Watch these pollsters! It’ll be stuck at 45%.
You can’t blame the messenger. There’s enough variation in the sourcing of pills to see a trend.
Or here, not.
IV asked before what it would take for a decisive breakthrough
“IV asked before what it would take for a decisive breakthrough”
I’m afraid that there will be no Big Bang, Brian.
No dramatic decisive breakthrough.
No Mass Uprising and bloody war.
No Sack of Rome by the Visigoth hordes, no Saladin invasion of Palestine, no storming the Bastille, or the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, no Easter Uprising, no 1933 Hitler violent takeover, no kristallnacht, no Tartan Mahatma Gandhi leading a mass passive resistance movement to defy the English imperialist.
The Scottish Independence campaign is by comparison a bit of a damp squib.
We are just a determined band of Scots who will campaign for an Independent Scotland peacefully; our only weapons are reason, intellect, perseverance, and boundless energy.
Our cause is just.
We shall ultimately triumph at the ballot box.
This dull morning at the end of August 2018, we are on the verge of Eurmageddon.
Polls don’t win anything.
People do.
Ours is a very civilised British coup.
Although Professor WATP Two Jobs political failure, sorry, abject fourth placed political failure in my Ward, Adam Tomkins’ ‘The Queen’s Eleven’ tweet follower, now threatens ‘civil war’ if we vote for Self Determination.
Oh dear. oh dear.
Polls:- Discuss.
Boring,Brian.
The very thing you don’t want people to suffer through and, of course, … time.
In an ideal world, you’d spend time convincing, debating and changing minds through gathered data, evidence and vision. In an ideal world.
Scotland’s population currently doesn’t have that luxury.
What we have is an impending economic and societal disaster of historic proportions. That’d be the other trigger for change. Human hardship and suffering on a nationwide scale which leaves no doubt as to its authors identity. Hardship also really tends to focus peoples’ minds on rapid solutions. Usually too late.
Scotgov’s choices are:
1. Do something about that before their population faces the worst (even though the polls are evenly split), because that’s the job you have.
2. Sit back for another year or two and allow the disaster to overtake the population and hope against hope that the damage to Scotland’s economy and population was worth the wait.
One is duty, the other a colder and entirely pragmatic strategy.
Sometimes all the gathered empirical demographic data, strategy and planning in the world fails when it meets real life. Major events, even small events with major implications, don’t wait on the best planning or ideal conditions. They just happen and if you’re the go to bod? You have to deal with that catastrophe for the good of everyone the best you can.
I’d say right now qualifies as one of those times.
I think the ‘sit back for a year or two’ boat has sailed, Sam.
Imagine if England, and it is ‘England’ now, ‘took back control’ next April, and we did nothing for two years.
I cannot imagine A Yes strategy which included 1/3 of a million Scots children suffering even more poverty and penury, while WM stripped Holyrood of its powers and our industries, agriculture, aquaculture and Public Services like Health Education, Emergency Services and Policing are sold of to the highest Yankee bidder.
Wait and see is no longer an option.
Now’s the day, and now’s the hour.
No arguments here Jack. Just pointing out the two alternatives.
Also, hopefully, pointing out that when events overtake planning? There is no such thing as the right time. There’s only the time you have.
It is recorded that £1 will get you 0.90 of a euro at Cardiff airport today.
Before Brexit £1 bought you 1.30 euros.
It is happening now, Sam.
Next april my EU passport wil not be valid, f we stand still and let it happen.
We are at the:- ‘and then they came for me’, stage now.
Doing nothing is no longer an option, in my humble but very tetchy opinion.
check the typos.
Really latest poll is independance at 51.2% found that out from Gordon Ross of indy car.
I feel the same Brian. I talk to people who are still clearly NO, but others are starting to notice. Hopefully this will be in polls soon.
Your marbles.
Paul great article. Thanks for your regular post.
The use of data analysis means pollsters can now accurately select a “random” group of voters to enable a “result” as required by their paymasters.
Grow up people! This is the end game!
I’m dubious about indyref polls. Like the newspapers they seem to exist to manipulate opinion not reflect it. As to claims that they wouldn’t risk their reputation skewing polls…oh yes they
would if the establishment demanded! The bugger that raised the 60% canard has a lot to answer for.
Professor John, sorry, Professor ‘Sir’ John Curtice’s polling company is part financed by the Tory government.
“Start with the answer, and fill in stats and figures to back up the outcome the customer is paying for”.
The customer is always right.
It was the premise of the GERS nonsense dreamed up by Ian Lang, now ‘Lord’Lang for his troubles, who was SoS for Scotland in 1993 when John Major led the Blue Tories.
Lie to the Scots about everything.
You may recall Lang’s farce of a Lords’ debate on Indyref 1. Hour after hour of too wee too poor too stupid as the ancient Lords dozed in their divans.
It still applies in spades today.
Scotland is one of the richest middle sized countries in the world, and our wealth is being sucked South to fund England’s failing state.
Curtice is as complicit in this Grand Theft as the rest of them.
Polls mean nothing.
John McTernan ‘predicted’ the result of the Referendum, 55% No 45% Yes on Andrew Neil’s wee Referendum show on the eve of the September ’14 Vote.
Davidson announced the result of the postal votes one minute after the polls closed on the 18th September 2014, before the votes were counted and the results announced.
The Polis looked into it. She was innocent of any wrong doing.
Aye right.
The polls will say what the Iron Heel Oligarchy decide they will say.
Indyref 2 will be a dark campaign.
GERS lies, bedroom sex romps, are only the dummy run.
The English and their Fifth Column, the Anglo Scot Edinburgh based Establishment, will do anything to smash the will of the people of Scotland.
It will get very murky indeed.
well, let’s look into the Red Blue and Yellow Tory Sex scandal closet too.
Oh, yes and the DUP dark money.
Two can play at that game, or three, if you are a Labour Lord in a red bra and a denim jerkin.
Jumping out of the UK frying pan into the EU fire holds little appeal for me personally but the case for EU membership is well presented by WGD. However, there’s one important aspect of this debate which rarely gets a mention i.e. whether a yes vote is more or less likely if the case for independence loses the virtue of being seen as positive and exciting and instead becomes based on anger and frustration at the actions of Westminster. The jury’s still out on that one.
Oh Lordy. Another Q.E.D. moment.
https://www.politico.eu/article/us-rounds-on-britain-over-food-quotas-as-post-brexit-trade-woes-deepen/amp/
An older article, but just picked up the link elsewhere. Highlights quite neatly the problem with the ‘it’ll be alright on the night’ premise of the government’s WTO schtick.
I know this is a daft sentiment and will probably never happen.
However I think that the People should get together and crowdfund a campaign to take the whole UK Cabinet and UK shadow Cabinet to court for ‘wilful and reckless neglect and damage’ to the livelihood of the People they govern. I am sure many businesses would support this. Just hoping.
Worth reading.
Sam, you may recall that the same David Leask wandered Europe during Indyref 1 and sent back despatches from ‘Europeans’ who didn’t think much about Scots’ bid Independence and membership of the EU.
Only by voting No would we remain in the EU.
This lass ‘Dr’ Jones, is making a name for herself, or so she thinks.
It has nothing of course to do with arguments for Self Determination.
It is an exercise in Empty headed scribbling on Leask’s part and desperate attention seeking from yet another young self promoter.
The Angela Haggerty road to getting noticed.
It is utter nonsense.
Yet still our children go hungry, our Freedom of Movement throughout Europe will be forcibly withdrawn by English Edict, and there will be food shortages and hyperinflation because Rees Mogg and Boris Johnson, former Foreign Sec., now the £250,000 a year Establishment buffoon hack, have the power to force it upon us, and if we do nothing to prevent it, every man and woman and child in Scotland will be plunged into Establishment engineered deprivation and shortages.
But hey, it’s all those ‘bots’ fault.
They’ll write anything but truth and reality.
What a load of inconsequential crap from Leask.
Is Trump advertising revenue still funding the Herald Britland?
You bet it is.
Come to Trumpland Ayrshire.
Play a round of golf.
If you are well off that is.
When May comes back from her risible African ‘Trade Mission’, the shit will splatter the Palce of Westminster walls big time.
But that’s big politics. like Dark Money from the DUP to Ruth Davidson, it’s out of Leask’s Pay Grade.
The Establishment hacks are done for.
Well, Ms Jones and Mr Leask have certainly made a name for themselves to be sure.
TBH, I took one look at the nonsense and filed it under bin. There are real issues facing our population out there. Real hunger, oppressive legislation, undermining of democracy and rewriting of popular narrative to either deflect from these issues or cover them altogether.
The shrieking of the Scottish media has become, at best, a white noise irritation and a distraction. They are what they are and that means they’re not going to be part of the solution. Certainly not if their current output is any indicator.
Sam, we’ve given enough air space.
Competition time: (while WDG and his Man pet are away enjoying themselves.)
I think that we’re al lagreed that Scotland must have its own currency and Central Bank..
My vote goes to ‘The Scotia’.
‘Poundy MacPoundface’ will not be accepted as an entry to the competition.
Prize for the winning entry will be a pint of what you fancy at WGD pis…’sorry, get together in Glasgow in October, courtesy of yours truly.
If the winner can’t make it, we’ll toast absent friends.
Answers here..
Name that currency! Come on, guys, it whimsy time.
As I am in a whimsy mood Jack. I like Merk. Not a Deutsche Merk but a Jock Merk.
The original thirty pieces of silver, thirty merks, which
the Parcel of Rogues got for selling Scotland to England.
Good one, Andy.
I love izzie’s ‘the Alex’ though.
Keep ’em coming, guys.
I’ve always liked a wee bawbee myself but a ‘gowd’ would be my next choice as in the ‘man’s the gowd for a’ that’
We could back to £ s d, guys.
The merks gowds and Alexes?
One merk (old £) equals 20 gowds (old shilling) , or 240 alexes (old penny).
Like school sports day, everyone’s a winner so far.
THE ALEX
Repeating a post from Wings FYI
Time to remind people once more, that support for independence, when asked a straight Yes or No type question stood at around 54% from the inception of devolution until the banking crisis.
These poll results were effectively buried and instead a much lower reported level of support for independence in Europe as one option of multi-option polling was reported and hyped.
See graphic below. It was produced in 2006. Several subsequent polls up to the banking crisis in 2007/8 showed similar results.
The successful portrayal of the banking crisis as ‘Bad Scottish banks’ by Darling and Brown, despite the fact that the ‘Good English bank’ Barclays, clandestinely received a bigger bail out than HBOS and RBS put together did have a real effect on level of support.
It is only now getting back to the pre banking crisis level.
thanks for the info chicmac – i wonder how long their media dam will hold , the bbc are working 24/7 in total damage control , they are getting nervous hence the blunders in the last few weeks .
A good move by Alex it saves the SNP making the same mistake they made over Michelle Thomsons year long media wichunt when the SNP management were posted missing in action , he has just saved their blushes because i dont think they actually knew what to do , with all unionist parties calling for his head even before any trial has began , have no doubt the media the bbc the press up here have convicted him with no evidence available ,How Surprising eh .
I would have liked to have contributed to his crowdfunded defence but a tenner starting amount is the cost of two days dinners so i cant at the moment . anyway best of luck Alex .
Don’t worry Robert, the crowdfunder has just passed £75,000!
Oh thanks, I have seen other people saying that they donated a fiver, but when I tried it kept coming up please enter a valid amount , I eventually gave up .
The SNP has had more coverage in the last two days than they have had since the walkout , is this what it takes a bit of drama to be noticed, if so it just draws attention to the normal situation of just ignore them they might go away .
Rumour hath it that the brilliant MSP Murdo fraser, sadly rejected by voters but non the less seated in Holyrood under the list scheme, donated a quid , just so he could leave a snidy comment. Two other ‘ challenged” contributors also left vulgar , silly schoolboy comments and presumably equally small contributions.
Meanwhile, from today’s Guardian:-
“The number of cars built in UK factories slumped by 11% last month compared with a year ago.
Just over 121,000 cars left production lines, with a fall of 35% in models built for the UK, according to the latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). Car production for export in July fell by 4.2%.
Despite the reduction, the sector remains on track to meet 2018 expectations, said the SMMT.
Just under 955,500 cars were built in the first seven months of the year, down by 16% for the UK market and 1.2% for export. This marks an improvement on June, when production for the UK plunged 47%, although there was a 6% rise in cars made for export.
Model changes, operational adjustments and preparations for new emissions standards affected output last month, said the SMMT.
Its chief executive, Mike Hawes, said: “While the industry is undoubtedly feeling the effects of recent uncertainty in the domestic market, drawing long-term conclusions from monthly snapshots requires a health warning.
”
“The bigger picture is complex and month by month fluctuations are inevitable as manufacturers manage product cycles, operational changes and the delicate balance of supply and demand from market to market.
To ensure future growth, we need political and economic clarity at home, and the continuation of beneficial trading arrangements with the EU and other key markets.”
The UK exports most of the cars made here. However, British buyers also get the majority of their vehicles from overseas, with about 86% of new cars being imported and 69% of new cars coming from the EU.”
But where was the Political Editor of the Daily Record last night when this devastating news abour ‘our’ car industry landed on his desk?
On Newsnight, brow gleaming like Tricky Dickie, salivating, as he hinted at more revelations of alleged boozy bed room romps by AS.
Monica Lennon, Alex Rowley (whose daughter Danielle unwisely stuck her boot into AS via twitter) were last autumn’s sleaze sex and harassment targets.
We are within 7 months of having our European passports taken away from us by an English Iron Heel Oligarchy, and Clegg and Co. would rather smirk and sneer about alleged ‘bed room’ shenanigans of former politicians.
Since this latest round of SNP smears can only harm sales of the Brit Nat Dead tree Scrolls, who is bank rolling the loss of revenue during this SNP Smear Campaign.
Trump?
The Brexshit is about to hit the fan big time, but Clegg and Co are writing about bums being squeezed in bedrooms and Party conferences.
God help any of these Brit Nat Hacks who has a harassment claim lodged against them in the future.
Brexit is about to explode.
Barnier has not ‘blinked’ despite the Herald Britland’s headline yesterday.
The Chequers Proposals will not even make it onto the Negotiating Table.
WM Little Englunders will crush it over the next few weeks.
We are heading for the cataclysm of No Deal.
But our ‘bums and tits’ hacks don’t give a fuck about Scotland.
Salmond has resigned.
However there are two Scottish civil servants who deserve privacy and an assurance of confidentiality as their complaints are dealt with.
But that sort of civility and respect doesn’t sell ‘papers to Clegg’s knuckledraggers.
Like nocturnal snails, some of our hacks leave a disgusting trail of slime behind them.
Scotland deserves a better press than this lot.
Simple solution to the Daily Record- just do not buy the rag. Put Clegg from N Ireland out of a job.
En passant:
“Richard Leonard: “When Labour was last in power we built 61,000 homes for social rent in Scotland.”
@FerretScot “…has been unable to replicate the 61,000 figure provided by Scottish Labour in our analysis.”
So Dick The Scarf Leonard was lying then?
I pose the question, not state the fact.
Was he lying?
We let them away with nothing from now on in.
Spread the word, folks, and the word is Independence.
People are going to be very busy because the Britnat media and the Britnat politicians lie all the time.
Labour built 6 (yes only 6) council houses between 1999 and 2007. There are stats to prove this.
SUPPORT ALEX AND SCOTLAND !…..https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/alexsalmond/backers/
The AS affair is nothing more than a witch hunt now. Those involved should be ashamed of themselves…but it seems Britnats are incapable of reflection.
Anyone still believe anything and anyone connected with the YES movement or the SNP will ever get a fair hearing or the benefit of the doubt,
It doesn’t matter what Alex proves during his visit to court ,the media and the Unionist parties in Scotland won’t believe any verdict in his favour ,
look at the frothing at the mouth remarks when he does what they want , They are afraid of Alex and are desperate to get rid of him it’s that important to them , The whole sex bit is a side show instead of splitting the support it’s galvanising folk,
most of us agree it’s politically motivated , and the sanctimonious guff about crowdfunding is all they have .
No surprise when Colin Clark contradicts them the most with innocent untill proven otherwise line when the britnats have decided 100% salmond is already guilty from the day that record headline broke.
The Britnats would make a great lynch mob.
Can you imagine a future, after we have won our independence, and some of these utter Brit Nat idiots that are trying everything they can to stop independence get elected to the new, free, parliament!! No neither can I but I bet it will happen as they have no moral compass. Just me, me, me.
Same at devolution. Tories totally against Scottish Parliament – some – now after getting a well paid job for years profess their support for devolution. Tories always on the wrong side of history by at least 20 years.
When we have our say on our independence,it’s worth noteing the comments made by indycar about asking westminester for a section 30,and what it means to abide by those rules,for us.The question of Scotland becoming Independent will never be,if we cannot investigate wrong doings in our own independent voting system,because we automatically signed that away under section 30.Do we want to have 2014 all over again?
Welcome any suggestions on ways to stop this happening.sorry for being OT.