A new poll shows that a substantial majority of voters in Scotland want another independence referendum. 63% of the Scottish public want to see another independence referendum, only 34% are oppose to another referendum. The 34% is that majority that the British nationalists are always telling us that they speak for in a perfect example of British exceptionalism, where 1/3 is bigger than 2/3. More details of the poll are given here – http://scotgoespop.blogspot.com/2020/05/stunning-telephone-poll-finds-almost.html
It’s a remarkable finding, given that we’re currently in the middle of the biggest international crisis since WW2 and we’ve been deluged in British nationalist propaganda from the media dressed up as VE Day nostalgia and lies about how we’re all in this pandemic together. Although someone clearly forgot to make sure that Dominic Cummings and the Conservative party understood the message.
Usually in times of crisis there is a “rally round the flag” effect, this happens in every country. However it’s striking that in Scotland, despite the best efforts of the British nationalist media, that effect is benefiting the Scottish Government, not the British one. Although given how god-awful the Conservative administration in Westminster has been, that’s perhaps not surprising. The UK now has the highest absolute death toll in Europe, and the highest per capital death toll in the world. This tragedy was avoidable, but the British Government has failed at every turn.
In their predictable attempts to find some SNPbad to get them through the week, the British nationalist parties and press in Scotland have had to resort to criticising the Scottish Government for not diverging from the policies of the British Government more rapidly and more assertively. That alone tells you just how dreadfully the British Government has performed. For the SNP to be attacked by British nationalists for not diverging more from Westminster is like getting a lecture on public health from Harold Shipman.
The poll shows unequivocally that people in Scotland regard the independence question as unfinished business. Far from the epidemic destroying the argument for independence, the shortcomings and lamentable performance of the British Government has only helped to focus people’s minds on the possibility that for Scotland it doesn’t have to be this way. As Scotland slowly and cautiously starts to come out of lockdown, the clamour for another independence vote is only going to grow.
Yet despite their best, or rather worst, efforts, and the constant fixation upon a Nike Conference attended by 70 people while ignoring the British Government’s decision to allow the Cheltenham Festival to go ahead a week later, the Scottish population continues to trust in the Scottish Government. Public trust in the Scottish Government, and in the First Minister in particular, is at 82%, according to another opinion poll conducted recently. Polling clearly finds that people in Scotland expect and want the Scottish Government to take the lead in fighting the virus, and trust in its judgement in doing so in a way that they’d don’t trust the British Government. It shows that there’s an expectation in Scotland that Scotland could and should formulate its own distinctive response to an international crisis.
What people in Scotland most definitely do not want is what Alister Jack and the Scottish Conservatives have been preaching, that Scotland acts in lockstep with Westminster. Which in practice means that Westminster takes all the decisions and Scotland tags along obediently. Alister Jack, supposedly the voice of Scotland in the British Government, has been noticeably absent during this crisis. He’s even more of a part time performer than the Prime Minister. The lesson that’s being drawn from this is that it’s Holyrood which speaks for Scotland, not the Scotland Office.
Equally Alister’s colleagues in Holyrood are struggling politically. They have been damaged by Surname Surname’s pitiable reluctance to say anything critical about Dominic Cummings breaking lockdown rules, when he was all over the airwaves and the press demanding the resignation of the Scottish Chief Medical Officer for a similar, although lesser, breach. Despite the vigorous defence by senior figures in the British Government, Durham Police have concluded that Cummings did potentially break the law. Cummings either broke the rules by doing on a family outing during the lockdown, or he broke the rules by putting other road users at risk by driving while he thought he might be unfit to do so. It’s one or the other, and either constitutes a sacking offence in a senior government advisor who has been forming the rules that the rest of us must abide by. Surname Surname has done his best to keep his head down because criticising Number 10 is way above his paygrade. He might not have been noticed in the media, but his hypocrisy and the hypocrisy of his party has most certainly been noticed by the public.
We are now in a Scotland which expects that the independence question should be revisited. Moreover we are in a Scotland where there is also an expectation that Scotland should make important decisions for itself, including decisions about how to respond during an international crisis. The Scottish Government enjoys huge public trust, while the British Government stands exposed as a bunch of self-serving liars and charlatans who have traduced any faith that the people might once have placed in them and whose incompetence and successive failures have led to the UK being the worst affected place in the world.
No British nationalist can now go to the Scottish public in a second referendum and seriously argue that Scotland depends upon the British Government to keep it safe. No one can now plausibly assert that Scotland is more secure and better protected by Westminster than it could be as an independent nation. We only have to point to the British Government’s record in mishandling the coronavirus epidemic.
There is now a willingness in Scotland to listen to and accept pro-independence messages that didn’t exist in 2014. There is now a lack of trust and faith in the institutions of the British state that didn’t exist in 2014. And above all we enter a new independence referendum campaign with the idea of independence a normal topic in Scottish political discourse, and with the support of half the population. Once we are through this crisis and out the other side of it, independence is ours for the taking.
For the grassroots movement coming out of lockdown means that we can, tentatively, begin once again to build upon our local networks of activists and activities. We can once again start to debate and discuss the arguments that we will need to persuade undecided voters to our cause. But we’re now pushing at an open door. What we need to see from the Scottish Government is the same determination to pursue the goal of self-determination for Scotland as it has done to ensure that we’re kept safe during the epidemic, because a British state that knows it will lose the independence vote is a British state that’s going to be unwilling to cooperate in delivering a referendum. We must not ask for a referendum, we must demand one, take one, and make one happen regardless.
James Kelly (no not that one) of the opinion poll analyst blog Scot Goes Pop is crowdfunding to commission a new opinion poll on the independence question in the post-Barnard Castle era of British government. It’s not an easy decision to crowdfund right now as we’re still in lockdown and many people are facing uncertain futures, but this is a good cause and it’s certainly worth your while sending a couple of quid his way. He’ll put the money to good use.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/a-postdom-opinion-poll-on-independence
And finally, because we could all do with a laugh during these difficult times …
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Wee Ginger Dug 
[…] Wee Ginger Dug The next steps to indy A new poll shows that a substantial majority of voters in Scotland want another […]
Freedom once again. What an amazing thought. I can hardly wait and look forward to more discussions with the uncertain or the simply delusional.
15. (of 20.)
Scots Wha Hae – Reprise
Scots, wha hae wi’ Salmond bled,
Scots, wham Sturgeon has aften led,
Welcome tae yer gory bed
Or tae destiny.
Now’s the day, an’ now’s the hour:
Seize oor chance a’ last fir power.
See the fearties start tae cower.
Scotland will be free!
Wha will be as cruel as Tojo?
Wha will bow tae Lunnon’s BoJo?
Wha sae base as lose his mojo?
Let him turn an’ flee.
Wha fir Scotland’s Pride an’ Aw’
Freedom’s sword will strongly draw?
Bondsman stand or Freeman fa’:
Let him follow me.
By th’ oppressive woes and pains,
Of oor sons in servile chains,
We will drain oor dearest veins
But we shall be free!
Lay Westminster oh so low.
Traitors fall – like every foe.
Freedom’s oors wi’ every blow!
Let us vote fir liberty!
______
[With acknowledgements]
Songs for the New Politics
2013-2020
I don’t know where you get the energy,Paul. another belter on the button.
It is fast approaching the time when some of us take off our whimsy party hats and enter campaign mode, and produce written work which is perhaps more ‘professional, polished, and forensic.
I look forward to Rennie and the £15 billion black hole, the 3 times the trade with England, and the Liverpool Mechanic is my British Brother stuff getting an airing.
Perhaps Supermom Davidson will get the gig fronting Better together as a SPAD?
Let’s hope so.
To all the genteel folk in Carlaw’s constituency with bleary eyesight, do no follow Blue Tory advice and drive to Pollock Park to see if your eyesight is good enough for you to drive to the golf course.
Can’t wait for the Starting Gun.
So much ammunition on hand Jack the guns will be knackered before the ammo is used up a Reminder of every Tory f/k up would be helpful because the list of this lots ballsups is growing by the day , every single thing this tory lot have be intrused with has failed every one ,
of course the Scottish media had reported it all we can trust them cant we eh JOKE in case you didn’t notice
The latest YouGov, Westminster tracker puts the SNP at 54%. The boost is mainly at the expense of the LibDems who sit at an astonishing 3%. Oh to picture the chagrin of wee Wullie and Co.. That’s what you get when your tactical genius tells you to stake your position in an already crowded, Unionist shopfront.
Superbly put, a call to arms is close if #10 have set the media attack dogs loose on SG and the FM, this time they’re going to get backchat…
Your “This tragedy was avoidable, but the British Government has failed at every turn” is missing a “deliberately”, an aspect which is slowly beginning to dawn even in deepest England thanks to the machinations of one Demonic Cummings. Contrary to the chaos he and others plotted to provoke, the scales are falling from eyes now on how far they’ve been conned, with an eye-watering death toll for their troubles.
Greater England will not stand in the way of indy2 however it is formulated, they are sharpening pitchforks for their own battle, in Scotland what SG does next is crucial.
So what’s next? A socially distanced AUOB march could take days to pass ?
Love that last sentence Bob!
Let’s hope John Swinney goes for the throats of the Tory supporters on the Question Time Panel tonight , set your watches and see how long it takes for the only Labour MP in Scotland to go on the attack ,and we know exactly who he will go for , nope not the worst government in living memory it will be the SNP won’t it Ian , Ian is Labours only MP , yep he’s No 1 the only one , how sad eh .
Apologies if that was a bit o/t
Like to support your cousins in the same way we support you?
Welsh indy movement YesCymru sees membership surge as 500 join in five days
28th May 2020
https://nation.cymru/news/welsh-indy-movement-yescymru-sees-membership-surge-as-500-join-in-five-days/#comments
https://www.yes.cymru/
Well done Wales
Bob, the idea of a socially distanced march is one which I will raise a glass to. As soon as we legally can I will
be there alongside my pals. My pjs and toothbrush tucked into my bag!
Just watched an exhibition from a so called prime minister.
Boris Johnsons questions and answers episode
A total farce.if people throughout the uk are willing
To swallow what that man says.they have not got
The brains they where born with.very sad people
Indeed.
Agreed, provided only that we engage with them on their terms, and not on our own (privately-precious) ones, as too often happened last time.
No “angels on pinheads” stuff please, folks, nor tangential diversions about future policies that may well in time come to be widely understood as desirable or even necessary, but which right now offer too many hostages to fortune to the eagerly-tendentious BritNat media.
Health care and the necessary fully-autonomous provision of economic support for it are prime candidates for us, I suggest…
We *must* make sure the next debate is on our terms. Get bogged down in technical details of what *we* want and we will fail again. Instead, we must persuade unionists to co-create the future with statements like:
“To think we voted no in 2014 thinking this was as good as we could get,”
And questions like:
“So what would you do differently?”
Are the bbc intentionally sowing confusion. Water sports is not currently ready for tomorrow. Don’t travel more than 5 miles but nice pictures of a beach full of people. Come on down. Be as bad as England.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-52835371
Main BBC News at 6pm. Sarah Smith reporting on the easing of lockdown in Scotland and the Track and Trace. Manages to work the Nike conference into the report and the woman in the kilt shop who had ‘flu like symptoms’ after some of the delegates were in the shop but was not contacted by the tracers. Wonder how many Italian, Spanish and Austrian tourist were in her shop during that period?
Sometimes you just really want to throw a brick at the TV.
There are questions about *kilt woman’s* identity still to be confirmed, but it looks like she may not be *an ordinary housewife*
Dr Jim
According to a report in the online Herald Edinburgh Council are now going to carry out an inquiry into the ‘outbreak’.
As to the woman. She appeared briefly in the report tugging at the heartstrings – aged father etc etc.
Sarah Smith’s “thumbs up” to whoever was beside her after her turn at the FM’s daily update might suggest that the hapless “Nike Conspiracy” they are attempting to breathe life into will be on rinse/repeat along the lines of QEUH…
Clearly PQ, Jackass, et al have been instructed to create a smear out of anything they can and for some reason they think the Nike story may have legs.. What role incontinent SNP pigeons and contaminated separatist water will play, we’ll just have to wait and see…
I’d guess the viewing public are getting pretty jaded at their desperate drivel by now….
Bought myself a rubber one from a joke shop years ago for getting rid of idiots. But is also good for just such a requirement. ‘S’ mair like a half brick now been use so often.
Headline in an opinion piece for the Guardian by David McCoy, professor of global public health and director of the Centre for Public Health at Queen Mary University of London no less.
After PPE and testing, contact tracing looks like the next UK shambles
Once more the UK is being substituted in place of England but it gets much worse in the article itself.
The government’s zeal for outsourcing and centralisation has compromised its coronavirus strategy from the outset
Well, when it comes to contract tracing Scotland has outsourced precisely zero.
Curbing the coronavirus outbreak involves a familiar mantra: test, trace, isolate. As of this week, the government will begin to roll out the second part of this strategy. In theory, contact tracers will call or text people in England and Scotland who test positive for coronavirus, asking them to provide a list of everyone they have met for longer than 15 minutes, who will then receive a message instructing them to self-isolate for 14 days.
This is very very sloppy writing, there is no mention of what circumstances qualify as a contact with regards to distance, I’ve no idea what it is in England but in Scotland, it will be “face-to-face” contact of less than 1m distance for any duration and within 2m distance for 15 mins. A Prof of Public Health should have been much more clear,
But already, the contact-tracing strategy looks set to be hobbled by the government’s reluctance to involve local authorities and regional public health expertise in its coronavirus response from the outset, and its dogmatic commitment to outsourcing health services to the private sector.
This is the exact opposite of the strategy in Scotland where contact tracing will be run by each of the 11 local health boards and with the assistance of local authority Public Health teams.
Baroness Dido Harding, who is leading the programme of testing and tracing, recently conceded that the UK system won’t be fully operational at the local level until late June. Elsewhere, contact tracers have spoken of difficulties accessing the government system, describing it as a “complete shambles”. One recruit reportedly said their training amounted to reading a pdf and taking an online quiz – “all of which takes an hour”.
This fired me up, Baroness Dido Harding has absolutely nothing to do with the scheme in Scotland. The professor must know this, else he’s an idiot. The Scottish scheme has been trial tested and is now up and running in all health board areas from today. There have been no reported problems with their software to my knowledge and in Scotland it is far from a “complete shambles”.
The UK, on the other hand, started by pursuing a call-centre model run by Serco and staffed with minimum wage customer service employees. Recruitment agencies tasked with finding contact tracers are reportedly offering an hourly wage of £8.72 to staff with experience of “telephone or face-to-face customer services”. Viewing contact tracers as customer service call handlers may be a good business model for Serco, but I would like to know if a single public health specialist in this country thinks this was a good idea.
The vast majority of our contact tracers employed in Scotland already had a role within our NHS, they are experienced health workers and not your typical call centre handler. Serco is getting nowhere near any of our Covid-19 projects and neither would the likes of Deloitte who Westminster appointed to run the drive-in centres.
I fired off a shitty email to the Opinion desk of the Guardian, requesting that they rectify this blatant misreporting and that they correct the glaring errors. If I get no response I’ll be sending the same to IPSO. I’m getting really pissed off with the casualness of how they lump Scotland in with the most incompetent Westminster government ever under the guise of UK reporting.
https://archive.vn/GGODM
Yeah I read that piece and was confused by it. It didn’t distinguish between Scotland and England (no mention at all of Wales or Northern Ireland), and kept referring to a “UK system” when the Scottish and English systems are distinct. It was very poorly written and misleading.
And was not open for comments the last time I looked. Guess the Guardian knew there would be a rush of comments setting the story straight.
One of the signs that the Guardian can no longer be trusted is their careful blocking of comments whenever they put up an article they must know is contentious or even dead wrong.
Sky news report for today
Total deaths in the uk last 24 hours = 377
Deaths in englandland =185
deaths in Wales = 14
deaths in NI = 2
unaccounted for possibly Scotland = 176
But Scotland’s death figure was 12
so the deaths out with hospitals in englandland is 164 so total is 349 for englandland
The celtic total is 30, deliberate????
This is the standard of writing from the media.
Great article again Paul, your on fire these days. One sentence really stood out for me. “Once we are through this crisis and out the other side of it, independence is ours for the taking”.
I like that, make it so and soon, we need outa this mad house.
How very dare you , Alex. Don’t you know that Britland/yukay/England has a WORLD BEATING test and trace system – which naturally it needs to complement its world beating perception of itself and it’s world beating casualty list.
Has this Superior Brit government got anything right? I can’t think of anything but maybe I am biased.
Absolutely key to our upcoming drive to retake our independence is the debunking of the Brit myth of superiority. Their accompanying myth of Scots inferiority is the second arm of their lethal embrace and of course we need to debunk that too. Fortunately, over the last few years the Brits have been intent on helping us with this task but I am confident that their worst efforts are yet to come.
It is a nonetheless a tragedy that the loss of countless innocent lives, through gross incompetence and buffoonery, is apparently integral to the Brit sense of self worth. I wonder how they will celebrate their loss in the years ahead, those plucky Brits? Give me strength.
I’d be very happy if England did have a world beating test and trace system as it would help save many more lives. Unfortunately, I do not believe that as of now it even has the bare bones of a test and trace system.
It has 25,000 new employees and 20,000 of them are call center workers recruited through agencies to work for Serco. This has happened because all that mattered to UK government ministers was beating targets of getting 20,000 contact tracers by the middle of May.
It’s all bullshit, Public Health workers with local government in England must have been tearing their hair out as this was being set up without their involvement at any level. It’s an unbelievable disgrace that proper training is not yet in place for these people. The system that they log on too is reported to have crashed this morning, the first day of its use.
The famous app has been found to be useless and is not expected to be operational for weeks yet, I suspect it will be abandoned and they ill finally settle on the Google/Apple app that most of the rest of the world have decided to use.
This is all as a result of failed Tory ideology, the private sector is the right people for the job! It doesn’t matter that they are a company of Accountants and Management Consultants, let’s appoint Deloitte to do all the testing for Covid-19 at the entire UK’s drive-in centres.
Madness and this has resulted in the Scottish government failing to receive results for tens of thousands of tests carried out in Scotland because of “data protection concerns” FFS I still don’t believe it’s working properly yet and test results can still take days to get back to the health boards that need that data.
Tory ideology of the sort on display during this crisis has been a real eye opener for many. It is literally killing people because profit is being put before people and the incompetence shown at many levels is unavoidable. It’s time for change, the people of Scotland deserve better.
You would be right to suspect the testing was not working properly. This from the Guardian today
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/28/coronavirus-testing-hit-struggle-match-results-with-nhs-records
The private firms with the contracts to take the samples at drive through centres are not up to the job apparently. Now who would have seen that coming?
Astonishing that these issues exist in such a crucial matter involving life and death. Yet under Westminster leadership, this appears to be just par for the course.
As you had quoted earlier Alex, “its dogmatic commitment to outsourcing health services to the private sector” is their go to ideology for all public related problems not just health..
What works in a car assembly plant can be applied to a hospital, emergency services can be slimmed down until an emergency happens along, contact tracing just needs a few thousand minimum wage workers on a temporary contract, the app does the real work, etc…
These are the same traits as exhibited by bad managers throughout the ages, a “tick-box” hands-off approach, if it all goes pear-shaped, bury the reports, numbers, people, concentrate on the bottom line, learn nothing.
I struggle to think of exceptions to my perspective every efficient solution the Tories have proposed since Beeching has decimated people and communities at the stroke of a pen.
When their cartel collapsed in 2008 the public paid dearly for it, they are hell bent on the exact same tactic for the next rupture coming along shortly.
The Tories cannot and will not reform for the greater good, their love affair with England has the occasional fallout but will never change either, only Scotland can change, and must.
World beating at getting it wrong, so medal trophy fist pump, the best at being worst
It’s a funny country the Britshire
Brilliant stuff as per usual Paul, but WHY has none of the ‘opposition’ parties screamed out for a No Confidence vote on these criminals and their government? If now is not the time?
Because the Tories have an 80 seat majority and a vote of no confidence wouldn’t get anywhere.
Just watched BBc 10pm News and have to ask the question………..will that damnable woman Sarah Smith ever give up? Desperate for a neagttive report on Nicola Sturgeon ,she takes the opportunity to again report on the Nike meeting which was attended by a virus carrier and it was the SNPs fault!!!
I thought Scottish voters had always voted for independence. It was rUK voters that kept us in the Union in 2014 and Nicola Sturgeon ever since. I- think Sturgeon aint- got a plan to get us outta here.
FFS why not have a go at Johnson, Cummings, Westminster, Ian Murray or any other Unionist toerag than is fighting with every fibre of their being against Independence rather than the leader of the SNP. Who’s side are you actually on?
What’s your interest in Scottish Independence? You don’t write like someone who is actually a Scot.
Fuck off. Nicola is taking Scotland forward carefully and steadily to independence.
Just commented elsewhere. Had exactly the same view. Salmond would have wiped the floor with Smith. Nicola appeared to answer it without any personal affront bla bla. Nicola may be the consummate politician but she isnt inspiring or left field in anyway but is utterly predictable in her consistency. She is no Garibaldi or Mazzini. Mind you my partner did think there had been BBC manipulation of the question and answervala Robinson v Salmond. If I ws Sturgeon I just wouldn’t let the BBC in. What’s the point anyway. The BBC provide a summation of events that are clarified for us usually by some guy or women sitting in their bedroom on their blog at a fraction of the cost.
Hahaha go for it!
Under Nicola Sturgeon we have reached over 50% of the electorate wishing independence. When AS called for independence we were at what and lost. We cannot lose again. One way to lose of course is to agitate for a 3rd or 4th Independence Party which will ensure no snp majority by splitting the vote. Too many pretendy vote for me politicians currently on blogs with the forlorn hope of success. They are so blinded by their fantasy they do not realise they are being played.
I like Nicola however it has NOT been the SNP who has raised the indy supporting figure but the Yes groups across the country. Yes groups have many hard working SNP members in them but the SNP as a party has done no active campaigning since 2014. They do not even have campaign materials.
I wrote to them twice asking them to confirm whether or not they still have the donations for the indy campaign that many of us contributed too, the nearly £500k which was going to be kept until the campaign started. Did they spend it as Wings insinuated? No answer.
I like the SNP and vote for them. Like all political constructs the party comes first. This must always be understood that they chase votes and power, policy even important ones comes second to winning.
Without good policies parties do not win. Once in power without competence in government and the execution/implementation of good policies parties do not win. If the party does not win it cannot bring forward an independence referendum and win it. The SNP has to win every time to keep the hope of independence alive. The opposition party or parties just need to win once and independence is dead in the water.
Well I watched QT up until the moment Ian Murray bawled out that Scotland was the epicentre of the Corona Virus then I could take no more
Critics of the FM bleat on a daily basis about her so called failures except for the facts which they always forget because they read the Internet zoomers and misery guts people, but following the disaster of 2014 where we had a 6 point lead over the opposition then that was squandered to a 10% defeat, Nicola Sturgeon now has Scotland in the position of not only making up the squandered lead but she has advanced those numbers now to 63% pro Independence
Now I don’t have to spell out the maths of that or the reasons for it but folks memory of history must have gotten really fuzzy in the last six years if they think that by demanding the return of the guy who lost the first time is a good plan then they should take on the job of Scotland football manager and bring back Kenny Dalgliesh and lose at that too
Nicola Sturgeon has put Scotland in a place it has never been, she has single handedly convinced supporters of the British Union and also the women of Scotland who proportionately were against Independence to vote SNP and Independence, and she’s done it by hard work and straight talking, not waving a flag and jumping up and down, her style, her approach is getting the job done in a business like manner, she said she’d do it and she has
That’s what inspires confidence in non partisan voters
BTW I actually like jumping up and down and waving my flag but each to his/her own and I can’t argue with the results, and that’s what’s important, not just what I like
Not just at home DR Jim, but internationally. While the rest of the world is going WTF at bojo and Westminster, they see a different story in Scotland. You can’t really compare Nicola to any of the other Female leaders in Europe or NZ or anywhere else because they aren’t having to deal with this with one arm tied behind their back. Even furth of our southern frontier, people are looking north and saying, I could be doing with some of that. Meanwhile anti Sturgeon is going full pronto, wonder why.
As someone from across the North Sea I have some distance from the debate, but I think you’re spot on.
Remember what the Unionists attacked Salmond on in 2014: not on the desire for Indy itself, but “How are you going to implement X/Y/Z in an independent Scotland?”.
Nicola Sturgeon has beaten that argument into the ground, by 6 years of quiet, competent government. Even if the answer is “We don’t know yet…”, she has built a trust that “…but we’ll find a solution” will get a serious treatment.
The critics of the FM are one of three types, the first is the genuinely aggrieved Independence supporter who believes she has not brought them an Independence referendum fast enough for their liking. She hasn’t, therefore in their mind, she doesn’t want one and must just be in it for the expensive coffee maker that her cushy number buys her (cushy aye right).
The second is the poor fellow that goes along with the first type, that’s the message they hear most often, therefore, it’s true and Independence would surely come faster if we only replaced Nicola Sturgeon as leader of the SNP. I mean that much is obvious right, get rid of Sturgeon then we get an Independence referendum? Nobody actually ever bothers to explain how that comes about but never mind they are the believers.
The third is those that most of all see very clearly that they must get rid of Nicola Sturgeon if they are to halt the growing support for Independence. every single day now Nicola Sturgeon embarrasses the Westminster government and they despise her. The role of the state is to maintain the integrity of the United Kingdom and the biggest threat to that is Nicola Sturgeon.
That much is obvious, the job of the third type is to manipulate the opinions and voices of types one and two. Something they are doing with limited success going by the polls. Don’t fall for government propaganda. The route to Independence is clear and it is with Nicola Sturgeon as leader of the Scottish National Party. The only party that was formed with Independence and the end of the Union as their goal.
It is still their goal and Nicola Sturgeon is the one to take us there, that’s why they fear her so.
There surely is a fourth one: she’s not a manly man like Alex Salmond, and independence with her at the helm is worse than Unionism. So they align themselves with #3 and stoke the fears of #1 and #2.
I think we all know who the loudest voice from that wing is.
o/t warning to anyone tempted to watch Question Time , make sure your TV Laptop , or computer is well protected from flying objects , and your neighbors can’t hear you ,
I guess it took the only Labour MP in the whole of Scotland about 30 seconds before he likened Scotland to being the Plague capital of the World ,
The audience apparently were all from Glasgow well by f/k I never realised we had such a diverse population , I was tempted to start a quiz. Spot the Scot .
Fiona Bruce made sure every time John Swinney spoke she helpfully interrupted.
It was amazing how the shitshow south of the border all of a sudden became a Scottish government problem , I gave up as for Murray without swearing I can’t express my revulsion for that piece of dog shit , how John kept his composure and didn’t toss the monitor out the window is to be commended , personally I would travel Cummings style and stick the nut on that scabby fkr sorry about the language
Is it any wonder that Labour are down to only one MP (and he’s an outright Tory!!) in Scotland when Ian Murray sits there on QT and blames Scotland for the whole pandemic with his ‘ground zero’ jibe.
Noticed he was given a long, uninterrupted opening spiel, followed by each of the other ‘panellists’, before our Deputy First Minister was actually called upon to give a view. He was then constantly kept off any message by the fragrant Fiona doing her usual anti-Scottish chairmanship!!
This programme is doing us some good however, I really do think that people are slowly starting to realise what the BBC are doing – “never interrupt your enemy…..” !!
Precisely… Murray and QT are still working the same propagandised crowd they always were, but even they will be acutely aware the numbers are receding, but they are stuck in a groove of what has always worked, Sarah Smith and PQ have the exact same problem.
Despite all the agonies visited on Scotland of late, the FM and HS played a blinder in terms of shifting perceptions..
With the professional and competent manner they dealt with a clearly orchestrated barrage of attacks without biting back, SG credibility has risen above the bullshit for many viewers in England as well as Scotland, which only enrages the manipulators further.
The “enemy” revealed themselves and their techniques, but once seen they cannot be unseen and that opens a can of worms for England’s own propaganda…
Hell mend them as the next barrage comes in on SG, which it most assuredly will…
Bob, about QT last night, I was unaware that over half the population of Glasgow is English or Australian born. I make this observation on the basis that last night’s Skype audience spoke with English accents, or in one instance a Tie Me Kangaroo Down burr.
It took them 15 minutes to allow John Swinney, of the Scottish Government to speak, ‘Alison Goldie’ who posed the opening set up question to give Ian Murray the first 4 minutes to declare that Scotland is Shite, got her question out and feedback on answers from the Brit Nat Panel before John Swinney was even allowed to speak.
A typical cross section of Glasgow? Middle class with one exception, and Fiona Bruce interrupting Swinney’s responses to Murray’s quite ridiculous SNP SHITE outbursts.
There is one Red Tory MP in Scotland, 46 SNP WM MP’s yet Swinney was reduced to a bit part role from Perth while that Blue Tory Woman with the ‘CARE’ badge pinned to her lapel was allowed to chunter on in increasingly babbling soundbites..Massie looked as though he had been held captive in a cave by ISIS for three years..and talked the usual overblown ‘superior’ piffle which is his trademark.
QT from Glasgow, my arse.
I repeat, SNP boycott the BBC in particular, the Brit Nat propaganda agitators and Fifth Columnists in general.
You may note that Murray did not offer us his solution to elderly in hospital bed blocking at the start of the outbreak. But he did declare that it was an SNP scandal that well pensioners were bed blocking in the first place. Perhaps Murray can tell us where he would have plopped the think end of a thousand old folk if not back home or Care Homes.
Because at the time that Covid 19 hit these shores this chancer was opening Bring and Buys in Morningside and smiling for the cameras to populate his pathetic little online site.. An odious lightweight little man.
I am on the cusp of more forensic posts now. It is no longer funny nor will anything be resolved by satire.
I am going for the jugular. Be warned ProudScotsBut Brit Nats The day of reckoning is at hand.
And my licence fee pays for this trash.
I urge the SNP and Greens to boycott this Fourth Reich propaganda nonsense from now on in.
QT from Scotland? Aye, richt.
There is a view that Murray is killing his constituents by undermining the Scottish Government’s push to eradicate this evil.
Is this the same ‘Alison Goldie’? :-Strategic Alliances Director – Capgemini UK at Capgemini
You mean this one, Jack? Alumnus of Glasgow University.
I didn’t watch QT, so I don’t know.
What I can also tell you is that I have a contact at Capgemini, Inverness, if that helps, too.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alison-goldie-6959134/
It just seemed the usual put up job, WS.
Where are all these English Glaswegian hiding?
Oh dear…
Fair enough Jack, so very much a series of unfortunate orange jaiket events, another Dundee without Dundonians, strewth… QT would appear to have learned nothing from the distrust they generated before, or have more likely been instructed to continue the previously failed formula by #10’s blind driving test expert/s.
The Murray and Swinney set-pieces are all too familiar, but despite Murray possibly getting a brief cheer from Morningside for being platformed, blatant lying will have gone down there like a lead balloon. Murray better enjoy being Scotland’s only Labour MP as he’ll make history as Scotland’s last..
It sounds as if the heat is being turned up by the UKOK manipulators, a good blast of cold water was always a Scottish feature, and we’ve plenty in reserve, so hell mend them…
Man the Zimmers…
This is a good clip from yesterday’s newsnight programme. It is Prof Allyson Pollock of Newcastle University discussion trach and trace in England but the presenter slips up and the Scottish track and trace system makes an appearance 🙂
https://mobile.twitter.com/lumi_1984/status/1266150086398132232
Oh dear. Naughty step for that interviewer.
Oops…
I want nothing to do with Britishness, that is built on the principle that Scotland contributes nothing of value to it. I want nothing to do with unionist politicians who declare loudly that Scotland has done nothing worthy of note. I do not want to be represented by unionists who think Scotland has no language, culture or History. I want nothing to do with the unionist left, who think Scotland has a moral duty to support the English working class, regardless of circumstance. I despise the unionist middle who cravenly go with whoever is in charge. I hold in contempt the unionist right, who abase themselves on a daily basis to a gang of elite charlatans and bray that we must get on our knees with them.
I want nothing to do with the union. I am as yes today as I was when I heard Osborne’s sermon on the pound and what it cost to be “Proud Scot, but…”
We’re not independent…yet but I try to work as if I lived in the early days of a better nation.
SKY news today skillfully informing the people of England that they are *the country* again as they report that different rules apply to diffent parts of *the country*
I used to think that folk in England didn’t know where they lived and I’ve realised why, like the Corona virus the UK government and it’s media deliberately confuse those poor folk of England into believing that * they* are the UK, Britain, Great Britain, England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, and probably the channel islands as well as the Commonwealth (whatever that is)
It’s no wonder when the folk of England go anywhere else in the world they think they own those places when successive governments in the Country of England tell them one minute they’re world beating, then the next minute tell them everybody else is the shitty enemy and to be suspicious of them unless the government od the day in England has done an arms deal worth gazillions with them, then they’re buddies and partners
Even though though the entire world and his dug knows Donald Trump is a head case the government in England tells its folk he’s a great guy because we’re doing a great deal with him so will everybody please respect the guy
What the government of England and their media do to people’s minds in that country is bloody criminal, even Kim Jong eel doesn’t claim ownership of other countries and yet the Brits call him the bad guy
It’s all mentally irregular
By accident, I assure you, Dr Jim, while channel hopping, I caught the STV announcer at the end of the 6 o’ clock Scottish news announcing that we were now crossing to London for the ‘national news’, in as broad a scots brogue as you can imagine. In one word, this laddie tells me all I need to know about his politics, and his view of Scotland as a colony of England.
We shall prevail.
Cymru 1 BBC 0
First Minister: ‘England isn’t the template for the rest of the UK to follow’
29th May 2020
https://nation.cymru/news/first-minister-england-isnt-the-template-for-the-rest-of-the-uk-to-follow/
Drakeford sets the BBC straight – Wales is NOT England. They don’t like it up ’em, do they?
BBC Scotland news virtually breaks into Vera Lynne as Andrew Kerr says *we meet again*
That’s the third time I’ve heard someone on BBC Scotland use that phrase, and in itself it’s not offensive or anything but to anyone under the age of around 60 years old and certainly to our YOOF it’s totally meaningless, but it goes to the mindset of Britishness that they use things like this in their attempt at restoring and reviving historical unity when faced with the problem of disunity
The year is 2020 but the BBCs tactics are still stuck on Dunkirk beach with no cigar
They were brainwashed from childhood onwards, swearing allegiance to their Queen and Country, which, horror of horrors, turned out to be England.
Just take a look at the youth organisations’ agendas and vows.
Despite the regular tsunami of negativity put out by the media, I am confident that most Scots, maybe around 82% of us, think that Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish Government are the go to people to guide us through this pandemic. It is so obvious. It follows that it is equally obvious to everyone that their detractors, Murray and co are disingenuous.
Infuriating as it is, it is a fine service that the Brits are doing for us.
The huff and puff comments here and elsewhere about Nicola being less than committed to independence are irrelevant. Just wind and pish, signifying nothing. Penny numbers of people who have over inflated egos.
Fortunately, they will be inconsequential in the wider scheme of things – which is what really upsets them.