It’s a tough gig being the branch officer manager of the Labour party in Scotland. Poor Rumbold Leakbladder, there he goes penning an article in the Record insisting that there’s no appetite in Scotland for independence because he’s got Ian Murray breathing down his neck in thon union jack jaiket, and an opinion poll comes out later the very same day that shows there’s majority support for independence – again.
There have been six reputable opinion polls this year asking about the independence question, and only one of them has shown majority support against independence – and that by the tiniest of margins. There was a seventh poll, but it was carried out by the frothers of Scotland in Union and asked a non-standard question, so it doesn’t count. It cannot be meaningfully compared with the others and in any case the question asked was deliberately designed to be misleading. Which is entirely appropriate for Scotland in Union as it’s very much in line with all their arguments for opposing independence.
Back in the real world, support for independence is continuing to grow slowly. You can tell that the Labour party in Scotland’s heart just isn’t in it any more. Rudolf Lipsmacker’s piece in the Record couldn’t even be bothered to waffle on about federalism. Even the people trying to big it up know that it’s a non-starter. Federalism was always about saving the collective arses of the non-Tory proponents of British nationalism in Scotland, and no one in England is motivated enough by the political travails of Rancid Lunchlauncher to upend British constitutional arrangements which already work well enough for most people in England thank you very much. The British state is structured so that politically England’s elite always gets it they wants, and those who benefit from that power in England aren’t about to indulge themselves in an unprecedented bout of self-sacrifice just in order to boost the electoral chances of the Labour party’s Scottish branch office. The problem for the Labour party’s branch office in Scotland is that everyone in Scotland knows that too. The chances of federalism ever actually happening are zero, whether Rumplestiltskin Loinburger mentions it or not.
That just leaves Rintintin Lowloader with nothing in his political armoury except to go around insisting that there’s no appetite for independence. In the process he shows himself to be a man who would struggle to identify a lack of appetite even when he’s just after his dinner. Never before has a politician so badly misread the mood in the room since King Herod announced his new childcare plans. Some while ago the Scottish political analyst Gerry Hassan wrote a book called The Strange Death of Scottish Labour. He’s going to need a new chapter, Even Deader- the Zombie Years. There is indeed no appetite, there’s no appetite for the Labour party in Scotland.
Opposing independence at all costs is all that matters, and to hell with the 35% of Labour voters in Scotland who would vote yes in another referendum. There’s to be none of that recognising democracy nonsense. There’s to be none of that nonsense that Ian Murray asserted when he said “A democracy fails to be a democracy if the public are not allowed to change their mind. That is exactly what people have been doing.” Indeed, Ian, indeed. However in Britnatland that only applies to patriotic British changes of mind, and how dare those vile separatists throw it back in the face of the Labour party in Scotland after an opinion poll proving there’s majority support for independence. People in Scotland don’t really know what their minds are, which is why they need the British state to look after them and make all their decisions for them. Quod erat demonstrandum rule Britannia. Labour have gone from offering the fantasy of federalism to an outright denial of reality.
What you can be sure of is that despite the fact that there have now been six opinion polls this year only one of which gave opposition to independence a narrow lead, the British nationalist parties in Scotland will continue to insist that there’s no demand for independence in Scotland. Gaslighting the public is all that they’ve got left, a task which is made easier for them because the media in Scotland is overwhelmingly opposed to independence too. Both of them are increasingly out of step with public opinion.
It is a remarkable finding that even though we are in the midst of the greatest international crisis since WW2 support for independence continues to solidify and grow. This is despite being deluged in We’re All in This Together propaganda, despite the fact that the Scottish Government treats campaigning for independence like an embarrassing elderly relative that they’re doing their utmost to socially distance from, and despite the fact that the grassroots independence movement is currently unable to do the kind of personalised face to face local town hall kind of campaigning which it excels at.
We are now at over 50% support for independence, and the true impact of the British Government’s mishandling of the current crisis has yet to be understood. Meanwhile the hardest Brexit possible is barrelling down the road towards us, but it hasn’t hit us yet. All these factors will only increase support for independence in the months to come.
However what we’re not going to get is a sort of national A-Ha! moment when the entire nation will collectively and suddenly realise that they’ve been living in a dystopian British cartoon. There’s a 1980’s Norwegian pop band reference for you. There will not be a sudden and spectacular breakthrough in the polls when they suddenly start to show 60% plus majorities for independence. It doesn’t matter how god-awful Johnson and the British Government are. People don’t change their minds that way, and if they did then their change of mind would be likely to be short lived.
Instead what we will see are slow and incremental changes, a gradual growing in independence support. That’s a good thing, because it means that support for independence is solid and firm and isn’t an ephemeral shift which could just as easily shift back again. We’re going to have to campaign, persuade, and work for every percentage point increase in support. This poll shows that our hard work is paying off.
But Ringwort Labruiner is correct about one thing. There’s not an appetite in Scotland for independence, there is a ravenous hunger and longing for change for a better and fairer country, a country where the wishes of the Scottish people are the sole priority of the government, a Scotland that we can only ever find through independence. More and more people in Scotland are coming around to that understanding. They’re not going to rest until we achieve it.
And finally, because we could all do with a laugh during these difficult times …
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Wee Ginger Dug 
Reblogged this on Ramblings of a 50+ Female.
[…] Wee Ginger Dug Changing their minds It’s a tough gig being the branch officer manager of the Labour party in Scotland. […]
Scotland:
35% of Labour voters in Scotland would vote yes in another referendum.
If there was a referendum tomorrow on Scotland becoming an independent country and this was the question, how would you vote? Should Scotland be an independent country?
(All voters:) YES: 52% (and on an upward trend).
Source: https://weegingerdug.wordpress.com/2020/06/06/changing-their-minds
_________
Wales:
Almost 40% of Labour voters [in Wales] say they would vote Yes to Independence in a referendum.
If there was a referendum tomorrow on Wales becoming an independent country and this was the question, how would you vote? Should Wales be an independent country?
(All voters:) YES: 32% (and on an upward trend).
Source: https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/wkgo1h4rcp/Results_WelshBarometer_MayJune2020_W.pdf
_______________
Ricardo Lungtrouser and Marker Duckcrossing must be quaking in their boots.
Ymlaen! / Onward!
And you qoute the english rule brigades own lines at them they dissmiss them as memes any evidence to show Scotland getting shafted is also called memes by them this is how far gone people like murray are he was raging on Twitter this morning because it got round about him and carcrash defending the owners of the private run care homes putting profit before lives.
All the old parties will be worried, they all signed up to keep the status-quo and it is now dragging them down with it…
It’s not just the incompetence/mendacity of the current government which has been exposed over recent months but the iniquities and inadequacies of the entire system.. It has not only failed to protect the populace but seems actively engaged in further depleting their numbers.
Gove’s spiel over Auntie Ethel not succumbing to an unusual virus may have worked previously, but with tens of thousands of Auntie Ethels similarly become a statistical anomaly, even deepest England is toying with adjusting this man’s tie with a nearby lampost.
The charade was always there, but it took crisis and deaths for many to awake from the Daily Heil slumber…
Great to see the numbers climb in Wales all the same, perhaps Ian Murray could be invited to the Senedd to give Labour and the public a pep talk, every little helps… 😉
perhaps Ian Murray could be invited to the Senedd to give Labour and the public a pep talk, every little helps…
_____________________
Funny you should say that. (Draw your own conclusions from this word salad).
_________
31 January 2020
But no one in the race [to be Labour Deputy Leader] has spoken about Wales and Welsh Labour as engagingly and passionately as Ian Murray has. As our only Scottish MP, he has proven time and time again he has the campaigning nous to take on the challenges of nationalism, and the understanding of the changes we need to preserve the Union. He is also the only MP standing in either the leadership or deputy leadership race from a constituency outside of England. In a time when the future of the Union seems more uncertain than ever, it is staggering to think that we could end up with a ballot paper of only English MPs.
Ian’s voice will improve the quality of the debate across the board – but it will be particularly important in ensuring that Wales remains at the heart of our discussions about Labour’s future. Thats why I will be backing him, and why I urge Welsh CLPs to do the same.
https://ianmurraymp.org/chris-elmore-mp-as-deputy-leader-ian-murray-will-ensure-wales-is-at-the-heart-of-discussions-about-labour-s-future/
Chris Elmore is Labour MP for Ogmore, South Wales.
“Ian’s voice will improve the quality of the debate across the board” throws up a mental picture of deciding which end of the pasted wallpaper is UP…
To be fair, this nonsense was published long before his starring role in “Covid Fantasy Island 2020 – Morningside takes revenge”, a fantasy which won grave reviews and universal disclaim, except on BBC Scotshite…
I’d be more than happy to get out there and deliver some up to date literature explaining that our NHS is in mortal danger. I don’t care if some people scream the kind of information people really need just now is fear mongering.
I don’t care if some people don’t like it if we plant seeds out there in the minds of the electorate that if we were to vote no again we would be the laughing stock of the world beating Johnson and trump by a mile.
People should be scared of the future under Westminster rule and we will also show them that the only way to protect our interests is for us to make the big decisions.
Not some prime minister in London who only has the interests of his billionaire backers at heart. Well, where his heart should be.
Pretty sure I’m not the only one who is getting a little bit disheartened by the SNP over the past few years but we need them. They must listen to the movement though. We’re right behind them at the moment raring to go.
If Scottish Labour are playing with fire, they have a salutary lesson to take from the latest YouGov, Westminster voting intention poll (field work 29 & 30 May).
SNP 54%, Con 22%, Lab 13%, LibDems 2% & Greens 5%.
It seems likely that the increase in SNP support is at the expense of the LibDems. Running on an Ultra Unionist ticket (in a crowded field) makes no sense for Rennie given the old Liberal position of Federalism and home rule. Still, Swinson and Rennie are Velcro shoelaces thick in strategic terms. Just well remunerated fronts for the dark money, Deep State, AstroTurf outfit the LibDems became.
How long before the Scottish Labour troops follow the example of the LibDem grassroots?
The combined SNP / Greens block makes 59%. What of the 1% of respondents in the South of England that stated that they would vote SNP? Do these people have Scottish postal votes or are they ‘avin a larf? Has the magical 60% threshold been reached? If so, what excuse will the faint herts use now?
Of all the wonderful examples of penmanship you’ve crafted “Rancid Lunchlauncher” has to be there at the pinnacle. A phrase that with regurgitate itself every time he spews forth diced carrots at First Ministers questions, thank you.
A translator writes:
A phrase that with regurgitate itself every time he spews forth diced carrots at First Ministers questions, thank you.
___________
carrots = Welsh ‘moron’
___________
Say no more
If you look at the pervert in the park at 1:12, there’s an uncanny resemblance to Dick Limpdick. Good public information film though. Must be his second job…
Oh, Labour just can’t help itself, it seems. Its next (last-gasp?) ploy in the pipeline is apparently “radical federalism”, whereby that rather inconveniently popular Scottish Government will be bypassed and all power will instead be devolved down to their remaining little Red+Blue Tory local authority fiefdoms. (Like their little rebel outpost in Aiberdeen, even?) As if that has a hope in hell of making anyone believe they have any better grip on political reality.
But the elevation of Ian “Wrong Way Round” Murray MP to his position of Shadow Secretary against Scotland is probably a more sure sign that Labour HQ has effectively given up on us. As well they might.
Labour HQ has effectively given up on us.
_______
We gave up on them, ages ago.
Alas, there’s still a substantial majority of remaining Labour supporters who don’t support indy, and the question is whether they do that merely out of party loyalty (taking their lead from a deadwood leadership) or if they genuinely believe it on their own account. If the former, a change of leadership tack – unlikely, admittedly – even to a neutral position could be a game changer for indy. (Maybe even reach the magic 60% support that the fainthearts seem to crave.)
As it is, all that might happen is that the percentage of indy non-believers (hardline Orangists?) among Labour support actually rises as all the others finally give up on the party, and as a consequence overall support continues to decline. (As already seems to be happening with the FibDems.) The refusnik remnant become like fish left swimming in an ever-shrinking pond.
The refusnik remnant become like fish left swimming in an ever-shrinking pond.
– ‘floundering’ surely?
Yes, very apposite!
14. (of 20.)
“Our Way”
And now, the end is here.
And so Labour faces the final curtain.
My friend, I’ll say it clear:
I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain.
They’ve lived their life, now it must end;
They troughed on each and ev’ry highway
And more, much more than this.
They did it their way.
Regrets? No – they have none, that’s very true.
Nor a conscience, not worthy of mention
They served themselves
And saw it through, without exemption.
They planned each charted course,
Each careful step along the byway,
And more, much more than this,
They did it their way.
Yes, there were times, I’m sure you knew
When they bit off more than they could chew
But through it all, when there was doubt,
They gorged themselves – kept nothing out.
They were in it all, stood for themselves
And they did it their way.
They’ve troughed, they’ve laughed and lied.
We’ve had our fill, our share of losing.
And now, as tears subside,
We find it all so amusing.
To see Labour falling apart.
And may I say – not in a shy way,
“Oh, no, no, no longer them –
We’ll do it our way!”
For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught.
To say the things he truly feels
And not the words of one who kneels:
The record shows we took the blows
And we’ll do it our way!
Yes, it will be our way!
_________
[With acknowledgements]
Songs for the New Politics
2013-2020
Damn those Scots they’re not changing their minds correctly, the damn vermin keep doing the opposite of what we tell them, we shall have to come up with something else to beat these bally morons into submission what?
We do have that to look forward to remember
Pity the poll didn’t come out on Monday. Ignored by the news media en masse.
Thanks to Scotgoespop, the National, Wee ginger dug for discussing the issue.
Softly softly appears to be working.
Weirdly ANOther blog stays clear of the findings. In a huff maybe?
The significant thing about this most recent poll is that it shows that at least half of Scotland’s population are now committed to independence as a matter of principle – and the numbers are growing. This support has been thought through and is not based on some notion of short term benefit. It is an understanding that Scotland can and should return to being an independent country. The numbers will only grow.
An absolute key to our moving forward has been the consistently principled stance of Nicola Sturgeon and the other powerful women in the SNP and the wider yes movement. Many Scots who were previously persuaded to embrace the cringe now understand that it is a con trick. They now understand that they are part of a Scottish community that is worthy of respect, that is above all principled and perfectly capable of being self governing in the modern world.
This is how we will achieve our return to independence. Of equal importance this is how, when the time comes, we will negotiate the equitable sharing of assets when the so called UK ceases to exist and how we will rebuild Scotland as a principled, civilised country.
The Labour Party and the other various shades of British exceptionalists will have ever decreasing influence in the process from here on, except to accelerate it. They represent nothing that is good. They are just part and parcel of the unprincipled and uncivilised shambles that is the British political system.Their utterings carry ever decreasing weight. People in Scotland (and the rest of the world) are increasingly seeing them for the undesirables that they truly are. Fewer and fewer people trust them. They have been exposed by their increasingly transparent lies and their inability to hide their conceit and their contempt for everyone except themselves. Only they will mourn their extinction. They will be remembered with the same fondness as the Soviet Union when their system of control finally collapses in on them.
That poll is some much needed cheering news Paul
Doesn’t really matter how many are pro Independence. If the current leadership of the SNP remain indy prolite we have no where to go.
The real obstacle to independence is not the caution of the SNP leadership. It’s the British state and British nationalist parties.
You’re correct, but it helps.
Here speaks the expert . again. Talking mince as usual. So explain to me how in the current circumstances in the middle of a worldwide pandemic where in Scotland of the virus would you take the case for a referendum/indy forward right now. Do tell rather than keep sniping from the sidelines. Methinks you are yet another yoony troll.
It doesn’t help to call people you disagree with “yoony trolls”.
Apologies Paul I made the mistake of reading comments on the National online for a while tonight and I am sure you know what some of the posters there are like with their obvious unionist and often rude viewpoint it does your head in after a while. I just wish rather than the same people keeping sniping they explain a way forward to Indy that would wotk in these crazy times. I am actually stunned that some people believe the Snp leadership don’t want Indy. I don’t always agree with what the party does but them not wanting Indy is beyond me
Thank you Eilidh. The comments sections in all the newspapers are zoos.
I don’t believe that the SNP leadership “doesn’t want independence”. They may be frustratingly over cautious, but that’s essentially a disagreement about strategy not about fundamentals. It seems to me that some of the people who are constantly attacking the SNP leadership forget that our real opponents are the British nationalists.
I’m not a troll. I find that demeaning. Guys like me have to stick our necks out on a daily basis to support independence. I suspect you have no idea of the dynamic of life in conservative rural villages heavily populated by rUK citizens and old Scottish Tories. Salmond would regularly visit my area. Sturgeon is yet to. I suspect that Salmond appreciated that places like rural Perthshire, Angus, coastal Moray etc are the heartlands of the struggle for independence not the urban areas.
Nae to forget Aberdeen, regarding the struggle, to our shame.
Mbiyd, look away now! Courtesy of Scot Goes Pop panelbase poll:
Does the handling of the coronavirus crisis by Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish Government make you feel more confident or less confident that Scotland will be well-governed if it becomes an independent country?
More confident: 59%
Less confident: 22%
http://scotgoespop.blogspot.com/2020/06/scot-goes-pop-panelbase-poll-sensation.html
OT To all the lads at BBC Scotland Sportscene, I take it you were told to eff off by Donalda McKinnon when your Sportscene offering on Covid Saturday afternoon was a rerun of Scotland versus England in Euro ’96 when England beat us 0-2, and Gascoigne scored.
Just what we Scots footie fads wanted to see to lift our spirits during lock down.
What a sick joke.
Right enough it was Old Home Week for Ra Gers fans. Goram in goal, McAllister missing THAT penalty, Murdo McLeod, Gordon Durie Ally Mc Coist Colin Hendry AND OF COURSE Gascoigne and the 72,000 England fans singing Rule Britannia.
Scotland were allocated a mere 8000 tickets.
The Commentary was the English version, so it was soon forgotten that in this UK of equal nations, there should have been some balance. well, that went out the windae when Shearer scored.
It was BBC Scotland saying ‘get it right up ye, Jocks. Back in your Jock Box.
How no Scotsman at BBC Scotland Sports did not object strenuously to this England Fest being shown Up Here beats me.
Grow a pair, for God’s sake.
Scotland had over half a dozen over thirties in the team, Craig Brown’s ‘mates’, played his usual cautious back 5, and this and France ’98 heralded the decline in Scotland’s international standing.
BBC Scotland is gone completely now.
Shame on you Scotsmen,and women, at BBC Sportscene, who let this be broadcast. Did you really think that this was appropriate, as a Covid filler tto cherr us all up?
Check the opinion polls.
Pacific Heights’ days are numbered.
That I live long enough to celebrate the last helicopter leaving Pacific Quay and heading back to the Motherland.
How anyone who loves football and is Scots thought that this was OK beats me; or then again maybe not.
All together now, Rule Britannia, Britannia…feck it,
Bealin’.
My apologies to all non footie Duggers.
Check out my double negative, and typos. I am ragin’, I tell ya. What a cringeworthy insult to all Scots.
Channel 4 have got THAT 1966 match today, too, Jack. Just letting you know so you chan self-isolate and look after your blood pressure. 🙂
(Love to hear this commentary, though: “They think the Union is all over. It is now!”)
Have a treat Jack. When they are showing 1966 and all that crap watch their first game as ‘a world beating football team’ on the internet. It was a fun game, made even more fun by the commentators having to front it. No doubt you recall that Scotland turned them over in style. Funny that I don’t recall this being aired for team GB during lockdown.
Pride cometh before a fall!
Baxter Keepie-Uppie: legend!
It’s on YouTube, Arthur.
I’d have worn a video tape of it out by now.
This is a bit off topic but we hear of 68,000 deaths and I wonder about the burials. Are funeral directors and gravediggers working round the clock ? Where are they burying people? I thought you had to book and pay for a lair . That can’t possibly be happening now . So are bodies being stored somewhere until the time they can be buried and if so where is the capacity for them to be stored?
It’s not off topic, it’s off the wall. Maybe try google rather than a blog focusing on Independence.
Speaking of changing minds, I sense that it is high time that the SNP remove the whip from Pete Wishart, who has clearly gone native down there in London town.
In praise of the four nations working together and Devolution coming of age during the crisis?
He has clearly crossed the floor.
He refers to the UK as ‘the nation’, just like the Red Blue and Yellow ProudScotsButters Tories.
Someone remind him that he was voted in on Independence votes, not Devolution votes.
He’ll be touting for the job of chairing a Constitutional Convention on UK Federalism in 2030 next.
Time he stood aside and let others more committed to ending English Rule take the seat.
Noticed that as well Jack. There has been a few other ‘lapses’ over the last year. I think he works for himself, full stop, every other cause is secondary.
I don’t believe for a minute Pete Wishart has gone native. His problem is that he is too polite Where exactly did he refer to the Uk as the nation and in what context
Indeed, I’m not great at citing sources myself, mostly for “can’t be bothered” reasons, however whilst no great fan of the current drift at the top of the SNP I feel a wee bit of proof he did indeed say these things is required.
Eilidh, he uses ‘the nation’ when interviewed on ‘national’ TV and Radio: i.e., English BBC…
It is merely an intangible ‘ouch’ at the moment, but I have a sense that he is hardly a firebrand, but, to be honest, his majority in the hundreds may indicate that he is serving all his constituents, not just the rabid Nats…but the nagging doubt is taking form in the back of my mind that he is merging into the WM background.
With over 4 years to go to any UK GE, one which we Freedom Fighters know will be an rUK GE as we leave their precious Union as Brexit bites in 7 months time, and Col Sanders introduces the 50c chlorinated chicken burger, and Mac Donald’s the 99c steroid Texas Big Yank throughout England, and chicken breeders in Norfolk diversify into strawberry picking and daffodil cultivation, the campaign for Independnece is about to explode over the coming months..
I watched Brewer a few moments ago.
Angry Gordon in a pre-recorded harangue at Jeane Freeman.
Testing!
It’s her fault that Private Care Homes are following Gordon’s advice to dodge the Care Home Inspectorate checks by lying or ignoring the Scottish Government’s guidelines and instruction.
It’s her fault that Brit Nat Councils, and Health Boards stuffed with Brit Nat appointed Board Members, are not testing.
It’s her fault that Covid 19 has led to me watching his show ‘terrified’ that when my Everlovin’ eventually undergoes hip replacement surgery, cancelled in March, that Jeane Freeman is going to let her die of Covid 19.
Absolute pish of course. Heaven forfend that Brewer would interview a Brit Nat Council or Brit Nat loaded Health Board CEO; or horror of horrors a Private Care Entrepreneur.
What an outrageous interview peppered constantly with Yes But rage, from a so called journalist.
Yet again it was a Brit Nat Free EssEnnPee Bad Fest.
Nobody is available to answer for Mad Boris’ absence.
He interviewed a Stats Professor from Edinburgh, and it was no longer Sunday Politics Scotland.
The R number in NW and SW England is hovering on or above 1.
He asked the good prof should there be ‘Regional’ lockdowns like wot Gordon’s Italian friend indicated happened in Italy?
If there were an upsurge in Manchester, should citizens be prevented from driving from Manchester to Glasgow? Should ‘we’ (that means the UK, as Gordon clumsily ditches the Scottish HS and includes us in England’s fall from grace) consider ‘regional’ lockdowns.
Well, Gordon was using the UK ‘we’ now.
Scotland’s pandemic is Scotland’s and Jeane Freeman’s fault, when it suits the Brewdog, but when England’s R 0 spill over into 1 plus, it is suddenly ‘our’ the UKs’ problem.
Well, Gordon, you may not have noticed; we have a separate NHS Up Her. You are forbidden from travelling from Manchester in England, another country, to Glasgow in Scotland, unless fitting certain criteria, which do not include hiding in a van with your golf clubs and stowing away on a Cal Mac Ferry.Oh how we smirked when we read that report. Not.
T
here was a feature on the Black Life Matters Protests.
Reporter David Wallace Lockhart.
How many black ethnic minorities members are there on BBC Scotland’s Reporting and presenting team?
Never mind the predominance of one religious faction?
No I can’t think of one either.
This Newbie David Wallace Lockhart is definitely not young black and gifted. He is from a long conveyer belt of young white Jocks from a certain background.
I know where institutional racism sits in Scotland. and it’s not just skin colour.
Roughly 50,000 young people become eligible to vote every year, of whom (at least) 75% support independence. +37,500 on independence support. If they all registered, which they don’t, say half it
= +19,000
Roughly 50,000 people leave the electoral roll every year due to natural causes, of whom 75% support the Union. Minus 37,500 for the Union. Say 80% registration = Minus 30,000
Net movement to Independence JUST from electoral turnover = +49,000
Electorate for the Scottish Parliament = 4,167,361
Potential percentage change in independence support from electoral turnover = plus 1.2% p.a.
2014-2020 = five and a half years. 5×1.2 = 6.6%
45% + 6.6% = 51.6% in mid 2020
Those figures will vary from year to year, but that’s the broad picture
It’s very low geared, and as you say not fast. But it’s utterly unstoppable
Politics is the froth on the waves. Demographics is the tide coming in underneath, inexorably
That’s what turned 52% Yes in the 1979 referendum to 74% Yes in 1997
The purpose of campaigning, if it has any effect at all, is to keep normalising independence amongst young people, and make sure that pro-independence parties run Holyrood until we are ready to go.
PS We need to get the little darlings to register and actually VOTE
The Vaccine Better Work and Soon
Re. Second Wave of Covid-19 the UK (England) has a real problem here. There is a desperate need to get the economy up and running. B U T yesterday BBC Scotland’s Ken MacDonald said that the UK’s daily new infections were greater than the total for 27 EU countries.
Although the UK has been in Lockdown for over 2 months, the required actions (eg. stopping international flights at beginning , continuing test & trace, putting in travel bans for infection hotspots) haven’t been taken to get on top of pandemic.
The economic situation is such that a further period of lockdown coupled with a flight ban and T&T is unthinkable .
This is what lies behind Westminster pumping resources into developing a vaccine. It’s all that stands between the UK and an economic and health catastrophe.
It’s not in Scotland’s interest to share a land border (or be in a union) with a basket case nation.
So the Vaccine better work!
In the final scene of “On the Beach” – Ava Gardiner and Gregory Peck watch their impending, inevitable death approach the shores of Australia, as radioactive fall-out from a nuclear war in the northern-hemisphere reaches the continent. They are the last humans alive on Earth.
Highly recommend the film, if you haven’t already seen it. It documents the events leading up the the conflict and all the missed opportunities and mistakes that created the circumstances for humanity’s demise.
I first remember seeing the film in the Cinema in Lochgelly as a young boy and wondered what it must feel like to witness the end of the world – and how Gardiner and Peck were just so resigned to their fate..
Just been on the beach in St Annes – it’s only 100 yards away and it’s quieter that it has been all week. There’s a BLM demonstration here today @ 1pm – most of the traffic is heading there. Another protest is planned for Blackpool at 5pm where the R rate is well over 1 and the highest in the UK.
I’m not really confident now that England will survive this summer. Even if another total lockdown was introduced tomorrow, August will be just the start of a very difficult few months for the NHS – which is already on its knees. Morbidity from other health conditions is increasing significantly – Ca, MI, CVAs, Sepsis etc – people are very reluctant to seek help when the risk of acquired covid infection is so high in hospitals.
With lockdown relaxed and social gatherings increasing – we will have an uncontrolled second wave throughout the UK by September and if we do, we may all be ‘on the beach’ for the last time.
Scotland’s only hope now is to close its borders – road, sea and air – as a matter of urgency and introduce strict quarantine procedures for freight and people, whilst advancing its own health and economic survival measures. You need to start planning now – ‘Treasury’ will have no meaning on the present trajectory.
Mark, as you know, I know Lytham, and St Anne’s On Sea very well, and indeed have plied my trade over the years in England, and for much of the time in the North West.
I think of the array of retirement blocks of flats overlooking the dunes and despair.
I fear that there is little hope for England. Capitalism will triumph.
Chaos will reign, and the death rate will reach 100,000 soon, the vast majority old wrinklies like me.
You know that I advocate, nay, now demand, that the Scottish Government close the border, before the People take the decision out of their hands.
An dit is coming to that, believe me.
Keep you and yours safe, Mark.
You are living in one of the most tranquil areas in NW England normally; but not now.
One of the best Italian restaurants is not 200 yards from your pied-a-terre.
There will be feasting and much drink when this is all over.
Best to you Jack – but by the time it becomes obvious to the authorities that community transmission is increasing again and border controls are be essential, it will already be too late. Had the UK stopped all air and sea travel in January and quarantined the essentials, we wouldn’t be here now. There’s no second chance with this virus. We have learned nothing.
The UK is coming out of Lockdown with an infection rate equal to the cumulative total of 27 EU countries.
PS The empty Coca Cola bottle caught in the ring pull of the blind and randomly tapping on the Morse Key Pad in the breeze in San Francisco made more sense than anything Matt Hancock and Carjack Lawson has uttered in response to our current On The Beach crisis.
Deloitte and Serco the Privatised Health Service England are coining it in and failing tragically.
Perhaps they will be issuing cyanide pills to the over seventies, or set up Euthanasia Rooms as in ‘Soylent Green;?
Jack,
On the subject of privatisation. This from the Times about multi-million pound contracts awarded to the likes of a tiny pet supply company to supply PPE
http://archive.is/WD26G
Indeed, Legerwood.
The Carpetbaggers and flim-flam merchants.
It is unthinkable that Government Contracts should be awarded to a single supplier without scrutiny or due diligence.
The Del Boys are raking it in.
If we balk at this spivvery, just wait until Brexit and the dawn of New England, January 1st 2021 hits and the US Wide Boys get control of London..
This is the future for Scotland when Carjack Lawson ascends the throne as FM in a Red Blue and Yellow Brit Nat Better Together Coalition Scottish Assembly( ‘government’ will be dropped immediately) .
£30 for a GP Appointment, anyone?
£12000 a year tuition fees. £2.50 toll on the Queensferry Crossing? Five year freeze on increases to state Pensions? Workfare for Food Stamps?
Thankfully that is likely to happen. Yet many scoffed when I suggested a Trump Johnson pact four years ago.
The Blue Red and Yellow Neo liberal English Way. Scotland will be punished; of that there is no doubt.
How any Labour supporter can vote for slavery beats me.
Just listened to LBC interview with handcock.
He’s the health minister of the UK says him and the interviewer.
SO that’s who’s to blame.
The interview also had quotes from the mayors of Liverpool and Manchester asking for a seat on Cobra as there’s no english voice from the regions, mayor of London has a seat and the devolved nations BUTT not the big cities who have city mayors and regional mayors.
Not a hint of hypocrisy there.
France is releasing lockdown by regions,a sensible approach as there’s a time delay in transmission.
The doris is going to release his plans for the world,pity he didn’t do englandland so well.
Close the borders and limit travel to necessities.
On the Beach is a great read and view,it covers the the madness of Mutual Destruction.
The ‘United’ Kingdom is rotting away from its core in the same way the Soviet ‘Union’ did. It will not be long before the whole edifice implodes – just as the USSR did, back in the day. Previously, no-one saw *that* coming, but when it did, the whole thing collapsed like a house of cards.
Not long now, friends.
On The Beach was a great book and a great film as well, the TV movie remake from 2000 was quite good too.
There’s another very good film on Amazon just now that’s worth a watch. “The professor and the madman” is about the Scot that founded the Oxford English dictionary, a fascinating true story. Stars Mel Gibson and Sean Penn, Penn is the madman. The Scottish professor was from a poor background and didn’t quite fit in with the Oxford lot, he stuck with it though and gave the world it’s first English dictionary which is quite ironic 🙂
A difficult watch, Alex, but well worth it. We should be grateful they edited out the sequence where the ubiquitous Columbian Drug Cartel had to be taken out by the rogue retired CIA man.
It must have been blessed release for Gibson and Penn, who acted their socks off for a change.
A good watch.
Jeez, there is some crap on Sky, Netflix, and Amazon.
We are already the US 51st State in terms of TV ‘entertainment’.
So right Jack,
My daughter is a primary teacher and tells the story of primary ONE children in Greenock who turn up for their first class sporting American Accents.
No problem there with stopping the Scots dialect from my days,speak properly boy.
Sorry but must disagree CB, WYSIWYG is not a government parameter, WSAYLA is their mode of operation, Which Squirrel Are You Looking At.
WM investment in anything thus far has been profits driven for friends and supporters of the Party with little if any benefit to the public, vaccine development will be no different.
A worldwide race of hundreds if not thousands is under way to be the first with the “magic bullet”, and let’s not entertain illusions of some moral compass coming into play in the UK, public well-being colliding with profits rarely turns out to have public good as the winner, and a government charging those on their uppers for spare bedrooms is not a mark of magnanimity.
Scotland has largely succeeded in controlling the decimation despite flareups continuing along it’s southern flanks, so what do you do? If a few extra thousand perish nearer London, Gove can run interference, job done, open Shop, let the Hunger Games commence…
It’s essentially biological warfare by the Etonians without a bomb being dropped, and as always somebody else will be to blame, Chinese, European, Scots?
The Empire mentality will not die until we Scots bury it…
Rumbold Leakbladder! : )
With some local street names being changed ( albeit temporarily) as means of protest against racism and I have no issue with this I do wonder if we should also have a memorial or something similar for all the Croft’s, villages and townships cleared by likes of the duke of Sutherland and his likes.
Maybe Paul you could ensure the Gaelic place names are correctly spelt?
This is my ignorance do we have a heritage or museum concentrating on the clearances and the various invasions by external armies?
Have you been to the museum at Bettyhill near Strathnaver, Sutherland?
Hi Selkie, no sorry I have missed out on that. What does it cover?
As with many parts of so-called Brit history this truth is missing.
The Strathnaver Museum is in the old parish Kirk of st Columba at Farr Bay, Bettyhill.
Strathnaver Museum.org.uk
Covers local history, the Strathnaver clearances including the Rosal settlement which is worth a visit. Also Grummore settlement.
All on the North Coast 500 so that would have to wait!
Re: Clearances.
Seems to be a nasty Anglo-Saxon trait.
https://nation.cymru/opinion/its-the-end-of-the-world-why-we-should-remember-the-clearing-of-epynt-80-years-on/
Also, do read Tom Devine’s recent book
The Scottish Clearances
Great book. We tend to forget that the lowlands were also and continue to be owned by estates. The clearances weren’t just in the Highlands.
I always admire the intrepid fellow Scot, rUK, EU or World citizen who embarks on a journey to the Highlands or Lowlands but often wonder if they would be served by a central policy organised through the Scottish government to enhance land reform and usage.
Cheers. Back to my comment earlier over renaming streets for the forgotten communities subject to great injustice.
Let’s start with Union Street in Glasgow.