The comedian Billy Connolly used to quip that in an attempt to avoid answering the loaded question, “Are you a Catholic or a Protestant?” He’d respond that he was an atheist, only to be asked? “Aye, but are you a Catholic atheist or a Protestant atheist?” It seemingly being of huge importance to the questioner to know which god he didn’t believe in the most. Of course in a Scottish and Irish context the concept of a Catholic versus a Protestant atheist makes perfect sense. It is, as they say, funny because it’s true. That’s because as anyone from northern Ireland or West Central Scotland knows, it’s not really a question about your own beliefs or philosophy. The questioner is not asking whether you believe in the Transubstantiation, the Apostolic Succession, Predestination or the doctrine of church governance through an assembly of elders. In fact they are not asking whether you even believe in a Christian God or indeed any type of deity at all.
That’s because what is really being asked is whether your family background lies in a community traditionally opposed to British rule and the British state. Historically – at least since the “Pacification” of the Highlands and the mass conversion of its inhabitants to Presbyterianism in the second half of the eighteenth century, by far the largest community in Scotland which was traditionally hostile to British rule and the British state was the Irish Catholic community.
That’s why it was this community which was subjected to systemic discrimination in jobs, housing and education in Scotland throughout the 19th and most of the 20th centuries. Since members of this community could not be physically distinguished from the majority Protestant (and at least until recently) British identifying part of the Scottish population, and because the children of Irish Catholic families born and brought up in Scotland could not be distinguished by accent or speech, religion became a convenient proxy for telling apart Scottish people whose family background lay in a traditionally non-British identifying community from those Scots who came from a community which was traditionally content to accept Britishness and loyalty to King and Empire.
What gets called sectarianism was not then and never was, primarily about religion. It was and is a means of asserting the dominance of Britishness and the British state. By calling it sectarianism or pretending that it’s only an issue for supporters of certain football clubs in the West of Scotland, the true nature of British nationalist anti-Irish racism is disguised and a false equivalence is set up, allowing British nationalists in Scotland to absolve themselves of any complicity with the bigotry and discrimination which played a vital role in establishing and securing a British identity in Scotland. But while there are plenty of instances of name calling or football associated hooliganism on both sides, it was only ever Scots from Irish Catholic family backgrounds who were systematically excluded from certain professions, work places or social and sporting clubs. There was once a time in Scottish history when the only way that a Catholic got into university was if Burke and Hare stole their body.
Anti-Irish racism in Scotland was a fundamental component of British nationalism in Scotland. The means by which a British identity was established in Scotland was through exclusion and discrimination against those Scots whose loyalty to King and Empire could not be relied upon. A British identity in Scotland was founded upon social exclusion, bigotry, and discrimination. That’s the dirty secret that British nationalism in Scotland still refuses to face up to.
Every year Scotland is forced to endure parades through the streets of our towns and cities aggressively celebrating a British nationalist triumphalism, fostering the divisions that allow and create British rule. As MSP James Dornan points out in an article in The National today (HERE), we would not tolerate annual parades to celebrate discrimination against Muslims or any other minority community in Scotland. However the anti-Irish racism of Orange Walks is tolerated and allowed in the name of “tradition and culture”. Hatred isn’t culture, and tradition is no excuse for bigotry. Maybe your granny was a terrible racist – that doesn’t give you permission to be a racist too.
The fact that a tradition of social exclusion, racism and intolerant British nationalism has been passed down the generations does not legitimise it. If anything it makes it worse. An Orange parade is a drum thumping example of institutionalised racism. The only reason these annual hate-fests are allowed to continue is because they are one of the traditional pillars of British rule in Scotland and their fundamental association with British nationalism means that political parties and politicians who are apologists for British nationalism refuse to call them out. Because to do so would be an admission that British nationalism in Scotland is in itself divisive and founded in racism and social exclusion. It would be an admission that British nationalism and Britishness in Scotland is guilty of all those sins that apologists for British rule in Scotland accuse Scottish nationalists of. It would be an admission that Britishness isn’t the victim, it’s the victimiser.
Those same Conservative politicians who rail against the supposed divisions created by the Scottish independence movement and bewail the disruption to traffic and shoppers caused by peaceful and good-natured marches and rallies for independence say nothing about the annual displays of British nationalist supremacy which exult the anti-Irish racism upon which British nationalism in Scotland is based, followed as they invariably are by drunken brawls in our parks and on our streets. The Tories are far too busy wrapping themselves in Union flags to call out that flag’s associations with division and hate. Let’s be honest here, when you see a Union flag flying from a private house in Scotland, your first thought isn’t “Oh what a nice non- nationalist gesture of inclusion and tolerance.” It’s “I wonder if they hate Scots with an Irish Catholic heritage and immigrants along with independence supporters?”
The first step to tackling so-called sectarianism is to recognise that it’s really anti-Irish racism, the second is to recognise that it is not Scotland’s shame, it’s a shame of British nationalism in Scotland.
NEW MODERATION POLICY
In the wake of recent events I am determined that this site will not become a home for bigots and conspiracy theorists. They will not be welcome here. Moderation is the most stressful part of running a blog, but this site is going to continue to make the positive case for independence. With this in mind as of today a new moderation policy is in force.
Anyone who attempts to use this site to post hatred, bigotry, or conspiracy theories will be banned. If you attempt to insult and abuse anyone you will be banned. This site has a zero-toleration policy for homophobia, transphobia, racism, and misogyny. Failure to respect this will result in a ban.
If you intend to spend the next four years undermining the SNP, the Scottish Government and the pro-independence parties that the great majority of independence supporters voted for, you can do so somewhere else, because you’re not going to do it here. The reminder that has regularly appeared on this site is not a serving suggestion. It will be rigorously enforced. If you don’t like this rule – there is a small x at the top right of your screen. Click it, close this page and go elsewhere.
This is your reminder that the purpose of this blog is to promote Scottish independence. If the comment you want to make will not assist with that goal then don’t post it. If you want to mouth off about how much you dislike the SNP leadership there are other forums where you can do that. You’re not welcome to do it here.
Annual crowdfunder:
Scotland will have another independence referendum at some point in the next couple of years. Until then, this blog will continue to publish articles which – I hope – are amusing, entertaining, and which help to educate Scotland on the need for independence. However in order to do so I need to eat and pay my bills. Due to my reduced productivity and the limitations imposed on me by my health, this year I am asking for half the amount I’ve requested in previous fundraisers. I hope to raise £5000 which will go towards supporting myself for the next year.
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Wee Ginger Dug 
All of this is true. So why, then, have we just had a hate crime bill passed which entirely ignores this endemic and damaging form of hate in Scotland, as well as that which kills most people annually, misogyny and hatred towards women?
That would be the Hate Crime Bill supported by all parties at Holyrood except the Tories ?
Yes. The question remains. If you’re going to tackle hate, why ignore two of the biggest, most damaging forms of it Scotland has?
Not sure about the sectarian stuff, but I understood that women’s issues were to be tackled in a dedicated bill, rather than lumped into general hate crimes.
Is that not right?
I think women who are anti-LGBT in Scotland should realise that the societies which most oppress LGBT people are generally also the most oppressive of women. Both go hand in hand.
…because it is classified as “too difficult”. I mean, see the fuss caused by the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act?
There.
Reblogged this on Ramblings of a now 60+ Female.
[…] Wee Ginger Dug The shame of British nationalism in Scotland The comedian Billy Connolly used to quip that in an attempt to avoid answering the […]
An excellent analysis of the “sectarian” divide. Time for GCC to revise its policy on marching. James Dornan has suggested this in an article in The National today. I hope he gets support for this.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/19446601.james-dornan-call-orange-marches-to-stop-address-anti-catholic-bigotry/
Archive version
https://archive.fo/Y2VPJ
Baroness Davidson of Lundin Links !
Well if she insists….
Should that not be “London links” ?
Nice one………
To be a British subject living in Scotland now means that you accept Scotland’s place within England’s union as being,having No say and in effect that Scotland No longer exists.
Nothing to do with religion and everything to do with London rule over our country.
The English state has always used religion as a divide and rule tool and they continue to seek to do so but fortunately,people are moving on and religion now plays a far smaller part in the lives of Scots.
Of course,traditons run deep and are more difficult to change but at least religious divides are now being seen as a cover used by a minority of people to justify violent bigoted behaviour.
These suckers just don’t see that they are being manipulated by outsiders and not for their benefit but that of the survivial of the English state as it is presently constituted.
Thank you Paul for your excellent piece. I have wondered from childhood why these people have been allowed to march publicly displaying their hatred for the Catholic community. I am certain that Scotland would be horrified at any requests for equivalent anti Muslim anti Jewish marches.
What stops folk in Scotland being horrified by the Orange Order request for anti Catholic marches?
This question really needs an urgent review alongside any further requests for these Orange Order marches.
Well said Paul. Hard to believe it still persists. And hard to root out from all those Lodges and funny handshakes. It’s another divide and rule tactic. Brawl among yourselves, whilst those in power keep plundering. Take care of yourself. We have need of you.
The problem the Scottish government and councils have with tackling this vile behaviour is its connections to the non political lovely Christian believing benign sovereign supportive of tradition Royal Family
The Duke of Kent is the patron of the Masonic order which any Mason would go to lengths to inform you has nothing to do with the Orange Order yet the Duke’s coat of arms is a rampant white horse upon a red field
Somebody sometime has to take this particular rampant orange horse by the throat stamp it out and damn the consequences, because consequences there will be and we all know what from where and how they will manifest themselves
Even though this hate filled organisation has dwindled in numbers it still retains the loyalty of those who would affiliate themselves with their cause and reason for existence and although publicly many of those would remain quiet and distance themselves from the argument, behind the scenes they would work their little orange socks off to create as much disruption and indeed violence as they could possibly engender for what they would describe as loyalty to the British crown
This has been a major tool in the British governments arsenal against Scotland regaining its own identity whatever that might turn out to be just as it is in Northern Ireland……… This is not just as easy as a banning order
Och I’m no really bothered about religion you’ll hear folk say, until they’re told the religion they thought had when they were in primary school was being banned, of course we know that’s not what would be happening but that’s how it will be portrayed sold advocated rammed down peoples throats until they fear the fear they never gave a thought about since they grew up and became non bothered non church going secular normal people
Selling hate is *dead* easy, it’s repairing the damage the Bastirts have done after, and they will!
Just for those readers who have been spared close contact with the soaring intellects of the orange order.
https://fb.watch/6NgoVM7fzd/
Brilliant
Aye, very well set down Paul, and a timely reminder on some aspects I’d long forgotten, and the “Burke and Hare” line was particularly inspired but accurate.
As comment on a photo posted a few days back of the enormous pallet bonfire in NI highlighted, the gibbet with the hanging dummy represented a Catholic, and I couldn’t understand what drove such an abiding hatred.
Then I recalled a conversation with an ex-Antrim Scots lady who had not a good word for the Republic (where I was going to work), bog-irish I recall was her favoured term of despise, mud and despair is all that would greet me and filthy beggars by the thousand would leave me by the road in dead of night stabbed to death over a Punt…
This was 2000, her hatred was visceral.
Needless to say they turned out to be the most delightful 6 years of my life, the occasional hatred of the North and the British arose but it was more over scores unsettled, and it didn’t matter a toss what your religion was.
Then I thought on the Guy Fawkes bonfires and how the original meaning had been distorted…
This public display of bigotry has no place in any decent society let alone a modern Scotland, these Orange Marches must be erased from public sight, and if Mr Orange Jaikit or Turdo wish to practice their flute and drum skills, they can do so in private as ANY other band….
It is unfortunate that all those members of the Orange order do not know that the then Pope supported William of Orange. I also can’t understand why, at the tender age of five, children are separated from their friends to attend different schools which depends upon which sect of Christianity their parents belong to. The sectarian bigots, on both sides of the divide, simply ignore the fact that their religious hero, Joshua, was in fact Jewish.
I taught for a very short time in Colston Secondary School and was asked by one class of 15 year old boys if I was ‘in the ludge or the bawn?’ As I was under no pressure as to what I did with this class I decided to look at the history surrounding the Battle of the Boyne. It was very popular until we came to the bit about the Pope supporting William of Orange. I got a complete stonewall of disbelief. ‘Naw he didnae.’ being the most repeated phrase. There was no way of shifting their ideas at all.
Bravo, Paul! One of your finest pieces yet.
This Tory government are using policy to continue to stoke division and create an “us and them” feeling among the electorate of the UK.
It has been magnified since Brexit with the “elite remainer” vs “the people” strategy, then theirs the dog-whistling to the racists by the likes of Patel and Johnson refusing to condemn those that booed the England football team for taking the knee in support of BLM. On top of that you have attacks against “woke culture” which GB news even has a show all to itself all about attacking “woke”.
The reasons are obvious, disagree with them and say it then you will be accused of being unpatriotic and a traitor to the country. You will be attacked and an enemy of the people and someone who is to be shunned. It’s all about holding on to power by silencing critics.
They are masters at it though at least some are wakening up to what is going on, you can’t really miss it but many choose to as they would rather not rock the political boat. Scotland though is a real thorn in their side, I think they might be getting sick of our whinging which is no bad thing.
Something I’ve often wondered. Given the perceived reactionary views of the Orange Order membership towards, for instance, ‘gay’ people, why are flute band uniforms so very very ‘camp’?
Have they not got a song about the Boa my father woa?
A masterly analysis there, Paul, and being from a part of Scotland that never really bought in to this situation if only because it never saw the same influx of immigration from that nearby part of the English Empire, I found the dismissal of the religous aspect very convincing, not least since most of those who buy-in to that kind of social divisiveness these days scarcely ever cross the threshold of an actual church, and if challenged almost certainly couldn’t give any coherent account of the beliefs they claim to espouse.
The whole thing is an unsavoury after-echo of the religious allegiances that raged for supremacy across the whole of Europe back in the 1600s, and has absolutely nothing positive to offer us here and now. The plain fact that there are still politicians today – and Labour has been just as guilty of this in its own way – if more insidious and less strident than the Tories – is not the “Shame of Scotland” as they like to hypocritically claim whenever an opportunity arises, but their own shame for enabling and parasitising off this ordure when they could always have suppressed it if they had honestly tried.
Thankfully an independent Scotland which will have to stand up for itself and take responsibility for itself both at home and abroad will finally ring the death-knell for this antiquated, self-destructive and embarrassingly sycophantic dependence on the
BritishEnglish State.Spot on, Paul. I was brought up a Prod in West Central Scotland, but it was always the Orange Ludgers that frightened and disgusted me most.
They keep bleating about their “culture”, but I’ve yet to hear one of them tell me what that’s supposed to mean exactly – in words that don’t reveal it to be the repellent sham that it is.
.. when you see a Union flag flying from a private house in Scotland, your first thought isn’t “Oh what a nice non- nationalist gesture of inclusion and tolerance.” It’s “I wonder if they hate Scots with an Irish Catholic heritage and immigrants along with independence supporters?”….
My first impression is that they are making a point of who is in power- real power ( not a silly thing like a democratic Parliament).
Of course the Labour Party just like the tories and Lib Dem’s and use sectarianism as a call to arms —sorry vote. There are still labour councillors calling out that the SNP are anti-catholic, it isn’t so long ago that the RC Church in some parishes would tell you how to vote. The Episcopalians were deemed to be “Chappin” if you were a “real prod” ie supported a certain fitba team. No Romans here. Well until last week at Wembley.
The Cof S, well, the moderator is a Lord and Lib Dem politician, his previous boss kept quiet about paedophile MP’s. Shooed into his position. No Presbyterian votes here.
I wonder if Jesus is thankful he was Jewish?
As my granny would say “… too much religion not enough Christianity..’” Apologies to non Christians, Samaritans, atheists, agnostics etcetera.
A bit of human kindness is all we need….. and Independence, to make our own mistakes and decisions and to move our country beyond the 17th and 18th century of Irish English power politics.
In the past, I’ve met a lot of Scottish Catholics of Irish descent who preferred Scotland to remain in the UK, but who were also for a united Ireland free from British rule. I would say they generally are in their 50s and above now.
I was told that this was partly due to (unfounded) fears of Scotland becoming an anti-catholic state on independence, but I also felt it was because it diluted the message of Irish unification in the context of Ireland and the UK being separate sovereign states.
As a child growing up in Stirling I never gave the orange marches much thought. Then when I was older and married and with a family and we lived opposite the King’s Park in Stirling and the orange marchers and their bands would congregate in the park and we couldn’t escape and I listened to, and saw the hatred for those with differing views to theirs. I saw how ugly and narrow minded they were. Shame on them. Shame on the councils allowing them to march and spew their hatred.
As an east-coaster, my first exposure to an Orange walk marching outside my window was going to university in Stirling, and living in a place called St Ninians, on a main road to the town centre. Before then, I’d never seen one. At that time (19 years old), I had no idea why they were marching or what the banners were. I can’t imagine any central belt or west coast 19 year olds being so ignorant of them, but I think it is an indication that the problem of anti-catholic bigotry is not as Scotland-wide as some claim.
I could never march in a traditional Scottish Orange Parade – I am polyester intolerant .
That made me laugh! As a (Jewish) atheist, I loathe and despise these marches and can’t understand how they’re even legal in light of anti hate speech legislation, but I wasn’t expecting your quip; thanks for lightening my mood:))
Very sad news everyone. Petra has passed away. Jan Pietryga has posted on the previous thread.
She will be very sadly missed on this site for her constant support for independence and contribution to the cause.
RIP Petra.
How terrible, I’m so so sad, I will miss her a great deal, we have spoken for years yet never met,
condolences to her family and those who knew her
Oh no, that is so sad. She was always so positive and kind. RIP Petra
I never met Petra, but I always appreciated her contributions.
Condolences to her friends and family at this sad time.
Sad beyond words.
RIP.
I’m stunned. This is just so utterly unexpected. (I’m still finding it hard to take in, actually.) She was a true stalwart, unwavering in enthusiasm for, and in support of, the cause of independence. She was an exemplar to us all, not least the more weak-willed, and will be sorely missed here on WGD as no doubt it will be elsewhere as well.
My sincere and deep condolences to her family and close friends.
No, no. This is so shockingly sad, so totally unexpected. I never met her but I shall miss her as much as I would miss any friend.
My deepest sympathies and condolences to her family.
Sad news indeed, condolences to her family and those who knew her personally, she will be sorely missed.
She will be sorely missed, I always read, and agreed with, her Indy supporting contributions over the years.
Condolences to all her family and friends.
First and foremost, my thoughts are with Petra’s family and friends.
Thanks to her unstinting efforts and prodigious contributions, I’m sure I’m better informed than I might otherwise be.
You will be missed Petra, RIP.
Just back from a trip to my daughters in Manchester and catching up with WGD and came across this terrible, tragic, shocking news. I never met her but she would be on my list of People I would Like to meet. A kind, supportive, thoughtful, constructive force for good. She will be missed by us all.
I posted this on the previous thread but will repeat it here.I was saddened and shocked to hear that Petra had passed away. I didn’t know that she had been ill. She was a much loved and appreciated contributor to the comments on this blog, both by me and by many others who comment here. She will be immensely missed. I’d like to send my deepest sympathies and condolences to her family at this difficult time for them. Fois dhut/ Rest in Peace Petra,
What an awful shock.
R.I.P. Petra.
Really sad news, her comments were always first class, and will be missed by us all. RIP Petra
That is sad indeed. Heartfelt wishes to Petra’s family and friends. The world of independence has lost a good person
Half the people in these marches are from NI. Ban these marches we dont want these bigots here.I also think it time to do away with Religious segregation in schools as well, it just plays the sectarian unionist game. No one is interested in religion anymore and I can’t see any of these bigots going to church on a Sunday either.
Hi folks , long time reader but never a writer .
My point to our unionist and orange “ friends “ would be – Have you realised that the head of the UK government is now a CATHOLIC !!
Means nothing to me but does it sit comfortably with their twisted beliefs ?
I’m still getting over the sad news of Petra’s passing.
She would have , I’m sure, contributed mightily to a discussion on British/brutish nationalism in Scotland, with supporting links..
My views on the Christian versions of religion are fairly well known on here.
My Everlovin’ and I married in Belfast, her home town, in the dim and distant, during what is euphemistically referred to as ‘the Troubles’.
‘My side’ was the usual mixture of family, close friends, and work colleagues.
They were coming from all airts and pairts, flying in from Canada, Spain, the Netherlands, Australia, Glasgow, London, Nottingham, oh, and the most exotic place on Earth apparently, Garforth in the People’s Republic of West (or is it East?) Yorkshire.
We were all holed up in the same plush hotel (ahem) where the wedding ‘do’ was to be held.
It was chosen because it was a highly protected building and grounds…no one got past the front gates without clearance.
Despite the images coming out of Norn Irn at the time, there were no call offs.
My family, friends, and (now) ex colleagues, are nothing if not pig headedly stubborn, bless ’em.
They’d go anywhere for a good knees up.
The wedding feast and celebrations were in a separate banqueting hall in the grounds,
There were Saracens and armoured Police Land Rovers everywhere, so ‘my lot’ were reminded very sharply of the ‘conflict’ from minute one, on the roads from the airport and ferry terminal.
During the night, the joint jumpin’ with the usual dancing and drinking, good time being had by all, I was sitting near a dear friend, who was indulging in a bit of craic with one of my Everlovin’s pal’s husband, a broth of a boy, with a twinkle in his eye, even without the pints of creamy stout which he had already downed.
Out of the blue, the bold boy asked my poor pal:
” As a Glasgow man, which team do you support?”
My dear friend had panic written all over his face. He looked to me, a look of dread on his face.
” Ah, I’m a Dumbarton supporter” he blurted out, which he is, yet as a Bankie, I forgive him, and still consider him one of my longest and closest friends.
Quick as a flash, with delightful tease, the bold boy asked;- “But are you a Rangers Dumbarton supporter, or a Celtic Dumbarton supporter?”
For a milli-second the table hushed, and then burst into laughter.
Over the next few days, my family and friends had their eyes open.
Ordinary citizens from both sides of this sad and needless reign of terror were, are, getting on with their lives.
Yet decades later the Prods and Kafflix nonsense is still used as a baseball bat to ‘threaten’ police, local authorities, and even our Scottish government, with violence and ‘riots’ if civilisation gets in the way of a march on George square to ‘celebrate’ a football team winning a league, by drunken thugs and vandals, sorry ‘supporters, , or 120 feet high bonfires in Orange Belfast in built up areas, which no sane person over here would object to the police and fire service prohibiting.
Italian supporters in Leicester Square are kicked senseless by drunken almost exclusively white England ‘fans’, and a 17 year old Irish lad is in hospital with 40 degrees burns fighting for his life because he tried to spray an accelerant on to one of Norn Irn’s 11th Night bonfires of hate.
I observed on the morning of the 11th, that ‘There will be blood’.
Two sets of under educated poor White Trailer Trash have been fed a reason for their miserable existence by ‘religion’ or racism by a delibertae sinister Elite ;divide and conquer.
The Great British Empire wheeze.
How the Rich and Nobles hold on to power.
Turn the proles against each other, and sit back in your baronial piles, and plush villas, and apartments, and watch the money rolling in.
This is too much, I know.
I have long shunned religious zealots…and their versions of the Almighty Chief.
I suspect that most of my fellow 5.4 million Scots have had enough of the defenders of faiths psychopaths.
They grow old and are dying off. Thank God.
RIP, Petra
Spot on. 100% 👍
That’s it Jack
Capella, Dr Jim, my Parents in Law, sadly, no longer with us, were two of the most quiet,unassuming decent people you could ever wish to meet.
Four of their children are electronic engineers.
One is in Singapore at the moment doing something very clever in freight, another was in Pisa working on the European satellite project, another in Belgium doing amazing engineering electronically, and yet another, is still in Belfast, where he has raised a family, who alll attended Queens…and contribute greatly to society over there.
Yet what news from Ireland do the MSM beam in to our homes?
The culture of hate and violence.
I am so proud of my family and friends in Ireland.
Priti Patel would starve them out, and Johnson’s dad quipped, ‘so what if a few Irish people kill each other?’
My blood is beginning to boil so I’ll stop.
James Dornan does Scotland no favours, no matter how well intentioned he believes himself to be, by dragging this tired old ‘Ulsterisation’ hoary chestnut out here.
The thug who was hauled to court the other day, for drunkenly shrieking ‘Up the RA’ is equally as brutalised and conditioned as the Billy Boys.
We, Scotland, have had enough of both of them.
And the sad thing is that it isn’t these lost souls’ fault.
Peace.
Excellent post, the latter part of which firmly hits the nail on the head. Yet we allow this situation to continue. I don’t have the answer but there must be one, or several.
Sorry, that’s not accurate – we do know the answer, just not yet the best way to get there. I sometimes wish we were a bit more like the French who seem to be able get their politicians’ attention when they’re unhappy.
Mind, they don’t have a politically captive media ranged against them.
As an aside, I never cease to be amazed by the accurate observations and contributions from the regular posters on WGD, not forgetting WGD himself. There is hope.
Can I add my heartfelt condolences to Petras family and friends, she was one of us she was at home on this blog among like minded folks and will be sorely missed btl on Pauls blog.
RIP Petra
It was only a matter of time:
Health Secretary tests positive for Covid
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57874744
Dejavu ? Pardon my scepticism, but after Johnson’s disappearing act and near death experience with a PS3, a la carte deliveries, and hot and cold running servants, ehm, no…..
England’s “Freedom Day” is 19th July, what better time for the Health Secretary to become incommunicado when the rest of the world is screaming blue murder over what England is about to do….
Yes I will add my twa bawbees
Education and religion needs to be separated in Scotland.
If you want your child taught the version of time and creation mandated by your religious beliefs. It needs to be in Saturday or Sunday or evening schools at your religions organised meetings.
It cannot be within the Scottish education system. Which should be devoid of all religious references, with the sole exception of historical facts.
At the same time ALL religious persons and bodies must be excluded from and have no further input to Scottish Education.
Oh aye one other point no time off scho for any religious activity.
Should we as a people be able to do this, perhaps within a generation we can eliminate religious bigotry.
Now the hard part
All that is required is to stand up to bigotry and see the change through.
Make religions responsible for religion. And education responsible to educate.
Sad to lose yet another staunch supporter of our hesitant faith in a achieving our objective of a free and Independent Scotland. For those of us who despair of the fragmentation of the Independence movement Petra was a beacon in our dark times. Like so many I others, I suspect, I felt I knew her as friend although I had not met her. She is already sadly missed but will never be forgotten.
So sad and shocked to hear about Petra whom I didn’t know except as a valued and hard-working supporter of Scotland and independence. I used to admire her strength in that she must have had to read her way through mountains of unionist codswallop to bring some of her links to us in order to highlight the kind of attitude we have to face in our country not only from downright ignorant outsiders but (un)proud Scots at home and beyond.
Sincerest condolences to her family and friends.
Pogmothon at 2.29 pm – I basically agree. There should be no practice of any religion in schools. In England there was/is? a school subject, Religious Education. This should be taught as a branch of history.
I don’t know if RE is such a subject in Scottish schools. But people need to know the basics of major religions, because religious ideas have influenced Science and Arts disciplines, and because knowledge of religions might undermine prejudice and improve tolerance.
RE is a subject in Secondary schools in Scotland
According to Wikipedia, pupils in Scotland can study for a ‘Higher’ in Religious, Moral and Philosophical Studies.
Boris Johnson’s university friend gets ethics watchdog role. Member of the Bullingdon club. Photos of this bunch of rich hoodlums are hidden or airbrushed to hide the guilty but the BBC as reconstructed one. Google still finds some though.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-57860969
Good picture here.
https://www.irishnews.com/lifestyle/2020/05/30/news/jake-o-kane-boris-hasn-t-the-intellectual-rigour-to-govern-without-help-from-dominic-cummings-1955504/
Yes – that is an original. No Osborne though. The Irish Times must be outside jurisdiction. Or maybe they don’t care 🙂
Supermarkets to boycott – Part 538
ASDA.
Supermarket giant slammed for advising Welsh shoppers they don’t have to wear face masks in stores
17 Jul 2021 2 minutes Read
Asda’s customer service department has been slammed after publishing incorrect information on social media about the legal requirement for people to wear facemasks in shops in Wales.
Shoppers in Deeside and Pwllheli complained about large numbers of people not wearing masks in stores today and one Twitter user contacted the supermarket giant’s customer service department to say staff were also concerned about “the influx of people” without masks.
In England the legal requirement to wear masks in shops is being scrapped from next Monday but in Wales face coverings will remain mandatory on public transport, shops and most indoor public places.
[…]
https://nation.cymru/news/supermarket-giant-slammed-for-advising-welsh-shoppers-they-dont-have-to-wear-face-masks-in-stores/
Isn’t ASDA really Wallmart? Boycott for that reason alone, unless you’re a fan of the Waltons.
G’night John – boy 😂
So sad to hear about Petra.
Will miss her contributions to Scotland’s cause.
RIP Petra
Sad news about Petra.
“Do what we say not as we do” typical Tories. Never trust a Tory.
Anti catholic bigotry will continue as long as the monarchy enables this through the absurd retention of archaic laws not designed for Henry VIIIs time.
We need independence and to be a republic to stamp this out once and for all
Today, 140,000 petrol heads will assemble at Silverstone to watch filthy rich racing drivers zoom around a wee track hundreds of times.
The weather in England is to go in to the 30’s and Brighton beach will be standing room only.
140,000 idiots crammed together in blistering heat for an afternoon. What could possibly go wrong?
Marr’s end of season contribution to the day was to interview Neil Fergusson, the SAGE stats guru, and Robert Jenrick, ‘Housing Minister’, last minute sub since Savid, who apparently contaminated Boris and Rishi, is self isolating but not really because unlike the 100,000 to 200,000 a day and more, predicted by Fergusson, following ‘Freedom Day, in England tomorrow, will catch Covid daily, the Elite are taking part in a ‘pilot’ of daily testing and carrying on as before.
Jenrick, you may recall, is the Trougher who approved a former party donor media billionaire Richard Desmond’s Isle of Dogs project 24 hours before community charges would have cost his mate £40 million.
Javid was scheduled to appear but is down with the lurgy..how very convenient. As the ‘bodies pile high’, Javid will be taking a sickie.
Jenrick churned out the usual stock cold hearted nonsense about everything Covid, and the Health and Social Care Review in England, but provided answers to absolutely none of Marr’s questions.
Marr of course was demob happy.
He’s off until September..on full pay.
Unlike the hundreds of thousands of Covid victims who will have to get by on £96 SSP a week, or the DWP staff (who survive Wave III England), who will have to process 100,000’s of UCS claims generated by the ‘British Experiment’ as the onlooking world has dubbed it.
There is of course no Martin Guissler half hour following Marr at the moment.
He bade us farewell until August two weeks ago.
These Uncle Tams know on what side is their well paid Brit bread is buttered, that’s for sure.
So Marr brushes over the true impact of tomorrow’s madness ‘cos it’s sunny and hot?
Labour’s Health shadow, Jonathan Ashworth was interviewed and squirmed visibly in his seat in an attempt to do a Starmer and state that Labour’s policy was to support the Freedom Day Tory plan, but somehow not…ventilators in schools face masks, work from home, but…business needs to open tomorrow.
Ashworth is a pointless little spokesman at the best of times..but today he was after votes not serving the public…eat drink and be merry gets the vote in in Brexit England…but with a face mask, um, oh yes, ventilators…
The TV Channels and their political anchors have shut for the summer…none of them will be living on £96 a week…
England has well and truly gone mad.
Marr is an obedient little poodle, avoiding reality at all costs.
But don’t mention that 100,000’s of English citizens who get Covid but will have to survive on less than the price of a damned good lunch at the Ritz Bar and Grill.
England; The Tribe That Lost Its Head.
Javid takes a lateral flow test to confirm he’s got covid, that’s a test for people Without Symptoms.
What we have is the ‘leader’ doesn’t know his departments policy on testing.
It took the chancer and doris a couple of hours to make the ‘communities’ minister look even more of a fool.
Have seen the pictures of Bournemouth beech yesterday, as you say Jack, the englanders have done a charlie, lost their heads.
Javid and the chancer are about to put the skids under the doris.
Just read the last paragraph of the doris ‘Leveling Up’ ramble, on you go Nicola, sent him the grand idea that an Independent Scotland will be well able to level up and likely exceed the englanders, did someone actually write the script for his ramble?, it wasn’t Cummings.
Dave, If any Duggers have some spare cash lying around, (‘as if..’ comes the woeful cry from the gathered throng.) perhaps we should buy shares in a company making graffiti removal sprays; well removing wannabe Banksies’ efforts is one of Johnson’s Big Ideas for ‘levelling up’ England apparently.
They’re going to need a lot of cans of the stuff.
It is getting quite scary Down There.
It is no hyperbole to describe the English parliament as a mad house now.
What can you say – this lot are the pantomime dame, principal boy and wishy washy, all set for “Freedom Day” tomorrow.😂
‘One of the fastest government U-turns ever’
Analysis box by Nick Eardley, political correspondent
This must be one of the fastest government U-turns ever: 157 minutes after saying the PM and chancellor wouldn’t be isolating, Downing Street decided they would.
The reason is set out by Rishi Sunak on Twitter – ministers can’t be seen to be following different rules to everyone else.
But questions will be asked about why No 10 initially said they would be escaping isolation. Who made the decision? Who signed it off? The prime minister and chancellor must have known about the plan.
There’s also the fact that the PM and chancellor had the choice over whether to isolate – which most people don’t at the moment.
The political symbolism is also highly significant. Three senior government ministers will be in isolation on the day almost all legal restrictions are lifted in England.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57879730
Indeed, Capella.
We can only hope that Johnson has reached the end of his man/child attention span and suddenly announces that he is fed up and quits, like he has throughout his working life.
Similarly, his love life.
Where are Dross, Union Jack .Mundell the Michty, Sub Lieutenant (RN Failed) ‘Get Over it.’ Andrew Bowie, Pasta Shapes David Duguid fur nothin’, and that anonymous guy Lamont in Kelso, hiding this weather?
The Dross and Andrew Kerr double act were all for following England mid week; business leaders and pubs demanded that ‘Sturgeon’ follow England’s lead after all,
Not a cheep from any of them as my local supermarket has run out of tomatoes.
There is a sense of impending Armageddon about Freedom Day.
It’s in the 30’s in London today.
Riots?
While I’m at it, why do Marr and Co keep referring to the Covid vaccinations as ‘jabs’?
The definitions of ‘jab’.
verb
poke roughly or quickly, especially with something sharp or pointed.
“she jabbed him in his ribs”
noun
a quick, sharp blow, especially with the fist.
“a jab in the stomach”
Its origins are apparently from 16th Century Scotland and is a corruption of the onomatopoeia ‘job’, to describe the noise of birds pecking.
The usage of ‘jab’ as medical slang originates in early 20th century and refereed to drug users ‘jabbing themselves with needles; oops.
Whereas in Scotland we call injections, ‘jags’
The definition of ‘jag’?
noun
a sharp projection.
verb
stab, pierce, or prick.
“she jagged herself in the mouth”
It’s ‘jag’ FFS!
Off my chest I am glad I got that.
And on BBC 1 SCOTLAND there are over 4 hours of cricket: England versus Pakistan.
Beamed to the colony so that our colonial Uber bosses don’t miss out on what is happening back in the Old Country.
BBC Scotland is a joke of a term.
When the last helicopter takes off..
4 hours of English cricket?
I’ve just checked i Player..BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Wales also have 4 hours of Mighty English clicky ba’.
Utter disgrace.
At 2.55pm a Scotsman . . Robert Macintyre is the leading Brit in the Open on 6 under at the eighth . . . Listening on Radio 5 R M isn’t getting a mention. . .
Yesterday he had the best round of the day. Not mentioned on Radio Scotland.
It’s the Coleman effect… If he wins, he’s British, if he loses, he’s Scottish… They’ll have both headlines prepared and ready to roll, for now they don’t want distraction from London theatrics…
I wonder if Red Tory leader Anas will be cheering on England like a good little Brit Nat, or Pakistan?
I think you’d have had your answer to that group match in the Euros if Richard Leonard, spinster, late of this parish, had stayed on as Labour Leader, until that tournament …
And then to call yourself the prospective First Minister of Scotland! Sheesh …
In case nobody saw this, https://mobile.twitter.com/Haggis_UK/status/1416059131971227659
I see that sensible thread has already been joined by a contemptuous “Business First” reality-denier and an organised anti-vaxx conspiracy pusher. A toxic alliance of the greedy and the witless. Countering these asocial public menaces is like whack-a-mole. (Not so much asocial, actually, more like virulently anti-social.)
But the chiels that winna ding are that we’re already into a third wave (if you count the double-peak over the winter as a single one), we’re nowhere near the autumn and this virus doesn’t negotiate, it proliferates. Prematurely letting it rip now is an unforgiveable abdication of one of the most fundamental duties of government – protection of the people it is supposed to serve.
Remember how we were told back in 2014 that remaining in the Union would give us the backing of the “broad shoulders” of the UK? Well, like all the other glib promises back then, where are those shoulders now when you need them? (Presumably hidden away in some cupboard in Downing Street under lock and key.)
It becomes clearer by the day that there is only one way to ensure that the resources of the state remain fully available to us in times of crisis, and that is if the state belongs to us, and to us alone.
What grizebard said,
Aye
Talking of “Freedom Day”, I watched this video yesterday of a zoom meeting by a number of world experts set up to discuss the Johnson plan for reopening England up to the virus tomorrow with no restrictions in place at all.
To say they are not impressed is an understatement and they are if fact very concerned that taking this route may prove to be a big big mistake by the UK government. I think they are probably right.
https://mobile.twitter.com/allthecitizens/status/1416344082822189057
Indeed Alex, I watched that video a couple of days back, initially intrigued what Mr Slime Zawahi was going to attempt to deploy, only to realise it was Prof Karim.
Despite all the hoopla over holidays in the UQ media etc., I seriously suggest all of the UK will soon be on a no-flight ban worldwide, no quarantine, banned.
I seriously suggest all of the UK will soon be on a no-flight ban worldwide, no quarantine, banned.
_________
You may well be right, Bob. But for the moment …
“All of Britain put on Denmark red list – apart from Wales”
https://nation.cymru/news/all-of-britain-put-on-denmark-red-list-apart-from-wales/
It goes without saying you won’t hear/see this on MSM …
Read that earlier WS, Twitter was awash with “only Welsh may visit Denmark”, whereas in reality the Danes recognise Wales as lower risk to visit…
On your final point, of course, OBON…🙄
Dose anyone remember a movie “28 Dumbo’s later” or some such name.
How are you all enjoying living on The Great Quarantinish Isles.
We’ll be fine the walls are 3ft thick here and have kept reprobates and polis out for the last 300 years……………………….
…………….Look Wully ye jist have tae keep ile simmering… no biling its brains out. whit ur yea trying te day mak a PM.
I see the Herald, Scotsman and Telegraph are going full pelt against the SNP again.
I would love a free press which was truly free of owners who are tax avoiding millionaires and who dictate terms.
The Dead Tree Scrolls, where crusty old hacks now with their quills and ink pots banging out Brit Nat SNP BAD rubbish, with a sub ed sticking clickbait headlines on the ‘on line’ versions.
Their union is dead. Like the Dead Sea Scrolls paper Brit Nat pamphlets rely on messages based on ancient myths, lies, distortions, and propaganda, which, when exposed to the light of day, crumble to dust like ancient papyrus.
Newspapers are the elephants’ graveyard where Old Hacks instinctively converge to die.
I’ll not name names…but they are all well into their professional dotage now.
And thirty pieces of silver doesn’t have the same buying power these days.
From Camus’ ‘The Stranger’.
“”At that time, I often thought that if I had had to live in the trunk of a dead tree, with nothing to do but look up at the sky flowing overhead, little by little I would have gotten used to it.”
That just about sums life for the hacks reliant on English gold to put food on the table.
When you live on a dung heap, the stench of dung becomes the new normal.
Our ‘papers and TV stations have been deliberately reduced to fourth rate ‘regional’ fare.
Scotland’s not really a country, is the not so subliminal message.
Any fool with cut and paste facility could produce most of this junk.
BBC Radio Scotland after 7.30 am.
Dr. Deepti Gurdasani “it’s good that Scotland and Wales are not following England . . . . There is no country in the world that has endangered it’s population so much”
“The UK stands out in the world by not vaccinating it’s under 18’s. “
”Freedom’ Day ” in England has arrived :
free from any sense of responsibility for the worst infection rates in Europe ;
free from any responsibility for creating an even worse situation in which more variants can flourish , killing more people;
free from any sensible leadership which MIGHT have mitigated the impending doom facing their nation .
F*ck this ”No Borders ” crap – close the border now !
Do you think Covid might have addled their brains? Lots of people complain about “brain fog” after Covid. Is the UK being led by shambling idiots?
Is Capella asking rhetorical questions? 😉
I suspect you know the answer… 🤔
😎
I see the Daily Express gives the temperature in Farenheit now. It’s 84F
another BREXIT dividend.
Ah … but wasn’t Mr. F. one of those ‘beastly furriners’?
Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit FRS (/ˈfærənhaɪt/; German: [ˈfaːʁənhaɪt]; 24 May 1686 – 16 September 1736)[1] was a physicist, inventor, and scientific instrument maker. Fahrenheit was born in Danzig (Gdańsk), then a predominantly German-speaking city in the Pomeranian Voivodeship of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Well you at least managed to spell his name correctically. 🤓
My bad.
In 1742, Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (1701–1744) created a temperature scale that was the reverse of the scale now known as “Celsius”: 0 represented the boiling point of water, while 100 represented the freezing point of water.[5]
…….
In 1743, the Lyonnais physicist Jean-Pierre Christin, permanent secretary of the Academy of Lyon, inverted the celsius scale so that 0 represented the freezing point of water and 100 represented the boiling point of water.
This became Centigrade. All Foreigners
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celsius#Centigrade_versus_Celsius
Johnson and Farage and Piers Morgan were relying on Trump getting re-elected. Aw, diddums.
Capella, I mused that England would morph into the 51st State some time ago, but Biden seems to have put the brakes of that transition to ‘Old England’ beating Puerto Rico to statehood.
We’ll just have to put up with Australian steroid beef and Malaysian chlorinated chicken in the meantime.
But there will now be a drip drip return to the Good Old Days.
I commented on the ‘120 feet’ Orange bonfire on the 11th, and mooted that it won’t be long until English grocers and pub landlords will be using stones pounds and ounces, and measuring drink in pints and quarter gills.
It is no surprise (soon to be ‘surprize’) that the Uber Fascist Express is leading the charge.
I commented earlier that the supermarket which I visited yesterday had no tomatoes.
The Hunt for Red Tomatoes; I was an early bird this morning, I tried a small local Coop store.
Got some tomatoes, from a diminished stock.
There were two tins of chopped tomatoes left…I took one; Spag Bol tonight There were wide empty spaces on the shelves.
It was mildly alarming.
Looks like they haven’t replaced the 22,000 EU HGV drivers yet.
That Brexit has bitten, and we are running out of food isn’t as newsworthy as poor souls with the cash wanting to fly off to the sun…
It is about to get very bad indeed.
Yeah but – do you call courgettes zucchini or coriander cilentro?
American pints and gallons are different to Imperial ones “An American pint is 0.47 litres. There are 8 American pints in an American gallon. An Imperial gallon is 4.546 litres. An Imperial pint is 0.57 litres.”
And an American mile is slightly different to an imperial mile.
We will be IMPERIAL once again.
cilentro = cilantro – get it right ffs.
How on earth can a mile be different?
I mean, I understand that a US pint only has 16 fl oz, whereas a real pint has 20 fl oz. But a mile…?
PS: Courgette, coriander and definitely NOT eggplant!
Miles and miles (and head spins).
https://www.quora.com/Are-American-miles-the-same-distance-as-U-K-miles
Thanks W_S
Have you ever wished you hadn’t asked?! (Bet the O/P did… 😀 )
The American Inch is smaller than the Imperial inch.
It is derived from a different Standard.
Capella, Tyre or tire, Night or nite colour or color, (and all ‘-our’/ ‘-or’ derivatives.
It’s already here via the hegemony of Netflix Amazon and Sky of course.
I’m afraid that drinks in pubs – and milk in bottles – never got away from being measured in pints. As we occasional frequenters of milk drinking dens all know. Equally, just as wee people entering the world never got out of being weighed in lbs. The colonials in Canada and Australia didn’t seem to have any problem, but good ole reliable UK couldn’t even get metrication done properly. (Something to do with Thatcher, I believe).
What people might not know, though, is that metrication of Imperious Britain was part of a deal done back over a century ago, in which, in return for a “hand-on-heart” promise to metricate, in place of Paris (which actually had the better scientific claim), Greenwich got the agreed international meridian. Y’know, the one with the metal bar laid in the ground that tourists have to pay real money to visit but which is ~100 metres – or the equivalent in ancient lower limb lengths – off the real thing, as every modern GPS device or phone can readily demonstrate.
So yet another tale of perfidious Albion. An international agreement never properly honoured either in spirit or in practice. Which is part of the reason why it isn’t at all imperious any longer, whatever the likes of Rees-Twat and the Daily Inchworm might like to pretend.
This whole milk thing has reminded me that it’s even more complicated than just US v real pints.
Years ago, I was following a Christmas cake recipe that called for a gill of sherry and a gill of milk. Obviously, I put the sherry in first 🙂 Seemed rather a lot and it looked really quite sloppy, so I didn’t bother with the milk.
Afterwards, I realised that it was recipe from someone in the SOUTH of England. Where I’m from, a gill is half a pint (hence a relative by marriage called Gill being nicknamed “half-pint”). That 10 fl oz. Darn Sarf, a gill is a quarter pint or 5 fl oz.
No wonder it didn’t need any milk!
Mind you, the house smelled great – if a little boozy – for weeks…
Oz deported Motormouth Hopkins after a fine…. All England’s turkeys are coming come to roost…
Covid’s coming home !!!
There is a Dog…
From a hospital somewhere in England.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/19/i-work-in-an-nhs-covid-ward-and-i-feel-so-angry
So the Australians have deported Katie Hopkins. The Australians! Skippy is next
No.
Skippy is (re)tired.
He’s out of bounds.
(Reaches for his coat.)
*Groan*
I’ll hold the door!
Is it just me but the individual who wants to see her terminally dad, lives in Qutar apparently goes to Majorca on hol on her way to Scotland and is unhappy she is not a special case.
Is the world going mad?
She will be allowed in but is seems doesn’t want to quarantine? BBC make a story up about it. Nasty Scotland.
The holiday makers demanding rescue if they are stuck abroad, Johnson trying to fiddle the rules to suit him( obviously learned nothing when he was in ITU)
The rail company coming into Scotland telling passengers we are following English rules. Well done transport Scotland to say “.. are you dickie bird.”
Is it the heat or just selfish bees.
LNER have announced that they will apply English law to their trains traveling in Scotland and thus break Scottish law.
Looks like they are about to reconsider, remember though they make these decisions on profit generation, less distancing, more seats can be filled, public safety will chucked out the window of they think they can get away with it.
LNER which is owned by the government are apparently reviewing this a backlash and will make a further announcement later.
Alex,
Remind them of what BTP are saying in Wales.
https://nation.cymru/news/british-transport-police-warn-they-will-enforce-mask-wearing-as-trains-enter-wales/
British Transport Police have warned passengers entering Wales from England that they will enforce rules on mask-wearing on public transport.
England’s ‘freedom day’ means that restrictions on mask-wearing and social distancing there have been lifted, while they will remain in place in Wales until at least the 7th of August.
It means that public transport passengers will be expected to put on masks as they cross the border into Wales.
“From today face-covering legislation is removed in England, so we no longer have involvement in policing the wearing of face coverings,” British Transport Police said.
“In Scotland and Wales, officers will continue to use the ‘4Es’ approach and, as a last resort, enforce any Coronavirus legal requirements.”
[…]
They had better, because otherwise I would expect the SG to order their trains stopped at the border. No more pissing around, these arrogant English exceptionalists need to be taught a lesson, and the Scottish public also shown in no uncertain terms who is in charge here.
Exactly, social distancing rules and mask wearing remain law in Scotland and are not guidance as it is now in England. They should be prosecuted if they fail to comply with Scottish Law when operating in Scotland.
Correction, the 2m or 1m rules on social distancing is not law in Scotland, it is guidance. The wearing of face masks is law in relation to public transport.
And yessir we can boogie
Capella,
I brought this up on 13 July here on WGD – “Null points for grace in defeat”
That day’s Telegraph, no less:
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/scotland-hold-independence-referendum-without-141416997.html
Yes, it all helps puncture the Big Bluff. And we can be sure that the SG is very well aware of the legal balance of probabilities if the English Government is desperate/arrogant/whatever enough to try to press on with a legal challenge regardless.
But we still have to keep very much in mind the state of readiness of ordinary people to take on a new referendum, and how that will develop over the coming months. Recently Lesley Riddoch was very foolishly – to my mind – quoting some impatient moron on Twatter claiming the crisis was effectively over as far as young people are concerned – a very strange concurrence of “let it rip” reality-denial with BoZo the Clown – but launching an indyref attempt while people of any age are filling hospital beds once again would flop like the proverbial lead balloon. I do wish the recklessly impatient would learn from one of our worst mistakes of last time and pay much less attention to how they themselves feel and rather more attention to how others feel.
Still, all very hopeful for a timely and decisive move forward, and well before the likelihood of a deliberate May-style early UKGE spoiler from BoZo, who will likely have his hands full with the grim consequences of his own recklessness for some time to come.
Absolutely.
It is very easy in this environment to forget that many other Scots do not share our view (yet).
The FM has an abundance of patience, but it’s patience with a purpose as she predicted this mayhem way back in 2012 and has been proven right on every count, the English and their lieutenants the demanders and the Abla-ists who scream for the FM to move and move now or she’s weak or she’s a Tory plant or she’s some other ridiculous name they can think up to push her to a referendum too soon want her and us defeated, Nicola Sturgeon has waited and will wait just a little more, because the English Goose government are almost fully cooked in their own juices only then will the FM stick the fork in to watch those juices run, she knew Brexit would be their undoing, and even though they got the gift of Covid as a distraction they messed that one up too
Coming to a country near you soon *Nicola Sturgeon strikes back*
Great article on sectarianism and anti Irish racism Paul. Whilst tracing our family tree I discovered we had two great grandparents who came from protestant North Ireland and one set of grandparents who were married in an Orange Hall in Glasgow. Thankfully my own parents were not remotely interested in the ludge and even as children we were close friends with Catholic families and my friends these days have various religions and none. Although I am the only member of my family a church member I am not remotely interested in the anti Catholic anti Irish crap. Indeed all of my family including my parents have been supportive of Scottish Independence since the early 1970s. At the current time I am embarrassed to live in the UK with such an inept corrupt Tory government in charge at Westminster. I heard part of Bojo the idiots Covid briefing tonight with all the bumbling over his words Jabba the Hut would have been easier understood and he speaks a made up language. The CMO etc looked decidedly uncomfortable. I think things will go bang in England pretty soon and not just with Covid but social disruption and riots like the early 1980s when Thatcher was in power. I do want Scotland to escape soon from this awful union
Seems the Daily Borisgraph is turning on its idol. This the latest from Cummings (who I wouldn’t trust to turn on a tap, but …)
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/boris-johnson-joked-elderly-could-200507887.html
Boris Johnson joked elderly could ‘get Covid and live longer’ in WhatsApp exchange, reveals Dominic Cummings
(The Laura Kuenssberg interview with Dominic Cummings will be broadcasted on BBC 2 at 7pm on 20th July)
Agreed on Cummings, even with stiff competition…
They will have had Johnson’s replacement lined up in the wings simply waiting for the right time.
With disastrous consequences predicted for “freedom day”, this may be their moment to start with the banana skins…
Wasn’t Dominic Cummings originally Michael Gove’s right-hand-man?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_Cummings#Special_Adviser_to_Michael_Gove_(2007%E2%80%932014)
He did work for Gove, and before that he was Ian Duncan Smith’s Director of Strategy when Smith was the leader of the Tories. I listened to Smith yesterday saying that he had sacked Cummings but it looks more likely that Cummings walked out on Smith.
https://archive.ph/wip/8dd4c
Whatever the truth he has certainly left his mark on the Tories.
Paul’s latest article in The National. I live in a part of Scotland where owners of large estates deny that Gaelic was ever spoken here. Yet every place name is Gaelic. The last native Gaelic speaker died some time ago but within living memory. I would love to be able to pronounce, let alone understand, the many place names of Scotland which are still Gaelic.
Buachaille Etive Mòr for example, is the Great Herdsman of Etive Google tells me. Etive?
https://archive.fo/cHSps
And Wiki tells me this. (Although, I try to not use Wiki as a source generally – see also the Cummings-Gove piece above).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_Etive
Thx WS – I love how, looking up the meaning of one Gaelic name you run into umpteen more like Loch Etive looking northeast from Sron nam Feannag😂
Boris Johnson’s latest wheeze on dealing with Corona Virus has removed all control from Wales’s Mark Drakeford and Scotland’s Nicola Sturgeon, he has unleashed the population of unvaccinated England upon our nations forcing our leaders into the herd immunity situation of the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, and of course in some other circumstances this is a legitimate tactic to employ …IF.. there’s nothing else you can do to repair a situation
But there is isn’t there, there’s the vaccine, except they keep telling us that 25% of our young people aren’t vaccinated and the uptake on it has slowed to a snails pace, and here come the excuses for that, like *no time* *working* *no nearby vaccine centres* yadda yadda yadda it’s not their fault, so in order not to alienate them as voters or tell them off for being bone idle lazy couldn’t care less wasters the Johnson government just opened the door and told them to run free get Covid and get the herd immunity he really wanted to impose in the first place and damn the consequences……except… the young people must have the time because on opening up society without a care by Johnson for what happens next those young people flocked in their droves to queue up outside clubs pubs and any place they could get into that served booze
It must be very much easier to flock at night then for those young people who refuse to flock during the day to all the drop in centres right across these islands for a vaccine that could help to save all our lives that they couldn’t manage to do before, but now that partying is offered you can’t keep the poor flocking young souls away
One wonders if nurses stationed at the doors of these venues vaccine and needles in hand would see a reduction of the flockers to the partying because they might have to wait the inordinate unacceptable amount of time of around 20 minutes extra while they got a jag before they entered and joined with all the other partying herd of flockers
If they did maybe nobody would need vaccine passports to be introduced a month after the horse has bolted found a mate and reproduced more of the flockers
I always thought when I was a kid governments had to govern, not pander to a minority of lazy useless careless flockers holding the rest of the population to ransom
Our hopes for the future of mankind lie with all our young but if 25% don’t care about that why should the rest of us care about them now, they’re alive because we, the older generation invented medicines and vaccines for many diseases and illnesses and we queued up as children in school outside doctors surgeries, hospitals and anywhere the authorities told us to go to receive the life saving medicines that have saved mankind worldwide only for these 25% of flockers to throw our hard work tolerance and sacrifices for them right back in our faces and tell us “We didn’t have the time to queue* to do the same for us
If everything goes wrong the flockers will play dumb and blame somebody else when they contract long Covid or worse instead of their own careless laziness and desperation for booze and a jump around at a rave up
How dare they!