On Tuesday 31 January it was the third anniversary of the UK crashing out of the EU with Boris Johnson’s half baked and fundamentally dishonest Brexit deal. None of the much heralded Brexit benefits have materialised, there is still no sign of the advantageous trade deals that the rest of the world was supposedly poised to offer Britain. Instead of the reductions in food prices promised by the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg, shoppers in British supermarkets are having to cope with a rise in the prices of food and beverages of 16.9% in the twelve months to December 2022. British citizens have lost their right to freedom of movement and no longer have an automatic right to work and settle in EU member states. instead of being waved through at border control upon arrival in an EU country British citizens must now have their documents inspected and must prove that they have a return ticket and funds to support themselves during a stay which cannot exceed 90 days in any period of 180 days. But hey! Blue passports! which aren’t blue, which are printed in France, and which the UK could have had all along if it had wanted.
Meanwhile the Tories are poised to abolish all the EU laws and legislation which remains in force in the UK, many of which ensure basic standards which guarantee consumer and employment rights.
Even many of those who voted for Brexit back in 2016 now regret the decision. Even the most delusional English nationalist is hard pressed to identify any sunlit uplands that the UK has arrived at thanks to Brexit despite the best efforts of G Beebies News to present a televisual equivalent of the anti-EU nonsense regularly published in the Daily Mail, the Express, and the Telegraph. When idly switching through channels recently I briefly alighted on G Beebies to see the presenter telling viewers that Britons had experienced a narrow escape because the EU had recently ‘introduced crickets into the food chain’. Despite the scaremongering of Nigel Farage who announced that he ‘didn’t want locusts for breakfast’ and called for a ‘proper Brexit,’ the EU is quite clear that no one is going to be forced to eat insects. The greater the harm that Brexit causes and the more elusive its benefits the more the likes of Farage and his right wing media enablers demand an even ‘purer’ and more extreme form of Brexit. It’s like having been crippled because you foolishly allowed Farage to batter your kneecaps with a hammer, he’s now insisting that you’ll be able to run a marathon in record time if only you give him a bigger hammer.
In fact the UK Food Standards Authority admitted that it had made a mistake in banning edible insects at the end of the Brexit transition period and transitional measures were made law allowing the legal sale in the UK of insects for human consumption until December 2023 after which companies selling insect products for human consumption can apply to the Food Standards Agency for a novel food authorisation. So crickets are already ‘part of the food chain’ in the UK.
But of course that doesn’t stop Brextremists in search of a non-existent threat that Brexit can supposedly save us from. They don’t have any real Brexit benefits to boast of so they have to make stuff up. This is how risibly pathetic they have become.
Ever since leaving the EU Britain has been mired in economic problems and political chaos. Public services are falling apart, industrial action spreads across many different sectors. ‘Take back control’ has translated into the real world as delivering chaos. Energy prices soaring puts the basic human dignity of being able to heat their home out of financial reach for many households, this in a country with an abundance of energy resources. Yet the priority for the government is to protect the bloated profits of the energy companies.
Last year we reached the current nadir when we had three Prime Ministers and four Chancellors of the Exchequer. But we cannot be sure that the Conservatives do not have further depths to plumb. Sunak’s administration lurches from one scandal to the next, in permanent crisis management mode. Despite the Conservatives having a current working majority of 67, Sunak’s grip on his fractured party and its warring factions is weak and tenuous. There is a very real possibility that he will lose control.
Scotland looks askance upon all of this. Scotland never voted for Brexit and opposition to it has only grown as the appalling magnitude of its catastrophic impact became apparent. Scotland has had no say at all on the form that Brexit has taken, every concern or suggestion from the Scottish Government was brushed aside without consideration. An opinion poll in August 2022 found that 72% of respondents in Scotland thought that Brexit was a mistake and 69% would vote to rejoin the EU if given a chance to do so, a chance that both Labour and the Conservatives are determined that they should not have. Indeed both the major British parties are partners in a conspiracy of silence not to mention the B word even as the negative effects of Brexit become harder and harder to ignore.
Heaping insult upon injury the Conservatives are hell bent on using the Brexit that Scotland did not vote for in order to undermine the devolution settlement that Scotland did vote for. The vision of a post Brexit centralised British nation state that the Conservatives are pursuing is incompatible with the devolution settlement and indeed with the concept of the UK as a voluntary union of different nations. naturally the Conservatives have no interest in seeking a mandate from the Scottish people to by pass the Scottish Parliament or to rewrite the foundations of this so-called union. They know that such a mandate would not be forthcoming so they just dispense with Scottish democracy, another casualty of Brexit along with economic and political stability and truth and accountability in British politics. It’s a sad and sorry story after three years. Brexit has delivered all the most dire predictions by Better Together of what would happen to Scotland if it voted for independence in 2014 only without a Scottish Parliament with the power to chart Scotland’s own path. Vote No for the best of both worlds they said, but they have given us the worst.
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Reblogged this on Ramblings of a now 60+ Female.
And Northern Ireland has preferential treatment in relation to access to the EU which the DUP don’t want. Such is the mess of Brexit where democracy is apparently what the Anglo Saxons decide and to hell with everybody else. Still we are told by the same folk that they love us dearly, we are all equals providing we do as they say.
I have faith we will win through with the help of our young adults who see the benefits and opportunities of what our independence will give 🏴
The noose of the thatcher years rehash is tightening…
Somehow, and soon, we need to get the hell out of it.
This MUST be the focus of the next Indy campaign, whatever its delivery.
The IMF GDP figures published yesterday were a real eye-opener but not surprising.
Ireland no. 3 globally. All the EU nations with less than 10 million population outperforming the UK. And the MSM generally keeping schtum.The UK in the toilet and they are frantically trying to spray Pure air freshener around to get rid of the smell.
It all starts and ends with Brexshit.
For what it’s worth I think Angus Robertson is correct regarding a Yes vote being Yes to EU membership as well. There is a much larger number of undecided but Pro EU voters than undecided Anti EU voters. The latest economic figures clearly make the case for rejoining the EU rather than remaining in the UK
I agree with your comment that rejoining EU could be a big motivation for many Soft No’s & Yes’s to support independence. I think it may be wiser to say that since their was a mandate to stay in EU in Scotland in 2016 that post independence the Scottish government will open negotiations to rejoin EU. Any deal if agreed would be different to deal UK had with EU and could then go to Scottish electorate via a confirmatory referendum. This would allay fears of anti EU independence supporters who I think are mainly Alba supporters (not a significant minority).
EFTA could be a fall back if joining EU cannot be achieved quickly or if terms are not too electorates liking.
I have no doubt in my mind that Sunak was placed in his position by those he will now owe a great deal to, and when he messes it all up under their instructions and it all goes tits up the friendless Asian guy whatsisname will be the fall guy for the lot of it
That’s what Sunak’s there for, he’s the Asian fall guy that nobody voted for because none of the usual old Etonian suspects wanted the job of being the next disgraced Tory PM, do folk really believe there really was a genuine internal election? C’mon!
England will destroy Sunak, but in doing so once again it’ll prove conclusively that Scotland Wales and the North of Ireland don’t count and don’t get a say
So c’mon the Unions and the racists in England, isn’t it great that they’re in charge
Pity they caused it all in the first place
Here’s an interesting wee link…starmer being called pm…
The speaker is a Labourite.
Aye, and he’s not for reasoning, nor for anything remotely to do with Scottish democracy.
But…pre-empting the future…whit.
Maybe he thinks he’s Captain Kirk locked in Scottie’s beam me up…
Another great article following on from your last one which was truly exceptional.
I’m struggling a bit now over the comments by Alyn Smith and Jo Cherry. Can you point me in the right direction of the part of the SNP manifesto which referred to self ID? Alyn says it was in the manifesto, Jo says it isn’t. Alyn says there was a robust debate about it, Jo says there was none, and there was no vote about it either. I’m confused. There must be some record of how self ID became party policy, otherwise the situation would seem very similar to Angus saying what he did about the next vote being not just on independence but EU membership as well and that instantly becoming the policy. Help!
And what’s that got to do with the article topic, pray? However mightily impressed you say you were, it seems that you find it very easy to ignore a disastrous Tory-Lib-Lab Brexit that’s left us all sorely poorer and instead just couldn’t help yourself from jumping right back into the now-familiar weary stuck groove of something else entirely. Sheesh, I wish you GRA pub bores would just wake up to real life and leave us in peace.
I don’t think there’s any rule that comments have to be on the same topic as the main article. If there is, you seem to have ignored a couple of posts above which breach it.
In answer to the question, the manifesto contained this passage: “In the next parliament we will work with trans people, women, equality groups, legal and human rights experts to identify the best and most effective way to improve and simplify the process by which a trans person can obtain legal recognition, so that the trauma associated with that process is reduced. We remain committed to making necessary changes to the Gender Recognition Act that arise from this work at the earliest opportunity.”
I’d say that pretty well describes the reforms that were voted on. JC and others complain that it should have spelled them out in precise detail, but that’s not really what manifestos do.
Decades from now, British historians will write about how Scotland, following 13 years of Tory austerity, a disastrous Brexit, growing right-wing authoritarianism, the undermining of devolution and stripping of Scotland’s right to self-determination… stepped back from the brink and embraced the union once more. And all because of a prisoner named Isla Bryson.
That’s where we are now folks. It’s all they have left.
Not so long ago it was the ferries they tried to bring the Scottish government down on, now it turns out there’s an investigation into dirty doings within CMal under accusations of them secretly and deliberately trying to scupper the Scottish government and Ferguson shipyard deal by their constant interference in design details so the ferries could never be delivered on time
The English government work in mysterious ways their undermining shit to perform
You are underestimating the “13 years of Tory austerity” by a long chalk – The Beeching cuts of the 1960s were my earliest recollection of the complete mismanagement of the UK’s societal needs under successive governments, and a strange recollection of “You’ve never had it so good”, but Thatcher’s decimation of industry for her vision of a “service economy” in the early 1980s took the biscuit for benefits to society.
It may be absent the “modern” tag of “austerity”, but we’re looking at close on 40 years of declining conditions for general society under various governments, but ever the Tory Party were behind the curtains claiming “it wisnae us”…
Och aye. I was just mocking idea that zero change in the toilet usage patterns of 1 in 200 of the population can stand in the way of the march of a nation like, you know, the late delivery of a ferry can.
There are actually people that believe this though. They’re in charge too. Which is why the UK’s so thoroughly shafted.
I read an article on the BBC news website a couple of days ago, it was called Brexit three years on: views from Stratford-upon-Avon
The reason the BBC choose there was that the voted the same as the UK 52% to 48%.
Now I’ve no idea how the choice was made for who’s views to print from all the ones they might have spoken to but I got the impression from the article that basically little had changed and most would vote for the same thing again,
This one stuck out and that’s why I went and looked up the article again to post it here.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64414641
It will be a very long time before the UK ever makes any moves to rejoin the EU given the views of people like Richard from Straford who refuses to contemplate it could have been a mistake. He thinks we need to burn any remaining bridges with the EU and go the whole hogg even if things were to get worse.
Not a chance then of a UK government even thinking about this for decades yet. The fact is, that for any Scot who would like to see Scotland back in the EU then the only route to that happening is with an Independent Scotland. They will need to vote Yes, I hope they do that.
In England politics admitting you were wrong is a sign of weakness, so much so it’s always the opposition and media *go to* attack if they get so much as a sniff of it
All we ever hear from Starmer right now is how Sunak is weak weak weak, and England doesn’t like that, you must lie and be strong strong strong, even when you’re wrong wrong wrong, and then never apologise
The plebs must always have confidence you can govern govern govern………………
!! STRONGLY !!
You can see the old propaganda game being played out again of late via the media, the Emily Maitliss interview with the “unelected bureaucrat” ‘Lord’ Frost perfectly exampling the continuing “sales spiel”
https://youtu.be/KXHX8SsAkes but would caution it is a clip.
There was no return of “democracy” to the then “UQ” by the EU, it was severance of constraints on the Tory party to further impoverish and destroy the well-being of the population.
On your earlier “Richard Shimmin” point, do remember the infamous sting on Alexander Nix of Cambridge Analytica where he claimed on camera to be able in an unguarded (and egotistic) moment to be able to overthrow entire governments by sowing disinformation.
You do have to wonder where James Cook got the idea, and just how many “Contractors” are now engaged by HMG now active in the field, HYS on BBC Scotland for example…
I fear if we cannot remove ourselves from English Nationalism then we will be in continuous decline, Brexit is just an example of this, others are responsible for the failure. Every time I see shots of an English town and cities it is festooned with flags, normally union flags as they see no difference, still wrapped up in their Rule Britannia mindset.
They have been in decline since the ability to strip other countries of their resources, whilst these countries normally became poorer, was removed (they were never given up voluntarily).
Just another bonus – the MP for Stratford on Avon is one Nadhim Zahawi.
Just thought I’d mention that as no one else has …
Oh, and here’s a Brexiter I met earlier …
31 Jan 2023
NewsNight hosted a Brexit special where they got feedback from a panel and the audience on how well Brexit was going. One member of the audience said he was happy with his vote but thinks the benefits will arrive in 10-15 years or even later.
”Better Together ” is alive and well in the form of Sunak and Starmer .
There isn’t a cigarette paper between their views of Brexit – or , for that matter , their contempt for democracy in Scotland .
Both are weak men who are pushed from pillar to post by the right-wing media in England .
They are surrounded by like-minded minions who do not give a f*ck for Scotland or its views on the EU or democracy or anything else .
The lies spewed forth by English politicians are not the sole property of the monstrous Boris Johnson ; the Labour Party continually lies to both the English electorate and the Scottish by claiming that ONLY a vote for Labour in Scotland will see a change of Government in Westminster .
A quick perusal of the GE results for the last 50 years or so will prove them to be as reliable as Johnson with the Truth .
They even have commentators desperately talking up Sarwar by inventing results in Scottish elections and polls which purportedly show him ”winning” back support in Scotland .
Worse , they try to pass off this principle-free Ambulance-Chaser as some sort of saviour of Scottish (sic ) Labour . They never expose his background as the complete antithesis of what Scottish Labour politicians USED to stand for .
( Mind you , you have to go back quite a bit to find real Labour men/women in that party )
On Brexit Sarwar claims it was ”an economic disaster ” but refuses to back another referendum because he opposes a second Independence referendum – and wants to be consistent .
I suppose he is correct in as much as the Scottish people were lied to in both referendums . However a man of principle ( Sarwar reaches for dictionary ….) , or even a sensible one , would have taken the opportunity , accepting that a wrong decision had been made , to right that wrong !
No , not Sarwar nor his Organ-grinder boss , Starmer .
They don’t do second chances !
Hopefully neither will be in a position to further damage Scotland’s People’s future for much longer .
Oh I don’t know, Gordon Brown’s making another trip to Glasgow for a new Broonterventionary announcement of togetherness and oneness and co-operationess between our apparently powerless Scotland and the financial muscle of the great Englandshire
If we do what Gordon says, London Oxford and Cambridge will apparently fall over themselves to lend Scotland all their financial know how and support us more betterer in this togetherness
But only if we ask them nicely, well, beg, grovel? tip our hats? tug our forelocks?
Gordon Brown by his every word makes the case conclusively for Scottish self determination, a political midget twisted little squint of a man, there’s nothing more detestable than a wee creepy crawler sliming up to his masters
We used to throw wee troublemaking shits like this out of our pubs into the street, what the hell happened to our country?
The BBC was always very balanced in its programs about the EU.
You’d gave 4 hours daytime anti-EU stuff watched by 5 to 10 million people, including all news programs. Then you’d have the pro-EU stuff with actual EU people on for 4 hours between 1am and 5am, and watched by about 5,000 people tops.
Yes indeedy, very balanced.
One of thew few political parties still hanging onto Brexit is the DUP in NI.
They have been using it as cover for not going into administration at Stormont as a junior partner with Sinn Fein.
If rumours are correct,England’s Tories are reaching agreement with the EU over trading arrangements for NI which will effectively leaver the DUP with little manoeuvring room.
Should get interesting.
Nice to the see English nationalists going behind the back of the British nationalists.
From the National:
“John Swinney won’t commit to de facto independence referendum plan”
which is a total and utter LIE if you read the actual article.
Has the National been invaded by lizards from Dover House?
Serious question.
I think the SNP need to tell the British government their exact plan right now and commit to that!
Said a Tory in Somerset.
Let me guess, it isn’t Jacob Rees-Mogg !!!😉
I remember back in the WOS days, there was a contributor who was a bit of a maverick, but who’s heart was in the right place. He always warned that The National was a trojan horse, and it would shaft us in the end. I’m beginning to wonder.
The lies on the bus. The lies about losing EU membership. The kids about the costbof EU membership. £4Billion. Far outweighed by the benefits. Nearest biggest markets 450 million, Travel and work without restrictions. Preferential trade agreements were the rest of the world. EU more clout. Lower food and goods prices. Building
material etc have doubled because of Brexit. Cheaper holidays etc. The lose of heakthcare and essential workers. The list is endless. The UK low growth and the most unequal place in the world. An absolute disgrace. Westminster Gov a complete and utter shambles
Wasting £Billions everywhere, How long can it go on?
Thatcher care in the community – prison. Destroyed the world economy. The Tories funded by bankers. Sunak and the hedge funds. Diverting public monies to Sunak mates to waste. Corruption. Funding the Tory Party with public monies. Totally illegally.
The rising living costs are cutting the standard of living. Workers rights and standards up help by the EU.
Scotland has Devolution now. To stand up to Westminster corruption.
UK Gov whole Accounts. 2019/20. Published June 2022. P35
EU.
12.9Billion Euros? Uk Contibution.
3.4Billion (euros?) Grants and subsides paid by UK on behalf of the EU.
8.4 Billion (Euros?) income from reimbursement for grants and subsidies by the EU.
2.3Billion (Euros?) UK interest in European Investment bank. EIB.
1,6Billion (Euros?) received to EU financial settlement.
The UK still owes EU 32.6Billion (Euros?) backed by EIS .Commitments Liability.10Billion (Euros?).
“Labour will not require SNP backing to form a UK government at the next general election – despite the SNP Westminster leader refusing to rule out a future deal, Anas Sarwar has insisted. ”
“Get back in your box Sarwar”, says Starmer.
It’s going to be interesting to watch the parallel SLAB campaigns of “we’re going to win so comprehensively that we won’t need anyone else” and “don’t vote SNP because then the Tories get in by the back door”.
Too good not to share
😂😂 Didn’t know you could spend £29 m in Poundshop.
SNP will not require Labour’s assistance to form a Gov in Scotland. There is no such thing as Scottish Labour. Unionists Parties in Scotland funded by Westminster Parties, They are no Independent, They will vanish when Scotland votes YES. That is why they are so afraid of it. Time and money wasters. It needs a higher turnout to vote them out at every election. Vote out the unionist opposition. Support for Independence rising with every Westminster scandalous and corrupt mismanagement. Labour/unionist are toast in Scotland. The ConDems caused this total mess. Who would vote for them? They must be ignorant or arrogant. Ignorant beyond belief. Brexit, mismanaged pandemic. Westminster total corruption. Killing people. The Tories are killing their members and voters off. Male and over seventy. Life expectancy going down with austerity.
Labour , Tories and Libdems in Scotland have shown that , come independence , they cannot /should not be trusted . They have all unfailingly supported the interests of another country ( England) and demonstrated NO ALLEGIANCE to Scotland or its people , whether in Holyrood or Westminster over many years .
They have consistently undermined the duly elected Scottish Government at every turn .
This was not just simple party political manoeuvring and the normal cut and thrust of politics but rather years of sustained efforts to denigrate the Scottish Government and thwart measures which were intended to improve the lot of the population at large .
Such was their blinkered hatred of the SNP that all these parties were willing to form unheard of pacts within councils to keep the SNP from forming administrations when they were clearly the largest cohort in many areas of the country , yet in Holyrood they purported to be political enemies who attacked the SG in concert but rarely each other .
They plumbed the depths when recruiting candidates to run for Office – welcoming misogynists , racists and religious bigots into their ranks – as long as they were anti-SNP !
I hope the people of Scotland remember the behaviour of these ”proud Scots but…” when Independence arrives .
Remember where THEIR loyalties lay when Scotland was being denied democracy by Westminster , when we were ripped out of the EU against OUR wishes ;
remember which side they chose when our Parliamentary representatives were vilified and ridiculed in The Mother of Parliaments ;
remember who told them to ”suck it up !” when our Parliament was undermined by parties who had NEVER won an election in Scotland- EVER !
remember the lies from a SoSfS in a failed attempt to besmirch the good name of Nicola Sturgeon before an election – which she won !
remember the failed ( betrayed ? ) promises after the 2014 referendum ( and the many , many lies heaped on Scotland during that event );
remember the violent triumphalism of those who celebrated in 2024 ;
remember the constant and increasing attacks on OUR democracy by political leaders
who declare that REGARDLESS of how big a majority vote in a democratic election for a referendum on the constitution , they will ”NOT ALLOW IT !”
” who celebrated in 2014 !!!!”
Remember their silence when austerity caused 20,000 unnecessary deaths.
Remember their hypocrisy, demanding first, then blaming the FM for moving the elderly from hospital to care homes.
Remember their collusion with the media trying to undermine the strenuous efforts made by the SG to keep people safe during the pandemic.
You could fill a book with this stuff.
I was about to cite an example but @golfnut beat me to it, the initial response to incoming Covid re Care Homes.
For all that the plan’s flaws were still to be fully understood (infection control) at the time, the strategy was evolved by pandemic experts in London and adopted nationally, an otherwise clever means by which to clear hospital space for an expected health crisis, after all “we’re all in this together”.
That all too quickly degenerated into an opportunity to attack the SNP, as appalling an example “never let a good crisis go to waste” as I’ve witnessed of any propaganda campaign in UK history.
The orchestration and coordination was obvious as politicians and media types one after the other trotted out the same accusations, that SG had “in isolation” embarked on a dangerous strategy which had cost lives, with each and every development hysterically reported by Scotland’s BBC and media mafia with guest quotes from appalled SG opposition politicians.
If that’s “just politics”, the sooner we abandon the BBC and HMG to it’s mendacious ways the better – Previous candidates need not apply.
Had a first crazy mad mental Yoon daily heil reader recommend I read a great new blogger from Baff today.
Who woulda thunk it
At this time of the morning I had to read that 3 times before I worked it out. 😂👍
Is the blogger from baaaahhhth going down the plughole? Going down the drain?
(- That’s enough. [Ed.] Don’t encourage him.)
I’m commenting in the hope that one of you will put wind back in my sails.
Maybe its just the time of year, the dark nights etc. but i am becoming increasingly despondent about my hopes for seeing Independence in my lifetime ( and i’m only 58 ) !
At this moment the negativity is relentless. The acts of self harm within ALL of the Yes community have tired me out. Ongoing in-fighting on a number of issues is draining. The apathy of Scots in general is disheartening. It makes me angry !400 people at the PRO EU rally last night. The same again for the SC ruling last year. Its all so disappointing. I look at my kids, in their 20’s and ask myself what hope for them ? Are we really a country of gallus bams ? We talk the talk but can’t walk the walk ? Defeat from the jaws of victory is built into our DNA ?
I was in France last week on business. I met colleagues from across Europe. They are moving on, collectively, and leaving us behind. There’s nothing worse than looking in on a club you really want to join but can’t.
I need someone, anyone to tell me this will all work out in the end. I am not asking for guarantees but i’ve invested too much emotional and intellectual energy on Independence to see it lost because we Scots are, essentially, feart.
Rant over
ST, I feel your pain.
As do I, surely something positive must happen soon??
Read what you have written – and then tell us that WE have let YOU down !
You appear to fallen for the unionist propaganda ( which , admittedly , is pretty non-stop ).
Chin up ! Some of us are a LOT less depressed despite being undermined by our own ( ? ) side .
I’m REALLY not having a pop at anyone on this forum. I share the same views. However i need to know that there is a way through this quagmire. I am completely impartial to both individuals but when Alyn Smith takes a very public pop at Joanna Cherry i really do wonder if he has thought of the damage this sort of thing does to the collective unity of the YES movement ? Its so unnecessary.
@ ST @ 8.51am
Been there too…..it does very much feel somewhat like a rollercoaster as it is, at differing times, very much a case of a constant fluctuation in emotions in that sometimes, as part of the independence movement, you feel positive and then sometimes you feel negative….
However come the day and come the hour any division that seems to exists within the Indy movement just now and too that the feeling that many of the public in Scotland appear to be somewhat apathetic on whether Scotland should be independent…will surely dissipate once THE opportunity comes around again for us to vote on being independent.
I say this because no sane and either fully or semi intelligent person would , post 2014, think that what we are all living through now in Scotland (as in HELL)…..solely because we ARE a part of the UK….is a position and state they WANT to sustain for their future and too for their children’s future also …..also please always remember that public opinion in Scotland is, via the media, never presented to reflect those who support independence but instead via Vox pops, debate shows etc is presented as if the support for independence and the Union is split 50/50….thus it appears there is NO real majority in support for independence among the Scottish public….that is a strategy deployed by a largely Pro UK media….and too by those politicians who support the (non) Union. (please remember if something is NOT actually deemed a REAL threat or a REAL possibility it can then be ignored ….only when it IS recognised as a REAL threat, as in a REAL possibility, is it then required by those who oppose it to FIGHT it ….their arguments that there is no appetite for another referendum or indeed no majority support for independence would have MORE credence if we were not witnessing, by them, a constant propaganda against us and millions of pounds being spent to try and save their UK and thus STOP independence for us)…..
The media too in the UK , are constantly presenting the arguments in favour of their UK, but the peril for them in doing that is that they fail to note that public trust in them is diminishing as tis recognised by many of the public that they fail, as a media, to be balanced and fair in their reports indeed they are blatantly biased towards those political parties supportive of the (NON) Union……..we here in Scotland have daily access to ‘National’ (English) news which clearly demonstrates that the UK government is failing to govern, manage and sustain public services in England while here in Scotland OUR media is presenting Scotland as somehow unique within the UK as failing as a country and where ALL blame is apportioned only towards the Scottish government as the ones who are culpable…….
The arguments presented by the Pro UK side in 2014 have all been destroyed…all that they predicted to happen has happened not because of YES winning but because of NO winning…..and they KNOW that to be a FACT hence why they are adamant that no second Indy Ref will be ‘ALLOWED’…common sense tells you that if they, as Unionists, were truly confident in support for the (non) Union being strong and that it, as a campaign was winning and had a majority support in Scotland ,then they, as Unionists, would then welcome another Indy Ref…as one assumes that they would feel they would win it via a majority….
Please also remember that the Tories ARE worried that opinion in Scotland is changing in favour of independence hence why they commission secret polls on support for the UK and then the results of these polls are suppressed as in they are NOT revealed as OBVIOUSLY these polls MUST show that their Pro UK position/argument is FAILING…
It is their, pro UK politicians and media’s , job to generate division, apathy, dejection and with the ultimate goal to preserve the status quo ….it is also their job to present Scotland as unique in being a country that is too small and poor to be successful as an independent country and one that could never be ALLOWED to join the EU when independent…..thus their tactics is to instil doubts and apprehension within the public in Scotland on both independence and too in the competence in the SNP to govern us…..the problem THEY have in doing this NOW is that currently they do it while their UK is failing as a country…..and which itself is seeing , as a country, much doubt, apprehension, dissent, division, dejection and too a huge opposition against the UK Tory government which has resulted in many people seeking an alternative to what exists now….England think, via current polling, that Labour are the solution to their problems however Scotland is still finding that option hard to swallow as a real alternative to the Tories….so then what is the REAL option for Scotland other than leaving the UK……well there is NONE other than independence.
As to the different factions in the independence movement well THE question is for all people who support independence is that come the day and come the hour will they unite to free Scotland from the UK or will some within it decide to allow their current opposition to the SNP destroy the opportunity to gain independence and thus in doing so maintain the VERY thing that they have opposed for years….as in the UK .
Brexit is HUGE in our argument for support for independence increasing and being sustained and that then, in turn, becomes very much the Achilles heel for both the Tory and Labour party who support it as a future policy they want sustained for their UK….. ….and NOW many of the actual negatives of Brexit are, at last , being exposed and that is a HUGE disadvantage for their NON Union and they KNOW it….hence why they have largely applied Omerta via Brexit in both the media and within Pro UK politics since 31st January 2020…..
My above rant may do little to convince you that there is most definitely an INDY light at the end of this dark UK tunnel ….but I myself know that, as I too have occasional moments when I also feel dejected and less positive, the alternative, as in staying within the UK, is a far far worse position for me and mine thus I must also believe tis the same for many others within Scotland also…as in to just resign myself to meekly accepting that what we have now, as in still being within the UK, will always be the ONLY option for us and our future ….. it is NOT…but that is what THEY, those who support the UK, want you to think and feel…that is THEIR constant agenda….remember the VOW in 2014…that was a clear indication that they KNEW at that time they were losing……and I think they also know it NOW too….so please try to keep the faith and continue the fight…..I suspect there is less apathy and more support than we are made aware of within Scotland……as both the media and Pro UK politicians support the suppression of TRUE feelings of those of us who LIVE within Scotland …..that is THEIR job and they are doing it deliberately too….
Have a nice day ST
🙂
@ Me @ 11.10am
*I suspect there is less apathy and more support than we are made aware of within Scotland
I suspect there is less apathy and more support than we are made aware of within Scotland FOR independence and AGAINST staying within the UK.
Brilliant as ever NMRN. Keep it up
🙂
Have a lovely day Scottish Baker
You are 100% right, we are meant to feel demoralised. We are supposed to believe that we are getting nowhere, The last thing they want is for Independence supporters to feel positive about themselves and about the campaign.
This is why the newspapers and television news is full of negative, anti-Independnce diatribes. You have to try and ignore it, realise that there is a psychological battle going on here and they are trying to get under your skin. The best thing we can do is not to let the bastards grind you down
Appreciate it ! Just needed a bit of a boost
Sort of know what you mean ST. I’ve got ten years more on the clock than yourself and have been hoping for independence since Winnie Ewing became our MP, and that was before I could vote! We have a twenty something too, he graduated with a masters in engineering, with distinction, from Strathclyde last summer and is really keen to pursue his career here in Scotland, so far has one single interview.bHe was deprived of study via Erasmus/COVID and I wonder how he’ll fair in future.
I felt a bit that the FM was looking tired and fed up recently until I saw and heard her being interviewed on something call The News Agents a few days ago. She was brilliant, relaxed and confident. The interviewer asked all the important questions and allowed her to answer fully, without interruption or talking over her. No wonder she’s feared by the useless bastirts in the opposition parties north and south. I’d recommend anyone to have a look at the full interview, around 50 minutes, not just the extracts that have appeared online. It’s certainly confirmed my confidence in her approach.
Can I also add to my above comment the right wing stitch up in the Pro UK media.
BBC and SKY News paper review.
Supposed UK (and too supposed) political debate programmes and political programmes.
Where we have a pool of the SAME political pundits and journalists who , via their unfair majority of invites/appearances, in appearing on both many MSM TV channels and too the new rogue right wing TV channels as in Talk TV and GB News.
Tonight on BBC QT in GLASGOW we have yet again another panel guest who appears on both Talk TV and GB News….she has also appeared on BBC Politics Live and too on SKY papers review….. one Ella Whelan…why whenever this programme is broadcast in Scotland must we suffer , as a guest, a panel member who is either a journalist or political pundit who is both Pro UK and too very much right wing and who also is one who does not LIVE in Scotland …yet they, as panel members, gets to opine on matters in Scotland whenever this programme has the VERY VERY rare occasion to be broadcast from Scotland (against the multitude aka majority of times it is broadcast from English areas also even MORE rarer as in when it is broadcast from both NI and Wales)…..
I’m old enough to remember when BBC QT used to have Tim Stanley of the Torygraph in their panel when IT was broadcast from Scotland……as one representing the media voice of dissent against both the SNP and Scottish independence……I suspect his arrogant and dismissive attitude did more to gain support for Indy than what THEY assumed would be seen as the ‘intelligent’ argument for staying a part of the UK…..how wrong can they have been…..yet still they apply the SAME tactics when in Scotland…..as in Ella Whelan who they, BBC QT, note is a columnist and podcaster for…..SPIKED……as the saying goes that ‘there is NO show without Punch’…for the BBC there is NO show without there always being a right wing pundit or ‘journalist’ on any political debate they orchestrate to be televised within their beloved Britain….aka Fantasy island ( the fantasy being ALL theirs that is)….
Amazing then that with all of the many many public platforms that they, the Unionists, have to promote their Pro UK propaganda that tis not the UK that constantly, in polls, sees their support increasing in Scotland and thus all desire, via a majority for independence, decreasing in Scotland……me thinks tis perhaps because many people in Scotland see it for what it is….as in British nationalist propaganda….or in many cases where those that they constantly give a platform to inadvertently (or comes natural to them) conflate, in their statements, Britain and England as being one and the same …..I say “inadvertently conflate” but actually that IS what they believe and support as being THE truth within all they say when they refer to ‘the country’….
I know of no-one who actually watches this programme any more…..because tis clear that via the choice (carefully selected) of the majority within their panels, invited majority within the audience and very much too the HOST ……that it is nowt but a hostile intruder to all that is fair and equal in what should be an open and honest debate…..one of many death knells for it as a programme was the multitude of invites of ‘Orange Jacket man’……who in his subsequent different appearances on this programme while in Scotland assumed that a change of jacket would deceive us all that he was NOT the same man as we saw on previous editions of this programme…..yet his very recognisable PAN and too his uncanny ability (deliberate opportunity) to be selected time and time again to voice his anti SNP and anti independence nonsense while within the audience (like when he said re Oil that “now you can get a barrel for a tenner down the barras”)….was nowt but a Pro UK Troll spewing out fake arguments to justify his extreme politics (ex UKIP candidate) and too his irrational support for his Gweat (but not really great) Bwitain….as then and now ….his wee snide (unfunny) joke on oil is totally destroyed via huge gains being made for the UK Treasury which is gaining, on oil revenues , now and I am sure then also…. billions of pounds….
So have no fear for our future in Scotland …..tis they and their pro UK arguments, anti independent opponents and indeed also includes very much both MSM and the newly formed alternate rogue media who are on the back foot in Scotland…..hence why they are so driven and compelled to constantly try to game the system always in favour of upholding and promoting their UK…..as in when something is OBVIOUS as in clearly the better option then why do THEY always feel they NEED to highlight it as so….surely if being within the UK was indeed better for Scotland then we, here in Scotland, would be already aware and supportive of it and thus not need this constant propaganda by those who fear they are losing the argument for their UK…..
ONWARDS and UPWARDS…..while they as a (non) force seem to be going backwards and downwards….remember the war…LOL…..NOPE as I was not born then…..prefer to think of my future and that too of my son’s and perhaps , if he has any, his children’s future also….hence why I support independence…
Sorry for too many of my rants…..but I checked me pulse and fortunately I am still very much alive to the hope and prospect of Scotland gaining it’s independence ….
Ace, NMRN
🙂
Hope you and yours are well Jack….have a fabby day…..
I think I need to take a break…. I fear I am perhaps hogging this site with a tad way too many of my overlong comments….aka RANTS…LOL……I am at risk of becoming a repetitive bore…..becoming ?……LOL
Paul is patience personified with me in both the length and amount of comments I make on this site…..I know at times I must irritate people with doing this…not my intention….but I will try and take a break and hope that when I come back on here I will try (really really) to shorten my comments…..and reduce their frequency…give others a chance, who I find, are much better at getting their point across more concisely and much better articulated/argued.
I am my own biggest critic…..there is nowt others can say to me that I am not aware of myself….it’s changing me behaviour that proves difficult…..LOL
What am I like…a bleedin Keyboard warrior…LOL
Keep on keeping on Jack
Don’t you dare..gives me a lift when I read your rants. Believe me, Paul, would let you know…
Your rants are always on topic and informative. I guess you do quite a bit of research before posting. But if people don’t want to read a long comment they can just scroll on by.
By all means have a break – we all do – but come back soon. 🙂
Bearsden, Newton Mearns, Jordanhill, and Kelvinside Man in m&S checked shirts will fill the room tonight, NMRN.
The Arched Eyebrow Antique is bringing her Far Right Roadshow to the very heart of England’s enemy, Glasgow.
Jenny Gilruth will be ‘Yes But’ -ed into silence by the Chair and her ‘Rapist’ Ross bullet points.
Chill, we know what to expect.
We have already left their Union.
They just don’t know it yet.
May I qualify the term; ‘Rapist’ here.
Dross spent his entire FMQ time on this tired old issue…and closed with asking was ‘Nicola Sturgeon’ giving a rapist the easy way out?
Grubby little man many of whose colleagues in England rape grope and steal their way through life.
He then sat for the remainder of the session texting.
Sarwar weas on his feet waving paper and yelling about ‘nicola Sturgeon’ cutting LA funding for 15years,,,7000 redundancies, libraries and baths closing…
They really are the scrapings from the bottom of the Brit barrel.
Sarwa of course should be ripping Dross’ lungs out as we are a mere 17 months from the UKGE…but no, he hates Scotland more than he hates the Blue Toriws.
‘The gentleman in the blue shirth waving his BMW keys’; what do think about Nicolal Sturgeon’s A&E/GRA/ Education/ Police/Ferry disaster?”
Gilruth is on a hiding to nothing…just quote stats at them, Jenny.
I’ve just seen the line up. Ian Murray and John Lamont.
This’ll be fun.
A scan of the headlines of the Jock Dead Tree Scrolls…7000 LA job cuts…The ‘rapist, saga…
A&E up to 61% so best avoided…
Murray the lone Red Tory, Lamont, one of six Blue Tories, and a wummin from Goebbel’s TV…and someone called India Willoughby who is apparently a transgender journalist…so ‘Nicola Sturgeon’ supports rapist will get big licks.
Listening to weasel Ross as a man, attacking the FM of Scotland over the issue of violence to women — by a man.
On the day a court in Scotland awaits the decision of a jury over alleged allegations of violence towards the FM.
Ross and tories are the lowest of the low. I find it hard to believe his wife is a Police Constable and puts up with his rants.
But according to Nicola, this man is in fact a woman.
So GB News DOES have a Scottish viewer…