There’s common or garden delusion, and then there’s the industrial strength delusion of former Prime Minister Liz Truss who in her brief time in office cost the public purse some £30 billion according to the Resolution Foundation. This works out at over £612 million for every day of her 49 day tenure in Downing Street. Remember that figure the next time Douglas Ross bangs on about the ferries. Truss is now reportedly attempting a political rehabilitation, despite the fact that the only conceivable less welcome return to public life would be if Prince Andrew was to be appointed as head of the Girl Guides.
Liz Truss has spent the last 100 days engaged in intense introspection trying to understand what went wrong with her time in office, and this deep soul-searching has resulted in her claiming she was completely blameless but she had been done down a nefarious left wing financial establishment that only exists in her imagination. Clearly Truss is as good at introspection as she was at being Prime Minister.
In pursuit of her return to public life, Truss has penned a 4000 word whingefest for the Telegraph. That’s one word for every £75 million that she wiped off the value of UK public assets. Truss uses the essay to blame the ‘left wing economic establishment’ for her downfall. Yes you read that right, Truss was really brought down by those well known socialists of the banking and financial sector. That ‘left wing economic establishment’ consists of the Bank of England, the Office for Budget Responsibility, the bond markets, and currency traders, all of whom Truss believes can regularly be found waving Socialist Worker placards and agitating for improved employment rights, better public services and higher taxes on the rich. Bankers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but a collapsed bond market, soaring mortgages, and tanking pension funds. Unfettered capitalism took 12 years to make Truss and just six weeks to destroy her. Those pesky left wing oligarchs. So mischievous.
“I assumed upon entering Downing Street my mandate would be respected. How wrong I was.” wrote Truss. This is a woman who is spectacularly deranged, the imaginary left wing financial establishment is to blame for showing imaginary disrespect for her imaginary mandate. She had as much of a mandate as she has self-awareness, unless it said in the Conservative manifesto that the Conservatives planned to introduce tax cuts for the rich, protect the windfall profits of the energy companies, raise mortgage costs and tank the economy.
Truss is the embodiment of the Dunning-Kruger effect, which holds that people with low ability, expertise, or experience regarding a certain type of task or area of knowledge tend to overestimate their ability or knowledge because they do not have enough understanding to appreciate just how little they actually know. She is the perfect example of all that is wrong with the Conservative party.
Oh dear, who to believe? The Liz Truss in February 2023 saying that her budget was fantastic but those pesky lefties in the City of London ruined it. Or should we believe the Liz Truss in October 2022 saying it was all the fault of Kwasi Kwarteng who hadn’t consulted her and that’s why she had to sack him for implementing her policies. Now Truss is claiming that no one had warned her of the likelihood of the disaster that she created which led to her becoming a global laughing stock, an eventuality which might not be unrelated to the fact that she had sacked the person responsible for warning her.
The thing about having a comeback is that you you have to have been a huge success and very popular. Then you go away much to everyone’s immense disappointment. Then you ‘come back’. However if you cause havoc, and are finally deposed to the great relief of everyone, even those who put you in power in the first place, and then you reappear without displaying the slightest contrition or awareness of why you had to be sacked, then that is not a comeback. You’re basically herpes.
The Conservatives can only hope to improve their dire polling figures if they start to engage with reality, but we all know that’s not going to happen. Those Scottish Tory MSPs who backed Truss bear responsibility for the billions she cost the Scottish public purse, at least £3 billion by some estimates, but there is no sign of contrition from any of them, no admission that they got it disastrously wrong.
Truss’s attempted comeback and the obsession with culture wars are however a convenient smokescreen to hide the corruption and sleaze scandals which are currently battering the Conservatives.
Truss was really brought down because the Institute of Economic Affairs /Telegraph / ERG groupthink is unhinged and detached from reality. It is also utterly incapable of admitting that it could ever be wrong even when we are all standing in the smoking rubble that results from implementing its insanity. We saw that with austerity, with Brexit, and with Truss. What Truss, Johnson, and Zahawi all have in common is that none of them accept responsibility for their own misdeeds. It’s always the fault of ‘lefties’ or ‘remainers’ or ‘the liberal establishment’. Every failed Conservative leader creates a personality cult of supporters with Boris Johnson it’s magical thinking and the fairy tale of British exceptionalism being done down by remainers. Truss is now also trading in paranoid conspiracies. When Sunak is ousted, as he inevitably will be, someone else will be given the blame.
That is why they are so dangerous, because given half a chance they would do it all over again only next time they’d double down and do it even more intensively. The scary thing is that there are still plenty of influential people in the Conservative party who are itching to give them the chance to do it all again. It ought to be unthinkable, but if the last decade in this binfire Britain has taught us anything, it’s that the worst thing that can happen will happen, and it will be cheered on by the right wing press and platformed by the BBC.
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It’s rich of Truss to complain that nobody warned her of her mini-budget’s potential for disaster when she made a point not to consult the Office for Budget Responsibility about it. That is, the ones whose job is to warn the British government of that exact thing.
As for Sunak though, I think he won’t be sacked, unless their electoral prospects improve: the Tories need someone to take the fall and I think Sunak is for them the man for the job. All the better to keep Johnson’s mystique of election winner and not saddle the other choices they would like with an election loss.
Apart from a ‘call to arms’ from we ‘lefties’, there’s a great big abyss of a pothole oozing toxic gases on the right that’s sucking the life from us.
Reblogged this on Ramblings of a now 60+ Female.
For being a member and former leader of a party that believes in the market being right. She disnae get that maebes they dinae like her ideas being a bit too much Ayn Rand even for them.
The market needs people to have money to buy stuff, they saw her policies would ensure there was no money left for anyone to spend.
She shows signs of a dictator with her turning on the torys natural allies in the markets and I wonder about the coke found in her house? (It wasnae Gove as they dont like each other)
Certainly overconfidence in ones self and abilities is a sign of being high on columbian marching powder.
Question, previous thread for SS on census data for Scotland,
Agreed Paul, the current situation within the Conservative party is dreadful for us all. Would Labour be any better? Not if they love Brexit and hate Scotland’s democratic rights.
I am truly despondent at events down south and equally so with the lack of fight for independence in Scotland from our politicians. On this I will say no more as most commentators on this blog support the SNP are are not open to others comments.
Oh! Andy at least sharpen your stick before you poke the Bears.
(as my other colonial cousins would say)
If I were to make a guesstimation I would say that “most commentators on this blog” are Scottish Government / Independence Supporters.
For all of my life the SNP have been the only game in town.
The greens used to be a vote I might make after independence was secure.
But at present there is no other vehicle to achieve the re-establishment of our country in it’s own right, and before anybody starts on about other contenders and what we should do next. WE DO NOT HAVE THE LUXURY OF TIME for any other contenders to establish themselves and present a united front, and desire for independence.
Like it or not the SNP are still the only game in town.
So the current position is, we have the SNP, one newspaper, a few high class bloggers, and well over 50% of the population (in the same way that 52 to 54% is a definitive answer to a referendum) with the same out look ALBA GU BRATH.
You have to admit it is becoming very difficult to continue being an oppressed minority in our own country when there are more of us than there are of them.
As we approach the decision gate things are going to speed up considerably.
It will soon be time to decide if you are “for us or agin us” hopefully not agin or the they, boys, and girls, of the torches and forks worm tongues will have been successfully in their perpetual divide and conquer approach.
Knowing all of this if you cannot see yourself making your vote for the SNP and Scottish independence.
Then I wish you peace, comfort and good health, and may you live forever.
There are comments and there are ridiculous claims of Alba being the rescuers and rightful saviours of independence
All most voters ever see and hear of Alba is nastiness and bitter anti FM bile from a so called party led by a former FM who is totally and completely unelectable in Scotland, with personal poll ratings lower than Boris Johnson and at one point even lower than Liz Truss, yet the claims from this party are that they can and will deliver what they insist the SNP cannot, or more often repeat their expression that they will not because Nicola Sturgeon doesn’t want independence
This line of attack was invented by the Tories and has been repeated by Stuart Campbell ad nauseam
Alba have zero elected members of parliament whether MPs or MSPs, of course we know they claim to have two members of parliament, but both of these MPs were not elected as representatives standing for Alba, they stole SNP voters support and transferred it to Alba in a grubby style move that they previously would have excoriated any other party doing without putting themselves up for re-election under their new party, but they don’t dare do that as they know they have zero chance of being elected to the former now toxic FMs party
Alba cannot win any election using these methods, the voters are not stupid, they can see perfectly well that all Alba are is an extremist anti Nicola Sturgeon party intent on achieving one thing and one thing only, the degradation of support for the SNP, Nicola Sturgeon, then leading ultimately to a return of the union party probably under Labour, which the Tories will support wholeheartedly as the previous status quo, job done
Even if in some parallel universe Alba could win some representation in Scotland these votes can only come from one place, the SNP, because they won’t come from Labour Tory or Lib Dem, and they haven’t a snowballs chance of ever transferring any Green voters to themselves, so once again making it very clear to voters that the purpose and aim of setting up the Alba party was and is in no way connected with achieving Scottish independence
The only people happy about the existence of the Alba party are the Tories Labour and the Lib Dems, even the Alba party are not happy with themselves or the outpourings of vicious nastiness and trolling all over the internet wouldn’t be happening, unless they’d be instructed to behave like that of course
A very good description of the waste of space Alba party
And so speaketh the pen of divisive non-wisdom. Jim, YOUR fear of Alba is on full view now and I speak as a long term admirer of both Nicola and Alex. Maybe time you or your sympathisers stood back and had an irony check for YOU in the diatribe above are doing what you accuse Alba supporters of.
You’re absolutely right Rob, I should just remain silent and let the Alba folk do all the insulting so there’s no voice of disagreement or opposition, I’ll endeavour to praise Alba’s record of civility whenever It happens, and from now forward will champion your right to support the most toxic unelectable untrustworthy ex politician in British history rather than the actual most popular politician
You think we all *didn’t* like and respect Alex Salmond?
You can’t get that back, he broke it beyond repair and he knows it, what he’s doing now has nothing to do with Scottish independence, how can it be when he knows he cannot ever be elected with continual poll ratings worse than the worst Tories, so what’s the plan? what’s the endgame? and that’s when it becomes insulting to all of us
The problem with the Tory party is it has been hijacked by idealogues, people bereft of common sense and a grasp of reality. If their ideology isn’t working that simply means double down and try harder. Tax cuts didn’t work? More, deeper tax cuts. BREXIT didn’t work? More drastic distance from Europe.
At some point an adult will have to take over and introduce pragmatism which the Tories are famous for after all.
“At some point an adult will have to take over and introduce pragmatism which the Tories” WERE “famous for after all”.
Point taken 😂
The greatest threat to Scotland is NOT the Conservative Party and its right-wing nutjobs , like Truss , Rees Mogg et al – it is the vast number of voters in England who will believe anything that the Tories and the right-wing Media tell them and vote them in again .
They voted in Cameron/Osborne and got Austerity – most got poorer – then most voted for them again .
They voted for Brexit and getting poorer – and cheered !
They voted in Theresa May ( just ) – and got Boris Johnson !
They voted in Johnson like sheep – and got fleeced on Brexit and Covid PPE .
They DIDN’T get the chance to vote for Truss or Sunak – but does any thinking person believe that we can trust the English electorate to do the right thing ?
And the alternative to the nutjobs is…Starmer !
A man of little substance leading a party which purports to be the People’s Party – but which people ? Not Scottish people as they are not considered to be trusted to make up their own minds on democracy .
We vote for Independence Parties – he does not agree , so HE will not ALLOW us to implement the mandate given to our elected Government .
This from a man whose party in Scotland consists of one Edinburgh Torylite MP in a Union Jack Suit ( ”suit you , sir !” ) and a millionaire ”socialist” who won’t pay his own workers the Living Wage , leading a party who think coming third in a three horse race is success .
The real enemy to Scotland’s future is the stubbornly right-of-centre English electorate , enough of whom are willing to swallow whatever guff the Tories are currently peddling as policies , most of which should not be entertained in a modern , liberal democracy .
We have no realistic prospect of changing the voting habits of people in England, so blaming them for the situation is a counsel of despair.
What you say is inaccurate anyway, as “most” voters in England vote against the Conservatives and always have done. A Conservative majority government is foisted on them by FPTP. Meanwhile, an actual majority of voters in Scotland voted against independence when we had the chance. Better to focus on changing their minds rather than worrying about what people in England do.
”A Conservative majority Government is foisted on them by FPTP ” … but that needn’t be the case if so many did not agree with what the Tories stood for .
My point is that TOO many English voters are happy to have a Conservative Government regardless , it appears , of how extreme they are .
Advocating that we concentrate on persuading OUR electorate to get behind Independence is fine – but we already have a mandate for another referendum from previous Scottish elections BUT are denied its implementation by the Westminster Tories ( and , it would appear, by Labour too ).
So why should we not blame voters who by their actions inflict an undemocratic Government on US ?
So why should we not blame voters who by their actions inflict an undemocratic Government on US ?
What actions? As you note, Labour also support ignoring the mandate for a referendum (as do the LDs). Who is it you think the English electorate should be voting for?
You are correct that a Conservative government in Westminster is not elected by majority electorate in England due to vagaries of FPTP. However if English electorate was really upset by this there would be an upswell of popular sympathy to change to PR – there is none and a proposed change was overwhelmingly rejected in 2013. So we can surmise they are not that upset that FPTP and therefore they vote for Tory governments. You also omit that electorate in England voted for and therefore imposed Brexit on Scotland & NI due to English exceptionalism.
Like it or not the democratic deficit that Scotland experiences via Westminster elections and Brexit is one of major motivators for Scottish independence. This effect is heightened when a right wing Tory government is in power implementing policies not in tune with wishes of majority of Scottish electorate. It is up to independence movement and SNP in particular to use this motivation to persuade many wavering voters of how in addition to countering the democratic deficit of Westminster rule independence can improve the lives of majority of voters in Scotland.
With the demographic shift towards support for independence this should be achievable for SNP not withstanding hostility of sections of media.
However if English electorate was really upset by this there would be an upswell of popular sympathy to change to PR – there is none and a proposed change was overwhelmingly rejected in 2013.
Polling consistently shows overwhelming support for PR throughout the UK. How much more of an upswell do you want? Labour and the Tories will never support it because they benefit from FPTP, not because PR is unpopular with the English, who’ve never had a referendum on it (the 2011 ref was on AV, and was also rejected by Scotland, NI and Wales).
Like it or not the democratic deficit that Scotland experiences via Westminster elections and Brexit is one of major motivators for Scottish independence.
Of course. England has a different political centre of gravity from us. The solution to that is independence, not criticising English voters for failing to align their preferences with ours.
A fundamental driver for independence is that voters in Scotland and England have expressed different political priorities for many years. The two countries are in a political union therefore this has to be a significant reason for wanting to end the political union. As to your comment about this being criticising electorate in England as long as we have Tory governments & Brexit imposed on us by the voters in England I think I have every right to disagree and criticise them for choices which I fundamentally disagree with because they harm the most vulnerable in society and increase inequality.
I agree James as if you look at every election since 1979 the Westminster election has been decided by electorate in England who have voted in Tory government except from 1997 – 2010 when Tories were a complete shambles and New Labour had cosied up to right wing newspapers. In other words voting in Tory governments is the default setting for electorate in England who have imposed Tory governments and Brexit against will of electorate in Scotland. Now we also clearly know that the electorate in Scotland require permission of the same electorate in England to get a Section 30 to even hold a referendum on independence.
It is also clear that the Scottish electorate rejects Tories and their ideology and is basically economically and socially moderately left of centre in outlook.
This should be a sound basis for supporters of independence and their political leaders to build a convincing case for an independent Scotland that will appeal and gain support of the non Tory majority of electorate in Scotland.
The SNP are only show in town to take political lead but they must stay focussed on building up majority support and achieving independence by not only pointing out the many faults and hypocrisy of political opponents but providing a powerful vision of how independence will benefit the majority of Scots and their families.
Everything else is an unnecessary distraction.
OT
After Smith and Somerville demanding the SNP become all deaf and dumb clones (no dissent), THIS from Sturgeon shows she’s still top of her game and fit for purpose as FM and leader of the SNP:
https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/23302115.sturgeon-snp-gender-critics-able-stand-election/
Flynn also after a couple of hiccups to start with seems to be back on track saying something similar at the weekend. All they need to do now is as I suggested on the previous thread – bring back the GRR to Holyrood, make a couple of small changes and voila, full speed ahead.
I support this position. The legislation was consulted on, advice from expert after expert was heard, the views of international rights bodies such as the CoE and UN taken on board, the parliamentary party voted, as did all MSPs, and the legislation was passed with a massive majority. Those opposed must accept democracy and respect that vote just as an iref2 bill should be respected.
People can’t say ‘Scots voted for iref 2 and what the latest polls show doesn’t matter!’ then say ‘Scots didn’t vote for this bill and what the latest polls say matters!’. It’s deeply hypocritical, oh so very British nationalist, and just plays into the hands these by promoting their arguments against iref2 (‘But people were not endorsing indy in 2021, but other policies, and the latest poll shows they don’t want iref2 in the next year or so it should be blocked!).
SNP opponents are of course free to stand as independents or e.g. join Alba and stand for them in opposition to the bill at the next election / by elections, but if they want to remain in the SNP they should accept what is party policy which has the support of all parties bar the English Tories. And even in the latter, the cross-party Westminster Equalities Committee recommended exactly the same changes for England. It was going to be adopted by May’s government. It was the extreme right wing-Brexiter takeover that stopped this.
The ScotGov and Sturgeon can take the moral high ground:
“We listened and we learnt, now we act”.
The media can go Tory blue in the face about U-turns, but in a reactive democracy, the leadership does indeed listen – as Sturgeon did about the critics of the GRR.
Criticism isn’t just healthy in a democracy, it’s absolutely essential – as is honest feedback (cough).
The problem with that theory is that Scotland doesn’t have a democracy yet
In order to get one we must stand together with one big hammer banging the head of the one big nail
Too many hammers spoil the broth, or joinery, or in our case, the case
I look at it another way.
The UK Government in the shape of his imperial dictatorship Viceroy Jack, does its best to impede our democracy.
We on the other hand redouble our efforts to achieve as much democracy as we can within the colonial limits set by our enforced overlords.
Our Democracy will shine as a beacon and overcome the darkness and dark lord of the Tories.
Onwards to mount doom and shove the ring down its cracks. In the land of Mordor where the shadow Tories lie, lie and lie again.
If Westminster has some valid amendments to ensure compatibility with the Equality Act, these can absolutely be considered.
Jack? Let’s hear these.
The main elements of the bill, namely that trans people are not mentally ill, so doctors cannot be forced, against their better judgement, to diagnose them as such (suffering from dysphoria)*, and that the condition of ‘living as the opposite sex’ for years must be removed as there’s no definition of what that means, while such concepts simply reinforce gender stereotypes, are of course Westminster’s own recommendations (cross-party equalities committee).
Maybe a public awareness campaign might help too? Inform folks that Westminster laws already allow trans folks to use the loos of their choice, as they’ve always been doing? That’s been one of the biggest lies of the whole debate, that somehow a GRC is needed for this.
But aye, I’m happy for the parliament to consider good amendments and people opposed should not be shut up. If they’re a bigot, they’ll sound like that. If they are just genuinely concerned, they’ll come across as exactly that.
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*The French side of my family are all doctors. They think this is an appalling thing. It goes against all the principles of medical ethics to diagnose someone as ill when they are not. Diagnosing them as mentally ill just makes it all the more awful. Yet what can doctors do but sign a form to say that or their patient can’t get a GRC. To help their patient, they have to tell an awful lie. No wonder the BMA are so supportive of reforms.
If only people understood this. They don’t seem to though, and admittedly, I didn’t think about it either initially. Only talking to doctors really made me understand the problem.
I’m not talking about listening to Westminster, who gives a sheet? It’s the people of Scotland I’m saying to listen to. And Jack can do one as far as I’m concerned.
Sure I got that, but I was thinking maybe to turn the tables here. Send the ball back to their court.
You can tell they have no real reason to oppose, hence Jack completely avoiding requests to engage on the matter.
Do you honestly think Governor General Jack*ss will accept a GRR with amendmentsthere is no chance of that I fear. Tories in England of the current nutcase right wing lot are totally against GRR for ideological reasons and Jack’s excuses re it conflicts with parts of the Equalities Act were bonkers. They simple do not want legislation in Scotland re Gender Recognition that is more Liberal than theirs. It is a definite case of one country(England)to rule us all… and in the darkness bind us
Is that not what the judges did over fifty yrs ago to remove the rights of trans people rights that included self id and changing birth certificates, designate it as mental illness, only it was a secret, but the biggest secret was to protect the rights of royals and male hereditary seats in the lords.
Maybe if one of our MPs asked the that question in Parliament?
Yes, you mean this:
https://archive.is/V1EAN
The secret court case 50 years ago that has robbed transgender people of their rights ever since
The story of Ewan Forbes shows how trans people were able to enjoy equality – until it was quietly removed to protect male rights of succession
It was a real blow for the rights of women, not just trans folks.
A welcome change of tone which aligns with Stephen Flynn’s approach.
Spot on Paul.
Judging by the vitriol the Telegraph received for publishing the piece, it appears to have infuriated Tory Party members as much as Truss’s delusion the “party” would unite behind on her attempts to claim any form of victimhood.
Your point on “right wing press and platformed by the BBC” is I believe is beginning to unravel in England’s Tory heartlands, the chorus similar to your “That is why they are so dangerous..” has been building to crescendo since Johnson, it is almost impossible for Sunak to survive and more than the Tory party can in it’s current form.
What is interesting from a Scottish perspective is where that leaves the Forres Gump DRoss et al and the flouncing Alister Jack, moored as they are to a sinking ship (my apologies for the spell-correction disabled).
By this single deluded and egotistical act, Truss has invited the Tories to pick a side and SHE will come up short, but the damage to the Tories should not be underestimated, she won’t even feature on “Cheeeese” commercials now…
As aside to her particular delusions, here’s the ex photocopier salesman Grant Shapps or Michael Green or Corinne Stockheath or Sebastian Fox peddling his/her variant https://youtu.be/UP35KOyHpNc
The obviously useless Liz Truss defeated Richi Sunak decisively (57% to 43%) to become Tory party leader and PM. I believe this was because Sunak is Asian and a large percentage of Tories (and their voters) are racists.
Because of this, the Tories (and Sunak) know they must ditch him before the GE, hence the maneuvering by Johnson and Truss. Sunak is a place-holder for Johnson 2.0.
Indeed, he is Sunak the Sap or Patsy Sunak the foreign guy to stick the blame onto when the time comes for the Tory regroup
All hail Boris, *get nothing done* England will bight Tory hands off to vote for that after the misery of *that guy* but it’s not racist, honest it’s not, no really, we liked him, it’s just eh well, he just doesn’t understand our ways, he’s not from here you see, can we not use some scandal to get rid of him, yeah that’ll do, we’ll tell them he’s mired in it, they’ll buy that
Making extra monies from a Tory rag. Barclay family tax evading non Dom. One brother dead. The other facing Court action of contempt for no honouring a divorce settlement. The family spying on each other. Despicable fighting like rats in a sack over the Will. The Telegraph up for sale. No takers. Next will be the £pound shop book. Ignorant, arrogant Tories. Killing off their own members and voters. Males ove4 seventy. Life expectancy Andy going down. Wasting public monies and ruining the economy. UK/US starting another illegal war in Europe. Breaking International Law and agreements, How low can they go before they are out of it, Independence supporters should vote them out at every election. To get rid of the opposition. Unionist Parties paid from London to try to ruin the Scottish (world) economy.
People can become mentally ill, suicidal and self harm if they cannot Self ID. There mental health and rights need protected. Just like every other member of society. They cause less harm in society than other people (men). They do no harm. There is a gender difference relating to ‘crime’. Trans people can already self ID it just makes it easier. UN policy. Equal rights.
Or or AV was rejected in a Referendum. Vote against on a low turnout. People not interested. For Clegg support for ConDems. The reason for the present absolute Westminster shambles. The ConDem under funding NHS from 2015 to 2020. Cut £20Billion instead of increasing it Cut education £6Billion a year. Betrayed the students, The Scottish Gv had to mitigate the cuts. PR was imposed on Scotland without a mandate. Devolution 2000. To try to ensure endless unionist control. From unionist Parties funded by Westminster.
Leslie Evans cost Scotland £Billions. £Million Pension,
D’Hondt there is a quota. Let’s the 3rd losers in on the list. Independence supporters need to go out and vote every election. A higher turnout to get rid of the opposition of the opposition. List not a true democracy.
Tories parachuted in. For illegal grants and loans from Westminster. Millions illegal payout for Tory support. Funding the Tory Party illegally with donations. Recycled public money funding. Graft and corruption for Gov funded posts. Cash for positions and illegal honours. It is illegal to fund political Parties with public monies. Unionist Poiltical Parties in Scotland cannot support Independence in Scotland. Funding and policies come from Westminster. They need to change their tune. If people vote for self determination and self governance. Supported by UN and International Law. Unionists will be out of it. Breaking International Law again. Sanctions will apply. Unionists out of the loop again. Trying to drag down Scotland and people’s rights, The Courts will have to settle it. ,
The Tories are hardly likely to win the next election. 24months or less the way things are going. That changes the scenario. Might be unexpected changes. Support for Independence increasing. Continued opposition voted down and out, The Scottish Gov and the internet. Increasing Indeendence support.
There is bad internet connection in the Borders, The last Tory/unionist place in Scotland. A few campaigns might make a difference.
The senseless coming along. The tax evading hypocrites. Biggest consumers on the planet. 10% tax on £20Million. No corporation, capital gains or inheritance tax. Kept secret under the Official Secrets Act. Owning the sea bed?
How ridiculous is that and interfering, illegally, in Government. Time to up anchor and go for self governance governance.
Coronation extravagance soon to come. Ridiculous hypocrites, The class system dysfunctionals. Keeping bigotry, racism, misogyny and inequality going. The UK the most unequal place in the world.
The things you come across on the internet:
“The Scots are not the sort we want representing the British they can’t even speak English for God sake”
“Agreed they are an embarresment”
Comical enough I suppose but when you check the spelling of *embarrassment* Oops!
I’m Scottish, and I speak three languages, one of which is English, oh, and I can also spell and punctuate if required
Such an umbarrusment are they not
🤣
We use three+ languages in this household*. Sometimes all in once sentence. Whatever works.
Amusingly, we have friends that still call kitchen roll ‘Sopalin’ as that’s what Mrs SS called it when she introduced it to our post uni shared flat. Brand name for the stuff in France that became a name for it like we call vacuum cleaners ‘Hoovers’.
—
*Scottish English, French and Scots.
Some of your comments justify my comments. I have been very active in the Yes campaign since early 2013, converted 32 people, until recently I was on my Yes steering group only stopping as my wife is very Ill. I have created nine YouTube videos on a range of subjects relating to Yes, given presentations to groups. So DO NOT lecture me on Indy support. I have been a firm voter for the SNP since 07 only stopping doing so because the party reminds me of Groundhog Day. Repeating a story but doing little. I could explain but I will not. Your brain may have difficulty coping with different opinions.
All the best.
Pogmothon above at 6/2/23 at 1238 assumed I did not care. This is my reply to his personal attack on me.
I wouldn’t worry about it Andy, it’s all Pogmothon’s got – apart from misfiring blanks and faddas.
Obviously you are correct. A personal attack would be absolutely out of order.
If you felt that I was constructing a personal attack on you then I must apologise unreservedly, this was most definitely not my intent.
I must concede that your resume is indeed impressive.
I am also grateful that you did not leap to an insulating or dismissively demeaning course of action in retaliation to any misconstrued attack on you personally.
Awe the Best Pog
Hi Folks – Idea’s please…I’m going on STV’s Debate Night this Wednesday. I’m currently thinking of questions to submit but there are so many options. What do you folks think should be top of my list?
Btw – I don’t know who is on the panel yet.
Thanks in advance for your recommendations!
How about this for a question. Its a bit long winded but you might be able to cut it down.
‘Imagine you are a typical family living in Scotland. You work hard to earn money and the vast bulk of that money is then taken away from you and sent to a family somewhere in England, lets say they live in Oxford – but it could be anywhere. They redecorate and refurnish there house with the money you have sent them and return any change with a note attached. The note says that we can have a holiday but only when they say so and they will select the destination for us; and NO you can not buy a new bike or go out to dinner on Friday nights. This is the position that Scotland is in. Do you consider that to be a fair arrangement?
The counter I guess would be along the lines that ‘Ah, but if your heating breaks down we will be here to support you’
Anyway I hope this helps and good luck with the show – remember to put the boot in if you get the chance!!!
Cheers mate! Unfortunately I’m only allowed to use a maximum of 20 words. Still haven’t been told who the panel is but expecting them all to be unionists bar one so not sure whether to focus on Independence or corrupt Westminster…?
Thanks! Unfortunately I’m only allowed to use a maximum of 20 words. Still haven’t been told who the panel is but expecting them all to be unionists bar one so not sure whether to focus on Independence or corrupt Westminster…?
Should a partner in an abusive relationship have the right to terminate that arrangement – or continue to be abused?
19 words.
Thank you! It’s on my list 👍👌
“so not sure whether to focus on Independence or corrupt Westminster”
Well on corrupt WM you are spoilt for choice on what and how much to highlight on that especially via the Tory UK government both present and past ones…..the problem with Yoons in the audience on Debate shows is that they tend to make sweeping statements with nothing , via stats or data, to back up their accusations….what Indy peeps in the audience of these shows need to be prepared to do is to anticipate that the same old same old arguments (falsehoods) will be spewed out by both some panel members and audience members too…..thus as an Indy peep you need to have an arsenal of information nay examples to demonstrate that tis a case of the Pot calling the Kettle black….glass house politics….the info is out there via this site and via social media as to all of the many many corrupt, incompetent and duplicitous actions via Tories….plus Labour are no better as they seem to be embracing many of the most destructive policies instigated and promoted by Tories e.g. Brexit.
Good luck…..my above comment is in not reference to you having the chance to ask a question ( as in your Q being picked for the programme) but that you may have more chance of being selected to make a comment if you put your hand up…wear a BRIGHT top then surely The Stephen of the Jardine will not fail to notice you and your raised hand….LOL
Have a nice day
🙂
Thank you, yes I am currently typing notes to take with me on the off chance I get asked to comment. I very much doubt any questions I submit will get chosen as I suspect they have already been written and approved by the panel and producers 😉
Ps) Advice taken on wearing bright top😆 Let’s see if it works🤞
Why does government at Westminster not follow Scotland & Wales and increase NHS staff pay offer to help address current crisis in NHS?
Here you go. BBC picks out a single poll – one which shows no change within MoE – when it suits.
Scum. Revolting, bigoted, lying imperial propaganda spreading barstool scum.
I don’t mind saying that as a mild mannered person.
https://archive.is/AS3Kc
A YouGov survey for the Sunday Times suggested that the first minister’s personal approval rating has slid into negative territory, while the SNP has shed six percentage points from its Holyrood constituency voting intention.
But they only hurt themselves ultimately. Lie to folk and they eventually realise you’ve done that. Then they’ll never trust you again. Ever.
Which is why Scots don’t trust the BBC, as survey after survey increasingly shows.
Ironic that an honest BBC would actually help prop up support for the union in Scotland. But hey ho, why interrupt an enemy when it’s doing it’s best to arouse distrust in its own supporters, as the old saying goes!
The BBC make many many many genuine errors, and also genuinely err in remembering to correct them
The BBC are always genuinely sorry that these errors affect some viewers and readers in an adverse way, and we genuinely strive to correct them in the best interests of the genuine impartial journalism for which we are renowned
Honest tae God we are
Signed:….. Rishi’s chosen men
Haha! Excellent! 👌
Misinformation by omission, bbc fail to inform its readers listeners what act or acts sent him to a women’s prison, what happens by way of assessment before admission etc, by far the worse omission though was failing to remind it’s readers, listeners and viewers that GRR isn’t law, that the FM is being pilloried for laws introduced by westminster, in force since 2004/2010.
“Misinformation by omission” in most definitely in play in BBC Scotland’s Graham/Bryson propaganda game – NOT ONCE has the pertinent question been asked whether the rapist made any attempt to apply for a GRC (a point raised by @legerwood previously) which crucially is the sole purpose of the GRA, and SG’s proposed reforms, a procedure whereby someone may be assessed by experts to enable them to change the sex on their birth certificate – To my best knowledge he/she made no such application.
Yet the elephant in the BBC’s room is what possessed Graham to abuse the Trans identity, given he had shown not the slightest inclination before – For clarity Graham was charged in 2019, yet it was the Court papers lodged prosecuting Graham in 2020 as a male which directly preceded the creation of Isla Bryson.
Now consider what BBC Scotland was promoting under the Johnson government and being copied on by Scotland’s media and beyond at the time, the “troubled” GRA Reforms.
– Isla Bryson is as much a child of Johnson/Cook’s propaganda games, the “Misinformation by omission”.
So, the right wing bias of the BBC and the rest of the mass media should be questioned…?
What about asking the panel what they think of MP’s salaries increasing by £20,000’s over the last 10 years whilst public sector salaries have been frozen and then forcing them to strike because the government is refusing to find the money to pay them anywhere near current inflation rates.
Soooo….we want independence…..that IS a given 100%…. and while some may decide to ignore the ‘women won’t wheesht’ and their opposition to the GRR bill…..we cannot ignore the infiltration of some of the more extreme right wing factions who are hijacking this matter BUT for what end ?..Hmm indeed for what end….joining the dots would help you to establish this…..for reference SEE America and what has happened and is happening there via Trump…..and who is supporting and latching onto THAT debate in the ‘fringes’ ….well…..
At the weekend there was a rally in Glasgow called ”Let Women Speak’ .
And …courtesy of some well collated tweet information via ‘Euan Yours Twitter account’ here are some of those below who attended that rally……a right bunch of right wing extremists….and not ones who one would initially identify as promoters of women’s rights BUT some are certainly promoters of the (non) Union and too their own self interest in their respective organisations and newly too their newly formed political (INO) parties….
So here are some who attended THE rally for women’s rights sourced via ‘Euan Yours’ tweets on his Twitter A/c….
“Alistair McConnachie (aka Manky Jaiket)
Plus at least two who are associated with an anti-trans group called ‘ValidLs’ who described the rally as an ‘undisputed Aryan victory’.
Also in attendance as a ‘journalist’ was well-known American (and fake British) fascist organiser Andy Ngo.
Multiple attendees from the ‘ban all immigration’ National Housing Party, including one who was a warden for the rally.
The Christo-fascist ‘Scottish Family Party’, taking time out from protesting against women having rights to protest that trans people are taking away women’s rights.
Another group of Christo-fascists who were represented were the Alliance Defending Freedom, who also found time to stop trying to take away women’s rights to protest women apparently losing their rights .
Max Dunbar, formerly of the BNP and currently part of the ‘UK A Force For Good’…who was holding up a sign that said ‘ Defy the Gaystapo’.
Another person holding the ‘Gaystapo’ sign was Joseph Finnie formerly of the BNP and British Freedom Party (who Jayda Fransen stood for at the 2021 Holyrood elections in Glasgow Southside), now associated with the ‘British Democrats’ (who also want to end all immigration)”.
Wow what a bunch…..yeesh….pass the sick bucket…
The Tory MSP Russell Findlay was also at the rally…..he tweeted “There was a lot of anger towards Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP at Glasgow’s George Square today. Spoke with women from across the UK who have spent years fighting to protect their rights”……. well I am sure that we all on here KNOW why Russell was REALLY at the RALLY….and going by the Tories poor record on women’s rights it certainly was NOT to defend rights for women…for sure….but it WAS most certainly ALL to do with #SNPBAD and #FMBAD ….this tweet, by Russell was 100% purely for POLITICAL reasons (as per) against the SNP and FM as he conveniently (deliberately) failed to disclose three MSP’s from his OWN TORY party voted WITH a the Scottish government FOR the GRR Bill……as did the Lib Dems, Green party and Labour MSP’s too….a tactical omission obvs…for reasons…..also too obvious….
The organiser of this event was one Posie Parker (an assumed name)….***she has been involved with several conservative organisations, including the Hands Across the Aisle Coalition, which aims to connect anti-trans radical feminists with conservative Christian anti-LGBT groups. She has advised American Republican Party strategists to focus on anti-trans agitation as a campaign issue, and has called on cisgender women to put aside divisions on issues like abortion rights and left-wing politics in favour of an alliance against transgender rights. She has also attended panels organized by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative anti-LGBT think tank. She has written for The Spectator ***. (***this sourced from Wikipedia)……and there is MORE on there re her…..how many MORE enemies will crop up against our government and our FM …..(BTW THAT T-shirt worn by JK Rowing that stated ‘Scotland’s First Minister a “destroyer of women’s rights” was sourced via same company as one Posie Parker wears…and Posie LOVES JKR ……)
Seems to me that certain peeps in another ‘Indy’ party are failing to see who is jumping onto their #SNPBAD bandwagon……as in THE one that they HOPE will bring down the FM and indeed the SNP……mind you with OUR media there is little chance of the above attendees being exposed and challenged …not when this whole issue is becoming a vehicle, that is largely being driven by THEM the media, to TRY and BRING DOWN those that THEY are so desperate to destroy as in our FM and the SNP…..Jeezo….the things they must DO to try and save THEIR (non) Union obviously includes turning a blind eye to unsavoury far right individuals organising rallies attended by even MORE unsavoury far right individuals and where their extreme politics and ideology is somehow NOT an ISSUE (pure coincidence obvs that many of them are anti SNP, anti our FM and hey presto also anti independence for Scotland)……..why I’m sure yon BBC Disclosure is preparing to both investigate and disclose all of this any day now via a future edition of their programme as in declaring the far right infiltration into women’s rights organisations/rallies prompted by them, as extremists, finding a faux crusade to capture for their own dark ulterior motive via jumping onto the anti GRR brigade…..though sure tis deffo a pie in the sky notion to EVER think that the BBC would EVER expose this….as in reality tis more likely to be …nae chance.
The company you keep is a true indicator of who you really are…..and if you keep the company of some of the above peeps and too appear to be speaking from the same HYMN sheet… then perhaps NOW IS THE TIME to wonder if you are , in your collusion with them, more an asset for the (non) Union than you are for independence….I mean who KNEW that one day SOME via the alternate ‘Indy’ party would NOW be praising a person who donated 1 million pounds to the Better Together side in 2014…and who they now STAND WITH against the SNP and our FM…..why sure next they will be campaigning for the (non) Union and arguing against independence actually they ARE campaigning NOW for the Union in all they say and do……they are supplying the ammunition to the MANY ‘enemies’ of independence…..and after all they really HAD to pick SOMETHING to rally against both our FM and the SNP ……they’ll have had their independence then if they continue along THIS path with THAT company ……I guess they think they are a FORCE for GOOD……I beg to differ…..
The enemy it seems is most certainly within…..with SOME that is……
Yes I am a woman and I DO want to have rights but I do not want to associate and campaign with any of the above people to retain my rights and to also try to gain MORE rights….as down that road will definitely lead to me LOSING MORE of my rights and gaining NONE…..
The END of RANT …(Not) another one ………….Sorry
Thanks for the informative post, lots there I hadn’t a clue about. Well said.
🙂
Have a lovely Day Alex….
Aah, Euan McColm or Effie Deans as he’s otherwise not known as
Ah no Dr Jim….it’s a guy on Twitter who goes by the name of Euan Yours
@EuanYours and not THE Euan McColm as in the pro Unionist alleged journalist….
Honest mistake to make via having the same first name…..
Meant to add Dr Jim….that I assume his Twitter assumed name… as in ‘Euan Yours… is a play of words on the expression ‘You and Yours’ though I may be wrong…I usually am…LOL.
Euan McColm is Effie Deans? I didn’t think he was that daft !
Very well said!!!
The Duck. Ducking the questions of compromise, The Tory cowardly hard nut. Worth £20millions. Getting £2Million in grants and loans from the Tory Gov associates,Enough is never enough for them. Killing others. Council elections in the south coming
soon. A higher turnout to vote the
Tories out, Can’t come soon
enough,
Scotland pays for HS2 and Hickley
Point etc. The biggest waste of monies with no business or market case, Always subsidies with public monies, The Civil servants lied about the funding and expenses to appease their Tory masters, Graft and corruption, The Tory slush fund. Going back to Tory donors who fund the Party, illegally, with public monies, Recycled corruption, Non scrutinised, £Billions of public contracts to Tory donors, The heart of Westminster corruption. Needs called on.
HS2 and Hickley Point etc f7nding borrowed from the Chinese. Scotland has to make repayment on the loans not borrowed or spent in Scotland. The illegal Barnett Formula consequential. Take with one hand, Not given with the other. The mismanagement of the Scottish budget. Cut to threads by projects not beneficial to Scotland but making repayments on the debt, Two to the Westminster Treasury for economic decisions and projects not made in Scotland. One back. Cutting the Scottish budget and funding that Scotland needs to grow the economy, but getting the unwanted debt back. The Westminster poor, bad decisions hampering and destroying the Scottish (world) economy. Westminster unelected Lords going on a colossal illegal spending spree on £Billions of taxpayers monies. People are dying. Public monies are being embezzled and wasted hand over fist, Scottish voters need to out a stop to it and turnout at every election to support Independence, A higher Independence majority. 40% Council elections, 50%+ Holyrood elections, 60% GE. 85% Ref. 62%++ support EU membership and increasing,
Support for Independence Parties going up. More people who support Independence need to go out and vote for it p, every election. Use it or lose it. Insread of worrying about hw everyone else is voting. Irrelevant with a higher majority of Independence supporting voters. For better policies and the internet.
Off topic but genuine question – when teachers are paid significantly more in Scotland than in England why does the EIS not agree to take what’s offered now and request additional monies that may come from consequentials when English teachers get a settlement. That should go directly to teachers salaries in Scotland. But then they will want better schools more equipment a constant want want want – I appreciate how hard teachers work but so do all of our public servants. Even teachers must realise budgets are severely limited when you rely on handouts from WM. Whilst I sympathise with the majority of workers who all need increases I am fast losing sympathy for the way the teachers are progressing their claims.
[…] Source […]
Well as Finance Secretsry Kate Forbes said more than once during covid pandemic consequentials that should come to Scotland as per devolution settlement or as promised by UK govt. don’t always turn up. I get your point re waning sympathy for supporting striking teachers and I have friends who are teachers. I can’t see why all of them should get higher rise than local govt. staff except teachers on the lowest pay scales
I get what your saying.
But if we train up teachers and lose them to places like singapore or even USA where they can double their pay, then something is wrong. Many of the newly qualifiedteachers and experienced teachers are lost in this way.
The issue is that since at least 2011 pay rises for public services, especially NHS, teachers etc have been below inflation, with net result the pay is severely eroded and current economic climate compounds this.
The torys want you to turn on the teachers and NHS and other striking workers.
The torys need strung up!
Better you do more campaigning to convert more teachers and NHS workers to yes than drive them away.
Average salary for teachers USA $41,000, (£34,000) but no NHS, etc.
Rental of a one bedroom studio flat Singapore $4,300 a month. Average salary S$33,600, and although HS is declared as free at point of delivery, ‘insurgents’ pay through the nose.
Drops mic.
Im not sure what you are getting at with “drops Mike”
who is Mike?
why did you drop him?
how high was he dropped from?
and is Mike hurt in any way with him being dropped?
I personally know of at least one person and their friends who went there, they earned much much more than that, employed by an international school in Singapore with BUPA and accomodation allowance included on top of salary. (International Schools pay far more than local schools)
Employer also had private schools across Europe and in USA, Canada & Japan, with staff able to transfer to other countries. They teach children of diplomats etc at the schools
Anyhoos we obviously dinbae agree so its gudbye fae meysel!
Mikey to his friend, to everyone else Mister Gove
And at a stroke, ‘many teachers’ becomes ‘at least one’.. and it is an international private school for diplomats weans, and BUPA cover.
‘A mic drop is an emphatic and declarative gesture signifying the conclusion of a performance of note, often literally (or as if) dropping a microphone.’
So glad for the opportunity to expand your colloquial vocabulary, Undeadshaun. You could maybe work it into your next ink exercise essay. Your teacher will be impressed.
I cannae be bothered, person i knew had many friends they met there also fae Scotland.
Gudbuy im scunnered and we are nae gonnae get independence and rid of the Tory Bastard, Buckwit, Numbnuts, Glaikit, Bawheid Numpty, C*** wi this conversation.
Target the enemy nae allies!
Otherwise yer as well voting fer the yoons or alba!!!!!!
My teacher friend tells me that actually often newly qualified teachers tend to go to England as frequently they can’t get a permanent job in Scotland including in Snp run Glasgow council area.She was not able to explain fully why that is but it seems they sometimes are used for supply work here (to cover for other teachers off sick etc,) I am sure Scottish Government gave councils more money to employ more teachers a while back so what councils are up to re permanent contracts for teachers she has no clue nor do I
It certainly would be difficult to sympathise with teachers – or any public servants for that matter – who are opposed to independence when it comes to salary disputes.
A fixed budget means any salary rises for one sector must mean cuts somewhere else. There’s just no way around it when the Scottish government have little to no fiscal levers at their disposal.
If England wrecks the economy, which they did, Scotland Wales and the North of Ireland suffer as a result, teachers should understand this perfectly well and should be supporting our country’s independence because of it, if they don’t then they’re not smart enough to be teachers, if they do understand these things then they’re every bit as bad as the Tories and Labour for manipulatively lying to those of the Scottish public who don’t grasp the fiscal inevitabilities of leaving England in charge of all 4 countries finances
Teachers unions claimed on STV that the Scottish government had a *raft* of powers they could use to raise money to pay them more, but the interviewer did not demand the answer or explanation as to what this *raft* of powers consisted
This is manipulation without explanation, teachers might as well just be shouting “gaes the money yeezuv goatit” and the public is left puzzled and bemused
I don’t like it
Latest Yougov blows from 2 weeks ago (fieldwork began on the 23rd January, tables on whatscotlandthinks).
Blow for Sturgeon as majority of Scots want an indyref in the next few years
In principle, do you think there should or should not be a referendum on Scottish independence in the next 5 years?
47% Yes
42% No
10% DK
Ex DK
53% Yes
47% No
Blow for Sturgeon as she finds she’s the most popular party leader of all
NET SAT:
-4% Sturgeon
-10% Starmer
-14% Cole-Hamilton
-14% Sarwar
-35% Ross
-40% Sunak
Blow for Sturgeon as Scots think UK government’s handling of Brexit’s a mess
How well or badly do you think the government are doing at handling Britain’s exit from the European Union?
12% Well
78% Badly
As I suspected, there were a good few % going to green and Alba (‘other’), and so the totals for Yes parties are 48%, as shown for the regional list breakdowns.
So this poll basically shows sweet f’all changes within standard variance as things stand. Yes parties only got just over 50% on the list in 2021! The idea that this is a bad mid term poll for these is so farcical those suggesting it should be assessed by a GP + clinical psychologist as they are maybe not right in the head.
Did the BBC mention these results?
Starmer, Cole Hamilton, Sarwar, Ross, Sunak must resign immediately!
Interesting that Sarwar seems to have dropped in approval ratings.
Suppose that’s what happens when you finally get found out.
And that’s despite the BBC resolutely protecting Labour from any suggestion of a rift within its ranks over GRA between Sarwar’s little band of Holyrood {ahem} radicals and Starmer’s neo-conservative WM legions. Not as much as a peep.
I see Salmond’s speech in Dundee is being used by the BBC to attack the SNP and more importantly Independence.
Who would have thought it!
Alex Salmond is being used to attack Nicola Sturgeon more like, and could well not work out the way the *planners* plotted it
The unelectable attacking the most popular, who’s going to come out of that one best, not the BBC or Salmond
Folk aren’t daft they see it for what it is, Tories attack her, Labour attacks her, Lib Dems attack her, the media attacks her, Alba attack her
Kinda like a pattern, or maybe a plan? plot? nah couldnae possibly be, LOL
Alba interfering with the office bearers of the SNP, then demanding respect and equality from the SNP
Check out the FMs twitter, the biggest amount of nasty personal bile is from the people who keep demanding the SNP co-operate with them
best just to avoid twitter. It’s full of twits
Raineach,
I think you may have found yourself in agreement with David Cameron*, there …
[*Who he? Ed.]
I used to respect Salmond, he’s now attacking a family member of mine. He might be a ‘danger to women and girls’, but my nephew (formerly niece) isn’t.
He’s also insulting the Welsh government, including Plaid Cymru with his recent chat. That and many of our neighbours.
I’m so glad he’s not our ambassador to Ireland, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Finland… going around these telling them how stupid they are to bother with ‘self-indulgent [gender] nonsense’ while parroting English Brexit BBC poll reporting.
The man is totally unfit to represent us at the top tables such as the Council of Europe, United Nations etc.
No wonder Rishi Sunak’s way more popular than him in Scotland.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64548844
LGBTQ: Aim to make it easier to change gender in Wales
Making it simpler for someone to legally change their gender is part of new proposals being unveiled by the Welsh government.
It comes after the UK government said it would block similar legislation put forward by the Scottish government.
The Welsh government called the new LGBTQ+ Action Plan for Wales an “ambitious plan with hope”.
Anyhoo, if you are the BBC, this is all a bit awkward. Wasn’t this just Sturgeon’s ‘self-indulgence’?
The plan as I see it is not for Salmond to be elected to anything, that’ll never happen and he knows it, because if it was he would also know that should he get anywhere near power that same media would destroy him utterly on a daily basis, and he knows it because he’s not an idiot, the plan is to degrade denigrate and destroy Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP, and he knows many of us know it, so he’s using the BBC just as they’re using him, making him every bit as bad as the Tories Labour and Lib Dems
Every country has its embarrassing and downright bad politicians and ex politicians that shame their country, England has had a ton of them recently like Johnson Farage Truss and Kwarteng, Scotland is stuck with Salmond for the moment, but like his predecessors McConnell and such, he’ll fade away, except for him not the rewards of the house of Lords, despite any promises the British may or may not have made
@ Dr Jim @2.13pm
Fantastic concise and very very well written comment…..as per.
You Sir…have a fabby evening
🙂
Heard the unelectable Salmond helping out the state broadcaster this lunchtime English Home Service news and wondered just how low this idol with feet of clay is willing to descend in his relentless egotism. While it’s undeniable that Nicola Sturgeon is currently caught in difficulties of her own making that someone with her political astuteness would normally have seen coming from afar – a blindness brought on by an excess of do-goodery zeal, just like the fitba sectarian fiasco – that’s no justification whatever for Salmond to be wilfully aiding and abetting the propaganda arm of London while smoothly claiming to defend independence.
It’s so offensively hypocritical it’s sickening.
Why would Ms Sturgeon see this brouhaha over the whole GRR coming? Was there a huge outcry when the GRA was passed in 2004 and adopted via Sewel Convention by the Scottish Parliament in 2004.
Was there a huge outcry when the Equalities Act was passed in 2010? It is that Act that gives/protects the rights of trans people and to enjoy most if not all of these rights they do not require a GRC.
Was there a huge outcry in 2014 when the Scottish Prison Service set out its policy and procedure for dealing with trans prisoners? A policy moreover that is applied to all trans prisoners whether they have a GRC or not.
Was there an outcry in 2015-16 when a House of Commons Committee held an inquiry into the workings of the GRA 2004 and in their report recommending reform of the Act suggested self-ID as a possibility?
Was there an outcry in 2016 when all parties in the Holyrood elections included reform of the Act in their manifestos?
Was there an outcry when the first public consultation was held and the report published?
No is the answer to all of these questions. All of that passed below the radar of Joe & Josephine Public. So why would the FM think the response to the reform proposals would be any different especially since the UK Gov under Mrs May were on the same page?
The outcry which has built to a crescendo started after that and certain women’s groups and individuals were to the fore in stoking it ably supported by the MSM. It also suited the UK Gov not just as an anti-SNP, anti-SG ploy but as a distraction from their own problems which are many and various and still ongoing.
My point was that with any controversial legislation there are always going to be “edge cases”. “The exceptions that prove [ie. test] the rule.” That potential difficulty was signalled well in advance by sceptics in the know within the legal profession, for example. Not least within a prison environment. But because they were sceptics, themselves somewhat OTT, they were very evidently roundly dismissed as “scaremongers”.
But it’s no good pretending otherwise when we now see Nicola, for one of the first times ever, looking visibly on the defensive, apparently reactive and unprepared because of some current edge cases that – conveniently for the axe-grinders – highlight precisely these very sensitive matters. (Coincidentally, as it happens, but when providence is tempted, one can’t be surprised when the temptation becomes too strong…!)
Myself, I think it’s largely a “storm in a teacup” brewed by the zealots on both sides who just can’t let go, and who are simply handing a large stick to the opponents of independence with which to cynically beat the SG. A less controversial approach could have avoided all that, yet achieved something worthwhile still.
It’s not even about the rights and wrongs of the matter – of which there is far more ongoing heat than light – but rather about creating a political pathway that can support desirable changes without providing an opening for bad-faith actors like Salmond.
And where in all this, perchance, is Labour? The legislation wouldn’t have happened if not for the votes of its MSPs. (Plus one or two others.) Why do they apparently get a free pass in the midst of all this?
To be honest, I wonder if we didn’t dodge a bullet in 2014. Imagine he’d been our first FM under independence. FFS.
As my granny used to say ‘what’s for you will not pass you by’. Maybe there is a god and he was actually looking out for us back then, saying ‘Wait a wee bit longer until you have the right leadership and it’s the settled will’.
Salmond said “that you cannot have single sex spaces prized
and, worked and strived for, because of some daft ideology imported from elsewhere and as we have seen imperfectly understood”…
Alas…..for him…someone on Twitter highlighted this in response to Salmond:
“Imported?
Pre-2008 Salmond wanted Scotland to emulate Ireland, which has a self-declaration system for changing legal sex.
Post-2008 Scotland was to be Nordic. All but one of the Nordic countries have self-declaration systems too”
Indeed…however like an old Dog with a rancid bone he is using THIS as a means to promote HIS party which otherwise would be seen as a fringe protest party similar to many of the ever changing named political (INO) parties created by one George Galloway….both of them FAILED to get any seats in the last Holyrood election…..and for the two Alba party MP’s currently squatting in SNP seats….. well I am sure they will LOSE their seats at WM come the next GE…..one trick (obsessive) pony party led by someone who not THAT long ago was declared to be ‘yesterday’s man’ will, I am sure, fail to connect with a majority of the public…after all it’s not as if all of those YOONS who currently support Alba’s position (allegedly but not really) are EVER going to vote for Alba in subsequent elections….no their, Yoons, support is strictly limited to them constantly promoting both offensive verbal and written anti SNP/FM (bad) communications….Salmond and his party are providing them, Yoons, with yet another avenue (opportunity) with which to try to destroy all hope of independence for Scotland….
And that my friends is the limit of their, Yoons, consensus with Alba…. as in being a part of a united protest against the FM and the SNP….but ONLY as long as they, Alba, continue to attack both the FM and the SNP….yep the Yoons backing is restricted to the #SNPBAD narrative that is being promoted by Alba and SOME of their followers….as to supporting Independence…. well not so much….or rather I should say….NOT at ALL !
Not long ago we used to say that Labour were the hand maidens of the Tory party…..NOW….well incredible as it may seem….tis some of those who allege they want independence…..campaigned it seems , by them, in what appears to be a very unconventional fashion …..so unconventional that it is hard to distinguish much of what they say with that of those parties who support the (non) Union…..what is that saying about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory……seems apt for SOME….does it not…….the Yoons will have much to thank them for unless they, Alba, change tact…as in focus on independence MORE as opposed to fighting the Yoons battle for THEM (with them) against the FM and the SNP…..not wanting or meaning to be controversial or instigate more division within the Indy movement but when I read on social media Yoons reiterating what Alba party and their supporters are saying….well common sense tells me that ultimately the resulting damage and fallout will land squarely on all of us within the YES movement….and thus all progress gained on support for independence will fall by the wayside…..via some being TOO absorbed in trying to make a very much NON related to INDY mountain from a YOON generated (grievance) molehill ……..not forgetting that actual PEOPLE aka HUMANS will be impacted by all of this…. as in Trans people….via all of the misrepresentation and LIES…..is it any wonder currently SOME people prefer the company of animals to other people…..many a time that is how I feel.
Jeezo….when will it ALL stop….( rhetorical Q obvs as we all know when and how to make it ALL stop)
#IndySupportersWon’tWheesht
My apologies if I misunderstood, but Ireland introduced the self-id process to accord with GRA process reforms in 2015, therefore your Twitterer is either ill-informed or stirring it.
Hi Bob I assumed he meant Salmond was using Ireland as an example of a country to emulate as one who is independent and successful (within the EU) but they introduced a self-declaration system for changing legal sex….perhaps badly worded as you say and he should have perhaps highlighted this occurred post to Salmond’s comments on Ireland…..perhaps he should have stated “which NOW . post Salmond’s comments , has a self-declaration system for changing legal sex”….reading his Twitter account I do not think he is trying to stir it but FACTS and TRUTH do matter…..so perhaps in this instance he was economical with the facts….welcome to MY world…LOL
Words and meanings ……me bad too for not identifying that inaccuracy…LOL
In all honesty I did not know the date of this or check it…..lesson learned and glad you highlighted it….Cheers.
Have a nice evening
🙂
No worries. I had looked it up for Ireland when the recent “Isla Bryson” farce erupted from HMS James Cook, the only reason I knew.
More important however is that in the 8 years since these Reforms were passed into Law in Ireland , NOT A SINGLE ABUSE OF THE YSTEM HAS BEEN RECORDED.
This entire stooshie has made in London plastered all over it…
My information comes from Helen Joyce, who is Irish. She says there are three transwomen held in the women’s estate who are violent sex offenders and this causes the women to be held in lockdown because of the difficulty of managing the problem.
Interview on good Morning Britain at approx 11 mins 50 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6DnKZlLcxg&t=1s
The answer to managing them is build an appropriate unit to house/imprison them. I don’t know much about Irish prisons but we had the special unit in Barlinnie for ultra violent prisoners. Something like could be done for sex offending trans men or women
I agree.
Or all sex offenders, including the likes of Rose West?
I believe the SPS has confirmed there are only 3 trans women held in the female estate in Scotland and none have a history of violence against women?
Personally, in terms of safety, my wife says she’d rather be locked up in a wing with men in for e.g. while collar fraud than women in for sexual assault, violence etc. Totally understandable. She was violently assaulted by a woman in an upmarket princess street pub outdoor area once. Refused to hand over her friend’s cigarettes to a woman who proceeded to smash her over the head with a glass. Luckily got away with a relatively minor cut.
When it comes to safety, it’s not someone’s sex that matters, it’s what danger they pose to other inmates. Preventing men and women mixing in prisons has always, ultimately, been more about making the experience less fun for both, most people being H! 🙂 Violent female prisoners are kept away from others just as violent male prisoners are.
It’s not really a trans issue per se, but a safety one. I personally think there might be merit in mixed estates to aid with rehabilitation (subject to inmates agreeing / meeting set criteria), but I’m a progressive who likes the Norwegian system and how so much more effective it is.
And how many of those “difficult” transwomen have GRC’s or have an application under consideration Capella, because that is the fundamental point I was making and which you appear blind to ?
So I’ll say it again
– Not a single abuse of the reformed GRA in Ireland has been recorded in 8 years of the reforms being on the statute – NOT A SINGLE ONE.
Now use your logic to figure out why you cannot distinguish between someone who is trans and the tiny fraction of the populace who have availed of the GRA to change their birth certificate’s recording of sex at birth.
Perhaps you didn’t listen to the video.
Helen Joyce says there are 3 violent sex offenders in the women’s estate and that the women are held in worse conditions because of that. I call that abuse.
In fact, locking women in with violent sex offenders is a cruel and unusual punishment, a definition of torture, which is why the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture expressed concern at this situation. The Geneva Convention expressly forbids it.
Whether they have a GRC is irrelevant. However, having a GRC gives them the right to claim that they are legally women.
I actually watched the clip a couple of weeks back having noted a ruckus about it on Irish forums after Joyce inferred connection to GRCs for these 3 crims, so already knew it had nothing whatever to do with it – If you also believe them having GRCs was irrelevant, why did you raise it ?
There is ZERO evidence of abuse of the GRA after almost 20 years, were it otherwise there would be calls for it’s amendment.
Helen Joyce quite clearly states that these three men identified as transwomen after being charged with sex offences and, because Self ID has already been introduced, they are housed in the women’s estate. That is an abuse of the system.
Even so, I say it is irrelevant because I don’t accept that any man should be housed in the women’s estate whatever he identifies as. Getting a certificate that allows you to legally claim to be a woman just makes the abuse easier.
To be clear, it is what Joyce INFERRED which caused such a ruckuss in Ireland – The 3 “violent men” did not “get legal status as a woman by paying 5 pounds and filling in a form on-line”, it simply did not happen and Joyce knew that full well.
The “three men identify as women after being charged…” is a right under the Equalities Act, it had nothing whatever to do with the GRA, again Joyce knew that full well.
I do agree seeming anomalies turn up on imprisonment, but I’d rather rely on IPS or SPS expert judgement armed with all the facts than an activist campaigner quite prepared to distort realities and conflate the GRA with the Equalities Act.
Alex Salmond said “that you cannot have single sex spaces prized
and, worked and strived for, because of some daft ideology imported from elsewhere and as we have seen imperfectly understood”…
So according to Alex you can’t have single sex spaces …..Where does it say that in GRR?. I asked that question in a comment on The National last night when it first reported that Alex Salmond had said that, still no one has told me where it is in GRR which in my opinion speaks volumes. AS insincere intervention in the Gender Recognition situation is wholeheartedly unwelcome and his comments are unforgiveable as far as I am concerned. Needless to say the trollshaws on The National have been very busy celebrating the guff that the blessed Alex has said.These eegits are actually recommending people read WOS. I would rather going swimming in Shieldhall Sewage Works than read WOS as the effluent that floats there is less offensive than the stuff published by the blogger who shall not be named. Well at least the National has made about £10 so far in cheap subscribtions from the new trolls appearing BTL there recently
Is this good or bad for Scotland?
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-64538059
My own view is that battery storage of surplus energy from the wind is a very good thing for use when there is little to no wind. Better than burning fossil fuels and better than paying the wind turbine operators money to shut them down when they are producing more energy than can be used.
I think the article has got it wrong though on the size of these units and that they are 37ft long not 37 meters ect.
Energy storage and windpower go together like the proverbial horse and carriage. (And tidal power to some extent also, which is far more dependable but necessarily diurnal.)
Batteries if needs must at present, but in the longer term I believe it will be by hydrogen production. Relatively inexpensive storage that neither decays nor eventually needs wholesale replacement.
FWIW my money too would be 100% behind Hydrogen storage as the most efficient and most likely solution for the future.
Bad – It’s to provide storage for HMG to continue their monopoly over power exports, ALL the interlinks are in England – See “NorthLink” for a lesson on how ruthless HMG are (gazumped and diverted to Blyth) – The Peterhead link could have been exporting energy to the european grid helping Europe through an energy crisis, instead the windfarms are stood down from production to permit HMG to play Monopoly….
It’s in Scotland, it’s under control of the local council / ScotGov / iScotGov, so it’s got to be good.
I’m really so glad that we don’t have a weather vane populist FM/government that make policy up based on the latest opinion poll. Makes me all the more confident about voting Yes. We can leave right-wing populism to the brits.
OT and totally disgusting
After the cyberattack Royal Mail reinstated last week a fair bit of international parcels for business account customers and ONLINE.
But not for Post Offices – screw them says the Tory privatised Royal Mail. And what do you see in the media about this? 2/5 of 1/10 of feck all.
https://www.royalmail.com/international-incident-bulletin
See the EIS have played their political anti-SNP card, if only the Scottish government could find a magic money tree ?
Well, whatever the rights of the pay situation, specifically targeting the constituencies of SNP+Green ministers does appear overtly political. Why target the (non-political) COSLA chief but not all the Labour+Tory local authority fiefdoms as well? If Labour were the SG, would they suddenly be able to discover the magic money tree that the SNP can’t (for obvious reasons)?
By seeming to align itself so visibly with Labour’s Mitigation Hell strategy, one can only wonder if the union prefers to serve other interests than those of its own members…
Indeed they have Pete, not since the Labour party assisted and directed the unions in the 1980s in attempts to bring down Margaret Thatchers Tory government has this personal style attack strategy been used in any pay dispute, but here go the EIS again
There will be many teachers who will not remember this and one wonders whether all of them would agree with it, perhaps in Scotland’s case some may see the mistake in this strategy, because if they think they’re going to get what they want by helping what they think is the Labour party they will be sadly mistaken
The Tories crashed the economy, not the Scottish government or the SNP
If the EIS think this is a political fight then what do they believe they win if they win? because ultimately the entirety of Scotland could end up losing over something the Tories did in England that Labour is exploiting in Scotland, and the teachers are assisting them in that endeavour whether knowingly or not, but I think they know and that thought sickens me
Holyrood constituency VI average, updated to reflect the Yougov from 2 weeks ago.
You can see the effect of brexit then the mini budget on the Tories, also the slight uptick / stalling of their decline with Sunak steading the blue helm somewhat.
They lost pretty much entirely to Labour, and the recent tory uptick, if there is one at all, seems to come from Labour, just as you’d think would happen to this pattern reversing a little. It’s a microcosm of Britain as a whole with these two really.
In the 4.4% you’ll have around 2% Green and 1% Alba.
Tonights STV news quoted figures from December as the latest A&E waiting time figures which were around 60% or so, since then January figures have been released showing a marked difference at over 70% but STV chose not to report the actual latest figures
In the words of one disgraced artist and comedian “Can you tell what this is yet”?
And of course stories of malnutrition in Scotland as an accompaniment to this kind of news reporting speak for themselves
So let’s all give it up for Scotland’s teachers and media and hail the attempts to bring back the Labour party who orchestrated poverty on behalf of the Tories for almost the entirety of my life, well done all, we hope you get what you deserve when going down this road
For the sake of Scotland’s childrens education my Arse, the Tories put your mortages up, Tory and Labour created foodbanks, the SNP didn’t do that
Take a look at which SNP government keeps every child better of financially then any other part of this benighted UK, take a look at your council taxes, take a look at your prescription charges, take a look at your free bus travel, take a long look at the amount of mitigations this SNP Scottish government put in place to protect Scotland from the worst excesses of England’s behaviour then decide to help the Tory Labour parties, the people who’ll remove every bit of it given half a chance
Time off to have a baby? do it in England and see how much help you get in that country
Some friends of mine work in social care. Right through the pandemic they fed watered, toiletted many of the vulnerable stuck in their own homes. It would be a disgrace in my view if they watched fellow local authority teachers get a higher wage rise than them. 20 days annual leave pro rata should be compared with too.
I would like everyone to get more but the TU’s will have to support Independence if they’re really want better standards for workers from all walks of life.
Salmond has got himself alongside Bryson on the bigoted English BC.
The toast of British Nationalism. I suspect the ermine – or at least knighthood – will come his way.
OMFG I am so, so, so pleased I didn’t vote Alba.
https://archive.is/jdH6i
Sleepy cuddles (sleepy cuddles)
With the wine (with the wine)
Make me happy (make me happy)
Make me feel fine (make me feel fine)
Sleepy cuddles (sleepy cuddles)
Make me warm all over
With a feeling that I’m gonna
Be the FM again some time
He’s actually resorted to calling Irish people ‘daft’.
[holds head in hands]
“the department for Business, Energy, Innovation and Science … will now be split into the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Department for Business and Trade. ”
I actually think this in itself makes a lot more sense than having 3 such important functions in one humungous department. Pity the Tories have nobody competent for any of the 3 roles. Shapps and Badenoch, we’re doomed.
Anyways, hidden amongst this is this gem:
“ … Institute for Government analysis which estimated the cost of setting up a new government department at £15 million”
So now we know, and if the Unionists such as Danny Alexander with his multiply by 10 calculator tell us it will cost us £2 billion to set up 10 new departments for Independence, we can tell them where to put it.
Kitchen sink filled with great British lies and still they’re struggling to get Sturgeon negative.
The insanity of the English voter
The swaying dance of voter transference from Tory to Labour in England is the cause of the problems that Scotland Wales and the North of Ireland suffer at the hands of politicians our countries don’t vote for, and in the case of the North of Ireland can’t vote for or even against
In England the people there seem stuck with the notion that the other politicians who crapped everything up before won’t do the same thing again and again and again, over and over until the end of time, and that’s the very definition of insanity, so Scotland Wales and the North of Ireland have to sit and wait for the insane people of England to keep repeating their insanity
Look at these popularity preferences of support transferring from Tory to Labour when the record of Labour is every bit as bad as the current Tories
What is the record of Starmer for example, well he doesn’t have one, so folk are being asked to vote for the new guy they don’t know isn’t exactly the same as the old guy, and the poor voter is thinking “but what if”?
In Scotland the transfer is to Sarwar, well we know a bit about him, and are these people nuts? Sarwar is as Tory as a Tory can get, well next to Ian Murray that is
The people of my generation know what the Labour party said they stood for, and when they got it they robbed us blind, year after year after decade
The UK political mafia cabal have stitched the English up in a no get out scenario, they think they must have one or the other parties of doom based on a notion in time that one can’t possibly be *as bad* as the other *they hope* yet they know they both are
Unless their media tells them to do something different that is
Some folks are going to be raging. Just imagine God is trans non-binary.
https://archive.is/tFvxU
Church of England to consider use of gender-neutral terms for God
I suppose this is correct though? That god is envisaged as neither sex (lacks a body), so is, in fact trans? Sometimes appears in male, sometimes female form in visions? So actively changes gender? I’d never thought about this, but I suppose the ultimate trans entity. Ironic to say the least.
The church said it would launch a new commission on the matter in the spring.
Lol. If I ever worry I’m wasting my life on unproductive tasks, I just have to look at how the CoE spends its time.
I wonder if they’ll get around to letting gay people get married sometime this decade.
For ArtyGoose (and those who are going to support him/her* on Debate Night tonight) here’s the Panel:
“Debate Night is in Stirling with a studio audience putting questions to the SNP’s Kaukab Stewart MSP, Meghan Gallacher MSP from the Scottish Conservative Party, Scottish Labour’s Rhoda Grant MSP, Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP from the Scottish Liberal Democrats and columnist Jim Spence. Hosted by Stephen Jardine.”
[*Apologies, ArtyGoose, I don’t know which gender you identify under … 😉 ]
For ‘gender’, perhaps read, ‘gander’ … 😀
😀
And all this time I thought Alanis Morissette was God
Taken in by Dogma again, Aah well
In America cats and dog can get married, and as far as I’m aware none of these weddings has resulted in the taking over of the world, reductions in moral fortitude, affected any other life either domestic or wild, or indeed invaded any spaces that they can’t be persuaded out of with a bone a biscuit or an aniseed ball
If America, the largest and most outraged population at different anything non conservative can breathe a sigh of relief over that, well……