I need a wee break from the blog in order to recharge my batteries. I am having another bout of fatigue – although these episodes are certainly getting less frequent, less intense and less long lasting than they were in the months after the stroke. However we have visitors coming to stay from the USA later this week, so I need to marshall my energy in order to play at tour guide – “Oh look, there’s a castle. “Oh look, there’s a castle too.” “Oh look, there’s another bloody castle.” Americans love that sort of thing.
I will be back refreshed and raring to go, and thoroughly castled out, the middle of next week.
______________________________________________________
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Wee Ginger Dug 
I hope you get the rest you need Paul and I hope you have as much fun as you can with your visitors.
People like me are in great debt to you for what you do, I will be forever grateful to you.
Take care of yourself. No pressure but we need your wisdom. Kind regards to you and yours.
Brilliant Paul with the castle stuff. Tell them you have a ‘dugger’ who works in a private castle, just a wee one, but gie fancy, and the owner’s been having a wee problem getting the butcher’s apron up the pole on the roof as ‘something happened’ to the apron strings…not guilty…honest 😂
Have a quality recharge of the energisers ☺️
No problem Paul. Stay well, enjoy yourself and come back refreshed.
Enjoy your well earned rest. Choose your castles carefully remember it is February in Scotland and some of them don’t have roofs.
It could be worse – it could be “Oh look! there’s a thistle!” Have a great break.
genius!
Have a great rest,Paul.
A good collection of Ivor here – you have to be a certain age to have heard of him and to have listened to the john Peel show on the radio in the 70s.
https://vocal.media/beat/life-in-a-scotch-sitting-room-the-genius-of-ivor-cutler
Good luck with the castle-spotting…
I quite like Dailly for some reason, and then there’s Barrhill and of course Newton Stewart, and the wee ice-cream hatch. Hope you get the weather, it makes a difference.
Tantallon and Dirleton are two of my favourites. Yester Castle – aka the ‘goblin ha’ is a nice walk too. You need to know where you are going, especially to find the little side passage into the underground hall.
Still not managed to visit Dunnottar, but that must be on the bucket list.
Have a nice break!
You recharge & stay safe my Indy brother. You & hubby 🏴🦄🏴
Hope you have a really guid recharge…and a great time with your American friends.
A’the very best 👌
Hello. Have a nice rest and will see the blog when you are ready All the best Gordon Rowley.
Some advice from the opinion guru, Prof Curtice.
John Curtice on what Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP must do to win independence
https://archive.fo/FI8ML
Aye, this is why there’s that wee group of, erm, ‘independence supporters’ who do nothing but go on incessantly about the SNP ‘not delivering indy’ by XYZ route.
As I’ve said many times, if Scots want indy and it’s their settled will, there’s no stopping it. Which is why, if you don’t want that, starting arguments over the tactics for a vote is an excellent distraction; stops people talking about the reasons / merits of indy.
Prof Curtice’s take on what the recent polling about NS actually reflects.
John Curtice: What the polls really mean for Nicola Sturgeon
https://archive.fo/KwaEw
Well, exactly. A 6:4 split in NS’s favour is pretty much what you’d expect – actually, a bit better for her than you’d expect – from the SNP’s electoral standing, which doesn’t seem to have changed much.
For well over a decade, the media have been recycling their “Sturgeon/Salmond starting to look weak for the first time ever” content every six months or so and the long-suffering public just has to slog through it until they move onto something else.
It was a 45 to 42 split. The reminder are sufficiently happy with things not want her gone. Normally, you can’t add the don’t knows / not bothered to either side, but as she’s FM, you can.
Sorry, I re-read your post and you are basically saying what I said 4/10 opposed with more supportive and the rest happy enough ‘Dinnae ken / dinnae mind’.
[…] Source […]
Considering the total disasters that have befallen us all from Brexit to Covid, the continuous Tory shenanigans in England, the constant high pitched whining of the opposition, the media blaming of Nicola Sturgeon for having the responsibility of everything from the safety of garden gnomes to emergency surgery, and eating just about everybody’s hamster, the nature of humans in general to seek out and point blame wherever they can for their own individual situation, Nicola Sturgeon is coming out well on top of the pile of DRoss Sunak Johnson May Truss Jack Gove Sarwar Starmer beneath her
You could do a Britain wide poll tomorrow asking *who do you trust more* out of all these people? and I reckon even the English and Welsh would be signing up Scotland’s FM as well as us
Folk think they’ve got problems, but if you packed all your problems up in a big bag and threw them outside in the street to swap for somebody else’s, ten minutes later you’d be running out to get your own bag back
In England and Wales right at this moment more and more folk are getting sicker by the day, and why? because they can’t afford to pay for their medicinal prescriptions anymore
Still harbour the notion that Nicola Sturgeon might not be the right FM?
Did she ever rob one penny piece from the Tory financial bounty that was Covid?
Was she ever overheard saying “let the bodies pile high”?
Did she not do everything in her power to keep people alive despite UK opposition?
Scotland is now paying the highest electricity prices in the entire world even though Nicola Sturgeon made sure Scotland can power ourselves twice over with renewable energy, it’s England that’s taking it to power themselves because THEY reject renewable energy for nuclear that THEY haven’t built
Let’s take our power back from England and sell it to them for the same price that every other normal independent country does, by becoming not a bloody colony to be exploited
England will never change, it can’t, the money grabbers have total control of it
Sorry to be pendantic, but i believe in our side being accurate in facts and figures; actually its not twice over…yet
More like 1.4 to 1.5 times our needs for electricity.
Once the planned extra offshore windfarms and pumped storage schemes are completed it will be 2 times our consumpton level.
But your sentiment on subsiding england with energy cheaper than our rates is correct.
And they use far more harmful electricy produced from gas than Scotland. Where on a bad day we will see an average of 25% to Englands 60%.
As I thought, the recent Yougov and non-BPC (as far as I can see) Ashcroft both break the gold rule. That is independence support ‘tomorrow’ being always at minimum – but normally a good few points higher than – combined support for SNP/Green/Alba.
Yougov seems to be a fraction off. Ashcroft is 3 points too low. Sore thumb time.
Unless all polls start breaking that rule, then I would not include these two in running averages. They smell bad. Ashcroft’s stinks.
I note that Ashcroft has not released poll tables. The link on his site appears dead.
I note it would be nonsensical for e.g. support for independence to fall, but support for the SNP + Greens (and also Lab + Lib) to remain constant, if, we are to believe, Scots are giving up on the march to indy after a century due to a prisoner called Bryson. If people were really against GRR support for all parties except the Tories would fall, with the latter, and probably Alba, gaining.
Nope, we are watching an utterly desperate show and it seems probably some poll engineering. It’s not hard to intentionally get a poll at the lower or higher end of variance with an online panel as it’s not random sampling; it’s targeted.
I managed to download the tables by switching to chrome from my normal browser. Right-click the file and select “Copy link address” paste this into a new tab and the excel file will be downloaded.
I’ve checked just a moment ago and that is still working using this method, Here’s the direct link if you want to try straight from here.
http://lordashcroftpolls.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Scotland-tables-Lord-Ashcroft-Polls-Feb-2023.xls
Thanks, your solution worked. I’m using chrome, but simply clicking the link didn’t work
Glad you got them, I just found that clicking on the link above didn’t work but it still works by opening it directly in a new tab using “paste and go” in the address bar.
Ok, Ashcroft got this for Westminster VI using his own odd method:
42.5% SNP
5.4% Green
1.5% Alba
= 49.4% Yes
23.5% Lab
18.2% Lab
5.5% Lib
Looking really nice for Yes parties and a plebisite election. Pro-GRR parties way up on 2019, including the SNP. Anti-GRR parties down notably.
Women more supportive of the GRR bill as usual.
So the indy VI is defo breaking the golden rule, and by an even bigger margin than I thought. A silly margin that makes YouGov blush.
The problem is the poll askes everything in ways that make it almost impossible to compare with anything, so basically, worse than useless. It’s what you’d do if you wanted to get a poll to say what you wanted while covering your tracks. Ask a lot of leading questions while asking little to no standard ones to allow people to place it in the pack.
This poll smells bad to me. Like warm somerset cider in a bath pub garden and Tory money. However, we need a few from the main bunch who regularly poll to judge, as is always the case.
Smelt bad to me too. Not a single question with a simple Yes/No answer but 10 possible answers for every single question, Each answer you would pick being dependent on how strongly you felt about the topic you were being asked about.
As bad if not worse, it looked to me like Ashcroft Polls themselves then decided which answers they would report on, i.e only if you voted 50 or more or 60 or more. It says that but only in one place but I’m not going through it again, once was enough.
So the whole poll? Total garbage in my very humble opinion as I’m not a polling guru but I’m not an idiot either and can see where there is an attempt to mislead.
It’s like Scotland in Union had a wet polling dream even they were ashamed of in the morning.
When you consider that the 2014 referendum had an 84.6% turnout how can you decide where to draw the line among 10 different answers and then decide what to report as the “result” as if it’s somehow definitive?
It’s utter crap I’m afraid, a straightforward Yes/No was all that is required, and yet we have this convoluted piece of junk. I’m certain that you can ignore these results in your polling collection as nothing will be lost by way of accuracy.
Alba looking increasingly divided. I expect to see a lot of people giving up their membership.
https://archive.is/qgX1N
Prolific Alba blogger slates party for its ‘destroy Nicola Sturgeon’ approach
Credit to Kelly for speaking out more and more against the tactics of the party and its supporters.
Like the British media filled with stores of fake trans people hiding under beds, Alba and the flies hanging around it have been way overplaying their hand.
“Credit to Kelly for speaking out more and more against the tactics of the party and its supporters.”
It lost its way months ago when it failed to re-elect him, a moderate, and with many in the YES Movement who respect him and considered / consider him as a huge asset with his analysis of polls.
Possibly the only thing that keeps Alba going is the extreme and myopic element of the SNP that hates Alba as much as some of Alba hate the SNP.
“Peace” is what I say. That and “YES” to Indy 🙂
The only thing wrong with James Kelly’s description of Alba and its members behaviour is that he sees it as something new, Alba was formed by a malcontent set on a path of creation of discontent
From day one Alex Salmond designed Alba as a group to be opposed to Nicola Sturgeon as FM and leader of the SNP, otherwise it wouldn’t have been given into the hands of Stuart Campbell to be trailed in his columns of Wings over Scotland’s bilious misogynistic tirades
All this garbage about wanting to be a complimentary group was and is nonsense, Alba have no organic place within Scottish politics lead by a man who is the most toxic politician in the entirety of the British isles
Alex Salmond with the best will in the world cannot ever win an election, he knows it, he’s not an idiot, the Scottish public judged him and found him to be unacceptable, no courts or legal decisions made by lawyers will change that in the next thousand years, yet Alex Salmond refuses to listen to the Scottish public, something a man with his intellect would not have done during his tenure as FM, so why is he not listening now? he knows he can’t win, but he can damage, and that’s his mission, damage!
If Alba wish to continue as an actual political party in support of independence they must know what they need to do, replace Alex Salmond oppose English rule and the opposition to independence before they’re totally burned to the ground on even less % numbers than they are now
Alba was and still is Salmond’s train set.
This overbloated old man craves attention, now that his political career is so far behind him.
It is no accident that his cheer leaders in the main are grizzled old has-beens like Sillars McAskill and a slew of old hacks, like McWhirter, Grouse Beater and Mc Kenna.
They are withering away to dust, dying in an airless vacuum of pointlessness.
They are for Independence, sort of, but nothing else.
It must be a comfort to Auld Eck that he can replicate tho Good Old Days by organising meetings and conferences in hotels, with free sponsored grub rooms and drink, and be the centre of attention among his devoted aged acolytes.
That he was in the Blahs demanding ‘safe spaces’ for women goes beyond irony.
He disgraced the Independence movement and tried his best to destroy the SNP.
Time for Alba to disband and let the grown ups do the politics of independence.
The only deposit they are not going to lose is on their empty whisky bottles.
Isn’t it not strange that all the talk is very Labour in style and approach, get rid of the winning thing and replace it with us and all will be wonderful, we promise it will
And when you look at the list of names supporting them they’re all live in hope old style ex Labour
I believe Alba is as much for independence as Labour is for ditching the House of Lords, over 100 years they’ve been making that promise, do we believe them? Of course we don’t
👍
My thoughts too but you put it into words better than me
Nicola to resign.
What on earth.
A libdem spouting nonsense on TV
Jim, where dae I begin? prob best at the end of your opinion post. Alex joined the already registered Alba, as an ordinary member. He was nominated as Interim convener to front the party’s relaunch prior to holyrood election. At Alba’s first conference Alex stood alongside a few others for election and won a majority. I as a founder member nominated and voted for the other candidate NOT because I didnt like or trust him but purely to deny ignorant amateur individual needless poison to throw at us.
Your own personal dislike of the man aside YOU personally in my humble opinion need a guid hard look at yerself and reason how abusing fellow indy party members and voters can possibly help the Indy cause.
As his legal representative said about him, paraphrasing “we all wish Alex Salmond was a better man”
Y’see if he was a better man then maybe I wouldn’t be so excoriating of a man that disgraced my country let alone my party by his behaviour after we trusted and placed our faith in him
Scotland judged Alex Salmond and found him by public opinion guilty of disgracing all of us, there is no not guilty verdict can erase that no matter how many times you shout it
I am a SNP member and have been long before Alex Salmond, but hey, I’m only one nobody voice, if he and your party are so lovely and truthful you’ll surely sweep all before you without worrying about little old me
But I don’t think you will
Your reinvention of it wiznae him that started the party it wiz us just won’t wash with anybody, and it clearly hasn’t because his political numbers are stone dead
As for abusing Indy supporters, I wouldn’t dream of it if I believed for one nano second Alba was formed for that purpose, but I don’t, and neither do most voters in Scotland or those aforementioned numbers would be higher, but they’re not because they don’t believe it either
Every day from day one of its inception I’ve watched so called Alba members post vile abuse on the FMs twitter in reply to anything she has to say, even words of commiseration for long standing SNP members who have sadly passed don’t escape the vile abuse the FM has tolerated at the keyboards of your supposed Alba independence supporters
The country knows it and they see it for what it is
An essay on how Scotland can finance itself from 20 yrs ago, contains some interesting info and facts particularly relating to Australia and how the uk financed itself at the start of world war 1 in 1914.
https://sacredconnections.co.uk/index.php/scotlands-money/
Interesting to see the various polls which have suggested ( depending on their provenance ) a YES lead /parity / No lead / Ashcroft .
It is sobering to think that the might of the Unionist media for years has been anti-SNP , anti-independence , anti-Nicola Sturgeon , and yet they are sh*tting themselves over the prospect of the YES campaign winning any Independence referendum .
They have thrown EVERYTHING at Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP – and yet they are still dominant in Scotland and favourites to win Independence when the vote happens .
Compare this situation with what has been happening in Londinium .
No Tory in recent times has had the unconditional support of the vast bulk of the UK media that Boris Johnson has enjoyed .
He lied about almost everything but the media still supported him;
he allowed more parties during Covid than he has offspring but the media still supported him ;
he broke International Treaties before the ink was dry on his signature but the media still supported him ;
he put enemies of the state in the House of Lords but the media still supported him ;
he wasted more money on useless PPE than Rushi Sunak could earn in a lifetime but the media still supported him ……
and yet , despite this disgraceful unequivocal support by the Unionist media Johnson was ousted , only to be followed by another darling of the media who could do no wrong …until she was booted out !
So , imagine their growing horror that their best efforts over many years have FAILED to oust either Nicola Sturgeon or dented the popularity of the SNP .
This bodes well for Independence when the votes are counted and should give heart to all who wish for Independence . If they can’t dent independence support when there is NO campaign ( while the Unionist cause has never stopped campaigning ) then we can look forward with confidence to the vote .
Well said James.
Guardian breaking news of disinformation company for hire that boasts of election interference.
Wonder if uk gov is a client?
The video in link of their methods, including ues of human like bots with multilayered accounts is very illuminating and also very worrying!
https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2023/feb/15/team-jorge-unmasked-the-secret-disinformation-team-who-distort-reality-video
Kindae thinking the utterly desperate plan was to try and get Sturgeon to resign somehow. Like she would buckle under fake trans pressure, cos, you know, women are ‘helpless weak victims’ like that. Get ‘tired’ when the going gets tough and so forth, unlike macho men.
Throw a couple of (dubious) bad looking polls into the mix. Get Salmond to call the Irish ‘daft’, stirring the division pot. Have every media outlet hound Sturgeon personally, including the BBC. To hell with trans folks. Screw trans kids and their parents; get the BBC to ask ‘are trans [teenagers] real or fake and dangerous?’. Make sure people the length and breadth of the UK are eyeing anyone that look a bit ‘trans’ suspiciously. So what if this causes hate crimes to rise; it’s only 0.5% of the population.
Sturgeon will resign ‘like women do under pressure’ and the union is saved. To hell with the consequences for minorities already being subject to increasing abuse / prejudice.
It’s failed. SNP + Green VI completely unchanged.
So, what next. Returnable bottles?
James Kelly won’t be the only one leaving Alba over this. I know others who won’t be voting for them again because of it.
The law of unintended consequences.
Lol spoke to soon. She is stepping down it seems. TBH, it’s impressive the amount of sh*t she’s taken since 2007 when she became DFM. 16 odd years of it day in day out.
Yes she still has positive sat ratings after all this time, I guess she feels it’s time to hand over. A potentially shrewd move.
Most likely outcome is a boost for Yes as Scots rally round after the all out assault on their country. Will be the opposite to what the Britnats hope, as always. They’re not that bright.
They thought it was all ‘cos Salmond’. Then he went but the march continued, so it must be ‘cos sturgeon’. But of course it’s nothing to do with them, nor the SNP. The latter, and the Greens, are products of rising support for independence, not the cause of it.
She’s had a good run, first as DFM, then FM.
Quite a talent pool to pick from. Going to be hard to decide who to back.
If you’d made your mind up, then thanks for all your efforts and firm hand at the tiller Nicola.
Exciting times as we pick our new FM. The one that will lead Scotland to indy.
Nicola Sturgeon is resigning ?
Live press conference from Bute House at 11 am. No idea why,
Nicola resigning – not great, was the best politician we have had by a long way. Hope there is nothing untoward as it will set the cause back as it is without any further ammunition
Apparently news conference announcement she will be resigning at 11am
BBC say she is resigning.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64647907
well if she goes [and i hope she doesn’t] then that’s the end of Alba
Lol, aye. Their raison d’etre will be gone, so surely…
But don’t worry, it will be ‘[insert name of new FM] must resign!’ soon enough. That and ‘Independence is just [insert name of new FM]’s pet project!’ from the unionists.
I’m in shock
Caught me by surprise, but I’m neither shocked nor concerned.
It was becoming very, very personal towards her. She has also been at the helm for 16 years now (DFM first).
It would be a good time for a change and a new face. Better now than closer to any new indy vote. She goes out on a high, holding the moral high ground over the revolting British state. Leaves with positive sat ratings. Nothing short of miraculous.
Yes should get a boost from events. She was very popular and the feeling she’s been forced to step down under a relentless assault by the British is likely to have Scots rally round.
I’m quite excited to be honest. Changes afoot!
Still a shock
Well I think that came out of the blue. I’m not that surprised really, the stress for the past few years has been enormous. There’s not another politician in British history who has had to put up with the stalking and lies printed about her on a daily basis.
Now that she has resigned there going to struggle to concentrate their focus on someone else to hate and abuse. Hopefully, that will show them up for what they are and supporters of Independence will get behind the next leader of the SNP whoever that might be,
I just hope she plays a key role in the campaign going forward and continues to be an international ambassador for Scotland.
Us too
Nicola to resign. What on earth.
A Libdem on TV spouting nonsense
So no Nicola Sturgeon.
So now ALBA, McNeil and co will deliver Independence next week.
How easy was that?
MacNeil delivering independence? Are you joking? He is now wanting the Scottish Government to resign and call an election this September as a referendum on independence. Although if the last referendum is anything to go by he will do precious little work for it.
Anyone have a link to watch the press conference online?
All I’ve seen so far is the National livestream which should be streaming it from 11:00 am but that’s not guaranteed!
https://www.thenational.scot/news/23322705.nicola-sturgeon-holds-live-press-conference/
The Press Conference is from Bute House.
Cheers Capella
Also BBC livestream
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-scotland-64648879
I blame Paul. Every time he skives off, the roof caves in.
Philippa Whitford to take over?
Perhaps a man, for a change?
Lol.
Incidentally, I was just browsing polls while having a coffee and found that the 28k Electoral calculus UK poll of the 5 th Feb had a 1k weighted Scots sample.
This puts it as more recent than the Yougov of the 26th.
https://whatscotlandthinks.org/questions/how-would-you-be-likely-to-vote-in-a-uk-general-election-asked-since-2019-general-election/
Westminster VI:
48% SNP
25% Lab
12% Con
7% Lib
3% Green
So > 50% for Yes parties
All ties in with the GRR thingy having absolutely zero impact on Yes party VI. As you expect, particularly given 2/3 unionist parties in Scotland backed the bill.
Definitely on Sky News.
Oh no, who are the vultures going to feed on now? They’re going to STARVE!
Mmm, maybe they can eat each other.
Who will lead the SNP now ?
Just heard a bit on sky ‘OLDS’,
They were still pumping out 4 day old stuff on Chinese balloons.
It won’t be Kate Forbes as she lives in the Highlands and is a member of the Wee Free Church.
orry to see oor Nicola resign as she was an inspirational speaker but she maybe want to get on with her own life.
I’ll still be supporting the SNP and the move to Independence for Scotland as they are the main realistic party for that aim.
On independence I will vote for policies that make Scotland a modern republic.
I’d like to see her give the media pelters over their behavior toward her over the years.
Guess I was a bit off with my “this will all blow over” chat!
I suitably embarrassed myself with my first post of the day. 🙂
Hope she lays into the media big time.
Was just thinking that would be exactly the right thing to do to create backlash against the British media and a boost for Yes / the SNP to hand to who is taking the helm
It’s almost unheard of for a politician to step down when they are the most popular leader of all with a commanding lead in the polls.
But then she’s suffered relentless misogynistic, bigoted, anti-Scottish abuse from all British quarters and the public know it. They will be shocked and angry at her treatment by the British state. They elected her on the highest share of the vote ever in a Scottish national election.
Watch and see. The brits will walk away from this bloodied and bruised. They’re too stupid to understand that though.
However , watch the Unionist media SPIN put on her resignation . She will be accused of all sorts of heinous misdemeanors ranging from kicking the Bute House cat to assassinating JFK .
Yes, we can expect that to go on for months, all gossip without substance to feed those that love nothing better than a juicy conspiracy to slaver over.
Great speech under the circumstances. Media behaving like arseholes as usual so much remains the same.
Contrast the ”resignation” of Johnson who left his job having been the greatest PM ever , in his eyes , with no remorse for his mistakes , no apology for the mess he had created ( Brexit , PPE etc… ) and no apology for being a c*nt !
Indeed. Once a bought-up kneejerk anti-indy media arsehole, always an anti-indy media arsehole. There’s much in Scotland that needs improving, but arguably top of the list by a long measure stands the “journalistically challenged” media.
A resignation speech from the heart
Much as I am sad to see her go she was definitely wounded and the vultures were gathering. That said I think Unionists will achieve a hollow victory. There will be a backlash against the Unionist parties and, if the SNP can elect a unity candidate, this will galvanise the movement. I think we will see a Holyrood election this year under a new energised leader
Your last remark is interesting. Someone on Sky was just observing this is yet another example of a new leader being appointed without an election, so why not counter that in the best way possible by – errm – actually having one? A big backlash pro-SNP vote is very possible. There’s nothing the Scots like quite so much, it sometimes seems, as buyers’ regret.
I come not to praise Caesar but to bury him.
Look how that worked out for Brutus and Cassius – “See you at Philippi then, bring your own battle”.
Big boots to fill, huge, enormous.
Yes, I agree, a hollow victory. And her resignation does pave the way to a Holyrood election.
What a difference a day makes. (toyed with a week is a long time in politics but a week is an eternity these days).
Who knows the true reason for Nicola Sturgeon resigning. We are now off on a completely new course which I hope leads directly to the goal. Would it be too much to expect the disaffected factions to unite under a new leader?
The “true reason”? Isn’t it obvious? Another Jacinda Ardern moment. Being true to herself and to us.
Bye bye stalemate perhaps?
Yes, I think we can all conclude she wasn’t a careerist, but has done everything she’s done for Scotland. Including this.
Maybe – time will tell.
How long do ya need 1 year 5years a millenium?
Im almost done now with the judean peoples front/peoples front of judea/front of judean people sniping.
Westmister is the enemy, divided we will fall/ fail much to the yoons celebration.
Beats me why the British media wanted to martyr Sturgeon.
That’s what they’ve done. She’s been forced out with positive ratings and a poll lead as big as it was at the last election. (BPC registered) Yes polls hitting new highs too.
Forced out for relentless personal abuse / attacks from the BBC, with a particular focus on her being ‘weak, tired woman’.
Start clapping slowly if you support the union.
Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation was a selfless act of her own sacrifice to point out very clearly to every person in Scotland that the polarization of society and political figures invented by the English government and their anti Scotland media should be seen and examined for what it is
We do not live in a democracy, we have no equality, there can be no future for Scotland unless the people of our nation join as one to become what was stolen and is stolen from us
Rather than allow Westminster to focus on the pulling out of Nicola Sturgeon’s entrails in their public square, she did it herself to show Scotland that she is us, all of us, and this is what remaining within this union of English dictatorship is, the constant hatred fomented by an English government to hold Scotland and everything we possess regardless of the consequences to the people of Scotland
The English government and their lackeys the media will now launch themselves into the realms of fantasised endless scribblings and reams of reasons for Nicola Sturgeon’s (as they will describe them) failures, all due to identity politics
They will set hares running in every direction as to who will be next so they can vilify them their beliefs and record before they even step up to a podium
The Scottish media will invite as many of the useful idiots as they can to give their biased opinions and makey uppy *reasons* and lies as to why Nicola Sturgeon was the worlds greatest failure and independence is now a dead parrot
Just remember this, if Nicola Sturgeon had decided to remain as FM there is no one who would have had a chance of standing against her, she would have won election after election from now till the end of time if she so chose
Nicola Sturgeon sacrificed herself publicly so we could see what being a powerless part of this English dictatorship looks like for all of us
If she’s right, and I think she is, the numbers for independence will now surge, not despite her but because of her
I am still nonetheless more than sad
Indeed.
100%
Bravo Dr Jim, well said. Very sad too with the runny nose of older female emotions who shared the same birthday month, plus a few more years, and felt empowered and motivated by Nicola to become actively interested in the political world through this grand woman who inspired with her strength.
Maybe she’s planning on throwing more than things from the back benches…
I feel she’s freed herself up to do some serious damage to the cause of the colonizers before she goes anywhere
There are things she can say now that she couldn’t as FM, hell slap it into those who think they are victorious
Indeed…
I hear New Zealand is quite nice this time of year for a wee holiday. Maybe Jacinda Ardern could show her and her hubby some Hobbit country?
I’m very pleased that I called Sturgeon correctly. She’s no careerist. That’s now conclusive. No careerist would ever quit while they had positive ratings, a massive poll lead, and the broad support of their party.
Nope. I chose wisely here.
She’s the exact opposite of the likes of Sunak. Poles apart.
Media opponents will have to recycle gigabytes of “blow for Sturgeon” op eds now. Shame.
But I have no doubt they will carry on attacking whoever takes over as leader, the SNP, the SG and Scotland in its entirety except for the few Uncle Tams always willing to sell us out for a few ducats.
Totally agree with you, we have lost a great leader.
So, Scots, do you want the people of Scotland to decide their FM, or do you want the British/English media to?
England is now undoing our laws, overturning our elections, and hounding our FM’s relentlessly with lies and personal abuse until they step down.
The choice is yours.
Keep in mind that the Scottish public were opposed to her stepping down. Only 4/10 wanted it.
That’s what the Brits have achieved.
Time for every ”I want Independence but not under Sturgeon ” brigade to show they really want Independence , or are they just another ”Proud Scot but …” in the closet unionist .
Think they are the latter, all betrayers of Scottish Independence. Who next to lead to lead the ’cause’ ?
Didn’t take long for the yah boo hissing fits to start with the usual couple of Sturgeon-hating bloggers.
What will they do now for kicks? Back to Route 66?
Meantime from the Scottish Social Attitudes Surveys:
Year Independence Devolution No Parliament
2021 52% 38% 8%
2019 51% 36% 7%
2017 45% 41% 8%
2016 46% 42% 8%
2015 39% 49% 6%
2014 33% 50% 7%
Won’t be long now.
Your Poll is well out of date i’m afraid
It’s the most reliable and long running poll there is. Fully random sampling and conducted by academic experts. It’s age is irrelevant to the pattern shown.
Although you are correct in that independence support should be higher now based on the trend shown.
The bad news for Douglas Ross and his puppeteer Sunak is that 69% of Conservative voters in Scotland support Devolution compared to 25% who want Holyrood abolished.
https://bsa.natcen.ac.uk/media/39477/bsa39_constitutional-reform .pdf (remove space)
Looking good, so choice of new SNP leader is vitally important. Any idea who might push forward the campaign to victory ?
That’a a hard one. For me it has to be an MSP as the SNP are the Government, and it’s supposed to be all about Independence. Someone btl in the National mentioned Mairi Gougeon, and that could be an interesting choice as long as neutral in all the GRR stramash.
I mean uninvolved rather than neutral.
I’d probably prefer an MSP as well. However, the new FM could be an MSP and lead the Scottish Government but the new leader of the SNP could be an MP such as Stephen Flynn.
I don’t think there’s anything stopping the two jobs from being undertaken by two different people and it could turn out to be quite interesting having “powerful” figures in both camps.
True. Flynn could be a good unifying Leader.
It is totally unacceptable for the leader of the Snp not to be FM. The electorate would be totally confused, coordinating policy would be a nightmare and I don’t trust Stephen Flynn one iota. He is nothing but a mouthpiece for the oil industry and may have been involved in backstabbing against NS. I am very sorry and sad to see Nicola resign but not entirely surprised and don’t blame her particularly because of amount of misogyny crap she has had to endure. Kate Forbes is still on maternity leave so don’t see how she could be FM or leader just now. Nicola has a lot of support among women which is likely to fall if male FM elected and probably support for Indy fall too at least in short term. Angus Robertson may be best available although he has the charisma of a plank of wood. As I have said before too many in Scotland particularly among Indy movement there is far too much bigotry and mysogny and it is time quite a few folk involved grow up. Has Scotland now blown the hope of Independence I really don’t know
I agree with you, including Forbes has just had a baby, would she really want a poisoned chalice?
I thought weeks ago Sturgeon should have resigned for her own sake, but there is no similar replacement.
On the other hand it’s a good time to get a replacement that isn’t maybe so high profile, and the grassroots can get back to it. Just a thought, not an opinion.
Of course, if an agreement can’t be reached by Holyrood as to who should take Ms Sturgeon’s place there would have to be a new SG election.
Just saying……
You know the rules over a Scot election under Holywood rules
Just mixing it.
I think some of you know my story, I came to Scotland to undertake a six months project. That was nearly 12 years ago! Within a few weeks of arriving I sensed that things were very different here. Having moved 28 times I sensed that this was a place to call home and a place to settle. I also sensed the desire for independence. I have always been interested in politics and given that WM had become an open sewer I sensed the opportunity to be part of a movement that could build a better country. I wanted to play a part in the creation of a newly independent republican country so joined the SNP. In addition to that I felt privileged to be able to have the honour to declare myself as being Scottish ( I love square sausage, bagpipes, porridge and single malt – the latter in very small measures). I supported IR1 and was devastated when the result was announced. Victory snatched away by the dirty tricks brigade – including MSM shite.
Ok, so onto the new regime after AS resigned. Nicola is, was and has been outstanding in her leadership. Her dignity under the constant attacks from the DTB & MSM should be an example to all. I have been mortified by her decision to retire and felt that I would not see the sun set on an independent Scotland – I’m 71!
However I have been heartened by some of the comments from WGdugers and feel hopeful for the future. So thank you……
I hope that, in a future republic, you can find room to honour probably the most successful FM we have been privileged to have serve this wonderful country and its people.
Good post Alan, I hope she stays in politics long enough to see the people of Scotland vote to be an Independent country.
I’m sure we could find a useful ambassadorial role for her in our new country.
That’s a grand story Alan ☺️
Thanks to you both
Nae bother
Glenn Campbell, James Cook, John McKay, Ian Macwhirter (the ‘Coconut Cabinet’ mannie) Henry McLeish, Baroness Rape Clause, The Tailor’s dummy (who at least refused to indulge in an ad hominem attack on NS), and an absolutely mean spirited tweet from Salmond, gushed forth on BBC to declare that NS has been a failure, and that independence was dead.
The BBC were lovin’ it.
Thing is, Campbell and Jenkins and the Hacks from Hell have lost their anchor to England, now that the most important figure in UK politics will no longer be there to savage for England’s cause.
They had little if any importance in the BBC Backwater of Plantation Quay before; now, Scotland and these Poundshop hacks can be ignored entirely.
Staff will be shed in Scotland as part of the BBC savings and efficiencies, as London decides that with The ‘most dangerous woman’ NS stepping down, they can reduce the Attack Team in Scotchland.
She is, was, and always will be a formidable opponent; she leaves with her dignity and reputation intact, unlike the Brit politicians who left office during her tenure.
Campbell was screaming about police enquiries into SNP funds as she departed the room.
Grubby wee man who has just watched his meal ticket leave the stage.
I have a sense that the polls will reflect badly on the Brit Jocks now.
No sign of Murray, Carmichael, Jack, or Dross today?
Of course not.
They’re on their holidays.
This will come back and bite the colonists in the bum.
Murray has a cat furball piece.
Clean up on aisle 13!
Glenn Campbell actually screamed after the FM as she made to climb the stairs at the close of her speech about police enquiries into SNP funds.
The man is a scuzzball of the first order.
He has no sense of decorum or dignity.
He’d rather that the Brit Scotia Nostra rule the colony.
She put him down like he was a runny poo being flushed down the cludgie. We’re going to need more nose pegs.
Indeed. The sludge at the very bottom of the foetid media pool. Without any of them ever standing for election. (Ponsonby being the one honourable exception.) All of which reminds me of Stanley Baldwin’s old remark, “the perogative of the harlot”.
Anyone got a link/video of the speech, I could only listen in on radio shortbread, and yes, the nauseating nastiness from the vile mob was clearly evident. It was cut off when Colin Mackay was due his turn at a question?
It sure will Jack. And there are plenty of arses to bite 🦷
Well … not a lot to say really.
In the wake of Nicola’s announcement, Unionist media already trying to “big up” Labour’s chances in the next election in Scotland (whichever one). Already Sarwar pops up on the BBC repeating the hoary old lie that “England depends on us” and repeating the mantra of “better together” if not actually using those words. But any new leader the SNP choose will still stand head and shoulders above him or indeed any eventual replacement for him, and the whole voting Scottish public knows that, even if virtually none of the English commentariat apparently do.
I’m increasingly reinforced in the feeling that we’ll only get independence once the self-entitled Labour Party holdouts and their pals throughout the media get the message that the people of Scotland keep sending them at every election, and finally realise that they are on the road to nowhere.
They are not on the way back, as they desperately hope. They are on the way out. And the faster the better for us all.
Already we hear talk coming from Westminster about the future of devolution
They think they see a chance, I see a mistake they’re about to make if they believe they can reverse it
The BBC’s WM man referred to ‘the devolved nations’ again.
The phrase is of course a nonsense. Scotland is a ‘nation’; not devolved from anywhere. We are a proud sovereign nation, who are given permission by no oppressor to be a country in our own right.
If it takes revolution to get out from under England’s oppression, so be it.
Passive revolution of course.
Well, they can see – even if they won’t admit it publicly – that devo is a dead man walking, stabbed in the back by the dagger that Labour carefully built into the package right from the start and now wielded by a Tory nonentity. So the Buggins Cartel are forced to resort to ever more inventive ways of thwarting democracy and hiding the unpleasant truth.
If opinion in Scotland outwith a campaign is so evenly divided, why would any UKGov not be pressing ahead to have the necessary showdown while it still had a sporting chance of winning? But so many lies, so many broken promises, so many false assurances to be reminded of…
I don’t believe it will happen so drastically, alas, but wouldn’t it be richly funny if in the next UKGE a mad FPTP electoral swing from Tory to Labour in England were to leave a further-enhanced SNP presence in WM as the official opposition?
Given all unionist Holyrood leaders have negative ratings are are really unpopular, unlike Sturgeon, presumably they’ll do the right thing and step down?
The public are watching and waiting to see if they have the same moral fibre as the FM.
None of the above, standing on the shoulders of giants can lace Nicola’s boots.
A hero of Scotland and long to be remembered as such.
Hope she stays in politics and gets to enjoy whatever she’s planning for herself.
A giant of a personality that comes over when she’s pictured with children, a real Scot.
The special conference on indy is in month’s time right?
Seems this all has been carefully planned, from the UKSC right through to this.
Betcha there’s a new shiny leader in place by then and polls are looking even better.
Well, some clown has proposed postponing it. I think it’s morons like that challenging Sturgeon’s authority are another reason she decided enough was enough. This bawbag:
https://www.thenational.scot/news/23323556.calls-snp-conference-postponed-sturgeons-resignation/
The SNP really need to sweep out the deadwood that has drifted into and logjammed the 2nd clause in the SNP’s constitution, the first being its actualname.
By the SNP constitution, it takes 133 days to elect a new leader (providing there is more than one nomination) which is the end of June. It can be changed and the time scale does look a bit excessive so might be trimmed. The Scottish Parliament goes into summer recess from 1st July and the SNP is going to want the leader elected and in place as FM by then. So could well be shortened to May or the start of June.
Would imagine the special conference will be late September /October or March next year.
At least Sunak and May were complimentary of Nicola whereas Alistair Jack was downright rude, sticking it to her not recognising the fact that she is head and shoulders above him as a politician – sour grapes from a despicable person.
Presumably because English politicians still have hope of a future in the trade after Scottish independence, whereas “Union” Jack doesn’t. He fears the icy blast of change. (And he is right. But it will happen anyway, Nicola or no.)
More than likely that he will be out of a job in politics before Nicola Sturgeon is.
“Promoted” from rightful obscurity to even greater obscurity in the Great House of the (special) People, you mean? But then, that’s not so much politics as an unelected party-donors-and-old-bag-carriers’ club parasitising on the misplaced generosity of the state, I suppose. {grin}
Upon Scotland re-establishing it’s independent nationhood.
How long do you think the English people will tolerate RCR and ARJ and all the rest of the foreign nationals (Scottish Piers(sic)) in their government.
I am fairly sure they see this for what it is Russian roulette, and for them, the hammer just dropped on the last empty chamber.
Looks like Nicola just kicked over the life peerage money through.
O/T ( but not really ! )
The Labour Party has banned Jeremy Corbyn from standing as a candidate in the next GE .
Well , considering his personal popularity in Islington ( North ) where he gained 64% of the votes in 2019 this looks like a seat that Starmer will lose .
On LBC when the news of Nicola Sturgeon’s impending resignation was aired on the David Lammy (MP ) show ( Keir Starmer apologist ) , he immediately displayed the dire lack of knowledge of Scottish politics currently endemic in Westminster Labour .
He eagerly stated that Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation will embolden the Scottish ( sic ) Labour leader , Sarwar , who has energised and increased their vote share in Scotland- according to the hard of hearing in Westminster .
Really ?
In the Holyrood Election 2021 – Sarwar’s ‘bounce ‘ as a new party leader lost his party 2 seats , thus consolidating them as the third party with 21% of the vote.
In the most recent local elections his party DID overtake the Tories and confirmed themselves as the First Losers by acquiring an extra 20 council seats – however , the SNP gained another 22 !
If anyone in Westminster seriously believes that Sarwar and Scottish (sic) Labour are going to make a Lazarus-like comeback then they will believe that Keir Starmer will
” make Brexit work ! ” or that Boris Johnson ” got all the big calls right !”
I see we are of the same mind here, James. Mangy jackals vainly hoping for a free lunch. A new election can’t come soon enough to disabuse them of their utterly undeserved fond imaginings.
😂
https://twitter.com/i/status/1625831301570781189
A classic 😂😂😂
Pure dead brilliant😂
@deelsdug Here’s a link to the full speech from the ScotGov twitter account, you don’t need to use twitter to watch it.
So UKGE coming soon, Nicola now free to contest a constituency seat.
My guess would be that’s a dead cert not going to happen, she’s not done here yet
SNP looking sweet for that in the latest poll I mentioned earlier. MRP by electoral calculus. 5th February.
https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/blogs/ec_mrppoll_20230209.html
Westminster VI:
48% SNP
25% Lab
12% Con
7% Lib
3% Green
Predicted the SNP becoming the official UK opposition, and the end of the UK as it becomes an effective one party state under a Labour dictatorship; a party less popular than the Tories in Scotland.
I take such predictions – as you possibly also do – with a pinch (or three) of salt, but it would be uproariously funny if the unfit-for-purpose UK electoral system ended up doing just that.
(And suddenly there would be urgent moves to “reform the system”.)
Yes, the seat numbers definitely! FPTP is notoriously hard to get right. The Scottish VI numbers are solid enough though. 1k+ MRP sample.
I think there still is an idea in unionists minds that Scots like Labour and will come home. That’s just rubbish. Half of Scots are dead to the union and there’s really no turning back the clock. It’s been a century in the making. Tectonic plate movements that saw two devo referendums and indyref1 leading to calls for iref2 as the Rubicon is being crossed. A fundamental long term decline in British identity in Scotland associated with a declining empire, dying post-war consensus, and rise of English right-wing nationalism. All the nations of the UK increasingly going their own ways.
All the stuff we’ve talked about before. Today’s events are but a paragraph in a chapter in a big fat tome describing it all.
No unionist should be cheering today. If they are, they really don’t understand Scotland and what’s inevitably coming.
That poll seems to indicate that Labour are more than twice as popular as the Tories in Scotland
I was going by recent election results, which are the ultimate test of popularity. Labour seem to have failed to notice they came behind the Tories in both the last 2 UK elections, and last Holyrood election in Scotland.
But aye, a Labour UK government is opposed by 75% of Scots according to this poll, which is in line with these outcomes. Any recent polling gains have not come from Yes parties, but from English Tory woes..
The only way Scots will be chuffed with Starmer in No. 10 is if nearly half of them vote Labour. An unlikely outcome…
An interesting insight from the only National journalist in attendance at Bute House today. An uncomfortable experience.
What it was like as only pro-independence journalist at Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation
https://archive.fo/rm5O3
Glenn Campbell, the BBCs best and finest political journalist, a wordsmith of *capacity*, yet in his entire life never learned how not to end a sentence with a preposition as he stares at the camera with the dumb expression of a cabbage patch doll look on his face
Aye they’re good at their jobs these BBC primary school scribblers, so good Nicola Sturgeon could predict their every uneducated stupid word by answering their questions before they asked them
The new leader won’t be giving £9 million to this lot to prop up their Blahs next year, surely?
I have to say, I thought Craig (it wasn’t the Russians) Murray’s blog was especially vile today
Who cares what that irrelevant self-martyr in the cause of his own narcissism says…?
If you want donations from English wallets, you need to tailor your articles to suit.
People need to ask themselves why Murray set out to become a servant of the British empire, promoting imperial interests across the globe, if he wasn’t British in identity?
His interest is still very much Britain, hence his blog being a British one with a primarily British audience. It’s never been a Scottish blog.
Well, he is a vile little squint of a man isn’t he, a judge decided that in open court
The very judge that oversaw Salmond’s fair trial and acquittal, ironically.
Most commentary from the usual visceral hate Nicola Sturgeon gangs make unpleasant reading, failing at everything being the common theme, the most common of course is the resurrected missing £600,000 in funds( how long has this been running) but apparently the police have at last received permission to interview people. Eh!
Correct me if I’m wrong but is it not the procurator fiscal duty to ensure investigations are carried out promptly and thoroughly ? Why would they stand in the way of an investigation?
I’m flummoxed by this.
Daily Record Labour led propaganda guns being fired all at once
Sarwar’s been jumping up and down all day with phones in both hands, one from Starmer and the other to the media as he’s promoted to telephone operator for his bosses in Westminster
Every time they disrespect Nicola Sturgeon a wee bell rings and a new member signs up
They think it’s all over? it isn’t by a long chalk, we’ve still extra time and a replay to get to
I’m so saddened by this news. However with the really vile abuse that Nicola has received the last few years, and especially these past few weeks , I don’t blame her for stepping down.
Still awfully sad though 😥
What the SNP needs now the giant cuckoo is going, is leadership that genuinely intends to move forward on Independence.
I would suggest Joanna Cherry as SNP leader, and Michelle Thomson as First Minister,
The leadership of the SNP will be decided by its members which is as it should be.
The till lady at my local coop told me she was part of the conspiracy against Salmond. Recruited directly by Sturgeon apparently.
Are you not unpopular enough?
Who gives a flying fig what you think? You are a self-regarding nobody who has achieved absolutely diddly squit, so who are you to cast aspersions? You aren’t fit to even shine the shoes of a First Minister who has achieved way more for the people of Scotland thus far than you ever will.
Your pretty tight with the Nicola ate my hamster lot, maybe you could tell us why the police have only now, apparently, received permission to investigate the alleged missing £600,000. Who prevented this investigation from being prosecuted and why is it apparently ok to do so now?
Thanks for the tip, Craig. I now know who I shall NOT be voting for! Keep ’em coming!
That’s what I thought too !
British Media Force Secret Unionist Cuckoo SNP Leader to Step Down
Read the truth on a British blog near you. Or maybe quite far, like Somerset. 🙂
That would be Jacob Rees-Mogg ?
The view from Ireland on Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation.
https://archive.ph/wip/WeNFg
Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald described Ms Sturgeon as an “outstanding leader and an outstanding advocate for the independence of her country”.
Mary Lou McDonald must be in on the grand conspiracy too. Another secret unionist cuckoo!
No wait. Maybe she’s just ‘daft’ Irish as Salmond said the other day?
Europeans treated the FM with more respect than the Brit nats -we are all family and the albanists.
I got told by the Alba trotskies or is it trots if the FM left Independence would be here.
Listening to Salmond on Brit radio he seemed to be more interested in promoting himself and ALBA.
Independence a generation away and I don’t think he cares.
Next Election SNP 1 & 2 or SNP 1 and Green 2 or in U.K. GE, SNP X
ALBA can bugger off.
I should love to stay here and argue, but I have to get back to editing Stewart McDonalds emails
Sad , sad man ! When did you take the King’s Shilling ?
It seems to be Russian assistance he’s getting these days, in a classic GRU proxy hacker rope-a-dope op. A third-rate Assange. (They must be getting desperate.) But anyway, he’s evidently not too choosy. Just as long as it massages his fragile ego and lets him tease his three followers.
I see elsewhere you spout the cuckoo theory once again. Self reflection is a skill you will have to learn. Assuming of course you aren’t a troll using the Murray mint brand?
Who cares what you do 😂
Handling stolen goods eh?
Nice. You are the reason people steal. They’d not do it if nobody wanted to get their hands on what’s been stolen for their own benefit.
As a Scot I feel I should know who Craig Murray is, but did he play against Wales?
Back in 2012 or 13 there was quite a lot of excitement in the Indy movement, when a former ambassador no less, came out for YES. He also made statements which contradicted a lot of the negatives from Project Fear. The YES movement was very happy with that.
After the ref he invited an American conspiracy theorist to talk at a rally in George Square, possibly the Hope Over Fear. She supported her allegation the Ref was rigged with pictures of counts – in the USA. All to promote her new wacky book. To this day some people still think votes on the day were sent to London, changed and back again between polling stations closing at 10pm and the count starting, errr, half an hour later. Supersonic Britain!
Later he put himself forward as a candidate to be an SNP MP but was rejected by the SNP. Feelings were mixed, personally I thought he was too much of a maverick for the SNP.
Then of course the Salmond thing. And for some reason he thinks the whole of the establishment in Scotland ordered by Sturgeon, has been out to get him and imprison him.
He was, however, one of the first of the “Sturgeon critics” to get behind the Indy Ref announced by Sturgeon back in 2021, but has since become more and more bitter, and lost sight of the reason he was popular in the first place – his support for Independence.
Now he thinks he’s Assange.
I have no connection at all to (I forget who it was – Naomi Wolf?). I had no involvement in her coming and don#t recall being there, or if I was I was in the Counting House.
As you know, I am one of the tens of thousands of pre-2014 Independence supporters who came to believe Sturgeon had abandoned the Indy cause in favour of a fat living.
You don’t agree. That is your right.
But you know what I think and why, so your entirely tendentious exposition of my actions and motives is uncalled for. You know full well I have never adandoned Independence.
Sorry about the Wolf thing, I should have checked. But as for this:
“You know full well I have never adandoned Independence.”
was there something you didn’t understand about this I wrote and you actually replied to:
“He was, however, one of the first of the “Sturgeon critics” to get behind the Indy Ref announced by Sturgeon back in 2021“.
You need to read what’s there, not what’s in your imagination.
And no, it’s not daming with faint praise. I totally respected that at the time, and still do.
One for you Craig.
https://archive.is/Qdc0h
Glasgow Arnold Clark customers at risk after major cyber attack
Arnold Clark customers are being warned after the company was targeted by hackers.
Sad to hear Nicola has called it a day as FM.She leaves Scotland a better place to live as her legacy.
Onwards and upwards with the bright young Scots about to overwhelm the dead hands of what’s left the old Yoon wasters.
Listening ( briefly ) to the Unionist BBC/STV take on Nicola Sturgeon’s tenure as FM I am sure that I have strayed into a parallel universe .
I do not recognise the country they describe .
Or on hearing the news that the FM , whom they could not get the better of despite their best (LoL ) efforts has is resigning , have large quantities of drink been taken – or other substances , perhaps ?
This clearly is Not The News Where We Are !
Couple of wee pictures of the celebrations in George Sq over Nicola’s resignation. Is this the best the bbc Scotland budget would allow.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1081934212006008/permalink/2085434998322586/
Can’t access that page unless you’re a member, but from what I found on twitter it doesn’t look like much of a celebration.
Wait, is that Craig Murray on the left?
Pathetic. What a joyless bunch of tone deaf union jack waving troglodytes. I couldn’t make out what they were singing. Was it the slave chorus from Verdi’s Nabucco? Hard to tell.
W over S contributors celebrating their ‘victory’ 😂 bunch of scum the lot of them.
She was clearly, and without doubt, a really good FM. Nobody can deny that watching such footage.
From btl on Wings earlier:
https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-ship-that-died-of-shame/#comment-2736631
“Sturgeon P45 party in Glasgow George Square tonight, 7pm. Come and join the Conga! Drinks after in the Counting House.“
Here’s those who made it along.
lol
In fairness that could be a ringer.
It’s easy to judge how influential Nicola Sturgeon is by the volume level of bile pouring forth from her enemies at what they think is her demise, every one a servant of Tory England
Do they think she can’t answer back now? they’re way wrong if they believe that, she’s free to do it even more now
I’m looking forward to the book to come
Kettle in the Guardian for one. His piece is entitled:
“Nicola Sturgeon is going. Does that mean the United Kingdom will survive?”
Not bothering to read it.
Then others, also in the Graun.:
“SNP in turmoil”
Aye, right. Us Members are clucking about like headless chickens not knowing what to do now that the Leaderene is no more, aren’t we?
This from Jim Murphy – yes THAT one – if you can actually remember him:
“There is a real opportunity for the Scottish Labour party here, but they have to be adept enough to take it.”
And Bliar McDoughnut tuppence worth:
“This is very good news for Labour. It means the SNP is likely to start looking less relevant, which would change the frame of the next election from ‘What do you think about independence?’ to ‘Who do you want to run the UK government?’”
Yma o Hyd.
It’s heartening seeing all the Alba members and supporters telling us who we should select as the next SNP leader. I presume they want the SNP to emulate their election results.
I’ll still be voting SNP (if they choose Cherry I could change my mind), nothing else to say, off for some sleepy cuddles and some hair twiddling with my subordinates.
Follow the Craig (it’s not Russia’s fault) Murray blog and whatever he says – do the opposite
I think now that she has done the right thing at the right time. She has not been broken despite every attempt by the British establishment to do so. She might get some chance now to have a little more peace and privacy and I can’t think of anyone more deserving of some me time.
Her mind is as sharp as ever and I’m sure she will be pulling her weight when it comes to taking on Westminster for the final time. I wish her well and hope I might bump into her on a march someday to tell her that personally.
I’m investing in her Pippadee business along wae big Katherine and aw the Sandras
Judge a person by the company they keep .
All the plaudits coming from respectable politicians around Europe ( more to follow I’m sure ) for the achievements and integrity shown by Nicola Sturgeon as FM are in sharp contrast to the bile and vile coming from these shores by the great unwashed and unloved Unionist media ( and some ‘politicians’ – you know who you are ! ).
Rats in a sack is far too respectable a description for some of the most disgraceful and dishonest creatures to ever wield a pen in the name of journalism .
A successor emerges:
Good on Andy, another deft touch from the nice guy of tennis
Nicola’s good humour survives too.
Yes it clearly does.
Is her clicky pen being auctioned for charity?
I think once the hope of a vote this year was ruled out by the Supreme Court of England then we had to use an election for plebiscite purposes. SNP membership seems to be favouring the Holyrood rather than Westminster vote. By that time, Nicola would have been in post for 12 years and the idea of getting another 4 years would be unlikely. So she was probably going to go this year anyway. I think recent events may have hastened that, but not caused it.
The President of Ireland has also commented on Ms Sturgeon’s resignation
We had a full on hour and a half from BBC tonight…they were all out in force..even Geissler was aroused from his half term slumbers to repeat the message. She quit because of GRR, the attainment gap, the teachers’ strike because £ 5000 of a raise wasn’t enough. the NHS in crisis, and ‘education’.
They more or less accused her of running away from the big decisions.
Geissler, Cook, Campbell, Sim, Bewes, repeated and repeated this nonsense throughout the 90 minutes.
It is incredible that a country in the Free World has a North Korean propaganda machine working on behalf of another country, England, and not even the NUJ has anything to say about it.
The predominant theme was that Sturgeon quit because she couldn’t cope any more, and everything was coming to a Bad SNP head.
The country was divided, so it’s best that several million of us just bow down to our imperial masters and let England continue to pillage and loot our resources.
Dross was particularly nasty…
Bur according to Sarwar on the Red Tory PPB following, he was going to make Scotland great and subservient again by ‘CHANGE’!!!!!
The GRR was mentioned two dozen times in 90 minutes…
A young trans was stabbed to death by two teenagers in England this week…
I refuse to live in a country where a foreign power owns the media which lies to us.
If the country is divided, there is only one option, at the ballot box.
If this is denied by a foreign power, then, there is nothing left but insurrection.
I refuse to be cowed by those who would surrender my rights to live, breathe, and travel through my continent Europe, to a foreign power, England.
I’d imagine that Yes will benefit greatly not from NS standing down, but by the blatant barrage of lies and insults emanating from the hacks and Blahs today and coming weeks.
Is there any other nation in the Free World where only one voice, and that voice a foreign hostile power is allowed in public forums?
They are stealing our wealth, and Campbell, Geissler, and the rest of the obedient Uncle Tams facilitate it.
They are fucking fools! They celebrate the end of the one leader in the past 15 years who was up to the job. Johnson Truss May Cameron Clegg Miliband Brown Davidson Carlaw Leonard Murphy Dugdale Goldie Sarwar Rennie Carmichael Jack Mundell Gray McConnell McLeish, are all given a free pass, but not Nicola Sturgeon?
They are beyond disgust.
‘Scuse the French, but I have no more patience to stand this smothering onslaught on our freedoms.
Spot on Jack, a travesty but not unexpected they are after all the British Bullshit Corporation
Well said Jack, you nailed it regards the bent media, especially the BBC and their lying journalist’s usual antics. We see them.
Yes, getting fair – just fair, all-sides-of-the-argument – representation in the mainstream media is a major obstacle to progress. Heretofore only available in small doses during election campaigns and (especially!) referendums. Social media does help with the younger folk, but these days often also carries carefully-targeted distortions that even the media won’t touch, as well as a range of total bampots and the terminally disillusioned (both genuine and fake).
Behind it all lies money and vested interests. Funding is one significant area where the SNP struggles to make headway. Yet the party’s accounts are being checked – a meritless confected red herring if ever there was one – while all the so-called “Scottish” anti-indy parties are happily subsidised by England without a peep. As Ireland has successfully done for generations, maybe the Scottish diaspora should be tapped much more…?
The new leader should create a post for NS as Scottish Ambassador to Europe, with a remit to travel Europe negotiating inward investment in soon to be Free Scotland.
Car Manufacturing, green energy engineering, finance, and so on.
The US and European industries are leaving England in droves..even Astra Zeneka is moving from Oxford to Dublin.
NS selling Scotland?
Works for me.
Spot on Jack. Keep that Fire in your belly alight. We are going to need it…….
The Rt Hon Nicola Sturgeon President of the Republic of Scotland
How does that sound
Excellent Dr Jim. That would get my vote!
Not surprisingly an almost totally one-sided main webpage from that former newspaper, the Herald, where it’s trotted out any negative nastiness it can find Daily Mail rag style.
Which is good actually, I’ve noticed a lot of people kicking back against extremeness from any source.
While the witchunt gathers pace, this was a nice article by Kezia Dugdale.
That’s a gracious response from Kezia Dugdale. Good for her. She obviously understands the stress of being a well known female politician in the UK today. (caveat: I haven’t read the article yet)
So all it takes for a string of blatant propaganda stories on the BBC/Scotland/Politics web-page (some almost a month old but ever “current” thanks to the BBC Tardis) to suddenly become irrelevant and vanish, is for the FM to announce resignation…
https://archive.ph/jeWkm
My predictions are Nicola Sturgeon will be offered an international role by a major organisation. Meanwhile Alex Salmond will be offered the compères role at Edinburgh’s Western Bar.
I see that Celtic’s Ange Postecoglou has been made favourite for Nicola’s job !
This won’t appeal to the George Square unionist celebrants who will loudly proclaim ”No Surrender !” to their dream of a Greater Englandshire .
Sarwar will be hoping to sign them up as potential Labour Candidates .
A challenge from Mike Russell – to reset our politics:
The Yes movement has been set a challenge – are we ready to step up?
https://archive.fo/yvFNW
NS is not going anywhere. She will be on the campaign trail as ever, among the people preaching Self Determination.
The snorting porkers Glenn Campbell and Paul Hutcheon will still be rifling through her bins.
Even post PM, Sturgeon will still be a target for the hounds of Hades.
As Russell observes Nicola Unleashed will be a formidable Daughter of Scotland.
Despatch her on a tour of Europe and the US. promoting Scotland and independence.
Snaps of her with the Great and the Good of world politics…play her global popularity for all it’s worth.
She’s not passed away. She has been set free.
Lesley Riddoch reflects on what Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation means for the YES movement.
With Nicola Sturgeon going it’s time SNP adopted a different approach
https://archive.fo/X8EFr
Someone else who remembers the speeches of Nicola Sturgeon at Artic Circle events is the former President of Iceland from 1996 to 2016.
The media’s glaring contradiction that Nicola Sturgeon has failed Scotland via her legacy because of what THEY state is the supposed current awful state of our public services and yet simultanously they also state that now that she has resigned independence has been set back by a generation……surely both cannot be true as concurrent situations.
Channel hopping last night and landed on the new rogue channel Talk TV and Penny Smith (ex Good Morning Britain presenter) was on a panel debating Nicola’s resignation….when a fellow panellist listed Nicola’s achievements …Penny piped up that it was due to the Barnett Formula and ENGLISH people’s money that these things were able to be implemented…..where do you start with that…..apart from turning off the telly or the channel in question…Penny obviously thinks that we here in Scotland contribute NO taxes and that NONE of our resources shore up the finances of HER country….but she does not REALLY think that does she….as her wee snide anti Scottish dig was yet another old English nationalist chestnut to con the viewers of how we , here in Scotland, are subsidised by them the English…..why then did she not suggest that England should seek independence and keep all of their supposed money that she insists they give to others like us……Penny wants Scotland to stay in her UK but on HER terms…..though reality is …..there is NO UK it’s really , for Penny, all about ENGLAND……..where is Penny’s logic where she wants us (our resources) to stay with her country ENGLAND aka UK yet she states that she sees us as a non contributory country to her UK and that Scotland as a country is one that the people of her country, England, must sustain financially through their , English, supposed generosity……….aka the myth of the Barnett Formula.
Penny Smith now has a show on Talk TV so Penny must adhere to their rules, which she obviously believes in, in that ENGLAND must always be presented as the main focus, concern, seen as THE main provider for ALL of the UK and THE dominant country within her and their so called UK………and where all other countries within the UK must be presented as ‘LEECHES’ that suck dry the finance that is ‘GIVEN’ to them by ENGLAND which to THEM is synonymous with the UK ….ENGLAND aka THE only COUNTRY within the UK that has , as yet , NOT considered the possibility of gaining it’s OWN independence from the so called UK………Wales has seen an increasing support for it’s independence and too in NI there is support for leaving the UK via Irish reunification….yet England the supposed benefactor to all of the other countries within the UK has no momentum either politically or via their population to go it alone …….and they with ALL of their supposed English wealth too…..beggars belief so it does….perhaps Penny could start a campaign…..beginning with NO more subsidising other nations within the UK……win win I think especially with Brexit types ……..financial problem then solved for Penny’s England innit….
Yesterday they, the media, all gloated and tried to destroy Nicola Sturgeon’s legacy as FM and indeed independence itself….that will backfire on them……their collective glee and too their assumed conclusions of what this will result in was more an exercise in wishful thinking than reality…..
Funny how our FM resigning is automatically seen as a blow for independence..
YET when a Tory PM or branch office manager resigns it is not presented as a blow for the (non) Union.
Or indeed when HQ Labour or their branch office manager appoints yet another new leader….the (non) Union is never considered to be at risk……
NOT funny really just propaganda by the media and British nationalists.
Yesterday’s news coverage on the FM resigning increased my resolve to see independence won……I think THEY, the media, overplayed their hand and indeed collectively they failed to suppress their jubilation and bias to all of us in Scotland, whether as a voter in Scotland who is either engaged or disengaged with politics, and it was indeed blatant and also absolutely SHOCKING to witness ………their list of her supposed failures ignored the fact that we here in Scotland are more than aware of the state of English Education, NHS , Tory corruption, New New Labour turning BLUE (in policy and leadership )and indeed the HUGE Elephant in the room that is BREXIT and where it’s many many failings are now being exposed and have now come home to roost….but more importantly the things THEY say that are failing in Scotland we here in Scotland are NOT experiencing these supposed failures to the degree that they present it as…….as both personally and also in talking to others I and they have had no recent problems when using NHS services…….though nursing staff, Doctors and Care Home staff I am sure have seen a BREXT negative with their respective services losing EU staff since the UK left the EU……a convenient omission from the BritNat media and too other useful IDIOTS….not forgetting also the HQ TORIES negative impact on all devolved governments finances…..
I hope many more Scots had their eyes opened yesterday and today also to the combined performance of our media and partisan Pro UK politicians and now see whose side THEY are really ON…..clue….NOT Scotland’s that for sure……or indeed OUR choice of who WE democratically elect as OUR government……and too who WE voted to be the BEST leader in the UK via many recent polls….
Thanks Nicola you have done a brilliant job as FM…..wish you every success in the future and look forward to our new FM winning us our independence…..
Me thinks they doth all collectively protest way way TOO much….that will be their downfall not OURS…..
ACE, NMRN.
“Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who planned the attack on Pearl Harbour would reportedly write in his diary, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
The Sleeping Scots Giant was roused from its slumbers yesterday.
Now the deluge.
Our resolve will be terrible.
It would be funny of Nicola stood up at FMQs and said “Only kidding! I’m not really resigning.” All these jubilant smirks would evaporate like snow aff a dyke.
Oh I do like that idea. I would pay to see her wipe the smile off the face of these
Shite pedalling Shysters……….
🤣
The white balloons are off the front pages of the englander media.
Replaced by wishful thinking that the Indy Movement is done without Nicola.
They forget ‘The King is dead, long live the king’.
The movement for a modern nation goes on, the politicians will have a new leader in due course.
Hard act to follow oor Nicola but……
Aye, cos only Sturgeon wanted indy. Nobody else did. She was just obsessed with that pet project of hers n stuff.
The prism of English politics blinds the people of England to Scotland’s politics because of the liars they elect in that country
In England they know their politicians are liars before they elect them, they expect them to lie and it’s for the people to make the effort to decipher the difference between lie spin and some semblance of truth, so they expect the same in Scotland, ergo when Nicola Sturgeon resigned from her position and gave her reasons for doing so the English process of deciphering what they believe are automatic politician style lies from the truth of their own expectations and the inventions of the politicians they are used to
England is a country based on myth and downright lies, they insist they have a Monarchy, which as any schoolchild knows Monarchy means dictator whether benign and lovely or evil and despotic, yet that Monarchy isn’t in charge, indeed if they ever display any characteristics not instructed by the English parliament the English newspapers will immediately set about publicly pulling out their entrails and slaughtering them, as they are doing with that lovely favourite Prince Harry who’s now the devil incarnate, and all because he’s displaying the characteristics of a human being
So the entire English system is a lie, how then are Mr and Mrs average in England to know what is real and what is not? they don’t? so when the rest of the world is different to them all they understand is *it must be everybody else who’s wrong because it can’t possibly be them, are you mad*?
All the nasty and bad stuff that emanates from England about Scotland isn’t all deliberate of course, much of it is just plain and simple uneducated stupidity with a pinch of disinterest, because of course in England they still think and believe they are an empire that the rest of the world respects, their news media tells them that a lot
The people of England haven’t even notice that the most successful country in these islands is right next door, the Republic of Ireland is a far more financially comfortable place to be than England, but the folk in England have forgotten that place exists because, well, they don’t own it anymore so it’s not there, even the weather people on the telly skip over it like a cloud when they present Englands rain today and rain tomorrow forecast as they describe what they call UK weather, before they move on to *Scotland’s weather* which is another place to them that is not in the UK except when it comes to elections or if the Scots and our parliament do something different to them
England should be a great country, but it’s not, it’s a cesspit of greed liars corrupt politicians and corporate thieves feeding off the population there, aided and abetted by the most corrupt dysfunctional media in the world
One day the people of England might find out what their leaders have done to them or they may not, but one thing is sure and certain Scotland, and I believe Wales and the North of Ireland must divorce that place somehow, and I personally don’t care which method is used to do that as long as we do, and perhaps, perhaps on another day the people of England might just take notice what they have allowed to become of their country and what happened that it went so unnoticed by them, and who did it to them
Scotland Wales and the North of Ireland need to be England’s greatest friends by dumping England out of this forced abusive toxic marriage or they might never learn to notice and accept they’re wrong, and dump the Bastirts who alienated them from friendship with the rest of the world and created this unpleasant relationship with their closest neighbours into the bargain
I don’t hold out hope for England’s enlightenment, but that can’t be Scotland Wales and the North of Ireland’s concern, or we’ll be here for bloody ever getting our Arses felt by the same Bastirts over and over again, we must get rid
Stellar, Dr Jim.
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. – John Fitzgerald Kennedy
I see the independistas in another place now complaining that whoever replaces the FM won’t be good enough or independent enough!! Probably some of the underminers were in Glasgow last night with the cast of the Addams Family film sequel with script from WoS. Collectively probably have a combined IQ of 20.
If you were a Brit Nat unionist surely you would be embarrassed 🙈
It seems the independistas want us to get a move on – while they sit carping from their wee corner.
Let’s suppose that Scotland “invited” Iceland to become part of a union and then allowed 6 of them to represent Iceland’s interests at Holyrood.
Scots MPs then proceeded to ignore these representatives and imposed Scots laws on Iceland despite a promise that Icelandic law would remain forever independent.
The excuse being that we are all one country/nation and that we cannot have Iceland disrupting Scottish affairs by doing things differently.
That is where Scotland is at with respect to England.
Democracy it ain’t.
We are a militarily conquered colony of England, bringiton.
They are looting our resources and holding us under house arrest.
The only way is revolt.
If you look now Sturgeon is going, at the number of wets who want to postpone the special conference for another 4 months or so, it looks like the procrastinators and the prevaricators are now going to run unchecked and any kind of de facto referendum will be kicked into the long grass. And so it will drag on until devolution itself is dead beyond resurrection.
Well they can get to feck.
I remember when Alex Salmond left or was forced out of the party on a back me or sack me stance, or whichever version you prefer
They asked him back again
Nicola Sturgeon is still the FM