Everyone always knew that Boris Johnson was an entitled liar and a bully who has never taken responsibility for his behaviour at any point in his life. Now it’s official, the Commons Privileges Committee has published a damning and brutal report which finds that not only had Johnson lied repeatedly to Parliament but he also held Parliament in contempt, undermined democracy, and was complicit in a campaign of abuse and intimidation directed at members of the committee.
Johnson is the first British prime minister who has been found by MPs to have deliberately and repeatedly misled the House of Commons. The Committee found that his repeated offences were so egregious, offences for which Johnson continues to refuse to accept responsibility that it recommended he be suspended from the Commons for ninety days, a sanction which would have triggered the recall process meaning Johnson would also have become the first British prime minister to be recalled by his constituents and voted out of Parliament. That was an indignity too far for the immensely vain and entitled Johnson. Johnson had received prior notice of the committee’s findings but rather than face the humiliation of being censured by the House and the prospect of a recall by election which would almost certainly have seen him booted out by his constituents, Johnson flounced off in a furious and petulant huff, resigning as an MP.
The committee recognised that its proposed ninety day suspension of the former Prime Law Breaker was rendered purely theoretical by his cowardly decision to run away from the verdict of MPs, so the committee has proposed an additional sanction, to remove the former member’s pass from Johnson. This pass is normally given automatically to all former MPs, and allows them unfettered access to the Parliamentary estate where they can meet with serving MPs and government ministers. It is this pass which makes former MPs so valuable to lobbying companies, giving them a potentially lucrative source of income after leaving Parliament. However Johnson’s offences are so serious that the committee has decided to make him persona non grata, no longer welcome in the halls, meeting rooms and bars of Westminster.
Since resigning as an MP he has since continued to rant about the committee, denouncing it as a “kangaroo court” and insisting that the committee is “talking tripe.” In his angry and self-pitying attempt to make out that he is the real victim here and his continuing refusal to accept that he has done anything wrong he merely confirms that the committee’s assessment of his was correct.
This is a man who was never fit for high office yet this serial liar and bully was repeated defended and enabled by the Conservative party. Sunak may now be one of Johnson’s many political enemies, but he too was one of Johnson’s most prominent enablers for years. The Privileges Committee has a Conservative majority but this report is not merely damning in its findings about the former Prime Minister, by implication it is damning about the entire Conservative party which supported, promoted, and enabled him for so many years.
The Commons will vote on the report on Monday, don’t be surprised if Rishi Sunak suddenly discovers that he has a ‘pressing engagement’ which requires him to be far far away from London. Although most Conservative MPs are now fed up with Johnson’s antics, he still retains a cult like following among the Conservative grass roots and some Tory MPs will be afraid that if they vote to uphold the report their local Conservative association may take steps to deselect them as Conservative candidates. So likewise don’t be surprised to see mass Conservative abstentions on the vote. Even now the Tories are still too gutless to stand up to Johnson, and the frothing British nationalist quasi fascists of G Beebies ‘News’ are still defending him, making excuses for him, and platforming his lies. Despite everything, they still don’t understand the meaning of the term complicity. Democracy doesn’t die in the dark, it dies under the bright lights of a right wing ‘news’ channel.
Boris Johnson is a liar and a bully who led a party for which lying and bullying are what pass for policy and principle. He might be gone now and might have suffered a political savaging from which there can be no coming back, but the deceitful mendacious Conservative party which he shaped in his image is still very much a cancer on the body politic.
There are few areas in which the lies and deceit of the Conservative party are more starkly apparent than the way in which they have treated Scotland and the devolution settlement.
A new report from the Scottish Government on the impact of Brexit on the devolution settlement has set out the Conservative Government has used Brexit as an excuse to undermine the devolution settlement and to by pass and undermine the Scottish Parliament. The paper sets out numerous instances of the British Government introducing legislation or taking measures which have a direct impact on devolved matters. Since 2016 nine laws have been passed by the Conservatives at Westminster which ignore the Sewel Convention which states that Westminster “will not normally legislate with regard to devolved matters without the consent” of the devolved legislatures. Prior to the 2016 EU referendum there were no breaches of the Sewel Convention, since then the British Government has been doing so increasingly often and increasingly blatantly.
One of the key commitments of the anti independence parties in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, and one which was critical to them winning a No vote in that referendum, was the promise that the Sewel Convention would be made legally binding. However since then the Conservative government has obtained a UK Supreme court ruling that writing the Sewel Convention into the Scotland Act was without legal effect, and the Conservatives have been growing increasingly brazen in their contempt for the Sewel Convention. Today’s report from the Scottish Government finds that the British Government no longer feels that it needs to pay any heed to the Sewel Convention, which is – or rather was – a fundamental principle underpinning the entire devolution settlement. If the Westminster Government can feel that it is able to interfere with the powers of the Scottish Parliament at will then the entire purpose of devolution is rendered impotent.
The Sewel Convention is dead. Scotland has been lied to by the British parties. Labour does not propose to do anything to alter this lamentable state of affairs if it gets into power. Voting Labour does nothing to protect Scotland from a Tory party for which lying and bullying are guiding principles, it merely gives us a brief respite under a Labour party which can only get elected by aping Tory policies and methods. Only independence can protect Scotland from British nationalist deceit.
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From the National:
“Douglas Ross ‘deflecting’ from Boris Johnson scandal, says FM as leaders clash on A9”
I’m afraid that Ross is totally within Devolution in the devolved Scottish Parliament called Holyrood, whereas the FM – Yousaf – is talking about Westminster and is therefore OFF TOPIC for Holyrood.
A9 = devolved Holyrood responsibility
Johnson – Westminster and irrelevant
Anyways that’s it folks, no, sorry, can’t hing about 🙂
It is only on-topic for Holyrood if you believe that Holyrood is on a par with a Parish Council and while we are in this Union everything that happens at Westminster is relevant because it may very well affect people’s lives in Scotland directly or indirectly and not in a good way whether it is a Tory or Lab Gov in Westminster..
Good post Paul despite the early deflectors.
All of the tories, lords and ladies ( guffaw) , Russian oligarchs, MP’s, MSP’s, Councillors and it’s membership ( note really known) supported by the gutter press/ news media promoted Johnson over the year- a bit of a lad, och we know what he’s like- nudge , nudge. They are responsible as is snivelling Ross. Remember as well as a Leader of the tories in Scotland ( no, he really is) he is also an MP and a MSP.
If a decision or behaviours impacts on Scotland the FM of Scotland has a duty and a right to raise it.
“..despite the early deflectors” noted also..
The “no, sorry, can’t hing about” particularly pertinent having “thrown the grenade”…
Apologies. I did not realise when I replied to YR2 via the Word Press site that his was the first comment and possibly OT
Watch that door !!!
Another great post, it should be headline news in BPC Scotchland but it probably won’t even get a mention – nothing to see here. Independence is surely coming, been a slow burner but these recent events more than overshadow the SNP’s issues at the moment.
I happened to be reading Joseph Heller quotes today and came across this one. Who does it remind you of? There are two obvious answers -One English and one American. “It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.”
― Joseph Heller, Catch-22
Indeed Johnson is gone, or is he? because the replacement for his constituency is that very fine actor but crazy right wing political lunatic Lawrence Fox, whom the electorate in Johnson’s constituency will very likely adoringly hoist into a seat in the House of Commons with the full and unlimited support of the Moggies, so silver linings? fraid not
Fox is running for a right wing extremist Brexit Party offshoot, not the Tories. the Uxbridge constituency voted remain in 2016. Fox has no chance of winning the seat.
The Boris’s Revenge Party perhaps? I don’t reckon Brexit is that much of a thing in England when it comes to the realisation that as a country there’s no going back from it so what and who do they vote for if they’re not allowed by their own party to vote again for the one they already voted for, especially as Stanley Johnson may have some involvement in Fox’s campaign
They’re fighting with each other over who’s more right wing than the other down there
Yep, brilliantly and eloquently summarised, but particular thanks are owed to the “the Commons Privileges Committee” for not only putting down in writing their summary findings but in responding to events as Johnson sought to subvent sanction through resignation as an MP.
Presumably Alister Jack will escape sanction as support act to the lies as will James Cook, Sunak etc., etc., but it says much that a Committee “within the body of the Kirk” spoke the unvarnished truth for the first time in decades.
Reblogged this on Ramblings of a now 60+ Female.
There’s been talk amongst the Westminster ‘ chatteratti’ of Johnson and Farage forming a new party…..(snore).
Oh don’t knock it, the “Tories r’Us” Party could be big in New Romney….
“If the Westminster Government can feel that it is able to interfere with the powers of the Scottish Parliament at will then the entire purpose of devolution is rendered impotent.”
“So – whit yaes gonnae do about it, eh? We own you, Scotland.”
There’s the nub.
Johnson ”gone” is to be welcomed …but .
He , with the full-throated support of the right-wing press and the cowardly connivance of the BBC , has undermined democracy in the UK , perhaps fatally . Johnson could NEVER have risen to the depths he plumbed had he not been supported to the hilt by those who pull the levers of power in this benighted land .
No one in their right mind could look at Johnson’s career and think for a nano second that this man was a fit person to be the leader of a chain gang never mind of a nation .
He was seen by vested interests as a useful fool who could achieve for THEM what they could never do if their agenda was exposed to the light of day .
The worst and saddest part of this whole debacle was that HE , Johnson , was in charge when the Covid Pandemic hit our shores .
Cameron and Hunt and Osborne had run-down our preparedness for such an event during their austerity years . BUT with a leader who recognised the danger that Covid posed , a person who could put the national interest first and last , who could surround himself with the best brains to see our people through the looming nightmare , we could have achieved a far better outcome . Instead we got Johnson , and Hancock and Rees-Mogg …..enough said .
Johnson will probably not turn up when requested to Covid Enquiry and will try to discredit it as well claiming that it is a witch-hunt, kangaroo court etc.
He knows that the covid enquiry will finish him off completely and claiming credit for a vaccine that others discovered won’t save him.
Its a statutory public inquiry, which has the power to compel witnesses to attend.
I know that but it is Boris Johnson we are talking about.
If Westminster can ignore the Sewel Convention, one wonders what would happen if Holyrood chose to ignore the ‘Scotland Act’ – essentially an English act of an English parliament, voted in by English MPs. It seems to me that the ‘Scotland Act’ has little to do with the people of Scotland’s views and aspirations. (I know, they’d just bleat about sovereignty being Westminster’s property, but it just gets me so frustrated.)
Devolution was always a trap for Scotland, to trick us into compliance and to subordinate our legal system—- aBill passed in 1997 now renders the Treaty of Union safeguards as null and void.
You won’t find “Scottish” Labour or the Dumbs protesting about London interference.
You won’t find the “Scottish” media complaint or asking even the simplest of questions.
Hi Jack evades all scrutiny with an Old Boy contempt for the lower orders.
6 years an MP then into the Lords.
I disagree, domestic law is subordinate to Treaty law.
Johnson’s support base isn’t much different from Trump’s militia.
People who have a messianic mission to see their version of “democracy” imposed on others at any cost.
Completely blind to the glaring personality defects their respective leaders have shown in recent times and a contemptuous disregard for the rule of law.
These crazy supporters and their unquestioning support of Johnson/Trump are the real problem.
The right wing control of much of the media gives them a platform from which to launch their poisonous philosophy.
Unfortunately,don’t see that situation changing much in the near future.
It’s stupid to keep playing by the rules the English make when they’re the only ones allowed to break their own f*****g rules
“The deceitful mendacious Conservative party which he shaped in his image is still very much a cancer on the body politic.”
=======
That is the same party which formed a majority of the Committee of Privileges that voted down the appropriate disciplinary response to Johnson’s mendacity: immediate expulsion from the Commons.
Instead, the wimpish 90 day suspension is being denounced by his cheerleaders, inside and outside the Commons, as being excessive.
Only two members of the committee voted for the proportionate sanction – expulsion. The majority of 4 Tory members on the committee ensured that it was defeated.
Excellent comments. Consider Johnson needed to become a civvy rather than have to step up in Westminster to face the findings of the Covid Inquiry…he probably would have been lounging at Chequers while the initial Emergency Committee meetings were taking place .
Another day, another poll showing support for indy rising.
https://archive.is/webc1
Scottish independence support UP since end of March, poll finds
I think we can thank the BBC etc and financegate for this.
The union is such deep s**t if the Daily Record is right about the #financegate thing being a wild goose chase. OMFG.
Because, we are on 49.3% Yes ‘first thing tomorrow’. No white paper needed. No questions asked… doesn’t matter about currency, EU, borders etc… and that’s with 3 former SNP top brass being arrested / every British media outlet trying to convince the electorate they are guilty.
If I was pro-UK, my bum would be squeaking like mad. They desperately need serious charges then convictions or it’s all over and very quickly.
Because, we are on 49.3% Yes ‘first thing tomorrow’.
Probably over 50% what with all the 2014 weighting stupidities.
> They desperately need serious charges then convictions or it’s all over and very quickly.
They thought that when Salmond was tried. Even though he was found not-guilty of criminal acts, his reputation was utterly trashed by the airing of his questionable behaviour. Didn’t affect the pro-yes polling much.
Attacking the SNP is futile. No pro-indy supporter is seeking an SNP-dictatorship. To most they are just a means to an end.
We need to turn these attacks around and highlight how belittling they are. The fundamental argument here is that SNP failings mean that Scots are incapable of self-rule. The colonial argument.
Agreed, as polling is showing. Support for independence is not directly linked to support for the SNP.
If you want to stop Scotland becoming independent, you need to persuade Scots of the benefits of the union, getting support for indy down. Even if someone doesn’t support the SNP but wants independence, they’d vote for them if they stood on an defacto indy mandate in a UKGE, because it’s not like you can vote for an SNP led UK government!
And that’s what all this is ‘SNP are criminals’ thing is about; stopping a defacto vote for indy in the next UKGE. That would be a f’n disaster for the union. While they could try to say ‘it’s not a vote for outright indy as people vote on all sorts of issues’, denying another referendum would be unsustainable if >50% went to parties standing on and outright indy ticket, especially if Labour end up with a narrow majority or a small minority.
The sensible heads of the union are crapping it in Whitehall / Thames House. It’s just the prize idiots rubbing their hands with glee at what they think is damaging support for indy, but actually could break the UK.
It is not for foreign nationals to decide whether Scotland is capable of self rule. That decision is for the Scots alone.
The BBC has a Verify Project, which claims to expose disinformation and fake news…..
Meanwhile on the 23 May of this year the same BBC via GMS Lucy Whyte stated that “SNP MP Margaret Ferrier had lost her appeal against a 30 day ban”
Whoever wrote this and indeed the presenter who read it out seem to be a tad misinformed on Margaret Ferrier and the fact she is no longer an SNP MP ……though does seem strange since the same BBC via GMS and Reporting Scotland also reported her suspension from the SNP in 2020…..
Read into that what you will….
“The BBC has a Verify Project, which claims to expose disinformation and fake news…..”
So roughly interpreted – The BBC’s audience in England is shrinking and they grow increasing distrustful of BBC output despite claims of ‘impartiality’.
Viz – England is going through it’s very own Dishonourable Sarah Smith moment, doubtless another “orange jaiket man” will be along in a minute, oh Hello Nigel….
The BBC’s gambit is someone else is spreading ‘fake news’, because their message/propaganda is failing ?
Now in Scotland, what are the odds that a Propaganda Quay piece from Lazy Summers on QUEH featuring yet another pic of a joyful Millie Mae before her tragic death would still pass muster with the BBC’s “Verify Project” to guarantee their impartiality ? Yet there it was, https://archive.ph/T86Xq
Verify ?
Indeed Bob….one wonders who , other than some punters on social media, are actually verifying the BBC’s Verify project’s conclusions of what according to them is , in their opinion, actual fake news and disinformation ….
I think the BBC Verify project may need a ” Heal thyself” moment prior to promoting other sources as untrustworthy and unreliable sources of information and news…..they need to clean inhouse first….it won’t happen though….
I agree with you that obvs this has been prompted because as you say they “The BBC’s audience in England is shrinking and they grow increasing distrustful of BBC output despite claims of ‘impartiality’”….
Meanwhile it’s all Gung Ho at pacific Quay…where anything goes and does via the spin, time and focus they put on any #SNPBAD stories mostly sourced via opposition parties minus any fact checks or deep scrutiny done on the reliability and truthfulness of said info passed onto them the BBC in Scotland before tis broadcast as news by them…..so called news and political opinions from ….checks notes…the political opponents of the SNP…..now that does need verification does it not….by anyone BUT the BBC Verify project obvs.
All this talk of Boris Johnson and his pals by the English media day after day
Have you noticed they report all this drivel about all these criminals with a kind of smiling pride and acceptance that that is the English political way, oh and we’re not proud of it but isn’t it great entertainment news for our viewers to get involved in
Now let’s have a phone in or talky interview with supporters of all these people to get their opinions on how these same criminals can rise to the top again
In Scotland the same media reports if Nicola Sturgeon breaks a nail and is *caught on camera* not disposing of it safely in a bin she’s *controversial* *mired in scandal* “what will happen to her dream of independence now”? is it over? done? the polls all show a drop in support for ” her dream”
It’s like they want to stick up tents outside all of our houses as identification of lesser mortals, Ooh, maybe they could make us all wear yellow saltires on our clothes so the rest of the majority of the decent public can avoid us
They came to our country and told us it was now their country, they said we weren’t a nation, they told us we had to speak English, they told us we had to move somewhere else and they came and took that too
We fought back and they said we were criminals who broke the laws they made
That’s how American Indians tell their story
What’s the difference to Scotland? there is none
The English are colonialists, it’s in their DNA, they like it, they vote for the kind of people who pursue those agendas of power over others on behalf of the *British* people, and that’s not us Scots or Welsh or Irish, *British* is just another code word for English, but the rest of us can’t say we don’t like the *British* attitude or we’re anti English
See how that works, heads you lose, tails you still lose
It can’t be done by *asking* people with that attitude to be nice fair democratic people
Earlier this month an audience member on BBC QT stated that they, as a programme , check all of their audience social media accounts prior to being selected as an audience member…which Fiona Bruce confirmed saying “Yes we do quite a bit of background checking on you all”…..one wonders what ARE they actually checking ? (their right wing credentials and too when in Scotland their anti SNP and anti independence position given the loaded BritNat audiences we seem to always see)
Saw on Twitter that last night that an ex UKIP candidate (to be known via BBC QT as ordinary punter) was allowed to speak in the audience….not only that but given this information on background checks prior to being selected as member of QT audience…how come so many Tory councillors , a Moray Tory treasurer and too ex Tory MSP Mary Scanlon were in BBC QT audiences when in Scotland (plus ex UKIP candidate Billy ‘orange top man’ was on 3 times…3 times when QT in Scotland)…..how come indeed…..obvious is it not.
Plus as for their current host …..don’t get me started on her…….her disdain for the SNP is plain to see and she is not shy in promoting it…..Blatant Biased Corporation…..
NMRN,
I was once a member of the QT audience down here in England and part of their procedure for enrolling (on-line) involves filling in a form on their website which asks, inter alia, if you belong to a political party and which one(s). This questionnaire is run by the private company Menthorn which holds your details for, I believe three years afterwards.
If selected, you are then phoned by someone from QT and provide them with the two oral questions that you will ask during the recording.
You arrive at the venue early. You supply your two questions in written format to someone from production. You listen to a few off-colour jokes from Dimblebore about bankers and how good the BBC hospitality is – paper plates, nibbles, fruit juice – and then sit down in the amphitheatre where the programme is filmed. You have a run through a couple of questions (other peoples’) with members of the audience playing panel members. (This is for us to see how the format works and for the sound and vision crew to get play about with their equipment o get the right sound/picture.)
After an hour or so, the panel turn up and the programme starts. (I never got to ask my questions – Member of PC and SNP in England too easily identifiable for BBC tastes.) The questions asked and answered (or not). The panel goes home and so do you.
My panel included the late (not a “Lord” then) Paddy Ashdown who after the programme came down and chatted with the audience and thanked them for coming. Ditto for Tony “Baldrick” Robinson (not a “Sir” then). The Tory and Labour politicos had already left the building.
That was my experience of QT some years ago.
Thanks for that info WS
Have a lovely day….the weather is really lovely here in Edinburgh…hope it is also nice where you are…
🙂
I have a vague memory of Fiona Bruce floating around the North East (Moray) coast telling viewers that some of her ancestors were fisher folk. They don’t half change when they move south.
From her ancestors being “Fisher folk” to her now ‘Phishing folk’ via the BBC….Phishing ….where an attacker masquerades as a reputable entity via communication …a form of fraud…LOL
Have a nice day JoMax
🙂
I like it! 🙂
It’s very hot again here in the far north. Possibly around 30 deg C in a sheltered spot away from the refreshing sea breeze. Not for the faint-hearted so take care.
Did she use the words humble or simple before the words fisher folk, because that’s always more sympathetic and endearing to the rest of us simple humble folk
(fingers right down the throat in humungous boak)
This was all exposed many years ago in all it’s gory details:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/ourbeeb/is-question-time-s-audience-producer-really-fascist/
Article is from 2016 but she’s still in the same job.
Based on VI data (Scottish polls and Yougov UK subsamples), the apparent SNP decline stopped early May and they are either stable or starting to edge back up on all fronts. Have at least a 9 point lead over Labour for a UK GE. That would readily rise into double figures when you count those saying they’ve vote Green (and Alba), which is at abnormally high levels due to the finance thingy.
Not looking good for the union at all.
A FORMER Conservative Councillor , Joe Hearnshaw , has just joined the Labour Group in Milton Keynes….I wonder what attracted him to Starmer’s New New Labour……Labour Milton Keynes put it down to this:
““Whilst the Conservatives are in chaos, Keir Starmer and the Labour Party have been putting forward serious, sensible policies that will build a better Britain.” and they also announced it as them being ” delighted that FORMER Conservative Councillor Joe Hearnshaw has today joined the Labour Group on MKCC” (see also former Tory MP Christian Wakeford who crossed the house and joined New New Labour….to their, Labour’s, delight…as Tories ALWAYS welcome in New New Labour aka Tory party in all but party name)
Of course supposedly regarded as ‘unofficial’ (and never mentioned via the media) some Labour councillors in Councils in Scotland are colluding aka ‘joining with’ with Tories in their quest to oust the SNP as the majority party in some councils …..as in anyone BUT the SNP vibe.
Rule is …in England some Tory politicians joining the New New Labour party to oust the Tories and replace them with another Tory party in all but party name.
In Scotland they unite with them…..as ONE voice against the SNP to oust them.
How complicated and confusing….or is it ?
Michael Gove says the working relationship is going swimmingly between the UK and Scottish governments, even though Humza Yousaf was sitting right beside him saying it’s not
Michael Gove qualified his answers by stating that the UK and Scottish governments had to respect each others *traditions*
Problem there is the UK governments tradition is one of empire building colonialism and I can’t think of any other country in the world who would want to admit to being that in 2023
Well except for Vladimir Putin maybe
Indeed Dr Jim…yet in other news where you (we) are….. the word is that the Scottish government is the one who regularly fails to engage with the UK government…..as in #SNPBAD are the baddies in this situation ….also known as not doing what they are told….that’s the real ‘tradition’ within the UK via WM is it not ?
Forgetting the countless times the UK government have failed to engage with, inform and allow the participation of the Scottish government in matters that impact the whole UK…including Scotland ….via both reserved and devolved powers.
Can someone please explain to me.
Why micheal gove is not yet in jail for contempt of court.
Visa vee his open defiance of 3 court rulings to produce ‘the poll/survey results’
Asking for a friend on a train, and another in the public gallery.
Who would believe this!!!
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/bbc-facing-questions-ukip-audience-queston-time-111017342.html
Seems the bbc QT is well and truly infiltrated by the far right.
Spare a thought (or not) for the Scottish (INO) Tories who are up in arms about the SNP’s finances and who as an opposition (protest) party demand so much should be done to punish the SNP…..when simultanously we heard that we the taxpayers are expected to pay the £245,000 (plus) for lawyers who defended the lying ex TORY PM Boris Johnson against the Privileges Committee……
Perhaps some of those Tory MP’s and Tory Lords who are currently doing the rounds defending him should foot his legal bills….or better still he himself should pay his own legal fees…..considering his publicised earnings outwith parliament ,estimated as being in the millions, clearly demonstrates he had the money to do so…..plus with him having the financial means that allowed him to recently purchase a £3.8 million mansion…..
I think given the finding on the recent published report on him by the Privileges Committee….. well that money for his lawyers should be reimbursed ……though sure that Tories being Tories they will just allocate it to another worthless cause……connected to them….obvs.
So Mr J has a column with the Daily Wail now, so prepare yourself for a torrent of anti-Scottish propaganda, racist slurs and innuendo spewing forth from his pen. They should have given him an advance to pay his legal fees. Mind you, he may be in trouble again because as an ex-Govt Minister he’s supposed to report to the independent Advisory Committee on Business Posts first before taking up the job, one of the reasons being that an employer could make improper use of official information an ex-Minister could have had access to! The mind just keeps on boggling.
JoMax , in March of this year Ofcom had said that Tory politicians are allowed to present current affairs TV shows after opposition MPs complained…. as in those many Tory MP’s presenting shows on GB News….aka the not so secret Tory channel.
However now Ofcom are looking at reviewing the rules so perhaps Tory MP’s like Jacob Rees Mogg and the many other Tory MP’s too (on GB News) may have to choose between politics and TV careers…..( plus we have on Talk TV the current Tory MP Nadine Dorries- who has stalled her resignation as an MP for now- where she has a weekly programme, as does Richard Tice the leader of Reform UK and too the former Tory MP Nick De Bois though he would be exempt from any Ofcom rule change as he is now an ex MP )…plus Farage on GB News …..and his habit of changing political parties, in name only , but the polices and rhetoric stays the same…. while still pretending to the public that he is not a Tory through and through…he is.
It seems a no brainer to me to know that if a politician has a public platform on a TV channel via a weekly/nightly TV programmes that then gives him/her and his/her party a political advantage and an opportunity to try and sway public opinion or rather keep those (few) viewers onside with their respective party ….
However more importantly….to also campaign against opposition parties…..
Alas Ofcom, up to now, failed to acknowledge or recognise this….for reasons…
Also heard that Nadine Dorries may also be new employee for Daily Mail….
Meet the new Plaid leader, your new Welsh ally at the Senedd and the son of one of my old hedmasters:
https://nation.cymru/news/rhun-ap-iorwerth-announced-as-new-lead-of-plaid-cymru/
Rhun ap Iorwerth has been officially announced as the new leader of Plaid Cymru.
Mr ap Iorwerth, who represents Ynys Mon (Anglesey) in the Senedd, was named as successor to Adam Price during a press conference in Cardiff Bay on Friday.
[…]
Suggested pronunciation for Scots: Hrreen app YOURRwehrrth
Fair enough.
I would have preferred to use the International Phonetic Alphabet, but I don’t know how many of you know this. In any case, I have a speech impediment which makes me unable to pronounce Welsh ‘rh’ and ‘r’ correctly …
Thanks for the pronunciation tip, but single “r” will do up here.
We make meal of them anyway, suggesting we use “rr” 3 times would take us half an hour to get through the guy’s name.
Reply above. Sorry, Drew Anderson.
Didnae realise Camilla was Scottish. Who kent!
G’an yersel hen!
King appoints Queen Camilla to Scotland’s Order of the Thistle
…St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, which hosts the Order of the Thistle service, says the honour is “traditionally given to Scots or people of Scots ancestry”.
FFS.
https://archive.is/oPZou
This is far more useful than moaning about the SNP and appearing with Farage on GB News.
https://archive.is/dNU8Q
Alba to publish legal expert’s review of Supreme Court indyref ruling
THE Supreme Court’s judgment to deny Scotland an independence referendum by dismissing the country’s right to self-determination was wrong, a leading lawyer has said.
The Alba Party commissioned internationally-renowned public law expert Professor Robert McCorquodale to assess the verdict delivered in November last year and will publish his findings next week.
The Brick Court Chambers lawyer, noted by legal bible Legal 500 as having an “impressive background in all aspects of public international law”, said “the Supreme Court was mistaken in law in its approach to the right to self-determination of the people of Scotland in the Scottish Referendum reference case”.
Credit where credit’s due.
The Supreme court decision was never going to be about the law whether good bad indifferent or legal, it was just something else to show Scotland what England is
It makes no difference if the people of Scotland just apathetically accept their position as sheep so that the only thing they’re capable of when the wolves come is to call a shepherd
And who nominated themselves the shepherd? the wolves
Alba are coyotes licking the grass after the wolves have had their dinner
Goodbye to Johnstone after all the destruction he has caused. Goodbye to the rest of them soon. The complete and utter shambles.
Independence supporters need to get out and vote. A higher turnout.
Just read that Jackie Baillie has been given a damehood. Dame Jackie Baillie. Cringe. 😱
She’ll fit in well in the House of Lords
Dame is an honorific title the female equivalent to a knighthood so it doesn’t get her into House of Lords although I am sure she will join that grave train at some point. I could say she would make a good pantomime dame but they are generally men dressed as a woman. She is more like the pantomime baddie-look behind you it’s Jackie- a woman who was the best leader Scottish Labour ever had for a weeks at a time. She should be called the Msp for Faslane Naval Base because that who truly elected her in recent years.Cant stand that woman she takes hypocrisy to new heights even for a politician
”Damn Jackie Baillie ! ” …sounds right to me !
😂
Neale Hanvey’s initiative is indeed interesting and re-reading this:
https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2022-0098-judgment .pdf (remove space)
there’s the (actually oblique) discussion about Quebec, but on the topic of secession which does affect territorial integrity not holding a referendum which just indicates a desire to change it. So it’s comparing chalk with cheese.
(89) … “normally limited to situations of colonial type or those involving foreign occupation, it does not confer any ‘right to secedeW
Secondly I was struck by the use of the word “normally” in that, considering that as far as Sewell is concerned, the interpretation of “normally” since that other UKSC ruling seems to be “hardly at all, rarely, not on your nelly, Jock off”.
Thirdly of course is that the above is relatively minor waffling, as is much of the UKSC ruling and it has been clear in the past that the UKSC really really doesn’t like ruling on anything constitutional. So it waffles and avoids. And what could be the important part if all the waffle is reduced to substance that supports Scotland’s self-determination rights? Why this:
“It went on to say that in other circumstances peoples were expected to achieve self-determination within the framework of their existing state”
and this:
“the Scotland Act allocates powers between the United Kingdom and Scotland as part of a constitutional settlement. It establishes a carefully calibrated scheme of devolution powers. Nothing in the allocation of powers, however widely or narrowly interpreted, infringes any principle of self-determination.”
but then this:
“Nothing in the allocation of powers under the Scotland Act infringes the principle of
legality.”
So using a whole load of waffle myself I’ve hopefully demonstrated that what the 92 points and 34 pages actually amount to is this:
“Oh sugar, we shouldn’t have accepted the SNP’s submission on the basis of self-determination as there’s really no answer to that at all; so we’ll fluff a lot about loads of stuff, hide a few gems in a panoply (great word) of the unintelligble and stick to ruling totally and only on the basis of the Scotland Act Section 34 on which the case was actually brought by the Lord Advocate, in two very short sentences in an actually disconnected conclusion, and hope nobody notices.”
And indeed, perhaps without deconstructive semantic analysis in distanced overview nobody would notice.
Well, go home and think again, I did, so did others …
Politically it was a shrewd move to get the section 30 nonsense out of the equation whatever the Albists say. The A. V Dicey assertion on parliamentary sovereignty sovereignty has as much legal standing as the waffle contained in the uksc ‘ judgement ‘.
the Scotland Act allocates powers between the United Kingdom and Scotland
So who or what is “the United Kingdom” – England? It’s like saying “the marriage contract allocates powers between the wife and the marriage”. Doesn’t make sense.
Indeed Capella….we often hear them talk of “Scotland and the United Kingdom” as if separate entities…..especially when they try to convey how much Scotland “needs the UK” and how Scotland “benefits from the UK”…same as said about Wales….the Elephant in the room is England which they never say “needs and benefits from” the UK…..for reasons….main one being in their eyes the UK …IS…England.
There is another way of looking at this. Pretend for a minute that Lord Reed, a Scot, and a leading expert on Scots Law and Human Rights was saying this:
There is nothing within the Scotland Act that could be used by the Scottish Government to effect a referendum without agreement with the UK Government.
LR: “The Scotland Act isn’t going to help you”.
And
“ in other circumstances peoples were expected to achieve self-determination within the framework of their existing state”
LR: “Normally there should be co-operation between the peoples AND their existing state to allow self-determination”
But
“Quebec does not meet the threshold of a colonial people or an oppressed people, nor can it be suggested that Quebecers have been denied meaningful access to government to pursue their political, economic, cultural and social development.”
LR: “Scotland does not at the moment represent an oppressed people, nor a colonial people”
So
“In the circumstances, the National Assembly, the legislature or the government of Quebec do not enjoy a right at international law to effect the secession of Quebec from Canada unilaterally”
LR: “But if the UK Government does not co-operate with the right of Scotland to self-determination for instance by agreeing to a referendum about Independence, then Scotland may well have the international right to secede without further notice”.
If only Carlsberg made Lord Reed …
OK.
From the National:
“HUMZA Yousaf has appeared to endorse a de facto referendum strategy at the next General Election”
which is a fair representation of what he apparently wrote in an email to SNP members. So, to paraphrase this:
HY: “Hey UK Government, if you don’t co-operate with the right of Scotland to self-determination for instance by agreeing to a referendum about Independence, by granting an S30 or permanently changing the Scotland Act to allow referendums, then Scotland will secede as Lord Reed suggests, reading between the lines, if we win the general Election in Scotland.
You have until the General Election [or before] to co-operate. This is the Edinburgh Ultimatum – S30 in our time or we secede.”
If only Carlsberg made Humza Yousaf …
Quebec is a red herring.
Quebec a province has more autonomy and self governance than Scotland. So does Catalonia.
They can make their own Laws. Raid their own taxes etc etc.
Scotland got limited Devolution with far less powers, than these provinces. Catalonia is one of the wealthiest Provinces in Spain. The majority of people did not vote for a Referendum. A low turnout, 30/40%.
A different situation not comparing like with like.
Catalonia did not want to contribute €4Billion to the central Gov. They ended up not having too. It would have helped the poorer provinces.
£Billions are taken from Scotland and wasted because of Westminster mismanagement and poor, bad policies.
Brexit, Trident/redundant weaponry, illegal war, tax evasion, repayment on loans not borrowed or spent in Scotland. Etc, etc. The list is endless. That does not happen in Quebec or Catalonia.
Scotland supposed to be in an equal Union. The UK the most unequal place in the world.
Catalonia and Quebec can raise their own taxes and make their own Laws. Both wealthy provinces.
Scotland has limited Devolution. Not sustainable. Westminster unionists still have too much power.
Quebec is not a nation. Scotland is. There endeth the comparisons and demonstrates how England needs our natural resources such as water, wind power, hydro, agriculture, its whisky and all the rest.
It would stagnate further without us.
They know it. 🏴
This is what #financegate is intended to try and stop. It is a desperate throw of the dice.
https://archive.is/4vv6i
Humza Yousaf signals return to de facto referendum strategy
If you looked into the finances of any British unionist party you’d find all sorts of misconduct, from highly questionable donations / transactions to outright fraud. The British expectation would be that the same should be the case in the SNP. Unpleasant, untrustworthy people believe others are like them (this is e.g. why Tories think other people are lazy benefit fraudsters – it’s because they are themselves).
So far it seems, it’s not working out that way.
Starmer’s ratings in Scotland are collapsing across the board as he goes all right-wing brexiter. North British Labour have hit a 30% ceiling here and remain ~10 points behind the SNP and at least ~15 behind Yes parties. That’s at the peak of financegate (Sturgeon’s arrest).
https://archive.is/FtihN
Labour MSP candidate quits party amid savage attack on Keir Starmer
A SCOTTISH Labour candidate in the most recent Holyrood elections has quit the party – accusing Keir Starmer of looking to “entrench many aspects of [the] Conservative rule which he purports to oppose”.
Writing for the Heckle online magazine, Owen Wright savagely attacked the Labour Party under Starmer, claiming it was guilty of “deceptive political practices and [an] increasing propensity to indulge in far-right rhetoric and dog-whistles”.
This growing cross-border rift in Labour will only grow. They are fighting over a range of issues now, GRR included. As Starmer moves ever further right in his attempt to halt his party’s continuing decline in the UK polls, so the arguments with his ‘proud Scot but’ branch office will get worse. I would not be surprise if Labour in Scotland actually splits into Scottish and British parties before we get indy. If that happened – and keep in mind 1/3 of Labour voters are pro-indy – you’d know the union was over.
But Labour have consolidated the Orange vote , eh ?
Owen Wright is saying nothing different to what many Labour supporters are saying in England….
So Jackie Baillie – red hot socialist that she is now a dame or something similar.
I never expected this, what little old me? What a surprise?
The little englanders work their wee socks off to be recognised by their betters. Compare Baillie to other more deserving individuals in your community.
I think it’s time for some form of Scottish Community Award for real people.
Apparently QCondort Camelia has the highest award in Scotland. Yip. For doing shit all other than keeping King Charlie in 7th heaven- allegedly. Her Scots ancestry……. Well nae ancestry…
A great white is circling the HoL, the Lord Speaker has, I believe, been overheard saying ‘We are goin to need a bigger chamber as we already have a basking shark from Scotland in the chamber’.
I think nearly all the ‘Better Together’ leaders are now reunited in the HoL. The only one missing is poor old weary Willie, poor thing to be considered inferior to Jackie Baillie.
Sorry for the lack of seriousness but I find these awards to z-list politicians hard to not laugh at.
How random is that honour….does Charles even know who she is ?
The New Year or Birthday Honours are awarded by the King, following recommendations by the prime minister or senior government ministers.
Peerages are vetted by the House of Lords Appointments Commission.
Who put Baillie forward for this ?
Of course had it not been for all of the hype of Labour being supposedly in ascendancy in Scotland…well….just think a Tory might have got this instead….
Q’s Q’s….we will never get answers to….
What a great news day, a Damehood for Baillie, I’m sure the Red Tory faithful will be delighted, Yes voting Labour supporters maybe not so much. Then to read the Humza Yousaf is talking of the defacto referendum strategy being back on is good news indeed.
Charles doing his bit for the (NON) Union…
Honour for ‘Services to politics’ …Jackie Baillie !
Sourced from social media here are some of the services to politics done via Baillie :
” a video of Jackie Baillie caught lying to her constituents at a meeting. She told them she had never agreed with the council tax freeze. Unfortunately for Jackie, a video existed of her saying the opposite”.
“In March 2012 BBC Scotland headlined another Jackie Baillie lie that patients had to share blankets at a Scots hospital. Baillie was later forced to admit her claim was untrue”
“In 2012 Jackie Baillie was caught lying after claiming Scottish hospitals had the worst superbug rate in Europe. The story led BBC Scotland bulletins that day. It later emerged that not only had Baillie lied, she’d used superbug rates from a time when her own party was in power”.
Above, I am sure, is not an exhaustive list of her lies…….
Surely the above proves she has , via her input, done a disservice to politics via constant lying……not that Charles cares….job to be done for his (NON) Union….
I think any MSP , MP councillor who claims to be SNP should hand them back to King Charles lll as a service to this country.
They should clarify why they think they “deserve” them over the rest of the country.
To show I am reasonable I would keep Empire biscuits as I like them!🏴
Hamish I refuse to call them Empire biscuits.They’re German biscuits to me. Seems the English changed the name at the start of the first world war when they were removing eagles from the top of their clocks and changing their names if they sounded too German (eg Battenberg/Mountbatten).
Noted😀. I’ll still eat them.
Aye! Me an aw!
It’s really just for political services to England though, isn’t it
Her success, if it can be called that, was to publicly unite Labour Tory and Liberal Democrat as one party to get herself elected
You’d have to say that when it comes to England’s power over Scotland, these three parties can trust each other to work with each other to keep control of Scotland, whereas in Scotland it’s been made impossible for the SNP to trust anybody else when it comes to defending Scotland against this
I could be wrong but I think ‘Scottish’ Labour has more unelected peers at Westminster than they have had elected politicians, even if you total the last three general elections together. You’re not Real ‘Scottish’ Labour unless you are in possession of ermine it seems.
I suppose they needed to pick someone from Labour who was actually voted for directly by the public, they only had a choice of two.
Yip and the Albanists lover her I assume as one quoted in SGP states “ I also want a drubbing for the SNP at the Rutherglen by election.”
If it quacks 🦆
Yep, those guys squeal with delight at the very thought of any of the English parties beating the SNP
They are the Salmond revenge party and they can’t hide it, no matter how many times he tries so hard to appear reasonable on camera, his gang’s eagerness for English victory shines through
I’m still amazed that there are some of them, genuine independence supporters, who still don’t know what they’re a part of
If the votes of the Alba members and supporters would make the difference in Indy Ref 2, to a YES or a NO vote to Independence, would you wrong them in the same way you do now and lost their votes?
And what about the English Scots for YES? Would you prefer them to give up and abstain?
Rather than quote out of context, why not cut and paste the whole comment? Here, I’ve done it for you:
“I also want a drubbing for the SNP at the Rutherglen by election. But I can’t quite decide how brutal it needs to be. A close run thing, and party loyalists will play it off as a temporary difficulty to do with the current investigation. Too much of a washout, and risks creating its own momentum and bandwagon for Labour. Many on the English left are already convincing themselves, against Starmer’s best efforts, that he is in fact engaging in a game of high political chicanery, and will set about instituting their personal wish-list of policies the moment he sweeps into Downing Street.
Too big a blowout in Rutherglen though, and we could soon see many more Scottish voters cheerfully pulling the wool over their own eyes, just like their English counterparts.
This is also why Salmond really has to stand in Rutherglen. The SNP getting gubbed in Rutherglen while a local Alba candidate collects 100 votes could be disastrous for independence. The SNP getting gubbed and Alba picking up a substantial share of the vote at least gives independence supporters ammunition to fight the “independence is dead” narrative that will be pummelled into Scots’ minds from now until the next election, and allows Alba to establish itself as a real contestant.
Rutherglen really is a do or die moment for Alba. They won’t get a better shot than this. And they don’t have a better candidate than Eck. ”
Hope that helps. No, it wasn’t me, by the way.
I’m not sure how the SNP losing an MP in a mid term by-election would change anything at all. They lost a large number if seats in 2017 and that did the sum total of feck all in terms of saving the union and making Scotland ‘come home to Labour’.
Some people really do live in truly bizarre fantasy worlds completely detached from reality.
I think the problem for a lot of British folks in Scotland (which the above comment must be coming from) is that they live in Britain, while the rest of us live in Scotland. These are, to most extents and purposes, totally different countries, with different cultures and politics. If you are British, hang around with British people, watch British TV, vote for British parties, there’s no way on earth that you will truly understand Scotland, even if you are ostensibly Scottish yourself. It doesn’t matter if you have a Scottish regional identity, if it’s not a national identify, you will not understand Scottish people and the way they see things intuitively. You will need to learn.
Yeh – makes a change. Albanists are britnats with a tartan scarf or is it an AS scarf.
Either way they want snp defeated to allow dame Baillie a pretend labour in.🏴
Remember this is a party of two jumped ship SNP MPs too afraid to stand for election to the the *organisation* they jumped ship for because they know they’d be voted straight back out, and yet they mouth off claiming some fantasised moral high ground of righteousness when they are in fact charlatans standing in another parties stolen clothing that they never even paid the money back that was invested in them
If I as an employer invested £thousands in employees to do work for my company then they went off and used that position to work for themselves and against my company they would be walking with a limp for a long time after their discharge from their months in hospital if I couldn’t bring the force of the law down on them first
They’re welcome to bring their fake righteous indignation to my door anytime they like
At least the two of you are consistent proof of the old adage about pots and kettles.
🦆
Yep
🧌
Self portrait ?
Lol🏴
Oh you are a wag 👽
Pot and Kettle nothing, Bovine Excreta.
Kenny Makaskill (sic), he of questionable history, took my SNP vote and cashed it in as an Alba vote. Then refuses to actually ask me if that’s OK. There is no ‘quid pro que’ in this.
Life expectancy UK 80 years. 79 men 83 women.
Life expectancy Scotland 77 men 81 females. For deprivation reasons. Scotland historically deprived of revenues and resources. Thatcher lied and to Scottish revenues and resources and funded London S/E Canary Wharf, Tilbury Docks. Established tax havens. Civil war with the miners. Poll tax. Violent protests.
Unemployment in NI 20% The Troubles caused by Westminster. Unemployment Scotland 15%. Only place unemployment under 10% London S/E. Interest rates 15%. . Inflation 18%.
Thatcher funded the Bankers who funder the Tory Party. Misused public money, especially from Scotland. Gave the Press over to the right wing. Murdoch and denied it. Westminster is supposed to ensure a free and fair Press. Without a free and fair Press there is no democracy.
The Leveson recommendations were not implemented. MSM owned by tax evading non Dom’s.
Norway 1 Scotland 2
Steve Clark must be the sneakiest football manager we’ve ever had
Jolly useful chap to have on one’s side😊
Last night SKY News headlines at midnight….headlines included England at the Ashes with Australia…..top story in the Sports News also England v Australia at the Ashes with extensive highlights of some of the match….second story Norway V Scotland….where they showed a scoreboard…..I wonder what was in their news headlines sporting wise on Friday at midnight…and indeed what was the TOP story in their sporting news headlines too…and did they just show a scoreboard for THAT game !
Aye we are all one nation in the UK so we are…..that is apart from political and sporting news….then it is reported via descending order….highest being English related news being most important and then minor (UK) news via Scotland beneath it…or rather many a time not at all.
Though that above method is occasionally reversed via any #SNPBAD news (political or sporting) then we are awarded the top spot….for reasons……too obvious.
Seem petty ?…..nope tis a pecking order that BritNats refuse to acknowledge and recognise in their UK…for reasons…also too obvious.
I see Sarwar will be on Kuenssberg this morning. Maybe he is going to thank her for her dads donations to the Labour Party over the years?
Still she has moved further to the right. Born in Italy she and her family are part of the Brit establishment and don’t let us forget it.
From wiki
Her father is a businessman; her mother worked in children’s services and received a CBE for this in the 2000 New Year Honours.[12][13] Her paternal grandfather was German-born Ekkehard von Kuenssberg, a co-founder and president of the Royal College of General Practitioners.[14] Her maternal grandfather was Lord Robertson, a judge of the Scots High Court of Justiciary, whose brother James Wilson Robertson was the last British Governor-General of Nigeria. Her elder brother David was an executive director of finance and resources at Brighton and Hove City Council.[15] Her elder sister Joanna Kuenssberg is a former diplomat who has served as high commissioner to Mozambique.[14]
The Mirror footage of Tories at Tory HQ partying during lockdown while laughing about whether they are breaking the rules….one who attended awarded an OBE and one given a knighthood in Johnson’s honours list which, as a list, is mostly being upheld by current PM (Nads was apparently the exception)….and the King is happy to oblige both Johnson and Sunak via this too…same King that obliged with Jackie Baillie’s Damehood with the recommendation from God knows who…but have suspicions….for reasons…so obvious….
What say Dross, Alistair Jack, Baroness Davidson and all other Tories elected or unelected in Scotland….well we may not find out…as scrutiny and condemnation is only , it appears, reserved for but ONE party in Scotland…..
BBC Reporting Scotland are…as I write….frantically concocting their next script in their series aka nightly soap opera #SNPBAD…..as in very very bad …in fact…..THE worse in the UK….according to them and too those many others who have a vested interest to promote this serial by them, the BBC, as FACT not FICTION…for reasons…too obvious
Have a nice day everyone
🙂
This is really not looking like it will end well for the union.
https://archive.is/DsCnE
Nicola Sturgeon: I am certain I have done nothing wrong
Nicola Sturgeon has said she is certain she has done nothing wrong after returning home for the first time since her arrest last Sunday.
Scotland’s former first minister told journalists she intended to be back in Parliament this week.
Ms Sturgeon was questioned for more than seven hours as part of a police investigation into the SNP’s finances.
She temporarily moved out of her Glasgow home after being released without charge.
The former first minister said: “For now, I intend to go home and catch up with family.
“I know I am a public figure – I accept what comes with that. But I’m also a human being that is entitled to a bit of privacy.”
When asked if she had considered stepping back from the SNP, Ms Sturgeon said: “I have done nothing wrong and that is the only thing I am going to assert today.”
I have read maybe two or three headlines (Daily Record, The Times, BBC – I’ve not read the articles, as I don’t like any of them, just saw the headlines) recently suggesting Scotland is running out of water. Surely not?
Most areas are just on alert, and in the east, levels are not too bad. It’s the west that’s been very dry as the weather has been coming more from the east rather than the west due to high pressure sitting over us.
https://www.sepa.org.uk/environment/water/water-scarcity/
Gonnae pish doon the nicht. Incoming from the Atlantic into Ireland as we speak:
https://www.netweather.tv/live-weather/radar
Occluded front to bring thunderstorms and frontal rain. Gairdens will be pleased.
There is a concerted media effort going on to signal the end of SNP and Independence, including an article in the Times by Kieran Andrews forecasting the demise of SNP as Labour regains it’s mojo in the next GE…
Yeah really…
No idea what Kieran was smoking, drinking or injecting, but beyond suspect polling the bookies have it as Mr Morningside being binned at the next GE, the Dentist will have to resign and apologise to his Da, and HMG will be presented with a note “Whoever leaves last, we already turned the lights off, talk later, Scotland”….
Water “alerts” are fairly standard when water is stressed, but as the recent Broadford activity demonstrates, SW always have contingency plans.
Watch SE England however over the next few weeks, it’s about to get very real there…
Thanks Bob and S.S.
The media effort is good news, I don’t think it’s panic though, I think it’s their ignorance and stupidity. They seriously think they can kill off Independence and the SNP. Psychology is not their strong suit.
Anyways, some of us need to play up to it, some to express indignant indignation about it, and the world revolves round a few more times.
Back to Father’s Day and my first ever flowers 🙂
Jings what a load of crap the STV guy, let’s call him Ernest as he was very earnest as well as ignorant. SNP started falling in the polls in March, not just after Sturgeon was arrested. Perhaps STV should follow SGP not some dude from Essex Uni.
Bless!
Definitely not Tatu.
It has been exceptionally dry and the levels, in some reservoirs, are lower than normal; but we need to put things into perspective. Scotland has 9 times as many waterways than England and Wales. One of them, Loch Ness, has more fresh water than every lake, reservoir, river canal, pond and puddle in England and Wales combined.
Scottish Water, through no fault of its own, is a target. It along with SEPA, therefore Scotgov, have to be shown to be “just as bad” as the privatised English companies and DEFRA when it comes to water supply and especially sewerage. The narrative is being pushed that Scotland has sewage leaks too, but there isn’t much monitoring; so the public are being, ahem, invited to believe Scotland’s water and sewage is much worse than we’re being told by Scottish Water, SEPA and Scotgov.
As John Robertson, at TuS, tirelessly points out: its not the number of leaks that are important, they do happen in Scotland – mainly during storms, but the sheer scale of them in England, where dumping sewage is almost routine, the volume of each outflow is off the scale. He’s estimated that England is pumping sewage into its waterways a 3000 times the rate, per capita, that Scotland does.
Ah, “but Scottish Water only monitor a small percentage of these waterways, so how do we really know”, which is fair enough, they do; but they don’t have to. Many of them are nowhere near population centres, intensive agriculture or industry.
So when you read a headline about “concern” that water levels are “low”, its just more drip-fed negativity being shoehorned into your consciousness. Its designed for you to connect the dots with the other guff you’ve heard about Scottish Water. You’re being nudged into thinking that public ownership isn’t any better, that SEPA and therefore Scotgov and, by extension the SNP/Greens are not doing their jobs.
Thank you. That’s what I thought, just good to have it confirmed by someone more knowledgeable than me
Tatu,
SEPA recently published their water quality report for Scottish beaches. They monitor over 80 and 89 were Ok. I think Scotland also has 48 blue flag beaches which are probably included in the 89 in the report.
Details here
https://www2.sepa.org.uk/bathingwaters/
👍Good news, thanks
Just fortunate timing Tatu, that lot was fresh in the memory.
I’d only looked into it a few days ago, to counter a perennial blowhard over at the Guardian.
Apologies for the intrusion Drew but don’t confuse the roles of SW and SEPA – SEPA takes lead on identifying environmental impact issues and have a long history of chasing polluters – However, pushback from farmers or treatment plant owners in Scotland is almost unheard of going back over 50 years.
Scottish Water always had a higher level of alarm over water supplies than any in the UK, but when the “water hits the fan” in Scotland you can bet not only will SW respond in advance (eg Broadford) but imminent bad news is due in England and a “make smoke” signal has been received at HMS James Cook.
Such is Broadford “news”.
No need to apologise Bob, I’m all for clarification; I could have explained it better. I’m not confused (at least I hope not) over SEPAs role, I mentioned them because they’re taking undue flak too.
Indeed they are but it’s not difficult to see why such nonsense should be amplified by Scotland’s bast…. (Sorry, one of those Jeremy Rhyming Slang Episodes) of democracy James ’emails’ Co.. (Sorry, one of those Jeremy Rhyming Slang Episodes again).
Thankfully Wikipedia confirms James as nothing of interest, shallow and artificial, jeez, who knew.
Brit Nats media will promote English labour over the tories in Scotland in order to damage the SNP.
They see labour as their ally and they are.
Even some Albanists support labour over independence such is their viral hatred of the snp which knows no bounds.
Remember all folk had to do was remove FM Sturgeon and they would be happy. But they are not. Now it’s the new FM and they have their next candidate to promote. It would not be unreasonable to suggest if the SNP got a new FM they would still oppose.
They have been seen time and time again to side with the unionists.
If it quakes like a 🦆 it is.
The media and opposition’s instructions are to hound and harass Nicola Sturgeon night and day until she breaks and leaves her home and or even the country, they still see her as the threat
Salmond’s internet warriors will continue infesting the websites and comments sections of the National pouring out the hatred encouraging others to join them with torches and pitchforks in their burn the witch project
Humza is useless, rubbish him but keep killing Sturgeon, is the focus of their plan
The trouble with that plan apart from its malicious vindictiveness is they’re admitting by their attention on Nicola Sturgeon how important she was and still is
Because if the former FM were as useless and to blame for all the ills that befall us surely they would be happy she’s *gone*? and just ignore her
Nicola Sturgeon’s very existence frightens them, if they cannot destroy her she’ll be back, and that frightens them even more, because she knows everything about everybody and they threatened not only her but her family also, that was a mistake and a step too far
Nicola Sturgeon will always have friends and allies, Salmond’s Tory mates will desert him once the truth comes out, and the media bottom feeders will turn their attention onto that particular sewer
Anas Sarwar said on Laura Kuenssberg this morning :
““We are clear that oil and gas will play a significant role… for decades to come”
Every person that I knew in 2014 who were NO voters, and too the many in audiences on debate programmes that I watched and heard in 2014 who were also NO, would use the argument that oil was running out and too that oil prices fluctuate thus an Indy Scotland could not rely upon revenues from oil going forward if Scotland became independent….who told them that ?…who indeed….
Plus in 2014 BBC tweeted that ” according to experts oil will run out in 5 years time”….as in 2019…who were the ‘experts’ ?…who indeed…
Fast forward and we have now seen the UK Tory Government gain billions from revenues via oil and gas and promote , as resources , their reliance for a long time to come….
Labour based much of their pledges and dependence upon windfall tax from Oil and Gas if they become the next government in the UK…..
Do any of the people I mentioned above, as in the NO voters, now think that perhaps they were lied to by the NO side considering what has now happened in respect to oil and the huge wealth it has generated for the Tory UK Treasury since 2014 and too what Labour now say in relation to Oil should they gain power…..
They all said that revenue from Oil could not be relied upon for an independent Scotland as it was running out……. indeed it ,oil, like membership of the EU, were consistent arguments used by them in their 2014 BT NO campaign to try and dissuade Scots from having the confidence to vote YES to an independent Scotland….Project Fear.
Sarwar, Labour and the Tories are trolling us…..as they know full well what they said in 2014 in relation to oil (and EU membership) but their contempt for us knows no bounds via what they are saying now on both matters…as in the opposite….where they are promoting the long term reliance and revenue from something that….according to them in 2014…should be long gone…..as indeed was their assurance also that only as part of the UK could Scotland ensure continued EU membership…..
Past being sick of the same old **** (rhymes with pit)…..but this is where we are …in a vicious circle orchestrated by a vicious opposition and media ……
Labour lies, Tory lies, Lib Dem lies now all brexiters and anti-Scots.
Independence for Scotland 🏴
*Sir* Ian Wood of the “Wood group” remember him in the run up to 2014, never off our TVs insisting there was no more oil and Scotland was doomed?
Well Sir Ian Wood has just been loaned £4 hundred million by the UK government to keep finding new and innovative ways of digging up more and more oil that he insisted was running out in Scotland
This is not for any assistance with transitioning to renewable energy, oh no, this is about maximum effort to not only keep things as they are, but to increase the amount of the stuff they’re digging up, and to understand, this is not for our own use in this so called UK, this is to sell to others instead of helping them with renewable energy thus keeping poorer nations always dependent on the ones that have the oil and that’s who now? Sir Keir Starmer Lord Rishi Sunak and Lord uncle Tom Cobley and all
While the SNP is putting as much money as it can from its fixed budget into transitioning from oil for the workers in that field to make Scotland cleaner and a world leader in renewables, England is paying out 20 times more to big oil to stop the SNP doing it
England is stripping Scotland selling it and it will leave the workers with nothing
Just like Thatcher did
Yep talking of renewable energy….that’s the latest scam they are using when trying to deflect on the lies they told on oil in 2014…..
As if any SNP person raises how they, the BT side, conned Scots on oil in 2014….they are met with a snide comment on how they thought that the SNP no longer want to use fossil fuels but focus on renewable energy for the future….thus thinking they can deflect away from their deceit on oil in 2014…..
But facts are facts and anyone who did vote NO in 2014 needs to think very hard on the FACT that if they lied about oil then.. what else did they lie about and more importantly going forward what will they lie about NOW and in the future to once again stop Scotland becoming independent….
Just think both Tory and Labour speak about the need for a phased out, indeed a very very gradual plan, on the time that reliance of fossil fuels stops until renewable energy can be fully phased in…. both in the context that both will be for the benefit of the WHOLE UK….yet for a country that they said and still say is too small, as in Scotland, oil as a resource was according to them in 2014, and still is ,again according to them, of no financial benefit to us , if we were an independent country….
Going forward they will try to use the same tricks with renewable energy that they used with oil in 2014 as in they will try to make the same (non) argument (lies) that will challenge the capacity, potential and too the position that we, Scotland, if independent, would be in with renewable energy for the future….in fact laughable as it is…we have already heard different versions of “the wind is running out”…..
Apparently Scotland, if independent, is too small and too poor to manage and indeed benefit from it’s own resources….yet remarkably under the control of the UK those same Scottish resources are then able to stretch far and wide to sustain and benefit the whole UK…..does that make sense to NO voters ?
Have a nice day everyone
🙂
Queen feared being seen as a ‘lame duck’ if her death led to Australia becoming a republic
That is the headline from an article for tomorrow’s Torygraph rag. If she felt that way about Australia can you imagine what she must have thought about Scotland becoming an Independent country?
It is little wonder then that the state propaganda has been amplified to MAX in recent weeks, England cannot afford to lose Scotland. Without the comfort blanket of “Great Britain” and “United Kingdom” its status as someone to be respected is gone, its GDP will fall behind that of France, Italy and Poland and they will lose their seat at the top table.
They are too wee, too poor and their leaders are too stupid to make it without us.
https://archive.ph/Ae6lI
Looks like Albanese is just as much a liar as all the other useless heads of government we are lumbered with . How to get rid of these chancers who make false promises until they get elected (or win referendums) and then renege. It’s not as if the head of state and the constitution are insignificant matters.
Days before the King’s Coronation last month, Mr Albanese met the monarch in London and re-issued a formal invitation for a state visit.
Mr Albanese, who was elected in May 2022, has ruled out holding a referendum on Australia becoming a republic unless he is re-elected.
He had previously said he would hold one in his first term, as he is an avowed republican himself.
I think it is slowly dawning on some Scots that the purpose of the British parties here in Scotland is to look after London’s interests and not our’s The argument that the BT parties use in order to justify this is similar to Thatcher’s Trickle Down voodoo economics.
The con is that by allowing London to rule over us,we will be better off.
What’s the definition of *fair* ?
The dictionary says: impartial and just, without favouritism or discrimination
Another definition: One side gets what it wants and the other side is expected to applaud the decision and be happy about it
Which definition do we think England believes ?
It’s why we’ll never talk independence for Scotland into existence, England will never be happy about it, they know it before any discussion can ever take place, so such discussion will never take place until England is forced to accept unhappiness, leaving the word *fair* redundant
Humza Yousaf will launch the next white paper on independence at 10 am today:
I am surprised that today’s Daily Record has a front page on fisherman , where some voted for Brexit, but now against what was promised feel they have been let down badly, considering Labour is a Pro Brexit party…apparently this is to be day one of a week long series by them….
However I have not read the article but wonder, given that they are a pro Labour paper, how they will square this as one of the many negative outcomes of Brexit and how they may cover the other negatives of Brexit this week in their series on it….. especially as like the Tories, Labour’s position, is one and the same as them…. as in both are pro Brexit parties….
The mind boggles on what spin they may try to deploy to promote that perhaps , with Labour, Brexit will be made to “work”….in fact could the purpose and the reasoning behind this series on Brexit by them be nothing more than a PR exercise for Labour and their version of Brexit….as in they, the Daily Record, are trying to offset the SNP argument that Labour are pro Brexit and Brexit is bad….so will the Daily Record, in this Brexit series, only be blaming the Tory Brexit…..I may be wrong on this as I have not read today’s article or obvs seen the rest of their articles but it seems a tad suspicious that a PRO Labour newspaper should diss a policy that the party they support, Labour, is going to adopt as their policy for their future UK…..if they, labour, are elected as the new UK government….
I mean the Daily Record does have form on this kind of manipulative reporting and pre-emptive attempts at destroying SNP’s arguments against Labour ……I do hope I am wrong and they just are exposing how bad Brexit is…no matter which party is in charge at WM….
Willing and more than happy to eat humble pie at the end of week if I am wrong on this…..will not have first hand knowledge though as God forbid I ever will stoop so low and actually buy a Daily Record (snooze) paper………..
Broken Promises? Like the Vow?
The Daily Record readership is about as robust as the Scottish (sic ) Labour Party membership numbers , so how many are even going to read their propaganda ? Thankfully few !
Starmer is on TV right now telling us all in Scotland that all the things Labour said we didn’t have before, we all of a sudden have now
We have power, we have green energy, we can be a world leader, we can have everything that Nicola Sturgeon’s been telling us for years, but when she said it it wasn’t true sais Labour, it’s only true now that Starmer’s saying it, and he and only he can do it all, ring a big F*****g bell all of this?
and here comes the big caveat to match Starmer’s big mouth “If only England votes Labour” and Starmer wins a general election
How many times do we in Scotland have to listen and watch the English Labour party lie their backsides off to us with their vows and promises that mean nothing five minutes after anybody in Scotland votes for these lying bastirts
Honest to God how and where these English Labour people get the brass necked nerve to come to Scotland and steal every word the SNPs been saying for years for Labour to claim it as their own new shiny idea then promise it to us if we vote for them
My father told me what Labour are when he was alive, I’m telling anyone who’ll listen and I’m now 74 years of age, the Labour party will decimate Scotland just like they’ve always done, the Labour party lies, and they lie just the same as the Tories, the difference is even the Tories eventually get embarrassed by their own lies, the Labour party never do, they just keep right on promising to lie
The very thought of that no mark liar Sarwar and his boss Starmer getting anyone in Scotland to vote for them turns my stomach
C’mon Starmer tell us it’s a solemn VOW, you know the Daily Wrecker will print it in BIG on the front page
Indeed Dr Jim…..I mean not that long ago the SNP (and Green Party) were being slated for being AGAINST continuing to use more fossil fuels and instead saying we should invest more money in renewable energy and retrain those formally in the oil industry on renewable energy skills….but Starmer is promoting his ‘plans’ as if it is only HIM and HIS party who are campaigning for green energy and as if they are the only ones who have a green energy vision ……though BIG difference is that Starmer wants to use our renewable energy for the whole UK….just like the Tories…..
This has the same vibe as Lib Dems promoting that they were ‘the’ most Remainer party in the UK….is it not…now Ed Davey says they are ” not a re-join party”….quelle surprise…NOT ! (expect the same U turn from Labour on Green energy if they gain power in the next GE….as instead, like the Tories, they will choose to still rely largely on Oil and Gas and revenues from these resources (ours) for their UK Treasury)
In England the BBC supports the Tories against Labour ( as do the majority of many newspapers)…
In Scotland the BBC, for NOW, supports Labour against the SNP ….where as for the newspapers well they are , depending on what way the political wind is blowing (wind that is generated by them) will favour whichever party they think has a chance of gaining any seats from the SNP…..
( Sorry I am still using Uppercase on some words, not doing it to annoy people, just doing it for emphasis not for shouting…my techno techno skills leave a lot to be desired so unable to change to bold any words that I want to emphasise…though using it less I think and my comments are getting shorter…yes ?…I hope)….
It doesn’t matter how you write it as long as it gets said
🙂
Dr Jim,
Labour in Scotland were every bit as culpable as Mrs Thatcher in the demise of a Scottish Industry in fact they were more so since Labour had 2 periods in power, 1960s & 1970s – when they could have done something to stop the rot but didn’t.
When Atlee nationalised the coal mines there were 225 coal mines across central Scotland from Fife in the east to Ayrshire in the west. By the time Mrs Thatcher came to power in 1979 there were 20 left from the original 225.
Shipbuilding in Scotland actually started to decline at the start of the 20th century but 2 world wars and the Depression disguised that. At the end of WWII 18% of the world’s shipping was built in Scotland. By 1958 that had declined to 4.5% and some yards in Germany could build a ship in half the time that it took a Scottish yard. By the time Labour nationalised the shipyards there were only 6 left in Scotland – 4 on the Clyde, 1 in Dundee and 1 in Aberdeen.
But of course according to Labour it was all Mrs Thatcher’s fault a line they pushed for 30 years which only served to completely hollow out the Labour party in Scotland to the point it has nothing to offer Scotland.
And it breaks your heart when you can look in on a website like Marine Traffic which gives up to date positions on every vessel at sea globally, minute by minute, and see the tens of thousands of vessels plying the world’s oceans, including hundreds in the seas around the UK at this very moment. How many of these were built in Scotland? Next to none.
Excellent article by Prof Robertson setting the colonial record straight
and because ‘Scots‘ (sic) took part in the Empire with ‘relish and enthusiastic commitment.‘
Said without providing any evidence that those from our country who relished the empire self-identified as Scottish only and not British in whole or in part. Only a tiny number of people from Scotland benefitted from the empire; their huge palatial homes are a reminder of this. Most Scots lived in abject poverty, either in city slums or meagre crofts, hence all the emigration – sometimes due to be ‘ethnically cleansed’ by the British in the form of clearances – in search of a better life.
Post 1707 Scotland is a land that produced people of two main nationalities, not one. Sometimes people have both by choice, some just one or the other. About 1 in 10 people in Scotland are British only, and that included many born and bred here. They used to drink in places like the Bristol Bar in it’s heydey.
Calling a Brit from Scotland ‘Scottish’ as if that’s their nationality is clearly stupid and someone like Devine should understand this. They are only Scottish if they say that is their primary (or equal) nationality; and mean it, so don’t say ‘proud Scot but’.
Devine’s ‘Scots relishing the empire with enthusiasm’. You can see the wealth and joy it brought our nation.
Good for the Prof, sick to the back teeth of these tattle merchants insisting Scotland was chock full of slave owning colonisers so that makes us the same as England’s empire building army of elite rich and Royal
It doesn’t, mainly because ordinary Joe sojurs and sailors didn’t and don’t get choices in these things, they did and do as they’re told or face the consequences, and in those days the consequences of not doing were dear
Sir Tom took up his Knighthood ”with relish and enthusiastic commitment ” .
Robert Burns was reluctantly considering work on a planation because he was so poor in Scotland. Fortunately, he didn’t have to do that and wrote a poem “The Slave’s Lament” instead.
The Slave’s Lament
1792
It was in sweet Senegal that my foes did me enthral,
For the lands of Virginia,-ginia, O:
Torn from that lovely shore, and must never see it more;
And alas! I am weary, weary O:
Torn from that lovely shore, and must never see it more;
And alas! I am weary, weary O.
All on that charming coast is no bitter snow and frost,
Like the lands of Virginia,-ginia, O:
There streams for ever flow, and there flowers for ever blow,
And alas! I am weary, weary O:
There streams for ever flow, and there flowers for ever blow,
And alas! I am weary, weary O:
The burden I must bear, while the cruel scourge I fear,
In the lands of Virginia,-ginia, O;
And I think on friends most dear, with the bitter, bitter tear,
And alas! I am weary, weary O:
And I think on friends most dear, with the bitter, bitter tear,
And alas! I am weary, weary O:
A very good “what if” article from SGP:
https://scotgoespop.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-snp-need-to-start-getting-real-they.html
There are 3 external speakers at the SNP Indy Convention this weekend, and I hope they all make it very clear to the SNP heads in the clouds that indeed, there is no such thing as “steady as she goes”. And that perhaps Saturday is the last chance saloon for the SNP.
Drastic pro-Indy action is needed …
If you vote Labour you can have a regional office controlled from London. If you vote for independence you can have the HQ, all the jobs and all the profits controlled from Edinburgh.
Will the Scots vote for the baubles or have the backbone to control their own country. Westminster has always believed the Scots are a supine race, so far we seem to have proved them right. Too many willing to fight for the right to sup at London’s leftovers rather than have their own feast.
I grew up as London drained Scotland’s oil resources, it looks like I may pass on whilst they do the same with energy and no doubt water if the can find a way to make us pay for them to take it.
A majority of Scots voted Yes (52.67%) as I did. The latest poles are at 56% Yes the two previous 53% Yes. It has taken the money woes of the past winter to get those sitting on the fence to commit as they are now doing. I expect the Yes poles to keep rising as we progress through the year! Leaving the EU (BXT) will sink the English to an also ran economy in its little world of Serfs and Kings…he’s no my poodle!
Maybe some of the would be Labour voters might have noticed that all that Starmer said were the stolen words of Nicola Sturgeon that he denied Scotland was capable of ever doing at the time, just like Corbyn stole the same words when he was English Labour’s leader
Nothing will happen in Scotland except the usual decimation if the Labour shysters get elected
You gotta laugh at them though ” We’ll all four nations own it together based here in Edinburgh with Scottish ingenuity”
We could own 100% ourselves if the Labour party supported democracy
They’re offering Scotland one quarter share of our own resources if we vote for them
8% would come to Scotland, not a quarter…
But, but he promised it would be equal, he wouldn’t break a promise to Scotland would he? what a shock that would be to realise we’re only 8% equal
The National sets out the key points of the new independence paper on the constitution.
https://archive.fo/wcVqA
Listened to some of the ”Privileges Committee ”debate in HoC .
Sick to death of hearing how the democracy of The House was undermined by the lying shyster Johnson and his Merry Band of swindlers .
Some poor souls were almost in tears as they itemised the vile lies told to them by the lying PM and how impotent they felt as he trashed their sacred institution .
How many of these bleating MPs gave a flying f*ck as the Tories serially undermined the Scottish Parliament – because it was an SNP Government in charge ?
How many of these bleeding hearts gave a flying f*ck when mandate after mandate for a referendum , given by the Scottish electorate in election after election , was ignored by the Westminster elite ?
How many of these self-centred ar*eholes could even point to Scotland on a map , and I include the Scottish red and blue Tories .
Scotland and its people are pawns to be used at their discretion , or a bogeyman to frighten their electorate when an election looms .
Our resources are THEIR resources , and their resources are THEIR resources .
The fact that Scottish democracy is ALWAYS subordinate to England’s needs does not even impinge on their thinking . That , to them , is JUST THE WAY IT IS !
We don’t count !
We might as well not exist !
Democracy only matters to them in their wee , archaic debating chamber when THEY personally are affected .
Very well said James…..
James
Well said.
🏴
Read on social media someone stating that if Labour win the next GE and take over as the next UK government then this person said :
“we’ll just be changing the cast at the next election not the script”
How every true…..and a great way to express it….
Not via Scottish Twitter BTW……so not only some of us Scots wise to New New Labour……and Starmer too….
Also I like Darren McGarvey’s take on Starmer speech today where he tweeted :
“BREAKING: Sir Kier Starmer pledges to base Great British energy company in Scotland to make Scotland feel more included and totally not because Scotland is where all the energy in Britain is.
More as we have it”….
Labour HQ , via Starmer , will create new GB Energy company whose HQ to be based in Scotland but all profits to be syphoned off to London …..just like the Oil…….but we will have an HQ office…..they are spoiling us….all these token gestures…..how lucky are we to have Labour HQ looking after us….as apparently we are too stupid, wee and poor to ever hope to have the equivalent in an independent Scotland…..
I mean remember what happened with our oil….it ran out a long time ago, 2019 I think it was or so the BBC experts said, God we dodged a you know what in 2014 did we not….thank God we have Labour once again telling us what they want to do with our new resource on the block aka renewable energy….pooling and sharing 2023 style….whose doing the pooling and whose doing the sharing and whose unable to use it or benefit from it if independent ?….
Non fact but promoted as a fact….oil and renewable energy is of GREAT value and benefit if FOR the UK and if controlled by a UK government….
Non fact but promoted as a fact …oil and renewable energy is of NO great value or benefit if FOR an independent Scotland and if controlled by a independent Scottish government…..
That seems to be the script constantly used by them no matter who the cast is …via any of the Pro UK political parties….
You would have to very very dense to not see what is happening yet again….but this time with one of our NEW resources…..it’s just like what happened with our oil……no one is surely that dense….to get conned again by the same ones that conned us in 2014 !!
So Westminster went through 5 hours of debate before approving the report and recommended sanction on Johnson with only 7 voting against.
Despite May’s rhetoric of “an unsettling period in our political life”, the reality is that this despicable individual was not only nurtured and protected within England’s political system, but advanced to the highest office in the UK.
This was not simply “an unsettling period…”, it was proof positive of just how broken and corrupt English and thereby British politics has become – There will always be a Johnson, there will always be his sycophantic supporters, there will always be the media machine backing him, it is the way the UK system works.
Scottish Independence can’t come soon enough.
Well, my feedback on the scot gov page was that the temporary constitution has far too much party policy in it like nuclear disarmament and free NHS. And even human rights don’t belong in the initial temporary one. It should have little more than the Claim of Right – and how to enforce it against any government opposition.
But specifying a referendum on the monarchy AFTER Independence is an improvement on including it as a part of Indy – where it doesn’t belong despite the worst efforts of the likes of the National to push push and push it again.
For every party policy included as a definite part of Independence, there is a percentage of votes lost for YES. Getting a YES vote is important above all; policies come after Indy.
A referendum on the monarchy can’t be considered a party policy as it is neutral – it is neither for nor against a monarch. It’s the same with an indyref; voters can use this to endorse the union as much as they can independence. The former is what happened last time, as unionists continuously remind us. 🙂
British parties have gone out of their way to convince voters that referendums are not neutral, but divisive partisan party polices; unless that is, it’s their referendum. This is try an supress democracy. It’s that simple.
Anyhoo, at present, an independent Scotland has no monarchy. That is a party policy of British parties, and at least some pro-indy folks would like a monarch for our newly reborn indy Scotland. As things stand, an indy Scotland’s situation is, as you note, and effective blank sheet. We can’t have Charles as King unless we vote for that in a referendum. Otherwise, it would be existing party police forced upon us. He is not king of the Scots people by the grace of some superhuman entity, but by our own decision to be part of the UK / not vote for overtly pro-republican parties. The way to avoid party policy here (for vs against) for the reboard country of Scotland, is to ask the electorate. Opposing this would be trying to push party policy. 🙂
On the EU, I think a referendum here would make sense too. Just after the British one it didn’t make a lot of sense as we’d just massively endorsed membership. However much time has passed now, so it would be appropriate, at least if parties supporting membership were not getting >50% of the vote in post-indy elections. But then if that was happening, naturally a referendum would be on the cards!
I’m sorry but endorsing the A V Dicey doctrine and the Gallagher and Boyle assertion that Scotland would begin as a new state rather than the Continuing State which before 1707 agreed by an Act of parliament the line of succession means that a referendum on the monarchy is to either retain or remove Charles as King. He is by law the rightful King of Scots.
He is by law the rightful King of Scots.
By the grace of Scots. Except they have not given their grace since at least 2014, when this might have been called into question. But they said they wanted to remain in the UK, which came with a monarchy, and his mum as Queen.
Laws are what we make them, and in a democracy, Charles cannot have the automatic right to be king of Scots. Maybe religious people can feel that, but it doesn’t apply to the rest of us. It goes against all democratic principles. He can be if Scots want him, hence I said that democratically, this question needs to be asked as part of a new constitution, if simply because the latter needs to have the blessing of the people at the ballot box too.
May main point was that asking is neutral; it’s not party political. No Y/N vote can be seen as party political; not if you can oppose to retain the status quo. The AV vote was just a waste of time, but if forced nothing on anyone.
Semantics do not an argument make SS.
Not sure what you mean? My post is factual and correct. Charles is king of the UKoGB&NI, which makes him legally king of the land of England and, by convention, also King of Scots. But it is simply that. Convention. The UK has no written constitution, only traditional and convention. Legally there is basically nothing which would automatically mean Charles would be head of state of an independent Scotland. This would need to be passed into law post-independence, if simply as for now the laws on the head of state are British. We lack a constitution for an indy Scotland and a head of state is key to that, so there’d be no getting around it. We would need to decide to keep him. There is no way to avoid at least parliament – our elected reps – deciding this.
And what does ‘King of Scots’ mean anyway? It can’t be ‘Scottish nationals’ since no such thing legally exists in the same way I’m not a British national either, but just a citizen. It can’t be people who self-id as Scottish obviously. I nationally identify as Scottish but this is an identity which belongs to me, and involves no King. The only legal nationality I hold is Irish. I hold two multi-country union citizenships on top (UK and EU). At most, Charles is king of those Scots that wish him to be in their hearts – that is the only way to be King of Scots. If that’s a majority of them, then chances are he’ll stay as head of state.
In terms of all those former countries which retain him or his predecessors as head state, these did so by choice. British monarchs were not entitled to keep being the head of state for these, it was the choice of inhabitants. Upon independence, they made their choice as they had to because of the lack of any legal right of continuation.
Anyway, I fail to see what was wrong with my main point, which was that binary referendums are apolitical, if it is possible to reject the proposition. A biased referendum might be .e.g. as to whether we should (1) get rid of Charles or (2) give him a lesser role, but no way for people to say they want to keep the status quo!
Legally there is basically nothing which would automatically mean Charles would be head of state of an independent Scotland.
Yes there is The Union of the Crowns, this is completely separate to Scotland becoming an Independent Country. Until the Parliament of a independent Scotland passed legislation superseding The Union of the Crowns, Charles (or his successor) would be Head of State of Scotland. Scotland would be the same as it was between 1603 and & 1707 an Independent country in the Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Ireland).
Upon superseding The Union of the Crowns, Scotland could either decide to keep Charles as Head of State as King of Scotland or become an republic.
Ok, righto! All that simple huh!
Scotland could either decide to keep Charles as Head of State as King of Scotland or become an republic.
Erm that’s what I keep saying over and over. Their must be a decision, either via election or referendum, as it’s not automatic at all.
It’s impossible that there could not be a direct or indirect decision. He doesn’t just automatically end up as head of a state of a country which doesn’t have a constitution written with him as head of state.
It’s not like Scotland reverts to a 1700’s kingdom upon indy with Charles in direct charge lol.
We vote, we say Yes, we declare indy (sovereignty) and that’s when the process of disentangling ourselves from the UK begins. Much like the period between the EUref and final brexit day. We enter a no man’s land. Charles enters that too. He’s not King of Scotland, but not not King of Scotland as he’s still King of GB and we’re half in that. But Holyrood is now sovereign, even though we are still following laws of the UK for a while by mutual agreement, which includes Charles visiting Balmoral pensively.
However, Holyrood could write a new constitution for Scotland, to apply on final indy day, which doesn’t mention anything about Charles. It just says we shall have an elected head of state etc. Charles has no say in this whatsoever, he can only watch on. We all go out and vote for this constitution in a referendum maybe. Job done. We don’t need vote to remove him, just not write him into any new constitution.
This can happen because Charles is not automatically king of a independent Scotland. He doesn’t own the place legally at all. He has no automatic right to anything. His position is simply titular and holds no power. It’s not the middle ages!
It’s not like he can go to the High Court in Edinburgh and say ‘Look here old boy, I am, by the Grace of God, King of Scots! It’s my Kingdom! I am King unless we at least have a vote to dispose of me!’. 🙂
I thought people understood this.
Totally agree.
The monarchy stays as it is after Independence, unless action is taken. That’s the way it is. indy changes the parliament, not the monarchy.
1603 QE1 of England dies without an heir
1603 James VI of Scotland becomes also James I of England
* * * 1707 treaty enacted in acts of onion
…
* * * * * * 2022/3 Charles becomes Charles 3 of Scots
…
* * * 2024 treaty + acts of onion dissolved after GE
2024 Charles 3 is STILL Charles 3 of Scots
Press and Journal reports….or rather Sir Ian Wood allowed to campaign for the Tories…
” Sir Ian Wood warns Labour’s oil and gas policy puts ‘tens of thousands of jobs in jeopardy”…..
Given what he said about oil in 2014…when according to him the oil is to run out , then these oil jobs he is referring to , are then just ‘Temporary’ jobs anyway…No ?
The Guardian did an article on red flags in Scarborough and Whitstable as pollution levels soar and businesses forced to close due to sewage in seas…then they state “no swimming, no surfing : how a summer of sewage is ruining the ‘British’ seaside day out”……
An astute Twitter user in Scotland said “It says “British”, but it’s a story about England. If this was in Scotland, the Tories would be demanding that compensation be paid to businesses in seaside resorts”.
Another astute Scot also on Twitter said “Scots who only want to govern our own country have a problem, we are constantly on a daily basis subsumed into the problems of England by the terms “Britain”, “British” “UK”
Rule is if issue/problem originates in England it must then always morph into it then being a ‘British’ issue/problem…..however the other rule is when it is perceived to be connected to Scotland alone then it is promoted as such….as in always referred to as being a Scottish issue/problem….that’s how they work…never taking responsibility or ownership for their own flaws and failings via anything that originates from England alone…we must get dragged into us being culpable also ……All under the banner of ‘British patriotism’……
It’s a funny old world we live in where a country like England say they can legally declare that having a monarchy is constitutional
The definition of the word constitution is: *Being in accordance with or authorised by the constitution of a state or society*
Notice the problem with that definition? it isn’t a definition at all, it refers to the word constitution as the definition of itself without explanation
In other words the dictionary is saying that *it is because it is* and if the state says it is then it still is
Given that the so called UK has no written constitution, then the monarchy is only accepted by those who say it is, thus giving basis to definite objections to say it’s not
I’m almost at the stage of not understanding myself now, but it seems to me the monarchy and its continued existence can be subject to any referendum by each and any individual state simply because it cannot be constitutional if a state decides it’s not, so having a referendum on the proposition of removing it cannot be unconstitutional, so Scotland in my reckoning could instigate a referendum on the monarchy if it chose to
The amusing part is that England would deny Scotland such a referendum but would have to go to the supreme court again to tell Scotland we are not a country or a state but a subjected territory under the unconstitutional English crown
Charlov Vladimir Vindsor 1, ultimate dictator and crusher of rebellious Scots
because a bunch of folk in England say so
[…] Source […]
So Sturgeon comes into work today with a smile on her face and puts herself forward to answer questions before getting on with the job of working for her constituents and the cause of independence.
This is looking more each day like the outcome is going to be a total f’n disaster for the union.
The idiots questioning her seem to lack any perception whatsoever. How can you be an ‘investigative’ journalist and not ponder what’s right in front of you?
If I was a journalist, I’d be thinking ‘Hmm, she’s back at work and being sent flowers, sympathy cards etc by her fellow SNP MSPs. Party leader seems totally relaxed about this and is backing her and other affected former colleagues to the hilt. This would only make any sense if, internally, the party were very confident about the expected outcome of the investigation. Super confident. Which would tie in with all concerned released without charge and the Daily Record even predicting a wild goose chase…’
Watch this folks, but I would now be so f’n worried if I supported the UK.