The holidays are coming up so I won’t be blogging for the duration. I will be back in the New Year. I am sure that there will be plenty to keep you occupied in the comments section in the meantime.
My mum has been transferred to a hospital closer to most of the family. The good news is that they no longer think that death is getting close. It appears that what was making her so ill was a very bad reaction to the immunotherapy treatment and the hope is that as the drugs leave her system, which could take a while, she will start to show some improvement. She has good days and bad days but she has started to eat small amounts again.
She is still very poorly but is somewhat better than she was last week. They will not be starting the immunotherapy again as she had such a poor reaction to it. Unfortunately this also means that the cancer will start to reassert itself and they have no other treatment options for it. It’s a particularly aggressive cancer and there is now nothing to keep it in check. We still have some tough times ahead but the immediate cause for concern appears to have passed. Thank you for all your kind words.
Have a great Christmas and New Year and I will be back early in January.
_______________________________________________
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205 comments on “Holiday break”
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Wee Ginger Dug 
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you too, Paul. Sorry to hear that your mother is still in a bad state. Wishing her all the best.
Good to hear that your mum is closer to family and feeling better. Sounds like she is in good hands. (Hope she took her marzipan chocs with her!)
Hope you have a Happy Xmas and New Year and find lots of things to enjoy and celebrate even amongst the gloomy circumstances, the weather, the Tories, wars, earthquakes, volcanoes, plagues and poor TV schedules.
We will carry on sorting out the world btl.
Best wishes to you all ☺️
Glad to hear some better news on your mum’s condition.Hope it allows some respite for the winter solstice holiday.
All the best to you😊
I see Mark Drake ford is “intensely relaxed”at being served lifetime bans from several North Wales pubs.
A decent man has ecaped the moral cesspit of english politics I think.
Nice to hear some good news, forget about the blog for a while and give yourself some time and space to spend as you see fit. Meantime I hope you don’t mind me sharing this that I saw tonight, I thought it was class.
Brilliant 😂
Good news. Delighted for you and the family. Enjoy Christmas with your mother.
Prof Robertson does a splendid job again of debunking The New Statesman and BBC misreporting.
SNP’s Scotland seems very attractive to the world if you look at actual evidence, Chris Deerin https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2023/12/22/snps-scotland-seems-very-attractive-to-the-world-if-you-look-at-actual-evidence-chris-deerin/
Enjoy a Christmas and New Year break ,Paul , with those you love !
The new yes.scot site is up and running today. This is where the info and materials to progress the case for independence will be collated. Also, the rebuttal unit will operate here.
https://www.yes.scot
see The national for story behind it.
https://archive.is/bG3UU
All the best for the festive break to you Paul, your mum, and everyone here. Even those I spar with over political / social issues!
Wishing you, your Mum and family a Happy and Peaceful holiday. Enjoy your time together and we’ll keep blethering to each other here until you come back.
Dear Paul I am so pleased that your mum is doing a little better and can at least eat something now. I know it’s not the result you all had hoped for re: Immunotherapy treatment but I hope she improves enough for everyone to have a little more time with her in the coming weeks. Look after yourself and know that you and your family are in my thoughts and prayers. Kind regards, Pam
Amusing timing. Seems folks are fleeing England’s lower taxes so they can pay more in Scotland.
https://archive.is/eSE6E
Scotland’s net migration from rest of the UK continues to grow
SCOTLAND’S annual net migration from the rest of the UK has continued to grow, with more people coming in to the country than leaving, figures show.
The latest figures from National Records Scotland (NRS) show that since 2010, Scotland’s annual net migration from the rest of the UK increased from 2909 to 8914.
In 2021, inflow from the rest of the UK was 14,400 higher (+34%) than the previous year, while 8900 more people moved to Scotland from the rest of the UK than left.
Or more likely jumping on board the Brexit lifeboat before it departs. Scotland is the only place in the UK to have seen an increased in the number of EU citizens taking up residence since Brexit, with these coming from England.
I’m afraid you are misinterpreting – The bulk of the rise from England are those looking to a better quality of life in retirement, but essentially escaping England’s descent into ever greater chaos – eg Rwanda – 290 million to accommodate ca 200 asylum seekers because it will deter ‘small boats’ is beyond Tesla ludicrous, but that is what is being sold to England as a ‘plan’…
If not already convinced on the merits of Independence, it will not take long for those retirees to be convinced by fellow ‘refugees’ of it being the only solution..
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24007762.recession-danger-uk-economy-gdp-falls-q3-october/
“Recession danger for UK economy as GDP falls in Q3, October”
What the incredibly stupid Tory UK Government doesn’t seem to realise, is that the public sector is part of GDP, and is part of the economy. Giving money to their rich pals to stuff into offshore bank accounts does absolutely nothing to stimulate the UK economy, in fact quite the reverse.
Cut the public sector – risk recession.
Had Newton been an economist, by the way, this would probably have been his Third Law of GDP:
For every cut to the public sector there needs to be an equal and opposite increase to the private sector. Just to stand still.
Hence the origin of the expression:
“If I had a long enough economic lever I could feed the world”
I rest my fulcrum.
There are certain car parts that are difficult to source in the UK now because they’re made in the countries that own the *wonderful* English/British car industry, and this is true of many items particularly since English/Britain’s wonderful Brexit
So it would come as no surprise to anyone when Ferguson’s ship yard announce a two month delay due to sourcing some parts required to finish off the already built ferries
Strangely enough the BBC and STV don’t seem to understand or know about shortages of parts supplies, maybe none of them have cars that need certain chips to make the vehicle’s engine run in the correct manner? or maybe they’re so very rich they all get taxis and limousine drivers collecting and dropping them off wherever they go?
I think they know fine well as they report the delay to the ferries when they announce it with the biggest outraged sigh they can muster
In the XL Bully catastrophe that has hit England with hordes of murdering dogs roaming the streets and killing at will, the grand unelected dictator Sunak declared a total ban on these mutts because they are far more murdery than all the other dogs that have gone before, so in a lovely piece of wedge issue politicking the BBC and STV in Scotland have decided to make a big issue out of the rules for dogs in Scotland being different as some folk are buying XL Bully pups from broken hearted owners in England
This has given BBC and STV the great pleasure in reporting that all these murdery gnashing toothed people killers are being brought to Scotland to kill us all as we stand at the bus stops in our towns and villages unaware of the danger to come
And all caused by the SNP Scottish government for not being and doing the same thing as the all knowing all seeing English/UK government, led by a man who just a little while ago couldn’t have cared less how many people died of Covid but now that there’s a definite election coming says he’s deeply concerned about some dogs
So do we believe Rishi Sunak and the BBC and STV when they say they’re so deeply concerned about our welfare now?
From the National: “Republic CEO Graham Smith, who was among the protesters arrested, told The National …”
From the website for the (British) Republic (what we want page):
https://www.republic.org.uk/what_we_want
“When Britain becomes a republic
A very British republic
A democratic Britain will also give a huge boost to ‘brand Britain’.
As VisitBritain says in their guide to promoting Britain
A very British republic
making Britain a more democratic and fairer place to live
Of course, this is a very British republic
A new head of state for Britain
Do you like this page?”
Hands up those who want any sort of Britain for Scotland.
Is the National thick or what? They keep promoting this British republic.
Get rid of the kingdoms of Scotland and England…
One British people. One British republic.
Gulp.
Ein Volk, Eine Republik, Ein …
Indeed.
Bye bye Scottish identity, bye bye Treaty of Union, bye bye Acts of Union as the Treaty they ratified disappears in a puff of Brit.
And Independence becomes far more difficult, kind of like Blackheath wanting to become independent of London.
It’s all Britain now, innit?
I’m in the odd position of being ostensibly a republican, but if there was a referendum on the UK becoming one republic, I’d have to vote no.
In an indy Scotland, I’d vote yes if it was the only way to rid us of the leeches that are the Windsors. That said, I’m not specifically against something like Norway, where the royals are almost just titular. It’s just no way I’d support having a leeching English king and heir who couldn’t be less representative of Scots. I’d rather have Queen Markle!
Maybe instead we vote for a Guardian of Scotland who takes a ceremonial king like role for a period of 5 years, renewable. Has no powers whatsoever, but keeps the tradition of our most ancient of kingdoms alive. Or we choose a new king by a similar process, but they can be ousted if we wish as they are king of Scots by the grace of Scots, as is the tradition in Scotland.
I’d vote for e.g. Dennis Canavan or Brian Cox. The latter would make an awesome king of Scots.
STV and BBC both hailing the charity sector for giving away toys and food at Christmas to the poor and homeless are just as bad as the Princess Kate of England visiting a food bank and cheerfully announcing how wonderful they are and that we need more places like this
Why don’t we just wake up in Scotland and donate our money to something meaningful that would drive this English Victorian attitude to reveling in their own graciousness out of our country so that charity doesn’t need to exist in the first place
This self congratulation of themselves on their benevolent giving makes me sick,
and the news where we are promoting charity as a good thing makes me even sicker
Scotland is loaded and we aren’t allowed to access our own cash to make charity no more than a history lesson of England/UK rule
One day our kids will be learning how it used to be and be shocked as to why it took us so long to get rid of England/UK and become a normal country, instead of a copy of a Charles Dickens book
Having read Richard Murphy’s “The Scottish Budget is a mess – thanks to the Tories, not the SNP” piece in the National a few days back https://archive.ph/RamEi it was interesting to read the follow up on his blog https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2023/12/20/ending-the-toxic-politics-that-is-breaking-the-uk-and-the-world-beyond/ where he expanded the points for the UK as a whole.
“The question is, when will we be angry enough to demand the change our society really needs that right now the neoliberal conspiracy within the two-party system in the UK seeks to deny us?”
” The question is, when will we be angry enough to demand the change our society really needs …..”
Seems to me that we Scots never get angry enough, we are too busy fighting amongst ourselves! Focus on Indy, nothing else.
Mild mannered Richard Murphy is such an unlikely revolutionary. But “What is to be done?” as Lenin asked. Obviously writing articles at 3 am is one answer. Thx for posting
A link to an interesting article posted by Lesley Riddoch on the recent ‘The Break-Up of Britain?’ Conference in Edinburgh https://bylinetimes.com/2023/12/22/a-disunited-kingdom-it-is-time-to-tell-an-inclusive-english-story/ with links to 3 connected contributions…
I’ve only read the main article from Anthony Barnett and that from Caroline Lucas thus far, but refreshingly honest perspectives on Scotland’s Independence being not only logical but an inevitable consequence of a failed UK….
Another great link to some interesting articles. Food for thought over the next day or two while icing cake, wrapping presents and sinking under the waves of the festive frenzy.
It’s just one f’n face palm after another.
Now that brexit transitional agreements are starting to end, with a lack of new trade deals in place, so England leads us into brecession. It’s only going to get worse unless unless the UK re-joins the EU, which the EU won’t allow as long as England votes for right-wing brexiters like Labour and the Tories.
You need to be a democratic country which supports human rights to be in the EU, and England heading down the fascism route at a rate of knots, so forget it. Only way is indy.
https://archive.is/vlFfA
Hard cheese: Canada rejects British attempt to secure tariff-free exports
Many UK cheese makers could face 245% duty from 1 January, making exporting unaffordable…
…Not only are the British negotiators getting nowhere fast on the terms of a comprehensive trade deal with Canada, but the UK’s attempts to at least extend a rollover of the EU terms of trade on cheese exports have been squarely rejected by their Canadian counterparts.
A previous side arrangement, known as the “cheese letters”, maintaining healthy tariff-free export quotas on cheese will come to an end on 31 December without anything tasty to replace it, the government has conceded.
Former SNP strategist, that’s former, says we need to become English, sit in the house of Lords then tell them we don’t like being English anymore, and that’s how Scotland will become independent
Former strategist remember, former, thank the heavens there are no current Dumbo’s like this guy
I seem to recall that when he appeared on QT, the introduction, from FB, seemed to sound like moving jobs regularly since 2014 (even foregoing the priesthood!?) and now (in the best tradition of ‘floaters’) comes to the surface again and gets front page headlines in our indy-supporting (?) National newspaper.
We are are own worst enemies!
Constitutionally the SNPs existence is based on ending the union with England so to suggest entering the House of Lords would require the co-operation of the UK government in order to elevate ex SNP or *others* who were not now SNP members to that institution, now if the UK government agreed to such a thing why would they do that?
And the answer to that one is for their own propaganda benefit and great enjoyment of ridiculing the SNP should any of their ranks even consider such a move
So just who would be the ex SNP politicians or *other* who’d jump at the chance to offer themselves up for such permanent political seats in a *union* parliament?
One of the answers to that question is a big fat obvious one, and it was a Labour party idea originally made just before the 2014 independence referendum, and the man that made the offer was Labour party spin doctor Alistair Campbell on the instructions of the then leader Ed Miliband
As an encouragement to even more Scots digging their weapons out of their basement hiding places this move would indeed be just causation, but politically completely the wrong thing to do
Now what kind of person with a grudge against their own party people and country would want a thing like that? you don’t have to be a Rolf Harris to guess who it is yet
People are angry enough.
The Tories will be gone in months. The majority in Scotland want another Independence Ref. 70%.
The only group in Scotland who do not support Independence, by a majority, are over 65 year olds. Unless everyone reaches 65 and changes. Hardly likely. Independence will come.
There is a majority Scottish Gov SNP forming policies elected by a massive majority in Scotland. Looking forward to change.
The Royals cost £400million a year. Pay 10% tax on £20Million. £2Million. Pay no corporation tax or capital gains tax. Tax evade. If they and their associates paid tax there would be less need for charity.
£30Billion evaded in the UK. £3Billion in Scotland. Although Scotland raises more tax pro rata. £87Billion raised in Scotland. £731Billion raised in the UK, pro rata less. Scotland borrows and spends less. The UK Gov spends the rest £Billions of Scotlands monies.
Brexit lost £Billions. Illegal wars, decommissioning nuclear, Trident, HS2, Hinkley Point, tax evasion. All wasting £Billions. Westminster decisions. No growth etc.
UK Tax raises down from £817Billion to £731Billion. Westminster spending £1090Billion. Borrowing and spending more in the rest of the UK. Scotland has to make the debt repayments.
Nadolig Llawen to all my readers.
I leave you this which I thought was a great story.
https://nation.cymru/culture/how-a-welsh-soldiers-beautiful-singing-caused-a-truce-on-the-battlefield-2/
I missed FMQs this week but it looks like a lively session. Humza Yousaf asks Anas Sarwar if all he wants for Xmas is a backbone.
Just finished reading Caroline Lucas’ article on England and its status as a single nation state. Bob linked above to these articles from the “Break Up of Britain” conference in Edinburgh.
Well written and interesting. Worth a read.
Glad you enjoyed it, but in my attempt to hear ALL the speeches in full at this event, only found this at a frankly staggering 7+ hours long, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UVLZiFBXsI – I’m working through it in bits, but jeez…
It appears to have been a thoroughly stimulating conference from attendees who commented, yet no surprise James Cook et al gave it a wide berth on the basis it was only about a dead author, Tom Nairn, which ‘the State’ had sidelined throughout his life…
No reporting means it need not be “the news where you are”, superbly pilloried in a cameo by the author of that memorable phrase, James Robertson himself…
Looks good, great list of speakers. Will get into it once the Big Day has passed. I’ve had Tom Nairn’s book “The Break-up of Britain” for decades but am ashamed to admit I haven’t yet read it! Now’s the time.
The so-called Union of Crowns, where James VI of Scotland took over the crown of England in what turned out to be a reverse takeover, was in 1603.
This almost inevitably led to the Treaty of Union and Acts of Union, where the Parliament of Scotland was adjourned and dissolved by unvoted for royal proclamation on behalf of the so-called unified Queen Anne, in 1707. This was the actual formation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain.
In 1707 therefore, several people of various titles went down to London, to represent Scotland in the House of Lords in theory. It wasn’t until the Union with Ireland in 1801 that the House of Commons was formed, and members from Scotland went down to represent Scotland in theory. Despite protestations by some modern day Unionists, this was NOT the formation of the UK of GB, that had already happened in 1707. 1801 added “and Ireland”.
This sequence SHOULD be examined by qualified constitutional experts from the point of view of Independence, to see how much the jump could be made in a oner, or how much it could – or should – be done by REVERSAL.
In theory at least, reversal would be IN THIS ORDER ONLY:
1). Withdrawal from the House of Commons and ending any presumed authority it had over Scotland
2). Withdrawal from the House of Lords and ending any presumed authority it had over Scotland
3). Withdrawal from the so-called “Union of Crowns”, which is NOT the same as abolishing the monarchy – it might involve having a similar status to Canada for instance. However, it seems to me the so-called Union of Crowns itself should also be abrogated.
From the point of view of Independence, abolishing the House of Lords or the Monarchy is a complete distraction, and possibly a dangerous one if achieved BEFORE Independence.
Meanwhile, having pro-Indy members of the House of Lords from Scotland is something which should be considered only from the point of view of achieving Independence, NOT from the point of view of “I hate the House of Lards”. Who cares – it’s Gone with the Indy. As is the HoC. It might be a good idea, so as to have a totally representative and authoritative Constitutional Convention.
“and possibly a dangerous one if achieved BEFORE Independence.”
I should have said:
“and possibly a dangerous one if achieved BEFORE Independence, but not as a part of the actual process of Independence itself.”
or similar
Well …
https://lordsappointments.independent.gov.uk/
“The Commission wishes to make further appointments to the independent cross benches that will add to the breadth of experience and expertise that already exists within the House of Lords, and also help ensure the House fully represents diversity within our country.”
Give it a lash, Jack! Or Stephen Noon … who is – nominated!
Now, it might be time for a wee Glenlivet 12 yr …
The union of the crowns never took place, advocated by James himself it was rejected by firstly and significantly the English Parliament followed by the Scottish Parliament. Ironically it was rejected by the English Parliament to preserve the very existence of England as a state, had they accepted the English Crown would have been absorbed by Scotland. We would own England.
Golfnut
This tune hasn’t aged a bit, same can’t be said for the band but they can sure still play a tune.
I wish a Happy and peaceful Christmas to all – I know , but I can hope !
Merry Xmas everyone – hope Santa’s been good to you. 🌟
Rebemer nit to drunk end driv
Mary Krixmus
Merry Christmas everyone🌲 especially to you Paul glad to hear your mum is doing is a wee bit better
Two layt, Dr J. Judging by the presents, I think Santa must have been told I was a dyp… dip… heavy drinker.
Merry Christmas to all – especially Paul. I hope this Christmas is everything a family Christmas ought to be and that 2024 is good for you, us, Scotland and the world. (Looking at that list, the further along it I go the more I agree with mj1949 – I can hope!)
And never forget “Why is there a fairy on the top of the Christmas Tree?” –
When four of Santa’s elves got sick, the trainee elves did not produce toys as fast as the regular ones, and Santa began to feel the Pre-Christmas pressure.
Then Mrs. Claus told Santa her Mother was coming to visit, which stressed Santa even more..
When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth and two others had jumped the fence and were out, heaven knows where.
Then when he began to load the sleigh, one of the floorboards cracked, the toy bag fell to the ground and all the toys were scattered. Frustrated, Santa went in the house for a cup of apple cider and a shot of rum.
When he went to the cupboard, he discovered the elves had drunk all the cider and hidden the liquor. In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the cider jug, and it broke into hundreds of little glass pieces all over the kitchen floor.
He went to get the broom and found the mice had eaten all the straw off the end of the broom.
Just then the doorbell rang, and an irritated Santa marched to the door, yanked it open, and there stood a little angel with a great big Christmas tree.
The angel said very cheerfully, ‘Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn’t this a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to stick it?’
Thus began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas tree.
Aaaah, the old ones are the best 😀 !
Full of Xmas spirit already Bob? 😂
I have to admit that by the end of the fourth disaster I was anticipating a different ending. Well done for remembering all of that.
Merry Christmas everyone.
Golfnut
Google does make up for diminishing memory Frank 😉
🤣🤣🤣🤣 I’ve not heard that one before
Day late, but I’ve been busy playing games with my 6 year old grandson. Oh and had to fit a bit of cooking in too. So…Merry Christmas to all and I hope yesterday was a good day for everyone
Merry Christmas to all.
Crăciun fericit tuturor as they say in this neck of the woods… One world, small gods…
Merry Christmas to all WGDers. Hope santa wis guid tae ye aw!
Ah goat a lotta stuff aff ma weans thit aw smells guid
Merry Xmas to all.
And to all a Goodnight!
Mick Wallace, Irish MEP, posts a powerful Xmas message from Bethlehem.
Wow…
Thank you for providing this link. I would have been unaware of it otherwise and even as an atheist, this is something I feel has been important to hear and to reflect upon.
Delivered during a Christmas service at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, the full transcript of the sermon has been provided by Democracy Now at: http://www.democracynow.org/2023/12/26/christ_in_the_rubble_christmas_sermon
I thought it was a very powerful speech. Every line is memorable. No surprise that Mick Wallace posted it out. He and his fellow Irish MEP Clare Daly are always powerful when they speak in the EU Parliament. Fearless and giving a voice to the people who are very much silenced over the Gaza war and so many other issues. Ireland must be proud of their representatives.
Thx for the transcript, it’s good to hear that Democracy Now has broadcast it.
Have you read this? I heard mention of it but, candidly found it hard to locate: ‘The People of Scotland’s Address to World Leaders – The People of Scotland, curated by Makar Kathleen Jamie’
‘This poem was curated by Scotland’s makar Kathleen Jamie in November 2023 from over 400 individual entries from the people of Scotland for a collective poem to address conflict and the consequences of the climate catastrophe.’
The full text is here: https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/address-to-world-leaders/
Would that it were all the people of Scotland’s voices in unison.
‘The children of the world should laugh and play,
not placed in a communal grave.
Explain yourselves.’
What a powerful poem. I didn’t know about it. Our media should be ashamed of themselves. So thx for posting. I hope it spreads far and wide on social media – all that’s left.
[…] Source […]
BBC Scotland correct more broadcasting *errors* than England Wales and Northern Ireland COMBINED!
Yeah, but never at the same time slot as they originally broadcast them
Having seen a video short pop up from Phil at a ‘A Different Bias ‘ about some Tory looney being given space in the Times to moan about running out of energy in the ‘electric cah’ https://youtube.com/shorts/vr3xqlnQEOI, thought to find out who this latest brain dead from the groin up Tory was, but could find nothing… How had the Times managed to disappear an embarrassing story faster than Pacific QuayOdd how Google have now recent even though apparently recently published. Presumably, it was of the Times search, presumably disappeared by the Times faster than a BBC Scotland apology for blatant lying could be written..
Yet Percy Verance came to the rescue turning up https://archive.ph/DwD1q, written by one Giles Coren back in January of this year, bearing a remarkable resemblance to the smirking arsehole Phil had featured, bemoaning his Jaguar iPace with no links whatever to Peter Murrel….
This then lead to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giles_Coren confirming he was not only the son of the irrepressible Alan Coren, but had been a restaurant critic with the Times since his early 30s, when most anybody else would have been looking at a Big Mac and thought it unaffordable luxury given mortgages and energy prices going hroug the roof…
All his own werk for sure…. 🙄
153 countries support and voted for a cease fire in Gaza. 23 countries abstained. UN vote.
France and Italy have called for a cease fire in Gaza. The Pope and many church leaders have called for a cease fire.
There are 196 counties in the world. Europe support a two state solution.
Spain has called for a ceasefire.
Anyone else see this?
Merry Cringey from our unelected Prime Minister.
How sad ! A man so boring that even his own family desert him at Christmas !
With a bit of luck he will be invited to Suella Braverman’s for New Year !
“Last call for Air Rwanda Flight Number 529 to Kigali. Would Mr. R. Sunak and Mrs. S. Braverman please make their way to Gate 29? This is the last call for the one-way Air Rwanda flight to Kigali. Thank you.”
(I like how even Larry the cat tries to avoid the kiss from Rishi-no-mates in this video.)
Bizarre – but he’s probably in the Bahamas.
England sending round the uniforms to deport undesirables not of pure British blood.
This is why England forced me and my wife into feeling we had to pay it £2500 so we could sleep easy knowing that they’d probably not come over the border in the night for her with their red, white and black armbands on. They don’t want Scots marrying such foreigners after all. British jobs and British spouses for British workers is what Labour and the Tories believe in. British kids too this means; no foreign blood poisoning the line. But only 2 of these mind any third kid will will be collectively punished and not qualify for full citizenship rights.
https://archive.is/ZbHCS
Italian woman facing removal from UK despite ‘permanent residency’ card
An Italian environmental technology investor who has lived in the UK for 14 years has discovered she could be removed despite getting a “permanent residency” card after Brexit.
She is one of potentially tens of thousands of EU citizens who were unaware the Home Office changed the rules in 2019 requiring them to apply for a different scheme, called EU settlement.
Silvana, whose name has been changed, discovered her permanent residency card was not valid only when her application to renew her daughter’s European health insurance card (Ehic) before a holiday this summer was rejected.
She says she was then wrongly told by the authorities to apply for a replacement biometric residency identification and paid £200 for an emergency appointment as the family was about to travel. That was also rejected and she was finally given the correct instruction: to apply for the EU settlement scheme, which had officially closed in June 2021 but was still open for late applications on “reasonable grounds”.
That £2.5k going south along with the windfall tax shows you which country is the ‘anti-other subsidy junkie’.
Can’t imagine ever wanting to pay £2.500 for the ”privilege ” of living in a country ( sic ) as dysfunctional as the UKOK !
With its unelected dictatorship of corrupt and incompetent PM ,who can’t even rely on the support of the other corrupt and incompetents HE appointed to his Cabinet , and who thinks that people faced with the heart-breaking dilemma of choosing between eating and heating share his conclusion that it can be solved by ”Stopping the Boats ”;
with a Head of State whose overarching hypocrisy extends to proclaiming himself Defender of Faiths while ignoring his past adulterous behaviour which destroyed his own marriage and who is prepared to sacrifice his younger son and split his family to protect his role at the pinnacle of unearned and undeserved privilege , and who believes himself an environmental advocate , while he and his thick-skinned family jet around the world telling the Little People how to protect the planet ;
a ”country” in which the richest and most powerful have created the fastest growing industry- Food Banks – and boast about this proliferation , and even have the endorsement of The Royals as they use Baby Banks for their own propaganda publicity videos ;
a place where the richest complain about the burden of taxation while simultaneously avoiding/evading any tax using loopholes provided by their accomplices in Government , while the poorest pay more as a share of income than the rich but who have no influence on those who decide the level of taxation ;
a place where the National Health Service is being deliberately undermined to prepare it for transfer to the grasping clutches of the people who have destroyed English Water for profit , destroyed the Railway System for profit , destroyed the Post office for profit , impoverished millions through sky-high energy prices …
A country to be proud of , no doubt !
… and we are asked to sing, as part of our ‘national’ [sic.] anthem, to ask supernatural being to ‘save’ this embodiment of virtue as being the ultimate symbol of the State, whilst also advocating for the genocide of others of the same State who are deemed ‘rebellious’.
I think I’ll pass.
You have to be a useful member of society to come to England’s UK, like say a person prepared to be called British who does sport really good, they give you honours and knighthoods and titles and stuff for that
Then you leave and they still call you *British* even though you never were, never will be, never wanted to be, but the money was good so what the hell, let the stupid buggers say what they like
Without visiting the ‘Duchy of Cornwall’ and speaking with the locals, few would have any idea that feudalism was still a thing in the United Queendom, or how draconian was ‘Prince Charles’s’ rule in his very own fiefdom before he became official protector of the face and the faceless.
Looking back it was at least £2k for Mrs SS for everything through to the black Reich passport. I have the 2.5 figure in my head, but I may have remembered incorrectly, or costs may have changed. She didn’t have to pay for years of visas beforehand though as she was EU.
It’s often £10k for highly qualified people with degrees from top unis, from the start of their time e.g. doing a PhD here, to when they finally get permanent leave to remain and that black passport.
They get charged tax and NI to cover NHS costs just like the rest of us when they start a job, then England charges them again for NHS costs, even if they live in Scotland where the Scottish government policy is free for all at the point of delivery. So England is a subsidy junkie here yet again. It takes money from overseas workers in Scotland ‘for the NHS’, and keeps it for itself (from my understanding, see below).
https://www.nhsinform.scot/care-support-and-rights/health-rights/access/healthcare-for-overseas-visitors/
£100 per person for every one. going to Europe. (One week). Health Insurance Instead of reciprocal healthcare agreement. Especially for older people. They voted for Brexit.
£100Billion lost in trade, CAP payments, shared EU defence cost.
EU contribution cost UK £4Billion. £Billions came back. Largest market, CAP payments, shared Defence costs, lower prices for good and services. Lucrative contracts and agreements with other larger countries.
70% of the UK support re entry, to the EU, especially in Scotland.
Apparently Sunak’s next short film will be a take on Con Air.
You do know what ‘con’ means in French, yir2? 😉
If not, I’m sure Mme S_S will enlighten you 🙂
Merde
Honestly yir2, why couldn’t you just put the bunny back into the box…?
Co-starring Suella Braverman as Swamp Thing.
Part of the soundtrack will be “Sweet Home Rwanda” …
Tory James Cleverly made a joke about a date rape drug which was I’m quite sure was not deliberately meant as an encouragement for folk to go out and do such a thing, but it was however unwise in this day and age of the professionally outraged who are always desperately keen to demonise folk that make jokes about anything whatsoever, even when it’s blatantly obvious no harm in the slightest was ever intended
So no I’m not defending a Tory I’m defending humour against the multitudes of killjoys and politicians who pretend to be mortally offended all of the time about everything anybody ever says
What I really am concerned about is the nutcase Rishi Sunak when in his defence of his Tory minion Cleverly uttered these words
“That matter is now closed”
So when the professionally outraged are pearl clutching at a joke, they’re missing the real offence, which is an unelected by anyone Rishi Sunak installed in the position of Prime Minister making a statement as though he might have the power to enforce people’s silence on the subject
Now that’s a whole other kind of worry far worse than any joke is it not? get a wee bit concerned about that behaviour
Dear God – James Cook the Suit gets increasingly desperate for his gong – Probably a red flag from ‘peel me a grape’ future Lord Jack-Schitt over Yousaf’s Christmas message lasting more than 24 hours on BBC/Scotland/Politics, now demoted by the earth shattering political news in Scotland, “Treasury says 2024 Budget to be held on 6 March” with a pic of Jeremy Rhyming slang, from BBC/UK/Business… I kid you not.
As if it was not bad enough that James (we’ve seen the) non-existent (emails) Cook was returned from the US to make room for his old boss, this clown actually hoped despite his predecessor’s failure in propaganda, that his high-heels are more impressive than Sarah’s – Spoiler alert James, they’re not, you only look even more stupid.
Nobody gave a flying f..k about “CalMac ferries facing further potential delays” or “Scots ‘pay more for less’ after budget says Ross” (Forres Gump), or “Scottish government abandons court case over gender law veto” or the “A9 dualling project delayed by 10 years until 2035” or “Water body chief resigns over £77k Harvard expenses row”, the relentless nonsense endlessly fiddled to appear recent.
Scots really don’t give a toss what BBC Scotland (Glasgow Rose) has to say any more James, Glenn, Lazy, etc., you blew it…
Following on from my earlier reference to the “The Break Up Of Britain Conference”, I note the Lesley Riddoch podcast has featured this excerpt as a fillet https://www.lesleyriddoch.com/podcast
From the National:
“Scotland Office has no idea of staffing levels… but costs soar to more than £1m”
That’s because there are no staff there. Or at least, not Viceroy Bobbin’ Jack’s staff. It’s me and my crew, the Secret Association for Counter-Colonial Espionage Undermining and Reprogramming, SACCEUR for short, are secretly using it to stealthily demolish the Previous Union.
You may have noticed a BBC Scotland news item today (those of you who are up and about!) quoting the head of the BMA in Scotland complaining that NHS staffing levels are dangerously low.
Luckily, we have Prof Robertson on the case. It is a nonsensical claim, of course.
The link!
Yep, published 28th December 2023, 06:06 UTC as distraction for the Scottish public to the UK headline “Junior doctors’ strike: Thousands of NHS appointments hit by walkout” https://archive.ph/PlIVF as BMA talks with HMG break down again, hence escalating industrial action…
To be fair to Nick Tiggle on his reporting on the England strike, he does provide context within the UK and acknowledge SG reached a deal to avert strikes.
On the unattributed recycle diversion pastiche from James Cook, no such context in his relentless pursuit of a gong, he sticks with his replacement Professor Pennington with this nugget –
‘BMA Scotland chairman Dr Iain Kennedy said: “Now is not the time for platitudes or to tell us that we are at a record high in terms of doctors.
Because it simply will not wash with the profession who are stretching themselves to breaking point, risking harm to themselves, in a bid to provide the level of care the people of Scotland need and deserve.” ‘
Such as coming to a pay deal perhaps and trying to figure out ways of encouraging medical professional uptake as a viable career choice ?
There are two blue arses in photos on that BBC article page, one of them is the rear end of a member of medical staff providing “the level of care the people of Scotland need and deserve” in a hospital, the other is the face of Dr Kennedy.
My apologies to the moderators for giving them kittens…
Dam, it’s not a secret anymore.
If the English/UK government do not know, won’t tell, how many staff they have working in the English/UK Scotland office then they are breaking every health and safety law ever written in case of outbreak of fire or other unforeseen accident, and the fire service should shut them down immediately until they can verify who and how many staff are in their building at any one time of the day or night
If the English/UK can’t or refuse to admit at a cost of over £one million per year how many people they employ within that *facility* then whatever they are doing and whoever they’re employing is either incompetent or must be for nefarious purposes against the people of Scotland whom they’re meant to be governing within this (union of equals?)
C’mon Humza give us a smirk and send in the firies
Guess what football team the leader of the BMA in Scotland supports.
Murdo will be pleased.
If only they were just supporters of a football team instead of Church of Rangers worshipers
To be fair, he wasn’t Chair of the BMA in Scotland when at the 2022 Europa League Final in Seville (Eintracht Frankfurt won on penalties)…
He’ll have been crying in the Sangria same as Turdo, before getting back to the day job of blaming all of the medical profession’s woes on the Scottish Government…
You’d think he’d be *all* doctor, wouldn’t you, in that he’s Head Honcho of BMA Scotlandshire, with the interests of the common GP at heart?
A quick scan of his LinkedIN profile reveals he’s also studying for an MBA out of the University of Warwick, due to graduate next year, 2024.
Business acumen in a (newly-)privatised NHS will no doubt be keenly sought …
Meanwhile almost unnoticed, perhaps the biggest confrontation between the Scottish Government and the UK Government, making GRR a very minor and friendly tussle in comparison, is making good progress looming into 2024. It’s about the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023. Firstly, TUC but also Neil Gray who I’m trying hard, not being overfond of politicians, not to be impressed by over the last few weeks or so:
https://www.thenational.scot/news/24015630.workers-rally-behind-anyone-sacked-minimum-service-level-law/
and then Michael Matheson and perhaps this explains the well over the top attacks on him recently:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/uk-strikes-minimum-service-levels-act-letter-to-uk-government/
Anyone who says Independence is dead and the SNP aren’t doing anything about it, isn’t reading the tea leaves. We live in interesting times, and mines’s a cuppa.
Pass the biscuits.
The National article let down by careless unionist style reporting:
“A Government spokesperson said: “The Government believes …””
From the context I think that should be a UK Government spokesperson. There are two governments involved here, with diametrically opposite views on this slave labour human rights ignoring legislation.
The constant unionist slant on news so carelessly propagated really does my crunchie.
You do need to question whether someone is fit to lead the BMA – whose primary interest should be the health and mental wellbeing of the UK population – if they attack the government which has done the most to support the NHS, over the one that is doing its best to run it into the ground. They either don’t understand the problem, or are putting party politics before patients. Either makes them unfit to be the leader of the BMA. But then I guess the clue is the name of the organisation sadly. We need an SMA.
Along this line, I read about a pub closing down in Edinburgh. The owner ranted that it was the ‘Scottish government not giving rates release in the middle of a cost of living crisis that was cause’. You know, like nobody was responsible for the cost of living crisis. That Brexit hasn’t caused an exodus of key workers and heaped massive inflation on the UK. Nope, it’s the those that campaigned tooth and nail to avoid this gigantic f’n mess who are to blame for not paying to clear it up with cash they don’t have.
Being in the UK is killing Scotland. People in England agree, hence the Tory VI is so low. Yet here we have ‘proud brits’ blaming the Scottish government for the English government ruining their businesses. If the Scottish government gave rates release to one sector, the same people would then complain e.g. that the waiting times at their local A&E had increased, all because some money had been taken from the NHS budget to cover the cost of – you guessed it – the rates release.
The Scottish government are at fault for nothing, if simply because they are a devolved arm of the UK government. We know the UK government could intervene at any moment to fix any problems the Scottish government have supposedly caused. If the former does not, it is them responsible. Only with independence does the buck stop at Holyrood. For now it always stops at No 10, even with fully devolved policy, (which the economy is not) and England wants it that way.
The people of Scotland have a few more “Brexit benefits” to look forward to as we move into 2024.
First up at the end of January will be the long delayed check on goods coming into the UK from the EU, despite having years now to prepare for this it is very unlikely that this change will go smoothly.
These checks will cause delays to imports, possibly shortages of some goods and make everything more costly due to the costs of the checks and the additional bureaucracy. The biggest impact will be on food so we can expect another jump in food inflation to add to the cost of living impact.
Then come the autumn we have new checks by the EU on travellers, not only will we all need visas but we will have our faces scanned and fingerprints taken if we intend to visit any EU country.
I hope all Scots will keep this in mind when they enter the voting booths next year.
Labour are the same as the Tories. Wouldn’t surprise me if Starmer proposes similar as an alternative to Rwanda.
Not only are they right-wing racists, but they truly believe as Englishmen, that they own Scotland and can do with it as they wish. It is England’s lebensraum.
https://archive.is/tltYg
Tony Blair urged ‘radical’ measures to cut asylum, archive papers reveal
A detention camp on the Isle of Mull and breaking international law were among measures on migration presented to Tony Blair when he was prime minister, according to newly released files.
Papers from 2003 released by the National Archives show Mr Blair was increasingly frustrated by the failure to deter people from coming to the UK and called for more “radical” ideas.
Leah Gunn Barrett has the guest article in Prof Robertson’s blog today. If we recognise that we live as a colony then the answer becomes self evident.
We can’t end poverty when we’re trapped in the failing UK
talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2023/12/29/we-cant-end-poverty-when-were-trapped-in-the-failing-uk/
(replace the https:// to make link)
Too many Scots appear to be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome – how else do you explain the lack of complaint when :
we are dragged out of the EU , despite being ”an equal partner in our family of nations
( sic ) ”;
we have a jumped up weasel of a SoSS appointed by Westminster overruling the will of the Scottish Parliament – ”one of the most powerful devolved administrations in the world ”;
we have a King imposed on us who refuses to take the Scottish Coronation Oath ( as it would concede that The Scottish People were sovereign !) ;
we have our national assets stripped from us and then told that we are ”too Wee , too Poor …. ;
we have families who cannot afford to heat their homes in one of the most ( Green ) energy rich countries on the planet ;
we pay Westminster our taxes in order to receive pocket money in return , then are condemned by unionists for not turning Scotland into a Utopia ;
we have an unelected , undemocratic , scandalously biased Second Chamber , comprising sycophants , fire-raisers , corrupt baronesses , drunkards and English Bishops wielding power over our own democratic parliament ….
and yet , despite these and many other insults to a democracy , we still have people in Scotland who think that the UK is OK ?
All reasons to stop *asking* England to please let us go
Nobody in any history written by anyone that ever asked for freedom was happily given it
England is a country that refuses to give back stolen treasures to other countries, their reason? we’ve had them for a long time so they’re ours now
They’ve had Scotland for a long time, they consider it their property along with the slaves and every stick and stone and blade of grass in it
Asking for freedom is met with punishment for asking
This.
https://archive.is/6fBsz
On looking forward to how Scotland can achieve independence, Whitford said that she believed “too much of our time” has been spent “obsessing about a date and a methodology”.
“If we’d been putting more of our energy into reaching out to people who are not yet convinced about independence, that would I think have moved us further,” she said.
2023 Year in Review with Philippa Whitford
The National’s Holyrood Weekly Podcast
“Every time we’ve tried to speak about democracy in the Commons, they just go ‘Oh yeah, this poll shows that’.
“We quote one poll, they quote another.”
Whitford referenced her husband Hans, who is German and was in his home country in August 1989, before one of the most iconic displays of people power occurred in recent history.
“You couldn’t see that the Berlin Wall was going to come down,” she explained.
The National: This November 10, 1989 file photo shows Berliners singing and dancing on top of the Berlin wall to celebrate the opening of East-West German borders.
“Three months later, the people brought it down, they decided they were going to bring it down. That’s what we need to focus on, we need to convince a majority of Scots that they want to live in an independent country with power over their own future.
We are so close. When it happens, it will happen so very quickly, like the fall of the Berlin wall.
Unless the English government sends in the tanks, which sadly, it does do in response to democratic movements historically. Fingers crossed it does not this time.
This post should be deleted.
Maybe the first couple of paragraphs do sound provocative and are capable of being used out of context and lead to the accusation of the blog inciting hatred. Which Paul would never do.
But I think we’ve got to be careful not to say anything on any pro-indy blog which could be given a hostile interpretation. It would be inadvertently playing into their hands, I think.
Not one single word of what I wrote advocates violence towards anybody, I’m advocating the exact opposite and the internet nuisance above you knows it
Visit other blogs and find out his attitude towards the posters on this blog, it might surprise you
The reason for moderation is to check the use and context in which certain words are used, not the words themselves or nobody would be able to comment on say Israel or Russia or anyone else actually advocating or committing crime
My meaning was perfectly clear when I wrote the word *verbal*
I like Philippa Whitford. She speaks sense. I have to agree with here too, the SNP should print leaflets, get posters up etc telling people ALL the benefits they’d LOSE without independence and the tories or labour were to get into power. Instead of publishing long winded papers that the average person on the street will never read. And they should whenever interviewed on tv or radio not answer the question but state loud and clear and concisely in words everyone can understand the benefits of independence and what will happen without it. Just keep repeating and repeating the benefits.
The onus is not on the SNP to persuade more people to indy, but is on all indy supporters equally.
It is daughters helping persuade mums…. grandsons helping persuade grandads… friends helping persuade friends… that leads Scotland to yes.
The SNP can only encourage people to vote SNP ultimately, as indy is not party-political / does not mean governance by a specific party. We can all vote Yes, then elect whatever parties we wanted in office. The English media / enemies of indy want it to be all about the SNP because that will put voters of other parties off indy. Whether it’s ‘SNP one party state’ or ‘SNP have not delivered indy’, the goal is the same, namely to make it all about the SNP rather than about indy, so discouraging people from thinking about the latter, but seeing it all through a party political prism.
If you can get a Tory voter to understand that indy does not mean permanent SNP rule, but in fact could mean Scots Tories as party of coalitions, you will be more likely to get them to vote Yes.
And the best way for us to persuade people of indy is not to tell them they are wrong for being No, but simply say why we support indy with reasons they can’t argue against.
For example, I tell people I support indy because I am Scottish like my wife is French. So I support Scotland being governed by Scots like the French govern France. It’s absolutely impossible to argue this isn’t a perfectly good reason alone to vote for indy. After all, its the fundamental reason for the existence of all independent countries. It’s also not anti-anyone.
A people will only ever be best served governing themselves. There will be ups and downs, but whatever happens, it will always be better than having another country rule yours, as the former will only ever act in its own interests.
You can add compounding factors such as the racist wanks ruling us from London, Brexit etc, but use the main reason that most people voted Yes in 2014 and the main reason half or more Scots support Yes now as your reason.
Do that, and the person opposed to indy finds themselves unable to tell you that you are wrong, which means they now can’t tell themselves that indy is the wrong option either. Then you start on the other stuff like Brexit.
If they are a rabid britnat who brushes aside this… starts saying Scotland isn’t a country and other guff, forget them and move on to persuading your fellow Scots. Don’t waste time on people who don’t self-id as Scots / refuse to see Scotland as it’s own country.
So, as we approach the end of 2023, so we can look back on almost 2.5 years of Operation Branchform. A large team of officers looking into this case rather than investigating e.g. sex / violence crimes… murders, have spent well over £1 million of our money trying to fine evidence of a crime, and have singularly failed to do so.
And it’s not as if they are hunting shadowy global fraudsters with an intricate network of offshore accounts… crypto wallets or something, but rather the Police have complete set of fully audited accounts to work through, and know exactly who the only 3 people that could have possibly been up to no good are. Not only that, but these would have had to have actually been all partners in crime if they did have their fingers in the till, as there’s no way the others wouldn’t have noticed one or more up to it.
This should have been the simplest case in the world to solve. Done and dusted in couple of months. How could you possibly not find evidence with every transaction neatly accounted and all three people right there in front of you for questioning? This is a professional political party. They must follow strict accounting rules for all income and spending, with this being independently audited twice; first by an accountant, then by the English electoral commission. Both of these are tasked with looking for miss spending of donations etc.
Then we have the fact that fraud is all but impossible to hide. People only get away with it while nobody is looking. As soon as someone gets suspicious, the culprit is screwed as they cannot hide it. And it’s single fraudsters that are the most tricky to catch. When you have a few in on the game, there is much more evidence, more chances of a screw up, and a much higher probability that one will get scared and betray the others, especially when the police come asking questions.
And I am not even suggesting a crime has not been committed. I’m just asking how the f**k does it take 2.5 years to get absolutely nowhere in terms of finding if one has been committed? If money is missing, it’s not there. It’s not in the accounts. It’s gone, and into someone’s pocket. A forensic accountant could see this in a few hours, and likely who it went to. It’s why when people defrauding their employer are first questioned, most of the time they hold their hands up right away as they knew that day would come.
So ask yourselves what the hell is going on Scots, keeping in mind the coming UK election and Yes at 50% very worst case, more likely mid 50’s or even higher. You might also wish to think back to the attempt by the English civil service in Scotland to have an innocent (albeit somewhat lecherous) Salmond jailed on made up sex assault charges.
I blame Scotland’s energy resources for most of these shenanigans.
Without oil and gas,where would the Anglo state be now?
Certainly no trickle down Thatcherite nonsense and an impoverished UK state having to be baled out by our European neighbours.
So,that is why Westminster is doing all it can to undermine any thoughts of Scotland being successful independent of England.
By discrediting the main political party which seeks independence,they can continue to plunder our vast energy resources.
Growing up in the 50s and 60s,Scotland was viewed as a separate country from England but in a shared equal partnership with England.
All that changed with the discovery of North Sea oil and gas.
We are now deemed to be one nation/country under the control of the London treasury.
So,no surprises about all the dirty tricks they get up to in order to maintain the life style to which they are accustomed.
Let’s hope more Scots can see behind the smoke screens next year.
England’s government have always been subsidy junkies living the high life off the backs of the resources of the colonies. Aye, when oil and gas was discovered in Scottish waters, so we became a full on colony too, rather than just a pretty place for wealthy English / unionist imperialists to shoot defenceless animals for amusement.
Everywhere they plant their flag they think they own
Look at America, they think they own the moon
Unionists flocking to get Irish passports after voting Brexit and visiting the local orange lodge. High levels of applications from orange voting counties.
It’s not Irish people in the north applying; they already have Irish passports, obviously. You’d not catch them with a butcher’s apron passport!
https://archive.is/9KLvu
I noticed the BBC Scotland website carried the story about someone in Scotland has died of e-coli. It was implied that they had eaten the Lancashire cheese which has been recalled. But there was no evidence that they had eaten it.
The contaminated cheese story was absent from the main BBC news site.
Prof Robertson points out that Scotland bans the use of unpasteurised milk while the UK allows it in England. You would expect the BBC to warn its English readers about this. But no – it implies this is a Scottish news item
talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2023/12/30/deadly-e-coli-contaminated-cheese-is-from-lancashire-where-unpasteurised-milk-for-cheese-production-is-allowed-unlike-in-scotland/
(replace https:// to make link)
They don’t even know if the victim was from Lancashire, and note – The product recall was precautionary…
The story was lifted from the BBC’s UK/Health web-page https://archive.ph/Hktgh
I checked the England, Wales and NI pages but it doesn’t appear anywhere else but Scotland and the Health page and the Lancashire section of the England Regions. Since it’s sold by Sainsbury, Tesco and Waitrose I would expect it to be a public service story everywhere.
Indeed a good point….
HMS James Cook must have seen potential propaganda value in it, that’s their MO…
Little note for the future, Capella, and I hope you don’t find me picky.
I cut and pasted your link and the https:// comes up automatically. (Perhaps if you added it here, you might have found the article embedded and were afraid of that. I know I’ve done that often enough by not lopping off .pdf in certain cases …)
I did cut it off to stop it embedding as on a long thread it can slow down load times. But without https:// it isn’t a live link so I mentioned that below. I thought browsers would add it automatically but maybe not every one.
OTOH embedding makes it les trouble to read!
There’s a lot of fuss about Kennedy, the chair of BMA Scotland warning that there’s a dangerous shortage of doctors in Scotland. His job is to represent medical practitioners in Scotland, and the general public. He’s just doing his job and doing it well“. We are lucky to have him.
“Why” we’re lucky to have him should be obvious to all of us who live and rely on the NHS in Scotland. The NHS in Scotland has to compete for budgets with education, social work, councils, roads, the lot. Clearly the NHS needs someone to stand up and shout the odds in competition with those from education, social work, councils and roads. Otherwise their budget will go down not up.
What we should be shouting about ourselves is this:
https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/nhs-delivery-and-workforce/workforce/nhs-medical-staffing-data-analysis
“In comparison to other nations, England has a very low proportion of doctors relative to the population. The average number of doctors per 1,000 people in OECD EU nations is 3.7, but England has just 2.9. Germany, by comparison, has 4.3.”
Look at the chart (England 3.21, UK 3.18 – don’t ask me why the number is different). The UK is the pits compared to other OECD EU countries. Sadly Scotland is still part of the flaming UK. Ireland is at 4.05 – that could be iScotland as well.
And here’s something else that Kennedy probably knows:
Click to access workforce-report-2022—full-report_pdf-94540077.pdf
“While the recent expansion in UK medical school places and postgraduate training is welcome, it is far outstripped by the growth in registrants from overseas: UK graduates joining the workforce rose by 2% from 2017, compared to a 121% rise in IMGs”
(IMG = international medical graduates)
but this:
“England and Wales had the largest increases in licensed doctors between 2017 and 2021, while Northern Ireland and Scotland had slower growth (Figure 4). This is a result of the unique joining and leaving rates in each UK country. One difference has been that IMG joiners tend to work in England or Wales rather than Scotland or Northern Ireland.”
Why? And what is Kennedy doing about that?
Here’s another couple of quotes from the GMC report (2nd link above):
“The workforce is set to grow but the rate of growth will increasingly rely on new IMGs joining”
following on from this:
“Ideally, the proportion of those leaving to retire would be substantially greater than those looking to practise abroad, with doctors leaving after long and fulflling careers in the UK workforce.”
So what is the BMA Scotland doing to market the Scottish NHS amongst these IMGs? And indeed, to retain the doctors we do have?
And is the ScotGov stymied in any way by the likes of pretendy Viceroy Alister Jack trying to curtail foreign marketing by the Scottish Government?
See what I did there? Treat everyone like a potential ally, not an enemy to abuse, often unfairly and unreasonably.
We’re all in an Independent Scotland together. But we won’t get there by marginalising and othering people. Pretendy vain mirror gazing Viceroys excepted.
Did he talk about the understaffing across the UK in his English media interview, noting how Scotland was far less understaffed? He is not SMA, but leader of the BMA branch office in Scotland, so will be well aware how things look UK-wide.
What about the cause of understaffing? Did he highlight that this is caused by the UK government cutting Scotland’s budget… emphasise how brexit has starved all sectors of key workers… or did he blame the Scottish government for not using their magic money tree and invisible controls in immigration?
Did he attack the UK government for not allowing Scots – including NHS staff – the right to vote anymore, denying them the ability to chose the government they wish for Scotland, and so the ability to fix issues with the NHS?
If he told the truth about the causes of where we are impartially, he’s a potential ally. If he did not, he’s not
People can judge for themselves:
https://news.stv.tv/scotland/bma-warns-nhs-staffing-levels-are-unsafe-as-scottish-doctors-at-breaking-point
For me, he doesn’t want to talk about the truth at all, but is taking as party political position over patient care based on what’s being reported.
In England Kennedy advocates private healthcare while in Scotland he pretends to condemn it and blame the SNP for underfunding
Kennedy is a union representative in both senses of the word
My son is about to apply for his speciality as a junior doctor. He was born in Scotland, educated here and wants to work in NHS Scotland.
Yet here, unlike Australia, New Zealand and Canada with their home educated doctors, he is regarded no more favourably than IMGs.
So the question is.
Why as Scottish taxpayers are we not getting the doctors who’s training and education we paid for ?
Why are we recruiting mainly African and Asian IMGs, who are desperately needed in their home health care systems.
Why is the Scottish recruitment process for a different and independent Scottish health care system tied in with the English one.
Answers please Mr Kennedy
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24008359.bonnie-prince-charlie-new-book-examines-underestimated-rebel/
This has been a classic case of the winners having totally rewritten history to smear and belittle major figures to suppress the future. It included burning whole libraries as well as murder
Culloden was a military disaster of epic proportions, the blame for which lies entirely with the bonehead prince. The English didn’t rise for Charlie but they didn’t rise for the Hanovarians either and of the men that marched behind Cumberland numbering around 12,000, many were Dutch, Hessian and Swiss mercenaries, with some 2 or three thousand prisoners of war released on parole( not to fight again in the conflict) but were forced to by Cumberland, they represented the only force the Hanovarions could rely on to fight. On the match North the Scots turned on Cumberland at Clifton trouncing the ‘english’ army which gave Charlie all the breathing space he needed to regroup. He didnt, the fuckwit stopped to beseige Stirling, meanwhile a second Scots army was forming in Badenoch and many more were gathering North of the the river Nairn. Had the fuckwit headed North and crossed the Nairn, held that line, Cunmberland would have been trapped between the men of Badenoch and the Nairn. End of the Union which was for many the only reason they rose to support Charlie but he was’nt interested in fulfilling his promise to the Scots, instead he abandoned them, because the English didn’t rise for him, he knew he would never gain the English crown. Defeat at Nairn or ignominious retreat for Cumberland wouldn’t have secured England for Charlie but it would freed Scotland. It would have been at least a year before the Hanovarions could have brought enough mercenaries to England to attack Scotland. Scotland on the other hand would have been a hell of a lot stronger than they were in 1707.
Golfnut.
As an example, this account of Glenfinnan totally fails to mention the 7 Men of Moidart, and also doesn’t mention that the two ships of French troops that accompanied BPC got lost in a storm. But in spite of that he still came over from Eriskay. So any account, and there are some, that try to portray him as a coward are totally mince.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenfinnan
As we know there’s some full-time anti-indy guy spends his time changing wikipedia entries to show Indy and Scottish history in a bad light. And that’s over the last decade or two, not just over getting on for 300 years. Look at this one for nastiness and distortion for instance:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Men_of_Moidart
The thing is that the history was written precisely for the point of removing the threat of the Jacobites to the Hanoverians. And this is implicitly acknowledged by this quote about the building of the Monument:
“By 1815, the Jacobite cause was no longer a political threat to the Hanoverian monarchy.”
Anyone thought of as Jacobite was ruthlessly hunted down and killed or imprisoned after the 45, as you can see for instance in the Aberdeen Tolbooth Museum, with some interesting stuff in the Stonehaven one. History at local level is more reliable than most of the books written.
There’s a wealth of different accounts of most aspects of Scottish history in castles and houses around Scotland – some from family accounts hidden away for decades, even centuries for fear of being murdered along with wives and kids. And some in relatively small but local museums.
But it’s incredibly rare to see any book based on them. Yer man who wrote that book is “Arran Johnston, consultant curator of the Battle of Prestonpans Jacobite Museum and the founding director of the Scottish Battlefields Trust”.
Hence probably the totally different take on things.
Not sure I implied Charlie was a coward and I’ve never heard of Arran Johnston or his book.
If you are really interested read Duncan H. MacNeill, ‘ The Scottish Realm’
Deals with the political and constitutional history of Scotland. Pay close attention to the acknowledgements and the appendex.
Have a good New Year YS2.
Thanks, I see it’s in hardcover on abebooks and amazon.even on ebay. I wouldn’t have a copy buried in the attic as I only bought paperbacks (a lot of). But it looks familiar and the authro’s name so I may have got it in the library sometime.
Just for interest, there’s an account on electricscotland, and on the Culloden page this is interesting:
“To extenuate the atrocities committed in the battle, and the subsequent slaughters, a forged regimental order, bearing to be signed by Lord George Murray, by which the Highlanders were enjoined to refuse quarters to the royal troops, was afterwards published, it is said, under the auspices of the Duke of Cumberland; but the deception was easily seen through.”
So the faking of history started right after the battle, and slaughter which continued for years after, including perhaps the clearances during which many lost their lives in rotten ships.
https://www.electricscotland.com/history/charles/index.htm
Oh, and present day unionists say those sent off in ships during the clearances were paid well to leave. Another lie.
Yeah, Happy New Year!
2023 was a good one for us, not so much perhaps for Indy.
Sorry about the length. One more about Culloden itself. At least one account has their foppish and self-absorbed BPC going down to Inverness the night before the battle, and partying.
I’d say it’s more likely he met up expecting support and was told they weren’t interested in his Lunnon ambitions, and he’d already lost most of his army melting away with the loot they picked up on the way down – and back from – Derby. Sorry about that, wait till support is a steady 60% and we’re up for it.
The Bonnie Prince was no military genius. I have been to Culloden twice last time was in May and I know what I saw. The battle of Culloden was fought on the wrong ground and Charlie was told that by his military commander before the battle but he insisted they fight. An army that is half starving as they were does not fight well and what happened there was more a massacre than a battle. Charlie promised much to the clan leaders and delivered little in terms of English Jacobite and French support, supplies or weapons. As far I am concerned the House of Stuart were a bunch of chancers who would murder their granny for power or money. Let’s not forget James VI abandoned Scotland for an English throne and set us on the road to union. Too many brave Highlanders and some lowlanders died for Charlie. In the end support for him hastened the ending of the Highlanders way of life. There never was anything romantic about him. He was just another entitled Royal
Yeah, I’ve been there too, more than once; one of mine used to live in Smithton for a time.
But you have to think – who wrote the history, Dr Who in the Tardis stuck in the period for a few months – or was it the same sort of people who write the news for BBC Scotland?
It wasn’t just people who were hunted after the 45, it was manuscripts, records, clothing and language.
Brits abroad. What’s the bets she voted for Brexit?
British tourist cries after Benidorm holiday was ruined by ‘too many Spanish people’
A British woman claimed her holiday to Benidorm was ruined because her hotel had ‘too many Spaniards in it’…
…The holidaymaker was also unimpressed with the entertainment offered at the resort. “The entertainment in the hotel was all focused and catered for the Spanish – why can’t the Spanish go somewhere else for their holidays?”
‘The trouble with Scotland is that there are too many Scots’.
https://archive.is/yNZxK
Don’t the Spanish know that Benidorm is an English colony and foreigners are not welcome. Spaniards daring to go to Benidorm could well find themselves on a flight to Rwanda.
It’s the vote of this woman and those like her that Starmer will be chasing in the coming election.
An indication of the scale of the task for The Conservatives to limit Labour to a small majority let along win an election (that could be hear within 5 months)
https://imgur.com/a/fnG2nMD
The map is interesting but, as SS has pointed out many times, current VI is skewed by SNP supporters not answering polling firms in Scotland and Tories not answering in England. So not an entirely reliable prediction IMO. Do you know who produced it?
The seat projections are from Electoral Calculus using UK, Wales & Scotland polling. I made the Viz in Power BI.
Yes CTV is 2-4pp down on what you would expect. This wont all be SNP of course, so I don’t think its that much of an issue TBH.
As the next General Election cannot bring about a second referendum (Labour and The Conservatives have both said they will not grant a second indyref no matter if the SNP win or not) I don’t think the SNP vote will get that much higher. The SNP got 35% in 2017 so that’s probably their floor so something between 35-40% for the SNP with Labour 30-35% seems about right to me.
I’ve thought for a while (short of the SNP going into the 2026 election on a UDI ticket) that Labour would fight the 2028 election on the back of granting a second referendum if they win the GE, with the referendum being held in 2029/2030.
Electoral Calculus is good for seat projections as long as the data is reliable.
Have you considered what would happen if the SNP make the next GE a de facto referendum so that the SNP vote is a vote for independence?
Still does not square the circle that both the Conservatives / Labor are not going to grant a referendum (or open independence negotiations) of the back of the next GE result.
But it does justify recalling MPs from Westminster and setting up a Scottish Government with full powers – if a majority vote for it.
Except the SNP withdrawing MPs will not be in the manifesto as per what was agreed at the SNP conference. Alba are I believe so if there is support for it then they should do well in the seats they are going to be standing in.
The earliest the SNP could propose the above would be for 2026 election.
Well let’s see what is in the manifesto. If the SNP don’t make a clear commitment to independence then they won’t get the votes. If they do they will get >54%
As things stand this is what will be in the manifesto:
https://www.snp.org/our-strategy-for-winning-scotlands-independence/
They could just about squeeze in another conference in during February if they wanted to change this, but after that its locked in (they have to be prepared for a early May election which means that Parliament would be dissolved late March).
I think the unimportance of UK elections in Scotland is being forgotten. Scots don’t care about them as they cannot effect change using them (unless via defacto iref), only make protests which England ignores. Holyrood has now completely replaced Westminster as the parliament that Scots see as theirs. We have our next national election in 2026. It can be made a defacto iref, and comes with the advantage of it being impossible to split the vote.
Every election can be made a defacto indyref going forward until Scots vote Yes. This is why refusing iref2 was monumentally stupid and, polling suggests, broken the back of the UK.
As things stand, polling says to me that Scots now back indy. However, they don’t say this at face value, hence the SNP nervous about going into the next GE on a defacto ticket. But that’s not going to be the case ahead of Holyrood 2023.
I wish the actual UK election date would be announced so we could get back to reliable polling and truly assess where things are. The nonsense about massive labour landslides is getting silly! People are deluding themselves in the same way May did. As soon as she went for a GE, opposition party voters started responding to polls the mirage of a big Tory lead vanished. The same will occur with Labour just as it did ahead of 97, albeit it Tony was starting from 53-55% Labour, where Keir has 10% less in the bag so can’t afford to lose a single point.
We might find if CTV numbers start picking up as we move into spring, so giving a clearer picture, the SNP could change tack in time if they see in fact Yes is much higher than it seemed of late.
As for Alba. They are on 2% in polls. They failed to take any votes from the SNP in May 2021, and there’s no polling signs that will change. An odd lot and way too niche for most Scots.
This is in the Conference decision you linked to.
“Conference agrees that the SNP manifesto for the UK General Election should state on page one, line one, the following simple and powerful statement: Vote SNP for Scotland to become an independent country.”
A 2026 Holyrood vote could be confirmatory after the negotiations are concluded.
If Labour don’t grant an iref, indy is guaranteed, and can simply be by Holyrood 2026 election plebiscite. European countries would be only too happy to recognise such a result. I expect Ireland to be the first, particularly if Sinn Fein end up in government (election no later than March 2025) as polls suggest will be the case (they’d be in power now if they’d stood enough candidates). A SF led government in Dublin will also be pursuing reunification and using its European veto effectively in pursuing this. Now that N. Ireland no longer supports unionism for the same reason Scots don’t support it either (long term generational changes in national identity), it’s only a matter of time. It is fence sitting too, with the fence voters being the pro-EU Alliance.
The iref is very much Labour’s dilemma. If they refuse iref if they get into office, then it confirms to Scots that they are without question just the English Tories too, especially as their return to power is no 1997, but e.g. this time with Devo Max. Their best chance of saving the union is actually to allow Scots to vote. Cameron figured this out. If Scots had been refused iref1, they’d have voted for indy already, and by means of an election plebiscite. We’d already be independent. Cameron bought the union 10+ years by letting Scots vote. But then he was British. The Tories and Labour have been taken over by English nationalist wings since Brexit, so don’t understand the union and what bound it together.
The other benefit of election plebiscite via Holyrood is there’s no tactical worries. Because it’s PR, the SNP will feel the heat if they don’t make it an election plebiscite, as Scots could then vote e.g. Green or Alba (or an SNP splinter group who backs this) if these do stand on an indy ticket, and it doesn’t split the vote due to PR.
The last Holyrood election had a majority for Indy parties for the first time ever. I think we crossed the Rubicon then, and polls do suggest that Scots now back indy. The most reliable poll of all, the SSAS, says they do, and even when they are giving the option of more devo. Devo max died with the undelivered vow.
The reason Scotland isn’t independent though is that Scots are not convinced they support indy yet. Polling isn’t conclusive, and they have not clearly voted for it. That’s why we are in the union. Not because of clever tactics by England. It’s tactics have been monumentally stupid, and if I’m right about the polls, the union is already unsavable due to the UKSC case and England taking Sturgeon out through trial by media.
For Scotland to be independent, Scots don’t need England’s permission. They don’t need England to recognise their vote for indy either. What is needed is that Scots themselves accept that as a nation, they have voted for independence. Then nothing can stop independence for Scots will not accept anything less. You’ll have the 3.5% on the streets if needed; a tartan spring. We are no different to other peoples. Scots will bring down the Brexit wall just as happened in Berlin back in the day. Which is why I say don’t be surprised if things happen very fast when they do. It’s the nature of such events; people don’t believe it will happen, then suddenly it does, and very quickly.
The other good thing about an election is it can’t be declared ‘illegal’ either. Well England could try that, but that would have Scots recognising a referendum they organised themselves as legit no matter what English courts said and we are back to indy again.
So the ultimate goal of an election plebiscite is only to convince Scots that they have voted for indy. Do that and the international community will accept the result as they can’t undo it as Scots want it. England would face the same. It would have to accept the result or occupy and face a the rise of an SRA, which would happen and which would have the backing of Scots (assuming it targeted only military / English security forces).
Spain understood this all too well, hence it sent in troops to interfere with the Catalan referendum, so making the result invalid. It could not risk Catalans actually voting Yes on a decent turnout as that could mean Catalans accepting they had voted for indy, ergo they would not accept it not happening. That said, it seems most Catalans don’t support indy, hence Spain could get away with what it did, although it contributed to the downfall of the right, paving the way for the left to return to power and negotiate with the Catalan indy movement.
Nope, once Scots vote for indy and see that they have, England can only use violent occupation and suppression to keep Scotland in the UK. This would fail, as it did when used in other colonies.
Which makes indy inevitable, unless somehow many decades of declining British identity in Scotland can be reversed. Given both the Tories and Labour will be standing on right-wing English nationalist manifestos, the decline of Britishness in Scotland will continue for sure. Will likely accelerate very rapidly to end-game.
Certain to vote levels are far too low for polling to give an accurate picture. UK polls are running at close to 50% CTV (slightly higher in Scotland). For an accurate prediction, you’d want your sample as 100% CTV as that’s who decides elections. When 50% of your sample is useless – which is the case for 50% CTV – it’s pointless. And people shouldn’t make the assumption that the sample is representative, with just a lot of people not thinking of voting. That is unlikely to be the case, as a polling headache is mid term poor response rates and the fact that turnouts are never 50%. So some regular voters who always vote are not answering. That’s Tories in England, SNP in Scotland. Both of which are feeling a bit despondent due to blows they’ve taken. We need to wait for these to start answering pollsters and only when election fever begins will this happen.
What we can do is look at historic precedent. Labour were on 53% right now ahead of 1997. Blair’s popularity was on the rise and well into positive ratings.
But this was a low CTV mirage with Tory respondents not picking up the phone. As election day approached, so CTV numbers rose as people started responding. This cause Labour VI to fall by 11 points and they got 42% on the day.
Right now, Starmer’s rating are falling across the UK. Labour are on 43% not 53%. So realistically, mid 30’s would be good for them, lower 30’s possible. The Tory vote will climb back up as Reform does it’s job steering them hard right ahead of the election, and their traditional base will turn out of them, giving them at 30%. The UK is too divided and the big two jointly too unpopular to see one win big mandate. We are so very far from 1997 now.
If you look at opinion polling trends ahead of elections, big apparent swings are common. But when you look at CTV, you see the swing is just CTV rising, which can be attributed to people becoming engaged and answering polls. It’s literally just the polls becoming more accurate as their samples get more representative.
We are very like January 2011 right now in Scotland, when Labour were on 45% and the SNP low 30s (albeit SNP maintain a reasonable lead over Labour right now). There was no swing to the SNP back then even though the polls show this seemingly to have occurred. All that happened is people planning to vote SNP, having gone quiet after the blow of 2010 compounded by the wasted tactical vote for Labour, starting responding to pollsters and telling them what they planned to do. The swing was just CTV rising to give an increasingly accurate picture. Labour’s current VI in Scotland and UK wide is like Scotland January 2011 and UK 1996.
I note that I want Labour to win, but very narrowly, or needing the help of the SNP. That is the best route to indy as it will show Scots that Labour are as right-wing as the Tories, confirming what the election campaign will be showing. Another Tory victory and things might stay in groundhog day for another year…
er
//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js
I see the Real Independence Supporters are out in force this morning pouring cold water over Humza Yousaf’s New Year Message. Their outrage knows no bounds, outrage at the Scottish Government that is, not Westminster.
So here it is so you can read it for yourself.
Humza Yousaf’s New Year message to Scottish independence supporters
https://archive.is/0YxWb#selection-1737.3-1741.44
The btl comments all attack the guy for his point of view. But the 532 upticks aren’t his fault, that’s the National (and Herald) for allowing vote – refresh – vote – refresh. And from multiple tabs.
He’s actually an interesting poster, even if one doesn’t neccessarily agree with his point of view. And as id 1,7xx,xxx, he’s a fairly old id, compared with for instance 4,3xx,xxx which is a far newer one. Mines’s was (is but I don’t post), 1,0xx,xxx, but there were of course a few genuine unionists and even trolls back in the day.
Ah well, back to real life and a walk down town.
I meant the X (Twitter) frenzy which always accompanies any public announcement from the SNP and SG. Often it appears even when the SNP has announced nothing. Often it reposts SNP bad articles from the yellow press. Tiresome.
Ah right, I don’t do twitter or facebook. From btl again on that article, user 42xxxxx:
“I made a remark similar to this once before, next time I checked my comment it had an unreasonable number of upticks. Someone must have a repetitive stress syndrome finger by now, or perhaps it’s a bot!
Please let it be a bot – surely an individual would be driven crazy with boredom by manually upticking so many times!”
I just upticked it 50 times for half a cup of tea. If you’re luck refresh brings you straight back to the same post after you uptick.
DO YOU SEE THAT THE NATIONAL?
Mmm, someone else is doing it as well. Maybe we should keep going to try to make it over 1,000 upticks …
The National shows no sign of fixing the misuse of the uptick system which was very blatant in response to one particularly post on that thread. Sadly they are beholden to Newsguest their parent group who probably thinks the clickbait the multiple upticks create is good for their Ad revenue. It won’t be good for their subscription renewals because I will not be renewing mine for that and several other reasons
Prof Robertson is on form today posting several articles correcting media misinformation. He has an interesting update on the cheesemakers too.
Well worth a read if you are looking for something positive today to combat the gloom and mirk that is living in the UK 24/7/365.
https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/blog-feed/
Afore I go, a bit of history from the National:
https://www.thenational.scot/culture/24019501.albion-motors-driving-force-behind-scottish-car-industry/
I worked at Bathgate for a time, with Bathgate being blue label for trucks and Albion red. It was reckoned by some that the red label were better!
I just read that – excellent bit of nostalgia for Hogmanay, Here’s the archive
It is estimated that there were just five vehicle manufacturers in Scotland after the war, down from a peak of 70.
Now none.
https://archive.is/nFgrd
I remember when Linwood shut and I was working through in Edinburgh. The traffic from around there built up and up going to Glasgow but also through to Edinburgh. I vowed never to buy another Chrysler (I had had an old 2hand Sunbeam). And then of course the total savaging of the Clyde, even including Kincaids which is now a block of flats looking over to MacDonalds.
Aye. Thatcher and her Trafalgar House “flagship” Scott Lithgow which got asset stripped within days. More liars.
Shipbuilding on the Clyde started to decline from the beginning of the start of the 20th Century onwards. Two World Wars and the Depression disguised that decline. After WWII 18% of the World’s shipping was being built on the Clyde but by 1958 it was down to 4.5% and some German yards could build ships in half the time of the Clyde yards. By the time Labour nationalised shipbuilding in 1977 or thereabouts there were only 6 yards left in Scotland – 4 on the Clyde and one each in Aberdeen and Dundee..
It is very convenient for many people to blame Mrs Thatcher but Labour was just as culpable and even more so since they had 2 periods in power -1960s and ’70s – when they could have done something to stop the rot. Look at the list of closures in the link below to see the yards that closed when Labour were in power in the 1960s.
https://www.inverclydeshipbuilding.com/closure-dates
Then of course there was management, unions and workers who all bear some responsibility for shipbuilding’s demise. Blaming Mrs Thatcher gets a lot of people off the hook.
A big problem the UK had was that after the second world war it nicked a load of German heavy machinery, some dating back to before the first.
Still using it in the 60s and 70s and even 80s while Germany with the Marshall plan got brand new modern, more accurate, more compact and less labour intensive machinery.
German steel was a prime example of a very basic resource being more versatile, quicker and cheaper through investment.
Lack of investment and no modernising killed off British heavy industry, and taxation on profits failing to allow for investment and being complicated was part of that. The AIA was a step forward but already past the time. Quarterly fiscal reports and dividends didn’t help.
Has the UK learnt the lessons? Has Scotland?
Yet, South Korea built a vibrant and efficient ship building industry on the back of Clyde Ship building expertise and equipement. They took both lock stock and barrell.
Golfnut
Cheap labour in those days. A quick google gives me this from 1991:
“The Korean shipbuilding industry still faces several difficulties: low-grade technology, high dependency on imported machinery and low capacity use in recent years. However, it is expected to maintain a competitive edge over the industries of developed countries, which suffer from outdated equipment and high wage costs.
Thus, Korea’s market share is expected to rise as world demand picks up and Korean shipbuilding is likely to experience steady growth in the future.”
https://kellogg.nd.edu/sites/default/files/old_files/documents/166_0. pdf (remove space)
The point being YR2 is that even with outdated equipment they managed to build a ship building industry. Scotland’s ship yards went to the wall because of political mismanagement and a lack of government support.
Golfnut.
On the general polling situation… a reminder even of current polls came off, Labour would have no mandate for any home nation.
Current polls, at face value, say 57% of people UK-wide oppose an English Labour government. In Wales, 58% are opposed, while in Scotland, this rises to around 70%. In Northern Ireland, it is pretty much 100% opposed.
Scotland is facing getting a Labour government it didn’t vote for, which is something that’s never happened before, and what indy supporters should be very much looking forward to. We have had so many Tory governments we didn’t vote for, but that has not yet broken the union, again taking polls at face value. Nope, to completely break it, and quickly, we need a Labour government Scots didn’t vote for, which polls say is going to happen. Right now, Labour are so unpopular in Scotland, they are getting VI numbers comparable to what Thatcher got for her first two terms. Back then, Labour told us 30% odd was no mandate to rule Scotland. 🙂
It was Labour’s last stint in office that put the SNP into power, with Blair/Brown’s financial ruin of the economy leading to the SNP landslide in 2011 and 45% Yes. So fingers cross Starmer makes it into No 10.
However, the polls will show that Labour lead UK-wide continuing to narrow, as it has been since the post mini-budget peak. That will force Starmer ever more to the right, particularly as the Tories will be doing this to try and win back reformers.
Scots, be prepared for the most ugly racist extremist right wing UK general election in England you have ever seen. Scottish Labour / Tories / Libs; get ready to try and defend the union in the face of this. Anas – Starmer is about to ruin any chance you have of ever getting back into power in Scotland this side of indy. Douglas – forget any Tory gains in Scotland. Think only of Tory loses. All thanks to English politicians that couldn’t give a s**t about you nor Scotland, other than milking the subsidies it gets from our resources.
RIP John Pilger, a constant star in the journalist firmament. He has left us a great legacy.
Daily Express follows Shona Robison on holiday and reports she was drinking Champagne having a good time and how very dare she
They’re following Nicola Sturgeon around the streets on her daily business, now they’re following the Finance Secretary on her holidays
The British/English media in Scotland are not only dangerous but becoming creepier and creepier in their desperation
And a Happy Hogmanay to all Duggers (and lurkers).
This too:
https://archive.is/SQ80Q
The decline of British ‘Empire’ and reality of Scottish independence
By Dr Elliot Bulmer
…Britain left India in 1947. It was kicked out of Egypt in 1956 and withdrew from Aden in 1967. For some Tory-voting boomers, that is still within living memory. In geostrategic terms, however, it is another age. Britannia ruled the waves in another world, a world that has long past.
Left and right love to argue about the nature and legacy of the British Empire, but the truth both must acknowledge is that it is over. We cannot live in that past.
Simon McDonald, a former permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, has recently published a book (Beyond Britannia: Reshaping UK Foreign Policy) in which he argues that the UK should retreat from its great power delusions by, amongst other things, selling off aircraft carriers, abandoning the nuclear deterrent, scaling back the Royal Navy, and a giving up the UK’s permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
This has met with the usual howls of scorn from right-wing columnists. “How dare a former senior Civil Servant and, in effect, the UK’s top diplomat, hold such outrageous views?”, they thunder…
…Now we live with the consequence of delusion: Brexit. Cut off from Europe, our ports under self-imposed blockade, trade declining, real wages falling, and poverty rising.
Britain needs a metaphorical slap to bring it to its senses. If it is to salvage anything of worth, it has to stop living in the sepia-toned dreamworld of a halcyon imperial past and face the grim reality that confronts us.
Facing that reality is hard because British state is an imperial state, created by and for empire. The UK’s continued existence makes no sense in a post-imperial world and an integrated Europe, and so, to keep the UK together, we must live in a nonsense world, where English wine in pint-sized bottles is paraded as a success story.
The UK seems persistently incapable of reforming itself to become a normal European country, which would require, as a minimum, a proper modern written constitution. That is because it is not one country, but an imperial union of four countries. Any reform that denies that national plurality is bound to fail.
Perhaps it would be different for an independent England, shorn of its imperial delusions. It would certainly be different for an independent Scotland and Wales.
As we face the New Year, remember this: Scottish independence is just the next step in the unravelling of a British imperial state in terminal decline.
Happy Hogmanay to all when it comes. I will lift a wee dram to independence, for it’s coming yet for a’ that.
That’s the problem though isn’t it, England is Britain is England and they don’t want to be European
It’s how dictatorships work
Happy New Year to all the Duggers and of course Paul himself. May 2024 be the best yet.
Happy New Year!
Happy 2024 to Paul and to all duggers. Let’s hope this is the year of independence
Election soon 2024. May? To get rid of the Tories and vote for Independence supporting parties. Do not be fooled.
Use it or lose it.
From the National:
“We have been treated like a punchbag’: Michelle Mone’s husband releases statement”
That’s so sad, my heart bleeds for them and their hundreds of millions. But at least Mone had a great and genuine product in her previous enterprises. Him? Not so much. Check him out.
The reason the numbers are falling is because life in the UK is so increasingly sh*te post Brexit.
The way things are going, the trend will reverse in time, and soon France will be complaining about the flood of migrants escaping right-wing extremist England in small boats.
We are already seeing a flood of refugees from England crossing into Scotland, and understandably so.
https://archive.is/vhUSo
Channel migrants: Crossings fell in 2023, government figures show
The number of migrants crossing the Channel has fallen year-on-year for the first time since current records began.
Government figures show the total arrivals in 2023 were down by more than a third on 2022.
The provisional annual total for the year, 29,437, is 36% lower than the record 45,774 crossings for the whole of 2022.
Did anybody mention the weather?
From the National: “Lloyd, who stepped back from politics …”
Obviously not.
I saw this:
“It needs to switch the narrative in Scotland from one of Labour gaining to one of the SNP fighting back – and being seen to credibly fight back.
And was like ‘huh?’.
The SNP got 45(+8)% in 2019 then 48(+1)% in 2021.
It’s not them that need to fight back, but the unionist parties. The best a unionist party has managed in the past 13 years in Scotland was 28.6% on a low turnout 7 years ago when baseline yes was 45%. It’s now 50%.
It’s so weird that people think polling is good for the unionist parties right now. Even if you take the face value numbers / accept these as correct, they don’t show a labour resurgence. Instead (if we assume we don’t have a typical mid-term response rate problem which the polls are screaming we do), polls suggest a massive rejection of the UK by Scots, with these not wishing to send MPs south, hence record low numbers saying they plan to vote. Optimistically, factoring in turnout, current polls suggest Labour will get as many voters backing them as the Tories managed in 2017, ergo, the current favoured tactical choice to save the union has made no progress in 7 years. This is the most optimistic scenario for the union; zero progress election-wise while they’ve lost 5% to independence. This does not seem to me to be a cause for unionist optimism. No, instead polls suggest they need to fight back.
Currently, Labour, at face value, are not wanted as a government by over 80% of Scots, and 70% of those intending to vote. This is not good, particularly as the Labour vote has maxed out since the mini-budget and they’ve not managed more than a % or so gain from the SNP’s apparent drop (which is just proportional reallocation due to normalisation to account for missing regular SNP voters). They are not winning over Scots, never mind previous SNP voters. Which is why Yes has been creeping up even while the SNP seem to be down. As discussed in past posts, Labour 2019 and 2021 voters are moving to indy and warming to Yousaf. At the same time, Scots are going off Starmer. These are not the trends Labour should be getting excited about.
Then folks seem to also not realise that many Scots tory voters hate English Labour. They’ve been backing the union because it was delivering them Tory governments. Soon, the union may be delivering them an English Labour government they despise, and the way to get rid of that would be independence. Things are not black and white here. I’d put money on Yes support rising amongst Tory voters should Starmer get the keys to No 10. They’ll take a competent SNP over an incompetent and hated English Labour.
It is such an amusing irony that polling which has Labour excited, which says they will get what they want – the keys to No 10 – also very clearly says this will end the union by delivering Scotland, for the first time ever, a Labour government Scots overwhelming rejected at the ballot. Sarwar doesn’t seem to realise this, i.e. that him popping the champagne corks at Labour taking office in London would be him celebrating the end of the union.
It was Labour that went on and on about Scots ‘not getting the government they voted for’ from 1979 to 1997. That was the justification for devo. Well, the polls right now show Scotland is going to get another UK government it didn’t vote for – a Labour one – and that’s with the unionist vote maxed out on a low projected turnout; the only way one of the big two has a hope of breaking the 30% mark.
I actually think the current polling is good for Yes as it’s not making the SNP complacent, but making unionists so. The latter are seeing what they want to see.
Now I could be wrong and we could end up with a record low turnout and Labour managing 70% rejection. It would be another 2017 type ‘blow’ for the SNP ostensibly, but it would actually be a bigger blow to the union. The SNP may yet be able to avoid such a blow if CTV numbers pick up as they typically do once an election campaign starts. However, the blow of Scotland getting a hated English Labour UK government it rejected at the ballot box looks highly likely to be unavoidable.
Now going back to the days when Scots rejected Labour for being right wing:
This happened very quickly under the warmongering racists Blair and Brown. Hence the mass protests in Scotland’s streets. You can see that Scots moved to the SNP steadily under Blair and this was not just mid term sampling, as in 2007, Blairism delivered the first SNP Scottish government ever. What happened in 2010 was not Scots endorsing Labour, but a very desperate last gasp attempt to stop the Tories by tactical voting. It failed, and the rest is history. Hence Labours 45% vs the SNP’s low 30’s in January 2011 was Scotch mist. SNP supporters were not answering polls. When they did, reality hit very fast. It was not a swing. The swing began 6 years previously as you can see. It was a steady exodus of Scots from right-wing new labour going back to 2005 or further.
The media story that Scots like Labour (‘but like the SNP at Holyrood too’ post-2007 then ‘are just protesting by voting SNP for Westminster’ post 2015) and will support the union if the Tories are ousted’ is just horsesh*t. Scots really don’t like new Tory labour at all, and rejected them in earnest 17 years ago, then completely post-2014. The polls suggest we are now going to see this myth finally put to bed as Scots get a hated English right-wing racist newest Labour government they didn’t vote for.
So remember Scots, including Tory & Lib voter; the only way to stop Scotland getting a hated English labour government it didn’t vote for is to vote SNP.
🙂
Oh, and I will add that if a majority of Scots back indy and an English labour government doesn’t give the ok to iref2, it will undoubtedly be a hated English Labour government. After all, 31% of Labour 2019 voters and 26% of Labour 2021 voters back indy.
Labour has managed to avoid the blocking of iref2 issue, with the Tories and No taking hits for this. But that body swerving will be impossible if Starmer enters No 10. As noted the other day, his best hope is to grant an S30 and pray for a narrow No. If he refuses iref2, he will confirm Labour are just the same as the Tories and seal the fate of the union. 2026 will end up as a defacto iref and that will be that.
Sunak says the identity of our country of Britain is the same as that of being European
I’m looking very hard at the world map but still am unable to locate the country of Britain and the country of Europe
Different maps in England is it?
Different maps in England is it?
– ‘Course they have different maps down here in England. This is the man who located Darlington in Scotland, remember!
https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/20292246.rishi-sunak-mentions-darlington-interview-scotland/
Should have added.
How they are going to fund ‘the North’ [sc. of England] having scrapped those parts of HS2 which were meant to go to Manchester etc.:
By repairing roads in the North (of London).
https://nation.cymru/news/uk-government-mocked-for-claiming-235m-of-hs2-money-spent-in-london-part-of-network-north/ |
UK Government mocked for claiming £235m of HS2 money spent in London ‘part of Network North’
20 Dec 2023 3 minute read
The UK Government has been widely mocked on social media for claiming £235 million of HS2 money being spent in London is part of its Network North pledge.
Under new proposals, road repairs in London boroughs such as Hillingdon, Bromley and Barnet will be funded by money originally allocated for HS2, before it was scrapped in October this year [i.e. 2023].
[…]
Except most Scots don’t identify as British in any way. 62% ‘Scottish only’ in the 2011 census, and this number has been rising for the past 13 years. The most recent census will be an eye opener.
Here is a hot off the press UK poll from People polling. It shows you starkly why Labour are far ahead and also why this is highly unlikely to remain the case. It also shows you why Labour are not actually popular, but deeply unpopular, yet a quirk of polling can put them seemingly well ahead.
The reason Labour have a healthy lead is not that Tory voters have moved to Labour, but it’s because Tory 2019 voters are apparently saying they are notably much less likely to vote; 62% 10/10 CTV compared to 75% and 73% for Lab and Con.
Which screams sampling problems. If Tory voters had dumped the Tories and moved to Labour or Reform, Tory 2019 should have the same CTV as Lab and Con. And Tory voters always vote. So this really doesn’t make sense, with the CTV numbers here highly improbable. Something’s going on.
What is that something? Well, if many Tory 2019 who still intend Tory are not responding due to the blows the party has taken, while Labour / Lib voters, eager at the prospect of ousting the Tories are, then polls will be missing a lot of Tory 2019 10/10 who still intend Tory 2024/5. But pollsters can’t know this is the case, they can only see that it might be. Likewise, they can’t weight it out because they don’t know the intent of those who are not responding. It also is not good business sense to say your VI numbers are quite likely very far from the mark. Better to get income from papers wanted to print stories about massive Labour leads which, in time, leads to more income from the same papers talking about huge swings back to con ahead of elections. Cha-ching. After all, a pollster only needs to be correct in final polling, which it should be as CTV numbers rise as the day draws close.
In Scotland, it is SNP 2019 voters we are seeing this pattern in, hence this graph I’ve shown before:
https://i.imgur.com/FwYqjyw.pn
The low SNP numbers recently (to the lower left) are a result of SNP 2019ers apparently saying they are not sure if they’ll vote. There has been no movement from SNP to unionist parties. . The only swing away from SNP has been to Green, with this highly unlikely to materialist when it comes to election day and tactical kicks in.
So, there has been no Labour resurgence in Scotland. This much is totally true. It’s all a result of SNP voters either not responding, or actually not intending to vote. We can’t know for sure. The latter seems unlikely given projected turnouts are unrealistically low. This actually happened in the recent by R&HW election because SNP voters either thought they couldn’t change anything and/or maybe wanted to give the SNP a kick in the bum to get back to the task of indy. However, in a full scale GE, we are not going to see a turnout of 60% or lower. But understand that there has been no swing to Labour, hence Labour only managed the same number of votes as last time in the by election. Only mainly labour 2019 voters actually wanted the pointless Titanic deckchair. A lot of Labour 2019 voters didn’t even want the seat as they want indy. 700 of them had swung away from Labour and didn’t turn out for them. Likely a lot more when you could Tory tactical who turned out to vote Labour.
Anyway, if we do have huge fall in turnout, that’s really, really bad for the union as it says Scots no longer believe in UK democracy. They will have had enough. However, if the SNP are not offering a route out of this English brexit sh*thole, then what’s the point going out and voting for them? So Yousaf listen hard here.
So polls look very bad for the union, even at face value. However, they may also say the SNP really need to offer a route to indy or they’ll not have Scots turn out for them, at least for pointless, waste of time, Scots can’t change anything ‘UK’ elections.
Managed not go copy the g on the end of that second image:
Oh, and that UK poll shows 22% of the electorate say they are certain to vote Labour.
22% of the electorate was certain to voted Labour in 2019 and did so.
There has been no Labour resurgence in Scotland or England. All the swings are not swings at all, but related to CTV numbers, pretty likely as a result of poor response rates from Con 2019 -> still Con and SNP 2019 -> still SNP.
Which is why you can ignore all such 1997 talk. It’s total guff. Labour are as unpopular now as they were 5 years go on both sides of the border.
The R&HW by election confirmed this. Labour went backwards while they are supposed to be on the up. It’s because they are not on the up, as per polls at face value.
Not one single voter has moved to Labour since 2019. None. Zero, zip, zilch net.
Looks like a great poll for UK Labour yes?
23% Con
45% Lab
10% Lib
4% SNP
6% Grn
10% Reform
But the guaranteed turnout is just 49%. That would be the lowest ever since universal suffrage.
So you’d have deeply unpopular Labour government with a massive FPTP majority from 22% of the electorate. It would have no democratic mandate whatsoever, would be hated in England, and utterly despised in Scotland. It would be, literally, a reviled one party state. England / the UK becomes a right-wing Blairite dictatorship.
That’s what the polling says right now at face value. The union would be totally screwed. Starmer would be handing out ermine like there’s no tomorrow and moving boundaries around to favour him staying in office for as long as possible.
Thankfully I expect Tory voters to turn out and curb the extent of any labour majority, and hopefully SNP voters will too. However, union will still be screwed as the Tories are even less popular in Scotland than the hated English Blairites. We will likely end up with small Labour majority with the UK totally unstable, with political rebellions taking place in every home nation (see Reform + Green + Lib in England -> big shares!). It’s what you’d expect for the end of the UK. Total political turmoil with English folks nearly as unhappy as Scots. Slow clap for the right-wingers.
Anyone think the polls look good for the union right now needs their head examined. They are living in a fantasy world in utter denial of the reality around them.
People are not moving to right-wing, migrant hating, genocide supporting Labour at all. It’s a polling illusion.
Independence supporters can change Westminster results by voting for Independence supporting candidates/parties and voting for Independence. People can vote. Use it or lose it.
Polls especially in tight margins are often wrong. The vote is secret for obvious reasons.
Why Independence supporters would vote unionist is a mystery.
Pollsters are paid to manipulate the vote.
When push comes to shove and the Scottish electorate is faced with the prospect of anything resembling a Labour resurgence the voters will do the right thing and make sure there isn’t one, until that time I reckon most folk are just plain fed up and can’t be bothered taking part
When the electorate do decide to involve themselves it’ll still be SNP/Green because once the campaign begins they’ll be reminded of the current benefits available in Scotland and that voting for any English party will see them removed the minute they think they can
Only SNP can keep Scotland Scottish run and controlled
Every vote not cast for the SNP is an invitation to Westminster to insist Scots love the England union and don’t want free prescriptions, free personal home care, free bus travel, free university education and all the rest of the benefits that Labour or Tory would remove at the drop of a hat
A BBC news item this week tried to imply the Scottish parliament had power over employment law by using USDAW the union to complain that new years day should be a public holiday and the Scottish government had the authority to do that
Even though Holyrood insisted employment law was controlled by Westminster the BBC doubled down by not correcting the USDAW representative leaving the impression the Scottish government was lying
Laws governing employment are controlled by the English parliament in Westminster London
There is a way Scotland could control all our laws though
Are you YES yet?
I note the latest BBC News website headline relating to Scotland: ‘SNP COULD face investigation into loans from Peter Murrell’ (my emphasis). It’s about allegedly late reporting of two loans to the Electoral Commission that were made and then paid back within 2 days and one week respectively during 2018.
Did anyone spot BBC headlines concerning the following matters reported on the Electoral Commission’s website?
1) Posted 19 December, 2023: ‘Electoral Commission concludes investigations into two political parties: Investigations into two political parties have closed over the last month, with the Electoral Commission imposing fines in each case.’
One of these relate to the ‘Labour Party (registered political party)’ for the offence of ‘Late reporting of 18 donations’ – a fine of £250 was imposed.
Source https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/media-centre/electoral-commission-concludes-investigations-two-political-parties-0
2) In similar vein, reported on 23 October 2023 on the Electoral Commission website: ‘Liberal Democrats (political party)- ‘Late reporting of 25 donations’ – ‘offences found’ – ‘Two fines of £200 each, and one fine of £2,000’
3) And on 23 May 2022: ‘Labour Party (political party) – ‘Late reporting of donations’ – ‘offences found’ – ‘Three fines of £200 each’.
I suspect one could go even further back in time and find other offences involving UK political parties that are NOT NEWSWORTHY even though they are regarded by the Electoral Commission as ACTUAL OFFENCES rather than just a potential/alleged one!