It seems that we are all extremists now, Rishi Sunak has asked Levelling Up Secretary, the oleaginous Michael Gove, to update the Government’s definition of extremism so it has a much broader scope, encompassing those who “undermine” British values and institutions. The change is expected to be announced later this month and is expected to include a list of groups that fall foul of the new definition. Independence campaigners have warned that this broad definition could encompass those seeking Scottish and Welsh independence and the reunification of Ireland, or anti-monarchy campaigners.
Those of us who want an independent Scottish state or who seek to replace the parasitical money grabbing nonce defending Windsor clan with a republic are by definition engaged in “undermining” British institutions and could very well find ourselves branded as extremists by a political party which has fully embraced an intolerant and xenophobic form of right wing populist Anglo-British nationalism. We live in a British state where a party that shamelessly denies Scottish democracy, suppresses legitimate protest, hands out licences to develop more oil and gas production, defends war crimes and genocide perpetrated by Israel in Gaza, neuters attempts to hold it accountable, blatantly lies and is shockingly corrupt, insists that those of us who seek a strong democracy, political accountability, action on climate change and a reduction in inequality are dangerous extremists.The irony meter is well and truly broken.
In a move which smacks of the McCarthy era in 1950s America, the UK government is creating a “blacklist” of organisations under this new definition of extremism. Several Muslim groups are likely to be on the list after being singled out in government reports. The groups facing the measures as part of Communities Secretary Michael Gove’s extremism review would be banned from receiving public funds, engaging with government agencies and appearing at university campuses.
The largest Muslim group in the UK, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), as well as Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND) and Palestine Action have been named in the media as earmarked for inclusion. The Muslim Council for Britain Charitable Foundations last year received £326,000 from Kickstart, a government scheme to get young people into work. The Ministry of Defence separately cut ties with the group itself.
In a move which appears to show that Scottish and Welsh independence and Irish reunification organisations and individuals could be targeted too, recently Kemi Badenoch, the Secretary of State for the Department for Business and Trade intervened to block Irish language republican hip hop band Kneecap from receiving a £15,000 government grant. The band had applied for the funding under the Music Export Growth Scheme (MEGS), a government-backed initiative which offers grants of up to £50,000 to UK-registered music companies to promote artists in overseas markets.
An independent selection board had approved the grant, but the band claimed they were told that their 2019 tour entitled “Farewell to the Union” had angered the Conservatives. Those approved for grant awards must be be given the go ahead by the UK department of Business and Trade. A spokesperson for Badenoch said the government did not want to hand taxpayers’ money “to people that oppose the United Kingdom itself.”
Those of us who want Scottish or Welsh independence or Irish reunification are ourselves UK taxpayers and as long as we remain such we should not be discriminated against by the British Government for our political beliefs and deprived of opportunities open to any other UK taxpayer.
Colum Eastwood MP, leader of the Social Democratic And Labour Party, one of the parties supporting Irish reunification condemned Badenoch’s decision, saying: “It is highly irregular for a Secretary Of State to intervene to overturn the decision of an independent assessment board to award funding to an artist on the basis of their political aspirations.”
He added: “Not only that, but Badenoch blocking the grant could be a breach of the British government’s obligations under the Good Friday Agreement.” The Agreement was signed as part of the Northern Ireland peace process in 1998, and includes “a commitment to exercise power on the basis of parity of esteem between communities in the North.”
A spokesperson for the band said that they have decided to take legal action to challenge Badenoch’s decision. As Irish republicans, Kneecap have protections offered by the Good Friday Agreement which are not available to supporters of Scottish and Welsh independence. We are fully exposed to the authoritarian hypocrisies of the Conservative party.
This move comes in the wake of George (the ego in a fedora -does he think we don’t know he’s bald? As a fellow baldie, George, get a grip) Galloway’s victory in the Rochdale by election last week.
Following Galloway’s victory in Rochdale, Rishi Sunak took to his podium in Downing Street to warn that the growing influence of divisive extremism in British politics poses a threat to democracy. Well, quite. The Conservative party has been taken over by extreme right wing authoritarian democracy deniers who imposed the hardest possible Brexit on a deeply divided UK with zero concessions to that half of the populace who voted remain and which has cracked down severely on the right to protest while introducing voter ID vote suppression measures straight out of the US Republican playbook. Now Sunak’s government is passing reality defying laws in order to deport vulnerable people to a violent African dictatorship, all in the name of throwing red meat to a noisy and vociferous extreme right wing media which peddles conspiracy theories and stokes up hatred against minority groups.
Oh wait. What? It’s not THAT sort of extremism that’s the problem? It’s only people protesting against war crimes, the monarchy, the devastation of the climate, and possibly in future those campaigning for Scottish and Welsh independence who are problematic. Far right British nationalist authoritarianism is just fine and dandy, because according to the Tory party, who are of course even handed arbiters of such things, that’s neither far right nor authoritarian nor nationalist, because it’s merely red blooded patriotically British common sense, and Sunak’s announcement was not in fact just another manifestation of the authoritarian far right intolerance which has taken over the Tory party. Phew! Glad that’s been cleared up then.
I’m happy to be called an extremist by these democracy British nationalist denying shysters.
___________________________________________________
My Gaelic maps of Scotland are still available, a perfect gift for any Gaelic learner or just for anyone who likes maps. The maps cost £15 each plus £7 P&P within the UK. You can order by sending a PayPal payment of £22 to weegingerbook@yahoo.com (Please remember to include the postal address where you want the map sent to).
I am now writing the daily newsletter for The National, published every day from Monday to Friday in the late afternoon. So if you’d like a daily dose of dug you can subscribe to The National, Scotland’s only pro-independence newspaper, here: Subscriptions from The National
This is your reminder that the purpose of this blog is to promote Scottish independence. If the comment you want to make will not assist with that goal then don’t post it. If you want to mouth off about how much you dislike the SNP leadership there are other forums where you can do that. You’re not welcome to do it here.
You can help to support this blog with a PayPal donation. Please log into Paypal.com and send a payment to the email address weegingerbook@yahoo.com. Or alternatively click the donate button below. If you don’t have a PayPal account, just select “donate with card” after clicking the button. You can also donate by PayPal by using my PayPal.me link PayPal.Me/weegingerdug
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/weegingerdug
Wee Ginger Dug 
I’m Spartacus
Ah, but is your wife?! 😀
Doshen’t matter, sshe’s an equal individual here.
Thissh ish Sshcotland.
Would it be inappropriate to add (Ya Bam)?
The Tories are falling apart. These new extremist views will be challenged in Court. The Tories are running out of time. The lowest polling ratings ever, on record. How low can they go. Despicable. The unionists are no better.
Well if I’m not on that list I will demand to know why not. I’ve been trying to undermine British values for years – whatever they are.
Music now, well, it is very influential and can be used to promote change by undermining prevailing attitudes and indeed, State authorised thinking.
Next it’s groups of people. Then it will be political cartoons and shows like Splitting Images. Then it will be books, of any sort, as they can discourage state authorised thinking.
Ray Bradbury would be talking about having Deja Vu.
#Fahrenheit451
Let’s have a punk revolution again…or maybe they’re just not liking how much music can influence, look at Bob (Marley) for example, now there was, and still is, influence.
Is there an application form?
It’ll only have ‘british’ as ethnicity option 😂
I have no idea what British culture / values are, and nobody’s ever been able to explain these too me; they always roll out English culture / values*, a lot of which is alien to me, like voting Tory.
Anyway, if someone can send me a link to a decent summary of British culture / values, I will do my best to undermine this as I am British institutions. By voting & marching peacefully. That and some amateur polling analysis if this counts too.
—
*Sometimes weirdly Scottish culture / values, which are not British as most Scots are not British in identity / culture.
The English elite know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
I don’t know if his years in America at uni. and Goldman Sachs brought about an arrestment in development in his ‘Britishness’ but Sunak’s on screen persona does seem to me to have its roots in the on screen personalities of ‘British’ children’s TV of the 80s or there about.
The same kind of patronising forced enthusiasm most of us will remember from the likes of Peter Duncan, Cheggers, Noel Edmunds, Phillip Schofield etc. And, in appearance and body movement he could be the love child of Zebedee and Roland Rat.
Probably just me.
No, it’s not just you, Chic McGregor.
I admit to not having seen it for myself, but the fact that John Crace has done it for me is a good enough excuse:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/05/the-end-is-nigh-kill-me-now-the-sunaks-have-done-the-grazia-video
😂
That’s in response to ‘zebedee and Roland rat’
class 😂
Unionist parties so, so f’d in the NE. This could be the end of the Tories in Scotland. Complete wipe-out. Latest IPSOS UK subsample has them on 7%, SNP + Green on 52%.
https://archive.is/3UdJw
Red-faced Tory leader Douglas Ross hung out to dry as windfall tax extension announced
The P&J was historically a Tory paper. This is where we are now.
England needs to get on it’s bike and pay for itself. For too long has it lived the high life off the backs of others.
Lol. Spot on for once.
He [Ross] told the prime minister he risks turning his Conservative colleagues in Scotland into nationalists by “taxing Scotland’s natural resources in order to pay for a tax cut in England”.
This is why Yes amongst Tory 2019/21 has reached historic highs. The UK is collapsing.
Roll on the GE and epic constitutional crisis that breaks it for good.
Great news if true.
https://archive.is/f4YeG
Douglas Ross ‘threatens to quit as Scottish Tory leader’ in Budget row
This ‘unionist revival’ thing is not what I expected at all. I’m really enjoying it!
Dross threatening to resign … again.
He gives flip-flops a bad name.
As I asked previously,
If Dross spat the dummy (I’ve never seen a face more in need of a sooker) resigned, and no one was listening would it still be annoys.
So the Chancer has cut NI (which I don’t pay) and raised child benefit (which I don’t get).
I heard some of the rabble at lunch time – someone in the house put the radio on – what a disorderly bunch of brayers they were. Apparently Keir Starmer couldn’t start his reply (why wasn’t it Rachel Reeves?) because the dastardly SNP had caused a division. The BBC didn’t bother to tell us why, only that the SNP are being disruptive.. So that’s something to be cheerful about.
BBC R5 new now interviewing a slew of Tories and Tory supporters being positive.
And as for the itv biased broadcasting, it was about richi et wife deliberating over ‘how to load a dishwasher…’
Are you now or have you ever been not English
Never been, nor British.
”British Values ” ???
Well , they used to involve subjugating as many countries in the world as possible , sucking their wealth from them to enrich the few back in Britain , rejecting calls for independence until ( often ) violent uprising forced them out then leaving the countries impoverished , posing as a World Power by doing exactly what the US president told them to do …
Just a little of the SNP Scottish governments record
300.000 baby boxes distributed in Scotland
That’s over £150 a pop right there, then there’s the Scottish child payment, 100.000 kids lifted out of poverty, no bedroom tax, free bus travel, free university education, free prescriptions, and more and more
Which of the 3 exact same English political parties are you going to vote for again?
because every one of them would put and end to all of that in a heartbeat to make Scotland just the same as England
You wanna talk waiting times in A&E ? go to England and see how you get on
What a twit:
“Toni Giugliano, the SNP’s former policy convener who is standing to become Falkirk’s next MP, told The National that the proposed new logos and ballot names were aimed at uniting Scottish independence supporters behind the party in an effort to lock out the Conservatives.”
What a bigmouth. There’s a lot of YESsers care about Indy and couldn’t care less about Tories at flaming Westminster. Or helping Red Tories become the government of a foreign country to uphold British values.
https://archive.is/fWaC1
I’m out canvassing regularly and there are independence supporters out there who are not traditional SNP voters – we’ve got a lot of work to do to ensure that we win their trust in this election,” he said.
“I would say to them, only the SNP can keep the Tories out and kick the Tories out of government and only the SNP can deliver independence.
You totally missed the point, as did he.
The SNP need to appeal to the unfaithful indy supporters who are going to stay away, or spoil balllot sheets..
Threats don’t cut it.
I don’t think the SNP should be chasing people that can’t be bothered voting or spoil ballots rather than vote for indy. The people you talk about – which polling does not actually show exist in any meaningful numbers – will not win Scotland her independence. ‘Am no gonnae vote for any indy party but stay at hame, that or or go oot and draw a willy oan the ballot’ are not the kind of folk that care enough about Scotland to be worth targeting.
Better to target e.g. Labour voters who back indy and other Yessers out to vote. I keep talking about Labour voters moving to indy in numbers never seen before. This is happening according to all polls. These people are going off Starmer and starting to rate Yousaf. They need to know their vote is not really about the SNP, but about independence deep down.
Adding indy to the ballot paper was the idea of conference attendees, i.e. committed members. I think it’s a great idea and I hope all pro-indy parties do the same. Do you know if Alba will have the same on the ballot?
I have noticed that the siren voices that have kept saying the SNP don’t put the word independence everywhere there’s space, are now attacking them for planning to put it the one place it actually counts; on the f’n ballot paper.
If it’s on ballot going forward, every single election becomes a defacto indyref. Just in the manifesto and britats could argue that people maybe hadn’t see it etc. On the ballot changes everything. And unionists must counter with ‘No to independence’ or votes for them ‘will not be clear votes for the union, but maybe just about domestic issues’. Over to Lab / Con / lib.
If SNP put indy on the ballot as planned, our defacto iref2 might be as early as this May. Scotland could be voting for indy in just a couple of months. Then, if needed, in May 2026. Then again. Every f’n time.
I will very enthusiastically vote SNP if indy is next to their name.
OMG, England’s politics has now descended into ‘fat shaming’. The bottom of the barrel has been scraped long ago; now a hole is being dug beneath the scraped out bottom of the barrel.
I can only assume that this is an example of ‘British / English’ values?
Aaw maan! I just fat shamed DRoss
Typo alert, WGD:
“Those of us who want Scottish or Irish [sic.] independence or Irish reunification are ourselves UK taxpayers and as long as we remain such we should not be discriminated against by the British Government for our political beliefs and deprived of opportunities open to any other UK taxpayer.”
Thanks.
Otherwise – on the money as per.
Sorry, that should of course have read Scottish or Welsh independence. Fixed it now, thanks
Och everybody knows you’re one of us *one of us*
As you are one of us, too, my friend. (Outside 80 minutes every year at Murrayfield or the Principality Stadium, of course … 😉 )
Even then it’s a game with friends not enemies.
The National does it again with a Herald style BBC headline “Delta pilot arrested for being over the alcohol limit before flight from Scottish airport”
You’ll never see a headline reading *English airport* the British media in England would just read the name of the airport, without the implication that somehow a “Scottish airport” makes it different from any other
Fact of the day… In IPSOS UK polls, the SNP are polling at an identical level to that just ahead of the 2019 election.
They have seen a small rise since August, consistent with the apparent unionist peak at that point seen in Scottish polls.
IPSOS have better reach due to telephone methods. They also have fully random sampling.
BBC reporting how the Scottish Tories have been completely humiliated by their English colleagues over the windfall tax. So much for England being their friend.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/scotland/scotland_politics
Come on Scots Tories. Have some backbone. Regain some pride and have a chance to influence the governance of Scotland. Vote Yes.
Of course the BBC aren’t reporting about the Tories in Scotland being humiliated about anything, what the BBC is doing is touting for votes for the Tories in Scotland by using the pretence that they disagree with their bosses in England
They’re lying!
We all remember Brexit when all the Scottish Tories loudly proclaimed their loyalty to Scotland and the EU and how certain figures like Ruth Davidson and David Mundell would resign on the spot if such a dastardly thing as Brexit were ever forced upon Scotland
They just *Luurve* good old Brexit to bits now don’t they
Davidson is now a Baroness and Mundell would’ve been a something but blew it by supporting the wrong one at the wrong time and never got his gong
They’re Tories, there should be no more need for explanation of these people’s behaviour, they’ll do and say whatever they need to for their own survival, they don’t have opinions of their own, they have collective hatred of all who are not them, and most of those people are Scottish
Work it out for goodness sake, they’re Tories! about to be replaced with a whole bunch of new Tories called Labour who will strip Scotland bare all over again like all of England’s politicians before them for the last 300 years, they worship at the church of money
And Scotland is their ATM machine
More guff from the National featuring Alex Salmond again, and how a councillor in the North of Scotland has joined his “ahem party”
For somebody who spends all his available time criticising the entire SNP for not wanting independence for Scotland Alex Salmond can’t seem to stop himself sniffing around and begging these folk to join him in his ever increasing tidal wave of 2% per year towards Independence, if he’s lucky
At this rate Alex Salmond will be ready for his take over when he’s 90 years old
Do you really believe him? and Y’all gonna wait for him?
What exactly will he become in the unlikely event that an of the party he formed are elected on their own merits, as members of that party?
Will he be another in the long list of unelected tory leader(sic)??
Without a seat in parliament.
The image that the Brexiteers wished to create was of a powerful successful UK state operating independently from Europe.
In order bolster this fabrication,they have had to suppress any sort of internal dissent which threatens to undermine that position.
Scottish aspirations are a particular concern because it directly threatens the United part of their title and they would simply have to trade under the name of England or possibly as they previously claimed RUK.
I think Former United Kingdom would be a more appropriate title.
In any case,Brexit,as forecast,has been a complete disaster and they are scrambling around looking for suitable diversions to engage the great unwashed.
Labour once again showing that there is no difference between themselves and the Tories in government. Today they have said that they will not block the Rwanda Bill in the House of Lords and will allow the government to push it through despite the Lords making numerous amendments.
It is expected that the Tories will now make it law without even considering any of the changes that the Lords have asked for, Labour basically doing the Tories work for them and even some Tories in the Lords are not impressed.
https://www.ein.org.uk/news/labour-confirms-it-will-not-block-safety-rwanda-asylum-and-immigration-bill-despite-further
I’d say that this is one Tory who knows exactly what Labour stand for and that is the pursuit of power above everything else.
👍
They’ve wasted a fortune to achieve nothing with this Rwanda enterprise other than to flag to the “No Irish, no blacks, no dogs” brigade that they are ‘on their side.
I seriously question why despite the “Rivers of blood” debacle having so desperately failed England in the 1970s, that the ‘establishment’ thought that the ‘small boats’ gambit could ever really work.
Those ‘small boats’ that made it to the Yorkshire coastline would have been met by a blanket, a warm cuppa and some fresh bread, rather than the likes of Farage et al..
I agree Labour have squandered the political opportunity afforded them over a whole host of issues, but when even middle-England and the Lords are crying foul to a bunch of charlatans, it’s tricky seeing where Farce-UK will end up by trying to out-Boer the Boers, or out-Netanyahu the Netan- Yahoos.
They used to hide the rape of Scotland’s resources McCrone style. Now they do it openly.
https://archive.is/Ksabi
Hunt says Scottish oil and gas industry is budget loser
Hunt knows Scotland is going, so is taking every penny he can for England. He also figures Starmer will be the one to lose Scotland from the union, so Labour can take the blame.
How did successive governments manage to keep the Debt to GDP so low through the 70’s to the 00’s?
They used the revenue from Scotland’s oil that’s how.
Are there any countries left for England to invade and steal from? or is it just us
From this came the myth of England as a uniquely hard working and entrepreneurial country, made rich by its superior business acumen and hard graft.
A delusion that persists, but is now being shown up as England lurches from one disastrous economic decision to the next.
At least now Scots can see which country is the true ‘subsidy junkie’ and it’s not Scotland.
DRoss pretends to resign over the “disagreement” with his party spot on at the right time to make his threat seem important so that, (and here’s the rumour mill answer) he’ll be offered a peerage not to do it at this incredibly important moment in time for the Tories, and apparently Alister Jack is rumoured to have offered him one to remain in post
But here’s the stupidity of DRoss, the Tories will likely be voted out of office anyway so that opportunity could be gone in the immediate future, plus the Tories won’t forget the stunt that DRoss tried to pull on them in their moment of crisis so they’ll never give him that promised peerage anyway for being a wee snide
Poor wee DRoss will never get to sit beside Baroness Buffalo Davidson Savile Row Jack McConnell, Lord Ffooooks of wine o’clock, and Baroness Gggoldie and all their pals in the Big Brother house of Lordy Lordies
Sarwar’s turn will be upon us in the not too distant future to scale the dizzy heights of the steps to heaven just like his daddy before him
Vote SNP to rid Scotland of all of these creeps
So let me get this right…
We should vote Labour so our Labour MPs can stand up to a hated English Labour when their policies damage Scotland.
Or we should vote Tory so our Tory MPs can stand up to a hated English Tory party when their policies damage Scotland.
Like Douglas Ross has managed to stop the windfall tax extension which threatens 10’s of 1000’s of jobs. No wait….
The windfall tax is great for showing Scots why England is refusing iref2, why voting unionist does not in any way ‘put Scotland at the heart of UK governance’, and is perfect timing for the coming elections.
As I keep saying, it is the unionists – particularly the British/English nationalists – that will deliver independence. They have fought tooth and nail to drive Scots to Yes, and based on polls now, they’ve finally done it. Their work now is to make the Yes % as high as possible, and I have total faith in them for this, particularly Keir Starmer.
Quite a few articles around today talking about rumours of a May UK election.
I’d be fine with that. Polls would start shifting quickly towards the true outcome.
I can’t see how the pending constitutional crisis could possibly be avoided. The Tories are not going to see things improve by holding out. Starmer has failed to win over a single voter since 2019 too, and he’s not going to turn that around either. Labour’s VI continues its slow decline even with low turnouts favouring it. Starmer’s ratings get worse every day. A May election would likely see Starmers ratings shoot down really quickly with Labour’s VI hurt too as the unengaged engage and conclude the same as everyone else.
The one reason Lab/Con/Lib might mutually desire an early vote is to stop minor parties developing which might take seats from the big 3. That is the threat they see. Hence Sunak’s authoritarian speech and Starmer’s backing of this. They don’t mind a low turnout as things stand; one of them will still hold absolute power and crackdowns on protests are an option if the plebs get uppity is what they figure. But a popular uprising in the form of votes going to other parties scares them.
Considering the hoo-ha over the allegations of Nicola Sturgeon and the SG deleting messages during the Covid pandemic, whereas Sunak and Johnson’s are mysteriously unavailable (yet the latter pair are not pursued as vigorously as the SG by the Scottish media – no surprise there), I give you the latest from my part of the world:
https://nation.cymru/news/senior-welsh-government-adviser-admits-deleting-messages-in-the-pandemic/
Senior Welsh government adviser admits deleting messages in the pandemic
07 Mar 2024 3 minute read
A senior government official has admitted to setting messages to automatically delete during the pandemic against Welsh Government advice, an inquiry has heard.
Jane Runeckles, a special adviser for the Welsh Government, admitted using the “disappearing messages” function on WhatsApp during the pandemic at the UK Covid Inquiry on Thursday.
Ms Runeckles, who has worked for the Government for almost 20 years and is the most senior adviser to the First Minister Mark Drakeford, ultimately accepted she was using the technology “wrongly”.
This is despite Welsh Government guidance, which said personal WhatsApp accounts should not be used and that using messaging tools was creating “public records”.
[…]
You’re OK at the moment though because your independence numbers aren’t high enough to threaten the big England, and you’ve still a Labour party government so any *mistakes* Wales makes definitely won’t be reported in Scotland, or probably England much either
Get your numbers up into the forties however and Plaid Cymru into government and they’ll start paying real big time attention to Wales
It’s a double edged sword though, great for having the support and a nightmare from the media
Remember just this week how Scotland can’t become a member of NATO if we don’t want nuclear weapons in our country?
Sweden just became the 32nd member of NATO
Gosh how can this beeee
From the National:
“LABOUR have recorded their highest-ever amount of private donations after a major fat cat charm offensive.
While the party continued to receive funding from trade unions, the main lift came from individuals and companies – who gave more than £13 million in total, figures from the Electoral Commission show.”
and this is because:
“Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have spent months schmoozing with major players in the City of London and deep-pocketed businesspeople across the country ahead of this year’s General Election.”
so therefore (from another article):
“Labour (slammed as) party ‘backs ALL measures in Tory Budget”
Bought and sold by corporate gold.
Complementing and supplementing yesindyref2:
https://nation.cymru/news/labour-party-received-highest-ever-amount-of-private-donations-last-year/
With Scotland – 57 / 650, and per seat
Labour £31 million = £2.7 million = £47K
Tories £48 million = £4.2 million = £74K
LibDem £8 million = £0.7 million = £12K
SNP= ? = ?
Obviously parties prioritise certain seats.
So the answer in competition is motivation and boots on ground.
And one more! Like many I joined after Indy Ref, first meeting maybe 40 to 50 people. Say 50. Next about 23, and then settled down to about 17. With 350 branch members, so 5%. That when overall membership rose to 125,000, So now at 75,000, there’d be maybe 210 members at the branch, but nearly the same regulars at meetings probably though I know 1 or 2 that left. So say 15.
So what was missing? Independence on the agenda I think, it wasn’t on the boring agenda even once in my 3 years though I did try; co-opted onto the committee I got a generalised agenda item, and the next meeting – it wasn’t even read out. I wanted to email the membership with a survey but wasn’t allowed. Gave up going soon after.
Put Indy on the agenda for every meeting – could that double the regulars – and those who did the legwork?
Things like that are exceedingly annoying, as Mr Kipling might say. Or Mr Tunnocks! What a waste of my energy – and that of the missing 20 others.
I have to admit I had a similar experience although the entrenched understanding of a majority of indy seats at Westminster being enough to get us out of the union was very strong. 2015 should have seen us out of the union but somehow the entrenched and historic understanding of how this union works no longer applied.
Golfnut
Well said Paul.
What terrified the political establishment over Rochdale was not election of the “the ego in a fedora”, but votes as proportion of the electoral roll going through the floor, with all of the Westminster parties taking a beating and second place going to an Independent.
When England’s electorate are finally fed up with the political hegemony of Tories and Labour, the established political order gets nervous…
Sunak’s ‘extremism’ ploy essentially doubles down on the gamble he and Starmer took over Gaza, that they and only they decide what stance Westminster takes – The public are to say the least, not amused, hence they need a dead cat, “extremists”.
They will have some group already earmarked for the full media propaganda treatment, but it still will fail to distract the public in much the same way as a big blue police tent did in Scotland – The public aren’t daft, they know an establishment stitch-up when they see one…
Another from Salvo and the SNC via YSF.
This deals with the removal of jury trials, why this is bad law both from an historical and constitutional view and worth reading even as an educational tool. Did you know that trial by jury was introduced in Scotland 200 yrs before Magna Carta by Kenneth McAlpine.?
Golfnut
“first they came for..”; When progressives say fascism, the state, heirarachy, comes for everyone if its not opposed with all your might we’re not kidding. Hopefully now that this is obvious, far more people will embrace the anti-heirarchal (anarchic) alternatives europe and much of asia (then the places they conqured who handnt till then) discarded millenia ago.
The Scottish Greens have won their first ever council by-election in history. They have won the Glasgow Hillhead ward from Labour.
Aargh – those dreadful homophones! (I suffer from them, too, sometimes …)
https://greens.scot/greens-win-hillhead
An interesting development. What has happened there? Hillhead voters concerned about climate change? A good campaign with boots on the ground? Or complete disillusionment with Labour? Or all three?
There are a huge amount of young students in that area could it could be that, but one thing’s for sure, the electorate are pointing their fingers directly at Labour and say “NAW! yeez are funoot” (owersettin tae the lnglis) No thank you very much, we have exposed your lack of veracity
From what I see, while turnout was down so both got less physical votes, however Labour did lose votes too on top, and transfers went to the Greens. So a genuine win, with the seat changing hands, and not some STV in a single seat shenanigans.
It was the SDP great breakthrough by Baron Jenkins of Hillhead (Roy Jenkins as we knew him) so probably a posh area full of students as Dr Jim says. Still, it does suggest people are scunnered with Labour.
Hillhead is a student stronghold and somewhere the Greens do well. I think if Labour had taken it then it might have signified a deeper problem ahead. The Greens holding their own and taking the seat along with the fiasco at Rochdale is useful. It signifies that Labour have no automatic guarantee to be the voter’s choice and brings a bit of reality back into the discussion.
I see that McConnachie was standing under his “Independent Green Voice” banner and took over 3% of the vote. Somebody less Green or pro independence it is hard to imagine. Clearly a tactic to pull the votes of the unwary. However, if people were fooled hopefully they put SNP/Green as their other choices.
I still don’t understand how this guy is getting away with using the word *green* when it’s clearly a masquerade
Electoral Law dominates how political meetings are held. The SNP hold the main stay of meetings to a fixed agenda. The members finance the SNP. If there was no members there would be no SNP. If there was no SNP Scotland would be lost.
The people who turn up for meeting need all the help they can get.
2 million+ voters vote SNP. Increasing all the time. Amazing political victories. People who support Independence need to get out and vote. A higher turnout.
Bad news for farmers .
Theresa May has announced her retirement from politics ( sic ) so she can spend more time ”running through fields of wheat !”
Her enduring legacy will be appearing on stage at a Tory Conference to the sound of Abba’s dancing Queen and looking like a disjointed scarecrow ; followed by letters of the Tory slogan falling off the wall behind her – an apt metaphor for Tory rule !
Good riddance !
I was always of the mind that Boris was behind that board pushing the letters off 🙂
Or knew who could…
Maybe if all the letters that came off were “F’s”. That would have sent a clear message to the Prime Minister of the time:
“F— off, Theresa!”
The Tories are resigning before they get voted out. Off with their ill gained pensions and loot. After mucking up the economy.
Does Sunak not get a knighthood list. They all seem to get own, even if they are not elected.
It appears the majority of people in Great Britain under 45 years of age don’t want the monarchy, but the people in England over the age of 45 years do
So that’s all very fair isn’t it, glad England sorted that out for us
This is one of those occasions when they decide we’re all one country
The Council by-election in Hillhead
Hillhead may have a largish student population but how many have the vote. Foreign students won’t and students from England, if they have registered to vote, may have done so giving their home address in England. The issue of registration to vote, have they or haven’t they, also applies to Scottish students. A final point to consider is that the increase in purpose built student residences in Glasgow may have depleted the concentration of students in places such as Hillhead.
So maybe the Green’s victory in Hillhead owes more to an older, but not much older, cohort of voter.
I see the “Defence” Minister of the UK has just declared war on Russia. I do hope he hasn’t included us in his hare brained scheme. Wish him luck as he goes on his way.
So if Scotland declares war upon England, Grant Shapps will lend his full support for democracy and for Scotland
Glad to see this change of heart by a senior representative of England
The Tories are toast. A bunch of total fools. Stepping down before being voted out. A few months. Their idiotic mentions will be gone. Hang on.
Hillhead by election. 24% turnout. A non event.
The EU are getting aid into Gaza by sea. By passing Israel. Netanyahu is finished. An absolute criminal. Up on criminal charges.
Everybody who cares about Scotland and benefits from Scottish policies should donate what they can to the SNP. Even non members. They should also turnout to vote SNP and Independence supporting Parties. A higher turnout.
Or they cannot complain,
Labour still showing no statistical change support wise on 2019.
Quick calc of recent UK polls has them on 22% of those respondent certain to vote, which is the same as it was for their worst defeat since 1935.
And another poll showing a big negative change in the kid starver’s ratings. They are all showing this. Has to be the gaza / subversion of democracy thing.
Aye, so many extremists…
An extreme amount of extremists, Bob? 😉
Believe in Scotland point out the insult to democracy that is the House of Lords.
The House of Lords to sit in judgement over Scots’ democratic rights
Check out the article for a full description of why this is irrelevant.
https://www.believeinscotland.org/the_house_of_lords_to_sit_in_judgement_over_scots_democratic_rights?utm_campaign=newsletter_lords_and_linlithgo&utm_medium=email&utm_source=believeinscotland
Aid for Gaza seems like a good thing to do but:
Israel has financial assets all around the world, so instead of asking Joe Public to dig cash out of their own pockets to alleviate the suffering of the people of Gaza, shouldn’t Israel be made to stump up the cash for that aid as they’re the ones doing the damage, because if they don’t have to pay for it, doesn’t that mean that Joe Public thinking that they’re doing some good are saving Israel money, thus indirectly financing Israel’s war?
World governments froze and seized Russia’s assets, well partially, why not Israel’s?
And the answer is………they don’t want to because Israel is on the side of the West, and the West needs and wants Israel right where it is, doing exactly what it’s doing
What we’re hearing from politicians right now is for public voting consumption, every penny sent to Gaza in aid is a penny Israel doesn’t have to spend
OT
From the National and the Herald about the new Tesco coming to Pitlochry, quoting Sheridan Keane Real Estate Investment:
““The new Tesco store will be the first and only supermarket in this strong Scottish town.””
is a lie. There’s been a co-op SUPERMARKET just up from the main street for many years.
The power of relying on ignorance.
What’s a “strong Scottish town”? (Has Pete Lochry been at the spinach, again?)
Do please excuse my ignorance. I’m only an ignorant Taff, after all.
Imported steroids from the big London
It’s because, to be a resident, you have to be able to toss a caber 50 metres.
Or dance in the street all afternoon on New Year’s Day…
New supermarket means a new roundabout and more housing developments. I think the plan has been given the heave?
Pit-place-name has a good-sized co op, plenty of ‘honeypot’ tourist shops, regular shops and a high street that’s always heaving.
Callander too.
Both towns are right on the tourist routes.
Locals use the facilities regularly too.
Prof Robertson again writes about the strange case of the no-news County Lines gangs. Why is the MSM so reluctant to report on this terrible cost of union, asked nobody.
Interesting follow up article on Ayrshire town which drove out County Lines gangs but the MSM reported it as rioting locals.
I’ll remove the http:// to avoid embed.
talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2024/03/09/how-one-local-newspaper-gave-the-people-that-facts-they-needed-to-take-back-our-town-from-english-drug-gangs/
If the problem was the other way round it would be headline news again and again…
…Even the perpetrators identified as British unionist* they’d be called ‘Scottish’.
____
*You’d expect any dealer in Scotland that wanted to sell to England would be opposed to Scottish indy, ergo unionist.
Telegraph and BBC Scotland getting a hard time of it on TwitterX – deservedly so.
The Telegraph front page leading story about Mr Yousaf and £250,000 for Gaza via UNWRA from SG.
BBS Scotland because they used the Telegraph’s front page as one of the newspapers highlighted on its webpage.
As commented elsewhere, it’s somewhat obvious that an orchestrated campaign is under way to do down SG in the main UK media with specific SNP labelling, which has to be reported back north likely where it originated – It’s a new tactic from James Pondlife, 000, licensed to schill, but it’s the same “Look, a squirrel”.
– This can only have been orchestrated to Sarwar’s benefit – The Tories were already dismal in Scotland before the Forres Gump etc rendered them totally untrustworthy, but in face of Starmer’s ratings going through the basement in England, I suspect there’s desperation in the “establishment” for something they CAN get a grip on and control, without which democracy might prevail.
What is it with Tories and making wild accusations. Kerr will be the third in as many days to have hit the headlines with unfounded or (as in the case of the octopus) barking accusations. OK Kerr is no stranger to this sort of thing but even so he has pushed the boat out this time…as has the Torygraph.
Kerr like all union supporting MPs and MSPs play to their own support base, they know they’re talking rubbish but it’s the kind of rubbish their supporters want, and the union supporting media loves to support them so they happily report it and print it
Folk who read the Mail Express Scotsman Telegraph Daily Record and others, don’t read that shit because they want a fair and balanced view, they want the union version and some hatred
Only the Daily Record actually makes a profit on newspaper sales
The BBC get’s around £250.000 in tax money from Scotland yet they spend only around £100.000 of it in Scotland
Around 250.000 Scots don’t even pay the TV tax and yet the BBC claiming they’re running at a loss is still here
What kind of businesses keep running at a loss yet don’t sell or close down, how and why do they do it
It’s all one big effort by the Brits to keep the propaganda morale of their union side up, because if they don’t their union is doomed in far shorter order
Excuse me sorry for GOT, but are any of the commentators on the Scotland Italy game actually Scottish???
British
ITV’s commentary is even worse than BBC’s, but this is the first time I had to use the mute button – several times. Windbags full of useless bits of info from their crib sheets, and I do mean, crib.
Got to admit I wasn’t looking forward to this, as Italy are well improved. Ho hum.
Good game all the same. But as soon as Varney came on I thought “We’re f******”.
Italy now move into 9th world ranking above Australia, below Wales.
8 Wales 79.54
9 (↑10) Italy 78.05 (+1.47)
10 (↓9) Australia 77.48
Yes the days of rugby being dominated by the the big 8 (France, England, Scotland, Ireland & Wales in the NH and Austrlia, South Africa & New Zeland in the SH, seem to be gone for now with Italy and Agentina in the top ten and Fiji very close to breaking the top ten in 11th.
So all we need to do I think, is beat Ireland by 39 points with at least 4 tries and Ireland not having 4 tries, and England not to win with a bonus point and more than 46 points, and that’s in the bag.
It’s a dawdle.
A bit like 1977 at Anfield. I was there because I found last minute it wasn’t on TV in London because of some silly friendly.
Yeah, yeah, rub it in, Yir2! 😉
Although, I’m more offended by Archie “Comb over” Macpherson by today … Then again, as he’s been outed as a yoon, whatdoyaexpect?
We were waiting for the openly racist / Islamophobic attacks by the English / British political parties / media to begin, and so it has.
The BBC backs up the Telegraph by doing it’s usual reporting of the story as if it all ‘could be true’ under the guise of ‘impartiality’.
That’s the BBC these days; it doesn’t investigate and write up stories, it re-hashes English tabloid shite and calls these ‘reports’ like they are a reliable source of factual information.
Anyone seem the BBC report a National story like it does English/British papers? Thought not.
https://archive.is/82Mua
Yousaf condemns ‘outrageous smear’ over Gaza funding
The polls say Scots are warming to Yousaf while running a mile from Sunak / Ross / Starmer / Sarwar. So this is the response.
The British state revolts me. The leader calling for an end to kid killing is the target of disgusting smears for doing this while the actual kid killers sending the bombs there get an easy ride.
Who is selling the weapons to Israel to kill kids? England/Britain, that’s who.
But they are afraid. Very afraid. Impromptu lectern outside downstreet level afraid. They know there is a real constitutional crisis of epic proportions coming. In their attempts to counter this, they will fuel it, idiots that they are. Case in point is dumb as f’k Starmer thinking his subversion of democracy would get one over on the SNP, only for the opposite to occur, with his own ratings diving. Like what sort of prize thicko could not see that coming?
You want to know why the UK is so fecked? It’s because total dumbasses like this are in charge.
The UNCRC came into force in the UK on 15/01/1992. UNCRC international legally binding obligation to protect children all children irrespective of where they live or religion. The UK selling weapons of mass slaughter must violate the UNCRC. I would also suggest that the UK is complicit in the slaughter of children around the world and especially in Palestine. The UK is also complicit in enabling collective punishment. Scotland has to get out of this shit show of a union.
Well this is awkward.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68518468
UNRWA: Sweden and Canada resume funding for UN agency for Palestinian refugees
I guess the, erm, ‘Islamists must have taken control of them’.
4% of Canada population Muslim.
2% of Sweden population Muslim.
Not exactly taking over.
Aye, pecisely.
Everybody in England knows that they and only they can be trusted in the world, all the other countries of the world are terrorists or potential terrorists who can’t be trusted, God save the King
The definition of extremism:
(The fact of someone having beliefs that most people think are unreasonable and unacceptable)
And that seems a pretty fair definition really, except for one tiny difference, in this current case of an English government deciding how to redefine a word to include what they believe is worthy of addition to the definition, the English government has missed out the important part of the process, which are the words *most people*
The English government clearly are not *most people* in the UK, they aren’t even *most people* in England, in fact the English government aren’t even *most people* in the Houses of Parliament, so once again the English government is going to take an internationally recognised commonly used word throughout the English speaking world and alter its meaning without asking *most people* whether they should could or can, and without a single soul on planet earth’s co-operation decree that word to mean something all the definitions in history never meant it to mean
Words over time evolve, language changes by common use as the integration of other languages become absorbed, that’s actually how *most people* change language and definitions of words
The government of England who are not *most people* are doing this by decree, so what kind of regime does things to a country by decree?
Today it’s a word, what do they *decree* tomorrow?
“Today it’s a word”
Tomorrow,
the intermediate solution get rid of the words, burn all the books that are full of them.
The carriers are really a microcosm of Brexit Britain / England.
https://archive.is/QLsIL
Royal Navy’s HMS Queen Elizabeth catches fire while docked in Scotland
AN investigation is underway after a fire broke out onboard the HMS Queen Elizabeth while it was docked in Scotland.
The aircraft carrier – the largest and most powerful vessel in the Royal Navy – was reportedly docked at Glen Mallan on Loch Long when the fire broke out late on Friday night.
Our sister paper The Herald reports that there have been no reported injuries but said the Royal Navy confirmed it was working with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to establish the cause of the fire.
The aircraft carrier is en-route to Rosyth to undergo repairs for an issue with her starboard propellor shaft coupling.
Are you seriously exaggerating the miniscule with ” really a microcosm of Brexit Britain / England “, hence joining yoons such as Kerr of the flying wallies in flights of fanciful rhetoric ?
I doubt there are many bin-fires on the boat, but “A minor, isolated fire on HMS Queen Elizabeth was quickly brought under control and extinguished.” pretty much falls into the same category does it not ?
Brexit UK certainly compares very well to a bin fire by the dictionary definition.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2018/03/07/congratulations-everybody-dumpster-fire-is-now-a-dictionary-entry-and-heres-why/
In 2008, a user at Urban Dictionary defined the “dumpster fire.” The figurative one, that is:
1. A complete disaster.
2. Something very difficult that nobody wants to deal with.
“It’s a very serious entry from Urban Dictionary, very well drafted,” said Peter Sokolowski, editor at large at Merriam-Webster, which introduced the dumpster fire to its own online version this week.
Loch Long being on the West coast of Scotland isn’t what you’d call handy for en-route to Rosyth, which is on the East coast of Scotland if your propellers are dodgy, plus aircraft carriers have fire crew of their own, why on earth would they need the local fire service boys? did they dial 999? what do they do at sea if a fire breaks out? this vessel is meant to be a state of the art warship that is specifically designed tae pit oot big explody bomb fires when attacked
Deary me!
https://insidedio.blog.gov.uk/tag/glen-mallan/
Up to no good, I’m sure…
May English (and Welsh) local elections will be a good bellwether of what could happen in the UKGE, assuming they don’t coincide!
A reminder of the result for the big 3 English parties vs national poll predictions for a GE:
35(-9)% Lab
26(-2)% Con
20(+10)% Lib
Con share basically matched what the national share was, but Labour was a lot lower, seemingly going to Lib Dem. This is most likely tactical voting.
If you are a voter more on the centre-left in a Con-Lib marginal, voting Labour just risks letting the Tories back in, so you hold your nose and vote Lib.
Which will happen again in the coming election. You will have the Lab vote losing to Lib as people figure actually voting Labour could mean letting in the Tory rather than Tory lighter. So better vote for socially liberal Tory lite.
It’s another reason not to trust mid term polls. With FPTP, you don’t just have disengagement effects, but also no tactical voting factored in; this only appears in polls ahead of voting day. People can safely say what they’d like to vote for in mid term polls, not what they actually will do on the day if faced with a situation where the party they like the most (or hate the least) has no chance.
It’s why when you have 4-6 % Green in Scottish polls plus couple of % Alba like now, add most of this to SNP as that’s what they’ll do, often because there’s not even a candidate in their ward.
Lib Dem share in UK polls is like 10% right now. The rule of thumb is that when this is high, like 25-20%, it will fall as voting day approaches. If it starts low, it will likely go up, with Labour mainly taking the hit. So Starmer should worry about this.
My preference is currently that English Labour wins the most seats, but falls far short of a majority. One is narrowly possible (or not far off with Libs), but by the finest of margins, making it weak and divided.
Also actually more PR representative, which would nominally force consensus. Which is what I believe in and prefer; coalitions. However, as English parties don’t do consensus in terms of power (only on policies), a mess would ensue as they fight like rats in a sack over ministerial position and perks.
Being down 9% in Wales where Labour is normally strong is as bad a sign for them as you can get, if it replicates at UK level
You can work out real support (minus tactical) for parties in Wales using PR list polls. Labour are just 32-33% if people can vote for who they wish. PC are 22% right now. So Labour do appear to be down somewhat compared to 2021.
Wales is showing the same very low turnout pattern. So expect changes in VI to occur rapidly if this picks up.
Don’t they know how to read a chart, or carry out voyage planning.
Do the people who continue to disseminate this pi*h, ever question the pi*h they lift from another source.
If indeed she is still at Glenmallan (sic) (correct spelling) she is not on route to Rosyth.
Rosyth may be 100km from Glenmallan as the crow flies, but this is not the kind of boat you put on a trailer and pull it across the country.
Question who long has she been at Glenmallan a dead end quayside for keeping things out of sight and mind.
Glenmallan to Rosyth is a voyage in excess of 1300km through the Pentland Firth.
And knowing the Grey Funnel line boys, with starboard prop shaft coupling problems she won’t go through there.
No this being an election year she could well do an anchorage to anchorage limp around to Rosyth.
Promoted as flying the flag visits around the country, eg Glenmallan to Belfast to Lochboisdale to Scapa Flow to Lerwick(Possibly) to Elgin to Aberdeen to Rosyth. All at a leisurely pace so that as many people as possible can see her and marvel at the great british aircraft carrier.
The first off her class, with no planes, and 50% propulsion, they might however manage get a dominoes pizza delivery drone onboard.
If the militaries of the world have learned any thing from the Ukrainian defence of their homeland. it is that with missiles and the continuingly rapid advancement of drones. Military aircraft have almost become obsolete, and as for aircraft carriers, well let’s see who builds the next one if any. They have indeed become a real phallic symbol.
I don’t think we’re getting quite the full story. 5 tugs?
Golfnut
Nothing in that Golfnut, five tugs is nothing unusual for a ship of this size. Especially a Grey Funnel Line boat, bumping quaysides miss run anchoring’s not acceptable with the untipped fags.
And in a constrained seaway like this probably another two and or a sea/ocean going vessel on standby out of shot, with LOF gear rigged out ready for use.
It’s not exactly a “project our power around the world” story is it
It’s more like a “don’t buy stuff made in Britain” story, and kinda reaffirms why all the motor manufacturers are foreign and British stuff was only best when nobody else made stuff
In the UK 6.9% of the pop are Muslim. 39% live in deprived areas. 2% of the pop in Scotland are Muslim. Muslims are more law abiding. They do not drink alcohol.
If you want to know what the biggest threat to the union is right now, it’s Keir Starmer. Faced with Yes going above 50%, he responds by offering Scotland absolutely nothing in Labour’s manifesto, says as an Englishman he’ll say no to Scotland’s iref2 like the Tories, then blocks Scotland having 1 of its pitiful 3 opposition days a f’n year on prime time TV, all to try and save himself blushes over his support for the slaughter of kids in Gaza.
And look at this, not only is he losing left-wing voters as he moves ever rightwards, but he’s also losing blue wall voters too. Facepalm or what.
The guy is the biggest liability to the union going. Sunak could do any more damage, with the Tories a spent force. They’ve now passed the mantle to this little dictator and he’s right on the task of destroying the UK.
I will him well in his quest for the keys to No. 10. He’s zero backbone, which is why the SNP say we should still welcome him in there over the Tories.
Bacterial yoghurt, he tastes of nothing, does nothing, shits nothing, yet is extremely costly
It’s a talent alright
R&W are one of the most favourable pollsters for Starmer ratings-wise, and have been finding him NET positive where most other pollsters have him NET negative over the past year+.
Here is what they have for him UK-wide so far this year.
Of to a great start!
The BBC etc need to turn their guns on this liability if they want to save the union. They are wasting their time attacking the SNP. It’s this guy sending people to Yes, notably Labour 2019/21.
Keep up the good work Starmer. Long may you lead the Labour party.
Man arrested after crashing a car into the gates of Buckingham palace
Notice how the news where they are (England) doesn’t reflect on the man’s nationality place of birth colour or creed
Only in Scotland is that reported if it turns out to be someone Scottish
It’s worse than that, Dr. Jim.
From the Home page of BBC England news tonight’s headlines:
– Man bailed after Buckingham Palace gate crash
– Man charged with murder after deportation
– Man* fatally stabbed in park named by police
– Two charged with attempted murder after stabbing
– Two arrested in funeral home investigation
* Ok, so he’s the victim here, whereas in all the other stories we see suspect(s).
The QE was at Glenmallan to offload munitions, simple as that. No conspiracies.
So a fire on board while in dock to handle munitions. Thankfully these were not touched by it.
A ‘minor’ minor fire I read, but the fact the fire brigade were called means it was worrying enough to call for back-up from land. This should not be needed at all; it’s not like you can do this if a Houthi drone hits in the Gulf of Aden. An aircraft carrier loaded and handling munitions should have a full compliment of its own fire brigade on board with no need for land forces, who would not go in anyway if there was any risk of explosions. The on board brigade should be far superior in equipment and numbers compared to that found at e.g. civilian airports, where no munitions handling occurs and attacks by hostile forces are not an ever present risk.
This next incident is not filling the English with confidence, never mind us Scots. Alone, an isolated incident maybe. But it’s just one of a host of concerning issues with the British Navy, including with the safety of nuke subs and their ability to even fire a missile if needed.
https://archive.is/sKxtm
Fresh embarrassment for Navy as fire breaks out on £3bn flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth
It is the second time in as many weeks that HMS Queen Elizabeth has been hit with a problem
But I don’t blame the enlisted personnel. Nope, it’s lions led by pish money down the drain on stupidities like Brexit not where it’s needed / cannae see the ends of their noses donkeys, as usual.
You’re getting hysterical now.
Resorting to personal insults again I see.
It’s an aircraft carrier. It carries aircraft. It carries millions of litres of fuel for itself and the aircraft. It carries munitions for the aircraft – and itself (CIWS for instance).
It carries a lot of chips and cooking oil for its crew.
Do you seriously think it doesn’t have an incredibly advanced fire suppression system? As do ALL warships?
Did it ever occur to you it was docked, with a road I’ve driven on loads of times just metres away, meaning that of course the SFRS would be called out in case of any spread to the flaming LAND?
Jings, this is really embarrassing having to spell this out.
Folks can read my posts and decide if these sound hysterical or not. They can also read yours and decide who, if anyone, is hysterical.
I’m not the one ranting away at others and throwing personal insults around when people post links to todays stories in the pro-UK press, so I guess I’ll be good here. 🙂
English media says this latest incident is yet more embarrassment. I agree. It is.
Update on the aircraft carrier is that Gary McClintock and his tank crew were on duty and left the dock unattended to collect a gas cooker for Gary’s dad, but they picked up the wrong cooker and had to double back for the right one, then their sergeant turned up and telt them tae use it as a target because they should’nae have had it, so they blew it up wae the tank’s big gun and sparks hit the big boat causing the fire, Gary and his crew had access to a Green Goddess fire engine but it had nae watter in it so the local fire service was called, but by then of course the fire was out of control
Luckily Jack and Victor were on a wee day out bus run and they got an extinguisher oot o the pub and all was well once Isa showed them how tae work it
Cue the music and we’re oot
🤣🤣🤣🤣
BBCs Gary Marshall defends Tory MSP Stephen Kerr’s racist rant about Humza Yousaf sending money to Gaza for the relief funds by quoting a tenuous bit of non news tittle tattle about the FM quoting another newspaper article that used the word *traitors* on a previous occasion
The BBCs position here in defending the Tories using the time honoured position of the school clipe “he said this so he said that so it’s fair”, is deliberately childish and aimed at the childish mind who will go straight onto social media and repeat Kerr’s racist accusations all over again
Basically it amounts to the rest of the world is sending aid because they’re humanitarians but Humza Yousaf is only sending it because he’s a Muslim
There is some more context to this in case some folk don’t know, Tory MSP Stephen Kerr is standing as a candidate for MP to go to Westminster in the next election, so what he’s doing is electioneering in asking his fellow rabid racist supporting Tories to vote for him, and of course there are Tories and Labour supporters like that in Scotland, but there might not be as many of them willing to openly vote for a spittle flecked fist banging bully when it comes right down to it as Tory MSP Stephen Kerr thinks
Oh and just another reminder, nobody votes for the BBC
What else do we expect, the BBC now gunning for the latest SNP leader, hoping to complete the “treble”??
I think they are totally corrupt, we have to escape this toxic union, urgently.
Ironic that I’d been listening earlier to piece from Prof Tim Wilson an avowed Conservative on this debacle, who deplored Kerr’s behaviour and comments, yet here is HMS James Cook attempting to ‘excuse’ and explain away the fiasco which unfolded as result of the ‘Sunday Show’ https://archive.ph/O7ccg
I only caught a snippet of what Kerr had to say before switching in disgust, but was it not the Times who began this smear mongering campaign, as I forget now… ?
Was it not the Telegraph who first published that story about Scottish Government giving money to UN aid agency in Gaza when Humzas family were trapped there Kerr is an obnoxious moron. Sky news press preview presenter blatantly lied the other night by saying Scottish Government gave the agency the funds after the UK and USA had stopped funding them due to Israeli government dodgy allegations about some of the agency’s staff. Mainstream media anti Snp propaganda blatantly obvious.
When it all first kicked off, for some reason I’d recalled it appearing in the Times, but it could have been copied from the Telegraph….
This is the problem with such smear campaigns, they rely on a blunderbuss approach to convey all the media and thereby public are up in arms about it, as in the QEUH saga etc., every day a new variant on the original lie appears, incontinent pigeons……
There were a good couple of posts by stewartb over on TuS about the UN farce, quoting both from Unicef and Unrwa – For me it’s obvious various governments are going along with this nasty propaganda campaign despite knowing the reality, as all of them have spooks and informants relaying info back to HQ – I even had a Shin Bet agent knock on the apartment door on some subterfuge in Gaza, spotted him weeks later in Tel-Aviv…
Does anyone here care that an image of the Princess of Wales and her children may have been manipulated nope? me neither. Who gives a feck, a total look there’s a squirrel moment being rammed down our throats by the BBC and Sky etc ad nauseam .
It’s the talk of food bank queues throughout the land.
They’ve “admitted” to photoshopping the images
Thank goodness, I’ve been racked with anxiety
Hello All,
please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.
But is it not the Scottish government on our behalf that is sending money/aid to Gaza.
The people of Scotland are the ones leading this (extremists that we are) and our government is acting on our behalf.
I am fairly sure that the FM just like the rest of us who are willing and able would have put his hand in his own pocket to contribute, but I doubt it was for 10’s or 100’s irrespective of how he feels personally about the situation.
Is this not a situation where everyone who contributed is entitled to scream back at the yoon commentators and hacks something along the lines of “Je suis Charlie. je suis toujours là” or perhaps just ” I’m Humza Yousaf”.
Correction sorry thick fingers proof read debauchal.
“I am fairly sure that the FM just like the rest of us who are willing and able would have put his hand in his own pocket to contribute, but I doubt it was for 10’s or 100’s of thousands, irrespective of how he feels personally about the situation”.
The EU is putting aid in from the sea. By passing Netanyahu. A complete criminal. The world is appalled by the cruelty.
Kerr will be voted out. The final straw.
It’s weird that people are saying that Reform is a threat to the Tories. As I’ve mentioned before, that’s not really the case…
https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/united-kingdom/
Oct 20, 2022 (peak Labour, post mini-budget):
52% Lab
22% Con
10% Lib
4% Grn
4% Ref
Mar 04, 2024 (most recent site PoP update):
52%(-8)% Lab
24(+2)% Con
10(-1)% Lib
6(+2)% Grn
12(+8)% Ref
While the Tories recovered a bit (peaked at 29% April 2023), then slipped back, they are actually a little up on their post mini-budget low (22%).
Labour by contrast have steadily lost 8 points since their corresponding post-mini budget peak. And who has gained that 8 points NET? Reform, that’s who.
While I keep saying Labour have not won over any voters since 2019, and that’s true as of today, I did previously mention they did get a real swing to them in terms of absolute supporters post mini-budget.
You can see this here in the sustained peak (there’s been an IPSOS out recently and it shows a fall again on that most recent uptick, suggesting it’s variance):
So what seems to have happened, is Labour did get 2019 Tories on board post mini-budget, but then has been losing these to Reform, causing its real level of support amongst the total electorate to fall back to 2019 levels, when it suffered it’s worst defeat since 1935.
So it’s sort of right to say Con have lost to Reform, but it’s not been direct. They lost to Labour, who have then been losing to Reform.
Very much at 2-3 cheeks of the same erse situation. Reform is a threat to all cheeks as it is looking like an alternative to these for those of English gammon persuasion.
It’s always about how will this affect the Tories:
Nigel Farage UKIP, Richard Tice Reform, Alex Salmond Alba
Political stooges set up and used by the Tories for political purposes
Not one of these people or parties is ever or has ever made an electoral difference to real politics in the UK except to always draw attention to the main party, the Tories, or the *how to keep yourself at the top of the news* party
How to win a war against the populace
Part 1 – Create your own enemy
Part 2 – Convince the public that you are their side and will fight to the death (actually pay proper taxes) to defend your rights against those who would take them away….
eg Brexit…
Works every time….
BBCs call Kaye with an E is every bit as bad as Jeremy Kyle
BBCs Call Kay with an E is all about bad men who behave badly towards women, and if that’s what her programme was all about that would be fine, but it’s not, call Kay with an E’s programme is all about there being more bad men in Scotland than anywhere else
Apparently in Scotland bad men are “endemic” according to an *expert* Call Kay with an E has consulted
The dictionary definition of the word “endemic” is to mean “a disease or condition usually found in a certain area” so what Call Kay with an E and her *expert* is suggesting is that bad men in Scotland is a cultural disease or condition
If any of this guff were correct then surely this is a medical problem rather than a politically motivated thinly veiled swipe attack at Scotland in general
Because they’ve all been phoning in as usual with the bad men stories, the implication being there are more bad men here than anywhere else and the Scottish government’s justice system is handling it badly
Do you see the BBC deliberate political conflation there?
The entire world has bad men and all sorts of other bad stuff in it, in some countries these bad men cut bits off women for all sorts of ridiculous reasons, but apparently in Scotland it’s worse and comes down to the Scottish government’s responsibility to clear up the problem of bad men by the day after tomorrow or you’d better not vote for them, why? well because the Scottish government must have bad men in it too or they would just clear it up
This isn’t a simple or trivial thing, but by using this approach call Kay with an E has done just that, she’s turned it into an entertainment moanfest complaint show in a pretence to her listeners that male violence in society towards women is a solvable problem that the Scottish government isn’t terribly interested in, which in itself is a lie because there is no civilised country that isn’t concerned with solving this problem
Call Kay with an E would of course defend herself with the “I’m highlighting it” usual BBC journalistic defence, she’s not, she’s doing exactly what Jeremy Kyle used to do that got him flung off the air, and his defence was the Jerry Springer show in America
I remember both of those shows solved all the problems of the world didn’t they
This dinosaur of broadcasting should’ve been heaved off the air a very long time ago
Prof Robertson has already refuted this latest canard.
I don’t know the figures, but this also shows the iniquity of EnglandandWales [sic.] figures. Whereas, I respect the good prof’s findings of fewer rape offences in Scotland, the fact that we in Cymru do not have a separate legal jurisdiction to our eastern neighbour means that the statistics of both countries are conflated into the one (absurd, surreal etc.) entity that is EnglandandWales.
It may well be the case therefore that rape offences (or even any other type of offence) are lower in both Scotland and Wales than in England but we Welshies are not permitted to see that as all such matters are lumped together as legal fiction that has no place in a constitutional democracy as EnglandandWales.
(Sorry, I was getting ahead of myself there. I was assuming that we lived in a constitutional democracy. Wrong twice over. Place yourself on the naughty step, sionees.)
That’s the power of being able to use figures that you can’t even verify against you to accuse you of whatever anybody chooses to invent something that you did do without knowing you did it or having the power to correct it if you did do it
That made sense when I wrote it, now that I read it I’m not sure
You’ll get the point though, I hope
Indeed true and a regular abuse by the politicos in Westminster aided by a ‘compliant’ media, if they know what’s good for them.
– If there is political advantage to be obtained by separating Wales from E&W figures they will by some miracle appear, otherwise it’s ‘impossible’ to separate…
Scotonomics are hosting their Festival of Economics from 21st March in Dundee. You can subscribe to watch all the streamed events online or buy tickets to visit Dundee. Great programme and speakers as last year. They plan to debunk every lie propagated by the rich and powerful to keep us all in the dark and cold.
30p Lee has now defected to the Reform Party:
https://nation.cymru/news/lee-anderson-defects-from-tories-to-reform-uk/
If he moves any further to the right he’ll meet himself coming back.
He’s just trying to represent his constituents by not having an instant by election in which they can decide if they still do want him to represent them
We have a couple of these guys in Scotland as MPs
If I were a religious person I’d be quoting the wages of sin and such like, or put more simply “loadsa money” keeping the seat no matter which party it is
We have a couple of these guys in Scotland as MPs
– Lemme guess. Albanistas?
What ever gave you that idea.
I was thinking of looong terrrm listers (never won a seat but tried a few) MSP’s ye ken. The yin’s that suffer fi almost constant brain farts.
Angus speaks:
A senior member of the Scottish Government has warned that devolution is “under threat as never before” as he accused Tories at Westminster of taking an “increasingly interventionist approach” to politics.
Holyrood’s External Affairs Secretary Angus Robertson told MPs on the Scottish Affairs Committee that prior to Brexit successive UK governments had “generally and rightly recognised that devolved matters were the responsibility of devolved institutions”.
But he said that since the vote to leave the European Union took place in 2016 ministers south of the border had adopted an “increasingly interventionist approach into devolved policy matters”.
[…]
https://nation.cymru/news/scottish-minister-hits-out-at-uks-increasingly-interventionist-approach-to-devolution/
DRoss was questioning on that “committee” then decided to accuse Angus Robertson of funding porn because apparently the arms length body creative Scotland gave a grant to a film company that has since turned out to not be quite what it originally purported to be
This is another one of those “it’s all your fault accusations” that Tories fire at people that have nothing to do with the accusation they’re firing
But they know it gets on the telly, as prearranged with the BBC
You can practically set your watch by this stuff
Gove wants to name extremists. I wonder if Lee Anderson is the first name on his list?
Famous Welsh singer Charlotte Church has backed Scotland’s National newspaper in the sending of aid to Gaza saying “I will do everything in my power to help and I despair of anyone who would tell me I’m wrong for doing so”
From the National:
“DOUGLAS Ross clashed with Scotland’s Culture Secretary as he grilled the minister on a row after public funds were awarded to an explicit sex film.”
but
Robertson: “Well it’s got nothing to do with intergovernmental relations, whatsoever.”
What does Ross know about that Robertson, doesn’t?
The mind boggles.
Perhaps it’s an admission from Ross about the recent budget broadcast.
Just 43% saying they are certain to vote in the latest R&W UK poll. Jeezo.
Labour on just 18% of the certain to vote electorate, down 4% on their ‘worst defeat since 1935’ in 2019. The Starmer effect for you.
According to the BBC, such a low turnout would mean the population was ‘boycotting UK elections in protest at a very unpopular regime’.
They were talking about Iran, but the same applies to the UK, right?
It’s very unlikely they will say anything of the sort. However, that won’t matter, as it will be the case, and the protests will follow. People are the same the world over. From civil rights movements in Ireland… to the bring down of the berlin wall… to the streets of Tehran, push the people enough and they will turn on the government. This is why Starmer and Sunak are preparing for a crackdown.
British democracy – and so the union – is sleepwalking into a crisis. Likely the one that will break it.
It’s ironic that the last government of the union is looking like being a Labour one. But when you think about it, that’s the way it should be. Scotland no longer able to ever get a UK government it voted for, but always one it strongly opposed. It becomes impossible to defend the union in such circumstances. The myth of Scots only wanting indy because of the Tories is about to vanish like snaw aff a dyke.
The planets are aligning folks.
Tick tock.
In England apathy will favour the Tories, even in the most dire of times die hard Tory voters always turn out
https://www.firescotland.gov.uk/news/wildfire-warning-issued-across-scotlands-western-and-northern-areas/
From this:
https://www.thenational.scot/news/24177337.warning-high-risk-wildfire-across-parts-scotland/
One wonders if the QE made an up to date risk assessment before docking / mooring (presumably). And if that risk assessment included a report on local conditions at the time including wildfire risk (perhaps). And if the QE notified the SFRS it was going to offload munitions and possibly fuel (presumably).
And if the QE or MOD provides a shore fire control crew just in case (presumably). And if that was increased in size because of the extra wildfire risk (perhaps). And if such a risk assessment is made available to responsible civil bodies like the SFRS beforehand (maybe).
Wildfire can devastate large areas of forestry and land, once it takes hold. And one wouldn’t want sparks from an on-deck BBQ while the skipper is shopping at Primark in Helensburgh to start one. As if!
Chief Commissioner Cameron Miekelson has dispatched Officer Karen tae investigate
Bobby’s driving her doon there in his uncle Jeffrey’s Ice Cream van
Fires, storms and flooding forecast. Often never happen. Agencies looking for more funding. Usual winter weather.
The Royals funded by £400million of public monies. Plus the corrupt, illegal contributions.
Interfering in political matters. Then lying, is a concern for the taxpayers. Is it worth or value for money? Many doubt it.
Wales 3 million pop (2017) 13 women murdered?
Scotland 5.4million 13 women murdered.
England pop 56million 18 women murdered. Pro rata.
Wales is underfunded by the Westminster Gov. People can live in Wales and work in London S/E. A long commute.
Wales denied funding for a tidal renewable wave project. £1Billion. Reneged upon. Wales benefited from the EU. Voted for Brexit. Tory lies.
Women do not have equal rights. If they did there would be less abused women.
Women who cohabit (the majority) have to put in a claim within a year. 1/3. It can cost thousands in legal fees. There is little legal aid. It has to be paid back, in any case. On any settlement,
The Law has been changed in the South so women can get legal aid without losing the roof over their heads. Spend more, to save more in costs to other care agencies.
Letting agencies, illegally) demand 6 month upfront rent + deposit. £3500 +. Even to people with good credit. Leading to more homelessness.
Women have to stay in abusive, unsafe places to keep a roof over their heads because they do not have equal rights.
Lower turnout. More protests on the street. Disenfranchised voters take the protest on the street. Become more vocal and active. Use the Court of Law. Other outlets for protest. Total embarrassment for any government.
The Tories are toast. The SNP have higher support. Enfranchised people. More likely to vote.
The royals do not pay capital gains tax or corporation tax. 10% tax on over £20Million.
It is a concern that they lie and illegally interfere in Gov. Unelected. A heirachy of an elite that evade tax, illegally. Unequal, unfair and non democratic.
So it turns out the UK of England is exporting exactly the same amount of stuff to Russia as it did before all these financial sanctions they imposed upon them over the war in Ukraine
Jaguar Landrover and all the high end *British* made motors averaging over £100.000 a pop are still being sold in Russia in the same volumes as before, just imported by way of Azerbaijan and moved onwards to mother Russia
All this problem with Russian oil and gas that cost us all so very much because of Ukraine war shortages is being sold by Russia to the UK of England by way of India
All this revealed by Sky news, but here’s where it gets comical once again with the great British media, they fully understand the situation the government is in, says Sky news because if they didn’t do it this way there would be actual real shortages
But but but, they damn well told us there were didn’t they, and now it turns out the great British English government knew exactly what they were going to do then lied to every single person in these benighted Islands
They’ve been hiking the cost of living and invented a crisis that was never happening because of their back door import and export deals, which in actuality means that every single person in England Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland were made financially worse off deliberately, and they’re still lying about it
Basically the funding going to Ukraine is free money because the Russians are paying for it, and sitting right in the middle making money from all sides is the UK English government pretending that we the public are all poorer because of whoever the UK of England decides to point the finger at
The only drain on the economy in recent years was the Covid pandemic and now we’re all paying the financial price of the UK of England’s unpreparedness to plan for such an event, they’re recouping our own cash from us for them
The whole Britain is broke because because because is the biggest fattest lie since the last time they did it and the news where everybody is won’t report the truth of it, because because because
The UK Gov funded Covid £270Billion over two years. Much when to the Tories and their associates in unscrutinised, worthless contracts. PPE. Unscrutinised loans and payments. Public monies that could have been better spent.
[…] Source […]
Yougov UK Scottish subsample.
https://tinyurl.com/mt2kjefn
How likely or unlikely do you believe it is that Israel has committed war crimes during their attack on Gaza since October?
75% Likely
6% Unlikely
How likely or unlikely do you believe it is that Hamas has committed war crimes during their October attacks on Israel and/or in the fighting in Gaza since then?
72% Likely
7% Unlikely
‘Two cheeks of the same evil extremist erse’ is the opinion of Scots.
England is similar, but measurably less likely to suggest Israel has been bombing children etc (67%), even though this is all over the telly every night. I’d suggest this is racism driven. After all, islamophobia is shaping up to be a big thing in the coming British / English election, with attempts to link our own FM to terrorism having already begun. Ugly stuff, but that’s England / Britain for you.
Yep, one week they say Humza is the puppet of Nicola Sturgeon then he’s weak and gives in to the Greens, the next week he’s an evil Muslim terrori*t
All Humza needs is a pair of tartan shoes and he’s the full set of non British values
And all driven by the media. Probably half of respondents have never met a Muslim far less knows anything about their religion. The media in britain wants to stir up hatred.
On BOTH sides, as your %s show above. I imagine most know nothing about Israel, or Jews either, but still hate them.
It’s a win win for the british media and establishment to get everyone riled up and hating something other than them. They rely on the ignorance of the insular british public
It’s hard to respond to such a bizarre post.
Are you now arguing that what Hamas did was not a crime, and that’s just ‘the media in Britain stirring up hatred’?
With reports of over 20,000 Palestinians civilians slaughtered for only 10,000 actual enemy Hamas militants killed, and a consequent ICJ investigation already underway, complete with preliminary ruling aimed at stopping Israel committing war crimes, it’s not a surprise the public think it more likely than not that the latter are being committed.
And by both sides.
Religion was not mentioned in the questioning. It’s only racists / bigots that think religion is relevant, and immediately bring this up. Like Kier Starmer and his ‘Muslim vote’ polling.
And are you suggesting if people ‘knew more about Islam / Judaism / Palestine / Israel’, that the bloodshed could be justified? While these are factors fuelling the conflict, they irrelevant when it comes whether or not war crimes have been committed. Ergo, people don’t need to know anything about them. Civilians deliberately slaughtered (by both sides) are simply that.
And everyone in Scotland ‘knows a Muslim’ pretty well. We have one as our FM FHS (the most popular leader of all parties, with polls saying Scots plan to vote him back in). Just like other Muslims, he’s just like us; one of Jock Tamson’s bairns. And while the Jewish population of Scotland is very small (>1%), knowing one or more (such as I do) would hardly change perspective. After all, most are not Israelis, but, erm, Scots. Likewise, many Jews do not support Zionism, or at least not Zionist expansion into the occupied territories, for they know this is the root cause of the conflict.
https://archive.is/lTEY6
Israeli human rights groups accuse country of failing to abide by ICJ’s Gaza aid ruling
…“As members of Israel-based civil society committed to human rights and the rule of law, we condemn the fact that Israel has so far failed to change its behaviour based on the measures imposed by the ICJ, as well as the fact that humanitarian aid to Gaza dropped by 50% in the month following the ruling,” the letter says.
“We call for an immediate ceasefire, which must include the return of the hostages. We urge the Israeli government to comply with the ICJ order and implement the court’s provisional measures, which are essential to mitigating and overcoming the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
“Moreover, we call on the international community to use its collective influence to promote and support an immediate ceasefire and the implementation of the provisional measures, and to increase its efforts to ensure that the Israeli hostages are returned from Gaza.
I agree with said Israelis on this wholeheartedly.
Kind of bizarre response to Tatu3 SS.
What’s happening in Gazza has nothing to do religious beliefs and everything to do with the goldmine Gaza is sitting on. This is about Israel and the West securing future gas supplies and all the financial benefits countries and corporations are guaranteed if they just get rid of the people inconveniently living there. Thousands are dying because profit trumps the right to life and peace and wellbeing the actually owners of the land are entitled to if it was being developed for there benefit. Religion and ethnicity are cover, bad as that is, for what this is, murder and theft.
Golfnut
Well said. It’s unfortunate that identity politics becomes a smokescreen for hiding good old-fashioned capitalist exploitation.
And all driven by the media…. The media in britain wants to stir up hatred.
As per my post below, my point was that Scots (and wider UK folks) don’t think that war crimes have been committed ‘because the media driven these stories’ to ‘stir up hated’, but because they can see these crimes with their own eyes. That and the UN/ICJ and pretty much every related charity / NGO going is saying this is happening.
Jeez….
You write some weird stuff. How you think I support hamas or now against Israel I really don’t know,
I am against war, and I believe war involves more than one bad government. I do not believe it is the Palestinians or the Israelis that are bad, it is their governments. Unfortunately the Palestinians largely support hamas, and the Israelis largely support the Likud party. I also think a large amount of the british public haven’t got a clue about the middle east problem. They just get caught up with whatever the british media tell them.
I also think the only way to stop the Israeli government from continuing this war is for hamas to release all the hostages, (and I’ve said this before) including the dead ones. Unfortunately I don’t think hamas know where some of them are or who has them, so that’s not going to happen anytime soon.
The war in Palestine has been active since 1947, long before this latest round of hostility you could argue since 1917 and the Balfour Declaration.
When the British navy switched from coal to oil to power its warships in 1912 it became essential to control the world reserves of oil which were mainly in the Middle East. All the invasions, wars, coups and dirty tricks have followed this imperative.
Israel is “an unsinkable aircraft carrier” for the West. It is a counter to secular Arab nationalists struggling to resist Western occupation (which they have a right to do btw as we in Scotland have found out). The discovery of gas off the coast of Gaza is just one further incentive to rid the area of Arabs. Europe is desperate for gas supplies after the Nord Stream pipelines were blown up.
It’s got nothing to do with religion except for the fact it makes a handy excuse for occupation and control.
And all driven by the media…. The media in britain wants to stir up hatred.
This is what you appeared to be arguing was the cause of – from polling – the vast majority of Scots thinking both Hamas and the IDF had ‘likely committed war crimes’… Rather than the pretty much unquestionable evidence both actually have, including ICJ case etc.
What Hamas did was a horrific crime and that’s why Scots answered in the way they did. They are now watching Israel level half of Gaza, targeting civilians over Hamas fighters, and so saying the same of the IDF.
Tory principles – bought and sold by Hester’s gold.
I’d say Hester qualifies as an extremist.
He can’t be ”an extremist ” – he donates to the Tory Party !
Humza Yousaf says Independence is not about ending the cultural union with the UK
Well it kinda is though isn’t it, because England has the culture of everything they set their foot on they think they own, and that is the complete and unending totality of English culture, anything else is an appropriation and absorption of everybody else’s culture that they keep harping on that they don’t want anyway, hence Brexit, the altering of human rights and the antagonistic approach to anything *foreign*, which is hilarious given their Royal Family is of German origin pretending to be English by changing their name from Saxe Coburg Gotha to something more Englishy sounding (Windsor) to keep their position in their game of thrones, culture is it? Nah, they can keep it
Windsor, You gotta laugh
I understand it’s tomorrow we get to find out who the ‘extremists’ are. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if people supporting Scottish / Welsh / Irish indy / reunification are labelled as such. After all, the UK government has started withdrawing arts funding from Irish people based on their national identity, even though these are legally UK citizens.
The establishment is afraid. Very afraid. They are starting to get desperate.
Rishi Sunak’s come up with another scheme to solve his immigrant difficulties
First he’s going to spend even more money making sure they never come to England’s UK, then when they do arrive anyway he’s going to give them £3.000 each to go away
Will that be like a customs officer with a big box of money handing out the cash as they arrive, or does each one get a bank account set up with a debit card? I can’t wait to see this in action
I hear that Michele Mone ‘s newly registered Customs-R-Us company has bid for the contract to handout Public money . She has stated that she will not be benefiting from this venture .
More Conservative debt fleecing taxpayers. Instead of letting people work and benefitting the economy. Not long now they will be gone out of office. A lame duck administration. Rhetoric without substance.
Idiotic.
6.9% of UK pop Muslim. 39% live in deprived areas. 2%Muslims in Scotland. Muslims are more law abiding. They do not drink alcohol. They add a massive contribution to the economy. Doctors, nurses, healthcare workers. Self employed shop and office workers. Civil servants, teachers etc.
Tory ‘extremist’ rhetoric will be challenged in Court. Tories out of time to enforce. The last embers. Stating any old nonsense. Off with their spoilt loot in the swag bags.
So the Speaker of the HoC can break the rules and deprive an opposition party of their opportunity to debate an important issue, in favour of his own party, and that is absolutely fine with everyone.
Keir Starmer avoids investigation over Lindsay Hoyle allegations
https://archive.is/PAl17
In less words: Westminster had a secret talk and said F*ck the SNP ! but what’s worse about this is they don’t even care how public it is
And this is why no more elected representatives from Scotland should occupy seats in the “English” parliament
We know all the well rehearsed arguments about why they should take up their seats, but when England is clearly saying they don’t want Scotland represented by anyone other than English political parties, that is the time to go and announce to everyone in the British Isles that’s the reason why
They are utterly shameless and they don’t care who knows it. I think it’s time the Sottish representatives walked out and se up a Scottish convention to plan the exit.
I’m surprised they didn’t come up with the hoary old and ‘trusted’ chestnut – ‘in the interests of national security’.
I see there are two Dames among the Deputies. What a pantomime right enough.
Lindsay Hoyle is not out of the woods yet, I read that the 1922 committee led by Graham Brady had a meeting with Sunak earlier this week to discuss various issues and one of them was what to do about the Speaker Hoyle.
He received that letter from the deputy speakers today/yesterday but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he already knew what was in it and that is why the issue was discussed with Sunak beforehand.
We shouldn’t forget that they were as many Tories who signed the petition calling for Hoyle to go as there were SNP MP’s, the only thing saving him just now I think, is that there is a General Election coming and little motivation for Sunak to do anything.
‘Shut it jock scum, this is England’s parliament’.
Since we’re going to be leaving soon – and that HoC decision makes it imperative – it’s important to have answers at hand when the inevitable “but what currency will you use?” questions begin.
Demystifying three myths Scotland is told about its economy
https://archive.is/7qcA9#selection-1753.0-1759.446
” demistify ” – Viz de-programming…
I do wish the Scotonomics team and the ‘festival’ well, but if there is one thing you can be certain of it is an effective media blackout by flooding the news channels with articles on interesting sheep and bullocks ( believe I spelled that correctly ) wearing a blue or red rosette…
Everyone knows Starmer pressured the Speaker and broke parliamentary proceeding. The voters have noticed. It will be detrimental to Starmer’s bid for power.
Even more scrutiny at the Court of public opinion. It could end up in the legal Courts. The Law being broken again.
The biggest donation to the Tory Party by the racist, bigoted racist from non scrutinised public money contracts. Hester gave £15,000 to rich Richi for use of a private helicopter. Breaking renewable targets. Financed by taxpayers money.
The illegal recycling of public money. Trying to influence Gov policies so the awful, nasty people can benefit.
Bet you Starmer won’t be on the list of ‘extremists undermining British democracy / institutions’, even though he threatened the speaker so as to deny Scots / their MPs a voice in the supposed ‘UK’ parliament, while bolstering his own position.
Nor will Sunak, even though he personally overturned the 2021 free and fair democratic election vote for iref2.
Nope, if you are English cabinet / shadow cabinet, you are good for this. If you are a Jock / Taffy / Mick / migrant / poor etc scum, then shut up and accept it, or you’ll be branded an extremist and have your ear felt by the English state’s enforcers.
There’ll no doubt be a precedent from English days of Yore that says only English representatives can force the speaker to resign the office
Remember Scots Welsh and Irish come from the days when England considered and labeled us as uncivilised, and in the case of the Irish they were more specific, they apparently were labeled as a *sub human* species
Even if the entire parliament of England apologised profusely tomorrow for all that it’s said and done, I don’t want it because they’re known throughout the world as a country that has never kept its word on a single thing
Every word they say is meaningless so why would an apology be any different?
We, Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland should have no more to do with these people except to trade with, but make sure we get the money first before delivery
Notice how all the English media is focusing on the racist aspect of the Tory donor and completely ignoring what SNP leader Stephen Flynn brought up, the fact that this individual wanted Diane Abbot shot
Now which one of these is worse? saying a bad thing about somebody, or shooting them? The first one hurts your feelings, but the second one can make you dead
We’re in the middle of yet another media “Bury that bit” story because they can deal with the racist stuff much more easily than the shooting stuff
I heard this on R4 news and it is astonishing that the police haven’t arrested him for incitement.
Also, Diane Abbott, who is sitting as an independent having been suspended for a year by the Labour party for “anti-semitism” for which she apologised but their investigation is taking a very very long time, bobbed up and down throughout the parliamentary debate and the Speaker failed to call her to speak even though she was the topic of the debate.
Shameless.
A corrupt system through and through.
Yep…
Right now in front of our eyes and ears we have the *British* media describing the Tories and Labour in Scotland as different parties from the English ones as they desperately try to falsely create a new voting narrative that there are differences between them
Let’s get this message clear and out to people in Scotland Wales and England, there are no separate Scottish Conservative Labour or Liberal Democrat parties, there never was and never will be, all three of these political parties are one and the same registered in England as British, not Scottish not Welsh not anywhere on the planet other than British
What these political party leaders say in England is what these parties adhere to no matter what else different they might say at any given time
Their leaders in Scotland are selected and placed in position in Scotland by their leaders in England and they do exactly as they’re told by their bosses, the PM or the leader of the opposition of whichever party that may be
They do not even have to win an election to be made leaders in Scotland either, no member of the public is even asked to vote them into the office of local leader of their branch
They are placemen who have not the respect or standing whatsoever within their own parties in England plain and simple, yet they still say and do as they’re told by their English bosses
That should tell anybody just exactly what kind of characters they possess
Nail on the head Dr Jim, Tony Blair’s “New Labour”(mid England} vote came from the south of London tory’s who now finance and control the Party, there is no difference between the party’s red or blue. Scotland and Wales branches will do as they told.
Bullying Regressive Egregious Xenophobic Intransigent Tory Sums them up nicely. Trouble is that Labour are really no better
Now the media are concentrating on the *fact* that we can all *understand*? why the Tories don’t want to give back the £10 million in an election year
This guy wanted a woman shot because he doesn’t like her
To hell with whatever colour or politics she might support, or whether she’s Britain’s number one idiot, none of that makes one jot of difference about anything
The guy wanted her shot, and they’re all ignoring what is most important part of what he said
This shouldn’t even be up for any kind of debate about money or race, this should be a police matter
Can you imagine the media in Scotland if this were the SNP? they’d be demanding the British army be sent in with the biggest murder tents they had to set up armed soldiers outside the Scottish parliament prior to arresting every SNP MSP in the place
There has been an alleged fear or provocation of violence from Hester, and if that is so, he should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, which may or may not be Section 4 of the Public Order Act 1986, and if so would be a summary offence, which means that it will be tried at the Magistrates Court in England.
The racial thing they’re all on about is a smokescreen.
The Meeja are full on ‘alleged’ over this, despite the video evidence having circumnavigated the globe multiple times without a single overdub from St Nick Robinson of “he said nothing…” to accompany…
Uncle Fester would have been so disappointed….
The £10 million should be taken off the tories and divided amongst charities such as Stop Hate uk, Black Lives Matter, Black Girls Hike etc.
Great, this will mean Scotland’s media cannot be owned foreign owned and influenced, such as by England, which is cracking down on Scottish democracy!
No, wait…
https://archive.is/Zs790
UK to ban foreign state ownership of newspapers
Does look like they are seriously preparing for a massive crackdown on protests and freedom of news, all in the name of ‘protecting democracy’. It’s what every authoritarian regime claims.
Tomorrow we get to find out who ‘the enemy within’ extremists are as part of this. Be ready to have a chill run down your spine at the list. The SNP were just neutered in Westminster, and if they could ban them, they would. The water is being tested.
The denial of iref2 was the beginning of the end for UK democracy. The UK regime stepped onto the slippery path to dictatorship with that. But once you take that route, to hold on to power, you need to keep on sliding as the public pushes ever more angrily back, which is what’s happening.
We may yet find ourselves UDI’ing while joining hands around our parliament to protect it and democracy, like former USSR states did as the declared indy.
Don’t think that only happens in other countries such as these… Germany, Ireland… We are just like the folks of other countries who have had to do this to save their people from dark forces.
A Tory representative in Scotland said that they had received no donations from this donor
And well you see that would be difficult now wouldn’t it, because I’m quite sure no one reading this blog is ever likely to consider such an option, but it might be interesting for you to try to donate to the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party just to see how far you get before you encounter phrases like “charitable trust” and or their right not to accept your donation, but in the final run in on their web page you find that your money, should you choose to donate it ends up in an English bank as part of the main Conservative and Unionist Party and not any separate Scottish entity at all
But a reasonably clever approach at making you think there is such a thing as Scottish Conservatives
I’ll just leave this one here… https://youtu.be/_ALxmRyEMg0
Well it looks like Welsh FM Mark Drakeford has set the cat amongst the pigeons when he stated that Ministers in the UK government were not only afraid of Nicola Sturgeon but that they didn’t want to engage with her because of her political views and the fact she is a (in Drakeford’s words) formidable politician
Based on this alone we should all be crystal clear on just why Nicola Sturgeon is no longer FM
I don’t and can never believe a single right headed soul in Scotland thinks for one second Nicola Sturgeon nicked a few quid from her own till, or had anything to do with such nonsense
When regimes such as England fear a politician this much, what happens?
It’s not he first time a Scottish SNP politician was gotten rid of
Still in doubt? we’ve just seen it in Russia because Putin doesn’t care who sees it
This operation Branchform fit up on Nicola Sturgeon has been stinking out Scotland for too long, what’s next?
I put it on the latest blog post, but you can read it here, too:
https://nation.cymru/news/uk-ministers-were-afraid-of-nicola-sturgeon-during-pandemic-covid-inquiry-told/
Jim Ratcliffe owner of Ineos has been given £600million by the UK government for his project in (wait for it) Belgium
For Grangemouth, the only Scottish oil refinery, nada nothing zilch
Yes indeedy folks the English do care about Scotland, they’re making damned sure they care to strip our finances and wreck our economy before we leave them, or to stop us leaving them
It matters not which, what matters is their character, and anybody who can’t or wont see it is either blind or kidding themselves
England was built on murder theft and the stripping of other countries, that’s why 65 of those countries are no longer part of any British imperial union
Just heard there’s a new poll but it’s Redfield & Wilton so it’ll be more English union invented junk
Here you go:
https://redfieldandwiltonstrategies.com/scottish-independence-referendum-westminster-voting-intention-10-11-march-2024/
No, I haven’t read any of it yet. Perhaps someone else will overnight.
Goodnight, Scotland!
Another nonsensical Poll. Another waste of money. Pollsters always get it wrong. Pollsters have been censored and fined so many times for illegal behaviour. Bad methology. Dodgy mavericks.
Better to listen to the Bookies. They make money out of it. Better statistics, data and information. More likely to get the outcome right.
The Pollsters always get it wrong. Wrong data and methology. Especially in tight margins, Paying Facebook for illegal data. Facebook illegally pays not tax. Worldwide. Then tries to apologise running off with the loot. Pollsters get honours for getting it wrong. The piper pays the tune.
Although I’m long retired now I keep up my hobbies like producing bits of music for people or setting up their guitars the way that suits them
When I do that I create theses things for the paying customer, the way they want and like it, and that’s not necessarily the way I would do it for myself
I find polling companies do exactly the same thing, whoever commissions and pays for the poll gets the results they paid for, if you hire a taxi you’re entitled to tell the driver how you want to get to the destination
Latest R&W trends. This is the best pollster for the unionist by a country mile, yet…
UKGE / Holyrood C&R average changes:
+2 SNP/Grn/Alb
-3 Lab/Con/Lib
Leadership:
+1 Yousaf
nc Sunak
-4 Starmer
iref:
-0.5% No
+0.5% Yes
Which agrees with the most recent Survation, which also showed union support indicators slipping with Yes indicators up.
Even with low SNP19/21 response rate wind in his polling sails, Starmer has now gone negative in Scotland, mirroring his sharp downward trend UK-wide since he became an extremist and ‘undermined the UK’s system of liberal parliamentary democracy and democratic rights’ by threatening the speaker over the SNP’s Gaza motion.
Oh, and the refusal to grant iref 2 =
‘negate or destroy the fundamental rights and freedoms of others’
And today we will all be told by the Tories in England their new definition of who and what an extremist is
Can you believe it? Tories have decided it’s us and not them
And that folks is one of the classic definitions of out of control nut jobs
Sky news informs us that Kier Starmers Labour needs an 11.7% swing for them to win a general election
It does not look like that is now achievable between now and the general election which all the commentators now agree is probably going to be the end of November
This is looking more and more like a slim Tory win by the time it’s over, who knows?
England will decide all of our futures as usual
It’s very unpredictable. But what the polls definitely say is that we are as far from 1997 as you could possibly be, with Labour as unpopular as they were in 2019. I don’t recall ever seeing such low certain to vote levels. Starmer’s rating are crashing when Blairs were soaring.
Interestingly, in Scotland, the low CTV is coming from women. These are a bit more pro-SNP / anti-Labour than men, but for now they are saying they are not nearly as certain to vote. As I mentioned before, this happened ahead of 2011, but then the female CTV climbed as the campaigns began and the rest is history.
Anyhow, as things stand, it appears Starmer very much needs women not to vote in Scotland if he’s to make any gains here. So much for a Labour revival.
That’s the problem DJ is ” it’s all about that swing ” is the lie the political/media bubble have been promoting since forever to disguise the electorate becoming increasingly angry at the disconnect – 1 guy votes for the Tories 2 vote for Labour, wow a “landside” – Never mind the 50k+ voters on the electoral roll who were so fed up over being stitched up that they stayed at home – That there doesn’t make the news…
Were a left of centre party to suddenly appear who were not another Tory/Farage/Tice stitch-up, England’s electorate would vote vote for them in their droves… Would the Greens finally have the balls to challenge the relentless ‘status quo ” given their meagre funding ? I frankly doubt it…
It isn’t going to happen of course, that’s not the mafia works..
Whether the Scots “have long had a chip on their shoulder” works to rescue their fate in England is for their electorate to decide, but we’re the FOOH and they know it…
James will be so disappointed losing his chance of a gong and a new suit, but ship hattens…
And just like that… Latest UK Yougov has Labour, again, on 22% of those certain to vote. Identical to 2019’s historic defeat.
Through gritted teeth and and the mustering of extreme levels of fortitude I just sat through another day of FMQs where the co-operation of the Union of England parties was as evident as it could ever be, and that coupled with Humza Yousaf’s apparent tiredness as though a good sleep would be welcome as he’s answering questions in the most monotone sound I’ve ever heard has led me to the point where I have to now beg Nicola Sturgeon to return and get a grip of proceedings in our parliament
Oh aye! and one more thing, somebody somewhere get rid of Allison Johnson as presiding officer for the love of God do something about this totally inept and infinitely boring woman who just refuses to do the job she’s charged with
I really have had more interesting moments watching paint dry, it even makes a more exciting sound than Allison Johnson
Following FMQs was the BBC journalistic bit in which they dug up anti SNP zombie reporter Bryan Taylor well known independence supporter Lesley Riddoch who I thought might be a welcome change from the usual right wing tabloid rabid bunch, but no, my hopes were once again dashed to the ground as once again Lesley Riddoch toed the BBC line and had a go at Humza as well seemingly unaware that every word she said could be taken down as evidence and used used against the SNP in the court of public opinion, in other words she was as useful as the proverbial space helmet
Come back Nicola, I’ll personally arrange a 24 hour guard around your house and security with every step you take, but for goodness sake “Dae Sumthin”