With a new election for SNP leader will we get to see the membership numbers again? This time without the interference from Peter. Want to open a sweepstake?
The “resignation” speech was more a self-aggrandising pity party, sprinkled with references to his favourite pet subjects or race and hate.
No mention of the anti-democratic hate act.
No mention of the catastrophically bungled Net Zero “targets” that were rightly binned.
No mention of the Alphabet stuff poisoning our kids’ minds.
The carrot of “independence” was dangled, despite having done NOTHING to further it, nor convince anyone like me looking to be convinced.
And finally, he’s not even “resigned”, as he remains in post for now, until someone else can be found.
All in all pish-poor. Bring on the VONC and election please.
Having seen Mr Harvie in spiteful mode and Ms Slater in tearful mode over losing their Ministerial sinececures my money would be on the Greens, as a whole, being willing to sell any principle whatsoever to keep their places at the publicly filled trough and maintain the illusion of their self importance.
Though I’d also guess that messrs Harvie and Slater are on a right shoogly peg as far as their joint leadership goes, not to mention any potential high spot on the list.
poll in the national has kate forbes out in the lead – by a mile; the touted gilruth distant third
Now is the moment for any [preferably several] decent SNP member[s] to stand for the Leadership.
The SNP Leader does NOT have to be a parliamentarian. The only rule is that if the Leader is an MSP then they must be their party’s nomination for FM.
As I suggested some years ago, it is actually more sensible to separate the two roles when the party is the “government” because government is a full-time job in itself [unless you are a titan a la A Salmond].
This leaves the Leader free to concentrate on getting Scotland out of the Union – there’s a hell of a lot to organise on that front administratively e.g. ensuring there’ll be a procedure in place to get oaths of loyalty immediately on announcing we’re out of the Union, from the police, defence force, civil service, banks etc etc.
Back to the Party Leadership contest. It is far healthier to have several candidates than merely one selected by the usual suspects. Please God the party membership finally realise that they must get normal, decent people leading and running the party. This really is the Last Chance Saloon.
Skimming through social media for the ‘SNP 1, Greens 2’ people, a hefty chunk of them seem a wee bit pissed off with the Greens, especially Harvie who they see as undermining Yousaf, which is of course what he did.
Let’s remind ourselves that Harvie & Slater wanted to vote to end the Bute House Agreement to wield power over the SNP and Yousaf especially. They had no intention of ending the BHA, it was purely to try to placate Green members and play power games as we all know that Harvie’s been pulling the SNP strings for a long time now. As Stu’s pointed out, Yousaf has now thrown the Greens a live grenade and I’ve no idea what Harvie will do but I suspect he’ll try to backtrack, especially if/when the SNP appoints another weak leader who doesn’t tell the Greens to piss off.
I’m also not too surprised to hear that Harvie, Slater and Greer are feared by so many within the Greens. I’ve met Harvie. I found him petty & a living example of The Peter Principle. Slater was an idiot, while Greer I’ve managed to avoid speaking to but I’m very aware of his type within left wing politics. Putting Scotland in these people’s hands is wreckless and yet another example of how Sturgeon destroyed faith in politics in Scotland.
Again, I wonder why few in Scotland’s media or its vocal commentators have scraped beyond the surface of The Greens because there’s real, serious dirt there the electorate should be aware of, though I think the Greens are doing their best to alienate people beyond their position on Trans/Gender issues. They’ve done nothing for the environment and policies such as taking £200m out the housing budget for cycle lanes is an act of such contempt for ordinary people that they deserve never to be anywhere near power again.
And the only person even mentioning Independence through the course of this whole sorry sh*tshow is Ash Regan.
Humza bleating on about “not sacrificing his principles2 while he throws them in a dumpster and sets fire to them.
I watched the speech with great fraud schadenfreude. Best part was his utterly insincere 14 seconds of soon-recovered-from being ‘overcome by emotion’ near the end for the wife and weans. Was expecting it, was not disappointed. Risible and hilarious. The use of the unionist phrase “a force for good” was pure emetic comedy too. Shaking my head sadly.
The most imminent and serious danger is the threat of Freeports. Either through naivety or neoliberal design, Kate Forbes supports selling off large chunks of Scottish territory and its economy to hedge funds in the Caymans. For example, “Forth Ports” ‘Greenport'(!!) is in fact Otter Ports, based in Grand Cayman.
Independence is the last thing on SNP leadership’s horizon.
“What’s changed is that he has “resigned”.”
Yousaf was under orders NOT to do a deal with Ash Regan (Alba) its been patently obvious to me that the SNP since Salmond stood down is captured by Westminster and Washington, so no concessions to advance bread and butter polices never mind independence is the order of the day.
“Swinney in London”
Getting his orders I suspect.
What happens if the Greens back the Scottish Government in the confidence vote and then a few weeks later the SNP membership vote in a leader that the Greens don’t like? Or is the intention that Swinney just takes over next week on a permanent basis?
I really hope Swinney stays well clear of the leadership. He was underwhelming when he was leader before Salmond made his comeback about 20 years ago. Swinney has zero charisma. He is the chartered accountant of political leaders. Can’t see him advancing indy one iota. Maybe that’s the whole idea.
It’s a charade. Nothing coincidental . Humza Yousaf has been used yet again. Sturgeon’s desperation to get him into the job of FM as her successorv had nothing to do with his ability but everything to do with keeping Kate Forbes out, as will be the case this time too. Nothing to do with her religion, but because she isn’t one of their ilk.
. Swinney was deputy when the auditors resigned. He and Sturgeon are the best of buddies. If he asked nothing or chose to know nothing it speaks volumes about his character and leadership ability.
It would make no sense for the Scottish Greens to bring down the SNP Government, given that they are likely to have far more influence on policy with the SNP still in power than if they helped to remove them. The same is true for Ash Regan and for any SNP rebels. The SNP will need to play opposition parties and their own rebels off against each other on a policy by polciy basis in order to try to pass legislation. That’s maybe no bad thing. Time will tell.
It was the only solution that keeps everyone in a job I suppose.
And the wee green tail continues to wag the big yellow dog.
“What is to stop kate Forbes except for skullduggery?”
The fact that the Greens would immediately kick her out.
Rather than do a deal with Ash Regan Yousaf fell on his sword, a deal that would’ve included getting back to bread and butter issues such as housing, the NHS, education, jobs, and independence, and now it has led to the vile Greens ditching any credibility they might have had left to prop up the SNP in the up and coming no VONC on the government.
So we’ll have another two-years of indentity politics something most Scots don’t want, they want the bread and butter issues dealt with.
You can bet your bottom dollar, that the new FM will be someone who the Greens can work with, which means they’ll be on board with identity politics, and what really ails Scotland will be kicked into the long grass.
I suppose a good test of who will be the next SNP leader and FM is to think about who within the party’s ranks at Holyrood deeply supports all the gender issues, and who the Greens find acceptable as the next FM.
Once you have these names then its likely one of them will be the next FM.
EH!! see in ALL this pishabootery what the actual fuck do WE the voters get oot of all this shite.
It was bad enough listening to the clown reinforce his RACIST comments but to listen to the Bullshit Broadcasting Corporation and their tractors trying to extol his magnificence and man of the people attributes fair gies me the boak,is his emotional state because his car is insured or was he emotional because he knows that his ahem ability to help out his female friends is now constrained
Nae wonder the beeb are celebrating, this arse and his crew of corrupt deviant perverts have made Scottish independence a laughing stock and set back indy
The only ones who are fighting for independence are SALVO,SSRG,and Liberation.Scot, politicians only fight for self interest, bastards
The greens are now moving to secure their second votes, their salaries and future ministerial posts. The SNP will fall over themselves to kiss their arses so they can continue in power whilst keeping their noses in the trough. The only change the punters will see is Humza stepping down and Alba will not be getting a ticket to the SNP second votes anytime soon. Looks to me that Sturgeon and Swinney are still pulling all the strings!
The king of winning VONC’s and one time leader of the SNP John Swinney is seriously considering whether or not to stand for the leadership of the party and as FM once more, we all know what a lying twisted b*stard Swinney was under Sturgeon, apparently “SNP depute leader Keith Brown and former Westminster leader Ian Blackford have both called for Swinney to stand.
It is understood Health Secretary Neil Gray’s preference is for Swinney to be leader.”
Would Slater and Harvie be happy with Swinney as FM? is he gender aware enough? I think Swinney is lower than a snakes belly and he would appease the Greens in any way he need to, to climb back up that greasy grifters pole.
@ Spartan 117 at 4.37:
Have you overlooked that Kate Forbes is hand-in-hand with Michael Gove about freeports and Special Economic Zones [SEZ]?
Those zones are autonomous states – don’t pay business rates or taxes, workers have no rights, fracking will be allowed. The entire central belt falls within a SEZ and the Forth freeport. Add in the NE SEZ in and around Aberdeen and the Cromarty Firth freeport area [includes Inverness] and there is no major economic area ;left paying rates or tax.
I wouldn’t let Kate Forbes anywhere near the powers of government. Remember too that she is one of those selected by the USA as one of their “friends” abroad.
Of course if Swinney does stand in the SNP leadership contest and he wins, it will just be a return to Sturgeonism as Swinney would be the next continuity FM to guard the secrets within the party. Yousaf was the most obedient candidate, and Swinney will be seen as the next most reliable FM to stop the SNP can of worms from opening from the inside, and to make sure independence is never achieved, only talked about, especially in the run up to elections.
With the Greens set to prop up the SNP government and have a say in who will be an appropriate candidates/FM, and with Sturgeon’s icy cold hand moving behind the scenes to manipulate the puppets to keep dark secrets safe, it would appear that not much will change.
I wonder if the mortal enemy of Scottish independence GCHQ will once again be called in to “oversee” the contest.
Might as well make Murray Foote the new FM.
It looks like the SNP Old Guard blocked Yousaf from dealing with Ash Regan and Alba.
We all know who the Old Guard are.
“HUMZA Yousaf had been discussing a potential deal with Alba to allow him to survive as first minister – but the SNP “old guard” stepped in to block it, Alex Salmond has claimed.
The Alba leader said Yousaf had been on the phone with Alba at 7:30am on Monday morning in a last-minute bid to stay on as first minister, even as reports overnight said he had decided to resign.
Salmond, himself a former SNP leader, made the claims as he gave an interview to BBC Radio 4 on Monday afternoon, just an hour after Yousaf had announced his plans to resign.”
Salmond added.
” I seldom take issue with your excellent political correspondent, but this idea that Humza Yousaf didn’t want to do a deal with Alba – it’s just simply untrue.
“At half-past-seven this morning, he was trying to do a deal with Alba and complimented the proposals we’ve made as ‘very reasonable’.
“The reason he didn’t do a deal with Alba is there were forces within his own party who stopped him doing it – let’s call them the ‘old guard’.”
And the most telling sentence of all.
“See, the ultimate problem for Humza was he wasn’t actually in control of his own party, which is why he wasn’t able to survive.”
John Swinney was of course the unrepentant mastermind of the NAMED PERSON SCHEME, eventually defeated in the Supreme Court in 2016. That pernicious statist school-invading child-snatching parent-bypassing stratagem clearly presaged the subsequent ascendancy of Stonewall. Just how soon after Sturgeon’s 2014 accession did such incipient totalitarianism become a dark obsession and who were and still are the inner circle?
“The reason he didn’t do a deal with Alba is there were forces within his own party who stopped him doing it – let’s call them the ‘old guard’.”
Come on, Mr Yousaf, name and shame the bastards.
Who are these forces? Are they in Scotland, are they in London, are they in Washington or are they in TelAviv?
Who is giving those dark forces the power and the right to decide who our FM does deals with?
Name and shame the bastards
Who exactly are those who have condemned the SNP yet again to be a mere colonial tool being used as a wrecking ball against Scotland’s independence?
Name and shame the bastards so we can vote them out.
WHo selected Mr black pen for the job after doing a pig’s arse of it last time?
Name and shame the bastards
Who is walking all over the membership and ignoring their choices? The obvious choice is Ms Forbes. Mr Black-pen is no longer in the cabinet nor was endorsed in the previous leadership. So who exactly decided it was appropriate to give this man the job? Was that Mr Vow? Was that Nicola Sturgeon? Or was somebody outwith the party?
Name and shame the bastards.
Who are they trying to protect? Is that the perjurers?
For goodness sake lance this boil for once and for all and be done with it. It is caused sepsis in the party.
Who is controlling Scotland’s government and pushing it in the opposite direction the people of Scotland wants it to go?
We have the right to know who is in control of our executive power. Name and shame the bastards so we can chuck them out.
The “press” keeps saying that it is “senior figures” in the SNP who refused a deal with Alba, and who selected Mr Black Pen for the job. Who are those “senior figures”? The most senior figure is the leader of the party and the first minister. So who the hell are those “senior figures”.
For goodness sake, Mr Yousaf, throw light on the bastards, name and shame them and let them face the wrath of the yes movement for taking us for fools and wasting 9 years of our time.
Name and shame the bastards!
Campbell Martin guest post on BHB from last year. He is also the author of “Was it Something I Said” which is probably worth a read at this groundhog day juncture.
https://www.barrheadboy.com/infiltration-of-the-snp/
BTW where was Swinney when the Vietnam group were plotting. Did he pass comment after the legal case.
He presents as honest john but did he ever defend Salmond?
The unionists have the messages and it is coming out.
I am so bored of this endless Dance of Wanks shite.
So now we have to wait months more for another rigged SNP election to pick another unelected tosser FM that has no mandate.
Enough.
General election or fuck off.
SIGH. It looks like Swinney is being lined up for the job. Just when you think things couldn’t get worse.
Two years of FM Swinney would be even worse than FM Yousaf. No kidding.
So just what was Swinney ( who is just a humble backbencher) doing in Londons Queen Anne’s Gate today?
The address of both England’s Home Office and the Right Wing Resolution Fondatiom – from whose portals Secret John emerged to give a statement.
Getting his instructions?
Oh! God! How I hate Scottish politics. never mind 2 years of the same again, it’ll be another more like 152 years of the same again. It’s really only the bantz that keeps us here. I think we’ve all realised by now that we’ve been well and truly colonised, hook, line and sinker and the books cooked. We are but mushrooms here, I’m afraid.
Unfortunately, I find it hard to see any mileage in Alba so far, they remind me of the Scottish Labour Party formed by Jim Sillars and Paisley’s John Robertson in ’76.
I basically don’t believe anything’s going to change radically at all in Scotland by normal party political means. The only hope lies in the continuing strong reservoir of support for independence. If that latent force can be used and turned into a catalyst for independence, who knows how it could grow in momentum, but not through party politics.
That vehicle is dead. Its credit’s no good any more.
Sarah 4.49: “I wouldn’t let Kate Forbes anywhere near the powers of government. Remember too that she is one of those selected by the USA as one of their “friends” abroad.”
Yep, and like Crawley and Humza (and many others) they have spent too long across the Atlantic taking instructions from those who do not have our best interests at heart.
They are truly a basket of deplorables and so reminiscent of The Sturge’s heroine, the clearly deranged, rabid warmonger Hillary C.
Hey! It’s Lesbian Visibility Week and I can see myself in the mirror. Seems I’ve transitioned without even knowing it……….
“Like they give a shit”
Who do you think you are fooling with that arrogant crap? Please do not insult my intelligence with more bullshit. I have seen and read 9 years of patronising and undermining colonial bullshit and frankly I had about enough.
“You think anything Scottish is golden”
Yes, I bloody do. And so what? What is it to you? Scotland’s assets are very valuable. Only a complete and utter ignorant idiot would not realise of that.
“And blame anybody else when it turns out not to be”
What kind of ignorant are you? Do you actually know what shite you are trying to peddle here or your are just following the usual bullshit script somebody else wrote for you?
Are you even in Scotland? Because if you are, the only thing you have to do is to open your eyes and look around you and then just try to find what another country in the world has the same potential of energy production per head of population as Scotland does. Go on, do the effing maths if you dare.
“Grow up!”
YOU grow up and have at least a more meanignful script than regurgitating the same usual patronising repertoire of boring crap. For goodness sake, man, this ain’t 2014. The same kind emotional blackmail and arrogant colonial patronising bullshit ain’t going to cut it this time.
So hell yes. What entity is governing Scotland and where is it? Is it in London, is it in Washington or is it in TelAviv? What right does that entity have in taking control of Scotland’s government without the consent of Scotland’s people?
Who are the dark forces bent on keeping the SNP as a useless devolutionist party?
Who are those ("Tractor" - Ed)ous “SNP senior figures” doing the bidding for some external entity and going against the interests of the people of Scotland?
So hell yes, name and shame the bastards one by one and let them face the whole force of the wrath of the people for forcing Scotland waste 9 years of its precious time. Let’s see just how brave those cowards are when the sunlight is directed right to their corrupt and treacherous arses and expose them for the useless shite they really are.
I can’t understand the almost pathological loathing that SNP members and many MSPs have for Salmond. He led a minority government for years and made it work. He got us to within a few points of indy from a standing start. Then he stood aside for Sturgeon, who owes everything to him, and whose first action was to get her pals to frame him unsuccessfully for sexual assault. And now I see supposedly rational and mature members treating him like a pariah. Without him, the SNP would be on a par with the LibDems, and Nicola Sturgeon would be a struggling third rate legal hack in a Citizens Advice Bureau in Govan. Right now, the SNP resembles a group of dogs, drowning in a sack, tearing each other to pieces.
The first Swinney FMship is worthy of a revisit.
It was so bad is the first thing. But also there is a lot of evidence that Nicola Sturgeon was really behind Swinney.
So this was originally (IMHO) a place holder government with Swinney as the FM but with NS managing him behind the scenes (as that is who Alex trusted as his right hand woman).
And that is (again IMHO) pretty much the exact same arrangement he agreed in 2014 with Sturgeon & Swinney after the referendum. He specifically left them in charge with a whopping majority.
But this time Swinney would be deputy and Nicola would ascend to her true spot as Alex in disguise, as FM, (for as long as Alex was not interested in returning).
They all knew first time around Swinney was a placeholder with NS managing him in the background.
Second time around she was FM and him as deputy but it was basically the same placeholder gig, e.g. Swinney/Sturgeon v’s Sturgeon/Swinney.
But second time around they fucked him, or at least she did and Swinney went along with it.
I don’t see how Swinney can be leader. He’s very likely to be called as a witness in any potential trial of Peter Murrell, (and who knows, Nicola Sturgeon?). He’d be cross examined on what he knew of circumstances and wouldn’t be able to give a politician’s evasive answer. It would look bad, especially if any defendant were found guilty. He’d have to resign. Can you imagine this trial taking place during a UK General Election.
Thinking arithmetically, there’s maybe an 80% chance of Murrell going to trial at which point it is 50/50. That means that by my reckoning there’s a 40% chance that Swinney has to resign.
Joanna Cherry just tweeted saying their has to be a contest, John Sweeney continuity candidate version two seems to be the Unionist best option to stop the break up of England.
The questions in the back of my mind is
1 Can the SNP afford a leadership contest
2 then a Westminster contest
3 and then a Holyrood contest all this year, I think not hence the idea of John Sweeney just taking over is more appealing because of the SNP finical position than the SNP leadership or media would want us to know.
John Sweeney has no interest in being leader he beg Salmond to take it over the last time he’s doing it because the SNP can’t afford it, the party is in real trouble and the Greens know it.
Alex Salmond was on TalkTV earlier, saying that Humza had called Ash Regan at 7am to tell her he was interested in discussing her deal with her; yet an “SNP insider” was telling the Times last night that Yousaf would resign and Swinney would step in.
It’s lucky the Sturgeonistas behind this second leadership stitch-up don’t pay attention to what’s been happening to their predecessors when they tell Scots to come back to Labour. And Labour had far deeper roots in Scotland than the SNP.
We’re going to have to do with by ourselves – we simply cannot trust politicians.
Next Saturday for the AUOB march for me – and I’ll sign up with Salvo/Liberation.Scot then.
Did the recent SNP leadership election not take a lot longer than 28 days?
If so, even if SNP started the process this morning, it still wouldn’t be fast enough to address either of the confidence motions tabled last week*
As such, any failure to call a snap election means SNP can, and presumably will, be obliged to nominate at least two candidates for FM during its own leadership contest..
*Humza’s resignation this morning being a defacto victory for at least one of them
The gerontocratic crowning of Swinney via another SNP voting charade will sadly make Scotland less credible world wide.Just a disaster of a week for independence sadly.
@Pac Man
Having a “political party that can achieve widespread political clout that has at Scottish interests at heart” with a distinct voice and values, not run from Westminster seems inviting.
But, as you said yourself that there’s a mistaken assumption that their success is linked to independence. I’d say that extends to the perception they have Scotland’s interests at heart.
They now exist to perpetuate their existence. That distance from Westminster has just led to us having a group of allegedly dodgy grifters, with burner phone/campervan corruption levels that would embarrass a banana republic.
If staying in power means letting another party call the shots, they seem fine with it. No amount of incompetence or disrespect of those outside their core group seems to bother them.
They no longer have Scotland’s interests at heart. Only their own. As you say that’s going to take supporters of when they were a movement a long time to realise how little they matter to those they’ve let run their party.
A party with Scottish interests at heart, with lots of passionate support and previously large mandate to show others our values, whether independently or devolved. And look what they’ve done with everything they’ve touched. That probably has it’s own step on the 7 steps of grief.
Hatuey @ 9:52 pm
“John Swinney is that bodyguard, charged with protecting the precious truth of Sturgeon’s SNP.”
A colonial regime aye depends on those who are tasked with holding the independence movement at bay, including the pensioned-off ‘confidential agents’ within the dominant national party elite who act as ‘watchdogs’:
“All of them tools of capitalism, all of them, openly or secretly, supporters of plundering colonialism… all the obscurers, all the inventors of subterfuges, the charlatans and tricksters, the dealers in gobbledygook. And do not seek to know…whether personally…they are or are not colonialists, because the essential thing is that their highly problematic subjective good faith is entirely irrelevant to the objective social implications of the evil work they perform as watchdogs of colonialism” (Aime Cesaire).
@ Derek at 11.41
If the ex-FM pension kicks in after leaving office, does Swinney not already receive it?
When Swinney was leader before the SNP were in opposition; he’s never been FM (only deputy).
Also, I assume pensions are only paid after someone retires from the parliament, so he wouldn’t get one yet even if he had previously been FM. There’s a different, one off, severance payment for MPs etc who lose their seats and it was stated that Harvie and Slater would receive such a payment for being sacked. Swinney may have received that every time he left ministerial office. All very lucrative!
I think that Swinney’s finest hour was that now notorious photo of him and Cosy-Toes qaufing Bolinger on ice at .a Dunkeld Deli with their new best friends – animal abusers from a mob calling itself The British Association for Shooting and Conservation (If it flies it dies and lets wipe out wildlife!) Swinney and Wishart (The next Speaker of the House) two cunts I would never tire of punching fuck out off!
Swinney’s job isn’t to rebuild or recover the SNP. That isn’t possible. His job is to sustain it. In that he can assume that he has the full support of the British establishment.
The best outcome for the British State is an SNP that is badly wounded, not dead — if it completely died, the independence movement would simply move on and build a new party, and the British State would need to infiltrate it all over again.
Much better to have it limp on and absorb votes, muddy the waters, divide the independence movement, and effectively block the electoral prospects of any new party. This is all standard procedure; divide and rule applied to voting.
Recovery is not possible for the SNP, regardless of who they make leader, because the brand is totally toxic in the eyes of a large segment of the population (the segment with more than two brain cells).
Criminal investigations, the handling of covid, the ferries, the gender stuff, wanting to start WWIII, etc., etc., David Copperfield couldn’t make all that shit go away — what chance does Swinney have?
All in the game yo, all in the game…
The good news is that it might turn out to be a lot harder to keep the SNP alive than any of them expect. There are aspects of the ongoing SNP collapse that are unique (the investigations), and they seem to be in dire straits financially…
If everything goes really well over the next couple of years, they come out of this with about 10 Westminster seats and about 15 seats in Holyrood.
If everything goes badly over the next couple of years, they don’t come out of it all.
So, the SNP lose Humza, go through all this, then end up with ‘no-hope’ John (a man who openly laughed at the very notion of becoming leader again – and rightly so, he was sh*te at it), only to find unelectable Harvie, some Canadian woman on a holiday Visa and the unelected Greer man-child still calling the shots regarding policy.
The green party, the tail wagging the SNP dog.
Anything for a ministerial salary and pension, eh John and Patrick.
Meanwhile independence suffers, and yet more loony green ‘policies’ will be forced upon Scots, who never voted for them.
The next two years will just be one long suicide note for the SNP.
As an aside, The National currently has a poll for who folk think should be next SNP leader, and I looked down the list of names, and simply could not vote for any of them, including the wee free, religious fundamentalist (that IS what she is), Kate Forbes.
Who should lead the SNP? Alex Salmond of course. A politician, and ACTUAL LEADER, worth his weight in gold.
The man who defended the odious Named Person Scheme to its death is easily the right man for this job.
I met him once – at the Crannog Centre just after the fire. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone I felt contaminated just being near before.
Robert Louis, I reckon you are right . The only man capable of leading Scotland to independence was/ is Alex Salmond but he has been well and truly nobbled by the devious actions of others.
Whether he can bring the liars and plotters to justice very publicly has yet to be seen.
Who do you think Simmpy is going to be taking instructions from?
If Yousless was the ‘continuity’ candidate Swinney might as well just be Sturgeon.
This move is basically Sturgeon taking back the FM position via her drone.
Interesting timing… considering all the pending investigations and rumours regarding COPFS & PS & the LA.
Robert Louis
Ignored
says:
30 April, 2024 at 6:56 am
Who should lead the SNP? Alex Salmond of course. A politician, and ACTUAL LEADER, worth his weight in gold.
Brilliant point as ever from Mia yesterday…
Who, in detail, is the “old guard” who blocked Yousaf doing a deal with Salmond? Named and shamed please.
Why is the SNP Leader under anybody’s thumb?
Why is Independence being blocked off at source?
Scottish history tells us, since at least 1603 our brightest and best have shot the craw for better opportunities, either in England or in England’s colonies, at the first oportunity. So it stands to reason the at-home gene pool is a lot shallower than it might be.
The exception to this brightest and best leaving rule is, of course, the MPs we have sent to Westminster since WWII – first of all the fabled Low-Flying Jimmies, more-recently the SNP’s Failing Fifty.
If we really did send our best to London, it stands to reason, we would be left with the likes of Yousless and Swinney up here.
We really are in a mess and with Alex Salmond I sadly now feel, fatally holed beneath the water line by the efforts of the Sturgeonites and the LOndon media, I fear, at my age, closer to 80 than 70, I will never see Independence.
But, we fight on, perhaps we are now in that period between the 1715 and 1745 Risings, using the same time line, we might get it right in 2044.
But, when you see the quality of the English politicians in-power today, perhaps even worse than the Scottish ones, I still cannot work-out what it would take to carry the other 50% of the Scottish population with us and gain our freedom.
Easy to envisage Nicolai Ceausturgeon sitting in her command bunker at the foot of the Royal Mile, white Persian cat on her lap, ordering Yousless to have no truck with her arch nemesis Salmond, whilst her No.2 (Swinney) simultaneously hands him the pre-prepared text of his resignation speech.
Apologies…just trying to cheer myself up by imagining fact as fiction.
Northcode @ 12:03 am
“the writings of Hannah Arendt, who coined the phrase ‘the banality of evil’ in a report she wrote after witnessing the trial of Adolf Eichmann.”
There seems little doubt that Swinney, likewise ‘an ordinary, rather bland, thoughtless bureaucrat’, is being brought back into play to help bury the independence cause. He has already had plenty of ‘previous’ in that function, according to Campbell Martin and others in the know, and the right ‘skills’ to facilitate the process. Which might also explain the briefing in the metropolitan capital the other day.
Rev. Stu’s thesis seems entirely plausible. Swinney to take the fall for impending electoral apocalypse in return for (taxpayer funded) platinum pension.
What’s the possible completion of the electoral disasters?
YouGov, field work 26 – 29 April, sample size 1043.
Westminster voting intention (variation from last election):
Con 14% seats 4 (-2)
Lab 34% seats 27 (+26)
LibDem 8% seats 5 (+3)
SNP 33% seats 21 (-27)
Comments: Field work conducted before full scope of current burach emerged. Model; Electoral Calculus.
Holyrood voting intention, Constituency (variation from last election):
Con 16% seats 10 (+5)
Lab 32% seats 22 (+20)
LibDem 9% seats 10 (+1)
SNP 36% seats 36 (-26)
Holyrood voting intention, Regional List (variation from last election):
Con 17% seats 14 (-12)
Lab 28% seats 17 (-3)
LibDem 8% seats 5 (+5)
SNP 31% seats 11 (+9)
Green 8% seats 9 (+1)
Summary:
Largest single Party SNP (by 8 seats)
Unionist block 73 seats
Nationalist (nominally) block 56 seats
Comments: As above. Model; Election Poling. SNP election gains at Holyrood (9) are on the List. Normally, this would be a collection of mouth-breathing, self-certified nutters and BAME candidates. In this case the prime positions on the List would be fought over tooth & nail by the 50 odd MPs and MSPs that envisage their comfortable sinecures evaporating and an uncertain future in the real world rearing its terrifying head.
List figure presume across the board, even distribution. ALBA are polling 8% in mid-Scotland & Fife, also polling 4% in West Scotland and Highlands & Islands.
Alf Baird
says:
30 April, 2024 at 9:28 am
Northcode @ 12:03 am
“Which might also explain the briefing in the metropolitan capital the other day.”
Little doubt about it. He was in Queen Anne’s Gate, site of the English imperial Home Office.
He made his ‘impromptu’ statement having emerged from the doors of the Resolution Foundation, a Right Wing (default Unionist) ‘think’ tank.
No attempt was made to hide that fact – indeed it seemed that they were keen to create those very ‘optics’ – no doubt to reassure their colonial masters.
The message that ‘Independence is over’ could not be more brazen – amplified all morning by the BBC.
If indeed: repeating the same failed plan, in the hope of a different outcome, is a sure sign of madness, then the SNP has really lost the plot.
Swinney was an absolute disaster first time round (2000-2004) I can find no evidence of the 60-year-old Swinney being any more effective than the 40-year-old who stood down.
And, this time round, should they appoint him Leader, the SNP does not have Wee Eck, or anyone remotely of his quality, on the subs bench, to come on and save the jerseys.
Republicofscotland
‘I think Swinney will be unopposed and elected as leader and FM’
Something remarkable began to unfold even before dawn had broken on the morning of Yousafs ‘resignation’: a dozen or more recognisable figures from the party independently of each other had a vision that Swinney was the ‘only’ one to save the party.
Well, apart from Swinney himself: HIS vision was that the entire party machine, without any pre-agreements, would suddenly appear before cameras, at many different locations, begging him to become leader and FM, and, based on that vision, he arranged a press conference BEFORE the flood of endorsements in case his vision was miraculously unfolding.
So, the usual suspects have decided on Swinney, but don’t want a contest. Obviously immense pressure will be brought to suppress any challenges, but if there is no contest – as I expect – the likes of Forbes could only save face by quitting the party. Her failure to stand will be a clear indication that she is a persona non grata and could well signal her departure to her natural home in the Tory Party.
And so it begins.
“THE SNP’s national secretary has confirmed details of how the party’s leadership race will work following the resignation of Humza Yousaf.
Nominations to enter the contest to succeed the First Minister have now opened, with Lorna Finn taking to Twitter/X to confirm these opened at 11.59pm on Monday evening.
She added that “nominations will close at noon on Monday, May 6” and that “any member wishing to declare their candidacy should email national.secretary@snp.org for a nomination form”.
And.
Elsewhere, SNP MSP Fergus Ewing backed former finance secretary Kate Forbes to go for the role.”
Swinney getting the top job creates another innovation for scottish politics :
the DOUBLE PATSY
– when one fall guy is not enough!
Harvie was on telly last night decrying the binfire, with the matches still in hand; it wisnae me, it was those … reactionary transphobes of the far right who don’t believe in progress.
In the background, Salmond lurks, older (as we all are), but seemingly stronger.
The SNP have fallen so far even the rats are making room for them in the sewers of Scotland.
Well done Nicola. Well done Humza. You have both reduced the SNP to a viscous trans, anti-Women Party which criminalises ordinary people for speaking and thinking truths about biology.
The Tories and Labour should be rewarding them both with seats in the Lords for services rendered to the British state.
What I want to know is: who the f*ck is voting SNP these days and where are their brains located?
sam @ 12:57 pm
“Extinguishing a culture”
This (cultural imperialism) is a well established colonial ‘procedure’, intended to change the identity of the colonized group. This is done in large part by depriving ‘a people’ of their own indigenous languages, two in oor case – Scots and Gaelic, and giving them a new language – wi anely English garred doon oor thrapples. Langage is whit gies us oor ain identity efter aw.
Here we might also remember that language is a human right, according to the UN and Council of Europe; Scots speakers are still deprived o oor human richt, tae lairn oor ain langages.
And only 1.6m ‘rusted’ Scots language speakers left according to the last published census in 2011, less than a third of Scotland’s population, wi maist fowk noo anely Anglophone, bools in thair mooths.
Which helps explain why mony Scots, maistly naw voters, aye hae a confuised naitional identity, i.e. a British persona (English language made superior) and the Scottish persona (Scots languages made inferior).
Wha said ‘colonialism is hateful racism’? (Cesaire).
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2021/07/04/paper-two-the-determinants-of-independence/
Ah well, down maybe but certainly not out as the gravy runs on.
Seems that on stepping down from the office of First Minister our Humza thereafter gets a pension for life at an index linked rate of fifty percent of the First Minister salary.
Now for a 39 year old that represents a lot of dosh going forward since an FM’s salary enhancements takes the basic MSP salary from around £67,800 to around £168,400. So well done the taxpayer for supporting Humza for his year in office.
But hang about. What about John Swinney who is now being touted as a stopgap First Minister. Now Swinney had intimated that he was going to retire at the next election. However, if he slips unto a nice caretaker role, for however short that might be, perchance John to will pick up a fifty percent ex FM pension to supplement his MSP salary. Lovely jubbly as they say and well done the taxpayer.
And the speaker or presiding officer. Seems he too is on a fifty percent deal on stepping down.
Ah well, we can all take pride as taxpayers in paying up for the pride of Scotland and their super pensions.
(BAP) member and committed S30 route to indy seeker, Kate Forbes swithering whether to run r not for the leadership of the SNP.
The Greens detest Forbes almost evangelical beliefs, and I suppose they would strongly oppose her as the next FM, Swinney however fits the bill.
“KATE Forbes has said she has “a lot of support” in the SNP as she confirmed she was considering another tilt at the party leadership.
The former finance secretary also suggested she was in favour of a full-blown leadership contest, telling Sky News: “Membership needs to be behind the next leader and process needs to reflect that.”
The PA news agency reported she had told journalists she would think about what is best for “the party, the country and my family”.
She said: “It’s still early days. We’ll obviously be considering things over the next few hours and so on – nobody’s declared yet, so I think we do still have a bit of time.”
Asked if she was tempted to run, she said: “I think for me it’s clear I have a groundswell of support amongst the party.
“That was clear from the last contest and clearly we need to weigh up what is in the best interests of the party, the country and my family.
“It’s what I’ve said quite consistently over the last year that if I were to run, those would be the conditions.”
Northcode
The original proverb runs “Empty vessels make the most noise”, meaning those with little knowledge, wisdom or wit tend to be the most boastful and vocal about their own opinions.
Translated intae Scots as “Aw patter an’ nae feckin’ busfare !”
Aye, the Swinney fix appears to be on. The chosen one.
I smelled a rat when Nosferatu was so quick out of the blocks to support Swinney. Now they are all falling into line and declaring their love and support for the chosen one. Are all these shenanigans just internal SNP machinations, or are darker forces involved?
Forbes allies claiming that the leadership contest is a bit of stich up, don’t we know it. Even a close ally of Forbes who fought for her in the last leadership contest now backs Swinney.
It would appear that there is much division within the SNP on who should be the next SNP leader, of course the Greens will never sanction Forbes as SNP leader.
“KATE Forbes’s allies have said the “SNP establishment” is lined up against a potential leadership bid from the former finance secretary.”
“Both she and John Swinney are considering a bid for leadership though has not confirmed whether she would take another tilt at the position after Humza Yousaf’s resignation.”
“One ally claimed there was a “concerted campaign” by Swinney’s allies – who are thought to include those close with Yousaf and former first minister Nicola Sturgeon – to stop Forbes from running.”
“But one SNP insider hit back bluntly: “Is there f**k.”
“But some who backed Forbes last time around now prefer Swinney for the top job, with former Yes Scotland strategist Stephen Noon switching sides.”
“He told BBC Newsnight on Monday that the aim was now to unite the party, something he believed Swinney could do but not Forbes.”
“Noon said: “I voted for Kate last year, she’s a substantial candidate but I think her contribution this time is not as leader. So I think the circumstances are different one year on.”
“An SNP source said they felt Forbes would not be able to pass a Budget if she was to become first minister, in anticipation of the Scottish Greens and other opposition parties refusing to work with her. “
“Stephen Flynn, the current Westminster leader, argued Mr Swinney was the only person who could unite the party and the country”
I am not sure about the party, but certainly in the case of the country, Flynn has hit the bullseye. Having Mr Black Pen back in office will most certainly unite the country AGAINST the SNP.
“Ms Gilruth tweeted: “John Swinney is the best choice to be Scotland’s Drst minister and @theSNP leader”
To say such crap, Ms Gilruth must be either an brazen and unapologetic liar who thinks the people of Scotland are idiots, or she is not very bright herself. Or both.
“Ian Blackford, the SNP’s former Westminster leader, said Mr Swinney “has what it takes” to lead the SNP and “not just in the short term””
Blackford is absolutely right. Mr Black Pen has what it takes to lead the SNP to the bin of political history for the foreseeable future. I wonder if this is what Blackford pursues so he does not have any remorse when taking possession of the red seat in that graveyard of political rejects and inconveniences, otherwise known as HoL.
“Pete Wishart, the SNP’s longest-serving MP, tweeted: “John Swinney would be an excellent unifier for our country and our party. We should all get behind him if he chooses to run.”
Now this is isn’t even original. It seems just a copy cat of what Flynn said. The same applies.
There is one think Mr Black Pen is useful for and that is “redacting” on industrial scale mountains of inconvenient and compromising information of high public interest.
£52 grand a year pension for being in the joab for a year plus his msp’s salary No bad for being pish at your joab eh
Mia says (5:03) :
Citing this quote “Stephen Flynn, the current Westminster leader, argued Mr Swinney was the only person who could unite the party and the country”
Mia said:
“I am not sure about the party, but certainly in the case of the country, Flynn has hit the bullseye. Having Mr Black Pen back in office will most certainly unite the country AGAINST the SNP”.
A hole-in-one Mia. NuSNP is a cult.
I am reminded of the line from Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World:
‘The victim of mind-manipulation does not know that he is a victim. To him, the walls of his prison are invisible, and he believes himself to be free.’ (Huxley, ‘Brave New World Revisited’, archive.org, 1958, p.109).
The walls of the prison are closing in on all of us
JO’Neill, more to the point and as everybody was reminded today by Craig Murray, their is a potential Scandal concerning an Indian Company with interests in Scotland on the Horizon and May I add it has been alleged that Swinney was wined and dined by them in Mumbai , question is who paid for the trip and if not Swinney was it declared in register of interests.
Doesn’t matter who is next FM… Swinney, Forbes, the Man in the Moon… The dead hand of Sturgeon will still be on the tiller of the SNP.
The only way to recover from the effects of Sturgeon and her acolytes is to tear down Sturgeon’s rancid SNP and consign it to history.
Sigh, amazing how quickly some forget / forgive Kate Forbes abstaining on a crucial vote re. the amendment that would have put in place safeguards / background checks re. Self ID.
Megan Gallagher (Conservative) was also on maternity leave but still managed to cast her vote to protect girls and women.
Plus Kate Forbes only stood in the last SNP leadership contest to take votes from Ash Regan which facilitated Yousaf winning. So just another year or so episode in the pantomime of pish that is Scottish Party Politics.
I’ve noticed a few supposedly decent SNP MSPs abstain on votes rather than grow a semblance of a spine and actually cast their vote in alignment with their constituents’ views.
Yay for Party Politics where you vote for ice cream but get a serving of dug shit…
A take on Freeports from yesterday.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/04/29/the-burning-question-freeports/
Scotland’s politicians and government are just a sick, twisted, troll joke on us now, from the Americans running everything, aren’t they? It’s beyond depressing and disgusting. They’re having great fun at our expense. The worst thing in Scotland that ever happened to us was finding oil and gas. It hasn’t made us any richer, and indeed we’d be independent now if we hadn’t. Cos the vulture capitalist yanks wouldn’t care less. That and Trident being placed here have doomed us to extinction. But hey, the weans love the Disneyland, eh? (Spits contemptuously)
A wee bit of polling on what’s what, with the SNP leadership contest in mind.
“JOHN Swinney is the preferred choice to replace Humza Yousaf as first minister among SNP voters but the public back Kate Forbes in the role, according to the latest polling – and both are seen as better picks than Anas Sarwar or Douglas Ross.
Forbes has a six-point lead over the former deputy first minister in Ipsos polling of the Scottish public on potential successors.
However, among 2021 SNP voters, Swinney remains the top choice for the role with 30% – compared to 21% for Forbes and 14% for SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn.
Meanwhile, when the wider public were asked who would make the best first minister, 26% backed Forbes, compared to 20% for Swinney and 14% for SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn.
The research – conducted on Monday and Tuesday this week with a sample of 1127 adults in Scotland – also found that 60% of SNP voters believe ending the Bute House Agreement with the Scottish Greens was the wrong move, compared to just 45% of the wider public.
On Scottish independence, half of the public believe Yousaf’s resignation will make no difference – while one in 10 expect a positive impact, and one-third a negative impact.”
Mr Salmond said that yesterday, in the morning of the day Mr Yousaf resigned, at around 7.30am, Mr Yousaf was on the phone to Ms Regan. Mr Salmond said that at that time, Mr Yousaf was still fighting for his job and he praised the requests made by Ms Regan in her letter as very reasonable. We all read that letter and we all know the requests were not only very reasonable but by no means unsurmountable or ambitious. They should be logical things to pursue for a nationalist party. Only undesirables who are anti-independence, misogynists, apologists of child abusers and who are happy watching how Scotland is being stripped of its assets could possibly have an objection to Ms REgan’s reasonable demands.
Mr Yousaf did not resign until midday. So between 7.30 and 12.00 something/someone changed his mind. What/who was that?
Intriguingly, newspapers already had the previous night the news that he most probably would resign according to some “senior figures” in the SNP.
So somebody told the newspapers that Mr Yousaf was going to resign even before Mr Yousaf had even made the decision himself of what to do.
Who the hell are those “senior figures” and what right did they have to jump the gun and pull the rag under Mr Yousaf’s feet? Why haven’t they been named? Why are they given the luxury of hiding like cowards in the shadows?
How is it possible that these figures knew Yousaf was going to resign at that time when he was still fighting for his job at 7.30 the following day unless they forced him to do so?
Who can possibly be a more senior figure in the party than the FM and leader of the party himself?
I find the leaking to the press to remove the rag from under Yousaf’s feet absolutely disgusting, disrespectful and an abuse of position of power.
We are treated as fools by the press who colludes with those undesirable individuals by helping them to hide their identities behind the meme “senior figures”.
And what on earth is a senior figure? A backbencher is not “a senior figure”. You call senior to somebody who is either old or is holding a senior position. Holding the same low ranking position for a very long time does not make you “senior”. It makes you experienced.
Goodness, I even read a quote from an article today where they called the pathetic Blackman who is so ignorant that doesn’t even know if she has XX or XY chromosomes, “a senior MP”. She is neither old nor she is holding a senior position, and thank heavens for that.
To me, deliberately leaking of that information to the press before Yousaf made the decision and then forcing him to resign so he could not cut a deal with ALBA comes across as a coup to stop the SNP returning to be a party of independence.
I am convinced they forced him to resign because the deal with Alba was not only possible but very likely. And the bastards could not stand it.
Is Mr Black Pen part of this inside coup job to keep the party as a useless devoutionist entity, or is he simply another opportunist after a good pension?
Name and shame, please. We have the right to know who those, so called, “senior figures”, that continue to deliberately block Scotland’s progression to independence after having wasted 9 years of our time and having pissed all over our anti-union majorities and democratic mandates, are.
Name the bastards so we can chuck them out at the next election.
Bored with this shit already; why do all commentators come out with the same boring shite, and get it wrong as well (apart from our patron) – lovely americanisms on bloomberg, describing humzas sacking the greens as a “power play”.
Swinney doesn’t know if he takes the job, he has to turn tranny; Harvie himself will be doing the “bottom surgery” with a rusty razor blade and a dettol soaked sponge.
Mayday is coming up – I say we burn them all in a giant wickerman on the grass just under the crags.
One thing about forbes calvinists, they stopped the witch hunts over 300 years ago, but the greens have them ongoing.
Right now I am silent praying at the greens, and there is nothing they can do to stop me.
I say we extend “accessing healthcare” (the dogwhistle for abortion) up to 720 months since conception.
“leiben unwertes lieben”
– that covers all the bases. Nazis – you can never go wrong on the internet by referencing the nazis.
Mia
Ignored says:
30 April, 2024 at 10:42 pm
Name the bastards so we can chuck them out at the next election.
You are very benign towards the seditious bastards who have betrayed our Nation and subverted our democratic route to Independence.
That the dullard Swinney, yesterday’s Mr Failure, is their steady hand in a crisis speaks volumes.. It isn’t the man with the charisma bypass they want of course, it’s his prowess with the redacting black marker, and all the sophistry which kept Sturgeon safe in her job after her gross betrayals of Scotland, Independence, and the disgusting smears against Alex Salmond. The SNP wants their secrets kept.
Never forget, the night when Scotland’s sovereignty was betrayed and our democracy unlawfully subjugated, Swinney and Wishart were out partying with the notorious huntin’ n’ shooting green welly brigade, supping their wine, ignoring Scotland’s crisis.
I confess, I feel a little out of sorts with Kate Forbes too. Her talents and ambitions for Independence somewhat escape me, and that she isn’t scathing in her defiance against Brexit Westminster’s wholly unconstitutional Freeports, (yet more erosion of Scotland’s sovereign integrity), I find deeply troubling.
If our hopes lie in Forbes, then all is not well. Is she even a disciple of Scotland United strategy? I simply don’t know. I cannot read her, but as a profound believer in Scottish Independence, she doesn’t strike me as kindred. If I was in the SNP and witness to what went on under Sturgeon, I’d be like the tropical fish, gasping its last, after jumping out the tank because the water was so foul.
We should all adopt Mia’s challenge. Name this mysterious “Old Guard”. Expose their nefarious organisation. “That” would feel like the beginning of something wholesome. Sadly, there’s no sign of it happening, Forbes or no Forbes.
Yes, once the the Angel of Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch becomes leader she will cast off all the micro-agressions that have kept her down. Standing there, in gleaming white, with the Angel of Edinburgh South West at her side, all the party faithful will tremble with fear, bow down, and pledge their allegiance to the quest for independence. Once again, the SNP, champion of Scotland’s Destiny, filled with righteous fervour, will rise up and smite the Unionists, with a terrible force that will set Scotland free.
Wake the f*** up. Looking for a saviour, past or present, is simply a coping strategy for people who’ve lost all hope.
A lot of people on here speculating on who is pulling the strings in the SNP at the moment. Who are the unnamed “Senior Figures”.
One name has been conspicuously absent from all the speculation. I detect the strong whiff of Marmalade in all the plotting that is going on – look out for the rise of the MacCeausescus Mark Two.
While the laughably named big beasts of the SNP get behind Swinney, nobody mentions that he was one of the cabal that deleted their entire COVID correspondence.
You can argue about how much he knew of the various scandals and how much he was culpably involved, but there is no hiding from the mass personal deletions.
That alone should be a disbarment from all future public office.
Onlooker says:
30 April, 2024 at 9:02 pm
“Scotland’s politicians and government are just a sick, twisted, troll joke on us now, from the Americans running everything, aren’t they? It’s beyond depressing and disgusting. They’re having great fun at our expense.”
Pretty decent summary there.
I don’t really know why I ever believed Independence would be allowed at the time, especially looking back now and having seen all that has been done since 2014, naivety I guess.
There was no way we were going to be allowed to break up the United Kingdom. I don’t think we realize how inconceivable that is to them, how shocking.
The crude and brutal destruction of the SNP and AS’s reputation post-2014 testify to that.
But also I don’t think we can trust the result in 2014 neither.
The US 2020 election was nobbled, according to the Vl@dP, and he said it was done using postal votes… ring any bells. Modus operandi right there.
IMHO the 56 seats out of 59 was because people had actually voted YES. That is why everyone else got wiped out in 2015 bar the SNP.
2015 is an utterly bizarre result for a country that had supposedly just resoundingly voted NO. I clearly remember thinking it at the time, it was baffling. And so were the seemingly endless mandates that followed…
2015 and after was not the aberration. 2014 is the aberration.
Personally I suspect it was very close and given the over the top reaction since 2014 I suspect it may well have been a narrow YES.
So yes, we have been cheated. The truth is the US does this to all its ‘allies’. Where do you think all this woke shit originated. All these woke politicians…
This is why I said a while back that the future of Scottish independence will only have a chance once the US empire collapses.
But even then I still doubt it because unlike any other colony that came after us our freedom involves breaking the United Kingdom brand.
No other colony that became independent did that. That is what makes us unique in this regard and what will make it very difficult for us to get out.
So, the SNP has become the official definition of a political bin fire.
Is it because the SNP is infested from top to bottom with career imbeciles whose sole priority is to guarantee, at any cost, a personal income of a magnitude which they could never dream of securing in civvy street?
Or, is it because the party has been compromised and corrupted through the deliberate actions of those in positions of influence and control, who themselves are influenced and controlled by strategic interests in both London and Washington?
I don’t think Occam’s razor is required in this case… Congratulations MI5/CIA on a job well done. We’ll try to clean up your mess as quickly as possible…
Indy for Scotland!
SNP Out!
The fact that Humza was looking towards a deal with Ash Reagan and dare I say Alex Salmond, confirms that the SNP or what is left of it is ripe for takeover.
The SNP is in utter collapse but under Salmond and his team the SNP became one a hugely successful and popular party taking fifty percent of the electoral vote.
Sturgeon and her clique which included and was supported by deep state establishment actors and influences set out to destroy that. And they did. Nothing is clearer.
Money, bribes, pseudo power and pseudo importance together with blackmail and the threat of exposure is how it’s done. And of course the attempted destruction of political threats such as Alex Salmond or truth teller Craig Murray.
The Brits are fighting a covert dirty war in Scotland. They are determined not to lose their colony with all the resources on their doorstep. And a dirty war it is where subterfuge is a key essence.
The Brits feared the SNP under Salmond, feared its popularity, knew that independence was closer than we thought. The referendum was granted in the mistaken notion that Yes would not win.
And that us why today the SNP is where it is and why the rush to destroy Scotland as a country is Westminster accelerated policy.
Freeports not part of Scotland with low tax, low regulation from everything from lo wages to employee rights to planning permission to compulsory purchase – ports they are not. Westminster created enclaves!
And ditto the special economic zones.
And all wrapped up with huge immigration from the south which immigration is currently a secret. ( which is why the 2021 census has never been released!!)
In a tried and tested colonial policy running from the North American Indians to the Australian Aborigines, Scots now head the same way.
Apparently a SNP insider says that a deal could be struck between Swinney and Forbes, he becoming FM, she becoming his deputy FM.
If true would Forbes becoming Swinney’s deputy FM be a deal breaker for the Greens.
The voting record of Kate Forbes apparently runs contrary to her professed personal beliefs. I can see two main explanations for this:
* She assesses the majority view of the constituents she represents and votes accordingly.
* She is a calculating machine politician who wants to keep her voting record “clean” to facilitate the assent up the greasy pole.
I am presently undecided which applies.
If it’s the latter, by presenting her “faith” so openly, she fails in her objective as witnessed by the incessant attacks being launched from the myriad of Jackson’s Entry, adolescent sock puppets.
The second conundrum is whether Forbes actually believes the rather extreme tenets of her Wee Free dogma?
From my perspective, Religions are just successful Cults.
This is not to say Cults are necessarily universally malign.
Some folk find life difficult without a support network. This is where Cults & Religions step in offering fellowship.
Moving house and needing a hand? Your fellow Cult members will step in and help you flit.
Going on holiday and need someone to mind the cat? … Ditto.
Forbes missed the 2023, SNP Conference to deliver paid speeches to Wheaton College “For Christ and His Kingdom”, Illinois. Wheaton is a crazy institution, way beyond what would be considered acceptable in an enlightened, European context. Wheaton extols the literal truth of the Bible.
The Earth is 6,000 years old and yet they have a Geology faculty (they don’t shy from inviting cognitive dissonance).
Prospective students have to sign a Covenant declaring homosexuality to be immoral.
Does Forbes actually believe that last point? I’m not referring to public pronouncements necessarily to remain within the cult like embrace of the Wee Free Church, I’m referring to her unknowable, private self.
Campaigning lesbian, Joanna Cherry knows and supports Forbes. Campaigning socialist Robin McAlpine knows and supports Forbes. Ostensibly, Forbes’ public positions are irreconcilable with those of Cherry and McAlpine.
Should we listen to the shrieking denouncements of the SNP’s Twittler Youth seeking to curry favour at HQ and further their nascent careers or should we listen to experienced, mature, qualified adults like Cherry and McAlpine?
Watching Politics Scotland this afternoon, I am getting the feeling there is a sudden and unexpected outbreak of serious thinking within the ranks of the SNP MSPs.
They seemn to me to be starting to realise: the gemme’s a bogey and nobody wants to be left holding the poisoned chalice of leadership of the party once the Westminster and Holyrood elections, not forgetting the fall-out from the Salmond stitch-up come into play.
Most enjoyable moment of the motion of no confidence in Holyrood thus far, for me, was the sight of John Swiney apoplecric with rage and wagging his finger in remonstration at Douglas Ross referring to him as “Honest John”.
Perhaps even he is finally realising that this can only ever be an ironic title.
Hi Izzie.
That’s probably referring to the conspiracy run by ‘those who must be obeyed’ in the SNP, to dismiss Alex Salmond from Scottish politics, by using staff and civil servants to perjure themselves in a criminal court, making up alleged ‘offences’.
Woman H accused AS of attempted rape. It was proved during the defence evidence, that she wasn’t even in the same building on the date the offence was supposed to have happened.
I can’t wait for the eventual disclosure of the Alphabetties’ identities. Woman H, in particular, will be a revelation to those who don’t really follow politics.
““the Salmons stitch – up.” ”
There is another dimension to the stitch up that has not been highlighted and spoken so much about as it should have been.
This dimension corresponds to how unscrupulous and morally corrupt individuals abused their positions of power, abused Scotland’s courts and abused the law and the prosecution service to give themselves a justification to redact key documents in industrial scale and in doing so, forcefully suppressed information from both public and from the courts that actually may have incriminated some of them.
How did they do this?
By the look of it, key individuals among the culprits raised criminal accusations against Mr Salmond and presented themselves as victims of sexual abuse (it is suspected that some of those actually perjured themselves during the criminal case).
But, if I understood correctly, “victims” of sexual abuse in Scotland do not get an immediate blanket anonymity order. So how did these individuals got one?
With help from somebody else.
Rather conveniently, if you believe in coincidences, a reporter present during the opening of the court case leaked the name of some of the accusers via twitter. This prompted the judge in the criminal case to enforce the blanket anonymity order on the accusers, and voila! The culprits and the Sgov itself proceeded to abuse this anonymity order to redact every piece of information which contained the name/names of the pretend victims or any reference that could lead to identify them. And by any I mean any. Some of the information blacked out had nothing to do with the court case, but revealed what they were thinking and pursuing at the time.
But for this level cosmic size cover up to work, an awful lot of actors at very high levels had to collude in this perversion of justice.
This strategy would have never worked without the reporter starting the process by leaking the name. This strategy would have never worked without the judge jumping like a fish to the work on the hook by imposing the anonymity order. This strategy would have never worked if whoever in government was tasked with blacking entire paragraphs leaving the documents illegible, had only redacted what was pertinent to the criminal case, not anything that contained the names of a false accuser or referred to the false accuser.
This strategy would have never worked if the judge and the people in the HOlyrood inquiry had challenged the SGov hard and demanded the documents to be unredacted or at least an auditor from the court to be present when redacted to corroborate that the redacting was legitimate and the blanket order was not being abused for criminals to cover their tracks.
This strategy would have never worked if the judge had lifted the anonymity order once Mr Salmond was acquitted and the accusers were proven to not be victims.
This would not have worked if the crown office had not abused its power to gag the HOlyrood committee and witnesses invited by that committee under the threat of prosecution.
This strategy would have never worked if the judge had released the infamous whatsapp messages of the vietnam group rather than forcefully suppress this information from the public to protect actual criminals.
In retrospect, it is evident Mr Salmond’s stitch up was the result of blatant corruption and abuse of power at the highest possible levels, but it was also the result of a massive level of collusion between different entities with the common interest of having Mr Salmond removed out of front line politics.
It is obvious those in the civil service and SNP involved were just useful idiots following orders. Whose orders is a question that remains unanswered even today. I do not believe for even a second they were STurgeon’s orders. The last 9 years have demonstrated Sturgeon is no strategist and does no sophistry. She is just an implementer and a rather blunt one. The elephant approach these individuals used to cover their giant tracks proves they were incapable of precision or subtlety. What they used to cover their tracks was a hammer/chainsaw approach, not surgical precision.
What this tells us is that the original plan could not possibly be concocted by such group of incompetents who evidently never thought the plan through, risk assessed it or made provisions for the possibility of things going wrong.
I am therefore convinced the plan was concocted somewhere else by a proper strategist who made the huge mistake of entrusting a brigade of idiots with its delivery.
Looking at elements from the crown as the crown office, the courts or the highest levels of the Civil service involved in the “clean up” operation, it seems clear to me that this plan originated at a very high level and somewhere else other than Scotland. What I am not sure is if the original plan was concocted in London, in a castle somewhere or at the other side of the Atlantic.
Chas @ 8:36 am
“If only someone, anyone would try and show the Scottish electorate what life could be like if we were Independent.”
You must have missed it when you were out of the country. Life in a wealthy independent Scotland would obviously more resemble that in most of our smaller near neighbour European independent countries which have twice the UK/Scottish GDP-per-capita:
Scotland is not a normal colonised country. It was done by stealth, dressed up as a voluntary union.
When that Union was formed. Modern economic policy and natural resources were not part of the agreement. Who knew that Oil would be discovered then, or even needed. Or that weapons of world destruction would be parked on Scotland’s shores.
Everything after the Act Of Union was forced upon Scotland ,due to sheer weight of numbers. We have about 8% representation in England’s parliament. So essentially we have no power to change, block or persuade in Scotland’s interest.
All Macro Economic policy, defense and foreign affairs are England’s decision alone. Who decided that Scotland’s oil revenues would go to England for them to exploit? Who decided that Whisky tax would flow to the English exchequer?
Scotland didn’t agree to any of this, but we are powerless to stop it. Scotland is a colony because the big country England , can take whatever it wishes. Essentially we are occupied economically and politically.
1st post Yousaf resignation Scottish sub-sample. YouGov, Westminster voting intention, field work 30 Apr – 1 May
Con 15% seats 7 (+1)
Lab 37% seats 40 (+39)
LibDem 3% seats 2 (0)
SNP 27% seats 8 (-40)
Aye, it’s just a sub-sample but SNP are on 2% of UK preference, SNP are NEVER below 3% on YouGov, Westminster polls.
I agree. No way does Kate Forbes want to face down the ‘gender woo woo’. Nobody does. So, Scotland’s female population – at least, the sensible part of it – will be betrayed yet again. Oh, we won’t forget this. What will they take from us next? The vote? Better not give them ideas.
I also think you are right about Neil Gray – the grey man – after listening to his spiel on Debate Night last night. His little stabbing motion at Mr Salmond’s ‘rehabilitation’ was ripe for reminding him that convicted felons are entitled to rehabilitation and those who are not convicted do not require it. The man is a decent enough sort outwith politics, but a nodding donkey.
I once wanted to be an MP. Thank the Lord that I never did become one. I wouldn’t trust myself not to turn out a right barsteward. Something happens to too many people when they go into politics.
That lot have all signed their own death warrants, speaking metaphorically, because the party will not survive 2026 except, maybe, as a vestige of itself, never again to taste power. Thank God. Where the independence movement goes from there, I hate to guess. Where is our modern Bruce, Wallace, de Moray, Lady Buchan, where?
“for reasons we’re not going to disclose here”
Is the reason anything to do with Sanjeev Guptas GFG Alliance (which French authorities and the UKs Serious Fraud Office launched investigations into misuse of corporate assets and money laundering into in late 2021) and the Lochaber aluminium smelter which apparently got a by on state aid rules?
https://twitter.com/CraigMurrayOrg/status/1785652824476639328
Wasn’t Swiney (no typo) Scottish Finance Secretary then Deputy FM when the Scottish Govt gave GFG a £586 million guarantee?
Current UK Foreign Minister Lord Cameron’s former employer Greenshill gets a look in too regarding financials of GFG.
I am, as I have said before, English, a Unionist and a Tory. I’m also disappointed in Kate Forbes. Maybe she doesn’t want to inherit the cup of cold sick that is Holyrood right now. Maybe she doesn’t think that she can face down the watermelons. Maybe she wants to untainted by whatever Branchform finds out.
But maybe, just maybe, she should have tried. Maybe, just maybe, she should have gone out there and said to the Scottish people “I don’t care how badly this Party is holed below the waterline, I know that I’m going to be the person whose name will be appended to the car crash of two upcoming elections and I don’t care because I’ll tell you what I believe to be the right and proper things to do. If the Greens don’t like that, then so be it and I’ll make deals with whomever I need to on an issue by issue basis. I will not allow the tail to wag the dog, ever, and if I can’t find those people then you can bring me down.”
A coronation is in the offing and it will not be pretty for the next few years. I admire Kate Forbes, for all that I disagree with much of what she says, but she has diminished in my eyes.
I find this a bit strange. KF ran for leader just over a year ago and came a close second, probably won minus Murrell, and so why now Yousless is out the picture is she not the shoe in leader. You don’t even need to run an election it is so fresh still.
But no, and instead we get John Fucking Swinney. What!
I am guessing Swinney is in there to resign if and when the real shite hits the fan… then Forbes will take it to rebuild.
She seems nice enough but even ignoring all her ‘trips’ to the USA etc I just don’t see how she is the one to clear out the shit hole the SNP is today.
Two years of Swinney a.k.a. Sturgeon. She never really resigned.
Just look at how fast Yousless was out the door the second he showed a sign of thinking and acting for himself. His feet hardly touched the ground.
Freeports firstly are against Scots law.
They will reduce the common good fund, reduce tax intake. Corporations get 25 year deals. They do not even have to obey employment laws.
They are not green, are not ports and are not free.
The Edinburgh freeport covers the land from Falkirk to Leith, had 70% of Edinburgh, all of the airport, Grangemouth and several miles inland. Scotgov has little control in these areas. Ineos had already applied for a fracking license and will turn Grangemouth into an LPG plant under his private Freeports contract.
They are criminal as they will break us up into little statelets.
Do not believe the lies. The SNP have sold Scotland out.
Pretty much as the Rev predicted, return of the colonial gatekeeper, tho in reality he has been lurking and active in the background all the time.
Irrespective of who is handed the colonial heid bummer post the price of colonial plunder is still costing Scots £150 billion+ every year; so well worth whatever the imperial power is paying its numerous ‘colonial functionaries and watchdogs’ to keep independence at bay:
So there we have it. Mr Black Pen teams up with Ms Freeports to ensure the plunging of Scotland’s assets and territory continues at pace.
Frankly, I never understood what was the great appeal of Forbes. She is part of the S30 brigade, in other words, do nothing to progress independence. I do not remember her even once actively campaigning and speaking for independence with the passion I have heard Mr Hanvey or Mr Mcaskill. The only thing I associate her with is her begging for “full fiscal autonomy” at a point when the SNP had an absolute anti-union majority in Westminster and control over a pro-indy majority in Holyrood. How pathetic and unambitious is that?
It is my personal opinion that she only run in the SNP leadership race last year to divide up the non-yousaf vote. And yet, she still needed those 8,000 dodgy votes or so to win.
Now, the hyenas who continue to strangle the party to stop it returning to becoming a pro-independence party, don’t want to reveal the number of members who can vote or heaven forbid, giving them the opportunity to vote so they can trash their continuity candidate.
So another coronation it is. Another unelected and inadequate FM foisted down our throats. And we are expected to just take it. At least yousaf went through some sort of leadership quasi=contest. With this cold fish of a candidate they could not even risk that.
Forbes appears to be as much a devolutionist as the Sturgeonites are and by the look of it, judging how quick she was to sell out chunks of Scotland in the form of “freeports” (free for everybody else other than Scotland, that is), she clearly does not give a fig about the abuse of Scotland’s resources and appears to be as happy as the Sturgeonites are to facilitate the plunging of Scotland’s assets.
I hope this pair of devolutionists plunge the SNP to even lower levels and to the point of political relevance. Because a political party who claims to be pro-independence but does nothing to progress independence and everything to stop it and to facilitate the plunging of Scotland’s assets, resources and territory deserves to become an irrelevance.
I think it is time to forget about politics. It is clearly a con that is taking us nowhere and very much deliberately so.
We need another route.
@ Mia: Have you forgotten that somebody else is aiming to stand for the leadership?
Graeme McCormick is gathering nominations – he had 40 this morning. He put his email on Yours for Scotland’s latest post today so that SNP members can contact him to nominate.
Graeme will be fairly well-known by the members as he has been on the NEC for years as rep for the West of Scotland [if I remember correctly]. He has also spoken at many party meetings on the subject of Annual Ground Rent [a means of raising income for the government].
“@ Mia: Have you forgotten that somebody else is aiming to stand for the leadership?”
I was not aware of this, my bad. I wish Mr McCormick the very best of luck and success in his pursuit. I have no doubt he would make a better leader than Mr Black Pen. But if I am to be realistic and honest, I do not think he stands a chance to win.
And I do not say this because of lack of ability. I say he does not stand a chance because the Sturgeon cabal appears to have now become desperate and they need their man in, so they will not let anybody else anywhere near the podium.
By the look of it, the cabal also have the press on their side, so it seems Swinney is also the candidate the British establishment wants to see as FM of Scotland for the next 2 years. I wonder why.
The cabal had to be desperate to somewhat force Yousaf to resign. He clearly was not jumping on the lid strongly enough for their liking and perhaps he was too much pro-Palestine for the establishment’s liking.
Despite all the huff and puff from Harvie with regards to the Bute House Agreement, everybody seems to have forgotten that if Yousaf had kept that agreement in place, the VoNC against Harvie would have moved forward. So I am not sure until what point what we saw from Harvie was just theatrics, collusion and an excuse to bring Yousaf down and swap him for Mr Black Pen. For the cabal the tantrum of the greens was convenient, as the deposition of Yousaf could be blamed on them.
That they are desperate is also evident for how they are organising this leadership context. The conditions and the little time they are giving to gather nominations.
Forbes was, in my opinion, the most popular candidate in the last leadership context and should have won. At the time the results were released, and speaking from memory, I looked at the votes each received and the second preferences and I noticed something odd on around 8,000 single votes for Yousaf. These single votes is what gave him the victory. If it had gone to second votes, he would have lost. Bizarrely, none of the other two candidates appeared to have a comparable figure of single votes. Also, at some point during the contest, Murrell announced the percentage of votes they expected, but at that point, the belief was that the membership was much higher than it really was. Turns out that the percentage of votes obtained remained the exact same despite having lost tens of thousands of members and the number of eligible voting members being much smaller. It did not add up and at the time I had the suspicion the vote had been rigged to push Yousaf to the post.
I think we all know Swinney is not that popular a candidate, and given his nefarious record as leader of the party, he should have never been endorsed again to stand for leadership, unless those who are endorsing him want the party to lose at the upcoming election.
Yet, to ensure he is the man fronting the party during the GE, they have somehow got Forbes to endorse him by teaming up with him. At all practical effects what the cabal appears to be doing with this is to use Forbes membership votes to endorse Swinney, in other words, ensure he wins. Frankly, shame on Forbes for playing this coronation game.
I have not a shadow of a doubt that if this is still not enough to secure Swinney the leadership, another 8,000 single votes for him will appear out of nowhere to secure his win as it happened with Yousaf.
Sad as it is, I think participating in this leadership contest when you know you are being set to fail does nothing else other than giving legitimacy to this coronation and the foisting of another member of the Sturgeon cabal down our throats without voters being given the chance to choose.
But that is just my opinion.
What I do wonder is what is coming when the Sturgeon cabal and the BE are so desperate to have Swinney in place.
@ Mia: I agree with you that the SNP internal procedures are rigged – I wondered btl what the betting was on Graeme McCormick being suspended from the party before any vote was held. Already HQ are putting obstacles in his way – his 100 nominations have to be delivered to SNP HQ by Monday. Scanning the forms isn’t acceptable apparently – they must be the originals. Well at least Graeme is on the mainland, I believe, so it is just about feasible – but it will be difficult and who would be surprised if some of the nominations were deemed irregular in some way, or suffer an accident in Jackson’s Entry?
Nothing that Scotland actually needs to be done, will be done by the current incumbents. Every single MSP [and MP] knows that something criminal has been done by some people, and that the party’s raison d’etre has been abandoned – yet only 4 have left the party. No-one is kicking up a stink in any way whatsoever. Oh apart from Joanna Cherry and that is mainly apparently on the one personal issue.
As it stands the SNP aren’t worth voting for or paying attention to. The current parliamentarians and staffers must be cleared out.
Yet I know there are still many decent members and there is a sizeable number of voters who will vote SNP at an election so it would be good if they could possibly be retained as part of an electoral compact. And they must also brought into the Liberation.scot campaign – this direct democracy route will end the power of politicians and thus improve the quality of all our lives.
List of Nicola’s SNP failures
Removing internal party democracy.
Failing to implement direct conference votes & just choosing to ignore them. TWICE. Even ignoring feedback from Growth Report assemblies.
Failure to provide every household in Scotland her economic plans for Indy.
Failure to use SIX mandates with a clear instruction to leave.
Stop Brexit campaign
Case against Salmond
Parliamentary review of Salmond case
Education and Pisa figures
Attainment gap
Asking children about their sexual experience
Failing to role out super fast broadband as promised
Drug deaths
COVID and old folks
Infyref2 times 20
Turning a party of 120k into a party of 30k
Total lack of fundraising campaign
Growth commission paper
Use sterling not Scottish pound
Papers for independent scotland that could gave been written by the Broons
Gender recognition
Doesn’t know what a woman is
Approved person for children
Ferries
£600k missing
No support for AUOB
Failing to call a Scottish convention
Jailed AUOB leader
Jailed Craig Murray
Tried to jail another journalist Mark Hurst
Treatment of Margaret Ferrier,Joanna Cherry, and others
Both votes SNP
Hate speech to shut down those that criticised her
Supreme court case designed to fail
Failing to support king Charles’ oath to uphold the claim of right
Failing to push the claim of right
Bottle return scheme failure.
Defacto ref where Westminster control all the strings
A9 dualling
No movement in the polls in 6 years
Recent polling crash
National energy company
Taking on Dept Work and Pensions payments
Letting London take the stone of destiny back without a word
Failure to disrupt westminster
Giving away the Berwick bank for a song
Supporting Freeport’s without comment about workers rights
National investment bank
National census failure
National care service
Police crime and protest act banning protests they don’t like
Vietnam group being exposed
Somone going to jail
Extreme protected fishing areas
The continuity candidate
Humza got his family out of Gaza and I don’t blame him but now westminster can control him
Mackay and his Ipad. A false claim should be immeduate dismissal.
The hate and public order scotland act – it will be used by the woke lobby to shut down pro indy voices – the snp has introduced a law that will allow unionists to silence wings and anyone else they dont like.
Closure of Grangemouth making scotland dependent on english imports.
The Greens catastrophy.
Allowing freeports to undermine safety, worker rights and rax raising
Another continuity candidate.
Failing to unite with Alba
I suppose in determining if nicolas team are failures one has to consider what their objective truly was.
Is it conceviable that they could make so many errors in judgement. If they tossed a coin I am sure they could not have got it so wrong!!
Hatey McHateface @ 6:58 am
“The British Empire now exists in only two places: the history books, and some people’s heads”
Unfortunately, British imperialism and the ‘scourge of colonialism’ (UN) still exists as far as several unfortunate island peoples are concerned, as well as the ‘internal’ colonies here.
The colonized native who sees through the hoax and seeks for freedom is already in ‘self-recovery’ (Memmi), whilst the more assimilated among the colonized still ‘crave dependence’ (Cesaire). The only remedy for both is liberation, i.e. decolonization.
We should try to read more in order to better understand ‘the colonial mindset’, which is a psychological condition that holds a people back from their own liberation:
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/03/03/the-colonial-mindset/
Robin McAlipine’s analysis in his last two posts is almost flawless; the Party is being run by and for the benefit of the salaried functionaries at Jackson’s Entry.
Robin however fails to fully address the dire financial situation. All revenue streams other than British State, Short money have dried up. Membership subs are way down (and that’s the official figures), wee Peter’s ahem … creative accounting techniques are under the Polis spotlight.
Short money comprises £21,438 / MP and £43 / 200 votes (this second allocation is a minor element accounting for only £300k of the £1.3m the SNP receives annually).
A reduction to say 20 seats at the upcoming UK GE would see the Party reduced to £530k in Short money, a brutal 60% loss.
Robin foresees the Party limping on to Holyrood 2026 under Swinney. In a few month time, the Party will be unavoidably insolvent.
At this point, the smallest unanticipated stress could bring the whole edifice to collapse.
There is a world of difference between a vote to actually bring down an independence supporting government and/or First Minister and a safe vote to openly express your distaste and anger at that government’s woeful failure to advance the cause of independence and dangerous assault on the basic rights of women and girls. Adults know what Ash Regan did on Wednesday was use her vote to give the Scottish Government a metaphorical kick in the arse for it’s incompetence and inaction on independence. There was no chance that her vote was going to result in the government collapsing or a First Minister resigning. The Greens have caused the First Minister resignation not Ash Regan. My comments were made at the time when Ash’s vote could have decided the fate of Humza and the Scottish Government. That was when the Greens announced they were voting with the unionists unless Humza was dumped. They forced out an SNP First Minister not Ash Regan. Adults know these facts to be true. They recognise what happened. They know the gender obsessed identity politics zealots in the Greens forced Humza to step down. Only immature and/or ill-informed individuals believe Ash Regan threatened the existence of an alleged independence supporting government. Ash took the opportunity to protest the inadequacies of the SNP/Green alliance in government and she had plenty of justification for that decision. She is 100% committed to Scottish independence, defence of women’s rights and prioritising fighting poverty and inequality across Scotland. The SNP/Green coalition do not share those priorities unfortunately. Informed adults know this to be true ????????
“why did Ms Regan vote against the largest pro independence group in Holy rood”
Which “pro-independence group” are you referring to? At the moment, the only pro-independence party represented in Holyrood is Alba. SNP and Greens, despite having since 2016 a combined majority in parliament, did SFA to progress Scotland’s independence. Instead, they abused that majority and our anti-union votes to foist on us brexit, to foist on us fascist legislation and thought control, to force feed us with their stupid anti-biology policies and to putting the interests of perverts, fetishists, rapists and paedophiles ahead those of women and children.
In fact, under Sturgeon and then Yousaf, an unelected representative of the crown was parachuted to the cabinet so it could hand control over executive and legislative powers to the English crown. Goodness, Yousaf even insulted us all by handing the stone of destiny to the English king. That is not what a “pro-independence group” does. That is precisely what a group actively fighting against independence does.
The SNP and the Greens have become, at all practical effects, another pro-devolution colonial administrator.
So well done, Ms Regan. More power to your elbow. The first step in progressing Scotland’s independence is to clear out the decks by ejecting from our parliamentary seats all those SNP and Green shysters, time-wasters, troughers and devolutionist charlatans.
@Big Jock (8.48) –
Kin right.
It’s worrying that Sturgeon is still doing her Gallus Alice routine, swanning out to meet ‘journalists’ as if she’s still a player, posing for the cameras with Big Val, opining on the solving of problems she created in the first place.
There’s a wee poll ongoing:
Luke Warm Dave @DaveLukewarm
“Exclusive: Nicola Sturgeon warns of ‘push back’ on women’s rights and misogyny ‘on the rise again'”
Question: Is Nicola Sturgeon
Lacking self-awareness 17.8%
Gaslighting 26.2%
Trolling 7.6%
Psychotic 48.4%
673 votes
10 hours left
https://twitter.com/DaveLukewarm/status/1786467542405357619
7:47 PM · May 3, 2024
2,523 Views
These comedians might now be on the lookout for another gig and with the SNP troupe soon following them, but both showers of charlatans have left all their ‘mad shit, unpopular guff, intolerance, evil nonsense, impractical bolloks’ laws on the UK-subjicio-Scotland statute book, and with a mediocre colonial institutional meritocracy implementing it all. The intended and unintended consequences of all this bolloks is still with us.
Another two-years of the tail wagging the dog as the Greens will force their sick policies on us, and if the SNP don’t comply the Greens will remove their confidence vote.
Meanwhile Swinney who is as big a serial failure as Yousaf was, wants lots more immigration to Scotland. Swinney knows fine well that a foreign country (England) controls who can and cannot move to Scotland, we Scots have no say in who can just up sticks and move to Scotland.
“First Minister-elect John Swinney wants more immigrants to solve the worker shortage crisis caused by Brexit.
John Swinney said his number one ask from Westminster is extra powers for Holyrood to stimulate economic growth by increasing the population.”
The English government will say to Swinney look we’re trying to deport foreigners (Rwanda) not allow them in, so shut the f*ck up, meanwhile the constant tide of English folk crossing into Scotland unabated will continue to put tremendous pressure on our public services which are already at breaking point thanks to Sturgeon/Yousaf and now more than likely Swinney.
O/T: AUOB is reporting that 5000 people came to the march. That’s a lot better than the BiS one but not as many as I hoped – a sign perhaps that most Yessers can’t see any hope on the horizon due to the SNP’s failings.
However 5000 is enough to boost Liberation.scot signature numbers, spread the AyeApp around, and collect enough nomination signatures for Graeme McCormick’s SNP Leadership candidacy, I hope.
When dictatorship is a fact, revolution becomes a right.
Victor Hugo
The dictatorship of the wokeriat, despite the rearranging of furniture, is still a fact.
From the Westminster careerist and grifter Mhairi Black.
“FIRSTLY, I want to thank Humza Yousaf for his service to our country and for always putting the people of Scotland first.”
By the above Black at least hasn’t lost her sense of humour, could Black be a comedian in disguise?
“As the SNP now looks for a new leader, I am glad John Swinney has decided to throw his hat into the ring.
He has dedicated his entire life to serving the public and the cause for independence.”
Going by the above couple of sentences the answer is yes, infact the entire SNP is now just one big joke.
Alex Salmond was on our colonial news programme (STV news) talking about the AUOB march that he attended today and Swinney didn’t.
Asked if he thought Swinney could unite the indy movement (as he said he would) and deliver independence Salmond said he (Swinney) would need to light a fire in his belly for independence. Salmond is forever the eternal optimist, me I see Swinney as another Sturgeon continuity FM who’ll guard the party’s dirty secrets, and dangle the indy carrots to garner votes, and most of all secure the status quo.
As for Black fawning over Yousaf and now Swinney, she’s an arse licker at best, we once had high hopes for her but they days are now truly gone.
Swinney was part of the inner circle. By God he knows all the dirty secrets. He stood by and let Salmond be trashed by that woman. He can rot in hell as far as I am concerned. He is a fraud and a chameleon. But worst of all. Doesn’t have a loyal bone in his body.
As for the current SNP members. They are mentally unwell. They are all over social media defending Sturgeons legacy. It’s a pitiful sight.
– really disturbing video there, Dan, I hope you didn’t find it on the dark web.
Robin McAlpine is on the Alex Salmond show, worth a look.
BTW – Robin McAlpine has a really nice study, classy, bright, stylish furniture, a wall of books; the place of a thinking man, of means. Maybe he puts the old pizza boxes and porn stash -behind- the camera, a handy tip. Didn’t some artist create an “installation” out of her un-made bed?
I hope youzall have applied for the post of assistant to La Sturgeon, the job ad been going round the media; top tip, identify (if male) as a “trans-bian” at interview; if asked about something on your CV say “I don’t recall” and “not in my recollection, as far as I know”. To bag the job say “I am a stickler for details and always keep the receipts”, also
“who is this Stuart Campbell anyway?”
would go a long way.
Interests should include golf (LPGA), kd lang and virginia woolf.
The SNP faces a perfect storm unlike anything any political party has faced in the UK before. Even if you leave out the investigations and the Salmond court case, the trajectory they are on is cataclysmic.
The dilemma they suffer through association with the Greens sums it up. If they try and disassociate, they run the risk of being forced into a Holyrood election sooner rather than later. If they don’t distance themselves from the Greens, they’ll be more severely punished in the UK General election and the Scottish election when it happens.
There’s no way out of this that is good. Swinney’s honeymoon period will be short lived — he will be in crisis within weeks – and in the background we can guess that their financial position is truly dire, with a top heavy party structure that they can’t afford and collapsing membership.
And why should we leave out the investigations and the Salmond court case? They own all that, just as they own the failures in every department of government, the stupid policies, the ferries debacle, and everything else.
Crap policies and a history of failure is nothing new in politics. Normally a party goes away for a few years, lets some other party fuck everything up for a while, then comes back pretending the sun is shining out of its ass again…
But these investigations and the Salmond court case introduce uncertainties that are likely to make the SNP fall from grace uniquely devastating. You might say there’s a high level of entropy in play but as a rule of thumb, the more entropy there is in a given system, the harder it is to predict the amount of chaos that will ensue.
Nobody is ready for the storm that’s coming, not even the hardened cynics in here.
The Norstat poll in the Sunday Times divines a roadmap to annihilation for the SNP.
First stop, the reduction to 15 MPs in the impending Westminster GE. This would reduce the allocation of British state, Short money from £1.3m pa to c. £520k pa.
Second stop (destination?), Labour becoming the largest party in Holyrood 2026. The Norstat numbers would have the Unionist block holding 81 seats against a (notionally) Nationalist block of 48 seats.
Even this assumes the SNP would be in a position to effectively contest the election in 2026. Without the Short money the SNP will be bankrupt.
How would SNP “Sevco” fair?
Just listened to Swinney on BBC Shortbread.
He’s definitely not going to get us Independence. He’s Corporal Jones, telling us not to panic and carry-on. However, unlike the bold butcher, he is not going to gerrit up them, because they don’t like it.
Swinney is in there to hold the fort, keep the snouts in the trough for as long as possible. I reckon the thought of Independence and having to make all the hard decisions, scares Swinney and the troughers shitless.
He wants another referendum, which he well knows, after 2014 Westminster will never again allow.
How Sturgeon and the Sturgeonistas brought down Yousaf, and any deal with Alba.
“Nicola Sturgeon was in talks with senior SNP ministers as Humza Yousaf was forced out of his job by those who feared Alex Salmond could seize back control of the SNP.
Even before the First Minister had taken the decision to resign, power brokers within the party were lining John Swinney up to take over.
plans were hatched three days before the FM quit to replace him with Swinney
– Ex FM Nicola Sturgeon called the Greens in a bid to convince them to drop their support for a no confidence motion and was talking to other senior SNP figures during the crisis.
– SNP ministers cheered and thumped the table when the Greens were sacked from government.
-Westminster leader Stephen Flynn lobbied for the Greens to be jettisoned and is keen to be SNP leader if lose his seat in the House of Commons.
A senior government source said: “The question you need to ask is who is in control of the SNP if its not the leader of the party and the answer is Nicola Sturgeon, John Swinney, Angus Robertson, Ian Blackford, Liz Lloyd and a small but influential group bonded by their absolute antipathy towards Alex Salmond and determination to block him gaining any influence.
And senior sources have confirmed Yousaf’s fate was sealed by Sturgeon loyalists who were thrown into a blind panic after it emerged he was arranging to meet with Alba’s Ash Regan.
“Swinney has been talking about unity but the truth is that for personal reasons these people will never find common ground with the Salmond wing of the party which wants to drop gender based identity politics and the Green Party, and return to sharp focus on the economy, public services and independence.”
“Yousaf had to go and Kate Forbes also had to be stopped because she would never have been able to work with the Greens and so would also have been likely to team up with Regan, of whom she is a friend.
“Swinney was seen as the only candidate to keep her out and take over the reigns for a couple of years, take the general election hit, and then let a proper leadership race take place further down the line.”
With freeports in mind.
“A billionaire tax exile accused of failing to maintain one of Scotland’s main ferry terminals banked a £22 million dividend from his ports empire last year.
CalMac interim CEO Duncan Mackison has warned a lack of investment by Peel Ports at Ardrossan had left it in a dilapidated condition meaning many sailings to Arran have had to depart from Troon.
Peel Ports is controlled by John Whittaker, 82, an Isle-of-Man based businessman who took control of 450 square miles of docks, shipyards and waterways in the West of Scotland in the early 1990s.
The Isle of Man-based tycoon has been accused of blocking the development of key industrial assets like the huge Inchgreen dry dock, in Greenock, which was built with public money in the 1960s but has been largely mothballed for decades.
The Peel Group, 68 per cent of which is owned by the Whittaker family, owns 37.6 per cent of Peel Ports, which entitles them to around £22million.
Campaigners and politicians have reacted with fury to our revelations and demanded key Scottish ports and shipyards and returned to public ownership.”
Republicofscotland
says:
5 May, 2024 at 10:53 am
“Nicola Sturgeon was in talks with senior SNP ministers as Humza Yousaf was forced out of his job by those who feared Alex Salmond could seize back control of the SNP.
That one issue, the potency of Alex Salmond, or rather the Establishment’s absolute fear of it, is THE source of everything that’s gone ahem ‘wrong’ with the SNP.
I also have a sneaking suspicion that ALBA’s share of the popular vote is unnaturally low. It just doesn’t “feel” right.
While Scotland remains poised at this constitutional crossroads, contemplating Independence, it just feels very gullible of us to be trusting the Establishment to administer the whole democratic process, from franchise to the count.
For true progress, we desperately need the guile of Salmond, but in my opinion, he is wasted while acting inside the game controlled by Westminster’s rule book. That game is rigged, cover to cover, and Salmond is blunted.
ALBA has been a disappointment to me, not for it’s polling results, but way back when Alex launched ALBA, (and yes, I know it was very rough around the edges), one of his earliest references was to Scotland’s sovereign constitution and in particular, Scotland’s Community of the Realm. Do you remember?
I swear, my spine tingled listening to Salmond talking about democracy and the sovereignty of the Realm… It was “THE” missing component of the 2014 YES Campaign, and yet, to me it is, and always has been, the very essence of what sovereign Independence is all about.
Then nothing.
I don’t understand why we are playing to lose. We are the only ones playing by the rules, except not International / Constitutional Rules, but the grubby rules of the UK Establishment which has NEVER played straight with anyone.
Get this Treaty of Union dead, by any means possible. It cannot then be resurrected.
We need only win once, and it is done.
The Scottish Parliament is not a Scots parliament – it is a den of iniquity pretending to be the tail that wags the dog. Holyrood is a product of the English parliamentarian system and, as such, it is a function of Westminster. Devolution is the opposite of evolution: something constantly devolving (degenerating) into a worse state than before.
The UK system of governance is a denial of democracy, the Treaty of Union itself a denial of Scotland’s democratic will and right to self-determination. An analogy can be made with cinema: voting only changes the film being shown on the screen, which gives the appearance (illusion) of change to the audience, but the mechanism behind the projection, and the power source that causes the projection, remain unchanged. And, of course, everyone’s attention is focused on the screen. Another analogy would be Plato’s cave: only by stepping out into the light and taking charge of our own affairs will we see things as they actually are, not as they are being manipulated to appear.
The political parties utilise a classic bait-and-switch scenario: the bait is what they promise in their manifesto; the switch is what they actually deliver when they are voted into office. Liberation will not come from within the current political process – only from without. They want to keep us thinking inside the box.
“Nobody has sufficiently explained why it is so important that Swinney wins”
Absolutely, I totally agree. There is no appetite from the establishment to explain why, or, more importantly, to identify who the members of the cabal are.
One of the recent tweets from the Rev has a snippet of “Debate Night” where the presenter asks Neil Gray
Presenter – “Let’s try to understand that with “Neil Gray here. Humza Yousaf said “I am not willing to trade my values and principles for a deal with whomever” on the basis of their ask of competence in government, progress on independence and acceptance of the Cass Report. What was so difficult about that in terms of principles and values?”
Neil Gray – “I think that everybody knows there was more to it than that and around what we saw over the weekend demonstrated what this was all about for the ALBA party and we have also seen a demonstration…(at this point he was interrupted by the presenter)”
Presenter – “what do you mean by that?”
Neil Gray – “it is about the rehabilitation of Alex Salmond”
Presenter – “so it is about one man.”
And there we have it. The Sturgeonist cabal (and whoever/whatever is controlling it) soiled their pants at the prospect of Alex Salmond having some sort of influence in the direction of travel of the SNP.
We all know what Mr Salmond pursues: Scotland’s independence.
This leaves one thinking that the only credible explanation for such move was that the cabal were desperate to stall progression of Independence, and they had somewhat identified Mr Salmond as the prime target to stop it.
The immediate two questions the oleaginous Gray should have been asked are:
Why does Mr Salmond need rehabilitation when he was acquitted of all charges?
Why is the rehabilitation of those who facilitated the false accusations against him and potential peversion of justice not being stopped in the same measure?
In my view, there is only one possible conclusion from this, and that is that since Sturgeon took control of the party, the SNP cabal has been following one mission and one mission only: to stop Mr Salmond having any form of control over the SNP MP majority and the pro-indy majority in HOlyrood, because that would be the fastest way to stop independence.
The BE, USA and Israel are among those with the highest interest in derailing Scotland’s independence, therefore there is no doubt in my mind the arseholes in the cabal have been actively helping those entities to stop independence.
“Technically we are talking about a conspiracy theory here”
We may be called “conspiracy theorists”, Hatuey, but we know we are not. The only thing we are doing is watching the evidence that is in front of our eyes and extracting the most logical conclusion from it. That is no conspiracy. That is common sense.
There are two ways of looking through the kaleidoscope. That the party of government is acting by default on the best interests of Scotland is just an assumption. But choosing as starting point that the party of government is by default working against the interests of Scotland is as valid an assumption.
So, if you take this latter assumption, which is the one I am taking since 19 Sep 2014, then the ones how look like conspiracy theorists are those who are constantly churning increasingly gravity-defying verbal acrobatics, like Mr Gray did in that programme, to justify, within the context the SNP is still a party of independence, the wrongful actions of the SNP leadership, since Sturgeon took over.
It is not us who has to explain ourselves, but rather those who insist in demanding from us blind faith and that we continue to keep our eyes and ears closed and ignore the evidence.
“I believe the SNP under Sturgeon was turned, around 2017 (when PM May made an impromptu and highly secretive visit to meet Sturgeon in Glasgow)”
I agree with you on this as well. I am of the opinion that the second visit from Theresa May to Scotland in 2017 was to cut a deal.
May visited Scotland in July 2016 “Theresa May visits Scotland to press case for ‘special union'” (the Guardian, 15 July 2016). This was in my opinion to open negotiations.
13 March 2017, Sturgeon announced intention to seek a S30 and the SNP launched the crowfunder for Indyref.
In my opinion this was political posturing from Sturgeon to force the hand of the BE.
27 March 2017 Theresa May visited Scotland again:
“Theresa May and Nicola Sturgeon meet ahead of Article 50” (BBV News, 27 March 2017).
This is the point where, in my opinion, a deal was agreed.
18 April 2017 May calls a general election:
“Theresa May calls for UK general election on 8 June”
18 April 2017
In my opinion, during that meeting, calling an early GE was discussed and one of the main objectives of this was to remove Mr Salmond from Westminster and to thin down the SNP representation in WEstminster.
The fact that STurgeon continued to deny that a vote for the SNP was a vote for independence, makes me think the thinning down of the SNP in WEstminster was part of the deal.
More things hint towards this:
May 2017 – “Leader Patrick Harvie hints that supporters should postpone push for independence and focus on stopping Tory landslide – The Scottish Green leader has urged supporters to consider a tactical vote for Labour or the Liberal Democrats if their candidates have a better chance of stopping the Tories” The Guardian, 19 May 2017
Focusing on the tories was just distraction.
And
May 2017 – “Ruth Davidson won’t like to admit borrowing from the SNP playbook, but there has been something almost Salmond-esque in her boasting that her party will take seats from the nationalists on June 8. Ms Davidson had already predicted a Portillo moment in Moray, the home of SNP deputy leader Angus Robertson, but now seems to think that Gordon is within her grasp” The Scotsman, 9 May 2017.
It was obvious both Mr Salmond and Robertson had already been ticketed for eviction. This is bizarre. None of them were leaders of the party, Sturgeon was. It does not make sense to target Mr Salmond and not Sturgeon for tactical voting unless sturgeon was already on their side and Salmond being the biggest threat to the BE in terms of capability to mobilise the absolute majority of MPs towards independence. That Mr Salmond’s seat and not Sturgeon’s was targeted for tactical voting to me hints towards his eviction from Westminster being very much a calculated and planned for move.
13 June 2017 – The SNP drops the fundraiser- this hints to the fundraiser having fulfilled its purpose, which was not indyref at such, but creating the illusion of it for political posturing.
13 July 2017 – “Alex Salmond reveals he will stand again in future election” The National, 13 july 2017
I think this was the turning point that set Mr Salmond’s faith. In my opinion this was the point when the emergency smearing plan against him was deployed. The targetting of Mr Salmond’s seat with tactical voting was clean. Left no trace. This contrasts with the incredibly dirty way the complaints procedure was deployed leaving footprints and waste everywhere. That points, in my opinion, to a rushed fire-fighting operation rather than a carefully planned one.
31 October 2017 – “Ministers order a review of the Scottish government’s “policies and processes for addressing inappropriate conduct”
This was the excuse used to target Mr Salmond. But one that had more holes than a sieve and that left the culprits fighting to keep the lid down ever since.
To me, that all these events above are linked is so obvious that I see as conspiracy theorists those who attempt to deny it.
I am sure that, like me, you had a look at Sturgeon’s speeches before and after that second visit from May and noticed a change in tone towards brexit and towards independence. It got much softer.
In my personal opinion, taking Mr Salmond out of Westminster was always part of the plan. Announcing his intention to stand for a Holyrood seat in 2017 mixed with his increasing popularity through his programme in RT is what sentenced his faith. The fact that the SNP, civil servants and the crown office were involved on this directly or indirectly, suggests not only collusion but an active role from the BE.
It is my opinion that whatever deal Sturgeon agreed to in exchange for stopping independence, has not been delivered yet. I always thought this would be some form of FFA. This would explain why the entire SNP has been so, so apathetic about progressing independence and felt so relaxed as if their work had been already done. I am also of the opinion that, whatever is to be delivered in exchange for sacrificing the SNP, has been working its way in the background and will be delivered when labour is in power.
I am convinced Sturgeon offered Scotland as the sacrificial lamb to the BE at some point in 2014, so the UK elites could have their brexit, but completed the stabbing of Scotland in the back in 2017.
I am also of the opinion that the 2016 election mandate with indyref should there be a change in circumstances was designed as a a political threat against the BE rather than as a commitment towards Scotland. The wording was in line with the Vienna Convention.
I am of the opinion that the seeking of the S30 order in March 2017 or the fundraiser for indyref where not serious and just just political posturing designed to fool voters.
I am also of the opinion the GE2017 was agreed with STurgeon and had as one of its agreed objectives to eject Mr Salmond from his seat.
It is obvious to me Sturgeon never pursued independence. There are records already in 2015, the day after the GE, hinting at Sturgeon and Johnson considering negotiating a deal:
“At an event hosted by the think-tank Reform Scotland, Ms Sturgeon said she had not had many dealings with Mr Johnson, who is widely expected to be the next Prime Minister.
But she recalled walking beside him the day after the 2015 general election, at the VE Day commemorations in London.
She said: “Boris and I walked along together and I think he said something to me like – I’m not directly quoting here for the journalists in the room – but it was something that was along the lines of, ‘So Nicola, full fiscal autonomy – does that kind of buy you guys off?’”
The context around the remarks is not clear, but Ms Sturgeon joked it would be the “starting point” of her relationship with Mr Johnson if he secures the top job. – Johnson asked Sturgeon showing Sturgeon and Johnson already ”
the Herald, 18 June 2019
FFA, rebranded as “Full fiscal responsibility” was included in the 2015 manifesto of the SNP.
However, I am of the opinion Sturgeon was dirty well before that. I cannot forget her words: “A vote for the SNP is not a vote for independence nor a vote for a referendum”. With those words, she effectively rendered the SNP worthless.
I am also one of those “conspiracy theorists” who does not believe the official 2014 ref result. I am convinced yes won, by a narrow margin, but won. It is the only way things like 2015 landslide for the SNP, Sturgeon’s infamous “a vote for the SNP is not a vote for independence nor even a vote for a referendum”, the desperate attempts by Brown and Cameron to remove from our minds the possibility of another referendum, the conspiracy against Mr Salmond and the enormous efforts the sNP continues to make today against his rehabilitation and against progression towards independence, and the de-democratisation of the SNP and ring-fencing of its membership from having any say in the direction of travel of their party, make any sense.
Independence has been lost for a generation at least. I’ve said this here before & each day makes it clearer that there’s no ideas, plans or intent from any of the people who could push it along. Even the movement now is a busted flush with people dreaming of unicorns that ‘just one more push’ will bring it while Tweeting #independeceiscoming endless online.
Seeing the AUOB march going up Woodlands Road yesterday just depressed me. At one point these marches were a wonderful display of civic Scotland in action & they might not have converted anyone to the cause, but they certainly helped cement the movement in unity. Yesterday was a sad display led by as many Palestinian flags as Scottish ones so AUOB just becomes another cause hijacked and the message isn’t just diluted, but it helps alienate people, including independence supporters. This is, sadly, where we are.
I have no idea why the likes of Neil Grey reject Regan’s pretty mild requests as a cover for Salmond. I suspect he does really fear Salmond coming back to the SNP which means he’d probably be out a job, but I think he’s been so conditioned to see him as a bogeyman that he’d rather just toe the party line than actually do anything like work with other parties to make things better in Scotland.
As for Lorna Slater she’s clearly enjoying the power she and the Greens are wielding & I suspect the next Holyrood elections will see her get back in on the list though I also think the large majority of the public are done giving The Greens a chance as like the SNP who are no longer a party for independence, The Greens are no longer a party for the environment.
I really wish there is a public forum that we can expressly feel our feelings and thoughts about the fuckin immaturity shown by politicians especially the ones from the SNP.
They seem to be blissfully aware (Who am I kidding) that the vast majority of The ALBA Party members are those that left the SNP.
Thank fuck my Grandfather is dead and is spared the betrayal that is the SNP, he was one of the early members of the SNP when they were seen as the lunatic fringe of UK politics in those early days.
FUCK the NuSNP for the betrayal of those life long members whom truly believed in the SNP and stuck by them till the 19th September 2014 when Alex, a true champion for Scottish independence by securing us the opportunity to vote.
I no longer hold any ill will to that 55%, they didn’t kill the dream of independence the fuckin SNP with Nicola Sturgeon and her acolytes did and THEY cunts will never get to see and head the true anger, from us that have been so badly fooled by the false hope.
I hope that the certain contributor sees this and reads it and starts to wake up from the bullshit she is regularly spoon-fed and stop telling us that the SNP are far from the fuckin vehicle that will lead Scotland away from Westminster clutches.
I watched that debacle with horror last Wednesday night. Neil Gray, the grey man, could not have spelled it out any more clearly than he did. Salmond, probably the only politician capable to taking us to independence, even if just stays in the background, is to be bounded at each and every opportunity. This is scandalous and disgraceful behaviour. I left the SNP over the foot-dragging on independence and over female rights, but I would have swallowed my rage and pride had Humza been allowed – and I choose those words carefully – to make a deal with ALBA’s Ash Regan, probably the only politician who comes anywhere near Mr Salmond’s political acumen. That would have signalled to the rest of the indy movement that unity was foremost and would have allowed all those thousands who have left the SNP to follow them again, but only in unity circumstances.
That was deliberately spurned and spat out by the SNP grey men and the rainbow wing of Toddlers Inc. God, I loathe them with such a passion. It is a toss-up on which I hate most: their absolute lack of political nous and total lack of grey cells or their utter stupidity and lack of self-awareness in every social sphere. Let’s just get them out ASAP. No more holding out the hand of peace and unity. F them. Cut them down in the GE and wipe them out in the SE. Take no prisoners. No quarter given or asked for after this. Mr Salmond, if you continue on this path of reconciliation, of another indyref, you, too, will lose people. Yes, we need the country behind us, and I think we have it behind us. You are a man who takes risks – calculated ones, admittedly – so do that now for Scotland. Ash Regan, like you, is head and shoulders above the common herd in politics.
John C: no, it is not gone for a generation or ten years, or whatever. As the SNP’s star wanes so does the independence movement’s wax. Whatever happens now will not be that which the SNP and Unionists think it will be. We are now entering unknown territory, just as our cousins in Ireland did. It will be up to us to use our wits to avoid a tumble into chaos and physical confrontation, and the likes of SALVO/Liberation and others are working hard behind the scenes to ensure that we do not have to go down this path. They have the evidence that we need to prove that the Union is a one-sided farce that is illegal in international law. Several independent candidates are standing in the GE. Give them your support and we might get a big enough pro independence contingent into Westminster to take us out of the Union within weeks, through the international community.
The outstanding European leader of the second half of the 20th century was probably General Charles de Gaulle of France.
He led the free French to their part in the Allies victory in WWII, whereupon he restored democracy to his country. But, lesser politicians got involved and he retired to write his war memoirs, before coming out of retirement to sort-out French politics, at a time when, in a Good Show script, Peter Sellers (as Hercules Gryptpype-Thynne) was: “negotiating with one of the French governments”.
Alex Salmond is our de Gaulle. He should, given the downright hatred of him at the top of the SNP, perhaps leave the day-to-day business of Alba to the likes of Ash Regan, Neale Hanvey and Kenny MacAskill, instead focussing his energies on winning his court cases which will finally silence the character assassination and finish-off the Tractors inside the SNP.
It might, as his age, be too late for the second part of the de Gaulle story to play out, but, with the SNP discredited and probably bankrupt, we could then get on with the business of ending this Union and restoring Freedom.
Mind you, for this to work, Alex would still have to find a way of squaring the circle of the fact, we political parties are a necessary part of democracy, but, they can be infiltrated and stymied, and nobody does it better than the English, against the fact, English political parties will never allow a Scottish one a referendum and freedom has to be achieved by extra-parliamentary means, short of armed conflict, of course.
Rehabilitation from what? The man was found innocent, the only crime here being committed is one of denial that Scotland has any right to be Independent from this Union.
I personally couldn’t count how many times Alex has stood down to allow Independence progress. The reality is the SNP is running out of excuses to give the public the newest one being Alex is the sole reason why after ten years we’re still in this union.
The Alba Party is on a winner with attacking the SNP on no action on Indyref2 and woman’s rights and the closure of Scotland only refinery. I really do hope when the Westminster election comes this is how the Alba and Independents will fight the SNP on these three issues forget about the Unionist parties the SNP is public enemy number 1, 2 and three.
I am extremely pleased that Graeme McCormick is entering the race and I hope he wins and if he does I honestly believe we will see change because at the moment the bar is set so low you couldn’t lift it of the ground.
“When host Stephen Jardine asks him what exactly was so unreasonable about them, he can’t help himself, and blurts out that it was really all about preventing Alex Salmond from regaining any sort of influence on Scottish politics and insisting that his “rehabilitation” could not be permitted”
At that point either Stephen Jardine or some member of the audience should have asked what “rehabilitation” Neil Gray was referring to, was it about the legal charges that Alex Salmond was found innocent of, was it about a mostly female juries aquittal of Alex Salmond on all charges, or was it that certain senior members of the snp refuse to acknowledge the juries verdict of innocence and still continue to attempt to besmirch the verdict, the jurors and the judicial system by making accusatory comments in newspapers, if so surely it is these persons who have to be rehabilitated
I have railed against Salmond’s begging, grovelling appeals for unity with these deviants and perverts, he should be publicly and vociferously EXPOSING the danger and threats to our CHILDREN and womenfolk that these reviled creatures present, he should have been echoing and supporting Stuart Campbell’s,Glinner’s,JK Rowling’s and others exposures of these decadent and vile policies, instead ALBA has issued lukewarm edicts that some items need to be discussed
Lets try this again.
Even if he does win the contest he won’t be FM just leader of the SNP, still surely that would better than the current lot.
“Graeme McCormick – a retired solicitor who has served as Convener of SNP’s Dumbarton branch – was at the All Under One Banner march in Glasgow on Saturday seeking to gather the required support to stand for leader.
It is understood McCormick believes he is very likely to receive the 100 nominations from at least 20 SNP branches before the Monday deadline.”
McCormick previously highlighted in an exclusive interview with The National that he felt the route to independence lay in international treaties – a motion for which was rejected at last year’s conference, where he also unsuccessfully ran for SNP president.
The activist still appears to believe this route is the way forward for independence.
In a letter to The National, McCormick said he wishes to stand because “I know of no potential candidate who is prepared to call an early Holyrood election”.
“Central to the campaign is that a majority vote will result in the SNP MPs being instructed to dissolve the union, establish the sovereign government of Scotland, advise the UN that the union is ended and that Scotland will adhere to the terms of the Vienna Convention on the dissolution of a former state,” he wrote.
“Under international law, this is the “how” of delivering our nation statehood.”
Lorna Slater: aka Big Bird. A little research reveals the following: According to Wikipedia she was an engineering student @ University of British Columbia fron 1993 to 2000. Inclusive that is 8 years. What is the story? Her company directorship states her nationality as Canadian. What is she doing here and why support constitutional change in basically a foreign country? The Wikipedia entry also states that a month before graduating she bought a one way ticket to Scotland. Did she graduate or is he just another thick dropout like Harvie and Greer who are only qualified to flip burgers. The media up here are utterly useless; a lot of questions go unanswered. I would urge the good Rev to do a little research because none of the useless journalists up here can be bothered. Anecdotally Slater from colleagues that have met her say she is thick as mince. Why do I careless ? I am sick of Scotland being hijacked by crooks,liars and charlatans and they need to be investigated forensically.
Republicofscotland @ 6:29 pm
“Central to the campaign is that a majority vote will result in the SNP MPs being instructed to dissolve the union, establish the sovereign government of Scotland, advise the UN that the union is ended and that Scotland will adhere to the terms of the Vienna Convention on the dissolution of a former state,”
This was and remains the right and proper way to end the UK Union treaty-based alliance, in much the same way it began (aside from the bribes). It is only recently since nationalist majorities have been elected that it seems to be regarded as ‘radical’ by the SNP and British establishment elites.
In truth all innovative lawful solutions to end ‘the scourge of colonialism’ should be sought and supported by those who seek Scottish independence. Lets hope there are enough bona fide nationalists left among the SNP membership to support Graeme McCormick’s bid.
Fck em.
Salmond needs to get the gloves off.
The SNP died when he stepped down. Taken over by imbeciles who’d struggle to count to ten & backstabbing greedy cunts who’d sell their own granny for a place at the trough. They’ve been a complete failure in government. They had ONE job & they couldn’t even manage that despite a sea of support.
The SNP he left is not the same party & he needs to come to terms with that & STOP trying to save them seats or embarrassment. The electorate, the sane ones at least, wouldn’t vote SNP under ANY circumstances now. Independence would only be a stick to win seats & then they’d drag their heels again & fck off looking at rainbows.
Salmond needs to stop trying now. The SNP is dead. Only voters they have are authoritarian fckwits that no sane person wants associated with. This was made abundantly clear when Ash didn’t win the leadership contest despite the only one offering indy & a plebiscite. So even the membership has been captured. He needs to concentrate on his own party & liberation. I’m sure he will. He’s a gambling man who isn’t a fearty. Get election ready & bury them all Alex & look out & eject the spoilers early doors.
It’s the lowest of the low to continually imply Alex is guilty of something despite being cleared in a court of law. It’s straight out the Unionists playbook so we all know where that originates from. It’s the tactics they use. I’m surprised they didn’t add eating beheaded babies to the list.
I cancelled my membership over those alpabetties. What a pile of mince that was. A travesty to REAL victims of assault & the cover up that followed. I was sucked back in momentarily with Ash for leadership but that ended too. They can’t be saved. They’re too far down. Let them fck off & be an LGBTQWERTYS2+++++ party & gie the rest of us peace.
There isn’t anyone I’d say was worth even saving. They chose their side a long time ago despite repeated acts of self harm. Good, thats made a start on sorting the wheat from the chaff. Alex will build again but has to be open to ALL routes. In other (Int news) colonisation is over. It’s our chance to join that same queue & take back control of our own resources as others are now doing by asking them to leave now. They’ve outstayed their welcome. All they bring is poverty.
Graeme McCormick is NOT standing for leader. He has spoken to John Swinney and now SUPPORTS JS.
Mad. How on earth can he trust JS?
What another disappointment.
Sturgeon “yanked the handbrake, hard” at -exactly- the moment she should have been flooring the accelerator. And from that moment she did everything possible to avoid truly “going for it”, including trying to bury her old mentor.
– her motivation doesn’t interest me. I know she did it, that is all. Plus she, and her crime partner are still in charge of the SNP, amazingly. If she gets banged up will she still control it via use of a snide mobile phone, secreted on her person?
Hatstand has raised an interesting point – a definite date, March 2017, for when she was “got at”/turned/shat it/warned off. It is interesting, for we need details. This is why we have the 30 year rule, we might find out what happened at that meeting long after it matters. A good timeline constrains the possibilities usefully.
The other meeting that always resonates with me is her talk to the CFR; I found this impressive at the time, I thought she was playing a canny game, for indy, but now I think she was just selling us all out, and pimping herself for a job later on. That talk was from 2015 – it is possible, and in hatuey’s theory, she was still for indy at that point. Of course we don’t know the private conversations around this meeting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbSJT4znjTU&t=25s
this is worth a close watch.
socrates macsporran
5 May, 2024 at 3:34 pm
“Alex Salmond is our de Gaulle. He should, given the downright hatred of him at the top of the SNP, perhaps leave the day-to-day business of Alba to the likes of Ash Regan, Neale Hanvey and Kenny MacAskill, instead focussing his energies on winning his court cases which will finally silence the character assassination and finish-off the Tractors inside the SNP.”
As the Rev. Stuart Campbell says:
“The only remotely positive outcome we can see from the last week’s events is that Alba might finally, belatedly realise that their strategy of co-operation with the SNP will never, ever work.
The SNP are not only Alba’s enemy in a direct political sense, they are also the enemy of the independence movement as a whole. They are a bloated, rotten corpse blocking its path.”
There is a very quick and easy way of clearing Alex Salmond once and for all and at the same time burning the rotten corpse blocking independence.
All that is needed is for MacAskill or Hanvey to stand up in the House of Commons and name all Salmond’s accusers.
It is time for massive grassroots pressure to be put on them to just do it.
Hatuey
Ignored says:
6 May, 2024 at 12:11 am
…… I’d be willing to bet that everybody here was more or less satisfied with her immediate response to Brexit and…
Not me. Sturgeon has always been a crushing disappointment, from the moment she became leader.
After 2014, the Unionists had been forced to concede that Scotland would receive more powers, but it was never specified what those powers would be. They had signed the cheque but neglected to enter the amount.
Sturgeon could have hit the ground running, and announced a snap Plebiscite designed to have the sovereign people of Scotland dictate which “reserved” powers they wanted back in Scotland, and due to the Claim of Right, Westminster would be in all kinds of trouble trying to prevent it. Don’t forget the 56/59 momentum of 2015…
Sturgeon being Sturgeon of course did absolutely nothing… except let the Unionists off the hook.
Ok, maybe I could concede that a snap Plebiscite coming immediately after a Referendum was always going to be a big ask, but it would have been worth it. I cannot see ANY portfolio being delegated to Westminster. Not given the mood of 2015.
Just imagine the ramifications Scotland taking control over Broadcasting… Or more likely, let’s not kid ourselves, the damage to the Union suffered by Westminster’s inevitable duplicity and squirming reluctance to concede actual control.
Sturgeon has never been a “Bonnie Fechter” in my opinion. But despite that insight, even I couldn’t read the hidden depth of her dark infidelities.
Not sure he invented it, but I think it was Anthony Beevor who described Hitler having the “sun ray affect” over Rommel; Rommel would meet with Hitler full of grave misgivings and anxiety about the state of the war, but time and again, Hitler had the uncanny capacity to placate and reassure these anxieties. It didn’t seem superficial either. Rommel was genuinely won over… in large part anyway.
I felt something similar about Sturgeon. She seemed able to inspire confidence in people, but how and why has always eluded me. Just like Hitler, she has always been the jumped-up little Corporal promoted far beyond their abilities. But those who saw through the illusion were never in a position to do anything about it.
The phenomenon extends to the cult-like deference and loyalty amongst her acolytes. How they were mesmerised escapes me, but I recognise the firm hold it took over the afflicted. It was a conundrum; so many spell bound by somebody who was never very spellbinding.
The very dullness of Sturgeon is one of the biggest “tells” that she isn’t the wily strategist at the heart of all this. She just doesn’t have the capacities. She is just a vessel for a more potent malevolence, most likely the UK Establishment.
Once people shake themselves loose from this bizarre fixation they’re under, they’re going to feel such fools.
FFS. That’s it then another two-years wasted with Swinney at the helm.
“An SNP activist who planned to challenge John Swinney for the party’s leadership has pulled out of the running.
Graeme McCormick said that he had enough nominations from party branches to trigger a contest but decided not to proceed with his nomination after having a “fruitful conversation” with Swinney. It means that Swinney is set to be crowned SNP leader on Monday afternoon as he is the only candidate.”
robertkknight @ 7:18 am
“The ‘Kompromat Queen’.”
Aye, surely all Scots now know the national party elite by (1) their dubious actions and laws, and (2) their inaction on the core cause of independence. Daes fowk really hiv tae ken ony mair?
Much as we see occurring in practice, postcolonial theory confirms that a dominant national party ‘moves ever closer to colonialism’, it ‘becomes an implement of coercion’, it ‘takes the people up a blind alley’, it ‘feathers its nest’, and it ‘ruptures the movement’ (Fanon), using the standard colonial procedures of ‘divide and rule’ and ‘manipulation’ (Freire).
In other words, as Gray’s curious behaviour demonstrates, the dominant national party elite now views its task as holding back the so-called independence ‘radicals’ and ‘undesirables’, and in doing so it functions as part of the colonialist group known as the ‘watchdogs of colonialism’, whose objective is protecting the interests of the colonizer.
There are no more questions needed to ask of the national party elite, because:
“we do not need to seek or know whether personally (they) are in good or bad faith, whether personally they have good or bad intentions. Whether personally they are or are not colonialists, because the essential thing is that their highly problematical subjective good faith is entirely irrelevant to the objective social implications of the evil work they perform as watchdogs of colonialism” (Cesaire).
In this regard Robin MacAlpine is right to say in his Alex Salmond interview that ‘the SNP are now the main barrier to independence’. Tho as several commentators here have stated, maist of us kent this in 2015!
Graeme McCormick has undoubtedly put in some serious effort over the years with an example being his traveling round Scotland visiting YES groups giving talks to showcase his AGR proposal. I’ve often wondered why Graeme has stayed in the NuSNP so long. He’s obviously an intelligent individual capable of interpreting and collating detailed information to put together his Annual Ground Rent proposal.
But year on year it gets no serious consideration at his chosen Party’s conference.
Is he oblivious to how his chosen Party has been captured and its constitution altered, and all past attempts by very committed Indy-minded members and activists to try to counter this malignant takeover have come to nothing because of the way his Party’s elite have stitched up all options to redress the power imbalance that the cliquey cabal now hold over the wider membership.
If quite so many can see how awful the NuSNP has become then why can’t he?
I’m at the point of thinking that anyone left in the NuSNP is now at it in some way. Graeme’s quick in and out leadership challenge has just helped identify any remaining dissenting voices faction in the Party that isn’t aligned with the gravy swilling swinefest of devolutionist (aka Unionist) Swinneyists…
The other thing that “troubles” me about the SNP is the extremely blinkered narrative you see in the media.
The trials and tribulations of the SNP are rarely, if ever, faithfully reported as the Independence community becomming increasingly disillusioned with the SNP through their tepid inaction over Independence.
It’s not about the Greens. It’s Independence.
It’s not about Perverts Self ID. It’s Independence.
It’s not about Hate Crime. It’s Independence.
WE KNOW WHAT WE WANT. – And it isn’t a fresh load of bullshit.
Similarly, but equally detached from reality, the Unionist’s witter on upon the SNP’s “obsession” with Independence, when frankly, the subject hasn’t been raised in months. It’s all revealed as just a scripted process just manufacturing a headline. They don’t care if it’s true, and neither does the media.
It’s all smoke and mirrors. The narrative being served up to the Scottish public is contrived and misleading. When was the last time you saw SALVO or the Claim of Right argument given any significant airtime?
Even in 2014, the narrative was always dictated by their agenda, never ours, and never the actual merits of reality and Scotland’s objective disadvantage and exploitation.
We are living in our own Scottish version of The Truman Show. Our lives are a lie, and the political narrative we see on our viewscreens is all manufactured tripe.
Or do you really think that Swinney / Yousaf / Sturgeon are the very best of us, promoted to power because they’re so effective defending Scotland’s interests? Jesus Christ, what kind of fked up selection process has served up this happy band of delinquent fraudsters to “lead” us?
Jezuz H. – Swinney’s career peaked 20 years ago, and he was exposed as a dud back then. Suddenly he’s the steadying hand on the tiller? What a farce. All of it.
There has never been a greater disconnect in modern times between the populace and the programme being offered by the mainstream parties.
Even the much derided Blair promised and delivered some degree of reform (compulsory Union recognition, Devolution, minimum wage, … ). Starmer offers none of this. This sorry state is the culmination of many years of covert planning and manipulation. The Blairite, Forward faction in the Labour Party, the John Smith Centre in Scotland and many other Security Services connected organisations.
The outcome of last week’s, English Local Elections are more interesting than the BBC would have you believe. Starmer’s Labour Party did remarkably poorly, independent candidates flourished.
Craig Murray is confident regards his election as MP for Blackburn. As much as I have no vested interest in the manifesto of the Workers Party of Great Britain, they are not convened in the mould of the mainstream parties. They appear to be a confederation of strong, independent individuals in stark contrast to the young, middle-class careerist of Labour, etc..
Two former Ambassadors, respected campaigners, current and former MPs and sporting celebrities, WPGB come close to presenting a slate of independent candidates.
The spooks of Thames House will have their work cut out. They will have to target individuals where their most recent experience has been in infiltrating and controlling party HQs (Jackson’s Entry to name but one).
Distributed, semi-autonomous resistance is the way to go.
Support your local, independent candidate!
I spent the bulk of my working life as a sports writer. In football these days, received wisdom has it that you need one squad to get you into the top flight, but, the guys who got you there have to be almost totally replaced if you want to stay there.
It looks to be the same in politics – the people whose work and drive got the SNP into government have been replaced by time-servers, whose sole aim is an easy life, maybe building-up a nice wee empire which they can rule until retirement.
The men in the grey kilts are now definitely in-charge. They are fortifying their wee empires, we may as well let them fuck things up totally, and while old Boomers such as myself will never see it, it’s now, I fear, up to us to galvanise our grandchildren to take-up the battle, once the current bunch of chancers have been flung out and the Red and Blue Tory Unionist Alliance has further buggered-up Scotland.
OK, we will definitely leave them with a much-harder battle to win, but, I have faith they can do it.
The return of Swinney has left me deeply despondent. Corporal Frazer was right.
I never thought that I would see child protection take a back seat on something like this.
I never thought I would see a rainbow sporting police force in Scotland.
I never thought that a child’s education could be encroached upon in this manner.
I never thought that parents would keep silent on the subject or are they just unaware?
Come to think of it I never thought a beautiful rainbow could be purloined to promote grooming.
And notice the jargon of the school sector, government and the quango/charity hangers-on: all very keen to refer to children as “young people” because that makes them sound older and more mature: developmentally, educationally and, ah yes, sexually… which just happens to suit some people’s agendas very well.
Thank you, Rev. It is appalling that any school, primary or above, is using “guidance” that is provided by completely unqualified people. It is yet another form of child abuse. How can the state get away with it?
You are taking one step more than anyone else is doing and I am grateful.
When all the ordure hits the fan – which it will, eventually – some people will sit back, their mouths in a round ‘o’ and say: how did this happen? Because the government you voted for promoted this stuff. Let’s use that word, ‘promoted’ because how could they possibly not know about the allegations made against this lot? That is the thing with all these ‘groomers’: they always tell it like it is to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. The terminally dim light bulbs go down still screaming that it’s all lies. Poor Ash Regan is being torn to shreds by the dim light bulbs of the SNP who couldn’t tell a political offer from a tadpole.
If I discovered that a child of mine had been allowed by the school to change ‘gender’, I’d challenge the teachers, the council and the government that allowed it, then remove my child and home school, if necessary. Why, though, should everyone else budge up to let these people in? Why can’t they fit in around the majority? If they can’t just be ‘trans’ and leave everyone else, especially children, out of it. Many people are too spineless to object to anything, but others are complicit and others still are actively pushing this Queer Theory stuff on to children to hide the lie that it is all about being in the wrong body. Is it, aye? Well then, explain where your body has gone and whose body you are in by some mistake? Is the other person in your body? Do they know that? We’re waiting…
Well done Stu. As a former PT Guidance and PT Supportnin 2 secondary schools where my job was pupil support and protection and nurture.
These revelations could be seen as abusive at best and certainly in some instances grooming.
I would find it difficult to now do the job in some of the schools illustrated here.
In my opinion this is appalling abuse of children.
Notice I use the term legally as children.
Rev: just what does the SG do? I mean, everything is farmed out to lobbing groups. Do the civil servants, SPADS, researchers, etc. leave it all up to them? Are they all ‘trans’ affiliated, too? All of them? Does no one within that building ever think for him or her self? I believe someone in England is working on the total amount of public money given to these groups, and two councils I have heard about have all but bankrupted themselves while doling out money to these parasites in our midst – and not just a wee bit of money, but millions. While children go hungry, benefits are cut, transport is cut back, people wait for cancer treatment and hip replacements… Someone somewhere is going to reap the benefits of this stuff and it will be the corporates. Nothing else makes sense. They are using the ‘trans’ movement as an advance force, and they are backed, in turn, by the Queer Theorists of the universities and the Post Modernists of the Hard Left. It is a middle-class phenomenon. Only those with more money than sense could possibly afford to spend time on this ordure. Thank you for the tremendous work you do on this subject and many others.
Here, for example, is the original LGBTYS advice on how to tackle the thorny issue of young girls wearing damaging “binders” in an attempt to appear more masculine by forcibly crushing their breasts against their ribcages
If people aren’t aware as to how bad binders are, I know a family where their daughter (now trying to pass as male) has been using binders since 2013. She has spinal issues, constant pain & her mobility has been seriously reduced to the point (in conjunction with the testosterone she’s on and the blockers she took) where she’s in her early 20s and walks with a stick.
If you give a drug addict heroin they’ll feel good. Give an alcoholic a drink and they’ll feel good. Give a mentally disturbed young girl who’s been told online & by the Scottish government that binders will make her feel better then she’ll feel good, even though like the addict and alcoholic the damage being done to pander to their problems is damaging, even life-threatening.
The fact the Scottish Government is following the advice of an organisation of zealots more interested in validating their own beleifs than science or actual healthcare should be something that brings a government down, but as we don’t have a functional media in the UK and they especially don’t want to deal with the effects of Trans ideology. That however, is slowly changing. Cass has had a definate effect hence why Labour are now desperately backtracking as the adults in that party know it’s going to win them more votes than they’ll lose and also, the lawsuits are starting to pile up & every time Trans ideology loses.
the charity is only supposed to be concerned with young people over the age of 13
They’ve ran groups for people aged between 13 and 25. It doesn’t take a genius to work out how that’s a safeguarding risk, especially in light of the police investigation and the previous scandals that involved them.
If however they’ve expanded into primary schools as show here then lets be blunt here, young children are at serious risk of being groomed without their parents, or possibly even their teachers knowing. At no other time in the last 40 years would an organisation with a paedophile scandal under their belt and an ongoing police investigation be let near any school pupil, let alone primary kids.
Also, why on earth are schools wanting to let adults talk to kids about sexuality & ‘gender identity’ who are still learning to read, write and have a basic education? It is as said, grooming in plain sight.
The quangos get scores of well-paid jobs – LGBTYS employed 48 full-time staff last year, costing taxpayers over £1.1m
If Labour do form a government in Holyrood, I hope they remove funding from LGBTYS and other such groups. Taxpayers at any time shouldn’t be funding them, and especially shouldn’t be funding them in a recession when people can’t heat their homes or eat, assuming of course, they have a home.
Swinney in. Dad’s Army here we come. Don’t tell them your name Pike! Let’s do the time warp again. I give this a month tops.
Interesting to see that your list of contaminated schools contains none from the RC sector.
I have been opposed to segregated schools having attended one myself in that sector. (I sent my own children to non-denominational schools).
But it looks like the RCs are holding the line on the contamination of children’s minds by what was always called ‘filth’. A good term in my view. Primary children are far too young for explicit sexual information of any kind, and should NEVER be exposed to perversion.
I guess I am going to have to review my position on school segregation.
Yet another unfortunate consequence of the pervo NuSNP-Green coalition.
It’s absolutely astonishing that these people can just keep doing whatever they want, in plain sight, reaping public subsidies, without anyone in a position of authority holding them to account. It’s a huge scandal waiting to happen, except that I question whether these tangled knots of corruption will ever get unraveled.
I’m very relieved that the Edinburgh secondary school my own daughters attended had no truck with LGBTYS. We had the Stonewall posters and the gender neutral bathrooms, of course, but we got off lightly.
Agent x @ 8:50 pm
“Swinney should be the topic today.”
He is. Swinney’s colonial administration are the facilitators and funders of this highly damaging gender ideology and promoters of related bad legislation, which has absolutely nothing to do with his supposed core objective of independence.
First class work, Stuart, shinning a light on the depravity and corruption at the heart of government and what is essentially state-sponsored child abuse.
PacMan
Ignored says:
6 May, 2024 at 10:03 pm
The SNP has been in power for almost 17 years at Holyrood…
7 years were priceless, 10 years worthless.
I wonder if the SNP’s bitter animosity towards Alex Salmond stems from their own dismal inadequacies compounded by narcissistic hubris.
I really don’t know how any of these shameless parasitic c#!%ts can look the people of Scotland in the eye. I despise them all, as deeply as somebody abused despises their abuser.
The tragedy is, Alex Salmond, the clever and mighty architect of those progressive seven years and who awakened such glowing aspirations in our people, has been on hand and faithful to the cause throughout, steadfast in his objective, yet his appalling treatment by these loathsome jerk-offs has been nothing short of scandalous; a shameful and embarrassing indictment upon Scotland’s lamentable shambles masquerading as a “government”.
Impeach Holyrood. Bury it deep. End this deception and free Scotland from the blight of colonial subjugation.
Raise our people to be the stoic and steadfast Scots of old, firm in grim resolve, but equally progressive, creative and enlightened. Stop electing these intolerable frauds and charlatans as our champions and representatives. They bring shame upon us all.
Well, if we didn’t know before – we ken noo.
In all the video clips and sound bites from Swinney’s coronation yesterday, the one word he failed to utter – or we were allowed to hear him use was INDEPENDENCE.
We’ve been fooled again, he’s a devolutionist; fighting for Independence is the last thing on his mind, it would get in the way of his pension planning.
@Confused (on previous thread) –
Thanks for posting link to that Sturgeon/Council on Foreign Relations interview, hadn’t seen it before.
Not an easy watch, had to take it in small doses as her voice and gallusness induces nausea.
My take-away was that the hosts wanted assurance that independent Scotland wouldn’t be a nuisance and she was more than happy to provide the same, in spades.
Curious for your thoughts on it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbSJT4znjTU&t=25s
Graeme McCormick is the next one to lay down with the dogs and Iain Lawson is rightly not very happy.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/05/07/my-message-to-graeme-mccormick/
If you want independence you’re going to have to fight for it. Non-violent of course.
Start with the GE. No votes for the SNP. (Plenty for ALBA, ISP and independents)
No MPs – no short money (broke!)
No members – no subs
No SNP – HOPE
@Anton Decadent 11.54: I suppose it’s a small thing really in these dark and very dangerous times but I find the appropriation and subversion by these twisted people of something as naturally wondrous, fragile and beautiful as a rainbow to be deeply offensive. It must be my age or the poet in me, maybe.
Evil seems to be in the ascendancy in our world, most of it to be found in the “elites” and the completely compromised and corrupted political class, who arrogantly ignore the concerns of their constituents and slavishly obey their parties’ lobbyists and donors, some of the most sinister and authoritarian entities on Earth.
The party system is now more obviously than ever the enemy of democracy. Somehow truly independent “active citizens” (to use an 18th century term) need to stand for election and replace the amoral troughers in Holyrood and WM but success for individuals in our political system is very difficult to achieve.
Ironically, a Unity is Strength approach to make truly independent MPs more effective tends to lead us back to the party system and all its corruption.
Oh for a “None of The Above” option at every election so that politicians know that this rotten system confers no legitimacy to them in our eyes, but that’s never going to happen.
And how low would voter turn out have to go before they accepted they have no real mandate from the electorate?
Asking John Swinney to torpedo the proposed ban on conversion therapy is like asking Heaven’s Gate to deny the existence of the spacecraft in the tail of the Hale-Bopp comet or the Workers’ Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Though to denounce “Jackie” the Chinese satellite death-ray.
Fanatical adherence to puritanical gender ideology is Swinney’s means of exercising control over the Cult.
Sturgeon 3.0.
She pointed out that the kneejerk funnelling of every single young person with a wide range of complex and varied mental health issues down a gender-transition pathway did them an appalling disservice, but that the proposed ban would make any other treatment options an intolerable risk for therapists.
What a number of young people do when being referred to therapists is follow the guide that can be found on the likes of Tumblr or any number of Trans forums or from TRAs directly. What these do is they tell the young person to say the ‘right’ things in order to convince a therapist (who is also under pressure from government and activists in the NHS) to provide blockers, binders, and ultimately hormones and eventually that leads to surgery.
A more robust, holistic system as proposed by Cass sets up sanity checks so it would in theory make it incredibly difficult for kids to fool the system. I know Cass didn’t touch too deeply on the cause of Trans ideology but at some point I hope a journalist takes a dive into the online world and they’ll see how TRAs are grooming kids to become Trans/Non Binary. They need these kids to be validated themselves and sadly, for even more evil purposes.
The one fact I find fascinating is how slimming disorders amongst young girls has declined as a search term over the last decade while Trans related terms have increased. Again, there’s work to be done as to how Trans has become the new thing for kids, especially young girls to be part of if their mental issues aren’t dealt with.
Hopefully Holyrood changes its tune and certainly Labour have made a hard turn away from Trans ideology of late but while the SNP are beholden to the Greens I fear a load more kids will be fed into a meat grinder before any form of sanity prevails.
You are quite right: the Greens and some of the SNP rainbow wing will attempt to discredit Cass herself and her Report. I won’t be holding my breath for a change of heart and/or direction, although I might well be wrong.
It has struck me that the SNP – and the Greens and the other parties – have few weapons with which to fight Westminster and the Tories that do not involve the tools of independence, which they will eschew because they do not want independence or a confrontation with Westminster.
So, they will continue to distract and throw female people and young people, in general, to the wolves, although they might call a halt, as England has done, to puberty blockers as a sop to the electorate.
The rainbow zealots will not allow, willingly, a proper scrutiny of any area of the ‘trans’ ideology because that would leads to the examination of motives and that is the very last thing they want highlighted.
It would lead straight to the adult men (and some women) behind the Queer Theory/Post Modern motivations, then on to the corporates behind them That, in turn, would show just what ‘trans’ ideology is at its most basic, which is a sexually-driven, porn-allied belief system that corrupts the brain, but which is also vastly profitable. It is also extreme homophobia writ large.
Sometimes, you cannot save people, no matter how hard you try. They will go down with the ship because they will not stand up to the toxicity of the leaders who lead them to oblivion. Most of us on here are former SNP members, many of us, long-term, but we could no longer stomach the policies and lack of forward motion in the SNP. We abandoned ship some time ago because we knew it would be sunk under its own hubris.
It will be a sad day but also one of enormous relief when the SNP finally goes down and under; the great pity of it all is that so many people will go down with it who, but for a backbone and some self-awareness could have saved themselves. More will abandon ship after the GE, having finally seen the light.
We can take them on board, but not if they persist with the policies that are ‘killing’ our children psychologically and destroying them physically. Let them show they are just ordinary people doing what was asked of them and not ideological zealots.
David Hannah: it is eugenics, no different from the eugenics programme of the Nazis or the Americans before that. Girls, especially, with co morbid conditions, such as autism/ADHD, etc. are being sterilized, as are the (much fewer) young boys. They will end up being unable to breed, to put it bluntly. If 20% or more of the population cannot breed, that means far fewer humans in the West and far fewer humans with neurological disorders or who are homosexual, wasting this huge potential. It also means life-long medication. I doubt very much that the sycophants in Holyrood would even have considered these aspect of it all. Nah, to them it’s all about ‘helping’ children. They are either truly evil or truly stupid. Either way, they are unfit for office.
I am also sick to the back teeth of being told that women asked for this. They did not. They asked for common decency: that is, equality of opportunity across the board; but they did not ask for equity, which is equality of outcome. That is an impossibility unless you start to allow through useless people into positions for which they are unfit and penalizie intelligent, critical thinking people who do not fit the mould.
Anyone who has done any research whatsoever on the human condition will know that people who do not fit the mould, who might even appear a bit ‘glaikit’ in their intelligence, or who are ‘out there’ in their approach to things, are the very ones who, generally, move our society forward because they do think differently and that is what is required. Women very often think differently from men, and often with far greater insight (but sometimes with greater daftness, I have to admit) but they are rarely credited with that, which hinders our society. The equality of women is a necessity for stable society not a hindrance to it, and children who do not fit the mould are very often the very ones who come up with the answers as adults.
“The committee, in the SNP’s trademark style, sidelined most of the gender-critical voices present in the room. Ash Regan was not called until less than four minutes before the end of the allotted hour, and was cut off abruptly before she could ask her final question about detransitioners”
Flaunting this level of bias is not only absolutely disgusting and unacceptable, but completely undermines and de-legitimises that committee as being in any way or form representative of the people of Scotland. It makes it as much a farce as the Fabiani’s farce was.
These people are evidently forgetting that it is the people of Scotland who they are working for, not their toxic pet causes or the generous donors that keep their political parties afloat. Is there any way to submit complaints to such committee or potentially disqualify it because of its evident bias?
Not allowing Ms Regan to ask her question about de-transitioners can be seen as a disgusting attempt by that committee to deliberately silencing concerns about de-transitioners. That is completely unacceptable.
@ Sam
“good stuff”
What happened to that VoNC?
That VoNC is what sparked the jettison of the BHA. If there is no BHA, there is no place for Harvie to remain as minister of anything. If he is no minister of anything, then the VoNC may no longer apply.
Am I wrong?
In practice, it seems to me that by culling the BHA Yousaf saved Harvie’s corrupt arse, and this is why Harvie’s tantrum was soooo out of proportion that actually looked rather suspicious.
Was it just a distraction exercise? Or was the culling of the BHA and chucking Yousaf out an excuse for the putrid Sturgeon cabal to have a cabinet reshuffle so they could appoint another green to the cabinet? We will soon know when unelected clown in chief Swinney appoints the new clown “cabinet”
I do wonder if another VoNC can be raised against the unelected Swinney and his government if he refuses to implement the conclusions of the Cass Report.
Maybe a VoNC can be raised once a month until they call an election. At the end of the day, who elected this man and parachuted him as the FM of Scotland? None of the voters did.
“Moreover, as leader he will now lead an SNP in terminal decline”
I do not think this man will lead anything, to be honest. The cabal who parachuted him to the post by deliberately denying members the opportunity to democratically elect their leader will.
“A Panel Base survey just released indicates that the SNP will be down to 13 seats at the next General Election”
Only 13? That is a shame. I would have hoped they would lose many more seats than that. They certainly do not deserve even one seat for how they have disgracefully wasted our three majorities and how they have disregarded our democratic mandates.
“John Swinney is but the lipstick on the corpse”
You are being incredibly generous. I think of his undemocratic parachuting to the post by the cabal more as the off-putting cadaverine and putrescine which signal setting of active and irreversible putrefaction in the corpse.
There are NO cases where transition would be the most beneficial.
Prior to this all blowing up in the 2000s, the amount of what we used to call transexuals were tiny & to get to the point of surgery, one had to go through so many hoops in order to screen out the fetishists.
I knew one person who went through full transition in the 80s & he spent five years meeting with therapists, doctors, etc before eventually getting the go ahead. That process is now gone with people put on the route to surgery so quickly that as soon as kids hit 16 they’re going for life-changing surgery with minimal therapy to have decided whether that’s the right path.
‘Gender affirming care’ is now so seen as the norm that those who do question it & wonder why we can’t have a more secure system are hounded out of jobs & threatened with death and rape. This is why Cass is so important in that it’s shown Trans ‘science’ is built on nothing & that the more we get actual facts and figures the more horrific it becomes. Other countries have launched their own rviews or about to & it’s all lining up to show that for the last 15 years medicine has been controled by activists who’ve put ideology ahead of science and facts.
“I always wondered why the suspicious silence from most on here over the “democratic travesty” that foisted Yousaf on us”
There was no silence from me. At the time I very clearly expressed my opinion that the leadership contest had been rigged. There were around 8,000 very suspicious votes for Yousaf that did not have second preference. They were suspicious because they were out of place and it was precisely those votes what gave him the victory, because had the contest gone to second preferences, he would have lost. I am convinced to this day that a good proportion of those 8,000 votes, if not all, were planted.
It was also very suspicious that before the final figure of membership was given, Murrell mentioned that he expected a certain number of votes. These votes represented a particular percentage of the membership. But the figure he was giving for the membership at the time was much higher than the real figure. After the real figure was released, turns out that the final percentage of votes cast was pretty much banged on the initial percentage he had estimated for a much larger number of members.
It simply did not add up. It felt as if they had already decided before the contest how many votes there would be cast, so if less members than expected cast a vote, they would make up the difference by adding rigged votes. The secrecy around the membership figure was incredibly suspicious, as, of course, this magic percentage hinged on the “official” membership figure. The larger the “official” figure, the larger the marging of ghost votes they had to play with and the easier it would be to hid them as a small percentage.
But at least, the membership had an opportunity to cast a vote and there was still some pretence of the process being democratic.
That went all out of the window with the coronation of Swinney. Who elected the guy? Who decided he would become FM and when? Was that King Charles?
It has been just one year since the rigged SNP leadership contest and they have already abandoned any pretence that the SNP or the ruling of Scotland for that matter are in any way or form democratic.
What Rot 6:23 pm says: Ffs. TAKE THE BLOODY SMARTPHONES OFF THE KIDS!”
Yup!
In The Netherlands, for example, all smartphones have been banned in schools since January this year and this has immediately removed all the possible hassle for headteachers and staff from deluded parents in trying to enforce this sensible measure on just a school-by-school basis.
I wonder why this simple precaution hasn’t been taken here? I find it rather troubling. Most social media is mind-rot for adults and so its effects on adolescents is almost certainly even more damaging. If you wanted to dumb-down a whole generation and make them vulnerable to unwanted external influences (including from paedophiles) it is a tailor-made medium.
I know for a fact from my extended family that secondary teachers in particular are crying out for such a measure to be enacted to improve behaviour, teaching and learning in the classroom. The kids are addicted to smartphones and they have a dreadful effect on what happens in schools.
Pupils badly need some cold turkey from them and some reconnection with the real, non-digital world.
Why no ban here? It could be done at a stroke, if the SG had the best interests of our vulnerable youth at heart.
Oh, wait……
No spam or ads, just the latest posts and updates from Scotland's newest pro-independence blog.
.png)
