I almost never write about somebody else’s article, but this from Barrhead Boy sums up exactly how I feel today. 80% by readership of the pro-Independence new media has been disillusioned by the current SNP leadership to the point of turning against it. Peter Bell, Barrhead Boy, Robin McAlpine, James Kelly, Jeggit, Stuart Campbell, Iain Lawson, and me – I could go on with a dozen more – these were the writers to whom pro-Independence people turned in their hundreds of thousands to escape from the diet of unionist propaganda they were fed from the BBC and papers. These bloggers and independent journalists were, along with the All Under One Banner marches, the heartbeat of Independence. The SNP notably was not that – it had effectively banned discussion of Independence. Long term readers will recall I was even blocked by Murrell from holding a fringe meeting on Independence – when a delegate – at SNP conference, but told I could hold one on another subject.
The bloggers I name are all people who have dedicated their recent lives almost entirely to the cause of Scottish Independence. The 2014 Yes campaign was primarily a street movement, reinforced by bloggers and with real public meetings all over Scotland. I believe only Robin McAlpine spoke at more meetings during the Indyref campaign than I did, and I believe since 2014 nobody has given more speeches and talks on Independence than I. To alienate such dedicated people is astonishing.
How has it happened? Well, the fact that the SNP leadership has won the adoration of the Guardian while losing the support of pro-Independence new media says it all. That is sufficient explanation. There are differences between the pro-Independence bloggers I name, in the extent to which they were SNP members or not, but they have one thing in common. Everybody on that list – along with the leadership of AUOB – has come to doubt the genuine intent of the current SNP leadership to achieve Independence.
A SNP MP told me very recently that they had no doubt Nicola had no intention at all of holding Indyref2. I think it is not unfair also to say that every person on that list is also alarmed by the SNP leadership’s broad adoption of what I might call Britnat values – uncritical support for most British security and defence policies. The strong impression that Sturgeon is much more interested in identity politics than Independence also I think troubles more or less every one of them.
But we are apparently getting a harsh lesson in the limits of new media, in that the strong advocacy of the pro-Independence new media of a vote for the more radically pro-Independence party Alba on the second, list, ballot is showing very little sign of cutting through in opinion polls. The continuing demonisation of Alex Salmond by the mainstream media – taking their cue from Nicola Sturgeon and her constant intimation that the jury in his trial and the judge in the Court of Session both got it wrong – appears so far powerfully effective in electoral terms. The exclusion of Alba from leadership debates, and the virtual exclusion of Alba from news coverage, appears to work.
It is a strong reminder that you cannot judge balance in news reporting by time devoted. Where other parties are asked about their policies, Alba’s rare appearances are dominated by aggressive suggestions that Alex Salmond should be banned from public life. If Salmond featured in media debates, he would answer the same policy questions as other leaders and would be seen to answer them better. The “compensating” interviews he is offered instead are simply an excuse for more personal attacks on him.
I have this message for everybody who believes in Independence. Vote for Alba, who are the only party who will try to gain Independence with you. The SNP manifesto says there should be an Indyref after Covid has passed – a delightfully vague date – and is utterly silent on what happens when both the Westminster Government and the UK Supreme Court refuse the referendum – both of which absolutely will happen. If necessary, the Tories will amend the Scotland Act specifically to ban a referendum without Westminster consent, and the UK Supreme Court, which has always upheld the sovereignty of (Westminster) parliament, will do so again. Nicola will pretend to be disappointed, and make yet another speech against what she herself has labeled “wildcat” or “illegal” referenda and will repeat there are “no short-cuts” to Independence.
I have news for Nicola. Self-determination is not a short-cut. It is an inalienable right guaranteed in the UN Charter.
So vote Alba. I have no responsibility in Alba, I am just an ordinary member. The policy of Alba is to advocate a constituency vote for the SNP everywhere, and a list vote for Alba. You must follow your own conscience, but there are places I could never vote SNP, Edinburgh Central being a good example, though a court order prevents me from telling you why. I shall however be voting for my local SNP candidate in the constituency vote as he has stressed Independence in his election literature.
I regard this election as just the start for Alba. I look forward to participating in democratic debate that shapes its policies. I will be arguing Alba should be against Scottish membership of NATO and for Scotland being neutral and non-aligned, and should be for Scotland becoming a republic. I will also argue very strongly that, should as I strongly expect the SNP break their promises and fail to deliver an Independence referendum by the Westminster elections of 2024, Alba should stand against the SNP in every Westminster constituency. Scotland should be Independent before then and Scotland should not be participating in those elections; if we are, it is a sure sign the SNP have “settled in”.
The SNP contingent at Tory Westminster frankly can do little or no good anyway. I think Sinn Fein have this right. But as long as there are so many well-paid jobs and so much Short money available, the SNP leadership grouping are very comfy indeed with the status quo. Threatening their income and their personal comfort is the only language they understand. Watching the SNP MP’s seduced by lifestyle and effectively forgetting Independence has been gruesome.
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Barhead Boy asks:
“If as you have been told Alba is a danger to independence and The SNP why is the pro-British, Anti-Scottish Media not promoting Alba everywhere? Why is Alba not on every news bulletin and debate? “
It would be interesting to hear an explanation from Nicola or any of her surrogates / mouthpieces.
Brian c.. A very good point that.. And even the greens now towing Westminster line ” The Russians ”
Great if troubling stuff from Barhead,B
Independence When ?
A Delightfully Vague Date
Silence is a Lie
https://www.albaparty.org/ofcom-committee-to-examine-bbc-role-in-campaign
I thought the BBC in particular had an obligation under its charter to be neutral, allowing fair representation and balance during an election to all parties and candidates. What has happened to that? Even given their bias towards the establishment, it is quite astonishing how meekly and obsequiously they have allowed themselves to be dictated to by Sturgeon and her praetorian guard. Whatever Sturgeon’s personal vendetta, an organisation which valued the principles of public service broadcasting would never be so easily intimidated by a political organisation. Channelling their propaganda, such as the ‘victim’ interview after Salmond’s verdict of innocence, was particularly egregious. Is there anybody at BBC Scotland with the faintest of remnants of a backbone or principles?
That £3m was taxpayer money well spent by the SNP, the print media have faithfully followed every cue they have been given by Scotland’s own Madam Ceasescu. With no independent media, despotism and corruption reigns unhindered and unexamined.
Looks like the BBC doesn’t want to even acknowledge that the Alba party exists.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-broadcasting-bourbons/
I thought the BBC is 100% controlled. By the central government of the UK. Please someone correct me if I’m wrong. Some people might have a perception of BBC being somehow impartial. That is just a perception, not a fact. The perception of safety is also very subjective.
I’ve observed that the BBC is not entirely monolithic. While the bits that the London Establishment sees, such as BBC 1&2, Radios 2&4, might as well be run by Herr Goebbels, the bits they don’t notice such as Radios 1&5 and its operations here in Wales are fairly normal in their style of reporting, if a bit plodding. I don’t know about Scotland but suspect any independence they used to have has now departed. Personally I tend to avoid them all, preferring a raised eyebrow on ITV.
The BBC is now obligated in its charter to promote ‘Britishness’. Its directors are now majority Tory. So no surprise at at their antics these days from me.
Haven’t bought a ‘license to lie to me tax’ for years now.
Broke the addiction to the mind numbing dumbing down entertainment propaganda too as a bonus.
Reason for none purchase on the forms and to the bod from Acme private company that runs British public services at the doorstep was ‘I refuse to pay to be propagandised to’
It seemed to flummox him enough as did my flat refusal to allow him across my threshold (that was pre Covid – expecting a visit any day as they have resumed threatening after a couple of years – fuck em).
A public broadcaster should be directly funded and limited in their scope.
Does the BBC need to be a £6 BILLION enterprise? Dwarfing almost every other commercial channel? That it earns a BILLION of that in commercial fees?
Yet gails to provide an adequate free to air service for national sports even never mond the mind bending mockingbirds of the CIA and implacables.
Every Scottish household should cancel the licence fee – you won’t notice any difference in the propaganda.
” If necessary, the Tories will amend the Scotland Act specifically to ban a referendum without Westminster consent, and the UK Supreme Court, which has always upheld the sovereignty of (Westminster) parliament, will do so again”.
Hadn’t thought of that but we know Sturgeon will always find an escape route.
And interestingly you make amendments to the Scotland Act with a Section 30 Order in Council. So you can, for example, add referendums to the list of reserved powers with an S30. As it is an Order in Council there is no need for any debate or vote at Westminster.
Good morning Craig.
Using the Internet for news takes time that many people don’t have, and effort that they can’t expend after their busy working days. This is the advantage that the old media holds – switch on the telly, pick up a paper, or even visit a paper’s website, and the ‘news’ is all there; selected, prioritised and pre-digested, seasoned with general interest, entertainment and humour interspersed. No lengthy following of links, searching for terms, verifying source material to ensure that it is factual. And the identity politics stuff inevitably appeals to people’s sense of, well, identity. It’s like junk food; fast, convenient and tasty, but lacking substance and consequently unhealthy.
– “The 2014 Yes campaign was primarily a street movement, reinforced by bloggers and with real public meetings all over Scotland.”
Covid is making matters worse because it impedes meeting in public and gatherings, and with many people working from home on-line, the last thing they want to do after work is more of the same, using the Internet to delve behind the veils into real politics.
“there are places I could never vote SNP, Edinburgh Central being a good example, though a court order prevents me from telling you why.”
I wonder… But there’s no court order to prevent public knowledge of the “cherrymandering” scandal to deny Joanna Cherry the chance to stand in Edinburgh Central. Reason enough to not give Angus Robertson your vote.
I’m inclining towards Bonnie Prince Bob who seems to be a genuine pro-indy, anti-neoliberal candidate — though I’m not sure about his campaign targeting statues of prominent Edinburgh figures like Henry Dundaas and William Playfair who he claims were paedophiles. Would be good if there was some evidence.
forgive my ignorance, but where can i find out more about the £3M donation?
I assume he’s referring to the SNPs advertising spend, some of which is going to Unionist newspapers.
https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/politics/scottish-politics/2204167/scottish-government-to-invest-3-million-in-scottish-newspaper-advertising/
A bit of hyperbole to describe the whole sum as a donation to ‘anti-Scottish’ papers.
which MSM in Scotland are NOT anti-iScotland and pro-Union?
No it was a Covid support grant.
The SNP machine is currently engaged in “Project No Surprises” a lobbying exercise with the EU “that seeks to reassure European policymakers that an independent Scotland would be a reliable and familiar partner, committed to EU and NATO MEMBERSHIP.” (emphasis added). Why NATO membership?
The usual suspects are active; Alyn Smith and Jenny Gilruth.
Gilruth was appointed Minister for Europe and International Development in February 2020.
Gilruth was identified as an “opinion leader” by the US State Department and was included on a IVLP delegation in July 2016. Gilruth is coy in her declaration of interest and while reporting the visit to America, fails to mention IVLP.
Get this! Gilruth was a newbie MSP in the election of 5th May 2016. Parliament was convened on the 12th May and 45 working days later, “opinion leader”, Gilruth was on American soil, a guest of the State Department. Not bad for a humble school teacher, eh?
Then again, Gilruth did attend Madras College, St Andrews. A veritable kindergarten for spooks.
Vivian.
As Craig points out, the ALBA party probably won’t make any decent inroads until 2026, unless of course Sturgeon and Murrell are toppled before then, and even then we’d need a SNP/Government leader that’s for Scottish independence installed. Still it will be another five years wasted, and Westminster will actively be trying to undermine Holyrood at every turn.
Sturgeon has betrayed us.
Jesus H Christ….. I’ll be 60 by then 🙁
A mere baby. I’ll be 78 and hope to still be campaigning, although not for the SNP unless things change drastically.
Jeff.
Do you really think Sturgeon cares about that? God only knows how many folk have died since Sturgeon became FM that wanted independence for Scotland, and believed that she would deliver it. How many more pro-indy folk in Scotland will die before Sturgeon is unmasked for what she really is.
I’ll be over 70!
Honestly can’t see Sturgeon continuing to get away with… Well, the latest criminal act, highlighted by Prof Alistair Bonnington, is coaching witnesses for the HR inquiry. Bonnington uses strong language, and appears cross. Let’s see if Bonnington uses his considerable influence and standing to bring the Crime Syndicate to book.
Replying to all the old buggers in this comment – I’ll be under 70 in 5 years time.
Kenny.
Bonnington is a useless unionist hack ,whose just awoken from a Rip Van Winkle like sleep. Wings Over Scotland reported this story ages ago. Where was Bonnington back then.
ALBA will still be around in 2026? Excuse my laughter !
Why NATO membership? Without NATO membership, Scotland would share the sad consequences like Ireland, facing the threatening ocean without such indispensable aids like intelligence sharing, unless New Zealand will give Scotlands its place In Five Eyes. Wait, New Zealand is not in NATO, and perhaps the Eye could be shared together with its costs?
In any case, how do the Irish cope?
The clue why NZ is not in NATO lies in the name – North ATLANTIC Treaty Organisation. I realise your grasp of geography is tenuous so I’ll explain it this way: NZ is in the Pacific Ocean which is on the other side of the world to the Atlantic Ocean.
Eire copes by relying on the large island to its east to defend it just as it did in 1940-45. Similarly NZ relies on the large island to its west to defend NZ just as it did in 1942-45. Clear?
…and the large island to the Republic of Ireland’s east coped by relying on America, and of course the Soviet Union without whom we would all be speaking German apparently. It had nothing to do with being neutral in the second ww, like Switzerland or Sweden, did the large island to Eiré’s east also prevent the Nazi hordes from invading these two countries? How jolly nice of them, I don’t think so. Eiré never asked for Britain’s support in ww2 and they never got it. Any way slightly late, but Happy Elbe day.
Is it impossible for any effective group to organise a referendum on independence despite what Sturgeon my or may not want?
Use the results of said referendum to compel, by reference to the will and voice of the people, the desired political change?
The 2014 referendum didn’t leave a lot of change from £16 million. Who’d pay for it?
There is little relationship between the cost of things organised by the state and things organised privately.
Refs aren’t the only way to gain independence though. What I’d like to know is – is it possible for anyone OTHER THAN the FM to start the process of declaring Scotland an Independent nation? If Alba was to win seats in HR, and there was an overall super-majority of Indy parties, would Salmond get to just go down to WM & tell them he wants to start negotiations for independence? If the people are sovereign, how could FM be THE ONLY ONE to start the indy process?
We, the people of Scotland, don’t elect the FM. That is decided by the Parliamentarians. Soooo… in actual fact, if he wins his seat & other ALBA people get elected, it IS possible (though I doubt it would happen) Salmond could be declared FM? But even if Sturgeon becomes FM again, could other than she start the negotiations, I wonder? If unionist parties elect the FM (and I include SNP in that as they don’t want Indy), then it’s difficult for Scots to actually get the opportunity/chance to use their sovereignty that they have… I’d understand anyone saying ‘but we elect people to do that’, but the fact is, if you have no party that will do it in your name, we have no sovereignty, do we…??
I completely agree. Sturgeon must face the public in the near future. And it will not be pretty.
And folk are getting utterly fed up about SNP MSPs and MPs seeing how she is destroying the party ; And doing nothing to stop her.
The latest poll shows Alba a100per cent ahead it was a poll I took I won’t tell you how many people I asked or where I asked them so I am keeping in line with all their other polls you are asked to believe ???
It’s a punch to the stomach that the people and party trusted to advance the cause of independence have had no intention of delivering it. That the SNP are actively working against Scotland’s interests, just as the unionists do, is quite a shock. I’m incensed at their deception which has apparently been going on for years – ever since Nicola Sturgeon succeeded Alex Salmond.
My postal vote went to SNP (reluctantly) and Alba. It will be the last time I vote SNP; they can’t be trusted with Scotland’s future.
Will independence happen at all now? It’s difficult to see how it will happen in the next Parliamentary term.
Hi Craig,
I have only been reading blogs and following events closely since the AS trial when I found your blog as I searched for the truth about what was happening, which in turn led me to the others.
What do you think of Peter Bells Manifesto for Independence? Its seems bold and brave to me but I don’t know or understand enough to spot this issues with it.
It was a shock this week to have Peter tell us he has left the SNP. After 58 years, that’s really something.
Left the SNP earlier this year as I was fed up being taken for a mug. The SNP candidate in my area seems OK so I shall be able to vote SNP1 Alba2 but I have no real hopes that at 72 I’ll live long enough to see independence. At the moment it’s only bloggers like you who are keeping any hope alive because it makes me realise that at least I’m not alone!
Hope you’re looking after yourself (and not just because we need you). All the best to you and your family.
“biology deniers”
Oh dear. If those two words don’t sum up how you’ve been outclassed by your enemies, I don’t know what does.
Craig, as one of the few people who hasn’t visibly appeared to drink the kool-aid, surely you of all people can recognise how the UK Establishment are using identity politics to tear down the Independence movement? They must be chortling into their caviar to see this.
If pro-Indy bloggers litter their pieces with obvious and incredibly divisive TERF dog-whistles, the Establishment don’t have to do anything to limit their reach. It’s self-limiting. I’ve watched Stuart Campbell succumb to this, and now you’re linking to a blogger who uses an idiotic phrase like “biology deniers” – thinking that he’s railing against gender identity politics, when in fact he’s helpfully beating himself with the club that his enemies have handed to him. As someone who has LGBTQIA friends, and friends who have even more LGBTQIA friends, I’m definitely not going to share any blog whose author drops dogwhistles of anti-intellectual conservative anti-culture like that, no matter what I feel about Scottish Independence. I don’t feel I can even share a blog post which links to it.
With friends like that, you don’t need enemies. For the love of God, attack the SNP on Independence and not on “gender identity politics”, and advise your fellow travellers to do the same. Don’t actually beat your own cause to death with the cudgel that the Westminster dark arts people have handed you to do it with.
Fleischgeist
As a person who can tolerate other people’s decisions about their own sexuality, and be close friends with them, I’m a bit surprised at you taking umbrage at somebody expressing their opinion..
Smacks to of the anti-Semitism fly-trap of anyone opposing Israel’s apartheid policy must hate the inhabitants. Biology tells us that babies don’t come from bum holes . That seems a very pertinent point.
But it doesn’t in any way mean that one doesn’t respect other people’s choices in life. Getting huffy about an alternative viewpoint, kinda closes down the entire debate.
As to Nicola Sturgeon defending glbt rights, I’m sure the purpose of that is to close down the debate on Independence. Aka anti-semitism closed down Corbyn’s arguments.
There are two forces in this election, people power and state algorithm power. In the December UK election the algorithms over-egged the pudding in favour of the Tories. In this election I believe the SNP will lose its majority, simply because of public frustration with Snp woke distractions and Unionist MSM bias.
Let me get this straight….the SNP leadership’s unquestioning and wholescale adoption of the trans agenda was somehow fomented by the UK Establishment to destroy the independence movement, but nobody is allowed to criticise the SNP for adopting these policies, because this is what the UK Establishment wants? Just shrug and let them get on with it, ignore any legitimate concerns?
I agree that the phrase “biology deniers” should not be used if we are to have a serious discussion about these concerns but for different reasons than you: it gives those who support the SNP’s agenda an easy way to shut down any discussion, which is their ultimate goal (as you will be well aware.)
Of course to even suggest that there might be legitimate concerns is just TERF hate-speech, eh?
And please don’t accuse people of using ‘incredibly divisive’ language RIGHT NEXT to the acronym TERF. The cognitive dissonance that sentence displays is astounding.
Fleischgeist: like you, I have no doubt that the British State is rubbing its hands with glee while Stonewall writes up the curriculum for our children. However, this stuff is not just happening here. Do you imagine that England will escape this stuff? It is in all our interests – in the entire West – to trace the source/es of this ideology. Again, I have no doubt that big business is part of the equation – money always is – but it must be more than that. There must be people of power and influence in other spheres who are enabling this stuff: legislators; health and legal professionals; high-ranking public servants. Why? Could it be the dominatrix syndrome writ large?
Quite simply, women and girls are to be sacrificed to the interests of men with fetishes, with autogynephilia, with all kinds of paraphilias. Remember the #MeToo’s uncovering of vested interests in the film industry, in business and elsewhere, keeping women subjugated as sex toys (s**k my d**k or you don’t work)? This is similar, but even more vile in that it will, in pursuit of sexual rights for some men to do exactly as they want with whomsoever they want, consent or no consent, with any age they want, with any sex they want or gender they want, destroy everything that women fought for over many years.
It will not be so much that trans women will keep women in fear and alarm (although that is certainly part of the misogynistic and sadistic psychology) but that women will forego using previously women-only spaces (and, therefore, their rights as human beings of the female biological sex and leave them for men to take over everything again) because their dignity and privacy are being violated by men who know perfectly well that they are not women, but that they get their rocks off by allowing their fantasy female persona (which is a submissive one, stereotypical, and therefore can never be real) to be used by their male persona while simultaneously degrading women as part of the fetish.
It is beyond imagining that this type of parasitical behaviour can ever be termed ‘human rights’. I suggest reading Sheila Jeffry’s 2018 Essay: “the Enforcement of Men’s Sexual Rights into Human Rights”. A real eye-opener if you also have an open mind and do not dismiss women’s very sharp and accurate analyses of what is happening. Even human rights organizations are falling over themselves to be kind to paraphiliacs at the expense of women’s rights, but then, they are also stuffed to the gunnel with professional men who might, behind that exterior of respectability, harbour dark sexual fetishes and fantasies. Haven’t charities shown similar sexual exploitation techniques along with their sacks of rice and grain (s**k my d**k or you don’t eat?). Who knew so many parasitical human beings existed – and how easy it is made for them to infiltrate every facet of life?
Maybe – just maybe – there are real sexual parasites in the SNP, too, who are enabling this stuff while they place independence on the back burner?
Mary Whitehouse lives !
Mary Whitehouse? Mr Lomax: I have no problem with the infinite varieties of the male libido; I have no problem with trans people or with gay people. What I do have a problem with are people who pretend to be the sex they are not and can never be, being parasitical upon the spaces and rights of others. That you cannot see the difference and go for the easy target says a lot more about your intelligence – or lack of it – than it does about me.
Human rights have never rested upon the assumption of the human rights of others. If you believe that is the case, that is down to your misunderstanding of the reason for human rights in the first place. Because sex-based rights for both men and women are just that, sex-based, for very good reasons, encroaching upon others’ rights is not legitimate. If you are so liberal and open-minded, do feel free to invite trans women into your male spaces. Treat them as men, which is what they are, with a fetish or paraphilia and YOU cosset their particular brand of masculine paraphilia. That would really show your credentials as a broad-minded member of the male sex. Just don’t dictate to women what they can and cannot say or think.
Lorna a lot of what you write is true inasmuch as there are men who have autogynephilia who will take advantage of these proposed changes and this is a legitimate concern. At the same time one has to also acknowledge that there is a very, very small percentage of people who are truly transgender, who truly believe their body does not align with their gender. Your comment implies – probably accidentally – that anyone who claims to be trans is just a pervert. This does not help the debate/discussion, such as it is.
It allows trans activists and their allies (in their minds) to dismiss your concerns as ill-informed, someone who does not even know what a trans person even is without having to address any of your points. In this case it would not be the ‘no true Scotsman’ fallacy to say that no true trans person would likely be a danger to women in women’s spaces, but the steadfast refusal by activists to admit that some men will take advantage of self-id is completely disingenuous, as has already been shown.
I share many of your concerns listed above, that a self-id transwoman with male genitalia would have to be allowed into women’s spaces by law. And that is not hyperbole folks – this is what is being proposed. But as the first reply to your comment indicates, people with legitimate concerns at the speed and scope of the proposed changes to the GRA have to choose their words carefully or risk being dismissed as right-wing kooks.
I hope you can take this comment in the spirit it was intended.
” who truly believe their body does not align with their gender.”
By which I think you mean that what goes on in their mind does not match the body they are in. But if what goes on in your mind can take place in your body why would you believe what is in your mind does not belong in your body?
Surgery and drugs cannot change the physical gender of the body however good an idea that might be.
Everything which is a thing is that thing, wherefor then should we seek to decieve ourselves?
Good luck to the Alba Party. I hope that they don’t waste their time trying to get any sense out of the MSM, it never works.
Porkpie: indeed I do take it in the spirit in which it is offered.
“… At the same time one has to also acknowledge that there is a very, very small percentage of people who are truly transgender, who truly believe their body does not align with their gender. Your comment implies – probably accidentally – that anyone who claims to be trans is just a pervert… “
I think you will find that the genuinely body dysphoric and fully transitioned trans women (and men) do not support this nonsense at all. Most of them acknowledge that they are trans women and not women and seek no entry to women’s spaces except perhaps the toilets, which no one, who is not a sadist, would deny them. However, the trans umbrella is now so wide that this tiny, minuscule number has been vastly outweighed by those people who are paraphiliacs. Personally, I would not use the term, perversion in that sense.
My beef is with men who want access to women’s spaces for validation of their paraphilia as much as with those who would use the law to create opportunities to become sexual predators. They can do what they like out of women’s spaces. I make no moral judgement on these people except to say that their behaviour is utterly disrespectful of women’s dignity, privacy and right to the sex-based spaces for very salient reasons, and is parasitic in essence. Women were extremely badly treated when they campaigned for their rights, suffering abuse and physical assault, as well as force-feeding, incarceration, etc. They suffered those abuses as women, not as pretend men. I find much of the behaviour of the vile trans lobby sadistic and utterly, irredeemably misogynistic.
You may agree with me or not. Women who feel as I do will not back down before this false narrative of male self-entitlement and grossly parasitical behaviour. Let them fight their own battles on male rights and spaces, not female rights and spaces; let them piggy-back on men, not women. They are, after all, men, and I believe they are scamming big time.
I think this recent wholesale embracing of pro-trans culture is nothing more than the latest soft-power strategy to differentiate the (supposedly) “progressive” and “tolerant” West from the “bigoted”, “autocratic”, and “primitive” nations of Eastern Europe, Russia, and China – most of whose populations and leaders have far more common sense than to be bothered with this very “niche” issue.
Much as the US promoted Jazz and Abstract Expressionism in the 1950s in a foreign policy, soft-power, attempt to make Stalin’s USSR look old-fashioned, boring and out of touch, even though the US establishment had, in reality, absolutely no interest whatsoever in the well-being of its black population, or of those in its counter-culture.
This latest obsession with “trans rights” is simply being co-opted as another weapon in the armoury to make “western values” look to be superior.
It also allows centrist politicians to appear to be campaigning on supposedly “progressive”, “social justice” issues, whilst avoiding campaigning for economic ones, which actually cost something to address, and would change life for the better for *all* disadvantaged groups.
Does anyone really imagine for a minute that those in political power really give a damn about the very small minority of people who like to dress up in the clothes of the opposite sex, or mutilate themselves in the belief that they were not “meant” to be born the way they were?
It’s just a distractionary wedge issue, which, apart from not really costing anything economically to address, has the added benefit of getting ordinary people to fight (yet another) divisive battle amongst themselves, whilst, out of sight, the money-power and the establishment continue to hoover up everything for themselves.
Well, you might be right, Mr Shigemitsu, except that the trans lobby has stated that it wants this stuff disseminated throughout the West first, then on into just those areas of the planet you mention. In Iran, young homosexuals are given treatment and transitioned instead of being allowed to be homosexuals. I think we really do need to understand WHY people feel the need to transition (even if not physically). Wishing to transition has nothing to do with gaining access to women’s spaces except as a means to hide from heterosexual men who actually hurt them, not women. By so doing, they, along with heterosexual men hurt women and deny them their safe spaces, rights and sense of themselves as women. It is a situation which is so laced with sadism and cruelty and damage to women and girls, that it is hard to get your head round it. In every situation, in every way, whether in the West or elsewhere, women are expected to be nice, to be kind, to be accommodating. No, we have had enough of all of it. Leave us alone. Leave our spaces alone and, because we are more than half of the human race, f*****g give us the means to exist and peace in which to exist without men’s constant interference and diminishing.
Perhaps there should be a citizens’ assembly on this matter?
“For the love of God, attack the SNP on Independence and not on “gender identity politics”
Being conceived at the dawn of the ‘50s my sex education was, traditional.
My first sexual experience was when Margaret the bubbly red head from two doors down proposed that if I showed her mine she would show me hers. On implementation of the arrangement she then coyly asked if she could touch mine. She being older by some two months she must have been three and a half. Glass ceiling, me too, OK right, it’s a mutual thing.
My introduction to the concept of homosexuality was when my sister came home from school and told me she had read on a toilet wall that the head of geography was a homosexual. A few days later when I taunted her that she was a homosexual my mother gave me a profound battering, so the two of us looked it up in a dictionary. Fortunately my sister attended a posh school for I don’t think “poof” was in that dictionary.
My introduction to transgender issues was when my climbing buddy changed his name, moved to the Costas and started to wear floral print skirts, so what.
Cottagers hanging around trying to catch a glimpse of my wee willy were a pain but who cares if the head of geography wants to bumble with the head of classics on weekend camping trips. The after school clubs they organised were for the naive and contingently gullible. We all knew.
Gender issues in politics is a canard, a red herring, a deliberate distraction to shut down discussion of things that matter. Fair enough men in public toilets are an issue, there is a subset with form.
My issue is with people demanding to dictate what I think.
I don’t know what the acronyms stand for I don’t care. We should not be distracted by bleating and babbling. You tell us not to attack the SNP on certain issues, is the science settled, are we all in agreement? The only rainbow issue occupying my mind is, in a bag of skittles which flavour is best represented by the colour of its sugar shell. Are we allowed to debate that?“
You, Barry, if I may say so, are not in any danger of being eliminated as a sex, while women are. I don’t like anyone dictating to me how I will think either. You think all this stuff is fine, good for you. There are many who think differently.
Homosexual men and women never, ever tried to colonise the opposite sex. That is the crux of the matter here. You may see it as a distraction. That’s fine. Others see it as a matter that must be dealt with, or, at least, seen as crucial. People can r*g*r each other until they disappear in a puff of smoke if they choose, in an infinite variety of ways, but when they stray on to our human rights, our right to exist as women without their intrusion and bullying, then it becomes our business.
Never before, in the history of human rights has one group tried to colonise another like this. Never before in modern history has the law been used by parasites to take over the actual sex of another group. How many men do you know who commit a crime then claim to be gay?
Just as those Scots who want independence may yet be forced into armed conflict to achieve it because of the stupidity of the Westminster government and its Scottish equivalent, equally complicit in forcing us into a corner politically, so may women choose to become really unkind and begin to use methods that will disrupt enjoyment of skittles. We might even get around to inventing a new fetish around rainbow skittles in an orifice other than the gob – or is that one already in circulation? Wouldn’t surprise me at all. I am sorry that you think the issue of so little import because it is going to prove absolutely crucial to the immediate future.
Lorna Campbell
Trans issues is not only a deliberate distraction from independence issues but a deliberate and highly political attack on women’s rights. Imho and with all due respect, getting entangled in trans issues is a deliberate trap set up by the SNP to distract from their right wing politics,
Sturgeon is the manipulator causing the problem, as she has with Alex Salmond’s heterosexuality, making 2 + 3 = 23. Cute.
If the Scottish electorate can’t see through her little games, and see the big political games she is playing with the neo-liberal neo-conservatives of the globalists, that’s very disappointing.
Nowt so strange as folk.
No, Giyane, it is not the distraction, it is the cause. The distraction is the cause of the inertia, the lack of movement towards independence. It is precisely this issue and its adherents within the SNP that have stalled independence with it because independence would have stalled it, otherwise.
In hindsight, Nicola Sturgeon never, from the day she became FM, had the slightest, remotest intention of moving Scotland towards independence, and not because she needed to take NO voters with her, as she keeps telling us, but because she, Nicola Sturgeon does not want independence.
She deliberately encouraged the pseudo ‘wokerati’ into her government right across the board from day one. It has not been a mission creep. She has enabled these people to lapse independence into inertia because that is what she wants.
I agree with you that she is a neo liberal neo con because she believes that Scotland’s future lies in that area of economic politics, which puts her more in line with the American model than the European, but the lingering promise of a return to the EU keeps the Remainers on-side, as lingering promise of independence keeps the independistas on-side.
She has played off everybody against everybody else, and she is utterly ruthless in her pursuit of the future by appealing to the ‘not all my synapses have connected yet’ youth who are so beguiled by the self-interested lies of the trans lobby that it will be another few years before sense prevails. From the moment she hooked up with Alec Salmond in 2007, we were bound to be where we are.
I’m not so sure about having post indy policies on a republic or NATO membership. It makes the average punter think, and is portrayed by the BBC etc, that this WILL happen if they vote YES. Whereas it would have to be a national decision on the Royals. There are some, really I’ve met them, who are arch royalists yet believe in Independence as a Commonwealth country.
But I agree, the media has actively campaigned against Alba. The problem is that quite a large number of SNP/YES voters are educated in how the d’Hondt system actually works. Many have sought a party to vote for but felt they couldn’t as the vote would need to coalesce around a single party in order to do any good. So, to an extent, the BBC’s attitude will make no difference. I think Alba will perform better than the polls suggest and, of course, better than the numbers they get due to that very system. The system put in place to prevent SNP majorities could well cause a BIGGER majority of pro Indy seats come May
But whilst I understand that Indy won’t happen until it utterly overwhelms the UK and becomes internationally embarrassing for them to keep preventing it I still can’t help feeling that the SNP has been ‘infiltrated’ by those who are not just ‘soft on independence’ but are actually against it. They seek to transform the party into just another political party. The result of this would be to lose their support, split the votes and lose seats perhaps ceding a majority to a coalition of other parties. The fact that the entire Salmond issue went SO badly wrong in every single way and that it seems to centre around a single person exceeding her authority made me wonder if it was deliberate as a win/win for the UK to damage all parts of the SNP whatever the outcome.
ALBA can’t be surprised by their deliberate exclusion from media debate. This is after all, a MSM that views fellow journalists as ‘adversary apologists’ if they don’t unquestioningly push state propaganda. What about billboards, full page (local) newspaper ads? Must be some way of cutting through?
Sturgeon, by attacking ALBA, seems to be putting her desire to avoid minor temporary discomfort – at the prospect of cooperating with Salmond and his party on referendum strategy – before driving through independence. That’s revealing, and at best take, fairly shallow tbh.
“The continuing demonisation of Alex Salmond by the mainstream media appears so far powerfully effective in electoral terms.”
It works, look at Jeremy Corbyn. This is why the MSM are so keen to identify every party with its leader (Are you voting for Nicola?), so that they can be destroyed if they step out of line, and bring down the party with them.
That’s a very good point. Do you remember the Labour Party political broadcast many years ago which ended with the word “Kinnock” to everyone’s surprise? Personality politics with no personality.
Corbyn betrayed himself.
Jeremy Corbyn was a decent man who wasn’t cut out to be party leader. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t comprehensively shafted by his fellow party members.
Agreed, Bayard, but Alec Salmond is a man cut out to be party leader. That means that he is even more in their sights. We are going to have to be far more devious than Corbyn’s supporters were.
“It works, look at Jeremy Corbyn”
Jeremy Corbyn came very close to winning and maybe he did.
At least one of the opinion polls predicting a low turnout for Corbyn contained a fiddle factor whereby the raw count by age of who said they were going to vote for whom was adjusted by an estimate of how many would turn out. This wasn’t mentioned in the headline figure. The link’s long gone now.
Johnny Conspiranoid
And maybe what? No maybes whatsoever about how the Dec 2019 was converted, like a free kick after the fake foul of antisemitism, into Tory victory.
If it weren’t for the free algopops, the winning Corbyn government would have had to have been shafted like Gordon Brown’s by a repeat banking collapse.
So they decided it was best, for the peace of the nation, to implement direct Tory rule from the ballot box. This is your decision. This is what you wanted. B..O..R..I..S…. Idox has doctored your wishes because you didn’t know what was good for you yourselves. So they used the man on the back of Megabus.
The Scottish election on May 6 is like watching a slow train crash. My mind’s eye can clearly see the jagged elbowed Pullmans strewn across the tracks. The flying Scotsman embedded in the burn below being winched out by salvage.
Sturgeon shrouded in plaster of Paris wiggling her fingers out of the plaster like a sea anemone to reach out and make a deal with the Touregs to cling onto devolution.
Aach, the curse of second sight.
.
wonderful images!
We’re not one step closer to independence since Sturgeon became FM, Brexit was her best opportunity to get Scotland out of this unfit for purpose union, and what did she do, she ignored Scottish independence in favour of trying to save England from itself.
Since 2016 she’s done nothing of any significance to push forward on the indyfront, but she hasn’t been shy on taking donations from Scots and supposedly ringfencing it for a indyref.
Now Sturgeon has reiterated on a few occasions that an economic recovery from Covid will come first before any indyref. You can bet that the recovery will last the whole of her next tenure. But she’s fooling us again for there can be no economic return to the pre-Covid economy of Scotland, for Brexit has put paid to that.
No the only way to grow our economy to pre-Covid levels and beyond is to leave this union, of which Scotland gives half its money to, and trade with other countries around the globe as an independent nations. As ALBAs Alex Salmond said joining EFTA would still give us access to the EU market (something we don’t currently have) but allow us to also trade with the rest of the UK and beyond.
I can only hope that the Greens are greatly diminished in number come May 6th, and that the ALBA party obtains seats at Holyrood, leaving Sturgeon isolated, and that the ALBA party continually pushes Sturgeon on her gross failure to deliver independence.
I predict that in the coming Scottish election, Alba will get smashed. I don’t mean drunk, that may happen to its supporters afterwards. 🙂
Not sure how they can get ‘smashed’, starting from a baseline of bugger-all…..
Why isn’t Alba using the internet more? The top YT videos are negative if you search “Alex Salmond” or “Alex Salmond+Alba.” Where is CM’s interview with Alex Salmond asking the pertinent questions? An evening with Joanna Cherry? It’s there to be taken advantage of.
Scotflix or Indyref Prime? If there are videos that I haven’t found but others know about why not list them on this site?
This ^
Youtube is sometimes accused of channeling viewers away from content that the powers that be don’t approve of.
Google arranges search results according to who pays most, or who they want to win. Were you asleep last year?
It’s nice that your local SNP candidate is stressing indy in the literature – but, given that he/she is subservient to the whims and commands of the cabal that leads the SNP, what does that actually signify?
The only way the SNP will ever be an indy party again is after it’s been drained of all the pus that is currently infesting its ruling clique.
(I hope I’m wrong, by the way, but fear I’m not.)
The River Esk is sparkling in the sunshine right now, but filthy and stinking if one takes a closer look and sniff, as it has been for several years, at least in part because the SG has stuffed SEPA with actual polluters. Meanwhile Colin Beattie, SNP MP chairs an “action committee”, with regular updates to interested parties, and still the river stinks. Quite a “nice” metaphor for the SNP.
True Gordon, its beginning to look like SEPA, is a captured body Shell’s Fife NGL plant at Mossmorran is flooding parts of Scotland with huge quantities of dioxide with it s flaring.
https://www.desmog.co.uk/2020/02/17/focus-shifts-scottish-environmental-protection-agency-s-big-oil-interests-flaring-continues-shell-exxon-plant
If you believe carbon dioxide is a pollutant, why don’t you stop emitting it?
Savanta ComRes polls in chronological order, combined percentage figure for SNP + Greens:
constituency vote
51, 50, 48, 49, 46
list vote
53, 52, 50, 50, 49, 45
* makes aeroplane wings and goes “Nyeeeoowww” *
Clearly the SNP leaders are traitors who have been suborned by foreign interests. They must be, because loving the nation to the point of wanting it to be independent at all costs – no sacrifice will be too much! – is the natural state of the country and its destiny too. Fiendish foreigners exert such fearsome mind control that the people of the country remain incapable of “self-determining” except in accordance with what these traitors tell them in the traitor media. Am I on-message?
But it was never going to be easy to tell people in the borders that “freedom” is worth the inconvenience of a hard border, nor hotel and venue owners in Edinburgh that it’s worth paying the price of a fall in tourist traffic owing to the obligation to obey EU rules and impose customs checks on everyone who travels up by train from London.
Some fascists talk about “beefsteaks” (brown on the outside, red on the inside) and “watermelons” (green on the outside, red on the inside). Diehard Scottish nationalists need a similar metaphor for those who wear the Scottish royal lion and the saltire on the top but Union Jack onesies underneath.
“But it was never going to be easy to tell people in the borders that “freedom” is worth the inconvenience of a hard border, nor hotel and venue owners in Edinburgh that it’s worth paying the price of a fall in tourist traffic owing to the obligation to obey EU rules and impose customs checks on everyone who travels up by train from London.”
That’s the big question, is rejoining the EU a vote-winner or a vote-loser for the Nationalists?
Certainly, Unionism was an easy sell to the Remainers back in 2014, both were the status quo option. However now the UK has left the EU, rejoining is the change option. For how many of those Remainers who voted to remain part of the UK so as, as they thought, to stay in the EU, is rejoining the EU more important than maintaining the new status quo?
“…the SNP leadership has won the adoration of the Guardian…”
Harsh. Very harsh.
But fair.
Tom.
I’m just waiting for the Daily Express to start lauding Sturgeon.
I was thinking about why Nicola Sturgeon didn’t seem to be supporting Scottish independence as enthusiastically as Alba. Perhaps she is mindful that, in a free and and fair referendum, the majority of her fellow Scots voted against it, and therefore she’s being careful how she handles the issue, lest unionist parties grab back seats in all the places where Scots voted to remain in the UK. Which is why Alba are in danger of “null point” if they don’t watch it, except perhaps in places like Glasgow and Dundee.
” in a free and and fair referendum, the majority of her fellow Scots voted against it,”
MJ.
No they didn’t in the 2014 indyref a majority of Scots voted yes to independence.
“Scots” are people who choose to live in Scotland, this not an ethnic struggle.
And as MJ correctly points out, independence will be gained when a majority of the votes cast in a referendum support it.
I’m glad that in Alba you have found a place where you feel at home.
Who mentioned an ethnic struggle – not me.
I mentioned correctly that a majority of Scots did vote yes in 2014, to correct MJ, however EU citizens and other living in Scotland were frightened in to voting no along with a minority of Scots.
> “Scots” are people who choose to live in Scotland, this not an ethnic struggle.
That point is open to debate, though I fear that having the debate would make matters worse, not better, for all non-evil people involved.
> independence will be gained when a majority of the votes cast in a referendum support it.
Are you being disingenuous or naïve?
“Scots” are people who choose to live in Scotland…
Surely “Scots” are people who think of themselves as Scots. And I can guarantee that if you took all the thousands of incoming Britons in Dumfries and Galloway, Edinburgh and St Andrews who voted ‘No’ and asked them what they think of themseves as, 1% would say British and the other 99% would say English.
M.J.
So you think Sturgeon is doing a May.
I neither care about or want Brexit. But since I’m up here in the limelight I’ll knock up a deal that will be least offensive to my enemies and my own self.
Voted down 4 times. Most of her supporters thrown out and early-retired. Herself left to snorkel under the surface with the NI wind-pipe.
Sounds good.
I think you’ve made a good point. I do see parallels between the two, now you mention it. Both have had to head governments the majority of whose citizens voted for a side they didn’t choose (Brexit in the case of May, remaining in the UK in the case of Nicola). So both would feel constrained by the electorate. However Nicola might have a much stronger position with an SNP majority. May had a majority but blundered it away by calling an election that she didn’t need to. That’s her tragedy, the result of hubris. (Cameron’s hubris led ultimately to Brexit, which helped Trump get in).
The NO vote succeeded in 2014 because of the demographics. Precisely why there should never be another referendum. Nowhere have I seen it pointed out to Unionists of all hues that the UN charter abhors colonialism of all types, too: the cultural and language colonialism, as well as the political and economic. Nowhere have I seen it pointed out to Unionists of all hues that independence is normal in most of the rest of the world. Nowhere have I seen it pointed out to Unionists of all hues that racism is a very nuanced thing, and voting against the interests of the country in which you live and work in order to placate the country under whose hegemony you exist could be termed racist in character.
It was a mistake for Alba not to have run in the constituencies as well.
A good linked article, but the author’s unnecessary addition of “biology deniers” stirs a Wings-format hornet’s nest. I think in the past, Craig has suggested that folks under the broad AUOB group could refrain from getting stuck into issues other than Indie, and I acknowledge that is difficult, but I think it would be helpful.
Jon,
Yes, I agree. I have to confess I did not twig the meaning of that phrase when I first saw it.
For many of Scotland’s women, it would not be difficult, but impossible, Jon. It never fails to bemuse me that so many men fail to see the parallels between the potential elimination of the Scottish nation and the potential elimination of women. Both are being assailed by the forces of imperialist incursion and their rights colonised for the self-interest of the imperialist group. If women are eliminated, the Scottish nation will be eliminated; if the Scottish nation is eliminated, women will be eliminated. The two are inextricably linked. That you and so many others just don’t understand that, is a sad reflection on the shallow grasp of reality that is so prevalent in Scotland today. Sheer pragmatism demands that, if Scotland is to survive as a nation, its women must also do so as a sex. If Scotland’s women are to survive as a sex, so, too, will Scotland. It’s not rocket science, as the stupid cliche goes.
“… A SNP MP told me very recently that they had no doubt Nicola had no intention at all of holding Indyref2. I think it is not unfair also to say that every person on that list is also alarmed by the SNP leadership’s broad adoption of what I might call Britnat values – uncritical support for most British security and defence policies. The strong impression that Sturgeon is much more interested in identity politics than Independence also I think troubles more or less every one of them… “
How do they sleep at night, Mr Murray?
Nice to see someone questioning NATO membership…..probably one of the greatest scams and con-tricks of all time.
You’ll(the Scots*** see below) be forced to buy over-priced, expensive to maintain, American equipment more suited to sunny California and the Mojave desert than the wet, rainy, cloudy, low vis conditions of Scotland and its extensive maritime territory. Member nations are swindled by paying over the odds for over-hyped equipment and the high maintenance costs that follow.
Then, say there’s a conflict in some far-off country….like Iraq or Afghanistan, places you’ve hardly ever heard of…..then your armed forces will be expected to make a ‘contribution’ ie money, lives, equipment and ammunition and for what return?…..Answer…..Sweet Fanny Adams.
Some dafties, there’s a lot of them about, will; even advocate participation in such foreign adventures…..just for show….and the feel-good factor…….but. of course, they will not be going to the hell-hole themselves….No, No……That’s a job for the oiks, the cattle….That’s you and me.
I don’ t how many have made any great study of the history of Scotland.,,,,but I have attempted it….particularly the ‘lost years’….from 1314 to 1707….. the years Scotland functioned as an independent nation. It’s an enthralling story. Get it from the website ‘Electric Scotland’.
The one thing that comes across is the way Scotland fought for other countries….France, Sweden, Russia, Prussia., USA and England….yet never has the favour been returned…..EVER!!!
This has got to end……No more wars iof ANY kind. for Scots for four to five generations…..This, for me is the greatest reason for independence for Scotland,,,, that we will have some sort of chance to rebuild the home stock….much depleted by foreign wars( over some 700 years, for no or little profit….and……some three hundred years of emigration of Scotland’s best, most enterprising. and adventurous.
This bleeding of a nation cannot continue……..otherwise, we are dead……consigned to the dustbin of history.
*** I used to be Scots….and proud of it…..but now I prefer to be ‘Stateless’…. due to disgust with my fellow Scots who seem more interested in Gender woo-woo and curtailment of free speech….than the masculine pursuits of swordsmanship, gunnery and waging war by deception, stealth and low cunning.
Have to wonder if this is the best time for an independence referendum. Independence would have benefits (more democracy through the more representative Scottish parliament voting system, far more powers for the Scottish government) and those could lead to benefits in the long term by better use of taxes, better preparation for likely crises and acting faster when they hit (Norway, Sweden and Canada avoided the banking crisis by having regulated their banks properly after previous crises ; New Zealand locked down after its first covid case; and even New Labour (unlike the tories) maintained PPE stockpiles for NHS staff (though they failed on banking regulation completely).
But there would also be immediate costs (end of UK government subsidy requiring either public spending cuts or increased borrowing ; and reduced exports to England if Scotland joins the EU or even just the Single Market via the EEA/EFTA). And on currency we’d have to either keep the pound, or adopt the Euro (either of which could put us at the mercy of the UK or EU finance ministries the same way the Greeks were), or else issue our own currency (far better plan in the long run, but likely to face currency speculators at the start, and not as compatible with higher public borrowing early on).
Is during the economic hit from covid and brexit the best time to do this? Are enough voters likely to be confident enough about the future to think they personally could weather the problems we’d face?
I am reluctantly in favour of independence as the only choices seem to be the tories or New labour (Labour Lite) under Starmer – and that means more welfare “reform” targeting the disabled, ill, mentally ill and working people on low incomes ; and more failure to prepare for crises. But I’d have thought leaving it a few years before another referendum would give a better chance of a Yes vote.
And it’d also be by far best if we waited till that Yes vote was by a big margin, because the closer the result was the more trouble we’d be likely to get from the “Loyalist” types who’d like to turn Scotland into another Northern Ireland.
“ we are apparently getting a harsh lesson in the limits of new media”
Duh it’s the oxygen of publicity innit?
I don’t mean any criticism of the truth of the critique of this piece. I think like they did with the apocryphal possibly , Ghandian strategy their only option is to ignore Alba. That’s a good sign.
Though as Gill SCOT Heron almost said:
the Independence isn’t going to be televised.
We having had the regulation stuff the ball up your short panic tactics by them in the third quarter – now have to put it all on the pitch.
Now is the time for each Indy blogger reader to find 10 people to do the right thing and ask them to find at least one more to do the same.
That’s how you make your own oxygen. Just do it. As Craig says.