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.
———————————————
Forgive me for pointing out that my ability to provide this coverage is entirely dependent on your kind voluntary subscriptions which keep this blog going. This post is free for anybody to reproduce or republish, including in translation. You are still very welcome to read without subscribing.
Unlike our adversaries including the Integrity Initiative, the 77th Brigade, Bellingcat, the Atlantic Council and hundreds of other warmongering propaganda operations, this blog has no source of state, corporate or institutional finance whatsoever. It runs entirely on voluntary subscriptions from its readers – many of whom do not necessarily agree with the every article, but welcome the alternative voice, insider information and debate.
Subscriptions to keep this blog going are gratefully received.
Choose subscription amount from dropdown box:
Paypal address for one-off donations: [email protected]
Alternatively by bank transfer or standing order:
Account name
MURRAY CJ
Account number 3 2 1 5 0 9 6 2
Sort code 6 0 – 4 0 – 0 5
IBAN GB98NWBK60400532150962
BIC NWBKGB2L
Bank address Natwest, PO Box 414, 38 Strand, London, WC2H 5JB
Bitcoin: bc1q3sdm60rshynxtvfnkhhqjn83vk3e3nyw78cjx9
Ethereum/ERC-20: 0x764a6054783e86C321Cb8208442477d24834861a
Subscriptions are still preferred to donations as I can’t run the blog without some certainty of future income, but I understand why some people prefer not to commit to that.
It appears to me that the SNP is going along with the bbc and the self serving cronyist Westminster cabal of liars in cabinet, rather than run a fair and equal coverred election.
The Green party of England and Wales can sing a song about this dirty exceptionalism and ignorance of small parties such as Alba, they have, and are still, subjected to this election bias, since their inception in 1973. The bbc has a plethora of reasons they made up to further the inherent unfairness and disproportion that has existed in this sad antique FPTP set up for decades. If it appears to further cheating and election fraud, so be it, they don’t care.
As long as there is no electoral reform, this establishment currying set up will continue, whichever party is in power? that is why Corbyn was shunted out under the pretence of anti Semitism, for three years flat until it worked, they could not fathom socialism in any way or form, after all, what they are now engaging in is the end game, against anyone who goes against their perceived construct, internally and externally.
March for Scotland by voting Alba into Hollyrood, if this last chance is missed I fear that there will be no other. Make public speeches on a soapbox, whatever it takes.
XR equally will have to wake up to this use of powers to stem mostly young people fighting for a more sustainable future for their generation, they will have to change their tactics and become a thorn in the eye, not just a speck of sand.
” this dirty exceptionalism and ignorance of small parties such as Alba, “
and yet UKIP were never off the telly. Why?
At least UKIP had a significant degree of public support. An even better example is the extreme centrist Change UK or TIG. Deeply unpopular with ordinary people but relentlessly promoted by broadcasters and political correspondents.
Why? UKIP were even more right wing than the Tories. Of course they got air-time!
Just to make it clear, the ‘dirty exceptionalism’ shown towards small parties such as Alba and the Greens during the 70’s/80’s and still today by the bbc and MSM is not fair, as Alba’s brave goal of Independence shows that this bias is still carrying on as the mainstay of the status quo and that the SNP is now hooked on power to such extent that they are prepared to show allegiance to a lying bunch of cabinet in Westminster, poisoning their relationship with their erstwhile supporters.
This sad fact is also misleading millions of young brains in England and Wales, who, by the powers of this wretched status quo elite, are turned off politics, fairness in life and much more, the belief that the system can one day provide for their children what was perceived as a normal sustainable life, not a good prospect for anyone to punch through by starting a new party when times are hard.
There’s a XR cell round my way. They started putting up tasteful posters on walls and the cooncil workies descended on them like ravenous wolves. This led to them using stencils and spray paint to deliver their message (who could have predicted that escalation?). Same result, cooncil workies paint over the slogans the same day.
You can tag a wall with “Cumberchuf Young Team” and it stays visible for months. Seems any political message must meet with the approval of the Great Helmsperson.
Perhaps tag a wall in support of bearded lesbians and the cooncil will slap a preservation order on it?
Jeremy Corbyn and Labour’s electoral chances were ruined because of three Labour manifesto promises:
1) recognise Palestine immediately on coming to office
2) stop allowing Israelis de facto exemption from prosecution as war criminals
3) stop selling certain kinds of weapons to Israel
That’s all in the 2019 manifesto in black and white.
Alba will disappear within a month. They’re a vehicle for a very unpopular politician. And he is just as royalist and pro-NATO as Sturgeon.
Laying an SNP majority (65+seats) at Betfair at 1.87 is value. Note that the Betfair market is on whether the SNP wins 65+ seats. It’s not whether they can achieve a majority together with their Green cult helpers. Who on earth is buying an SNP majority at 1.84? True believers, probably.
How is polling going in Glasgow Southside? Can Anas Sarwar defeat Nicola Sturgeon?
Remember the 1935 result in Seaham 🙂 The ghost of Emmanuel Shinwell (let’s forget he later became a lord) returns to Glasgow!
Red Clydeside shows Douglas Young the door!
“Just as royalist and pro-NATO as Sturgeon”.
It’s important not to mistake political expediency for genuine support.
I’m quite happy for the “Royals” to play themselves within limits if it keeps some people onboard. I’m sure in aggregate they don’t cost much more than Coronation Street and East Enders and they fulfil much the same function.
And as for NATO Salmond I think narrowly avoided paying the ultimate price for being one of the only major UK politicians to expose what NATO was up to in Yugoslavia.
N_
Having dispensed your dire predictions like cherry blossom confetti, the reality underneath is more promising. Firstly Alex Salmond is a highly impressive figure having endured sinister personal attacks with great patience. Then, the idea that former Labour voters would choose a millionaire representative of a millionaire Starmer is daft, even if the algos clunk it.
Normal people expect not to be able to change the world in one sudden convulsion, taking on the US and UK empires in one fell swoop. Ok Boris got Brexit, but with a strong favourable wind from both Trump and the monarchy. Salmond is sensibly positioned to avoid NATO/EU and Monarchy/ Westminster apoplexy at the outset.
Our future King has very personal interests, architectural design, ecology and opportunities for young people. I doubt Scotland as a country interests him at all, apart from having a big house, which he probably would keep.
NATO/EU would realise that they are not losing power and influence by adapting gradually to Scottish Independence. NATO/EU would grab back the participation of England in its Federal plans by renewing the nukes and bases further south. And it will have a new member from which to draw inspiration and talent.
Scottish Independence is a win win for the world and a lose lose for those freeloading tapeworms attached to the innards of Westminster, the Scottish establishment. Scotland will make a fortune from its green energy business and she will stop being constantly held back by English addiction to bommy-knockered oil and mineral extraction, on which sadly Labour has form, just as much or even more than the present daft Westminster inhabitants.
After all the only reason for not just buying the stuff you need from other countries in fair trade is, deep breath, the establishment of a Greater Israel by the destruction of anything that moves anywhere near it.
I’ve never understood who actually wants that.
N: I would imagine that Alec Salmond, like most of us, has learned a thing or two along the way. What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, as the old cliche goes. I believe that he has changed in many things, learned hard lessons and will put his hard-won knowledge to good effect.
N_ @ 09:10
And you’re just as colonialist as Johnson.
What’s the odds on total Alba seats?
I fancy some easy money.
The absolute maximum we can expect from Sturgeon would be dominion status akin to the Irish Free State (1922 to 1937).
Yes, Faslane and Coulport will remain sovereign British territory, but the British Army would retain free rein to conduct exercises in the Highlands & Islands. Foreign policy and currency would be “retained” by Westminster.
The US State Department has its hooks deep into Sturgeon’s Nu SNP. Humza Yousaf was identified as an “opinion leader” and inducted into the IVLP in his second year as a humble parliamentary aide (guess he must have influenced the f**k out of that photocopier). Jenny Gilruth was inducted into the IVLP and on American soil 45 working days after qualifying as a newbie MSP. Both these characters are now Ministers in Sturgeon’s Cabinet. Does that strike anyone else as strange?
Sturgeon is a big fan of the John Smith Centre for Public Service, University of Glasgow. This outfit is run by Kezia Dugdale (Gilruth’s bidie-in) and is dedicated to taking otherwise unemployable Politics graduates and churning out Stepford politicians.
Six SNP MSPs are recipients of interns from the JSCfPS in 2021. These include Sturgeon, Yousaf and Gilruth (quelle surprise). The interns are predictably, painfully woke (should fit in nicely in the First Church of Sturgeonology). One includes in her bio., working with “neurodiverce” children (no, really).
Vivian O’Blivion.
You realise that “neurodiversity” is not a specifically woke term, right?
“The term originally referred most commonly to autism but has since come to include ADHD, dyslexia, Tourette’s, synaesthesia, as well as other learning and developmental differences.”
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/neurodiversity
“Neurodiversity advocates denounce the framing of autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and other neurodevelopmental disorders as requiring medical intervention to “cure” or “fix” them, and instead promote support systems such as inclusion-focused services, accommodations, communication and assistive technologies, occupational training, and independent living support.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurodiversity
Dyslexic people tend to be over represented in certain spheres such as business where their ability to think more broadly and intuitively understand complex interactions helps. I apologise if I am wrong but I get the feeling you equate neurodiversity with gender issues. It’s much more than just that.
“You realise that “neurodiversity” is not a specifically woke term, right?”
That wasn’t how she spelled it, hence Vo’B’s remark.
On the subject of neuro-diversity. I recommend Steve Jones from the sex pistols autobiography Lonely Boy.
Apart from being clever witty and fascinating, it tells the story of a young boy who grew up in the 70s council estate world of Shepard’s bush in the 60s, who was and still is profoundly ADHA and dyslexic as a boy he could not concentrate on anything and so took to bunking off and nicking things. He wanted to play guitar but couldn’t concentrate enough to figure it out until he discovered speed, years later his psychiatrist pointed out that the amphetamines he was nicking were helping his concentration much like prescribed Ritalin does
Well with speed and booze he learned to play and went on to change the world and nearly die from booze and drugs.
So neuro-diversity should not be dismissed as some modern craze. Most that suffered from it back in the day felt pulled into crime and self destructive behaviour.
Many sought out drugs not for pleasure but so they could aid their concentration.
Life is complex.
He grew up in the 60s & 70s obviously. Sorry fir my confused text. Craig’s site really does have the worst text box on earth especially when writing it in a phone! ???
Craig, I am hoping you have a big role to play in what’s up ahead, no matter what. This election is not over… and we all know how pointless and useless polling predictions can turn out to be. Though there is plenty to be concerned about in the state supported media keeping ALBA out of the debates.
I had thought I was in Edinburgh Central, but by a quirk of boundaries, I am in Edinburgh Southern, so I don’t have the AR dichotomy to be concerned about. For me, it was just his po-faced incredulity that anyone could question what looked unseemly about the way he parked himself across Joanna Cherry’s intention to stand, and how a co-ordinated effort with the SNP NEC changed the rules on to disfavour her, and in his favour. That she wouldn’t sack her Westminster staff spoke volumes to me. That the SNP wanted her too, also did. That AR had nothing to say except platitudes… hardly a topic-led politician.
My SNP Candidate is Catriona MacDonald… So, I can safely say SNP 1 and ALBA 2. But, if I was in Edinburgh Central, after what you have said today, it would be Bonny Prince Bob 1; ALBA 2.
But this is a nasty, end-game election. They wanted to see the SNP torn apart, our great heroes either disgraced, silenced, retired or complicit; and the unpersuaded thinking Scotland is ungovernable, except as a proctectorate of Westminster. So far, they have failed. Scots respond well to facts.
The facts you delivered, Craig, they were an immense service. I saw nothing illegal in your reportage. To this day I do not know the name of a single one of the accusers.
Good luck… Best Wishes, and respect.
I don’t think “they” wanted the SNP torn apart as such – just tamed, and “they” appear to have achieved that aim rather nicely.
The SNP is the perfect thing for Tories in Westminster – providing of course the SNP is not really an Independence Party at all – Labour dead – Scots left thinking they’re always about to leave but never quite manage it, the next great thing for the Tories would be English labour split into numerous left parties fighting over the same seats. We really are looking at one party rule for a very long time now.
And though I’m cheering on the Northern Independence Party, I can see how that can only benefit Tories in the Tory system of FPTP.
As for Labour they’re finished. There can be no coming back for them now.
This is an incredibly bleak time for Britain that can only really be understood as the final collapse of a once vast and cruel empire.
I doubt future historians will weep one tiny tear for the demise of such a villainous organisation.
I don’t know what happens next but I don’t think it will be anything good.
I had a wee laugh to myself when Sturgeon came out guns blazing and all, on the sleaze surrounding the Tory government, oh don’t get me wrong, the stench is overpowering.
However, the stench of sleaze is also extremely overpowering that’s emanating from the SNP government.
Good to know.
??
Man what happened eh? It’s like Boris’s premiership sent a message out to every career politician saying “be as corrupt as you like, it really doesn’t matter anymore the public are stupid look who they elected”
I can’t believe the speed of decline! It really is “fill yer boots lads”
” look who they elected”
Or did they?
At least try to claim all of your expenses, from Westminster as the Shinners did, it will come in handy, Alba Abu!
«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.»
That is a maximalist and adventurist approach to Independence that is guaranteed to repel many voters who would otherwise want independence, and guarantee that powerful foreign powers will do their utmost to undermine Independence. Ireland did not get Independence by telling the USA to f*ck off; they are outside NATO and neutral (yet entirely USA-aligned) because their independence happened before the USA established their global suzerain empire and NATO.
Both commonsense and practical argument favour neutrality and a republic. There is no evidence that fawning over NATO and the Windsors warms Scottish hearts.
The USA will not countenance anything that smacks of socialism or undermines their Military footprint on the subjugated nations. Scottish Independence would be seen as a threat because of the potential impact on Trident, possible support for Palestine and impact on US Companies access to Oil Fields.
Am I a paranoid conspiracy theorist ? Is Jeremy Corbyn the Prime Minister ?
If you are a paranoid conspiracy theorist, there are large numbers of pretty sane and well informed fellow citizens, and I’m proud to think I’m one of them, who think the same way. That’s either a recipe for future severely overstretched mental health services or a rational opposition to the present way we do things. No false dichotomy here.
Me too.
??
Has anyone got a link to a convincing economic forecast worked up for UDI, that might convince me or some of the 10% don’t know’s in the latest poll? For a moment let’s imagine that Mr Salmond and Alba could drive through a Scottish UDI, without him being dragged to Westmister in chains, what can he see that Ms Sturgeon has failed to act on in the past few years? Why has the SNP been afraid to be bold and declare UDI, perhaps because the SNP leadership fear it’s not going to be a decisive win? Based on the latest 45/45 poll and 10% don’t know, Ms Sturgeon is right on the money, perhaps it is the SNP’s tameness that has sapped the will to fight and engendered that 45/45 split. Who wants the SNP student politicians running the show full time with more alleged partisan prosecutions and gender politics? The Scottish people are evenly split and if the old pessimists who do turn out to vote outnumber the Young Bravehearts, then Independence will likely be off for a generation this time, it’s got to be a decisive win this time and the people have to be behind it to face the rocky road ahead as the country will have to pull hard to earn their way out of the economic mess that is the the UK, particularly so given the heavy public sector spending burden in Scotland. Has anyone got an economic forecast worked up for UDI? Can the Scots people afford it? That will be the deciding factor, the hard reality of whether it’s feasible without the people’s standard of living suffering.
A link to a convincing economic forecast you want here it was.
DELETED “?
Some panicky tongue ripping of academia that doesn’t quite sing a long with the choir in the echo chamber – it is dire how the MSM isn’t bovvered.
From https://latestnewspost.com/news/world/united-kingdom/westminster-refuses-to-deny-it-pushed-academics-to-delete-blog-on-indy-scotland/
Sadly I think we’re being gaslighted by HM Government, no MSM reports of the huge crowds in London over the weekend, how can that be? Only a deliberate attempt to control the coverage and output, posts on facebook showing the massive crowds have disappeared, Perhaps HMG has decided to take the digital initiative and close down any hint of public dissent, can’t afford not to control the narrative? Same for Indyref 2 and Assange, maybe the SNP leadership has been knobbled by the dark side? Are we powerless in the face of this?
https://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=204024105119027080064108010108105093034021070051045032025118110105027085085099119011048103001010014121023024092070006082010127107082070089028076094099000116080092125049040024102008094026002127017068070080070123102085030082000080022107005069019009125122&EXT=pdf&INDEX=TRUE
Very hard to completely delete from the internet.
Thanks Arby
Well worth everyone reading that paper, don’t you think? Let’s hope it sees more light of day through your link, can see why the duplicitous Johnson Government would want that deleted! Perhaps Ms Sturgeon is over thinking the legal wrangling of calling an Indyref whereas Salmond sees it as a right of a sovereign nation. Let’s see what mandate comes from the people on the 6th May!
Why isn’t aunt sally shouting all about it? She’d get it on the news. Why is she not demanding fair coverage for all including the nuttiest standing in this election.
Be in no doubt The Gauntlet has been deployed in this election as has been since 2016 in all western elections and it will have a higher absolute number of postal votes. Which will be hard to explain if all the real people, really turn out to vote. Hard to hide vote fixing in a higher turnout.
BrexShit split families and that happened after Indy 1.
This is the defacto Indy2.
A clear proxy vote without being denied a referendum.
If you want Indy. SNP 1 Alba 2.
It is not a vote for the SNP hierarchy it is a vote for Indy believe that and the world will rock!
Sturgeon to be first minister after the election can be sold at 1.11 at Betfair.
Buyers must be extremely confident that
a) she will defeat Anas Sarwar in Glasgow Southside AND
b) unionist MSPs will have insufficient numbers or insufficient togetherness to put a non-SNP government in.
90% probability that BOTH will happen – really??
Why did Fariha Thomas do so badly in 2016? Because the SNP got their vote out, benefiting from momentum from 2014?
Or a mistrust of religious converts in politics by some voters?
Anas Sarwar looks set to do well…
Anas Sarwar?
Claims of nepotism surround his political career. He’s a multi-millionaire and the family business won’t recognise unions and allegedly doesn’t pay the living wage. He sends his kids to a private school : https://www.holyrood.com/news/view,anas-sarwar-accepts-fair-criticism-of-decision-to-send-his-children-to-private-school .
He likely only had Starmer’s backing because he was the most Blairite candidate available. Even Sturgeon, is to the left of the Blairites. The SNP are opposing the spy cops bill for example : the SNP opposed the bill chiefly because it failed to include pre-authorisation for any criminal acts from a judge. Presumably Sarwar, were he a Westminster MP, would be happy to vote it through unamended alongside his ghastly boss. This isn’t about self-defence, it’s about premeditated. No other country allows such immunity, it’s diabolical.
Gestapo a-go-go.
«He likely only had Starmer’s backing because he was the most Blairite candidate available.»
https://labourlist.org/2021/01/richard-leonards-resignation-how-it-took-place-and-what-happens-next
https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/01/how-not-to-save-scottish-labour/
“The Times reported that a call with donors on Wednesday evening saw high-net-worth individuals warn they would not back the party financially with Leonard in charge, and UK deputy leader Angela Rayner and general secretary David Evans were on the call. This prompted speculation that the resignation was a direct consequence of the donor warnings.”
Leonard was never very inspiring, thus few will lament at his removal. Leonard would probably admit he owed his victory to being the only pro-Corbyn candidate i.e., the ‘coattail effect’.
Labour today, are a hollow, principle-free outfit. They’ve latched onto ‘woke’ and shout about ‘Tory sleaze’ because they have absolutely nothing else to offer. I’m surprised they aren’t polling lower tbh, low twenties nationally.
There appear to be allegations of sleaze surrounding David Evans and contracts – very Boris-like.
Thanks Craig.
Apart from all your experiences as an Ambassador etc
Which no doubt includes being a people person.
Myself having worked abroad alot , my experiences, I became a people person all the differing passions ,ups and downs, , learning to deal with all sorts.
Yet here, we have NS and cabal devoid of passions and failing to lead ! Ok she may be just a manager.
It doesn’t get away from her vacant aspirations, to our Country, against the daily onslaught of abuse from English state and their compliant media, let alone the enemy within.
Onwards and upwards
??
“Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”
Defence chiefs are somewhat heartened by the latest Tory government Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy which asserts the strength of the union no less than 10 times.while affirming the new Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft to safeguard the North Atlantic from their base at RAF Lossiemouth and an aggressive increase in Scotland’s production of surveillance satellites and launch capability by 2022.
This together with the Foreign registration scheme to be unveiled in the Queen’s speech on May 11 to which zionist Dominic Raab said the UK Government “stands in full support” with the Czech Republic as it seeks to catch two men who were using passports with the same names as those believed to be responsible for the Salisbury Novichok attack this being in reality a side-step from the update to the Official Secrets Act so it can be used against Alex Salmond who has recently been berated for working for the Kremlin-backed broadcaster RT, this in an interview on Good Morning Scotland ostensively to discuss the upcoming Scottish Parliamentary election and the prospects of his Alba Party while initiating another mudsling to expulse Alex and Scotland’s drive for independence..
Squawk, squawk!
Sorry for a lengthy quote, really only a morsel of probably the clearest eyed poignant bits of literature written as it is happening. Please do read the rest of it. It seems a great.
https://grousebeater.wordpress.com/
“ Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, an articulate prime minister but badly educated in egalitarianism at one of Scotland’s premiere private schools, Fettes College, was smart enough to see what was coming. Reluctant to offer Scots anything more than Labour’s discredited neo-liberal policies, he agreed to the reinstatement of Scotland’s Parliament, later expressing regret over what he saw as devolution “encouraging nationalists to ask for more” – unintentionally admitting Scotland has less than constitutes full democracy!
In Ireland’s case, the intention was to offer a settlement, spurred by Churchill breathing fire and brimstone, allowing limited Republican rule but keep Ireland as a state within the Empire.
It is hard not to see Scottish devolution as a significant parallel, a parliament offered in diminutive form, an ‘executive’, with hobbled powers, a gift on loan. Freedoms limited artificially invariably call for group action to allow people to exercise free will.
In Ireland’s case, after cabinet discussion, the British offered unconditional talks to the Republicans, Churchill having preferred to restart war, over-ruled by his colleagues.
The negotiations
Lloyd George, as unionist as any Scotsman on the make, and in common with today’s English politicians, chose a one-sided, largely unionist negotiating team to do their best to brow beat the Irish down to a free tram pass and a latch key to live in their own country. Scotland should expect the same treatment when its time comes.”
As one of the new media voices. ‘Grouse Beaters’ words are guaranteed perpetuity as will the no-longer-to-be-delayed Indy.
Certainly DunGroanin ‘we are manipulated by those we trusted enough to elect.’ It is I am sure the time in 2021 to pull down the walls of deception, to stand up, arouse from a sleep and rescue our ‘Chief Whistle Blower and prisoner of the British State’ before HE DIES together with our hope of a better reality.
«he agreed to the reinstatement of Scotland’s Parliament, later expressing regret over what he saw as devolution»
Blair called it quite accurately “a glorified local council”, it is indeed in no way similar to a Parliament. Nicola Sturgeon is in effect the Mayor of the Greater Edinburgh Combined Authority, which is in population between that of the London GLA and of the Manchester GMCA.
The problem goes right back to 2017. The General Election had proved a huge miscalculation on the part of the Conservatives. far from being crushed, Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership achieved a major breakthrough, achieving more votes than any of his predecessors did at the four previous elections. The main constituency where this breakthrough took place was the youthful vote. The expectation among many of the Left was that the Party would build on this solid basis of support which would intensify as the next election approached. What I believe happened then was that the SNP saw a dazzling opportunity for participation in an Anglo-Tartan coalition. Their own vote would hold firm, whereas Labour would exploit the febrile nature of May’s minority government to land some serious blows. But this probably would not have been enough for them to achieve an outright majority. But with the solid phalanx of 50-odd SNP MPs ready to form a social-democratic alliance the prospect of shared power would have been too much of a temptation for Jeremy and Nicola to spurn. The SNP would thereby gain the credit for definitely turning Britain into a social-democratic direction – the Scottish electorate would grasp that particular nettle and continue to support the SNP whilst going easy on demands for independence. Am I right or am I right?
That relies on forgetting Sturgeon’s actions during the 2019 GE campaign. She was one of the most gleeful contributors to the Right’s ‘Corbyn is an Anti-Semite’ smear, even though he was offering her a 2nd indyref. So I’d say you’re wrong.
The SNP, along with the Liberals, also brought down the broad coalition to have a second referendum on leaving the EU. Apparently the Liberals believed they were about to win the next election. What reason did the SNP have?
«2017. The General Election had proved a huge miscalculation on the part of the Conservatives»
There are many myths about UK general elections (the most ridiculous is that Tony Blair “won” 3 of them by himself, by being merely present at them), and that is the myth of the 2017 election.
In 2017 the Conservatives did their calculation right: by campaigning as the English Supremacist Party they got a veritable landslide gaining 2m votes over 2015, largely taken from the UKIP. It was a major success for Theresa May. The landslide did not translate into seats because Labour also got a 3m surge in votes in part from UKIP, in part previous abstainers who switched to voting for Corbyn. If Theresa May’s electoral calculation had not succeeded, the Conservatives would have been brutally defeated, instead of just losing their thin majority of seats.
2010: Lab 08.61m, Con 10.70m, Lib 6.84m
2015: Lab 09.35m, Con 11.30m, Lib 2.41m, UKIP 3.88m
2017: Lab 12.63m, Con 13.30m, Lib 2.22m, UKIP 0.59m
2019: Lab 10.30m, Con 13.97m, Lib 3.70m, BXP 0.64m
Jeremy only needed a million or so more votes to obtain more votes than BLiar did for his 1997 landslide. As I said, Labour should have built on the 2017 platform united behind the leadership – only he was betrayed by a bunch of lily-livered backstabbers in his own party, principally among the backbenchers. They saw the “anti-semitism” trope as a major vehicle for undermining him. Now it is true that the electorate didn’t give a single, solitary f**k about these allegations, but they did seriously undermine the leadership and cause them to waste much time and energy in response to them – time and energy which would have been more profitably spent building on the 2017 breakthrough.
The Corbynites were stopped and the half million new members were stopped by the same old establishment that took over and hollowed out the post war Labour Party and the gains it gave the British People by virtue of its Soldiers Parliaments bypassing the Rothermear and co mass media – when they spectacularly dumped the skulking CEO psychopath and mass murderer, the odious Churchill.
The Gauntlet was illegally launched as a direct foreign intervention in the U.K. elections and a whole lot of smoke was created as well as a depth of December general election to reduce turnout so that the Postal Vote steal could be pulled off without too much attention.
The head of the security services directly said that the prospect of a Corbynite Labour Government would disrupt ALL THEIR PLANS.
We are in a war and don’t know it! That’s how they keep winning.
See if you can find the total number of postal votes to put in that list.
Even a person who can’t count must see the huge inconsistency in that final Tory vote.
In order to secure independence, just take a lesson from what has happened in recent history: you have to be in power to influence outcomes. Just ask the Labour Party.
Scottish independence isn’t a situation like the one Nigel Farage took advantage of vis a vis EU membership. There is a long, emotive, complex history behind this union, and it is stronger in the minds of many than the one they had with the EU. The SNP is in power and is going to stay there. To secure independence you are best operating from within or close to the SNP and keeping its nose to the wheel. If you are outside and criticising, you can be attacked and dismissed. And you will be. Moreover, you’ll be ignored. Farage appealed to prejudice and racism won, that’s not something Scottish Independence would ever want to do. Nicola Sturgeon is right to appeal to the downtrodden and the marginalised. People have seen the results of racism and exclusion and it leads to isolation and intimidation. Scotland should want freedom and cooperation for all its people. That’s the whole point, isn’t it?
All independence supporters are in the same family. It doesn’t make sense to split up and fight before you reach your goal. I hope Scotland gains her independence. I hope she isn’t sabotaged by those that support it, even if you are right, that some are content to push independence to the back burner. The solution is to get in there and make sure they do the right thing.
” look who they elected”
Or did they?
“If you are outside and criticising, you can be attacked and dismissed. And you will be. Moreover, you’ll be ignored”
Yes but its going to be just the same if you are inside except that you will be more constrained in what you can say or do if, for some reason, you want to stay on the inside.
“It doesn’t make sense to split up and fight before you reach your goal”
It looks like NS is doing the splitting and fighting so her crew have to be bypassed to create a united independence movement.
“All independence supporters are in the same family”
NS is not an independence supporter.
“you have to be in power to influence outcomes. Just ask the Labour Party.”
But suppose not influencing outcomes in certain ways is a condition of being allowed to be ‘in power’?
“operating from within or close to the SNP”
Where the ‘leadership’ can neutralise you.
” Nicola Sturgeon is right to appeal to the downtrodden and the marginalised.”
Like all partys of the extreme center the SNP interest in the downtrodden and marginalised is entirely hypocritical and designed to sprinkle stardust over a policy of support for mass murder and terrorism in West Asia.
Biden and the EU have just put a corporation tax time bomb under Ireland.
Surely the nail in the coffin of Scottish “Independence”?
Ah Glasshopper thank you for inspiring this morning’s sermon.
Competition by unfair taxation rates is certainly being levelled from the EU playing fields by a CJEU, which has the power to do so.
Biden is just making fake smoke signals as his demented presidency is hidden from the voters by a highly stage-managed MSM protection racket – it’s a long way they have come from never showing FDR in his wheelchair.
The OECD does its regular bit of sabre rattling when a G meeting is due, but never ever ever delivers on anything. It never transpires into real action particularly on the Tax Havens, the largest of which is the City. Its main purpose is to protect the fake ‘World’ Bank and ‘International’ Monetary Fund etc. And to keep China, Russia, India and Brazil under control (you can see how that is working out for the Brazilians and Indians… as soon as Pakistan cracks and stops being run by its military Junta and controlled politicians (sorry to say that Khan is showing his true affiliations now and has abandoned his Pashtun historical resistance) – that Great Game finally comes to an end.
Ireland will easily survive – with plenty of EU funding if necessary and a CBC Tax regime will ensure that the multinationals pay their fair share of Tax based on Revenues they generate in each country not the fake profits/losses they engineer.
Where that leads to next is obvious to me – the CJEU will become the International Court as the EU extends its Treaties.
The protection the City and any number of warmongering robber barons and bankers have constructed over the centuries with the English Law Courts is a shield that is cracking and will shatter.
Biden’s nazguls are just being busy getting their cfr State Department and Nato minions into place for their next big grab – they really may be mad enough to go into Ukrainian to push Russia into self defence – it won’t happen but the minute they cross into Russian soil expect an instant annihilation of the proxy invaders and their command and control far away bases.
They may even try and send their proxy nazi Uighar Isis head choppers to China – well you can imagine how the People’s Army will deal with that virus.
The Middle East is a Fail and will see the diminishing of the Gulf States as they realise they have nothing to gain by remaining in the Seven Sisters’ pockets any more. And their unsustainable new metropolises will disappear back into sand faster than Ozymandius’ statue.
North Africa is a game that will return but this time the revolutionaries will sign up with the SCO and BRI investments which will finally guarantee that the Young of Africa have real prospects at HOME.
The Pacific region maybe? It’s far away enough and already radioactive enough to want to destroy more of if they think the blowback won’t land back into the Hamptons and their SuperYachts and Space Stations will avoid any direct retaliation…
So that leaves South America and the Artics.
Boots on the ground in Venezuela?
Bye bye the rest of the pirate ports of the Caribbean.
And can’t really see the Mexicans and Bolivarian herd memories of the Indios allowing that to happen, as they wake up and see the land grab underway by the Great White Knights and modern Lilly white fairie princess and child goddess enclosing the last wild habitats on the planet to EXPLOIT not protect.
That brings it to the Artic regions … who is up for some high tech cold weather warfare that swiftly annihilates the Bears and Penguins and fish and plankton breeding grounds of the oceans? Only these mad about their infallible Gods and rights over the rest of humanity and the planet I venture. And we all know who has the most reliable icebreakers around.
So the Scottish voters have a very big decision to make that goes beyond the dotted line on the map in a week’s time – perhaps their last chance to make a mark on the future of the world and as a first step to atonement for their willing role in the exploitation and destruction of peoples and lands over the centuries, as the handmaidens and mercenaries of the Anglo Imperialism Knee that the whole world still chokes under.
Get out and vote and do it right – SNP1/Alba2.
Amen.
«the Gulf States as they realise they have nothing to be gained by remaining in the Seven Sisters pockets any more.»
Places like UAE or Kuwait have 80-90% immigrant populations, most of them indians or pakistanis, most treated like slaves; why they, by themselves or organized by the governments of India or Pakistan, don’t take over? Because it is obvious that the USA won’t allow it. The Gulf state rulers owe their lives and their wealth to being in the pockets of the Seven Sisters.
These are just the latest version of slaves and indentured labourers.
They have zero clout or organisation.
but i’ve been told the seven sisters are poor helpless cowering victims of a few scientists.
I think a shift toward the removal of corporate tax advantages had been generally acknowledged (though not just yet, pace St. Augustine). With the loss of tacit UK support within the EU, it became a question of time.Ireland has had the time to make good on its advantages of a young well educated population and a common law tradition (unlike Scotland) as well as having now the English language alone within the EU. Thus inward investment and expansion are by no means doomed.
You should read some of Mary Slessor’s writings on what she found in your wonderful “free West Africa” where murder, torture, rape and slavery had stalked the land for as long as anyone could remember. There is a reason Christianity became and is still so popular in Nigeria and much of Africa and that was the British brought that murderous time to an end and the same across much of Africa. It isn’t very ennobling to be murdered by your own people or like the North American natives to be scalped alive for fun and again the British brought that to an end also. The sooner we get that pattern machine working and you can go down into the machine and see how people really suffered before the British came along the better.
Yes they weren’t perfect as I saw all too well when the last half empty boats left Singapore in WW2 because the locals who also wanted to run were thought too dirty to be mixed with the wonderful British overlords who were running with their tails between their legs from the Japanese Imperial army but all in all the world is a far far far better place for the British empire’s influence and its Christian bedrock. People such as Slessor and Liddell showed that there were some real Christians among the pretend ones who treated and continue to treat people so badly as those people in Singapore did such as the one sitting astride the throne at the moment who has never done a decent days work in her God forsaken life and has kept not one single one of her coronation oaths given before God, the British people and the people of the Commonwealth. Chokes under? If only you knew how ridiculous that statement is and one day you shall.
The colonial governments in what is now the U.S. offered bounties for the scalps of Indians, give me a break on this white man’s burden nonsense. “The only good Indian is a dead Indian” was a common sentiment of white Christians in the U/S., and public lynchings were often occasions for family picnics in the south, well known for Christianity.
The British people’s wealth, real wealth and savings are being being squandered from the people that created it to be destroyed in wars for the benefit of the MIC. We must, like silent seeds creating, prevent a dystopia world of permanent warfare.
Our intelligence services are using Ukraine to open up Russia and collapse it politically. By training anti-Russian facists to attack the separatists in Eastern Ukraine they hope to create mass casualties in the Donbass region forcing Putin to intervene thus propelling the MSM to report Russian aggression and threats of the whole of Europe being incinerated. As a side remember MI6 is under the purview of the Queen and is paid directly by her.
It doesn’t matter how much sleaze and corruption surrounds the Tories/Johnson Tories in Scotland will feel compelled to vote Tory as a vote against Scottish independence.
It doesn’t matter how much sleaze and corruption surrounds the SNP/Sturgeon independence supporters in Scotland will feel compelled to vote SNP as a vote for Scottish independence.
What a sad state of affairs.
This is all very Scot-centric. Not meaning any disrespect to you people but if you really do achieve Independence then that will surely have a huge effect on me as a British Englishman living in England. I was not invited to vote in that referendum you had. Where is my voice in any of this?
Interesting. Perhaps the whole population of the EU should have had a vote in the UK brexit referendum?
Or Eu citizens living in UK!
Where was your voice in any independence of the countries that formed the English Empire?
Fancy a belated vote on the subcontinent? African nations?
Have fun with your jokes but fact remains that as a citizen I surely should have some sort of say in the dismantling of the United Kingdom. If you’re interested I would be an enthusiastic voter for upholding Scottish Independence and detaching your country.
In a spirit of generosity and empathy or pure hate?
I understand what you say. But you don’t see the fallacies inherent in your reasonableness. For instance you aren’t a Citizen of the U.K. but a Subject of the Crown – the English Crown. You were a citizen briefly of the EU. That was postal-vote-frauded away in 2016.
More importantly you, the Crown, the Empire and even the EU or UN or Any make believe god has any right to ‘grant’ or ‘withhold’ the right of the Scots, Irish or any Peoples to self determination.
They didn’t align themselves voluntarily centuries ago with Imperialism; they were coerced into the Borg.
Just stop thinking that freedom is only valid by consent of the conquerors.
Just TAKE IT.
If they send soldiers or raise traitorous modern Black and Tans then FIGHT – get allegiances across the World and kick the Empire wherever it stands until it finally gives up.
Under no circumstances accept that you need the permission of the slave owner to declare yourself equal to them.
There is such a thing as a British Citizen.
https://www.gov.uk/types-of-british-nationality/british-citizenship
Perhaps you would be good enough to explain why, on your Passport, it says “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”
There seems to be a missing ‘s’ if you hold that Scotland is a separate ‘Kingdom’. But, we know that it is actually a geographical region of the island of Great Britain, ruled by a monarchy which later united with the other monarchies to form a United Kingdom. In other words, it is the ‘Crowns’ that are united, and not the areas of land.
So without that ‘s’, Scotland is no more or less than an administrative area along with e.g. Yorkshire, Lancashire, East Anglia, etc. and therefore cannot have the status of a ‘state’., any more than e.g. Wales.
I think that there has been a fundamental confusion in the minds of certain Scots, who are mixing up Kingship and status as a ‘state’. We are more akin to the ‘United State’ of America, with Scotland being a geographical region, like e,g, the Rockies.
Where is the ‘S’?
Whether they stay or go. The Barnett Racket needs to end.
Let the Germans pick up the tab. Assuming they’re feeling generous, which I rather doubt.
Funnier than that, those residents here who lived here longer than in their erstwhile countries of birth, some 3.6 plus million EU citizens, had no vote in Farrage’s City of London Corp. scheme/Referendum. Thanks for pointing that out, we knew.
” I was not invited to vote in that referendum you had. Where is my voice in any of this?”
You don’t have a vote because you don’t live in Scotland. You’re having your say here. What’s wrong with that?
You know I’m so sick of this pish.
Countless years ago Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Finland were all classed as Scandinavian the same as we are all classed as Great British. Now we’ve got Norway, Iceland as separate entities. Sweden, Denmark and Finland in a different corner if you like. Small successful countries pursuing their own national interests but with a common ethos.
But in certain areas, particularly tourism they combine as Scandinavian.
Why the f**k is it so impossible for the same ethos to work here?
Maybe that’s why they are consistently voted the happiest countries in the world while we drown in bitterness, and are led by narcissistic psychopaths.
Finland has never been part of Scandinavia or considered Scandinavian.. When classed with Sweden, Norway and Denmark, they are collectively known as the Nordic countries.
Finnish is a totally different language to Scandinavian.
The road block paves the way for fiddling the vote.
Managing expectations is the ‘ in ‘ thing in corporate management. It means you won’t be annoyed when you lose out to the algos. Or if you are Labour, you can then say that the election proves without doubt that your best leader ever was complete rubbish.
The will of the electorate is an extremely powerful tool in these days of the antichrist for government to manage power through democracy, instead of people managing government.. Such is 21st century life.
What many obviously do believe is that they’re clever enough to put mind control into a vaccine. Too late for me I’m afraid. But I have noticed in life that those who are most suspicious of government have the least clue about politics.
The purpose of politics is power and money, not woke.
But the central DNA of politics that used to be about right and wrong, when I was young, has got bio- engineered and replaced with woke as a substitute.
The BBC’s obsession with the Arts, is a permanent supply of methane in politics. Pure Bollywood.
Hi Craig,
For those who may be interested, here is a link to my video ‘INDEPENDENCE EXPLAINED’, which follows on from my book ‘Doun-Hauden: The Socio-Political Determinants of Scottish Independence’.
https://youtu.be/BcmvyW4gtA4
Odd that the media are focusing on Tory sleaze now. The whole donor flat renovation story amounts to very little and the idea was rejected anyway. A far bigger scandal was the millions for crony covid contracts, bypassing the usual tendering process; procedures put in place precisely to prevent graft or even the impression of graft. In the battle between Henry Newman and Dom Cummings, it’s a shame they can’t both lose. Henry Newman is the last person you’d want in No.10. A member of the Jewish community, he seems more interested in defending & promoting Israel’s interests than anything else :
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/dec/31/iran-conspiracy-theories
https://www.thejc.com/comment/opinion/the-israel-trade-bonanza-we-could-enjoy-1.436946
Could be cynical and say the media are only highlighting sleaze now it in an attempt to save ‘their man’, Sir ‘Dreary’ Keir Starmer. He and his party are rightly floundering in the polls for once again returning us to the illusion of choice.
Spot on:
MSM more interested in £50k spent by the Caliph on his tart’s boudoir than the tens of billions that have been trousered by the regime’s mates.
Even with all that lot, there needs to be a viable alternative on offer for it to register with voters. Who is the conduit channelling public anger? Not Starmer, that is for sure. Good Morning Britain ex-presenter Piers Morgan provided better opposition tbh.
I think many have now sussed out that the Blair tribute act that is Starmer’s New Labour redux isn’t worthy of personal investment. And if the Lib Dems had a likeable, charismatic leader like Charles Kennedy leading them right now, I think Labour would be polling below 20% UK wide. It’s only the equally unpopular Ed Davey sparing Starmer’s electoral blushes.
Channel 4’s Dispatches programme reported that Peter Mandelson called Jeffrey Epstein *while he was in prison for child sex offences* to ask him for a favour. Now the Labour leadership wants to make him a public figure again – while complaining about “Tory sleaze.” That’s our clean brush.
Yes Goose an illusion of choice is all that remains with Labour under Starmer leadership. So, can we learn from history? We know in plain site that at least 3 front page editorials warned that a Corbyn government could pose such a threat to the Jewish community in this country. Are the fetid pools of antisemitism, disguised as far-left “wokeness?” and what truth resides in what activists regard as ‘weaponised antisemitism against Corbyn?
Digging dirt here for some truth will only end in hard rock or a tangle with those who cite social media posts as evidence of antisemitism where so called ‘unsound’ members have been accused of sharing articles from prominent websites known to be harshly critical of Israel for its repeated violations of Palestinian rights..
What is clear Corbyn’s officials tried to speed up investigations in the hope of ending the barrage of criticism from Jewish organisations and ultimately with others lost it, aware this assault was never about what was going on inside Labour, as was claimed, It was about who was in charge. The aim was to remove Corbyn at all costs.”
Most here probably agree with Noam Chomsky’s view that the MSM pushes system-supportive propaganda – they’re manufacturing consent. The two-party system, certainly the UK system, is also all about the illusion of democratic choice.
We rightly criticise Russia, but really, from a US /UK perspective, Putin’s great error, is merely that he’s failed to inject that illusion of choice into the Russian system. We’re a long way from being a model democracy ourselves, if being honest.
I agree with your first paragraph Goose,yes deception is de rigeur with our peer controlled government. Certainly (and expectedly) I don’t believe President Putin would want to inject illusion into the Russian system for an assortment of straightforward reasons including his abrogation of power from the oligarths. Analogous to our monarch Putin has become the straight-shooter elementor.
“what truth resides in what activists regard as ‘weaponised antisemitism against Corbyn?”
You don’t need to be an activist to regard it that way. Just informed of the basic facts and honest.
Mark Golding
Digging for dirt on Israel is easier than digging for dirt on Israel’s critics. I am reading a book which is 1400 years old which makes it exactly clear that Israeli dirt is an endemic problem , despite of course a continuous thread of spiritual truth . Judaism is probably in its golden age now, despite the politics of Palestine, because there are more people engaged in the virtuous/spiritual side of the religion than ever before.
Jeremy Corbyn never conflated Zionism with Apartheid. The flourishing of Judaism now is obviously the result of Zionism and it’s establishment if a Jewish homeland.
The only thing Jeremy Corbyn, who was on good terms with Zionists in London, complained about was the apartheid, not sharing the Holy Land with their Muslim and Christian neighbours of parallel faiths. Not treating them as equals and not protecting their rights.
The modern Israel could just as easily have been constructed on a different site, respecting the lives and properties of the existing owners.
In real life, you have to start from where you are, not start from where you think you have a right to be.
The hard rock you say lies under anti-Semitism is the strange extremist concept that everything that Israel once owned should automatically be restored to their ownership by force. That mentality is endemic and fully understood for 1400 years at least.
Sunday Times reports that Cummings had long been ‘haunted by fear he could end up in prison.
Nah, he’d have to do something really serious, like writing a satirical skit in Scotland, for that.
Why did the SNP wait until 2014 to hold its referendum?
Was it too thieving and mean to spend its own money on developing an independence plan during the four years it was governing Scotland with Tory support between 2007 and 2011, preferring to spend taxpayers’ money on writing the monarchist “Scotland’s Future” document after it eventually won a seat majority in 2011? Or is it just that freemasons wanted to celebrate the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, and SNP types thought the Commonwealth Games in the summer of 2014 would help their party in the autumn?
I did say “with Tory support”. The SNP government between 2007 and 2011 was a minority government. They had 47 seats out of 129 and their Green helpers had 2. The motion on Salmond’s “investiture” was supported by the SNP and the pair of Greens, opposed by Labour, and abstained on by the Tories and Liberal Democrats. In other words Salmond only got to be first minister with Tory help. The SNP love the Tories so much that they’re that party’s wannabe Scottish equivalent.
The only reason the SNP ever promoted itself in any market as “left wing” was to trick votes out of working class people in Glasgow.
The Liberal Democrats managed to get a referendum on electoral reform (which it was obvious they would lose) only a single year after the British coalition took office in 2010. The SNP were in office with a minority in 2007-11 and then with a majority after 2011 and they still couldn’t hold one until 2014. They’re only interested in thieving money. If independence helps them thieve more money, they’ll be in favour of independence. If staying in Britain gives them more money, they will sell independence down the river. Yes it’s politics. If the “threat” or “promise” of independence (depending which way you look at it) makes them money, they will stoke up the said threat or promise, regardless of what the longer-term outcome will be. Who cares about the longer-term outcome? It’s about money now and in the short term. In the longer term they don’t give a tinker’s cuss whether Scotland burns or rots or dies in a plague. (The Darien project says hello?)
Last year Sturgeon begged the British government to come up with a way her crew could lay their hands on an extra £500 million. What had her administration done with all the money they’d had so far? If any other part of Britain (e.g. Liverpool) had a local administration thieve and thieve and then take the p*ss in such a way (“What do you mean we’ve been caught stealing? Give us more!”), the members of the administration would have been disqualified from office, and perhaps surcharged and jailed, and the area would have been put under temporary “direct rule” (rightly). They know that’s impossible in Scotland, because of local brand loyalty, so they take advantage and thieve and thieve with impunity. Can we imagine them after independence, going cap in hand to Elon Musk or maybe Donald Trump or maybe Vladimir Potanin? Because they’d have to – or at least those of them who didn’t just flee the country would have to.
Compared to the Tories and Labour they are left-wing.
Sturgeon’s style may be top-down and too autocratic, but as a party they are quite progressive and have fought Scotland’s corner far harder than any ‘branch office’ Labour coalition Holyrood administration would’ve done. The SNP fought for a better Brexit deal, trialed UBI, backed decriminalising the possession and consumption of drugs. Have opposed authoritarian policies coming out of Westminster such as the snoopers charter and recently the spy cops (immunity) bill. There are many progressives within their ranks. There’s a tendency to exaggerate the problems with the SNP, when they’re far better than the realistic alternatives. Many in England would vote for such a party in a moment, given the chance.
They won’t be very “left wing” when they have to pay their own bills, and the US make it crystal clear that they will be toeing the neocon agenda line.
That’s up to them. If they are better, braver, more principled than the English, they may make better choices. Free of England, they will have that chance – to choose to end poverty and kick out NATO.
They will be “Free” of England. So not ending poverty, but increasing it.
And NATO will go nowhere. Indeed, their best hope of getting into the EU will be the US fast tracking them into it for security concerns.
But Scottish “Independence” is highly unlikely anyway, regardless of how much noise they make on fringy websites.
The main challenge is to get rid of the ghastly Barnett Racket. Time to turn off the tap!
»The main challenge is to get rid of the ghastly Barnett Racket. Time to turn off the tap!»
When the taps were those of scottish oil they stayed well open for the UK treasury, as its exports and royalties funded tax cuts for southern english tory voters and boosted the prices of southern english properties owned by southern english tory voters. Tony Blair himself wrote:
“Mrs Thatcher has enjoyed two advantages over any other post-war premier. First, her arrival in Downing Street coincided with North Sea oil. The importance of this windfall to the Government’s political survival is incalculable. It has brought almost 70 billion pounds into the Treasury coffers since 1979, which is roughly equivalent to sevenpence on the standard rate of income tax for every year of Tory government.
Without oil and asset sales, which themselves have totalled over £30 billion, Britain under the Tories could not have enjoyed tax cuts, nor could the Government have funded its commitments on public spending.
More critical has been the balance-of-payments effect of oil. The economy has been growing under the impetus of a consumer boom that would have made Lord Barber blush. Bank lending has been growing at an annual rate of around 20 per cent (excluding borrowing to fund house purchases); credit-card debt has been increasing at a phenomenal rate; and these have combined to bring a retail-sales boom – which shows up dramatically in an increase in imported consumer goods.”
As an unionist he used the dissembling term “North Sea oil” instead of “scottish oil”, as if the “North Sea” were a nation.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/18438185.truth-behind-scotlands-oil-mccrone-report/
Even Alex Salmond’s and Alba’s strategy rests upon the SNP doing well in the constituencies. And he’s got more reason to feel aggrieved with the SNP’s current leadership than virtually anyone.
Real risks in independence supporters making perfect the enemy of good in terms of the SNP wavering.
SNP responsible for creating Police Scotland and there’s the small matter of the missing money and other financial irregularities. The audit committee felt compelled to resign when pressured by St Nicola’s hubbie to break the law by signing off accounts they weren’t allowed to see.
It’s true that people tend to vote against governments not for them. A vote for the SNP might in truth really be a vote against Labour or the Tories. It doesn’t necessarily show support for their people or polices, just a recognition that they’re the least worse option.
Well said. Direct rule is what is needed until those involved in the ongoing criminality, i.e. many of the people atop the SNP, are in prison. We also need direct rule of the criminals presently infesting Westminster to have many of them jailed also. A job for superman I expect.
“The SNP manifesto . . . is utterly silent on what happens when both the Westminster Government and the UK Supreme Court refuse the referendum.”
Interesting. Imagine the ferocity of the media’s reaction if Corbyn had pitched for election based on a promise he could obviously not meet . . . Why the kid gloving of Nicola when the threat she poses is supposedly so much greater?
“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.”
And that will be the end of it, job done.
Sturgeon is running a feminist, globalist party that has utter contempt for the people of Scotland and their history. How can anyone in Scotland ever vote for an “Independence” that will be handed away to the rapacious EU the first chance those in power in Edinburgh get?
I voted for the SNP for 40 years and latterly became a member when Sturgeon took over the reins and I left the party the first time I heard her speak in a question and answer session in the Caird Hall. It was clear to me from her answers that 1. She doesn’t have a democratic bone in her body, her instinct is clearly authoritarian, 2. She is not a nationalist. and 3. She has no time for the 50% of the population that are men.
If Alba has the same idea of handing my country across to globalists in the EU, which I am pretty sure it does intend to, I won’t be voting for them either.
I want rid of all transnational groupings and have a world with freedom loving independent countries not one of which has “hate laws” on the books so that everyone is free to think and speak their mind. There are no large parties in Scotland that have dared to nail their colours to that mast so none of them will be getting my vote.
Good luck with that John. The whole justification for a new referendum is to drag Scotland into the Brussels club. And the Euro.
I’m sure the EU will be delighted with the fish.
Orkney and Shetland have other plans and will be fine.
Glasshopper.
The ALBA party advocates that Scotland joins EFTA, it wouldn’t take as long as full EU membership to barter out, and would still allow Scottish businesses access to the Single Market. ALBA also advocates brokering the EU deal and a deal with Westminster at the same time, EFTA would also allow Scottish businesses access to the UK market, and all of the current EFTA members are doing pretty well, being in EFTA would also give Scots access to the Schengen Area.
You forgot to mention the hard border with England. Or the fact that the EU may not want you at all.
There is no point in having another referendum unless it is crystal clear what people are voting for.
Sturgeon has accepted that there will be some sort of border, but she wants trade and business to carry on, similar to Ireland and NI at present. She will find that this will be negotiated between Brussels and England once she is partial to an arrangement as part of the EU.
Should she copy ALBAs policies of joining EFTA,then there will be negotiation space, a slow lane at best, but who is rushing, by 2030 needs might be considerably different and more urgent issues will become prevalent that are outside controls of any Government, such as increasing chaotic changes to habitable spaces world wide, issues that will need humanity to consider their actions, ideally in cooperation with each other.
Keeping outside NATO, dare I say unilaterally declaring nuclear zero, not for energy/plutonium and not for any defence pact anywhere, with a Scottish peace and defence force, soldiers will be used increasingly for immigration issues as the climate will create more south to north migrations.
We can guess Nicola’s response to Faslane and Coulport, should any journalist ever dare to ask her about a future Independent NATO membership and or whether she intends to keep these first strike targets in an Independent Scotland.
The issue of a nuclear war and its effects in a situation of accelerated climate change should be discussed at COP26, and the theorem of such scenario’s effect be reduced, with unilateral nuclear disarmament being one option that would speak to future generations sick and tired of the deaf and blind Governments around the world.
A full scale nuclear exchange could end humanities most cancerous status on earth and that of millions of other species. Such bad are diplomatic relations that we are slipping backward into a cold war situation without being able to use our heads, I’m sure that Craig would agree that this is a real and present danger to be eradicated from our arsenals, everywhere. But it takes a brave heart to undertake the first step, I think and Independent Scotland could do it.
That’s rich especially with a border in the Irish sea, you know the one Johnson promised would never happens, as for another indyref, what we want will be decided by us after we ditch this unfit for purpose union.
Can I just lay this little here as it is hilarious:
Guardian: ‘It is beyond moronic’: fury at how PM set the stage for Cummings’s revenge
Boris Johnson’s decision to accuse his former advisor of leaking stories was regarded with horror by insiders – and has had predictable results
What we are seeing here – to paraphrase Cool Hand Luke – is a failure of communication.
Yes I understand it is Spin trying to be inventive. I understand their meta meta narrative effort. But in truth they are gnawing their own leg off in an attempt to build Bozo’s exit scene. And build up the GKH. It’s reinventing Back to Basics!
You Labour diehards in Scotland. Being Independent won’t make you any less Labour than it will British. You may even have a proper Labour Party again. Get on board this time and see it happen. Do consider SNP 1 Alba 2. Seriously.
As I favour Scotland remaining part of a Britain and Ireland Union outside the EU, I suppose I should welcome NS being leader of a de facto Scotland Stronger in Britain Party, even if it involves all the WOKE and COVID extremism. The SNP is in a position a bit like UKIP was, they can’t deliver Independence and are very comfortable taking the money on a promise they may, but if a referendum is called by Westminster, they can determine the outcome by being in a position to do so, due to their pursuit of office.
I believe Cameron called the In or Out referendum (thinking he would win it) to take UK into the Euro, as a way to trump the earlier Labour and Conservative promise to hold a referendum before joining the Euro-currency. That’s why UKIP’s call for an In or Out referendum was a gigantic gamble, probably forced on them, as a Remain vote would have been the end of any hope of leaving EU. But Cameron’s calculated mistake in calling the referendum offered the prospect of British Independence which UKIP successfully exploited.
The SNP, even if we accept they all want Independence, is facing the same dilemma. Officially they want Independence, but another lost referendum would kill the prospect of Independence, but being in office would provide the platform in the event of another Westminster calculated mistake to hold one.
But then again as Independence in EU isn’t Independence, I don’t think an Independence referendum on this basis would be won anyway, which is probably why the SNP don’t want to hold one.
I see the BrexShiteer button pushers are out in earnest this morning.
Scotland being Independent doesn’t stop it being British as BrexShit hasn’t stopped Britain being European.
The fascists have been out at night silencing and disappearing these who stand against the mighty Bozo and the BS crew. Now they are going after mainstream satirists and cartoonists.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2021/apr/26/steve-bells-if-about-to-breathe-its-last
I think I am going to riot.
When fascism is a fact, revolution is a duty.
Not to confuse nationality with state. There is a political and economic British Union and there’s the European Union. A British Union is a right size to work, whereas the EU is too big to work, as single super-state. Boris is a disaster, and I thought Corbyn’s position of outside the EU but in the Customs Union was the British Brexit compromise sadly rejected by Labour and Conservative, and SNP.
Leaving the EU was necessary to find the money tree and end austerity as austerity was a political decision to keep UK within rules for joining Euro, but now we’ve left, with no prospect of joining the Euro, hey presto they’ve found the money tree that was there all along. The problem is the money tree is being used to impose austerity on steroids, albeit making billionaires multi-billionaires, supported by Labour and SNP!
Dave: There is no money tree, actually it’s a printer, an HP666QE I believe. The Tories have already raised some new bonds and sold them to themselves using new (printed) money that covers the Covid costs.
So, in reality there is no reason for continued austerity and tightening of belts as the bills are covered. As ever, austerity is purely a political choice not a necessity.
I think that was my point. The money tree was always there, but they didn’t want to use it and break the Euro joining rules. The pro-EU groups claimed to be anti-austerity pretending not to know being pro-EU/Euro was the reason for austerity. Now there’s no prospect of joining the Euro, the ‘Brexit government’ has found the money tree and using it to impose austerity on steroids, with backing of the so-called pro-EU anti-austerity groups, including SNP!
Looking from overseas at your situation, I fail to see any really robust swing of Scots opinion to full independence. I think another referendum will be a waste of time, and if it fails, it will put independence many many years away. What the SNP seems particularly guilty of it seems to me is failing to push the agenda, that would be by making sure every aspect of independence is always on the front page, that constitutional matters are constantly debated, how fiscal and economic policy in an independent Scotland will work, how you’d create your own currency, how to relate to NATO, nuclear disarmament, etc.etc. It seems to me that all the debates and ideologies presently discussed are related to how everything will happen in the Union as you are. The SNP are really just sitting down in the clover and enjoying a very long comfortable political picnic. You have to make independence not some huge existential matter to decide upon, but the natural and obvious, unavoidable outcome of a secure and informed society, a proto-nation developing in wisdom and self-reliance maturing and evolving. Indeed, perhaps even a bit boring in its inevitability. Much of the political excitement and debate that informed the population prior to the last referendum just seems to be missing in the absence of this needed overarching discourse.
What price is the Scotland bourgeoisie willing to pay to secure the support of the Scotland working class?
“ fail to see any really robust swing of Scots opinion to full independence.”
If it ain’t televised how would you see it?
If polls are fixed how would you know?
As for the nitty gritty – have you read the Alba manifesto?
As for unreported grassroots activity – you won’t find it being reported by the SNP/Unionist media. Barrhead Boys latest pieces tell the tale.
The narrative you espouse is the cover story that will explain a large blip caused by PV’s.
It ain’t fooling me again.
It looks to me more as if the British-US establishment are up to their usual tricks of undermining democracy by promoting breakaway parties. They did the same in England with Nigel Farage in both UKIP and the Brexit Party, not to mention the Lib Dems, SDP etc. If this were a British election, the same commentators now saying Sturgeon isn’t good enough, would be urging people to vote SNP (to stop Labour winning a general election). Best to tune out the noise from both mainstream and alternative media.
Yes and the same happened in the early 1970s with the buildup of both the SNP and Plaid Cymru, and in fact also the PIRA, after working class actions in Glasgow, Derry, etc., in 1968-72 made the rulers fill their pants with fear. They realised there was a strong possibility of a growing movement that would have recognised no international borders, let alone borders between “home countries”, and could have gone far beyond May 1968. In May 1968 when workers started occupying factories it took about two days for practically every factory in the country to be taken over. That is how fast things can happen. The rulers worldwide absolutely sh*t themselves.
Take something like the workers’ takeover of the Clyde shipyards in 1971 – one of the finest working class actions Scotland or indeed the whole of Britain has ever seen.
The SNP vote doubled between 1971 and 1974. Why on earth did that happen? There was no “national” issue on the Clyde. It was class against class – and the working class has no country. Where did the anti-proletarian cesspit of nationalism get its boost from? From MI5, which got the saltire out and waved it, that’s where. The National Front got boosted a few years later too. Blaming the English or the blacks is basically the same thing.
Similarly in the North of Ireland the Bloody Sunday massacre in 1972 was a success. It’s a total mistake to think it was motivated solely by bloodthirstiness or trigger-happiness. It wasn’t. It was a coolly calculated massacre for a known purpose, and it achieved that purpose. The aim was to remove the working class movement in Derry and Belfast and direct young rebels into being rebels no more, but soldiers of a nationalist gang organisation.
Few people questioned the long-term SNP “gradualism” policy which involved winning and holding Council, Holyrood and Westminster seats to further the cause of Scottish independence. That’s because it has been fantastically successful since it began to emerge in a coherent form in the early 2000s, mainly championed by Alex Salmond himself.
Accusing the majority of MPs, MSPs and Councillors who have engaged with the policy over the years of preferring their “cushy” jobs to the cause of independence just makes Craig appear petty and opportunistic. Just because you write a blog doesn’t mean you are somehow bestowed with greater wisdom and integrity than those of us who are out currently out campaigning for the SNPt.
Just a few months ago, the SNP AND the cause of independence was up in the high 50 percents in Scottish opinion polls. But, back-stabbing by a few eccentric and embittered old men cheer-leading the Alex Salmond Party, that is struggling to poll over 4% on a second option “list”, is starting to undermine all the hard-work. It is, indeed, looking increasingly likely that it will damage the Scottish independence movement into the medium-term future.
Of course, this Alba line is familiar. We heard it from the Sillars fundamentalists as they successfully undermined Salmond in 2000, ending his first spell as SNP leader. What were their lines of attack? “Soft on independence”, nepotism (back in the days when being a “Yes-man” meant something different) and financial irregularities with SNP funds. Ring any bells today?
Of course, nobody can claim that alba would bow down to any refusal by Westminster of an independence referendum today! Alba is strong! It is tough! Scots are a sovereign people!…..but, wait a minute, what did Alex Salmond say in that recent interview with Barrhead Boy just a couple of weeks ago?
“What we are engaged in is a battle for legitimacy, the perception of legitimacy first and foremost by the Scottish people, secondly by the English people and the Westminster Government and thirdly by international opinion”
Perception of legitimacy by the Westminster Government? No way Alex said that!
Surely Craig Murray would not have allowed that to pass without comment.
Iain Lawson would have highlighted “serious problems” with Alex Salmond that “have to be addressed immediately” as he did in 2000.
Peter Bell would have…OK he would have droned on and on like Peter Bell always does…
Stu Campbell would have taken no prisoners…”Alex Salmond is a lying, hypocritical cunt…” would only have been the start of it!
So there is no way that Alex Salmond said that in the Barrhead Boy interview. We all must have misheard.
Because if Nicola Sturgeon had said it every single pro-alba blogger would still be writing about it today.
for someone to claim they have as much wisdom and integrity as craig murray surely they must offer something a little more persuasive than this? it is a big old claim.
5.37 in? Why do we need to impress Westminster “with the perception of legitimacy”?
And why do we believe that gaming the list achieves that anyway?
https://www.barrheadboy.com/scottish-prism-8th-april-2021-alex-salmond/
If you have a de facto Scotland Stronger in Britain Party with a strong Independence from Westminster wing, it’s only natural and probably essential for that wing to be impatient with progress and erupt every so often against the devolutionists/gradualists. So far it’s worked to strengthen devolution and SNP which may given a window of opportunity go the next step, except it’s difficult to believe the present WOKE leadership promoting divisive police state Identity politics is really interested in the NATIONAL “deplorables” question.
Interesting to note, on another of your posts, you give thanks to Alexander Mercouris, for his supportive article on you.
Have you made clear to your readers here of Mr. Mercouris’ being previously disbarred and is yet another Russian media columnist? Or does his fantasy led criminal activity not at all bother you?
“Alexander Mercouris concocted a web of “tortuous deceit” to convince a client he was pursuing the bogus claim, including forging a Supreme Court judge’s signature, a tribunal heard.
He even alleged that Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, President of the Supreme Court, had him abducted and offered him a £50,000 bribe to abandon the case.”
I would urge everyone to read what this despicable person did to an innocent client and exactly the type of company you keep and admire.
https://www.stopfake.org/en/russian-media-columnist-alexander-mercouris-struck-off-over-claim-that-senior-law-lord-had-him-kidnapped/
what has Alexander Mercouries 10 year old past has got to do with the silencing of Alba? Dan Hardy. Craigs readers were the first to point to the excellently argued article he had written.
This topic is about the abysmal sidelining of a political party and politically astute Independence supporting Alex Salmond, by the BBC and the Scottish MSM that sides with the quiet alarmigly incompetent Westminster and PM Johnson, the Integrity Initiative steering all this bias and silencing of Alba, not anything else.
From personal experience I can advise you to stay on topic. If you feel sick about Sarah Smith or Kirstie Warks sniping and deliberate ignorance over the past three years attempts to get at AS, try using a bucket rather than this blog.
Yes I’ve always found Alexander Mercouris very informative. I wonder if Alba is the right name to win in the regional list section. Not saying its a bad name in itself, if given full airtime, which it won’t get, but whether its the right name to get recognition and draw the second preferences needed to get above 5% and then really launch Alba. Something like Vote Second Referendum Now – Alex Salmond would have made the message clear.
Stewart Dregs
Financial impropriety and transparently hypocritical sexual.politics are endemic in the workings of all small corporations. Speaking as an older person i think it’s perfectly reasonable to be amazed that financial propriety cannot be eliminated and that one has to beware of smart asses trying to make up dirt on oneself again and again, in the institutional context.
To be amazed at the sheer cheek of younger people is not the same as being embittered. Cheek that they can screw the budget and cheek that they impugn the honour of a respected senior. I would say that if anyone is embittered it is the youngsters because they realise there are rules in politics and in organisations that they don’t like and can’t circumvent.
My point is, that you should address your complaints about Alex Salmond to Nicola Sturgeon and her bunch of financial and moral spivs. You don’t like all your hard work being ruined, and you blame the victim.
Most of the population who live in the real world, like the jury in the AS trial, can clearly see that it is the nastiness of the incompetent usurpers that has made the problem, not the battle-worn elders who they have targeted for abuse.
Or blame those political.powers that Sturgeon has engaged to support her quest for power, like Westminster and the US Something very tacky and teenage about Nicola Sturgeo and her mates in the SNP, which possibly is derived from their being educated in the school of exceptionalist US politics. The type that says Fxxx the EU and that National Borders of Sovereign Countries don’t exist.
Normal human interaction between the sexes is disgusting when you do it but absolutely normal when I do far worse.
Many contributors to this blog have tried to put their finger on the problem the SNP faces about division.
I would say that division was built into Devolution by the British by the non separation of powers, which Alex Salmond corrected in his constitutional reforms.
And subsequently the US has inserted Woke divisions, Left/Right divisions and nasty personality divisions through their training think tanks like IVLP. So it would be nice if you blamed the British and the US , and those wet behind the ears youngsters in the SNP for listening to their tripe, rather than Alex Salmond who is politically savvy enough to reject their divisive ways and not to cross the line of what is acceptable in sexual politics.
Alba is the direct result of the manufactured harrassment of Alex Salmond by Nicola Sturgeon’s government. That harrassment is absolutely hypocriticsl.
In my religion Islam, the weakness of human desires is protected against. It is considered that if you put yourself in a private space with a member of the opposite sex you have already priced in the inevitability of sexual impropriety, even if it doesn’t happen.
If my work puts me in that situation, and I have no choice, the inevitability of sexual feelings is created by them not me, just the same as if I was asked to work next somebody I knew had Covid. It is hypocritical of the work managers not to address the risk, and it is my responsibility exclusively not to succumb to temptation, even if I am working in an oppressive environment on a regular basis.
It is just as oppressive for a farmer to put a bull and heifers separated by a low fence, as to put men and women in a confined private office space imho. Now, those who deny the existence of God or any God based rules, can easily claim what I’m saying is rubbish, and that a man can be a woman and gay and lesbianism.make sense.
From that , we can deduce that government money is also free from normal rules about theft, or that government powers of imprisonment are free from the rules of justice, or that government pointing nukes at people has no consequences for the people they are pointed against, or that , being spied on has no effect on the person whose privacy is broken.
I guess it’s up to you lot to decide whether to vote for a woman of no principles whatsoever, or for a man whose entire life has been guided by moral principles, even if he has erred as humans do as a consequence.
This election for me has nothing to do with the idox result. It is a way of guaging who and what Scotland 2021 really is. If you vote for gangsters, you’ll get gangsterism. Your choice.