So are only socially deprived young men committing hate crimes? Targeting a particular gender who are from a specific socio-economic background sounds a bit like a hate crime itself.
FFS the Glasgow Women’s Library will only accept bookings that align with their values, yet they wouldn’t take a booking from WOMEN discussing WOMEN’s values with the GRR in mind.
I believe the SNP knows exactly what they are doing with regards to all this nonsense and they are hellbent on completely f*cking up Scottish society, to bend and twist it so far out of shape that we’ll be too afraid to say anything never mind complain about the sheer f*ckin state the SNP has gotten our country into.
This plan is to take our minds away from independence and the coming collapse of our public services including Police Scotland.
We really need to get these evil b*stards out of office.
It’s particularly comforting to see that there are three reporting centres within a single block right next to the University — at the Students’ Union, the Mosque and the Methodist Church. Clearly it’s a high priority to stamp out free speech, excuse me, hate speech in our higher education institutions.
It’s a new blasphemy law basically. Written in religious fervour by followers of a new controlling ideology born out of American universities and has now metastasized into what we have in Scotland.
As a slight aside, a friend is about to leave teaching at a university in England as she’s had enough of the restrictions, the insane students, the lack of funding, just everything. 30 years she’s done this but over the last decade things have gotten worse and worse to the point where she can’t discuss books (she teaches English Literature) because students object to them or are ‘triggered’ by certain words or phrases, not to mention the control students try to impose. It’s an insane situation that the adults are being chased out the room to be replaced by lunatics.
So as a heterosexual white man if a trans???? calls me a name like CIS (honestly no idea about these names) woke etc, I can report it as a hate crime?
Surely, if any proof were needed until now, that ‘the entire political system’ from top to bottom is entirely defunct, corrupted, corruptible, malicious, and run only by a small autocratic and bureaucratic out-of-touch coterie at the top, then this is it. This has to be the end of the road of a so-called representative ‘democracy’ in Scotland. The complete political system needs a massive overhaul.
And some would even question the very idea of not voting to hasten its end? Boycott the lot of them. Stop voting.
Police Scotland will be busy at Ibrox Stadium when 50,000 begin their habitual singing of ” up to our knees in fenian blood”.
Jeez. The SNP/Green dafties grow ever bolder. Thousands of people will be on remand awaiting trial, thousands more will have to be tagged. Most will be females of the mature variety. It is so often the women in these parties who have created this mess: “… now I’ve made it to elected office, I think I’ll just swap my head with the brain inside for the hollow one I bought in Aberdeen – like Worzel and his head collection; I’ve got one with half a brain inside, too, that I got as a gift from Stonewall, although I’ve seen the maggots on it; they’ll wipe off, I’m sure.
Police Scotland, whose duty of care to the populace precludes acting at the behest of the ‘trans’ lobby and their slave politicians, should have told them to do one. The legal eagles, too, although whole new careers can be built around this ordure. Already, the courts are forcing people to lie and use ‘pronouns’ as in ‘she’ raped me with ‘her’ penis. I will never use false pronouns. They can f**k right off.
Labour, Lib Dems, Greens, all in this up to their eyeballs. Gird your loins, ladies, with the 2010 Equality Act and the Forstater ruling. I think that the SNP/Green coalition could be sued for this as it is so open a law, a catch-all, which is illegal in a democratic society. Another court case against them. These p**n-addled men and their pet politicians, probably also p**n-addled, if Creative Scotland is anything by which to judge, are addicted to making people’s lives miserable with utter ordure all around.
The compromised, useless SNP are genuinely just trolling this country now. It’s oddly hilarious and transparent. Meanwhile, amongst other things, the drug death rates in Scotland go horrifyingly up. Still, sure Irvine Welsh will sort it all out when Trainspotting: The Musical (real project! Buy your London West End tickets now!) comes out.
Pure black humour.
But as Morrissey put it, that joke isn’t funny anymore.
The only hardcore sex comedy rap done in protest of the Hate Crime (who doesn’t hate crime?!) shit:
https://scottishculturalcringe.bandcamp.com/album/taking-notes-from-toilet-walls-explicit
And watch who you pick up in yer Scottish taxi (sexually explicit, funny, and scary):
https://whorattledyourcage.blogspot.com/2024/03/adventures-ay-taxi-driver.html
I’m looking at the “definitions” of a “hate crime” that Stuart has included in his article. And here’s a very serious point and observation:
Then they had better ban *ALL* sectarian parades (aka: Orange Walks) because these are offensive to our Catholic communities. And a lot of their material is downright bigoted anti-Catholic rhetoric and sentiments.
What’s the betting this, though, will be chalked down to being “different” or “not subjected to the hate crime bill” etc? Because it’s “culture”.
I wonder if the Ku Klux Klan ever claimed to be “celebrating their culture”?
Catholics should wait until this farce comes into law and then, upon the appearance of the first bigot-brigade parade, flood their nearest police station with hundreds or thousands of complaints.
I’m guessing it will not take us long to establish how bogus all this is. This crap created by the SNP? Then SNP councils on the other hand are doing what Labour did before them and granting permission for bigot-brigade parades to march the streets assaulting all our ears with their embarrassing medieval brand of cultural hatred, eh. Talk about double standards?
According to the info below the picture of the angry red dildo with a rash, aka the “hate monster”, the five protected characteristics this bill covers are:
Disability
Race
Religion or belief
Sexual orientation
Transgender identity
Excellent. What about the other four protected characteristics?
Does Scotland parliament think it is okay to discriminate against them by making them a fair target for hate?
For what I could find, there are 9 protected characteristics:
age.
gender reassignment.
being married or in a civil partnership.
being pregnant or on maternity leave.
disability.
race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin.
religion or belief.
sex.
sexual orientation
So what happens to the other four protected characteristics that are not mentioned under the dildo? Why are they being discriminated against? Does it mean the Scottish parliament and government think women, children, men and elderly people are a fair target for hate just because they are not effing trans?
With regards to religion, what about those who do not follow or care about any religion? Are they also to become a legitimate target for hate from those who follow a religion?
How is that not direct discrimination?
Now, according to the Equality Act, the actual protected characteristic is “gender reassignment” not “transgender identity” as it is stated below the red dildo.
According to the UK parliament website and the Equality Act 2010, “gender reassignment” refers to “someone who is proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of reassigning the person’s sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex” .
Such a person is referred to in the statute as a “transsexual person”
If it is not planning to undergo or undergo those changes, then it does not count as a “transsexual person”.
“changing physiological or other attributes of sex”, that is the wording used in the Equality Act. A dress, make up, high heels, fishnets and a pair of knickers are not “attributes of sex” nor part of your “physiology”. They are commercial stereotypes of gender. The clothes men and women wore 300 years ago were very different to our clothes now.
An adult sized nappy or an adult sized baby-like or toddler-like dress and an adult sized dummy are not an “attribute of sex” or part of your physiology either. They are age stereotypes.
The Equality Act does not use the words “transgender identity” at all. So what is “transgender identity” and how is that identity assessed, demonstrated and proved? It seems to me that going from “transsexual person” to “transgender identity” is one heck of a leap.
If I am interpreting this Act correctly, males who simply choose to wear women’ knickers, make up and a dress without actively changing/planning to undergo physiological change or change their sex attributes (secondary characteristics), do not count as “transsexual” from the perspective of this Act, no matter how they choose to identify themselves or demand others to identify them.
The desire of a male pervert to force his way into female toilets or changing rooms to satisfy his perverted fetish,the desire of a mediocre male athlete to force its way into the female sports category because that male does not stand a chance to win in the male category where they belong, does not count as an “attribute of sex”, a change in physiology and therefore it is not “gender reassignment” or a sign of being a “transsexual person” no matter how they chose to identify themselves. For what I read from the legislation, there has to be an active change in something else other than just the clothes and make up to be one. Because if not, then the only thing each and every single one of us would have to do to protect ourselves and to have somebody else prosecuted for a hate crime and arrested, just because we do not like their opinion, chose to be offended by them and want to have them silenced, is to declare ourselves transgender and declare a hate crime for anybody else who dare challenging us saying we are not. Maybe that is what we all are going to have to do from now on to escape ridiculous accusations of hate crimes under this stupid piece of crap.
I cannot see this legislation as anything other than a deliberately disinforming, thought and speech restricting piece of fascist legislation designed by political and legal pygmies to deliberately confuse the public to give perverts, rapists, weirdos and paedos a escape route against social scrutiny by claiming to be trans, while deliberately leaving everybody else totally exposed to vicious hateful attacks from those.
This is clearly a practical exercise in thought control. I wonder who the big wig globalist arseholes using Scotland as their testing ground for this shite are, and in at which side of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean sea they are based.
I am disgusted that our scarce taxpayers’ money has been and will be squandered with this time-wasting shite when there are so many other important things in desperate need of resources.
If this does not amount to gross and deliberate misuse of public resources and waste of police time, what does.
Here is my cynical thought: what are the odds the SNP is using this legislation to overload the police with this shite so current investigations into the SNP, the press leakers and the perjurers come to halt?
And what are the odds this legislation is being unrolled globally by zionists as a test to stop the amounting criticism and protests against Israel’s genocide of Palestinians? Isn’t it interesting that “religion” and “race” are under the red spotty dildo but sex and age are not? What exactly makes religion and race more deserving of being protected against hate than sex and age?
“In particular, the guidance matters because of the imminent Hate Crime and Public Order Act, which provides for the offence of stirring up hatred on the basis of transgender identity.
This is based on a test as to whether a reasonable person would find the behaviour ‘threatening’ or ‘abusive’, and an assessment that it was intended to stir up hate. The interpretation that front-line police officers place on ‘abusive’ and ‘hate’ will therefore be critical to how widely the net is cast, in the initial recording and investigating of incidents.
The Act provides for a defence based on protecting rights under Article 10 ECHR (freedom of expression), but this is phrased in very general terms and only applies once a person has been assessed as potentially having committed the offence. It does not of itself provide overt protection from initial investigation and recording, based on a low threshold for defining ‘abusive’ and ‘hate’.
Neither Police Scotland nor the Scottish Government have provided any details or reassurance on how it will protect freedom of expression in this context.
Unless Police Scotland brings its NCHI policy up-to-date, officers will be working to two different criteria. For the Hate Crime Act, officers will be required to exercise discretion in a new way, judging what a ‘reasonable person’ would regard as abusive, as well as assessing ‘hateful’ intention themselves. It is not known what guidance they have been given on this. By contrast, the established NCHI policy, which officers are used to working with, tells them what counts as abusive and should be recorded as hateful is based simply on a person’s ‘say so’.
In short, even though the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, by definition recognises a distinction between ‘reasonable’ persons, and those who are not, in their perception of ‘abusive’ behaviour, the existing policy in effect requires officers to regard all complainants as making valid complaints.”
Actually it isn’t just the Scottish Government that seems to hate the electorate, but the whole political class. For present day politicians, actual democracy is too frightening. Within their own parties they exert control, sometimes with outright bullying.( You might have read recently about the harassment and intimidatory behaviour alleged within the Scottish LibDems.) They are all very keen on control. It wasn’t only the SNP who voted for this mad, authoritarian bilge but members of other parties too.
The Moorov doctrine is disgraceful and should have been binned long ago but the police and legal establishment are rather keen on it. It’s ideal for getting a conviction. All that’s required is, say, six stalwart members of the constabulary to swear that each of them witnessed the commission of an offence for it to happen. Or alternatively, as happened recently, members of a Whatsapp group to report analogous inappropriate behaviour for the person so accused to go to trial. Anything that actually encourages accusers to collaborate on their evidence makes a mockery of justice.
It isn’t only our democracy that is being undermined; the political class throughout the western democracies is engaging in the same tactics. Dissent is being outlawed and the idea of free speech seems to be anathema to many governments. It doesn’t appear to matter which side of the political divide politicians are on; they are all united in their detestation of an unruly electorate that does not ascribe to the set tenets of what the political class has decided is correct political discourse. No wonder when people look at the political choices on offer, they feel disenfranchised.
Reductio ad absurdum
This is one of the most important lenses to apply to any new legislation.
Push it to its extreme consequences, without leaving its constraints, and see where it leads to.
Reminiscent of the 1920’s Germany where “citizens” were encouraged to snitch on each other, often used maliciously, always causing societal fracture.
Look at every piece of legislation from the leftards: it’s ALWAYS causing strife, division, conflict and violence.
It’s by design.
The left must destroy any form of societal bonds (family, religion, responsibility) to be able to manipulate distressed, disaffectioned and depressed individuals.
This crock’o’shite can be derailed and rendered ineffective by doing what the Rev suggests.
As every expert in martial arts knows, using your opponents’ energy and leverage to slam them to the mat is the wisest choice.
Inundate everything with reports of hate crimes. You don’t need to invent malicious ones: just the abhorrent behaviour of some wokeratti is enough.
Give them enough rope.
Is it a hate crime to hate someone, or indeed lots of folk??
I cannot believe that this once sane , sensible country of the enlightenment has become this cesspit of utter idiocy and perversion.
I await the Church of Scotland , the Wee Free Kirk, the Catholic Church speaking up – all of them are involved in child protection, so about time they started some missionary work.
The latest from Robin McAlpine.
“So here goes. First, the Hate Crime Act, a crap piece of legislation that no-one liked which was railroaded through by Sturgeon (because a desire to create good policy came a distant third behind her desire to look strong and do whatever she wanted all the time). To get it there they said lots of things, like ‘we’ll engage and listen to your concerns’.
They didn’t. They didn’t listen to anyone’s concerns. They said anything at all to get the legislation passed but none of the words meant anything. They had no intention of improving the law after it passed because they’d already ‘won’. So now they’re spending money on a PR campaign to explain to you (using your money) that everyone apart from them was always wrong about this legislation.
And right about now they’ll start promising you that there is absolutely no way this legislation is going to be used maliciously, like everyone always does before they pass legislation which will 100 per cent definitely be used maliciously at some point in the future (see Blair’s promises that the terrorism legislation would definitely not be used to remove an elderly man who heckled Blair).
When this legislation is used in ways miles beyond any possible intention, there will be nothing you can do about it. You could hold a public meeting, like they did in Stranraer to raise serious concerns about their local hospital – but chances are that you’ll be treated with contempt, like they were. The health board simply ignored the meeting and refused to send a representative.
If a wealthy developer wants a local authority to knock down some building or other, the local authority will quickly shed the rules and restrictions on their unbridled power, like the requirements to do a proper environmental impact study. This is illegal – but who has the money to mount a judicial review?”
https://robinmcalpine.org/theres-nothing-you-can-do-about-it/
From now on if I’m ever in a situation where I’m unsure of the best course of action I’ll just ask myself ” what would Dil do ? ”
Welcome to Scotland The Petri-Dish-In-Reverse : where insane Social Engineer amoeba & other micro-brained creatures subject humans to weird experiments , prodding them with sharp legal instruments , fragmenting them , exposing them to extremes of heat & cold ; ultimately consigning them to Clinical Waste .
How many Independence ” persuadable ” people , once this – guaranteed to create chaos ( is this part of the intent ? ) and endless opportunities for abuse – idiocy has been unleashed and the effects start to be noticed/felt will think …” what a great piece of legislation , I’m definitely voting YES next time ” ? Nane .
I find it hard to believe all this utterly corrosive , legally enforceable , poison is being fed into Scotland’s bloodstream by mere circumstance . Yes , it’s happening all over the West , and for the same reasons ; but that it’s spread so rapidly and virulently in our country can’t JUST be down to the zealots in Green/snP Gov . Other , darker , forces are at play here .
If you had designed a scenario , say …just after the 2014 Ref , designed to totally destroy the Independence Movement and the threat of ” Separation ” ever coming to pass, would it have looked much different to what has actually happened ?
James Jones @ 7:40 pm
“if they can’t handle devolution they really couldn’t handle independence?”
The SNP are not nationalists. If they were nationalists Scotland would now be independent.
The SNP’s behaviour confirms what postcolonial theory tells us; that a compromised national party elite ‘take the independence movement up a blind alley’, introduces ‘laws that mystify the people’, and becomes ‘an instrument of coercion’:
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2021/07/18/determinants-of-independence-colonialism/
Mia: of course extremist ideologues will try to use the Hate Crime legislation to pound women. I think age is included in the new legislation. The reason for misogyny not being there is rather laughable. ‘Trans’ identified men are to be included, so, if ‘trans’ identified men call out misogyny, they will be calling out misogyny on their own ‘trans’ identified male pals and vice versa.
The characteristic of belief is protected in the 2010 Equality Act and in the Hate Crime legislation (Forstater), therefore it is protected under both. The 2010 Act states quite categorically that sex refers to a man or a woman. You are quite right, it is ‘gender reassignment’ not ‘gender ideology’ in the 2010 Act. I think that Westminster, somehow, will have to step in again to rescue Scotland. This is becoming embarrassing because of those numbskulls in Holyrood.
Everyone who hates this stuff, no pun intended, needs to petition the Tories to get us out of this. No, I am not kidding. No other way. Or we have women in prison at the behest of the ‘trans’ identified mob. I thought I could not loathe the SNP and the Greens any more than I do, but I find the level of loathing being ramped up daily.
I will not comply.
This is unenforceable, unsubstantiable legal illiteracy. It’s risible and should be treated with the contempt it richly deserves.
They can’t jail us all.
But even more remarkably, when the options are the only two leaders with any realistic chance of being the next occupants of Bute House, voters plump for Don’t Know (37%) over either of them, five points ahead of Sarwar, who shades Yousaf for second place by 32-31.
Imagine a decade ago we’d be in this mess. A decade ago Scotland was thriving, and yes, feeling the effects of austerity imposed by the Tories but the SNP were a genuine force for good as they tried to mitigate Tory cruelty and improve working people and those in poverty’s lives.
Now we’re in 2024. Sturgeon and her clique has done possibly irreparable damage to Scotland’s political and cultural landscape, not to mention independence which is over as a political alternative for a generation at least. We’re faced with a selection of hopeless incompetents for the position of First Minister and not one has a single thought of how to improve people’s lives.
I don’t think we’ve ever faced a crisis in politics like this. We may be getting rid of the Tories in Westminster this year which is a good thing but seeing Labour embrace neoliberalism & offering little transformative is thin gruel.
But things can change and they should however we’re not going to get any change til this rot is stopped and we lose this managerial class, as well as the deviants, infecting Scottish life.
David Rodgers @ 9:14 pm
“‘Scotland’s tiny immigrant population’. You obviously don’t regard English (or Welsh or Irish) people as immigrants.”
Yes, perhaps the Rev is not yet thinking about Scotland as it would be as an independent state with, you know, a real border. Or the fact that, according to the census, currently around 50,000 people move from rest-UK to Scotland each year; which means around one million people moved here in the last 20 years, the majority from England.
The census also tells us that Scotland’s population over the past twenty years only grew (by about 0.5 million) due to in-migration. So the trend is clear. Once an indigenous people become (or are made) a minority, independence becomes less likely, as in New Caledonia and other colonial territories.
Rev, what the independence cause needs is some really high-profile, really intelligent, energetic and principled people to stand as Independents for Independence.
YOU. I expect you know where in particular the Wee Blue Book was in greatest demand and made a difference. Dundee perhaps? You have Chris Law’s and Stuart Hosie’s trough, sorry, seats [albeit re-named as Dundee Central and Arbroath and Broughty Ferry] to choose from.
I reckon you would make a good fist of a campaign and there’d be loads of willing helpers in that area – Wee Annie for starters.
What an amazing boost for true Yessers to have you to vote for.
sarah @ 10:40 pm
“energetic and principled people to stand as Independents for Independence.”
Funny you should mention the I4I strategy which seems to be taking root, and considering we aw ken its pointless voting for political parties:
https://www.barrheadboy.com/independents-for-independence-are-scotlands-liberators/
Rev. Stuart Campbell
says:
13 March, 2024 at 10:54 pm
“Doing a Cairns and having another holiday but I am curious (or maybe stupid”) what has Sheffield got to do with this?”
” Reference to Kinnock’s infamous Sheffield “victory” rally. ”
Is that the one where Kinnock tried to impersonate a black Southern preacher ” testifying ” to the Lawd – ” AWRIIIGHT ! AWRIIIGHT ! ” , referring to ” a 1000 generations ” – which , as any fule kno is quite a long time , eg ” a bit ” longer than the existence of the Labour Party – in the ruin of which NK played a significant part , not only by elevating future war criminal and NeoLib skunk Blair , also by diluting whatever trace elements of Socialism remained in his Party to 1 part per 1000 ; can’t remember if that speech was before or after his mortifying defeat by an incoming tide – at least Canute was making a point about the limitations of his power , dopey Neil didn’t even notice where he was walking .
One * hilarious * aspect of that preposterous speech/performance was rotting-from-the-inside supporter of EVERY US life-destroying military ” adventure ” , BIG CAPITAL’s man on the inside ..ie * Oirish * Joe Bidet getting caught ( he’s always getting caught , yet nothing ever damages him , wonder why ? ) plagiarising Kinnock’s speech . A shitebag cribbing a windbag ….
” AWRIIIIIGHT ” !
The SNP are being immersed in acid , with the purpose of removing any residual layers of original Independence spirit ; when this part of the process is complete it will be given a light sanding to enhance the grain of compliance , before being waxed and polished to a high gloss finish . Et voila …..
The TRANSfiguration of the ” Vehicle To Independence ” into a useless battered n broken funfair dodgem will be complete ….
” AWRIIIIIIIIGHT “
Hatuey @ 12:37 am
“But the population has only increased by 40% of that number?”
You obviously need to take into account other factors which influence population size, such as:
– annual deaths
– annual births, and Scotland today has its lowest birth rate since records began over a century ago, and the lowest birth rate in the UK
In other words, Scots are no longer reproducing ourselves, and since early 2000’s our population has only been growing through in-migration, meaning the number of indigenous ‘identifying’ Scots as a percentage of the population is now in fairly rapid decline.
Gov policy is clearly a major influence on all of this, for example:
anti-family education, housing crisis, low wages, higher cost of living, plus an externally managed immigration policy as far as Scotland is concerned, i.e. doors wide open to far larger population in rest-UK who tend to fill many of the best paying jobs, and buy (most?) properties.
UK Gov and its agencies in Scotland are clearly working hard to alter the identity of the Scottish population, which may be described as a territory subject to ‘colonial procedures’.
“what if instead of turning against the SNP the independence movement voted en masse for them?”
We would be completely wasting our time and votes
“Could you embarrass them into actually doing something?”
Nope. The SNP and its useless leadership have embarrassed the independence movement pretty much every day for the last 9 years. They have become a party as unionist as labour and they do not seem even capable to show either remorse, regret or embarrassment. Voting SNP is like voting labour: voting to preserve the union.
“Regardless of whether the current leadership have the balls to move forward, if the Scottish people want independence, they can still vote SNP as the obvious choice IN SPITE OF THE LEADERS”
Oh, come on. You are having a laugh now. The last 9 years of pathetic inaction, attacking their own raison d’etre to make the party toothless and their pulling towards the union have demonstrated that this party has no intention whatsoever to progress independence, rather the precise opposite.
You are asking us to close our eyes, and keep hitting our head against the same unmovable wall in the expectation it will fall this time. The only thing we would achieve voting for this brigade of gravy slurping fraudsters is to hurt the yes movement even more. No. They are finished. They are not a pro-independence party and will never become one again. They are not even democratic. If they were, they would fulfill the mandates they were given. They are a complete waste of space, time, seats and votes.
“They’re only people at the end of the day”
These people were given many mandates for an independence referendum and were voted to progress independence, not to gorge themselves in gravy while imposing fascist legislation on Scotland. They did not attempt to deliver our democratic mandates even once.
People who fails at their job must be given a p45, not an overinflated salary, subsidised bars, the comforts of a green seat, perks, a pension for life and a pat on the back.
“small price to pay for a grassroots movement again”
Voting SNP, labour, Greens, Tories or Libdems is a guarantee the independence movement will not move ever again. It is not a small price to pay, it is too expensive a price to pay.
Chuck the whole lot of useless, parasitic and undemocratic cheaters out of the seats, I say. It won’t come soon enough.
What I think worries me the most is the lack of any real successor to Alex Salmond in the independence movement. I don’t see anyone on the horizon with his level of capabilities… not even close.
No one has made the case for independence in nearly 10 years now. It is all just vacuous slogans. I doubt many of them even know the arguments for independence anymore, nor care.
If George Galloway had not been a total tit on the subject he could really have made a difference working with Salmond with both were on top of their game… but no, George is a big republican you see but just not for his ‘homeland’.
(I’ve never for a second thought Galloway is anti-semitic despite being voracious critic of Isr@el but I do suspect strongly he is anti-Scottish.)
The level of leadership ‘talent’ in the younger generations just does not seem to be there.
And it is not just limited to the SNP it is also the UK, across the board, and beyond.
The EU is committing economic suicide right now and there is almost no one doing anything to prevent it, instead they just going along with it. While busying themselves with plotting lunatic attacks on Ru$$ia.
“Is it quicker to our goal to kill off the SNP and start new parties?”
Yes, absolutely. 10 wasted years, a multitude of unfulfilled mandates and the pathetic incumbent humiliating Scotland by sending the stone of destiny down to England, have demonstrated that beyond any possible doubt.
An even faster way to our goal is to have independent candidates for independence standing in each consituency. Fortunately, I4I is already doing that. If you don’t have an independent candidate in your constituency, the alternative is to spoil your ballot.
Political parties have demonstrated they are very quick to talk the talk but totally unwilling to walk the walk.
“Is it more efficient to convince the 10-15% or so people, who have already voted SNP in the past to use the SNP as the vehicle in spite of the leaders, or is it easier to convince more than half the population to vote for another vehicle entirely?”
The latter. There is an ever increasing proportion of yes supporters and former SNP voters (including me) that are so disgusted at the betrayal of the SNP that they will never vote SNP ever again.
The SNP is finished. The SNP is not a party of independence anymore. What is the point to keep the brain dead body of this political party attached to life support if it is never going to do anything to progress independence? If the “vehicle” has no engine, is taking you nowhere. That is what the SNP is today: an empty shell.
10 years is long enough. We are well past the point of symbolism and “letting Westminster know we want independence”. The British establishment learnt that already in September 2014 and that is why they had the political fraud Sturgeon extracting the fangs out of the SNP by claiming a vote for the SNP was no longer a vote for independence.
What we need now is action and action towards independence now. We will never get if we continue putting parasitic gravy slurpers on the parliament seats.
I know my suggestion doesn’t resonate anyway, but nevertheless, the process of impeachment to crash the Vichy Holyrood Assembly and the accordant Scotland Act would have potency if it happened today, or at least before any forthcoming election. Perhaps a lot of potency if handled properly.
However, if impeachment is raised after any election, particularly an election where the SNP has been roundly gubbed, then to all intents and purposes, the notion will resemble an act of sour grapes desperation, not a redoubtable defence of Scotland’s Constitutional integrity under International Law.
I despair at the trajectory we are on, and I despise those I hold responsible for being here.
We have a way out of this, but don’t have the cahonas to go for it.
Everything about Galloway’s suite of beliefs and causes he supports, Irish Republicanism, Self determination for the Palestinians, Anti-imperialism, Socialism (if not outright communism), makes everyone expect that Galloway would have been a certainty to support Scottish independence…
But no, he hates it. Wanted in 2014 to team up with Tony Blair co-war criminal Dr John Reid to campaign around Scotland to defeat it, Galloway was begging him… Not so bothered about the million dead Iraqis at that point was he…
Whenever Scotland comes into the frame it is like all of Galloways principles undergo this weird magnetic reversal and you get the opposite of what you expect.
This is where I suspect the hatred of Scotland comes in, based on his early life experiences it seems.
Coming from a mixed marriage catholic/protestant on the west coast of Scotland, I have no sympathy with that. He strikes me as embittered on the subject.
Like a growing number of the politically scunnert, I wont be voting for any of the failed politicians or parties named above.
Only a strong, independent, Independence candidate, will get my vote (the likes of Eva Comrie, for example). Otherwise, it’ll be a spoiled-ballot-paper from me, declaring: #END the UNION.
Troughers, aside: an electorate doing the same thing over-and-over again with the same predictable outcome doesn’t make any sense and isn’t in the ordinary citizen’s interest. Surely?
@Mac 11.00: yes, Galloway is just another Scotttish self-loather and Britnat Labourite, like Brian Wilson. An old SNP guy I knew in the 70s claimed it was because the latter’s application for membership was rejected by the SNP.
Mac @ 11:00 am
“This is where I suspect the hatred of Scotland comes in, based on his early life experiences it seems.”
‘Self-hatred’ of native culture is a well established part of the ‘colonial mindset’, a consequence of cultural assimilation in a colonial environment. Colonialism is a hate crime affecting an entire people/nation, a crime against humanity.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/03/03/the-colonial-mindset/
Rev. Questions 6, 7, 8 are simply outstanding, though I suspect the answers won’t be forthcoming or the response will be wishy-washy, general hand-waving as we all suspect the police didn’t come up with all that by themselves – it’s simply not in their DNA.
Top marks for the “Feed Me” t-shirt because this is what’s it’s really all about. You can’t have hate if somebody is not out generating it, and the thing the campaigners against hate really need is more hate, otherwise they go out of business.
Would the reference on this page to “young men aged 18-30 […] with ideas about white-male entitlement” constitute a possible hate crime or hate incident, under the protected characteristic of race, since it seems likely to stir up hatred of young white men as being disproportionately bigoted and violent on the basis of their colour and lead to their victimisation?
There’s always been an element in the supposed left/progressive side of things that despises the working class for not being pliant enough for them and not jumping to the tune of the middle class. Even during the post war period, the Heath government of the 60s and 70s and Scotland from around 2008-2017 there was an element of contempt.
But this hate crime bollocks is just complete hatred of the working class, especially if you’re white and male. For these people that places them at the bottom of the pile even though these people didn’t grow up with the same chances they did or indeed, grow up in secure middle class households. One needs only to look at the lack of interest now in making people’s lives better and the like of this nonsense to see their priorities now.
And yes, I’ll be filling in a hate speech report on the 1st of April complaining about that being hate speech. Play them at their own games & see how long it takes for the law to be binned. If everyone does this I give it 18 months.
I would encourage every white male aged 18 to 30 in Scotland to report this publication to their MSP and the Lord Advocate’s office directly as there’s no point reporting it to the same people who published it. The reason being, this document clearly discriminates against them and incites at least anger towards them and at worst violence towards them by accusing them without data or even a definition of “hate crime” of being the perpetrators of so-called hate crimes with no ability for them to defend themselves. At a time when MPs and MSPs are complaining about the levels of hatred towards them turning to violence they should know better than to label, accuse and denigrate an entire demographic and thus direct the attentions of those more radical and violent balaclava wearing, terrorist looking extremists amongst far left activism who think they are victims of such “hate”!
6) Which organisations, if any, were employed to provide suitable training to the staff of Third Party Reporting Centres and how much, if anything, were they paid?
(7) Are Third Party Reporting Centres required to accept any report, or can they use their discretion to refuse some reports if they find them objectionable or offensive?
(8) Are there circumstances whereby a report of a hate crime/hate incident could itself constitute a hate crime/hate incident?
If Stonewall, or one government funded organisation was not involved in the drafting of this I’ll be amazed. I’d bet serious money on it and I’m not a betting man as the fact is there’s a very good reason why they’re being shifty about who drafted this and it’s the same reason Creative Scotland are failing to release the application for the live sex show which is they know they’ll make a bad situation worse and people will have to lose jobs/funding.
Third party centres are open to abuse. There’s also a GDPR question which I’ve not seen answered, and also, we’re actually as a nation saying ‘vigilantism is fine’ because essentially this is what this is. It’s making the people police each other which is not how an open, civil society works. I think the GDPR issue needs to be tested as again, this is something which could bring it down quickly.
If someone goes into a third party centre, reports a ‘hate crime’. Say for example, they’ve been called a ‘Holocaust denier’ by a Trans activist for saying that Trans wasn’t a thing in Nazi Germany and that only four transvestites were murdered and that’s because they were gay and/or Jewish. Will the centre take that report or will a TRA working there bin the report so it never reaches anyone further up the food chain, and oh, just who is further up the food chain for these centres?
Or if I go in an report an Orange Walk for religious bigotry but the centre refuses it as they’re sympathetic to the Orange Order? There’s dozens of scenarios that quite simply I can see being thrown out by the centres because of their own personal politics/beliefs but would clearly meet the ‘hate crime’ criteria under this new law.
Good one, Rev.
We are now entering Stasi territory. Don’t like your neighbour? He managed to buy a bike and you’re still without one, report him or her for hate crimes. The sex shop has to be the ultimate in p**s-take. Really? Some big, hairy AGP or fetishist is going to go in there and blow his cover because, if the report is investigated and the police think they have a case, it’s witness time, Stasi spy, or are they going to ditch trials and go straight to prison? You’ll have to turn up or give your evidence via video-link. Oh dear, the family didn’t know? What a shame, you’re outed now, mate. Same goes for all the other categories. Somebody will know and somebody will tell you snitched.
When the Stasi files were opened to the public, families broke up, children refused to speak to parents and vice versa, neighbour turned on neighbour, teachers on students, students on teachers, husbands on wives, wives on husbands. Lots of stabbings and beatings-up, even disappearances where no body found. The former East German Kripo had their hands full. Getting the population to snitch on each other is never, ever a good idea. Think Nazi Germany and the reprisals, Stalinist Russia and the spate of revenge killings. People will seek revenge, snitches, and you won’t be able to hide forever.
John C: young, white working-class men will be a target, without doubt, but this is aimed primarily at women, hence no protection for them, to silence and intimidate them – the legislators think. State-sponsored intimidation of 50% of the population at the behest of the men in frocks.
David Hansell: the men in frocks who style themselves ‘trans’ women will be covered, immediately creating a two-tier block of ‘womanhood’ with the fakes at the top and the reals underneath. They will be covered under the gender reassignment and gender ideology and ‘woman’ categories because the ‘crime’ of stating the obvious will also protect them while leaving biological women – that is, women – out in the cold. If those absolute eejits in Holyrood get any stupider, we are all going to have to chip in for ventilators to keep them going because they will be too stupid to breathe on their own. There should be a law against really stupid people getting elected or even standing as candidates if they are going to let their stupidity loose on the population.
Take two of disbelief. Why does this scenario even see the light of day?
‘Right, guys, ah’ve goat a reallllly hoachin’ idea fur an advert aboot this hate crime business. Right, whit it is, is we’ll get a hairy condom-lookin-hing, like, as the hate doodah, but we canny huv it tokkin as that’d just be pure mental, so whit we’ll dae is get some guy wae a right put oan wurkin-class glesga accent like he’s fae Take the High Road, ‘n he kin tok ower it like in the movies, ken, so ther ye’s go. Nae borra.’
Speechless.
This is Scotland today but the rest of the UK tomorrow. It seems to be the Rev and J K Rowling in Scotland and our own Douglas Murray here in England leading the resistance to this nightmare. In my 78 years I never thought any of this could happen. I wonder if I have lived too long it is so terribly depressing.
a 999 call sometime in the near future
– ye huv tae send the polis, theyve set ma bin oan fire and are trying to kick my door in …
– is this really an emergency sir, I think you want the fire brigade
– but they are banging oan the windae with the zombie knives say “yoor getting plugged ya rocket”
– did you get a good look at them
– I know who it is, its that wee bastard up the park – he’s got a replica shirt with his name on the back …
– we could give you the number for the council anti social behaviour unit for conflict resolution – they open on Monday, 9am …
– … (thinks) …
– OH AYE – they are screaming thru my letterbox that I am a P4KI TRANNY BASTARD and I will never have real children since I don’t have a womens bits
– LET ME CUT YOU OFF THERE SIR, THE HELICOPTER IS ON ITS WAY, ARMED RESPONSE WITHIN 3, WE’LL GET THE BASTARDS
On a linguistics level, it’s quite fascinating that this (s)advert is rendered in poorly-rendered colloquial, working class Scots. The only time the middle class in this country use Scots is the very odd word or two, to show ‘down with the lower classes’ they are. God, what utter cunts. Normally we have the new half-American-sounding Received Pronunciation from our ‘Highers And Betters’ as they condescend from Holyrood.
The Scottish middle class condescension and hatred of the working class is very, very clear here. Because clearly the working classes are the only people in this country or island who hate. Except the middle classes who hate the working class, and the upper classes who hate everybody except themselves. Go fuck yourselves, Holyrood, each and every single one of you. Not an intellect amongst you now. A sub-local-councillor-level joke. Sad. Just sad.
Serious question; will those unfortunate people in our society afflicted with self loathing and low self esteem face appropriate punishment for crimes against their own humanity?
I mean it’s brilliant. Not only can we round up Goths for hating themselves, we can round up all those who hated Goths so much they rounded them up. A double whammy!
Not being allowed to hate anybody, even yourself, seems such a great idea. We should criminalise all kinds of bad things; like illness, sadness, social deviancy, poverty, swearing, and getting angry.
All those people hating XL American Bulldogs must be shitting themselves waiting for the Rozzers to catch up with them and send them for correction for hating cuddly devil dogs.
Let’s ban fear too. That will be brilliant. Just imagine all those people made miserable by fear of spiders, darkness and tight spaces who won’t have to suffer anymore once fear is made illegal. Sorted!
If it’s against the law to get ill, we can save a fortune on the NHS. Genius! You’ll have to keep your terminal illness a secret or face arrest for being poorly. Who needs vaccinations when we can just jail everybody! No more lockdowns, lock em up instead!
Ban depression next. Jesus, this criminalisation malarkey should fix everything that’s a bit negative in our society. Just ban it all. Any c*%#t not smiling will be carted off to the correction cubes or that off-world prison on the moon. Fkg smile! Or else.
All those kids who won’t eat their greens? Just perform a citizens arrest and restrain them until Judge Dredd arrives to justice them.
We could even criminalise crime and make it illegal to break the law! Just imagine that! No more prisons! And we can use those prison facilities to detain the criminalised ill people, and free up so many beds in the NHS!
What’s the actual price tag on a “hate” anyway? Is it a £50 fine with points on your licence or will a prison sentence be mandatory?… Prison that is, in a world without prisons… err.. does that mean they’re gonna target my goods, wealth and possessions? Like I’m a crop to be harvested for my money?
Jesus this dystopia thing is making my brain hurt.
One of my mates in the local coffin dodgers club is a retired Strathclyde Police Divisional Commander (retired as a Chief Superintendent).
He reckons Scot Squad on TV was a documentary – such is the present-day state of the Force.
Hatuey @ 8:32 am
“They feed on hate and fear, and if they can’t find any then they induce it.”
Yes, Scots have long since been subject to the deceit of colonial rule which benefits only a privileged minority. Why does anyone think we have an independence movement if not to remove our oppressor?
Mair laws that also privilege certain groups and/or ‘elites’ continues this theme. The ‘divide & rule’ method only serves to weaken the independence movement – as we will nae dout see at the next UKGE.
Fundamentally the colonial wretchedness of an exploited and marginalised people and obliteration of their culture continues until such time as they are liberated, because, at the end of the day:
“What is fascism, if not a regime of oppression for the benefit of a few? The entire administrative and political machinery of a colony has no other goal. The human relationships have arisen from the severest exploitation, founded on inequality and contempt, guaranteed by police authoritarianism” (Albert Memmi).
It would be good if the next series of Scot Squad has Cameron Miekelson go tranny and start using pronouns. In a bad wig, with stubble, calling they/them-selves “Brenda” Wokelson.
Sesame Street is a bit dodgy tho – Big Bird is a racist, and the Cookie Monster is a holocaust denier … something about “if it takes X long to bake Y cookies in an OVEN, then how long does it take etc” – and from that there is no comeback. They cut that episode. Lines like BB talking to the multi racial kids and saying stuff like “where are you REALLY from?” don’t scan well these days. Elmo, Bert and Ernie, there were other scandals, drugs, underage puppets, epstein island, you don’t want to know.
Satire is dead, or no longer possible, as you just wait a bit and it comes true; the real cops are far funnier than anything that’s been in Scot Squad; Viz comic predicted much of the modern world some 20 years ago, e.g. Student Grant is Owen Jones and Millie Tant is, well, every feminist you ever met. The cops have now become The Bottom Inspectors, but instead of examining your ringpiece for errant bits of toilet paper, they scan your social media for misgenderings and problematic attitudes.
– but I take comfort in knowing that the disciplined peoples of the east will wipe out the degeneracy of the west.
The west is in a mass “weimar berlin” period, but at some point the music stops.
re : forbidden planet (last post comment) – a scifi movie based on the tempest, with added freud
the krell grand machine (a world spanning wish fulfillment device) was in fact a primitive version of the internet and walter pidgeon falling asleep led to his subconscious posting dank memes – the rage monster he produced being his alarm at a gang of space cowboys turning up to paw his teenage space babe daughter
off topic
Today is the anniversary of the death of a wonderful,Scottish woman, Mary Brooksbank, born Mary Soutar.
You may find out about her at wiki or in Dundonian links. One well known song she wrote is called either The Jute Mill song or “Oh, dear me”. The song can be found online. It should, perhaps, be better sung by a woman but I like The Parcel O’ Rogues version.
From unionsong.com (trade union)
“Mary Brookbank herself a jute worker wrote:
“The life of the women workers of Dundee right up to the thirties was … a living hell of hard work and poverty. It was a common sight to see women, after a long ten-hour-day in the mill, running to the stream wash-houses with the family washing. They worked up to the last few days before having their bairns. Often they would call in at the calenders from their work and carry home bundles of sacks to sew. These were paid for at the rate of 5 pence for 25, 6 pence for a coarser type of sack. Infant and maternal mortality in Dundee was the highest in the country.”
When folklorist Hamish Henderson asked Mary Brookbank how much of the song came from mill workers she replied:
“Only the ditty, ‘Oh dear me, the mill’s gaen fest, the puir wee shifters…’ The verses are all mine. And that verse, ‘to feed and cled my bairnie’ was brought to me by a lassie who was worried. It wis hard lines if she, ye hid an illigitimate child and you had to pay for it aff that meagre wage, you know what I mean, and she used to say, oh I wish the day was done. And eh, tell me her troubles, her trackles, what she hid tae dae for her bairn and that, nae help that sort o’ thing, and that brought that tae mind. And then I used to think on my own aboot how ill divided the world wis.”
“Orange Lodge will make Hate Crime’ complaints against 10k people on grounds of religious bigotry”
Imagine I got a group of folk together to march in Glasgow celebrating the Battle of Tours (732) and we stopped at some mosques and banged our drums and sang sectarian songs outside those mosques, whilst our thuggish pished followers shouted abuse at the public and harassed anyone with a brown face, god help anyone who tried to cross the street inbetween the marching band as that’s a big no no.
Well, our feet wouldn’t touch the ground as Police Scotland carted us away into police vans for religious bigoted behaviour. I could explain to Police Scotland that its our democratic right to march and celebrate our history in the defeat of the Moors, as the Orange Order does with Catholics in mind, would they buy it? would they f*ck, so why oh why does Tammany Hall aka Glasgow City Council allow the Orange Order to parade not just once in Glasgow but last year their were at least EIGHTY matches across the city by the O/O and its affiliates.
Mind you Police Scotland personnel have to swear and oath of loyalty to the English monarchy, and on the rare occasion that I’ve had the misfortune to be stuck behind an Orange Order march in my car, I could’ve sworn that some of the police officers walked as though they too were marching in the parade.
Over the last 9 years the SNP has metamorphosed into labour. Strictly speaking then, Yousaf is correct.
On the establishment’s game board at least, the fight is only between the tories and labour, with the caveat that labour is two teams to the fight, each operating under a different flag and brand.
In this ‘let’s pretend-democracy’ game, Yousaf has no choice but targeting the tories as their bogeyman to fight against during the campaign because the SNP and labour have become so, so, so close right now, that are pretty much indistinguishable. They are the exact same thing. This means the SNP cannot attack labour without attacking itself at the same time. Yousaf may not be the sharpest tool in the box, but at least he can get that.
The only thing that would separate the SNP from labour right now is the subject of independence. But after 9 years of dangling carrots to avoid doing anything about it, the electorate has realised that neither Yousaf, his handlers or his team of glutton gravy-slurpers, have any intention whatsoever of focusing on independence and that, for the last 9 years, they have tirelessly worked to preserve the union, rather than ending it.
The day in 2015 the political fraud claimed that a vote for the SNP was not a vote for independence, was the turning point that marked the end of the SNP as a party of independence and the commencement of its metamorphosis into labour.
The whole GE is a farce. The UK parliament is a farce. Self-serving idiots are allowed to make a mockery of the place and democracy, and insult the UK electorate by wasting everybody’s time to talk about ferrets, so they could deliberately obstruct the progression of a bill.
And the worse is that they are allowed to get away with it because the whole thing is a complete farce, not real democracy.
What are we paying these idiots those ridiculously high salaries for? What do we need useless individuals who piss on democracy by talking about ferrets because they have so little ethics and are so devoid of democratic principles that effectively sell the seat and their time to lobbyists?
Elections in the UK are no longer elections, they are nothing but a charade. MPs are not MPs. They are the useful idiots of lobbyists who are abusing our seats to progress their own interest. We have no real options to vote for, just the exact same toxic option disguised under different brands to create the illusion of a choice.
Refusing to continue playing along with this “losers forever” rigged game by spoiling the ballot, and in doing so, refusing to give our legitimacy to Westminster and this mockery of democracy, never sounded more attractive as it does now.
Because, at the end of the date, what the hell it is that are we voting for? What is the actual point in sending MPs to Westminster, other than to legitimise the continuous abuse of Scotland and these idiots continuing to take the piss of the electorate by obfuscating and at times, deliberately obstructing democracy?
Having come across quite a few of these public school boys in life, when i see an image of Humza Yousaf, all i see is that awfiul inbred blend of arrogance and entitlement and believe me, its all buffoonery with these people, same as sarwar’s son. There’s really not that much to them behind their groomed image other than a few well-rehearsed soundbites that they manipulate to effect a dialogue. In short, they’re a pair of fucking chancers.
But it’s that Paul Kavanagh guy I feel sorry for (;-)), spent half of his life analysing, disecting and writing reams about the drivel that’s the labour party, and in one soundbite Humza has dismissed the labour party just like that. Brilliant. They all deserve each other and some.
Mia
SNP have destroyed any hope of Independence for the foreseeable future all because of greed. This party under Sturgeon and now Humza has shown more contempt towards Scotland and its people and for me I’d rather see the demise of the SNP than see the likes of FLynn or Humza being returned back into power on the back of another FAKE promise. My local MP Hannah Bardell who has done nothing for West Lothian or Scotland and yes in the next WM election I will be voting for the best person who can defeat her and if it means voting Tory then that’s where my grubby little pencil will go and just to let you know I had been a member and supporter of the SNP for 33yrs before me and my wife left in 2015.
If Scotland has any future the demise of the SNP has to be where it starts.
I suspect many seats in the next GE will play out like the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election, with any gains for the Red and Blue Tories caused by SNP voters not voting at all, if there is no Alba or other Independence candidate.
Poor Richmal Leotard, forgotten even by his own party. Mind you, picturing him as a future FM was always a bit of a stretch.
Hatuey @ 9.27
ALBA ISN’T WORKING .
For the reasons you give . And one you didn’t give .
What are they ABOUT . Freeports or Freedom ?
They seem to be sliding into conformity ; and they weren’t particularly radical to begin with .
They may think they have to appeal to the ” middle ground ” to increase their support , by keeping schtum about * things * , tying the boats up , rather than rocking them . What if there is no middle ground ? At least not in ways previously understood .
The * Middle * has been warped , pulled out shape by the gravitational force of relentless propaganda , lies , ACTUAL misinformation , corruption and a Political Class that wallows in all of it . ” Left ” n ” Right ” stretched so far they meet at their extreme extensions . The Middle sucked into a crushing Singularity .
This ain’t the time to be conforming . Not now , when repressive conformity has taken the form of ” brave n stunning ” Identity fixation .
ALBA def don’t want to be that club ; do they ?
Mia
Self-id for the Tories is same as abortion for the Democrats in the USA – an emotive issue that gets everybody worked into lather, but which they have no intention of resolving because then nobody would vote for them. The paedos are a wildcard, but the establishment has a good track record of covering up those little indiscretions, so it’s probably not going to be much of a problem.
The Hate Crime Bill will probably serve the SNP in the same way. That lets them prattle on about equality all day, every day and tar and feather anyone who suggests otherwise.
These are direct imports from the USA, so until the political system there is destroyed / remade, this is the future.
Where does Alba fit into this picture? It doesn’t.
@Ruby;
“We don’t actually send a government to Westminster.”
We have never sent a government to Westminster! And without major reform, we never will!
That’s another one of Scotland’s serious democratic deficits (of which there are quite a few); only parties composed primarily of England’s MPs can ever become a party of government in Westminster, because only England’s MPs are numerous enough to allow a party to achieve the absolute or near absolute majority of seats required to form a government. Thus, UK governments are always fundamentally English governments.
In a Union consisting of two equally sovereign kingdoms, it is a constitutional and democratic disgrace that only one of those sovereign kingdoms ever gets to wield their sovereignty, and does so even over the other sovereign kingdom despite lacking legitimate formal authority to do so, and that other isn’t even permitted to defend their own sovereign kingdom’s interests from them.
Mia
Ignored says:
16 March, 2024 at 5:34 pm
Voting a unionist to get rid of another unionist does not seem like progress. It seems like running in circles and getting nowhere.
Precisely. Same analogy as Westminster holding both ends of the string. Same analogy as Tory and Labour being two cheeks of the same arse. It’s all the same, and it’s always all the same.
Scotland’s political landscape is kept entirely inside the same sandbox, and we all participate in the gerrymandered illusion of democracy time and time again, with the charade underpinned by endless indoctrination, propaganda and wilful disinformation which we never grow wise to.
Reject Holyrood, impeach the damned thing, reject the colonial and intrusive Scotland Act, reject Westminster, and throw to the ground the “gift” of democracy which Westminster gives us. Assemble as Scots under the Constructional banner of sovereign Scottish democracy, and expel all foreign and unconstitutional interference in Scotland’s constitutional affairs.
Then, and only then, do we venture beyond the confines of our sandbox.
Then, and only then, are we one step closer to Independence.
Then, and only then, will we rid ourselves of these risible charlatans, scoundrels and parasites masquerading as Scotland’s “government”. The are puppets of Westminster aiding and abetting the usurpation of Scotland’s Constitutional integrity. Fk em all.
Hatuey @ 2:29 pm
“People need to think about what “occupation” as in “occupied territories” actually means.”
Quite so. ‘Occupation’ means that the places where we live are increasingly and ultimately utterly altered by people from another dominant culture coming from elsewhere. Most of our public sector institutions are run by them, our industries controlled by them, and all hold only to their ideology and values. We increasingly hear only their voices at the supermarket checkout, in the street, and on the bus and train, as well as on the TV and radio.
For any colonised people and occupied territory you are quite wrong to say that “The good news is to be found in demographic trends.” For the reality of any occupied territory must be that the prevailing democratic trends are never good news
Can anyone tell me: if I have an online vote, is there any opportunity to write a slogan on my screen? If not, can I request to go back to a paper vote?
This is only one aspect of a burgeoning drug problem in Scotland. I was talking by phone on Saturday evening with my 91 year old mother who lives in small town traditionally fishing/farming NE Scotland. She receives prescription drugs from her local pharmacy delivered to the door by a guy who she has known since he went to school in my class on the same day back in 1968.
He has been telling her that the abuse of prescription drugs in the community has reached crisis point and he is regularly calling 999 to summon aid to the victims.
A major symptom of the malaise is the economic decline in this particular community and others across our country. The sense of hopelessness and despair in what was firmly wealthy, full-employment, middle-class Scotland in my younger years but which has been blighted by decades of political malevolence is utterly palpable. You can reach out your hand and touch the misery.
The media cranks up the “Scottish drug deaths” narrative at every opportunity without ever genuinely drilling down into the causes of the effect and that is shameful. Only another example of malevolence.
I am writing this response only 36 hours after being informed that a lifelong friend from the selfsame community had drunk himself to cardiac arrest and death through his own personal despair.
Unfortunately, illegal drugs are the inevitable result of poverty, not the full reason by a long way but it is why a substantial number of Scots turn to illegal drugs, just as they did previously with alcohol and gambling and those are still major problems. Addiction to anything is extremely difficult to prevent or to remove from our society.
The deliberate impoverishment by England over centuries has created a junkie-state, and that’s just how they intend to keep Scotland.
Our political parties and our politicians have, despite several opportunities and many mandates, failed to deliver our people from this never-ending cycle of underfunding. At the same time they have watched as our resources have been plundered for the benefit of a few in a foreign nation.
Westminster is currently using the right of their English Crown to remove our resources and wealth to enrich a few in the south of England and the money goes to places around the world that most Scots will never see.
So, what has “the Scottish Government” done to protect us from this piracy? Answers on a postcard please and send to the people of Scotland because they would like to know what you have done for the super salaries and expense accounts that you currently use!
What are they doing to prevent the building of infrastructure to send our power south to benefit England? What are they doing to prevent the introduction of freeports? The answer is of course nothing, but it’s worse than that because our own government is collaborating to create these freeports are “a partner” with the UK government! As Kate Forbes when she was Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Economy stated in a letter to Michael Gove on 12 February 2022, “I very much welcome the resumption of joint working between the Scottish and UK Governments, on a partnership basis…….”
Cannot get much clearer than that! Our own so-called government is handing over large areas of Scotland to unaccountable corporations who will provide minimal and probably zero benefit for Scotland or its people and in only a few weeks or months that government will be asking the people to use their 1-day sovereignty to re-elect them for another 5 years. My memory is not what it was, but I don’t recall freeports, or any number of wacky-party style legislation being proposed in the last manifesto.
Another 5 years of selling Scotland to the lowest bidder will begin with the usual speech about “eradicating poverty in Scotland”. I wonder how many times I have heard that promise to the people?
As long as we do not have full control over all of our affairs at home and abroad, our ability to reverse centuries of Westminster’s programme of Scottish impoverishment they will continue to develop this junkie state.
It is no longer the dream that will never die, it’s the nightmare that will last forever, if we rely on politicians to continue dictating our lives.
It is essential, I believe, to remember that drug-consumption of one-sort-or-another has always been a feature of human behaviour, at some point, throughout all cultures of the world. People, it seems, have always devised methods to escape the harsh realities of their existence, and that’s largely why alcohol-prohibition failed in the US, and why the impossibilist war-on -drugs is meeting a similar fate. Imagine, if you can, a life lived under the constant stress of impoverishment on every meaningful level of your life. You are already marginalised the moment you are born in too many parts of our country. Your understanding of your position may be vague or it may be completely apparent to you. No matter which, you’ll have the awful certainty of realising at whatever level, that strategies of escape are few-and-far-between. You’re stuck, mired, making life seem futile and futureless.
Who in such a position, if given the opportunity of escaping through the use of opiates, would not be tempted to exit their miserable, stressed-out existence, if only momentarily, and hang the consequences; for what addict doesn’t quickly grasp that they’ve signed-up for a slow or perhaps not so slow form of sucide? Much of the addict’s actual addiction is psychological in nature thus little understood by many objective commentators. First of all, we’re not talking about intrinsically bad people here (I’ll leave that sobriquet to the politicians, the bankers and the drug suppliers etc.) We are talking, in many cases, about people born with very few options worth the name, who have, arguably, made the decision to cancel their misery with man-kinds oldest palliative measure: the use of drugs.
Accept or reject any or all of the above, the fact remains, if a society has created a scenario wherein certain members find a momentary form of sanity through the use of opiates then that same society is surely obliged to, at least, make sure that its victims, and that’s what they are, are deserving of safe facilitation, including, of course, the testing of the frequently adulterated goods which they firmly intend to consume, somewhere! That would appear to me to be a much weightier moral imperative than any discussion than anything arising from any discussion of the moral rights or wrongs of drug-consumption or anything else, regarding users and their access to safe, legally sanctioned, spaces. We are dealing with a highly pernicious public-health-issue here above anything else in my opinion, one which needs to be radically addressed and made transparent to all, including, of course, the politicians, who thus far appear to know little or nothing about the whys-and-wherefores of addiction, while appearing to care even less about the unnecessary fatalities . The continued holding of unconscious, class considerations and other irrational prejudices in relation to addicts and addiction will, I believe, only see us describing that same endless and thoroughly pointless circle of frequently learned ignorance that exists around the question addiction, ad infinitum.
As Erichvonbarrhead and others have mentioned, drugs and other addictions are complex issues and there is no single answer to any of them. The reasons why people turn to the various “escapes” are too numerous to mention.
In my early years and for my own reasons I lived on the streets of London for almost 18 months and I definitely learned more during that time than in any other period of my life. My point being that of the many thousands there with me, the different reasons why we ended up where we did were so numerous that it would be impossible to collate them all.
However, during that time I received more help and kindness from others around me than any formal help – from people who had nothing to give but their kindness. Likewise, I saw so many that developed addictions. Of course, there were some there because of their addictions as they too had succumbed to the draw of illicit drugs, gambling, alcohol or other “escapes” for just as many different reasons. I have always thought that “using drugs as an escape” is an oxymoron because that “escape” just draws people deeper into the mire that dealers have created especially for them. I have always considered myself fortunate to have avoided that mire – probably more by good fortune than by fortitude.
There have been some great points made by others here but as we are aware, there is no perfect or simple answer, however the eradication of poverty would be a great start. At least it would help provide people with hope that they have a future and I’m sure that this will only be seen once we remove the shackles of London rule that is designed to keep us exactly where we are.
I personally don’t think the SNP government cares about the fate of drug users, and they have had a kneejerk reaction to the public outcry to do something about the deaths of Scots via drug misuse which is the highest in Europe. I really get the feeling that the SNP government doesn’t care about Scots, and even less for those with an addiction.
Glasgow City Council better better known as Tammany Hall is to close the women’s aid (women with drug addiction) Turning point 218 in Glasgow, even though our esteemed FM said that it did fantastic work and that he was fully supportive of it.
Excellent piece from Sara but that last paragraph is a humdinger.
“I fear, however, that we had better be prepared for our own political establishment to fight us for internal, independence and power just as ferociously as the British English state will fight to keep its colony and cash cow of Scotland”
I don’t want an independent Scotland to be a mirror image of the state we just left. I don’t want Scottish (sic) Green (sic) Freeports any more than I wanted UK ones. I don’t want a Scottish Hate Crime Act (in its present form) any more than I’d have liked a UK one. I don’t want Scottish neoliberalism and globalisation – it’s no more acceptable to me than it was before just because you put a Saltire on it.
We need political parties, but we need them to work for us, not regard us as means to their enrichment and empowerment. I’m increasingly of the view that Scotland’s freedom will be delivered by the people not the parties and here’s hoping it’s before
“To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make
a desert, they call it peace.”
Calgacus (a 1st century Caledonian)
I thoroughly enjoyed that post by Sara it is so simplistic but STRIKES at the heart of what independence supporters crave , I have constantly commented on the immense heralding and positivity of Sara’s speech at the ALBA conference by the membership , a positive and gratifying response that was totally absent from the hierarchy of ALBA , THAT alone signifies their opposition to any kind of people’s democracy and that is mirrored by ALL the other parties especially the FAKE Scottish ones
I have commented incessantly about the desperation for a PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY but our politicians if they even deign to consider a convention INSIST it must consist of the great and the good within oor Scoattish Society , oor lairds and landowners, oor judges and senior law makers , oor business oligarchs , oor high heidyin academics frae glesga and edinburg unis, ALL the middle class and upper class spivs and carpetbaggers currently RUINING Scotland , ALL these QUANGO members appointed by a clique of politicos intent on keeping Scotland DOWN and selling our resources to benefit THEM instead of the people, EXAMPLE Beautiful Loch Lomond to a theme park opposed by the highest recorded number of written complaints from the public (IGNORED) , business man making MILLIONS from our oil, DELIBERATELY LYING in 2014 that oil is running out and will only last 10 years , 2024 uk govt SELLING hundreds of NEW OIL LICENCES and KEEPING the revenue while Scots FREEZE THESE are the people our politicians want in a CONVENTION of the estates , the very people who STEAL our resources
My comments about a people’s assembly receive condemnation and ridicule from a number of commenters due to the fact that these commenters believe that the Scottish public are TOO STUPID to know what is best for Scotland and Scots , when you look at the governance and policies that we have had FORCED on us for DECADES and the NEGATIVE IMPACT those policies and governance have had on our people it is not hard to figure out who is more stupid
I KNOW WHAT A WOMAN IS , I ALSO KNOW WHAT A PERVERT AND DEVIANT IS , I ALSO KNOW WHEN PEOPLE ARE CONCENTRATING ON OUR CHILDREN’S SEX LIVES THEIR COMPUTERS SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED, I ALSO KNOW THERE ARE ONLY 2 SEXES
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