The article is right, the answer not so much.

An article worth reading and one that sums up the long road back for the United Kingdom on the world stage, the problem is the implied answer to the problems we face are I suspect not the Tory infected Labour Party. I totally agree that the UK could be in a deep recession, in the next few months (my words) after a catastrophic rise in interest rates have decimated people’s incomes or experience a period of dogged stagflation (impacted by increased mortgages – my words) (Byline Times).  The Tories have also never been the party of economic competence, they have always been the party of theft and of self-interest, just go back to the 80’s and have a think about it, who made the money.

The standing of politicians is at an all-time low – the Conservatives may have demonstrated an unprecedented level of incompetence and political arrogance, but the repeated allegation from the electorate is that ‘politicians are all the same.’ (Byline Times)

I totally agree, they are, and Labour are not the answer are they. Assuming they win, Labour will grasp the tiller of a nation with a standing in the world as low as it has ever been. Estranged from Europe, not a priority for the US, and pretty much ignored by everyone else (Byline Times). The UK has been a basket case for years, no one takes it seriously, it is Americas mongrel poodle at best, a laughingstock on average, pretty much a joke overall. The politicians we have are failures pretty much across the board, bereft of ideas, piling on debt that we will never pay back, they have no clue. I can’t remember a most useless bunch in my lifetime that is for sure.

The solutions in restoring the UK on the world stage and nationally are apparently,

Priority one should be to restore confidence and raise the morale of the public sector. Civil servants, legal aid lawyers, doctors, nurses or council workmen will likely all offer the same refrain that their job has been undermined and diminished financially – that must end. Labour must properly reward public sector workers and restore the confidence of the Civil Service by restoring them to their proper role as objective and professional providers of public policy.

Abroad, a Labour government would need to start the process of restoring Britain’s international reputation – not by grandstanding but by showing some humility. This would include treating the EU as a friend rather than a manufactured bogeyman to be feared and opposed. The UK certainly has a lot to offer the world, but at the moment, its reputation has sunk so low, that it struggling to be taken seriously.

Another priority should be to end the creeping ‘presidentialisation’ of British politics. Both Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, in particular, have made the office of head of government all about them, eschewing any opposition and removing anyone remotely seen as a threat. The result has been incompetence at ministerial level and a shift in the way Parliament operates. (BylineTimes)

I think the priorities are right in the main. Public services need investment, public sector workers need to be valued with fair salaries not clapping. The UK needs to move away from the foreign policy of the USA and find a way to make things work with the EU, that goes without saying. Where I disagree is when Gareth Roberts says

(Keir Starmer) His speech at the Labour Conference showed that Keir Starmer’s party has the energy, the policies, the desire and the personnel to govern. 

Roberts has more faith in Tory Starmer and Labour than I do, probably more than many people do. If Labour wins the next general election, it will not be because of competence and talent, it will because voters in England have no other choices and Scotland will yet again get a government imposed on it that it probably never voted for. We know what the answer is for Scotland, but we are further away from that than we have ever been.

 

Some Questions for the Unionists – Some Questions for the Rest of US

I have never been as apathetic as I am right now about the future of Scotland and the lack of desire in the independence movement and Scots themselves – Robin McAlpine got me thinking yesterday, but when I read his excellent articles, he often does. Robin is talking about the fact that if WE don’t lead the constitutional debate, we lose the constitutional debate.

If the SNP leadership is incapable of turning Scottish independence into a solution to the multiple crises we face, we risk irrelevance. And they are undoubtedly failing. (Robin McAlpine)

The prime minister must reform the union or risk the UK becoming a “failed state”. (Gordon Brown)

The problem in so many ways is that no one has any real answers to the questions that are out there, not just the structural questions about independence, which are important and there are some answers out there as we know in the Wee Alba Blue Book, but some people still feel the answers aren’t there. Before we can even ask them though we need to look at what is available for people to vote for.

As Craig Murray said the scumbag “Tory Party are deeply split between three factions, bastards driven by a ruthless ideology, bastards driven by personal gain, and bastards driven by both”. Tories are scum that is for sure, it is a party full of hate in my opinion so why would Scots want to keep having them imposed on Scotland, absolutely bonkers.

The Tory light Party, the party of grand promises, grand statements, zero policies, zero ideas. Even when they come up with what they believe is an idea, when you look at the detail it is all bullshit and lies. Tories with just slightly less hate. The new unionist zealot party to appease the racists in England whom they want to vote for them.

They just don’t matter do they! A party that has nothing to offer, no policies that anyone can talk about and in Alex-Cole Hamilton in Scotland one of the most vacuous opportunists that have ever managed the Scottish branch.

(SNP) The British Royalist and Unionist National Party as far as I am concerned now. How a party has fallen as quickly as they have since 2014 as far as respect goes is beyond me, well maybe not, Sturgeon. They might win elections, but it really is in spite of Sturgeon and her gender warriors in most cases as many in the yes movement feel they have nowhere else to go, certainly not because of their record or their desire for independence.

Scottish Greens are reluctant supporters of independence but at least they, on occasion, stand up for what they believe in. Patrick Harvie at least showed some self-respect and dignity when Elizabeth Windsor passed, the rest of them could not bow low enough, I’m surprised Sturgeon didn’t need a back operation after the amount of bowing she has done recently, at least Harvie stood up.

I am a member of the party, so I do have a vested interest. The party are not radical enough for me to be honest, but they have some people whom I admire, and I don’t doubt will fight for Scottish independence until they pop off. In Alex Salmond they have a good political strategist, but he can’t win as the SNP and the State did a huge number on him in the eyes of the ignorant and intellectually blind out there.

To be honest I don’t know a huge amount about ISP but what I do know has been pretty decent. I like a lot of what they have to say, and they have a matter of fact approach I like as well. While I believe that Alba has the best chance to make a breakthrough, I also believe that ISP bring an honesty to the debate that keeps others honest.

Currently the above are the choices we have, some are just fucking awful, and I would rather burn in hell than ever vote for any of them, including the new SNP. Nationally Alba currently has my vote but that remains dependent on keeping moving forward.

The questions for the unionists that I have are 

What is it that unites this so-called union?

What is this so-called shared vision for the future?

How are we better able to tackle the challenges of an ever-changing world by remaining in this shit hole of a union?

How can this shit hole adapt to become a truly 21st-century institution and escape the Victorian era that is never ending?

For the British Royalist and Unionist National Party (SNP), and the wider yes movement,

What is the economic strategy? Is it sterling and the Growth Commission!

How are you going to actually bring about a referendum? If you can’t what comes after that? Your plebiscite plan is designed to lose and is all about more and more carrots, more and more mandates, more and more fine dining at the British Trough.

What does an independent Scotland look like? The Royalist nightmare that Sturgeon and Blahford talk about is no different from what we have now.

How will you include the wider yes movement in any campaign?

Just a few questions for both sides of the debate but the simple fact remains. Right now, I think we are governed by pretty much the most useless clowns that have ever been elected in 99% of the case. Truss, Starmer, Sturgeon are just Tories of various strengths but are all from Poundland, if not B&M at best. Harvie is a bit all over the place, Davie doesn’t matter. Salmond will never get fair treatment, or what passes for it, ever again due to the number the SNP and the State did on an innocent man, not a perfect man, but an innocent one. Collete Walker of ISP does talk a lot of sense but how ISP make the big breakthrough is a tough one.

I just have zero faith anymore overall in politicians and the only thing that keeps me going are people in new media, the bloggers, AUOB, Tommy Sheridan etc. I have little faith in the Scottish people to wake up from their colonisation and agree with Robin McAlpine that apathy rules now in Scotland, I am 90% there as well, so I know I am a part of the problem but overall, we are going nowhere, we are on Titanic UK, the lifeboats are not for us poor gadgies and we don’t have the sense to see that we have to work together to find the alternative to drowning.

So, this is a longer blog than usual, and I do hope you have gotten to the end of it and will express your own opinion.

 

Odds and Ends Wednesday 5th October 2022

Is it any wonder – So someone who attended the Dunfermline becoming a city celebration were a bit embarrassed that First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was booed, “I AM writing to say how utterly disgusted I was to attend the city inauguration visit by King Charles today and hear some of the crowd booing our First Minister”. “The First Minister has shown respect at all times to the royal family”. Maybe it was the bow that would have made Theresa May proud, maybe it was the crap governance we have endured for years now, maybe they were unionists, or maybe they are just sick of the low level of politicians we have now, Sturgeon being one of them. I wouldn’t imagine it was Sturgeon’s alleged support for independence as I just don’t believe that Dunfermline is all that yes and Sturgeon has done nothing anyway in support of independence.

Like the Tories, and I mean like the Tories – It appears the shine has come off the British Scottish National Royalist and Unionist Party (SNP for short) according to Kevin McKenna since Covid. ” In those three years, this party that once revelled in its sense of unity – a come-one-come-all family atmosphere – has fractured, and grievously at that”. “In this period, former friends and close allies, people who were once lovers, even, have turned on each other; their relationships poisoned irreparably by the gender issue, those foolish, foolish men who championed the Mermaids Charity will still strut around these halls, impervious to the damage and hurt they have caused to many hard-working SNP activists”.

McKenna isn’t wrong is he, personally I don’t care that much. The British Scottish Royalist and Unionist National Party (SNP) mean very little to me and I ask them for nothing, but McKenna also knows the party strategy, even if the sheeple continue to live in denial when he says “You won’t hear much about independence in Aberdeen this weekend or about why the series of independence White Papers appear to have halted at two. Nor will much criticism be permitted about the wisdom of declaring the 2024 UK election to be an independence plebiscite. The optimism and spirit of kinship which made this all feel different and better is gone. But hey, who cares so long as there are still another couple of election triumphs in the tank? Mind those carrots folks mind those carrots.

Where do these nut jobs get this UK family pish – LIZ Truss has promised to “face down the separatists” in the United Kingdom, describing the Union as a “family”. If the UK is a family, then Westminster is an abuser, and we need protected right now, just don’t expect that protection to come from the British Scottish Royalist and Unionist National Party (SNP).

She told delegates: “This is the United Kingdom at its best, working together and getting our economy growing.

“And we will face down the separatists who threaten to pull apart our precious Union, our family.” This woman is both deluded and deranged, she has no fucking idea about anything does she. Precious Union, bloody hell she really is Golem, she even plans on taking us to an even more undemocratic Police State when she rants that she plans to “face down the separatists” comes after she said that indyref2 should not happen even if the Supreme Court rules that Holyrood can legislate to hold one. What an asshole, but hey Scots will still bottle it even if there is a remote chance that there is some kind of vote on independence, I know lol and I haven’t even been drinking.

Between 2012 and 2019, there were almost 335,000 more deaths than expected across the UK compared with trends seen from 1981 to 2011, according to the shocking findings of a study by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health and the University of Glasgow. Tories KILL, that is basically what this means. Academics linked the excess deaths to Tory cuts in public services and welfare, saying that, without support, “people have been dragged under by decreased income, poor housing, poor nutrition, poor health and social isolation — ultimately leading to premature death.” We probably didn’t need a research project to know this, every time there is a scumbag Tory Government, they have a national cull of the poor and vulnerable. I mean they had to replace fox hunting with something, what’s better than an older person in Dundee, a drug dependent person in Glasgow, a homeless person in Liverpool, all just sport to the toilet stains in the Tory Party.

Tory ministers are reportedly planning a new wave of welfare cuts, but the researchers urged them to learn from the “devastating effects” that austerity has had on the health of the population and reverse such policies. Yeah, right and stop the cull, like shite they will.

And so, it begins – Home Secretary Suella Braverman broke with Government policy to call for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). While this may not be current scumbag Tory Policy it is on the way, you can bet your arse on that one.

“I don’t think we need to be subject to an institution born out of the post-war era which is a bit analogue in the way that it operates, which has centralised power, which is distant and which is politicised, which is pursuing an agenda which is at odds with our politics and our values.

“I don’t think that’s the direction that the world is going in, that’s not the direction that people called for with Brexit.”

All this drip, drip, drip, removal of our rights, like the right to protest, which the SNP supported so women couldn’t protest outside Holyrood, builds up to the point where you wake up and find you have none left, and you better bet the plan is to remove the protection of the European Court of Human Rights from us. Braverman is just laying the groundwork.

 

 

Odds and Ends Tuesday 4th October The Dark Ages

We already have the worst social security in the western world – If you’re poor and you think things are bad now just wait. Now that the scumbag Tories have abandoned the 40% higher tax rate it’s probably fair to assume that they will come looking for someone to punish, poor people reliant on the state are an easy victim. Failure to maintain starvation Universal Credit rises to inflation would result in basically a £2000 cut to the poorest and most vulnerable.

This year’s Poverty in Scotland paints a bleak picture of a society in crisis. It demands action from all tiers of government to avert the worst of this crisis, and time is short. (JRF)

Going without essentials is endemic – nearly two in three (65%) have cut back on essentials, while one in four (26%) have cut back on three or more essentials. Even the basics are hard to come by, with three in four households having already cut back on the basics. And despite it being the summer months, over two in five (44%) households have heated their homes less than they needed to or less often, to reduce cost. (JRF)

I suppose you could always just take Tory scumbag advice and go get another job, The Conservative Party chairman said households should “cut their consumption” or “get a higher salary” to cope with rising bills. I suppose cut their consumption means don’t go to the local foodbank after work and before you start your second job in the evening at just eat deliveries. Tories really are the scum of the earth.  1.1 million people are employed in two jobs, but unlike scumbag politicians like for example

• Andrew Mitchell (Conservative) holds six consultancy jobs, supporting investment banks and accountancy firms. He has registered more than £180,000 for 34.5 days’ work.
• Former party leader and cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative) advises two health companies for £45,000.
• Ian Blackford, SNP Westminster Leader, has raked in more than £250,000 on income on top of his MPs salary.

They don’t earn a huge whack; the hypocrisy of these people makes me sick.

Some things never change – King Charles has been allowed to vet and potentially lobby for changes to emergency legislation to freeze rents in Scotland because the measures could affect tenants on his private Highland estate at Balmoral. It’s bad enough that this bill does nothing to help social housing tenants as it started after this year’s rent rises and ends the day before next year’s rent rises, that’s your SNP folks, Charles Windsor could refuse to give consent to the bill, and this would kill it stone dead. All that bowing and scraping really makes no difference to these people. We are nothing more than vermin at the end of the day, born to serve, born to worship at the altar of the undemocratic British State.

The Guardian revealed last year that ministers in Edinburgh had allowed Queen Elizabeth to vet at least 67 pieces of legislation that affected her personal property, modern day democracy in Scotland, but good to see the First Minister doesn’t go in for any of that nonsense in this day and age, oh well maybe not.

You have got to question either the stupidity of many in Scotland, their cowardice, or their servitude – I am not usually one for the polls but given what we are going through right now being colonised by Westminster and the British state we are still only at 44% Yes for independence. This highlights the total failure of the British and Royalist Scottish not so National Party and the ability of Scots to just keep asking for more and more. It’s enough to make a grown man weep.

Odds and Ends Sunday 2nd October 1822 sorry 2022

It’s not just nurses, it’s going to be millions of people – The energy prices went up yesterday and I had a wee look at the smart meter, wow, my electricity has gone through the roof and for myself electricity is more important than the worry about the gas. SHOCKING reports of nurses forgoing food at work in order to feed and clothe their families should bring shame to ministers, trade unions have said. (Morning Star)

It is also being reported that staff sickness increases near the end of the month as staff have no money to pay the public transport or petrol costs to get to work. More than a quarter of hospitals in England have opened staff food banks with 19% more indicating they plan on doing the same before the end of the year. I always hope that we don’t see riots on the streets, the state Police crackdown, and the vulnerable suffer, but what else are people going to do this winter when things really start to bite. Knowing what was coming our way is very different from actually experiencing it and now that we are going to start experiencing the pain, the cold, the hunger, as the scumbag Tories continue to enrich themselves and their pals with tax cuts for the rich and hunger for the poor, when we have the most useless opposition we have ever had in Labour, the British SNP, and the Liberals, what else are people to do but take to the streets.

I despise the Labour Party I really do – They call themselves social democrats as an excuse for abandoning pretty much most of the principles that were their foundation for over 100 years. The rot started with Kinnock and has built to the extent that Starmer is determined to turn them into the Tory Party, of course most of us in Scotland have known that for a long time now. The latest expulsion from the party doesn’t even shock anymore.

A LABOUR conference delegate who spoke against uncritical support for the Ukrainian government on Tuesday has been suspended. (Morning Star)

The heinous crime was for the delegate to say, “If you support this motion, motion 13 on Ukraine, you are not supporting the Ukrainian people, you are supporting only the United States, you are supporting neoliberalism, you are supporting imperialism.”

Freedom of speech no longer applies in this country when it comes to Israel, Transgender rights, Ukraine. This is a very very dangerous path to go down, we don’t have to agree with other people’s opinions, we may not like them, we might even find them disgusting but when we shut down freedom of speech that does not (yet) break the law we are on a path that only leads further right, to dictatorship in all but name.

This needs to just be the start of the protests – So Victorian Jacob Reece Mogg, yes him that moved his money just before Brexit hit, has had a bit of a hard time when he turned up at the Tory Annual Conference of Hate in Birmingham. My heart bleeds not, the man is a prick of the worst kind. These people really are scum and if my using the word upsets people, especially Alyn Smith and Pete Wishart of the British SNP, I don’t fecking care.

Jane Elledge, 53, an IT trainer from Bromsgrove, told PA: “Enough is enough really. We’ve had Brexit, we’ve had falling standards, we’ve had people having to work two jobs, people starving, people with no heating, and just the kind of final straw is the announcement of the richest people getting a tax cut. “Trickle-down economics doesn’t work. We get nothing – nothing for the working people. It’s got to stop. Tories out.”

Trickle down does work; it works exactly the way the Tories want it to work. It is socialism for the wealthy and capitalism for the poor, the scumbag Tory mantra for most of my life and yet people vote for these pricks, you just can’t set aside the stupidity of some people, especially the former Labour voters who decided their anger/racism was worth more than their principles.

The Unionists would be happy to see the back of Northern Ireland, and I’m sorry, but Wales is seen just as a part of England – So BBC Wales and Northern Ireland cover independence and unification marches, they allow debate around constitutional issues, they don’t have a problem with it. Well, the reality is Scotland has much of the natural resources that keeps the UK financially afloat and has water, a lot of water, and a lot of land. The BBC in Scotland are never going to cover anything independence unless it is negative or when the SNP kiss their ass and have a go at their own like the Perth Tory Scumbag Conference when they were quick to condemn without actually knowing the facts, oh it was all Alba members fault anyway.

Hamilton Accies 0 Dundee Football Club 2 – Gary Bowyer picked a pretty decent starting line up yesterday, no Ryan Sweeney in defence thank God, which resulted in 4 out of 5 clean sheets when he has not played. He really is a bomb scare but anyway a good win either way and bring on Cove Rangers on Tuesday night. I am actually not a huge football fan; I am not that bothered about Scotland at all and their results, I don’t have an English team that I follow as what is the point and if there were no Dees, I just wouldn’t bother with football at all but well done the mighty Dees. Also, thanks to Dundee United for losing at home to St. Johnstone 2-1, thanks for that 🙂

 

 

Silence is Golden and Predictable

Totally predictable – I have never liked Angus Robertson, never trusted him and always felt that he was not serious about independence, for me he has always been a political opportunist of the very worst kind. He might claim to have been a member of the SNP since he was 15 years old but so what. The man has establishment written all over him. His comments the other day was the mask truly slipping from yet another Scottish British Royalist National Party MSP. No wonder people are questioning him, some of the comments include

One SNP member wrote: “I didn’t spend half my waking life from 2014-2017 rapping doors, climbing stairs, folding papers, & donating what I could to the SNP just so they could be His Majesty’s ‘official opposition’ in 2024.

“It’s long past time to ‘settle up, not settle down’, mind that phrase?”

Another social media user added: “I wonder how many SNP members and Voters wanted to be ‘the official opposition at Westminster’ in 2014? How a party changes eh.”

One said simply: “We don’t want that. We want out Angus.”

The Scottish Government has been contacted for comment.

The simple fact of no comment says it all doesn’t it, these people are not serious. I have completely given up on the SNP now. I won’t ask them to do anything and will expect more crap governance from them in the years ahead. They are a British Party now in all but name, loving the crumbs that fall from the colonisers table a little too much.

 

Something Different – What a difference a year makes.

A year ago, my personal circumstances changed – My relationship/marriage of 20 years came to an end. While it is fair to say that the end was coming for a while, how it ended left a bit of a bad taste. I had already had a health scare earlier in the summer due to my own stupidity of piling on a huge amount of weight during Covid-19, becoming unhealthy, not being happy with myself, my relationship, my job, my house, I wasn’t happy and the health scare in some ways got me moving. I started to look at my diet, I started to eat a lot less, and a lot healthier.  A friend from work started walking with me twice a day for the month and helped with diet ideas and encouragement.

Just when I thought I had started on the right path my ex decided to end the relationship/marriage for the both of us, now don’t get me wrong, she did us both a favour, I just didn’t like the way it was done. However, I was down, I was skint pretty much, I felt a bit lost, and my mental health took a hit. I was/still am on medication for high blood pressure and will be the rest of my life, the result of this is insomnia that while a little better still affects me every day and always will. At this time, I came across the above group on Facebook and a gentleman called Fran. Fran, and members of the group told me some home truths, they encouraged me to be honest about myself, my role in how things ended while empathising with my situation but doing so with honesty and truth about how life works, how mental health works. Now my job allows me to have an understanding of mental health but when it is you yourself seeing is not so easy. Fran, and the other men, through their concern, and their honesty facilitated a slow change in how I saw things, how I saw myself while being there to listen, to encourage.

The experience I went through, the advice from the group, allowed me to start to look after myself first in some ways. I also learned who my friends were, and I learned who weren’t. I saw that in a contact list of 70 plus people there were basically 4 there for me. That contact list is a lot smaller now. I also spent time with my kids as best I could, I decided to focus on them in many ways as well, that has been good especially now that I am 53 and feel that I have a different kind of relationship with them now, one based around honesty and me being there when they need me to be. I learned that someone whom I had known through work for years was a really supportive person and has now become one of the best friends I have ever had. She had her own relationship but made time to help me to get healthy, to be honest, like the group she was there, and still is.

Mental health and stress are two of the most serious conditions that we can face in life. In many ways both can be worse than even poverty, well poverty that we think about. There are other poverties linked to mental health and stress. Poverty of the social kind, of not feeling wanted, unloved, abandoned. The poverty of health, when you let yourself go, make poor choices, choices that make you feel even less worthy, ones that steal your self-esteem and confidence. There is also the poverty of freedom, where you are trapped in your thoughts, in your circumstances, in the dark. That is when you have to find out who your family are, your friends are, and sometimes strangers are the best people you will ever meet.

So, a year down the road I find myself in a very different place. I have re-done 85% of my house and it looks great. It is a home for myself and my youngest who stays with me most of the time as he is still at high school. It is a place that I feel I can be myself in, I can read, I can play my vinyl, I can invite people around. My older kids can come stay, and they do sometimes which is really nice. I have replaced virtually everything in the house in the last year, a very special friend has also picked up things for me that have really changed how it all feels, and it feels like it is mine, things are not important really at the end of the day, but the sense of achievement helped the healing process.

I have known that my family are there for me but through this experience I learned that my Mum and my brothers will always be there. I have made some amazing friends, one in particular who I speak to everyday, but one of the most important things I learned, through Fran and the group, was I faced up to honesty, to the importance of my own physical and mental health. I learned through their encouragement at the start of this journey that there is light at the end of the tunnel, all you have to do is reach out, to learn to trust, just a little.

This story of my last year has been a journey, but it is more than that. I hope that by sharing it, and if you are finding yourself in a challenging place, that you will think about the support that is out there. The group above is a good place to start. Fran and the guys have lived experience, they not only provide support, but they also provide honesty, they don’t make excuses, but they are there to help anyone who just needs a little help. I needed that help, they were there, along with my family, 4 really amazing friends, and one person who will remain nameless but who has brought about so much change in myself that they will never really know how much that means to me, how much they have made me finally accept who I am and that I can be a better person, they know who they are.

So, it’s not always easy for us guys (or gals) to reach out but if you are needing someone to talk to, to listen, then the Male Mental Health, Marriage, Relationship Break Up’s and Broken Families is a good place to start. You will find me there to provide what little support I have to offer, but you will also find a guy called Fran, and others, real men with real experiences, good advice and a listening ear. Please don’t suffer alone, reach out.

 

Could this Government Fall

This Tory Nightmare Government could fall – Surprisingly the Labour Party have a 33-point lead in the polls, the largest since 1998 with around 49% of voters saying they will vote Labour in the next election. It is starting to look like the Labour strategy of stand for nothing, have few policies, ignore the membership, treat the left like crap, and embrace Tory policy is working for them. Another general election is due no later than November 2024, I am not so sure this Government under Truss can last that long given the state the UK is in right now and getting worse by the minute.

This has to be the most corrupt Government in my lifetime, party gate, sexual accusations, dodgy contracts, lobbying, austerity, strikes, services on their knees, tax cuts of eye watering levels for the wealthy, the pound crashed, zero growth since 2010. The list is a long one, how the Tories managed to win in 2019 just highlights how far to the right they shifted to get the ignorant vote. Now Tory MPs are sending in letters to the 1922 committee regarding Truss, who is pretty much in hiding now. You really can’t make up the trouble the UK is in, you have to hope that this is enough to convince some in Scotland that it is time to get out of this nightmare.

The cost-of-living crisis, which is set to get worse in the next few months, may well be the thing that tips this Government over the edge and to be honest it needs to before it is too late. I don’t doubt that Scotland will still be a part of the UK even after a general election and we cannot continue to be colonised by the nut jobs that are in charge right now. I think this Government can fall, I hope this Government falls, if it doesn’t we haven’t seen anything yet.

They are just not fucking serious are they – Here is the latest from yet another unionist gender warrior in the so called Scottish National Party. According to Robertson the SNP will form the main opposition after the next General Election, now here was me thinking it was going to be a plebiscite election and we will be voting for independence, well it is always interesting when the mask slips isn’t it. These people are taking us all for mugs and people need to seriously think about where they place their vote if they want independence because it is not coming from the Scottish Royalist Devolution British National Party that is for sure.

 

 

Come On Folks – It’s Time to Wake Up

I love the Prism show with Roddy, Yvonne, Eva, and Phil. If you don’t watch it, then you should, it is discussion of the highest level. Where I disagree with this week’s show, where I have started to disagree with even my own blog, and many other blogs, is why do we all keep asking the Scottish National Party, Nicola Sturgeon, and the rest to do what they were elected to do? Why do we keep asking them to get the finger out? Why do we keep reminding them of the many mandates?

How many more false starts? How many more false dawns? The reality is the SNP are not going to do all that much in relation to independence any time soon, if at all. The Court case is just a fopp to the movement, the shockingly bad papers that have come out the more I read them the more I can see that they are not the answer to the questions that many people have. But it is more than that, we cannot trust the SNP anymore, we just can’t. There is no point in asking them to get the finger out, there is no point in pleading with Nicola Sturgeon to make the call to action, not  even up the hill and back down again. Sturgeon has a different agenda, what else can it be? She has embraced corporate lobbyists Charlotte Street Partners and the Growth Commission, either would make a Tory proud. Sturgeon plans on keeping the pound, economist Laurie Macfarlane has written, “Scots would have less sovereignty than they do now. Forget any strategic reorientation of the economy based on investment and the likes of a Green New Deal without a central bank; wealth would instead be extracted from Scotland and re-concentrated in the City of London”.

What links us is independence, there is a cast iron mandate, there are lots of them aren’t there, for independence. The contradictions within the SNP like neo-liberal economic policy and some left of centre policy aren’t the contradictions of a progressive party, it is a fraud writ large for me now. It keeps the discussion going in the yes community, but it is not so different from what the union is right now so why would a soft no voter vote for independence, is that the Sturgeon game? Enough carrots to convince the yes community she is allegedly serious but also enough to not convince enough people but hey “I tried”. Is it about staying in power at all costs? Staying in power to promote your political vision and agenda fine, but it is that? If so, why not be honest about it? Can’t be fear of Scottish Labour making a resurgence.

The SNP’s commanding lead in the polls however does not reflect any real ability to do what it takes to win independence in the face of Tory obduracy, or to deliver on the issues which Scottish workers look to independence to resolve. (Paul Moorhouse, Socialist Alternative)

Sturgeon has failed on education, she has failed on Covid-19, she has failed on health, she has failed on jobs, she has failed on the green economy which provided a giveaway re 1970’s like oil and gas. It is clear for anyone to see that Sturgeon offers no opposition to the rampant capitalism that needs reform, she embraces it. The mantra from the SNP and Sturgeon, right out of the Scottish Labour playbook, vote SNP we are not as bad as the Tories, the strategy that will free Scotland and return its sovereignty, I don’t think so.

SNP members have no power, the SNP National Executive Committee is controlled by Sturgeon, her unionist friends, and her gender warriors to the extent that suspension, as Yours for Scotland highlighted today, is used to keep those members who actually want independence out. So, there isn’t any point looking to SNP members to bring about change, they have no power, or very little, power to do that. The result then is that nothing is going to change as long as Nicola Sturgeon and her ilk are in control of the SNP, so it brings us back to the original question, why do we keep looking to the SNP for independence?

I don’t have any answers, I wish I did other than I can’t be bothered asking them to do anything anymore. I have had enough of the poor governance, the grand standing, the photo ops, the single-issue bandwagon of Nicola Sturgeon, the platitude after platitude of Ian Blackford, I’ve even had enough of the sniping, yet do nothing, from the side lines of Joanna Cherry and Angus MacNeil.

Maybe it is time we just don’t ask the SNP to do anything anymore, maybe if we remove the platform that we give them via new media and our blogs, via the Prism, maybe if we start to treat them like Scottish Labour the message will be clear, you no longer represent us, you no longer matter. Maybe it is time to cut the cord and move on, I think that is what I have to try to do now, treat the SNP, and their members, no different than I would treat any other unionist party. The SNP of 2014 doesn’t exist anymore, I think maybe the time has come to ignore them, ignore Sturgeon.

 

Dribs and Drabs

Millionaire Champayne non-Socialist Labour Tory MSP, and branch manager, Anus Sarwar speaks out at the latest Labour Tory Conference in Liverpool. People like Sarwar make me sick to my stomach they really do. Sarwar said in his speech “THE cause of Scottish independence “goes against the values of solidarity and social justice”. What would this clown know about social justice, his family company, which he allegedly transferred his shares to his kids, don’t recognise trade unions and pay minimum wage, I’ll take no lectures from this Tory about justice in any shape or form.

Alba’s general secretary Chris McEleny said: “Anas Sarwar fluffed his lines in his big conference speech so it’s no surprise he’s fluffing his tenure as the latest leader of Labour’s Scottish branch office.

“Working-class heroes like Jimmy Reid supported independence. Independence would give us the power to reject Labour’s illegal wars and Tory rob-from-the-poor-to-give-to-the-rich economics.

“Perhaps it’s too much to ask for millionaires like Anas Sarwar to understand what a movement for social justice looks like.” Chris is not wrong is he.

Putting the boot in – Just when you thought it could not get much worse in shit hole UK the Bank of England are threatening to hike interest rates to try and defend our plastic pound because of the economic insanity of the nutters leading the English Government. Talk about putting the boot in to poor people, you can’t make this shit up anymore. Wonder if NO voters from 2014 are happy now, this is YOUR Better Together, this is YOUR union. I earn the average wage so probably earn more than most workers in Scotland given how shit wages are in Scotland and even I am now watching every penny so the thought of an interest rate hike just makes a bad situation worse. I am no expert in economics that is for sure but even I know this cannot, and will not, be good in any shape or form. The English Government could have spent the Billions enriching their pals to cut VAT which would help the poorest who actually spend money in local shops. Hate is a horrible word, but I hate the Tories, I hate Labour, and I hate many in the SNP for what they are doing to Scotland right now.

Waste of time if you ask me – So the SNP have said that the right to self-determination is “fundamental and inalienable” and this should be taken into account when interpreting the relevant legislation. Lawyers Claire Mitchell QC and David Welsh on behalf of the party “Holding such a referendum, however, represents the expression by a people of their right to self-determination which should not be interfered with except under the clearest and most extreme circumstances.” However, they go on to say that “(legislation) does not result in a reduction in the scope of the powers of the UK Parliament and nor does it, of itself, have any effect on the Union”. If that is not giving the UK Supreme Court, the clue is in the name, an out to deny Scotland democratic rights nothing will. The SNP are just no longer serious about independence in my opinion, they are playing us all for mugs.

Like Shite It Will – Shadow Scottish secretary Ian Murray Tory Labour MP has said of Brown stuffs blueprint “It will not just try to convince Scotland to stay, but to make Britain such a good place to be that everyone, in all corners of our country, will want to be part of it,” he will say. “And in doing so, it will set out both a safer and more radical offer for change than the risk of independence ― the chance for a fairer, more secure, more respected Scotland within a reformed and modern United Kingdom.” They don’t half talk bollocks, Tory Labour are unionists and colonisers to the core and anyone falling for this shit deserve everything coming to them they really do.

Piss OFF Then – So Roddy Dunlop doesn’t want to contribute to the roads he drives on, the education system that he probably benefited from, and if he has children they have used also, doesn’t want to contribute to the Scottish NHS and local services like refuse, or not – for profit water of a decent standard. Dunlop doesn’t want to contribute to the country that helped shape him, make him who he is.

People like Dunlop make me sigh, and they make me sick. Happy to take the benefits but their greed shines through when the going gets tough and we need to be less selfish, when we need to contribute more to ensure those less well off, local services, the Scottish NHS can function, and people can eat and survive. If Dunlop wants to move South for higher house prices, prescription charges that would make your eyes water, higher council tax, water bills with added pollution then he can piss off then, him and his like are not who we build a new fairer Scotland with, they are the leaches who bring us all down.