Saturday, December 14, 2019

Miscellaneous election stuff

So a few miscellaneous things.  I have an article in The National about what the polls got right and wrong in Scotland over the last few weeks.  You can read it HERE.

I was interviewed yesterday about the election for an article on the Al Jazeera website by Alasdair Soussi, entitled 'SNP victory puts Scottish independence back in the spotlight'.  You can read it HERE.

I was also interviewed on Radio Sputnik yesterday, and I was asked about Jo Swinson's claim in her concession speech that "nationalism" is on the march on both sides of the border.  That gave me a rather enjoyable opportunity to call the Liberal Democrats "the quintessential nationalists" of this campaign, who "out-Toried the Tories" and are "obsessed with the British state". I haven't found a catch-up link for the interview, but if one appears I'll post it here later.

85 comments:

  1. Good stuff. It's important that international outlets get a pro Scottish view not filtered through the London political lens.

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  2. You're right about Swinson and all these British nationalists who decry nationalism. Hypocrisy is a very British nationalist trait.

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    1. You are right to highlight the word 'nationalism' and the baggage which it carries. I see that again the BBC is using the term 'The Nationalists' as a synonym for the SNP and hinting at a similarity by talking of terms like 'British Nationalism', 'The BNP', 'UKIP', etc within the same paragraph. This juxtaposition has been used over many years and I think that we need to call it out and show what the distinctions are.

      I still get asked by otherwise decent people in England (which I visit frequently), 'Why do so many people in Scotland hate the English?'

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    2. The refusal of a Section 30 would directly pit Scotland against England.

      It's an extremely dangerous thing to do, turning to peoples who are for the moment friends and countrymen, into enemies, with England the occupier of Scotland.

      It is an extremly dangerous thing and the fact it is even being discussed is very scary.

      I believed I lived in democracy, for all it's failings.

      If a Section 30 is refused, the UK becomes no different to the likes of Iran where voting is just a sham.

      If I cannot freely vote for the SNP to deliver a referendum, then I have no vote at all.

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    3. I've said it before - the glorification of the British state is statism (leading on to something darker) rather than nationalism. English nationalism has still to be defined in a coherent and constructive way.

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    4. Certainly Scotland's people and the SNP in particular have been demonised over the past few years, ( it was ratcheted up in 2014) in the British Nationalist media in England. It's deliberate, it's to create fear and divide, & that tactic legitimises a country being viewed as somehow 'rogue' in the eyes of what would otherwise be reasonable (ish) folks, say in England. When they succeed in portraying a democratic country as 'rogue' that state/government/country is seen as the enemy. What do you do to an enemy?

      My dad served in Malayia ( wrong spelling?) in the 50's ( no choice there were no other jobs then) he was gentle guy who had had a very hard and poor life re WW2 etc) and he told me that they were told, brainwashed even, into believing the people of Malayia were the enemy, and that enemy was actually a personal enemy. All in order to make sure the soldiers took no pity or showed no mercy to the poor villagers! ( they did though, and went against fascist toffs re,officers' orders, it was in the middle of dense jungle!).

      So, the tactic is to create an enemy, instil hatred and fear of the perceived attack on you as a person, and your family
      and then you can do what you like because the enemy needs taking down. A long story I know, but that is what we see in Latin America, and all over the world.

      Scotland needs rEU and others' support, definitely. Let's hope they step up to the plate to protect and make sure Scotland's people and democracy are not compromised in any major way!


      Btw my computer is playing up so I have to sign in here as anon until I work out how to sign in again.
      Arty Hetty.

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  3. The UK does stand on the brink. Does it choose democracy and come to a quiet end with dignity and respect for all its peoples?

    Or does it take that goosestep to fascism as those ruling it desperately try to retain power, forcing the people of Scotland to remain against their will, bringing democracy to an end?

    Anyone supporting the refusal of a section 30 should hang their heads in shame. They are spitting on the graves of all those who fought and died in two world wars (and beyond) for the right of Scots (and others) to choose their governments freely at the ballot box.

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    1. If we wait until 2021 then, like the Northern Irish, we'll be entitled to our once-every-seven-years border poll, right?

      Or is there something I don't understand about equality in the UK?

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    2. If a section 30 is refused, that cancels the 2014 result. It only stands as long as Scots can freely overturn it. That is the fundamental basis of democracy.

      So no Section 30 means the 2014 is cancelled and no longer can it be claimed Scots are voluntary members of the UK.

      The Smith Commission is absolutely clear on the subject of Iref#n

      https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20151202171029/http://www.smith-commission.scot/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/The_Smith_Commission_Report-1.pdf

      18. It is agreed that nothing in this report prevents Scotland becoming an independent country in the future should the people of Scotland so choose.

      To overrule 2014 like this, taking away the right of Scots to vote while respecting England's vote for brexit, could only be explained by a deep racial hatred for Scots.

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    3. You really need to step away from this "racial hatred of Scots" guff. The peoples of this archipelago are largely homogeneous; 87% of the DNA arrived while there were still land bridges. Any introduced DNA from invasion or migration whether Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Norse or colonial/post colonial has only spiced up the indigenous by about an eighth.

      Any significant differences between Scots & the rest of the British Isles are purely cultural.

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    4. You need to look up the definition of race. It's not related to genes, but used in relation to culture, nationality, religion etc.

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    5. I'm Irish (and Scottish). I know what the 'no blacks, no dogs no Irish' signs meant.

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    6. Here you go:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_(human_categorization)

      A race is a grouping of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into categories generally viewed as distinct by society. The term was first used to refer to speakers of a common language and then to denote national affiliations. By the 17th century the term began to refer to physical (phenotypical) traits. Modern scholarship regards race as a social construct, an identity which is assigned based on rules made by society. While partially based on physical similarities within groups, race does not have an inherent physical or biological meaning.

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    7. You are of course correct Scottish Skier. I have stated this on many occassions myself. Racism is not as so many wrongly state your colour of skin or genes etc.

      When I lived in England for a spell and drunks in a bar told me to fuck off back to your own country jock - that was racism. That's why I find it laughable when the English ask why do the Scots hate the English. There are racists in all countries.

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    8. I think us and the Irish are the most a like. Not just the folk music, traditions and culture but our nature too.

      (To stereotype) we are warmer, natural talkers and easy going people. The English are great too but generally a bit more reserved.

      Anytime I've gone to Ireland I've felt at home.

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    9. Yes, I agree with that, I've always thought Dublin seems culturally much closer to home than London does. The part of England that is most similar to Scotland is the north-east (leaving aside its enthusiastic embrace of Brexit).

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    10. Dublin is one of the most English places on Planet Earth. Even after a century of greenwashing by an Oirish government re-writing their 800 years as part of england. Away from the extreme fringes of the island they have english laws, english landholding, english villages, english everything. Just under a different name.

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  4. If a Section 30 is refused, the Scottish Grand Committee must meet and vote to withdraw Scotland from the union (as Sinn Fein are elected to do) pending the outcome of a referendum on independence. The union option here must be pre-agreed with the rUK that Holyrood have the power to hold such referendums freely in perpetuity.

    In the name of all those who have fought and died for it, democracy must prevail.

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  5. How come it's possible for polling companies to conduct opinion polls and exit polls, but that that somehow a democratically elected government can't do the same and have a plebiscite/referendum to ascertain public mood and opinion ?

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    1. The problem would be if Unionists boycott it, it would count for anything.

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    2. In the 70s there was a referendum in N. Ireland the republicans boycotted it but the UK gov accepted the result even with the low turnout. It's called a precedent.

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    3. re anon 11:20 -
      I agree, there has to be a better way.....
      How about this:
      If there's anything all sides can agree on, it would be this: "Scotland is in a union."
      Now, it's either a union which requires consent of the people of both Scotland and England or it isn't (in which case it isn't in a "union" at all, it's an annexation).
      Does this consent even exist?
      For some time, this consent of the majority could be safely assumed but now, since polls, elections and Indyref have all suggested the level of consent is about 50%-55%, (as low as it can get,) we need a better way to monitor it.
      Each of these three methods are unsatisfactory: polls are inaccurate and prone to bias, elections generate futile circular arguments about whose vote means what and whose mandate is bigger, and referendums, although accurate, may cause resentment if repeated.
      .....so, wouldn't it be better for everyone if the government included on the usual ballot paper at every election an additional, legally binding question:

      "Do you agree an indyref should be held within the next session of parliament?" Yes or No?

      We could separate parliamentary politics and constitutional politics, permanently. Scotland's future would indisputably be in Scotland's hands, while the unionists who believe "Scotland said No and we meant it" would have nothing to fear either.
      Regardless of which side of the fence you're on, it can be in no one's interests that our votes are continually being used to conflate these issues, by both sides.
      Otherwise we're looking at a lose-lose deadlock; every future election having one side thinking it can break the union with yet another minority vote-share victory, and another thinking it can keep the union together with the word "No".

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  6. The problem would be if Unionists boycott it, it wouldn't count for anything.

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    1. If it wasn't illegal, it would count.

      Boycotting only works for votes which are not free and fair.

      If a legitimate government holds a vote that breaks no laws, it stands.

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    2. This is why Spain send in jackboots to disrupt the Catalan referendum. It's very difficult to argue a referendum is illegal, particularly when a population have freely voted to hold one.

      So, Spain sent in jackboots to disrupt the vote, stopping people voting, so making it not free and fair by doing so. Ergo, the result could be disputed more readily. If some people couldn't vote even though they wanted to, the result isn't technically valid.

      Note the charges on Catalan politicians are not focused on allowing people to vote, but on trumped up changes surround that. This is because voting is never illegal, not in democracies anyway.

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    3. It can NEVER be illegal to ask Scots to vote. All this nonsense from the Britnat media about illegal referendum is nonsense. The truth nowadays seems to be what the Britnats say it is. The UK is following the Trump/Steve Bannon model.

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    4. If it were about feeding GWC to piranhas in Beaufort's Dyke would it be a hate crime?

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  7. Great piece, James.

    Have to say Thursday was a historic night for the SNP. I even cracked open a few beers to celebrate. 48 seats is the high end of my prediction (I thought we might get about 41/42).

    The returning Yes vote came out. And we were a few votes from taking Moray and Caithness. The only seat Tories can relatively be happy about is Banff and Buchan.

    50 would have been ace, but I said anything over 40% of the vote is a success.

    If 43% means a mandate for delivering Brexit in England and Wales. Surely 45% does in Scotland for a referendum. It will be interesting to see what will happen after the Tories turn down that request. Civil disobedience? Hopefully the SNP do more things like they did under Blackford when they all walked out.

    Since Brexit, the pattern is quite clear. Scotland and NI are going in a very different direction to Wales and England.

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    1. The more the Britnats deny a democratic vote and refuse the sect 30 the more people realise the true nature of Scotlands place in the UK - subservient.

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  8. The WOS blogger is now an absolute disgrace. WOS is now a 100 % anti SNP site. No different from the Daily Mail or the Daily Express or the BBC of any of the British Nationalist media. He says the SNP failed in the GE. He says there won't be an Indyref2 but he took donations to produce his Wee Blue Books 2 for the indyref that he says won't happen. His followers are like a cult - they jump in whichever direction he tells them. Sad. His site is doing more harm to independence now. What happened? When was the last time the site did any critical analysis of the Britnats?

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    1. There are a fair few critics on that article, so they are not all cultists. Mind you, the guy seems to tell them they're thick or tell them to f--- off.

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    2. He says that the result changed nothing. Which is true. As long as madmentalnicky sticks to her gold standard section 30 order lies then we are going nowhere.

      Remember sturgeon and blackford repeatedly insisting that Scotland WILL NOT be dragged out of the EU. Now we are leaving in a month and they are still insisting that the lovely english who just agree to everything. Even after the election showed exactly what english people are like.

      You blindly follow the woman who insists that women have penises and leave reality to the grown-ups.

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    3. I do not blindly follow anyone unlike the people who support Wings.

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    4. Aye, Rev Stu is the real grown-up - like hell. Whining that the SNP do a 'deal' with the Tories and get themselves stabbed in the backs for their trouble. It was a stupid plan, but now he's doubling down on the stupid.

      If that's a sign of this much-vaunted 'intelligence' that the fawning cultists tell us about, then I look forward to the Rev's political career being as successful as Jo Swinson's. But I'm sure he and his sychophants will find a way to blame Sturgeon for that too.

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    5. Why do people keep bringing up penises into independence arguments?

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    6. Isn't that one for the producers of "Question Time"?

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  9. Yep, sadly not my go-to site at all now. It's weird really, how he has changed into being so fiercely anti SNP. Who the heck would he have in place working FOR Scotland instead.

    Plenty more blogs to read and share info etc thank god.

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    1. Like Bella?

      He is anti the party who are doing everything in their power to prevent independence. When party officials argue that there was no request for a section 30 order 2 years ago, having blared it all over the media that there was, then they need to be exposed.

      When madmentalnicky has still not settled the legality arguments.

      When madmentalnicky still claims that we can have a vote in 2020 despite the timetable being impossible under her own rules.

      When SNP MPs, MSPs, Councillors and MEPs are attacking voters for not being members of their transcult then they need their hatred broadcast to the public.
      Will you do a better job?

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    2. Why is every body who replies to this site so afraid to put their real names on their messages and opinions, fishy.

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    3. Don't call me fishy!

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  10. Agreed.
    I can't really explain the collapse of WOS into bitter defeatism and self indulgence. Part of it may be that some people lack the stamina for very long and complex struggles. When they start to feel demoralisation biting their bums they develop a sort of martyr complex where everyone else has let them down.
    It's a geat shame but the rest of us must just push on.

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    1. Perhaps the SNP should have shut their cakeholes instead of cheering on kezzy the lying defamer?

      Perhaps the SNP should have brought their wokenazis to heel?

      Perhaps the SNP could recognise the work he and the rest of the Yes campaign did to make up for their failures?

      Perhaps he sees that the woman who stitched up Salmond, Thomson, Hanvey, and the rest deserves nothing but contempt.

      Be a cult member or think for yourself. That is the case he makes.

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    2. Now they've got a thread called "Hitting The Fans". Never give in to the temptation to go Full Cantona.

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  11. I can understand frustration, but not defeatism. The end of the UK is very close now. It just might be a rough going.

    My posts about the Section 30 express genuine fear. The same fear felt by many in Germany when the Nazis, having consistently failed to win a majority in the Bundestag, simply cancelled elections.

    Unionists now face the same choice. They keep losing elections in Scotland. Ergo, there is just no democratic justification for opposing iref2. It seems they just cannot rely on the Scots freely choosing the union any more.

    So a Section 30 must be granted without question and let Scots decide to extend the union again or not, as per 2014. If England is unhappy with Scots doing this frequently, it can just end the union itself.

    It's that or unionists dispense with democracy in the same way that Hitler did. Of course if they do that, they turn us from politician opponents, into enemies. Now we have Scots surrounded by the people that took the vote away from them...That deny them their most basic human right.

    If I see Johnson in the street, he'd not be a politician that I dislike and disagree with, but accept is my PM for better or for worse, he is the man that took away my right to vote. He is my enemy; the very enemy my grandparents fought to stop in WW2.

    Yet we have a Brian Taylor article on the BBC seeming to suggest this is a very likely outcome, and it's all fine.

    OMFG.

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    1. Skier, you are losing the plot in life. Go out for a beer with your girlie friends and take stock. It is you Nat sis that deny the voters wish.

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    2. The wish of the electorate is clear enough.

      They gave the SNP another landslide.

      An even bigger landslide to 100% Remain parties.

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    3. GWC must be the most obnoxious poster on this site.

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    4. ..on any site. A wank.

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  12. The Wings argument that the SNP failed is indistinguishable from the unionist argument that the SNP failed.

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    1. He's had a better offer most likely. The crowds are drifting away from his site because he no longer produces anything of interest for the vast majority of Independence supporters.

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  13. No bones about it though, the general election was a fucking disaster for unionism. Big SNP gains, with a greater share of the vote and massively more seats than Johnson UK-wide, combined with a historic republican win in NI, makes it impossible to argue about any pan-UK mandate.

    2017 was a gift to unionists in that they could shout 'Look people don't want indy!', even if that wasn't justified in reality, and had nothing to do with Holyrood.

    2019 changes all that. A landslide of epic proportions for the SNP and an earthquake of a change in NI.

    So now we will see if democracy will prevail or the UK will become a fascist state as it writhes in its death throes. I really hope it's the former.

    Thank you the 45% for saving Scotland's neck.

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    1. Poor Skier, We are leaving the EU thus getting the EU beggers of their knees. And Scotland will remain in the Union. Go for it Boris our great leader.

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    2. This is basically what Hitler said to the Poles.

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    3. Not true. Stopping the Jock crawling to the EU is a great democratic virtue. We might as well have kept the British Empire.

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    4. And remember that there's still time to send me to the top of the charts for Christmas.

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    5. The reason there's no British empire is that the imperial Brits always turn and run if the natives put up a bit of resistance.

      Beaten in Ireland by a rag tag 'bunch of potato farmers'.

      My great grandparents kicked British ass. Sent you running like the cowards bullies always are.

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  14. The Supreme Court upheld the English claim of rights that their parliament were sovereign, not the Prime Minister. I wonder if they will up hold the Scottish claim of rights that the people are sovereign. I think this was agreed in the 1690s, before the signing of the treaty of union.

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    1. The Scottish claim of rights was tabled in the H of Commons recently and was not challenged. Therefore the UK parliament confirmed this right of the Scottish people. No need to go to court.

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    2. As I understand it the pre-1707 Union claim of right is still valid. No current UK prime minister can overrule it.
      This will have been communicated already to Johnson by his legal team.
      Concede now Boris or we'll set Joanna on ye!

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  15. Everyone in the UK should fear the refusal of a Section 30, not just the Welsh and N. Irish. If the vote can be taken away from one group, others will soon suffer the same fate. It is the way fascism takes hold.

    'First the came for the Scots, and I did not speak out because I wasn't a Scot...'

    Boris has the chance to be the statesman he's always fantasized about. Everyone is watching. Who will it be? The great democrat and first PM of a reborn England? Or the first, and last, dictator of Britain.

    Best speak out now, unionists who believe in democracy and respect Scotland's people.

    https://twitter.com/RobDunsmore/status/1205813230536404995

    Stephen Bush, "I think it's basically unsustainable at this point for anyone to be able to argue that the referendum mandate in 2014 for Scottish independence could possibly be said to still be alive"

    https://twitter.com/MalcolmChishol1/status/1205401697138495488

    Malcolm Chisholm
    @MalcolmChishol1
    Dec 13
    Hope many of those against or undecided(me included)about independence will get behind incontrovertible democratic demand for indyref2. Hardest of hard Brexits and intolerable Johnson not what many No Voters had in mind in 2014 and SNP has 2016 changed circumstances mandate+GE2019

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  16. A wee prezzie for you James if you don't know about it:

    https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/margin-of-error-calculator/

    e.g. 12 constituencies surveyed out of 59 in Scotland for the exit poll gives an MOE of 25%, compared with 140 of 650 for the UK giving 7%. I'd forgotten my small sampling stats distributions from long ago :-)

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  17. The decent quiet Unionists who work for a living and contribute to our economy will turn out if required and vote No. Unionists are not like the English hating Nat si thugs who beat up a pensioner in George Square 2014. Christmas present early we are leaving the EU 31 January 2020. Well done Boris.

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    1. Where were they on Thursday?

      Or in May 2016?

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    2. 2014. We Unionists know you are fanatics and have taken the old Labour Catholic vote. We turn out at the right time. We know you are playing the race and sectarian game.

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    3. GWC you are an obnoxious turd. Just like the UK -you both stink.

      You are not a Unionist - you are a Britnat.

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    4. Hit a truthful nerve there Unk. Things you know and deny. But the truth prevails. We know your game.

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    5. GWC you are still a Britnat turd. Most Britnats are strangers to the truth. I very much doubt you are the exception.

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  18. The best time for Boris Johnson to pass a S30 order is now surely ?

    Pass it with a proviso that a referendum is held within 6 months, because he will never be as strong as he is now. As January rolls into Feb and he's made to look even more foolish by the EU and by awkward questions in Parliament the shine is gonna wear off.

    And once the the voters realise that he can't cut new trade deals by the end of the year - and has to ask for another extension by the summer deadline - those that voted for him are going to realise that he has to capitulate for an EU extension, or he will have to go full steam for a No Deal cliff edge. Voters will understand that the 'Get brexit done' slogan was a lie, that there are years of trade negotiation ahead and that what we have just been through - the 'withdrawl' stage of leaving is in fact just the end of the first and easiest part.

    Just now he's relying on the news cycle/Christmas to drop the Scottish Issue into the long grass without him having to respond, the SNP have to keep the issue alive.

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  19. The mandate deniers need tae get telt -
    We voted SNP to deliver Indyref2.
    45% trumps 43%. Transfer the powers to Holyrood.
    Johnson's party got 25% on a STOP INDYREF2 ticket.
    Ye bloody lost. Concede now while you still have some of your credentials as a democracy.

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  20. GWC is a Tory. The type of Tory who hails from Govan and votes for a party that makes his type poorer but will vote Tory because he supports Sevco. The knuckle dragging working class Tory vote from Govan is what GWC is. Quite simply pathetic and dumb

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    1. I am not from the Scottish Nationalist poverty stricken Govan you bum boy.

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    2. GWC it doesn't really matter where a Britnat turd comes from. You all stink and people are repelled by you.

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  21. See this Queen's speech being written by Johnson.
    Will she really deliver it if it shows disrespect or even ignores the democratic plight of Scotland.
    The status of the monarchy in Scotland would never recover.
    Scottish republic/commonwealth would be on the cards.

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    1. The Queen must have said to Boris what has happened to some of my Scottish subjects. Why do they want to be run from Germany and France if they desire independence. Your Majesty the Scots have always found it difficult and embarrassing sponging from the English treasury and are looking for a new source of revenue where they do not have to pay. Chin Chin Boris Gin and Tonic. Gladly your Gracious Majesty. The sooner we get rid of them the better.

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    2. GWC Not only are you a stinking Britnat turd you are not very well educated turd. Scots are not subjects. Only the English, Welsh and N.Irish have that dubious status in the UK.

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  22. Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings are set to sack 50% of Englands civil servants to be replaced by a hand picked new team, this is to be followed by a shakeup of Englands police force

    There'll be those not old enough or know enough history to know what this means, I do because England has done this before in other countries to enforce partitioning and division in order to rule
    This system was copied by the Nazis in the 1930s in order to facilitate the takeover of Germany before anyone had the power to stop them

    As to HM The Queen she has no say in what she says, her words are written for her by the government of the day and a refusal to say them is immediate abdication of the throne, so she'll do as she's told and I would be shocked if she had the guts to refuse given that in the early days of the Nazi uprising the Royal Family were ready to take either side whoever won because being the Royal Family is more important to HM The Queen than England is, her duty is to her family's endurance, nothing else

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    1. The Queen is a nice auld wummin. Scottish Nat sis are devisive anti English racist bigots who hate any real Scot that opposes them. Big fight coming.

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  23. Anonymous 6:11 PM and other posts - you should try to get a sense of proportion. The reverend is just a guy who writes a blog. Nicola Sturgeon has a country to run as well as campaign for an election. The Scottish Parliament is still sitting. The Rev just gets out of bed and writes a few lines for his blog when he pleases - if he has another job so be it. But, there is a difference in writing a blog and running a country.

    I had never heard of WOS until a year after the referendum - no blue book, no analysis, none of his commentary. I think many people are the same. I hadn't heard of this blog either - indeed I had only heard of Bella and Commonspace and after visiting them found I didn't like either so dumped them. I appreciate though that for those that followed his writings and analysis it must be difficult to see how negative the site has become. I was lucky enough to catch the tail end of his 'golden period' before it went awry. It was a good website and a good entertaining read. I contributed to his fundraisers. I was puzzled by the Kezia result in court and contributed more money to support an appeal - not much (I am on a zero hours contract) but what I could afford. But it has to be said that the site has changed. There are long periods of nothing and then some vitriol about the SNP which is after all part of the independence movement whether you like them or not.

    Unfortunately, I wrote a rather unpleasant post on his website in response to his latest lash at the SNP after the GE. In what should have been a day of great positivity for the Yes movement he turned it into a negative, not only for those who follow him but for those who disagree with his point of view - all round it was a disappointment a complete negative. I am sorry that I wrote the post because on reflection I wonder what has caused this change from good commentary and analysis to complete negativity and I worry that it could be some form of depression. It might not be but it could be and if it is he has the additional problem that the depression is being acted out in the public gaze - not a good thing. I hope it isn't the case but I will not be posting anything on his website ever again.

    But you have to look at the drive for independence through a wider lens. Your criticism of the SNP categorises them as a homogenised group 'the SNP should...' they are not. It is a political party full of good people, bad people and idiots just like any other party or indeed group of people. It is like say ing the Tunnocks staff should make sure their carparks are cleaner. The SNP cant bring "their wokenazis to heel" because we live in a free society and the SNP has a rule book that they have to follow or they could end up in court. Things are not as easy as the Rev or some of his supporters might suggest. This is a free society. Look at Labour with the anti-semitism problem,the conservatives with Islamaphobia - there are proceedures and processes that are in place that heve to be followed so that fairness can be seen to be done. As for the trans thing, again you use generalities in your attack on the SNP as if all "SNP MPs, MSPs, Councillors and MEPs are attacking voters" - they are not. They just are not. In the old days, the Rev would have shown you how this narrative had been created by framing the content in a particular way. In the case of trans stuff some SNP MPs, MSPs, Councillors and MEPs are for it and some SNP MPs, MSPs, Councillors and MEPs are against it. Don't be fooled into believing the anti-trans rhetoric - I would also say don't be fooled into believing the pro trans rhetoric. Relax. Chill out....

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    1. Working people run the country not politicians. Politicians make laws. People elect politicians.

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  24. ...
    This is about independence - that it all. Either you are for it or you are against it. The other stuff is irrelevant. It is in the world of NORMAL non-constitutional politics. The same debates over trans issues are on-going in other parties and indeed around the world. Obama issued an executive order prohibiting discrimination against transgender people in employment by the federal government and its contractors. In Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that people have a right to marry without regard to gender. Spain passed a law in 2006 that allows transgender people to register under their preferred sex in public documents such as birth certificates, identity cards and passports without undergoing prior surgical change. I mention these facts because you raise the issue as does the Reverend. To me they are unimportant. I want independence and the SNP have brought us from nowhere in the 1960s with no politicians and 18% of the population in favour of independence to the brink of it now - long before the internet and WOS. It is the SNP who have driven this forward to the point it is at today NOT the Reverend Stuart Campbell.

    Try to see the whole of the moon - and rejoice at where we are today. Help in the final push and get the country free.

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    1. You expire more wind than Anna Soubry.

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