Monday, August 15, 2016

The best time to hold a second independence referendum is while there is still a pro-independence majority at Holyrood to make it possible

Iain Macwhirter had a piece in the Sunday Herald yesterday arguing that Nicola Sturgeon won't and shouldn't hold a second independence referendum for several years (2021 at the absolute earliest), because there needs to be much greater clarity about what Brexit will actually look like before pulling the trigger.  Now, as you know, I'm inclined to favour a much earlier vote (not necessarily next week, but perhaps some time between next year and 2019), and that's mainly because I worry about the momentum we built up in 2014 gradually evaporating.  I certainly don't subscribe to the 'demographic inevitability' theory - if we sit around twiddling our thumbs, waiting for a glacial shift in public opinion towards Yes, I suspect we'll get a nasty shock and see a less-than-glacial shift towards No.  But whenever you think the right time is, it's worth bearing in mind that this is a discussion about fantasy politics unless you can be sure that there will actually be a pro-independence majority in the Scottish Parliament at the relevant moment.  Without that, there will never be a referendum.  The biggest difference between arguing for a referendum in 2019 and arguing for a referendum in 2022 is that we know with reasonable confidence that the parliamentary arithmetic will be there in 2019.  All bets are off as far as 2022 is concerned.

This is a point that worried me even before the EU referendum.  There seems to be a complacent attitude in some quarters that the SNP ascendancy at Holyrood is going to remain in place indefinitely, and that Nicola Sturgeon can just gaze down at the polls from an Olympian height and choose the absolutely ideal moment.  The reality is that the 2021 election could be a very tough one indeed, and by that point we may have much more to worry about than passive-aggressive "tactical voting" campaigns run by a certain RISE-supporting website.  The SNP will have been in power for fourteen years by 2021 - that's one year longer than the Blair/Brown government lasted, and it's only four years short of the record set by the Thatcher/Major government.  No party is immune to the changing of the seasons (as even the ANC are starting to find out).  It's true that the Tories overtaking Labour as the largest opposition party makes a fourth successive SNP victory somewhat more probable, because Scotland scarcely seems likely to elect a Tory-led government any time soon.  But unfortunately there's a very obvious middle possibility - the SNP could be re-elected with a significantly weaker mandate, and without a pro-independence majority even after the Greens are taken into account.  If that happens, the 'patient' plans for a second indyref in the early 2020s will look a bit bloody silly in retrospect.

Both Iain Macwhirter and David "and on the third day He reactivated His Twitter account" Torrance point to supposed polling evidence that there hasn't been much of a boost for Yes in the aftermath of June 23rd.  I strongly suspect that they're both mainly talking about a single YouGov poll showing only a 1% increase for Yes, and assuming that's going to prove typical.  Well, it might do, but there again it might not do.  Drawing too many conclusions from an individual poll is a dangerous game for any commentator, and we'll just have to see whether they've jumped the gun.  It's particularly worth remembering that even before the EU referendum, telephone polls had Yes in the lead.  There has only been one telephone poll since the referendum, and again, it had Yes in the lead.  Anyone who claims to know for certain that there is a currently an anti-independence majority is either being dishonest or doesn't know what they're talking about.

As for Torrance's claim that the SNP got carried away with their rhetoric on a second indyref because they bought into their own "hype" about the effect of Brexit on public opinion, that strikes me as being silliness on stilts.  Nicola Sturgeon and the people around her are not idiots - they'll have seen the pre-referendum polls suggesting that Brexit might only increase support for independence by a modest amount, and yet they went ahead with the early statement that an indyref was "highly likely" without waiting to see what the post-referendum polls would show.  They would never have done that unless it was a carefully-thought-through strategy that was not dependent on short-term polling trends.

84 comments:

  1. Correct.
    No independence majority at Holyrood no indyref2.
    Enjoy your hot chocolate 😊

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    1. The Teenage Temper Tantrums of the Torrance TypesAugust 15, 2016 at 8:44 PM

      To be fair you can never underestimate the absurd sense of self-importance some of the bubble bloggers and media types like Torrance, MacWhirter and their ilk display.


      The First Minister and Scottish government will hardly be hanging on their every word and worrying about whether their plans match up to the blogosphere and Herald's patronising proscriptions.

      It's because the SNP actually have real shit to do like running Scotland and have to prepare concrete plans just in case there is an early Indyref2.

      There is also the small matter of the very real and very vital council elections next May which can hardly be postponed.

      If you want to see what momentum halted would look like then not doing well in those would be the clearest possible sign as well as the most astonishing complacency possible. Which is why the prep has long since begun for that while others pontificate.

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  2. Good article James. I don't think there will be a referendum on independence in the next five years. Whether that is a good thing or not I am not sure at the moment.

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    1. Bumblefuck tories for unityAugust 15, 2016 at 8:02 PM

      I wouldn't say the polls and relative standings right now are completely worthless, but it's a cast iron fact that this is the calm before the real Brexit storm.

      One way or another it's going to end long before the next Holyrood elections.

      Whether it is May and the Cameroons endlessly trying to delay Brexit and the chaos that unleashes in the tory party from the Brexiteers who don't trust remainers like May. Or May letting the incompetent three stooges dictate the terms of Brexit (if the absurd Boris and corrupt Liam Fox ever finish squabbling with each other) and the chaos that unleashes as the terms of Brexit become the focus of the tory splits.

      In an atmosphere of complete uncertainty with no Brexit plan in evidence from the tories and an amusing reluctance to even broach the subject from May's cabinet of second-raters - lest the splits begin in earnest - there isn't exactly huge value in proscribing how things are certain to be for the next Holyrood election. Ruth Davidson can hardly pretend to be anything other than staunchly in the Remain camp so she will have to take sides and join in with the tory infighting.

      Not to mention the fact that Labour will also be ripped apart by the odious Blairites for years to come. They show absolutely no sign of having the balls to start their own party. Nor will they stop whining from the sidelines and to the tory press about Corbyn while openly trying to sabotage him and their own party.

      Dugdale and the clowns around her in the SLAB leadership have quite clearly chosen sides and it ain't Corbyn so expect that car-crash to play for a long time to come.

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    2. Brexit department will only be given 32 senior civil servants

      Embarrassingly for Brexit Secretary David Davis, Boris Johnson wields a team nearly eight times bigger.

      The team of senior civil servants posted to the Government’s new Brexit department will be dwarfed by those controlled by other cabinet ministers in Whitehall, it has emerged.

      Even the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which only recently was tipped for closure, will have a bigger top team when the new Brexit department is fully up and running.

      Embarrassingly for Brexit Secretary David Davis, his rival at the Foreign Office, Boris Johnson, wields a team nearly eight times bigger.

      It comes after Mr Davis had suggested his department would have 200 staff in total and skim off the best people from other Whitehall fiefdoms.





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    3. Boris Trump and the BrexitearsAugust 18, 2016 at 6:14 PM

      The naive gullibility of tory Eurosceptics might be legendary but even the most credulous and reluctant of the Brexiteers are eventually going to notice Theresa May is self-evidently not even close to taking Brexit remotely seriously.

      This is simple Cameroonism. Meaningless vapid posturing on free movement (which can easily be rolled back were it ever to get to serious negotiations) to keep the headbangers from splitting the party combined with pure short-termism to try and make it through the next term/year/month/week.

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  3. Muttley, it will be a bad thing. It has to coincide with brexit, will will defo happen and it will be a snap signing of art50, and a quick engexit with Scotland and NI being dragged out by their hair if need be. Ruk, they will seperate from the EU. I want no part of a country run by dangerous, destructive, selfish, greedy, bullying, lying cheats, ie the UK outwith the EU. 5yrs is far too long.

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  4. Absolutely correct. The new and effective indy ref needs to be in 2017 or 2018 at the latest. Torrance is, as ever, a nasty pro-Union propagandist and Macwhirter seems to have drifted off into his earlier pro-fedarlism/confedarlism dream world - a lonely lunar landscape. All the evidence - polling and personal - is that the anti-EU position of Westminster will deliver an independence majority... and this is before the effects of a new indy campaign. That raised the indy cause by about 65% last time and can do a similar job again. Even half as much would make for a very substantial indy majority. The Scottish government needs to get on with this pdq while the shock is still in the system. I write from Italy where sympathetic people can hardly understand what we are waiting for. The 'long game' is pure fanatsy - and dangerous at that - terminally so. Bring it on.

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    1. ah, interesting to know that ppl in Italy are of that mind. However, we have 200% of media bias, state propaganda to counter, while trying to run a country agianst the odds of massive austerity fron UK gov. Just read about ppl in E. Lothian, Scotland, having had to scrape around for food due to Ukgov using the area as a test for their disgusting, cruel and destructive 'universal credit' regime, ie, social security reforms. How do the Scotgov counter these attacks on ordinary, vulnerable, sick and disabled ppl? They have v limited funds. So, it has to be planned, very well, but snap, no beating about the bush this time! Saor Alba.

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    2. Glasgow Working Class 2August 15, 2016 at 8:35 PM

      The Nat sis said they would use their tax powers to negate the so called austerity!

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  5. ps, is I.Macwhirter a unionist plant, or is he just a where the wind blows for a good living type. Same thing I guess.

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    1. He is Blackpool rock Liberal and Federalist.

      First smell of federal proposals and he will jump that way.

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  6. Paypal is blocked?

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    1. Tried to donate through Paypal, but when I clicked the button it refused to go any further. You have a glitch.

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    2. Is there an error message, or does the screen just go blank?

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    3. The screen jut reverts to the same page as though you had not pressed the Paypal button. I used a card instead. Enjoy the chocolate.

      And on the subject of your post, it seems pretty obvious that we need to have voted for independence by the time the UK leaves the EU, otherwise we will be applying for membership from outside the EU. This would be a much bigger job than remaining in the EU where we are just now. If Brexit reveals itself to be a great success then winning indyref 2 may be an uphill struggle but my hunch is that Brexit will turn out to be a rather serious disaster for the UK economy.

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    4. Like topher said. Can't be bothered at the moment. will try again tomorrow. I'll use a card this time. Paypal is my preferred though.

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    5. As promised a donation made. With a card this time. Best of luck.

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  7. Sooner than later.

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  8. Quick question, how many polling companies poll 16 and 17 year-olds?
    And not so quick, assuming they currently don't, if they did poll them how much of a difference do you think that would have on the current standings for yes and no?

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  9. James the PayPal link on your fundraiser page dosn't work, the debit card link does.

    Kevin

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  10. Paypal says there's a problem with your account. I used Visa instead, but you should check it out. Best of luck!

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    1. Do you mean a problem with my own Paypal account? Until now, I had assumed that the glitch must be on Indiegogo.

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  11. Glasgow Wanking Crass 2August 15, 2016 at 9:22 PM

    Bin choking my chicken all night. Nat sis jocks get ta fuck!

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  12. James you should set a new target because you will get more donations that way, it's just psychology. People love a target and confirmation of others doing the same.

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    1. I'm deliberately not setting up a new fundraiser, for the reasons I mentioned the other day - it's just not the right time. Anyway, Plan B isn't going too badly, even allowing for the Paypal glitch - over £800 has been raised over the last few hours.

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  13. On the subject of "Glacial Demographic shift" I have to disagree.
    I have been through an successful independence period. It was considered absolutely impossible and came as a great surprise to the world. We had been reduced to little more than a rabble of farm labourers by mass executions and deportations. Most barely even knew what meant to be a country. The older generation had ceased to even consider it a possibility or a foolish scheme. Their attitude very much the same as you see in Scotland.

    From 1960 on wards the number of people grew at a slow rate that the Soviet government barely noticed. It was a generational shift. Like yourself some said it was a pendulum that would swing part of the way never reaching a majority or being a majority would be suppressed till it swung back to a state of dependence. Often it was compared to a tide with waves surging forward to die back put the tide creeping up the beach. Like the tide those in power expected it to peak and fall.

    You have seen all of this here, 50's 60's 70's 80's 90's. Surges that reached higher every time. You see it falling back again. Ever time your unionist politicians have said the tide comes this high and no more. It came higher. They now know they are in a Holland scenario. Their tidal walls of power and media and propaganda and social bigotry are protecting a situation that is below the natural sea level of "just another normal small country".

    I see this as where we are the tidal forces eroding the UK is the natural condition of a small country being suppressed. The UK's power structures just are not strong enough to hold back reality. Yes NO opinion may regain for a moment but it will be washed permanently away with the next bad flu outbreak. That the UK's future rest entirely on the life span of a few people between 70 and 100 years old. Should we not be counting the UK's years on the fingers of a careless owner of a bench saw?

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    1. Glasgow Working Class 2August 15, 2016 at 11:30 PM

      Us Unionist former hard working oldies get the flu jab and free of charge. That is why most of us survive longer and vote for the Union. We also have an intolerence of sponging politicians. The Nat sis do not understand or recognise hard work and that is why they lose.

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  14. Theresa is delaying Article 50 until next year at least. No doubt Scotland is playing a big part of that decision.

    On the subject of Unionist journalists, does anyone know if Allan Massie has nailed his colours to the pro indy mast yet?

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    1. Glasgow Working Class 2August 15, 2016 at 11:18 PM

      Wishfull thinking old bhoy. The British voted out and the government will take its time. And do remember over a million Scots voted to leave the corrupt EU. We still have sensible decent people in Scotland that recognise that unnesesary bloodsucking politicians are not required. Personally I would put the Holyrood wasters into the dustbin off history.

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  15. First priority is to win the local elections, then ensure the electoral commission is a fair honest unbiased body. Then we will be sure of the result of Indyref2. In the meantime the task is to change voter apathy. Could vote, should vote should be the norm. What about making voting compulsary?

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    1. What about extending it to Scots resident in other EU countries?

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    2. Are there any polls indicating what Scots in other countries would vote in the case that they were allowed? Before EU ref, I expected them to mostly vote to stay in UK, perhaps now a shift to independence?

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  16. First of all, they should make voting compulsory. All be it with a option of:-
    I DON'T WANT ANY OF THESE USELESS CHANCERS!
    I think the outcome would defo ruffle a few feathers.
    Also James why don't you expose the MYTH that when you cast your vote it is secret.
    They enter your voting registration number on your ballot paper.

    So later on the spooks sift through them all putting them into nice little piles and building a profile on you. Commies to the left pile / Spoiled Papers then the Right Wing nut jobs to the right etc.
    In other words any one who is liable to rock the establishment boatis put in their pigeon hole for future reference.
    Many years ago I had the delightful task of sifting through all of it.

    Secret ballot my Ar*e!

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  17. Recently I saw some interesting stats. It was about female golfers in South Korea and tennis players in Russia. In the 90s Se Ri Pak inspired an entire generation of girls in South Korea to take up golf. Now they dominate the sport. Similarly Anna Kournikova brought a huge amount of tennis interest in Russia. This had the same effect and there are far more Russian women in tennis than before.

    The lesson I took away was this. The indyref has galvanised an entire generation of young people. The effects are generational. In sport it takes about ten years to become expert, with little evidence of change in the medals table in the meantime. In politics a generation is closer to 20 years though progress is more steady and easily measured.

    Going by the theory that an inspirational spark (the indyref) created a generational shift, independence is inevitable in the long term (next 18 years). But marginal at best in the short term (next 3 years). There's a chance of losing again if we go too soon, but I wouldn't be too bothered about that because it is inevitable long-term anyway. What would be more concerning would be to win small, and have the dying lion of unionism give Scotland a nasty bite with the last of its strength.

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  18. It is not the tic-toc of the electoral clock that determines when the next Independence referendum is held, it is when settled opinion in Scotland is in favour of independence. A large number of soft NO voters have to be persuaded to change their minds before we reach that point. This requires sustained effort in particular to answer the doubts soft NO voters had during the first referendum. BREXIT does not answer these questions and early polling indications do not suggest a significant swing towards YES following the EU referendum.

    Persuading soft NO voters to switch will be difficult because the mainstream media is pro-Unionist and great effort will be made by this media to frighten soft NO voters and to nurture their doubts. It worked last time.

    There is a great deal of work to do. Hard answers are required to hard questions to replace a sense of fear and doubt with a sense of confidence and excitement about the possibilities Independence offers. This will take time. One of the reasons it will take time is because such confidence has to be instilled across the political and social spectrum.

    Do this and we can worry less about the electoral clock.

    One outcome will be a pro-Independence mindset in Scotland and a pro-Independence majority at Holyrood.

    What is truly heartening about public opinion since the first referendum is that support for independence has risen and remained stable, which suggests that a significant shift from doubt and fear to confidence has happened.

    Confidence can be contagious!

    p.s. I too had to abandon Paypal.

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    1. I like the is majoritybut it's slim and the Brits haven't yet unleashed their Goebbels BBC Pravda on us yet. The SNP strikes me as in need of some sort of political genius from the USA or somewhere to present a coherent message and it should be sarted now. The fact that the SNP knows this but doesn't seem to be terribly picking up the torch does not encourage me to think they'll hold indyref2.

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  19. James, Enjoy your coffee. Much more enjoyable, reading the comments today. If we can all just TOTALLY ignore you know who, it makes "skipping past" easier...
    Alex Birnie

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  20. I think we'll be going again during the course of this parliament.

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  21. Glasgow Working Class 2August 16, 2016 at 11:22 PM

    Go for it Nat sis sis, please. Wee Knickerless is crawlin tae Herman again. That is yer weakest link Nat sis and an insult to Scottish dead and veterans who fought for our Independence. You joke Nat sis are not really Scottish are you? Yawn!

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Don't know who you are and this is the first time I've come across a post by you but you are clearly on the drink or ill or something. If you talk the way you write outside the internet then I suspect you're posting this from your asylum chambers or mental care residence or whatever. You probably do need some sort of professional help, ask your GP for a mental health speciaist or medication or something.

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    3. Glasgow Working Class 2August 17, 2016 at 12:16 AM

      I am posting from Nuremburg and drinking Liebfraumich mein herr Jock crawler. Ve hold rallies in Nuremburg dae ye want tae join in.
      Ve have got you in our hands Jock.

      Delete
    4. So vomits bile the Brit Nat and it was the British that invented the concentration camp in the Boer war. Heel clicker!

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    5. The troll is deserving of our pity. It can't be easy or healthy, being so consistently angry and hate-filled.

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  22. Indyref2 will be lost again IF the postal vote system with its banana republic nature is allowed to continue. Also, every voter should have his/her identity verified. This is the minimum for a fair ballot.

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    1. Glasgow Working Class 2August 17, 2016 at 12:21 AM

      Every Jock should produce the benefit book before voting. Those who work should be banned.

      Delete
  23. That pro independence majority needs to have an agreed strategy regarding independence. If the SNP had been reliant on Greens in the last parliament, it's safe to say that the White Paper would have been very different or perhaps would not have been produced at all. It will be very difficult for Nicola Sturgeon to write her own prospectus for independence and present it as "this is what will happen".

    The other consideration is that the implications of each choice have to be fully laid out and understood. The British Government through their negotiations with Europe will define the exact meaning of "Brexit". It is up to the Scottish Nationalists to define the exact meaning of "Scoxit". I would imagine EU membership would have to be guaranteed - signed in Juncker's blood (or some red wine might equally suffice) - for the Scots to even consider leaving the UK. But will a guarantee of EU membership see off other concerns over currency, borders and deficits? What if the UK gets a very good deal? Scottish independence would then compare unfavorably to it.

    We will be asked to choose between two packages - but we need to know what's in them first (and the SNP cannot be allowed to sell independence as a way to stay in the EU when such an arrangement has not been formally agreed).

    So, for all these reasons, I think it is unlikely that a referendum will be held anytime soon. We may well enter the next Holyrood election with the 2014 vote as the only plebiscite to date on the matter of independence.

    Notice I use the words "may well" - not a prediction! :0)

    If the SNP do somehow manage to hold such a vote - and lose it - then it will be curtains for them. Should they scrape home narrowly it will simply be the start of their problems. I can't imagine, in any scenario, a complete blowout victory for yes.

    Aldo

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    1. Interesting Yoonie perspective.

      The Brexit vote was held with absolutely nothing - not even the back of a fag packet scribble - from the UK Government in preparation for it........and yet Yoonies simply ignore that gigantic dereliction of duty by Westminster and the humungous black-hole on any policy plans whatsoever coming out of London and try, as usual, to suggest that the Scottish Government must cross all the "T's" and dot all the "I's" when that is EXACTLY what the UK Govt spectacularly FAILED to do, pre EU Vote.

      As for the "deal" the UK might get from the EU - well, going by the majority of responses from the other member-states, the UK is about to get a severe boot in the baws, in contrast to Scotland being welcomed by Germany and many other countries.

      Scots will indeed get a choice - a choice between an increasingly right-wing, xenophobic/racist rUK drifting off to massive financial/fiscal/trade/human rights/workers rights uncertainty as an irrelevant bit-player outside the EU, or Independence within the EU and its single market, continued protection for human/workers rights, a more secure fiscal/financial future with the very strong probability of substantial amounts of the UK's financial services relocating up here and international companies looking at relocating to Scotland as a gateway to the EU - oh......and with the bonus of leaving May, Boris and the rest of the Tory Filth behind once and for all.

      The negotiations facing Scotland leaving the UK are small fry compared to the mountain of negotiations facing Westminster leaving the EU.

      With Sterling now tanking and on track for parity with the Euro already, even BEFORE Brexit actually happens and with May desperately stalling on Article 50 which has already been put back a couple of years, the utter shambles which is Tory Westminster Governance is very plain for Scots to see.

      Scotland can - and will - do so much better as an Independent Country within the EU, than that bunch of inbred Tory Imbeciles are doing dan saf.

      The ONLY thing that is keeping that dying, geriatric Party in power on the banks of the Thames, is the even bigger shambles of the so-called Labour Opposition.
      If Labour were even the semblance of that epithet, the Blue coffin-dodgers would be kicked into the trash where they belong.

      Only one, logical choice for Scots and the future of their kids and Country - and it is to get as far away from that Westminster Mess as possible.

      I am sure Scots will make that choice.

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    2. Glasgow Working Class 2August 17, 2016 at 4:09 PM

      Absolute pure rubbish comrade. You cannot plan anything until after Brexit.
      Negotiations will take place and the outcome is uncertain until the fat lady sings. The insistance of free movement of people tied into trade deals is stupid and historically unprecedented. Every country is entitled to control its borders and who enters. The Nat sis are prepared to sell Scotland out to the EU beaurocrats.

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  24. not a prediction! :0)August 17, 2016 at 1:55 PM

    "The undecideds and the bottlers will put it in the back of the net for 'remain'. I'm sure Cameron also has a few tricks up his sleeve to deploy in the dying days of the campaign."

    Aldo

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  25. Glasgow Working Class 2August 17, 2016 at 4:01 PM

    Cybernats helped ruin the YES cause according to a former aid of Kim Yung Eck.

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  26. is that so mr crichton?

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  27. Glasgow Working Class 2August 17, 2016 at 8:37 PM

    Are the BBC now the mouthpiece for the Nat sis. Last night a German couple livng in Scotland said they are preparing to leave because of Brexit and knickerless was capitalising on this sad story! The couple gave no legitimate reason for leaving.
    Tonight the BBC announced the couple were Nat si supporters. Sick politics indeed from the Nat sis.

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  28. The 2014 referendum was when the global community became aware of Scotland as a distinct entity.
    The 2016 referendum was when Scotland began to interact with that community.

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    1. Glasgow Working Class 2August 18, 2016 at 12:23 AM

      How do you know that? Scotland has been around longer than since 2014. I think we are well known long before that. Raise yer game idiot Jock.

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  29. It does seem to me that the yammering from various quarters for a referendum on Scottish independence to be held NOW or SOONER has a hint of desperation. While I can understand, but not necessarily sympathise with, those who feel frustrated that things are not moving fast enough there is a certain disdain for the yoon commentariate who may have been running the runes through their hands, or studying chicken entrails, which foretell political implosions and fratricide darn sarth and a subsequent improvement in the potential for a yes vote.

    Accompanying the NOW there appears to be an increase in BILE from self-same yoon commentariate, amateur archaeologist and saviour of the world Oliver for example, which, in my mind, does tend to reinforce the desperation theme. This maybe because it becoming apparent that there is a groundswell of support for Scotland within Europe, the realisation that the arguments used last time have passed their sell by date, that there will be no leading figures available to promote, pace backwards and forwards or spout lies, as those taking on that role last time will be spending more time with their money and the current lot will be infighting, or, perhaps, for some other reason that they realise the inevitable is, um, inevitable.

    So, let’s calm down; jumping the gun will be counterproductive. However, there is a lot groundwork and preparation to be done and, hopefully, this autumn (or is that late summer?) sees coordination of effort to organise that groundwork.

    Enjoy your chocolate with sprinkles.

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    1. Glasgow Working Class 2August 18, 2016 at 5:21 PM

      That is probably the best self indulgent comment ever posted anywhere. You should cover yourself in chocolate and sprinkes then lick yourself.

      Delete
  30. Its evident that England's making moves to secure Scotland stays in this union by forcing this GB down our throats every waking minute. Not everyone who wants Scotland to be Free will wait 6 7 years. Where shorting our odds all the time if we wait, if we can go from 26 45 let get on with it.

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    1. Glasgow Working Class 2August 18, 2016 at 7:43 PM

      You Nat sis are getting desperate. Dragging out an Italian to moan at an orchestrated meeting and Germans previously. Are you running out off joke Jock moaners. Us real Scots laugh at you.
      Will you lot ever get round to helping the poor and ending food banks.

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  31. You are not a real Scot. You are a Britnatsi

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    1. Glasgow Working Class 2August 19, 2016 at 12:23 AM

      You are a plank a wud thick Joke Nat si who is an Inbred scouse or Irish but not pure Scottish.

      Delete
  32. I have made a small contribution to this site.

    Hopefully it will buy you. James, a cappuccino at Edinburgh prices! See us Glaswegians, we can't even spell the word!

    Best wishes for the future of your blog James. I am going to take a rest from it, apart from the above the line content.

    You have too much tolerance for folk that accuse me of being a Nazi when they ought to look in the mirror. Fascist socialists are the crawling worms on this planet, eager to wriggle and never eager to rise. You have an infection James, talk to your doctor.

    Best wishes, you are very good, I contributed to keeping it open, remember, your web-site, not so much. Not as long as you tolerate fools...




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    1. Glasgow Working Class 2August 19, 2016 at 12:31 AM

      Matter of personal opinion who the fool is. The Scottish Nat sis hopefully will not rise causing the mass dispersal of our people.

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