I see that Alister Jack has claimed that "Scotland does not want to be part of the European Union" and "there's no desire in Scotland to have membership of the EU". This made my ears prick up, because a couple of years ago I decided to use one of the Scot Goes Pop / Panelbase polls to ask an incredibly simple question.
Should Scotland rejoin the European Union? (Scot Goes Pop / Panelbase poll, 1st-5th June 2020)
Yes 60%
No 40%
I don't know how else to put this, other than that Scotland clearly does want to be part of the European Union, there plainly is a desire in Scotland to have membership of the EU, and that therefore it is beyond dispute that Alister Jack has told a direct lie. What makes it more incredible is that Jack was responding to a question from Philippa Whitford in which she cited even more recent polling evidence that support for rejoining the EU is close to 70% in Scotland.
Remember a few weeks ago Adam "IT'S THE LAW!!!!" Tomkins panicked a bit at the implications of the Supreme Court verdict and his own knee-jerk triumphalist response to it, and rowed back by insisting that there was still a democratic route to independence in the form of opinion polls? We didn't need all these new-fangled referendums and elections, he assured us, because we could be sure that if opinion poll evidence showed consistent support for independence, the UK Government would out of Sheer Plain Good Old British Decency acknowledge that reality and act accordingly. Well, to be blunt, Adam, that theory is not really reconcilable with your own party's Secretary of State for Scotland making "black is white" claims when opinion polls in fact show sustained and overwhelming majority support for Scotland's return to the EU. The figures are not even close to being within the margin of error.
The only caveat Jack put on his lie was that Scots oppose the EU "when they stop and look at the detail" - which perhaps implies that inconvenient opinion poll results can always be discounted because respondents haven't stopped to look at the detail. The antidote to hasty responses to opinion polls is of course to allow voters to make considered decisions via referendums or elections. But if the UK Government isn't going to allow referendums because now is not the time and never will be, and isn't going to recognise election results as valid because opinion polls will suffice, and isn't going to accept the results of opinion polls because poll respondents don't think about things properly like they would if they were voting in an election or referendum, then the Scottish people are trapped in a Kafkaesque world in which democracy no longer exists.
It's even more Kafkaesque when politicians in the SNP say Scotland needs permission from the likes of Jack to hold a referendum.
ReplyDeleteThe Britnats have always lied but now they are so full of colonial arrogance that they don't even care when it is crystal clear that they are lying. So my message to all independence supporters is stop lying to yourself and helping the colonialists by referring to them as unionists. They treat Scotland like a colony and act as colonialists so why give them the veneer of respectability by calling them unionists.
ReplyDeleteColonies get their resources stolen from them. In 2014 the Britnats said the oil/gas was just about finished - 5- 10 years. Today they have issued large numbers of licences for further exploration and large new fields are now in operation. Oh and original fields like Forte and Brent, which Britnats claimed, would be finished in the eighties are still producing. The Britnat media ignores their lies and with the SNPs help have managed to turn it around so that the Britnats are the saviours of oil/gas industry and Sturgeon wants to close the fields. Useless SNP. An open goal missed by the SNP.
There is no democracy for Scotland in the U.K. The UK didn't have to ask permission from the EU to have a vote on staying in the EU.
All true but didn't the Supreme Court give as a reason for denying a referendum that we were not a colony? That means they think of us as even less than a colony.
DeleteThe Britnats ain't the only liars in town.
ReplyDelete" There are no shortcuts to this. The Scottish people would never accept a plebiscite/GE for such a dramatic change to our constitution, the unionists won't engage, the international community would be appalled. Going down this route would end any hope of ever winning."
Just take that all in. That's what Pension Pete Wishart one of Sturgeon's gang said last January.
Five months later Pension Pete says:- "What a brave, remarkable statement from the First Minister. After all the nonsense, the naysayers, the belligerent opponents, we will do this. Democracy must win."
Using a de facto referendum has gone in 5 months from a certain loss to a remarkable statement by Sturgeon in June 2022.
The deceit and lack of humility of all these nicophants is astounding
Pension Pete who was still saying in Nov last year that Indyref2 was happening this October now says:- " A de facto referendum is just about the worst way possible to settle Scotland's constitutional future, but it now is the only way."
DeleteIn summary, under Sturgeon and her gang she has taken 8 years and counting to lead us to the " worst way possible" re independence according to Wishart. This is an even bigger disaster than the ferries.
So ? It's a necessary move - we won't just sit bacj and say, "och well, that's a wee shame, the Brits won't let us be independent." Of course you react, you do something.
DeleteStevie says:- " you do something." Well Stevie Sturgeon has done a lot of something's and none of it positive to gain Scottish independence - you know the thing mentioned in the SNP's mission statement. So the great secret plan that the nicophants believed in has taken us to a situation where Wishart is now openly saying all that's left is a rubbish de facto option which we will probably lose.
DeleteSturgeon just said she accepted the UK Supreme Court decision like the good little devolutionalist/Britnat she is. Staggering that people still cannot see what Sturgeon is.
We need someone to take control. There is no leadership from Sturgeon she turns up and does her job and goes home. This is not a leader of a movement. We need someone who will attack, she is insipid and uninspiring and has been there for too long. We have had five Prime Ministers since 2014 - a moving target I'll admit but there has been a surfeit of mediocrity amongst them. The other side of this is that Westminster can see the lack of dynamism in her. She is dull and weak. She makes John Major look like James Bond. Time for someone else. Jack said today:
ReplyDelete“There’s no desire in Scotland to have membership of the EU, I believe Scots when they stop and look at the detail, whether it’s on their pensions, whether it’s on trade, whether it’s on currency, they stop, they think about it and they know that their home is the UK."
EU membership is not the lesson to learn from his bilge (we know it's bilge) the lesson is the pointers he gives as to where the UK thinks it has the advantage, where our case looks weak and that is on pensions, trade, and currency. That is where we have to have our focus. The over 65's need to feel secure to make that move to independence, instead Sturgeon makes pensions and currency feel more precarious than before. Perhaps our anger should be directed to demonstrating against Sturgeon NOT Westminster. Attack her for the lack of progress on independence and for the lack of any coherent policy on currency and the border issues. She is a waste of time.
We need some to take control. Such as ?
DeleteSomeone? to take control? of what?
ReplyDeleteWhen a mafia fascist state like England refuses to comply with all moral rules of democracy who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters?
It's not the FMs job to cause the kind of trouble that's required, that's up to the people, and if the people won't do anything then what is any leader of a government of a colony supposed to do apart from get herself arrested and the parliament shut down even quicker than the fascists are planning
I'm reminded of that famous bit in Father Ted. You know the one- https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=26uo2AJHD40
DeleteWe've a long way to go.
So Derek McKay (remember him) says as far as he is aware Sturgeon knew nothing about the ferry contracts. All these Scottish Government cabinet meetings and Sturgeon showed no interest. She did, however, manage to go down to Fergusons yard and take some selfies.
ReplyDeleteAccording to nicophants Sturgeon also knew nothing about the persecution of Salmond. So the only question remaining is did she manage to take some selfies with the alphabetties and the others in the Vietnam group.
I live in Jack's constituency and I'd like to take this up with him, but I can't find a link. Can you help with that please?
ReplyDeleteI'm beginning to think that the aimless drift of the SNP leadership is so bad now that the only thing saving us from a much more centralised and authoritarian approach to the 'union' from Westminster is the corresponding weakness and internal collapse of toryism.
ReplyDeleteThe accelerating decline of the UK is being reflected in the mediocrity and lack of direction in all of the main political parties.
The scary thing is that this political crisis wont last forever and whichever party finds itself a viable new direction first will make big advances. If it's going to be our independence movement that is 'quickest on the draw' then we have to develop a strategy that gets us past this purely parliamentary, 'vote/resolve/ request/rejection/repeat'....cycle.
Sturgeon should go but another 'suit' on the same futile course won't help. We need a strategy that blends electoral politics with direct action at a mass level - new alliances with trades unions, environmentalists, anti racists, anti nuclear weapons activists etc etc.
We haven't got forever to do this !
As far as I can see, every single Brit politician is a liar, a hypocrite and revels in the anti-democracy of the 'Hear-hear' politics of the Westminster cespit.
ReplyDeleteIt's always worth remembering that Alister Jack is a no-hoper who could only be employed by Johnson, Truss and Sunak as Cabinet Teaboy because the other 5 are even more hapless.
ReplyDeleteADAPTING BUILDINGS FOR COOLING
ReplyDeleteYes that's what the Tory MSP Maurice Golden wants the Scottish Government to work on when people in Scotland are freezing and 800 people had to be taken to hospital by ambulance suffering from hypothermia last month. The bastard wants to kill off more people by freezing them to death. The incredible part of this nonsense is Golden is the MSP for furry boots city Aberdeen - one of the coldest places in Scotland. It's better insulation Scotland's homes need. Why does Golden raise this at FMQ's today. He says a U.K. report claims 100 people per annum will die of overheating in the U.K. by 2050 due to global warming. Well maybe in the SE England that may be the case. Golden you are a f*****g idiot.
So what does Sturgeon say in reply to his question:- " ....I absolutely agree with him...." Sturgeon is a f*****g idiot as well.
People cannae pay their energy bills and are freezing all over Scotland and this is not mentioned in FMQ's instead we get the above nonsense about Scots overheating and possibly spending money on cooling homes/buildings.
There is a London Allowance in which people living in London get paid more because it is deemed to be more expensive in London. In Scotland it is a lot colder than London but do we get a Scotland Allowance to reflect our higher energy bills. No chance. In our Scottish parliament is this promoted - no - Sturgeon is planning to discuss cooling our buildings with Sunak she says. Cooling!!! A Scotland Allowance disnae even enter their heads. Totally useless politicians.
A dystopian farce is what we have in Sturgeon's Scotland.
Sunak's Inverness deal
ReplyDeleteSunak says:- Nicola you keep on kidding on you want independence and I'll keep on kidding on you want independence as well.
Sturgeon says:- Deal Rishi. Can I get a selfie?
Sunak says:- Of course, happy to oblige.
Sturgeon says:- Great, another one for my collection of world leaders. I'm like a kid collecting Pokemon cards.
Sunak:- nervous laugh.
That's what the Britnat media are calling "a constructive meeting."
DeleteWho benefited the most in 2014 when No won the referendum - Sturgeon and her husband gained complete control of the SNP.
ReplyDelete