Scot Goes Pop: The Final Fundraiser is underway (you can read more about why I anticipate it being the final one HERE) and it's already a bit over halfway towards its target figure of £1700. A million thanks to everyone who has donated so far. Card donations can be made at the GoFundMe page HERE, or if you prefer to cut out the middle-man, direct PayPal donations can be made to my PayPal email address, which is: jkellysta@yahoo.co.uk
A surprisingly low percentage for the Greens on the List ballot, in comparison to other recent polls. Albeit, they may require more than a percentage point or two, above the Survation poll to get more seats.
ReplyDeleteTechnically, John Swinney didn’t “force” his policy on the party. It was debated, and passed at conference (albeit in a managed forum). Careerist addicted to British state, Short money don’t begin, and end with Swinney. As to why the floor voted for the self defeating motion … ?
ReplyDelete"Technically" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.
Delete1013am Swinney isn't a careerist merely a patriot willing to sacrifice a lifetime. that includes his family and friends.
DeleteSwinney the patriot. Comedy gold.
DeleteThey adopted the dead end MI 6 Policy
DeleteIs it really the "balance" of power, though, when it's clear the SNP could never allow Farage to become PM? Even abstention would signal complicity.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think a hung parliament is the escape hatch we are looking for.
That argument is a monumental red herring, and I've pointed this out before. If there is a majority for a potential non-Reform coalition, that means there is no majority to sustain a Farage government. So if the SNP don't extract the concessions they're looking for from Labour (or whoever) and decline a deal, that does not trigger a few years of Reform government. It triggers a fresh election. At worst Farage might be a powerless caretaker PM for a very short period between two elections.
DeleteFair enough. The second general election in a short time would be the real test. Could Labour (or the mysterious whoever the SNP could support against Farage) hold onto their support in England with the prospect of indyref2 very live indeed?
DeleteThe image of wee Miliband stuck in Nicola's pocket from 2015 comes to mind. The English didn't like that idea at all.
Was it not Milinand in Salmonds pocket?
DeleteAh man.take us back to those days. We really were feared in London
I often wonder what singer Sophie Ellis Bextor thinks about Ed Miliband.
DeleteI met art critic Brian Sewell in the company if journalist Carole Malone at a Tate Modern function in 2011 in London. After an hour or so she asked me to leave them along and stop pestering them, then said "I know where I live". It was scary but exhilarating.
DeleteTechne, Westminster voting intention, field work 14 - 15 Jan, less than optimum population sample (1,636).
ReplyDeleteUK headlines; RefUK 8% lead over Tories, -2% on last Techne poll, but that was way back in mid October.
No Scottish sub-sample, but UK figure is 2%
Swinney has already made it policy that only votes for SNP are to be taken into account in determining the level of support for Indy. Let that sink in. Support for Indy will therefore struggle to be above 40 per cent. Master stroke or complete stupidity?
ReplyDeleteDo you mean "complete stupidity" as on your level? Why, oh why, aren't you in charge? A question you must ask with crippling regularity.
DeleteThat's not what Swinney said - there is nuanced difference between what he said and your interpretation of the actual meaning of what you say he said and what you 'assume' he means. He has never said that only votes for SNP 'would determine the level of support for indy'.
DeleteOh dear. CMM at 5.44. Nothing to actually say? Ad hominem attack means you have already lost any discussion or argument. And perhaps you might need someone to explain to you when the expression “crippling regularity” should be used. John Swinney requires an SNP majority as a mandate for pushing Indy. His policy. If you really don’t understand the consequences of this, you may well be part of the problem.
DeleteAnon at 6.15. Swinney considers an SNP majority at the election necessary to have a mandate to push for a referendum. Do you really not understand what this means? And has his insistence on both votes SNP really passed you by? When the BBC and MSM gleefully repeat what Swinney pushed through as policy post election, are you coming back to continue defending him?
DeleteWe are in a prison called Scotland the colony. Even if the SNP got a majority of MSPs the Britnats would just say you didnae meet this rule or that rule. In other words, if you play the Britnats game they control the rules and they change them to suit themselves. How anyone still thinks Westminster plays fair by a fair and constant set of rules is quite incredible. You either have to be terribly dumb or you are a Britnat. Swinney is a devolutionist and like his pal Douglas Alexander, Scotland’s colonial governor, he is a Britnat.
DeleteI find it incredible we are still, all these years later, stuck on the nonsense gold standard sec30, that Sturgeon and Swinney have been punting for 11 years.
“What’s needed to shift the dial on independence “ is a de facto referendum.
ReplyDeleteJust you go right ahead and announce that then IFS, mind and tell everybody not to vote for that as well seeing it was the evil Nicola Sturgeon original plan and you don't like her because she's a woman
DeleteWhy do you sometimes use the orange moniker and sometimes not? Or are you an impersonator taking the micky?
Delete100%, IfS.
DeleteWhat's needed to shift the dial on a de facto is new leadership of the SNP.
Anon newbie troll at 10.21pm. I suggested on SGP a de facto referendum many years before Sturgeon. I detest Sturgeon because she is a lying charlatan who betrayed Scottish independence. I don't like you troll because you are a complete numpty who thinks the sun shines out of Sturgeon's fat rear end. In other words a nicophant.
DeleteAnon at 9.42am. Why do you post as an anon?
DeleteAnon troll at 10.21pm it was not “ evil Nicola Sturgeon original plan” - plenty people, including myself, said there should be a de facto long before Sturgeon briefly mentioned it then ran away. I said on SGP in 2020 that the Holyrood election of 2021 should be a de facto referendum for independence. I don’t like her because Sturgeon is a charlatan just as I don’t like Swinney because he is a charlatan and a Trump fanboy.
DeleteIfs, why do you confuse people by sometimes using the orange moniker and sometimes not?
DeleteAre you kc?
ReplyDeleteYes, it was KC. One of the very few of his that slipped through the net - I obviously didn't read it through to the end. Deleted now. (He attempts posts like that multiple times per day, incidentally - the fact that none of them, or virtually none, are actually published doesn't seem to deter him at all. There's something almost scary about that.)
DeleteHe was better with the Sunshine Band to back him up.
DeleteShake shake shake, ah, shake shake shake. Sheikh Yerbouti, Sheikh Yerbouti, come on!
DeleteDeranged KC's writing for your "benefit" alone, James. He's hoping some of his cutting edge Nessie sightings and Haggis hunting stand-up schtick enters into your published work by the weight of sheer repetition.
Delete"Hoots Mon, Record Lead in Find Out the Noo!"
That and gas-lighting you there is no such thing as a de facto referendum, which is one area where he's aligned with some in the party, sadly.
With the political fever already raised by tory/ reform in-fighting, starmer and sarwar dithering I do wonder what the right wing news media and some miffed ex politicians have in store for the independence parties. Notwithstanding the british state.
ReplyDeleteGet a grip, Westminster.
DeleteHonest John wants to start his Section 30 letter and needs to know who to address it to. It alters the whole flow if it starts "Please, please Sir Keir, listen to me this time" or "Wesley, I'd rather not degrade us both with any pretence of begging, but you must consider the democratic dignity of an entire people when you hear my plea." Then it's whether to pivot making a sharp point about Gaza or just politely avoiding that one…
Times New Roman or maybe Bodoni for an eye catching classiness, you think?
“Honest John” - nothing honest about John the Redactor.
DeleteAs we go from hating all political parties to plumping for reform. Wonder what will happen when reform lose their popularity as they surely will.
ReplyDeleteThat is already happening.
DeleteThere is now a marked decline in the Reform vote throughout the UK, particularly in Scotland and Wales.
Act 1: The Rise of Farage
Delete"He's a brave man! He calls a spade a spade and dirty ***** migrants too. Speak for England, Nigel!"
Act 2: The Fall of Farage
"He's surrounding himself with decrepit Tories! Traitor! It's as if he wants into government! The cheek! Even Kemi ****** Badenoch looks sound compared to him."
The media can't help themselves. They build them up and they break them down, because manipulation isn't only what they do, it's why they do it, too.
You have to hand it to Skier/Declan. He has no shame. Either that or he has no memory or he is just a straightforward liar. Only days after declaring in a post on SGP that there is no gap between the SNP %vote and the yes% vote Skier produces a graph showing that there is a substantial gap. Truly there is nothing more comical like proving you post piss than doing it to yourself. Nice one Skier. Will the doggers on WGD spot this. Nae chance. Most are thick as a brick.
ReplyDeleteSkier posts a graph showing independence parties 45% and the SNP 37%.
As a footnote the crazy one (Skier ) has quietly dropped his famous Ski slope graph. Did that not forecast we would be independent years before 2026 due to demographical changes? It was inevitable stated Skier/Declan - the Eddie Eagle of forecasting. No they won't make a film about your life in future years Declan/Skier.
I think there has been a film for ifs. Called Loser. Not sure who played the part.
DeleteAbove is the sum total of IFS contribution to Scotland and its desire for democracy
DeleteThis tiny wee man IFS is as much help as Wings over Scotland's Stewy, he is a member of the same team we have all seen posting under every article in the National that the SNP is bad and don't vote for them because they're all liars
IFS is an offensive tiny wee troll who has nothing of value to contribute except for the unionists of which he is one
How's your ISP pals these days?
Delete5.30pm “ tiny wee “ 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 self projection there Dr Jim.
DeleteHey Jimbo you don’t get more offensive than people like you boasting about assaulting women.
I am not a member of any team posting in the National.
Feel free to vote for the SNP if you want just don’t expect them to do anything about independence. I do not post that you should not vote for the SNP. You and Skier are prolific liars. Just what have got against a full stop at the end of a sentence. Is it a secret code amongst women beaters?
Surely with Tony Blair appointed to the Peace Panel for Gaza he will use all his skills, influence and money to bring together the forces against independence in Palestine and Scotland. He has good connections don’t you know.
ReplyDeleteI see a pair of Unionist billionaire brothers are giving a six figure sum to 'Scottish' Labour to help them try to beat the SNP this year.
ReplyDeleteYet another glaring example of the super-rich trying to buy the result which would suit them best.
While our political system is nowhere near as corrupted by money as the American one, it is getting closer and closer to their massively distorted, top-down-controlled mess every year that passes.
It is said that democracy will only survive if we have a well educated, interested and engaged voting population and that democracy will die if those voters become disinterested, disengaged and ignorant of the main issues and just leave all the big important decisions to the 'elite who know better'.
Trump and Farage are benefitting from the latter scenario and Labour with their new found billionaire pals and corporate donors are now following suit.
Our democracy is also directly under huge threat from blatantly fascist, racist, white-power, non-elected oligarchs like Musk.
All in all, we are in an increasing dark place with our politics and really need the majority of decent, rational Scots to waken up to that fact, get engaged and kick those reactionary extreme right forces squarely in the teeth in May.
It's a very interesting bit of news, and who knows, may lead to a genuine Scottish Labour separate party (it's been mooted before but hey no money), with its own funding not reliant on the Westminster party. From the article:
Delete"It’s understood that half of the Easdales’ financial contribution is conditional on Mr Sarwar’s commitment to make Scottish Labour a much more Scotland-oriented party."
and this:
"James adds: “We’re not pro-independence, but we wouldn’t be unhappy about it if we could be confident that the country was being run competently."."
IF SLAB became a genuine party with its own funding and stood on its own two feet for Scottish issues, how on earth could it not eventually support Independence? Or at least, a free vote for members and politicians?
The SNP won't like it. But Indy supporters should keep an open mind.
………….squarely in the teeth in May by voting for independence in a de facto referendum. There you go anon at 10.20am finished that sentence for you.
DeleteI am not voting for the SNP's 'they them' candidate in Moray That is not a Pro Indy SNP Candidate.
ReplyDeleteAch, there's always Alba
DeleteAre you a pro against or just an it or a maybees an aye or even a maybees naw voter. You should think this one out :]
DeleteSo, what Pro Indy candidate, who has a realistic chance of being elected, will you vote for in May?
DeleteOr are you one of those 'Pro Indy' supporters who thinks that voting for no Pro-Indy Party at all will somehow help the Independence Cause?
I am not voting for Fiona Hyslop's nepo/baby candidate in Edinburgh Northern, either. That is no a Pro Independence candidate, who will make any effort at all to make it happen. Young Euan knows where his bread is buttered, and it's not Scotland.
DeleteNow the large sums of money are pouring into the Labour Party coffers do the Police investigate the source of all this spare cash?
ReplyDeleteThe May election is now building into something much bigger than just normal politics.
ReplyDeleteNo rational Scot could have watched Trump turning America into a genuine Fascist State which treats its allies worse than its enemies and where the rule of national and international law has been completely dumped and replaced with the personal whims and brutal retribution of a seriously deranged sociopathic malignant orange painted narcissist and his jackbooted private army of ICE, without feeling sick to the stomach.
Reform is, in reality, the UK Wing of that same Trumpist Fascism, backed by some of the same white-power, racist American money and the same Bannon Nazi Style rhetoric and planning.
Make absolutely no mistake, Farage and his trash will want to follow Trump and Bannon's playbook as closely as they can over here and turn these islands into a Mini-US, driving us further and further from our natural allies and friends in Europe.
We must do everything we can to prevent him and his Scottish Branch Office from gaining anything more than a tiny foothold in our Scottish Parliament this year.
JOHN Swinney has said he will demand for another Scottish independence referendum to be held if the SNP win a majority at Holyrood later this year.
ReplyDeleteTranslation:
If there is a pro-independence majority, as predicted by all the polls, with less than 65 SNP seats, he will not seek a section 30 order.
Asked what he would say to Scots if Starmer turns down another referendum request, Swinney said: “I think there’s two things about that.
“First of all, the United Kingdom is allegedly a partnership of equals, so Scotland has got a democratic right to decide our own future.
“And secondly, if I win a majority in the Scottish Parliament elections in May of this year, I don’t think Keir Starmer will be the Prime Minister.”
Translation:
1.
He expects Starmer will be dragged out of Downing Street against his will due to the utter catastrophe the elections are for Labour.
2.
Swinney hasn't read the Labour Party rule book or looked at the names on the NEC. Starmer may claw on for quite a while as his cowardly MPs figure out who to sacrifice against him. It's never he who wields the knife, as the BBC will be telling you all summer long. Does anyone remember Angela Eagle? How about Owen Smith?
3.
Swinney's secret plan is to appeal to the Good Old Fashioned Spirit of British Fair Play when he gets his official "NO!"
Does he think that will work? Dinnae be daft.
Does he reckon it's good enough to pass muster with the SNP that he played a bad hand well, and he can soldier on till 2031 back at Bute House doing the day job?
Of course he does. That’s his Plan B, in the unlikely chance he suckers enough folk to get an SNP majority 20 years into government. Top Secret, hush hush, but perfectly obvious.
I see John the Redactor’s pal Donald Trump is threatening to impose tariffs on us over Greenland. Swinney was supposed to be getting whisky tariffs reduced by sucking up to Trump. Another failure for Swinney.
ReplyDeleteWhat would you say Swinney should have done differently to prevent this?
DeleteYou stopped using the orange moniker then?
Delete"Scots are useless. Couldn't run an independent country."
DeleteMessage received. Loud and clear.
oh ifs - how you gloat. I suppose you also have to attack the PM's of UK, France, Denmark, Finland, Norway and all the others. Still gave you time to attack the FM and the SNP. you dont want exports from Scotland, Your right wing trumpish attitude shines through.IFG -
DeleteIf Scotland had been Indy since 2014, would we now be in more or less danger of Trump declaring Anschluss with us to reconnect with his heritage?
ReplyDeleteIf Trump goes ahead with his bullying re Greenland I suggest UEFA moves the World cup with FIFA solely Canada and Mexico and ban the USA from all competitions. Starmer should grow a pair and prevent KC and the Duke of Rothesay participating in their 250 Independence celebrations!!
ReplyDeleteWeird rationale. If they are SNP candidates they'll be pro-indy.
ReplyDelete10.21pm Says the gullible person who cannae put their post in the correct place. Is Lisa Cameron the SNP MP who defected to the Tories a supporter of independence?
Delete10.21 They will say they are pro Indy to get elected and then spend four years obsessing about gender politics.
ReplyDeleteThat's not a prediction btw, it's a fact based on recent historical evidence.
Perhaps mad Emperor Trump won’t invade the Falklands. Perhaps he’ll just give it to mad eyed, chainsaw wielding, grampa Wolverine. It would boost his buddy Milei’s popularity in Argentina no end, and be a cost effective way of controlling access to the Antarctic.
ReplyDeleteWhat ya gonna do about that Starmer?
Mad Emperor Trump will attend Davos, Switzerland in person this year (last year it was via video link). A whistlestop visit. Presidential Security Detail is commensurate with the duration of the trip. A formal state visit like to UK included the “beast” ultimate armoured car. Trump is behaving erratically (advanced stage syphilitic dementia?). Venezuela is one thing, Greenland is quite another. The US State Department, and the rest of the Permanent State are nervous.
ReplyDeleteJohn the Redactor is now in contempt of the Court of Session as he was instructed to release the documents by the 15/1/26 that he has been hiding for 5 years now. Wasting large sums of public money on lawyers. So will Swinney go to jail like Craig Murray?
ReplyDeleteIf there is no wrongdoing in these papers by his non binary pal then why is John the Redactor wasting public funds over multiple court cases over a 5 year period.
Will Swinney issue the papers redacted just like his pal Trump did with Epstein papers. Pages completely blacked out or will he go to jail.
Transparent government it is not. An independence government it is not.
Vote SNP for more of the same and keep hoping something different will come along if you want. On balance they are better than the other Britnats in Reform/Tory/ Labour /Libdem but they will NOT do anything about independence. They have had multiple mandates for indyref2 and a Holyrood supposed independence majority for the last 5 years and done nothing.
A wee reminder that it wisnae that long ago that Swinney said he woukd do nothing about indeofndence unless the polls were very high for independence (about 70%). Now here he is with his majority of SNP MSPs plan. Just a joke independence leadership unless you are a Britnat and the Britnats love Swinney.