Some thoughts post-election

Posted on March 29, 2023 by Angry Weegie

It was a depressing result. I had almost convinced myself that Forbes would win as it looked as if she had done a deal when she changed sides half way through. If a deal was done, it wasn’t to make her Deputy FM as we saw later with the appointment of Shona Robison, the GRRB queen. You can see Sturgeon’s and Harvie’s sticky fingers all over that. Forbes was apparently offered Rural Affairs (I thought rural affairs were Yousaf’s speciality) which would have been a big demotion from Finance, which she wisely refused. Interestingly, I thought there were rules about sacking or demoting someone on their return from maternity leave. Perhaps they don’t apply to politicians. The rest of his gender neutral cabinet will, I’m sure, be equally interesting.

Of course, Yousaf is not afraid to play the race card. Constantly referring to himself in the election as a minority, he implied that only he of the three candidates was able to have an opinion about trans issues. He also made a statement in Parliament complaining that white people occupied most senior positions in Scottish society, ignoring the fact that the Scottish population demographic is about 96% white.

What else can we take from the election? It looks like the majority of SNP members are not independence supporters. No one would vote for Yousaf if they were, though some might have voted early for Forbes before she changed sides. Ash got only 5.5k votes, much less than I expected though I didn’t really expect her to be better than third. I don’t believe that anyone who voted for Ash Reagan would have put Yousaf as second choice. The two are at opposite ends of the political spectrum. Combined with the nonsense of him saying in an interview that he was ahead on first preferences, this reinforces my view that the vote was fiddled.

Can we still consider the SNP as a party of independence? After eight and a half years of Sturgeon’s inaction and with Yousaf saying and showing every sign of being more of the same, it seems unlikely that the Scottish Government will initiate any moves or undertake any preparation for independence in the next three years. However, you can be sure they’ll make a lot of noise just before the Holyrood election.

I think SNP may lose a lot of seats in UK GE, but that will make no difference as SNP MPs achieve nothing in Westminster anyway. The real danger is 2026. SNP may lose a lot of constituency seats, especially if Alba stands, which I think they should, as the SNP are just one more devolutionist party, but it’s going to take a lot of hard work (and luck) for enough ex-SNP votes to go to Alba to get them elected in any constituencies, so we’ll have to depend on list seats to get an independence majority. And we need an independence majority because the unionists will take their chance to destroy Scotland if they’re in the majority.

It was interesting that Yousaf’s first actions were to beg for an S30 (almost instant rejection, but duty done) and to cosy up to his soul mates in the Greens. Gives a clear indication of what this administration is going to concentrate on.

I wonder if the police investigations into the missing money will continue. Will we ever find out what all the £600k was spent on? We have heard that about £200k went to keep Angus Robertson afloat until he could get a seat in HR. Is it true? It has been suggested that £100k+ went to pay Alyn Smith’s costs for his defamation of the guy in charge of the Brexit party. Is it true? And the rest? Who knows? Maybe on the alleged office refurbishment? Maybe just to keep Sturgeon and Murrell in the standard to which they had become accustomed? Whatever, we know it’s gone and after next year’s UK election, the reduction in seats will mean a corresponding reduction in Short money, so perhaps the SNP won’t have enough to keep them afloat. What then, I wonder?

This makes the election of Yousaf all the more surprising. The SNP must have expected the reaction they got and the likely fallout in terms of membership losses, so what advantage did the party get that was more valuable than the loss of money and position? I suppose we all have our own ideas. Has Yousaf agreed to keep the location of the buried bodies a secret, while perhaps the other two wouldn’t have? Who knows, but it must have been something really important to risk this level of rejection.

Where do we go from here? Is it time to write off the SNP as having any role in the independence movement or should we wait for a few months to see what happens? I think from the reaction to news of the election on Twitter, where umpteen people announced that they were resigning from the SNP and joining Alba, means many independence supporters have already made up their minds. So it looks as if we have but two alternatives. Either we decide that the independence movement can no longer rely on politicians and the people have to make it happen or we have to quickly build up a replacement to the SNP, likely Alba. Both seem fraught with difficulty, but we have one advantage. The UK GE can give us a pointer to which route is working better and we don’t really have to worry too much if we get the tactics wrong because, as I said earlier, the result doesn’t matter if more or fewer SNP MPs get elected as they’ll do no good in Westminster anyway.

So let’s decide what we’re going to do, go for it full steam ahead, and if it doesn’t work out next year, we’ve got two years to revise the strategy before the more important election in 2026.

LATE NEWS
Yousaf’s Cabinet announced. The team of all the talents – NOT. He managed (deliberately?) to insult the only two decent ministers (Forbes and McKee) from Sturgeon’s last cabinet by offering them reduced roles which they both turned down. Instead, we have a bunch of GRR pals, pretty much all of them unsuited to their roles, none more so than Shona Robison, who can only count past 10 if she takes her shoes off, Shirley-Anne Somerville, who would have been unsuited for any post, and Angela Constance, the only minister who can give Yousaf a run for failures, so bad that even Sturgeon got rid of her. None of the Cabinet will make Yousaf look bad, but he can do that all himself.

BEAT THE CENSORS
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SALVO
The progress of Salvo has been the most encouraging development since 2022. It is doing sterling work educating Scots about the Claim of Right and spelling out what it means that the Scottish people are sovereign, not any Parliament.

LIBERATION.SCOT
Please register at Liberation.scot and join the mass membership organisation that will be the signatories to our application to the UN, debate and organise a new Scottish Constitution. The membership of Liberation is also where the first members of Scotland’s National Congress will be balloted for selection.

Where Vileness Lies

Posted on March 17, 2023 by Angry Weegie

Just a quick post prompted by recent events which made me really angry.

Yesterday, I innocently sent an email to my local Yes group offering to forward copies of postings from a guy who calls himself ‘smitty’, who claims to be a mole in the Humza camp. I thought it might be of interest to the members. However, it appears I made a mistake by saying that the postings were BTL comments on the Wings website.

From some replies I got, it seems that not only is Wings vile, but anyone who posts a comment on the Wings’ website is equally vile and those who replied had no interest in seeing smitty’s postings. I have to confess now that I have myself posted comments on the Wings website, so I suppose I must be one of the vile people. I’ll wear this vileness with pride.

I have my own views on vileness and where vileness lies.

In my opinion, true vileness in the Yes movement can only be found in the SNP leadership who have, for the last eight and a half years, used independence as a marketing tool with absolutely no interest or intention of actually delivering it. During that period, nothing has been done to bring independence closer, no campaigning, no preparation, nothing.

In fact, there is an argument that the SNP leadership have actually sought to prevent independence while pretending to support it. Surely, no party supporting Scotland and Scottish independence would ever have ignored so many opportunities, would ever have concentrated solely on controversial and divisive policies, would ever have sold our offshore wind future to multi-nationals for buttons, would ever have ignored the opportunity to improve the island ferry services, would ever have appointed known unionists in senior party and government positions and all the rest.

Nicola Sturgeon, Peter Murrell, John Swinney and virtually 100% of the elected members of the SNP are only in it for the money. They have no interest in delivering independence because it might mean loss of an income that most would have no chance of replicating in the real world. These people have probably destroyed the chance of independence in my lifetime. No other leaders of the SNP have ever had that accolade.

Using the same criteria as with Wings commenters, everyone who still supports the SNP must also be tainted with vileness. After all this time, how can anyone support the leadership’s vileness without some of it rubbing off. (As an aside, any SNP member who votes for Yousaf in the current leadership election is only voting for a continuation of their vileness.)

So, is there a difference between Wings and his commenters and the SNP leadership and their supporters. Yes, there is.

If you think Wings and anyone who has ever commented on the Wings website are vile, you are at liberty to ignore them. They are, after all, only expressing personal opinions which can have no lasting impact on the rest of the world. These people have no power.

However, the same cannot be said of the vileness of the leadership of the SNP. These people have power. They cannot be ignored. Through their control of the SNP and the Scottish Government, their vileness affects everyone in Scotland. It affects unionists, who are happy with the lack of progress on independence, though they pretend not to be. It affects independence supporters, who are increasingly distraught as they see opportunity after opportunity slip by.

So, who is the more vile? Is it those expressing personal opinions on a website that you can chose to ignore, or is it those who have the power to force their vileness down the throats of everyone in Scotland?

Each of you can decide for yourself.

Puppet on a string?

Posted on February 25, 2023February 25, 2023 by Angry Weegie

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

He said it was 1984, but George Orwell could have been talking about the SNP between 2015 to 2023.

Or perhaps it was Hans Christian Andersen that got it right when he wrote (and I paraphrase) the SNP have no clothes.

For years now, the SNP leadership has been asking members to ignore what was happening, or not happening, to ignore what they were doing, or not doing, and continue to believe they were working towards independence. Party members must believe the party is working towards independence, even if all the evidence appears to prove the opposite.

The 2015 UK election, with 56 out of 59 seats for the SNP was not the time. The 2016 EU referendum, when Scotland voted remain, but England voted leave, was not the time. The 2017 UK election, when the SNP again gained a majority or seats, was not the time. The 2019 UK election, when the SNP again gained a majority of seats, was not the time. Concentrating on the GRR Bill to the exclusion of any effort to advance independence was because it was not the time.

Ah, but, the lack of any obvious signs of action was countered by the party by telling members that Nicola had a “secret plan”. Sturgeon had a plan that had to be kept so secret that it could never be revealed to anyone, not to her colleagues, not to her close friends, not to the members of the party and certainly not to the Unionists. The “secret plan” was a sure-fire winner, but only if it came as a complete surprise to everyone when it was finally revealed.

Then came the resignation and it appeared that Sturgeon had failed to share with anyone the details of the “secret plan” before she resigned. With her no longer in charge, how would the party be able to implement the “secret plan”? That’s when all the years of conditioning of the party faithful really paid off. The resignation is all part of the “secret plan”, said the faithful. The Unionists will be wrong-footed by this unexpected action, said the faithful. They won’t know how to react, said the faithful. Independence is certain, said the faithful.

Perhaps Sturgeon intends to whisper details of the plan into the ear of the new First Minister, always assuming that the person elected as leader of the SNP does actually get elected as First Minister. Obviously, the best way to be sure that would happen is to elect someone the Greens approve of. Of the three candidates, only one is certain to to carry forward Nicola Sturgeon’s ‘legacy’ because you can be sure he (och, I’ve given the game away now) has no ideas of his own, as, like most of the ministers, he’s been doing what he’s been told since he was appointed. Obviously, he’s the only one that will be acceptable to the Greens.

Not to worry, the Greens have plenty of ideas and you can be sure they’ll blackmail the SNP into adopting them. Of course, you could wonder about a cunning plan to destroy the Scotch whisky industry in the guise of the reduction of alcohol use, about a cunning plan to reduce the choice of bottled and canned drinks available in Scotland, about the destruction of the Scottish oil industry, about the reduction in car use by allowing roads to deteriorate to the point they become unusable and about the destruction of the Yes movement by concentrating on women with willies to the exclusion of independence. Are they prices worth paying for Green support?

But that’s what we’ll get if we elect Yousaf as SNP leader and First Minister, because he’s pledged to continue with all Sturgeon’s policy initiatives to keep the Greens onside. Is this the fresh thinking that nearly everyone says we need? Given his performance as a minister, do you think this would be a good choice as Yousaf’s campaign song?

Finally, here’s a view of where Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish Government are at. This was written before the resignation but clearly shows that ministers in the Scottish Government who have all been repeating Sturgeon’s utterances and telling everyone they were sacrosanct will now have the same difficulty as Sturgeon trying to reconcile their previous statements with today’s understanding.

In the leadership election, for pity’s sake, all you SNP folk, don’t vote for someone who’s pledged to change nothing, who’s going to continue the madness of the last few years. Vote for someone who will really bring fresh thinking to the job and bring the SNP and the Yes movement back on track.

Balanced Budget – who wins?

Posted on January 9, 2023January 9, 2023 by Angry Weegie

One of the constant refrains from the Westminster government is the need to balance the budget, i.e. restrict spending to the level of income. This is constantly used as the excuse to impose austerity on the general population, although, of course, austerity applies only to us plebs, not to MPs, who can vote themselves larger increases in salaries than the rest of us can ever hope to get and can claim expenses of the sort most of us can only dream of.

But that is is a mere pittance to what government friends and the top 1% make (and what MPs can make after they retire from their lifetime of serving the public – 🤣)

For example, there’s the £37bn allocated to the UK Test and Trace system. No one really seems to know how the money is being spent and, in any case, it has produced no discernible improvement in pandemic outcomes (see this from the Commons Public Accounts Committee). Most of that money seems to have gone to private companies and individuals and there’s more billions given to friends and colleagues of MPs to supply PPE, without using sensible (or even any) purchasing rules. Much of it turned out to be useless and is now costing more millions to store before costing even more millions to be destroyed (and we’re not just talking about Michelle Mone here, that’s the tip of the iceberg).

Then there’s the generally accepted statistic that billionaires worldwide (that’s people worth more than $1,000,000,000) increased their wealth by 54% (that’s more than $540,000,000) during the pandemic, sparking renewed calls for a wealth tax. See this report from CBS News. How did your finances do in the pandemic? In the UK, Westminster would only introduce a wealth tax if there were enough loopholes in it to allow all the really rich to avoid it. Their money is all hidden away in tax havens anyway.

For those of you who haven’t yet seen what $540 million looks like, it would create a column almost 37 miles high. When added to the existing billion, that would total 105 miles. Of course, that’s just the minimum entry qualification to the billionaires club. If you were Bernard Arnault, currently the world’s richest man, you would have to contend with a stack 11,130 miles high. That’s almost 25 times as high as Ben Nevis. Billionaires must be really grateful for electronic money.

Recent events are highlighting just the difference between Westminster’s treatment of their mates and the plebs. With government-created inflation running at over 10%, Westminster are refusing to even discuss sensible pay rises for workers who only a year or so ago were being applauded (some with weekly government sponsored gratitude sessions) for risking their lives keeping the country running. You would have thought the government would have been only too happy to reward these important workers with a decent pay rise. Perhaps, having given so much to all their mates, they’ve got nothing left? Aye, right!

Anyway, back to balancing the budget. I was pointed recently to a list of all the countries arranged by income (thanks Macalba). What I noticed from the list was that I had to go down to the 53rd biggest country in the world (Qatar) before I found one who had a budget surplus. (Qatar, of course, has all that oil income, no doubt making it easy to run a surplus. If only Scotland was in the same position.) That’s the 52 biggest countries in the world, all running a budget deficit (and that includes the UK). In fact, top of the list, the USA, the country our government is always seeking to emulate, had, in round figures, a deficit of $4trn on an income of $6trn. To paraphrase Mr Micawber, annual income 6trn dollars, expenditure 10trn dollars, result happiness. I think that’s roughly what he said. By the way, Scotland is not included in the list, not even as a dependent territory, though, if included, Scotland (around $75bn income) would rank above New Zealand (40th – $72bn) and very close to South Africa (39th – $76bn).

So why Westminster’s fixation on a balanced budget? We all know Westminster does nothing that doesn’t benefit Westminster, so what’s the point? Well, as I’ve said, a balanced budget is the excuse for austerity, so perhaps the question ought to be – what’s the point of austerity?

Handing out less money to the plebs must mean there’s more left for the really deserving rich. So, is this the reason? Is it just, as the Four Preps almost said in a song I liked as a teenager:

Musical Interlude

♫ Eliminate the proletariat
More money for you and me ♫

(What do you mean, you’ve never heard of the Four Preps. You obviously need educating on the finer aspects of pre-Beatles American popular music. Listen to a song from them that also references other famous groups such as the Fleetwoods, the Hollywood Argyles, the Platters, the Four Freshmen, the Kingston Trio and Dion and the Belmonts. You can listen to it here on YouTube. For best experience, imagine each group as your favourite bunch of MPs/MSPs. “Gosh, Angry, how old are you?“)

Back to the serious stuff.

Or could there be a more sinister reason? Are the Tories really intent on taking us back to the early twentieth century or even the late nineteenth when workers had no employment rights, when your job and your income were dependent on doing exactly what your boss told you and when you could be sacked on a whim if you showed the faintest sign of being a nuisance or if you wanted a living wage?

Other legislation planned by the current Tory government includes banning strikes in certain industries by imposing legal minimum service levels (how long before it becomes everybody) and removing or revising EU based benefits like holiday pay, maternity/paternity leave and maximum working hours. Another Brexit benefit?

Is the attempted imposition of below inflation wage increases, the cuts in real-terms benefit levels and the relatively relaxed approach to huge increases in energy and food prices just part of a softening-up process to make us plebs even more grateful for the pittance in wages or benefits we’re getting than we already are? Remember that the UK is already a low wage economy, with the lowest levels of benefits and pensions in Europe and many families in the UK dependent on foodbanks to survive.

Foodbanks are a fairly recent phenomenon in the UK. First opened in 2000, the numbers have grown to over 2,600. How long will it take before we’re all dependent on food banks, except, by then, they will be funded through charitable donations from the rich, because none of the rest of us will be able to afford it. Makes you think of Victorian times. I hear that Tories are even considering reintroducing workhouses. I wouldn’t put it past them.

With almost two years to go before the next election, there’s loads of time left for the Tories to do untold damage. Even if we get a Labour government at the next election, who would put money on them reversing the worst of the Tories’ excesses. After all, they’ve been promising to abolish (or reform) the House of Lords for more than a hundred years. Anybody notice a change? Oh yes, there are even more Labour peers. By the way, does everybody know that the Lords is the second biggest legislative chamber in the world, second only to Chinese National People’s Congress.

In any case, if the Tories throw a few goodies to the electorate before the election, who’s to say they won’t get back in. But, no matter who gets in, the balance in a balanced budget is always against you.

And by the way, with so much to look forward to, I hope you all have a great New Year. 😉

And if you want a song from the same era, why not try this, Tommy Steele’s Independence Movement anthem to Nicola Sturgeon.

Will 2023 be a guid New Year?

Posted on December 30, 2022December 30, 2022 by Angry Weegie

Last year, I blogged about what should happen in 2022 to bring independence closer. It’s important to realise that they were not predictions because, if they were, I would have had a pretty poor score. Nostradamus would have little to worry about. For those brave enough to want to imagine what life would be like if these non-predictions came about, you can read the wish list in full here.

In 2021, Sturgeon’s reason (excuse?) for delaying independence was Covid Even though so much was possible during a pandemic, Scottish election, self-id and Hate Crimes, it just wasn’t the right time to progress independence, or even talk about it.

2022 saw a new independence delaying strategy. As the effects of the pandemic faded, meaning it couldn’t be used again, Sturgeon instead referred the concept of an independence referendum to Westminster’s Supreme Court, knowing that a negative response would provide another reason for delay. The Supreme Court obliged by ruling that an independence referendum was outwith the Scottish Parliament’s competence, allowing the promised 2023 referendum to be ditched, without even a real whimper of objection from the Scottish Government.

So much was going to be done in 2022, a new referendum bill, an updated independence prospectus and agreement on the referendum question. What was done was no new bill, three papers on life after independence (widely mocked as useless) and the floated possibility of a three question referendum, including enhanced devolution, which received such overwhelming derision that it hasn’t been mentioned since, though, I suspect, it’s not forgotten.

I suggested that the biggest blockage on the road to independence was Nicola Sturgeon and her leaving would be a big boost for the independence campaign. Given that she didn’t leave and the independence campaign continued to flounder, does that mean I was right? Maybe.

I also suggested that a way to ‘encourage’ the SNP to move on independence was to vote for Alba, ISP or other independence supporting parties instead of the SNP in the local elections. Instead, the SNP got an increased share of the vote and, as a result, took that as confirmation that no movement on independence was necessary. So they did nothing.

So what are my non-predictions for 2023? I still think that Sturgeon’s departure is essential for there to be any movement on independence. Will she go this year? With all her objectives achieved, Hate Crimes, Self-Id GRR and longest serving FM, what’s left to do? I guess only her fear that her work might be undone if she left would keep her in post. Depends how much faith she has in her possible replacements. Given she knows how much she had conned Alex Salmond by 2014 into believing she was the perfect replacement, she could be worried that her potential replacements are similarly conning her.

Without Sturgeon’s departure, it’s hard to see any progress being made. Even with her departure, if she’s replaced by one of the SNP Looney Bunch, most likely Robertson or Smith, then there’s little chance of anything happening. There are no elections planned for 2023 (at the moment) and the chances of the SNP Government resigning to force an election are remote. In fact, more non-existent than remote.

So it’s looking as if 2023 is going to be a pretty fallow year. Unless someone from Salvo or Liberation knows different.

Despite all the depression I’ve tried to spread, I hope you and yours have a happy New Year, and may all your non-political wishes come true. Political wishes? – we can always hope.

Slainte Mhath. Saor Alba.

Gender Reform – An MSP’s view (continued)

Posted on December 30, 2022December 30, 2022 by Angry Weegie

Or how to dress up misogyny as a ‘good thing’

As promised, here’s the update. There was no reply to my second email, even after the vote, so I send a third email commenting specifically on the vote to allow sex offenders to obtain a GRC. I’ve added a copy of email 3 at the end.

As most of you will be aware, I am not a fan of the Gender Recognition Reform Bill (GRR) currently making its extremely swift progress through the Scottish Parliament and likely to become law by the end of this week.

I wrote to my MSP expressing my views and, surprisingly, got a brief reply.

I thought it might be interesting to see the correspondence. This was my initial email …

Click on the images to make them a bit bigger.

And this was the reply.

As you can see, the response fails to address most of the points I raised, contenting herself with gender reform being in the manifesto (self-id wasn’t), that I wrongly described her as a medical professional (I didn’t) and saying practically all the correspondence she’s received has been supportive (must all have been from SNP members). However, she does say she will vote for the bill to support “one of the most marginalised and discriminated against communities in our society”.

With that in mind, I replied …

I await a further response. However, as it’s likely that, if I get a response, it will come after the vote, I thought it might be worthwhile getting it out before the vote. If I get a response, I’ll update the post.

Here’s email 3. Maybe it will be graced with a response.

Gender Reform – An MSP’s view

Posted on December 20, 2022December 22, 2022 by Angry Weegie

Or how to dress up misogyny as a ‘good thing’

I wrote to my MSP expressing my views and, surprisingly, got a brief reply.

I thought it might be interesting to see the correspondence. This was my initial email …

Click on the images to make them a bit bigger.

And this was the reply.

With that in mind, I replied …

English Supreme Court Rules – OK

Posted on November 23, 2022 by Angry Weegie

In the blink of an eye, in court judgement terms, the Supreme Court has ruled that Scotland is not a country, or at least, not a country that can make its own decisions without help from Mother England. They’ve ruled that Scotland is a colony controlled by the English parliament, who are the ultimate authority and have the power to deny Scots the ability to even think about the form of government they want.

Unionists will be pleased. Yet another blow to Scot’s belief in themselves. Yet another victory for those who want us all to think Scots are the lowest of the low. And yet another excuse for delay that was surely the only reason why Sturgeon sent a unionist Lord Advocate to the Supreme Court to destroy the Scottish case.

This was a case that was supposed to take months to come to a decision on, because of the volume and the complexity of the written evidence before the judges. No decision before next year was the expectation. The early date for the announcement leant credence to the view that there would be no decision, that they would say that a decision couldn’t be made because the Scottish Parliament hadn’t yet approved a referendum bill. That was my belief and that of many others.

Instead, what we got was a decision based solely on the judges’ understanding that Westminster is boss, that whatever Westminster says, goes.

There was no time to look at the evidence before them, so the evidence was ignored. The judges simply said that we aren’t going to waste our time thinking about what Scots want to do. We’ll just tell them to get back their box, learn their place and stop pretending they can think for themselves. We’ll just tell them that they can only make decisions that are permitted to them by English parliamentarians.

A judgement that was supposed to be made under Scot’s law said that Scot’s law is merely a subset of English law and when push comes to shove, English law is all that counts. A panel of five, including one Scottish judge, effectively ruled that Scot’s law doesn’t exist.

So where does that leave us now? What legal means exist for Scots to decide on the form of government we want? Now that a referendum has been ruled out (giving Nicola Sturgeon’s government another year to think about what they’ll do), what’s next? Is it the plebiscite in 2024? Or will Sturgeon ask the Supreme Court to rule on whether a plebiscite is within the competence of the Scottish Government? I wouldn’t rule that out.

If we don’t take Scot’s law into our own hands, nothing will ever happen. Let’s remember the Declaration of Arbroath. Let’s use the Claim of Right. Let’s do something before being Scottish becomes nothing but a folk memory.

Is it all just a dream?

Posted on November 9, 2022 by Angry Weegie

Imagine the following post summarising the current state of the Scottish independence debate.

There’s an independence referendum coming. Obviously, with less than a year to go, the Scottish Government’s campaign is in full swing. There have been marches through the streets of major Scottish towns and cities, SNP MPs and MSPs at their head, spreading the word, making sure everyone in Scotland knows about the benefits of independence.

The biggest march, so far, has been in Glasgow, with Nicola Sturgeon leading over quarter of a million independence supporters to a rally in Glasgow Green. An even bigger march and rally is planned for Edinburgh, with close to half a million expected on the Meadows to witness the widely rumoured reconciliation between Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, setting aside their differences to work together for independence.

The independence bloggers have all got a new lease of life. Stuart Campbell has unretired Wings over Scotland and has nothing but praise for the actions of the Scottish Government. Many blogs, even including my own poor efforts, are showing a ten-fold increase in traffic, driven by the availability of two independence supporting video channels now being broadcast into every home in Scotland and being watched by millions.

Even the mainstream media are finding it impossible to ignore what’s going on, especially following the decision of Scottish Labour Party members to demand separation from the UK Labour party so Scottish Labour can become a truly Scottish based party. The Scottish Liberal Democrats are soon expected to follow suit. The numbers involved in independence events are so large that the mainstream media, even including BBC Scotland, are forced to report (almost) truthfully on what’s happening, even showing glimpses of the hundreds of onlookers stepping off the pavement to join the marchers. Unionist supporting organisations are finding it hard to get a platform because very few want to listen to what they have to say and they have no evidence to back up their increasingly deranged utterings.

How many of you have been swept up by the colour and noise and excitement of the events? How many of you have now been converted to be strong independence supporters when the true facts were put to you by the Government. Were you a No and are you now a Yes? Will you now be voting for independence? The campaign is being and will be a success. There is no longer any doubt that independence is the settled will of the Scottish people. Scotland will return to being an independent country next year.

But …

Is this true or is it all a figment of my imagination? Is it just wishful thinking on my part? Is it all a dream? Unfortunately, it turns out I’ve woken up to the real nightmare, the real nightmare where nothing described above is happening and where the ‘party of independence’ has leaders who are actively trying to prevent independence. This is the nightmare when the people in whom you put your trust turn out to be no better than those you knew would do everything they could to stop you from succeeding. This is present day Scotland.

However, to end on a lighter note, here’s a few words that Abba could have written to cheer you up and help you through these dark times.

I Have a Dream, a fantasy
To help me through, reality
And my destination, makes it worth the while
Pushin’ through the darkness, it’s just another mile

I believe in Indy
Something good in everything I see
I believe in Indy
When I know the time is right for me
I’ll cross the stream, I Have a Dream

Don’t give up. Keep the faith, folks.

Nicola Sturgeon – super independence negotiator?

Posted on October 26, 2022 by Angry Weegie

There’s been lots of talk recently (and not just from me) about whether Nicola Sturgeon and elected SNP MPs and MSPs. still have independence as their number one priority or even if it’s on their priority list at all. Unfortunately, recent events have not made this clearer. Despite Sturgeon announcing the date for a second independence referendum on 28th June this year, little if any campaigning has happened, though I have been informed by SNP members who still speak to me that there have been three leaflets available to be delivered, though I can’t find much information about them on either the Scottish Government website or the SNP website, suggesting they may be information already in the public domain being recycled.

At the recent SNP conference, with just 12 months to go before the referendum is due, there were no debates on independence and no motions on the activities planned. It was almost as if the SNP has no intention of taking part in their own referendum.

There’s little comparison between current SNP inactivity and what was happening in September 2013, a year before the first independence referendum. Then, the campaign was gearing up, most Yes (and other) groups had been formed and many conversations and meetings were being held. I even got a “Yes volunteers briefing pack” from Shirley-Anne Somerville, produced before her conversion to deputy assistant Wokemeister. Now, the SNP won’t even discuss an independence strategy at their conference, though they are happy to discuss an unnecessary code of conduct, apparently designed to exclude any group who doesn’t share their views on gender and women with willies.

Of course, there is the (in)famous Building a New Scotland series of papers, promised by Sturgeon to provide all the information Scots need to allow them to make an informed choice about independence. The papers, not sure how many are planned, will be available in 17 different languages (not Scots, obviously). The first two, Independence in the modern world, issued in May, and Renewing Democracy through Independence, issued in June, were roundly criticised for containing no indication how the Government intended to achieve the objectives set out in the papers. But surely, the third, A stronger economy with independence, which was issued last week, was the icing on Sturgeon’s devolution cake. Criticised for its continued adherence to the Growth Commission’s idea of retaining sterling for an indefinite period (who would want to stick with sterling after the last few weeks) and its lack of detail as to how the benefits will be achieved (again), it doesn’t inspire confidence in the SNP’s desire for independence. Indeed, Richard Murphy, who supports Scottish independence, in his review of the document, was driven to say, “I doubt the conviction of those who wrote it about independence” and who can blame him. Read his full statement here in a Twitter thread.

Now let’s think of what happens next if, despite Sturgeon’s best efforts, Scotland achieves independence. With Sturgeon still in position as First Minister, she would lead the negotiations with Westminster to determine the terms under which Scotland would leave the United Kingdom. Obviously, Sturgeon would be determined to get the best deal possible for Scotland, wouldn’t she. Or would she?

Let’s look at some recent examples of her interest in the future of Scotland and the success of Scottish independence.

First, the ScotWind auction.

For years, the SNP have been promoting offshore wind generation as a jewel in Scotland’s resource crown, one of the reasons why an independent Scotland would be so successful. Why then did the ScotWind auction earlier this year place a cap on the maximum amount companies were allowed to bid? What sensible organisation running an auction would decide that no matter how high buyers were prepared to bid, no matter how much companies thought it was worth, a limit would be placed on the amount the seller was prepared to accept. In this case, the maximum bid was set at £100,000 per sq.km., hence the total of £700m raised from an area of 7000 sq.km.

The £100,000 price was a last-minute decision to increase the cap from £10,000 per sq.km. following bids for an 8GW (Gigawatts) area in England raising £875m per annum using a different auction method. To put it another way, given that the areas auctioned would allow the installation of at least 25 GW of wind power, the ScotWind auction represents a price of no more than £28m per Gigawatt.

Was that a fair price? How does it compare with other similar auctions? Coincidentally, at almost the same time as the ScotWind auction, the US government held an auction for areas just off the coast of New York and New Jersey. This was for a much smaller area than the ScotWind auction, supporting only 7 Gigawatts of wind power, but it raised a total of $4.37bn. Converting to Sterling, this represents a price of £530m per Gigawatt, 19 times the ScotWind price. Had ScotWind raised a figure similar to the US auction, the Scottish Government would have received a £13bn boost, or around 40% of their annual budget.

The cap not only prevented the Scottish Government getting a potentially enormous one-off bonus, but the auction rules mean they get only a tiny annual fee, there’s no government involvement in the on-going development and no real guarantee of local benefit from the projects, in either supplies or jobs.

Why was the auction deliberately set up to minimise the advantage to Scotland and the Scottish people? Was this the action of a party determined to deliver a successful independence?

Now the island ferries.

Much has been written about the island ferry fiasco, so I won’t repeat the details here. Those who want to find out more need only look at Iain Lawson’s blog, Yours for Scotland to see statements from Professor Alf Baird and Dr. Stuart Ballantyne, among others, who know much more about ferries than I do (or the Scottish Government do, apparently).

What has always puzzled me is why the Scottish Government have persisted with support for the current ferry replacement policy, led by CMAL (Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited), a public company wholly owned by the Scottish Government, when that policy has clearly failed. So much is currently wrong, complex, one-of orders; high cost; often incapable of using existing island facilities; leading to slow delivery of replacement vessels and resulting in an aging fleet, prone to breakdown and providing a poor service to island communities.

There are better ways. The Clyde Catamaran Group have submitted proposals for the replacement of the CalMac fleet with low cost, internationally proven designs, which would lead to a modern, responsive fleet, saving both build and operational costs, while providing a much improved service to the island communities, a service that would allow the islands to prosper. It is nothing short of unbelievable that these proposals have hardly been considered by the Scottish Government/CMAL, often without even the courtesy of a reply to communications from the group.

What reason can the Scottish Government have for ignoring the obvious advantages contained in the proposals. Is it stupidity, is it a determination not to admit that mistakes have been made, is it corruption as has been suggested by some, or is it a deliberate act to ruin another aspect of Scottish life. The last option sounds unbelievable until combined with other Scottish Government behaviour, as described above and below.

Finally, there’s this.

The release of the third paper in the Building a New Scotland series. I’ve already mention above the almost unbelievable plan to retain Sterling for an indefinite period. However, that’s not the worst of it. Sturgeon states that although there’s no legal responsibility for iScotland to accept any UK debt, she thinks we have a moral obligation to help out Westminster with their debt problem. Setting aside the stupidity of alerting your opponent to your thinking in advance of any negotiations, why would we want to take a share of debt that was mainly accrued to benefit England, especially in the circumstances where the English government have been ripping us off for centuries. If anything, our stance should be that we are owed multi-billion pound reparations for all we have lost by being part of this union.

Accepting a share of UK debt without significant concessions from the other side (which is unlikely to happen) will damage Scotland and has the potential to make independence less successful. Why would any independence leader suggest such an action?

Scorched earth policy?

These are just three examples of the SNP and the Scottish Government making decisions which appears harmful to Scottish independence, but there are many others, such as the divisive GRA amendment policy and the inaction of SNP MPs in Westminster, both of which impact on the possibility of Scotland regaining her independence and make it more difficult for independence to be a success.

Much has been said about Sturgeon’s alleged interest in securing a UN or EU post after resigning from her current position as First Minister of Scotland, but the events described above point towards her last gift to Scotland, before leaving, being the implementation of a “scorched earth policy”, doing her best to disadvantage the Scottish people and make independence seem less attractive.

Is there another explanation? Recent statements from Sturgeon and senior colleagues seem to confirm a continuing involvement of the SNP at Westminster following the next UK general election, currently scheduled for 2024, which, considering the current SNP plan to hold an independence referendum a year from now, would suggest either an expectation of defeat or certain knowledge that the referendum will not take place.

Let’s look at some of these statements.

Ian Blackford tells BBC News that at the next UK election, the SNP will have a growth plan for the UK. Why? Will we not be negotiating independence by then? See the clip here (courtesy of WoS). Meanwhile, his boss was telling us she was looking forward to working with Rishi Sunak and that we also need an immediate UK General Election to get rid of the anti-Scottish Tories and replace them with anti-Scottish Labour.

How do you build a “constructive working relationship” with someone you want to leave and are campaigning against? Perhaps because there won’t be any campaigning?

In the meantime, let’s hang around doing nothing. What else could I do?

And call for a general election, which you won’t get and, in any case, it’s only to give the SNP three extra years on the Westminster gravy train.

And if that’s not enough, here’s Tommy Shepherd worrying about English residents. Pity he doesn’t spend time worrying about Scottish residents suffering from colonialism. Still, I suppose the extra £15k for making such statements makes it seem ok.

Do these comments sound like they come from people who want independence above all else? Do these comments sound like they come from people who you would want to be negotiating the future of an iScotland? If not, what are SNP politicians for?

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Angry Weegie

Supporting Scotland's rightful place in the world

Tag: Nicola Sturgeon