Very good article but perhaps too difficult for the average SNP supporter to understand . I’m not being elitist , I’m merely reacting to the intellect displayed by many independence supporters . Unfortunately Sturgeon recognises this and feeds on this ignorance as a means to an end . For example , she is keen to join NATO and at the same time she doesn’t want Scotland to have anything to do with nuclear weapons . However NATO has the nuclear deterrent and many of its ships and aircraft carry such weapons . Is she going to refuse them access to Scotland ? If so she won’t be allowed to join . Her obsession with joining the EU is similarly flawed as she will be forced to join the Euro and at the same time address the issue of Scotland’s deficit . There is so wrong with her iterations that it’s difficult to take her seriously …but seriously we must . Not her so much as her supporters who care nothing for Scotland …only Freedom but what’s the point of that if you don’t how to handle it ?
What referendum rabbit will be pulled from the constitutional hat? I asked the constituency MSP to tell me the Scottish Ministers’ authority to call a second referendum. He cited electoral mandate (false) otherwise, wait for the promoting Minister’s announcement on the day of publication (don’t know yet, trying to think of something) I think we can be sure that if Roberson, their chap who deals with this sort of thing, had anything at all to go on he would be trumpeting it all over the place.
The only things holding them together are a hatred of "Britishness" and the complementary fantasy that Scotland is a homogenous whole. Take away these coalescing factors and the SNP will fragment and implode: unfortunately the infighting will be clan warfare at it's most medieval and completely destructive to what our post-union culture has made possible for us. I am British with a Scottish accent and I refuse to be made a foreigner in my own country.
The scheming fundamentalists cannot be trusted to act in all our interests if they refuse to make a serious argument for their stated aims.
Great article, Stephen. Pretty certain the 15 civil servants tasked with putting together a case for independence are still starting at a blank sheet of paper. That people can be taken in by the total absence of any plan, and believe that this bunch of lying incompetents could run an independent nation and set up all the institutions it would need, makes me despair of my countrymen.
Stephen, another great article, If we are to believe that the majority of people in Scotland support the union why does the press continue to run headlines using SNP sound bites regarding the likes of the 2023 Indy ref. If Independence is a non starter why waste media time and black ink.
The civil servants charged with writing the independence prospectus will have to choose between maintaining their integrity and disappointing their SNP masters. No civil servant could have committed to paper the lie, uttered by Blackford and Forbes, then defended by Sturgeon in parliament , that rUK would pay for Scottish pensions after independence. It is a liberty that only politicians could take but it fits well in a series of lies that includes the following : (1) Scotland is a nett contributor to UK tax revenues, (2) Scottish products like whisky, exported through English ports, are recorded as English exports, (3) the annual GERS reports, which reveal giant holes in our balance sheet, are “Toarree” statistics (4) Scotland, can leave the UK without paying a share of UK national debt.
Usually, such whoppers are concocted at lower levels in the party and circulate on social media where they are eagerly taken up by supporters who repeat them parrot-fashion. Plausibility is more important than veracity. The purpose is to give the independence project a rigour which the facts do not support.
If the civil servants can produce a document which sticks to facts but satisfies their brief they will have earned the £711,000 salary costs many times ove
Very good article. Scotland's love of authoritarian rule made it a good country from which to draw empire administrators, but when the Scottish people are treated as "natives" were in the nineteenth century, authoritarianism has outlasted its usefulness.
Essentially the SNP are ENEMIES OF THE RULE OF LAW.
Very good article but perhaps too difficult for the average SNP supporter to understand . I’m not being elitist , I’m merely reacting to the intellect displayed by many independence supporters . Unfortunately Sturgeon recognises this and feeds on this ignorance as a means to an end . For example , she is keen to join NATO and at the same time she doesn’t want Scotland to have anything to do with nuclear weapons . However NATO has the nuclear deterrent and many of its ships and aircraft carry such weapons . Is she going to refuse them access to Scotland ? If so she won’t be allowed to join . Her obsession with joining the EU is similarly flawed as she will be forced to join the Euro and at the same time address the issue of Scotland’s deficit . There is so wrong with her iterations that it’s difficult to take her seriously …but seriously we must . Not her so much as her supporters who care nothing for Scotland …only Freedom but what’s the point of that if you don’t how to handle it ?
What referendum rabbit will be pulled from the constitutional hat? I asked the constituency MSP to tell me the Scottish Ministers’ authority to call a second referendum. He cited electoral mandate (false) otherwise, wait for the promoting Minister’s announcement on the day of publication (don’t know yet, trying to think of something) I think we can be sure that if Roberson, their chap who deals with this sort of thing, had anything at all to go on he would be trumpeting it all over the place.
The only things holding them together are a hatred of "Britishness" and the complementary fantasy that Scotland is a homogenous whole. Take away these coalescing factors and the SNP will fragment and implode: unfortunately the infighting will be clan warfare at it's most medieval and completely destructive to what our post-union culture has made possible for us. I am British with a Scottish accent and I refuse to be made a foreigner in my own country.
The scheming fundamentalists cannot be trusted to act in all our interests if they refuse to make a serious argument for their stated aims.
Great article, Stephen. Pretty certain the 15 civil servants tasked with putting together a case for independence are still starting at a blank sheet of paper. That people can be taken in by the total absence of any plan, and believe that this bunch of lying incompetents could run an independent nation and set up all the institutions it would need, makes me despair of my countrymen.
Stephen, another great article, If we are to believe that the majority of people in Scotland support the union why does the press continue to run headlines using SNP sound bites regarding the likes of the 2023 Indy ref. If Independence is a non starter why waste media time and black ink.
Another piece of eye opening journalism the thought of another referendum sticks in the throat of democracy.
Stephen, I find it Strange that snp never go into the Real Economics off Separation ?.
Are they purposely hiding the Facts that Scotland would very quickly become Bankrupt.
SNP appear to be anti to the Business Sector, they are taxing business out off Scotland.
Who in their right mind is going to vote for Squalor, Bankruptcy, Raging Inflation.
The whole concept makes no sense.
We need the Press and tv to let people know what would happen .
Why are the news media not shouting out how ludicrous the whole idea off separation, would impact on all our Lives.
The civil servants charged with writing the independence prospectus will have to choose between maintaining their integrity and disappointing their SNP masters. No civil servant could have committed to paper the lie, uttered by Blackford and Forbes, then defended by Sturgeon in parliament , that rUK would pay for Scottish pensions after independence. It is a liberty that only politicians could take but it fits well in a series of lies that includes the following : (1) Scotland is a nett contributor to UK tax revenues, (2) Scottish products like whisky, exported through English ports, are recorded as English exports, (3) the annual GERS reports, which reveal giant holes in our balance sheet, are “Toarree” statistics (4) Scotland, can leave the UK without paying a share of UK national debt.
Usually, such whoppers are concocted at lower levels in the party and circulate on social media where they are eagerly taken up by supporters who repeat them parrot-fashion. Plausibility is more important than veracity. The purpose is to give the independence project a rigour which the facts do not support.
If the civil servants can produce a document which sticks to facts but satisfies their brief they will have earned the £711,000 salary costs many times ove
Very good article. Scotland's love of authoritarian rule made it a good country from which to draw empire administrators, but when the Scottish people are treated as "natives" were in the nineteenth century, authoritarianism has outlasted its usefulness.
Essentially the SNP are ENEMIES OF THE RULE OF LAW.
This film explains why in the context of the Hate Crime Act (2021): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kFam_JUqOA&t=658s
Exactly what needs to be said, Stephen.