Alibi

Agreed. They are toxic, and they are harmful to the SNP's electoral prospects. And hardly anyone voted for them - they only have list seats, and they only have those because they claimed to want independence. How many would have voted for them if they hadn't said they wanted independence?

I'm sure it didn't all happen by accident. i'm inclined to think there are folk within the SNP deliberately harming the party, whether by bringing forwards daft legislation that the public hate or by other even more devious means. maybe some stuff will come to light via the Salmond case.

The problem is that the SNP went down the virtue signalling route and have just about painted themselves into a corner. They can't plausibly start calling for Grangemouth to stay open as a refinery while at the same time saying we have to stop producing oil. To reverse that position would likely require a new leader who isn't tarred (see what I did there?) with the oil abolitionist brush. My own view is that Scotland stopping oil production would make about no difference to our climate - oil will just be produced by the rest of the oil-producing countries around the world. Also, there are other uses for oil apart from burning it - is the plastics industry to shut up shop? Of course the real reason behind the Grangemouth closure is that it removes Scotland's ability to refine oil products, harming our economy and making us economic prisoners of the rUK. Fuck the union.

Can't disagree with a word of that tbh. Those that facilitated it need to be identified, called out, and exposed for what they are.

I don't think this proposal has happened just because Ratcliffe wants it - it's a nailed on certainty that the UK government is involved, and without a doubt Starmer is in the loop. Remove Scotland's capacity to refine our own oil and you have Scotland by the balls. It said in the papers that the refinery made a loss of £360 million last year, but shuffling money around and a bit of creative accountancy can create a "loss" to order. How does this plant compare with the 5 plants in England and Wales? This is a blatant political act of economic vandalism, aided by Sturgeon's naive and impractical virtue signalling about oil and gas - if the SNP actually had a leader, rather than the ventriloquist's dummy shoehorned into place (andIi use the word dummy deliberately) there would have been an immediate and incandescent response. This is an act of economic war against Scotland almost as much as destroying the plant by bombing, along the lines being threatened by some unionist politicians in 2014. Pipelines and cables being taken ashore south of the border. Destruction of Scotland's industrial capacity. Already they're talking about stealing our water resources as well as our hydrocarbons, our wind and wave energy. what a shame we have such a bunch of useless wankers masquerading as a government in Scotland. My pronouns for the vast majority of them are fuck and off. And if I hear the phrase "just transition" again, I may spontaneously combust. How the fuck did we ever get to this situation?

I don't know if that post was a response to my post immediately preceding it, but I think you're not quite correct. Nobody actually likes having to pay tax, but most people appreciate that it is meant to be for the common good. If everyone paid their due taxes, most people would regard that as fair and equitable. The discord arises when some individuals, and some companies, don't pay taxes that they should be paying, and particularly when individuals use tax havens to avoid paying tax. Of course folk are going to moan about paying taxes, but I hardly think they're going to convert to hardline Toryism - in fact bear in mind that under the current UK government, taxes are as high as they've ever been in my (fairly long) lifetime. Whilst I don't object to paying taxes, and in fact have a policy of paying my income tax as soon as I find out what is due (I'm not in the PAYE system), I do object strongly to some of the things on which my taxes are spent; nuclear weapons, wars, the monarchy, blocking independence, and the vast sums stolen by corruption due to fraudulent PPE contracts and other covid-related scams, but that's a different issue.

I doubt she is bright enough to come up with that one deliberately. However her stance on oil and gas was I think, like many things, more about virtue signalling than anything else. She has almost the SNP into a corner and it is essential that a more pragmatic attitude is adopted pronto. She has removed a source of GDP, reduced our energy security, and put us at the mercy of international markets as far as oil and gas are concerned. Meanwhile the rest of the world will continue to produce fossil fuels and sell them to us.

Completely removing Scotland's ability to refine oil. Ratcliife doing his bit to strip Scotland of the ability to exploit our own resources.

I don't think he objects to anyone actually being here. It's them having a vote in an indyref that is the sticking point. I'm sure you can see the problem if the UK were actively to encourage hundreds of thousands of people from England, all vetted for their unionist beliefs, to move to Scotland. It would be a sort of plantation of Ulster situation. I know that's a huge exaggeration, but don't expect the UK to play fair over indy. We need to overcome the problem by persuading incomers that their life will be better under indy, by pointing out the benefits they already have, and also pointing out that if they are stupid enough to vote for any unionist party (Labour in particular but also the other ones) they will likely end up losing a lot of the benefits we currently enjoy, up to and including the Scottish Parliament. I don't think anyone is suggesting burning people out of their homes or any form of violence - leave that to the yoons of 19th September 2014.

I think that's taking it a bit far. Pointing out that a lot of people move here from England is just stating the facts. Why they would want to come here if they oppose indy is hard to understand. Though quite a few do seem to support indy - the enlightened ones.

The thing about inheritance tax is that it is imposed on people who have wealth up to a certain point, but those who are even richer can avoid it entirely. I think the starting point is £500k at the moment, and that's not actually a lot if you have a house, a car etc. It's a lot if you have nothing, but that's really a different issue and should be addressed by governments setting tax rates that generate sufficient money to ensure everyone has a proper safety net - the idea of a universal basic income seems like a reasonable concept to me. Ask yourself why the monarchy don't pay inheritance tax. Do you think Rishi Sunak will pay it? Alister Jack? Not a chance. They have their wealth stored out of reach of the UK tax system. If we had a proper inheritance tax, wealth would be taxed annually on vast wealth like Sunak's wife, and those folk wouldn't even notice it had gone. Set a wealth threshold of say £10 million and take a progressively tiered chunk of anything above that and it would start a genuine wealth redistribution process. If folk don't like it, they can afford to move elsewhere. Instead, the uK government go after folk who've struggled to buy a house, paid a mortgage etc, and then the UK blows it all on wars. I for one don't mind paying reasonable taxes, but I want to know that everyone else is in the same boat. And once tax has been paid on capital earned, the tax authorities shouldn't be coming back for another huge chunk, especially at relatively low thresholds. The UK is a fucking Ponzi scheme and it's being financed by you and me (but not the obscenely wealthy).

had he queried it at the time, or as soon as he found out, he could have paid off the debt and maybe even had it written off if the bad publicity resulting threatened to affect whatever company charged that much for data. It's clearly a corporate scam. Should be outlawed. I think this is ignorance, not corruption of any sort. If it was corruption, the Tories wouldn't dare raise the subject as they are mired in it. He's a decent minister so sad if he loses his job over this.

Shame on her. An utter political prostitute, selling her principles to the lowest bidder.

Yes, that whole thing is becoming ridiculous. It's the latest "look, a squirrel" being heaily promoted by BBC Scotland at every opportunity. Though Matheson doesn't come out of it looking good - I think a reasonable explanation of how he managed to run up such a bill is needed if he wants to maintain any credibility. Regarding the vote on the SNP amendment, worth noting that most of the Labour high heid yins have taken financial donations from Israel. They are therefore hired hands, not neutral in the debate. Lovely to see them tying themselves in moral knots, especially that vile sleazy slimeball Sir Keir Starmer. Well done Steven Flynn for taking a sensible line that I think is supported by most decent people. Particular shame on the Scottish Labour MPs who couldn't support an SNP amendment even though they probably deep down agree with it.

I had never even heard of Laura Trott. I'm guessing with that surname, she's probably one of those Tory girls who looks like a horse.

That's why he gets a fairly easy ride from the unionist MSM. He's no threat to the union just as Sturgeon was no threat to the union. Contrast with Alex Salmond who they attached constantly, a leader who actually led and was head and shoulders above any other politician in Scotland (and beyond). No wonder they did their best to politically assassinate him. I think Ash Regan would have done a better job as SNP leader. Certainly would have put indy high on the priority list rather than being scared to even mention it. Maybe not a polished performer yet but at least she has a personality unlike Yousaf.

Yes, not all racism is white people vs brown people. When I was working in Trinidad 40 years ago, there was a lot of racial tension between the West Indian population and the black population (I assume largely descendants of former slaves).

Went to see "The Old Oak" a couple of weeks ago. Only about a dozen folk in a 65 seat cinema (Annan) but it was pretty good. A Ken Loach film.

I think the point is that a concerted and united "Scotland Independence Party" would be able to garner more votes than the SNP standing alone. That is partly due to the wall to wall negative MSM coverage to which the SNP is subjected; partly due to some unwise policies being pursued; and partly due to the unpopularity amongst a significant tranche of the electorate of some individuals, including Yousaf and also, now, Nicola Sturgeon. The problem is that there's nobody to arrange a united body to turn the next GE into a de facto referendum - too much intolerant fragmentation, which has not happened by accident. What the SNP should be doing at the moment and for the next year or more is attacking the Labour party's many weak points - pro brexit, anti indy, anti FoM, anti immigration, pro nukes etc. Expose what Labour really stand for in Scotland and Labour support will fall back.

I agree with you on that. If you want indy, at the moment there is no other viable option but the SNP. I will continue to vote for them for now, albeit I haven't yet renewed my membership and I have zero interest in getting involved with routine branch meetings. Do I think they are perfect? No, far from it, but all the alternatives are of no interest to me. I am not hostile to Alba, but for now they are not really gaining traction. I would never vote for any unionist party, and in my view that probably now includes the Greens. I get the impression that the wokerati wing of the SNP aren't that bothered about indy either, but are just using it as a vehicle to push through some virtue signalling policies, ignoring the electoral harm that is fomenting.

I was listening to it on the radio while driving down to Hull to meet my new grandson. I heard the whole interview loud and clear before Radio Scotland faded away around Barnard Castle (at which point i came to the conclusion that my eyesight was fine). Slater was quite clear that if Labour needed a leg up, their hatred of indy was not a problem - or a red line as she put it. Prior to that, I thought she put her points across well, and I could agree with her on certain matters. However the final answer about indy absolutely not bring a red line was quite clear. The Greens are political hoors and have wheedled their way into a position of power that their vote share doesn't merit. They have harmed the SNP by association. Time to end the charade, although I doubt Yousaf has the balls.

That's disingenuous. Slater was asked if independence was a red line for the greens - she said "absolutely not". In other words they'd be happy to do a volte face in the interests of their political "careers". And that's the point where a proper SNP leader would have announced that the Bute House agreement was over and that the SNP would govern as a minority government - which would I think see the SNP's polling figures improve. the Greens could then decide if they wanted to throw away any principles of if they would continue to support indy (not that there's much chance of them actually having to demonstrate that at the moment.

Well, in politics, the FM is not white, the leader of the branch office of Labour is not white, so there's a start.

Regarding Al Jazeera, I watched their English language news coverage of the Israel/Palestine situation a few weeks ago while in Spain. I was impressed with how objective and even handed they were, with reports from both Israel & Gaza, and commentators from all sides of the debate. It was as close to unbiased news coverage on this particular story as anything I've ever seen. Contrast that with the cheerleading of SKY, the US channels and the BBC, all of which could have been propaganda outlets for their respective governments. I can see why the Israelis decided to ban them because fair coverage is not what they want to see. I've also been impressed in the past with Al Jazeera's coverage of Scottish political matters - again they do not blindly portray the UK government as in the right and the indy movement as a bunch of malcontents, which is the BBC's default position and also that of Sky.

No, meant Lithuania, and I don't want to live there either. I want to be able to live in the EU.