Alibi

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.

How stupid are these people? Labour is every bit as unionist as the Tories; they support Brexit; they want to bring back tuition fees, prescription charges, car parking charges, bridge tolls, you name it, they want to bring Scotland into line with England. They will refuse a section 30 for at least ten years (said by David Lammy just a few days ago). They are de facto Tories, if maybe from a few years ago rather than the current iteration. Why the fuck would anyone who has the remotest interest in winning back our independence vote for these charlatans? Let any yoon party get control of Scotland and devolution will be neutered and once that is done the only way to indy is a full scale revolution. But hey, let's give Labour their turn until the Tories get back in in a few years and nothing changes. I have a slight chance of getting a Ukrainian passport (and possibly a Russian one (as Lithuania was apparently part of Russia when my paternal grandfather was born there). No idea how to go about it but it's becoming a tempting idea.

Yes, without elections having a consequence (independence) not only will the vote for indy parties drop, it's likely that the turnout at elections will also plummet. I for one will never vote for a party that doesn't support indy because if I did vote for a yoon party, they might take my vote as an indication that I'm happy with unionism. If we're going to have to live in a situation where indy is not being promoted by anyone, then fuck politics. Democracy is dead.Until such time as the infiltrators presently calling the shots are dragged screaming from parliament and burned at the stake. (metaphorically speaking, not literally).

I think a lot of countries would be happy to recognise an indy Scotland. However some might try to quash the idea - England and the US for example. They are two of the bullies of international relations, and an indy Scotland would affect their own personal agendas.

The very definition of a coercive relationship. We in Scotland do not have democracy as our votes can easily be cancelled out by the electorate in England. If Scotland voted 100% for independence, we still wouldn't get it because any PM from any of the English parties would just say no, and what could we do about it? We were only "allowed" a referendum in 2014 because they thought they would win it easily. Now, they know they would almost certainly lose and given that indy support is at 50% or slightly more even with absolutely no campaigning going on, there is no chance it would be allowed. Starmer has made it clear he won't accede to a vote in Scotland to have a referendum; David Lammy said the same in even stronger terms the other week (and claimed that the branch office would be of the same view). Not sure where we go from here, but the British establishment will stop at nothing to prevent Scotland becoming independence, ever. They'd be quite happy to invade us if it came to that. with the approval of the USA likely, given Faslane. We like to think we have a free democracy. We don't really.

My SNP membership has expired and I haven't bothered renewing. I have no interest in going to local branch meetings where all they do is read out reports on how many members the branch has. There is no actual discussion of policies or ideas. I'm fairly sure most of them have meekly fallen in line with gender self-ID and I'm pretty sure the recently elected convener is of the wokerati persuasion. Having seen the statements coming out of the conference, I am not inspired. Marcus Carlaw, whoever he is, seems to have taken it upon himself to dampen expectations and prevent any progress with indy. The leadership, collectively, are a bunch of virtue signalling nobodies and there is zero chance of them achieving anything. Fairly sure several of them are shall we say compromised. I really don't know where we go from here, but Yousaf is not the answer. He's a fucking liability, bowing to the will of the unionist press, scared to take any meaningful action on anything, and making daft virtue signalling statements that are almost designed specifically to shed votes. He's no Alex Salmond, that's for sure. I did wonder if the current ongoing police investigation is not actually about money but about the failed plot to have Salmond imprisoned, although I'd have no faith in the police service doing the right thing there. Seriously considering moving abroad for my retirement.

Probably because a lot of folk can't be bothered with conferences. Doesn't mean they won't vote when an election comes round. Enthusiasm has slumped but folk still want indy. We need a charismatic leader to get things moving again.

FFS, that by-election had other yoon parties voting for Labour - tactical voting - and also vast numbers of SNP voters just didn't vote. It's a one off. Fairly sure that won't be repeated at a general election. I would hope by that time, Labour's actual policies - such as no to indy/indyref ever, and their pro Brexit stance to name just 2 things - will be publicised properly and their vote share will drop like a stone. Pro-indy voters are generally not going to vote for a unionist party, and if they do they deserve everything they get.

The thing about the majority of seats proposal, and the criticism of it on the basis that by that yardstick we already have an apparent mandate for indy is that the last GE wasn't fought on a manifesto stating that a vote for indy parties was a vote for indy. If the SNP were to have a one line manifesto and people voted for it, they would have an undeniable mandate for indy as WM elections are done under FPTP. I would imagine the SNP would lose some seats as folk who vote SNP but don't want indy would revert to other parties, but a majority of seats based on a direct yes/no manifesto would be what was acceptable as a trigger prior to referendums becoming fashionable. Of course getting a majority of votes would be even better but that's not the way WM elections work - however if that could be achieved, it would make the argument a lot simpler. For the SNP, who are never going to be in government at WM, a WM election is an opportunity to do things differently. and by that I don't mean Sturgeon's ridiculous "Stop Brexit" campaign in 2017.

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As title. Best bar or restaurant to watch Scotland game? In Malaga.

Actually they should have started at about Inverness and worked south. That would have given them an imperative to complete it.