aaid

You just pipped me to that. Apparently there’s two SPFL managers living in the town at the moment.

You do know that all SNP MPs and MSPs have to be re-adopted at each election, it’s not a job for life. There’s a few MPs being challenged as they start to select their candidates in advance of the next GE, most notably in Glasgow where Alison Thewlis’ constituency has been abolished.

This selection campaign in East Kilbride is looking very shady. https://www.thenational.scot/news/23812249.snp-mp-threatens-legal-action-amid-row-selection-process/ Looks like there’s a two candidate run off. Lisa Cameron has the required number of nominations from party members. Grant Costello has the support of the local Westminster Campaign Committee which covers all the branches in the constituency. Lisa Cameron chose not to seek their support - read into that what you will. Linda Fabiani, the former MSP has nominated Grant Costello. I imagine that she’ll be well regarded locally and would have worked closely with Cameron as a lot of MP/MSP work overlaps. I think when a sitting member seems to fall out with the local party, it probably means there’s something serious going on and the relationship has broken down. Still Patrick Grady blah blah blah.

In a roundabout way, Scotland gets Barnett consequentials for HS2, however those consequentials along with the core cost for HS2 are funded by issuing government debt. The Scottish Government gets to choose what it wants to spend that money on, but it’s not free, it still has to be repaid and will still form part of our debt.

Not just Tories.

At a Christmas night out for the SNP Westminster group, Patrick Grady made what could probably best be described as a mild pass at a male staffer - he stroked his hair and the back of his neck. This was rebuffed and there was no more contact between them. Grady was stupid, in the wrong and this was badly handled by the WM group. It should’ve been dealt with the next day with an apology and if that wasn’t accepted they should’ve sorted it out there and then. As it was, Ian Blackford didn’t do anything about it until over a year later when he facilitated a meeting between himself, Patrick Grady and the individual. In May 2021, the individual raised this with the Parliamentary Authorities as an official complaint. He admitted that this was precipitated by an incident with another MP and was driven by Patrick Grady - the then Chief Whip’s actions. He also raised 8 additional complaints against Grady, all of which were thrown out. Additionally, the complaints and investigation were supposed to be confidential and yet the individual repeatedly briefed the media. I also think that he was the same person who raised similar complaints against Patricia Gibson. Grady was in the wrong and has paid a heavy price for that. Read the report and form your own opinions on Grady’s behaviour and the motives of the complainer. https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/mps-lords--offices/standards-and-financial-interests/independent-expert-panel/hc-368---the-conduct-of-mr-patrick-grady-mp.pdf

Scottish Parliament lawfully and legitimately passes an Act of Parliament, how does Alister Jack intervene in a way that doesn’t undermine the devolution settlement?

Wow indeed, in fact, if anything she’s even worse. if you think that writing to Alister Jack, asking him to intervene to block the GRR bill is in anyway shape or form an acceptable thing for an SNP MP to do then I don’t know what you think is acceptable. At Joanna Cherry see’s it correctly, she thinks that the GRR Bill is a problem - I disagree - but is clear that the problem should be sorted in Scotland. Of course what you’re getting here, and promoting, is - sources close to - Lisa Cameron’s side of the story. I suspect the truth is something different.

She’s the female John Mason.

Out of interest, are you following the coverage directly?

I’ve never ever seen what his appeal was supposed to be.

Actually I’ve been in Scotland for the past week.

By-election this week in South Ayrshire as a result of an SNP member standing down. It’s in a three man ward where the SNP were third behind an independent and a Tory though. Would be a stretch to win there.

It is seats and it is real however, since most people don’t read beyond the headlines they don’t get the nuance. As I understand it “empowered to begin immediate negotiations with the UK government to give democratic effect to Scotland becoming an independent country” means negotiations around the next IndyRef, it’s not a definition of UDI. Obviously, the bigger the margin of victory the bigger the mandate. What’s different? Well I think the SNP are going to make it unequivocal in their manifesto that a vote for the SNP is a vote for independence and if you don’t want independence don’t vote for the SNP. You would think that would be obvious and wouldn’t need to be spelled out but this is the Westminster parties and their client media we are talking about.

What a lot of people seem to miss is that "believe the victim" doesn't mean that people should unquestioningly accept that because someone has claimed that they were attacked then that must be the case. What it does mean is that the accusation should be taken seriously and investigated accordingly and if there's a case to answer, they should be prosecuted. This is a major change to the previous way that the police worked where most complaints were simply dismissed out of hand because, by their very nature, cases of sexual assault are very hard to prove as its one person's word against another.

A pro-Indy mindset And for those reasons he wouldn't vote Yes. Not a pro-Indy mindset.

That would impact the Tory vote. I tend to think that these marginal parties tend to be over-inflated in polls. As a comparison at the 2019 election, a combination of Brexit and UKIP - which would seem to be the closest to Reform - only got 0.6% of the vote in Scotland.

What I've always noticed with the North Stand - I always approached from the Cathcart Road side but think its similar to from the other side - is that there's always massive queues at the first set of turnstiles, if you just walk down to the turnstiles that are at the halfway line the queues are much shorter. Once you're inside you can easily walk along the concourse to where your seat is.

Start of a recovery or just an outlier - time will tell. https://x.com/YouGov/status/1702703109225505244?s=20

If your views on independence are predicated on a particular form of politics that you think would be followed or - even worse - individuals who would have power or influence which would seem to be his big problem then you are not an indy supporter in my book unless you're one who doesn't believe in democracy. If you start off with the fundamental principle of self-determination meaning that decisions about how the country is run are best made by those people who live there then there can be no *but* around who those people are.

Russell Brand - who is denying the allegations

There was some speculation in this week's popbitch about a massive celebrity expose this weekend, they said it would take #metoo to a new level, so I guess it's sexual.

If there's anyone doing any misrepresenting then it's James Kelly, I'm just reporting what he's saying. He's a former NEC member of Alba, on this topic I happen to believe him.

Not if the headteacher doesn't put it up.

I think the UKG is proposing to offer all schools a portrait but it will optional as to whether the Heads accept them