The Herald had the story for their poll today differently: Exclusive poll: SNP set for knife-edge majority in Holyrood vote 14 years of total dominance of Scottish politics, heading for a 4th victory, perhaps an outright victory of the kind thought impossible in the Scottish system, averaging 50% and always up on the 2019 election, and that’s the story? No journalist outside of the UK would see it that way. Any student of electoral systems would be thinking: ‘Wow! That is ******* amazing! Has that every happened before in the context of a democracy far more fair and representative of … Continue reading Unique in History of Democracy?

It’s true. After months, from March to September 2020 when the infection rate was pretty much the same across the 4 nations, then 5 months when Scotland had a much lower rate, the others fell to just under on the 10th March. They must be very proud but they’ll have to go some to get anywhere near Scotland’s level over the whole pandemic: Continue reading Let them have their day – The wee souls have waited a long time for this

This was posted by Mithrawndo on rScotland last night: Since Thatcher’s victory in ’79, not a single Scottish vote has altered the result of a UK General Election. I wouldn’t be surprised if that trend held much further back than this, but it’s as far as I bothered to look. 1983: Scottish Result: 41 Labour, 21 Conservative, 8 Alliance, 2 SNP Adjusted UK election result: Conservative 376, Labour 168, Alliance 15 Change to sitting parliament: None 1987: Scottish Result: 50 Labour, 10 Conservative, 9 Alliance, 3 SNP Adjusted UK election result: 366 Conservative, 179 Labour, Alliance 13 Change to sitting parliament: … Continue reading Since at least 1983, not a single Scottish vote has altered the result of a UK General Election

I’m sharing this from rScotland, written by Popcorn. I’ve seen a lot of confusion recently about how Sturgeon “misled” the Parliament. Here is the Committee’s logic: In her written submission to the Committee, Sturgeon wrote that she had “made it clear” to Salmond that she would not intervene in the investigation. There is no dispute within the Committee that Sturgeon fully believed she had “made it clear” to Salmond that she wouldn’t intervene. However, Salmond left the meeting under the impression that she might intervene. Since Salmond misunderstood Sturgeon, she didn’t actually make her position “clear” – even though she fully believed that … Continue reading The “Sturgeon misled Parliament” headlines are based on nothing more than a minor semantic quibble

Continue reading Employing the Scottish Manifesto for Indy as an Internationally Legal Means to achieve independence

Continue reading The Manifesto for Indy

Fired-up by Willie Rennie, reader Gordon, gets a lot off his chest. Worth a read if you missed it in the comments section: Who votes for this person? Westminster has been taking monies out of Scotland for years and keeping it secret under the Official Secrets Act. Scotland raises £66Billion in taxes. The UK raises £630Billion. Scotland raised more pro rata. Scotland has to pay for Trident, redundant weaponry. £1Billion. Hickory Point, HS2. Etc. All a total waste of monies. Paid for by Chinese funding. The Tory slush fund. Consultancies, banking fees and expenses. Total white elephants with no customer … Continue reading Gordon rams it home!

Here are the data the Herald refers to: Years since last inspection Number of schools Five to seven years 423 Eight to ten years 558 Ten years and more 704 https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202100140164/ There are 2 500 schools in Scotland so 28% have not been inspected for 10 years or more. As with NHS England’s statistics, those for English school inspections have been played with to improve their appearance. Under Michael Gove, because the understaffed inspectors at Ofsted could not cope, he decided that any rated ‘outstanding’ were then exempt from further inspection unless their exam pass levels fell dramatically or parent … Continue reading That’s the way to do it!

Insight? That’s a good one. Has he had the insight to check the polls? Has he had the insight to check the full facts? After a bit of schoolboy ‘hand-slapping’ after finding the above photo, Macwhirter opens with: I think we can be sure that Nicola Sturgeon is not considering resignation after having been found guilty of misleading Parliament by the Holyrood Harassment Committee. The First Minister was never going to fall over a technical breach of the ministerial code. The Scottish Green Party leader, Patrick Harvie, has weighed in behind her so she will  survive Wednesday’s expected censure debate. Yet, there is little doubt that the First Minister did mislead … Continue reading Not much ‘insight’ here

This is a popular but unexamined myth based on a simplistic idea that because Scotland has been in the Union for more than 300 years, leaving it must take longer and be more complex than leaving the EU. At first sight, the public can be persuaded. It’s ‘obvious, innit?’ But it’s not obvious at all and it’s more likely to be the opposite. Leaving the UK to join the EU which will, by then have a reasonably developed deal with the UK, means that Scotland would simply slip into the same arrangement, just like all the other EU nation. Simples? … Continue reading No Willie, Independence would be a like ‘Brexit on The West Highland Line’