From: Alan M.Johnston. Recently, our befuddled Prime Minister had a jolly spiffing idea that a bridge between Scotland and the north of Ireland would quell the democratic demands of those natives of a nationalistic bent in each of his colonies and make more palatable the black hole of reason that is brexit. In an effort to bolster his snake oil sales pitch he wheeled out some of the pop guns of unionist support to give volleys of hope, admiration and inspiration on the idea. Our Secretary of State, an estate owning multi millionaire with his fingers on the pulse of … Continue reading Like a Bridge under Troubled Waters: Blasting a tunnel through 1.5 million tons of explosives

Responding to the piece on the effects of the character assassination of democratic leaders on the popularity of a democratic movement, Contrary reflects below on witch hunts of different kinds, missing out the case of the former depute provost of Aberdeen. Contrary I’m not sure of any literature on the results of character assassination, or real assassination, but it is always a risk that those that are picked on will reach martyrdom – Julian Assange has certainly suffered at the hands of character assassination, treated like a dangerous criminal – with no charges against him – how could you get … Continue reading Witch hunts and martyrs in Scotland

*Headline modified in light of Twitter comment: As in Mackay 2020, these two images are in no way connected IMPORTANT: This controversial thesis by Professor Sandy Nista does not represent the views of the Talking-up Scotland Collective but has been given space here in recognition of our commitment to free speech. Sandy Nista: Will the media feeding frenzy on Alex Salmond strengthen the Independence movement? Last year, when the accusations against Alex Salmond were first publicised, there were clear expectations in the establishment media, that this would weaken support for the SNP and even for the wider movement. In the … Continue reading Bleading* academic is inspired by Herald to compare SNP with al-Qaeda

Prof Pennington retired in 2003, 17 years ago, chaired the Wishaw E-coli investigation in 1997 and was last employed as an enquiry chair, 15 years ago, in the South Wales E-coli outbreak of 2005. Yet, the prof, top member of the pro-Union group, Scotland Matters, is regularly wheeled out by BBC Scotland and the Herald to blame the Scottish Government for something. Here he is saying they’re wrong with their worst-case prediction of 80% Coronavirus infection. Have you seen any other virology prof in our media? Me neither. Is that because there are none? Has the SNP betrayed the Scottish … Continue reading SNP Coronavirus predictions sniffed at by pro-Union prof retired now for 17 YEARS!

Here’s today’s Herald story on the cursed hospital: A doctor at a Glasgow hospital has been suspended for lying about her qualifications to gain a promotion. Dr Hoda El-Mahrouki, who worked at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, was found to have lied on an application for a specialist certificate, which would have allowed her to work as a consultant.  Here are some ideas to help the Herald staff out: Continue reading Glasgow super hospital struggling to treat Glasgow Herald staff

The Herald has a taste for SNP blood, headlining Mark McDonald only two days ago and pushing daily the notion of an SNP civil war. To be fair, this pales in comparison with the piece associating Salmond with serial killers and the day, 6th February, when they posted ELEVEN stories on Derek Mackay! https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/02/06/jackal-journalism-as-herald-offers-11-derek-mackay-stories-on-1-day/ Today as Coronavirus events dominate everywhere, we see above their agenda. Even BBC Scotland has sensed the public mood: And the Scotsman, dare I say it, has at least adopted a less salacious more professional approach to headlining: Can we ask the Herald to self-isolate or … Continue reading As Herald hunts former First Minister leading academic tells them to self-isolate or we’ll do it for them

stewartb When I read nowadays about the UK’s marine wild capture fishing industry and ‘quota’ I am reminded of an article written in 2018 by the Labour Party’s John Prescott. He wrote for the Mirror newspaper under the headline: “Greed sank the UK’s fishing industry, not the EU”. Source: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/john-prescott-greed-sank-uks-12245527 He wrote: “… the (UK) Government actually decides how its EU fishing quota is distributed. If it really cared about the fishing industry, it would ensure these coastal communities with smaller vessels were allowed to fish more. Instead, we have larger foreign vessels being registered in the UK but landing their … Continue reading How Britain not the EU always betrays Scotland’s fishing communities

Ludo Thierry This looks promising – The SNP Scottish Govt are trying to ensure the new fishing quota systems that Brexit will require a far stronger Scottish Public Interest requirement (eg sustainability criteria) – rather than quota simply being divvied up by the (historical accident) Producer Organisations. Link and snippet from news.gov.scot below: https://news.gov.scot/news/management-of-fish-quotas Management of fish quotas New arrangements for managing quotas are being trialled in Scotland’s fisheries. The project, which will run until the end of 2021, will see the establishment of new legal entities called Quota Management Groups. These organisations, which will have to be based in … Continue reading Scotland’s interest in the management of fish quotas

Ludo Thierry Good to see REMAIN voting N. Ireland and REMAIN voting Scotland maintaining a forceful common-front on the Irish Sea border issue. Brexit is Westminster’s mess and they have to come up with the policies and funds to clean it up. Link and snippet from Scottish Legal site below: https://www.scottishlegal.com/article/uk-government-asked-to-clarify-responsibility-for-irish-sea-trade-checks-after-scotland-refuses The UK government has been asked to clarify who will be responsible for implementing checks on trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain after the Scottish government ruled out checks at Scottish ports. Northern Ireland’s Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots told MLAs earlier this week that Scottish ministers had indicated … Continue reading Scotland and N Ireland united in rejecting border checks at ports

As the non-fatal infections not due to pigeons return to feature in a renewed campaign by the opposition parties, BBC Scotland, the Herald and other hangers-on, it’s worth repeating this from March. If you want to see scandals, real scandals and many of them, you must look south, to the work of health boards responsible to Westminster. The idea that what has happened, actually not happened, in Scotland compares to these horrors is risible: St Andrew’s Healthcare in Northamptonshire based on an inspection between 17th and 18th December 2019, reported as inadequate, unsafe: https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-121538276 The emergency services at King’s College Hospital in London were … Continue reading NONE of the worst NHS scandals since devolution have been in Scotland