Andrew Tickell's column in this week's Sunday National is largely given over to the gut-wrenching testimony of those affected by the Post Office 'Horizon' scandal. Hundreds of lives wrecked in the name of corporate greed and arrogance. Thousands if we count the families of those falsely accused of dishonesty because the Post Office management was … Continue reading The stuff of nightmares
We now focus our full energies on developing the independence case in anticipation of the referendum vowed next year.Alex Salmond This is precisely what the SNP is doing. And what the Scottish Green Party is doing. And what the Independence for Scotland party is doing. And what countless other pro-independence parties and organisations and groups … Continue reading WE WILL LOSE!
Co-organiser of Aberdeen Independence Movement (AIM) Progress to Yes conference Alan Petrie said: "It's going to be very independence-focused looking at things like policy and how we win, and not so much about process." How can we win with this kind of stupidity? First he says the event is going to be "very independence-focused". My … Continue reading The question of the question
Big changes are only hope of survival for Alex Salmond's Alba party George Kerevan It was ever thus, George. It was ever thus. Alba Party was doomed from the outset. It was never going to amount to so much as the merest shadow of what the party's members had convinced themselves it could be. But … Continue reading Advantage and how to waste it
What strikes me most about the comments from Linda Fabiani and Alex Neil is the extent to which their thinking about the constitutional issue appears unchanged by the passage of a decade in which everything else has changed dramatically. Their obsession with setting a date and publishing a 'prospectus' directly echoes the obsessions of the … Continue reading A poverty of imagination
I like to think of myself as one of the 'Yes bloggers' hated with such spittle-flecked fervour by the likes of Pete Wishart. I reckon I can fairly claim to be a dissenting voice within Scotland's independence movement. I would never presume to be representative of all dissent within the Yes movement. I speak only … Continue reading Dissenting voices and cloth ears
On the constitutional issue, there are two statements in the Alba Party local election manifesto. There is the claim that "Only ALBA is prioritising Independence in this Election". I suspect the First Minister would dispute this. Once again, Nicola Sturgeon is making all the by now mind-numbingly familiar noises about independence and a new referendum. … Continue reading Immediately eventually
Nicola Sturgeon is careful these days to avoid explicit mention of the Section 30 process. It would be surprising if she was unaware of the growing opposition to inviting the British state to interfere in Scotland's exercise of Scotland's right of self-determination. But other than not using the actual words the rest of her language … Continue reading You’ve been conned!
Alex Salmond is doubtless correct to say that the grotesque anomaly of being an energy-rich nation that gets poorer during a time of energy supply pressures is the “biggest single economic and social issue linked to the constitutional question since the poll tax”. Although I might have said since Brexit. I would, however, question whether … Continue reading Three or four questions
I never cease to be taken aback by the number of people who voluntarily join discussions on social media fully determined that they will not be influenced by the discussion they're joining. What is the point? Those who are open to having their views modified through engagement with others seem to be the exception. But … Continue reading The millstone of policy
Peter A Bell 