For the Sturgeon/SNP loyalists there is no possibility of bad news concerning their hero as they simply will not hear it. I am a realist. I have not the slightest interest in Panglossian fantasy politics. Or mindless faith positions. I have wits enough to know that one cannot chart a course without precise knowledge of the departure point. Sturgeon’s apologists refuse to even think about where we are and they fume with shrill, vitriolic denunciations against any who attempt to approach the question in a mature, rational manner.
Clearly, charting a course to the restoration of Scotland’s independence is not their principal concern. Or any concern at all. Their singullar obsession is with protecting the one they have put on a pedestal regardless of what she says or does. They put party and personality before country and cause.
The questions and concerns remain. The #WheeshtForIndy mob will not make them go away by railing like religious zealots against those who ask the questions and express the concerns. A few may retreat in disgust out of range of their spume and spittle. But as time goes on, they are inevitably replaced by ever-increasing numbers of others who are bound to arrive at those same questions and concerns because they have not been addressed.
By any rational assessment, where Scotland’s cause is now is at best where it was a decade ago. No progress has been made. We are certainly no closer to independence now that we were when Sturgeon took over. By some accounts, we have gone backwards. Her devotees would rather deny the obvious truth of this than seek explanations. Polling for Yes has flatlined since late 2014 early 2015. They don’t want to know why. They don’t even want the question asked.
After eight years with Sturgeon as the de facto leader of the independence campaign, there is still no charted route to the restoration of Scotland’s independence. Were it otherwise, one of the brighter Sturgeon/SNP loyalists might have been expected to lay out that route as a way of silencing those who ask the questions and express the concerns. None ever has. Not one of them has explained how we get from where Sturgeon has brought us to the restoration of Scotland’s independence.
For most of my life, independence for my country has been no more than an aspiration. Only in the last couple of decades has it become a tantalisingly real possibility. We are long past the stage where to be an activist for Scotland’s cause it was sufficient merely to voice that aspiration loudly and with full fervour. When aspiration comes within reach of realisation, hard-headed political pragmatism becomes the order of the day. Passion, while never abandoned, must give way to cold calculation. Crossing that final space between aspiration and realisation requires a plan. It demands a known and credible process. We need a charted course.
The Sturgeon/SNP loyalists are like refugees from the 1970s. They behave as if we were still at that stage where the restoration of Scotland’s independence was such a remote prospect that thinking in terms of a precise route-map was pointless. Back then, all that mattered – all that was possible – was to keep driving in the general direction of our goal. The detail of the final process was for a later time.
We have arrived at that later time. Those truly committed to Scotland’s cause urgently need to catch up.
Those of us who are already there want to see the charted course. We want to be assured that there is one. We will not be fobbed off with appeals to faith. We are not children. Nor will we be satisfied with hollow promises. Or deceived by plainly fraudulent schemes such as Nicola Sturgeon’s mock referendum. We are not fools. Sturgeon has run out of space and time. She must now deliver the process that will take us that final step from aspiration to realisation. Or be cursed by future generations for her failure.
Peter A Bell 
For a long time now – around 5 years by my reckoning – you have been calling on Sturgeon to change tack. Failing that you have encouraged supporters of Scotland’s Cause to ‘bend her to our will’.
Sturgeon has moved her position. However, it has been reluctantly and resentfully. Worse, it has been half-hearted and certainly not nearly enough to effect any progress on the restoration of Scotland’s full self-government, witness the 3-pronged ‘plan’ the FM announced in the Summer before promptly walzing off on her holibags, leaving the movement totally stalled and momentumless. Where it remains, as it has since at least 2017 but probably since the 2015 UK General ‘Tsunami’ Election.
Whilst more people do seem to be getting wise to the sophistry of the FM it’s not enough and the awakening process is very slow, despite you (and other Independence bloggers) best efforts.
I fear that Sturgeon is a lost cause. She simply will not face down Westminster – for whatever reason – and do what is necessary. She is either totally unsuited to the role of de facto leader of the Independence movement or she has some other reason for avoiding confrontation.
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I believe it’s the second option, duncanio. I listened to her talk at a meeting prior to 2007, hen she and Alec Salmond were campaigning for the leadership. I had this weird feeling then, and which I put to the back of my mind, that she did not truly believe in independence. It was nothing more than intuition, I think, and I felt a bit stupid even thinking it. Go with your gut feeling: it’s not always right, but, usually, it is bang on. I think she is a devolutionist and that is as far as she is prepared to go. That’s her prerogative. It is not her prerogative to squat in the party of independence on false pretences, destroy the independence movement with insanity or deny it the oxygen of action. If she, personally, is happy with devolution (and it’s dwindling as we speak), then she can get her backside out of the leadership – and take her ‘woke’ cohort with her.
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I never had the same feeling about Nicola Sturgeon as you prior to Alex Salmond assuming the SNP leadership for the second time, or before that Lorncal. I did think that she was ambitious but that, on its own, is no bad thing. Especially if that ambition is, was or had been to restore Scotland’s full self-government and independent statehood.
When she took over the SNP leadership in November 2014 I thought that she was cautious, not a risk taker like her predecessor. I could understand this – the referendum had just been lost and it fell to her to take Scotland’s Cause forward at a precarious time for the movement. Lose a second time and it would be curtains for a ‘generation’ or more, I thought (she thought).
So that’s a heavy burden … I reasoned to myself.
However, with the 5-fold increase in party membership in about 3/4 months post-referendum allied to almost taking a clean sweep of Scotland’s MPs at the 2015 UK General Election 6 months after she became leader changed things entirely.
There was a ‘mandate’. The Vow was shown to be a lie, as proven by the Smith Commission whitewash and the people had given their verdict on that (plus, perhaps a little bit of ‘buyers regret’ at voting No in the September 2014 referendum).
So why did she state during the 2015 election campaign – when it was obvious the SNP were going to have a fantastic result, the best in their history and probably the best of all parties in Scotland’s history since the Treaty of Union – that voting for SNP was ‘not a vote for Independence’ or some such?
Some have taken the view that Nicola Sturgeon has reneged on the commitments made in a pile of ‘mandates’ accumulated since the Independence Referendum due to her being compromised by the British state: many have hinted at, alluded to and even produced evidence-based rationales that this is the case.
I have my own thoughts on the matter but as I do not have proof this remains conjecture on my part and doesn’t take us forward.
However, what I would say is this:
If there is Kompromat involved then we really shouldn’t be overly concerned about being led up the hill and back down again, Grand Old Duke of York style, by the FM.
We should be terrified that we are being led lemmings-like to a cliff edge, which is what the FM’s current 3-pronged ‘plan’ has all the potential to do to Scotland’s Cause.
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Yes, duncanio, I have strong reservations, too. As I said, it was no more than a gut reaction. Some of the things she has done, and those she has not done, defy logic. I don’t really hold with the idea that she is running scared: people who are extremely personally ambitious are rarely scaredy-cats; often, they are risk-takers; more often, they are ruthless and cunning. I do think she is lacking in self-confidence like many women – or was at he beginning – but it just seems to be more than that, as if something doesn’t quite gel. The thing with power couples is that you never really know how they operate, which one is dominant, which might be making decisions off-stage or if it is a truly joint enterprise.
In some of the things she has done, I get a sense of the masculine behind those decisions, in others, they are strangely very feminine, very stereotypically female. In the end, I think politicians, regardless of sex, behave very similarly, though. I certainly agree with you that we are being led by the nose, and I am always aware that Sinn Fein’s Adams and MacGuinness discovered that a good number in their party, even close to them, were British agents.
It led them away from armed struggle to a new political drive, taking in the South, playing the British at their own game, but in a very Irish way. They, of course, have both the EU and America covering their backs, and they make full use of both advantages. I think we are going to have to do likewise, and I think we have started the process with SALVO and SSRG, and it’s a very Scottish, deeply-rooted in our history, departure from British politics, and is even moving away from the Scotland Act and devolution (probably not even constitutionally legal, anyway) which have proved to be a millstone as we get nothing but contempt from Westminster – but time is not on our side and we need to move quickly in both the constitutional and the political arenas.
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I learned a new Russian-derived word this week, Kompromat, in conversation with a fellow independence campaigner. It is defined as follows:
Kompromat refers to materials collected specifically for the purpose of blackmailing the target. It’s a Russian portmanteau of komprometiruyushchiy, “compromising,” and material, “material,” and if those Russian words look familiar, it’s because they are; they were borrowed into Russian from English
Now I haven’t done too much digging on this, but wouldn’t it help explain the actions and inactions of the SNP over the past 8 years, both at Westminster and Holyrood if somehow the British State had Kompromat on SNP MPs and MSPs. Just a thought.
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What if some of them are, and have always been, state operators within the SNP, bushgeoff? Just a thought.
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I too despair on our direction of travel. With all that has happened since 2014 we should easily be polling over 60%. I think the forthcoming Aberdeen conference will be a signpost. If it is the usual conference and agenda hijacked behind the scenes by the leadership, the cause is lost while the current leader remains in power. If clear unrest is displayed by members, there may be some hope to force change but I don’t hold my breath. Standing ovations for the leadership will be a major pointer.
Unfortunately I have not read anywhere of any attempts to force issues or disrupt conference proceedings with points of order and so on.
The whole strategy of the SNP needs to be overhauled and in particular the marketing and selling of independence. Currently it is dire and amateurish as shown in today’s National headline “SNP blast Rees-Mogg over new bill to end EU laws.” Who is going to pay the slightest bit of attention to that”. Pointless.
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According to the National – the SNP are forever ” blasting ” ( with peashooters ) ” slamming ” ( with feathers ) ” attacking ” ( with paper swords ) the Tory/UKGov .
What it ( SNP ) NEVER does is CONFRONT the UKGOV . DEFY , IGNORE or CHALLENGE it – to * square-go * . These things – the only things that will make any difference – it resolutely refuses to do .
Rees-Moggy and his ilk will not be quivering in their boots at this latest – utterly meaningless – ” blast ” .
” Time’s up ” . Yes , and has been for quite some time . The question is whether it’s also ” up ” for Independence per se ?
Without a change of – what passes , fails to – for leadership , I fear it may well be .
The thing about ” prophets of doom ” – as History demonstrates , is their prophesies often prove accurate
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Ha ha, Robert. You took the words from my mouth.
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As you yourself often do to me Lorna – usually more articulately than I would have . Hope yr well sista 🙂
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Well said Peter, for her acolytes Sturgeon can do no wrong, they refuse point blank to look at her record on moving independence closer since she became FM. I think the Sturgeonistas enjoy the chase more than the end goal.
It’s as though, it’s more about what Sturgeon says and does when fingering pointing at Westminster for being bad etc, than it is with her own actions on getting us out of this fetid union that counts to them. The worst of all are the WGD blog commentors and the BTL in the National talk about cognitive dissonance.
Sadly, Peter some folk will never wake up and smell the coffee when it comes to Sturgeon and Murrell.
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I almost tore my hair out this morning, Peter, when I read that Mr Robertson had sent a strongly-worded letter to Rees-Mogg. What did the SNP leadership think was going to happen after 2014, then after Brexit? What did they think the UK-wide framework actually meant? What did they think that the ignoring of Sewell was going to become? These people are either so unutterably dim that they probably need help to breath or they knew perfectly well what would happen and were always unwilling to actually do anything about it. I have to say, having met a number of them, I don’t think they are particularly dim, so it has to be the latter. This cohort is devolutionist, not independist (except, perhaps, in some utopian way in which they do not actually have to lift a finger to achieve independence).
They are all squatting in the SNP leadership on false pretences. I don’t know how you can make the faithful see it, though. When faith is all you have, reality becomes unendurable and you have to destroy that or those which/who threaten to shine a light on the truth. You, Peter, and many us on the blogs and threads, are despised prophets in our own land. It is quite terrifying. I think I’ve said it before, but it takes a long time for some people – the majority, usually – to catch up and come blinking into the light. What is even more infuriating is that they then proselytise to those who knew from day one what was happening. Still, as long as they get there, I suppose. Let us hope that it is in time.
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Good to see the old site is just as nuts as it’s always been. Tin foil hats aplenty.
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The only * tinfoil hats * being worn are by people like yourself MBP . You are all devout believers in the Conspiracy Theory that NS & the Nu SNP ” Nut Gone Flakes ” are going to lead us to Independence . Christ ! Even David Icke would baulk at that preposterous suggestion
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And yet it’s happening. Go figure.
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Nice to see that cliche is still your forte, MBP. If you want to find nuts for the winter for your personal store, I suggest you look no further than the SNP itself. Plenty there – of all shapes and sizes. What you won’t find unless you search very diligently, are those who actually believe in independence. You’ll find plenty who believe that men can change sex and become women, and vice versa, you’ll find many who truly believe that the British State will bend the knee (too busy bending the rules for that) and you might even find one or to who believe the Earth is flat and came into being a few thousand years ago, but you’ll really need to winkle out those who prefer independence to endless and vanishing-as-we-speak devolution. What I would really like to read from you, MBP, would be an honest opinion of how we are going to achieve independence by doing nothing, because NS is doing nothing. Nothing that is going to achieve its aim, that is, ergo smoke and mirrors for the faithful like you, if you are even one of the faithful. You offer no enlightenment, ever, so, unless you come up with something approaching an informative comment instead of insults, I won’t be replying.
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You just did.
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I’ve just been forwarded a tweet that Professor Marc Weller, a former senior legal advisor to the UN says Scotland can have a referendum under UN law and it would be legal and recognised by international law. He also adds that the Tories ‘once in a generation’ is nonsense rhetoric with no legal standing.
If I’m hearing this, then the SNP leadeship must also be hearing it. Given the state of the UK now, you’d think they would be leaving no stone unturned in order to get out of this union, as I’m sure the people who voted for them would imagine.
They’ve had Brexit, they’ve had Bojo, they’ve had LIz Truss, they’ve even had the Queen dying! The SNP is staring at an open goal!
Staring like a rabbit in the headlights!
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Sturgeon simply doesn’t have the heart for it.
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Jesus, Peter, even in the throes of Covid, your politeness knows no bounds.
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Courtesy is conformity. The insistence on courtesy is a device by which to limit freedom of expression. Tell the truth and fuck the manners!
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I would suggest that her true allegiance is to the World Economic Forum. NS has hijacked your independence movement.
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As ever enlightening and truthful comments from regulars like duncanio , lorncal , robert hughes and others , then we have MBP who then proceeds to scatter his usual horseshit about or is it pony shit , Peter I have long remonstrated with you about sturgeon and HER snp which it now is and IMO cannot be saved , it is damaging to the PARTY faithful and has taken an inordinate amount of time to sink in but the reality is another political party just brings the same problems and the same vested interests , i believe we have to go the SALVO , SSRG route with politicians being FORCED TO ACT
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Time.
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Reblogged this on Ramblings of a now 60+ Female.
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