It seems there was a lot of solid good sense being talked at this Yes Falkirk event. Especially about getting away from the endless, pointless, corrosive disputes around policy and the necessarily futile search for answers to unanswerable questions. Only by focusing exclusively and intently on the core issue - restoring Scotland's independence - will … Continue reading The bright, sharp point!
Richard Murphy may well be correct in suspecting that Truss and Kwarteng purposefully engineered an economic crisis (or should we say a severe spike in the endless crisis of the economic system) in order to justify a massive round of privatisations. (Liz Truss 'might want economic crisis to prepare NHS for privatisation') The idea is … Continue reading The downward spiral
Set aside, for the moment, your personal feelings about the SNP. Put from your mind, temporarily, antipathy to this or that policy or position. Take your frustration and anger at Sturgeon's abject failure to properly lead Scotland's independence campaign and stick it at the back of your sock drawer. It'll still be there when you … Continue reading Twins
There is a fundamental flaw in the SNP's Supreme Court submission on the independence referendum. As an argument that the people of Scotland have the right of self-determination and that this right is inalienable, the intervention works well. The problem lies in the fact that two different understandings of the right of self-determination are presented, … Continue reading Where is the remedy?
It is now three months ─ 91 days, to be precise ─ since First Minister Nicola Sturgeon stood in the chamber of the Scottish Parliament and delivered what has come to be known simply as her independence referendum speech. More correctly, we should say that she took to her feet to deliver her latest independence … Continue reading Bare words
With just over two weeks to go until the UK Supreme Court (UKSC) hearing on the matter of whether the Scottish Parliament has the competence to hold a strictly consultative and non-self-executing referendum with the question 'Should Scotland be an independent country', or whether this proposed referendum relates to a reserved matter and is therefore … Continue reading Putting off the moment
I note with barely a flicker of interest the SNP has released the agenda for the party's 88th annual conference due to take place in Aberdeen next month ─ strikebound public transport permitting. I don't think anybody with even the most tenuous grasp of political reality supposes that the event will be anything more than … Continue reading The Nicola Sturgeon Show!
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 … Continue reading Time’s up!
There are three points that your resident realist must make about The National's predictably breathless report of the latest polling before the Sturgeon claque arrives littering the place with streamers and drowning out all pragmatism with their shrill fantasies and hymns to the anointed one. Firstly, noting Professor John Curtice's comments regarding the fall in … Continue reading The barren, unchanging landscape
Despite dodgy knees and a strong aversion to large crowds I had fully intended going to Yestival on Sunday. Reading the statement by the event's organisers, I'm glad it has been postponed. If that statement is any indication then I have dodged the bullet of Spending my Sunday afternoon standing in Freedom Square listening to … Continue reading Liars all around
Peter A Bell 