It's been a confusing morning so far. First I read a piece by Pete Wishart in which he actually talks sense. Then, as if that wasn't bewildering enough, I encounter Gerry Hassan's column and some perplexingly shallow thinking that all the latte-sipping lefty pomposity in all the cafe districts in all the world can't rescue. … Continue reading Ends and ends
A few years back I joked that if Pete Wishart MP - former keyboard-player with Runrig - were to start a new band he should call it Pete & The Postponers. I was reminded of this as I read the final paragraph of his latest offering in The National. The wry humour I find in … Continue reading Still holding
In reality, the nuance in this instance is not all that subtle. It's actually quite easy to imagine circumstances in which Boris Johnson might do a U-turn on his adamant opposition to a new referendum. Bear with me and I'll explain.
I hate to say it but there's also a definite whiff of the Bain Principle coming off the SNP's decision to vote against the Brexit deal.
By now you will all be familiar with Pete Wishart's vacuous and fantastical take on the way to restore Scotland's independence and Alyn Smith's pompous and self-aggrandising opinions on what the SNP is and should be - whether the majority of members agree or not. If not, steel yourself for wading through the sludge of … Continue reading Restoration
Mornin', Blogger. I take it from the fact that you're chatting with me that there's nothing bringing you creative juices to boil this am?
It's that mindset thing again! Pete Wishart, and even more regrettably Nicola Sturgeon, think it perfectly normal and acceptable that the government of England-as-Britain should be intimately involved in the process by which Scotland exercises its right of self-determination.
So! The SNP sets up a 'working group' to study stuff that should have been the subject of constant and intense study for at least the last couple of decades. This, we assume, won't happen until after the party conference at the end of this month. Then we're into December and the holiday season and then the January 1 2021 plunge into the Brexit unknown and then the election campaign and always there is the public health crisis. So, maybe this 'working group' gets grouped and working sometime in the first half of next year. Or maybe, the second half. Or maybe, like so many SNP 'initiatives' which have been launched in response to some clamour from the independence movement, the whole thing just peters out.
What about us? That's up to us. Our strength - the strength of Scotland's people - is sufficient to break the power of the British state. But only if it is channelled in massive and sustained amounts through a political party capable of acting within the British political system. Right now, that means the SNP. And only the SNP.
C'mon! Be honest! Did you ever imagine yourself saying of anything uttered by Alex Cole-Hamilton, Jackie Baillie and/or Murdo Fraser, they've got a point?Holyrood committee chief faces rebellion over Alex Salmond inquiry I started my day with the above comment on a report in The National about the three individuals named objecting to Linda Fabiani … Continue reading Hypocrisy and other shite
Peter A Bell 